Chapter 172: Deep Within the Prison

Myriad Ravines Courtyard.

Zheng Zhuxi lay in bed beneath a silk quilt. Her face was pale, her eyelids swollen, and she looked utterly worn down. Yet compared to the past few days, her heart had settled considerably. Her grief remained, but no longer left her so anxious that she could scarcely breathe.

"Senior Sister, once you circulate your true qi and assimilate the Azure Dragon viscera, I need to hurry to the prefectural city and interrogate that Two-Faced. We cannot let this drag on." Ding Songyan sat on a stool beside the bed, making small talk to keep Zheng Zhuxi awake.

He had just seen his master’s husband, Zheng Ziming, off to the Hall of Myriad Stars. Many high-ranking officials and Grandmasters had come to the mourning hall to pay their respects.

"Be careful on the road," Zheng Zhuxi said weakly. "Senior Sister Xue will look after me. My father is here too, along with the servants."

After her junior brother returned to the mountain carrying Bai Zhaolin’s head, she immediately made an offering to her mother. Then she went to the Kindling Hall and implanted the Azure Dragon viscera, fulfilling the promise she had made to her mother.

Ding Songyan looked at his frail senior sister and chose his words carefully.

"I will ask Master Granduncle Wang to come with me. We will say that, after I alerted him, he pursued Bai Zhaolin day and night. He caught up with him, hid nearby, and saw him meet with someone from the Accumulated Evil Way. Later, when Bai Zhaolin was still seriously injured, alone, and trying to circle back to Alpine Lake Mountain, he killed that villain who had fallen into the demonic path."

Ding Songyan had already told Zheng Zhuxi and Yan Jingxian, at the mourning hall, exactly how Bai Zhaolin had colluded with the Accumulated Evil Way. Now he was mainly settling on the story they would give afterward.

Before Zheng Zhuxi could reply, he gave a bitter smile.

"To be honest, when I pursued Bai Zhaolin this time, I barely considered what came after. I only prepared for the worst: my secrets exposed and myself driven to wander the world. Once Bai Zhaolin accepted my challenge to a deathmatch, I planned to have his own ghost testify that the fight was justified and followed the jianghu’s rules. But how much trouble my ascent in a single leap and the Celestial Thearch’s Palace would bring was impossible to predict.

"Who would have thought you had already prepared a way out for me? Master Granduncle Wang has been out of sight for more than three days. Now I do not need to worry about spinning a story for the authorities. I am the one channeling the spirit. What Bai Zhaolin says depends entirely on whether I ask, and how I ask."

"I thought you might need it." Zheng Zhuxi gave a faint sigh from her bed. "You are rarely this impulsive, or this unprepared."

Ding Songyan paused, staring at the silk quilt. Then he said quietly, "From the time Marshal Yi came to tell us what was happening until the incident on the island in the lake, have I been too cautious? Always hoping to leave nothing to chance?"

Zheng Zhuxi shook her head weakly.

"Every choice you made, every concern you had, was reasonable. Life is unpredictable. How can anyone demand perfection?

"Unless you could foresee the future, you would naturally suspect Bai Zhaolin’s ties to the Accumulated Evil Way ran deep, and that the Demon Sovereign had left him some hidden safeguard. If you exposed it, he could easily be driven to desperate measures before you had time to help."

"Foresee..." Ding Songyan silently turned the word over in his mind, and suddenly thought of Foresees Events to Come.

If I could use Foresees Events to Come and see that Bai Zhaolin would kill Master Tao Wenshu by using a hidden art to counter Wandering Star Overhead, I would have exposed his ties to the Accumulated Evil Way on the spot and warn Master not to use Wandering Star Overhead.

At the time, he had only believed that the trait of Calamity Upon Heaven and Earth would impair Wandering Star Overhead and create an opening for Bai Zhaolin to use some secret method bestowed by the Demon Sovereign. He had guarded most against that possible safeguard. He had never imagined the flaw would be so deadly.

He had simply never encountered a martial art capable of invoking calamity before. Otherwise, he should have noticed some sign of it.

But there are no what ifs... Ding Songyan sighed.

"Later, I need to find a martial art involving numerology to cultivate alongside my own. Nothing is more precious than knowing in advance."

Zheng Zhuxi turned her head on the pillow to look at Junior Brother’s face. Her eyes flickered.

"Would the Scripture of Utmost Sincerity work?"

"Uh..." Ding Songyan froze slightly.

Is that not Master’s husband’s family art?

Zheng Zhuxi pressed her lips together and said,

"Once a year or so has passed and Father is no longer so overcome by grief, I will ask him for you. So long as it does not involve the methods for aperture forging and viscera installation, there is a good chance he will agree.

"If he refuses, then once I attain mastery of the Lesser Limitless Art, surely I may look through it as the Zheng family’s direct daughter? Even if the Lesser Limitless Art cannot derive this martial art, I can analyze and refine its principles of foreknowledge. Then, as your senior sister, I can share my own insights rather than the Scripture of Utmost Sincerity itself, helping you draw inferences and create a new art of your own.

"You should search for one as well, so we have two options. That way, if something happens before I can begin, you will not be left waiting."

The young woman had said a great deal in one breath, and it left her exhausted.

"All right." Ding Songyan had no intention of refusing his Senior Sister’s kindness.

Other thoughts crowded his mind. He also needed to seek out medical arts that could save those near death. He had always wanted such techniques and was willing to spend his lifespan to master them quickly. But his realm had been unstable, and he possessed almost no techniques or skills, so he had focused on shoring up his foundations. Only when he happened upon a fine art had he taken time to derive it. He had never actively sought strange and wondrous techniques, believing he would have plenty of time later. Setting priorities mattered.

But time waited for no one!

Ding Songyan kept that thought to himself. There was no need to make his senior sister sadder or hinder her recovery in body and spirit.

After a while, Ding Songyan signaled for Zheng Zhuxi to circulate her true qi and complete the assimilation of the Azure Dragon viscera.

Once she had done so, he rose to his feet.

"Senior Sister, I will fetch Senior Sister Xue, then meet Master Granduncle Wang and head for the prefectural city."

Zheng Zhuxi nodded faintly.

As Ding Songyan neared the door, she suddenly called out,"Junior Brother."

Ding Songyan turned and looked at his Senior Sister.

Zheng Zhuxi pressed her lips together.

"Be utmost careful... Go quickly and return quickly."

"All right." Ding Songyan did not answer in his usual joking tone. Instead, he nodded solemnly.

......

Ding Songyan and Wang Zhou did not head straight to the prefectural city. They first detoured to the dense forest where Bai Zhaolin had been buried, letting Wang Zhou familiarize himself with the terrain, route, and cover story.

Taking in the trees that had fallen, splintered, or both, Wang Zhou looked at Ding Songyan and said with heartfelt admiration, "Your strength is catching up to Wenshu’s."

And you have even more tricks up your sleeve, with an even sharper mind. No wonder Zhuxi would not let me chase after you. She feared I would interfere... She really knows you well...

"Half the work was done outside the fight. The moment Bai Zhaolin mistook me for someone desperate for revenge, he was already dead. What followed only decided how he would die." Ding Songyan did not hide it.

"Beyond contests of bearing and clashes of will, misdirection and calculation are also part of a fight, and part of one’s strength." Wang Zhou nodded lightly, then praised him. "You have more fire in you than I expected, yet you do not let emotion cloud your mind or judgment. Even without your ascent in a single leap, Wenshu would still have recruited an excellent disciple!"

Ding Songyan said no more. He and Wang Zhou rode to the prefectural city, where they met Yi Qincang.

"Uncle Yi, how is that Two-Faced youth?" Ding Songyan’s concern was that someone had silenced the boy, leaving not even his ghost behind.

Yi Qincang glanced at Wang Zhou.

"He is still alive. He is held deep in the prefectural prison, with no one allowed within eight meters of him.

"Fortunately, the Brightnight Sect remained composed in crisis and swiftly informed the prefectural and county offices of Sect Master Tao’s death. We realized how grave this was in time and secretly invited Seniors Yu and Mu to oversee matters. The past few days have remained quiet."

Seniors Yu and Mu were the Self-Revering School’s Gold and Silver Twin Swords: Yu Qiu, the Golden Que Sword, and Mu Ying, the Silver Rainbow Sword.

With the Gold and Silver Twin Swords here, they can hold off even an unorthodox Sage... The Self-Revering School truly has an unmatched number of Supreme Masters. Other sects count them by the individual; they count them by pairs... The authorities know the stakes too. The death of a renowned Grandmaster cannot be a simple matter. As he hurried with Yi Qincang toward the prefectural office, Ding Songyan asked, "Uncle Yi, things happened so quickly before, so I did not ask. How did you catch that Two-Faced? Did you not say that a Two-Faced can recognize another Two-Faced? Should he not have noticed the moment he saw someone impersonating Fu Yangquan?"

Yi Qincang sighed.

"That boy was inexperienced. Besides arranging for someone to impersonate Fu Yangquan and keep a low profile in Liang Qian’s courtyard, we had Liang Qian find a few disciples and descendants to pose as neighbors. The moment that boy asked where Fu Yangquan was, we had our eyes on him.

"Then we pulled aside the hair at the back of his head and saw the second face."

That leaves no room for doubt... Ding Songyan nodded slowly.

He and Wang Zhou soon followed Yi Qincang to the prefectural office.

"Should we first pay our respects to Seniors Yu and Mu and Magistrate Lin, or kill that boy and channel his spirit first?" Yi Qincang stopped and asked.

Ding Songyan did not hesitate.

"Question him first."

Before long, he, Wang Zhou, and Yi Qincang found the Two-Faced youth deep within the prison. He was seventeen or eighteen, with an immature face and a completely shaved head.

Yi Qincang made the youth turn around. Sure enough, a twisted face full of venom and hatred grew from the back of his head.

"Kill him." Ding Songyan could not be bothered wasting words on a Two-Faced.

"No!" Terror filled both of the youth’s faces.

He begged again and again, but it did no good. Yi Qincang personally ended his life.

Ding Songyan looked at the ghost, its face full of hatred but his body trembling, and asked the question he had prepared long ago, "Are you a true Two-Faced, or did you become one after receiving an Immortal Seed?"

The ghost’s expression turned fervent.

"An Immortal Seed! I was bestowed with an Immortal Seed!"

This is indeed Tan Guanchan’s work... Is this marvelous art of the Demon Seed unique to the Demon Sovereign, or can other Two-Faced, even other members of the Accumulated Evil Way, cultivate it as well? Ding Songyan asked without expression, "Did you know the Brightnight Sect’s Candle-Star Pupils can see your second face?"

"No." The ghost was so weak that he had already grown faint.

He did not know? Ding Songyan and the others frowned slightly.

Had someone set this boy up? Unlikely. He had nothing worth setting him up over... Yet he knew so little and was given such an important task. There must be some hidden support behind him. Otherwise, they had simply sent him to warn us... Ding Songyan’s thoughts raced as he considered every possibility.

A moment later, his expression tightened. Looking at the eerie green ghost, he asked in a low voice, "Can the second face you gained from the Immortal Seed be hidden with the Immortal Seed’s help?"

The faint ghost answered tremblingly, "It can."

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