It Rained

Stone Pool Martial Hall's training ground was five or six times the size of the open space before a hall. It had been leveled smooth, with weapon racks arranged around it, holding all eighteen kinds of weapons—swords, spears, sabers, halberds—some sharpened, some unsharpened.

Besides those, wooden dummies, stone locks, wooden stakes, archery targets, iron water vats, and other such items were all present.

The martial hall's owner, Liu Yuxuan, stood beside a grayish-white stone man nine chi tall, waiting with his hands clasped behind his back for Ding Songyan.

His hair and beard were white, his mouth protruded slightly, and his face was full and prosperous-looking. Several red blotches grew on his neck and the backs of his hands.

After delivering Ding Songyan here, Senior Brother Yang retreated to the edge of the training ground but did not leave. Seven or eight martial hall disciples were also lurking nearby, watching this side with grave expressions and hatred in their eyes.

These ones had backbone and blood-courage. They had not hidden far away just because I called myself a representative of Zhen Estate... Ding Songyan cupped his hands toward Liu Yuxuan.

"This junior greets Hall Master Liu."

Liu Yuxuan scrutinized the calm and composed Ding Songyan, then asked in a deep voice:

"What has brought Young Master Ding here?"

Ding Songyan placed one hand behind his back again and smiled as though making casual conversation.

"Did Hall Master Liu ever feel that something had already been amiss with Chen Yuliang in the days before his death?"

Liu Yuxuan stared at Ding Songyan's face. Only after a moment did he slowly shake his head.

"No."

Ding Songyan had not expected Hall Master Liu to give any other answer. He merely wanted to use him to pass those words along to the Small Boat Gang.

As for whether the Small Boat Gang would believe it, whether they could discover anything unusual, and what they would do afterward, he could only cross the river by feeling the stones for now.

The only thing he could be certain of was that the Small Boat Gang would not seek cooperation with him anytime soon. After all, he was a descendant of Zhen Estate, and Chen Yuliang had just been led into a pit and killed because of that. They certainly did not want to be duped every day, with every trick the same.

"Did Hall Master Liu also feel that Chen Yuliang had been too aggressive over the past two or three months?" Combining what he had heard outside the county yamen with rumors from the streets, Ding Songyan offered another hint, though he was not entirely certain.

Liu Yuxuan looked into Ding Songyan's smiling eyes and slowly shook his head again.

"No."

"Perhaps he was 'unable to help himself.'" Ding Songyan deliberately spoke in a sighing tone.

Without waiting for Hall Master Liu's response, he turned halfway and examined the tall stone man covered in sword and saber marks. With a self-mocking smile, he said:

"Why did I think something was wrong? Because I was dragged into it and became an abandoned son of Zhen Estate."

Liu Yuxuan's eyes shifted slightly, and his expression changed by a fraction.

With one hand behind his back, Ding Songyan strolled to his side and looked at another wooden dummy ahead. In a low voice, as if speaking to himself, he said:

"I nearly lost my life because of it, but I also encountered a stroke of fortune. Things are different now. I cannot swallow that grievance."

When he finished, he did not look at Hall Master Liu's expression. He smiled and shook his head, raising the right hand hanging at his side.

With that motion, he activated the pale, misty "seed" in his mind, making it travel to his palm in an instant.

Ding Songyan's senses suddenly soared, as if his soul had left his body and he were looking down upon everything here from above.

He clearly felt the gale sweeping across the training ground, stained with a trace of heaven-and-earth energy that was both violent and tyrannical. It brought dense black clouds, heavy and oppressive, along with fierce silver-white flashes leaping within them.

There seemed to be another invisible body outside his own, its acupoints hidden in the void, breathing in heaven and earth.

Following some profound and mysterious trajectory, Ding Songyan pushed out his right palm.

At that instant, the gale raging through the training ground abruptly vanished. The air became stifling, nearly frozen solid.

Ding Songyan's right palm landed upon the wooden dummy ahead, light as a drifting feather.

A moment later, violent currents of air burst from his palm.

All the winds that had just vanished seemed to have shifted here, tangling together. First, they compressed to the utmost limit, then erupted.

The sound was swallowed. The wooden dummy disintegrated in an instant, swept into the air by a visible gale, as though a true dragon in the clouds were drawing up water.

Still wearing that same smile, Ding Songyan withdrew his right palm and placed it behind his back as well.

He turned around without looking at Hall Master Liu again and slowly walked out of the training ground.

Hall Master Liu, Senior Brother Yang, and the seven or eight martial hall disciples hiding nearby all stared with frozen eyes at the "dragon drawing water" spiraling three or four zhang high, at the wooden dummy that had already become fragments fluttering in the wind.

Just then, a bolt of lightning fell from the sky, striking the spot where the wooden dummy had stood with magnificent force. It lit Hall Master Liu's face silver-white and left Senior Brother Yang and the others' expressions shifting between light and shadow.

Rumble!

The muffled thunder rolled outward, and the rainstorm that had brewed for so long finally came pouring down over Dingjiang Prefecture.

When raindrops as large as beans crashed down behind him in a torrential sheet, Ding Songyan, still with both hands behind his back, had already entered the corridor.

With his back to Hall Master Liu, Senior Brother Yang, and the others, the smile gradually faded from Ding Songyan's face, replaced by astonishment.

"Wasn't that effect a little too good?"

"Good thing I left right after showing off. I nearly got struck by lightning..."

Had he known Yan Changqing's "qi" was so terrifying, he would have chosen that nine-chi stone man instead!

Just now, he had been afraid that he would fail to break the stone man and make a laughingstock of himself, leaving everyone present clutching their bellies in laughter. That was why he had settled for the wooden dummy instead.

Ding Songyan's bearing did not diminish even with both hands behind his back. He walked steadily, step by step, back to Stone Pool Martial Hall's entrance.

Looking at the rainstorm ahead, now nearly a curtain of water, his expression darkened.

He had not brought an umbrella...

Under the eaves of Dangkang Temple, Ding Songyan gathered part of his clothes and wrung out quite a few drops of water.

"How could this rain start falling the moment it wanted to, and so heavily too..." Xu Chang'an, equally drenched beside him, grumbled nonstop.

"Isn't it normal for June weather to change whenever it pleases?" Ding Songyan replied with a common saying.

He had not figured it out himself either. Had the rain been drawn down by him, had it simply been time for it to fall, or had both happened together and piled atop each other?

No matter what, Yan Changqing's strength had been displayed without reservation. Just a strand of "qi" that he had lent Ding Songyan after being crippled for years possessed such power!

Zhen Qianfan was probably extremely wary of him. If Yan Changqing had not been seriously injured back then, even if Zhen Qianfan had ten times the courage, he might not have dared set his sights on that treasure... Assuming Yan Changqing had not lied about helping Zhen Qianfan become a Martial Grandmaster, then he might well have reached the Celestial-Human Realm... There were only so many figures like that in the world. If not for the lack of time, and if Xiaoqing and Ren Youyang were not my only two sources of information, I could probably identify Yan Changqing's true identity by comparing them one by one... Ding Songyan's thoughts spun without pause.

Xu Chang'an had merely complained about the weather and had not thought much of it. He glanced at the others sheltering from the rain in Dangkang Temple, lowered his voice, and got to the important matter.

"Second Brother Ding, how did your talk with Hall Master Liu go?"

"Very well. He should appreciate me quite a bit." Ding Songyan lied through his teeth.

He could not exactly say that he had frightened them stiff, could he?

He was not worried that Hall Master Liu would spread word of his "stroke of fortune" and meteoric rise, nor was he afraid that Senior Brother Yang or the other martial hall disciples would leak the matter and draw the yamen's suspicions.

He only hated that he could not personally steer the rumors of the martial world. He only hated that he could not go to the county yamen and turn himself in, making the Yi clan and Xiaoming Sect scrutinize exactly what "stroke of fortune" he had encountered.

Thanks to that "seed" in his sea of consciousness, even reporting himself to the authorities required him to take such a roundabout path and flaunt his edge. The odds of success were still very low!

Xu Chang'an let out a breath of relief.

"Though I do not know what exactly you are trying to do, Second Brother Ding, if you need help with anything, come find me."

"I will not stand on ceremony." Ding Songyan looked at Xu Chang'an, the corners of his mouth rising little by little.

Xu Chang'an inexplicably shuddered.

The rainstorm had just stopped when Ding Songyan entered his home in Chengyu Lane.

Ding Qingyan was not at all surprised that he had returned early today. With rain falling so heavily, how could the market outside Dangkang Temple possibly stay open? With no storytelling to hear, her second brother naturally came home.

"Here, this is for you." Ding Songyan took out the silver hairpin he had bought earlier and handed it over.

Ding Qingyan's eyes widened, and her delicate brows moved slightly.

"Second Brother, you only have soul-severance sickness. You did not obtain a treasure basin. Why are you giving me a silver hairpin? Save it for your future wife."

"Isn't it only right and proper for an elder brother to save up a little dowry money for his younger sister?" Ding Songyan laughed. "Take it when I give it to you, or I'll give it to Ahua."

"Who is Ahua?" Ding Qingyan felt that was a more pressing matter. Her intention to refuse weakened as she accepted the silver hairpin.

Holding back a laugh, Ding Songyan said:

"The yellow dog belonging to Uncle Ren at the mouth of the lane. I forgot what it was called, so I gave it a new name—Ahua."

"..." Ding Qingyan's expression swiftly went blank. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Is teasing me that fun?"

"Yes." Before his sister could grab a broom, Ding Songyan ran back to the western wing, changed out of his wet clothes, and dried himself with a cloth towel.

When he returned to the main room clean and dry, Ding Qingyan was holding a bronze mirror and admiring the silver hairpin now tucked into her hair from every angle.

"You might as well have just given me silver." She looked into the bronze mirror with a radiant smile and muttered softly.

Ding Songyan did not expose her. Pulling over a stool, he sat down and murmured with a hint of satisfaction:

"Over the next few days, I should see what Mother, Father, and Eldest Brother lack, and what they want..."

Ding Qingyan froze for a moment, then put down the bronze mirror. Frowning at Ding Songyan, she asked with concern:

"Second Brother, you are not going to have something happen again, are you?"

Ding Songyan shook his head with a smile.

"Didn't I recently meet a 'God of Wealth'? Xu Chang'an also thanked me with quite a few taels of silver."

"Where did he get it? Did he rob some wealthy household?" Ding Qingyan's attention was diverted again.

Ding Songyan briefly explained what had happened to Xu Chang'an's master. Since it was still early, he began learning and practicing characters.

That night, he prepared to continue Xu Shilin's story.

Before going to sleep, Ding Qingyan, who always chatted with him for a while, suddenly spoke from the other side of the screen.

"Second Brother, I was actually very happy today. It felt as if we had gone back to before, when you would tell a story every night and I would fall asleep listening..."

Her voice gradually lowered. Then she forced out a smile and pretended to complain:

"You have not even told me your Legend of the White Snake. Only reading the draft is terribly dull!"

Ding Songyan's manuscript was merely a rough outline.

"I..." Ding Songyan intended to put the matter off until later.

He currently had a bellyful of worries. If he did not need to probe Xiaoqing for information, he would not even want to write this Legend of the White Snake.

Before he could say anything further, Ding Qingyan spoke as though to herself:

"Second Brother, I know you have been working hard lately. You still have to burn the midnight oil writing every night. I was only saying it casually. When you have time, when there is nothing to do before bed, tell it to me then.

"If there were not so many people and so much chaos outside Dangkang Temple, I would even want to hear you tell a story once. Mother has not really let me go out these past few days, and I do not want to cause trouble for you all..."

Hearing Ding Qingyan's obedient and sensible words, Ding Songyan's heart softened. He sighed silently and said:

"It is still early today. I will tell you one."

"Ah, then just a quarter of an hour will do." Ding Qingyan's voice was full of delight. "I want to hear the part where Lady White frightens Xu Xian to death."

"Alright." Ding Songyan began with Fahai's temptation and Xu Xian's noticing the details, then told the tale all the way through the Dragon Boat Festival realgar wine incident. At the end, he even sang "Madame White Under Qingcheng Mountain" for his sister.

Ding Qingyan hummed the song. Ding Songyan was rather astonished as he listened—this was exactly the cold, ethereal, otherworldly feeling he wanted.

Before he could praise her, Ding Qingyan was already laughing softly.

"Second Brother, I knew that if I begged you to tell me stories, you would surely refuse. But if I acted obedient and sensible, gentle and considerate, with a touch of grievance, you would probably soften your heart. Hmph, serves you right for teasing me earlier!

"I'm asleep now~ Don't disturb me~"

"..." Ding Songyan had nearly forgotten that his little sister had this side to her.

After a while, he shook his head with a laugh and picked up the brush resting on the rack.

After writing for quite some time, Ding Songyan finally saw Xiaoqing's familiar figure.

As he wrote, he casually asked:

"Miss Xiaoqing, do you know someone named Yan Changqing?"