Unsheathed

Within the Great Li Empire, all mountain and river gods appointed by the imperial court were merely presented to the general public in the form of statues or temples, and even the gods of the Five Mountains were no different.

However, on the rest of Eastern Treasured Vial Continent outside of the Great Li Empire, all mountain and river gods, from the great river gods of the Iron Talisman River, the Red Candle Town, and the Rushing Tranquil River, to the lowly river guardians such as the one in Dragon Whisker Creek, as long as they could establish strong ties with the local authorities and there weren’t any powerful cultivating sects nearby, they would be able to erect official mountain and river palaces, ones that weren’t inferior in scale to the palaces of mortal empires.

As one of the highest-ranked gods of Yellow Court Nation, the Cold Food Great River God had constructed a lavish palace on a plot of land next to the Cold Food River where there were no cities or towns within a radius of 100 kilometers.

The palace took up over 1,000 acres of land, having been constructed over the course of many years, and there was a plaque that read “Great Water” hanging over its entrance. However, it was proclaimed to the general public that the palace was owned by the founding clan of Yellow Court Nation, the Chu Clan, and that the descendants of the Chu Clan had constructed the palace after earning an immense amount of wealth.

In reality, the true owner of the palace was the Cold Food Great River God.

On this night, the palace was brightly lit, and there seemed to be a banquet taking place inside with all manners of wealthy and noble figures in attendance.

The walls were lined with eternal flame lamps, which were extremely precious treasures even in cultivating sects. The lamps weren’t precious for their intricately crafted covers. Instead, what made them so valuable was the drop of ambergris inside of each lamp.

Eternal flame lamps were mostly used in places like imperial tombs, and all that was required to light the substance was a normal candle and a wick that had been dipped in lamp oil made from the fat of deepsea amber whales.

If the ambergris were of sufficiently high quality, then the lamp could burn for a century without going out. Furthermore, its aroma would linger for long periods of time, and that aroma had a soothing effect that was not inferior to that of top-grade sandalwood.

The main seat in the palace was occupied by an azure-robed man, who held a white jade cup in his hand. The cup contained a type of golden wine that was both viscous and fragrant, and he was gently swirling the contents of the cup around in circles.

There was a round rank insignia embroidered onto the chest of the man’s robes, depicting a coiled golden dragon.

All of the 20 or so guests present in the hall were cultivators of quite a lofty status, but they still treated the azure-robed man with a great deal of veneration, and the hint of wariness that occasionally flashed through their eyes indicated that their respect for the azure-robed man went beyond the respect held by a guest toward their host.

————

At the Autumn Reed Inn.

Quite some time had already passed since Cui Chan’s departure, and under the light of the lamp, Chen Ping’an had finished engraving the first white jade hairpin. He raised his head to look at Li Huai, who was seated across from him with his head resting on the table, and he asked, “Would you like ‘Li Huai’ or ‘Huai Yin’ engraved onto your hairpin? If you want your name on your hairpin, just like for Baoping and Shouyi, then it’ll be really simple, whereas Huaiyin carries a bit more meaning.”

Li Huai’s mind was clearly elsewhere, and he smiled as he replied, “Whichever one is fine.”

Chen Ping’an picked up the black jade hairpin as he mused, “Do you want this one? The color matches the shade cast by a tree.”

Li Huai nodded in response, then mustered up some courage before asking, “Chen Ping’an, you’re not going to get mad at Lin Shouyi and beat him to death, are you? I feel like even though Lin Shouyi has become a cultivator, you’d still be able to easily take care of him with a punch or two. Lin Shouyi has a really stinky personality, he doesn’t like to talk much, and he’s a bit more cunning than us, but he has a good heart…”

Chen Ping’an was rather amused to hear this, and he scoffed, “What’s going on in that head of yours? Why would I fight Lin Shouyi?”

“If Lin Shouyi picks a fight with you, you can agree, but just teach him a lesson and don’t go too far,” Li Huai said in a timid manner. “Lin Shouyi comes from a wealthy family, and he’s not tough like me. I can take a few hits from Li Baoping and still be fine, but I don’t think he’ll be as durable.”

Chen Ping’an didn’t know how to explain this matter to Li Huai, so he simply replied, “Alright, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.”

Li Huai was very relieved to hear this, and a smile immediately appeared on his face as he rushed over to his little bookcase to pull out his wooden dolls and that silver ingot.

He then returned to his seat and plopped the wooden doll down onto the silver ingot before continuing, “Lin Shouyi told me before that all of the states, prefectures, and major cities follow the teachings of Confucianism when establishing their policies. Cities have city god pavilions, while counties have city god temples.

“Officials like prefectural overseers and county magistrates oversee the world of the living, while the city gods preside over the world of the dead, maintaining law and order and patrolling?the borders to prevent ghosts and spirits from doing?anything sinister.

“The city god temple that we went to was massive, and it’s situated in a prefectural city, so why is it still called a temple? Shouldn’t it be called a city god pavilion instead? Also, we spent so long exploring the city god temple during the day, is it possible that we’ve already run into the city god, but we simply failed to recognize him?”

Chen Ping’an thought about these questions?for a moment, then replied, “You’ll have to raise these questions to Cui Dongshan.”

Li Huai shook his head vigorously in response. “I don’t like that guy. He always talks in a strange and mysterious way.”

————

Inside a room, a pair of girls, one older than the other, were seated across from each other with an oil lamp between them. One of them was polishing her bamboo flute, while the other had her arms crossed in a staunch manner with a cold look in her eyes.

“Xie Xie, you snore at night, and it’s really loud,” Li Baoping declared. “Even when I was sleeping in my own tent really far away from yours. I could still hear you.”

Xie Xie raised her head with a smile as she replied, “You must’ve heard someone else, I never snore in my sleep.”

“How do you know you don’t snore in your sleep?” Li Baoping asked as she raised an eyebrow.

Xie Xie gently massaged the bamboo flute with her fingers and imitated Li Baoping’s eyebrow raise as she replied, “Because I’m a cultivator, someone that people like you revere as gods and immortals.”

“Oh yeah? Well, do you have a little bookcase?” Li Baoping asked as she raised her chin in a provocative manner.

Xie Xie had no response to this.

Feeling as if she had just secured a resounding victory over Xie Xie, Li Baoping pulled out the pile of books from her bookcase so that she could do some reading under the light of the lamp. As usual, she picked out her beloved travel journal, which contained all types of stories about strange and exotic places, as well as ghosts and spirits.

She quickly became immersed in the stories, furrowing her brows one moment before nodding in enlightenment the next, then displaying an elated expression, only to be dazed and dejected a moment later.

Meanwhile, Xie Xie was watching closely as she unconsciously glided a finger back and forth along the side of her own cheek.

————

Lin Shouyi was seated in the pavilion with his eyes closed, breathing and meditating in silence as he carefully sensed the flow of “water” between heaven and earth. It was like the process of waves washing away sand, removing the impurities while preserving the precious essence. He was collecting the white mist that was emanating from the well bit by bit before absorbing them into his acupoints.

Even though quite a loud commotion had rung out from the well, Lin Shouyi remained completely?unmoved. Thankfully, he wasn’t the target of the being that had emerged from the well, so neither of them interrupted one another.

The “Recite Atop Clouds Scripture” that had caught Lin Shouyi’s eye on Go Table Mountain was a secret Daoist scripture for cultivating the Five Lightning Righteous Technique. When it came to cultivation guidance for cultivators of the Lower Five Tiers, the scripture only had some very general instructions, but as someone who was particularly proficient in calculation and deduction, Lin Shouyi was able to make great use of the scripture.

It didn’t take long before Lin Shouyi began to feel a swollen sensation from several of the acupoints in his body, but he was still unwilling to stop. They had traveled a very long way to get here, and he had never felt such rich and pure spiritual energy before, so he was unwilling to pass up any of it.

An hour passed by, and Lin Shouyi’s face had become very red and flushed. He was like a starving man who had been treated to a massive banquet, and due to his unrestrained feasting, he had overeaten and was absolutely stuffed.

All of a sudden, someone tapped Lin Shouyi on the shoulder, and he inadvertently burped, releasing a stagnant breath in the process. It was as if the breath that he had just released truly had been stagnant in his body for a long time, and it reeked of a nauseating odor.

The person who had just tapped Lin Shouyi on the shoulder hurriedly swept his sleeve through the air to scatter the foul stagnant breath as he scolded, “I don’t know whether I should call you brave or stupid! Are you not afraid of stuffing yourself to death?”

Lin Shouyi faltered slightly upon hearing this, then asked with a perplexed expression, “Shouldn’t a cultivator strive to absorb as much of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth as possible?”

“In the words of Xie Xie, how is a small cup supposed to be able to hold thousands of liters of wine?” Cui Chan countered. “If it really is a case of the more the better, then those old geezers who established teachings would’ve already devoured all of the spiritual energy in all the worlds! How would there be any left for other cultivators?

“You have to take things slowly and progress one step at a time, and the amount of spiritual energy you can absorb is dependent on how many acupoints you’ve developed.”

A hint of lingering fear welled up in Lin Shouyi’s heart upon hearing this, and he raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

Meanwhile, Cui Chan sat down with his legs crossed as he cast his gaze toward the old well, out of which spiritual energy continued to rise up incessantly. However, this ethereal white mist could only be seen by cultivators who had already made decent progress, or by masters of the martial arts. For the average person, even if they were to stick their head into the well, they would only be able to feel that it was slightly cooler than other places.

Cui Chan turned to Lin Shouyi with a smile as he said, “I saved your life, so how about you lend me one of your talismans as compensation? I’m only borrowing it, so I’ll return it to you.”

A hesitant look appeared on Lin Shouyi’s face, and Cui Chan continued, “Rest assured, I’m not going to borrow any of the four most precious talismans in your possession. Instead, I only want that gold dust talisman, which is a great talisman, but not among the best ones in your collection.”

Lin Shouyi finally nodded in agreement.

Thus, Cui Chan snapped his fingers, and a golden talisman slipped out of Lin Shouyi’s chest pocket before drifting into Cui Chan’s grasp. Cui Chan lowered his head to inspect the talisman with an appreciative expression.

Talisman paper was one of the foundational tools of talismanic clans, and the most ordinary talisman paper in the world was yellow worship paper. Above that was yellow seal paper, which was firmer than yellow worship paper, and it was commonly used by all the Daoist sects in the world.

There were also some special examples, such as a type of azure talisman paper that was likened to fine weather after a storm, as well as some vibrant talisman papers of different colors, many of which were used by emperors to inscribe their imperial edicts. These were often awarded to officials during festivals or celebrations, and they were impossible for commoners to purchase, no matter how wealthy they were.

Talisman paper was generally used by Daoist sects for talisman creation, and Daoist talismans were considered to be the traditional, fundamental roots of all talismans in the world, revered as the progenitor of all talisman branches. However, talismans didn’t necessarily have to be inscribed on talisman paper.

Enlightened individuals following the teachings of Daoism and terrestrial gods were capable of inscribing talismans into the air without any need for talisman paper.

Furthermore, Militarians also had talismans of their own, as did Confucianists, but their talismans were slightly more complex compared with Militarian talismans, and generally speaking, a formal script was used for these talismans, but the formal script was also split up into seven or eight different types, depending on the calligraphy masters that had created them.

In contrast, Buddhists placed more emphasis on hand seals, and there were talismans in Buddhism as well, but they were relatively rare.

“What are mystical abilities supposed to be?” Lin Shouyi asked with a curious expression.

Cui Chan carefully stowed the gold dust talisman up his sleeve as he casually replied, “You’ll find out once you get to the Middle Five Tiers. At that point, you’ll be able to manifest heart strings with your intentions, and the extent of your cultivation base and the height of your Dao foundation will dictate the number of heart strings you’ll have, as well as their thickness. That is what it means to be able to procure items from afar.”

At the moment, Lin Shouyi was a cultivator?at the pinnacle of the third tier. To be able to reach this level in just a few months was astonishing progress, and this rapid rate of progression could be attributed to Lin Shouyi’s outstanding natural aptitude, as well as that flagon of wine from A’Liang.

Some wealthy people liked to purchase?large snakes from hunters to mix the contents of their gallbladders?with wine for incredible medicinal effect, so one could only imagine just how potent a medicinal wine infused with the demon core of an Ascension Stage great demon would be.

Cui Chan rose to his feet with a smile as he said, “A’Liang is a mentor of yours in this early stage of your cultivation journey, and you have to cherish this opportunity. Otherwise, I’ll…”

“What are you going to do?” Lin Shouyi asked in a direct and straightforward manner.

“I’ll be very cross with you,” Cui Chan concluded with a smile.

He was originally about to say “I’ll kill you”, but he decided to change his wording at the last moment.

After that swollen sensation in his acupoints gradually faded, Lin Shouyi closed his eyes again, using his body as a vessel to gather energy in order to construct his bridge to immortality.

Meanwhile, Cui Chan leaped out of the pavilion before making his way toward the old well, holding the golden dust talisman that he had borrowed from Lin Shouyi between two of his fingers.

“Cui Dongshan, what are you doing?!” Lin Shouyi yelled.

Cui Chan stepped onto the edge of the well, then turned to Lin Shouyi with a playful smile. He then raised the talisman high above his head and gently waved it around. At the same time, he stepped back, and his entire body slid into the well as he said internally, “Repel water.”