Unsheathed

Chen Ping’an was unable to shake the strange dream from his mind as he lay in bed.

Previously, he had read a Confucian book in his dreams while traveling on Osmanthus Island. What about this time? What was the profound meaning behind this strange dream? Or perhaps it was nothing more than just a simple dream? Maybe he was overthinking things?

Chen Ping’an sat up and climbed out of bed. Since he couldn’t sleep, he decided to walk to the table to take inventory of his belongings.

Jiu Niang had given him some confirmation in the morning. The Yao Clan’s convoy to the capital would pass Fox Town tomorrow morning, so Chen Ping’an and his companions could meet them there to travel to Mirage City together.

Afterward, they could part ways at a renowned ferry station located outside the capital, and Chen Ping’an and his companions could continue north to Heavenly Palace Peak. Old General Yao had already arranged the necessary aliases for them, so they could continue to enjoy a smooth journey north even after parting ways.

Chen Ping’an lit the oil lamp and placed his Sword Nurturing Gourd on the table. Fifteenth flew out, and Chen Ping’an took out his Dao robe, Golden Sweet Wine, with a slightly pained expression on his face. He was slightly pained about Golden Sweet Wine getting damaged, and he was even more pained about the coin that he needed to use to repair the Dao robe.

He had already used up all of his grain rain coins, and repairing this Dao robe wouldn’t cost a lesser heat coin or a snowflake coin. Instead, it would cost Chen Ping’an a single gold essence copper coin, one from the pouch that Zheng Dafeng had given him as a thank-you present after advancing to the next tier in Old Dragon City.

Chen Ping’an sighed as he caressed the neatly folded Dao robe.

No wonder people said that cultivation was something that would devour mountains of gold and silver. No one would claim that they had too much money to spend.

However, Chen Ping’an suddenly remembered Liu Youzhou, the young boy who had stayed at Stalactite Mountain’s Ape Havoc Estate. His father was essentially the god of wealth in Pure White Continent, so perhaps only this young boy the same age as Chen Ping’an had the right to worry about having too much money.

Chen Ping’an took out the pouch of gold essence copper coins and gently placed it on the table. He pinched the coins and placed them on the table, stacking them into a mini tower that was shorter than his palm. Chen Ping’an smiled as he did this. This tower of money was a little small and a little short. Otherwise, he would feel even happier.

None of the incredibly valuable gold essence copper coins were Offering Coins or Greeting Spring Coins. Instead, they were all Good Fortune Coins. The characters “Ridding Evil” and “World Peace” were stamped on the two sides of the coins, yet the font of the characters was different from that of the Good Fortune Coins that Chen Ping’an had first obtained in Jewel Small World. Presumably, the casting of these coins would change every sixty years.

While staying in Stalactite Mountain, Chen Ping’an had learned a seemingly crude and simple refinement mantra from the sword-hugging man. In reality, however, it was an extremely orthodox and proper mantra. He had refined a gold essence copper coin using this mantra then, and it had only taken him fifteen minutes to bring Golden Sweet Wine back to life. Like sprouting willow branches, the broken threads of his severely damaged Dao robe had knitted back together in an extremely mystical scene.

Chen Ping’an estimated that Golden Sweet Wine could return to its original condition in at most ten days.

There was also another pleasant surprise, one related to the several dragons embroidered on the Dao robe.

In the beginning, the golden jewel held by the biggest coiled dragon and the eyes of the two slightly smaller dragons hadn’t been especially radiant. After consuming the gold essence copper coin, however, Chen Ping’an discovered that this was essentially an act of painting eyes on the dragons.[1] This was especially the case with the golden jewel, with its spiritual energy becoming so abundant that it was almost as viscous as water.

Chen Ping’an had never been fixated on spirit tools or immortal treasures, yet this discovery aroused his interest a little. This was because Golden Sweet Wine’s quality and power were experiencing a similar trend to the martial arts cultivation base of Wei Xian, Zhu Lian, and the others—it was growing.

What was ranked above immortal treasures? Celestial tools! The Fu Clan was the wealthiest clan in Old Dragon City, yet even they didn’t possess a genuine celestial tool after doing business and accumulating wealth for more than one thousand years.

However, Chen Ping’an didn’t hold onto the extravagant hope that Golden Sweet Wine could one day evolve into a celestial tool. After all, he had no idea how many gold essence copper coins he would need to spend to achieve this. Moreover, Jewel Small World had already ceased to exist, so it was extremely likely that production of the three types of gold essence copper coins had also come to an end. Perhaps they would no longer appear in the world.

Even if Chen Ping’an were fortunate enough to repair his bridge of immortality in the future, he would still need to refine five immortal treasures corresponding to the Five Elements if he wanted to advance to the Upper Five Tiers. Thus, it was entirely accurate to describe this as more difficult than ascending the heavens.

To Chen Ping’an, however, this wasn’t too bad. It was nothing more than practicing another one million punches after finishing the first one million. Everything would be fine as long as he could see the path underfoot clearly and understood where his next step should be placed. As for how long and how difficult this journey would be? This wasn’t something that he bothered himself with.

Chen Ping’an continued to retrieve his treasures from Fifteenth.

There was the golden scholarly core that City God Shen Wen had given him, and also the remnant shards of the city god’s gold statue after he had perished from the world.

A pile of verdant green bamboo slips could be traced back to Azure Divine Mountain, although more than half of them were already filled with lines of poetry and principles that Chen Ping’an had engraved onto them.

There was also the snake gall pebble that the Divine Edict Sect’s He Xiaoliang had returned to him.

In the end, Chen Ping’an retrieved the water seal that Mr. Qi had personally carved and engraved. He gently placed it in the center of the table before resting his arms and chin on the table as well. There was a common saying that mountains and waters couldn’t be separated. However, his mountain seal had been destroyed in the Flood Dragon Trench, making his water seal appear especially lonely at this moment.

Chen Ping’an was slightly adrift, and a thought suddenly came to his mind. He wanted to buy a white jade hairpin during the next leg of his journey, and it wouldn’t matter even if the material was only ordinary. After engraving eight characters onto the hairpin, he would be able to wear it in his hair.

He wasn’t trying to show off, and he simply thought that in his current state, he should either wear Golden Sweet Wine or wear an azure robe with a jade hairpin. He wasn’t necessarily a scholar, but he could at least pretend to be a scholar, couldn’t he?

Moreover, when he returned to Eastern Treasured Vial Continent and went to Great Sui Nation’s Mountain Cliff Academy to visit Li Baoping and the others, he would no longer need to worry about embarrassing them because of his outfit.

After reading so many books and learning so many sagely principles, Chen Ping’an was still the fondest of those same eight characters.

Amiable as jade should a virtuous person be.

Upon remembering that there was a noble scholar bunking down on the floor of the inn, however, Chen Ping’an couldn’t help but feel a little curious about the Great Subduing Academy. If it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t want to stay in Parasol Leaf Continent and delay his journey, Chen Ping’an would have genuinely wanted to visit the Confucian academy to have a look around.

Chen Ping’an put all of his treasures away one by one, returning them to his pocket treasure.

In order to clear his new and old debts back then, Zheng Dafeng had given Chen Ping’an more than just a pouch of gold essence copper coins. He had also given Chen Ping’an an extremely valuable minimization treasure. It was a jade tablet with no engraved characters, making it appear as simple and elegant as could be.

However, Chen Ping’an was accustomed to interacting with Fifteenth, and the cooperation between them was also incredibly smooth. Thus, he hadn’t used the minimization treasure this entire time. Even earth immortals at the Nascent Tier might not be able to obtain such a treasure, yet Chen Ping’an was hiding it away and leaving it unused just like that.

The Dew Armor, West Mountain, was temporarily left with Wei Xian, the saber Halting Snow was hanging by Lu Baixiang’s waist, and the sword Deep Infatuation was resting on Sui Youbian’s back.

The golden demon-binding chain forged from the elderly flood dragon’s whisker was far too spectacular and eye-catching, not matching the snow-white version of Golden Sweet Wine and not matching the ordinary azure robes that Chen Ping’an had purchased from the markets either. Otherwise, Chen Ping’an could have used it as a belt.

Chen Ping’an felt very happy and at ease after putting his abundant amount of treasures away. How could one relieve their worries? Naturally through wealth and wine, of course.

He stood up and walked over to open the window. While doing so, he suddenly noticed that the room next door was completely silent. The soundproofing of the walls in the inn was quite poor, so Chen Ping’an could often hear the soft snoring of Pei Qian as she slept.

Chen Ping’an thought that the skinny little girl was acting like a mouse again, sneaking downstairs to steal food from the kitchen while everyone else was asleep. He waited for approximately fifteen minutes, yet what he eventually heard was the door of the inn being opened and shut. Chen Ping’an casually flicked his finger, instantly extinguishing the oil lamp on the table. It wasn’t long before he heard Pei Qian walking upstairs.

Only when Pei Qian closed her door did Chen Ping’an finally calm his mind and relight his oil lamp. He retrieved three books and started to casually flick through them.

There was the Mountain Shaking Guide that he had “borrowed” from Gu Can, the Authentic Death-Avoiding Book that Li Xisheng had given him, and the Proper Sword Scripture that Zheng Dafeng had given him.

Chen Ping’an had already memorized the contents of these books, and apart from starting to practice the Mountain Shaking Guide’s sleeping meditation recently, he had also been practicing talismans and sword techniques for a while. However, he was making little to no progress compared to the period before he had accidentally entered the Lotus Flower Blessed Land. He didn’t have enough time or effort to focus on so many things at once.

However, he believed that he could pick up a calligraphy brush and try his hand at some talismans from the Authentic Death-Avoiding Book that were even higher grade than the Treasure Pagoda Demon-Suppressing Talisman. He could potentially succeed in a single go.

Chen Ping’an read for the entire night, all the way until the next morning. The sun was yet to rise, yet he could already hear some faint rustling coming from next door. It wasn’t long before someone knocked on his door. Chen Ping’an put the three books away and walked over to answer the door, only to see Pei Qian packed up and dressed ready to go. She was carrying her luggage and holding her hiking pole, and there was a brilliant smile on her face as she looked up and asked, “When are we setting off for Mirage City?”

“Didn’t I tell you to stay at the inn?” Chen Ping’an replied.

The dazzling smile remained on Pei Qian’s face as she played dumb and asked, “Should I wake the lame boy up to make breakfast for us? We should fill ourselves up before setting off. I heard that the capital is one or two thousand kilometers away from Fox Town. It’s quite a long distance.”

Chen Ping’an was just about to say something, yet the impoverished scholar suddenly walked into view, yawning as he shuffled over to smack Pei Qian on the back of the head. He was bleary-eyed as he looked at Chen Ping’an and asked, “Is the convoy from the Yao Clan going to come this early? Is Yao Zhen that desperate to travel to the capital to become the head minister of the Ministry of War?”

Pei Qian was infuriated after getting smacked on the back of her head for no reason, and she raised her hiking pole and was just about to slash down at Zhong Kui’s waist. However, she glanced at Chen Ping’an and immediately stopped her movements, instead grumbling in a low voice, “A noble person never resorts to violence—this is what the books say. Just what kind of scholar are you? It serves you right to receive no affection from Jiu Niang. Little Lamey was right. Poor scholars are the most detestable people in the world.”

Zhong Kui ignored Pei Qian’s grumbling, and placed his hand on top of the skinny little girl’s head and chuckled, “Chen Ping’an, you should bring her along with you. I don’t want to face a little girl like her all day, every day. It’s far too upsetting. In fact, I’ll have to drink so much green plum wine that it will eventually become tasteless to me. In any case, things aren’t peaceful in Fox Town. You’ll be going against your original intentions if you leave her here.”

Pei Qian immediately stood up straight and puffed her chest out, keeping quiet and still as she tried her best to appear honest and obedient.

Chen Ping’an didn’t offer an answer straight away, and he simply replied, “I’ll think about it.”

“You should indeed have a good think about it,” Zhong Kui smiled and concurred with a nod.

Chen Ping’an walked downstairs and left the inn to go for a walk. When Zhong Kui opened the door of the inn, Jiu Niang, Third Grandpa, and the lame young boy had already woken up. They started to busy themselves with preparing breakfast.

Zhu Lian and the others opened their doors on the second floor at almost the exact same time.

The inn immediately became lively.

When Pei Qian and Zhong Kui walked downstairs, the skinny little girl secretly tugged Zhong Kui’s sleeve. When the noble scholar turned around to look at her, Pei Qian quietly said, “I’ll speak with Jiu Niang and put in some good words for you later.”

Could this be viewed as a reciprocation of goodwill?

Zhong Kui gave her a thumbs-up and exclaimed, “How chivalrous!”

1. Adding finishing touches to bring something to life. ☜