Unsheathed

“Among all of the Golden Core Tier swordsmen, Pu Yu is considered to be all style and no substance, so even if Chen Ping’an defeats him, he’ll be lulled into a false sense of confidence and complacency, thinking that this was all that the Golden Core Tier swordsmen of the Sword Qi Great Wall had to offer.

“That way, it should be easier for Qi Shou to defeat him and take all the glory. Knowing how much of a devious scoundrel Qi Shou is, it’s no surprise that he had all of this planned out from the beginning.”

“If even you can figure this out, you think we wouldn’t have already seen through his plan?” Yan Zhuo scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

“I’m worried that Qi Shou will pretend to lose control in the heat of battle and take this opportunity to kill Chen Ping’an,” Dong Huafu said.

“That’s definitely the biggest concern here,” Chen Sanqiu chimed in with a nod.

In their eyes, Chen Ping’an shouldn’t have brought up Ning Yao and the Dragon Slaying Cliff because that gave Qi Shou an excuse not to follow the rules. Not only was their battle going to be one between romantic rivals, but Chen Ping’an’s accusation that Qi Shou wished to secure the Ning Clan’s Dragon Slaying Cliff meant that the honor of the Qi Clan was also on the line.

Thus, perhaps the seniors of the Qi Clan would be displeased if Qi Shou went overboard and killed Chen Ping’an in their battle, but they would be even more displeased if he let Chen Ping’an off the hook and failed to defend the honor of the Qi Clan. In light of these factors, it was obvious what he had to do.

Yan Zhuo sighed as he stroked his chin with a concerned expression. “Brother Ping’an was a little too reckless at the start.”

Chen Sanqiu pondered the situation for a moment, then smiled and said, “There’s no point in worrying about all of that now. In any case, the fact that Chen Ping’an has dared to openly call out both Qi Shou and Pang Yuanji means that I’m willing to accept him as a friend.

“Truth be told, I wouldn’t dare to do what he just did, and for that reason alone, he has my respect. Friends aren’t just people who drink and fool around together; true friends have each other’s backs.

“If Qi Shou dares to break the rules, then we’ll just have to give him a piece of our minds. Dong Huafu, you can intentionally sustain an injury midway during the battle so your sister will swoop in to help us. Once she gets involved, all of her friends will inevitably back her up, and I’m sure that’ll be enough to keep Qi Shou and his lapdogs in check.”

However, Ning Yao was much less optimistic as she said, “Qi Shou is a far more formidable swordsman than all of you. If he gets too far away, even I won’t be able to stop him in time. Hence, we can get a good gauge on Qi Shou’s intentions by watching what he does. If he begins intentionally luring Chen Ping’an toward Die Zhang’s shop, then that means he fully intends to go in for the kill.

“In any case, none of you has to do anything but watch. If it really comes down to it, it’s not like any of you will be able to stop Qi Shou, anyway. Having said that, I’m sure Chen Ping’an can already sense Qi Shou’s animosity, so he’ll definitely also be on his guard.”

Ning Yao took a glance at the sword on Qi Shou’s back as she spoke, while Die Zhang and the others looked on in a concerned and anxious silence.

Die Zhang knew that this wasn’t her forte.

At times, she felt very thankful that the likes of Chen Sanqiu and Yan Zhuo were good people. Otherwise, if they were to use their intelligence and cunning for nefarious means, then they could truly do some damage.

Given their privileged backgrounds, they had broader horizons than their peers, granting them a superior sense of perspective. Matters that were considered impossibly complex for Die Zhang often appeared much simpler and more straightforward in their eyes, and at the same time, they were able to see and comprehend many things that were simply beyond her.

A’Liang had once said that this was, in a way, also a form of swordsmanship.

He had also once told Die Zhang that she would likely have to overcome two separate mental hurdles if she wanted to remain friends with Chen Sanqiu and the others on a long-term basis. If she couldn’t overcome those hurdles, then there would be no need for death to separate them. Instead, they would simply grow apart over time until they were nothing more than acquaintances.

Neither side would be at fault for such an outcome. Instead, it would simply mean that the differences in their upbringing and mentalities were too much to overcome.

“Are all of you convinced that Chen Ping’an will definitely lose?” Ning Yao suddenly asked as she turned to Die Zhang and the others.

“I can lie to you and say that I think Chen Ping’an can beat Qi Shou with just one hand, but if you want to hear the truth, then I’d say that Chen Ping’an has no chance, at least not with that sword on Qi Shou’s back,” Chen Sanqiu said in a pessimistic manner.

Ning Yao offered no response.

Instead, she turned in a certain direction with her brows tightly furrowed.

Sitting on the roof of a restaurant in that direction was a little girl wearing a loose-fitting black robe. Her hair was braided into a pair of adorable twin pigtails, and she was yawning incessantly out of boredom.

Finally, she seemed to have run out of patience, and she yelled, “Hurry the hell up, Pang Yuanji! Why are you being such a coward? You’re making an embarrassment of yourself! Just beat up Qi Shou, then fight the other guy! What’s so complicated about that?!”

Chen Ping’an’s gaze was also drawn to the little girl on the rooftop.

Despite her innocuous and childish appearance, she was a terrifying being whose fists were feared even by Ascension Tier great demons.

In terms of short-temperedness, the swordsmen of the Dong Clan could only rank second on the Sword Qi Great Wall, and that was because this little girl inarguably occupied the top spot.

Chen Ping’an had once seen her plummet straight down from the top of the Sword Qi Great Wall to engage in a “play fight” with a nearby great demon.

It had been a bona fide Immortal Tier great demon, but according to the old great sword immortal, the fact that the little girl wasn’t able to kill it made her feel like she had lost the battle.

Aside from Ning Yao, Chen Ping’an, and several sword immortals who were intentionally ignoring the “little girl,” everyone else on the entire street was horrified, and no one was foolish enough to try to suck up to her.

Of course, Hidden Official wasn’t actually her name. Instead, it was an ancient official title that had been passed down for many generations. On the Sword Qi Great Wall, the Hidden Official was responsible for overseeing matters related to governance and punishment, among others.

Throughout history, there had been many Hidden Officials who were unfit for the job and were reduced to mere puppets, but ever since she inherited this title, no one dared to look down on the Hidden Official any longer.

Not only did she hold the record for killing the most Middle Five Tiers demons out of anyone on the Sword Qi Great Wall, over the past thousand years, she had also killed many of her own comrades who had tried to flee the battlefield south of the Sword Qi Great Wall as deserters.

During the thirteen battles against the demon tribe, she was the first representative to step up to the plate for the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Her opponent was supposed to have been a great demon renowned for its prowess in direct physical brawls, but it conceded the battle as soon as it saw her, causing her to fly into a rage and pound the entire battlefield to bits with her fists.

“I’ll do as you say, Mistress,” Pang Yuanji replied with a nod.

However, Qi Shou cupped his fist in a salute as he lowered his head and implored, “Please allow me to battle the outsider first, Lord Hidden Official. Regardless of the outcome of the battlefield, I will fight Yuanji immediately after, and it can be a battle to the death if that’s what you wish to see.”

The Hidden Official’s eyes instantly lit up at this proposal, and she nodded vigorously as she approved, “That sounds great to me! Hurry up then, don’t keep me waiting any longer! All of you can fight to your hearts’ content, I’ll make sure everyone’s following the rules. There’s no better person than me to officiate a fight!”

She then turned her gaze to the table where Pang Yuanji had previously been sitting, then demanded, “You there! The guy who’s missing an eye! Toss me a flagon of wine! Otherwise, I’ll…”

All of a sudden, the entire wine shop exploded. Fragments of roof tiles were sent flying in all directions, while everything in the wine shop was destroyed and strewn all over the place in a chaotic fashion, and all of the swordsmen inside were instantly knocked unconscious.

The man who was missing an eye was an Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortal, and he had just been dealt a kick to the head by the Hidden Official, sending him crashing straight through the wall.

After standing up, he dusted himself off, but didn’t return to the wine shop. The Hidden Official was standing on the only completely unharmed table inside, and with a light stomp of her foot, the flagon on the table sprang up into her grasp.

She took a whiff of its contents, and her face immediately puckered up as she wailed, “It smells like piss, but it’s still wine! If only I could take even just a tiny sip!”

A tormented look appeared on her face as she spoke, and she was gritting her teeth in pained frustration.

In the instant that the Hidden Official left the rooftop, Chen Ping’an took a step forward, but then immediately retracted his foot as he cast a provocative gaze toward Qi Shou.

Pang Yuanji leaned back and flew back into the demolished wine shop, then casually caught a piece of falling roof tile as he smiled and said, “Need I remind you that the old great sword immortal has forbidden you from drinking wine, Mistress?”

“I’m just taking a sniff! What’s wrong with that?” the Hidden Official snapped in an indignant manner. “Who is Chen Qingdu to tell me what to do, anyway? I’m the one in charge of punishments on the Sword Qi Great Wall!”

However, she then immediately became deflated as she sat on the table with a miserable expression, then tossed the flagon of wine at Pang Yuanji as she sighed, “Hold onto this for me for now.”

All of a sudden, Chen Ping’an ducked his head to the side, right as a streak of light flashed past his ear.

It was only a streak of sword qi, yet it was enough to leave a slight gash on his face.

He crouched down slightly before pushing off against the ground, upon which he instantly vanished from the spot. Only after he was gone did the earth beneath him rumble audibly as it shattered into a system of deep cracks resembling a cobweb.

Immediately thereafter, a streak of even faster sword light flew through the exact spot where Chen Ping’an had just been standing, and it would’ve pierced straight through his heart from behind had he not taken evasive measures.

The Hidden Official gave a slight nod of approval upon seeing this, and her frustration at not being able to drink wine was somewhat assuaged, but she was still mostly just bored, and she grabbed onto her own pigtails and began gently tugging on them for her own entertainment.

“Are all Vajra Body Tier martial artists of the Majestic World this fast?” Pang Yuanji asked with a smile as he stood beside her in a respectful manner.

The Hidden Official considered his question for a moment, then gave an extremely insightful answer. “I think it might possibly be somewhat rare.”

Pang Yuanji was also accustomed to such non-answers.

There was actually another question that he was much more interested in hearing the answer to, and he asked through his mind’s lake, “Mistress, why do I get the feeling that you don’t seem to have a very good impression of Chen Ping’an?”

“I don’t like the look of anyone that Chen Qingdu likes the look of,” the Hidden Official explained with a disdainful sneer.

A Nascent Tier swordsman who wasn’t native to the Sword Qi Great Wall had overheard her answer, and in order to silence him, she flicked a finger at him from afar. The swordsman in question was instantly knocked to the ground as if he had been dealt a heavy blow to the forehead, and he would be bedridden for at least half a month.

The Hidden Official felt like she had done him a great favor, allowing him to receive some hospitality in the form of bed rest and care from his hosts on the Sword Qi Great Wall.

“At what’s-his-name’s current cultivation base, he shouldn’t have been able to evade those two attacks. He was only able to do so mostly through guessing,” the Hidden Official suddenly said.

“Qi Shou also hasn’t displayed anywhere near his full power,” Pang Yuanji said with a smile.

She sighed in a disappointed manner. “How boring.”

She then stood up from the table, having had a change of heart as she declared, “You two continue, but I’m not going to stick around to watch anymore. Remember that no fight is a good fight unless it’s a fight to the death.”

With that, the Hidden Official vanished from the spot, leaving her disciple to shake his head with a wry smile on his face.

Meanwhile, on the street, Qi Shou remained standing completely still on the spot, while his opponent was gradually closing in.

For the vast majority of Qi refiners, allowing a martial artist to get close was no different from a death sentence, but the same didn’t apply to swordsmen, who were much more lethal in close-quarters combat than all other Qi refiners, and this was particularly true for Qi Shou because he had more than just a single bonded flying sword.

The one that he had already revealed was called Flying Kite, while the other one, by the name of Heartstring, was even faster, and the latter was eagerly waiting for Chen Ping’an to rush to his death.

Yan Zhuo was so on edge that his entire body was completely tensed up, and Die Zhang and the others were also looking very anxious.

In contrast, Ning Yao remained as composed as ever. The stakes of this battle were higher for her than for anyone else in her circle of friends, but she appeared the most relaxed and detached.

This was where she and Chen Ping’an differed the most; Chen Ping’an was always thinking meticulously about everything, while Ning Yao was much more direct and straightforward with her thought processes.

Qi Shou was feeling a little disappointed as he released his second bonded flying sword.

The swordsmen of the Qi Clan had always been extremely adept at fighting in small areas, and thanks to Heartstring’s lethal combination of speed and accuracy, Qi Shou was always able to end his battles very quickly.

At this point, the two combatants were only separated by about ten meters.

Even though Chen Ping’an was able to avoid a lethal blow at the last second, Heartstring had still pierced through his shoulder, inevitably causing him to become stagnant in his movements for a split second, and that was all the time that Flying Kite needed to glance past his throat.

He seemed to have been trapped in a cage formed by the pair of flying swords, yet right as many of the spectators thought that the battle was already over, he abruptly vanished from the spot.

Qi Shou continued to remain where he was standing.

His third bonded flying sword, Jumping Spider, had always been the most devious and unpredictable of the bunch. From a single flying sword, it split up into two, then two into four, then four into eight, and it continued to multiply in that fashion, weaving a web of swords around Qi Shou. Hovering at every single node in the web was a Jumping Spider flying sword that was just over an inch in length.

In contrast with Pu Yu, who was also able to wield many flying swords at once, but only one was actually his bonded flying sword, every single one of these Jumping Spiders was a bonded flying sword of Qi Shou’s. This was a point of great pride for Qi Shou, and his Jumping Spider flying sword was the one that the seniors of his clan thought most highly of.

After all, this was a bonded flying sword that was truly able to combine offense and defense into one, and the more Qi Shou advanced up the cultivation tiers, the more Jumping Spiders he would be able to conjure up at once, and the more the flying sword would approach a celestial sword. Once Qi Shou attained sufficient power to support several thousand Jumping Spiders at once, he would become a near-invincible force on the battlefield.