Unsheathed

An awkward look appeared on the old man’s face as he replied, “Chen Ping’an and His Highness don’t appear to be among the sixteen children that I mentioned earlier.”

Cao Xi nodded in response, then asked, “What about Li Xisheng?”

“He’s not one of them, either,” the old man replied with a shake of his head.

Cao Xi turned to Cao Jun, who had a pair of swords strapped to his waist, one long and one short. “You’ve faced Li Xisheng in battle before. Even though he’s only a sixth tier cultivator and you’re a ninth tier swordsman, I recall that you weren’t able to get the better of him. What do you think of him?”

“What do you want me to say? He’s strong and I’m trash!” Cao Jun grumbled.

Cao Xi smiled as he said, “Very soon, you’ll be traveling to the border to join the army. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to stay by Song Changjing’s side and accompany the Great Li Empire’s cavalry in their southbound crusade. Perhaps you’ll only stop after conquering everything up to the central region of Eastern Treasured Vial Continent. What do you think of that?”

“It’s just another way to pass the time,” Cao Jun replied in a straightforward fashion.

Cao Mao couldn’t help but feel a hint of genuine admiration toward Cao Jun. Both of them appeared to be around the same age, but in reality, there was an age gap of around sixty years between them. Recently, the two of them had been drinking together quite regularly, and Cao Mao had come to learn that Cao Jun’s lackadaisical demeanor wasn’t just an act. Instead, it was truly his personality.

A stern look appeared on Cao Xi’s face as he declared, “If you don’t kill a 10th tier cultivator or two within the next decade, I’ll kill you myself!”

Cao Jun interlaced his hands behind the back of his head as he turned to Cao Mao with a smile and said, “Make sure to give me a proper burial after I’m dead. Just bury me over at the immortal tomb, the Feng Shui there is quite nice. Having a Bodhisattva statue and a Daoist heavenly official as neighbors would definitely put me in a good mood as neither of them will do any talking, so I’ll definitely be able to rest in peace.”

Cao Xi immediately flared up with rage. “You little shit! Do you know how much I had to sacrifice to repair that connate sword qi lotus pond in your body?!”

Cao Jun’s smile widened even further, and his eyes narrowed into slits, giving him the appearance of a sly fox as he replied, “How am I supposed to know that? How about you tell me?”

A cold sneer appeared on Cao Xi’s face as he said, “You are a disgrace to the family name. No matter what we do for you, you won’t amount to anything! Piss off! Go to the capital and seek out Song Changjing, then go straight to the southern border. I don’t want to see you again in the next ten years!”

Cao Jun didn’t need any further invitation to leave, and he did so without any hesitation, springing up from the ground and flying away toward the north.

Cao Mao was aware of the rules of this place, and he was just about to caution Cao Jun not to take flight, but it was already too late.

On the bank of Dragon Whisker River to the south of the small town, Ruan Qiong chuckled coldly, “He never learns, does he?”

In the next instant, a longsword slowly rose up into the clear, blue sky of Dragon Spring Prefecture, resembling a geyser gushing up into the heavens.

“Ruan Qiong, must you be so dogmatic with your rules?”

Cao Xi’s expression darkened slightly as his green rope-like bonded flying sword appeared in his grasp with a flick of his wrist. This was the weapon that had allowed Cao Xi to reign supreme over Southern Whirl Continent, a pseudo-celestial tool that had been refined from an enormous river by an ancient deity.

The sword remained concealed within Cao Xi’s sleeve, wound around his wrist, but as it trembled slightly, wisps of green vapor rose up into the air, then sped rapidly toward the departing Cao Jun.

Meanwhile, Ruan Qiong’s sword was hurtling toward Cao Jun’s head far faster than the speed at which he was flying toward the north, and barring any mishaps, he was inevitably going to be decapitated before he could leave Jewel Small World.

Fortunately for him, a huge green river suddenly appeared between him and Ruan Qiong’s flying sword.

The sword sliced through the river, which was only several kilometers wide, but the river was folding in on itself to produce layers of obstacles that obstructed the flying sword over and over again. However, the flying sword was still able to pierce through the seemingly endless expanse of water, slicing through the waves with unstoppable might.

Cao Jun continued to fly onward as he swiveled around in mid-air, and the longsword strapped to his waist flew out of its scabbard, striking the tip of Ruan Qiong’s flying sword with unerring accuracy. His longsword was instantly repelled back, and he threw up a mouthful of blood, but he was flying away even faster than before.

At the same time, the vast green river wrapped itself tightly around Ruang Qiong’s flying sword, and streaks of sword qi were constantly shooting out of the green river until it was completely pulverized into countless water droplets that rained down from the heavens. However, before the water droplets had a chance to fall to the ground, they reverted back into streaks of green sword qi that returned to Clay Vase Alley.

Meanwhile, Ruan Qiong’s bonded flying sword was completely unscathed as it hovered in mid-air, and a brief moment later, a small pool of water emerged beneath the flying sword. The sword slowly descended into the pond, and with that, it completely vanished out of sight.

Cao Jun had taken advantage of the force of Ruan Qiong’s attack to propel himself through the air, and he was chortling with mirth as he flew through the air. “Sometimes, a strong gust of wind is all that’s needed to carry one to the heavens! Thank you for seeing me off, Sage Ruan!”

On Clay Vase Alley, the azure-robed old man was looking on with an awestruck expression. He wasn’t a Qi refiner, but the Cao Clan had no lack of formidable cultivators serving as guest elders. However, it was still an extremely rare occurrence for him to witness such a spectacular clash between immortals.

As for Cao Mao, there was a concerned look on his face as he asked, “What are we going to do if the Sage of this place comes after us, esteemed ancestral patriarch?”

A cold sneer appeared on Cao Xi’s face as he replied, “I may not be able to beat that 12th tier Daoist Heavenly Lord of Complete Reed Continent, but I’m certainly not going to fear some newly ascended 11th tier swordsman! Cao Jun on his own is already enough of a disgrace to our Cao Clan, I certainly can’t humiliate our clan any further!”

Only in this instant did Cao Mao truly come to realize why their ancestral patriarch, who appeared to be just a friendly old man in the small town, was able to become the guardian of that seaside Mighty Suppressing Pagoda.

Ruan Qiong had appeared at the other end of Clay Vase Alley, and he provoked, “How about we put that to the test?”

Cao Xi refused to back down. “Sure. You pick the place, I’ll pick the time.”

“There’s an uninhabited ridge in the mountains to the west that has a formation set up by the Great Li Empire. That should suffice as a battlefield for us to settle this once and for all,” Ruan Qiong immediately proposed without any hesitation.

Cao Xi nodded firmly in response. “Alright, in that case, let’s fight in a hundred years!”

Ruan Qiong faltered slightly upon hearing this, then spat disdainfully onto the ground before departing.

Cao Mao couldn’t help but bury his face in his hand, while the azure-robed old man didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Why are you all looking like that? This is called strategy! You two don’t know shit!” Cao Xi scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

Cao Xi made his way into the old house on Clay Vase Alley, and Cao Mao and his grandfather were just about to follow him inside when the door was slammed shut right in their faces.

The two of them could only exchange a wry smile before sheepishly departing from Clay Vase Alley and making their way to the kiln supervision office, where they would discuss the clan’s future plans.

At this point, the storm had already descended upon Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, and the situation was very much in the favor of the Great Li Empire, so the earlier they could get in, the more they would stand to profit.

On top of that, there was another massively favorable circumstance for the Cao Clan at the moment, which was that Cao Xi was going to remain in Eastern Treasured Vial Continent for some time, and the prodigious swordsman, Cao Jun, was going to join the Great Li Empire’s border army.

In light of this, the emperor of the Great Li Empire was definitely going to favor the Cao Clan, and it was all but certain that they would be able to dominate their sworn enemies, the Yuan Clan, for the foreseeable future.

————

Back in the bamboo building on Downtrodden Mountain, Cui Chan’s grandfather had grown accustomed to wearing coarse clothes and walking around barefoot, but after that visit from Lu Chen, he seemed to have suddenly had a change of heart, putting on a scholarly azure robe and also crafting a bamboo cane and a pair of wooden clogs for himself to help him traverse through the mountain forest.

He also began frequently making his way down the mountain to purchase books and stationery, arranging the second floor of the bamboo building into a refined study, and he would pick up a brush to practice his calligraphy whenever he had some time to spare.

The little girl in pink and the little boy in azure didn’t know what to make of this, and they initially thought that he had gone insane due to Qi deviation.

However, after witnessing the old man’s calligraphy, the little girl in pink began to engage in frequent conversations with him, and only then did she discover that he was truly an astute scholar with exceptional expertise in all four areas of musical instruments, Go, calligraphy, and painting. Furthermore, he was also extremely well-versed in all things related to orthodox Confucianism.

The little boy in azure didn’t care about all of that. All he was worried about was his own survival, and he wanted nothing more than to practice martial arts under the old man so that he could become the top dog that reigned supreme in this small world. Only then would he be able to rest easy at night.

Hence, he would often go to the old man and nag him insistently, telling him that the Dragon Spring Prefecture was filled with formidable figures, and even the slightest bit of complacency could result in his downfall. He told the old man that the Great Li Empire was a very perilous and unpredictable place, and that the only way to truly keep oneself safe was to attain unmatched power.

Unfortunately for him, the old man completely ignored him, and at the very most, he would only occasionally chat with the little girl in pink to impart upon her some of his vast wealth of knowledge. It seemed that he had discarded his pursuit of martial arts altogether, leaving the little boy in azure feeling extremely exasperated.

In the end, he decided that he could only count on himself, so he continued to cultivate on his own, doing his best to digest the two top-grade snake gall pebbles that he had devoured.

Having recently been officially instated as the formal god of the Northern Mountain, Wei Bo had become extremely busy, but he would still occasionally make time to come to the bamboo building to examine the small pond that the lotus flower seed had been tossed into.

Aside from leaving that lotus flower seed on Downtrodden Mountain, Chen Ping’an had also heeded Wei Bo’s advice, leaving one of his spare seals on the first floor of the bamboo building.

As the owner of Downtrodden Mountain, his seals could serve as subjugation treasures on the mountain, and the seal that he had chosen to leave behind was the one on which Qi Jingchun had engraved the words “Chen Shiyi”. There was nothing particularly special about the seal, it simply contained a blessing for Chen Ping’an from Qi Jingchun.

All martial artists who ascended to beyond the 10th tier were considered to be martial gods, and they could rank alongside the most powerful Qi refiners under the heavens.

The little girl in pink regarded the seal as an object of the utmost importance, almost giving it more weight than the bookcase that Cui Chan had assigned to her. Each day, she would secretly take out the small seal that her master had given to her three times to carefully clean it with a silken cloth. No matter what strategies the little boy in azure employed to try and get her to hand over the seal, she refused to budge.

Thanks to the snake gall pebbles given to her by Chen Ping’an, the little girl in pink had already broken through the final hurdle of the Lower Five Tiers, thereby reaching the Cave Abode Tier. After that would come the Sea Observation Tier, the Dragon Gate Tier, the Golden Core Tier, and the Nascent Tier. There was still a very long way to go, and her journey was far from over.

However, in contrast with the Sea Observation Tier little boy in azure, who had suddenly become desperate to make progress in his cultivation, the little girl in pink was taking a much more natural and relaxed approach.

All she would do every single day was ensure that the bamboo building was spotlessly clean, and outside of that, she would read some books or look at the scenery, resulting in a mental state that was far more calm and relaxed than that of the little boy in azure.

All of a sudden, the roles had been reversed, and it was the little boy in azure looking down on her for being lazy and complacent.

That night, the little boy in azure was meditating atop the cliff, while the little girl in pink was seated on a small bamboo chair, eating some sunflower seeds.

Cui Chan’s grandfather made his way downstairs, then dragged over another bamboo chair to sit down beside the little girl in pink, and he said, “For the past 1,000 years, our Cui Clan has been one of the most respected and highly educated clans on Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, yet we’ve never been able to nurture a fire python as wise as yourself.

“That just goes to show that blessings can only come naturally, and there’s no point in striving for them excessively.”

A smile appeared on the face of the little girl in pink as she asked, “Grandpa Cui, do you think my master has made a breakthrough yet?”

A hint of schadenfreude appeared on the old man’s face as he chuckled, “I made him into the most formidable third tier martial artist, so there’s no way he could make a breakthrough so easily. I’d say he’s still far from reaching that stage. Perhaps his cultivation base will have remained completely unmoved even by the time he gets to Old Dragon City.

“Maybe he’ll be so disheartened by his lack of progress that he’ll turn to drowning his sorrows every day and turn into a dejected little drunkard.”

“You taught my master half of his fist techniques, Grandpa Cui. How could you be happy at the thought of him being unable to make a breakthrough?” the little girl in pink complained.

The old man burst into laughter, and he explained, “You’re not a martial artist, so you don’t know what it entails for someone to be the most formidable third tier martial artist under the heavens. Back when I killed Guest Elder Sun Shujian with a single punch, he was at the pinnacle of the sixth tier, while I was only at the fifth tier.

“Why was I able to do that? It’s because all martial artists have different foundations. Some have terrible foundations, and their cultivation bases resemble tall buildings that would sway and wobble even in the face of a light breeze, whereas those with solid foundations possess cultivation bases as immovable as mountains.”

A concerned look appeared on the face of the little girl in pink as she said, “There’s no one to look after my master on this journey, so he has to do everything on his own. Will that hinder his training?”

The old man took a glance at the little boy in azure, then turned his gaze back to the little boy in azure as he said, “It’s a testament to Chen Ping’an’s character that he was not only able to keep you two together, but also prevent you from fighting even in his absence.

“I wonder if he’ll continue to be able to maintain the same level of purity and fairness once he becomes a wealthy and powerful man in the future. Running a small household and leading a large clan are two entirely different endeavors.”

The little girl in pink raised her head as she asked in an adorable display of naivety, “If my master really does become the leader of a large clan someday, will you be able to help him, Grandpa Cui?”

The old man patted her on the head as he replied, “There are some matters that outsiders simply can’t lend their assistance in.”

He then rose to his feet and pointed into the distance as he continued, “Imagine that someday, Chen Ping’an establishes a sect of his own. In that sect will be you, the little water snake, that black snake from Go Table Mountain, and all of these mountains. Someday, all of these mountains will be occupied by formidable beings, such as the boy who accepted Chen Ping’an as his master and all of those children who refer to Chen Ping’an as their junior uncle.

“In the eyes of mortals, yours will be an immortal sect, and there will inevitably come a time when the sect elders wish to accept disciples. Eventually, there will be tens, hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of people under Chen Ping’an. If a conflict arises between two people close to him, then that will be a complex issue that can’t just be resolved with a punch or a slash of a sword. In that case, what should he do?”

Having read all types of historical records back in that library in Yellow Court Nation, the little girl in pink was aware of just how difficult a problem this was, and she wasn’t even in the mood to eat sunflower seeds anymore.

The old man smiled as he said, “Then again, there’s no need to be overly concerned. There’s one good thing about Chen Ping’an that not many people have been able to identify.”

The little girl in pink waited for a long while for the old man to elaborate, but he remained silent, so she couldn’t help but ask, “Grandpa Cui, my master is already so good and virtuous, what other good things could there possibly be about him that I don’t know about?”

The old man erupted into laughter. “There’s one thing really good about you, and that’s your ability to suck up to others, particularly your master, in a way that’s completely natural and unpretentious.”

The little girl in pink was a little embarrassed to hear this. She wasn’t making an effort to suck up to anyone, she truly felt like her master was the best master in the world!

The old man sat down by his bamboo, and he didn’t try to build any further suspense as he revealed, “Chen Ping’an is very easygoing, and all of the people close to him will take that for granted. However, someday, something will come up that’ll make Chen Ping’an extremely stubborn and unyielding, perhaps the most unyielding man under the heavens.

“When that happens, something strange will follow. Everyone will feel… scared and uneasy, and that’ll prevent them from trying to talk back to him.”

The little girl in pink hurriedly joined her palms together as she prayed, “I hope Master never gets angry.”

The old man heaved a faint sigh.

Despite how proud the old man was and the vast age gap between him and Chen Ping’an, he had to admit that he didn’t have very much to teach Chen Ping’an when it came to being a better person.

However, if it weren’t for that, he wouldn’t have been willing to choose Chen Ping’an as the one to inherit his fist techniques.

What was the point in accepting a disciple if not for the hope that the disciple could surpass the teacher? If they couldn’t best him, what would it matter even if he were to accept a thousand disciples? In the grand scheme of things, they would still just be ants waiting to be crushed!

An uneasy look suddenly appeared on the face of the little girl in pink as she asked, “What if you do something that makes my master angry someday, Grandpa Cui? Would you be scared?”

The old man gave her a flick on the forehead, then rose to his feet before storming away as he grumbled, “What kind of question is that?”

Over at the cliff, the little boy in azure had actually been eavesdropping on their conversation this entire time. He turned to the little girl in pink with a sly grin and gave her a thumbs-up, while the little girl in pink began to happily munch on sunflower seeds again.

Even though the old man had refused to answer the question, the answer was already apparent to her.

————

Year after year, Old Man Yang of the Yang Family’s medicine shop had looked after that tiny backyard. He had witnessed countless generations of the Yang Clan over the course of countless years, including all of the past clan leaders, as well as certain figures in the clan who had been fortunate enough to become Qi refiners.

There were some who were able to uncover that astonishing secret, and all of them would help Old Man Yang carefully guard that secret, while the rest of the clan’s members and the medicine shop’s employees were only aware that there was an old man in the shop that was around the same age as the oldest seniors in the clan. All they knew about this old man was that he never seemed to go out, and he had a very strange personality that made him rather difficult to deal with.

He was an expert when it came to saving lives, but of course, he charged a very steep price for his services. Regardless of who it was, if they couldn’t afford his services, then he would tell them to prepare a coffin. The coffin shop was on the same street anyway, so it was very convenient.

On this day, Old Man Yang was smoking his pipe in the backyard as usual, but on this particular occasion, he was holding a newly published novel from the bookstore.

The novel came from the Fictionist school of thought, which was once quite a prominent school of thought, but as time passed, its influence and relevance gradually faded, as had been the case for Mohism. In the end, it was relegated to just another one of the Hundred Schools of Thought, known mostly for publishing unofficial historical records, as well as raunchy stories that appealed to the masses.

On top of that, they also dabbled in writing hit pieces against certain important figures or events. There were many emperors and generals throughout history that had had their reputations dragged through the mud by these hit pieces.

For example, there were some capable officials who had dedicated their entire lives to serving and bettering the nation to whom they had pledged their allegiance, but in the end, what they were known for wasn’t their heroic and commendable feats. Instead, they were associated with scandalous stories like how they had to sleep with at least ten women every single night.

There were also stories of great Confucian saints and virtuous individuals who became known as shameless perverts who would sink as low as to assault nuns at night for their own perverse pleasure.

As a result, all of their brilliant quotes and books were naturally also disregarded as the depraved ramblings of perverts and scoundrels.

This was why a saint from a school of Confucianism had once declared in fury and indignation that Fictionists were a plague to the entire world.