The Netherworld

Ding Songyan acted as soon as the thought struck him, and he intended to do it near Fengshui Bridge.

That way, if something really went wrong or caused trouble, there were patrolling constables and Xiaoming Sect disciples across the way. When the time came, besides resolving the incident, ideally they would arrest him too, lock him up, and examine him carefully for anything unusual.

With his back to the Fengshui Bridge night market, whose colored lanterns shone as brightly as day, Ding Songyan finished his candied hawthorn in a few bites, held his breath, and focused, trying to move the pale, hazy "seed" in his sea of consciousness toward his eyes.

The "seed" had only just reached his brow, not yet splitting in two and entering his eyes to reveal its power to pierce falsehood, when the scene before Ding Songyan changed:

Mist rose, like smoke and dreams, merging with the darkness and turning the surrounding houses into isolated islands. Though close enough to touch, they could only gaze at one another from afar.

The night grew ever deeper. Figures staggered through the black fog, wandering aimlessly-some in ragged clothes, some armored and armed, some mangled and bloody, some missing limbs, some grotesquely shaped, and some resembling inhuman creatures...

Silent lightning flashed, illuminating a stretch of ghastly green, the vast, boundless emptiness in the distance, and the obsidian-black mountain towering deep within the gloom.

It really worked...

Just bringing them together, without even unleashing the "seed's" power, opened my Yin Eye... For the ten-thousandth time, Master Yan's "qi" is incredibly useful. It can strengthen my special ability without wasting a single use. I really want to learn it. If only he weren't so wicked, or would hurry up and die...

Ding Songyan was both startled and delighted, marveling at it.

He studied the scene for a while and found it inexplicably familiar.

It seemed to be what he had dimly, hazily sensed in his "dream," before waking in Second Brother Ding's body:

Smokelike darkness, blurred figures, eerie green Netherworld Lightning, empty wilderness...

Wait, before possessing this body and being reborn, did I wander this world's Netherworld Grounds, its underworld, for a while? I didn't complete my transmigration immediately? Beyond his shock and astonishment, Ding Songyan felt intense puzzlement.

He had always possessed a scholarly spirit, and at this moment, he wanted to ask only one question:

What was the mechanism behind this phenomenon?

He steadied himself and began comparing his remembered experiences with his surroundings as he observed them.

There are several black stone pillars beside me, and similar things in the distance in different directions across the Netherworld Grounds... I never noticed them while wandering the underworld, but back then I couldn't see far or clearly either. My senses were blurred, and my thoughts muddled...

I can't feel that wind that chilled me to the marrow now. That makes sense. I've only opened my Yin Eye, so I have visual effects alone, without any other sensations...

Likewise, there's no feeling of darkness wrapping around me like curtains...

Ding Songyan gazed at the black pillars a few steps away, seemingly both illusory and real, then cautiously approached and reached out toward the little holes on their surfaces that looked as though they had been weathered into the stone.

His hand passed through the black stone pillar, and through a ghostly figure passing by, touching nothing.

Yin and Yang are separated after all... Ding Songyan sighed.

Suddenly, a new idea struck him.

Since his divine soul had once wandered this world's Netherworld Grounds for a time, leaving him with an unstable ability to use Yin-Yang Eyes even after taking over Second Brother Ding's body, might his eyes not be the only special part of him? Could other parts of his body have special qualities too?

After all, what had entered the underworld was not merely his "eyes," but his soul as a whole.

And since Yan Changqing's "qi" could steadily activate his Yin Eye simply by being nearby, without needing to be used, would moving the "seed" into his hand under these circumstances cause a corresponding change in his palm?

Ding Songyan slowly moved the pale, hazy "seed" from his brow toward his arm. Throughout the process, his Yin Eye remained stable rather than gradually fading.

In just a dozen or so breaths, the pale, hazy "seed" reached Ding Songyan's palm.

All at once, Ding Songyan felt a bone-piercing chill.

Gust after gust of sinister wind blew against his palm, making his blood feel as though it were freezing and his skin as though it were weathering away.

Ding Songyan raised his arm and tried extending that hand again.

Amid the heavy restraints of the deep darkness, he touched something cold and gloomy-the armor of a passing ghost.

Ding Songyan's hand continued forward and touched one of the Obsidian Pillars, touching an ear-sized "weathered" hole that almost pierced through to the other side.

"It really is like that..." As Ding Songyan felt the pillar's cold, rough surface, he watched ghost after ghost pass through the parts of his arm whose special qualities had not been activated by the "seed."

Occasionally, they bumped into his palm and were knocked off course, taking a slight detour before passing on.

Ding Songyan withdrew his hand and, in a spirit of experimentation, took a copper coin from his purse.

"A five-cash coin?" Without thinking, Ding Songyan instinctively exchanged the five-cash Xingping Heavy Treasure for a one-cash Jianwu Tongbao.

Clenching the Jianwu Tongbao, he tried bringing it close to the black stone pillar.

The icy wind passed through the back of Ding Songyan's hand and emerged from his palm. He did not know whether it had blown through the coin.

Ding Songyan carefully placed the Jianwu Tongbao in one of the little weathered holes, then slowly withdrew his hand, filled with curiosity.

The one-cash Jianwu Tongbao did not lose its support and fall to the ground. It remained securely tucked inside the hole in the pillar.

Now that's interesting...

Did it truly enter the Netherworld Realm by way of my hand?

Did it become a Yin-Yang Coin?

Ding Songyan withdrew his hand and patiently watched for any changes that might follow.

Not long after the watchman's rhythmic knocking passed, his vision began to waver.

The scenery of the Netherworld Grounds and all those frightening ghosts swiftly vanished, while the surrounding houses and streets emerged from the smokelike mist.

Without Yan Changqing's "qi" activating it, my Yin Eye can't stay open indefinitely, but it can remain stable for a while-slightly longer than it takes to drink a cup of tea. That's good, too. Keeping my Yin Eye open all the time would definitely be dangerous. I wouldn't even dare go out at night... While analyzing the situation, Ding Songyan directed his gaze toward the ground beneath the bright moonlight.

There was nothing there but dust.

Ding Songyan's Jianwu Tongbao had vanished completely.

"It really was sent into the underworld..." After checking his purse and counting his coins to confirm that he really was missing a Jianwu Tongbao, Ding Songyan clicked his tongue and muttered to himself, both excited and bewildered.

He felt that if he ever failed to find work, he could open a "Heaven and Earth Bank," specializing in sending things to people's deceased friends and relatives in the underworld.

Of course, that required Yan Changqing to be thoroughly dead while his "qi" remained usable, or Ding Songyan to cultivate similar "qi" himself.

Since he had not used up any of the "qi's" allotted uses, Ding Songyan experimented repeatedly and verified many details. For instance, his hand could only touch ghosts and other things in the Netherworld Grounds if he moved the "seed" into his palm after opening his Yin Eye. If he had not yet opened his Yin Eye, moving the "seed" into his palm merely prepared him to injure people or enemies; it could not connect him to the Netherworld.

After quite some time, Ding Songyan rubbed his head, feeling throbbing pain. He knew that although the "seed" had hardly been depleted tonight, he himself had expended a great deal.

He had no choice but to end the experiment that had so engrossed him, and he had already retrieved that copper coin from the Netherworld Grounds:

Its copper color was now tinged with an eerie green, and it had become old, dull, and corroded, as though it had been thrown into a tomb and buried for over a hundred years.

Moreover, it had taken on a slightly illusory quality. The air around it was icy cold, as though faint gusts of ghostly wind were blowing.

"I wonder what it might be good for..." Ding Songyan put away the Jianwu Tongbao, returned to Chengyu Lane, opened the door, went inside, and lay down on his bed.

His head felt utterly hollow. He was so exhausted that, paradoxically, he could not fall asleep right away.

This forced him to ponder a few questions:

What cultivation method did Yan Changqing actually practice? What exactly was his "qi"? Why did it have so many marvelous uses, and why could it open Ding Songyan's Yin Eye without expending any power?

His conversations with Yan Changqing flashed through his mind, sentence by sentence, until Ding Songyan suddenly seized upon one passage:

When the man had said that the opening section of his divine art was "Humanity Is Supreme," he had given several examples to explain what made humans special:

"Make good use of body and mind, resonate with heaven and earth, summon gods and command ghosts..."

Resonate with heaven and earth, summon gods and command ghosts... The Netherworld Realm falls within the scope of heaven and earth, so it makes perfect sense that resonating with heaven and earth could allow one to sense the Netherworld. Especially since commanding ghosts comes right after it. No wonder... That palm strike I delivered at the Stone Pool Martial Hall also counted as resonating with heaven and earth. It summoned lightning and brought forth rain... Understanding dawned on Ding Songyan, gradually deepening his grasp of Yan Changqing's martial arts.

As he thought, his body and mind gradually relaxed, and he sank into deep sleep.

Another morning came, and Ding Songyan looked haggard and felt listless.

"Second Brother, last night you said you were going out for a walk to cool off. Where exactly did you walk to?" Ding Qingyan asked, both concerned and a little teasing.

Ding Daniu was chewing on a flatbread their mother had cooked. At her words, he glanced at Ding Songyan and asked in a rumbling voice tinged with envy:

"Did you walk to Beili Ward?"

Liu Yuzao and Ding Shengyi instantly turned their eyes toward Ding Songyan.

Life isn't easy. I even have to keep the "God of Wealth" company in the middle of the night. Luckily, the "God of Wealth" only likes candied hawthorn, not wine, or I'd have had to get blind drunk too... Ding Songyan smiled wryly and said:

"I walked to Fengshui Bridge last night. There's plenty of good food there, and a few wandering storytellers I know, so I had a little to drink and something to eat with them. Ah, I can't go walking that way anymore. It's far too dangerous." Ding Songyan recalled the various "perils" he had encountered along the way during his occasional nighttime runs in the past.

Liu Yuzao murmured in acknowledgment:

"Did they pay? Remember to treat them next time."

Ding Songyan agreed, while Ding Shengyi smiled and patted his shoulder, joking:

"Next time you go walking to Fengshui Bridge, you can take your father along. I'd like a little nighttime drink too..."

Seeing Liu Yuzao's gaze turn toward him, his voice gradually grew quieter.

After leaving Chengyu Lane and arriving outside Dangkang Temple, Ding Songyan set up his streetside storytelling pitch as usual, and Miss Xiaoqing rewarded him with a Silver Sycee as usual.

This installment was particularly satisfying: Xu Shilin fought the Tiger Demon, shattered the illusion realm, and destroyed Yellowbrow, finally obtaining the Kui Ox Orb and ascending to the heavens in a single step, drawing cheer after cheer from the audience.

At noon, just as Ding Songyan finished packing up the tools of his trade, Ren Youyang, dressed in blue with a small cap concealing his dog ears, sidled furtively over. Pretending to be a spectator, he lowered his voice and said:

"That bunch is following you again."