Chapter 158: The Gift

Though the compliment pleased Zheng Zhuxi, she didn’t take it at face value. Her eyes wavered slightly, and she smiled at her junior brother.

"Tell me the truth."

Senior Sister is getting harder and harder to fool... Ding Songyan cleared his throat.

"Master sent a letter via pigeon to the sect two days ago to arrange some things. It wasn’t spelled out, but I could deduce that you would be returning from the Flame Capital to Dingjiang Prefecture today. Had you lingered over breakfast and then set off at an unhurried pace, first taking a flying vessel to the prefectural city and then returning to the mountain from there, you would have arrived around this time."

"I’ll give you that one." Zheng Zhuxi’s dimples showed.

She glanced around and asked with a smile,

"How long have you been waiting?"

"Less than the time of an incense stick," Ding Songyan said straightforwardly.

"You didn’t need to come wait for me specifically." Zheng Zhuxi, dressed in a red-and-white padded jacket, walked alongside her junior brother toward Alpine Lake.

"Doesn’t it show respect for you, Senior Sister?" Ding Songyan said with a chuckle, without a trace of embarrassment.

Zheng Zhuxi shot him a sideways glance, but the smile on her face didn’t diminish in the slightest.

The young woman stopped and produced the white porcelain bottle her mother had given her.

"This is from my mother, a gift from her—the Dispelling Illness Longevity-Extending Pill. Its primary purpose is to cure all ailments, but the added bonus of extending one’s lifespan by twenty years makes it worth far more. Even with a great sum of money, you might not be able to buy one."

"There’s no need for you to convey my thanks, Senior Sister. I’ll pay my respects to Master in person when I see her tonight or tomorrow." Ding Songyan made no move to decline. He accepted the white porcelain bottle openly, pulled out the stopper, and looked inside.

Inside was a vermilion medicinal pill, radiating a fresh and pleasing fragrance unlike anything ordinary.

Just then, Zheng Zhuxi produced another small porcelain bottle that looked as though it were carved from green jade, and smiled.

"Here, a gift your senior sister brought for you."

"What is it?" Ding Songyan made no attempt to hide his delight.

Zheng Zhuxi, her raven-black hair loosely pinned up, spoke with a relaxed expression,

"The Crane Longevity Pill. It can extend one’s lifespan by ten years. My aunt received it as a birthday gift, but she took a similar pill when she was young, so the Crane Longevity Pill no longer works for her. My cousin is in the same situation, so he passed it on to me."

"Then why don’t you take it yourself, Senior Sister?" Ding Songyan paused.

Zheng Zhuxi scoffed,

"I don’t need to consume years of my lifespan to cultivate."

Ding Songyan was quiet for a few moments, then gave a slow nod.

He opened the jade-like bottle, tipped the porcelain-white pill out into his palm, and watched it roll around.

A faint sweet fragrance drifted up into his nose.

Right there in front of his senior sister, he swallowed the Crane Longevity Pill on the spot. A cool current flowed down his esophagus and spread throughout his body, and he felt his whole spirit lift.

Seeing this, Zheng Zhuxi’s faint smile gradually deepened. She felt her thoughts had been received with gravity.

Worried about conflicting medicinal effects, Ding Songyan first set the Dispelling Illness Longevity-Extending Pill aside, then drew a booklet from his robes and said with a smile,

"Senior Sister, I brought a gift for you as well."

Zheng Zhuxi was both surprised and delighted. She took the booklet and flipped through it, finding written on it in elegant hairpin-style small regular script the ten characters of "Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art."

"What is this?" She looked up at Ding Songyan with a puzzled expression.

"A secret manual of the Imperial Daughter Sect, something I obtained while tracing my origins." Ding Songyan glanced left and right. "Let’s discuss the details in my courtyard."

The New Year festivities had passed, and the shores of Alpine Lake were crowded with people and prying ears.

"Alright." Zheng Zhuxi gave a small nod and followed Ding Songyan to his courtyard, entering the quiet room he used for meditation and writing down his cultivation insights.

The two sat down on opposite sides of the writing desk, and Ding Songyan began recounting the details of his recent outing in full, starting from the experience of riding a flying vessel and leaving nothing out.

Zheng Zhuxi listened with great interest, occasionally interjecting with "you really do love ’fishing,’ don’t you."

When Ding Songyan finished explaining his idea for using the Accumulating Waters Divine Art to strengthen the Kindling Passes to Candle sword technique, Zheng Zhuxi said thoughtfully,

"If you can’t look through the Accumulating Waters Scripture at Second Brother Xing’s place, I might be able to think of something."

"Ask Master’s husband for help?" Ding Songyan’s mind immediately went to Zheng Ziming, her influential father.

Zheng Zhuxi shook her head quickly.

"No. My aunt’s son is Prince Kang, Hong Jingyuan. The martial arts he uses to train his guards should include the Accumulating Water Divine Art."

"Right. Let’s first try to obtain it from Second Brother Xing. If that doesn’t work, we’ll approach your cousin," Ding Songyan thought it over and said.

He continued recounting what happened next, and Zheng Zhuxi found herself growing tense without realizing it, feeling a considerable degree of vicarious unease.

It was more terrifying than any horror story in a storybook.

"Because Seventh Ge had been muddled for so long, he had forgotten much of his basic knowledge, and there were gaping vulnerabilities in his mind and spirit. The Dream Sword worked remarkably well." Ding Songyan had just finished reviewing the first Grandmaster battle of his life.

Zheng Zhuxi was reconstructing the scene in her mind and asked offhandedly,

"Old Jiang had a formidable senior sister?"

"I made that up. Mostly because I have a formidable senior sister of my own," Ding Songyan said with a quiet laugh.

Zheng Zhuxi couldn’t help rolling her eyes, though the corners of her mouth turned into a smile as she pressed him further.

"And what about the nether-lightning that struck when Old Jiang performed the soul seizure?"

"I drew from Mast—Yan Changqing’s experience." Ding Songyan had nearly blurted out "Master Yan," but caught himself just in time.

"So, in the three-lifetime dream you gave Old Jiang, how much of it was actually based on his own experiences?" Zheng Zhuxi asked, both amused and curious.

"Twenty or thirty percent, maybe. I didn’t know much about him. His soul seizure of his own disciple was real as that came from his own memories. Being purged from the sect was real too. But whether it was his senior sister who carried it out, that I couldn’t say," Ding Songyan said as he recalled.

Zheng Zhuxi thought for a moment.

"I’ve heard that the current sect master of the Imperial Daughter Sect is indeed a woman, a Supreme Master. But she only took over the sect over twenty years ago, so she’s certainly not from Old Jiang’s generation. She must be from the disciple generation, or even the grand-disciple generation."

"But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the memory of being purged from the sect." Ding Songyan recalled the primary purpose of the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art within the Imperial Daughter Sect, and said thoughtfully.

"What?" Zheng Zhuxi was completely lost.

Ding Songyan didn’t explain right away. Instead, he moved on to recount his findings from spirit channeling and searching the mud house.

At the end, he said in a low voice,

"Demoness Ji had already been there. She left behind her hand-copied version of this secret manual and a letter."

As he spoke, Ding Songyan took Ji Hanyi’s letter from his robes, unfolded it, and slid it across to his senior sister, setting it beside the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art.

Zheng Zhuxi, who had been listening with concern, stared at the letter before her and looked up at her junior brother in astonishment.

He’s letting me read this too?

Just like that, he’s letting me see it?

Ding Songyan smiled.

"You have treated me with sincerity, Senior Sister. I will do the same in return."

Looking into her junior brother’s eyes, which held a quiet smile, Zheng Zhuxi’s expression of stunned surprise slowly faded.

Her dimples appeared without her noticing as she picked up the letter and read it carefully.

When she finished, the young woman was unsettled for a long while. After some time she muttered,

"I can’t help feeling that Ji Hanyi really does treat you something like a second brother..."

"Don’t let the demoness fool you." Ding Songyan cautioned his senior sister instead. "Take what the master of the Sage-Severing Way says as just words. It’s hard to tell true from false. Either way, prepare for both possibilities."

Zheng Zhuxi made a sound of acknowledgment, pressed her lips together, then looked at Ding Songyan with a bright and gentle gaze, choosing her words carefully.

"But there is one thing Ji Hanyi said that I think holds true.

"’All that has passed is gone. Today is a new beginning.’ Whatever you may have been before has no bearing on how I see you. I only began to know you when we first met in the prefectural city, and came to understand you better from there. I have my own judgment of what kind of person you are."

Ding Songyan had taken out Ji Hanyi’s letter and recounted the whole story of Old Jiang precisely to be honest with his senior sister and see how she would respond. But Zheng Zhuxi’s words still left him momentarily lost in thought, even though he had been mentally prepared.

He lowered his gaze, looked at Zheng Zhuxi with a smile, and said in a gentle voice,

"Senior Sister, those words of yours are the best gift I’ve received today."

Zheng Zhuxi was suddenly a little flustered.

"You—you really have a way with words..."

She had been the one offering comfort and expressing approval, yet a single line from him had her feeling warmth spreading through her own chest.

The young woman pressed her lips together and continued.

"Besides, I don’t think you’re like that Jiang Cheng either. T-though you may be..."

"Cunning and full of tricks?" Ding Songyan put in playfully.

"No, that’s not it." Zheng Zhuxi instinctively denied it. "Though you may be clever and full of stratagems, you’re not the sort of person who would willingly resort to seizing another’s body to be reborn."

Ding Songyan suddenly stood up, half joking and half in earnest.

"Thank you for your trust and guidance, Senior Sister."

Seeing the young woman’s questioning look, Ding Songyan pointed to the Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art on the table.

"I’m giving it to you for safekeeping precisely so that you can keep watch over me. From now on, the two of us will only practice the earlier portions of this art—the sections on cultivating one’s nature, strengthening the spirit, tempering the soul, and concealing awareness—to fortify our own souls and sharpen our inner spirit against arts that directly attack the soul or the sea of consciousness. We will not venture into the later sections on reincarnation and seizing another’s body."

"Good." Pleasure rose to Zheng Zhuxi’s face.

Ding Songyan sat back down and said to his senior sister,

"The Imperial Daughter Sect is an upright and reputable sect, and so is the Brightnight Sect. As a disciple of the Sword of Rectitude and a junior brother to the Candle Heart Sword, how could I ever commit the act of seizing another’s body?

"Besides, the earlier portions are relatively simple and easy to evaluate, so they aren’t suited for tampering. If Demoness Ji has made deletions or hidden hooks in the later sections, those would be difficult to detect for some time. You’d only discover them upon actual use, by which point it would be too late.

"This is also my way of guarding against Demoness Ji."

"Whatever your reason, I’m glad you made this decision." Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes sparkled, and she made no attempt to conceal her delight.

She continued,

"I’ve been making rapid progress with your Lesser Limitless Art. Perhaps it’s because having entered the mid-stage of the Great Proliferation Realm, my true qi quality is in a completely different league from when I was in the aperture refinement stage. In less than two years, or perhaps not even one, I believe I’ll have completed the Human Realm portion. Then I can cultivate this Mystical Pass True-Nature Preservation Art alongside it."

"There are such changes?" Ding Songyan was pleasantly surprised.

He reached for the brush and paper on the desk and prepared to write down the details.

Seeing this, Zheng Zhuxi came to his side, grinding ink for him while describing her various experiences cultivating the Lesser Limitless Art.

Ding Songyan would sometimes look at his senior sister and listen intently, sometimes pause to think before writing, his brush moving without rest.

The afternoon sun cast its slanting light into the room, drawing long shadows from everything within it.

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