After stopping, Cui Dongshan wiped his tears and trotted over, “Master has endured wind and dew all this way, traveling over millions of miles under the heavens, it has been hard, so hard. This student cannot be by your side, to relieve your worries even a little. I deserve to die, truly I deserve to die!”

Lu Baixiang understood in his heart, remembering Chen Pingan saying he had an “unnamed” disciple studying at the Cliff Academy in the Great Sui, who knew how to play chess. If there was an opportunity, they could have a friendly match.

Chen Pingan turned and sat back on the long bench. Pei Qian, still with the yellow paper talisman on her forehead, hesitated, then vacated her seat to sit next to Sui Youbian.

Cui Dongshan strode over the threshold but didn’t sit next to Chen Pingan. Instead, he went to the kitchen to find a pair of chopsticks. Finally, he sat on the same long bench as Lu Baixiang. Cui Dongshan was about to pick up a piece of preserved bean curd to eat with the congee when he abruptly put down his chopsticks. “This student’s heart aches so much that I cannot even lift my chopsticks!”

Chen Pingan cut straight to the point, “Did you follow the contents of the letter I sent to Li Baoping? But why did you come to the Azure Luan Kingdom? I was going to the Cliff Academy to find you anyway. Is it for this debate between Buddhism and Taoism?”

Cui Dongshan chuckled, “Chicken pecking at each other for food, what’s so interesting to watch? I’m afraid if I’m not careful…”

Before everyone could react, the young immortal with the boastful tone slapped himself in the face. “If I don’t brag, I’ll die!”

After that, Chen Pingan didn’t ask anything, and Cui Dongshan simply ate quickly, not holding back at all.

After the meal, Zhu Lian and Pei Qian cleared the table. Cui Dongshan asked the hunched old man if he needed help, but Zhu Lian politely declined. Cui Dongshan gave an “oh” and followed Chen Pingan out of the house, strolling into the courtyard with a carefree air.

Lu Baixiang asked, “When you have some free time later, would you be willing to play a game of chess with me?”

Cui Dongshan didn’t even turn his head, waving his hand, “I don’t know how.”

Once the white-robed youth was out of sight, everyone simultaneously felt a sense of relief.

Zhu Lian stood at the kitchen door, wringing his hands and wiping away water stains. He looked at Wei Xian sitting on the steps and asked with a smile, “What do you think?”

Wei Xian said calmly, “One who can observe the fish in the deep knows their nature.”

Lu Baixiang then asked Sui Youbian, “Do you think he feels I am not worthy to play chess with him, or is he afraid of embarrassing himself?”

Sui Youbian answered indirectly, “That shell he wears, it is strange.”

Pei Qian was peering out from the doorway of the main house, seemingly trying to avoid that handsome young man in white, afraid he might suddenly dash out from the corridor in the blink of an eye.

It seemed she was truly afraid of him.

In just the time it took to eat a meal, Pei Qian had come to regard Cui Dongshan as a great menace.

Chen Pingan led Cui Dongshan on a walk through the village alleys, where the ground was paved with smooth, mirror-like bluestone slabs. Cui Dongshan obediently followed behind Chen Pingan. In the dimly lit alleys between the two towering walls, with the blue-green ground, the master and student resembled two white herons.

Cui Dongshan quickened his pace to walk alongside Chen Pingan, one hand behind his back and the other tapping the wall, whispering, “I heard Master obtained a Yang Spirit avatar from the Flying Ascent realm Great Cultivator, Du Mao? This is equivalent to the physical form of an Immortal realm cultivator, its toughness comparable to a Ninth realm martial artist. Not to mention, this Immortal relic has long been crafted and managed by Du Mao, almost like a minor blessed land. Whoever can seize it will gain a smooth path to reach the Upper Five Realms.”

Chen Pingan asked, “Heard? Who did you hear that from?”

Cui Dongshan smiled, “This mountain man has his own ingenious schemes, this disciple has his own channels.”

Chen Pingan asked directly, “Do you want this Immortal relic?”

Cui Dongshan looked conflicted, shaking his head, “My current shell is already an ancient Immortal relic, and of a certain Flood Dragon from the ancient Shu region. Compared to Du Mao’s Yang Spirit body, its rarity is even greater. But even so, who wouldn’t be tempted by such a priceless treasure? If Master takes pity on this student and bestows the Immortal relic upon me with a wave of his hand, this student will surely be grateful beyond words, working like a horse for Master…”

Chen Pingan asked, “Where can you find a powerful yin entity worthy of an Immortal relic? The heroic spirits from ancient battlefields? Or some ghost marshals and ghost kings from mass burial mounds?”

Cui Dongshan grinned, “So Master is quite familiar with the matter of seizing a nest, but this student has bad news to tell Master. Be it ancient battlefields haunted by countless Yin soldiers and generals, or mass burial mounds that hold tens of thousands of unjustly dead, the things they breed are still too small. At most, they are Yuan Ying ghosts, utterly incapable of suppressing an Immortal relic. As soon as they enter, it will be like a boiling oil pot or a water prison. Both will suffer mutually. So in the end, it still depends on Master’s reputation and luck, whether he can find an Yin entity with naturally strong bones and extreme rigidity. As for the realm of the ghost or demon, that is not important.”

Chen Pingan silently noted this in his heart, then said, “We are about to set off for the Azure Luan Kingdom’s capital. We may pass by a Grand Commandant’s manor on the way, and we may not visit, but they may take the initiative to find us. I’m telling you this in advance.”

Cui Dongshan cupped his hands in obeisance, “As Master arranges, this student has no objections.”

In the half a month after leaving the village, climbing mountains and fording rivers, Cui Dongshan had no interaction with Pei Qian and the four in the painting, other than flattering Chen Pingan.

It was as if there was just an idle follower. Apart from his unusual appearance that day, Cui Dongshan’s behavior afterwards was truly unremarkable and utterly mediocre. He didn’t even bother to watch when Lu Baixiang and Sui Youbian played chess, and he didn’t even glance when Pei Qian used her mad demon swordplay. He never helped when Zhu Lian lit the fire and cooked. All day long, he just followed Chen Pingan around.

One day, they arrived at a small county town with a Wen Wu Temple (Temple of Literature and Military Arts). The Wen Temple’s incense was dim, while the Wu Temple’s incense was flourishing, said to be able to protect wealth and were extremely efficacious. With this, how could the incense not be strong?

The bustling Wu Temple quieted down a lot after nightfall. Unlike other local temples, the Wen Wu Temple was generally never closed at night. That day, Chen Pingan, who was resting in the county town, took Cui Dongshan to the Wen Wu Temple in the darkness, leaving the four in the painting to protect Pei Qian at the inn.

The two first went to the Wen Temple, where they worshipped a civil official with the posthumous title of “Wen Zhen Gong” in the history of the Azure Luan Kingdom. He had once served as an official in the local prefecture and benefited the area. Nearby Wen Temples often enshrined this person.
The reason for visiting the Wen Temple at night was that Chen Pingan, from the distant mountain ridge, overlooking the county town, could vaguely discern two places within the city where dark clouds gathered, and baleful aura surged, slowly permeating the county in all directions. Noticing this anomaly, Cui Dongshan casually pointed out the hidden truth: “The Wen and Wu Temples have been targeted, used by cultivators as stepping stones to forcibly transfer and steal someone’s fortune. If there are any townsfolk with a slight aptitude for cultivation, they might have, during their incense offerings recently, glimpsed the statues of the Confucian and Martial Saints weeping tears of blood, or been warned in their dreams by the two local deities.”

However, after Chen Pingan and his party arrived at the Wen Temple, apart from the slightly dense yin energy, there were no signs of the deities manifesting. It was a lifeless, incense-sparse clay statue.

As they left, Cui Dongshan explained with a smile: “After all, we are outsiders, never having offered incense at the Wen Temple. This local deity is already spiritually weak, nearing its end. Even if it wanted to appear and converse with us, it would be difficult, and it is also suspicious of us. It’s better to hide and await death than to leave its golden body, only to be captured by unscrupulous Qi Refiners, bound by soul-arresting and deity-commanding techniques. That would be like walking into a trap, with a fate perhaps even worse than having its golden body destroyed.”

Arriving at the Wu Temple, Chen Pingan’s heart tightened. Although there was no incense lit by the common folk, Chen Pingan could still see a thriving scene of lingering incense. However, amidst this seemingly prosperous facade, there was a chilling, gloomy aura. It was like cooking oil over a roaring fire, unsustainable in the long run. Moreover, Chen Pingan examined the remaining incense ashes in the large incense burner, picking out a piece that quickly turned to ash in his fingers, emitting a faint, fishy stench.

Cui Dongshan had already stepped over the threshold of the main hall, hands behind his back, carefully gazing at the ten-foot-tall golden statue. After all, it was just a Wu Temple in a small county, lacking the resources for extensive gilding, so the clay statue wasn’t too tall. The deity, mired in a quagmire, was currently slumbering, either sending dreams to the local people and officials, or struggling to cope with the improper incense offerings polluting it.

After Chen Pingan entered the hall, Cui Dongshan waved his sleeve and said with a smile, “Mister can take this opportunity to observe the manifestation of martial fortune in this world.”

As soon as he spoke, Chen Pingan heard a “ding-dong” sound in his mind.

Looking up, he saw a golden droplet falling from above, finally landing in the incense burner at the foot of the statue, creating ripples.

However, Chen Pingan waited for a long time, but no more golden raindrops fell from the sky.

Cui Dongshan chuckled, “This is the national martial fortune of the Qingluan Kingdom’s Tang family. In the early years of the Lu Dynasty, any Wu Temple would have had raindrops falling, so fast they almost formed a continuous line. This has nothing to do with the rank of the deity, only with the length of the dynasty and the thickness of the martial fortune. Moreover, ordinary Qi Refiners, even Land Immortals, cannot perceive it. I only know some ancient secrets and learned a few tricks about divine incense from the old Apothecary God, which allows it to manifest. As for the likes of the Shuishui and Caiyi Kingdoms that Mister previously traveled through, they are not even as good as this Qingluan Kingdom, with its one drop of golden incense essence in about an incense stick’s time. It might take two or three incense sticks to condense a drop.”

Sure enough, after Chen Pingan waited quietly for the time it takes to burn an incense stick, another golden droplet of incense, symbolizing martial fortune, fell.

Chen Pingan suddenly understood. Back in Old Dragon City, the Sword Spirit had said that Pei Qian was a “seed of martial fortune.” That was the first time Chen Pingan had heard that term.

Connecting it to Cui Dongshan’s words tonight, things became clearer. It was similar to how the Water God of the Buried River could see the exact amount of monthly incense essence, or how immortal abodes in the mountains often used spiritual herbs and trees to help manifest and observe the rise and fall of mountain and river qi.

Chen Pingan smiled, “Are you waiting for me to ask about the martial temples of the Great Li?”

Cui Dongshan cupped his hands in salute and said with a low smile, “Mister is insightful. In just a few years of traveling, you have gained such wisdom. You truly are a prodigy, a divine being.”

Chen Pingan glanced at Cui Dongshan, hesitated for a moment, and still asked, “The Central Earth Great Duan Dynasty, with its female Martial Goddess, must have a more magnificent martial temple atmosphere than Yu Lu’s homeland, right?”

Cui Dongshan laughed heartily, “Of course. Otherwise, why would the Wealth God Liu of the Aihai Continent be willing to bet on the Great Duan Dynasty? Besides the merchants and strategists among the Hundred Schools of Thought, many other schools of learning and Daoist lineages have chosen the Great Duan Dynasty.”

Cui Dongshan then said with some regret, “Besides this ‘local Wu Temple, observe fortune from a drop’ matter, you can actually see more in the proper Wu Temple in the capital of a country, even see the increases, decreases, and fluctuations caused by certain individuals.”

Cui Dongshan sat on the threshold of the Wu Temple, looking up at the martial general statue, which was in dire straits and dim, and sighed, “I heard in the early years that in the Great Duan Dynasty, after a youth with terrifying martial fortune emerged and was brought back by his master, the martial atmosphere of the Wu Temples throughout the Great Duan Dynasty, which was already very exaggerated, turned directly from a river into a huge waterfall on the day he became a citizen. The incense burners were like water pools, splashing countless droplets of martial fortune, so that they rumbled loudly. Any deity, even at a distance outside the temple, could hear that astonishing movement.”

Chen Pingan smiled, “That person is named Cao Ci. I saw him in Sword Qi Great Wall and fought him three times. I lost all three times, and I lost convincingly. I hope the distance between us doesn’t get too big in the future, so I can have the chance to fight him three more times.”

Cui Dongshan looked at Chen Pingan’s calm expression and sincere smile, gave him a thumbs up, and praised from the bottom of his heart, “Mister is amazing, with lofty aspirations…”

This flattery was not the kind that people use to flatter others. If outsiders were present, such as the four people in the painting, they might think that Cui Dongshan’s praise was sarcastic and mocking Chen Pingan. But Chen Pingan knew that this should be Cui Dongshan’s most sincere remark.

But Cui Dongshan sighed and looked regretful, “Mister living in the same era as this person is a great loss.”

Chen Pingan walked towards the gate. Cui Dongshan stood up and they stepped over the threshold together. Chen Pingan suddenly said, “Did National Preceptor Cui Chan notice the changes in the martial fortune of the Great Li’s proper Wu Temple, so he wanted you to come as a persuader, because he was afraid that I would take Wei Xian and the other three and switch to another country’s citizenship, such as the Great Sui?”
This time, Cui Dongshan didn’t resort to flattery, simply responding with a “Mn.” “The old Divine Sovereign received word, knowing you’re about to begin cultivating. Since you’ll need to refine your Natal Item, our venerable Grand Preceptor proposed a deal. If you allow Wei Xian, Sui You, and the four on the right to join the Great Li Dynasty, the Great Li Dynasty can inform you of the final location selections for the Five Peaks of Treasure Bottle Continent, providing a Five Elements Earth Natal Item. We can reserve the Five-Colored Earth for you right now, soil originating from the roots of the Five Peaks, with each peak yielding ten catties, enough for you to refine two Natal Items.”

Before Chen Pingan could reject or agree, Cui Dongshan explained, “Refining the second Natal Item is an urgent matter, but no need to worry. Of the Five Peaks’ soil, only Mount Píyún in the North, where Wei Bo is stationed, is officially recognized. Fan Junmao’s Southern Peak is just budding. As for the remaining Central, Eastern, and Western Peaks, although the Great Li Song clan has long intended to claim them, they may not be able to smoothly receive imperial recognition within the next decade or two. Don’t fret about this; it’s actually a good thing. The refinement difficulty will be lower now. Furthermore, you’ve just started cultivating and don’t require a Natal Item of high rank. Once all Five Peaks are recognized by the Great Li court and a certain Central Earth academy of Confucianism, and are stably linked to the fate of the continent, your Natal Item’s quality will soar accordingly.”

The two walked out of the Martial Temple. Chen Pingan, walking along the dark street, asked, “This deal about the citizenship, proposed by Grand Preceptor Cui Chan… what do you, Cui Dongshan, think about it?”

Cui Dongshan stopped. “Does Master trust me?”

Chen Pingan shook his head. “I don’t trust you, but I still want to hear a lie or two.”

Cui Dongshan chuckled, pondering for a moment. “Then allow me to offer some falsehoods. In my humble opinion, having those four join the Great Li Dynasty is entirely beneficial to you. Why not use it as leverage to bargain with the Song clan? Obtain those ten catties of Five-Colored Earth from each peak first. As for whether you’ll change your own citizenship from Great Li to Great Sui, or some other chaotic place, wait until the day the Great Li Five Peaks gain rightful recognition in Treasure Bottle Continent before deciding. Whether you refine the Five Elements Earth Natal Item during that time or not, it won’t prevent you from taking the advantages first, securing them for yourself.”

Chen Pingan remained silent, continuing forward.

After a few steps, noticing Cui Dongshan still standing there, Chen Pingan turned back. Cui Dongshan smiled. “Tonight, I’ll sort out the anomaly at the Martial Temple. If evil cultivators or demons are at work, I’ll act on behalf of Heaven and do what’s right, earning a small measure of karmic merit for you. If it’s due to poor education in the region or the local populace’s own misdeeds, I hope you’ll permit me to stand idly by, letting the incense here rise and fall on its own.”

Chen Pingan nodded. “Agreed.”

Chen Pingan turned to leave, planning to return to the inn.

Cui Dongshan suddenly called out, “Master!”

Chen Pingan turned back. “What is it?”

Cui Dongshan exclaimed with righteous indignation, “Those four ant-like pure martial artists, serving as your escorts, are so disrespectful! I’ve been adhering to the duties of a student these past few days, only able to watch and not speak, and it pains me! I implore you to allow me to properly teach them how to behave, starting tomorrow!”

Chen Pingan smiled and asked, “How do you intend to teach them?”

Cui Dongshan stood below the steps of the Martial Temple’s entrance, righteously declaring, “Naturally, I’ll follow your teachings, persuading with reason, influencing with virtue!”

Chen Pingan ignored Cui Dongshan, heading straight back to the inn. On the way back, he pondered why Cui Dongshan had come, and why he had suddenly left Cliff Academy in Great Sui.

The matter of Du Mao’s alluring Immortal corpse, the citizenship deal proposed by Grand Preceptor Cui Chan, and the brewing Buddhist-Daoist debate in the Qingluan Kingdom’s capital… Chen Pingan felt that these were all part of Cui Dongshan’s purpose for coming, yet still not the main reason.

Far behind him, Cui Dongshan turned and walked up the steps, yawning as he returned to the Martial Temple.