Chapter 1100: A Sword Can Defeat a Single Person
A man who has attained the Dao, a figure of a sword immortal, can seemingly silence heaven and earth with a single word.
Xiao Pu remained silent as a cicada in winter. She was instantly certain that the life-and-death struggle at the Ma residence earlier was definitely not, as they had estimated, a Jade Marvel versus Jade Marvel battle with added martial arts against divine abilities.
Rather, it was Immortal against Immortal.
Regarding the cost paid by Chen Ping'an and the White Jade Capital's Sect Leader Lu for borrowing realms and Daoist methods, Xiao Pu had previously made her own estimate together with Senior Brother Liu. Even if Chen Ping'an was a martial artist at the Martial Saint tier, she still felt he would definitely fall all the way down to the Cave Dwelling tier. Senior Brother Liu, however, said that Chen Ping'an's martial body was extraordinary—on Parasol Leaf Continent, he had entered the Martial Saint tier with the strongest foundation and the martial fortune, reaching the Vigorous Qi layer. That would help Chen Ping'an halt the downward spiral, stopping at the Golden Core tier.
Liu Taozhi had to help smooth things over, explaining, "Back then, the Vindicators expelled by Cui Chan were only our West Mountain Sword Hermits lineage. This has no connection to Qin Buyi and Xiao Pu's lineage. Their comings and goings on Treasure Bottle Continent are not bound by Great Li's rules. If it weren't for the fact that both the West Mountain Sword Hermits and Cherry and Blue Robes lineages needed to follow Headquarters’ orders and take turns guarding Senior Uncle Cheng, I, Liu, would not have set foot on Treasure Bottle Continent again."
Chen Ping'an smiled and corrected, "It was a courteous escort out, not an expulsion. Senior Brother Cui was quite polite to the West Mountain Sword Hermits lineage."
Xiao Pu had a straightforward temper and couldn't stand this kind of sarcasm. She almost added fuel to the fire: The Great Li dynasty, which now only controls half a continent, how can it meddle in southern affairs?
Liu Taozhi first warned Xiao Pu via heart-to-heart voice to guard her Dao heart and not bring ruin upon herself. Then he continued explaining, "Back when Xiao Pu was breaking through from Nascent Soul in secluded cultivation, the process was extremely perilous. Her heart demon manifested as a man surnamed Chen from a past life karmic bond. Later, during a certain assassination attempt, Xiao Pu had her true body shattered by a sword immortal. Within Qu City's borders, she ultimately could not escape that blade calamity and was reduced to a ghost. So today, meeting Sword Immortal Chen, she lost her composure somewhat."
A heart demon is a man surnamed Chen, the one who shattered her true body was also a Chen-surnamed sword immortal, and now she has to deal with another Chen. It really doesn't feel good.
At Liu Taozhi's mention of her painful past, the woman in the green skirt snorted coldly. Old affairs are old affairs, but for the stubborn Xiao Pu, each and every one felt as if they had just happened.
Then Xiao Pu's expression turned desolate. Common street toughs always say, "I swear I won't be human again until I take revenge," but she was already a ghost, and yet she still couldn't get her vengeance. If one said the vendetta was so deep that they couldn't coexist under the same sky, that wasn't entirely wrong.
She was a ghost, and her enemy was still alive. They walked different paths in the dark and the light—that much was true. However, she now still walked under the broad daylight, while he had long hidden away elsewhere. Several times, Xiao Pu crossed boundaries, using merits to exchange with Headquarters for two or three pieces of news, and repeatedly spending yin virtue to buy "road permits." Unfortunately, she always failed to find him through all that toil. In that sense, it truly was "not coexisting under the same sky" in the literal sense.
Chen Ping'an had gone to Yuxuan Kingdom and already taken his revenge. What about her? Comparing people drives people crazy. Comparing ghosts to people—does it drive ghosts crazy?
Chen Ping'an said, "The cultivator and sword immortal Chen Ping'an can understand, but Cui Chan's junior brother and the new Great Li State Preceptor do not accept it."
He glanced at Xiao Pu of the Cherry and Blue Robes lineage.
Even a Minister of Justice of a whole country had been rejected, and they wanted him to be a county magistrate? After failing to persuade him with an invitation, they still thought he was being ungrateful and not giving face. Who had the bigger face?
A female ghost immortal, Xiao Pu, originally a top assassin from the Cherry and Blue Robes lineage, should have had a Dao heart as firm as iron, unshakable as a mountain, not weak as paper drifting in the wind.
Xiao Pu remained silent. Only because Senior Brother Liu warned her via heart-to-heart voice: if she continued to be reckless with her words, Liu Taozhi would invoke Headquarters’ rules.
In fact, there were two more reasons that Liu Taozhi did not voice.
The young sword immortal before them, whose Dao aura was so thick it nearly formed its own heaven and earth realm, was indisputably extremely strong in spirit. Hence his yang qi was pure, blazing like fire, following his qi in a flow like rushing water, rising to his eyes and forming their brilliance.
For a ghost, even if he stood still without moving, it was equivalent to a sword challenge. Liu Taozhi, at the Immortal realm, had put hard work into nourishing qi within the Daoist tradition and could handle it calmly. Xiao Pu, only at the Jade Marvel realm, was easily led by the nose by Chen Ping'an's Dao aura and state of mind. The situation was quite subtle—the ghost Xiao Pu, upon seeing Chen Ping'an, felt as if she were involuntarily holding up a mirror to herself. Even more subtle was that the "person in the mirror," Chen Ping'an, seemed able to move Xiao Pu's state of mind, making her emotional and unrestrained, like a puppet on strings.
Furthermore, among the Vindicators, Xiao Pu was the one most entangled with Chen Ping'an, bar none.
Whether Liu Taozhi or Qin Buyi, the Chen Ping'an they saw was more the young Hidden Officer, the disciple of the Literary Sage. So when they met, they could keep things clean and straightforward, sticking to business.
Not so for Xiao Pu. She had seen many things about Chen Ping'an in his younger days, so it was hardest for her to remain calm. Of course, Chen Ping'an was still young now.
But Liu Taozhi believed Chen Ping'an had already thought of these two reasons. Whether he said them or not made no difference.
Liu Taozhi said, "The position of leader of Xiao Pu's lineage has been vacant for centuries. For hundreds of years, Xiao Pu has been busy running around, traversing three continents. Especially during that great war, she went voluntarily to Parasol Leaf Continent to accumulate external merits, hoping to fill the vacancy. In the Cherry and Blue Robes lineage, after Qin Buyi stepped down, no one has emerged who is both virtuous and highly accomplished in Dao, capable of winning everyone's respect. About a hundred years ago, Headquarters established a new rule for Cherry and Blue Robes: the one with the most merits becomes the leader, the one with the highest realm becomes the law enforcer, and the one with the deepest Dao power becomes the herald, responsible for finding immortal seedling talents."
Chen Ping'an nodded. If fairness lies in people's hearts, then earned merits certainly cannot be dismissed.
He glanced at Xiao Pu again.
This woman in the green skirt was one of the three candidates for the leader position of the Cherry and Blue Robes lineage. How high were the realms of the other two candidates?
Xiao Pu looked at him.
Had he seen through her carefully arranged landscape barrier and recognized her true face? Don't tell me he was like that certain prodigy boy who had long coveted Gongsun Lingling—not liking slender young beauties, but preferring plump older women? Was that why he hadn't been interested in Sui Jingcheng, who had the beauty to topple cities? Different taste?
Chen Ping'an smiled.
First Gao Zhu's "excessive indulgence in wine and women," and now the green-skirt woman's "wrong approach." Your eyes are all on your butts.
Feeling the atmosphere was too tense and there was no need to make things so stiff, Liu Taozhi laughed and said, "Since the deal with State Preceptor Chen didn't work out, Yuan Chaoxian of Hu Prefecture has already arrived at this Chongyang Temple. From now on, sect affairs can all be left to Xiao Pu to handle. Headquarters won't find any fault. I'm happy to be free, shed my burdens, and try my luck on another continent. Truth be told, State Preceptor Chen, when it comes to selecting immortal seedling talents, earthly talents, and martial prodigies for Falling Mountain, the Great Li imperial clan may not be better than us. The Great Li court can only search for fine jade and beautiful materials within Treasure Bottle Continent and Parasol Leaf Continent. But we can silently work for twenty years across the eight continents of Haoran for a Supreme Guest Elder of the Headquarters. By the time Falling Mountain ends its seclusion and reopens, the number of cultivators on the sect genealogy registers for the upper sect will likely be no less than that of the lower sect..."
Chen Ping'an waved his hand and laughed, "Busy has its benefits, idle has its leisure. Senior Liu need not persuade further."
One should not hit a smiling face, and courtesy never offends. Chen Ping'an pondered for a moment, then said, "The West Mountain Sword Hermits lineage, from now on, whether they are here secretly guarding for their senior masters or going elsewhere outside Great Li's Hu Prefecture to ferry people back to the sect and glorify their lineage, there is no problem. But I'll say the ugly truth first: I will report and file a record of this with the Great Li court."
Liu Taozhi, Xiao Pu, and Lord Junqing are all noble scholars. I regard you as bright moon and clear wind, righteous gentlemen. Don't treat me and the Great Li court as fools.
Liu Taozhi caught the hint immediately and nodded, "If there is a conflict with the Great Li Ministry of Justice's Sticky Pole Lads over a certain cultivation genius, members of the West Mountain Sword Hermits lineage will take the initiative to yield a step and choose another place to select disciples."
Probably this was mutual respect and reciprocity.
Sensing Chen Ping'an's gaze lingering on her again, Xiao Pu had to add, "I haven't become the leader of the Cherry and Blue Robes main sect yet, so I can't guarantee anything. But I will write a letter to Headquarters with a few suggestions: when encountering Great Li's Ministry of Justice honored officials or Sticky Pole Lads outside, we will take the initiative to yield. However, whether this comes to pass still depends on Headquarters' deliberation. I don't have the final say."
Chen Ping'an nodded with a smile, "The beginning of a business deal is not about money or goods, but about integrity."
But Xiao Pu couldn't help feeling uneasy—more than once or twice, this man didn't look at her face but rather her figure.
A man looking at a woman: not at the face but at the chest, not focusing on the eyes and brows but on the waist and hips. Was he really of the same taste as that thief Jiang?
What Chen Ping'an was truly interested in, of course, was not the nonsense Xiao Pu misunderstood.
Rather, it was the dharma robe on the green-skirt woman, which had multiple layers of magical restrictions. It seemed to be a semi-immortal artifact at least, possibly even reaching the rank of an immortal artifact—a supreme treasure of the mountain realm.
Moreover, the more Chen Ping'an looked, the more familiar it seemed. Earlier, in the Joy Mountain territory, the true man Cheng Qian, who looked like a child, wore a dharma robe with a magnificent aura. It was the mountain-guarding treasure passed down through generations of the Golden Que Sect, inherited from a discarded disciple of Celestial Lord Cao Rong. It itself was a "wordless Dao scripture." It helped Cheng Qian break through the barriers between yin and yang, to a certain extent ignoring the restrictions separating the living and the dead, allowing him to pass through the Ghost Gate and walk on the Yellow Spring Road in the form of a living person. However, how far he could go in the underworld probably depended on the cultivator's merits and Dao power.
But what the green-skirt woman wore was somewhat different from Cheng Qian's Daoist robe. It wasn't just that its rank was higher; it also contained the Seven Luminaries of sun, moon, and the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—with differences in leftward and rightward rotation. Cheng Qian's robe rotated leftward; the green-skirt woman's robe rotated rightward. That made sense.
True Man Cheng Qian was a living person, while Xiao Pu was a ghostly being. They needed the opposite to invert yin and yang, ultimately achieving the same goal through different paths, each relying on their robe to walk the underworld's nether roads.
Liu Taozhi said via heart-to-heart voice with a smile, "Xiao Pu, our heart-to-heart voices right now—State Preceptor Chen can hear them. As for other thoughts beyond heart-to-heart voices, whether they can also be seen through by State Preceptor Chen, I'm not sure. Hard to confirm."
Xiao Pu's Dao heart trembled, her expression turning ugly. She was more horrified than surprised.
Chen Ping'an smiled slightly, "My realm is low; it's only because we are not far apart that I can barely hear vague heart-to-heart voices. As for thoughts, those are too hidden. I can't see through them. I can only rely on wild guesses, and they may not be accurate."
Liu Taozhi laughed, "State Preceptor Chen truly treats others with sincerity."
Chen Ping'an smiled, "I suspect that wasn't meant as a compliment but as a sarcastic remark?"
Xiao Pu let out a quiet sigh, thinking to herself, not to mention others, but in her whole life, whenever she met someone surnamed Chen, nothing good came of it.
Was she indebted to the Chens in her past life?
Chen Ping'an cupped his hands in a fist-and-palm salute, "Until we meet again. Next time, we'll drink."
Liu Taozhi returned the salute, "Next time we meet, it'll probably be on another continent, both strangers in a foreign land. Then I, Liu, will try some of Second Shopkeeper's Azure Spirit Mountain wine and see if it's genuine."
Chen Ping'an laughed it off and turned to leave.
Last time at the Confucian Temple council, the Lady of Azure Spirit Mountain from the Bamboo Sea Cave Heaven didn't say anything. Whether you outsiders say it's real or fake doesn't count anyway.
Liu Taozhi was about to return to the stone platform to finish his lessons before leaving Chongyang Temple and Treasure Bottle Continent.
Just as the figure in the blue long gown took his first step in turning around, in an instant, the green-skirt woman, who had been wallowing in self-pity, seemed to have her body invaded like a cuckoo taking over a nest. Xiao Pu's soul, along with that immortal-artifact-rank dharma robe, suddenly became like a piece of laundry being wrung out by a woman washing clothes by the water's edge. The water was squeezed out, and the cloth twisted into a rope-like segment, shaped like a short spear or a green long sword, shooting straight in a line toward the back of the young sword immortal and State Preceptor Chen.
The anomaly occurred too fast, utterly silent. Liu Taozhi barely had time to touch his toes to the ground, his figure drifting toward the giant rock in midair. But relying on his assassin's instinct, he sensed something wrong and abruptly turned his head. The ghost immortal was stunned, eyes wide. Even with his resolute Dao heart, he was inevitably too late to intervene. However, Liu Taozhi did not just sit idly by and let the situation worsen. He wanted to grab "Xiao Pu's" soul and hold it in place, even if doing so would tear her soul apart from the dharma robe, damaging the foundation of her Great Way. That would still be better than letting "Xiao Pu" attack again, lost to madness, and risk a desperate mutual destruction with Sword Immortal Chen.
In a daze, Liu Taozhi felt as if the axis of heaven and the pivot of earth were turning together. The scene before his eyes changed repeatedly, as if someone was pressing his head down and making him look at dozens of scrolls and albums on a table...
Finally, Liu Taozhi found himself in a vast, boundless void. A brilliant galaxy sparkled with five colors, resplendent, and a golden bridge stretched across this Grand Void realm.
"Xiao Pu's" soul, along with the green skirt, launched this assassination with irresistible momentum. Liu Taozhi continuously formed hand seals, supplemented with sword techniques, but found he could not stop Xiao Pu's soul in the slightest.
He could only watch helplessly as that streak of green, in a single surge, broke through all the thin, paper-like illusionary realms, producing a series of faint tearing sounds.
Then it successively broke through the dense sword formations, talisman formations, and thunder formations the other had hastily set up, the thick fist intent like divine protection, several dharma robes. Whether it was a spear tip or a sword tip, it pressed against Chen Ping'an's back and pierced straight through!
"That Xiao Pu" was not satisfied. She clearly wanted to go further, to completely smash the young sword immortal's body and then shatter his soul, making him not just fall in realm but surely die and vanish from the Dao.
Perhaps the resilience of Chen Ping'an's physique and soul, along with the existence of "Caged Sparrow" and "Moon in the Well"—the three factors combined—exceeded the assassin's expectations.
In the boundless Grand Void realm, the assassin let out a slow sigh. So close, yet failed. Killing just an Immortal was this hard?
If it was only wounding without killing, no matter how severe Chen Ping'an's injuries, even if he fell to a realm no different from a mortal, it would still be meaningless.
This person's Dao age was not high, yet he was hard to kill. But the assassin had not expected it to be this hard.
Truly the will of heaven.
The path to merging with the Dao at the 14th tier—was there no shortcut?
Since one strike didn't succeed, there was no choice but to retreat.
Liu Taozhi seemed to fall into a drowning situation again, his breath catching.
The scroll-like scenes receded like the tide.
At the same time, deep in Xiao Pu's soul, a "guest" the size of a mustard seed shattered with a bang, dissipating into a wisp of green smoke and being taken away.
Earlier, when a slender river of time had been offered, that was one of this person's magical paths.
Indeed, nothing in heaven and earth could better eliminate Dao traces and destroy evidence than this.
That existence let out a surprised "eh" internally, unexpectedly startled. It turned out that the young Hidden Officer had stood still without moving, not following his refined sliver of time water and section of Yellow Spring Road. Instead, he chose to get injured rather than be swept along by the river of time, which would have carried him back along the current to the "original place" where he and Xiao Pu and Liu Taozhi had been moments ago.
Chen Ping'an spoke hoarsely, addressing it from afar, "Wait for me."
Everything returned to normal. Outside Chongyang Temple's pavilion, Xiao Pu's face was pale and colorless, as if she had lived a lifetime apart, her mind a mess.
Liu Taozhi's heart was exceedingly heavy. If earlier, Chen Ping'an's condemning questions could still be smoothed over a bit by him, now that this had happened, how could accounts be settled?
Minimally, it was the Cherry and Blue Robes and West Mountain Sword Hermits lineages harboring a grudge and assassinating the Great Li State Preceptor. Maximally, it was the three Vindicator lineages colluding with the Barren Wastes?
In contrast, Chen Ping'an, the target of the assassination, turned around, his expression calm.
He had thought he would inexplicably receive a sword strike from Lord Wu on the Green Essence Heaven side.
Instead, it was a ghostly being that struck first, only intent on killing, only seeking murder. What was that other party after?
Back in the day on the city wall, just after Chen Ping'an had taken the position of Hidden Officer, a native sword cultivator of the Sword Qi Great Wall had similarly, without warning, launched a murderous attack.
He had suffered a loss once and wouldn't make the same mistake twice. So this second visit to Chongyang Temple, he came prepared, wearing several dharma robes and a military family's divine armor.
Guarding against thieves day after day makes one skilled through practice.
Even the 14th-tier female Daoist, Lord Wu's sword sent across the heavens, Chen Ping'an was ready to receive. This time, it wasn't even a 14th-tier. If he couldn't even block that, he might as well hide in Falling Mountain or move to the Confucian Temple's Merit Forest to read books.
So this sudden, inexplicable ambush, which Liu Taozhi and Xiao Pu found terrifying, was actually fine for Chen Ping'an, the target.
Why did Chen Ping'an look multiple times at Xiao Pu's dharma robe?
Even if he was "dazzled by the sight of money," Chen Ping'an minded his manners. How could he repeatedly stare at a woman?
Generally speaking, a new 14th-tier from the Barren Wastes wishing to smash a spell at Chen Ping'an of the Haoran Heaven side and then run away would first have to get past the Rites Sage and the Confucian Temple. It wasn't entirely impossible, but it was unlikely. Because the Rites Sage was beyond the heavens, watching that "Azure Path." So after much thought, what Chen Ping'an worried about most was a sneaky "detour"—for example, a great cultivator using some netherworld path to assassinate him.
That was why Chen Ping'an paid such close attention to the dharma robe on the green-skirt woman, being as careful as possible.
Xiao Pu naturally found it impossible to explain herself. Several times she tried to speak, but swallowed the words back.
Liu Taozhi was also helpless. How could he explain this to Chen Ping'an, let alone to the Central Confucian Temple?
That assassin—no matter how it had possessed Xiao Pu—its realm was high and its methods mysterious, beyond imagination.
A peak Ascension-tier cultivator's ultimate spell?
No, it had reached perfection, only half a step away?
Was it a certain "14th-tier candidate" deliberately targeting Chen Ping'an in a long-planned, sneaky assassination?!
Chen Ping'an had indeed been injured severely in his battle with Ma Kuxuan.
Adding this blow made things worse.
Chen Ping'an coughed a few times, clenched his fist against his mouth, rested a moment, then withdrew his hand into his sleeve and smiled, "It's nothing."
He added another line to ease the atmosphere, "Senior Liu need not overthink."
Liu Taozhi smiled bitterly. This counted as nothing?!
Even Xiao Pu, upon hearing this, felt like giving the man a thumbs-up. Such a magnanimous husband, the Hidden Officer is truly a hero!
Chen Ping'an thought for a moment, then explained, "Liu Taozhi, Xiao Pu, you really don't need to feel guilty. I should actually thank Xiao Pu for taking a calamity meant for a certain friend of mine."
Otherwise, it would have been Zeng Ye in the Book Tear Lake? Or the female ghost Xue Ruyi in the imperial city?
Chen Ping'an had roughly figured out a thread. He looked at the green-skirt woman and smiled, "However, Xiao Pu should also thank me once, for sparing her a blade calamity and removing a hidden impurity from her flawed Dao heart. It cancels out. None of us need to bother with insincere thanks."
"A cultivator, relying on external things, acting recklessly, crossing the boundary of yin and yang to seek clues about enemies in the netherworld—this cannot be done repeatedly."
"One who often walks by the water cannot avoid wetting their shoes. Walking the night path too much is not good. Needing revenge doesn't mean giving your head to the enemy on a platter."
"If I'm not mistaken, that Chen-surnamed enemy you have been searching for so hard either long ago attached itself to this ghostly being in the underworld or was devoured clean by it."
Perhaps each ghostly being in the yang world is like a landscape ferry, allowing it to "cross over."
The name "Chen Ping'an" might be like the blue banner of a tavern in some immortal ferry inn?
Xiao Pu patiently pricked up her ears to listen to a young man's teachings, not at all annoyed.
She had never been so humble even before her most respected senior sister, Qin Buyi.
Knowing that Senior Brother Liu was here to guard her, she only said that this time, she had rushed from Northern Juzhou to Treasure Bottle Continent, to this Yuxuan Kingdom's capital, wanting to watch Chen Ping'an take revenge on the Ma clan of Wusha Street. Could such a thought really be her own? What a ghostly coincidence!
At this moment, Xiao Pu felt as if a heavy stone had been lifted from her heart. Her Dao heart became somewhat clearer.
Chen Ping'an saw she wasn't moving and had to remind her, "Xiao Pu, as a precaution, you should deliver this dharma robe to Headquarters for re-refinement to be safe."
Xiao Pu, slow to react, quickly reached out, grabbed the hem of the dharma robe, and pulled it off. Not daring to keep it on her person, she handed it to Liu Taozhi, who quickly stored it in his sleeve. Liu Taozhi did not dare to be careless and used several methods of suppressing victory.
She still appeared as a woman in a green skirt. Perhaps because the illusion technique coexisted with the dharma robe, her face and figure changed, fully embodying the beauty of plumpness.
Inside the pavilion, the scene of the boy and girl, separated by a short distance, had long become shrouded in dense white mist, indistinct.
But Chen Ping'an understood in his heart.
Such a hot potato, Liu Taozhi readily accepted it. The key was that this sword immortal didn't even have the slightest second thought about it. This showed that the three Vindicator lineages were indeed close-knit, generous and open in their actions.
A speck of resentment in Chen Ping'an's heart also disappeared.
Earlier, his verbal claim of not caring was just lip service. Now he truly wouldn't hold it against them.
This is what it means to treat others with sincerity and match words with deeds.
Liu Taozhi seemed to sense Chen Ping'an's probing and smiled bitterly inwardly.
On the wall of Chongyang Temple stood a young woman with her hair tied in a bun.
It was Pei Qian, who had come from the capital's City God Temple.
Hearing Pei Qian's secret message, Chen Ping'an smiled and nodded, "A mistake of yin and yang, a coincidence upon coincidence."
It turned out that the highest-ranking City God Lord among the City God Temples of Haoran Heaven, Zhou Fangyu, happened to be on an incognito inspection of Treasure Bottle Continent with General Fan.
As a result, a ghostly being from the underworld committed a murderous act right under his nose. This forced City God Zhou to immediately return to that City God Temple in the Central Continent, activate a certain divine object forged by the Rites Sage and consecrated by the Ultimate Sage, Foremost Teacher, and personally make a trip to Fengdu. Before leaving, Zhou Fangyu asked Pei Qian to pass a message, apologizing to her master on his behalf, and then made an exception revealing a sliver of heavenly secret. According to Zhou Fangyu's deduction results, this ghostly being, which had been barred from the threshold of the 14th tier for many years, intended to kill Chen Ping'an, the last Hidden Officer of the Sword Qi Great Wall. By doing so, it would represent all the souls of the Barren Wastes' demon tribe who died in battle at the Sword Qi Great Wall in seeking "justice" from the impartial Heavenly Dao. With that, it would earn a huge amount of yin virtue as resources for merging with the Dao at the 14th tier. With that "travel money," it might take one more step on the ghost path.
As for the ghostly being's identity, it was not suitable to reveal for now. But this incident—the Fengdu underworld and the human realm's City God Temples—would surely produce an account.
Earlier, there had indeed been a majestic voice, loud as thunder, that echoed through a small half of the vast underworld territory in the uncivilized lands not under Fengdu's jurisdiction.
"I shall remove a demon for the world and forcefully slay the living man Chen Ping'an in the yang world!"
Before the countless billions of ghostly beings in the underworld could react, the sound gradually faded.
Then, countless ghostly beings of Barren Wastes demon origin walking the path looked up and around, a noisy uproar, waiting for good news.
But they waited in vain, not knowing whether that fellow Chen Ping'an had been slain. Under the scolding and whipping of a throng of underworld messengers, they had to continue on their way with heads down.
And that 14th-tier candidate ghostly being, using several life-saving methods that greatly reduced its cultivation, abandoned its cultivation site, fled again and again, and vanished without a trace from then on.
Zhou Fangyu revealed his majestic dharma manifestation, raised one arm high, holding a divine object as if bearing a blazing great sun. He cleared the way, using infinite light to melt the endless dark curtain. Accompanied by the four divine generals Gan, Liu, Fan, and Xie, and several Yama Kings from certain halls of Fengdu, he arrived at the cultivation site the ghostly being had abandoned.
Pei Qian asked worriedly, "Master, are you alright?"
Chen Ping'an smiled, "Just a small injury—a light rain. Your master won't be rolling on the ground in pain and losing his masterful demeanor."
Pei Qian grinned.
Chen Ping'an took his leave of Liu Taozhi and the others, used the technique of shrinking the ground to inches, arrived at the wall, and then jumped down with Pei Qian, walking toward that small residence.
Liu Taozhi, looking like a burly Taoist, returned to the stone platform. Xiao Pu didn't want those two junior nephews to see her true face, so she reapplied her illusion technique and sat at the edge of the stone platform.
Liu Taozhi smiled, "Why didn't you say some of what was actually in your heart? Why did you have to be so sharp-tongued? With him, every word you said was unpleasant."
Xiao Pu's temperament—one only had to look at her long friendships with Zhu Quan of the Sackcloth Mourning Sect and Xie Songhua of the White Snowy Continent to understand.
"I have thin skin. I can't learn from Zhu Quan and Xie Songhua's nonstop crude jokes."
Xiao Pu said impatiently, "Besides, men and women are different. If Senior Brother Liu expresses admiration for the young Hidden Officer, that's mutual appreciation between men. But if I, a woman, do it, I'd be afraid he'd misunderstand and think I have feelings for him."
Liu Taozhi asked a good question, "Feelings?"
Xiao Pu seemed to answer off-topic, but smiled charmingly, "Meaningless."
Liu Taozhi laughed heartily.
Inside the pavilion, the two children were astonished. Their master had such a genuine moment? Was it a ghost?
Xiao Pu asked, "He clearly approves of our operating principles. Becoming a noble Supreme Guest Elder of Headquarters is a pie falling from the sky. Why did he refuse? The Embroidered Tiger passed down the study of practical achievements, and Chen Ping'an is the only one who truly mastered it, the one who inherited his mantle. As the final disciple of the Literary Sage's lineage, it's normal that he wouldn't want to join us. But now that he's the Great Li State Preceptor, why still refuse?"
Liu Taozhi said, "Mr. Chen already gave the answer."
Xiao Pu raised an eyebrow, "How so?"
Liu Taozhi smiled, "How did he evaluate Cui Cheng?"
Xiao Pu understood. So that was it.
Fist arts do not overstep the rules, and they are not greater than learning.
Applied to Chen Ping'an, among all his layers of identity, the greatest is that of a pure sword cultivator?
Liu Taozhi continued, "Besides, Chen Sword Immortal's situation is special now. Practicing the sword is the top priority; he cannot afford to slack off even for a moment. Otherwise, he wouldn't have rejected even the Confucian Temple's invitation. We outsiders think that at just over forty, he has already reached the Immortal realm, breaking through like splitting bamboo—fast enough. But he himself may not think so. He might even think it's too slow. Some old grudges—outsiders see them through fog, not understanding the inside story, but we Vindicators roughly know them."
"Practicing fist to prolong life, then a turn of fortune—dark willows and bright flowers, another village. He continued the bridge of immortality, finally becoming a sword cultivator at the Sword Qi Great Wall. Now that he's returned alive to Haoran, there's hope to reach the peak and see the path. Indeed, he should not be distracted and must be single-minded with no other concerns."
"After a thousand hardships, going to the highest place, what he seeks is nothing more than defeating Cao Ci in fist arts and defeating one person in sword techniques. Whether the former succeeds or not doesn't matter. But the latter must succeed."
Hearing this, Xiao Pu gently touched her green skirt and murmured, "No matter how much of a genius he is, how clever, how can he possibly defeat that one?"
Liu Taozhi laughed, "He cannot rely too much on external things, and he needn't think too much about others' business."
Xiao Pu said nothing, just gave him a charming roll of her eyes.
Chen Ping'an walked down the street with Pei Qian. After a few steps, he suddenly figured something out. That mugwort hanging at the residence's gate—Lu Chen had given it to the female ghost Xue Ruyi, but it could also be passed around and gifted to "Cheng Fengxuan," who was supposed to be the herald of "White Cloud"? Or even used to block that Ascension-tier ghostly being's cross-border sneak attack? Lu Chen's seemingly light action—once Chen Ping'an understood the connection—wouldn't he be owing Sect Leader Lu three favors at once?
It seemed the deduction and calculation path he had previously internally rejected was indeed something he had to learn now.
When Chen Ping'an retrieved a hidden sword talisman he had left in Chongyang Temple, named "Ripple," which recorded any disturbance in detail, it was one of the many talismans he had casually drawn when borrowing a realm from Lu Chen with nothing else to do.
This talisman was not small, and its activation threshold was high—only an Immortal could deploy it, pasting it somewhere to wait for prey.
Previously, it was a case of shooting oneself in the foot. Chen Ping'an had drawn a chestful of talismans and secretly stored them. But because he returned the 14th-tier Dao method and fell to Nascent Soul, he couldn't use any of them.
Now that his realm was higher, his confidence was greater. Whether to use them himself, sell them for money, or give them as gifts within the mountain world—all were fine.
And in that chest, there was also a stack of great talismans that only Ascension-tier cultivators could use.
Pei Qian said, "They're going back."
Chen Ping'an smiled, "You don't need to follow. Activate the Three Mountains Talisman and go back to the Parasol Leaf Continent's Great River to attend to your business. Don't worry about your master."
Pei Qian said nothing.
Chen Ping'an racked his brains and could only come up with a lame excuse, seemingly casually saying, "As long as you haven't reached the Martial Saint's Mind-Body Unity layer, you can't help your master much. So when you're on Parasol Leaf Continent, amidst mundane affairs, don't slack off in fist practice. Don't think that reaching the Returning to Truth tier is easy and become complacent. You're still at the Vigorous Qi layer now. Your master has returned to Returning to Truth, and Cao Ci has already reached Mind-Body Unity."
Pei Qian hummed in acknowledgment, "Master, rest assured. I'll work hard."
Chen Ping'an immediately regretted it. His heart ached, and he quickly changed his words, "But don't work too hard either."
Pei Qian said nothing, just pursed her lips and slightly furrowed her slender willow-leaf eyebrows.
Chen Ping'an curved his finger and gently flicked Pei Qian on the head, saying softly, "You have to carve out a Jianghu that belongs to Pei Qian. From now on, when you speak and act, don't constantly think about whether Master would find it wrong if he saw or heard. Before Master came back, you were doing very well. It's not right that after Master returned, you became constrained, as if Pei Qian is deliberately avoiding Zheng Qian, and Zheng Qian is avoiding her master. That's not good."
Pei Qian remained silent.
Chen Ping'an stuffed his hands into his sleeves and almost wanted to slap himself. He shouldn't have mentioned Cao Ci and Mind-Body Unity. No, this debt—he'd put it on Cao Ci's account. No, on his face.
Pei Qian took out a Three Mountains Talisman from her sleeve, suddenly quickened her pace to walk in front of her master, then turned around and walked backward, grinning, "Master, I'm off! See you later!"
Chen Ping'an nodded, his gaze tender, and made a gesture of sticking a talisman to his forehead.
Pei Qian blushed, activated the Three Mountains Talisman, and visualized three mountains across two continents: Treasure Bottle Continent's Southern Sacred Mountain Zitong Mountain, Parasol Leaf Continent's Northern Prefecture Qingjing Mountain, and a mountain near Yunyan Kingdom in the middle of the Great River. Her figure flickered and vanished, fluttering several times, and soon crossed continents to appear on a mountain peak.
Chen Ping'an walked toward that residence.
Indeed, as Liu Taozhi had said.
On the martial path, wanting to stand shoulder to shoulder with Cao Ci and then surpass him—this was naturally one of the two greatest aspirations Chen Ping'an had in learning fist techniques in this life. But the final outcome mattered far less than the process.
If one day in the future, he really could defeat Cao Ci in boxing, that would be an unexpected joy. If he lost, it wouldn't be... embarrassing either. Cao Ci could defeat him in fists, but that wouldn't stop Chen Ping'an from slapping Cao Ci's face.
As for practicing the sword, the process was important, but the result was even more so.
A sword can defeat a single person. That is enough.
For example, if that person is Yu Dou.