Chapter 76: The Way of Wickedness

As far as Ding Songyan was concerned, it would be fine even if Feng Zhengning—suspected of rearing an evil entity—truly came from Jinyang Prefecture, Du Province. After all, every province and prefecture had its share of heretics. What he feared was that the man had deliberately fabricated his origins, intentionally writing Jinyang Prefecture, Du Province in the register.

That would mean he perhaps knew that Ding Songyan had extracted the surname "Jiang" from the remnant soul of Yan Changqing—and that he might have some connection to whoever had obliterated Yan Changqing. His visit to Alpine Lake Town would then be a deliberate attempt to redirect any official investigation toward Jiang Lanting of the Yin-Yang Sect!

While Ding Songyan was still thinking, Zheng Zhuxi had already begun giving instructions in an orderly manner. Even though every Brightnight Sect disciple around her was a senior brother or sister, or even master uncles—all outranking her in seniority and martial cultivation—she handled the entire matter as a matter of course.

She sent people to investigate who Feng Zhengning had contacted in Alpine Lake Town and what he had done, while she herself led Ding Songyan to one town gate while other fellow disciples went to the other to confirm whether the fabric merchant had already departed.

Upon inquiry, they learned that Feng Zhengning had left Alpine Lake Town through the west gate about half an hour ago, heading north along the main road and passing beyond the watch of the wall towers.

"The rest of the investigation is slow grinding work. The Disciplinary Hall will take over," Zheng Zhuxi said to Ding Songyan with a hint of disappointment.

She promptly adjusted her mood and smiled. "Come on, I’ll treat you to cold drinks."

Compared to up the mountain, Alpine Lake Town still held some lingering warmth of autumn.

"Shouldn’t I as the junior brother be the one to repay the senior sister?" Ding Songyan followed at her side and asked with a smile.

Zheng Zhuxi’s dimples made a shallow appearance as she said, "You have no income within the sect. Hold onto those silvers you saved from storytelling. You may need them for aperture forging, meridian condensation, and viscera installation. Some of those cultivation resources are often in short supply even in the sect, and my mother may not have gathered them all. You’ll need to seek them out yourself when you travel the jianghu."

"Xu Chang’an should have sold The Legend of the White Snake at a good price for me." Ding Songyan turned his gaze toward a tavern by the roadside, where a storyteller was recounting the tale of Lady Bai stealing the elixir of immortality, while a singing girl beside him plucked a pipa playing "Bai Suzhen at the Foot of Qingcheng Mountain."

In the past month or more, Ding Songyan had not returned to the prefecture city, let alone seen Xu Chang’an. If Xu Chang’an was too unsophisticated to fetch the reserve price Ding Songyan wanted for The Legend of the White Snake, then Xu Chang’an would have no choice but to voluntarily practice the Nine Primal Arts and the Forward-Reverse Circulation. After all, the Chaos-derived cultivation arts could accommodate everything he had learned so far.

"Then treat me when it’s your turn to patrol the prefecture city." Zheng Zhuxi led Ding Songyan around the corner onto Greenwater Street, where they sat down at a small square table the Mei Family Eatery had set out by the road and laid their swords on the table.

"What cold drink do you want?" she asked Ding Songyan.

Ding Songyan glanced at the wooden signs hanging on the wall and smiled.

"Please recommend something, Senior Sister. I’m not very familiar with any of these cold drinks."

"Then I’ll get you a bowl of sugar snowice with glutinous rice balls, and I’ll have iced cheese." Zheng Zhuxi gave the instruction to the shop assistant, then turned to Ding Songyan. "When the plum blossoms happen in winter, we should all find a chance to admire the snow while drinking snow-steeped plum blossom wine."

The "we" she referred to were Tao Wenshu’s personal disciples.

The Brightnight Sect distinguished only between entry-level disciples and true-lineage disciples. Entry-level disciples could not yet take a master, but were taught in rotation each day by true-lineage disciples at the Great Proliferation Realm and by steward Elders, with a Grandmaster answering questions once every ten days. After three years, Dharma Realm Grandmasters and perfected Great Proliferation Realm powerhouses would select their personal disciples from among the entry-level disciples. If someone showed outstanding martial talent and was noticed by several senior members, that person could choose their master for themselves.

A personal disciple was another way of saying true-lineage disciple. The former was prefixed by the name of a specific master, while the latter was prefixed by the Brightnight Sect itself.

There were of course those who skipped the entry-level stage and became true-lineage disciples directly, like Ding Songyan. As for Brightnight Sect members who had not yet reached the perfected Great Proliferation Realm and wished to take disciples of their own, they had to wait until they were at least forty years old and their martial potential had been fully exhausted, so as not to interfere with their own cultivation.

Before long, the shopkeeper of the Mei Family Eatery came out personally, carrying the iced cheese and the sugar snowice with glutinous rice balls, and set them in front of Zheng Zhuxi and Ding Songyan.

A good-natured man in his early thirties, he smiled with genuine warmth.

"Young Sect Master, it’s been a while."

"Young Sect Master?" Zheng Zhuxi laughed and waved her hand. "Don’t call me that. The Brightnight Sect selects its leaders on merit, not by bloodline."

The shopkeeper said stubbornly, "In my heart, you are the Young Sect Master."

Unable to out-argue the clearly single-minded shopkeeper, Zheng Zhuxi exchanged a few pleasantries and sent him on his way. She stirred her iced cheese with a spoon and sighed to Ding Songyan.

"His name is Mei Changle. His father was a disciple of our Brightnight Sect who died at the hands of heretics during a patrol mission. My mother gave the compensation according to sect rules, waived the shop’s dues for twenty years, and promised that whenever he or his children wished to join the Brightnight Sect to study martial arts, they could become entry-level disciples directly without going through any selection.

"He is honest and straightforward, with no martial talent, so he turned the family shop into this eatery. No one expected that he would turn out to be so extraordinarily gifted at food.

"Because I come here often and he is grateful to my mother, he has always called me Young Sect Master."

All taxes and levies in Alpine Lake Town went to the Brightnight Sect; the imperial court had no hand in it.

This is the kind of sect that builds real cohesion... Ding Songyan scooped up a small glutinous rice ball with his spoon, along with some of the sweet syrup still laced with drifting ice crystals, and put it in his mouth.

The rich sweetness of the sugar was tempered considerably by the cool chill, drawing it out into something more lingering. Paired with the chewy rice balls that left a sweet aftertaste, the whole thing instantly drove away the last of the autumn heat and soothed Ding Songyan’s body and mind.

Zheng Zhuxi’s iced cheese was made from snow and ice combined with cheese and seasonal fruit juice. To Ding Songyan it looked like an ancient version of ice cream and it looked extremely delicious.

As they chatted, Ding Songyan suddenly asked, "Senior Sister, do you think Feng Zhengning deliberately left behind an evil entity to possess the inn assistant, or did he accidentally let it slip free, causing it to affect someone else?"

"I don’t know either." Zheng Zhuxi held the spoon in her mouth and mused, "If it were accidental, that’s not so bad. At worst it’s a heretic who rears evil entities but knows where to draw the line. If it were deliberate, he could well be a devil from the Twenty-One Heretical Ways."

"If it were deliberate, what was he after? Drawing us into an investigation to mislead us about something?" Ding Songyan voiced his suspicion.

Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes moved as she thought it over.

"Mislead us about what?"

She suddenly laughed.

"Junior Brother Ding, you don’t know enough about the Twenty-One Heretical Ways yet. The Sage-Severing Way is one of the more rational among them. Apart from its love of deceit, misdirection, and scheming, it has always operated with a modus operandi. But some of the heretical ways place doing evil above accomplishing anything, and will often expose their own whereabouts for the sake of doing evil, ruining whatever they had originally planned.

"If Feng Zhengning deliberately left behind an evil entity, it is more likely that his purpose was simply to do harm."

"There are heretics like that?" Ding Songyan was somewhat surprised.

People who harm others for no benefit to themselves?

No, perhaps doing evil is a form of self-interest. Perhaps doing evil is part of tempering the heart and forging the self.

Zheng Zhuxi scraped her small porcelain bowl clean of iced cheese before replying, "Yes. Take the Accumulated Evil Way for example. They are said to trace their lineage to Qiongqi and are one of the Upper Nine, known for doing all kinds of evil and accumulating wickedness into a Way."

At this point, Zheng Zhuxi was suddenly stunned.

"There’s a divine art that the Accumulated Evil Way calls the Demon Swallowing Evil Devouring Technique. Evil Devouring, Evil..."

Did it not all fit together now?

Qiongqi? The corresponding content of the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas surfaced in Ding Songyan’s mind.

"Qiongqi, Bizarro: its face resembles a tiger and its shape resembles an ox. With porcupine bristles and wings, its cry is like a howling dog. The result of consuming it? Wards off demons, repels evil, commands the Eight Winds, destroys faithfulness and annihilates loyalty, accumulates evil and dissolves gold..."

"Is he someone with no obvious physical anomalies, or is he working for the Accumulated Evil Way and gathering evil entities?" Zheng Zhuxi sighed inexplicably. "Cultivation arts like the Sage-Severing Way that can conceal physical anomalies do exist, but they are not common. Many heretics and evil cultivators are able to blend into towns and do harm precisely because no small number of ordinary people and martial practitioners are willing to serve as their accomplices."

While discussing the Accumulated Evil Way, Zheng Zhuxi paid the bill and led Ding Songyan on a stroll, turning into Mountainview Lane.

She pointed to a three-courtyard residence and smiled.

"Junior Brother, I brought you here to learn where this is. You may need to spend New Year’s here.

"My mother likes quiet, so there are only a few old servants in the house. I’ll have them get to know your face, and if you arrive at the foot of the mountain after dark some time and can’t make it up in time, you can spend the night here..."

Ding Songyan moved his left hand which was holding the scabbard of Frostshade to his back, and followed Zheng Zhuxi’s introduction as he took in the courtyard, the covered walkways, the large trees, and the garden.

At that very moment, a figure was lurking behind one of the large trees.

It was none other than Feng Zhengning, who had left Alpine Lake Town earlier.

While strolling through the streets, he had caught sight of Zheng Zhuxi, daughter of Tao Wenshu. Knowing she was only at the sixth rank—Anomaly Manifested, the same as himself—and showed no physical anomalies, he had immediately conceived a malicious intent and decided to do something big.

Was there any act of wickedness more thrilling than killing the daughter of the Brightnight Sect Master within Alpine Lake Town itself?

The mere thought of the scene made Feng Zhengning tremble with excitement. He had hurried to check out, deliberately leaving behind the evil entity to cause chaos and keep Zheng Zhuxi occupied.

He himself had left Alpine Lake Town, disguised himself in a stretch of woodland outside, then slipped back in through the east gate and hidden in the Zheng family residence, evading the watch of the towers while awaiting his moment to strike.

Feng Zhengning considered himself rich in combat experience. Also, with an evil entity to aid him, taking Zheng Zhuxi by surprise—someone at the same realm as himself—would not be too difficult. The hard part would be escaping after the deed was done.

This was also why he absolutely had to lie in ambush at the Zheng family residence. If Zheng Zhuxi did not come, he would have no choice but to abandon the wickedness that had set his heart surging.

He saw Zheng Zhuxi pass not far away with her junior brother, Ding Songyan, who was wearing tight-fitting black martial attire and following closely behind her. Feng Zhengning held his breath, silently roused the evil entity within himself, and prepared to spring.

As he waited for his opening, he silently cursed Ding Songyan.

Someone who hasn’t even reached the Great Proliferation Realm, putting on airs like a master swordsman. How dare he hold the scabbard in his left hand behind his back!

In an instant, Feng Zhengning found his opening. His body moved, on the verge of springing forward.

At that very moment, he saw a longsword—crystalline and translucent with a vein of burning crimson within it—and saw it thrust toward him, slow at first and then suddenly fast.

No, it didn’t get faster. I got slower... The thought had barely flashed through Feng Zhengning’s mind when he found himself seemingly frozen.

The longsword touched his throat, then was withdrawn, sliding silently back into the scabbard held behind the swordsman’s back.

Blood poured from Feng Zhengning’s throat. He could no longer make a sound.

His vision gradually darkened. He watched the person who had killed him continue forward at an unhurried pace, scabbard still held in the left hand behind the back, not even glancing in his direction.

He collapsed slowly to the ground and vaguely heard the person say, "Uh, Senior Sister, I think I just killed an evil creature."

After a while, the dazed and befuddled Feng Zhengning saw that figure again.

This time, his whole body trembled, and he could not stop it.

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