The Fire Star had long finished its descent in the seventh month, and in the mountains it was cooler still.
Though Ding Songyan was beyond the bite of cold and heat and could even disturb the seasons around him, he changed into the fairly thick black martial garb along with everyone else—scattered starlight on the left sleeve, painted candle flames on the right.
He stood in the Dou Training Ground that belonged to Tao Wenshu's lineage, slowly stretching his body through its paces, his fists tracing circles, now light, now heavy, now like a murmuring brook, now like the surging waves of river and sea.
This was an Initial Realm training method of his own devising, worked out over nearly a month from the changes in his own body and from the Xiaoming Sect's two arts of body forging and qi refining, the "Twenty-Eight Mansions Art" and the "Body Candle Mind Fire Art."
Of course, he had also drawn on the various corresponding methods the Xiaoming Sect had gathered.
Unlike other schools' methods, which always favored one part of the body over another, Ding Songyan's Initial Realm art treated every part equally, with nothing neglected; body and mind drawn in, smooth and complete, it came to nine forms, each divided into still and moving, fast and slow, and it happened to fill thirty-six illustrated charts with detailed annotations.
Ding Songyan named it the "Nine Primordial Arts," which thoroughly satisfied his vanity.
Over the past few days he had sealed off the qi meridians he had condensed after birth, read through every qi-circulation method in the Scripture Pavilion, kept trying and improving, and at last found the early-stage qi-refining route best suited to himself, which he named "Forward and Reverse Circulation."
His next plan was to formally step into the Human Realm, begin aperture refinement, and work out and create the corresponding visualization charts.
"Junior Brother Ding, what are you doing over there?" A clear yet languid male voice came from the entrance to the Dou Training Ground.
Ding Songyan finished the last form of the "Nine Primordial Arts," "Embracing Taiji," lightly extended both arms, and turned with a smile:
"Practicing my family's inherited art."
A body-forging art I created myself—why shouldn't it count as a family inheritance? One day I'll make my children practice it, sure as anything!
The only problem now was that his body had long since changed. Even with the secret method Yan Changqing had taught him for fooling himself and others, he could not erase that fact, and so it was hard to gauge whether the "Nine Primordial Arts" and "Forward and Reverse Circulation" counted as difficult for a newcomer to the martial path—whether they were a challenge one could rise to, or simply impossible to practice.
I'll have to find someone willing and try them out.
The man who walked into the Dou Training Ground was twenty-six or twenty-seven, loosely dressed in black martial garb, his hair simply wrapped up; though he had sword-like brows and starry eyes, his nose bridge was not high enough and his lips were a little thick, so he lacked a certain handsomeness and cold sharpness.
"That family art of yours looks rather good to me," the newcomer said with a lazy, sprawling smile.
He was Ding Songyan's own senior brother, second in seniority among Tao Wenshu's disciples who had not yet finished their apprenticeship; his surname was Wan, his given name Guhong. He had returned from wandering the jianghu only before the new year, and the Register of Orchids Under Heaven had rated him Chaofan—the fourth grade, as the common folk called it.
According to Tao Wenshu, Wan Guhong needed only one final organ installation and the three corresponding apertures and qi meridians to complete the Dayan Realm. That would not count as top-tier among the great sects, but within the Xiaoming Sect it already stood out.
At Wan Guhong's words, a smile instantly surfaced on Ding Songyan's face, and he asked eagerly:
"Senior Brother Wan, would you like to try it?"
Senior Brother Wan was already a Dayan Realm expert, but his body surely still could not match a grandmaster's; having him try the "Nine Primordial Arts" would let Ding Songyan accumulate some data and make later improvements easier.
Wan Guhong shivered for no clear reason and raised an eyebrow:
"You know my temperament. If I can sit, I will never stand; if I can lie down, I will never sit. Even if that family art of yours were one of the greatest divine arts under heaven, I wouldn't spare it half a glance."
He yawned, covering his mouth with a hand:
"The autumn air is crisp and high—just the time for a good sleep. How could I waste it on training?"
Tsk. No wonder Master despairs of you. You train every day like a man clocking in for work, and never put in extra practice on your own... Somewhat disappointed, Ding Songyan grumbled at Senior Brother Wan in his heart.
This was also why Tao Wenshu had Wan Guhong teach disciples in her place when her own affairs kept her busy. The man was lazy and careless in broad strokes; even if he noticed something off about Ding Songyan, he would not think twice about it, and would never uncover Ding Songyan's secret.
Compared with the upright yet meticulous eldest senior brother, Xu Julong, Wan Guhong was clearly better suited to guiding Ding Songyan in the Book of Universal Stars.
The one responsible for instructing him in the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night was Zheng Zhuxi; both Tao Wenshu and Ding Songyan trusted her character completely, knowing that whatever she discovered she would keep behind her teeth.
Wan Guhong picked up an unsharpened longsword from the weapon rack and gave the blade a flourish:
"Junior Brother Ding, you've already mastered the 'Twenty-Eight Mansions Art' and the 'Body Candle Mind Fire Art,' and you finished your Initial Realm cultivation long ago. Today you can go borrow the 'Star Chart of the Heavenly Circuit' from the Scripture Pavilion and begin aperture refinement. Before the Dayan Realm, this won't affect your practice of the Scripture of Candle Illuminating the Long Night.
"Now come, let me see how your introductory sword art has been coming along."
Ding Songyan also drew an unsharpened longsword and said thoughtfully:
"Senior Brother Wan, I have some questions about the move 'Left Aide and Right Aide.'"
The Xiaoming Sect's introductory sword art was called "Dawnbreak," said to be simplified and adapted from extremely profound sword moves in the Book of Universal Stars such as "Flying Star Piercing Dawn." It had thirty-six forms.
"What questions?" Wan Guhong suddenly thrust out his longsword, the tip quivering—first veering to his own left, then, as his wrist turned over, tracing a half circle to slash toward Ding Songyan's left. "This form is a feint, meant to force your opponent to stay where he is and face what follows, 'Straight Descent to the Central Palace.'"
Ding Songyan watched very carefully. In his eyes, Wan Guhong's sword moves followed some pattern, sketching out all manner of details, and every detail existed to "call" something that came after.
Carried to its end, the move already had the intent of a sword splitting the heavens crying to be released.
So it really is meant to lead into "Straight Descent to the Central Palace"... The original "Flying Star Piercing Dawn" was broken up into several forms... Ding Songyan slowly mimicked Wan Guhong's sword move once:
"Senior Brother Wan, you said earlier that if a sword is fast enough and the force behind it great enough, you don't need a feint at all to defeat an enemy; it's only that in real combat the gap between opponents never reaches that degree, which is why all these moves came into being.
"In that case, why must 'Left Aide and Right Aide' be a feint? If an enemy knows the Dawnbreak Sword Art well enough, he simply won't fall for it. Why not let the false and the true give rise to each other, hide the real inside the false, so that 'Left Aide and Right Aide' can turn into a killing move when necessary, and the enemy cannot guard against it?"
Just as Yan Changqing had said: with the right timing, the false can become real; with the wrong timing, the real can become false.
Wan Guhong said, amused:
"Such a change does exist, but it isn't in the introductory sword art. Only after you have some success in aperture refinement and produce Myriad Stars true qi can you hold qi in your wrist and alter the sword move at the crucial moment, turning the illusory into the real. If you want to do it with bodily strength alone, you have to step into the Dayan Realm."
"No." Ding Songyan shook his head. "Set the eye and the shoulder working as one, and it can be done."
He thrust out his longsword, slanting toward Wan Guhong's left, and just as he was about to turn his wrist, he suddenly put his shoulder forward—shoulder leading the arm, arm driving the wrist—and in an instant changed the momentum of the slash toward the right back into a thrust to the left, with more force behind it and a faster sword.
Ding Songyan then demonstrated how to turn "Right Aide" into a real slash.
He did not use anything beyond the level of body forging and qi refining.
Wan Guhong frowned slightly, and after watching it once, tried it himself.
"It really does work." He drew the sword back to his side and laughed in spite of himself.
Over the next two hours, Ding Songyan asked about all thirty-six forms of the Dawnbreak Sword Art, offering his own thoughts on every one—improving some, cutting away what was useless in others, and still weighing the rest.
As far as Wan Guhong was concerned, this introductory sword art suited only disciples who had not yet produced Myriad Stars true qi or Candle Radiance true qi, and such disciples, apart from trips home to visit family, never left the sect at all—they were not even assigned to assist with patrol duty. The swordsmanship they learned was good only for sparring within the sect; it was plainly not valued, and no senior or sage of the past had ever bothered to improve it. Junior Brother Ding truly had no need to waste his time on it.
"Still, Junior Brother Ding, quite a few of your ideas are interesting. When I practice other sword arts later, I'll give them a try..." Wan Guhong stuck the unsharpened sword back into the weapon rack and watched Ding Songyan take his leave and head for the Scripture Pavilion.
Suddenly he felt that something was off.
He rubbed his chin and murmured to himself:
"Am I teaching him swordplay, or is he teaching me?"
After thinking for a moment, Wan Guhong shook his head:
"Let it be. A good afternoon nap—how could I waste the time in a training ground?"
This second senior brother also drifted out of the Dou Training Ground and, following the shimmering, pale blue expanse of Level Lake, headed toward the courtyard where he lived.
Ding Songyan had already gone around to the other side of Level Lake, and climbing the clean, tidy stone steps one at a time, he came to the Scripture Pavilion higher up.
It was a small building of blue-gray stone, only three stories above ground, with seven disciples on patrol duty on every floor.
Ding Songyan came before Grand Elder Wang Zhou, who was on duty at the Scripture Pavilion that day, and smilingly handed over the white jade token his master had given him.
The token was carved with candle flame and starlight and held a thread of Tao Wenshu's sword resonance; with it he could consult every secret manual and book in the Scripture Pavilion.
Grand Elder Wang Zhou was the eldest of the Xiaoming Sect's five grandmasters and counted as Ding Songyan's grand martial uncle. He was past fifty, yet his hair was still black and his face free of fine lines; had he claimed to be in his thirties, no one would have doubted it.
He had entered the Dharma Realm a year later than Tao Wenshu, only becoming a grandmaster at forty.
"Finally going to begin aperture refinement?" Wang Zhou took the token and gave it a perfunctory sweep with his double pupils.
"It's about time I started aperture refinement." Ding Songyan turned his eyes to the rows of iron bookshelves, which held the various techniques lacking an aperture-crafting chapter that the Xiaoming Sect had gathered, along with combat experience and others' moves recorded by disciples who had wandered the jianghu, and the cultivation insights of past sages.
Over the previous month and more, Ding Songyan had lingered here so happily that he wished each day could stretch twice as long.
Wang Zhou placed great hopes in Ding Songyan as well. Never mind talk of the sect's lineage—the mere possibility that Ding Songyan might one day deduce and perfect the Book of Universal Stars was enough to make him expectant:
If the perfected Book of Universal Stars did not conflict with what he himself currently practiced, if it could encompass it, then he could make up for the gaps in his foundation, and the Heaven-Man Realm might not be beyond dreaming of.
Which was why Wang Zhou and the other Dharma Realm experts of the Xiaoming Sect were even more impatient than Ding Songyan himself, yet could not show it, lest they affect his cultivation, and could only wait and watch eagerly, day after day.
Once Ding Songyan gave his definite answer, Wang Zhou, unable to wait a moment longer, led him down to the underground level, took out the "Star Chart of the Heavenly Circuit," the visualization method for aperture refinement, and pressed it into his arms, saying with great earnestness:
"As long as you don't damage it and don't take it outside, you may do whatever you like.
"This level has forty-nine cultivation chambers. You may choose any one of them."
Chapter 67