Soul Aspect

Qu Zhongheng glanced at Ding Songyan and asked in a peculiar tone:

"You don't know?"

"I injured my head the day I went missing and forgot a lot of things. I came today for a follow-up with Doctor Shao," Ding Songyan said frankly.

"No wonder you happened to be here." Understanding dawned on Qu Zhongheng. He pointed to the horizontal eye on his forehead. "This is a Yin Eye. It can only open at night, and it can see the flow of Qi through heaven and earth, as well as Lonely Ghosts wandering about. To craft wondrous objects, I have to use my Yin Eye late at night."

"You can see Lonely Ghosts?" Ding Songyan was startled.

Wasn't this a world of martial arts?

No, wait. There were even snake demons, so ghosts weren't exactly out of place. I remember "ruler of the Netherworld" being part of Lady Houtu's description. Perhaps the legacy she left behind could restrain evil ghosts...

Qu Zhongheng laughed.

"What are you afraid of? Lonely Ghosts have neither intelligence nor supernatural powers, and they're extraordinarily weak. They can't harm anyone at all. If they encounter someone with even slightly stronger yang energy, they melt away swiftly, like thin ice meeting fire. Even if you leave them alone, after three to five days, they'll fall into the underworld or dissipate completely between heaven and earth."

"Oh, I see..." Ding Songyan looked relieved.

Inwardly, he had already resolved never to visit Qu Sanlang at night. Who knew whether the man's Yin Eye could detect something wrong with his soul?

A while later, Doctor Shao sent a boy to invite Ding Songyan upstairs in the medical hall.

In a room hung with freehand landscape paintings, Doctor Shao sat cross-legged behind a low brown wooden table carved with auspicious clouds. Old thread-bound books and several sheets of letter paper lay open before him.

He motioned for Ding Songyan to sit as well and asked with a smile:

"Have you remembered anything from your past over these last few days?"

"No," Ding Songyan answered truthfully.

Doctor Shao studied Ding Songyan for a while with his slightly whitened eyes.

"Let me examine you again. Give me your hand."

Ding Songyan thought he meant to take his pulse, but just as he extended his hand, he saw Doctor Shao take out a gold needle.

The soft gold needle suddenly stiffened and pierced an acupoint on Ding Songyan's wrist.

A cool stream of energy entered his body with it and raced along his meridians.

"What is this?" Ding Songyan asked, both concerned and curious.

Doctor Shao did not answer. His eyes half closed, he concentrated on sensing something.

A moment later, he reached up to stroke the five strands of his long beard, his face filled with bewilderment.

"The Soul Aspect aligns, the Soul Aspect aligns..."

Doctor Shao tugged at his beard harder and harder. Ding Songyan began to worry that he might suddenly yank out a couple of strands.

At last, Doctor Shao withdrew the gold needle and began frantically leafing through the pile of thread-bound books, completely ignoring Ding Songyan.

"What's wrong?" Ding Songyan could not help asking again.

Only then did Doctor Shao regain some composure. He pointed to the letter paper beside his hand.

"After I returned to the medical hall that day, I wrote a letter and sent it to my honored teacher by bird, asking for his guidance.

"He replied very quickly, saying that our Sects' Lost Classic of the Medicine King mentioned this. It might be a mismatch between Soul Aspects."

"I went through all the medical books and found some relevant passages.

"If someone suffers an overwhelming fright, their three souls and seven spirits may scatter. Certain martial arts can accomplish something similar. When the souls and spirits return to the body, a mismatch in the Soul Aspect may occur, causing them to forget part of their past. In severe cases, if the souls and spirits were harmed while outside the body, the three souls will be deficient and the seven spirits incomplete. The person will either become witless or remain bedridden."

"I thought I had found the cause of your disembodied soul syndrome, but it turns out your Soul Aspect is in harmony."

Doctor Shao could not help tugging at his beard again.

"Oh... What was the gold needle for?" Ding Songyan asked cautiously.

My soul and aspect actually align?

Doctor Shao answered offhandedly:

"A gold needle examines the soul."

You should have said so earlier. If you had, I wouldn't have come... A wave of lingering fear swept through Ding Songyan.

He had paid the price for his shallow knowledge.

Still, this had also dispelled many of his worries. Even an examination of his soul could not reveal his problem.

After leaving the Yannian Medical Hall, Ding Songyan saw that it was still early and returned to the Dangkang Temple, intending to listen to an hour or two of martial lore and tales of the rivers and lakes before going home.

The original owner of his body had only excelled at telling tales of the past, and the storybooks he had left behind touched little on these subjects. Of course, they were not entirely absent: the world of Martial Arts and the history of the imperial court were closely intertwined and inseparable.

As soon as he reached his usual patch of open ground, Ding Songyan saw someone standing beneath the shade of a tree.

It was Xu Chang'an, who had not accompanied him that day.

Xu Chang'an still wore his blue-green, narrow-sleeved straight robe, with a piece of black cloth binding his hair. He paced back and forth, looking deeply anxious.

Ding Songyan's first reaction was to turn around and leave before trouble came knocking, but Xu Chang'an had already spotted him and called out joyfully:

"Second Brother Ding!"

"What is it?" Ding Songyan replied helplessly.

Xu Chang'an said anxiously:

"My master's gone missing!"

Missing? Something suddenly stirred in Ding Songyan's mind.

The last person he had heard of going missing had been this body's original owner.

Xu Chang'an spoke rapidly:

"I went to my master's place yesterday to have him test my progress, but he wasn't there at all. He hadn't told us anything beforehand, either. I went looking for him again today, and he still wasn't there. He hadn't left any secret marks, either...

"Second Brother Ding, don't you think something might have happened?"

He had originally considered Second Brother Ding rather timid and cowardly, just like himself. That was why they had become friends: neither could look down on the other. It certainly was not because the Ding family's younger sister was as beautiful as a heavenly immortal. Yet over these past two days, he had found that Second Brother Ding had somehow become quick to grasp a situation and remarkably perceptive. Whenever something happened, he now wanted to seek his advice.

"He was already missing yesterday..." As Ding Songyan mulled this over, a strange thought arose. He asked gravely, "Was your master on friendly terms with me?"

Xu Chang'an looked bewildered.

"You two got along well. A few days ago, at noon, my master even invited you over to his courtyard for wine and meat."

"How many days ago?" Ding Songyan pressed.

"You don't remember yourself, so you're asking me?" Xu Chang'an thought back. "Seven or eight days, I suppose."

Ding Songyan narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I really don't remember, because I also went 'missing' a few days ago. They found me afterward, but I'd forgotten a lot of things."

He emphasized the word "missing."

Xu Chang'an was alarmed.

"You went missing too?

"Was that what happened that day? I asked you about it, but you didn't answer."

Could the original owner have gotten the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas from Xu Chang'an's master? Had his master stolen it from somewhere? Hiss... If that's really what happened, Xu Chang'an's master had a venomous heart. A seasoned old thief like him would surely know a few fences. He probably intended to make the original owner his scapegoat from the very beginning... Has he fled to the ends of the earth, or has he met with disaster like the original owner? Ding Songyan's thoughts raced. He said to Xu Chang'an:

"Take me to your master's courtyard."

"All right!" The frightened Xu Chang'an seemed to have found someone to lean on.

He had completely forgotten that Second Brother Ding was even less capable in a fight than he was.

Ding Songyan had only walked a few steps with Xu Chang'an when he abruptly stopped.

"Let's go to North Water Street first. No, the docks," he told Xu Chang'an.

"Why?" Xu Chang'an did not understand.

Use your head... Ding Songyan sighed.

"If we run into danger, are you going to step up and fight them, or am I?"

"We're inside the city. Surely it won't come to that..." Xu Chang'an looked up at the tallest Watchtower.

Ding Songyan could not be bothered to answer. He pointed at the Dangkang Temple's brown-tiled roof and headed toward the docks.

Right. If we run into danger inside Master's house, the guards on the Watchtower won't be able to see us... Xu Chang'an's heart tightened, and he hurried after him.

The docks lay outside the city gate nearest to the Dangkang Temple. The river was broad here, and boats of every size were moored along it: tower ships, pleasure boats, long-distance vessels, centipede boats, and more varieties than could be counted.

Waterwheels on the tributaries drove mechanisms that hoisted heavy cargo from the ships and set it down before nearby warehouses. The porters carried wooden crates and hemp sacks on their backs or shoulders, or transported them on wooden carts.

Ding Songyan swept a casual glance around, taking in the forest of tower ships and a fairly large river island in the distance, its lush trees interspersed with piles of jagged rocks.

As he searched for Ding Daniu, he caught sight of two people seated at the bow of a tower ship, playing a board game. They were too far away for him to make out the cut of their clothes, though he could see that both wore black. One was an old man with white hair and beard; the other wore a black gauze Veil Hat, making it impossible to tell whether they were a man or a woman.

"Wearing a Veil Hat even while playing? Have they renounced the world to avoid worldly company, or is there something unusual about their face or head that they can't let others see?" Ding Songyan muttered as he walked toward the area where the porters gathered.

He casually asked Xu Chang'an:

"Is that Wangtianmen Island?"

Qu Sanlang's mother had died while traveling to that island in a wooden-kite flying carriage.

"Yes." Xu Chang'an now knew that Second Brother Ding had forgotten many things.

"Why is it called Wangtianmen-'Gazing at Heaven's Gate'?" Ding Songyan made no attempt to hide his curiosity.

Xu Chang'an thought back and said:

"They say that after Emperor Zhuanxu brought about the severance of heaven and earth, only a handful of places in the entire Great Wilderness could still see the heavenly realm. This was one of them, so it was called 'Gazing at Heaven's Gate.' Later, starting in some dynasty or other, you couldn't see it from here anymore, either."

Emperor Zhuanxu really looms large in the mythology of this Great Wilderness... Ding Songyan remarked inwardly.

Before long, he found Ding Daniu, who stood over nine feet tall and was conspicuous wherever he went.

With several hemp sacks on his back, Ding Daniu walked easily and steadily toward a nearby donkey cart.

"Big Brother!" Ding Songyan waited until Ding Daniu had put down the cargo and wiped his face with the coarse cloth hanging around his neck before calling out to him.

Ding Daniu came over happily.

"Second Brother, were you looking for me?"

Ding Songyan nodded.

"I need to go somewhere, and I'm worried it might be a little dangerous. I'd like you to come along and watch out for me."

"All right." Without another word, Ding Daniu went straight to the foreman and said in a booming voice, "My second brother needs my help. Mother told me to look after him properly, too. I have to leave early today."

His eyes shone, and his face was full of anticipation, as though he were waiting for the foreman to refuse.

Then he would have a proper reason to use his fists, without having to worry about making his mother angry.

The foreman was a stubbly middle-aged man. Catching the look in Ding Daniu's eyes, he shuddered violently.

"Go on, go on," he answered hastily.

Somewhat disappointed, Ding Daniu followed Ding Songyan and Xu Chang'an away from the docks.

Before a courtyard in Autumn Waters Alley.

With practiced ease, Xu Chang'an used half a length of iron wire to open his master's front gate.

Not only was the courtyard much larger than the Ding family's, but the house also had a full five rooms. The three searched slowly for a while without finding the slightest trace of a clue, though they unearthed plenty of other things.

"So much silver?" Looking at the five or six large silver ingots, a dozen or so Silver Sycee, and the heap of loose silver he had found in a hidden compartment, Xu Chang'an was so astonished that he nearly forgot his master was missing.

He hasn't fled to the ends of the earth... Ding Songyan's eyes immediately narrowed.

Who would flee to the ends of the earth and leave most of their wealth behind?