Unsheathed

Chapter 367 (2): A Long Journey for Li Er

"I'll accept this wine, but you're a business person, so I'm sure you want something in return for it, right?" Chen Ping'an asked.

Fan Junmao shook her head in response.

"This is part of our Fan Clan's compensation to the Dust Medicinal Shop, so you don't need to repay me."

A resigned look appeared on Chen Ping'an's face as he said, "Honestly, after hearing that explanation, I'm a little scared to accept such a precious gift from you."

"Then what if I were to tell you that our Fan Clan also repaid your debt of fifty grain rain coins to Green Goat Palace on the Heavenly Palace Peak?" Fan Junmao sneered.

"Why are you doing all of this?" Chen Ping'an asked.

Fan Junmao was silent for a moment as she sized up Chen Ping'an, then replied, "You had a hole punched into your body by a bonded celestial weapon of an Ascension Tier cultivator, but you had someone to save you, so it's no surprise that you didn't die. What's remarkable is that you're able to walk around just fine so soon after sustaining such a grievous wound, and that tells me you have an extremely solid martial arts foundation.

“Hence, as the one who calls the shots in the Fan Clan behind the scenes, I have an excuse to bet on you, and I fully intend to place a massive bet on you! Chen Ping'an, your True Qi circulation has been getting more and more difficult of late, right? On top of that, your Golden Sweet Wine robe currently resembles a thatched hut that's full of holes.

“As your True Qi wanes, more and more spiritual energy is going to be funneled into your acupoints, and not only will your martial arts cultivation base plummet as a result, even your bridge of immortality could collapse. So how about it? Are you willing to take a gamble as well?"

Chen Ping'an was in no hurry to give a definitive response, and he smiled as he asked, "What does this gamble involve?"

Fan Junmao pointed up at the sea of clouds overhead as she said, "You wanted to refine a water-attribute bonded item, right? Seeing as you've already secured an appropriate mantra, a cauldron, and a sufficient amount of materials, you've already satisfied all of the human conditions, so all I have to do is fulfill the timing and environmental conditions for you.

“Once you successfully refine a bonded item, you'll have an acupoint in your body that can store the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, so you won't have to expend your True Qi on completely pointless wars of attrition. Hence, you'll be killing two birds with one stone. What do you think?"

"If I'm not mistaken, you definitely know one of those two people, right?" Chen Ping'an suddenly asked.

Fan Junmao didn't deny this, and she raised an eyebrow as she asked, "You refer to her as a person?"

Chen Ping'an offered no response to this.

All of a sudden, it was as if a shadow had been cast over Fan Junmao's face, and her beautiful eyes resembled a pair of bottomless, pitch-black wells as she said, "You are completely, completely, completely, unworthy of her!"

She had used three consecutive "completelies" to emphasize her point.

"Are you the one who gets to decide that?" Chen Ping'an asked with a smile.

Fan Junmao had no response to this, and she could only fume in silence.

It was clear that she didn't have the best temper, so Chen Ping'an didn't try to provoke her any further. "Is Fan Er alright?"

Fan Junmao couldn't help but roll her eyes at the mention of Fan Er, and she replied, "He's completely lost his soul. He's been forced to stay in the manor, and all he does all day is dig around in the yard with his little pickaxe.

“He's already saved up over ten sacks of dirt, saying that he's saving them in case of an emergency. Both his mother and my mother are very sympathetic of him, but they don't know how to convince him to snap out of it."

A faint smile appeared on Chen Ping'an's face upon hearing this.

Regardless of how rotten a place Old Dragon City became, as long as Fan Er was still here, Chen Ping'an would always come back to visit.

Prior to her departure, a grim look appeared on Fan Junmao's face as she said, "Parasol Leaf Sect is likely going to suffer extremely severe consequences for their actions."

"You reap what you sow. If you're going to be so arrogant and unreasonable, then you better pray to the heavens that you don't run into anyone that can beat you into submission. If you do, then resign yourself to your fate and accept the beating that's coming to you. If you get beaten to death, then reincarnate and try again in the next life," Chen Ping'an said with a cold look in his eyes.

In that instant, Fan Junmao felt as if she were getting to know Chen Ping'an again for the first time.

There was a Lion Peak that was presided over by a Nascent Tier earth immortal on Northern Complete Reed Continent.

There were countless swordsmen on Northern Complete Reed Continent, and power was championed above all else there. It was often the case that all it would take for a conflict to erupt was random eye contact. People also often adopted false identities to attack enemy sects; it was essentially a hit-and-run where they caused as much damage as possible before fleeing the scene.

The victimized sects would have their ancestral halls destroyed, and they wouldn't even know who had attacked them. After that, they would vent their fury by attacking some of the smaller nearby sects, thereby resulting in a vicious cycle.

That was the extreme nature of a place like Northern Complete Reed Continent. Otherwise, it wouldn't have forcibly taken the "north" character from the much more deserving Pure White Continent when it was actually situated in the northeast instead.

Things only began to improve after a sage from Great Cormorant Academy intervened to teach three cultivators, namely two Nascent Tier cultivators and an Unpolished Jade Tier one, a lesson. After that, he declared that all of the swordsmen on the continent were to refrain from oppressing those weaker than them, and everyone became much more restrained thereafter.

The entirety of Lion Peak had witnessed Li Liu entering the restricted area inaccessible even to earth immortals before emerging with a golden lion seal, having also reached the Middle Five Tiers in the process.

In the wake of that event, they had all realized that Li Liu was no ordinary woman, and as time passed, her status among cultivators had only continued to elevate, to the point that she was currently regarded to be only second in importance to the old mountain master. Even the sage from Great Cormorant Academy always treated Li Liu with a great deal of respect in private, affording her even more respect than the average cultivator did.

Li Liu's mother had opened a shop in the small town at the foot of the mountain, and she was the only one who was still in the dark, thinking that her daughter had been extremely fortunate to have been accepted as a disciple by one of the more mediocre immortals on Lion Peak.

She also asked many questions about this arrangement, fearing that it was some old pervert who lusted after Li Liu and only declared that he was going to accept her as his disciple in order to take advantage of her.

She was worried that Li Liu's prime years would be wasted, and that once she was too old, there would no longer be any handsome and wealthy men willing to take her. Her worst fear was that she would be forced to resort to finding a husband for Li Liu in the town.

She was beginning to regret not being more shameless and asking that young man with the Situ surname to accompany them for a year longer. If he had stayed, perhaps none of this would've even had to happen, and Li Liu would've been able to marry into a wealthy family to live a life of luxury and contentment.

Once Li Huai was old enough, his mother would've sent him to live with Li Liu, and perhaps his brother-in-law would've been able to arrange him a well-paying job that also didn't require much work.

She had already been running this shop for close to two years, and this had been a rather depressing time for her. She hadn't been able to earn much money, and she spent all day worrying about whether Li Huai was being bullied at Mountain Cliff Academy, or whether Li Liu would come down from Lion Peak one day, looking no longer as gorgeous as she did in the past.

Whenever Li Liu made a trip down the mountain, she would always help out at her mother's shop and stay with her parents for a few days.

Everyone on Lion Peak had received stern orders from the old mountain master prohibiting them from approaching this shop, and anyone discovered to have broken this rule would be instantly executed on the spot.

Hence, even to this day, Li Liu's mother was still completely unaware that her daughter was being worshiped like a Bodhisattva on Lion Peak, rather than just some lowly maidservant taking care of an immortal's daily needs.

Li Liu had just returned from a journey recently, and on this day, she was in the shop, massaging her mother's shoulders while listening to her gossip about the other households in the town.

Li Er was squatting down by the entrance of the shop, basking in the late winter sun, and the more the woman looked at him, the more agitated she felt.

What a good-for-nothing idiot!

When it came to other men in the town, even if they were hideous in appearance, their wives would still sob and complain about how their husbands were cheating on them with some vixens behind their backs. In contrast, she had no such concerns with Li Er, and while that was a good thing, it made him seem like even more of a coward!

If Li Er really were to have an affair, then she had decided that she was going to chop off Li Er's third leg with a meat cleaver, then go and confront the other woman. However, she wouldn't dare to use her meat cleaver on outsiders. This was still a new and foreign place to her, and if she were to threaten someone in the town with a meat cleaver, then she would surely be ganged up on.

She only ever dared to pick on those close to her, and Li Huai was very similar to her in this regard.

In contrast with his wife, Li Er was actually enjoying the peaceful lifestyle here. This was the type of life that he had always been most accustomed to living. However, the three of them were on Northern Complete Reed Continent, while Li Huai had been left on his own at Mountain Cliff Academy on Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, and even though he never liked to speak about his sorrows, his son was still constantly on his mind.

After massaging her mother, Li Liu carried two little stools outside, then sat down with Li Er.

Cao Xi from Southern Whirl Continent was serving as Li Liu's Dao guardian, and he had already been staying on Lion Peak for quite some time. Whenever he left the mountain, it would be to accompany Li Liu to various different secret areas or immortal sect heritage sites to pick up treasures.

"Pick up" were the operative words here.

Cao Xi didn't have to do anything aside from watch as Li Liu made one bountiful return after another.

Now that they had returned to Lion Peak, Cao Xi finally didn't have to accompany her to any more strange places, and he had gone on a journey of his own.

At this moment, there was a golden lion seal strapped to Li Liu's waist along with a short sword, both of which had already had concealment restrictions placed upon them so that they were invisible to those below the Nascent Tier.

All of a sudden, Li Liu turned her gaze to Li Er, and their eyes met briefly, upon which Li Er stood up and said that he was going for a walk, while Li Liu returned to the room to chat with her mother.

"You're finally moving from that spot!" his wife scoffed. "If you have some backbone, then go out and bring back a woman. I may even share you with her!"

Li Er sped up and walked away even faster.

His wife rolled her eyes at Li Liu as she complained, "I must've truly been blind to have married your father. Back then, there were so many handsome lads in the town pining for my hand in marriage; I don't know what I saw in your father."

"But if you didn't marry my father, how could you have had my brother?" Li Liu asked with a gentle smile.

The woman poked Li Liu on the forehead as she harrumphed coldly, "Li Huai has always been a very good boy growing up, but you're completely different! You're his big sister, yet you don't care about him at all! Why did you insist on coming here to learn immortal techniques or whatever? You're such a stupid girl, how could you possibly learn something so difficult?

“Time flies in the immortal world. Three or five years is nothing more than the blink of an eye for them, and by then, you'll already be an old woman. Who would be willing to marry you then? Not only will they offer less of a betrothal gift, I'll have to dig into the money that I set aside for your brother's marriage! How could you be so selfish?"

As usual, Li Liu's mother was being ridiculously sexist, but Li Liu wasn't bothered, and her smile remained unchanged as she said, "I get an allowance every month for cultivating on Lion Peak, and I'm saving it all for Li Huai, so his future wife won't dare to look down on him."

The woman was ecstatic to hear this, following which a furious look appeared on her face as she snapped, "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?! Hurry up and hand over the money! What if some sweet-talking scoundrel scams you of your money? What'll become of Li Huai then? I have to keep that money safe for you!"

Li Liu pulled out a pouch that contained thirty or so taels of silver as she said, "There's actually more that I left behind on Lion Peak."

The woman hurriedly stowed the pouch of silver away, and in a rare display of compassion toward her daughter, she said, "You can keep the rest for yourself. You need to have some money on your hands if you want to build good relations with the immortals on Lion Peak, that's something that even I understand. Go and tell all of your fellow disciples that they can get a discount when they come to my shop."

Li Liu nodded obediently in response.

Unbeknownst to her mother, the rest of her wealth would be considered staggering even in the eyes of all of the sword immortals on Southern Whirl Continent.

The woman was in a much better mood with this unexpected sum of money falling onto her lap, and she stroked Li Liu's delicate hand as she said, "Once you marry a good man, both your father and I will be able to heave a sigh of relief. Remember to try and marry into a wealthy family that can help your brother out."

"Alright," Li Liu replied in a gentle voice.

As Li Er returned from his walk, there was a furious look on his face, an expression that he very rarely displayed.

His wife was rather surprised to see this, and she asked, "What happened? Did some woman yell at you for staring at her too much? How dare she! Who the hell does she think she is?! Let me go see her!"

Li Er shook his head as he said, "Let's go talk in the backyard."

Earlier, a flame had appeared in front of Li Er out of the blue, and he immediately scaled the mountain to find a secluded location on Lion Peak, then returned to the shop after hearing the message sent to him.

Sitting at the table in the main room, the woman was becoming more and more uneasy. It was extremely rare to see Li Er like this. In fact, she could only recall one previous occasion where he had displayed such intense emotions.

Normally, he was a complete coward who didn't even dare to raise his voice at any outsiders, but on that occasion, he told her that he was making a trip into the mountains to cut firewood and make charcoal. Only after a long time did he return from the mountains, but thankfully, he had brought back a lot of silver for his efforts.

Li Liu sat down beside her mother, and right as Li Er was about to speak, she interjected, "Did you receive a letter from our hometown?"

Li Er was no fool, and he could see what Li Liu was doing. He immediately nodded in response as he explained, "My master sent me a letter, and I wanted to discuss the contents of the letter with you two."

His wife gulped nervously, then asked, "Could it be that the old fart suddenly dropped dead and has no one to bury him, so he's making you go back to arrange his funeral? We're on a completely different continent right now! Can't we just send some money back and get the people from the Yang Family's medicine shop's to help out?

“What a pain in the arse that old fart is! He just had to choose the worst possible time to die, didn't he? We've only just grown accustomed to life here, and he's suddenly gone and kicked the bucket! If I could go back, I'd give him such an earful that he comes back to life!"

An amused smile appeared on Li Liu's face, while Li Er gawked at his wife for a long while with his mouth gaped wide open, and only after a long silence did he shake his head as he replied, "Master is fine, but... the same can't be said for Zheng Dafeng."

"That bastard's more shameless and resourceful than anyone I know! What could've possibly happened to him?" the woman asked. "Didn't he go to the south or something? What happened? Did he get beaten to death after trying to steal some woman's underwear?"

Li Er looked down at the table with a grim expression as he replied, "He's not dead, but he was beaten into a cripple. His entire back was broken, and he's still bedridden as we speak. Even if he manages to stand up someday, he's never going to be able to straighten his back again.

“On top of that, he wasn't the perpetrator this time, it was someone else who targeted him. I asked Master if he was going to step in, and Master told me that it's not like he's Zheng Dafeng's father, so even if Zheng Dafeng dies, it's not any of his business."

Li Liu's eyes narrowed slightly, while her mother was stunned into silence.

Zheng Dafeng was indeed a massive pervert, and she was always saying that he was destined to be alone for the rest of his life, but... he was not a bad person.

Li Er cast his gaze toward his wife as he said, "I want to go and visit Zheng Dafeng, but I don't know if you'll let me."

Tears began to well up in the woman's eyes as she yelled, "You're a heartless bastard if you don't go!"

The concern on Li Er's face instantly made way for a smile upon hearing this.

"Can you make sure that you come back unharmed?" the woman asked in a careful manner.

Li Er nodded in response.

"If I can't beat them, then I'll just run away. It shouldn't be a problem."

"What? You're going to fight them?!" the woman asked in a concerned voice.

Li Er hung his head with a conflicted expression, not wanting to lie to his wife.

Li Liu hurriedly consoled, "It'll be fine, Mother. The place where Zheng Dafeng is right now is different from our hometown. As long as you're willing to pay and go to the authorities, they'll give you a fair ruling. It'll be a little expensive, but it avoids conflicts, isn't that right, Father?"