Unsheathed

Chen Ping’an didn’t make his way back to the Ning Residence straight away, and he instead took a detour to the wine shop first.

The wine shop wasn’t closed, but there weren’t any customers.

Zhang Jiazhen and Jiang Qu, the two young employees who had helped around in the wine shop before, had already secretly traveled to Stalactite Mountain, just like Golden Core Tier Sword Cultivator Cui Wei. Zhong Qiu, Pei Qian, and Cao Qinglang would travel to the Southern Whirl Continent, while the two youths would follow Cui Dongshan to the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

Right now, the three people helping around in the wine shop were a young boy called Qiu Long, a young girl called Liu’e, and a little child called Tao Ban. They were all handpicked by Die Zhang and were neighbors she knew.

Among the three of them, Tao Ban was slightly different from Feng Kangle, who was the same age as him. Feng Kangle had started to save money for a betrothal gift from a very young age, and he was genuinely a child who was unafraid of heaven and earth. He was also able to read people’s expressions and act in an opportunistic manner. On the other hand, Tao Ban was very simple-minded and only had the trait of being unafraid of heaven and earth.

Upon seeing the kind and friendly second shopkeeper arrive, Qiu Long and Liu’e, who were sitting at a table, casually chatting, still responded in a tense, anxious manner and immediately stood up. It was as if sitting down represented slacking off. Chen Ping’an smiled and gestured with his hand, saying, ”There aren’t any customers, so there’s no need to be so tense.”

Meanwhile, Tao Ban was lying on a long bench elsewhere with an adrift expression, dazedly staring at the empty street outside.

Chen Ping’an sat down at the table and asked with a smile. ”What’s wrong? You’re unhappy because you can’t beat Feng Kangle for that young girl?”

”Say, Second Shopkeeper, am I the type of innate sword talent that can’t be identified by anyone?” Tao Ban asked in a gloomy voice.

Chen Ping’an was rendered speechless.

He then smacked the table and replied, ”Same rules as before. Grab me a pot of wine.”

Tao Ban was unwilling to stand up, so he shouted, ”Big Sister Liu’e, grab a pot of wine for Second Shopkeeper. And don’t forget to accept payment.”

Chen Ping’an retrieved a snowflake coin and handed it to Liu’e, also telling her that he wouldn’t need any pickled vegetables or yangchun noodles today. He was only going to drink wine. It wasn’t long before the young girl returned with a pot of wine and a white bowl, gently placing them on the table.

Chen Ping’an poured himself a bowl of Bamboo Sea Small World Wine and took a sip.

Tao Ban sat up, then lay down on the wine table, looking slightly bored as he tapped it with his fingers and said, ”Second Shopkeeper, I don’t want to sell wine forever.”

”Then what do you want to do?” Chen Ping’an asked with a smile.

”I haven’t figured it out yet,” Tao Ban replied.

Chen Ping’an drank wine and didn’t say anything else.

Tao Ban kept the conversation going, saying, ”Second Shopkeeper, do you know that many people speak badly about you behind your back? Quite a lot of our customers speak up for you. However, a lot of the accusations are very infuriating to listen to.”

Chen Ping’an shook his head and replied, ”Oh, is that so? I didn’t know. Care to tell me more?”

Tao Ban started to explain the situation, revealing everything he had heard to Chen Ping’an.

The little boy became slightly angry upon seeing the second shopkeeper continue to drink without responding to him, and he asked with a huff, ”You’re not deaf, Second Shopkeeper, but are you actually listening to me or not?”

Chen Ping’an smiled and replied, ”I’m listening.”

The easterly wind carries the willow branches up; the easterly wind pushes the willow branches down.

It was the same easterly wind and the same willow branches, rising and falling in unison. Why care about this?

However, these principles and comprehensions were too solemn, and there was no need to tell them to little children.[1]

Thus, Chen Ping’an feigned a sense of delayed anger as he exclaimed, ”These bastards... How infuriating!”

”Should we do something about it?” the little boy asked with eagerness.

Chen Ping’an paused his bowl of wine in mid-air, shooting a sideways glance at Tao Ban and replying, ”Are you going to fight for me? Or are you going to keep a lookout for me?”

Tao Ban sighed and lay down on the table again, lamenting, ”I feel exhausted when there are too many customers, but I feel bored when there are no customers. What in the world is going on?”

”I know, right? Just what in the world is going on?” Chen Ping’an repeated in a teasing voice.

Tao Ban shot a glare at him and complained, ”You’re such a mood killer. You’re not telling stories anymore, and you don’t like to manage the wine shop either. Who knows what you’re busying yourself with all the time?”

Chen Ping’an waved a hand and said, ”I’ve spent money to buy wine, so I’ll give the plate of pickled vegetables and the bowl of yangchun noodles to you.”

A wide smile spread across Tao Ban’s face.

Liu’e, who had her ears pricked up the entire time as she listened to their conversation, immediately passed the message along to Uncle Feng, asking him to make a bowl of yangchun noodles for the second shopkeeper.

Chen Ping’an continued to leisurely drink wine.

As he did so, he randomly recalled the calamity faced by Old Assistant Minister Liu at the Azure Phoenix Nation’s Lion Garden.

Scholars cared most about their reputation, so they were most afraid of acting improperly in old age.

Cui Dongshan had said that the many sinister and interlinking methods had been cooked up by Liu Qingfeng, the old assistant minister’s eldest son, and that Li Baozhen had only acted according to the plans.

Chen Ping’an turned around and took a glance at the various restaurants and wine shops on the empty street.

In reality, Chen Ping’an wasn’t surprised at all about the people and the remarks that Tao Ban had mentioned. In fact, it could be said that he had predicted these things a long time ago. This was just like the characters he had inscribed on the side of a certain seal: The people in the world act as expected.

To the current Chen Ping’an, it was difficult to even become angry.

It was even more difficult for him to become disappointed.

It was definitely those people who secretly detested Chen Sanqiu after making eyes at him but failing to catch his attention in the wine shop or on Taixiang Street and Ritual Baton Street. The second shopkeeper was friends with Chen Sanqiu, so these people naturally started to detest Chen Ping’an as well.

There were definitely sword cultivators who looked down on Die Zhang’s background but were jealous of her cultivation base and fated opportunities, so they ended up resenting the bustling nature of the wine shop and resenting the extremely famous second shopkeeper.

There were also people who had gone with the flow and bullied Fatty Yan in the past, but as Yan Zhuo’s cultivation base advanced higher and higher, their initial arrogance and disdain could only transform into displeasure and frustration as they were forced to look up at Yan Zhuo and his relationship with the Ning Residence and Chen Ping’an.

Of course, there were definitely those who visited Die Zhang’s wine shop and attempted to get closer to the second shopkeeper, yet felt like they couldn’t find common interests or topics to talk about from the beginning to the end. They initially didn’t think much about this, but following the rise in Chen Ping’an’s fame, they couldn’t help but view this as a legitimate loss to their interests.

As time went on, these people gradually stopped visiting the wine shop to drink, and they even liked to invite their friends to other restaurants and wine shops, speaking ill of Die Zhang’s wine shop and Chen Ping’an. This satisfied them greatly, and the more people who agreed with them, the more delicious the wine would taste.

These people, especially those who had once put on a show and squatted down on the side of the street to drink wine and eat pickled vegetables with the other sword cultivators, suddenly felt a sense of discomfort in their hearts. Thus, they became increasingly spirited as they insulted the wine shop with their like-minded companions.

Even so, that wine shop had become increasingly popular, enjoying booming business. Despite this, those who drank elsewhere and spoke badly of Die Zhang’s wine shop would still find many reasons to console themselves even if they looked around and saw few other customers in these other restaurants and wine shops. In fact, they might even convince themselves that everyone was drunk, and only they were sober. In this way, the small groups of two or three people would become increasingly tight-knit and sincere with each other.

The Buddhist scriptures stated that rain would fall evenly on all matter, yet the plants and trees would each have their differences.[2]

This phrase had a similar meaning to the common saying: The same type of rice raises one hundred types of people.

It was very easy to disapprove of a person.

Regardless of whether it was the Sword Qi Great Wall’s old great sword immortal, the Majestic World’s Confucian sages, or the sages of the Hundred Schools of Thought, these people could be easily disapproved of and quashed in one’s mind as long as other people were willing to split hairs and look for problems.

People needed to do what everyone else did, or they would appear detached from the masses. Moreover, they needed to take things one step further, or else they would appear mediocre, eventually suffering the consequences for this mediocrity.

In contrast, sincerely accepting and approving of a person was very difficult.

Chen Ping’an wasn’t interested in butting heads with these detractors. Rather, he would strive to observe the complicated lives of these people whenever he had the free time and opportunity. He would observe the complex hearts of these people.

Chen Ping’an took a large swig of wine, downing the remaining contents of his bowl. He then poured himself another bowl of wine.

Looking at Tao Ban devouring the pickled vegetables and yangchun noodles, Chen Ping’an smiled and said, ”Slow down a bit. No one’s going to fight you for the food.”

Tao Ban completely ignored him.

Chen Ping’an felt a slight sense of longing for his hometown as he drank wine.

When he was little, a child had once climbed up a tree in the small town to retrieve a stuck kite with a broken string, yet this child had been accused of being a thief.

Another time, the child had seen from a distance someone the same age as him getting bitten by a snake while playing at the immortal tomb, so the child had immediately helped to apply medicines to the bite wound of the victim, using knowledge and recipes that he had secretly learned without permission from the Yang Family’s medicine shop.

Afterward, when the children saw the tanned loner from Clay Vase Alley, who always watched them play from a distance, the child who scolded him the loudest and threw rocks at him the hardest was coincidentally the child who had received his help before.

Chen Ping’an hadn’t understood this in the past, but after growing up, he gradually realized that the child would have lost his friends if he hadn’t acted like this.

However, this didn’t stop those children from being filial to their parents and helpful to their elderly neighbors after growing up.

Of course, there were also those who became scoundrels, and some who were fortunate enough became the lackeys of wealthy young descendants from Fortune Street and Peach Leaf Alley. These latter people would glower at others and act aggressively whenever they found the opportunity to do so.

Even so, when these people received reward money from their masters, they would still return home and bring their younger siblings, who were still impoverished and outside the ”circle,” to the shops in the small town to spend lavishly and buy a large amount of New Year goods. Afterward, they would purchase ingredients for their parents to cook up a delightful New Year’s Eve meal, which they would enjoy together as a family.

They would also make some bamboo dragonflies, swords, and sabers for their younger siblings.

There were also children whose entire families were full of bad people, with things not changing even after they grew up. Their lives would be okay, but not too good, even after they married and had children of their own.

These families would never fight over the right and wrong of some particular matter, and it was as if their views and opinions were all the same. Chen Ping’an hadn’t understood this even after becoming an apprentice in the dragon kilns, and it was only after traveling through the martial world for a long time and learning many principles from the books that he had finally made heads or tails of this phenomenon.

The child from Clay Vase Alley had grown up day by day, and he would also feel different levels of unhappiness and vexation about the bad experiences from his childhood.

Back then, he could only squat down by himself and play the game of grass fighting, or he would run over to the immortal tomb and shape various crude clay statues in front of the severely damaged deity statues.

He would also pick up sticks and branches and hop through the overgrown paths by himself, pretending that he was wielding a sword and cutting down the enemies in his path. He would pant heavily from exertion, but he would also enjoy himself immensely.

There were times when his teeth hurt, and his cheeks became swollen, and he could only chew on some herbal medicines made according to some basic recipes. He wouldn’t want to talk for several days.

However, he would feel happy and fortunate as long as he wasn’t sick and hurting and didn’t experience any calamities. He would feel happy even if he could only afford a meal here and there.

There were times when he couldn’t fall asleep at night, and he would run to the Dragon Locking Well or the old locust tree by himself. The lonely child would stand under the sky and gaze up at the dazzling stars, feeling like he didn’t have anything at all. At the same time, it also felt like he already had everything.

Afterward, the snotty little kid from the same alley as him learned to walk and learned to speak.

The young boy wearing straw sandals also met Liu Xianyang.

Afterward, he became an apprentice in the kilns and felt like there was more to look forward to in life.

He needed to look after the snotty little kid, and he also needed to learn from Liu Xianyang.

At the time, Chen Ping’an had hoped that the three of them could have enough to eat and wear in the future, and that they could smoothly overcome all hardships no matter the size and severity.

The snotty little kid had said that he would definitely make a lot of money in the future, allowing his mom to wear gold and silver whenever she went out. He would also move houses to Fortune Street.

Moreover, even if he didn’t visit those bastards who had bullied him and his mom, they would definitely feel terrified and smack their own mouths, even going as far as to visit him to apologize with chickens and ducks in their hands.

Otherwise, Gu Can wouldn’t forgive them, and he would repay the abuse several times over. If they had scolded him one hundred times, then he would scold them several hundred times, and if they had kicked him once, then he would kick them seven or eight times, leaving them rolling on the ground and on the brink of death.

Liu Xianyang had said that he wanted to learn all of Old Man Yao’s skills and become the most skilled pottery-maker in the dragon kilns, with his pieces becoming the ones that were placed on the emperor’s study desk. Not only that, but the emperor would view these pottery wares as family heirlooms. When he became an old geezer, Liu Xianyang would definitely be even more impressive than Old Man Yao, and he would brutally scold his clumsy juniors and disciples every single day.

Liu Xianyang also hoped that he could casually split apart bricks with a single punch and easily stride across the widest streams with a single step. That way, all of the children who attended private schools and all of those buggers who knew a few scholarly phrases would have to look at him with renewed respect. They would clamor to write couplets for the Liu Family.

At that time, the three children with similar backgrounds had believed that their dreams and ambitions were already very grand.

None of them had imagined that compared to their future experiences and fated opportunities, their so-called grand ambitions were actually very ordinary, perhaps even very small.

In the end, however, Gu Can had become the type of person that the three of them had detested the most.

Liu Xianyang hadn’t become a chivalrous hero either, and he had instead become a legitimate scholar.

Chen Ping’an had wanted to enjoy a peaceful and stable life, yet he hadn’t managed to achieve this either.

He had earned a fair bit of money and traveled extensively through the martial world, and he had also come across many people and matters that he hadn’t even dared to think about in the past. He was no longer the little boy wearing straw sandals and wandering up the mountains with a large bamboo basket to collect herbs. Rather, he was now carrying an invisible and intangible basket that was filled to the brim with stories and life experiences that he wasn’t willing to discard.

The conclusions of some stories were far from perfect. There were lovers who didn’t end up together, kind-hearted people who suffered tragic fates, friendly partings that became eternal partings, and so on and so forth. The conclusions of some stories were happy, but still carried some slight disappointments. Meanwhile, some stories were still yet to reach their conclusions.

However, Chen Ping’an always believed in seeking light amid darkness and maintaining hope amid despair. He felt like this would never be wrong.

Chen Ping’an put down his wine bowl and became slightly adrift.

He was thinking of Old Man Yao, who liked to be by himself and hold his hands inside his opposite sleeves.

Chen Ping’an remembered the sudden arrival of heavy snow when he had entered the mountains to search for suitable clay with Old Man Yao for the first time. The wind had been bone-chilling, and the snow had risen past his knees, almost freezing the young boy wearing thin clothes and a pair of straw sandals to death.

The taciturn old man had continued to walk forward by himself, only slowing down slightly to say a few words in an uncharacteristic display. ”The mountain paths are freezing in winter, yet you’re not even willing to spend a single hard-earned copper coin, all for the sake of freezing yourself to death?

”The days are cold, and the path ahead is long, so don’t you understand the need to wear a bit more? Can’t you think for yourself if your parents aren’t here to teach you?”

The snowy mountain path was seemingly endless, and the suffering young boy was subject to even harsher criticisms. He wasn’t able to cry even if he wanted to.

The old man ultimately showed little care for Chen Ping’an’s life and death.

When Chen Ping’an once again felt that genuine sense of despair creeping up on him, however, someone caught up to them and not only gave Chen Ping’an a large bag of warm clothes and dry rations, but the tall and sturdy young boy even launched a torrent of abuse at his master, calling him a heartless bastard.

With Chen Ping’an’s mind slightly adrift, someone wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him backward.

The assailant didn’t stop here, tightening their grip on Chen Ping’an’s neck and using their other hand to forcefully rub his head. They laughed heartily and exclaimed, ”It looks like you’ve grown quite tall! But have you asked me for permission yet?!”

The rims of Chen Ping’an’s eyes became red as he murmured, ”Why have you only just arrived?”

There was only one person in the world who could point fingers and order Chen Ping’an around, and Chen Ping’an was also willing to listen to this person. And today, they had finally arrived at the Sword Qi Great Wall.

This person was none other than Liu Xianyang.

1. The previous remarks symbolize the impermanent form of the willow branches, which are pushed around by external factors. This draws parallels to people’s fate being shaped by external factors, and the state of being indifferent to such destiny. ☜

2. This is a line from Teachings on the Lotus Sutra, a foundational Mahayana text teaching that all living beings possess inherent Buddhahood and can attain enlightenment. ☜