Unsheathed

A group of three people was traveling at night, accompanied by the pleasant ambience of a flowing mountain stream nearby.

One of the three was a tall and thin elderly Daoist priest dressed in a loose-fitting silken Daoist robe. The robe had a rather archaic style, and it was riddled with intricate embroidery.

The old man carried a peach wood sword on his back and had a string of copper bells strung around his waist.

Under the light of the moon, the old Daoist priest resembled some transcendent otherworldly immortal.

He was accompanied by a handsome white-robed young man with a dagger in a golden sheath strapped hanging from his waist, and the trio was rounded out by a rather unkempt-looking man carrying some luggage on his back, seemingly a servant of the young man.

All of a sudden, the trio stopped in their tracks. Even through the darkness of the night, they were able to make out a figure with their back facing them in the distance. The figure was seated on a stone cliff beside a flowing stream, and they seemed to have been reading something under the moonlight.

The unkempt man took a glance at the bells strapped to the elderly Daoist priest’s waist, and the trio was all quite relieved to see that they weren’t chiming.

These bells were a type of precious spirit tool that fell under the distinction of Treasure Pagoda Bells. They were originally hanging from the eaves of an ancient monastery of the Great Origin Empire, but the emperor of the Great Origin Empire demolished several halls of the ancient monastery in order to expand the Esteemed Mystery Department.

During this time, these bells fell into the mortal world, and they quickly disappeared after swapping hands a few times. Their current owner inadvertently stumbled upon them on a skeleton in a cave deep in a mountain, and along with the bells, he also came upon the remains of a great python. He was able to sell those python remains for two hundred snowflake coins, and he chose to keep the Treasure Pagoda Bells.

He had made this decision not because he was worried that the bells wouldn’t be able to fetch a good price, but because he really wanted to keep them for himself.

These bells had been personally recorded in the Soundless Collection by the owner of the Heart’s Voice House, Yu Yun, who had a collection of countless bells. These Treasure Pagoda Bells had been assigned a rather low rank in the Soundless Collection, but none of the bells that made it into the Soundless Collection were ever short of buyers.

With these bells, a cultivator would be able to travel without many types of talismans that would otherwise be necessities, such as Barrier-Shattering Talisman, Baleful Observation Talismans, and Heart Soothe Talismans. The benefit of having these bells wouldn’t be very apparent over the short term, but it added up over time, and one could make huge savings from all of the talismans that they would no longer have to purchase.

Furthermore, the bells could be sold at any time, and it would be sure to fetch a great price at any shop in any immortal ferry station. Of course, ideally, the owner of the bells would go to the Heart’s Voice House and sell them to the Nascent Tier cultivator, Yu Yuan, who was the foremost expert in spirit tools of this nature.

For cultivators, the primary function of Treasure Pagoda Bells was their ability to raise the alarm whenever there were demons or malicious ghosts nearby. The more potent the murderous aura and the more formidable the demon or ghost in question, the louder and more urgently the bells would chime.

No ghosts or spirits below the Dragon Gate Tier would be able to avoid having their presence exposed by the bells, and on top of that, they also had a barrier-shattering function. Many illusions conjured up by ghostly beings that would confound and disorientate the average cultivator would be completely ineffective on a cultivator in possession of these bells.

The young man began communicating with his two companions through voice transmission, proposing, “Should we try our luck? All three of us are adept in close-quarters combat, and we’re still missing someone proficient in long-range combat.”

The elderly Daoist priest was a fan of the idea.

Both the Daoist robe that he was wearing on the peach wood sword on his back were nothing more than a ruse.

In reality, he was a vagrant cultivator who had stayed in a small Daoist temple for over ten years, and the biggest regret of his life wasn’t that he wasn’t able to learn any mystical abilities from that shoddy temple. Instead, it was the fact that he wasn’t able to purchase an official Daoist priest status from the imperial court through the temple.

In terms of seniority, it was undeniably his turn to purchase Daoist priest status, but his master secretly sold the opportunity to a profligate young master of a wealthy clan, and he was told to wait for three more years. This promise of three more years was repeated over and over again, but during the course of one of those three-year waits, his master passed away and passed down the position of abbot to a junior brother of his that had come from a wealthy background, prompting him to leave the temple out of fury and indignation to become a vagrant cultivator.

While he was at it, he stole the Daoist temple’s most prized treasure, a secret scripture that had been carefully cherished by all of the past abbots, but none were able to glean a path to immortality from the scripture’s contents.

The unkempt man didn’t think that this was a good idea. They had no idea what type of person the man up ahead was, and incorporating a complete stranger into their group was a surefire recipe for disaster in his eyes.

The young man smiled as he said, “Let’s just take things one step at a time and see how it goes. If it works out, then that would be ideal, but even if it doesn’t, we don’t stand to lose anything. Besides, even if he does try to turn on us, we’ll have a three-on-one numbers advantage against him, and perhaps we’ll even be able to deny him some of his share of the spoils.”

The old man stroked his beard as he nodded in agreement, and only then did the unkempt man agree to the idea.

“Stay here for now, Daoist Master Sun, Brother Huang. I’ll go check him out,” the young man volunteered with a smile, then strode forward on his own, while the black-robed man on the stone cliff remained still and seemingly unaware of the trio’s presence.

Only after the young man made his footsteps a bit more forceful to intentionally announce his presence did the black-robed man abruptly spring to his feet and turn around to glower at him with a wary expression.

The young man stopped in his tracks as he smiled and said, “I am Qin Juyuan, and I come from the Auspicious Blessings Nation. These two are good friends of mine. This is Daoist Master Sun, who’s currently cultivating in the Lightning God Manor of the East Sea Infant Mountain. His Dao mentor is one of the immortals of the Lightning God Manor, Spiritual Master Jing Ming.

“Unfortunately, Daoist Master Sun is still only an unofficial disciple at the moment, so his name hasn’t been marked down in the genealogical records of the ancestral hall. Daoist Master Sun is an avid traveler, and he’s on an eastbound journey, slaying countless demons and eliminating innumerable fiends along the way, accumulating a tremendous amount of good karma in the process.

“We met by chance and became good friends after we slew a demon together, and we’ve come here to try our luck after hearing about the emergence of the ancient immortal abode in the mountains of the Northern Pavilion Nation.”

The figure standing on the cliff next to the stream was a black-robed old man with his hands concealed up his sleeves, and it was clear that he was very apprehensive of these three unannounced guests.

The black-robed old man’s eyes narrowed slightly as he mused, “You came from the Lightning God Manor of Infant Mountain? I just so happen to have heard that the lightning talismans of Infant Mountain are extremely formidable, allowing one to harness the power of lightning like a true deity. Not only that, but I am also in possession of a talisman exclusively produced by the Lightning God Manor.”

The old man pulled a lightning talisman out of his sleeve as he spoke, then held it up high as he sneered, “Daoist Master Sun, can you tell me if this is Infant Mountain’s Baleful Ghost Quelling Talisman or Famine Eradicating Temple Destruction Talisman?”

The young man stood with his hands hanging by his sides, with one hand spread out naturally, while the other was clasped into a fist.

He was gesturing for his two companions to wait on his signal, and if he were to rest his hand onto the hilt of his saber, then that would be a signal for all three of them to pounce and put an end to the black-robed old man’s life.

However, that was the worst-case scenario.

If the talisman presented by the black-robed old man was one of a very high caliber, enough to instill wariness into the hearts of the trio, then they would have to avoid a direct battle and move on for now.

However, if the young man’s lies were exposed, then there would already be bad blood between the two parties, and they would have to get rid of the black-robed old man sooner or later.

Of course, an official immortal wouldn’t have to resort to this, but that was not the case for vagrant cultivators.

The young man had come from a wealthy clan that had fallen from grace, but it wasn’t a clan in the Auspicious Blessings Nation. Furthermore, Qin Juyuan was also a false alias. The real Qin Juyuan was a man of the same age as him from the Auspicious Blessings Nation, someone who had tormented him extensively.

His real name was Di Yuanfeng, and his saber techniques had been taught to him by the guest elder from the clan of a general that served on the border, while his saber was an immortal artifact that had been passed down in his clan for generations. He had only been traveling the world for a few years, so he wasn’t technically a true vagrant cultivator for now, but he had already learned through personal experience just how cunning and conniving vagrant cultivators could be.

On one of those occasions, he had befriended “Brother Huang” when they had previously been enemies, and on one other occasion, he had forged an alliance with “Daoist Master Sun.”

The old Daoist priest strode forward and took a casual glance at the talisman that the black-robed old man was holding up, then smiled as he said, “There’s no need to try and test me, Fellow Daoist. The talisman that you’re holding is undoubtedly a lightning talisman, but it’s definitely not one from our Lightning God Manor.

“The lightning talismans of our Infant Mountain can give rise to pools of molten lightning, and their inscriptions glow radiantly with a tinge of crimson coloration, something that’s unique to our talismans. Furthermore, the five ancestral hall talismans of our Lightning God Manor harbor some secrets that are not revealed to the public, and it’s clear to me that you’ve visited our mountain, but weren’t able to scale it.

“If the opportunity arises in the future, you can return with me to Infant Mountain together, and you’ll be able to uncover those secrets then.”

The black-robed old man nodded as he stowed the lightning talisman back up his sleeve, then extended a Daoist salute toward the supposed official immortal from the Lightning God Manor and greeted, “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Daoist Master Sun.”

Di Yuanfeng heaved an internal sigh of relief.

It seemed that each vagrant cultivator that he encountered was more slippery and cunning than the previous one!

Of course, the elderly Daoist priest wasn’t actually a Daoist priest of the Lightning God Manor. That was a powerful sect presided over by two Nascent Tier patriarchs, and it was one of the top Daoist sects in the region where the great river ran into the sea.

The old man naturally didn’t have the honor and distinction of becoming one of the five spiritual masters of Infant Mountain. Even though Spiritual Master Jing Ming was only a Golden Core Tier earth immortal that was ranked last among the five spiritual masters, he was still an unfathomably powerful old immortal in the eyes of most.

The reason why the old Daoist priest dared to use this false alias was because he had some understanding of the talismans of the Lightning God Manor.

However, if the black-robed man had truly presented a talisman from the ancestral hall of the Lightning God Manor, then Daoist Master Sun would’ve been completely stumped. He had only heard rumors that the five most talismans of the Lightning God Manor were very unique in some way, but as for in what ways they were unique, he had no way of finding out.

Thankfully, even if the black-robed man were to question him, he wouldn’t have to provide any answers. After all, if he really were an official immortal of the Lightning God Manor, then there was no way he would casually reveal the secrets of his sect’s ancestral hall to an outsider.

Hence, Daoist Master Sun’s response was both valid and reasonable, and if he didn’t know any better, even Di Yuanfeng would’ve been convinced that the former was telling the truth.

Right at his moment, the black-robed old man suddenly blurted out, “The divine general binds the mountain with his chains.”

“The five lightning talismans bring about thunder and rain!” Daoist Master Sun instantly answered without any hesitation.

The old man heaved a clear sigh of relief, then extended another Daoist salute as he said, “Please accept my apologies for doubting you, Daoist Master Sun.”

Clearly, the old man didn’t care much for Di Yuanfeng or the unkempt man.

Di Yuanfeng couldn’t help but shake his head internally in dismay. Sure enough, the purported status of an official immortal from the Lightning God Manor was a great calling card regardless of location.

During the course of the trio’s journey together, Di Yuanfeng and the unkempt man had benefitted from their association with Daoist Master Sun on many occasions, during which they were welcomed as esteemed guests by important figures in small nations and third-rate sects.

The black-robed man began to make his way down from the stone cliff as he felt it rude to be standing above the trio, but all of a sudden, he stopped in his tracks as he asked, “Daoist Master Sun, may I ask why you’re not wearing the standard Daoist robes of the Lightning God Manor?”

Di Yuanfeng’s patience was really beginning to wear thin.

Is there no end to this man’s suspicions?!

He was almost unable to suppress the urge to grab the hilt of his saber.

Given how cautious this old geezer was, perhaps it really wasn’t a good idea to incorporate him into their group. At the very least, killing him wasn’t going to be an easy task.

Daoist Master Sun stroked his beard with a composed smile as he explained, “Wearing the Daoist robes of our Lightning God Manor would attract too much attention, and everyone would try to curry my favor. I’ve embarked on this trip to see the world and accumulate experience, and it would defeat the purpose if everyone gave me special treatment because my attire betrayed my status.”

Satisfied with this explanation, the black-robed man was finally willing to make his way down from the stone cliff, and he praised, “As expected of an exalted official immortal of Infant Mountain like yourself, Daoist Master Sun. This humble and understated nature of yours alone is worthy of admiration. I’m sure you’ll be able to make a breakthrough upon your return to the Lightning God Manor and become a direct disciple to Spiritual Master Jing Ming.”

A look of respect and reverence had appeared on the black-robed old man’s face, but he still only had eyes for Daoist Master Sun as he smiled and said, “My surname is Chen, and I come from the Five Mountain Nation, which is not exactly known for its strong Daoist influence. As for the sect I come from, I won’t bother to mention it as you won’t have heard of it anyway, and I’ll only be bringing embarrassment upon myself.

“I was able to gain some skill in the art of talisman inscription by chance, but my skills are mediocre at best, and I wouldn’t even dare to consider showing off to an accomplished master like yourself. Looking back now, I am truly embarrassed that I tried to pull that trick on you, and I beg for your forgiveness, Daoist Master Sun.”

“It’s fine, there’s no need for you to apologize, Brother Chen. The cultivation world is a dangerous place, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry,” Daoist Master Sun reassured with a smile.

Daoist Master Sun began making his way toward the black-robed old man, while Di Yuanfeng and the unkempt man trailed along behind him.

In reality, Di Yuanfeng had always been the leader of the group, and whenever they split their spoils, he would always receive 40%, while his two companions received 30% each.

The black-robed man stepped aside to allow Daoist Master Sun to walk up the path leading up the stone cliff, then interjected himself into the line in between Daoist Master Sun and his two companions, not bothering to display any respect or etiquette toward Di Yuanfeng and the unkempt man.

The two of them exchanged an amused smile.