Before Ding Songyan could ask anything else, Qin Nuangsheng smiled wistfully and said:
"You actually asked me about martial arts before. I even made a point of asking your brother-in-law about it, only for you to forget everything."
"There isn't much I can remember." Ding Songyan put on a "sorrowful" expression.
Qin Nuangsheng left her chair and paced a couple of steps:
"Body tempering and qi training are merely the first steps in martial arts. Together, they're called the 'initial realm,' though some call it the 'mortal stage.'
"Only upon reaching the 'life realm,' when you begin refining the body's apertures, do you qualify for inclusion in the 'Exalted Orchid Roll.' But there are so many people in this realm that only those with outstanding talent or extraordinary backgrounds can receive a grade and become widely known.
"Grades aren't determined by your progress in refining apertures, but by your performance in actual combat. The 'life realm' has three grades, from lowest to highest: 'Peeking path,' 'Entering hall,' and 'entering chamber.' These are the so-called lower three grades, the most common ranks among martial artists and wandering heroes.
"Ordinary people like us don't understand those names and can't tell them apart, so we prefer to call them the ninth, eighth, and seventh grades.
"Your brother-in-law said that those in the lower three grades haven't surpassed ordinary people by much, which is why it's also called the 'mortal realm.' At this level, the techniques they cultivate don't display many unusual qualities. In actual combat, moves, resolve, experience, intelligence, weapons, armor, and so on matter more. With even a slight mistake or oversight, a seventh-grade fighter can be killed by a ninth-grade one..."
Ding Songyan listened intently, interrupting Qin Nuangsheng now and then to ask questions.
After explaining the "life realm" and the lower three grades, Qin Nuangsheng shifted her gaze, studied her younger cousin for a while, and solemnly cautioned him:
"I don't know much about anything beyond that, but your brother-in-law mentioned that if you want to cultivate more profound, superior techniques and go further along the martial path, you can pick any martial art and begin body tempering and qi training in the 'initial realm.' Once you reach the 'life realm,' though, you absolutely mustn't refine apertures blindly."
"Why is that?" Ding Songyan asked with concern.
Qin Nuangsheng raised her head slightly and recalled for a moment before saying:
"Apparently, each technique requires you to refine different apertures in the body, and uses different methods. If a superior technique you obtain later requires any of the same apertures as your current martial art, the two will conflict. In milder cases, your cultivation will go awry and you'll lose all your martial abilities. In severe cases, you'll go mad or die on the spot.
"Mm, if two techniques don't have overlapping apertures or conflicts, you can cultivate both or switch from one to the other. Actually, even when the required apertures overlap, there are special circumstances that let you overcome the restriction."
"What special circumstances?" Ding Songyan's face was full of eagerness to learn.
Qin Nuangsheng chuckled softly:
"I don't know about the others. Your brother-in-law only gave one example at the time:
"Any martial arts related to flood dragons and snakes can be converted to true dragon arts. The overlapping apertures won't conflict as a result. They'll simply be accommodated, then transformed."
A flood dragon transforming into a dragon-a higher-order martial art? Ding Songyan roughly understood the root of this special circumstance and casually asked:
"Which sect has true dragon arts?"
Qin Nuangsheng couldn't help rolling her eyes and glaring at Ding Songyan:
"You certainly know how to put me on the spot. I'm a woman confined to the inner household. What would I know about the martial world? All I know is that the most renowned one, the Xinyu Six Dragon Sect, inherited the Winged Dragon's legacy. You know of the Winged Dragon, don't you?"
Of course... "Winged Dragon: summons wind and rain, gathers clouds and mist, commands thunder, rules the myriad skies, brings dragon and phoenix together in auspicious harmony"... The annotation says, "Forefather of dragons, origin of phoenixes"... "A dragon's form with a phoenix's wings"... The passages about the Winged Dragon in the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas flashed through Ding Songyan's mind.
This was an ancient deity he had already been fairly familiar with in his previous life, so he had read the relevant passages very carefully and remembered them clearly.
After chatting a while longer, Qin Nuangsheng told Ding Songyan:
"I nearly forgot something. Doctor Shao asked you to stop by his clinic tomorrow or the day after, whenever you have time. He wants to check your condition again."
"All right." After his previous consultation, Ding Songyan was no longer afraid of seeing Doctor Shao.
Led by the maid Cuihe, he left the Lotus Pond Courtyard. Just as he approached the estate's entrance, he saw his ready-made brother-in-law, Zhen Quanwang, ushering a group of people out with a face full of smiles, nodding and bowing.
The main gates were already wide open.
The group's leader was a man in his twenties, dressed in feathered robes and a tall crown, as though he were a refined recluse beyond the mundane world. Yet there was nothing ethereal or otherworldly about the man himself. He was noticeably shorter than Ding Songyan, pale and plump, with swollen eyelids and a sleepy face. His most distinctive feature was his rather large ears, which were shaped like a dog's.
Behind him were four maids, one carrying a zither, one holding a fan, one bearing a sword, and one supporting a box. All were exceptionally beautiful and wore bright, eye-catching clothes.
Four guards also accompanied him, some old, some in their prime. One likewise had dog ears, another had brown animal fur covering the backs of his hands, another had strange patterns painted on the sides of his face, and another moved with an elusive, ghostlike grace.
Ding Songyan had seen only a handful of people with unusual physical traits over the previous two days, yet now he had encountered no fewer than five at once.
What a grand procession... After watching the group leave the Zhen Estate through the main gates, he turned curiously to the maid Cuihe beside him:
"Where did these distinguished guests come from?"
Was something else happening at the Zhen Estate?
"This servant doesn't know." Cuihe shook her head repeatedly.
By the time Ding Songyan returned to Chengyu Alley after going back to Dangkang Temple and listening to storytelling for a long while, the setting sun was hanging at the edge of the sky.
Before he even approached the courtyard entrance, he heard repeated thumping from inside.
What's going on? Ding Songyan raised an eyebrow and pushed open the two half-closed wooden doors in puzzlement.
The first thing he saw was Ding Daniu kneeling bare-chested before the elm tree, his head hanging low as Liu Yuzao repeatedly lashed his back with a piece of firewood.
"You must not recklessly kill the innocent."
"You must not fight out of anger."
"You must not bully others."
With a cold expression, Liu Yuzao struck Ding Daniu's back once after each reprimand, raising red welts until his flesh gradually became a bloody mess.
Wasn't the matter of Big Brother killing that man from the Small Boat Gang settled last night? Ding Songyan didn't immediately stop his mother. He went around to Ding Qingyan, who was covering her eyes with both hands, afraid to look at the wounds, set down the tools of his livelihood, and asked quietly:
"What happened?"
Ding Qingyan turned sideways, putting her back to the elm tree, and lowered her hands:
"Big Brother got angry with someone at the docks today and nearly hit him. He frightened the man, and when the foreman told him to apologize, he refused. So the foreman came here and said a few words."
"I see..." Ding Songyan didn't ask who was actually in the right. He merely reflected that the foreman had no eye for danger. Had it been him, he would never have dared force this fierce warrior of a brother, whose vicious looks and temper could scare someone to death, to apologize. Was the man really not afraid of having his entire family wiped out?
Ah, I still need to learn martial arts. Otherwise, all I can do is back down...
After pondering for a while, Ding Songyan was about to ask his father to persuade his mother to ease up-a lesson was one thing, but she shouldn't beat him to death-when he saw Ding Shengyi pick up a piece of firewood and hand it to Liu Yuzao, who had just broken the one in her hand.
Ding Songyan breathed out and looked at Ding Qingyan from the corner of his eye:
"I wonder if the Jiafo School has any methods for subduing inner demons, clearing the mind, and focusing the spirit?"
He felt that for someone born wicked like his elder brother, family discipline and emotional ties alone were not enough. He also needed a method of internal cultivation. Only cultivating the heart could cure the root; only meditating on Zen could make him a Buddha.
Ding Qingyan shook her head.
"They don't?" Ding Songyan pressed.
"I don't know." Ding Qingyan sighed helplessly. "Second Brother, I haven't even reached hairpin age yet. Don't treat me as an all-knowing sage."
Once Liu Yuzao finished punishing Ding Daniu, Ding Songyan took some clean strips of cloth, wound medicine, and other supplies, walked over to his elder brother, who was still kneeling before the elm tree, and said softly:
"Big Brother, I'll put medicine on you. Bear with it."
Discipline was discipline, but I still had to show him affection. Otherwise, we'd all be done for together.
Ding Daniu answered in a rumbling voice:
"It's nothing. I didn't even move when Mother hit me.
"Second Brother, you're so good to me."
I'd rather stay far away from you... Ding Songyan drew a breath, cleaned Ding Daniu's wounds first, then applied the wound medicine and bandaged them.
Throughout the process, Ding Daniu didn't make a sound. His body only trembled slightly.
Only when everyone was about to go to bed was he allowed inside to lie on his stomach.
Ding Songyan closed the west room's door, lit the oil lamp, and said to his younger sister, Ding Qingyan:
"I need to write the story I'll tell tomorrow. Will that keep you from sleeping?"
He had come home rather late and hadn't yet had time to organize the detailed outline for the next part of Legend of the White Snake.
"It won't. I fall asleep really quickly." Ding Qingyan's face was full of anticipation. "Remember to let me read it tomorrow morning."
Using stacked large wooden chests as a desk and a small wooden chest as a chair, Ding Songyan spread out his paper, ground his 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 forgotten being frightened to death by her snake form. It went on to tell how the two conceived a child and, after ten months of pregnancy, she gave birth to the Wuqu Star.
"Wait, what was Fahai doing all this time..." As Ding Songyan wrote, he felt that something wasn't quite right.
Fahai just watched, letting Lady White and Xu Xian live together as a loving couple and even have the Wuqu Star as their child?
How am I supposed to make this story work...
He set down his brush, and as he pondered, Ding Songyan suddenly felt someone watching him.
He abruptly turned and looked toward the bed.
At some point, a figure had seated herself there.
She wore a plain top and a white skirt. The outer corners of her eyes tilted slightly upward, her nose was small and delicate, and her black hair was tied with a white silk kerchief. Resting her cheek on one hand, she was watching Ding Songyan with a warm smile.
It was none other than the young woman who had listened to his storytelling that day.
"You've already thought up the rest of the story, haven't you?" the young woman asked with a faint smile.
The corner of Ding Songyan's mouth twitched involuntarily.
Did she come knocking to demand the next installment?
So you know martial arts-big deal!
He glanced toward the screen and, seeing no movement from Ding Qingyan, lowered his voice:
"It's already late at night. Why not get some rest, heroine, and listen tomorrow?"
He found that the young woman's air was remarkably changeable. Yesterday she had been all beguiling sweetness and innocent charm; during the day today, she had seemed delicate and frail. Now, at night, she was inexplicably dangerous and alluring...
"I can't sleep. I keep wondering whether Xu Xian can be revived, and what will happen to him and Lady White afterward..." The young woman's soft, sweet voice had taken on a drifting, seductive quality.
As she spoke, she smiled radiantly:
"Do you know why I like this story so much? Why I'm so captivated by it?"
"I don't." A sudden premonition of danger arose in Ding Songyan.
Before he could react, he felt something icy and slippery coil around him.
Ding Songyan hurriedly lowered his head and saw an immensely thick, white-scaled snake tail.
The snake tail extended from beneath the young woman's skirt!
Ding Songyan was utterly dumbfounded.
So I've run into the real thing?
I casually tell Legend of the White Snake and actually meet a white snake?
"Now you know, don't you?" the young woman asked, her face wreathed in smiles.
Before you continue