Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 236: Good People Are Rewarded

The Tianyu Scripture has endless uses... Ding Songyan asked no further, saving it for another time.

His acquaintance with Bai Qilin was too shallow for such depth.

At the shore of Golden Pool, the three parted, and Ding Songyan went back to Huaiyuan Street.

The Ghost Yu Way renegade had used this area as a trap to lure and kill He Jianyun, so he would normally not linger in a perilous place and would surely change his hideout. But considering how bold and reckless the renegade was, Ding Songyan didn’t rule out the possibility that the renegade would do the opposite by hiding in plain sight and staying put in the same streets and alleys, thereby banking on being the last place anyone thought to look.

Huaiyuan, Zhendong, and Shuning Streets and the alleys connecting them held a great many workshops, with many people of every sort. Even with the Chaos Realm and Candle-Star Pupils, and after covering the whole area, Ding Songyan could not find a single clue.

Even after heaven-earth severance, human effort still has its limits. All that remains is to see whether Master Xiaozhang has had any luck and what feedback he can offer... Ding Songyan exhaled and headed back toward Prince Kang’s estate.

Passing Pingnan Street, he spotted Twelfth Madam Luo at a glance. She sat at the roadside in a patterned headscarf and a dark red short jacket, with a basket of goods before her: shuttlecocks made from pheasant feathers, woven hair ornaments, cloth dolls such as little tigers made from scrap fabric, and neatly whittled wooden and bamboo swords...

"Cheap, cheap! Any two for seven coins!"

Twelfth Madam Luo hawked a few times, then bit into a greenish yellow apple with red streaks, perfectly at ease.

Seeing Ding Songyan approach, the shopkeeper froze, then looked helplessly at the gradually darkening sky.

"What a coincidence." Ding Songyan stood before the wooden railing that separated her stall from the road, smiling as he greeted her.

Twelfth Madam Luo sighed softly.

"To me, you’re a haunting ghost that won’t go away."

"You run your business so casually." Ding Songyan ignored her remark and marveled instead.

"I like it that way!" Twelfth Madam Luo snorted, then her expression changed slightly. "What are you doing?"

While she spoke, Ding Songyan had already gone around the railing and walked to her stall.

"I have something to discuss with you." Ding Songyan smiled and sat down beside Twelfth Madam Luo, leaving a gap of two fists.

"Not interested!" Twelfth Madam Luo took a hard bite of her apple.

"I just want to borrow your main room again to write a letter. I’ll pay for the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone." Ding Songyan seemed not to have heard her refusal.

"Another letter?" Twelfth Madam Luo turned her head, a little curious and puzzled.

"I have many good friends." Ding Songyan looked utterly sincere.

Many friends or not, this letter was still for his senior sister and would be delivered through the Hongxin Trading Company, so that no sudden change of habit would arouse the suspicion of that demoness Ji and lead her to discover the problem on Fifth Xie’s end.

This letter would mostly share daily life, with only a few hints. Even if Demoness Ji intercepted and read it, nothing would be affected.

By comparison, the letter he would give to Fifth Xie would hint at more and carry stronger emotion.

But that was not all. Sending one letter by each of two methods was itself the biggest hint, and reading the two letters side by side would reveal even more between the lines.

Twelfth Madam Luo shot Ding Songyan a sidelong glance.

"I suspect you’re mocking me."

"How could I? Twelfth Madam, you’re so popular. How could you lack good friends?" Ding Songyan was truly being wronged.

Twelfth Madam Luo watched the people coming and going on Pingnan Street and, after a moment of silence, said, "Some people avoid me, and some don’t want to be just friends."

The shopkeeper suddenly smiled self-deprecatingly.

"In the end, the only one I can talk to without worrying about being misunderstood is you, you shameless fellow."

"We all want different things." Ding Songyan did not say it as a joke. "From you, Twelfth Madam, I want talent, not beauty."

"You make coveting other people’s martial arts sound so refined and unworldly." Twelfth Madam Luo found it amusing.

She had gone numb to such remarks and no longer got angry.

So the two sat by the street looking at the basket and chatting, now and then calling out to customers and selling the little trinkets Twelfth Madam had made by hand.

As the sky darkened and the basket grew emptier, Twelfth Madam Luo glanced at the thriving Silver Hook Gambling House diagonally across the street.

"Did you really warn Hu Chaohui last time? This Silver Hook Gambling House hasn’t held back at all."

"I did, but I was posing as someone from the Returning Abyss Order then. Hu Chaohui probably took it for pleasantries or a way to hide my identity, like the Jade Maiden mask, and paid it no mind. The Martial Prohibition Bureau and Chengtian Prefecture probably think so too," Ding Songyan answered thoughtfully.

He had planned to look into Hu Chaohui’s dreams in a while to see his past fortuitous encounters and why his mind had been seized when Ding Songyan drew heaven-earth qi into himself. But from that night on, the Sea-Treading Gang leader let no one except himself and a few companions know which room he slept in.

Ding Songyan could still find Hu Chaohui by searching dream after dream, but that would take too long and carry too many variables, and the Martial Prohibition Bureau and Chengtian Prefecture might still be watching in secret. He could only lie low for now until Hu Chaohui gradually relaxed his guard.

Twelfth Madam Luo nodded slightly.

"Such is heaven’s will."

Her voice was calm and mild, yet Ding Songyan heard firm killing intent in it. He smiled faintly.

"Good words can’t persuade one who deserves to die."

As they spoke, a carriage stopped at the door of the Silver Hook Gambling House, and Liu Cheng stepped down, wearing a black long robe, his face still pale.

Barely recovered from his serious wounds, he had come to inspect the business he was in charge of.

"Is that the Young Boss you mentioned? He came to the Silver Hook Gambling House before his wounds even healed..." Twelfth Madam Luo looked in that direction and remarked casually.

Brother Liu, is this heaven playing tricks on you too? Of all times, why did you have to run into Twelfth Madam setting up a stall across from the gambling house? I fear you’d die in utter confusion... Ding Songyan grumbled inwardly, then said to Twelfth Madam Luo with a smile,

"I’ll go say hello."

He stood up, went around the railing, and called out loudly, "Young Boss!"

Liu Cheng, about to enter the Silver Hook Gambling House, stopped, turned, and saw Ding Songyan, whom he had not seen in many days, approaching with a smile.

"Brother Ding, what a coincidence." Liu Cheng signaled the several Sea-Treading Gang members beside him to stand farther away.

Ding Songyan exchanged a few pleasantries, then lowered his voice.

"Brother Liu, you’d better not come to the Silver Hook Gambling House anymore. Hand it back to your godfather or someone else in the gang."

Wh... Liu Cheng’s nerves tightened, and a cold sweat broke out at once.

In his mind, Brother Ding was an extraordinary man who could do extraordinary things. For him to warn so solemnly against coming to the Silver Hook Gambling House again, there had to be a reason serious enough that it could not be taken lightly.

Which heretical faction has set its sights on the Silver Hook Gambling House this time? Seeing that Ding Songyan offered no further explanation, Liu Cheng nodded gravely.

"Okay."

Good. Someone who heeds advice still has a chance to live... Ding Songyan changed the subject.

"I heard your Gang Leader Hu was attacked by someone wearing a Jade Maiden mask?"

"Yes. He was injured, but not seriously." Liu Cheng studied Ding Songyan’s face and found only curiosity and inquiry.

He did not think the male "Jade Maiden" was Brother Ding in disguise, since their martial arts were entirely different.

To this day, his godfather still believed the attacker had used the Returning Abyss Divine Art.

"Whom have you guys offended?" Ding Songyan asked, puzzled.

"I don’t know either." Liu Cheng shook his head. "I even suspect my godfather has become a prop in someone else’s ’variety play,’ and that this has nothing to do with the Sea-Treading Gang itself."

Smart... but only half right. Why your godfather was attacked really does have to do with the Sea-Treading Gang... Ding Songyan asked with concern, "How has Gang Leader Hu been lately?"

Liu Cheng glanced left and right, then suddenly lowered his voice.

"His wounds are nothing, but his spirits are poor. He’s become... become somewhat like a bird startled by a bowstring.

"He changes his sleeping room and companions every night. After I recovered most of my strength, he’s been hiding at my place the past two nights, and it seems he’ll come again tonight."

Look at that, look at that, good people are rewarded! I just saved Brother Liu’s life, and he turned right around and told me his godfather’s whereabouts... Ding Songyan said to Liu Cheng with genuine feelings, "Perhaps only at a critical moment did your godfather realize you are the one he can trust most, in every respect."

After a few more words, Ding Songyan turned and walked back to Twelfth Madam Luo’s stall.

After a moment’s thought, Liu Cheng suddenly pressed a hand to his chest and said to the Sea-Treading Gang members around him, "Hiss, my wound is acting up again from talking too much.

"I have to go back and rest a few more days!"

He passed the Silver Hook Gambling House without entering, climbed into his carriage, and quickly left.

Through the carriage window, he saw Brother Ding sitting at the roadside with Twelfth Madam Luo, selling worthless trinkets.

"Twelfth Madam Luo is decent-looking, but no match for the courtesans of the Hengbo River...

"Could Brother Ding only like respectable women?"

Liu Cheng did not dare look more and withdrew his gaze.

Twelfth Madam Luo did not ask what Ding Songyan and Liu Cheng had discussed. She sold the last pheasant-feather shuttlecock to the little girl before her.

Ding Songyan watched the passersby and said as if to himself, "Liu Cheng was sent by his godfather. He doesn’t actually want to take over the Silver Hook Gambling House. After my reminder, he pretended to be ill and went home, planning to find a way to decline the assignment."

Twelfth Madam Luo said nothing, only nodding slightly.

Ding Songyan said no more than needed, then thought and said, "Today I met Young Master Brightstream Jiang Lanting."

He did not know whether a woman as experienced in the jianghu and high in cultivation as Twelfth Madam Luo knew of the Yin-Yang Order’s peculiarity. He figured he should warn her if he could, lest she be fooled someday by a person both male and female pretending to be the same sex.

"You like that type?" Twelfth Madam Luo had found a chance to tease Ding Songyan, and the corners of her mouth clearly curled up.

Ding Songyan replied righteously at once, "Twelfth Madam, don’t ruin my spotless reputation!"

"You have such a thing?" Twelfth Madam Luo was amused.

She laughed for a while, then took on a reminiscent expression.

"I once met a Yin-Yang Order Elder who had a husband and a wife."

So you do know... Someone who cultivates arts of name and reality should be able to see through the "name" and "reality" of this too, right? Ding Songyan did not continue the topic. He helped Twelfth Madam Luo sell the rest of her goods, returned with her to Tiger Tail Alley, then went to the back courtyard to write his letter.

......

In the dead of night, at the Liu residence on Hidden River Lane.

Ding Songyan once again hid himself among the plants and slipped into the small courtyard. It took little effort to pinpoint Sea-Treading Gang Leader Hu Chaohui.

He stopped about seventy meters from the target, hid in a concealed spot, and manifested the Great Dream of Three Thousand Years.