Chapter 284: Miss, Please Respect Yourself
Before boarding the Tunbaojing that would take him to Tongyezhou, Chen Ping'an made a special trip to the marketplace outside the Shangxiang Tower and bought an incense tube. It contained eighty-one sticks of the specially made Sanqing Incense from Daoxuan Mountain, with a refreshing fragrance. Whether used to honor deities or to calm the mind through incense burning, it was of the finest quality, but not cheap—one Xiaoshu coin, which was equivalent to one hundred Xuehua coins.
The reason for this expense was that Chen Ping'an remembered there was a mountain shrine on his Luopo Mountain. If friends came to visit in the future, he could offer them this incense as a gift. Guests would show sincerity, and deities would enjoy fine incense—truly a pleasing matter.
Apart from this incense tube from the Shangxiang Tower and the two treasures he had purchased earlier at the Lingzhi Studio at a high price, Chen Ping'an also bought a set of the *Sword Immortal Painting* from a shop outside the Jingjian Pavilion. It was a reproduction by a master painter from Bocazhou. The set contained five paintings in total, each a long scroll depicting twenty sword immortals. On the scroll, each sword immortal was no more than an inch long, yet they were lifelike, ethereal as if floating toward immortality.
The original *Sword Immortal Painting* was a masterpiece created by a founding painter after observing the battles at Sword Qi Great Wall, and it had been copied countless times since.
There were too many sword immortals in the Jingjian Pavilion. This set, called the Shi Qu edition of the *Sword Immortal Painting*, selected only one hundred of them based on the personal preference of the painter. At the time, the shop had several editions with wildly different prices, and the Shi Qu edition was the most expensive. After careful comparison, Chen Ping'an found that this Shi Qu edition depicted sword immortals most to his liking, so he gritted his teeth and bought it.
This expense was no small matter—a full fifty Xiaoshu coins.
The shopkeeper, beaming with joy, was either happy to have found a generous customer or genuinely felt that Chen Ping'an had good taste. He told some tales and interesting anecdotes about the *Sword Immortal Painting*. He said that several sword cultivators in the world had accidentally obtained fragments of early copies of the painting, understood the true meaning of the sword immortals depicted, and ascended to become renowned land sword immortals overnight.
Chen Ping'an planned to give this set of *Sword Immortal Painting* as a congratulatory gift to Saint Ruan Qiong. When he had left his hometown of Longquan County, Master Ruan had not yet held his ceremony for founding a sect; it should have been completed by now. Fifty Xiaoshu coins were certainly insignificant to Ruan Qiong, but after all, it was something brought from Daoxuan Mountain all the way to Dali's Longquan, across thousands of miles, giving it a flavor of "the gift is light but the sentiment is heavy."
Clothes make the man, saddle makes the horse.
As Chen Ping'an walked toward the Shangxiang Ferry, several young female qi refiners even glanced at him, then looked again—not just a quick glance that they immediately dismissed.
This journey to Tongyezhou in search of the Dao weighed more heavily on Chen Ping'an's mind than his trip to Daoxuan Mountain to deliver the sword. After confirming that those young female qi refiners harbored no ill intentions, he stopped thinking about it.
Shangxiang Ferry was larger than Zhuofang Ferry, but Chen Ping'an, with a boarding jade pendant at his waist, did not see the Tunbaojing, which must have been enormous. Instead, he saw an Shanhai Turtle with pavilions and towers built on its shell, a massive chariot pulled by Qingluan cranes, and something recorded in the *Classic of Mountains and Seas*—a small green mountain peak unique to Fuyao Continent.
He didn't know whether it was a Flying Mountain or a Feiqu Peak. According to legend, the root of such mountains, formed by concentrated spiritual energy, was a great tonic for flood dragons in the world. In ancient times, when great land flood dragons left rivers to transform into dragons, after selecting a suitable sea-reaching river, they would have people move Flying Mountains and Feiqu Peaks to the riverside, so that they could eat in time and avoid exhaustion and depletion of blood and qi.
Chen Ping'an had only just begun learning the Great Elegant Speech of Zhongtu Shenzhou, so asking for directions was bound to be like a chicken talking to a duck. If worse came to worst, he could only take out a bamboo slip and carve words to ask for directions.
Fortunately, Chen Ping'an spotted several other passengers wearing jade pendants of the same style. He silently followed them for a while and soon arrived at a crowded place. He sighed in relief, only to have someone lightly pat him on the left shoulder. Chen Ping'an immediately turned his head to the right and saw a familiar face. The person, seeing that Chen Ping'an hadn't fallen for the trick, found it boring and said lazily, "Oh? You're going to the Fu Ji Sect in Tongyezhou too? What a coincidence? You're not plotting something against me, are you? Coveting my beauty?"
The guilty party filing the suit first?
Chen Ping'an had neither good nor bad impressions of this person.
A man wearing a pearl hairpin, a pink skirt, and a colorful sash around his waist... a strikingly handsome man.
If traveling together from Old Dragon City to Daoxuan Mountain on the Osmanthus Island was fate, then departing from Daoxuan Mountain for Fu Ji Sect on the same day was highly suspicious of ulterior design.
This Lu family scion, who had once been kicked out of Shangxiang Tower by a young Daoist apprentice, clearly saw Chen Ping'an's wariness. He patted the boarding jade token issued by Tunbaojing at his waist and laughed heartily, "Just as you think, I came to Fu Ji Sect this time to 'wait by the stump for the rabbit'—I was waiting specifically for you."
What kind of frankness was this?
Chen Ping'an was baffled but firmly decided in his heart to keep a respectful distance from this person.
Not only did this guy look as beautiful as a woman, but his voice was also crisp and pleasant, hard to distinguish between male and female. When they had "accidentally" toured the Zhuofang Pavilion together earlier, his words and actions showed he was a free-spirited, unconventional person. Chen Ping'an didn't resent this person's attire, temperament, or hobbies, but he also didn't want anyone to disturb his peaceful life.
The person clasped his hands behind his back, fingers interlaced, chin slightly raised, eyes narrowed as he looked at Chen Ping'an. His posture was delicate, even more flirtatious than a woman's. He said softly, "Whether you believe it or not, I'll tell you the truth. I'm named Lu, courtesy name Tai—Lu of 'land,' Tai of 'up to the balcony.' I'm a member of the Lu family from Zhongtu Shenzhou, not well liked within the clan, so I ran out to travel the world. I've visited five of the nine continents of Haoran World. Originally I wasn't planning to go to Tongyezhou, but now my pockets are truly empty, so I thought I'd find a good person who could let me freeload and wouldn't covet my beauty. I think you're that person. Since I already owe you one Guyu coin, I don't mind owing one more. Maybe once we get to Tongyezhou, I'll step in dog shit and be able to pay you back and even earn my way home."
He called himself Lu Tai. Seeing Chen Ping'an's expressionless face, it was clear he simply didn't believe this nonsense.
He sighed, "Fine, truth be told, I'm from the Yin Yang family, skilled in divination and fortune-telling. Being broke is true, not being able to earn money is false. But after I owed you that Guyu coin, I cast a hexagram for myself. It came up as 'Eastward Journey Swallowing Treasure, Tongye Enfeoffment'—a supremely auspicious hexagram. The meaning was straightforward, but just to be safe, I waited here for a full twenty days. That's why I said I was 'waiting by the stump for the rabbit.' Finally I saw you, and I knew that if I didn't take this Tongyezhou trip blessed by our ancestors, I'd be struck by lightning."
Chen Ping'an didn't respond harshly or show any impatience. Instead, he spoke in a kind, negotiating tone, "Young Master Lu, if you follow your auspicious hexagram to Tongyezhou, I obviously won't stop you, nor can I. But can you and I just go our separate ways? If you're in urgent need of money, I can lend you some more Xiaoshu coins..."
He suddenly interrupted Chen Ping'an, his tone and expression naturally coquettish: "What 'Young Master Lu'? To avoid trouble, just call me Miss Lu. Otherwise, people look at me strangely."
Chen Ping'an's scalp tingled.
If you care about how others look at you, why don't you care about how I see you?
Lu Tai actually started to act spoiled: "Chen Ping'an, do me a favor? Let me tag along? I can swear to heaven—if I have any bad intentions toward you, may I be struck by five thunders, thrown to bathe in Lei Ze, crushed under Sui Mountain, locked in a deep-sea dragon palace furnace, exiled to a desolate secret realm thousands of miles from civilization..."
As he spouted nonsense, he extended a hand even more slender and fair than a woman's, trying to grab Chen Ping'an's arm.
Chen Ping'an's goosebumps rose all over. He forgot about politeness and slapped Lu Tai's hand away, speaking sternly, "Young Master Lu... Miss, please respect yourself!"
Lu Tai withdrew his hand, a little disheartened, standing still, biting his lip, his eyes full of grievance, as if about to cry.
Chen Ping'an turned and walked away.
Lu Tai followed like a shadow. When Chen Ping'an stopped, he stopped; when Chen Ping'an turned, he turned. Somehow, he produced a small, delicate copper mirror from somewhere and held an open rouge box between his fingers, like a young lady admiring her reflection in her boudoir.
This scene made Chen Ping'an, who knew some of his background, feel utterly creeped out. However, many male qi refiners around them had dreamy looks in their eyes. Some older Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators with high cultivation levels, even though they could see through Lu Tai's illusion and knew his true gender, still had burning gazes.
On the path of cultivation, the long road to immortality had no taboos.
Lu Tai looked like a pitiful abandoned young concubine, not daring to complain about her heartless man, just following him reluctantly, unwilling to part.
The surrounding looks were full of amusement.
Chen Ping'an had never experienced such sickening tactics, and he was full of anger, but he had no way to deal with this Lu Tai.
As people at the ferry kept disappearing into thin air, Chen Ping'an realized that the boarding point for the Tunbaojing was a series of embroidered carpets laid on the ground. When purchasing ferry jade tokens, there were three types: "Cloud on Peak," "Lovely Garden," and "Jade Lake," each at a different price. Chen Ping'an had chosen the mid-range Jade Lake. Now, looking at the three carpets, they showed entirely different scenes: one had misty clouds with a single peak rising, one had vast blue waves with scattered lake houses, and one had a blooming garden with pavilions.
The "Miss Lu" not far behind explained timidly, "You can't board the Tunbaojing through its mouth, can you? This Tunbaojing is quite large, top-notch in Golden Armor Continent. Inside the beast's body are four small secret realms, three of which have been built into passenger quarters. The Tunbaojing at Old Dragon City had only one secret realm—paltry in comparison. These three carpets are actually three extremely high-grade earth-shrinking talismans that allow passengers to reach the three places directly."
Chen Ping'an suddenly understood.
Regarding secret realms, the all-encompassing immortal book *Classic of Mountains and Seas* had detailed records. Since it involved cave heavens and blessed lands and was even related to Li Zhu Cave Heaven, Chen Ping'an had paid particular attention and even consulted the young innkeeper of the Crane Pavilion, asking some questions not covered in the books.
People born and raised on Daoxuan Mountain, regardless of cultivation level or family background, often had grand speech and broad knowledge, casually mentioning saints, heavenly lords, and earth immortals without any scruples. However, their wide-ranging experiences and knowledge were indeed superior to anywhere else outside Daoxuan Mountain.
The young innkeeper was usually not talkative, but perhaps he saw Chen Ping'an as an important guest, so he had a rare, free-flowing chat.
Many cave heavens and blessed lands that had decayed on their own or been destroyed by external forces often left behind remnants of various sizes that disappeared, and these were called secret realms. In fact, the shop selling Oblivion Wine on Daoxuan Mountain was the only remaining secret realm from the Yellow Millet Blessed Land.
Many opportunities for cultivators often came from secret realms. Secret realms could add icing to the cake or provide fuel in the snow. One could say that the existence of secret realms, big and small, gave qi refiners hope and anticipation. Almost half of all rogue cultivators owed their rise to gains from secret realms.
Accidentally stumbling into an unoccupied secret realm—be it a paradise of natural essences, a barbaric land of miasma, or a cave where immortals had died—the lucky could ascend to the clouds and soar to the sky; the unlucky might die there, their belongings becoming opportunities for later arrivals.
Chen Ping'an was very curious whether, after Li Zhu Cave Heaven shattered and fell, any secret realms had remained in the human world.
He could ask Wei Bo about that later.
At this moment, Chen Ping'an walked toward the carpet leading to the Jade Lake of the Tunbaojing. Lu Tai sighed, quickened his pace, and walked unhurriedly, blocking Chen Ping'an's way. He extended his hand and said, "I was originally going to the Jade Lake too, but since you detest me so much, I won't be an eyesore. I can change my lodging, pay some extra money, and exchange it for the renowned Lovely Garden. Let's part ways here. Chen Ping'an, you said earlier you could lend me some Xiaoshu coins—does that still count? Otherwise, I can't go to Lovely Garden..."
A pitiful man looked awkward no matter how you saw him.
Chen Ping'an directly pulled out a handful of Xiaoshu coins—paying money to avoid trouble—walked closer, and quickly handed them to Lu Tai.
As long as this person stopped pestering him and let him practice his martial arts and swordsmanship in peace along the way, Chen Ping'an was willing to spend the money.
After taking the Xiaoshu coins, Lu Tai stared blankly at Chen Ping'an, his autumn-water eyes full of grievance. Finally, he turned away dejectedly, probably to find someone to arrange a change of lodging.
When Chen Ping'an stepped onto the strange earth-shrinking talisman, he saw Lu Tai, looking overjoyed, wink at him and brandish a newly exchanged jade token engraved with the words "Jade Lake."
It turned out that Lu Tai had been genuinely broke, so he could only afford the cheapest Cloud on Peak token. Then, with a string of exaggerated lies, he got Chen Ping'an to give him a handful of Xiaoshu coins...
Lu Tai walked lightly, playfully, toward Chen Ping'an's carpet, smug and proud, his face even more radiant.
Before his figure vanished, Chen Ping'an couldn't help but curse at that "miss," "Your uncle!"