Unsheathed

In the end, Chen Ping’an was only able to find out the former site of the city god temple, but no one had heard of the inn that Cui Chan had mentioned. This prefectural city was a major city in the northern region of Yellow Court Nation, and in order to get to the city god temple’s former site, they had to travel across virtually half of the entire city.

By the time everyone arrived at their destination, it was already close to dusk, and they were only greeted by the tall red wall. After that, it took them a very long time before they finally found an alley with an obscure entrance, one that was barely just wide enough for the two horse-drawn carriages to fit through.

The deeper one ventured into the alley, the more one felt like they were entering another world. Faint wisps of mist were occasionally rising up from the gaps between the bricks underfoot, and those wisps of mist would drift toward the tall walls on either side of the alley, where they would then slowly flow along the walls amid the faint sound of flowing water.

Cui Chan could tell that Chen Ping’an and the others were feeling quite apprehensive, so he explained, “This alley is called the Flowing Cloud Water Alley, and it’s one of the signature attractions of this inn. Once we enter through the front gate of the manor, we should be able to see a Bright Moon Shadow Wall. There are spirits of unknown origins residing in the shadow wall, and they possess no set form.

“Their form roughly corresponds with the state of the moon, so the lunar cycle is entirely reflected on the wall. However, the most precious shadow wall here is the Combined Sun Moon Wall. If some constellations could be added to the wall, then it would be something that even the immortal sects would be desperately fighting over.”

At the end of the alley was a tall gate with a pair of imposing door gods engraved onto its surface. The door gods were even taller and more intimidating than a pair of strong young men, and they were both clad in golden armor, presenting a formidable sight to behold. One of them was riding a tiger steed while wielding a sword, while the other was riding atop a flood dragon with a saber held aloft in his hand.

The two door gods were glowering into the alley with furious expressions, and due to the fact that they were carved out of wood rather than crafted from paper, as ordinary door gods were, they struck the beholder with an even more suffocating sense of pressure.

Li Huai gulped nervously at the sight of the door gods, and he much preferred the freedom of camping out in the wilderness.

The gate slowly swung open, and a beautiful woman with a pair of peach blossom eyes emerged, swinging her hips from side to side as she strode over the doorstep in an elegant manner.

There were two girls behind her with their hair arranged into a pair of ring buns, and each of them had a longsword in an azure scabbard strapped to their waist. Instead of accompanying the woman as she approached Chen Ping’an’s group, the two girls remained at the entrance.

The woman extended a graceful curtsey as she said, “My name is Liu Jiahui, Jia as in Emperor Jiaqing, and Hui as in flowers. My name is not worthy of note, you can just call me Jiahui. May I ask if you would like to stay at our Autumn Reed Inn? Have you made a reservation in advance?”

While the woman was speaking, her gaze was fixed firmly on Cui Chan, who was by far the most well-dressed of the group.

However, Cui Chan didn’t reciprocate her warm reception, acting in a very rude manner. The two of them looked at one another, and even though the woman was rather displeased, the smile on her face remained unchanged.

However, the two girls standing at the entrance were clearly quite angry to see this.

No one in the entire city dared to be so disrespectful to their mistress. Even if the esteemed prefectural governor were to run into the woman during an outing or while offering incense to the temples, he would be sure to treat her with a great deal of respect, referring to her as Mistress Liu, and if he had something to ask of her or required the Autumn Reed Inn to help him accommodate an esteemed guest, he would refer to her respectfully as Immortal Liu.

The woman took a quick glance at the cold and aloof Lin Shouyi out of the corner of her eye, but she didn’t discover anything amiss, so she turned her gaze back to Cui Chan before asking in a gentle voice, “Are you perhaps unhappy with my service or displeased with our Autumn Reed Inn? Perhaps you’re disappointed and think that our inn isn’t what it was made out to be?”

Cui Chan was running out of patience, and he pointed at Chen Ping’an as he said, “You’re speaking to the wrong person. He’s the one who calls the shots and holds all the money in our group.”

The woman was quite taken aback to hear this, and she hurriedly extended a curtsey toward Chen Ping’an as an apology. Before she had a chance to say anything, Chen Ping’an took a glance at the gates, then withdrew his gaze and took a deep breath, seemingly having just made up his mind. “We have quite a few people here, will there be enough rooms for us?”

The woman smiled as she replied, “Of course! Our city’s triennial water god temple worship ceremony is coming up soon, and immortals have come from far and wide to attend the ceremony, so our Autumn Reed Inn is a bit busier than usual, but even so, we would be honored to accommodate esteemed guests such as yourselves.

“Even if I have to vacate the courtyard that I’m living in and temporarily move to another inn, I definitely wouldn’t dare to turn you away.”

In the end, Chen Ping’an requested a large courtyard by the name of Clear Dew, and it was the courtyard that was situated closest to the old well where the city god temple used to be, making it the premier courtyard of the Autumn Reed Inn. The reason why it had been vacant up to this point was that it was too expensive to stay in. The price was 2,000 taels of silver per day, regardless of how many people were staying in the courtyard at once.

There was no lack of cultivators among the Autumn Reed Inn’s patrons, but when it came to cultivation, unless one came from a wealthy clan, or had affluent backers, or had methods through which they could secure large sums of income themselves, one generally had to be extremely frugal and careful with their spending.

Many mortals had the impression that all cultivators were extremely wealthy, but in reality, that was far from the truth.

The old well in the Autumn Reed Inn was indeed the spring that was the source of the spiritual energy in the area, but for a cultivator, spending 2,000 taels of silver per day to stay there was definitely not a worthwhile investment. Hence, this courtyard was mostly reserved for wealthy and powerful figures, more so as a sign of status rather than for its cultivation benefits.

Mistress Liu personally led Chen Ping’an’s group through a series of corridors before arriving in a peaceful courtyard. There were a bunch of banana trees growing in a corner of the courtyard, as well as a stone water vat that was around half as tall as a grown person. Inside the vat was a school of koi fish of different colors, and there were lotus flowers floating on the surface of the water, some of which had only just begun to bloom.

Mistress Liu pointed at a copper bell on a stone table, and she smiled as she said, “If you need anything, just shake the bell, and some servants will immediately arrive to do your bidding. Also, if you exit the courtyard through the back door and go northward around 30 or so steps, you’ll be able to see a pavilion by the name of the Boundary Pavilion.

“There are three futons placed in the pavilion, and cultivators can sit in the pavilion to absorb the spiritual energy in the area. Unfortunately, the well is not open to the general public, I hope you may understand.”

Chen Ping’an nodded in response. “Alright, we’ll be sure not to go past the Boundary Pavilion to the old well.”

Mistress Liu’s naturally seductive peach blossom eyes narrowed slightly as she put on a genuine smile and said, “Your understanding is very much appreciated.”

“Mistress Liu, isn’t there supposed to be a shadow wall over at the gate?” Li Baoping asked with a curious expression.

Mistress Liu heaved a faint sigh upon hearing this question, and she clearly didn’t want to go into detail about the matter, so she replied in an ambiguous manner, “A minor incident took place earlier, causing the shadow wall to lose its ability to reflect the lunar cycle, so we removed it.”

The Clear Dew Courtyard contained four rooms, with three of the rooms being occupied by Li Baoping and Xie Xie, Li Huai, and Chen Ping’an, and Cui Chan and Yu Lu, while the final room was reserved for Lin Shouyi, who was already a cultivator.

Upon entering this place, Lin Shouyi was struck by a refreshing sensation. It was like having to travel through a heavy storm, with the ground being reduced to mud, forcing one to pull their feet out of the mud with every single step that they took, only for the rain to suddenly recede, and not only did the road dry out, the traveler had also changed into a set of clean clothes.

The contrast was naturally akin to night and day, with the traveler feeling as if they had been reborn anew, and that was the exact same feeling that Lin Shouyi was experiencing.

At the same time, he was feeling rather perplexed about why there was such a fantastic cultivation location concealed in such an obscure location in the town.

On the way to the Clear Dew Courtyard, they didn’t encounter any other guests staying at the inn. According to Mistress Liu, this was a rather busy period for the Autumn Reed Inn, but even so, it was completely different from the lively and bustling inns that they had previously stayed in along their journey.

Following Mistress Liu’s departure, Chen Ping’an set his basket down in the room, then pulled an ebony wood box out of the basket. Inside the box were four jade hairpins of the most simplistic of designs placed next to one another. Two of the hairpins were crafted from mutton fat jade, and they were extremely smooth and delicate.

The other two hairpins were crafted from green jade and black jade, respectively, and those four hairpins, along with the box that they were housed in, had cost Chen Ping’an 100 taels of silver.

On the way to the Autumn Reed Inn, they had passed by a jade shop. Chen Ping’an had originally only intended to go in and take a look to broaden his horizons, but those four hairpins had caught his eye, sitting peacefully in the open wooden box, presenting a pleasant sight to behold.

Upon hearing the astonishing price of 100 taels of silver from the shopkeeper, Chen Ping’an had immediately decided against buying the hairpins, but Cui Chan had encouraged him to change his mind on several occasions. In the end, he blatantly declared that if Chen Ping’an wasn’t going to purchase the hairpins, then he was going to do so.

Ultimately, Chen Ping’an decided to heed Cui Chan’s advice, and just like the money spent on accommodation at the inn, that was going to be owed to Cui Chan until they returned to Dragon Tail County.

Thus, the first sum of money that Chen Ping’an owed Cui Chan turned out to be 100 taels of silver, which wasn’t a lot, but it definitely wasn’t an insignificant sum, either.

The shopkeeper gifted Chen Ping’an a small carving knife used by jade workers, and he also explained to Chen Ping’an the different levels of hardness of the three types of jade, thereby requiring different amounts of force to be exerted when engraving inscriptions upon them, and Chen Ping’an had carefully committed everything to memory.

While on the boat on the Embroidered Flower River, the jade hairpin gifted to him by Qi Jingchun had gone missing, and at the time, he had declared to Li Baoping that if the opportunity ever arose in the future, he would buy a hairpin and inscribe those eight characters onto it himself.

He had followed through on that promise, except what was supposed to have been one hairpin had turned into four.

Li Huai set his little bookcase down at the foot of the wall, then flopped down onto the bed on his back as he sighed with a blissful expression, “This is truly an abode that’s meant for immortals. It’s too bad my parents and my sister aren’t fortunate enough to experience this.”

All of a sudden, a thought occurred to him, and he hurriedly sprang up from the bed before rushing to his bookcase and rummaging through its contents. Before long, he had pulled everything out of the bookcase, including his wooden dolls and clay figures, following which he stuck his head into the empty bookcase.

He then abruptly turned to Chen Ping’an and complained in an indignant manner, “I knew it! That silver ingot is gone! Cui Dongshan must’ve taken it! What do I do, Chen Ping’an? Can I go and ask for it back from him?”

Meanwhile, Chen Ping’an was seated in front of the table with the wooden box and the carving knife placed in front of him, and he was inspecting the items with a serious look on his face.

Upon hearing Li Huai’s complaints, Chen Ping’an turned to him with a smile and replied, “That bug silver belongs to you now, so if it really is in Cui Dongshan’s possession right now, then of course you can ask for it back.”

Li Huai hurriedly rushed out of the room upon hearing this as he declared, “I’m going to give him a piece of my mind!”

“Make sure to be polite and respectful,” Chen Ping’an said.

Chen Ping’an got up to close the door, then returned to the table and picked up the intricate jade carving knife between two of his fingers, carefully feeling its weight and balance.

As for what he was going to inscribe onto his hairpin, that was very simple, it was going to be the same phrase as the one engraved onto the hairpin that he had lost: “As gentle and amiable as jade should a virtuous person be”.

As for the other three jade hairpins, he was planning to give them to the three children as a parting gift once they arrived at Mountain Cliff Academy, and he was going to engrave the phrases Baoping, Shouyi, and Huaiyin onto them, respectively. [1]

Even after extensively racking his brains, these were the only things that Chen Ping’an could think of to inscribe onto the three hairpins. The phrases weren’t particularly elegant or meaningful, but he definitely couldn’t go wrong with them, either.

All of a sudden, the door of his room was pushed open by Lin Shouyi, who was standing in the doorway with a furious expression as he yelled, “Chen Ping’an, have you gone insane?! You spent 2,000 taels of silver just to stay here for a night?!”

Chen Ping’an turned around with a dazed expression to face the furious boy, and he discovered that Cui Chan was standing next to Lin Shouyi with an extremely punchworthy grin on his face.

Lin Shouyi was so furious that his lips were trembling, and he stabbed a finger at Chen Ping’an as he continued, “Do you know how much 2,000 taels of silver is worth? Are you the son of the prefectural overseer or are you a member of the imperial family?”

Chen Ping’an’s brows furrowed slightly in response to Lin Shouyi’s accusatory words, and he gently set down his carving knife before rising to his feet. He was just about to say something, but Lin Shouyi had already departed.

Meanwhile, Li Huai snuck into the room with the silver ingot clutched in his hand. He didn’t dare to get involved in this at all, and his face was a little pale from fear as he sat down onto the edge of the bed.

Chen Ping’an took a glance at Cui Chan, then returned to his chair.

As the perpetrator who had stirred up this conflict, Cui Chan leaned against the doorframe as he jibed, “It’s a terrible feeling having your good intentions thrown back in your face,

Chen Ping’an paid no heed to him.

Cui Chan was silent for a moment, then made his way into the room before sitting down at the table across from Chen Ping’an. He rested his chin on one hand as he looked at Chen Ping’an with a smile and continued, “We both know that you borrowed money from me to stay here, but do you think that Lin Shouyi thinks that you spent the entire group’s joint funds to stay here?

“You spent the money for the sake of his cultivation, but Lin Shouyi has already developed a concept of money from a young age, so perhaps after weighing up the pros and cons, he still felt like this was not a good deal, and maybe that’s why he got mad at you. I think these are all possibilities.”

Chen Ping’an’s expression remained unchanged.

“You must think that I enjoy stirring the pot, right?” Cui Chan asked with a wide grin. “If you think that, then you’re wrong. Let me give you an analogy here: earlier today, I used a silver ingot to purchase a whole bundle of trash. However, whenever that bug silver falls into the hands of a stranger, it would find an opportunity to transform into something like an ant or a dragonfly and return to me.

“Because of that, you must feel like I swindled that man and screwed him over, right? Once again, you couldn’t be more wrong. That man is nothing more than a desperate gambling addict, someone who takes everything for granted and doesn’t appreciate what he has. If I had given him actual silver to fund his gambling addiction, then I would really be screwing him over, and perhaps he’ll end up dead in a few days.

“Now that he doesn’t have any silver to gamble with, he’ll have no choice but to steal stuff out of his household to sell again, and that would allow him to live for a few more days.”

“Ever since you left the carriage and introduced the city god temple to me, then mentioned this Autumn Reed Inn, apparently by chance, you’ve been setting a trap for me, right?” Chen Ping’an asked. “I just don’t understand why you would do something like this. You’re hurting others with no benefit to yourself, so what’s the point?”

Cui Chan cocked his head to the side as he tapped two of his fingers against the table in succession and replied, “There was once someone who was slightly older than you. He had a seal that had the phrase ‘the world welcomes spring’ inscribed upon it.”

Cui Chan’s voice trailed off here, and he seemed to have fallen into deep thought.

“So?” Chen Ping’an asked.

Cui Chan returned to his senses, then massaged his own glabella. As he thought of all of the strange happenings that had taken place along their journey, he was becoming more and more convinced of one thing, which was that the seal that Qi Jingchun had given Zhao Yao was one that harbored extremely important meaning.

Unfortunately, as soon as Zhao Yao was confronted by Cui Chan, he immediately chose to hand over the seal. Regardless of his reason for doing so, whether it be to protect himself or his family, the fact that he had chosen to hand over the seal meant that whatever was harbored within the seal naturally returned to heaven and earth, so it was no longer that spring had lingered for so long this year.

However, Cui Chan didn’t think that things were this simple.

Regardless of whether Qi Jingchun had some other tricks up his sleeve, the old scholar had tied his fate together with Chen Ping’an’s. As a result, he was forced to accompany Chen Ping’an on his journey, and his future had become extremely uncertain, but he still wasn’t willing to just give up and surrender all hope.

Instead, his desire for victory was burning more fiercely than it ever had, and he wanted to guide Chen Ping’an step by step onto his path of sunshine and roses, rather than be led down the dark and decrepit alley that Chen Ping’an walked.

It was as if the two of them were engaging in a tug of war, but as opposed to a contest of physical strength, this was a battle of mental fortitude.

The thought of competing against Chen Ping’an in a contest of mental fortitude gradually put Cui Chan in a better and better mood. He was once a Tier 12 cultivator and a go grandmaster who was vastly renowned across the Middle Earth Divine Continent, so there was no way that he would lose to a child.

Meanwhile, Chen Ping’an was paying no further heed to Cui Chan as he had already begun carving the first character onto his jade hairpin.

1. Huaiyin (槐荫) directly translates to locust shade, so it’s meant to convey something like shade cast by the locust tree. Both Li Baoping and Lin Shouyi have two character names, while Li Huai only has a one character name, so I’m assuming Chen Ping’an decided to tack on the yin character after huai to ensure that Li Huai’s hairpin was also inscribed with two characters. ☜