Unsheathed

Zhu Quan was rather perplexed by his panicked reaction. Even in the face of Gao Cheng, he hadn’t displayed any fear at all, yet for some reason, the prospect of others misconstruing their friendship as a romantic entanglement had him so terrified that even his face had turned pale.

Am I that ugly?! Alright, fine, I’m definitely not the prettiest.

Before Zhu Quan even had a chance to extend a hand, Chen Ping’an had already pulled out another flagon of immortal wine from his minimization treasure, and he said, “I really don’t have much left, so I’ll just have to owe you for now. I’ll make sure to bring you an extensive selection of fine wine once I’ve completed my journey across the Northern Complete Reed Continent.”

Zhu Quan waved a dismissive hand. She had already taken three flagons of fine wine from him, and she was still yet to finish the one in her hand.

However, Chen Ping’an had already tossed the flagon of wine at her as he said, “Please make do with this for now, Sect Leader Zhu. I’ll bring you some more when I visit Wood Garment Mountain in the future. If the opportunity to visit does not arise, then I’ll send someone to deliver the wine to you on Wood Garment Mountain.”

After that, he raised a hand to summon Sword Immortal back to his side, then fled the scene as if he were running for his life.

Zhu Quan gently picked up Zhou Mili as she watched the fleeing Chen Ping’an with a puzzled expression.

Surely he has no lack of girls pining for his favor. On top of that, he’s already very accomplished and assertive for his age, so why does he still seem like a shy little boy when it comes to things like this?

Zhu Quan shook her head to rid herself of the errant train of thought. Given the heavy losses that Gao Cheng had just suffered, there was most likely going to be some turmoil in the Malicious Ghost Valley.

With that in mind, she departed southward.

There were some things that she wanted to say, but couldn’t.

The knots in one’s heart could only be untied by oneself, particularly when it came to those who weren’t normally the type to develop fixations, but had developed a rare fixation.

It was truly like an incurable condition.

Before long, Chen Ping’an arrived back on the ship, and he landed on the railing before leaping straight into his room through the window, at which point the window fell shut on its own.

Ding Tong was still seated at the exact same spot on the railing, awaiting his judgment, and he was so relieved that Chen Ping’an hadn’t taken his life that he fell straight onto the deck of the ship.

At this point, the second-floor observation deck was completely empty, and all of the passengers on the second floor had already returned to their rooms.

The administrator that had sold the stack of newspapers of Zhou Mili earlier was feeling just as uneasy as Ding Tong.

In their eyes, what was most terrifying about Chen Ping’an wasn’t his immense power. Instead, it was his enigmatic nature.

Things would be much simpler if he would just take their lives on the spot, or give them a chance to beg for their lives and offer to compensate him.

Instead, he clearly possessed the power to kill them anytime he pleased, yet he chose to gaze upon them with benevolence and spoke to them as if they were brothers.

What could they do? They didn’t dare to do anything!

A grim atmosphere was also hanging over Wei Bai’s camp.

The Iron Warship Residence had just lost one of its most powerful guest elders, and the Wei Clan had lost a seasoned Vajra Body Tier martial artist, so this was a very heavy loss. Wei Bai and the old woman had been frantically exchanging ideas, trying to devise the best plan to handle the situation, but there simply seemed to be no foolproof plan.

It seemed that no matter what they did or said, there was a chance that they could make things worse and bring undesirable outcomes upon themselves. In fact, in the worst-case scenario, it was a very real possibility that they wouldn’t be able to leave this ship alive. However, doing nothing also felt like a form of courting death.

Right at this moment, the sound of door-knocking rang out, and the old woman’s expression instantly darkened considerably.

She had completely failed to detect his presence. Even now, as he was standing right outside their door, she still couldn’t sense him.

Despite the fact that no one in the room was able to sense his presence, they all knew full well that it was him.

The young woman from the Nightglow Grass Hall of the Spring Dew Garden took a moment to steel herself, then rose to her feet to open the door so that she could at least hopefully shield Wei Bai from some of the young swordsman’s wrath.

Wei Bai heaved a faint sigh as he raised a hand, gesturing for the young woman to sit back down, then rose to his feet and personally opened the door before extending a scholarly salute.

“Wei Bai of the Iron Warship Residence pays his respects to the exalted sword immortal.”

“No need for such formalities, Young Master Wei,” Chen Ping’an said with a pleasant smile. “As the saying goes, acquaintances can sometimes be made through exchanged blows, is that not correct?”

Everyone’s skin instantly began to crawl upon hearing this, and they had already risen to their feet as Wei Bai stood up to open the door. With the exceptions of the old woman and the young woman from the Spring Dew Garden, everyone in the room had stepped away from the table and were tensed up from head to toe as if some type of predatory beast were being allowed into the room.

Wei Bai reached out to close the door behind Chen Ping’an, but it swung shut on its own as soon as Chen Ping’an stepped into the room.

Wei Bai withdrew his hand and made his way back to the table.

Now that things were coming to a head, he felt a sense of relief. At the very least, the sword had already dropped and was no longer hanging over his head.

After taking a seat, Chen Ping’an picked up a teacup, then poured himself a cup of tea as he remarked, “The tea served on the second floor is certainly more fragrant than what we get on the first floor.”

Wei Bai also took a seat, and the young woman from the Spring Dew Garden sat down beside him, while the old woman remained standing behind him.

Chen Ping’an pointed at a person in the room at random and requested, “Can I please trouble you to fetch the administrator of the ship?”

That person hurriedly extended a respectful bow, mumbling something about how it was his honor to be of service before immediately scurrying out the door.

After the door was closed, the room descended into a tense silence.

Thankfully, the silence was shortly broken by Chen Ping’an, who smiled as he said, “On my way back, I spotted the senior from earlier traveling through the wilderness on foot.”

Wei Bai immediately understood Chen Ping’an’s intentions, and he feigned an expression of relief as he said, “Master Liao is extremely fortunate to have been able to spar with you, exalted sword immortal. Perhaps after he returns to the Iron Warship Residence and takes some time to recover from his injuries, he’ll be able to make a breakthrough.”

Out of everyone in the room, the young woman was the last one to understand this exchange, while everyone else immediately understood what they had just heard, and they couldn’t help but admire Wei Bai for his exceptional astuteness.

Master Liao was dead, that was an undeniable fact. However, for some reason, Chen Ping’an had decided to deescalate the situation by pretending that he was still alive. Having said that, even though it was a form of deescalation, it was also a show of intimidation.

I killed your Vajra Body Tier guest elder, yet here I am, drinking tea in your room. What’re you going to do about it? Is your Iron Warship Residence going to oppose me, or are you going to bow down to me?

Wei Bai chose the latter option, not only accepting the demise of Master Liao, but also completely bowing down and accepting a position of inferiority to Chen Ping’an.

Shortly thereafter, the sound of door-knocking rang out, and the man re-entered the room with the ship’s administrator.

The old woman raised an eyebrow.

Clearly, Chen Ping’an had intentionally timed that exchange so that it would be overheard by the administrator.

As long as Wei Bai was willing to concede to Chen Ping’an, the latter would actually be doing them a favor.

After all, if the Iron Warship Residence were to proclaim that their Vajra Body Tier martial artist hadn’t actually been beaten to death, then that would be nothing more than a joke. However, if the story were also corroborated by the ship’s administrator, then the Iron Warship Residence would be able to save some face.

Of course, Wei Bai could also approach the administrator himself and drop some subtle hints, and the administrator would definitely be willing to do him a favor, but that would undoubtedly be rather embarrassing for Wei Bai.

It was only a seemingly trivial detail, but the implications were far more significant.

As you saw earlier, I can kill a Vajra Body Tier martial artist as easily as if I were squashing an ant. On top of that, I’m well-versed in the way that you people like to do things in the officialdom, and I’m giving you a chance to save some face. Either accept the olive branch, or oppose me and bear the consequences.

The Iron Warship Residence wasn’t necessarily going to be afraid of a swordsman who only knew how to fight.

As long as one had money on the Northern Complete Reed Continent, one could easily employ the services of Golden Core Tier and even Nascent Tier sword immortals.

However, it was clear that Chen Ping’an possessed both brains and brawn in equal measure.

The old woman was a demonic cultivator, so there was no distinction of good and evil in her eyes. Instead, everyone was either strong or weak, and when it came to those who were strong, there were two types.

The first type consisted of people that she absolutely could not afford to mess with, while the second type were the people that she could afford to oppose, but it was very inadvisable. The former was naturally much more threatening, but the latter could become the former at any moment and were sometimes even more difficult to deal with.

At its core, the Iron Warship Residence was still inexorably tied to a mortal empire. Hence, it was very well-versed with the rules of the officialdom, and it actually had a very easy time dealing with cultivators who wore their hearts on their sleeves and acted in a decisive and straightforward fashion. However, what was much more difficult to deal with were the official immortals that were even trickier than officials.

Many people from powerful clans fared just fine serving as officials in the capital, but it was an entirely different story if they were assigned official posts outside the capital, such as to serve as a county magistrate or a prefectural official.

The sly old foxes in the officialdom had countless tricks up their sleeves to ensure that such unseasoned young men would be made to dance on the palms of their hands, reducing them to sitting ducks that were completely at the mercy of others.

Hence, the Iron Warship Residence had spared no effort in its protection of Wei Bai over the years, to the point that they were almost being overprotective. Their worst fear was that Wei Bai would suddenly perish someday under inexplicable circumstances in which not even a culprit could be pinned down.

However, Wei Bai’s outings always turned out to be the safest and most uneventful. He always traveled along set routes with consistent entourages under the watchful eye of certain immortal powers. In fact, the Wei Clan had even been able to use him as bait to lure previously extremely well-concealed enemy forces out of hiding, allowing the Iron Warship Residence to eliminate many enemies in the officialdom, as well as in the cultivation and martial arts worlds.

However, no one could’ve anticipated this turn of events.

At the moment, the ship was still in the territory of one of the Great Guan Empire’s subsidiary nations, yet they had somehow encountered someone who didn’t fear or respect either the Iron Warship Residence or the Spring Dew Garden.

Even if he had been previously unaware of Wei Bai’s identity, he had to have found out after overhearing the hushed chatter from all of the bystanders, yet he had still chosen to kill that Vajra Body Tier martial artist without any hesitation.

Chen Ping’an pointed at the table with his folding fan as he said, “You’ve already done two deals with me, Mr. Administrator, so there’s no need to be so formal and uptight. Come. Take a seat and have some tea.”

Chen Ping’an casually swept his folding fan over the table, sending a teacup sliding over to the edge of the table nearest to the ship’s administrator. Half of the cup was hanging outside the table, and it was wobbling slightly, just barely teetering on the edge.

Chen Ping’an then picked up the teapot, and the administrator hurriedly stepped forward to grab the teacup with both hands, then bent down respectfully as he waited for Chen Ping’an to fill his cup. Only after the cup had been filled did he dare to sit down, and he remained silent this entire time.

The two deals that Chen Ping’an had mentioned were spending money to travel on the ship and the newspaper purchase.

Chen Ping’an raised his teacup before taking a sip, then gently set it back down onto the table as he leaned back in his chair and began fanning himself with his folding fan.

Wei Bai and the ship’s administrator hurriedly followed suit, taking sips out of their own cups of tea before setting them down again.

“We’ve had misunderstandings, but we just need to talk it out. Peace is always a more desirable outcome than violence,” Chen Ping’an said with a smile.

Wei Bai refilled his own cup with tea, then raised it with both hands as he smiled and said, “Please allow me to apologize on behalf of the Iron Warship Residence over our earlier altercation, exalted sword immortal. Do I have your permission to raise a toast to you?”

Chen Ping’an nodded in response, and Wei Bai downed his cup of tea in one go.

Meanwhile, the ship’s administrator was sweating profusely.

He was a Sea Observation Tier cultivator, yet he felt as vulnerable as a powerless child.

“May I ask who this celestial maiden is?” Chen Ping’an asked as he turned to the young woman.

Wei Bai set down his teacup with a smile as he replied, “She is the Tang Qingqing, the daughter of Immortal Tang of the Spring Dew Garden’s Nightglow Grass Hall.”

“Celestial Maiden Tang fully intended to open the door for me in your stead earlier. That is a clear sign of her devotion to you, so make sure you don’t let her down,” Chen Ping’an said with a smile.

“I won’t,” Wei Bai replied with a smile of his own. “We’ll get married as soon as our seniors give us the nod.”

Chen Ping’an nodded as he smiled and continued, “I’m sure the Nightglow Grass Hall won’t have any objections. After all, no one would be opposed to having a son-in-law like Yong Master Wei. However, General Wei may not be so supportive. Of course, at the end of the day, it still has to come down to fate. Between forcibly separating a pair of lovebirds and forcing together a loveless couple, neither one is a desirable outcome.”

Wei Bai heaved another internal sigh of relief, while Tang Qingqing was beginning to feel a little grateful to Chen Ping’an.

All of the other people in the room were cultivators that had ties with either the Iron Warship Residence or the Spring Dew Garden, and at this moment, all of them were feeling a little perplexed. There had been a brief sense of peril when Chen Ping’an first entered the room, but ever since then, it was as if he had become an old friend visiting for a chat.

“Celestial Maiden Tang, I’m sure you’re familiar with Senior Song Lanqiao, right?” Chen Ping’an suddenly asked.

“Of course,” Tang Qingqing hurriedly replied. “Senior Song is my father’s senior brother, so I have to refer to him as uncle.”

“Good,” Chen Ping’an said with a smile. “I previously traveled on Senior Song’s ship, and we got along very well. It seems like I’ll have to pay your Nightglow Grass Hall a visit once I arrive at the Spring Dew Garden.”

“We would be honored to have you, exalted sword immortal,” Tang Qingqing replied with a warm smile, and even Wei Bai couldn’t help but be a little envious of the connection that Tang Qingqing had just forged.