Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 176: Farewell

Zheng Zhuxi’s double-pupiled eyes looked like distinct black-and-white eyes with half a candle flame added to each. As she gazed at Ding Songyan, both the starlight and candle flames seemed veiled in mist.

"Why did you tell me this...?" the young woman asked softly, her expression lost.

Ding Songyan looked at Zheng Zhuxi and fell silent for a moment.

"If it were anyone else, I certainly would not have said anything. After some time passed, I would have found a good reason to console myself and stopped dwelling on it.

"In fact, I had been searching for the Demon Sovereign’s hidden arrangements some time ago, I wasn’t only trying to uncover the truth. I was also hoping to convince myself that the enemy was simply too formidable—that there was some explanation, some way to account for what had happened. I would rather... rather have been wrong. I would rather believe that I lacked experience, that I wasn’t clever enough. Anything would have been easier to accept. But unfortunately, every judgment I made was right."

Zheng Zhuxi shook her head in confusion.

"I don’t know what to say. I... I can’t think clearly."

Pain entered her expression.

Before Ding Songyan could respond, the young woman stepped back twice and said quickly, "I... I’ll go back and think it over."

Ding Songyan watched Zheng Zhuxi hurry away and disappear through the doorway. After standing lost in thought for a long while, he walked into the courtyard and sat beside the stone table.

He raised his head toward the horizon. He watched the spotless blue sky shine beneath brilliant sunlight, then saw layered clouds turn red and the evening glow hang low. The horizon burned while the heavens faded to gray-blue. One shade of red after another was swallowed by darkness, until stars adorned the night.

Suddenly, someone pushed open the half-closed courtyard gate.

Zheng Zhuxi appeared in Ding Songyan’s sight, dressed in plain white mourning clothes. Her eyes remained swollen, and she had grown much thinner over the past ten days.

Ding Songyan shot to his feet and went to meet her.

Zheng Zhuxi pressed her lips together and looked at her junior brother.

"I... I still can’t think it through. I want to hear what my mother would say."

"All right." Ding Songyan nodded, his voice low.

He was about to leave the courtyard for the Hall of Myriad Stars. It was time for him and Zheng Zhuxi to keep vigil.

Zheng Zhuxi glanced at the food box by the door. After two silent breaths, she said, "Let’s eat before we go."

......

Late that night, only Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi remained before the mourning hall.

Zheng Zhuxi glanced at the brazier where paper offerings still burned, then rose and walked behind the mourning hall.

In a rare departure from his usual caution, Ding Songyan crossed within twenty meters and followed his senior sister to the side of the coffin.

He had already opened his yin eyes and could see his master’s ghost, tinged an eerie green and dressed in a black robe patterned with stars.

An ordinary person’s ghost would linger beside the corpse for no more than two days before gradually entering the netherworld. It would return on the seventh day after death, then pass fully into the underworld. If disturbed by outside forces in the meantime, it could become a wandering ghost. But for a Dharma Realm powerhouse, even a moderately strong obsession might keep the ghost near the body for one or two years.

Gazing at Tao Wenshu’s ghost, Ding Songyan suddenly realized this was the first time he had used spirit channeling for its intended purpose.

After all, apart from using spirit channeling originally to question ghosts and deities on matters, it was to help grieving relatives communicate with the dead and convey their sorrow.

"Master." Ding Songyan’s throat tightened as he called out.

"Songyan," Tao Wenshu’s ghost replied.

Hearing her mother’s familiar yet deathly cold voice, Zheng Zhuxi immediately began to cry again.

"Mother!" she cried through her sobs.

But Tao Wenshu could not hear her.

Afraid that Banishing Demons and Warding Off Evil would harm his master’s ghost too greatly, Ding Songyan dispensed with pleasantries and told Tao Wenshu, "Senior Sister is beside me."

"Zhuxi... I have seen her throughout these past days. Tell her not to cry anymore." Tao Wenshu’s ghost was more lucid than Bai Zhaolin’s, but still showed clear signs of confusion.

Zheng Zhuxi wept even harder.

Ding Songyan came directly to the point. He exhaled and said, "Master, we learned beforehand that the Two-Faced intended to harm you. On the way back to Alpine Lake Mountain, I worried that using my movement arts at full strength would consume too much energy. If an emergency arose, I might be forced to burn my Chaos force and remain stuck at the Dharma Realm forever. Therefore, I chose to ride. In the end, I arrived just a little too late and failed to help you.

"What... what do you think of that?"

This was the difference between spirit channeling and speaking with the living. Otherwise, Ding Songyan would not have needed to end by asking a question.

Tao Wenshu’s ghost looked at Ding Songyan. Her expression shifted slightly, and she sighed.

"Everyone has selfish desires. I am no exception. Had I not wished to stand firm on matters of right and wrong and uphold my name as the Sword of Rectitude, I would never have accepted Bai Zhaolin’s deathmatch so hastily. In this matter, I have wronged both Ziming and Zhuxi.

"Songyan, if I had watched you grow from childhood, or taught you for five or ten years, I might have been somewhat disappointed by your choice. But you have been my disciple for little more than a year. In your place, I might also have hesitated, unwilling to sacrifice my own future. That is the first reason.

"Second, had you truly tried to do that, I would have stopped you. Everyone in the Brightnight Sect, along with every generation of our ancestors, hopes you will reach the Heaven-Man Realm and complete the Celestial Stars Scripture and Candlelit Nocturne Sutra.

"My life is a small matter; in comparison, the Brightnight Sect’s future is far more important."

Ding Songyan’s nose stung, but he held back his tears. Zheng Zhuxi’s face was already streaked with them.

The resolve in Tao Wenshu’s ghostly expression softened.

"Third, being a master is much like being a parent. We all hope our children will flourish. How could we ever want them to sacrifice their future for us?"

Ding Songyan could no longer restrain himself. His vision blurred, and hot tears slid from the corners of his eyes.

He asked nothing more. After ending the spirit channeling, he turned, left the mourning hall, and withdrew more than twenty meters.

Just as Ding Songyan raised a hand to wipe his face, a white silk handkerchief appeared before him.

Zheng Zhuxi was holding it out to him.

"I just used it. Don’t mind that it’s dirty." The young woman sniffled.

Ding Songyan accepted the handkerchief and wiped his eyes and face.

Zheng Zhuxi looked at him, deliberately lightening her tone.

"Junior Brother, you need not blame yourself anymore. Had you truly intended to do that, I would have stopped you as your senior sister. I am also a member of the Brightnight Sect, and I too wish to see it produce one Supreme Master after another."

"You are the one in greater pain, yet you are comforting and reassuring me..." Ding Songyan lowered his arm and looked into Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes. "What about you? What do you think?"

Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes reddened as she slowly shook her head.

"I feel much better than before, but I still cannot think it through.

"I do not blame you. My thoughts are simply in turmoil."

The young woman steadied herself, and her voice softened.

"Junior Brother, after escorting Mother’s coffin back to Changhua Prefecture, I intend to observe a year of mourning there and keep my father company. Afterward, I may remain with him for another year or two. I have spent so much time in Dingjiang Prefecture over the years and rarely had the chance to fulfill my duties as his daughter. I do not... I do not want to wait until it is too late to care for a parent again.

"Mm. I should be able to make sense of everything in time."

Ding Songyan slowly exhaled and took a book from inside his robe.

"Senior Sister, these are the Chapters of the Lesser Limitless Art through the perfected Great Proliferation Realm. I had planned to give them to you on your birthday. Once your emotions have settled, you can ask the Zheng family’s cultivation-teaching elders to help with your aperture forging and viscera installation while you observe mourning.

"Do not worry about them learning it. Without the Celestial Stars Scripture or Candlelit Nocturne Sutra as a prerequisite, no one can cultivate it.

"Cultivate it well. One day, we will cause trouble for the Accumulated Evil Way together."

"All right." Zheng Zhuxi nodded firmly and accepted the manual.

......

Two days later, at the drill ground in the southern outskirts of Linjiang County.

Keeping twenty meters away, Ding Songyan followed his senior brothers and sisters carrying the coffin aboard the flying vessel.

Only after the coffin was secured did he enter the cabin, offer three sticks of incense to his master, and kowtow three times. He then quickly withdrew to the deck.

Zheng Ziming already knew Ding Songyan’s spirit channeling could harm ghosts and understood his caution. He came over specifically to tell him, "The thought is enough. Do not concern yourself with appearances. Ritual exists to establish proper order, not abolish human feeling."

"Sir, will you go to the Flame Capital when His Majesty selects consorts?" Ding Songyan looked around before asking.

Zheng Ziming’s expression darkened slightly.

"Most likely."

Since the Brightnight Sect had killed Bai Zhaolin so quickly, the Accumulated Evil Way was the only remaining target for all the hatred in his heart.

The perfected Dharma Realm Grandmaster thought for a moment.

"I will likely remain at home for at least a year and keep Wenshu company. When I return to office depends on His Majesty’s wishes, so it is difficult to predict."

Zheng Ziming then cautioned Ding Songyan, "The Demon Seed art cannot corrupt as many people as true Two-Faced can, but it is more covert and has a stricter hierarchy. Your Candlelight Sword Intent can counter it, but you must still be careful. Do not let down your guard."

"Yes, sir." Ding Songyan bowed respectfully.

After Wan Guhong, Xue Xian, and the other personal disciples left the cabin, Zheng Zhuxi approached Ding Songyan in plain white mourning clothes, looking somewhat frail and distant. She studied him for several breaths before saying softly, "I will write to you."

"So will I." Ding Songyan’s voice was low and soft.

After disembarking from the flying vessel, he stood silently beside Wan Guhong. The mechanical creation, now adorned with many new decorations in white and black, flapped its wings and rose noisily into the air.

It flew higher and farther until only a black speck remained on the horizon.

Only when even that speck had vanished did Ding Songyan withdraw his gaze.

"I must continue my travels through the jianghu," Wan Guhong told his senior brother, junior sister, and junior brother.

"Won’t you rest for a while longer?" Xu Julong, who currently served as a steward in the sect, asked with concern.

Wan Guhong shook his head.

"No. From here on, I must walk my own path."

"After I undergo White Tiger viscera installation next month and recover, I will travel the world as well," Xue Xian said, her expression somber.

Lin Shuyue glanced at Xu Julong and sighed.

"Life is unpredictable. I intend to get married first, then pursue the perfected Great Proliferation Realm."

Ding Songyan thought for a moment.

"Whether you remain in the sect or travel the jianghu, everyone must beware of the Two-Faced, especially those transformed by Demon Seeds."

Wan Guhong agreed. Carrying his longsword and travel pack, he turned and left the drill ground.

After Xu Julong, Lin Shuyue, and Xue Xian departed one after another, Ding Songyan looked once more at the deep blue sky and released a long breath.

Next, he needed to write and warn Miss Xiao Qing about the Demon Seed art’s concealment. He would suggest that the Celestial Maiden School invite a master from the Shangshen School or Lizhu House to inspect them.

Besides Miss Xiao Qing, I must tell Brother Youyang as well. I cannot rely solely on Seniors Yu and Mu to pass on the warning. I should also remind Fifth Xie. He knows something about Demon Seeds... No one knows where Xing Chang is now, so I can only ask Fifth Xie to inform him... With thoughts tumbling through his mind, Ding Songyan walked slowly from the drill ground.

The drill ground stood empty once more, vast and silent.