The old scholar tapped his toes, leaping across eight hundred li of mountains and rivers, and landed gracefully where Chen Pingan had handed over the sword. He began to stroll, raising his arm, his fingers bent, seemingly casually tapping, as if knocking on a door, but received no response. The old scholar withdrew his hand and said helplessly, “So uncouth, this behavior is no different than setting up a tent in someone else’s house. Fine, fine, I’ll just wait.”

The old scholar began to patiently wait for the sword spirit to appear. During the long wait, the old man stood in place, contemplating a difficult problem, showing no sign of anxiety.

A subtle ripple appeared in the air, and a tall woman grabbed Chen Pingan’s shoulder, stepping out from the ethereal void.

The old scholar came back to his senses, and the first thing he said was, “I concede, I won’t fight. Anyway, whether the remaining two swords are used or not is no longer important, right?”

The sword spirit smiled noncommittally, “Then what about your two provocations? How do we settle those?”

The old man laughed heartily, “Things don’t go beyond three, right?”

She looked towards Mount Sui, “The new Mount Sui Great God? How long has he held this divine position?”

The old scholar replied, “Exactly six thousand years. For the previous three thousand years, it was a chaotic mess of musical chairs, with a complete loss of majesty. Mount Sui, this Eastern Peak, changed owners three times. At its most chaotic, a branch of power considered a demonic sect directly took over, a truly chaotic situation of collapsed etiquette. The current Mount Sui Great God has been able to sit firmly for six thousand years, although there’s an element of luck, it’s mostly due to his personal terrifying combat power. His fist is hard enough, and he’s got nothing to lose, who wouldn’t be wary?”

The sword spirit sneered, “Collapsed etiquette and music? Is it your three religions dividing the spoils unevenly? Or is it an internal confrontation between good and evil in the Vast World? Where is that Sage of Rites? With his temper, how could he stand idly by?”

The old scholar sighed, “It’s a long story, best not to mention it.”

The tall woman clasped her hands behind her back, her expression even more contemptuous, “The overall situation is settled, so naturally there will be infighting. Haha, what a great Dao contention, a hundred schools of thought contending. It was lively, but what was the result? Has the world really become better?”

The old scholar glanced at the white-clothed sword spirit, and said directly, “The internal affairs of the Confucian Dao lineage are naturally not spotless, not everyone is a benevolent gentleman, but our Confucian sages have devoted countless efforts to it, saying they’ve poured out their hearts and souls would not be an exaggeration. Therefore, it has always been rooted in righteousness. You must not deny it with a single statement.”

The sword spirit said playfully, “Does this count as the third time?”

The previously rather mischievous old scholar was unyielding at this moment, and said calmly, “On this matter, if you feel it’s wrong, I can discuss principles with you for hundreds or thousands of years. You can use your sword to explain your principles as well.”

She carefully sized up the not-so-tall, thin old man, “You’ve truly scattered your sage’s fortune, leaving only your soul, and using this world’s mortal realm as a parasitic host?”

The old scholar was silent for a moment, “Yes.”

She put away the killing intent that arose spontaneously, her expression complex, “For so many years, only you two have done it, but I’m very curious. Are you endorsing that guy’s choice? Or is it out of necessity? The former is probably extremely small, involving your Great Dao. I estimate that the old fogeys within the Confucian Dao lineage, even if this isn’t a pleasant task, would never let you succeed.”

The old scholar said calmly, “When you see a worthy person, think of equaling him; that’s a matter of course.”

She pondered for a moment, then turned her head to look at Chen Pingan and smiled, “Not only has the original intention been achieved, but it has far exceeded expectations. For the sake of you making this choice, and of course mainly for the sake of my master, should we keep the remaining two swords in reserve? Maybe someday I’ll suddenly dislike you again, then we’ll settle the old and new scores together.”

The old scholar, whose face had been tense, instantly broke down, slapped his thigh, and laughed, “Keep them in reserve, keep them in reserve, keeping them in reserve is good. Common people like to do this on New Year’s Eve, leaving a little food in the bowl, intentionally keeping it for the next year. It’s a good omen, a good meaning.”

The old man looked like he was happily escaping a calamity.

The sword spirit didn’t care about this, and said coldly, “Open the door.”

The old man flicked his sleeve and strode ahead, saying loudly, “Laughing loudly, I go out the door!”

Chen Pingan remembered something and asked in a low voice, “Was my sword strike very bad at the time? That mountain didn’t seem to move at all. The old senior said before that the quality of sword talent depends on how many characters you can receive. Although I wasn’t willing to accept them, they weren’t willing to get close to me either. Doesn’t this mean that my sword talent is as ordinary as my fist skills?”

Chen Pingan became more and more upset as he spoke, “The old senior also said that if I was a drag, even if I had a tenth-realm cultivation at the time, that sword strike would only have the effect of a seventh or eighth realm.”

Grandiose words can be spoken at will, but the difficulty in the world lies in needing to walk step by step.

Chen Pingan, a mud-legged fellow from Mud Bottle Lane, understood this principle too well.

The sword spirit reached out and pinched the young man’s cheeks, smiling, “You’ll know later.”

Chen Pingan blushed and stopped talking.

She was already of one mind with the young man, took his hand, and slowly walked towards the door of the landscape painting, softly saying, “Master, I know, I definitely won’t be so presumptuous in front of a certain girl in the future, lest she be wronged and think of you as a fickle rogue.”

The young man smiled brightly, both relieved and happy to have become close friends with her.

The tall woman suddenly turned her head, somewhat resentful, “But aren’t you afraid that the Immortal Sister will feel wronged?”

The young man thought for a while and said seriously, “I will say sorry to you, but some things, I think, should be that way.”

She looked worried, with a hint of tears in her eyes.

Although Chen Pingan was somewhat at a loss, his eyes were firm, and he pursed his lips, unwilling to change his original intention because of this.

The sword spirit suddenly smiled happily, gave the young man a thumbs up, and praised, “Handsome!”

Chen Pingan asked timidly, “Are you really not angry?”

She took the young man’s hand, stopped, stood at the door, suddenly bent down and hugged the young man. Her face was filled with a warm smile, like someone who loved to sleep in, hiding in a warm quilt on a cold winter day, sleeping soundly. The feeling of happiness was indescribable. She didn’t care what Chen Pingan felt, and said happily, “Yayaya, my little Pingan, is so cute!”

The young man was instantly struck by lightning, motionless, his mind blank, thinking of nothing.

Immortal Sister.

Immortal was just the first impression, in fact, sister was Chen Pingan’s feeling from the bottom of his heart.

She finally let go of Chen Pingan, stood up straight and turned to look. There was an elusive old fellow, the landscape painter, standing with his back to the two of them, coughing, “Do not look at what is improper. Don’t worry, I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything. I just forgot something earlier and had to return to retrieve it.”

The tall woman in a good mood was too lazy to care about these things.

Etiquette, morality, cause and effect?

These extremely broad, high, and distant things had never bound her.

On the Great Dao, there once was someone who had nothing but a sword to walk straight.

Whenever there was an obstacle, a sword opened the way.

Whenever there was injustice, a sword would level it.

After ten thousand years of silence, she finally found another person.

Two people, vastly different.

But she wasn’t disappointed.

If she initially believed in Qi Jingchun, chose to believe in a sliver of hope, and bet on a slim chance of “what if.” Then even if Qi Jingchun came back to life, said he was wrong, you shouldn’t have chosen that young man, no matter how reasonable he was, she wouldn’t listen.

She let go of his hand, signaling Chen Pingan to go first.

The young man took the lead and walked out of the door.

The sword spirit looked at the young man’s still-weak shoulders, and followed closely behind.

Everyone has a state of mind, which Qi cultivators call the dantian, and ordinary people call the heart.

The heart lake is just one of them.

At that time, she stood above the young man’s heart lake, looking around, it was a vast expanse of white, clean.

Then she saw a scene that was finally not so monotonous, and found the “true nature of the heart mirror” that the young man himself was not aware of.

It was a lonely child of four or five years old, curled up on the ground, hugging his knees, all alone, with a pair of small straw sandals beside him, often sitting there in a daze.

Beside this child was a small grave without a tombstone.

Near the small grave, there were two even smaller “small mounds”, shaped like mountains.

Whenever the child had rested enough, he would put on his small straw sandals and run far away, to carry a small mountain back to the grave, very laboriously, only being able to move a small distance each time.

When running to carry the mountain, the child had a small seal hanging around his waist, and wore a small bamboo hat.

The small seal would sway with the child’s footsteps.

Strangely, there was no mirror image of the Mud Bottle Lane ancestral house.

Probably in the depths of the child’s heart, after his parents died, there was no home, so he always insisted on guarding the small grave.

The child’s face was stubborn, habitually frowning, and pursing his lips.

But occasionally, this child would also smile, it must be something truly worth being happy about, such as he secretly telling the small grave, his lips moving slightly, no voice sounded in his mind, but the sword spirit who was of one mind with him naturally knew the content of the silent words.

“Mother, I met an Immortal Sister. When she smiles, she looks just like you.”

Except for carrying mountains “home”, the child rarely left the vicinity of the small grave, occasionally walking a distance to the south, as if holding the hand of a little girl, but after walking a distance, the child would still secretly look towards the grave, seemingly reluctant to leave.

But only in one situation would the child run far, far away, always raising his little head high, focusing on looking at the sky, as if chasing someone who was leaving him in the air.

Inside the landscape painting, the old scholar looked solemn.

“There’s a chance that the student surpasses the teacher.”

The old man nodded, “Great good.”

The old man was silent for a long time, and found that the whole world was beginning to tremble slightly, and said helplessly, “You have so much patience with that kid, can’t you be a little patient with us? Oh right, you can even smile now, if the rumors passed down from the ancient sword immortals are true, if those big shots who were cut half to death by you back then saw you like this, wouldn’t their eyes pop out of their heads?”

The old scholar looked at the sky of this small world, as if his vision penetrated the layers of sky, and suddenly mocked himself, “Heaven operates vigorously, a gentleman strives for self-improvement. That’s so well said, it won’t be wrong even after ten thousand years. No wonder our Confucian ancestors asked you for knowledge back then. It seems that we scholars not only started talking about principles later, but we also haven’t finished talking about them thoroughly.”