The training grounds of Shichi Martial Arts School were five or six times the size of the open space before the front hall, leveled flat and bordered by weapon racks bearing the eighteen arms of martial combat—sabers, spears, swords, halberds, and more, some edged and others blunted.
Beside these, wooden dummies, stone locks, training stakes, archery targets, and iron water vats were all fully accounted for.
The master of the school, Liu Yuxuan, stood beside a nine-foot-tall, grayish-white stone figure, his hands clasped behind his back as he waited for Ding Songyan.
His hair and beard were already white, his mouth slightly protruded, and his face was full and prosperous, marked by several red blemishes on his neck and the backs of his hands.
After escorting Ding Songyan there, Senior Brother Yang withdrew to the edge of the training grounds, yet he did not leave. Seven or eight disciples of the school also peered out from hiding spots nearby, their expressions grave and their gazes loaded with hatred.
*These ones have backbone and blood in them; they didn't flee far just because I claimed to represent Zhen Manor...* Ding Songyan cupped his hands to Liu Yuxuan.
"This junior pays respects to Master Liu."
Liu Yuxuan studied Ding Songyan's calm, composed demeanor and asked in a low voice, "For what purpose has Young Master Ding come?"
Ding Songyan clasped one hand behind his back again and smiled as if making idle chatter. "Did Master Liu ever sense that something was amiss with Chen Yuliang in the days before his death?"
Liu Yuxuan gazed intently at Ding Songyan's face, only shaking his head slowly after a pause. "I did not."
Ding Songyan had not expected Master Liu to give any other answer. His sole aim was to use the man to pass those words along to the Xiaochuan Gang.
As for whether the Xiaochuan Gang would believe it, whether they could uncover the anomaly, and how they would act going forward, he could only take things one step at a time for now.
The only certainty was that the Xiaochuan Gang would not seek to cooperate with him in the short term. After all, he was a scion of Zhen Manor, and Chen Yuliang had just been entrapped and killed because of this; they certainly would not want to fall for a trick every day, each trap just like the last.
"Then did Master Liu feel that Chen Yuliang had been acting far too aggressively over the past two or three months?" Ding Songyan dropped another tentative hint, drawing upon what he had overheard outside the county yamen and the rumors circulating in the streets.
Liu Yuxuan looked into Ding Songyan's smiling eyes and once more shook his head slowly. "I did not."
"Perhaps he 'had no choice in the matter,'" Ding Songyan said with deliberate wistfulness.
Without waiting for Master Liu to reply, he turned half sideways, studying the tall stone figure marked with countless scars of blades and swords. With a self-mocking smile, he said, "Why do I believe something was wrong? Because I was dragged into it and made an abandoned pawn of Zhen Manor."
Liu Yuxuan's eyes shifted, his expression subtly altering.
With one hand clasped behind his back, Ding Songyan paced over to his side. Looking forward at another wooden dummy, he murmured in a low voice, as if speaking to himself:
"I nearly lost my life over it, but I also chanced upon a miraculous encounter. Times have changed, and I cannot swallow that grievance."
With that, he did not wait to observe Master Liu's reaction. Smiling, he shook his head and lifted his right hand, which had been hanging loosely at his side.
With this motion, he spurred the hazy, luminous 'seed' in his mind, sending it sweeping instantly into his palm.
Ding Songyan's perception abruptly soared, as though his soul had left his body and looked down upon everything from on high.
He clearly sensed the great gale sweeping over the training grounds, the ambient qi tainted with a hint of violence, the heavy dark clouds carrying a stifling weight, and the fierce flashes of silver and white leaping within them.
Beyond his physical frame, he seemed to possess another, invisible body, its acupoints hidden in the void, inhaling and exhaling the world itself.
Tracing a mysterious, profound trajectory, Ding Songyan thrust his right palm forward.
In that instant, the gale ravaging the training grounds vanished. The air turned stifling, nearly solidifying.
Ding Songyan's right palm came to rest against the wooden dummy before him, light and airy as a feather.
A breath later, a raging torrent of air erupted from his palm.
All the vanished winds seemed to have shifted here, tangled together, compressed to the absolute limit, and then detonated.
Sound was swallowed whole. The wooden dummy disintegrated in an instant, swept into midair by a visible tempest like a true dragon drawing water into the clouds.
Carrying that same faint smile from before, Ding Songyan withdrew his right palm and tucked it behind his back once more.
He turned around, not sparing Master Liu another glance, and strolled unhurriedly toward the exit of the training grounds.
Master Liu, Senior Brother Yang, and the seven or eight disciples hiding nearby all stared with frozen eyes at the thirty-foot-high whirlwind, and at the wooden dummy that had been reduced to fragments drifting in the wind.
Just then, a bolt of lightning plummeted from the sky, striking the spot where the wooden dummy had stood with tremendous force. The flash illuminated Master Liu's face in stark silver-white and cast shifting shadows across the dazed expressions of Senior Brother Yang and the others.
Rumble!
A dull clap of thunder echoed through the air. The torrential downpour that had been brewing for so long finally crashed down over the city of Dingjiang Prefecture.
By the time raindrops the size of beans pelted down in a deluge behind him, Ding Songyan, still with both hands behind his back, had already stepped into the covered corridor.
With his back turned to Master Liu, Senior Brother Yang, and the rest, the smile on his face vanished, replaced by open shock.
*Isn't this effect a bit too grand?
*Thank goodness I strutted off the moment I finished my show, or I would've been struck by lightning...*
Had he known Yan Changqing's qi was this terrifying, he would have picked the nine-foot stone figure instead!
Just moments ago, he had feared he wouldn't be able to leave a dent in the stone figure, making himself a laughingstock for everyone present, so he had settled for the wooden dummy as a second choice.
His composed bearing undiminished, Ding Songyan walked at an easy pace, hands behind his back, making his way step by step to the main gate of Shichi Martial Arts School.
Looking out at the downpour that had practically turned into a solid curtain of water, his expression sank.
He had brought no umbrella...
***
Beneath the eaves of Duokang Temple, Ding Songyan gathered portions of his clothes and wrung out a steady stream of water droplets.
"How did it start raining out of nowhere, and so hard at that..." Beside him, Xu Chang'an was equally soaked, chattering away in complaint.
"Isn't it normal for the weather in the sixth month to change on a whim?" Ding Songyan replied with a common saying.
In truth, he hadn't figured it out either: had the rain been summoned by his strike, had it simply coincided with the moment, or was it a bit of both, compounding one another?
Regardless, Yan Changqing's strength had been laid bare. Just a single strand of qi lent after years of being crippled possessed such terrifying might!
*Zhen Qianfan must be terrified of him. If Yan Changqing hadn't suffered severe injuries back then, Zhen Qianfan wouldn't have dared covet that treasure even if given the courage of ten men... Assuming Yan Changqing wasn't lying about helping Zhen Qianfan become a grandmaster, he might very well be in the Heaven-Man Realm... Figures like that are rare across the realm. If not for the lack of time, and having only Miss Xiaoqing and Ren Youyang as sources of information, making it impossible to cross-reference them one by one, I could probably pin down Yan Changqing's true identity...* Ding Songyan's thoughts churned without pause.
Xu Chang'an had only been complaining about the weather without reading deeper into things. He glanced at the other people taking shelter beneath the eaves of Duokang Temple, lowered his voice, and asked about the matter at hand:
"Second Brother Ding, how did your talk with Master Liu go?"
"Quite well. He seems to appreciate me quite a bit." Ding Songyan spun a lie without batting an eye.
He could hardly say he had frightened them out of their wits, after all.
He was not worried that Master Liu would broadcast his 'miraculous encounter' and his sudden leap in power, nor did he fear that Senior Brother Yang and the other disciples would leak the matter and draw the yamen's suspicion.
His only regret was that he could not personally step in to guide the jianghu rumors, and that he could not turn himself in at the county yamen to let the Yi clan and the Xiaoming Sect inspect what sort of 'miraculous encounter' he had truly obtained.
Thanks to the 'seed' in his sea of consciousness, even attempting to report to the authorities required such roundabout displays of brilliance, and the chances of success were still terribly slim!
Xu Chang'an let out a breath of relief. "Though I don't know what you're ultimately trying to do, Second Brother Ding, whenever you need help, just come find me."
"I won't be polite." Ding Songyan looked at Xu Chang'an, the corners of his mouth curling upward bit by bit.
For reasons he couldn't fathom, a sudden chill ran down Xu Chang'an's spine.
***
When the torrential rain finally paused, Ding Songyan stepped into his home in Chengyu Lane.
Ding Qingyan showed no surprise at his early return today. With such heavy rain, how could the market outside Duokang Temple keep operating? With no storytelling to listen to, her second brother had naturally come back.
"Here, this is for you." Ding Songyan took out the silver hairpin he had bought earlier and held it out to her.
Ding Qingyan's eyes widened, her delicate brows twitching. "Second Brother, you only came down with a soul-departing illness, not a treasure bowl. Why buy me a silver hairpin? Save it for your future wife."
"Isn't it only natural for an elder brother to save a little bridal nest egg for his sister?" Ding Songyan chuckled. "Take it if it's given to you. If you don't, I'll give it to Ah Hua."
"Who's Ah Hua?" Ding Qingyan found this far more intriguing. Her urge to decline weakened, and she took the silver hairpin.
Suppressing a laugh, Ding Songyan said, "The yellow dog at Uncle Ren's house at the lane entrance. I forgot what it was called, so I gave it a new name: Ah Hua."
"..." Ding Qingyan's face went completely blank, and she gritted her teeth. "Teasing me is very fun, isn't it?"
"Very," Ding Songyan replied. Before his sister could grab a broom, he bolted back into the west wing room, stripped off his wet clothes, and dried himself off with a cloth towel.
By the time he returned to the main room fresh and dry, Ding Qingyan was holding a bronze mirror, turning her head back and forth to admire the silver hairpin already nestled in her hair bun.
"You might as well have just given me the silver coins," she muttered, looking into the mirror with a radiant smile.
Ding Songyan did not expose her. Pulling up a stool, he sat down and murmured with a trace of satisfaction, "Over the next few days, I'll see what Mother, Father, and Eldest Brother are lacking, and what they might want..."
Ding Qingyan froze. Lowering the bronze mirror, she frowned at him with concern. "Second Brother, you aren't... mixed up in something again, are you?"
Ding Songyan shook his head with a laugh. "Haven't I run into a 'God of Wealth' recently? Xu Chang'an even gave me several taels of silver in gratitude."
"Where did he get it? Which wealthy household did he rob?" Ding Qingyan's attention was diverted once more.
Ding Songyan gave a brief explanation regarding Xu Chang'an's master, and seeing that it was still early, he began practicing his reading and writing.
When night fell, he prepared to continue drafting the story of Xu Shilin.
Ding Qingyan, who always chatted with him for a bit before bed, suddenly spoke from behind the folding screen: "Second Brother, I was actually very happy today. It felt like the old days, when you would tell a story every night until I fell asleep..."
Her voice grew softer before she forced a laugh, feigning annoyance: "You've never told me *The Legend of the White Snake*. Just reading the storybook outline is so dry!"
Ding Songyan's storybook drafts were merely rough outlines.
"I..." Ding Songyan intended to put it off for later.
His head was currently full of troubles. If not for the need to pry information out of Miss Xiaoqing, he wouldn't even have wanted to write this chapter of *The Legend of the White Snake*.
Before he could say anything more, Ding Qingyan murmured as if to herself, "Second Brother, I know how hard you've been working lately, staying up late by lamplight every night. I was just talking. When you have free time and nothing to do before bed, you can tell it to me then.
"If not for how chaotic the crowds are outside Duokang Temple, I would have gone to hear you tell stories myself. Mother hasn't really let me go out these past few days, and I don't want to cause trouble for any of you..."
Hearing Ding Qingyan speak with such gentle consideration, Ding Songyan's heart softened. He sighed silently and said, "It's still early today. I'll tell you an excerpt."
"Ah, well, just a quarter of an hour is plenty!" Ding Qingyan's tone was brimming with delight. "I want to hear the part where the White Lady scares Xu Xian to death."
"All right." Ding Songyan started from Fahai's instigation, through Xu Xian noticing the subtle oddities, all the way through the realgar wine on the Dragon Boat Festival. At the very end, he even sang "Bai Suzhen Beneath Mount Qingcheng" for his sister.
Ding Qingyan hummed the melody along with him, leaving Ding Songyan marveling in genuine admiration—this was precisely the cool, ethereal, and otherworldly quality he had been looking for.
Before he could offer praise, Ding Qingyan chuckled softly. "Second Brother, I knew that if I begged you to tell a story, you definitely wouldn't agree. But if I acted obedient, sensible, gentle, and a little aggrieved, you'd probably soften up. Hmph, that'll teach you for teasing me earlier!
"I'm going to sleep now~ Don't disturb me~"
"..." Ding Songyan had nearly forgotten his little sister possessed such a side.
After a moment, he shook his head with an amused smile and picked up the writing brush resting on the stand.
After writing for quite a while, Ding Songyan finally caught sight of Xiaoqing's familiar figure.
As he wrote, he asked in a 'casual' tone, "Miss Xiaoqing, do you happen to know someone named Yan Changqing?"
Chapter 30