Unsheathed

Meanwhile, Pei Qian was wandering back and forth in front of Wei Xian, joining her middle and index fingers to cast her Immobilizing Spell onto him. Wei Xian was leaning against the doorframe, completely ignoring her.

Chen Ping’an turned to her and asked, “You mentioned in your letter that Cen Yuanji fell over during her fist technique practice. How did that happen?”

All of a sudden, it was as if Pei Qian’s Immobilizing Spell had been cast onto herself, and sweat began to bead up on her forehead as she turned to Zhou Mili for help.

She couldn’t lie to her master, but she didn’t want to come clean to him, either.

Thankfully, Zhou Mili didn’t fail her, immediately understanding her intentions as she replied in her stead, “It was pitch-black at night, and no one could see a thing, so she fell over by accident.”

“I see,” Chen Ping’an replied.

Pei Qian stuck her hands behind her own back, giving a thumbs-up to Zhou Mili behind her.

“Now that we have this dragon boat, our Downtrodden Mountain is much better equipped to do business with the Flax Robe Sect and the Spring Dew Garden,” Chen Ping’an mused. “Not only that, but it also gives our Downtrodden Mountain more options.”

“It sounds like you’re predominantly going to be using the dragon boat to transport cargo, so the furnishings can be a little rough around the edges, but where are we going to find people to operate the dragon boat?” Lu Baixiang asked.

“That’ll be a problem for Zhu Lian to worry about once he returns to Downtrodden Mountain,” Chen Ping’an replied with a smile. “If he can’t find anyone, then we’ll just have to dump the task onto Cui Dongshan. He has tons of connections, I’m sure he can hire some people.”

“I can try and find some people as well,” Lu Baixiang volunteered. “The most important thing is to find a capable and authoritative administrator for the ship. Otherwise, things can very easily go wrong.”

“I have some thoughts on this matter already, but as for whether they’re actually feasible, I’ll have to wait until after the ancestral hall has been constructed to see,” Chen Ping’an said.

The site for the Downtrodden Mountain ancestral hall had already been selected, a task that was made very simple thanks to Wei Bo.

As soon as Chen Ping’an sent a flying sword letter back to Downtrodden Mountain from Wood Garment Mountain, Wei Bo had immediately begun preparing. The ancestral hall didn’t need to be particularly grand or massive, so it wasn’t going to require many resources and manpower to construct.

There had been countless construction projects, both big and small, carried out across the western mountains of the Dragon Spring Prefecture these past few years, so there were many skilled and experienced construction teams around. Most importantly, Chen Ping’an had decided that no formations were required in the ancestral hall.

In his words, if the formation protecting Downtrodden Mountain were already breached, and the perpetrator was determined to destroy their ancestral hall, then it hardly mattered if there was a separate formation protecting the ancestral hall.

“I’m delaying your plans by quite a bit,” Chen Ping’an said in an apologetic manner.

“It’s fine, I have the time to spare,” Lu Baixiang reassured with a smile. “That sect of mine is only going to be a subsidiary entity to Downtrodden Mountain. It would be best if I could make it happen, but even if it doesn’t work out, Downtrodden Mountain won’t be negatively impacted.

“I can promise you that I know what I’m doing, but there’s one thing that I have to make clear in advance: many of the measures I’ll be taking aren’t going to be very scrupulous. I can only ensure that my actions won’t incur any severe implications.”

“Just try not to give me anything to complain about,” Chen Ping’an said, and Lu Baixang flashed a smile in response.

***

As the mountain master, Chen Ping’an had to personally light some incense and pay his respects to heaven and earth before construction could begin on the Downtrodden Mountain ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall was situated on Downtrodden Mountain’s secondary peak, the Sky Blue Peak, because the main peak was occupied by the bamboo building, as well as the temple of a mountain god officially appointed by the imperial court of the Great Li Empire.

Furthermore, Chen Ping’an had always been particularly fond of the Sky Blue Peak.

On this day, Zheng Dafeng and Wei Bo were playing a game of Go in Zhu Lian’s courtyard, while Cui Dongshan and Chen Lingjun were watching, with the latter constantly instructing Zheng Dafeng and Wei Bo on what move they should play next.

Chen Lingjun had been particularly confident and self-assured these past few days because during all of the time that he had spent wandering the western mountains, he had familiarized himself with many cultivators who had established abodes here. One of them was a Dragon Gate Tier cultivator from Yellow Lake Mountain. In the past, the two of them hadn’t been very familiar with each other.

In fact, there was some animosity between the two as there was a giant python in a lake on Yellow Lake Mountain, one that both Chen Lingjun and this black serpent had sought to devour. To Chen Lingjun’s surprise, this past rival of his had come to him at the end of summer this year and expressed a desire to be on more friendly terms with one another.

The two of them shared a drink together, and just recently, the Dragon Gate Tier cultivator suddenly declared that he was planning to sell Yellow Lake Mountain. He said that Chen Lingjun was very well-connected, even on speaking terms with Great Mountain God Wei Bo, so he was hoping that Chen Lingjun would be able to find a suitable buyer for him.

Chen Lingjun happily agreed to do his new friend this favor at the time, but he immediately felt a little apprehensive as soon as he left Yellow Lake Mountain, worried that this was a trap designed to target Downtrodden Mountain. Thus, he sought out Chen Ping’an to report this matter, and Cui Dongshan immediately declared that they should take up the offer and buy the mountain.

This was a golden opportunity, and they had nothing to fear with the backing of Cloud Drape Mountain behind them. With that, Chen Ping’an told Chen Lingjun to go and discuss the exact details of the sale. The purchase could be made with immortal coins or gold essence copper coins, and the price was negotiable. If the negotiations didn’t go smoothly, then he could call upon Wei Bo to join them.

Chen Lingjun was feeling rather lost and uneasy as he returned to Yellow Lake Mountain to drink with the Dragon Gate Tier cultivator again. After all, he had grown accustomed to chatting over drinks. In the end, he was able to negotiate the price down to just ten grain rain coins.

At the time, Chen Lingjun had felt completely flabbergasted. Bartering was supposed to have been a back-and-forth, tug-of-war process during which both sides steadily made compromises until a price that was acceptable to both parties was reached, yet this had been a completely one-sided affair, with the Dragon Gate Tier cultivator passively accepting anything and everything that Chen Lingjun said.

Chen Lingjun left the mountain even more lost and confused than when he came.

Chen Ping’an didn’t say anything, and the sale was quickly completed between Downtrodden Mountain and Yellow Lake Mountain, with the Dragon Provincial Governor’s Office, and the Great Li Empire’s Ministry of Revenue and Ministry of Rites serving as authorizing parties.

Chen Ping’an had spoken about this with Cui Dongshan in private, and the latter had told him that this was a rare act of kindness from the old bastard, so there was no need to worry about this being a trap. He also said that this was the first legitimate contribution that Chen Lingjun had made to Downtrodden Mountain, so once the ancestral hall was constructed, this could be marked down as an act of merit under Chen Lingjun’s name.

This was why Chen Lingjun was currently strutting around like a proud rooster all the time.

In the wake of the sale, Pei Qian, Chen Ruchu, and Zhou Mili were also seeing Chen Lingjun through a different lens. In particular, Pei Qian and Zhou Mili had been heaping praise upon him, truly living up to their reputation as insincere suck-ups. If it weren’t for the fact that Cui Dongshan had issued Chen Lingjun a warning, telling him that he had been behaving a little too cockily of late, the latter would’ve been even more of a pain to deal with.

Over the course of these past few days, Chen Ping’an had been sorting through his own belongings, most of which would have to be placed into the ancestral hall’s treasure chamber. Every single item had to be recorded, and some of them had to be given out by him as gifts from the mountain master.

Chen Ping’an only sparred with Pei Qian once before putting an end to the activity.

He told Pei Qian that he would be restricting his cultivation base to the fourth tier in order to spar with her on equal footing, but in reality, he had only suppressed his own power to the fifth tier. Even so, he still underestimated Pei Qian’s prowess, and he was struck by a punch to the face. As a Vajra Body Tier martial artist, that wasn’t enough to injure him or draw blood, but as a master, he had just been completely and utterly embarrassed by his disciple.

Right as he was preparing to secretly elevate his own powers to the sixth tier to resume the sparring match, Pei Qian hung her head in shame and apology, refusing to continue. She told him that she had just committed an unforgivable transgression, one that was punishable by death, and that if she dared raise her hand against her master again, then she would banish herself from Downtrodden Mountain.

In light of this development, there was no way for the lesson to continue.

Thus, the two of them walked barefoot onto the second-floor walkway, where they leaned against the railing to look at the scenery.

Behind them, at the entrance of the bamboo building, was a pair of neatly placed boots.

***

Inside the courtyard, Wei Bo suddenly dropped the Go stone clasped between his fingers back into the jar as he smiled and said, “Let’s stop here for now. The ship that Zhu Lian is on has already entered the territory of the Yellow Court Nation.”

Pei Qian and the other girls always stayed far away from Zheng Dafeng whenever he was playing Go. While playing, he had a habit of picking at his feet before using the same hand to eat sunflower seeds, and that unsightly habit had all of the girls ducking for cover.

Zheng Dafeng didn’t care that Wei Bo was just finding an excuse to get out of the game. They were only betting one snowflake coin per game anyway, so it was hardly of any consequence.

Cui Dongshan was standing off to the side with his hands spread open, while Pei Qian and Zhou Mili swung back and forth on a pair of swings.

“You go pick up Zhu Lian, Mountain God Wei. I’ll continue this game with Brother Dafeng in your stead,” Cui Dongshan proposed with a smile.

Zheng Dafeng took a glance at the state of the game. It was already a completely lost position for Wei Bo, but because it was Cui Dongshan, Zheng Dafeng continued to meticulously examine the position instead of jumping at the offer.

After a thorough examination, he asked, “What are we betting?”

“We can just go with the original bet of one snowflake coin,” Cui Dongshan replied with a smile.

“Alright, let’s continue then,” Zheng Dafeng said.

Cui Dongshan sat down at Wei Bo’s end of the board, then gently set down a stone.

Instead of departing to pick up Zhu Lian, Wei Bo remained standing behind Cui Dongshan as he smiled and said, “I’ll watch for a while longer. Right now, Zhu Lian is busy scamming people for our Downtrodden Mountain on the ship, so I’ll leave him to work his magic for a bit.”

Cui Dongshan played his moves almost instantaneously every single time, and Zheng Dafeng did the same, convinced that there was no way a comeback was possible.

Even though Cui Dongshan was among a handful of the best Go players in the entire world, Zheng Dafeng didn’t think there was any chance he could lose this game.

In the end, he was forced to imitate Wei Bo, tossing his stone into the jar as he smiled and said, “Let’s leave things here for now. I want to go pick up Brother Zhu with Wei Bo. I haven’t seen him in quite some time, and I really miss him.”

Cui Dongshan didn’t care.

He called out to Chen Ruchu, who was eating some sunflower seeds off to the side, and challenged, “Let’s continue. I’ll play Brother Dafeng’s position, while you play for me. Otherwise, it’ll be a non-contest.”

Chen Ruchu smiled and nodded in agreement.

She enjoyed playing Go. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have always been so eager to watch whenever Wei Bo’s trio played.

Cui Dongshan didn’t stand up. Instead, he only swapped the positions of the Go jars, then continued the game against Chen Ruchu.

Wei Bo and Zheng Dafeng stepped out of the courtyard together, and the former said with a chuckle, “That was a little embarrassing.”

“Indeed,” Zheng Dafeng replied with a nod. “It’s a good thing Brother Zhu isn’t here. Otherwise, Cui Dongshan would probably challenge him and beat him as well.”

Before they had gone very far, Chen Lingjun abruptly exclaimed from inside the courtyard, “What just happened? How did this stupid girl win?”

“Mr. Cui lost to me on purpose,” Chen Ruchu explained with an embarrassed expression.

“There’s no way I would’ve done that!” Cui Dongshan protested with an innocent expression.

Pei Qian stood behind Chen Ruchu, resting both hands firmly on her shoulders as she solemnly declared, “Nuanshu! From this day forth, you are the number one Go player on our Downtrodden Mountain! Whenever Chef Zhu, Zheng Dafeng, Wei Bo, and the others play a game, they have to extend a bow of respect to you before they can begin!”

Lu Baixiang also had his own residence on Downtrodden Mountain.

The residence currently had no name, and it would be up to the owner to decide what to name the residence and how they wanted to furnish it.

Initially, Chen Ruchu felt like this was very considerate of Zhu Lian, and she was very much in approval of the idea.

However, Zhu Lian then revealed to her that he was doing this simply because Downtrodden Mountain didn’t have enough money, so he was making everyone pay for themselves.

Wei Xian was sitting at Lu Baixiang’s residence, sipping on some wine with some snacks placed on the table beside him, all of which had been prepared in advance by Chen Ruchu. The owners of the different residences all had different tastes and preferences, so different types of wine and snacks were prepared accordingly.

Lu Baixiang’s two direct disciples, Yuan Bao and Yuan Lai, were sitting off to the side.

Yuan Bao had a much better impression of the serious and quiet Wei Xian than he did of Zhu Lian and Zheng Dafeng.

Over at the entrance of the mountain, Zhu Lian had been transported straight from the ship to Downtrodden Mountain by Wei Bo, and the former sighed, “Old men like me really aren’t cut out for such long journeys anymore. I feel like I’m about to fall apart at the seams!”

“Don’t complain to us, you won’t get any sympathy,” Zheng Dafeng jibed. “I rolled my ankle recently, so I’m doing even worse than you. Ms. Cen has been serving as the gatekeeper in my stead these past few days.

“The person who made me roll my ankle has given our Mountain God Wei a very hard time as well. Even as an Unpolished Jade Tier mountain god, he was subjected to a merciless tirade. Right now, you’re the only one who hasn’t yet been subjected to their wrath.”

Zhu Lian took a glance at Wei Bo and Zheng Dafeng, then grinned as he said, “If you hadn’t tried to scare me, I would’ve been inclined to believe you, but you exposed yourselves as soon as you opened your mouths to speak. Clearly, there’s nothing for me to worry about.”

“I won,” Wei Bo declared triumphantly as he held out a hand. “You owe me a snowflake coin.”

Zheng Dafeng slapped his hand away as he scoffed, “You lost that game of Go to me earlier, so we’re even now.”

“I knew it!” Zhu Lian chortled. “All it takes is a little probing for the truth to come out!”

“Don’t believe him,” Wei Bo said with a chuckle. “He knew from the very beginning. If you believe him, we’d be suffering another loss at his hands.”

“I don’t need you to tell me something so obvious,” Zheng Dafeng scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

Zhu Lian wiped the back of his hand across his lips as he said, “I saw a lot on this trip. Get Wei Bo to bring us some fine wine, and I’ll tell you all about it as we drink.”

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to Zheng Dafeng, and an excited look appeared in his eyes as he lowered his voice and asked, “Did you get it?”

Zhu Lian patted his cloth pouch.

“We are truly exceptional intellectuals! We’ll read until the day we die!” Zheng Dafeng praised with a nod.

Wei Bo could only throw a hand to his own forehead in dismay.

Chen Ping’an was standing alone on the second floor of the bamboo building. He knew that Zhu Lian had arrived, but there was no need for him to go out of his way to greet him.

Previously, Cloudtop City had received two letters from the Great Emblem Sword Sect, one each from Qi Jinglong and Bai Shou. In the first letter, Qi Jinglong reported that he had spent all one hundred grain rain coins to purchase a replica sword from Hatred Sword Mountain, as well as two suits of treasured armor from the Three Official Attendant Temple, all of which had been quite expensive, but were also all of exceptional quality.

Given how valuable they were, he was going to send them to Ox Horn Mountain on the Flax Robe Sect’s intercontinental ship. True to Qi Jinglong’s usual style, the letter was as brief and concise as ever. At the end of the letter, he issued a threat, telling Chen Ping’an that there would be a price to pay if Xu Xingjiu from Cloudtop City came to visit him with wine again after he prevailed against his three challengers.

Bai Shou’s letter was filled with a sense of schadenfreude. He denounced Liu Jinglong as a fool for insisting on paying a visit to Hatred Sword Mountain and the Three Official Attendant Temple even though he was about to face his three challengers, a decision that had all of the old geezers in the Great Emblem Sword Sect ancestral hall shaking their heads in dismay.

Over on Hatred Sword Mountain, they ran into Celestial Maiden Lu from Water Scripture Mountain. It was unclear what they spoke about. Perhaps Liu Jinglong had been disrespectful to her or had tried to lay his hands on her. In any case, she became furious for some reason all of a sudden, much to the shock of everyone in the nearby vicinity. At the Three Official Attendant Temple, they encountered another one of Liu Jinglong’s female admirers.

She seemed to have been quite an important figure in the Three Official Attendant Temple, and she followed the two of them over the entire duration of their visit, looking as if she wanted to eat Liu Jinglong alive. In the end, Liu Jinglong negotiated the sale of two suits of treasured armor in record time before fleeing for his life.

Chen Ping’an slowly paced back and forth from one end of the walkway to the other, and to his surprise, it was Wei Bo who came to him instead of Zhu Lian.

He had come bearing a flying sword letter that had just been received on Cloud Drape Mountain, with the sender being Guest Elder Zhou Fei of Downtrodden Mountain.

After reading through the letter, Chen Ping’an heaved a faint sigh, then made his way down to the first floor and pulled out a picture scroll before tossing a gold essence copper coin inside.

Sui Youbian emerged from the picture scroll.

“What happened?” Chen Ping’an asked.

“I tried to kill someone, but I ended up being killed instead. It’s as simple as that,” Sui Youbian replied in an indifferent voice. “From now on, I’ll continue my cultivation in the True Realm Sect of Bamboo Scroll Lake.”

Even though she had just been resurrected, there was still intense hostility and killing intent emanating from her body.

Clearly, whoever she had tried to kill was someone she fiercely resented, but it was unclear whether this enemy of hers was a fellow disciple in the Parasol Leaf Continent’s Jade Tablet Sect or an enemy that she had made elsewhere.

Chen Ping’an had no interest in prying into her private affairs, so he smiled and said, “You came back at just the right time. Construction on our Downtrodden Mountain ancestral hall is about to be completed soon, and after that, we’ll begin hanging up portraits and offering up incense. Zhu Lian, Lu Baixiang, and Wei Xian are all on the mountain right now.”

Sui Youbian nodded in response, then began looking around as she asked, “So this is Downtrodden Mountain?”

“Feel free to have a look around,” Chen Ping’an invited.

Sui Youbian made her way out of the room in silence, then stood on the cliff and cast her gaze into the distance.

Chen Ping’an remained seated inside on his little bamboo chair.

Only then did Zhu Lian and Zheng Dafeng enter the bamboo building to sit down beside him.

“I never noticed how spectacular the scenery here is,” Zheng Dafeng remarked.

“Thank you for your hard work,” Chen Ping’an said with a smile.

“You work far harder than I do, Young Master,” Zhu Lian said with a shake of his head.

“None of you does as much work as I do! I have it tougher than anyone else on this mountain!” Zheng Dafeng interjected.

***

By the time construction on the ancestral hall was officially wrapped up, some guests had already arrived in the Dragon Spring Prefecture.

Mountain Master Chen Ping’an chose an auspicious date, then led everyone in an official ceremony to hang up portraits and offer up incense.

Even though this was quite a grand occasion, Chen Ping’an chose not to make a big fuss and refrained from inviting many people that he could’ve invited, such as the Fan Clan and the Sun Clan of Old Dragon City.

Nevertheless, there were many people who were very well-connected and had heard about the occasion. Some of them really wanted to come, but didn’t dare to do so without an invitation, such as the two water gods of the Yellow Court Nation.

There were also many friends of Chen Ping’an’s who weren’t fit to be seen with him in public; he could only regrettably keep them off the invitation list as well.

Thus, all those in attendance on this occasion were people who were already nearby, such as Wei Bo, the deputy mountain master of the Cloud Drape Mountain Forest Deer Academy, Dragon Spring Sword Sect Leader Ruan Qiong, and his two direct disciples, Dong Gu and Xu Xiaoqiao, as well as Liu Chongrun of Ao Back Ridge.

These were all guests.

Aside from them, there were also those who called Downtrodden Mountain their home.

Three portraits were hung up in the ancestral hall, with the old scholar’s portrait occupying the center position.

On either side of his portrait were portraits dedicated to Qi Jingchun and Cui Cheng.

The tablets beneath the three portraits only listed the names of the trio and nothing else.

Then followed the rest.

Mountain Master, Chen Ping’an.

First disciple, Pei Qian.

Student, Cui Dongshan.

Student, Cao Qinglang.

Zhu Lian, Lu Baixiang, Sui Youbian, Wei Xian.

Chen Lingjun, Chen Ruchu, Shi Rou.

Cen Yuanji, Yuan Bao, Yuan Lai.

Right-hand Guardian, Zhou Mili.

Official guest elders: Zheng Dafeng, Zhong Qiu, and “Unpolished Jade Tier vagrant cultivator,” Zhou Fei.

Unofficial guest elders: blind Daoist Priest, Jia Cheng; Zhao Denggao; Tian Jiu’er; Nascent Tier cultivator, Du Wensi of the Flax Robe Sect; and ancestral hall direct disciple, Pang Lanxi.

Chen Ping’an was standing at the forefront on his own, closest to the three portraits.

He was no longer the thin and heavily tanned young boy wearing straw sandals everywhere he went.

He had grown into a tall, graceful young man, and he was currently wearing a Confucian robe and a jade hairpin, holding lit incense sticks in both hands as he stood with his back to everyone.