Unsheathed

Li Er hurriedly nodded in response, very grateful for how thoughtful his daughter was.

The woman wiped her tears, then placed the pouch of silver that Li Liu had just given her onto the table. After that, she went into another room and rummaged through some stuff before pulling out another large pouch.

This was virtually all of the money that they had aside from the money set aside for Li Huai’s marriage, and after handing both pouches to Li Er, she said, “Make sure to spend as little as possible on the way there so you can save as much as possible for the authorities.”

Li Er grabbed the two pouches before leaving the shop, telling Li Liu to look after her mother before he went.

The woman sat in the courtyard in a daze for a long while, then sighed, “Poor Dafeng. How is he ever going to find a wife now.”

After leaving the shop, Li Er went straight to the summit of Lion Peak, then went to the old Nascent Tier cultivator on the mountain to request a small boat. He was going to travel to a large ferry station, then make his way to Eastern Treasured Vial Continent from there.

The old man didn’t dare to ask any questions. Not only was Li Er the father of Lion Peak’s reincarnated founder, he was also a tenth-tier martial artist! At such close quarters, the old Nascent Tier cultivator knew that he was no match for Li Er.

On top of that, he had always felt like people like Li Er were the most terrifying type of people imaginable.

Under normal circumstances, they were far too easygoing. In fact, it was no exaggeration to call him a complete pushover. However, when he wasn’t in the mood to be amicable and easygoing, then the flames of his wrath would be able to easily burn a hole straight through Lion Peak, so he was definitely not to be messed with.

The old man smiled as he offered, “I’ll escort you down the mountain to that ferry station. I won’t be able to offer any significant help to you, but I can spare you from some minor inconveniences.”

Li Er didn’t turn down the offer, and he thanked the old man before riding the boat swiftly down the mountain, while the mountain master acted as his personal helmsman.

On that secluded spot on the mountain summit, the flame had produced a cloud of smoke, clearly depicting Old Man Yang sitting in the backyard of the Yang Family’s medicine shop.

After hearing about what had happened to Zheng Dafeng, Li Er had asked Old Man Yang if he could make a visit to Parasol Leaf Sect. Old Man Yang had told him that it was up to him, then swept a sleeve through the air to scatter the cloud of smoke.

If it’s up to me, then the decision is easy.

Only after reaching the tenth tier did he come to realize that there was an entire new world waiting for him, and most importantly, he knew what path to take to traverse this new world as quickly as possible, thereby ensuring that it would be a smooth journey for him all the way until he reached the end of the road.

He had heard that Du Mao had already been made to pay a very heavy price in Old Dragon City, losing both his bonded celestial weapon and his yang soul avatar, so at the very most, his cultivation base could only be at the Immortal Tier at the very highest at this point in time. On top of that, Old Man Yang had told Li Er that Parasol Leaf Sect’s mountain-protection formation wasn’t all that impressive.

Hence, if he could give Du Mao a suggestion, then it would be to go to the ancestral hall and pray to his ancestors. Otherwise, he may not get a chance to do so in the future.

Chen Ping’an, Pei Qian, and Zheng Dafeng were all accustomed to hardships, so over the past few days, the atmosphere in the Dust Medicinal Shop hadn’t been gloomy at all.

On the contrary, as Zheng Dafeng began to return to his normal joking self, things started to liven up in the shop.

Fan Er had also been brought to the shop for a visit, and he met his Dao mentor, Zheng Dafeng, in his room. While entering the room, he was able to suppress his tears, but as soon as he caught sight of Zheng Dafeng, the floodgates were instantly opened. However, it was unclear what Zheng Dafeng had told him, but following their conversation, Fan Er emerged from the room with a faint smile on his face.

Fan Junmao asked Chen Ping’an if he had made up his mind about whether he wanted to refine his bonded item on the sea of clouds, to which he had responded that he was still thinking about it.

Fan Er wanted to spar with Chen Ping’an, assuring him that he would go easy on him, only to be immediately knocked down a peg by a slap to the head from Fan Junmao. Pei Qian saw this as her opportunity to shine, and she volunteered to engage the “fourth-tier master martial artist” that was Fan Er in a battle. Before long, Fan Er was being chased all over the courtyard, while Pei Qian ran after him, swinging her hiking pole through the air as she did so.

While running away, Fan Er yelled, “How can you possess such unfathomable powers at such a young age? Could it be that you’re a legendary prodigy? Allow me to go back and train diligently for three more days before I come back to challenge you again!”

Pei Qian was sweating profusely in the wake of her “battle” against Fan Er, and she felt like she had made a splendid display of her own powers. Indeed, true to the style of her Deranged Demon Sword Techniques, she had even given herself an inadvertent knock on the forehead with her hiking poke while chasing after Fan Er. Her sword techniques were simply too powerful!

After Fan Er was grabbed by the collar and dragged out of the shop by Fan Junmao, Pei Qian turned to Wei Xian as she asked, “Old Man Wei, am I really that powerful now? I know that Fan Er was exaggerating his own powers…”

“Was he? Even if he was exaggerating, it wasn’t by much,” Wei Xian interjected while basking under the winter sun as he sat on a small stool.

Pei Qian wiped the sweat from her face as she declared, “So I really am a legendary prodigy! I was a little unsure of myself before, but that settles it! After I finish my transcriptions tonight, I’m going to invent a set of fist techniques and teach them to you tomorrow. You don’t have to thank me, just give me ten tanghulus as compensation.”

“I’m not going to learn your fist techniques,” Wei Xian replied with a shake of his head.

Pei Qian immediately rushed over to him with a furious look on her face as she asked, “Why? Are you looking down on me? Or are you unwilling to buy me tanghulus?”

“I’m willing to buy you tanghulus, but I don’t have any money left,” Wei Xian replied.

Pei Qian stomped a foot onto the ground in frustration as she grumbled, “How did you end up so poor that you don’t even have enough money left to buy tanghulus?”

She then suddenly crouched down and whispered into Wei Xian’s ear, “You still have that fancy imperial robe, don’t you? How about we sell it in exchange for silver? If you get in trouble for it, I’ll stick up for you. That’s what friends are for, is it not?”

“Then why don’t you sell that talisman of yours?” Wei Xian countered.

Pei Qian pulled out the yellow paper talisman before adhering it to her own forehead, and in a rare display of empathy and self-awareness, she said, “You’re right. I can’t bear to part with this talisman, and the same must apply to you with that imperial robe, so I won’t force you to sell it.”

“Oh? What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?” Wei Xian asked as he turned to look at her with a surprised expression.

Pei Qian looked around briefly to make sure that there wasn’t anyone else nearby, then whispered into Wei Xian’s ear, “I’m actually a princess, and I lost my way one day and ended up far away from the palace. Back when I was younger, I had a golden stool to sit on, and I would toss food away for fun.”

“That sounds like my childhood,” Wei Xian said with a nod.

Not only was Chen Ping’an sleeping on the ground of the medicinal shop every day, he was also using the shop’s counter as his desk.

Recently, he had been repeatedly reading and pondering the pill refinement scripture bestowed upon him by Lu Yong of Azure Tiger Palace.

At this point, the Dust Medicinal Shop had become an unspoken restricted area in Old Dragon City, and the Zhao Clan yin soul was also guarding the alley outside, so Chen Ping’an felt it was safe to place the smallest of the three pieces of Dragon Slaying Platform onto the counter, along with that golden jade tablet with the words “nourishing the noble spirit” engraved upon it.

The sword spirit hadn’t gone into detail about where the jade tablet had come from. All she had told him was that a certain old geezer had been quite fair in his punishments, punishing the more severe offender by restricting them to the confines of the Confucian temple, while the lighter offender had this jade tablet taken away.

Over the past few days, Chen Ping’an had been tossing a gold essence copper coin into the Golden Sweet Wine robe virtually every single day, and this was already the fourth one.

This was a vital matter that concerned his survival, so he couldn’t afford to be stingy.

As for the vials of Seated Meditation Pills, Fire Dragon Pills, and Rain Bringer Pills, Chen Ping’an had only taken a single Seated Meditation Pill, while the rest had all been given to Zheng Dafeng and the four picture scroll martial artists, leaving not even a single pill to spare.

All of a sudden, Chen Ping’an recalled something, and he stood up and made his way out into the backyard. Sui Youbian was practicing her standing meditation when she was approached by Chen Ping’an, who asked her to help Pei Qian strengthen her bones and tendons in preparation for martial arts training.

Pei Qian was ecstatic to hear this.

She was finally going to officially become Chen Ping’an’s most senior disciple!

Sui Youbian nodded in response.

However, Chen Ping’an had only just left the room when he heard Pei Qian erupting into tears, following which she rushed out of the room as quickly as she could while sobbing to Chen Ping’an about how she never wanted to learn martial arts again.

Sui Youbian also emerged from the room with a resigned look on her face as she said, “I already held back a lot, but she can’t bear even the slightest bit of pain.”

Chen Ping’an buried his face in the palm of his hand, too embarrassed to look at Sui Youbian.

Pei Qian was still clinging onto him with all her might, and not only was she sniveling incessantly and sweating profusely, her little face was etched with horror, as if she had just endured something traumatic.

Even before it was nighttime, Pei Qian approached Chen Ping’an at the counter of the medicinal shop and told him that she had made a transcription of a thousand characters. Even though she really had transcribed that many characters, she was still feeling very timid and uneasy.

Chen Ping’an was both amused and exasperated as he said, “It’s fine if you don’t want to learn martial arts, there’s no need to feel bad about it. Just put more effort into your studies from now on, and you can still achieve great things.”

Pei Qian skipped away joyfully upon hearing this, telling Chen Ping’an that she was going to chat with Wei Xian.

Chen Ping’an smiled in response, then continued to read through the pill refinement scripture.

All of a sudden, the image of Pei Qian standing at the intersection between the alley and the street outside the Dust Medicinal Shop sprang into his mind.

The helplessness that she had displayed at the time reminded him of a time when he had entered the mountains to gather medicine. As he was making his way back down from the mountains, he encountered a storm, and the influx of rainwater flooded the creek, blocking the shortest path down the mountain.

Even though he was terrified, he still gritted his teeth and attempted to jump over the flooded path so that he could get back to his ill mother.

With that in mind, Chen Ping’an felt a pang of sympathy in his heart.

While it was true that even the sword spirit had proclaimed that Pei Qian was an exceptional martial arts prodigy, Chen Ping’an didn’t feel like it was a waste or a pity that she didn’t want to practice martial arts.

She was still just a child, so it was only right that she behaved like one.

Back when he was a child, he had also had moments where he had been envious of other children his age flying kites at the immortal tomb, or nibbling on snacks, or wearing new clothes.

At the time, he was but a small and powerless child, and he had no choice but to sell the things that his parents had left behind one by one just so that he could afford to buy rice, and each time he did so, he would cry himself to sleep in bed the same night.

These hardships weren’t necessarily bad things, and if they could be overcome, then they serve as valuable experiences to be cherished.

Even so, Chen Ping’an still wanted the people that he cared about to be able to lead easier lives. At the very least, he didn’t want them to have to face such hardships at too young an age.

Having said that, in the face of the will of the heavens, the wishes and desires of any individuals were simply far too insignificant.

Chen Ping’an rested his chin down onto the counter, feeling a little drowsy, and before long, he had fallen asleep.

In Parasol Leaf Sect, no one had detected that anything was amiss aside from the few cultivators of the Upper Five Tiers in the sect.

Everyone else was still under the impression that their sect was the undisputed supreme force on Parasol Leaf Continent, and that even if Jade Tablet Sect, Planchette Writing Sect, and Peace and Tranquility Mountain were to combine their powers, they would only just barely be able to contend with Parasol Leaf Sect.

Over the past few centuries, all of the disciples of the sect had been forbidden from revealing to any outsiders that Du Mao had already reached the Ascension Tier. They were only allowed to proclaim that Du Mao was at the Immortal Tier and had chances of reaching the Ascension Tier, but in reality, this was already an open secret in the cultivation world of Parasol Leaf Continent.

All of the prominent cultivators on the continent were already aware of Du Mao’s cultivation base, and the only reason that they didn’t mention it was that they were afraid doing so would draw the ire of Parasol Leaf Sect.

Aside from Du Mao, Parasol Leaf Sect also had several Unpolished Jade Tier cultivators who also had resounding reputations. For example, the old ancestor who was responsible for overseeing the sect’s genealogical records had just returned to the sect after successfully slaying a twelfth-tier great demon.

On top of that, the current leader of Parasol Leaf Sect was not just an Unpolished Jade Tier Qi refiner, but also a swordsman!

The sect leader had also nurtured an exceptionally talented direct disciple, a swordsman that had reached the Nascent Tier at only three hundred years of age.

Given Parasol Leaf Sect’s tremendous foundation of power, how could the Jade Tablet Sect even hope to compete with them?

Parasol Leaf Sect’s territory spanned hundreds of kilometers, so it was a grueling task for one to visit even a nearby acquaintance unless they were capable of flight.

On top of that, the sect owned a Parasol Leaf Small World that was only accessible to Nascent Tier earth immortals and cultivators of the Upper Five Tiers.

However, one day, the supreme pride and confidence shared by all of Parasol Leaf Sect’s disciples began to waver, and many of the things that they had previously taken for granted were suddenly stripped away.

On that fateful night, almost all of the sect’s cultivators of the Middle and Upper Five Tiers sensed a tremendous aura closing in from the north, bearing down upon Parasol Leaf Sect’s northern border.

Even before he showed himself, his sword qi had already arrived, and it crashed down upon the green barrier released by the sect’s mountain-protection formation.

The barrier was instantly shattered, and even though a second parasol umbrella instantly took shape from the water and mountain fortune that had been accumulated at the cost of countless snowflake coins, it was also destroyed with a single sword strike.

Each successive parasol umbrella that was conjured up was smaller than the last one, and only as the sixth one emerged did the nameless swordsman appear, hovering in mid-air over a hundred kilometers away from Parasol Leaf Sect’s ancestral mountain.

“Come out, Du Mao. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee that my seventh sword strike won’t harm any innocent bystanders,” he declared.

In this instant, everyone in the southern region of Parasol Leaf Sect was staring blankly up at a piercing speck of light in the sky, while for those in the north, none of the Qi refiners below the Golden Core Tier even dared to set eyes upon the swordsman.

Whenever they did, they would feel as if wisps of sword qi were piercing viciously into their eyes, forcing them to hurriedly lower their heads.

Right at this moment, a new barrier appeared before the swordsman with the ancestral mountain at its center, and it was powered by the spiritual energy of Parasol Leaf Small World. This was the core of the sect’s mountain-protection formation, and it only encompassed an area with a radius of roughly a hundred and fifty kilometers around the ancestral mountain, just large enough to keep the swordsman at bay.

In reality, it wasn’t keeping him out at all. He had already forced his way into his sect, and he could easily force his way in even deeper, but was merely choosing not to.

The leader of Parasol Leaf Sect had an ancestral hall jade tablet strapped to his waist, allowing him to pass through the barrier, and he arrived before the swordsman before asking with a smile, “Am I speaking to Sword Immortal Zuo You?”

“Are you Du Mao?” the swordsman asked.

He then answered his own question: “It doesn’t seem like it.”

Hence, he lashed out.

It was a battle between two sword immortals of the Upper Five Tiers, but contrary to the expectations of Parasol Leaf Sect disciples, there was no lengthy, arduous battle.

Battles between swordsmen generally reached their conclusions faster than battles between normal Qi refiners to begin with, and on top of that, there was a massive disparity in power between the two combatants.

Before long, the Parasol Leaf Sect Leader had been struck down, and he plummeted straight through the barrier before crashing into a mountain, completely shattering the mountain summit.

The swordsman then sliced a large opening into the barrier with a single, swift slash of his sword, and he invited himself into the sect like a rude guest without any manners.

Countless Parasol Leaf Sect disciples flared up with rage as a torrent of radiant immortal treasures were sent flying at him from all directions, but in the face of the tremendous sword qi surging out of Zuo You’s body, none of the immortal treasures were even able to reach within a thousand feet of him.

Zuo You cast his gaze toward the ancestral mountain with a serious and earnest expression, as if he were a student that had come here to learn, and he declared, “My master told me to come and fuck your mother. I struggle when it comes to reading books, but this is not a difficult task for me to complete at all. Hence, I must ask you this, Du Mao: is your mother still alive, and is she attractive?”

Deathly silence ensued.