Unsheathed

Chen Ping'an retracted his gaze and recounted, "The first observation pertained to Hu Xinfeng. If he had fought with his life for the sake of the so-called loyalty of the cultivation world, acting in a way that appeared on the surface to be very foolish, then I wouldn't have needed to observe the game of Go anymore. I would have stepped in and taken action straight away.

"The second observation pertained to you and your father. Even if he had chosen to stand by idly and observe the situation, I would have still stepped forward and chosen to take action if he had shown even an iota of compassion, rather than thinking to loudly scold me had I dared to open my mouth and ask for help."

Chen Ping'an smiled and continued, "In the end, it was unexpectedly Hu Xinfeng who gave me a surprise. After parting ways with you and the others, I visited Hu Xinfeng and was able to see that spark inside him. One time was before he died, and he pleaded with me not to punish his innocent family members. One time was when I asked him about whether the four of you deserved to die, and he replied that Sui Xinyu had actually been a fairly good official. The final time was when he started to organically talk about his chivalrous dealings back then. Dealings... This was a very interesting way to put things."

"But no matter what happened, Senior was observing us this entire time. Senior was clearly very disappointed, so why did Senior still choose to protect us in secret?" Sui Jingcheng asked in a soft voice.

"The Daoist Sect talks about misfortunes and blessings having no doors, with both being summoned by people themselves. The Buddhist Sect talks about yesterday's actions culminating in today's karmic fate. Both of these principles are very similar. However, the existence of many half-assed immortals in the mountains — in fact, these people can't be regarded as genuine cultivators at all — has made these already difficult-to-explain concepts even more difficult to explain," Chen Ping'an said.

"However, the four of you could be viewed as the weak when you faced that dilemma in the pavilion. I coincidentally passed by, and when I carefully considered the situation, I decided not to walk away since I had the ability to do something without endangering myself. In the meantime, however, I wouldn't interfere with your hardships and suffering unless you came across deadly dangers.

For example, it was a consequence of your own actions that you had to flee through the rain with fear and unease in your hearts, and similarly so when you were viciously knocked off your horse by the spine of the martial artist's saber. These were the karmic consequences given to you by the world. Taking a long-term view of things, suffering these karmic consequences isn't a bad thing. The four of you are still alive, after all, while those who had more reason and right to live on than you end up dying, just like that."

Chen Ping'an felt like it wasn't wrong for those who were weak to ask more of those who were strong. This was only right. In fact, Chen Ping'an now felt like it wasn't a big deal even if many of the weak individuals, who were protected by the strong individuals, didn't feel any gratitude at all.

Chen Ping'an never regretted blocking the heavenly tribulation, the sea of black clouds, above Imperial Accompanying City.

This was because in some alleyway of Imperial Accompanying City, there was perhaps another Chen Ping'an or another Liu Xianyang quietly growing up.

If it was said that evil lived on for a thousand years, with this being the way of the world and the nature of the human heart, both of which were prohibitively difficult to change, then those who were good needed to become smarter and live longer. They shouldn't transform from a good person suffering hardships to a bad person wreaking havoc and perpetuating the cycle of evil. Otherwise, mountains would crumble and lands would fracture, and there would eventually come a day when everyone was returned to the heartless Great Dao of heaven and earth.

Sui Jingcheng quietly mulled over Chen Ping'an's words, tossing a few dry branches into the campfire as she did so. She was just about to ask him why he hadn't killed the Turbid River Flood Dragon Yang Yuan and his criminal accomplices for good, but she quickly made sense of the critical points and refrained from asking this unnecessary question.