Unsheathed

A slightly displeased look appeared on Sun Jiashu’s face. “In that case, why is that Liu Baqiao made it sound like the two of you had been through a hundred battles of life and death together in his letter? He told me that you were one-of-a-kind and the most brilliant person that he’d ever met, and that if I didn’t treat you right, he would cut all ties with me, then spread his nickname for me across the entire Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.”

“Is your nickname ‘Grandson’?” Chen Ping’an asked. [1]

Sun Jiashu slapped a hand to his own forehead with a wry smile as he sighed, “Was it that obvious?”

Chen Ping’an smiled as he replied, “I may have only met Liu Baqiao twice, but I’m familiar with his sense of humor.”

Sun Jiashu heaved a faint sigh upon hearing this. “When it comes to me and Fu Nanhua, even if we remain friends for decades, we’ll never be too close. In contrast, you and Liu Baqiao already seem to be very close friends, even after only two meetings.”

Right at this moment, the coach driver appeared in the distance. Sun Jiashu turned around to take a glance at him, then said to Chen Ping’an, “I have to go to the inner city to meet a guest in our Sun Manor. I agreed to meet them at this time, so I have to go. At the very latest, someone will tell you the location of the Dust Medicinal Shop by tonight.

“Also, seeing as you’re a sworn enemy of Fu Nanhua’s, make sure you send someone to notify me before you go out anywhere, and I’ll have someone accompany you for safety. Seeing as the Fu Clan’s Treasure Swallowing Whale is not a feasible option for you, you may as well take our Mountain and Sea Turtle to Stalactite Mountain. It’s set to depart in twenty days, and you can stay here in our ancestral residence during this time.

“If you want something, I can arrange for it to be brought to you as long as it can be found in Old Dragon City. Don’t be shy to ask. If you can’t bring yourself to do so, you can tell yourself that Sun Jiashu is really rich anyway, and friends should stick together through thick and thin, so he should share some of his wealth with you. Otherwise, it would be a waste to be his friend!”

“Alright, in that case, I’ll accept your kind offer,” Chen Ping’an replied with a smile. “By the way, that quote is from Liu Baqiao, right?”

Sun Jiashu immediately gave Chen Ping’an a thumbs-up in response. “No wonder Liu Baqiao was so insistent that I become friends with you. You truly understand him!”

With that, Sun Jiashu departed with the old coach driver, and the two of them traveled by carriage to the inner city of Old Dragon City.

Chen Ping’an was left on his own, and he began to practice his walking meditation by the river.

The still and calm river, the boundless expanse, the ordinary dirt road… If it weren’t for the absence of the stone arch bridge and Ruan Qiong’s forge, he would’ve thought that he was back in his hometown.

Chen Ping’an practiced his walking meditation for close to ten kilometers, until he arrived at a small village set beside the river. There were clucking chickens, barking dogs, and plumes of smoke rising up out of chimneys. Chen Ping’an stopped in his tracks, then looked around to find that there was a small wooden bridge beside him that led to the other side of the river, and for some reason, he felt as if he were in another life.

Chen Ping’an was just about to turn around and make his way back to the Sun Clan’s ancestral residence when he noticed a group of young children dressed in plain and simple clothes emerging from the rapeseed blossom farm across the river. Most of them at the age where they could start attending school, and there was an even younger child trailing along behind them with snot flowing out of his nostrils.

A couple of the older boys were holding crude wooden swords that had presumably been carved out by their seniors, and they seemed to be holding a contest of swordsmanship. They made their way through the fields one after the other while hacking away at the rapeseed blossoms in their path and making a series of loud noises to make themselves sound like mighty warriors.

The poor rapeseed blossoms were hacked to pieces by the two older children, and right at this moment, one of the younger children behind them suddenly erupted into tears. Initially, he had been quite cheerful, but all of a sudden, he had realized that this rapeseed blossom field belonged to his family, and if his parents were to see what had happened here, there was no way that he would be able to escape a beating.

However, he didn’t dare to get in the way of the two older kids, so he could only bawl his eyes out. Thankfully, one of the older kids quickly realized the trouble that they were in, and he pulled out a piece of candy made by his family and offered it to the child as consolation. The child’s tears instantly gave way to a wide smile, and he continued to follow along behind the two older kids, watching with admiration as they continued to lash out with their swords.

At the same time, he was thinking to himself that once he became a little older and stronger, he was going to ask his father to make him a sword as well. Once he obtained a sword of his own, he would cut down all of these rapeseed blossoms! That was just about the most badass thing that he could think of!

The pretty little girl from the neighbor’s house always liked to play with another boy, but once he became a formidable “swordsman,” he was confident that she would abandon that boy in a heartbeat to be with him.

Chen Ping’an was very amused by what he was seeing.

This was exactly like a scene taken from his childhood. Back then, Liu Xianyang was always going around causing trouble. Not only did he like to hack away at rapeseed blossoms with his wooden sword, he would also go on rampages through other fields or pelt stones at the ducks in the river. For his misbehavior, he was constantly scolded and beaten by the women in the small town.

After that, both he and Chen Ping’an became kiln workers, and he began to rein in his misbehaving ways as those activities no longer interested him. Instead, he liked to go up into the mountains to catch snakes and wild chickens. However, the people of the small town didn’t get any respite as Gu Can immediately took up Liu Xianyang’s mantle, getting up to all types of mischief in his stead.

The only difference was that as opposed to Liu Xianyang’s blatant misbehavior, Gu Can was far more sly and alert, and he was almost never caught in the act. He possessed willpower and persistence that even Chen Ping’an admired, as well as cunning and craftiness unbefitting a child of his age.

Even under the hot and blazing sun, Gu Can could sit by the river the entire day just to fish up an eel.

Whenever a mealtime came around, Gu Can’s mother would call her son to come and eat, and her voice would be heard throughout the entirety of Clay Vase Alley.

Chen Ping’an squatted down beside the river and began tossing rocks into the water.

Meanwhile, the group of children made their way across the bridge in a long line, and their heads resembled a stick of tanghulu.

The children weren’t apprehensive of Chen Ping’an at all, despite the fact that he was an unfamiliar face, and they only took a few glances at him before making their way toward the nearby village. However, one of the children, who was holding a bamboo sword, was constantly looking back at Chen Ping’an, taking particular interest in the sword case on his back.

In the end, he was unable to suppress his curiosity, and he rushed over to Chen Ping’an’s side before asking in the official dialect of Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, “Are you a swordsman?”

Chen Ping’an rose to his feet with a smile as he replied, “That’s right. Are you a swordsman as well?”

The child rolled his eyes in response to what he perceived to be a very naive question, and he replied, “I’m still missing a secret sword scripture.”

“Me too,” Chen Ping’an said with a nod as he suppressed the urge to laugh.

The boy took a glance at the bamboo sword in his hand, then turned his gaze to the sword case on Chen Ping’an’s back as he asked, “Can you show me your sword?”

“No,” Chen Ping’an refused with a shake of his head.

The boy was very displeased to hear this, and he took a glance at the wine gourd strapped to Chen Ping’an’s waist as he scoffed, “You’re so stingy! I bet you’re not even a swordsman at all! In fact, I think that gourd of yours contains water instead of wine, and you’re just carrying it around to fool others!”

“Have you seen a true swordsman before?” Chen Ping’an asked.

The boy nodded vigorously in response.

There was a little girl with rosy cheeks behind him, and she said in a timid voice, “The furthest we’ve gone is the market a few dozen kilometers away, so there’s no way we would’ve met any swordsmen.”

Another child immediately chimed in in a truthful manner, “All we’ve seen are some poems describing swordsmen at school, and there are also some books being sold in the market with little figures drawn on them. Those books are really expensive, and the swordsmen drawn on them are always really strong. None of the bad guys can beat them!”

The boy who had proclaimed that he had seen a true swordsman in the past turned around with a stern glare, and the two children behind him immediately fell silent.

The other bamboo-sword-wielding boy also approached Chen Ping’an as he asked, “How strong is your swordsmanship?”

Chen Ping’an was rather stumped by this question, and in the end, he could only reply, “I’ve seen really powerful swordsmen in real life, not just in the books that you mentioned.”

The boy was completely unconvinced by this, but the other sword-wielding boy was very intrigued to hear this, and he asked, “Did you learn any swordsmanship from them? If you can show me some of your swordsmanship, then I’ll believe that you’re a true swordsman.

“If you convince me, then I’ll be your disciple! I want to learn swordsmanship from you, not just cutting up rapeseed flowers. I want to be able to cut that bridge in half with a single swing of my sword! If you can teach me that, then I’ll accept you as my master right now!”

Chen Ping’an could barely contain his own amusement.

Unbeknownst to Chen Ping’an, the plot of land surrounding the Sun Clan’s ancestral residence was a renowned paradise in Old Dragon City, and even though most of the people living here were ordinary villagers who had been residing here for generations, there were also some powerful figures that had been secretly planted among them, looking after this sacred land for the Sun Clan to ensure that it wasn’t damaged by outsiders.

Not only was Chen Ping’an oblivious to this, all of the villagers were also kept in the dark, and they merely regarded these powerful cultivators as fellow villagers no different from themselves. Aside from the two elderly figures in the Sun Clan’s ancestral residence, there was also a logger who lived on his own in a thatch hut up in the mountains, as well as an elderly man who had a large family with generations of descendants.

They were all truly formidable cultivators, with three of them at the Golden Core Tier and one of them at the Nascent Tier. Some of them were patriarchs of side branches of the Sun Clan, some were powerful figures who had come here to hide from past troubles, and of course, there were also some who had been hired by the Sun Clan. Even the services of powerful immortals could be purchased for the right price.

At this moment, the four powerful Qi refiners were gathered in front of the logger’s thatch hut. With a casual sweep of the logger’s hand, a cloud of mist emerged to form a screen, upon which an image of Chen Ping’an was displayed, and the four of them were placing bets on his cultivation base. One of them theorized that seeing as he was friends with Liu Baqiao, he had to be an exceptionally prodigious swordsman.

He proclaimed that Chen Ping’an had to be at least a Cave Abode Tier swordsman, and that his fist intent was just for show. Someone else disagreed, speculating that Chen Ping’an was still yet to reach the Middle Five Tiers, while the other two were bickering over whether he was a fourth or fifth tier martial artist.

One of them speculated that he was a fourth tier martial artist with an exceptional foundation, as opposed to a normal fifth tier martial artist. He declared that not only was Chen Ping’an an outstanding prodigy, he had definitely also been instructed by a brilliant master from a young age, and that he was a young prodigy from a wealthy clan who had been given the best cultivation resources from birth, even going as far as to speculate that he could be from one of those vastly renowned clans that had been standing for thousands of years and possessed comparable wealth to an entire nation.

Despite the bickering that was taking place, the four cultivators were clearly thoroughly enjoying each other’s company.

————

Once again, the perverted man from the small medicine shop inside the inner city had come out to sit at the entrance of the alley atop his small stool. However, he hadn’t brought any sunflower seeds on this day. Instead, he was reading a book that had been bought by one of the female employees of the shop, and the book contained many stories about the feats and teachings of Confucian and Daoist sages.

Of course, the man had no actual interest in reading about these things. Instead, the reason why he had decided to bring this book was because he had been squatting at the entrance of the alley for a very long time without any female attention directed his way, so he thought that perhaps what he was missing was some scholarly charm. Hence, he was pretending to read this book in the hope that his luck would turn.

It was summertime, so the women on the streets were more scantily dressed than during the colder seasons. The man was sitting under the shade of a tree, pretending to read his book, but in reality, his peripheral vision was focused intently on all of the women passing by. Among them was a particularly voluptuous mature woman who instantly captured his heart, and he almost drooled onto the pages of the book in his hand.

Unfortunately, he noticed that even though he was holding a book and posing as a scholar, there were still no women willing to take a glance at him.

The only exception was one woman, who had come yet again. She had a waist as thick as a water vat and a face that was bigger than the man’s arse. A dejected look appeared on the man’s face, and for the first time, he began actually reading his book.

The young woman lived nearby, and she walked back and forth in front of the man many times, swaying her hips from side to side as she did so, but the man’s gaze remained fixed firmly on his book. In the end, the woman was unable to stand the heat of the summer sun, and she took a longing glance at the man of her dreams before setting off back home with a content look on her face.

The man was flipping through the pages of the book very quickly, and he suddenly stopped on a certain page, which contained a story in which a Daoist sage had espoused his teachings through an analogy about traveling on a boat. The story told of a man sailing through a river on a small boat.

As he was sailing along, another boat came drifting toward him from the opposite direction, and he hurriedly called out to avoid a crash, but the other boat still rammed straight into his boat. He immediately erupted into a torrent of abuse, only to find that there was no one on the other boat, upon which he immediately burst into laughter.

Through this story, the sage was trying to espouse the idea that loneliness was what made one exceptional, rather than a blind follower of others, and that loneliness was the key to truly understanding oneself and fulfilling one’s true value.

The man didn’t find this to be nonsensical. In fact, he could understand the true meaning that the story was trying to express, but even so, they didn’t serve to benefit him in any way as he was pursuing a different path from this Daoist sage.

Back in the small town, he had even gone to the school on many occasions to eavesdrop on Mr. Qi’s lessons, and he was able to understand everything there as well, even some of the more profound and intangible concepts, but they did nothing to benefit his cultivation.

What was most perplexing to him was that his senior brother had grown up in the same place as him, and all he did every day was perform the menial tasks of an unrefined farmer, yet somehow, he had been able to make constant and steady progress in his cultivation base.

After making a trip to Great Sui Nation’s imperial palace, he had even managed to reach the 10th tier. Their master would always denounce and scold him, but when his senior brother was mentioned, their master would always praise his aptitude and learning ability.

This wasn’t enough to make him resent his master or his senior brother, it simply left him feeling rather indignant and confused. This was why he had been living in a very dejected manner all these years, and at this point, he didn’t even have the courage and conviction to try and prove his master wrong anymore.

Hence, he didn’t raise any objections when his master told him to leave the small town to travel to Old Dragon City.

1. Sun Jiashu’s surname “孙” translates to grandson, and in Chinese culture, it’s considered to be taking advantage of someone else if you joke about seniority, ie. joking about being someone’s father. ?