Unsheathed

Right as his foot was about to make contact with the ground for the second time, the chair beneath the great river god abruptly exploded into dust, and he fell onto the ground before stumbling to his feet while tightly clutching at the golden flood dragon on his chest, preventing it from continuing to swim around in an erratic frenzy.

At the same time, he raised his other hand with great difficulty before bringing it down in one swift motion, and blood was seeping out of the corners of his lips as he declared in a hoarse and muffled voice, “Death is the only worthy punishment for a disobedient subordinate who dares to go against my orders and attack my esteemed guests!”

A loud thump rang out as the water snake spirit’s head exploded.

As his lifeless body fell to the ground, he reverted back to his true form, which was a slender and colorful water snake.

The immortal artifact maces fell onto the ground, producing a sound that was particularly loud and piercing in the deathly silent hall.

At this moment, Cui Chan’s foot was no more than half an inch from the ground.

The great river god hurriedly stood up straight before extending an apologetic bow, not even taking the time to wipe the blood from the corners of his lips.

Cui Chan took a glance at the great river god, then began to withdraw his foot, only to stomp it down onto the ground once again in a decisive fashion.

The deity visage behind him naturally followed suit.

Cui Chan’s foot was treading upon the brick floor of the Great Water Palace, whereas the deity visage behind him had stomped its foot straight down onto the fortune of the Cold Flood River.

The great river god was clutching at the golden flood dragon in his chest with such force that his fingernails had already pierced into the skin on his chest, causing him immense pain, but he refused to let go.

The flood dragon was the key to his Dao attainment, and it was both the manifestation of his willpower, as well as the knot in his heart, so he couldn’t let go of it no matter what!

Cui Chan loosened his tightly clenched fists as he dusted off his sleeves in an elegant and graceful manner, then slowly strode forward, making his way around the body of the water snake spirit as he looked up at the great river god.

He casually stepped on one of the maces that had fallen onto the ground, causing it to roll back and forth as he asked with a cheeky grin, “All of this must’ve come as quite a surprise to you, isn’t that right, Great River God?”

At this point, blood was flowing out of all of the great river god’s orifices, and he was just barely able to remain on his feet. He spat out a mouthful of blood to the side, then lowered his head to take a glance down at his own chest, where the golden flood dragon was screeching in despair.

As he raised his head again to look at Cui Chan, there was a dazed look in his eyes as he murmured, “Please spare me, esteemed immortal. If you stomp your foot again, I’ll be as good as dead.”

No one in the hall had any idea what had just happened, and they were all completely rooted to the spot.

The great river god was near invincible in their eyes, yet he was being fooled around with like a toy.

Cui Chan began to look around with a bored expression, and as his gaze lingered on the strategist, the latter immediately extended a deep bow, remaining in a bowed position for a long time without daring to get up. As expected of a strategist, he was keenly observant and extremely quick to adapt, knowing when he needed to concede inferiority.

Cui Chan then turned his gaze to the fatso, whose true form was the river-blocking toad, and the latter immediately fell to his knees, kowtowing vigorously against the ground as he yelled in a loud voice, “I pay my respects to the esteemed immortal!”

Only the armorclad carp spirit remained staring directly at Cui Chan, and before the great river god had a chance to scold his subordinate, Cui Chan smiled as he ordered, “Kill him. I’ll count to three. One, three!”

Cui Chan intentionally skipped straight from one to three so that he would have an excuse to stomp his foot down once again, but to his surprise, the great river god was extremely decisive, killing the carp spirit without any hesitation.

In the blink of an eye, he appeared behind the carp spirit. One of his arms had been thrust straight through the carp spirit’s chest from behind, and he was clutching the carp spirit’s heart in his hand. He slowly withdrew his blood-drenched arm, then pressed a palm down onto the carp spirit’s head and sent his body toppling to the side with a casual flick of his wrist.

The heart quickly transformed into a goose-egg-sized crimson core, which the great river god promptly devoured.

Cui Chan had no choice but to keep to his word and sheepishly withdrew his foot.

He then turned to the trio of cultivators from the Spirit Charm Sect as he smiled and asked, “Do you recognize me?”

The outer sect elder of the Spirit Charm Sect hurriedly rose to his feet, then cupped his fist in a salute as he bowed his head and replied, “Forgive me for being so blind as to not recognize an esteemed immortal like yourself. Please allow me to extend an invitation for your esteemed self to come and visit our Spirit Charm Sect…”

Before the elder had a chance to finish, Cui Chan interjected, “You say you’re blind? In that case, you should have your eyeballs gouged out.”

In the next instant, a pair of eyeballs appeared in the great river god’s hands. The elderly man clasped his hands to his own face, and blood was flowing incessantly down between his fingers, but he was biting down on his own lower lip with all his might, doing everything in his power to prevent himself from yelling out in pain.

Cui Chan turned his gaze to the pair of young Spirit Charm Sect cultivators, who were deathly pale at this point, and he said, “You’re a pair of lucky little runts that this is Yellow Court Nation, which doesn’t belong to the Great Li Empire.”

The two young cultivators were very relieved to hear this.

However, Cui Chan continued, “However, at the same time, you’re also in a rather unfortunate situation. All of the high-ranking members of the Spirit Charm Sect, from its sect master to its elders, are idiots who are determined to pledge their loyalty to the Hong Clan of Yellow Court Nation. Hence, you can all die.”

For the first time, a hesitant look appeared on the great river god’s face.

Cui Chan clasped his hands behind his back as he scoffed, “Don’t try to put on an act now. On the surface, it looks like you arranged this banquet to test the intelligence of the prefectural overseer, but in reality, you had another far more important objective all along.

“It’s clear to you that the Spirit Charm Sect is inseparable from the Hong Clan of Yellow Court Nation, yet you’re not willing to follow the Spirit Charm Sect in forfeiting your life to defend Yellow Court Nation from the armies of the Great Li Empire. Hence, you wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to cut all ties with the Spirit Charm Sect and in extension, the Hong Clan of Yellow Court Nation.

“Once you do that, you’ll be able to spare yourself and your Great Water Palace from demise once the Great Li Empire conquers Yellow Court Nation. Only the idiots of the Spirit Charm Sect would fail to see through such a crude ploy, so he really was correct in saying that he was blind. However, he still has to die.”

The indecisive look on the great river god’s face instantly faded upon hearing this, and he burst into laughter as he smashed open the heads of the three Spirit Charm Sect cultivators one after another, doing so with such incredible speed that the three of them didn’t have time to unleash any mystical abilities before they met their demise.

Cui Chan slowly continued on toward the main seat in the hall. Along the way, he passed by the pair of young swordsmen without pause as he smiled and remarked, “One of you is an itinerant cultivator of unknown origins, so it doesn’t really matter if you live or die. I’ll decide whether to spare you or not based on my mood. The other one is the final disciple of the Lurking Dragon Temple’s temple master, so I suppose you’re a somewhat important figure.

“Let me guess, you came here with the object of securing the ‘palace’ suffix for your temple, right? Are you surprised that I managed to guess this? Stop looking like you were just fed a piece of shit! If you keep looking at me with that expression, I’ll have to get the esteemed great river god to bash your head open as well!”

The two swordsmen were feeling extremely uneasy. They had never witnessed something so horrifying before, and they were so petrified that they were on the verge of passing out!

Cui Chan continued onward, then suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned to the literary master that was essentially making a living out of sucking up to the great river god. Cui Chan smiled as he said, “You’re on the C-grade secret files of the Green Bamboo Pavilion. Your true name is Tang Jiang, right? Come to think of it, you’ve been lurking as a spy in Yellow Court Nation for many years now.

“Thank you for your hard work. Having said that, you haven’t really made any contributions aside from the hard work you’ve put in. How about you present that intelligence report that you just received to the great river god? While you’re at it, tell him about the mission that you were assigned as well. Only then will the two of you truly be in the same camp.”

The fawning and sycophantic demeanor of the literary master instantly faded, and he cupped his fist in a salute with a serious look on his face as he greeted, “C-grade spy Tang Jiang of the Green Bamboo Pavilion pays his respects to…”

Tang Jiang’s voice trailed off into an awkward silence here as he didn’t know how to refer to Cui Chan.

There were only a tiny handful of people in the Green Bamboo Pavilion who were aware of the existence of the Green Bamboo Pavilion, so Tang Jiang was no longer making an effort to conceal his true identity.

Even if it turned out that Cui Chan was a sworn enemy of the Great Li Empire, now that his identity had been exposed, Tang Jiang’s fate was sealed anyway, so there was no point for him to try and deny his affiliation with the Green Bamboo Pavilion.

Cui Chan waved a dismissive hand as he sighed in a dejected manner, “Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t matter what you call me right now.”

Cui Chan then turned to scrutinize the state attendant in silence.

Most state attendants came from local nobility, and this was because the emperor of Yellow Court Nation felt that assigning the role of state attendant to someone of this status would ensure that there was an opposing force to the state governor, who were often foreign officials.

The two would keep each other in check to ensure that there was some balance so that neither one would become too powerful or influential a figure in their respective state, and this was yet another strange tradition of Yellow Court Nation’s.

Cui Chan was silent for a moment, then pointed a finger at the state attendant, and the latter had already knelt down and kowtowed to the ground. “Please spare me, esteemed immortal of the Great Li Empire. I’m willing to serve you as your most loyal servant, and if the mere thought of crossing you ever enters my mind, then let me be struck down by lightning!”

Cui Chan waved a hand as he said, “You can get up. You don’t have to die today. After you leave this Great Water Palace, go to the old governor and directly ask him whether he wants to continue to serve as governor, but for the Great Li Empire rather than Yellow Court Nation. If he knows what’s good for him and agrees, then that would be best, and you’ll continue to be colleagues.

“However, if he refuses, then kill him on the spot. After you do that, send his head to Liu Jiahui, the Purple Sun Residence cultivator at the Autumn Reed Inn in this city. There’s no need for you to say anything, she’ll understand the situation.”

Everyone knew that the Great Li Empire’s southward expansion was inevitable, and the only difference now was that the expansion was going to speed up a little.

Cui Chan took one final glance at the state attendant, who had snot and tears running all over his face, and he shook his head as he scoffed, “How pathetic. Hurry up and get out of my sight!”

The state attendant immediately rose to his feet.

“Are you happy that you’re being spared?” Cui Chan suddenly asked.

The state attendant instantly turned deathly pale, and he was instantly rooted to the spot, not daring to move so much as a single

Cui Chan waved a hand in a dismissive manner, indicating for the state attendant to leave, then paid no further heed to the man as he made his way straight to the main seat in the palace. With a sweep of his sleeve, an antiquated white jade chair appeared out of thin air behind the table, and he sat down onto the chair, while the great river god could only stand in the hall in an obedient and respectful manner.

Cui Chan cast his gaze outside as he instructed in a lazy voice, “Aside from that traitor of the Spirit Charm Sect, everyone else here is collectively worth less than a single ant. Please kill them all so that they won’t be lonely on the way to the afterlife.”

Cui Chan then picked up a flagon of wine and gently shook it around as he asked, “Would you all like to have a cup of golden jade elixir before you get sent on your way?”

After a moment of stunned silence, the entire hall erupted into complete pandemonium. Some people began hurling insults at Cui Chan at the top of their lungs, some were so terrified that they had collapsed to the ground, and some were already fleeing for their lives.

Meanwhile, Cui Chan threw his head back, sending wine gushing down his throat from the flagon in his hand.

At the same time, he was clutching his other hand into such a tight fist that his nails were digging forcefully into his palms.

He allowed the wine to spill down his chin. After all, he still had that water repulsion talisman, and the wine that was spilling down onto his robes merely continued to flow downward like rain on a lotus leaf.

After finishing the flagon of wine, Cui Chan gently tossed the empty flagon forward, then leaned against the back of his jade chair as he raised his head with a slightly twisted look on his face.

You old piece of shit! Even if my souls and senses are separated, I will still be Cui Chan! If you don’t like that, then why don’t you kill me? Weren’t you the one who said that human nature is evil at its core?!

He then turned as if he were speaking to someone, just as he had done when he had first appeared outside the entrance of the Great Water Palace. “You must be very disappointed that I didn’t avenge you, right? You thought I was going to uphold justice for you, but you’re finding out now that I’m even more heinous than them. Does that make you feel even more disappointed?”

Before the soul could give an answer, Cui Chan swept a sleeve through the air to completely scatter it.

He had traveled all the way here from the border of the Great Li Empire, and he certainly hadn’t made this journey just to act as caretaker for a bunch of kids.

A slaughter was taking place in the hall, and Cui Chan set down his sore hand onto his lap in a discreet manner while yawning into his other hand.

No matter how one’s environment changed, their nature would always remain.