Unsheathed

Afterward, the three of them came across a famous landmark that was filled with immortal aura. This was a deep pool with no owner, and the pool already radiated with the biting cold of mid-winter even though it was only the beginning of autumn. There were vermilion characters engraved on the cliff face behind the pool, and the origin of these engravings couldn’t be found, not even in the Local County Chronicles. The engraving read: On an ancient wall the colorful illustration of a dragon’s tail shimmers gold, riding upon it a rain god charges into the autumn pool.[1]

Chen Ping’an and the others looked up, and they could indeed see some hints of a colorful painting that vaguely resembled a flood dragon. At the same time, they couldn’t see a single fish in the emerald green water beside their feet.

Chen Ping’an retracted his gaze and placed a hand in the pool water. There was a cool sensation, and Chen Ping’an was involuntarily reminded of Ruan Qiong’s blacksmith shop that was constructed on the bank of the river in his hometown due to the strong yin energy of the Dragon Whisker River. The deep pool in front of him was also suitable for tempering sword blades, yet no sword cultivator had built a thatched cottage here to cultivate for some unknown reason.

Chen Ping’an hurriedly retracted his hand all of a sudden. As it turned out, the chilly yin energy of the deep pool wasn’t pure at all. Instead, it contained a strong and sinister yin aura, one that appeared like a ball of utter confusion. Even though this aura wouldn’t harm one’s body straight away, it was a far cry from being pure and clean. It was no wonder that there was no one tempering their sword here. This sinister aura was a huge taboo for sword cultivators.

There were presumably some interesting historical stories about this place.

This place was perhaps similar to the Parasol Leaf Continent’s Flying Eagle Fortress and Ascending Sun Platform.

Afterward, Chen Ping’an and his two companions passed many villages and cities as they traveled around the Plum Glaze Nation. There were little children who were apprehensive of the mighty horses that they had seldom seen before, causing them to run away and hide in the depths of the trees and flowers. They occasionally came across unremarkable vagrant cultivators as well, and they also came across large envoys of exuberant people beating drums and striking gongs as the groom traveled over to pick up the bride.

They traversed mountains and crossed rivers as they traveled thousands of kilometers, and they inadvertently came across the remnants of a barren grave hidden among the long grass. They found the hilt of an ancient sword embedded in the tombstone, and the sword hilt still radiated with piercing sword qi even though it had already been left here for hundreds upon thousands of years.

The sword hilt was clearly an impressive spirit tool, yet it was already on the verge of crumbling apart due to the lack of care and nurturing over the many years. Ma Duyi wanted to grab the sword hilt and take the sword away, what with it being an ownerless item stuck in the tombstone. After all, she might be able to fetch a good price for it after she repaired and tempered it for a while. However, Chen Ping’an didn’t agree, saying that this was an immortal tool used by a Daoist priest to stabilize the feng shui of this area. It was because of this sword hilt that the murderous aura of this area was suppressed, preventing it from seeping into the surrounding areas and wreaking havoc.

Ma Duyi was a yin entity, so how could she not notice this? It was simply the case that she didn’t care. She smiled and said, “Let’s pull out the ancient sword first. If there’s truly a demon or evil spirit suppressed in the tombstone, and if it truly jumps out to cause trouble, then we can also take this opportunity to subdue demons and eliminate fiends. We’ll obtain both a spirit tool and hidden virtue, so won’t we be hitting two birds with one stone?”

Chen Ping’an shook his head and replied, “This pertains to ancient matters with complicated relationships, so how can we be so sure that there aren’t any hidden grievances and complexities?”

Ma Duyi pouted slightly and grumbled, “Mr. Chen, you’re good in all other areas, but you’re far too hesitant and indecisive when it comes to doing things like this.”

Chen Ping’an smiled and said, “Little children are weak, but they’re still capable of smashing porcelain bowls and wares. Their actions can also be viewed as a form of decisiveness. Zeng Ye can also display such decisiveness, and he would have been able to immediately kill that group of bandits if he had wanted to. You can show such decisiveness as well, and it would have naturally been even easier for me.”

Chen Ping’an sighed with emotion and continued, “The gathering of human minds is a very terrifying matter. When a single person enters a peaceful and serene ancient temple, they’ll feel a sense of respect and fear when they offer incense and worship Buddha. If the ancient temple becomes noisy and bustling with crowds, however, then one might lose their sense of respect and fear. Taking this to the extreme, someone might even think about scraping the gold coating off the statues of the Buddhas. In fact, they might even act on this impulse.”

As they rode through the unmarked burial ground, Chen Ping’an suddenly turned around and looked back. However, he didn’t see any other humans or ghosts.

When they stopped to rest beside a lake located deep in the mountains one time, Zeng Ye casually picked up stones and tossed them into the water. Meanwhile, Ma Duyi chose a serene location to sit by herself, taking off her shoes and dipping her feet into the cool lake water. She stretched her body lazily, and there was a wide smile on her face as a dragonfly coincidentally flew back and forth overhead before landing on her hairpin.

Ma Duyi stopped her movements, wanting the dragonfly to stay for a moment longer.

In the distance, a young woodsman carrying a bundle of firewood inadvertently walked by, stopping as he stared at her in a daze. He mistakenly thought that she was a celestial maiden, and he couldn’t help but fall in love with her. However, he also felt a sense of shame and unworthiness.

Ma Duyi raised her hand and shooed the dragonfly away, after which she turned around and pinched the collar of her fox fur coat. She was just about to pull her coat back in one swift motion to frighten the young villager boy who was enchanted by her beauty.

However, Chen Ping’an immediately threw a small stone in her direction, knocking her fingers away from her collar.

Ma Duyi turned around as if she had been wronged, swinging her legs and kicking up huge splashes of water.

The young woodsman hurriedly ran away.

He didn’t plan to reveal this encounter to the other villagers who were the same age as him. He had seen a beautiful immortal big sister by the lake, and he decided that it would be enough for him to silently cherish this memory.

When the three steeds arrived at a prosperous county city, even Chen Ping’an was given an eye-opening experience.

The was a drunken scholar running around in disheveled clothes, with his entire chest exposed as he swayed left and right. He was filled with confidence, and he had a young scholarly attendant carry a large bucket of ink for him. Using his head as a calligraphy brush, the drunken scholar then proceeded to “write” on the ground.

There were also servants of the drunken young man trailing behind him at the end of the street, and sitting beside these servants were several buckets filled with well water. They were waiting to clean up the mess and wash the streets after their young master finished with his craziness.

This wasn’t a tiring job per se, but the servants would definitely feel tired after seeing everyone roll their eyes at them. They were furious at their bookish and crazy young master, yet they didn’t dare to voice their dissatisfaction at all.

After asking around, Chen Ping’an was surprised to discover that the drunken young scholar was actually a county lieutenant with many achievements.

Chen Ping’an stopped on the side of the street with his horse, and he saw the county lieutenant plonking down on the street in exhaustion. The drunken young man was covered in ink and reeked of alcohol, making him smell as strange as could be. He forcefully slapped the ground with his palms, laughing loudly and exclaiming, “I honor and pay respects to the deities with my calligraphy, so dare I ask, do the deities have the courage to provide me with some guidance? Where are the sages of the past and present? Come, come, come, please come here and have a hearty drink with me…”

However, the young county lieutenant suddenly started to wail in grief, lamenting, “When I was in the capital, I once saw a princess fighting for the right of way with a coolie. I was able to comprehend the true intent of calligraphy from this chance encounter, and I was further able to comprehend the divine intent of calligraphy when I saw the princess holding a flower in the temple afterward. Come on, look at the characters that I’ve written for you!”

Zeng Ye was dumbfounded, and he said to Chen Ping’an, “Mr. Chen, what is he writing? I don’t recognize a single character.”

Chen Ping’an forcefully suppressed a chuckle, pointing at the street and explaining in a quiet voice, “He’s using the unrestrained cursive script to write a poem about the worries and grudges of unmarried young maidens. The poem that he just finished writing reads: Bright moonlight seeps through the windows, the glimmer in her eyes beautiful and delicate, drinking sweet rice wine with a gentleman.

“Mhm, he’s most likely writing a love poem for himself from the perspective of the young woman whom he likes. However, his calligraphy skills are truly very impressive. In fact, it’s as good as it can be. I’ve never seen such good cursive script before. I have seen paramount masters of regular script and semi-cursive script before, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone with such immense skills in cursive script.”

In the end, Chen Ping’an said, “Don’t feel like the county lieutenant is spewing nonsense. His writing genuinely possesses divine intent. It’s only because the spiritual energy in this area is thin that the door gods and ghosts are unable to persist in the open for too long. Otherwise, they would have truly made their way here to admire and pay respects to his calligraphy work.”

Chen Ping’an suddenly smiled and strode forward with his horse, making his way to the drunken and lovestruck county lieutenant who was bleary-eyed and collapsed on the street. “Let’s go, let’s buy some calligraphy works from him. We’ll buy as many as we can! This is an investment that’s sure to make money! It’s countless times more profitable than the two of you toiling away to find cheap treasures! However, the condition is that we’ll need to live for one hundred years or even several hundred years first.”

Zeng Ye and Ma Duyi exchanged a glance. Had Mr. Chen gone crazy as well?

Chen Ping’an walked up to the young county lieutenant who was lying face up on the street and asked with a smile, “I have some fine wine that’s no inferior to the wine of immortals, so can I use this wine to buy some calligraphy works from you?”

The bleary-eyed county lieutenant bobbed his head and replied, “Why don’t you beg me?”

“I beg you,” Chen Ping’an nodded and said with a smile.

The county lieutenant suddenly burst into tears of grief, wailing, “You’re not the princess, so why are you begging me? Do I want you to beg me? Go away, go away, go away! I’m not going to sell anything to you! I won’t sell a single character to you!”

Chen Ping’an turned around to look in Ma Duyi’s direction, and when everyone else followed his gaze, he quickly flicked his wrist and retrieved from his minimization treasure a bottle of well-water immortal wine that he had purchased from Wasp Tail Ferry Station. He let go of his horse rein and cracked open the clay seal of the wine pot, squatting down and offering the wine to the county lieutenant on the ground. “Are you going to sell me your calligraphy works or not? You can answer this question after you have a taste of the wine first. If you’re still unwilling to sell them after tasting this wine, then just treat this as me expressing respect for the cursive script that you’ve written on the ground.”

The county lieutenant sat up and accepted the pot of wine, throwing his head back and guzzling down the contents. After drinking the entire pot of wine in a single breath, he casually tossed away the empty pot before shakily standing up and grabbing Chen Ping’an by the arm, asking, “Do you have any more wine?”

“Yes, I do, but I only have a small amount left,” Chen Ping’an replied with a smile.

The county lieutenant was delighted, and he said, “Come on, let’s go to the shitty county office. I’ll compose some works for you there, and I’ll write as much as you want — as long as you have enough wine, of course!”

Ma Duyi rolled her eyes upon hearing this.

Where was his pride and backbone as a scholar?

Meanwhile, Zeng Ye felt slightly happy. It was rare to see Mr. Chen in such a good mood.

After arriving at the county office, the young county lieutenant swept away the mess of books on the table and instructed his scholarly attendant to bring him paper and grind some ink. Chen Ping’an placed a pot of wine beside the county lieutenant.

On the wall of the room were characters written in wild cursive script that even the young county lieutenant couldn’t recognize after he recovered from his drunken stupors.

He drank some wine before burping and asking, “Go on, what do you want this crazy person to write? Which sharp-eyed official or noble are you gifting these calligraphy works to? Actually, forget about it, I don’t want to know about any of this. I don’t care what you want me to write, and I’ll simply write whatever I feel like writing.”

Characters mystical and ever-changing like mists spreading across paper; even wind and rain must exclaim in admiration.

Sure enough, the county lieutenant wrote whatever he wanted to write. He would often write countless characters in a single stroke, and Zeng Ye had a nagging feeling that they would definitely lose money from this transaction.

In the end, the county lieutenant who could hold his alcohol but couldn’t reign in his drunken behavior composed a dozen or so calligraphy works of varying sizes. Only then did he collapse to the ground and fall asleep in drunkenness.

Chen Ping’an spent five pots of wine in total — well-water immortal wine, osmanthus wine from Old Dragon City, and crow caw wine from Bamboo Scroll Lake.

The young county lieutenant wasn’t truly able to drink so much, and he had only gone through so many pots of wine because he spilled more than he drank. This hurt to watch for Ma Duyi, and she couldn’t help but lament his absolute waste of the precious pots of wine.

Chen Ping’an packed away the calligraphy works and left the county office.

The three of them walked away with their horses, and Ma Duyi couldn’t help but ask, “I can tell that his calligraphy works are good, but are they truly that good? These immortal wines are worth quite a lot of snowflake coins, but when converted into silver, will a work of calligraphy truly be worth tens of thousands of silver coins?”

Chen Ping’an laughed heartily after obtaining the calligraphy works, and it was as if he had also had too much to drink. His voice was filled with confidence as he replied, “You guys don’t believe me? Then just wait and see. When you come here again in the future, this street will have definitely become widely renowned already. Hundreds upon thousands of years later, the entire county city will still be benefiting from the county lieutenant even if he’s already passed away. He’ll definitely be remembered by the future generations.”

The three steeds slowly left the small county city, and at this point in time, the residents of the county city were still treating the drunken county lieutenant as a hilarious joke. However, they were unaware of just how many calligraphy masters and literati in the future generations would feel profoundly honored to be able to personally witness the works of this county lieutenant.

The Mid-Autumn Festival arrived, and the families in the Plum Glaze Nation were still able to gather together to celebrate.

However, the same couldn’t be said for the Stone Brush Nation.

When the Mid-Autumn Festival rolled around again next year, perhaps the Plum Glaze Nation would be suffering the same tragedy that the Stone Brush Nation was suffering right now.

There were many spirits and beasts in the wilderness.

Once again, autumn departed and winter arrived.

1. This is a line from Li He’s poem, 相和歌辞·神弦曲. Li He was a Chinese poet of the mid-Tang dynasty. ☜