Unsheathed

There was a well in Apricot Blossom Alley by the name of Iron Lock Well. A metal chain that was as thick as a young man’s arm was dangling down inside the well, and no one knew why the chain was there, nor who had done something as strange and pointless as hanging a chain in the well. Even the oldest individuals in the town were unable to provide any accounts.

It was said that there was once a curious individual in the town who wanted to examine just how long the chain was. The old people in the town warned them that those who tried to pull the chain out of the well would have one year shaved off their lifespan with each foot of the chain that was pulled, but the man paid no heed to the ominous warning. After tugging vigorously on the chain for 15 minutes, a huge pile of it had been pulled out, but there was still no end in sight.

At that point, the man was already completely exhausted, and he left the pile of chain next to the well winch, proclaiming that he was going to be back the next day, and that he was determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. However, on the very same day after he returned home, he died on his bed, bleeding out of all of his orifices, and he refused to close his eyes in death.

No matter what his family members tried, they were unable to get his corpse to close its eyes. In the end, an old man whose family had lived near the well for generations instructed that family to carry the corpse over to the well so that it could “watch” the old man return the chain back into the well. Finally, after the entire chain had sunk down into the depths, the body finally closed its eyes.

An old man and a small child were slowly making their way toward the Iron Lock Well. The child was still very young, with two lines of snot trailing out of his nostrils, but he could tell a very coherent and organized story, completely unlike the average rural child who had only been attending school for half a year.

At this moment, the child was looking up with a pair of large eyes that resembled black grapes, and with a gentle sniffle, the two lines of snot retreated back into his nostrils. The child was looking at the storyteller who was carrying the large white bowl, and he said, “That’s the end of my story. You’re going to show me what’s in your bowl now, right?”

“Don’t be in such a hurry. Let me take a seat on the edge of the well, and I’ll let you look as much as you want,” the old man chuckled.

The child quickly issued a threat that was disguised as a “friendly” warning. “You can’t break your promise. Otherwise, you’ll die a terrible death! As soon as you reach the Iron Lock Well, you’ll immediately fall in headfirst, and I’m not fishing up your dead body. If that doesn’t happen, then a bolt of lightning will suddenly fall from the sky and zap you into a piece of charcoal. After that, I’ll pick up a rock and smash your charred remains to pieces…”

The old man was beginning to develop a headache as he listened to all of the vicious curses being directed at him by the child, and he hurriedly reassured, “I’ll definitely let you look! Who did you learn to speak like that from?”

“My mother!” the child replied in a categorical manner.

“Your mother must truly be an extremely fine and compassionate woman,” the old man “praised”.

The child suddenly stopped in his tracks, and his brows furrowed slightly as he asked, “You’re insulting her, aren’t you? I know some people like to say good things about others when they mean the exact opposite, like Song Jixin!”

The old man hurriedly denied the accusation, then changed the subject as he asked, “Are there often some strange things happening in this town?”

The child nodded in response.

“Tell me about it,” the old man prompted.

The child pointed at the old man with a serious expression as he said, “There’s a strange old man who goes around carrying a large white bowl, but doesn’t let anyone put money into it. Even before you finished your story, my mother said that you were spinning a very confusing tale, and that you’re clearly a serial fraud who makes a living off deceiving others, and that’s why you were so insistent on refusing the copper coins that I tried to give you. Now show me what’s in that bowl!”

The old man was completely dumbfounded.

As it turned out, the storyteller under the old locust tree from before had asked this child to take him to Apricot Blossom Alley to see the well there. Initially, the child was unwilling to oblige, so the old man told him that his big white bowl was very special, and it was holding something extremely rare and extraordinary. The child had always been very energetic and adventurous from birth.

The analogy made by his parents was that it was as if he were missing a bottom, so he didn’t know how to sit down. From a very young age, he was always wandering around aimlessly with the delinquents led by Liu Xianyang, but what was quite remarkable about him was that he also had the patience to sit completely motionlessly under the scorching sun for an hour just to fish up an eel or a catfish, displaying incredible patience for someone his age.

Hence, when the old man proclaimed that there was something extraordinary in his bowl, the child immediately took the bait.

The old man had started off by stating that he wanted to try and lift the child to see how heavy he was, and gauge whether he weighed over 20 kilograms. Despite the strange nature of the request, the child agreed without any hesitation. In his mind, it wasn’t like he was going to lose anything just from being lifted.

However, much to the child’s dismay and exasperation, the old man held his bowl over his left palm and tried to lift the child with all his might using his right arm five or six times in a row, only to fail every single time. The child glanced disdainfully at the old man’s thin arms and legs, and he shook his head as he thought about how Chen Ping’an was far stronger than the old man, even though they had roughly the same build.

However, the child was very smart, and he knew that if he wanted to see what was in the bowl, then he would have to remain in the old man’s good graces, so he held back the urge to insult him. In the Clay Vase Alley and Apricot Blossom Alley area, the child could arguably rank third when it came to winning verbal altercations on the street and delivering potent insults, while Song Jixin ranked second, and the child’s mother reigned supreme at the top.

The old man made his way over to the well, but he didn’t sit down on its edge.

The well was constructed from clay bricks, and for some reason, the old man’s breathing was beginning to grow heavier.

The child also approached the well before jumping backward with his back facing it, and his bottom landed perfectly on the well’s edge as he took a seat.

The old man was terrified to see this. If the child had made even a slight misjudgment, he would’ve fallen into the well, and given the stories and stigma that surrounded the well, it would most likely be very difficult to even find anyone willing to fish his body up from the bottom.

The old man slowly took a few steps forward, leaning down to inspect the metal chain, one end of which was bound tightly to the underside of the well winch.

I wonder whose possession this prized artifact will ultimately end up in, the old man thought to himself with a myriad of emotions in his heart.

He reached out his spare left hand and stared at the palm.

There was a complex system of lines on his palm, but there was a brand new line that was slowly elongating, much like a lengthening crack on a piece of porcelain.

For deities, observing their own palm was like observing an entire world, but for the old man, he was only looking at himself.

His brows furrowed tightly as he exclaimed, “If things are already this terrible after just half a day, then what’s become of them?”

The child had already stood up on the edge of the well, and he had one hand on his hip while pointing at the old man with his other hand as he urged loudly, “Are you going to show me your white bowl or not?!”

“Hurry up and get down from there! I’ll show you my bowl now,” the old man said in an exasperated manner.

The child was feeling rather skeptical, but he still jumped down from the edge of the well.

The old man hesitated momentarily, following which a solemn look appeared on his face. “It seems we were fated to meet, so it’s not out of the question for me to show you what this bowl can do. However, after you see it, you can’t tell anyone else about it, not even your mother. If you can do that, then I’ll show you. If you can’t, then no matter how much you prod or insult me, I won’t let you take even a single peek.”

The child nodded in response. “I can do that. Show me.”

The old man made his way over to the well with a serious expression, and he looked down to find that the child was squatting on the edge of the well this time, and he was beginning to regret picking out this unruly child as his guide.

The old man banished those trivial thoughts from his mind, then grabbed onto the underside of his bowl with all five fingers of his right hand as he faced the well. His palm then began to tilt ever so slightly to a degree that was barely detectable.

The child felt as if he had already been waiting for a very long time, but no change took place in the bowl above his head, and the old man’s posture also remained unchanged.

Right as the lines of snot flowing out of the child’s nostrils were about to reach his lips, and he was about to run out of patience, a stream of water that was as thick as a finger poured out of the bowl before silently flowing into the well.

The child was furious, and he was just about to erupt into an angry tirade when he abruptly shut his mouth in surprise at what he was seeing.

A short while later, the expression on his face had already turned from astonishment to confusion, and after that, a fearful look began to appear in his eyes. All of a sudden, he snapped back to his senses and jumped down from the edge of the well before fleeing toward his home.

As it turned out, the amount of water that the old man had poured into the well out of his white bowl had already far exceeded the capacity of a large water vat, but there was still more water constantly pouring out of the bowl, and the child was convinced that he had seen a ghost.

————

Liu Xianyang casually snapped a branch that had only just sprouted out of a tree that he was passing by, and he began to use it for sword practice. He was spinning around in circles like a wheel gone mad, raising up a massive dust cloud and making no effort to look after the pair of new boots that he was wearing.

After emerging from the town, he made his way southward. After crossing the covered bridge funded by Master Song and walking about one to two more kilometers, he would arrive at the blacksmith forge run by Master Ruan and his daughter. Liu Xianyang had always been extremely arrogant and unruly, but it had only taken a single sentence for Master Ruan to earn his complete and utter admiration: “We came here solely to forge swords.”

Liu Xianyang couldn’t help but get excited at just the mere thought of being able to own a real sword in the future, and he tossed the branch aside before breaking into a sprint while yelling in excitement.

Liu Xianyang thought back to the handful of fist techniques that Master Ruan had taught him in private, and he started to practice them, looking very much like he was cut out for the part.

He was getting closer and closer to the covered bridge, and there were four people seated on the steps on the northern end of the bridge.

One of those was a beautiful and voluptuous woman who was holding a boy in a big red robe in her arms. His chin was raised up high as if he were a general that had just returned from a comprehensive victory in battle, while on the other side of the steps was an imposing old man with a head of white hair.

The old man was in the process of consoling an angry little girl, whose skin was so fair and delicate that it was as if she were the most intricately crafted porcelain doll in this world. Her delicate skin was glittering and translucent under the sun, to the point that one could even clearly see a series of fine veins under her skin.

The two children had just had a verbal altercation, and the little girl was on the verge of tears, while the little boy was only looking more and more triumphant.

The old man was built like a small mountain, and the woman beside him gave him an apologetic look, only to be completely ignored.

There was also a young man with the Lu surname standing at the foot of the steps. He was the eldest grandson of the Lu Clan’s leader, and his name was Lu Zhengchun. Perhaps the earth and water in certain places really did nurture the people there better than in other places; the local residents of the town were generally better-looking than the people outside of the town.

However, Lu Zhengchun had already completely ruined his own body through alcohol abuse and excessive sexual activity, presenting him as a very unsightly young man to the four people sitting on the steps. The Lu Clan owned the most dragon kilns out of any clan in the town, and their dragon kilns were also of the best quality. It was also the clan that produced the most descendants that left the town to settle elsewhere.

Lu Zhengchun was normally always strutting around the town as if he owned the place, but at this moment, his complexion was very pale, and he was wearing a reserved and humble expression. His entire body was also extremely tensed up, as if the slightest misstep here would lead to the execution of his entire clan.

The boy was speaking in a language that was foreign to the town’s residents as he said, “Mother, is the ancestor of that little worm with the Liu surname really…”

He was just about to state a name when the woman hurriedly clasped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t refer to people directly by their names unless it’s necessary! Your father told you that many times before we came here.”

The boy pried the woman’s hand aside with an excited look in his eyes as he lowered his voice and asked, “Has his clan really been passing down the prized armor and sword scripture for generations?”

The woman stroked his head with a doting expression as she said in a gentle voice, “The Lu Clan swore on half of their genealogy tree that those two things are still hidden in his home.”

The boy suddenly began to behave like a spoiled child as he urged, “Mother, Mother, can we trade treasures with them? The suit of prized armor that we’re trying to obtain is hideous! Think about it, Mother, if we can get our hands on that sword scripture instead, we’ll be able to decapitate people with flying swords! That’s way more badass than an ugly turtle shell!”

Before the woman had a chance to offer an explanation to the boy, the little girl next to them had already erupted into a fit of fury. “How dare you even think about trying to take the most prized treasure of our mountain! We came here to take back something that rightfully belongs to us. We’re not completely shameless like you! You’re a bandit, a thief, a beggar, even!”

The boy turned to her and made a mocking face, then sneered, “You said it yourself just now, you dumb lass. It’s the most prized treasure of your ‘mountain’, which doesn’t mean anything in my eyes!”

The boy suddenly stood up from the woman’s lap, then looked down at the little girl with a sympathetic expression as he preached to her like a schoolteacher scolding a student. “The pursuit of the Great Dao is an endeavor that pits one against the natural order, so we must strive to secure every possible resource to help us on this journey.

“If you don’t even understand such a simple concept, then how are you going to inherit your clan and uphold the teachings of your ancestors? Once every 30 years, the descendants of your Sun Scorch Mountain must elevate the mountain by at least 1,000 feet. Do you think that was an easy task for your father and your grandfather?”

The little girl was stumped by the boy’s words, and she lowered her head with a defeated expression, not daring to look at him.

The white-haired old man said in a serious voice, “I understand that we shouldn’t take offense to the words of children, but if our young mistress’ Dao heart is tarnished by that boy’s words, then you’ll have to bear the consequences.”

The woman gave an apologetic smile, then put on a stern expression as she tugged the boy back into her arms before giving a barbed response. “This is just an argument between children. There’s no need to take it so seriously, Senior Yuan. Our two clans have been on friendly terms for over 1,000 years, it would be a complete travesty if that relationship were to be spoiled by such a trivial

However, the old man had an extremely unyielding personality, and he retorted, “Our Sun Scorch Mountain has been around for 2,600 years, and we’ve always repaid those who have treated us with kindness, but similarly, we’ve never spared anyone who’s dared to wrong us!”

The woman merely smiled in response and didn’t argue any further.

Both of them had important tasks to complete on this trip to the small town. In particular, she was taking an extremely extravagant gamble, putting her own life, the future of her son, and everything in her parental family’s possession on the line.

Even though the woman was dressed in very simple and unadorned attire, she was very graceful and elegant, but the uneducated residents of the town were oblivious to her refined disposition.

This entire time, Lu Zhengchun stood with his back facing the steps of the covered bridge.

He could still recall the first time that he had seen these esteemed guests in the Lu Manor. His younger brother was lacking in discipline and was unable to suppress his primal urges, leading him to forget their grandfather’s warnings. He couldn’t help but sneak a glance at the woman’s chest, and their grandfather had instantly flown into such a violent rage that his entire body was trembling with fury. He immediately ordered for the young man to be dragged out into the yard and flogged to death.

It seemed that while the flogging was taking place, his mouth had been stuffed full of cotton so Lu Zhengchun didn’t hear the agonized howls of his brother, nor did he witness the gruesome scene of his execution. Following the conclusion of their meeting with those esteemed guests, Lu Zhengchun stepped out of the room to find that all of the blood in the courtyard had already been cleaned up, and the four guests, even the pair of children, displayed no reaction to this, as if this were something completely ordinary and to be expected.

In that instant, Lu Zhengchun felt as if he were in a dream.

A living person from their family had just been killed, yet it was being played off as if nothing more than a stray dog had just been executed.

Just the night before, the two brothers had been drinking together, and Lu Zhengchun’s younger brother had been extremely motivated and brimming with excitement, declaring that he was definitely going to become successful and bring honor to the clan, that the two of them were going to work together and make something out of themselves rather than spending their entire lives in the confines of the Lu Manor.

Even after making his way out of the Lu Manor, Lu Zhengchun’s mind was still completely blank.

From that incident, the seed of fear was planted into his heart. Whenever any of those esteemed guests asked him anything, his voice would tremble when he answered, and whenever he took them anywhere, his legs would quiver. He knew that he was putting on an extremely embarrassing display and bringing shame upon his grandfather and his entire clan, but he was simply unable to control his own fear. In their presence, he felt as if his entire body were constantly submerged in a glacial pit.

At the end of the previous year, his grandfather had taken him and his brother into a secret chamber and informed them that the Lu Clan was about to be tasked with doing something for a certain group of extremely important people. He told them that this was an enormous blessing, and that they had to exercise the utmost caution when serving these people. If they could complete the assigned tasks successfully, then the Lu Clan would dedicate the entirety of the compensation that they received from those people to nurturing and developing the two brothers.

All it would take would be a nod from those eminent figures, and a path leading straight to unimaginable heights would be paved beneath their feet, and they would be blessed with unfathomable wealth and glory. It was only then that he finally understood why he and his brother had been forced to learn so many types of strange dialects from a young age.

Lu Zhengchun watched as Liu Xianyang drew closer and closer to the covered bridge, and a sense of fierce resentment suddenly welled up in his heart. Liu Xianyang was nothing more than a piece of low-class scum that had once almost been beaten to death like a stray dog by him and his lackeys. If it weren’t for that meddling little bastard who had run out onto the street and called for help, he and his lackeys were already preparing to enact the punishment that they had agreed upon in advance, taking off their pants to give the arrogant young man a warm shower.

Even now, Lu Zhengchun still couldn’t understand why these high and mighty individuals had taken such a liking to Liu Xianyang. As for certain things that they mentioned like prized armor, sword scripture, Sun Scorch Mountain, the Great Dao to immortality, and fighting over resources and opportunities, Lu Zhengchun could understand everything, but at the same time, he had no idea what they were talking about.

However, there was one thing that Lu Zhengchun knew for certain, which was that he wanted nothing more than to see Liu Xianyang die here.

As for the true reason for his scorching resentment toward Liu Xianyang, he didn’t dare to admit it to himself, nor did he dare to ponder the subject.

Deep down in his heart, Lu Zhengchun would almost rather die than allow a piece of lowly scum like Liu Xianyang to see him, an esteemed young master of the Lu Clan, acting like an obedient dog in front of others.

This was just about the most humiliating thing that he could think of.

Upon spotting Liu Xianyang, the woman murmured, “He’s here.”

Liu Xianyang was still practicing his fist techniques on the way to the bridge, and with each punch that he threw, he was doing so with increasing speed and power, to the point that he was stumbling around a little from the force that he was exerting.

Even though his techniques were still very rudimentary and unpolished, in the eyes of an expert, he was already displaying a knack for combining strength with subtlety, a trait that was only seen in masters.

In the art of the fist, there was a fundamental mantra, which stated that those who didn’t know the true meaning of the fist could train for a century and still be a novice, while those who grasped the true meaning of the fist could strike down even demons and gods.

The woman was very relieved. As expected, Liu Xianyang was the person that they were looking for, and he did indeed possess remarkable aptitude. Even in immortal clans like theirs, his aptitude for cultivation was nothing to be scoffed at.

Of course, in the vast world that the woman and the old man were part of, there was also no lack of prodigal cultivation talents of Liu Xianyang’s caliber.

The woman rose to her feet, then turned to Lu Zhengchun as she instructed, “Go and ask that young man what we would need to give him in exchange for the suit of armor and the scripture that have been passed down in his clan for generations.”

Lu Zhengchun turned around and extended a respectful bow, replying in that dialect that was completely unintelligible to the town’s residents, “Yes, Mistress.”

“Make sure to speak to that young man with respect, and take care not to offend him,” the woman added.

The boy also pointed a finger at Lu Zhengchun, regarding him like a servant as he warned, “If you screw this up, I’ll skin you and pull out all of your tendons, then turn your soul into a flame to light a torch. Until that torch goes out, you’ll constantly be in so much agony that you’ll wish you were dead!”

Lu Zhengchun shuddered in horror upon hearing this, and he bowed even deeper as he hurriedly replied in a fearful voice, “I’ll be sure to convince him!”

The little girl finally saw an opportunity to strike back at her tormentor, and she sneered, “You sure like to act tough in front of mere mortals! On the way here, you were called a vandal and a bastard by other cultivators, and you didn’t even dare to strike back!”

The old man already had an extremely low opinion of the mother and son pair, and he added, “I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Young Mistress. He wasn’t too afraid to strike back, he was too afraid to talk back to them!”

The boy gritted his teeth tightly as he glowered at the girl with a sinister expression, but he didn’t issue a retort. Instead, he suddenly put on a vibrant smile, as if he were completely unfazed by her mockery.

Meanwhile, the woman’s gaze remained fixed on the path up ahead, and there was a tranquil and placid look on her face. As for whether she had taken what was said to heart, that was something that only she knew.

The little girl gave a cold harrumph, then ran down the steps and squatted down beside the creek to watch the fish swimming in the water.

Occasionally, there were schools of different numbers of red and green carp swimming past under her watchful gaze.

While chatting under the old locust tree, some of the older individuals in the town often mentioned that when passing over the covered bridge during lightning storms, they had all previously seen a golden carp swimming past.

However, some of them claimed that the golden carp was only around the same length as a human hand, while others proclaimed that the carp was enormous, half the length of a grown man at the very least, as if it were evolving into a higher life form.

The old people in the town were constantly arguing over who had the correct details in their story, and due to the conflicting accounts, none of the children were willing to believe that such a creature truly existed.

The water in the creek was so clear that one could see all the way to the bottom, and at this moment, the little girl was staring intently into the water with her cheeks resting on her hands.

The old man crouched down beside her as he chuckled, “Young Mistress, if the leader of the Lu Clan wasn’t lying to us, then that creature has already fallen into someone else’s hands.”

The little girl turned to the old man with a grin as she countered, “Perhaps there’s more than one of them, Grandpa Yuan!”

In doing so, she revealed the comical gap where one of her front teeth was missing, and she immediately realized this as she hurriedly clapped a hand over her own mouth.

The old man resisted the urge to laugh as he explained, “Before flood dragons make their way into rivers, they are extremely territorial and strictly prohibit their own kind from getting near them. Hence…”

The little girl gave a half-hearted response, then turned back around to continue staring into the water with her cheeks resting in her hands, and she murmured to herself, “But what if there’s a chance…”

For the first time, a stern and authoritative look appeared on the benevolent old man’s face, and he gently laid a hand onto the little girl’s head as he said in a solemn voice, “Young Mistress, you must remember at all times that relying on luck and chance is a sure path to an early demise, and such a way of thinking cannot be allowed to take root in your mind! You are far too precious…”

The little girl pulled out a hand from under her cheek and waved it around vigorously as she grumbled in a disgruntled voice, “I know, I know! I’ve heard this so many times that my ears are about to grow calluses!”

“I’m going back to keep an eye on the proceedings, Young Mistress. On the surface, they’re supposed to be allies of our Sun Scorch Mountain, but when it comes to their integrity and the way they conduct themselves… I won’t mention it. It’s not worth soiling your precious ears hearing about them.”

The little girl waved a hand to dismiss the old man, and he could only depart with a resigned expression.

The old man appeared to be a servant of hers, and his back was slightly hunched over as he walked, while his hands trailed all the way down to his knees, as if he were carrying a heavy burden on his back.

All of a sudden, the little girl rubbed her own eyes in surprise.

The reason for her surprise was that the water level in the creek was slowly rising at a rate that was discernible to the naked eye!

If they weren’t in this small town, then she wouldn’t have been surprised at all by this. For example, if they were on Sun Scorch Mountain or anywhere in their home region, then she wouldn’t have batted an eyelid even if an entire creek had dried up in the blink of an eye.

The little girl was rather perplexed as she murmured to herself, “Aren’t all profound arts, mystical abilities, and powers naturally restricted here? And isn’t it the case that the more advanced one’s cultivation base is, the more backlash they suffer here? Grandpa Yuan told me that even that legendary figure has found himself in a severely weakened state after staying here for so long, so he won’t be able to stop us from fighting over the prized artifacts…”

In the end, she shook her head to rid herself of that train of thought, no longer interested in pondering the matter.

She turned to look at the old man’s imposing figure, and she gleefully thought to himself that once the restrictions here were completely lifted, she would ask him to carry that mountain by the name of Cloud Drape Mountain back home with them so that she could make it her own flower garden.