Unsheathed

Chen Ping’an raised his head to look up at the sky, and he discovered that Zheng Dafeng’s breakthrough was causing such a huge phenomenon that it had forced the Fu Clan’s sea of clouds to reveal itself. However, the sea of clouds ultimately faded, while Chen Ping’an asked with a concerned expression, “Is he not making too much of a scene?”

The Yin god smiled as it replied, “Only by making a scene like this can he intimidate the rats and scoundrels lurking in the shadows.”

The Yin god was naturally very happy to see Zheng Dafeng make a breakthrough. Old Man Yang was always very fair in his dealings with other people, but a Yin god that had come out of a small temple didn’t enjoy the same treatment.

If Zheng Dafeng were to fall here, then Old Man Yang’s plans would be negatively affected, and he could easily kill the Yin god in an instant, even though they were separated by a vast distance.

Chen Ping’an had always been very careful and cautious, but after carefully pondering what the Yin god had just said, he decided that it made sense. However, at his current stage as a martial artist, it was best for him not to emulate what Zheng Dafeng was doing here. Only once he reached the same lofty heights as Zheng Dafeng would he be able to do something similar without placing himself in grave peril.

“Now that the entire city has witnessed Zheng Dafeng’s breakthrough, won’t he be stalked by the Fu Clan and the five major clans everywhere he goes from here onward?” Chen Ping’an asked.

The Yin god took a glance in the direction of the East Sea, then shook its head in response. “Fu Qi has already paid Zheng Dafeng a visit, and he’ll definitely take advantage of this opportunity to do some business with Fu Qi, so he won’t cause as much of a scene when he returns from the sea of clouds.”

Chen Ping’an nodded in response, then began packing all of his bamboo slips back into his pocket treasure. Some of these bamboo slips had been made from the leftover bamboo from the bookcases that he had made for the three children, but most of them were made from leftover scrap bamboo from the bamboo building that Wei Bo had given him.

They were all courage bamboo that had been sourced from Go Table Mountain, and after learning the value of Azure Divine Mountain’s divine cloud bamboo from the Green Beetle Shop in Water Combing Nation’s ferry station, Chen Ping’an had come to cherish these bamboo slips greatly, to the point that whenever he saw any good phrases on the books that he read, he had to think carefully before deciding whether he wanted to engrave those phrases onto the bamboo slips.

“Can you give me one of those bamboo slips?” the Yin god suddenly asked. “The one says ‘gods and immortals walk two different paths separated by Yin and Yang, the soul consolidates the psyche, while the spirit gives rise to the godly body.’”

“No,” Chen Ping’an replied without any hesitation.

Do you think you’re Baoping, Li Huai, or Lin Shouyi? Why should I give something to you just because you want it?

However, Chen Ping’an then recalled how the Yin god had exposed Zheng Dafeng’s true intentions to him back in the alley. Regardless of whether it had been instructed to do that by Old Man Yang, it seemed that he owed it a favor for that. With that in mind, Chen Ping’an immediately changed his mind as he said, “Fine, you can have it. It’s just a little bamboo slip anyway.”

The Yin god didn’t know why Chen Ping’an had suddenly changed his mind. It had been excessively direct in its request due to how much it yearned for the jade slip, but it wasn’t actually asking Chen Ping’an for the bamboo slip without compensation, and it smiled as it explained, “I wasn’t done just now. What I was saying is that I want to purchase the bamboo slip from you. How does ten grain rain coins sound?”

Chen Ping’an had only just pulled the requested bamboo slip out of his pocket treasure, and he was astonished to hear the words “grain rain coin.”

A perplexed look appeared on his face as he exclaimed, “Even if these bamboo slips are made from courage bamboo from Azure Divine Mountain, surely such a tiny piece isn’t worth that much!”

The Yin god smiled as it replied, “If you sell it to anyone else, it’ll only be worth a few lesser heat coins at the very most, but to me, the phrase on the slip is worth that price. Are you not going to sell it to me because the price is too high? Should I lower it then? How about one lesser heat coin?”

Chen Ping’an offered the bamboo slip to the Yin god with both hands as he smiled and said, “It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Zhao.”

The Yin god accepted the bamboo slip from Chen Ping’an with one hand while handing Chen Ping’an ten grain rain coins with the other. Chen Ping’an accepted the grain rain coins from the Yin god, then gawked at them for a moment before hurriedly stowing them away into his pocket treasure.

“Are you not going to examine them to see if they’re genuine?” the Yin god asked with an amused smile. “There are countless counterfeit lesser heat coins and grain rain coins out there.”

“I’ve never seen a genuine grain rain coin before, but I trust you, Mr. Zhao,” Chen Ping’an replied with a smile.

With that, he strapped his Sword Nurturing Gourd back to his waist.

A light snow coin was equivalent to 1,000 taels of silver, while a lesser heat coin was equivalent to 100 light snow coins. A grain rain coin was worth 10 lesser heat coins, and that was the so-called rule of “magnitudes of 10” in immortal transactions. As for the gold essence copper coins specially crafted by Jewel Small World, those were even more valuable than grain rain coins.

All of a sudden, Chen Ping’an felt as if he had come upon an enormous fortune.

“Mr. Zhao, how about I show you all of my jade slips so you can see if there are any others that you want to buy?” Chen Ping’an suddenly offered.

The Yin god shook its head as it replied with a smile, “I’m all out of money.”

Indeed, those 10 grain rain coins were all of the money that it had taken with it on this journey to Old Dragon City with Zheng Dafeng.

One of the reasons why it had offered such a high price was as a congratulatory gesture for Zheng Dafeng’s breakthrough, but the more important reason was that the phrase engraved onto the bamboo slip had really resonated with it. The will of the heavens was something that anyone else could scoff, but it had no choice but to believe that such a thing existed.

It really wasn’t terribly willing to spend ten whole grain rain coins on a single bamboo slip; rather, it simply had no choice but to do so. The complexities behind all of this were extremely profound, and perhaps only a Naturalist Qi refiner would be able to fully grasp them.

“It’s alright, Mr. Zhao. If you find any other bamboo slips that you like, then I’ll just give them to you for free,” Chen Ping’an said.

The Yin god turned to Chen Ping’an with a smile, but didn’t say anything further as it turned its gaze back to the sea of clouds up above.

Old Dragon City was an enormous place, and the average person would very rarely notice a paper kite or a bird high up in the sky. Hence, Zheng Dafeng’s breakthrough and the subsequent reaction from the sea of clouds wouldn’t attract any attention from all of the mortals in the city, but all of the Qi refiners of the Middle Five Tiers and the master martial artists in the city couldn’t help but watch from down below.

In particular, this had created a huge stir in the Fu Clan, and Fu Qi, who had been waiting for Zhi Gui at the foot of the Dragon Scaling Platform, had gone to personally witness who it was that had been able to break through the sea of clouds.

The sea of clouds concealed the man’s appearance, so most of the cultivators of lofty statuses in Old Dragon City were only looking up at the sky to see the spectacle and speculate about the true identity of the almighty figure who had ascended to the heavens.

Could it be that the Fu Clan patriarch in possession of the pseudo-celestial tool had finally come out of seclusion? Or was the Cloud Forest Jiang Clan patriarch putting on a display of intimidation on the cusp of Fu Nanhua’s marriage to the young woman from the Jiang Clan?

Old Dragon City was the most prosperous city on the entire Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, and as an important central hub that connected three continents, all types of people could be found in the city. There were many wealthy people here and just as many depraved gamblers. In the wake of Zheng Dafeng’s breakthrough, all of these gamblers had come out like seedlings after the first bout of spring rain.

Not only were there private wagers being proposed between friends, even some of the major gambling dens in the city were offering odds and taking bets. There were all types of bets being made on subjects such as the gender and surname of the person who had made the breakthrough, as well as whether the Fu Clan would target them for their insolence.

Inside the Fan Manor in the inner city, the leader of the Fan Clan and the clan’s elders and guest elders were all gathered in a corridor with ecstatic looks on their faces. All of them were at least a hundred years of age, and from the instant that Zheng Dafeng ascended into the sea of clouds, they had begun speculating about who it was that had made the ascension to such breathtaking heights.

With the information that they had gathered thus far, they were able to determine that it was Zheng Dafeng who had made a breakthrough without any warning, ascending to the Mountain Summit Tier.

This was naturally fantastic news for the Fan Clan, and barring any mishaps, Zheng Dafeng was going to be staying in Old Dragon City for the next few decades, so essentially, the Fan Clan could enjoy the protection of a ninth tier martial artist for the foreseeable future!

Novice martial artists cultivated the body, intermediate martial artists cultivated qi, and beyond that came the cultivation of the spirit. The greater the heights one ascended to, particularly after reaching the seventh tier, the gulf between each successive tier was unimaginably wide. Hence, among top-tier martial artists, a difference of a single tier was almost an insurmountable gap in power.

Having said that, the outcome of a battle between two such martial artists wasn’t always set in stone.

Similarly, even among ninth dan go players, there could be a wide variance in skill and ability. On some occasions, even seventh and eighth dan go players could pull off miracles and defeat their ninth dan counterparts, but those were very much anomalies.

Furthermore, when it came to rank designations for eighth and ninth dan go players, that was often only determined through a match between a certain Go official of the imperial court, and there existed a huge variance in ability between these Go officials themselves, so it was a far less credible and reliable ranking than one personally assigned by a Go scholar of the Confucian schools on Middle Earth Divine Continent.

A Golden Core Tier patriarch of the Fan Clan stroked his beard as he chuckled, “Our young master is certainly very fortunate to have such an exceptional Dao mentor!”

All of a sudden, the sea of clouds above Old Dragon City began to churn violently while descending rapidly, and before everyone knew it, they had already been inundated within the sea clouds.

In this instant, all Qi refiners and martial artists felt the auras in their bodies stagnate a little in their circulation, but the sea of clouds dissipated just as quickly as it had descended, lingering only for a moment before completely vanishing out of sight.

Even so, many of the Golden Core Tier cultivators in the city were still left feeling quite apprehensive.

Zheng Dafeng had ascended to the heavens as an eighth tier martial artist, yet as he was returning to the alley on foot, he had already reached the Mountain Summit Tier.

This entire time, the female employees in the shop were joking around with each other as usual, completely oblivious to what had just unfolded in the backyard of the shop. Their ignorance was pitiful, but it also kept them content and safe from a world that was beyond their reach anyway. They saw their shopkeeper entering the shop, but they thought nothing of it.

He was carrying two jars of fine wine that he had purchased from a neighboring street, and he made his way back into the backyard before tossing one of the jars of wine to Chen Ping’an. He then picked up his pipe from the ground and sat back down onto the steps in silence, not smoking his pipe nor drinking his wine.

Shortly thereafter, he broke his silence, but instead of speaking to Chen Ping’an, the Dao mentor who had been assigned to him by Old Man Yang, he turned to the Yin god as he asked, “Can you come clean with me now, Old Man Zhao? What other instructions did the old geezer give you? Chen Ping’an is going to be leaving on Osmanthus Island ship in just a few days, can you tell me if I have to serve as his Dao guardian or not?”

The Yin god shook its head in response. “All the divine lord told me was to let you be and enjoy your life if you could successfully make a breakthrough, but if you failed, then I was to toss you into the sea to feed the fish.”

Zheng Dafeng rubbed his hands over his own face as he groaned, “My goodness, I’m still just as confused as ever!”

He then set his pipe down onto his lap before opening his jar of wine, then lowered his head to make a slurping motion. The wine in the jar immediately rose up as a stream before flowing into his mouth on its own.

Zheng Dafeng wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, then looked up at the sea of clouds in the sky as he asked, “Old Man Zhao, do you think the old man would’ve been able to predict what I saw during my breakthrough? Would he have predicted that I almost made an attempt at Ramming the Heavenly Gate after overcoming the Test of the Heart? Would he have anticipated what I saw as I was approaching the Heavenly Gate?”

Zheng Dafeng heaved a forlorn sigh, then took another sip of wine, following which an amused smile suddenly appeared on his face as he continued, “Only now do I realize the double meaning behind when the old man told me that I had no hope of reaching the ninth tier in this lifetime. What a cheeky old man he is!”

The Yin god’s eyelid twitched slightly upon hearing this, astonished by Zheng Dafeng’s insolence.

Immediately thereafter, a sheepish look appeared on Zheng Dafeng’s face as he looked around with a wary expression, and he hurriedly rose to his feet before making his way to the center of the courtyard before turning to face the north as he said, “Please don’t be mad at me, old man.

“I’m feeling very guilty to be unable to express my joy to you in person after making my breakthrough. Your powers are matched only by limitless generosity, so please forgive me and accept this apologetic gesture of mine.”

He then brought his hands together to simulate holding some sticks of lit incense, then bowed three times toward the distant Great Li Empire

Meanwhile, Chen Ping’an was looking on with a puzzled expression, wondering how Old Man Yang had managed to produce a pair of such massively different disciples like Li Er and Zheng Dafeng.

However, it then occurred to him that Li Baoping, Lin Shouyi, and Li Huai’s personalities also differed drastically, and the disparities between Li Er and Zheng Dafeng suddenly didn’t seem so strange to him.

However, prior to simulating offering up incense to Old Man Yang, Zheng Dafeng had also made a strange gesture that had caught Chen Ping’an’s attention. He had raised an arm and waved his hand in a circle above his head, as if he were plucking three invisible sticks of incense out of thin air overhead.

After doing all of that, Zheng Dafeng sat lazily back down onto his stool, as if he really had just decided to enjoy his life. He turned to Chen Ping’an, who was also looking back at him. Zheng Dafeng was acting like a scoundrel who didn’t want to repay his debts, while the thought Chen Ping’an was expressing through his eyes was that he may not be able to beat Zheng Dafeng in a battle, but he could certainly nag Zheng Dafeng to death if he refused to pay his debt.

The Yin god was looking at both of them, and it suddenly felt like it couldn’t understand this world anymore.

Finally, the silence was broken, but not by any of the people in the backyard. Someone had lifted the curtain of the shop’s back entrance, but he didn’t step out into the courtyard right away. Instead, he was holding the curtain with one hand and a flagon of the finest osmanthus wine in Old Dragon City in the other.

Just that single flagon of wine alone was worth a snowflake coin. The young boy could see that there was someone else in the courtyard with Zheng Dafeng, so he was standing on the spot with a hesitant expression as he asked in an uncertain voice, “Can I come in, Mr. Zheng?”

The Yin god had already vanished by the time the boy stepped into the Dust Medicinal Shop.

Chen Ping’an turned and discovered that the newcomer was someone of a similar age to him, and he could tell that the boy was a pure martial artist who appeared to be at the third tier. Chen Ping’an could see that as the boy breathed, all of the sinews, bones, muscles, and skin in his body were quivering ever so slightly, indicating that he had established a very solid martial arts foundation.

However, there were still many flaws that had to be ironed out, the most apparent of which was the narrowness and unevenness of the meridians, which served as paths between his acupoints, resulting in suboptimal circulation of his True Qi.

All of a sudden, Chen Ping’an was surprised to catch himself evaluating someone else’s martial arts cultivation base.

Only in this instant did Chen Ping’an truly realize that he had reached the fourth tier.

Zheng Dafeng paid no heed to the dazed Chen Ping’an as he beckoned to the young boy with a smile and said, “I knew your grandfather would be able to figure it out. I don’t want to be too harsh, but all you’re bringing me as a congratulatory gift is a single flagon of your Fan Clan’s osmanthus wine? Isn’t that a little too stingy?

“I’m really rough around the edges when it comes to important stuff, but I’m very pedantic about the little things. Leave the wine here, then go back home and tell your grandfather that being too stingy can come back to bite him in the future!”

A resigned look appeared on the boy’s face as he explained, “I snuck out to bring you this wine after hearing about what happened from my grandfather, so this isn’t a gift to you from my seniors. If you don’t like it, I can bring you a better present once I’ve inherited Osmanthus Island from my clan. I snuck this flagon of wine out from home, so please don’t tell my grandfather. I’ll go back to ask for a better congratulatory present right now.”

With that, the boy set down the flagon of wine before rushing away.

Zheng Dafeng made no attempt to keep him, and he turned to take a glance at Chen Ping’an, who he found to be far less pleasing on the eyes. Both of them were young boys, yet the one from the Fan Clan treated others with sincerity and generosity, and was also very easygoing.

In contrast, Chen Ping’an had proven himself to be so stingy that he still remembered an old debt of five copper coins! In Zheng Dafeng’s eyes, the tanned coloration of his skin had to represent the darkness in his heart!

Chen Ping’an was able to extrapolate a lot of information from what the boy had just said.

The boy came from the Fan Clan, the clan that Sun Jiashu revealed to have secured the backing of the Great Li Empire alongside the Fu Clan. At the moment, he was Zheng Dafeng’s disciple, and in the future, he was going to inherit that Osmanthus Island ship.

Additionally, the Yin god had revealed earlier that Zheng Dafeng was going to make a deal with City Lord Fu Qi.

Chen Ping’an only considered these matters momentarily before casting this train of thought aside. In any case, it seemed that he would be able to travel to Stalactite Mountain on the Fan Clan’s ship without any issues, and that was his main concern.

As for what happened in Old Dragon City in the future, whether that be a battle between gods or anything else, that was not something for him to think about. All he had to do was stay patiently in the medicinal shop for a few days, then travel to Stalactite Mountain on the Osmanthus Island ship, make his way to the Sword Qi Great Wall from there, then deliver the sword that he was carrying to Ning Yao.

All of a sudden, Zheng Dafeng reached out to make a grabbing motion as he chuckled, “Come back, boy. You’re not really planning to ask for a congratulatory gift from your seniors for me, are you?”

In reality, Zheng Dafeng didn’t care in the slightest what the boy said after he got home. The only reason why he had asked him to come back was because he didn’t want to be stuck in a courtyard with Chen Ping’an on his own. Otherwise, the two of them would continue to stare at each other in this tense silence, and Chen Ping’an was his Dao mentor, so it wasn’t like he could just beat him up.

At this point, the boy from the Fan Clan had already almost rushed out of the alley, but his clothes were abruptly tugged on from behind, stopping cold in his tracks. He was naturally very startled by this, thinking that he had encountered an assassin, but Zheng Dafeng’s voice then rang out in his heart.

A wide grin appeared on the boy’s face, and he gestured for the Golden Core Tier guest elder of his clan to stand down, then quickly rushed back into the Dust Medicinal Shop. Once inside, he exchanged greetings with a few of the female employees that he had grown familiar with, then lifted the curtain and returned to the backyard while the female employees were all remarking on his good looks.

The boy liked this atmosphere from the bottom of his heart.

Of course, the celestial maidens within the Fan Clan were more beautiful, but from a very young age, he had been able to tell that they always looked at him differently from how the women here looked at him.

One regarded him as the future head of the Fan Clan, while the other simply saw him as a young boy who had popped up out of nowhere.

He didn’t detest the former, but he certainly preferred the latter.

Chen Ping’an dragged a stool over for the boy, and he hurriedly accepted the stool with a smile.

“Thanks!”

“You’re welcome,” Chen Ping’an replied with a smile of his own.

The boy then turned to Zheng Dafeng as he asked, “Where should I sit, Sir?”

Zheng Dafeng swept a hand through the air as he jibed, “Go to sit by the curtain and keep a lookout for us.”

“I’m on it!”

The boy rushed over to the entrance of the backyard in a joyful manner, then sat down in a very strict and rigid posture with his back ramrod straight and his hands resting on his knees.

Even though he was doing his best to make himself appear formal and serious, he was unable to suppress the smile in his eyes, which were as clearly a flowing creek and clearly expressed all of his emotions, as opposed to the veiled and ambiguous eyes of more calculating and cunning figures.

All of a sudden, Chen Ping’an found himself feeling a little envious of the boy as he had something that Chen Ping’an had always wanted, but had never been able to obtain.

Back when the Scholarly Sage became drunk and was carried on Chen Ping’an’s back, he had patted Chen Ping’an’s shoulder firmly while telling him that a young boy like him should be carrying beautiful things like long grass and flying warblers on his shoulders, as opposed to vendettas and heavy responsibilities.

That was the case for the boy, but it was something that was out of Chen Ping’an’s reach.

Zheng Dafeng seemed to have sensed the shift in Chen Ping’an’s mood, and he wasn’t able to tell exactly what Chen Ping’an was thinking, but after a moment of contemplation, a smile appeared on his face as he tossed the flagon of osmanthus wine to the boy from the Fan Clan.

The boy caught the flagon with a bright smile as he said, “I’m only going to take one sip, Mr. Zheng.”

Chen Ping’an raised his Sword Nurturing Gourd with a smile as he proposed, “Let’s drink together.”

The boy faltered slightly upon hearing this, then nodded eagerly in response. “Alright, in that case, I’ll take a bigger sip than normal! Oh, by the way, my name is Fan Er. That’s not a pet name, it’s my real name. I have an older sister called Fan Junmao, that’s why my name is Fan Er. [1] To be honest, I’m pretty sad that my parents would give me a half-arsed name like this, even though I’m their second child. What’s your name? Can you tell me?”

The boy then downed a large mouthful of wine. His face instantly flushed, and he began coughing violently. It seemed that he really was quite sad about his name.

Chen Ping’an took a sip of wine himself, then smiled as he replied, “My name is Chen Ping’an, Ping’an as in safety.”

1. The Er (二) in Fan Er’s name is literally the number 2. ☜