Unsheathed

Chapter 165: (1): If Chen Ping’an were Here

The journey back was an extremely lively one, so lively, in fact, that even someone as patient as Chen Ping’an was beginning to run out of this virtuous quality.

All of this could be attributed to the little boy in azure, who was even more of a chatterbox than Cui Chan.

Winter was just beginning to set in, and Chen Ping’an had been traveling with the two children for five days up to this point. The three of them were slowly making their way along the chilly official road, and the little boy in azure was beginning to harass Chen Ping’an again. “Master, once we get to your home in Dragon Spring County, can you spare me from servant duties like sweeping the floor and making the bed?

“It’s a little embarrassing, and if those bastards here in the city hear about what I’m doing, they’ll laugh at me for the next few centuries! If my reputation gets swept to the ground, I won’t be able to rule over those demons and water ghosts with authority anymore. Around these parts, everyone knows my name, and I can get whatever I want here!”

Chen Ping’an merely pretended not to be able to hear the boy as he knew that providing any response would lead to instant disaster.

However, the little boy in azure remained unfazed as he continued, “If you don’t believe me, you can ask that silly girl. Even the officials and nobles in this city revere me as a deity. Granted, the prince that’s living in this city is a bit more arrogant, and I can only say that he’s relatively polite to me, but he’s very close with my brother, and they’re often enjoying themselves somewhere together.

“Now that I think about it, you should’ve visited my place before we left the city, Master. I would’ve had to have kept your arrival a secret. Otherwise, and I don’t mean to boast, but if I made an announcement that my master was visiting, then a massive welcome ceremony would’ve been arranged for you right away!”

Through his conversations with the little girl in pink, Chen Ping’an had developed a rough understanding of the personality of the little boy in azure.

He was always bullish in the way that he did things, and he was often used by the river god as a scapegoat. There were many disasters that had shaken the entire imperial court of Yellow Court Nation that had nothing to do with him, but all it would take would be the tiniest amount of goading from the river god, and he would immediately claim responsibility.

Not only did he not feel as if he were being played for a fool, he felt extremely heroic, as if he were helping out a friend. One time, he was pursued by a grand elder of the Spirit Charm Sect who had been sent to kill him and had to flee for over 1,000 kilometers.

At this point in her story, the timid and reserved little girl made a rare display of expressing her true thoughts, telling Chen Ping’an that she wouldn’t have minded one bit if the little boy in azure had perished during that ordeal.

Chen Ping’an could see that the little boy in azure was about to boast about his past accomplishments again, and he couldn’t help but interject, “Do you really not know that the river god was just using you as a scapegoat, or do you know, but simply don’t care?”

The little girl in pink nodded discreetly behind Chen Ping’an, clearly wanting to ask this exact same question herself.

The little boy in azure didn’t dare to rebuke Chen Ping’an, but the little girl’s subtle nod didn’t escape his detection, and a cold sneer appeared on his face as he scoffed, “Of course a silly girl like you doesn’t know anything about brotherly bonds!”

He opened his mouth up as wide as he could as he spoke, revealing a set of menacing white teeth as he put on a threatening display. “If you keep spouting nonsense and badmouthing me to our master, I’m going to find an opportunity to eat you, then shit you out of my ass!”

The little girl in pink looked back at him with a resentful expression.

I didn’t say anything! You’re just picking on me because you don’t dare to rebuke our master!

Chen Ping’an jostled the basket on his back slightly. Even though Cui Chan had set off back to Mountain Cliff Academy in Great Sui Nation, he still couldn’t help but be concerned for Li Baoping and the other children. However, he knew that there wasn’t anything that he could do aside from worry.

He raised his hands to his face and breathed some warm air onto them as he looked up at the sky.

Winter had arrived, and he was wondering when it would begin to snow.

He wanted to get back to the small town before the new year, but if he couldn’t make it, then he would do a bit less walking meditation and focus more on standing and seated meditation while riding atop the true serpentine body of the little boy in azure as a steed. In that case, they would have to do their best to choose a secluded route that wasn’t as frequently traveled.

That small chunk of Dragon Slaying Platform that Mr. Qi had cut off from somewhere had been left to Li Baoping by Chen Ping’an, while the Mountain Scouring Album bestowed upon them by the blind old Daoist priest had been left to Lin Shouyi.

Even so, Chen Ping’an still had quite a few possessions, but none of them took up that much space. Now that the children had arrived at Mountain Cliff Academy, so he no longer had to take care of them, the basket on his back was feeling a little empty, and he was rather unaccustomed to this feeling.

Back on Go Table Mountain, A’Liang had extorted the mountain lord, Wei Bo, and in the end, Chen Ping’an had acquired a dry and withered golden lotus flower seed. It was the one thing that was leftover after everyone else had already had their picks, and to this day, he still didn’t know what the seed could be used for.

After revealing itself once back at the city, the incense entity residing in his locust wood sword had disappeared once again.

Chen Ping’an had some scrap pieces of bamboo leftover from the bookcases that he had made for the three children, and whenever he had some spare time, he would practice his writing on those bamboo scraps, recording certain quotes and sayings that he felt to be deep and meaningful.

There were also several books, which had been personally chosen for him by the Scholarly Sage.

There was a white jade hairpin, which he had engraved characters onto himself. Chen Ping’an had put on the hairpin back in the capital city of Great Sui Nation, but he had since removed it again and carefully stored it away.

After departing from the capital city, Cui Chan had told him that it was actually the wooden box that was the most valuable thing, but at the time, Chen Ping’an had left the wooden box to Li Baoping along with the three hairpins, and he certainly wasn’t regretting that decision.

There was the pair of Mountain and Water Seals, as well as the extremely important “Tranquil Mind Begets Enlightenment” seal.

There were also a few sheets of paper that held the medicinal recipe left behind by Daoist Lu. For the purposes of practicing his reading and writing, Chen Ping’an would still occasionally pull out those sheets of paper for reference.

As for the little sword billet that resembled a silver ingot, it was supposedly somehow related to Tassel Mountain of the Middle Earth Divine Continent, and it was extremely bright, able to light the way at night.

However, there were also some unexpected items in the basket.

Aside from a letter that Cui Chan had slipped into his basket without his detection, there was also a pair of couplets and a “fortune” character. In the letter, Cui Chan stated that this was a gift from him to Chen Ping’an, and that he hoped that Chen Ping’an would accept them. He also reassured Chen Ping’an by telling him that there were no traps involved.

It was clear from this that not only had Cui Chan anticipated that he would have to return to the capital city of Great Sui Nation, he had even predicted that Chen Ping’an would ultimately decide to accept him as his student.

There was a hint of lingering fear in Chen Ping’an’s heart as he made this realization, but there was nothing that he could do.

Furthermore, there was a pair of copybooks in his basket, one of which was called the “Lush Mountain Green Water Copybook”, which contained rather sophisticated content. This was a more serious copybook, while the other copybook was more befitting of Cui Chan’s absurd personality. It was called “Teacher, Please Put More Oil and Salt in Your Dishes”, and it was an entire copybook complaining about how stingy Chen Ping’an was.

The handwriting in the copybook was… Chen Ping’an couldn’t offer any professional critique, but he simply felt like the handwriting was very pleasing to the eyes, and just looking at this copybook alone made him feel as if he were standing in the Flowing Cloud Water Alley.

The little boy in azure continued to chat incessantly, and it seemed that he would never run out of energy or things to say.

In contrast, the little girl in pink followed along obediently behind Chen Ping’an in silence, and she continued to carry Cui Chan’s bookcase on her back. No matter how Chen Ping’an tried to persuade her, she stubbornly refused to put anything from the bookcase into his basket.

It quickly dawned on Chen Ping’an that the little girl was a fire python that had lived for hundreds of years, so she wouldn’t get tired from carrying a bookcase like Li Baoping.

As soon as the thought of Li Baoping sprang into his mind, Chen Ping’an was struck by the urge to turn back and return to the new Mountain Cliff Academy. All he would do was stand behind a wall and watch Li Baoping and the others happily attending their lessons.

He would make sure that they weren’t picked on and were safe and well, and that even though he wasn’t by their side, they were still living happily, or better yet, living even more happily than when he had been with them.

Chen Ping’an took a deep breath as he began to practice his walking meditation in silence.

————

The new Mountain Cliff Academy had become an important subject of conversation in the capital city of Great Sui Nation, and almost all of the noble and wealthy individuals in the city were discussing this topic, finding the events taking place in the academy extremely intriguing and amusing.

Of course, the clans that were at the center of the recent incidents didn’t feel the same way. For example, there was the Chu Clan of Phoebe Creek, the manor of Pillar General Han, and the manor of the Huaiyuan Feudal Lord. The older individuals of those three clans were not in a very good mood, and it showed in their expressions during the daily imperial court assemblies.

Great Sui Nation held scholars in high regard, but didn’t oppress military officials, either. However, in the imperial court, scholarly officials were ultimately in a better position than their military counterparts.

The imperial censors of Great Sui Nation held a great deal of power, and recently, the imperial court had been very lively. The officials of the Censorate and the six supervisory divisions were all expressing their own opinions, taking sides in the incident concerning the brawl that had taken place in the academy, and they were being extremely direct and unyielding in those opinions.

There were some who were standing up for Pillar General Han, the Huaiyuan Feudal Lord, and the others, stating that those foreign schoolchildren were cruel and uncultured, bearing none of the grace and restraint that scholars were supposed to possess. The opposing camp claimed that the children from the Great Li Empire were not at fault.

They had come all the way from Dragon Spring County, and what were they supposed to do? Simply remain silent and docile in the face of bullying? This was met with more opposition, which stated that there was no bullying involved. It was extremely commonplace for verbal arguments to break out between scholars, so how was there any bullying?

In order to support this notion, many examples of famous debates in the past were brought up, and the refutation was that the children from the Great Li Empire were at fault as they were the ones who had escalated the conflict to a physical altercation. In any case, everyone had their own opinion on the matter, and no consensus could be reached.

This incident that had attracted such widespread attention in the capital city had stemmed from a conflict between four children who shared the same dormitory in the academy. The conflict had escalated to a point where the girl by the name of Li Baoping had beaten up three of the children while carrying a bladed weapon, and one of her victims just so happened to have been the precious son of the Huaiyuan Feudal Lord.

Furthermore, the Huaiyuan Feudal Lord and the Chu Clan of Phoebe Creek were in-laws, and the eldest grandson of the Chu Clan was one of the brightest young figures in the academy. At only 16 years of age, he was already referred to as a genius, and he was widely regarded as an extremely bright prospect who was sure to do great things for Great Sui Nation.

After hearing about the incident, this eldest grandson of the Chu Clan didn’t immediately intervene in person. However, two of his good friends and classmates at the academy, namely the grandson of the Pillar General Han and a young boy from the wealthy Hua Clan of the capital city, had gone to Li Baoping to demand an explanation.

Of course, they didn’t retaliate by beating her up as well, but there were certainly some rather unsavory words directed at her. Lin Shouyi just so happened to stumble onto the scene right as the altercation was taking place, and a fight immediately ensued.

The two local children from Great Sui Nation were no match for Lin Shouyi, who had been taken under the wing of Dong Jing, and they were handed a brutal beating. Following this escalation, the eldest grandson of the Chu Clan had no choice but to step in, and he sought out Lin Shouyi for what turned out to have been an extremely spectacular battle.

The eldest grandson of the Chu Clan wielded an immortal tool that had been passed down in his clan for generations. It was a Cloud Lightning Zither with strings formed by lightning gathered by a powerful qi refiner before being refined using a secret technique. With each strum of the strings, the sound of rumbling thunder would ring out. However, Lin Shouyi, who was beginning to forge a reputation for himself in Great Sui Nation’s capital city, also put up a stellar performance.

Even though they were both third tier qi refiners, and the eldest grandson of the Chu Clan held a huge advantage in the form of that powerful immortal tool, Lin Shouyi was able to hold his own using his Five Lightning Righteous Technique. He was slightly on the back foot the entire fight, but it was certainly still a fantastic showing.

It was said that this fight had even drawn Dong Jing and a bunch of other teachers to the scene, and they observed the battle from afar, both to satisfy their own curiosity, as well as to prevent any unforeseen mishaps from taking place.

Ultimately, the eldest grandson of the Chu Clan came out on top at the price of snapping one of his zither strings. Lin Shouyi was left riddled with wounds, none of which were very severe, but the sheer number of injuries inflicted upon him made the fight an extremely tortuous one for him.

Just like in the imperial court, there were factions in the academy as well. It was clear that these foreign schoolchildren were being granted favorable treatment, from that massive welcome ceremony held by the emperor himself, to the fact that the teachers at the academy clearly prioritized their education over that of the other students.

This made many of the local students from Great Sui Nation feel very disgruntled, while the original batch of students that had traveled from the Great Li Empire to the new Mountain Cliff Academy alongside Mao Xiaodong clearly hadn’t had the best of times, either. Hence, with the exception of a few outliers, the vast majority of them sided with Lin Shouyi and Li Baoping.

As a result, the cohort was split up into two opposing camps that fiercely resented one another, and the atmosphere in the academy had become very tense.

However, strangely enough, the teachers paid no heed to all of this, and that only served to further exacerbate the situation.

At this crucial juncture, someone else stepped forward to add more fuel to the fire.

The son of the deceased general, Pan Maozhen, was originally a loner who didn’t like to interact with anyone, but for some reason, right after Lin Shouyi recovered from his last fight, he was challenged by the boy, who ate a blow from Lin Shouyi’s lightning technique head-on before barreling through to send Lin Shouyi flying with a punch.

This time, Lin Shouyi was truly severely injured, throwing up several mouthfuls of blood. Right as he finally struggled to his feet, he was struck by another punch to the head, which sent him crashing to the ground like a ragdoll. The boy that had challenged him had been just as domineering and decisive as his father had been on the battlefield, and prior to his departure, he spat on Lin Shouyi to add further insult to injury.

Only after this incident did the teachers of Mountain Cliff Academy finally intervene, prohibiting further fights between students.

However, the cycle of vengeance didn’t end there. After Lin Shouyi’s defeat, not only did Xie Xie not go to visit him, she sought out the boy with the Pan surname on the very same day and beat him to the point that he was bleeding from all of his orifices and had to flee for his life. If it weren’t for the fact that a teacher had intervened to stop Xie Xie from closing in on her prey, that boy would’ve most likely been permanently disabled.

With that, this whole farce escalated to a breaking point, and with the intervention of another student from the academy, there were finally signs that everything would be brought to a conclusion.

The student in question was a legendary figure in the academy. He came from a humble upbringing, and even before reaching 20 years of age, he was already regarded to have been sufficiently knowledgeable to serve as a teacher’s aide at the academy.

Prior to this, he had left Great Sui Nation to travel to Lake View Academy, where he passed an examination overseen by nine noble persons who were renowned across the entire continent to officially secure the title of a Confucian virtuous person. Hence, his return to Great Sui Nation had been an extremely triumphant one.

The imperial court court of Great Sui Nation had sent out the right-hand minister of the Ministry of Rites to welcome the young virtuous person as far out as five kilometers away from the city, and there was still more to come. The emperor had sent one of the chief eunuchs of the imperial court to present the young virtuous person with a priceless set of four treasures of the study as a reward to encourage him to pursue even greater heights.

Hence, this student by the name of Li Changying had stepped onto Eastern Splendor Mountain as a newly appointed virtuous person and with the blessings of Great Sui Nation’s emperor.

The first thing that he did after entering the academy was seek out Li Huai to deliver an apology.

After that, he paid a visit to the bedridden Lin Shouyi, and finally, he went to Xie Xie, telling her that Mountain Cliff Academy was a place of education, so neither should escalate this conflict any further.

The entire time, Xie Xie remained completely silent.

————

The emperor of Great Sui Nation wasn’t a particularly renowned emperor on Eastern Treasured Vial Continent. He wasn’t as ambitious and capable as the emperor of the Great Li Empire, he didn’t have the artistic and scholarly flair of the Southern Stream Nation’s emperor, and he wasn’t even as renowned as the emperor of the already fallen Lu Empire.

However, the southern region of Eastern Treasured Vial Continent had always been abundant with resources, while the north was bleak and sorely lacking in that regard. Great Sui Nation was already quite unique in the north, and even the nobles of Southern Stream Nation were happy to establish ties with Great Sui Nation, while the members of Great Sui Nation’s imperial clan were regular visitors of Lake View Academy.

The emperor of Great Sui Nation very rarely called upon the core officials of the imperial court, including high-ranking officials from the six ministries, for private meetings after morning assembly, but this day was an exception to the norm. All of the officials knew that the incidents that had taken place in the academy had escalated to the point that the emperor himself had to hear about the matter.

As a result, the head minister of the Ministry of Rites, who was also serving as the mountain master of the academy, became the center of attention for this private meeting. He arrived at the meeting with some good friends from the imperial court, and he didn’t appear to have been in a hurry at all. Furthermore, he was looking very relaxed and carefree, but the same couldn’t be said about Pillar General Han and the others.

The initial period of the private meeting progressed in a very lukewarm fashion. In fact, it wasn’t even as heated as the small fire brazier in the room. The emperor simply brought up some matters on which no verdict had been arrived at during the morning assembly, and it was nothing more than a formality.

All of the officials present had been serving in the imperial court for the majority of their lives, so they were already accustomed to these occurrences. Thus, verdicts were quickly made on the subject matters discussed through votes, and everyone was eager to move on to address the true elephant in the room.

After the formalities had concluded, the emperor took a sip of his warm lotus seed soup, and there was a faint sense of anticipation in the room. Everyone knew that it was finally time to move on to the main course.

The emperor set down his cup of soup, then looked around with a smile as he asked, “Why are you all looking so eagerly at me? Are you waiting to see me make a fool out of myself?”

Pillar General Han was quite advanced in age, but he was still very fit and healthy. Even though he was only seated in his chair, he still gave off a sense of authority, yet at this moment, he was feeling a little awkward. The Huaiyuan Feudal Lord was only around 30 years of age, and he was feeling even more uneasy.