Chapter 68: Learning Through Teaching

The worst days of summer had passed, and the mountain air had turned noticeably cool.

Though Ding Songyan was no longer affected by heat or cold, and could disturb the seasons in his immediate vicinity, he still changed into a thicker black training uniform like everyone else. His left sleeve was dotted with starlight and his right sleeve painted with clusters of candleflame.

He stood in the Dipper-Mansion Training Ground that belonged to Tao Wenshu’s lineage, moving through his forms at an unhurried pace. His fist stances were rounded, alternating between light and heavy, flowing sometimes like a babbling brook, sometimes crashing like ocean waves.

This was the Initial Realm cultivation method he had created through a month of trial and error, drawing on the changes to his own body and the Brightnight Sect’s two body-tempering and qi-cultivation arts—the Twenty-Eight Mansions Art and the Body-Candle Mind-Fire Art.

Of course, he had also studied the various corresponding arts the Brightnight Sect had collected.

Unlike the arts of other sects, which invariably emphasized one part over another, Ding Songyan’s Initial Realm art treated every part of the body equally, neglecting nothing. Both body and mind were gathered inward, perfectly rounded and responsive. It was divided into nine forms, each with its own distinctions of stillness and motion, some slow and some fast. They happened to have thirty-six diagrams with detailed annotations.

Ding Songyan named it the Nine Primal Arts, thoroughly gratifying his own vanity.

In recent days he had sealed off the qi meridians he had condensed from his consumption, read through every qi-circulation art in the scripture repository, and through constant experimentation and refinement, finally found the Initial Realm qi-cultivation route most suited to himself, naming it the Forward-Reverse Circulation.

His plan going forward was to formally enter the Human Realm, begin aperture refinement, and grope his way toward creating the corresponding visualization chart.

"Junior Brother Ding, what are you doing?" A clear but languid male voice drifted from the entrance of the Dipper-Mansion Training Ground.

Ding Songyan finished the final form of the Nine Primal Arts—Cradling the Taiji—spread his arms in a long stretch, and turned with a smile.

"Practicing a family art."

Since it’s my own body-tempering art, why can’t I call it a family tradition? I’ll make my children practice it one day!

The only real problem now was that his body had already changed. Even using the secret method Yan Changqing had taught him to deceive himself and others, that fact could not be erased. This made it difficult to gauge whether the Nine Primal Arts and the Forward-Reverse Circulation would be considered challenging for someone just beginning the martial path—whether they were a surmountable difficulty, or one that simply couldn’t be practiced at all.

He would have to find willing volunteers to test it later.

Stepping into the Dipper-Mansion Training Ground was a young man around twenty-six. His black training uniform hung loosely on him, his hair tied up in a simple knot. His brows were sharp and his eyes bright, but his nose lacked height and his lips were somewhat thick. They robbed him of the full measure of dashing and cool-edged handsomeness.

"That family tradition of yours actually looks rather good." The newcomer smiled, unhurried and at ease.

He was Ding Songyan’s own senior brother, second in rank among the disciples still under Tao Wenshu’s personal instruction. His surname was Wan, given name Guhong. He had only returned from wandering the jianghu the previous year, rated Mortal Surpassed in the Orchid Rankings—the fourth rank in common parlance.

According to Tao Wenshu, Wan Guhong lacked only a final round of viscera installation and the corresponding three apertures and meridians to achieve the perfected Great Proliferation Realm. It couldn’t be considered the pinnacle by the standards of major sects, but it was outstanding within the Brightnight Sect.

Hearing Wan Guhong say this, Ding Songyan’s face lit up at once. He asked eagerly, "Senior Brother Wan, would you like to try it?"

Even if Senior Brother Wan was a Great Proliferation Realm master, his body surely couldn’t match a Grandmaster’s. Having him try the Nine Primal Arts would still yield useful data for later improvements.

Wan Guhong gave an inexplicable shudder and raised an eyebrow.

"You know my temperament. If I can sit, I won’t stand. If I can lie down, I won’t sit. Even if your family tradition were among the most divine arts in the world, I wouldn’t spare it a second glance."

He yawned, covering his mouth with his hand.

"We have clear autumn skies and crisp air, the perfect time for a good sleep. Why waste it on martial training?"

Tsk. No wonder Master is so resentful towards you for failing to meet expectations. You treat daily training like clocking in for work, never voluntarily doing more than required... Ding Songyan grumbled inwardly, a little disappointed.

This was also why Tao Wenshu had assigned Wan Guhong to instruct in her stead when she was occupied. This disciple was lazy and easygoing. Even if he noticed something off about Ding Songyan, he wouldn’t dwell on it; he was unlikely to uncover his secret.

Compared to Eldest Senior Brother Xu Julong, who was upright but meticulous, Wan Guhong was clearly better suited to guide Ding Songyan through the Celestial Stars Scripture.

Zheng Zhuxi was responsible for guiding him through the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra. Both Tao Wenshu and Ding Songyan trusted her character completely. They knew that whatever she discovered, she would keep to herself.

Wan Guhong picked up a still-sealed longsword from the weapon rack and twirled a sword flourish.

"Junior Brother Ding, you’ve already mastered the Twenty-Eight Mansions Art and the Body-Candle Mind-Fire Art, and you completed your Initial Realm cultivation long ago. Today you may go to the scripture repository and borrow the Celestial Stars Chart to begin aperture refinement. Before the Great Proliferation Realm, this won’t interfere with cultivating the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra.

"Come, let me see how your introductory sword art is coming along."

Ding Songyan drew a still-sealed sword as well and said while in thought, "Senior Brother Wan, I have a question about the form called Left Support, Right Aid."

The Brightnight Sect’s introductory sword art was called Piercing Dawn, said to be a simplified derivation of the Flying Star Dawn-Break and other highly advanced sword forms from the Celestial Stars Scripture. It comprised thirty-six forms in all.

"What is it?" Wan Guhong thrust his sword suddenly, the tip quivering—first angling left, then with a flip of his wrist sweeping a half-circle and slashing toward Ding Songyan’s left. "This form is a feint. Its purpose is to fix the opponent in place and force them to face the follow-up, Direct Fall to the Central Palace."

Ding Songyan watched with complete focus. In his eyes, Wan Guhong’s sword move followed a certain logic, sketching out detail after detail, and every detail existed to "summon" what was to come.

By the time the form reached its end, the intent of a sword cleaving the heavens was ready to burst forth.

Just as I thought... It’s meant to lead into Direct Fall to the Central Palace... The original Flying Star Dawn-Break has been broken apart into several forms... Ding Songyan slowly imitated the movement.

"Senior Brother Wan, you said earlier that if the sword is fast enough and the force great enough, there’s no need for a feint to overcome the enemy. It’s only because the gap between opponents in real combat rarely reaches that level that all these forms came to exist.

"Given that, why must Left Support, Right Aid always be a feint? An enemy with sufficient knowledge of the Piercing Dawn Sword Art won’t be fooled at all. Why not let feint and reality coexist, concealing truth within the false? That way it could, when necessary, convert into a killing move, leaving the enemy with no defense."

Just as Yan Changqing had said: when the timing is right, false becomes real; when it isn’t, real becomes false.

Wan Guhong laughed.

"That variation does exist—it’s just not in the introductory sword art. You’d need to complete your aperture refinement and develop Myriad Star True Qi before you could hold qi in your wrist and, at the critical moment, switch the form from false to real. To do it through physical strength alone, you’d need to enter the Great Proliferation Realm."

"No," said Ding Songyan, shaking his head. "Eyes aligned with the shoulder is enough."

He thrust his sword immediately, angling toward Wan Guhong’s left. Just as he was about to flip his wrist, he suddenly pushed his shoulder forward—shoulder driving arm, arm driving wrist—and in an instant reversed the slash toward the right back into a thrust to the left, with greater force and greater speed.

Ding Songyan then demonstrated how Right Aid could be converted into a real slash.

He used no level of strength beyond body-tempering and qi-cultivation.

Wan Guhong frowned slightly, watched it through once, then tried it himself.

"It actually works." He brought his sword to rest at his side and let out a surprised laugh.

Over the next two hours, Ding Songyan went through all thirty-six forms of the Dawn-Break Sword Art, offering his own thoughts on each—improving some, cutting away the useless parts in others, and deliberating over some.

In Wan Guhong’s view, the introductory sword art was only meant for disciples who had not yet developed Myriad Star True Qi or Candleflame True Qi. Such disciples never left the sect except to visit family and were never assigned to assist with patrol duties. The sword art they learned was for sparring within the sect which was obviously not a matter of importance. No forebear had ever bothered to refine it. Junior Brother Ding really had no need to waste time on this.

"Still, many of your ideas are quite interesting. I’ll try some of them when I practice other sword arts later..." Wan Guhong returned the still-sealed sword to the rack and watched Ding Songyan bid farewell and leave for the scripture repository.

Suddenly, something felt off to him.

He rubbed his chin and muttered to himself, "Was I mentoring his sword practice, or was he mentoring me?"

After a moment’s thought, Wan Guhong shook his head.

"Let him do as he likes. A good afternoon nap is not to be wasted on the training ground."

Second Senior Brother ambled out of the Dipper-Mansion Training Ground and drifted along the rippling, pale-blue Alpine Lake toward his own courtyard.

Ding Songyan had already circled to the other side of the lake and was climbing the clean stone steps one by one toward the scripture repository above.

It was a small building of blue-gray stone, only three stories above ground, with seven disciples patrolling each floor.

Ding Songyan came before Grand Elder Wang Zhou, who was on watch duty at the scripture repository that day, and smilingly presented the white jade token his master had given him.

The token was carved with candleflame and starlight and held a thread of Tao Wenshu’s sword intent within. With it, one could browse all the secret manuals and books in the repository.

Grand Elder Wang Zhou was the eldest among the Brightnight Sect’s five Grandmasters and Ding Songyan’s martial granduncle. Though past fifty, his hair remained jet black and his face bore not a single wrinkle. No one would doubt it if told he was in his mid-thirties.

He had entered the Dharma Realm a year later than Tao Wenshu and had only become a Grandmaster at the age of forty.

"Finally beginning aperture refinement, are we?" Wang Zhou took the token and gave it a cursory glance with his double pupils.

"It’s time," Ding Songyan agreed, letting his gaze drift to the rows of iron shelves. They held the various cultivation methods the Brightnight Sect had collected which lacked aperture forging sections, as well as combat experiences recorded by disciples who had wandered the jianghu, techniques of other practitioners, and the cultivation insights of past forebears.

For the month and more Ding Songyan had been coming here, he had always been reluctant to leave, wishing the day had more than twenty-four hours.

Wang Zhou placed great hopes in Ding Songyan as well. Setting aside talk of sect succession, the sheer possibility of Ding Songyan someday deriving and completing the Celestial Stars Scripture was enough to make him eager.

If the completed Celestial Stars Scripture turned out not to conflict with what he had already learned and could encompass it, then he could remedy his own foundation. The Heaven-Man Realm might actually be within reach.

And so, finding it a more pressing issue even than Ding Songyan himself, Wang Zhou and the other Dharma Realm masters of the Brightnight Sect were anxious, but they could not show it, lest it affect his cultivation. All they could do was wait and watch, day after day, with quiet hope.

After receiving Ding Songyan’s affirmative reply, Wang Zhou wasted no time in leading him to the underground level. He retrieved the Celestial Stars Chart—the aperture refinement visualization method—and pressed it into his hands with grave sincerity.

"Aside from not damaging it and not taking it out of here, you may do with it as you like.

"There are forty-nine cultivation chambers on this level. You may choose any one you like."

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