Unsheathed

He was about to leave for the Middle Earth Divine Continent soon, so Liu Chicheng was ”worried” that Gu Can wouldn’t cultivate in earnest if he didn’t create some trouble and leave a mess behind.

A talent like Gu Can could only grow rapidly if he were subject to perilous danger again and again.

There was no fear of hastening his growth.

He was the Great Dao talent whom his senior brother at White Emperor City liked the most.

Liu Chicheng suddenly narrowed his eyes.

It seemed like his senior brother was most fond of huge troubles...

As for the young lady in front of him, did she also fall under this category?

Moreover, it seemed like his senior brother’s Go skills had reached a barrier, which he was on the cusp of overcoming. Yet, he had coincidentally come across Li Baoping while preparing to return to White Emperor City with Gu Can?

Liu Chicheng laughed heartily before turning his head and looking in a certain direction, saying with his mind’s lake, ”The decision isn’t for you to make anymore. The three of us can return to White Emperor City together.”

Gu Can didn’t conceal his presence any longer, also using his mind’s lake to reply, ”I encourage you not to do this, Liu Chicheng. Otherwise, the first person I’ll kill after attaining Dao at White Emperor City is you.”

His voice was calm and unhurried, completely in accordance with his current character and temperament.

Liu Chicheng smiled faintly and said, ”I might be afraid of my senior brother, but will I be afraid of you? Perhaps I will be afraid of you in the future, but that’s a matter for the future.”

There were enough clues for Li Baoping to understand the situation, and she let go of the saber scabbard and tightly gripped the peach wood talisman.

Her older brother had given this talisman to her, saying that the peach wood talisman would react to her thoughts when she encountered a challenging situation. In fact, she didn’t need to worry even if her thoughts were restricted by some extremely powerful enemy.

Li Baoping vigorously shook the peach wood talisman.

Did her older brother lie to her? Why was nothing happening?

Li Baoping hurriedly breathed onto the peach wood talisman and wiped it with her palm.

So be it.

Li Baoping planned to retrieve a few pieces of paper from her sleeves, the ones with the transcriptions that she liked the most.

She didn’t blame her older brother, Li Xisheng. However, she did grumble about her junior uncle not being by her side.

Li Baoping wrinkled her nose and sniffed in secret.

Forget about it. What else could she do? She would grumble about her junior uncle tomorrow.

Gu Can didn’t make any move.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to stop Liu Chicheng, but rather, his actions would be completely pointless.

The gulf between their cultivation bases was far too great.

There was intense resentment inside Gu Can’s heart.

This unpredictable Liu Chicheng would definitely die at his hands in the future.

With this in mind, Gu Can immediately said to Li Baoping using his mind’s lake, ”Li Baoping, I’m Gu Can from Clay Vase Alley. Don’t be rash and aim to stay alive first.”

Li Baoping shook her head and replied, ”I don’t want to die, but I definitely won’t live a wretched and undignified life.”

She then smiled and continued, ”Is a person not allowed to make mistakes due to good intentions? This doesn’t pertain to any major issues of principle, in any case. I need to thank you, Gu Can. Look after yourself and live on, and remember to tell my junior uncle that I miss him.”

Liu Chicheng glanced at the pieces of paper in Li Baoping’s hand, where the characters on the pages were coming alive and moving around.

His brows surprisingly knitted into a deep frown, with his expression becoming solemn.

Things would be slightly troublesome if this had links to the Confucian schools and academies.

The entire Majestic World was subject to the rules and regulations of scholars, after all.

Over in the peach tree forest, a man in Confucian robes forcefully suppressed a chuckle when he saw Li Baoping vigorously shaking the peach wood talisman.

It was rare to see Little Baoping acting in such a childish and adorable manner.

The man in Confucian robes took a deep breath before striding forward and arriving beside Li Baoping. He then looked at the Golden Dao Manifestation and the Daoist priest in pink.

”Older Brother?!” Li Baoping exclaimed in delight.

Li Xisheng nodded in response, smiling at her and saying, ”Your older brother is angry and doesn’t really want to speak right now.”

Li Baoping laughed and asked, ”My older brother also gets angry?”

Li Xisheng smiled faintly and nodded in reply.

Liu Chicheng’s instinct told him that things were going south.

However, the young scholar in Confucian robes didn’t appear to possess a high cultivation base, nor did it look like he was using an illusion technique to conceal his true power. He definitely couldn’t be at the Immortal Tier, and as for the Ascension Tier... Liu Chicheng didn’t have rocks for brains to think this.

After leaving White Emperor City, he had only suffered greatly on two occasions in the past one thousand years. The first occasion was being suppressed by a Great Heavenly Master, and the Heavenly Master naturally hadn’t needed to summon their Daoist seal or sword, only needing to channel a mystical ability.

The Great Heavenly Master had only stepped forward to personally suppress Liu Chicheng because Mount Longhu had wanted to issue a warning to White Emperor City, telling Liu Chicheng’s senior brother to not interfere in their matters.

The second occasion was in the rundown little temple. Liu Chicheng had mysteriously been struck by an ordinary wooden sword, yet this sword had somehow managed to breach his defensive formation with ease.

Liu Chicheng’s intuition was immediately proven right.

The river of time came to a grinding halt.

A vaster heaven and earth appeared outside his small heaven and earth.

Li Baoping, Wei Benyuan, the Golden Dao Manifestation, and Gu Can, who was near the mountain peak, were all frozen in place. In fact, even their thoughts were completely frozen.

Of course, this was apart from Liu Chicheng, whom Li Xisheng purposely left unfrozen.

A leisurely gaze captures a myriad of movements unfolding; the lofty heaven and vast earth stretch for thousands of miles.[1]

Liu Chicheng was suffering indescribable misery.

By the looks of it, he couldn’t rival this scholar at all.

He was clearly an unreasonable person who was very difficult to deal with.

”Cultivators traveling outside need to have respect and fear for heaven and earth and maintain a clear conscience,” Li Xisheng said as he slowly walked forward.

”Alright, I spoke those words as a scholar.”

Liu Chicheng smiled and said, ”Okay, okay, let’s sit down and speak reason with each other. I’m most amenable to the principles and reason of scholars.”

”And now, I’m going to reason with you as the older brother of Little Baoping,” Li Xisheng continued.

Liu Chicheng was just about to venture far away from this place, commanding his small heaven and earth to collide with the larger heaven and earth and seizing the opportunity to flee.

As for his cultivation base and face as an Upper Five Tier cultivator? He could throw them on the ground and trample all over them. What did that matter?

The Dao Manifestation of a middle-aged Daoist priest suddenly appeared between heaven and earth.

Liu Chicheng went weak in the knees, immediately sitting back down after just starting to stand up.

Even so, he still drew on all his power to hold together his Dao Heart that was almost about to collapse on the spot, standing up in a shaky manner and silently bowing in respect.

”If apologizing is useful, what’s the point of having rules and regulations of the Great Dao?!” Li Xisheng asked.

The towering middle-aged Daoist priest raised an arm and swatted down.

Liu Chicheng and the Golden Dao Manifestation of the Nascent Tier vagrant cultivator were ruthlessly slammed into the ground by the palm strike.

No immortal technique or mystical ability was channeled, and no immortal treasure was used.

The Dao Manifestation only launched a very simple palm strike.

There was only a single thought in Liu Chicheng’s mind as he lay at the bottom of the large crater: Can you scholars from the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent please calm down?

Li Xisheng walked into the large crater after retracting the Dao Manifestation, looking down at the half-dead Daoist priest in pink before performing a divination using his fingers and saying with a cold chuckle, ”Go back to White Emperor City and tell your senior brother that I’ll visit him for a game of Go in the future.”

Liu Chicheng was gripped by despair.

His senior brother had once told him in private about who could force White Emperor City to remove the plaque reading ”Respectfully Allow the World to Go First” when it came to Go skills. Cui Chan had a very slim chance, and the person who had a bigger chance wasn’t in the Majestic World. Rather, they were in the Heavenly World’s White Jade Capital.

He was the senior brother of the Daoist second disciple and Third Branch Master Lu Chen.

In fact, even Lu Chen had been taken as a disciple by the first disciple of the Dao Ancestor on his master’s behalf.

From this, it was easy to imagine just how profound his Dao power was.

Liu Chicheng struggled hard to stand up again, still remaining silent as he sincerely and respectfully bowed according to the regulations of the Daoist Sect.

When Li Baoping came to her senses, her older brother was still standing beside her, and the Daoist priest in pink robes was still sitting on the head of the Golden Dao Manifestation.

Everything was the same as before.

There was a faint smile on Liu Chicheng’s face, but his back was already drenched in sweat.

The river of time had flowed in reverse!

Most importantly, Wei Benyuan was still isolated and frozen in a certain location along the river of time.

”Don’t worry, I was just speaking reason with that mighty person just then.”

Li Xisheng smiled and continued, ”Don’t tell Grandpa Wei about my visit, or else he’ll insist on having me stay behind to play Go with him. There were only a few Go manuals in our hometown back then, so it was actually very annoying when Grandpa Wei rambled on about Go strategies, flipping through those same few manuals again and again.”

Li Baoping nodded vigorously in response.

Li Xisheng disappeared from the mountain pass, returning to the small and remote vassal nation in the Northern Complete Reed Continent.

His cultivation base wasn’t very high right now, so it was actually quite straining to perform this kind of intercontinental travel.

As such, he needed to come quickly and return quickly.

Before disappearing for good, Li Xisheng suddenly smiled and complained, ”You didn’t even notify your older brother and secretly grew up all by yourself.”

Li Baoping cracked a wide grin.

Li Xisheng smiled and shook his head before vanishing without a trace.

Wei Benyuan also returned to normal.

Afterward, Liu Chicheng immediately stood up and bid farewell, saying that he was only joking around with the young lady.

As for the Nascent Tier vagrant cultivator, he had already retracted his Dao Manifestation and flown away beside Liu Chicheng. While leaving, Liu Chicheng used his mind’s lake to say to Gu Can, ”I’ll wait for you at Light Breeze City. There’s no hurry, and you can take your time to reminisce with her first.”

Gu Can suppressed the puzzlement in his mind as he flew over and landed beside the thatched cottage, saying frankly, ”I apologize for today’s events, Li Baoping. Judging both my intent and my actions, I was half wrong and half right.”

Li Baoping was slightly surprised.

Judging by his current state, how had Gu Can managed to disappoint her junior uncle so badly back then?

Or perhaps Gu Can had undergone a drastic transformation in just a few short years?

Li Baoping thought for a moment before telling Grandpa Wei that she would take a stroll by the stream with Gu Can, an acquaintance from her hometown.

Wei Benyuan was extremely confused, but he still nodded and said, ”Remember to be careful.”

Li Baoping and Gu Can walked along the stream.

The two of them had come across each other when they were little, but they had never actually chatted with one another.

One liked action, and one liked peace, so they had only brushed past each other with minimal interaction in the small town.

At most, the briskly walking little girl wearing a bright red jacket had simply developed a deep impression of the little boy’s two hanging snot trails.

Meanwhile, the snotty little kid had felt like the little girl, who was slightly older than him and always wearing a bright red jacket, didn’t appear like the child of a wealthy family at all. She truly didn’t understand how to enjoy fortune.

The two children, who could almost be regarded as the most mischievous in the small town, had simply been born into contrasting fortunes, with one born in Fortune Street and one born in Clay Vase Alley.

The little girl in red had zipped through the streets and alleys, so quickly that even the large white swans hadn’t been able to catch her.

Meanwhile, the snotty little kid was slightly different, and he hadn’t actually been willing to move around much. Instead, he had preferred to lie under the sun on the ridges of the fields to catch eels, or guard the old locust tree and use his slingshot to shoot orioles.

There were a few plots of tea leaf plants in Gu Can’s house, and wearing a small and appropriately sized bamboo basket on his back, the snotty little kid had actually been more adept at picking tea leaves with both hands than that helper of theirs.

Despite being innately skilled at these things, however, Gu Can disliked doing them. After picking some tea leaves in a perfunctory manner and filling the bottom of the small bamboo basket that Chen Ping’an had given him, he would immediately run away to slack off under the shade.

After all, what did it matter that Liu Xianyang was Chen Ping’an’s only friend?

No matter what, only the snotty little kid in Clay Vase Alley could count as family in the whole wide world.

The stream was shallow and limpid.

The two people remained silent for a long time.

”Think more about Junior Uncle’s struggles,” Li Baoping said.

”I have thought about them,” Gu Can replied.

”Don’t get me wrong. Junior Uncle didn’t actually say much about your time at Bamboo Scroll Lake — he’s never been fond of talking about people behind their backs,” Li Baoping said with a reassuring smile.

Gu Can also started to chuckle.

He naturally wouldn’t misunderstand.

In any case, so what if Chen Ping’an exposed his wrongdoings? Gu Can had never liked to work hard and struggle, but he was indeed quite skilled at enduring scoldings and beatings.

Deep down in Gu Can’s heart, he still couldn’t care less about the thoughts of other people.

Even Chen Ping’an wasn’t aware that Gu Can had actually visited Fortune Street and Peach Leaf Alley earlier than him. The snotty little kid had heard Liu Xianyang talk about the many rich people in those areas, and how they would often drop money on the ground. As such, Gu Can had run over to pick up this dropped money, yet he had failed to find a single copper coin.

Gu Can’s patience was eventually worn thin, and the snotty little kid had become so angry that he had furtively run along Peach Leaf Alley to kick the peach trees, not missing a single one along the entire length of the alley. He had punished every last one of them. If someone walked past in the meantime, he would immediately squat down beside the peach trees and pretend that he was looking at the ants crawling around the roots.

Thinking back to that time, Gu Can felt like he should have collected the branches and peach blossoms that had fallen to the ground.

”But Junior Uncle has a very close relationship with you, so he definitely won’t hold back from praising you if you do something well,” Li Baoping continued. ”When Junior Uncle embarked on a distant journey with us for the first time, he would almost always talk about you and Liu Xianyang when he mentioned the small town. However, he seldom mentioned you after returning from Bamboo Scroll Lake.”

Li Baoping pointed at her eyes and said, ”The eyes never lie. Junior Uncle didn’t say anything, but he also said everything at the same time.”

Gu Can nodded in response.

”Job done,” Li Baoping said.

Gu Can didn’t dilly-dally either, immediately bidding farewell and taking his leave. However, he suddenly stopped and turned around, saying with a smile, ”Thank you, Li Baoping.”

”You’ve suddenly remembered to say something polite?” Li Baoping replied with a chuckle.

There was a glimmer in Gu Can’s eyes as he shook his head and explained, ”No, I’m not being polite. You were the first person to accompany him on a distant journey, and if it weren’t for you being alongside him, it’s entirely likely that he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to visit Gu Can at Bamboo Scroll Lake afterward.”

Li Baoping smiled upon hearing this.

Gu Can also smiled.

Thinking back to the past, Liu Xianyang had stood on a ladder in front of a wall covered in names in the small temple, Chen Ping’an had held the ladder, and Gu Can had thrown shards of charcoal to the burly young boy standing on the ladder. Liu Xianyang had then written down their three names, choosing an extremely high location on the wall.

In the end, Gu Can said, ”Li Baoping, you’ll most likely see Chen Ping’an before me, so when you do see him, tell him that Gu Can is cultivating the Great Dao at White Emperor City!”

1. This is a line from Liu Yuxi’s poem Admiring the Moon at Taoyuan During the Mid-Autumn Festival (八月十五夜桃源玩月). Liu Yuxi was a Chinese essayist, philosopher, and poet active during the Tang dynasty. ☜