Chapter 142: Past Events in Yuejiang Prefecture
Chapter 142: Past Events in Yuejiang Prefecture
Ding Songyan did not press further, knowing his master would continue on her own.
Tao Wenshu, wearing her plain iron crown, stepped out from behind the desk, gathered her thoughts, and said, "The alias Qi Xiaoxiang used—Liu Yuzao—comes from a real Liu family in the Chu Province’s Yuejiang Prefecture. You must have heard of them.
"As things now stand, the Liu family were all members of the Sage-Severing Way. They relocated to Yuejiang Prefecture twenty or thirty years ago, put down roots in the lanes, cultivated wide neighborhood ties, built a livelihood, acquired land, and played out the rise and fall of a family. As long as no one traced back to the family’s origins, anyone—court or sect or noble family—would believe them to be a clean and moderately prosperous merchant family. Had it not been for the Zhen household affair exposing them, it would have been very difficult to find anything suspicious about them.
"Their family members reached at most the Great Proliferation Realm. They either had unnoticeable physical anomalies or they cultivated different arts. Their years of operation served two purposes: to supply the Sage-Severing Way with material resources, and to provide genuine, credible clean identities when the Sage-Severing Way needed them. It was by relying on the Liu family’s background that Qin Nuansheng passed the vetting and married into the Zhen household. The Nine-Evils Demoness and the others used the same method to deceive the authorities and the Zhen household.
"To that end, they also spent a month living in Yuejiang Prefecture, under the banner of a distant branch’s daughter coming back to visit family, so the neighbors could get to know them and learn the story they had constructed. Only then did they travel to Dingjiang Prefecture to seek out Qin Nuansheng, using the Liu family’s own decline as a convenient excuse.
"Starting from March of last year, any Liu family member who left for trade, study, or martial training never returned. By June, only a few women remained in the household. Once you entered the Zhen household as a storyteller, they quickly sold off the residence and storefronts under the pretense of returning to the countryside due to the family’s decline, then left Yuejiang Prefecture without a trace."
Ding Songyan listened and clicked his tongue inwardly.
What an elaborate deception, and that many frauds!
The Sage-Severing Way had a long history with deep expertise in deception. Who knew how many genuine identities they had built up across the countries of the north and south. It was entirely possible that some centuries-old noble families were Sage-Severing Way beneath the surface.
Tao Wenshu looked at her disciple and spoke gravely, "I’m telling you this as a warning: if you ever encounter the Sage-Severing Way in the future, never let your guard down and think that only the people right in front of you are suspect. The entire staff of a trading company, every neighbor in a whole lane—all of them could be Sage-Severing Way members. Three people repeating a rumor can make it true. All the more so when you have this many who appear to have no connection to one another.
"I am not skilled in deception myself, but I have had dealings with the Sage-Severing Way and read the Martial Prohibition Bureau’s classified records. I once tried to categorize their methods: some favor honey traps, some prefer to deceive and sow chaos alone, but most involve a group of people each playing their part, each performing a different role in an act. This is the approach that best conceals their activities and achieves their goals."
Qin Nuansheng was the honey trap, Master Yan was the lone operative, and Demoness Ji had assembled a whole troupe of heretics to play the loving family... Ding Songyan quickly matched each example to its category.
Of course, Master Yan had had no choice in the matter. He had no helpers—and no hands either.
Ding Songyan chose his words carefully.
"The three methods aren’t mutually exclusive. The first two can be folded into the third. Qin Nuansheng, for instance, was the role in the Liu family’s grand performance who specialized in the honey trap."
"Indeed. I’m relieved you can generalize from one case to many," Tao Wenshu said with a short laugh. "On this front, do guide Zhuxi from time to time. Her nature is too straightforward and upright, so she is easily taken in by deceptions."
That may have been true a few months ago, but now... Ding Songyan felt his master had a very incomplete picture of just how much his senior sister had grown.
In his view, beyond her growth in heart and mind, her faster aperture forging and viscera installation, and her swordwork advancing by leaps and bounds, the biggest change in his senior sister was a sharp wariness toward all manner of deceptions.
Tao Wenshu brought the conversation back to the point.
"During the month the Nine-Evils Demoness and the others stayed with the Liu family in Yuejiang Prefecture, you were there too—right from the start. This was confirmed by multiple neighbors, who all said that at first you seemed somewhat vacant and dazed, as though you had suffered a serious shock, and only gradually recovered, becoming timid and skittish.
"Our investigation had originally stalled there. We suspected you had been brought to Yuejiang Prefecture by Ji Hanyi, Qi Xiaoxiang, or one of the others from New Yu or the Gan Kingdom. Any further inquiry was beyond our reach."
Qi Xiaoxiang and Li Zhi were primarily active in the Gan Kingdom and New Yu, which was why Tao Wenshu had said so.
"A new lead came up later?" Ding Songyan asked helpfully.
Tao Wenshu gave a slight nod.
"There was an unexpected find when we were verifying Pan Yunzhou’s background."
"The two matters are connected?" Ding Songyan was immediately on guard.
Tao Wenshu gave a slight smile.
"I thought the same at first, but on closer examination it turned out to be a genuine coincidence.
"Don’t be misled by the fact that one is in Chu Province’s Yuejiang Prefecture and the other is in Bao Province’s Eastern Plains Prefecture. They aren’t far apart at all. One is north of Heavenly Lake and the other is east of it, so they’re close neighbors.
"The reason the Pan family chose to settle in the Eastern Plains Prefecture was because of the Sovereign Xi School. The school’s Stellar Calendar is a time-based art with unspoken resonances with the Pan family’s Twelve Resolutions of Time, and the Sovereign Xi School’s Solar Mastery Art aligns with the ’assist the sun and moon’ trait of Ye, the God of Time, which might supplement the Sun Moon Divine Saber. But by the time the Pan family actually arrived in Eastern Plains Prefecture, the Twelve Resolutions of Time had been completely lost, and they never had the means to move elsewhere after that."
The Sovereign Xi School was one of Great Zhao’s Six Sects and Four Schools, a formidable top-tier faction. "Sovereign Xi" referred to the celestial goddess Xihe, not Fuxi. Fuxi was more commonly called the Azure Emperor, the Wood Emperor, Emperor Taihao, and so on. Fuxi’s tradition was on Evergreen Island in the Eastern Sea, one of the world’s Five Sacred Grounds, though a certain reclusive sect was said to hold it as well.
"When Pan Yunzhou first set out into the jianghu, he traveled around the area near Heavenly Lake and passed through Yuejiang Prefecture." Tao Wenshu saw her disciple deep in thought and waited a moment before continuing. "While verifying that part of his history, one of the sect’s stewards happened to find that someone had seen you in late September. Back then, Nine-Evils Demoness and the others had not yet arrived in Yuejiang Prefecture.
"You told stories for a few days in Immortal Grotto County, which falls under Yuejiang Prefecture’s jurisdiction, and then disappeared. Later on, someone apparently saw you wandering for a long time near Gejia Village outside the city.
"I called a halt to any further investigation. This may be something you need to pursue yourself. It’s not convenient for the sect to look too deeply into the matter."
She sensed that this body may have had some secrets in its past, and she chose to respect that and not pursue the matter further, unless I ask for help myself... A feeling Ding Songyan could not quite put into words welled up in his heart.
Someone like me belongs in a sect like the Brightnight Sect—upright and aboveboard, walking straight and sitting properly!
"I’d like to make a trip to Yuejiang Prefecture soon," Ding Songyan said, with some hesitation.
His hesitation came from the fact that his senior sister would be away from the sect for a while and couldn’t accompany him, leaving no one to shoulder his feats if things went wrong. He was weighing whether to wait until February instead.
"The decision is yours. If you decide to go, I’ll apply for a flying vessel on your behalf so you can get there and back quickly," Tao Wenshu said gently.
In her heart, she was not keen on sending the sect’s greatest hope to another province. The journey alone would take many days. She would have preferred him staying safely at the sect, forging apertures and training. But a martial artist’s cultivation could never be achieved by staying shut away; travel and broader experience were essential.
Tao Wenshu had originally planned to wait until Ding Songyan had condensed his first void aperture and stabilized his Grandmaster realm before letting him travel the jianghu, and even then only within Ning Province. But since this concerned his origins and family, if he truly wanted to go to Chu Province or Bao Province, she could only agree. She would pay the cost of applying for a flying vessel so he could reach his destination in a single day and reduce the risks along the way.
Ding Songyan thanked his master and said he would think it over a little more before deciding when to set out.
Tao Wenshu told him there was no rush. Even if she was not in the sect, he could apply through Grand Elder Wang Zhou or Elder Yan Jingxian.
After a brief silence, Tao Wenshu smiled warmly.
"On this trip to Flame Capital, I’ll keep an eye out for life-extending items and try to gather some for you. Whether as sect master or as your master, I can’t simply watch you spend your lifespan helping the sect revise the aperture forging and viscera installation methods and do nothing in return."
The reason she hadn’t given him any before was simply that the sect had none. Life-extending items, while not as rare as immortality pills, were among the most sought-after things in the world. Individuals who obtained them usually consumed them on the spot, and when a sect acquired some, a whole line of Grand Elders and Elders who had made great contributions would be waiting for their share, making it difficult to keep any in reserve for more than a month.
"It’s only incidental to my own cultivation," Ding Songyan said by way of modest deflection, though he did not decline.
His martial work at the moment was centered mainly on the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night and the Celestial Stars Sword Art. The Candleflame True Qi and Myriad Star True Qi naturally needed to be raised to match, otherwise relying solely on the Presence-Absence Myriad Forms Qi to drive them would fall noticeably short. As for techniques that could work in conjunction with the Presence-Absence Myriad Forms Qi, he had created very few of his own so far. There was only the fast-slow sword and similar things evolved from the Sword Intent of Winter.
There was still a great deal of work ahead of Ding Songyan on the martial path, but he had only leapt to greatness in half a year, and at present his main focus was still on feeling out the aperture forging and viscera installation methods and building up his foundational techniques.
After going over the relevant matters, Tao Wenshu asked Ding Songyan to bring Pan Yunzhou to the Purple Forbidden Chamber.
Pan Yunzhou had half expected this. He couldn’t help trembling slightly as he waited patiently for the sect master to speak.
Tao Wenshu looked at him and considered for a moment before speaking.
"We have verified your background. But if you wish to use the Celestial Stars Scripture to complete the Myriad Stars Canon, you must agree to two conditions."
"I am all ears," Pan Yunzhou said with great deference.
Tao Wenshu glanced at Ding Songyan beside her.
"First, after you submit the Myriad Stars Canon, you will not be permitted to consult the Celestial Stars Scripture directly. We have Elders and disciples skilled in this area who will complete the gaps on your behalf. You will then review their derived results, discuss and refine the details with them, and finally attempt the practice yourself. Do you agree?"
A layer of separation. I’m not allowed to look at the aperture forging and viscera installation methods of the Celestial Stars Scripture directly, and everything would be second-hand? Pan Yunzhou’s thoughts churned. After a moment, he steeled himself.
"I agree."
This was his last hope. He had to see it through, whatever it took!
Tao Wenshu asked gravely, "Second, given this arrangement, no one can serve as your formal master. You can only be counted as an entry-level disciple. But when I instruct Songyan and Zhuxi, you may sit in and listen.
"Do you agree?"
Compared to the first condition, this was a trivial matter. Pan Yunzhou answered without hesitation, "I agree to it! I’ll pack my things at once and return home to retrieve the Myriad Stars Canon."
Return home... Eastern Plains Prefecture? Something stirred in Ding Songyan’s heart.