Unsheathed

Chen Ping'an quickly returned Sword Immortal to its scabbard after leaving the territory of Sheep Intestine Palace, and he hovered down to a mountain peak that was covered in thick miasma. He had scanned this area from above just then, and he would likely be able to reach the tall city walls of Copper Stench City once he left this mountain range and traveled southeast for approximately twenty-five kilometers. Once he reached Copper Stench City, then the Flax Robe Sect's Green Cottage Town wouldn't be far away either.

Emulating the sword flight of immortals was a very interesting thing. The seas of clouds in the world were ever-changing, and Chen Ping'an never grew tired of enjoying such views. He could also use these opportunities to alleviate his boredom. When leaving Sheep Intestine Palace just then, Chen Ping'an had purposely flown below a sea of clouds whose bottom layer appeared extremely straight as if it had been cut by a knife. As he slowly flew forward, only his head had poked into the sea of clouds, with the rest of his body remaining outside.

If some ghost or spirit on the mountains below had looked up and witnessed this scene, they would have most likely thought... Was this "headless" Qi refiner okay in the head? Apart from these childish and laughable forms of self-entertainment, Chen Ping'an also liked to sink into the seas of clouds with only his head sticking out the top. He would then flap his arms as if he were swimming.

In reality, these forms of entertainment were very similar to Pei Qian placing her head on the counters in the two shops in Dragon Riding Alley. This was as expected of a master and his disciple.

The desolate mountain range was sparsely populated, and the trees in the mountain forest were full of knots and all kinds of other sicknesses. When walking past a mountain cliff, he looked up and saw a skinny bayberry tree growing from the cracks in the stone. Clouds and smoke swirled around the cliff, and at the bottom of the cliff was a large pile of crushed bones. This bayberry tree was most likely a tree spirit that had the potential to cultivate further and become more powerful. It had gained some sentience, and it had already learned to hunt small birds and small animals.

Generally speaking, it was the most difficult for trees and plants to become spirits. When these spirits managed to assume human form, the vast majority of them would have already reached the end of their cultivation path. For example, the adorable little spirits that had stood on the potted tree in the Green Beetle Shop located at the Water Combing Nation's ferry station were destined to have no chance at cultivation. They could only rely on the innately long lifespan of trees and plants to while away their time. These kinds of spirits were usually raised by cultivators simply because they looked adorable and joyous.

Before the Jewel Small World had plummeted to the ground, the elders standing under the locust tree in the small town had liked to tell those fictional stories about ghosts and fiends in the mountain forests and marshes. They had purposely tricked and frightened the young children. However, the elders would usually also say that it was already a rare fortune to become a human, so they needed to cherish their lives as much as they could. Otherwise, if they took things for granted and didn't become a good person, then they would reincarnate as pigs or dogs in their future life.

When Chen Ping'an was little, he had liked to squat in the distance to listen to these stories. Meanwhile, the fearless Liu Xianyang had never liked listening to these things, always saying that these stories about ghosts and gods were nothing more than lies. As such, it had often been Gu Can accompanying Chen Ping'an in the locust shade, and he would only stand up and leave when that aunty in Clay Vase Alley shouted loudly for him to eat or go to bed.

Chen Ping'an leaped onto the stone cliff, with his fingers like hooks as they stabbed into the cliff face. He hung in the air just like that, and he retrieved three snowflake coins and held them in his hand, using the refinement mantra that the water goddess of the Burial River had bestowed upon him to refine the spiritual energy contained within the snowflake coins into drops of emerald green water droplets.

These water droplets flowed through his fingers and dripped onto the connection point between the old bayberry tree and the crack in the stone cliff. After doing this, Chen Ping'an gently slapped the cliff face with his palm and slowly hovered to the ground. He then continued his journey to Copper Stench City.

If the Dao partners who were desperate for immortal coins for the sake of survival had arrived here and seen this peculiar bayberry tree, perhaps their first thought would have been curiosity about the value of the tree. In the end, they would have mustered their courage and risked their safety to scale up the mountain cliff to cut down the bayberry tree, with the sound of their blades reverberating through the desolate mountains.

As for whether the fated opportunity of the bayberry tree itself would be severed because of their actions? Would they have any time or effort to worry about such matters? If their cultivation were a bit higher and they were still desperate for immortal coins, would they not engage in a battle of life and death no inferior to a battle of the Great Dao if they encountered the two spirits on the suspension bridge?