Unsheathed

Trade was flourishing at Light Breeze City, with song and dance adding to the bustling atmosphere. This had already lasted for centuries, with the city constructed at the foot of the mountain unaffected by the rising and falling kingdoms and the corresponding chaos throughout the lands. The many rulers and emperors always showed strong respect to the Xu Clan.

The old ancestor of the Xu Clan managed to gain ownership of the Fox Nation because of an immense fated opportunity, with this nation roughly being equivalent to half a blessed land.

It was rumored that the fox immortal had already possessed seven tails when the old ancestor of the Xu Clan had come across them back then, and it was unknown whether this fox immortal had grown an eighth tail now.

Light Breeze City’s Xu Clan was famous for producing Fox Skin Beauties, an incredibly precious and expensive talismanic product that had far more demand than supply.

Fox Skin Beauties were renowned throughout the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, and Light Breeze City’s Xu Clan was able to grow its wealth even more following the increased frequency of intercontinental ships to and from the Northern Complete Reed Continent. They had seen explosive growth several years ago, when the master of the Xu Clan had changed the ancestral rules and allowed those in the Fox Nation to use enchanted picture scrolls, causing the prices of Fox Skin Beauty Talismans to directly increase severalfold.

The Xu Clan had further recruited eminent painters to compose the Four Beauties painting and the Eighteen Ladies painting, after which they engraved or copied these paintings. At the same time, they also produced the four treasures of the study, folding fans, and other items with inscriptions or copies of these paintings, with these items being sold in a flash.

Some immortal forces that were at odds with the Xu Clan had grumbled in a jealous manner, saying that the Xu Clan was only a step away from selling erotic art. Indeed, they would all praise Xu Hun as a truly impressive person if he dared to sell such things.

They purposely belittled Xu Hun, describing him as a man who surrounded himself with nothing but women.

However, this man was a legitimate Nascent Tier Militarian cultivator, and he had grown even more powerful after obtaining that strange suit of scaly armor. His combat power was outstanding, ranked among the top few individuals among those under the Upper Five Tiers in the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

Inside a refined room in a restaurant located on a busy street in Light Breeze City, a young man continued to eat, while a scholar in azure had already put down his chopsticks a long time ago. The scholar stood up and walked to the window, looking at the throngs of people outside. There were indeed a lot of beautiful women.

Liu Chicheng rocked his folding fan and said with a faint smile, ”Looking at this couple at Light Breeze City, one is cultivating in earnest, while the other is looking after the clan and making more money. They’re truly a match made in heaven.”

The young man continued to eat with his head down. Liu Chicheng had barely touched his chopsticks, yet he had ordered an entire table of dishes. As such, there was still a lot of food on the table.

Liu Chicheng turned around and glanced at the young man, asking with a smile, ”Gu Can, you still haven’t said why you decided to come here, even choosing to purposely leave Zeng Ye and Ma Duyi behind. Are you able to explain now?”

Gu Can put down his chopsticks and finished the food in his mouth before looking up and replying, ”I have a friend who was almost beaten to death by someone called Lu Zhengchun back then. Lu Zhengchun is from Fortune Street’s Lu Clan, and he’s seemingly faring pretty well at Light Breeze City’s Xu Clan right now.”

The Song Clan, Li Clan, Zhao Clan, and Lu Clan were all top-notch clans among the Four Families and Ten Clans in the Jewel Small World.

However, there were far too many ties between the small town’s Lu Clan and the destroyed Lu Empire, so the fate of this clan was the most pitiful out of the Four Families and Ten Clans after the Jewel Small World fell to the ground. The Lu Clan was unable to achieve any success.

Only Lu Zhengchun had followed the lady from Light Breeze City’s Xu Clan and left the small town back then, with the Xu Clan also treating him quite generously and giving him many cultivation resources. In fact, he was even taken as a direct disciple of the ancestral hall, a status that offered him a powerful shield. In this sense, the Xu Clan had given both face and benefits to the Lu Clan.

Liu Chicheng was uninterested in Lu Zhengchun, and he simply asked in curiosity, ”Someone like you also has friends?”

”Yes, I do have some,” Gu Can replied with a nod.

”It’s actually just Chen Ping’an, isn’t it?” Liu Chicheng said with a smile.

Gu Can shook his head and replied, ”He’s never viewed me as a friend ever since I was little, given that the age gap between us is too big. The same is true for me, and we view each other as adopted family. It’s not the same. As for the big-hearted Liu Xianyang, he’s only closer to me because of my relationship with Chen Ping’an. Otherwise, we would never become friends with each other, not in the past, and not in the future. In any case, he can somewhat be regarded as a friend.”

Liu Xianyang would presumably become a direct disciple of the Dragon Spring Sword Sect’s Ruan Qiong after he returned from the Southern Whirl Continent’s Pure Confucian Chen Clan. In any case, Liu Xianyang had only been brought away back then because his ancestors had been graveyard attendants for the Chen Clan.

There was one thing about Liu Xianyang that Gu Can admired most: He was innately skilled at fitting in and adapting to local customs, never experiencing any cases of difficulty in acclimatizing.

As for himself, he had completely lost even his greatest strength — his patience — after arriving at Bamboo Scroll Lake.

Looking back at his seemingly glorious time at Cyan Gorge Island, Gu Can belatedly realized that he had actually been striding toward death’s door.

Being young wasn’t an excuse.

Gu Can looked at the food on the table, picking up his chopsticks and continuing to eat.

”You should sever these relationships if you can when you go to White Emperor City in the future,” Liu Chicheng suddenly said.

Gu Can was unfazed as he remained silent and continued to eat.

Liu Chicheng didn’t feel like he was going to change Gu Can’s personality to begin with, and he most likely needed to rely on his senior brother’s ability to teach Dao. Thus, he changed the topic and asked, ”You said Lu Zhengchun was faring pretty well just then, so how well is pretty well? Since he’s from the same hometown and around the same age as you, perhaps he’s a Golden Core Tier sword cultivator? Or maybe a Nascent Tier Qi refiner?”

”He’s currently a fourth tier Qi refiner, and he has hopes of advancing to the Abode Tier within ten years,” Gu Can replied. ”He’s helping manage a small portion of the Xu Clan’s business in the Fox Nation, so even though his cultivation speed isn’t quick, he can use immortal coins to brute-force things.”

Liu Chicheng closed his folding fan and tapped it against his head, saying with a chuckle, ”Future Junior Brother, are you messing with me, or are you telling a joke?”

Gu Can appeared calm and composed as he slowly grabbed food with his chopsticks. He didn’t drink wine, and he even liked to chew slowly and carefully.

”If killing people means having to flee, then is it truly possible to ever find a safe and reliable place to stay?”

Liu Chicheng laughed in speechlessness, shaking his head and replying, ”He’s a piece of trash with pathetic cultivation skills, so is it worth it for you to kill him and then flee? I’m a very easy-going person, so I’ll help you dispose of him as long as you give the word. Xu Hun isn’t even at the Upper Five Tiers, so dealing with him will be a piece of cake.” 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

”But what if something goes wrong? Is this really worth it?” Gu Can asked in retort.

Liu Chicheng was rendered speechless.

Gu Can put down his chopsticks and continued with a faint smile, ”If I truly decide to strike a sworn enemy, however, then I won’t even leave alive a single person to collect their corpse.”

Of course, he would also act in such a manner that the onlookers wouldn’t be able to fault him for anything.

As for who these onlookers were, there were only two categories. The first was Chen Ping’an, and the rest was everyone else. If Gu Can had to make a choice between the two, he would always choose the former and ignore the latter.

Simply put, Chen Ping’an didn’t need to dream about comprehensively severing his relationship with Gu Can in this lifetime.

There was a dazzling smile on Liu Chicheng’s face.

The more he looked at this young man, the more pleasing to the eye he appeared.

Becoming a Dao guardian was a completely new experience for Liu Chicheng, but he was both willing and content with this role.

In fact, Liu Chicheng even felt like taking him as a disciple.

”Can I learn the most top-notch immortal techniques and mystical abilities if I become your junior brother?” Gu Can asked.

Liu Chicheng was rather amused to hear this, and he replied, ”White Emperor City has abundant immortal techniques and mystical abilities, so you can naturally learn them if you become my junior brother. You can feel free to pick and choose whatever you like. Of course, whether or not you can master them is another matter altogether.”

”I want to learn all of them,” Gu Can said.

Liu Chicheng used his folding fan to point at Gu Can, saying with a smile, ”You’re a naive young man with utterly foolish ambitions.”

He wasn’t unaware of Gu Can’s brilliant cultivation aptitude, or else he wouldn’t have developed any thoughts of bringing him to the Middle Earth Divine Continent as a means to help him re-enter White Emperor City. However, the city established by his senior brother wasn’t an ordinary land of cultivation.

It was true that Liu Chicheng held deep-seated resentment against his senior brother, but ignoring these past grudges, he genuinely respected and feared his senior brother the most.

Even Mount Longhu’s Great Heavenly Master was ranked after his senior brother, and one place behind him was Cui Chan, the inventor of the Iridescent Cloud Go Strategy.

These three were the only people whom Liu Chicheng looked up to.

”My senior brother’s temper is unpredictable, so you might either ascend to the heavens in a single step, or you might come crashing down to earth in a brutal fall,” Liu Chicheng couldn’t help but say in warning. ”Things could be worse, and you might even end up suffering for several lifetimes. Don’t treat this matter too lightly.

”My senior brother once kept a close eye on some poor bugger for six hundred years, wanting to shape them into a potential closing disciple for the future. This was equivalent to eight entire lifetimes for that poor bugger, and these lifetimes ended up being nothing more than preparation phases for their final lifetime, where they were poised to become my senior brother’s closing disciple.

”But in the end, my senior brother still abandoned taking that poor bugger, in their ninth lifetime, as his closing disciple for some unknown reason. My senior brother is most skilled at splitting his attention to multitask, whether that be cultivating, playing Go, managing White Emperor City, performing tool refinement, taking disciples, and so on. There are very few things that my senior brother isn’t skilled at, and he’s also able to do everything in a leisurely and meticulous manner.”

”Then I’ve found myself a good master,” Gu Can commented with a nod.

Liu Chicheng laughed heartily upon hearing this.

Gu Can stood up to pay the bill.

”What a beautiful young lady,” Liu Chicheng suddenly exclaimed in astonishment.

Gu Can didn’t pay much heed.

Liu Chicheng clicked his tongue in wonder and continued, ”This is quite a rare sight, I must say. She must have a very impressive background. If my eyes don’t deceive me, that silver-white Sword Nurturing Gourd is one of the seven highest-grade Sword Nurturing Gourds.”

Gu Can frowned and briskly walked to the window, looking toward the young woman slowly walking forward with a horse in tow. She was dressed in red, with a wine gourd and a slender saber hanging by her waist.

She was none other than Li Baoping.

Why had she come to Light Breeze City?

”We’re not in a hurry to leave, so let’s wait until she leaves Light Breeze City first,” Gu Can said. ”I’ll owe you a favor regardless of whether any commotion takes place during this time.”

”You’re familiar with this young lady?” Liu Chicheng asked in puzzlement.

Gu Can remained silent.

Liu Chicheng formed some hand seals and performed some calculations, following which he suddenly cursed and hurriedly pinched his nose. Even so, blood still seeped out from between his fingers.

There was a solemn expression on Liu Chicheng’s face, and he reined in his frivolous personality in a rare display, saying in a serious voice, ”Don’t get involved! Treat this as a suggestion from a senior brother to his future junior brother!”

Gu Can looked at the disappearing figure of the young lady in red and replied, ”I have to get involved. If something genuinely goes wrong, then you rescue her, and I’ll take care of myself.”

”For what reason?!” Liu Chicheng exclaimed with a furious expression.

Gu Can closed his eyes and started to mentally pore over all of the secret intel about Light Breeze City.

Liu Chicheng sighed dramatically and leaned against the windowsill, remarking in self-ridicule, ”I’m destined for a life of hard work.”