Unsheathed

Jiang Quan left the marketplace with his two good friends. Standing far away, that messenger held an umbrella under the eaves as he watched the impoverished scholar slowly disappear into the distance.

The old Daoist priest appeared beside Chen Ping’an and asked with a smile, “Why didn’t you directly tell him the truth?”

“To tell him nothing, to tell him everything, or to have Imperial Preceptor Zhong tell him everything in three years regardless of whether Jiang Quan passes the imperial examination or not… I feel like the third option is better for both him and Gu Ling,” Chen Ping’an replied in a soft voice.

The old Daoist priest then posed a question aimed right at the very depths of Chen Ping’an’s heart. “Then which option would have made your heart feel the most at ease?”

“I would have gone with the first option before entering the Lotus Flower Blessed Land,” Chen Ping’an replied. “Everyone should take responsibility for their own life and death when traveling through the cultivation world. Now, however, I would most likely pick the second option. This is the simplest way for me to keep a clear conscience. It won’t leave any impurities in my mind’s realm. As for why I picked the third option… I don’t know either. In reality, I’m not sure whether my choice was correct or incorrect.”

“Not sure whether it was correct or incorrect, you say?” the old Daoist priest asked with a chuckle.

“What’s wrong?” asked Chen Ping’an.

The old Daoist placed a hand on Chen Ping’an’s shoulder and announced, “Then you’ll be even more confused in a moment.”

In the next instant, dawn arrived and the sun appeared above the horizon in the east. Standing before the palatial gate in the capital of Southern Garden Nation, the imperial gatekeeper unleashed a bellowing roar.

The old Daoist priest smiled and asked, “Do you know why such a tradition exists? Similar traditions exist in other nations regardless of whether they’re located in the Lotus Flower Blessed Land or Majestic World.”

Chen Ping’an, who was forced to put his umbrella away, could only shake his head in response.

“The imperial palace needs to borrow the first light of dawn to drive back some wronged souls,” the old Daoist priest explained.

“Do you know who these wronged souls belong to?”

Chen Ping’an shook his head again.

“They belong to those loyal officials who died unjust deaths throughout the history of the nation. They belong to those upright officials who were unjustly executed, and to those pillar officials executed for their continuous advice[1] to the emperor,” the old Daoist priest revealed.

Afterward, the river of time in the Lotus Flower Blessed Land fell under the whimsical control of the old Daoist priest. It was as if one year, ten years, or one hundred years would flash by at his whim.

In the next moment, the old Daoist priest led Chen Ping’an in front of an old scholar who was still studying earnestly even though his hair had already become snow-white. He wrote poems and essays as if he were assisted by the gods, yet he established few rules and put few restrictions on his descendants.

After his passing, his children and grandchildren traveled around to peddle his life’s work. However, failing to sell anything, they eventually decided to burn it all in a fit of incandescent rage.

Chen Ping’an also saw a prime minister from a poor background who finally managed to write a genuinely wealthy poem in his twilight years. Only then were his essays not ridiculed and personified as someone wearing gold and decorated in silver but still walking around in a pair of straw sandals.

He saw an impoverished pillar official with nothing but pure wind in his sleeves.[2] He enjoyed great popularity and reputation among the people, yet his relatives in the regions were filthy rich and always oppressed other people.

Knowing this, the pillar official always spoke sincerely and warned his relatives to be diligent and frugal in his letters back home. He reminded them to leave moral principles and not wealth as heirlooms for the future generations. Once the contents of these letters were made known to the world, his actions and deeds became a story praised by everyone.

A prince of Northern Jin Nation breathed into his hands to warm them as he stood outside the classroom on a snowy day.

A profligate person acted wantonly and committed all kinds of crimes outside, yet he was extremely dutiful toward his grandma when he returned home, silently helping her tuck the blankets in at night.

A pillar official of Pine Song Nation made every effort to reform and improve his nation. However, of his seven or eight direct descendants, more than half of them seized the opportunity of political reform to seek personal gain. They plotted against their opponents, and speculated on the emperor’s thoughts.

In the end, their secret alliances and factions caused the political reform to end in failure. Even so, the pillar official was still filled with righteous fervor when he was thrown into jail. He simply regretted the fact that he would die before fulfilling his ambition.

A young traveler in the cultivation world was cornered and filled with desperation. His parents had been killed in an act of revenge, and he had endured over a dozen years of humiliation and hardship to finally avenge their deaths.

He killed dozens of members of the culprit’s family, wreaking vengeance to his heart’s content. No longer a young traveler and now a powerful martial artist, the man hadn’t noticed the little girl and the even younger boy in the residence.

The siblings had coincidentally been playing hide-and-seek and hiding inside a double wall, so they had escaped the wretched fate of being killed by the vengeful man. In the end, the two little children kowtowed in front of the grave mounds and made the resolve to exact revenge.

There were two similar cases of delivering documents, and both cases had encountered problems that required the imperial court to interrogate the relevant county magistrate. One county magistrate secretly offered the postal official a brilliant plan, telling him to fabricate his report and claim that he had encountered bandits during his trip. He even told the postal official to cut himself with his saber to make things appear more convincing. In the end, they managed to satisfy the imperial court and avoid any punishment.

In the other case, the road had clearly been blocked due to a severe snowstorm. Even so, the postal official had still forcefully crossed the river in order to complete his mission. Only after handing over the document had he slipped into the river and suffered serious injuries.

The county magistrate truthfully reported the matter, yet the final outcome was the postal official being caned one hundred times and being banished five hundred kilometers away. Meanwhile, the county magistrate also lost his official salary for a year. He was graded as low-performing, and he would have no opportunity to be promoted for the next five years.

Things became even stranger afterward, and the river of time surprisingly started to flow in reverse.

He saw Feng Qingbai and Tang Tieyi getting along and calling each other brothers, with the two of them sitting opposite each other in a border city and drinking and patting their knees as they sang loudly.

Chen Ping’an also arrived outside the capital of Southern Garden Nation, where he saw Gu Ling meet the impoverished scholar Jiang Quan for the first time. He saw their reunion and their growing familiarity, and their intimacy and their love for each other. It snowed heavily before they entered the capital, and Gu Ling, who had just completed an assassination, accompanied Jiang Quan into the capital to attend the imperial examination.

Standing in the snow by herself, the woman who had met a scholar this year felt as if she had experienced another bout of snow in her dark and bloody life. The ground became sparkling clean, and she almost mistook herself for the best woman in the world. Even though she knew that the snow would eventually melt, revealing her true colors as a sinister woman again, being able to experience this relationship was truly a blessing from the heavens. The heavens hadn’t treated her badly.

Chen Ping’an saw a skinny little girl, and she would occasionally venture outside the capital to steal a few glances at some small grave mound that was covered in tall grass.

In the end, Chen Ping’an saw himself taking a glance at that well.

He entered that private scripture library twice to pore through books, and more than half of the tens of thousands of books in the scripture library were completely brand new. There were many books that would still give off the fragrance of ink even when they were opened many years later. There were so many sagely principles and beautiful poems and essays, yet not a single person to discover and appreciate them.

He stood outside the courtyard door in the small alley with no name, and he raised his hand before lowering it again several times in a row, not daring to knock on the door.

When he and Cao Qinglang walked to the private school with an umbrella over their heads, the skinny little girl stood at the entrance of the courtyard and stared intently at their vanishing figures, completely unaware that her face was already drenched in rainwater.

In the end, Chen Ping’an stood by himself under the eaves, the oil-paper umbrella that had accompanied him for many years still in his hand. A light drizzle was still falling onto the street.

However, the old Daoist priest was no longer standing beside him.

Right and wrong, good and bad, righteous and wicked, moral and immoral…

Chen Ping’an had witnessed many, many things.

However, he hadn’t managed to decipher a universal principle that held true no matter the situation. Instead, many principles that he had staunchly viewed as reasonable no longer seemed so reasonable.

Chen Ping’an involuntarily recalled that old boatman he had met after experiencing the perilous calamity on Osmanthus Island. That old boatman had taken Lu Chen around the seas in the past, and he had looked at Chen Ping’an and said, “Don’t try to ruin my Great Dao.”

Before experiencing all of this, Chen Ping’an had already decided that he would choose Zhou Shi as one of the five people to take out of the Lotus Flower Blessed Land if he was indeed given this opportunity, which Zhong Qiu had speculated he would.

Chen Ping’an had made this decision even though he was aware that Zhou Shi wasn’t the true culprit. After bringing Zhou Shi into Majestic World, he would then kill him with a single punch.

Before this, he had also been filled with disgust and loathing toward that skinny little girl. He hadn’t known why this was, and he hadn’t even been willing to contemplate this question and understand his negative emotions. However, this wasn’t without benefit. In the beginning, he had felt like he had wasted an extra snowflake coin even though he had placed the snowflake coin beside a line of poetry that he found extremely beautiful.

The rain cleared and warm rays of sunshine shone down. Chen Ping’an walked all the way to that well, where he stood and looked down toward its bottom.

It was also at this moment that the skinny little girl in the small courtyard looked up at the blinding sun.

Observing Dao Temple, Dao observing Dao…[3]

The old Daoist priest was sitting in the sky and observing the two of them.

In the Lotus Flower World that bordered the Lotus Flower Blessed Land, a Daoist priest was sitting beside the lotus pond and observing the three of them.

According to the explanation of one of his disciples, he was simply bored and observing the “Small Dao” of other people.

Chen Ping’an suddenly retracted his gaze and started to chuckle. He walked away from the well. Even though he hadn’t made heads or tails of anything, he had managed to figure one thing out. That annoying little girl… He needed to teach her some principles of etiquette and morality.

He would begin from the most simple principles, and if he were still unable to make her understand and change, then he wouldn’t need to worry about forcing her to change anymore. However, he would still teach her these principles. At the very least, she would understand the concepts of good and bad. In terms of whether she performed good deeds or bad deeds in the future, that would be entirely up to her.

A cloudy expression appeared on the old Daoist priest’s face. He wasn’t in a good mood, and was just about to toss Chen Ping’an out of the Lotus Flower Blessed Land.

He had actually failed to win against that old scholar.

Thus, he flicked his sleeve and caused Chen Ping’an’s next step to take him out of the Lotus Flower Blessed Land. The young boy surprisingly arrived on the post road outside Northern Jin Nation in Parasol Leaf Continent.

He was wearing Golden Sweet Wine and carrying his Sword Nurturing Gourd, yet Lasting Qi was no longer strapped to his back.

However, he was still at the fifth tier of martial arts, and his cultivation base hadn’t vanished together with the Lotus Flower Blessed Land.

Moreover, First and Fifteenth, the two flying swords with which he had a mental connection, were both inside the Sword Nurturing Gourd.

Chen Ping’an hurriedly looked around, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the little lotus spirit poking its head around further down the road. It was clear that the little lotus spirit was even more confused than Chen Ping’an.

The old Daoist priest appeared beside him and said, “According to our agreement, you can bring five people out from the Lotus Flower Blessed Land. I’ve already picked four of them for you.”

The old Daoist priest held four picture scrolls in his hand, and with a casual toss, they flew into the air and hovered in a line in front of Chen Ping’an. The first picture scroll automatically unfurled, revealing a man in dragon robes sitting on a throne. “This is Wei Xian, the founding emperor of Southern Garden Nation,” the old Daoist priest introduced.

Another picture scroll unfurled, revealing a woman carrying a sword on her back. “This is Sui Youbian. She abandoned martial arts, and she has the potential to become a sword immortal.

“This is Lu Baixiang, the founder of the demonic forces.

“This is Zhu Lian.

“These four people possess complete physical bodies and souls. Before they come into this world, you need to use grain rain coins to feed the picture scrolls every day. If you stick at it, there’ll eventually come a day when they eat their fill and become capable of walking out of the picture scrolls. They’ll heed your command, and they’ll loyally serve you to the death.

“In terms of how their martial arts cultivation base will progress in the future, and whether they choose to become Qi refiners instead, that’s completely up to your abilities as their owner. Of course, the prerequisite is that you can afford to raise these four people.”

The old Daoist priest was clearly unwilling to say anything extra to Chen Ping’an. He didn’t give Chen Ping’an the opportunity to interrupt either, and he had quickly explained all of these things in a single burst.

Before Chen Ping’an could ask who the last person was, the old Daoist priest had already reached forward and made a grabbing motion, dragging a skinny little girl from the air and smacking her on the back of the head, causing her to faceplant into the post road. The skinny little girl looked up with a blank expression.

Chen Ping’an looked at the tall and sturdy old Daoist priest and asked, “Then what about my bridge of immortality?”

There was apathy on the old Daoist priest’s face as he replied, “The foundation is already complete, so you can investigate this yourself in the future.”

“What about Lasting Qi?” Chen Ping’an asked.

“I’ll naturally return it to Chen Qingdu,” the old Daoist priest replied, gazing into the distance.

Chen Ping’an placed the four picture scrolls inside Fifteenth before cupping his fist and bidding farewell to the old Daoist priest.

The old Daoist priest was in a bad mood, so he returned to the Lotus Flower Blessed Land with a single stride and took a glance at the neighboring Lotus Flower World. However, that person had already left the banks of the pond.

Only then did the old Daoist priest start to chuckle.

Chen Ping’an and the skinny little girl stared at each other.

Chen Ping’an sighed and asked, “What’s your name?”

The skinny little girl wasn’t one to be easily flustered. Even though she had no idea what was going on, she still patted the dust from her body and replied with a cheery smile, “Didn’t I tell you before? I only have a surname, and my parents didn’t manage to give me a name on time. However, I picked a name for myself. It’s only a single character, Qian, because I like money.[4]”

“And what’s your surname?” Chen Ping’an asked.

The skinny little girl stood straight and puffed her chest out as she replied, “Pei! The character with ‘garment’ on the bottom![5] I heard my dad say that this is a very big and popular surname in my hometown! There’s clothes in my surname and there’s money in my name, so just how auspicious is that?”

Chen Ping’an slapped his forehead.

Her surname was Pei, and her name was Qian, so her full name was Pei Qian. Pei Qian as in losing money…[6]

No wonder he didn’t like her.

1. This refers to advice that the emperor doesn’t want to hear, so the officials in this case would be risking their life to continually provide the same advice. ☜

2. This means that one isn’t corrupt, hence there isn’t anything hidden in their sleeves. ☜

3. Both phrases have double meanings. Observing Dao Temple (观道观) can be read as ‘Observing Dao’ Temple or ‘Observing’ Dao Temple, while Dao observing Dao (道观道) can also be read as Dao of the Daoist temple. ☜

4. The character used for Qian (钱) literally means money. ☜

5. This refers to the makeup of the character Pei (裴), which has 衣 (meaning garment) on the bottom. ☜

6. Pei Qian (裴钱) is a homonym with 赔钱, which literally means losing money. ☜