Chapter 79: Return to the Prefecture City

Zheng Zhuxi blinked and repeated her mother’s words.

"Responsibility..."

The candlelight in the room swayed gently. Tao Wenshu sat down, an expression of reminiscence on her face.

"That is what your grandmaster said to me two years before he passed on.

"Do you still remember where you lived most of the time when you were young?"

Zheng Zhuxi set down the iron crown and sat beside her mother, giving a quick, small shake of her head.

"I don’t have much of an impression anymore. I only remember that it was various places—Flame Capital, Changhua, within the sect, Alpine Lake Town."

"In those days we were often in Flame Capital. I returned to the sect only three months a year to fulfill my duties as a disciple, until your grandmaster told me that the two elder Grandmasters in the sect had not survived the winter and had passed away. He himself had sustained a grave injury at 60 and never fully recovered, and he too had little time left—about 2-3 years—before he followed his master uncles," Tao Wenshu spoke in a low, measured tone. "At that time, his generation had only him as a Grandmaster, and no one in my generation had yet set foot in the Dharma Realm. I was the one with the best chance."

"Your grandmaster said he hoped I could become a Grandmaster within two years, or the Brightnight Sect would have no one left to hold up its name. But even if I failed to reach the Dharma Realm in time, he would still hand the position of sect master to me, because I was a fair-minded person and had long held the respect of my fellow disciples. And then he said those words to me."

At this point Tao Wenshu reached out and stroked Zheng Zhuxi’s loosened black hair, a note of tenderness in her voice.

"During that time, I had a short temper and was always impatient with you. Looking back on it now, I often feel quietly ashamed."

Zheng Zhuxi said somewhat sheepishly, "Mother, I actually don’t remember much of that."

"You were very young then." Tao Wenshu reached out and adjusted the lamp’s flame. "Fortunately, I’m also someone who grows stronger through adversity. It took just over a year to enter the Dharma Realm and become a Grandmaster, and I did not fail your grandmaster’s expectations. Ever since then, I always tell myself whenever I face hardship, could anything be harder than that?"

Zheng Zhuxi tucked her falling hair behind her ear and asked thoughtfully, "Mother, from the way you describe it, the sect was in crisis at the time?"

"In a sense, though compared to the crisis when our forebears crossed south to found the sect—when the sect’s own cultivation arts weren’t even complete—it could only be called a hardship." Tao Wenshu looked at Zheng Zhuxi with maternal warmth. "It is a succession gap that many sects go through. The important thing is to get through it. Less than a year after I entered the Dharma Realm, your Master Granduncle, Wang Zhou, also became a Grandmaster, and over time my generation went on to produce three more Grandmasters in succession. It became something of a celebrated story."

Seeing her daughter listening with rapt attention, Tao Wenshu recalled those years once more.

"Speaking of difficulty, it was indeed very difficult at the time. The sect rules require two Grandmasters and 34 accomplished Great Proliferation practitioners to be present on the mountain at all times so as to swiftly deploy the full Celestial Guardian Sword Formation against any Supreme Master-level threat. But rules are rules and reality is reality. For those two or three years there was nearly not a single Grandmaster—how could the rules be followed?

"After your grandmaster passed on, your father took pity on me and resigned his post specifically to live at Alpine Lake Mountain for a year. Invoking the exceptional clause in the sect rules, he learned the corresponding methods of the Celestial Guardian Sword Formation as a guest adviser. Though he lacked the Myriad Star True Qi and those alien apertures, he trained earnestly enough to manage, and could barely hold one of the formation nodes."

A warm smile gradually spread at the corners of Tao Wenshu’s mouth, and Zheng Zhuxi felt an inexplicable joy listening.

Her gaze shifted and Tao Wenshu smiled at her daughter.

"Once someone in your generation is able to shoulder the burden, I will pass on the position of sect master and take you to Flame Capital or Changhua to reunite with your father.

"Year after year like this, Flying Star Piercing Dawn has nearly become Flying Star Carrying Regret."

Hearing her mother make a playful joke, Zheng Zhuxi knew she was in very good spirits. Otherwise, even in front of those closest to her, she rarely showed this side of herself.

And Zheng Zhuxi had already noticed that over the past month or more, her mother had been considerably more relaxed than before.

She could not help wondering idly, Who in our generation will become a Grandmaster first?

...

Having spent two hours learning Candleflame True Qi and a full day recovering his energy, Ding Songyan went to the Myriad Treasures Hall to collect a portion of high-quality cinnabar and a portion of water drawn from the center of the lake at midnight.

He ground the cinnabar fine and used the lake water to mix with pine-soot ink, then closed the doors and windows of the meditation room, took up his brush, and through a brief session of breathing exercises and focused visualization, gradually brought his spirit, intent, and qi into unity.

With the experience gained from practicing Myriad Star True Qi and Candleflame True Qi, and with the insights he had accumulated day and night regarding the refinement of his own apertures, Ding Songyan judged it was time to attempt drawing the Chaos visualization diagram corresponding to the aperture refinement stage.

His spirit spread outward along the flow of his true qi and gathered at the tip of the brush.

An instant later, he moved his wrist. The brush tip first touched the scarlet cinnabar, then dipped into the ink ground with the midnight lake water.

Yang and yin met, merging into one yet subtly remaining distinct.

The true qi in the Crimson Palace at Ding Songyan’s chest began to circulate, driving the brush to touch down upon a spreadout tawny hide.

A jet-black ink mark appeared on the hide, shaped like a miniature egg. A faint trace of red seemed to circulate within, yet was covered over by the dark ink, as though harboring myriad principles of the Way, and yet there was only this patch of darkness.

Ding Songyan felt neither joy nor sorrow, neither surprise nor anger. He lowered his wrist and placed the second "aperture" near that ink mark.

...

Phew... Ding Songyan let out a breath, gathered his remaining strength, infused his spirit and bearing into the tip of the brush, and brought it down upon the tawny hide.

This was the final mark of the visualization diagram.

Over the past seven days, Ding Songyan had been drawing the aperture refinement visualization diagram for his own martial arts at a rate of 100-200 apertures per day, while also beginning to practice the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night under Zheng Zhuxi’s guidance and learning the Southern Dipper Calamity-Averting Steps from Wan Guhong.

As the brush tip fell, the tawny hide covered in its strange ink marks instantly came alive. It was as though an egg had been painted upon it—one on the verge of opening yet not quite open, on the verge of hatching yet unhatched. It was about the size of a human head, gathering over a thousand black dots that concealed a faint red within. Some of the dots were nearly joined together, their ink bleeding into each other to produce a pale darkness; others still had open space around them, giving the overall visualization diagram a decidedly unharmonious appearance.

1188 apertures in total. Ding Songyan set down the brush and murmured silently to himself.

The blank spaces were reserved for the 108 alien apertures.

From this day forward, Ding Songyan could begin feeling out the methods of aperture forging.

He waited for the ink to dry and considered what to call this visualization diagram.

Not yet true Chaos... A sudden inspiration came to Ding Songyan and he raised his brush and wrote in the corner of the tawny hide: "Diagram of the Great Change, Way Attainment"!

Having looked over the visualization diagram and its name several times, Ding Songyan felt it was time to give his own true qi a name.

He had originally considered simply calling it Myriad Forms True Qi, to convey the meaning of deriving all arts, but then felt this could not encompass all the characteristics of his true qi—it could also bring all things into unity and dissolve the true qi of others.

Limitless True Qi? Or Chaos True Qi? Both seemed to fall a little short. Well then, why not call it Presence-Absence Myriad Forms Qi. "Presence of myriad forms" corresponds to deriving all arts and "absence of myriad forms" corresponds to bringing all things into unity, with the emphasis on their superimposition... Ding Songyan’s head was beginning to ache, and he did not feel like thinking about it anymore.

Whatever name the founding master gives, no matter how unpleasant, the disciples and grand-disciples will just have to live with it and make the best of it!

After a while, Ding Songyan put away the Diagram of the Great Change, Way Attainment, spread out a sheet of white paper, and wrote: "Brother Youyang..."

He planned to take leave and make a trip to the prefecture city today, to deliver Miss Xiao Qing’s letter to Tianyang Hall. And since he had written to one fox friend, it would frankly be a little hard to justify not writing to the dog friend.

But at the thought of rambling on about his daily life to another man, Ding Songyan felt uneasy all over, so he wrote bluntly instead.

"I’m almost done mastering the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night. Let’s have a match when the time comes!

"As a ghost-deity, can you still offer blessings and protection? If I make offerings to you, can you watch over me?

"In another year or two, once I have the strength to protect myself, I’ll come to Dan Province to drink with you. Remember not to die a second time too soon!

"You Know Who Ding."

He packed away the letter and his secret manuals, changed into a blue robe, put on his wanderer’s headband, shouldered his pack, took up Frostshade, left his courtyard, and headed toward the Dipper-Mansion Training Ground.

These past days, Senior Sister Zheng had been there practicing her sword.

"Senior Sister, I’d like to make a trip to the prefecture city today and return to the sect the day after tomorrow," Ding Songyan said straightforwardly upon finding Zheng Zhuxi.

Zheng Zhuxi, striking in her black training clothes, sheathed the Autumnwater sword, and with a quick turn of her gaze said with a smile, "Perfect, I’m heading to the prefecture city as well. We’ll go together. I can even watch over you."

She had recently completed two more apertures in her aperture forging, and while guiding Ding Songyan in the Candlelit Night Sword Art, many of his questions had either stumped her or enlightened her, bringing surprising improvements to her own swordsmanship. All of this had filled her with even greater confidence, and she felt herself now capable of holding her own against someone at the fifth rank, Profound Discerned.

Who’s watching over whom? Ding Songyan muttered to himself, then smiled and said, "Thank you, Senior Sister."

Seeing him agree, Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes moved slightly and her dimples appeared, and she felt quietly pleased with herself.

These past days, while teaching her junior brother sword arts, she had already known he was unusual and had discovered even more unusual things. And her mother had not forbidden her from piecing together her junior brother’s secrets through small clues. So she intended to travel alongside him and make further observations.

She changed into a gauze skirt of pale green nearly white, packed a change of clothes, left word of their departure, and with Ding Songyan, borrowed horses from the General Affairs Hall and set off for Dingjiang prefecture city.

The road was entirely free of bandits and troublemakers, which left Zheng Zhuxi rather disappointed, and Ding Songyan likewise.

Being considerate of their horses, the two took four hours to return to Linjiang County, by which time dusk was drawing near.

"I’ll go to the county office to chat with Senior Sister Xue for a bit first. Remember to leave a side room for me in your courtyard. I’ll make my way over there tonight," Zheng Zhuxi said with a smile the moment they entered the city.

She was deliberately giving Ding Songyan space to handle his private affairs.

Ding Songyan walked along the familiar streets, and amid the evening bustle and liveliness, strolled at an easy pace into Chengyu Lane.

"Woof!" The yellow dog, Ahua, at the lane’s entrance had just barked once when it abruptly fell silent.

Ding Songyan crouched down in front of it and asked with a smile, "Do you want to train in martial arts?"

Whether human or dog, these days he wanted to grab anything he could find to test out his self-created martial arts.

Ahua whimpered, tucked its tail, and ran.

Never mind. Dogs aren’t suited for this anyway. My martial arts are tailor-made for humans... Ding Songyan mused to himself in good humor as he arrived outside Xu Chang’an’s home and knocked on the courtyard gate.

Xu Chang’an opened the gate and felt a surge of delighted surprise at seeing it was Brother Ding.

Before he could even say a word of greeting, he saw him wearing a smile.

Uh... Xu Chang’an suddenly shuddered.

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