Unsheathed

Chen Ping’an traveled northward, passing through the Orchid Residence Nation.

The Orchid Residence Nation was renowned for its orchids, and the nation’s wealth was almost entirely dependent on how many orchids it had.

Aside from that, there was nothing special about the nation, but it did have some memorable customs and traditions. For example, the women liked to conduct divination by tossing money into rivers, and all of the nation’s citizens, regardless of their socioeconomic standing, liked to release living creatures as a means of accumulating good karma.

However, it was also a common sight to see fish being released upstream, only to fall into the nets of the waiting fishermen downstream. Furthermore, all of the boatmen, regardless of age or gender, had their upper bodies exposed to the elements, resulting in tanned and leathery skin. In times of drought or floods, the people of the nation liked to wander the streets with paper dragon king effigies.

However, the objective was not to pray to the dragon king for more or less rain. Instead, the people would whip the dragon king effigies until they were torn to shreds.

To the north of the Orchid Residence Nation was the Green Shrine Nation, where Daoism was the dominant teaching. There were Daoist temples everywhere, while Buddhism was severely oppressed, and the few Buddhist monasteries in the nation were all rundown and largely abandoned.

North of the Green Shrine Nation was the Golden Gate Nation, a southern subsidiary nation of the Great Seal Script Empire. This was a nation in which martial prowess was championed above all else, and it was a very common sight to see fights taking place on the streets, often with bloodshed as the end result. Many young men from affluent clans developed a fondness for the martial arts from a young age, often banding together to go out on hunting trips.

The ruler of the Golden Gate Nation himself was a seasoned veteran on the battlefield, and he had seized control of the nation through a military coup. Under his rule, military officials were favored significantly over their administrative counterparts, and the latter were often forced to take sick leave after being beaten black and blue during official assemblies.

This would’ve been completely inexplicable in other nations, but it couldn’t be normal in the eyes of the Golden Gate Nation’s citizens. Stories of grand secretaries being spat upon and the Minister of Rites having their teeth knocked out by generals were so commonplace that they were barely even worthy of a mention.

The Plum Rain solar term was about to arrive.

On this day, Chen Ping’an was making his way through the wilderness outside one of the Golden Gate Nation’s prefectural cities. The area was rife with tigers, so the youths from the wealthy and powerful clans of the Golden Gate Nation often came here to hunt. Chen Ping’an had already seen many groups of hunters pass him by on horseback, equipped with sabers and bows.

All of them were quite young, and there was no lack of women among them. Despite their youth, all of them were already very capable horseback archers, and they were accompanied by some older servants who were clearly either current or past soldiers.

A few days ago, Chen Ping’an had just witnessed a group of youths from the capital of the Golden Gate Nation drinking in a mountain god temple.

They urinated all over the temple’s walls, following one of the more physically imposing young men among them lifted up the colored wooden mountain god statue, then carried it outside before hurling it onto the ground while loudly yelling that he wanted to engage the mountain god in a contest of strength.

The mountain god and the mountain lord were hiding far away from the temple to avoid the group of rowdy youths, and they could only exchange a forlorn sigh with one another.

Under the dim light of dusk, Chen Ping’an strayed away from the official road, and instead of entering the prefectural city, he ventured into the wilderness, traveling along a small and winding path. Occasionally, he would spot some people, most of whom had very imposing and athletic physiques.

He drifted through the forest like a plume of smoke, and even as dusk transitioned into night, he continued onward without using any light source to illuminate the path ahead. All of a sudden, he stopped in his tracks, then sprang onto a massive tree to look out into the distance. Up ahead was a steep mountain, on the summit of which was a brightly lit cluster of buildings.

That mountain was connected to the mountain that Chen Ping’an was situated on by a suspension, which swayed slightly with each gust of wind that blew past in the night.

It appeared to a sect of martial artists. The spiritual energy in the area was very sparse, only slightly more abundant than the spiritual energy on the border between the Silver Screen Nation and the Locust Flower Nation, so it was not very well suited for cultivation.

Chen Ping’an sat on a tree branch, eating a dry biscuit. He had already loaded his Sword Nurturing Gourd with close to ten liters of wine from the Orchid Residence Nation. He hadn’t drunk much along his trip, so there was still a lot left.

After a simple meal, he closed his eyes to rest. Even though he was only carrying out basic refinement on the two chunks of Dragon Slaying Platform, progress was still very slow, and the process was still not complete.

The lights on the opposing mountain summit began to gradually fade, and before long, there were only some sparse specks of light left.

At daybreak, Chen Ping’an opened his eyes, then plastered to himself a Stele Carrying Talisman, which he had learned to inscribe from Du Yu of the Ghost Axe Palace, then continued cultivating.

The northbound journey he was undertaking was a very casual affair, and he traveled and stopped as he pleased. All he had to do was reach the Green Oriole Nation in the eastern region of the Northern Complete Reed Continent before autumn. The Green Oriole Nation was where the river ran into the sea. The terrain of the Northern Complete Reed Continent’s central region was quite high, and it tapered down toward the sea to the east and the west.

The terrain also went high to low from north to south, and traveling northward from the Skeleton Shoal was like making one’s way up a giant staircase. The origin of the river was in there, and there were around a dozen other massive rivers that fed into it, forming a natural wonder consisting of a single river with two entry points into the sea.

After completing basic refinement of the two pieces of Dragon Slaying Platform, he moved them into the two acupoints that had once each had a tiny wisp of sword qi within them, and they served as the new homes for First and Fifteenth.

Each time the two flying swords struck the chunks of Dragon Slaying Platform, flurries of sparks would be raised, and Chen Ping’an felt as if the flying swords were slicing directly into his heart. This was why he was traveling quite slowly. He ensured that the rate of basic refinement was only just barely keeping pace with the rate at which First and Fifteenth were devouring the two pieces of Dragon Slaying Platform.

Once the two chunks of Dragon Slaying Platform were fully devoured, that would only be the first step completed. From there, he would carry out the all-important task of refining First and Fifteenth into bonded items of his, and that was undoubtedly going to be an extremely arduous and perilous undertaking.

This feeling reminded him of the tortuous training that he underwent back in the bamboo building on Downtrodden Mountain, but it was ironically a very comforting feeling.

The sound of trundling faeces cart rang out on the bridge, and on the tall mountain on this side of the bridge were large sections of cultivated vegetable farmland. Trailing along behind the faeces carts was a group of people traveling to the mountain stream to fetch water. In the small town on the mountain summit, the sounds of martial artists practicing their techniques could be heard.

These were not cultivators capable of flight, so living on a steep mountain came with some inconveniences. Most of the people that had returned to the small town late in the previous night had been carrying large cloth pouches, and some had even returned with horses and mules that were laden with supplies.

Chen Ping’an was planning to stay here for a few days and only continue on his journey once he had completed basic refinement of the two chunks of Dragon Slaying Platform.

The Golden Gate Nation was one of a cluster of around a dozen nations, spearheaded by the Great Seal Script Empire, that possessed immense martial fortune. The nations were teeming with martial artists, and there were even stories of hundreds of martial artists joining forces to attack immortal sects.

Across those dozen or so nations, only a single immortal sect was able to remain standing. It was the Golden Scale Palace, and even though it benefitted from the protection of a Nascent Tier patriarch, the sect’s disciples still had to be very careful whenever they left the sect for any purpose.

Chen Ping’an was initially quite bewildered when he heard about this back in the Spring Dew Garden, but it made more sense to him once he learned that one of the Northern Complete Reed Continent’s four martial artists was situated in the Great Seal Script Empire.

At the moment, the Northern Complete Reed Continent had four End Tier martial artists, the eldest of whom was once an extremely respected and revered figure, sharing close friendships with several powerful sword immortals. However, he somehow suffered from Qi deviation several years ago, going on a deranged rampage.

In the end, it took the collective might of several cultivators of the Upper Five Tiers to capture him. The task was made all the more difficult as they had to hold back for fear of killing him, and in the process, an Unpolished Jade Tier Daoist cultivator was severely wounded.

At the moment, the old martial artist was being kept in the Heavenly Lord’s Residence, and his fate would be decided once Heavenly Lord Xie Shi returned from the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

The youngest of those four End Tier martial artists was only just over a hundred years old, and he was the foremost guest elder of an immortal sect in the north. His wife was a sword immortal who had recently reached the Unpolished Jade Tier, and there were many stories surrounding the two, seeing as this was a rather unlikely marriage given their large age gap.

Then there was the End Tier martial artist of the Great Seal Script Empire. No one had seen him for several decades up to this point, and there were all types of rumors swirling around. Some claimed that he had already perished during a battle against a mighty sword immortal that was a sworn enemy of his, but the Great Seal Script Empire had kept the matter of his death strictly confidential.

Others said that he had gone to the Tea Flower Small World and did the unthinkable, using the spiritual energy of the small world to refine his body, much like a boy would strengthen their physical constitution by subjecting themselves to the battering waves of the sea. After that, he would battle the sword immortal of Ape Call Mountain, who had just made a breakthrough sixty years ago.

The latest addition to the roster of End Tier martial artists was a very strange character. There were very few documented instances of his battles, and during those battles, he took virtually no lives. However, he had demolished the ancestral halls of two immortal sects, both of which were presided over by Nascent Tier swordsmen.

It was only based on this that the newspapers of the Northern Complete Reed Continent dared to proclaim that the perpetrator was a new End Tier martial artist. Apparently, he had some ties with the Lion Peak, and his name was supposedly Li Er.

There was also an eighth tier female martial artist in the Great Seal Script Empire, and she appeared before the public eye much more than the empire’s tenth tier martial artist. At the moment, she was the emperor’s personal guard, but those in the know weren’t optimistic about her future. According to them, she had already exhausted all of her latent potential getting to the Far Roaming Tier, and the Mountain Summit Tier was out of her reach.

In summary, martial artists were the strongest and most dominant figures in this cluster of nations.

At the moment, Chen Ping’an was feeling very perplexed about the Vajra Body Tier martial artists outside of Downtrodden Mountain.

The first one was Green Bamboo Sword Immortal Su Lang, who had challenged Song Yushao.

The second one was the one who had attacked him in the Verdant Bamboo Lake’s dragon palace.

The third one was the martial artist with the Liao surname that had served as one of Wei Bai’s personal guards.

Chen Ping’an really wanted to find a Far Roaming Tier martial artist to spar with. That avatar of Gao Cheng’s on the ship seemed to have been an eighth tier martial artist, but unfortunately, he ended up decapitating himself with his sword.

Thinking back now, the words that he had spoken right before his death, “even if it’s just a soul and a mortal form of mine, those three Unpolished Jade Tier cultivators of the Flax Robe Sect are unworthy of such spoils” had been quite a heroic declaration.

One night, Chen Ping’an had rented a small boat to fish through the night on a river in the Golden Gate Nation, and he had witnessed a brutal battle from afar.

It seemed that this was an encirclement operation that had been planned well in advance. First, an internal conflict arose on a louchuan that was situated at the center of the lake. The dozens of passengers split up into two factions, and around a dozen of them could be considered to be top-tier martial artists in the Golden Gate Nation.

They were all at around the fifth and sixth tiers, and before long, limbs and heads were flying in all directions. After that, seven or eight brightly lit Golden Gate Nation military warships arrived on the scene, illuminating the lake so that it was bright as day. The warships surrounded the louchuan, followed by around a dozen volleys of crossbow fire.

The two opposing factions of martial artists hurriedly climbed down into the cabin to take evasive measures, and in response, the military warships also switched tactics, using battering rams to strike at the louchuan.

Some of the martial artists trapped inside the louchuan’s cabin attempted to forcibly break out of the encirclement during this time, unwilling to resign themselves to their fate, but they were either forced back by oncoming volleys of arrows, struck down by an old eunuch dressed in a python robe, or slain by a young swordswoman.

There was also an imposing spear-wielding general clad in a suit of dew armor standing on the bottom floor of one of the warships, but he remained a passive observer.

Some of them pretended to have suffered injuries and fell into the lake before holding their breaths to try and swim away, but their plans were foiled. It seemed that there were already spirits waiting for them in the water, and before long, all of them were forced to surface, following which the imposing general shot them down one by one with a powerful bow, claiming a headshot with each arrow without exception.

As the Golden Gate Nation’s military warships drew close, Chen Ping’an departed on his boat.

The final scene that he had witnessed was deeply ingrained into his memory.

The swordswomen standing at the head of the ship made sure to deal a lethal blow to all of the bodies floating on the surface of the lake, ensuring that there were no survivors.

If anyone did manage to survive, then they were very likely to be spies for the imperial court.

Finally, Chen Ping’an witnessed three people make their way to the top floor of the warship before cupping their fists in a collective salute toward the imposing general.

Chen Ping’an closed his eyes and continued to refine the two chunks of Dragon Slaying Platform.

Once one embarked on the path of cultivation, they would come to discover that time was both the most worthless and the most valuable commodity.

Even though he had witnessed the entire battle from beginning to end, he never had any intention of getting involved.

On this night, Chen Ping’an gently exhaled as he cast his gaze forward. What appeared to have been a young couple had appeared on the bridge. The woman was a third tier pure martial artist with a decent foundation, while the man had a very gentle and refined appearance, looking more like a scholar.

The woman walked along the rope handle of the suspension bridge, while the man looked on with great concern. Upon reaching the end of the bridge, the woman jumped down, and the man immediately latched onto her hand.

The two of them held hands as they made their way down the mountain path, casually chatting with each other, and they just so happened to be walking directly toward Chen Ping’an.

Through their conversation, Chen Ping’an was able to glean some information about the Golden Gate Nation.

As it turned out, these had been tumultuous times of late for the Golden Gate Nation. According to unofficial historical records, the first thing that the new emperor did after claiming the throne was to order someone to fetch him a list of names of everyone in the former imperial clan. At that point, the previous emperor had already hung himself, and the one who had taken his place began calling out the names on the list one by one.

With each name that was called, a head would be decapitated outside the palace, and before long, the entire former imperial clan had been massacred, leaving behind a river of blood. However, there was one person that had managed to slip through the cracks, namely the youngest son of the former emperor.

He was snuck out of the imperial palace by some maidservants, then escorted out of the capital by some officials who remained loyal to the previous imperial clan. Ever since then, the child was never heard from again, and his whereabouts were still a mystery. Over the years, horrific cases of entire sects being mysteriously eradicated overnight had been taking place with disturbing frequency.

However, none of the local authorities dared to launch any exhaustive investigations for fear that doing so would incur the wrath of the new emperor. Martial might had always been revered above all else in the Golden Gate Nation, and all of the military officials across the nation were constantly killing martial artists for training purposes under the guise of eradicating bandits.

As a result, bad blood had been brewing between the imperial court and the martial arts world for quite some time.

In these times of peril and turmoil, the leading figures of the Golden Gate Nation’s martial arts world were forced to set aside their personal differences and come together. A secret meeting was held between the most respected and powerful figures of the martial arts world, but of course, their intention was not to rebel. Instead, they wanted to join forces to help the emperor find the missing prince of the former imperial clan.

Once the missing prince was found and killed, the emperor would surely be ecstatic, and the imperial court would no longer have to senselessly wipe out one clan after another in their efforts to hunt down the missing prince. In their eyes, this was the only way to restore some semblance of peace and safety to the martial arts world.

The young couple discussed these matters with concerned looks on their faces.

Their concern stemmed from the fact that the sect they belonged to, the Magnificent Sect, was one of the Golden Gate Nation’s first-rate martial arts sects. There was an artificial distinction imposed upon the sects of the Golden Gate Nation. Those that existed before the inauguration of the new emperor were considered to be part of the old martial arts world, while those that came after formed the new martial arts world.

The sects of the new martial arts world were mostly allied with the imperial court, while the old martial arts was only just barely holding on for dear life. The Magnificent Sect naturally belonged to the old martial arts world, and the woman’s father was one of the four leading figures of the old martial arts world.

The latest news that she had received was that the site of the meeting had finally been decided, and it was going to be held in the center of a large lake, giving none of the martial arts masters of the good or evil factions to try any funny business.

The martial arts masters in question naturally didn’t want to have to venture into the opposing faction’s territory for the meeting as the opposing faction could easily take this opportunity to eradicate them all.