Unsheathed

Sword of Coming

Du Yu's mind felt numb at this moment, and he forcefully mustered his final sliver of courage. However, doing so was like a mortal human climbing a mountain, with things becoming increasingly difficult near the end. "Senior, this side of you makes me a little... scared," he said in a timid voice.

Holding the jade bamboo folding fan that Cui Dongshan had gifted him, Chen Ping'an moved two fingers slightly and caused the fan to snap open a small amount and then snap closed again. Doing this again and again, there was a crisp cracking sound as he smiled and replied, "You saved my life recently, so what is there for you to be afraid of? Shouldn't you be thinking about how you're going to be rewarded? Why are you worried about me punishing you instead? I already decided not to punish you for your crappy deeds in the cultivation world while we were still at the water immortal shrine of Peony Stream."

Chen Ping'an was wearing the Golden Sweet Wine Dao robe that he already hadn't worn for many years, and this was because the Spring Grass Dao Robe had been completely destroyed by the heavenly tribulation just then. To put it simply, Chen Ping'an wouldn't be able to fully repair the Spring Grass Dao Robe no matter how many immortal coins he poured into it. As such, he placed it inside his minimization treasure alongside his broken straw sandals and his empty wine pots.

Just how intense and dangerous had the battle against the heavenly tribulation been? The answer to this was very simple. Chen Ping'an hadn't even had the time to put on his Golden Sweet Wine Dao robe, even though this was something that could have been achieved in an instant with a single thought. Because of this, he could only rely on his physical body to forcefully withstand the punishment from the heavenly tribulation. Doing so was perhaps equivalent to bathing in the small thunder pool in Accumulating Cloud Mountain for several days and several nights?

Du Yu gritted his teeth and asked with an aggrieved expression, "Senior, you're not heading out to massacre all of the ungrateful people in Imperial Accompanying City, are you?"

Chen Ping'an shot a sideways glance at Du Yu and retorted, "Are you stupid, or have I gone crazy? Why would I have blocked the heavenly tribulation if I'm going to massacre the city afterward?"

Du Yu wiped away the sweat on his forehead and replied in relief, "That's good then. Please don't hold a grudge against those ignorant commoners, Senior. It's not worth it."

He was truly afraid of troubles arising one after another without pause. At that time, it wouldn't just be him who was dragged into the mess and killed, but his parents and the entire Ghost Axe Palace would definitely be implicated as well. After parting ways at the water goddess shrine of Algae Stream before, Fan Weiran would have at most vented some anger at him. However, it was truly difficult to say how she felt now, and perhaps even Yellow Axe City's Ye Han had his eyes on him as well.

There were some matters that Du Yu had seldom thought about in the past, but now that he had experienced so many brushes with death, he couldn't help but mull over these matters again and again.

This was especially the case over the past few days, when he had stayed in the ghost residence and helped the mighty senior clean the buildings and the courtyards. He had carried buckets of water around and wiped the floor with pieces of cloth, engaging in crude and lowly housework that he had never once done before in his life. It was as if he were living a completely different life from before.

Chen Ping'an placed the folding fan beside his waist, with his gaze jumping over the courtyard wall as he said, "Doing good or doing evil are private matters for them, so there's nothing for me to be disappointed about."

"Noble people act benevolently without seeking anything in return, and Senior truly embodies this lofty spirit!" Du Yu exclaimed with an earnest nod.

Chen Ping'an smiled and said, "Oh, you can piss off and give it a rest with these obsequious words of praise in the future. Your skills are lacking in this area, and it seems to be a challenge for you to utter good-sounding praise. It sounds grating to the ear, and I've already been putting up with it for a very long time."

There was an awkward smile on Du Yu's face.

Chen Ping'an grabbed his Sword Nurturing Gourd and placed it on the bamboo chair, stepping on Sword Immortal using the tip of his toe and causing it to lightly bounce up into his hand. He then said to Du Yu, "You can stay here. I need to head out for a bit."

Du Yu naturally didn't dare to question the decision of this mighty senior, so he asked in a careful voice, "When is Senior going to return?"

"I'm going to the prefectural office which is only a few steps away, and I'll pay a visit to Verdant Bamboo Lake or Black Glaze Mountain after that. It shouldn't take too long," Chen Ping'an replied with a smile.

Du Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

Chen Ping'an walked out of the ghost residence.

Du Yu faced the vermilion wine gourd and held his palms together in a prayer, bowing down and praying, "Please protect this lowly subordinate, Lord Wine Gourd."

When the immortal in white truly opened the gates and stepped out from the ghost residence, the one hundred or so residents of Imperial Accompanying City who had initially been causing a scene and shouting abuse immediately scattered and fled, regardless of whether they were old or young, men or women.

Among the troublemaking residents were many people from wealthy families who felt like they had suffered undeserved calamity and incurred heavy financial and material losses. There were many servants and stewards from these wealthy families, having been sent over by their masters to demand compensation for their losses. There were also hooligans who had rushed over from all corners of Imperial Accompanying City to get in on the action, and quite a number of righteous youths who had gathered here hoping to catch a glimpse of the sword immortal as well.

Everyone said that this outsider sword immortal was extremely wealthy, had a very good temper, and was severely wounded right now, forcing him to recuperate in Imperial Accompanying City for a long time. The latter claim was proven by the fact that he had already hidden inside the ghost residence for a long time without daring to show himself. However, who knew whether he would randomly catch someone from the street and refuse to let them go after he stepped out from the ghost residence? He was a mighty sword immortal, after all, and a starving camel was still bigger than a horse. As such, they still needed to be careful.

There was coincidentally a group of young men charging over with a cart of faeces, roaring with laughter and feeling extremely proud about their bold and impressive actions. They greatly enjoyed the thumbs up and the loud cheers from people in the surroundings, and this caused them to push the cart of faeces with even more excitement and vigor. They were only twenty to thirty paces away from the eerie ghost residence that no normal person dared to live in, yet it was at this moment that the immortal in white coincidentally stepped out from the door and directly looked over at them.

The three young men who always wandered around Imperial Accompanying City without doing anything useful instantly froze to the spot, unable to move their legs anymore.

However, there was a person who slowly walked out from a street corner, dressed in mourning clothes as she walked over against the flow of fleeing people. She was a fairly good-looking young woman, and she was carrying a very young infant in her arms, with the baby still swaddled in blankets. The spring chill was biting cold, however, so it was difficult to tell whether the baby was sleeping or sick as it lay silently in the young woman's arms.

There was a grief-stricken look on the young woman's face as she briskly walked over, and she surprisingly overtook the cart of faeces and the three young men before dropping to her knees and looking up at the young immortal in white, saying through uncontrollable sobs, "Esteemed Immortal, my husband was killed by the collapsing roof, so how can a young mother like me survive by myself? I beg you, Esteemed Immortal, please save me and my child!"

The young woman wailed in a hysterical manner, crying so hard that she was seemingly about to faint at any moment.

The residents hiding further down the streets and alleys started to point and murmur, with someone quietly saying that this young woman was seemingly a resident from Sprouting Alley. She had indeed gotten married at the beginning of last year.

She was truly a pitiful person.

Chen Ping'an squatted down and asked, "The weather is so cold, so as a mother, are you truly willing to subject your young child to harsh conditions like this? Should you not have asked your neighbors to look after your child while you came here to wail about injustice? On second thought, you're almost about to die, so why would you still care about these matters, right?"

The young woman faltered upon hearing this, completely caught off guard by the young sword immortal's incisive words. There was a stupefied look on her face.

Chen Ping'an smiled faintly and remarked, "You seem to be quite unfamiliar with how to carry a child. Is this perhaps your first child?"

The young woman started to wail in anguish, refusing to say anything else.

Chen Ping'an held his hands inside his opposite sleeves and said slowly, "Hang on a moment. If I decide to ignore you and walk away, will you raise this child above your head and tell me that you'll decide to die if I don't save you, since you'll eventually end up dying anyway? And rather than forcing this child to suffer for the rest of their life, you might as well throw them to the ground and kill them right here and now, allowing them to reincarnate into a better family? Then you'll say that it was you and your husband's fault for coming across such a heartless immortal, after which you'll bang your head against a wall and commit suicide as well? And that way, the three of you can reunite underground? Or have I perhaps said more than those people taught you already?"

The young woman didn't say anything, simply continuing to wail in a grief-stricken manner, one which caused the bystanders to also shed tears in grief.

Chen Ping'an glanced at the man in the distance who had revealed the young woman's identity, smiling faintly as he did so. The man's expression changed slightly, and he immediately retreated into a small alley and left as quickly as he could.

There was the hurriedly fleeing man, the young woman wailing on her knees in front of Chen Ping'an, and the assassin from the cultivation world hiding inside the cart of faeces.

Even the people coming up with these minor schemes most likely hadn't thought that they would succeed. That being the case, were they simply doing this to repulse Chen Ping'an?

Chen Ping'an found this quite interesting.

Lake Lord Yin Hou definitely didn't have the courage to do this right now, while the Treasure Basin Immortal Realm's Fan Weiran wasn't scheming enough to do something in such a roundabout manner. Perhaps it was City Lord Ye Han of Yellow Axe City whom he had never seen before? Or perhaps it was the young man called He Lu performing these deeds through some petty officials who were subordinate to a higher-ranking official in Imperial Accompanying City? In any case, the three martial artists, the young woman, and the Qi refiner might still be unaware of the true mastermind behind everything even as they charged headfirst to their deaths. Of course, they naturally had their own reasons and plans to seek death by coming here.

What should Chen Ping'an do?

He indeed felt repulsed by the lowly schemes of these immortal forces.

There was a blur in front of the young woman's eyes.

The young immortal in white surprisingly disappeared without warning.

The young woman gritted her teeth and stood up, and sure enough, she raised the swaddled baby high into the air and was just about to slam it to the ground. Before doing this, however, she looked toward the alley and cried hysterically, "This sword immortal is a heartless person who caused my husband to die! Yet, this sense of guilt doesn't weigh on his conscience at all! Today, both my child and I are going to die as well, and our family of three won't forgive this sword immortal even after we become ghosts!"

The young woman ruthlessly threw the child to the ground, praying that she could kill it in a single go. Otherwise, things would become extremely troublesome for her. That being the case, she summoned all her strength as she threw the child.

Her future life of riches and glory all depended on this critical moment.

The child wasn't hers anyway, and heavens knew where that unfamiliar man had found him from. As for her husband, who had died not long ago, he had died suddenly and without any notice. In any case, she had truly been blind to marry someone like him, someone who couldn't control his third leg or his hands. He was a gambling addict and a lecherous individual, and all of their money had been gambled away by him, causing her to suffer every single day. That being the case, it was actually a blessing in disguise that he had died so soon.

After she killed the child, she needed to ram her head against a wall as well. However, she didn't need to actually kill herself, and she simply needed to cause a bloody wound and play dead afterward. She had already received a large pouch of gold coins beforehand, and she would receive another pouch of gold coins after she successfully completed her task. At that time, she could marry some random man and enjoy a life of comfort and riches. That wouldn't be difficult, would it?

The young woman felt a slight sense of mental exhaustion after ruthlessly throwing the child to the ground, causing her to limply collapse to the ground.

She then suddenly widened her eyes in shock.

The sword immortal in white had suddenly appeared in front of her and squatted down at some unknown time, using his hand to catch the swaddled child.

Chen Ping'an stood up with the child in his arms, moving gently as he used a finger to push aside a corner of the blanket and lightly touch the child's hand. Fortunately, the child was only a little stiff from the cold and nothing more. Indeed, the perpetrators had most likely felt like there was no need to do anything else to this child who was going to die very soon. Sure enough, this was the limit of those cultivators' mental capacity. It wasn't easy to be a good person, but was it also this difficult to be a bad person who was completely rotten to the core?

Chen Ping'an pursed his lips, but his gaze immediately became soft and gentle when he looked at the child in his lap. He deftly tightened the blankets around the child, not forgetting to release a controlled amount of heat from his palm as he did so, helping the child resist the bone-chilling cold.

No child in the world deserved to suffer hardship and calamity so early in their life.

Chen Ping'an tapped his foot and dashed backward, appearing like a ray of white light as he returned inside the ghost residence.

Du Yu most probably still felt nervous, but he naturally didn't dare to sit on the bamboo chair where the Sword Nurturing Gourd was resting. As such, he moved his small stool closer to the bamboo chair before quietly sitting there without moving. Of course, he didn't forget to wear his Divine Dewbearing Armor.

Du Yu looked at the mighty senior who had already returned, and what he saw was... a swaddled infant in his arms? What was the mighty senior doing? When going for a walk at night before, the mighty senior had said that he had been fortunate enough to find Du Yu's Divine Dewbearing Armor and refined demon core. Even then, Du Yu had still been able to go against his conscience and say that he believed the mighty senior. However, to pick up a swaddled child after heading out for a very short period of time? Du Yu was genuinely dumbfounded.

Chen Ping'an carefully handed the child to Du Yu, with the latter appearing like he had been struck by lightning as he dazedly extended his arms to accept the child.

Chen Ping'an furrowed his brows and scolded, "Retract your Divine Dewbearing Armor!"

Du Yu was given a fright, and he hurriedly retracted his armor and placed the refined demon core that he was tightly clutching in his palm back inside his sleeve.

He then rigidly accepted the swaddled child, feeling extremely awkward as he did so. Du Yu almost wanted to cry when he saw the mighty senior's expression of disgust, thinking to himself,Senior, I'm still young and have little experience in the cultivation world, so I'm truly nowhere near as deeply knowledgeable and capable as you!

"I'll return soon," Chen Ping'an said. He then stressed, "This child is young and has caught a slight cold, so pay more attention to his breathing and be very sure to control your spiritual energy when you use it to keep him warm. If there's any problem with his health, then remember to grab the Sword Nurturing Gourd when you leave the ghost residence to look for an experienced doctor."

Du Yu nodded earnestly in response.

Chen Ping'an pondered for a moment before flicking his wrist and retrieving his last remaining walnut, explaining, "When you throw this walnut, its explosive might will be equivalent to the full power strike of an earth immortal. There's no need to recite a mantra or whatnot, and any Qi refiner will be able to use this item. Even Lower Five Tier cultivators, with their fragile physiques, will only cough up a few mouthfuls of blood and exhaust all of their accumulated spiritual energy after using this item. They won't suffer any significant side effects. In any case, you're already at the peak stage of the Cave Abode Tier, and you're also a Militarian cultivator in addition to that. That being the case, you can feel free to use this item if you encounter any danger."

Du Yu was still carrying the child, so he could only turn to his side and bend down, extending his hand slightly to accept the incredibly valuable immortal treasure.

He immediately felt much more confident and at ease.

It was rare for the mighty senior to be so talkative and nagging.

For some unknown reason, however, the mighty senior appeared slightly more familiar at this moment.

Chen Ping'an took a deep breath and no longer held Sword Immortal in his hand, once again placing it on his back as he murmured, "You people have become addicted to scheming and causing trouble, have you?"

Du Yu sighed in grief. The familiar feeling was gone again.

He silently told himself that the mighty senior was going to great pains to help him, Du Yu, temper his mental state.

The mighty senior had already vanished without a trace. There was no rippling spiritual energy, nor was there any gust of wind. It was as if he had fused together with heaven and earth.

Du Yu gently rocked the child in his arms back and forth, but he didn't dare to move too quickly lest he accidentally wake the child up. Fucking hell, he had never even shown such gentleness and care to those gallant women in the cultivation world before! Du Yu looked down and remarked with emotion, "Little baby, your fortune is as lofty as the heavens."