Unsheathed

Outside the window, the river water flowed slowly as it had for thousands of years. Chen Ping'an only leaned against the windowsill and napped for a short moment, yet his mind already felt slightly more soothed and relaxed than before. This was quite a rare feeling, as it had already been far too long since Chen Ping'an had last enjoyed a good sleep.

Zeng Ye and Ma Duyi were still yet to return, so Chen Ping'an couldn't help but feel slightly worried.

As he expected, his journey through the Plum Glaze Nation was indeed filled with shadows after he met with Zhang Ye, took a quick trip back to Bamboo Scroll Lake, and entered the nation through Staying Pass. There was someone tailing him the entire time, and this person possessed an extremely high cultivation base and was able to conceal themself very well, so much so that Chen Ping'an could only vaguely detect their presence very occasionally.

Zeng Ye and Ma Duyi remained oblivious the entire time, and Chen Ping'an didn't reveal the situation to them either, lest they become anxious and make any mistakes as a result, causing further unnecessary trouble.

Even though the person didn't display any sense of friendliness or hostility, Chen Ping'an still felt as if there were a stinging radiance cutting at his back.

Few cultivators in Bamboo Scroll Lake could achieve this, and it would be beneath the Unpolished Jade Tier Liu Laocheng to do something like this. The Nascent Tier Liu Zhimao most definitely wouldn't do something like this either.

As for the Imperial Song Clan of the Great Li Empire, they were unwilling to complicate matters for themselves. In addition, Chen Ping'an was a citizen of the Great Li Empire, after all, and Lu Baixiang and the others had all become citizens of the Great Li Empire as well.

Thus, even if the high-ranking officials outside of Cui Chan felt eager to target Chen Ping'an — for example, the trusted subordinates of that imperial concubine — they definitely didn't possess the courage to cause trouble in Bamboo Scroll Lake. This was Cui Chan's Go board, and the imperial preceptor cared greatly about rules and regulations whenever he did something. Of course, almost all of the rules in the Great Li Empire, from the imperial court to the army and from the mountains to the mortal world, had been single-handedly established by Cui Chan.

Chen Ping'an was almost certain that the person tailing him was one of the outside cultivators who were staying at Palace Willow Island. They most likely weren't the leader of the group, since the matters at Bamboo Scroll Lake were of utmost importance to them. Otherwise, they wouldn't have rushed over to suppress Liu Zhimao.

The matters at Bamboo Scroll Lake required their leader to stay back in Palace Willow Island, so the person tailing Chen Ping'an was probably the second or third-in-command of the group of powerful outside cultivators. They were looking for an opportunity to make a move. The only fortunate thing was that they weren't looking to directly kill Chen Ping'an, and it appeared as if they hadn't come up with a flawless plan that left no hidden dangers yet. Once they decided to take action, however, they would definitely do so in a swift and ferocious manner.

In regards to these matters, Chen Ping'an actually felt slightly thankful to Liu Laocheng in the depths of his mind. Not only did Liu Laocheng not take advantage of this opportunity to scheme against Chen Ping'an, nor did he spectate things from a distance, but he even gave Chen Ping'an a secret warning one time, informing him about the dangers. Of course, there was also the possibility that Liu Laocheng had already told the outside cultivators about his possession of a sage's jade tablet, a sage who accompanied the Paramount Sage in the Confucian temple. As such, the outside cultivators were also worried about Chen Ping'an causing mutual destruction and fundamentally ruining their huge schemes in Bamboo Scroll Lake.