Unsheathed

The gates of the city god temple opened slowly.

Apart from the city god who was facing a perilous predicament, the remaining subordinates of Imperial Accompanying City’s city god temple had already been fully mobilized to deal with the imminent calamities. The scholarly judge, the martial judge, and all of the ghostly petty officials of the various departments were carefully standing inside the city god temple.

Even though the entire Imperial Accompanying City could be regarded as the city god temple’s territory, meaning that the subordinates of the temple would receive certain protection from the city’s fortune, standing inside the temple that was brimming with abundant incense offerings ultimately allowed them to feel more at ease.

Chen Ping’an looked toward the entrance of the city god temple.

The city god had chosen to kill one subordinate and spare the other subordinate following that tragic case in the past, so the current shackle and chain general was most likely a newly appointed one. Meanwhile, the main official of the Yin Yang Department, the primary department of the six departments, was presumably still the same individual as before.

Holding Sword Immortal in his hand, Chen Ping’an glanced down at his Sword Nurturing Gourd and said, “The two of you are free to do as you please after I launch two sword strikes tonight.”

Chen Ping’an looked up at the city god temple and asked, “Which of you is the main official of the city god temple’s Yin Yang Department?”

The scholarly judge, the martial judge, the day and night wandering deity, the shackle and chain general, and the subordinates of the other departments all hurriedly looked toward a middle-aged and scholarly-looking official without any hesitation.

The official garb of officials in the city god temples largely followed the same etiquette as those in the mortal imperial courts. They couldn’t be careless with the mandarin squares embroidered on the official garb, although there would be some slight differences between each province and territory.[1] The official robes were largely black and white, and the officials would also carry a bronze official seal engraved with their official titles by their waists.

The main official of the Yin Yang Department trembled with fear and trepidation as he took a step forward, with his eyes darting around in discomfort. He suppressed the fear and panic in his mind, bowing down and cupping his fists in respect as he asked, “Sword Immortal has come to visit the city god temple at night, so please forgive me for failing to welcome you properly. May I ask, for what reason does Sword Immortal seek out this lowly official?”

Those with good intentions wouldn’t visit, and those who visited wouldn’t have good intentions. This was a simple principle that he and all of his colleagues in the city god temple understood. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have appeared at the main entrance together.

In the next moment, the sword immortal in azure was already standing inside the city god temple, with the dumbfounded main official of the Yin Yang Department standing behind him.

Even though Chen Ping’an had already barged into the city god temple without invitation, all of the officials including the scholarly judge and the martial judge still symbolically shuffled to the sides as if clearing a path for him. They then looked toward their colleague from the Yin Yang Department.

A straight and thin golden thread appeared from the forehead of the Yin Yang Department’s main official and stretched all the way down.

A brief moment later, the godly body of the main official violently exploded into smithereens.

Even the martial judge, the official who was most skilled at killing malicious ghosts, and the newly appointed shackle and chain general, someone who liked to venture out of the city to hunt lone ghosts and wandering ghosts, failed to clearly see when the sword immortal in azure had unleashed his sword strike and how exactly he had done so.

Grim and ashen expressions instantly appeared on the faces of the city god temple’s officials.

They were going to suffer greatly tonight.

This person was genuinely a sword immortal who had traveled here from an outside region!

They had heard about the eccentric and domineering nature of sword immortals before, and this was a breed of cultivators that couldn’t be viewed through ordinary lenses.

A faint golden glow flowed through the divine statue of the city god in the rear hall of the temple, following which an elderly official with a refined aura stepped out and passed through the front hall without facing any obstructions. He hovered to the steps of the front hall and stood still, extending a finger and scolding in a stern voice, “Do you think you can wantonly kill a yin official formally appointed by the imperial seal of the emperor just because you’re a sword cultivator?!”

Chen Ping’an looked up at the thick black mist that was enveloping Imperial Accompanying City, with its dark and murderous aura seemingly brandishing its claws and gnashing its teeth.

This was similar to the pseudo-celestial tool, the peculiar sea of clouds, owned by Old Dragon City’s Fu Clan. However, that pseudo-celestial tool couldn’t be seen by anyone under the level of earth immortal, while the black mist enveloping Imperial Accompanying City was only invisible to ordinary mortals.

“I’ll strive to help you block the heavenly tribulation, so how are you going to thank me?” Chen Ping’an asked in response.

The city god was stunned to begin with, but sheer delight immediately washed over him as he exclaimed, “For real? Sword Immortal isn’t joking and toying around with me?”

The young sword immortal in azure nodded in response.

The city god felt like the heavens would always leave people with a way out, and this would give him a glimmer of hope after an extremely difficult period. The city god promised loudly, “As long as Sword Immortal can protect the city god temple from harm, you can feel free to name your price and obtain any treasure of the prefecture. If Sword Immortal finds it troublesome to obtain the treasures by yourself, then just give us the word, and everyone in the city god temple will work to obtain the treasures and offer them up to you. We definitely won’t slack off…”

A ray of golden light slashed down from the sky.

The yin officials of the city god temple were petrified upon seeing this, with their godly bodies becoming unstable as they witnessed the city god, who had been a paramount figure for countless years, suffering the same fate as the main official of the Yin Yang Department. A speck of golden light appeared on his forehead, after which a golden thread slowly traveled down his body.

However, he was a city god who had enjoyed incense offerings for many years, after all, so his powerful godly body which had absorbed a countless amount of incense essence over the years didn’t shatter and explode straight away. Not only that, but the city god was even able to raise his hands and forcefully press down on the two sides of his head as he howled in grief, “Have you gone mad? The heavenly tribulation will descend straight away if I’m killed, so will you be able to block the heavenly tribulation by yourself? If I’m still alive, however, then you and I could have joined forces to block the heavenly tribulation together. You’re an absolute madman! You’re going to suffer a terrible death!”

Chen Ping’an’s gaze shifted above the city god’s head, focusing on the divine altar in the front hall where there sat a majestic divine statue that also enjoyed the incense offerings of the prefecture but was dull and lifeless.

Was this deity also an accomplice of the city god? Was this deity aware of the imminent calamity facing Imperial Accompanying City, so had decided to retract his divine spirit from the divine statue in this city god temple?

“Sorry, I forgot to mention just then that you needed to thank me with your death,” Chen Ping’an said.

The city god tightly held his head together with both hands. There were abundant incense offerings that had been forcefully contained inside the city god temple for a long time, and the city god hadn’t cared about whether these incense offerings were pure and free from sinister thoughts. Instead, he had absorbed everything regardless of the purity, and he was essentially drinking poison to quench his thirst. With the heavenly tribulation hanging over his head, the city god had no time to care about anything else as he did everything in his ability to increase his cultivation, even if it was only by a sliver.

As for whether the city god temple would be destroyed, whether the yin officials would be killed due to their inadequate cultivation bases, and whether the residents of the prefecture would become collateral damage, the city god had stopped caring about these matters ever since he had suffered a huge blow to his virtue and developed cracks in his godly body.

In fact, he had even asked a group of his cultivator friends to travel to the capital with extremely valuable gifts, asking them to persuade the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Astronomy, and even the emperor of the Silver Screen Nation to suppress the news of the heavenly tribulation and prevent the residents of Imperial Accompanying City and the wider prefecture from fleeing. Otherwise, they would face the worst-case scenario of the city god temple being destroyed and the feng shui of the nation being severely affected.

During this time, the descendants of the scholar who should have received the secret letter of the prefectural overseer were also aware of the severity of the situation, especially the leader of the clan. As such, they also provided a lot of support, utilizing the networks and relationships that they had built up in the imperial court over several generations to plead for mercy on behalf of the city god. It was thanks to this that the city god of Imperial Accompanying City still saw a sliver of a chance to live through the heavenly tribulation.

The city god wanted to sacrifice an entire prefecture to save his godly body.

Those who didn’t look out for themselves would be destroyed by the heavens!

In any case, he was the city god of a prefectural city, a golden deity who viewed mortal rulers as short-lived beings!

With his hands still holding his head together, the city god lowered his gaze slightly and looked at the golden thread that was moving down his body at a slower speed. However, it wasn’t showing any signs of stopping, and this instilled intense fear in the city god’s mind. There was surprisingly a hint of sobbing in his voice as he muttered, “Why is this happening? Why can’t the abundant incense offerings stop this golden thread? Sword Immortal… Esteemed Sword Immortal…”

The city god standing at the top of the steps no longer appeared haughty and overbearing as he pleaded, “Please spare me, Esteemed Sword Immortal. What matters in the world can’t be negotiated in a calm and peaceful manner?”

The city god didn’t dare to raise a hand to point above his head as he continued, “Have a look above, Esteemed Sword Immortal. Without the city god temple drawing on the incense offerings of the temple and borrowing the fortune of the prefecture to resist the heavenly tribulation, can Esteemed Sword Immortal truly block the heavenly tribulation by yourself? Is Esteemed Sword Immortal truly not afraid of eroding your hard-earned cultivation base?”

The scholarly judge was almost scared out of his wits, and he had initially found this situation to be puzzling and inconceivable as well. After some further thought, however, he immediately came to a realization, one that made him feel even greater despair.

This outsider sword immortal was bored and had nothing better to do, so he had come to the city god temple to face a heavenly tribulation head-on. That being the case, would he still care about benefits and losses? If he did, then would he have needed to enter the city god temple in the first place?

Didn’t the city god always tell his subordinates to remain calm and composed when they encountered unexpected situations? Didn’t he tell them to avoid making mistakes due to panic? By the looks of it, the city god wasn’t able to do much better himself.

However, there was grief and bitterness in the scholarly judge’s heart. After all, he wasn’t a bystander at this moment, so there was no joke for him to witness. They had overseen the feng shui and fortune of this area for hundreds of years, enjoying lofty positions and peering down at the mortal world. There were countless worshippers who visited the city god temple to offer incense, and these people all came with different mindsets and wishes.

There were unbelievably foolish individuals, incredibly lazy young men who prayed for riches, sinister women who hoped to find a loyal husband, children who were unwilling to spend money to treat their senior’s illnesses and came to pray instead, murderous bandits who thought that donating some money and offering a few bunches of incense sticks could eliminate their bad karma, and so on and so forth. There were all kinds of worshippers, and the deities had already become numb from seeing all of their laughable wishes. Was it time for them to suffer the karmic consequences now? Was it the Qi refiners’ turn to laugh at the city god temple?

Chen Ping’an ignored the pleading words of the city god as he stabbed Sword Immortal into the ground. He then slowly rolled up his sleeves. Unlike at Verdant Bamboo Lake, where he had only rolled up his right sleeve, he also rolled up his left sleeve as well this time, revealing the walnut bracelet on his wrist.

As for the three talismans that Chen Ping’an had obtained from Malicious Ghost Valley, he casually slipped them diagonally behind his belt. There was the Pure Jade Illumination Talisman which had already been activated, and also the Cloud Slashing Fiend Talisman and the Jade Heaven Residence Talisman from the Esteemed Mystery Department’s Lofty Cloud Palace.

Only after doing all this did Chen Ping’an look at the city god whose golden eyes were slowly becoming ink-black.

This reminded him of the city god temple in the Colorful Garment Nation’s Blusher Prefecture. However, City God Shen Wen had been schemed against by cultivators from the mountains, while the city god here had asked for this himself. The difference between them was immense.

Chen Ping’an instantly arrived at the top of the steps, with his hands resting on the hilt of his sword as he stood beside the city god who appeared like a martial artist who had fallen to demonic ways. They were standing side by side, yet they were facing completely different directions.

The young swordsman in azure was facing the front hall, where there was the empty shell of a divine statue lifelessly sitting on the divine altar. Meanwhile, the city god who had a golden thread running down his body was facing the entrance of the temple and facing the many mortal humans.

The city god did everything in his power to stop his godly body from exploding, and this was the only thing that he could do at this moment. The culprit who had attacked him was standing right beside him, yet the city god was completely unable to do anything about him at this moment.

The golden thread running down the city god’s body started to grow larger and larger, and it was like a violent flood crashing through a levee that a small stream could no longer contain.

The city god suddenly laughed and said, “You’re quite an impressive sword immortal, huh? Are you also here for that valuable treasure?”

The city god who knew that death was imminent suddenly roared with hearty laughter, continuing, “What a shame. Otherwise, even if a measly city god of a prefectural city like me died, I could have still forced a large number of immortals to accompany me in death. Just how satisfying would that have been?”

Chen Ping’an suddenly reached over and placed a hand over the city god’s face, with his fingers like hooks as he slowly asked, “What face do you have to take another glance at the world?”

The godly body of the city god exploded into tiny pieces, and it was as if a huge ball of golden powder had been released over the front hall of the city god temple.

There was a crisp clang as something fell to the ground.

This was a rusty golden shard that wasn’t small in size. In fact, it was even larger than the combined sizes of the two golden shards of the river gods of Verdant Bamboo Lake.

Chen Ping’an was just about to use the tip of Sword Immortal to shatter the golden shard, but First, which hadn’t appeared for a long time, flew out from the Sword Nurturing Gourd and left a streak of white sword light in its wake as it stabbed into the rusty golden shard. Afterward, both First and the golden shard surprisingly burrowed into the ground and disappeared from view.

Following the disintegration of the city god’s godly body, heavenly thunder instantly rumbled across the sky above Imperial Accompanying City. This was much louder than ordinary thunder, and it was as if exploding firecrackers were booming beside everyone’s ears. This caused many sleeping residents in Imperial Accompanying City to wake with a start.

Black clouds churned in the sky, as if there were ink-black dragons swimming through the sea of clouds. Not only that, but the sea of clouds started to slowly descend and bear down on the city.

In the beginning, it was some families in the city who were woken by the booming thunder first, with some getting out of bed to light their oil lamps.

Some wealthy families even started to hang up lanterns.

Specks of light started to appear in the prosperous prefectural city, continually joining together and lighting up the area. The sound of wailing children also pierced through the silence.

In the end, the Qi refiners who had secretly entered Imperial Accompanying City were all dumbstruck by what they saw. After an initial feeling of fright and panic, they started to let loose a torrent of curses. The valuable treasure was yet to truly appear, yet this godforsaken heavenly tribulation was already descending upon the city earlier than anticipated. How could they have expected this?

There was a very good reason for their frustration and anger.

Natural treasures that were born from the fortune of heaven and earth naturally possessed an innate spiritual aura and were extremely difficult for Qi refiners to obtain. Indeed, the city lord of Yellow Axe City had once failed to obtain a rare treasure because the immortal treasure was able to fly far too quickly.

Cultivators in the mountains claimed that the valuable treasure in Imperial Accompanying City was of extremely high grade, and it was a treasure formed from the thousand-year scholarly fortune of the prefecture. Not only that, but it was also said that a Militarian immortal weapon had also been buried deep underground during the founding of Imperial Accompanying City, and in the end, this immortal weapon fused together with the thousand-year-old scholarly fortune of the prefecture.

This created a paramount treasure that possessed both scholarly fortune and martial fortune, allowing it to have both offensive and defensive capabilities. As such, the person who obtained this treasure would be able to ascend the heavens in a single step, becoming a cultivator who stood at the pinnacle of the mountains.

It was because of this that Yellow Axe City and the Treasure Basin Immortal Realm, two top-notch immortal forces, had both dispatched cultivators to Imperial Accompanying City and were hellbent on obtaining this valuable treasure. If Yellow Axe City obtained this treasure, then they would genuinely solidify their position as the strongest immortal force in the region containing a dozen or so nations, leaving the Treasure Basin Immortal Realm in the dust. On the other hand, the Treasure Basin Immortal Realm could overtake Yellow Axe City to become the strongest immortal force in the region if it obtained this valuable treasure.

1. A mandarin square (补子), also known as a rank badge, was a large embroidered badge sewn onto the robes of officials in Imperial China. ☜