Unsheathed

Upon first arriving at the Great Sui Nation’s Mountain Cliff Academy to study, Li Huai had been severely bullied by his classmates and the other students. However, there was always brightness after gloom, and not only did the bullying eventually stop, but he even managed to make two new friends. They were the same age as him, and one was a talented student from a poor family, Liu Guan.

The other was the descendant of a wealthy clan in the Great Sui Nation, Ma Lian.

Liu Guan was extremely bold and courageous even though he was from a poor family, and he would always come up with peculiar and unrestrained thoughts. On the other hand, it was surprisingly Ma Lian who was timid and cowardly even though he came from the most well-off family of the three friends. He was always hesitant and nervous, and this caused him to become a little lackey of Liu Guan and Li Huai, always following them around and playing with them.

Ma Lian was from a first-rate clan in the Great Sui Nation, one which was related through marriage to the Geyang Gao Clan. Not only that, but Ma Lian was also a direct descendant and the eldest grandson. Thus, many students in the Great Sui Nation’s Mountain Cliff Academy ostracized and ridiculed him now that he was hanging out with Li Huai and Liu Guan, calling him a pathetic lackey and a money bag.

Summer arrived, and the three children who were in the same year, same class, and same dorm continued to sneak out of their dorm even when the academy started to enforce a night curfew. They went to the lakeside to cool down, and this was an act that would earn them a good scolding and the punishment of transcribing texts, standing in a corner, and rulers to the palm if they were caught by a teacher.

Liu Guan led the way tonight, and he walked with a confident swagger as if he were a teacher on night patrol on the academy grounds. Li Huai looked around in a relatively cautious manner, while Ma Lian had a reluctant expression as he hung his head and carefully followed behind Li Huai.

The three of them arrived at the lake without a hitch, and Liu Guan took off his boots and dipped his feet into the slightly cool lake water. However, he felt like something was still missing, so he turned to his relieved friend and said, “Ma Lian, it’s so humid and hot in summer, and if I remember correctly, isn’t your Ma Clan regarded as having the best fan collection in the capital? When you return home, remember to grab three fans and give Li Huai and me one fan each. That way, we can cool ourselves down when we do homework after class.”

There was a pitiable expression on Ma Lian’s face as he replied, “My grandpa cherishes those fans the most, and he treats each fan like a treasure close to his heart. He won’t give them to me.”

Liu Guan rolled his eyes and said, “Then just steal a few fans that your grandpa doesn’t look at often. Even if he finds out, will he truly beat you to death?”

Ma Lian truly wanted to cry.

Li Huai smoothed things over and said, “Forget about it. Ma Lian is a scaredy-cat, and his expression always gives him away. If he truly goes home to steal a few fans, it’s extremely likely that his mom and dad will immediately notice something amiss.”

Ma Lian vigorously nodded in agreement.

Liu Guan sighed and lamented, “What a waste of your good background. You can’t do this, and you don’t dare to do that. If you ask me, Ma Lian, I’d say that you won’t achieve much even when you grow older. At most, you’ll simply continue to live off your clan’s wealth. After all, your grandpa is the Ministry of Revenue’s head minister and the great scholar of the Lingying Hall, while your father is only a prefectural overseer in the regions and your uncle is only a measly seal overseeing official even though he’s still in the capital. Following this pattern, you’ll probably be nothing more than a county magistrate when it’s your turn to become an official.”

Ma Lian sighed again and again, not retorting his friend as he spoke. He didn’t have the courage to argue with Liu Guan, and he didn’t think that Liu Guan was wrong in the first place.

Of the three of them, Liu Guan was scolded the most by the teachers, but even a blind idiot could tell that the teachers actually had the highest hopes and expectations for Liu Guan. They were neutral toward Ma Lian, and his results were slightly better than that of Li Huai, who was always at the bottom of the cohort.

Li Huai patted Ma Lian’s shoulder and consoled, “Becoming a county magistrate is already very impressive. Over at my hometown, the highest-ranking official used to be a kiln supervision official, and it was only recently that we finally got a county magistrate. In any case, you’ll still be our friend regardless of how high-ranking or low-ranking your official position is. If you become a low-ranking official, Liu Guan and I will definitely still be your friend. If you become a high-ranking official, however, make sure not to forget about us, okay?”

“I definitely won’t forget you guys,” Ma Lian hurriedly promised. “I’ll always treat the two of you as my best friends.”

Liu Guan chuckled and asked, “Between me and Li Huai, who would you say your best friend is?”

Ma Lian was dumbfounded, and he felt like his answer would be wrong no matter what he said. Even though he admired Liu Guan’s talent and smarts as well as his maturity and resoluteness, deep down in his heart, he still enjoyed hanging out with Li Huai more. Li Huai was more easy-going and less incisive, and he wouldn’t pick on him and make him feel ashamed and inferior all the time.

Li Huai smiled and placed his feet in the water, causing him to immediately shiver and draw a sharp. He laughed and said, “I’ll take second place and give first place to Liu Guan. I won’t compete with him, especially since he comes first in everything anyway.”

Liu Guan wrapped his arm around Li Huai’s shoulders and chuckled, “You’re speaking as if you’re purposely conceding first place to me. Can you beat me anyway?”

Li Huai hurriedly begged for mercy, replying, “No, I can’t beat you. Anyway, why are you trying to compete with someone whose results are always at the bottom of the cohort, Liu Guan? Don’t you find this embarrassing?”

Ma Lian smiled in secret.

At the end of the day, this was a peaceful and carefree period of the three children’s lives.

The angry bellow of a teacher suddenly traveled over from the distance. Liu Guan pushed Li Huai and Ma Lian’s shoulders, saying, “You guys run first, I’ll hold the bulbous-nosed Mr. Han back!”

Ma Lian immediately sprinted for his life without uttering a single word. In fact, he was running away barefoot.

Li Huai picked Ma Lian’s boots up and asked, “Then what about you?”

Liu Guan shot a glare at him and exclaimed, “Hurry up and run! Or else our punishment will be even more severe if we’re all caught together! We’ll be absolutely screwed tomorrow!”

Li Huai hurriedly put on his boots and ran away in a steadier manner than Ma Lian. He had walked all the way from the Great Li Empire’s Dragon Spring Prefecture to the Great Sui Nation’s Mountain Cliff Academy, after all.

In the end, Liu Guan stayed back by himself to face the wrath of Mr. Han who was on night patrol duty today. If it weren’t for Liu Guan correctly answering all of Mr. Han’s questions regarding his studies, the old teacher could have punished him to standing beside the lake for the entire night.

Li Huai opened the door for Liu Guan when his friend returned to the dorm, and he asked, “How was it?”

Liu Guan raised his right hand and snapped his fingers, replying with a smug expression, “There’s nothing in the world that I, Liu Guan, can’t deal with.”

Li Huai was extremely perceptive, and he asked, “Aren’t you left-handed?”

Liu Guan immediately cursed and sat down beside the table, spreading open his left hand which was already red and swollen. There was anger on his face as he replied, “Old Drunkard Han was definitely suppressing his anger about something. Either the wine in the capital went up in price, or his two unworthy grandchildren went and caused trouble again. He used me to vent his anger, and he swung his ruler especially hard tonight.”

Even so, Liu Guan was a simple person, and he was someone who could fall asleep straight away. While Li Huai and Ma Lian were tossing and turning and feeling anxious about tomorrow’s potential punishment, Liu Guan had already closed his eyes and fallen fast asleep.

Liu Guan slept on the outside of the straw mat, while Li Huai slept on the inside next to the wall and Ma Lian slept in the middle.

Li Huai wasn’t feeling sleepy, so he sat against the wall and borrowed the moonlight to play with his painted wooden doll, mumbling something as he did so.

“Li Huai, why haven’t you played with Li Baoping recently?” Ma Lian asked in a quiet voice.

“I’ve been scared of her ever since I was little,” Li Huai replied in a casual voice. “In any case, how can I play with a girl all the time? What if people mistakenly think that I like her? If rumors start to spread, Li Baoping will definitely beat me half-dead.”

“Oh, I see,” Ma Lian replied with a slightly disappointed expression.

He felt like the young girl wearing the bright red jacket was truly very pretty.

He would feel happy for an entire day even if he only managed to catch a glimpse of her from far away.

Ma Lian fell silent for a long time, and Li Huai continued to swing his painted wooden doll around under the radiance of the moon. He was having heaps of fun pretending to be a general on the battlefield.

Ma Lian knew that Li Huai’s small bamboo bookcase held a large collection of his favorite belongings.

“Li Huai, you always talk about that Chen Ping’an, so why hasn’t he ever come to the academy to visit you after almost three years?” Ma Lian suddenly asked.

Li Huai stopped swinging his doll around and zoned out for a long time. In the end, he smiled and replied, “Because he’s busy.”

Ma Lian was surprised to discover Li Huai lying on the straw mat soon after their short exchange, with his painted wooden doll placed beside his head. Generally speaking, Li Huai would play with his doll for almost an entire hour before going to sleep. However, tonight was clearly an exception.

In reality, Li Huai was staring at the moonlight outside the window with his eyes wide open.

A green bamboo bookcase, a pair of straw sandals, and a black jade hairpin with the characters “Huaiyin.”

These were the three items that Li Huai cherished the most.

Li Baoping and Lin Shouyi also had a jade hairpin each, with Chen Ping’an giving the jade hairpins to the three of them at the same time back then. However, Li Huai felt like his jade hairpin was the best of the three.

He also had a book titled Severed Water Cliff, and Chen Ping’an was the one who had purchased this book for him back in Red Candle Town.

There was also the painted wooden doll that Li Huai often played with and showed off to others, and he had obtained this doll along with his yellow ebony box from Go Table Mountain’s Mountain Lord Wei Bo when sharing the spoils with his companions at that time. This painted wooden doll was Li Huai’s number one general.

Li Huai had wanted to gift this doll to Chen Ping’an back then, but Chen Ping’an had turned down his offer and told him to take care of it instead.

And thus, Li Huai had placed the doll between the pages of the Severed Water Cliff.

He also owned a set of lifelike clay statues, and these were a gift from the Wind Snow Temple’s Wei Jin. The five clay statues weren’t as tall and mighty as the painted wooden doll, measuring no more than half a finger tall each. There was a wandering swordsman, a Daoist priest holding a horsetail whisk, an armored warrior, a crane-riding woman, and a gong-beating watchman. Li Huai had given each of these so-called generals a nickname and an official title.

The flying Sword Immortal Wei Jin had also told Li Huai something else back then, but the young boy had already forgotten his words completely. It was something about the profound puppet knowledge of Naturalists and Mohists and the vast talisman knowledge of Daoists or whatever? And there was also something about seventh tier or eighth tier Qi refiners and whatnot?

Li Huai had been engrossed in happiness back then, so how could he have remembered the random ramblings of Sword Immortal Wei Jin? Afterward, when introducing the five clay statues to his two friends, he couldn’t find a way to brag about their value no matter how he wracked his brains. It was only after that moment that he had somewhat recalled the words of Sword Immortal Wei Jin.

Even so, Li Huai didn’t ask Li Baoping or Lin Shouyi about this, two of his companions who had very good memories. Since Chen Ping’an had promised that he would come to the academy to visit them, Li Huai decided to ask Chen Ping’an about this when he visited. After all, Chen Ping’an could remember everything.

There was also a piece of paper with the character Qi written on it, something that Mr. Qi had given to them and asked them to carefully study and copy.

However, Chen Ping’an had seemingly forgotten about them already.

In the beginning, he had still sent letters and picture scrolls to Li Baoping. Afterward, however, he didn’t even send a single letter to the young girl.

Compared to the trivial behavior of Li Huai and his two friends, Lin Shouyi was already widely regarded as a prodigy in Mountain Cliff Academy.

He juggled both his studies and cultivation without detrimentally affecting either, and many teachers in the academy had very high hopes and expectations for him.

Starting from very early on, he had frequently traveled outside and journeyed around the Great Sui Nation with an old immortal who was exceptionally skilled at lightning techniques. In fact, he had spent almost half of his time outside the academy.

The last person to enjoy such special treatment was the youngest virtuous scholar who studied at the Great Sui Nation’s Lake View Academy. Moreover, that virtuous scholar also had the potential to become a noble scholar according to the assistant mountain master of Lake View Academy.

As he grew older, Lin Shouyi transformed from a handsome young boy into a carefree and refined young master. Following this, more and more girls both inside and outside the academy started to respect and admire him. Many young women from first-rate clans in the capital of the Great Sui Nation would especially travel to the academy located on East Mountain just to catch a glimpse of Lin Shouyi from far away.

Lin Shouyi gradually developed an ethereal aura that made him appear increasingly distant from the mortal world.

He became more and more famous, and he appeared like a flawless piece of white jade in the eyes of others. Because of this, Lin Shouyi’s name was mentioned more and more by the many officials and influential individuals in the capital of the empire. His name was mentioned in casual conversations between officials, in conversations between elders and juniors in large clans, and in many other places. Everyone started to observe and pay attention to this young scholar to varying degrees.

There were many sets of eyes on him, and there were also numerous trivial matters for him to deal with daily.

As an illegitimate son of a petty official from Dragon Spring Prefecture, Lin Shouyi neither felt conceited and satisfied nor annoyed and troubled.

Cultivating the mind was also one aspect of cultivation.

The harder one was willing to work to temper one’s mind, the fewer imperfections one would have when advancing tiers in the future.

Due to his many journeys around the nation, Lin Shouyi had seen and heard a lot regarding the winds of change sweeping through the imperial court of the Great Sui Nation. Once the most prosperous and flourishing nation in the northern region of the continent, the Great Sui Nation was now gripped by an atmosphere of grief and sorrow.

However, Lin Shouyi wasn’t interested in any of these things.

In fact, he wasn’t even interested in the heavy cavalry of his home nation, the Great Li Empire, marching south and smashing through enemy nations like a sword splitting bamboo.

Apart from the lightning techniques taught to him by that old teacher from the academy, Lin Shouyi also spent a lot of time and effort to diligently study the Recite Atop Clouds Scripture which he had obtained from Go Table Mountain.

Not long ago, Lin Shouyi had traveled to the Northern Mountain of the Great Sui Nation and an immortal abode called Divine Cloud Mountain with the old teacher. Their journey had taken three months, and Lin Shouyi had traveled on an immortal boat for the first time in his life. This was in order to observe a thundercloud from close up.

The view had been magnificent and soul-stirring, and the old teacher had left the swaying immortal boat and soared through the sky, displaying his mystical abilities that allowed him to catch lightning with his bare hands. He placed the crackling arcs of lightning into an immortal bottle — a Thunder Belly Bottle — that was especially used to hold lightning, and he gave it to Lin Shouyi as a present, telling the young man that he could use it to absorb spiritual energy when he returned to the academy to cultivate.

Today, Lin Shouyi walked under the night sky by himself, heading to the scripture library to study some texts. The teachers on night patrol duty naturally wouldn’t stop him. The Confucian academy had many rules, but it wasn’t pedantic and stubborn about upholding them regardless of the situation.

Lin Shouyi entered the scripture library and lit a lamp, reading all the way until the following morning.

After becoming a Qi refiner, Lin Shouyi could read for an entire night without becoming tired as long as he nurtured his mind and Qi properly.

Lin Shouyi put a book away and walked to the window. This was exactly the moment when the murky Qi of heaven and earth was sinking and the fresh Qi was rising.

The world seen by Qi refiners was completely different from the world seen by mortal humans.

The naked eyes of mortal humans couldn’t see the circulation of spiritual energy, the rising of murderous aura, the gathering of yang energy, or the dispersion of yin energy.

With the front gates to their internal cave abodes tightly shut, mortal humans were unable to absorb spiritual energy and temper their bodies, thereby being unable to extend their lifespan. At the same time, however, this also meant that mortal humans wouldn’t be affected by the numerous types of chaotic astral wind blustering through the world. Their birth, old age, illnesses, and deaths would all be decided by the heavens.

Cui Dongshan had once composed a poem.

It was a poem that made Lin Shouyi feel a strong sense of yearning.

Winds howling and waves roaring, I ride atop the Moon Palace and freely travel ten thousand li. Soaring through magnificent immortal abodes, gazing down at the misty lands below. Drunk, I shake the osmanthus tree on the moon, giving rise to a cool breeze in the mortal world.[1]

After entering Mountain Cliff Academy and flipping through those yellowing ancient texts, Lin Shouyi discovered many legends about ancient immortals genuinely being able to travel to the Sun Palace and Moon Palace, where they would then enjoy immortal wine with the gods and become drunk for hundreds upon thousands of years.

Lin Shouyi was filled with yearning for such an experience.

However, he suddenly heaved a soft sight.

If such a day truly came, then he wished that a certain beautiful young woman would be accompanying him as well.

A smile involuntarily stretched across Lin Shouyi’s face when he thought of her.

If the young women in the capital of the Great Sui Nation saw this, it was very likely that their hearts would flutter in adoration.

During these past few years, Lin Shouyi would occasionally recall the long journey that he had embarked on during his youth. He was slightly befuddled at the time, and they had faced more surprises than actual dangers on the way.

Everything had been new and exciting to him, and it was the first time that he had come across ghosts and spirits in the mountains and rivers, the first time he had seen a mountain lord, the first time he had obtained a fated opportunity pertaining to cultivation, the first time he had stayed in an immortal inn brimming with immortal qi, the first time he had seen painted door gods that were as tall as people, the first time he had received a small bookcase and a jade hairpin as gifts, and the first time he had banded together with his travel companions in the unfamiliar academy of the Great Sui Nation to overcome challenges and adversaries together.

Lin Shouyi suddenly felt a slight sense of disappointment.

It was as if everyone had scattered and grown distant following the departure of that person. Even though they were studying in the same academy and would often meet up, it was without a doubt that they had already drifted apart.

It was as if a clear spring were splitting apart and going in several different directions, with each body of water growing larger and more powerful. There were cheerful streams like Li Huai, there were vast and mighty rivers like him, and there were calm and voluntarily unmoving lakes like Li Baoping. Of course, there were also deep wells and underground rivers like Yu Lu and Xie Xie.

Looking back, however, all of them had been boisterous while stumbling over a myriad of obstacles back then. They had all been knee-deep in mud, and they had all been wearing straw sandals and carrying bamboo bookcases while camping in the wilderness and guarding the night for each other…

Lin Shouyi heaved a soft sigh.

There was no going back.

1. This is a poem (清平乐·五月十五夜玩月) by Liu Kezhuang, a Song Dynasty Chinese poet and literary critic. ☜