Chapter 892: A Reclusive Master
Nothing happened that night.
With Xiao Mo keeping watch, it would be difficult for anything to happen.
Just like before, when Chen Ping'an and Xiao Mo had traveled together to Qingyuan Commandery and worked as escorts for a few days. The martial arts academy disciples escorting the goods had worried about breaking their drinking ban and whether they would be ambushed by bandits. But in truth, besides an Ascension realm sword cultivator and a Stopping Realm martial artist, there was also Yuan Lingdian from Zhizhi Peak watching in secret—a cultivator whose Jade Pu realm killing power was recognized as comparable to an Immortal's. Even if this were placed in any world, not just a small country like Qingyuan Commandery, if anyone still charged headlong into such an escort, it wouldn't be called a robbery. According to a certain saying from the Summer Retreat Palace, it would be "the gift is light, but the sentiment is heavy—sending one's head from a thousand miles away."
Chen Ping'an closed his eyes and gathered his qi, focusing his mind into a mustard seed, tidying the fragmented mountains and rivers within his personal small world.
Pei Qian stood at the edge of a cliff, taking a stance with the Mountain-Splitting Fist, half-asleep and half-awake, nurturing her fist intent.
When the sky turned fish-belly white on the horizon, Chen Ping'an suddenly proposed that they go up high to observe the vast sea and watch the sunrise. Although he had dropped in realm, he was still a genuine Stopping Realm martial artist.
Only Cao Qinglang, who was still just a Dragon Gate realm cultivator, could not "ascend" high enough by wind-riding, so Xiao Mo grabbed him by the shoulder and brought him along to the sky curtain above Tongye Continent.
As the great sun rose from the sea, it instantly ascended the heavenly thoroughfare, blazing with light, driving away stars and the waning moon. The continental map, from east to west, seemed to receive a decree—thousands of mountains burst into flame like fire.
After viewing the scenery and returning to the mountaintop, Chen Ping'an raised his eyes and saw something unusual. A pure aura gave birth to auspicious signs. About two thousand miles from the mountaintop, there was considerable activity. On one mountain peak, colorful clouds gathered like an umbrella canopy. This was a sign that the mountains and rivers there were gestating a heavenly treasure—either a celestial material born in accord with the season, or an exquisite earthly treasure nurtured by the qi of the land. At the very least, it was of magic treasure grade, otherwise it could not manifest such a realm-marking phenomenon of heaven and earth resonance.
However, such auspicious anomalies would not last long. For the celestial materials themselves, which had gestated a spark of divine light and true spirit, this was both an opportunity to prove the Dao and a calamity, as it leaked heavenly secrets.
It was still too far away. With Chen Ping'an's current realm, he couldn't use the divine ability of "palm-viewing mountains and rivers," so he had to ask Xiao Mo to do it instead.
Xiao Mo glanced at the mountain peak a few times and said, "There's a withered ancient tree that was struck by lightning. At a slant on it grows a lingzhi mushroom. A small hornless dragon about a foot long is coiled around the withered tree, helping to gather spiritual energy so it doesn't disperse. But its Dao base is still shallow, and it can't conceal this heavenly secret. If nothing unexpected happens, in a few years it should be able to complete its refinement. For now, it seems more like it's guarding the lingzhi that is about to open its spiritual aperture and gain intelligence. Nearby, there's a centipede spirit that has already refined its human form—dressed in black, with a young man's face. It's probably coveting the spiritual object. It leads a bunch of mountain monsters and ghost creatures, and is... barely setting up a formation, I suppose. But it's not quite daring to approach that small hornless dragon, so it's waiting for the right moment."
"Not far away, about seven or eight hundred li off, there's a mountain with what seems to be an unregistered illicit shrine that hasn't been officially recognized by the imperial court. There's a heavy miasma there. It should be that centipede spirit self-appointing itself as a mountain god, taking over the mountain as its king."
"At the foot of the mountain, there's also a group of armored soldiers encamped. Among them are three Middle Five Realm qi refiners."
"On a mountain path leading to the shrine, there's a Daoist in purple robes, who looks like a Golden Core cultivator."
"Further away, the carriage we encountered earlier clearly sensed the anomaly here. That City God lady, who lifted the curtain with a book, is hurrying toward that illicit mountain god shrine."
Chen Ping'an looked around and said, "If this were the Tongye Continent of before, the commotion here would probably have already attracted a double-digit number of Earth Immortals."
Times were different now. Even a Golden Core Earth Immortal, who would have been unremarkable in earlier days, was now considered a mountain hero dominating a region in Tongye Continent.
The new mountain master of Great Fu Academy, whose true name was Cheng Longzhou, had formerly been the vice-mountain master of Piyun Mountain's Lindu Academy in Great Li. His Dao root was a ten-thousand-year-old flood dragon within the territory of Huangting Kingdom.
After taking office, he did one thing: He ordered that all mountain and marsh spirits and monsters north of Great Fu Academy must, within ten years, as long as they were native cultivators, voluntarily register with the neighboring imperial court or report directly to the academy. They had to write down their assumed names, their cultivation grounds, and the range of their long-term residence, and they could not travel far without permission. This move seemed cold and unfeeling, but it actually meant Great Fu Academy issued them a protective talisman valid for ten years.
During this period, whether it was registered immortal masters from the mountains or qi refiners traveling from other lands, they could not casually provoke or capture these cultivators of the demon race. The native demon cultivators recorded in the rites departments of various countries and Great Fu Academy were thus not reduced to targets for cultivators to indiscriminately slaughter or "accidentally" kill in exchange for merit. If disputes arose, big or small, the academy's gentlemen and worthies had to jointly try the cases with the criminal departments of the relevant countries and investigate thoroughly.
This was probably also an intentional arrangement by the Confucian Temple, allowing Cheng Longzhou to qualify as the mountain master of Great Fu Academy, one of the seventy-two Confucian academies, and to wield authority over the academy located in central Tongye Continent.
Xiao Mo probed, "Young master, regarding the treasure in the mountain—not to mention that small hornless dragon using the clumsiest method to absorb the true meaning of thunder law, but only the lingzhi that took the lightning-struck wood as its path to the Dao—does that count as what the Haoran world calls a 'gift from heaven'?"
Chen Ping'an replied, "It can already be considered half-owned."
Then Chen Ping'an smiled. "But according to the usual mountain rules, if we want to intervene, that's also permissible. Before the treasure leaves its birth ground, outsiders interfering is not considered breaking the rules. It's called 'contending'—whoever has the higher skill gets it. However, if someone has already taken the treasure out of its territory, and then another person butts in to take it, that's 'robbing' and violates taboos."
Cao Qinglang said, "There are still many registered cultivators who, while traveling, encounter similar opportunities. They carry precious treasures and are extremely cautious on the way back to their sects. But when they're finally close to the mountain gate, they still die suddenly, losing both person and treasure. Either there are no clues and no way to investigate, or the clues that do exist are mostly deliberate frame-ups by mountain cultivators. In the end, the most suspected are the mountain and marsh rogue cultivators, who become increasingly disliked. Both sides dislike each other, even though they are both mountain cultivators. They are at odds like fire and water, let alone being fellow Daoists."
Chen Ping'an said, "We can head over and watch from a distance first. A dragon can't overwhelm a local snake, after all. As for what to do later, we'll see."
On the way, Pei Qian explained, "Master, this place belongs to the border of Great Liang Kingdom. There's an elderly emperor. In his early days of fleeing, he kept getting separated, and I heard that in the end only two or three attendants were with him. He fell ill and never fully recovered after reclaiming the kingdom. He's been bedridden for years, so he has the crown prince act as regent. Then he somehow found a Daoist who claimed to be able to concoct immortal elixirs and golden pills. He had a youthful face with white hair, was proficient in longevity and health-preserving arts, and was said to be extremely long-lived, having survived several dynasties. When mentioning events from five or six hundred years ago, he recalled them clearly and in detail. The Daoist also had a beautiful female disciple who claimed to have a destined connection with the current emperor from a past life. She said she needed to repay a favor from a previous incarnation and fulfill an old wish, so she asked her master to come down from the mountain to assist and help Great Liang Kingdom through difficult times. Only then could she complete her merits and return to the celestial ranks."
"That Daoist of unknown origin was soon honored by the Liang emperor as the 'Protector of the Nation's True Man.' An imperial decree ordered all ministries of the court and local governments to collect immortal herbs from the Five Sacred Mountains and famous mountains to refine the elixir of immortality and the pill of longevity. Officials could be promoted, commoners could get rich. The last time I passed through here, the entire country was full of mountain foragers. Some local officials, to meet their quotas, either bought from other countries at high prices or swept up goods at an immortal ferry crossing. Those with no connections just faked thousand-year lingzhi and ten-thousand-year ginseng. I heard some rumors from the martial world: The crown prince of Liang who was acting as regent had a serious conflict with this powerful 'True Man of National Protection.'"
"When I passed through this Liang Kingdom, I was worried that this pair of master and disciple, who had seized high positions in the court, might be remnant demon cultivators from the Barbarian wasteland who hadn't managed to escape Tongye Continent in time. So I visited both the capital's Daoist temple and the imperial palace. I saw that woman—she was beautiful, worthy of being called a femme fatale—but she didn't seem like a villain. She just spent all day wallowing in self-pity. As for that suddenly ennobled True Man of National Protection, I saw that his realm was not high, probably a Golden Core cultivator from the mountains. He should be the purple-robed Daoist that Mr. Xiao Mo mentioned earlier."
"Although the nationwide treasure hunt for herbs wasted resources and manpower, that Daoist did do some practical things. He collected the corpses from all over the country, established charity mortuaries, and had large and small Daoist temples open for temporary enshrinement so that people could transport the coffins home. I glanced at the heart-phase of that True Man of National Protection, but I still couldn't tell whether he was good or evil. So in the end, I didn't interfere and continued southward to travel. I planned to stop and watch for a few more days on my way back north. But later, at Cloud Cavern Blessed Land, I met Master."
Chen Ping'an nodded approvingly. "You have both intention and caution. Very good."
His first disciple was showing signs of being an old hand in the martial world.
Pei Qian grinned.
Cao Qinglang suddenly said, "Master, actually, Senior Sister also took the time to write a travelogue of mountains and waters, recording all her experiences in Tongye Continent in great detail. But for some reason, in that book, she didn't write a single word about her experiences in Great Liang Kingdom."
Pei Qian glared at him.
Wasn't she just worried that if she hadn't handled this matter properly, and if Master found out, she'd get a chestnut-shell flick on the forehead?
Chen Ping'an hit the nail on the head. "Did she pay you off?"
Cao Qinglang smiled without saying a word.
Pei Qian was furious, but her face didn't show it. She just squinted at him.
Fine, Cao Woodenhead, once you step into the Golden Core realm, don't blame me for going easy on you when we spar as fellow disciples.
Seeing Pei Qian's signature move—that trademark squint—Cao Qinglang did feel a bit daunted, but he wasn't as intimidated as he would have been by Bai Shou of Taihui Sword Sect. At least he wasn't sweating on his forehead.
Chen Ping'an patted his proud disciple's shoulder and put on a stern face to scold, "Tattling on someone to their face like that is not acceptable."
Cao Qinglang nodded. "I'll remember."
The implication from Master was: don't do it to their face.
Xiao Mo smiled knowingly.
Pei Qian asked, "Master, should we go see that purple-robed Daoist?"
That True Man of National Protection occupying a key position in the Great Liang court—if he was putting on an act, Master would know at a glance. At most, a few words would tell him everything.
Chen Ping'an shook his head and smiled. "No rush. Let's first see how this True Man of National Protection handles things with that City God lady. Don't worry, Master will definitely protect the cultivation ground where that small hornless dragon and lingzhi depend on each other, and make sure no outsiders interfere with their subsequent awakening and refinement."
How strange the world is. Humans cultivate the Dao and are no longer human. Those of the spirit and monster kind, on the other hand, are closer to humans.
Pei Qian nodded.
Following Master through the martial world—that was peace of mind.
The mountains and rivers themselves seemed a bit more lovable and dear.
In those years when Master was away from his home world, Pei Qian had already traveled through Vase Bottle Continent, Northern Juzhou Continent, White Bear Continent, Central Muddle Continent, Golden Armor Continent, Southern Bask Continent, and Tongye Continent.
Of the nine continents of Haoran, only Fuyang Continent and Liuxia Continent remained unexplored.
According to Old Cook's account, in their Fallen Mountain Sect, even their junior brother, who had only visited five continents, hadn't traveled as much as she had.
Most of the time, she had been alone.
Without realizing it, she had gone from the little black charcoal of those days to a graceful young girl, and now to a young woman.
Mountains upon mountains, waters upon waters—still the same person.
Crossing mountains and fording rivers, besides the common market towns, she had also encountered many mountain and river deities, demons, ghosts, and all sorts of oddities.
A water ghost of great beauty, half-floating in a pond, using the water's surface as a mirror, combing her hair while her long black tresses swayed like waterweed.
In a secluded ancient forest, there was a mountain demon skilled in ancient seal scripts and talisman diagrams, who had refined its form for a thousand years and was proficient in swordsmanship. It swooped down from the mountain peak to its mansion halfway up, its form and sword-light like a white silk ribbon hanging against the blue cliff.
Seeing her expression unfriendly, the demon probably thought she had intruded into its home uninvited and was unhappy. Pei Qian, who was just passing through, apologized to the old man in white who had transformed from the mountain demon and was about to leave. But he was relentless and blocked her path several times with his sword. Since no one would ever know of this chance encounter, Pei Qian rewarded him with a set of Crazy Demon Sword Techniques. Unexpectedly, even though she suppressed her realm by two levels, she still won.
They couldn't communicate verbally, but after losing, instead of being angry, the demon was delighted, gazing at her with utter admiration—truly a thick-skinned one.
It scratched its ears and cheeks, gesturing frantically with its hands and feet, but still couldn't make itself understood. In the end, it offered its ancient sword with both hands, probably hoping that the female sword immortal would teach it this superior sword technique. As a reward, it could give her the sword. But Pei Qian ignored it and directly flew away on the wind.
That set of Crazy Demon Sword Techniques was just something she had played around with as a child. If it had the face to learn, Pei Qian had no face to teach.
In a temple, the five hundred arhats in the Arhat Hall had all been destroyed in the war.
The temple was just then raising funds to find skilled craftsmen to remake the arhat statues. What they called "gilding the body" was actually just applying gold leaf. Benefactors could be recorded in the merit book and have their names carved on a stele. Pei Qian took out all the gold and silver she had on her, but used Master's name.
She also offered a lotus lantern and picked a piece of red paper to place under the lamp, on which she wrote a phrase of auspicious words that had caught her eye at first sight.
And that day happened to be the fifth day of the fifth month that year.
Later, Pei Qian even gritted her teeth and acknowledged a mountain god lady as her sworn sister. She met a city god whose capacity for drink was as good as Old Wei's. Under the moonlight when willows hung high, a local earth god was flirting with a river mother, and when they found a fisherman sitting by the water, they thought Pei Qian was in the way. A young mountain lord in purple robes with a jade pendant patrolled the mountains and rivers, his carriage grand and imposing.
All sorts of strange and wondrous things—Pei Qian traveled the world alone like this, not finding it boring, but not finding it particularly interesting either.
After much thought, Pei Qian had only one simple impression.
Nothing much. Just that.
They flew together toward that mountain peak. Chen Ping'an picked a secluded spot neither too far nor too close, then asked Xiao Mo to use the divine ability of Palm-Viewing Mountains and Rivers, while simultaneously spreading out three landscape scrolls.
A purple-robed Daoist with a face like jade walked slowly along the mountain path. When he reached the entrance of the mountain god shrine, he held a stone he had picked up from the roadside, about the size of a fist. He walked into the empty shrine, crouched at the entrance, and casually placed the stone on the threshold.
"As for this little technique of suppression of mine..."
The purple-robed Daoist looked at the ordinary stone that stood like a peak on the spine of a mountain range. After some thought and a draft in his mind, he finally came up with a satisfactory expression: "Truly brilliant."
Then this Protector of the Nation's True Man, wearing a golden crown, sat idly on the steps outside the door, as if waiting together with the stone for the shrine's owner to return.
Several neighboring countries of Great Liang no longer had any immortal mountain peaks worth mentioning. And that City God lady, a mountain god who had barely survived the chaos, would sooner or later be promoted to a mountain lord of a whole country. No one was competing with her—truly enviable.
"An ancient saying goes: 'The elixir of immortality, take it and ascend to the heavens as a celestial immortal.' This saying is most enchanting. Mountains lofty, rivers vast; winds howling, clouds drifting—one may wear out iron shoes, but in the boundless glow of the mist, there is no place to find it. Clothes loose, belts wide, thousand mountains, ten thousand mountains—if the Daoist is obsessed and unenlightened, the thousand peaks and ten thousand mountains will be higher and deeper, and everywhere demonic barriers arise. Only wait for the rooster to crow at dawn, waking the slumber of heaven and man… I still need a closing line, one that is both rhyming and full of spirit..."
The purple-robed Daoist slapped his knee. Got it. "Sun sets, clouds hide the moon, stars sparse, night deep. We Golden Core cultivators, one golden core summons ten thousand truths to come before us. A single spark of numinous light shines through ten thousand flowers in the mountains. If I am not a celestial immortal, who is?!"
The purple-robed Daoist was pleased with himself, nodding and clapping. "Marvelous!"
He took out a small gourd of wine from his sleeve, tiny—it probably held at most three or four taels of wine. He took a sip, looked up, and sighed, "Speak of the Dao, not of the medicine. Seek the true, not immortality. Raise your head three feet and there are gods. I don't believe one can ascend to the blue sky in broad daylight."
In the end, he was silent for a long time, then raised the small wine gourd high and murmured, "Back then, I dismounted and went up the mountain to drink with you, my lord. Now, I only see the blue sky, but not you."
With a *slap*, the purple-robed Daoist was slapped on the back of the head. His head tilted, blood flowed from his seven orifices, and then with a *thump*, he collapsed limply to the ground.
Just like that? Dead?
On Chen Ping'an's side, a carriage that had been racing at lightning speed seemed to have received an order from that City God lady. It changed course and came straight toward Chen Ping'an and his group.
Two maids lifted the curtain, and from within the enormous canopy bed slowly stepped out an exceptionally tall woman—one zhang and three chi in height (a bit over fourteen feet). Although her height was extraordinary, her skin was as white as snow, her figure was well-proportioned, and her bearing was rich and elegant, graceful and sincere.
This City God lady had willow-leaf eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes, a cold expression, an air of authority without anger.
Xiao Mo thought of a description of a beauty from a book: "Lightly made up, in a thin gown, a celestial immortal's countenance."
She held the rolled-up seal manual in her hand and approached leisurely, with an ancient crystal disk hanging at her waist, its red braided knot looking like new—old objects imitate new, but truly old ones appear as new.
She had named the enormous canopy bed she used as a boat for travel her "Flower-Planting Reading Place." Besides many books, the inside walls of the carriage were hung with various clean wall vases, each holding a flower.
When she was still over ten paces from Chen Ping'an's group, she stopped and asked, "Immortal masters, have you followed these traces to seek out the treasure?"
She did not use the phrase "seize the treasure."
Mountain cultivators had always valued the Dao above all, looking down on secular kings and nobles.
As a mountain god of a city god shrine, she was somewhat like a member of officialdom. Moreover, her carriage had left her own country's borders and entered the territory of Great Liang Kingdom, which meant she had left her own mountain and river jurisdiction, greatly reducing her cultivation realm.
Chen Ping'an cupped his fists and said, "Greetings, City God lady. We are merely passing through."
She was not a great mountain god who could build a mansion outside her shrine, so she did not have the right to such ostentation on her travels.
Nowadays, within the Great Spring Dynasty's territory, the Gold Pan Mountain God Mansion and the Pine Needle Lake Water God Mansion were like that—similar to the founding of a peak by a Golden Core Earth Immortal.
As for the Burial River Water Mansion being elevated to the Blue Embellishment Palace, it would be considered a higher rank on the golden jade roster of the mountain world. As a water god lady, she no longer needed to observe the taboo of "mountain gods don't go into water, water gods don't go up mountains." She could even swagger as a guest on the five sacred peaks of a country.
Hearing that they were just passing through, the mountain god lady naturally did not believe it. Who wouldn't be tempted by a once-in-a-century immortal opportunity like this?
In truth, at that moment she didn't know how to deal with these unfamiliar immortal masters from afar. If she could obtain that "earth treasure" from the cultivators before her and that True Man of National Protection of Great Liang, take it back to her mountain god mansion, and cultivate that lingzhi, which was already opening its spiritual wisdom, to their mutual benefit—both sides reaping great Dao advantages—and then hire that small hornless dragon, which was about to complete its refinement, as a guest elder—that would be the best outcome. But now it seemed unlikely.
Chen Ping'an immediately sensed an unusual flow of qi near the entrance of the mountain god shrine. He was curious and a bit puzzled. He glanced at Xiao Mo beside him.
Pei Qian did the same, but she immediately turned her head to look at her master.
Then she glanced sideways at Cao Qinglang. That Cao Woodenhead—what else could he do? Hah, a soon-to-be Golden Core Dragon Gate realm great cultivator, just standing there like a piece of wood.
"Just now I was about to draw my sword to save someone, but that purple-robed Daoist, intentionally or not, glanced at me before being ambushed."
Xiao Mo immediately transmitted his voice mentally: "The one who ambushed him was a demon cultivator at the Jade Pu realm, definitely from the Barbarian wasteland."
Chen Ping'an smiled and nodded, saying, "Taking over the skin of a 'Golden Core' cultivator makes it easier to hide his identity. Then he picks up the identity of a True Man of National Protection for free, completely changing his appearance and being able to show his face in public. That's killing two birds with one stone."
Pei Qian was a bit confused. She gathered her voice into a thread and asked, "Master, then what about this anomaly? Why didn't that demon cultivator act sooner? And that True Man of National Protection—why did he let the demon take over his nest? What was he after?"
Chen Ping'an explained, "That demon cultivator made an intentional smokescreen. If it hadn't been for that reclusive master of the Daoist sect, it really wouldn't have been a superfluous move. Now, various forces in Tongye Continent, led by the three academies, are carefully 'searching the mountains' openly and secretly to ensure no fish slipped through the net. At the very least, they want to guarantee that no demon cultivators in the Upper Five Realms are hiding anywhere. Let's put it this way: a sword boat from the mountains rains down flying swords like rain upon the earth. The people on the ground, if they can't fight the flying swords head-on and just run around dodging, they'll still be in danger. The simplest and most effective way to protect themselves is to find a pit where the flying swords have already hit and hide inside. No matter what happens to the small hornless dragon and the lingzhi on that mountain, or who ends up with them, once that auspicious phenomenon dissipates and the spiritual energy in the mountain is completely empty, leaving it a barren place that even Lower Five Realm qi refiners won't care about, then no one will ever pay attention to that mountain again. From this, you can see that this Jade Pu realm demon cultivator put some thought into it, but unfortunately he ran into that 'Golden Core' realm Daoist and it backfired. If nothing unexpected happens, that reclusive True Man of National Protection, who is good at hiding his light, had been targeting it from the very start."
Now, what Chen Ping'an feared most was that this purple-robed Daoist of unknown origin had his sights set on something more than the obvious—like Wu Shuangjiang back then on the Nightboat. A fortune teller, relying on the evolution of hexagrams and the deduction of the Dao, had been waiting there for the rabbit to come and hit the stump, just waiting for him to pass by and "meddle in others' affairs."
But Chen Ping'an still couldn't figure out one thing: if he really wanted to scheme against him, why give Xiao Mo a warning glance in advance? Even if he had perceived that Xiao Mo was not to be trifled with and changed his mind, deciding for the moment to keep his distance, he could simply have gone down the mountain and retreated. Otherwise, he could have found some way to scare off the lurking Jade Pu realm demon cultivator. Either option would have been much safer than "playing dead" like this.
The ripple of qi at the entrance of that mountain god shrine in the distance vanished in an instant. That City God lady didn't even notice it at all.
Xiao Mo felt a bit guilty. It was his mistake—he had failed to see through the true realm of that purple-robed Daoist.
Chen Ping'an smiled and comforted him, "Don't blame yourself. There are plenty of strange people and strange things. We're not lacking this one. If some surprises can't be avoided, then we'll deal with them as they come."
Xiao Mo nodded.
What comforted him even more than words was the look in his young master's eyes at that moment—instinctive, not shocked, not blaming, not questioning, but curious, trusting, and at ease.
Chen Ping'an frowned slightly, hesitated for a moment, then broke into a smile. "Since this host from Great Liang has opened his door to welcome guests, it seems we have no reason to pass by without entering. Let's go have a look."
At the entrance of the shrine, a stooped old man narrowed his eyes and looked at the corpse on the ground. After confirming there was no flaw, he spoke in a slightly clumsy Tongye dialect with a laugh: "Good heavens, the way he talked just now, his words were bigger than the sky. He scared me half to death. Lucky I know a bit of deduction magic and did a divination on the fly."
He walked around the corpse, nodding repeatedly. "He does have a good-looking skin. I didn't waste my time taking this risk. This way, I don't have to stay holed up here anymore. I can get out to the mountains and enjoy myself."
The old man finally made up his mind. He formed a hand seal, and his form turned into a wisp of ethereal green smoke that seeped into the seven orifices of the purple-robed Daoist. Suddenly, the old man's form was no longer visible. The purple-robed Daoist's body snapped taut and stood up abruptly, his movements stiff. He slowly twisted his neck, then raised his hands and shook the wide sleeves of his Daoist robe. His eyes turned pitch black, but soon returned to normal. He cleared his throat, and imitating the Daoist, made a gesture of salutation and laughed heartily: "This humble Daoist offers respects. Blessings be with you, Infinite Heavenly Lord."
Then the "purple-robed Daoist's" face twisted as if in great pain, and he muttered to himself: "This humble Daoist is neither a Daoist of the White Jade Capital nor a disciple of the Three Caves. Following the orthodox lineage and mountain rules, it's not quite proper to say 'Blessings be with you, Infinite Heavenly Lord.' But of course, I am the host and you are the guest. The host follows the guest's convenience. So as long as you're happy, that's fine."
One body and skin were like a heavenly prison.
The wisps of green smoke that were the demon cultivator's soul, coming from the seven orifices, could not "escape the cave" at all.
After a moment, the green smoke no longer appeared. The purple-robed Daoist clicked his tongue in wonder: "A small surprise. With a wonderful natal object, a Jade Pu realm cultivator actually has the killing power of an Immortal. This humble Daoist's... Dharmic techniques are not low, quite not low indeed."
Seeing the group of four land before him, the purple-robed Daoist looked at Pei Qian and smiled slightly: "Those expedient shortcuts of mine, although they are not ultimate methods, if used well, as temporary measures, they can still benefit all sentient beings."
A Daoist who had become a True Man of National Protection, yet spoke in Buddhist terms.
This mysterious Daoist, who concealed his light deeply, squinted and said, "Not to lie, the disciple I have recently accepted and that Liang emperor indeed have a past-life karma that needs to be resolved. Of course, Miss Zheng has already met her."
"Miss Zheng, at such a young age, you were already fierce with your fists on the Golden Armor Continent battlefield. I have long heard of you and am quite impressed. As for asking fists with Cao Ci four times in a row, that shook the world. If I didn't want to know, even covering my ears with both hands wouldn't help."
Pei Qian remained silent.
It was as if he had finally noticed the young man in green robes. The purple-robed Daoist looked him up and down and then said in realization, "Could this Earth Immortal swordsman, whose realm keeps rising and falling, be the illustrious Mountain Master Chen of Fallen Mountain, the master of our Miss Zheng?"
Chen Ping'an neither cupped his fists, made a bow, nor gave a Daoist salute. He just smiled as usual and said, "The senior summoned me. I dared not not come."
He must be a reclusive master.
But no matter how Chen Ping'an guessed, no matter how wild his imagination, he could not figure out this person's identity.
The purple-robed Daoist seemed to see through Chen Ping'an's thoughts at a glance. He waved his hand and said, "A true man does not show his true face; one who shows his true face is not a true man. A genuine reclusive master is definitely someone you wouldn't recognize even if you met him face to face. He might be a curtain-lifting maid beside that City God lady, or a soldier in armor at the foot of the mountain. In any case, I, this humble Daoist, am definitely not a true man or a master. Mountain Master Chen, you overestimate me far too much. I cannot bear it."
Chen Ping'an smiled and said nothing, like a junior listening attentively to the teachings of a senior from the peak.
The purple-robed Daoist sighed. "Truly worthy of being the head of a clan, good temper. Truly worthy of having seen grand occasions abroad, good composure. I've said it before: a good fate is not as good as a hard fate. No matter how good fate is, it can't be good forever. But a hard fate allows you to keep climbing without stopping, just with occasional differences in pace. It is said that a man can have ambitions as high as the sky, but if he lacks a bit of luck, he still can't connect with them. So, what about this bit of luck? Mountain Master Chen, as the final disciple of the Literary Sage lineage, would you have any unique insight?"
Chen Ping'an replied, "When heaven bestows blessings, it first opens one's wisdom. The most inconspicuous, yet the most important."
The purple-robed Daoist's eyes lit up. He clapped his hands and laughed, "Some doggerel written offhand, as if written in one stroke, ignoring both literary meaning and word choice, yet its charm is still excellent."
He coughed a few times, formulated his phrasing, and then said, "I am a straightforward person. I never mince words. I have two bits of nonsense that I hope won't become prophecies. Should I say them or not?"
Chen Ping'an smiled. "Whether to say them or not, senior, you decide."
On the way here, Chen Ping'an had taken out a walking staff from his wrist storage object.
The purple-robed Daoist glanced at the green bamboo staff in Chen Ping'an's hand. "If you should cut but do not cut, you will suffer chaos. If you should submit but do not submit, you will suffer harm. One fails to build a mound for lack of one final basket of earth. One wrong move and the whole game is lost."
Chen Ping'an tightened his grip on the walking staff and nodded. "I receive your teachings."
Xiao Mo had been smiling ever since he appeared.
Only after hearing these words, which he thought were unworthy nonsense, did Xiao Mo slowly put away his smile.
The batch of "chicken ribs" flying swords that had been stripped away earlier were named "Xinhuo" (Spark) by his young master.
Then Xiao Mo had asked twice more, begging Chen Ping'an to name his other three natal flying swords as well.
Thus, the one Xiao Mo loved the most, which could cause an ancient star to fall to earth, was named "Ousi" (Lotus Root), implying the lotus root is broken but its fibers remain connected.
The flying sword that could imitate others' divine abilities was named "Zhenji" (True Trace).
The last one, which could detain cultivators' souls, was named "Zuixiang" (Drunk Land).
Good. Perhaps today, he would get to fight a fierce battle with a cultivator at the pinnacle of Haoran's mountains.
As for who this man was, whether he was a Daoist, where he came from, and which sect's patriarch he was, Xiao Mo would just go all out and ask with his sword.
One sword question would tell.
"Stop!"
The purple-robed Daoist waved his hands vigorously, speaking seriously: "This humble Daoist is a lazy man with no ambition. It's not worth the trouble for this senior and Mountain Master Chen to join forces to question me with swords. Breaking up thousands of mountains and waters—there's no need for that."
He was not surprised by the Yellow-Capped Green-Robed man's high realm or his killing intent.
What surprised him was the young sword cultivator's "holding the staff like grasping a sword."
For a moment, he almost mistakenly thought his eyes were playing tricks on him—that the last Hidden Officer of the Sword Mound was actually not in a lower realm but had broken through to a higher one?
But it seemed not.
Fortunately, it was not.
Otherwise, the Hidden Officer of the Sword Mound would have been a bit disappointing in his swordsmanship.
This purple-robed Daoist began to ramble, as if, seeing that the situation was not good, he changed tactics to small talk and getting friendly.
"For us cultivators, when we're out in the world, if we want to live long and get along, being kind to others is the first priority. Just fighting and killing not only harms the harmony of heaven, but if you don't let others off, you're not letting yourself off either. You turn a broad, open road into a narrow bridge for no reason. Why bother?"
"Mountain Master Chen's branch sect site has been settled now. Does the branch sect have a name? If not, I can help."
"To be honest, I am somewhat learned in the art of naming. I'm much better at that than my Dao arts."
Chen Ping'an had excellent patience. He listened to this peak senior's rambling.
He held the walking staff with one palm, and the other hand was clenched into a fist at his abdomen.
The purple-robed Daoist suddenly asked a question that was completely off-topic: "May I ask Mountain Master Chen, what do you think of the actions of that female cultivator from Yuzhi Hill?"
Chen Ping'an said, "The chief culprit in the destruction of her sect—she bears great fault toward her own sect, her home continent of Tongye, and the entire Haoran world."
"And then? There's no 'then' or 'but'?"
The purple-robed Daoist asked with a smile. "The Old Scholar taught you everything he had. His prized disciple, carefully taught, must have more to say, right?"
Chen Ping'an seemed to want to say something but stopped, and ultimately remained silent.
The purple-robed Daoist shook his head and waved his hand. "Go down the mountain."
It was a double entendre.
What a pity about the earlier "fortunately" that had come to mind.
The Old Scholar only took on this final disciple?
The Great Sword Immortal of the Sword Mound made this man the Hidden Officer? And deliberately didn't use Chou Miao?
What, did you, Chen Qingdu, take a fancy to the existence behind this young man?
When did Chen Qingdu and the Sword Mound become so mercenary?
The purple-robed Daoist almost feared that if he looked at the young man a few more times, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from questioning him with a sword first.
He sat back down on the steps, took out that small wine gourd again, and took a sip. "Chen Ping'an, don't overthink it. The person I'm waiting for here is not you, but a friend of yours. But the way you make friends, you're lucky. As for him, his judgment in making friends can only be considered average."
Chen Ping'an turned his head and asked, "Are you waiting for Zhang Shanfeng?"
The purple-robed Daoist laughed. "You're a smart one after all."
And then? As for him, there was nothing more.
Chen Ping'an turned around, put the walking staff back into his wrist storage, and made a deep bow. "Junior pays respects to Grand Heavenly Master Liang."
On Dragon Tiger Mountain's Heavenly Master Mansion, the honored ones in purple and gold were all surnamed Zhao.
There had only ever been one exception in history: the Grand Heavenly Master from an external surname of Dragon Tiger Mountain, such as the previous one, Fire Dragon True Man of the Prostrate Peak.
The purple-robed Daoist was expressionless, as if he hadn't heard.
This old true man, who had returned to simplicity and kept his youthful appearance, just sighed. This trip down the mountain had been utterly dull from start to finish, and today was no exception.
The old true man shook his head endlessly. Poor Stitched Tiger. Pitiful Qi Jingchun. What a pity for the Literary Sage lineage.
The purple-robed Daoist looked at the ground, gently stamped his foot, sighed, and had to force himself to speak one more sentence to the young man: "Focus on running your branch sect well. I won't say it's for the sake of your Literary Sage lineage, let alone for the Haoran world—just for yourself."
Chen Ping'an, with his back to the old true man, whom he only knew as Grand Heavenly Master Liang of Dragon Tiger Mountain's external surname, nodded and continued down the mountain.
Xiao Mo's face was ashen.
Cao Qinglang gently shook his head at this "Xizhu" senior, indicating it was fine.
In fact, the old true man sitting on the steps had originally wanted to ask another question. He would have asked Chen Ping'an: What do you think of this Tongye Continent?
But that would have been conditional on answering the first question.
A war had been fought and won, but the cost to the Haoran world could not be said to be light—equivalent to four and a half continents' worth of half the land, all in ruins.
But Fuyang Continent had lost with its spine straight. Even Golden Armor Continent, despite having an Ascension realm great cultivator, Wan Yanlaojing, who had betrayed Haoran, still had a decent reputation among the mountains.
There was also Chen Chun'an on Southern Bask Continent. Apart from him, the mountains and rivers of that continent, especially the coastal battle lines, had actually fought not badly.
Only this Tongye Continent—both on the mountains and below—human nature and hearts seemed utterly unbearable.
A whole continent, lucky not to have sunk completely, was now devoid of people at its doorsteps. The mountains, rivers, and earth were like a lonely wild ghost sitting in an old garden at night—even more isolated and pitiful.
The old true man rubbed his chin, watching the green-robed back slowly descending the mountain. He looked up at the sky and remembered something. "Why not retrieve the head of the chief disciple of the Tuoyue Mountain Grand Ancestor?"
Chen Ping'an replied mentally, "He was a sword cultivator."
The old true man gave a surprised sound and asked with a smile, "Good setup, exquisite. Could it be that you prepared this just for questions like this? Such fame-mongering tactics are truly out of this world. Young people nowadays are something else. Or was it that the Old Scholar taught you well?"
Chen Ping'an turned his head and said, "With my junior status, let me give the senior one final reminder: enough is enough."
The old true man clicked his tongue. "Oh, so the young man does have some temper after all. What, no longer pretending to be a gentleman? Is this showing the cloven hoof? Or are you being deep and far-sighted, already worried that I might spread the word that you, a scholar, are deep-minded, and when you saw an external-surnamed Grand Heavenly Master of Dragon Tiger Mountain, you didn't dare talk back at all? So you must make a last-minute repair and put on a show with me?"
Layer upon layer, each sentence struck the heart.
Chen Ping'an turned around, looked at the old true man, and said to Pei Qian and Cao Qinglang, "You two leave by wind immediately. The farther, the better."
Pei Qian hesitated.
Cao Qinglang said, "Pei Qian, let's go."
Pei Qian remembered the "fist-questioning" in the bamboo building on the second floor, and she no longer hesitated.
The old true man stood up with a smile, stretched his limbs, and thought: Then let him properly experience the three natal flying swords of a peak Ascension realm sword cultivator, and the swordsmanship level of the last Hidden Officer, as well as the might of a Stopping Realm martial artist's fists?
If he couldn't win, he would run—after all, it wouldn't be the first time.
Xiao Mo sent a secret voice message to the old true man: "Let me make it clear in advance: Are we settling who is superior, or are we settling life and death?"
This time, Xiao Mo did not even consult with his young master; he had no intention of discussing this matter.
This old true man seemed to be quite seriously injured, and his Dao heart was not complete.
If they really fought, Xiao Mo would not let his young master participate.
He had to fulfill the promise he had made to that sword transmission elder and the Literary Sage.
At that moment, a youthful boy in white, travel-worn and panting, landed on the roof of that mountain god shrine, angrily shouting, "Old man Liang, have you gone crazy?! This trip you made to Tongye Continent—since you can't beat so-and-so yourself, you take your anger out on my master?!"
The old true man turned his head to look at the hastily arrived Cui Dongshan. That shouldn't be possible—he had already shielded the heavenly mechanism beforehand. This little turtledove egg shouldn't have been able to block his door.
Chen Ping'an was taken aback.
Cui Dongshan was furious. "Does that worthless answer even need to be asked?! If you, old fellow, had just spoken properly, how could my master have remained silent?!"
It turned out that years ago, this old true man, with his extremely high seniority and extremely long Dao age, had neither established his own sect nor taken in disciples to spread his lineage. For a thousand years after a thousand years, he had lived alone in seclusion in the mountains. Only when his heart sensed something did he move with quiet agitation and come down the mountain. Plus, due to a certain connection from long ago, he had accepted the invitation to be the external-surnamed Grand Heavenly Master of Dragon Tiger Mountain. At that time, Zhao Tianlai, the child, was worried that if that young man named Zhang Shanfeng took on the hereditary title of external-surnamed Heavenly Master, it would be like forcing a plant to grow, and would instead be detrimental to the young man's Dao cultivation. So he declined Fire Dragon True Man's suggestion. Moreover, during that chaotic era, Dragon Tiger Mountain did indeed need an external-surnamed person who could fight well and be "ready for use."
Regardless, he had eaten soft rice and taken short money, so he had to grit his teeth and travel far to this place, making plans early on. The result was not good at all—zero achievements, utterly embarrassing. So he had hidden here, not daring to return to Central Muddle Continent, especially Dragon Tiger Mountain. Of course, he also truly needed to heal his injuries, to the point that in the last hundred years, he had to accept his fate—it was better to be still than to move.
He had once been a close friend of a previous Heavenly Master of Dragon Tiger Mountain. The two of them had traveled beyond the heavens together to follow the Ritual Sage.
When they went, they went together, fighting side by side. But when they returned, only one remained.
"The most sorrowful is parting alone."
Ridiculous to say: this time he came out of the mountains to lurk in Tongye Continent again, attempting to assassinate someone and failing—he couldn't even make the opponent drop half a realm. He himself was severely injured and completely lost the thought of stepping into the Fourteen Realm. So he had to stay in Tongye Continent to recuperate for a few years before returning home.
The person this external-surnamed Grand Heavenly Master of Dragon Tiger Mountain tried to assassinate? It was none other than that Wenhai Zhou Mi of the Barbarian wasteland!
The old true man turned his head and asked, "What's the answer?"
Chen Ping'an replied, "It's human nature."
"Yes."
The old true man sighed deeply, then repeated in a heavy voice, "Yes!"
That female patriarch of Yuzhi Hill, who had committed great errors—there was a certain moment of compassion that could not be completely ignored. It was not to say that this human nature could make up for the mistakes—far from it—and even future generations must constantly take it as a warning, never to repeat the same mistake when faced with a similar situation. But the only problem was that an outsider, an onlooker, if they ignored that moment of human brilliance, then for any cultivator at the peak who aspired to ascend—or even ascend to heaven—it could be a great calamity in the future.
Otherwise, the old true man wouldn't have gone to such lengths to "difficult" a final disciple of the Old Scholar.
If he just didn't like the look of someone, he could simply not look at them.
At the root of it all, he was afraid of that "what if."
For example, what Zouzi was worried about: the appearance of a Fifteen Realm sword cultivator in the human world?!
What if this person was actually no longer human?!
What if, what if, even this person himself never knew it?!
The old true man's aura changed completely. He asked seriously again, "Chen Ping'an, then I'll take the liberty of leaning on my old age again, asking knowingly: How do you view this Tongye Continent beneath our feet?"
Without any hesitation, Chen Ping'an answered, "The wutong tree truly refuses to wither in decline; a few leaves still face the wind and rustle."
The old true man was stunned for a long time. Finally, he managed to force out, "You thought the same as me, exactly the same, word for word."
Cui Dongshan sat down on the roof, slapped his cheeks, and laughed in exasperation: "Old man Liang, let me ask you an even simpler question: What is this thing called?"
Chen Ping'an glared. "How dare you speak to a senior like that!"
Cui Dongshan immediately jumped off the roof, tiptoed to the old true man, and started massaging his shoulders. "Grand Heavenly Master Liang, how about you and I, while Zhao Tianlai is not on Dragon Tiger Mountain, do something big together—like removing that 'external surname' from your title?"
The old true man was taken aback. "Little turtledove egg, don't talk nonsense!"
Then the old true man waved his hand. "Mountain Master Chen, come over here. Bring your younger brother Cui. Let's have a drink. I need to apologize to you and calm my nerves."
Chen Ping'an had Xiao Mo call back Pei Qian and Cao Qinglang, then walked over to the entrance and sat down on the steps next to the old true man.
Xiao Mo and Cui Dongshan sat to one side.
The old true man shook his wine gourd vigorously, then put it back in his sleeve. Unfortunately, it was empty.
Chen Ping'an had no choice but to hand him a flask of wine.
The old true man stopped smiling and sighed for some reason, a bit melancholic—probably thinking of old friends who had already become ancients. He took a sip of wine, wiped his mouth, looked into the distance, and said softly, "On the road of life, the more hope others place in you, and the less you want to disappoint them, the harder that person has to work."
Chen Ping'an turned sideways, raised the wine flask in his hand, and said something that surprised the old true man once again, leaving him speechless and forced to obediently drink.
The old man had expected a response like "you can find joy amidst hardship," but the young man beside him said instead: "Truthful words from a true man make good wine to accompany."