Chapter 56: Nod

Chapter 56: Nod

Walking among the desolate mounds and wild graves where foxes and rabbits roamed, the sword-carrying man suddenly stopped before a tombstone. He walked to the side of a grave marker in front of an unremarkable small earthen mound, crouched down, and reached out to brush away the vines entwining the stone tablet, revealing its true face. The inscription was blurred, barely half of the characters could be discerned. The man sighed, "The divine path has collapsed, rites and music flourish. The contention of the Hundred Schools is about to begin."

After the man stood up, he saw that his apprentice, who had not yet officially entered Zhenwu Mountain to pay respects to the master and ancestors, was facing the direction they had come from. Blood was streaming from the boy's mouth, ears, and nose, making his dark face appear especially ferocious and terrifying. The boy raised his arm to wipe it haphazardly, then continued staring in that direction.

The man said, "Ma Kuxuan, according to the reason you gave earlier, it's because you learned that the outlander girl, using her flying sword technique in the alley, together with the Great Sui prince and eunuch, killed your first master in life. Thus you have an unresolved knot and must exact vengeance before leaving this town. I think this is reasonable, so I didn't stop you, leaving you to live or die by your own responsibility. After all, for a cultivator, encountering such a Dao adversary is both a crisis and an opportunity."

But the man's tone hardened, and he did not show favoritism due to the disciple's exceptional talent. He said gravely, "But why did you target the peer from Ni Ping Alley? I have already told you before that we, the military cultivators of Zhenwu Mountain, especially those on the sword path, must never indiscriminately kill innocents!"

The boy answered irrelevantly, "Are military cultivators the ones who care least about karma, fate, and fortune?"

The man nodded, "Looking through thousands of years of history, those who single-handedly stemmed the tide of decline were mostly our military saints. It is not because I am a military cultivator that I deliberately sing praises to the ancient sages."

The man stared at the boy, not intending to let him off easily.

If Ma Kuxuan was addicted to killing and bullied others with his power, then why would he accept such a disciple for Zhenwu Mountain?

Military cultivators in the secular dynasties rely on battlefield slaughter to improve their realms, being closest to the line between life and death. Once they cannot guard their original heart, they easily fall into the demonic path. Imagine, a cultivator holding military power, slaughtering a city or destroying a nation, how easy would that be?

The military school and the Confucian school are the two pillars supporting peace and order in the dynasties below the mountains. Once a revered military cultivator stands improperly, the higher his realm and cultivation, the higher his court status, the greater the impact on the entire secular dynasty. In history, lessons from the past are clear. Gaining the people's support is extremely difficult; losing it is extremely easy. Although this saying comes from a Confucian sage, many military cultivators are well-read Confucian generals and deeply agree with it.

Perhaps sensing the gravity of the atmosphere, the boy was not in a hurry to argue. He stretched out his hand, gently covering his ear with his palm, but it touched a wound, causing him to wince and suck in a cold breath. After a moment, he withdrew his hand and looked at the bloodstain on his palm. He said, "That guy is called Chen Ping'an. His father died when he was very young. That man was a well-known kiln worker in the town, very skilled in his craft, an honest man. Then suddenly he died violently, and his body was never found. Although my grandmother has never been willing to admit it, I remember it very clearly. It was a night of thunder and heavy rain. I was woken by the thunder and found my grandmother not beside me. As I pushed open the door a crack, I saw my father sneaking back home, looking both delighted and scared, a very strange expression. My mother was patting my father's back vigorously, laughing uncontrollably, extremely happy."

The boy furrowed his brow subconsciously, trying hard to recall those bleak childhood scenes. "Only my grandmother didn't speak. She seemed unhappy, instead she scolded my father, 'Do you think just because that child's father is dead, you have a chance to marry her? Take a piss and look at your own reflection! That branch of the Chen family in Ni Ping Alley has been single-son for generations. Aren't you afraid that by harming one person, you'll end up making the whole family of three unable to survive? Then this branch of the Chen family will be extinct. Aren't you afraid of retribution from their ancestral spirits? To put it mildly, do you really not know that woman's temperament? Is she willing to remarry you?' My father just smirked, probably thinking since he had already done it and would soon get his reward, there was no need to pretend remorse or guilt in front of the family. Finally, my grandmother pointed at my mother's nose and cursed. My mother wasn't easygoing either. They almost had a fight in the main hall. My father is the type who likes the new and dislikes the old. The neighbors of his generation didn't like him. At that time, he naturally sided with his wife over his mother. In the end, my grandmother sat on the ground, pounding her chest, crying and complaining to that plaque, saying, 'The Ma family has brought such a jinx woman into the house. You must be unwilling to rest in peace.'"

The man followed the boy's line of thought and asked, "Do you want to take upon yourself all the illusory karmic retribution, the sins committed by the previous generation, hoping that your grandmother and parents can have a good end?"

Ma Kuxuan grinned. "I really don't have much feeling for my parents. The only one I worry about is my grandmother. She doesn't want to go to Zhenwu Mountain with me. She says she must be buried next to my grandfather's grave for this life. If she goes to some Zhenwu Mountain tens of thousands of miles away, first it would trouble me, her grandson, to carry an urn back home, and second, she heard that after death, the journey in the mortal world before burial is extremely rough. She says she has suffered enough in life and doesn't want to suffer after death."

The man said, "It is understandable, but it doesn't hold up in principle. Only this once, no next time."

Ma Kuxuan curled his lips, his expression cold. He didn't shake his head or argue, but he also didn't nod or agree.

The man smiled and rubbed salt in the boy's wound, "How does it feel to be pinned down and beaten by a peer?"

Ma Kuxuan said angrily, "If that girl hadn't secretly given him a knife, would I have lost to Chen Ping'an?! I only used seven-tenths of my strength from start to finish! If I hadn't thought to play cat and mouse..."

The man lightly sneered, "Playing cat and mouse? Come on, you were thinking of killing Chen Ping'an with seventy percent strength while also making the girl let her guard down, killing two birds with one stone. Quite the beautiful plan."

The boy's face reddened slightly. He stiffened his neck and said indignantly, "Whose master are you?!"

The man laughed heartily.

The two set off again toward the town. The boy asked, "Compared to that Zhengyang Mountain, is Zhenwu Mountain higher or lower?"

The man asked with a smile, "Do you want the truth or a lie?"

The boy's eyes rolled. "What's the lie?"

The man replied, "That they are about the same height."

The boy sighed sadly, feeling that he had met bad luck. He had acknowledged two masters—one had inexplicably died in a miserable way in the town's Qilong Alley, and the other had little skill but many rules.

The man laughed. "On the surface, Zhengyang Mountain is a foundational place of the sword path, but in the hearts of cultivators in Eastern Treasure Vase Continent, its status is far below that of its sworn enemy, Wind Thunder Garden. So Zhengyang Mountain is not regarded as a first-rate sect. Of course, this is only a surface illusion. In fact, Zhengyang Mountain's foundation is extremely deep. It's just that after that incident back then, a person from Wind Thunder Garden had sword Dao attainments far surpassing his peers, too brilliant and exceptional, forcing Zhengyang Mountain to endure humiliation for centuries..."

Ma Kuxuan said irritably, "No matter how much you praise Zhengyang Mountain, it doesn't change the fact that Zhenwu Mountain is inferior to Zhengyang Mountain."

The man laughed. "Ma Kuxuan, you've got it wrong. The gap between Zhengyang Mountain and our Zhenwu Mountain is roughly the distance of another Zhengyang Mountain."

The boy was stunned for a moment. After grasping the man's implication, he immediately laughed. "That's more like it!"

The man reminded, "The sect is the sect; you are yourself."

The short boy laughed. "You've got it wrong too! I meant that since Zhenwu Mountain is so high, once I achieve great martial arts, if I want to find someone to spar with, it will save time and effort, and I won't have to be surrounded by a bunch of showy pillows and useless wine sacks!"

The man dismissed it with a smile. "If such bold words were spoken by that Ni Ping Alley boy, wouldn't they be more convincing?"

The boy said angrily, "Is this how you be a master? Be careful—if you get beaten to death in the future, I won't avenge you!"

The man reached around to his back and patted the sword scabbard. He smiled slightly. "Other than this sword, your master is all alone. When the body dies, the Dao vanishes. What use would your revenge be?"

The boy asked in confusion, "Isn't there still Zhenwu Mountain as your sect?"

The man kept him in suspense. "Zhenwu Mountain is different from other sects in Eastern Treasure Vase Continent. You'll understand once you go up the mountain."

The tiger tally at the man's waist gave a slight jump. The man pressed it for a moment and then said in a deep voice, "We must return to the town quickly! We military cultivators are almost instinctive in avoiding danger and foreseeing the future."

The boy rolled his eyes. "Even if the town turns upside down, with outsiders and townsfolk slaying each other in rivers of blood, what's it to me? We've agreed—I can promise not to take lives lightly, but I absolutely won't engage in any acts of chivalry or helping the needy."

The man's face turned grave. He grabbed the boy's shoulder and commanded, "Don't speak! Hold your breath!"

The two figures flickered and vanished, reappearing over a dozen zhang away the next moment, repeating this cycle like a series of skips Ma Kuxuan had made on the creek water.

---

Apart from the scrape on his back from Ma Kuxuan's stone, Chen Ping'an didn't have many external injuries. But this definitely didn't mean Chen Ping'an was feeling good. The most troublesome was the palm of his left hand. Going into the water to feel for stones and catch fish had slowed the healing. This fight with Ma Kuxuan, fist against fist, only made things worse. So when tearing off the old cotton strips, even Chen Ping'an could only open one of his waist pouches, take out a porcelain bottle, and drink the thick medicinal concoction inside. It was the prescription from Yang's Pharmacy back then. It was useless for anything except stopping pain.

After Ning Yao retrieved that ancient-looking dress-weight knife, she cut off a large section of her inner shirt's sleeve, tore it into strips, and helped the sweating Chen Ping'an finish bandaging. She asked, "Does that folk prescription from Yang's Pharmacy really work?"

Chen Ping'an gently shook his left hand and forced a faint smile. "Very useful. It really hurt just now. I've felt this kind of pain twice before."

Ning Yao scolded, "You could see the white bone in the flesh of your palm—how could it not hurt? Do you think you've cultivated an indestructible Arhat golden body or become a Daoist Perfected Lord with a pure body? You and your showing off! Clashing with that Ma Kuxuan—he said one-on-one fight, right? Fine, he can take on both of us, no problem. Even I, the great Ning Yao, don't think it's shameful. You, on the other hand, are addicted to playing hero. Maybe next time you can go one-on-one with the Zhengyang Mountain Moving Mountain Ape, and I'll clap and cheer for you?"

Chen Ping'an was just about to reason with her about his views and logic.

The girl suddenly glared, and the boy immediately nodded, "Miss Ning is right."

Ning Yao squinted angrily. "Mouth says yes, heart doesn't—think I don't know?"

Chen Ping'an chuckled, his eyes stealing glances at the dress-weight knife in her hand. At first glance, it was tiny and cute; upon closer inspection, its edge was cold and sharp.

The boy felt that this dress-weight knife and its owner were exactly opposites.

Ning Yao had Chen Ping'an raise his right hand and lightly placed the dress-weight knife back into the sheath bound to his arm. She warned, "Don't overstep your bounds, and don't have any improper thoughts about this knife!"

Chen Ping'an said helplessly, "Miss Ning, you're overthinking it."

Ning Yao suddenly pointed at the earliest broken-armed Lingguan statue. "That pitch-black stone base—do you know what kind of stone it's made of?"

Chen Ping'an nodded. "I know. You've asked the right person, Miss Ning. If we follow the creek into the mountains, we have to go a long way—at least half a day, I reckon—before we see a black stone cliff. It's all this kind of stone, extremely hard. You can't chip off even a tiny piece with a hammer, let alone cut it with a woodcutter's knife. There are several sunken, long grooves on the cliff, with a bit of a slope, not very smooth. Whenever Old Yao passes by, he takes out his woodcutter's knife and sharpens it on them. And honestly, after sharpening, the knife really becomes shiny and bright, very different from before."

Ning Yao rubbed her forehead, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Used to sharpen a woodchopping knife..."

Chen Ping'an's eyes lit up. "Valuable?!"

Ning Yao said irritably, "Even if it's valuable, can you get even a tiny piece from that entire continuous stone cliff? I'll tell you, even ordinary immortals can't do it! Unless it's a Great Sword Immortal with immense killing power, willing to sacrifice a divine weapon, only then can you split off about two three-foot-long stone strips. Sword cultivators specifically call them 'Dragon-Slaying Platforms.' Each one is naturally priceless."

Chen Ping'an fell into deep thought.

Ning Yao's eyes also lit up suddenly. "There's ready-made sword-sharpening stone right under the Lingguan statue's feet! This big, just enough to split into two Dragon-Slaying Platforms."

As if his pants were on fire, Chen Ping'an quickly urged, "Miss Ning, we can't dismantle it and take it home! That Lord Lingguan is already aggrieved enough. If we also take away his footing..."

Ning Yao abruptly stood up and snorted coldly. "Take?! Am I that kind of person?"

Then Chen Ping'an followed the girl towards that Daoist Lingguan statue. Standing before the painted clay statue, Ning Yao took a step forward, pressing one hand on her knife sheath and the other on her sword sheath, heroic and spirited. She looked up and shouted, "My name is Ning Yao! Today, if you gift me this three-foot ground beneath your feet, then in the future, when I, Ning Yao, achieve the Sword Immortal realm, I will repay you a hundredfold, a thousandfold!"

Chen Ping'an's mouth fell open. He thought, That works?

Sure enough, the clay statue showed no reaction.

The girl didn't give up. She continued, "Not willing to give, huh? Then I, Ning Yao, will borrow it from you, alright? The kind where you borrow and return."

Ning Yao turned her head and winked at Chen Ping'an. "This is borrowing, not taking, understand?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head vigorously and answered honestly, "I don't understand!"

Ning Yao was about to thoroughly explain the difference between "taking" and "borrowing" to the wooden block Chen Ping'an, when Chen Ping'an suddenly shouted, "Careful!"

As he spoke, Chen Ping'an's body moved and he yanked Ning Yao behind him.

It turned out that the Lingguan statue, after enduring a thousand years of wind and sun, finally collapsed with a thunderous crash on this day. It fell forward, shattering completely, not appearing as a heap of a leg here and an arm there. Even its originally lifelike large-bearded head was reduced to powder.

From the earth it came, to the earth it returned.

As if its journey in the mortal world was truly complete.

Moreover, the wonder of this incident was that considering the height of the Lingguan statue and the distance between the two youths and the stone base, the former was much greater. Logically, even if Chen Ping'an and Ning Yao weren't crushed, they would at least have been heavily hit. But as it turned out, after the clay statue turned to dust, it only reached as far as their feet.

The well-traveled Ning Yao swallowed hard, feeling a bit guilty. Looking down at the flying dust, she muttered, "You're way too stingy. If you don't want to lend, just say so. Did you have to go for mutual destruction?"

Chen Ping'an suddenly shook his head. "This is called a Buddha nodding. It means he agreed."

Ning Yao stood side by side with the boy, looking at the debris and dust, then at the bare black Dragon-Slaying Platform further away, and finally turned to Chen Ping'an. She asked tentatively, "Are you sure?"

Chen Ping'an smiled. "I'm sure!"

Ning Yao believed him, without a shred of doubt.

Even she didn't know why.

Finally, led by Chen Ping'an, Ning Yao helped move the clay debris into a pit that had been dug nearby and covered it with soil.

Chen Ping'an bowed his head and recited silently, "Whether human or deity, may you rest in peace in the earth."

Ning Yao also bowed her head and whispered, "Rest in peace in the earth."

After finishing this, Ning Yao asked curiously, "Chen Ping'an, is this a local custom of your town? A rule passed down from ancestors?"

Chen Ping'an shook his head. "No, it's just what I think."

Ning Yao raised an eyebrow.

Chen Ping'an asked with a smile, "Miss Ning, don't you feel at ease in your heart after doing this?"

Ning Yao also shook her head. "No feeling."

Chen Ping'an scratched his head, looked at the black stone base, and asked, "Is it called Dragon-Slaying Platform?"

Ning Yao hummed in affirmation. "Martial artists might call it a knife-sharpening stone or sword-sharpening stone. Only mountain sword cultivators call it Dragon-Slaying Platform."

Ning Yao turned to look southwest, her eyes distant. She said softly, "In my homeland, it's also called sword-sharpening stone. Everyone has one, varying in size. Usually only as big as a fist. Even some sword cultivators from declining families with low cultivation only have a thumb-sized sword-sharpening stone left, and they still treasure it more than their lives. It's not unheard of. My family also has one, very big..."

Chen Ping'an asked softly, "How big?"

The girl murmured, "Bigger than your house in Ni Ping Alley, I guess."

The boy was utterly shocked, then said with extreme envy, "Miss Ning, your family is really rich! And with such a big sword-sharpening stone, you don't have to worry about it being stolen. How nice! Unlike me, I finally saved a little copper, but no matter where I hide it, I can't sleep soundly."

The homesick girl, who had been a bit melancholy, suddenly had her worries vanish. She laughed, "This sword-sharpening stone, half for each!"

The boy waved his hand. "What would I do with it? I do have a woodcutter's knife at home, but why would I need such a precious sharpening stone? Every time I sharpen the knife, I'd feel pained. Why bother? So, Miss Ning, you take it all. Oh, by the way, aren't you planning to ask Master Ruan to forge a sword for you? You could use the other half as payment for the sword forging..."

Ning Yao said helplessly, "Chen Ping'an, are you really stupid or just careless?"

Chen Ping'an thought for a moment and laughed. "Miss Ning, just think of me as a hopeless goody-two-shoes."

Ning Yao suddenly pointed at the boy with a look of sudden realization. She squinted and smiled. "Chen Ping'an, confess honestly—are you up to no good, thinking that one day you'll turn 'Miss Ning' into your own wife, and then everything of mine will be yours? That abacus you're playing is clicking away. Impressive!"

The boy wanted to cry but had no tears. The corners of his mouth twitched. What was that saying Song Jixin once said? To impute a crime, one need not lack for words.

Ning Yao laughed heartily. "Look how scared you got. I was just joking."

Chen Ping'an sighed, feeling a bit mentally exhausted.

Ning Yao suddenly said seriously, "Careful! My flying sword is already on its way back!"

Chen Ping'an braced himself as if facing a great enemy.