Unsheathed

Five outsider sword cultivators from the Middle Earth Divine Continent had come to visit the wine shop.

Apart from the young man holding a pot of wine still remaining extremely calm and relaxed, his three companions had already retreated slightly, ready to summon their flying swords at any moment.

One of them was in their early twenties and had a stiff expression, and he was slower than his companions both when he retreated and when he channeled his spiritual energy in preparation for summoning his flying sword.

There was also a lithe young woman wearing a colorful jacket and a gauze skirt adorned with one hundred flowers, something extremely popular among female cultivators in the Middle Earth Divine Continent.

As for the final person, he was naturally the young man carrying a sword on his back and being held up by Chen Ping’an. His fist intent and astral energy were forcefully suppressed after being immobilized by Chen Ping’an, and he couldn’t unleash the spiritual energy from his critical acupoints, no matter how he tried.

They were pushed back again and again, surprisingly unable to overcome the barriers established by Chen Ping’an. His face became beet red with exertion, after which it took on shades of purple and blue, making him appear like a dead fish hanging on the wall and drying in the sun. The humiliation he felt at this moment was presumably no less than his killing intent.

“He’s not willing to speak, so why don’t you speak for him?” Chen Ping’an suggested.

“I didn’t quite catch what he said just then,” the young man holding a wine pot said with a dazzling smile.

“Do those from the Second Sage’s lineage all suffer from hearing problems?” Chen Ping’an asked with a chuckle.

“Chen Ping’an, let go of Jiang Guancheng right this instant!” the young woman demanded in anger. “Don’t think that you can act wantonly just because you enjoy some minor fame at the Sword Qi Great Wall! Are you going to kill someone because of a small disagreement?! Disciples of the Scholarly Sage are truly each more short-tempered than the other!

“First, it was Cui Chan betraying his master, and then it was Zuo You destroying many innate sword talents of the Middle Earth Divine Continent! My uncle master…”

The young woman gritted her teeth in anger when she mentioned her uncle master, with tears surprisingly glistening in her eyes. However, she immediately recovered and became even more furious as she said her next words.

“And then there’s you, Chen Ping’an! As a Confucian disciple and a pupil of the Scholarly Sage, you’re actually engaging in the lowly and debauched business of selling wine? You’re trampling all over the notion of decorum!”

Chen Ping’an paid no heed to her.

He genuinely wasn’t too worried about these types of people who would point at others and loudly criticize them. In any case, she wasn’t scolding his master, and she was only scolding his master’s disciples, that being himself and his senior brothers. He was the youngest of the Scholarly Sage’s disciples, so did he need to step forward and speak up for his senior brother?

Put in a good word for Imperial Preceptor Cui Chan? Stand up for Senior Brother Zuo You? Was this necessary? Chen Ping’an didn’t think so. The former wanted to transform an entire continent into an empire, inhibiting the demon tribe from traveling north and preventing the demon tribe from conquering the Parasol Leaf Continent, the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, and the Northern Complete Reed Continent in a single breath.

Meanwhile, the latter yearned to achieve the loftiest swordsmanship among those beyond the Majestic World. In reality, both of them were very busy. As for Chen Ping’an, he was fairly busy as well.

He needed to practice martial arts, practice sword techniques, read books, refine his fourth bonded item, make money, win a bet, and carve seals. How could he not be busy?

Most importantly, this young woman’s words hadn’t been repulsive or ill-intentioned, regardless of how reasonable or unreasonable she was.

Chen Ping’an could understand and accept this.

“Zhu Mei, watch how you speak to Mr. Chen,” the young man scolded.

He then smiled with squinted eyes and said to Chen Ping’an, “Mr. Chen, you are more senior than I am, so this junior will listen to your teachings. I’ll correct my mistakes and avoid making any new ones. Also, the person in your hand is Jiang Guancheng, the direct disciple of Sword Immortal Ku Xia. Sword Immortal Ku Xia is the martial nephew of one of the top ten cultivators in our hometown, and this makes things very troublesome.

“Of course, I’ve admired Great Sword Immortal Zuo, your senior brother, for a very long time already, and Great Sword Immortal Zuo is also practicing sword techniques at the Sword Qi Great Wall right now. That being the case, I presume there won’t be much to worry about. Even so, all of the sword immortals in the world are one big family, so it’s ultimately not ideal to spoil the harmony.”

“Are you a Sea Observation Tier sword cultivator? Are you the candidate for the first trial?” Chen Ping’an asked.

The young man didn’t answer this question, and he smiled faintly and asked, “Mr. Chen, you hail from the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, so you are not going to man a trial for the sword cultivators of the Sword Qi Great Wall, right?”

As the two of them spoke, the young sword cultivator was using the official dialect of the Majestic World, while Chen Ping’an was using the local dialect of the Sword Qi Great Wall.

The young man glanced down.

Chen Ping’an made a gentle pushing motion, sending the tall young man in his hand sprawling dozens of meters into the distance.

“Why are you so tall? You made me stand on my tippy-toes for so long,” he grumbled.

He then looked at the interesting young man who was holding a pot of wine and continued, “You already possess such a lofty cultivation base at such a young age, so if you continue to wander around and speak nonsense here, are you truly not afraid of scaring us to death? We’re all weak and cowardly over here.”

Chen Sanqiu used the local dialect to translate their conversation for the wine shop’s customers.

There was jeering and whistling at the wine shop, and the alcoholics and single men squatting on the ground and drinking were extremely cooperative with the second shopkeeper. In the past, they had felt like the second shopkeeper was as miserly as could be. Compared to these brats from the Middle Earth Divine Continent, however, he was unexpectedly upright and graceful.

They had truly misunderstood the second shopkeeper in the past, so perhaps they should take fewer pickled vegetables for free in the future? In any case, they always had a nagging feeling after the fact that it was difficult to get anything for free from the second shopkeeper, yet getting too many pickled vegetables for free actually encouraged them to drink more.

Chen Ping’an turned to the wine shop and asked with a smile, “How about I conduct this trial as a fourth tier Qi refiner? I’m also open to taking bets if you all wager on me losing.”

The customers in the wine shop all raised their middle fingers in response, not holding back at all as they chuckled and cursed. In fact, some of them immediately started cheering for the outsiders, claiming that the second shopkeeper wasn’t actually good at anything except selling wine and writing couplets. If he truly got in a fight, he could be easily knocked down with two or three punches. What was there to be afraid of?

They were outsider sword cultivators from the Middle Earth Divine Continent, so they needed to show some confidence and courage, especially since Chen Ping’an was only from the measly Eastern Treasured Vial Continent. The customers also claimed that Ren Yi, Pu Yu, Qi Shou, and Pang Yuanji had purposely lost to that bastard, Chen Ping’an, since they had accepted bets and wanted to make money. Thus, these outsider sword cultivators would do well to not believe these results.

The young woman called Zhu Mei chuckled coldly and remarked, “So you’re not only an alcoholic selling wine, but you’re a gambling addict encouraging gambling as well. The Scholarly Sage was truly blind to accept you as a closing disciple!”

Chen Ping’an smiled faintly and concurred, “Drinking wine, betting money, and killing demons are indeed matters not worth mentioning in the eyes of cultivators from the Middle Earth Divine Continent. These are very lowly matters.”

Chen Sanqiu and the others immediately started loudly clapping and cheering, not forgetting to bang the tables or beat their chopsticks.

Zhu Mei almost choked upon hearing this.

Moreover, she even felt a slight sense of fear in the depths of her heart, seemingly as if she had mysteriously stepped into an unfamiliar small world.

Even though Chen Ping’an was standing quite far away from the sword cultivators of the Sword Qi Great Wall, this so-called closing disciple of the Scholarly Sage was seemingly resonating with the sword cultivators sitting or squatting behind him.

“Do you know which part of that statement was unreasonable?” Chen Ping’an asked with a smile. “Scholars in the Majestic World indeed shouldn’t drink and gamble, yet you were rendered speechless after I purposely included the notion of not killing demons. This is because you still have some conscience despite being a sword cultivator from the Middle Earth Divine Continent, and you sincerely feel like killing demons is a great feat. This is why you felt guilty and in the wrong.

“In reality, there’s no need for you to feel this way. Principles and reasons need to be presented in an orderly, sequential manner, each on its own merit. Rights and wrongs shouldn’t be canceled out. For example, if you agree that killing demons is very correct, and has been correct for the past ten thousand years, and then you come here to debate me about alcoholism and gambling being extremely wrong, do you think I’ll agree or disagree? What do you say? Those belonging to the Scholarly Sage’s lineage have relatively good temper and are even willing to speak reason, don’t you think?”

The young woman’s thoughts were in complete disarray as she widened her eyes and stared at the alcoholic in azure. How were his bastardly explanations sounding somewhat reasonable?

However, she couldn’t help but feel angry just then.

In the end, Chen Ping’an turned to the young man, who was holding a wine pot but no longer smiling, and said, “Rest assured, I won’t man the first trial as a fourth tier Qi refiner. Why, you ask? It’s not that I don’t want to teach you a lesson or teach you how to speak properly, but rather, I respect your willingness to travel to the Sword Qi Great Wall even though you’re sword cultivators from the Middle Earth Divine Continent. You’re at least willing to take a look at the Savage World. Outsiders needing to face the three trials is a public matter, so the personal grudges between us can be resolved at a later date.”

He returned to the wine shop.

A man who was rapidly devouring pickled vegetables glanced over and exclaimed, “How impressive and imposing, Second Shopkeeper! How about some free wine for the customers to celebrate?”

Chen Ping’an chuckled and replied, “Please know some shame, sword immortals, and please retract your sword qi as quickly as possible. Especially you, Ye Chunzhen. You eat three plates of pickled vegetables with each pot of wine — do you think I’m not aware of this? I’ve already put up with you for a long time.”

The man picked up the half-eaten plate of pickled vegetables from the ground and proposed, “I’ll give this back to you?”

Chen Ping’an was rendered speechless.

Ye Chunzhen appeared extremely smug. As even he was afraid of his own shamelessness, so did he need to be afraid of the second shopkeeper? In any case, hadn’t he learned this shamelessness from none other than the second shopkeeper?

Chen Ping’an cleared his throat, not sitting down as he clapped his hands and loudly announced, “Our wine shop is a small business, but we were still planning to act generously at our own expense, giving our customers a free bowl of yangchun noodles in addition to a free place of pickled vegetables with each pot of wine purchased.

“Looking at the situation now, however, it’s best that I forget about this. Yangchun noodles can’t be regarded as a delicacy anyway, with the soup clear and bland. The noodles are simply a bit chewier, and the soup simply has a few more specks of spring onion. Pouring the small plate of pickled vegetables into the noodles and mixing everything together, the taste is actually just so-so.”

Ye Chunzhen was instantly subject to dagger-like glares from the alcoholics around him.

Everyone was aware that they couldn’t defeat the second shopkeeper in a debate of reason.

Ye Chunzhen gritted his teeth and said, “Give me a pot of fine wine, Second Shopkeeper, the type that costs five snowflake coins each! I accidentally ate a bit too many pickled vegetables today, and I’m feeling a bit thirsty from all the sodium. I need to drink some wine to quench my thirst.”

“Coming right up, Brother Ye.”

Chen Ping’an giddily ran into the wine shop to grab a pot of fine wine, not forgetting to glance back and announce with a smile, “We’ll start offering yangchun noodles two days from now.”

Jiang Guancheng, the young man carrying a sword on his back, had already been helped up, and he looked much better than before after expelling the fist intent and astral energy using his sword qi.

“Yan Lü, are you okay?” Zhu Mei asked in a soft voice.

Yan Lü, the young man holding a wine pot, nodded lightly and replied with a smile, “Why would I not be okay? I would only suffer if he seized this opportunity to conduct the first trial. Junbi would scold me to death.”

“Junbi warned us not to wander outside for no reason after arriving at Sword Immortal Sun’s residence, so why did you give Jiang Guancheng a free rein to cause trouble here?” Zhu Mei grumbled in a quiet voice.

The young man wearing a simple and elegant robe turned around to glance at the wine shop before quickly retracting his gaze.

He didn’t like this type of chaotic atmosphere. In fact, he detested it.

These people were cultivators, yet they didn’t maintain a clean and virtuous life, nor did they possess any immortal aura expected of cultivators from the mountains.

Yan Lü raised the pot of Azure Divine Mountain Wine in his hand and replied with a smile, “I’m just trying to find out whether this immortal wine truly has a relationship with the Azure Divine Mountain. My old ancestor always attends the Azure Divine Banquet hosted in the Bamboo Sea Small World.”

Zhu Mei rolled her eyes and said, “Alright, we all know that you love to bring up your family history and announce to the entire world how wealthy your old ancestor is. Jiang Guancheng’s clan and cultivation lineage isn’t any inferior to yours, but have you ever seen him boasting about his uncle master? It’s just that he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, always mistaking wind for rain. He never thinks before he acts, and he likes to flare up in rage at the slightest of offenses. Does he think we’re still in the Middle Earth Divine Continent?

“Before coming to the Sword Qi Great Wall, my old ancestor warned me about many things, telling me not to act haughtily here and instead pretend to be deaf and mute. Sigh, forget about it, I don’t have the right to talk about these things either. I already spoke a lot just then.

“Let’s get this straight first — you’re not allowed to tell Junbi about this, and he simply needs to know that I remained silent from the beginning to the end. Junbi is only at the Sea Observation Tier, but he’s truly terrifying when he becomes angry. I fare okay, especially since my cultivation base isn’t high to begin with. But what about you and the others? You also become as silent and fearful as me.”

Yan Lü’s expression became slightly unnatural.

If it weren’t for one of Zhu Mei’s clan elders being the mountain master of a Confucian academy in the Flowing Dawn Continent, and her supposedly possessing a rich fortune from a young age and having signed a strange contract with a mountain goddess of their empire, then Yan Lü truly wanted to give her a nice big slap across the face. He would make her remember this lesson and speak like a human in the future, rather than driving a blade through his heart with each sentence that she uttered.