Unsheathed

While staying overnight in the wilderness, it was imperative for someone to be on lookout duty throughout the night. Prior to reaching the Pillow Relay Station of Red Candle Town, Chen Ping’an had been responsible for lookout duty during the first half of the night, while Zhu He had taken over for the second half of the night.

Now that Zhu He was no longer with the group, Lin Shouyi was the one on lookout duty for the first half of the night, while Chen Ping’an stayed up for the second half of the night, and their role was to keep the campfire going and look out for unexpected attacks.

Chen Ping’an was quite familiar with this task. During the process of pottery firing, maintaining the fire was of the utmost importance. Chen Ping’an had served as an apprentice in the kilns for many years, and even though Old Man Yao had never taught him any of the important pottery firing skills as he regarded Chen Ping’an to be lacking in aptitude, Chen Ping’an rarely ever made a mistake while performing all of the other manual labor tasks.

Hence, he couldn’t have been more familiar with a task like nightly lookout duty, which was a stern test of one’s patience and willpower.

Furthermore, while staying up in the night, he was left to his own devices in a quiet setting, so he was free to practice the walking and standing meditation stipulated in the Mountain Shaking Guide. Occasionally, he would also be able to weave some straw sandals, or pull out that small chunk of Dragon Slaying Platform to sharpen Li Baoping’s saber.

As he had become more proficient in his standing meditation, the fiery-dragon-like burst of qi in his body had ultimately chosen a pair of acupoints to reside in. The standing meditation, coupled with Chen Ping’an’s breathing techniques, would put him in a profound half-asleep state.

Even though the spring chill was lingering for a long time this year, and the heat of summer remained a distant memory of the previous year, Chen Ping’an wouldn’t feel cold, even if he were to inadvertently allow the campfire to burn out while he was on lookout duty in the second half of the night.

Whenever he ceased in his standing meditation to switch to walking meditation, he would feel a sense of warmth throughout his entire body, and he didn’t feel weary at all while traveling during the day.

On this night, Chen Ping’an continued to sit beside the campfire to meditate, and the burst of qi within his body quickly traveled along the acupoints near his dantian, much like a carp swimming upstream against the flow of the water.

The burst of qi then lingered momentarily in the acupoint that had been vacated by that wisp of sword qi, like a traveler resting briefly in a relay station or a climber taking a break halfway up a mountain, following which it continued to travel upward, making it all the way to the back of Chen Ping’an’s neck, then to his glabella in one go.

Chen Ping’an opened his eyes and exhaled, then rose to his feet and jumped up and down lightly a few times. All of a sudden, he turned to discover Yu Lu, who had made his way down from the horse-drawn carriage and was slowly approaching the campfire with a bunch of not-so-dry branches held in his arms.

He then squatted down beside the campfire and carefully added the branches to the fire one after another as opposed to casually tossing them in all at once, and the fire quickly began to burn with greater ferocity.

Yu Lu extended his hands toward the fire before rubbing them together, then turned to Chen Ping’an with a smile as he asked, “Chen Ping’an, can I take part in nightly lookout duties as well from now on? You have to practice your standing and walking meditation, and it would be best for you not to get distracted while doing so.

“I’m sure you can tell that I have a decent level of fitness, so if you’re willing to place your trust in me, I’m happy to take over the four hours before first light.”

Chen Ping’an shook his head in response. “I appreciate the kind offer, but at the moment, there’s no need for such an arrangement to be made.”

Yu Lu knew that Chen Ping’an still didn’t trust him enough to place everyone’s safety in his hands, but he wasn’t bothered by this at all. Instead, he merely nodded and said, “If you ever need me to take over, feel free to tell me. I want to do something for everyone as well. Otherwise, I feel like I’m just a useless burden.”

Yu Lu’s angular features and bright eyes were illuminated by the fire, and Chen Ping’an could clearly sense his good intentions, so he smiled and replied, “I’ll be sure to do so.”

“At this time of year, it’s already summer, yet the weather is still like late spring,” Yu Lu casually remarked.

“The weather has indeed been a bit strange this year,” Chen Ping’an agreed.

After making some more small talk, Yu Lu stood up to take his leave, and Chen Ping’an looked on as he departed.

According to what Lin Shouyi had told him in private, Yu Lu didn’t appear to be a particularly exceptional go player, and he never made any brilliant moves, but in reality, he was a superior go player to Xie Xie, who had a far more aggressive and attacking style.

Chen Ping’an had already noticed that Yu Lu was extremely meticulous in everything that he did, and Lin Shouyi agreed with this sentiment, remarking that Yu Lu was even more reliable and capable than the most experienced and seasoned officials of the imperial court.

This was a quality that Chen Ping’an had observed on many occasions. For example, Yu Lu had only watched Chen Ping’an weave straw sandals on a couple of occasions before he was able to weave his own, and he did so to quite a high standard. In fact, the straw sandals that he was currently wearing had been woven by himself.

Another example was whenever Chen Ping’an was fishing, Yu Lu would often observe off to the side in silence, keeping track of when Chen Ping’an cast his hook, which stretch of water he cast into, how he made his casts, how he tired out big fish on his line, how he pulled fish out of the water, how he prevented fish from slipping off the hook as they leaped out of the water, and many other fine details involved in fishing.

On one occasion, Chen Ping’an was busy with something else, so Yu Lu asked him if he could try his hand at fishing in Chen Ping’an’s stead. Even though he had no prior fishing experience, Yu Lu had done quite well.

Chen Ping’an didn’t make any remarks about any of this, but he had been observing Yu Lu closely this entire time. His conclusion was that if Yu Lu were a good person, then he would definitely be able to do some fantastic deeds, but if he were a bad person, then Chen Ping’an didn’t even dare to imagine what he would be capable of.

An uneventful night passed by.

In addition to the gradually dwindling campfire beside Chen Ping’an, a lamp had been lit in the carriage in the distance, and it had stayed lit the entire night. It seemed that Cui Chan had stayed up the entire night poring over a book.

Only a glimmer of light had appeared in the sky when Chen Ping’an commenced his training for the day. He arrived at a spot halfway up Horizontal Mountain with the most open view and began to practice his fist techniques. As he did so, he was gradually joined by Li Baoping and Lin Shouyi.

As for Li Huai, he had the least perseverance of the three children, and he only joined Chen Ping’an in his fist technique practice for a short while before rushing away. Yu Lu and Xie Xie were already accustomed to this, and on this day, Cui Chan lifted the curtain before stepping out onto the horse-drawn carriage, where he observed Chen Ping’an’s trio’s fist technique practice.

In the beginning, he had regarded this practice with disdain, often rolling his eyes before retiring back to the carriage. However, as the days passed, he was spending more and more time observing their practice.

After breakfast, everyone began to make their way up the mountain path toward the mountain summit. Along the way, they passed by the Azure Maiden Temple and the old cypress tree. If one were to look solely at the size of the tree and ignore the depth of its fortune, then it was already comparable to the old locust tree in Jewel Small World.

Lin Shouyi had thought that Chen Ping’an would continue on his way, but to his surprise, Chen Ping’an paid the temple a visit to take a look, then called for Li Baoping, Li Huai, and Lin Shouyi to enter the temple. As it turned out, the interior of the temple was a complete mess, and there was a strong stench of alcohol in the air.

Li Huai looked up at the deity statues on the pedestal in the temple, and no matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t see the resemblance between it and the female spirit that had played go against Lin Shouyi the night before.

Along their journey, Lin Shouyi was the one who had interacted the most with the Yin god, so he was more familiar with topics related to ghosts and spirits, and he provided an explanation to Li Huai, telling him that due to the fact that many local residents in an area were extremely grateful to the deities that granted them protection, they would often craft the deity statues to take on as flattering a visage as possible.

As a result, many deity statues bore no resemblance at all to the actual deities that they represented, but that didn’t hinder the deities from being worshipped.

It took everyone close to an hour to clean up the temple, and only after that did they continue on their journey. Prior to his departure, Lin Shouyi stood on his own next to a futon at the foot of the deity statue, then cupped his fist in a parting salute toward the Azure Maiden.

At the same time, Cui Chan stepped into the temple with Yu Lu, and the former inspected his surroundings briefly before making his way to the pedestal that the statue stood upon. He took a glance at the dusty little incense burner to find that it was just an ordinary copper burner, but even though it had already been there for centuries, the surface of the burner was still gleaming brightly.

There were countless incense snubs bunched together in the burner, and it was evident that even though this temple wasn’t listed in Yellow Court Nation’s genealogical records, thereby making it an illegal temple that should’ve shut down, it was clearly a very popular place of worship, particularly given its small size.

All of a sudden, Cui Chan instructed, “Yu Lu, you should bow whenever you encounter a temple. In doing so, you’ll be accumulating good karma with the land.”

Yu Lu didn’t really understand what he had just been told, but he still followed Cui Chan’s instruction and extended three bows to the temple.

Meanwhile, Xie Xie was standing outside the temple’s entrance with the bamboo flute strapped to her waist.

After leaving Horizontal Mountain, the group arrived in a prefectural city of Yellow Court Nation. Thankfully, Chen Ping’an and the others had already witnessed the majesty of the border pass, and as the point where three rivers converged, Red Candle Town was also quite a bustling and thriving place, so they were already mentally prepared for the sights and scenes that awaited them in cities of the outside world.

Even so, Li Huai was still clearly rather timid, and even the painted wooden figures that he often held in his hands had been put back into his little bookcase.

The identification and visiting documents for Chen Ping’an’s group were from the Great Li Empire’s Dragon Spring County, and the procedure for entry into the city was completed very quickly and smoothly. Even though Yellow Court Nation belonged to Great Sui Nation rather than the Great Li Empire, the latter had already conquered the entire northern region of the continent, and its southbound expansion was inevitable.

Hence, Yellow Court Nation had always given preferential treatment to traveling scholars from the Great Li Empire, stopping just short of worshipping them as deities. After all, there was a very good chance that Yellow Court Nation was going to become a subsidiary nation to the Great Li Empire at some point.

The Lu Empire had once been the northern ruler of Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, but not only had the empire collapsed, even all of the members of the imperial clan had been reduced to lowly prisoners, thereby setting an example that Yellow Court Nation would’ve been foolish to ignore.

Prior to entering the city, Chen Ping’an had asked the local residents what scenic locations there were to visit in the city. This was because during their trip to Mountain Cliff Academy, Chen Ping’an wanted Li Baoping and the others to be able to see as many renowned mountains, rivers, temples, and other spectacles of interest as possible, as long as it was safe to do so.

He didn’t want them to keep their heads down and travel to Mountain Cliff Academy, only to miss out on all of the scenery along the way and end up with only memories of hectic travels and surviving in the wilderness.

In this city, they were going to visit the oldest city god temple in Yellow Court Nation. The vastly renowned wall murals in the temple depicted the 18 abysses of punishment, and it was said that the murals were so life-like that they would make one feel as if they were actually in the abysses of punishment.

After asking for some directions, the group made their way toward the city god temple along a wide street.

All of a sudden, a commotion suddenly rang out behind them, and Chen Ping’an turned around to discover an astonishing sight, one that he would’ve never been able to see in the Great Li Empire. There was a group of roughly seven or eight distinguished-looking young men and women, all of whom were dressed in flowing attire, and they were led by a white-haired elderly man as they swaggered along the street.

One of them was straddled atop a giant black tiger steed, while another had a huge crimson snake that was over 20 feet in length slithering along behind them, and yet another one of them was carrying a massive bull horn bow on their back.

The throngs of people on the lively and bustling street quickly parted to create a path for the group of cultivators, and some children who were oblivious to the gravity of the situation were forcibly dragged off the street by their parents to hide in the shops on either side of the street. The owner of the huge crimson snake wasn’t making any particular effort to keep the creature in check, and it was slithering along the street in an unrestrained manner.

Furthermore, there was red armor fitted over its head and its tail, giving it an even more imposing and menacing appearance. Instead of slithering along in a straight line, it would occasionally stray toward the shops on either side of the street, where it would stop and raise its head to look down on the terrified residents of the city.

A small child was so terrified by the snake’s menacing gaze that he erupted into tears, and his parents hurriedly clapped their hands over his mouth in horror.

Thankfully, the snake continued onward, but right as the child’s father heaved a sigh of relief, the snake abruptly whipped its tail into the man’s face, sending him somersaulting through the air several times before falling heavily onto the ground. He then threw up a mouthful of blood before struggling to his feet, then fled the scene with his horrified wife and child.

Standing far away, Chen Ping’an could see that some of the bystanders were taking pleasure in the family’s misfortune, some were cowering in terror, and some were looking on in amazement, but no one seemed to have regarded the snake’s actions as inappropriate.

Lin Shouyi closed his fingers around the talisman up his sleeve as he stood beside Chen Ping’an, while Li Baoping and Li Huai were standing closer to the shops.

The horse-drawn carriage that Cui Chan was in also diverged from its original path as Yu Lu guided it to the side of the street before bringing it to a halt.

The group of immortals quickly arrived beside Chen Ping’an’s group, and the old man said something to the group of young cultivators behind him, upon which all of them immediately turned to Chen Ping’an and the others, some with provocative expressions, some with intrigued looks in their eyes.

At the same time, the owner of the red snake finally called out to the creature, instructing it to stay by his side. It was clear that the old man had already warned them to be more restrained if they were to encounter fellow cultivators during their travels.

While passing by Chen Ping’an’s group, the old man gave them a slight smile, posing as some type of profound figure, and he also extended a slight nod toward Lin Shouyi.

After that, the two groups separated without any incident.

Cui Chan made his way out of the carriage, then kicked Xie Xie aside, even though she wasn’t actually blocking his path. He jumped down from the carriage, then declared in an indifferent voice that was audible to Chen Ping’an, “This is how things are like outside of the Great Li Empire.”

Chen Ping’an could see that only after the group of cultivators had departed did some official guards arrive on the scene to restore order, but they were only showing up as a formality, rather than actually doing anything useful.

“Do the authorities not care that this is happening?” Chen Ping’an asked.

Cui Chan smiled as he replied, “They either don’t care, or they’re too scared to do anything, and there are even some officials who are dying for the opportunity to suck up to these cultivators.”

Chen Ping’an turned to Li Baoping and Li Huai, then said in a quiet voice, “Let’s keep going.”

Cui Chan didn’t get back into his carriage. Instead, he slowly walked along between Chen Ping’an’s group and the horse-drawn carriage.

His sleeves were billowing out around him in a majestic manner, making him resemble an elegant deity.