Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 252: Friends

Teaching a lesson to the drinkers who tried to take liberties obviously could not be done under the banner of "Twelfth Madam and I are together," since that would only confirm the rumors. So Ding Songyan stepped in as a Brightnight Sect disciple under the pretext of drawing his sword against injustice.

Twelfth Madam Luo was not especially grateful. She just looked at him with a fake smile.

"Why are you here again?"

A haunting ghost that won’t go away!

She had meant to make do with a quick bite for lunch, and now the kitchen would have to prepare several more dishes.

Following Twelfth Madam toward the back courtyard, Ding Songyan said with a smile, "Two reasons. Guess which one.

"One: I thought that you have only me as a friend in the whole Flame Capital, with nobody else to talk to, so I came over to keep you company.

"Two: I want to ask you about martial insights and the Way of Name and Reality."

Twelfth Madam Luo stopped, turned sideways, and returned his question with one of her own, "Which one do you want to pick?"

Ding Songyan chuckled.

"Only children pick. A grown man like me takes both."

Twelfth Madam Luo scoffed.

"Who says you’re my only friend in the Flame Capital?"

Ding Songyan broke into a grin at once.

"So you admit I count as a friend, Twelfth Madam."

The line "I should never have played along with you" suddenly surfaced in Twelfth Madam Luo’s mind again. It took her a moment before she muttered, "Shameless."

Ding Songyan felt no shame. He sat down at one side of the stone table and chatted with Twelfth Madam about the rumors he’d heard from his colleagues.

Running a wine shop, Twelfth Madam Luo knew a good deal about these things too. After an animated exchange, she looked at Ding Songyan with a half smile and said, "I hear Azure Thunder Exiled Immortal Li Linquan has lately gone half-mad, always sparring with people using only the simplest sword moves and losing again and again without losing heart.

"In all these years, you’re the only other person I’ve seen try that path..."

"Ahem..." Ding Songyan cleared his throat. "I wanted a look at the Heaven-Splitting Thunderlight Sword, so I disguised myself and found a chance to trade a few moves with him. Who knew he’d end up like this?"

Twelfth Madam Luo wore an expression that said she had guessed right all along.

"No wonder you said Wu Zheng wouldn’t understand. So he wasn’t the first to be rattled by the nascent form of your swordplay."

The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, "If Li Linquan can’t climb out of it, his lifetime of cultivation may be wasted, a realm without the ability to fight. Second Ding, only the original perpetrator can provide the solution."

"At first I figured he’d only be obsessed for a few days and right his path once he saw it was hopeless. Who knew he’d be such a martial maniac?" Ding Songyan said frankly. "After that episode with Wu Zheng, I’d already planned to find a chance to knock some sense into Li Linquan. But Demoness Ji was only just driven off. I’m afraid she’s sore about it and might deduce heavenly secrets and wait for me outside these streets, so I don’t dare go out for now."

Twelfth Madam Luo nodded.

"Then I’ll accompany you when I have time."

"Twelfth Madam, you’re a model of righteousness!" Ding Songyan was pleasantly surprised, then added, "Beautiful and kind-hearted too!"

Twelfth Madam Luo rolled her eyes at him, exasperated.

"What exactly is between you and Demoness Ji? She doesn’t seem to want to kill you right now. It can’t really be a debt of romance, can it?

"Er, forget I asked, and don’t answer."

Her curiosity had nearly overcome her principles.

Ding Songyan deliberated his choice of words.

"I’m still of some use to her."

Twelfth Madam Luo thought it over and nodded, true to her word in asking no more.

Before long, the waiter, Seventh Yu, brought out several dishes. Ding Songyan rose to meet him and busily laid them out on the stone table.

Twelfth Madam Luo watched coolly and did not help.

Only after Ding Songyan sat back down did she say lightly, "It’s not on the house, you know."

"You’re not eating?" Ding Songyan asked, amused.

"I am." Twelfth Madam Luo smiled lazily. "You said yourself I’m your friend. What’s wrong with eating off a friend a few times?"

"That works the other way around too," Ding Songyan said carefully.

Twelfth Madam Luo was not angry. She picked up her chopsticks.

"How many free meals have you had from me? Time to return the favor."

"Deal." Ding Songyan smiled with real sincerity.

That counted as accepting him as a friend.

After they had eaten their fill and chatted to help digestion, Ding Songyan took the initiative to clear the bowls and plates and handed them to Seventh Yu.

Then he drew Frostshade and began his sword practice.

As usual, Twelfth Madam Luo sat by the stone table, one hand propping her cheek, watching and offering the occasional pointer, each one of great benefit to Ding Songyan.

When he finished, she asked thoughtfully, "Are you planning to reach the Heaven-Man Realm by unifying all arts?

"That’s very, very hard..."

Ding Songyan sat across from her and said, rather puzzled, "What else is there? Isn’t that the only path?"

Or one sword breaking all arts, with me as the master?

Twelfth Madam Luo answered, amused, "Who says there’s only one path?

"Different legacies have different Heaven-Man methods, and more than one each.

"Take your Brightnight Sect. Just the ones I know of are the Candlelight Method, the Star Method, and the Brightnight Method."

Am I the Brightnight Sect disciple, or are you? Why don’t I know this? Ding Songyan made no effort to hide his shock and bewilderment.

"Twelfth Madam, where did you learn that?"

"Old jianghu lore, and it’s recorded in my sect’s texts. But I only know the names, not the substance." Twelfth Madam Luo asked, with a flash of understanding, "Has your Brightnight Sect’s legacy really been cut off that badly?"

Ding Songyan nodded sincerely and told Twelfth Madam Luo a few episodes from the sect’s past.

"For your Brightnight Sect to refound itself and grow to where it is today can’t have been easy. It’s a way of reviving the fallen and restoring the broken line." Twelfth Madam Luo sighed after hearing it.

Ding Songyan, meanwhile, pondered her words.

The "Candlelight Method," "Star Method," and "Brightnight Method" correspond to the three original foundational arts, the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra, the Celestial Stars Scripture, and the Brightnight Grand Method?

The first two are manageable. The Grandmasters who fled south of the Great River back then didn’t understand or master the Heaven-Man methods themselves, but they left many notes and insights, and plenty of scattered phrases point to the original Heaven-Man methods. After I reach the Heaven-Man Realm, I should be able to deduce and recreate them from these. The "Brightnight Method," though, will probably be very hard to restore.

Without references, even with Manifesting the Way and its Virtue, it would take decades, unless I can recover part of the Brightnight Grand Method.

Does the path of unifying all arts correspond to Manifesting the Way and its Virtue? And the path of one sword breaking all arts to Bringing All Things Into Unity? Do Establishing the Six Directions and Dividing the Four Seasons have their own Heaven-Man methods too?

Which kind is Demoness Ji’s Heaven-Man method?

After her sigh, Twelfth Madam Luo looked at Ding Songyan.

"I was only talking off the cuff. Everyone must walk their own path in the end. The path of unifying all arts is hard, but if you really get through, your achievement will be limitless."

"Mm." Ding Songyan changed the subject. "Twelfth Madam, what’s your Heaven-Man method?"

Twelfth Madam Luo’s eyes turned, and she asked back with a smile, "Trying to pry into my identity?"

"I wouldn’t dare!" Ding Songyan cried injustice. "I was just asking casually. You don’t have to answer. I’m curious, but I dare not pry, for fear that once I figure it out, you’ll leave the Flame Capital, and then who will teach me the Way of Name and Reality?"

Twelfth Madam Luo froze, her mouth slightly open for two breaths, then said, both annoyed and amused, "You’re rather frank."

And shameless enough too!

...

The Phoenix Terrace Study.

Yu Chongyuan, in a high-ridged scholar’s crown, stood beside the window, gazing blankly at several paintings and calligraphy scrolls hanging on the wall.

The handwriting was both elegant and dignified.

After an unknown length of time, Zhang Yingbo walked into the quiet room, gathering the green of the censer, the yellow of the prayer cushion, the blue of the book covers, and the red of the paintings onto herself, radiant and dazzling.

She glanced at the scrolls on the wall, a shadow of gloom flickering across her face before she said gravely, "Senior Brother, we’ve found out He Jin’s identity.

Yu Chongyuan turned around, his gaze calm and untroubled.

Zhang Yingbo continued, "He was a retainer of Prince Shen’s estate. His martial arts match Wu Zheng’s description, but he left the estate over a month ago and no longer serves Prince Shen."

"Prince Shen..." Yu Chongyuan repeated the two words.

Then he nodded calmly.

"Well done, Junior Sister.

"I need to enter the palace. Tell everyone to keep an eye on Wu Zheng’s safety."

"The palace... Prince Shen... Does this involve the imperial family?" Zhang Yingbo probed.

Yu Chongyuan neither shook his head nor nodded. He only said, "Troubled times."

This Supreme Master carried a saber and a sword, and did not surrender them at the imperial palace gate. For one thing, he held the privilege of "carrying a sword and wearing shoes into the hall." For another, as a Heaven-Man, his weapons were merely extensions of himself. He himself was the most dangerous weapon.

He made his way to Qingting Hall, ringed by green water, and bowed with scrupulous correctness to the man sitting cross-legged on a woolen mat.

The man was tall and imposing, his face deeply carved as if hewn by blade and axe, his features possessed of a strange, blazing beauty like scorching fire.

He wore the imperial crown with twelve strands of hanging beads before his face and a crimson dragon robe embroidered with a divine figure treading on dragons. Every exposed patch of his body was covered in thick brown fur, lending him a rugged air. This was Hong Jingchu, Emperor of Great Zhao.

"Zhongyuan, must you still stand on such ceremony with me?" said the emperor of the Jianwu era, smiling faintly.

"Your Majesty, propriety must not be abandoned," Yu Chongyuan answered, keeping a fully respectful bearing.

"What brings you here today?" the Jianwu Emperor asked.

Yu Chongyuan recounted the matter of Wu Zheng, and concluded, "Sending someone of Zhurong’s legacy on purpose, it seems Prince Shen has sensed something and wants to use this to hint at it."

"He’s of the Hong clan, after all, and a Supreme Master," the Jianwu Emperor mused. "Zhongyuan, proceed as you normally would. Find He Jin and win justice for Wu Zheng, whose family was destroyed."

Yu Chongyuan understood the Jianwu Emperor’s true meaning, bowed, and accepted.

He was about to withdraw from Qingting Hall when the Jianwu Emperor, after a few breaths of silence, asked hesitantly, "Has... she sent any word back?"

Yu Chongyuan’s expression darkened slightly.

"Not yet."

...

Shushui Street.

Twelfth Madam Luo looked at Ding Songyan, puzzled.

"Weren’t we going to find Li Linquan?"

According to the intelligence gathered, Li Linquan wasn’t anywhere near here.

Ding Songyan put on a smile.

"Twelfth Madam, Demoness Ji was spotted on this street before, so there may be a secret hidden here. I didn’t dare come before, but with you accompanying me, I figured I’d check it out on the way."

Hearing this, Twelfth Madam Luo was first stunned, then laughed in exasperation.

"Utterly shameless!

"I’ve never in my life seen an orthodox hero with such thick skin!"