Sword of Coming

Sword of Coming

The back of the Sun Clan’s Mountain and Sea Turtle was as enormous as a mountain, and it was laden with many buildings. Even with so much cargo loaded, it was still able to house over 2,400 people, completely dwarfing Downtrodden Mountain’s dragon boat.

The Mountain and Sea Turtle and the Fan Clan’s Osmanthus Island both served a similar purpose. Generally speaking, they were both used as intercontinental vessels. However, the Osmanthus Island was superior in that once the protective formation around the ancestral osmanthus tree was activated, the Osmanthus Island would be shielded from many of the natural disasters that could arise at sea.

Even in the face of enormous waves and turbulence, the Osmanthus Island would remain as steady as ever.

The Mountain and Sea Turtle didn’t have an exceptional natural asset like the ancestral osmanthus tree, but its protective formation, while far inferior to the Osmanthus Island’s, could allow the ship to sink into the water to avoid the waves on the surface.

In addition, the Mountain and Sea Turtle’s innate mystical abilities made the small town on its back similar to an underwater city, one in which all of its passengers could reside safely even in the depths of the sea, thereby serving as a great example of how cultivators could “overcome nature” through the use of immortal abilities.

All intercontinental ships were considered to be priceless treasures, but in addition to the ships themselves, the routes mapped out for these intercontinental ships were considered just as invaluable. The routes that could be taken by the Osmanthus Island, such as through the Flood Dragon Trench, were definitely not ones that the Mountain and Sea Turtle would be able to safely traverse, even from afar.

If the Mountain and Sea Turtle were to encounter a flood dragon traveling toward the Southern Whirl Continent, then trouble would be sure to follow. However, similarly, the Mountain and Sea Turtle was able to traverse through many areas inhabited by powerful great demons thanks to goodwill accumulated over the course of centuries, sometimes even millennia, but those routes would be completely barred to the Osmanthus Island.

Among the powerful clans of Old Dragon City who owned intercontinental ships, countless cultivators had perished throughout history in order to map out new routes or consolidate existing ones.

On this day, the sea became extremely turbulent, so the Mountain and Sea Turtle sank into the water to avoid the strong waves. A series of ripples proliferated outward from the formation on the turtle’s back, creating a peaceful small world that was completely unaffected by the surrounding raging turbulence. All of the buildings and plants on the turtle’s back were completely sheltered and protected as a result.

Right now, Chen Ping’an was an esteemed guest of the Sun Clan, given that their past differences had been settled, and they were also set to become long-term business partners, so Sun Jiashu had naturally arranged for Chen Ping’an to stay in a premium immortal residence.

The residence wasn’t very large, but it was teeming with spiritual energy. Under normal circumstances, the Su Clan would rather keep the residence vacant than allow any high-tier cultivator to reside in it, and there was a reason for this. The residence was called Book Box, and it was situated closest to the turtle core that the Mountain and Sea Turtle had already been refining for close to ten thousand years.

As a result, it had a vast abundance of natural water fortune spiritual energy, capable of significantly enhancing a cultivator’s cultivation progress. However, if a nefarious individual decided to take excessive advantage of this, then they would be able to inflict immense harm upon the Mountain and Sea Turtle. If the Sun Clan were to lose this prized intercontinental ship, then their status in Old Dragon City would plummet to unprecedented lows.

After boarding the ship, Chen Ping’an continued to dedicate twelve hours to cultivation daily. The spiritual energy reserves in his water palace, wood residence, and mountain shrine had already been mostly refined, so his primary objective at the moment was to complete standard refinement of the thirty-six bricks from the Daoist temple.

Progress on this endeavor was rather slow, particularly when it came to the refinement of the hint of Dao intent imbued within the bricks, but thankfully, now that Chen Ping’an had become a fourth tier Qi refiner, he was able to refine the bricks around 30% faster than before.

At this moment, he was seated on a cushion with a Go board before him. He had brought the Go board with him, along with the jars of Go stones, all of which had been placed in his rather empty minimization treasure.

He hadn’t brought many belongings with him on this journey. Aside from Sword Immortal, First, and Fifteenth, he was only carrying Golden Sweet Wine. The Hundred Eye Taotie Dao robe had already been gifted to Zhou Mili, and it fit her just fine. As for the Snowflake Dao Robe that he had seized from the female ghost of Meticulous Skin City, that had been given to Shi Rou.

Chen Ping’an had new plans for what he wanted to do with Golden Sweet Wine, so he could only revoke his earlier promise to Liu Xianyang. For this reason, he had sent an intercontinental letter to the Pure Confucian Chen Clan. He had received a response at Old Dragon City, and at the time, Fan Er had personally delivered the letter to him on the Flax Robe Sect’s immortal ship. In the letter, Liu Xianyang denounced him for prioritizing girls over friends.

Furthermore, he demanded that Chen Ping’an send him another Dao robe similar to Golden Sweet Wine. Otherwise, he would never let Chen Ping’an hear the end of it. Additionally, the next time they met, Chen Ping’an would have to stand still and allow Liu Xianyang to take a few cheap shots at him. At the end of the letter, Liu Xianyang urged Chen Ping’an to have a child with his beloved as soon as possible.

Chen Ping’an could only ignore this final sentiment. Bringing up the subject of conceiving a child to Ning Yao would be no different from committing suicide!

For this journey, Chen Ping’an had brought with him two minimization treasures, namely the white jade tablet and the Daoist wooden badge, the first of which had been given to him by Zheng Dafeng back in the Dust Medicinal Shop of Old Dragon City, while the second he had earned through selling that huge caisson ceiling.

As a traveling salesman, he had to be ready to do business wherever he went.

Back in the immortal abode, he had suffered from a lack of storage capacity in his pocket treasure and minimization treasure. Otherwise, he would’ve completely stripped the entire Daoist temple of all of its bricks and tiles!

In terms of immortal coins, he had only brought with him thirty grain rain coins. On this visit to Stalactite Mountain, he would finally be able to visit the Ganoderma Inn and actually browse its wares without feeling as if he could be kicked out at any moment. The items sold at the Ganoderma Inn were truly exceptional. The only problem was that their prices were enough to make him wince.

After the ancestral hall was established, Chen Ping’an pulled out all of the excess immortal coins that he had painstakingly earned over the years as a traveling salesman, handing over all of his hard-earned wealth to Chen Ruchu, who had been put in charge of Downtrodden Mountain’s finances. However, when he returned to her to withdraw money on the eve of his departure, she had been standing beside Zhu Lian with a guilty look on her face.

Right there and then, Chen Ping’an immediately knew that he was in for some bad news. Sure enough, Zhu Lian pulled out a money bag that was almost completely empty, save for ten grain rain coins, and he told Chen Ping’an that this was all of the money that Downtrodden Mountain had to spare. In fact, according to him, even this was already realistically more than Downtrodden Mountain could afford to spare.

At the moment, money was required everywhere, and he had only scrounged together this much for Chen Ping’an as he didn’t want people to look down on Downtrodden Mountain and think that their mountain master was some impoverished beggar.

He then offered some consolation to Chen Ping’an, telling him that if he truly felt terrible about all of this, then he could exchange the ten grain rain coins for the equivalent sum of lesser heat coins, in which case the money bag would be completely filled.

At the time, Chen Ping’an was holding onto the money bag, feeling as if he had just shot himself in the foot.

Zhu Lian was known for screwing over everyone, whether it be Jiang Shangzhen, Wei Bo, or anyone else. If he had no way of screwing over someone, he would stay up all night thinking of a way, and he was shameless enough to even openly plot against someone right in their face. In the past, Chen Ping’an never thought this to be a bad thing, but now that he was the one on the receiving end, he had come to learn just how terrible it felt.

However, Chen Ruchu swooped in just in the nick of time, secretly extending two fingers, and Chen Ping’an immediately understood the message she was trying to convey by demanding an allowance of fifty grain rain coins.

He proclaimed that the Ganoderma Inn on Stalactite Mountain spirit was filled with exceptional treasures going for low prices, and that he could easily turn a profit on said treasures once he purchased them and brought them back to the Ox Horn Mountain ferry station to be resold.

After a fierce bartering war in which Chen Ping’an proclaimed that he was trying to earn money for Downtrodden Mountain, while Zhu Lian ranted about the precarious financial circumstances on the mountain, Chen Ping’an’s allowance was ultimately increased to thirty grain rain coins.

At the time, Chen Ping’an had just boarded the Flax Robe Sect’s intercontinental ship at the Ox Horn Mountain ferry station, and Zhu Lian patted Chen Ruchu on the head as he smiled and praised, “Well done, Nuanshu.”

Everyone on Downtrodden Mountain still preferred to call her Nuanshu. This had been the case for Cui Cheng, and the same applied to Zhu Lian, Zheng Dafeng, and Wei Bo.

Chen Ruchu had no idea why she was being praised.

Zhu Lian smiled as he said, “Our Downtrodden Mountain actually still has twenty grain rain coins to spare. Even if all of them are taken away, it won’t affect our mountain. Now that you’re in charge of finances, you can learn a thing or two from our young master. He’s an exceptional accountant.”

“Why not give it all to Master?” Chen Ruchu asked.

“Young Master Chen won’t be spending any money on this trip to Stalactite Mountain, and there’s no way he would actually go around selling things once he gets to Stalactite Mountain. He was just saying that to fool us,” Zhu Lian explained. “He’s more so thinking about picking out a good gift at a place like the Ganoderma Inn, something expensive and tasteful that he can give to the girl of his heart.

“Of course, I’m not skimping out on the twenty grain rain coins; it’s just that Young Master Chen still doesn’t have enough experience when it comes to romantic affairs. If a girl truly likes you, particularly a girl that our young master has fallen for, then she’ll definitely only look down on him if he tries to bring money into the equation. Even though I haven’t met her myself, I can say that for certain.”

“In that case, why did you still give him the extra twenty grain rain coins?” Chen Ruchu asked, feeling more and more confused.

“When it comes to romantic affairs, it’s not always a good thing to be too experienced,” Zhu Lian explained with a smile, while Chen Ruchu fell into a befuddled silence.

Zhu Lian was hunched over with his hands clasped behind his back. His sideburns were drifting in the wind, and as he watched the ship ascend and depart, he said, “When a man is young, he’s always thinking about giving everything he has to a woman. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“People treat love differently at different stages of life, and there’s no way to love that’s definitively better than all others. Life would be too boring if it were too perfect, and there weren’t some regrets here and there. There would be nothing to think back on once you’re old and gray.”

Zhu Lian turned to Chen Ruchu as he spoke, then extended his pinkie finger as he said, “Pinkie promise me not to tell the mountain master what I said. Otherwise, given how petty he is, I’m going to be in for some suffering.”

Chen Ruchu was not very pleased with this remark, and she stuck her hands behind her back as she complained, “My master isn’t petty in the slightest! If you keep talking about him like that, then I really will tell him what you’ve been saying!”

“In this case, I’m not using petty in the conventional sense,” Zhu Lian explained with a smile. “What I’m saying is that he remembers many things that others brush off as trivial, so it’s a compliment.”

Chen Ruchu was very pleased to hear this, and only then did she accept Zhu Lian’s pinkie promise.

On the intercontinental ship, Chen Ping’an was seated before a Go board, but instead of playing out a game using a Go manual, he was using it as a reflection of his current situation.

There was a cluster of Go stones on the board that represented the people in the Downtrodden Mountain ancestral hall. They formed the true foundation of his wealth.

All of his connections littered throughout the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent were represented by other sets of Go stones that were not yet interconnected, but Chen Ping’an was in no hurry to connect everything, merely content to go with the flow instead.

His connections on the Northern Complete Reed Continent formed a third piece of territory, and this one was relatively more clear-cut. Chen Ping’an was willing to dedicate thought and effort to nurturing these connections, such as the Flax Robe Sect, the Spring Dew Garden, Cloudtop City, the Rainbow Sparrow Residence, and potentially the Water Dragon Sect and the Dragon Palace Small World.

These were all parties that he could confidently do business with, given the right opportunity. At the very least, Chen Ping’an could string everyone together, providing a possibility to all of the aforementioned parties before leaving it to them to weigh up their options. If everyone felt like there were gains to be made, then they could sit down and have a discussion.

Those discussions could be strictly surrounding business, so there was no need to worry about harming their private relationships. Even if the negotiations fell through, they would still be able to meet up in the future as friends and drink together without any qualms.

Prior to Cui Dongshan’s departure from Downtrodden Mountain, he and Chen Ping’an were having a drink together on the cliff when Cui Dongshan suddenly said that they were the same type of people in that they were both weaving nets. In this regard, he was forced to concede that the old scholar truly did have a keener eye than him.

Cui Dongshan then began to console himself, saying that the old scholar had an exceptional eye for disciples, but was much inferior to him when it came to finding a good teacher.

Chen Ping’an was curious and asked him who the Scholarly Sage’s teacher was, in response to which Cui Dongshan burst into laughter and informed him that the old scholar had no proper teachers, only mediocre teachers at school from when he was a child. He had never even legitimately taken on a teacher, so of course, there was no competition between the two.

Chen Ping’an picked up the stones one by one before returning them all to the jar of white stones.

He then pulled out some black stones from the other jar, all of which had names of different people and entities engraved upon them. He picked them up between his fingers one after the other before setting them down all over the Go board without even having to look.

Some of the stones on the board had only been included by association, so there were many names that Chen Ping’an had only heard of, and it didn’t necessarily mean that every name on these black stones was an enemy of his.

For example, there were the sword immortal ancestors of Sun Scorch Mountain who had been single-handedly oppressed by Li Tuanjing of the Wind Lightning Field for centuries, the many guest elders of the Light Breeze City Xu Clan, as well as Pillar General Yuan Clan of the Great Li Empire, which was connected to the Xu Clan through a marriage alliance.

Killing through force, killing through reason, and killing through mental ruination were three completely different approaches, none of which Chen Ping’an was unfamiliar with because he had personally experienced and used all three during the various conflicts he had gotten into over the course of his long journeys.

He tucked his hands up their opposite sleeves as he leaned forward to stare intently at the board.

A slow and steady approach had to be taken when trying to fell a monolith. That was a notion that Chen Ping’an had always championed and taken to heart.

However, the purpose of a slow and steady setup was to allow for swift and decisive action when it came time to strike, allowing him to attack with his fists or his sword without any qualms or hesitation.

During the preparation phase, countless minor individual actions had to be taken in order to build up momentum and have the entire world on one’s side.

Back in that walkway in Red Candle Town, A’Liang had spared Zhu Lu for this reason, and the same applied to Zuo You when he unleashed his wrath upon the Parasol Leaf Sect.

Chen Ping’an had learned this lesson during his trip to the Misty Mountain ancestral hall for the sake of Mr. Fisherman, Zhao Luan, and Zhao Shuxia. Lü Yundai and Lü Tingjiao had turned on each other at the time, and after the event, when Chen Ping’an had already returned to Downtrodden Mountain from the Northern Complete Reed Continent, he heard that Lü Tingjiao, who was being detained on Misty Mountain, had secretly colluded with a general of the Great Li Empire to call upon several guest elders in an attempt at staging a coup.

Lü Yundai killed him in a fit of rage, and that was a significant setback for Misty Mountain, forcing them to declare a state of lockdown for a hundred years, during which they would be completely closed off to the rest of the world.

There were many types of strategies in the world, and even when some strategies appeared to have already been shelved, they were often long outlived by the scars that they left behind, scars that would ache at even the slightest indication of a repeat for a long time to come.

Chen Ping’an packed up all of the black stones on the Go board, then picked up an unengraved white stone before casually setting it down.

Even though he was a terrible Go player, he enjoyed hearing the sound of Go stones being placed onto a board.

He had nothing better to do, so he played a game against himself, one in which “both sides” were evenly matched. This left him feeling very satisfied, and he felt like this was the only real way to play Go. What was the deal with giving out handicaps? The outcome of the game hardly mattered when there was a handicap involved.

Chen Ping’an was in no hurry to pack up the stones as he leaned back with a reminiscent expression.

It had been over ten years since he first saw that group of outsiders at the entrance of the small town, and the time had practically flown by. During this time, everyone had been creating their own stories.

At this point, Fu Nanhua was already set in stone as the next lord of Old Dragon City, an outcome that had all but been decided ever since he married that young mistress from the Cloud Forest Jiang Clan. Apparently, Fu Nanhua was currently on very good terms with Song Jixin, the latter of whom was stationed at Old Dragon City as a feudal lord.