Unsheathed

The young Daoist priest returned to the small town after leaving a short while back. He was someone whom many young girls and young women in the small town constantly thought about, and he set up his stall in the same place as before and started to offer fortune-telling services again.

Surprisingly, however, there was now a fellow fortune teller sitting nearby, offering his business and stealing customers from the young Daoist priest in the bustling small town. He was in his seventies, and he was dressed in brand-new Daoist robes. His cheeks were surprisingly rosy, and he appeared as ethereal as could be,

The old Daoist priest was sitting behind a large table, and he exuded the aura of a mystical immortal. There was a shiny big container on the table, and inside the container were neatly cut bamboo slips. An extravagant-looking silk flag was also standing beside the table, and there was a couplet written on the surface of the flag — “Knowledgeable in yin and yang, well-versed in the Eight Trigrams, skilled in astrology, and proficient at geography, all it takes is a single slip; Able to sacrifice wealth to avert calamity, and able to accumulate merit and virtue, all it takes is a few copper coins.”

Business was booming at this fortune-telling stall, and an endless stream of residents from the small town were asking the old Daoist priest for bamboo slips. They all claimed that his divination was extremely accurate, and news of this quickly spread throughout the entire small town. Moreover, the old Daoist priest had come at just the right time, as the residents of Dragon Spring Prefecture had just witnessed remarkable scenes and confirmed the existence of immortals in the world.

Thus, they became increasingly sincere, and even the poorest families in the small town were willing to offer him large handfuls of copper coins for his services, even if he only asked for a few. They all wanted to bathe in his jolly nature.

Meanwhile, few people visited the stall of the young Daoist priest. In fact, business was so bad that one could genuinely set up a net to catch birds in front of his stall[1]. After the young Daoist priest set up his stall, an oriole did indeed fly over from the distance before circling in the sky and flying away again. The young Daoist priest felt slightly sad.

There was a pitiful expression on his face as he looked at some young women, and these were familiar faces with whom he had enjoyed friendly conversations before. However, these young women who had come together in groups of two or three after hearing news of his return quietly chatted with each other and purposely looked at his awkward situation without doing anything. In fact, they became increasingly happy upon seeing his awkward situation.

This caused the young Daoist priest to feel another pang of slight sadness. In the end, he was truly bored out of his mind, so when he saw that there weren’t many customers visiting the old Daoist priest next door, he decided to shamelessly walk over and sit down in front of the stall. Even though the old Daoist priest had a righteous expression and an unwavering gaze, he was in fact feeling quite uneasy in his mind.

Young people had stronger physiques, so if they genuinely engaged in a dispute and threw hands because of business competition, he wouldn’t be able to withstand many punches from them. The old Daoist priest had some shallow understanding and abilities when it came to fortune-telling, and he was also very skilled when it came to verbal altercations. However, he was no good at physical fights, and he would most certainly fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness.

The young Daoist priest with the lotus flower hat on his head sat down with a smile. However, he didn’t say anything.

The old Daoist priest shot a quick glance at the lotus flower hat. This was a hat that he had never seen before. Apart from a rare few large Daoist temples, almost all of the Daoist priests in Eastern Treasured Vial Continent and the large continent to the southeast wore fishtail hats, regardless of whether they were from the mountains or not. This couldn’t be muddled up. After all, this was a critically important matter that pertained to the entire Daoist orthodoxy. As such, who dared to audaciously wear a different hat? There would be no need for Daoist temples to act, as government officials would immediately arrest such people and toss them into cells.

The old Daoist priest immediately felt much more at ease. This young man was most likely an amateur who didn’t even understand the most basic rules and regulations of Daoism. After hearing a few shallow principles and concepts here and there, he had come up with this random and out-of-place hat and perhaps even felt very pleased with himself. Perhaps he felt transcendent and different from ordinary mortals.

The old man calculated the distance between his stall and the county office, and he felt like victory was firmly within his grasp. His aura immediately changed, and a brilliant glow appeared in his eyes. He instantly recovered his demeanor as an ethereal and transcendent person. He gazed at the handsome young Daoist priest just like that, and he appeared especially frightening and imposing at this moment.

Sure enough, a look of unease spread across the young Daoist priest’s face, and he asked, “Immortal Elder, did you discover the bumpy nature of my long journey here just by observing my face?”

Wowee, it’s a stupid young lad! This is fairly good. In fact, this is much better than him being a rash and hotheaded young man. With my silver tongue, I can definitely deal with this amateurish junior in just a few sentences.

The old Daoist priest was secretly happy, and he couldn’t help but doubt the business prospects of the fortune-telling stall beside him.

He pretended to be profound, and he said, “Seeing that you’re my junior, why don’t you draw a bamboo slip? I won’t charge you any copper coins, and I’ll tell your fortune for free.”

The young Daoist priest chuckled and replied, “How can I bring myself to trouble you, Immortal Elder? I simply came here to have a chat. After all, to have a chance encounter here is also fate…”

Even though the young Daoist priest said this, he had already leaned over and extended a hand to grab a bamboo slip.

The old Daoist priest raised an eyebrow, and he reached over to place a hand on top of the bamboo slips. The young Daoist priest had no option but to huff and retract his hand. He lightly waved his hand around, and he smiled sheepishly and said, “Haha, I saw some specks of dust on Immortal Elder’s bamboo slips, so I wanted to help Immortal Elder wipe them clean.”

A fake smile appeared on the old Daoist priest’s face, and it was clear that he was shooing this “customer” away without closing his stall.

This was because a woman and her young child were hurriedly walking over from the distance. Business was beckoning, so the old Daoist priest naturally didn’t have the time or effort to speak nonsense with this amateur fortune teller anymore.

The young Daoist priest could only stand up and obediently return to his own stall. He placed his hands behind his head before leaning back into his chair and gazing up at the clear blue sky.

Further in the distance, a middle-aged man slowly walked over with a young boy with long eyebrows. Before coming here, Xie Shi, the young boy’s old ancestor, had told him that he was bringing him over to visit the master of his Daoist branch. Even though the young boy was far more mentally mature and tough than others at the same age as him, he still couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of unease and apprehension.

He felt like this person would definitely be an ethereal and profound old immortal with flowing white hair. Perhaps he would even have a spiritual animal beside him, whether that be an immortal crane or a flood dragon. In any case, this would definitely be a powerful person with a soaring divine aura.

However, Long Eyebrows was dumbfounded upon seeing that vaguely familiar face.

The young Daoist priest was a familiar face in the small town, and he was someone who would tell fortunes for woodsmen, read palm patterns for ladies, write letters for people, and do everything else in between. When it came to weddings where he could grab a free bite, the young Daoist priest wouldn’t be careless either. In any case, all he needed to do was to say some auspicious words.

Afterward, he would be able to eat big bowls of meat and drink big bowls of wine. Moreover, his appetite wasn’t any lesser than that of strong young men who did physical work, so his manner of eating could truly cause one to feel anxious about the copper coins required.

Long Eyebrow’s mother, the cultured and polite woman from the Xie Clan, had once brought the young boy over to have his fortune told by the young Daoist priest. He had obtained an auspicious bamboo slip, and the young Daoist priest had uttered a load of nonsensical but auspicious words. After hearing this, Long Eyebrow’s mother had joyfully turned around to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes.

However, the young Daoist priest had tried to push his luck, and he had offered to read the palm pattern for his mother as well. While offering this, there had been a slimy smile on his face. Upon seeing this, Long Eyebrows had angrily dragged his mother away and thought, how could there be such a shameless pervert in the world? When leaving with his mother, Long Eyebrows hadn’t forgotten to turn around to shoot a vicious glare at the young Daoist priest.

Xie Shi was just about to bow respectfully in greeting. However, the young Daoist priest gently shook his head and made a pressing motion with his hand, gesturing for Xie Shi to sit. Xie Shi obediently sat down on the long bench. Meanwhile, the young boy with long eyebrows gulped and stood beside Xie Shi with his head lowered. His mind was completely muddled at this moment.

The old Daoist priest shot a sideways glance at the neighboring fortune-telling stall, and he almost rolled his eyes upon seeing the middle-aged man and young boy walk over. There were actually people visiting that untalented young Daoist priest to have their fortunes told? Were they not wasting their copper coins?

Xie Shi didn’t know where to begin. He was the Dao Master of a continent who was imminently about to become a Heavenly Lord as well, yet he was surprisingly filled with nervousness at this moment.

The young Daoist priest ignored Xie Shi, and he looked up at Long Eyebrows whose head was slightly lowered. “I didn’t lie to you back then, did I? Your auspicious bamboo slip was genuine. I don’t deceive any of my customers, regardless of whether they’re old or young,” he said in amusement.

For some reason, the young boy with long eyebrows felt an urge to fall to his knees and kowtow. However, he couldn’t kneel down no matter what.

The young Daoist priest who had introduced himself as Lu Chen to Chen Ping’an smiled and said, “There’s no need to be so tense. You didn’t do anything wrong back then, so it doesn’t make sense for you to feel guilty. What, you feel like you were wrong just because I’m more senior than your old ancestor? Then your life will truly be filled with nervousness and worry. The further up you climb, the more you’ll feel guilty and wrong whenever you see someone else. Why cause trouble for yourself? That would be a complete waste of my auspicious bamboo slip.”

The young boy with long eyebrows had always been fairly smart and sensible in front of him, so why was he suddenly becoming so timid at this critical moment? This caused Xie Shi to feel slightly annoyed and angry. He was about to scold the young boy, yet the young Daoist priest immediately shot a glare at him. Xie Shi was terrified, and he immediately shut his mouth.

Xie Shi smiled wryly in his mind. As it turned out, he wasn’t in a much better position than the young boy with long eyebrows.

Lu Chen smiled and asked, “You’re genuinely not going to keep him by your side to train and polish?”

Xie Shi was sitting upright, and he took a deep breath and channeled a mystical ability to straighten his mind. He no longer appeared as apprehensive and nervous as before, and he replied, “Enjoying the shadow of a big tree is both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s very difficult for the new tree to become as big and tall as the old tree.”

“Correct,” Lu Chen said with a nod.

He then rubbed his chin and clicked his tongue in wonder, saying with a chuckle, “When I return, I can say this to my teacher as well. He shouldn’t always grumble about his students not being successful. As a teacher, he should bear at least half of the responsibility.”

After finally calming his mind and emotions with much difficulty, Xie Shi’s mind immediately became a jumbled mess again. There was a bitter expression on his face, and he didn’t dare to say anything in response.

And he still wanted to become a Heavenly Lord? Perhaps he would even lose his title of Spiritual Master, right?

His master’s teacher naturally wouldn’t become angry because of these trivial matters. However, who knew how his master’s Second Senior Brother would react? That was someone with an unpredictable temper…

If that person became angry for real, who could block him?

Lu Chen gestured to the young boy with long eyebrows and said, “Come over here and look after my stall for me. I’m going to wander around for a while and visit an old acquaintance.”

Long Eyebrows didn’t dare to be the dove who occupied the magpie’s nest[2]. He didn’t dare to genuinely walk over and sit in Lu Chen’s seat. Thus, he refused to budge a single step.

Xie Shi breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this. He had genuinely been afraid that Long Eyebrows would foolishly walk over and plonk down on Lu Chen’s seat.

Lu Chen didn’t think much about this, and he gave an order to Xie Shi who was hurriedly standing up, “I’m not going to visit the others, so go and tell them not to show excessive passion toward an uninterested person. I’ve been in a bad mood lately, so I’m afraid that I won’t be able to hold back if someone comes over to annoy me. Heh…

“Also, if I want to see your descendants in the future, is there any need for you to go the extra step to bring them over to me? Even if they hide underground, I’ll still be able to find them. Isn’t that right? So, I don’t want this to happen again.”

Xie Shi nodded and said in a low voice, “Understood!”

Lu Chen cleared his throat and asked with a wide smile, “Where is this child’s mother? Did she not come because she’s busy with something else? I didn’t have time to read her palm patterns last time.”

Xie Shi was rendered completely speechless. This was the first time he had seen this side of his master.

As it turned out, the rumors secretly circulating among the many Heavenly Lords and Spiritual Masters were all fucking lies!

Long Eyebrows had already become completely stupefied.

Lu Chen swaggered away. When he walked past the neighboring fortune-telling stall, he said with an envious expression, “Immortal Elder is so busy…”

The old Daoist priest smiled and nodded in response. However, he couldn’t help but grumble in his mind, Hurry up and piss off!

Lu Chen continued to wander around, and he eventually entered Clay Vase Alley. When he walked past the Cao Clan’s ancestral residence, the gate to the courtyard was tightly shut. Standing inside the house, Cao Xi, the terrestrial sword immortal from Southern Whirl Continent, silently bowed and paid his respects. The fiery red fox also prostrated itself on the floor in a sincere manner. Its entire body was trembling in apprehension.

Lu Chen was completely indifferent to all of this, and he directly walked to a residence where he jumped up to look inside the courtyard.

The young girl who was basking in the sun in the courtyard next door frowned and asked, “What are you doing?”

Lu Chen turned around and pointed at himself before laughing loudly and saying, “Young lady, you don’t recognize me anymore? I stayed in the small town for a while last year, so the two of us should both know each other. In any case, both you and your young master visited my stall to have your fortunes told. Do you not remember?”

The young girl feigned contemplation for a while before shaking her head and replying, “No, I don’t remember!”

Lu Chen shuffled over to the courtyard wall neighboring Chen Ping’an’s house. He stood on his tippy toes and leaned on top of the wall, and he sniffed heavily and remarked “Oh, you’re cooking right now. It’s very fragrant. I can smell the fragrance from all the way over here.”

There was an innocent expression on Zhi Gui’s face, and she shook her head and replied, “No, I’m not cooking.”

Lu Chen smiled and cocked his head slightly. He then pointed at the young girl and said, “My nose is very sensitive, so you can’t trick me.”

“Oh, is that so?” The young girl walked over to the kitchen and pulled out all of the burning firewood. The fiery stove was immediately extinguished, and the cooking rice became a pot of half-cooked rice.

Zhi Gui walked to the kitchen door and patted her hands clean. “How about now?” she asked.

Lu Chen raised a thumb at her and said, “You win this time!”

The young girl didn’t take this seriously, and she asked, “Are you looking for Chen Ping’an? What’s the matter? I can pass on the message for you.”

Lu Chen smiled and replied, “I’ll look for him myself. I don’t dare to trouble you, young lady. Otherwise, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to set up my stall tomorrow.”

“Go ahead and tell me. I’m on very good terms with Chen Ping’an,” Zhi Gui said.

After saying this, she pointed at the fortune character that was stuck on her front door. “See, it’s exactly the same as the one on his front door. Chen Ping’an gave it to me.”

Young girl, you can’t tell lies with such a straight face. Do you genuinely think I can’t calculate the truth?

Lu Chen couldn’t help but grimace. He was genuinely unsure of how Qi Jingchun had tolerated this young girl back then. Not only this, but he had even been willing to take good care of her.

He sighed and said, “To tell you the truth, I’m not here to look for Chen Ping’an today. I’m here to look for you, Wang Zhu.”

Zhi Gui expressionlessly looked at the young Daoist priest and replied, “Even though Young Master is temporarily away, Chen Ping’an will definitely help me exact revenge if you dare to humiliate me. Also, I’m familiar with Qi Jingchun, and he’s a powerful Confucian sage. Are you not afraid of him suddenly coming back to life to beat you to death?”

Lu Chen raised his hands and massaged his cheeks. There was exasperation in his voice as he replied, “To say nothing of whether Chen Ping’an is willing to exact revenge for you or not, Qi Jingchun is genuinely dead, so he definitely won’t come back to life.”

Zhi Gui raised her slender eyebrows.

It was as if her eyebrows were slender willows gently swaying in the spring breeze.

Lu Chen placed his hands on top of the courtyard wall again, and he said with a smile, “Wang Zhu, there’s a fated opportunity that I want to give you. Do you dare to accept it?”

The azure sleeves of his Daoist robes gently rested on top of the earthen courtyard wall.

It was as if his sleeves were coiling dragons and crouching tigers.

Zhi Gui crossed her arms in front of her chest as if protecting herself, and she sneered, “Pervert, scoundrel, lecher, libertine!”

Lu Chen retracted his hands and held his belly as he burst into roaring laughter.

Thinking back to the past, there had still been tens of thousands of True Dragons in the world. After dividing the treasures according to merit, one of the dragons responsible for overseeing all of the rivers and lakes in all of the worlds had been an extremely renowned female dragon. Her status had been indescribably lofty and noble, and just how much had she loved him? And in the eyes of other people, just how cruel and heartless had he been?

The young Daoist priest laughed so hard that tears almost streamed from his eyes.

Regardless of how big the Great Dao was, it still wouldn’t be big enough to accommodate love and romance.

To be envious of lovers but not of immortals — such people existed in books, such people existed in the mountains, but such people definitely didn’t exist atop the mountain peaks.

Lu Chen looked at the young girl who shouldn’t have appeared in the world. He remembered asking his teacher back then, “The net of natural regulations is sparse yet holds everything back, so how is Jewel Small World able to exist?”

The old man had simply smiled and replied with two sentences.

“Being sparse yet able to hold everything back is the crux of the issue, and adhering to the regulations of the Heavenly Dao is already insufficient to preserve oneself, hence the collapse.

“The Great Dao numbers fifty, the heavens form forty-nine, and the humans take one, where one manifests into all[3].”

At the time, the old man had squatted beside the pond in the Lotus Flower World and cupped some water in his hands. He had then poured this water onto a lotus leaf that was slightly tilted to one side. The water had flowed down the lotus leaf and split into several streams, yet in the end, all of the streams had returned to the pond.

The old man had then raised his palm at Lu Chen. As it turned out, a single bead of water had remained in his palm. Tilting his hand slightly, the bead of water had then started to flow around following the patterns on his palm. The bead of water had taken a path full of twists and turns, and it had continued to travel in many different directions. Each time it had stopped and turned, it had represented the journey along a different Dao. If that bead of inconspicuous water represented some person traveling along the path of time, then all of the twists and turns would represent this person transforming into someone completely different.

A single different thought, and a single different step — it was these slight differences that gave rise to the three teachings and the hundred schools of thought, officials and generals and peddlers and pawns.

Lu Chen pushed these thoughts aside and grinned at the young girl sitting in the courtyard. “This fated opportunity that I’m giving you… You have to accept it even if you don’t want to.”

Zhi Gui chuckled coldly and asked, “Do you know who I am?”

“Do you know who I am?” Lu Chen retorted.

Zhi Gui’s expression turned dark, and she replied, “You’re a stinky Daoist priest. Can you bear the responsibility for this?”

Lu Chen smiled faintly and said, “My mortal name is Lu Chen, and this is already enough to explain everything.”

Zhi Gui was genuinely stumped this time. “What did you say?”

Lu Chen’s expression returned to normal, and he leaned on top of the courtyard wall and chuckled, “Young lady, do you want me to read your palm patterns for you? I can divine everything, from when you’re going to get married, to whether you can give birth to a son, and whether you’ll be a couple consisting of a beautiful woman and a handsome man.”

Zhi Gui blinked and asked, “Can you only eat? And not read my palm patterns?”

Lu Chen jumped over the courtyard wall before snapping his fingers and replying, “Deal.”

“It’s half-cooked rice. You don’t mind this, do you?” Zhi Gui asked.

“I do mind this. But I’ll fire up the stove and finish cooking it,” the young Daoist priest rolled his eyes and said. He swaggered into the kitchen and started to slide the firewood back into the stove. He then grabbed the stove blowpipe and started to furiously blow into it.

Standing by the kitchen door, Zhi Gui felt a strong urge to viciously smack the back of Lu Chen’s head with a broom.

————

Ruan Qiong continued to forge iron inside a sword furnace in the blacksmith shop. The commotion was even more astonishing than before, and dense sprays of sparks flew through the air and illuminated the entire room. In fact, the sparks continued to accumulate in mid-air without dissipating, and they didn’t flow out of the sword furnace either. In the end, there was almost nowhere to stand in the room.

However, not only was Ruan Xiu in the room today, but even Wei Bo was present. The space was limited, so the mountain god and the young girl could only stand side by side. Ruan Xiu was hugging a scabbardless long sword, and the blade hadn’t been sharpened yet. The sword looked completely unremarkable. Even in the eyes of sword cultivators at the Middle Five Tiers, this would be nothing more than a brand-new sword blade.

Ruan Qiong continued to swing his hammer as he looked at Wei Bo and said in a solemn voice, “Please take Xiuxiu to Downtrodden Mountain. Senior Yang has already erected a barrier to conceal this area, so there most likely won’t be any accidents.”

He then turned to Ruan Xiu and warned, “After going to Downtrodden Mountain and delivering the sword, make sure not to say anything extra and simply tell him to make haste and go to Ox Horn Mountain with Wei Bo. When he arrives, he can take that ‘ferry’ to the south. Before the sword is sharpened by a Dragon Slaying Platform, it won’t display any sense of sharpness or appear extraordinary in any sense. However, it will still reveal some clues if it’s seen by great demons.

“So, tell that brat not to seek death when he travels south, and warn him not to butt heads with those great demons in the mountains and rivers. With his current martial arts cultivation, he has a fair opportunity to make it to Stalactite Mountain alive as long as he doesn’t seek death.”

Wei Bo had this better thought out than Ruan Qiong, and he said, “I still have a thick locust branch, so I can help Chen Ping’an carve two scabbards when I go to Downtrodden Mountain and take him to Ox Horn Mountain’s Cloth Wrapper Shop.”

Ruan Qiong wanted to say something, but he couldn’t help but hesitate.

Wei Bo gave a knowing smile and said, “Rest assured, I’ve already used an illusion technique to cover that Sword Nurturing Gourd. Generally speaking, only Qi refiners at or above the 10th tier will be able to see through the illusion. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

Ruan Qiong lowered his head and continued to forge. It was as if thunder were rolling through the room.

This Militarian sage was filled with annoyance and anger, and he couldn’t wait for that little brat to pack up and piss off.

Wei Bo didn’t dare to show any carelessness this time, and not only did he silently recite a spell in his mind, but he formed seals with his hands as well. He quietly channeled the fortune of the mountains and rivers in his territory.

Wei Bo and Ruan Xiu quickly appeared in the bamboo building in Downtrodden Mountain.

Chen Ping’an was notified beforehand, so he had already finished packing all of his luggage. Moreover, because his Fifteenth was a pocket treasure, he didn’t need to carry a large bamboo basket on his back anymore. As such, he had far fewer things to carry around compared to any of his previous trips. This caused Chen Ping’an to feel a bit strange. It would take time for him to get used to this. He had always held a machete in his hand to clear the mountain paths before, yet all he had at this moment was two extremely light flying swords. This was a very unfamiliar feeling.

Ruan Xiu passed him the sword and also passed on the warning given by her father. In the end, she handed him an embroidered bag and said with a smile, “Chen Ping’an, this is a present for you. It’s some peach cakes.”

1. Referring to the Chinese idiom 门可罗雀, which means receiving very few visitors or customers. ☜

2. This means to forcefully occupy someone else’s residence. ☜

3. The first three segments are from Yi Jing. There are some different explanations for this, but it roughly means that of the 50 natural regulations, 49 are formed by the heavens and unchangeable by humans. However, the remaining one is the variable changeable by humans. In other words, this “one” is a variable that a person can use to change their own destiny. As such, this variable can naturally manifest and transform into a myriad of forms. Interestingly, this saying also relates to fortune-telling and divination. In ancient China, there were fortune tellers who used yarrows to perform divination. They would gather 50 stalks of yarrow, yet they would put one aside and not use it, only using 49 instead. ☜