Unsheathed

Chapter 414 (2): The Joys, Sorrows, Reunions, and Partings that Linger in My Mind

Mao Xiaodong pushed aside his thoughts, and his techniques were nothing short of incredible as he poured the scholarly fortune of the ceremonial artifacts into the cauldron.

Only then did the stunning scene of golden radiance shimmering across the mountaintop appear in Xie Xie and Shi Rou's eyes.

The cauldron suddenly became still, with the surrounding wisps of five-colored smoke also dissipating into the air.

The golden scholarly core that was quietly resting at the bottom of the Five-colored Golden Box Cauldron transformed into a golden liquid that slowly "grew" into the form of a Confucian scholar with a sword on his back. This scholar measured one finger tall and was completely golden in color, and with a leap, it quickly arrived on the top edge of the cauldron where it looked up at Chen Ping'an.

However, the miniature golden scholar's appearance was still fuzzy and yet to become refined, although it was evident that it looked like Chen Ping'an. Apart from the sword on its back, there were also several small golden books hanging from thin golden threads attached to its waist. The miniature golden scholar feigned a demeanor of maturity as it said, "One needs to read more books! Also, this is something that you said yourself — the ability to learn from one's mistakes is a great virtue!"

Already drenched in sweat, Chen Ping'an wiped the sweat from his forehead before nodding and replying with a smile, "Let's work hard together."

The miniature golden scholar transformed into a streak of light and rapidly soared into Chen Ping'an's acupoint and sat down cross-legged. It then grabbed a book from beside its waist and started to read.

Apart from this, there was also a golden scholarly core hovering inside the same acupoint. In fact, this golden scholarly core had already become one with the miniature golden scholar.

Mao Xiaodong faltered for a moment before furrowing his brows.

"Is something wrong?" Chen Ping'an asked in puzzlement.

Mao Xiaodong's expression was solemn as he asked, "I wasn't overly astonished to see the golden scholarly core transform into a Confucian scholar after being refined into your bonded item. However, why did it utter those words?"

Chen Ping'an carefully contemplated this for a moment before replying, "After starting to read and learn characters, I've always been afraid that I'll draw the wrong conclusions from the books and thus believe in flawed principles. No matter if it was the little boy in azure from before, Pei Qian right now, or Cui Dongshan who asked me those two questions, I've always been afraid that my principles are only reasonable to myself but unreasonable to other people. At the very least, I'm afraid that my principles are too crude and nowhere near comprehensive or profound enough. Because of this, I'm worried that I'll end up misleading other people."

Mao Xiaodong was relieved to hear this, and he said with a satisfied smile, "This way of thinking... is very correct!"

He stood up and waved his hand, retracting the sagely mystical power that was enveloping the mountaintop. However, the academy still remained as its own small world as Mao Xiaodong advised, "I'll give you fifteen minutes, and you can retrieve your golden jade tablet that has the characters 'nourishing the noble spirit' to absorb the remaining scholarly fortune of the ceremonial artifacts. You don't need to worry about going over the top and accidentally absorbing the scholarly fortune and spiritual energy of Eastern Splendor Mountain — I'll naturally keep things in check. After this, you'll be a legitimate second tier Qi refiner."

Chen Ping'an hurriedly stood up to express his thanks.

Mao Xiaodong waved a hand and grumbled, "Junior Brother, I seriously don't know who you learned this excessive politeness from."

"Perhaps I learned it from the Scholarly Sage?" Chen Ping'an joked.

"Then you need to work hard to comprehend Master's good intentions!" Mao Xiaodong immediately said with a stern expression.

"I was only joking," Chen Ping'an revealed with an awkward expression.

"Master is teaching through his words, his actions, and through all other means, no matter how minor. As his students and juniors, how can we be dismissive and joke about this?" Mao Xiaodong chided.

Chen Ping'an could only nod in understanding.

Mao Xiaodong turned around, and a wide smile spread across his face. He didn't appear angry at all.

You're still too young and naive, Junior Brother.

The river of time flowing around the mountaintop slowly flowed in reverse, with autumn transitioning back to summer. The fallen leaves returned to the trees, and they transformed from withered yellow back into verdant green.

After Mao Xiaodong left, Chen Ping'an took out his golden jade tablet and held it in his hand, starting to absorb the remnant scholarly fortune that the cauldron hadn't refined and was now floating around the peak of Eastern Splendor Mountain.

A small golden stream that was as wide as a thumb circled around the golden jade tablet before eventually flowing into it at a slow speed.

The golden stream then flowed into Chen Ping'an's palm from the jade tablet before traveling toward the acupoint where the miniature Confucian scholar was located.

After flowing past someplace, the golden stream completely filled Chen Ping'an's heart and body.

When the stream of golden scholarly fortune rushed into the acupoint, the miniature golden scholar immediately stopped reading, with a wide smile appearing on its face as it jumped around and waved its arms in delight.

This was most likely the inner child of Chen Ping'an that he had seldom had the opportunity to show others during his childhood.

After the golden stream arrived inside the acupoint, the miniature golden scholar waded through the scholarly fortune and arrived at the entrance of the acupoint. It shouted loudly, and it wasn't long before a fiery dragon formed from pure True Qi arrived in front of it.

The miniature golden scholar jumped onto the dragon's head and sat down, shouting a string of instructions as it swung its legs and patrolled the small world inside Chen Ping'an's body.

Chen Ping'an was using an internal observation technique to monitor the situation, and he couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed upon witnessing this behavior.

Why am "I" so mischievous?

I feel like I'm no better than Gu Can and that little boy in azure?

————

In reality, Mao Xiaodong was quietly observing the situation the entire time.

In the end, Chen Ping'an used his golden jade tablet to absorb the scholarly fortune of the Great Sui Nation's scholarly temple, not wasting a single drop.

However, even though Chen Ping'an had exhausted almost all of the accumulated spiritual energy in his water palace to refine his bonded item, and he was a legitimate Qi refiner now, he still refrained from absorbing Eastern Splendor Mountain's scholarly fortune and its relatively inferior spiritual energy. This was the case even though his senior brother, Mao Xiaodong, had already said that he could help.

It was only at this moment that Mao Xiaodong finally felt like he understood how Chen Ping'an had overcome that dangerous mental journey when traveling with A'Liang.

Self-restraint.

It was this simple.

Even though Chen Ping'an was a cultivator, he didn't seek to maximize his gains to the greatest extent allowed by the rules like many others. He was especially stubborn and pedantic in this regard, and this gave smart individuals in the world many good reasons to ridicule him.

Thus, many principles and reasons upheld by Chen Ping'an would be viewed as extremely detestable by those who were unreasonable.

Mao Xiaodong's heart suddenly jolted at this moment.

The huge boulder that was weighing down on his mind's realm — the boulder that was essentially preventing him from advancing to the Upper Five Tiers — seemingly started to loosen up.

Principles and reasons didn't care about scholarly lineages.

Mao Xiaodong respected his teacher, and he had resolved to only follow the Scholarly Sage in his lifetime. Even so, for the sake of the academy's scholarly fortune, he couldn't be too rigid and purposely reject the teachings of the Etiquette Sage.

Some principles in the world were interlinked and complementary.

Sitting in his study, Mao Xiaodong gently put his ruler on the table before closing his eyes and resting his mind.

To accumulate before a gradual release, and to have heaven and earth circulate following sudden enlightenment...

————

Cui Dongshan sat up in the corridor of his small courtyard and exclaimed in astonishment, "Even that stubborn Mao Xiaodong is about to integrate with Dao?"

Cui Dongshan fell backward and flailed his arms and legs about, making him look like a snow-white turtle that had been flipped on its back... While doing so, he wailed loudly, "Why am I still a bullshit Nascent Tier cultivator? How can I keep living like this? I'll be too ashamed to face Master in the future... Why doesn't someone come over to smack me to death...?"

————

At Wasp Tail Ferry Station...

Three old men were walking side by side.

They looked around the same age, yet this couldn't be further from the truth.

The old man who was born and bred here had always been unwilling to show himself when traveling to and from the ferry station in the past. He truly detested the entanglements of the mortal world.

This time, however, one of his companions remarked that he wasn't a rat scurrying across the streets and hiding from brooms, so why did he need to act like one?

And thus, the three of them swaggered through the streets of Wasp Tail Ferry Station just like that.

The old man named Liu Laocheng immediately noticed some shocked looks from passers-by, yet he pretended that he couldn't see this and simply smiled bitterly in his mind. He remained silent as he led his two companions to his ancestral residence in the small alley.

You people will probably be scared out of your wits if you learn of the identity of the two old men beside me, Liu Laocheng thought to himself.

Liu Laocheng was from Wasp Tail Ferry Station, a place located at the intersection of the Azure Phoenix Nation, the Fortune Mountain Nation, and the Lofty Sky Nation. Moreover, he was the only living vagrant cultivator at the Upper Five Tiers in the entire Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

As for his two companions, one was Gao Mian, the old sect leader of the Invincible Divine Fist Sect. For the sake of upholding loyalty in the cultivation world, he had twice fallen from the Unpolished Jade Tier back to the Nascent Tier, earning him great renown in the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

Gao Mian was very good friends with Liu Laocheng, so the latter had especially sought help from the former when fighting for the shards of the colored glaze golden body left behind following Du Mao's failure to ascend.

Gao Mian was short and dressed in coarse clothes, and his fearsome expression made him look much like a bandit. Indeed, he looked even more like a thieving vagrant cultivator than Liu Laocheng.

As for the old man dressed in a long robe and from another continent, if Liu Laocheng and Gao Mian didn't vouch for him, then people would definitely dismiss his claims as nonsense regardless of how loudly he shouted his name.

His name was Xun Yuan.

He was the sect leader of the Jade Tablet Sect and the strongest Immortal Tier cultivator in the Parasol Leaf Continent.

Jiang Shangzhen, clan leader of the Cloud Cave Blessed Land's Jiang Clan, was a powerful and domineering cultivator, yet even he would have to restrain himself when he came across Sect Leader Xun Yuan.

After reaching the end of the small alley that was filled with formidable figures, Gao Mian asked noisily, "Old Liu, when is that young lad, Jiang Yun, going to come to my sect and accept the position of guest elder? With how handsome he is, I surmise that he'll definitely trick many celestial maidens over to my sect."

"Having my disciple go to the Invincible Divine Fist Sect simply so you can feast your eyes on more celestial maidens?" Liu Laocheng asked in exasperation. "How can I possibly make such a nonsensical request to Jiang Yun? Or maybe you can borrow my face and make this request yourself?"

Gao Mian strode inside the residence and replied, "Keep pretending to be a coward, why don't you? When we were traveling through the cultivation world together back then, why did you learn that heretical secret technique again? Apart from stealing immortal treasures, didn't you also steal a lot of celestial maiden's..."

Liu Laocheng hurriedly covered Gao Mian's mouth, with his embarrassment turning into anger as he fumed, "Who hasn't gone through a period of unrestrained and silly youthhood? Anyway, what's the point of talking about this nonsense? Are you not afraid of making Senior Xun feel disgusted?"

Xun Yuan smiled with squinted eyes and said, "Oh, I'm absolutely fine."

Gao Mian sat down in the courtyard and waved his hand, saying, "Old Liu, go and buy a few pots of the most authentic well-water immortal wine. The ones I left behind were definitely finished by Jiang Yun — I don't even need to check to know this."

Liu Laocheng said goodbye to Xun Yuan before leaving the courtyard to buy some wine.

When he returned, he saw his two companions sitting there and enjoying the scenes on an enchanted picture scroll. Many small and medium-sized forces in the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent used these kinds of enchanted picture scrolls to make money in a "principled" way. Gao Mian had already prepared a large pile of immortal coins, yet Immortal Xun Yuan had an even larger pile of immortal coins in front of him.

Liu Laocheng was genuinely uninterested in these matters, but when he handed a pot of well-water immortal wine to Xun Yuan, he still commented in a polite manner, "Old Senior has such refined interests."

Xun Yuan smiled and nodded in acknowledgment.

On the picture scroll was a celestial maiden who was burning incense and working on a painting. Her figure was lithe, and she was purposely wearing a slightly tight-fitting dress. Viewers using enchanted picture scrolls to observe this scene could freely choose the angle of viewing, so even the celestial maiden's manner of sitting and the size of her refined chair were chosen after careful consideration. Her shapely figure was on full display.

Gao Mian glanced at Xun Yuan who was sitting in an upright and proper manner and scoffed in his mind. He then rotated the view on the picture scroll, making it so that they were enjoying the "mountainous" view from the side. Pinching with his two fingers, the celestial maiden on the picture scroll suddenly grew much larger, completely blotting out the background.

While doing this, Gao Mian didn't forget to jeer, "Why pretend to be decent and proper?"

Xun Yuan smiled in embarrassment, seemingly not daring to talk back.

Liu Laocheng drank by himself, feeling very helpless as he watched on from the side.