Chapter 255: The Righteousness of the Orthodox Way

Standing in the cold forest, Li Linquan felt the gloom before his eyes sweep away and his many days of muddled daze finally clear.

I wonder which senior came specially to guide me...

His swordplay has reached the pinnacle of mastery. He must be a Supreme Master...

And who asked him to come?

I owe them an immense debt...

Li Linquan bent to pick up his sword, walked out of the forest, and went down Blossoms Mountain along the stone-paved path.

Gaze after gaze fell on him, full of tenderness. One girl even gathered her courage, hurried to his side, handed him a handkerchief, and then fled, her face flushed with shyness.

The martial fanatic, Li Linquan, was still rather clueless about his situation and thought, a little baffled, Why give me a handkerchief?

Is it a declaration of love?

But she said nothing, which does make it easier to turn her down...

Seeing a young gentleman eagerly approaching with a handkerchief in hand too, Li Linquan quickened his pace and soon reached the shore of Golden Pool, planning to find a familiar pleasure boat to bathe and change and wash off the dust.

Just as he was about to board, he saw two acquaintances disembark: the refined, elegant Xie Fengchao and the plain-looking Bai Qilin, who nevertheless blended perfectly with the lake and embankment.

Fifth Young Master Xie took one look at Li Linquan’s tear-streaked face; it was truly a sight that made one pity him.

He sized up the man and, seeing his clothes were still fairly neat, couldn’t help asking, "Young Hero Li, what happened to you?"

Did someone beat you to tears?

Li Linquan smiled happily.

"I’ve seen the path of the sword immortal, and now I realize how wrong I was in the past."

Is his madness getting worse? Xie Fengchao asked carefully, "What do you mean how wrong you were in the past?"

"A few days ago I fell into the grip of an inner demon and blindly chased progress, making a joke of myself in front of fellow cultivators," said Li Linquan, who was quite polite when in a good mood. "Only today do I understand that a tall tower can’t rise from level ground in a day. I’m still very far from returning to simplicity. There’s no shortcut. I must go step by step."

He’s clearheaded again... Woken by this path of the sword immortal? Xie Fengchao asked, unable to hide his curiosity, "What is the path of the sword immortal?"

Li Linquan sank into memory and said dreamily, "To see all the methods under heaven converge in a single sword.

"I can’t describe the details. What a pity you couldn’t see it."

"Who showed you the path of the sword immortal, Young Hero Li?" Bai Qilin’s curiosity was piqued too.

Li Linquan shook his head.

"A face I didn’t know and had never seen. He came at someone’s request to guide me.

"He must be a Supreme Master."

Xie Fengchao and Bai Qilin exchanged glances, both somewhat startled.

Many Heaven-Man masters used swords, but those who could be called sword immortals could be counted on one hand.

Take Nine Firmaments Phoenix Cry Yu Chongyuan or Sword of Benevolence who were famous across the land, yet they still didn’t bear the name of sword immortal.

...

On Blossoms Mountain, Ding Songyan accompanied Twelfth Madam as she wandered about, enjoying the withered scenery of winter.

"When I heard earlier that Li Linquan had eaten yao grass, I wondered whether it might leave a flaw in his state of mind. I didn’t expect him to be a martial fanatic. I paid some attention to this matter, but not a great deal," Twelfth Madam Luo said, chatting casually. "Judging from that Heaven-Splitting Thunderlight Sword just now, it may not be a bad thing at all."

"How so?" Ding Songyan asked humbly.

Twelfth Madam Luo explained at length, "I’ve met other Grandmasters of the Thunder Sound House before. They pursue only the fierce and unmatched, forgetting that thunder belongs to the Way of Yin and Yang. Only when yin and yang clash does lightning strike.

"By eating yao grass, Li Linquan gained a measure of yin softness on his own, which fits the Heavenly Way. In the Heaven-Splitting Thunderlight Sword, he might surpass his predecessors, and even elevate the art itself."

"Elevating an art is no easy matter." The only case Ding Songyan had heard of so far was his senior sister’s ancestor.

And the stronger the art, the harder it was to elevate further.

Twelfth Madam Luo tersely acknowledged.

"I only got a few insights and slightly elevated my original art after I received the Name and Reality Chapters and cultivated both to the Heaven-Man Realm."

Twelfth Madam, don’t say such earth-shattering things with such calmness... Your original art must be a top-tier legacy, and you could still elevate it. Your martial talent is simply absurd. Without Manifesting the Way and its Virtue, I wouldn’t be fit to carry your shoes... Ding Songyan marveled.

After trading many details about the Heaven-Splitting Thunderlight Sword, Ding Songyan, having benefited greatly, joked offhandedly, "’Pleasing to all’ is truly something. Even a man as virile as Li Linquan can’t help showing a bit of charm, especially earlier when he was in tears."

"Luckily he only ate it at ten or so. If he’d eaten it in childhood and grown up with it, he’d be even more formidable," Twelfth Madam Luo said calmly, showing no pity for Li Linquan, as if such looks and bearing were nothing new to her.

She turned her head and looked at Ding Songyan.

"You weren’t just knocking some sense into him just now. You were truly guiding his path of the sword.

"So kind-hearted?"

Ding Songyan sighed with a smile.

"Young Hero Li has a good reputation and he’s a martial fanatic. Since we happened to meet and I once led him astray, then as a member of the orthodox side, I’m happy to guide him a bit more, so he can do more chivalrous deeds in the future. Some martial arts one may treasure like a worn broom, but others needn’t be. The more people walk this path of the sword, the better for me.

"Isn’t it exactly this kind of passing on of the torch and mutual aid that lets us orthodox people always stay a step ahead of the heretics?"

Before Luo Mingyin could respond, he smiled.

"Twelfth Madam, didn’t you also happen to meet me and kindly guide me as an orthodox master?"

Twelfth Madam Luo chuckled.

"If you hadn’t added that last line, I really would have thought better of you. Why add it on purpose? Hoping for more instruction?"

"I originally didn’t want to add it," Ding Songyan said with a frank smile. "But didn’t you say earlier not to always scheme and just say what’s on your mind?"

The corners of Twelfth Madam Luo’s mouth curled up as she said leisurely, "Sometimes, saying it out loud is a kind of scheming too."

With that, the shopkeeper turned north and, using the vantage of the height, pointed to the towering, magnificent imperial palace.

"How is it that the Jianwu Emperor, a mere Dharma Realm Grandmaster, can govern the Nine Provinces and Four Prefectures and command Heaven-Man Supreme Masters?"

A biting wind blew past, whipping the hair at Twelfth Madam Luo’s ears and the hem of her skirt at her ankles.

Great Zhao had three diaspora provinces, but ordinary people felt they were closer to prefectures and were used to calling them, together with Chengtian Prefecture, the Four Prefectures.

Ding Songyan was about to answer after some thought when Twelfth Madam Luo turned her head and said with a smile, "No need to hurry. Think it over more, and tell me in a couple of days."

Then she added in a self-mocking tone, "I came at it from ’name’ and ’reality.’ I don’t understand much else, so I can’t guide you."

"Thank you, Twelfth Madam." Ding Songyan bowed solemnly.

Twelfth Madam Luo did not wander further. She descended Blossoms Mountain and headed south along Golden Pool.

Passing a lakeshore where the willows were bare, the shopkeeper stopped and gazed at the sparkling surface for a long time without a word.

Ding Songyan drifted off into thought, digesting Twelfth Madam’s comments on the Heaven-Splitting Thunderlight Sword.

After a while, Twelfth Madam Luo sighed.

"When I first came out into the jianghu, I once chatted by this lake with a few friends, dreaming of someday reclaiming the northern lands, bringing virtue to the Hundred Species, defeating the heretics and destroying demons, and restoring peace to the world.

"We were full of lofty ambitions then. I never imagined I’d one day set aside fame and gain, huddle in a small courtyard chopping firewood and reading, living as I pleased and drifting with the current."

"Youthful ambition knows no sorrow," Ding Songyan said with a laugh.

Twelfth Madam Luo smiled too.

"At least I haven’t forgotten to do right by others."

With that, she turned and headed toward Tiger Tail Alley, leaving Ding Songyan with one line.

"Let’s go."

As she walked, her blackish cloth skirt swayed lightly, while her dark red short jacket did not move.

...

At the Cheap Wine Shop, Ding Songyan spent another fifty taels asking Chef Shi and the others to look into Shushui Street, then left without lingering and returned to the estate.

In the courtyard he drilled what he had gained today, slowly merging it into his Unified Way Sword.

Li Baima came out carrying two short swords and glanced over casually.

He found that even after so much time, he still couldn’t read Brother Ding’s swordplay. It wasn’t that he hadn’t met other Brightnight Sect disciples. With either the Celestial Stars Sword Art or the Seven Swords of Candlelit Night, he could at least tell what was going on, but now he could only glimpse the outlines of those two arts in Brother Ding’s occasional variations.

Ding Songyan sheathed Frostshade and asked with a smile, "Not going out?"

After today’s guard duty, it was time for his days off again.

"No, I want to polish my swordplay some more," Li Baima said with a wry smile.

He has turned for the better... Ding Songyan thought for a moment and said, "Big Brother Li, practice alone won’t do. You need to find time to fight in the ring at Martial Star Ward. Losing doesn’t matter. It won’t kill you."

"I understand." Li Baima nodded heavily.

He then said, "Second Wu and Fourth Fan want you to go to the Hengbo River with them."

"I’ll pass." Ding Songyan shook his head. "I’ve gained some new insight into swordplay lately and need to seize the inspiration and deepen my grasp."

Going to the Hengbo River these days? Isn’t that asking my little sister to hang me up and whip me?

I can’t very well invite Twelfth Madam either. She’d chop me into eight pieces...

Besides, I’ve already started wooing Senior Sister. Why would I go there for?

More insight into swordplay... Li Baima remembered his earlier bout with Ding Songyan and said with hesitation, "Brother Ding, may I ask for your guidance again?"

He was the strongest Great Proliferation Realm martial artist Li Baima had seen at the estate. Asking him for guidance would surely improve him.

With the sect leader gone, he had to seize every chance to get stronger.

"Sure." Ding Songyan had been looking for someone whose moves he knew well to try out an earlier idea: using Manifesting the Way and its Virtue to deduce the qi flow of familiar moves, trying to merge the Faith-Slaying Sword into his own martial arts.

After bowing, Li Baima took his stance and sliced out with his right sword, scraping along the blade of his left.

It kicked up points of crimson sparks that strung together into a scorching stream of light.

Ding Songyan stood motionless, watching with deep eyes until Li Baima had used the move in full. Only then did he raise Frostshade and thrust.

The crimson flames went out at once, and the two short swords parted with a clang, each going its own way, showing openings where none had existed.

Li Baima hastily changed moves, but whatever he used, Ding Songyan dismantled it with one simple stroke, either aimed at an opening or creating one from nothing.

The longer Li Baima fought, the more alarmed he became.

It was much like the rumored Faith-Slaying Sword, yet greatly different: upright and even-tempered, striking last and arriving first, as if it held some principle of heaven and earth.

By the time Ding Songyan sheathed his sword, Li Baima was drenched in sweat despite it being early winter.

Only after Ding Songyan went back to his room to change did he dare to breathe heavily.

He had known Brother Ding was formidable and unfathomable, but he realized today that his earlier judgment was akin to being a frog in a well.

He was a firefly and the other a bright moon. Brother Ding could probably hold his own for a while even when facing a Dharma Realm Grandmaster!

As his expression shifted, a thought struck Li Baima.

With such a bright moon beside me, why look afar for guidance elsewhere?

Ding Songyan had changed and returned to the courtyard to wait for dinner when he saw Li Baima stride over and bow deeply.

"Brother Ding, would you be willing to guide me regularly?"

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