Unsheathed

Chen Ping’an summoned the talismanic boat ”gifted” to him by Spiritual Master Huan Yun, bringing his three disciples back to the Ning Residence. Before that, however, the talismanic boat had first traveled beyond the southern city wall, allowing them to see the large characters inscribed on the great wall. The horizontal strokes were like the Great Dao of the world, the vertical strokes were like thundering waterfalls, and the dots were like immortal abodes inside which cultivators resided and cultivated.

Cui Dongshan said he was going to wander around by himself, and he eventually made his way to that monk.

He sat down cross-legged and said, ”I need to offer thanks two times, once for myself, and once for the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.”

The monk nodded and replied, ”The human heart faces the light when sitting alone, transforming into a lion’s roar when words are uttered.”

Cui Dongshan was unwilling to dwell too much on his own matters, so he changed the topic and asked in a sincere manner, ”My grandpa eventually passed away in the Lotus Flower Blessed Land’s Heart Manifestation Temple, but before that, he once wanted to pose some questions to the abbot, most likely wanting to ask about Buddhism. For some unknown reason, however, he eventually let this matter slide. Are you able to clear up my confusion about this?”

”Benefactor Cui likely wanted to ask whether such kinds of coincidences were predetermined,” the monk replied. ”However, this question stopped at the tip of his tongue, and he let go of this thought as soon as it had appeared. He was truly able to let it go. Even Benefactor Cui was able to let this thought go, so why aren’t you able to let these matters go? If today’s Cui Dongshan is unable to let these matters go, then will yesterday’s Benefactor Cui have truly let these matters go?”

Cui Dongshan frowned and said, ”There’s only a single world, no more and no less, and there’s only a single river of time, traveling forward and never in reverse! If my grandpa has let go, then he’s already let go. Why would this suddenly change because of me not being able to let go?”

The monk laughed loudly and recited a Buddhist chant before retracting his smile and remarking, ”Buddhism is boundless, so will it truly be confined to the notion of what comes first and what comes later? Will it not be able to accommodate those who are unable to let go? What does it matter if one is able to let go? And what does it matter if one is unable to let go?”

Cui Dongshan shook his head and replied, ”Stop playing word games with me. I have an extremely deep understanding of both Logician knowledge and Buddhist teachings of Hetuvidyā.”[1]

The monk brought his palms together and looked up at the sky, after which he retracted his gaze and looked at the vast expanse of land in front of them. He placed his right hand on his knee, with the tip of his fingers lightly touching the floor.

He then raised his other hand and brought his index finger and thumb together, with his other fingers naturally extending outward like a blooming lotus flower.

Cui Dongshan sighed and brought his palms together, nodding in acknowledgement before standing up to leave.

There was a peaceful expression on the monk’s face as he raised his right hand from his knee, turning his palm outward with his fingers facing downward. He smiled faintly and said, ”I’ve witnessed another lotus blooming in the mortal sea of suffering.”

Cui Dongshan descended the southern city wall and walked along the extremely wide carriageway, all the way until he reached the northern city wall. He then stepped forward and plummeted straight down, causing a plume of dust to shoot into the air at the foot of the great wall. An unsullied figure in white walked out from the swirling yellow dust, sprinting forward and occasionally leaping through the air.

Looking at this, Zhu Mei was indeed very justified in her remarks about Cui Dongshan being retarded. No normal person would row when traveling on a talismanic boat, and no sane individual would hold a lightweight hiking pole and pretend to be exhausted when walking down a quiet alley with a young girl.

Cui Dongshan didn’t directly make his way to the Ning Residence, and he instead jumped over a wall and snuck into some extravagant residence.

He saw a sword immortal sitting in the corridor and drinking, so he squatted down on top of the railings and stared intently at the wine cup in the sword immortal’s hand.

Sword Immortal Sun Juyuan smiled and said, ”Other things can be discussed, but I most certainly can’t give this item to you, Imperial Preceptor Cui.”

”Sword immortals are so stingy,” Cui Dongshan grumbled in response.

Sun Juyuan smiled bitterly and remarked, ”I truly can’t believe that Imperial Preceptor Cui is the imperial preceptor.”

Cui Dongshan pursed his lips and said, ”And didn’t everyone at the Sword Qi Great Wall suspect that you were a spy as well? But in actual fact, you’re just a gambling addict who’s helping other people host bets to make money and distribute money.”

Sun Juyuan appeared slightly puzzled as he said, ”In reality, many people want to emulate A’Liang, but they’re simply unable to do so very well. This relates back to the notion of balance explained by the many teachers. Many people end up as laughing stocks, especially since there’s a huge condition for those trying to emulate A’Liang. That being, how can other people emulate his sword techniques and sword intent? How did Swordsman A’Liang of the Majestic World become Swordsman A’Liang of the Sword Qi Great Wall in one hundred or so years? I’m sure both of us are keenly aware of this.”

”I have a junior brother called Mao Xiaodong, and even though he’s lacking when it comes to his studies, he’s very good when it comes to teaching other people,” Cui Dongshan said. ”My master is a quick and good learner, and everything in his sight is a natural treasure that can be used for cultivation.”

Sun Juyuan waved a hand and interjected, ”Don’t say these kinds of things. I’m truly not accustomed to them. First, you bring up Junior Brother Mao Xiaodong, and then you bring up your master, who’s also the second shopkeeper of the wine shop. I don’t even dare to continue drinking.”

Cui Dongshan tilted his chin upward, clearly unwilling to give in as he suggested, ”Then give me the wine cup. Why do you still need it if you aren’t going to drink?”

Sun Juyuan looked at the young man who was squatting on the railing in an uncouth manner, and he could feel a headache starting to form. Just like Sword Immortal Ku Xia from before, his expression also became slightly bitter.

Cui Dongshan jumped down the railing and said, ”Everyone is hugely dissatisfied, yet they can’t do anything about the old great sword immortal, so how are they going to vent their worries and frustration? Perhaps they can only drink wine and intoxicate themselves, becoming numb and dazed as they wait for death. This is better than remaining sober and facing certain death.”

Sun Juyuan didn’t hide his true thoughts as he replied, ”How one thinks and how one acts are two completely different matters. A’Liang explained these principles to me before, one which I understood, and one which I committed to memory. Otherwise, the sword cultivator whom the old great sword immortal killed with a single slash back then might not have been the high-profile Dong Guanpu, but instead the insignificant Sun Juyuan.”

Cui Dongshan sat down in the corridor and leaned against the railing, saying, ”The divine couple from the Ning Residence fell in battle, while the Dong Clan’s Dong Guanpu was killed by one of our own. This was what my master faced during his first trip to the Sword Qi Great Wall, with the Ning Residence declining as a result and the Dong Clan remaining as powerful and influential as before, with no one daring to utter a single word against them. Who do you think feels the saddest as a result of this?”

”Naturally the old great sword immortal,” Sun Juyuan replied.

”Things are most troublesome when everyone appears reasonable,” Cui Dongshan put his hands inside his opposite sleeves and stated.

Sun Juyuan smiled and asked, ”Imperial Preceptor Cui hasn’t visited me today for the sake of whining and complaining, right? The two of us are simply engaging in a fair transaction. Some matters have been tangled messes for too many years, and even great sword immortals won’t necessarily have the ambition and motivation to untangle the chaos and make heads or tails of the situations. Their answers will undoubtedly be: ’What else can we do? We’ll just leave it be.’

”In any case, traveling beyond the city wall to kill demons is a habit that has become second nature, and after battling for a long time, it’s something that will be treated as completely normal and justified. I, Sun Juyuan, am someone who’s afraid of death, right? But after truly ascending the city wall and traveling to the south, I’ll also end up filled with vigor and adrenaline as I slay demons on the battlefield.”

”It was always one battle every one hundred or so years in the past, but disregarding the tragic and deadly battle following the thirteen duels, the Savage World attacked the great wall two more times in a measly ten years,” Cui Dongshan said.

”However, these weren’t large-scale wars, and the Savage World evidently wanted to nurture their troops and improve coordination between their various forces, using these wars as practice. Does this frighten you? Once they gather half the combat power of the Savage World, or perhaps even the full combat power of the entire Savage World, should the small number of people and flying swords at the Sword Qi Great Wall not feel afraid?”

”This is the reason why we’re incessantly grumbling, yet ultimately haven’t done anything more,” Sun Juyuan explained. ”After all, the old great sword immortal is still guarding the city wall.”

”Then what if the ruler of the Savage World, who’s already disappeared for ten thousand years, reappears again?” Cui Dongshan asked. ”What if someone is capable of challenging Chen Qingdu alone? What will happen to you and the other sword immortals at that time? Will you still have the courage to venture beyond the city wall?”

Sun Juyuan remained silent.

Cui Dongshan extended a hand and suggested with a chuckle, ”Why don’t we make a bet? If I’ve jinxed things, then this wine cup belongs to me. In any case, it’s not of much use in your hands, and you might even need to use it to beg for a ’what it.’ If I haven’t jinxed things, then I’ll definitely return the wine cup to you in the future. Sword immortals enjoy long lifespans, so it won’t be an issue for you to wait for a bit longer.”

Sun Juyuan tossed the wine cup to Cui Dongshan and said, ”I’ll give this wine cup to you regardless of whether I win or lose the bet. A’Liang once said that none of the gambling addicts at the Sword Qi Great Wall can achieve lasting victory, especially those who are sword immortals. Rather than losing this wine cup to those beasts from the Savage World, it’s naturally a smaller loss to lose it to the Majestic World behind us. Both of these options are repulsive, and I’ll treat it as a win to choose the less repulsive option.”

”I’m waiting for the ’But,’” Cui Dongshan caught the wine cup and said with a smile.

Sun Juyuan nodded and stood up, replying, ”There is indeed a ’But.’ Have I agreed to travel beyond the city wall yet?”

Cui Dongshan nodded and said, ”I almost gave in to my urge to return the wine cup to you, bowing together with you to become sworn brothers and offering a chicken head and burning yellow paper to make this official.”

Sun Juyuan chuckled and responded, ”Imperial Preceptor, saying something like this completely ruins the atmosphere. I can barely maintain my heroic spirit that I rarely ever display.”

”Sword Immortal Sun, I’ll have to use Downtrodden Mountain’s rules to deal with you if you continue to behave in such an unrestrained manner!” Cui Dongshan exclaimed.

”You’re not Embroidered Tiger; you’re not the imperial preceptor,” Sun Juyuan suddenly said with a serious expression.

”I’m Dongshan,” Cui Dongshan replied in an awkward voice.

Sun Juyuan pursed his lips, and he finally couldn’t help but retort, ”And I’m actually Xihe.”[2]

The young boy in white walked away, lying on the city wall and falling toward the other side. As he fell, he didn’t forget to mumble, ”Impudence, complete and utter impudence. Sword immortals at the Sword Qi Great Wall always like to bully other people, with their vitriolic words like blades that cut the heart...”

————

Lin Junbi didn’t travel to the city wall to practice sword techniques for the past while, and he instead studied a Go manual by himself.

Including Yan Lü, the other prodigies from the Shaoyuan Empire didn’t dare to carelessly disturb Lin Junbi’s process of repairing his mental state when they returned to the Sun Residence to rest.

Only Yan Lü had visited the listless Lin Junbi one time, with the latter seemingly more hospitable and sincere than before when he saw the former. Lin Junbi had set aside the Go manual and chatted with Yan Lü for a very long time.

Yan Lü decided that he indeed needed to become allies with Lin Junbi — this wasn’t a secret instruction from his clan. In the past, there were some qualms in his heart the entire time, and he had just hidden them extremely well. After all, Yan Lü had always viewed Lin Junbi as a barrier that couldn’t be navigated around, with this barrier becoming increasingly troublesome as Yan Lü’s cultivation advanced and when he eventually became responsible for a portion of the Yan Clan’s matters. Lin Junbi would become increasingly powerful and influential in the Shaoyuan Empire, greatly hindering Yan Lü’s rise.

Now, however, Yan Lü was considering the problem from another angle. He could accept this reality and sincerely render assistance to Lin Junbi, and with Lin Junbi’s discerning eye, he would understand that Yan Lü was an incredibly capable and reliable subordinate.

Yan Lü hoped to form an alliance with Lin Junbi, but as a result of Lin Junbi’s presence, Yan Lü would inevitably lose some hidden benefits. This being the case, he would make up for this through other means and from other people, and in the end, he might even wind up with more benefits as a result.

Having resolved this knot in his heart, Yan Lü became much more decisive and direct than before, no longer holding back when he conversed with Lin Junbi.

Disregarding how severe the damage to Lin Junbi’s Dao Heart was, it was a fact that he was no longer perfect and flawless. This allowed Yan Lü to feel much more at ease.

Lin Junbi had seen through Yan Lü’s character a long time ago, so he wasn’t necessarily surprised by the change in Yan Lü’s mental state, and there wouldn’t be any issues regarding his cooperation with Yan Lü.

In the future, Yan Lü wouldn’t be an insignificant individual in the Shaoyuan Empire.

Senior Brother Bian Jing showed himself in a rare display today, playing a game of Go with Lin Junbi.

”You still haven’t been repulsed enough by Yan Lü and the others?” Bian Jing asked with a smile.

Lin Junbi shook his head and replied, ”Quite the opposite. Their mindsets can be leveraged.”

Bian Jing shook his head, holding a Go piece in the air and surveying the Go board as he said, ”Well, I find them very repulsive. If a person sincerely feels like they’re reasonable and correct, then they can be viewed as relatively decent people, with the only difference being their standpoint and the level of their knowledge. Their way of speaking might be different, but at the end of the day, reason is ultimately reason. As for whether a person’s words are reasonable or not, that’s actually secondary. For example, Jiang Guancheng.

”There are other people who decide that they may as well not speak. For example, Jin Zhenmeng. This is quite okay as well. As for the others, the large majority of them are speaking nonsense, and they know this. This isn’t very good, is it? Are they not aware of our current reputation at the Sword Qi Great Wall? Does the destroyed reputation belong to them? Who will remember them in the future? So, in the end, will the bumps and challenges of this trip to the Sword Qi Great Wall not be attributed to you, Lin Junbi? In that sense, you’ll have delayed and ruined many of our master, the imperial preceptor’s, plans.”

”I’ll personally visit Master and ask for punishment when I return home,” Lin Junbi said.

He patiently waited for Bian Jing to place his Go stone, smiling faintly as he continued, ”It’s natural for people to seek a sense of support and belonging. Those in the group with superior morals will often become isolated and alone.”

One of the hidden targets of the Shaoyuan Empire was none other than Yu Juanfu.

Lin Junbi didn’t understand this, and he further found it inappropriate, especially since Yu Juanfu’s fiancé was Huai Qian. No matter how proud and haughty Lin Junbi was, he was still keenly aware that he was definitely no match for Huai Qian right now, not in terms of his cultivation base, his background, his mental abilities, his relationship with seniors, and his immortal fated opportunities.

However, his master didn’t explain the reason, so Lin Junbi could only wait and see how things panned out. His master had only uttered two serious remarks, saying, ”After Yu Juanfu, who’s pampered by Zhou Shenzhi, returns to the Yu Clan and regains her status, she’ll essentially possess half of the Shaoyuan Empire’s national power.

”Even the stone lions sitting outside the gates of the large residences aren’t clean, so will the imperial palace have a single clean tile in the eyes of the commoners?”

The imperial preceptor wasn’t worried about Lin Junbi’s cultivation, and he had simply posed a string of questions to the young man, using them to test his prized disciple. ”What do you think about viewing emperors and rulers as the paragons of virtue? How should we judge the successes and failures of rulers? How should rulers regard the well-being of commoners to live up to people’s expectations?”

”It looks like you’re not facing too many issues?” Bian Jing asked.

Lin Junbi smiled and replied, ”Can I still be saved if even Senior Brother Bian Jing is able to see that I’m facing big issues?”

Bian Jing placed his Go stone and asked, ”Do you know why you’ll continue to lose?”

”Yes, I do,” Lin Junbi replied with a nod.

Bian Jing nodded and said, ”Then I won’t say too much.”

However, Lin Junbi dared to say with certainty that the answer in Senior Brother Bian Jing’s mind was definitely different from the understanding in his own mind.

Bian Jing and Lin Junbi continued their game of Go.

Both of them were lost in their own thoughts.

————

On the training ground in the Ning Residence, a senior sister was having a scholarly battle with her junior sister.

This was a very elegant scholarly battle.

Pei Qian, a pure martial artist, was performing the Deranged Demon Sword Technique, while Guo Zhujiu, a sword cultivator, was performing fist techniques. They didn’t interfere with each other, nor did they fight each other.

Chen Ping’an left the wing room, planning to wait for Cui Dongshan to return.

Only when Chen Ping’an arrived near the training ground did the two young girls quickly stop their sword technique and fist technique.

”Junior Sister, your fist technique carries a hint of impressive sword technique, and this is a reflection of how you’ve diligently practiced sword techniques for so many years!” Pei Qian said in praise.

Guo Zhujiu reciprocated the praise, saying, ”There’s peerless fist intent hidden within Senior Sister’s sword technique, and this is as expected of Senior Sister, someone who’s accompanied Master for the longest!”

Pei Qian nodded and said, ”Junior Sister is very impressive! Judging by your progress, if you continue to practice fist techniques like this, you’ll definitely be able to shatter several bricks with a single punch very soon.”

”Senior Sister is also amazing. If you practice sword techniques like this for several years, you’ll definitely be able to leave destruction in your wake when you traverse mountains and cross rivers in the future,” Guo Zhujiu said in compliment.

They studied under the same master, and sure enough, the relationship between them was very friendly and harmonious.

Chen Ping’an pretended not to see or hear anything as he walked past the training ground and made his way to the front gate of the Ning Residence.

After Chen Ping’an left, Pei Qian raised her hiking pole high into the air, and Guo Zhujiu shook the Five Treasure Bracelet on her wrist.

Pei Qian chuckled and said, ”I also have a small bamboo bookcase~”

She then purposely paused for a moment before adding, ”I’m not lying — you’ve seen it with your own eyes before.”

Guo Zhujiu smiled widely and exclaimed, ”I don’t have a small bamboo bookcase~!”

She then copied Pei Qian, pausing for a moment before saying, ”Do you have this ’don’t?’ You don’t, right? Then do you want it?”

Pei Qian was slightly taken aback.

She felt like this young girl was a little stupid.

Meanwhile, Guo Zhujiu felt like the young girl standing in front of her was slightly simple-minded.

Chen Ping’an had already walked far away, but he secretly glanced back and smiled to himself. If things went smoothly, Downtrodden Mountain would most likely become very lively in the future.

So, when Cui Dongshan finally arrived at the front gate, Chen Ping’an reached forward and grabbed his arm, dragging the young boy in white into the residence and saying as they walked, ”You can accompany your master to the Heavenly World’s White Jade Capital in the future. Are you not going to say anything? Then I’ll take that as a yes. It’s a promise, okay? Shut your mouth, yes, like this. Very good.”

1. Hetuvidyā (因明学) means Buddhist logic or the science of reasoning. ☜

2. Dongshan (东山) literally means Eastern Mountain, and Xihe (西河) literally means Western River. ☜