Chapter 492 (1): Old Fox from West Mountain Carelessly Marrying Off His Daughter
When flying back on Sword Immortal, Chen Ping'an purposely flew at a slightly higher altitude than when he had pursued Fan Yunluo just then. Sure enough, the Golden Core Tier ghost, who was an unofficial member of White Cage City, quickly turned around and left.
It wasn't that Chen Ping'an didn't want to make some small sacrifices to wipe out Meticulous Skin City or at the very least, challenge it intermittently. According to his original plans, the yin entities that wandered around the southern region of Malicious Ghost Valley were his best training targets as he made his way to Green Cottage Town.
However, the sudden appearance of City Lord Pu Rang of White Cage City caused Chen Ping'an to change his mind. The Be At Ease Compilation was filled with minor details about this heroic spirit, so much so that it was almost cumbersome to read. Innumerable matters pertaining to this city lord were recorded, and the author hadn't attempted to save any ink. In fact, Chen Ping'an was almost led to believe that the author of the Be At Ease Compilation was an admirer of City Lord Pu Rang.
The beautiful words of praise in the book were seemingly exuding a sanguine aura, yet this hadn't affected Chen Ping'an's decision in the least. Rather, the true reason behind Chen Ping'an's decision to relent was one simple fact — this city lord was at the peak stage of the Nascent Tier.
Since City Lord Pu Rang had ultimately chosen to personally appear in front of Chen Ping'an but not attack him, Chen Ping'an was willing to follow suit and also take a step back.
Chen Ping'an looked at the jade-like skeletons strewn across the ground of the dense forest. There were more than a dozen sets of skeletons, with all of them being victims of Sword Immortal, First, and Fifteenth. The souls of these female ghosts from Meticulous Skin City had vanished long ago, transforming into the fundamental yin energy of this mystical realm.
Chen Ping'an was just about to place these skeletons inside his minimization treasure, yet he suddenly frowned and jumped onto Sword Immortal, preparing to leave this place straight away. After some brief contemplation, however, he decided to pause for a moment and collect the large majority of skeletons, leaving just six or seven sets on the ground. Only after doing this did he rapidly leave Crow Peak on his sword.
Chen Ping'an breathed a sigh of relief when he stood at a distance and looked at the two figures on the small and winding path. However, he was still a little worried, so he returned Sword Immortal to the scabbard on his back and put on his bamboo hat again, descending to the ground in a secluded area before returning to the small path and quietly waiting for the Dao partners to draw near.
The Dao partners also saw Chen Ping'an, and just like before, they planned to take a detour around the small path and pretend to look for some medicinal herbs and stones that could be exchanged for money. However, they discovered that the young wanderer only took off his bamboo hat but showed no signs of moving over.
The Dao partners exchanged a helpless glance, and they were left with no choice but to summon their courage and return to the small path, with the man walking in front and the woman walking behind him. If this were a blessing, then it wouldn't be a misfortune; if this were a misfortune, then it couldn't be avoided. They silently prayed for the protection of the Three Pure Ones as they walked toward Chen Ping'an.
After the Dao partners drew closer, Chen Ping'an held his bamboo hat with one hand and pointed at the dense forest behind him with his other hand, saying, "I had a violent struggle with a group of malicious ghosts at Crow Peak just then, and even though I achieved a narrow victory, a large number of malicious ghosts still managed to flee. This has caused deadly hostility between us, so further battles will be inevitable in the future. If the two of you aren't afraid of being detrimentally affected by me and want to continue north, then please make sure to be extra careful."
The Dao partners had aggrieved expressions as they exchanged another glance with each other.
They had each handed over five snowflake coins at the archways to enter this mystical realm, and this was a cost that they were somewhat able to swallow. However, the two of them were fifth tier vagrant cultivators with no support or backing, and they weren't Qi refiners skilled at Ghost Dao immortal techniques either.
They needed to continually exhaust spiritual energy after entering Malicious Ghost Valley, and this was not only rough on the body and mind, but they had even bought a vial of expensive alchemical pills specifically to address this issue. This was so that they could push themselves more and walk further into the depths of Malicious Ghost Valley, hopefully coming across some valuable treasures in the more secluded areas of the mystical realm and thereby helping them recoup their costs. Otherwise, if they only cared about safety, they would have chosen the much more popular path to Orchid Scent Town.
After becoming cultivators and embarking on the pursuit of immortality, how many people would be brainless fools? This was especially the case when it came to vagrant cultivators trying to make money. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they would rack their brains and think of every possibility.
The Dao partners were deathly pale, and the young woman tugged at the sleeves of the man and said, "Let's just forget about it first. This is fate, and cultivating a bit slower is definitely better than dying."
However, the man shook his head and held onto the young woman's hand, saying in a soft voice, "You can't afford to wait any longer. Water will overflow if too full, as too the moon will shrink once full. Waiting any longer will only harm you instead, causing something good to turn into something bad."
He then let go of her hand and looked at Chen Ping'an, his expression resolute as he cupped his fists and said in gratitude, "Things are unpredictable and ever changing on the path of cultivation, so since my wife and I possess lowly cultivation bases, we have no option but to leave things up to fate. We can't blame Young Master for this. In fact, Zhuo Jing and I need to thank Young Master for your good-intentioned warning."
"Is your Dao partner on the verge of advancing to the Abode Tier, but due to her unstable foundations, requires immortal money and immortal tools to increase her chances of success?" Chen Ping'an asked.
The young woman sighed softly upon hearing this.
The man nodded and replied, "Young Master truly has a sharp eye. This is indeed the case."
"Please forgive me for asking, but how much do you still need?" Chen Ping'an asked.
The man had a helpless expression as he replied, "It's a humongous number to the two of us, or else we wouldn't have been forced to enter Malicious Ghost Valley. We're genuinely gritting our teeth and mustering our courage to flirt with death."
"How many immortal coins do you still need?" Chen Ping'an asked in a tentative voice.
The man hesitated for a moment before revealing with a bitter expression, "To be honest with you, my wife and I have traveled across more than a dozen nations over the past few years, and after picking and choosing, we finally set our eyes on a bonded item that's most suitable for Zhuo Jing to refine when we visited an immortal shop in the western region of Skeleton Shaol.
"The price was already very fair, but it was still eight hundred snowflake coins. Moreover, this was thanks to the shopkeeper showing incredible kindness and being willing to hold the spirit tool for five years even though he didn't lack any customers or interest. As long as we manage to gather enough immortal coins within these five years, we can return to the shop at any time to purchase the spirit tool.
"However, both of us are Lower Five Tier itinerant cultivators, so after visiting the markets in various nations and making money however we could, we're still five hundred snowflake coins short of our target. It's the unfortunate truth that we're not capable enough."
There was pain and grief in Zhuo Jing's heart.
In reality, there were some details that her husband had still left out. These things were truly too embarrassing to say. In order to enter Malicious Ghost Valley to look for five hundred snowflake coins, they had spent another one hundred or so snowflake coins to purchase that vial of Qi-replenishment alchemical pills.
After entering Malicious Ghost Valley and making their way here, the silver that they had gathered was only equivalent to less than one snowflake coin.
It wasn't so easy to make money in Malicious Ghost Valley.
The Dao partners saw the young wanderer in green and with a sword on his back seemingly hesitate about something, and he was most likely contemplating something as he placed a hand on his vermilion wine gourd.
However, the two of them didn't talk about their struggles any further, lest they come across as too anxious and whiny. When vagrant cultivators came across more powerful immortals on the path of cultivation, being able to maintain a calm and peaceful relationship would already be a huge fortune. Vagrant cultivators wouldn't dare to dream of more.
After traveling around the cultivation world outside the mountains for many years, this pair of young Dao partners had already become accustomed to seeing fellow vagrant cultivators die mysterious and miserable deaths. They were already numb to this, and they no longer felt a shared sense of grief.
Both of them became tense when the young wanderer finally looked up again.
"I've entered Malicious Ghost Valley for the sake of training this time, and I didn't have any plans of looking for treasures," Chen Ping'an said. "As such, I don't have any storage boxes or treasures on me. However, I came across something unexpected on Crow Peak just then, and I was mysteriously surrounded and attacked by a group of malicious ghosts and vicious spirits. Even though the situation was perilous, it could be said that I made some small gains in the end.
"Tell me if this works for you. The two of you are coincidentally carrying large boxes, so you can think of this as helping me carry out a few sets of those jade-like skeletons. I estimate that they can sell for a few lesser heat coins no matter what, so the two of you can sell them first when you return to the market at Helpless Pass. You can then wait for me for one month, and if I return, you can take twenty percent of the profits as compensation. If I don't return within one month, however, then there's no need for the two of you to wait around any longer. You can keep the immortal coins no matter how much those sets of skeletons sell for."
Zhuo Jing was astonished, and she was just about to say something in response. However, her husband grabbed her hand and held it firmly, cutting in before her and asking, "Young Master, have you thought about the possibility of us leaving without waiting for you after obtaining the sets of skeleton and selling them for snowflake coins at the market? Is Young Master not worried about this?"
Chen Ping'an smiled and replied, "Since I dared to propose this transaction, would I be worried about not being able to find two vagrant cultivators afterward?"
"Why doesn't Young Master directly leave Malicious Ghost Valley with us?" the man asked. "We can act as porters for Young Master and earn some laborer's commission, and we'll be happy as long as we don't make a loss. That way, Young Master can also sell the sets of skeletons by himself."
Chen Ping'an frowned and replied, "I said just then that I came to Malicious Ghost Valley for the sake of training, not to look for treasures and seek wealth. We can scrap this transaction if you're worried about this being a trap."
The man glanced at the dense forest in the distance before laughing heartily and saying, "Then I'll accompany Young Master to Crow Peak. Money is falling from the heavens, so I'll be asking for divine punishment if I let slip such a wonderful opportunity. Young Master can feel completely at ease — my wife and I will definitely stay at the market at Helpless Pass for one month to await Young Master's return!"
The man didn't allow his wife to turn down the offer, and he told her to take off the large box on her back before holding one in each hand and following Chen Ping'an to Crow Peak.
He was dumbfounded when he saw the five sets of extremely high-quality skeletons, and he carefully placed them inside the two large wooden boxes.
Meanwhile, the young wanderer wearing a bamboo hat squatted down nearby to examine the rusty suits of armor and weapons.
In the end, when the Dao partners were each carrying a hefty wooden box on their backs and returning to the entrance of Malicious Ghost Valley along the small path, they still felt as if they were in a dream. They were in complete disbelief.
The man remained silent for a long time before finally cracking a grin and saying, "This feels completely unreal."
"Does such good fortune really exist in the world?" his wife, Zhuo Jing, asked in a soft voice.
The man turned his head and looked back, but the young wanderer wearing a bamboo hat was already nowhere to be seen. He turned back around and consoled, "The actions of mighty figures are surprising and unpredictable. We can just treat this as if we've come across a sword immortal."
The man gradually connected some dots together, and he continued in a low voice, "Just think about it. How many vagrant cultivators dare to say, 'They can sell for a few lesser heat coins no matter what?' Are we able to say something like this? Even if we muster up some courage and pretend to be wealthy, can we say this as naturally as that young master?
"I suspect that he's definitely a direct disciple of a sect-level force, and he most certainly isn't a vagrant cultivator like we guessed in the beginning. It's because of this that he can act so liberally and conduct himself in such a generous manner. Of course, we can't forget the manner in which he threatened us either. Judging by his words, he's definitely an official immortal with an astonishing background."
Zhuo Jing thought about this for a moment before smiling gently and saying, "Why do I feel like that young master was purposely saying some of those things without actually meaning them?"
Her husband grimaced and replied, "What kind of cultivator will go to such extreme lengths just to be a good person? How extremely strange. Perhaps our act of sincerely praying and offering incense at the Swaying River's river god temple before coming here has yielded results?"
"Why can't that be the case?" Zhuo Jing responded with a smile.
Chen Ping'an stood on a tall branch and watched the disappearing figures of the husband and wife.
The look in his eyes was gentle, and he didn't retract his gaze for a long time. Leaning against the tree trunk, he eventually grabbed his Sword Nurturing Gourd and took a swig of wine, after which he smiled and remarked, "City Lord Pu is enjoying such a leisurely and carefree mood? Apart from overseeing White Cage City, City Lord Pu also needs to receive tributes from the eight cities in the south, including Meticulous Skin City. If the information in the Be At Ease Compilation isn't incorrect, then this year is coincidentally the end of the sixty-year cycle when City Lord Pu needs to collect the tributes. In other words, City Lord Pu should be very busy right now."
The skeleton swordsman in azure Confucian robes was standing atop a nearby tree, and he replied with a faint smile, "Those who are benevolent won't be able to survive long in Malicious Ghost Valley."
"I understand now. City Lord Pu is curious about how I'm able to freely control the sword on my back even though I'm clearly not a sword cultivator. Perhaps City Lord Pu wants to determine how much spiritual energy from my acupoints I need to exhaust in order to wield this sword? And that way, City Lord Pu can decide whether he wants to attack me or not?" Chen Ping'an asked.
The city lord of White Cage City nodded and replied, "Indeed. However, I'm slightly disappointed by the results. Only a surprisingly small amount of spiritual energy is consumed, and by the looks of it, this is undoubtedly a pseudo-celestial tool that has already acknowledged its master."
"My cultivation base is so low, yet I'm in possession of such a valuable sword, so is City Lord Pu genuinely not tempted to make a move?" Chen Ping'an asked in puzzlement.
Chen Ping'an asked this question because there was seemingly no murderous aura or killing intent radiating from City Lord Pu.
Murderous aura was easy to conceal, but the same couldn't be said for killing intent.
Pu Rang, a Nascent Tier heroic spirit and the city lord of White Cage City, was one of the few spectating Qi refiners who had eventually stepped onto the battlefield during that chaotic and soul-stirring conflict between several nations in the past. In the end, he had died at the hands of a group of earth immortal guest elders from various nations.
It wasn't that Pu Rang hadn't had the opportunity to flee at the time, but he had stubbornly refused to retreat for some unknown reason. The Be At Ease Compilation also offered no answers to this question, and the author of the book had even used his privilege for his own gains, specially making some further remarks following the descriptions of Pu Rang's life and death.
I once entrusted Sect Leader Zhu with personally asking Pu Rang a few questions when she visited White Cage City. City Lord Pu was once a Nascent Tier vagrant cultivator with high hopes of attaining the Great Dao, so why had he insisted on seeking death on the battlefield outside the mountains? However, Pu Rang ignored this question, leaving the thousand-year-old mystery unresolved. This is truly a great pity.
These were naturally positive remarks.
However, there was also no shortage of negative remarks about Pu Rang in the book.
For example, Pu Rang was extremely domineering and impervious to reason, and almost half of the sword cultivators who had died in Malicious Ghost Valley had died at Pu Rang's hands. Among his victims, there was no shortage of young prodigies from first-rate immortal sects and clans. These young prodigies were top-notch sword talents in the southern region of the Northern Complete Reed Continent, so a powerful sect-level force that was guarded by sword immortals had personally dispatched an Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortal south to Skeleton Shoal, visiting White Cage City with his sword.
Both parties had suffered severe wounds, and the Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortal had almost dropped one cultivation base. When tearing open the sky of the mystical realm to leave, the sword immortal had further been struck by a sinister surprise attack from City Lord Pu and had almost been killed on the spot. Even though he had survived, the paramount defensive treasure passed down through the generations in the ancestral hall had been destroyed as a result. This added further insult to the injury, and the Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortal had ended up suffering unfathomable losses.
In fact, this was already a good outcome in the sense that Pu Rang hadn't seized the opportunity to push his advantage and further attack his uninvited guest. Otherwise, Malicious Ghost Valley might have gained the yin spirit of an Upper Five Tier sword immortal, an incredible feat with no historical precedent.
In addition to this, Pu Rang had actively challenged two different sect leaders of the Flax Robe Sect several times. In fact, Zhu Quan's having a damaged cultivation base and being unable to advance to the Upper Five Tiers after so long could largely be attributed to Malicious Ghost Valley's Pu Rang. He was the biggest culprit in delaying her cultivation.
Of course, after engaging in those life-and-death battles, Pu Rang also comprehensively lost the opportunity to advance to the Unpolished Jade Tier. He had suffered even greater losses.
At this moment, Pu Rang glanced at the sword on Chen Ping'an's back and asked, "Sword practitioner?"
Chen Ping'an nodded in response.
"Then why did you ask such a question? Perhaps only living people are allowed to become swordsmen? Perhaps dead people don't have a chance?" Pu Rang asked.
Chen Ping'an was slightly confused in the beginning, but he quickly came to a realization and cupped his fists in respect.
Pu Rang pursed his mouth, and this could be regarded as him dismissing the matter with a smile. He then vanished without a trace.