Unsheathed

“We’re going to pass by a mansion owned by a female ghost afterward,” Chen Ping’an said. “A plaque with the characters ‘Beautiful Water Noble Wind’ hangs in front of this mansion, and I plan to only bring you along with me when I visit. I’ll ask Shi Rou to bring Pei Qian with her and take a detour around the mountain, and they can directly travel to a place called Red Candle Town and wait for us there.”

Zhu Lian was filled with eagerness as he smiled and asked, “Mhm, Young Master mentioned this matter before, but only briefly and without much detail. By the looks of it, this trip will be dangerous but not overly so?”

Chen Ping’an nodded and replied, “There’s a female ghost wearing a wedding dress living in that mansion, and I encountered some conflict with her when passing by with Baoping and the others back then. As such, I want to visit her to resolve things once and for all.”

A look of realization appeared on Zhu Lian’s face, and he remarked, “No wonder Young Master asked Shi Rou about the innate abilities of ghosts and yin entities in such great detail recently. We also stopped many times on our journey, and as it turns out, Young Master has been nurturing his mind and energy and also creating many yellow paper talismans.”

Chen Ping’an suddenly raised a hand and said, “Shut up.”

Zhu Lian smiled sheepishly in response. As expected of his young master — he truly understood his subordinate.

He hadn’t managed to ask Chen Ping’an about the appearance of the female ghost in the wedding dress before, so he was truly curious about whether she was beautiful or ugly, slender or obese.

After all, he had never been admired by a beautiful female ghost living in the tombs when he was still at the Lotus Flower Blessed Land. As such, how could he let slip this opportunity now that he had come to the Majestic World?

However, the water goddess from the White Swan River was similar to Shi Rou in the sense that she hadn’t taken a fancy to him either. Zhu Lian rubbed his chin and huffed in anger, “What’s going on? Regardless of whether they’re ghosts or gods, all of the women here like to judge people by their appearances?”

Chen Ping’an raised his Sword Nurturing Gourd and said, “Bottoms up.”

Zhu Lian glanced at the wine pot beside him and said with a bitter expression, “Young Master, my wine pot is already empty.”

He then put on a shameless expression, rubbing his hands together as he continued, “Young Master, there’s no need to worry about my ability to hold my alcohol. In Pei Qian’s words, this is no problem at all! Having one more pot will allow me to quench my thirst, two more pots will leave me slightly inebriated, and three more pots will make me feel even better.”

Chen Ping’an chuckled and opened his mouth, bobbing his head around as he sucked in some air. He then turned around and gloated, “You can drink the wind.”

Zhu Lian tried to find the right words for half a day, and he decided to be a loyal official who provided proper advice this one time, refusing to be an obsequious official who curried up to his superiors. He was brimming with a righteous aura as he said, “Young Master, it’s very difficult for this old servant to flatter you when you make such an unfunny joke.”

Something tugged at Chen Ping’an’s mind, and he retrieved a pot of wine from his minimization treasure and tossed it to Zhu Lian, asking, “Zhu Lian, what kind of person do you think I am?”

Zhu Lian caught the pot of wine and replied without hesitation, “A good person.”

Chen Ping’an smiled and remarked, “By the looks of it, I didn’t waste this pot of wine on you.”

Zhu Lian shook his head and said, “I would have said the same thing even if you didn’t give me this pot of wine.”

“I am indeed a good person,” Chen Ping’an murmured to himself.

Zhu Lian laughed heartily and said, “Young Master, just pretend that I was flattering you. Don’t take things to heart. In any case, it’s time for a drink!”

One was an old man from a wealthy and influential clan, and one was a young man from a rundown and impoverished alley. In reality, however, neither of them cared much about the master and subordinate relationship between them. At this moment, they were slowly enjoying some fine wine by the edge of a cliff.

Zhu Lian wiped the corners of his mouth and suddenly asked, “Young Master, do you want to hear a song from my hometown?”

“Sure thing,” Chen Ping’an said with a nod.

Zhu Lian hurriedly took a small sip of wine to moisten his throat, and only then did he start to hum and sing, bobbing his head around as he sang using the imperial dialect of an empire that had long since vanished in the Lotus Flower Blessed Land.

Chen Ping’an naturally didn’t understand him, yet Zhu Lian appeared relaxed and intoxicated as he sang. Because of this, Chen Ping’an was able to enjoy the song even though he was completely oblivious to the lyrics.

After finishing the song, Zhu Lian asked, “How did you find it, Young Master?”

“Not bad, not bad at all,” Chen Ping’an replied with a nod.

Zhu Lian swirled his remaining half a pot of wine around and offered, “I can repeat the song in the official dialect of the Great Li Empire if Young Master is willing to reward me with another pot of wine.”

Chen Ping’an didn’t hesitate as he directly tossed Zhu Lian another pot of wine.

Zhu Lian put the pot of wine aside and sang softly, “Lanterns shining as bright as one’s eyes, illuminating the lady undoing her buttons, her slender fingers untying the silk ribbons. Her skin white and her bosom shapely like a mountain, her belly supple and soft like cotton. ‘Tis a shame the lantern cannot see, her smooth back leading into her slender waist. Her figure like a gourd, the young lady thinks of her heartless lover yet to return from his distant journey. Butterflies in her stomach, worries in her heart… The lady twists her hips and glances back at the two pillows, interlacing her fingers and sighing in sorrow. If time was worth its weight in gold, then who would earn those thousand taels of gold?”

Zhu Lian stopped singing and took a swig of wine, feeling quite satisfied with himself.

“Is that all?” Chen Ping’an asked.

Zhu Lian was astonished, and he appeared slightly dazed as he replied, “Young Master actually doesn’t want to hit me?”

Chen Ping’an snickered and replied, “I’ve journeyed through the cultivation world for so long, so I can be regarded as someone who has witnessed all kinds of people and matters. When traveling through the dragon channel on an intercontinental ship back then, the guests staying in the room above me were making love with each other both day and night. Heh…”

This was called having twenty-twenty hindsight. In reality, Chen Ping’an had only learned about these matters thanks to Zhu Lian and thanks to his extensive journey through the river of time in the Lotus Flower Blessed Land.

“Please expand?” Zhu Lian asked.

Chen Ping’an smiled with squinted eyes and replied, “Sure thing. However, you have to give back the pot of wine first.”

Zhu Lian hesitated for a moment before passing the pot of wine back to Chen Ping’an.

Chen Ping’an placed the pot of wine in his minimization treasure and summarized, “Those were truly intense and soul-stirring battles.”

Zhu Lian waited for half a day, yet he heard nothing else from his young master. “That’s all?” he asked.

“Or else?” Chen Ping’an replied as he stood up.

Zhu Lian hurriedly stood up and chased after Chen Ping’an, exclaiming, “Young Master, give me back that pot of wine! You only said a measly few words, and saying them was as good as saying nothing at all! It wasn’t worth one pot of wine!”

Chen Ping’an paid no heed to Zhu Lian’s protest.

He flipped upside down on the plank road and started to walk forward while practicing the Heaven and Earth Stance.

Zhu Lian stood still and wallowed in regret. After a while, he suddenly turned around to look at the meditating Shi Rou, cracking a grin as he did so.

Shi Rou opened her eyes and fumed, “Get lost!”

Zhu Lian raised a hand and made an orchid finger pose, gently waving it at Shi Rou and saying in an effeminate voice, “You’re such a meanie.”

Shi Rou felt extremely repulsed.

However, she immediately became dumbfounded after catching a fleeting glance of something.

As it turned out, Zhu Lian had placed a finger on his sideburns and performed two actions, tearing back and pushing forward, pausing ever so slightly between the two motions.

The hunchbacked old man grinned at Shi Rou before turning around and slowly walking away with his hands clasped behind his back. He started to stroll around under the night sky by himself.

He left behind Shi Rou, the beautiful skeletal ghost, who looked like she had seen a ghost.

In the distance, Zhu Lian clicked his tongue in wonder and remarked, “How uninteresting.”

————

After traversing the plank roads and passing the border between the Southern Garden Nation and the Great Li Empire, Chen Ping’an and Zhu Lian walked along a mountain path located within a majestic mountain range.

Shi Rou had already left with Pei Qian, taking a detour around the mountains and following the road beside the Embroidered Flower River as they made their way to Red Candle Town. This was where they would all meet up afterward. Moreover, Chen Ping’an told Shi Rou to carry Pei Qian on her back, and he also allowed her to use her mystical abilities. Thus, assuming everything went smoothly, they would definitely arrive at Red Candle Town before him and Zhu Lian.

Chen Ping’an smiled and recounted an event from the past. Back then, it was on this mountain path that he had come across a Daoist priest and his two disciples. One of the disciples, a lame young boy, had been carrying an old and tattered banner with the characters ‘subduing demons and capturing ghosts, eliminating fiends and safeguarding Dao.’ In the end, both parties had faced a calamity together, being captured by the female ghost in a wedding dress and brought to the mansion that was decorated with countless large red lanterns.

Fortunately, they had eventually managed to escape from the mansion unscathed. Before parting ways, the impoverished old Daoist priest had given Chen Ping’an a Mountain Scouring Album passed down by the ancestors in his force. However, he and his two disciples hadn’t stayed in the small town when passing through the Dragon Spring Prefecture. Instead, they had simply visited Ruan Xiu before continuing northward on their journey to the capital of the Great Li Empire, saying that they wanted to try their luck there.

Chen Ping’an purposely chose to climb the mountain at night, returning to the small mountain path where they had become trapped all those years ago. He stopped and looked around, yet he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

Chen Ping’an was carrying his bamboo bookcase and Sword Immortal on his back, and he felt like he somewhat looked like a young scholar at this moment.

However, it made sense that the female ghost in the wedding dress wasn’t charging out to capture him straight away. Back then, the Wind Snow Temple’s Wei Jin had shattered the barrier with a single sword strike, after which the gallant Xu Ruo had also appeared at the scene. Thus, it was understandable that the female ghost didn’t really dare to harm passing scholars after having such a traumatizing experience.

Chen Ping’an thought for a moment before saying to Zhu Lian, “Fly up and see whether you can detect the presence of that mansion. However, I don’t have high hopes, and it’s almost certain that it’s hidden by an illusion technique.”

Zhu Lian shot up into the sky, displaying his ability as a Far Roaming Tier martial artist, one who could travel to anywhere in the world.

A short moment later, Zhu Lian returned to the small mountain path and said with a shake of his head, “I indeed can’t see anything, and it looks like I’ll need to waste two of Young Master’s talismans.”

Chen Ping’an smiled and retrieved two talismans, a Yang Energy Illumination Talisman and a Mountain and Water Barrier-Shattering Talisman. He had crafted these talismans using the yellow paper talismans from the stack of talisman paper that Li Xisheng had given him.

Pinching the two talismans in his fingers, he funneled the spiritual energy accumulated in his acupoint that housed the golden scholarly core into the Yang Energy Illumination Talisman.

The flickering flame on the talisman was extremely small.

Chen Ping’an leaped onto a branch and turned around in a circle, carefully observing the flame size and combustion speed of the Yang Energy Illumination Talisman as he did so. After doing this, he was able to determine the rough direction of the mansion.

They would follow the guidance of the Yang Energy Illumination Talisman to look for the barrier concealing the mansion, and this was similar to mortal humans using a lantern to illuminate the path in front of them as they walked around at night.

In the end, the small flame suddenly erupted as Chen Ping’an walked up to a mountain face. He flicked his wrist and filled the Mountain and Water Barrier-Shattering Talisman with spiritual energy, causing it to glow with brilliance as he slapped it onto the mountain face. The landscape in front of them transformed drastically, with the mountain face rapidly melting away like snow exposed to flames. A palm-sized hole appeared, and looking through this hole, they could already see a dark and eerie path through a mountain valley. At the same time, concentrated yin energy continued to surge outward.

When the Mountain and Water Barrier-Shattering Talisman finished burning up, the hole in the mountain face had already grown to the size of a courtyard door, allowing Chen Ping’an and Zhu Lian to stride inside.

There was a towering ancient tree in the valley, and Chen Ping’an continued to hold the Yang Energy Illumination Talisman in his fingers as he dashed forward with Zhu Lian. Only less than half of the Yang Energy Illumination Talisman had been used up.

Zhu Lian’s feet didn’t touch the ground as he followed Chen Ping’an.

Chen Ping’an didn’t go into detail about his previous encounter with the female ghost.

However, Zhu Lian had never before seen Chen Ping’an show such genuine stubbornness and persistence on a seemingly minor matter.

In order to visit the female ghost in the wedding dress, Chen Ping’an had made many initial preparations and come up with many different plans. Zhu Lian had experienced the deadly situation alongside Chen Ping’an in Old Dragon City, and he had felt like Chen Ping’an was extremely meticulous and careful when making plans in the Dust Medicinal Shop. He would weigh up the pros and cons regardless of how minor the matter was.

The situation right now was similar, yet not completely so. For example, Chen Ping’an had already been waiting for this day for a very long time. When this day finally arrived, Chen Ping’an’s reaction was quite strange. It was as if… he were adopting Zhu Lian’s ape-like posture when throwing punches, always bending down and curling up before throwing a punch. This was completely different from the bold and spirited attacks of ordinary pure martial artists, where one would stand up straight and confidently unleash their fist intent.

The Yang Energy Illumination Talisman started to burn quicker, and when the final flakes of ashes floated to the ground…

…The two of them were finally standing on a plaza and facing the majestic mansion. The plaque with the divinely written characters ‘Beautiful Water Noble Wind’ hung in front of the mansion, and to the sides of the entrance were two gigantic stone lions.

Chen Ping’an narrowed his eyes as he looked up at the plaque.

A female ghost wearing a bright red wedding dress had once hovered near that plaque.

She was deeply in love, and she had once been a good-natured ghost who always adhered to her own principles.

It was said that in the very beginning, a scholar traveling through the mountain paths at night had loudly recited sagely poems in order to muster up some courage. This had caught the female ghost’s attention.

Afterward, the scholar and the female ghost had fallen in love even though one was a human and one was a ghost. Not only that, but she had willingly put on the bright red wedding dress as well.

Chen Ping’an pursed his lips.

The notions of right and wrong didn’t differentiate between relatives, friends, and strangers… This was something that Chen Ping’an had said himself.

Those who didn’t adhere to any principles or reasons lived freely and did whatever made them happy. If they came across someone who adhered to principles and was more powerful than them, however, then they could only hope to experience a good reincarnation after death. This was also something that Chen Ping’an had said.

At this moment, Zhu Lian couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Chen Ping’an.

He was a Far Roaming Tier martial artist, yet even he was surprised by the peculiar aura emanating from Chen Ping’an’s body.

Was this the aura of a pure martial artist reaching the consummate level of the fifth tier?

It was much like a bright moon rising into the sky.

However, this wasn’t the most surprising aspect, as this was a phenomenon that still belonged to the normal realm of martial arts. What astonished Zhu Lian even more was the external manifestation of Chen Ping’an’s aura and mind’s realm.

The bright moon was like a jewel held in the mouth of a flood dragon.[1]

1. The phrase used for jewel (骊珠) here is the same as that used for the Jewel Small World. ☜