Tonight, Xiaoqing wore a crimson martial suit, which added a touch of dashing valiance to her delicate charm.
Not long ago, she had apparently disguised herself as one of the itinerant martial heroines commonly seen in the streets and markets, allowing her to covertly watch whether anyone was trailing Ding Songyan.
Hearing Ding Songyan's question, she searched her memories for a moment.
"Never heard of him."
A fake name after all... Ding Songyan was not in the least surprised.
When wandering out in the world playing cons and tricks, how could anyone use their real name?
He pondered briefly, then asked, "Over the past few years, or the past decade or so, have any prominent figures suddenly disappeared?"
"Prominent figures? Grand masters and Perfected Ones?" Xiaoqing asked in return, then shook her head. "Quite a few, actually. No matter how much grand masters and Perfected Ones extend their lifespans, they eventually grow decrepit with age and prefer to live quietly within their sect grounds. Nowadays, with no major wars and no frequent disasters, it is common for them not to walk the jianghu for over a decade. Some retire early to the pastoral countryside, rarely showing themselves in the martial world. Others cultivate in seclusion, so the world does not even know they have stepped into the Heaven-Man Realm or Spirit Terrace Realm."
"There are even people who cultivate in seclusion without the world knowing?" Ding Songyan asked, slightly surprised.
Xiaoqing answered casually, "Of course. Take certain demons who dislike venturing out to cause trouble—how would the mortal world ever know what realm they've reached..."
As she spoke, she trailed off into silence.
Ding Songyan fell silent as well.
He was genuinely afraid Miss Xiaoqing might turn bashful anger into fury and throw him into the great river to drown.
Through this exchange, he had confirmed that relying solely on the name "Yan Changqing" and the fact of his years-long imprisonment would make it impossible to uncover the "esteemed guest's" true identity anytime soon—unless he happened to ask someone who had once known him.
After some thought, Ding Songyan probed tentatively, "Miss Xiaoqing, did your side come for a certain object or a certain person in Zhen Manor?"
Wait, he could guess that...
Xiaoqing pursed her lips, eyeing Ding Songyan suspiciously without answering.
Not answering was an answer in itself.
Ding Songyan smiled and pressed further, "Something that should have concluded quickly, yet the Zhen family keeps finding excuses to drag it out, even though both you and the Zhenling Sect have been staying here for quite some time?"
Xiaoqing leaned in slightly, tilting her head as she looked into Ding Songyan's eyes. "Did you find that out from Zhen Manor? Is that why the Zhen family sent someone to follow you, and why Old Master Zhen personally stepped forward when you went to the county yamen?"
She had wanted to ask about this earlier, but held off until tonight because the setting and timing had not been right.
"No," Ding Songyan replied, shaking his head candidly. "If it were just for this, while I was at the Zhen family's, they could have easily seized a moment when the watchtower wasn't watching, stuffed me into a burlap sack, disguised me as cargo, and sunk me into the river. I only caught on to a few clues."
I was just verifying my guess a moment ago...
Xiaoqing found this amusing. "Do you often stuff people into burlap sacks and sink them into the river? You sound very familiar with it."
"As a storyteller, I naturally possess a vivid imagination. Besides, plenty of storybooks feature similar plots." Ding Songyan, after all, was someone who had even read major crime docudramas.
Xiaoqing's eyes flickered. "Does Zhen Manor harbor other secrets? Or are they waiting for another faction?"
Ding Songyan smiled without speaking.
It was not that he refused to answer; he had simply forgotten what he intended to say.
Xiaoqing gave a slight nod, her expression turning uncharacteristically serious, and did not press him further.
She had only come to Dingjiang Prefecture to broaden her horizons and have fun; matters this complicated were best left for Second Uncle to worry about.
If Second Uncle had questions later, she could always come back to Ding Erlang.
Having dropped all the hints he could, Ding Songyan resumed writing today's installment of The Legend of the White Snake.
Xiaoqing sat down by the bedside, gazing at Ding Songyan's back as she remarked with a trace of emotion, "I originally thought you were just an impressive storyteller who could spin lots of wonderful tales. How did you become somewhat mysterious today? No, starting from the day before yesterday..."
She sank into thought.
Ding Songyan turned halfway around, steering the topic back to The Legend of the White Snake. "Miss Xiaoqing, I don't plan on having Xu Shilin practice martial arts step by step. That would probably take another ten years before he could rescue Madam White. I want him to have a fortuitous encounter, eating some mythical beast or something, so he can strive to reunite the family right as Madam White's eternal suppression beneath Leifeng Pagoda reaches twenty full years.
"Is there any particular lore to consuming mythical beasts?"
This was purely Ding Songyan using Xu Shilin to satisfy his own curiosity. Flipping through The Esoteric Classic of Mountains and Seas every day and seeing so many entries mentioning "consumed, it...", how could he not want to inquire?
As for why Xu Shilin had to rescue her at twenty years, it was naturally to make a round number with commemorative significance.
"What do you want to ask?" Xiaoqing unconsciously pursed her lips.
Ding Songyan was already brimming with questions. "When consuming a mythical beast, must one eat the entire creature, or just a part or its essence?"
Something as massive as the Kunpeng could not fit in a single stewpot, nor could it be finished in a single meal—even a month probably would not suffice.
Of course, The Esoteric Classic of Mountains and Seas contained no mention of the Kunpeng, only a single line in the commentary: "Xuanming is the Kunpeng; in the sea it is the water god, in the sky it is the wind god. Xuanming is Yuqiang." (Note 1)
And Yuqiang was the northern god who assisted Emperor Zhuanxu: devouring the northern deeps, bearing the blue heavens, governing the five plagues, suppressing the underworld to protect the dead, and aiding the Black Emperor.
Xiaoqing was somewhat amused. "You couldn't finish a whole one anyway. Eating a portion of its essence is enough; having more is useless. Some might even bring danger, causing you to suffer cultivation deviation, explode and die, have ferocious qi invade your brain, or have divine intent seize your body. Well, eating just a tiny bit extra is fine."
"And what if the portion consumed is insufficient?" Ding Songyan had always liked analyzing matters qualitatively and quantitatively.
Xiaoqing wore a look that asked, "Why do you have so many questions?"
"It depends on how much you ate. Roughly speaking, it grants you grandmaster strength—the perfection of the Dharma Realm—for anywhere between half a year to over a decade.
"If during this period, you can rely on the clear perception your realm affords over mutated apertures, bodily conditions, heaven-and-earth qi dynamics, and the subtleties of the void to work out a cultivation method and the necessary natural treasures, thereby swiftly completing your cultivation, then when the time limit expires, your realm and strength will not regress. They will belong entirely to you.
"Otherwise, once the time is up, your realm will continuously fall, and your strength will steadily decline until only a sliver of extraordinary trait remains."
So the methods of aperture crafting and aperture refinement were all devised by those early eaters, who relied on their temporary realm and bodily conditions to grope their way forward... Ding Songyan preliminarily grasped the mystery of "eating."
Xiaoqing continued of her own accord, "To this day, relying on consuming mythical beasts can at most take you to the perfection of the Dharma Realm. To advance any further, you still must rely on yourself. If you cannot master and synthesize the corresponding martial path, if your mental and spiritual realm is lacking, and if you lack deep insight into and command over heaven and earth, stepping into the Heaven-Man Realm is exceedingly difficult.
"Even before the severing of Earth from Heaven, this realm was the first gateway separating mortal from god.
"The Register of Orchids Under Heaven does not include grand masters or rank them, not because grand masters are few in number, but because it simply isn't worthy."
"Martial cultivation places importance on mental and spiritual realms as well?" Ding Songyan had heard jianghu rumors that Ji Hanyi, the demonic maiden of the Juesheng Dao, possessed a spiritual flaw that made achieving the Heaven-Man Realm difficult, but he had assumed that was mainly an issue with her cultivation art.
"Of course. Without the spirit to command and the mind to harmonize, continuously implanting foreign substances into yourself to craft alien apertures will only drive you into cultivation deviation or turn you into a vicious beast," Xiaoqing remarked with a tut and a grin.
Ding Songyan had always possessed an inquisitive mind. "Then why don't those who become Dharma Realm grandmasters by consuming mythical beasts worry about this issue?"
"When practicing cultivation arts, the growth of spirit and body differs across each minor realm. But when consuming mythical beasts, spirit and body transform and strengthen together, so naturally there's no immediate problem. Even so, one will be more or less influenced by the lingering will of that mythical beast, and must temper the mind just the same in the future," Xiaoqing explained. "And if you eat too much, as I just mentioned, some will develop similar issues."
At that moment, she recalled they were discussing Xu Shilin's fortuitous encounter, and pondered, "The Shenxiao Sect carries the Thunder God's legacy. Consuming a Kui bull would be quite fitting, so there won't be a conflict of cultivation arts."
"Understood. My thanks, Miss Xiaoqing." Having broadened his knowledge, Ding Songyan was in a noticeably better mood.
In his mind flashed the corresponding passage from The Esoteric Classic of Mountains and Seas:
The Thunder God: embracing yin and holding yang, commanding thunder and wielding lightning, executing punishment on behalf of Heaven, crushing dark evil, suppressing the Three Realms.
The Kui bull: dispelling dark evil, shining with lightning glow, accompanied by wind and rain, its voice shaking the Three Realms. Note: ash-blue body, hornless, one-legged, shaped like an ox.
With his "settings" established, Ding Songyan began outlining Xu Shilin's encounter, then pondered whether to inject some romance. After all, in the television drama, Xu Shilin and Hu Meinang were a couple, though he couldn't recall whether she was a rabbit spirit or a fox spirit.
Of course, Ding Songyan's goal was not fidelity to the original; he wanted to pad the story to slow down the storytelling pace, buying himself a few more days to tell stories for Yan Changqing.
Stalling to await developments was also a strategy.
"Miss Xiaoqing, do you think it would be better for Xu Shilin to fall in love with a rabbit demon or a fox demon during his fortuitous encounter? His parents had a romance between human and demon, so his generation shouldn't lag behind either," Ding Songyan consulted his "God of Wealth."
Xiaoqing fell silent for a moment, then said in a somewhat peculiar tone, "Neither. Pick something else."
You only identify with snake demons, is that it? But I can't add another snake—the snake demon quota would be far too high. Surely I can't pair the green snake with Xu Shilin! Out of the question, that violates proper human relations... Well, demon propriety might not forbid it, but it would definitely look like I'm gossiping about Miss Xiaoqing... Ding Songyan thought for a bit and suggested:
"How about the ruler of the Women's Country?"
Something that wasn't a demon, yet possessed a touch of the extraordinary.
"The Kingdom of Women?" Xiaoqing's tone brightened. "That works."
Ding Songyan immediately had Xu Shilin and his fellow disciples, while tracking the Kui bull's pearl, stray by mistake into the Women's Country. They soaked in the waters of the Child-and-Mother River and all became pregnant, forcing them to seek help from the ruler of the Women's Country. Afterward, the ruler took a liking to Xu Shilin and sought to keep him by force for marriage, only to be moved by his devotion to rescuing his mother; she voluntarily renounced her throne and resolved to accompany Xu Shilin through myriad perils to seek the Kui bull's pearl.
The reason he foreshadowed "myriad perils" rather than eighty-one tribulations was simply that Ding Songyan could not invent that many. He even deliberately changed "drinking" to "soaking," stitching in the bathing scene of the spider spirits in the Webbed Cave.
That buys me a few more installments... A pity I've forgotten much of the plot of Journey to the West; otherwise, I could have spun eighty chapters out of those perils alone... Ding Songyan set down his writing brush and watched as Miss Xiaoqing picked up the pages.
As Xiaoqing read through them, she raised her head and peered at Ding Songyan with bewilderment. "How did you know women in the Kingdom of Women conceive by soaking in the Yellow Pool?"
"I just made it up... What is the Yellow Pool?" Ding Songyan looked utterly blank and thoroughly sincere.
Xiaoqing remarked thoughtfully, "The Esoteric Classic of Mountains and Seas has a note: in the Kingdom of Women, there is a Yellow Pool; women bathe in it and emerge pregnant; if they bear a boy, he dies at the age of three. (Note 2)
"Mm, you do appear ignorant of it. For a casual fabrication to align with reality—perhaps this is Heaven's will."
Hearing Xiaoqing's reply, Ding Songyan nearly broke into a cold sweat.
Thank goodness I haven't flipped to that section of The Esoteric Classic of Mountains and Seas yet, or else I wouldn't have been able to pull off such a clear conscience just now.
Then again, had I truly read that passage, I wouldn't have changed "drinking" to "soaking" in the first place; I certainly would have been careful to avoid it.
Note 1: Many scholars believe that Zhuangzi's inspiration for the Kunpeng was Xuanming, as many characteristics align; I have adopted this interpretation.
Note 2: Quoted from the commentary by Guo Pu of the Jin dynasty.
Chapter 31