Unsheathed

Upon returning to Cyan Gorge Island, Chen Ping’an paid a visit to the sword chamber to pick up the return letter sent by Wei Bo from Cloud Drape Mountain, and the flying sword immediately returned to the Dragon Spring Prefecture.

After parting ways with Gu Can, Chen Ping’an returned to his room at the entrance of the island, then opened the secret letter, which contained answers to Chen Ping’an’s questions. As expected of Wei Bo, Chen Ping’an had only posed him a single question, yet he had provided answers to the questions that he had raised to Zhong Kui and Fan Junmao as well.

In total, the letter contained over ten thousand characters, detailing the rules of separation between the world of the living and the underworld, how people could become yin entities after death, many fine details regarding the underworld and the cycle of reincarnation, as well as the differences in ghost attendants and the entrances of underworlds that arose from the different customs and traditions in different lands.

Detailed information on all of the aforementioned topics had been laid out in the meticulously written letter.

At the end of the letter, Wei Bo had personally written out a pair of secret techniques, one of which was a prized unorthodox secret technique of the imperial clan of the Divine Water Nation, in which Wei Bo had once resided. It drew upon the essence of water fortune of heaven and earth to quickly search for a speck of true spiritual light, using which the souls of the deceased could be gathered and reformed.

Upon achieving full mastery of this secret technique, one would be granted command over all water-dwelling ghosts. Hence, the technique was a closely guarded secret of the Divine Water Nation, and only the nation’s imperial preceptor and immortal guest elders were permitted to cultivate it.

The other secret technique was one that Wei Bo had unintentionally obtained from the armory of the Divine Water Nation. The foundations of the technique were rooted in sorcery, but it had incorporated some sword commanding techniques used by sword immortals of the ancient Shu Nation to break open the barrier between the world of the living and the underworld, creating a bridge between the two worlds, thereby allowing the living to communicate with the deceased.

However, a living person with a physical constitution that was innately abundant with yin energy had to be used as a vessel for said yin entity to return to the world of the living, and in his letter this person was referred to by Wei Bo as a “resting station.” The vessel had to have been someone whose ancestors had accumulated a great deal of good karma, or a cultivation prodigy that was naturally suited to cultivating ghostly techniques.

Among those two options, the latter was more ideal as by serving as a resting station, the former would be burning through the good karma accumulated by their ancestors, whereas for the latter, it would be a beneficial experience that would advance their cultivation base.

Chen Ping’an read through this letter over and over again.

Unbeknownst to him, following the two battles that he had taken part in on Cloud Rain Island and in Cloud Pagoda City, Cyan Gorge Island was unable to keep him a secret from the other islands any longer. At the moment, rumors of a mysterious, young, foreign guest elder of Cyan Gorge Island with tremendous combat prowess was spreading like wildfire all over Bamboo Scroll Lake.

It was said that not only did he possess two talismanic deity puppets that were capable of easily killing a seventh tier swordsman, he also possessed two bonded flying swords. What was most terrifying was that he was also a master in close-quarters combat, having previously slain a sixth tier Militarian cultivator with just a single punch.

So what exactly was he? An immortal who specialized in talismans? An earth immortal swordsman? A master martial artist?

As a result of these rumors, Liu Zhimao’s reputation was rapidly growing on Palace Willow Island, and many of the fence sitters had begun throwing their support behind Cyan Gorge Island.

On this day, in the Spring Courtyard Mansion, Gu Can had returned home to enjoy a meal with his mother, which had been a rare occasion of late, and his mother suddenly said, “Cancan, don’t try to be like Chen Ping’an.”

“Of course not,” Gu Can replied in a muffled voice while wolfing down mouthfuls of food.

A pleased smile appeared on his mother’s face as she wiped the grease from the corners of his lips with a silken handkerchief, and she continued in a quiet voice, “I was really appreciative of good people like Chen Ping’an back in our hometown, but here in our Bamboo Scroll Lake, good people never live long.

“I’m not trying to curse him, it’s just the fact of the matter. I’ve never left the Spring Courtyard Mansion, but I chat with our maidservants every day, and I’m more aware than Chen Ping’an of just how different Bamboo Scroll Lake is from Clay Vase Alley. We simply can’t afford to be kind and benevolent in a place like this.”

Gu Can nodded in response.

“Don’t worry, Mother, I know what I need to do to survive here. There can only be a single Chen Ping’an under the heavens, and I can’t be like him even if I tried. Besides, there can also only be a single Gu Can under the heavens!”

“All I knew about Chen Ping’an prior to this was that he had really made something out of himself, but as for exactly what he’s managed to achieve, he never brought it up, and I didn’t think it appropriate to ask.

“Earlier tonight, I overheard the open collar ladies in our manor talking, and it sounds like given Chen Ping’an’s current powers, he could easily claim a large island in Bamboo Scroll Lake for himself. Apparently, even Lü Caisang was almost killed by him not too long ago; is that right?” Gu Can’s mother asked.

Gu Can thought about it for a moment, then replied, “I’m not sure. All I know is that that pseudo-celestial weapon of his is called Sword Immortal, and according to Liu Zhimao, Chen Ping’an doesn’t have total control of it for now. Otherwise, none of the Golden Core Tier earth immortals in Bamboo Scroll Lake would even be able to last a second in battle against him.

“As for those below the Golden Core Tier, if Chen Ping’an wanted them dead, they would be gone from this world before they even realized it themselves. However, compared with Sword Immortal, Liu Zhimao is clearly more fearful of that immortal talisman. He asked me if I knew anything about the talisman, and I told him that all that I knew was that it was most likely one of Chen Ping’an’s trump cards.

“At the time, I had arranged for Tan Xue to accompany Chen Ping’an on his exploration of Bamboo Scroll Lake in case some idiot attacked him and spoiled his mood. Hence, Tan Xue was able to personally witness the power of those divine generals.

“According to Tan Xue, that talisman was different from all of the talismans used by Daoist talisman cultivators in that the core of the talisman contains the foundation of a mountain and water god’s godly body, as opposed to just a speck of spiritual light.”

“It’s incredible to think that Chen Ping’an has already come so far,” Gu Can’s mother sighed.

Gu Can’s entire face was covered in grease from his aggressive eating, and he cocked his head to the side with a wide smile as he said, “What’s so incredible about that? Chen Ping’an has always been able to do whatever he sets his mind to.”

Gu Can’s mother felt a little exasperated as she looked down at her son’s naive expression. As his mother, she had to think more for his sake, and that had nothing to do with the depths and breadths of her capabilities as a woman.

After Gu Can returned to Palace Willow Island with Tan Xue, his mother made her way into a hall in the backyard of the Spring Courtyard Mansion. Once there, she gathered all of the dozens of open collar ladies of the manor, then gave them a stern lecture, forbidding them from gossiping in the presence of Chen Ping’an.

Anyone caught doing so would be punished with death by beating, and she would also have their files pulled up from the Spring Courtyard Mansion’s incense room. If any of their relatives were cultivators on Cyan Gorge Island, then she would have Tian Hujun personally snap their bridges of immortality.

If they weren’t residing in Bamboo Scroll Lake, but had established their households using wealth bequeathed upon them by the Spring Courtyard Mansion, then they would be stripped of everything that they owned and handed over to the lord of Pond Water City for him to do with them as he saw fit.

That same day, at around dusk, Chen Ping’an went knocking on the doors of an ordinary-looking manor on Cyan Gorge Island. The manor belonged to a second-rate guest elder with the Ma surname, and his full name had already been lost to the collective memory.

He was a ghostly cultivator, and it was said that he once served as an imperial chef of a fallen empire, but he somehow went on to become a cultivator and had since climbed up the ranks to become a seasoned guest elder of Cyan Gorge Island.

Vagrant cultivators were already looked down on by official immortals, and even among vagrant cultivators, ghostly cultivators were considered to be the lowest of the low. Hence, this guest elder’s manor was situated in a very secluded area on Cyan Gorge Island.

The spiritual energy here was very sparse, but the yin energy in the area was very abundant, and the territory assigned to him encompassed a strange well, out of which gusts of yin wind would come blowing every once in a while.

The manor was enshrouded in yin energy all year round, and the few people living residing in the area never interacted with one another. This ghostly cultivator was once one of the bottom-ranked first-rate guest elders of Cyan Gorge Island.

However, in the wake of the dozen or so islands conquered by Cyan Gorge Island, many island masters and guest elders of other islands who wished to live pledged their allegiance to Liu Zhimao, choosing to serve as guest elders of Cyan Gorge Island. As a result, many of the original Cyan Gorge Island guest elders were progressively shuffled down the pecking order.

Fortunately, Liu Zhimao hadn’t reduced the salaries paid to any of the original guest elders. In fact, he had even raised their salaries by 10% to 20%, so they remained content for the most part, despite their lowered status.

The porter of the manor was an emaciated old woman whose entire body gave off a nauseating stench, but her hair resembled strands of glossy, black silk, and her eyes weren’t murky at all. She immediately put on a fawning smile upon catching sight of Chen Ping’an, but as she did so, tiny creatures akin to maggots came falling down from the wrinkles on her wizened face.

The old woman was very embarrassed by this, and she hurriedly stomped down onto the maggot-like creatures in a surreptitious manner, but in doing so, the creatures produced a gruesome popping and squishing sound underfoot that was horrendous to listen to.

The old woman was so ashamed of herself that a deep blush appeared on her face, and her lips quivered as she stood in a humiliated silence.

Chen Ping’an remained calm and composed, and he could tell that despite the “old woman’s” elderly appearance, she was actually only in her early twenties.

All women in the world had a yearning for beauty.

She shook a string of bells that were hanging beside the entrance of the room, then said to Chen Ping’an, “My master will be back very soon, so please wait here for a moment, Mr. Chen.”

After a brief hesitation, she pointed at a dark room nearby, then continued, “I won’t remain here and pose as an eyesore for you any longer. I’ll just be in that side room; you can call out to me if you need anything.”

“What’s your name, young lady?” Chen Ping’an asked. “I may have to pay frequent visits from now on, so I have to know what to refer to you by.”

The hideous old woman faltered slightly upon hearing this, and she turned away, not daring to look directly at Chen Ping’an as she replied in a timid manner, “You can refer to me as Hong Su.”

All of a sudden, a plume of black smoke came blowing in from afar, then drew to a halt to reveal a short man with black smoke still surging out of his sleeves. The man had a rather wooden and inexpressive face, and his brows furrowed slightly as he reprimanded, “Insolent wench! How dare you stand here and speak to Mr. Chen like this! Get out of here so you don’t defile Mr. Chen’s eyes any longer!”

She hurriedly rushed into hiding in the side room, and even though she was standing beside the little window, she didn’t even have the courage to sneak a peek out at the two men outside. She was only hoping to be blessed with the honor of overhearing some of their conversation.

With the steady rise experienced by Cyan Gorge Island, her master had tumbled down the pecking order to the point that he was now languishing near the bottom of the barrel, even among second-rate guest elders.

On top of that, more and more new manors were constantly being constructed on Cyan Gorge Island, and the surrounding eleven islands had also been incorporated into Cyan Gorge Island’s territory, so over the past year or so, the manor had barely received any visits. All of her master’s acquaintances had already gone elsewhere to places that weren’t so inhospitable to the living, while strangers had no desire to visit this forsaken place.

Additionally, servants were strictly forbidden from speaking to one another, so for the porter, even a chirp from an occasionally passing bird was something to savor as it punctuated the grim silence that she was constantly subjected to.

Upon entering the manor, Chen Ping’an revealed the purpose of his visit to the man.

The ghostly cultivator remained silent upon hearing Chen Ping’an’s request, but internally, he was rather displeased. In his mind, Chen Ping’an had overstepped his boundaries and was asking for something unreasonable. He had come to request the souls that the ghostly cultivators had gathered over the years.

The souls trapped in his soul-summoning banners and in the well on his territory were integral components to the foundation of his Great Dao. Among them were around a dozen ghostly entities that possessed cultivation bases in the Middle Five Tiers, and those had all been refined into ghostly generals that served important roles, meaning that every single one of them was indispensable.

Chen Ping’an told him that he was willing to buy these ghostly entities from him for immortal currency, but this wasn’t a matter of money.

Does this bastard really not know the rules of the cultivation world, or has he been planning to force me into submission to begin with? Aren’t you such a big shot that you dared to slap even Gu Can in public? How about you go and ask him how much immortal currency he would be willing to sell his own mother for? Let’s see if he’ll agree to sell her to you!

The more he thought about it, the more infuriated he became, but he still didn’t dare to openly express his displeasure to Chen Ping’an. After all, at the moment, he was nothing more than a bottom-ranking second-rate guest elder, while Chen Ping’an was an esteemed guest of Liu Zhimao’s most prized disciple, so if Chen Ping’an were to kill him on the spot here, the former would most certainly suffer zero consequences.

Having said that, the ghostly cultivator had a rather unyielding personality, and he informed Chen Ping’an that while it was true that he was a ghostly cultivator who specialized in capturing souls, the one who benefitted the most from this wasn’t actually himself. Instead, it was Yu Gui, the self-proclaimed Mountain Lake Ghost King of Moon Hook Island, one of the subsidiary islands of Cyan Gorge Island.

He was once the right-hand man to the master of Moon Hook Island, but not only was the first to betray the island, he would always accompany Liu Zhimao and Gu Can to gather up deceased souls from the battlefields at the conclusion of each battle.

Of all of the souls of those who had perished in battle on the islands conquered by Cyan Gorge Island, around 70% to 80% of them had been claimed by him and another Naturalist earth immortal who currently presided over Jade Flagon Island, while the ghostly cultivator that Chen Ping’an was speaking to hadn’t been able to harvest even a single soul, leaving him with no choice but to buy ghostly entities from these two top-rate Cyan Gorge Island guest elders.

There were no deals that were completely out of the question in this world. Ultimately, it came down to whether the buyer was willing to fork out enough money and display enough sincerity.

The final verdict from the ghostly cultivator was that even though the prices that Chen Ping’an had offered were just and reasonable, ultimately, these ghostly entities concerned the foundation of his Great Dao, so he couldn’t just sell them to Chen Ping’an on the spot.

Only if Chen Ping’an were willing to do one particular thing for him would he be willing to agree to the deal. After that, he would have to meticulously pick out the ghostly entities that he could afford to sell from his soul-summoning banners and the well on his territory, and only then could the deal take place.

After learning what that particular thing was, Chen Ping’an readily agreed.

As he passed by the entrance of the manor on his way out, Chen Ping’an bade farewell to the porter by the name of Hong Su.

Upon returning to the entrance of Cyan Gorge Island, Chen Ping’an didn’t immediately retreat to his room. Instead, he paid another visit to Bejeweled Hairpin Island by boat.

Once again, he met Island Master Liu Chongrun.

As it turned out, the ghostly cultivator with the Ma surname had come from the same nation as Liu Chongrun. However, there was a vast chasm between the statuses of the two, with the latter being the aunt of the fallen empire’s final emperor, someone who could’ve essentially claimed the throne for herself if she so wished, while the former had been nothing more than an imperial chef.

As for how the two of them had become acquainted with one another and what stories had unfolded between them, that was of no interest to Chen Ping’an. In any case, the reason why the ghostly cultivator had chosen to pledge his allegiance to Liu Zhimao and establish his manor on Cyan Gorge Island was precisely so that he could be closer to Liu Chongrun.

Liu Chongrun had been unaware of the depths of Chen Ping’an’s cultivation base during his previous visit, so she had denied him entry to her island as a safety precaution. However, in the wake of Chen Ping’an’s feats on Cloud Rain Island and in Cloud Pagoda City, she was left ruing her decision, and now that Chen Ping’an had come to visit again, she decided that this was going to be a good opportunity to make amends.

Given his unfathomable cultivation base, he could most likely easily wipe out the entirety of Bejeweled Hairpin Island on his own. With that in mind, she had taken the initiative to send a letter to Cyan Gorge Island, inviting Chen Ping’an to visit the Treasured Jewel Pavilion of her Bejeweled Hairpin Island, hoping to atone for her previous mistake so that she didn’t bring disaster to herself and her island.

However, after hearing from Chen Ping’an that the ghostly cultivator with the Ma surname wished to see her, her attitude immediately flipped, and she left Chen Ping’an on his own as she stormed away after leaving him with a cold message.

“If you wish to explore our Bejeweled Hairpin Island, then I’ll be sure to personally accompany you, but if you’re here on behalf of that old pervert, then I’ll have to ask you to leave.”

Chen Ping’an could only depart on his boat to seek out Yu Gui. He was one of the most powerful ghostly cultivators in Bamboo Scroll Lake, and his Golden Core Tier cultivation base was certainly far superior to that of the Dragon Gate Tier ghostly cultivator with the Ma surname.

At the moment, he ruled over the entirety of Moon Hook Island, and his status was equal to that of Tian Hujun, with both of them serving as important subordinates under Liu Zhimao. In contrast with the ghostly cultivator with the Ma surname, who had completely faded out of the collective memory, Yu Gui was becoming more and more infamous by the day.