The two sides stood in opposition, only the Yao family’s iron cavalry had been replaced by a Chen Ping An descended from the heavens.

The swordsman softly said, “No hurry,” and the “attendant” patiently twirled his toes in the dirt, looking utterly bored.

The middle-aged swordsman, clad in plain white linen, had not a speck of blood upon him despite the desperate battle.

The man possessed handsome features, though his narrow eyes and thin lips lent him a somewhat sharp air. He carried no sword; his natal flying sword, the length of a swordsman’s blade, unleashed a fiery dragon when unsheathed, cleaving through the Yao family’s lances and spears as if they were tofu.

Beside him stood the burly “attendant,” a pure martial artist, clad in Divine Dew Armor.

Chen Ping An was no stranger to such military armor, having stripped it from the Grand Preceptor of the ancient Yu Kingdom. Later, he’d acquired a damaged suit of high quality in the Inverted Mountain, meticulously repaired by Lu Tai, though he’d yet to wear it, preferring his more precious Golden Liquid Dharma Robe.

Their coordination was seamless. The swordsman commanded his natal flying sword to slay the enemy, while the martial artist guarded his flank, preventing any stray members of the Yao family’s cavalry from engaging the swordsman in close combat, and shielding him from crossbow bolts and arrows. Several times, arrows rained down at treacherous angles, only for the martial artist to intercept them with his body, the impact merely sparking harmlessly on the white Divine Dew Armor. The spiritual energy expenditure was negligible, not even worth a single snowflake coin, while the assailants paid with their lives.

Wild cultivators of the mountains and marshes were notorious for seeking wealth in danger. At the slightest hint of opportunity, they would gamble everything. The moment ancient Immortal abodes, paradises, and fragmented pocket dimensions were unearthed, wild cultivators would swarm, battling fiercely for spiritual tools and treasures. What drove them? The thrill of crushing others, wielding powerful weapons to kill, or possessing protective treasures that rendered them invulnerable, leaving their opponents in despair.

The swordsman strolled through the battlefield with leisurely steps, his flying sword creating a hundred-foot radius of rainbow-like sword light, leaving trails of scarlet afterimages.

The martial artist was a constant shadow, vigilantly guarding the swordsman from all sides.

The middle-aged swordsman was as swift and decisive as his blade, wasting no movements.

The burly martial artist, however, was a different story. Naturally violent, he chafed at being unable to pursue the cavalry unhindered. Unsatisfied with merely protecting the swordsman, he would crush the heads of fallen Yao family riders, or stomp their chests into bloody pulp, blending flesh and shattered armor into a gruesome mess.

A man falling from the sky?

The middle-aged swordsman halted, eyeing the newcomer, and inquired with refined tongue, “Are you the new retainer of the Liu Clan of Great Spring?”

The Tongye Continent, a land of obstructed mountains and rivers, where every ten miles held a different accent and every hundred miles a different custom. Therefore, the upper echelons of various countries often mastered the Tongye refined tongue, especially officials of the Ministry of Rites.

The burly martial artist scoffed, “Why bother with words, Master? Just kill him. A martial artist below the seventh realm, but such a young prodigy is even more satisfying to kill.”

The swordsman smiled. “A large fish out of nowhere. Isn’t this what I desired?”

Although the swordsman stopped to speak with Chen Ping An, his flying sword hovered at the forefront of the Yao family cavalry’s escape route.

In this pursuit, aside from the initial ambush where they narrowly killed the Yao family cavalry’s accompanying cultivator, the swordsman had been primarily using his flying sword to target those attempting to break away from the outermost perimeter of the Yao family cavalry. Those attempting to flee first died first – that was his rule of engagement.

The old general, clad in armor indistinguishable from his soldiers, clutched his abdomen, blood seeping between his fingers. Despite his dire situation, the old general remained composed, showing no sign of dejection or cowardice. Even as his elite troops, his fine soldiers, fell around him, not returning home triumphant, not even dying valiantly on the border, but instead succumbing to a filthy political feud, his inner grief and sorrow did not manifest on his face.

Decades spent on the battlefield had inured him to life and death. Moreover, a general could not afford to be soft-hearted. Thus, this old general who wielded such authority in the southern border remained steadfast.

The remaining hundred or so Yao family cavalrymen stubbornly guarded the old general, showing no fear in the face of the assassins’ strength.

The Yao Clan’s military was governed by strict laws.

For example, Yao Clan descendants, legitimate or illegitimate, were taught archery and horsemanship from a young age. After the age of fifteen, they had to enlist in the army, starting as scouts. Countless Yao Clan men died in border conflicts.

As a result, the reputation of Yao Clan widows spread throughout the countries.

Chen Ping An did not turn to look at the cavalry, but instead asked the old general a strange question, “Is the general named Yao? Is your ancestry connected to the Yao Clan of the Great Li Dynasty in the northern Baoping Continent?”

The old general frowned. “The Great Li Dynasty? I’ve never heard of it.”

The old general hesitated slightly. “However, my Great Spring Yao Clan ancestors did come from the Baoping Continent. As for the exact location, our ancestors kept it a secret. When they commissioned the clan genealogy, they only mentioned the ‘Dragon Kiln’ as their origin, along with some local customs. They explicitly forbade future generations from seeking our roots in the Baoping Continent.”

Chen Ping An asked again, “Did your ancestors mention any street names, or… a large, shady willow tree?”

The old general dearly wanted to nod, perhaps to establish a connection with this strange man and gain a chance of survival. But his honest nature forbade such behavior. Besides, where would a descendant arbitrarily claim ties to their ancestors’ origin? He said in a deep voice, “They mentioned no street names, nor any willow tree. They only said that the locust flowers of their hometown tasted good, passed down through generations. Our ancestral home in the Great Spring Yao Clan has a thousand-year-old locust tree.”

Only then did Chen Ping An turn his head and nod to the old general with a smile. “I understand.”

The old general was even more puzzled. What exactly did you understand, child?
The sword cultivator seemed to be awaiting news, his gaze darting about. As if finally receiving the answer he sought, he jested, “Are you two finished with your chitchat? If so, let’s get down to business.”

Chen Pingan pressed his hands upon the hilts of the ‘Chixin’ sword and the ‘Tingxue’ saber, asking, “So, someone paid you to be assassins? And you accept money to resolve problems for others?”

The middle-aged sword cultivator replied with a helpless tone, “You talk too much.”

Chen Pingan chuckled, “It’s not often. You just happened to run into it.”

Amidst the Yao family’s iron cavalry was a young soldier, his face bearing a resemblance to the old general’s. He looked at the menacing, murderous sword cultivator, then at the young man in white robes, seemingly untouched by the carnage. The young border soldier’s mind was struggling to comprehend the situation.

A young, valiant general, two generations removed from the old general, finally found a chance to catch his breath and speak a few words to his lord. They had been fleeing for so long, forced to watch comrade after comrade die under the flying swords. The young general, barely of age, had a bloody gash carved into his face by a sword cultivator’s flying blade, the skin torn and raw. Yet, the young man paid it no mind, simply asking softly, “General, considering the sword cultivator’s displayed flying sword techniques, shouldn’t we have signaled Third Master and Ninth Mistress?”

The old man kept his gaze fixed on the wandering swordsman’s back. Hearing his confidant’s question, he coldly scoffed, “We are both the target and the bait.”

The young cavalry general, clearly a direct descendant of the Yao family’s iron cavalry, knew many secrets of the border army and the court. He cautiously inquired, “Then the court secretly dispatched most of our military cultivators to participate in the dispute between the Golden Canopy Lord and the Water God of Pine Needle Lake?”

The old general sighed quietly, “This can be considered a scheme in plain sight by those behind the scenes. It weakens the enemy to the south while also setting the stage for this attack. This is definitely not something the Fanlu Ma Clan could accomplish…”

Chen Pingan turned his head to ask, “May I ask General Yao, why are you being hunted by these two?”

The old man smiled, “Perhaps it’s battlefield grudges.”

This conspiracy involved secret scandals within the Great Spring Dynasty’s court, secrets the old man was unwilling to divulge.

The Yao family’s border army had always been loyal to the Liu emperors, staying far from courtly disputes. Whoever became emperor, they would obey, never interfering in any conflicts.

However, in the last decade, an unfortunate incident had occurred.

According to ancestral teachings, Yao women should not marry into aristocratic clans, but only form alliances with local gentry.

However, the old man’s youngest daughter had fallen deeply in love with a young man who had traveled to the border. The man possessed both virtue and talent, and the two had fought side-by-side, risking their lives together. It should have been a joyous occasion, a match made in heaven. But the old man, adhering strictly to family rules, did not approve. His daughter, a true Yao woman, silently endured her longing and wrote a farewell letter to the man. Unexpectedly, the scion of a top-tier aristocratic family of the Great Spring Dynasty came to the border again. In the heavy snow, the eldest son of the Minister of Personnel knelt outside the Yao family ancestral hall for an entire day and night. The entire Yao family was moved, and finally, there was no reason to keep the lovebirds apart. The old man agreed to his daughter’s marriage. But none of the older generation attended the wedding in the capital. After that, his daughter did return to her family once.

The old man and his powerful in-law, who controlled the rise and fall of officials throughout the realm, had never exchanged a single letter.

Yet, even with this “unfeeling” behavior, they still could not sever the fact that the woman bore the Yao surname.

Just one exception, and ten years later, it brought the hidden danger of family destruction.

First, last year, the old general’s in-law, the Minister, was secretly targeted by the Fanlu Ma Clan, his political rivals, who instigated censors to launch scathing accusations. The emperor, enraged, severely reprimanded the Minister, who, upon returning home, immediately penned a desperate memorial, writing in pitiful terms that he was “frail and decrepit, no better than a child, with only two or three teeth left, long deprived of the taste of ‘fresh’ food,” requesting to retire.

The emperor refused, but the Minister’s influence in the Ministry of Personnel plummeted.

However, besides the deeply rooted factional strife, the real trouble involved the heir apparent. Many unconventional outsiders had arrived in the capital, fanning the flames. Intriguingly, all three princes were outstanding in their own way, each with their own talents, any of whom would have been the undeniable choice for crown prince in any dynasty of the Great Spring.

The rise and fall of officials in the capital, the shuffling of border generals, was dizzying.

Even the Yao family’s iron cavalry, far away on the southern border, could not remain aloof. The undercurrents swirling within the Great Spring Dynasty in recent years were treacherous beyond imagination.

Sword cultivators clashed in an instant.

The natal flying sword suspended around the perimeter of the Yao family’s iron cavalry swept through the middle of the formation. Fortunately, the middle-aged sword cultivator, in pursuit of maximum speed, had chosen the fastest route, one without obstacles. Otherwise, that strike would have pierced several more skulls.

Chen Pingan unsheathed his sword, forming a sword gesture with two fingers, and controlled ‘Chixin,’ the magic sword that had cost him his family’s savings, to defend against the sword cultivator’s flying sword that came swiftly from behind.

The middle-aged sword cultivator’s heart sank. The young, uninvited guest was not only a sword master, but his sword could actually block his natal flying sword, “Candlelight”? Could it be a concealed treasure? Otherwise, with “Candlelight’s” sharpness, the so-called divine weapons of the Jianghu would not withstand a single blow. But that sword seemed to have not even a nick.

The burly bodyguard was somewhat gleeful. “Sir, are you still not in a hurry?”

The middle-aged sword cultivator was not angry. He smiled, “Testing his depth. Consider it playing with him for a while. I have the means to protect myself.”

“Very well!”

The pure martial artist, clad in ‘Sweet Dew’ armor, laughed menacingly. He stomped, creating a small pit, and charged forward, delivering a punch from five or six zhang away. The fist’s power surged, the qi as thick as bowls.

Chen Pingan put one hand behind his back, concealed in his sleeve. While controlling ‘Chixin’ to repeatedly block the sword cultivator’s flying sword, he raised his arm, his palm facing the oncoming fist.

He clenched his fingers.

The fist’s power was crushed directly by Chen Pingan.

The burly bodyguard laughed heartily, showing no sign of panic. It was merely a test, not even half of his power. “Sir, his Daoist cultivation is not shallow! As for how deep it is…”
A man clad in snow-white armor let out a light shout and suddenly accelerated forward. In the blink of an eye, he was a few steps away from Chen Pingan. His right arm swung up violently, and as this punch was delivered with lightning speed, the entire right shoulder of the burly man bloomed with a snow-white radiance.

*Bang!*

Chen Pingan still blocked the armored man’s punch with his palm.

A hint of confusion flickered in the assassin’s eyes. The young man before him hadn’t moved an inch?

Despite his doubts, he didn’t hesitate to launch a vicious knee strike. In the battle between martial artists, especially those of high skill, thoughts raced, and each strike had to be instinctive, even faster than “intention and thought.” Only then could one be considered truly initiated into the art.

The hand behind Chen Pingan’s back left his sleeve and lightly patted the white-armored retainer’s knee, causing him to lean forward. Then, he delivered an elbow strike to the man’s chest.

The burly warrior, clad in the armor of Divine Nectar, was sent flying backward by the elbow strike.

However, Chen Pingan still held his fist in his hand, so he was pulled back. Chen Pingan smashed a fist onto the Divine Nectar Armor over the man’s heart.

The burly man crashed to the ground dozens of feet away.

Fortunately, he wore a military talisman armor, and his injuries were light. Only his internal energy was shaken a bit more, and a trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

He slapped the ground with his palm, and the man got up again, spitting out a mouthful of saliva mixed with blood. He grinned, grumbling, “Master, is this guy a swordsman or a master of external martial arts who tempers his body?”

The middle-aged swordsman stood behind him, his smile playful. “Are you not allowed to have a martial arts genius who is both?”

The man took a deep breath and turned to look at Wei Xian on the hilltop. His mood was no longer relaxed, and he said to the swordsman, “Then this kid really deserves to die. Master, have you had enough fun? We must not be caught off guard, this guy didn’t come alone.”

The swordsman nodded. “The bond between the Liu family of Daquan and old man Yao should be just this much. Since that’s the case, then we can start casting the net.”

The swordsman whistled, extremely sharp.

A moment later, the swordsman darted away to the side with swift force. With a wave of his hand, his Natal Sword no longer entangled with the young swordsman. It transformed from solid to illusionary and disappeared into his chest, like a fishing line entering a deep pool, gone in an instant. The Natal Sword returned to the acupoint to be nurtured.

The warrior retainer wearing the Divine Nectar Armor was stunned for a moment, then, without another word, began to follow the swordsman and flee away.

Although Chen Pingan didn’t know why the two assassins were leaving, he didn’t stop them.

The Yao family’s iron cavalry, who had narrowly escaped death, were even more confused and looked at each other in dismay.

After weighing the situation, the old general dismounted and ordered the young cavalry general who was supporting him, “Send a squad of scouts out to scout the situation. The rest of you will rest here.”

Five border army scouts scattered like a net, urging their horses to roam in all directions.

Chen Pingan slowly walked towards Wei Xian and Pei Qian.

Old General Yao hesitated, but in the end, he didn’t speak. He wanted to say thank you, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he aggravated the wound in his abdomen and had to shut up. However, he cupped his fist towards the young man’s direction, as a silent expression of gratitude.

The other party was righteous enough to take action and single-handedly stop two assassins who were sure of victory. The old man didn’t have the face to make demanding requests.

Half an incense stick later, a cavalry force galloped up. Besides a dozen Yao family border soldiers covered in blood, there were also more than twenty unfamiliar faces. They were either Qi Refiners with bright eyes and jade-like skin, or martial arts grandmasters with imposing auras. These people surrounded and protected a man in brocade robes, who was in his early thirties and had a face like jade, obviously the master of these experts.

As they approached the Yao family border army where the old man was, the man waved his hand, and the cavalry quickly separated. The man rode out alone, taking the lead, reined in his horse, and laughed loudly, “General Yao, fortunately, I’m not too late.”

The old general was about to get up to answer when the man had already dismounted, waving his horsewhip vigorously. “The old general is injured, no need to stand on ceremony.”

The old man still insisted on getting up to greet him.

He quickened his pace, went straight to the old man, leading his horse, and said softly, “This disaster of the Yao family, in the final analysis, was caused by me and Li Xiling. Since I happened to be on the border this time, there is no reason to stand idly by. I hope the old general understands that if the situation were not urgent, I would never have shown myself.”

The old general changed the subject and said in a deep voice, “Your Highness is of noble birth, how can you easily take such risks?”

The man laughed. “General Yao is the General of the Southern Expedition, a high-ranking official of Daquan, having risked his life for decades, is he not valuable?”

The old man smiled wryly. “Your Highness!”

The man waved his hand and laughed. “I’m already here, and I’ve already done it. I’ve also heard General Yao’s admonition. Can we go back now? These assassins may have more tricks up their sleeves.”

The old general smiled helplessly and said, “Everything is at your Highness’s command.”

The man suddenly pointed his horsewhip at the opposite hillside. “Who are those people?”

The old man explained, “If it weren’t for them stalling for time, I wouldn’t have made it this far. They have the style of Mohist rangers. Your Highness doesn’t need to overthink it. We met by chance, and we don’t need to add embellishments.”

The man nodded.

He suddenly slapped his head and quickly took out a small porcelain bottle from his sleeve. He pulled out the stopper, and immediately a fragrance filled the air. He poured a dark green pill into his palm and handed it to the old man. “This is a secret healing medicine treasured in the palace. The old general can swallow it.”

The old man didn’t suspect anything. He thanked the Prince and threw the pill into his mouth without hesitation, swallowing it.

The man’s smile deepened. He personally helped the old man into a carriage he had brought.

On top of the hillside, Chen Pingan watched them leave.

He took out the military talisman armor and handed it to Wei Xian, who didn’t immediately take it.

Chen Pingan explained, “This is a military talisman armor, called Divine Nectar Armor. Pour in true Qi, and you can wear armor on your body, similar to the previous warrior. It can independently resist swords and spells. Unless the armor is penetrated in one go or repeatedly hammered in one place, generally speaking, it is a protective charm before the spiritual energy is exhausted. It’s very effective against the Natal Swords of sword cultivators.”

The rank of the talisman armor is often directly related to the amount of spiritual energy stored.

So there are roughly three types, jokingly referred to by the mountain folk as puddle armor, pond armor, and lake armor.
This Divine Armor of Dew Accumulation, ranked only as a third-class item, was mostly of mere puddle quality. However, the one sold by the Spiritual Herb Hall in Upside-Down Mountain was exceptionally unique. It was highly likely to be an ancestral armor, one of the earliest batches of Dew Accumulation Armor, meticulously crafted by a master strategist. Truly, a noble scion born from humble origins.

Wei Xian pushed Chen Ping’an’s hand back, smiling, “One should not accept rewards without merit. I’ll take it after I earn some credit.”

Chen Ping’an chuckled and put it away.

Pei Qian, her face full of anticipation, asked, “If he doesn’t want it, can you give it to me?”

Chen Ping’an simply ignored her.

Afterward, the trio’s route diverged from the Yao family’s iron cavalry. They headed towards the frontier town whose outline was faintly visible.

On the way, Wei Xian, uncharacteristically, spoke a few words.

He asked three questions in a row.

“Does Young Master aspire to be a moral paragon, seeking the Three Imperishables?”

Chen Ping’an couldn’t help but laugh, shaking his head, “Of course not.”

If he truly harbored such ambition, Chen Ping’an would have already recognized the Old Bookworm as his teacher long ago. Especially after the trip to Tongye Continent, Chen Ping’an became even more resolute.

Wei Xian then asked, “Then does Young Master seek to seize great power, vying for kingship and hegemony?”

Chen Ping’an chuckled silently, pointing to himself, “Someone like me?”

Wei Xian finally asked, “Then is it for individual cultivation, seeking immortality and eternal life?”

Chen Ping’an retorted, “Why do you ask all this?”

Wei Xian fell silent.

Chen Ping’an was also unwilling to say more. The trio continued in silence.