Unsheathed

When Chen Ping’an returned to his house in Clay Vase Alley, he saw the little girl in pink holding a broom and sweeping the courtyard. Meanwhile, the little boy in azure was leaning over the small water vat with his mouth wide open and facing the surface of the water. There was still half a meter between his mouth and the water, yet there was a small column of water flowing up from the water vat and into his mouth. It was as if he were a dragon drawing water from a well.

Chen Ping’an sat down on the door threshold. The little girl in pink noticed that he was slightly lost in thought, so she considerately didn’t say anything to disturb him. In fact, the courtyard had already been cleaned spotless by Ruan Xiu quite a while ago. However, the little girl in pink would always feel uneasy if she wasn’t doing something to help. She would feel like she didn’t deserve the snake gall pebbles that her master had so generously given her.

Chen Ping’an’s mind was wandering in some place very far away, and he suddenly recalled Cui Dongshan’s comments regarding Song Jixin. He stood up and retrieved the set of keys that Song Jixin had secretly tossed into his courtyard when leaving the small town. He then ran next door and opened the gate to his neighbor’s courtyard. Sure enough, he saw three books stacked on the table in the study after entering Song Jixin’s house. They were ‘Principles of Life for Children’, ‘Rites and Music’, and ‘An Anthology of Literary Essays’.

Chen Ping’an carried a chair over and started to flip through ‘Principles of Life for Children’.

During Chen Ping’an’s trip back to the small town from Great Sui Nation, he had been accompanied by Cui Dongshan who would often recite Confucian classics. After listening to these classics for a while, Chen Ping’an discovered that ‘Principles of Life for Children’ wasn’t simple at all.

If one were to look at the title of the book only, perhaps one would feel that it only talked about very shallow principles.

However, during his casual conversations with Cui Dongshan, he had learned that teachers in ordinary schools most definitely wouldn’t use ‘Principles of Life for Children’ as a textbook for children. Perhaps Mr. Qi was the only person who could explain this profound and obscure Confucian classic in such a simple and easily understandable manner. Because of this, Li Baoping and the others had never felt like this book was too difficult or profound to understand.

Chen Ping’an didn’t plan to take the three books back home with him. After reading a dozen or so pages of ‘Principles of Life for Children’, he felt like he couldn’t even gain an elementary understanding of the contents with his measly knowledge and non-existent education. If he tried to wrack his brain more, he would only succeed in confusing himself and giving himself a headache. He would feel as if he were falling through mists and clouds, with nowhere safe to stand.

Thus, Chen Ping’an had no option but to put the book down. He retrieved the small silver sword billet from his sleeve and gently held it in his hands. Afterward, he continued to space out like he had while sitting on the door threshold of his own house.

He had walked past the stone arch bridge twice, yet he had failed to feel anything from the sword billet. This was an imperceptible feeling, but Chen Ping’an realized that the sword spirit would truly disappear for an entire decade. She would use this time to sharpen the edge of the blade using that half of the Dragon Slaying Platform. The Dragon Slaying Platform had already been split into three and divided between Ruan Qiong, Wind Snow Temple, and True Martial Mountain, yet the sword spirit still insisted on doing this. As to whether this would cause any trouble, Chen Ping’an had no way of knowing. He was even less able to interfere.

During that snowy winter night many years ago, Chen Ping’an saved the young girl who had fallen unconscious in front of his house. In the end, however, she had become Song Jixin’s maidservant instead. She had also changed her name from Wang Zhu to Zhi Gui. Not long ago, she had accompanied Song Jixin—who turned out to be the prince of the Great Li Empire—to the capital.

The office of the kiln supervision official, the plaque that read “Rising Winds Crashing Water” on the covered bridge, the seemingly bottomless Dragon Locking Well, the locust tree that had ancestral blessings in each of its leaves, the immortal tomb, and the mountain of porcelain…

This was not to mention the influential and mighty beings in the small town.

It was a complete mess.

No wonder Old Man Yang had said that he would one day discover just how big this small town truly was.

A dejected expression appeared on Chen Ping’an’s face when he thought of the old man in the pharmacy who promoted fair exchanges. He exhaled gently and instinctively tightened his grip on the sword billet in his hand. After standing up, he placed the sword billet back inside his sleeve before leaving the house that Song Jixin had abandoned. When he arrived home, he handed the set of keys to Liu Xianyang’s house to the little girl in pink. He told them the two children to move over there. After all, his house in Clay Vase Alley was far too small.

The little boy in azure was yet to drink his fill, so he waffled on in irritation as he stood up and stopped drinking. However, he suddenly thought of something, and he asked, “Master, didn’t you give me an ordinary snake gall pebble in exchange for a pile of crap… I mean, a pile of precious vases? Since you’re so close with Ruan Xiu, why don’t you give those iridescent cloud vases and magnificent moon vases to her as a present? Master, speaking from my hundreds of years of experience traveling around the world, all females in the world like these fancy little trinkets regardless of how lofty their statuses. Are these vases not better than a crappy bamboo slip?”

He chuckled thievishly and continued, “What, is Master unwilling to part with those precious vases? Are you unwilling to give them to Ruan Xiu? Then allow me to be bold and remind you that Ruan Xiu is the only child of a Militarian sage. Thus, even giving her 10,000 of those vases is a good deal!”

Chen Ping’an helped the little girl in pink pick up the small bookcase.

“Couldn’t you tell that Master Ruan doesn’t like me?” he snapped.

The little boy in azure carefully thought back to the situation just then. Sure enough, that mute and gloomy sage had indeed been fairly indifferent toward Chen Ping’an. “Is he blind? Otherwise, how could he not see Master’s bright future? Don’t get angry, Master. It’s not worth it to detrimentally affect your health because of this….” the little boy said, defending Chen Ping’an against this perceived injustice.

However, he suddenly recalled that Ruan Qiong was the overseer of this small town, so inside this region, he was like an emperor sitting atop a throne and able to see everything. Because of this, he also possessed all kinds of unimaginable powers and mystical abilities. The little boy in azure hurriedly slapped himself and said, “Please don’t take offense at a child’s babble. The esteemed sage is taking a nap and didn’t hear anything at all. Even if you heard it, please don’t punish me…”

The little boy in azure looked up again and asked, “But what does giving these vases to Ruan Xiu have to do with whether the sage likes you or not?”

“If I’m going to give her these vases as a present, I’ll definitely give them all to her,” Chen Ping’an explained. “However, if Ruan Xiu carries such a large number of vases home, Master Ruan will most likely discover this. At that time, he’ll dislike me even more. In fact, he might even mistakenly think that I have ulterior motives. And what if Ruan Xiu and her father have an argument because of this? That naturally won’t be good.”

The little girl in pink nodded in sudden realization. “Master is truly so considerate.”

There was a stunned expression on the little boy’s face. “Master, what do you mean mistakenly think that you have ulterior motives? Don’t you clearly have ulterior motives in your relationship with Ruan Xiu?”

“What utter nonsense are you speaking?!”

Chen Ping’an smacked the back of the little boy’s head and sent him stumbling out of the house. Letting the momentum carry him, the little boy ran through the courtyard and all the way to the front gate. He then turned around and said with a mischievous grin, “Master, you’re not thinking of killing me to silence me, right? I promise that I’ll keep my lips tightly sealed! Even more tightly sealed than Baoping’s vase[1]!”

Chen Ping’an clapped a hand onto his forehead. He couldn’t help but feel secondhand embarrassment.

The little girl in pink looked through the courtyard toward Clay Vase Alley. She felt like she was experiencing another eye-opener. The first time was when she experienced the abundant spiritual energy in Dragon Spring Prefecture, the second time was when she personally witnessed the hidden profoundness of Downtrodden Mountain, the third time was when she saw the extraordinarily handsome Wei Bo, and the fourth time was when she walked into the beautiful bamboo building that could gather the fortune of mountains and rivers.

Now was the fifth time. What entered the little girl’s eyes was an elegant scholar who was standing in the dimly lit alley. Right now, it appeared as if he were a brilliant sun rising above the horizon.

The man in azure smiled and asked, “What’s wrong with Baoping?”

The little boy in azure instantly became tense. His movements were stiff as he turned his head around, and he looked left and right after seeing the young man in the alley. However, he didn’t see anyone else, and this caused him to feel extremely puzzled. The aura of the scholar standing in front of him appeared to be completely unremarkable.

The little girl in pink blinked furiously as she looked at the young scholar. At this moment, the fire python who had grown up in the Zhilan Cao Clan’s scripture library found that the young scholar had seemingly lost all of his radiance and mystical aura in an instant. He looked like an ordinary young man no matter how she looked at him.

Having finally learned his lesson, the little boy didn’t shoot his mouth even though he couldn’t see anything special about the young man. He chuckled and pretended to be naive and stupid as he replied, “Li Baoping is my master’s best friend, so I admire that little girl very much. May I please ask who you are?”

“Brother Li, what brings you here?”

Chen Ping’an immediately revealed his identity, afraid that the little boy in azure would cause trouble again. He walked to the courtyard gate.

“I forgot to tell you that I’ve filled the blank areas of the pages with many of my own comprehension and questions,” Li Xisheng replied in a slightly apologetic voice. “The words in black ink are some of my shallow understandings, while the words in red ink are some questions that I wish to personally ask the sages. I’ve especially come here to tell you that you don’t need to worry about these annotations for the moment. If you can avoid reading them, then it’s best that you do so. If you do end up reading them, however, try not to think about them, and definitely don’t let my thoughts affect your understanding of the principles expounded in the books.”

“I’ll keep this in mind,” Chen Ping’an replied with a nod.

Li Xisheng looked at the little boy in azure with a smile and said softly, “Joking around is fine. However, you must understand that the more one speaks, the more likely it is that one will slip up. Words also carry great power. Words form phrases, phrases form sentences, and sentences form essays. The Great Dao lies within this.”

The little boy in azure looked up and stared at the scholar who had mysteriously appeared from out of nowhere. He was grumbling and jeering at the scholar in his mind, and he simply didn’t speak his thoughts out loud. It was truly painful to hold his tongue. If it weren’t for the fact that he had just been screwed over at the blacksmith shop, the little boy in azure would have truly wanted to open his mouth to ask the young scholar why he didn’t go to become a sage in a Confucian school, with how much he enjoyed being a teacher to others and all.

As if seeing through the little boy’s thoughts, and perhaps even hearing them directly, Li Xisheng smiled warmly and explained in a patient manner, “Buddhists have a concept of progression, and Daoists have also a concept of walking across the bridge to immortality and climbing up the ladder to the heavens one step at a time. As for Confucians, we follow the principle of gradual and steady advance. Thus, we need to participate in the imperial examinations first. Regarding whether we can become Confucian sages in the future, this is something far too distant and lofty. I don’t dare to dream about this.”

The little boy in azure was stunned, and he made a face as if he had just lost both of his parents. He didn’t dare to look at Li Xisheng anymore, and he instead turned around to look at Chen Ping’an with a pleading expression in his eyes. He appeared extremely forlorn, and it was as if he could no longer see a point in life. He surprisingly didn’t dare to say a single word.

His expression was as if he were lamenting to his master about just how terrifying Dragon Spring Prefecture was. A random person walking over to sit in the bamboo chair beside him turned out to be a sage, and a random person visiting Chen Ping’an’s house in Clay Vase Alley was a Confucian scholar who could read his thoughts. Was he a noble person? Or perhaps a virtuous person?

Next time, would a random passer-by walk over to casually smash him to death with a single punch?

The little girl in pink’s face was beet red. She summoned her courage and asked loudly, “Mister, why is it often the case that we’ll suddenly fail to recognize some characters when we read? Even though they’re unmoving on the page right in front of our eyes, why do we still feel like they’re extremely unfamiliar?”

Li Xisheng was slightly astonished. He looked at the adorable little girl, and a sense of understanding appeared in his mind. An approving smile spread across his face, and he bent down and winked at her before explaining in a soft voice, “This is because at some certain times, some certain characters will be secretly borrowed away by some certain sages!”

It was difficult to tell whether he was joking or being serious.

The little girl in pink became a little angry. She was especially stubborn when it came to books and knowledge, and she surprisingly started to lecture Li Xisheng, saying, “Mister, if you don’t know the correct answer, then please don’t answer the question in such a random and careless manner. How can such unreasonable things happen in the world? To say you know when you know, and to say you don’t know when you don’t, that is knowledge…[2]”

The little girl became less confident as she spoke, and her voice also became quieter and quieter. In the end, her voice was so quiet that it could barely be heard. In fact, even she probably couldn’t hear her own words.

Chen Ping’an smiled and patted the little girl’s head. He then turned to Li Xisheng and said, “Don’t be angry, Brother Li. She’s not normally like this.”

Li Xisheng laughed heartily and replied, “No, this is good.”

When he heard that Chen Ping’an was going to head somewhere else, Li Xisheng decided to follow him and leave Clay Vase Alley together.

As they walked, Chen Ping’an suddenly discovered someone standing in front of them in the alley with their hands clasped behind their back. This looked like a young… swordsman?

On the side of the swordsman’s hip, there was a short sword that was only slightly longer than a dagger. On his other hip, there was a sword that was far longer than ordinary swords.

The short sword had a snow-white scabbard, while the long sword had a pitch-black scabbard.

The young swordsman appeared slightly feminine from the side, and the corners of his mouth seemed to be habitually curled up into a smile. It was as if he were permanently wearing a faint smile. As a result, he looked fairly similar to a fox. His eyes were squinted right now, and he was gazing at the old residence that appeared in far better condition than he had imagined. Not only was the young swordsman not surprised or happy, but he even felt a slight sense of displeasure.

He turned around and “smiled” at Chen Ping’an and Li Xisheng.

“Do you know who repaired this residence?” he asked in a warm and delicate voice.

Chen Ping’an’s expression didn’t change, and he countered, “What’s wrong? Should a damaged house not be repaired?”

The young swordsman shook his head and replied with a smile, “Let’s disregard the quality of the repair work first. Does the Great Li Empire’s Dragon Spring Prefecture have the saying, ‘moving soil above Tai Sui’s head’[3]?”

Even though the young swordsman was smiling the entire time, Chen Ping’an didn’t dare to put his guard down at all. In fact, he even felt as if there were a cold chill gripping his heart.

This seemingly amiable outsider… was very dangerous!

Li Xisheng suddenly stepped forward and held his arm out, blocking Chen Ping’an and the two little children behind him.

“Stand behind me. Don’t say anything and don’t do anything. Just watch,” he said quietly.

The smile on the young swordsman’s face grew even wider. He rested his hands on the hilts of his long and short swords, and he cocked his head in an attempt to look at Chen Ping’an who was standing behind the young scholar in green. In the end, he stood still and asked, “Oh, such a coincidence! Have I come across the culprit? As for you, what are you trying to do? Are you seeking death?”

Li Xisheng smiled and replied, ” Reasonable discussions should be held, but swords shouldn’t be drawn from their scabbards so casually.”

The young swordsman shrugged and replied with a guileless smile, “But my reasons are in my scabbards!”

“Oh, is that so?” Li Xisheng said nonchalantly. He then pointed at himself and said in realization, “Ah, so you have ulterior motives, and your target is actually me?”

The young swordsman smiled and replied, “It’s not as complicated as you think. I don’t even know your name. It’s just that I immediately got a bad impression of you at first sight. After hearing you spew your nonsense, I have an even worse impression of you now. However, luck is on my side, and I’ll be able to hit two birds with one stone. I can teach both you and that little guy a lesson at the same time. Isn’t this wonderful?”

The young swordsman wrapped his hand around the hilt of his short sword and chuckled, “Rest assured, I, Cao Jun, seldom kill people with my swords.”

Li Xisheng frowned and asked, “Are you a descendant of Sword Immortal Cao Xi?”

The young swordsman sighed and sidestepped the question, saying, “Why bother? Why are you trying to bring yourself trouble? With my status and cultivation base, would I be able to bully that young boy much even if I disliked him? At most, I would only obliterate his measly martial arts foundation. Yet, you insist on stepping forward and poking your head out. So be it if you’re extremely powerful or extremely weak. However, if your strength is only so-so, and if you only just lose to me, what will you do when I take my anger out on that young boy? Won’t you have harmed him instead?”

After saying this, the young swordsman cracked a grin that revealed his sparkling white teeth. “Alright, let’s cut to the chase. Truth be told, I’m an extremely talented person who can sense the presence of some peculiar things. For example… sword billets. Regarding all of the other things, such as repairing my ancestral home without permission, me having a bad impression of you, and so on, these are all… genuine as well. However, there’s no need for you guys to worry. I’ll make an offer for the sword billet, and my offer definitely won’t be low. In terms of whether you guys feel like this is a forced sale, this has got nothing to do with me at all.”

“Can I ask you something before you start a fight with us? What’s your current cultivation base?” Li Xisheng asked.

“Who asks this before a fight? However, since you’re so interested, I don’t mind answering your question,” the young swordsman replied with a sneer. His eyes were squinted into a line. Compared to his frivolous manner of speaking before, he was far more concise when it came to revealing his cultivation base. “Sword, between eight and nine.”

“I understand,” Li Xisheng replied with a nod.

The sword billet in Chen Ping’an’s sleeve started to become hotter and hotter. The young boy placed his left hand behind his back, and he twisted his wrist around and tightly grabbed the sword billet.

————

For the past while, Ruan Qiong would occasionally walk to the bank of the Dragon Whisker River and place his hand in the water, testing the Yin energy of the river.

The young boy with long eyebrows would frequently follow behind him.

Today, Ruan Qiong suddenly poured the water from his palm while he was squatting beside the river. “You dare to break my rules just because you have a good ancestor? How impudent!”

A projection of the tense scenes in Clay Vase Alley gradually appeared on the surface of the river.

The young boy with long eyebrows pointed at the young swordsman with two swords of different lengths and asked, “Master, are you talking about him?”

Ruan Qiong nodded and explained, “One of his ancestors, Cao Xi, is a sword immortal who can be regarded as one of the most powerful people in Eastern Treasured Vial Continent along with your ancestor, Xie Shi. He can gain a solid footing and found his own force even in the other larger continents. He is indeed very impressive.”

The young boy with long eyebrows wasn’t especially interested in these matters. He continued to stare at the projection on the surface of the river, and he asked, “Master, what should we do? Are you going to stop him?”

“Stop him? For what?”

Ruan Qiong sneered and said, “I’ll wait until he injures someone, then I’ll directly beat him to death. These are the rules.”

The young boy with long eyebrows asked about the reason behind this conflict, and after hearing Ruan Qiong’s brief explanation, he exclaimed in surprise, “That Cao Jun dares to covet someone else’s treasure and even force them to sell it right under Master’s nose? Are outsiders all this arrogant and unreasonable?”

Ruan Qiong was expressionless as he replied, “To seek heavenly treasures, one needs to part ways with mortal wealth. This isn’t strange. Even I was unable to detect the mystical nature of that sword billet before, yet Cao Jun is treating it with such seriousness and importance. This means that Cao Jun has a unique eye for things, and it also signifies that this sword billet will definitely shock the world once it reveals its true form. In fact, Cao Jun is only holding back because he’s in the small town. If this were anywhere else, he would directly kill his target and take their treasure. He wouldn’t take the time to offer them something in exchange.”

The young boy with long eyebrows had only just started cultivating a short time ago, and at this moment, he felt like the world was far too incomprehensible. “Master, how do bad people like this become such powerful Qi refiners?” he asked.

“You’ve never read any books before, so how can you discuss the notion of good and bad? Remember, cultivators view these things differently.”

Ruan Qiong stood up and departed in a flash after saying this.

————

In the Li Clan’s residence, an old man was playing with a bird in a cage. However, his attention wasn’t focused here, and there was an eager smile of anticipation on his face. As if hoping for conflict, he murmured, “Hurry up and fight. Seize this opportunity to soar in status in a single breath. At that time, who won’t recognize you…?”

————

Atop Cloud Drape Mountain, Wei Bo was dressed in white robes and sitting cross-legged on a cloud that was hovering only three meters above the ground. He was sound asleep, and his head would droop down before jerking back up from time to time. He looked much like a small chick pecking at grains of rice.

Beneath the clouds, numerous birds and beasts were tightly packed together, all of them hoping to get near that cloud such that they could get closer to the white-clothed deity who had a pale gold earring.

A figure landed heavily on the peak of the mountain, causing the birds and beasts to scatter.

There was a dazed expression on Wei Bo’s face as he opened his sleepy eyes, and after he discovered the middle-aged man, he dispersed his cloud and hovered to the ground. “Ah, what a rare guest. It’s my pleasure to welcome you.”

“I’m here to warn you that Sword Immortal Cao Xi might charge to this place in the near future,” Ruan Qiong said in a slightly distant voice. “When the time comes, you can choose to stand aside and watch, but don’t try to pour fuel on the fire.”

Wei Bo glanced at Clay Vase Alley and replied, “Is someone purposely using Cao Xi to smear you and the Great Li Empire? Is it Great Sui Nation? Lake View Academy? Southern Stream Nation? Or some other powerful person?”

Ruan Qiong’s expression was solemn.

Everything else was fine, and he could simply deal with the problems as they came up. However, he was afraid that someone might target his daughter.

Ruan Qiong looked at the small town, yet his focus wasn’t on Clay Vase Alley where a battle was about to take place. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the Yang Family’s medicine shop.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

Ruan Qiong left as quickly as he had come.

“How bloody annoying! This person scheming and that person calculating… There’s no end to this!” Wei Bo lamented.

He disappeared in a flash, and he reappeared in the corridor in the second storey of the bamboo building in Downtrodden Mountain. He lay down and continued to sleep.

Things had become clear now. As it turned out, the small town was filled with hidden tigers and dragons. These were powerful and influential beings who were keeping an eagle eye on even the most minor events.

1. A pun on Baoping which literally means treasured vase. ☜

2. From ‘The Analects of Confucius’. ☜

3. This means to purposely provoke someone powerful or influential. Moving soil refers to carrying out construction work, and Tai Sui is a Chinese term for the star directly opposite the planet Jupiter during its roughly 12-year orbital cycle. Tai Sui is personified as a deity living under the earth. ☜