Unsheathed

Li Changying was quite wary of the approaching Yu Lu, but an aura of righteousness rose up in his body before billowing out of his sleeves, and he remained friendly and amicable as he said, “I know that you and Li Huai and the others all traveled together from the Great Li Empire to Mountain Cliff Academy, and I can understand that you feel the urge to stand up for them, but can we talk things out before we fight?

“If you can convince me that you have the moral high ground, then I’m willing to let you land a few punches on me without any retaliation.”

However, Yu Lu didn’t stop even for a moment as he continued to close in on Li Changying, and as he did so, he began to say some things that Li Changying found to be utterly perplexing. “During our journey here, I was always responsible for lookout duty in the second half of the night, so let’s leave the talking for another time. If you ever get the chance to meet Li Baoping’s junior uncle, you can speak to him yourself, but I’m not here to talk tonight.”

At this point, there were only five steps separating them.

Yu Lu took a larger stride forward as he smiled and warned, “Here I come! You better look out so that you don’t get beaten halfway to death by me in a single punch. Otherwise, I’ll owe you too much in medical fees, and I’ll have to borrow money from a certain someone. If I want to borrow money from him without having to return it, then I have to be a very good friend of his, and I don’t have that distinction yet.”

As soon as his voice trailed off, he took a second stride forward, and his foot landed so heavily that Li Changying could feel a tremor run through the ground underfoot. Due to the fact that the force was directed solely downward, the majority of it seeped into the earth, so there wasn’t much of an impact on the surface.

Li Changying was well aware of this, and just from that single step alone, he was able to deduce that Yu Lu had to have been a martial artist of at least the fourth tier, which meant he was certainly not an opponent to be looked down on.

Despite all these thoughts that were running through his mind, Li Changying quickly reacted to the situation, and his aura rapidly surged throughout his entire body. Cultivators engaged in both Qi development and Qi refinement, allowing them to simultaneously enhance their bodies and nurture their Qi, and that was why cultivators lived longer than martial artists.

In particular, Li Changying had been blessed by a massive piece of fortune at a young age, and not long after he began to display his burgeoning talent, he caught the eye of a master cultivator of Great Sui Nation, who took Li Changying under his wing. From there onward, his cultivation base had rapidly progressed, and even though he wasn’t even 20 years of age yet, he had already reached the sixth tier.

If Lin Shouyi could be likened to a diamond in the rough that still had to be polished and refined, then Li Changying would be a refined gemstone that had already been polished to a mirror-like gleam.

There were massive gulfs between the fifth and sixth tiers, and the ninth and tenth tiers for cultivators, and the same applied to the third and fourth tiers, and the sixth and seventh tiers for martial artists.

In the face of the oncoming Yu Lu, Li Changying made a discrete hand seal before retreating several steps in a graceful manner. He then brought his index and middle fingers together and held them in front of his own chest. It was only a simple hand seal, but when used by Li Changying, it gave off a sense of righteousness, and he was already displaying the makings of a master.

Not only that, but wisps of faint azure Qi suddenly appeared in the scripture library before surging toward Li Changying in a frenzy like a school of tiny azure fish.

The sixth tier was also known as the Cave Abode Tier, and at this level, a cultivator was capable of opening up their internal cave abode to draw in spiritual energy from the world around them.

The 365 acupoints in the human body were like 365 naturally forming blessed lands, and this was why it was said that humans were the rulers of all sentient beings and why at a certain point, all spirits and demons in the world had to adopt human forms before they could continue cultivating.

Aside from the seven acupoints that were innately open in the human body from birth, a man only had to open nine additional acupoints before they could reach the next tier, while a woman had to open 12 to do the same. This was why many female cultivators didn’t possess particularly lofty cultivation bases, and why it was quite rare to see female cultivators at the upper range of the Middle Five Tiers.

However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for female cultivators. Due to the fact that they were required to open more acupoints to reach the Middle Five Tiers, the rewards that they would reap upon reaching that level would be more bountiful than those of their male counterparts.

“Rise, formation,” Li Changying declared in a quiet voice, and a series of translucent and sheathless longswords instantly appeared around him.

The swords were arranged in a circle at different heights, and they were slowly revolving around Li Changying. All of these swords had been formed by Li Changying’s spiritual energy, and even though they hadn’t yet attained substantial forms, they still presented a fearsome sight to behold.

Yu Lu’s retaliation was as simple as it was domineering, coming in the form of a straight punch that resembled a battering ram aimed straight at a city gate.

Li Changying smiled as he thrust his index and middle fingers toward Yu Lu, sending three bursts of sword Qi hurtling directly toward him.

Yu Lu had displayed the power of a fourth tier martial artist earlier, but all of a sudden, he abruptly accelerated, shattering one of the tiles beneath his foot as he launched his fists through the air.

The three bursts of sword Qi were instantly shattered by three quick punches in succession from Yu Lu before they even had a chance to display their power.

Li Changying was slightly taken aback to see this, and he shifted several steps to the side, still moving in a very languid and graceful fashion, as one would expect from a Confucian scholar.

At the same time, the remaining bursts of sword Qi assembled themselves beside him right as a sweeping kick from Yu Lu arrived.

All of the sword Qi to Li Changying’s left exploded in unison, sending a burst of ripples surging through the air. As a result, Li Changying’s vision was slightly blurred, as if he were looking into a crude copper mirror commonly used by the masses.

At the same time, he was feeling a little annoyed at Yu Lu’s overt aggression and overbearing attitude.

He gave a cold harrumph as he continued to take evasive measures, moving out of the way right before Yu Lu’s vicious sweeping kick struck his shoulder. In the blink of an eye, the two of them had swapped places, with Li Changying ending up at the spot where Yu Lu had been just a moment ago.

Yu Lu spun around in a circle, carried by the momentum of his own kick, following which the Qi within his body descended, allowing him to instantly land on the ground in a silent manner, much like a dragonfly landing on the surface of a tranquil lake.

In doing so, he displayed extraordinary speed, affording Li Changying no time to draw energy from the environment around him. As a result, he had no choice but to muster up the spiritual energy in his body to defend himself, and at the same time, he didn’t take any further evasive action, advancing instead of retreating as he launched both fists at his opponent.

Even though he was a Qi refiner, the physical prowess and killing intent displayed by Li Changying at this moment weren’t inferior in the slightest to those of a pure fourth or fifth tier martial artist.

Initially, Li Changying had used the abilities of a swordsman to defend himself, then adopted the Daoist land-shortening technique to take evasive measures, and now, he was directly fighting fire with fire like a martial artist, displaying stunning versatility in the opening few exchanges of the fight.

It seemed that he was incorporating abilities from all of the hundred schools of thought into his fighting style, and that was a clear indication of his lofty ambitions and aspirations.

A simple and unadorned clash between fists took place as a loud thump rang out in the air.

In the wake of the clash, Yu Lu remained completely still on the spot, while Li Changying stumbled back several steps with his arms hanging down limply by his sides. His face had paled slightly, and there was an incredulous look in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Yu Lu continued to press forward, showing no signs of restraint or mercy.

All of a sudden, an elderly sigh rang out within the scripture library.

The sigh had come from the foot of a wall over 200 feet away, with a series of bookshelves standing between the wall and the pair of combatants.

Immediately thereafter, a streak of bright white sword light that was around three feet in length was sent hurtling through the air, flying around a row of bookshelves before passing by Li Changying in a flash as it flew directly toward Yu Lu.

However, Yu Lu continued to charge forward, swaying his body to the side at the last possible moment to dodge the streak of sword light by a hair’s breadth before continuing to rush forward in a strange posture.

“That’s enough!”

A hint of anger had crept into the elderly voice.

The streak of sword light that had just flown past Yu Lu abruptly stopped cold in its tracks, and instead of swiveling around, it flew directly backward, this time with the hilt of the sword acting its tip.

It was clear that the elderly swordsman that was lurking in the shadows knew that even with his masterful sword manipulation abilities, he couldn’t afford to waste time by having the flying sword swivel around as even the slightest delay could prove to be extremely costly, potentially resulting in Li Changying sustaining severe injuries from his opponent’s attack. Hence, he had chosen to save time by having the flying sword hurtling back in reverse, and it was flying directly toward Yu Lu’s back at an even faster speed than before.

Yu Lu sprang up into the air, then stepped onto a bookshelf to his right to launch himself forward. In doing so, not only was he able to evade the flying sword that was hurtling toward him from behind, he was also further accelerating his charge toward Li Changying, and he threw a punch straight at Li Changying’s head.

As soon as the elderly swordsman intervened, Li Changying had already prepared himself for the worst, and he silently recited a passage from a Confucian classic written by the Etiquette Sage. In the same instant that Yu Lu stepped onto the bookshelf, many of the bookshelves on the level began to tremble slightly in unison.

A string of white text then flew out of every single book that contained the passage that Li Changying had just silently recited. These strings of text came in all types of scripts, and they converged from all directions in front of Li Changying in the blink of an eye.

In the end, all of the strings of text formed a slow-moving stream in front of Li Changying, one that was glowing with radiant light. The stream was quite small, but it was giving off a holy and righteous aura.

Meanwhile, Yu Lu was rapidly plummeting down from above, and his expression remained unchanged as he continued to swing his fist through the air.

With just a single punch, he was able to sever the stream down the middle and pulverize all of the text within it!

Immediately thereafter, Yu Lu struck Li Changying with a kick to the abdomen. Li Changying was widely recognized as the most accomplished cultivator among all of the students of Mountain Cliff Academy, yet this single kick sent him flying back several dozen feet before falling onto a path between two rows of bookshelves. Even after landing, he continued to slide back for over 10 feet, indicating just how much force was behind that kick.

A gray-robed old man appears beside Li Changying, and the flying sword that had failed to strike its target returned to the old man’s side before hovering near his shoulder. The tip of the sword was aimed directly at Yu Lu as the old man hurriedly crouched down with a panicked expression to take Li Changying’s pulse.

In doing so, he discovered that Li Changying’s injuries were quite severe, but there was no threat to his life. However, he was considered to be a rising star that even the important officials of Great Sui Nation’s imperial court had to treat with respect, so no harm could be allowed to befall him!

With that in mind, the old man turned to glower at Yu Lu with a furious expression. “How could you be so cruel at such a young age?! Do you know what you’ve…”

The old man’s voice quickly trailed off as Yu Lu was still closing in on his prey. Even after inflicting such severe injuries on Li Changying and after the old man’s intervention, he still had no intention of stopping there.

Yu Lu rustled his sleeves slightly before tucking his hands back into them as he casually strolled toward Li Changying and the old man with a smile on his face. “Even now, Li Huai’s clay figures still haven’t been found, and there’s still been no apology delivered to Li Baoping for the insults that she had to hear. Before those things happen, don’t bother to try and talk sense or reason to me because I’m not going to listen.”

Yu Lu paused momentarily here, and he appeared to have been moving in quite a slow and leisurely manner, but in reality, he was closing in on Li Changying very quickly. “Granted, Li Changying did issue an apology to Li Huai, but he isn’t the perpetrator who stole Li Huai’s clay figures, nor the one who insulted Li Baoping, so his apology is just as useless as that flying sword of yours.”

The gray-robed old man was so infuriated by Yu Lu’s words of provocation that his hair and beard were beginning to rise up into the air on their own, and he hurriedly fed Li Changying a pill. Such was his fury that he couldn’t help but chuckle, and he declared in a cold voice, “Let’s see if you’ll be willing to listen to reason after I stomp you into the ground!”

Yu Lu’s smile remained unchanged as he replied, “If I lose, then I’ll accept my loss without any objections. When the time comes, there will be someone else to stand up for me, but that time may not come anytime soon. After all, that person isn’t here at the moment.”

The old man rose to his feet, and the flying sword beside him slowly rose up as well, continuing to hover right next to his shoulder.

However, the old man still seemed to have been quite concerned about Li Changying, and he took a glance down at the injured young man with a worried look on his face.

Yu Lu’s fist techniques were extremely strange. Initially, it appeared that Li Changying hadn’t sustained any internal injuries, and even the old man felt like his injuries weren’t very severe. However, the true nature of his injuries only came to the fore after he was fed that pill.

Even after the pill was consumed, Li Changying’s Qi was still churning violently without displaying any signs of settling down, and this inability to wrest back control over his own Qi could prove to have extremely dangerous consequences.

For a Qi refiner, it was very difficult to reach the Cave Abode Tier and even more difficult to consolidate that tier. As soon as one decided to open up their acupoints to absorb spiritual energy from the outside world, they were inviting an external source of energy into their body, which was quite a risky endeavor.

In order to absorb spiritual energy from the outside world, one must sift through countless different types of energy between heaven and earth to pick out the desirable ones. This process was essentially like a city under siege opening up its gates to launch a retaliative attack. In doing so, they were giving up their only advantage and ran the risk of being completely overwhelmed by the enemy outside the city walls.

As soon as this happened, all of the acupoints and meridians in one’s body would become like cities and roads that were inundated in a flood. If the process were to go wrong, then irreversible consequences would be incurred. Hence, the Cave Abode Tier was the true first hurdle that one encountered on the path of cultivation, and it was even more difficult than making a breakthrough from the Lower Five Tiers to the sixth tier.

Many cultivators, particularly itinerant ones with no support from backers or sects, would choose to remain indefinitely at the highest tier of the Lower Five Tiers for fear of completely losing any chance at attaining immortality if they were to fail in the formation of a cave abode.

Cultivation was something that defied the Heavenly Dao, so cultivators were constantly forging ahead against the flow of natural order, which was why the path of cultivation was so painful and arduous.

The old man was a secret personal servant that the imperial court of Great Sui Nation had assigned to Li Changying, so if Li Changying’s future cultivation potential were to be compromised by this injury, then the blame would fall squarely upon him!

Yu Lu smiled as he asked, “You must be very conflicted right now, right? You’re wondering if you should save Li Changying first or deal with me first.”

The old man was gritting his teeth in fury. Just as Yu Lu said, he had no idea how to proceed in this situation, and despite his vast wealth of experience, he was beginning to grow rather flustered.

He was a Sea Observation Tier cultivator and a swordsman. The term “Sea Observation” came from the phrase “I watch all rivers flow into the sea from my vantage point, and as they do so, they flow straight into my heart”.

At this tier, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth would begin to expand one’s meridians, much like the rivers that ultimately flowed into the sea, or like the expanding official roads that led to major cities. One spiritual energy would gradually condense and elevate before beginning to reciprocate the cultivator’s physical body, thereby extending their lifespan.

Generally speaking, cultivators of this tier were all able to live to at least 100 years of age.

On Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, Sea Observation Tier swordsmen were already considered to be grandmasters in the Dao of the sword.

In Great Sui Nation, even for officials as lofty as the ministers of the Six Ministries, they weren’t guaranteed to have a swordsman of this caliber assigned to them for their personal protection in the event that they had to leave the capital city for whatever reason.

After taking a deep breath, the old man decided to end this battle as quickly as possible, resolving himself to do so in three attacks at most.

“Seeing as you don’t know what choice you should make, let me make the decision for you!”

Yu Lu was becoming more arrogant by the second, and there was an extremely infuriating grin on his face as he took three steps forward, with each successive step more powerful than the previous one, shattering the ground beneath his feet.

If you don’t know whether you should fight me, then I’ll force you to fight me! It’s as simple as that!

The old man’s pupils contracted slightly upon seeing this. Yu Lu’s aura was already quite formidable to begin with, yet it was being elevated significantly with each step that he took, and his soul was so majestic and fearsome that it was as if there were an ancient deity of war residing inside.

A stunned look appeared on the old man’s face as he exclaimed, “You’re a sixth tier martial artist?”

When it came to battles between cultivators and pure martial artists of the same tier, with the exceptions of outliers like swordsmen, Militarian cultivators, and cultivators who possessed certain extraordinarily powerful treasures, the martial artist was virtually certain to come out on top. In fact, there were even cases of martial artists severely wounding or even outright killing cultivators one tier above them.

The old man was astonished that Yu Lu was such an accomplished martial artist at such a young age, but he wasn’t fearful in the slightest.

He was a seasoned swordsman who had endured countless past battles, not to mention he was at the seventh tier among Qi refiners, the Sea Observation Tier.

If he were intent on going all-out to kill Yu Lu, then it would’ve taken no more than a single attack to get the job done.

Hence, a cold sneer appeared on the old man’s face as he declared, “You clearly have a death wish, but in order to uphold the rules of the academy, I’m not going to actually kill you. I’m just going to beat you until you’re half-dead!”

It appeared that Yu Lu was charging ahead with the resolve to lay down his own life, but in reality, this was nothing more than an act, and internally, he was praying that the old man would inflict injuries on him that were as severe as possible.

————

After straying away from the official road, Chen Ping’an and the two children began to traverse through the wilderness. To put it more accurately, it was the little boy in azure traversing through the wilderness in his massive serpentine true form while carrying Chen Ping’an on his back. What came as quite a pleasant surprise to Chen Ping’an was that he was still able to practice his Mountain Shaking Guide walking meditation even while standing on the water snake’s back.

Initially, he would frequently slip, so his walking meditation was constantly interrupted, but after an acclimation process, Chen Ping’an was able to practice his walking meditation just the same as if he were walking on flat ground, even if he requested the water snake to intentionally sway its body from side to side to increase the difficult of his walking meditation.

The little girl in pink had no right to use the water snake as her steed, so she could only rush along beside the water snake with Cui Chan’s bookcase on her back while applauding and cheering for her master.

On this day, Chen Ping’an’s trio was taking a rest on a mountaintop, and the three of them were gathered in front of a campfire. The little boy in azure was beginning to ramble once again.

“Master, you’re at the age where you should start to think about taking a few concubines and maidservants. Have you considered what type of woman you’d like?”

Chen Ping’an was warming his hands over the fire, and the light of the flames was shining upon his dark-skinned face as he shook his head in response.

The little boy in azure reached into the flames and pulled out a wisp of fire, then snuffed it out between his fingers little by little, producing a sound that resembled the crunch of dried soybeans being crushed. “Why not? Rest assured, Master, not only will the women I find for you not ask for any betrothal gifts, they’ll willingly come to you with handsome dowries instead! Is that still not a tempting proposition for you, Master?”

“No,” Chen Ping’an replied with a smile.

The little boy in azure was very confused, and he snuffed out the flame in his hand before pulling another bunch out of the campfire as he asked, “But why?”

Chen Ping’an smiled and remained silent.

“Oh, I see, it’s because you already have someone you love,” the little boy in azure mused as a hint of realization appeared in his eyes.

Chen Ping’an glared at him in response.

The little boy in azure continued, “There’s nothing embarrassing about having a girl you like, Master. It would be much weirder if you were into men instead…”

All of a sudden, a flash of inspiration appeared in his eyes, and he put on an effeminate display as he said, “Well, actually, I’d say I’m pretty handsome, so how about..”

Chen Ping’an’s skin immediately began to crawl, and he snapped, “Get out of my sight right now!”

The little boy in azure rushed away into the distance while turning to the little girl in pink with a menacing expression as he said, “Hey, did you bring any rouge and cosmetics with you? I need to use it!”

Chen Ping’an clapped a hand to his forehead, wondering what he had done to deserve this.

After that, Chen Ping’an sought out the little boy in azure as he normally did, challenging him to a sparring match to hone his own physical constitution.

The little boy in azure may have been extremely erratic in nature, but he was more than powerful enough to deal with a second tier martial artist like Chen Ping’an. Even though Chen Ping’an was far more powerful than the average martial artist of the same tier, the little boy in azure had the physical constitution of a flood dragon, so Chen Ping’an’s punches barely even tickled him.

In contrast, a single punch from him would be enough to send Chen Ping’an flying. Initially, back when Chen Ping’an first began approaching the little boy in azure for these sparring matches, the latter had failed to hold back sufficiently, and he had sent Chen Ping’an flying back through the air like a cannonball with a single punch.

In the end, Chen Ping’an only came to a rest after snapping a tree that was as thick as a grown man’s leg, and the little boy in azure had been terrified, thinking that he had just dug his own grave for sure. However, after Chen Ping’an made a full recovery, he continued to challenge the little boy in azure to further sparring matches.

On this day, Chen Ping’an had only just pulled back his fist, and he hadn’t even thrown a punch yet, but the little boy in azure was already rolling around in apparent agony, as if he had just been struck by an extremely heavy blow.

The boy then “staggered” to his feet, dusting himself off as he praised, “What a fearsome punch that was, Master! My goodness, just the aura from the punch was enough to send me flying!”

The little girl in pink was looking on from afar with a stunned look on her face.

Prior to this, she had only heard that the water snake was a simpleton with tremendous power and a violent personality, never did she think that he would be so shameless!

Chen Ping’an was already accustomed to this, and he heaved a faint sigh as he said with a serious expression, “Stop playing around!”

The little boy in azure immediately adopted a crane stance, standing on one leg while flailing his arms around randomly and making a string of strange sounds.

Chen Ping’an’s expression darkened slightly as he sat back down beside the campfire.

The little boy in azure hurriedly rushed over to his side, then put on a fawning smile as he implored, “Don’t be mad at me, Master. I’ll be serious from now on.”

Chen Ping’an waved a dismissive hand in response. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you. I just have some things weighing on my mind.”

“In that case, let’s continue after you’ve had a chance to think things through,” the little boy in azure replied.

————

Late at night, Cui Chan was beginning to scale Eastern Splendor Mountain, constantly sighing and complaining to himself as he did.

All of a sudden, a voice rang out in his mind. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here on my teacher’s orders,” Cui Chan snapped in a disgruntled manner.