Unsheathed

Just as she couldn’t hold back any longer and was about to kick Chen Ping’an…

Chen Ping’an suddenly vanished from the alleyway.

It was as if someone had grabbed him and dragged him into another world.

The young girl suddenly felt very empty. The space in front of her was empty, and her heart was also empty. She started to seethe with anger.

She was just about to draw her sword and follow those traces to tear open the fissure among heaven and earth. However, it was also at this instant that her cheeks suddenly flushed a slight shade of red. She seemingly heard something, and she replied with a quick “oh.” She then humphed coldly at the location where Chen Ping’an had vanished.

After doing this, she flew toward the plaza at the foot of Lone Peak.

After seeing this young girl who completely ignored the rules again, the young Daoist priest was so enraged that he was about to explode. He angrily threw his book to the floor and jumped up from his straw mat, scolding in fury, “Little girl, do you really think Stalactite Mountain is your bloody backyard?! You come as you please and you leave as you please… This is already the third time! The third time! Even the sword immortals from the Sword Qi Great Wall might not break this rule a single time in their lives. Yet, what about you? You’ve broken it two times in a single day!”

The sword-hugging middle-aged man yawned and said, “You can hit her if you’re so capable.”

“Do you truly think I don’t dare to?” the young Daoist priest fumed. “If I weren’t taking pity on her because of her misfortunes, I would have thrown a single punch and…”

The gallant-looking young girl was expressionless as she walked through the mirror-like gate. She leaned back slightly to face the young Daoist priest, and she said, “Why are you taking pity on me? It’s not like we’re very familiar with each other.”

The young Daoist priest felt like the young girl’s words were very unreasonable. At the same time, however, they also seemed slightly reasonable.

Sitting on the hitching post, the sword-hugging middle-aged man held his belly and roared with laughter.

————

They had both walked out from that wine shop in Stalactite Mountain.

When Chen Ping’an walked out, he arrived in a secluded alleyway.

When Liu Youzhou walked out, however, he arrived under an ancient locust tree outside the tall walls of a courtyard. He squatted down in boredom and started to count the ants crawling along the ground.

The old woman, an earth immortal, silently stood beside her young master and didn’t disturb his daydreaming.

The sun slowly peeked over the horizon and illuminated the sky. Liu Youzhou stood up with a bright glimmer in his eyes, and he turned around as if he were asking the old woman for praise. “I finally understand now. Ants that have grown up in Stalactite Mountain are no different from ants that have grown up in ordinary cities and towns.”

The old woman was already accustomed to the young boy’s wild imagination, so she simply nodded with a faint smile.

Liu Youzhou glanced at the old locust tree and said in low spirits, “I’m not going to buy it, it’s far too expensive. I can’t bear to give away my hard-earned New Year’s money just like that. I’ve already saved up for so many years.”

The old woman breathed a sigh of relief. She was genuinely afraid that her young master would impulsively throw away all of his money to buy a jar of Forgetting Sorrow Wine. In any case, this golden millet wine had little benefit to Qi refiners at the Middle Five Tiers. Regardless of how wealthy Pure White Continent’s Liu Clan was, the young master still shouldn’t spend money in a profligate manner.

If he did, he naturally wouldn’t receive punishment. In fact, the clan leader and elders might even have to smile through gritted teeth and praise him for being a good descendant of the Liu Clan. They would have to praise him as confident and generous. After all, would someone hesitant to spend money be worthy of becoming the Liu Clan’s future clan leader?

However, she would definitely be reprimanded.

The old woman wasn’t complaining about Liu Youzhou because of this. Instead, she only wanted the best for him. With so much New Year’s money, wouldn’t it be quite good to buy a pseudo-celestial tool? Why be stubbornly focused on a jar of wine?

Liu Youzhou turned around and started to return home. While walking, he suddenly asked, “Grandma Liu, do you think Aunt Liu has returned from the ice fields in the north yet?”

When Liu Youzhou mentioned Aunt Liu, a beaming expression of pride immediately appeared on the old woman’s face filled with wrinkles and marks of vicissitudes. “She’s most likely returned. If that damned girl is lucky, then perhaps she’s already advanced to the ninth tier of martial arts as well. Young Master, according to the agreement, you can ask her to bring you to the ice fields in the north at that time. You can go there to slay great demons.”

Liu Youzhou was still a young child, after all, so his reply was also slightly childish. “Why has she advanced to the ninth tier so quickly? My father said that it was extremely significant for Aunt Liu to become the strongest eighth tier martial artist. It’s far better than being a weak End Tier grandmaster. When they were speaking in person, my father persuaded Aunt Liu not to carelessly advance her cultivation base unless she had no other option.”

The old woman chuckled softly and explained, “The clan leader was naturally speaking with good intentions. However, we should never take things to extremes. If a pure martial artist can smoothly advance to the next tier, then they shouldn’t forcefully suppress their cultivation base and hold back. Otherwise, that will lead to imperfections. In fact, they might lose all hope of advancing beyond the 10th tier. Of course, this is irrelevant for ordinary prodigies. Being able to advance to the 10th tier with much difficulty is already a wild dream for them. However, your Aunt Liu is different.”

Liu Youzhou had never been overly interested in these matters pertaining to the foundation of the Great Dao. Instead, he mulled over the most unimportant matters as he sighed, “That Aunt Liu, seriously… She always complains and loudly asks about where all of the good men in the world have pissed off too. She also likes to ask me if I’ve come across any good men. As a proud man myself, how am I supposed to answer her? Moreover, my father introduced so many young prodigies from Pure White Continent to Aunt Liu, yet she didn’t seem to be interested in any of them. What a massive headache.”

Liu Youzhou’s train of thought was truly very unique. He continued with another question that the old woman found funny, saying, “If the demonic army drowns the Sword Qi Great Wall one day, what will happen to Stalactite Mountain? That nest of ants under the locust tree crawls so slowly, so will they be able to move nests in time?”

There was a kindly expression on the old woman’s face as she replied in a gentle voice, “Young Master, just how many years has the Sword Qi Great Wall stood strong for? In the world next to us, the demon tribe launches a powerful assault every hundred years or so. After all these years, how many corpses have those bloodthirsty beasts left at the foot of the Sword Qi Great Wall? Yet, when have they ever succeeded? There are indeed some astonishingly powerful great demons, but they can only stay on the city wall for a short while before being pushed off by some old sword immortals.”

Liu Youzhou nodded in understanding. However, he quickly reverted to his own train of thought, and he was unable to extract himself from this as he said in anxiousness, “Our clan’s Ape Havoc Estate is actually inferior to that nest of ants. It can’t be lifted up and moved. Fortunately, Pure White Continent is far away from Stalactite Mountain. Ahhh, Southern Whirl Continent is quite pitiful. It will definitely be filled with tens of thousands of kilometers of smoke and ashes at that time. I wonder if Pure Confucian Chen Clan’s old ancestor, that old man with a sun and moon on his shoulders, can unleash his formidable power and keep the sea of demons off the land”?

The old woman was amused by her young master’s groundless worries, and she couldn’t help but smile and reply, “That’s right, our Pure White Continent is very far away from this Stalactite Mountain. Not only does the Southern Whirl Continent lay between us, but there’s even Middle Earth Divine Continent that’s larger than the eight other continents combined. Young Master, what is there to worry about?”

“I’m not worried about Pure White Continent’s safety,” Liu Youzhou murmured. “I simply feel uncomfortable when I think about the fact that many people will end up dying in such a war. Southern Whirl Continent at least has the most powerful disciple of the Second Sage. However, what about Parasol Leaf Continent in the southeast that we traveled to before? And what about Circling Ascension Continent that we’re about to travel to? I don’t think these continents have any cultivators powerful enough to protect them.”

The old woman chuckled and replied, “Young Master, you shouldn’t compare everyone to your father. Is a Qi refiner not impressive simply because they’re weaker than our clan leader? There’s no such thing.”

The wealthiest individual in Pure White Continent and the most powerful Qi refiner in Pure White Continent were the same person.

Liu Youzhou’s father.

This man had a higher cultivation base than any old ancestor in the history of the Liu Clan, as well as superior combat power.

Pure White Continent was a place where people were tough and immortals liked to fight. Thus, it was terrifying to know that no one had ever managed to successfully gauge this man’s complete power.

This man had also spoken a sentence that was extremely popular in the mountains — If we can solve a problem using celestial tools or pseudo-celestial tools, then we shouldn’t use our fists and legs, right?

Liu Youzhou seemingly had many gripes with his father, and he grumbled, “And he has a large group of wives and mistresses as well. What’s so good about that?”

Regardless of what happened, the old woman didn’t dare to comment on whether the clan leader was good or bad.

The clan leader having a good temper was one matter, and subordinates and servants not abiding by rules and etiquette was another matter altogether.

The Liu Clan had an iron grip on the mountain range where jade was mined to mint snowflake coins. However, tall trees caught more wind, so many people died each year because they couldn’t keep their mouths shut. Among the deceased, there would always be quite a number of descendants from the various branches of the Liu Clan.

Right now, Liu Youzhou was still wearing the bright yellow bamboo robe named “Refreshing.” This robe was once the treasured possession of an emperor from a large empire in Middle Earth Divine Continent, and the robe was also praised as a small grotto-heaven by many people.

Pure White Continent’s Liu Clan also owned another bamboo robe named “Escaping Summer Heat.” This bamboo robe formed a pair with Refreshing, and many people praised this robe as a small blessed land.

Liu Youzhou liked to switch between the two bamboo robes.

These robes were comfortable, and they weren’t too flashy either. Otherwise, it would be far too eye-catching if he wore those Daoist talisman robes or the Divine Dewbearing Armor. If he wore those, wouldn’t he be announcing to the entire world that he was very wealthy?

I am indeed wealthy, but I don’t like to say this to others!

In any case, I can’t be considered a genuinely wealthy person. After all, I couldn’t even bring myself to purchase a jar of Forgetting Sorrow Wine last night, right?

Liu Youzhou sighed and asked, “Grandma Liu, am I really not allowed to go to the Sword Qi Great Wall?”

“The clan leader has given me instructions about this; you’re definitely not allowed to go,” the old woman replied in a firm voice.

Liu Youzhou asked a question that cut straight to the core of the issue. “At the end of the day, the Sword Qi Great Wall is still populated by convicts and refugees from Majestic World. In other words, their relationship with this side of the gate is not as amiable as we think. To add to that, there are also many dirty things going on in Stalactite Mountain. After sacrificing so much and having so many members killed by the demon tribe, has no one ever betrayed the Sword Qi Great Wall and defected to the demon tribe in anger?”

The old woman contemplated this for a moment before answering, “Those old sword immortals as well as some powerful figures from the three teachings are all keeping an eye on the Sword Qi Great Wall. As such, no major disturbances should occur. However, the type of people you speak of definitely exist. It’s just that the Sword Qi Great Wall most likely isn’t willing to air their dirty laundry.

“Young Master, you don’t actually need to pay too much attention to the situation over there. According to the intel gathered by the Ape Havoc Estate, the current generation of young sword cultivators in the Sword Qi Great Wall is especially talented. Moreover, it’s not just a few of them who are talented. Rather, they’re like bamboo shoots after rain popping up with their sharp tips one after another. They can almost rival the group of sword immortals from 3000 years ago.

“That generation was genuinely impressive, and they managed to suppress the demon tribe and deter them from provoking the Sword Qi Great Wall for a whopping 800 years. In fact, many members of the demon tribe never caught a glimpse of that great wall in their entire life. So, if you ask me, I’d say that Stalactite Mountain will enjoy peace and prosperity for the next few hundred years.”

The young boy felt slightly sad, and he murmured, “The Liu Clan might be making a lot of money, but we’re profiting from the death of others.”

The old woman wanted to remind Liu Youzhou to be careful of what he said in Stalactite Mountain. Upon seeing his downcast expression, however, she eventually couldn’t bring herself to say anything.

A steward from the Ape Havoc Estate appeared in front of the young boy and the old woman. There were two horse-drawn carriages stopped by the side of the street, and the old steward said in a soft voice, “Young Master, we have esteemed guests at the estate.”

Liu Youzhou nodded in acknowledgment before stepping into one of the carriages.

After arriving at the Ape Havoc Estate, Liu Youzhou saw a refined man as well as a tall woman. The scholarly middle-aged man was standing there and appreciating a painting, while the tall woman was sitting there and drinking tea.

The man was seemingly a connoisseur of calligraphy and painting, and he praised, “Who would have thought that this is the authentic Hunched Old Lotus Painting? Sure enough, it exudes an outstanding strength and aura. In terms of painting lotuses alone, no one in the past 500 years has been able to rival this.”

While returning to the Ape Havoc Estate, the old steward hadn’t revealed the identities of the esteemed guests to Liu Youzhou out of an abundance of caution. Only when entering the estate did he quietly inform Liu Youzhou that the esteemed guests were the emperor of Middle Earth Divine Continent’s Great Duan Empire as well as his imperial preceptor.

Liu Youzhou clasped his hands and bowed in respect, saying, “Liu Youzhou pays his respects to Your Majesty and His Imperial Preceptor.”