Unsheathed

The cold was biting when the snow finally started to melt.

They could either walk along the muddy official roads or the small and quiet roads that were blanketed in snow that were crunchy underfoot.

According to the estimations of several earth immortals in Bamboo Scroll Lake, the region would receive an even heavier bout of snowfall before the end of the year. Apart from Bamboo Scroll Lake, that one-in-one-hundred-year snowfall would also cover the Stone Brush Nation as well as several other vassal states of the Luminous Vermilion Empire. The vagrant cultivators from Bamboo Scroll Lake were naturally happy to see this, while the vassal states of the Luminous Vermilion Empire were most likely going to suffer.

However, it was anyone’s guess whether the three bouts of heavy snowfall would slow down the southward march of the Great Li Empire’s heavy cavalry and therefore win some time for the Luminous Vermilion Empire that was employing a scorched-earth policy for the first time since its founding.[1]

In any case, the unstoppable trend of the world was seemingly of little consequence to the ordinary lives of cultivators in the mountains. After all, the world could be separated into those in the mountains and those outside the mountains.

After deciding to stay the night in the Daoist enforcer temple, Zeng Ye went outside to collect some firewood before lighting up a small campfire.

Chen Ping’an was still wearing a thick cotton robe just like he had on Cyan Gorge Island. However, he was no longer carrying Sword Immortal on his back, and he was instead adopting the style that Pei Qian had invented, carrying both a sword and a saber on one hip. The saber was one that he had crafted from bamboo, while the sword was the Great Replica Qu Huang that he had purchased from Ape Crying Street.

Chen Ping’an and Zeng Ye ate some dry rations. This was Zeng Ye’s first distant trip from home, so compared to the taciturn Chen Ping’an, the youthful Zeng Ye was inevitably feeling slightly excited. Even going through the border pass of the Stone Brush Nation and handing over the official documents from the ancestral hall of Cyan Gorge Island to the guards was a very new and interesting experience for Zeng Ye. It was just that he didn’t dare to let his emotions show. There was clearly something weighing on Mr. Chen’s mind, and Zeng Ye wasn’t blind enough or stupid enough to not see this.

There was almost no conversation between the two of them.

When Chen Ping’an finished eating, he unfurled a geomantic map of the Stone Brush Nation that clearly marked out the states and provinces. The southern region of the Stone Brush Nation was still intact, and only a small number of scouts from the army of the Great Li Empire were wandering around this region. Chen Ping’an and Zeng Ye had come across these scouts on two separate occasions.

Even though the southern region of the Stone Brush Nation wasn’t engulfed in the flames of war, signs of chaos had already started to spread. A good example of this was the Daoist enforcer temple where Chen Ping’an and Zeng Ye were staying in right now.

This was an old and slightly rundown temple that hadn’t been repaired for a long time. According to the explanations of those living nearby, the elderly temple attendant responsible for managing the incense offerings had passed away at the beginning of autumn. The county office should have appointed a new temple attendant, and generally speaking, the provincial office would approve the appointment as long as the candidate had a clean record and had received the support and signature of an official Daoist priest. This was a trivial matter that didn’t need to go through the Ministry of Rites in the capital.

However, the arrival of the northern barbarians from the Great Li Empire brought significant chaos to the nation, rendering this appointment a very low priority. In addition, the imperial court wouldn’t blame the common people for fleeing the chaos and returning after everything was settled, but it was a different story for temple attendants even though this was a very low position. Temple attendants had a similar responsibility to county magistrates in the sense that they were obliged to safeguard the nation’s territorial integrity.

Thus, even though the county magistrate had already chosen two potential candidates and agreed to make huge concessions, privately informing the two candidates that they didn’t need to spend their own money to foster a relationship with some lofty official Daoist priest in the county, the two candidates were still unwilling to accept the position, causing things to drag on and on. Once the northern barbarians who had already surrounded the capital of the Stone Brush Nation could spare some manpower and march further south, it was very likely that the Daoist enforcer temple which was already lacking in worshippers would enjoy almost no incense offerings anymore.

The world was in chaos.

The common people could barely look after themselves right now, so would they have any spare time or effort to visit a temple to offer incense? Only after they had enough to eat would they consider whether the clay statues of gods and deities in the temples had enough to eat. This was human nature.

Chen Ping’an handed his bamboo bookcase to Zeng Ye for him to carry, and inside the bookcase was the Hall of the Underworld, the immortal treasure that he had taken out a loan to purchase from the secret chamber of Cyan Gorge Island.

As for Yu Gui visiting Cyan Gorge Island afterward and voluntarily selling the imitation Colored Glaze Pagoda, a high-grade spirit tool, to Chen Ping’an, this treasure was temporarily placed in Chen Ping’an’s minimization treasure right now. The twelve rooms that could nurture ghosts and yin entities were all occupied, filled with beings who possessed relatively complete souls. Apart from one individual, the remaining eleven yin entities were all Middle Five Tier Qi refiners who had died at Tool Pavilion’s hands. Their resentment was strong, and their obsessive desires were even stronger.

Even though Zeng Ye’s cultivation aptitude was mediocre and his comprehension ability was poor, he was a hard-working young boy who had spirit and vigor in his eyes. Zeng Ye had helped around a lot after leaving Bamboo Scroll Lake and traveling north with Chen Ping’an.

However, Chen Ping’an wasn’t an official immortal who enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle, so he didn’t need Zeng Ye to attend to him or serve him. Because of this, there was a very natural and harmonious relationship between the two of them who appeared like master and disciple. They needed to visit more than forty places after entering from the southern border pass of the Stone Brush Nation, and these places were scattered through eight states and more than twenty provinces of the nation.

What gave Zeng Ye a slight headache was the fact that half of the places they needed to visit were located in the northern region of the Stone Brush Nation which was currently gripped by war and turmoil. As a result, it was very possible that they would need to interact with northern barbarians from the Great Li Empire. However, Zeng Ye felt slightly at ease when he recalled that Mr. Chen was also an immortal.

The impoverished Zeng Ye had been brought to Bamboo Scroll Lake at a young age, growing up to become a young boy at Thatch Moon Island. He had never left Bamboo Scroll Lake and journeyed around the world with his elders before, nor had he interacted with any immortals from the mountains. Thus, he felt an innate sense of fear toward the imperial court and the army.

This appeared childish, but in Chen Ping’an’s eyes, this was completely natural and correct. Otherwise, if he mistook the unfamiliar heavy cavalry from the far north for ordinary cavalry from the central region of the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, it was very likely that he would suffer a miserable fate. To say nothing of a Lower Five Tier cultivator like Zeng Ye, even a powerful Golden Core Tier earth immortal who enjoyed a paramount status in the Stone Brush Nation would suffer severe consequences if they entered a conflict with the heavy cavalry of the Great Li Empire. In fact, it was even possible that they would be killed.

Chen Ping’an didn’t explicitly warn Zeng Ye regarding these matters. Many principles appeared simple and crude on the surface, yet it wasn’t until one personally experienced them that one would gain a deep appreciation for them. At the very least, one needed to personally witness and hear these principles in action.

Zeng Ye started to cultivate using the secret immortal technique that Mr. Chen taught him, performing breathing meditation and relying on hard work to make up for his shortcomings. The more impoverished the background of a vagrant cultivator, the more they were able to cherish these hard-won fated opportunities.

It was unsuitable for Chen Ping’an to cultivate his mind right now, so it naturally followed that his cultivation of strength hit a roadblock as well. The same went for his cultivation of fist techniques, sword techniques, and Qi refinement.

Chen Ping’an decided to stand up and walk outside, frowning slightly when he arrived outside the main hall of the Daoist enforcer temple.

There was a common saying in the villages: One person shouldn’t stay in a temple alone, and two people shouldn’t look at a well together.[2]

Common people might not necessarily understand the deeper meaning behind this saying, but those who had embarked on the path of cultivation would definitely possess a more in-depth understanding.

If the good thoughts inside a person’s mind collapsed and dispersed, then distracting thoughts and evil thoughts would quickly rush in to fill the void. The opposite could also be true.

The same principle could roughly apply to Buddhist temples and Daoist temples as well, places that should have enjoyed abundant incense offerings. Ghosts and fiends would respect and fear these temples guarded by deities and rules when there were abundant incense offerings, yet when the incense offerings dwindled and the spiritual energy thinned, ghosts and yin entities would gradually gain the courage to covet and pry on these temples.

This was the reason why so many notes and journals written by traveling literati recorded the myriad of strange and eerie events that took place at rundown temples.

Chen Ping’an had once encountered a fox spirit in a dilapidated temple located between the Colorful Garment Nation and the Water Combing Nation.

There was both a meeting and parting that time.

Chen Ping’an lowered his head and gently exhaled some hazy white mist into his hands before rubbing his palms together to keep them warm. After thinking for a moment, he closed the door to avoid disturbing Zeng Ye as he cultivated.

Zeng Ye’s mind was pure and simple, but he wasn’t resilient enough when it came to cultivation. He was very easily distracted, so he would have no option but to start again if his refinement of spiritual energy and nurturing of acupoints was prematurely interrupted tonight. Once or twice would be okay, but if Zeng Ye were interrupted time and time again, it was possible that an intangible and detrimental path would form in his mind, one that he couldn’t detect at all. That would be hugely troublesome, and this was how bad habits such as greed were formed. They seemed to appear suddenly and naturally, yet to the keen observer, there would have been signs from very long ago.

Thus, it was necessary for Chen Ping’an to put in more time and effort to look after Zeng Ye as he embarked on the first steps of cultivation.

Even though they weren’t master and disciple, Chen Ping’an appeared very much like a Dao guardian at this moment.

Chen Ping’an couldn’t help but chuckle in speechlessness as he thought about this.

Not only did Chen Ping’an not feel weighed down by heavy emotions, but he actually felt slightly more at ease. He was most probably reminded of some happy events from the past, causing his slight frown to subconsciously relax and disappear.

He smiled faintly and said, “Come on out, I can sense your presence. Even though the lack of incense offerings in this Daoist Enforcer Hall has caused one of the avatars of that Golden Dao Manifestation to fall into a slumber for many years, rendering the remnant divinity of the Daoist enforcer unable to manifest itself and protect the fortune of this area, the absence of grudges between your two parties should mean that neither side should interfere with the other. This is better than mysteriously becoming enemies, right?

“If you’re unlucky and come across a hot-tempered Daoist enforcer, it’s entirely possible that they’ll choose to exhaust their divinity and shatter their godly body for the sake of killing you guys. You guys are free to consume the remnant incense offerings outside the main hall, and I’m sure that the Daoist enforcer behind me most likely won’t get angry.

“There’s a clear distinction between yin and yang, and mortal people are often fond of yang and loathing toward yin. However, Daoist enforcers aren’t necessarily the same. You guys still exist after death, and this is a product of fated opportunity and the heavenly will. Because of this, you guys can wander around the main hall and allow yourselves to maintain that last bit of sentience. However, you shouldn’t enter the main hall.”

Chen Ping’an spoke patiently and thoughtfully, and this was because many ghosts and yin entities would be in a semi-conscious and hazy state due to their feelings of anger, resentment, or obsession after death. Their perception of the world would be inferior to before, and it was very likely that it would be inferior to even Lower Five Tier vagrant cultivators like Zeng Ye.

Chen Ping’an could see several yin entities hiding near the back door of the front hall, causing gusts of yin energy to sweep through the area. The yin energy wasn’t very concentrated, and it was also freezing cold winter right now, so people with sufficient yang energy wouldn’t necessarily be able to clearly detect the yin energy released by the yin entities even if they stood in Chen Ping’an’s spot. For example, healthy young men might not feel anything out of the ordinary.

However, if someone already lacked yang energy and was prone to attracting calamities unto themselves, then there was every chance that they would be detrimentally affected by the yin energy. If their bodies were infiltrated by the yin energy, they would very easily fall sick and become bedridden for extended periods of time. The Qi replenishment medicines concocted by local doctors might not be effective, since these medicines targeted the symptoms but not the root cause. It was the souls of the victims that were wounded, so it was in fact the outdated soul-summoning and soul-stabilization methods of so-called sorcerers that might be effective.

Perhaps due to their fear of Chen Ping’an or their understanding of the reasons, the yin entities gradually retreated and abandoned their plans to enter the main hall of the Daoist enforcer temple.

Chen Ping’an didn’t say or do anything else since they heeded his advice and moved away.

1. A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy of destroying everything that allows an enemy military force to be able to fight a war, including the deprivation and destruction of water, food, humans, animals, plants, and any kind of tools and infrastructure.

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2. This means one should never intend to do harm to others, but one should always remain guarded against the ill intentions of others. One shouldn’t stay in temples alone to guard against ill-intentioned temple masters after material wealth, and two people shouldn’t look at a well together to guard against being pushed down the well by the other person. ☜