Netherworld

Ding Songyan acted as soon as the thought struck him. He would do it near Fengshui Bridge.

That way, if something truly went wrong and caused trouble, there were street-patrolling constables and Xiaoming Sect disciples across the way. When the time came, aside from resolving the incident, they could preferably arrest him as well, lock him in jail, and thoroughly check whether there was anything unusual about him.

With his back to Fengshui Bridge's night market, bright as day beneath its colored lanterns, Ding Songyan wolfed down the candied hawthorn in a few bites, held his breath, focused his mind, and tried moving the hazy "seed" within his sea of consciousness toward his eyes.

The moment the Seed reached his brow, before it could split in two and flow into his eyes to reveal its power of piercing delusion, the scenery in Ding Songyan's vision changed:

Mist rose, smoke-like and dreamlike, merging with the darkness and reducing the surrounding houses to isolated islands. Though they were close at hand, they could only gaze at one another from afar.

The night grew ever deeper. Shadow after shadow staggered through the black mist, wandering aimlessly onward—some in tattered clothing, some clad in armor and gripping weapons, some bloody masses of flesh, some missing limbs, some grotesquely misshapen, some like creatures of another kind...

Soundless lightning flashed, illuminating a ghastly green expanse, the empty and profound distance without end, and the obsidian peaks standing in the depths of the gloom.

"It really works...

"Just combining them, without even triggering the Seed's power, opened my Yin Eye... For the ten-thousandth time, Master Yan's Qi is just too useful. It can strengthen my unusual abilities without wasting any uses at all. I really want to learn it. If only he weren't such a bastard and had died earlier, how wonderful would that be..."

Ding Songyan was startled and delighted, and could not help sighing in wonder.

He examined the scene carefully for a while and found it strangely familiar.

It seemed to be the scene he had faintly, hazily sensed in his "dream" before awakening within Second Brother Ding's body:

Darkness like smoke, blurred figures, ghostly green yin lightning, an empty wilderness...

"Hiss, before seizing this body and being reborn, did I wander the Underworld of this world for some time? Wasn't the transmigration supposed to have happened immediately?" Amid his shock and bewilderment, Ding Songyan felt a powerful doubt arise.

He had always possessed an academic spirit. At that moment, he only wanted to ask:

What was the mechanism behind this?

He steadied himself and compared the surroundings with the experiences in his memories as he observed them.

"There are several black stone pillars beside me, and there are similar things in the distance in different directions throughout the Underworld... I didn't notice them when I wandered through the Underworld before, but back then I couldn't see far or clearly. My senses were vague, my thoughts muddled...

"I'm not feeling the bone-piercing cold wind now either. That makes sense. I only opened my Yin Eye, so I only have the visual effect and no other senses...

"Likewise, there's none of that feeling of darkness wrapping around my body like a curtain..."

Ding Songyan stared at the several half-real, half-illusory black pillars only a few steps away. He cautiously approached and reached out toward the small holes in the stone surface, as though weathered into it over countless years.

His palm passed through the black stone pillar, and through a ghostly figure passing by. It touched nothing.

Separated by yin and yang... Ding Songyan sighed.

Then, suddenly, a new thought came to him.

Since his soul had once wandered for a time through the Underworld of this world, leaving him with the unstable ability of Yin-Yang Eyes even after occupying Second Brother Ding's body, might it be that more than just his eyes were unusual? Could other parts of his body be special as well?

After all, it was not merely his "eyes" that had entered the Underworld, but his entire soul.

And since Yan Changqing's Qi did not need to be used up, merely drawing near was enough to steadily trigger his Yin Eye. In this setting, if he moved the Seed into his hand, would his palm undergo a corresponding change as well?

Ding Songyan slowly moved the Qingmengmeng Seed at his brow toward his arm. Throughout the process, his Yin Eye remained steady and did not gradually fade.

In just over a dozen breaths, the Qingmengmeng Seed arrived in Ding Songyan's palm.

All at once, Ding Songyan felt piercing cold.

Wave after wave of sinister wind blew over his palm, making his blood feel as though it were freezing and his skin seem on the verge of weathering away.

Ding Songyan raised his arm and tried extending that palm forward again.

Through the heavy restraints of the deep darkness, he felt something grim and icy cold: the armor of a passing ghostly figure.

Ding Songyan's palm continued onward, touching one of the Obsidian Pillars and a weathered hole the size of an ear that nearly bored all the way through it.

"So that's really how it is..." As Ding Songyan felt the pillar's icy roughness, he watched ghostly figures pass one after another through the parts of his arm whose unusual properties had not been triggered by the Seed.

Occasionally, they bumped into Ding Songyan's palm and were knocked off course, having to circle around before continuing onward.

Ding Songyan withdrew his palm and, in a spirit of experimentation, took a copper coin from his money pouch.

"A five-cash coin?" Without thinking, Ding Songyan instinctively swapped the five-cash Xingping Heavy Treasure for a one-cash Jianwu Tongbao.

He clenched the Jianwu Tongbao tightly and tried bringing it close to the black stone pillar.

The freezing wind passed through the back of Ding Songyan's hand and flew out from his palm. He had no idea whether it blew through the copper coin as well.

Ding Songyan carefully placed the Jianwu Tongbao into one of the weathered holes, then slowly drew back his hand with great curiosity.

The one-cash Jianwu Tongbao did not lose its support and fall to the ground. It remained securely hidden within the small hole in the pillar.

"This is interesting...

"Did it truly enter the Netherworld through my hand?

"Did it turn into a Yin-Yang Coin?"

Ding Songyan withdrew his hand and patiently observed for any changes that might follow.

Not long after the sound of the night watchman's clappers passed, his vision began to sway.

The scene of the Underworld and the frightening ghostly figures vanished rapidly, while the surrounding houses and streets emerged from the smoke-like mist.

"Without Yan Changqing's Qi to trigger it, my Yin Eye can't be maintained forever. Still, it can remain stable for a while—perhaps a little over the time it takes to burn a stick of incense. That's good too. Keeping the Yin Eye open at all times would definitely be dangerous. I wouldn't even dare go out at night..." As Ding Songyan analyzed the situation, he cast his gaze toward the ground beneath the pure moonlight.

There was nothing there but dust.

Ding Songyan's Jianwu Tongbao had disappeared completely.

"It really was sent into the Underworld..." After checking his money pouch and counting his coins, confirming that he was indeed one Jianwu Tongbao short, Ding Songyan clicked his tongue, half excited and half dazed.

He felt that if he could not find work in the future, he could open a Heaven and Earth Bank to specialize in delivering things to people's deceased friends and family in the Underworld.

Naturally, that was contingent on Yan Changqing being dead beyond all doubt, while his Qi remained usable—or on Ding Songyan cultivating similar Qi himself.

Since he had not used up any of the Qi's allotted uses, Ding Songyan repeatedly tested it several more times, verifying many details. For example, only after opening his Yin Eye and moving the Seed to his palm could his palm touch ghosts and other things in the Underworld. If he had not opened his Yin Eye, moving the Seed into his palm merely prepared it to injure enemies; it could not connect to the realm of yin.

After quite some time, Ding Songyan rubbed his head, feeling a throbbing ache. He knew that while the Seed had not expended much tonight, he himself had paid a considerable price.

He had no choice but to end the experiment that had filled him with such eager excitement. The copper coin had already been retrieved from the Underworld:

Its copper color had been stained ghostly green, turning old and darkly decayed, as though it had been thrown into some tomb and buried for over a century.

Not only that, it had gained a hint of illusory quality. The air around it was icy, as if a faint yin wind were blowing across it.

"I wonder what it can be used for..." Ding Songyan put away the Jianwu Tongbao, returned to Chengyu Lane, opened the door, and lay down on his bed.

His mind felt hollow. He was so exhausted that he found it difficult to fall asleep for a time.

This left him no choice but to consider a few questions:

What cultivation method exactly did Yan Changqing practice? What was his Qi? Why did it possess so many wondrous uses, and why could it open Ding Songyan's Yin Eye without consuming any power?

Line after line from his conversation with Yan Changqing flashed through his mind. Suddenly, Ding Songyan caught hold of one passage:

When the other man had explained that the opening of the divine art was "humankind is precious," he had given several examples to clarify humanity's uniqueness:

"Make good use of body and mind, sense Heaven and answer Earth, summon gods and command ghosts..."

Sense Heaven and answer Earth, summon gods and command ghosts... The Netherworld fell within the scope of Heaven and Earth. Being able to sense the Netherworld through sensing Heaven and answering Earth was indeed perfectly natural—especially when he had later mentioned commanding ghosts. No wonder... That palm strike at Stone Pool Martial Hall also counted as sensing Heaven and answering Earth. I summoned lightning and catalyzed rain... Ding Songyan gained some insight, gradually deepening his understanding of Yan Changqing's martial arts.

As he thought, his body and mind gradually relaxed, and he drifted into sleep.

It was another morning. Ding Songyan looked wan and listless, his spirit weary.

"Second Brother, you said you went out for a walk to cool off last night. Where exactly did you walk to?" Ding Qingyan asked, both concerned and slightly teasing.

Ding Daniu was chewing on a pancake their mother had made. Hearing this, he glanced at Ding Songyan and asked in a rumbling voice tinged with envy:

"Did you go for a walk in Beili Ward?"

With a swish, both Liu Yuzao and Ding Shengyi turned their gazes toward Ding Songyan.

Life is hard. I even had to keep the 'God of Wealth' company in the middle of the night. At least the 'God of Wealth' only likes candied hawthorn and not alcohol, or I'd have had to get dead drunk too... Ding Songyan smiled bitterly.

"I went for a walk to Fengshui Bridge last night. There was lots of delicious food there, and a few Wandering Storytellers I knew, so I drank and ate a little with them. Sigh, I can't walk over there anymore. It's too dangerous." Ding Songyan recalled all the "perils" he had encountered on the road during the occasional nighttime runs of his former life.

Liu Yuzao hummed.

"Did they pay for it? Remember to treat them next time."

Ding Songyan agreed. Ding Shengyi, meanwhile, smiled and patted him on the shoulder, joking:

"Next time you take a walk to Fengshui Bridge, bring your father along. I'd like to have some night drinks too..."

Seeing Liu Yuzao's gaze turn toward him, his voice gradually lowered.

After leaving Chengyu Lane and arriving outside Dangkang Temple, Ding Songyan set up his storytelling as usual. Miss Xiaoqing also tipped him with a silver ingot as usual.

This installment was immensely satisfying. Xu Shilin battled the tiger demon, shattered the illusion, slew Yellowbrow, and finally obtained the Kui Ox Orb. In one step, he soared to the heavens, drawing repeated cheers from the audience.

By noon, Ding Songyan had just packed up his tools for earning a meal when Ren Youyang, his dog ears hidden beneath blue clothes and a small cap, crept over furtively. Pretending to be a spectator, he lowered his voice and said:

"Those people are following you again."