Radiant Blade of the Wilderness

Chapter 272: Name Can Harm Reality

All Ding Songyan wanted was to sit quietly and peacefully in the back courtyard of the Cheap Wine Shop with Twelfth Madam, discussing the Way and trading martial insights, and to use her authority to keep Demoness Ji at bay. He did not want this place drawing attention at all, or becoming word-of-mouth gossip among jianghu heroes beyond the estate guards and the neighborhood loafers.

The moment someone Twelfth Madam knew turned up, the days of the Cheap Wine Shop would be numbered.

Jiang Lanting was at the height of his fame and a well-known name on the Martial World’s Jade Tree Rankings. If he left an anecdote or two here and set off a chase among the jianghu’s young men and women, Ding Songyan didn’t dare imagine what would change.

Ding Songyan took a breath, squeezed through the crowd packed nearly shoulder to shoulder, and entered the Cheap Wine Shop.

He swept his eyes over the counter first and saw Twelfth Madam Luo looking at him with a half smile. Only then did he take a serious look at Young Master Brightstream.

Jiang Lanting sat alone at a table in a lake-green satin long robe, his raven-black hair tied with a ribbon of the same color, his eyes like autumn water, full of life and sparkle, combining a young master’s dashing ease with a lady’s elegance and refinement.

It was obvious that men and women alike loved Young Master Brightstream’s looks and style, unlike when Crimson Phoenix Spear Zhang Yingbo had come to the Cheap Wine Shop and mostly men had crowded around.

"What brings you here?" Ding Songyan sat down across from Jiang Lanting.

Jiang Lanting, with the Flickerlight Sword beside him, said with a grin, "I came to deliver the Jade Bloom Body-Nourishing Pills, but you weren’t at the estate. I figured you might be at the Cheap Wine Shop, so I came looking."

He sat in the corner nearest the counter, his voice neither loud nor soft, echoing only around the table without spreading outward.

That was probably some art or secret technique he had emulated with the Boundless Forms Art.

Seeing this, Ding Songyan asked directly, "Is it Young Master Jiang today, or Miss Jiang?"

"Whichever you like. I can be both," Jiang Lanting replied with little concern.

He rose gracefully and poured Ding Songyan a cup of Silver Glow wine, making the men and women watching sick with envy.

"You came to the Cheap Wine Shop on purpose, didn’t you?" Ding Songyan picked up his cup.

Jiang Lanting’s eyes turned, swept toward Twelfth Madam Luo at the counter, and he grinned mischievously.

"Of course I wanted to see what the wine shop owner who has you so smitten looks like, Second Ding."

Hearing this, Ding Songyan felt as if thorns were pricking his back, sure that Twelfth Madam’s gaze was about to carve him into eight pieces.

Young Master Jiang, oh Young Master Jiang, your secret technique can’t block Twelfth Madam’s ears!

"When did I ever say I was smitten?" Ding Songyan protested his innocence.

That was shouted for Twelfth Madam Luo’s benefit.

"You’re here every day, you go home at midnight, and you’ve been seen going out together. And that doesn’t count as smitten?" Jiang Lanting asked, amused. "Don’t treat me like a rookie. I’ve been around the block myself."

I’m smitten with martial arts, and I was forced into this by Demoness Ji... Ding Songyan could hardly give the truth as his reason, since that would expose too much, so he sighed.

"I’m just serving as Twelfth Madam’s shield, to spare her the annoyance of being pestered."

"You take it that seriously?" Jiang Lanting’s tongue was always quick. "I’ve seen this sort of thing before. It often turns real, and name and reality end up matching."

Can we please not bring up name and reality? Ding Songyan broke into a cold sweat, terrified that Fourth Jiang’s words would set Twelfth Madam thinking and get him kicked out, just to stop the rumor from spreading until it came true.

Before Ding Songyan could answer, Jiang Lanting laughed.

"Today Xie Fengchao came to visit me, and I asked him who Twelfth Madam Luo was."

Ding Songyan’s expression stiffened slightly.

What? Why would you ask Fifth Xie?

He doesn’t even know there’s a Twelfth Madam Luo!

Right now he’s the key person passing letters between Senior Sister and me!

Jiang Lanting glanced at Ding Songyan and giggled.

"Why so nervous?

"Actually, I didn’t ask. I was too busy showing off in front of them as a newly minted Grandmaster and forgot."

Only then did Ding Songyan realize Jiang Lanting had been teasing him.

Normally he would have seen through it easily and not fallen for it, but worry makes people sloppy.

Ding Songyan sighed.

"Fifth Xie knows my senior sister well. I’m afraid these rumors will reach her."

"I get it. I’ll keep your secret," Jiang Lanting said, nodding sincerely.

What secret? Do you still think Twelfth Madam and I have something going? Ding Songyan badly wanted to tease back, but in the end he gave up the idea.

If it were only Young Master Jiang or only Miss Jiang, he had ways to tease without really upsetting either. But this was both Young Master Jiang and Miss Jiang at once, and the boundaries were hard to judge.

Jiang Lanting picked up his cup and clinked it with Ding Songyan’s. After they each drained it, he said,

"When I first got to the Cheap Wine Shop, I thought your taste was a bit... mm, not that Twelfth Madam Luo isn’t good, but a young hero with your realm, strength, and bearing ought to aim higher."

"Why don’t you mention my looks?" Ding Songyan feigned dissatisfaction.

"Me, Jiang Lanting, a name on the Martial World’s Jade Tree Rankings, and you’d look at this face and tell me yours is top-tier?" Young Master Jiang pointed at himself with a look of disdain.

Ding Songyan glanced at Twelfth Madam at the counter and didn’t have the nerve to say it aloud.

Jiang Lanting continued, "But after sitting here a while, I found Twelfth Madam Luo has real charm. You have good taste."

Any human being can feel Twelfth Madam’s hidden charm. Ding Songyan suddenly recalled the time he caught Twelfth Madam throwing stones at people’s heads, when she had remarked in a self-mocking tone, "Natural beauty cannot be cast aside."

He had thought then that she was joking about herself with exaggeration. Now it seemed she’d been telling the truth, not a drop of exaggeration!

Feeling the gaze at his back, Ding Songyan did not dare answer Jiang Lanting. He ate a bite of food, thought for a moment, and said,

"The Martial Prohibition Bureau pulled me in to help today. It involved the Two-Faced."

"You haven’t even reached the Dharma Realm. Could Candle-Star Pupils be of any use?" Evidently, as a direct disciple of the Yin-Yang Order and a Heaven-Man’s disciple, Jiang Lanting had been told by the court about Demon Seed Two-Faced.

"Can’t I be in charge of spirit channeling?" Ding Songyan replied, amused, and took the opportunity to tell him about Hu Chaohui’s death and the problem of the white cat, Zhouxue.

He had also told Twelfth Madam the latter.

With a Supreme Master present, Ding Songyan wasn’t worried about anyone overhearing talk of the Two-Faced.

Jiang Lanting listened with shifting expressions and said at the end,

"That you thought cats and dogs might carry a Demon Seed is quite an unusual line of thought."

"That’s called being well-traveled and thinking things through," Ding Songyan said, naturally not mentioning that the idea came from his last life.

The two chatted about this and that until they were satiated by food and wine, though many people were still watching outside.

Jiang Lanting took out a pure white, delicate porcelain bottle, handed it to Ding Songyan, and said with a smile, "Two Jade Bloom Body-Nourishing Pills. Give them to whoever you like."

Ding Songyan took it, opened it, and saw two pills that looked formed from jade marrow, with a dark red luster flowing within.

"I’m in the Dharma Realm now. I’ll find you for a bout later and show you what the Boundless Forms Art really looks like," Jiang Lanting said, still holding a grudge and gritting his small white teeth. "It won’t be something you can break with one sword the way you did. Don’t worry. I’ll use only half my strength."

"Is there any point in fighting down a realm?" Ding Songyan teased but did not decline.

The more he got to see of the Boundless Forms Art, the better for him, with no downside.

He stood up, paid the wine bill, and escorted Jiang Lanting out of the overcrowded Tiger Tail Alley.

"See you next time." Ding Songyan cupped his hands.

Jiang Lanting’s eyes, deep as autumn water, widened.

"I never said I was leaving just yet. I plan to go to your room and read the rest of Journey to the West. It’s been so many days. You haven’t gone a single Chapter without writing, have you?"

Go to my room... I’m afraid people will say I’m into men, a playboy who goes both ways... Ding Songyan sighed.

"I wrote several more Chapters."

Jiang Lanting happily read the storybook in Ding Songyan’s room for a long time and, reluctant to stop, rolled his shoulders.

"Only a pity you can’t write ten Chapters a day.

"Second Ding, the one thing I don’t get is why tree yao, Xiaoqian, was written so well early on, but then she has no scenes afterward. It’s all the scarlet grass of Jade Pool and Princess Iron Fan."

"She’ll come back later, she’ll come back later," Ding Songyan coaxed Young Master Jiang.

By the time Jiang Lanting left with light steps, it was dark and a cold, drizzling rain had begun. Ding Songyan held an umbrella and saw Young Master Brightstream out of Lotus Whisper Street, then went to the Cheap Wine Shop and straight to the back courtyard.

Twelfth Madam Luo was brewing tea in the main building, as if she had expected Ding Songyan to come.

Ding Songyan sat across from her and said with a smile, "Last night I helped Young Master Jiang again, and he repaid me with two Jade Bloom Body-Nourishing Pills.

"I’ve troubled you a lot lately, Twelfth Madam, so I’ll pass on his gift as a thank-you. Please don’t fuss over it."

With that, he took out the pure white, delicate porcelain bottle and pushed it toward Twelfth Madam.

As for Senior Sister’s pill, he had put it in a different bottle and planned to hide it in the east wing later, just in case.

Twelfth Madam Luo accepted the Jade Bloom Body-Nourishing Pill without fuss and said with a smile, "Now you know how ’name’ can harm ’reality,’ don’t you?

"If you aren’t more careful, your senior sister really will misunderstand."

Ding Songyan agreed repeatedly, then brought up the Demon Seed Two-Faced and the white cat, Zhouxue, hoping to hear Twelfth Madam’s view.

Twelfth Madam Luo nodded lightly.

"I figure the Demon Seed needs a heart demon as soil to grow in."

Meaning creatures without much intelligence can’t develop heart demons, so a Demon Seed can’t be planted in them? Ding Songyan had guessed something similar before.

Hu Chaohui’s quick infection and conversion was probably also due in part to his unresolved heart demon.

And cats and dogs, having just begun to understand people, could, under the Demon Seed’s control, know who the target was and roughly what to do.

After exchanging views on the Demon Seed, Ding Songyan asked Twelfth Madam about the Unified Way Sword.

He had already realized earlier that at this stage the Unified Way Sword needed a framework with clear priorities, but what shape that framework should take he hadn’t yet worked out.

Twelfth Madam Luo looked at him and said with a leisurely smile, "You really are good at seeing everyone else clearly and terrible at seeing yourself.

"You’re already so familiar with Jiang Lanting. Why can’t you see your own path?

"Can the Boundless Forms Art also emulate all arts? What is its root?"

"It’s yin and yang, the Two Principles..." Ding Songyan again felt like he’d been jolted awake.

Twelfth Madam Luo asked further, a smile in her eyes, "The line you recite every day, ’the opposition and transformation of yin and yang exist in all things.’ Does it resemble this at all?"

"Yes..." Ding Songyan’s thinking suddenly opened up and cleared.

Right. Since I can’t unify everything into "One" at this stage of "unifying all arts," I can first unify into "Two," into the Two Principles of yin and yang. Yin and yang, motion and stillness, high and low—these can be the framework!

If that doesn’t work, I can lower the bar further and unify into "Three," the "Three" of "Two gives birth to Three, and Three gives birth to all things!"