Unsheathed

Staying in the Hundred Flower Garden was very expensive, but Chen Ping’an and the others were indeed getting what they paid for. There were many benefits that money couldn’t buy. For example, they could get interesting insider knowledge about the immortals in the mountains and how they were reacting to the imminent debate between Buddhism and Daoism. The Hundred Flower Inn would collate this information into something that looked like an official government report and deliver it to the guests each day.

Apart from this, each room in the inn was equipped with several nifty spirit tools. Well, even though they were spirit tools, they were crafted from scrap pieces and worth a total of two or three snowflake coins. In any case, guests were free to take these spirit tools with them when they left.

Pei Qian was overjoyed when she learned of this.

She started to flatter Sui Youbian, and after obtaining the small spirit tools in their room, she ran over to Old Man Wei and Little Bai’s room to treat them to some roasted seeds and fruit. She dawdled around for a long time, and she refused to leave no matter what. In the end, Zhu Lian was the one who became so annoyed that he told Pei Qian to hurry up and take the trinkets and leave.

In the end, with the addition of the four spirit tools from Chen Ping’an’s room, Pei Qian managed to gather ten low-grade spirit tools. Cultivators at the Middle Five Tiers wouldn’t care about attractive but useless spirit tools like these, while those at the Lower Five Tiers couldn’t afford to stay at inns like this to begin with. As a result, Pei Qian became filthy rich in a single night. Her treasure box could no longer house so many treasures, so she could only leave them in Chen Ping’an’s minimization treasure for the moment.

This was an inn for powerful esteemed immortals, so the atmosphere of the inn was naturally calm and peaceful. Moreover, after forging a good relationship with the local government, the Hundred Flower Inn was allowed to set up a formation that could gather spiritual energy from the wind and water, allowing the spiritual energy in the inn to be far more abundant than the spiritual energy in the prefectural city outside.

In addition to this, there were also two colorful door gods plastered on the front doors of the inn. They were genuine talismanic door gods, and divine warriors suited in golden armor would step out if sinister entities dared to approach them, wielding weapons and capable of vanquishing ghosts.

Apart from this, the inn would also provide guests with a small plate of immortal fruit every day. These were the best and freshest produce of an Agrarian cultivator in the Hundred Flower Garden, and they were one of the main drawing points of the inn.

While transcribing texts, Pei Qian paused and put her calligraphy brush down several times. When she rotated her wrists to loosen them up, she would always see Chen Ping’an staring at the plate of jujubes and pears in a daze.

Pei Qian was slightly puzzled.

It seemed like her master was being reminded of something unhappy.

When Pei Qian finished transcribing texts, she discovered that Chen Ping’an was still sitting in the same spot as before. It was just that he was looking out the window now.

Pei Qian was slightly worried, so she joked, “What’s wrong, Master? Are you thinking about the Mistress?”

Chen Ping’an came to his senses and replied with a faint smile, “Do you want to transcribe another five hundred characters?”

Pei Qian furrowed her brows with a pained expression.

Chen Ping’an stood up and patted Pei Qian’s head. He then started to walk around the table and practice the six-step walking meditation.

Pei Qian felt increasingly puzzled. Chen Ping’an would usually practice the Heaven and Earth Stance that combined all three stances together now, and he would seldom practice this simple and elementary fist stance alone.

Pei Qian tidied up the paper and the calligraphy brush and put them away. She then rested her arms and head on the table and casually asked, “Master, were you never afraid of ghosts and fiends ever since you were little?”

As Chen Ping’an slowly practiced walking meditation and walked around the table, he replied, “I was a bit different from you. I stopped being afraid of ghosts at a very young age, and I even wished that there were truly ghosts in the world. I would often go to an immortal tomb located outside my hometown by myself. When I became a bit older, I needed to enter the mountains to collect firewood or venture out by myself to search for suitable clay to make porcelain. I was never afraid of ghosts and fiends during that time.”

“Wow! Master is truly so amazing!” Pei Qian exclaimed.

Chen Ping’an simply responded with a smile, not explaining the reasons behind this.

Noon arrived, and the Hundred Flower Inn delivered to them another report about immortals in the mountains. There were all kinds of different information in the report, and there was one specific item that interested Chen Ping’an the most. After his session of Go with Cui Dongshan, he asked his disciple for his thoughts.

While marching north with troops, Chief Military Governor Wei Liang had passed a provincial city. Due to a minor matter there, the chief military governor had caught two officials who were accused of dereliction of their duties. One was a general who was accused of corruption and perversion of law, having accepted more than one hundred thousand taels of silver in bribes. The other was a scholarly official who had twisted facts with his calligraphy brush. However, the former had only been demoted and banished, while the latter had been directly executed.

Without needing to ponder over this question, Cui Dongshan immediately replied, “This is how Legalists deal with problems. Oftentimes, people will view the latter as having committed a lesser crime than the former. However, Legalists are the opposite, and they insist on upgrading the severity of the latter crime.”

Cui Dongshan smiled and asked, “Master, do you understand the reason now?”

Chen Ping’an fell deep into thought. After a while, he sighed with emotion and remarked, “How impressive.”

Cui Dongshan casually continued, “To exist for a thousand years without fading into obscurity, the hundred schools of thought that exist beyond the three teachings naturally possess solid foundations and distinctive qualities. Thus, a certain person already made this remark a long time ago: ‘Life is limited, while knowledge is unlimited. To pursue that which is unlimited with that which is limited, such is a tiresome task indeed.’[1]

“Mortals are fond of the first half of the saying, while cultivators will appreciate the second half of the saying. To put it simply, a cultivator can spend their entire life studying a single teaching or a single school of thought, yet they still won’t dare to claim that they’ve comprehensively studied everything and reached the end of the teaching. With this in mind, one needs to make trade-offs when deciding what to study. When considering what to study, one has to examine whether one can genuinely transform the knowledge into one’s own knowledge. When considering what not to study, one has to examine whether they’re picking up the trivial and discarding the profound.”

Chen Ping’an nodded in response.

Cui Dongshan grabbed a pear and took a bite, continuing in a muffled voice, “However, knowledge is knowledge, and human conduct is human conduct. There are some links between the two, yet there are no definitive links between the two. It’s because of this that worldly matters are so complicated, no?

“It comes down to a person’s destiny and karmic fate regarding how they live, what books they read, and whether the books they read are beneficial. There are far too many fools in the world, and they fail to understand that the primary goal of reading is to better understand the world. These fools are completely trashing the sincere words and teachings of the sages. When sages impart their knowledge, the scriptures that get created are like lanterns that hang in the night sky. These lanterns illuminate different paths, and each lantern is different in size and brightness from the one next to it. Yet it’s a shame that most people in the world are decidedly blind.”

Chen Ping’an offered no response to this.

Cui Dongshan was simply making conversation to stave off boredom, so he quickly changed the topic and started to talk about Little Baoping’s glorious feats.

At the end of last year, Li Huai, the little fool, had gotten into an argument with a classmate of his. The classmate had snatched away a book that the academy had only just given to Li Huai, claiming that it was his. However, Li Baoping was coincidentally walking past, and she had immediately settled the argument between them.

After taking the book, she had told Li Huai and his classmate that she might as well tear the book in half and give them a half each, since it was impossible to determine the true owner. The other child had happily agreed to this solution. And thus, Li Baoping had tossed the book to Li Huai and viciously beat up the other child.

Standing in the distance, an old scholar had watched on and laughed heartily upon seeing Li Baoping’s solution. Li Huai’s classmate didn’t know where he had gone wrong, so he sobbed and ran to the old scholar to cry about the injustice. In the end, he was rewarded with another session of physical punishment by the old scholar.

Chen Ping’an laughed in amusement.

Pei Qian was also sitting there and listening, and she sighed, “The person who stole the book was far too stupid. Ah… Sure enough, there are far too many fools in the world. This can’t be helped.”

Chen Ping’an immediately rewarded her with a knuckle to the forehead and scolded, “The important issue isn’t whether he was stupid or not. Rather, he was wrong to steal the book in the first place. If he stole the book and was smart enough to escape punishment, then that’s even more wrong.”

“I didn’t say stealing was right,” Pei Qian moaned in an aggrieved voice.

Cui Dongshan smiled and said, “This world is never short on people who are both stupid and sinister, and this type of people can’t be educated by Confucian knowledge.”

Pei Qian wholeheartedly agreed with this, and she nodded and said, “The Legalists that you mentioned just then are quite impressive. They appear to be very effective against bad people.”

However, Pei Qian immediately covered her mouth after saying this, afraid that Chen Ping’an would get angry at her.

“It’s not wrong for you to think like this right now,” Chen Ping’an said with a smile. “However, you still need to read more books. You shouldn’t feel like you already have all of the correct answers now.”

Pei Qian thought for a moment before replying, “Then Confucianism is still better.”

It was already tiring enough for her to transcribe that Confucian classic right now, so wouldn’t she be seeking torture for herself if she were made to transcribe an additional Legalist scripture?

Cui Dongshan raised a thumb and remarked, “Sure enough, you’re just as unyielding as Zhu Lian said.”

Pei Qian pretended that she couldn’t hear this.

Cui Dongshan chuckled and asked, “Pei Qian, you have a fairly good relationship with Wei Xian, right?”

Pei Qian immediately became alert, and she replied with a smile, “Our relationship is only so-so.”

“Oho, such flimsy convictions! How very lively!” Cui Dongshan exclaimed.

Pei Qian rolled her eyes.

Cui Dongshan would continue to offer words of flattery to her master, yet he only knew how to spew absolute nonsense in front of her. He wouldn’t offer her a single word of praise. Hmph, this person was truly very detestable.

If Cui Dongshan angered her master one day, and if she, the opening disciple, had mastered her peerless sword techniques and saber techniques at that time, then she would copy those gallant heroes in the martial arts novels! She would clean out the sect for her master!

Cui Dongshan was like a mind-reading parasite in Pei Qian’s brain, and he chuckled, “What, you want to find an opportunity to fight with me in the future with those pathetic sword and saber techniques of yours?”

“What are you talking about?” Pei Qian asked with a baffled expression.

Cui Dongshan grabbed a jujube from the plate and gently threw it at Pei Qian’s forehead, saying, “Tsk, trying to compete with me, little one?”

Pei Qian caught the falling jujube and feigned throwing it back. However, Cui Dongshan remained unfazed and unmoving. Pei Qian feigned throwing the jujube back several times, yet Cui Dongshan simply smiled and remained still. Pei Qian felt like she most likely wouldn’t be able to hit him. Even if she were lucky enough to hit him, she would most probably end up suffering more than him in the long run. With this in mind, Pei Qian stuffed the jujube into her mouth and shot an angry glare at Cui Dongshan.

A look of panic suddenly appeared on Cui Dongshan’s face, and he exclaimed, “Not good! This jujube is a descendant of the jujube tree spirit in the Hundred Flower Garden, and cultivators like me naturally don’t need to be afraid of tree spirits like this trying to attack us. But you’re only a little child, so that tree spirit will definitely look for the weakest person among us to attack. Before you go to bed at night, make sure that you close all of the windows and doors. Otherwise, it will be really frightening if an army of branches crawls into your room in the middle of the night…”

While speaking, Cui Dongshan waved his arms around and pretended to be a tree spirit sneaking into someone’s room to harm them.

Pei Qian was terrified, and she immediately grabbed her favorite talisman and forcefully slapped it onto her forehead. She then crossed her arms.

Cui Dongshan sighed and lamented, “This isn’t enough. Your talisman is a Treasure Pagoda Demon-Suppressing Talisman, and it’s ineffective against tree spirits like this one.”

Hearing this, Pei Qian retrieved the Yang Energy Illumination Talisman that Chen Ping’an had given her much later and also stuck it on her forehead.

Cui Dongshan raised his hands and said in worry, “Don’t! This talisman is a guiding talisman, and it’s not able to resist ghosts and spirits either. If anything, it might have the opposite effect and attract the attention of other tree spirits instead. They’ll feel like you’re provoking them, and an entire army of tree spirits and flower spirits will march to your room alongside the jujube tree spirit. At that time, there’ll be spirits all around your bed and all under it as well.”

Pei Qian pursed her lips and puckered up her tanned face. Tears also started to well up in her eyes.

Chen Ping’an smacked the back of Cui Dongshan’s head and scolded him with a smile, “Stop trying to frighten her.”

Cui Dongshan replied with a nod before clutching his belly with one hand and pointing at Pei Qian with his other. “Hahaha, what a little idiot!”

Pei Qian’s embarrassment transformed into anger, and she was just about to run next door to retrieve her hiking pole. After all, she felt like her self-created Deranged Demon Sword Techniques was her mightiest technique right now. She was going to fight him to the death!

Seeing the situation take a turn for the worse, Cui Dongshan immediately stood up and slipped away.

After Cui Dongshan ran away, Pei Qian squeezed out a smile and said to Chen Ping’an, “Master, I was only pretending to be scared just then. Even if I don’t have the two talismans, I’ll still recite those sagely classics every night before I go to bed. That way, I can definitely resist all evil and deter all ghosts and spirits, right?”

Chen Ping’an looked at the skinny little girl who still had two talismans stuck on her forehead, and he forcefully suppressed his laughter and replied with a nod, “Perhaps.”

“Only perhaps?” Pei Qian exclaimed in a flustered voice.

Chen Ping’an smiled and said, “This is an immortal inn, so how can there be ghosts and spirits that dare to harm people?”

“What if there are?” Pei Qian asked with a pitiful expression.

Chen Ping’an faltered for a moment before patting her head and replying, “Don’t worry, aren’t I next door to you? What is there to be afraid of?”

Pei Qian’s eyes lit up, and she immediately removed the talismans from her forehead and placed them back inside her sleeve. She then ran over to the window and stood on her tippy-toes, muttering something to the garden outside. It was without a doubt that she was saying something naive like, “My master is Chen Ping’an, so let’s keep out of each other’s way.”

1. An extract from Zhuangzi’s Nourishing the Lord of Life. Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE, during the Warring States period. ☜