Though there was no need to visit relatives, spending the entire Lunar New Year in the desolate Falling Mountain was not ideal. Thus, Chen Pingan led the two little ones out of the mountains and back to the bustling town, which had become as lively as any prefecture city in the Yellow Court Kingdom. However, without the Iron Lock Well that lacked its iron chains, the Old Street devoid of the old locust tree, and the study hall missing Mister Qi, no matter how vibrant the atmosphere, no matter how strong the festive spirit, Chen Pingan still felt a sense of loss.

As they approached the alley, the azure-clad boy grumbled, “Master, if I run into a fierce brute on the way to Mud Bottle Alley, the kind that could kill me with a single punch, and I’m not kidding, I swear I’ll never come down the mountain to the old house again! Don’t blame me for being disloyal then.”

As it turned out, just as they reached the entrance to Mud Bottle Alley, Chen Pingan saw a familiar figure. Slender and graceful, she resembled a tender willow branch in the spring breeze. Her hands were carrying a water bucket, presumably returning from the well near Apricot Blossom Lane. Seeming to struggle, she simply dropped the bucket. The girl then bent over, gasping for breath. The bucket crashed to the ground, splashing a great deal of water, but the girl did not seem to mind the mess.

It was Song Jixin’s maid, Zhi Gui, or rather, Wang Zhu.

Regarding the matter of becoming a maidservant, whether it was to him or to the next-door neighbor Song Jixin, Chen Pingan did not resent the girl. After all, the books say, “A good bird chooses the tree to perch on.”

That snowy night, the girl lay dying in the snow, using her last strength to gently knock on his door.

Whether to save her or not was Chen Pingan’s own choice. Whether others would repay the kindness was their own affair.

However, this reunion came much sooner than he had imagined. Chen Pingan’s feelings were mixed.

Zhi Gui also saw Chen Pingan, wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. She looked at Chen Pingan, who still wore straw sandals, but now sported a hairpin in his hair. He seemed to have grown taller. No longer walking alone in misery, he was accompanied by two little oil bottles.

The girl said nothing.

Chen Pingan was about to greet her when he noticed the azure-clad boy clutching his arm tightly, preventing him from moving forward. Not only him, but the pink-skirted girl was also hiding behind him, clutching his sleeve tightly. Both little ones were chattering their teeth, afraid to breathe.

It was as if timid mortals, who feared ghosts more than anything, had actually seen a ghost in broad daylight.

The azure-clad boy regretted his words, wishing he could slap himself for his loose tongue!

The pink-skirted girl whimpered softly behind Chen Pingan, “Master, I’m scared, more scared than death.”

Chen Pingan sighed, “Then go explore elsewhere in town. Perhaps you could keep an eye on the business at our shop in Riding Dragon Lane. I’ll find you later.”

The two little ones were as if granted amnesty, fleeing in a flash.

Chen Pingan walked alone towards Mud Bottle Alley, just like the countless times before. The young man picked up the girl’s water bucket and walked into the alley together.

Zhi Gui asked, “Those two, are they your newly acquired page and maidservant?”

Chen Pingan smiled, “Do I look like the kind of person to have servants? They’re just joking around.”

Zhi Gui said “Oh”.

As they passed the Cao family’s ancestral home, the courtyard door was wide open. The elder Cao Xi was squatting at the entrance, cracking melon seeds, while the younger Cao Jun was squatting on the wall, also cracking melon seeds.

Clearly, they were there to watch the spectacle.

Cao Xi chuckled, “Little aunt, is this your young lover? All lovey-dovey so early in the morning, making us two old codgers, Cao Xi and Cao Jun, quite envious.”

Cao Jun, who liked to squint, still had his usual smile, with the long and short swords hanging at his waist. He nodded, “Envious, envious.”

Zhi Gui snorted, “The upper beam is not straight, the lower beam is crooked! No wonder the ancestral home is collapsing.”

Cao Xi, the dignified Land Sword Immortal of Southern Jambudvipa, half-owner of a Sea-Suppressing Tower, was not annoyed in the slightest. Instead, his smile deepened. “Little aunt is right to reprimand us. I just don’t understand why, after all these years, none of the incense figurines of our old Cao family have appeared. Logically, with my success in Jambudvipa, this place should be a scene of glory and brilliance, so why has our family fallen into such a state?”

Zhi Gui stopped walking and turned to look at Cao Xi, her smile innocent and pure. “Heaven’s sins can be forgiven, but self-inflicted sins cannot be endured. Could it be that someone ate your family’s incense figurines? Besides, magical arts are forbidden in this town. Wanting to nurture an incense figurine based on ancestral blessings is harder than ascending to heaven. Maybe your Cao family never had incense figurines to begin with, right?”

Cao Xi laughed heartily, “That makes sense, that makes sense. Little aunt, walk carefully, the alley is old and broken, be careful not to sprain your ankle.”

Zhi Gui, with her back to the old turtle, had a gloomy expression.

From beginning to end, Chen Pingan remained silent.

Cao Jun asked with a smile, “Old Cao, what’s going on? With your achievements in Jambudvipa, the number of incense figurines you have should be enough to fill the lintel and plaque, right?”

Cao Xi didn’t seem to mind. “It’s one thing that it’s difficult to produce incense figurines in Carp Leaping Grotto-Heaven, she’s not lying. But with the achievements of me and Xie Shi, there should still be one or two left. For example, the Xie family in Peach Leaf Alley relied on a pair of incense figurines to maintain their family style for hundreds of years, barely preserving their ancestral lineage. Otherwise, they would have died out just like this broken house of ours.”

Cao Jun clicked his tongue. “Did that girl destroy them? Then why are you still so amiable? You wouldn’t want to sleep with her, would you?”

A fiery red fox jumped from the rooftop onto Cao Jun’s head, giggling. “Sleep with her? Old Cao doesn’t have the guts. That girl is now the center of attention. Even if Old Cao were a realm higher, he wouldn’t dare to lay a finger on her. At most, he’d just flirt a little. Silver spear with a wax head, good-looking but useless.”

Cao Xi turned his head and smiled, “Get away, you smell like a fox, preventing me from fully breathing in the air of my hometown.”

The fox standing on Cao Jun’s head stretched out a paw, pointed to its feet, and didn’t forget to stomp hard. “Come on, come on, if you have the guts, use the natal sword on your wrist and chop me! If you, Cao Xi, don’t chop, you’re my grandson. Just chop me to death, and if I dodge, I’m your granddaughter!”

Cao Jun shook his head, not throwing the fox off. He said helplessly, “You two are just having a spat, can you not involve me? To be fair, Old Cao only took his thirty-eighth concubine. If you really can’t stand the anger, just skin her and use it as your new dress. You’ve done this before, so why do you have to take it out on me?”
The fiery red fox snorted derisively, “That old codger just likes ’em big-bottomed and round-hipped, hasn’t improved a whit after all these years, truly disgusting.”

Cao Xi resettled himself on the large threshold, cracking melon seeds, “I’d not trade my preferences for all the gold in the world. Oh, right, you sultry vixen, I’ll offer you some melon seeds during the New Year.”

*Bang!*

The fiery red fox exploded atop Cao Jun’s head, then reappeared in its true form on the roof, only to explode again in an instant. This repeated itself, from the ridge of the Cao family’s old house to the neighbor’s, extending all the way out of Mud Bottle Lane before the fiery red fox finally escaped disaster. Its eyes, once bright, were now dim. Gritting its teeth, it sat cross-legged on a turned-up eave, starting its breathing exercises.

Cao Xi, having run out of melon seeds, dusted his hands and stood up, walking back into the courtyard. He instructed Cao Jun, “Be careful in the near future. The Great Li Dynasty is now a fiercely contested territory, not as simple as you think.”

Cao Jun drawled, “Got it.”

“‘Got, it’?”

Cao Xi dissected the words, then sneered, “Those three words are not something you’re qualified to utter.”

Cao Jun said flippantly, “Understood, then.”

Cao Xi strode into the house, muttering hatefully, “A Ninth Realm good-for-nothing!”

Cao Jun remained unfazed.

Chen Ping’an arrived at the neighboring courtyard gate, returning the water bucket to the girl. He casually asked, “Has Song Jixin not returned?”

She answered irrelevantly, “Where are my hen and chicks?”

Chen Ping’an looked blank, “I don’t know.”

The girl scrutinized the youth. Suddenly, she smiled brilliantly, ceasing her persistent questioning, but she held up two fingers, indicating a height, “Now Song Mu is this much taller than you.”

Chen Ping’an simply said “Oh” and turned to walk back to his own courtyard.

As Chen Ping’an unlocked his gate and entered, he abruptly noticed that the upside-down “Good Fortune” character above his door was missing. Enraged, he immediately walked over to the courtyard wall, “Zhigui, where’s my Good Fortune character?!”

Then he chuckled with bitter amusement. It turned out that the Good Fortune character was pasted on the neighboring door.

What a bold thief!

The girl, having placed the water bucket in the kitchen, sauntered out, wearing an innocent expression, “I don’t know.”

Identical to the answer Chen Ping’an had given earlier.

Chen Ping’an fumed, “Give it back!”

Zhigui widened her eyes, “Then I also intentionally left the wooden figure in the kitchen. You clearly touched it, and I didn’t say a thing.”

Chen Ping’an was momentarily speechless, feeling somewhat at fault.

Zhigui suddenly asked, “At Qi Jing… at Master Qi’s academy, did you paste Spring Festival couplets?”

Chen Ping’an paused, then nodded, “I did, both the couplets and the Good Fortune characters.”

Unwilling to continue arguing with her, Chen Ping’an went into the house, took out the last remaining Good Fortune character, set up a ladder, and pasted a new upside-down Good Fortune character.

The girl stood by the courtyard wall, reminding him, “It’s crooked.”

Chen Ping’an remained unmoved, gently pressing the red paper and paste with his fingers.

The girl said anxiously, “Really, what would I gain by lying to you? You, Chen Ping’an, you don’t know what’s good for you. If the Good Fortune character is pasted crookedly, it’s unlucky.”

Chen Ping’an climbed down the ladder and looked up, confirming that it wasn’t crooked.

The girl continued to chatter, “It’s really crooked. If you let Cao Xi and those other cultivators look, they’ll know I’m not lying to you. You’re just a mortal with limited eyesight, not as good as ours.”

Chen Ping’an went into the house and slammed the door shut.

About the time it takes to burn an incense stick later, the youth cautiously opened the door, tiptoed across the threshold, and stared intently at the Good Fortune character.

It wasn’t crooked.

Zhigui mysteriously opened a crack in her door, poked out her head, and said with a straight face, “It’s really crooked.”

Chen Ping’an felt somewhat wronged. He dragged a bench to the doorway to bask in the sun, and after a while, he began practicing clay pulling.

Zhigui stood by the courtyard wall, watching the youth who no longer fired porcelain. After a while, she became bored and went back to her house to sleep.

Lying in bed, she swallowed, in the Cao family ancestral home, only one incense figurine was born, its quality very high, golden, with only a tiny bit of flaw, it was almost completely golden, but unfortunately, it was not enough to satisfy her appetite.

Next door, Chen Ping’an practiced clay pulling with practiced skill, his mind as still as water.

During a break, Chen Ping’an began planning for his future. Baozhu Mountain, Colorful Cloud Peak, and Immortal Herb Mountain were all near Ruan Qiong’s family mountain. According to the agreement, they would be leased to Ruan Qiong for free. Connected together, they would help Ruan Qiong occupy the largest piece of land in the west. In return, Ruan Qiong would help Chen Ping’an take care of five mountains, preventing Chen Ping’an from having the life and money but not the good fortune to spend it. Chen Ping’an felt grateful to Ruan Qiong for this matter.

True Pearl Mountain was not worth mentioning. Such a small place was like asking a clever woman to cook without rice. Building a blessed land of immortals was impossible; at most, he could build a thatched hut on top. It was estimated that only Chen Ping’an would be willing to spend a golden essence copper coin on it.

However, the management of Decline Mountain needed careful consideration.

Chen Ping’an was well aware of the unusual nature of the bamboo building. Decline Mountain also had a mountain god temple to guard its mountains and waters, making it a genuine feng shui treasure land. Moreover, there was a black snake aiming to transform into a dragon, fulfilling the duty of guarding the home. Now, with the addition of two little dragon-like creatures, he thought about exchanging ordinary snake gallstones for silver with the green-robed child. Not to turn Decline Mountain into a treasure trove, but at least to have some hope of supplementing his household expenses in the future.

Chen Ping’an loved money because he had known the difficulty of earning it since childhood, but it didn’t mean that Chen Ping’an would cling tightly to his purse after he had money.

He needed to practice the sword, but before determining how to practice it, there was no use in being anxious.

Of course, he needed to continue diligently practicing the Mountain Shaking Fist since he was far from the promised million punches.

Drawing talismans was essentially another form of martial arts cultivation. The former focused on physical training, while the latter leaned towards the internal tempering of the qi mansion and acupoints. The two did not conflict but were complementary. Chen Ping’an was simply allocating part of his time for walking and standing stances to drawing talismans. However, drawing talismans required talisman paper, and talisman paper was real silver, which made Chen Ping’an inevitably feel a little apprehensive and hesitant.

In the end, he still wasn’t earning enough money.
Besides these things, the greatest regret in Chen Ping’an’s heart at the moment was his temporary inability to control the square-inch treasure bestowed by the sword spirit. Although he was confident in leaving most of his possessions at the blacksmith’s shop, it was ultimately inconvenient. Cui Dongshan’s and the azure-clad boy’s miniature artifacts had shown Chen Ping’an the precious practicality of such treasures, no wonder even the immortals on the mountains didn’t all possess them.

Chen Ping’an looked towards the south, wondering how Master Ruan’s sword forging was progressing.

Ruan Qiong had promised Miss Ning to help her forge a divine weapon.

If he succeeded one day, she would have a handy sword, and he himself would have a locust wood sword.

Chen Ping’an thought it would be excellent to name them “Subduer of Demons” and “Exterminator of Evildoers.”

Adding to that sword embryo, although Master Wen Sheng had said it should be called “Little Fengdu,” Chen Ping’an felt it more appropriate to rename it “First Day” or “Morning,” after all, it had come into this world as a flying sword on the very first morning of the new year.

As soon as this thought arose in Chen Ping’an’s mind, the sword embryo, which had been silent for so long in his Qi Sea, immediately began to stir up trouble.

In an instant, Chen Ping’an’s face turned completely red, and he began to suffer.

Chen Ping’an took a deep breath. Unable to retreat indoors, he had no choice but to use the sword furnace stance to cope with the sword embryo’s swift retaliation.

It was a torment beyond words.

At the post station closest to the town, Cui Chan, the Grand Li Dynasty’s Imperial Advisor, had been staying recently, neither making a grand announcement nor deliberately concealing his movements.

Today, the Imperial Advisor left the post station, not allowing the swordsman Xu Ruo to follow, and traveled alone.

With each step Cui Chan took, he covered three or four miles. Finally, he stood in the middle of a narrow path, blocking a ragged old man.

The disheveled, barefoot old man stared blankly at the Grand Li Imperial Advisor in his Confucian robe. His vision was cloudy, and he was still not fully lucid. The old man only relied on the last bit of his intuition to ask a strange question, “You are not my grandson, where is my grandson?”

Cui Chan’s eyes were complex, and he hesitated to speak.

The old man, covered in grass clippings and mud, continued to ask, “Where is my grandson? I don’t want to see you, I want to see my grandson.”

Cui Chan clasped his hands behind his back, his fingers intertwined, trembling slightly.

The delirious barefoot old man suddenly shouted angrily, “Where is my grandson?! Where did you hide him! Quickly return my Chan’er to me!”

Having said this, the old man’s momentum suddenly plummeted, and he murmured, “I want to change my grandson’s name, change it to a better name…”

Cui Chan’s expression was sorrowful, and he mocked himself, “It’s like a lifetime ago, no, it clearly is.”

The old man in tattered clothes reached out and pushed Cui Chan’s shoulder away, walking straight ahead, “Get out of the way, don’t delay me from finding Chan’er. I want to find his teacher, to ask him if the new name I chose is good or not.”

Cui Chan stood still, not blocking him.

Cui Chan looked into the distance, where a middle-aged monk with a resolute face was slowly approaching.

An ascetic monk measures heaven and earth with his feet, a Buddhist practitioner.