It started raining

The Martial Training Ground of the Stone Pool Martial Hall was five or six times the size of the open space before its main hall, its surface neatly leveled. Several weapon racks stood around its edges, holding all eighteen varieties of weapons-sabers, spears, swords, halberds, and more-some sharpened, others unsharpened.

Beyond these, wooden dummies, stone locks, wooden stakes, archery targets, iron vats, and every other piece of equipment were all present.

The school's master, Liu Yuxuan, stood beside a gray-white stone figure nine feet tall, waiting for Ding Songyan with his hands behind his back.

His hair and beard had turned white, his mouth protruded slightly, and his face was full and well-fed. Several red patches marked his neck and the backs of his hands.

After escorting Ding Songyan there, Senior Brother Yang retreated to the edge of the Martial Training Ground but did not leave. Seven or eight disciples also lurked nearby, watching with grave expressions and hatred in their eyes.

These ones have backbone and hot blood. They didn't hide far away just because I called myself a representative of the Zhen Estate... Ding Songyan cupped his hands toward Liu Yuxuan.

"This junior pays his respects to Master Liu."

Liu Yuxuan scrutinized the calm, composed Ding Songyan and asked in a deep voice:

"What brings you here, Young Master Ding?"

Ding Songyan put one hand behind his back again and smiled as though making idle conversation:

"Master Liu, did you notice anything wrong with Chen Yuliang in the days before his death?"

Liu Yuxuan stared at Ding Songyan's face. Only after a moment did he slowly shake his head.

"No."

Ding Songyan had not expected any other answer from Master Liu. He merely wanted to use him to pass that question on to the Small Boat Gang.

As for whether the Small Boat Gang would believe it, whether they could uncover anything unusual, and what they would do afterward, he could only take one step and see where it led.

The only thing he could be certain of was that the Small Boat Gang would not seek to cooperate with him anytime soon. After all, he belonged to the Zhen Estate, and Chen Yuliang had just been tricked to his death over precisely that. They certainly did not want to fall for a trick every day, each trick exactly the same.

"Then did you feel Chen Yuliang had been too aggressive over the past two or three months?" Combining what he had heard outside the County Yamen with rumors circulating in the streets, Ding Songyan offered another, rather uncertain hint.

Liu Yuxuan looked into Ding Songyan's smiling eyes and slowly shook his head again.

"No."

"Perhaps he 'wasn't his own master.'" Ding Songyan deliberately spoke with a sigh of feeling.

Without waiting for Master Liu to respond, he turned halfway around and examined the towering stone figure, covered in sword and saber marks. He gave a self-mocking smile.

"Why did I think something was wrong? Because I was dragged into it and became a discarded pawn of the Zhen Estate."

Liu Yuxuan's eyes shifted slightly, and his expression changed a little.

Keeping one hand behind his back, Ding Songyan paced to his side. Looking at another wooden dummy ahead, he spoke quietly, as though to himself:

"I nearly lost my life over it, but I also had a fortuitous encounter. Things are different now, and I can't swallow that insult."

With that, he shook his head with a smile without looking at Master Liu's expression, then raised his right hand from his side.

As he did so, he activated the hazy, pale "seed" in his mind, sending it darting into his palm.

Ding Songyan's perception abruptly "rose," as though his soul had left his body and was looking down upon everything here.

He clearly sensed the strong wind sweeping across the Martial Training Ground, the qi of heaven and earth tinged with savagery, the heavy black clouds bringing an oppressive gloom, and the fierce silver-white light leaping within them.

There seemed to be another invisible body outside his own, its apertures hidden in the void, breathing heaven and earth.

Following some profound, mysterious trajectory, Ding Songyan thrust out his right palm.

In that instant, the wind raging through the Martial Training Ground suddenly vanished. The air grew heavy, almost solid.

Ding Songyan's right palm landed on the wooden dummy ahead, light as a drifting feather.

A moment later, a violent torrent of air erupted from his palm.

All the wind that had vanished seemed to have shifted here, twisting together, first compressed to its limit, then bursting outward.

Sound was swallowed. The wooden dummy disintegrated in an instant, swept into the air by a visibly raging wind, as though a True Dragon were drawing water up into the clouds.

Still wearing his earlier smile, Ding Songyan withdrew his right palm and placed it behind his back as well.

He turned and walked slowly out of the Martial Training Ground, never sparing Master Liu another glance.

Master Liu, Senior Brother Yang, and the seven or eight disciples hiding nearby all stared, their eyes frozen, at the "dragon drawing water" spiraling thirty or forty feet high, and at the wooden dummy now reduced to countless fragments drifting through the wind.

Just then, a bolt of lightning descended from the sky and struck with tremendous force where the wooden dummy had stood. It illuminated Master Liu's face in silver-white and cast Senior Brother Yang's and the others' expressions into flickering light and shadow.

Rumble!

Dull thunder reverberated, and the downpour that had been brewing for so long finally came crashing down over Dingjiang Prefecture's city.

As bean-sized raindrops pelted down in torrents behind him, Ding Songyan had already entered the covered walkway, his hands still clasped behind his back.

With his back to Master Liu, Senior Brother Yang, and the others, his smile gradually vanished, giving way to astonishment.

Wasn't that a little too effective?

Good thing I left as soon as I finished showing off. I almost got struck by lightning...

Had he known Yan Changqing's "qi" was this terrifying, he would have chosen that nine-foot stone figure!

He had only settled for the wooden dummy because he feared he would fail to damage the stone figure and become a laughingstock, leaving everyone present clutching their bellies.

Hands behind his back, Ding Songyan maintained his elegant bearing as he walked slowly, step by step, back to the Stone Pool Martial Hall's entrance.

Looking at the downpour ahead, which had almost become a curtain of water, his expression darkened.

I didn't bring an umbrella...

Beneath the eaves of Dangkang Temple, Ding Songyan twisted up sections of his clothing and wrung out a considerable amount of water.

"How could it start raining just like that, and so heavily..." Xu Chang'an, equally soaked beside him, grumbled on and on.

"Isn't it perfectly normal for June skies to change at a moment's notice?" Ding Songyan replied with a common saying.

He had not actually figured it out either: had he triggered the rain, had it simply been time for it to fall, or had both factors overlapped?

Whatever the case, Yan Changqing's strength had been displayed beyond doubt. Just a strand of "qi" lent to him after Yan Changqing had been crippled for years possessed such power!

Zhen Qianfan must be deeply wary of him. If he hadn't been gravely injured back then, even giving Zhen Qianfan ten times the courage might not have made him dare covet that treasure... Assuming Yan Changqing wasn't lying about helping Zhen Qianfan become a Martial Grandmaster, he might well be in the Celestial-Human Realm... There are only so many figures like that in the world. If I weren't short on time, with only Miss Xiaoqing and Ren Youyang as sources and no way to compare everyone one by one, I could probably pin down Yan Changqing's true identity... Ding Songyan's thoughts spun without pause.

Xu Chang'an was merely complaining about the weather and had not thought much of it. He glanced at the others sheltering from the rain in Dangkang Temple, then lowered his voice and asked about the business at hand:

"Second Brother Ding, how did your talk with Master Liu go?"

"Quite well. He probably thinks highly of me." Ding Songyan opened his mouth and out came a lie.

I can't exactly say I stunned them into submission, can I?

He was not worried that Master Liu would spread word of his "fortuitous encounter" and meteoric rise, nor that Senior Brother Yang or the other disciples would leak the matter and arouse the authorities' suspicions.

He only regretted that he could not personally guide the rumors spreading through the martial world, or go to the County Yamen and turn himself in, making it difficult to get Yi and the Xiaoming Sect to examine just what sort of "fortuitous encounter" he had experienced.

Thanks to that "seed" in his sea of consciousness, even reporting to the authorities required such a roundabout approach, baring his edge for everyone to see-and the chances of success were still very low!

Xu Chang'an breathed a sigh of relief.

"Although I don't know exactly what you're trying to do, Second Brother Ding, come find me whenever you need help."

"I won't stand on ceremony." Looking at Xu Chang'an, Ding Songyan's lips slowly curved upward.

Xu Chang'an shivered for no apparent reason.

Just after the downpour stopped, Ding Songyan entered his home in Chengyu Lane.

Ding Qingyan was not at all surprised that he had come home early today. With rain that heavy, how could the market outside Dangkang Temple have kept going? With no storytelling to do, her second brother had naturally returned.

"Here, this is for you." Ding Songyan took out the silver hairpin he had bought earlier and handed it over.

Ding Qingyan's eyes widened, her delicate brows stirring.

"Second Brother, you only came down with Disembodied Soul Syndrome. You didn't get a treasure-gathering basin. Why give me a silver hairpin? Save it for your future wife."

"Isn't it only right for an elder brother to save up a little nest egg for his younger sister?" Ding Songyan chuckled. "Just take it. Otherwise, I'll give it to Ahua."

"Who's Ahua?" Ding Qingyan found that much more worthy of attention. Her inclination to refuse weakened, and she accepted the silver hairpin.

Holding back his laughter, Ding Songyan said:

"That yellow dog belonging to Uncle Ren at the mouth of the lane. I forgot its name, so I gave it a new one: Ahua."

"..." Ding Qingyan's expression swiftly froze. Through gritted teeth, she said, "Teasing me is great fun, isn't it?"

"Yes." Before his sister could grab the broom, Ding Songyan dashed back to the West Wing Room, changed out of his wet clothes, and wiped himself down with a cloth.

When he returned to the main room, dry and comfortable, Ding Qingyan was holding a bronze mirror, admiring the silver hairpin now tucked into her bun from every angle.

"You might as well have given me the money directly," she muttered, gazing into the bronze mirror with a radiant smile.

Ding Songyan did not expose her. He pulled over a stool and sat down, murmuring with a touch of satisfaction:

"Over the next few days, I'll see what Mother, Father, and Elder Brother are missing, and what they want..."

Ding Qingyan paused, set down the bronze mirror, and looked at Ding Songyan with a concerned frown.

"Second Brother, you haven't... gotten into something again, have you?"

Ding Songyan shook his head with a smile.

"Haven't I met a 'God of Wealth' recently? Xu Chang'an also gave me quite a few taels of silver as thanks."

"Where did he get it? Did he rob some wealthy household?" Ding Qingyan's attention was diverted again.

Ding Songyan briefly explained the matter of Xu Chang'an's master, then began studying and practicing characters while it was still early.

When night came, he prepared to advance Xu Shilin's story again.

Ding Qingyan, who always chatted with him for a while before bed, suddenly spoke from the other side of the screen:

"Second Brother, I was actually very happy today. It felt like we'd gone back to the old days, when you'd tell a bit of a story every night and I'd listen until I fell asleep..."

Her voice gradually softened. Then she forced a smile into it and feigned annoyance:

"You've never even told me your Legend of the White Snake. Just reading the manuscript is so dull!"

Ding Songyan's manuscript was only a detailed outline and rough draft.

"I..." Ding Songyan intended to put it off until later.

He was currently full of worries. If not for needing to gather information from Miss Xiaoqing, he would not even have wanted to write this installment of Legend of the White Snake.

Before he could continue, Ding Qingyan spoke as though to herself:

"Second Brother, I know things have been hard for you lately, and you have to stay up writing by lamplight every night. I was only saying it. Tell me when you have time and nothing else to do before bed.

"If it weren't so crowded and chaotic outside Dangkang Temple, I'd want to go hear you tell a story there. Mother hasn't really let me go out these past few days, and I don't want to cause you all trouble..."

Hearing Ding Qingyan's obedient, considerate words, Ding Songyan's heart softened. He sighed silently and said:

"It's still early today. I'll tell you an installment."

"Ah, then... just fifteen minutes will do." Ding Qingyan's voice brimmed with delighted surprise. "I want to hear the part where Lady White scares Xu Xian to death."

"All right." Ding Songyan began with Fahai's enticements and Xu Xian's noticing the little details, then told the entire episode of the Dragon Boat Festival realgar wine. At the end, he even sang "Madame White Under Qingcheng Mountain" for his sister.

Ding Qingyan began humming the song, leaving Ding Songyan quite amazed. This was precisely the cool, ethereal quality he wanted, a sense of being untouched by worldly dust.

Before he could praise her, Ding Qingyan chuckled softly.

"Second Brother, I knew that if I begged you to tell me a story, you'd refuse. But if I acted obedient and sensible, gentle and considerate, with a little hint of hurt, you'd probably soften. Hmph, that's what you get for teasing me earlier!

"I'm asleep now~ Don't disturb me~"

"..." Ding Songyan had almost forgotten that his little sister had this side to her.

After a moment, he shook his head with a helpless laugh and picked up the writing brush resting on the rack.

After writing for quite some time, Ding Songyan finally saw Xiaoqing's familiar figure.

As he wrote, he asked "casually":

"Miss Xiaoqing, do you know someone named Yan Changqing?"