Unsheathed

According to the Mountain and Sea Chronicle, there were many mountain gods and spirits on Parasol Leaf Continent, and this was indeed the case.

During his travels, Chen Ping’an was actively avoiding places abundant with spiritual energy or clearly harbored hidden perils, but he was still unable to keep himself completely out of harm’s way. For example, one night, he spotted a brightly lit city.

He had no map as the distribution of maps was strictly monitored in all empires, even more so than weapons, and he wanted to replenish some supplies, so he followed the lights and made his way toward the city.

The city had no curfew, but there were guards at the city gates, checking for passports. Upon entering the city, Chen Ping’an tried to rent a room in an inn, but the innkeeper refused to give him a room, telling him that he wasn’t using the right currency.

Each nation had its own special copper coins, so if Chen Ping’an had tried to pay using copper coins, then it would’ve made sense for him to be turned down, but it was rather strange that the innkeeper was refusing to accept silver.

Thankfully, the innkeeper gave Chen Ping’an some instructions to a place where he could exchange gold and silver for the local currency, and he could come back once he secured the required currency.

Chen Ping’an followed the instructions and made his way to a shop with an extremely tall counter that was close to one and a half times the height of a grown man. Chen Ping’an stepped onto a small stool in front of the counter and stated the purpose of his visit, then submitted a few silver ingots in exchange for a bunch of copper coins and paper money.

The copper coins appeared to be of good quality, and the paper money had official imperial court and bank seals on them, so Chen Ping’an accepted them without a second thought and returned to the inn. There, he paid for a room, then displayed his passport to the innkeeper upon request, and the innkeeper made some careful records of the provided documentation.

The next day, Chen Ping’an was about to leave the inn when the innkeeper looked up from his abacus with a smile and informed Chen Ping’an of a tradition of the city. As it turned out, the word “paper” was not to be uttered here, and anyone who broke this rule would be kicked out of the city.

Chen Ping’an thanked the innkeeper for notifying him of this, then went out into the city to purchase some supplies. After that, he returned to the inn for a meal, but he found all the food to be very bland and tasteless. Following his meal, he traveled several dozen kilometers out of the city, and from there, he could still see the outlines of the city.

All of a sudden, it began to rain, and Chen Ping’an sought shelter in a dilapidated pergola on the mountain. While practicing his walking meditation, he just so happened to take a glance in the city’s direction, and he was astonished to discover that it was melting away in the rain as if it were a burning candle.

Chen Ping’an hurriedly pulled out everything that he had bought in the city, as well as the copper coins and paper money, and his skin instantly began to crawl.

As it turned out, they were all things cut out of paper to be burned as offerings for the deceased.

Someone suddenly burst into laughter within a wall of the pergola, as if they were amused by Chen Ping’an’s shock and disgust, and their eerie laughter echoed throughout the pergola.

Chen Ping’an was surprised by the strange happenings in the city, but he wasn’t fearful of ghosts and spirits. Hence, he was completely unfazed by the eerie laughter ringing out within the pergola. He sat down onto a bench in the pergola that had been crafted out of an old tree, then cast his gaze toward the wall as he drank in silence.

Unless he had run into terrible luck and encountered a powerful great demon or an extremely formidable devilish cultivator that was adept at disguising themselves, the alternative was that he was most likely dealing with a weaker spirit. The average mortal would still be terrified of such a spirit, but for Chen Ping’an, an entity of that caliber posed no threat at all.

The entity in question was still wholly unaware that it was biting off more than it could chew, and it put on an even more sinister voice to try and intimidate Chen Ping’an as it asked, “You’re not afraid of me?”

Chen Ping’an strapped his Sword Nurturing Gourd to his waist, then rose to his feet and slowly made his way over to the wall before slapping a Treasure Pagoda Demon-suppressing Talisman onto it.

A pleading voice that sounded as if it belonged to a child instantly rang out from within the wall, and Chen Ping’an smiled as he asked, “Should I be afraid?”

“No! I’m the one who should be afraid!” the entity in the wall hurriedly replied.

“Come out. If you keep hiding from me, I won’t be so nice anymore. Tell me what’s going on with that city.”

Chen Ping’an removed the Demon-suppressing Talisman from the wall, then tucked it back up his sleeve and sat down onto the bench again.

A fearful-looking boy emerged from the wall, and there was a mandarin square embroidered onto both the front and back of his clothes. However, unlike the colorful mandarin squares worn by officials from mortal imperial courts, his ones were only black and white.

He stood in the corner of the pergola in a timid fashion, and he extended a bow toward Chen Ping’an, then declared his own identity. As it turned out, he was a mountain lord that had been appointed by the previous dynasty.

After the change of dynasties, he was automatically made redundant, and without his status as a mountain lord, his already lowly cultivation base suffered even further.

He was once the beloved son of a border general, but he died before even turning seven years of age. One time, a traveling immortal just so happened to be passing through, and he helped the boy’s father turn him into an unofficial mountain lord so that he could protect the feng shui of the clan’s ancestral grave. However, all of that changed with the fall of the dynasty.

This wasn’t a significant event in history, but looking back, it was a rather interesting one. Chen Ping’an asked the boy about the origins of the city, and the boy told him that the entire city of over ten thousand residents had perished in a single night due to a horrific man-made disaster many years ago.

In order to avoid mass panic, the imperial court ordered all of the surrounding secrets to keep the event strictly confidential, and a high-ranking Buddhist monk was also recruited to perform a ceremony, preventing the city from transforming into a ghostly wasteland.

Chen Ping’an asked the boy what was going to become of the city after the storm, to which the boy smiled and replied that all it would take would be a few rainless days for the city to make a full recovery.

Chen Ping’an squatted down and burned the paper money in the pergola while facing the city, and the boy squatted down beside him as he mused, “You’re a kind man, esteemed immortal.”

Chen Ping’an merely smiled and offered no response.

He took the opportunity to ask the boy about the layout of this area, particularly about where there were any immortal clans or ferry stations nearby, and the boy told him everything that he knew.

According to the boy, there were some evil forces that had claimed the mountain around four hundred kilometers to the north, but they didn’t do anything nefarious like kidnapping the nearby residents, so it was a relatively safe area with very few stories of people going missing or suffering untimely deaths.

During their heyday, the evil forces there were so formidable that even many Qi refiners passing through the area had to go around the mountain, but there had since been a change of circumstances, and it was said that only a few straggling spirits were left on the mountain. As for whether this was actually the case, it was hard to say.

There were all types of rumors that were circulating, with some proclaiming that the evil forces there had been wiped out by immortals of Planchette Writing Sect, while others proclaimed that the demons on the mountain had made the mistake of irking a Buddhist practitioner that just so happened to be passing through, thereby leading to their demise.

Chen Ping’an was rather surprised to hear this. Even now, the mountain path in the Great Li Empire where he had encountered the female ghost in the red wedding dress was still clear in his mind.

There were some dead leaves in the pergola, and Chen Ping’an and the boy gathered them together before using them to stoke the fire, then squatted down beside the fire together.

The boy appeared to be quite youthful, but in reality, he had already lived for five hundred years, and he explained to Chen Ping’an, “The leader of the demons on that mountain had a relatively benevolent personality, so he never targeted me.

“Of course, there were many less benevolent figures among his subordinates, but all of them were very careful about maintaining good reputations. Otherwise, if it became widely known that they had been committing evil deeds, then people could start coming after them, and that could lead to a great deal of trouble, so none of them targeted me, either.”

Chen Ping’an nodded in response.

The boy held his hands over the flames as he continued, “What is a demon to do in that situation? If they kill whoever comes after them, they’ll only attract more and more self-proclaimed heroes pining for their heads.

“Eventually, they’ll either be killed or be forced to kill so many assailants that the local authorities will report the matter to the imperial court. For fear of losing face, the emperor would then have to recruit the services of a powerful immortal. It really is all a huge pain.”

Chen Ping’an smiled as he said, “If this isn’t the case, then the entire world would’ve already spiraled into complete chaos. How would mortals be able to live? Over ten thousand people died in that small city alone, what are their friends and family outside the city going to think? With so many people dying overnight, the living will inevitably become fearful.”

The boy faltered slightly upon hearing this, seemingly having never considered this problem.

After that, the boy told Chen Ping’an about many of the interesting stories from around these parts, most of which he had heard from others. After all, he had already lived for several centuries, and he had to find some ways to pass the time.

After the rain subsided, Chen Ping’an bade farewell to the mountain lord and continued on his journey, leaving the boy on his own in the pergola.

There was also one time when Chen Ping’an had passed through a graveyard, where he encountered a group of scholars on their way to the capital city for the imperial examination. They were standing in front of a large grave with inferior and awestruck looks on their faces when two pristine white foxes jumped out from between the graves, then got up on their hindlegs and extended bows much like humans would.

There were also several younger foxes that scurried onto the grave with very humanized looks of longing and shyness in their eyes. They didn’t appear to be sinister spirits at all. Instead, they were like a group of playful children.

The scholars returned the bow, and Chen Ping’an was rather amused to see this.

He knew that these fox demons were tricking these scholars, but he wasn’t overly concerned about this. Generally speaking, no fox demons on any continent engaged in barbaric activities. Instead, they had always tried to get close to humans, mostly for the purpose of overcoming the hurdle of mortal relationships to advance their cultivation base.

Hence, Chen Ping’an made no effort to expose their scheme and reveal to the scholars that the grandiose manor that they were seeing was actually nothing more than a grave.

Instead, all he did was silently wait beside the grave, and sure enough, as the group of scholars left the grandiose manor the next day, all of them were looking ecstatic, having just enjoyed the time of their lives the night before.

Chen Ping’an departed with an amused smile.

Around 150 kilometers later, he reached a small nation by the name of Northern Jin Nation. While passing through a city, he just so happened to enter a market, and he really did purchase a pair of tanghulus there.

He had heard that Northern Jin Nation had a vastly renowned Tathagata Temple, where there was a large rock that was said to have been one of the places where a Bodhisattva had attained enlightenment.

The rock was called the Stone Lotus Platform, and it was large enough to fit hundreds of people at once, yet just a single person was enough to make it wobble, a phenomenon that no one could explain. After verifying the authenticity of this phenomenon in person, the emperor of Northern Jin Nation had been very pleased, and that only further elevated the reputation of the temple.

However, even after asking many people in the city, he didn’t find a single one who knew of this Tathagata Temple. Only then did he recall that the boy had told him that this had happened roughly two hundred years ago, and two hundred years was enough time for many things to change in the mortal world.

After some hesitation, Chen Ping’an decided to persist with his endeavor, and in the end, he really was able to find the site of the Tathagata Temple. He paid the temple a visit to find that it was overrun with tall grass and was completely deserted, making for a rather bleak and sobering sight. Under the dying light of dusk, he found a giant rock, but wasn’t able to see anything remarkable about it.

After finishing his last tanghulu, he discarded the stick before departing.

Not long after Chen Ping’an left the dilapidated temple, a small figure poked their head out from behind the giant rock, then sat onto the rock in silence.

As it turned out, the truth behind why the Stone Lotus Platform wobbled was that a mischievous stone spirit in the form of a tiny lotus figure liked to hide inside it. Whenever someone attempted to shake the huge rock, it would immediately sway from side to side in an excited fashion, and the rock would sway side to side with it, thereby resulting in the misconception.

However, one day, it grew bored of this game, and from that point onward, the Stone Lotus Platform only swayed occasionally whenever he was in the mood to play. Eventually, the rock stopped moving altogether as the stone spirit had left it to travel far and wide in search of a companion. Having been alone its entire life, it was feeling lonely.

In the end, it managed to find two companions, namely a snake spirit and a deer spirit. The pure-hearted stone spirit was swindled by these two companions into handing over one of its arms and one of its lotus flower petals.

However, it was still determined to find a companion, and ultimately, it found a flower spirit that didn’t ask for anything from it. It took her back to the Stone Lotus Platform, and they played together and pranked the tourists together. However, one day, it woke up to discover that the Stone Lotus Platform had been completely drained of its spiritual energy, and the flower spirit had also disappeared.

After that, the Stone Lotus Platform gradually fell into obscurity until it was forgotten altogether, and all that remained was the little stone spirit with one arm left, sitting on the edge of the platform while gently swinging its feet back and forth.

It would occasionally feel sad as it didn’t know whether its three companions were currently doing well.

If they weren’t doing well, then why didn’t they come to see it so that it could console them?

If they were doing well, then why didn’t they come to see it so that they could celebrate together?

All of a sudden, the stone spirit turned to discover a white-robed figure sitting on the other end of the rock, drinking while facing the setting sun.

Upon noticing its gaze, the white-robed figure flashed it a smile, and the stone spirit was so frightened that it immediately sprang to its feet before vanishing into the giant rock.

Chen Ping’an burst into laughter as he jumped down from the rock, and only then did he truly leave the Tathagata Temple.

Only after hiding in the rock for a long while did the stone spirit dare to poke its head out once again, and after looking around to ensure that the white-robed figure was no longer around, it made its way over to where the figure had been sitting before. There, its eyes widened at the sight of the coin that had been left on the rock.

Most spirits in the world liked to consume immortal currencies for sustenance, and Chen Ping’an had left the stone spirit a snowflake coin as a gesture of goodwill without expecting any reciprocation.

However, Chen Ping’an had only just left the city and made his way into the mountains when he spotted the stone spirit standing on the path up ahead, looking at him with tear-filled eyes while holding the snowflake coin. The stone spirit seemed to be both elated and a little uneasy at the sight of Chen Ping’an.

Chen Ping’an slowly made his way toward the stone spirit, but the stone spirit has always been quite timid, and it instantly vanished from the spot. It continued to follow Chen Ping’an from afar, disappearing whenever he got too close, and before long, they had traveled several dozen kilometers together.

At this point, Chen Ping’an no longer made any attempt to approach it, merely allowing the stone spirit to follow him at its own pace.

Soon, Chen Ping’an entered the forest that the boy had told him about, and the terrain in the forest really was very precarious.

As he was about to emerge from the forest, he encountered a seemingly deranged spirit that was stumbling along in tattered clothes while murmuring to itself over and over again in a dejected voice, “How could someone so cruel have become a Buddha? How could someone so cruel…”

The stone spirit was so terrified at the sight of the deranged spirit that it rushed over to Chen Ping’an and hid behind his leg.

From that point onward, all of the wariness that the stone spirit harbored toward Chen Ping’an completely disappeared, and it was either skipping along beside him or sitting on his shoulder.

After that, Chen Ping’an and his new companion passed through a war-torn nation that had been ravaged by tragedies, forcing a group of heroes to go rogue and forcibly take over the nation to end all of the suffering.

During his time in that nation, Chen Ping’an heard countless stories about the heroic deeds of those thirty-six men, about their incredible generosity, which was matched only by their exceptional martial arts ability and superhuman strength.

Of course, Chen Ping’an didn’t believe all of the stories, but he certainly wasn’t opposed to meeting these heroes should the opportunity ever arise. Even if they weren’t willing to drink with him at the same table, he was content just to have some of their heroic spirit rub off on him from afar.

Chen Ping’an went to seek out these heroic men, and in doing so, he was guided to an unscrupulous restaurant that sold human meat steamed buns.

The group of merchants that he was traveling with all fell unconscious, so he pretended to do the same as well, and he was tied up before being carried to the back of the shop, where he was thrown onto a long chopping board. After that, a waiter made his way toward them, yawning while brandishing a boning knife.

Over in a nearby city, an executioner was just about to lop off the head of a bandit when several dozen people stormed onto the execution site, led by an imposing man wielding a pair of axes. He chortled loudly as he chopped and sliced his way through the crowd, killing everyone in his path, regardless of whether they be soldiers or spectating citizens.

Only receiving a scolding from a short, dark-skinned man did the ax-wielding man sheepishly stop his rampage, and all of the killing intent was drained out of his eyes.

The dark-skinned man took a glance at the ax-wielding man, then waved a hand to dismiss him. A weary look then appeared on the man’s face, but it was outweighed by relief and elation.

He had put on a very stern and scathing demeanor while scolding the ax-wielding man, but there was currently a smile playing on his lips as he watched the ax-wielding man trudge away.

After saving the fugitive that was about to be executed, the group of men got onto the horses that had been prepared nearby in advance, then rushed out of the city, and none of the soldiers dared to go after them.

After leaving the city, the group of men were in a very jovial, celebratory mood as they made their way into the restaurant that they owned, only to find that the familiar couple there was missing. Instead, there was only a white-robed young boy with a longsword placed on the table in front of him.

Shortly thereafter, Chen Ping’an left the restaurant, having put an end to the lives of most of the men in there.

They had all been regarded as heroes in the eyes of the general public, and they did indeed die heroic deaths, with none of them begging for mercy or fleeing for their lives.

As for the men who were spared, most of them were very quiet, or immediately disengaged themselves from battle after suffering even the slightest of injuries. They didn’t curse Chen Ping’an, nor did they look as if they had any intention of seeking vengeance. Instead, there had only been a lost and disoriented look in their eyes, as if they were wondering what life decisions had led them up to this point.

Chen Ping’an paid no heed to any of them.

After leaving the restaurant, Chen Ping’an found the herd of horses by the side of the street, and he picked out one of them before jumping onto its back in an expertly fashion.

Initially, he was rather shaky on horseback, but it didn’t take him long to acclimate.