Chapter 75: Exorcism

The possessed person was a shop assistant at the Tongfu Inn on Worthy Ancestors Street.

With his hair wild and loose, he was crawling on all fours, drooling at the corners of his mouth. Snarling, he lunged in every direction, only to be driven back among the overturned tables and chairs by longswords gleaming with cold light.

Most people in Alpine Lake Town were Brightnight Sect disciples, including the inn’s patrons, so they had been able to contain the possessed man in time and prevent him from harming anyone.

When Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi arrived at the Tongfu Inn, the possessed man was facing down several Brightnight Sect disciples, emitting low, savage roars.

What sort of thing has possessed him? Ding Songyan immediately opened his yin eyes.

He saw a black shadow, twisted like a serpent, clinging to the inn assistant’s body, reeking with a dense and chilling malevolence.

Not a yao, not a ghost, but a spirit creature? Ding Songyan halted about twenty meters back and watched as the Brightnight Sect disciples ahead parted to either side, opening a clear path for Zheng Zhuxi straight to the possessed man.

Zheng Zhuxi did not hesitate. She drew her sword with a clear ring, and the blade of Autumnwater suffused a warm, amber glow.

She sprang forward on her toes, robes billowing as she darted left and right to confuse the possessed man.

The possessed man paid no heed to feint or reality, his dark-red eyes fixed on Zheng Zhuxi’s figure as he roared and lunged at her.

Zheng Zhuxi stepped aside and thrust her sword forward, striking directly for the center of his brow.

The warm amber radiance of the blade flared considerably brighter, like a lamp with its excess wick trimmed away.

To Ding Songyan’s eyes, the Candlelight Sword Intent enveloped the evil entity—likely a spirit creature—and began dissolving its phasing figure.

But Zheng Zhuxi’s cultivation was still relatively shallow, and the follow-through fell short. She managed only to wound the serpentine black shadow without scattering it in a single blow.

The possessed man let out a roar of pain, the red in his eyes deepening further. He then threw himself at Zheng Zhuxi with reckless abandon.

He was extraordinarily agile, bounding up and dropping low, like a great gibbon.

Zheng Zhuxi only wanted to exorcise the evil, not harm the person, so she found herself hampered, barely holding on through the Candlelight Sword Intent alone.

Ding Songyan clicked his tongue, shook his head with a smile, and took two steps forward.

The possessed man, along with the serpentine black shadow clinging to him, suddenly froze and began to tremble uncontrollably.

Zheng Zhuxi did not understand what had happened, but faced with the opportunity, she instinctively raised her arm and thrust, driving the warm amber candle flame into the center of the possessed man’s brow.

The serpentine black shadow let out a soundless shriek and rapidly dissolved into the deep-penetrating amber radiance and the formless, massless dark chaos.

The possessed man shuddered several times and collapsed limply to the floor, his face and brow drenched in cold sweat.

His eyes had cleared, but he was utterly bewildered, with no idea what he had just been through.

"As expected of Junior Sister Zheng!"

"Candlelight Sword Intent truly is superior when it comes to piercing the dark and subduing evil!"

"Junior Sister Zheng made it look effortless!"

"..."

Seeing the matter resolved so smoothly, the Brightnight Sect disciples who had gathered around burst into a chorus of praise.

They had to admit that though Junior Sister Zheng’s realm was relatively low, she possessed a truly exceptional Candlelight Sword Intent. Most of their fellow disciples who primarily cultivated the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra had to reach Form Transfigured before they could develop this sword intent.

However, Zheng Zhuxi was rather confused. She did not understand why the possessed man had suddenly frozen, giving her the chance to neutralize him without causing injury. Even less did she understand why the evil entity that had withstood the first sword stroke dissolved so quickly under the second, when she had already braced herself for two or three more strikes.

"Senior Sister is truly impressive." Ding Songyan came over with a smile.

Zheng Zhuxi looked at him and murmured, almost to herself, "That’s it?"

"Of course, doesn’t it just show how formidable your Candlelight Sword Intent is, Senior Sister?" Ding Songyan offered a casual compliment.

Zheng Zhuxi shot him a sideways look.

"Tell me the truth."

This junior brother of hers was good in every other respect, but his storyteller background had left him prone to exaggeration.

"Well, the evil entity was probably gravely wounded by your first sword stroke, which is why it couldn’t withstand the second," Ding Songyan offered Zheng Zhuxi a convenient explanation.

Zheng Zhuxi tersely acknowledged.

"It was gravely wounded, which is why it suddenly stopped?"

"Exactly so," Ding Songyan hastily confirmed it for her.

Zheng Zhuxi suddenly leaned close to his ear and asked quietly, "Did you use your yin eyes?"

She had already learned the full story of the Zhen household affair from her mother Tao Wenshu and from Ding Songyan himself, barring a few secrets.

"Yes, a black shadow shaped like a serpent. I’ve never seen anything like it." Ding Songyan had encountered nothing similar in the underworld or in the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas.

He glanced around and found that the Brightnight Sect disciples all had their attention on Zheng Zhuxi and the possessed man. No one was paying him any heed.

Zheng Zhuxi, in her pale green gauze skirt, sheathed her sword and crouched down to help the possessed man up. Ding Songyan perceptively righted a stool so the man could sit on it.

"Are you all right?" Zheng Zhuxi asked.

Several of the higher-ranking or more skilled Brightnight Sect disciples in the vicinity also came over, including the shopkeeper of the Tongfu Inn. He was a man named Qiu Tongfu, who had once trained in the Brightnight Sect. When his three-year term ended, no one had taken him on as a personal disciple, and he had been unwilling to continue as an entry-level disciple which involved attending the small lectures every three days and the full lectures every five. He had chosen to leave the sect and come down the mountain, opening this inn in Alpine Lake Town.

The previously-possessed man stared up at Zheng Zhuxi’s fine, clear face as though speaking from a dream.

"I’m all right... Thank you for saving me, Heroine Zheng."

"How did you come to be possessed?" Zheng Zhuxi released her hands once she saw the man could sit steadily on his own.

The man looked confused.

"I don’t know. It was like being in a dream. The first thing I saw when I woke up was you, Heroine Zheng."

"What were you doing before you fell into the dream?" Ding Songyan spoke up.

The nearby Brightnight Sect disciples were quite surprised to hear this.

Junior Sister Zheng has always been assertive; yet, she’s allowing her junior brother to step in on her behalf?

Zheng Zhuxi saw nothing wrong with it. She even found it entirely natural.

To her, Ding Songyan was someone who had matched wits and courage against a Supreme Master and survived. In matters like this, his experience considerably outstripped her own.

The man strained to recall, and after a moment said, "I was tidying a guest room..."

"Which one?" Zheng Zhuxi pressed.

"Earth Room 3. A guest had just checked out, and the shopkeeper told me to clean it up." The man rubbed his head. "I was cleaning, and then suddenly I couldn’t remember anything."

Zheng Zhuxi turned to the shopkeeper and said, "Shopkeeper Qiu, please take us to Earth Room 3."

Senior Sister, you really are audacious. You’re just a sixth-rank Anomaly Manifested after recently entering the Great Proliferation Realm and you’re pressing ahead with the investigation like this. Aren’t you afraid of encountering something more dangerous? Though I suppose you do have grounds for confidence here in Alpine Lake Town. There may be no Grandmaster present, but there are Brightnight Sect members at the third rank—Form Transfigured—who could set up several Celestial Guardian Sword Formations if needed... Ding Songyan grumbled inwardly about Zheng Zhuxi.

Of the Brightnight Sect’s five Grandmasters, one was currently stationed in Flame Capital on rotation, serving as a guest adviser to the Prince Kang of Zhao, Hong Jingyuan. His mother was a consort of the late emperor and also Zheng Zhuxi’s paternal aunt. Another was the External Affairs Elder, who spent years at a time traveling throughout the Great Zhao realm handling the sect’s various business matters. Ding Songyan had yet to meet either of these two.

Of the remaining three, besides Sect Master Tao Wenshu, there was Grand Elder Wang Zhou, and Tao Wenshu’s martial sister Yan Jingxian.

Currently, six Brightnight Sect disciples had reached the perfected Great Proliferation Realm with a prospect of stepping into the Dharma Realm, though which of them would break through remained to be seen. The step from the Great Proliferation Realm to the Dharma Realm was one that could not be achieved by merely accumulating resources and having a passable temperament.

Ding Songyan helped support the man and followed Zheng Zhuxi and Shopkeeper Qiu Tongfu up to the inn’s third floor, where they pushed open the wooden door to Earth Room 3.

The room was in complete disarray. Everything except the bed had been overturned onto the floor.

"Did you do this?" Ding Songyan looked at the man beside him.

The room was within twenty meters of him, and he had keenly sensed the traces of malevolent energy still lingering there.

The man was not sure whether to nod or shake his head.

"I don’t remember."

Why does that answer sound so familiar? Ding Songyan suppressed a laugh and watched as Senior Sister Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes took on the warm amber glow of candlelight.

Zheng Zhuxi surveyed the room and also perceived the concealed darkness lurking within it.

"It is here." She nodded gravely.

Ding Songyan, Zheng Zhuxi, Qiu Tongfu, and several registered Brightnight Sect disciples searched the room for a while but found no trace of anything.

"Shopkeeper Qiu, I’d like to look at the guest register." Zheng Zhuxi turned to Qiu Tongfu.

The register was used to record guests’ names, origins, and identifying features.

Qiu Tongfu led Zheng Zhuxi, Ding Songyan, and the others back downstairs, recalling as he went.

"I remember that the guest who had Earth Room 3 was a traveling merchant, selling silk and brocade. He checked out and left town about half an hour ago. He was generous with payment and showed no outward signs. Even if he had martial cultivation, it couldn’t be very high."

In the early stages of the Great Proliferation Realm, the sixth rank Anomaly Manifested rarely showed physical anomalies. By the fifth rank, Profound Discerned, some traces began to appear on the body; at the fourth rank, Mortal Surpassed, they became quite pronounced. That said, it varied from person to person. Some had a low realm but were powerful in combat, having earned their Mortal Surpassed ranking by repeatedly defeating opponents of higher rank through sheer combat ability, and might not actually show many physical anomalies.

"No physical anomalies means either ordinary, or very powerful," Ding Songyan murmured.

Like Master Yan. Like Demoness Ji.

Zheng Zhuxi agreed entirely and did not echo Qiu Tongfu’s assessment.

Back on the ground floor of the Tongfu Inn, Qiu Tongfu retrieved the register from behind the counter and pointed to one of its pages.

"This is him."

Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi leaned in from a comfortable distance and read the somewhat hurried writing.

"Feng Zhengning. Age thirty-seven. Native of Jinyang Prefecture, Du Province. Came to sell silk and brocade. Height approximately 7’1". Square face, thick brows, aquiline nose. A faint dark mole at the corner of the mouth. No physical anomalies."

"Feng Zhengning?" Zheng Zhuxi tilted her head toward the Brightnight Sect disciples who had followed them down.

"Never seen him." The disciples all shook their heads.

What Ding Songyan was thinking at that moment was how much of what had been recorded was actually true.

He thought for a moment and said, "Is there anything notable about Jinyang Prefecture in Du Province?"

"It’s where the Yin-Yang Sect’s sacred altar is located." Zheng Zhuxi recalled after a moment’s thought.

The Yin-Yang Sect, one of the nine great sects in the world, one of the two sects and three clans of Great Zhao... I recall Miss Xiao Qing mentioning that the only notable figure in the current martial world with the surname Jiang was Jiang Lanting of the Yin-Yang Sect, who had made the Martial World’s Jade Tree Rankings... To write Jinyang Prefecture, Du Province so openly, could this be malicious misdirection? Ding Songyan fell into thought.

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