Unsheathed

At the foot of the other side of the mountain, the chaotic battle at the arched bridge was still ongoing.

In the words of those in the Northern Complete Reed Continent’s martial arts world, one could only be considered a true hero once they had smashed open the heads of their enemies and guzzled down their brains like wine.

The battle for the bridge quickly escalated to white-hot intensity, and even the imperial guest elder from the Sacred Lotus Nation, who had been collecting treasures on the mountain up to this point, was forced to abandon all of the easily obtainable treasures to storm onto the battlefield.

However, the guest elder had hatched a rather cunning ploy. He had picked out the treasures that he felt were the most valuable and hidden them on the rafters of a pavilion. As for all of the other treasures, he stuffed them into a cloth bag before tossing them down in a corner of the neighboring room.

That way, Bai Bi and Zhan Qing would be able to easily come and claim the treasures. As for how they were ultimately going to get these treasures out of this immortal abode, that was still yet to be seen.

Gao Ling had already donned his suit of Divine Dewbearing Armor, and he was doing his best to protect Zhan Qing with the assistance of the guest elder from the feudal lord’s manor.

Meanwhile, Zhan Qing was putting on an act of panicked incompetence. He had built a false reputation for himself in the Northern Pavilion Nation as a profligate and lackadaisical young man, and his arrogant words of provocation from earlier further contributed to the illusion that he was all bark and no bite.

In light of all of this, no one could’ve imagined that he was actually an Abode Tier cultivator with two incredibly destructive offensive immortal treasures at his disposal.

With the Sacred Lotus Nation guest elder entering the fray, the previously one-sided battle immediately began to swing slightly in the favor of Zhan Qing’s party.

Zhan Qing was feeling particularly resentful of the female cultivator wearing the veiled bamboo hat and the Cloudtop City Dao robe. She was the one who had first attempted to cross the bridge by force and ruined his easy-profit scheme.

Not only that, but she took an extremely measured approach in the battle that came after. She never directly clashed against either of the Vajra Body Tier martial artists, but nor did she merely act as a passive observer and allow everyone else to perish around her as cannon fodder.

Whenever Gao Ling had a chance to deliver a killing blow, she would be sure to swoop in and intervene. In the span of no more than fifteen minutes, she had already saved seven or eight people from certain death at the hands of the two Vajra Body Tier martial artists through the use of a pair of formidable defensive treasures.

The female cultivator’s two defensive bonded items were a green jade bracelet with radiant light swirling around it and a yellow five dragon cushion embroidered with iridescent clouds. Even if the cushion were struck by a punch from Gao Ling, it would merely cave in and rustle audibly, but it would ultimately remain unharmed. However, with each punch that it took, the luster emanating from the five golden dragons embroidered on its surface was dim a little.

The problem was that the jade bracelet and the cushion were able to fill in for each other interchangeably, allowing the latter the chance to return to the female cultivator’s key acupoint periodically. There, it would be nurtured with spiritual energy, and once it returned, it would be fully restored to its original condition.

Zhan Qing’s group was having to deal with attacks from over forty people at once, and the only saving grace for them was that the teamwork from the enemy cultivators was quite lackluster. Meanwhile, the fourth and fifth tier martial artists present didn’t dare to get too close, and they were mostly attacking from afar or unleashing bursts of force with their punches to disrupt the enemy.

As a result, they were sacrificing all of the advantages that martial artists normally had in close-quarters combat. Otherwise, Zhan Qing’s group would’ve been under even more pressure.

However, once a vagrant cultivator decided to put their life on the line, even Gao Ling couldn’t help but feel a little fearful of the reckless insanity with which they fought, let alone Zhan Qing, who hadn’t seen much bloodshed throughout his life, and the guest elder that served his clan, who had grown accustomed to a life of secure complacency.

The guest elder of the feudal lord’s manor had already had a hole blown through his abdomen by a sneak attack from a powerful treasure, and the wound was bleeding profusely. It was only thanks to his physical constitution as a Vajra Body Tier martial artist that he was able to suppress the injury and continue fighting.

In contrast, Gao Ling was a much more competent warrior, one that was accustomed to having to fight entire armies on his own at once at times, so he was faring much better and remained unscathed thus far. As for the Sacred Lotus Nation guest elder, he was faring even worse. He had been struck down by an offensive spirit treasure, and had it not been for Gao Ling and Zhan Qing swooping in to save the day, he would’ve already perished on the spot.

The former had thrown a punch to nullify much of the power of the offensive spirit treasure, while the latter had used that folding fan of his to conjure up an immortal screen to protect the imperial guest elder, and it was only thanks to their combined efforts that his life was saved.

However, the two Vajra Body Tier martial artists were no slouches, either, and even with Wu Qun doing her best to save the lives of those around her, seven or eight people had already perished to the fists of the two martial artists, with all of their bodies blown to pieces.

Hence, the arrival of Bai Bi was not just a nail in the coffin in a battle that was already won. Far from it, her arrival on the battlefield was as timely as it was necessary.

However, before she was able to enter the fray, Residence Head Sun Qing of the Rainbow Sparrow Residence rose up into the air to oppose her.

In the air around Bai Bi was a set of eighteen Good Fortune Coins bestowed upon her by the ancestral hall of the Water Dragon Sect. Bai Bi was a cultivation prodigy with a natural affinity for water techniques, and the inscriptions on these coins all held very deep meanings. Furthermore, the coins harbored the remnant fortune of a fallen nation.

The coins had been forged at the founding an ancient empire that the vast river once flowed through, and from there, they were spread far and wide throughout the empire, with some placed on the rafters of ancient Daoist temples, some buried in ancient tombs, and some were also kept in the imperial vault. The Water Dragon Sect had managed to collect two sets of eighteen of these coins, and one of those sets had been bestowed upon Bai Bi.

These Good Fortune Coins were considered prized treasures even in the Water Dragon Sect’s ancestral hall, and they had both offensive and defensive capabilities.

Even so, Bai Bi had still summoned an additional bonded item of hers, namely a guqin by the name of Scattered Snow, which was the most prized creation of an exceptional guqin craftsman in the history of the Northern Complete Reed Continent.

With these two Golden Core Tier cultivators duking it out, the battle had become even more intense.

Right at this moment, that accursed voice rang out once again, urging, “Everyone, let’s target the feudal lord’s son! The others will be forced to protect him!”

Zhan Qing was furious. Whoever this woman was, she was the cause of all of this trouble, and whenever she spoke, her words always had a pivotal effect.

The problem was that she was using some secret technique to speak directly into the minds’ lakes of everyone at once, making it impossible for Zhan Qing’s group to pinpoint exactly who she was.

The two Vajra Body Tier martial artists wouldn’t dare to stand by and allow Zhan Qing to be killed, but if they dedicated too much attention and effort to protecting him, then they would be putting themselves at risk. If something were to go wrong, then perhaps even Bai Bi’s attention would be diverted.

Zhan Qing was certain that if one of these Vajra Body Tier martial artists were to perish in battle or sustain debilitating injuries that would render them unable to fight, then these enemy vagrant cultivators and martial artists would only become more reckless and emboldened by the morale boost.

From the very beginning, Zhan Qing had urged the two Vajra Body Tier martial artists to be selective with their targets. Ideally, they would work together to eradicate small groups of three or four people at once. That would serve to intimidate everyone else and prevent a situation in which one would be so maddened by the loss of a close friend that they would be willing to throw their life away for a shot at vengeance.

However, the chaos of the situation rendered all of Zhan Qing’s careful planning completely futile. Given the state of the battle, Gao Ling and the two guest elders were stretched so thin that they didn’t have the time and composure to pick and choose their targets. There were simply too many enemies to deal with at once, and there were no underhanded tricks that these vagrant cultivators wouldn’t resort to in order to try and gain an advantage.

Only now did Zhan Qing begin to regret his own conceitedness.

He had thought that all of the fated opportunities in this place were his for the taking.

With the combined powers of his group, it wouldn’t have been a difficult task for them to slay even a Nascent Tier cultivator, so he had thought that they would be able to eradicate a fractured bunch of vagrant cultivators with ease. Instead, he should’ve taken a divide and conquer approach, picking off his enemies one by one.

Having already made himself a public enemy to everyone, it was too late for him to back down, and he only had himself to blame for the awkward and perilous situation that he was in.

It couldn’t really be said that Zhan Qing had made a miscalculation. Instead, it was simply the case that the path of cultivation was rife with unpredictable twists and turns, and any false move could lead one to pay the ultimate price.

With a sinking heart, Bai Bi discovered that even though she was a Golden Core Tier direct disciple of the Water Dragon Sect’s ancestral hall, she was no match for the young female cultivator standing in her way.

Even though Sun Qing was wearing a veiled hat to conceal herself just like Wu Qun, Bai Bi quickly realized who she was dealing with, and she immediately began communicating with her opponent through her mind’s lake.

“I know who you are, you’re Sun Qing of the Rainbow Sparrow Residence! Do you understand what you’re doing right now? If you kill me, you’ll be making an enemy out of the entire Water Dragon Sect! Our Upper Five Tiers patriarch can smash your Rainbow Sparrow Residence to bits with ease!”

Bai Bi hadn’t made this declaration for everyone to hear because ultimately, as an official immortal, she had more things to consider and weigh up than vagrant cultivators, who were able to act with reckless abandon.

Sun Qing was using her offensive immortal treasure to eradicate all of the “snowflakes” that arose as Bai Bi strummed her fingers over the strings of her Scattered Snow guqin, and she smiled as she replied, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Sun Qing! Do you really want to fight me to the death here?” Bai Bi snapped in a furious manner.

With the eighteen Good Fortune Coins protecting her from all directions, Bai Bi wasn’t having too much trouble warding off Sun Qing’s attacks. Furthermore, she wasn’t even making use of the Good Fortune Coins’ offensive capabilities, so she clearly still wasn’t going all-out. On top of that, all official immortals of her caliber had some trump cards up their sleeves that would allow them to take down an enemy with them or flee from a battle in the blink of an eye.

Hence, Bai Bi’s fury and frustration didn’t stem from any notion that she would lose her life here. Instead, it came from the fact that she had lost the sole claim that she thought she had over this immortal abode. On top of that, she had also lost some of her dignity as a Golden Core Tier cultivator, but even so, her situation was much better than Zhan Qing’s.

Sun Qing continued to play dumb, grinning as she said, “Us vagrant cultivators don’t believe in sparring. If we’re going to fight, then it always has to be to the death.”

Bai Bi took a deep breath, and her mental state instantly became as tranquil as a still pond. In the blink of an eye, she had cast aside all distractions, and she had even become completely uncaring of Zhan Qing’s situation.

Seeing as there was no way for her to talk her way out of a fight, she would just have to focus wholeheartedly on the battle at hand.

Sun Qing was looking very composed and relaxed, much more so than Bai Bi, who had only recently reached the Golden Core Tier. However, in reality, she wasn’t taking her opponent lightly at all.

She knew that she was facing a young prodigy from an extremely formidable immortal sect, and she was waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to strike down her opponent in one blow. If and she would only resort to negotiation as an official immortal if such an opportunity failed to present itself.

If her opponent proved to be the superior cultivator and managed to kill her in battle, then she would simply accept her fate.

She fully intended to kill Bai Bi if given the chance, so her opponent was naturally allowed to do the same.

While traveling with Liu Jinglong, who seemed more like a schoolteacher than a swordsman to her, he had once said to her that there was no one under the heavens who couldn’t die.

Having said that, that was only the first half of his quote, which concluded with: “However, everyone under the heavens can be reasoned with.”

Sun Qing had never agreed with that second assertion, and she felt it to be completely pointless, but she had romantic feelings for him, so she never contested him on the matter.

Of course, if she really had tried to engage Liu Jinglong in a debate about principles, then she would’ve surely suffered a catastrophic defeat.

Back then, Liu Jinglong had only been a Golden Core Tier swordsman, but armed with nothing more than that mouth of his, he had managed to convince a bloodthirsty Unpolished Jade Tier monster to change his ways. Not only that, but that old monster had become something between a friend and a rival of his, and he had served as their guardian for a small part of their journey, escorting them safely out of his territory.

During their “chance encounter” last time, the two of them had run out of conversation topics after exchanging some initial greetings and small talk, so she asked him about this matter. In response, Liu Jinglong told her that he had met with the old senior during an earlier journey to the south, and they had thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.

However, the old senior had told him to focus on making a breakthrough once he returned to the Great Emblem Sword Sect, and that there was no need to visit again before then.

————

There weren’t many bodies on the ground in the palace at the foot of the mountain that Chen Ping’an had been assigned to. After silently apologizing for his intrusion, he crouched down beside the nearest set of skeletal remains before picking up its hand for an examination.

In doing so, he discovered that it was no different from a normal set of skeletal remains and didn’t have the unnaturally bright white coloration of the skeletons that had been tainted by yin energy on the Skeleton Shoal.

The same applied to the skeletal remains on the other side of the mountain, which meant that none of the cultivators that had perished here had even reached the Golden Core Tier during their living days. Another strange observation made by Chen Ping’an concerned the two sets of skeletal remains seated across the Go table from one another in that pergola from earlier.

They had been wearing Dao robes of an extremely high caliber, yet after those Dao robes were stripped off by Huang Shi, Chen Ping’an noticed that those two bodies also didn’t display the signature golden branches and jade leaves seen in Golden Core Tier cultivators.

Just like everywhere else, the palace that Chen Ping’an had stepped into was abundant with spiritual energy and didn’t strike him with any sense of discomfort.

Thus, he wasted yet another Yang Energy Illumination Talisman.

The spoils that he was able to reap from this palace were quite lackluster, consisting of only a few severely damaged immortal treasures. As expected, he had to travel with Daoist Master Sun in order to be blessed with good fortune.

He arrived at a dried pond that was filled with withered leaves.

This entire time, Chen Ping’an had been thinking about the passage of text at the entrance of the chamber outside. Whoever had left those inscriptions had to have entered this immortal abode at some point.

Hence, it was either something left behind by a benevolent individual to serve as a clue for those who came after him, or it had been left behind by the orchestrator of a sinister trap, who was afraid that the fish would be too stupid to take his bait without some guidance.

Chen Ping’an leaped over the railing and into the pond, then picked up a handful of dried leaves, and they instantly crumbled in his grasp without displaying any special properties.

Sure enough, the water fortune on the backside of the mountain was most abundant near that bamboo tree.

It just so happened that Downtrodden Mountain was missing a good bamboo tree.

The ancestral bamboo that Wei Bo had cherished like a prized treasure on Go Table Mountain had been able to produce generations after generations of bamboo trees, eventually giving rise to a lush bamboo forest, and in Chen Ping’an’s eyes, that was exactly what Downtrodden Mountain was missing.

Of course, in his eyes, Downtrodden Mountain was missing everything.

He pinched some soil between his fingers, and just the dried leaves, the soil also quickly crumbled away at the slightest pressure.

Chen Ping’an knew a decent amount about the vast river of the Northern Complete Reed Continent. However, he knew very little about its history.

He had only heard from Wei Bo that there had once been a vast river flowing into the sea from the Flowing Dawn Continent in the east into the sea in the west. The river stretched for fifteen thousand kilometers, and wherever it converged with a mountain, a bunch of sages and earth immortals would be sure to arise from there.

There was also a vast river on the Circling Ascension Continent that had been intercepted at a certain point by a much smaller river, which, in turn, flowed into the sea. As a result, the entire vast river was compromised, and in no more than three hundred years, it ceased to exist. This meant that all of the river gods and river guardians in that vast river were also doomed.

There had been many complex rites and rules pertaining to the appointment of deities along the vast river, and the decisions went far beyond the jurisdictive powers of the rulers that presided over the empires and nations littered along the length of the river. In fact, it was said that they had to consult with the Confucian school on the Middle Earth Divine Continent over this matter.

Chen Ping’an looked around to ensure that there was no one else around, then removed his Sword Nurturing Gourd from his waist before bringing it to his lips and tipping his head back, downing all of the remaining spirit water inside in one go. After that, he directed his consciousness inward and made his way to his water palace.

Upon his arrival, the gates of the water palace had been flung wide open.

There was a green river flowing along beside Chen Ping’an’s feet, and countless streams of water were flowing into it from all directions, forming this river that flowed into the pond in the water palace.