Li Huai slept a great lazy sleep, the sun shining on his backside and he still didn’t want to get up. The bedding was just too comfortable, like sleeping in a cloud of cotton. The child groggily opened his eyes, sat up, and looked around. For a moment, he was disoriented, and it took him a while to remember that this wasn’t his hard bed at home, nor was it a night spent exposed to the elements in the wilderness. The child’s first thought was that it was good to be rich, and his second thought was that it was no wonder Chen Ping’an wanted to be a miser.

Li Huai actually wanted to go back to sleep for a while, but seeing that Chen Ping’an wasn’t by his side, and hadn’t appeared in his sight, Li Huai panicked a little. He quickly put on his clothes and boots, grabbed his painted wooden puppets from the green bamboo bookcase, and rushed out of the room. He saw Lin Shouyi playing chess with a poor-looking old man, and even Li Baoping, who was born without a butt, was sitting obediently on a stone bench, carefully watching the game. Yu Lu and Xie Xie were standing next to Lin Shouyi, helping him with ideas.

Chen Ping’an was sitting opposite the two, Li Baoping. Seeing Li Huai, he waved him over. When the child ran to his side, he gave his seat to Li Huai. Just as Li Huai was about to sit down, he noticed the white-clothed youth who had been standing behind Chen Ping’an, staring at him with a fake smile. Li Huai thought for a moment, then silently placed the painted wooden puppets on the stone bench. He himself wouldn’t sit, and only dared to stick his butt out and lean on the table.

Cui Chan, the youth with the red mark between his eyebrows, turned to look at Yu Lu and Xie Xie, his obscure gaze like a stream of water, flowing over their faces.

The girl Xie Xie keenly noticed Cui Chan’s gaze, and didn’t raise her head to meet it. However, she felt puzzled. Usually, once the Great Li State Preceptor’s gloomy gaze was cast upon her, her skin would break out in goosebumps. But today was different; it was just the gaze of an ordinary teacher, no longer possessing the previous oppressive feeling. Was it because of the gentle autumn sunshine?

Yu Lu frankly raised his head, and gave this “Young Master” a slight smile.

Cui Chan first crooked his finger. “Yu Lu, Xie Xie, you two come over here.”

Then he smiled at Chen Ping’an and said, “Can we go to the Stop-Pace Pavilion to talk? There are some things that need to be discussed openly and honestly.”

Chen Ping’an nodded. The four of them went to the pavilion together. Before leaving, Chen Ping’an patted the timid Li Huai on the head and joked, “Now you can sit down with peace of mind.”

When they got to the pavilion, Cui Chan glanced at the iron horse wind chimes under the eaves, and said to Yu Lu and Xie Xie, “Introduce your real identities yourselves. No need to hide. Don’t worry, there’s no conspiracy here. Even if you don’t believe me, you should at least believe Chen Ping’an, right?”

Yu Lu and Xie Xie exchanged glances, but neither of them was in a hurry to speak.

Since leaving the mountain, the simply dressed, tall youth Yu Lu had been serving as a coachman, working diligently and conscientiously. He was the one who helped Chen Ping’an the most in the group. Even the mending and sewing work could be done with exceptional skill. The youth was fastidious, and enjoyed washing clothes and scrubbing straw sandals. If he saw anyone’s clothes or straw sandals stained with mud, or a hole pricked in them from walking on mountain roads, the tall youth would feel uncomfortable. Even seeing the crooked and messy arrangement inside Li Huai’s bookcase, Yu Lu, who had caught a glimpse of it, would have a distressed expression on his face. Whenever they stopped by a water source, the carriage would be cleaned spotlessly by the tall youth.

Even Chen Ping’an admitted that he couldn’t compare to him. How could there be such a restless person in the world?

As for the dark-skinned, stern-faced, slender girl Xie Xie, Li Baoping, breaking with her usual behavior, showed some childishness and deeply resented her, regarding her as an enemy. Lin Shouyi’s impression of her was average, neither good nor bad, at most just an acquaintance with whom he played a few games of chess in his spare time. Li Huai, on the other hand, was very enthusiastic about her, and they both enjoyed the game of arranging troops and formations.

Cui Chan said impatiently, “You guys talk openly, and I’ll come and clean up later.”

The handsome youth strode out of the pavilion, and wandered around, bending down to pick up small stones from the ground, a large handful. Bored, he sat by the old well, throwing stones down to listen to the sound of the water.

The thought that he was actually so bored made Cui Chan’s eyes blurry, as if he were experiencing a dream.

He glanced at the dark well. Now, he was truly a mortal with ordinary eyes, and could no longer see through the scene below. At this moment, Cui Chan almost wanted to lose his balance and throw himself down the well to end it all.

Inside the pavilion, Yu Lu spoke first, “I am the former Crown Prince of the Lu Dynasty, Yu Lu. I was previously hiding in the mountain-opening team of the Lu Dynasty’s remnants. In fact, I also had another alias, Yu Shilu. Read backwards, it means that I am a remnant of the Lu Dynasty. Every time someone calls me that name, it helps me to reflect on myself. The past is the past.”

The girl rose abruptly in anger, pointing her finger at the tall youth’s nose and angrily rebuking, “The past?! Your Highness, you say it so lightly, so nonchalantly! You are even more detached than us cultivators on the mountain! But my sect, up and down, hundreds of lives, shed blood and sweat, and died for your Lu Dynasty! How can it just be the past?!”

The girl’s face was covered with tears, and she said in a trembling voice, “Feel your own conscience! How many Qi Refinement cultivators in the world are willing to fight to the death for a country’s sovereignty? Only us! Ever since the East Jewel Bottle Continent has had states and dynasties, historically only we have refused to retreat or surrender, risking the complete severing of everyone’s longevity bridge, just to prove the legitimacy of your Lu Dynasty!”

Yu Lu’s expression was calm. “Then what do you want me to do? It is true that I am the Crown Prince of Lu, but my father has always been autocratic. He was just afraid of those groundless prophecies and folk songs, worried about the Crown Prince’s power growing too large, so he wanted to send me to study at the Great Li Academy in the enemy country. I have never held power or governed, and I have never had any involvement with the imperial court or the Jianghu. I only focus on reading the books of sages. Xie Xie, tell me, what do you want me to do?”

The girl was even more agitated by Yu Lu’s indifferent attitude, trembling with anger, gritting her teeth and saying, “My surname is Xie, but my name is not Xie Xie. My name is Xie Lingyue, and I am the youngest Qi Refinement cultivator in your Lu Dynasty to break through the Fifth Realm bottleneck! I am a descendant of the Wind God Xie Clan! I hate the fatuousness and incompetence of your Lu Dynasty’s royal family, but I hate even more the fact that you, Crown Prince, drift along with the tide, serving as a servant to the Great Li State Preceptor, that great enemy. You actually have the face to be willing and content. If your Lu Dynasty’s ancestors knew in the afterlife…”

Yu Lu’s face remained unchanged, and his tone was still calm, interrupting the girl’s accusations, “Xie Lingyue, if you have the integrity of a descendant of the Wind God Xie Clan, why don’t you go die? If you think suicide isn’t heroic enough, you can openly assassinate the State Preceptor Cui Chan. Dying a magnificent death would be much better.”
Yu Lu turned his head to look at the barefoot boy who was watching coldly not far away and asked with a smile, “Chen Ping’an, can I borrow a hundred taels of silver from you? So I can build a large grave for the female hero Xie, the Immortal, to express my admiration.”

Chen Ping’an looked at the tall teenager, and then at the slender girl, “If you still want to live a good life, why not live it properly?”

Chen Ping’an thought for a moment and continued, “I’m just saying a few of my own feelings, they might not make sense, but just listen. If some accounts are temporarily unclear, then just put them aside for now, as long as you don’t forget them, one day you will be able to explain them clearly.”

Chen Ping’an looked at the two noble descendants of the Lu clan, one was a Crown Prince who almost sat on the Dragon Throne, and the other was the most talented Immortal on the mountain in the dynasty. Chen Ping’an knew that his reasons for trying to mediate were probably worthless in their ears. That’s not surprising. Why should they listen to a bumpkin who grew up in Mud Bottle Alley?

But at this moment, Chen Ping’an looked at the two people who were showing their true feelings. Xie Xie was no longer so cold and distant, and would cry in anger. Yu Lu was no longer so amiable, and would use words to stab people. Although Chen Ping’an wasn’t gloating, he did feel that at this time, the two guys standing in front of him had some of the human touch that he was familiar with.

So Chen Ping’an, who felt that he was the least skilled at reasoning, racked his brains and reluctantly added, “You guys are much more learned than me, I don’t know how you think about things. For me, the thing I fear the most is when I have a little ability to decide the fate of others, especially when I’m afraid that what I think is reasonable is actually unreasonable. Unless it’s a last resort, like a matter of life and death, when there’s no other choice, then there’s no other way, I’ll act when I need to. But in other situations, never, ever just follow your current thoughts, and don’t be led by the nose by ‘what I think is this and that’. Ah Liang said that you should always think about ‘why’ for everything, and I think that’s right.”

“So I want to read and write. Actually, I know that when I ask Li Bao Ping and Lin Shou Yi for knowledge, or when I practice writing on the ground with Li Huai, the two of you look down on me in your hearts. I want to read, to learn principles from books, I want to see more people, and travel to more places, like Ah Liang, who dares to pat his chest and say that the great rivers and seas I’ve seen are more than the salt you’ve eaten. Only in this way, in the future… I’m just saying, if, just if, there really is such a day, and I have the ability of Wei Jin of the Wind and Snow Temple, a Land Immortal of that size, then when I draw my sword, whether it’s to kill or to save, I’ll deliver that sword very quickly! Or if my sword practice is unsuccessful, and my fist practice is just passable, then when I throw that punch…”

Speaking of this, Chen Ping’an’s face was radiant, as if he was thinking of “that day.”

A hearty and unrestrained sword strike, a joyful and satisfying punch!

Once, a man wearing a bamboo hat always teased Chen Ping’an, “You’re a handsome young man, can’t you smile every day? Isn’t it bad to have such a heavy heart?”

Chen Ping’an was actually very depressed every time, and wanted to tell that guy loudly, “I want to too, but I can’t do it right now.”

Yu Lu remained seated. Xie Xie sat back down with a fierce look, but she no longer had the posture of wanting to fight Yu Lu to the death.

Yu Lu looked at the calm and peaceful Chen Ping’an and asked with a curious smile, “Chen Ping’an, aren’t you quite good at talking? Why don’t you ever tell these things to Li Bao Ping and Li Huai?”

Chen Ping’an replied, “I’m familiar with them, there’s no need to talk about any principles.” The implication was naturally that Chen Ping’an was not familiar with them, so he needed to say these random things.

Yu Lu was immediately speechless.

Xie Xie’s face was cold, but the corners of her mouth slightly curved up, and then she forcefully suppressed that little arc.

Xie Xie cautiously glanced at Cui Chan, who was sitting in a daze at the wellhead, hesitated for a moment, and slowly said, “I was originally a Qi Refiner of the View Sea Realm in the Middle Five Realms, only half a step away from reaching the eighth realm, the Dragon Gate Realm. But after becoming a survivor, a vicious palace concubine sent a famous sword cultivator from your Great Li Dynasty to use secret techniques to nail Trapped Dragon Nails into several of my acupoints, so that I would be in excruciating pain whenever I used my True Qi, and even if I risked endless troubles, I could only exert the strength of the fourth or fifth realm.”

After Xie Xie said these major secrets related to her fate, she stared at Yu Lu, who was pretending to be mute, and the latter asked, “What?”

Xie Xie sneered, “Don’t pretend to be an idiot here. Chen Ping’an can catch fish because he relies on accumulated experience, on an early bird catching the worm…”

Speaking of this, Xie Xie paused slightly, and the corner of her eye found that the teenager she had stabbed had not only not become angry, but was instead smiling foolishly, and only then did she breathe a sigh of relief and continued, “But if you, Yu Lu, didn’t rely on your martial arts cultivation to catch those fish, I’ll take your surname!”

Yu Lu smiled and said, “Oh, you’re talking about this? I thought you all looked down on this little trick. Jianghu and martial artists are nothing worth mentioning. In the past, in the Eastern Palace, because of my status as the Crown Prince, I was destined not to practice the methods of longevity, so I had to run to look through those martial arts secret books hidden in the palace. I said before that my father was afraid of those songs, not a son who was full and went to familiarize himself with martial arts.”

Yu Lu put away his smile and ridiculed himself sincerely, “Besides, who else would know the situation of Jianghu and martial artists better than you, Xie Lingyue? It’s just a pond at the foot of the mountain. No matter how big the fish inside are, how big can they be? Not to mention other places, just talking about our former Lu Dynasty, there weren’t many ninth realm cultivators, but there were still quite a few, right? But how many ninth realm martial artists were there? Not a single one. So I originally practiced martial arts purely for fun. You might think I’m talking without standing on solid ground, but I still have to say, in the boring Eastern Palace, if a lecturer accidentally farted, that would be a rare thing worth talking about.”

Xie Xie sneered, “Oh? Judging from your tone, your martial arts realm is not low.”

Yu Lu sighed, his eyes sincere, and shook his head, “Not high, only the sixth realm.”

A trace of shock appeared in Xie Xie’s eyes, and her face stiffened slightly.
The ascent of a martial artist’s realm emphasizes taking each step with solid grounding, often accumulating strength over time before a breakthrough, with many becoming grandmasters later in life. A prodigy like Song Changjing, the Grand Li Prince, is a rare phenomenon. Looking back at the history of the entire Treasure Bottle Continent, it’s no exaggeration to call him a once-in-a-century anomaly. Therefore, when people see young cultivators at high realms, they admire their talent and opportunities, calling them geniuses, and then they feel it’s only natural, because the word “genius” can explain everything.

But the martial path is different.

A fourteen or fifteen-year-old Sixth Realm martial artist…

…is a genuine monster!

Don’t forget that Yu Lu, the Crown Prince of the Lu Clan, has been pampered in the Eastern Palace and likely has never experienced a life-or-death battle.

To reach the Sixth Realm of martial arts simply by reading books?

After seeing the girl’s gaze and expression, Yu Lu silently swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

He was almost at the Seventh Realm, at most three to five years away.

The girl, Xie Xie, felt uneasy being so close to a Sixth Realm martial artist, always feeling like Yu Lu might suddenly turn violent and smash her head with a single punch.

The cultivation of a Sixth Realm Qi Refiner can be highly inflated, but it’s best not to have such thoughts when facing a pure martial artist.

Chen Ping An stood up and first looked at the dark-skinned girl, happily saying, “Lin Shouyi is also a Qi Refiner, thank you Xie Xie. Although your cultivation is currently limited, your insight is still there. In the future, please chat with him more about cultivation matters. Well, Lin Shouyi is a bit cold, please bear with him a little. Also, Lin Shouyi responds to gentle persuasion but not forceful demands. He’s thin-skinned and can’t resist flattery. Thank you Xie Xie, please wear him down. For example, you can casually chat about cultivation while playing chess, I think that would be good.”

Then Chen Ping An looked at the tall teenager, “Yu Lu, since you are a Sixth Realm master, I won’t have to worry about getting tired doing trivial things like washing clothes and scrubbing straw sandals. Just speak up, there are plenty of clothes!”

Finally, Chen Ping An shouted to Cui Chan in the distance, “I’m done chatting with them, you can come back now. Well, in the words of a scholar… we had a very pleasant conversation!”

Chen Ping An left the pavilion with a smile and a light step, clearly genuinely happy.

Inside the pavilion, the young boy and girl looked at each other, feeling that something was wrong, but they couldn’t figure out what it was.

(End of Chapter)