Unsheathed

Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, Old Dragon City, feudal lord’s manor.

On this day, Song Jixin, or rather, Feudal Lord Song Mu of the Great Li Empire, was feeling quite flustered, and he had gone to lie down on a bench in the walkway for some peace and quiet.

All manner of people from all walks of life were desperately trying to make their way into the feudal lord’s manor, and Song Jixin felt like there were too few people around him that he could trust and be tasked with shouldering some of his burden.

As long as they possessed sufficient smarts and cultivation base to be of use, Song Jixin didn’t care at all about their background, but they had to be hand-selected by him.

Otherwise, Song Jixin was constantly having to personally deal with parties like the Fu Clan, the Cloud Forest Jiang Clan, and even the likes of Sun Scorch Mountain and Light Breeze City, and it was all very bothersome.

The problem was that he couldn’t just ignore many of the people who had the right to enter the manor.

In the past, he hadn’t felt like it was a difficult task to deal with different types of people, and it still didn’t feel too difficult now, but it was still an exhausting endeavor, nevertheless.

Even though he had already been a feudal lord of the Great Li Empire for quite a few years, he didn’t feel like a feudal lord who supposedly presided over half of the entire continent.

Even cultivators of the Nascent Tier and the Upper Five Tiers had to treat him as an equal, and even the most powerful generals of the Great Li Empire and important figures from the clans of the pillar generals had to speak and behave in a respectful manner in his presence.

This was still something that he hadn’t gotten used to, and it felt like a dream.

However, what actually bothered him the most was something that seemed extremely trivial. Zhi Gui had been his maidservant for just about as long as he could remember, and she had been constantly by his side through his hardest days, yet she seemed to have been growing more and more distant of late.

In Song Jixin’s eyes, she was becoming more and more difficult to read.

In reality, nothing about Zhi Gui’s words or behavior indicated that anything was amiss, but Song Jixin could sense that something was strange about her and the Fu Clan of Old Dragon City.

He didn’t want to ask her about it; he wanted her to voluntarily tell him about it herself.

Thus, he refused to ask, and she refused to tell.

Song Jixin closed his eyes as he lay on the bench, intending to take a nap, only to abruptly sit up with an alert expression.

A white-robed man had appeared beside him, sitting on the same bench.

It was none other than the tenth tier martial artist, Song Changjing.

”This is already enough to make you feel tired?” Song Changjing asked with an indifferent expression.

Song Jixin nodded as he replied, ”I can’t say that I’m carrying out my duties particularly well, but you can rest assured that at the very least, I haven’t made any major mistakes. If you have criticisms for me, I would listen in earnest and do my best to correct my mistakes.”

”If scolding you is actually going to do anything, then I would scold you to death right now!” Song Changjing sneered.

Song Jixin was instantly struck by a sense of asphyxiation, as if a massive weight were suddenly pressing down upon him.

”Ma Kuxuan of True Martial Mountain is going to come and work here in the future,” Song Changjing said.

Song Jixin’s expression instantly darkened at the thought of the little bastard from Apricot Blossom Alley who always liked to play dumb. There were very few people that Song Jixin resented as intensely as he did Ma Kuxuan.

Song Changjing stood up to leave, but before he did so, he took a glance at Song Jixin and said, ”I can promise to do one thing for you. For example, when you want to kill Ma Kuxuan, you can tell me, but you can only ask for one thing from me, and there are many requests that I can’t fulfill. For example, you can’t ask me to kill His Majesty so that you can claim the throne. As for whether you want to waste this opportunity on Ma Kuxuan, that’s up to you.”

Song Jixin rose to his feet and nodded in response.

At the moment, the seaside Dragon Scaling Platform outside Old Dragon City was a strictly off-limits area under personal orders from Feudal Lord Song Mu himself. Thus, very few people were able to set foot on the platform, and among Qi refiners, only those at the Nascent Tier and above were entitled to such a privilege.

However, the most frequent visitor of the Dragon Scaling Platform was a maidservant from the feudal lord’s manor.

She was only a maidservant, but one would never guess that from her stunning appearance. Apparently, she was only a mortal woman, yet she was even more flawlessly beautiful and captivating than even accomplished female cultivators.

On this day, she was once again standing at the highest point on the Dragon Scaling Platform on her own, inspecting her surroundings.

The Golden Core Tier guest elder of the Fu Clan who had previously been cultivating in a thatched cottage near the Dragon Scaling Platform had already moved elsewhere.

Right now, if even she couldn’t sense anything, then it was certain that there was no one observing Old Dragon City through the use of immortal observation techniques.

Her eyes were glowing with golden radiance, and she was wearing the Fu Clan’s dragon robe, which had refined the entire sea of clouds.

At this point, she was no longer someone that anyone on the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent could kill on a whim. Instead, she was now the one who could kill whoever she pleased on the continent, with the exception of a small handful of people.

However, in her eyes, this paltry cultivation base was still completely pointless.

Even Fan Junmao, who had become the Southern Mountain God, was enough to make her feel restricted, and in the future, Fan Junmao’s rate of cultivation progression was going to be just as fast as hers.

Zhi Gui looked down at a horned four-legged snake that was lying obediently by her foot.

She raised her foot, then stomped heavily down upon it. The poor little thing didn’t dare to run away, and it could only thrash frantically at the ground with its tail to beg for mercy, causing the entire Dragon Scaling Platform to tremble violently.

”You think you can survive just by shaking your tail and begging for mercy?” she snapped. ”You’re even more pathetic than that idiot who has to hide even when he’s crying to himself!”

She stomped down with even greater force, causing the four-legged snake to sink into the ground.

After withdrawing her foot, she turned to look into the south in a daze at the blurry sky.

The one who could keep her in check was dead, and he had suffered a truly pitiful demise.

There was one other person also capable of keeping her in check, but he was completely in the dark.

***

That night, on the Fan Clan’s Osmanthus Island intercontinental ship, Lady Gui and her disciple, Jin Su, were sitting together in a peaceful courtyard.

”Why’re you eating moon cakes when it’s not even the Mid-Autumn Festival, Mistress?” Jin Su asked with a smile.

”I just feel like it,” Lady Gui replied in a gentle voice after carefully chewing on and swallowing a mouthful of moon cake.

Only in the presence of her mistress did Jin Su behave like a little girl, and she extended her legs and interlaced her fingers before performing an exaggerated stretch. After that, she looked up at the night sky. The ancestral osmanthus tree on the island was extremely tall, so much so that it was as if the moon were nestled in its branches.

Lady Gui took a small bite of moon cake, then jibed, ”So I take it that you still like Sun Jiashu and not Fan Er?”

”Did you have to bring that up now, Mistress?” Jin Su complained as her cheeks became slightly flushed with embarrassment.

”Alright, alright, I’ll admit that was untimely of me.” Lady Gui chuckled.

Jin Su continued to stare up at the moon hanging from the branches of the ancestral osmanthus tree, and she said, ”I heard that there are moons in every world, and that the Savage World even has three. Then, there are also all of the small worlds and blessed lands as well, so which moon is the real one, or are they all real? Is everyone able to look up at night and see a moon no matter where they are?”

”Perhaps the real moon is the one in your heart,” Lady Gui replied with a smile.

”If only things could always be like this,” Jin Su suddenly sighed, seemingly completely unprompted.

”The moon goes through a constant cycle where it’s rarely ever full, but that’s only the moon that people see; the moon in people’s hearts isn’t like that,” Lady Gui said with a smile. ”Having said that, there’s never been a definitive answer on which one is better.”

Lady Gui joined her disciple in looking up at the moon. She had grown accustomed to looking down at the human world from the moon, but looking up at the moon from the human world was actually not bad as well.

***

The project to reestablish the Azure Phoenix Nation’s grain transportation system was finally complete, and all of the officials and departments involved were very pleased with their work.

Initially, this was a project that no one had high hopes for. Not only was it difficult to carry out, but it was also very easy to offend people in the process. On top of that, there was a very high likelihood that something would go wrong, and if that did turn out to be the case, then it could very easily become a blemish on the political resumes of everyone involved.

Hence, in the very beginning, the project had only been overseen by two palace ministers from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue, both of whom had been sent from the capital. They were joined by the governor of a provincial city that the transportation channel ran through, and those three were the most prominent figures responsible for the project.

Below them was Liu Qingfeng, who had been ”promoted” from county magistrate to assistant grain transportation overseer.

However, what came as a surprise to everyone was that the project went extremely smoothly, and the officials in charge climbed higher and higher up the ranks. The assistant ministers of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue were fighting over one another for the opportunity to leave the capital and take part in the project, despite the purportedly terrible working conditions there.

Half a year later, the chief minister of the Ministry of Works traveled there himself, and he remained on the site until the project’s completion, having apparently worked tirelessly alongside all of the manual laborers in the process. Upon his return to the capital, all he brought back with him was an umbrella that was signed with countless names as a collective token of gratitude for his work.

The emperor was very pleased, and many officials were promoted, while others who were already in very high positions in the officialdom were given some other rewards.

Even though Liu Qingfeng was one of the progenitors of the project, he had been content to keep a low profile this entire time, and he didn’t actually benefit much from the important role that he played in the project’s completion.

The two palace ministers and the governor who had worked alongside him felt a little disgruntled on his behalf, but having been with him for so long, they could see that he wanted no part of the spotlight, so they didn’t raise any complaints in their official reports.

Since then, the three of them had all received promotions, yet to this day, they still didn’t really understand why Liu Qingfeng had chosen to keep himself so far out of the spotlight.

Liu Qingfeng had been exiled from his clan, and he was an official whose reputation had been dragged through the mud, so he should’ve been desperate to claim any merits that he could in order to redeem himself. Anyone else in his position could’ve been excused for trying to manufacture fake merits that didn’t exist, yet here he was, denying a significant merit that was rightfully his.

In the wake of the project, he resembled a thin, dark farmer from all the manual labor and sun exposure, and that wasn’t even to mention the fact that he was solely responsible for ironing out all the details and planning for the project. However, in the end, he was the only one who hadn’t been promoted for his efforts, having merely become an assistant prefectural overseer, which was the same rank as his past position of assistant grain transportation overseer.

On this day, Liu Qingfeng was on his way to a remote prefectural city in the Azure Phoenix Nation, where he was set to work in his new position. He was traveling in a horse-drawn carriage driven by Wang Yifu.

Scholarly Attendant Liu Suo was sitting beside Wang Yifu, while Liu Qingfeng was inside the carriage, reading a book. Reading while traveling in a bumpy carriage was very damaging for one’s eyesight, yet whenever Liu Suo reminded Liu Qingfeng of this fact, the latter would reassure him that he would stop reading soon, but never did. Over time, Liu Suo simply gave up in his attempts to persuade Liu Qingfeng to stop reading.

Over the course of the journey, Liu Qingfeng didn’t read any sagely scriptures. Instead, he was browsing through maps of all of the Azure Phoenix Nation’s official roads. He was even going through the local county chronicles to pick out all records related to those roads, and regardless of the size of the roads and whether they had already been abandoned, he would still make sure to circle those records and make transcriptions of them.

Liu Suo didn’t feel like he would ever be able to figure out what his master was thinking. He was on very good terms with Wang Yifu. The latter had already become a county lieutenant, yet he was still willing to toil away in the grain transportation channel project with Liu Qingfeng, and it was clear that he was a very loyal friend. Thus, Liu Suo liked to refer to him as County Lieutenant Wang, and Wang Yifu didn’t object to the title.

Liu Suo had been Liu Qingfeng’s scholarly attendant all along, and in the beginning, they left the Lion Garden to travel together before making their way to the capital for the imperial examinations. Only after that did they go to the county office.

He was still just a boy, yet he was no longer as young as he had been at the outset of their journey. The boy was very happy about this, but in the future, he would likely look back on this with sorrow.

At the moment, his main source of sorrow was that his master was still quite a young man, nowhere near forty years of age, yet his sideburns were already turning silver. What saddened him even more was that his master didn’t look anything like the sophisticated scholar that he had once been.

At around dusk, the horse-drawn carriage arrived at a relay station. After submitting the passports and official documents, the three of them spent the night at the relay station. In the eyes of the relay station’s petty officials, Liu Qingfeng didn’t look like an official at all. Instead, the carriage driver looked much more like an official to them.

Liu Qingfeng’s official rank wasn’t particularly lofty, but nor was it anything to be scoffed at, so the petty officials decided to arrange two rooms for the three of them to stay in, both of which were standard rooms that weren’t good or bad.

After dinner, Liu Qingfeng began reading under the light of a lamp, pulling out a writing brush and some ink as he did so.

”You really should give cultivation a try, Mr. Liu, even if it’s just to save your eyes from the strain of reading,” Wang Yifu suggested with a smile. ”You don’t have to save this paltry amount of immortal coins for the Great Li Empire. In any case, the imperial court of the Great Li Empire will be making much more than this going forward.”

”I’ll pass,” Liu Qingfeng replied as he shook his head and set down his book. ”I am aware of the limitations of my cultivation aptitude.”

This was the second time that Wang Yifu had brought up this matter today, and he had been met with refusal from Liu Qingfeng on both occasions, so he decided not to bring it up again.

In a rare display of restraint, Liu Qingfeng was able to resist the urge to read after opening a book. Instead, he closed the book, then suggested, ”Wanna have a drink together?”

Wang Yifu was very much surprised by this proposal, and he chuckled, ”You are a hundred times the scholar and politician that I am, but when it comes to drinking, it’s the other way around.”

”We haven’t even begun drinking yet, and you’re already insulting me,” Liu Qingfeng said with a wry smile and a shake of his head.

Wang Yifu was once one of the staunchest pillars of the northernmost Lu Empire on the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

In the very beginning, the Great Li Empire was merely a subsidiary nation of the Lu Empire.

Liu Suo fetched two bowls and some wine, and it was just some ordinary wine that was very affordable, but didn’t taste half-bad.

Liu Suo poured some wine for the two men, but the two of them remained still, and a puzzled look appeared on his face as he asked, ”Aren’t you two going to drink? Do you want me to fetch some dishes to help the wine go down? I don’t think I’ll be able to get any at this hour, but I can try.”

”County Lieutenant Wang and I don’t even dare to drink if you’re not at the table,” Liu Qingfeng said with a smile.

Liu Suo burst into laughter and sat down at the table.

He always found his master’s jokes very amusing, but they were very few and far between.

Liu Suo didn’t have much capacity for wine. He didn’t enjoy drinking, and he also didn’t dare to drink too much. He had to keep an eye on his master, and if Wang Yifu insisted on getting Liu Qingfeng to drink beyond his limits, then Liu Suo would have to step in.

Thankfully, Liu Qingfeng drank very slowly, and Wang Yifu never encouraged him to drink, much to Liu Suo’s relief. In fact, he was so relieved that he ended up drinking a bit too much himself.

Wang Yifu set down his bowl, then said, ”I’ve actually always been very curious about how you see the cultivation world, Mr. Liu.”

Liu Qingfeng took a sip of wine, then said, ”There’s not much point in discussing that. The boundary between the cultivation world and the mortal world isn’t actually as clear-cut as we think it is. The only fundamental difference is that those in the mortal world have shorter lifespans, while those in the cultivation world live longer.”

”What about all of the unfathomable powers that immortals wield? Isn’t that a much clearer point of difference than the lengths of their lifespans?” Wang Yifu asked.

Liu Qingfeng shook his head with a smile as he replied, ”I am but a defenseless scholar, and even the average mortal soldier can kill me with ease, so what difference does it make to me?”

”So in your eyes, the power that cultivators wield is not really of any consequence,” Wang Yifu remarked.

”Those who are wealthy, especially those who possess immense wealth, are just like accomplished cultivators in that both have received tremendous blessings from the world,” Liu Qingfeng said. ”They have enough money to not have to worry about material needs for several lifetimes, so they should be thinking about opening their coffers and giving back to the world that has blessed them so.

“I’m not saying everyone should be selfless and learn from moral sages. Instead, what I’m saying is that by giving back, you stand to earn more in the future. At the end of the day, you’re not giving back out of a sense of selflessness, but instead, for more future gain. Indulging and tolerating those who break the rules is a massive disservice to those who follow the rules.”

Liu Qingfeng turned to the half-drunk Liu Suo as he spoke, then smiled and asked, ”How can we be sure that the rules that we establish are definitely good and correct?”

”That’s something for you to think about, Master,” Liu Suo replied with a grin. ”I don’t want to think about it, and I won’t be able to think of an answer even if I try. However, I suggest you think less about stuff like this as well. Otherwise, I’m going to feel tired for you.”

”Just keep drinking and don’t think about anything then,” Liu Qingfeng sighed with an exasperated wave of his hand.

Wang Yifu raised his bowl and proposed a toast to Liu Qingfeng.

Liu Qingfeng also raised his bowl and said, ”I’ll try to keep up, but I fear I’m nearing my limits.”

Before long, Liu Suo had already fallen asleep with his head resting on the table.

The casual conversation between Wang Yifu and Liu Qingfeng continued, and it was very rare that he got to speak to Liu Qingfeng for so long.

Liu Qingfeng remained very calm and composed when speaking about feats that were very significant in Wang Yifu’s eyes, but when speaking about a minor thing that Wang Yifu had never even thought about, Liu Qingfeng threw his head back and downed a large mouthful of wine, seemingly to drown his sorrows.

”The loss of a regional dialect anywhere in the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent is a heartbreaking thing. There are many extremely fragmented scholarly lineages out there, but as long as their books still exist, there’s a chance for them to be saved. However, if a dialect is gone, then it’s completely gone along with the many local customs and traditions attached to it.”

Liu Qingfeng’s voice trailed off into silence as he stared blankly at the window.

The window was closed, so he couldn’t see the moon outside, and he didn’t know if it was brighter than the day before or was going to be dimmer than the moon of the next day.