Unsheathed

Song Changjing remained silent with a smile on his face.

Meanwhile, cold sweat began to seep out of Liu Baqiao’s back and forehead, and finally, he ran out of things to say, sheepishly falling silent.

Song Changjing suddenly turned to the woman across from him with an intrigued expression as he asked, “Are you from the Chen Clan of Dragon Tail County?”

“No,” the woman replied with a shake of her head.

Song Changjing nodded in response and fell into a contemplative silence.

An awkward atmosphere descended upon the room.

Thankfully, Song Jixin entered the room shortly thereafter to alleviate the awkward atmosphere. There were no spare chairs in the room, so he casually sat down onto the doorstep before turning his gaze to everyone in the room.

Song Changjing paid no heed to this, and he turned back to Liu Baqiao with a smile as he said, “Come to think of it, you are one of the reasons why that boy was able to survive.”

From the very beginning, Bai Yuan had been convinced that someone had instructed Chen Ping’an to provoke him. In this town, the only ones who dared to set a trap for someone from Sun Scorch Mountain were extremely cunning individuals who were adept at hatching elaborate schemes and pulling strings behind the scenes.

Hence, Bai Yuan was under the impression that there had to be a powerful mastermind lurking in the shadows, which was why he had been constantly distracted, on the lookout for a non-existent enemy, thereby leading to his inability to catch Chen Ping’an on Clay Vase Alley.

Only after they had reached the westernmost part of the town, when Bai Yuan was able to confirm that there were no assassins lurking nearby, did he dare to fully commit himself to pursue Chen Ping’an, and shortly thereafter came the punch to the back that had almost taken Chen Ping’an’s life.

“That may be the case, but I have no intention of accepting credit for something like this,” Liu Baqiao replied with a wry smile.

Song Changjing merely smiled and offered no response to this.

The woman turned to glance at Song Jixin, and he flashed a grin at her in response.

The woman turned away in an expressionless manner, and Song Jixin’s smile widened as his gaze began to blatantly roam over her long legs.

She was around 25 to 26 years of age, and she wasn’t particularly beautiful, but Song Jixin found her to be rather attractive.

The woman turned to Song Jixin with a cold look in her eyes as she threatened, “Do you want to have your eyes gouged out?”

Song Jixin pointed at himself as he put on an extremely superficial expression of innocence. “Are you talking to me? What did I do?”

He then pointed at Song Changjing as he continued, “If you want to gouge my eyes out, you’ll have to ask him for permission first.”

The woman was just about to get up from her chair when Song Changjing’s eyes suddenly narrowed slightly.

A burst of tremendous pressure immediately came crashing down upon everyone in the hall like a mountain, and not only was it impossible to avoid, it was as if the aura had a substantial form, inflicting physical, stinging pain upon everyone’s skin.

Song Jixin was the only one to be unaffected by this.

Under the immense pressure, Chen Songfeng was finding it physically difficult to speak, but the tone of his voice was firm and unyielding as he said, “Master Song, this here is Chen Dui, and she is not from our Eastern Treasured Vial Continent. I suggest you proceed with caution!”

Chen Dui rose to her feet with a smile. “You dare to kill me? Are you not afraid of your Great Li Empire being wiped off the face of this continent?”

Cui Minghuang was just about to step in when Chen Dui was sent flying back through the air.

Not only did the chair that she was sitting on completely disintegrate in mid-air, her entire body was embedded into the wall behind her, as if she were some type of wall ornament.

Song Changjing then abruptly appeared in front of the wall in a wraith-like manner. Chen Dui was bleeding out of all of her orifices, and Song Changjing clasped his hands behind him as he looked at her with a smile and said, “You must be under the impression that I wouldn’t dare to do anything to you because you have some powerful seniors or masters, right? Is that why you dare to be so bragga… brag… what’s that word again?”

Song Changjing turned to Song Jixin, and the latter replied with a smile, “Braggadocious.”

Song Changjing turned his gaze back to the woman, and even though her expression was twisted with pain, the look in her eyes was still as unyielding and resilient as ever.

Song Changjing said, “You should pray that you don’t run into me again in your next life.”

Chen Songfeng’s eyes were completely bloodshot, and his heart was filled with complex emotions. He was simultaneously fearful and furious at the same time, and he was just about to say something, but Cui Minghuang got there ahead of him, extending an apologetic bow as he implored in an earnest voice, “Please forgive her, Master Song, she has no idea what she’s talking about!”

A derisive sneer appeared on Song Changjing’s face, and all of a sudden, the woman closed her eyes, as if she were accepting her fate.

Right at this moment, Song Jixin smiled as he said, “Leave her be, Uncle. Your reputation will be tarnished if word spreads that you’re going around killing helpless women.”

Song Changjing paused ever so slightly, and the pause was so slight that it was completely undetectable to Cui Minghuang and Liu Baqiao.

He then cocked his head to the side before casually dusting some nonexistent lint off his shoulder with a flick of his finger.

A wave of relief instantly washed over Cui Minghuang and Chen Songfeng, while Liu Baqiao was completely rooted to his chair with a stunned expression.

Song Changjing turned to Liu Baqiao with a smile as he said, “Not bad, kid. I see a bright future ahead for you.”

Chen Dui opened her eyes as she dragged herself out of the wall, and upon landing on the ground, she swayed rather unsteadily as she said, “I will remember the lesson you taught me today.”

Song Changjing paid no heed to her as he said to Liu Baqiao, “After you leave this town, come find me at the capital of the Great Li Empire. I have something to give to you. As for whether you’ll be able to take it away, that’ll be up to you.”

“You must be talking about that talismanic sword, right?” Liu Baqiao blurted out.

All cultivators were aware that talismanic swords were one of the most important artifacts of Daoism. However, if a sword could be directly referred to as a talismanic sword and was renowned across the entire continent, then it naturally had to be an extremely exceptional sword.

Song Changjing and Song Jixin left the room, and as they did so, the former smiled as he asked, “Have you managed to vent all of your frustration?”

“Pretty much,” Song Jixin replied with a nod.

When it came to Chen Ping’an, Song Changjing had gone so far as to even screw over his own nephew, so Song Jixin had naturally been quite enraged.

All of a sudden, Song Jixin’s brows furrowed slightly as he said, “That woman clearly has ties with some very powerful people. Are you not worried that her seniors would stick up for her and seek vengeance against you? According to the records in the Local County Chronicle, those old bastards are extremely formidable. Is our Great Li Empire going to be alright?”

“You’re severely underestimating my reputation,” Song Changjing replied in a nonchalant manner.

Inside the hall, Cui Minghuang returned to his seat in silence.

Liu Baqiao slumped against the back of his chair as he murmured to himself with a hint of lingering fear in his heart, “Holy moly, is there really such a massive disparity between the ninth tier and the seventh and eighth tiers?”

Wind Lightning Field had a single seventh-tier martial artist and a single eighth-tier martial artist, and both of them were quite close with Liu Baqiao.

Cui Minghuang shook his head as he explained, “Even among ninth-dan go masters, there’s a vast disparity in skill between the strongest and weakest players. In addition to that, Song Changjing stands at the pinnacle of the ninth tier.”

He then turned to Chen Dui with a concerned expression and asked, “Are you alright, Chen Dui?”

Chen Dui was a very courageous and hardy woman, and even though her face was still slightly pale, she replied with a calm smile, “I’m fine.”

Even though Chen Songfeng wasn’t the one who had just had his life threatened, he seemed to be far more shaken up than Chen Dui.

Cui Minghuang heaved an internal sigh. Given Chen Songfeng’s lack of composure, it seemed that the Chen Clan of Dragon Tail County was not going to be falling into good hands.

Meanwhile, Liu Baqiao mused, “With just a flick of his finger, he was able to force my flying sword back into my acupoint without harming my soul at all. What a master display of power and control.”

“As the saying goes, there’s always a taller mountain, just as there’s always someone above you,” Cui Minghuang said.

Liu Baqiao was unable to resist the urge to make an innuendo here, and a sly grin appeared on his face as he said, “There’s always someone above me? Are you saying I always like to be on the bottom? I can’t believe an esteemed gentleman like yourself would say something like this!”

Cui Minghuang could only shake his head in exasperation.

Liu Baqiao hesitated momentarily, then decided to offer some words of consolation to Chen Dui, in case she decided to recklessly go after Song Changjing out of blind vengeful fury. If that were to happen, then everyone in this room would’ve been in huge trouble. “Sister Chen, I know that it may be a bitter pill to swallow, but there’s no shame in backing down against Song Changjing.”

Chen Songfeng also wanted to say something, but didn’t know what to say.

The woman nodded calmly in response. “Song Changjing is a man worthy of my respect. I’m not feeling angry, I’m just disappointed in myself.”

“There’s no need even for that. Take a look at me, I’m super happy right now. After I go back to Wind Lightning Field, I’ll be able to boast to everyone for the next decade that I faced Song Changjing of the Great Li Empire in battle! Even though it was only for a single exchange, the fact of the matter is that I managed to come out completely unscathed! If I can obtain the talismanic sword from the capital of the Great Li Empire, I’d have something to boast about for the next century!” Liu Baqiao said in a shameless manner.

At this point, Chen Dui’s mind was already elsewhere.

She was thinking about the young boy seated on the doorstep, who had been able to dissuade Song Changjing from killing her with just a single sentence.

After returning to the town, Shopkeeper Yang headed straight for the courtyard behind his shop, an area that was a perfect size for the shop’s three long-term employees to live in.

After opening the door of the main room in the courtyard, Shopkeeper Yang was greeted by the sight of an old man seated on a chair, fiddling with his old-fashioned smoking pipe.

Shopkeeper Yang closed the door, then called out to the old man by his nickname, Old Man Yang, and the old man hurriedly set down his pipe, then poured a cup of tea as he asked with a smile, “Is someone in urgent need of medicine? Do you need me to make a trip up the mountain tonight?”

The elderly shopkeeper and the old man appeared to be around the same age, and the former shook his head, then picked up the teacup as he sighed, “I was called by Master Ruan to tend to a patient. It was a boy with the Liu surname, and he was almost punched to death by an outsider. I still feel really bad about all of this, so I thought I’d come here and have a chat with you to put me in a better mood.”

Old Man Yang’s face was as wrinkled as the bark of the old locust tree, and he smiled as he said, “Take a seat, shopkeeper.”

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to Shopkeeper Yang, and he said, “By the way, I recall that you helped a child from Clay Vase Alley many years ago. It was the poor boy who had to buy medicinal ingredients for his mother from a very young age. Was his name Chen Ping’an?”

Old Man Yang was rather surprised that Chen Ping’an had suddenly been brought up, and he nodded as he replied, “That’s right. In the end, his mother still didn’t make it. If I recall correctly, she wasn’t able to make it through that winter. After that, I ran into that boy a few times, but it wasn’t a regular occurrence. At the time, I took pity on the boy and gave him a cheap medicinal recipe. What happened? Is he the one that was injured?”

Shopkeeper Yang took a sip of tea, then replied with a wry smile, “Didn’t I just tell you that it was a boy with the Liu surname? Your memory is shocking, Old Man Yang!”

Old Man Yang burst into laughter upon hearing this.

“Old Man Yang, should we do something?” Shopkeeper Yang asked in a careful voice.

Old Man Yang picked up his bamboo smoking pipe, then shook his head as he replied, “We don’t need to do anything, shopkeeper.”

Old Man Yang’s words seemed to have instilled Shopkeeper Yang with the peace of mind that he was searching for, and he nodded in response. “Good. I’ll leave you to yourself then, Old Man Yang.”

Old Man Yang immediately stood up from his chair to accompany Shopkeeper Yang to the door, but the latter hurriedly said, “Take a seat, there’s no need to see me off.”

After making his way down the steps, Shopkeeper Yang turned back to find that Old Man Yang was just about to close the door. Their eyes met, and Old Man Yang gave him a warm smile. Shopkeeper Yang quickly turned and departed.

Back when Shopkeeper Yang had inherited the medicine shop, his father had spoken some strange final words while on his deathbed: “If you ever encounter any important decisions that you have to make, go to Old Man Yang and do whatever he says. If I recall correctly, this instruction was first passed down by the great-great-grandfather to his son. When you pass this shop onto your son, make sure you tell him the same thing! This is something that you absolutely cannot forget!”

At the time, Shopkeeper Yang had agreed vehemently to this request, and only then was his father finally content to pass on.

It was getting quite late, and Old Man Yang lit an oil lantern.

While smoking his pipe, he thought of some past events, all of which were trivial events of very little consequence.

There was a memory of a series of ancestral manors that had been passed down for generations, all of which were arranged in an orderly fashion, completely unlike the houses on Clay Vase Alley.

An honest-looking man was crouched down at the entrance of a courtyard, looking at a young boy with a smile as he asked, “You’ll be an adult after the end of this year, right?”

The boy raised a hand and replied in an energetic manner, “I’ll be five next year, Father! I’ll be an adult then!”

A hint of sorrow welled up in the man’s heart, but he still put on a warm smile as he said, “In that case, you’ll have to look after your mother in my absence. Can you do that?”

“Yes!” the boy immediately replied as he puffed out his chest.

The man smiled as he extended a heavily calloused hand. “Pinkie promise?”

The boy hurriedly extended his delicate little hand as he happily agreed, “Pinkie promise!”

With their pinkie fingers interlaced, the promise was sealed.

The man slowly rose to his feet, then turned to look at the woman who was busy at work in the main room before abruptly departing.

The boy called out from behind him, “Father, bring me a tanghulu [1] when you come back!”

The man’s lips quivered slightly, but he forced a smile onto his face once again as he turned and said, “Alright!”

“Get the small ones, those ones taste the best!” the boy added.

The man hurriedly turned away, not daring to look at his son any longer. As he strode forward, he murmured to himself, “Goodbye, my son.”

Not long after that, a boy began to make frequent visits to the Yang Family’s medicine shop to buy medicinal ingredients. One day, a shop employee finally ran out of patience with him, and he pushed the boy out of the shop as he yelled, “How many times do I need to tell you this? You don’t have enough money to buy even medicinal dregs!

“Are you stupid or deaf? Not only do you not have enough money to buy medicine, you’re blocking the way for other people trying to enter the shop! This is a shop, not a charity! We have to make money! I’ve been patient with you all this time because you’re just a kid, but if you keep bothering me, I’m going to beat you! Now piss off!”

The boy was gripping tightly onto his almost empty money pouch, and he wanted to cry, but refused to shed tears. Once again, he repeated the same few sentences that he had already said countless times: “My mother needs medicine, and I’ve already been waiting for a very long time. We don’t have any more money, but my mother is in very bad condition.”

The young employee picked up a broom and raised it in a threatening fashion.

The boy hurriedly crouched down and threw his arms over his own head in fear, but he was still holding tightly onto the money pouch in his left hand.

After a long while, the boy raised his head to find an old man looking down at him with a stern expression.

The young shop employee had already sheepishly set down the broom and gone back into the shop.

The old man said, “The customer spends money for products, while merchants provide those products in exchange for money. This is a rule that has been set in stone for countless years. As for how much money the merchant wants to earn, that’s up to them, but there’s never any reason for a merchant to lose money.

“Give me that pouch, and I’ll take whatever money you have left. I’ll give you the medicinal ingredients you need for your mother, and I’ll put it on your tab, but you have to repay the money in the future. Do you understand what I’m saying, boy?”

The boy blinked a few times with a dazed expression, but still handed the pouch over to the old man.

In the end, the old man had to lean over the counter to just barely see the top of the boy’s head on the other side of the counter, and he asked, “Do you know how to brew medicine?”

“I do,” the boy replied with a nod.

“Really?” the old man asked with furrowed brows.

This time, the boy only gave a rather unconvincing nod.

The young shop employee smiled as he said, “Old Man Liu made a trip to Clay Vase Alley once to take a look at his mother, and at the time, he taught him how to brew medicine.

“After that, he went back one more time to check on the boy as he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to follow the instructions correctly, but to his surprise, the boy was able to execute his instructions perfectly despite his young age. I heard this directly from Old Man Liu, so it should be reliable information.”

The old man waved a dismissive hand and said, “You can go now.”

The boy rushed joyfully back to Clay Vase Alley, carrying a large package of medicinal ingredients wrapped in parchment paper.

His mother was laying on the plank bed, and as the boy snuck into the room, he discovered that his mother was still sleeping. He gently laid a hand on her forehead to find that it wasn’t excessively hot, and he heaved a sigh of relief before tucking his mother’s hand back under the blankets.

After that, the boy made his way to the kitchen and began to brew medicine using the clay pot while also multi-tasking and preparing a meal.

In order to reach the countertop, he had to stand on a small stool.

The boy was vigorously stirring his spatula, and even though he could barely keep his eyes open against the hot steam that was billowing throughout the kitchen, he was still murmuring to himself, “I have to make this taste good. Otherwise, Mother is going to have no appetite again.”

The boy was barely even five years old, yet he was carrying a basket that was even bigger than himself on his back as he made his way toward the mountain outside the town.

This was the second time that the boy had ventured into the mountain. The first time, he had been led by Old Man Yang from the Yang Family’s medicine shop, and the old man had walked quite slowly in order to cater to the young boy. In addition to that, the old man had been carrying the basket in the boy’s stead, and he had only taught the boy to collect several types of medicinal herbs.

Hence, that first trip up the mountain had been quite a leisurely one, but this second trip was a different story. The boy was being baked under the scorching sun while having to endure the searing pain from the basket cutting into the skin on his back.

He wept as he walked, but he still gritted his teeth and continued onward.

Only at nighttime did the boy finally return to the Yang Family’s medicine shop, but there was only a thin layer of medicinal herbs in his basket.

Old Man Yang was furious.

The boy was on the verge of tears as he told the old man that his mother was the only one at home, and he had to return home to cook for her. Otherwise, he would’ve been able to gather more medicinal herbs, and he promised the old man that he would go back up to the mountain first thing the next morning.

The old man declared that he was only going to give the boy one more chance, then departed in silence.

No more than two months after that, the boy’s hands and feet were riddled with thick callouses.

One day, a sudden storm caused the creek to flood, preventing the boy from getting back to the town from the mountain.

Looking at the turbulent water, the boy was bawling his eyes out in the heavy rain.

Right as he was about to make a desperate dive into the creek and leave the rest down to fate, Old Man Yang suddenly appeared on the opposite bank.

The old man strode over the creek in a single step, then picked up the boy and strode back to the other side with another step.

Even though the boy was being pelted with rain, there was a wide smile on his face as he made his way down the mountain.

After emerging from the mountain, the old man said, “Ping’an, if you can make a pipe for me, I’ll teach you a way to scale the mountain and not get tired.”

The boy wiped his hand across his face in a futile attempt to wipe away the rain as he replied with a wide smile, “You can count on me!”

One day, the boy was skipping joyfully back to Clay Vase Alley. He had found a very rare and precious medicinal herb earlier that day, so the Yang Family’s medicine shop had provided him with some more medicinal ingredients than normal.

He hadn’t eaten anything the entire day, and as he walked along, he was suddenly struck by a burst of intense abdominal pain.

In that instant, he immediately realized that he had eaten something wrong on the mountain.

The pain began in his stomach, but it quickly spread through his entire body.

He carefully squatted down, removing the basket from his back before taking deep breaths in an attempt to suppress the pain.

However, his body was fluctuating drastically in temperature, leaving him as hot as a chunk of burning coal one moment, only to be shivering from intense cold the next. In the end, he could only roll around in the alley in agony.

This entire time, he didn’t dare to make a single sound. Even as he rammed his head repeatedly into the earthen walls of the alley to distract himself from the pain, he refused to cry out.

He was too close to home, and he was worried that any sound that he made would make his mother worried.

His consciousness was beginning to fade, and the only thing that he could hear was his own heartbeat, which sounded like a massive drum being beaten right beside his ears.

On Apricot Blossom Alley, a boy was once again squatting down not far away from a tanghulu stall. He would always do this whenever he passed by, and he never lingered for very long, but it was still enough for the stall owner to remember his tanned little face.

On this occasion, the stall owner plucked down a tanghulu, then offered it to the boy with a smile. “Here, you can have this for free.”

The boy hurriedly rose to his feet, then shook his head with a bashful smile before running away.

From that day forth, the stall owner never saw the boy again.

That winter, the boy’s mother had been tormented by her illness to the point that she was nothing more than a sack of skin and bones.

The boy had just returned from praying at a temple, and he brought some water from the Iron Lock Well on the way back. He made his way to the side of the bed, and after taking a seat on his little stool, he noticed that his mother was awake. He asked in a gentle voice, “Are you feeling better, Mother?”

The woman put on a smile with great difficulty as she replied, “I feel much better. It doesn’t hurt at all anymore.”

The boy was ecstatic to hear this. “Praying to the Bodhisattva does work, Mother!”

The woman nodded in response, then reached out a trembling hand, which the boy hurriedly grabbed tightly onto.

The woman rolled over with great difficulty, looking directly at the face of her child, and even though she was in terrible pain, a blissful look suddenly appeared on her face as she murmured, “How could there be such a good child in this world? And how am I so lucky that this child just so happens to be my son?”

Unfortunately, the woman was unable to make it through the winter of that year, passing away before the turn of the year.

Prior to her death, it just so happened to be snowing in the town, and she told her son to go out and look at the snow.

She watched as her son ran out of the room, then closed her eyes as she prayed with all her might, “Please, please, please, let my little Ping’an be blessed with safety and prosperity.”

From that day forth, Chen Ping’an became an orphan.

He had been forced to grow from a child into a man at far too young an age.

1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanghulu ☜