Unsheathed

Chen Ping'an was extremely familiar with the road from the capital of the Great Sui Nation back to the Great Li Empire's Dragon Spring Prefecture.

Just like always, he tried his best to travel along small mountain paths with few other travelers. When there was no one around, he would walk forward using his hands while performing the Heaven and Earth Stance. He would also ask Zhu Lian to spar with him every day, with the hunchbacked old man initially suppressing his cultivation base to the sixth tier and gradually raising it to the peak stage of the seventh tier.

The sparring sessions became increasingly intense, and this caused Pei Qian to feel extremely anxious. If it weren't for her master's Dao robe, Golden Sweet Wine, just how much money would he need to spend on new clothes? The first time they sparred, Chen Ping'an had called a stop to the session halfway. As it turned out, a hole had appeared in his boots, so he was forced to take them off and spar barefoot with Zhu Lian.

After leaving the Great Sui Nation, Chen Ping'an changed into straw sandals again, causing Pei Qian to bend over with laughter. Afterward, Chen Ping'an made a pair of straw sandals for Pei Qian as well, and the tanned little girl was no longer able to laugh. The straw sandals were extremely sturdy, and they were actually more reliable than ordinary boots when it came to traversing mountains and crossing rivers. Even so, they were ultimately coarse and harsh on one's feet.

Fortunately, Chen Ping'an didn't insist on forcing Pei Qian to wear it the entire time. While Pei Qian used a needle to pop the blisters on the soles of her feet, Zhu Lian stood beside her and made fun of her the entire time. The old man and the little girl were used to making fun of each other every single day.

Chen Ping'an was sitting by a stream, and he removed his straw sandals and placed his feet in the water as his mind wandered far away.

He wasn't feeling nervous as he walked closer and closer to his home, but compared to his first distant journey, there were indeed many more things for him to worry about. There was his ancestral residence in Clay Vase Alley, the bamboo building on Downtrodden Mountain, the purchasing of mountains that he had discussed with Wei Bo, his two businesses in Dragon Riding Alley, the repair works of the clay Bodhisattvas and deities in the immortal tomb, and many other small matters.

There were many things that Chen Ping'an had never needed to think about before, yet he would often ponder on them now. As for what he did after visiting his hometown, he planned to travel to Bamboo Scroll Lake to visit Gu Can first. He would then head to the Colorful Garment Nation to visit that husband and wife as well as their old maidservant who was very good at cooking.

He definitely needed to visit Sword Saint Song Yushao in the Water Combing Nation as well, and he still owed this senior a meal of hotpot. Of course, Chen Ping'an also wanted to show off to the sword saint, saying that the girl whom he loved also loved him back. Things weren't as terrifying as Senior Song had made them out to be.

Chen Ping'an naturally felt a strong yearning for the scholarly aura of books and poems possessed by Cui Dongshan, Lu Tai, and even the Lion Garden's Liu Qingshan. However, Chen Ping'an wouldn't mindlessly try to get closer to them because of this.

This was called liking the new but not getting tired of the old. As a result, he was able to accumulate more and more wealth.