Chapter 256: Also a Young Lad
Chen Ping'an looked up at the high sky. The phenomenon of Zheng Dafeng's realm-breaking was so grand that it directly revealed the true form of the Fu Clan's sea of clouds. However, in the end, the man and the sea of clouds slowly faded away together. Chen Ping'an couldn't help but ask worriedly, "Isn't this a bit too conspicuous?"
The Yin Spirit smiled and said, "Only by making enough noise can you scare off rats and jackals."
That Zheng Dafeng could achieve a breakthrough after years of accumulation and break through the bottleneck in one go was something this Yin Spirit naturally welcomed. If Zheng Dafeng had perished here, the Divine Lord, when doing business with people, would naturally be fair and just, but creatures like them—the Yin objects and Yin Spirits that emerged from that small temple—would not receive such treatment. Once they ruined the Divine Lord's plans and incurred his wrath, it would not be surprising if he snuffed them out with a flick of his finger from thousands of miles away.
Chen Ping'an, who had always been cautious and meticulous, carefully chewed on these words and felt they actually made sense. However, this kind of logic did not yet apply to him for the time being. That was fine—just like the words carved on the small bamboo slips, he would first store them up. When traveling the jianghu, having more skills wouldn't weigh one down, and the same went for principles.
Chen Ping'an asked curiously, "Won't this cause a stir throughout the entire city? From now on, if Zheng Dafeng wants to do anything, won't he be under the watchful eyes of the Fu Clan and the five great surnames everywhere?"
The Yin Spirit glanced toward the direction of the Eastern Sea and shook his head. "Fu Qi has already made his move. Seizing this opportunity, Zheng Dafeng should be able to smoothly conduct a few transactions. When he returns from the sea of clouds, he certainly won't be as ostentatious as when he ascended."
Chen Ping'an nodded, put away all the emerald-green bamboo slips, and stored them in his dimensional storage artifact. These bamboo slips included some ordinary green bamboo left over from making small bamboo boxes for Lin Shouyi and Li Huai, but most were remnants of a bamboo building gifted by Wei Bo after returning to Fallen Mountain. They were all Courageous Bamboo from Chessboard Mountain, relocated from Azure Spirit Mountain. After making a deal at the Green Cricket Shop at the ferry crossing in Combing Water Nation, he learned about the enormous value of the Divine Thunder Bamboo from Azure Spirit Mountain, which made Chen Ping'an cherish them even more. As a result, for many beautiful sentences he encountered in books, he would chew them over several times before deciding whether to carve them onto the bamboo slips.
The Yin Spirit suddenly asked, "Could you give me one small bamboo slip—the one with the inscription, 'Immortals and spirits are separate, yin and yang are divided; the soul settles the spirit, the po forms the golden body'?"
Chen Ping'an shook his head without hesitation. "No way."
Do you think you're Bao Ping or Li Huai, that I'd give you whatever you want?
But then Chen Ping'an recalled the first time in the alley when the Yin Spirit had exposed Zheng Dafeng's intentions face to face. Whether or not it was on Old Man Yang's orders, it seemed he should be grateful. Having figured out this key point, Chen Ping'an immediately became generous. "Fine, I'll give it to you. It's just a bamboo slip anyway."
Although the Yin Spirit didn't understand why Chen Ping'an had changed his mind, it had spoken too bluntly earlier out of urgency and didn't actually want to take advantage of this favor. It smiled and explained, "I didn't finish my sentence just now. I actually wanted to buy that bamboo slip from you. Ten Grain Rain Coins—how about that?"
Chen Ping'an had just taken out the bamboo slip from his dimensional storage when he heard the words "Grain Rain Coins" and immediately felt his scalp tingle. He asked doubtfully, "Even though the bamboo slip is made from Courageous Bamboo of Azure Spirit Mountain, it's only this small. It can't be worth such a sky-high price, can it?"
The Yin Spirit said calmly with a smile, "If sold to anyone else, it would be worth at most a few Lesser Heat Coins. But to me, this bamboo slip combined with this phrase is worth that price. What? Too high a price, so you won't sell? Want it cheaper before you agree? Then how about one Lesser Heat Coin?"
Chen Ping'an stood up and handed over the bamboo slip, grinning as he said, "Elder Zhao, please keep it safe."
The Yin Spirit took the bamboo slip with one hand while the other hand held ten Grain Rain Coins. Chen Ping'an took the handful of spiritual-energy-filled Grain Rain Coins, took a good hard look at them, then quickly put them into his dimensional storage.
The Yin Spirit teased, "Not sure if they're genuine? Counterfeit Lesser Heat Coins and Grain Rain Coins are common in the cultivation world."
Chen Ping'an smiled and said, "I've never seen real Grain Rain Coins before, anyway. But I trust Elder Zhao."
Chen Ping'an stopped drinking, and tucked the sword-nurturing gourd containing the flying sword Fifteen at his waist.
A Lesser Snow Coin was equivalent to one thousand taels of silver in a mortal dynasty. One Lesser Heat Coin equaled one hundred Lesser Snow Coins. One Grain Rain Coin equaled ten Lesser Heat Coins. This was the so-called "thousands, hundreds, tens" system for currency transactions in the cultivation world. As for the Gold Essence Copper Coins specially made for the Bead Grotto-Heaven, they were even more precious than Grain Rain Coins.
Ten Grain Rain Coins!
At this moment, he finally felt like he had a fortune tied around his waist.
Chen Ping'an suddenly asked, "Elder Zhao, why don't you take a look at all my bamboo slips and see if there's anything else you want to buy?"
The Yin Spirit shook his head with a smile. "My purse is empty. I can't afford to buy anymore."
Ten Grain Rain Coins was actually all the savings it had accumulated on this trip south to Old Dragon City with Zheng Dafeng.
The reason it had offered such a high price was partly to congratulate Zheng Dafeng on his breakthrough, but more importantly, at the time its soul had been shaken, and it had taken a fancy to that prophecy at first sight. There was a hidden will in the unseen world. Everyone under heaven could choose not to believe it, but it could not. It wasn't that it was willing to take out ten Grain Rain Coins all at once—it had no choice but to do so. The profound meaning behind this was extremely arcane, probably only understandable by qi refiners of the Yin-Yang School.
Then Chen Ping'an said, "No problem, Elder Zhao. If you fancy any bamboo slip, I'll just give it to you."
The Yin Spirit turned its head to look at this young lad, smiled, and said nothing more. It raised its head again to look at the sea of clouds, finding this quite interesting.
Old Dragon City was so vast that most people rarely paid attention to the movement of a paper kite or a bird in the sky. The commoners underfoot wouldn't notice Zheng Dafeng's wind-riding ascent to the sky or the sea-of-clouds phenomenon that accompanied his breakthrough. But almost all qi refiners of the Middle Five Realms and martial grandmasters of all levels couldn't help but look up and pay attention to this scene, especially the Fu Clan, which caused the biggest stir. Fu Qi, who was waiting for the young girl Zhigui at the base of Ascending Dragon Terrace, even personally went to the sea of clouds to meet this person who could break through the sea-of-clouds grand formation.
Because the sea of clouds obscured the view, outsiders couldn't clearly see the man's face above the clouds. Most of the high-ranking cultivators in Old Dragon City were just joining in the excitement, guessing at the true identity of this peak powerhouse. Was it the Fu Clan's ancestor, who held a half-immortal weapon, breaking out of seclusion? Or was it the Cloud Forest Jiang Clan's ancestor, trying to intimidate the locals before their clan's direct daughter married into Old Dragon City?
Old Dragon City's commerce was prosperous, unrivaled in Vial Continent. As an important transit hub connecting the resources of three continents, it was a mix of fish and dragons. There were many wealthy people and many gamblers. Private bets among friends, and even large wagers at several major gambling dens, sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain. The bets were on all sorts of strange things: betting on this person's identity, betting on whether he would be crippled by the Fu Clan, betting on his gender or even his surname...
At the Fan Family mansion in the inner city, the current clan head, several ancestral elders, and honored guests—all over a hundred years old, with no young disciples present—stood side by side on a high tower corridor, all beaming with joy. Using the starting point of the figure's ascent into the sky above the clouds, combined with previous intelligence, they deduced that it was Zheng Dafeng of the Dust Medicine Shop who had suddenly, without any warning, broken into the Ninth Realm and become a mountain-peak realm grandmaster of martial arts. For the Fan Family, this was naturally a tremendous stroke of luck. Moreover, barring any unexpected events, Zheng Dafeng would stay in Old Dragon City for decades to come. The Fan Family effectively gained a mountain-peak realm martial artist who had descended from the sky. The difference between the Eighth and Ninth Realms was like the gap between clouds and mud!
Pure martial artists had three realms for body refinement, three for qi refinement, and three for spirit refinement. The further one went, especially after the Seventh Realm, the gap between adjacent realms increasingly resembled a chasm. Hence, there was a saying in the martial world: "When a high realm faces a low realm, killing is but a single punch."
However, some felt the word "kill" should be changed to "injure" for greater accuracy.
It was somewhat similar to the dan rankings of Go masters. Even among the Ninth Dan, there were strong and weak variations. Seventh and Eighth Dan players occasionally defeating a weak Ninth Dan master with brilliant moves was not impossible, but it was an exception, not the norm in the Go world. That said, the dan rankings in Vial Continent, especially for the Eighth and Ninth Dans, were often determined by rounds of games against the Go scholars of a particular court. The skill levels of these Go scholars varied greatly, far less reliable than in the Central Continent, where Confucian academies and schools would personally send Go gentlemen to conduct assessments.
A Fan Family Golden Core ancestor stroked his beard and laughed. "That boy Fan has such a mentor—truly a great fortune!"
Laughter rang out.
Suddenly, the sea of clouds above Old Dragon City surged downward. Almost everyone was caught off guard, finding themselves within the sea of clouds, looking around in confusion. Even those who had been close friends or fellow cultivators moments before were suddenly lost. Then they felt a suffocating pressure. Whether qi refiners or pure martial artists, everyone's qi flow—to varying degrees—slowed or stagnated. But in an instant, the world returned to clarity, and the clouds dissipated completely. Many Golden Core realm cultivators who were lying low or serving as guests in Old Dragon City felt especially heavy-hearted.
Zheng Dafeng had ascended with the wind as an Eighth Realm Far Roaming realm cultivator, but he returned to the alley walking as a Ninth Realm Mountain Peak realm cultivator.
The women in the medicine shop had been laughing and playing the whole time, without any unusual feelings. This was both the narrow-mindedness of commoners and another kind of stability for ordinary folk. When they saw the shopkeeper walk in from outside, they didn't think much of it. The man carried two jugs of fine wine he'd bought from a nearby street. He lifted the door curtain, bent his head, and walked into the courtyard. He tossed one jug high up to the young lad sitting on a stool, while he himself picked up his old tobacco pipe and sat down again on the steps in front of the main house. He was silent, neither puffing on the pipe nor gulping down the wine.
His first words were not to the "appointed" mentor Chen Ping'an, but to the Yin Spirit. "Old Zhao, now can we speak plainly with the windows open? What other instructions does the old man have? Chen Ping'an will be leaving in a few days to board the Cassia Island ferry. Can you give me a straight answer about the role of protector?"
The Yin Spirit shook its head. "The Divine Lord only instructed me: if you successfully broke through, enjoy your fortune; if you failed, be thrown into the sea to feed the fish."
Zheng Dafeng rubbed his face vigorously with both hands. "Good heavens, I'm still completely in the dark."
Zheng Dafeng placed the old tobacco pipe in his lap, opened the wine jug's clay seal, lowered his head, and took a long slurp. The wine streamed into his mouth like a dragon drinking water. He wiped his mouth, looked up at the sea of clouds, and said, "Old Zhao, do you think the old man guessed what I saw when I broke through? Did he foresee that I almost pushed straight through the Heart Barrier and slammed into the Heavenly Gate? Did he know I saw the scenes near that gate and almost..."
Zheng Dafeng sighed, then took another drink. Suddenly, his face lit up. "Maybe the old man's words had two meanings from the start: 'Never hope for the Ninth Realm in this lifetime.' Haha, the old man is really playful..."
The Yin Spirit twitched the corner of its mouth.
It thought Zheng Dafeng truly had no idea of his own peril.
Zheng Dafeng's neck seemed to be choked, and he looked around nervously. He quickly stood up, walked to the center of the courtyard, faced north, and muttered to himself, "Old man, don't take offense. Your disciple Zheng Dafeng has successfully broken through, but I can't tell you this happy news in person. I feel deeply guilty. Old man, you are wise and magnanimous, so don't be angry. I can only bow three times and offer three incense sticks to express my feelings!"
Zheng Dafeng indeed made gestures as if holding incense and bowed three times toward the distant Great Li direction.
Chen Ping'an was very puzzled. How could Old Man Yang have taught such vastly different disciples as Li Er and Zheng Dafeng?
But then he thought of Li Baoping, Li Huai, Lin Shouyi, and the others—they were also vastly different from each other, as different as heaven and earth. So Chen Ping'an stopped being surprised.
However, before offering the incense, Zheng Dafeng made a strange gesture that Chen Ping'an saw clearly. Zheng Dafeng raised one arm and made a circular motion over his head, as if there were three incense sticks there that he was taking into his hand.
After doing this superstitious act, Zheng Dafeng sat back on the stool with a lazy air, as if he had truly decided to start enjoying his fortune. He stared at Chen Ping'an, and Chen Ping'an stared back.
One looked like a scoundrel who owed a pile of debts but absolutely didn't want to pay them back.
The other looked like he was saying, "If you dare not pay, I'll annoy you to death even if I can't beat you to death."
The Yin Spirit watched these two and suddenly felt it no longer understood the present world.
A voice broke the stalemate. Someone lifted the curtain but didn't immediately enter the courtyard. With one hand holding the bamboo curtain high and the other carrying a jug of the best Cassia Wine from Old Dragon City, the exquisite wine jug alone could sell for one Snow Coin. The handsome young lad, with rosy lips and white teeth, saw that there were strangers in the courtyard, hesitated for a moment, stood rooted to the spot, and asked softly, "Mr. Zheng... May I come in?"
The Yin Spirit had already dispersed when the young lad entered the Dust Medicine Shop.
Chen Ping'an turned to look. It was a boy of similar age. He could tell that the boy was a pure martial artist, probably still in the Third Realm. Through observing the boy's breathing and the subtle vibrations of his muscles, bones, and skin, as well as the blood and spirit leaking outward, Chen Ping'an judged that this young man of Old Dragon City had laid a decent martial foundation. However, there were many flaws. The "tour routes" of pure true qi within the qi prefectures in his body seemed insufficiently wide and not smooth enough...
Chen Ping'an suddenly felt a bit surprised.
He realized that he was looking down upon another's martial realm.
It was only at this moment that Chen Ping'an became aware that he had truly stepped into the Fourth Realm of martial arts.
Zheng Dafeng didn't mind Chen Ping'an's mind wandering. He waved at the boy and smiled, "I knew your grandfather couldn't keep it from you. But let me tell you, isn't a congratulatory gift of just one jug of Fan Family Cassia Wine a bit too careless? I've always been lenient about big matters and very particular about small ones. Leave the wine here and scoot back to the Fan Family. Tell your grandfather that one can't be too stingy."
The boy was speechless. He said helplessly, "Mr. Zheng, I heard about this from my grandfather and sneaked out to bring you the wine. It's not that my elders sent me. Otherwise, sir, after I inherit that Cassia Island ferry, I'll prepare a big gift for you? This jug of wine I stole from home. Please don't tell my grandfather when you see him. I'll go back now and ask my family for a proper congratulatory gift..."
The boy put down the wine and scampered away.
Zheng Dafeng didn't stop that energetic little Fan. He looked sideways at Chen Ping'an, who seemed old beyond his years and annoyingly shrewd, and thought to himself, "Here we have two lads of the same age. Look at that little Fan—sincere, generous, easy to talk to, full of virtues. And then take you, Chen Ping'an—you can hold a grudge over a five-coin debt for so long, and you're not even fair-skinned. Stubborn and pedantic, full of bad habits!"
From the boy's words, Chen Ping'an learned a lot.
The boy was from the Fan Family of Old Dragon City, which had bet on the Great Li along with the Fu Clan. He was now apprenticed to Zheng Dafeng and would one day own the Cassia Island ferry.
Combined with what the Yin Spirit had revealed earlier—that Zheng Dafeng was going to do business with City Lord Fu Qi—
Chen Ping'an felt a slight relief in his heart. No matter how these big shots schemed, his decision to take the Fan Family ferry to Hanging Mountain shouldn't be too problematic.
In the future, whether Old Dragon City would see immortals battling or demons dancing was their concern. Chen Ping'an just needed to wait patiently in the medicine shop for a few days, then board that Cassia Island ferry, reach Hanging Mountain, go to the Sword Qi Great Wall, find Miss Ning, and deliver the sword on his back...
Zheng Dafeng reached out with a grab and said, "Little Fan, come back. You weren't really going to ask your family for a gift on my behalf, were you?"
In truth, Zheng Dafeng didn't care at all what the boy said when he got home. He just found it boring to share a courtyard with Chen Ping'an. It would be better to bring back a little ray of sunshine to liven things up, rather than staring at each other. Besides, as a Ninth Realm martial artist, he couldn't really throw his weight around, and there was even a slight unease deep in his heart.
The boy, who had almost run out of the alley, felt the back of his collar grabbed, causing him to stagger backward. Startled, he thought he'd encountered an assassin. Then he heard Mr. Zheng's voice, which seemed to ring in his heart. The boy chuckled, waved at the Golden Core clan retainer watching nervously not to worry, and turned to sprint back to the Dust Shop. He called a few "big sisters" at the women he slightly recognized, then lifted the curtain and returned to the courtyard, followed by a burst of cheerful chatter.
The boy genuinely loved this kind of atmosphere.
Of course, the female immortalis and sword maidens within the Fan Family gates were more beautiful and more ethereal, but the boy had known very early on that the smiles they showed him were different from the smiles of the sisters here.
One kind was for the future head of the Fan Family; the other was for a boy who had popped up from who knows where.
The boy didn't dislike the former, but he preferred the latter.
Chen Ping'an moved a stool for the boy. The boy quickly stepped forward to take it, smiling, "Thanks!"
Chen Ping'an smiled and shook his head. "You're welcome."
Then the boy, holding the stool, looked at Zheng Dafeng. "Sir, where should I sit?"
Zheng Dafeng waved his hand and teased, "Go sit by the bamboo curtain at the door and keep watch."
"Got it!"
The boy happily went to sit by the door, sitting upright with his back straight, eyes watching his nose and nose watching his heart, hands obediently on his knees. Although the boy tried to appear dignified and solemn, a smile couldn't help but appear in his eyes. Clear like a babbling brook—happiness made a sound, and unhappiness did too. It wasn't like deep water that remained silent, nor like nobles who spoke slowly.
Chen Ping'an suddenly felt a little envious of this boy.
The boy at the door possessed something that Chen Ping'an had always wanted but couldn't obtain.
When the old scholar of the Literary Academy had gotten drunk and was carried by Chen Ping'an, he had patted Chen Ping'an's shoulder vigorously and said that a young lad's shoulders should bear the weight of flying grass and lingering willows, not thoughts of family grudges or moral essays.
The boy at the door was exactly like that.
Chen Ping'an couldn't be.
Zheng Dafeng seemed to sense Chen Ping'an's unusual mood. Though he might not have known the exact thoughts, the man thought for a moment, then smiled and tossed that jug of Cassia Wine back to the little Fan boy.
The boy grinned brightly. "Mr. Zheng, I'll only dare to take one sip!"
Chen Ping'an raised the Sword-Nurturing Gourd high, also smiled, and said, "Let's drink together."
The boy paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously. "Then I'll take a bigger sip! Oh, by the way, my name is Fan Er. No, it's not a nickname—I'm actually called Fan Er, because I have an older sister named Fan Junmao, so I'm called Fan Er... Well, to be honest, whether I had a sister or not, my parents giving me this name would still break my heart. And you? Can you tell me?"
The boy took a large gulp of wine, his face reddening, coughing repeatedly. It seemed this name really did pain him.
Chen Ping'an drank some wine, then smiled and said, "My name is Chen Ping'an. 'Ping'an' means peace and safety."