Unsheathed

Lu Tai stopped laughing and even wiped tears from the corners of his eyes. By the looks of it, he had truly been amused by the tall immortal in white. “Apart from you and your master, do you have any other powerful allies involved in nurturing this ghost infant?”

The tall immortal in white was stunned. He smiled bitterly and replied, “This is a heinous act, and perhaps those outside the mountains will feel like we’re very far away from Planchette Writing Sect, with more than five hundred kilometers between us. In our eyes, the eyes of cultivators from the mountains, however, this isn’t far at all. That being the case, do you think my master and I alone would dare to set up such a huge scheme? Do you think the two of us are capable enough to control this situation?”

“Oh, so it’s simply the case that you and your master want to obtain all of the benefits for yourselves,” Lu Tai said in amusement.

The tall immortal in white purposely put on a calm and composed expression. However, he was already unleashing a barrage of abuse in his mind.

“Don’t you find this awkward?” Lu Tai asked with an amused expression. “You can’t afford to give me what I want, yet my companion and I, two outsiders, are coincidentally able to ruin your carefully executed plan of decades.”

Killing intent radiated from the tall immortal in white when he heard this. “Are you going to insist on interfering until the end? Are you not afraid of bringing death to everyone including yourself?!”

Fury boiled in the immortal’s chest as he continued, “Indeed, it’s just like you guessed. My master and I are unable to give you and your companion enough benefits. However, how will it benefit you to interfere with our plans in the first place? My master nurtured and raised the ghost infant using a unique secret technique that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. Moreover, the ghost infant has already recognized us as his master. Taking ten thousand steps back, can you keep the ghost infant alive even if you manage to snatch it from us?!”

Lu Tai flipped his bamboo fan around and used its handle to gently tap the beam he was sitting on. He appeared extremely calm and carefree as he replied, “Am I not allowed to do something good for the sake of righteousness?”

The tall immortal in white almost exploded in fury, with his lips trembling uncontrollably. The woman pregnant with the ghost infant was present in the hall right now, and any minor injury that she suffered would affect the future growth of the ghost infant and thus detrimentally affect his master’s subsequent plan of one hundred years. If it weren’t for this and all of his other considerations, the tall immortal in white truly wanted to go all out and fight this androgynous person to the death.

Lu Tai poured fuel on the fire and asked, “Things don’t feel boring anymore, do they? How are you going to thank me?”

The face of the tall immortal in white became extremely dark. In fact, his face almost became as dark as those of the poisoned members of the Flying Eagle Fortress.

Lu Tai suddenly became bored of this conversation, so he closed his folding fan and retrieved numerous snow-white alchemical pills from his sleeve before scattering them into the four braziers in the corners of the hall.

It wasn’t that the immortal with the fly-whisk didn’t want to stop Lu Tai, but the young man’s shockingly large flying sword materialized in the air once again, plummeting down again and again, reappearing in midair after it sunk into the floor. It was very difficult for him to dodge these attacks.

Afterward, the true killing strike from Lu Tai disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

The tall immortal in white was almost struck. He roared in fury, and it wasn’t long before only the handle of his fly-whisk with the characters “Extinguishing Worries” remained. Meanwhile, the countless strands of snow-white hair transformed into winged white snakes that rapidly flew around with their wings beating in an ear-piercing manner. They were densely packed together as they shielded the tall immortal in white.

The immortal reached up and touched his face where a bone-deep gash had newly appeared. His head would have been pierced by the sword if he hadn’t turned it to the side quickly enough.

Two flying swords!

And he was also skilled in formations!

Moreover, he had shamelessly claimed that no one in the world could rival his clan when it came to formations!

“You’ve run into this trap yourself; you can’t blame anyone else,” Lu Tai sneered.

The silver talismanic symbols of the columns shone with brilliance before linking together to form a net around the large hall.

The threads connecting this net together were none other than the characters and symbols hovering in midair.

Apart from the immortal who had accidentally trapped himself in this hall, Lu Tai’s two bonded flying swords, Needle Tip and Wheat Awn, were also present inside this net.

Lu Tai gracefully hovered down from the beam, no longer caring about that cage as he walked toward the deathly pale wife of the fortress lord. Her eyes were expressionless, and her body was drenched in sweat. There was also a faint pungence coming from her chair.

When he walked past the slender woman in the middle of the hall, the woman who had secretly reached the fourth tier of martial arts had already regained her mobility and pulled the dazed and haggard young boy into her embrace.

After tossing the alchemical pills into the braziers just then, the pills had disintegrated and sent snow-white powder wafting through the hall. The members of the Flying Eagle Fortress’ Huan Clan slowly recovered after inhaling this powder, with a healthy shade of redness gradually returning to their faces. However, even though they were uninjured, their souls had been exhausted to such a state that their lifespans would inevitably be affected and cut short.

The slender woman suddenly turned around and questioned Lu Tai in a stern voice, exclaiming, “Why did you say those things just then?! You’re also one of the main culprits!”

Lu Tai turned around and glanced at her before smiling faintly and asking, “Then maybe I should dispose of the two of you right here and now? Perhaps that will clean everything up and get rid of all worries?”

The slender woman holding the young boy in her arms hurriedly lowered her head, not daring to look at Lu Tai anymore.

Lu Tai walked over and stood in front of the fortress lord’s wife with his hands clasped behind his back. Bending down to observe her condition, he said, “Your vital energy is almost completely depleted. In other words, death is already an inevitability for you. You only have two choices in front of you right now: to die an honorable death, or to be exterminated as vermin.”

In Lu Tai’s eyes, her seemingly beautiful face was already shattered and filled with many imperfections. Wisps of black air that reeked of death exuded from her body, and her eyes which still seemed lively and beautiful in the eyes of mortals were already pitch-black.

The woman who had enjoyed a life of peace and comfort for many years was unreactive and at a complete loss.

Lu Tai smiled and continued, “Stop playing dumb. I know that your mind and soul have already returned. Since you’re experiencing a period of terminal lucidity and still have the energy to make your own choice, I’m willing to respect your decision and will. However, you only have fifteen minutes before you lose control of your body again. When that time comes, I won’t afford you such patience and politeness anymore.”

Huan Yang was just about to stand up and speak, yet Lu Tai immediately flicked his sleeve and sealed all of the fortress lord’s five senses. Huan Yang was forced to sit there like an obedient puppet whose eyes were filled with pain and pleading.

The fortress lord’s wife slowly looked up and murmured, “Can I not die?”

Lu Tai sighed, unsure of how to respond.

After remaining silent for a long time, Lu Tai leaned on the woman’s chair and turned around to face the door of the hall. “Then live for a while longer,” he said in a gentle voice.

————

Outside the main building of the Flying Eagle Fortress…

The disheveled old man helplessly watched on as those roosters on a diet of glutinous rice and spring water died one after another.

Huan Chang and Huan Shu were coincidentally tagging along with Daoist Priest Huang Shang and Tao Xieyang today, and this was because the two siblings were unwilling to hide in the “safety” of the main building. They were unwilling to hide under the protection of the esteemed immortal from Peace and Tranquility Mountain. Since the old Daoist priest was still going around the fortress, the two siblings decided that they wanted to do something to help as well.

The old Daoist priest glanced at the sea of dark clouds that was continually bearing down. He gritted his teeth and was left with no option but to summon his trump card. He retrieved two large white bowls, one in each hand, and said to the siblings, “I need to borrow two to three ounces of blood from the two of you in order to activate the two stone lions outside the ancestral hall of your Huan Clan. These stone lions are prized protective treasures that your grandpa obtained from a powerful person many years ago, and they’re the true trump cards of the Flying Eagle Fortress.”

The old Daoist priest raised his hands and said in a solemn voice, “Make haste! We still need to hurry to the ancestral hall after this! There’s no time to waste!”

Huan Chang and Huan Shu exchanged a glance before slicing open their palms without any hesitation, allowing their blood to flow into the large white bowls in the old Daoist priest’s hands.

The old Daoist priest then caused the two bowls to vanish with a flick of his wrists before warning, “Our path might be blocked by ghosts and yin entities, so I won’t necessarily be able to protect the four of you. You need to look after yourselves. In fact, you might even need to help clear the path for me. If you die, there won’t be anyone to collect your corpse for you. So, now’s your chance to think things through and pull out if you want.”

The two siblings and the two good friends nodded in unison, signaling that they wanted to continue.

“Let’s go!” the old Daoist priest shouted softly.

Just as he had anticipated, the ghosts and yin entities hiding all over the Flying Eagle Fortress finally rushed out from their hiding spots and charged at them as if they had already seen through their plans.

A young boy in white suddenly appeared above some roof, standing on the apex as he gazed into the distance. The direction he was gazing in was none other than the one where the old Daoist priest and the four youths were jumping over roofs and sprinting toward the ancestral hall.

Chen Ping’an pinched a talisman with each hand before gently letting go of them and silently calling, “First, Fifteenth!”

The two streaks of sword light each carried a talisman with them as they furiously shot toward the Huan Clan’s ancestral hall, quickly pinning the Treasure Pagoda Demon-suppressing Talismans on the two pillars outside the building.

Two bursts of dazzling golden light instantly exploded from the pillars.

Afterward, two streaks of sword light returned to Chen Ping’an’s side before once again leaving with a yellow paper talisman each. These talismans were pinned on the roofs of two buildings not far in front of the old Daoist priest and the four youths.

Finally, First and Fifteenth carried another two Demon-suppressing Talismans with them to help the disheveled old Daoist priest clear a path.

After using all of his Demon-suppressing Talismans, Chen Ping’an no longer paid any attention to the situation over at the Huan Clan’s ancestral hall.

Each person needed to take responsibility for their own life and death when traveling through the cultivation world to subdue demons and eliminate fiends.

This was the case when doing evil, and this was also the case when doing good.

The dark clouds overhead were almost about to crush down on the fortress.

It was as if the sky had fallen so low that one could reach up and touch it with their hands. It was as if a few shouts from the streets and markets could astonish the immortals in the heavens.

Chen Ping’an looked up at the sky.

The members of the cultivation world in the Flying Eagle Fortress couldn’t see scenes behind the dark clouds, but he could.

There was an old man with a tall hat and of unknown power sitting cross-legged on a red straw mat. He was currently reciting something, and he controlled the sea of dark clouds that was just large enough to cover the fortress to slowly descend toward the earth. The time had arrived, so the old man was going to massacre the Flying Eagle Fortress and absorb all of the essence of blood and flesh. He was going to feed that ghost infant that was soon going to be born.

With his footsteps light and nimble, Chen Ping’an started to leap across the rooftops at a rapid speed, so quick that his white robe made him appear like a streak of snow-white light.

In the end, he arrived at the Flying Eagle Fortress’ martial arts training ground which was completely deserted except for him.

Chen Ping’an lightly stomped his foot and took a deep breath.

He then bent his knees slightly and slowly adopted a fist stance that exuded a boundless and ancient aura.

This was the Rain Evaporation Technique.

At this moment, Golden Sweet Wine, his Dao robe concealed by an illusion technique, revealed its true appearance.

Flood dragons swam across his long golden robe.

Chen Ping’an closed his eyes and rapidly channeled his breath of pure True Qi using the Eighteen Stops Technique, causing his Qi to appear like a churning river roaring toward the sea.

After a while, Chen Ping’an suddenly opened his eyes and forcefully stomped his foot.

Not only did the martial arts training ground shudder violently, causing countless weapons to fall from the wooden racks, but plumes of dust also rose in several nearby streets.

Chen Ping’an threw a punch at the sky.

He then threw punch after punch.

He had assumed the fist stance of the Rain Evaporation Technique, yet he was unleashing the fist intent of the Deity Drumming Technique!

Cui Chan’s grandfather, the old man in the bamboo building, had never taught Chen Ping’an such kind of fist technique before.

Chen Ping’an threw punch after punch, also stomping his foot again and again to increase his power.

The earth quaked and rumbled as if something were tossing and turning underground.

The old man in the bamboo building had said that upon comprehending the Rain Evaporation Technique and unleashing it for the first time, his punch had forced the rain to retreat more than three hundred meters into the sky, not daring to fall on the land anymore.

Chen Ping’an wasn’t thinking about too many things at this moment, and he simply wanted to emulate the old man’s feat from before. Using his fists, he wanted to tell the churning dark clouds overhead to piss off back into the sky!

Unbeknownst to the young boy, he had reached a state where there was no one in front.[1]

1. This references his conversation with Lu Tai about the peak state of Go and its parallel with cultivation. The state of having “no one in front” most likely refers to having an unyielding and indomitable mindset backed up by actual power. ☜