"Brother Ding, what do we do?" Xu Chang’an stuffed all the silver back into the hidden compartment, then turned to Ding Songyan in frightened panic.

He too was beginning to find this deeply unsettling.

His master had left this much silver hidden here without any worry, then not come home for days?

All his disciples are thieves. Who among them can’t find a hidden compartment? Who among them won’t be tempted by that much fortune?

Ding Songyan was silent for a few breaths.

"Report it to the authorities."

Dingjiang Prefecture was no small city, and the surrounding towns and villages were numerous. The three of them had no way to search on their own, and it would be easy to run into danger. It was better left to the authorities to handle it.

This was Ding Songyan’s instinctive choice.

Moreover, doing so would give him a legitimate reason to come into contact with the Brightnight Sect, the Yi clan, and other local factions. It laid the groundwork for gathering information and seeking a discipleship later.

Xu Chang’an’s face paled.

"Report to the authorities? Tell the people at the yamen that my master has disappeared, that he’s a veteran thief, that I was under his apprenticeship, and that I’m currently earning a living outside Dangkang Temple? Even if I don’t tell them, they’ll find out."

I hadn’t even gotten around to worrying about you yet... Ding Songyan said gravely, "If your master simply had an accident, like falling into the river and drowning, then there’s nothing to worry about afterward. But if this involves something confidential, how many lives do you think you have to spare against whatever danger might come? Are you going to pray at Dangkang Temple and hope the repercussions don’t involve you?"

Xu Chang’an went even paler. He stammered for a long time before saying quietly, "Brother Ding, how about we look a little more first? If we still can’t find him by the end of today, we’ll report it immediately."

"Where did your master usually go?" Ding Songyan did not want to be the one filing the report. This had to come from Xu Chang’an, the disciple. That was the only way it would be proper. He could only accompany him and take the opportunity to meet people from the Yi clan and the Brightnight Sect.

Xu Chang’an recalled, "My master never married and never had children. Just us few disciples. He didn’t gamble either. He only liked visiting North Lane for wine and women. He had some regular companions there. But we already went looking yesterday. 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 the mass graves three times in the past couple of weeks. Said he was looking for something called corpse shade grass."

The mass graves? Ding Songyan seized on the key phrase. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The original Ding Songyan had died in a ruined temple on the road to those same mass graves.

So this really was connected to Xu Chang’an’s master?

Did he actually dig up the Secret Classic from a grave at the mass burial ground? Wait, do mass graves even have proper headstones?

Ding Songyan did not let his emotions show. He asked with feigned curiosity, "What did he want corpse shade grass for?"

Xu Chang’an glanced at Bull, whose face was a mixture of curiosity and fierceness, and swallowed.

"For aperture forging. A few days ago my master got drunk and told us disciples he’d finally obtained a suitable forging method and had a chance to break through the Human Realm. Corpse shade grass is one of the things needed for the forging process."

"What is ’aperture forging?’" Ding Songyan asked without any hesitation, having already proclaimed his Soul Departure Sickness far and wide.

Xu Chang’an understood his confusion, given what he knew of Ding Songyan’s condition. He chose his words carefully.

"All martial arts in our Mountains-and-Seas Realm either descend from Celestial Thearchs and gods, or were created from consuming divine beasts. The crucial part is aperture refinement. But can the apertures of Celestial Thearchs, gods, and divine beasts be identical to those of us humans? Apparently, the difference is massive.

"So after refining all the apertures that can correspond between them and the human body, you have to measure distances and create entirely new apertures at suitable positions in the body, forging them from nothing for further refinement. And forging apertures requires needle-guiding, medicinal infusion, and sometimes even cutting open the body to implant rare metals and exotic alloys. Every art has its own forging method that requires different materials.

"Many sects keep the forging method separate from the refinement method. Only the cultivation-teaching Elders who never leave the sect grounds possess the forging techniques. They assist disciples when needed. That way, even if a disciple is defeated while wandering the jianghu, the corresponding art won’t be leaked."

I’ve never encountered such methods for cultivation... No wonder medicine in this world is so advanced. It’s a daily necessity with a clear lineage of development... Ding Songyan was astonished.

He could see that separating forging from refinement did prevent superior arts from leaking. But it also carried a hidden risk. When a sect was at its height, this was a brilliant safeguard. But once a sect declined or relocated, it became all too easy to lose the critical components of their superior arts. The Brightnight Sect had probably suffered exactly this fate back then.

Ding Songyan asked thoughtfully, "What if an aperture is located on an extra organ that only the divine beast had? Like a second heart. What if the measured distance falls outside the body entirely?"

He remembered that many creatures in the Classic of Mountains and Seas were enormous and bizarrely shaped. If one truly tried to map them onto a human frame—even scaled down proportionally—quite a few apertures would end up beyond the body’s boundaries.

Xu Chang’an was stumped by the two questions.

"I don’t know...

"I’ve heard that the Great Proliferation Realm is the most complex realm. It’s not just aperture forging. There are many barriers and many subdivisions within it. That’s why the Orchid Rankings divide this single realm into four full ranks: Anomaly Manifested, Profound Discerned, Mortal Surpassed, and Form Transfigured.

"Many disciples of great sects spend their entire lives stuck in this realm. Those who can enter the Dharma Realm and become Grandmasters are exceedingly rare."

Initial Realm, Human Realm, Great Proliferation Realm, Dharma Realm, Heaven-Man Realm, Spirit Platform Realm... Ding Songyan finally had a relatively clear picture of this world’s martial cultivation stages.

No wonder everyone says that once you’ve refined your apertures, switching to a different art afterward is nearly impossible...

Seeing that Xu Chang’an could offer nothing more, Ding Songyan brought the topic back.

"Your master is already getting on in his years. Why was he still so obsessed on aperture forging?"

"It’s precisely because he’s getting old that he’s desperate to forge apertures and advance to the Great Proliferation Realm." Xu Chang’an explained earnestly. "The Great Proliferation Realm is far stronger than the Human Realm. If he could reach Anomaly Manifested, not only would his lifespan increase, but he might later have the chance to steal divine medicines or treasures that could extend his life by over a hundred years."

It extends your lifespan too? Then I’d be obsessed as well... Ding Songyan glanced at his very quiet elder brother, then looked at Xu Chang’an, murmuring as if to himself, "Your master only obtained that suitable forging method in the past two weeks or so?"

The original Ding Songyan had also obtained the Secret Classic around the same time...

"Probably. I never saw my master go to the mass graves before that." Xu Chang’an pleaded, "Brother Ding, Bull, please come with me to the mass graves. If we can’t find my master there, we’ll go straight to the authorities!"

Finding him at a place like the mass graves would be the frightening part... Ding Songyan said reluctantly, "It’s dangerous outside the city..."

"Not dangerous at all! The stretch from the city gate to the burial grounds is all under the watchtowers’ surveillance. Only the burial grounds on the far side of the hill are out of sight." Xu Chang’an pleaded desperately.

So why did the original Ding Songyan go into that ruined temple, leaving his death such a mystery? Couldn’t he have just talked or made the exchange by the roadside? The watchtower sentries wouldn’t have known what he was doing anyway. Or could they actually see clearly what someone was holding from that distance, making caution necessary? Ding Songyan agreed reluctantly.

The trio walked for the better part of an hour before arriving at the mass graves outside the city.

The vegetation here was lush. Even in the blazing summer heat and the relentless sun, cold gusts swept through from time to time, sending chills down the spine.

Unlike what Ding Songyan had imagined, the place was not strewn everywhere with rotting corpses wrapped in straw mats. The vast majority had been buried in shallow pits to prevent plagues. Only a few scattered bones lay deep in the undergrowth.

"Roughly where did your master say the corpse shade grass was?" Ding Songyan asked.

"It should be... at the boundary between the front hill and the back hill." Xu Chang’an said hastily. "Brother Ding, I won’t ask you to come with me to the back hill. If we don’t find him at the boundary, we’ll go back to the city and report."

I wouldn’t go even if you begged... Ding Songyan stood beside the nine-foot-tall Bull who brimmed with vitality and figured that even if there were wandering ghosts here, they probably wouldn’t dare come close.

As they neared the back hill, Bull suddenly sniffed the air. He pointed at a cluster of trees.

"There’s blood that way. And a stench."

Blood? Ding Songyan gestured for Bull and Xu Chang’an to go ahead.

Rounding the trees, a nauseating stench hit them immediately, nearly making Ding Songyan retch.

Before he could adjust, he heard Xu Chang’an murmur blankly, "Master... Urgh—"

He vomited.

Ding Songyan looked up and saw a bloated, rotting corpse lying among the bushes, swarmed by flies.

The ribs were broken, the chest and abdomen split open to either side. The internal organs appeared to be entirely gone. On the right thumb was a jade thumb ring.

Ding Songyan did not look closely at the corpse’s features. He was about to vomit himself.

Of the three, only Bull was unfazed. He studied the body carefully, then patted Xu Chang’an’s shoulder.

"Xu Chang’an, is it really your master?"

"That thumb ring. It’s my master’s. He always wore it," Xu Chang’an said while gasping for breath.

"What about the face?" Bull pressed.

Xu Chang’an took a few glances subconsciously, then vomited again, bringing up yellow-green bile.

It was a long time before he managed to speak.

"Yes... I can... I can make it out..."

He turned away and grabbed Ding Songyan’s sleeve, saying in horror, "Brother Ding, let’s report this to the authorities!"

Ding Songyan, also facing away from the corpse with his hand over his nose and mouth, shook his head slowly.

"No. We will go to the Zhen estate."

Circumstances had changed. This clearly was connected to the original Ding Songyan and the Secret Classic. Otherwise, two people would not have died in the same stretch of time, at locations not far apart. It was better to let the Zhen household handle it.

......

Zhen estate, Cold Water Pavilion.

Patriarch Zhen paced the room, spinning the iron balls in his palm as he listened to Master Yu’s report on the past two days.

"No leads pointing to any major sect or any of the Twenty-One Heretical Ways?" Zhen Qianfan asked with hesitation.

"None," Master Yu in his small cap answered honestly.

Zhen Qianfan let out a scoff.

"Then what exactly is the Small Boat Gang up to? First they provoked us repeatedly, giving us justification. We successfully registered the conflict with the yamen. Then they stationed only one Chen Yuliang in the prefecture city, someone even you can handle. Do they think that because I’ve retired for years, I can no longer act personally?"

"Patriarch, you’re only sixty. Still in your prime." Master Yu had witnessed Zhen Qianfan’s strength firsthand.

Zhen Qianfan was about to speak again when a clan member responsible for guarding the estate entered and saluted the both of them.

"Patriarch, Master Yu. Concubine Qin’s cousin, Ding Songyan, has come again. He says he’s discovered something important."