Unsheathed

Regarding the new phenomenon that was appearing at the Locust Flower Nation, a small nation in the northern regions, the sudden increase in demons and fiends was related to the flood of spiritual energy surging into the territories of the dozen or so nations. Without the presence of the thunder pool to intimidate all matter, these demons and fiends naturally became livelier like the snakes and insects after spring thunder.

Right now, Chen Ping’an had no plans to engage in conflict with Xia Zhen or the powerful cultivator from the Blissful Dream Nation. When it came to cultivators above the Golden Core Tier, those at the Nascent Tier were still manageable, as he could flee even if he wasn’t able to defeat them. However, if even one of them were an Unpolished Jade Tier cultivator, then that would spell huge trouble for Chen Ping’an, especially since he didn’t have any advantage here, neither timing, nor geographic, nor personnel.

If the two powerful cultivators truly wanted to kill him at all costs, then with the temper of cultivators at the Northern Complete Reed Continent, they definitely wouldn’t hesitate in the least. Indeed, many outsider cultivators with powerful backers had been killed in this continent where the sword immortals were extremely xenophobic toward outsiders.

Otherwise, if Chen Ping’an were more ruthless, he could directly use his jade tablet of a sage to absorb the spiritual energy that was flooding into the dozen or so nations like a receding tide. However, activating this jade tablet — one that even Bamboo Scroll Lake’s Liu Laocheng felt apprehensive of — from another continent like the Northern Complete Reed Continent would be a completely different situation. This was a huge taboo, and he would perhaps earn the contempt and interrogation of the continent’s Confucian academy.

Of the two powerful masterminds, Chen Ping’an was more afraid of the cultivator who had ties with the Blissful Dream Nation than Xia Zhen, and this was because he had planned everything out meticulously and hadn’t needed to get involved in the conflict himself. He had simply dispatched two underlings to obtain the valuable treasure from Imperial Accompanying City.

If it hadn’t been for Chen Ping’an breaking through the formations and barging into the dragon palace at the bottom of Verdant Bamboo Lake, the Vajra Body Tier martial artist who had been disguising himself as a weakling among the Qi refiners from Blissful Dream Peak would have definitely continued to conceal his identity.

Coming across Du Yu was enough to roughly understand the situation at Ghost Axe Palace, and coming across the canal masters of Peony Stream and Algae Stream had been enough to roughly understand the traditions and customs of Verdant Bamboo Lake. Similarly, seeing Yan Qing was enough to roughly understand the actions of the Treasure Basin Immortal Realm, and seeing He Lu was enough to roughly understand the actions of Yellow Axe City.

There would naturally be some slight differences between Chen Ping’an’s rough understanding and the truth, but the longer that he interacted with these immortal forces and the more of their disciples that he came across, the closer to the truth he would eventually get.

At that time, it would also become less and less likely for Chen Ping’an to be taken by surprise. Of course, there were also times when seeing one person was enough to understand an entire immortal force, and this was because the city god of Imperial Accompanying City, Fan Weiran, and Ye Han were all the leaders of their respective temples and immortal forces. They were the ones dictating the traditions and values of their forces.

One method was looking up, and one method was looking down, and after grabbing both ends, it would be like grabbing the two ends of a string. At that time, it would be difficult for the “string” to escape observation even if it lay hidden for hundreds upon thousands of kilometers.

The world was a complicated place. If one wanted to live a carefree life, then one option was to remain naive and only focus on one’s own matters, accepting all of the fortunes and hardships that came one’s way. The other option was to look more and to think more, with this option being much more mentally and physically taxing.

There was always a taller mountain, and always a more powerful person. Even the sages who oversaw the various small worlds and were akin to the heavens of these worlds would feel restricted and stifled when they left these small worlds. They would be at the mercy of other people, and they would also need to observe the many interconnected matters and complicated rules of the world.

Speaking reason wouldn’t necessarily be effective.

However, understanding the rules definitely wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Did Lake Lord Yin Hou speak reason? Perhaps not. However, he understood how to uncover the rules of other people, figuring out the manner in which Chen Ping’an dealt with matters. As such, Chen Ping’an wouldn’t dare to kill him if black clouds enveloped the area above Verdant Bamboo Lake, afraid that the innocent people in the region would be affected if the one lake, three rivers, and two canals unleashed floods.

Among the people standing in the dragon palace at the time, Lake Lord Yin Hou had been no less deserving of death than Ye Han and Fan Weiran. However, he had voluntarily promised to protect the lives of those in his jurisdiction, and he had offered to repair the fortunes of the mountains and rivers to repent for his crimes. It was thanks to this that Chen Ping’an’s fists and swords hadn’t targeted Lake Lord Yin Hou.

Afterward, the elderly storyteller and his disciple wolfed down the food, eating to their heart’s content.

Chen Ping’an slowly drank the wine in his bowl, not picking up his chopsticks to eat any of the food.

The elderly storyteller burped and asked with a chuckle, “Young Master, you’re only drinking and not eating anything at all. Are you not feeling hungry?”

Chen Ping’an smiled and replied, “That’s right, I’m not feeling hungry right now. In any case, I feel like Old Mister deserves to enjoy this full meal.”

“Young Master, why are your words like those bald donkeys speaking about zen? It’s making me scratch my head in confusion,” the elderly storyteller replied in exasperation.

“When is Old Mister crossing the border to enter the Silver Screen Nation?” Chen Ping’an asked.

The elderly storyteller smiled and replied, “I’m going to set off right away since I’ve already eaten and drunk my fill. I learned some anthroposcopy in the past, so since Young Master has treated me to a meal, how about I tell Young Master’s fortune? Rest assured, I won’t charge Young Master for this.”

“Then I’ll trouble Old Mister with telling my fortune,” Chen Ping’an said with a nod.

The elderly storyteller retrieved several of the copper coins that he had obtained just then, casually tossing them onto the table before stroking his beard in contemplation. He fell completely silent.

Chen Ping’an smiled and didn’t say anything.

The elderly storyteller pushed the copper coins around with his finger and said with a frown, “Young Master is a kind-hearted person with rich fortune, but Young Master must keep in mind that people with fortune shouldn’t visit lands without fortune. These old sayings aren’t baseless, so don’t disregard them just because they sound crude. Looking at Young Master’s northward journey to the Locust Flower Nation, Young Master can visit any place apart from Topknot Mountain that’s located fifty or so kilometers ahead. This is a land with no fortune for Young Master, so it’s best to avoid visiting it. Visiting Topknot Mountain might not necessarily be very dangerous, but it will ultimately be troublesome if Young Master truly comes across sinister fiends blocking the path.”

“Alright, then I’ll heed Old Mister’s advice and take a detour around Topknot Mountain,” Chen Ping’an replied with a smile.

“Young Master truly believes me?” the elderly storyteller looked up and asked with a smile.

“How can I not believe an elder’s words?” Chen Ping’an replied with a chuckle. “In any case, it’s not a big deal to take a small detour and walk a few extra steps when traveling to the Locust Flower Nation.”

The elderly storyteller stood up and said with an expression of praise, “Then I won’t disturb Young Master any longer. I’ll take my leave first and cross the border as quickly as I can. After all, telling someone’s fortune and revealing divine secrets always makes me feel uneasy.”

Chen Ping’an nodded and said, “I’ll also take a detour and travel north after I finish this pot of wine. I’ll avoid Topknot Mountain and refrain from causing myself unnecessary trouble.”

The elderly storyteller left Green Mountain Restaurant with his expressionless disciple.

After finishing the pot of fly whisk wine — a local specialty — and going downstairs to pay, Chen Ping’an couldn’t help but falter for a moment before shaking his head with a smile. The wine and food set him back a whopping twenty taels of silver, and as it turned out, the elderly storyteller had secretly asked for two pots of Green Mountain Restaurant’s most valuable twenty-year-old wine before leaving, saying that his friend upstairs was going to pay.

Chen Ping’an didn’t pay too much heed to this, especially since there was no need to speculate about the elderly storyteller’s true identity anymore. This was one less matter to worry about, and he no longer needed to split his attention and detrimentally affect his cultivation. In this sense, spending an extra dozen or so taels of silver was a very good deal.

In the end, Chen Ping’an genuinely took a detour around Topknot Mountain as he traveled north to the Locust Flower Nation. There were many cascading waterfalls in Topknot Mountain, and this had initially been a scenic area that Chen Ping’an had wanted to visit.

————

Someplace in Topknot Mountain…

Inside a resting pavilion at the waist of the mountain…

A young man with an azure belt stood there with a livid expression, and standing beside him were Ye Han, Fan Weiran, and the second ancestor of the Treasure Basin Immortal Realm.

The young man was none other than Xia Zhen, who had luckily escaped death after being targeted by Jiang Shangzhen.

“Old geezer, why did you ruin my grand plans?!” Xia Zhen roared in rage. “I already told you very clearly that I’ve already sent a letter to that great sword immortal in the central region! This sword cultivator is an accomplice of Jiang Shangzhen’s, so even if Jiang Shangzhen is hiding in the shadows, he’ll still be feeling very apprehensive and timid! But you’ve gone ahead and scared away the bait now, so what will you do when the great sword immortal becomes enraged?

“Are you truly acting like you’ve already refined the innate sword pellet and advanced to the Upper Five Tiers?! Are you stupid? I’ve already made a vow that the pseudo-celestial tool will belong to you after we succeed, and I’ll only take the remaining items in his possession, yet you’re still not satisfied with this?! Will you only be satisfied if we both come away with nothing?!”

On a mountain in the distance, an elder in Confucian robes smiled faintly as an elderly storyteller and an expressionless young man appeared beside him. In the end, the three of them overlapped and became a single person.

He had most likely been using an immortal technique whereby both his yang soul and his yin soul were able to leave his body and travel elsewhere.

The elder smiled and replied, “Don’t try to frighten me using empty threats. With that great sword immortal’s temperament, they’ll find it beneath themself to become involved in these matters even if they receive your secret letter. And using bait to fish? Do you truly think that our small conflicts in these dozen or so nations require so much effort?”

The elder was none other than the imperial preceptor of the Blissful Dream Nation. He retrieved a messenger flying sword with two fingers and lightly crushed it into pieces, continuing, “In any case, the great sword immortal hasn’t received your secret letter to begin with.”

Xia Zhen’s expression was dark, and he suddenly laughed in extreme anger and bellowed, “Are you planning to become mortal enemies with me?!”

The elderly imperial preceptor smiled faintly and replied, “The spiritual energy in the territory of the dozen or so nations has increased by quite a bit now, making this region one that is neither good nor bad. You and I have been neighbors for many years, and you’re renowned for being incredibly difficult to deal with. Even though the foundations of your Great Dao have been wounded now, I’m still unable to kill you, and you’re even less able to kill me.

“Right now, the two of us are competing to see who can advance to the Upper Five Tiers first, so how can I sit here idly and allow you to send a secret letter to the residence of that great sword immortal in the central region? What if that great sword immortal truly resents Jiang Shangzhen so much that they’re willing to degrade themself and target a small sword cultivator? At that time, you’ll be able to earn their goodwill and ride on their coattails, so how can I compete with you for these dozen or so nations even if I advance to the Unpolished Jade Tier in the future?

“Ahhh, what a pity, Xia Zhen. Even though you’re furious and flustered and have slowed down your speed of voraciously absorbing the spiritual energy of the border regions, you’ll still need to waste twenty entire days at Topknot Mountain with your three lackeys. Moreover, it seems like the Mountain-Moving Formation that you’ve painstakingly set up is going to end up unused?”

“Aren’t you still here?” Xia Zhen replied with a cold smile.

The imperial preceptor of the Blissful Dream Nation feigned realization and remarked, “You’re right. However, between my preliminarily refined sword pellet and your Mountain-Moving Formation, I wonder which one is more powerful and possesses more destructive ability. There will eventually be a battle between you and me, so bringing this battle forward will indeed save some trouble. Now is different from before, and it’s no longer the case that you’re stronger than me. The tides of fortune turn, so don’t tell me that you don’t actually understand the current situation, Xia Zhen?”

He then smiled and shook his head, continuing, “In any case, I’m not looking down on you, Xia Zhen, but your formation might not necessarily be enough to trap Jiang Shangzhen even though it can indeed injure him. I’m helping you step back from the brink of a terrible mistake right now, so you shouldn’t treat my good intentions as ill will instead. You actually dare to challenge Jiang Shangzhen to a conflict of life and death after sending out a secret letter that may well receive no response?

“In order to prevent you from picking up any clues about me, I have indeed suffered from a paucity of news over the past several hundred years. However, even though my intel is inferior to yours, I know more about some historical matters than you do. As such, I wouldn’t have blocked your messenger flying sword if you had sent the secret letter to the great sword immortal in the north.”

The imperial preceptor suppressed a smile and looked at Xia Zhen, with pity and ridicule in his eyes as he revealed, “That’s because the sword immortal in the north is a man. His darling daughter was harmed by Jiang Shangzhen back then, with her pursuit of the Great Dao delayed because of her relationship with him. As such, this great sword immortal would have naturally unleashed his full strength to kill Jiang Shangzhen.

“However, the great sword immortal whom you sent your secret letter to is a woman! It’s clear that you’re not aware of this, but after her relationship with Jiang Shangzhen back then, what she feels angry about isn’t borne from a feeling of regret about becoming attracted to Jiang Shangzhen like the rumors in the outside world claim. Rather, she’s angry about Jiang Shangzhen having relationships with other women and having affairs wherever he goes.

“After she comes here and is fed some entrancing nonsense by Jiang Shangzhen, are you not afraid that she’ll turn around and reward us with a sword strike each? Which is to say, Xia Zhen, you truly aren’t a very reliable ally. If that young sword cultivator possessed a higher cultivation base, being at the Nascent Tier like the two of us, then I might have joined forces with him to kill you and conclude our competition.

“Now, however, saying anything more is pointless since things have already come to this. I won’t fight to the death with you either, since that will be a waste of my cultivation. You can slowly absorb spiritual energy to rest and recuperate. Falling behind one step implies remaining behind the entire time, and according to my divinations from many years ago, you would initially have reached the barrier of the Nascent Tier sixty years later than me under the original circumstances already. Judging from the current situation, your Dao Heart is actually still unstable even at this moment. After reaching our level, cultivators will suffer greatly if they still conduct themselves as if they’re vagrant cultivators who can always exploit matters for their own benefit.”

The resting pavilion that Xia Zhen was standing in instantly disintegrated into dust, forcing Ye Han, Fan Weiran, and the second ancestor of the Treasure Basin Immortal Realm to fly out and hover in mid-air with frightened and flustered expressions.

The imperial preceptor paid no heed to this as he continued, “You and I formed a temporary alliance, after all, and even though I indeed had ulterior motives when concealing my identity at the Blissful Dream Nation, cultivating and training in the mortal realm was genuinely beneficial to my Dao Heart. It’s because of this that I’m able to suppress you in all facets and obtain more treasures than you all the time. Did you truly think that all of this was simply as a result of my plots and schemes? Nay, it’s because I’ve taken that step before you and grasped a wisp of the Nascent Tier’s Dao integration essence.

“If Jiang Shangzhen is truly good friends with that young sword cultivator, then would he purposely leave behind a future threat like you? He’s simply able to see further than you and me, and he was already able to foresee the events of today. Are you not afraid? Because I am. This was an overt scheme to me, and I was willing to partake in it to ruin your grand schemes. I became involved for the sake of establishing my own immortal force in the future, and for the sake of having my immortal force take root in the dozen or so nations.

“However, this was naturally a hidden scheme for you, Xia Zhen, and this hidden scheme caused you to hit roadblocks and come away empty-handed again and again. In fact, I even speculate that Jiang Shangzhen purposely enabled me to capture this messenger flying sword of yours.”

Xia Zhen retracted his overwhelming aura and said with a faint smile, “You’ve ruined my grand plans, and now you’re even trying to unsettle my mental state. This is a brilliant plan, you old criminal.”

The imperial preceptor sighed with emotion and said, “True or false, good or bad… Regardless of my original intentions and the legitimacy of my sincerity, I won’t go out of my way to block you from absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth according to our agreement from before. However, I’ve already walked one step — no, two steps — ahead of you, Xia Zhen.

“So, I’ll give you another choice when I advance to the Upper Five Tiers in the future. Will you flee from this area and continue to live as a wandering vagrant cultivator, or will you choose to become the chief guest elder of my immortal sect? If you choose the latter, then the two of us will no longer need to engage in unnecessary battles of the Great Dao for small regions such as this.

“If one immortal sect is able to have two Unpolished Jade Tier cultivators experiencing glory and hardships together, with both having risen to the top after starting as vagrant cultivators who are disdained by everyone, then will that not be a wonderful story that’s told in the Northern Complete Reed Continent for countless generations?”

Xia Zhen remained silent, simply looking up and gazing at the elder in Confucian robes who was standing at the pinnacle of a mountain in the distance.

In the end, he smiled and asked, “Have you always been this ambitious and greedy? Were you always planning to recruit me as the chief guest elder of your immortal force?”

The imperial preceptor shook his head and replied, “Those below the Upper Five Tiers, even the so-called terrestrial earth immortals, are still forced to follow the ebbs and flows of the world. It was only after obtaining the valuable treasure of virtue and cultivating my mental state to a level close to perfection that I developed such ambition and vision. This is also the reason why I didn’t take advantage of the situation and attack you after you were wounded by Jiang Shangzhen. Otherwise, since I was able to intercept your flying sword, why did I still allow you to linger around Topknot Mountain? Why didn’t I risk some wounds to comprehensively dispose of you? After all, which vagrant cultivator wouldn’t choose this option?”

Xia Zhen placed his hands on the slumbering azure snake around his waist, pursing his lips as he asked, “Then have you ever considered the fact that I might have released more than one messenger flying sword? And that the messenger flying sword intercepted by you was only a decoy that I purposely allowed you to capture? Why don’t you calculate this? From the time that Jiang Shangzhen left Imperial Accompanying City to return south to the time that I appeared at Topknot Mountain, will the timing line up perfectly for Jiang Shangzhen and the great sword immortal from the north to potentially appear here together?”

The imperial preceptor sighed and said, “I’ve already told you everything, so it’s up to you if you still want to take this gamble. In any case, you’ve already become consumed by your desire to gamble, so saying any more will be pointless.”

There was a twisted smile on Xia Zhen’s face as he spat, “Yes, I’m already consumed by my desire to gamble, so if you continue to stand there and spout nonsense, then don’t blame me for attacking you and delaying your refinement of the sword pellet even if it means suffering further injuries!”

The imperial preceptor waved his hand and said, “So be it. I’ll simply pretend that I’ve lost an Unpolished Jade Tier guest elder for my future immortal force.”

Xia Zhen waved a sleeve and roared with a stern expression, “Fuck off, old bastard! Just looking at you pisses me off!”

The imperial preceptor dismissed this with a smile as his body faded away.