Chapter 174: Questioning Bai Zhaolin Again
Chapter 174: Questioning Bai Zhaolin Again
Golden Que Sword Yu Qiu looked to Magistrate Lin Hansheng and said after some thought, "Do not alert the enemy yet. My wife and I will secretly inform the major sects we can trust. You should report the Demon Seed’s skill at concealment directly to His Majesty and Prince Kang through Senior Councillor Zheng, so they can make thorough preparations in advance.
"Handle that Two-Faced as normal. Act as if we learned nothing from him."
They intend to use the consort selection to lay a trap for the Accumulated Evil Way and the Demon Sovereign? Ding Songyan was happy to see it happen.
He was willing to lend a hand to anyone causing the Accumulated Evil Way trouble.
Yu Qiu turned to his wife.
"After we return to the sect, we will secretly ask Brother Jiang and the others from Shennong Hall to inspect our fellow disciples and uncover any hidden dangers. But one cannot guard against thieves forever. We must quickly find a better solution."
Silver Rainbow Sword Mu Ying nodded first. Then, understanding her husband’s meaning, she looked to Wang Zhou and Ding Songyan.
"Does the Brightnight Sect need Shennong Hall to come and take a look as well?"
Ding Songyan and Wang Zhou exchanged a glance, then saluted together. "Thank you, Seniors Mu and Yu."
With Ding Songyan temporarily at the perfected Dharma Realm, the Brightnight Sect did not truly need Shennong Hall’s help. But the sect’s secrets could not yet be revealed, and they needed to maintain the act completely.
Moreover, with Ding Songyan’s revised Celestial Stars Scripture and Candlelit Nocturne Sutra, Wang Zhou, Yan Jingxian, and Sun Tie had improved some of their alien apertures. After a period of adjustment, their stalled realms had each loosened to varying degrees, and they were gradually able to sense the heaven-and-earth qi they sought within several of the correct vicinity.
At this rate, within three to five years, one of them should approach the perfected Dharma Realm and become a first-rank Spirit Resonated Grandmaster.
At present, among the Brightnight Sect’s Dharma Realm powerhouses, only Yang Dongsheng, a guest adviser of Prince Kang’s estate, had yet to cultivate Ding’s annotated versions of the two scriptures. He was to rotate with Wang Zhou next year. Tao Wenshu had also improved those alien apertures before her death. Though she had not found the remaining three external apertures, she had faintly found some traces.
Once they had finished discussing the Demon Seed, Mu Ying lifted her hands from the zither and rose.
"Come. Let us see Bai Zhaolin. We cannot let someone seize or destroy his soul."
......
In a dense forest several dozen miles from the Brightnight Sect, Ding Songyan volunteered to help Master Granduncle Wang dig up Bai Zhaolin’s headless corpse. Then, before the Gold and Silver Twin Swords, Magistrate Lin, and Marshal Yi, he prepared to channel the spirit.
Without warning, the forest darkened as though afternoon had abruptly become evening.
Ding Songyan instinctively looked at Yu Qiu and Mu Ying. They seemed to have blended with the dark sky and the approaching wind and rain, becoming part of the vicinity’s world.
Seeing the Brightnight Sect junior look over, Yu Qiu gave a slight nod to show that the two of them had done it. Mu Ying smiled and said, "It is indeed Bai Zhaolin."
Using heaven-and-earth qi to inspect a ghost? It seems that upon reaching the Heaven-Man Realm, even someone without arts related to the underworld can rely on unity with heaven and earth to deal with ghosts to some extent, leaving them not completely helpless... This is the power of the Heaven-Man Realm... I must be careful not to play any little tricks in front of Supreme Masters... Thanks to me having completely derived the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra, and the fact that its physical anomalies at the Great Proliferation Realm and Dharma Realm aren’t that much different, I really wouldn’t dare meet Supreme Masters... Having not used the Celestial Heart imprint to conceal his physical anomalies, Ding Songyan offered a polite acknowledgement, withdrew his gaze, and questioned Bai Zhaolin’s ghost.
"Did you receive help from the Accumulated Evil Way?"
"I did." Bai Zhaolin’s ghost neither concealed it nor dared to.
"Did you come to Alpine Lake Mountain four days ago to challenge my master, Tao Wenshu, because the Accumulated Evil Way arranged it? Did they require it to happen that day?" Ding Songyan pressed.
"Yes." Bai Zhaolin’s ghost nodded tremblingly.
As a Grandmaster whose soul had not yet weakened much, he did not show his fear too clearly.
With these two exchanges and several factions present as witnesses, Wang Zhou of the Brightnight Sect had been entirely justified in killing Bai Zhaolin.
Ding Songyan then led Bai Zhaolin to explain in detail the Heaven and Earth in Calamity manual and the method for defeating his master. At last, he asked, "Does anyone else in the Bai family know of Heaven and Earth in Calamity?"
"No." Bai Zhaolin’s ghost shook his head.
"Then does anyone in the Bai family know about your cooperation with the Accumulated Evil Way?" Ding Songyan asked again.
"No," Bai Zhaolin’s ghost answered truthfully.
Ding Songyan tried another angle.
"How did you persuade my master to agree to a deathmatch that very day?"
Bai Zhaolin’s ghost revealed a smile.
"I merely asked Tao Wenshu whether it followed the righteous path’s rules for her to challenge my father to a deathmatch while using a false identity. Had she afterward found evidence proving my father’s crimes?
"If her conscience was clear, she was to accept my deathmatch on the spot, and it was to begin after three incense sticks.
"And she really agreed.
"Heh. A gentleman can be deceived by propriety."
Nine out of ten people in the martial world would not accept on the spot, but Master was among that rare ten percent... Ding Songyan sighed inwardly, then asked seriously, "Was provoking my master into accepting at once your idea, or the Accumulated Evil Way’s?"
Bai Zhaolin’s ghost fell silent for a moment before answering, "The Accumulated Evil Way required me to complete the challenge by a certain day and time. I also wanted to finish quickly, lest complications arise."
The Accumulated Evil Way really had other arrangements underway at the same time. Otherwise, they would not have made that demand... Ding Songyan thought for a moment and asked, "Was fighting on the island lake your suggestion?"
"It was the Accumulated Evil Way’s demand. I only told Tao Wenshu that this was the Brightnight Sect, her mountain gate, and that I should have the option to choose the place for the deathmatch." Bai Zhaolin’s ghost spoke slowly.
After exchanging a glance with Grand Elder Wang Zhou, Ding Songyan asked Bai Zhaolin’s ghost in a low voice, "When you went up Alpine Lake Mountain, was anyone secretly following nearby?"
Bai Zhaolin’s ghost took on a subtle expression.
"I vaguely sensed someone. He should also have been skilled in wind and rain, and that let me notice a trace of him. But I did not confirm it. It was most likely the Accumulated Evil Way’s arrangement, one that could only benefit me."
Just as expected... Ding Songyan slowly exhaled and turned toward the others.
"Seniors Yu and Mu, Magistrate Lin, Marshal Yi, is there anything else you would like to ask?"
Further questions would only uncover Bai Zhaolin’s private thoughts and family history, which Ding Songyan had no desire to hear.
Besides, Bai Zhaolin’s ghost would grow steadily weaker under Banishing Demons and Warding Off Evil. Once it showed obvious abnormalities, the Gold and Silver Twin Swords would surely grow suspicious.
After Lin Hansheng and Yi Qincang both said they had no questions, Mu Ying spoke softly.
"Leaving a ghost like this behind would only cause trouble. It could become a vengeful spirit or be used by the unorthodox. Commit him; earth to earth, dust to dust."
With a sharp sound, she drew the Silver Rainbow Sword and thrust at Bai Zhaolin’s ghost from afar. The tip angled aside, but the qi followed it.
To Ding Songyan, the strike seemed ordinary, even full of openings.
Almost at the same time, Yu Qiu extended the Golden Que Sword. Its tip faced the Silver Rainbow from afar and seemed equally flawed.
But as the two swords drew closer, their moves merged at once, bearing yin and embracing yang, smooth and flawless. Ding Songyan’s brow twitched.
Without a sound, the heaven-and-earth qi around Bai Zhaolin’s ghost abruptly shifted into a dark vortex full of sword qi. The ghost wailed as he shattered apart and swiftly dispersed.
A possible origin for the Self-Revering School’s inheritance suddenly came to Ding Songyan’s mind.
Manman, the paired-wing bird: one cyan, one red, each shaped like a duck with one wing and one eye. Only together could they fly. The result of consuming it? Grants mastery over yin and yang, the bond of paired wings, rain-calling and water-commanding, and a world turned to marshland.
Only after Bai Zhaolin’s soul vanished did Ding Songyan search the Grandmaster’s clothing under the elders’ watch. He found only a few taels of silver, a bottle of healing pills, and a bottle of salve for external wounds.
He had prepared to die on Alpine Lake Mountain, beneath my master’s sword... Ding Songyan looked at the items in his hand and smacked his lips inwardly.
He handed the items he had found, along with the Wind Saber and Rain Saber, to Wang Zhou.
"Master Granduncle, these are all yours."
Wang Zhou paused, then had no choice but to accept them.
......
After leading Seniors Yu and Mu and the others to the Brightnight Sect to pay respects to Tao Wenshu, Ding Songyan left the Hall of Myriad Stars and returned to Alpine Lake’s shore.
Though events had passed, he still wanted to learn the Accumulated Evil Way’s other arrangements and hoped to find some traces.
After circling half the lakeshore, Ding Songyan saw the Golden Que Sword and Silver Rainbow Sword arrive as well, accompanied by his master’s husband, Zheng Ziming, and Master Granduncle Wang Zhou.
"We are here to search for the Accumulated Evil Way’s additional preparations. If there are none, perhaps dealing with your master was merely an impulse, which would not be unusual for them. But if there are, then we can almost certainly conclude that they intend to use the Demon Seed art to make a move during next year’s consort selection." Yu Qiu spoke at an unhurried pace.
He and Mu Ying immediately closed their eyes. Nearly half the lake and the island upon it were shrouded in a gloom of impending wind and rain, yin and yang poised to stir.
Even if Ding Songyan derived the Celestial Heart, he could not achieve such a thing.
Nearly the time it took to drink two cups of tea later, Mu Ying opened her eyes and pointed toward the lake island.
"There are traces."
As she spoke, she moved beside her husband. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they rose into the air amid the wind. On the beat of invisible wings, they swiftly flew to the island and landed upon it.
Ding Songyan had intended to imitate Master Granduncle Wang and pluck leaves and branches for footholds, but his master’s husband caught him by the shoulder and flew him to the island.
Mu Ying walked to one side of the island and pointed at the water.
"There is a residue of slight poison here. It will take another ten days or half a month to fade. It was likely a Grandmaster who cultivates the Progenitor Yu Scripture."
"Someone from the Ghost Yu Way?" Zheng Ziming asked gloomily.
The Ghost Yu Way was one of the Twenty-One Heretical Ways, among the Lower Twelve. They did not specialize in evil deeds. They were one of the world’s foremost assassin organizations. Give them a reward they considered sufficient, and they would take any job. If they could complete it, they would. If they could not, they would make you disappear.
Hiring an assassin organization as the second layer of the plan... That truly could conceal the Accumulated Evil Way itself. The Ghost Yu Way worked for money, and Master had no shortage of enemies... Ding Songyan then recalled the traits of Progenitor Yu and the Yu.
Progenitor Yu, the Primal King of the Yu: the result of consuming it? The hearts of men turn treacherous, shadow and darkness bend to your command, sand is harbored to shoot at men, the shadow is harmed and the body follows.
Yu, the Three-Legged Turtle: the result of consuming it? Stealth becomes second nature, and deathly sand flies from your lips.
Both excel at concealment and assassination... Under normal circumstances, so long as they were not Heaven-Man Realm warriors, even Grandmaster assassins could not touch Master. The Candle-Star Pupils countered their stealth well at the same realm. But Master was fighting Bai Zhaolin to the death. If someone exposed Bai Zhaolin’s problem or warned Master not to use Wandering Star Overhead, the assassin would surely strike amid the chaos. If I had not yet reached the island, Master would have been caught between enemies without warning... Ding Songyan imagined the possible scene.
What made him almost laugh in anger was that while he had been preparing to sneak onto the island from one side of Alpine Lake, the Ghost Yu Way’s assassin had already done exactly that from the other side.
"They likely infiltrated only after the deathmatch began. Otherwise, they could not have escaped Sect Master Tao and Elder Wang’s Candle-Star Pupils," Mu Ying said thoughtfully.
Yan Jingxian had been guarding the Kindling Hall as usual, in case anyone tried to exploit the opening.
Golden Que Sword Yu Qiu said nothing. He walked forward for a time, stopped before a heap of rocks at the rear of the island, and spoke gravel, "Someone else was very likely hiding here."
"Someone else?" Ding Songyan, Zheng Ziming, and Wang Zhou were all startled.
Yu Qiu nodded slightly.
"He likely hid himself by borrowing this place’s qi. His departure naturally disrupted the heaven-and-earth qi. Hm, it will take another three or four days to fully restore to normal."
Three layers of preparation... The Accumulated Evil Way truly left no path to survival... Ding Songyan stood there in a daze.