Unsheathed

On Downtrodden Mountain, the little boy in azure very rarely went out, but after receiving a letter, he first went into the small town to send a letter in reply, then confidently paid a visit to Cloud Drape Mountain to seek out Wei Bo in the Northern Mountain Palace.

However, upon his return to the bamboo building, the little girl in pink noticed that he wasn’t in very high spirits. She didn’t know why he had left the bamboo building, but it was clear that he hadn’t managed to achieve his objectives.

The little boy in azure didn’t want to complain to her, so he sat on a cliff on his own, sighing to himself. However, it didn’t take long before he was reinvigorated, and he paid another visit to the small town, even steeling himself to visit the county office and the kiln supervision office.

However, upon his return, he was once again looking very down and dejected, but after two more days, he went to the newly constructed Dragon Spring Prefectural City to the north to request an audience with Prefectural Overseer Wu Yuan.

The little girl in pink was rather perplexed to see the little boy in azure so busy all of a sudden.

Even though he always acted quite casual and lackadaisical, she knew that he was extremely proud and arrogant, to the point that he even looked down on Wei Bo in the past. In front of Wei Bo, he would always act in a sycophantic fashion, but behind Wei Bo’s back, he would immediately denounce the mountain god, so he certainly had no respect for the likes of County Magistrate Yuan, Kiln Supervision Official Cao, or Prefectural Overseer Wu.

One day, the little girl in pink couldn’t help but ask what the little boy in azure had been doing, to which he replied that there was no point in telling her as she wouldn’t understand anyway.

After that, he carried a bamboo chair onto the cliff, where he sat in dejection on his own.

Finally, there came a day when the little boy in azure regained his swagger.

The little girl in pink didn’t ask any questions as she didn’t want to annoy him, but this time, the little boy in azure was in very high spirits, carrying over a pair of bamboo chairs before sitting down on one of them to munch on sunflower seeds, leaving the little girl in pink to wonder if he had gone insane.

With a smug look on his face, the little boy in azure declared, “I’ve successfully carried out what’s been asked of me by my water god friend, and I’ve already sent a letter to the Imperial River God Temple of Yellow Court Nation!”

“What did the Imperial River God want you to do?” the little girl in pink asked with a surprised expression.

“Now that Yellow Court Nation has become a subsidiary nation to the Great Li Empire, my river god friend wanted me to put in a good word for him as he heard that I’ve been doing quite well in the Great Li Empire.

“He wanted to ensure that his river god temple wouldn’t be demolished, and ideally, he also wanted a Peace and Safety Tablet from the Great Li Empire. Of course, I was able to have these trivial matters arranged for him with ease,” the little boy in azure replied with a wide smile.

As it turned out, the Imperial River God had sent a letter to him with these requests, and the little boy in azure had immediately assured him that these requests could be easily fulfilled. He boasted extensively to the Imperial River God, telling him to sit back and wait for good news.

The little girl in pink had been flabbergasted to hear this. If these were nothing more than trivial matters, then why was it that he had been so agitated and depressed these past few days?

Besides, how could he be so shameless in proclaiming that he was doing well in the Dragon Spring Prefecture? He was forced to work hard in his cultivation just to avoid being beaten to death by some random pedestrian on the streets!

The little girl in pink knew that he had to have been extremely fearful whenever he made a trip down the mountain, and she asked, “Was it Mountain God Wei who helped you take care of everything?”

The smile on the face of the little boy in azure changed complexions ever so slightly, but he still maintained a strong front as he replied, “Of course. Wei Bo and I are so close that we’re constantly referring to each other as brothers, there’s no way Wei Bo would refuse such a minor request from me.

“The first time I went to visit Wei Bo on Cloud Drape Mountain, he was out doing something, and the deputy deity in the Northern Mountain Palace was so welcoming and hospitable, arranging a massive banquet for me. I told him there was no need for that, but he insisted that I stay. It was all a huge pain in the backside…”

The little girl in pink didn’t say anything. She knew that the little boy in azure was extremely proud, so she didn’t want to expose him.

Initially, the little boy in azure was speaking in a very animated fashion, but he became more and more deflated as he spoke, and in the end, he fell silent altogether.

During their second meeting, Wei Bo had indeed agreed to ask for a pair of talismans from the Great Li Empire for his Imperial River God friend, but it had come at a price, namely one of the finest snake gall pebbles that Chen Ping’an had given to him.

It was a very steep price to pay, but the little boy in azure didn’t regret it.

All of a sudden, a wide smile reappeared on his face as he pointed to the south and said, “When we visit the Imperial River in the future, I’ll take you to my river god friend’s manor. He’ll treat us to a massive feast, and I’ll show you just how popular and loved I am there! You’ll be revered by everyone just because you’re with me!”

The little girl in pink had no response to this.

However, she then caught a glimpse of the excited look on the face of the little boy in azure, and she couldn’t bear to rain on her parade, so she said in a quiet voice, “Alright, but I don’t want to eat a lot of meat. Just prepare a feast of in-season vegetables for me.”

“That’s not a problem at all!” the little boy in azure vowed with a slap on his own chest.

After that, the conversation devolved into silence.

All of a sudden, he said, “If our master were here, I would’ve probably been able to get the same things done in fewer trips.”

The little girl in pink nodded in response.

————

Over on the mountain in the west, business for Dong Shuijing’s wonton stall was improving by the day. All of the people who came to visit the mountain god temple liked to have a bowl of his wonton soup to fill their bellies and replenish their weary bodies. Soon, the stall became too small to support his business, so Dong Shuijing constructed a shop.

That way, customers would be able to enjoy their wontons under some shelter on stormy days and wait until the storm passed. On top of that, he made it clear that people were welcome to wait out storms in his shop, even if they didn’t buy anything. Not only would he not kick them out, he would even send one of his two newly hired employees to fetch them a bowl of hot tea.

Despite the increased costs of running a shop, Dong Shuijing never compromised on quality, nor did he raise his prices.

Before long, his shop had gained such a stellar reputation that it was visited by several of the highest-ranking officials of the Dragon Spring Prefecture, and even Prefectural Overseer Wu Yuan had been full of praise for his wontons.

That day, at about dusk, the shop was about to close, and the waiters were taking care of the last few tables of customers. Dong Shuijing was exhausted after a day of work, and he sat down at the entrance of his shop, sipping on a bowl of tea.

All of a sudden, he rose to his feet and hurriedly finished the rest of his tea, then quickly made his way toward a group of people that were coming down the mountain. One of them was a familiar figure who was most likely only just leaving with her clan’s seniors after offering up some incense at the mountain god temple, and judging by the time, they were most likely going to be staying the night in the Dragon Spring Prefectural City.

Dong Shuijing smiled as he called out to the group, greeting the adults as uncles and aunts before turning to the girl that was slightly taller than him as he asked, “When did you get back, Shi Chunjia?”

Shi Chunjia no longer had her hair arranged into braids.

After returning to the small town following their brief, yet terrifying journey with Li Baoping and the others, the children had gone their separate ways, having each made different life decisions.

Li Baoping, Li Huai, and Lin Shouyi had traveled to Great Sui Nation with Chen Ping’an, while Dong Shuijing remained in the small town. He attended school for a while, but quickly left and sold one of his clan’s two ancestral residences in the town. With that money, he was able to buy half a street’s worth of mansions in the prefectural city, and he still had enough leftover to start his own business.

As for Shi Chunjia, her clan had sold their shop on Dragon Riding Alley, then moved to the capital city of Great Sui Nation, and it was unclear why they had returned to their hometown on this occasion.

Shi Chunjia’s parents had only ever heard of Dong Shuijing, but never met him. They could see that their daughter was still very attached to him, so they decided to have a few bowls of wontons at his shop. Dong Shuijing cooked up the wontons himself before personally carrying them to the table, then made some small talk before returning to the counter.

Shi Chunjia hurriedly finished her bowl of wontons, then rushed over to Dong Shuijing’s side and quietly asked him if there had been any news about Li Baoping. Dong Shuijing was only able to relay to her some of the things that Chen Ping’an had told him, and Shi Chunjia listened with keen interest, latching onto every word.

Dong Shuijing could see that her family was about to finish their meal, and he asked in a seemingly casual manner, “Are you going to be staying here for a while?”

Shi Chunjia nodded in response.

“We heard that the new school here was founded by the Dragon Tail Creek Chen Clan, so my grandfather told my parents and I to come back. We’ve sold the shop, but we still have our ancestral residence, so we’ll have a place to stay.”

Dong Shuijing nodded in response.

In the end, he still charged Shi Chunjia and her family for the meal, but he gave them a discount of a few copper coins per bowl of wonton soup.

Shi Chunjia was a very direct and straightforward girl, and she glowered intently at Dong Shuijing for daring to charge them for their meal, feeling as if he had become a money-hungry scoundrel.

Dong Shuijing merely smiled in response, completely unfazed.

He watched them as he departed, and he knew that there would be many more opportunities for them to meet in the future.

He certainly wasn’t going to charge his acquaintances extra at his shop, but he couldn’t just not charge them, either, and the best policy was to ensure that he broke even.

Otherwise, the longer he ran this business, the fewer friends he would have.

If a friend were to constantly freeload off your kindness, then that indicated that they didn’t regard you as a friend.

However, if he were to take advantage of his friends and charge them extra, then they would eventually come to realize that he didn’t see them as friends. Hence, this was the perfect balance to strike.

By the time the final table of customers left, the two waiters were so exhausted that they could barely stand. Dong Shuijing made two bowls of wonton soup for them each, and he watched them scarf down their meals for a moment, then turned to look out the entrance of the shop, right as a man carrying a longsword on his back made his way over the doorstep.

It was the Mohist swordsman by the name of Xu Ruo, and he had come here directly from the Dragon Spring Prefecture ferry station after his return from Old Dragon City.

He smiled as he asked, “I’ve already broken the rules by telling you her information. Have you made a decision?”

Dong Shuijing nodded in response.

Seeing as she had already become an immortal, he couldn’t keep whiling away his days like this.

If he could become a so-called saber-lending cultivator, then he would be able to extend his own lifespan.

Regardless of whether he could be with her in the end, at the very least, he would be able to take a few more looks at her before he died.

————

A little devil with the surname of Gu had appeared in Bamboo Scroll Lake.

His name was Gu Can, and he was the final disciple of River Severing True Lord Liu Zhimao. He had somehow tamed a flood dragon at the pinnacle of the Golden Core Tier, and during the internal conflict that took place, the flood dragon had claimed countless lives on Cyan Gorge Island. However, strangely enough, Liu Zhimao made no effort to intervene at all, even after his first disciple was killed by the flood dragon.

If that had been the extent of his feats, then he wouldn’t have been notorious across the entirety of the vast Bamboo Scroll Lake. The main reason for his notoriety stemmed from the story of an innocent-looking child who would often be seen strolling around aimlessly on Bamboo Scroll Lake.

Initially, some Qi refiners came under the false impression that he was using some type of water-treading technique that allowed him to casually roam over the surface of the lake without having to move his feet.

Generally speaking, the child was left to his own devices, but one day, tragedy struck. On this day, a group of around two dozen young Qi refiners were traveling over the lake in a huge louchuan [1]when they encountered that child, and neither side was willing to go around the other, so a conflict arose.

Right as the two were about to crash into each other, the child suddenly began to rise up into the air, and it was revealed that he was standing atop an enormous flood dragon that snapped the louchuan into two with a single swipe of its claws.

The Qi refiner that attempted to flee the louchuan were targeted by a pillar of water that was blasted out of the beast’s mouth, completely stripping them of their flesh and leaving only a skeleton behind. As for the ones who fell into the water, they all perished under the flood dragon’s claws or were thrown into its mouth and eaten alive.

The flood dragon was completely impervious to all weapons and mystical abilities. In fact, it couldn’t even be bothered to evade the attacks. The Qi refiner who met the worst fate out of everyone was one who came up with the “clever” idea of targeting Gu Can instead of the flood dragon. He was a swordsman who had a bit of reputation in Bamboo Scroll Lake, and he attempted to snipe down Gu Can using his bonded flying sword.

Up to that point, the flood dragon had been in quite a playful mood, but it had immediately flown into a thunderous rage, whipping up enormous waves in the surrounding water with its powerful body to trap the swordsman in a cage of water. After that, it used some type of secret technique to suck all of the air out of the cage, subjecting the swordsman to a slow and torturous death to asphyxiation.

In the end, his spiritual energy had run out, and his body had exploded with a resounding thump, sending blood splattering all directions in the cage, while Gu Can chortled with glee as he sat atop the flood dragon’s head.

Some Dragon Gate Tier and Golden Core Tier cultivators had stormed onto the scene, only to be horrified by the sight that they were greeted by. During the battle on Cyan Gorge Island, the flood dragon had been very far away, and it hadn’t displayed any abilities similar to those of Qi refiners, but in the short time since then, it seemed to have unlocked its innate ability.

This was an extremely significant hurdle to cross, and it meant the flood dragon now possessed the power of an earth immortal. In this state, it would be able to attain a human form, and back in the ancient past, when flood dragons had been around in large numbers, that would’ve granted it the right to establish a dragon palace of its own in a large river.

Initially, this group of vastly renowned Bamboo Scroll Lake cultivators thought that they would be able to sneak in and save a few of their disciples, but the first one to attempt such a feat, a Dragon Gate Tier cultivator, was struck down by a casual swipe of the flood dragon’s claws from several hundred feet away, causing his entire body to explode.

When it came to battles between cultivators of the Middle Five Tiers, even an advantage of a single tier often proved to be decisive, but generally speaking, one wouldn’t expect to see a cultivator of that caliber struck down so easily.

The remaining cultivators exchanged a few fearful glances with one another, and all of them chose to retreat, abandoning their disciples to protect themselves.

After that, some people snuck into Cyan Gorge Island in an attempt to assassinate Gu Can, but all of them were killed by Liu Zhimao. Over the course of half a year, five or six assassination attempts were staged, with all of them ending in failure. Half a year later, Liu Zhimao, Gu Can, and his flood dragon led the charge to the sect on the island where the assassins had come from.

The entire sect was massacred with the exception of some young boys and girls who possessed passable cultivation aptitude, and all of the sect’s wealth and treasures were also pillaged. In the wake of that event, Cyan Gorge Island became the unofficial leader of all of the islands in Bamboo Scroll Lake, with no one daring to oppose it.

Right now, Gu Can and his mother were living in the most opulent manor on Cyan Gorge Island. He and his master had gone on several crusades to wipe out enemy sects, and whenever such a battle concluded, Gu Can would get the senior sister who had tipped him off years ago to help him select exceptionally beautiful young girls to serve as candidates for his future harem.

The girls that were selected were even instructed in the way of musical instruments, Go, calligraphy, and painting.

On this day, Gu Can made a rare display of staying home instead of going out to play. He accompanied his mother to the rear hall, then knelt down onto a cushion before kowtowing to a memorial tablet.

Over the past few years, his mother had become even more alluring and voluptuous thanks to the lavish lifestyle that she was able to enjoy.

After rising to her feet, the woman closed her eyes and joined her palms while murmuring quietly to herself, as if she were speaking to her deceased husband.

Gu Can stood in the silent hall, looking up at the incense smoke rising up from the burner. With his hands already stained by the blood of countless others, he suddenly felt unworthy to stand here.

While leaving the rear hall together, Gu Can suddenly called out to his mother.

The woman was holding his little hand, and she looked down at him as she asked in a gentle voice, “What is it?”

Gu Can forced a smile and shook his head in response, telling her that it was nothing.

————

In the capital city of Southern Garden Nation, there was an emaciated little girl with a cold look in her eyes. Her clothes were in tatters, and she carefully made her way over to an area where many wealthy and powerful clans were gathered, and she walked directly to the rear entrance of an opulent manor, seemingly having made the trip many times before.

It was a very bright and sunny day, and the little girl was sweating profusely from her walk, but the look in her eyes remained as cold as ever. She squatted down under the shade of a large tree, and she looked up at the sun in the sky, which was so bright that it was bringing tears to her eyes.

She silently looked away before wiping the tears from her eyes, and a short while later, the rear entrance of the manor was opened by someone in a sneaky fashion.

A girl around the same age then snuck out of the narrow gap between the doors. This girl was dressed in fine clothing, and she looked much more delicate and pampered than the girl squatting under the tree. She was holding onto a small wooden box with some difficulty, and she was sweating profusely as she jogged over to the emaciated little girl’s side with a bright smile and said, “I have a present for you.”

Under the intense heat of summer, there was some water seeping out of the wooden box.

The emaciated girl accepted the wooden box with furrowed brows before removing its lid.

A joyful smile appeared on the other girl’s face as she said, “Do you still remember this snowman that we made last winter? I told the servants in the manor to put it in the icehouse to preserve it so that I could give it to you today. Do you like it?”

The emaciated girl stared intently at the small snowman, and her head was lowered, making it impossible to see her expression.

Meanwhile, the other girl was still asking if she liked her gift in an innocent and naive fashion.

The emaciated girl raised her head before asking, “Where’s the food?”

An apologetic look appeared on the other girl’s face as she said, “I’m sorry, I forgot. I have to go to the temple to offer incense with my parents soon, so I won’t be able to get you anything to eat today. I’m really sorry…”

The emaciated girl looked back down at the little snowman in the wooden box, and a loud crack rang out as she “accidentally” dropped the wooden box onto the ground.

The other girl was immediately brought to the verge of tears as she hurriedly crouched down, and the emaciated girl crouched down with her, except she had done so to pick up a nearby rock.

She glanced at the snowman in the wooden box, which had snapped into two, then raised her hand up high before swinging the rock viciously down toward the other girl’s head.

A gentle breeze blew past, and by the time the pretty little girl raised her head with a forced smile on her face to assure her friend that she wasn’t mad, she was surprised to discover that a stranger had appeared before her.

He was wearing a pristine white-robe and carrying a sword on his back, and there was a little red gourd strapped to her waist. The girl blinked away the tears that had welled up in her eyes, then turned to the emaciated girl with an inquisitive gaze.

That was when she noticed that the white-robed boy was holding her friend’s hand.

The boy smiled as he pointed at the back door behind her and said, “You should go home. There’s someone waiting for you there.”

Sure enough, the steward, Grandpa Zhao, had already come looking for her, and the little girl was clinging to the wooden box with a hesitant expression, unsure of whether to give it to her friend or take it back to the icehouse in the manor.

Thankfully, the white-robed boy made the decision for her as he said, “Take it back with you. It’ll melt soon in this heat, and that would be quite a pity. You can wait for this winter to make this little snowman a big snowman.”

The little girl nodded eagerly in response, holding the wooden box in her arms as she bade farewell to her friend, whom she had known for close to two years at this point.

The emaciated girl remained silent, and only after the door had swung shut did Chen Ping’an let go of her hand.

He was completely astonished by her cruelty. It was clear that these two were friends, yet she had just tried to kill the other girl, all because she had failed to bring her food one time.

“Who are you?” Chen Ping’an asked.

“Why do you care?” the little girl countered.

1. a type of Chinese naval vessel ☜