Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 264: Damaged Mind and Spirit

For a moment, Monk Fumo could not tell whether he had used the Nine Realms True Words, nor which things had happened in the dream and which in the waking world.

He had no time for Zen meditation and thought. He strode toward the side courtyard where the assassin was, each step turning a gale into a lotus that bore his feet, so that in a few breaths he vanished from the courtyard he was in.

In the side courtyard.

Hu Chaohui lay dead in the corridor under the window, eyes wide open, but they did not reflect who had killed him.

Ding Songyan looked at Liu Cheng, who had come running, and said rapidly, "You leave first."

The memory of Brother Ding’s sword strike that was as agile as a snake still lingered in Liu Cheng’s mind. It was so precisely timed, so impossible to evade that it had amazed him as divine work, though he couldn’t say exactly where its brilliance lay.

He made no protest and, without wasting a moment, flipped over the courtyard wall and left Shilin Temple.

By then, the watchtower had been alerted by Monk Fumo’s actions. Two arrows burning with crimson flame turned into fire dragons and shot one after the other at the panicked, fleeing Liu Cheng.

Ding Songyan, hidden under the eaves, paid no attention to Liu Cheng. He withdrew his gaze and turned it to Hu Chaohui’s ghost that lingered by the corpse.

He had already activated his yin eyes.

Under his black face cloth, his face was rather pale, and he was still somewhat dazed from the Nine Realms True Words.

Had he not consulted Twelfth Madam beforehand and learned the details of the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect’s arts, he could never have made the snap decision to enter the Celestial Heart state when he "saw" the golden lotuses spring up. With the heightening of "perception," as if his soul had left his body and was looking down, he was not easily pulled into reincarnation by the Nine Realms True Words, and held out for at least two breaths.

In those two breaths, Ding Songyan used the Celestial Heart state and the soul and consciousness boost from the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art to strike the Nightmare Sword at the monk using the Nine Realms True Words from afar.

The two had very similar ranges of influence in this respect.

So one fell into a dream, believing he had succeeded, watching the "reincarnation" Ding Songyan had deliberately instilled, while the other truly experienced the joy, anger, sorrow, delight, grief, and pain of the six realms, including the Heavenly, Animal, and Hell Realms, and nearly lost his mind.

The Nine Realms True Words really are formidable... Ding Songyan seized the chance before the arrival of the monk he had just clashed with and asked Hu Chaohui’s ghost in a low, sinister voice, "Who turned you into a Two-Faced?"

Hu Chaohui’s ghost felt the Banishing Demons and Warding Off Evil force of Chaos, more terrified than by any ordinary evil entity, and answered almost in a breakdown, "I don’t know."

I don’t know? Ding Songyan had never expected such an answer.

He was about to ask whom he had met who might be suspicious when the courtyard gate burst open and a figure flew in on a wind-borne lotus, his right palm thrust flat, glowing red copper.

The newcomer was a handsome but aged monk in a gray robe. From the material Hu Chaohui had given, Ding Songyan knew he was Monk Fumo, abbot of Shilin Temple.

Ding Songyan’s longsword jabbed out and struck the red-copper palm.

Sword and palm both stalled in midair.

Then the longsword shattered inch by inch from the tip, crumbling and falling to the ground.

It not only left no mark on the red-copper palm but was bounced back, unable to hold its own shape.

In Monk Fumo’s eyes, the masked assassin used the force to retreat and crashed into the room.

He pursued in a vajra state, only to find the other had bizarrely vanished, leaving not a trace, as if he had evaporated into thin air.

......

Liu Cheng used walls, trees, houses, and other obstacles to dodge the watchtower arrows and raced quickly toward the shore of Golden Pool.

Although Hu Chaohui turning into a Two-Faced had been completely beyond Liu Cheng’s expectations and kept him from succeeding quickly, and he would not have pulled it off without Ding Songyan guarding the courtyard, he had made preparations that the assassination would alert Shilin Temple and the watchtower. He had long arranged his escape route, and had chosen tonight deliberately.

The Flame Capital was not Dingjiang Prefecture. It had dozens of watchtowers, and though the Martial Prohibition Bureau and Chengtian Prefecture had many Grandmasters, they were not so numerous as to station a Dharma Realm master at every tower. Key areas surely had them, but ordinary streets depended on the day: two days in ten might see a Grandmaster. For a temple like Shilin Temple that belonged to the Body-and-Will Heterodox Sect with many formidable Dharma Realm masters, the nearby watchtowers had a Grandmaster only one day in ten, and Liu Cheng had specifically avoided that day.

Soon Liu Cheng reached the shore of Golden Pool and jumped into the water with a splash.

His Essentials of Heaven’s Decrees did not include the "Rules the Southern Sea" trait, but as a sea god’s legacy it had some water-element enhancement, and his swimming skills were excellent.

Though it was 10pm, Golden Pool still had many painted boats hung with colorful lanterns, with endless strings and pipes and faint decadent sounds. When the Chengtian Prefecture constables chased him here, they had completely lost Liu Cheng’s trail and could only grit their teeth and search every boat.

After leaving Golden Pool by a waterway, Liu Cheng changed into clean clothes in a private house on the south shore, destroyed his wet ones, then slipped back to Hidden River Lane under the cover of the night, entering a meditation room without alerting the gang members or servants.

He and Ding Songyan had agreed beforehand to meet here if it succeeded, and if it didn’t, each would look after himself and not mind the other.

As soon as Liu Cheng entered the meditation room, he saw Brother Ding sitting at ease on a chair with the black face cloth removed and a random book in hand, reading with relish. There was no telling how long he had been there.

"Thank you for your help, Brother Ding." Liu Cheng bowed solemnly.

He recalled that sword stroke once again.

So effortlessly and gracefully it had sunk into the center of his godfather’s brows.

Liu Cheng’s earlier knowledge of Ding Songyan’s strength came entirely from his own guesses and judgments. Today he had finally seen it.

A great reputation hides no empty talent!

Liu Cheng suddenly remembered Brother Ding’s earlier warning. The line "Don’t let me catch you doing evil" was no longer weightless. It had real weight and pressed heavily on his heart.

Ding Songyan did not stand on ceremony with Liu Cheng and asked with a smile, "The li fruit was worth the price, wasn’t it?"

"More than worth it," Liu Cheng said sincerely.

He did not ask how Brother Ding had escaped the eminent monks’ interception and the watchtower’s pursuit.

Ding Songyan stood up and said thoughtfully, "After you take over the Sea-Treading Gang, look into whom your godfather has been in contact with lately and whose behavior is odd."

Liu Cheng understood this was to find a hidden Two-Faced and agreed at once.

"No hurry. The Martial Prohibition Bureau will surely look into this and come to question you. If they don’t find anything, then sift through everything again," Ding Songyan reminded him.

Hu Chaohui had died in a Two-Faced state, and the Martial Prohibition Bureau would surely not take it lightly.

If they overlooked it, not knowing Hu Chaohui was a Two-Faced and launching no investigation, then it would be obvious where the problem lay: Shilin Temple!

......

The side courtyard of Shilin Temple.

Dressed in black ordinary clothes with a golden seal hanging from his belt, Director Hong carefully examined the two faces on the front and back of Hu Chaohui’s head, and after a while stood and said to his subordinates, "Take him back for spirit channeling."

After giving the order, Director Hong turned to Monk Fumo and bowed.

"Master, do you know who the assassins were?"

Monk Fumo, with golden snakes coiled around his earlobes, recalled, "I only met one of them.

"His consciousness was formidable, no weaker than mine. He could drag people into nightmares. His swordplay was ordinary, and he seemed to possess an escape art or something like it.

"I couldn’t make out his martial art’s foundation, but he leaned clearly toward the heretical.

"He was extremely afraid of Demon Sovereign Tan Guanchan. Perhaps there is some connection."

"It can’t be someone from the Accumulated Evil Way, can it?" Director Hong said, amused.

Every villain of any repute in the Accumulated Evil Way was terrified of Tan Guanchan.

After saying it, Director Hong shook his head himself.

"He had already become Two-Faced. Why would the Accumulated Evil Way still have to kill him? It can’t be infighting again, surely?"

Monk Fumo said nothing.

He only told what he had seen and experienced.

......

Ding Songyan dreamed all night: good dreams, nightmares, bizarre and kaleidoscopic dreams, as if he were going through the reincarnation of the "six realms" again.

It left his heart heavy and his spirits low, and he felt rather lost.

He roughly understood what was going on.

His mind had been shaken by the Nine Realms True Words. It hadn’t reached the point of a mental weakness, but it wasn’t something a night’s sleep could fully heal either. It would take several days to get over.

After guard duty at the corner gate, Ding Songyan did not change out of his guard uniform. Instead, he took Frostshade, headed for Tiger Tail Alley, and entered the Cheap Wine Shop.

Twelfth Madam Luo glanced at his rather pale face, got up, and went to the back courtyard.

When Ding Songyan followed, she asked with a laugh, "Went through all sorts of misery under the Nine Realms True Words?"

"Mm, but I experienced some good things too." Ding Songyan did not play it up.

Walking into the main building, Twelfth Madam Luo asked casually, "Something went wrong? Otherwise, with your ability, killing Hu Chaohui with an inner demon shouldn’t have alerted Shilin Temple’s monks."

Ding Songyan told her the whole of last night’s operation, focusing on Hu Chaohui’s strange transformation into a Two-Faced and Monk Fumo’s Nine Realms True Words.

The only thing he didn’t spell out was the good things he had "experienced." They were too absurd.

"You’re this wary of the Demon Sovereign?" Twelfth Madam Luo did not press him about what sweet dreams he had had either.

Ding Songyan told her about Demon Seed Two-Faced and the death of his own master, leaving out only the transmigration matters.

Twelfth Madam Luo went silent for a long time, then sighed.

"Hong Jingchu has a bit of a gambler’s streak."

She did not discuss the rest. She took a grayish calming incense stick from a curio cabinet and handed it to Ding Songyan.

"Go burn incense and rest in the east wing. In about two hours you’ll shake off the damage to your mind.

"I need to handle the lunch crowd anyway. I’ll hear your answer to that question afterward."

Being near Twelfth Madam and hearing her plain, natural words had already settled Ding Songyan’s mind quite a bit. He nodded, took the calming incense, fetched a censer himself, and went straight to the east wing.

......

Having settled near Treasure Market, Ge Heng was before a glass mirror bought at no small cost, redoing his disguise, mainly to conceal the marks left by his self-disfigurement so as not to draw too much attention.

When done, he took the two arts he had written out from memory yesterday and walked all the way to Tiger Tail Alley, where he carefully observed the Cheap Wine Shop from a shadowy corner.

Many of the patrons coming and going are Prince Kang’s estate guards...

The female shopkeeper is a pretty, full-figured woman, nothing unusual about her, with a bit of martial skill, but not much...

The waiter and accountant are ordinary people too...

Huh, that thin cook isn’t quite so ordinary...