Unsheathed

Cui Chan was widely renowned as the one of the top go players in the world, and by staying by his side, Yu Lu and Xie Xie were essentially constantly playing figurative games of go against him. Xie Xie would often strive for too much and overextend in her play, and in Cui Chan’s eyes, that was extremely foolish and laughable.

In contrast, Yu Lu would only play some little tricks in inconsequential areas, playing the same few moves that Cui Chan had already gotten sick of long ago, but in doing so, he was able to somewhat earn Cui Chan’s approval.

Xie Xie bore an extremely heavy burden, with an eye that looked far into the future, and that was actually a show of her commendable and resilient character, but it was extremely unfortunate for her that she had managed to escape the control of Song Jixin’s mother, only to fall into the hands of Cui Chan, essentially jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

As for Yu Lu, he was able to see into the hearts of those around him, and he didn’t yearn for much, so he was able to lead a very carefree life.

Golden Autumn flew out of Cui Chan’s sleeve before rapidly revolving around the flame of the lamp.

Yu Lu’s expression remained unchanged as he smiled and asked, “Young Master, are you not afraid of your identity being exposed here in the academy?”

Cui Chan carefully observed the flying sword as he replied, “You’ve heard of the saying ‘to kill to end killing and to commit evil deeds to end evil’, right?”

Yu Lu nodded in response.

Cui Chan’s gaze remained on the golden flying sword, tracking its trajectory with his eyes. Due to how rapidly the sword was flying, the rate at which the sword qi left in its wake was dissipating was far slower than the rate at which it was being generated, so the sword qi intertwined with itself to form a golden ball, at the center of which was the flame of the lamp.

Cui Chan continued, “It’s the same concept. I’ll give Great Sui Nation a seemingly absurd reason. If one is not enough, then I’ll give them two, but it would be best not to do it a third time, so twice should be perfect.”

After a moment of hesitation, a wry smile appeared on Yu Lu as he asked, “Can I fill in as the first one?”

Cui Chan took a glance at him out of the corner of his eye as he asked, “Are you taking pity on her?”

Yu Lu heaved a faint sigh and didn’t reply.

Cui Chan smiled as he said, “You see her very clearly as you’re too close to her, but you have to remember that even a tiny leaf can seem like the entire world if it’s directly covering your eye. Being able to see all of the veins of a leaf alone…”

Cui Chan’s voice trailed off here as he closed his eyes, and after a brief pause, he said something that was rather surprising to Yu Lu. “If you can truly see a leaf down to its deepest and most minute parts, that would also be great. In fact, that would be the best outcome, and it’s one of the facets of my Great Dao!”

Yu Lu appeared to have been completely unable to understand what Cui Chan was saying, so he didn’t bother to ponder the matter.

Cui Chan rose to his feet before leaving the dormitory in silence.

A long while after Cui Chan’s departure, Yu Lu extended a hand out of his sleeve, and the palm of his hand was drenched in sweat.

Cui Chan had once joked that the philosophies of the three most prominent teachings under the heavens could essentially be summarized as the laws of the Dao are extremely lofty, the rules of Confucianism are extremely broad, and the edicts of Buddhism are extremely far-reaching.

There was indeed a saying that one could be blinded by just a single leaf, but if someone were to truly, completely see through the leaf, then would they really still be blinded by the leaf?

All of a sudden, Yu Lu raised an arm and pressed the back of his hand tightly against his own forehead with a pained expression as he murmured to himself, “Don’t think about it, don’t think about this for now.”

————

Meanwhile, Cui Chan returned to the wenzheng hall, and earlier, he had been unwilling to step inside, but this time, he stepped straight over the doorstep, then picked up only a single stick of incense, as opposed to the three sticks of incense as was customary here.

With one hand holding the stick of incense, he pinched the tip of the incense stick between two of the fingers of his other hand, and it was instantly ignited.

Cui Chan didn’t even take a glance at the Paramount Sage, only taking a brief look at Qi Jingchun’s portrait before shifting his gaze to the portrait of the old scholar. He then raised the stick of incense to his forehead with both hands in a gesture of reverence, only to then immediately reopen his eyes, displaying none of the devotion and respect that was to be expected of someone offering up incense.

After that, he stuck the stick of incense in his hands down into the incense burner on the altar and raised his head, looking up at the portrait of the old scholar with a cheeky grin as he said, “I’m only borrowing it from you, old man. Don’t be too stingy. I’m not borrowing much, only three tiers, and it only works on Eastern Splendor Mountain. Surely that’s not too much to ask for, right?

“At this point, I’m already at the fifth tier, so it’s clear that I’ve been learning from the teacher that you assigned to me, right? Right now, the most prized disciple of your most prized disciple is in trouble, and I’ve been assigned an important task by my teacher, so you can’t just stand by and do nothing, right?”

Cui Chan waited patiently, but nothing happened. Even though the stick of incense in the incense burner had been lit, it wasn’t going down at all.

All of a sudden, Cui Chan erupted into a torrent of abuse. “Oi, are you really just completely abandoning me, you old fart?! I even told you I’m doing this for Qi Jingchun’s sake! Is that still not enough? What kind of fucking teacher are you?! Hey, do you hear me, you bastard? I’m talking to you! What a heartless piece of shit you are…”

There was still no response.

Cui Chan began to pace back and forth in the wenzheng hall like an agitated cat on a hot tin roof. After closing his eyes in contemplation for a moment, he tried once again, except this time, he tacked on the names of Chen Ping’an and Li Baoping as well.

A brief moment later, the stick of incense in the incense burner rapidly burned down into nothingness.

Cui Chan fell silent as he turned to depart with a dark expression.

As he left the wenzheng hall, from the instant that he stepped over the doorstep, he had become a ninth tier cultivator.

He had been granted an additional four tiers, as opposed to the three tiers that he had requested.

As opposed to the Dragon Gate Tier, he had been elevated all the way to the Golden Core Tier.

After exiting the wenzheng hall, Cui Chan stopped in his tracks, then raised his head to look up at the heavens with a dazed expression.

However, he then quickly reverted back to his usual frivolous expression, and he feigned a motion of poking out his own eyes before continuing onward as he murmured to himself, “I was blind to have accepted you as my teacher! From this day forth, my name is Cui Dongshan, and my only teacher is Chen Ping’an!”

All of a sudden, a burst of excruciating pain that pierced straight into his soul speared through his hand.

The agony was so intense that Cui Chan jumped up involuntarily, then rushed into the distance while continuing to jump up and down in pain, and only after he had reached the mountain summit did he finally settle down.

There, he drew a sharp breath as his entire body trembled uncontrollably, and he stood on the spot as he vigorously shook his own arm.

There was a student of the academy who had come to the mountain summit to see the scenery at night, and he was completely dumbfounded upon seeing this, wondering if Cui Chan was suffering from epilepsy.

Cui Chan bared his teeth at the student in a menacing fashion as he snapped, “Piss off! Otherwise, I’m gonna fuck your mother!”

To his surprise, the student didn’t even skip a beat as he replied, “My mother passed away long ago.”

Cui Chan was even more infuriated upon hearing this, and he was just about to slap the little bastard to death when Mao Xiaodong suddenly appeared on the mountain summit. The student hurriedly extended a respectful bow toward Mao Xiaodong before rushing down the mountain.

“Mao Xiaodong! What’s that brat’s name, and where does he live?” Cui Chan asked in a furious voice.

Mao Xiaodong sized up Cui Chan for a moment, and he quickly identified the spike in Cui Chan’s cultivation base.

He began to make his way down the mountain with a steely expression, and as he passed by Cui Chan, he said in a cold voice, “Even if you’ve recovered some of your cultivation base, you better not do anything out of line while at the academy. I’ll tolerate you just like I would tolerate the smell of shit in a lavatory, but don’t forget that this is the capital city of Great Sui Nation, so make sure to think before you act!”

Cui Chan sprang up to the top of the thousand-year-old ginkgo tree, and after looking around for a while, his gaze settled on a peaceful house situated next to Eastern Splendor Mountain, upon which he immediately yelled, “Cai Jingshen, you old bastard! That’s right, I’m talking to you! Your ancestor is here, so you better come out and kowtow to me right now!

“As your ancestor, I need to teach you a good lesson on how not to disgrace your lineage! Hurry up and bathe and change into a set of new clothes, then come to receive your lesson!”

Mao Xiaodong took a deep breath, then sped up as he continued to make his way down the mountain.

Meanwhile, Cui Chan continued in his tirade without any restraint. “Don’t be a cowardly turtle, Cai Jingshen! Call upon all of your descendants so that all of you can come together to kowtow to me! Don’t keep your ancestor waiting!”

A streak of light exploded up into the air from the house near Eastern Splendor Mountain, quickly rising to the same altitude as the summit of Eastern Splendor Mountain. There was an imposing figure within the streak of light, and he roared in a furious voice, “Death must be what you seek!”

Cui Chan replied in an even louder voice, “Nope, I’m not seeking death, I’m out here looking for my shitty grandson, Cai Jingshen!”

“Come out here right now!” Cai Jingshen roared.

After Cai Jingshen sprang up into the sky, numerous lamps were lit up in succession around Eastern Splendor Mountain, and the number of lit lamps was only increasing as more and more students were awoken by the commotion.

Cui Chan stood in a calm and composed manner in the face of the widespread scrutiny as he chuckled, “Why should I go to you? You’re the one who should be coming in to pay your respects to your ancestor!”

Cai Jingshen seemed to have been stunned into silence by Cui Chan’s outrageous insolence, and he was momentarily rooted to the spot.

Cui Chan continued to press his advantage as he yelled, “Who lent you so much courage that you would dare to pick on my disciple? Cai Jingshen, hurry up and kill yourself right now, and make sure to do it in earnest, like a 10th tier like yourself should! If your attitude in repentance satisfies me, perhaps I can consider letting bygones be bygones and let you off the hook just this once…”

Cai Jingshen had never been so infuriated in his life, and his thunderous voice was audible for kilometers in all directions as he roared, “Mao Xiaodong, if your academy not going to do anything about this deranged bastard, then I’ll do something about him! All you need to worry about is collecting his corpse once I’m done with him, I’ll bear any punishment from His Majesty!”

The old man stood in mid-air while facing Mountain Cliff Academy, then took a heavy step forward before raising an arm, looking as if he were preparing to hurl something through the air.

A bright white spear that was formed by intertwining arcs of lightning shot forth through the air, piercing directly toward the ginkgo tree on the summit of Eastern Splendor Mountain.

Cui Chan immediately burst into laughter. “So it looks like you’re not a cowardly turtle, after all! The fact that you’re making this offering to your ancestor now indicates that you’re not beyond redemption! It would be rude of me not to reciprocate your offering, so take this!”

The spear of lightning hurtled directly toward the mountain summit, quickly appearing in the sky above the academy.

The new Mountain Cliff Academy had only been standing for a short time, yet it had already seen more than its fair share of turmoil. It may not have been one of the 72 academies of Confucianism, but it was overseen by Mao Xiaodong, who held much of the advantages held by a Sage in their own territory.

However, perhaps Mao Xiaodong knew that Cui Chan was the one at fault, or perhaps he simply didn’t want to make an enemy out of Cai Jingshen, but for whatever reason, Mao Xiaodong withdrew the protective formations in the area without any hesitation, allowing the two people on the mountain to battle to their heart’s content.

Over at the ginkgo tree, a faint glimmer of golden light erupted into the air. It quickly stretched to around 20 feet in length, but even so, it still appeared extremely tiny and insignificant in the face of the massive lightning spear.

However, all of the expert onlookers who were watching the battle with keen interest immediately had their attention drawn to the streak of golden light.

In their eyes, the streak of golden light was nothing to be scoffed at, despite the fact that it was completely overshadowed in stature by the lightning spear.

The miniature flying sword that had shot out of Cui Chan’s sleeve flew rapidly through the air, and an extremely dark rift appeared in the space around it. This was a result of the clash between the substance of this world and the flowing river of time. The speed of the flying sword’s flight, the hardiness of the material used to forge the sword, and the sword intent imbued within it were all crucial factors to achieving this effect.

A bonded flying sword of this caliber was one that could virtually slice through anything in its path, and sure enough, the lightning spear was instantly destroyed as soon as it came into contact with the streak of golden light.

Lightning erupted in all directions, presenting a spectacular lights show in the night sky.

A cold smile appeared on Cai Jingshen’s face as he remarked, “Looks like you’re not just all talk, but you’d better have more than that up your sleeve if you want to survive!”

With that, Cai Jingshen threw all caution to the wind, hurling one lightning spear after another at Eastern Splendor Mountain.

The streak of golden sword light rose to the challenge, flying through the air above the mountain summit in a dazzling trajectory.

Meanwhile, Cui Chan was seated on a branch high up on the ginkgo tree in a casual manner, holding a square jade seal on the center of his palm.

Instead of the excitement that one would expect to see in someone locked in a fierce battle, he was looking rather bored and lackadaisical while internally looking down on his opponent.

I don’t have many teachers, only one at the moment, to be exact. I don’t have many senior or junior brothers that I respect, I don’t have many friends who are truly close to my heart, and there aren’t many beautiful women who can catch my eye, but I have no lack of treasures!

That night, everyone was truly treated to a spectacular show. As the battle wore on, close to half of the residents of Great Sui Nation’s capital city were woken up by the commotion.

All of them put on some clothes before making their way outside, either looking out at Eastern Splendor Mountain in the distance from their yards, or climbing onto trees, walls, and even rooftops to get a better view of the battle between deities that was taking place. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and in particular, all of the children were treating this like a festival.

The battle raged on through the night all the way to first light. As a result, none of the officials in the capital city were able to get any sleep, and all of them went to attend the morning assembly with dark rings around their eyes.

Following the battle, there were expert onlookers who were able to deduce that aside from the initial golden flying sword, the unknown white-robed immortal on Eastern Splendor Mountain had used as many as 26 treasures, all of which had produced displays of splendid power and stunning visual spectacles. It was as if he were testing out his arsenal of treasures, unleashing a different one with each attack!

Some rabble rousers in the city were already beginning to refer to him as the Cai Clan’s patriarch in secret, and the next day, all of the people that belonged to Cai Jingshen’s affluent clan remained in the estate the entire day, too embarrassed to show themselves in the city.

That very same day, Li Huai received his long-lost clay figures, as well as an extremely belated apology from his three former dorm

Li Huai was a timid little boy who was only seven years of age, and in that instant, he didn’t weep from joy, nor did he uneasily accept the apologies from the three older boys.

Instead, he was simply missing his parents and his sister.

After that, he made sure to thank Li Baoping, Lin Shouyi, Yu Lu, Xie Xie, and Cui Chan, who now referred to himself as Cui Dongshan, one by one.

Lin Shouyi went to the scripture library again, so Li Huai was the only one left in the dormitory, and for the first time, he decided to skip a lesson. He wasn’t a very bright student, but prior to this, no matter what kind of hardships he endured, even if he were beaten black and blue by his tormentors, he had never skipped a lesson.

However, on this day, Li Huai was crouched down outside the dormitory instead of attending his lesson. He was basking in the warm winter sun, gently writing down the names of his family members on the ground with a branch.

This time, he didn’t cry.

————

In the capital city of Great Sui Nation, a trio that was dressed in shabby clothes was slowly making their way toward Mountain Cliff Academy.

Among them was a voluptuous woman with a hostile gaze, and after her daughter asked for directions from a passerby once again in her far from fluent Great Sui Nation official dialect, she slapped her husband on the head with an infuriated expression as she snapped, “You’re such a useless piece of trash! Once we get to the academy, you should just stay at the foot of the mountain so you don’t embarrass our son!”

Her husband was a short and stocky man with a submissive look on his face, and he was carrying a large bundle of luggage on his back. In a rare display of backbone, he retorted, “I think I should go in and meet him. We’re carrying a bunch of food for our son, and it’ll be very tiring for you two to carry everything up the mountain.”

The woman became even more enraged upon hearing this, and she placed her hands on her hips as she said, “Carrying things is all you’re good for, Li Er! Even us two women had the resolve to leave without seeing our son, yet a man like you is getting all sentimental and insisting on seeing our son before we leave!”

The woman reached out to pinch her husband in the waist, but even after twisting and tugging viciously for some time, she wasn’t even able to draw so much as a frown out of him, and she could only give up in the end. “Why do you even have all of this muscle? You only ever use them on me at night!”

The man chuckled bashfully upon hearing this, while the woman gave him a kick as she glared at him with a seductive expression. “That wasn’t a compliment, you idiot!”

Beside the couple was a young woman who was slender as a willow branch, and she paid no heed to her parents’ flirting. Instead, there was a gentle smile on her face, brought on by the thought that she would be able to see her naughty brother soon.

All of a sudden, tears welled up in the woman’s eyes as she said, “I wonder if Huai’er has gained or lost weight. I pray that he isn’t being picked on by anyone.”

The man habitually remained silent.

In the end, he cast his gaze toward the academy as a faint smile appeared on his face.

If there really is anyone who dares to pick on my son, then I’ll just have to pay them a visit and beat some sense into them.