Unsheathed

Chen Ping’an went to see Yan Ming first. The two of them took a stroll together, while Mi Yu trailed along in the distance.

Chen Ping’an’s first objective was to request the Yan Clan’s account books, while his second objective was to ask Yan Ming about the rules of trade between the Sword Qi Great Wall and the intercontinental ships on Stalactite Mountain.

What he was truly asking was how much wealth the Yan Clan possessed. How long could they continue to make losses in these transactions, and how was the Sword Qi Great Wall going to compensate the Yan Clan for these losses?

The two of them chatted for close to two hours, with each of them harboring their own objectives.

On the way here, Chen Ping’an had shared a very candid conversation with Mi Yu, who told Chen Ping’an that he felt like Nalan Shaowei was going to be very difficult to convince, while Yan Ming would be a much easier target. On one hand, Chen Ping’an was the Hidden Official, and he had been thrust into the role in a time of crisis, so he wielded immense power.

On the other hand, he was very close with Yan Zhuo, so Yan Ming was almost obligated to support Chen Ping’an, even if it meant sacrificing his entire wealth. On top of that, Chen Ping’an had a certain level of sway over the old great sword immortal, and that was the most important factor to consider.

After parting ways with Yan Ming, Chen Ping’an set off in search of Nalan Shaowei. When it came to foreign trade, the Yan Clan and the Nalan Clan were the two foremost authorities on the Sword Qi Great Wall. The Dong, Chen, and Qi Clans controlled the garment market, the sword market, and the alchemical pill market, yet money never passed through their hands, so Yan Ming and Nalan Shaowei were the two wealthiest people on the Sword Qi Great Wall.

”Did things go smoothly?” Mi Yu asked.

”For the most part, yes, but there were many hiccups in the discussion of the finer details,” Chen Ping’an sighed. ”I thought that when it came to interacting with the two seniors, it would be difficult in the beginning, but it would get easier over time. Instead, it looks like it’s only going to become more and more difficult.”

”Doesn’t that mean you called him Uncle Yan for nothing?” Mi Yu jibed.

A hint of anger then appeared on his face as he grumbled, ”Does Yan Ming even understand who he’s dealing with? This is the Hidden Official’s branch! It’s no exaggeration to say that the welfare of the entire Sword Qi Great Wall rests on our shoulders! If even I can understand that, surely Yan Ming wouldn’t be blind to the bigger picture. Is he feeling insecure because he’s lost both his arms, and he’s afraid that you’ll take his power and wealth away from him as well?”

Yan Ming had fallen all the way down to the Nascent Tier, so Mi Yu didn’t fear him at all.

He had so much money, but couldn’t use it on his bonded flying sword. It really was a very pitiful existence, and in Mi Yu’s eyes, he was much more pathetic than the swordsmen who had to put their lives on the line to slay demons and earn money to nurture their bonded flying swords.

”It’s not that simple,” Chen Ping’an said with a shake of his head. ”Yan Ming is a very shrewd businessman. Seeing as we’ve reached a consensus on the general direction, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to take great care in polishing the finer details. I’ll just have to visit him a few more times.

“I think it’s quite commendable that Yan Ming is not simply bowing to the authority of the Hidden Official. Instead, he’s approaching the situation objectively and treating this just like any other deal, and I think it shows that he’s being responsible to the Sword Qi Great Wall.”

”You don’t feel resentful at all?” Mi Yu asked.

”Every piece of hardship is a test, and each test that you overcome will be sure to bring benefits,” Chen Ping’an replied.

Mi Yu offered no response.

Clearly, despite what he was saying, he was still feeling resentful, but he couldn’t do anything to Yan Ming, so he was forced to internalize those feelings.

Chen Ping’an’s conversation with Nalan Shaowei turned out to be a very brief one. The old sword immortal only told him one thing: ”I never manage my clan’s financial matters. If you want to speak to someone, go find Nalan Caihuan.”

Thus, Chen Ping’an went to seek out Nalan Caihuan, who turned out to be a Nascent Tier female swordsman. Her cultivation base was nothing special, but she had a good head on her shoulders and was very good with money.

This time, Mi Yu was truly incensed.

”That old fart is really full of himself, isn’t he?!”

Chen Ping’an didn’t say anything, and Mi Yu only dared to complain after the event. Back when they were actually in the presence of Nalan Shaowei, he didn’t even dare to breathe too loud.

Nalan Caihuan was a beautiful woman with an elegant figure, and to complement her natural beauty, she was also very well-dressed, making her a renowned beauty on the Sword Qi Great Wall.

However, despite her elegant appearance, she was no less brutal and ferocious than Qi Shou in battle.

Mi Yu was going into this interaction with mixed emotions, and he intentionally put on a cold facade.

Even though all of the other sword immortals on the Sword Qi Great Wall looked down on Mi Yu, he was actually very popular with the opposite sex. He had many female pursuers, and the women who had been rejected by him were even more scathing in the insults that they directed toward him than the men. Nalan Caihuan just so happened to be one of those women.

Prior to becoming an Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortal, everything had gone ridiculously smoothly in Mi Yu’s life, and it became a common saying on the Sword Qi Great Wall that Mi Yu took everything in his life for granted, and that was why he couldn’t hold down a good woman.

The reality wasn’t that he couldn’t hold down a woman. Instead, he had countless female admirers on the Sword Qi Great Wall and in the Majestic World, but none of them were able to hold him down.

While looking at Nalan Caihuan, Mi Yu saw her for the person that she was, while Chen Ping’an saw the mountains of gold and silver that she managed on behalf of the Nalan Clan.

The first thing that Chen Ping’an said to Nalan Caihuan came as such a shock to Mi Yu that he was almost unable to keep up his cold facade.

”I have already spoken with your clan leader, and the old sword immortal clearly has an eye for the bigger picture. He told me that he’s determined to help the Sword Qi Great Wall overcome this ordeal, even if it means having to sacrifice the interests of the Nalan Clan. However, as we were about to part ways, he told me that you were in charge of the clan’s financial matters, so I should come and notify you of his decision.”

Nalan Caihuan didn’t doubt Chen Ping’an’s assertion, and they began discussing some finer details.

As Chen Ping’an and Mi Yu departed along the carriageway, the latter asked, ”Isn’t your lie going to be exposed as soon as Nalan Caihuan speaks to Nalan Shaowei?”

”If that’s the case, then so be it,” Chen Ping’an replied. ”Nalan Shaowei wasn’t willing to hear me out, so I’ll get Nalan Caihuan to speak to him in my stead. If she comes after me, I’m sure you’ll be able to stop her on your own. If Nalan Shaowei decides to come after me, you’re most likely going to have a much harder time, but you still have to make sure to protect me to the best of your abilities, Brother Mi.”

”Hasn’t Lu Zhi been tasked with protecting the Hidden Official’s branch? As long as she’s around, surely it won’t fall upon me to hold off Nalan Shaowei,” Mi Yu said with a wry smile.

Both Nalan Shaowei and Lu Zhi were among the top ten sword immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall. Whenever Mi Yu was in their presence, he would be struck by a deep sense of inferiority, and he normally did everything in his power to stay out of their way.

Most of Mi Yu’s friends were swordsmen of the Middle Five Tiers, and among those, the majority of them were womanizers. As for sword immortals of the Upper Five Tiers, barely any of them were willing to acknowledge Mi Yu as a friend.

On the way here, Mi Yu had only been greeted by a single Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortal by the name of Lie Ji. In terms of cultivation, both Lie Ji and Mi Yu were in the same boat, starting off as bright prodigies before quickly reaching their ceiling.

It was said that Lie Ji had a rather flighty personality and could never bear long stints of seated meditation. In fact, he once had a nickname of ”Magpie” for his tendency to dart around from place to place instead of focusing on his cultivation.

Lie Ji and Mi Yu often drank together to drown their sorrows, and upon encountering Chen Ping’an, Lie Ji had smiled and greeted him as Lord Hidden Official.

In response, Chen Ping’an also smiled and cupped his fist in a salute.

After they were out of earshot of Lie Ji, Chen Ping’an jibed, ”You sure have a lot of friends, Sword Immortal Mi.”

Mi Yu directed his gaze southward. Just like Pang Yuanji, he would also prefer to be out slaying demons on the battlefield.

Over the next few days, Chen Ping’an spent all of his time presiding over the Hidden Official’s branch, or went out to discuss matters with important figures on the Sword Qi Great Wall, accompanied by Mi Yu.

During this time, Mi Yu noticed that Ning Yao was wearing the Golden Sweet Wine Dao robe, and that she had also crafted a sword case, within which were two swords. One of them was Sword Immortal, which Chen Ping’an had used to slay Li Zhen. It was truly a good name.

It was no wonder Chen Ping’an would occasionally brag to Gu Jianlong and Wang Xinshui about his talent in naming things, proclaiming that if one’s naming acumen could contribute to their cultivation, then he would already be at least at the Immortal Tier.

Pang Yuanji mentioned that the Hidden Official’s branch had been accumulating secret documents for several thousand years, all of which were stored in the summer and winter palaces. There were far too many of these documents for all of them to be transported to the carriageway, and it would be too inconvenient to send people back and forth to the two palaces to consult the documents before returning to the carriageway.

Hence, he proposed that it would be better for everyone to move to the summer palace, where the majority of the documents were stored. The messenger flying swords of the Hidden Official’s branch were extremely fast, and if they were to take the two picture scrolls with them to the summer palace, then they could continue to keep an eye on the state of the battlefield from there.

At this point, the great demons were already aware that the Hidden Official’s branch was gathered on the carriageway, so Lu Zhi was forced to stay on lookout duty for their protection. If they were to move to the summer palace, not only would they have easier access to all the documents of the Hidden Official’s branch, they would also be able to liberate Lu Zhi and allow her to return to the battlefield.

Everyone in the Hidden Official’s branch agreed with Pang Yuanji’s proposal, but Chen Ping’an disagreed. He told everyone that there was no hurry, and that he would decide when the time was right for them to move to the summer palace.

Pang Yuanji didn’t argue with his decision, but Dong Bude and Deng Liang were very much opposed to Chen Ping’an’s stance on the matter, and they were quick to voice their dissent.

Dong Bude’s main concern was that the Hidden Official’s branch was far too important, and that if they were to remain on the carriageway, then they ran the risk of being wiped out all at once.

In contrast, Deng Liang was more bothered by the idea that Lu Zhi had to be stationed here for their protection, feeling that it was a massive waste for her to be tethered here away from the battlefield.

For once, Guo Zhujiu didn’t defend her master. The entire time, she stared down at her desk in silence, and it looked as if she were trying to bore holes into the desk with her gaze.

Her silence was very telling. Normally, she was always her master’s staunchest supporter, ready to rise to his defense at a moment’s notice, but this time, she couldn’t bring herself to come to his aid.

However, Chen Ping’an refused to budge, and he gave some more reasons to support his decision, but none of them were very convincing. Thus, there had been some lingering tension in the Hidden Official’s branch over the past couple of days.

On this day, Yue Qing came to visit. He paused momentarily outside the sword qi restriction set up by Mi Yu, and only when he was permitted entry did he continue onward.

Chen Ping’an immediately rose to his feet to meet Yue Qing, and the two of them didn’t approach the other swordsmen of the Hidden Official’s branch.

”Chen Ping’an, I’ve come here to apologize to the closing disciple of the Scholarly Sage’s branch, and I’ve also come to express my gratitude to you, Chen Ping’an, not the Hidden Official,” Yue Qing said with a smile.

”I accept both your apology and your gratitude,” Chen Ping’an replied with a nod.

”I made no effort to conceal my contempt for the Scholarly Sage’s branch in the past, so I should be just as forthright with my expression of apology and gratitude to you now,” Yue Qing said. ”Honestly, if someone else had become the Hidden Official instead of you, and they tried to tell me what to do in battle, I wouldn’t have taken very kindly to that at all.”

”As is to be expected for a mighty sword immortal of your caliber,” Chen Ping’an replied.

”You’re a very competent kid, I’m willing to concede that, but the way that you speak really annoys me,” Yue Qing mused as he rubbed his own chin.

Chen Ping’an offered him a flagon of wine.

Yue Qing immediately burst into laughter as he accepted the flagon of wine, then departed atop his flying sword.

As soon as Chen Ping’an returned to his seat, Gu Jianlong immediately smiled and said, ”You’re going to give Sword Immortal Yue a flagon of wine, but ignore all of us? That’s hardly fair, is it, Lord Hidden Official?”

”I could really do with some wine right about now,” Cao Gun chuckled.

”I’ve yet to taste the immortal wine from your wine shop, and that’s always been one of my biggest regrets. I hope that can still be remedied,” Xuan Can chimed in.

”You want wine? Pay up!” Guo Zhujiu snapped as she slammed a hand down onto her desk.

”Let’s leave the drinking for later,” Chen Ping’an said with a smile. ”Once the battle is over, I’ll cough up the same number of flagons of wine as the number of the Savage World’s earth immortal swordsmen that we manage to slay.”

Boos immediately rang out all around, with Gu Jianlong and Wang Xinshui’s voices the loudest of all.

”Some of us have gotten very brave,” Dong Bude remarked without even raising her head.

”What the hell’s wrong with you, Xinshui?” Gu Jianlong immediately turned on Wang Xinshui to save his own hide.

”I was just copying you,” Wang Xinshui replied with an innocent expression.

The heavy mood was lightened a little by that brief interlude, and shortly thereafter, Chen Ping’an departed once again.

At this point, Mi Yu had already accepted his fate. He now had two more titles designed to mock him, the first of which was the swordsman with the loftiest cultivation base in the Hidden Official’s branch, and the second was the Hidden Official’s personal lackey.

It was often the case that he would be walking along when a passing sword immortal would throw a jab at him, something along the lines of, ”Lord Hidden Official is taking you out for your daily walk, I see, Brother Mi.”

Once again, the two of them passed by Lie Ji, who was having a drink.

Upon spotting the duo, Lie Ji pulled out two flagons of wine from his pocket treasure, then tossed them at Mi Yu and Chen Ping’an as he smiled and said, ”This wine is from the second shopkeeper’s shop.”

Mi Yu caught the flagon of wine that had been tossed his way. It was a flagon of Bamboo Sea Small World wine that cost one snowflake coin. It seemed that Lie Ji wasn’t willing to put in a substantial investment even when he was trying to suck up to others.

Chen Ping’an also reached out to catch the second flagon of wine, but right as he did so, a streak of bright sword light suddenly shot through the air, aimed directly at his heart.

It was Lie Ji’s bonded flying sword, Burning Flower.

Mi Yu was horrified to see this, and he crushed the wine flagon in his hand, then instantly summoned his bonded flying sword, Radiant Sunset, to intercept Burning Flower.

Even if he couldn’t completely intercept Burning Flower, he had to at least try to earn Chen Ping’an a sliver of a chance at survival, no matter how slim. Even if he were to suffer catastrophic injuries, that would still be better than dying outright. In addition to injuries inflicted by the flying sword of a sword immortal, their sword qi would also linger in the target’s acupoints, and that was massive pain to deal with.

Lie Ji and Mi Yu may have been looked down on by all of the other sword immortals, but they were both still sword immortals, nevertheless. This was an all-out attack from Lie Ji at point-blank range, and both Chen Ping’an and Mi Yu had been caught completely off guard, so all Mi Yu could hope to do now was save Chen Ping’an’s life.

Even though Mi Yu was a tiny bit slow to react, the tip of his flying sword, Radiant Sunset, was still just barely in time to strike the end of Burning Flower’s hilt, knocking it ever-so-slightly off course so that it was no longer aimed directly at Chen Ping’an’s heart.

At the same time, Mi Yu stepped forward and drew his sword to oppose Lie Ji, who had also sprung forward.

Mi Yu possessed a longsword of an extremely high caliber, and of course, it had been given to him by his brother, Mi Hu. In contrast, Lie Ji had no Dao partner or master, so his sword was only an ordinary longsword from the sword market.

Having given Golden Sweet Wine to Ning Yao, Chen Ping’an was currently only wearing the Dao robe from the Ning Manor and a generic Dao robe from the garment market. In response to the oncoming Burning Flower, Chen Ping’an made a hand seal, and a burst of radiant light erupted out of his innermost Dao robe before taking on the form of an ethereal golden talisman. It was his Sword Suppressing Talisman.

However, Lie Ji was simply far too close, and he hadn’t held back at all, clearly intent on taking Chen Ping’an’s life. The two bonded flying swords clashed, and there was an explosion of sword light. Just the scattered specks of sword light from that explosion alone were enough to instantly tear Chen Ping’an’s outermost market Dao robe to shreds.

Burning Flower pierced into the golden Sword Suppressing Talisman, and a series of cracks instantly appeared over the talisman’s surface. Clearly, it wasn’t going to be able to keep Burning Flower at bay for long.

However, the Sword Suppressing Talisman had bought Chen Ping’an some time, enough time to allow him to whip out a Land-Shortening Talisman, allowing him to retreat over a hundred feet with just a single step. But that was nowhere near enough.

The two bonded flying swords raced onto the scene at once, except Radiant Sunset was trying to save Chen Ping’an, while Burning Flower was trying to take his life.

In order to achieve maximal speed, Burning Flower pierced into Chen Ping’an’s body around an inch below his heart.

To further compound Chen Ping’an’s woes, Lie Ji detonated Burning Flower while it was still embedded in his body.

Mi Yu swung his sword down upon Lie Ji’s shoulder, splitting his body into two, but Lie Ji didn’t seem concerned at all for his own safety.

His yin soul sprang forth, abandoning his body as it raised his sword market longsword and decapitated Chen Ping’an with a swift and decisive swing.

At the same time, Burning Flower exploded within Chen Ping’an’s body, and not only did it kill him on the spot, Lie Ji’s yin soul was also obliterated in the explosion. In the blink of an eye, both Chen Ping’an and Lie Ji had fallen, while Mi Yu was left reeling from shock and anguish.