Unsheathed

The old man paid no heed to the middle-aged man’s feelings, and he continued to enjoy snacks and chew loudly without a care in the world. He reached over and placed a hand on the boat hostess’ thigh, and he asked with a wide smile, “Beautiful big sister, have you heard of the Mighty Suppressing Pagodas before?”

The boat hostess shook her head.

“How can this be?!” The old man lightly patted the boat hostess’ firm and supple thigh and said, “Then allow your little brother to explain. In our world, there exist nine lofty pagodas of fortune which were constructed by some unknown person. These pagodas are distributed in nine different locations, and they’re the Mountain Suppressing Pagoda, Nation Suppressing Pagoda, Sea Suppressing Pagoda, Demon Suppressing Pagoda, Spirit Suppressing Pagoda, Immortal Suppressing Pagoda, Sword Suppressing Pagoda, and Dragon Suppressing Pagoda. These eight pagodas tower into the clouds, and they’re majestic structures that can almost reach the heavens. However, their names all consist of two characters only. Only the final pagoda has a name with three characters. It’s extremely strange, and it’s called the…”

The middle-aged man slammed his chopsticks down and roared, “That’s enough! Cao Xi, are you done yet?!”

Following his act of slamming his chopsticks down, all of the boat hostesses on the decorated boat fell into a strange state. Their breathing wasn’t affected, and their movements weren’t affected either. Yet, it was as if they could no longer see or hear the two guests from out of town who were sitting right in front of them.

“Since we’ve already arrived here, it won’t be long before our identity is exposed. You, Xie Shi, are someone from Jewel Small World, after all, so if you purposely conceal your identity, you’ll only end up drawing more suspicion instead. As such, you should be like me and swagger into the small town without trying to conceal anything. Perhaps you might even have to fight someone and show the Great Li Empire your true strength. That way, you can prevent them from looking down on a terrestrial sword immortal.”

After saying this, Cao Xi glanced at Xie Shi and said with a grin, “They all say that the Complete Reed Continent’s Xie Shi is righteous and honest. In fact, they compare you to a bright sun hanging in the sky. You never do anything that goes against your conscience. What, you’re finally going to go against your conscience this time?”

Cao Xi leaned forward, and he used his chopsticks to pick up a piece of pickled radish from a small pinkish-green porcelain plate. He tossed the pickled radish into his mouth and continued, “Isn’t it just a crappy piece of porcelain? If you’re willing to open your mouth and nod your head, then I’ll be willing to step forward and help you resolve this problem. Xie Shi, oh Xie Shi, don’t blame me for saying this, but we’ve already reached such a lofty level, yet you’re still being led by the nose by someone else. Don’t you feel stifled and aggrieved?”

The middle-aged man sneered and retorted, “Aren’t you afraid of cursing yourself? Is the person who bought your bonded porcelain benevolent and easy to talk to?”

Cao Xi put on an expression of astonishment and exclaimed, “Oh, how can this be? Old Man Xie, it seems like you haven’t heard the latest news yet! Haven’t you heard that one of my descendants just became engaged with a direct descendant from the Pure Confucian Chen Clan? The Chen Clan asked a mighty figure from the Lu Clan to perform a divination, and guess what? Eight large characters! Handsome husband beautiful wife; match made in heaven! I’m not bragging or anything, but this is truly fairly big news in our continent.”

Xie Shi chuckled coldly and said, “So be it if you don’t feel ashamed about this. Yet, you’re actually wearing a smug expression instead? Who gave you such face?”

Cao Xi’s face was as thick as a wall, and he retorted, “Why should I be ashamed? My descendant relied on his genuine ability to swindle himself a wife, so as his ancestor, should I not be delighted?”

Xie Shi crossed his arms in front of his chest before squinting his eyes and saying in a solemn voice, “Tell me, why did you call me over here? If it’s related to that porcelain, then you don’t need to say anything else. I won’t agree to anything. It’s my personal matter, so I’ll deal with it by myself. In any case, I don’t trust you anyway.”

Cao Xi rubbed his eyes and exclaimed, “Oh, as expected of Chivalrous Xie who’s renowned throughout an entire continent! Your aura of magnificence and righteousness is truly more radiant than the sun. Ah, I need to hurry up and rub my eyes. Otherwise, I won’t be able to withstand this radiance..”

The green rope on the wrist of the seemingly ridiculous old man appeared once again.

Everyone in the Southern Whirl Continent knew that Cao Xi’s swordsmanship wasn’t elite among terrestrial sword immortals. However, as an immortal tool, his sword was powerful enough to rank in the top 10 in the continent.

In reality, what was wrapped around Cao Xi’s wrist was genuine river water that flowed with vigor.

This river water was Cao Xi’s sword.

This wasn’t exactly a secret, so Xie Shi had already heard about this long ago, even though it was news from another continent. Even so, he still asked, “Will you only shut up after a fight?”

Cao Xi continued to eat and drink, and he bobbed his head and said, “People in the Southern Whirl Continent all say that my temperament is uncertain and strange. Xie Shi, do you feel like it’s extremely difficult to get along with someone like me?”

Xie Shi closed his eyes and started to rest.

Each time a guest boarded a decorated boat and agreed to business, a boat hostess would remove the lantern that was hanging on some fixed location on the bow. This signified that the decorated boat was full and no longer taking guests.

Cao Xi waved his chopsticks and continued, “You’re wrong, very wrong. The people most difficult to get along with in the world are actually people like you, Xie Shi. It’s far too difficult to have heart-to-heart conversations with people like you.”

Xie Shi didn’t open his eyes, and he stated, “There’s a limit to my patience.”

Cao Xi rolled his eyes and said, “Alright, then let’s talk about the proper matters. Someone is unwilling to see the Great Li Empire’s Imperial Song Clan rise, and you, Xie Shi, stubbornly made a promise and were left with no option but to travel here. In fact, you even had to delay your trip to Stalactite Mountain because of this.

“Unfortunately, the Pure Confucian Chen Clan couldn’t stand Qi Jingchun’s impressive nature, and because of this, they had an extremely bad impression of the Great Li Empire as well. However, they’ve changed their mind for whatever reason now, and this isn’t something that I care about either. In any case, not only have the Pure Confucian Chen Clan set up a private school in the small town using the name of the Dragon Tail County Chen Clan, but they’ve even sent me here on this long journey as well. This trip can be regarded as a betrothal gift to the Chen Clan for my descendant. My task is simply to stop you.

“Even though I don’t know the fine details, since I’ve already come here, I’ll naturally continue to keep an eye on you.”

Xie Shi still didn’t open his eyes. There was a slight sneer on his face, and he asked, “Are you sure you can stop me?”

Cao Xi finally finished eating the several small plates of snacks, and he put his chopsticks down and replied with confidence, “I can’t say with certainty whether I can defeat you or not. However, I can say with certainty that I can definitely stop you.”

Xie Shi suddenly opened his eyes and looked back.

There was a young-looking swordsman who didn’t have a sword by his waist or on his back. Instead, his sword lay horizontally in front of him, and the young swordsman lazily rested his elbows on the scabbard of the sword. There was a faint smile on his face, and he looked at Xie Shi just like that.

This person had appeared in front of the female ghost’s residence that had the plaque, “Beautiful Water Noble Wind”, before, and by just drawing his sword an inch from its scabbard, he had summoned a miniature mountain range and forcibly blocked Terrestrial Sword Immortal Wei Jin’s deadly sword strike.

This person had also met A’Liang and drank wine with him in Red Candle Town. While on the ship traveling along the Embroidered Flower River, he had also greeted Chen Ping’an as well. At that time, Chen Ping’an had seemingly cupped his fists in greeting for the first time in his life. In the end, it was also he who had brought Go Table Mountain’s Wei Bo to Dragon Spring Prefecture along with his subordinate, Liu Yu.

While standing in front of Lady Chu’s residence, the Divine Platform’s Wei Jin had referred to him as “that person from the Mohist Sect”.

————

Chen Ping’an sat there and looked at the locust wood sword for a very long time. In the end, he discovered that he couldn’t calm his mind down no matter what. Reading didn’t work, writing practice didn’t work, and even walking meditation and standing meditation didn’t work.

Thus, Chen Ping’an grabbed his bamboo basket and placed the locust wood sword in it before leaving his house and walking out of Clay Vase Alley. He headed directly to Downtrodden Mountain.

When he appeared in front of the bamboo building, both the little boy in azure and the little girl in pink were extremely astonished.

Chen Ping’an walked up to the second floor, and his mind immediately calmed down.

The little girl in pink wanted to follow him, but the little boy in azure grabbed her shoulders and quietly lectured, “Are you genuinely stupid or what? Can’t you see that Master is in a bad mood?”

The little girl in pink had a baffled expression.

The little boy in azure dragged her over to sit down on the small bamboo chairs on the first floor, and he said confidently, “Taking into account Master’s temperament, there are only two types of situations that can put him in such an abnormal mood.”

The little girl in pink pricked her ears and listened carefully.

The little boy in azure raised a finger and said in a hushed voice, “The first type of situation is losing money. A significant amount of money.”

The little girl in pink wholeheartedly agreed with this.

The little boy in azure smiled mischievously and continued, “The second type of situation is if Master suffers a strong emotional blow. For example, after tossing and turning alone in bed, he suddenly came up with the idea to pay Ruan Xiu a visit and confess to her. However, he was rejected by her, or he tried to push his luck when confessing to the girl he liked. Maybe he wanted to kiss her, or maybe he wanted to passionately embrace her. In the end, he was slapped by Ruan Xiu and called a stinky hooligan. This filled Master with anger, so he could only run to the bamboo building to calm himself down.”

The little girl in pink was skeptical, and she said, “Master won’t do these kinds of things.”

The little boy in azure sighed and said, “You don’t understand us men.”

Chen Ping’an sat cross-legged on the second floor of the bamboo building, and he looked through the gaps in the balcony railing toward the distance.

The locust wood sword rested across his knees.

He retrieved the silver sword billet and looked down at it. In contrast to its unusual movements while in Clay Vase Alley, the sword billet was now as still as an inanimate object.

For some unknown reason, Chen Ping’an was already in a calm and tranquil state. In fact, his mind was even calmer and clearer than when he practiced fist techniques.

Chen Ping’an looked up again, and he tightened his grip on the sword billet and said in a calm voice, “If something isn’t mine, then I’ll actively look for its owner and return it even if I find it by my feet. If something is mine, however, then it’s mine no matter what. It can’t go anywhere else, and I’ll hunt it down and take it back even if it flees to the edges of the world.”

The silver sword billet gradually became warm, and before long, it was already burning hot.

Chen Ping’an gritted his teeth and continued to hold it with a single hand. Meanwhile, he lightly placed his other hand on the locust wood sword, using it as some kind of emotional support. In the end, he had no option but to tightly grip the blade of the sword.

His hand had already been burned bright red.

This was excruciating pain. This was pain that caused his soul to shudder.

In addition to physical pain, the pain caused by the sword billet was more a terrifying kind of pain that was similar to having molten copper poured onto his mind and heart.

The Eighteen Stops technique, a technique used to channel sword qi, naturally started to circulate. Chen Ping’an’s acupoints were struck again and again, and this helped him hold on and resist the trembling caused by the searing heat of the sword billet.

Before this, Chen Ping’an had been stuck between the sixth and seventh stops, and he had been unable to overcome this hurdle no matter what.

This was the case regardless of how he practiced fist techniques and meditation, and regardless of how he sparred and tempered his body with the little boy in azure. None of these methods helped, and as a result, nothing he did could allow him to progress to the next stop.

In order to reduce his feeling of pain, the violently trembling Chen Ping’an had no option but to try his best to think of other things. He thought about the contents of the Confucian classics that Cui Dongshan had loudly recited, he thought about the calligraphy style of the prescription papers that the young Daoist priest Lu Chen had written for him, he thought about Wind Snow Temple’s Wei Jin’s sword strike that could shatter myriad techniques, and he thought about the peculiar battle in Clay Vase Alley today where a dazzling flying sword had dashed around and struck spring leaves and autumn wind…

He thought about many things, yet they were still unable to distract him from his excruciating pain.

Not only was Chen Ping’an’s hand bloody and fused with the sword billet, but blood even started to trickle from his orifices in an uncontrollable manner. All of his follicles opened up, with blood starting to seep from each one. In the end, the thin trails of blood accumulated into countless sanguine beads. This was a ghastly sight.

Chen Ping’an appeared miserable on the surface, and things were even worse inside his body. It was as if heavy cavalry were trampling across the meridians between his acupoints.

In the end, Chen Ping’an thought of a girl.

He smiled in his mind.

He could only smile in his mind.

This was because his face had already twisted into a stiff and wretched expression that couldn’t be changed.

Chen Ping’an continued to silently endure this immense pain.

From the beginning until now, he hadn’t let out a single groan.

His consciousness was beginning to fade, and in his semi-conscious and hazy state, Chen Ping’an recalled one name after another. This was like walking down a gallery of people he had encountered, and the images of those whom he was more familiar with would be clearer and linger in his mind for a little longer. In terms of those whom he wasn’t familiar with, the images of these people would come and go in a flash.

There were people he liked, people he admired, people he respected, people he feared, people he detested, people he disliked, people he pitied, people he hated, and people he didn’t understand…

Thump, thump, thump…

It was as if someone were knocking on the door of the young boy’s heart.

It was as if they were asking him something.

A question that was aimed at his heart.

With only a sliver of his consciousness holding on and refusing to admit defeat, the young boy could only answer this question with his heart’s voice. This was an answer that even he wouldn’t be aware of.

Human power had its limit.

Chen Ping’an was finally unable to withstand this pain any longer. He fell backward, and the back of his head slammed into the green bamboo floor. This caused him to momentarily gain some consciousness.

Ring…

He felt some strange activity suddenly starting to take place in his stomach.

A small world the human body was; the sudden ring of a sword to shout in protest!