Unsheathed

Cai Jinjian had been progressing quite quickly in her cultivation over the years, and she had already established her own abode on a mountain. She very rarely made any outings and spent almost all of her time focusing on her cultivation.

On the way to the Azure Phoenix Nation, Chen Ping’an had encountered a black-robed young man by the name of Jiang Yun in that renowned alley at the Wasp Tail Ferry Station. He was the one who had initially attained the massive fated opportunity that was the small town’s Iron Lock Well. He was also the only direct disciple taken by Liu Laocheng outside of Palace Willow Island.

Chen Ping’an had a decent impression of Jiang Yun, and aside from the protection that he was granted by the sagely jade tablet that he was carrying at the time, another important reason why he had dared to visit Liu Laocheng on Palace Willow Island was that Liu Laocheng had taken Jiang Yun as a disciple.

Prince Gao Xuan of the Great Sui Nation had once intercepted the Dragon King Basket and that golden carp from Li Er, but Chen Ping’an held no grudge against him. In accordance with the terms of the pact signed between the Great Sui Nation’s Gao Clan and the Great Li Empire’s Song Clan, Gao Xuan was sent to Cloud Drape Mountain as a hostage to study at Forest Deer Academy.

Gao Xuan hadn’t intentionally concealed his own name during his time at the academy. Previously, Chen Ping’an had met with Gao Xuan when he traveled with Li Baoping and the other children to the Great Sui Nation’s Mountain Cliff Academy.

From that point onward, there seemed to have been a tacit understanding between the two, and they hadn’t met again since then, nor had there been any communication between the two. It would not have been a good thing for either of them to have gotten too close to one another.

After the mother-and-son duo from the Light Breeze City Xu Clan obtained the ancestral scaly armor from Liu Xianyang’s clan, the leader of the Xu Clan had received a significant power boost, becoming one of a handful of the formidable Nascent Tier cultivators on the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

Not only was he able to eliminate all dissenters and strengthen his hold on his position, but he had also managed to marry off his daughter to the capital of the Great Li Empire, forging a marriage alliance with the Great Li Empire’s Pillar General Yuan Clan.

The Xu Clan’s power and status were naturally an important factor of consideration for the Yuan Clan in this marriage alliance, but the cultivation base of the Xu Clan’s leader was also just as important a contributing factor. Over the years, the only real connection that Chen Ping’an had to the Light Breeze City Xu Clan came in the form of those Fox Skin Beauty Talismans.

In the beginning, the Xu Clan owned Cinnabar Mountain, which was one of the largest of the western mountains and one that had exceptional feng shui. However, at some point, the two branches of the Great Li Empire’s forces, led by Cao Ping and Su Gaoshan, were impeded by the Luminous Vermilion Empire’s border forces, as well as its subsidiary nations.

Additionally, the situation was complicated even further by many of the Hundred Schools of Thought making moves behind the scenes, so Light Breeze City decided to sell Cinnabar Mountain at a loss, a decision that it would later come to sorely regret. If the leader of the Xu Clan hadn’t managed to make amends by forging a marriage alliance with the Yuan Clan, he would’ve most likely already been replaced by now.

The old mountain-moving ape was still the mountain protection elder of Sun Scorch Mountain, playing a role equivalent to Zhou Mili’s on Downtrodden Mountain. Tao Zi, the little girl who once visited the small town, had also grown into one of Sun Scorch Mountain’s most prominent cultivation prodigies.

Congratulations had come flooding in from all directions in the wake of her breakthrough to the Abode Tier, and the old ape had even given her a former mountain of a small fallen nation as a congratulatory gift.

Apparently, she had gotten along very well with Song Jixin during her time in the small town, and even after the two parted ways, they had only gotten closer with each other over time, something that the ancestor of her clan, one of the decision-making sword immortals of Sun Scorch Mountain, was undoubtedly very happy to see.

In contrast, the granddaughter of the leader of the Sea Tide Cavalry was faring much worse. Ma Kuxuan was holding a grudge against her to this very day because of her inadvertent killing of his grandmother in the small town.

Using all of the battlefield accolades that he had accumulated, such as the two Golden Core Tier swordsmen of the Luminous Vermilion Empire that he had slain, in conjunction with the accolades accrued by some of the other True Martial Mountain cultivators, he was able to bring about the destruction of the Sea Tide Cavalry in accordance with a certain rule put into place by Imperial Preceptor Cui Chan.

The former leader of the Sea Tide Cavalry was then hunted down by Ma Kuxuan, while his granddaughter was abducted and given the degrading name of Shudian. Perhaps in the eyes of many bystanders, this was a very much deserved name for her, considering she was continuing to live on even after her clan had been wiped out and after betraying her own sect.[1]

These people had come to the small town, following which many people left the small town.

For example, Li Baoping and the other children from the school had traveled to Mountain Cliff Academy, while Shi Chunjia, the little girl with the twin pigtails, had moved to the capital of the Great Li Empire with her family, allowing Chen Ping’an to take over those two shops on Dragon Riding Alley. Dong Shuijing had stayed in the Dragon Spring Prefecture, and his business was going from strength to strength.

Li Xisheng of Fortune Street had gone to the Northern Complete Reed Continent, while Zhu He and Zhu Lu had traveled to the capital of the Great Li Empire, and Chen Ping’an hadn’t heard from them since.

Liu Xianyang’s ancestors had once been graveyard attendants for that branch of the Chen Clan. In light of this connection, the Pure Confucian Chen Clan had sent Chen Dui to take Liu Xianyang to the Southern Whirl Continent under the agreement that Liu Xianyang would return to Ruan Qiong in twenty years. This was what Chen Ping’an admired the most about Liu Xianyang; he learned everything extremely quickly.

Back in the dragon kiln, he had quickly managed to become Old Man Yao’s best apprentice, and that had certainly not been through dumb luck. After that, he and Chen Ping’an had both worked together at Ruan Qiong’s blacksmith shop on the bank of Dragon Whisker River, yet Ruan Qiong had quickly taken a liking to Liu Xianyang but refused to accept Chen Ping’an as a disciple.

There was no bitterness in Chen Ping’an’s heart over this. Instead, he was merely happy for Liu Xianyang.

In his eyes, Liu Xianyang should’ve been leading an even better life.

Song Jixin and Gu Can of Clay Vase Alley, Ma Kuxuan of Apricot Blossom Alley, Zhao Yao of Fortune Street, and many other young individuals from the small town that Chen Ping’an was unfamiliar with had also most likely already left the Jewel Small World of old and stepped out into the big, wide world. All of them were undoubtedly pursuing their own Great Daos and had their own stories to tell.

Regardless of whether they were friend or foe, all of them had come out of the Jewel Small World.

Deep down, Chen Ping’an harbored a wish that he had never spoken of, which was that someday, the entire Majestic World would learn of the Jewel Small World thanks to the feats of the young prodigies to have come out of its borders.

Chen Ping’an sat up, and four flying swords flew out of his acupoints.

The first two were First and Fifteenth, both of which had been refined by him into bonded items, but only in a Qi refiner sense, so they didn’t truly count as a swordsman’s bonded flying swords.

The other two were both replica swords from Hatred Sword Mountain. One of them was called Pine Needle and had been gifted to him by Yuan Lingdian of the Secret Profound Peak, while the other one was called Lightning Devourer and had been purchased for him by Qi Jinglong.

Chen Ping’an was able to control these four flying swords at will, sending them whizzing throughout the cabin.

He joined his middle and index fingers before extending them forward and gently pressing them down onto the Go board, and all of the black and white stones on the board instantly sprang up into the air.

At the same time, he controlled the four flying swords to gently strike the Go stones before they could fall, knocking them even higher up into the air while filling the entire cabin with a heavenly sound akin to the tinkling of a wind chime.

The scenery on the path of cultivation was very enticing, but Ning Yao was still the most enticing piece of scenery of all.

Unfortunately, Chen Ping’an only dared to think this, but didn’t dare to say it.

***

There were two administrators on this intercontinental ship, an official one and another one in the shadows. The latter was the guest elder previously residing in the Sun Clan’s ancestral residence, and he was not someone unfamiliar with Chen Ping’an.

However, during his stay on the intercontinental ship, Chen Ping’an never left his cabin, and the guest elder didn’t want to interrupt his cultivation, so they never met. The guest elder was very curious about Chen Ping’an. Back then, he had only been a third tier martial artist, yet he had since raced up the tiers, making incredible progress in his martial arts cultivation.

How had he accomplished this? Surely he couldn’t have stumbled upon some miracle pill or encountered an otherworldly cultivation paradise like the protagonist of some far-fetched novel!

Only as the Mountain and Sea Turtle drew close to Stalactite Mountain did the guest elder finally see Chen Ping’an emerge from his cabin, standing atop the observation deck at the highest point on the Mountain and Sea Turtle’s back as he looked out at the largest mountain seal under the heavens.

However, both of the administrators on the ship were about to be very busy, so they decided not to approach Chen Ping’an to strike up a conversation.

As the battle on the Sword Qi Great Wall became more and more brutal, business steadily expanded for the intercontinental ships that came from the nine continents to do business with Stalactite Mountain, but there wasn’t much of an increase in profits.

Observant individuals would’ve already noticed that the intercontinental ships from the Southern Whirl Continent and the Circling Ascension Continent barely even carried any more passengers. They had intentionally restricted the number of passengers, even though doing so harmed their profit margins, and the ships were also making more frequent trips at the cost of accruing more wear and tear.

They were making regular trips back and forth to transport more supplies to the Sword Qi Great Wall through Stalactite Mountain, and it was clear that the Confucian academies on the two continents were beginning to get involved.

In contrast, everything remained the same on the Parasol Leaf Continent. This also had something to do with the fact that the Parasol Leaf Continent didn’t have all that many intercontinental ships. Out of the nine continents, the Parasol Leaf Continent was the one least keen on opening up to other continents.

There was a massive disproportion between the number of cultivators traveling to the Parasol Leaf Continent and the number of cultivators traveling from the Parasol Leaf Continent to other continents, and as a result, the cultivators of the Parasol Leaf Continent had earned a reputation for being closed off and averse to travel.

The reasons for this were very simple. Firstly, the Parasol Leaf Continent was enormous and could easily sustain itself with no issues. Furthermore, it had the Parasol Leaf Sect and the Jade Tablet Sect stationed at each end of the continent, and the continent had relatively few immortal powers overall, but they were all quite prominent and powerful on average. Hence, the continent had always been a very safe and stable place.

Having said that, the major calamity suffered by the Planchette Writing Sect and Peace and Tranquility Mountain some years ago had caught the entire continent completely off guard and reduced them to the laughingstock of the entire Majestic World for a time. Thankfully, the dust had already settled, and all of the affected immortal powers were in a process of recovery and recuperation.

Standing by the railing of the observation deck, Chen Ping’an was surrounded by other cultivators from the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, as well as a considerable number of cultivators from other continents who had traveled to the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, which was a rare sight in the past.

In light of the massive changes sweeping over the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent and the Great Li Empire’s ascension to become one of the top ten empires of the Majestic World, more and more curious cultivators from other continents had flocked there to see just what the fuss was all about.

Prior to this, the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent had been regarded as a tiny, rural continent that was completely unremarkable, making it a much less popular travel destination than the likes of the Northern Complete Reed Continent and the Parasol Leaf Continent.

Cultivators from other continents generally took a route from north to south that allowed them to visit the capital of the Great Li Empire, the Divine Edict Sect, Lake View Academy, and Old Dragon City in that order. Perhaps in the future, the True Realm Sect would also be added to that list.

After all, Jiang Shangzhen was a very renowned figure, given how remarkable it was that he had managed to not just survive, but even thrive on the Northern Complete Reed Continent in spite of the fact that he was constantly making enemies everywhere he went.

To the rest of the Majestic World, the Northern Complete Reed Continent was an extremely perilous and unfriendly place, where many people met their demise when they otherwise definitely wouldn’t have died on any other continent.

However, after visiting the Northern Complete Reed Continent, Chen Ping’an had discovered that it was a breath of fresh air, and he was keen to visit again in the future.

At the moment, Sword Immortal Wei Jin of the Wind Snow Temple was at the Sword Qi Great Wall, and Sword Immortal Li Cai of Duckweed Sword Lake would most likely also be traveling to Stalactite Mountain after her visit to the Great Emblem Sword Sect.

Unfortunately, Cao Ci was no longer at the Sword Qi Great Wall. Chen Ping’an wondered if the small thatched cottage left behind by Cao Ci and the one previously inhabited by Sword Immortal Chen Qingdu were still standing.

Out of the cultivators from other continents on the observation deck, most of them were conversing in the official dialect of the Middle Earth Divine Continent. There was a sense of arrogance about them as they spoke, commenting on the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent without any respect, and certainly no reverence.

On the subject of the mighty cavalry of the Great Li Empire, they didn’t offer up much praise, stating that there was no way they would’ve been able to replicate their feats on the Middle Earth Divine Continent.

These outsiders weren’t entirely unjustified in their disdain for the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent because even by Cui Dongshan’s own admission, the continent was lacking in Ascension Tier cultivators, and that was a huge problem.

With the major calamity set to strike in a few decades, time was very much of the essence, and just a single Ascension Tier cultivator in the form of Cui Chan wasn’t going to be anywhere near enough. Hence, they would have no choice but to borrow Ascension Tier cultivators from other continents. Thankfully, they wouldn’t have to beg. Otherwise, Cui Dongshan would die of fury and indignation.

Chen Ping’an pretended not to have heard the massive secret that Cui Dongshan had revealed at the time.

First, Imperial Preceptor Cui Chan had replicated the White Jade Capital, and after that, he had deployed the Great Li Empire’s forces to conquer the entire continent. Clearly, he had done all of this with a plan in mind and wasn’t just going to watch the continent fall to its demise.

Chen Ping’an cast away his train of thought as he looked around at the stunning sight of the mighty mountain suspended upside-down between heaven and earth.

Outside of Stalactite Mountain were a series of river channels that resembled both cloud and water, suspended in all directions between the mountain and the sea.

Aside from the main peak that was presided over by a Great Heavenly Lord, there were eight other significant landmarks on Stalactite Mountain, all of which Chen Ping’an had previously visited.

The Catch and Release Pavilion that one first passed through upon setting foot on Stalactite Mountain had a plaque personally inscribed by the True Invincible Daoist second disciple of the Heavenly World. This was where Chen Ping’an had parted ways with Liu Youzhou of the Pure White Continent during his visit to Stalactite Mountain. From there, Liu Youzhou had gone to the vastly renowned Ape Rub Residence.

Then there was the Sword Reverence Pagoda, which held portraits of all of the past generations of revered sword immortals. There was also the Incense Offering Tower, which Lu Tai had wished to enter in order to offer up some incense to his ancestors, only to be kicked out by the young Daoist priest gatekeeper.

There was the Lightning Lake Platform, where Martial Goddess Pei Bei had refined her sword, and the Ganoderma Inn, where Chen Ping’an had inadvertently purchased a suit of ancestral Dew Armor. In addition, there was also the Daoist Seal Hall, by the name of the Missing One Hall, as well as the stunning Milu Cliff.

The Daoist nun, Liu Boqi, who had married Liu Qingshan of the Azure Phoenix Nation, had come from the Daoist Saber Room on Stalactite Mountain, where wanted posters of Song Changjing and Xu Ruo had once hung.

As the ship approached Stalactite Mountain along a river channel, Chen Ping’an expressed his gratitude to the administrator of the ship, then set foot onto Stalactite Mountain on his own.

As opposed to the Ganoderma Inn, Chen Ping’an once again chose to stay at the Stork Inn situated at the end of the small alley.

The innkeeper was stunned into silence for a long while at the sight of him before finally exclaiming in disbelief, “Chen Ping’an?”

Chen Ping’an smiled and nodded.

1. Reminder that the name Shudian alludes to ungratefulness and forgetting/betraying one’s roots. ☜