Yin Corpse Grass

"Second Brother Ding, what should we do?" Xu Chang'an stuffed all the silver and coins he had found back into the hidden compartment, then turned to Ding Songyan in fear and worry.

He, too, was beginning to find this deeply unsettling:

How could his master have felt so safe leaving his money hidden here while staying away for days?

His disciples were all thieves. How could they fail to find this hidden compartment? How could they remain unmoved by the wealth inside?

Ding Songyan fell silent for several moments before saying:

"Report it to the authorities."

Dingjiang Prefecture's city was no small place, and there were countless towns and villages outside it. The three of them could never search all that territory on their own, and they could easily run into danger. Better to let the authorities handle it.

This was Ding Songyan's instinctive choice.

Besides, it would give him a legitimate reason to approach local powers such as the Xiaoming Sect and the Yi clan, laying the groundwork for gathering information and finding someone to take him as a disciple.

Xu Chang'an went pale:

"Report it? Tell the people at the yamen that my master has disappeared, that he's a veteran thief, and that I learned my trade from him and now scrape out a living outside Dangkang Temple? Even if I don't tell them, they'll find out."

I simply hadn't considered your situation yet, had I? Ding Songyan said solemnly:

"If your master merely suffered an accident, like falling into the water and drowning, then there's nothing more to worry about. But if he got caught up in some secret affair, how many heads do you think you have to spare against the danger that might follow? Will you pray at Dangkang Temple and hope you won't be implicated?"

Xu Chang'an's face turned frighteningly pale. After stammering for a long while, he said quietly:

"Second Brother Ding, could we look a little longer? If we still can't find him today, we'll report it immediately."

"Where did your master usually like to go?" Ding Songyan did not want to report it himself. That had to be done by Xu Chang'an, the man's disciple, for their involvement to be justified. He could only accompany him and take the opportunity to meet people from the Yi clan and the Xiaoming Sect.

Xu Chang'an searched his memory and said:

"My master never married or had children. He only had us disciples. He didn't care for gambling, either. He only liked drinking with the courtesans in Beili Ward, where he had a few favorites. But we went looking there yesterday, and they all said he hadn't visited for at least four days.

"Other than that..."

Suddenly, Xu Chang'an's eyes lit up:

"He's been to Potter's Field three times over the past two or three weeks. He said he was looking for some Yin Corpse Grass."

Potter's Field? Ding Songyan immediately seized on those words.

The former owner of his body had died in the Ruined Temple on the road to Potter's Field.

Was this really connected to Xu Chang'an's master?

Had the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas really been dug out of a grave in Potter's Field? Wait, were there even graves there?

Ding Songyan betrayed none of his feelings and asked with feigned curiosity:

"What did he need Yin Corpse Grass for?"

Xu Chang'an glanced at Ding Daniu, whose face was full of curiosity yet still looked fierce, and swallowed.

"For Opening Orifices. A little while ago, my master got drunk and told us he'd finally obtained a suitable method for Opening Orifices and had a chance of breaking through the Mortal Realm. Yin Corpse Grass was one of the things he needed for it."

"What is Opening Orifices?" Ding Songyan asked without hesitation, having already made his Disembodied Soul Syndrome widely known.

Xu Chang'an knew about Second Brother Ding's condition and understood his confusion. After considering how to explain it, he said:

"The martial arts of our Classic of Mountains and Seas World were either left behind by the Celestial Emperor and the Heavenly Gods or developed by eating Mythical Beasts. The key is Aperture Refinement. But could the apertures of the Celestial Emperor, the Heavenly Gods, and Mythical Beasts really be exactly the same as those of us humans? They say the differences are enormous.

"So, once you've refined all the human apertures that correspond to theirs, you have to measure the distances and create something from nothing at the proper locations in your body-new apertures to refine. Creating them requires needles to guide the process and medicines to be injected. Some methods even require cutting open the chest and belly to implant strange metals and unusual copper. Every martial art has its own method of Opening Orifices, and each requires different things.

"In many sects, the method for Opening Orifices is kept separate from the refinement method. Only the elders who teach the arts and will never leave the sect again know how to open the orifices, and they assist disciples when needed. That way, even if a disciple meets with disaster while traveling the martial world, the martial art won't leak out."

I've truly never seen a Secret Art like this... No wonder medicine is so advanced in this world. It's a daily necessity—there was a reason for it all along... Ding Songyan marveled.

He felt that separating the Opening Orifices method from the refinement method could indeed prevent superior martial arts from leaking out, but it also carried risks. While a sect was flourishing, it was an excellent approach. Once the sect declined and relocated, however, crucial parts of its superior martial arts could easily be lost. That was probably what had happened to the Xiaoming Sect back then.

Ding Songyan considered this and asked:

"What if the aperture is on an extra organ a Mythical Beast has? A second heart, for instance.

"What if the distance you measure puts it outside the body?"

He remembered that many Strange Beasts in the Classic of Mountains and Seas were enormous and bizarrely shaped. If their apertures truly had to be matched to a human body, even scaling them down proportionally should leave quite a few outside it.

Ding Songyan's two questions left Xu Chang'an somewhat bewildered:

"I don't know...

"I've heard that the Dayan Realm is the most complicated realm. It involves more than Opening Orifices-there are many hurdles and subdivisions. That's why the Exalted Orchid Roll divides it into a full four ranks: Strange Being, Probing Mystery, Transcendent, and Divination.

"Many disciples of major sects never advance beyond that realm in their entire lives. Very few enter the Law Realm and become Martial Grandmasters."

Initial Realm, Mortal Realm, Dayan Realm, Law Realm, Celestial-Human Realm, Spirit Platform Realm... Ding Songyan finally had a relatively clear understanding of this world's Martial Arts cultivation realms.

No wonder everyone says that once you've refined your apertures, switching to another art becomes extremely difficult...

Seeing that Xu Chang'an had little more to offer, Ding Songyan brought the conversation back:

"Your master was already getting on in years. Why was he still so intent on Opening Orifices?"

"It was precisely because he was getting on in years that he wanted to open his orifices and advance to the Dayan Realm," Xu Chang'an explained earnestly. "The Dayan Realm is far more powerful than the Mortal Realm. If he could become a Strange Being, his lifespan would increase, and he might even get a chance to steal divine medicines or treasures that could extend his life by over a hundred years."

It can extend your lifespan, too? Then I'd be just as intent on it... Ding Songyan glanced at his unusually quiet elder brother, then looked at Xu Chang'an and asked, almost to himself:

"Your master only obtained that suitable method for Opening Orifices in the past two or three weeks?"

The former owner of this body had also obtained the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas recently...

"Probably. I'd never seen my master go to Potter's Field before that." Xu Chang'an pleaded, "Second Brother Ding, Elder Brother Ding, please come to Potter's Field with me. If we still can't find my master there, we'll report it to the authorities!"

In a place like Potter's Field, finding him would be the frightening part... Ding Songyan said reluctantly:

"It's dangerous outside the city..."

"No, it isn't! The whole stretch from the city gate to Potter's Field is under the watch of the Watchtower on the city wall. Only the hill behind Potter's Field is out of sight." Xu Chang'an tried desperately to persuade him.

Then why did the former owner of this body go into the Ruined Temple and die without even knowing how? Couldn't they have talked and traded beside the road? The watcher atop the Watchtower wouldn't have known what they were doing anyway. Or could their eyesight make out an object in someone's hand from that far away, so they had to take precautions? Ding Songyan reluctantly agreed.

The three spent over an hour making their way to Potter's Field outside the city.

Vegetation grew thick here. Even in the blazing summer sun, chilly gusts rose now and again, leaving a faint coldness on their skin.

Unlike what Ding Songyan had imagined, rotting corpses wrapped in straw mats did not litter the ground. Most had been buried in shallow pits to prevent epidemics, with only a few white bones scattered deep in the grass.

"Whereabouts would this Yin Corpse Grass your master mentioned be?" Ding Songyan asked.

"Probably... where the front slope meets the rear hill," Xu Chang'an answered hurriedly. "Second Brother Ding, I won't ask you to go onto the rear hill with me. If we still can't find him at the boundary, we'll return to the city and report it."

I wouldn't go even if you asked... Standing beside the nine-foot-tall Ding Daniu, whose blood and vitality ran strong, Ding Songyan felt that even if there were wandering ghosts here, they probably would not dare approach.

As they neared the rear hill, Ding Daniu suddenly sniffed and pointed toward a few trees:

"There's a smell of blood over there. A stench, too."

Blood? Ding Songyan gestured for Ding Daniu and Xu Chang'an to go first.

Once they rounded the trees, a nauseating stench rushed into his nostrils, nearly making Ding Songyan vomit.

Before he could adjust to it, he heard Xu Chang'an murmur blankly:

"Master... urgh..."

He vomited.

Ding Songyan looked up and saw a swollen, rotting corpse lying among the trees, surrounded by mosquitoes and flies.

Its ribs were broken, its chest and abdomen split open to either side. All the organs inside seemed to be missing. A jade thumb ring encircled its right thumb.

Ding Songyan did not examine the corpse's features closely. He was about to vomit.

Of the three, only Ding Daniu was unaffected. He studied the corpse carefully, then patted Xu Chang'an on the shoulder:

"Xu, is that really your master?"

"That thumb ring... my master... always wore it," Xu Chang'an said between gasps.

"What about his face?" Ding Daniu pressed.

Xu Chang'an instinctively took another couple of looks, then vomited again, bringing up yellow-green fluid.

Only after a long while did he manage to say:

"Yes... I can... can recognize him..."

He turned his back, caught Ding Songyan by the sleeve, and said in terror:

"Second Brother Ding, let's report it to the authorities!"

Ding Songyan, likewise facing away from the corpse with his nose and mouth covered, slowly shook his head:

"No. We're going to the Zhen Estate."

Circumstances had changed. This really did seem connected to the former owner of his body and the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas. Otherwise, why would both men have died, at places so close together and at nearly the same time? It would be best to let the Zhen Estate handle it.

The Zhen Estate, Hanshui Pavilion.

The Zhen Family's elderly patriarch paced his room, rolling the Iron Guts in his palm as he listened to Mr. Yu report on the events of the past two days.

"You found no clues pointing to any major sects or the Twenty-One Paths of Evil Demons?" Zhen Qianfan asked hesitantly.

"None," Mr. Yu, wearing a small cap, answered truthfully.

Zhen Qianfan gave a short, mirthless laugh:

"Then what exactly is the Small Boat Gang trying to do? First they provoke us repeatedly, giving us grounds to register a conflict between the two gangs with the yamen without a hitch. Then they leave only Chen Yuliang in the prefectural city, someone even you can deal with. Do they really think that after all these years in retirement, I'm no longer capable of taking action myself?"

"You're only sixty, sir, still vigorous as a dragon and fierce as a tiger." Mr. Yu had witnessed Zhen Qianfan's strength.

Just as Zhen Qianfan was about to speak again, a younger member of the family on guard duty entered and bowed to both men:

"Patriarch, Mr. Yu, Aunt Qin's younger cousin, Second Brother Ding, has come again. He says he's discovered something important."