After Ding Songyan came “completely clean” about Hundun's remains, he watched his master's expression with great care, ready at any moment to disturb the six directions, affect the four seasons, and flee to the ends of the earth.
The ever-composed Tao Wenshu showed a rare stirring of emotion, gazing at Ding Songyan with something like candlelight kindling in her eyes, and for a long while she said nothing.
Ding Songyan, skilled at reading faces, saw chagrin and disappointment there, and these at last settled into relief and gladness.
After the horses came down from the stone bridge, Tao Wenshu, in her crude iron crown, let out a breath and said:
“You were right to conceal this yesterday. Otherwise I cannot be sure I would not have felt greed and done something base—and had that happened, years of cultivation really would be lost in a single morning, half a lifetime's good name carried off by the flowing water.”
She explained further:
“My predicament is much like Zhen Qianfan's. If I could eat Hundun's remains, every problem would be solved at a stroke. How could I not have been tempted, not felt greed? Just now in Chengyu Lane, I assumed you had eaten something else.”
“Your foundation is unstable too, Master?” Seeing how frankly Tao Wenshu spoke, Ding Songyan relaxed and turned his concern to her.
Tao Wenshu held the reins in one hand and smoothed the loose strands at her temple with the other.
Gazing at the green fields cut by paths along the road and the walled villages of the countryside in the distance, she sighed and said:
“That is a long story, and it starts more than two hundred years ago, with the dynasty's southward migration.
“Our Xiaoming Sect's methods are special, and drew the envy and hatred of heretics and evil paths. When that calamity struck, our losses were heavier than those of any other sect. By the time we fled to Ningzhou, only two grandmasters and a few dozen disciples remained. The elders charged with transmitting the arts had all died, leaving only a handful of disciples who had learned the corresponding methods from them—and none of them had completed their training.
“Of the three foundational sacred scriptures, The Great Xiaoming Method was lost entirely; the Book of Universal Stars and the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night were each incomplete in its own way in aperture crafting and organ installation. Unless they could be made whole, once those two grandmasters passed on, Xiaoming Sect would decline and sink, generation by generation, until only a few strokes remained in the history books.
“At the time, though those forebears were grieving and despondent, not one of them gave up. A disciple who had entered not long before—the man who would become the third sect master after the sect was re-established in Ningzhou, Patriarch Pei Yuan—had a sudden notion.
“He said that in The Esoteric Classic of Mountains and Seas, the goddesses Xiaoming and Zhuguang are placed together, without distinction, and that every patriarch had declared the three foundational sacred scriptures to reach the same end by different paths, becoming one seamless whole at the last. So might the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night be used to complete the Book of Universal Stars, and the Book of Universal Stars to complete the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night?”
Right—in The Esoteric Classic of Mountains and Seas, the goddesses Xiaoming and Zhuguang do share the description “starlight, candleflame, illuminating the long night, piercing the shadowed depths”... Ding Songyan listened to the sect's history with keen relish.
Tao Wenshu glanced at the few late-ripening yellow plums in the woods in the distance, and her expression grew solemn without her noticing:
“It was desperately dangerous, but for the sake of the sect's survival, several Dayan Realm disciples stepped forward of their own accord and offered to try. Some suffered qi deviation and were bedridden ever after; some were plagued by hallucinations and hanged themselves years later; some made no further progress at all; some saw their martial arts slide backward. Yet every one of them reported their experiences truthfully to the two grandmasters, who compared them against their own sensations from aperture crafting and revised the methods accordingly.
“By the time the Book of Universal Stars and the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night were both preliminarily completed and could be cultivated, of the original disciples only the few who had not yet begun aperture crafting had escaped unharmed.
“Patriarch Pei Yuan lived up to everyone's hopes. A little over ten years later he had reached the Dharma Realm through the new Book of Universal Stars—though he was bound to minor accomplishment for the rest of his life. From his own experience he adjusted both methods further.
“That is how our Xiaoming Sect has been handed down, generation after generation: taking the lessons of those before us as our own flame, and using that flame to light the road for those who come after. And so at last we have the Book of Universal Stars and the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night as they are today. The Dharma Realm is still hard to reach, but a genuine new path has been opened.
“Even so, a hidden danger remains. My Dharma Realm reached great accomplishment long ago, yet no matter what I do I cannot sense the void qi that answers to the last three body-external apertures. I cannot reach consummation, let alone set foot in the Heaven-Man Realm. It is like raising a tall tower: each layer below leans a little out of true, and past a certain layer the errors have compounded beyond mending, so climbing higher is nearly impossible.
“Seen in that light, if we wait dozens of generations, each one correcting the earlier portions of the sacred scriptures, perhaps the road to the Heaven-Man Realm could one day be made level. But if I were to swallow those remains of Hundun, I could reach Dharma Realm consummation at once and take in everything I have already learned, and there would be hope of entering the Heaven-Man Realm on the strength of the Hundun lineage.
“Were I truly to become a great grandmaster, with the power of ‘Derivation of the Way and Virtue’ and years of accumulated learning, I could genuinely derive and perfect the Book of Universal Stars and the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night, so that those who come after me are no longer trapped in the Dharma Realm, and Xiaoming Sect returns to the ranks of the greatest sects.
“Songyan, if you had not concealed this yesterday, I might truly have failed the test.”
This was no longer merely Tao Wenshu's own longing; it was the obsession of generation upon generation of Xiaoming Sect forebears, an obsession accumulated over nearly two hundred and sixty years.
Before Ding Songyan could answer, Tao Wenshu laughed softly:
“From now on, this heavy burden falls to you.”
The sect master of Xiaoming looked utterly at ease, as though the matter had broken through some barrier in her heart.
“This disciple is willing,” Ding Songyan said gravely.
Part of it was that Tao Wenshu's and Zheng Zhuxi's conduct and her words just now had given him some sense of belonging to Xiaoming Sect; part of it was that he himself had always wanted to see just how far “Derivation of the Way and Virtue” could go.
Holding the reins, he followed up:
“Master, I heard from Yan Changqing that of those who become grandmasters by devouring divine objects, seven or eight in ten are trapped in the Dharma Realm and never reach the Heaven-Man. Is that true?”
“Yan Yong didn't lie to you there.” Tao Wenshu thought for a moment, then smiled slightly. “But you don't count as a true grandmaster, do you?”
“In three years at the soonest, five at the latest, this disciple's realm and strength will regress.” Ding Songyan did not hide it.
Tao Wenshu gazed out again at the green fields and nodded:
“Three years should be enough. You are not like those who became grandmasters in a single stride: besides groping out your own changes and founding the matching methods, you must also walk a fairly complete cultivation path. That is your shortcoming, and also where you surpass them. As long as every step you take is solid enough, and at every step you train your mind and temper yourself, then when you truly reach Dharma Realm consummation, stepping into the Heaven-Man Realm will be no harder than it is for grandmasters properly cultivated in the great sects.
“In these three years, above all, guard against arrogance and impatience.”
“This disciple was just thinking of cultivating seriously these three years.” Ding Songyan let go of some of his worry.
Then he went on:
“Master, traits like ‘Establish the Six Directions’ and ‘Dividing the Four Seasons’ only manifest when I deliberately bring them about, but why is ‘quell demons and dispel evil’ present at all times? How should I restrain it?”
“Many traits are permanently resident in you and take effect at all times. To restrain them, you must set foot in the Heaven-Man Realm and gain complete command of yourself,” Tao Wenshu explained simply.
Ah—so I have to become a great grandmaster... Until then, must Miss Xiaoqing and I make do with exchanging letters? Ding Songyan slowly let out a stale breath.
Just then Tao Wenshu said with a smile:
“I was about to ask whether you would take the Book of Universal Stars or the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night as your foundational scripture. Though the two sacred scriptures reach the same end by different paths, before the Dharma Realm one cannot have both; one must be primary and the other auxiliary. It was only at minor accomplishment in the Dharma Realm that I made my Candle-Illumination sword intent stand shoulder to shoulder with my foundational scripture, not a whit inferior.
“Since you have swallowed Hundun's remains and can encompass all methods, there is no need to divide foundational from auxiliary scripture. Simply cultivate both. Your Senior Sister Zheng mainly cultivates the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night, and Senior Brother Xu takes the Book of Universal Stars as his foundational scripture; the other senior brothers and sisters each have their own strengths. When I am not at the sect, you may ask them.”
Hearing this, Ding Songyan remembered something else and quickly said:
“Master, this disciple would like to conceal his own realm for the time being and keep his fellow disciples from knowing, announcing it publicly only once he has truly reached the Dharma Realm, or Dharma Realm consummation. For one thing, if it were exposed, the court and the other sects would suspect that what this disciple said earlier was not entirely true, and would begin to entertain other ideas. For another, this disciple has no martial arts to match his realm; if a young grandmaster challenged him, he would be at a severe disadvantage and unable to cultivate steadily, step by step.”
Tao Wenshu paused, taken aback for a beat, and the corners of her eyes relaxed:
“That was exactly my thought.”
Though she was past forty, as a first-rank grandmaster her lifespan was two sixty-year cycles and more, reaching a hundred and fifty at the most, and there was not a fine line on her face; she looked barely past thirty.
Tao Wenshu said seriously:
“As I said just now, our Xiaoming Sect's methods are special—a thorn in the flesh to a good many heretics and evil paths. If they learned there was a disciple like you, with the Heaven-Man Realm in prospect and able to complete the Book of Universal Stars and the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night, they would certainly want you removed to set their minds at ease, and there would be no shortage of great figures of the heterodox paths coming to make trouble for you.
“While you are within the sect it is fine, but in the later stages of training your mind and tempering yourself, you will inevitably have to walk the jianghu. By then, if this has already been exposed, it will be exceedingly dangerous.
“Mm. Apart from telling the other four grandmasters in the sect—so they do not allocate resources by realm and leave you short—I will help conceal it. We hide it as long as we can.”
Ding Songyan breathed a sigh of relief at that and, following his master, quickened the horses toward Pinghu Mountain, more than two hundred li southwest of Dingjiang Prefecture city.
Amid the clatter of hooves, Tao Wenshu kept thinking as she rode, now and then saying that handing over The Esoteric Classic of Mountains and Seas would serve as grounds for granting the disciple grandmaster-level treatment, now and then describing the state of the sect.
Ding Songyan took the chance to observe the country outside the city in this world: level roads, fields in abundance, villages and small towns guarding themselves in the form of stockades, forming one manor or earthen tower after another—small as a sparrow yet complete in every essential—with few living alone outside.
This was the other face of a flourishing martial path: banditry that could never be stamped out, and many heterodox paths.
A little over two hours later, alternately galloping and resting the horses, the two reached Pinghu Mountain.
To the left at the mountain's foot stood a fairly large town, its walls built very high.
“Life in the mountains is spare and hard. Many of our people can't stay up there long after they marry and establish households, yet they cannot move far from the sect either, so they buy property and settle in the village at the foot, going up when there's business. That is how Pinghu Town gradually came to be.” Tao Wenshu explained briefly. “Temple-fair opera, martial arts schools, acrobatics and variety arts, taverns, shops of every kind—all of it is here.”
Ding Songyan glanced at the noisy, bustling town gate, then followed his master in handing the horses over to several disciples at the sect's gatehouse at the mountain's foot, and they climbed steadily on along a rugged, hard-going road.
Along the way they now and then met Xiaoming Sect members standing guard, and there seemed to be hidden sentries in the lush mountain forest as well.
Observing as he went, Ding Songyan relied on his grandmaster realm and followed his master without falling behind in the least.
After the time of one incense stick, the view before him opened wide: at the mountain's mid-slope lay a level lake of crystalline, limpid water, ringed by small towers and courtyards high and low, the water itself mirroring the deep green of the hills and the azure of the sky—dreamlike and hazy, with more beauty than the eye could take in.
Chapter 66