Unsheathed

Chapter 358 (2): Crossing Bridges and Scaling Mountains

The Heavenly Palace Peak had a Cinnabar Staircase of three thousand steps leading from the foot of the mountain to its summit, and on the summit was an Azure Tiger Palace. All those who cultivated on the mountain were isolated from the outside world, never interfering with mortal affairs, and any wealthy or influential figures who attempted to scale the mountain to visit these cultivators were sternly turned away.

On top of that, there were many wild beasts on Clear Realm Mountain, and there was no path that led straight to the Heavenly Palace Peak, so the Azure Tiger Palace had always been shrouded in mystery.

Even hunters and lumberjacks didn't dare to get close to the Heavenly Palace Peak, and the elderly people in the area claimed that the immortals on the mountain didn't want to be in close proximity to mortal energy, so any mortal visitors were blighted with the phenomenon of the ghost hitting the wall.

Officially, the Flora Convent was the number one cultivation sect of the Great Quan Empire, but no cultivation site that had an intercontinental ferry station was to be looked down on. Of course, the Heavenly Palace Peak couldn't compare with the likes of Stalactite Mountain and Old Dragon City, but it was still far superior to the Flora Convent.

Chen Ping'an explained this logic to Wei Xian and the others, and all four of them were extremely intelligent individuals, so they were able to immediately grasp what they were told.

Specific mention of the Heavenly Palace Peak's Immortal Maiden Dresser had been made in the book that Chen Ping'an had purchased from Stalactite Mountain, and it was only a very brief mention, but it still filled him with intrigue and wonder.

At this point, Pei Qian was exhausted from walking, and she suddenly raised her head as she exclaimed, "Look! Look! There's a boat in the sky!"

Chen Ping'an pressed down her raised finger as he asked, "Have you forgotten about the mountain god marriage ceremony?"

Pei Qian hurriedly nodded in response as she vowed, "I won't do it again!"

Chen Ping'an smiled as he said, "Even if you do it again, it's fine. You're still young, after all. Having said that, that doesn't give you an excuse to be ill-disciplined and do whatever you please."

A bright smile appeared on Pei Qian's face as she countered, "I'm not young anymore, I'll be eleven next year!"

"Then how about you carry my bamboo case for me?" Chen Ping'an asked with a smile.

A pitiable look appeared on Pei Qian's face as she protested, "But I'm only ten this year."

Chen Ping'an took a swipe at her head, but she evaded the blow in an agile fashion before bursting into laughter.

All the while, Zhu Lian was watching the two of them with a smile on his face.

The Heavenly Palace Peak towered over all of the nearby peaks, so it was very eye-catching. However, its summit was shrouded in cloud and mist, making it impossible to see what was up there.

Upon entering the territory of the Heavenly Palace Peak, the group encountered a stone arch bridge, flowing beneath which was a clear creek teeming with fish.

Chen Ping'an stopped in his tracks as soon as he stepped onto the bridge, then cast his gaze southward.

Once he scaled the mountain, he didn't know when he would return to Parasol Leaf Continent next.

Would the Planchette Writing Sect's Sky Calling Street cease to exist in the wake of that great demon's spree of destruction? Would that young external disciple who had inadvertently stumbled upon that twelfth tier senior rise to heights that he had previously never even dared to dream of? Was Lu Tai's Dao observation on the Flying Eagle Fortress's Ascending Sun Platform paying off? And why had Lu Tai secretly placed Halting Snow into his bag back then?

At the time, Lu Tai had taken Tao Xieyang's trio as unofficial disciples of his, and Chen Ping'an didn't quite understand his quote of "one can't understand good if one doesn't interact with evil." Only now was he beginning to understand the meaning of those words.

Will Zhong Kui still be a noble scholar of Great Subduing Academy? Is Huang Ting going to be blessed with more fortune for hunting down that sword-bearing white ape? What's going to become of Zhou Fei now that he's returned to the Jade Tablet Sect and become the owner of the Cloud Cave Blessed Land?

Are Green Roving Residence and the Burial River God Temple doing better now? Did Mirage City have its first bout of snow yet? Is Cao Qinglang doing alright living in that small house on his own? Are the teachers at his school wise? Are they able to teach him things that can't be found in books?

With Chen Ping'an stopping in his tracks, Lu Baixiang and the others also drew to a halt.

Pei Qian was looking into the distance, and in this instant, she felt like there was something a little different about Chen Ping'an.

Once again, Zhu Lian began reading his book, and after taking a glance at Chen Ping'an, Pei Qian got up onto the tips of her toes to try and see what exactly Zhu Lian was reading all day.

Zhu Lian pressed a hand against her head and gently pushed her away.

"What are you reading?" Pei Qian asked.

"Nothing, just some cliched stories," Zhu Lian replied.

"What's a cliched story?" Pei Qian asked, determined to get to the bottom of things.

Zhu Lian smiled as he replied, "I suppose these stories aren't cliched to you. For a little girl your age, everything is new and exciting. However, the stories in books are ultimately just words on a page, and they don't carry much weight.

“Once you've read them, you'll quickly forget them. In contrast, we have to live in the real world, and if we're starving, or we get blisters on the bottom of our feet from walking, or we take a punch to the face, those things will have an actual impact on us."

"What are you trying to say?" Pei Qian asked with furrowed brows. "Can't you learn to speak properly like Old Man Wei?"

Zhu Lian took a glance at Pei Qian out of the corner of his eye as he chuckled, "You seem to have suddenly become very brave."

Pei Qian smiled as she took a couple of steps backward and said, "I'm not brave at all, I'm just a frail and cowardly little girl."

Zhu Lian closed his book as he complained, "I was reading an intense and riveting body-on-body battle just now, but after all this bickering, I've lost interest in reading."

"A riveting battle?" Pei Qian asked in an innocent manner. "Who's fighting? Are they as strong as my father and my beautiful big sister here?"

Sui Youbian was becoming more and more disgruntled by the second, and she had to force back the urge to lop off the heads of the old pervert and the annoying little girl.

Zhu Lian tucked away the "romance" novel that he was reading, then clasped his hands behind his back as he shook his head and replied, "No, they can't even begin to compare with those two."

Pei Qian felt as if she had done an exceptional job at flattery, and she turned to Sui Youbian with an expectant smile on her face, only to find that the "beautiful big sister" in question had turned and made her way down from the stone arch bridge so that she wouldn't have to listen to the conversation between Zhu Lian and Pei Qian any longer.

Pei Qian was quite perplexed to see this, wondering what had gotten Sui Youbian in such a foul mood.

As usual, Lu Baixiang was smiling to himself as he observed his surroundings. The scenery here was very much to his liking, and he decided that if he were to settle somewhere to cultivate, he had to find a scenic location just like this one.

Chen Ping'an paid no heed to Pei Qian and Zhu Lian.

Once he reached Old Dragon City, he would be able to see Fan Er, Lady Gui, and Zheng Dafeng.

Traveling northward from there, he would visit Xu Yuanxia's hometown to find him and Zhang Shanfeng. He would tell them that following their separation, he had tasted more kinds of fine wine than he could count on both hands!

He was also going to visit Bamboo Scroll Lake to see how Gu Can was doing. Now that Gu Can was the disciple of a powerful immortal, Chen Ping'an couldn't help but wonder if he would no longer be a snotty little brat.

After that, he would go to Mountain Cliff Academy to see Li Baoping, Li Huai, Lin Shouyi, Yu Lu, and Xie Xie.

Well, also his "pupil" Cui Dongshan.

Visiting all of those places should bring him close to the conclusion of the five-year term, and he would be able to return to his hometown, to Clay Vase Alley and to Downtrodden Mountain.

Even a house made of gold and silver couldn't compare with one's own home, and that wasn't even to mention the fact that he could easily build a house of gold and silver in his hometown if he so pleased.

Only after exploring the outside world did he truly come to realize just how exceptional the conditions in the Dragon Spring Prefecture were for cultivation. The fortune of the land and the water had been forcibly restricted to all of the mountains by the Great Li Empire, and it was no exaggeration to say that every single one of those mountains was comparable to Green Roving Residence once it was stamped with the water seal.

Green Goat Palace on the Heavenly Palace Peak had a total of six branch palaces, all of which were reserved for the worship of different Daoist immortals, and the couplets on the pillars of the main palace were considered to be an unrivaled spectacle in themselves.

To the right of Green Goat Palace was a massive stone wall shrouded in cloud and mist, and its left wing was none other than the vastly renowned Immortal Maiden Dresser, which was situated near the cliff.

There was an ancient vine growing on the edge of the cliff, and it was extremely lush and prolific, with branches and leaves trailing down the cliff face for over a thousand feet, resembling the hair of a celestial maiden spilling down from the heavens.

Palace Leader Lu Yong of Green Goat Palace was an old Nascent Tier cultivator whose sole focus was cultivation. He had always maintained a low profile, distancing himself from all mortal affairs so that he could concentrate wholeheartedly on pill refinement.

Among Qi refiners, he was one of the most extreme examples of a pacifist cultivator, possessing combat prowess far below his Nascent Tier cultivation base. In the central region of Parasol Leaf Continent, even some of the Golden Core Tier earth immortals particularly adept at combat looked down on Green Goat Palace.

Due to the large scale of the immortal ferry station on the Heavenly Palace Peak, there were often earth immortals who came through the area, so the cultivators of Green Goat Palace had been subjected to much humiliation in the past.

Just a day prior, someone of an incredibly lofty status had come to visit Green Goat Palace, and after this visitor announced their name, a disciple had hurriedly rushed away to report their arrival.

After receiving the news, Lu Yong had come out of his pill refinement chamber even at the risk of ruining the batch of pills that he was working on, and he had personally led the visitor on a tour of Heavenly Palace Peak in a very timid and fearful fashion, sweating profusely the entire time.

Lu Yong was so timid and fearful because in the past, Green Goat Palace had offended the sect that the visitor had come from. After all, Green Goat Palace was a little closer with Parasol Leaf Continent. As the leading sect on Parasol Leaf Continent, Parasol Leaf Sect's disciples often passed through this ferry station while cultivating outside the sect.

On one occasion, a Dragon Gate Tier elder of Green Goat Palace had displayed favoritism toward a disciple of Parasol Leaf Sect during an altercation. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't have been a problem, but unbeknownst to Green Goat Palace, the young cultivator humiliated by the Dragon Gate Tier elder was from Jade Tablet Sect, and most importantly, he was a member of the Jiang Clan!

The Jiang Clan of Jade Tablet Sect was extremely wealthy. How could it not be, given that it was the owner of the Cloud Cave Blessed Land?

At the time, Jade Tablet Sect disciple hadn't kicked up a big fuss or thrown around any threats. Instead, all he did was issue a huge sum of money to reserve all of the spots on the ships setting off from Heavenly Palace Peak's ferry station for an entire month.

As a result, hundreds of Parasol Leaf Continent cultivators were stuck on Clear Realm Mountain, delayed for an entire month before they could resume their journeys. Of course, all of them only had Green Goat Palace to blame. Of course, that was because no one dared to complain to that Jade Tablet Sect disciple.

Lu Yong was forced to go into seclusion to refine a huge cauldron of pills. Then, he sent out Green Goat Palace's disciples to give out the pills to all of the disgruntled cultivators as a gesture of apology, and only then was he able to salvage the remnants of Green Goat Palace's hard-earned reputation.

This was only just an average member of the Jiang Clan, yet even he had been able to give Green Goat Palace such a hard time, Lu Yong couldn't even imagine what the leader of the Jiang Clan could do to Green Goat Palace on a whim.

On the summit of the Cinnabar Staircase on Heavenly Palace Peak stood Jiang Shangzhen and Lu Yong.

"Is there really no need for me to send the disciples of our Green Goat Palace to help that senior welcome the guests?" Lu Yong asked.

Jiang Shangzhen had traveled all the way to the Great Quan Empire from the western sea of Parasol Leaf Continent, and he remained silent, offering no response.

Lu Yong had no idea what to say or do.

His main concern at the moment was that a battle between immortals was about to take place here. Just a single sweep of a sleeve from an immortal of the Upper Five Tiers like Jiang Shangzhen would be enough to raze the entire place to the ground!

Lu Yong could only pray for protection from his ancestors.

Interacting with cultivators of the Upper Five Tiers was truly an extremely grueling ordeal. Lu Yong was internally vowing to himself that once Jiang Shangzhen left, he was going to go straight into seclusion to refine a batch of spirit pills to vent his frustration.

After an awkward silence, Lu Yong asked in a timid manner, "Should I go and greet our guests in person?"

As a Nascent Tier cultivator, Lu Yong felt like he was already displaying the utmost respect and subservience, so surely Jiang Shangzhen had to respond with some degree of goodwill.

To his shock and horror, Jiang Shangzhen replied in an indifferent voice, "You're not worthy."

Lu Yong's legs almost gave out from under him.

My Green Goat Palace is doomed!

All of a sudden, Jiang Shangzhen burst into laughter as he patted Lu Yong on the shoulder and said, "Don't be scared, I was just kidding. As long as everything goes smoothly today, not only will I forgive all of your Green Goat Palace's past transgression, but our Jiang Clan will also purchase a hundred batches of your most expensive pills."

Lu Yong could only force a smile onto his face.

————

Zhu Lian's trio had already joined Sui Youbian on the other side of the stone arch bridge, so only Chen Ping'an and Pei Qian were still left standing on the bridge.

Chen Ping'an leaned over the railing of the bridge while scouring the water down below, seemingly searching for something.

"What are you looking for?" Pei Qian asked.

"I want to see if there are any swords suspended under the bridge," Chen Ping'an replied.

"You won't be able to see anything from on top of the bridge, I'll go help you look under the bridge!" Pei Qian volunteered.

"There's no need for that," Chen Ping'an said as he stood up straight again and patted her little head with a smile on his face.

Pei Qian raised her head with a perplexed expression, and Chen Ping'an looked down into her eyes.

Pei Qian immediately opened her eyes up as wide as they would go before asking, "Take a good look, is there really money in my eyes?"

Chen Ping'an faltered slightly upon hearing this, then patted her on the head before pointing at the other end of the bridge as he said, "Let's go. Once we get off this bridge, we can start scaling the mountain."

Pei Qian nodded eagerly in response, then adjusted the bag on her shoulder before skipping her way down the stone arch bridge while waving her hiking pole around.

Meanwhile, Chen Ping'an closed his eyes, and recalled the bridge that he had seen in his dream after dozing off on that bridge back home.

It was an extremely long golden bridge situated above a sea of clouds.

To his left was the rising sun, while to his right was the setting moon.

Chen Ping'an strode over the unremarkable stone arch bridge with his eyes closed, and his robes flapped gently in the passing breeze.

Pei Qian had only just skipped her way to the other end of the bridge, and she suddenly turned around with a bright gleam in her eyes as she said to herself, My father is truly an extraordinary immortal.