Unsheathed

The young employee was very stubborn, refusing to relent or request assistance from the shopkeeper even after being surrounded by four customers. He insisted that they either hand over the two snowflake coins, or refuse to pay and suffer the consequences.

One of the customers was a brawny man with a purple complexion, and standing behind him was a yin spirit puppet servant crafted by the Flax Robe Sect. The purple-skinned man was just about to engage the employee in a physical altercation, but the woman sitting beside him gave him a sly idea instead.

As opposed to escalating the conflict, the man slammed a lesser heat coin onto the table as he demanded, “You wanted two snowflake coins, right? Give me my change!”

He was clearly doing this to embarrass the employee.

Generally speaking, all cultivators and pure martial artists alike packed stashes of snowflake coins while out traveling, and they should never run out of snowflake coins. Of course, lesser heat coins had to be packed as well, seeing as they were lighter and more convenient to carry around than snowflake coins.

As for grain rain coins, they weren’t even all that desirable because there were very few scenarios in which such coins would come in useful, unless one was preparing to issue a large payment for a deal that had been agreed upon in advance.

“Why didn’t you pull out a grain rain coin instead?” the young employee retorted.

The purple-skinned man glared at the employee with his arms crossed as he snapped, “Hurry up! I have to go offer incense at the river god temple!”

The shopkeeper finally intervened as he said, “That’s enough. Give him his change.”

The employee grabbed the lesser heat coin from the table, then made his way behind a counter before re-emerging with a rucksack full of snowflake coins that he slammed onto the table.

The purple-skinned man grinned as he waved a hand, and the yin spirit puppet behind him picked up the heavy rucksack before placing it into a large chest on its back.

“You can leave now,” the employee said with a stern expression.

“There’s no hurry,” the purple-skinned man said with a sly grin as he placed another lesser heat coin onto the table. “We’ll have four more bowls of gloomy tea.”

“Are you fucking serious?!” the employee snapped.

The woman turned around to face the employee, and her features weren’t anything special, but her figure was very alluring, and as she twisted around, her voluptuous chest was accentuated even further as she flashed the employee a seductive smile and said, “You’re doing business, so you should learn to rein in your temper.

“Having said that, I don’t blame you for having a short temper, seeing as that’s very normal for a young man like yourself. You can have my bowl of tea to help you cool down a little.”

The customers on the other tables erupted into laughter upon hearing this, and some of the men began whistling and catcalling at the woman while staring blatantly at her chest, as if they were trying to cleave off the pair of mountains there with their eyes and take them home.

The young employee was furious, and he was just about to erupt into a tirade against the woman. A young man carrying a sword was sitting beside the woman, and he was already raring to go, seemingly ready to lash out as soon as the employee let his temper boil over.

Thankfully, the shopkeeper finally set down his chopsticks as he said, “That’s enough! Have you forgotten what I taught you? Do not badmouth people to their faces, that’s a rule that’s been passed down in our tea stall for generations. You can be stubborn all you want, but don’t go verbally abusing people. That’s not how business is conducted.”

After that, the shopkeeper turned to the four customers as he said, “Just like this pretty lady said, we are doing business, so we should learn to rein in our tempers. How about this? As a gesture of apology and goodwill, you can have the next four bowls of gloomy tea free of charge. What do you say?”

The woman giggled in a gleeful manner, while the purple-skinned man nodded in response and put his lesser heat coin away.

After that, the four of them drank the four bowls of gloomy tea on the table free of charge before departing, with the woman turning to give the young employee a seductive look as she left.

Chen Ping’an’s brows furrowed slightly upon seeing this, and he turned to take a glance at one of the bowls of tea on their table. Most of the tea in the bowl had been left behind, and there was some makeup clinging to the edge of the bowl.

The shopkeeper made his way out from around the counter, grabbing the bowl before the young employee could get to it before tossing it into Swaying River.

Chen Ping’an finished his tea, then set down a snowflake coin onto the table before departing.

After leaving Mural City, Chen Ping’an soon arrived at a crossroads, which included a smaller riverside path and a larger path that was slightly further away from the river bank. It was said that the river god here really liked his peace and quiet, and the larger path was always very busy, with noisy horse-drawn carriages constantly trundling over it, making it a source of vexation for the Swaying River God.

Hence, the Flax Robe Sect had paid for the construction of two paths, the smaller of which was meant for sightseeing on foot, while the larger one was for those traveling by carriage.

The smaller path that Chen Ping’an had chosen to walk down was largely absent of people. After all, regardless of how exceptional the scenery of Swaying River was, it was still ultimately just a calm river. For the average tourist, the sense of novelty of arriving on a new continent had mostly already worn off back in Mural City, and the small dirt path was riddled with bumps and potholes, making it far less even and smooth than the larger path.

Furthermore, the larger path was lined with small stalls. A fee had to be paid for setting up a stall in Mural City. It was only a fee of a single snowflake coin, but it was still a form of expenditure that the merchants here wanted to avoid.

Chen Ping’an had walked down the small riverside path for several kilometers when he heard a string of feeble profanities ring out from a large patch of reeds in the distance. After that, four people emerged from within, leaning on each other for support, and they were none other than the customers that had caused the scene at the tea stall earlier.

All of a sudden, the woman’s stomach began rumbling like thunder, and she groaned, “Oh my goodness, here we go again!”

She stumbled back into the reeds as she yelled, “Get that puppet of yours to stay the hell away! I don’t want a yin spirit ogling at me as I do my business!”

Chen Ping’an’s gaze remained fixed directly forward as he picked up the pace.

The purple-skinned man took a glance at Chen Ping’an, while the sword-carrying young man beside him speculated in a quiet voice, “Wasn’t that guy at the tea stall earlier? You don’t think he’s working with them, do you? The shopkeeper spiked our tea, then sent him to rob us?”

A gray-robed old man massaged his own excruciating belly as he nodded and said, “Always better to be safe than sorry.”

A dark look appeared on the purple-skinned man’s face as he grumbled, “This Skeleton Shoal truly is a lawless place. I can’t believe even a mere tea stall would dare to commit such brazen crimes!”

A resigned look appeared on the gray-robed old man’s face as he sighed, “The Skeleton Shoal has never been the most hospitable place. Let’s just treat this as a lesson that we had to learn eventually and think about how to proceed from here. If the tea stall really is conspiring to murder and rob us, then the rest of the journey to the river god temple is bound to be an arduous one.”

The young man took a glance at Chen Ping’an, then made a throat-slitting motion as he proposed, “How about we seize the initiative? That’s surely better than waiting passively for them to spring their trap. Perhaps if we make an example out of that man, they wouldn’t dare to go through with their plan.”

The purple-skinned man was in approval of this course of action. The gray-robed old man still wanted to consider some other options first, but the purple-skinned man had already turned to the young swordsman and said, “You go and take care of him. ”

The young swordsman smiled and nodded as he said, “He looks like a pure martial artist beyond the Physique Refining Tier. If he’s hiding his true power and possesses a Hero’s Gall Pill, I should still be able to look after myself just fine, but it’ll be very difficult for me to take him down.”

The purple-skinned man took a glance at the gray-robed old man upon hearing this, and the latter nodded silently in response.

With that, the young swordsman and the gray-robed old man promptly departed.

Shortly thereafter, the purple-skinned man’s stomach began to churn violently once again, and he noticed that his two companions had already returned.

“Did you manage to take care of him?” the purple-skinned man asked.

The gray-robed old man shook his head in response.

“He ran away even faster than a rabbit. Either that, or he sensed our animosity and concealed himself in a patch of reeds. There are so many reed marshes here that it’ll be next to impossible to find him.”

The purple-skinned man scanned his surroundings with a dark expression as he said, “In that case, there’s not much that we can do. Let’s continue onward for a bit and see how the situation unfolds.

“If worse comes to worst, we’ll just have to go back to the dock to apologize to the shopkeeper of the tea stall. We’re in a completely foreign land that’s known for being chaotic and lawless, so we’ll have to swallow our pride from time to time for the sake of safety.”

The woman stumbled out of the reeds with one hand resting on her hip in a feeble manner as she groaned, “Those laxatives are so strong that they’d be enough to put down an ox, I can’t believe they’d use them on a frail and delicate woman like me! Chivalry is truly dead!”

Earlier, Chen Ping’an had diverged from the small path and snuck into the reeds, quickly vanishing out of sight.

Only after traveling for over ten kilometers did he finally stop to scoop up some water from the river with his hands before splashing it onto his own face. After that, he took a moment to ensure that there was no one around, then stored the cloth pouch that contained the celestial maiden portraits into his minimization treasure.

He then leaped up into the air and began treading over the dense reeds as delicately as a dragonfly darting over water, rushing away into the distance.

Even with that yin spirit puppet on their side, those four combined most likely couldn’t even match up against a veteran Dragon Gate Tier cultivator. Chen Ping’an didn’t want to engage in altercations as soon as he arrived on the Northern Complete Reed Continent, so he chose to take the path of avoidance instead.

As he drew close to the river god temple, there were more and more pedestrians on the small path, and he drifted down onto the ground, emerging from the reeds before continuing onward.

Earlier, he had stood atop the reeds, observing the vastly renowned river god temple from afar, and he could see a column of dense incense smoke rising up into the air from the temple. The column of smoke was vibrant and colorful, and it stirred up the clouds above, presenting a breathtaking phenomenon to behold.

Chen Ping’an hadn’t observed such a stunning phenomenon even in the Burial River Goddess Temple and the Green Roving Residence, nor had he witnessed such a sight in any of the river god temples back home.

There was normal incense for commoners, as well as water incense offered to wealthy worshippers.

There was a wooden sign at the entrance of the temple denoting the two types of incense on offer, and there was also a young child standing by the wooden sign, informing the worshippers that the quality of one’s worship depended only on the sincerity of their heart, not the price of the incense being offered.

Chen Ping’an chose not to spare this expense, purchasing a batch of Swaying River water incense for ten snowflake coins. The set only contained nine sticks of incense, so it was far more expensive than the incense sold at the river god temple in the Azure Phoenix Nation, which cost one snowflake coin for three sticks of incense.

Chen Ping’an pulled out three sticks of incense from the yellow bamboo incense tube, then followed the worshippers into the temple. He lit the three sticks of incense in the anterior hall, then raised them up high above his head before bowing to all four directions. After that, he made his way into the main hall, where the river god’s deity statue was situated. It was a majestic statue that was fully gilded in gold and painted with vibrant colors.

In the Great Li Empire, the heights of all mountain and river deity statues had to follow academy regulations. This deity statue was over three feet taller than even the Iron Talisman River God statue, so it would’ve undoubtedly been considered blasphemous back home, but given the lawless nature of the Northern Complete Reed Continent, there were clearly no such regulations in place.

The Swaying River God was an old man clad in a suit of golden armor. He was standing atop a vibrant, red snake, and in one of his hands was a sword, while a mace was held in the other.

After that, it took Chen Ping’an over an hour to explore the entire massive temple, albeit at a very leisurely pace, and all of the rooves were covered in eye-catching golden glazed tiles.

One of the side halls had been constructed to resemble a dragon palace, within which were extremely life-like statues depicting fish, snake, and flood dragon generals that had taken on human forms.

An elderly worshiper made a joking remark to a child, telling them that this was the river god’s side palace, and that at night, all of these generals would come alive. However, according to the old man, the temple had a nightly curfew, so only powerful immortals would have the privilege of visiting this place after daylight to drink tea and wine with the river god.

Chen Ping’an had lingered for a short while in the rear hall earlier, and he had spotted a set of couplets. He pulled out three more sticks of incense and lit them there, respectfully standing on the white jade plaza for a moment, then placed the lit incense into the incense burner before departing.

The couplets consisted of golden text over a black background that read “One who possesses a heart of gold need not kowtow here for blessings” and “One who possesses a heart of evil shall be blighted no matter how much incense is offered.”

Chen Ping’an continued northward after leaving the river god temple.

The sun was beginning to set, and Chen Ping’an arrived at a small dock at around dusk. He had to take a boat to the other side in order to reach the Malicious Ghost Valley, which was the place that he most wanted to visit in the Skeleton Shoal’s territory.

However, all of the boatmen had already retired for the day. The boats were tied up to the dock, while the boatmen had returned home. Chen Ping’an offered extra money for someone to take him across the river, but no one took up his offer. They all informed him that they were not to cross the river at night, and that this was a rule that had been passed down for generations. Otherwise, the river god was going to be made at them.

There were only three exceptions to this rule, namely scholars traveling to the capital to attend the imperial examination, the ill or the injured in desperate need of treatment, or those who wished to end their own lives in the river.

Thinking back to how the construction of bridges was prohibited over Swaying River, Chen Ping’an decided against flying across to the other side. Instead, he lit a campfire at a peaceful spot near the riverbank, deciding to cross the river the next morning.

That night, Chen Ping’an faced the river as he practiced his sitting meditation.

An uneventful night passed by.

At first light, Chen Ping’an rose to his feet and made his way to the dock, where an elderly yet strong and healthy boatman with glistening, tanned skin was already waiting for customers.

The price for a crossing was eight qian of silver, but the old boatman wanted to wait a little longer as it wasn’t quite worth his while transporting a single passenger across the river. He asked Chen Ping’an if he would be happy to wait, and he said that he would be willing to make the crossing once one more passenger arrived.

Chen Ping’an was in no hurry anyway, so he raised no objections to this. He removed his conical bamboo hat, then sat down on the dock beside the boatman before removing his Sword Nurturing Gourd to take a sip of wine. The gourd currently contained home-brewed rice wine gifted to Downtrodden Mountain by Dong Shuijing.

The old boatman’s eyes lit up as he caught a whiff of the wine’s aroma, and he smiled as he asked, “Would you be able to spare me some of your wine, Young Master?”

Chen Ping’an offered the Sword Nurturing Gourd to the old boatman, but the latter hurriedly cupped his hands together instead as he said, “I wouldn’t want to dirty your gourd, Young Master. Just pour the wine into my hands.”

Chen Ping’an duly obliged, and the old boatman raised his callused hands to his own mouth. After finishing the wine, he smacked his lips together with relish, then asked, “Are you traveling to the No Return Valley, Young Master? Oh, forgive me, that’s what we call that place around these parts, but its official name is the Malicious Ghost Valley.”

Chen Ping’an smiled and nodded in response.

“I am a swordsman, and I was told that there are three must-visit places in the Skeleton Shoal. I’ve already gone to Mural City and the river god temple, so I wanted to visit the Malicious Ghost Valley next.”

“I knew you were a young immortal,” the old boatman said as he took a glance at Chen Ping’an’s robe. “I haven’t earned much money throughout all my time as a boatman, but I’ve developed a pretty keen eye. This robe of yours must be worth a lot of money, right?”

“I have to present myself in a good light while out traveling. Otherwise, people will look down on me,” Chen Ping’an chuckled.

“I can tell from your accent that you’re from another continent, Young Master. You have to get rid of the accent. There are all types of people here, and the less capable they are, the more they like to band together and pick on outsiders,” the old boatman advised.

Chen Ping’an nodded in response.

“You’re in luck, Young Master. Someone else has come to cross the river, so we can set off now,” the boatman said as he cast his gaze in a certain direction.

Chen Ping’an turned to discover a hobbling old woman approaching the dock. Upon catching sight of her, Chen Ping’an’s expression instantly stiffened slightly.

The old woman hobbled over to the dock, and an awkward look appeared on her face upon hearing the crossing fare of eight qian of silver. She turned to Chen Ping’an with a hopeful gaze, but the latter pretended to be completely oblivious. In the end, the old woman had to ask if he could help her out. She only had four qian of silver on her, and she was hoping that Chen Ping’an would be able to cover the rest of the fare.

Chen Ping’an merely shook his head.

The old boatman was frantically squinting at Chen Ping’an, trying to get him to agree, but all of a sudden, it was as if he had become a wooden puppet that only knew how to stare off into space and shake his head.

In the end, the old woman stomped her foot in frustration and said that she would owe the old boatman for now, and that she would repay him the next time she crossed the river.

The boatman agreed, and as they crossed the river, the atmosphere on the boat was rather awkward.

Chen Ping’an remained as silent and stoic as a statue.

The old boatman was clearly agitated, but he couldn’t say anything.

The old woman was furious at Chen Ping’an for his stinginess, and she gave him a vicious glare, but Chen Ping’an simply pretended not to have seen anything.

After a while, he began preaching to the old woman, as if he couldn’t help but defend himself, rattling off a bunch of pedantic principles, educating the woman on why she shouldn’t blame him.

The old woman was so angry that she slapped the railing of the boat, while the old boatman rolled his eyes in exasperation.

Upon reaching the other shore, the old boatman was just about to say something, only for the old woman to stop him by tugging on his sleeve.

Chen Ping’an jumped down from the boat, then departed without so much as a backward glance.

The old boatman was completely flabbergasted, and after a long, stunned silence, he turned to the old woman and asked, “You’re letting him go just like that? Isn’t it a real pity?”

The old woman had already straightened her posture and was no longer hobbling, and she sneered, “What should I do then? Force myself upon him? He’s the one that was unable to grasp this opportunity, so he can’t blame anyone else! He’s the first one to have failed such a simple test! If my sisters were to hear of this, I would be made a complete laughing stock!”

The old boatman couldn’t help but feel as if something were wrong.

Why did it feel to him like the young man had intentionally passed up this massive fated opportunity?

The first had been set by the old woman, and it concerned whether Chen Ping’an would force the boatman to make a crossing with only just a single passenger. The second test had been carried out by the boatman himself when he asked Chen Ping’an for some wine. He had passed both tests, so the boatman was confident that things would go well.

Hence, he had done the young man a small favor, intentionally removing some of the illusions to reveal some telltale signs. Seeing as Chen Ping’an had already been to the river god temple, he should’ve caught on to what was happening, and there was no way that he should’ve fallen at the final hurdle!

The old woman stomped her foot in fury, sinking to the bottom of Swaying River along with the old boatman and his boat.

The boat was able to travel along the riverbed just as easily as it had glided over the river’s surface, and the old woman had already reverted back to her true form, a divine celestial with unmatched beauty.

The old boatman couldn’t help but pity the young man for missing such a massive blessing.

After leaving the dock, Chen Ping’an began running as fast as he could. He would’ve taken to the heavens atop his flying sword if he weren’t worried about attracting attention.

After running for a long while, he removed his Sword Nurturing Gourd and gulped down some wine, then smiled gleefully to himself.

You’re not tricking me! I’m now a veteran when it comes to these things!

A hint of lingering fear then flashed through his eyes as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. Thankfully, he had been alert enough to see through the old boatman and the old woman’s ruse. Otherwise, he would’ve surely been beaten to death by Ning Yao! Even if she didn’t beat him to death, his hopes of getting a hug or even a kiss out of her the next time they met would’ve been completely dashed.

Over at the dock on the other side of the river stood Jiang Shangzhen. He had returned after sensing something, and he slapped a hand to his own forehead as he exclaimed, “I really don’t get you sometimes, Brother Chen!”