Chapter 244: Laying False Trails

When Ding Songyan carried the meat broth rice into the east wing, Wu Zheng was already lying on the bed, his eyes hollow as if his soul had left him.

"Can you eat by yourself?" Ding Songyan asked flatly, as if he had not noticed the other’s mood.

Unwilling to trouble his benefactor, Wu Zheng suppressed his grief, struggled up, and took the bowl of meat broth rice and the clean chopsticks.

"I can."

Ding Songyan watched him eat a few mouthfuls, then picked up the night soil pail and went to the latrine.

It felt like returning to the mornings in Chengyu Lane in Dingjiang Prefecture, when he had dealt with night soil the same way, only there had been no latrine, and he had tipped it straight into the night soil cart.

After finishing everything for the injured man, Ding Songyan picked up Frostshade and said to Twelfth Madam Luo, who had just tidied the main building, "I’m off to the estate."

"When you get off duty, bring a few ink sticks. The old ones are nearly used up." Twelfth Madam Luo nodded lightly.

Ding Songyan agreed. He first returned to the estate’s side courtyard and changed into the dark-red guard’s uniform with cyan trim, then went with Li Baima and the others to the northeast corner gate.

Few people passed here, and his thoughts gradually drifted.

Without resonating with Evil of Heaven and Earth to affect the changes in a target’s moves, I can only directly disrupt the corresponding flow of qi. But then, without entering the Celestial Heart, I simply couldn’t grasp it. That’s a special trait of the Heaven-Man Realm or a few martial arts. The Faith-Slaying Sword is an application technique where one knows that it works without knowing why. You just follow the steps and it produces results anyway...

So I have to wait until I’ve created the Ding-style Celestial Heart before I can truly merge the Faith-Slaying Sword into the Unified Way Sword?

Before that, I could work backward from the surface moves to the qi flow they might involve, then disrupt it in a targeted way? That’s one line of thought, but it needs a massive amount of deduction to support. If I understand the moves well enough, Manifesting the Way and its Virtue should be up to it in actual combat. Otherwise it won’t work, and I’ll need to gain more insights, deconstructing, finding, and summarizing the similar principles hidden in different moves...

Li Baima and the others looked at Ding Songyan and found he was spacing out again.

After some time together, they were used to Brother Ding often drifting off into the clouds.

This was perhaps what made a martial prodigy extraordinary.

Near noon, Ding Songyan returned to the back courtyard of the Cheap Wine Shop with five ink sticks.

"How much are they?" Twelfth Madam Luo asked.

"The estate provided them, so no silver needed," Ding Songyan answered with a smile. "I do a lot of writing normally, and I won’t be idle these few days either."

He had squeezed one stick each out of Li Baima, Wu Mo, and Fan Chunlin. Those three didn’t like holding a brush anyway and neglected even to record their cultivation insights.

"You’re quite thrifty." Twelfth Madam Luo did not insist on settling accounts.

After putting away the ink sticks and paper, Ding Songyan thought for a moment and said, "Twelfth Madam, why not ask Chef Shi for help laying a few false trails in the south of the city to divert He Jin’s group? I’m afraid that if they keep watching and trace your real identity, it will also make it inconvenient to send Wu Zheng to the Phoenix Terrace Study later."

"It’s not so easy to trace. If they trace me, I’ll just leave the Flame Capital." Twelfth Madam Luo wasn’t bothered.

"Wouldn’t that keep you from watching the excitement of the consort selection?" Ding Songyan replied.

Twelfth Madam Luo said indifferently, "Do it if you want."

Ding Songyan went to the east wing and saw Wu Zheng sitting cross-legged, regulating his breath and circulating qi to heal.

"Benefactor, what is it?" Wu Zheng opened his eyes and asked.

Ding Songyan studied the young man and pointed at his own forehead.

"Besides the spark here, what other traits does your family’s art bring?"

Wu Zheng had some jianghu experience and vaguely guessed what his benefactor was up to. He answered without hesitation, "My right arm is nearly useless. I can only do everyday things with it."

"What weapon do you normally use?" Ding Songyan asked further.

"Saber. The strongest of the Myriad Fires Origin Art is a saber technique called the No-Right Saber." Wu Zheng told him honestly.

Ding Songyan asked a few more details, then left the east wing and said to Twelfth Madam Luo, "I’m going to find Chef Shi."

"I’ll pay half the silver." Twelfth Madam Luo never took advantage of others.

Ding Songyan laughed.

"I misled He Jin and pushed everything onto you, Twelfth Madam, making you bear the bad name, so naturally I should cover the silver."

"You’ve started on the Way of Name and Reality too?" Luo Mingyin asked, amused.

She accepted Ding Songyan’s reasoning.

Shi Wuyan saw Ding Songyan enter the kitchen from the back courtyard. Though he had prepared himself mentally, his expression still changed slightly and he forgot to speak.

"Chef Shi, I have a commission for you." Seeing another cook busy in the outer room, Ding Songyan went straight to the point.

Shi Wuyan spoke in an official tone, "What is it?"

"Find three young men to do a few things in the south of the city. First, wearing a forehead band, one should pester small shops on the streets and alleys to buy a steel saber. Second, wearing a hero’s headscarf, go to a clinic and ask for a prescription to nourish the spirit and calm the heart. Third, wearing a bamboo hat, head down, turn from the main street into an alley, accidentally bump into a passerby, and push him away with the left hand.

"These three things must be done at different times, in different streets, by different people. They must disguise their looks, look sickly, walk unsteadily, and for the most part deliberately use their right hand but appear quite unskilled..." Ding Songyan said in one breath.

Shi Wuyan listened carefully and asked, "Is this dangerous?"

"There’s some real danger, but as long as they aren’t found, it’s fine." Ding Songyan did not hide it.

Shi Wuyan considered for a moment.

"One hundred taels of silver, half up front."

Ding Songyan promptly took out a fifty-tael banknote and handed it over.

For the rest of the day, he continued to look after the injured man, and Twelfth Madam Luo brought meals for both.

After Wu Zheng fell asleep to rest his spirit, Ding Songyan returned to the main building and began feeling his way through cultivating the Essentials of Heaven’s Decrees.

It was not that he had changed his mind and would burn lifespan to master the art quickly, but that he wanted to grasp its subtleties through ordinary simulated cultivation.

If he did not understand the Essentials of Heaven’s Decrees well enough, how could he use it as the foundation for the Ding-style Celestial Heart?

Ding Songyan immersed himself in such martial research. At some point, Twelfth Madam Luo finished the lunch hour, having scolded customers twice.

The shopkeeper glanced into the main building, did not disturb Ding Songyan, and set up a stance in the courtyard to practice body-tempering exercises, sometimes slow and leisurely, sometimes swift as wind chasing the moon, effortless and free.

Ding Songyan sensed the movement and looked up toward the courtyard.

His gaze had been scattered but gradually focused.

That set of fists is truly beautiful...

It wasn’t a matter of graceful posture. Every punch, every kick, every motion and stillness of Twelfth Madam Luo seemed to match a rhythm, with a kind of cadence that felt very comfortable and drew the mind in without one noticing.

The Way of nature, the music of heaven and earth? Ding Songyan watched thoughtfully.

When Twelfth Madam Luo ended her stance and returned to the main building, Ding Songyan leapt up, stepped into the courtyard, and began to drill his swordplay.

It was the Brightnight Sect’s entry-level Piercing Dawn Sword Art, which Ding Songyan already knew as well as could be, but now he deliberately altered the speed, motion and stillness, and the length of pauses, as if trying to imitate Twelfth Madam’s fists and kicks and give his swordplay a natural cadence.

"You aren’t hiding it from me at all?" Twelfth Madam Luo watched for a moment and couldn’t help scolding with a laugh.

Who steals techniques to the owner’s face?

And dances right in front of the one he’s stealing from!

I still underestimated this fellow’s thick skin.

He even has a martial-obsessed side...

Twelfth Madam Luo shook her head and began her internal cultivation on the reclining chair.

So the two practiced each on their own, now and then watching the other’s drills and exchanging a few words, which settled the mind of Wu Zheng, who had woken from a nap.

By night, Twelfth Madam Luo curled up on the reclining chair with a scroll in hand, and Ding Songyan went behind the desk and continued writing his storybook by the fairly bright oil lamp.

After finishing her book, Twelfth Madam Luo propped herself up and looked at Ding Songyan with some curiosity.

"What are you writing?"

Cultivation notes shouldn’t take this long or this much...

"Storybooks." Ding Songyan felt a similar question had been asked not long ago.

"You write storybooks too?" Twelfth Madam Luo was a little startled.

"Before I joined the Brightnight Sect, I was a storyteller," Ding Songyan said casually while pondering the plot.

Twelfth Madam Luo stood, walked to the desk, and said with a smile, "You’re a perfected Dharma Realm Grandmaster. Why keep writing storybooks?

"To please your confidante?"

"Something like that." Ding Songyan sighed silently.

Twelfth Madam Luo wore the expression of someone prying into gossip.

"That senior sister of yours?"

"Er, yes yes yes!" Ding Songyan nodded quickly.

Both senior sisters love reading them, and both will read them!

"May I take a look?" Twelfth Madam Luo’s curiosity was plain.

Ding Songyan was racking his brains over the story’s development and casually pointed his chin at the first several Chapters set to one side.

"Sure."

Twelfth Madam Luo took the stacks of paper back to the reclining chair and read them by Chapter heading and page number.

Ding Songyan had not yet finished a new Chapter when Twelfth Madam Luo finished reading.

Her eyes flickered as she said, "The story’s quite exciting, and the emotions are sincere.

"Even if you didn’t practice martial arts, you could make a living just writing storybooks."

"I tell it better than I write it." Ding Songyan shamelessly accepted the praise.

Twelfth Madam Luo, still on the reclining chair, turned half sideways and said with a click of her tongue,

"It’s just that Cao E is a real flirt, falling in love with everyone he meets. Do you also dream of a harem, with three wives and four concubines?"

"Don’t project a character’s thoughts onto the author," Ding Songyan replied without looking up.

Before Twelfth Madam could speak, he thought for a moment, then lifted his head.

"Where are the four concubines?"

Aren’t there only three important female characters?

Ding Songyan then added, "Besides, I haven’t decided on the ending yet. Anything is possible."

Twelfth Madam Luo pursed her lips and said with a half smile, "I was just teasing. Why harp on it?"

Damn, I forgot Twelfth Madam can out-argue street loafers and alley matrons. Though not using foul language cuts her attack power a lot, she’s still not one to trifle with when it comes to quick wits... Ding Songyan could only rely on his thick skin and replied without blinking, "It concerns my spotless reputation. No amount of seriousness is too much."

Twelfth Madam Luo felt her blood inexplicably surge and suddenly sensed that she had not yet fully mastered a calm state.

...

Near the Treasure Market.

Hou Yang, having heard his subordinates’ report, quickly found He Jin.

"Someone wearing a hero’s headscarf went to a clinic on Yuyuan Street to ask for a prescription to nourish the spirit and calm the heart."

"Wu Zheng?" He Jin blurted.

"According to those who saw him, his looks were disguised, but his face looked sickly. We haven’t found out more specifics yet," Hou Yang said truthfully. "I’ll go chase him right now!"

He Jin nodded and said in a low voice, "His Highness has replied as well. They haven’t yet found out who Luo Mingyin is."

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