Unsheathed

Before entering a small border town, they passed by an isolated inn that had a wrinkled curtain hanging in the doorway.

Chen Ping’an swirled his wine gourd around before deciding to enter the inn to purchase some wine. Chen Ping’an could taste the difference between good and bad wine, and he had drunk the Golden Millet Blessed Land’s Forgetting Sorrow Wine, Osmanthus Island’s specialty wine, and all kinds of other wine before. At the same time, he had bought quite a lot of wine from random wine shops on the streets and alleys. However, he had never complained about anything.

An emaciated dog was lying outside the inn and basking in the sunlight. When it saw Chen Ping’an, Pei Qian, and Wei Xian walking over from a distance, it immediately leaped up and bared its teeth, starting to bark at them as well.

Was this how the small inn welcomed customers?

A lame young boy ran out with a knife, pointing the knife tip at the dog as he fumed, “I’ll chop your head off if you don’t shut up!”

The dog lay back down in a sickly manner.

The lame young boy looked up, and he hurriedly hid the knife behind his back when he saw three rare customers. He smiled and said, “Don’t be afraid, customers. I guarantee that we’re honest people running an honest business!”

As if afraid that the three customers would turn around and run away, the skinny and limping young boy decided to strike first, turning to the inn and shouting, “Ma’am, we have some customers here! Hurry up and wipe the tables clean! One of the customers is your favorite type—a handsome young master who seems to be a scholar!”

After reporting this delightful news to the owner of the inn, the lame young boy hurriedly turned back around, bowing and extending his hand in invitation as he said, “Please take a seat inside, customers. The green plum wine made by the madam is from a recipe passed down by her ancestors, and the roasted whole lamb made by my master is also an incredible delicacy. Both of these things are absolutely unique along this five-hundred-kilometer border. You won’t find these things anywhere else!”

Chen Ping’an and his two companions walked into the inn.

The ground floor was a restaurant with only a few tables, presumably due to slow business. The second floor consisted of the guest rooms. There was no customer in the restaurant right now, and only a woman was standing with one foot on a long bench as she snacked on roasted seeds.

She shot a sideways glance at the so-called scholar that the lame young boy had mentioned, not feeling very hopeful. The lame young boy was much like a maggot who had grown up in a pile of manure, so just what kind of knowledge and experience did he have? He would never understand the notion of “handsome” in his life.

The woman was wearing a red robe with yellow floral-patterned collars and large sleeves, and the robe was clearly stylish and made from good-quality materials. However, it was quite aged, as if it were covered in a layer of grease.

The woman’s cheeks were a healthy shade of pink, and her body was also slender and lithe. A light complexion could mask one’s ugliness, yet the woman wasn’t ugly to begin with. She was already in her thirties, yet her beauty was no inferior to that of young girls in their late teens.

Her eyes lit up when she saw Chen Ping’an, and she yelped in a soft and seductive manner as she threw the roasted seeds to the floor and swept them under the table with her embroidered shoes. She then purposely swayed her hips back and forth in an exaggerated manner, appearing like a slithering snake as she walked over. She raised a hand and gently placed it on the shoulder of the handsome young boy in white robes, not forgetting to give it a good squeeze.

She had uncovered a gem! Not only was the young boy handsome, but his body was healthy and strong as well. He wasn’t an embroidered pillow that was attractive on the outside but lacked substance on the inside.

The woman was taking things further and further, and she even tried to slap Chen Ping’an’s chest afterward. Only then did Chen Ping’an step to the side and cause her hand to strike empty air. He smiled and asked, “Innkeeper, I want to buy a few liters of wine. We’re not here to eat or stay, and we’ll leave right away after I buy the wine. I’ve heard that you sell green plum wine made from an ancestral recipe here, so I’m wondering how much this wine costs?”

The woman huffed and retracted her hand, replying, “Young Master, are you in such a hurry to head to that Fox Town? I’m not trying to frighten you simply because I want to win business, it’s simply the truth that the town is haunted by ghosts and spirits. These ghosts and spirits can lead people astray, and things have only gotten worse this year. Many merchants and travelers have been affected. None of them were killed, yet at least a dozen of them have gone insane.

“So, Young Master, it’s best that you stay in our inn for a while. You can purchase as much green plum wine as you want. It’s not expensive, the best five-year-old wine is only one tael of silver for two pots. You can also order a roasted whole lamb, and you can stay here for the night after you’ve had enough to eat and drink. When that time comes…”

The woman raised her eyebrows in a seductive manner and continued in a charming voice, “Big Sister will personally bring you some water to wash his feet.”

Meanwhile, Pei Qian was already drooling as she stood beside Chen Ping’an. She was unable to walk anymore after hearing the words “roasted whole lamb.”

She wiped her mouth and gently tugged Chen Ping’an’s sleeves.

Chen Ping’an pondered for a moment before asking Wei Xian, “Can you drink?”

“A massive amount,” Wei Xian replied with a nod.

Chen Ping’an turned to the innkeeper and said with a smile, “We won’t stay the night, but I guess we can have a meal. Apart from the wine that we drink here, can you also prepare an additional three liters of green plum wine for me? I want to bring this away with me.”

The woman waved her hand at the lame young boy and instructed, “Go pick a lamb for your old hunchbacked master. Take some care, and remember to pick one with a good balance of lean and fatty meat. Stop dreaming about a powerful master falling from the skies and teaching you paramount martial arts techniques. Such fortune won’t smash into your head. Now, hurry up and piss off.”

The lame young boy grumbled under his breath as he sprinted away.

Chen Ping’an, Pei Qian, and Wei Xian sat down at a table for four, leaving one chair empty. After going to the counter and grabbing a few plates of snacks, the woman returned to the table and sat in the empty chair opposite Chen Ping’an, asking, “Judging from your accent, Young Master, you’re not a local resident of the Great Quan Empire? Are you a traveling scholar? Did you come from Northern Jin Nation?”

“I came from further down south,” Chen Ping’an replied with a smile.

The woman leaned forward, bending down slightly as she grabbed a handful of dried fruits that she had purchased from Fox Town. Her large breasts pressed against the table, yet she discovered that the young boy’s gaze remained fixed on her face the entire time. There was a faint smile on his face, and his eyes were also limpid and pure. This caused the woman to feel slightly astonished. There existed such a pure and innocent young boy in the world?

She smiled beautifully and asked, “Why don’t we have a drink together first? I can accompany you to drink a little as we wait for the roasted whole lamb to arrive. There’s nothing like a well-roasted, golden lamb leg with meat falling off the bone, and eating it when you’re just a little merry from the wine makes it even better.”

Chen Ping’an nodded and accepted her offer.

The woman walked away to retrieve a pot of wine as well as four large white bowls that were stacked together. She then cracked open the pot of wine and filled the four bowls, revealing the amber color of the green plum wine. The wine appeared especially pure and clear, and just the sight of this was perhaps enough to make some wine lovers feel slightly intoxicated.

The woman felt extremely proud, and she smiled as she started to introduce the green plum wine that was made using an ancestral recipe. There were three levels of quality, corresponding to half-year-old wine, three-year-old wine, and five-year-old wine. Even when it came to the lowest-quality half-year-old wine, a wealthy individual who had traveled here from the capital on his handsome horse had once raised his thumb and lavished it with praise, claiming that even the capital didn’t have such beautiful wine.

An innocent expression on Pei Qian’s face as she asked, “A wealthy person from the capital only purchased the lowest-quality half-year-old wine?”

The woman almost choked, and she hurriedly added, “The wealthy individual only wanted to have a taste of the wine in the beginning. However, just like your Young Master, he also purchased several liters of five-year-old green plum wine in the end.”

There was a fake smile on Pei Qian’s face as she feigned realization and remarked, “I see! People from the capital of the Great Quan Empire are so reserved and stingy. It’s just some wine, yet they still need to have a taste of it first? That’s far inferior to… my dad directly purchased a few liters of the most expensive five-year-old wine right from the very beginning…”

Chen Ping’an immediately rewarded Pei Qian with a knuckle to the forehead, causing the skinny little girl to grab her head in pain.

He then pushed Pei Qian’s large bowl of green plum wine to Wei Xian, letting the founding emperor of Southern Garden Nation have two bowls to himself. He had claimed that he could drink a massive amount of wine, so two large bowls of green plum wine were surely not a problem for him.

Pei Qian rubbed her forehead and asked in an aggrieved voice, “Am I not allowed to even have a small sip? We’ve walked for so long, and I’m so thirsty that I’m almost about to breathe smoke!”

Her lips were indeed dry and cracked, so much so that wisps of blood were almost about to seep from them. If it weren’t for the Demon-Suppressing Talisman on her forehead allowing her to summon astonishing strength, it was almost certain that she couldn’t have walked to this inn by herself.

Money could make ghosts push millstones, and money could make Pei Qian walk on her own.[1] At the end of the day, everything was because of money.

Chen Ping’an smiled and replied, “Who told you that wine can quench thirst? You can ask the innkeeper for a bowl of water instead.”

Pei Qian glanced at the seductive innkeeper before humphing coldly and crossing her arms before her chest. She turned her head to the side and refused to look at that woman again.

The woman paid no heed to this, and she stood up to bring a bowl of tea over, lightly placing it in front of Pei Qian and saying, “Here, drink some tea. It’s on the inn.”

Pei Qian immediately grabbed the bowl of tea and gulped it down in a single breath.

It was her loss if she didn’t drink the tea. She did indeed detest the innkeeper, but she didn’t detest this bowl of tea, did she?

Chen Ping’an exchanged a glance with Wei Xian.

He couldn’t help but sigh in his mind, thinking that this innkeeper was also a difficult person to deal with. She liked to bear grudges, and she was no inferior to Pei Qian in this sense. When filling the bowl of tea just then, she had secretly spat into it when her back was turned to Chen Ping’an and the others. She had then rotated her wrist and gently swirled the tea around, causing all traces of her spit to disappear when she brought it to the table and placed it in front of Pei Qian.

In any case, the green plum wine was truly delicious. Apart from lacking spiritual energy, it was no inferior to the osmanthus wine from Osmanthus Island. Chen Ping’an decided that he definitely had to fill his Sword Nurturing Gourd with this wine when they left. If this wasn’t enough, then he would ask Wei Xian to carry a few additional pots with him. Wei Xian dared to claim that he could drink a massive amount of wine, so he was definitely someone who loved to drink wine, right?

Chen Ping’an took small sips of the green plum wine that looked pure and light yet burned the throat and warmed the belly. His mood improved as he drank, and he asked, “Innkeeper, have you ever heard of the Yao Clan’s border army?”

“Of course,” the innkeeper replied in a casual manner. “Those of us doing business near the border are all aware of the Yao Clan’s mighty mounted troops. I’m not trying to brag or anything, but a junior general with the surname Yao once came to my inn with his subordinates and ate an entire roasted lamb before leaving. He also left a very big silver ingot on the table. However, these soldiers are scary even when they eat and drink, and I didn’t dare to approach them because they were radiating killing intent the entire time.”

The woman gently patted her chest, and her extremely tight and stretched garment seemed like it was on the verge of tearing apart at any moment.

“Does the Yao Clan’s border army have a good reputation?” Chen Ping’an asked.

The innkeeper smiled and replied, “How can commoners like us know things like that? We never have the opportunity to interact with these esteemed people, after all. However, I can say that they aren’t infamous, at least. I’ve run this inn for ten years now, but I haven’t heard any rumors about soldiers from the Yao Clan harassing people.

“What I hear about most is people from the Yao Clan making great contributions and being rewarded by the imperial court or being promoted to higher positions. Sometimes, I hear about someone from the Yao Clan dying in battle in someplace to the south and causing his wife to become a widow. These are the sorts of rumors that I hear again and again. I’m genuinely tired of hearing about these things.”

Chen Ping’an nodded in understanding. He had a rough impression of this branch of the Yao Clan now, one which had migrated from Jewel Small World all the way to Parasol Leaf Continent.

Wei Xian had already finished his first bowl of wine, and was now working on his second large bowl. His face was bright red, yet his eyes were extremely radiant as he commented, “This border army isn’t harassing the residents, nor are they trying to build a good reputation. It’s clear that they’re making their stance known to the emperor—they’re not trying to rebel and gain authority in the border regions. This is a smart move. Otherwise, if everything beyond the palace appears foreign and out of control, how can the emperor possibly dare to feel at ease?”

The innkeeper faltered and asked, “What was that again?”

Wei Xian took another gulp of wine before smacking the table and continuing, “My territory stretches to wherever my warhorses gallop. This wine is delicious!”

After exclaiming this, the founding emperor of Southern Garden Nation, the very same that had claimed to be a big drinker, collapsed onto the table like a dead dog. His snores rumbled like thunder.

They had no choice but to stay the night in the inn now.

Afterward, the lame young boy and a hunchbacked old man carried a roasted whole lamb into the inn together, placing it on Chen Ping’an’s table. The lamb turned out to be just as good as the wine, and this resulted in a rare occasion where Chen Ping’an ate until he was extremely full. Meanwhile, Pei Qian ate until she was two hundred percent full. In the end, she was essentially forcing lamb meat down her throat. In contrast, Chen Ping’an was eating slowly and chewing slowly, and he wasn’t drinking very quickly either.

The innkeeper was sitting behind the counter, having politely turned down Chen Ping’an’s offer to eat together just then. Drinking a little wine with her customers was fine, but it would be far too shameless to eat together with them. No one would run a business in such a manner.

Pei Qian ate until her belly was bulging and round, and she started to stroll around the table so that she wouldn’t feel so painfully full.

Chen Ping’an asked for three neighboring rooms upstairs, giving Pei Qian the room in the middle. Afterward, he helped Wei Xian upstairs and tossed him onto the bed. The man was a weak drinker, but at least he was well-behaved when he was drunk. He would fall asleep straight away, and wouldn’t go crazy or start ranting.

Pei Qian walked inside her room and closed the door, starting to burp because of how full she was. As for Chen Ping’an, he put his bamboo case in his room before walking out again, preparing to go downstairs to ask the innkeeper about the culture and customs of the Great Quan Empire.

Then, he discovered that another customer had arrived at the inn. The man appeared to be thirty years old. His facial hair was unkempt, and he was dressed in a long azure robe.

He sat at a table and stared at the innkeeper in a trance-like manner.

However, the woman had a cold expression, and she didn’t offer this customer any food or wine. In fact, there wasn’t even a single plate of snacks on his table. Meanwhile, the lame young boy sat at the bottom of the stairs and looked at the man with an expression of disdain.

Near the curtains of the inn’s kitchen, the hunchbacked old man sat on a long bench and puffed on a pipe.

Chen Ping’an wasn’t in a hurry to head downstairs, so he leaned on the railings and observed the situation from above.

When blocking the two assassins attacking the Yao Clan’s cavalrymen just then, he had noticed that the sword cultivator clearly had another trump card up his sleeves. Chen Ping’an had detected a vague aura of violence and ruthlessness in the distance, an aura that most likely belonged to a powerful great demon. The cultivation base of this great demon was at least equal to that of the sword cultivator.

However, the aura of the great demon had disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. It had been forcefully suppressed by a powerful aura of righteousness. In fact, it was because of this that the middle-aged sword cultivator had turned around and fled in a hurry, causing his subordinate, the hulking pure martial artist dressed in Dew Armor, to flee alongside him.

Upon seeing the unkempt man in azure robes, Chen Ping’an’s first thought was that this person was potentially the one who had hidden in the distance and killed the great demon in a single strike. Otherwise, he was potentially a prodigious cultivator from some sect-level force in Parasol Leaf Sect. If he was neither, then… he was perhaps a scholar from a Confucian academy just like Zhou Juran!

However, Chen Ping’an was quickly made to question his own judgment because the innkeeper viewed the man as a nuisance, the lame young boy rolled his eyes at him, and the hunchbacked old man ignored him altogether. Indeed, the impoverished man well-known to the inn didn’t even have the opportunity to puff himself up and act rich at his own expense.

A sense of grief welled up in the man’s heart, and he looked at the lady innkeeper with an intoxicated expression as he said, “Jiu Niang, I don’t care that you’re a widow, and I don’t care that you have children either. Truly…”

Chen Ping’an slapped his forehead. Disregarding this man’s identity and cultivation base and simply focusing on his knowledge of romance, Chen Ping’an could say that this man was even inferior to him. He fully deserved to be rejected. After all, how could one speak to women like this? Was this supposed to be a romantic confession? He was clearly driving a blade through the woman’s heart!

Sure enough, the woman who had only been cold to him just then raised her head and gritted her teeth as she glared at the bastard and spat, “Do you believe me when I say that I’ll go to the sheep pen to grab a bucket of manure and pour it over your head?”

Chen Ping’an glanced at the innkeeper again.

The man in azure lay down on the table and flailed his arms and legs in a chaotic manner, causing his sleeves to become like tablecloths. There was utter grief in his voice as he lamented, “How can you be so heartless, Jiu Niang? How am I supposed to live like this? I might be poor, but talented scholars are always punished with a difficult life. Otherwise, we can’t compose beautiful poems that are passed down from generation to generation…”

The lame young boy furiously spat on the floor and exclaimed, “Beautiful poems passed down from generation to generation? What absolute bullshit! Even an uneducated person like me is disgusted by your doggerel!”

The hunchbacked old man choked upon hearing the man’s remark as well, and it was clear that he felt a sense of lingering fear when he heard the man claim that he could compose beautiful poems for the ages.

As if suddenly becoming enlightened, the man in azure immediately sat up and said to the innkeeper with a smile, “Jiu Niang, perhaps you’re afraid of delaying my bright and dazzling future? Is that why you’re unwilling to reciprocate my feelings? It’s alright, I don’t care about the views of society…”

The woman was genuinely unable to endure this any longer, so she instructed in a cold voice, “Little Lame, Old Hunchback, it’s time to draw your blades. I’ll give ten taels of silver to whoever can hack him to death first!”

The hunchbacked old man didn’t move, but the lame young boy was already sprinting to the kitchen to grab a knife.

The man in azure stood up and straightened his clothes. He then turned around and sprinted away, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Chen Ping’an decided against heading downstairs, and instead returned to his room and closed the door. He retrieved the second picture scroll and placed it on his table. This was the picture scroll of Martial Arts Maniac Zhu Lian.

1. “Money can make ghosts push millstones” (有钱能使鬼推磨) is a saying that simply means money talks. ☜