Chapter 655 (3): No One at the Pinnacle

Gu Can and Liu Chicheng traveled north with Chai Bofu, who had fallen two cultivation bases in quick succession.

Sure enough, Liu Chicheng stopped at the border of the two continents as he had said he would do.

Gu Can continued on by himself.

Liu Chicheng and Brother Dragon Uncle leisurely wandered around a flourishing provincial city. The former wanted to look at the beautiful women outside the mountains, while the white-haired Chai Bofu didn't even have the energy to maintain his illusion technique. He could only focus on treating his wounds the entire time.

This couldn't be helped. He had accidentally misspoken just then, inviting another smack from Liu Chicheng and almost falling further from the Dragon Gate Tier to the Sea Observation Tier. In addition, Gu Can had still been traveling with them at the time, and the young man had seemingly been prepared to dig a trap and screw him over at any moment.

Previously a powerful vagrant cultivator at the peak stage of the Nascent Tier, one who had exchanged blows with many immortals standing at the pinnacle of the mountains in the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, Chai Bofu had seemingly been taken back to the past, when he had suffered great misery as a Lower Five Tier vagrant cultivator.

When returning to the immortal inn together, the swaggering Liu Chicheng suddenly looked like he had been struck by a bolt of lightning.

He told Chai Bofu to fuck off somewhere else.

Chai Bofu swallowed his pride and endured this humiliation, immediately walking away to stroll around the streets. He didn't even dare to return to the immortal inn.

Liu Chicheng surprisingly put away the pink Daoist robe, only daring to wear the Confucian robes of this body's proper owner as he lightly knocked on a door.

The two people playing Go in the courtyard ignored him.

Liu Chicheng mustered his courage and opened the door, silently walking over to stand behind the man in white. He looked down and kept quiet.

The person sitting on the other side of the Go board was an old Confucian scholar dressed in azure and wearing a solemn expression.

The man in white smiled and said, "You made a decent move, Cui Chan. I won't blame you for interfering and helping that trash escape from danger if Gu Can can become my disciple. I'll further agree to your request if Gu Can can become my junior brother instead."

"It's a deal," Cui Chan said with a nod.

Cui Chan had the first move, yet the stone remained in his hand the entire time, leaving the Go board strikingly bare.

Liu Chicheng held his breath in tense apprehension.

The man in white didn't so much as glance at the Go board as he smiled faintly and said, "You found a good talent for White Emperor City, and you even helped your senior brother find someone to play Go with. How should I thank you? No wonder Master told me back then that he took you as a disciple because of your ability to stir up trouble, making things less boring for me."

Liu Chicheng felt slightly parched, with his expression also becoming stiff.

The man in white stood up and continued, "There's no need to continue this game of Go anymore. It's a crappy situation where the capable should shoulder more responsibilities to begin with, so don't try to drag me into your mess beyond this Go board. The Great Li Empire won't be able to withstand the consequences."

Cui Chan sighed and returned the Go stone to its container, standing up and saying, "Then I won't see you off."

The man in white nodded in response before disappearing with a flash.

Liu Chicheng wiped the sweat off his forehead.

Cui Chan put the Go board and Go containers away, glancing at Liu Chicheng and saying with a smile, "Even I must admit inferiority to you regarding the ability to seek death."

Liu Chicheng smiled bitterly and replied, "Who knew I would encounter so many 'what ifs' in a row?"

"It wasn't that many — it was only three," Cui Chan replied with a smile.

Liu Chicheng truly felt helpless.

"There's no need to die if you're already dead. There's even less need to worry about surprises," Cui Chan continued in a seemingly casual voice.

Liu Chicheng bowed in respect and said, "Congratulations on breaking through, Imperial Preceptor."

"Wishing an old man at ninety-nine years of age a long life until one hundred years old is also an act of courting death, no?" Cui Chan asked.

Liu Chicheng started to act shamelessly, replying, "My senior brother is present, so I don't need to be afraid of anything."

"I only need to say one particular thing to have your senior brother kill you," Cui Chan said.

Liu Chicheng immediately bowed again, saying in a pitiful voice, "Imperial Preceptor, I beseech you to please speak the principles and reasons of scholars. I'm willing to listen to these things now."

"Then listen to this suggestion of mine," Cui Chan said, "After Gu Can arrives at White Emperor City, you only need to protect him and prevent him from dying no matter what happens. Don't do nothing, but don't do too much either."

Liu Chicheng wanted to learn a few more secrets from this genuinely mighty figure, but Cui Chan had already disappeared from the courtyard.

He sighed with emotion.

————

Located in the capital of the Great Li Empire, the former site of Mountain Cliff Academy had already been sealed off by the imperial court for many years. The area was desolate, and foxes and rabbits jumped through the overgrown grass.

A ray of snow-white light descended from the sky, brilliant and unconcealed as it completely ignored the large formation surrounding the capital of the Great Li Empire. In fact, it seemingly ignored the Confucian sage overseeing this region of the skies as well.

The man in white glanced at the restless replica White Jade Capital after arriving, but as if receiving a last-minute secret imperial edict, the whirring White Jade Capital immediately deactivated and quickly fell silent.

This man wasn't too fond of leaving White Emperor City, and he slowly walked forward as he sighed and remarked, "A stalk of grain grows among flowers, plucked and thrown away like weeds."[1]

Before Gu Can returned to his hometown, two other pairs of master and maidservant also arrived in the small town. Three of the four people were returning home as well.

There was Clay Vase Alley's Feudal Lord Song Jixin and Maidservant Zhi Gui.

There was also Apricot Blossom Alley's Ma Kuxuan.

As for Shudian, Ma Kuxuan's maidservant, she had appeared very extra and unnecessary during their trip back.

Meanwhile, Song Jixin had also been deeply disgusted by Ma Kuxuan, who had traveled alongside him under the pretext of offering him protection.

The intercontinental ship docked at Ox Horn Mountain's ferry station.

Ma Kuxuan and Shudian made their way to the river god temple of the Dragon Whisker River.

Song He and Zhi Gui went to Clay Vase Alley.

Night arrived, and Zhi Gui left the residence by herself, glancing at the tidy courtyard next door and the spring couplets and fortune characters on the front door. She held the hems of her dress and left the small alley.

After Zhi Gui left, Song Jixin carried a small stool into the courtyard in the dead of night. However, he didn't sit down, and he stood beside the yellow clay wall that appeared to be growing shorter and shorter. He looked into his neighbor's courtyard.

Zhi Gui first went to the Iron Lock Well, cupping some water in her hand and weighing it before pouring it back into the dark well.

She then walked out of the small town and arrived near Li Huai's house, frowning deeply as she looked at the small mountain called True Jewel Mountain. ⅇ

Buried there was the body of the True Dragon that the sages of the Three Teachings had refined and suppressed.

True Jewel Mountain... Jewel, a character composed of the characters Wang Zhu. True Jewel, the place where Wang Zhu's true body was located.[2]

Wang Zhu's current physique was formed from the jewel of a True Dragon, and it couldn't be regarded as her true body. She needed someone to figuratively "draw the eyes of the dragon" before she could rightfully retrieve her true body.

Only then could she return to her previous status as a legitimate True Dragon, and at that time, the fortune of the Great Dao relating to flood dragons and their kin would all funnel toward her! Breaking through the barrier of the Nascent Tier would be nothing, and it wouldn't be difficult for her to break through the barrier of the Unpolished Jade Tier as well. And once she stabilized her Immortal Tier cultivation base, she would possess the combat power of at least half an Ascension Tier immortal.

The person holding the calligraphy brush and able to draw the eyes of the dragon was the bumpkin from Clay Vase Alley who had signed a contract with her in the past. After leaving the Iron Lock Well, the first person that Zhi Gui had seen when walking through the bone-chilling winter snow was Chen Ping'an.

Chen Ping'an's soul had been too frail at the time, however, and the fortune he possessed had also been shockingly meager. Zhi Gui hadn't wanted to be dragged down by him, so she had chosen instead to become a so-called maidservant of Song Jixin, the prince of the Great Li Empire living next door.

Afterward, Song Jixin had tossed the four-legged snake next door, yet the little creature had insisted on scurrying back. Why had it refused to stay at Chen Ping'an's residence despite being treated so poorly?

The small catfish had also been one of the five fated opportunities of the Great Dao, and Chen Ping'an had given it to Gu Can. Not only had Gu Can accepted this small catfish, but he had even managed to hold onto it without any issues.

Song Jixin had tossed the four-legged snake away several times, so theoretically speaking, it should have ended up becoming a fated opportunity for Chen Ping'an.

However, did the four-legged snake with horns on its head dare to share the same status as Wang Zhu?! Did it dare to copy Wang Zhu and recognize Chen Ping'an as its owner?!

Wang Zhu had become Song Jixin's maidservant, but this was nothing more than a concealment technique employed by her. There was also great significance behind Song Jixin changing her name to Zhi Gui.

The characters "Zhi Gui" had originally belonged to Kiln Supervision Official Song Yuzhang, and it was actually Cui Chan who had given these two characters to him. Afterward, they had been "coincidentally" seen by Song Jixin, and he had subconsciously remembered them, with the two characters continuing to reverberate in his mind. And finally, he had decided to change Wang Zhu's name to Zhi Gui.

Furthermore, the characters Zhi Gui had an intimate relationship with the idiom, stealing light by chiseling a hole in the wall.[3]

Meanwhile, the plaque reading "Farkeep Hall," hung in the main hall of Song Jixin's residence, was personally composed by the former emperor of the Great Li Empire.

Everything had its significance.

Thus, Zhi Gui had been able to slowly absorb the Dragon Qi of the Great Li Empire's Imperial Song Clan during that period of time.

Taking this into account, it wasn't without reason that Song Jixin had failed to ascend the throne, only becoming a feudal lord instead.

This was the intangible and undetectable will of the heavens.

When Lu Chen had specifically visited Zhi Gui in Clay Vase Alley back then, this was also the reason why Zhi Gui had subconsciously mentioned Chen Ping'an instead of Song Jixin to use as a shield.

Zhi Gui stood still and silently stared at True Jewel Mountain for a very long time.

Song Jixin walked over and stood beside her.

Zhi Gui used her mind's lake to reveal these secrets.

It wouldn't be helpful to have these matters drag on any longer, or else it was entirely possible that she and Song Jixin would fall out and become enemies with each other.

Unexpectedly, Song Jixin smiled faintly and said, "I don't mind."

Wang Zhu blinked and said, "I don't mind either."

Song Jixin was rendered speechless, after which a subtle pain gripped at his heart.

————

In the fifth large world, the old scholar stood atop a sea of clouds, gazing at the magnificent mountains and rivers as he clicked his tongue in wonder and remarked, "When impoverished scholars move homes, moving books is like moving mountains. After all, books on shelves are a representation of wealth."

The scholar standing beside him was empty-handed, with no sword in his hand. This was because far away in the distance, at the center of this world, a column of sword light was holding up heaven and earth.

"Endless conflict and death are going to take place across these magnificent mountains and rivers," the scholar commented.

The old scholar smiled and said, "Sages live with things but do not harm them, and those who do not harm things cannot in turn be harmed by said things."[4]

The scholar shook his head. "This is the conduct of sages, but how many sages exist in the world?"

The old scholar also shook his head and said, "I see sages everywhere I look. From this, it can be seen that you're slightly better at fighting, but you have slightly inferior judgment skills."

The scholar was rendered speechless. They were the only two people in this world right now, so the old scholar's bold comment was technically true. Sure enough, he was the old scholar who liked to get cheap wins.

The old scholar had openly admitted this before, so it wasn't a case of other people slandering him.

The old scholar fell silent for a moment before suddenly regaining spirit and vigor and suggesting, "We have nothing better to do, so why don't I tell you more about my closing disciple?"

The scholar took a deep breath, fearful of the old scholar starting to ramble again. It genuinely wasn't the case that he had poor patience, but rather, it was impossible to endure the old scholar's frequent rambling of the same topics regardless of how patient one was. He turned around and asked in exasperation, "Can we not talk about this?"

There was a tragic look on the old scholar's face as he lamented, "What a huge pity!"

The scholar breathed a sigh of relief.

Even wielding his sword wasn't as tiring as listening to the old scholar's rambling.

"I won't talk about it, so how about you talk about it? This is a very novel idea!" the old scholar suddenly proposed.

1. This is a line from the poem Young Master's Home, composed by Nie Yizhong, a poet from the Tang Dynasty. This line describes a profligate young master treating a stalk of grain in his garden as a weed, symbolizing how the ruling class at the time was corrupt and out of touch with commoners, failing to understand the difficulty of production while flagrantly wasting resources. ☜

2. The Chinese character for "jewel" is 珠, which consists of the characters "Wang" (王) and "Zhu" (朱). ☜

3. This idiom means to study diligently in the face of hardship, describing how an impoverished person steals light to read at night. ☜

4. This is a line from Zhuangzi: Outer Chapters: Knowledge Rambling in the North. ☜