Confirming What's Real

Ah, the dignified true-disciple of one of the six sects and four factions could not even catch a seemingly ordinary stalker with multiple bodyguards? Ding Songyan had previously held great expectations for Ren Youyang, and upon hearing this, an emotion of extraordinary dejection and disappointment surged at the bottom of his heart.

He did not let this show on the surface, instead cupping his fists:

"In any case, I still have to thank Brother Youyang. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even have realized I was being stalked."

Ren Youyang said somewhat apologetically:

"That person wasn't alone; it was a gang. I was negligent on that point, to the extent that we got separated and shaken off in the bustling market."

A gang? Summoned by the original owner, or stirred up by me these past few days? Ding Songyan was stunned for a moment.

"They were startled off by me, so they shouldn't stalk you again for a while." Ren Youyang glanced at the courtyard wall on the side of Chengyu Lane. "That Yu Wanxiong from the Zhen Estate also stayed far away, presumably unwilling to be noticed by me. Hm, it seems he's already changed to another Attendant, and they take you quite seriously."

Before Ding Songyan could thank him again, Ren Youyang consoled him:

"Get a good rest today, and I'll take a look tomorrow."

Having spoken, he waved a hand and turned to leave, leaving Ding Songyan with no choice but to offer his thanks from afar.

He walked forward along the gloomy yet not entirely quiet alley, nodding and exchanging greetings with a neighboring elderly neighbor who had her courtyard gate open to enjoy the cool breeze. When he returned outside his home and just pushed open the ajar courtyard gate, he saw Ding Daniu bare-chested with a dark and robust upper body, brandishing a crude iron rod in the small open space. He used no particular stance, simply sweeping, tapping, striking, and chopping, the sound of the wind fierce and biting.

Inside the main room, his mother Liu Yuzao and younger sister Ding Qingyan were working on shoe soles by the light of an oil lamp, chatting softly in casual snatches from time to time. His father Ding Shengyi sat on a stool, half-closing his eyes and swaying his head as he hummed lines from vernacular dramas.

A yellowish glow spilled out from inside the house, at times tranquil and at other times flickering, spilling over like water and keeping mosquitoes and moths dancing endlessly.

Ding Songyan let out a slow breath and greeted his family with a smile.

Before going to sleep, Ding Songyan opened the wooden chest where he kept his clothes. The five taels of silver and three hundred wen earned from storytelling earlier were hidden here. Among them, Lady Xiaoqing had contributed five taels of silver; at the current silver exchange rate, each tael was worth eight hundred wen.

This was not because the other patrons gave little. Ding Songyan had only been lecturing for four days, delivering just one session per day, and being able to pocket over three hundred wen made him a standout among his peers at the Dangkang Temple market.

It only seemed small because the amount Lady Xiaoqing gave was simply too much.

"My dad is a clerk in the yamen and only makes two taels of silver a month—uh, not counting gray income..." In the inner pocket behind his elbow, Ding Songyan still carried the four qians of silver given by his parents. The tips from storytelling these past few days and his midday meals were all funded by the fifty wen given by his sister plus a portion of his storytelling earnings.

After putting the twenty-five-tael heavy silver ingot given by Xu Chang'an into his clothing chest, he picked out four silver small-ingots.

After a moment of thought, he took the last one as well, making a full five taels.

Returning to the main room, Ding Daniu had just put down the door bolt.

"Big Brother, this is given by Xu Chang'an, in gratitude for our help yesterday." Ding Songyan shoved the five silver small-ingots over.

Ding Daniu wore a look of pleasant surprise:

"Eldest Young Master Xu certainly knows how to conduct himself.

"I'll go give this to Mother."

"Keep it yourself." Ding Songyan borrowed Ren Youyang's catchphrase. "Life is short, so don't shortchange yourself. Take this money and eat and drink well every single noon."

His hope was that Ding Daniu would realize there were broader horizons to life, substituting the desire for fine wine and delicious food for the urge to kill.

Of course, it was best not to mix those three things together.

Ding Daniu fell silent for a long moment before saying:

"Alright then. Second Lang, you're smarter than me, so I'll listen to you. I'll save it up first."

"Save it up for what?" Ding Songyan asked casually with a smile.

Ding Daniu swallowed heavily with a gulp:

"Save it to go to Beili Ward."

"..." Ding Songyan's expression almost froze blankly.

Well, look at you, Daniu. I truly couldn't tell, you even have this vice.

Waving a hand, he returned to the west side room and closed the wooden door.

He folded his large wooden chest as usual, laid out paper and prepared the inkstone and brush, ready to write the story of Xu Shilin.

That Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas had long been hidden between his bedding and bedboards.

"Second Brother, are you burning the midnight oil to write again?" Ding Qingyan on the other side of the folding screen sounded both amused and emotional. "You've never been this diligent before..."

As she spoke, she stopped herself, seeming to feel that saying this was improper and would remind her second brother of the time he suffered from soul-detachment syndrome.

"If someone gave you one to two taels of silver every day just to hear you tell a story, you'd be this diligent too." Ding Songyan offered a casual evasion.

One to two taels of silver was important, but what was more important was that the other party would also come knocking to rush him for the manuscript, and the most important thing of all was that he couldn't beat her.

"Who?" Ding Qingyan asked with curious insistence.

"A young lady from out of town, and let me tell you she spends money with absolute extravagance. As long as the storytelling is good, she's bound to tip silver, and she's spent several dozen taels these past few days." Ding Songyan pulled over the small wooden chest and sat down, speaking truthfully.

"Truly extravagant." Ding Qingyan inevitably felt a flash of comparison. "Is she pretty?"

"Quite pretty." Ding Songyan did not utter any dishonest words.

Ding Qingyan hummed softly, asking with a touch of teasing banter:

"Taken a fancy to her?"

"Not that." Ding Songyan remained as calm as ever.

He silently added a line in his heart:

I'm afraid of snakes.

Moreover, he still had emotional baggage he hadn't let go of.

After chatting for a while into the night, as Ding Qingyan drifted off into dreamland, Ding Songyan began weaving his tale.

This time he was writing about Xu Shilin's childhood, capturing the feeling where neighborhood residents all knew his biological parents were absent while he himself remained utterly oblivious, and portraying how Wuqu Star differed from everyone else. Ding Songyan racked his brains before slowly piecing together a few plot points, with Harry Potter and the like serving as sources of inspiration. Of course, Xu Shilin's aunt and uncle were still quite good to him.

The moment he finished writing on a sheet of paper and placed it to the side, a hand as fair as jade, slender and delicate, reached out and took it directly.

"Lady Xiaoqing is here?" Ding Songyan was already unfazed, completely free of fright.

"Mm, continue." Today dressed in a green skirt and exuding a fresh and clear temperament, Xiaoqing sat at the edge of the bed, reading the story draft attentively and without speaking.

Seeing this, Ding Songyan did not dare to disturb her and concentrated on his creation.

As he wrote, a thought crossed his mind:

Judging by Ren Youyang's display today, was he truly a disciple of the True Spirit Sect, and was he truly that Ren Youyang famous on the Orchid Honor Roll?

Ding Songyan hadn't doubted him previously because the other party had been treated with great courtesy at the Zhen Estate, an identity effectively confirmed by Old Master Zhen. Yet recalling various scams he'd witnessed in his past life, there was no shortage of types who seized opportunities to establish superficial connections with people of high status to win trust.

Of course, Ren Youyang's exceptionally obvious dog ears also served as indirect evidence of his extraordinary identity.

What if, however, he was actually of mixed blood between the Quanrong Tribe and humans?

—According to the vernacular tales Ding Songyan had heard these past few days, the Quanrong were dog-like and capable of producing offspring with humans.

"Lady Xiaoqing, have you ever heard of a person named Ren Youyang?" Ding Songyan asked probingly.

Xiaoqing, who was reading the content of the new page, snapped her head up with a swish:

"I've heard of him.

"What do you want to ask?"

Weighing his words, Ding Songyan said:

"I met someone today who claimed to be Ren Youyang, but..."

He described Ren Youyang's previous performance from start to finish, only omitting the part where the other party savagely critiqued the Jade Tree Martial Arts Rankings—after all, he had already promised not to spread it. As for the stalker, he temporarily mentioned only one: the one Ren Youyang had lost track of.

After listening, Xiaoqing could not conceal her amusement as she said:

"That is the real Ren Youyang, the one from the True Spirit Sect. No one else could imitate him and capture his essence."

"What essence?" Ding Songyan asked in bewilderment.

Xiaoqing giggled:

"The essence of Ren Youyang is simply that he looks even more fake than a fake.

"Hmph, it's totally normal that he didn't catch that stalker or unearth the mastermind behind the scenes; he's just a liability. If he hadn't been there, his bodyguards would have caught them long ago."

"Ah?" Ding Songyan felt a slight sense of disorientation.

What kind of evaluation was that?

Xiaoqing let out an "uh": "His cultivation method isn't too adept at dealing with this sort of thing."

She didn't specify... Ding Songyan fell into deep thought.

It seemed that among major orthodox sects, the names of each other's core supreme techniques were no secret and discussing them with outsiders was fine. However, when it came to the specific traits, strengths, and weaknesses of each technique, it was at most discussed behind closed doors within one's own family and never leaked outside, lest one forge a blood feud.

At this moment, Xiaoqing's mood seemed to turn exceptionally bright as she said in a brisk tone:

"So it was Ren Youyang who came from the True Spirit Sect! This time Second Uncle can't say that my going out at night is just foolishness; I've actually gathered important information!"

"Lady Xiaoqing, you all..." Ding Songyan didn't know how to ask for a moment.

"Our purpose in coming to Dingjiang Prefecture is similar to the True Spirit Sect's." Xiaoqing only smiled and dropped a hint without revealing more.

It was related to the Zhen Estate as well? Good thing I didn't mention earlier that people from the Zhen Estate were also stalking me, or I honestly wouldn't know if Xiaoqing's expression would change... Ding Songyan rationally ended the topic, leaving only Xiaoqing to daydream leisurely to herself:

"Tomorrow I'll also try helping you catch that stalker and the mastermind."

After a long while, Ding Songyan finally wrote to the point where Xu Shilin learned who his biological parents were and went to the Daoist temple to seek out Xu Xian, only to be turned away at the gates.

He put down his brush, rubbed his wrists, and watched Xiaoqing pick up the paper to read while asking with feigned casualness:

"I heard someone mention the "Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas" the day before yesterday. Is this sort of thing only possessed by major sects and imperial court secret treasuries?"

"Mm, partially." Xiaoqing was more concerned with Xu Shilin's family drama.

"Which family has a complete one?" Ding Songyan couldn't directly ask if the Xiaoming Sect had a complete copy, as that would be far too pointed.

Infected by the scene between Xu Shilin and Xu Xian, Xiaoqing sniffled and said:

"No family has a complete one. Back in the Kunlun Imperial Palace, the situation was urgent, and the various chapters of the "Emperor-Annotated Classic of Mountains and Seas" were carved separately on different jade tablets across different halls. Those present could only record a portion each, and some even remembered wrongly.

"If everyone had later been able to cast aside sectarian bias, cross-reference with one another, piece things together, and correct the errors, there ought to have been a complete "Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas". But selfless people are simply too few.

"Whatever circulates in the martial world has leaked out after certain sects declined, making it even more incomplete, and various sects won't permit private possessions."

Ding Songyan listened in a daze:

I've thumbed through ordinary versions of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" at the bookstores over the past two days and compared them with the contents of the one in my hands.

Combined with Chen Yuliang's judgment, my "Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas" seems, more or less, to be complete...

At least close to complete...