Chapter 858: Tug-of-War
(This chapter does not count as the update for the 7th; there will be another chapter update on the 7th.)
After the upper half of Xianzan City was slapped away, thousands of fireflies lit up simultaneously—those were the figures of cultivators fleeing the city through wind-riding. Lu Chen glanced at this ethereal scene of drifting immortals, a kaleidoscope of colors, a magnificent sight—pity it was like the tree falling and the monkeys scattering. From then on, there would be no more first high city in the Wilderness. Hard work had piled sand into a mountain, but in one morning the flowing water scattered; romance was always beaten and blown away by wind and rain. Yet today, Xianzan City was violently broken and hammered to pieces by the young Hidden Official in his pure martial guise.
Lu Chen withdrew his gaze and reminded, "We can probably stop now. Getting too tangled here will hinder our sword moves."
Chen Ping'an, bearing the true names of great demons and fused with the Sword Qi Great Wall, was already suppressed by the Great Dao of the Wilderness. In truth, Lu Chen's long journey here had not been easy; he needed to continuously help Chen Ping'an evolve Dao techniques to dissolve that ethereal yet omnipresent suppression. Otherwise, three Moon-Chasing Talismans could be conjured at will—unlike the Three-Mountain Talisman, the Moon-Chasing Talisman was Lu Chen's original creation. The Third Teachings Master, idle in the Azure World and bored in the White Jade Capital, would often ride the wind alone into the void, drinking wine under the moonlight.
Unlike the Wilderness, the moons in the other worlds were all unquestionable forbidden zones. Even if a cultivator's realm was sufficient to support a long journey, raising their form to ascend into the moon was a first-class taboo. In the Azure World alone, a great cultivator once attempted to trespass and visit the ruins of the ancient Moon Palace, only for Yu Dou in the White Jade Capital to detect a clue and deliver a sword strike from afar, plummeting the cultivator from Flying Ascension down to Jade Abyss. The cultivator could only return to his sect, drowning his sorrows in drink under his own blessed land's moon, shouting, "You Dao Second, if you dare to interfere again... I'm drinking on my own turf—come and control the heavens and earth again if you can!" Yu Dou indeed sent another sword, cleaving that blessed land's moon in two. In the end, not a single person among the hundreds of Dao officials in that sect dared to beat the Heavenly Drum to cry injustice, making it a laughingstock.
Chen Ping'an's Dao Dharma manifestation finally stopped, glancing at the traces of cultivators scattering in all directions. "It seems the Vice City Lord Yinlu is nowhere to be seen, and I can't detect that Yaozu's aura in the other half of the city either. Can you find it?"
Lu Chen smiled. "He's probably hidden himself with some secret method. Wealth comes with danger—the Great Dao foundation of Xianzan City has long been rooted here. As long as you don't destroy that Dao hairpin, this Silver Deer Immortal, who can immediately fill the vacancy of city lord, still has a chance to rise again. With his cultivation aptitude, attaining the Flying Ascension realm isn't a wild hope—though it would be an empty-shell Flying Ascension, not much better than his master's. It's a disgrace for the Wilderness's great demons. No wonder Xuanpu has never dared to show his face at the Sword Qi Great Wall. Once we head into that half city, I'll do a bit of divination. Maybe I can find some clues."
Having said this, Lu Chen rarely showed a serious expression. "Let me add a word of caution—absolutely, absolutely don't try to break that hairpin. Its former owner rendered a great merit to our human world. According to the old almanac, it's like one who has merit on the Dao and deeds in the human world, with merit and action complete. So it's best we don't provoke it."
Chen Ping'an laughed. "Then we'll stop at the right point and not waste time here."
Lu Chen sighed, "Breaking Xianzan City with both fists is one thing, but having the city's own cultivators dismantle the Patriarch Hall—in my opinion, that's clearly an even greater feat."
Chen Ping'an withdrew the eight-thousand-foot-tall Dao Dharma manifestation, returning to normal height, becoming once again that young man in a Daoist crown and green robe. He looked up at the much more pleasing "Xianzan City" and smiled. "It's just understanding the reasons."
The logic was simple. It was like a common family with modest means who loved charity but couldn't understand certain wealthy families with mountains of gold why they were more stingy than themselves, why it was hard to part with charitable wealth. It was actually a failure to see a certain thread—if wealth entered through a side door, how could one expect it to go out through the front door? Just as a mortal Confucian could hardly achieve the principle of only asking about cultivation, not harvest, a cultivator likewise found it difficult to truly ask about causes without seeking results.
Lu Chen felt a stir. He pressed two fingers together and drew a straight line downward, then beside the line, he drew a cicada, as if perched on a tree. A paper cicada, seeming to chirp endlessly in the autumn wind—"Zhi liao, zhi liao..." (knowing, knowing). Lu Chen then raised both hands, framing the picture as if with a frame, and tucked the painting into his sleeve. "This journey was not in vain."
Lu Chen shielded his forehead with his palm, looking around, and asked, "Ning Yao and the others haven't arrived yet. What say you? Shall we go find that Silver Deer and have a chat?"
After all, this was the last market city—no time limit of only one incense stick remained. Once Ning Yao and the others arrived to meet up, Lu Chen could finally hand over the last Three-Mountain Talisman. The three market cities were: the Wine Spring Sect, the Wuding River of the Yeluo River Waters, and Supporting Moon Mountain.
If not for the urgency to reach Supporting Moon Mountain, Chen Ping'an wouldn't have minded staying put and waiting by the rabbit's stump at Xianzan City. Adding the Executioner Hao Su, this traveling party would be one Fourteen Realm cultivator, three Flying Ascension sword cultivators, and one Immortal Realm sword cultivator whose killing power could be considered Flying Ascension.
Moreover, the top combat power of the entire Wilderness was likely already deployed in the battlefields around A Liang and his senior brother.
Who could come to reinforce? If they dared not come, Chen Ping'an would even lend some courage to those old and new Throne great demons.
Lu Chen chuckled. "This Immortal Silver Deer is a master at packing up and concealing his tracks. This half of Xianzan City didn't leave you any valuable goods, did it?"
Actually, this was being too clever for one's own good, very unwise. Besides, at this moment, inside and outside Xianzan City, it wasn't just the young Hidden Official who wanted Silver Deer's life.
Chen Ping'an said gravely, "That blessed land—if it can be taken, take it. If it can't, even if I have to dig three feet down, I'll find it, even if I have to completely shatter Xianzan City."
Lu Chen smiled bitterly. "Me?"
Not "us."
Chen Ping'an laughed. "Consider it the interest dividend from our partnership. Patriarch Lu, you've had your share of troubles on this journey—no merit but plenty of toil. If you only ever give and never receive, I'd find it unbearable."
Lu Chen's eyes lit up. "If we really get it, I won't take it to the Azure World. I'll give it to the Confucian Temple instead, in exchange for three opportunities to visit."
Hundreds of miles away, that half section of Xianzan City lay like a cultivator's corpse across the land. But in an instant, the broken city, sprawling like a mountain range, stood upright again, trying to fly back to its original spot and rejoin with the lower half. However, Chen Ping'an stomped it down with one foot, forcing it back to the ground, using his Fourteen Realm Dao techniques to suppress the Dao hairpin's innate attraction method.
At the same time, Chen Ping'an in Daoist robes raised his hand and drew a talisman above the Xianzan City, simply writing the character "mountain." Meanwhile, Chen Ping'an in green robes activated his innate Water Seal, drawing a water talisman in the air with his finger. Mountain and water relied on each other but were ultimately different.
The green-robed Chen Ping'an made a trip to the alchemy room built atop Xuanpu's mountain peak. Using the Sleeve Universe technique, not only did he collect the three alchemy furnaces, but also hundreds of bottles and jars on the shelves into his sleeve. Then he took the wooden shelves used for storing pills. Finding the wood of excellent quality—an unknown immortal tree species—he dismantled the beams and pillars of those thick-log houses and took them as well. Finally, noticing that the golden-hued floor bricks seemed to have some significance, he crouched down and pried up a brick, discovering that each one had a year, supervisor, and craftsman's name engraved on the bottom. With a flick of his sleeve, he collected all two thousand-plus gold bricks.
Finally, Chen Ping'an looked at the now-bare hall, empty of anything, and considered doing a thorough job, but then thought better of it, feeling it was best to leave a little leeway.
The green-robed sword bearer returned to the Patriarch Hall, which could now be called a ruin. The founding patriarch of Xianzan City seemed not to have given himself a Dao name, only a birth name: Gui Lingxiang. She was the female cultivator depicted in the central hanging portrait, the second owner of that ancient Dao hairpin.
The great patriarch of the Immortal Silver Deer, with the Dao name Qiong'ou, was that ghostly old hag who acted decisively at the first sign of trouble. She had abandoned a high-grade treasure whisk, not to scatter all the golden incense oil, lest it lay a glaring golden road for her journey to the underworld. In fact, to protect herself, she had also conveniently sabotaged her direct disciple—that burly old man with the Dao name Wuti. To ensure that the Fourteen Realm great cultivator wouldn't fully target her, Qiong'ou, while clutching the painting scroll from the void, blocked one of her disciple Wuti's controlling spells, preventing the latter from following her example.
Wuti now stood at the boundary of the Patriarch Hall ruins. The old cultivator wore a black robe, with hair and beard like halberds, holding two scrolls in his hand. The hanging portraits had naturally been destroyed; if this handle fell into the hands of the green-robed visitor before him, Wuti didn't think he would fare well. Since the other party had casually tossed them here earlier, he naturally had the confidence to retrieve them at will.
The Wilderness great demons' way of doing things was often this straightforward—once they decided something, there were no detours.
So Wuti wasted no time. Within less than half an incense stick, he had killed his beloved disciple Xuanpu, who had taken over Xianzan City from him. Indeed, that fellow Xuanpu had never been good at fighting since childhood.
While Wuti could still linger in the yang world for a time, after dealing with Xuanpu, he had already sent out strands of divine sense. Even more than the mysterious green-robed visitor, he wanted to find Xuanpu's direct disciple, the next heir to the city lord position. The matter of descending the true one was only orally transmitted between successive city lords and their successors—a closely guarded secret. The path between yin and yang was fraught with heavy restrictions.
Although the painting scroll had been destroyed, to be cautious, Wuti still planned to kill that disciple's disciple, to eradicate the root. How could the lineage and incense inheritance of Xianzan City compare to the preciousness of his own Great Dao and life?
One of Wuti's avatars had randomly grabbed a registered cultivator of Xianzan City, asked for Silver Deer's identity and Dao name, then casually snapped the neck of that Golden Core realm disciple and ate his demon core. These irredeemable wretches—whose faults had caused the ancestral enterprise to collapse in an instant—were lucky to die only once. Wuti had plenty of means to make a cultivator suffer worse than death.
The problem was that Xianzan City had changed so much that Wuti couldn't quickly find the hiding place of that disciple's disciple.
Chen Ping'an asked with a smile, "Looking for Silver Deer to eliminate future trouble? Afraid this future city lord might repaint the portrait, light incense, and descend the true one, welcoming the patriarch back to the yang world?"
Wuti glanced at the longsword that had never been drawn, sneering, "I'm not worried about a useless disciple who only knows how to fool around on women's bellies. I'm only worried that you'll be waiting nearby."
Chen Ping'an shook his head. "You worry too much. I'll leave Xianzan City soon."
"Xianzan City? There's no damned Xianzan City anymore." Wuti snorted. "Anyway, it's none of my damned business anymore."
Half the city had been plastered with a mountain talisman, causing the high city to sink continuously, merging with the mountain roots. Meanwhile, here, with a water talisman applied, heavy snow was imminent. Soon, a blizzard would come. Once that Dao hairpin became too soaked with the qi of mountains and rivers, later cultivators wanting to forcibly peel off the already fused mountain and water talismans would find it like a mortal flaying skin and pulling sinews, or a cultivator splitting their soul and spirit. Unless this Fourteen Realm great cultivator proficient in talismanic Dao truly left immediately, and another equal-realm great cultivator rushed over at once, willing to deplete his own Dao base to help Xianzan City unravel the threads, could the city be roughly restored. But that was certainly a fool's dream—were there so many Fourteen Realm great cultivators in this era?
The old cultivator looked back, at the place where that female patriarch's portrait once hung. There was an unprecedented trace of sorrow.
He had no good impression of his master Qiong'ou. That she would do such deeds didn't surprise him at all. He wasn't even angry. Only his feelings for that female founding patriarch, Gui Lingxiang, were entirely different. Even for a ruthless demon like Wuti, who had done violent deeds all his life, thinking that the matriarch's enterprise had fallen into ruin at the hands of useless disciples like them made him grieve. In his entire life, besides Patriarch Gui Lingxiang, Wuti had never met a second cultivator so detached from worldly strife.
Thinking back to those days, when she was still alive, Wuti was just a young cultivator who had just begun cultivation. The day he succeeded in forming his form, his master didn't take it seriously at all, just coldly tossing him a spiritual artifact while he knelt on the ground. Instead, that female patriarch came to find him specially. She bent down, smiled with narrowed eyes, patted the boy's head, and said gently, only three words: "You are human now."
The green-robed sword cultivator and the Dao Dharma manifestation merged into one.
Chen Ping'an once again became that figure with a lotus crown and green gauze Dao robe, carrying a sword on his back.
Lu Chen clicked his tongue. "These peak cultivators in the Wilderness—when they get ruthless, they truly are ruthless. A sight to behold. I'm not worthy."
In the world of mountain immortals, the method of inviting gods to descend varied, each with its own mysteries.
The Lu family in their ancestral hall, year after year for thousands of years, burning incense, had never once succeeded in inviting Lu Chen down.
So the Lu clan of the Central Yin-Yang School had always resented this ancestor who never protected his family.
They really should be made to take a good look at these demon cultivators. Having a patriarch like him, why complain? They should be burning tall incense in gratitude.
Chen Ping'an reminded, "Find Silver Deer."
Lu Chen sat cross-legged in the lotus Dao field, counting on his fingers and smiling. "I'm looking. Wait a moment. Let's give Senior Wuti a little scare later."
Chen Ping'an then reached out and grabbed the fallen whisk, bringing it into his hand. There were two characters in insect-bird seal script: "Fly Whisk." This was somewhat similar to that great mountain named "Green Mountain" earlier. The wooden handle showed an antique reddish-purple color, with a small golden ring attaching the whisk. The whisk strands were snow-white, extremely fine, of unknown material. Chen Ping'an gathered a handful of strands and counted approximately three thousand six hundred.
This object had followed Qiong'ou in the underworld for many years, yet bore not a trace of yin-sha energy. Had the old hag never managed to refine it into a lifebound item?
Lu Chen laughed. "That old hag's true form is a mosquito. How could she refine this whisk? But using it to protect her life—that truly is a stroke of genius. No wonder she managed to evade the eyes of the underworld ghost officials for thousands of years."
Lu Chen sighed deeply. "Ancient Radiance provides the sustenance for all things. Gui Lingxiang had good intentions, but it's a pity she ended up with such prodigal descendants."
The founding patriarch of Xianzan City, Gui Lingxiang, had excellent cultivation aptitude but no ambition. It seemed she cultivated all her life just to make Xianzan City closer to the heavens.
It was only under the second city lord—that old hag Qiong'ou, who beat a hasty retreat to the underworld at the first sign—that Xianzan City began to interact with great sects like Supporting Moon Mountain. But Qiong'ou still strictly followed her master's orders and did not touch the ancestral blessed land that housed a fallen star. It wasn't until Xianzan City passed to Wuti that change began—mostly out of Wuti's selfish desire to benefit his own cultivation and break through the Immortal realm bottleneck faster. He started forging weapons and selling them to mountain sects, which brought in a flood of wealth. By the time Xuanpu took over Xianzan City, things were completely different. The blessed land named "Ancient Radiance" by the founding patriarch Gui Lingxiang was exploited and operated to the fullest. It started doing business with various dynasties. The most despicable act was Xuanpu's preference for selling magical treasures and weapons simultaneously to two kingdoms at war with each other. Yet Xuanpu indeed single-handedly established Xianzan City's transcendent status in the Wilderness.
Wuti finally asked the question he was most curious about: "Who are you?"
The last time he appeared, Wuti and his master Qiong'ou had joined forces to deal with that overbearing Mountain-Moving Patriarch. They had to fight, beg, and pay money before Xianzan City escaped disaster.
So Wuti knew nothing of the current situation in the Wilderness.
Chen Ping'an smiled. "The last Hidden Official of the Sword Qi Great Wall."
"I see." Wuti nodded. "Then you're even more capable of fighting than Xiao Xun back then."
This Flying Ascension ghost quickly added, "But Xiao Xun was quite young back then."
Chen Ping'an smiled.
Wuti couldn't help asking again, "How long have you been cultivating? I said you don't look like a true Daoist. Since you're a local sword cultivator from the Sword Qi Great Wall, there must not be the rule of 'monks don't speak names, Daoists don't speak age'."
Chen Ping'an said, "Less than a thousand years."
Wuti marveled, giving the junior cultivator a thumbs up, sincerely praising, "A prodigy."
In the Wilderness, nothing is recognized except realm.
Chen Ping'an said, "Just past forty years old."
Wuti paused for a moment, then waved his hand dismissively. "Jokes have their limits."
In the desolate, utterly bleak underworld, finding a living person to chat with was as hard as ascending to the heavens. Moreover, any ghost roaming there, regardless of realm, absolutely didn't want to meet a living man. Any human cultivator capable of crossing the underworld—who would dare provoke them? They were all more troublesome than ghosts themselves.
Wuti still couldn't find that Silver Deer, so he had to resign himself. He could only hope that the disciple's disciple didn't know the method of Patriarch Hall descending. Otherwise, despite the seemingly harmonious conversation with the Hidden Official right now, Wuti could guarantee that if the other party found an opportunity, they would immediately meet again, and there would inevitably be a life-or-death struggle. The old cultivator glanced northward. "By the way, one last question. How is Dong Sangang doing now?"
Coming as a Golden Core, leaving as a Flying Ascension.
That was an unprecedented feat in the ten-thousand-year history of the Sword Qi Great Wall. A Golden Core sword cultivator used the Wilderness as a sword-honing ground, and not only returned alive to the Sword Qi Great Wall, but the key point was that when Dong Sangang returned home, he brought the head of a Flying Ascension great demon!
Chen Ping'an pointed at the sky. "Don't you feel something is missing?"
Wuti glanced at the sky and only then realized that there were only two moons left.
Damn it, this was indeed something Dong Sangang would do.
Behind Wuti, in the Patriarch Hall ruins, lay the true form of the Flying Ascension cultivator Xuanpu—a massive dark-red snake.
The Summer Retreat Palace records didn't mention this. It was the Third Teachings Master of the White Jade Capital, with his vast knowledge, who revealed the secret, explaining to Chen Ping'an: "The ancient mysterious snake, its body like a rope, hanging from the sky. Its Dao is deep and distant, connecting heaven and earth."
"So this Senior Xuanpu's incense lineage with Xianzan City was naturally in harmony with the Great Dao. As city lord, he had no alternative! Xuanpu, Xuanpu—he truly transformed Xianzan City into a scenic wonder. This Dao name is apt, much better than Ye Pu's flashy 'Solitary Step.' I never expected Xuanpu to be such a straightforward person."
Chen Ping'an asked in his mind, "Is Xuanpu's true form a bit short?"
Although coiled in circles in the Patriarch Hall ruins, it was at most less than a thousand yards long.
According to their agreement, any spoils from great demons in the Wilderness would be handed over to the Executioner Hao Su.
Lu Chen said with a smile, "The essence is gone—Wuti had his fill. What's left is just the shell, like a snake's shed skin. Wuti was sensible enough not to break the agreement and left you one Flying Ascension demon core."
Chen Ping'an was quite puzzled. With a flick of his sleeve, he collected that mysterious snake into his bag, unable to help asking, "Can Wuti's gains in the yang world supplement his true body in the underworld? This false image of his shouldn't have a way forward at all. Can Wuti escape the limitations of the yin-yang path?"
Lu Chen chuckled. "Heaven never seals off all roads—there's always a winding path to secluded places."
Seeing that Wuti's form was already becoming indistinct and dissipating, Chen Ping'an suddenly asked, "As a ghost immortal on the road to the underworld, have you heard of a Haoran cultivator called Zhong Kui?"
Wuti's heartstrings tightened. This Flying Ascension old ghost couldn't hide the change in his expression at all.
From this, it was clear that the name Zhong Kui was not only familiar but must have left a deep impression on Wuti.
Wuti didn't bother to remedy or conceal anything, just curling his lips and saying bluntly, "That name is like thunder in our territory."
Chen Ping'an smiled. "You haven't dealt with Zhong Kui?"
Wuti sneered. "If I had, would I still be here chatting with you, Hidden Official?"
From start to finish, Wuti never uttered the two words "Zhong Kui."
According to Lu Chen's explanation, earthly immortals were halfway between heaven and earth, refining their form to live in the world, achieving immortality. Ghost cultivators attaining the Dao as ghost immortals were inferior—they were pure ghost spirits that had abandoned the external body of the yang spirit, only retaining the yin spirit. They still hadn't attained the Great Dao, so their spirit forms were unclear, nameless in the Three Mountains. Though they didn't reincarnate, they couldn't register in the Green Registry, drifting without direction, ultimately without return. Especially those ghost immortals who chose to stay on the underworld path were considered rebels, the top targets of ghost officials and judges patrolling the underworld territory. Chen Ping'an knew this before, but Lu Chen called them "stubborn fools," which sounded very strange. Lu Chen held back, not clarifying the Great Dao origins, only saying that the revered Three Mountains and Nine Marques, whom they burned incense and rites to, rarely appeared. Otherwise, ghost immortals who slightly violated the heavenly laws would be executed one by one—why? Because the Three Mountains and Nine Marques had long set up a stele in a cultivation place, announcing to the underworld: "In the peaceful world, cut down the stubborn fools."
Before Wuti's form completely dissipated, he said, "I hope we don't meet again."
Chen Ping'an held the whisk, shook it slightly, and smiled. "As fate wills."
After Wuti completely disappeared, Lu Chen lay on the lotus petals, staring blankly at the whisk in Chen Ping'an's hand, saying, "I am willing to buy this item at a heavy price."
Chen Ping'an tucked the whisk into his sleeve. "Easy to talk about. As long as the price is right, we can negotiate."
Hearing this, Lu Chen rolled over, lying flat in the Dao field, crossed his legs, and said, "Then there's nothing to talk about."
Chen Ping'an reminded, "Don't forget about the new city lord."
Lu Chen said, "Coming, coming."
That Immortal Silver Deer, from some hidden landscape secret realm, was yanked out as if by someone and thrown heavily onto the Patriarch Hall ruins.
Then the cultivator saw that young Daoist holding his hands in his sleeves, smiling, "Come, continue to open the door for guests."
At the first market city of this Three-Mountain Talisman, the Cloud Mark Dynasty side, Lu Zhi heard they could stay here for a full incense stick, and immediately her eyes sparkled. She stared fixedly at that Yuban City, which had lost one sword formation.
Lu Zhi held both swords—Southern Deep and Moving Edge—her sword intent being her Dao Dharma. They manifested two different spectacles. Lu Zhi stood in the middle of a vast celestial lake, a blue fish swimming in the void. "Then as usual, I'm in charge of cutting people with my sword, while you block the path and look for money. We each take forty percent, leaving twenty percent for Chen Ping'an."
Qi Tingji smiled and nodded.
Since when did this become "as usual"?
But when the two flew into the city by sword, unimpeded, not even the city defense formation activated, it surprised Qi Tingji greatly.
Wasn't there a Ye Pu who had just reached the Flying Ascension realm here? And a woman, a martial artist at the Stopping Realm.
Lu Zhi said, "Chen Ping'an wouldn't just leave us scraps, would he?"
Qi Tingji replied with a smile, "I doubt it."
In fact, Ye Pu had long since fled far from Yuban City with Bai Ren, emptying all the easily portable treasures from his close-and-instant objects and inch-sized objects. They fled in panic.
The market city between Yuban City and Xianzan City was a place called Spring Gully Mountain. Here, the spring mountain was lush and green, spring waters flowed endlessly, and there was a popular saying among cultivators: "Peach and plum wed the spring wind."
Ning Yao lingered here for a long time, gradually taking a walk, seemingly determined to use up the full incense stick. Like that Great Mountain Green Mountain earlier, as long as she wasn't provoked, she would simply come to sightsee. Finally, Ning Yao stopped by a stream and saw a Buddhist saying inscribed on a stele: "Bringing the head to the white blade is like cutting the spring wind."
Ning Yao was lost in thought for a long time, then turned back. She saw Qi Tingji and Lu Zhi, and noticed that Lu Zhi seemed in a good mood, even wearing a rare smile.
Ning Yao waited until the two had burned incense before they all went together to Xianzan City.
Appearing in Xianzan City's territory, Qi Tingji rubbed his brow with his finger. "I knew it would be something like this, but seeing it with my own eyes still makes me..."
Lu Zhi nodded. "Sure enough, when it comes to picking up money, the two of us together aren't worth a glance. We're just picking up leftovers."
When they arrived at the Xianzan City Patriarch Hall ruins, Chen Ping'an had already dealt with that newly installed city lord, the Immortal Silver Deer, and obtained that Ancient Radiance blessed land.
Handing the last Three-Mountain Talisman to Ning Yao and the others, Chen Ping'an smiled. "I might take a lazy break, first find a place near the Wine Spring Sect to enjoy some drinks. When you're done here, you can go to the Wuding River and wait for me."
Ning Yao nodded, taking the talisman and traveling far away first.
Back at the Sword Qi Great Wall, she had already gotten used to letting Chen Ping'an drink alone.
Lu Zhi asked, "Any leftovers to pick up around here?"
Chen Ping'an laughed. "Of course. Although there's no time limit, you should still try to leave within one incense stick."
Qi Tingji said, "Lu Zhi, shall we split up?"
Lu Zhi replied, "Your realm is higher. Travel a bit farther, to that half section of Xianzan City."
Qi Tingji transformed into a sword rainbow and was instantly there.
Chen Ping'an teased, "Impressive—you're so familiar with the procedure."
Lu Zhi grinned. "Bending down to pick up money—anyone who doesn't care about that is an idiot."
Three Three-Mountain Talismans were almost like traveling across half the Wilderness.
White Flower City, Ancient Battlefield Ruins, Great Mountain Green Mountain.
Cloud Mark Dynasty's Yuban City, Spring Gully Mountain, Xianzan City.
Wine Spring Sect, Wuding River, Supporting Moon Mountain.
It seemed Chen Ping'an was deliberately relaxing his heartstring, alternating between tension and ease. Each Three-Mountain Talisman would include a market city meant only for relaxation, just to glance at the scenery.
Near the Wine Spring Sect market city, Ning Yao, after burning incense, continued her talisman travel.
Chen Ping'an looked into the distance, finding a large city built near the Wine Spring Sect's mountain gate. Though separated by over a thousand miles of landscape, it seemed he could already smell the wine fragrance from there.
Chen Ping'an habitually crouched down, pinched some dirt, and gently rubbed it, saying with a smile, "A Liang once said that there's also chivalry in the Wilderness, and among Yaozu cultivators, there are heroes more human-like than humans themselves. He specifically mentioned the liquor here, saying that if he ever had a chance to travel into the Wilderness's hinterlands, he definitely had to come here for a drink."
Lu Chen laughed. "Nothing in this world is trivial. Heaven and Earth's true spirits—who dares to belittle them? Those so-called mountain folk are nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs—they don't bark at arrivals, and they won't leave even if beaten with a stick."
Subsequently, Chen Ping'an concealed his aura, took one step that shrank a thousand miles of earth veins, and arrived at that city under the nose of the Wine Spring Sect. He picked a random wine shop in a small alley, where business was booming. However, the Wine Spring Sect's cultivators were notoriously averse to fighting. Besides, when it came to fighting, they truly couldn't beat other cultivators. Their sect leader was an old Immortal realm cultivator who had been unable to break through. When he occasionally went out, his guiding principle was to give away liquor upon meeting anyone.
Within the city, there were many Yaozu cultivators. Chen Ping'an didn't appear out of place, and he used a concealment technique to deliberately hide the longsword Night Traveler and the Daoist crown on his head.
Chen Ping'an ordered three jars of the shop's signature brew from the shopkeeper, along with a few dishes of appetizers. He found a table and sat alone. Pouring a bowl of wine, he lifted the white bowl, lowered his head, and sniffed. It was truly excellent wine, and the key was the low price—excellent quality for an affordable price. For just one Snow Flower coin, three jars could be taken away.
Lu Chen asked tentatively, "Can I show up and have a bowl?"
Chen Ping'an nodded.
Lu Chen then appeared in the wine shop in his mustard-seed spirit form, looking no different from that young Daoist who once set up a stall in Pearl Grotto. He still had that air of poverty.
Moreover, the wine shop had several cultivators, but none noticed Lu Chen's abrupt appearance. It was as if this young Daoist had been in the shop all along.
There were two Yaozu cultivators who had not yet fully refined their forms, wanting to share a table. Lu Chen slammed his hand on the table. "Does this Dao Master look like the kind of person who drinks with others?"
Chen Ping'an couldn't be bothered with this. He asked the wine shop for an extra bowl, poured Lu Chen a bowl of wine, and smiled. "What's the most heartbreaking thing to steal?"
Lu Chen sat cross-legged on the bench, raised the wine bowl with both hands, took a sip, and wore an expression of utter intoxication, shaking his head as he replied, "Stealing wine to drink, of course."
Chen Ping'an couldn't help but think of his hometown days. This Third Teachings Master of the White Jade Capital, in those years, had taken advantage of the young women in the town under the pretext of reading palms.
"The old people don't interfere with worldly affairs, only delighting that the farm fields can gradually be plowed."
In those days, the Pearl Grotto was a place of flourishing flowers and thriving spirits.
Both had their own thoughts, simply drinking in silence.
After Chen Ping'an finished a bowl of wine, Lu Chen's bowl was nearly empty, so he refilled both bowls.
Lu Chen thanked him, glanced at the sky, and slowly began, "Hao Su is also a pitiable man."
Chen Ping'an was noncommittal.
Lu Chen continued, "Of course, a pitiable person must have something hateful about him. But the most hateful thing is that the entire world's hatred combined doesn't seem to match how much Hao Su hates himself. That makes this a truly unsolvable knot."
Back then, as a youth, he was arrogant and overbearing.
Hao Su had once aspired to wield his sword to carve a true heavenly path for all beings of his homeland.
Yet in the end, this man just sat in the prison of the Sword Qi Great Wall, bearing the title of Executioner, drinking alone as the years slowly passed—just a few more times seeing the full moon.
The Executioner Hao Su—one of his lifebound flying swords was named Chang'e. "Though miles apart, we share the moon; on earth, the frost-covered ground."
In his homeland, a mid-grade blessed land in the Flying Rise Continent, a Golden Core cultivator was originally at a bottleneck in the Great Dao, yet Hao Su had leaped to the Nascent Soul.
Thus, in his homeland, if he wanted, and wasn't in a hurry to leave, it wouldn't be difficult for Hao Su to single-handedly cut through the entire world. Even though that blessed land world showed signs that beyond the sky there were other skies, and beyond others there were other people, the young, fiery Hao Su was still bold and unbridled, believing his swordsmanship was absolutely not inferior to those so-called "outer sky people."
The reason Hao Su's sword-borne ascension from the blessed land caused such a commotion, attracting the covetous gaze of many Haoran immortals, was precisely because the innate ability of Hao Su's lifebound flying sword was too "showy"—drawing moonlight down to the mortal world.
In a region's mountains and rivers, cultivators of the Upper Five Realms detected that anomaly because a breathtaking pillar of moonlight descended during broad daylight. Generally speaking, blessed land cultivators "ascending" to the Haoran world, even from upper-grade blessed lands, would not produce such conspicuous signs or auspicious phenomena, nor would they be so precisely located by great cultivators.
That was also why Hao Su, after hiding for many years in the Hundred Flowers Blessed Land, quietly left the Central Earth Divine Continent and rushed to the Sword Qi Great Wall. In truth, Hao Su really wanted to go to the Wilderness, to occupy one of its moons, and by doing so, refine his lifebound sword, which was naturally in harmony with the Great Dao. He had never been interested in killing demons—the most unworthy Executioner in the history of the Sword Qi Great Wall.
His only thought was revenge.
Many times, it only takes one careless moment to make a person drink bitterly for a lifetime, but even that bitterness can't overcome regret.
Chen Ping'an drank his wine and suddenly said, "Those who are full of inner virtue do not show their actions outwardly."
Lu Chen smiled knowingly. "The Dao is not in the five forms or the physical body—that's one of the key meanings of the Inner Chapter 'Seal of Virtue.' Chen Ping'an, I didn't know you secretly admired my learning. No need to hide it."
Chen Ping'an raised his bowl to Lu Chen, and Lu Chen quickly lifted his hips and gently clinked his bowl against Chen Ping'an's.
After that, Chen Ping'an slowly said, "In those days on the road to the North Kulu Continent, I encountered things I didn't understand at the time. For example, the monks in some temples—I always felt that although they ate vegetarian and chanted Buddha's name day in and day out, they were actually far from the Buddhist teachings. They scrambled for fame and profit, spending money to bribe government connections, just to reside in large temples and gain more titles. Among the senior brothers in the same temple, they would rather never interact for life. I once saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears that even the local common people thought little of them—but they still had to burn incense."
"I only understood many things later when I read this sentence in a book. Perhaps true cultivators—I don't mean those registered immortal masters, but those who truly practice close to the human world—their practice has nothing to do with immortal techniques or spells. Their cultivation is just cultivating the heart, with no trace of effort. I think, if I were a common mortal, going to the temple to burn incense regularly, on the first and fifteenth of every month, year after year—then one day on the road I might meet a monk, with light footsteps and a peaceful expression. You can't tell his level of Buddhist attainment or learning. He lowers his palms to you, then passes by like that. And even if you meet again next time, you might not even know you've met. He passes away, attains the Dao, leaves—and we just continue burning incense."
"I once took little Mi Li to a temple to burn incense. Feeling I had taken a wrong turn, I asked a monk for directions. The monk said we had gone astray, pointed the way, and then went on his own path. Little Mi Li complained a bit, saying the monk didn't even trouble himself to lead the way. At the time, I didn't say anything; I just felt that if I were that monk pointing the way, I might have asked if they needed company. Later, thinking back, perhaps it was I who lacked the wisdom of the Buddha."
Lu Chen did not interrupt, just listening to Chen Ping'an's muttering to himself.
In fact, as long as Chen Ping'an didn't deliberately hide it, Lu Chen could see and hear his inner thoughts and heart-images more clearly than anyone.
For instance, now Chen Ping'an just drank, no longer speaking. But to Lu Chen, it was like watching a series of landscape and time paintings. Near the Champion Alley in the Lotus Flower Blessed Land, there was a Temple of Mind and Heart. Its elderly abbot didn't like preaching profound Buddhism, only speaking ordinary words. He had a disciple who inherited his position, and a little novice who liked to slack off but had a kind heart... In the White Cloud Temple of the Green Bird Kingdom in Vase Prefecture, there was a middle-aged temple master who loved reading so much that he hurt his eyes. The little Daoist boy sweeping the courtyard worried daily about daily necessities. Because the trees in the temple often caught fallen kites in their high branches, children's parents would come and curse at the temple gate. But cursing aside, it seemed they never truly fell out.
Lu Chen said softly, "The ancients said proofreading is like sweeping fallen leaves—new ones appear as soon as you sweep."
Unconsciously, Chen Ping'an had finished the wine in his bowl. He looked at Lu Chen, who smiled and said, "I still have mine—no need to pour me more."
"We may not believe in Buddhism or Daoism, not burn incense or bow to Bodhisattvas, but we should believe in anything that can bring our hearts peace."
"The sutras clearly tell the world: Worshipping Buddha is worshipping yourself, because the mind is the Buddha, all beings have Buddha nature. The Buddha is an awakened being; humans are yet-unawakened Buddhas."
"I understand the principle, but I just can't do it. I feel like I'm begging something from the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, making a wish."
Chen Ping'an said no more, not even letting his mind wander ten thousand miles. He took a deep breath, downed the third bowl of wine, collected the remaining two jars of liquor into his sleeve, and said nothing.
Lu Chen asked, "Leaving now?"
In truth, he was a bit uneasy. He felt that after Chen Ping'an had spoken all these inner thoughts, he might do something near that Wuding River market city.
Chen Ping'an nodded.
Lu Chen blinked, looking extremely curious. "That moon—why not try to drag it toward the Haoran world, or even better, the Five-Colored World? That's like keeping the fat water in your own field. Why give away this huge favor for free to our Azure World?"
Chen Ping'an looked at him. "Patriarch Lu asks knowingly. That's not interesting. Pay me back for the wine later."
If they truly succeeded in dragging away one moon, the Wilderness would lose a share of heavenly fortune.
It could find Hao Su a place to cultivate. Lu Chen was originally the guide leading Hao Su to the Azure World.
At the same time, it would count as Chen Ping'an returning a courtesy to the Dao Ancestor.
As for how the Azure World and White Jade Capital would subsequently accommodate this extra moon that suddenly appeared—that was not Chen Ping'an's concern.
Furthermore, in his future travels in the Azure World, carrying the true names of great demons, this merit would hopefully reduce a share of the mysterious Dao-suppression.
It would also allow the Azure World to disrupt the Wilderness's celestial timing.
Six gains with one move.
Don't be fooled by this Third Teachings Master of the White Jade Capital, whose eyes were full of resentment all along, complaining bitterly as if Chen Ping'an had been leading him by the nose—this Third Teachings Master was the real master of doing business.
Lu Chen returned to the lotus Dao field, and Chen Ping'an once again traveled far with the talisman.
Perhaps because the Great Dao was related to water, Chen Ping'an felt a wave of water fortune rushing toward him.
This Wuding River, tens of miles wide, was just one of the Yeluo River's hundreds of tributaries.
Chen Ping'an burned incense.
Once again, he manifested a Dao Dharma manifestation, not eight thousand feet but nine thousand feet. The manifestation took one step, landing in the middle of the Wuding River, stirring up monstrous waves. The manifestation rose another thousand feet.
A ten-thousand-foot manifestation stood between heaven and earth. It raised its hand, reached out, and directly grabbed the Wuding River, lifting it from the earth. Then, one by one, branches of the Yeluo River followed.
And so Chen Ping'an yanked up more than three hundred rivers, twisting them into a rope of water fortune. Finally, the ten-thousand-foot manifestation leaned back, retreating backward, shrinking the mountains and rivers of ten thousand miles and beyond again and again, until the entire Yeluo River was pulled from its riverbed. The great water hung in the void, taken away in a tug-of-war.