Unsheathed

Afterward, Chen Ping’an and Sui Jingcheng didn't purposely conceal their tracks. However, because Sui Jingcheng needed to cultivate during specific times of the day, Chen Ping'an purchased a horse-drawn carriage for their journey to the capital of the Five Mountain Nation, acting as the chariot driver. Sui Jingcheng voluntarily told him about the critical cultivation methods of Upper Lofty Mystical Mystery, explaining the different phenomena that arose when cultivating at different times. For example, her eyes becoming watery as if there were steam, her eyes experiencing piercing pain as if there were arcing lightning, her organs trembling loudly, and so on.

In reality, Chen Ping'an wasn't able to provide her with any suggestions regarding these matters. At the same time, Sui Jingcheng was also an amateur who had relied on herself to cultivate this technique for close to thirty years. She wasn't facing any detrimental issues as a result of this, and her skin was instead smooth and silky, with her eyes also being bright and clear. Judging from this, she was most likely on the right track.

They traveled both day and night, and their journey to the capital of the Five Mountain Nation was calm and peaceful.

This was similar to when Chen Ping'an had accompanied Li Huai and the other children to the Confucian academy in the Great Sui Nation. They had experienced bumps and harmonious times, but they had experienced even more trivial matters in the mortal world.

For example, Li Huai had only dared to piss and shit if he was accompanied by Chen Ping'an, especially during the night. Even if Yu Lu were guarding the second half of the night, with Chen Ping'an already fast asleep after guarding the first half of the night, Li Huai would still shake the latter awake and have the bleary-eyed Chen Ping'an venture far away with him, keeping him safe as he held his pants or held his bum. This had remained the same way during the entire trip, and Chen Ping'an had never scolded Li Huai for his behavior, nor had Li Huai ever thanked Chen Ping'an for his company.

However, it was indeed the case that children from small and remote places weren't very accustomed to saying "thank you" to other people. This was similar to how scholars were indeed quite allergic and unwilling to utter the words "I was wrong."

At the end of the day, however, it had been clear to everyone that Li Huai had genuinely cared about Chen Ping'an the most out of everyone in the group back then. Even after so many years, and after studying at Mountain Cliff Academy for so long, Li Huai was still like that cowardly little child who was aggressive at home when he faced Chen Ping'an. Whenever he came across difficult situations, the first person whom he thought of would always be Chen Ping'an, not his parents or his older sister who were far away on another continent. Of course, he felt reliance on the former and longing for the latter, though both of these feelings were equally as strong and sincere.

Meanwhile, even though Sui Jingcheng was an amateur cultivator, she still needed to eat and she was also a female. As such, things were still quite troublesome.

Taking these matters into mind, Chen Ping'an had purposely stayed behind for one more day when purchasing the horse-drawn carriage at a prosperous county city before. When they settled down at an inn, Sui Jingcheng had felt a strong sense of relief having camped in the wilderness and eaten poorly for an extended period of time. She had borrowed some silver coins from Chen Ping'an, saying that she was going to buy a few items. In the end, she had changed into a brand new dress and also purchased a new veiled hat to conceal her appearance.

Chen Ping'an wasn't going out of his way to accommodate Sui Jingcheng, and in reality, he was in no rush to reach his destination anyway. He had a rough idea of what route he wanted to take already, and accompanying Sui Jingcheng to the capital of the Five Mountain Nation wouldn't delay him from reaching the Green Oriole Nation before autumn.

One evening, Chen Ping'an sat on a stone cliff beside a turbulent river and retrieved his fishing rod. The sand and dirt in the river were whipped up, but the large rocks remained unmoving. Yet, it was in this environment that Chen Ping'an surprisingly managed to catch a black carp weighing five or so kilograms.

As the two of them drank fish soup, Chen Ping'an told Sui Jingcheng about the extremely peculiar black carp that existed in a lake atop the mountains at the Parasol Leaf Continent. Once these black carp reached one hundred years of age, a black stone of varying sizes would appear in their mouth. These black stones were extremely pure, and after crushing them and drying them out under the scorching sun using a secret technique, the resulting powder would be an extremely coveted raw material for cultivators who specialized in drawing talismans.