Unsheathed

Zheng Dafeng arrived at the Yang Family’s medicine shop, and his intelligent junior sister, Su Dian, as well as his blockheaded junior brother, Shi Lingshan, had both left to train elsewhere already.

There was only a descendant of the Yang Clan looking after the business right now. Zheng Dafeng was much more thick-skinned and shameless than before, so he decided that he would linger around the front of the shop even if he were still ignored by his master. He wouldn’t go to the backyard to annoy the old man.

Zheng Dafeng quietly shook away the smell of alcohol before entering the wine shop, and he saw that the young shop attendant was sitting there and nodding off. Upon hearing Zheng Dafeng move a small stool, the shop attendant opened his eyes before going back to sleep. The descendants of the Yang Family had been annoyed at Zheng Dafeng for much longer than just one or two years, and they didn’t like becoming acquainted with him.

He was single and a mere gatekeeper, and he had almost died after going on a distant journey, after which he had pathetically scurried back and continued to work as a gatekeeper. Just how impressive or successful could he be? If it weren’t for the elderly clan leader saying a few words before, someone as unkempt as Zheng Dafeng didn’t even need to dream about taking advantage of his relationship with the old man in the backyard to work at the medicine shop.

Things hadn’t gone smoothly for the Yang Family over the past few years, causing several branches of descendants to suffer as a result. Looking at the Four Families and Ten Clans, however, a few of them had directly relocated their entire families or clans to the capital of the Great Li Empire. Meanwhile, those that had left some descendants in the small town were all managing flourishing businesses in the provincial city, earning large sums of money each day.

Because of this, some young and ambitious members of the Yang Family felt jealous and eager. The elderly clan leader decided to conceal his disheartened feelings, unwilling to deal with these matters. These exceptionally mediocre descendants could do as they pleased.

The only source of confidence for the elderly clan leader was the medicinal recipe owned by Old Man Yang, who was always in the backyard of the medicine shop.

However, only three people in the entire clan were involved in the transactions pertaining to that medicinal recipe, coincidentally one person from each generation. There was no concern about the knowledge or skills being lost, and this was already enough.

When a clan had many descendants, the clan leader would often be fond of giving more opportunities to those who were capable. Those who were poor could be funded and kept alive, while those who were able to make money would usually become richer and richer.

Zheng Dafeng carried the small stool to the entrance of the shop. Sunbathing was free, so not taking full advantage of this would be a travesty. Enjoying the flowers and appreciating the moon in the mountains was one type of pleasant experience, while soaking in the hustle and bustle of the flourishing mortal markets was another type of positive experience.

The hunchbacked man gazed up at the sun. What matter in the world couldn’t the clear skies see?

Just like that, he stared at the sun for a very long time. He had done this from a young age, and the sun was no longer blinding after staring at it for so many years. He didn’t feel anything at all. Afterward, Zheng Dafeng hadn’t thought about too many things after starting to learn fist techniques and practice martial arts.

Zheng Dafeng retracted his gaze and slapped his knees, musing, ”Last year I sat and dreamed of a better life next year; this year I sit here with the same worn coat. This year I sit and dream of a better life next year; next year I...”

”This noise is killing me,” the young shop attendant behind the counter grumbled under his breath.

Zheng Dafeng turned around and asked with a smile, ”Are you dead yet?”

The young shop attendant glowered at him and snapped, ”Is that any way to speak to me?!”

”What, you want me to speak using my rear instead of my mouth?” Zheng Dafeng asked with a confused expression.

The young shop attendant smacked the table and exclaimed, ”Watch your tongue, Zheng Dafeng!”

Zheng Dafeng smiled and gestured for the young man to calm down, appearing very patient as he said, ”Pipe down a bit. Tables for commoners like us are used to hold food or censers, and it doesn’t matter too much if they’re used to hold other things like abacuses and whatnot. So, long story short, you shouldn’t smack tables and show disrespect to the deities of heaven and earth. This is a very bad habit.”

”Stop speaking absolute fucking nonsense, you uselessly crippled hunchback,” the young shop attendant spat with an expression of derision. ”You’re destined to a pathetic life of being a guard dog for others, so don’t mistake this shop for your home, okay?!”

Even ox horns weren’t as sharp and incisive as barbed tongues.

However, Zheng Dafeng hadn’t sparred most with Senior Brother Li Er using his fists, and he had instead sparred most with others using his tongue.

There weren’t many residents in the small town, but there was a great number of people who were masters at arguments.

Clay Vase Alley and Apricot Blossom Alley were especially renowned for producing extraordinary talents.

Even though the taciturn Chen Ping’an hadn’t engaged in any arguments during his childhood in the small town, he had actually honed his argument skills to a very high level, day after day and year after year.

Zheng Dafeng was immediately delighted upon hearing this insult. Su Dian was too stubborn and Shi Lingshan was too naive, but he had finally come across someone willing and able to have a good conversation.

This filled him with eagerness, and Zheng Dafeng shuffled his small stool closer to the door threshold before saying with a chuckle, ”Yang Shu, I’ve heard that you always visit the water god temple of the Iron Talisman River to offer incense? But do you understand the proper etiquette of offering incense? It might not matter for other things, but you’ll need to abide by the old rules and customs for this, won’t you? Do you know why you need to hold the incense sticks with your left hand? And are you aware that things don’t look too good for you because you’re left-handed?”

The heart of the young shop attendant called Yang Shu wavered slightly, but he remained silent and maintained his expression of disdain.

”Attracted to the young lady next door at fifteen, to adore her son with someone else at thirty, and to praise her daughter-in-law at fifty — I must admire the brilliant culture of the Yang Family’s third branch,” Zheng Dafeng continued with a wide grin.

Yang Shu’s face instantly flushed beet red, and he grabbed the abacus off the counter and ferociously flung it at the hunchbacked bastard.

The clan leader of the Yang Family’s third branch indeed suffered from a poor reputation at Fortune Street and Peach Leaf Alley, and he was the type of wealthy person who could never keep his pants around his waist.

Zheng Dafeng caught the abacus and said, ”This is the money-making equipment of the Yang Family, so you can’t throw it away so readily. What if you accidentally break it? Who will compensate you? I’m just a barefoot commoner, while you’re the one with some savings, so will it help you in any way even if you choose to push blame onto me? Who will pay this compensation in the end?

”You’re waiting to wade into murky waters right now, wanting to earn money through unconscionable means in the provincial city. If you ask me, however, I’d say that it’s best that you don’t go. The prosperity of a clan depends on its adherence to etiquette, not its wealth or lack thereof. You should study diligently, and if you’re unable to, then you should have some more children and hope that they’re able to bring honor and glory to your ancestors.”

Yang Shu was livid, so infuriated that his entire body started to shake.

Zheng Dafeng shook his head and raised a hand, continuing, ”Don’t get physical with me, okay? I can’t control my strength, and I surmise that you’ll need to start learning the drunken fist stance if you get hit by me. You’ll be learning on the spot without a master.”

Yang Shu was just about to walk out from behind the counter, not to fight the hunchbacked bastard, but to return home.

However, the curtains to the backyard were suddenly pushed aside, and Old Man Yang asked, ”Yang Shu, don’t you feel embarrassed arguing with a gatekeeper?”

Yang Shu humphed coldly upon hearing this, but he still took this excuse to defuse the situation. He still left the Yang Family’s medicine shop, but he slowed down his pace and walked away in a more composed manner.

After Yang Shu left through the open side of the door and walked far away, Old Man Yang, who had entered the front of the shop in a rare display, walked to the entrance and asked, ”Is it amusing to argue with useless trash? Can useless trash understand human language?”

Zheng Dafeng had already stood up, trying his best to straighten his back.

When taking disciples, the old man had primarily looked for those who respected their masters, respected Dao, and respected incense offerings.

Zheng Dafeng followed Old Man Yang to the backyard. The old man pushed aside the curtain and let it back down after stepping over the door threshold. Zheng Dafeng lightly held up the curtain and gently let it back down after completely stepping through the door.

Old Man Yang sat down on the steps of the main room in the backyard before tapping his smoking pipe and retrieving a tobacco pouch from his waist.

Clouds of smoke quickly drifted from his mouth.

The slender bamboo smoking pipe was a gift from someone else, while the tobacco leaves were a present from Li Huai. After many years of smoking, the smoking pipe had also gone from its initial verdant green color to a faint bamboo yellow color.

”Does it make any difference whether you go or don’t go to the measly Lotus Root Blessed Land?” Old Man Yang asked.

”At least it’s part of the Majestic World,” Zheng Dafeng replied.

Old Man Yang shot a sideways glance at his disciple.

It was never a good thing to be too smart.

”I’ll listen to Master’s instructions,” Zheng Dafeng said in helplessness.

By the looks of it, he genuinely needed to embark on a distant trip now.

”You can start over when you arrive there,” Old Man Yang said. ”This will be a difficult path to walk, or else there would be many more people going over there. There were good reasons to appoint Fan Junmao, and not you, as the mountain god of the Southern Mountain.”

Zheng Dafeng simply listened to his master’s teachings and guidance.

”Why do you think the Confucian Sect chose this specific moment to open up that fifth world?” Old Man Yang asked. ”You have to realize that this large world was discovered a long time ago.”

”They chose this moment so that the Hundred Schools of Thought don’t sit on their hands, or even hold things back and cause internal conflict, with the full-scale battle around the corner,” Zheng Dafeng answered. ”If they’re so capable, then they can fight for a piece of the fifth world, which has seemingly appeared from thin air all of a sudden.”

”Do you know why the Majestic World is unique in its tolerance and acceptance of the Daoist Sect and the Buddhist Sect?” Old Man Yang asked. ”This is in stark contrast to the Heavenly World, where Confucian academies and Buddhist temples are completely unable to gain a footing.”

Zheng Dafeng’s expression became solemn. He definitely couldn’t figure out the answer to this question by himself.

Old Man Yang surprisingly waved a hand and fanned away the wafting smoke, asking, ”I once criticized the sages of the Three Teachings and called them gluttons, didn’t I?”

Zheng Dafeng nodded in response.

”I’m just not sure of which sage will slap me across the face first,” the old man said with a chuckle.

Zheng Dafeng’s master was finally willing to say more to him now.

However, Zheng Dafeng somewhat missed the miserable old days when his master wouldn’t speak more than ten words to him.

Zheng Dafeng suddenly faltered at this moment.

Old Man Yang chuckled coldly and said, ”You’ve finally come to a realization? And to think that you always disagreed with the assessment that you aren’t as smart as Li Er.”

Li Er had once given a hint to Zheng Dafeng, telling him to think hard about why their master never spoke more than ten words to him.

This had been a blind spot for Zheng Dafeng back then, and he was always convinced that his master didn’t want to speak to him because his master viewed him as an eyesore.

Ten.

The tenth tier of martial arts.

While at the peak stage of the Far Roaming Tier, Zheng Dafeng had traveled south to Old Dragon City, where he had managed the Dust Medicinal Shop and come across Chen Ping’an afterward. He had then broken through and come within a hair of breaking through a second time straight away, almost advancing directly from the eighth tier of martial arts to the tenth tier of martial arts.

There was a cold smile on Old Man Yang’s face as he continued, ”You would have advanced to the tenth tier long ago if you had possessed the ability to make me utter one more word back then. Would things be as miasmic as they are now? You wandered around here and there, discussing Dao with Qi Jingchun and also chatting casually with Old Man Yao. But so what? Are you at the tenth tier now? Or the eleventh tier? Oh, what’s that? Divide this by two? That sounds about right.”

This was the master that Zheng Dafeng was more accustomed to.

However, Zheng Dafeng talked back to his master in an uncharacteristic display, retorting, ”Mr. Qi and Old Man Yao were both very knowledgeable. I only failed to grasp the essence because of my poor comprehension ability.”

”Did I ever accuse you of having good comprehension ability?”

Old Man Yang picked out some wisps of smoke and asked with an expression of ridicule, ”What’s the most troublesome problem for a house? To have the paper windows tear? Or to have a door break? Are these serious matters? Even the impoverished families in Clay Vase Alley and Apricot Blossom Alley can muster enough copper coins to fix these problems, no?

”Let’s take Chen Ping’an’s ancestral residence, for example. He was only a little kid back then, but he was still able to transform his house after a single trip into the mountains with a hatchet. Regardless of how well you learn and understand someone else’s principles, they’re essentially just door gods and spring couplets plastered outside the front door. They’ll rapidly fade after one short year of wind and rain.”

”It’s necessary to undergo a huge renovation and replace the fundamental structure,” Zheng Dafeng said.

”Are the principles of other people truly so easy to learn?” Old Man Yang replied with a nod. ”The original columns and beams need to be removed first, representing a complete mental transformation. This is the true goal of cultivating the heart. It’s a process of internal struggle and perseverance.”

Old Man Yang sighed and continued, ”Ignoring distant matters and just focusing on Qi Jingchun, he examined his heart for sixty years in the Jewel Small World, yet he still failed to come up with a Great Dao that was absolutely justified. Looking at Chen Ping’an, how many principles do you think he’ll claim to understand? It won’t be many, perhaps just a handful.

”The first is how to conduct oneself, and understanding who he is as a person. The second is how to study, and knowing how to understand the world. The third is how to cultivate, and being able to establish himself and stay alive in this world, as well as how to interact with the world and live better. These are the only three principles he’ll claim to understand. Starting from a solid foundation and building up, is it truly so complicated to become a genuinely good person? It’s extremely simple. However, is this easy to put into practice? It’s extremely difficult.”

Old Man Yang could roughly guess the path of Qi Jingchun’s knowledge and principles at the time.

The Dao Ancestor had once said: The loss of Dao leads to the loss of virtue, the loss of virtue leads to the loss of benevolence, and the loss of benevolence leads to the loss of righteousness.[1]

Qi Jingchun was most likely contemplating how to rectify this gradual devolvement, and he was perhaps attempting to reverse the trend. This didn’t follow sequential order, yet it was also a form of sequential order at the same time.

In fact, Qi Jingchun was contemplating matters even loftier than this.

However, it was a shame that this had been as transient as the fleeting clouds.

”So, the plan for me is to...?” Zheng Dafeng asked.

”A master can only teach the basics, and it’s up to the disciples to cultivate and work hard. Perhaps a master should teach the disciples how to eat and shit as well?” Old Man Yang scoffed in response.

”I’ll mull over things after I arrive in that world,” Zheng Dafeng said.

Old Man Yang raised a hand and shook his sleeve, retrieving the miniature temple that had been refined and put away. He then waved his hand, causing specks of golden light to shoot forward and fuse into Zheng Dafeng’s glabella.

Zheng Dafeng remained unmoving the entire time.

”I’ve returned your belongings to you,” Old Man Yang said. ”It wasn’t necessarily an eyesore in my possession, given that I never looked at it. However, its presence put me in a bad mood.”

The specks of golden light were Zheng Dafeng’s soul.

Zheng Dafeng stood up, cupping his fists and bowing in respect as he said, ”Thank you for teaching me Dao and being my Dao guardian, Master.”

Old Man Yang started to smoke again.

Zheng Dafeng immediately sat down.

Standing over his master wouldn’t be very respectful.

Zheng Dafeng looked back, and it wasn’t long before a spirited young man wearing Confucian robes and carrying a bamboo bookcase walked into the backyard with a hiking pole in his hand.

There was a stern expression on Zheng Dafeng’s face.

The travel-worn young man quickly walked over to Old Man Yang’s side and squatted down, massaging the old man’s shoulders and clicking his tongue in wonder as he remarked, ”Ah, I feel much more at ease now. Your bones and muscles are still as strong and healthy as those of young men. In fact, it won’t be a stretch for you to get a wife.

”Seriously, what’s wrong with you, Dafeng? Just what kind of disciple are you? Don’t you know how to shortlist some candidates for your master? It might be difficult for you to find a wife, but will it be difficult for you to find a wife for your master?”

Old Man Yang paid no heed to this.

Meanwhile, Zheng Dafeng was already accustomed to this.

Li Huai was perhaps the only person in the world who dared to treat Old Man Yang like this.

”Are you going to study at Cloud Drape Mountain’s Forest Deer Academy again?” Old Man Yang asked.

Li Huai decided to sit down as he continued, ”This is only secondary, and my main goal is naturally to duel with Pei Qian. It’s been many years since we last met, and both she and I have accumulated many treasures in the meantime. Indeed, we’ve already agreed to a battle on the plaza outside the ancestral hall on Sky Blue Peak.

”This will be a legendary battle between paramount elites, a momentous occasion for the martial world. Pei Qian visited the Sword Qi Great Wall before, and we came across each other at the academy just then. She said we can fight after she’s finished sorting through her treasures.”

He appeared slightly disappointed as he continued, ”It’s a pity that Li Baoping has gone to travel around the martial world by herself. So be it if I lose to Pei Qian, but what if I accidentally win? I’m afraid that I won’t be able to leave Downtrodden Mountain in one piece without Li Baoping’s protection.”

”There are actually people who you’re afraid of?” Zheng Dafeng asked with a smile.

Li Huai nodded and replied, ”Of course! There’s Mr. Qi, Baoping, Pei Qian, and all those teachers in the academies. I’m afraid of all of them.”

”Then are you afraid of Chen Ping’an?” Zheng Dafeng asked in amusement.

Li Huai carefully thought about this for a moment before replying, ”I won’t be scared of the others with him around.”

Looking at Fortune Street, it had produced Scholar Li Xisheng who was currently in the Northern Complete Reed Continent, Li Baoping who had studied at the Great Sui Nation’s Mountain Cliff Academy, and Zhao Yao who was in the distant Middle Earth Divine Continent.

As for Peach Leaf Alley, there was Xie Ling who was a direct disciple of the Dragon Spring Sword Sect, the Wei Clan’s Tao Ya who had gone to the capital of the Great Li Empire, and Lin Shouyi who was diligently cultivating and studying at the same time.

Over at Clay Vase Alley, there was Chen Ping’an who had gone to the Sword Qi Great Wall, Gu Can who had caused huge waves at Bamboo Scroll Lake before falling silent, Song Jixin who had become a feudal lord of the Great Li Empire, and Zhi Gui, his maidservant.

Apricot Blossom Alley had given the world Ma Kuxuan, someone regarded as the paramount young prodigy of the continent.

There were also the siblings, Li Liu and Li Huai.

There was Dong Shuijing, who was currently running his own businesses.

Of course, there was also Su Dian and Shi Lingshan in the Yang Family’s medicine shop.

Those in the small town who enjoyed the best fortune were often those with the best aptitude. For example, Li Huai and Gu Can. When the old locust tree had shed its leaves back then, the person who had collected the most locust leaves was actually Gu Can, with the snotty little kid having his pockets filled without his knowledge. It was only after returning to Clay Vase Alley and being alerted by Chen Ping’an that he had discovered the piles of locust leaves in his pockets.

Meanwhile, the most resilient and difficult to kill was most likely still Chen Ping’an.

In the blink of an eye, fifteen years had already passed for the children and youth who had once been running around the streets and alleys of the Jewel Small World. Each person had their own encounters, fated opportunities, and achievements, as well as their own struggles and challenges.

Before they knew it, many children from the small town had already entered their twenties, while the youth of yore were already approaching thirty.

1. This is a line from Laozi’s Dao De Jing, the foundational work of Daoism. ☜