Chapter 338: Fox'er Town
When he reached the door of the second-floor room, Pei Qian had already sprinted past Chen Ping'an and opened the door first, acting very much like a lackey.
Chen Ping'an strode inside, and Pei Qian hesitated over whether to follow. Chen Ping'an turned and instructed, "Go ask the inn for three more rooms. Have Jiu Niang put it on the tab. Also, tell Wei Xian that I'll be in seclusion for a few days and won't see anyone during that time. The five of you had better not stray too far from the inn."
Pei Qian looked at Chen Ping'an. "Are you alright?"
Chen Ping'an found it both amusing and exasperating. Did he look like he was alright? He said casually, "I won't die."
Pei Qian carefully closed the door, then said one last thing, "Call me if anything happens. I'm right next door."
Chen Ping'an nodded.
The two flying swords, Chu Yi and Shi Wu, hovered in the room. Chen Ping'an first took out a stack of Dust-Cleansing Talismans and pasted them around the room. Then he produced two porcelain bottles of vastly different material value. One was a cinnabar-red porcelain bottle gifted by Lu Tai, capable of regenerating bone and flesh—Chen Ping'an had personally experienced the miraculous effects of those pills during the battle in the mountain forest outside Eagle Fort. The other was a unique secret medicine from the Yang Family Shop, potent enough to stop even the most excruciating pain. Despite all the mountain spirits and monsters he'd encountered on his two previous journeys, Chen Ping'an had never had occasion to use it. He never expected to take it out in a remote border town.
Chen Ping'an stripped off his severely damaged magic robe, the Golden Li. Pulling it away from the wounds tore at flesh, sinew, and bone, causing him to break out in a cold sweat from the pain. Sitting by the table, he tremblingly opened the plain white porcelain bottle from the Yang Family Shop, tipped out a pitch-black pill, and forced it down his throat. He also uncorked his wine gourd and took a swig of green plum wine. Only then did he begin to apply the thick medicinal paste from the cinnabar-red bottle onto his hands, arms, and shoulders—another round of torment.
The strength of that Great Spring Python Robe Eunuch had far exceeded Chen Ping'an's expectations. To deal with this storm, Chen Ping'an had been cautious enough, enlisting not only the martial madman Zhu Lian but also summoning the other two from the painting scroll, Sui Youbian and Lu Baixiang. Yet he never imagined that Li Li, the Shougong Huai of the Great Spring Dynasty, would be so unreasonable. Beyond his Qi refiner cultivation base, his physical body was comparable to a sixth-tier pure martial artist.
Previously, Chen Ping'an only had three Grain Rain Coins left. Following the inclinations of the old Daoist and the Daoist boy carrying the golden gourd for nurturing swords, Chen Ping'an made a small gamble, tossing one Grain Rain Coin into the scroll of Sui Youbian—the scroll he was least inclined to touch. Sure enough, with just one Grain Rain Coin, the female sword immortal of Lotus Flower Blessed Land leisurely stepped out of the painting and into this world.
Clearly, that Daoist boy had calculated precisely that Chen Ping'an would summon Sui Youbian last. If not for the "guidance" of that little person from Lotus Lake, according to Chen Ping'an's own order of preference, he would have summoned the martial madman Zhu Lian, who had lost to Ding Ying, first, followed by the founding emperor Wei Xian, then the demon cultist Lu Baixiang, and finally Sui Youbian. Then Zhu Lian, who required a full fifteen Grain Rain Coins, would have been a huge intimidation tactic. It might have been enough to make Chen Ping'an shelve the other three scrolls indefinitely.
Chen Ping'an sat by the table, eyes closed, hands hanging naturally. But in his mind, he visualized himself sitting in the Sword Furnace stance, gradually steadying his breath, like an old monk entering meditation or a Daoist forgetting himself.
Two days later, at high noon, Chen Ping'an changed into clean clothes and finally walked out of the room. He stood by the railing and noticed something strange about the ground-floor hall. The oddity lay precisely in the fact that the inn was too peaceful. The old hunchback sat on a bench behind the curtain, blowing smoke rings. The little cripple was wiping tables and stools. The landlady was attending a table of guests who were drinking and shouting loudly. The down-and-out scholar in blue sat on the doorstep, his expression mournful.
If Chen Ping'an hadn't keenly sensed the four long, steady breaths from the rooms on either side—including Zhu Lian's—he might have mistakenly thought nothing had happened at all, that he hadn't encountered the son of the Duke of Shen or the python-robed eunuch. Chen Ping'an felt as if a lifetime had passed. This brush with life and death during martial training, though yielding smaller gains than his battle with Ding Ying, stirred even deeper emotions in him. Perhaps it had to do with both his state of mind and the outcome.
The first "person from the painting" to walk out of the room was the old man Zhu Lian. Still stooped, he smiled and clasped his hands twice at Chen Ping'an, saying, "Young master, you gained a blessing from misfortune. Congratulations."
Chen Ping'an nodded and asked, "What about the cavalry and the Yao family people outside?"
Zhu Lian leaned close to Chen Ping'an and whispered with a grin, "That noble man from the Great Fu Academy made a single move and suppressed all three parties. The prince outside immediately took his men and left, only taking the body of the young Duke Gao Shuyi. As for the body of the Eunuch Director of the Imperial Horse Administration, he didn't even dare mention it. The other, older prince, along with the Yao family border troops who had rushed to the inn, didn't even dare approach and turned back. After the innkeeper and the others woke up, that noble man made up an excuse, saying that you killed the enemy with your fists and that the other prince had intervened, so the matter was settled. The noble man then continued to freeload here, eating and drinking. If all scholars in the Haoran World were like that, it would be far too interesting."
Zhu Lian then went over some details of the incident.
Chen Ping'an walked toward the stairs and said doubtfully, "Jiu Niang and the others are still kept in the dark? That works?"
Zhu Lian laughed. "That academy nobleman must have told all three parties not to reveal their identities, deliberately hiding the truth from the inn staff."
Chen Ping'an asked, "Where's Pei Qian?"
Zhu Lian pointed toward the direction of Fox'er Town and said, "She borrowed some copper coins from someone and is having fun over in Fox'er Town."
Chen Ping'an frowned. After reaching the ground floor, he walked straight toward the scholar at the door. Zhu Lian didn't follow, acting like an old butler of a modest household, sitting down at the table closest to the threshold.
Chen Ping'an sat on the doorstep, took off his wine gourd, and offered it over.
The scholar in blue shook his head, staring blankly at the innkeeper woman who was joking with the guests. "No thanks. If it's not wine personally handed to me by Jiu Niang, it has no flavor."
Chen Ping'an withdrew his hand and took a sip himself. "Who exactly were those prisoners Gao Shuyi and his men escorting? People from the northern Jin Kingdom in the south?"
The scholar, whose name was Zhong Kui, didn't hide anything and said casually, "Seems like remnants from the Pine Needle Lake Water God Temple, along with the orthodox mountain god Lord Jin Huang, his wife, and retainers. Anyway, it was the classic case of the sandpiper and clam fighting while the fisherman caught the booty. That third prince of the Great Spring Dynasty netted them all in one sweep. If you hadn't interfered, there'd probably be several more Yao family members in the prison carts. But rest assured, I promised I'd clean up the mess. You don't have to worry about the Great Spring Dynasty treating you as an enemy. However, if the third prince or the Duke of Shen's mansion hold a grudge against you, I can't stop that. If you can't handle even these..."
Chen Ping'an laughed. "Dealing with these is manageable. I believe this Great Spring Dynasty is unlikely to produce a second Shougong Huai."
This Great Spring Liu Dynasty was indeed far stronger than the Shu Kingdom or Caiyi Kingdom in the middle of Bottle Gourd Continent.
As for the favorable impression he had of Lord Jin Huang, why he had suddenly fallen from being a mountain god of one country to a prisoner of another—even though the great green water buffalo demon had already died at Chen Ping'an's hands, and someone later ransacked his home—Chen Ping'an wasn't interested and certainly wouldn't pry or intervene.
When Chen Ping'an mentioned Li Li of the Imperial Horse Administration, the scholar's expression also darkened, as if it were a considerable annoyance.
Seeing the scholar silent, Chen Ping'an turned to look outside the inn. Still uneasy, he stood up, walked to the side of the official road, and gazed toward Fox'er Town, worried that Pei Qian might cause trouble there.
When Chen Ping'an returned to the inn, he ordered a full table of food from the landlady and told Zhu Lian to call Lu Baixiang and the others downstairs. Just as they finished eating, Pei Qian meandered back into the inn, looking very happy. When she saw Chen Ping'an, she seemed uneasy, her eyes shifting nervously. Chen Ping'an didn't ask any questions, only inquiring if she had eaten. The little girl, her belly round, shook her head and said no, then started eating the leftovers on the table. Chen Ping'an walked out of the inn alone to take a stroll and clear his mind.
When Chen Ping'an returned to the inn, he found the entrance blocked by a crowd, shouting curses into the inn. It was quite lively.