Unsheathed

Pei Qian immediately jumped down from the second floor, then hurriedly clamped a hand down onto Zhou Mili’s head. With a flick of her wrist, Zhou Mili began spinning on the spot like a spinning top.

Seemingly amused by this, Zhou Mili began spinning on the spot of her own volition even after her rotational momentum had run out.

Pei Qian joined her middle and index fingers, then thrust them forward as she commanded, “Stop!”

Zhou Mili immediately became completely still, her eyes wide and unblinking.

Pei Qian’s fingers remained extended as she made a hand seal with her other hand and nodded to herself with a pleased expression.

“As expected, this immobilizing spell of mine is as potent as ever. Even the great water demon of Mute Lake cannot remain unsusceptible.”

Zhou Mili still didn’t dare to move, but her eyes were glowing brighter with excitement on Pei Qian’s behalf.

Pei Qian was very pleased, and she casually undid the immobilizing spell.

Zhou Mili hurriedly began applauding vigorously in excitement as she praised, “That was amazing! I seriously couldn’t move just now!”

On this day, Pei Qian and Zhou Mili sought out Chen Ruchu to play, and the three girls quickly began chirping excitedly with one another like a nest of orioles.

The entire day passed by in a flash.

In the morning, not only had Chen Ruchu and Zhou Mili arrived, but Zheng Dafeng and Chen Lingjun were also present.

Zheng Dafeng stood in an expressionless manner, looking less than enthusiastic.

Meanwhile, Chen Lingjun took a glance at Cui Cheng before averting his gaze, then made his way over to the cliff to stare off into the distance on his own.

Cui Cheng turned to Zheng Dafeng and said, “Tell Zhu Lian that he did well to reject that half of the martial fortune.”

Zheng Dafeng was holding a parasol leaf umbrella, and he grinned, “If he doesn’t want it, then he can give it to me.”

Cui Cheng lashed out with an exasperated kick, but it wasn’t very fast, and even the crippled Zheng Dafeng was able to evade it with ease.

Pei Qian was standing off to the side with her bamboo sword and bamboo saber strapped to her waist, showing off her Saber Sword Cross.

She was also holding her hiking pole with her little bamboo bookcase on her back.

On this day, Cui Cheng was wearing a Confucian robe.

Pei Qian had seen him in this type of attire before, but for some reason, it felt particularly alien on this day.

“I bet you didn’t know that I was once an intellectual, and quite an accomplished one, at that,” Cui Cheng said with a smile. “In my younger days, I was one of the top scholars of our Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.”

“Did you give yourself that title?” Pei Qian asked.

Cui Cheng raised an eyebrow, and Pei Qian immediately corrected herself, loudly yelling, “Surely not! I’m sure it was a widely accepted fact across both the cultivation world and the mortal world of the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent!”

Zheng Dafeng heaved an internal sigh as he declared, “A suitable location has been selected in accordance with your wishes, Senior Cui. We will start in the mountains deep in the wilderness on the westernmost border of the Southern Garden Nation.”

Cui Cheng nodded in response, then turned to Pei Qian as he asked, “Are you ready to go?”

Pei Qian gave a firm nod, holding her hiking pole in an extremely firm grip as she replied in a trembling voice, “Somewhat!”

In the end, the two of them sprang up into the air before descending onto a secluded mountain summit.

Pei Qian’s complexion was slightly pale.

“You won’t be so scared once we’ve completed this journey,” Cui Cheng said with a reassuring smile. “Trust me.”

“I ain’t scared!” Pei Qian scoffed as she thrust the butt of her hiking pole firmly into the ground.

“In that case, can you put away the talismans hidden up your sleeve?” Cui Cheng asked as he cast his gaze into the distance.

Pei Qian did as she was told in a subtle fashion, pretending not to have heard anything.

The two of them made their way down the mountain on foot.

Initially, Pei Qian was still rather uneasy, but she was accustomed to traversing mountain paths, and as she walked along, she felt like there really wasn’t anything for her to fear. At least not for now.

They were still very far away from the capital of the Southern Garden Nation. At the moment, they were still making their way through what was once the Lotus Flower Blessed Land, and technically speaking, they weren’t even actually on the territory of the Southern Garden Nation yet.

That day, at around dusk, Pei Qian had already returned to her usual routine of cooking up some rice and a small pot of fish soup.

There was a river at the foot of the mountain, and Pei Qian shaved off the tip of a bamboo pole, then tied a line and a hook to it before making a cast. From there, she crouched silently by the river, and once a fish had completely chomped down onto the hook, she gave her rod a vicious tug to pull the fish out of the water.

At the time, Cui Cheng had been looking upon her thick fishing rod with an exasperated expression. It was an extremely barbaric method of fishing that required no skill or finesse at all.

However, he was hardly going to complain as he guzzled down bowlfuls of fish soup. It was a little salty for his taste, but when Pei Qian asked him whether the fish soup was to his liking, he lied and told her that it was fine.

In Pei Qian’s mind, fish soup and rice complemented each other perfectly, and she mixed the two together for a delicious, savory meal.

She was squatting on the ground, bobbing up and down with joy as she ate, and Cui Cheng couldn’t be bothered to educate her on table manners.

It wasn’t like he was Chen Ping’an.

If Chen Ping’an dared to educate her on trivial nonsense like this going forward, Cui Cheng felt like he would be unable to suppress the urge to scold him a little, something along the lines of “so what if you’re her master? That doesn’t give you the right to lecture her about every little thing! She’s still just a little girl…”

A self-deprecating smile then appeared on his face as he urged in a gentle voice, “Slow down. No one’s going to try to take your food from you.”

Pei Qian did as she was told, eating more slowly and meticulously than before.

After cleaning up the bowls, chopsticks, and the clay pot that she used to cook her fish soup, she picked up the kettle before pouring out some water to wash her hands.

After that, she put everything neatly back into her little bamboo bookcase before pulling out some paper and writing utensils. From there, she began meticulously making transcriptions while using her bamboo bookcase as a makeshift desk.

Cui Cheng was sitting off to the side, and he smiled as he said, “You don’t have to make your transcriptions here. If your master scolds you for it, just tell him that you had my approval.”

Pei Qian carefully finished transcribing the sentence that she was on, and only then did she turn to Cui Cheng with a displeased glare as she snapped, “That’s nonsense!”

Cui Cheng could only shake his head in exasperated amusement.

By the time Pei Qian completed her transcriptions, it was already quite dark, and she carefully packed away her writing supplies.

With her eyes, she could actually see perfectly well in the dark.

Cui Cheng appeared to have been taking a nap, so Pei Qian picked up her hiking pole before sneaking her way to the distant mountain summit to practice her Deranged Demon Sword Techniques.

“If you’re going to practice your sword techniques, then why not use that bamboo sword of yours?” Cui Cheng asked with a smile.

Pei Qian stopped in her tracks as she loudly replied, “I’m imitating my master. He never uses his sword unless it’s necessary. You wouldn’t understand. Honestly, I don’t really understand, either. In any case, I can’t go wrong by copying him.”

“What if your master is wrong?” Cui Cheng asked.

“How could Master possibly teach me the wrong thing? There’s no way he could ever be wrong. Even if he’s wrong, I won’t think he’s wrong, and none of you can change my mind.”

Pei Qian continued practicing her Deranged Demon Sword Techniques as she spoke, and the swishing sound of her sword made her voice sound rather muffled and indistinct, but thankfully, Cui Cheng was still able to hear her clearly.

Cui Cheng didn’t speak any further as he smiled and closed his eyes to rest.

At around midnight, Cui Cheng roused Pei Qian from her slumber. She woke up with a pair of bleary eyes, but didn’t complain.

She was already accustomed to traversing through the wilderness in the night.

While descending the mountain, Pei Qian was carrying a ridiculously bulky fishing rod.

“Are you not tired of carrying that thing on your back?” Cui Cheng asked.

“I am!” she immediately complained in a pitiable manner, and it seemed that she was waiting for Cui Cheng to ask her that exact question.

“Don’t expect me to carry it for you,” Cui Cheng scoffed. “I’m not so shameless like you!”

Pei Qian heaved a forlorn sigh, then asked Cui Cheng to wait for her for a moment.

She removed the fishing line from the rod along with the hook before placing them into a small pouch in her bamboo bookcase.

After that, she picked up the fishing rod before hurling it through the air, and it was nailed straight into a large tree in the distance.

Due to the fact that they were constantly traveling along the river, the two meals for the following day also consisted of rice and fish soup.

As he sipped on some fish soup, Cui Cheng asked, “If we continue to travel along the river, are we going to have to eat this every day?”

“What else do you want? You should be content that we have anything to eat at all!” Pei Qian scoffed with a roll of her eyes. “Back when I was traveling the world with Master, it was just us two, and the old cook wasn’t with us. That was a really grueling journey! Master was testing me at the time.

“This was before he officially made me his first-ever disciple. Master is an exceptional fisherman, but I’m much worse at fishing. One time, I was truly starving, and my master didn’t call me over to have food with him, so I thought of an idea. Can you guess what it was?”

“Was it to beg Chen Ping’an to spare you some food?” Cui Cheng chuckled.

Pei Qian scoffed. “Of course not! What I did was go to a murky river that wasn’t very deep; the water was only around waist-high for me, and I dove in before reaching my arm into a gap in the rocks. I was able to grab onto a huge catfish the length of my arm!

“It was really aggressive, and it bit down onto my arm and wouldn’t let go! I hurriedly resurfaced, then ran onto the shore and had to swing my arm forcefully over and over again before I finally managed to dislodge the catfish and slam it onto the ground! At the time, my master was astonished, and he called me a genius for coming up with such a brilliant plan!”

“What a load of nonsense,” Cui Cheng chuckled.

Pei Qian’s shoulders instantly fell in a deflated manner as she conceded, “Alright, I’ll admit that master didn’t actually call me a genius. All he did was look at me.”

Back then, Pei Qian had put on a very courageous display, hiding her injured arm behind herself as she glowered intently at Chen Ping’an.

“But I really did catch that huge catfish! I’m not lying about that!” Pei Qian insisted.

She was worried that Cui Cheng still wouldn’t believe her, so she quickly rolled up her sleeve to show him her arm, only for a frustrated look to appear on her face as she grumbled, “Shoot! I forgot that the scar had already disappeared.”

However, a wide smile then appeared on her face as she continued, “Thank heavens Master went to pick up some medicinal herbs for me at the time. He crushed it into a pulp before applying it to my arm, and the injury immediately stopped hurting! Isn’t that strange? Isn’t that amazing? I bet you’re astonished!”

Cui Cheng nodded with a smile.

As they continued on their journey, Pei Qian kept up with her daily transcriptions and sword technique practice, while Cui Cheng merely served as her guide.

On this day, Cui Cheng was watching Pei Qian skip stones across the river when he casually asked, “What’s something that you’ve heard that’s made you feel the saddest?”

Pei Qian pretended not to have heard him, so Cui Cheng repeated the question.

Pei Qian crouched down by the water as she replied, “I can think of two occasions. Once was in the inn on the border of the Great Quan Empire on the Parasol Leaf Continent. At the time, Master didn’t actually say anything to me, but I got really sad just from him looking at me. The second time was when I was with the big white goose. He asked me if I would only be willing to start training martial arts once my master died. That also made me really sad, and I couldn’t sleep that night.”

Cui Cheng didn’t say anything.

It seemed that recalling these memories had put Pei Qian in a rather somber mood, but before long, she became distracted as she plucked up a pair of weeds from the riverbank, then began playing with them as if they were a pair of fighters locked in combat.

As they continued on their journey, human settlements gradually began to appear.

Cui Cheng continued to lead Pei Qian through the wilderness, and standing before a sheer cliff face, he clasped his hands behind his back as he turned to Pei Qian and said, “We’ve been traversing through the wilderness on foot this entire time. How would you like to experience what it’s like to truly vault over mountains and valleys? Do you have the courage?”

“You bet I do!” Pei Qian replied in a confident manner as she plastered a talisman to her own forehead. “A brave martial artist like myself can only be limited by the extent of her capabilities, not the extent of her courage!”

Instead of taking flight, Cui Cheng began climbing his way up the cliff face, and Pei Qian followed along behind him.

Upon reaching the mountain summit, they were close to ten kilometers away from the nearest mountain.

“Hold on tight to your hiking pole and bamboo bookcase,” Cui Cheng warned with a smile, and before Pei Qian had a chance to ask any questions, he grabbed her by the shoulder before hurling her through the air.

All of a sudden, Pei Qian found herself soaring through the heavens, and she was momentarily paralyzed with fear. However, she quickly grew accustomed to the sensation, and she let loose an exultant cry as she began scrambling with her hands and feet, as if she were performing an aerial doggy paddle.

She looked down at the mountains and rivers beneath her feet, and it occurred to her that there was nothing for her to fear.

Right as she was about to crash into the mountain up ahead, she gently adjusted her breathing, then spread out her body in mid-air, adjusting her posture to manipulate her positioning. From there, she planted her feet against a huge tree, then bent her knees and curled up into a ball to absorb her momentum. The entire tree was snapped upon impact, while Pei Qian gently drifted down onto the ground. Cui Cheng was already standing beside her, and he challenged, “Let’s see who can reach the summit first!”

Pei Qian immediately began sprinting up the mountain like a plume of smoke, but Cui Cheng maintained a consistent lead of fifty to sixty feet on her, ensuring that she could still see him, but could never catch up to him.

The two of them made a beeline straight up the mountain, and whenever they encountered a section with no traversable path ahead, Cui Cheng would hurl Pei Qian through the air.

Before long, Pei Qian had grown so accustomed to soaring through the heavens that she was even able to practice her Deranged Demon Sword Techniques while in the air.

One night, the two of them arrived at the foot of a renowned mountain in the territory of the Southern Garden Nation’s Western Mountain.

“Can you throw me up there?” Pei Qian asked with an eager look of excitement in her eyes.

Cui Cheng smiled as he replied, “We should walk. Scholars should be respectful of the mountains.”

“That’s true,” Pei Qian mused with a nod.

Cui Cheng led Pei Qian onto the steps leading up the mountain, and the latter began scaling the steps while gently tapping them with her hiking pole as she smiled and remarked, “These are just like the steps on our Downtrodden Mountain!”

“All of the scenery under the heavens looks similar if you don’t look closely,” Cui Cheng replied.

Pei Qian nodded in response and committed that phrase to memory. She felt like it was something that she could spout to show off in the future. At the very least, it’ll surely be enough to win her the admiration of Zhou Mili.