Verifying the Truth

What? A direct disciple of one of the mighty Six Sects and Four Factions, with several guards in tow, had failed to catch an utterly ordinary-looking stalker? Ding Songyan had held such high hopes for Ren Youyang that an unusual surge of dejection and disappointment welled up inside him.

He kept it off his face and cupped his hands in salute.

"Whatever happened, I still owe you my thanks, Brother Youyang. Without you, I wouldn't even have noticed I was being followed."

Rather embarrassed, Ren Youyang said:

"It wasn't one person, but a whole group. I overlooked that, and they cut me off in the busy streets and shook me."

A group? Had my predecessor drawn them here, or had I stirred up trouble these past few days? Ding Songyan was stunned.

"I scared them off, so they shouldn't follow you again for a while." Ren Youyang glanced toward the courtyard wall along Chengyu Lane. "That Yu Wanxiong from the Zhen Estate was keeping his distance too, presumably because he didn't want me to notice him. Hmm, they seem to have sent another attendant in his place. They're taking you quite seriously."

Before Ding Songyan could thank him again, Ren Youyang reassured him:

"Get some proper rest today. I'll take another look tomorrow."

With that, he waved and turned to leave. Ding Songyan could only call his thanks after him.

He walked down the dark but far from silent lane, exchanging nods with an elderly neighbor who had opened his courtyard gate to enjoy the cool air. When he reached home and pushed open the unlatched gate, he saw Ding Daniu swinging a crude iron rod in the small open yard, his dark, muscular upper body bare. There were no real techniques to it, only simple sweeps, strikes, lashes, and chops that sent the wind whistling sharply.

Inside the main room, his mother, Liu Yuzao, and his younger sister, Ding Qingyan, were stitching shoe soles by lamplight, occasionally exchanging a few quiet words. His father, Ding Shengyi, sat on a stool with his eyes half closed, swaying his head as he hummed lines from a variety play.

Yellowish light spilled from the room, now still, now flickering, spreading like water and enticing mosquitoes and moths to dance ceaselessly.

Ding Songyan slowly let out a breath and smiled as he greeted his family.

Before bed, Ding Songyan opened the wooden chest where he kept his clothes. The five taels of silver and three hundred copper coins he had earned from storytelling were hidden there. Of that, Miss Xiaoqing had contributed five taels of silver, each worth eight hundred copper coins at the current exchange rate.

It wasn't that the other listeners had given little. Ding Songyan had only told stories for four days, one session a day. Earning over three hundred copper coins already put him among the best of his fellow storytellers at the Dangkang Temple market.

It only seemed meager because Miss Xiaoqing had given so much.

"My father only earns two taels of silver a month as a clerk at the government office. Uh, not counting income from shady sources..." Ding Songyan still had the four-tenths of a tael his parents had given him in the inner pocket behind his elbow. These past few days, his tips for other storytellers and his lunches had come out of the fifty copper coins his sister had given him and part of his storytelling earnings.

After putting the twenty-five-tael silver ingot Xu Chang'an had given him into the clothes chest, he picked out four small silver ingots.

After a moment's thought, he took the last one as well, making up five taels.

When he returned to the main room, Ding Daniu had just lowered the door bar into place.

"Big Brother, Xu Chang'an gave us this to thank us for helping him yesterday." Ding Songyan pressed the five silver ingots into his hands.

Ding Daniu's face lit up with surprise.

"That eldest son of the Xu family knows how to treat people.

"I'll take it to Mother."

"Keep it yourself." Ding Songyan borrowed Ren Youyang's favorite saying. "Life is short. Don't shortchange yourself. Use this money to eat and drink well at lunchtime every day."

He hoped Ding Daniu would realize that life held wider horizons, and replace his thirst for killing with a craving for fine food and wine.

Of course, it would be best not to mix the three together.

Ding Daniu fell silent for a long while before saying:

"All right. Second Brother, you're cleverer than me. I'll listen to you. I'll save it for now."

"What are you saving it for?" Ding Songyan asked casually with a smile.

Ding Daniu swallowed audibly.

"A trip to Beili Ward."

"..." Ding Songyan's expression nearly froze.

Well, well, Daniu. I'd never have guessed you had that vice too.

Waving a hand, he returned to the west wing and closed the wooden door.

As usual, he stacked up the large wooden chests, laid out his paper, inkstone, and ink, and prepared to write Xu Shilin's story.

He had long since hidden the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas between his bedding and the bedboards.

"Second Brother, are you staying up late to write by lamplight again?" From the other side of the screen, Ding Qingyan sounded both amused and impressed. "You were never this diligent before..."

She stopped herself, apparently feeling that she shouldn't say that, since it would remind her second brother that he had Disembodied Soul Syndrome.

"If someone gave you one or two taels of silver every day just to hear you tell stories, you'd be this diligent too," Ding Songyan replied offhandedly.

One or two taels of silver mattered a great deal, but more importantly, the person paying would come to his door to chase up the manuscript. Most importantly of all, he couldn't beat her in a fight.

"Who is it?" Ding Qingyan asked curiously.

"A young lady from out of town. Now that's someone who spends lavishly. As long as the storytelling is good, she always rewards it with silver. She's spent dozens of taels these past few days." Ding Songyan pulled over a small wooden chest to sit on and answered honestly.

"How generous." Ding Qingyan couldn't help wanting to compare herself to the girl. "Is she pretty?"

"Quite pretty." Ding Songyan didn't lie against his conscience.

Ding Qingyan gave a little hum, then asked with a teasing edge:

"Have you taken a fancy to her?"

"No." Ding Songyan remained perfectly candid.

He silently added to himself:

I'm afraid of snakes.

Besides, there's still a knot in my heart I haven't untied.

After they chatted for a while and Ding Qingyan drifted off to sleep, Ding Songyan began weaving his story.

This time, he needed to write about Xu Shilin's childhood, capturing the feeling of all the neighbors knowing that his birth parents weren't around while he himself remained utterly unaware. He also had to bring out how the Wuqu Star differed from other people. Ding Songyan racked his brains before slowly piecing together a few plotlines, drawing inspiration from the likes of Harry Potter. Of course, Xu Shilin's aunt and uncle still treated him very well.

He had just finished one sheet and set it aside when a slender, graceful hand, its skin white as jade, reached over and took it.

"You're here, Miss Xiaoqing?" Ding Songyan had grown used to strange things and wasn't startled at all.

"Mm. Keep going." Dressed in green today, with a fresh, lively air about her, Xiaoqing sat beside the bed and read the draft intently, not wanting to talk.

Seeing this, Ding Songyan didn't dare disturb her and concentrated on his writing.

As he wrote, something occurred to him:

Judging by Ren Youyang's performance today, was he really a disciple of the True Spirit Sect? Was he really the Ren Youyang listed on the Orchid Honor Roll?

Ding Songyan hadn't doubted him before because he had been treated with great courtesy at the Zhen Estate, effectively having his identity confirmed by Old Master Zhen. But thinking back to the various scams he had seen in his previous life, there was no shortage of fraudsters who seized an opportunity to establish a tenuous connection with someone influential, then used it to win other people's trust.

Of course, Ren Youyang's conspicuous dog ears also served as indirect evidence that his identity was anything but ordinary.

But what if he was actually of mixed Quanrong and human ancestry?

-According to the stories Ding Songyan had listened to these past few days, the Quanrong resembled dogs and could have children with humans.

"Miss Xiaoqing, have you heard of someone named Ren Youyang?" Ding Songyan asked tentatively.

Xiaoqing, who was reading a new page, abruptly raised her head.

"I have.

"What do you want to know?"

Ding Songyan chose his words carefully.

"I met someone today who called himself Ren Youyang, but..."

He described Ren Youyang's earlier performance exactly as it had happened, omitting only his scathing comments about the Jade Tree Martial Arts Rankings, since he had promised not to repeat those. For now, he also mentioned only one stalker-the one Ren Youyang had lost.

After hearing him out, Xiaoqing said, barely concealing her amusement:

"He's the real Ren Youyang, the one from the True Spirit Sect. An impostor couldn't capture his essence."

"What essence?" Ding Songyan asked in confusion.

Xiaoqing giggled.

"Ren Youyang's essence is that the real one seems even more fake than a fake.

"Hmm, it's perfectly normal that he didn't catch that stalker and root out whoever was behind him. He's dead weight. If he hadn't been there, his guards would have caught the man long ago."

"Huh?" Ding Songyan felt rather bewildered.

What kind of assessment was that?

"Uh," Xiaoqing said. "His cultivation technique isn't particularly suited to this sort of thing."

She didn't go into specifics... Ding Songyan grew thoughtful.

It seemed that among the orthodox major sects, the names of their fundamental cultivation methods weren't secret, and telling outsiders about them was harmless. But when it came to the particular traits, strengths, and weaknesses of each technique, those could only be discussed behind closed doors within one's own sect. Revealing them would create a bitter feud.

At that moment, Xiaoqing seemed to grow exceptionally cheerful. In a buoyant voice, she said:

"So the True Spirit Sect sent Ren Youyang. Now Second Uncle can't say I'm just fooling around by going out at night. I've uncovered important news!"

"Miss Xiaoqing, you..." For a moment, Ding Songyan didn't know how to phrase his question.

"We came to Dingjiang Prefecture for much the same reason as the True Spirit Sect." Xiaoqing offered only that smiling hint, revealing nothing more.

So it's connected to the Zhen Estate too? Good thing I didn't mention that their people were following me as well. Otherwise, who knows whether Xiaoqing might have turned on me... Ding Songyan wisely ended the topic, while Xiaoqing murmured to herself, lost in pleasant anticipation:

"Tomorrow, I'll try helping you catch that stalker and whoever is behind him too."

Much later, Ding Songyan finally reached the part where Xu Shilin learned who his birth parents were and went to the Daoist Temple to find Xu Xian, only to be turned away at the gate.

He put down his brush and rubbed his wrist. Watching Xiaoqing pick up the pages to read, he asked with an air of casualness:

"I heard someone mention the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas the day before yesterday. Is it something only the major sects and factions and the Imperial Secret Vaults possess?"

"Mm, parts of it." Xiaoqing was more interested in Xu Shilin's family drama.

"Who has a complete copy?" Ding Songyan couldn't directly ask whether the Xiaoming Sect had a complete copy. That would make his intentions too obvious.

Moved by the scene between Xu Shilin and Xu Xian, Xiaoqing sniffled and said:

"No one has a complete copy. Back then, at the Kunlun Imperial Palace, the situation was urgent, and the different chapters of the Emperor-Annotated Classic of Mountains and Seas were carved on separate jade tablets in different halls. Everyone present could only memorize a portion, and some even remembered it wrong.

"If everyone had later set aside their sectarian prejudices, compared what they knew, pieced it together, and corrected the mistakes, they should have been able to produce a complete Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas. But there were too few selfless people.

"The versions circulating in the martial world were leaked after certain sects declined, so they're even less complete. None of the sects or factions would allow anyone to keep a copy in secret, either."

Ding Songyan was taken aback.

Over the past two days, I've leafed through the ordinary Classic of Mountains and Seas in bookshops and compared it with the contents of my copy.

Taking Chen Yuliang's assessment into account, my Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas seems, perhaps, possibly, to be complete...

Or at least close to complete...