Unsheathed

On this day, someone from the sword chamber arrived at Chen Ping'an's room to inform him that another flying sword letter had arrived on Cyan Gorge Island, and he immediately left his room to retrieve it.

He was expecting it to be Zhong Kui's return letter.

Sure enough, upon reaching the sword chamber, Chen Ping'an was greeted by a secret letter from Peace and Tranquility Mountain. Unfortunately, Zhong Kui informed him through the letter that he had been very busy of late, and there were still demonic entities wreaking havoc all over the Parasol Leaf Continent.

The situation wasn't as dire as it had once been, but it was even more troublesome and annoying. All of the major threats had been dealt with, but there seemed to have been no end to all of the small fry that had to be dealt with.

As a result, he wouldn't be able to leave the Parasol Leaf Continent for now, but he would immediately make the trip as soon as he had some spare time. However, he concluded the letter by telling Chen Ping'an not to get his hopes up as he definitely wasn't going to be able to leave the Parasol Leaf Continent anytime soon.

Chen Ping'an was a little concerned. After all, not only had Zhong Kui been stripped of his noble scholar status by the academy, he had also become a ghostly entity. Without his status as a noble scholar, he would be without his most potent layer of protection if he were to encounter a Nascent Tier demon.

After tucking the secret letter away, Chen Ping'an emerged from the sword chamber, and internally, he was jokingly denouncing Zhong Kui for being a terrible friend.

His letter had included a bunch of stories much like the ones in the Bamboo Scroll Lake reports, such as Yao Jinzhi being selected into the imperial palace, the riveting, back and forth action between the three princes of the Great Quan Empire, the fortune to have befallen the Burial River Goddess, the successful promotion of the Green Roving Residence into the Green Roving Divine Water Palace, and other such stories.

The only thing that he failed to include in his return letter were answers to the questions that Chen Ping'an had raised in his initial letter.

Not long after Chen Ping'an's departure from the sword chamber, Liu Zhimao suddenly arrived without warning, much to the unease of all of the sword chamber cultivators. Liu Zhimao had virtually never set foot in this sword chamber, so this was an unimaginably rare event.

He had no need for the sword chamber as he had a premium, Small Sword Resting Ground in his own manor that he could receive and send flying sword letters from, and it was more convenient and obscure.