Unsheathed

Chapter 447 (4): What a Coincidence, I’m also a Swordsman

“Your Highness, if I don’t step forward and join the battle, then the spreading rift between everyone will reduce us to nothing more than lamb to the slaughter,” Mr. Zeng said in a quiet voice. “Only if I step forward is it possible that Hu Han and Xu Mao will work together with me to attack and kill that young man. Of course, the prerequisite is that I’m not defeated in a single exchange.”

There was a forced smile on Han Jingxin’s face as he replied, “You jest, Mr. Zeng.”

Xu Mao retreated and rejoined the other cavalrymen, with his expression furious as he jumped onto another warhorse.

Hu Han also wanted to retreat, but the young man immediately turned around to look at him just as he began to move.

It appeared as if Hu Han had genuinely lost his courage, huffing as he stopped and stood still.

However, Chen Ping’an felt that neither Hu Han nor Xu Mao were as simple as they appeared.

It was simply due to the complexity and fine balance of the current situation that they were holding back and unwilling to fight with their lives on the line.

By the looks of it, there was an interesting dynamic between the subordinates and soldiers of Han Jingxin. Their morale was worth ruminating over.

Mr. Zeng, a swordsman who had seldom ever drawn his sword, slowly advanced on his horse.

There were thirty or so paces between him and Chen Ping’an.

Still standing on Xu Mao’s horse, Chen Ping’an asked, “You’re not a sword cultivator but a sword expert instead?”

Mr. Zeng shook his head and replied, “I’m nowhere near deserving of such a title, especially not from you. My surname is Zeng, and I’m simply someone who wanders around the cultivation world. I go wherever I can make a living and find food.”

He then smiled and added, “I might not act morally in a moment.”

Chen Ping’an held a hand behind his back and gestured with his other hand, saying, “Do as you please.”

Mr. Zeng looked at Hu Han and said, “I respectfully ask you and General Xu to temporarily join me and put aside all differences, working together to slay our enemy.”

Chen Ping’an smiled and said, “Since Senior Zeng is a pure martial artist, you should have noticed that your Vajra Body Tier companion is relatively unique. True martial artists forcefully hold their breath of True Qi to elevate their mental state, remaining fearless even when they face opponents who are one cultivation base higher. They’ll accept their fate no matter what it is if they decide to engage in a life-and-death battle.

“However, your companion is quite outstanding, and he’s missing the ability to hold that breath and he even likes to fight with those who are one cultivation base below him. The cultivation world of the Stone Brush Nation is truly very interesting. If your companion is unfortunately the strongest martial artist in the cultivation world of the Stone Brush Nation, then every day he’s alive is a day that the cultivation world of the nation is being dragged down.”

The corners of Xu Mao’s lips curled upward.

It appeared as if he agreed with this assessment.

However, this didn’t stop him from slowly advancing with his lance again.

There was a look of contemplation on Hu Han’s face.

Chen Ping’an unexpectedly turned to him and said, “Do you understand now? But it’s a shame that you won’t be able to do it.”

Hu Han cocked his neck and replied, “Oh? That’s hard to say.”

Hu Han’s aura immediately changed, and it was as if this version of him were finally the true Hu Han, the number one martial artist of the Stone Brush Nation who dominated everyone else in the cultivation world.

“Mr. Zeng, General Xu, let me fight first in a moment. The two of you only need to provide me with some support,” Hu Han said loudly.

Chen Ping’an completely ignored Hu Han’s words, and he paid no heed to Xu Mao who was advancing with his lance.

Amid the swirling wind and snow, the only person in Chen Ping’an’s eyes was the middle-aged swordsman carrying a long sword on his back.

Mr. Zeng didn’t move, yet the sword on his back automatically flew out of its scabbard and soared into the sky, instantly vanishing without a trace.

This was the fundamental sword manipulation technique of sword experts.

Of course, this was also the main reason why sword cultivators from the mountains ridiculed and looked down on sword experts from outside the mountains.

Chen Ping’an placed his left hand on the hilt of the Great Replica Qu Huang and remarked, “What a coincidence, I’m also a swordsman.”

He used his thumb to push the sword one inch out from its scabbard.

He was like a towering mountain.

It was already difficult to discern whether he was radiating with fist intent or sword intent.

Xu Mao involuntarily squinted his eyes due to the slightly blinding radiance.

However, Xu Mao was still the first to charge forward and attack. His warhorse galloped forward, carrying both him and his long lance.

Hu Han was unwilling to fall behind, so he also lunged at Chen Ping’an.

A carefree smile appeared on Mr. Zeng’s face.

His ancient sword which had a hilt made from white jade ganoderma was still nowhere to be seen.

Chen Ping’an strode forward from the back of the horse, striding into midair before disappearing without a trace.

Hu Han coincidentally lunged over the horse and landed on the opposite road.

Chen Ping’an appeared beside Xu Mao in the next moment, and he used his shoulder to bump Xu Mao and send both him and his horse flying.

Xu Mao jumped off his warhorse in midair and firmly landed on the ground. However, his steed wasn’t so lucky, violently crashing into the snowy ground thirty or so meters away and immediately dying a wretched death.

However, something even stranger happened. Just as Chen Ping’an had mysteriously disappeared, Mr. Zeng also disappeared without a trace.

Now only that, but he even abandoned his sword scabbard which fell onto his horse’s back before sliding down and stabbing crookedly into the snow.

Chen Ping’an landed on his horse and silently furrowed his brows. He gently pushed the Great Replica Qu Huang back into its scabbard.

He then looked down at the empty scabbard in the snow.

It had only been visible for a split second just then, so it was very likely that Hu Han and Xu Mao hadn’t noticed anything amiss with their attention being fully focused on Chen Ping’an. The sword scabbard was real, but it hadn’t actually been housing a sword. Instead, it had seemingly been housing a saber.

Chen Ping’an felt slightly exasperated as he murmured, “I didn’t jinx myself and actually come across a saber-lending cultivator, right?”

The sword scabbard was left behind. However, both Mr. Zeng and his saber were nowhere to be seen. Everything reeked of strangeness.

“Mr. Zeng” had said the same of Chen Ping’an just then, but it was now Chen Ping’an’s turn to experience the same feeling.

He couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation, so he decided to put it aside first and deal with the other matters at hand.

Chen Ping’an used his sword manipulation techniques to casually summon the sword scabbard from the snow.

He then casually flicked his sleeve, causing the scabbard to shoot forward like a flying sword.

It whistled forward and pierced through the neck of Prince Han Jingxin.

After confirming that the prince didn’t have any death substitution talismans or other immortal treasures, Chen Ping’an turned his attention away from the corpse that was limply sliding down the horse.

Chen Ping’an turned around, with his gaze shifting hesitantly between Xu Mao and Hu Han.

Xu Mao tightly gripped his long lance and remained unmoving. Meanwhile, Hu Han was already fleeing with all his might.

Chen Ping’an immediately gave chase.

The two of them vanished into the heavy snow one after another.

All of the elite cavalry exchanged glances with each other. They were waiting for Xu Mao to issue a command.

Since the sky had already collapsed, they naturally needed someone stronger to hold it up.

Approximately eight minutes later…

One could vaguely make out a person in azure returning from the distance, an item in his hand.

Ma Duyi and Zeng Ye were almost about to go crazy.

As it turned out, Xu Mao had suddenly gone crazy soon after Chen Ping’an left, first gathering together the leaderless elite cavalry before suddenly erupting in violence and brutally slaughtering the forty or so soldiers. In the end, he even squatted down and used a saber to hack off Prince Han Jingxin’s head, hanging it from his waist. He then picked three warhorses and jumped onto one of them, treating the two others as relay horses that he would use during his long journey, lest the hooves of the warhorses get damaged.

Xu Mao didn’t leave after doing all this.

Instead, he silently sat on his horse and waited for Chen Ping’an to return.

Chen Ping’an arrived near Xu Mao and tossed Hu Han’s lifeless head to the general on horseback, asking, “Care to explain?”

Xu Mao caught the head and hung it on his saddle, chuckling, “You’ve already guessed, haven’t you? A future emperor of the Stone Brush Nation was killed, so as someone who was his guard, my failure to protect him can only result in the death sentence. That being the case, what else can I do? I can only defect to the Great Li Empire’s Su Gaoshan.”

Chen Ping’an didn’t find this surprising in the least.

“You’re not going to kill me?” Xu Mao asked.

Chen Ping’an shook his head and replied, “You’ve helped me clean up the mess, so why should I kill you? Killing you would be causing a whole new mess for myself.”

Xu Mao looked at the young man who was still as deathly pale as before and chuckled, “Let’s hope that you and I never meet again in the future.”

“That would be for the best,” Chen Ping’an replied with a nod.

Xu Mao turned his horse around, commanding it to gallop away in the wind and snow.

Chen Ping’an squatted down and scooped up some snow with both hands, using it to clean his face.

He was surrounded by corpses as well as wandering warhorses that were lowering their heads and gently nudging their lifeless owners.

Chen Ping’an let go of the snow, causing crimson blood to drip onto the snowy ground.

Ma Duyi and Zeng Ye rushed over on their horses, and they were just about to say something when Chen Ping’an shook his hand and gestured for them to remain silent first.

He jumped onto the back of a warhorse and gazed into the distance, peering in a direction that was slightly different from Xu Mao’s departure route.

Chen Ping’an only sat down on the horse a short moment later, raising a hand to wipe away the blood that was starting to seep out from his nose and ears again.

He had ingested a secret medicine from the Yang Family’s medicine shop after killing Hu Han, allowing him to not feel any pain in his body. However, it was still fairly difficult to disguise his miserable state.

Otherwise, there was a risk that the fiercely ambitious Xu Mao would turn around and charge back to attack him.

In reality, Xu Mao had indeed given this some serious thought.

However, he resolutely abandoned this thought and left after being noticed by Chen Ping’an.

Killing Xu Mao wouldn’t be difficult, but the mess caused by killing Xu Mao would have to be cleaned up and borne by Chen Ping’an himself. As a result, his journey north would become filled with obstacles and troubles.

There was a reason why Chen Ping’an hadn’t used his two flying swords from the beginning to the end, nor had he used his pseudo-celestial tool. One aspect was that it wasn’t against the rules of the immortal forces in the mountains for a pure martial artist to kill members of the imperial family and even the emperor. This was because martial artists had never been regarded as cultivators from the mountains. On the other hand, Qi refiners were regarded as cultivators from the mountains, and sword cultivators naturally fell into this category as well.

The other aspect was that Chen Ping’an also wanted to have a hearty battle with someone, and this was due to the stroke of inspiration that General Wei from the Daoist enforcer temple had given him.

However, it felt… quite ineffective.

As always, Ma Duyi was better able to understand the deeper meaning behind Chen Ping’an’s gesture than Zeng Ye.

She had never experienced such a harrowing feeling before.

Were the schemes and conflicts in the Stone Brush Nation any inferior to those in Bamboo Scroll Lake?

Chen Ping’an’s voice was hoarse as he said, “This is no place to linger around. We need to quickly travel at least fifty kilometers away and find a hidden place to rest. Any place will be fine as long as we can shelter from the wind and snow.

The three steeds set off, continuing their journey north.

Chen Ping’an had no option but to directly wrap his Dao robe, Golden Sweet Wine, around the outside of his cotton robe to conceal his miserable state.

Xu Mao had already traveled far away, yet the general of the Stone Brush Nation who was now preparing to defect to the heavy cavalry of the Great Li Empire suddenly stopped his horse and asked in a solemn voice, “Mr. Zeng?”

Sure enough, the middle-aged “swordsman” walked out from the curtain of wind and snow in the distance and made his way to Xu Mao’s side, saying with a smile, “You can return the long lance passed down by your ancestors to me now. I believe that the clan teachings passed down by your ancestors include a sentence that no one has been able to understand during all these years. If it’s possible, however, I would rather borrow a horse from you. You can keep the lance that has the characters ‘wind and snow’ inscribed on it for the moment, and I’ll naturally come to collect it from you someday in the future. Even if I don’t personally collect it, someone will naturally come looking for Military Governor Xu Mao of the Great Li Empire. What do you say?”

There was a fervent look in Xu Mao’s eyes as he nodded and replied, “No problem!”

The middle-aged man slowly walked away with a horse.

Everything about him seemed to be fake, from his identity to his sword, name, and background. He seemingly noticed something as he walked with the horse, and he smiled faintly and mused, “Nothing able to stop the heart, nothing able to restrain the body. So why does the mind still feel despondent?” [1]

He turned around to look in Chen Ping’an’s direction, saying in disappointment, “It’s a pity that there’s a limit on the number of people that I can make a transaction with. It’s a true pity. Otherwise, it would have most likely been a good transaction that gained me more than a military governor of the Great Li Empire.”

————

The three steeds traveled at varying speeds, sometimes quick and sometimes slow.

Everything was determined by the state of Chen Ping’an’s wounds.

In Ma Duyi’s eyes, however, Mr. Chen’s mental state was seemingly unchanged even though he was nursing relatively severe wounds.

“Winter is a time for dense snowfall, the crunch underfoot like clinking jade. [2] Have you heard of this saying before?” Chen Ping’an suddenly asked.

“Yes, I have,” Ma Duyi replied with a nod.

“Mhm, you are indeed knowledgeable and well-read. You haven’t been a disappointment to your name,” Chen Ping’an said.

Ma Duyi suppressed a laugh and added, “I heard this saying for the first time just now.”

Chen Ping’an faltered for a moment before chuckling, “This joke is just like the chilly wind and snow.”

Ma Duyi was slightly puzzled. She started to carefully ruminate on Mr. Chen’s words.

Zeng Ye solemnly commented, “Mr. Chen is probably trying to say that Miss Ma’s jokes are cold and biting.”

Ma Duyi’s face was full of suspicion as she looked at Chen Ping’an.

Chen Ping’an chuckled and asked, “Do you really believe Zeng Ye’s words?”

Ma Duyi thought about this for a moment and felt like Chen Ping’an was correct. She shot an intense glare at Zeng Ye.

Zeng Ye couldn’t help but feel slightly aggrieved.

Ma Duyi hesitated for a long time, but she ultimately didn’t dare to say anything.

“Do you want to ask about gathering the souls of those cavalrymen?” Chen Ping’an asked.

Ma Duyi felt a little guilty as she replied, “I feel like there’s absolutely no need, but…”

“But you feel like my head is screwed on wrong, and I always like to do strange and complicated things, right?” Chen Ping’an asked with a smile.

Being able to say something like this meant that the matter wasn’t weighing on his mind.

This was a good thing.

Ma Duyi’s mood improved greatly, causing a faint smile to spread across her face.

“In reality, as long as one understands the beginning and end of a path, one doesn’t need to be afraid even if the current situation is a convoluted mess. Everything will be fine as long as one takes things slowly,” Chen Ping’an said.

Ma Duyi’s habit of being stubborn and literal cropped up again, and she asked, “Didn’t Mr. Chen just say that we need to quickly travel at least fifty kilometers away? Why don’t we take things slowly?”

Chen Ping’an poured out a secret alchemical pill from the Water Palace, drinking a sip of wine before ingesting the pill. He felt slightly exasperated, but he didn’t offer any retort.

Ma Duyi started to chuckle to herself.

Zeng Ye shook his head. Ah, women…

The three steeds galloped through the wind and snow.

1. These are two lines from Ba Juyi’s Ten Continuations of Ancient Poems (续古诗十首). Bai Juyi was a Chinese musician, poet, and politician during the Tang dynasty. ☜

2. This is a line from Wang Yucheng’s work, 黄州新建小竹楼记. Wang Yucheng was a Chinese poet from the Song dynasty. ☜