Urging for an Update

Before Ding Songyan could ask another question, Qin Nuansheng smiled with feeling and said:

"You actually asked me about martial arts before. I even specifically asked your brother-in-law about it, but who knew you'd forgotten everything."

"There isn't much I can remember." Ding Songyan wore a "heartbroken" expression.

Qin Nuansheng rose from her chair and paced back and forth twice.

"Body tempering and qi cultivation are merely the first steps into martial arts. Together, they are called the 'Initial Realm,' though some call it the 'Mortal Realm.'

"Once one reaches the 'Life Realm' and begins condensing the body's acupoints, one qualifies to be included in the Exalted Orchid Roll. But there are countless people at this realm. Only those with extraordinary talent or exceptional backgrounds can be graded and become widely known.

"The grading does not depend on one's progress in condensing acupoints, but on actual combat performance. Within the 'Life Realm,' there are three grades. From lowest to highest, they are 'Peeking Path,' 'Entering Hall,' and 'Entering Chamber.' These are the so-called lower three grades, the most common martial artists and wandering heroes.

"We ordinary people do not understand those distinctions and cannot tell them apart, so we prefer to call them ninth grade, eighth grade, and seventh grade.

"Your brother-in-law said that the lower three grades do not surpass ordinary people by too much, so they are also called the 'Mortal Realm.' At this stage, one's cultivation method does not display much unusual power. In actual combat, moves, willpower, experience, wisdom, weapons, armor, and so on matter more. A slight mistake or oversight, and even a seventh-grade martial artist can be killed by a ninth-grade one..."

Ding Songyan listened with great concentration, interrupting Qin Nuansheng from time to time to raise his own questions.

After explaining the Life Realm and the lower three grades, Qin Nuansheng's eyes shifted as she examined her cousin for a while, then solemnly reminded him:

"I do not know much about the realms above that, but your brother-in-law mentioned this: if you wish to cultivate deeper and more superior martial arts, if you wish to travel farther down the path of martial arts, then in the Initial Realm, you can still casually find a martial art and begin tempering your body and cultivating qi. But once you reach the Life Realm, you must never blindly condense acupoints."

"Why is that?" Ding Songyan asked with concern.

Qin Nuansheng slightly raised her head and recalled for a moment.

"He said that every cultivation method requires different bodily acupoints to be condensed, and uses different methods. If the superior cultivation method you obtain in the future overlaps with the acupoints required by your current martial art, the two will conflict. In mild cases, you will suffer qi deviation and have your martial arts crippled. In severe cases, you will become delirious, or die on the spot.

"Mm, if two cultivation methods do not overlap or conflict in their required acupoints, they can be cultivated together, or one can switch to the other. Actually, even when their required acupoints overlap, there are special circumstances that can break through that limitation."

"What special circumstances?" Ding Songyan's face was filled with thirst for knowledge.

Qin Nuansheng gave a quiet laugh.

"I do not know about the others. At the time, your brother-in-law only gave one example:

"Any martial arts related to wyrms and snakes can be converted into the study of true dragons. Their overlapping acupoints will not conflict because of it. They will only be absorbed, then transformed."

A wyrm transforming into a dragon—an advanced martial art? Ding Songyan roughly understood the root of this special circumstance and casually asked:

"Which sect possesses the study of true dragons?"

Qin Nuansheng could not help rolling her eyes and shooting Ding Songyan a glare.

"You really know how to make things difficult for me. I am a woman of the inner household. What would I know of the affairs of the martial world? I only know that the renowned Xinyu Six Dragon Sect carries the legacy of Yinglong. You know Yinglong, right?"

Of course... "Yinglong: summons wind and rain, gathers clouds and mist, commands thunder, reigns over the ten thousand skies, and brings dragons and phoenixes in auspicious union"... The annotation said, "ancestor of dragons, beginning of phoenixes"... "a dragon's form with phoenix wings"... The passages on Yinglong from the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas flashed through Ding Songyan's mind.

It was an ancient deity he had been rather familiar with in his previous life, so he had read the related material especially carefully and remembered it very clearly.

After chatting idly for a while longer, Qin Nuansheng said to Ding Songyan:

"I nearly forgot something. Divine Physician Shao asked that, when you have time tomorrow or the day after, you go to his clinic. He wants to take another look at your current condition."

"Alright." Having experienced treatment before, Ding Songyan was no longer afraid of seeing Divine Physician Shao.

Led by the maid Cuihe, he left the Lotus Pond Courtyard. Just as he neared the manor gates, he saw his nominal brother-in-law, Zhen Quanwang, smiling broadly and nodding and bowing as he escorted a group of people out.

The gates had already been thrown wide open.

The leader of the group was a man in his twenties, dressed in feather robes and a high crown, as though he were an elegant recluse beyond the worldly realm. Yet he himself had none of that drifting, transcendent air. He was visibly shorter than Ding Songyan, pale and plump, with puffy eyelids and a sleepy face. His most distinctive feature was his oversized ears, shaped like those of a dog.

Four maidservants followed behind him, one carrying a zither, one holding a fan, one bearing a sword, and one supporting a box. All were beautiful, dressed in dazzlingly vivid clothes.

There were also four guards accompanying them, some old and some strong. Some likewise had dog ears; some had brown animal fur covering the backs of their hands; some bore strange patterns painted beside their faces; and some moved in flickering shapes, like ghosts or demons.

Over the previous two days, Ding Songyan had not seen many people with unusual features. Yet in this moment, he had encountered no fewer than five.

What grand style... After watching the group leave the Zhen residence through the gates, he curiously looked at Cuihe beside him.

"Where did these distinguished guests come from?"

Was something happening at the Zhen residence again?

"This servant does not know." Cuihe repeatedly shook her head.

After returning from Dangkang Temple, where he had listened to storytelling for a long time, Ding Songyan reached Chengyu Alley with the setting sun hanging at the edge of the sky.

Before he even approached the courtyard gate, he heard thump, thump, thump sounds of beating from inside.

What was going on? Ding Songyan raised a brow and, full of doubt, pushed open the two half-closed wooden doors.

The first thing that met his eyes was Ding Daniu, bare from the waist up and kneeling before the Chinese wingnut tree. His head hung low as Liu Yuzao gripped a piece of firewood and repeatedly whipped his back.

"Do not wantonly kill the innocent."

"Do not fight in anger."

"Do not bully others."

Liu Yuzao's face was icy. With every rebuke, she struck Ding Daniu's back once, leaving red welts that gradually blurred into torn flesh and blood.

Hadn't Big Brother's killing of that Small Boat Gang man been put behind them last night? Ding Songyan did not immediately stop his mother. Instead, he walked around to Ding Qingyan, who had both hands over her eyes and did not dare look at the wounds, set down the things he had brought home to eat, and lowered his voice.

"What happened?"

Ding Qingyan turned sideways, putting her back toward the Chinese wingnut tree, then lowered her hands.

"Big Brother got angry with someone at the docks today and nearly fought. He scared the man badly. The foreman told him to apologize, but he refused, so the foreman came to our door and said a few things."

"I see..." Ding Songyan did not ask who had been right or wrong. He merely lamented that the foreman had no eyes. If it were him, how would he dare force this fierce-looking mighty warrior, whose anger could scare people to death, to apologize? Was he not afraid his entire family would be wiped out?

Ah, he still had to learn martial arts. Otherwise, he could only keep yielding...

After mulling it over for a while, Ding Songyan was just about to ask his father to persuade his mother—discipline was discipline, but she should not beat him to death—when he saw Ding Shengyi pick up a piece of firewood and hand it to Liu Yuzao after she had broken the one in her hand.

Ding Songyan let out a breath and glanced at Ding Qingyan from the corner of his eye.

"Do you know whether the Buddhist sect has any method to subdue inner demons and clear the mind and focus the spirit?"

He felt that for a natural-born villain like his eldest brother, family education and the bonds of kinship alone would not suffice. He needed an internal cultivation method as well. Cultivating the heart could treat the root cause; only through meditating on Zen could he become a Buddha.

Ding Qingyan shook her head.

"No?" Ding Songyan pressed.

"I don't know." Ding Qingyan sighed helplessly. "Second Brother, I have not even had my hairpin ceremony. Don't treat me like an encyclopedia."

Once Liu Yuzao had finished disciplining Ding Daniu, Ding Songyan took clean strips of cloth, wound medicine, and other items over to his eldest brother, who was still kneeling beneath the Chinese wingnut tree, and spoke quietly:

"Big Brother, I'll apply medicine for you. Bear with it."

Discipline was discipline, but familial affection still had to be given. Otherwise, they would all be finished together.

Ding Daniu answered in a muffled voice:

"It's nothing. Even when Mother beat me, I didn't move.

"Second Brother, you're so good to me."

I would rather stay far away from you... Ding Songyan drew a breath. He first cleaned Ding Daniu's wounds, then applied the wound medicine and bandaged them.

Throughout the process, Ding Daniu did not make a sound. His body merely trembled slightly.

Only when everyone was about to sleep was he allowed to enter the house and lie facedown.

Ding Songyan closed the door to the west wing, lit an oil lamp, and said to his younger sister Ding Qingyan:

"I need to write the storybook I'll be telling tomorrow. It won't disturb your rest, will it?"

He had returned home late and had not yet had time to organize the detailed outline for the rest of Legend of the White Snake.

"It won't disturb me. I fall asleep really quickly." Ding Qingyan spoke with an expectant expression. "Remember to let me read it tomorrow morning."

Using a large stacked wooden chest as a table and a small wooden chest as a chair, Ding Songyan spread out paper, ground ink, picked up his brush, and began earnestly recording his ideas.

This part of the story began with Lady White stealing the immortality medicine to revive Xu Xian, who had already forgotten being frightened to death by her snake form. It told of the two having a child, then after ten months of pregnancy, giving birth to the Martial Star.

"Hiss, what had Fahai been doing all this time..." As Ding Songyan wrote, he began to feel that something was off.

Fahai had simply watched as Lady White and Xu Xian lived together in bliss, even giving birth to a Martial Star?

How was he supposed to make up this story...

He set down his brush. As he pondered, Ding Songyan suddenly felt that someone was watching him.

He abruptly turned and looked toward the bed.

At some unknown point, a figure had seated herself there.

She wore plain white robes and a white skirt. The corners of her eyes tilted slightly upward, her nose was small and exquisite, and her black hair was tied with a white silk kerchief. Supporting her cheek with one hand, she smiled at Ding Songyan.

She was unmistakably the young woman who had listened to the storytelling during the day.

"You've already thought up the rest of the story, haven't you?" the young woman asked with a faint smile.

Ding Songyan could not stop the corner of his mouth from twitching.

Was she here to demand an update in person?

So what if she knew martial arts!

He glanced toward the screen and, seeing no movement from Ding Qingyan, lowered his voice.

"It is already deep into the night. Why not rest early, heroine, and listen again tomorrow?"

He had discovered that this young woman's temperament was highly changeable. Yesterday, she had been innocently alluring and charming. During the day today, she had seemed delicate and frail. But tonight, at this very moment, she was inexplicably dangerous and enticing...

"I can't sleep. So I was wondering whether Xu Xian can be revived, and what will happen to him and Lady White afterward..." The young woman's voice had lost its soft, sweet quality, gaining a few traces of alluring ethereality.

As she spoke, she gave him a ravishing smile.

"Do you know why I like this story so much, why I am so fascinated by it?"

"I don't." A sense of danger suddenly rose within Ding Songyan.

Before he could react, he felt something icy cold and slick wrap around him.

Ding Songyan hurriedly looked down and saw an incomparably thick tail covered in white scales.

That snake tail extended from beneath the young woman's skirt!

Ding Songyan was completely dumbfounded.

So he had run into the real thing?

He had casually told a Legend of the White Snake and actually encountered a white snake?

"Now you know, don't you?" the young woman asked with a beaming smile.