Unsheathed

On Downtrodden Mountain, Chen Ping’an was still out on his long journey, while Cui Cheng had also left on a journey of his own, leaving the bamboo building vacant.

Recently, Chen Lingjun was no longer going out to wander aimlessly, and he would occasionally come to sit at the stone table on the cliff.

He knew that he was the most disliked person in Downtrodden Mountain. He wasn’t as clever and hard-working as Chen Ruchu, nor was he as naively adorable as Zhou Mili. As for Cen Yuanji, she had been brought onto the mountain by Zhu Lian, and she possessed decent aptitude. She was also able to endure the hardships of her training, and she led a busy and meaningful life. Shi Rou was in the small town, looking after the shop.

The shop didn’t earn much money, but ultimately, she was earning money for Downtrodden Mountain, and she was also very close with Pei Qian. Whenever Pei Qian had some spare time, she would be sure to go and visit Shi Rou in the shop. She told everyone that she did this because she was worried that Shi Rou would embezzle the shop’s earnings, but in reality, she was just worried that Shi Rou would feel shunned and left out.

In contrast, Chen Lingjun was too intent on keeping up appearances to be true to himself, and he was disliked no matter what he did or said.

After three Deity Night Travel Banquets, the Imperial River God had become more and more courteous to him, and that left him feeling very dejected. The Imperial River God had begun sucking up to him, and it made him miss the days of old, back when they ate and drank together in the water palace, exchanging vulgar insults about each other’s mothers.

However, Chen Lingjun was no fool, and there were many things that hadn’t escaped his notice.

For example, he knew that Cui Cheng definitely wouldn’t be returning from this trip to the Lotus Root Blessed Land.

However, he couldn’t even bring himself to bid the old man farewell. Even as Cui Cheng departed with Pei Qian, all he could do was sit by the cliff and stare blankly into space, pretending to be oblivious to it all.

At this hour, Pei Qian should’ve been on the second floor, taking a beating from Cui Cheng, but on this day, the bamboo building was silent.

Chen Lingjun laid his chin down on the table to rest, and before him was a pile of sunflower seeds that he had taken from Chen Ruchu. The sun this morning felt particularly warm, and it sapped him of all strength, leaving him too feeble to even eat sunflower seeds.

He was considering making his way to the entrance of the mountain to chat with Zheng Dafeng. The two of them got along quite well, but the only problem was that some of the things that Zheng Dafeng said were too profound, and only after extensive contemplation after the event would he actually be able to figure out the meaning behind his words.

Chen Lingjun turned his gaze to the residential area on the mountain. The old cook was absent, as was Pei Qian, and Cen Yuanji didn’t know how to cook. She was also eager to avoid the hassle, so she asked Chen Ruchu to prepare her a bunch of pastries and snacks. As for Zhou Mili, she was a water demon who didn’t actually need to eat, so all of a sudden, there was a complete absence of cooking fires on the mountain.

Chen Lingjun felt like there were far fewer people on Downtrodden Mountain than usual, and the few that were here were all busy with their own things, so it felt much less homely and welcoming.

Chen Lingjun then turned his gaze to the second floor of the bamboo building, feeling a little forlorn.

Back when Cui Cheng was around, Chen Lingjun constantly felt uncomfortable. He felt like he was always two punches away from the afterlife. However, now that Cui Cheng was gone, he couldn’t help but feel a little depressed and empty inside.

Chen Lingjun heaved a long sigh, then picked up a sunflower seed, planning to chew on it without shelling it first, just for something to do to assuage his boredom.

All of a sudden, his entire body stiffened, and he gently set down the sunflower seed again, following which he began to slowly turn away, pretending as if he hadn’t noticed the figure that had just arrived.

However, the old man who had just appeared out of thin air smiled at him, and he had no choice but to acknowledge their presence, gulping nervously before rising to his feet as he extended a respectful bow.

“Chen Lingjun pays his respects to the imperial preceptor.”

It was Imperial Preceptor Cui Chan, someone who could crush him with a single finger.

Chen Ping’an wasn’t on Downtrodden Mountain, Cui Cheng wasn’t in the bamboo building, and Zhu Lian and Wei Bo had gone to the Central Mountain, so Chen Lingjun had no backer at the moment!

“Get out of here,” Cui Chan said with a smile.

Chen Lingjun took a glance at the bluestone path leading from the bamboo building to the residential area, but that didn’t seem like a safe route to take. Thus, he took his leave and began climbing his way down the cliff. This path took him a little further away from Cui Chan and was thus, a little safer.

Cui Chan smiled as he recalled the forlorn look on Chen Lingjun’s face as he gazed upon the bamboo building.

He made a decision there and then, but he wasn’t going to make a big fuss out of it.

There was a large mountain to the west of the Dragon Spring Prefecture that was currently temporarily occupied, and it seemed to be quite suited to habitation for a flood dragon.

Cui Chan stood in the walkway of the second floor, quietly waiting for someone to arrive.

A streak of white light came racing in from the horizon like a bolt of lightning, completely disregarding the rules that Ruan Qiong had put into place.

Cui Chan shook his head as he heaved an internal sigh. Thankfully, he had the foresight to notify Ruan Qiong in advance.

In the blink of an eye, the streak of white light descended to reveal Cui Dongshan. He was holding an ordinary green bamboo cane, and there was an exhausted look on his face.

He landed near the bamboo building, his eyes severely bloodshot as he yelled in a furious voice, “Do you do nothing all day but eat shit, you old bastard?! Could you not have stopped Grandpa from going to the blessed land?!”

“What would that have accomplished?” Cui Chan asked.

Cui Dongshan’s face was purple with rage.

“The longer you can keep him here, the longer he’ll be able to live! Could you not have waited until I got here?!”

Cui Chan remained silent with a cold expression.

All of a sudden, Cui Dongshan calmed down as he took a deep breath, then continued, “Whether it be in his studies or his pursuit of martial arts, Grandpa has always been constantly advancing and moving forward.

“The only time he backed down was for the sake of his two good-for-nothing grandsons, and that spelled the beginning of the end for him! He lost his chance at reaching the eleventh tier, and with it, he was doomed to lose his life!”

“He also did it for the sake of your teacher and this Downtrodden Mountain,” Cui Chan added.

Cui Dongshan stumbled back a few steps, then sat down beside the stone table with both hands gripping his bamboo cane for support as he lowered his head with tightly gritted teeth.

However, he was only able to sit for a moment before he rose to his feet again, then began pacing in a rapid, agitated circle.

Cui Chan watched as Cui Dongshan paced back and forth like a cat on a hot tin roof, and he said, “You can’t even compare with me. You don’t even know what our grandfather truly cared about, and you don’t understand why he made the decisions that he did, so what was the point in coming here for you?

“What would’ve been the point had you gone to the Lotus Root Blessed Land to find our grandfather? The only thing you would’ve done is ensure that our grandfather couldn’t pass away in peace.”

“You better watch your mouth, Cui Chan!” Cui Dongshan snapped with a fierce expression as he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

“It’s about time that you grew up and faced reality, Cui Dongshan,” Cui Chan scoffed. “Just because you’ve returned to the Upper Five Tiers doesn’t mean that you have the right to do as you please in my presence.”

Cui Dongshan once again sat down with his bamboo cane in his arms, no longer looking up at the second floor as he murmured to himself, “Why did Grandpa insist on getting involved in the battle between third and fourth? Why did he go insane? It was all our fault! Grandpa was a scholar, and he always hoped for us to become true scholars as well.

“Grandpa dedicated his entire life to the teachings of the Second Sage, so why did he go out of his way to support the teachings of the Scholarly Sage on the Middle Earth Divine Continent? And what did we do in return? We betrayed our master and left our grandfather even more disappointed!”

Cui Chan was finally infuriated, and he slammed a hand down onto the railing as he yelled, “You’re asking me? How about you ask the world and your own conscience?”

Cui Dongshan gripped tightly onto his hiking pole with a dazed expression as he murmured, “I’m too tired to ask.”

He recalled that back in his youth, he was made to scale a mountain by his strict grandfather. It was a long and rigorous journey, particularly so for a small child.

On one occasion, Cui Cheng made his way up the mountain on his own, paying no heed to his struggling grandson behind him.

Cui Cheng seemed to have been intentionally trying to provoke his grandson. Not only did he leave the boy far behind, but he also began reciting a piece of poetry written by a renowned scholar of the Middle Earth Divine Continent.

“A hero like you is rarely seen. I wish to praise you, but I would struggle to list all your fine qualities without a brush as thick and long as a bamboo pole.”

Cui Dongshan committed that piece of poetry firmly to memory. After he grew up and left home in a fit of rage, he became the disciple of the old scholar. From there, the old scholar somehow became the Scholarly Sage, and as a result, he had inexplicably become the Scholarly Sage’s first-ever disciple.

He had finally gotten the opportunity to meet that revered Confucian scholar of the Middle Earth Divine Continent, but as opposed to regarding that as an honor, the proud and haughty Cui Dongshan only had one thought in his mind at the time, which was that he had to tell his grandfather about this encounter once he returned home.

He would tell his grandfather that the person he revered so much had been bested by his grandson in terms of writing, and when it came to Go, he was even more inept, losing so badly that he was on the verge of plucking the hairs of his beard straight off his chin!

There were many things that he had to say to his grandfather, but he didn’t say them when he could, and he couldn’t now that he wanted to.

In the distance, the toll of the morning bell rang out from the Dragon Spring Prefectural City.

The toll of the bell heralded the opening of the city gates. Countless residents of the city would go out to work for the day, only reuniting with their families once the dusk drums had been struck.

***

The Late Spring Prefecture near the foot of the Great Li Empire’s Central Mountain was a moderate-sized prefecture that couldn’t be considered large or small. It wasn’t a particularly wealthy place in the Luminous Vermilion Empire of old, not particularly exceptional in either scholarly or martial fortune, and it wasn’t even able to benefit from its close proximity to the mighty Purple Draw Mountain.

The newly appointed prefectural overseer, Wu Yuan, was an outsider, and apparently, he had also been serving as a prefectural overseer back in the Great Li Empire. Officially, this was a neutral transfer, but all those who were in the know were aware that he had been demoted. Once an official was cast far out of the line of sight of the imperial court, their chances of quickly making their way up the ranks in the officialdom were going to be next to zero.

Wu Yuan had been sent to a subsidiary nation, yet hadn’t received a promotion to compensate for the move, so it was clear that he had fallen out of favor, presumably because he had somehow ended up on the bad side of some high-ranking figure.

However, regardless of how his political career panned out, the fact of the matter was that he was a native official from the Great Li Empire, and he was also quite young, so there was still hope for him. Hence, the governor of the Late Spring Prefecture had still instructed all of his subordinates to treat Wu Yuan with respect and patience, and to be tolerant of him even if he were to make some unorthodox moves that went against how things were normally done in the area.

Thankfully, following his arrival in the Late Spring Prefecture, Wu Yuan had hardly done anything at all. He did the bare minimum, showing up for work on time every day, but all of the various administrative duties were left to the prefecture’s incumbent officials, and there were many opportunities where he could’ve made public appearances, but chose to give them to a few of his veteran subordinates.

As a result of his hands-off approach, he was able to integrate himself into his new workplace very seamlessly and harmoniously, but over time, his subordinates had also become a little disdainful of him for his soft and mellow nature.

On this day, Wu Yuan was sitting in his office, as usual, his desk laden with county chronicles and maps from various places. Occasionally, he would raise his brush to write something.

All of a sudden, he seemed to have sensed a presence, and he looked up to discover a familiar figure leaning against the entrance to his office.

A bright smile immediately appeared on his face as he rose to his feet and extended a respectful bow.

“Welcome, Mountain God Wei.”

It was none other than Wei Bo, and he strode over the doorstep with a smile as he jibed, “What a cold and callous man you are, Master Wu. You only sent a greeting card for the last Night Travel Banquet!”

“I’m afraid my salary is too meager for me to indulge in luxuries,” Wu Yuan replied with a smile. “I spend about 10% to 20% of it just to feed myself, then 50% to 60% on books. I’m saving up the rest in order to purchase an antique inkstone that caught my eye in the neighboring Auspicious Cloud Prefecture, so I’m really in no position to be attending Night Travel Banquets.

“I thought I was too far away for you to come and confront me in person, but you’ve completely subverted my expectations, Mountain God Wei!”

Wei Bo flipped a hand over to produce an antiquated inkstone that was once a renowned treasure in the former Luminous Vermilion Empire, then gently set it down onto the desk.

“You may be cold and heartless, but I’m not the same. Not only did I come all this way to visit you, I even went out of my way to purchase this gift.”

Wu Yuan bent down to closely scrutinize his beloved antique inkstone, carefully stroking it with his fingers as he exclaimed in elation, “This is a premium inkstone that came straight from the bottom of the Green Flood Dragon Pit! What’s remarkable about it is that the hole has already been sealed off by the general stationed there by our Great Li Empire, and martial artists have been sent there specifically to guard the hole.

“Clearly, it’s about to become His Majesty’s private property, and that’s why the few remaining antique inkstones from that hole have become so expensive of late. With my current salary as prefectural overseer, I may not be able to afford one even after a hundred years!”

Wu Yuan reluctantly averted his gaze from the inkstone, then turned to Wei Bo with a smile as he asked, “How can I help you today, Mountain God Wei? For this precious gift, I assure you that I’ll answer any question of yours to the best of my abilities.”

“What do you think of Central Mountain God Jin Qing?” Wei Bo asked.