Unsheathed

In the Heavenly World…

Inside the White Jade Capital…

A young Daoist priest lazily sat on the white jade railing, and beneath his feet were vast seas of clouds drifting at different heights, with all of them formed from the abundant spiritual energy. He smiled with squinted eyes and remarked, “Both the Great Mystery Capital Temple and the Small Mystery Capital Temple have quite impressive methods.”

Before this, he had cocked his head to the side and pinched two fingers together as if he were holding onto the thread and listening to something. The voice was choppy and extremely fuzzy, and he hadn’t been able to hear everything clearly.

Even he was unwilling to make physical contact with the thread.

He sat up straight and flicked his finger, casually severing the thread.

This was a small matter that he had coincidentally come across by following the clues, and it genuinely wasn’t the case that he had ill intentions or whatnot. He wouldn’t get involved in these complicated matters regardless of whether that young man lived or died, and regardless of whether he enjoyed fortune or suffered misfortune.

Meanwhile, He Xiaoliang had actually dared to make her own decision regarding some matter, but she had been extremely hesitant and decisive. Not only that, but she was completely oblivious to the consequences as well. As a result, that small Daoist priest at the Small Mystery Capital Temple felt intense resentment toward him, Lu Chen, now. He would attribute this debt to the Great Mystery Capital Temple that was located in Lu Chen’s world, and when he returned, he would make sure to cause a scene there and loudly yell abuse in the street for every day that he didn’t receive justice.

Lu Chen rubbed his chin and mused to himself, “In any case, this junior disciple of mine truly enjoys great fortune. He hasn’t made his actual move yet, but he almost managed to kill that young lad in a mysterious fashion.”

A young boy whose Daoist robes and Daoist hat didn’t belong to the three original branches of the Dao Ancestor arrived beside Lu Chen and asked, “Is there some interesting news, Third Senior Brother?”

Lu Chen turned around and patted his head, replying, “You definitely need to live up to expectations, Junior Brother. You can’t make your senior brother lose to that person with the surname Qi again. Did you know that I hold grudges the best?”

The young boy’s smile became stiff, and he immediately turned around and ran away after seeing the amused smile on Lu Chen’s face.

However, this was the White Jade Capital, so where could the young boy possibly run off to?

Sure enough, it was as if someone grabbed him by the collar and directly tossed him toward the seas of clouds beyond the White Jade Capital. Not only that, but all of his spiritual energy was frozen by his senior brother as well.

Several immortals immediately dashed over from various places in the White Jade Capital, attempting to catch this new junior uncle of theirs who possessed a venerable status.

Lu Chen launched one palm strike after another, sending all of the immortals flying.

The young boy rapidly plummeted to the ground.

An Ascension Tier cultivator temporarily acting as the young boy’s Dao guardian gritted his teeth and was just about to summon his courage to leap over and save the young boy. Otherwise, was he going to stand idly by as the young boy smashed into the ground?

If a cultivator relied on nothing but their physical body, even Unpolished Jade Tier cultivators would be turned into meat paste if they plummeted to the ground from such a great height.

Those seas of clouds were no ordinary matters.

The Dao Ancestor could naturally heal his final disciple, and Branch Master Lu was capable of this as well. However, wouldn’t he, the Dao guardian, become the laughing stock of the entire Heavenly World?

Lu Chen shot a cold glance at the Ascension Tier cultivator.

The Ascension Tier cultivator’s Dao Heart immediately became unstable, so he had no option but to hurriedly stand still and stabilize his mind and heart.

Just as the young boy was about to smash into the ground, two gaping holes appeared in the sky at almost exactly the same time, with their appearance deafening and astounding.

Following this, two streaks of brilliant light blasted toward the White Jade Capital.

The two gaping holes in the sky quickly mended themselves.

In that instant, however, several dark shadows rapidly dashed into the Heavenly World, purposely avoiding the White Jade Capital as they attempted to hide elsewhere.

Lu Chen was expressionless as he raised a hand and pointed at several different locations.

The dark shadows furiously fled upward, yet a golden-armored deity that measured three thousand meters tall suddenly materialized in the sky and obliterated all of the shadows.

With a light hop, Lu Chen instantly arrived at the foot of the White Jade Capital.

The young boy was hovering one foot above the ground, with his hands and feet rigid and his mind completely blank.

Lu Chen squatted down and slowly said, “Dao guardians are external matters, and being the disciple of the Dao Ancestor is also an external matter. Even your life and death are an external matter.”

There were beads of sweat on the young boy’s forehead as he nodded in response.

Lu Chen placed a hand on the young boy’s head and lightly pushed down, ruthlessly causing the final disciple of the Dao Ancestor to instantly turn into meat paste.

He then smiled faintly and said, “How will you truly know if you don’t genuinely die once?”

A tall and sturdy middle-aged Daoist priest appeared beside Lu Chen, waving his arm and gathering the complete soul of the young boy into his sleeve. “Is this your idea of acting as a senior brother?” he asked with a frown.

Lu Chen smiled and replied, “It’s still better than how you performed back then.”

The tall Daoist priest shook his head and stomped a foot, launching up from the ground and soaring to the tallest point of the White Jade Capital.

Someone suddenly wrapped their arm around Lu Chen’s neck, and this person whose head was covered in dirt most likely wasn’t very tall, seeing that they needed to stand on their tippy-toes at this moment. He acted very familiar with Branch Master Lu Chen, and he asked with a grin, “How was my punch just then? Was the angle tricky and hard to defend? The Daoist second disciple’s junior is definitely still hurting right now.”

Lu Chen nodded and replied, “Your skills are as good as always.”

The person squeezed Lu Chen’s neck a little tighter, causing Lu Chen’s entire body to lean back slightly. He then squinted his eyes and said, “There’s an old debt to pay, so should we go over this now?”

Lu Chen smiled and replied, “I won’t go to the heavens beyond heavens, but you won’t be able to injure me here because you don’t have a sword. In any case, just how many celestial maidens in the White Jade Capital are looking at the two of us right now?”

Only after hearing this did the person loosen his grip around Lu Chen’s neck. Lu Chen patted his sleeves clean with a hint of exasperation on his face.

The person widened his eyes and gazed intently at the taller regions of the White Jade Capital, and he suddenly lowered his head and spat into his palm. He then rubbed his palms together before raising his hands high into the air, furiously tousling his hair from the front to the back.

He felt like if he had a mirror right now, the mirror would probably explode on the spot.

He coughed and moistened his throat, and he was just about to open his mouth to say something.

However, Lu Chen cut him off and said in exasperation, “There’s no need for self-introductions. Everyone in the White Jade Capital knows that your name is A’Liang.”

Even so, the man still properly introduced himself to the celestial maidens of the White Jade Capital, adding, “Liang as in kindness.”

Lu Chen smiled and asked, “Since you insist that you’re a swordsman, where is your sword right now?”

“Do swordsmen have to carry swords?” A’Liang retorted.

He then answered his own question, saying, “I don’t think they do.”

Lu Chen nodded and said, “Where there is gallant spirit in the world is where one can freely draw their sword. I know what you’re thinking, and this will definitely be very majestic if you manage to succeed.”

The man who wasn’t very tall and whose appearance was… actually so-so also stomped his foot and soared into the sky. However, he didn’t go to the White Jade Capital to look for the Daoist second disciple, and he instead ripped open the sky with his fist and returned to the heavens beyond the heavens.

Lu Chen stood with his hands clasped behind his back, and he gazed up at the sky and was unwilling to retract his gaze for a long time.

There were some people who would gain admiration from others regardless of whether they were a friend or a foe.

In this regard, A’Liang actually did better than both he and Qi Jingchun.

Lu Chen suddenly recalled a matter, causing a smile to spread across his face.

Perhaps Lady Zhu from the Bamboo Sea Small World’s Azure Divine Mountain would challenge this assessment.

————

Lady Bishu’s cave abode was constructed at a place called Peeling Mountain. The mountain wasn’t tall, and it couldn’t be regarded as having very good feng shui.

She was the weakest of the Six Sages, yet Peeling Mountain somehow managed to remain standing in Malicious Ghost Valley the entire time.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Mountain-Moving Great Sage not only had a powerful army, but his cultivation base was also far superior to that of Lady Bishu’s.

The Mountain-Moving Great Sage was a mountain-moving ape with an impure bloodline, and even though he was only five hundred years old, he liked to rely on his innately tough physique to engage in close-quarter combat with ghosts and Qi refiners. In fact, he had even spent a huge sum of money to buy an extremely high-grade suit of dew armor to carry around. At the same time, his pair of hugely destructive meteor hammers elevated his combat power even further.

Peeling Mountain’s defenses were scattered and pathetic, with the spirits of the mountain gathered together in groups of two and three and busy gambling with each other. They were completely focused on their important games.

However, there were three extremely ingenious chain restrictions on Peeling Mountain. Even though they couldn’t be regarded as a mountain-protection formation, they were very easily triggered if any outsider dared to sneak into the mountain. These chain restrictions would then alert the entire Peeling Mountain.

A plaque with the characters “Moon Hall” was hung above Lady Bishu’s residence. The plaque was well crafted and glistening with gold, and it didn’t appear to be filled with yin energy at all. Rather, it appeared extremely festive and brimming with prosperity, and it had likely taken quite some immortal coins to make. There was also a large number of osmanthus trees planted both inside and outside the residence, but these osmanthus trees were nothing special.

Over at the backyard, there stood a woman who was lithe and graceful, yet her face was filled with bumps and dips. She was standing on some steps and dressed in extravagant palatial garb right now, and her eyes immediately lit up when the young scholar was hanging from the bamboo pole. Her cheeks puffed and contracted, and she wiped away her drool before breaking into delighted laughter. The spirit holding the folding fan had already formulated a speech in his mind, yet he wasn’t given any opportunity to speak as both he and his eyesore subordinates were shooed away.

The bamboo pole was placed on the ground, and the young scholar was forced to lie there in an extremely awkward position. His wrists and ankles were already bruised, and he opened his mouth with much difficulty and said in a quivering voice, “Lady Bishu?”

The woman squatted down and ran her fingers down the feeble scholar’s face, caressing his cheeks as she said with an intoxicated expression, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a handsome man. How good. Relax your mind, Little Brother, I’m a lady who knows how to cherish other people. Don’t believe the nonsensical rumors being spread outside claiming that Lady Bishu likes her food stir-fried and not steamed. My method of eating people leads to extreme ecstasy, and even men are incredibly fond of this method. My Peeling Mountain isn’t a predator’s den like the rumors say, and it’s genuinely a land of fortune and enjoyment for men like you.”

Lady Bishu could barely control her urges as she spoke, and she extended her strange tongue that was exceptionally long and wide, causing drool to drip onto the scholar’s face.

The scholar truly wanted to cry.

He was seemingly scared stupid, so he ended up staring directly at Lady Bishu.

Lady Bishu smiled seductively and asked, “What are you staring at? There’s no need to be impatient. After I untie you and we go to the lover’s bed together, I’ll let you look at anything you want.”

“Even though you’re a toad, you aren’t completely full of lies,” the scholar said slowly. “These are truly seeds from the Moon Palace. This has been a worthwhile trip.”

Lady Bishu faltered upon hearing this.

Rolling black smoke and an intense murderous aura instantly soared into the sky, completely enveloping Lady Bishu. There was frantic yelling and pitiful wails of agony for a moment, yet things quickly fell silent. Only a large pool of blood spread across the ground like a blooming flower.

A short moment later, it was the scholar squatting on the ground and Lady Bishu lying on the ground. However, all that was left of the latter was a rack of white bones.

The scholar’s mouth was dripping with fresh blood, and he showed no signs of wiping it away as he burped. He extended a hand and dipped it into the pool of blood, and he turned to face the wall at the same time and asked with a smile, “Have you watched enough yet?”

Even Chen Ping’an couldn’t help but feel deeply astonished.

Spirits and ghosts bringing harm to humans was a common sight, and fox spirits toying around with scholars was a frequent occurrence as well.

However, this was Chen Ping’an’s first time seeing a so-called scholar devour a demon.

Chen Ping’an squatted on top of the wall, with the Sword Nurturing Gourd already retied to his waist as he asked, “Lady Bishu possessed a middling cultivation base, so it’s very clear that she has a powerful backer who isn’t one of the five other great demons. Are you not afraid of them at all?”

The scholar smiled and replied, “Don’t I have the perfect scapegoat right in front of me?”

Chen Ping’an also smiled, saying, “Can you please uphold some morality and justice of the cultivation world?”

First and Fifteenth dashed out from the Sword Nurturing Gourd, but they didn’t engage with the scholar and instead shot into the ground.

Chen Ping’an had learned his lesson, and Fan Yunluo’s gigantic chariot burrowing into the ground to flee was still fresh in Chen Ping’an’s memory.

Both of them immediately fell silent.

The scholar was most likely feeling apprehensive of the sword in the young sword immortal’s hand. Would this sword be quicker than his unique escape technique?

Meanwhile, Chen Ping’an was afraid that this so-called scholar would flee too quickly. After all, how could he collect this debt if he lost sight of his opponent?

As for being scapegoated by this so-called scholar? Chen Ping’an actually didn’t mind this at all. He would deal with whatever troubles came his way afterward. He had come to Malicious Ghost Valley to train, so Chen Ping’an was actually not very accustomed to things being too peaceful. If things spun out of his control, he could use the gold paper Land-Shortening Talisman coupled with Sword Immortal to temporarily escape from Malicious Ghost Valley. After he gained a better understanding of his opponent, he would then re-enter Malicious Ghost Valley and use the simplest and dumbest method to slowly chip away at his opponent. This would be a battle of patience, and he would repeat this cycle of escaping and re-entering if it was necessary.

Chen Ping’an and the scholar spoke at almost exactly the same time, after which they shut up in unison as well.

The scholar wiped away the blood at the corners of his mouth and said, “You speak first. You’re a sword immortal, and I’ve always respected your type the most.”

Chen Ping’an said, “You speak first. Scholars like you are still more valuable.”

“Are the two of us going to waste time like this?” the scholar asked with an astonished expression.

“As long as you’re happy,” Chen Ping’an replied with a nod.

The scholar looked on as a long sword appeared in Chen Ping’an’s hand. He plonked down to the ground and flicked his sleeves, causing the fresh blood to condense into an orb that circled around his body, spinning slowly as it did so. He then asked in a hesitant manner, “Since you want to uphold the morality and justice of the cultivation world, why don’t we talk about making money in harmony as well?”

“How are we going to make money?” Chen Ping’an asked.

The scholar pointed beyond the tall wall and replied in a righteous manner, “Aren’t there still five great demons? Unlike this impoverished Lady Bishu, the rest of them all possess impressive riches. That being the case, us two brothers can work together to exterminate these vermin for the sake of the people!”

Chen Ping’an had nodded and replied, “Sounds good.”

However, the scholar suddenly let loose a torrent of abuse, howling, “Good my fucking ass! Your killing intent is very well concealed, but your sword is almost about to open its mouth and holler about killing me!”

Chen Ping’an narrowed his eyes.

The scholar slowly stood up with an apathetic expression.

This was his first time encountering this young wanderer whose feats had already spread throughout the southern region of Malicious Ghost Valley.

As such, he wasn’t aware that the current Chen Ping’an would appear extremely unfamiliar to those familiar with him, regardless of whether they were friend or foe.

However, the scholar was aware of one matter.

This person possessed incredibly strong killing intent.

In fact, his killing intent actually suppressed the sword qi of his blade!

The scholar felt like this was perhaps a good option as well. He might as well let loose and fight to the death with this person.

When killing people to steal treasures, riches always came with great dangers. However, he had exceptionally good fortune, and he had never lost a gamble in his life!

Chen Ping’an took a deep breath and shook his head, after which he patted his chest and said with a dazzling smile, “My apologies, I suffer from hemophobia.”