Former self

After leaving the back hill of Potter's Field, Ding Songyan's Yin Eye quickly stopped working.

He did not mind. He already had a reliable way to activate it.

He deliberately slowed his steps, arriving at the Ruined Temple only after the sky had gone completely dark.

The temple looked much as it had several days earlier: holes left unpatched, cobwebs everywhere, weeds covering the ground.

Ding Songyan did not rush to activate his Yin Eye. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the filthy, damaged statue.

The statue appeared to depict the Land God, but no one worshipped him anymore. Throughout Dingjiang Prefecture, in both the city and the countryside, people now worshipped Dang Kang and the Kitchen God. Those who visited Daoist temples and Buddhist temples came chiefly from the middle and upper classes.

Only after paying his respects to the Land God abandoned by the people did Ding Songyan move the Qingmengmeng "Seed" in his Sea of Consciousness to the spot between his brows.

His Yin Eye opened, revealing an endless wilderness dominated by mystic black, superimposed upon the temple's interior.

Ghostly figures wandered aimlessly through the smoke-like darkness. The damaged statue remained filthy, without blood or tears.

I was rather afraid I'd see an Incense Deity fallen from its altar when I opened my Yin Eye. That's why I bowed again and again and sincerely explained my circumstances... Does this world have no Incense Deities, or has the one in this temple been fallen so long that it vanished like smoke? Ding Songyan turned his gaze toward the wooden pillar he had been leaning against when he first woke up.

Black winds, almost condensed into substance, swirled there. A figure on the verge of dissipating lingered in that spot.

Holding his breath, Ding Songyan drew closer.

The figure raised his head, revealing a handsome, open-featured face.

It was identical to Ding Songyan's!

The difference was that this face was deathly pale and sinister, its eyes bulging and shedding streaks of bloody tears, its expression horribly contorted.

So you really did come back for your Seventh-Night Return... I was truly afraid your soul had scattered, afraid I'd transmigrated long ago and simply forgotten what happened before... Ding Songyan swallowed, restrained the involuntary trembling of his hands, and moved Qingmengmeng's "Seed" to his throat.

He asked in a cold, wavering voice:

"Ding Songyan, who killed you?"

The figure's contorted expression instantly changed, revealing an indescribable terror that seemed to penetrate his very bones.

He began muttering over and over:

"I won't run anymore...

"Don't kill me..."

"I won't run anymore...

"Don't kill me..."

"I won't run anymore!

"Don't kill me!"

His voice rapidly grew shrill and hysterical, filled with the panic of impending death.

Illusory tears stained blood-red slid down his face, drop by drop.

"Don't kill me!"

With that final shriek, the figure completely collapsed and dissolved, merging with the smoke-like darkness and the boundless wilderness.

Ding Songyan watched silently, his emotions tangled.

He did not know whether it was the fox mourning the rabbit's death, one creature grieving for its own kind, or whether he was thinking of how he himself had yet to escape those two pleas, still begging others not to kill him.

Once his Yin Eye naturally stopped working, Ding Songyan pondered the final obsession his former self had left behind:

"He really was fleeing then... And the danger was so urgent that he could no longer spare a thought for the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas in the wooden chest, or the calamity that book might bring upon his family...

"Where did his secret savings go? I never found them... Did he foresee that he might have to flee at a moment's notice and bring them along, only for someone to take them? Or had he already spent them? On something involving the Secret Classic of Mountains and Seas?

"If his escape was so desperate, why did he enter this abandoned Land God Temple? That took him out of the Lookout Tower's surveillance and cost him his last sliver of hope...

"Was someone waiting here whom he had no choice but to meet, or was he, too, 'not his own master'?"

Ding Songyan immediately thought of Chen Yuliang and Wang Yishu, then of the Vermilion Moth and the "Moth Species."

He quickly rejected that conjecture. If this body had truly been possessed by a "Moth Species," Doctor Shao could not have failed to detect any trace during both examinations.

Then he recalled how, despite knowing something was wrong, he had voluntarily gone to Beili Ward to lie in wait for an opportunity, never sensing anything amiss:

"Were my former self's thoughts influenced too, making him enter the Land God Temple 'of his own accord'?

"Could the person behind this share the same origins as Yan Changqing?"

As thoughts crowded his mind, Ding Songyan's eyes suddenly lit up. He remembered something Yan Changqing had said:

"It seems an old friend of mine has arrived, though I don't know which one..."

A fellow disciple could also be an old friend!

And no one had said there could only be one person behind all this. An expert from the Moth God Sect could easily have been working with Yan Changqing's "old friend" to lay their plans.

The more Ding Songyan thought about it, the closer this conjecture seemed to the truth. It also helped him understand why Chen Yuliang and Wang Yishu behaved differently from ordinary "Mothmen."

Their Seas of Consciousness probably contained a Qingmengmeng "Seed" too!

By injecting thoughts, ideas, and words through the "Seed," a "Mothman" would naturally become more responsive and more like a living person!

"That must be why Yan Changqing guessed an old friend had arrived. But judging by his reaction, an enemy seems more likely than a friend... Does that mean he really betrayed his own Sects, and his Senior and Junior Brothers or Senior and Junior Sisters came looking to purge the traitor from their ranks?" Deep in thought, Ding Songyan slowly left the abandoned Land God Temple and returned to the main road leading to the city gate.

He realized that the divine art of Yan Changqing's Sects and the Moth God Sect's cultivation method complemented each other perfectly, truly producing a result greater than the sum of their parts.

The question Ding Songyan now pondered was how to circumvent his restrictions and inform the authorities, Miss Xiaoqing, and Brother Youyang of this discovery.

After returning to the city and turning into Chengyu Lane, Ding Songyan put a smile on his face, looking as though nothing had happened.

Beneath the dark-blue sky with its lingering light, he immediately spotted his father, Ding Shengyi, standing beside the well with a folding fan, chatting about everything under the sun with a group of neighbors.

After greeting them, Ding Songyan did not go straight home. He stood beside his father and made perfunctory small talk.

"Clerk Ding, what a pity your Third Miss was too young for the Consort Selection in the fifth year of Jianwu. With her looks, you'd be the Imperial Father-in-Law by now," a woman said with both envy and regret.

Third Miss Ding naturally meant Ding Qingyan. She was sometimes also called Third Lady Ding or Miss Ding.

Before Ding Shengyi or Ding Songyan could answer, an idler beside them laughed.

"Miss Ding will come of age next year, and the year after that will be the tenth year of Jianwu. His Majesty might hold another Consort Selection. Heh, once you've mastered the Fire God Cultivation Method, your 'fire' must burn pretty hot."

Ding Shengyi waved his folding fan, driving away the mosquitoes buzzing around him.

"I only hope my Third Miss marries someone nearby, so we can see each other often. I don't ask for wealth or high station, only peace and safety, and for us to be able to look after each other when something happens."

"Haha, Clerk Ding, how about me?"

"You'd have to show some ambition."

"..."

After chatting with them for a while, Ding Songyan returned home and saw his mother, Liu Yuzao, setting down her needlework beside the oil lamp.

"Second Brother, come try these new shoes. Your sister and I each stitched one." Liu Yuzao picked up a pair of black cloth shoes and gestured for Second Brother Ding to sit so she could change his shoes for him.

Suddenly feeling a little embarrassed, Ding Songyan hurriedly said:

"Let me wash first. I've walked quite a way."

Having such a loving family was not entirely a good thing. After all, he had yet to settle fully into this identity.

After washing his feet, Ding Songyan tried on the cloth shoes himself.

"They fit perfectly, and they're very comfortable," he praised.

Liu Yuzao gave a faint, gratified smile and nodded. As she put away her sewing things, she said:

"Then wear them tomorrow."

Seeing his mother's expression, hearing her words, and remembering the remnant soul of Second Brother Ding he had just met, Ding Songyan suddenly felt a wistful ache.

After Ding Shengyi returned, the family of five each tidied up and prepared for bed.

Ding Songyan naturally helped Ding Daniu move the wooden chest and lay out the bedding.

"Second Brother, Second Brother." Ding Daniu glanced toward the East Wing Room where their mother was, then lowered his voice. "Do me a favor tomorrow."

Ding Songyan straightened up. As he lowered the bolt on the main room's door, he asked with amusement:

"Big Brother, what can I help you with?"

Ding Daniu hesitated before saying:

"Come find me at the Dock tomorrow afternoon. Say you need my help with something, so I can ask the foreman for leave."

"Where are you going?" Ding Songyan had a vague inkling.

Ding Daniu gave a guileless grin.

"Beili Ward."

"..." Ding Songyan thought it over and decided that would be fine.

Burn off some energy instead of constantly thinking about killing people!

He turned to a longer-term plan: once his own troubles were resolved, if he was still alive, he would speak to his mother about finding his elder brother a wife.

But with Big Brother's nature, wouldn't that be ruining some other family's daughter? Ding Songyan suddenly felt he could not bear that either.

Returning to the West Wing Room, he found his younger sister, Ding Qingyan, sitting beside his bed, waiting with a smile.

"You want something too?" Ding Songyan asked with a hint of helplessness.

Ding Qingyan smiled sweetly.

"Second Brother, tell me another installment tonight."

Compared with Miss Xiaoqing, Ding Qingyan's smile was sweeter and more approachable, without making anyone feel ashamed of their own inadequacy.

Ah, if I hadn't just seen my former self's remnant soul... Ding Songyan sighed again.

"All right."

"You're the best, Second Brother!" Ding Qingyan praised him with a radiant smile, then obediently returned to the inner room and lay down on her bed.

Ding Songyan shook his head, leaned against the wall at the head of his bed, and told the story from Lady White stealing the Immortality Elixir all the way to Xu Xian entering Jinshan Temple.

The night had grown late, and Ding Qingyan's voice was distinctly sleepy.

"Second Brother, Mother said we should rent a bigger house before I come of age, one with five rooms. Then I won't be able to listen to your stories and chat with you before falling asleep."

"Then I'll finish telling you the story before going back to my own room." Ding Songyan was quite an expert at coaxing little sisters.

Although he was an only child, his parents' siblings had given him five younger female cousins-two on his father's side and three on his mother's-and they visited often and frequently played together.

Ding Qingyan drifted contentedly into sleep, and Ding Songyan resumed writing late into the night by lamplight.

This time, because Lady White was a demon, the sect refused to help Xu Shilin oppose Fahai. Only a few fellow disciples assisted him in a personal capacity, while Fahai, having learned of their plans, set up the Arhat Formation in advance, ending Xu Shilin's first attempt to rescue his mother in failure.

As he wrote, Ding Songyan caught sight of Miss Xiaoqing out of the corner of his eye.

Xiaoqing had changed back into the outfit she had worn at their first meeting: a plain white, round-necked, front-opening short jacket paired with a skirt trimmed in green and edged in white, her hair arranged in twin hanging buns.

After a brief pause for thought, Ding Songyan spoke directly:

"Miss Xiaoqing, I heard that the people following us were 'Mothmen' from the Moth God Sect."

"Them..." Xiaoqing first looked startled, then frowned slightly. "Who told you?"

Ding Songyan wanted to speak, but the words were already forgotten.

"You can't say?" Xiaoqing's lively eyes shifted. "Just tell me yes or no. Someone from the Zhen Estate?"