Chapter 1124: Twenty People and the Candidates (6)

Chapter 1124: Twenty People and the Candidates (6)

Earlier, Cao Ci had brought his two newly accepted disciples into the territory of the Great Duan Dynasty via that palm-print ferry crossing. During the journey, they entered Yun Chuang Commandery, and when the ferry docked, Cao Ci disembarked early, leading them on foot to travel through the landscapes. The Dou Clan was the ruling power in this ancient commandery. Coincidentally, both of Cao Ci's senior sisters were currently in this area, so he wanted his two disciples to meet their senior elders of the sect. This was because Dou Clan's Grand Elder was celebrating his ninetieth birthday. Cao Ci calculated the time and found there was some leisure, so he intended for Ji Jie and Bai Yu to slowly temper their bodies along this road. Earlier, on the ferry, their identities had been recognized. Even though Cao Ci had closed his door to visitors, not only were there those who came to knock and pay respects, but even those who just walked along the corridor outside to "watch the commotion" came in an endless stream. Cao Ci was truly annoyed. He himself didn't mind, but his two disciples had long since become unsettled in their minds. Within a few days, they had developed an unavoidable sense of distance from him, their master, no longer holding the same state of mind as when they first met.

When they first boarded the ship, their minds were simple, lively, and unconstrained. Whatever Cao Ci taught, they practiced. Their respective fist intents became increasingly pure and nimble—good signs. But once they roughly understood the weight of the name "Cao Ci," their fist intents began to stagnate. When learning and practicing the same stance and fist technique, it became immensely heavy, as if every punch carried the weight of "Master Cao Ci."

The two children grew increasingly silent and restrained. Now, when they looked at their master Cao Ci, their expressions and gazes had changed.

They feared him as if seeing a ghost. They revered him as if meeting a god.

Since matters had reached this point, Cao Ci simply explained openly what he had originally intended to tell them only when they reached the Great Duan capital. Since they had become his disciples, there were some things they would eventually need to know. Thus, Cao Ci neither deliberately embellished nor intentionally concealed the truth. He roughly told the two children who their grandmaster was, as well as the identities of their three senior brothers and sisters.

Perhaps feeling it wasn't good to keep ignoring their newly acknowledged "master," Bai Yu timidly asked, "Master, since our sect is this formidable, and you are so famous that even those immortals on the ship scrambled to meet you, speaking a single word to you as if they'd struck it rich, does that mean you've never lost a fight?"

Cao Ci smiled. "I haven't lost yet, but that might be because I haven't asked for a duel many times."

Ji Jie asked curiously, "Then, Master, have you ever encountered an opponent you thought was truly formidable?"

Cao Ci nodded. "Of course. Not to mention the older-generation grandmasters, among those of similar age, there is a pure martial artist named Chen Ping'an. He and I are the same age, though he seems a few months younger than me. His fist techniques are extremely profound. Besides him, there are seven or eight others I've never met, only heard of, who are one or two realms behind me. I believe their future martial achievements will be very high."

What Cao Ci meant by "one or two realms" was, of course, treating the three sub-stages of the Paragon realm as a single realm.

For ordinary martial artists to say that someone of a lower realm would achieve no small martial success in the future would inevitably seem self-aggrandizing or arrogant. People listening would probably find it unpleasant and awkward.

But when Cao Ci said it, the speaker was calm and the listener accepted it willingly.

He remembered that Chen Ping'an's birthday was the fifth day of the fifth month, while his own was the second day of the second month, making him three months older than Chen Ping'an.

"If he could focus solely on martial arts, I believe his fist techniques would be even greater."

"But he has too many identities; he can't afford to be too relaxed."

"In the martial world, there are actually many more rumors and deeds about him than about me. He's a famous figure. When you reach the capital and settle there, you'll hear more and more about him. As the saying goes, 'A great reputation often falls short of reality,' but Chen Ping'an is different. He lives up to every one of his identities."

"A person with talent who also works hard usually has high ambitions. Such a person, if they lose a fight, won't be discouraged; they become stronger with each setback. That's easy to say but very hard to do."

"His fist techniques are diverse, and crucially, he can integrate and fuse them all into one. His martial virtue… is average."

Listening to Cao Ci's calm narration, the two children exchanged glances, finding it strange.

Previously, aside from methodically teaching fist techniques and explaining fist principles, Master wasn't usually this talkative.

So Bai Yu and Ji Jie felt that this fellow named Chen Ping'an, aside from having average martial virtue, was extraordinary in every other way.

Cao Ci was indeed a rather dull and boring person.

He didn't speak much usually, had few friends, didn't like drinking or socializing. Apart from learning fist techniques, Cao Ci's only interest was reading.

And he generally read only one type of book: mathematics.

This was the first time the two children had taken a master, and it was also Cao Ci's first time being a master to others. He wanted to use the opportunity of traveling together through the magnificent landscapes to ease the complex feelings of his two direct disciples.

In learning fist techniques, if one takes the master-disciple relationship and ancestral fist techniques too lightly, the mind easily becomes frivolous, the skills not refined, and one relies too much on external things apart from oneself and the fist techniques.

But if one goes to the extreme and places too much weight on both, that's not good either. One easily belittles themselves, regarding the "I" too low and too lightly.

Along the journey, they saw many different sights. Cao Ci spoke little, only telling the children about various local customs and traditions.

In his spare time, Cao Ci would take out three yellowed old pictures, which he had drawn himself during his youth when he built a thatched hut and practiced fists on the Sword Qi Great Wall. They depicted the human body's muscles, sinews, bones, and internal organs, as well as the paths of qi-blood flow and acupuncture points. He let the two disciples study the three scrolls to give them a more intuitive understanding. In the blank spaces, he had written various annotations and small auxiliary diagrams in tiny script. In fact, Cao Ci had a few more booklets, but he worried about biting off more than they could chew, so he didn't bring them out all at once.

Probably few martial arts grandmasters would think that martial arts could be related to mathematics, calculations, mechanical structures, and the like. It even touched upon the Dao transformations and Dao traces of the immortals.

This was Cao Ci's unique understanding of martial arts. For example, the memory of the body's muscles was like a dry riverbed waiting at any time for a stream of pure true qi to flow through like a flood.

To make an analogy, if a fist is like an arrow, describing an ordinary martial grandmaster, then Cao Ci's fist is like a ballista.

Back then, on the city wall, Cao Ci had the eldest sword immortal as a neighbor. The latter occasionally shared some insights with Cao Ci. For example, the Paragon realm was like a static mountain-top divine hall. Qi Overflow determined the size of the foundation, Return to True determined the purity of the incense, and Spirit Arrival was a complete "divine path" from the mountain gate into the hall to offer incense. Reasoning backward, to enter the Paragon realm, one had to step by step reach the "mountain top"—this was naturally a "distant journey." And "Golden Body" was the prototype of the divine statue to be placed in that hall in the future… Thus, a clay bodhisattva not only had to cross the river but also ascend the great mountain. A martial artist's single breath of pure true qi was like an incense stick.

Unfortunately, whenever Cao Ci raised a question, the eldest sword immortal always brushed it off by saying he wasn't a martial artist.

Today, the master and his two disciples came to a waterside ferry crossing, planning to take a boat across the river. On the shore, vendors were selling river delicacies, their bodies reeking of fish.

Having truly learned the fist techniques, their senses became sharper. Bai Yu pinched her nose tightly.

Earlier, the little girl had an insight: she said that the scenery of heaven and earth was like a painting that came into view. Before learning fist techniques, it was a counterfeit; after learning the fist techniques, the image gradually changed from blurry to clear, every detail visible, becoming an authentic work.

Their master had said at the time that this metaphor was vivid but not necessarily accurate.

As for what was inaccurate, Cao Ci didn't explain specifically.

Bai Yu asked a question that had been puzzling her for a long time: "Master, is talent more important in learning fist techniques, or effort?"

Cao Ci replied, "Both are important. Your Senior Uncle Ma once made an analogy: learning martial arts is like a hungry man cooking rice to eat. Without talent, relying only on effort, you cannot find the door, just like a clever housewife cannot cook without rice. Your achievement will be limited, like the ceiling of a room being very low. If you have talent but are unwilling to practice diligently, it's like owning a granary and a big stove but using a small pot to cook rice and a small bowl to eat every day. Your martial achievement won't be very high either."

Ji Jie asked even more curiously, "Master, your current ability—is it due to talent or effort?"

Cao Ci answered frankly, "I practice my fists diligently enough, but in the end, it's mainly due to talent."

The two children exchanged glances, one happy and one worried. The shining one thought she was very much like Master, while the salty one thought that becoming a peerless expert was probably out of the question.

Cao Ci added, "The Golden Body realm of a martial artist is a clear watershed. Before that, both talent and effort are important. After that, talent is more important."

The little girl grinned. "So in the end, talent is the most important."

Cao Ci smiled. "Another Senior Uncle Liao once said that learning to make the right effort—first, not taking the wrong path, and second, being able to walk faster on the right path—is also a kind of invisible talent."

Ji Jie asked doubtfully, "Master, among your generation, aren't there one male and two females? Where does this 'other Senior Uncle' come from?"

Cao Ci laughed. "I forgot to tell you. In the martial world and the mountain world, the terms 'Senior Uncle' and 'Senior Aunt' can be used for both men and women. 'Heaven, earth, sovereign, parents, teacher'—scholars are accustomed to calling their teachers and respected elders 'Master.' In fact, women with great learning and high virtue are also respectfully called 'Master,' and that carries even more weight."

They suddenly understood. They remembered that at the local martial arts school, the owner had once accepted a female disciple, and that same day his wife scratched his face all over. The owner didn't dare fight back the whole time.

Bai Yu asked, "Why is it always their principles? Don't you have your own sayings, Master?"

Cao Ci said, "Learning fist techniques is as ordinary as breathing to me. Naturally, I can't say any great principles. Before I accepted you as disciples, I never thought much about fist theory. Now I'm making up for it."

He paused for a moment, then said, "If you want to learn the kind of fist theory that is worthy of being written down on paper, I can introduce you to someone later. He's good at that."

That person had once exchanged four rounds with his senior disciple. Asking him to later explain some fist theory to his two direct disciples shouldn't be too much to ask.

Bai Yu asked, "This friend of Master's—he must know a lot of fist theory but isn't much good at fighting, right?"

Cao Ci said helplessly, "You can't say that."

Ji Jie said, "It's that Chen Ping'an with average martial virtue, right?"

Cao Ci suppressed a smile. "Say such things only among us privately, not in front of others."

Standing by the water, Cao Ci suddenly asked, "Actually, I've also figured out a fist principle. Do you want to hear it?"

The two children nodded without hesitation.

Cao Ci pointed to himself. "This human body—heaven and earth are clear, full of harmony—I am the master."

"This kind of internally sought martial realm, I describe it as 'the number one person under heaven who does not need to seek externally.'"

Having said this, Cao Ci smiled and added, "This kind of grand principle—just take it as something heard and forget it."

Bai Yu said, "I heard it all vaguely, but it sounds incredibly domineering."

Ji Jie praised, "No wonder Master is so formidable."

The little girl nudged her same-age companion with her elbow. "Silly A-Xian, did you note that down?"

Ji Jie nodded. "Noted. Taking it like an imperial edict from the emperor."

Cao Ci laughed helplessly.

They boarded the boat. Business was slow, with few passengers. By a window sat a thin young woman singing tunes while a man played the erhu beside her, occasionally stopping to correct flaws in her singing. They seemed to be a small rural troupe, trying to earn money by performing operatic pieces.

Cao Ci ordered three bowls of noodles with shredded pork and pickled vegetables. At a nearby table sat an elderly man with a kind face but an official air, accompanied by two sharp-looking attendants. They sat upright, backs straight, their eyes occasionally sweeping the cabin, on guard against assassins.

The old man likely took the gentle and cultured Cao Ci for a scholar and took the initiative to invite him to share a table for a chat. Cao Ci initially wanted to decline, but seeing the two children were genuinely bored, he agreed. The old man was quite talkative, and since Cao Ci was not good at socializing, he was a good listener, so they got along well. The old man said that in most of his life in officialdom, when he was posted as a local official, he most enjoyed traveling by boat on rivers. This was truly not unpleasant—eating fish and shrimp every day, a great treat for the palate. Now retired and returning to his hometown, with a fairly ample official salary, he was even more at leisure.

The old man joked that the year had only four seasons, summer with its bitter heat, winter with its harsh cold. An old man like him, whose qi and blood were sparse and declining, was being boiled day and night.

Cao Ci always smiled and nodded.

After disembarking and walking a distance, Cao Ci told his two chattering disciples, who were guessing the old man's identity, that the old man was actually a mountain god on patrol with an official tablet, and his rank was not low, allowing him to oversee water as a mountain.

Meanwhile, the other party was also guessing Cao Ci's identity but mistakenly took him for an accomplished Daoist adept of immortal arts, bearing Dao qi, traveling over mountains and waters, familiar with anomalies.

The sun was setting, its afterglow like a hanging mountain ghost.

They had met a mountain god; earlier on the immortal ferry, they had seen immortals, a whole crowd of them; and earlier, in a dilapidated old temple, they had even seen ghosts.

Now that the two children had acquired fist intent, they had officially entered the threshold of martial arts. Even without torchlight to illuminate the path, walking at night was not much of a problem. Cao Ci told them that when walking on moonless nights along ancient paths in the wilderness, ghostly things often carried lanterns with fire, illuminating only themselves, not others. Therefore, even ordinary folk, unless they were weak in body, lacking in spirit, or deficient in yang qi, would not see them.

That was what he said, but walking on such a mountain path at night, with the screech of horned owls and the twitter of forest sprites, was truly eerie. The two children got goosebumps.

Suddenly, in a gloomy mountain hollow, they encountered a huge mansion, resembling a prince's or marquis's luxurious residence.

The master and disciples could either retrace their steps or go knock on the door and ask for lodging.

Before Cao Ci knocked on the door, he told the shining one and the salty one to suppress their fist intent as much as possible.

The door was opened by a kindly old servant. When he saw the two children beside Cao Ci, the decrepit old man wanted to decline, saying that his mistress lived here as a widow and it was not suitable to entertain guests.

Not far behind the old man appeared a pair of siblings, a girl and a boy about four or five years apart in age, with somewhat similar features. They were dressed in plain clothes, but the old man smiled and called out, "A'guan."

In prestigious families, there were many formalities and rules. For instance, children were not allowed to wear silk or satin finery, as it would deplete their blessings. So they wore plain cloth all year round, only hand-me-down clothes.

And "A'guan" was a respectful term servants used for the master's children. However, these siblings, who should have been dressed in silks and fed delicacies, looked somewhat sallow and gaunt, with no luster on their faces.

The girl tightly held her brother's hand, not daring to look at Cao Ci and his group.

According to local customs, there was an ancestral sacrificial register that specified the types and styles of dishes, the arrangement of incense and candles, etc. At fourteen, the girl would coil her hair into a bun, wear a red skirt, and go to the ancestral hall to pay respects to the portraits of their ancestors, signifying that from that day on she could be betrothed. The old man claimed to be a grave guardian, skilled in masonry and carpentry, visiting to help with repairs. Grave guardians were specialized caretakers of ancestral tombs for large families—servants and their families responsible for managing the ancestors' graves, with a bond as close as relatives.

Cao Ci and his disciples stayed there for the night to rest. Nothing happened overnight. Cao Ci read by lamplight, and they set out before dawn, leading the sleepy-eyed two children away from the great mansion.

As dawn was about to break, the two children saw on the road behind them a woman holding an umbrella, accompanied by the radiant siblings. They bowed to them from a distance, then quickly vanished.

Bai Yu asked softly, "Master, the whole mansion was full of ghosts, right?"

Cao Ci nodded. "That's why I told you to suppress your fist intent earlier—to avoid disturbing them. Otherwise, instead of asking to lodge, we would have been asking for a fight."

Ji Jie asked curiously, "Then why did that lady bid us farewell? What's that about?"

Cao Ci explained, "If ghostly beings have their incense offerings cut off, just like humans starving without food, they can easily lose their true spirit, either turning into malevolent ghosts or scattering into nothingness. There are three solutions. The best is to cultivate Dao techniques, but that requires an immortal's destiny. Another is to consume incense and offerings—whether large or small families, they all need to worship ancestors. The last is to absorb the yang qi of the living."

Ji Jie was startled, eyes wide. "Master, are you alright?"

Cao Ci smiled. "We stayed in their home for a night, and naturally our yang qi gathered. We are martial artists; such a loss is nothing. But it was enough to save the master of that mansion from years of lacking offerings."

What he called "years" was actually a hundred years.

Bai Yu said, "I see. The old uncle refused us lodging because he was afraid of harming us two children. But that sister, bringing little A'guan out, was because they were truly starving and didn't dare to ask directly, right? Master, you pretended not to know and deliberately didn't expose it. We stayed there for a night, people and ghosts at peace; that was their way of hospitality. And we left some yang qi—that was our way of being guests."

Cao Ci ruffled the little girl's hair. "Smart."

The salty one let out a "wow." "Master, you're such a good person!"

The shining one said indignantly, "You don't even have a wife yet. That doesn't make sense."

The salty one said, "Now that we have a master, can a wife be far behind?"

Cao Ci smiled, reaching out to pat both children's heads.

It seemed being a master was actually quite interesting.

After this incident, the two children grew closer to Cao Ci again.

As they neared their destination, a young woman appeared. The two children exchanged glances—could this be their future master's wife?

Of course not. The woman was Liao Qing'ai, one of their three senior uncles.

Liao Qing'ai smiled and explained, "Senior Sister Dou is frantic with family affairs and couldn't get away, so she sent me to pick you up."

Cao Ci nodded and smiled as he introduced the two children. "Senior Sister Liao, these are my newly accepted disciples. Ji Jie, nicknamed A-Xian, and Bai Yu, nicknamed Shining One. When I first met them, they already had fist intent on their bodies. That's very rare—they learned by secretly watching the stances and moves of the neighboring martial school through a ladder, and they could already apply it, even make it their own. In a dilapidated village temple, I saw them fight; they were quite decent."

Liao Qing'ai was greatly surprised, because aside from their senior brother Ma Quxian, the three of them had not yet taken any disciples.

Senior Sister Dou Fenxia was lazy; her catchphrase was "Find a good man and marry me off quickly."

Liao Qing'ai felt she herself hadn't mastered martial arts well enough to teach others, afraid of leading them astray.

Liao Qing'ai didn't think that the two children's "realm" was anything to marvel at.

For you, Cao Ci, to accept disciples, shouldn't they be monsters among geniuses? Wouldn't that be more reasonable?

Liao Qing'ai looked at the two slightly nervous children and said cheerfully, "Since this came so suddenly, I didn't prepare any gifts. I owe you one."

The two children timidly called out "Senior Uncle Liao," one with a low but steady voice, the other loud but trembling.

Liao Qing'ai found it amusing and asked, "Do they know who Cao Ci is?"

Cao Ci nodded. "On the ferry here, there was quite a commotion. Many visitors knocked on the door. Shining One asked, so I roughly told them the overview of our sect: who the grandmaster is, what the three senior uncles do. I also mentioned the Ten Realms of a martial artist."

For the two village children, they only had a vague concept: that Master Cao Ci was probably an incredibly formidable figure, and they had stumbled upon a great fortune by becoming his disciples.

For instance, earlier in the dilapidated temple, as soon as the name "Cao Ci" was heard, the ferocious-looking creatures immediately lost their arrogance. At the palm-print ferry, everyone was startled and amazed. Especially on that immortal ferry crowded with immortals, visitors came in an endless stream. The way they looked at the two village children said everything—envy, flattery. Bai Yu and Ji Jie were young and not well-educated, but their instincts were not bad. They understood a little about human relationships; they had seen it all in their hometown.

If Cao Ci were just an ordinary powerful master, traveling together would be all novelty, like sightseeing.

But as Cao Ci's image grew heavier, as vast as heaven and earth, covering everything, the children instead felt like the farther they were from home, the more they missed it.

Fortunately, Cao Ci was attentive and patient. He deliberately abandoned the immortal ferry and took them on foot to travel far and wide, visiting famous historical sites.

Liao Qing'ai asked half-jokingly, "Should I have Senior Sister arrange some pomp? Let the Dou family open the ceremonial gate to welcome a distinguished guest, show some fanfare? I believe the Dou Elder would be very willing."

Cao Ci shook his head.

Liao Qing'ai asked, "Worried about stealing the spotlight?"

Cao Ci smiled but again said nothing.

He held no official position in the Great Duan Dynasty.

Just as Cao Ci had no nickname to this day.

The Dou family residence was on Auspicious Lane, bustling with carriages and visitors, many vehicles lined up as far as Vinegar Workshop Street and Children's Alley.

Knowing that their junior brother Cao Ci disliked that kind of noisy socializing, Liao Qing'ai led them not through the crowded main gate but chose a relatively quiet side gate.

A stunning woman with coiled snake-like hair walked quickly over. She rubbed her cheeks with her palm and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, sorry. I've been dizzy with busyness these days. Smiling so much my whole face feels stiff. I know your personality, so I didn't make a big fuss. Right now, aside from the elder, only a few uncles who manage affairs know you'll be arriving today. If you don't want to socialize, I'll find some excuse to fend them off. If you don't mind, at most we'll go sit in the elder's study for a while, and that's it."

Dou Fenxia came from the Dou family, a clan of officials and eunuchs. She had grown up immersed in bureaucracy. What it meant to be "socially adept" was that no one dared to force you to drink at a banquet. If anyone wanted to toast you, they had to prepare their speech in advance.

She didn't think Cao Ci needed to curry anyone's favor. Not just the Dou family of Yun Chuang Commandery, but the entire Great Duan Dynasty, and even the whole Haoran World, were no exception.

Cao Ci said, "When the Dou Elder has some free time, let someone let me know, and I'll go pay my respects. As for public engagements, banquets, drinking—forget it. I'm not good at that."

Liao Qing'ai's face suddenly darkened. She sneered, "You're better than that surnamed Chen in everything, except in socializing, banqueting, saying the right words, and drinking the right drinks. You're definitely no match for him. Oh, 'Grandmaster Chen,' 'Sword Immortal Chen,' 'Mountain Lord Chen,' 'Hidden Officer Chen,' a whole heap of titles and identities. How much people skills must he have to build such a fortune?"

Cao Ci smiled. "I am only slightly ahead of Chen Ping'an in martial realm for now. That doesn't mean I surpass him in other areas."

If he hadn't left the Sword Qi Great Wall too early, and had been able to wait until Chen Ping'an opened a tavern there, although Cao Ci didn't like drinking, he would certainly have gone to support the place occasionally.

Thinking back, when Cao Ci first went to the Sword Qi Great Wall, his master had not arranged any guardians for him. Before he left, Pei Bei had only laughed and said to him, "Now that you're out in the world, people will see you and say, 'That is Pei Bei's disciple.' I hope that one day, I'll hear people talk about Pei Bei and say, 'That is Cao Ci's master.'"

Previously, at the Confucian Temple, Chen Ping'an and Ma Quxian had had a fist duel. Both sides—or rather, their respective masters—had kept it very tacit, not leaking the matter afterwards.

Ma Quxian, nominally Pei Bei's senior disciple, had once been at Peak realm perfection, only one step away from entering Paragon. But as a result of that fist duel, he fell in realm.

Dou Fenxia, with her coiled snake hair, came from the Dou family, the premier aristocratic clan of the Great Duan Dynasty.

Liao Qing'ai was a wild cultivator by origin, having started martial arts halfway, joining the army and risking her life on the battlefield, only to be saved by Pei Bei.

Because Liao Qing'ai had once dabbled in immortal cultivation with quite impressive aptitude, reaching the middle five realms as a girl, even now at half a century old, she still maintained a youthful appearance, with an extremely slender waist and a white-sheathed longsword at her hip. Dou Fenxia and Liao Qing'ai were both pure martial artists at the bottleneck of the Far Roaming realm.

In total, the master had only five disciples.

In the eyes of the outside world, could it be that there would be five Paragon realms?

Liao Qing'ai said indignantly, "How did news of Senior Brother's realm decline get out?"

It hadn't caused a huge uproar, but the news had finally leaked and reached the mountain world.

Her implication was probably that Chen Ping'an had secretly caused trouble.

Cao Ci smiled and shook his head.

Chen Ping'an had no need for such low tactics.

Dou Fenxia said, "There's no wall that can block the wind, especially since there were many eyes and ears around the Confucian Temple at the time. It's inevitable that someone saw or heard and gossiped about it."

Liao Qing'ai didn't truly believe that either; she was just frustrated and had no one to vent her anger on. Before Cao Ci arrived, the two sisters had often spoken ill of that man.

Earlier, before Senior Brother Ma Quxian fought Chen Ping'an, Dou Fenxia had used a somewhat shameless method, saying she wanted to exchange a move or two with Chen Ping'an, not a formal fist duel.

After all, with a difference of one martial realm, whether it was a spar or a settling of accounts, it was technically unfair. The result was that after a few probing moves, she not only gained no advantage but ended up at a clear disadvantage.

Aside from Cao Ci, Ma Quxian and the others were not, strictly speaking, Pei Bei's formal indoor disciples. Pei Bei had not accepted their tea of apprenticeship, nor had they kowtowed to become disciples.

Back then, it was the old emperor of the Great Duan who had requested, using an unconvincing reason, to persuade Pei Bei to take on three additional "nominal disciples."

Remembering something, Liao Qing'ai suddenly smiled. She had just learned that in her senior sister's hometown, there was a custom: if a man could undo a woman's hair bun before marriage, it was equivalent to a private engagement, no different from drawing her eyebrows in the boudoir, just like the groom lifting the bride's red veil on the wedding night.

Earlier, when her senior sister had provoked that surnamed Chen, he had responded in kind, of course stopping at the point. Chen Ping'an had merely extended a finger, stopping an inch from Dou Fenxia's forehead, coagulating into a mustard-sized sword qi that dispersed upon touching her forehead, not harming her in the slightest, but causing her snake-coiled bun to loosen slightly. Wasn't that exactly the case?

No wonder Liao Qing'ai, while visiting her senior sister's family, would often see her grinding her teeth, her pretty face frosty, like a woman thinking of a heartless man.

Dou Fenxia lamented repeatedly, "Indeed, two realms lower, there's no chance at all."

She came from the lineage of the blade-wielders.

In qi refiners, there were sword cultivators; in pure martial artists, there were blade-wielders. Both were anomalies among their peers, most feared by their counterparts.

Like an official who was both a censor and also in charge of criminal case reviews—by virtue of position and duty, every day was just about finding fault with colleagues; those targeted would lose a layer of skin even if they didn't die.

Liao Qing'ai boasted that within thirty years, she would definitely go to Luopo Mountain to challenge Chen Ping'an.

Cao Ci hesitated for a moment, then chose to say directly, "Senior Sister Liao, some things, even if Master doesn't say them, doesn't mean she doesn't know. You need to mind your boundaries."

Dou Fenxia frowned deeply. If Cao Ci spoke so seriously about something, it was definitely no trivial matter.

Liao Qing'ai felt both the guilt of a guilty conscience and the relief of having been found out. In short, her emotions were incredibly complex.

Cao Ci smiled. "Senior Sister, just handle it yourself. If you are truly clear in conscience…"

Dou Fenxia quickly glanced furtively at her junior sister's stomach and asked tentatively, "Has Qing'ai secretly betrothed herself to someone? Is Master angry enough to expel her from the sect?"

Liao Qing'ai flushed bright red and glared at her blunt sister.

Cao Ci said, "I plan to visit Vase Bottle Continent soon, to call on Luopo Mountain."