Unsheathed

Chen Ping’an made his way to the fire god shrine. The city god temple was not yet showing signs of collapse, and it could presumably maintain its current state for a decent period of time.

The fire god shrine also enjoyed abundant incense offerings, but compared to the chaotic scenes surrounding the city god temple, the incense smoke here appeared much purer and stabler as it gathered and dispersed in an orderly manner.

Just like before, Chen Ping’an didn’t enter the fire god shrine either. He was able to use his fist intent to suppress his peculiar aura now, but he wasn’t sure about whether he would be able to avoid unwanted attention if he were to set foot inside these temples and shrines. If it weren’t for his trip to the southeastern region of the Northern Complete Reed Continent being too hasty, Chen Ping’an had initially planned to finish traveling around the water god temple on the bank of Skeleton Shoal’s Swaying River first. Afterward, he would have traveled to several large temples and shrines of a few mortal nations to personally gauge the traditions and customs of the continent.

After all, the owner of the river god temple on the bank of the Swaying River was neighbors with the Flax Robe Sect, so with their lofty gaze, they potentially wouldn’t care about Chen Ping’an entering the temple to offer incense. The river god not granting him an audience wouldn’t signify anything one way or another.

However, the river god at the southernmost point of the continent hadn’t appeared in his shrine, and he had instead pretended to be a boatman holding a bamboo pole. He had most likely wanted to kindly provide some advice to Chen Ping’an.

Chen Ping’an wandered around the incense shops near the fire god shrine and asked about the origin and history of this deity.

There was one aspect of the fire god shrine that was similar to the city god temple, and just like how the old shopkeeper near the city god temple had never seen the true manifestation of the city god before, the shopkeepers here had never seen the true manifestation of the fire god either. However, there were more stories and legends attached to the fire god, and he also sounded closer to the commoners than the city god.

These matters were recorded in the unofficial history books, and they largely pertained to how the fire god rewarded good deeds and punished evil deeds, as well as how he traveled around the mortal world for entertainment. Moreover, these records were quite ancient, but they had still been passed down through the generations, allowing people to still circulate them today.

Among these records were some rumors about the fire god having some disagreements with the lake lord of Verdant Bamboo Lake, a flood-prone lake that was located four hundred kilometers away. This was because the female owner of a water immortal shrine had once angered the fire god and caused a physical conflict.

The canal owner located in the jurisdiction of Verdant Bamboo Lake hadn’t been a match for the fire god, so she had eventually requested help from the lake lord. In the end, it was surprisingly an unnamed sword immortal who had been passing by who had broken up the fight and calmed the two deities down. It was thanks to this that the lake lord hadn’t unleashed his mystical abilities to flood Imperial Accompanying City.

Chen Ping’an thought for a moment and directly left Imperial Accompanying City, choosing a small mountain path to make a secret trip to the water immortal shrine located in the jurisdiction of Verdant Bamboo Lake. If the self-proclaimed canal owner, whose true rank was only equivalent to that of river guardian, was still present, then Chen Ping’an could ask some indirect questions to see whether he could learn more about the secrets of Imperial Accompanying City. If this impending catastrophe were one that affected the entire city, then he did indeed need to do something about it. If it were nothing more than a fight between local deities in this small region, however, then he could stand back and watch the situation play out first.

Night fell, and Chen Ping’an walked along the banks of a wide stream and arrived near a shrine. The path was overgrown with grass and weeds, and there were barely any houses in the surroundings. From this, it could be seen that the shrine was receiving few worshippers and little incense offerings.

Moreover, this shrine was only a few dozen kilometers away from the nearest town.

However, when standing atop a mountain near the intersection of the stream and the lake before, Chen Ping’an had seen a group of people holding torches and making their way toward the shrine.

Chen Ping’an had silently followed them and listened to their conversations, and he hadn’t known whether to laugh or to cry. The youths from a nearby town were clearly bored and had nothing better to do, and they were surprisingly competing to see who was braver, daring each other to enter the shrine to tease the female canal owner. These matters were actually quite common in towns and smaller areas, and the same applied to the small town that Chen Ping’an was from. Back then, any child who dared to sleep at the immortal tomb for an entire night would be hailed by all of the other children as a mighty hero.

Someone the same age as Chen Ping’an from Apricot Blossom Alley had once claimed that he had slept at Apricot Blossom Alley for an entire night, and when he had loudly announced this under the old locust tree, he had immediately won the deep admiration of many other children. He had become their leader after achieving this “glorious” feat, and for a long time afterward, they had found great joy in bullying Chen Ping’an and Song Jixin, the two neighbors in Clay Vase Alley.

Of course, these children had hoped even more that Zhi Gui, the young maidservant with a strange name, could act as their young wife when they were playing house. However, it was a shame that they had been loudly scolded by Song Jixin. Moreover, Zhi Gui had always had a cold expression and a cold gaze when she had run back to the small town with Song Jixin. Meanwhile, the other children would run after them and throw mud at the young master and his maidservant.

That night, Chen Ping’an had coincidentally gone to the immortal tomb to pray to the Bodhisattvas. After catching sight of that “brave” leader of the other children, however, he had only walked around the immortal tomb for a short while before sprinting home.

Meanwhile, the group of seven or eight youths that Chen Ping’an had caught sight of tonight were clearly unwilling to treat themselves badly, and they had brought with them an abundant amount of meat and wine. When these youths entered the water immortal shrine that only had two gates, Chen Ping’an decided to sit down on a large tree located far away from the shrine and with a good field of view, overlooking the slanted plaque, the rundown buildings, and the walls overgrown with creeping figs. He placed his hiking pole horizontally across his knees and held his hands inside his opposite sleeves, gazing at the distant shrine and quietly observing the situation.

Chen Ping’an took out some dry rations and grabbed his Sword Nurturing Gourd that was filled with stream water from the deep stream of Treasure Mirror Mountain, starting to enjoy a midnight snack. After all, he hadn’t been walking leisurely on his trip to the Silver Screen Nation, and he had actually been sprinting and flying the entire time.

Several campfires had been lit inside the small shrine already, and the youths were enjoying a scrumptious meal of meat and wine as they chatted in an extremely vulgar manner.

There was one tall statue and two small statues enshrined in the shrine, but their initially colorful exterior had already been brutally stripped clean by the merciless forces of time and nature. The tall statue in the middle was the female canal owner, while the two statues on the side were most likely her followers or maidservants.

They all had vivid and lifelike eyebrows, and the canal owner appeared especially tall and shapely. She also wore a necklace decorated with beautifully colored beads.

Chen Ping’an swept his gaze over them and felt slightly puzzled. These three divine statues didn’t appear like gold statues that could conceal divine light.

Of course, this was a stroke of good fortune for those young delinquents from the nearby town.

Chen Ping’an planned to visit Verdant Bamboo Lake after finishing his dry rations. However, the lake lord didn’t have a physical shrine on the bank, and this was a small headache for Chen Ping’an to solve. If worse came to worst, he would be forced to come out of hiding and ask those impudent youths whether there was some other water god temple in the surrounding area.

Chen Ping’an closed his eyes and rested his mind, starting to digest and refine the stream water of Treasure Mirror Mountain that was filled with heavy yin energy.

At the same time, he slowly immersed his mind and used an elementary internal observation technique from the mountains to wander around his body with his yin soul.

There were some contents recorded in the ancient books that would make people in the current day feel puzzled.

For example, the books said: Rulers personally leading officials and commoners, throwing white horses into the water to pay tribute to the river deities.[1] However, the books never explained why exactly white horses were chosen as the tribute item.

There was also the saying: The river god is difficult to see, with giant fish acting as his scouts.[2] This saying was even more difficult to understand. After all, the gold statues of mountain gods and river gods weren’t difficult to see in the temples and shrines in the various continents and regions of the Majestic World.

Chen Ping’an suddenly opened his eyes, instantly retracting all of his aura and falling completely still.

His gaze remained fixed on the intersection between the stream and the lake in the distance, and what he saw was a subtle ripple that affected the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Not long afterward, he saw shimmering ripples on the surface of the water, after which three women appeared one after another. The woman at the front was dressed in colorful clothes, with her ribbons floating around her and shrouded in mist. Meanwhile, the two maidservants behind her also looked like the statues honored in the water immortal shrine, with the only difference being that they looked slightly more beautiful than depicted by the statues.

On the other hand, the canal master was actually far less beautiful than depicted by her statue. Chen Ping’an was curious about what had run through the skillful craftsmen’s minds when they had been crafting the face of the canal master’s statue.

Shifting his gaze again, Chen Ping’an started to feel slight admiration for the courage of the youths in the temple. One of them climbed onto the divine altar and embraced the statue of the canal owner, biting and kissing it and saying vulgar things at the same time. This elicited thunderous laughter as well as strange shouts and loud cheers from his friends.

This was presumably very common for young people, with many thinking that breaking the rules was a very impressive feat.

Similarly, young men would slightly harass or bully the girls whom they liked, and after being scolded a bit and getting a few eye rolls, it could be said that the two of them were now a couple.

The three women from Verdant Bamboo Lake activated illusion techniques after arriving near the shrine, transforming into a white-haired old woman accompanied by two young women.

The “old woman” smiled coldly, but she quickly put on a kindly expression after entering the shrine.

The young men were instantly stupefied when they saw the wrinkled old woman and the two young and attractive women walking behind her.

The shrine instantly fell silent, with the only sound being the crackling of the campfires.

The young man who was embracing the neck of the canal master’s shoulder with his legs wrapped around her waist turned around with an extremely flustered expression.

One of the youths lightly elbowed the sturdy man beside him and asked in a quivering voice, “It can’t be that the water goddess has truly come here to punish us, right?”

The man shook his head, with his expression transforming from surprise to delight as he chuckled and replied, “Open your eyes wide and look carefully. Do any of them look like a water goddess? It’s simply an old lady walking around at night and being accompanied by her two granddaughters. They’re most likely from a nearby town and people whom we aren’t familiar with, so I must say that our luck with beautiful young ladies is quite good tonight.”

The young man who had asked the question quietly wiped away the grease at the corners of his mouth. He was well aware of this man’s temperament and character, and he was truly afraid that he would do something terrible after having one too many drinks. That being the case, he said in a careful voice, “Let’s not be too rash, Brother. We’ll be dragged to the magistrates if things get out of hand.”

However, the sturdy young man sniggered and retorted, “If things get out of hand? Things getting out of hand will be good! Once we do the deed and knock them up, we can reasonably have them marry us and become our wives. Don’t fight me for them guys. I like both of these young women, but I’m a generous person, so I’ll only take the one on the left. You guys can slowly discuss how you’ll share the one on the right.”

The old woman purposely acted frightened, and she was just about to hastily walk away with the two young women. However, they were quickly surrounded by the group of young men.

The most courageous young man, the one who had jumped onto the divine altar and embraced the statue of the canal master, slid down from the statue and placed his hands on his hip, looking over at the commotion at the entrance and saying with a wide grin, “Sure enough, the words of that saber-carrying outsider were correct: I’m enjoying brilliant luck with women right now. Liu San, you take one, and I’ll take the other one!”

Chen Ping’an suddenly furrowed his brows.

He looked toward a beam inside the shrine.

A person sat up, and this was a thick-browed man with a saber by his waist. His legs were hanging from the beam, and he yawned before lazily ripping off a yellow paper talisman from his body. The talisman immediately burned to a crisp after it was removed.

The old woman had a deeply astonished expression.

The thick-browed man smiled and said, “I can’t catch any fish if I don’t use some tricks.”

1. This is an extract from the Book of Han. ☜

2. This is an extract from Records of the Grand Historian. ☜