Unsheathed

The young man accepted the salute, pulled his hands from his sleeves, and returned it.

Suddenly, it seemed as if a huge weight had been lifted from Shao Yunyan's shoulders, and, to reciprocate the young man's goodwill, he said, "My Spring Banner Inn is always happy to do business with you."

The young man immediately latched onto Shao Yunyan's arm and praised, "What a generous man you are, Sword Immortal Shao! I was waiting for you to say exactly that. Thank heavens I didn't stand around watching the snow all this time for nothing!"

Shao Yunyan was caught a little off guard, and he could tell that the intercontinental ship administrators were in for a rough time because two more sword immortals had just arrived, namely Sun Juyuan and Gao Kui.

That was in addition to Mi Yu, Ku Xia, Yuan Qingshu, Pu He, Song Pin, Xie Zhi, Xie Songhua, Li Cai, and Wei Jin.

All of these foreign and native sword immortals had suddenly left the Sword Qi Great Wall to congregate on Stalactite Mountain, and that was something that had never been seen in the history of the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Shao Yunyan took his leave before entering the room first and sitting down on his chair. Among the sword immortals visiting Stalactite Mountain, there were none from the Parasol Leaf Continent. The Parasol Leaf Continent was the only continent with no intercontinental ships, and there were also no sword immortals from the Parasol Leaf Continent on the Sword Qi Great Wall, so it worked out just fine.

However, the man who had nodded at the Great Heavenly Lord earlier had just left the Sword Qi Great Wall with a swordsman of the Middle Five Tiers from the Parasol Leaf Continent, who had traveled alone to the Sword Qi Great Wall. Together, the two of them made their way to the downtrodden Parasol Leaf Sect.

However, on this occasion, the man's intention wasn't to lash out at the Parasol Leaf Sect. Instead, he was going to help the Parasol Leaf Continent and the Majestic World. Otherwise, he certainly wouldn't have been willing to leave his junior brother on his own on the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Scholars always felt obligated to serve the greater good, and Zuo You had always identified as a scholar, not a sword immortal.

More importantly, there would be more battles for him to fight on the Parasol Leaf Continent, and there was a very good chance that he would go into those battles alone without any sword immortals by his side.

His junior brother had tried to trick him by sending him to the Southern Whirl Continent, telling him that that was where the action was going to be. However, after hearing from someone else, Zuo You decided to travel to the Parasol Leaf Continent instead, much to his junior brother's dismay.

It was a long journey to the Parasol Leaf Continent, and he would pass by the Flood Dragon Trench and the Rain Dragon Sect along the way, but he wasn't going to stop at any of those places.

Instead, he would only linger briefly on Reed Flower Island to see if the person presiding over the Creation Cave was a powerful Daoist cultivator as the legends suggested, or if it were a great demon in hiding instead, as Cui Dongshan proclaimed.

If it were the former, then Zuo You would have a conversation with them, and if it were the latter, then he would cut them down on the spot.

There were very few things that Zuo You ever felt conflicted about.

Zuo You's companion on this journey was a young Golden Core Tier swordsman from the Parasol Leaf Continent. He was only young in relative terms. In reality, he was around the same age as Zuo You.

His name was Wang Shizi, and he was a vagrant cultivator. The fact that a vagrant cultivator like him had become a Golden Core Tier swordsman at his age was a clear indication of his exceptional aptitude.

Unfortunately for him, there were barely any other cultivators from the Parasol Leaf Continent on the Sword Qi Great Wall, and there were sword immortals everywhere. Given his less-than-stellar cultivation base, he found himself in a very awkward position.

The Eastern Treasured Vial Continent technically counted as a neighbor of the Parasol Leaf Continent, but Wei Jin was the only cultivator on the Sword Qi Great Wall from the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, and Wang Shizi certainly didn't dare to approach Wei Jin. What would they even talk about?

Thus, he had led a very lonely existence over the past dozen or so years that he had spent on the Sword Qi Great Wall, focusing solely on his cultivation. He had taken part in a few battles, but wasn't able to earn any significant battlefield accolades, only just barely enough to allow him to continue living on the Sword Qi Great Wall.

It was only in the past couple of years that his situation improved a little because he often went to a certain wine shop to buy wine. The wine shop was usually packed, and there weren't enough tables for its patrons, so he often had to squat by the side of the road to drink wine and eat yangchun noodles, but he was happy just to be in the company of others.

It was a huge surprise that he had been allowed to return home on this occasion, and he certainly wasn't expecting to be accompanied by Zuo You.

Wang Shizi wasn't someone who didn't know his place, and he had remained silent this entire trip.

As they drew close to the Flood Dragon Trench, Zuo You said, "There's no need to be overly reserved around me. If you have any questions about cultivation, feel free to ask."

"At my lowly cultivation base, none of my questions are very pressing, so I can ask them once we've reached the Parasol Leaf Continent," Wang Shizi replied.

Zuo You offered no response as he took a glance back in the direction of Stalactite Mountain.

"Senior Zuo, can I ask why you're still willing to instruct me in my cultivation even though I've chosen to leave the Sword Qi Great Wall at a time like this?" Wang Shizi asked.

Zuo You turned his gaze back to Wang Shizi, then smiled and said, "Over the past fourteen years, you've traveled to the top of the city walls thrice, but were forced to retreat on all three occasions. You and I are comrades, so the instruction that I would be providing you would be in the form of sparring."

Wang Shizi wanted to say something, but seemed very hesitant.

"If you have something to say, then say it," Zuo You prompted.

"I just wanted to say that it almost felt like the second shopkeeper was speaking to me just now," Wang Shizi said with a smile.

Zuo You burst into laughter upon hearing this.

"Chen Ping'an is my junior brother, so it's no surprise that you find us similar in the way that we act and speak."

"I'm sure the second shopkeeper will be renowned across the entire Majestic World someday!" Wang Shizi said.

"We'll have to wait and see about that," Zuo You replied with a shake of his head. "The Majestic World will only blame him for not doing enough, and everything that they refused to acknowledge in the past would be used to slander him.

“They'll say that he's the closing disciple of the Scholarly Sage's branch, my junior brother, a young man who even Chen Qingdu thinks highly of, and the newly appointed Hidden Official who gets to stay far away from the battlefield; all of those things will be used as reasons to deny him the credit that he deserves. If he dies, then so be it, but as long as he remains alive on the Sword Qi Great Wall, then he will be faulted for everything that he does."

A solemn look appeared on Wang Shizi's face.

"There's no need to feel bad; it's just something that you have to get used to," Zuo You said.

From there, the two of them continued eastward in silence.

The decor in the main hall of the Spring Banner Inn was reminiscent of a scholar's study. There was a piece of artwork hanging on the wall depicting a nameless mountain on the Northern Complete Reed Continent, and hanging on either side of the piece of artwork was a pair of couplets containing sagely Confucian wisdom. In front of the wall was a long desk, and in front of that was an eight immortals table with a chair placed on either side.

The rest of the space in the room was occupied by a series of chairs arranged in an orderly fashion, and anyone who stepped into the room would find themselves in an isolated small world.

The administrators of the intercontinental ships filed into the main hall one after another.

Bai Xi of the Mountain and Water Cave sat down before exchanging a few glances with some acquaintances, and none of them dared to communicate through their mind's lakes, but each of them could see their own concern mirrored in one another's eyes.

The placement of the chairs in the room was clearly very well thought-out, and it seemed like many factors had been taken into account, including the power of the sects, the sizes of the intercontinental ships, and even the reputations of the administrators.

For example, Bai Xi had noticed a particular administrator from the Pure White Continent. He was in charge of the Southern Winnowing Basket intercontinental ship, and he was a Golden Core Tier cultivator who didn't have much of a reputation. He wasn't particularly renowned for his business acumen, and out of all of the administrators present, he would be considered as someone who was rather low on the pecking order.

However, he had been assigned a very prominent seat on this occasion, but this came as no surprise to Bai Xi, as the patriarch of the Mountain and Water Cave had once revealed to him that this administrator was actually an Unpolished Jade Tier talismanic cultivator in disguise. His business dealings with Stalactite Mountain were nothing more than a red herring, while his true objective was to travel to the Flood Dragon Trench in secret to do business there.

He would use a secret technique to secure Dragon Qi in exchange for immortal coins, and the Dragon Qi would be injected into talismans. Upon returning to the Pure White Continent, he would sell the talismans to the Liu Clan for exorbitant sums.

The patriarch of the Mountain and Water Cave had instructed Bai Xi to be prudent with his interactions and that there was no need to try to befriend this particular administrator. Instead, curt nods would suffice.

The Golden Core Tier administrator reacted quite calmly to this, but Bai Xi was certain that he was feeling rather disgruntled.

Finally, everyone arrived and sat down.

The dozen or so sword immortals who had left the Sword Qi Great Wall were seated on the chairs on the right, while all of the intercontinental ship administrators were seated on the left, and it was as if the two parties were in opposition to one another.

Only now did all of the intercontinental ship administrators begin to take a closer look at the young man.

All of the administrators present were sly old foxes who were extremely observant, and they had all noticed the young man in the room. The main hall of the Spring Banner Inn was very large, and many pillars inside had couplets hanging from them. Up to this point, the young man had been reading the couplets and paying no heed to anyone else.

The two Upper Five Tiers immortals, Wu Qiu and Tang Feiqian, were also observing the young man, but they were rather perplexed. Of course, they didn't truly believe that he was a cultivator of the Lower Five Tiers. Instead, they were both of the opinion that he had to have been a sword immortal adept in disguising his physical appearance and cultivation base.

The chairs on either side of the eight immortals table in the room remained vacant.

However, a jade tablet was placed on the eight immortals table a little closer to the intercontinental ship administrators relative to the sword immortals of the Sword Qi Great Wall.

Everyone was speculating about who those two chairs were reserved for. Could it be that one of them was reserved for Han Huaizi, while the other would be occupied by some mighty sword immortal like Nalan Shaowei? Perhaps it could even be the leader of one of the Dong, Chen, and Qi Clans. Otherwise, why would there be so many other sword immortals present to set the scene?

At the moment, it was extremely difficult to gather any information from the Sword Qi Great Wall, so everyone was making sure to proceed with caution.

Even a swordsman as easygoing as Sun Juyuan had begun turning all visitors away from his manor quite some time ago, and after that, he had gone straight to the top of the city walls. As for all of the servants in his manor, they either accompanied him to the city walls or were confined to the manor. There was a servant who didn't think this was necessary, and he snuck out in secret. Shortly thereafter, he was dead.

Hence, all of the information that had been leaked to Stalactite Mountain was information that the Sword Qi Great Wall didn't feel a need to hide anymore.

By the time everyone arrived, all of the sword immortals were also seated, and in the face of such a formidable lineup of sword immortals, even Wu Qiu was struck by a sense of asphyxiation.

The chairs in the main hall had been positioned in a way to make it feel as if they were locked in a confrontation against more than ten sword immortals!

Most importantly, the sword immortals among them who had come from the Majestic World were all representing the Sword Qi Great Wall on this occasion.

Aside from the Middle Earth Divine Continent and the Northern Complete Reed Continent, all of the intercontinental ship administrators from the other six continents were all feeling very apprehensive.

It had already been quite an ordeal for them, facing a sword immortal native to their respective continents, yet little did they know that there was an even more intimidating ordeal waiting for them here.

What was even more unsettling to everyone was that all of the sword immortals were completely silent, normally only seen when a sword immortal was about to take someone's life.

Why would they bother to speak to someone who was about to be dead?

Shao Yunyan was sitting near the entrance of the main hall, and just like all of the sword immortals, he was also sitting in silence. The seat that he had been assigned indicated that he was not going to be the first to speak, and Yan Ming and Nalan Caihuan weren't displaying any intention of speaking, either.

Some of the more fretful administrators in the room were already beginning to sweat a little.

Did they gather us here to kill us all?

Some of the administrators were carefully looking at the two vacant main seats in the room, while some others were observing the young man.

One of them just so happened to meet the young man's gaze, and the latter flashed him a faint smile. The administrator was able to muster up a smile of his own in response, but it was clearly rather forced.

After allowing the tension in the room to marinate for a moment longer, the young man finally broke the silence, making his way toward one of the main seats in the room as he smiled and said, "Now that everyone's here, let's begin."

All of the sword immortals immediately sat up straight in their chairs, and as the young man arrived at the main seat on the right-hand side of the eight immortals table, Mi Yu stood up from his chair, followed by all of the other sword immortals, as well as Yan Ming and Nalan Caihuan.

All of the intercontinental ship administrators hurriedly rose to their feet as well, and those among them who were just a little too slow to stand up wanted to slap themselves for their slow reactions. They still had no idea what was going to happen, but they were certainly feeling thoroughly intimidated at this point.

Only after the young man had taken a seat did all of the sword immortals sit down.

The young man extended a finger and gently tapped the surface of the eight immortals table, causing the jade tablet on the table to flip itself over and reveal the words "Hidden Official" engraved on its surface.

The entire hall was deathly silent.

All of the intercontinental ship administrators were aware of the significance of the jade tablet, and they were waiting with bated breath to see what would come next.

The young man's identity was finally revealed as he smiled and declared, "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Chen Ping'an, the newly appointed Hidden Official of the Sword Qi Great Wall."