As Is

Ding Songyan slowly withdrew his gaze and, following the routine he had set for himself, walked back to the west-side room stiffly but without anything seeming amiss.

Ding Qingyan was sitting beside his bed, flipping through the storybooks of Legend of the White Snake he had written before.

"Second Brother, we're almost at the final chapter, right? Once we reach that point, you won't have to stay up writing by lamplight anymore. You can tell me the whole story from beginning to end, in great detail." The girl gave him a sly smile. "That way, I can help you transcribe it and take it to the book club to exchange for money."

Ding Songyan stared at Ding Qingyan and scanned her from head to toe. Just as before, he found nothing unusual.

"What is it?" Ding Qingyan asked, looking bewildered.

Ding Songyan forced a smile.

"I just realized how pretty my little sister is."

Ding Qingyan rolled her eyes and said disdainfully, "Don't think you can fob me off with that!"

"All right, all right. Once I don't have to stay up writing anymore, I'll tell you one chapter of Legend of the White Snake every day." Ding Songyan brushed her off.

At present, all he wanted was an undisturbed environment in which to calmly think things through.

Only then did Ding Qingyan smile. She sweetly thanked her second brother and returned to the inner room partitioned off by the screen.

Ding Songyan sat down and pondered briefly. While the clear, hazy effect of the "seed" that let him see through falsehoods had yet to disappear, he dug out the ingot of silver Xu Chang'an had given him from the wooden chest, crossed the main room, and came outside the east-side room, where he knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Liu Yuzao's cool voice rang out.

"It's me. I have something to discuss." Ding Songyan's voice had already returned to its steady state.

Before long, the door creaked open. Wearing a white inner robe, Ding Shengyi looked at Ding Songyan in puzzlement.

"Second Son, what is it?"

In Ding Songyan's eyes, two feelers covered in blood-red scales had grown from the temples of his father, Ding Shengyi. His body was thin and carried a faint reddish hue.

This... A term suddenly surfaced in Ding Songyan's mind:

"Moth Father!"

His spirit tensed at once. He lowered his head, disguising his abnormality with an embarrassed expression.

"Dad, I helped Eldest Brother Xu with something earlier, and he thanked me with quite a bit of silver. Should I hand it over to the family treasury?"

Ding Shengyi's slightly feminine feelers trembled. He chuckled softly.

"No need. What you earned yourself, you can keep for the family."

"All right." Ding Songyan did not dare stay a moment longer. He immediately turned and walked back to the west-side room.

Once he sat down again, the extraordinary clarity before his eyes gradually faded.

"He doesn't look like a demon..." Combining this with what he had seen and heard in recent days, Ding Songyan made a preliminary judgment. "He looks more like a strange outward manifestation produced after practicing martial arts to the Dayan Realm, through methods such as 'Creating Apertures'—similar to Mr. Yu's ears, Doctor Shao's eyes, and Ren Youyang's dog ears."

He had originally suspected that his elder brother was in a half-demon state, and that the Demon Race had been the ones who abducted his mother. But Ding Shengyi's image as the "Moth Father" made him lean more toward the possibility of him being a Dayan Realm martial artist.

A single "family" couldn't possibly have two half-demons, could it?

And they weren't even the same kind of demon!

"Was Ding Shengyi the one controlling the 'moth-person' that followed me? Heh, it's still debatable whether his name is even Ding Shengyi... No wonder there are so many mosquitoes and moths in my family's courtyard. It turns out the 'Moth Father' is right here, so the 'Hundred Insects Command' trait naturally came into play...

"Was he also the one manipulating Chen Yuliang and Wang Yishu into putting on a show to deceive me and the Zhen Estate? Is he working with Yan Changqing's 'old friend'?

"Is the source of the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas Yan Changqing's 'old friend'?

"When the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas was traded, did my predecessor act willingly or under coercion?

"Did my predecessor copy the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas because he wanted to, or because someone forced him?

"This can't possibly be a family..."

The more Ding Songyan thought about it, the more horrified he became.

He even began to wonder whether his predecessor's name had really been Ding Songyan.

Could this be a false name too?

"No, that's impossible. It's far more reasonable that sharing my name was one of the reasons I transmigrated than that a false name happened to be changed to match the one I had before transmigrating." Ding Songyan suddenly laughed—a laugh born of sheer exasperation. "So your false names all changed along with me?"

That reminded him of a conversation he had had in his previous life with his cousin's son, who was not yet three, when he went to visit his cousin's home.

"Uncle, what's your surname?"

"My surname is Ding."

"Oh, you took my surname too? Daddy did as well."

Ding Songyan reined in his thoughts and seriously analyzed a question.

Was it difficult to conceal all the strange outward manifestations brought about by martial arts practice, so that people would not notice them in daily life?

"It should not be easy... If it really were easy, Ren Youyang wouldn't have had to press those dog ears tightly against his scalp and cover them with his long hair whenever he disguised himself...

"Concealment through a cultivation method? Surely Ding Daniu and Ding Shengyi can't both know the same cultivation method? Their outward anomalies are different...

"Could someone be helping them conceal themselves? And Ding Daniu vented his desires today, became too carried away with himself, or indulged in women and broke his vow of abstinence, causing part of the concealment to fail?

"This possibility is quite high...

"In other words, there is still an expert hidden in the shadows... Yan Changqing's 'old friend'? Does it correspond to the 'qi' of that divine art, as well as its transformations and concealment applications?

"My predecessor said, 'I won't run anymore. Don't kill me.'... His attempt to flee was probably an attempt to escape this 'family.' No wonder he even abandoned the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas manuscript... In the end, his thoughts were influenced by Yan Changqing's 'old friend.' He entered the ruined temple and died on the spot...

"No, that's not right. Why didn't Yan Changqing's 'old friend' simply plant a clear, hazy 'seed' in his mind, making it impossible for him to even think of escaping, just as I am now? If I truly formed the thought of leaving Dingjiang Prefecture, I would turn around and forget it...

"I'll ask Xiaoqing later whether there are any cultivation methods that can help others conceal strange manifestations..."

Ding Songyan stopped meditating. He moved the wooden chest around and pieced together a simple table and chairs, then moved the oil lamp over.

Before Xiaoqing arrived, he took out the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas manuscript and quickly flipped through it by lamplight, searching for a strange beast whose features matched Ding Daniu's.

He even thought that if Xiaoqing happened to catch him and discovered the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas, it might be a way to cling to life in the midst of death. His only fear was that she would turn around and "forget" it too.

After a while, Ding Songyan fixed on a strange beast.

"Shuhu. A horse's body, bird's wings, a human face, and a snake's tail.

"Eating it grants strength surpassing a hundred oxen. It can travel ten thousand li in a day, sense Heaven, and know people."

"Other than the bird wings, everything matches... Big Brother practices the Shuhu inheritance... Yet he told me he had Innate Divine Strength and had never practiced martial arts... Well done, Ding Daniu. You look none too bright, but you're quite the liar...

"Mother as well. That day, she actually ate the steamed bun that had fallen to the ground. That isn't a habit a young lady from a wealthy family could have. Our current life may not be affluent, but it isn't too bad either... I actually overlooked that point that day. I still wasn't familiar enough with her. Thinking about it now, she either wasn't from a wealthy family at all, or she had been scrabbling through the mud for far, far too long...

"If it was the former, then Qingyan was lying to me too, going on about what the Liu Family was like. What a little liar..." Ding Songyan muttered a few words, making the best of a bitter situation.

He put away the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas and began writing the final chapter of Legend of the White Snake.

In this chapter, Xu Shilin first attempted to sneak in and quietly break the pagoda. Who would have thought that Fahai had anticipated it and sent him away defeated once more? Then he entered the Dao through emotion, successfully broke through his realm, and gained the assistance of experts such as the returning Green Snake. At last, he broke the Arhat Formation, cleaved apart Leifeng Pagoda, rescued Lady White, and brought Xu Xian back. The family of three was finally reunited. The ending showed Xu Shilin holding a wedding with the former ruler of the Maiden Kingdom, with everyone enjoying a happy celebration.

"Excellent, excellent!" Xiaoqing praised as she read from the side, though no one knew when she had arrived.

After finishing it all, she contentedly brought her palms together.

"Not bad, not bad. Before coming here, I was thinking that if this wasn't the final chapter, I would have to invite you onto the boat tomorrow night to tell me the rest."

"Lady Xiaoqing, are you leaving Dingjiang Prefecture tomorrow?" Ding Songyan asked, rather surprised.

Xiaoqing gave a soft "Mm."

"The Zhen Estate has invited us to a banquet tomorrow at the beginning of the Wei hour. The matter should come to an end then. And regardless of whether we gain anything, it would be inconvenient for us to remain here long. You know that we aren't from Great Zhao."

The banquet tomorrow would also be in the afternoon... Ding Songyan's heart stirred.

"The Zhen Estate only invited you after the Shen hour today?"

"Yes." Xiaoqing paused, but did not hide it.

"Between the first and second quarter of the Zheng part of the Shen hour, I bought a dagger. Someone told me to buy it." Ding Songyan tentatively spoke, and discovered that he could say this.

Xiaoqing's lips parted slightly, and her eyes flickered.

"So the two matters are connected...

"I'll have a word with Second Uncle later."

She immediately rose. Pressing her lips together, she said, "I should be leaving. If you're in a difficult situation, you'll have to hurry."

"I'll see you off. It's a good chance to enjoy the cool air." Ding Songyan had already gathered his writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.

There were still things he had not asked Xiaoqing about, because at present there truly were "ears listening through the wall."

Xiaoqing nodded and vanished from the room first, dreamlike and illusory.

As he had in the previous few days, Ding Songyan took the key and went out, locking the door from the outside.

In the courtyard, clean and free of even half a mosquito, moths once again surged and danced chaotically through the air.

Within the pitch-black east-side room, Ding Shengyi, dressed in a white inner robe, stood beside the oil-paper-covered window. He whispered with slight irritation.

"He's discovered that something is wrong with us.

"Xiaoxiang, your son has broken the prohibition time and again, refusing to learn his lesson. He nearly ruined our great undertaking. Fortunately, only a day or two remains, and your sect master can still handle it."

Liu Yuzao had the same inner robe on. Her features were beautiful, her bearing tranquil, and she looked to be only in her thirties. She glanced toward the main room and spoke as calmly as if she were discussing someone else.

"Back then, I considered throwing him to his death."

Ding Shengyi fell silent at once. After several breaths, he said, unable to conceal the pity in his voice, "Even a tiger does not eat its cubs. Who could blame you?

"Once this matter is over, why not take the opportunity to ask your sect master not to involve you in this right and wrong anymore? You have a kind heart and were never suited to practicing the left-hand path. Unlike me, I grew accustomed to it long ago and don't need to copy Buddhist scriptures or do good deeds to resolve the demons in my heart.

"If you want to retire from the martial world, I can do so as well. Li Zhizhi is lustful and murderous, and satisfying him would not be difficult for us. Brothels, moth eggs, moth-people—any of them would do."

Liu Yuzao gazed at the window paper and slowly shook her head.

"In the past, I was trapped in a demon's lair. I tried to escape time and again, only to be captured and dragged back. No righteous hero could find that hidden place. In the end, the one who rescued me was a giant of the left-hand path who profited by robbing robbers. He not only saved me but also took pity on me, taught me a cultivation method, passed on his secret arts, and gave me a foothold in this world.

"That day, I secretly swore that I would repay this kindness with my life, and would not stop until death.

"How could I now leave the sect merely because I cannot bear this for my own sake?"

Ding Shengyi was speechless for a moment. After a long while, he let out a long sigh.

"Your sect master's divine art and my Moth Scripture complement each other perfectly. If, after this matter, he keeps his promise and truly gives me some guidance, I might not be unable to join you. In any case, I abandoned my sect long ago."

At this point, Ding Shengyi hesitated before asking, "Is that girl Qingyan the child you had with him?"

"Qingyan is not my daughter." Liu Yuzao gently shook her head. "There is something special about her. The sect master deliberately sought her out. If Ding Songyan cannot make contact with the person, then it should be her."