Chapter 272: Chen Ping'an, Listen to Me
Chen Ping'an was actually a bit surprised. It was rare to meet someone on Inverted Mountain who spoke the refined language of Eastern Treasure Vase Continent. But after walking so far, he knew the saying: "Monks don't speak of names, Daoists don't speak of age." When encountering a stranger, it seemed inappropriate to abruptly ask where they were from.
Chen Ping'an then led the couple into the Sword Respect Pavilion. He repeated to them what Gold Grain had told him. Moreover, Chen Ping'an had a good memory since childhood. For each room of immortal sword replicas and paintings of sword immortals, as long as he had made an effort to remember them, Chen Ping'an could immediately tell the couple the names, sword names, and general biographies.
As he guided the couple through the pavilion, another thought occurred to Chen Ping'an. Since he had already used the sword, he might as well stay on Inverted Mountain for a while longer. He would record all the sword immortals and immortal swords in the Sword Respect Pavilion that caught his fancy. Later, he would take them back to the bamboo tower on Fallen Mountain and flip through them when bored. It would be like those small bamboo slips carved with beautiful poems and worldly truths. When he laid them out under the sun, even just looking from afar, Chen Ping'an would feel exceptionally comfortable, warm and cozy, as if the sunlight was not shining on the small bamboo slips and words, but directly on his heart.
When copying and tracing them, he could also practice his calligraphy. He just didn't know if the brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones on Inverted Mountain would be very expensive.
The young woman smiled and said, "You have a very good memory."
Chen Ping'an withdrew his thoughts and grinned. This little bit of skill was nothing on the mountains. He figured the lady was just being polite and making small talk.
This time, Chen Ping'an was truly underestimating himself. The couple, with their excellent discernment, had already confirmed that every time Chen Ping'an looked at a particular immortal sword replica, he already had a clear picture in his mind. This was called "the eyes have not yet arrived, but the intent has already reached." This was a famous bottleneck for sword cultivators, determining their final heights — whether they would be mere small sword cultivators whose hearts were enslaved by their flying swords, or great Dao sword immortals who commanded thousands of sword intents.
After passing through most of the rooms, Chen Ping'an still did not tire of it. He followed the attentive couple. Actually, after covering the general history of the Sword Respect Pavilion, what followed was simply choosing, based on interest, to pay homage to certain sword immortals or famous swords. But the woman still chatted with Chen Ping'an occasionally, and he continued to follow them.
From start to finish, the man didn't say much. He only suddenly said, "I'll go ahead and wait for you up front."
The woman nodded, unconcerned, and continued chatting with Chen Ping'an. Although Chen Ping'an had been to the Sword Respect Pavilion once, he actually had almost no understanding of the Sword Qi Great Wall beyond these sword immortals immortalized on the walls. On the contrary, the woman, who had come because of its reputation, spoke eloquently, relating many legendary deeds of sword immortals. For example, this founding ancestor surnamed Dong had named his sword "Three Corpses" not because he followed Daoism, but because he had once ventured alone into the heart of the demon world, beheading three powerful fifth-tier great demons along the way. The Dong Clan thus rose to prominence on the Sword Qi Great Wall. Later, almost every successive head of the Dong Clan had personally slain demons at the Jade Purity stage or even the Immortal stage...
Since they were already talking about the Dong Clan, the woman eagerly led Chen Ping'an to find the replica of the immortal sword called "Bamboo Basket." The owner of this sword was a reviving ancestor of the Dong Clan. At that time, the Dong Clan had been in decline, with their incense dwindling. The clan head was severely wounded to death by a great demon, and the clan faced a generational gap in sword qi. Then a young Dong Clan sword cultivator at the Golden Core stage made a determined decision. Carrying a heirloom sword called "One Zhang Tall," he embarked on the same demon-slaying path as his ancestor. When no one had faith in this person, two hundred years later, this sword cultivator returned to the Sword Qi Great Wall alone with his sword, carrying a bamboo basket on his back containing the head of a thirteenth-tier great demon. Before he ascended the city wall, he used his almost shattered sword, One Zhang Tall, to carve the character 'Dong' on the Sword Qi Great Wall.
From then on, the new sword this person forged was named Bamboo Basket.
From then on, the Dong Clan had always been one of the most influential surnames on the Sword Qi Great Wall.
After chatting, the woman learned that the young man's surname was Chen. She then smiled and asked Chen Ping'an if he had noticed that sword called "Flying Mountain."
Chen Ping'an smiled shyly, a bit embarrassed, because the owner of this oddly named immortal sword was surnamed Chen. So Chen Ping'an paid special attention and remembered it very clearly. In fact, for any sword immortal surnamed Chen, Chen Ping'an remembered both the immortal and his sword very diligently. If he had learned painting, and if he had a skilled painter like the one on Osmanthus Island to consult, he would have hoped to take the likenesses of these "sword immortals" back to Fallen Mountain in the coming days.
Afterwards, the woman smiled and selected a few old stories of Chen clan sword immortals for Chen Ping'an, telling those soul-stirring tales.
When someone narrated in words, rather than cold text and brief records, the stories often became extremely vivid. They were like monuments along the river of time, like rows of weeping willows under which later generations could feel their shade. Outside the shade, violent wind and rain raged, and that stretch of the river of years surged and tumbled.
Chen Ping'an, who had originally planned never to drink again, couldn't help but start drinking.
Not being liked by the girl you like is a very sad thing, but the sky hasn't fallen. You still have to live as you must.
This was something Chen Ping'an suddenly understood when he returned to the Sword Respect Pavilion.
But even after learning about so many sword immortals' glories, Chen Ping'an would not consider his own heartbreak a trivial matter.
It was even more agonizing for him than being beaten to within an inch of his life in the bamboo tower on Fallen Mountain.
The two kinds of pain were different. The former, once endured, was over.
But the latter pain seemed like it might not be endured even after a day, a month, a year, ten or a hundred years, perhaps even a lifetime.
The strangest part was that whenever Chen Ping'an thought that one day in the future he might like another girl, he felt even more distressed.
The books said that drowning sorrows in drink only makes them worse, which was why he had been scared to drink before.
Unconsciously, from Chen Ping'an initially leading the way to the woman's extensive descriptions and explanations at the end, it came naturally, and neither found it inappropriate.
Then Chen Ping'an saw that man. He stood at the entrance of the last room, smiling as he looked at him and the woman.
The man was not talkative. While walking together earlier, he only occasionally glanced at Chen Ping'an.
As they entered the last room and walked over to the adjacent sword racks for Dogwood and Gloomy Bamboo, the woman exclaimed in surprise, "Why are there no portraits of these two? I heard the owner of the Dogwood Sword is a very handsome man on the Sword Qi Great Wall."
Chen Ping'an felt a bit embarrassed. He carefully glanced at the man beside him, hoping not to tip over the vinegar jar.
Unexpectedly, the man immediately countered, "The mistress of Gloomy Bamboo is also a great beauty rarely seen in the world."
Chen Ping'an immediately felt indignant for the woman. What was wrong with a woman making a few jokes? As a man, he should be magnanimous, not so confrontational.
The woman cast a glance at her man and smiled at Chen Ping'an. "Thank you for guiding us through the Sword Respect Pavilion this time."
Chen Ping'an waved his hand and said, "It's nothing. I love exploring here myself; I'll be coming in the next few days too."
The man squinted and said, "I heard there's a little fool in the Sword Respect Pavilion who likes to wipe drool off these two swords and sword racks. That wouldn't be you, would it?"
Not wanting to stir up trouble, Chen Ping'an put on a bewildered look and waved his hand vigorously. "No, no. How could I be that foolish?"
The woman stealthily stepped on the man's foot, then said to Chen Ping'an, "We're about to leave. Would you like to leave with us?"
The man suddenly asked, "You seem to like drinking. Do you want to drink? I know a great place for drinking, cheap and good, but they don't serve people they don't know."
Chen Ping'an shook his head.
The man said irritably, "Just drink when you're offered. On Inverted Mountain, are you afraid of scoundrels? Besides, do we look like people who would covet a broken sword and a broken sword-nurturing gourd of yours?"
Chen Ping'an was a bit embarrassed.
This man sure was too straightforward in his speech.
The man received another kick from the woman, who complained, "Who was it that said they hate people who urge drinking the most?"
Not daring to contend with his wife, the man just glared at Chen Ping'an.
Chen Ping'an then broke into a smile at the woman.
The man grew even more annoyed, but was already being dragged towards the door by the woman.
The three walked out of the Sword Respect Pavilion together and down the steps.
After holding back for a long time, the man asked, "Really not drinking? The Carefree Wine of Inverted Mountain is sought after by all drunkards and wine immortals in the entire Haoran World. It is said that the brewing method was passed down by Confucian Ritual Saint himself. You won't find this anywhere else. Think it over before you answer me."
Chen Ping'an looked down at his sword-nurturing gourd. There wasn't much Osmanthus Small Brew left inside.
The man clicked his tongue. "Kid, with your wishy-washy temperament, it'll be hard for you to find a wife."
This really struck a nerve in Chen Ping'an's heart. He thought to himself, "It's precisely because I wasn't wishy-washy that I'm now wandering Inverted Mountain like a lonely ghost in the middle of the night. Otherwise, I might still be strolling and admiring the scenery with Miss Ning!"
Chen Ping'an snorted coldly. "I won't drink! No wife is fine!"
This was a rare display of temper from Chen Ping'an.
Shifting his gaze to the lady, Chen Ping'an showed a much friendlier expression. He cupped his hands and said, "Madam, we shall meet again."
The young woman smiled. "The Carefree Wine of Inverted Mountain is worth a taste. Even ordinary Jade Purity stage cultivators find it hard to get a cup. It's only because we have some connection with the shopkeeper there that we can enter the tavern. If you truly like drinking, don't miss it. Well, even if you don't like drinking, it's best not to miss it."
Chen Ping'an hesitated.
The man started to make snide remarks. "Look at him, all hesitant and fussy. Can you like that? I certainly don't like it."
Chen Ping'an darkened his face, thinking, "I don't need you to like me."
In fact, Chen Ping'an tonight was like a drunkard who hadn't sobered up. His temper was really not good; after all, even a clay Buddha has a temper.
The woman ignored the petty-minded man. She patted the young man on the shoulder and joked, "Come on, let's drink together. I can tell you have something on your mind. When we drink, don't mind his nagging. Just drink your own wine. The sky is big, the earth is vast, but the cup is biggest; the mountains are high, the waters are far, but the wine is deepest."
Chen Ping'an scratched his head and then followed the woman forward.
The man followed behind the two, glanced back at the Sword Respect Pavilion, and twitched the corner of his mouth.
A Daoist nun from Inverted Mountain who was in charge of guarding the Sword Respect Pavilion, after being tossed out of the pavilion, arrived at the square at the foot of Solitary Peak. She looked as if she was about to cry, complaining to a young Daoist boy who was flipping through a book, and reporting the man's crimes to her master. The young Daoist boy absentmindedly listened to the indignant words of the Daoist nun, then asked, "You still don't know who he is, do you?"
This Golden Core stage Daoist nun shook her head in confusion.
The young Daoist boy nodded. "Then ignorance is innocence. You may go."
The Daoist nun became even more puzzled.
The sword-holding man on the hitching post behind them said with schadenfreude, "If teaching is not strict, it is the laziness of the teacher."
The young Daoist boy angrily retorted, "Bullshit! That's a damn Confucian saying. My lineage never advocates that! When has being a person and cultivating the Dao ever been anything but one's own business?"
The Daoist nun trembled in fear, stood still, with her eyes downcast, not daring to move at all.
The sword-holding man not only did not stop but fanned the flames further. He laughed teasingly, "No wonder in the Incense Hall, your Dao Ancestor's portrait hangs so high, tens of thousands of miles away from your three masters, the Patriarchs."
The young Daoist boy leapt to his feet. "Are you looking for a beating?"
The sword-holding man laughed heartily. "Good thing you didn't say 'Are you looking for death,' or I would have to criticize you for talking nonsense. I don't have many other virtues, but as A Liang says, I'm straightforward. When it comes to flattery and exposing others' shortcomings, A Liang says I rank highly on the Sword Qi Great Wall."
The young Daoist boy gritted his teeth in anger. With his hands behind his back, he paced back and forth on the large futon, muttering to himself, "Do you think you're A Liang over here? You're a native-born refugee from over there... If not for my master's advice to be kind to others, I would beat you beyond recognition today. I don't care if you've been suppressed by the world here and dropped half a realm. So what if it's an unworthy victory? I'd beat you so badly you wouldn't dare show your face for a year. That would be satisfying. I'd make you like that senior brother on Solitary Peak back in the day... I've had my eye on you for years..."
That Daoist nun, who had originally thought her master would back her up, saw her master getting angry for the first time and regretted it deeply. She shouldn't have come.
Especially after her master accidentally revealed some heavenly secrets, the Daoist nun felt that her days on Inverted Mountain would be very difficult.
That Celestial Lord, her senior uncle who presided over Central Solitary Peak, might be too lazy to bother with her. But his eldest disciple, that Dragon Lord who holds a whisk, the current third-in-command on Inverted Mountain, was famously respectful to teachers and the Dao. He would definitely make her life miserable forever. He definitely would...
The Daoist nun wanted to cry but had no tears.
Why did she end up with a master who never protects his disciples?
On the street outside the Sword Respect Pavilion, Chen Ping'an inexplicably finished touring the pavilion with the couple, and then inexplicably followed them to some tavern to drink some Carefree Wine.
In a daze sometimes, or when the lady asked him questions, it seemed like a long time had passed, or perhaps less than the time it takes to burn an incense stick. The three arrived at a tavern that had not yet closed for the night. But business was quiet. There was not a single customer in the shop. There was only a young shop assistant dozing on a wine table, and an old man behind the counter amusing a caged bird.
The old shopkeeper glanced at the couple. "Rare guests, rare guests. I must bring out that wine."
Then he glanced at the sword-carrying young man behind the two, furrowed his brow, but sighed and said nothing. It seemed that for the sake of old ties, he let it slide.
Then the old man bellowed at the lazy attendant, "Xu Jia! Sleep, sleep, sleep! Why don't you just sleep yourself to death! Customers are here! Go bring a jar of wine!"
The young man named Xu Jia was jolted awake. He wiped his drool, stood up weakly, and hunched over to fetch a jar of wine. He placed it on the table where the three had taken their seats, yawned, and said, "Three guests, take your time. As usual, we have no food in this establishment."
The woman nodded politely, then smiled at Chen Ping'an sitting across from her. "There was a very powerful monk who once wandered here. After drinking the Carefree Wine, he praised it endlessly, claiming, 'The only thing that can break the Buddha in my heart is this wine.'"
The old shopkeeper laughed. "Yes indeed. That old monk is truly formidable. I'm afraid even if A Liang were to chop him a few times, he couldn't break through that monk's ten-foot paradise."
In the end, he was still trying to say his own wine was the best in the world.
But when Chen Ping'an heard others mention A Liang on Inverted Mountain, he was still happy deep down.
So this time, he really wanted to have a drink.
But then the old man slammed the counter and said angrily, "Damn it! Mentioning A Liang pisses me off! He owes me money for over twenty jars of wine! He's the only one in the world who does! Back in the day, Chen Chun'an of Bodhi Continent, and that recent Female Martial God, and even earlier those old fogies of the Hundred Schools of Thought—who among them dared to owe me wine money?"
"Let's talk about that scholar from Central Plains Divine Continent. At his most destitute, before he rose to prominence, he was just a small Observing Sea stage cultivator. He could compose a hundred poems in a drinking contest—and what drinking contest? It was with my wine! But he came three times and only owed me a total of four or five jars. A Liang is a calamity, and I'm the one suffering!"
The woman winked at Chen Ping'an, as if to say the old man's just like that—let him talk and don't mind him.
The young shop assistant said sullenly, "Old man, can you stop mentioning A Liang? Miss still hasn't returned to Inverted Mountain because of him. I miss her so much."
The old man immediately lowered his voice and muttered, "That ungrateful girl—she might as well stay out there and torment others."
Opening the wine jar, there were three large white bowls. After the man poured a bowl for each, just as the lady had said, he hated people who urge drinking the most. He said bluntly, "Drink if you want to from now on. If not, then forget it."
Chen Ping'an carefully took a small sip. It didn't have much taste—just a bit stronger than Osmanthus Small Brew. But it was nowhere near the caliber of "burning knife cutting guts." He took two more small sips. Still no reaction in his throat or stomach, so he completely relaxed. He guessed that the Carefree Wine had some other profound quality, not just its flavor.
After each of them had two big bowls, the jar of wine was empty.
The woman turned and smiled at the old shopkeeper, asking for another jar. Looking at her radiant smile, the old man sighed, personally fetched another jar, and gently placed both jars on the table. "Three jars of wine—all on me, not on the bill."
Chen Ping'an was drinking until his face was beet red, but his mind was ethereal and clear. He didn't seem drunk, nor did he show signs of drunkenness, yet he could clearly feel his own tipsy state.
After drinking, he wanted to say a little more.
It was like those burps—holding them in wasn't really a problem, but letting them out was definitely a relief.
At first, the man buried his head in his drink, or looked out of the shop, his mind wandering thousands of miles away.
The woman, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy chatting with Chen Ping'an. They talked from his hometown all the way to his two long journeys.
Since Chen Ping'an wasn't drunk, he only picked the people and events he could talk about.
Later, somehow the conversation turned to that girl.
Chen Ping'an, who had decided to drink four big bowls and then flip his bowl to stop, silently poured himself another bowl of wine. He still didn't mention the matter of giving the sword. He just said he had something to do and had to leave his hometown to come to Inverted Mountain. There happened to be a girl he knew whose home was on the other side of the Sword Qi Great Wall, and they met once. It was that simple.
The woman smiled and said, "Then you've traveled a long way?"
Chen Ping'an held the bowl, thought for a moment, and shook his head. "Not really. I thought that with every step, I was getting a little closer, so it didn't feel far."
The man sneered. "How long have you known that girl? How long have you been with her? To just say you like her? Isn't that a bit frivolous?"
Chen Ping'an didn't know how to refute that. He just said gloomily, "I can't control who I like. If you think it's frivolous, that's your opinion. I don't care."
The man snorted coldly. He was probably hurt by Chen Ping'an's words. The key point was that the young man was being very sincere.
The rumor in the mountains said, but its truth was unknown.
One who drinks Carefree Wine becomes a true-hearted person.
The woman comforted him. "So you were rejected by the girl? Don't lose heart. Have you heard that between some people, meeting is already fate. If they can meet again, that is even better."
Chen Ping'an took a big gulp of wine. His eyes were blurry with intoxication, yet his eyes were crystal clear, like a secluded spring in a mountain stream. Joy, sadness, regret, and happiness all flowed through them, pure and clean. The young man shook his head and smiled. "If you like someone, you should make her happy. If you think that just because you like someone, she must be with you—is that still liking?"
As he said this, tears flowed down the young man's face. "But I'm just saying that out loud. Actually, I'm almost dying of sadness. I wish that all of Inverted Mountain, all of Haoran World, knew that I like that girl. And then I just hope that there is only one girl in the world who likes me..."
By the end, Chen Ping'an was truly drunk. He had forgotten how many bowls he had drunk. He rested his head on the table, murmuring incoherently.
He even forgot how he had argued with the man, and even fought.
Between dream and reality, between waking and sleeping, it seemed that in a fit of anger, he had pushed through from the fourth stage to the seventh stage in one go, thus completely losing his connection to the strongest fourth stage in martial