Unsheathed

Clearly, Pu He had no interest in keeping up appearances, and even though he had asked the administrators whether they would be willing to sell him a favor, it really was more of an order than a request.

There were only a few intercontinental ship administrators from the Southern Whirl Continent, and they were having a much more pleasant discussion in another courtyard with Sword Immortal Yuan Qingshu.

Unlike Pu He, Xie Zhi, and Song Pin, Yuan Qingshu had adopted a much more amicable approach. He had invited everyone for a pleasant chat over some wine, which he proclaimed was the most renowned Bamboo Sea Small World wine on the Sword Qi Great Wall. At the end, he proposed that his six direct disciples could go to the sects and factions of everyone present to serve as guest elders. As for what he had truly gathered everyone here to discuss, he told them that that could wait until after they've all had their fill of wine.

There were quite a few intercontinental ship administrators from the Pure White Continent, second only to those from the Middle Earth Divine Continent, and they were in the presence of the female sword immortal, Xie Songhua.

Xie Songhua was a very strange sword immortal. She was born on the Pure White Continent, yet her entire rise had taken place on the Middle Earth Divine Continent, and she was never willing to acknowledge her Pure White Continent roots. She proclaimed that a continent that couldn't even keep the suffix of "north" from falling into the hands of the Complete Reed Continent wasn't worthy of her acknowledgment.

Generally speaking, a foul-tempered sword immortal like her wouldn't have been able to make much of a splash on the Pure White Continent. After all, the immortal powers of the Pure White Continent were all extremely wealthy, and none of them were afraid of any powerful individual, even if that individual were a sword immortal.

However, it just so happened to be the case that Xie Songhua had several close friends on the Pure White Continent who shared her fiery temper. One of them was a female pure martial artist who liked to go to the north to hunt demons, and she just so happened to be extremely close with the Liu Clan of the Pure White Continent.

Xie Songhua had always displayed nothing but disdain for the swordsmen of the Pure White Continent, and it was only after meeting Deng Liang and the other bright prodigies from the Pure White Continent that her attitude began to soften a little.

After everyone arrived, Xie Songhua wasted no time, cutting straight to the chase with a very impactful opening statement. "I have fought in battles on the Sword Qi Great Wall so far, and I have accumulated accolades equivalent to killing an Immortal Tier great demon."

This wasn't enough to send everyone into a frenzy, but it certainly sufficed in terms of intimidation.

At the moment, all information was extremely closely guarded on the Sword Qi Great Wall, but there was one thing that was very common knowledge to just about everyone on Stalactite Mountain, and that was that Xie Songhua had single-handedly destroyed the Great Dao foundation of an Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortal of the Savage World. According to the rules of the Sword Qi Great Wall, that was a contribution equivalent to killing half an Immortal Tier great demon.

Truth be told, the businessmen of the Pure White Continent didn't feel much pride in this feat. Instead, they were more interested in the business opportunities that it presented. If any of them could recruit Xie Songhua to become a guest elder at their sect, that would undoubtedly be massively profitable for them.

However, no one dared to even raise the subject. Everyone knew what Xie Songhua's personality was like, and if they weren't careful, such a proposal could end up being the last proposal they ever made.

What was particularly unsettling to everyone was that Xie Songhua normally had no interest in business matters whatsoever, yet she had gathered everyone here to discuss business, and that was clearly not good news.

Sure enough, she continued, "I owe someone a favor, so I'll be accompanying all of you on your journey back to the Pure White Continent. He told me that everyone who does business tries to maximize profits as much as possible, and that none of you can be faulted for simply doing your job. He doesn't blame any of you, and on the contrary, he says that he sympathizes with all of you.

“Hence, not only do none of you have anything to worry about, you are all in for a pleasant surprise. Once I've gotten a good grasp on everyone's financial status, I'll know which sect among you is the poorest and most desperately in need of making profits from the Sword Qi Great Wall. Once I've established which sect that is, I will personally escort their intercontinental ship back to the Pure White Continent. If I fail in my assignment, then I will be entirely to blame."

After all of the intercontinental ship administrators of the Northern Complete Reed Continent were assembled, they were attended to by Sect Leader Li Cai of the Duckweed Sword Lake.

Everyone immediately stood up to cup their fists in a collective salute.

If she were just a sect leader and an Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortal, then everyone wouldn't have been so earnestly reverent of her. However, the courage that she had displayed in coming to the Sword Qi Great Wall had earned everyone's respect.

Li Cai returned the salute, but didn't sit down. Instead, she pulled out a flagon of wine that she had prepared in advance, then declared, "Han Huaizi won't be going back, and I most likely won't be, either. That's all I have to say. Please have a drink on me."

Wei Jin was the sword immortal who met with the two intercontinental ship administrators from Old Dragon City. Instead of discussing business, he asked them about the recent state of the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, and in the end, he declared, "If I manage to reach the Immortal Tier and don't die on the Sword Qi Great Wall, I will travel to the Northern Complete Reed Continent and challenge Heavenly Lord Xie Shi again."

The two administrators were already feeling rather apprehensive to begin with, and they felt even more uneasy upon hearing this.

The Eastern Treasured Vial Continent was the smallest and most secluded continent in the Majestic World, and Wei Jin was one of the brightest talents to ever come out of the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, so he was held in extremely high regard.

If Wei Jin were to reach the Immortal Tier, then both the Divine Edict Sect and the True Realm Sect would have to reconsider their position on the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent.

The Old Dragon City intercontinental ships were the least well-informed of all of the intercontinental ships from the nine continents, yet even they had been tipped off to the fact that Wei Jin had already reached his Unpolished Jade Tier bottleneck.

Wei Jin had all but confirmed this himself with that declaration, and that was why the two Old Dragon City administrators were feeling so uneasy.

Why is he telling us this? We've never even met before! Why would he tell us something like this?

Wei Jin began drinking on his own, and it was still the most expensive and most scam-adjacent wine in the shop, selling for one lesser heat coin per flagon.

All of the sword immortals had prepared what they were going to say in advance, so these were all calculated decisions. Otherwise, why would Wei Jin tell a couple of intercontinental ship administrators that he had never met before about his future plans after making a breakthrough?

While this was a calculated decision, it was indeed true that he intended to challenge Heavenly Lord Xie Shi again.

The largest courtyard in the Spring Banner Inn was reserved for all of the intercontinental ship administrators from the Middle Earth Divine Continent.

Compared with the tense and uneasy atmosphere in the other courtyards, the administrators from the Middle Earth Divine Continent were all very composed, and there were even two Unpolished Jade Tier cultivators among them, Wu Qiu and Tang Feiqian. Even though they were managing their respective sect's intercontinental ships, they had refused the title of administrator as it was too demeaning for cultivators of their caliber.

Among them, Wu Qiu was not only at the Unpolished Jade Tier, but also a sword immortal, and the two immortals were seated next to each other, chatting amicably without a care in the world.

Their composure stemmed from the fact that they came from the Middle Earth Divine Continent, and on top of that, the representatives from the Sword Qi Great Wall in the room with them were not someone they were afraid of at all.

It was only the Unpolished Jade Tier Mi Yu, as opposed to the expected Nalan Shaowei. He was joined by Sword Immortal Ku Xia of the Shaoyuan Empire, who had very close ties to the Middle Earth Divine Continent, so it wasn't really even clear which side he was on.

In the eyes of all of the intercontinental ship administrators from the Middle Earth Divine Continent, the fact that these two had been chosen to see them meant that they weren't in any danger at all.

Wu Qiu and Tang Feiqian were so relaxed that they were even in the mood to observe Mi Yu and a female Nascent Tier cultivator in the room with a combination of amusement and intrigue in their eyes. The female Nascent Tier cultivator possessed exceptional cultivation aptitude, yet she had insisted on becoming the administrator of an intercontinental ship, a rigorous role that should've never fallen upon a prodigy of her caliber.

The reason for this was her infatuation with Mi Yu. Unfortunately, her devotion was directed toward a womanizer with countless female admirers and pursuers. The Middle Earth Divine Continent was teeming with bright young prodigies, yet the cruel hand of fate had made her fall for Mi Yu.

If Mi Yu were able to leave the Sword Qi Great Wall and were willing to become her Dao partner, then she could be considered very fortunate, but as a sword immortal of the Sword Qi Great Wall, there was no way Mi Yu could go to the Middle Earth Divine Continent.

Sword Immortal Ku Xia wasn't very good with his words, and there was no need for him to speak, given that he had only been instructed to keep the guests in the room company.

Wu Qiu turned to Ku Xia with a smile and asked, "Where are Yan Ming and Nalan Caihuan? Are they in the main hall, waiting for us to finish our tea?"

"I'm not sure," Ku Xia replied with a shake of his head.

Wu Qiu nodded and accepted that answer.

Even though they were both Unpolished Jade Tier sword immortals, Ku Xia was also a junior nephew to Zhou Shenzhi, one of the top ten cultivators of the Middle Earth Divine Continent, so he was certainly superior in status to Wu Qiu.

Regardless of how little Zhou Shenzhi thought of his junior nephew, that was certainly no excuse for others to look down on Ku Xia.

Ku Xia had a reputation for being easygoing and approachable, but that only made it an even worse idea to get on his bad side.

Hence, sending Ku Xia to meet with everyone from the Middle Earth Divine Continent could be considered a decently smart move from the Sword Qi Great Wall.

However, once the business negotiations began, Ku Xia wasn't going to be able to make any difference. After all, he was still just Ku Xia, not Zhou Shenzhi.

Ku Xia heaved an internal sigh, knowing that all of the intercontinental ship administrators were in for a massive headache once the star of the show arrived. He was even of the opinion that if the young man currently in the main hall of the Spring Banner Inn had been the one contending against the future patriarch of the Mountain and Water Cave in the place of Nalan Shaowei, then it would've been a much more even contest. In the past, Ku Xia had never imagined that Lin Junbi would concede himself inferior to anyone, yet that young man had managed to accomplish such a feat.

The female Nascent Tier cultivator was communicating with Mi Yu through her mind's lake, hissing with as much venom as she could muster. "You're going to pay, Mi Yu! Even if I'm going to be punished by my sect, I'm going to humiliate you! In fact, I may be able to humiliate you without even incurring any consequences! Revenge truly is a dish best served cold! I bet you never thought that this day would come, did you?!"

Mi Yu turned to her with a wistful expression, then lamented through his mind's lake, "It's a real shame to see what was once such a kind and gentle girl become so bitter. I suppose I'm to blame for that."

The woman had no response for this, and her expression only became more resentful. She had so many things she wanted to say, but she was unable to get anything out through her tightly clenched jaws.

Mi Yu also didn't say anything further, and he took a glance at her before averting his gaze slightly, as if to see her out of his peripheral vision, almost like he wanted to see her, but didn't dare to look directly at her.

In the main hall of the Spring Banner Inn, a young man was leaning against the door frame of the entrance, and there was an ancient jade tablet hanging from his waist.

Yan Ming and Nalan Caihuan were also present, but neither of them occupied the main seat in the room. Not only that, but they were seated quite far back.

Nalan Caihuan was a little disgruntled by this, while Yan Ming didn't really seem to care.

Earlier, she had been screwed over by the young man, and after the event, she had gone to Nalan Shaowei to report the contents of their discussion, only for Nalan Shaowei to stare at her as if she were an idiot the entire time.

After learning that she had been tricked, Nalan Caihuan was so furious that she intended to scrap everything that they had agreed upon, but Nalan Shaowei told her that there was no need to do that, and that she should honor the agreement, even though all of the terms had been negotiated under false pretenses.

Shao Yunyan was standing beside the young man at the entrance, and he didn't seem to be bothered at all that the young man looked as if he had taken over the Spring Banner Inn from him.

This was the first meeting between the two, and they were having a spirited discussion about Liu Jinglong of the Northern Complete Reed Continent and Celestial Maiden Lu Sui of Water Scripture Mountain.

Shao Yunyan was full of praise for Liu Jinglong, proclaiming that the latter had very good chances of becoming the first Ascension Tier sword immortal of the Northern Complete Reed Continent.

In response, the young man praised Lu Sui for her beauty and kindness, stating that she and Liu Jinglong were a match made in heaven. While praising Lu Sui, the young man also paid some compliments to her master.

Shao Yunyan didn't care whether he was being sincere or not. Even if the young man were only saying this to be polite, it was still quite flattering to hear.

After chatting about his gourd vine and the wine from the Golden Millet Blessed Land, Shao Yunyan asked, "Is it about time we called them over?"

"There's no hurry," the young man replied with a smile. "It's not every day that the sword immortals come to Stalactite Mountain, so we can't let their visit go to waste. Let's have everyone keep them company for a little longer."

The young man then cast his gaze toward the falling snow outside as he tucked his hands up their opposite sleeves, thinking to himself that if only all of the falling snowflakes were snowflake coins instead.

Shao Yunyan also began looking out at the snow outside, feeling a rare moment of peace.

"After tonight, we can negotiate the thing that you promised to the Sword Qi Great Wall," the young man suddenly said. "The terms of your promise will remain the same, but the outcome can be different, and all three parties can be at least somewhat satisfied."

"Do you have the authority to make a decision on that?" Shao Yunyan asked with slightly furrowed brows.

"If I don't even have the authority, then who does?" the young man asked with a smile.

Shao Yunyan was very relieved. Up to this point, he had already resolved himself to die on Stalactite Mountain, and he took a few steps back before cupping his fist toward the young man in a grateful salute.