Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 254: Having Heard the Way in the Morning

Hearing Twelfth Madam’s answer, Ding Songyan gave her a glance and did not pursue the topic.

If Twelfth Madam herself said so, he would take it as true.

Say what you will; hear what you will.

Ding Songyan thought for a moment.

"Later I’ll still have to pay Chef Shi and the others to look into Shushui Street."

The Shamanism Order business might only be what Demoness Ji had left out in the open, with something else hidden underneath.

Even if the guess was wrong, there was no harm done. It would cost a little silver and not much of his time, and silver was an expendable that could be earned again. He had the means, and he never lacked for it anyway, with hardly anywhere to spend it.

"You’re quite meticulous." Twelfth Madam Luo understood his thinking after a moment’s thought.

The two did not linger on Shushui Street and headed for Blossoms Mountain, northwest of Golden Pool.

Azure Thunder Exiled Immortal Li Linquan was said to have been practicing his sword there often in recent days.

Passing the foot of Blossoms Mountain, Twelfth Madam Luo was drawn to a sugar-painting stall. She paid five coins and, rubbing her hands in eager anticipation, tried spinning the wooden arrow to see which design it would point to.

"With your strength, can’t you just make it land wherever you want?" Ding Songyan found her solemnity amusing.

Twelfth Madam Luo shot him a glance.

"Of course I don’t use martial arts. It’s about testing your luck. When you draw lots at a temple, do you force out the stick you want with true qi?"

Ding Songyan paused for a breath, then said, "I might."

"I think so too," Twelfth Madam Luo said, nodding quickly.

Her slender, long fingers gave a light flick, and the wooden arrow fixed to the dial began to spin.

Twelfth Madam Luo watched with total concentration, her eyes bright, having fully entertained herself.

Soon, under her expectant gaze, the arrow slowed and stopped, pointing to one of the two best prizes: "Phoenix."

"Again..." Twelfth Madam Luo showed no delight, only a touch of resignation.

"Every time?" Ding Songyan was a little startled.

"Not every time, or what would I have been looking forward to just now? Seven or eight times out of ten." Twelfth Madam Luo sighed.

Seeing the vendor already preparing to draw a phoenix on the white stone slab with syrup, Ding Songyan asked her with a smile, "Not really wanting the phoenix?"

"Mm." Twelfth Madam Luo nodded.

"If you don’t want it, then don’t." Ding Songyan turned to the vendor. "Something simple, please..."

If you don’t want it, then don’t... Twelfth Madam Luo froze, remembering that he had said something similar before.

By the time she came to herself, the vendor had made what Ding Songyan described: a thick round disk of golden syrup, about half a palm wide, with part of a thin wooden stick embedded in it.

"Is this a sugar painting?" Twelfth Madam Luo took the golden "sugar cake" and blurted out, amused.

It looked nothing like a painting!

"It’s a painting of the great sun," Ding Songyan said with a straight face, then smiled. "It’s candied haw’s brother from another father and mother."

A lollipop. You’ve never had one, have you?

Twelfth Madam Luo took a lick and found only a lingering sweetness, no different from other sugar paintings.

Yet her mood had somehow improved quite a bit.

After sucking on the "sugar cake" a couple of times, Twelfth Madam Luo glanced at the dial and said with interest, "You try. Let’s see what you spin."

Knowing she got a phoenix seven or eight times in ten, Ding Songyan grew rather interested too. He paid five coins, stretched out his right hand, and tried to nudge the arrow.

With my talent and looks, it’d be unreasonable not to get a dragon, wouldn’t it?

As his finger touched the arrow, Ding Songyan secretly released true qi, nudging it gently, determined to get the result he wanted.

Suddenly a wisp of sword qi came flying in, not sharp but thick and enduring, and happened to scatter Ding Songyan’s outward true qi, so that his finger, with no strength left to control itself, flicked the arrow.

Ding Songyan was stunned. He turned his head and saw Twelfth Madam Luo, the "sugar cake" in her mouth, tilting her head slightly, her eyes showing a hint of teasing and smugness.

I knew you’d cheat!

Heh... Ding Songyan shook his head in amusement, straightened up, and watched the arrow slow to a stop on the dial.

It pointed to "Bull."

Ding Songyan’s expression went blank for two breaths, a rare occurrence.

"Do you have an affinity with bulls?" Twelfth Madam Luo’s mocking voice came right on time.

"You could say that," Ding Songyan said, always willing to laugh at himself. "I once had an undeserved older brother named Bull, and some people called me Second Bull."

"Second Bull Ding?" Twelfth Madam Luo wore the look of someone who had committed his inglorious history to memory.

Then she recalled something he had said earlier.

"When you first asked me to pose as your sister-in-law, it was to pretend to be Bull’s wife?

"He died?"

"Yes. We never ended up using that plan, remember?" Ding Songyan nodded. "He was actually a fierce bandit. I was forced to call him big brother."

"You’ve had quite a varied life." Seeing that Ding Songyan had no intention of telling the story in detail, Twelfth Madam Luo tactfully did not pry.

Following the same pattern, Ding Songyan had the vendor change the "bull" into the homemade "lollipop."

When it was done, he casually handed it to Twelfth Madam.

"You’re not eating it?" Twelfth Madam Luo asked, startled.

Ding Songyan said with a smile as he left the sugar-painting stall, "Am I not going to knock some sense into Li Linquan? If I show up with one of these, he’ll think I’m insulting him."

Burning incense to calm the mind before "combat" was a classy thing that built up one’s presence, but showing up for "combat" with a lollipop would only enrage the opponent.

Twelfth Madam Luo pictured the scene, and the corners of her mouth curled up unconsciously.

She accepted his explanation, took the "sugar cake," and said, somewhat worried, "Didn’t I tell you my talent is gaining weight the moment I eat too much?"

Before he could reply, the shopkeeper added lightly, "But it only takes me a few breaths to slim back down."

Twelfth Madam, you’re good at amusing yourself... same as when you make wreaths, hair ornaments, and shuttlecocks... Ding Songyan asked curiously, "How do you slim down?"

"Burning." Twelfth Madam Luo made no effort to hide her identity.

Literally burning off the calories... Ding Songyan stopped and bought a plain steel longsword at a roadside stall.

Seeing Twelfth Madam look over, he explained simply, "My Frostshade has a distinctive look and is easy to recognize."

When he broke the Immortal Realm of Hidden Truth, he had not expected to wear a Golden Boy mask later to kill Evil Beyond Measure Sun Feiyang, so he hadn’t bothered to swap swords. He couldn’t afford that anymore.

Twelfth Madam Luo acknowledged tersely and watched Ding Songyan buy the sheathed steel longsword for three taels of silver.

"In Dingjiang Prefecture, this would be two taels at most, and probably unusable," Ding Songyan complained to Twelfth Madam about Flame Capital prices as they climbed the mountain together in search of where Li Linquan practiced.

With a Supreme Master like Twelfth Madam along, they soon reached the edge of a forest where no birds flew, the early plum blossoms had not opened, and everything was withered and silent. Li Linquan was inside, alone.

Though Flame Capital commoners and visiting heroes were avid fans of the Peerless Beauties of the Jianghu and the Martial World’s Jade Tree Rankings, and often crowded around those on the lists, they had to follow certain unwritten rules, such as never watching someone practice martial arts despite being in the Great Wilderness that put martial arts above all.

A couple of glances in passing were fine, but if someone stopped to stare, refusing to leave after one warning, it was hardly an injustice if they ended up getting killed by the practitioner.

In earlier years this had happened often, and only after the late emperor restored order did the killings nearly stop, with offenders sent to the yamen instead.

So although Li Linquan was famous, and many wanted to see the Azure Thunder Exiled Immortal’s bearing and what "pleasing to all" really meant, once they knew he practiced sword at Blossoms Mountain, no one tried to crowd him.

With the "sugar cake" in her mouth, Twelfth Madam Luo found a spot with no one around, took out brow stone, wax paste, and such, and began a preliminary disguise for Ding Songyan.

Before long, she patted his shoulder, packed up, stepped back two paces, and studied Ding Songyan, whose skin had turned slightly yellow and who looked a dozen years older.

"I am Ling Donglai," Ding Songyan said, hands clasped behind his back, nodding lightly.

Twelfth Madam Luo cooperated perfectly with a bow.

"Greetings, Senior Ling."

As soon as she spoke, Ding Songyan’s appearance changed abruptly. A bit of gray touched his temples, though his features stayed fairly young, with a certain godlike, demonic charm of their own.

This name-and-reality shift lacked enough "recognition" and was still unrefined in many places, but it was enough for Ding Songyan. He only needed Li Linquan not to recognize him, not to believe he was Ling Donglai or that the face was real.

Carrying the newly bought longsword, Ding Songyan flashed and entered the cold forest.

The handsome, virile Li Linquan was struggling in thought, now and then using the simplest, most unchanging sword moves: chop, slice, wipe.

He looked pitiable.

Suddenly his vision blurred, and he saw a figure in a scholar’s cyan robe.

The figure had gray temples, young features, and deep dark eyes, like a god or a demon. Without a word, he brought his sword down at Li Linquan.

Li Linquan was terrified. The sword had not arrived, but its intent had, leaving him as if surrounded by countless troops, pointed at by innumerable blades.

His scalp went numb, and he had a strong premonition of danger.

The fear of imminent death left him no thought for drills. He gave everything to the Heaven-Splitting Thunderlight Sword.

Amid crossing azure thunder and silver lightning, Li Linquan saw the opponent unleash every kind of swordplay, complex and simple, subtle and archaic, all manner of forms, as if a hundred people from a hundred different sects were displaying their legacies.

Li Linquan resisted with all his might, many times on the offensive instead of being on the defensive, but he was easily neutralized each time.

Gradually he realized to his astonishment that the enemy’s swordplay was strangely converging, from complex and subtle to plain, from simple and archaic to profound, as if demonstrating some principle.

In the end, every move resolved into the plain, unadorned, return-to-simplicity state Li Linquan had been seeking so painfully.

Clang!

His sword was knocked from his hand. He stood rooted to the spot, dumbstruck.

Then he heard the godlike, demonic figure say in a low voice, "Someone pities you for going mad and begged me to knock some sense into you."

As the voice echoed, the figure had vanished.

Li Linquan stared blankly ahead, his mind replaying the moves of that "sparring bout."

They swirled and gradually settled.

After a long while, Li Linquan suddenly burst into tears and murmured, "So that’s how it is..."

So this is how to walk this path...

One could die in the evening having heard the Way in the morning.