Unsheathed

In the southwestern region of Dragon Spring County, the terrain of Downtrodden Mountain was unique compared to all other mountains in the area, making it particularly eye-catching.

A group of people arrived on the border of Dragon Spring County, then descended onto the ground in accordance with the rules laid out by Ruan Qiong, continuing their journey on foot rather than remaining in flight.

They were going to enter the mountains to inspect Dragonspine Mountain, the mountain that was laden with Dragon Slaying Platform. That was going to be the largest whetstone on the entire Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, even if it were split up into three parts.

For this group of cultivators, traversing the mountain terrain on foot was not an arduous task. After all, the Militarian cultivators of Wind Snow Temple had always placed heavy emphasis on physical refinement, and this was a form of cultivation in itself as it trained both the body and the mind.

Upon spotting Ruan Qiong in the distance, the four of them immediately sped up, then cupped their fists in a collective salute toward him. Ruan Qiong wasn’t very high up in Wind Snow Temple hierarchy when it came to seniority, but he had a fantastic reputation. After establishing his sword forge, which was renowned across the entire continent, he had forged around a dozen swords for his fellow sect members, making many friends in the process.

However, there was one particular incident that had earned Ruan Qiong the approval of all six branches of Wind Snow Temple. In the central region of Eastern Treasured Vial Continent was a powerful empire known as the Water Talisman Empire, and Great Mo Villa was one of the top immortal sects in that empire.

There was a prodigiously talented young patriarch of the villa who had just made a breakthrough to become a terrestrial sword immortal at the time, and he was in need of a good sword. He had heard about Ruan Qiong’s exceptional sword-forging expertise, and he had paid a visit to Wind Snow Temple’s Green Water Pond in person to request a sword.

However, at the time, Ruan Qiong had already agreed to forge a sword for a junior sect member, and that was going to take him several years. No matter what the arrogant sword immortal said, Ruan Qiong refused to budge, insisting that he had to get in line for a sword like everyone else.

He declared that he was willing to forge a sword for Great Mo Villa free of charge, but only after he was done with the sword that he was working on. The young sword immortal felt very insulted by this refusal, and he lashed out in a fit of rage. At the time, Ruan Qiong had only been a ninth tier cultivator, but even after sustaining severe injuries, he refused to fold, forging a resounding reputation for himself through that battle.

Ultimately, Great Mo Villa had to pay an immeasurably heavy price for this incident. Not only was that terrestrial sword immortal detained in Wind Snow Temple to be punished for 50 years, in the short span of just six years, each of Wind Snow Temple’s six branches had sent a representative to challenge Great Mo Villa.

Great Mo Villa was once the undisputed number one sect of the Water Talisman Empire, but following the brutal beatdowns delivered by Wind Snow Temple, it had dropped all the way to a bottom-dwelling second-rate sect, and it was still yet to recover to this day.

Ruan Qiong smiled as he cupped his fist and returned the salute. There were no complex formalities that had to be abided by in Wind Snow Temple, and a simple salute was all that was required in the form of a greeting, even when a low-ranking sect member was meeting the unfathomably powerful patriarchs of the sect.

Ruan Qiong informed them of some matters related to Dragonspine Mountain, as well as a brief rundown of the official assignments made by the Great Li Empire to Dragon Spring County. He then casually asked, “Did Wei Jin of the Divine Platform make this trip up north with you?”

An old man in a white robe with a sword on his back smiled and replied, “On the way here, we received a message via flying sword from the sect, informing us that Uncle Wei had indeed set off up north, but he didn’t travel with us.

“Uncle Wei was only willing to make the trip as he had heard that Celestial Maiden He was going to visit Jewel Small World as the representative of the Daoist sects. Barring any mishaps, he’s most likely already met up with Celestial Maiden He on her way back down south.”

“Have any of you met Wei Jin before?” Ruan Qiong asked.

The four of them all shook their heads in response. “None of us have ever seen him before.”

“Why do you ask, Master Ruan? Has something happened?” the old man in white asked.

Ruan Qiong smiled as he waved a dismissive hand in response. “I’m just curious. If I recall correctly, Wei Jin is barely 40 years old, yet he’s already stabilized his cultivation base at the 10th tier. The Divine Platform needs someone like him to stand up and carry the lineage of Patriarch Liu.”

The group of five made their way along the quiet mountain path together. Among the four visitors from Wind Snow Temple, the old man in white was ranked highest in seniority, and the other three had to refer to Wei Jin as granduncle. As the leader of the group, the old man was walking along beside Ruan Qiong.

Out of Wind Snow Temple’s six branches, the Divine Platform branch had the fewest members, and the situation was so dire that there was almost only a single heir for each generation. However, at the same time, it was also the branch that had made the biggest contributions to Wind Snow Temple over the past 300 years.

The Green Water Pond that Ruan Qiong had once been a member of and the Great Salamander Gully that the old man in white owed his allegiance to both harbored genuine goodwill toward the Divine Platform branch.

The six branches of Wind Snow Temple all had some degree of conflict with one another, but the Divine Platform branch was renowned for upholding traditions, and if it weren’t to completely disappear, then that was bound to have a detrimental effect on all of the other branches.

The old man stroked his beard and smiled in response. “Uncle Wei is an exceptional talent, and even though he always likes to keep to himself, he’s forged a resounding reputation for himself across the continent. Perhaps the next time we see him, he’ll have already become the youngest cultivator on Eastern Treasured Vial Continent to reach the Upper Five Tiers.”

“The brighter the star, the more attention it’ll attract,” Ruan Qiong cautioned. “An exceptional talent like him needs to be particularly careful.”

The old man turned to look at Ruan Qiong, and upon seeing the solemn look on Ruan Qiong’s face, he immediately understood his concerns. “Upon my return to Wind Snow Temple, I’ll raise a proposal to the sect leader to summon Uncle Wei back to the sect. Regardless of what his plans are, it would be best for Uncle Wei to wait until he reaches the Upper Five Tiers before going out into the world on his own.”

Ruan Qiong nodded in response. “That is the right approach to take. Having wandered the continent for so many years, Wei Jin will have definitely seen just how sinister people can be, so I’m sure he’ll appreciate the sect’s good intentions.”

The old man opened his mouth to say something, but remained silent in the end.

Ruan Qiong shook his head as he said, “If Wei Jin is ultimately unwilling to return to Wind Snow Temple to cultivate, then that will be up to him.”

All of a sudden, Ruan Qiong turned his gaze toward the town, and he cupped his fist in a parting salute as he declared, “Looks like Xiuxiu has run into some trouble. I have to go take a look, so this is where we’ll part ways for

The old man raised an eyebrow, and killing intent began to emanate from his body as he said, “Master Ruan, if you don’t want to get your hands dirty, then just leave it to me. Who would dare to pick on Xiuxiu? Do they have a death wish?!”

“Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal,” Ruan Qiong replied with a reassuring smile, then sprang up into the air and vanished in an instant.

Meanwhile, the other three cultivators from Wind Snow Temple were rather taken aback by how fond of Ruan Xiu the old man seemed to be. During the past dozen or so years, the old man had been traveling the world, so he was absent from the sect and wasn’t all that familiar with Ruan Xiu.

In fact, he was far more familiar with the other three cultivators than he was with Ruan Xiu. In contrast, Patriarch Qin of the Great Salamander Gully had taken a liking to her very early on.

The old swordsman wore a tranquil expression as he slowly continued onward, and something that Patriarch Qin had said to him in private sprang into his mind: “Wind Snow Temple is too small a place for Ruan Xiu to realize her full potential.”

Meanwhile, Ruan Qiong made his way into the Burclover shop, and after a brief hesitation, he decided to refrain from speaking to his daughter in the official dialect of Eastern Treasured Vial Continent. The female employees in the shop had only learned some simple phrases in the official dialect so that they could communicate with customers, but there was still a chance that one of them could overhear and understand what he said to his daughter.

With that in mind, Ruan Qiong gently tapped the counter with his finger, and Ruan Xiu raised her head with a puzzled expression as she asked, “What are you doing here, Father? Weren’t you working in the forge today?”

“Come out for a bit, I need to speak to you,” Ruan Qiong said in a gentle voice.

The two of them left the shop, then made their way down the sparsely frequented Dragon Riding Alley. Following Ruan Qiong’s arrival, all of the nearby spies of the Great Li Empire had retreated as a silent gesture of respect toward the esteemed Sage.

Ruan Qiong was quite pleased to see this. As the saying went, the devil was always in the details, and this meticulous attention to detail was one of the reasons why the Great Li Empire had been able to come so far.

Ruan Xiu was a little annoyed as she asked, “Did the Chu Clan from Prosperous City go to complain to you? Let me make this clear: I gave him multiple warnings before I attacked him.”

Ruan Qiong smiled as he replied, “The Chu Clan wouldn’t dare to bother me with such a stupid complaint. In fact, I’m guessing that they’ll be sending someone bearing presents to issue an apology to me soon.”

Ruan Xiu murmured in a disdainful voice, “Just the sight of that bastard was making my stomach turn! He’s just like that filthy woman! Both of them are laden with bad karma. If someone like him were to reach the Middle Five Tiers, he would ruin countless people’s lives! If I wasn’t worried about causing trouble for you, I would’ve killed him right there and then so that he wouldn’t be able to spread any more filth to the world!”

Ruan Qiong took a deep breath, and sweat began to bead up on his forehead. Thankfully, he had released his aura just now to encompass the entirety of Dragon Riding Alley so that no one would be able to eavesdrop on their conversation. Otherwise, if what Ruan Xiu had just said were to reach the ears of the wrong people, then the consequences would’ve been catastrophic.

There were countless cultivating clans and sects in the world, and among the Hundred Schools of Thought, those from the School of Naturalists were the ones most proficient at gleaning the fortune and karma of others. However, those abilities were virtually all developed through cultivation, and their so-called mystical abilities had to be honed slowly and meticulously over long periods of time.

In Buddhism, this was considered to be an extremely taboo practice, while only Militarians were completely uncaring and without qualms, daring to kill anyone that they pleased. However, these were all just surface-level facades, but that wasn’t the case for Ruan Xiu.

Ever since she was a small child, she had always been able to see through the hearts of others, able to glean their emotions, desires, and karma. With the advancement of her cultivation base, she had even developed the ability to directly sever karma, and if she were to kill someone, an unthinkable outcome always arose.

This definitely wasn’t something that could be explained by her innate fire god constitution.

All Ruan Qiong knew was that his daughter had a different perspective on the world than everyone else.

In order to get to the bottom of this, Ruan Qiong had read through all of the prized scriptures of Wind Snow Temple, and there was only an ancient, long-lost idea that was able to provide a semblance of an explanation, suggesting that only those who were born from the will of heaven and earth possessed such an innate ability.

This was why Ruan Qiong had requested to be banished to Jewel Small World, hoping to hide Ruan Xiu from the world for 60 years to allow her to fully develop in relative safety.