Unsheathed

After traveling on the exquisite louchuan that had transformed from a miniature carved boat for about two hours, they broke through a layer of clouds and landed on a mountain peak that was surrounded by lingering mist.

They had arrived at the Purple Sun Residence.

Gazing down from high up, it was clear that the scale of this immortal sect was no inferior to that of a royal palace in the mortal world. Located in the central region was a magnificent structure that shimmered purple and gold under the bright rays of sunshine.

After Chen Ping’an and the others disembarked the louchuan, the tall and slender woman who referred to herself as Cave Spirit True Lord Wu Yi transformed the louchuan back into a miniature carved boat and placed it inside her sleeve. As for the group of beautiful young women, they were turned into a stack of talismans that the Cave Spirit True Lord unexpectedly didn’t take back. Instead, she casually waved her sleeve and sent them into a gurgling river not far away, causing them to transform into wisps of spiritual energy that fused into the water.

A tall and skinny old man immediately appeared on the opposite bank of the river in a tactful manner, falling to his knees and kowtowing to Wu Yi as he exclaimed, “The minor god of the incense temple pays his respects to Ancestor Cave Spirit True Lord. I thank Ancestor for Ancestor’s great kindness and virtue!”

Zhu Lian smacked the back of Pei Qian’s head and commented in a quiet voice, “A like-minded friend of yours has appeared. Are you not going to run over to enjoy a hearty conversation with him?”

Pei Qian rolled her eyes in response.

“You can return to your incense temple if there’s no other matter to report,” Wu Yi said with a look of indifference.

The deity hurriedly stood up and took his leave, transforming into a streak of azure smoke that contained specks of golden light as he vanished into the river.

Wu Yi smiled and explained, “That’s the bad thing about going out and traveling. It’s very difficult to find peace and quiet.”

Chen Ping’an nodded in understanding.

“Young Master Chen, where are the people who were traveling with you last time? For example, the little girl wearing the red jacket whom my father liked the most. Why don’t I see a single one of them?” Wu Yi asked in a casual manner.

Chen Ping’an smiled and replied, “They’re all studying in the Great Sui Nation.”

Wu Yi appeared slightly disappointed.

Her father had once revealed to her that the tall young man using the pseudonym of Yu Lu was actually the crown prince of the destroyed Lu Empire!

His concentrated dragon aura was like the most amazing delicacy in the world.

Her father hadn’t devoured him for whatever reason back then, and Wu Yi hadn’t dared to act without permission in front of him. Thus, she had also let the opportunity slip by. It was hard to say whether she would get an opportunity to fill her belly in the future, and perhaps doing so would allow her to break through the godforsaken barrier of the Golden Core Tier.

In order to advance to the Nascent Tier, the so-called end tier of the Great Dao for flood dragons nowadays, her younger brother had gone as far as to become the river god of the Cold Food River. Meanwhile, she was earnestly practicing some heretical cultivation techniques of the Daoist Sect, and it couldn’t be said that they were completely useless. However, progress was so slow that she wanted to pull her hair out.

Was she truly going to live in her father’s shadows for the next one hundred years or one thousand years? Was she truly going to live in fear, afraid that her father would suddenly become hungry one day or require nourishment after fighting to the death with someone and thus decide to devour his two children?

Back then, she and her pitiful little brother had accompanied their father to visit Imperial Preceptor Cui Chan of the Great Li Empire. That hadn’t been a very good experience, and Embroidered Tiger Cui Chan had used an ancient inkstone to channel a mystical ability and forcefully shave three hundred years off their father’s cultivation.

Afterward, their father had taken his anger out on them, beating them in a merciless manner. However, the end result was fairly good, with their father finally deciding to leave the Yellow Court Nation. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted from her and her brother’s shoulders. After all, their violent father had already devoured countless children in the past hundreds upon thousands of years. Meanwhile, the Purple Sun Residence and the Cold Food River also became entities recognized by the imperial court of the Great Li Empire, allowing them to become independent from the Yellow Court Nation.

Wu Yi was naturally a pseudonym, and as the old ancestor of the Purple Sun Residence, her true identity was that of a flood dragon descended from the ancient Shu Nation. If it weren’t for the letter that her father had personally sent over, Wu Yi would have ignored Chen Ping’an even if he were accompanied by Far Roaming Tier martial artist subordinates. Their lives were on completely different paths, so it was only natural that they each went their own ways without interfering with each other. If it weren’t for her father’s letter, would she be willing to be so proactive and polite, going as far as to personally travel over to invite Chen Ping’an? Would she go against her personality to squeeze out a smile at the young man?

Wu Yi walked slowly as she led Chen Ping’an and the others along a wide path beside the river, and this was a path that was paved from large slabs of stone tiles and was surprisingly smooth and even. In fact, they could clearly see their own reflections on the stone tiles.

Still holding her hiking pole, Pei Qian kept staring at the mirror-like stone tiles, making faces and chuckling in delight as she stared at her own reflection.

Wu Yi hadn’t conversed much with Chen Ping’an on the louchuan, so she took this opportunity to roughly explain the origin and history of the Purple Sun Residence to him.

Chen Ping’an’s responses could only be regarded as barely passable. When it came to these kinds of matters, to say nothing of the Wind Lightning Field’s Liu Baqiao, even Li Huai was more skilled at handling them than him.

Most likely because he had formed a water palace and refined his water seal, Chen Ping’an could detect the wisps of water fortune contained within the large stone tiles as he walked across them.

He looked around at his surroundings, and he quickly came to a realization.

Flood dragons and their kin had to cultivate near water, and even if the foundation of their Great Dao appeared to have a stronger affinity with the mountains, they would still have to obediently leave the mountains when they needed to form a golden core. They needed to enter rivers and waterways to transform into flood dragons or dragons, and it was inevitable that they needed to come into contact with water.

It was likely that the cultivators of the Purple Sun Residence couldn’t figure out why their founding ancestor had chosen this location to establish the sect no matter how they wracked their brains.

The Purple Sun Residence was a top-notch immortal force in the Yellow Court Nation, yet it wasn’t constructed atop a mountain peak like most ordinary immortal forces. Instead, it was constructed beside a beautiful river with an open view of the surroundings. The river formed from converging streams originating from the mountain forests was called the Iron Plate River, and this river was upstream of the White Swan River, the third largest river in the Yellow Court Nation. In other words, it could be regarded as the source of the majestic White Swan River.

Meanwhile, the White Swan River was ranked only behind the Cold Food River and the Imperial River in terms of size, so it naturally had a river god recognized by the imperial court of the Yellow Court Nation. This river god was allowed to form a gold statue and construct a temple, helping the Imperial Hong Clan of the Yellow Court Nation guard the river that stretched for more than four hundred kilometers.

One had to realize that in the numerous nations of the Majestic World, appointing mountain gods and river gods was an incredibly important matter that pertained to the fortunes of a nation. At the same time, this could also determine the stability of an emperor’s rule. However, because each nation could only appoint a limited number of deities, with the formal gods of the Five Mountains being an utmost priority, it was often left to the founding emperor to decide the appointments. Future emperors generally wouldn’t change these appointments carelessly, as doing so would lead to significant ramifications that severely damaged the nation.

In fact, the ruling emperors weren’t able to casually reappoint ordinary river gods, river guardians, mountain gods, and mountain lords who were subordinate to formal river gods and formal mountain gods either. Regardless of how incompetent and senseless an emperor was, they wouldn’t be willing to mess around with these matters. Similarly, officials in the imperial court wouldn’t dare to allow the emperor to act carelessly regarding these matters no matter how immoral and sinister they were.

Whenever the national treasury was in a healthy state and able to purchase enough immortal currency, and once permission was obtained from one of the seventy-two Confucian academies, a noble scholar could personally travel to the mountain or river of interest and “guide” them, thereby allowing the nation to rightfully take possession of the territory. This would also allow the nation to appoint an additional deity, which would in turn provide additional fortune and stability to the nation.

This practice was regarded as a sign of peaceful and prosperous times, and it was a practice that would definitely be praised by the officials and celebrated by the entire nation. The emperors would often be extremely pleased as well, and they would choose to give amnesty to many prisoners since they would undoubtedly be described as nation-rejuvenating emperors or wise emperors in the history books.

However, as impressive as this was in the mortal world outside the mountains, cultivators in the mountains often ridiculed this practice as adding a layer to a commoner’s coffin and adding wood to an emperor’s throne. This was something at which they turned their nose up.

However, why were there so many illegal temples and shrines in the various nations regardless of how many times they were banned and dismantled? Were the imperial courts of the nations truly too weak to eradicate these illegal temples?

In reality, many illegal temples tacitly approved by the imperial courts were actually unrecognized by the Confucian academies. As such, it was impossible to have a noble scholar assign an official deity. Many nations turned a blind eye to illegal temples that enjoyed abundant incense offerings, and there were even some nations that would act behind the Confucian academies’ backs and secretly provide the illegal temples with a continuous flow of immortal coins. At the same time, they would subtly encourage the local scholars and literati to lead the way and offer incense to these temples, thereby creating a trend and promoting the same practice to the local residents.

There was also an official river god assigned to the Iron Plate River, and it was none other than the timid old man who had hurriedly appeared and disappeared just then.

The elderly river god had been honored in the incense temple for many years, and he was nothing more than a puppet for the Purple Sun Residence and a training resource for Lower Five Tier cultivators of the sect. During these training sessions, the elderly river god who was often laughed at by fellow river gods would send forth his minions to their deaths, with the pitiful water spirits essentially sticking their necks out for the cultivation fledglings to to chop. Only those who were fortunate would be able to escape with their lives.

As time went on, the Iron Plate River was naturally unable to produce a sufficient number of water spirits. That being the case, the elderly river god had no option but to use his own money to increase the water essence of the river. If it were a year with low income at the water god temple, he would have to prepare gifts and visit the old immortals of the Purple Sun Residence, begging them to toss some immortal coins into the river and replenish its water essence. That way, the growth of water ghosts and water spirits could be accelerated, avoiding a situation where the training sessions for the internal disciples of the Purple Sun Residence were delayed.

This sounded very pathetic, and it could almost be said that the river god was barely staying alive. In reality, however, many river gods in the Yellow Court Nation were extremely envious of his position.

The reason for this was very simple. The old man was only a river god of the Iron Plate River, yet the strength of his gold statue was no inferior to the formal river god of the White Swan River, the third largest river in the Yellow Court Nation.

What was the reason for this? This was naturally thanks to the scraps that he was able to dig out from the fingernails of the Purple Sun Residence year after year. In addition, it was also thanks to the incense offerings that he received at the incense temple.

Cultivators in the Purple Sun Residence didn’t like to be disturbed by outsiders, so many officials and wealthy people who came to visit the renowned sect could only stop at the incense temple located one hundred kilometers away from the sect.

After they stopped, they naturally had to offer incense and pay respect to the deity. Of course, there were also some dirty tasks that people needed to communicate to the Purple Sun Residence through the river god of the Iron Plate River. Because the Purple Sun Residence was extremely good at making money, they would offer a rough price point each time they were invited to provide so-called training sessions for cultivators ranging from the third tier to the eighth tier.

However, cultivators in the Purple Sun Residence were known for their haughty nature, so they might refuse to entertain the wealthy mortals even if they were offered large sums of money. Because of this, it was necessary for them to seek help from the incense temple, what with the elderly river god of the Iron Plate River having a close relationship with the Purple Sun Residence.

During this process, the elderly river god most certainly didn’t dare to profit off the two parties, not daring to take even a single copper coin. Each time the officials and wealthy individuals donated money to the immortals of the Purple Sun Residence and received their help, however, they would naturally donate a sum of incense money unrelated to the Purple Sun Residence to the incense temple after their matters were successfully resolved.

Chen Ping’an and the others arrived near the Purple Sun Residence.

Outside the sect was a white jade plaza.

Many members of the Purple Sun Residence had already filled the plaza to respectfully welcome their old ancestor back. The Purple Sun Residence was divided into the internal sect and the external sect, and internal disciples included Sect Founder Wu Yi’s direct disciples, the disciples of the various sect masters throughout the years, the elderly Dragon Gate Tier guest elders, as well as the Sea Observation Tier cultivators who were responsible for various matters in the sect and wielded actual power.

The external sect was comparatively diverse, and apart from cultivators with ordinary cultivation talent, there were also vagrant cultivators who had joined the sect, pure martial artists, as well as servants and slaves who had served the sect for generations after generation. This was a mixed bag of people, and they naturally far outnumbered the Qi refiners who were cultivating in earnest.

There were almost a thousand people standing on the white jade plaza.

Moreover, they were positioned according to their statuses, and this was something that they definitely couldn’t get wrong.

Perhaps to prevent Chen Ping’an from thinking that she was trying to establish an imposing air and take him down a notch, Wu Yi smiled and explained, “It’s already been one hundred or so years since I last showed myself in the Purple Sun Residence, and I previously announced to everyone that I had chosen a cave abode in which to cultivate in seclusion. In reality, I was simply tired and annoyed at the endless number of relationships that I had to maintain, so I eventually decided to hide and not need to deal with these matters.”

When Wu Yi walked from the paved path onto the boundary of the white jade plaza, everyone fell to their knees in unison and started to kowtow, loudly exclaiming, “Congratulations on exiting seclusion, Old Ancestor.”

This was like thunder to Pei Qian’s ears.

The little girl’s eyes also lit up when she saw this grand and impressive display.