Unsheathed

Cui Dongshan inadvertently came across an impoverished vagrant cultivator at the Lower Five Tiers who was using a lowly stealing technique. He was controlling a dozen or so small ghosts and spirits and using them to steal money from an ordinary family in the county city. Like ants moving nests, the small ghosts and spirits worked together to carry the copper coins and loose silver. Meanwhile, the vagrant cultivator was squatting at the foot of the wall and smiling widely as he weighed the two or three largest pieces of silver in his hand.

Little by little, the copper coins and loose silver would add up to a sum that was no longer little.

When he turned around, however, he was shocked to discover a young boy in white squatting beside him and… seemingly enjoying the moon with him?

The vagrant cultivator shivered in fright.

Cui Dongshan smiled with squinted eyes and asked, “You can actually bring yourself to do this? Why don’t you steal from wealthier families?”

The vagrant cultivator gulped and replied in fear and unease, “Because the door gods of those wealthier families are truly far too difficult to deal with. I’ll end up losing money if the money-moving ghosts and spirits that I’ve raised through so much hard work are killed by the door gods.”

Cui Dongshan nodded and said, “That makes sense.”

The eyes of the vagrant cultivator darted around as he considered how he should escape. Should he kill the strange young boy squatting behind him? However, was this worth it for the sake of a few taels of silver? Moreover, heavens knew who would end up killing whom.

Cui Dongshan extended two fingers and pinched up a small money-moving ghost that was only as tall as a thumb. He then placed it in his palm and held his hands together, chaotically rubbing it around. The eyelids of the vagrant cultivator twitched when he saw this.

Okay then, by the looks of it, one of his great generals had been martyred on the battlefield now. After all, how could it withstand being flattened in someone’s hands like this? The money-moving ghosts that he had raised were all extremely low quality, or else they wouldn’t have failed to navigate past the door gods of the wealthier families.

While the vagrant cultivator was feeling absolute heartache, Cui Dongshan spread his hands apart to reveal the grimacing little money-moving ghost that looked like it was now wearing an additional layer of red clothes. Cui Dongshan tossed the ghost to the ground and commanded, “Go, head over to a wealthy family and steal a block of gold for me.”

The small ghost clenched its hands into fists and puffed its cheeks up as it earnestly ran into the distance.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, the small ghost actually returned with a piece of gold the size of a fingernail.

The vagrant cultivator was stunned, and he hurriedly cupped his fists in respect when he eventually came to his senses, saying, “Esteemed Immortal, your profound mystical abilities are truly an eye-opener for me.”

Cui Dongshan stood up and disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a vagrant cultivator who was beside himself with excitement.

Cui Dongshan visited the scholarly temple and the martial sage temple in the county city, yet he couldn’t stand the excessive respect that he was shown in both temples. He quickly took his leave after making some brief small talk.

However, he still felt very bored, so he chose the colorful door gods of some random family to bless with his mystical abilities. He elevated the level of the two door gods, giving them the ability to form godly bodies in the future. They were still miles and miles away from becoming genuine deities, and they could only frighten some of the weakest and most useless yin entities and block out a bit more murderous aura, but it was still a great blessing for them.

Afterward, he visited the second wealthiest clan in the county city and snapped off the mystical beasts on the roof ridges one by one, casually tossing them to the ground.

He wandered around aimlessly, and he followed his heart and did as he pleased.

To have an earth immortal become as bored as this… Cui Dongshan was truly one of a kind.

It was already nighttime when Cui Dongshan left Chen Ping’an’s room with Shi Rou, and Chen Ping’an walked out of his room and headed next door after practicing the Heaven and Earth Stance for a while. He knocked on the door lightly and asked with an angry chuckle, “It’s already so late, yet you’re still awake?”

Pei Qian had lit the oil lamp and was reading a novel about a wandering martial artist that she had obtained recently, and she hurriedly extinguished the lamp when she heard Chen Ping’an knocking and quickly leaped into bed. She pretended that she had just been woken up, and she replied, “Huh? I was sleeping? Why haven’t you gone to sleep yet, Master? Do you want me to open the door?”

Chen Ping’an chuckled and didn’t make a fuss about Pei Qian lying. Instead, he said in reminder, “There’s no need to open the door. You can read whenever you want, so make sure not to strain your eyes too much. We’re staying here for another day tomorrow, so you can continue to read in the morning.”

Chen Ping’an turned around to leave, yet another thought popped into his mind at this moment. He turned back and said through the door, “After I leave, don’t light the oil lamp and hide in your blanket to read.”

Pei Qian’s jaw dropped to the ground when she heard this. Her master was truly very impressive! He could even read her mind like this?!

She had no option but to reply, “Okay, I understand.”

After Chen Ping’an left, Pei Qian was still itching to read the novel and dive into all of the intense fights and complicated relationships. However, she resisted her urge and remained in bed. Her eyes were wide open, and she didn’t feel sleepy at all. Only after a long time did she finally become drowsy and fall asleep.

The next day, Cui Dongshan went to Chen Ping’an’s room to teach him Go after they finished eating breakfast. The two of them were still focusing on that small corner formation from the Iridescent Cloud Go Manual.

Lu Baixiang was the first person to walk over and spectate their exchange, and he immediately became engrossed by what he saw. In the end, he found a brief moment of respite to hurriedly walk away and call Sui Youbian over to watch the lesson with him. He told her that things were indescribably wonderful.

When playing Go with Lu Baixiang before, Sui Youbian had once faced Lu Baixiang’s small corner formation in the early game and been completely obliterated. However, she had refused to accept this outcome, and she had allowed Lu Baixiang to use the same set formation three games in a row. In the end, she had lost the early advantage in all three games and suffered resounding defeats. In fact, she had even made an exception and played some random and seemingly unreasonable moves, yet it had still been insufficient for her to wrest back control.

Thus, Sui Youbian’s interest was slightly piqued when she heard Lu Baixiang claim that he had only comprehended thirty to forty percent of the small corner set formation. This caused her to follow Lu Baixiang and walk into Chen Ping’an’s room. She wanted to see how Cui Dongshan taught Go, and she also wanted to see how Chen Ping’an learned Go.

It wasn’t long before Zhu Lian also came over to join in on the fun. Wei Xian was the last of the four martial artists to enter Chen Ping’an’s room.

However, it only took a short while for Sui Youbian to lose interest in the lesson. Chen Ping’an’s talent in Go was far too ordinary, and someone as slow as him wouldn’t be able to improve by any noticeable amount regardless of how divinely skilled Cui Dongshan was at teaching.

It was inevitable for Sui Youbian, who was already masterful at Go, to feel anxious and bored at the same time. In the end, she silently walked away. While leaving, she couldn’t help but steal a few glances at the old man who was sitting behind Cui Dongshan, having a nagging feeling that there was something strange and awkward about him.

Why did she feel like he was an… old sissy who was even more revolting than Zhu Lian? He was an old man, yet he didn’t dare to catch the gazes of other people. Not only that, but he even liked to purse his lips and tug at the hems of his clothes with orchid fingers[1]?

Zhu Lian and Wei Xian also left one after another following Sui Youbian’s departure.

The battlefields in Old Dragon City had been isolated, so the four martial artists from the picture scrolls had never actually seen Du Mao. They had also never seen Shi Rou, the beautiful skeletal ghost, since she had been held in the yellow paper talisman. As a result, Sui Youbian and the others were all taken by surprise when they saw Du Mao’s immortal body suddenly appear among them. However, they simply viewed the old man as an outsider whom Cui Dongshan had randomly picked up who knew where.

Cui Dongshan locked himself in his room after lunch.

The next morning, Chen Ping’an and the others set off again, heading toward the capital of the Azure Phoenix Nation.

The yellow earth bull had initially been very eye-catching. After Cui Dongshan jumped on its back, it was still very eye-catching, but much less so than before. The passers-by who saw this simply speculated that the handsome young boy in white hailed from a wealthy clan and was traveling around the cultivation world with his subordinates. His choices of mount and subordinates were indeed somewhat strange, but he appeared very carefree and quite elegant for his age.

With Cui Dongshan present, their trip to the capital of the Azure Phoenix Nation became slightly more relaxed and casual.

The four martial artists from the picture scrolls ruminated over this and each understood some things. If Chen Ping’an had become livelier and less serious after meeting his two friends, Zhang Shanfeng and Xu Yuanxia, then it could be said that he had become carefree within reasonable limits after reuniting with his disciple.

Even though the relationship between them didn’t conform to the typical relationships between masters and disciples, it was undoubtedly the case that Cui Dongshan’s arrival had lifted some weight off Chen Ping’an’s shoulders. Moreover, even though Chen Ping’an was the master and Cui Dongshan was the disciple, the former was also asking the latter about Legalist principles while learning Go from him.

As they traveled, Cui Dongshan always insisted on paying, and he refused to let his master spend a single copper coin.

Listening to the casual conversations between Cui Dongshan and Chen Ping’an, the four martial artists from the picture scrolls were also able to gain a deeper and more complete understanding of the Majestic World.

For example, Lu Baixiang learned that apart from attaining Dao or reaching the End Tier of martial arts in this world that was filled with all kinds of unique and wonderful things, there were also Confucians who genuinely focused all of their time and effort on seeking knowledge and self-cultivation.

There were also many Qi refiners who belonged to the hundred schools of thought, and there were Spiritual Masters who prioritized the teachings of their Daoist orthodoxy over the level of their cultivation bases.

Sui Youbian witnessed the strange and peculiar immortal techniques used by Cui Dongshan, and she learned how these techniques could be flawlessly used to one’s advantage in everyday life.

Zhu Lian approached Cui Dongshan twice when there was no one else around. His thinking was very simple, and he only wanted to confirm how many immortal treasures this person actually possessed.

Meanwhile, Wei Xian was still the quietest and most taciturn of the four people. He got along best with Pei Qian, and the two of them would often speak to each other with no sense of appropriate respect or seniority.

Just like that time when Cui Dongshan and Chen Ping’an had left the capital of the Great Sui Nation and traveled together, Cui Dongshan would occasionally disappear from time to time and Chen Ping’an would never ask about his whereabouts.

Shi Rou, the old man in the eyes of Sui Youbian and the others, finally appeared less like a sissy than before. He no longer swayed his hips like a woman, and there was no longer a watery and effeminate look in his eyes. He also stopped making orchid fingers subconsciously, and he finally appeared like a normal old man.

Even so, Shi Rou was still the most disliked member of the entire group. In fact, her standing was even inferior to that of the yellow earth bull.

Pei Qian was relatively diligent when she practiced the White Ape Sword-Carrying Technique and the White Ape Saber-Wielding Technique. These were just stances anyway, and they were quite impressive and mighty-looking. Pei Qian didn’t need to suffer any excruciating pain when practicing them, and compared to the six-step walking meditation, she much preferred to use the bamboo sword and bamboo saber that Chen Ping’an had made her to practice these techniques she had learned from Daoist Nun Huang Ting.

One time, however, Cui Dongshan was sitting cross-legged on the earth bull and mocked Pei Qian. He brutally disparaged her sword-carrying technique, ridiculing it as completely useless. Cui Dongshan clutched his belly and roared with laughter, laughing so hard that he fell off the back of the earth bull. This severely dented Pei Qian’s confidence and caused her to become depressed for several days. During this time, she only dared to practice walking meditation every day.

After traveling for a few more days, they arrived at the prefectural city closest to the capital of the Azure Phoenix Nation.

Cui Dongshan somehow managed to find a tranquil immortal inn in the bustling prefectural city for them to stay in.

Chen Ping’an genuinely lacked talent when it came to playing Go, yet he didn’t toss it aside because of this. At the same time, he didn’t force himself to keep playing and improving either. He spent approximately two hours learning Go from Cui Dongshan every day, and this wouldn’t affect him practicing his fist techniques or sword techniques.

Arriving at the immortal inn called the Hundred Flower Garden, Chen Ping’an learned that the innkeeper was a Sea Observation Tier cultivator who looked like a middle-aged man. However, the innkeeper didn’t appear in front of Cui Dongshan and the others.

The Hundred Flower Garden occupied a fairly large area in the prefectural city, and there were all kinds of peculiar and wonderful flowers and plants decorating the inn and refreshing one’s mind and body.

Because the grand debate between Buddhism and Daoism was about to begin in the capital nearby, there were few spare rooms remaining in this immortal inn located in the prefectural city closest to the capital.

Pei Qian once again shared a room with Sui Youbian, while Lu Baixiang, Zhu Lian, and Wei Xian all squeezed into one room. Cui Dongshan, Shi Rou, and Chen Ping’an were the only people who enjoyed an entire room to themselves.

1. “Orchid fingers” is a gesture made with the tip of the thumb touching the tip of the middle finger to form an oval, and the other fingers slightly raised, resembling the petals of an orchid. It originates in Chinese opera, specifically Beijing Opera performances by Mei Lanfang, and it’s considered an elegant, dainty, and feminine gesture. ☜