Unsheathed

Pei Qian and Cui Dongshan stayed up all night just chatting about different things. It was remarkable that they had so much to chat about. As a Qi refiner, Cui Dongshan had once suffered a catastrophic fall, but he was now on the way back to the mountain summit, seeking to exceed his former peak. The path to immortality was long and arduous. On that path, some people walked, some ran, and some were able to gallop along, leaving everyone far behind.

Those were the true prodigies. As for Pei Qian, she had grown a little taller, and her skin had also become slightly fairer. For her, making breakthroughs in martial arts seemed to be not much more difficult than eating sunflower seeds, and even after staying up all night, she was still full of vigor and wasn’t weary in the slightest.

Cui Dongshan rose to his feet and began telling legends of an ancient deity who stood taller than all of the mountain ranges under the heavens. With their whip in hand, they were able to herd entire mountains like flocks of sheep.

There was another deity who ran tirelessly, with the sun on their shoulder. Whenever they ran close to the human world, it would be high noon, and when they were far away, it would turn to dusk.

Pei Qian wasn’t really paying any attention to these stories. To her, it was just more nonsensical rambling from Cui Dongshan. It wasn’t her master talking, so it didn’t really matter if she listened or paid attention. This was why Pei Qian actually really enjoyed chatting with Cui Dongshan. He seemed never to run out of nonsensical things to say and interesting stories to tell.

Most importantly, everything that he said could simply go in one ear and out the other, and it didn’t matter. Cui Dongshan never asked about her studies, and for that reason alone, Pei Qian much preferred speaking to him rather than Zhu Lian. He knew she always kept up with her daily transcriptions, yet he still made sure to ask her every day if she had completed them, which left her feeling very annoyed.

If he had so much spare time on his hands to be constantly asking her about her studies, wouldn’t his time be much better used in the kitchen, braising an extra pot of spring bamboo shoots with salt-cured meat, or cooking up an extra dish of water celery?

Pei Qian couldn’t help but drool at the thought of those delectable dishes. In addition to those two signature dishes, Zhu Lian’s fried dried fish was also not to be missed.

Prior to embarking on this journey, she had gone to the stream with Zhou Mili to catch an entire basket full of fish to fry. She brought the fish to Zhu Lian and personally supervised him in the kitchen, ordering him to put in one hundred and ten percent effort to make the best batch of fried dried fish possible. She was going to be taking the dish to her master on the Sword Qi Great Wall, so it had to be cooked to the highest of standards.

In the end, she was satisfied only when Zhu Lian incorporated both the six-step walking meditation and his monkey fist stance into the cooking process. Initially, Pei Qian wanted to bring more of their hometown delicacies with her to Stalactite Mountain, but she was worried that they would go bad during the journey. The first thing that she did after meeting up with Cui Dongshan at the Old Dragon City ferry station was to have him put the dish into his minimization treasure.

In exchange for his services, Cui Dongshan requested compensation in the form of ten percent of the dish. Pei Qian was able to convince Cui Dongshan to share his ten percent cut of the dish with her, and the two of them were able to enjoy the scrumptious snack together.

Pei Qian could see that Zhong Qiu and Cao Qinglang were practically salivating as they watched, so she asked Zhong Qiu if he would also like to enjoy the snack with them. However, he seemed too embarrassed to accept the offer, so he refused, and Pei Qian took that as a refusal from Cao Qinglang as well.

It had to be said that Zhu Lian’s cooking was impeccable. At times, Pei Qian felt rather sorry for him. After all, he couldn’t help it that he was old and ugly. Thankfully, he had this one positive trait in the form of his cooking skills. Otherwise, he really would be completely devoid of redeeming qualities.

However, this was hardly a respectable role, and over time, people would begin looking down on him. Just like her master said, if you didn’t possess any skills or traits that were worthy of respect, then even if you put on some new clothes and a tall hat, no one was going to be impressed. Perhaps they would praise you to your face, but in private, they would still refer to you as a joke.

In contrast, people like farmers, shopkeepers, and dragon kiln workers made a living off their skills, so regardless of whether they were well-off or not, at the very least, they weren’t going to be looked down on. Pei Qian was concerned that Zhu Lian would get too full of himself and become like Chen Lingjun. She was worried that Zhu Lian’s ego would become overinflated after receiving some praise from the cultivators from nearby mountains, and thus, she relayed those exact words from her master to Zhu Lian verbatim.

Of course, she remembered what her master had told her about preaching to others, specifically that it wasn’t enough just to preach the right principles. On top of that, the principles also had to be conveyed in the correct fashion, using the right tone and mentality while also ensuring that the atmosphere and timing were right. After some thought, Pei Qian decided to call upon her trusty right-hand guardian. Zhou Mili’s job was simply to nod to everything that Pei Qian said, thereby lending credence to Pei Qian’s principles.

After hearing what she had to say, Zhu Lian told her that he had benefitted immensely from her teachings and praised her for displaying maturity. Pei Qian could tell that Zhu Lian had taken her words to heart, and she was very pleased.

Cui Dongshan began pacing back and forth, performing the six-step walking meditation. Pei Qian was not impressed. In her eyes, his walking meditation was very wobbly and unstable, and he hadn’t captured the essence of the walking meditation at all. However, he wasn’t learning from her master, so it didn’t matter. Otherwise, she would’ve been sure to reprimand him. Some things simply had to be done properly, and even the slightest lack of effort or attention was unacceptable.

All of a sudden, Cui Dongshan stood on one leg as he joined his middle and index fingers, then pointed them at Pei Qian and yelled, ”Stay still!”

Pei Qian was instantly immobilized.

However, her fist aura then rippled over her entire body, as if she were freeing herself from the effects of the immobilizing spell, then crossed her arms and scoffed, ”You didn’t think you would actually get me with such a pathetic little trick, did you?”

Cui Dongshan put on a stunned expression as he stumbled back in shock and exclaimed in a trembling voice, ”How? Who is your master? How are you able to resist my immobilizing spell?!”

”Why are you putting on this act when there’s no one else around to see it?” Pei Qian scoffed with a roll of his eyes. ”Let’s save our energy for when there are actually other people around.”

Cui Dongshan dropped the act at Pei Qian’s request, but argued, ”Practice makes perfect. If we don’t have regular rehearsals, how will we be able to put on a natural and convincing act when we actually have an audience? It’s just like how your master and my teacher have been practicing the Mountain Shaking Fist for countless repetitions.”

”Those are two entirely different things!” Pei Qian scoffed. ”Master told me that when out traveling the world, it’s important to treat people with kindness and sincerity.”

Whenever Pei Qian brought up Chen Ping’an, Cui Dongshan would immediately relent. If he were to argue against Chen Ping’an’s teachings, then he would be sure to receive a beating from Pei Qian.

However, Pei Qian then lowered her voice and said, ”Let’s continue our rehearsal when those two aren’t around. Master also told me that sincerity should only be reserved for good people and that some trickery is required when dealing with nefarious individuals. By displaying weakness to the enemy, we can lull them into a false sense of complacency, and by putting on a strong facade, we can intimidate enemies into retreat and save ourselves a lot of trouble.”

Cui Dongshan nodded in agreement.

Downtrodden Mountain didn’t have much of anything else, but it certainly had a lot of principles.

Early in the morning, Zhong Qiu and Cao Qinglang opened their windows almost at the exact same time, then began reading sagely scriptures, just as they did every day in an extremely consistent and predictable fashion. Pei Qian took a glance at them, then averted her gaze with a disdainful expression. Even though she was always expressing her disdain at Cao Qinglang’s daily reading habit, she actually felt a little envious of him because when it came to this habit of reading, he was more like Chen Ping’an than her.

Even if she pretended to enjoy reading, it simply didn’t work. She could never get as absorbed by the books as Cao Qinglang did, and she could never develop as close and harmonious a relationship with the characters in the sagely scriptures. Every time she tried to read, she felt as if she were trying to suck up to the books, only to be given the cold shoulder like an unwelcome guest. Not once did the books open the door to greet her with a smile, and it was an infuriating endeavor.

There were only a few occasions, perhaps three, when the characters in the books were finally moved by her sincerity. She had told Zhou Mili about those occasions in private, and in her words, it was as if the characters in the books were no longer dead. Instead, they had sprung out of their graves and come to life before her eyes.

Zhou Mili had been terrified by this analogy, so Pei Qian had lent her a talisman to plaster to her head for reassurance. That very same night, Zhou Mili moved the entire prized collection of novels to Nuanshu’s room. She lamented to Nuanshu that she felt sorry for these books, as they were unable to move on their own, so she had to do the moving for them. Nuanshu had been very perplexed, but she didn’t say anything and simply looked after the novels for Zhou Mili.

Pei Qian had heard a rather interesting analogy from her master: everyone had their own book. Some people had spent their entire lives writing their book, and they enjoyed opening it to show others. The book would be filled with sprawling passages detailing their greatest feats and finest qualities, but there would be nothing in the book about treating others with kindness.

In contrast, for some others, their books never explicitly expressed how kind they were, yet the pages were filled with kindness. In the warmer months, their books would be filled with sunshine and flowers, and even the winter months wouldn’t be so cold and unforgiving.

Having known Nuanshu for quite some time, Pei Qian felt like her book didn’t contain the word ”refusal.”

Of the three occasions when reading had felt different for Pei Qian, one occasion came during her travels with Chen Ping’an, while the other two arose when she was making transcriptions right after training under Cui Cheng. On the latter two occasions, she was so exhausted that she couldn’t even hold onto her brush, so she had to tie it to her arm with a strip of cloth.

Her mind had felt extremely foggy and heavy, and she had to force herself to stay awake in order to complete her transcriptions for the day. In her half-asleep state, the characters on the pages began to move like fish in water, or soldiers moving into formation. She had told Chen Ping’an about this quite some time ago, and he didn’t say anything at the time, so she didn’t think much of it, simply believing that this was something that all those who read regularly experienced at one point or another.

If her master were to find out that she had only experienced this phenomenon thrice, then he would surely reprimand her for not being sufficiently devoted to her reading. If that were to happen, she would almost definitely take a knuckle to the head, which wouldn’t hurt but would certainly be embarrassing! Thus, Pei Qian decided there and then that she would never speak of this matter again unless her master specifically asked her about it.

”What’s your cultivation base right now?” Pei Qian suddenly asked in a quiet voice. ”It’s a real pain trying to chat with Cao Qinglang. It seemed to me like all he did was read every day, and he wasn’t focusing much of his time and effort on cultivation, so I gave him some advice last time out of the kindness of my heart.

“I told him that you, he, and I are all students and disciples of my master. I’ve inherited my master’s fist and sword techniques, while you’re already at the Sea Observation Tier, so it simply won’t do for Cao Qinglang to be lagging behind at the Abode Tier! Just because Master isn’t always around to instruct him in his cultivation doesn’t give him an excuse to fall behind like this, right?

“Cao Qinglang tells me that he’ll work hard, but I don’t think he’s actually taken my advice to heart. Having said that, I’m not going to tell Master about this. Otherwise, Master will think that I’m badmouthing Cao Qinglang, and that’ll only paint me in a negative light. By the way, you are at the Sea Observation Tier now, right?”

”Nope,” Cui Dongshan replied with a shake of his head.

Pei Qian struck the palm of her hand with her fist in frustration, then asked, ”Then surely you must be at the Abode Tier! Don’t tell me you haven’t even reached the Middle Five Tiers! Forget it. Even if you’re not there yet, it doesn’t really matter. You’re constantly busy traveling from place to place all the time, so it’s understandable that you’ve fallen behind in your cultivation.

“If worst comes to worst, I’ll just have to go speak to Cao Qinglang again and tell him that you’re actually not at the Sea Observation Tier. However, that’s all I’m going to say to him. I’m closer with you than I am with him, so I’ll do my best not to make you look bad.”

”How kind and thoughtful you are, Senior Sister!” Cui Dongshan exclaimed with a wide grin.

”Be serious!” Pei Qian reprimanded.

Even though Pei Qian was no longer a little girl, in Cui Dongshan’s eyes, she was still just a child in terms of height and maturity. However, at the same time, she possessed unique talents that allowed her to see things differently from others, and as a result, she had a deep and profound understanding of certain things that definitely weren’t normal for someone her age.

This was why Cui Dongshan had cautioned her earlier against allowing her fists to become so fast that they outsped her thoughts. He was encouraging her to be like her master and think things through more thoroughly, at the cost of losing some speed in her fists. Perhaps in the beginning, it would feel very awkward and cause a regression in her martial arts ability, but it was all for the goal of being able to someday throw the fastest of punches and face the world and her master with a clear conscience.

There were many principles that could only be taught to Pei Qian by Chen Ping’an, but there were also some other things that could only be conveyed to her by people outside of Chen Ping’an. The process had to be gentle and subtle in order to ensure that her mental state wasn’t bogged down by excessively grand and abstract principles.

In reality, Zhong Qiu and Cao Qinglang were aiming to achieve the same objective through their studies and their travels.

Why was it that everyone was willing to be so careful and thoughtful with how they treated Pei Qian? Ultimately, it was because Chen Ping’an cared so much about her.

Aside from that, another important reason was that Pei Qian’s actions and the changes that she had displayed over time made her worthy of everyone’s high hopes and expectations.

On Downtrodden Mountain, everyone was her Dao mentor or Dao guardian.

However, the future Downtrodden Mountain may not be so harmonious. More and more names were going to be added to the genealogical records, and with more people, there was almost certainly going to be more trouble and conflict. However, at that point, Pei Qian and Cao Qinglang would’ve already grown up, so it would no longer be down to Chen Ping’an to shoulder the entire burden on his own.

On this day, Zhong Qiu and Cao Qinglang chose not to travel with Cui Dongshan and Pei Qian. Instead, they went their separate ways to explore Stalactite Mountain as two individual parties.

Cui Dongshan secretly gave Zhong Qiu a grain rain coin. It simply wouldn’t do to have him walk around Stalactite Mountain broke. Not only was he an extremely revered scholar and martial arts master back in the Lotus Flower Blessed Land, but he was also now a guest elder of Downtrodden Mountain.

Zhong Qiu was not some dogmatic and inflexible pedant who would turn down Cui Dongshan’s money out of some worthless sense of honor. Instead, he was a shrewd and adaptable imperial preceptor who had taken the Southern Garden Nation to great heights, and if the bull-nosed old Daoist priest hadn’t split the blessed land into four, the Southern Garden Nation was already on track to unite the entire small world. Not only did Zhong Qiu not refuse, but he also borrowed two more grain rain coins from Cui Dongshan.

Pei Qian went straight to the Ganoderma Inn, but once there, she quickly made a sobering realization. There was no lack of fine treasures in the Ganoderma Inn, and she liked almost everything that she saw, but there wasn’t even a single thing that she could afford! They explored every single corner of every level of the Ganoderma Inn, and they still couldn’t find anything that fell within her budget.

However, even as she walked out of the Ganoderma Inn in disappointment, she didn’t try to borrow money from Cui Dongshan, nor did he offer to lend her any. From there, the two of them made their way to a street at the foot of the Milu Cliff, one that was lined with shops.

Once there, the sullen and dejected Pei Qian was instantly revitalized. The things being sold on that street were much more affordable, with countless items costing only several snowflake coins each, and all of a sudden, she was spoiled for choice.

With her confidence restored, Pei Qian began strutting around with a wide grin on her face. If it weren’t for the fact that there were so many people around, she would’ve begun practicing her Deranged Demon Sword Techniques to express her joy.

It was a lively and bustling street, and most of the passersby were female cultivators from the Majestic World who had come for sightseeing. Pei Qian couldn’t help but marvel at the diverse range of hairstyles and attire that they were putting on display. Some had their hair arranged into tall buns, some were wearing elaborate rhinoceros horn hairpins, and even the women who weren’t particularly beautiful were still quite striking in appearance.

Out of all of the women, Pei Qian was most envious of the ones who had precious bejeweled accessories in their hair. In her eyes, all of them were carrying miniature mountains of gold and silver on their heads!

How come there are so many people in the world just as wealthy as I am?