Chapter 156: Return to the Mountain

After completing his kowtows, Pan Yunzhou rose to his feet, made his way around to the rear hall of the ancestral shrine, and after some time emerged carrying the black lacquered wooden case that held the Myriad Stars Canon.

He walked up to Ding Songyan with heavy steps, his voice slightly hoarse.

"Junior Brother Ding, allow me to make a copy to leave at home."

"Take your time, there’s no hurry." Ding Songyan smiled. "I’ll go for a stroll and find the Hongxin Trading Company branch to arrange when we head back."

He made a point of showing full trust, leaving without supervising the Pan family’s transcription of the Myriad Stars Canon. What Pan Yunzhou would hand over to the sect was the original, in any case.

Out on the street, Ding Songyan pulled his collar tighter and strolled along at a leisurely pace.

Whether it was how folks in different places showed different traits or something particular about the Sovereign Xi School’s martial arts, Riyu County had a striking number of beautiful women. None were true peerless beauties, but there were many pleasing to look at, and Ding Songyan feasted his eyes.

Compared to the young women of Ning Province, those here favored red and seemed to have more fiery, forthright personalities.

Before he knew it, Ding Songyan had found the Hongxin Trading Company’s branch office in Eastern Plains Prefecture.

He had barely stepped inside when a female steward came forward with a smile.

"Would you be Junior Brother Ding?"

"You know me, Senior Sister?" Ding Songyan looked at this sharp, spirited fellow sect member who seemed to be a local, and asked with some amusement.

He guessed she was from the southern Chu Province or Bao Province, someone who had joined the Brightnight Sect through the Hongxin Trading Company connection, then returned to work there in the end. Her features were more pronounced than those of Ning Province people, less soft, but that fitted well with her relatively striking looks.

The female steward replied with a smile, "I was in Yuejiang Prefecture before the New Year and was only just transferred here. I’m the one who went around showing your portrait to people, how could I not recognize you?"

After exchanging names, the female steward, Peng Jiayin, said to Ding Songyan, "Senior Brother Zhang sent word by carrier pigeon from Immortal Grotto County. County Marshal Wen helped trace your background. A few northerners said you fled the famine from north of the river, that your family all died on the road, and that your talent for storytelling was the only thing that kept you from starving. You originally intended to settle in Immortal Grotto County, but then moved on to Yuejiang Prefecture’s prefectural city."

Is that so... Ding Songyan said, a little surprised.

"Why is it another famine refugee from north of the river to Chu Province?"

Old Jiang had used the same cover story. Is this actually a common one?

Peng Jiayin said offhandedly, "Perhaps there are Grandmasters, or even Supreme Masters, active in the area across from Chu Province who cultivate calamity-type arts."

Ding Songyan immediately thought of the many divine creatures and strange beasts in the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas that could call down calamities.

He had no more questions, and quietly let out a breath of relief.

No need to go back to Immortal Grotto County!

"Senior Sister Peng, please report to the sect for me that Senior Brother Pan and I have taken care of our business, and we only need the flying vessel to come and pick us up in Eastern Plains Prefecture." Ding Songyan kept his expression neutral. After all, learning that he was now an orphan wasn’t exactly a cause for joy.

If County Marshal Wen hadn’t gone to such lengths to trace his background, he would have had to go back to Immortal Grotto County to keep up appearances before departing from Yuejiang Prefecture by flying vessel.

The next morning.

Ding Songyan finished the breakfast brought to his room, packed his things, and stood at the half-open window with his sword in his arms, idly watching what was happening in the courtyard below.

He watched Pan Yunzhou come before his younger siblings, press a few silver ingots exchanged the day before into each of their hands, say a few words of encouragement, and then walk to the entrance of the main hall to bid his parents farewell.

The eyes of Pan Changjing and Zou Qionghua gradually reddened. At that moment, Pan Yunzhou produced a thick stack of banknotes and handed them over.

Ding Songyan made no effort to hear what Pan Yunzhou said. He only saw that his senior brother’s eyes had also reddened, and that his mother, Zou Qionghua, had begun to wipe away tears.

Sigh... Ding Songyan found himself suddenly awash in mixed feelings.

He thought of himself.

After a moment, he shouldered his pack, picked up Frostshade, and walked out, calling out clearly to Pan Yunzhou, "Senior Brother Pan, it’s time to go."

...

Du Province, Changhua Prefecture. Inside the Zheng family’s ancestral estate, renovated and expanded many times over.

Tao Wenshu stood at the desk by the window, leafing through letters and notes just received.

At the half-open door, a beautiful, bright-eyed face peeked inside.

"Mother, any news of Junior Brother?" Seeing her mother was indeed in the study, Zheng Zhuxi pushed open the wooden door and walked in briskly.

Tao Wenshu turned to look at her daughter, amused.

"You ask three times a day. If your father knew, he’d tell you to do more cultivation exercises to temper your spirit."

"More than three times..." Zheng Zhuxi said quietly but without any embarrassment.

She tilted her chin up.

"A senior sister caring about her junior brother is only right and natural."

Tao Wenshu looked at Zheng Zhuxi for a long moment, then shook her head with a sigh.

She picked up a slip of paper from the desk.

"Songyan and Yunzhou returned to the sect yesterday afternoon. They are safe and sound."

Zheng Zhuxi’s smile broke open at once, dimples deep.

"That’s wonderful, that’s wonderful."

After chatting with her mother a little longer, she left the study with a light step, graceful as ever.

...

Back in Alpine Lake Mountain, Ding Songyan rested for only one day before heading to Kindling Hall, where he went to the underground chamber to study the aperture-forging and viscera-installation methods of the Celestial Stars Scripture alongside the Myriad Stars Canon.

Though Ji Hanyi had warned him not to use the Celestial Heart imprint’s ability to divide his mind too often, there were times when he had no choice.

What Demoness Ji said was that it couldn’t be frequent. So I’ll set myself a rule of no more than four times a month... In terms of self-discipline, Ding Songyan was quite confident in himself.

He couldn’t avoid it entirely, after all.

What if Demoness Ji was just trying to frighten him and hadn’t been telling the truth?

Phew... Ding Songyan let out a breath, divided his mind in two, and applied himself seriously to cultivating the Human Realm and Great Proliferation Realm sections of the Myriad Stars Canon.

After more than two hours, the corresponding apertures shifted, Star-Sequence True Qi flowing throughout his body, and the corresponding alien viscera were "forged" into existence from nothing.

Ding Songyan did not consume any lifespan to make his body permanently memorize this art. He simply maintained the current state and carefully compared his present alien viscera and alien apertures against the aperture-forging and viscera-installation methods in both the Myriad Stars Canon and the Celestial Stars Scripture.

The Myriad Stars Canon also contains the four great stellar viscera of Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, and the other two, but it has two additional alien viscera—Extreme Yang and Extreme Yin—that the Celestial Stars Scripture lacks... So what the Pan family lost are the four viscera-installation methods for Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Black Turtle, and White Tiger, which the Celestial Stars Scripture happens to have... Otherwise it would be quite a headache, and we’d have to work it out gradually through experimentation and analysis... Ding Songyan muttered silently as he lifted his ink-soaked brush and set down the fruits of his comparison on paper, one finding at a time.

With a draft complete, he continued to revise, correcting places he felt might present serious problems, doing everything he could to ensure Pan Yunzhou would not die on the spot or lose his mind—even at the cost of sacrificing a possible path toward the Heaven-Man Realm.

As for other consequences, they could all be remedied afterward through the Lesser Limitless Art.

Another two hours passed. Before sunset, Ding Songyan returned to the main level of Kindling Hall, first returning the aperture-forging section of the Celestial Stars Scripture to Hu Chengzong. After he had put it back in the hidden chamber, Ding Songyan discussed with the cultivation-teaching Elder which supplementary materials to select for the just-completed viscera-installation method. In this area, Ding Songyan was far less experienced than Hu Chengzong.

With the plan settled, Ding Songyan brought Pan Yunzhou to one of the meditation rooms in Kindling Hall and sat beside Hu Chengzong, playing the part of an assistant.

"On behalf of" Master Granduncle Hu, he handed over the thick sheaf of handwritten papers and said earnestly, "This is the completed method, Senior Brother Pan. Look it over and raise any concerns you have. Discuss them with Elder Granduncle Hu or with me."

This soon? Pan Yunzhou was startled, his astonishment like something out of a dream.

When he had been summoned, he assumed this would be a preliminary discussion to formally begin the process.

Suppressing the confusion, disbelief, shock, and anxiety within him, Pan Yunzhou began to go through the papers.

As he read on, his gaze gradually froze, his expression like a man who had just been struck on the back of the head.

Th-this all looks genuine...

He hadn’t installed the viscera yet, but every detail corresponded to the alien aperture condensation methods in the Myriad Stars Canon!

Amidst indescribable emotions, Pan Yunzhou finished leafing through the papers in a daze.

He could find no flaws, and could not offer a single suggestion for revision.

Seeing this, Ding Songyan spoke with a serious expression, "Senior Brother Pan, in the matter of completing martial arts, the Brightnight Sect has deep experience and accumulated knowledge. And what the Myriad Stars Canon is missing is precisely the Four Symbols viscera."

At those words, Pan Yunzhou seemed to come alive again. His eyes moved around, and he said in disbelief, "This doesn’t look like those viscera-installation methods were simply transplanted over..."

Otherwise it wouldn’t fit so perfectly.

"We naturally made adjustments according to the Myriad Stars Canon. These are patterns accumulated over successive generations." Ding Songyan glanced over at Elder Granduncle Hu.

Hu Chengzong shifted uncomfortably and gave a slow nod.

"That’s right."

As a cultivation-teaching Elder of the Brightnight Sect, he rarely found himself in the position of telling lies.

Something exploded in Pan Yunzhou’s mind. His joy and excitement burst out like New Year’s fireworks, instantly flooding every corner of his thoughts.

The final step had come far too easily and did not seem quite real, but before it there had been hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of steps. The weight of his joy and excitement was not diminished in the slightest by that ease.

Has the completion of the art actually succeeded?

Does the Pan family finally have hope?

Pan Yunzhou’s vision suddenly blurred. He couldn’t help raising his right hand to wipe the corners of his eyes with his sleeve.

Once he had calmed down somewhat, Ding Songyan spoke with a grave expression, his voice steady, "Senior Brother Pan, I have to warn you that completing an art is never a smooth road. There are serious dangers involved.

"Of those two generations in our Brightnight Sect who attempted it, only a handful came through unscathed. Among the rest, some deviated in cultivation and ended up bedridden and paralyzed, wailing in agony every day. Some went mad and hanged themselves. Some could never advance again, with no prospects ahead of them. And some died on the spot.

"It is because generation after generation of our disciples were willing to stake their lives on verifying the methods that the Brightnight Sect was able to keep refining them and complete two of our foundational arts.

"Senior Brother Pan, although there is prior experience to draw on, we are completing a new art, and Master Granduncle Hu and the other cultivation-teaching Elders cannot guarantee there is no risk. Every outcome I just described could happen to you after you install the viscera.

"Senior Brother Pan, consider it carefully. Are you willing to accept these consequences by staking your own life and future to verify whether this completion is a success?"

Pan Yunzhou opened his mouth, about to answer "yes" on instinct, when the scenes Junior Brother Ding had just described suddenly rose before his mind’s eye.

He fell silent. After a moment, he said in a low, hoarse voice, "Give me a few days to think it over."

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