Unsheathed

The thick-browed man stretched and flicked his sleeve at the same time, causing a burst of spiritual energy to swim across the four walls like a nimble snake. He then snapped his fingers, causing numerous golden talismans to instantly light up on the walls of the shrine, with these talismans appearing like soaring birds.

The thick-browed man had snuck into the water immortal shrine before the group of idiotic youths had set off, and after drawing the talismans on the wall, he had used a unique secret technique to conceal his aura. Otherwise, the female canal master would have been scared away immediately. As for the apprehending talismans on the wall, these were Snow Soil Talismans that his master and immortal force were renowned for. These talismans were also called Flying Bird Seal Scripts, and after being completed, they were extremely well hidden and hard to detect. They were like fleeting claw marks left in the snow by soaring geese.

Apart from this powerful talisman, the immortal force that the thick-browed man belonged to was ultimately a famous Militarian force that was especially skilled at assassination. At the same time, this Militarian force was also slightly different from ordinary Militarian forces. Because of this, many disciples of the force worked as personal guards of officials and nobles in the mortal empires.

Even though this Militarian force couldn’t be regarded as top-notch in the one dozen or so nations, no one dared to underestimate it because of this. However, this thick-browed man was rebellious and unrestrained, and for the past few decades, his only pastime was to mingle in the cultivation world outside the mountains, preferring to be the head of a chicken rather than the tail of a phoenix.

When he was bored, he would toy around with the gallant heroes of the cultivation world as if they were catfish in the pond or earthworms in the mountains. He would kill them or spare them depending on his emotions, and he was extremely direct and resolute. This was especially the case when it came to so-called gallant female heroes, a group of people who provided a completely different experience.

Right now, the thick-browed man was looking at the old woman and the two young women as if they were already his possessions.

“Esteemed Immortal, why have you gone out of your way to tempt me out of the lake? And why are you vandalizing the items on my property? This isn’t very good, is it?” the old woman said slowly.

The thick-browed man made a grabbing motion, retrieving a pot of wine from beside a campfire and tilting his head back to take a large swig. He then violently tossed the wine pot away and spat in disgust, “What absolute rubbish are you fools buying? This tastes like pungent piss. No wonder your brains are completely scrambled.”

The thick-browed man was seemingly in a bad mood, and he stared intently at the old woman and replied, “My junior brother is at odds with your master, the lake lord of Verdant Bamboo Lake, and I’ve coincidentally received a mission from my master to travel to Imperial Accompanying City this time. The lake lord is hiding in his dragon palace at the bottom of the lake, making him quite difficult to find.

“However, I know that you’re a vindictive woman who can’t stand boredom, and the conflict between my foolish junior brother and the lake lord of Verdant Bamboo Lake back then ultimately arose because of you anyway. As such, feeding you to my saber and causing the lake lord to rush over is also a good outcome. In any case, I genuinely won’t be afraid of him once he leaves the lake. Don’t they all say that the canal master is his forbidden lover? Well, I’ll toss your corpse on the bank of Verdant Bamboo Lake once I’ve had enough fun with you. Let’s see if he can still endure this and restrain himself.”

The old woman became deathly pale.

The two maidservants looked even more pitiful and tragic. The canal master could still maintain her illusion technique, but they were already starting to show vague signs of their true appearance now that their spiritual energy was starting to become scattered.

Meanwhile, the young delinquents were completely pale with fright.

This was especially the case for the flippant young man standing on the divine altar, and he needed to lean against the divine statue of the canal master to prevent himself from collapsing into a heap.

Even though Chen Ping’an didn’t know how the thick-browed man had concealed his aura so well, there was one thing that was extremely evident to him. There was not a single good person among the three opposing forces in the shrine.

Only the sole young man who was still sitting beside the campfire had a slight bit of conscience left. However, he had already wet his pants in fright.

The old woman decided to directly shed her illusion technique, and she forced a smile and said, “Great Esteemed Immortal, you’re from the Golden Bell Nation’s Ghost Axe Palace, right?”

The thick-browed man faltered for a moment before unleashing a torrent of abuse, cursing, “Fucking hell! Someone like you has actually been able to make my junior brother feel yearning for so many years after experiencing a brief moment of intimacy? I brought him with me to travel around the cultivation world and improve his mood back then, and he was also able to have a taste of those noble women and beautiful female cultivators. However, my junior brother was uninterested in all of them. What the hell is this? Perhaps your skills in bed are quite remarkable?”

Sitting on the tall branch far away, Chen Ping’an continued to observe the situation with his eyes squinted and his hands inside opposite sleeves.

Standing at the entrance of the shrine, the canal master spoke in a seductive manner even though her expression was troubled, and she said, “Your junior brother and I had mutual feelings for each other back then, and we didn’t want to have just a fleeting relationship. Rather, we wanted to become a pair of immortal Dao partners who went against the rules and traditions. However, we were betrayed by the detestable maidservant of Algae Stream’s canal master, and she secretly reported this matter to the lake lord. Afterward, the lake lord insisted on lashing out and injuring your junior brother even after I begged him to let this matter slide. It was because of this that there arose a misunderstanding between the two parties. Please understand this, Esteemed Immortal.”

When the canal master saw the thick-browed man on the beam place his hand on the hilt of his saber, she grabbed a maidservant in each hand and pulled them forward, saying with a charming smile, “Great Esteemed Immortal, my two maidservants are quite beautiful as well, so I can gift them to you to use as bed-warming maidservants. However, I hope that you can cherish them and look after them a little, and once you grow tired of them, I hope that you can return them to Verdant Bamboo Lake.”

“And what about you?” the thick-browed man asked.

The female canal master smiled and replied, “If Great Esteemed Immortal is interested in me and doesn’t dislike my frail body, then I can naturally warm Esteemed Immortal’s bed as well.”

The thick-browed man didn’t offer a response to this, and he raised his chin two times and asked, “Then what about these filthy pieces of trash? How will you deal with them?”

The canal master smiled beautifully and answered, “They deserve death for daring to desecrate a deity, and they deserve death even more for sullying Great Esteemed Immortal’s eyes. I’ll dispose of them straight away. I have a rippling cup in my sleeve, and it holds wine made from the water fortune essence of Verdant Bamboo Lake. I can coincidentally borrow this opportunity to offer you some wine. I’ll personally pour wine for you, and my two maidservants were dancers in the imperial court when they were alive, so they’ll dance for you to improve your mood after they loosen their ribbons and remove their clothes.”

The thick-browed man remained silent, with an amused smile on his face.

This caused the female canal master to feel increasingly worried.

All of a sudden…

The thick-browed man suddenly launched a saber strike with no warning.

The canal master ducked in fright, but the burst of saber light fortunately wasn’t aimed at her head. Instead, it was aimed at somewhere outside the water immortal shrine.

The canal master was pale with fright as she turned around and looked back.

Illuminated by the saber light, what she saw was a young wanderer raising his head slightly as he stood atop the branch of a large tree in the distance. One of his hands remained inside his sleeves, and he simply used his other hand to grab the burst of saber light. The saber light collided with the astral energy gathered in his palm, making the young wanderer appear like a god who was holding the bright moon in his hand.

The thick-browed man was astonished, but his expression didn’t change as he went from a sitting posture to a squatting posture. He held a saber in his hand, with its blade smooth and glistening as he clicked his tongue in wonder and remarked, “Oh my, what impressive abilities. The astral energy is pure and perfectly concentrated. Since when did such a young martial arts grandmaster pop up in the Silver Screen Nation? I’ve interacted with the strongest martial artist in the cultivation world of the Silver Screen Nation before, and Mao Zujin is indeed able to block this saber strike as well. However, he definitely can’t block it with such ease.”

Chen Ping’an retracted his palm, causing the final wisp of saber light to disperse as he asked, “Are the talismans that you stuck on your body and the walls of the shrine before secret talismans of your immortal force? Can they only be used by cultivators from the Ghost Axe Palace?”

The thick-browed man smiled and replied, “You simply blocked the feather-like saber strike that I used to greet you, yet you’re already pretending to be some impressive grandmaster?”

He nimbly hovered from the beam to the ground, and the canal master and her two maidservants, as well as the young men who had already dispersed from the very beginning, hurriedly shuffled back even further as he strode toward the entrance of the shrine.

The thick-browed man leaned on his saber and ordered coldly, “Hurry up and state your name! If you’re from a mountain that’s acquainted with the Ghost Axe Palace, then you’ll naturally be a friend of ours. And if you’re a friend of ours, then you’ll naturally be able to share in our fortune, including tonight’s fortune with beautiful women. However, if you plan to act as a righteous hero of the cultivation world upholding justice in the shrine tonight, then I, Du Yu, will teach you an unforgettable lesson!”

The young men from a nearby town were petrified by the esteemed immortal’s words.

Meanwhile, the canal master was very surprised by Du Yu’s words. In reality, there was a lot of thought behind his words, and even though he wasn’t appearing weak, he most definitely wasn’t being overbearing either.

What happened next astonished the canal master even more.

The young wanderer disappeared in a flash, after which he instantly appeared outside the gate of the shrine and said with a faint smile, “Then I beg you to please teach me a lesson.”

With one hand on the hilt of his saber and one hand clenched into a fist, Du Yu moved his fist slightly and asked with a malicious expression, “Do you want to fight to determine a victor, or do you want to directly fight to the death?!”

However, the young wanderer surprisingly replied, “You haven’t beaten me to death yet, but you’ve almost scared me to death.”

The canal master genuinely didn’t dare to laugh out loud, or else she would have already clutched her belly and roared with laughter.

The canal master’s mind whirred quickly, and she suddenly took a step back and exclaimed, “Du Yu? The Ghost Axe Palace’s Du Yu? You’re the eldest son of that pair of great Dao partners in the mountains of the Golden Bell Nation?!”

Du Yu pursed his lips and thought to himself that this woman was quite smart and understanding after all. That being the case, he would spare her life.

“How great are these Dao partners? Are they both Upper Five Tier cultivators?” the young wanderer standing outside the entrance asked.

The canal master was delighted upon hearing this. This was a wonderful turn of events! She had revealed Du Yu’s impressive background, yet this young wanderer was still completely unafraid. By the looks of it, the fight between the two of them would at least be like a fight between wolves and tigers, where both sides suffered grave wounds. This would be the best-case scenario. Of course, it would be even better if the naive young man emerged victorious since bargaining with someone whom she had no prior bad blood with would naturally be easier. At the very least, it would definitely be easier than dealing with someone like Du Yu who harbored sinister intentions toward her.

Even if Du Yu hacked the handsome but frail young wanderer into mincemeat, he should at least go easier on her based on her helpful exclamation just then. After all, it didn’t look like Du Yu was here to fight to the death. Otherwise, with the terrible temper of cultivators from the Ghost Axe Palace, he would have already unleashed his saber strikes long ago.

Du Yu beckoned to Chen Ping’an with a finger and raised his saber, casually waving it around as he said with a smile, “I’ll let you have a free hit as long as you’re able to break through the talisman formation and enter the shrine.”

The next instant, golden light erupted from the walls of the shrine, causing everyone to be blinded and dazed.

Like an elusive ghost, the young wanderer wearing a bamboo hat had already appeared beside Du Yu, with one arm smashing into his neck and causing his acupoints to shudder. Du Yu was immediately knocked unconscious and sent crashing into the divine altar of the shrine. Not only was the divine statue of the canal master directly cracked into two, but Du Yu was sent flying even further, directly embedding into the wall. As for his saber, it fell to the ground with a loud clang.

Saber light flowed like water on the ground, and this was likely a fairly good saber.