Unsheathed

However, by the time the flying sword circled around and returned to Chen Ping’an’s grasp, Xiao Shuye had already fled the scene.

At this point, there was no doubt in this mind that Chen Ping’an really was that Golden Core Tier swordsman from the Golden Scale Palace.

Chen Ping’an drifted back down onto the mountain path, gently fanning himself as he smiled and said, “This should be about the time when you burst into tears of gratitude and thank me profusely. I would then tell you that there’s no need to thank me before making an elegant departure, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to go a little off-script here.”

He made a grabbing motion with one hand, and the bamboo hiking pole that he had plunged into the earth beside the mountain path earlier flew into his grasp on its own. He then used it to point at Sui Xinyu as he said, “What can I say about you scholars? You’re not bad people, but you’re not good people, either.

“It wouldn’t be right to call you smart, but calling you stupid isn’t incorrect, either. You’re all really frustrating people, you know that? No wonder you would entrust your life to someone like Hu Xinfeng. I advise you not to denounce him for his earlier actions. When you think about it, you two are really birds of a feather, so neither of you has the right to denounce the other.”

He pointed at the young boy and continued, “This one has potential, but if he continues to remain in this type of household, then eventually, he’s just going to become another old assistant minister who is a great Go player, but a less than stellar human being.”

He then pointed at the girl as he admonished, “Jealousy toward those close to you is a dangerous emotion that you must rid yourself of.”

Finally, he turned to Sui Jingcheng as he smiled and said, “To be honest, I had a decent impression of you before forcibly swept me up in your mess. Out of everyone I encountered today, you are the closest to a good person, and you’re also very smart. Of course, given the perilous situation that you were in, it’s understandable that you decided to take a gamble.

“In any case, you weren’t incurring much risk. If the gamble paid off, you would’ve saved yourself and successfully escaped from the trap set by those two. Even if your gamble had turned out to be an imprudent one, and Cao Fu didn’t actually harbor any ill will toward you, you would’ve only left an innocent Cao Fu heartbroken.

“In either scenario, you don’t stand to lose anything. I must say, your gambling luck is truly exceptional. However, have you considered that there’s another possible scenario in which we all lose? I could’ve died. Back at the pergola, I was just a mere mortal, yet I never endangered any of you. I didn’t try to pretend that I had any ties with any of you, nor did I ask to borrow the sum of silver that Yang Yuan and the others demanded of me.

“My situation didn’t improve, while your situation didn’t worsen, right? Your name was Sui Jingcheng, right? Ask yourself this: even if someone like you were to become an immortal like Cao Fu, would you necessarily be any better than him? I think not.”

Chen Ping’an’s voice trailed off here, and with just a single step, he was over a hundred feet away. With another step, he was completely out of sight, leaving the suspended copper coins to fall to the ground.

Sui Jingcheng put away her golden hairpin in an expressionless manner, then bent down to pick up the copper coins one by one.

Even after stowing the copper coins back up her sleeve, she remained hunched over in a crouched position.

She lifted a hand through her veneer, wiping away some tears as she choked, “This is what a true cultivator is supposed to be like. He’s exactly like the sword immortals that I envisioned. I have no one to blame but myself for missing out on this fated opportunity…”

At the foot of the mountain, Hu Xinfeng was hiding behind a large rock like a spooked deer.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get further away, the problem was that there were no places to take cover outside of the mountain. He was deathly afraid that he would run into a certain somebody again if he were to flounder around blindly like a headless chicken, so he decided that the best course of action was just to stay put and wait out the storm.

All of a sudden, a blur appeared before him, and his legs almost gave out from under. He had to hold onto the rock for support as he greeted in a trembling voice, “Hu Xinfeng pays his respects to the exalted immortal.”

“Well, well, well, what a coincidence! We meet again!” Chen Ping’an said with a smile. “You’ve kicked me in the head, thrown a rock at my head, and punched me in the head. What’ll it be this time, Hero Hu? A saber strike to the head, perhaps?”

“Do as you please, exalted immortal. If you wish to take my life, then my life is forfeit,” Hu Xinfeng sighed.

“Wow, how heroic of you!” Chen Ping’an said with a look of admiration in his eyes.

He gently laid a hand onto Hu Xinfeng’s shoulder as he smiled and said, “I’m just a little curious about what you said to Yang Yuan back at the pergola when you were pretending to wipe the blood from your mouth. The show that all of you put on back there was rather crude and unsightly, but I suppose it was better than nothing. At the very least, it helped me pass the time.”

Hu Xinfeng felt a sharp jolt of excruciating pain in his shoulder, and he had to grit his teeth to suppress his howl of agony. He felt as if all of the bones in his shoulder had been pulverized, and he was involuntarily forced to his knees, while Chen Ping’an bent down slightly and continued to rest his hand on Hu Xinfeng’s shoulder.

In the end, Hu Xinfeng was forced to look up at Chen Ping’an from his knees, while the latter looked down at him with a smile.

Finally, Chen Ping’an released Hu Xinfeng’s shoulder, then leaned back against the large rock as he took a sip out of his wine gourd, then smiled as he said, “It would actually be very easy to find justifications for your actions. Back in the pergola, you had no choice but to make an attempt on Sui Xinyu’s life.

“The only one he has to blame is himself for his own ill-fortune. That way, you would’ve been able to hand over those two women to Yang Yuan in exchange for your own life. However, Cao Fu had to show up out of the blue and completely ruin your plans.

“Not only did you lose your connection to a former assistant minister, your relationship had become completely untenable, and in the blink of an eye, you had turned from friends to enemies. Hence, you were furious when you saw me. I’m just a weak, good-for-nothing scholar, yet I was able to escape from that situation without any consequences.

“However, you lashed out a little too hard and perhaps a few times too many, but it was all justified, right?”

“No, I deserve to die,” Hu Xinfeng replied with a shake of his head.

Chen Ping’an stomped a foot down onto the back of his foot, completely pulverizing it, but once again, he didn’t dare to make a sound.

Chen Ping’an then kicked him in the forehead, pinning the back of his head tightly against the large rock.

He leaned forward to rest his elbow on his knee, then smiled and said, “I’m glad you know that you deserve to die. It saves me from having to find more justifications for you.”

Hu Xinfeng’s face turned deathly pale, and he implored in a trembling voice, “You can kill me, but please don’t harm my family!”

Chen Ping’an remained silent, while Hu Xinfeng insisted, “Please promise me that, Exalted Immortal! My family is innocent!”

Chen Ping’an smiled as he said, “That’s a fine reason for me to spare your life. Get up. It seems like you do have a spine, after all, so make sure to keep it that way. If you kneel for too long, it’ll become a habit, and you’ll lose your backbone.”

Hu Xinfeng rose to his feet in an unsteady fashion, then wiped some tears from his eyes.

He was not putting on a pitiable display to try and win sympathy, these were genuine tears flowing down his face.

Just now, he truly felt as if he were about to die, but an even more harrowing thought to him was that his entire family could be wiped out by this almighty immortal on a whim. Those pleas for Chen Ping’an to spare his family had come from the bottom of his heart. In his dying moments, his humanity had shone through, and it had saved his life.

“Tell me what you discussed with Yang Yuan earlier,” Chen Ping’an ordered before taking a sip of wine.

Hu Xinfeng leaned back against the large rock, gritting his pain against the excruciating pain in his head, shoulder, and foot as he revealed, “I told Yang Yuan that I’m very familiar with all of the Sui Clan’s affairs and the layout and personnel of the Sui Clan’s residence. I said that I could be useful to him, so he should spare my life, and Yang Yuan agreed and said that I’m a smart man.”

Chen Ping’an nodded as he mused, “To be honest, all of you seemed to have made the most correct decisions given the circumstances that you were in. I’m the only exception.”

Chen Ping’an took a glance at the distant scenery, then casually asked, “Have you heard of the Golden Scale Palace deep in the mountains on the border of the Great Seal Script Empire?”

Hu Xinfeng nodded as he replied, “I heard Senior Wang Dun speak of the Golden Scale Palace once during a banquet. At the time, I was only assigned a seat far away from his, but I could clearly hear that even he had spoken of the Golden Scale Palace with immense reverence.

“He said that the palace leader is an almighty immortal, and that even in the Great Seal Script Empire, perhaps only the imperial preceptor and the martial goddess can have any hope of standing against him.”

“An eighth tier pure martial artist dares to call herself a martial goddess?” Chen Ping’an scoffed.

Hu Xinfeng wiped the sweat from his forehead as he explained in an awkward manner, “She’s never referred to herself as a martial goddess, that’s just a title of reverence that those in our martial arts world have assigned to her.”

Chen Ping’an took another sip of wine, then said, “If you have some medicine on you, then hurry up and use it so you don’t bleed to death. I don’t like having to serve as an undertaker.”

Hu Xinfeng hurriedly crouched down in relief and pulled out a porcelain vial, then began applying the medicinal powder inside to his injuries, gritting his teeth in agony the entire time.

“How much does that vial of medicine cost?” Chen Ping’an suddenly asked.

Hu Xinfeng hurriedly raised his head as he replied, “This is a vial of the most precious and expensive medicine from the Five Mountain Nation’s Panacea Cottage, and even with my own gang and some lucrative money-making avenues at my disposal, it cost me a large chunk of my wealth to buy just three vials of this medicine. Even then, the Panacea Cottage was only willing to sell me these three vials of medicine in light of my loose ties with Senior Wang Dun.”

“Earning money is never easy,” Chen Ping’an remarked.

At this point, Hu Xinfeng was internally cursing the Go tournament to death. He had vowed to himself never to set foot in the Great Seal Script Empire again, and that Go tournament could burn in hell for all he cared.

“Do you think a Golden Core Tier swordsman from the Golden Scale Palace will be enough to scare off Cao Fu and Xiao Shuye for good?” Chen Ping’an suddenly asked with a smile.

“It should be,” Hu Xinfeng replied after a brief hesitation.

After some thought, he amended, “But then again, maybe not.”

Chen Ping’an removed the bookcase from his back, then pulled out the Go board and porcelain jars as he sat down with a smile and asked, “Do you think those four members of the Sui Clan deserve to die?”

“Of course not,” Hu Xinfeng replied with a wry smile. “Sui Xinyu always had a very good reputation as an official, and he’s a decent person as well. It’s just that a lot of his actions are governed by his desire for self-interest, but that’s the case for all scholars in the officialdom. At the very least, Sui Xinyu hasn’t done anything of detriment to the people of the Five Mountain Nation.

“He may not have accomplished any monumental feats during his time as an official, but overall, his influence was a mildly positive one, and that’s already more than you can ask for out of most of the Five Mountain Nation’s officials. Of course, I naturally went out of my way to establish ties with the Sui Clan to bolster my own reputation in the martial arts world.

“There aren’t many people in the martial arts world of the Five Mountain Nation that can claim to have connections with Sui Xinyu. Obviously, Sui Xinyu also wants to introduce him to Senior Wang Dun. I don’t have the ability to introduce him to Senior Wang Dun at all, so I made up all types of excuses to placate him.

“After I turned him down a few times, he didn’t bring up the matter anymore. I’m sure he could tell that I lack the wherewithal to introduce him to Senior Wang Dun, but he never looked down on me for that, nor did he cut off all ties with me after realizing that I wouldn’t be as useful to him as he envisioned. I’d say that’s his way of being a good person.”

Chen Ping’an offered no comment on this, and he raised a hand, plucking an immortal flying sword out of thin air between his thumb and index finger.

Hu Xinfeng gulped nervously.

Is he really the chief guest elder of the Golden Scale Palace, a sword immortal that’s been living for several centuries?

Chen Ping’an then picked up a Go stone and began carefully carving what seemed to have been a name into it. After he was done, he gently set it down onto the Go board.

Hu Xinfeng recalled that back when he first encountered Chen Ping’an in the pergola, he had been playing out a game according to a Go manual. There had been over thirty stones on the board at the time, and he had intentionally not returned them to their jars during his game against Sui Xinyu, instead keeping them in a pile beside him. Perhaps those Go stones had also been etched with names, and he didn’t want Sui Xinyu to see them.

“If I heard correctly earlier, you’re the leader of the Five Mountain Nation’s Turbid Crossing Gang, right?” Chen Ping’an asked.

“That’s correct,” Hu Xinfeng confirmed with a wry smile.

Chen Ping’an flipped over the stone that he had already engraved a name onto, then engraved the words “Turbid Crossing Gang” onto the other side before setting it down onto the Go board.

After that, he engraved around a dozen more Go stones in a row before setting them down onto the board one after another, following which the flying sword vanished into his glabella in a flash.

After that, he began staring off into space in a daze.

Back in the pergola, he had been a complete novice that even Hu Xinfeng could’ve easily bested in a game of Go, but in this instant, he appeared completely unfathomable to Hu Xinfeng, capable of completing calculations entirely beyond his comprehension.

Chen Ping’an had his hiking pole resting on his legs, and he was gently massaging it in an absentminded manner.

When it came to the game of Go that had taken place on the Magnificent Peak, every single stone had been fraught with peril and significance, as if they had been balanced precariously on the edge of a steep cliff.

Even if Ji Yue hadn’t appeared at the end to slay that Golden Core Tier swordsman of the Golden Core Tier, that would’ve still been a riveting game, nonetheless.

Unfortunately, Chen Ping’an wasn’t able to enter the small town to closely examine every single line for himself. Sect Leader Lin Shu, the missing prince of the former imperial clan, the two Golden Gate Nation spies planted in the Magnificent Sect, the old cultivator of the Golden Scale Palace that had sacrificed himself convinced everyone that the missing prince was dead…

All of them were exceptional stones in that game. Thanks to them, it was as if the game had come alive, and the stones on the board were no longer just cold and lifeless stones.

In contrast, the game that had taken place at the pergola was far more unsightly, and none of the twists and turns had any element of unpredictability or originality at all. There was nothing to gain from analyzing the situation, and it was just a mediocre game, one that couldn’t be considered good or bad.