Unsheathed

The commencement of the Thousand Elders Banquet was imminent, but the atmosphere in the capital city of the Great Sui Nation was a little peculiar.

Cai Feng had taken leave with the Ministry of Astronomy, but he was nowhere to be seen in the Cai Manor.

For some unknown reason, the new Zhuangyuan, Zhang Dai, hadn't been seen at the Imperial Hanlin Academy for a very long time.

It was said that Vice Commander Song Shan of the Infantry Commander's Office had paid a visit to the Ministry of Justice.

All types of rumors were running rampant in the imperial court and among the common folk.

One day, late at night, the Great Sui Nation's Minister of Rites, who was also serving as the mountain master of Mountain Cliff Academy, had paid a visit to Assistant Mountain Master Mao Xiaodong. The location for their meeting wasn't Mao Xiaodong's study. Instead, it was the Scholarly Master Hall, where three Confucian sages were being worshiped.

Mao Xiaodong didn't speak to Chen Ping'an about this matter in detail, but a little past midnight, he had departed from the academy with Chen Ping'an to pay a visit to the Confucian temple in the capital city. Compared with their first visit, he had asked for even more from the Confucian temple, and he was able to leave with many ceremonial artifacts that contained scholarly fortune.

After returning to Eastern Splendor Mountain, Mao Xiaodong led Chen Ping'an to the mountain summit, then pulled out that jade tablet to preside over the academy as its sage.

Chen Ping'an pulled out over thirty of the natural treasures that Mao Xiaodong helped him prepare, and the final two items had also arrived, namely a thousand-year-old water ox horn, and a saber that had been used by a martial sage. The martial sage had since passed away and was being revered in a martial sage temple in the capital city of one of the nations in the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent's central region.

Mao Xiaodong hadn't hidden any details from Chen Ping'an when it came to the collection of these materials. Instead, from the very beginning, he had readily shared pieces of information such as where the natural treasures had come from, their prices, and any special characteristics that they possessed.

Due to the fact that Fan Junmao had prepared everything for him back when he refined his water seal in Old Dragon City, this was the first time that Chen Ping'an had been made aware of all of this information, and he finally understood why the refinement of bonded items was such an expensive and time-consuming endeavor for Qi refiners.