Unsheathed

Mural City was roughly equivalent to Red Candle Town in size, but its streets and alleys were rather disorderly, varying haphazardly in width, and most of them were quite crooked. Furthermore, there were very few tall buildings and manors here.

In addition to the many small shops in the city, there was also no shortage of streetside stalls, and many of the merchants were verbally advertising their wares, resulting in a noisy and chaotic environment.

There were also traveling salesmen squatting by the side of the street with their hands tucked up their opposite sleeves, displaying no interest in whether the passersby on the streets purchased their wares.

There were many stories about the origins of Mural City, and particularly the murals that depicted the female officials of the Heavenly Court. As for the true origins of the city and its murals, that was a closely guarded secret of the Flax Robe Sect.

Chen Ping’an walked along for around fifteen minutes at a leisurely pace, following a large group of people that had also come here to see the murals. Before long, he arrived before one of the murals, which was over a hundred feet tall and presented a stunning sight to behold.

Standing within the crowd, Chen Ping’an looked up to discover that the mural depicted the side profile of a celestial maiden that seemed to have been in flight with a bunch of divine clouds beneath her feet.

There was a portable inkstone strapped to her waist, something that had become rather uncommon in the present day, and the celestial maiden’s eyes were as bright and animated as those of a living person’s, perhaps due to the light that illuminated the area, or perhaps due to the spiritual energy harbored within the mural.

The woman in the mural had been named the inkstone-carrying celestial maiden, and the primary color tones of the mural consisted of shades of green, but there were also tasteful embellishments of gold that perfectly complemented the depicted subject.

At a rough glance, the mural appeared to have been quite simple and plain, but upon closer inspection, one would discover that every single crease in the celestial maiden’s clothes, all of her accessories, the lines of her skin, and even her eyelashes had been etched out in stunning detail.

The painter responsible for these murals had to have been a truly outstanding artisan.

Chen Ping’an’s mastery of the Northern Complete Reed Continent’s official language was currently rudimentary at best, so he could only understand bits and pieces of the conversations taking place around him. Over the past several thousand years, five of the eight pieces of fortune imbued within these murals had already been claimed by their fated beneficiaries.

Furthermore, once a celestial maiden emerged from her mural and chose a master to serve, the mural would instantly become faded and lose its spiritual energy. Hence, those five murals had been covered using secret techniques unleashed by powerful cultivators that had been invited here from the Flowing Dawn Continent by the Flax Robe Sect to prevent them from being tarnished by the elements.

The tourists who came here mostly did so to appreciate the stunning beauty of the depicted celestial maidens, and of course, the same applied to Chen Ping’an. He was already here, so he may as well take a look.

However, most of his attention was focused on the small inkstone hanging from the celestial maiden’s waist. The ancient characters for the word “Flash” were etched onto the inkstone, and Chen Ping’an only recognized them thanks to the ancient characters in the Authentic Death-Avoiding Book given to him by Li Xisheng, many of which had already become lost to the Majestic World.

There was a shop near the mural that sold replicas of the mural for different prices. The most premium replicas cost twenty snowflake coins for a piece that was only the size of a human head, but they truly were exquisite, resembling the mural in both form and essence. Hence, he decided to purchase two of them, planning to keep one for himself while giving the other one to Zhu Lian as a gift.

Zhu Lian had told him that when it came to making a collection, quality always trumped quantity.

The shop was being managed by a young boy and a young girl, the latter of which was quiet and aloof, while the former was very bright and attentive. Upon noticing that Chen Ping’an had expressed an interest in purchasing two of the most expensive mural replicas in the shop, he gave Chen Ping’an a grand introduction to a picture book that contained five pieces of the same premium quality, stored inside a bright red wooden box.

According to the boy, the cost of production for the wooden box alone amounted to quite a few snowflake coins.

Chen Ping’an stroked his fingers over the wooden box to find that its surface was very smooth and fine. The spiritual energy imbued within was faint, yet pure, and it seemed that the boy hadn’t been lying about the quality of the material used.

The boy also told Chen Ping’an that he wouldn’t be able to purchase the remaining two celestial maiden murals here. Instead, he would have to make his way to the other shops to do so. At the moment, there were three long-standing shops in Mural City that had been passed down for generations, and the older generations had established a rule together that none of the shops were to encroach upon the business of the others.

However, the three shops could all sell the five murals that had already been covered up by the Flax Robe Sect.

Chen Ping’an told the boy that he would think about it, then departed from the shop with his two inkstone-carrying celestial maiden mural replicas.

As for the fated opportunities contained within the murals, that wasn’t even on his mind.

He had overheard conversations about how once a celestial maiden emerged from their mural, she would serve her master for life. All five of the celestial maidens to have emerged from their murals in history became bonded in matrimony with their masters, and at the very least, all of those couples had reached the Nascent Tier.

There was an impoverished scholar with mediocre cultivation aptitude, but after catching the eye of a celestial maiden wielding an immortal staff, he had made a string of unexpected breakthroughs, ultimately reaching the Immortal Tier. Not only that, but he had also gained himself a Dao partner of unmatched beauty, and it was truly a blessing of ten lifetimes.

Chen Ping’an had immediately begun sweating profusely upon hearing this, and he hurriedly took a sip of wine to compose himself, stopping just short of clasping his hands together to pray that the celestial maidens in the murals wouldn’t be so blind as to take a liking to him.

After that, he visited the other two murals, purchasing the most expensive replicas from the two shops there as well. Those shops were also selling the same sets of five mural replicas, and the price was the same as what the boy had stated earlier, a hundred snowflake coins per set.

These two murals depicted the rain-treading and deer-riding celestial maidens, with the former holding a white jade bowl that was tilted forward slightly to reveal the water inside, within which was a shimmering, golden flood dragon. The latter was straddled atop a rainbow deer with flowing streamers trailing along behind her, and on her back was a scabbardless, azure wooden sword with the words “fast as the wind” engraved upon its blade.

Chen Ping’an made his way through the crowd, looking and listening as much as he could.

There was one particular conversation that he had overheard that had been of particular interest to him, and taking inspiration from what he had heard, he decided to try and take this opportunity to make some money. In any case, his minimization treasure and pocket treasure were both almost completely empty, granting him the spare storage capacity to do with as he saw fit.

A passerby had said that due to the outstanding artisanship of the celestial maiden murals in Mural City, it was renowned across the entire continent, and in the northern region of the Northern Complete Reed Continent, there were often cultivators willing to pay exorbitant sums for a full set of eight celestial maiden mural replicas, with offers going as high as one lesser heat coin for a set.

After mulling over this matter, Chen Ping’an initially felt like there were profits to be made here, but then became a little skeptical. This was such an easy way of making money that it was essentially like picking up money from the ground, and any cultivator with a decent amount of wealth would be able to profit from serving as a middle man.

With that in mind, Chen Ping’an took some more time to examine the group of tourists that were chatting about this matter, and he felt like they didn’t appear to have been shills hired by the three shops. After pondering the matter a little longer, he felt like he had arrived at the answer. The Northern Complete Reed Continent was extremely vast, with the Skeleton Shoal situated at its southernmost point.

Traveling by immortal ship was quite expensive to begin with, and whether the celestial maiden mural replicas could be sold for a high price was dependent on how much the buyer desired them, so the price was undoubtedly going to be quite volatile and luck-dependent.

Additionally, one also had to consider how many sets of those mural replicas could be supplied by the three shops at a time. If the number was too few, then it wasn’t worth the ordeal. Given all of those discouraging factors, this suddenly didn’t seem like such an easy and reliable money-making method.

Of course, it was possible that the shops here had arranged secret avenues through the Flax Robe Sect to sell their wares to the north.

Out of all of the people that Chen Ping’an knew, Sun Jiashu and Dong Shuijing were the two who excelled the most when it came to making money. Sun Jiashu already possessed enormous wealth and estate, while Dong Shuijing had come into immense wealth from a very humble background, and the latter’s attitude to making money was one that Chen Ping’an admired the most.

Even though Dong Shuijing was already an extremely wealthy man with powerful connections with the likes of County Magistrate Yuan, Kiln Supervision Official Cao, and Guan Yiran, he still didn’t pass up the relatively minor profits yielded by the wonton shop.

Perhaps in the eyes of others, Dong Shuijing was only running the wonton shop for sentimental reasons or for his own personal cultivation of the heart and mind, his diligence and work ethic hadn’t waned in the slightest.

This was the true mark of a businessman.

At the other two shops, Chen Ping’an sought out the shopkeepers and asked if any discounts would be given if he were to purchase some mural replicas in bulk. One of the shopkeepers flatly refused, stating that even if Chen Ping’an were to purchase the shop’s entire stock, he still wouldn’t receive a discount of even a single snowflake coin, and there was no room for bartering whatsoever.

The shopkeeper of the other shop was a hunch-backed old woman, and she had asked Chen Ping’an how many sets of mural replicas he would be able to purchase. Chen Ping’an asked her how much stock she had left, in response to which she had replied that making these mural replicas was a painstaking job, so stock was very slow to come by.

Furthermore, the artists responsible for making these replicas had always been an old guest elder of the Flax Robe Sect, with no other artists daring to take on the job, and that guest elder was never willing to churn out too many pieces.

According to the old artist, the more lustful scoundrels laid eyes upon his work, the more bad karma he would accumulate, so if it weren’t for the quotas stipulated by the Flax Robe Sect that he had to fill, he wouldn’t want to do this job at all. The old woman then told Chen Ping’an that there was always plenty of demand for these mural replicas, so there wasn’t much stock left, only around thirty sets in total, all of which would be sold eventually.

By her logic, providing discounts would be the equivalent of throwing money away for no reason, and she asked Chen Ping’an if he had ever heard of any shop under the heavens doing such a thing.

Chen Ping’an could see that the old woman was being quite candid and earnest with him, so he could only give up on the idea, choosing to only purchase a box set from her shop for twenty snowflake coins. The five celestial maiden mural replicas that they contained were named “long candlestick,” “treasured canopy,” “ganoderma,” “spring official,” and “demon-vanquishing.”

The treasures in the possession of the five celestial maidens consisted of a lotus flower lantern, a treasured canopy, a white jade ganoderma scepter etched with intricate designs of flowers and birds, and the final one stood out the most among her peers, clad in a suit of armor while wielding an ax in her hand, presenting a gallant sight to behold.

After that, Chen Ping’an returned to the shop that he had initially visited and asked about the shop’s remaining stock and the possibility for a discount for bulk purchases. The boy was placed in a rather difficult situation, while the girl smiled and shook her head at the boy, seemingly amused by Chen Ping’an’s profiteering ways.

After that, she reverted back to her usual stoic expression, continuing to remain aloof and expressionless in the face of the customers visiting the shop.

In the end, the boy was more receptive to Chen Ping’an’s request, perhaps because he was rather shy, and in the end, he snuck Chen Ping’an to the stock room in the back, then sold him ten wooden box sets at discount of ten snowflake coins.

With that, Chen Ping’an paid the bill before leaving the shop with a cloth pouch slung across his back.

The girl bumped the boy with her shoulder as she jibed, “What kind of businessman are you? You can’t just go around throwing away money like that.”

A resigned look appeared on the boy’s face as he replied, “I take after my great-grandfather. Besides, I’m just here to help you out, I’m not actually a businessman.”

The girl refused to relent, declaring, “I don’t care about that. All I know is that the shop has lost ten snowflake coins because of you. In order to make up for that, you have to go to your great-grandfather and beg him to paint more mural replicas for my shop.”

The boy smiled as he nodded and replied, “You can count on me! I don’t know if anyone else can convince him, but my great-grandfather adores me the most, so I’m sure he’ll be happy to fulfill my request!”

“Did you tell that customer to be careful before he left?” the girl suddenly asked. “There are many types of people from far and wide in Mural City, and that collection of box sets that he’s carrying with him is not a small sum of money. Outsiders like him are most prone to being picked on around these parts, and there are no lows that some people won’t stoop to in order to swindle others out of a quick copper coin.

“Given how insistent he was in his bartering, it looked like he would’ve been content to stay at our shop as an employee if you hadn’t agreed to give him a discount. On top of that, his accent clearly indicates that he’s an outsider, and it’s very apparent that he’s not very wealthy, so there’s even more reason for him to be careful.”

The girl was very aloof and quiet when it came to doing business, but she was never stingy with her words when it came to the boy, and it seemed that beneath her detached exterior was a kind heart.

The boy faltered slightly upon hearing this, then slapped a hand to his own forehead as he exclaimed, “I forgot!”

The girl glowered at him in disapproval as she hissed, “Then hurry up and go after him! You’re a direct disciple of the Flax Robe Sect who’s about to embark on a journey outside of the sect, how could you still be so forgetful and lacking in maturity all the time?”

“What about the shop?” the boy asked.

“I’ve been here ever since I was a child, and during that time, you’ve barely come to help me at all. What do you think is going to happen? The shop will spontaneously collapse in your absence?” the girl scoffed.

With that, the boy rushed out of the shop, then sought out Chen Ping’an before quietly relaying the girl’s message to him.

“Alright, thank you for coming after me,” Chen Ping’an said with a smile.

The boy waved a dismissive hand, yet right as he was about to rush back to the shop, Chen Ping’an asked, “Can I ask you something?”

The boy immediately stopped in his tracks as he nodded and replied, “Go ahead.”

“If these eight celestial maiden murals harbor such tremendous fated opportunities, then why haven’t they been cordoned off by the Flax Robe Sect? Even if the sect’s disciples can’t claim these fated opportunities, surely they shouldn’t be allowed to be claimed by other outsiders,” Chen Ping’an asked.

The boy smiled as he replied, “The Flax Robe Sect is not so stingy. As opposed to keeping these fated opportunities to itself, the sect would much rather accumulate good karma with the blessed individuals that these fated opportunities will eventually fall upon. The ancestral tenet of the Flax Robe Sect’s ancestral hall states that cultivators must strive to make their paths wider, rather than narrow their paths to stave off competition.”

Chen Ping’an pondered this ancestral tenet for a moment, then praised in an earnest manner, “That’s very admirable of the Flax Robe Sect!”

The boy was very pleased to hear this. He wasn’t very tall, and overall, his appearance was rather unremarkable, but he was an internal disciple of the Flax Robe Sect’s ancestral hall and already a very accomplished cultivator. Hence, despite his young age, he was quite a senior figure in the sect.

He had known the girl in the shop ever since they were children, so he would come down the mountain to help her out whenever he had the chance, but in the Flax Robe Sect, there were many elderly cultivators who had to refer to him as their junior uncle.

After expressing his gratitude to the boy once again, Chen Ping’an began making his way toward the entrance of the city. Now that he had purchased those box sets to be sold elsewhere on the Northern Complete Reed Continent, his trip to the city had not been wasted, and he didn’t feel the need to remain in the city any longer.

He had examined the wares sold in the shops in the city, most of which were meant for ghostly cultivators, and setting aside their quality, a universal trait that they all shared was that they were extremely expensive. He presumed that he would only have a chance at finding the true cream of the crop if he were to stay in the city for some time and slowly explore the long-established shops hidden away on obscure streets and alleys.

However, Chen Ping’an had no intention of staying to try his luck, nor did have any interest in purchasing yin spirit puppets from the city as servants, so he was planning to travel to the Swaying River God Temple, which was roughly three hundred kilometers away from the Flax Robe Sect.

After emerging from Mural City, Chen Ping’an took a glance up at the Flax Robe Sect, which was concealed within the clouds and mist on the mountain summit, and was reminded of Peace and Tranquility Mountain on the Parasol Leaf Continent.

The foot of the mountain was packed with people, while the mountain itself was practically deserted in comparison, given that it was home to only thirty-six internal disciples and one hundred and eight external disciples.

It reminded Chen Ping’an of his own Downtrodden Mountain, which was also home to far too few people.

However, Chen Ping’an was also concerned about the possibility that a second Gu Can could emerge once more people came to the mountain. Even if that second Gu Can only put him through half the ordeal that the original Gu Can had, that would still serve as a massive headache.

Chen Ping’an removed his Sword Nurturing Gourd to take a sip of wine, then adjusted the cloth pouch on his back and cast away his train of thought as he continued on his journey on foot, intentionally restricting the pace of his breathing and the depth of his footsteps to match those of the average fifth tier martial artist.

The river god temple was very easy to find. All he had to do was reach the bank of Swaying River, then go northward from there. The Malicious Ghost Valley was situated to the northeast of the temple, so he wouldn’t have to go out of his way to get there.

The Swaying River was extremely wide, stretching into the distance with no end in sight, and its water was deep and calm.

There were no bridges on the river, and apparently, this was because the river god didn’t like having people walk over his head. Hence, the river had many docks and boats out of necessity. Chen Ping’an took a rest at a small dock and drank a bowl of the local gloomy tea.

Generally speaking, river water was considered a terrible option for brewing tea, yet the gloomy tea here was brewed with water collected from the river, and the tea was very sweet and refreshing, most likely due to the abundance of water fortune in the Swaying River.

It was also due to this abundance of water fortune that the banks of the river were extremely lush and lined with massive reed marshes. At the moment, it was early winter, yet the plant life still retained a green tinge and was home to many water-dwelling birds.

Along the way, Chen Ping’an occasionally spotted some traveling cultivators that were accompanied by armorclad yin spirit servants. Despite their heavy and bulky appearance, their footsteps were very light, barely making any sound at all, much like the master martial artists of the small subsidiary nations on the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

The yin spirit puppets were all clad in suits of premium armor that were etched with Daoist runes and glowing, criss-crossing golden and silver lines. Furthermore, almost all of the imposing yin spirits wore visors over their faces, and their exposed skin was dark green in color.

The contrasting cultures of the Northern Complete Reed Continent and the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent were on full display. Compared with the cultivators of the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, who were always very cautious and restrained when traveling through large ferry stations, the cultivators of the Northern Complete Reed Continent were much more free-spirited and uncaring of those around them.

It occurred to Chen Ping’an that Pei Qian would most likely fit right in here.

Chen Ping’an asked for two more bowls of gloomy tea, not because he was so thirsty that he needed to drink three bowls of tea, but because the stall charged one snowflake coin for three bowls of tea, and the price didn’t change even if you drank only one or two bowls.

Chen Ping’an was in no hurry to move on anyway, so he sipped on his tea in a leisurely fashion. Most of the dozen or so tables at the tea stall were occupied, all by people who were resting here. Around fifty kilometers away from this place was a set of ancient ruins. There, on the bank of Swaying River, was an ancient iron ox that was laying on the ground.

Its origins were unclear, and it was close to an immortal treasure. It hadn’t been taken in by the Swaying River God to consolidate the river’s water fortune, nor had it been claimed by any cultivators of the Skeleton Shoal. There was once an earth immortal who had attempted to take the ox, but things had turned out terribly for them.

The river god had turned a blind eye and hadn’t intervened to try and stop the earth immortal, but the water of Swaying River had suddenly risen up in turbulent waves, sweeping up the earth immortal and drowning them alive. No one had dared to touch the incredibly heavy iron ox since then.

Chen Ping’an had just finished his second bowl of tea when an altercation broke out between some customers and a stall employee over why four cups of tea cost two snowflake coins.

The shopkeeper was a lazy-looking man, and was looking on with schadenfreude as his own employee argued vehemently with the table of customers. The man was resting on the greasy counter in front of him, sipping on some wine while snacking on a dish of fresh water celery growing on the bank of Swaying River.