Cui Chan walked back to the Stopping Pavilion from the old well. He stood outside the pavilion, unmoving. Because Autumn Reed Inn did not want anyone to investigate the well without permission, the pavilion only had an entrance and exit on the west side. Standing on the east side, Cui Chan was somewhat dazed, lost in thought. Finally, he gritted his teeth, grabbed the pavilion railing with both hands, and climbed up with all his might before tumbling onto the long chair inside, gasping for breath.

Yu Lu and Xie Xie were somewhat wary, assuming that the Great Li Imperial Advisor was playing tricks for amusement. They had to be careful not to fall into a trap.

To put it bluntly, even if Cui Chan handed a knife to these two young teenagers, standing still and letting them chop at him, they wouldn’t dare to move, not even take the knife.

In Xie Xie’s view, Chen Ping An’s ability to disregard Cui Chan stemmed from his ignorance. He simply had not experienced the true scenery of the mountains, and did not know the meaning of battlefield slaughter, court intrigue, or proving the Dao for longevity.

The former First Disciple of the Literary Saint, a Qi Refinement cultivator at the Twelfth Realm peak, the Great Li Imperial Advisor – any one of these identities, taken alone, was a towering mountain that could suffocate people.

Now, the physically frail Cui Chan lay on the long chair, exhausted like a dog, reaching out to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “As you can see, I’ve not only suffered a terrible misfortune, causing me to lose all my cultivation and become powerless, but it’s also prevented me from using my spatial artifacts, turning me into a penniless pauper. So, if you two harbor any resentment towards me, now is a golden opportunity. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Saying this, Cui Chan turned his head to look at the vast Great Li territory beyond thousands of mountains and rivers, and cursed weakly, “You enjoy the benefits, I take the blame. You old bastard Great Li Imperial Advisor, oh, still my own old bastard…”

Cui Chan muttered to himself, scolding and complaining. Regardless, along the way, although he had not successfully become a disciple, after spending so much time with Li Huai, he had become much smoother at cursing people. He was even cursing himself now.

The young teenagers were used to the Great Li Imperial Advisor’s eccentricities. Instead of thinking that Cui Chan had gone crazy, they became even more cautious, as if walking on thin ice.

Cui Chan sat up, leaning against the railing, with his hands resting horizontally on it. Yu Lu and Xie Xie were to his left and right.

Cui Chan sighed, “You think Chen Ping An doesn’t know how high the mountains are or how deep the waters are, so he isn’t afraid of me at all. That’s…”

Cui Chan paused slightly, then laughed, “That’s right.”

Cui Chan continued, “But you’ve only thought of half of it. Ignorance is bliss, after all. But where you fall short of Chen Ping An is that he is upright and doesn’t fear a crooked shadow. You two, one is a sixth-realm martial artist who inexplicably gained his strength from reading, bearing the burden of a shattered homeland; the other is a Qi Refinement cultivator with extraordinary talent but burdened with deep-seated vengeance. You always feel that the future is long. So, Chen Ping An dares to say he’ll kill me, and he’ll kill me. You, on the other hand, are hesitant and apprehensive. I’m saying this from a position of privilege, since I am Cui Chan, and you should be grateful just to be alive.”

Cui Chan rubbed his waist, looking distressed. “Actually, my waist hurts a lot.”

Cui Chan looked at Yu Lu, “From now on, just follow me wholeheartedly, alright?”

Yu Lu smiled, “Since I came out of the Remnant Convict squad, I’ve been following Imperial Advisor, and it feels good. This journey for learning and seeking knowledge has also been wonderful. Compared to pretending to be a bookworm in the Eastern Palace and listening to those archaic expressions every day, it’s much more interesting. If Imperial Advisor can find some time to explain some difficult scriptures and meanings to me, I would feel that my life is complete.”

Cui Chan pointed a finger at the tall teenager, “Chen Ping An is cautious and taciturn because he is a frog in a well who suddenly jumped out of the well and is frightened by everything he sees. Yu Lu, you are truly deep and scheming, with the appearance of a villain. Sometimes, I really want to flatten your smiling face with a punch.”

Yu Lu said helplessly, “Compared to Chen Ping An, where am I any better? Aren’t I just a frog in a well too?”

Cui Chan casually said, “Wealth burns the body like fire, hardship is a cooling breeze. This famous saying of the sages is a free gift to you. Take it and ponder it well.”

Yu Lu, who had read countless books since childhood, asked curiously, “Whose sage’s teachings is this from the Confucian Temple?”

Cui Chan pointed to himself, “Mine.”

Yu Lu was even more helpless.

Cui Chan took out a small stone from his sleeve and gently threw it at the iron horse under the eaves, missing once, missing twice, still missing on the third try.

Cui Chan glanced at the girl Xie Xie, twitched the corners of his mouth, and said, “I really want to throw you out. The bells would definitely ring.”

The girl stood there like a clay bodhisattva, expressionless.

Cui Chan smiled, “You, on the other hand, really want to kill me, but you feel that there is only one chance, so you must have a foolproof plan and are unwilling to die in vain. Yu Lu is smarter than you, thinking that whether you kill me or not is insignificant.”

Cui Chan sighed, “Chen Ping An, Li Bao Ping, Li Huai, Lin Shou Yi, four people. The degree of goodwill you, Yu Lu, have towards them, from good to bad, should be Lin Shou Yi, Li Bao Ping, Chen Ping An, Li Huai.”

“As for Miss Xie Xie, it should be Li Bao Ping, Li Huai, Chen Ping An, Lin Shou Yi.”

Finally, Cui Chan pointed his thumb at himself, “For me, it’s Li Huai, Li Bao Ping, Lin Shou Yi, Chen Ping An. I like the simpleton Li Huai the most, because he poses the least threat to me. How could anyone hate a bright and cheerful, spiritual little girl like Li Bao Ping, especially someone like me who is full of bad ideas? Looking at her makes me feel warm and comfortable. Lin Shou Yi isn’t bad, but I’ve seen too many geniuses like him, so he doesn’t pique my interest.”

Cui Chan squinted and smiled, “Yu Lu dislikes Li Huai the most because he loathes that kind of live-for-the-moment attitude, thinking how there can be such a lazy bum in the world, of course, also his sloppiness and lack of cleanliness. He likes Lin Shou Yi the most because you subconsciously regard yourself as the crown prince of the Lu Dynasty. The prosperity of a country requires pillars of talent like Lin Shou Yi who are proactive and motivated. Xie Xie seems to be very familiar with Lin Shou Yi, often playing chess, but in fact, she is almost jealous to the point of madness. They are both cultivation geniuses, so why is Lin Shou Yi sailing smoothly while she has to suffer such a calamity, and may possibly have her path to the Great Dao cut off, with no hope of longevity?”

Yu Lu remained silent.

Xie Xie’s face was extremely ugly.
Cui Chan laughed loudly, “So why do we all dislike Chen Ping’an? But why is it that the three naive children, Li Baoping and the others, are the complete opposite of us three mature old foxes? They actually like Chen Ping’an the most? Isn’t that something to chew on? Yu Lu, Xie Xie, if either of you gives me the correct answer in my mind, I will give you something useful.”

Xie Xie slowly said, “Because the three of them are accustomed to instinctively looking to Chen Ping’an whenever they encounter setbacks or choices. They feel that Chen Ping’an is the fairest in doing things and is willing to put in effort. As for Chen Ping’an, to the three of us, aside from your personal scheming, esteemed State Preceptor, this kind of seemingly easygoing, do-gooder mortal is really not worth mentioning.”

Yu Lu shook his head and said, “Chen Ping’an isn’t that easy to get along with.”

Cui Chan clicked his tongue and said, “You two are evenly matched, truly adorably foolish. Otherwise, I might as well arrange for you two to marry, a match made in heaven… Oh no, for now, it’s a match of handsome man and talented woman, how about it?”

Yu Lu and Xie Xie didn’t respond, because they both knew it was a joke.

Cui Chan stroked a jade pendant at his waist with two fingers, “You simply don’t know that Chen Ping’an is a mirror, which allows the people around him to see their own shortcomings more clearly than usual. So if you spend time with him, anyone with a problem in their own state of mind will run into problems. There was once a stupid girl named Zhu Lu who was forced to her death. Calling her stupid is because she was stupid without realizing it. She did bad things and was still muddled in her heart, which is called being both stupid and bad. As women, compared to our Great Li Empress, she was far inferior. Our Empress, ah, her greatest intelligence lies in, ‘Do you think I don’t know what bad things I’ve done?’ It was precisely this unintentional remark that made me decide to cooperate with her.”

Cui Chan pointed at himself, “According to the veiled words of a certain Daoist Great True Man, everyone has two heartstrings, one good and one evil, hanging in our hearts. Just like Chen Ping’an believes, some things, if they’re right, they’re right, and if they’re wrong, they’re wrong, no matter who does it, no matter who helps to argue, it cannot be changed.”

“The interesting thing is that the difficulty of worldly affairs lies in the fact that to accomplish a great good, you inevitably have to do many small wrongs. Confucian disciples, unwilling to go against their conscience, might not even be able to stay in officialdom, or even climb high in the academy. In the end, they have to hide in their studies and research scholarship, closing the door to build a cart, with very little benefit to the ever-advancing world outside. Some fellows, having stayed in their studies for too long, are full of pedantic and stale air, unable to tolerate any moral flaw in others, criticizing and denouncing at every turn, but are helpless against those thoroughly bad figures in the court. In the end, it can only be a case of declining morality and the collapse of ritual and music.”

Cui Chan didn’t look at the two thoughtful fellows, but stretched out one palm and swiped in front of him, then switched to the other palm and swiped again lower down, “Above is good, below is evil, two strings of the human heart. My, Cui Chan’s, good string is extremely high, almost as high as the heavens, so I can’t see many good people in my eyes. My, Cui Chan’s, evil string is extremely low, so for me, everyone is worthy of interaction and utilization, without any psychological burden. The distance between your two strings is not as great as mine, but it is still not small.”

Cui Chan retracted his left hand, leaving a small gap between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand, and looked down squinting at those two fingers, “Chen Ping’an’s good string is very low, so doing good is a natural thing for him, which is the root of him being treated as a pushover, but you must know that a low good string doesn’t mean that he’s really easy to talk to. Because Chen Ping’an’s evil string is very close to his good string, so when he recognizes something, when he decides to do something, Chen Ping’an will be extremely decisive, for example…killing me.”

“In fact, you two are very clear, no matter how much you look down on Chen Ping’an, you, of course including me, will not be able to be Chen Ping’an’s friends in this lifetime.”

Yu Lu suddenly said, “I can try.”

A cold smile appeared on Xie Xie’s lips.

But when the corner of her eye caught sight of Yu Lu, who was looking up and facing the young State Preceptor, Xie Xie thought of herself on Hengshan, on a large branch, being coerced by Cui Chan to actively find Chen Ping’an and give him a superficial explanation of the path of martial arts.

The girl felt somewhat ashamed.

Then she thought of the slender figure standing on the branch, standing against the wind, with the mountain breeze blowing gently.

She suddenly felt a little inexplicable sadness, she once had such a pure and unblemished state of mind, her eyes always looking into the distance.

“I’ve said so much, wasting a whole vat of saliva, what am I trying to express?”

Cui Chan began to conclude, stood up, and said with a smile, “What I mean is, in the future, you two stupid fools, respect my, Cui Chan’s, teacher from the bottom of your hearts, understand?”

This was the second time today that Yu Lu and Xie Xie looked at each other.

“Two ungrateful, ignorant and presumptuous pitiful trash!”

Cui Chan suddenly flew into a rage for no reason, his face as gloomy as water, he strode forward, and punched Yu Lu hard in the face, “A broken Crown Prince who has been reduced to a criminal, almost had words engraved on his face, do you know how many emperors and princes my Great Li has slaughtered? Trying, you bastard who has now betrayed your surname and ancestors, do you have the qualifications?!”

Yu Lu was caught off guard and took a punch hard, not daring to retaliate in any way, just a little dumbfounded.

Cui Chan turned around, walked towards the dark-skinned girl, and slapped her, “A little bitch whose mountain gate has been smashed to pieces, do you know how many Land Immortals I have personally taken care of?”

The proud girl subconsciously stretched out her hand, grabbed the white-clothed young man’s wrist, preventing his slap from hitting her face, but she immediately felt regret. As expected, Cui Chan’s whole body exuded a terrifying and ferocious aura, staring at the girl. She was so scared that she immediately let go of her hand. Cui Chan looked down at his red and slightly swollen wrist, and slapped the girl hard in the face, and said sternly, “You two dare to look down on Chen Ping’an in any way? He is my, Cui Chan’s, teacher!”

Cui Chan slapped the girl’s face four or five times in a row.

The girl didn’t even dare to rely on the cultivation of a Qi Refiner to relieve the force, and soon her cheeks were swollen and red, and blood oozed from the corners of her mouth.
Cui Chan, filled with murderous intent, seemed unsatisfied with his beating and wanted to find something to use as a weapon. Just then, he turned and saw a familiar figure rushing towards him. Cui Chan froze on the spot.

The uninvited guest had just uttered one word, “Eat…”

But seeing Cui Chan’s moving scene, the fellow quickly swallowed the word “rice” and charged towards Cui Chan, running wildly.

The aura on the young man’s body was probably more like murderous intent.

吓得崔瀺二話不說，連爬帶滾翻過涼亭欄桿，跑向老水井那邊，一邊喊一邊扭頭喊道：“陳平安，你干嘛？！我教訓自家丫鬟仆役，關你屁事……唉，有話好好說，我認錯還不行嗎？咱們都停下來，好好掰扯道理，行不行？”

Chen Ping’an rushed into the pavilion, tapped his toes, leaped high, and flew over the railing like a swift sparrow, landing outside the pavilion and continuing to run towards Cui Chan.

Knowing he couldn’t escape, Cui Chan simply gave up, stood at the mouth of the old well, and said in a trembling voice, “Chen Ping’an, if you really want to beat me to death today, I’ll just commit suicide by jumping into the well! Believe it or not!”

Chen Ping’an continued to charge forward.

Cui Chan was about to jump into the well when Chen Ping’an frowned and suddenly stopped.

Cui Chan took a step out, and at the critical moment, barely managed to pull his foot back, swaying precariously, his life hanging by a thread.

With his current physique, if he fell to the bottom of the well, because of the remaining sword qi, even if he didn’t freeze to death or drown, if Chen Ping’an rescued him, he would probably suffer fundamental damage and lose most of his life.

This showed how truly afraid the young Cui Chan was of Chen Ping’an.

Chen Ping’an carefully looked at Cui Chan, and after a long while, said, “Eat rice.”

Cui Chan cautiously jumped down from the wellhead, still not daring to approach, standing in place and explaining with righteous indignation, “I was just venting my anger for you. Those two look down on you from the bottom of their hearts. I was standing up for you, wanting them to be more polite to you in the future. Is that wrong? You’re calling a good heart a donkey’s liver and lungs!”

Chen Ping’an sneered, “Stop using me as a pretext. You’re just a dog that can’t stop eating sh*t!”

After saying that, Chen Ping’an turned and left. When he passed the pavilion, his tone became much gentler towards the young man and woman, “Lin Shouyi and the others have finished their game of chess. Time to eat.”

Cui Chan smiled instead of being angry, following Chen Ping’an from afar, running in a wobbly manner, his large sleeves flying back and forth, appearing very servile. “As expected of my teacher, much smarter than those two idiots.”

Passing the pavilion, Cui Chan immediately changed his expression when facing the two, scolding, “What are you standing there for? Eat!”

Yu Lu smiled as usual, walked out of the pavilion, and after descending the steps, turned around and asked, “Are you alright?”

Xie Xie’s eyes were tearful. She shook her head.

The tall young man pointed to the corner of his mouth. The girl snapped back to reality, turned her head, and wiped the bloodstains from the corner of her mouth.

The group ate the lavish breakfast prepared by the Autumn Reed Inn. Li Huai ate until his stomach was round. This heartless little brat was completely unaware of the strange atmosphere at the table.

The old scholar smiled at Chen Ping’an, “Let’s go. I’ll take you to browse the bookstores in this prefecture city. We can chat casually. If possible, treat me to a drink.”

The old scholar looked at the eager little girl and smiled, “Want to come along?”

The little girl nodded vigorously, “I’ll go back and get my little book box!”

Lin Shouyi stayed at the inn to continue practicing breathing exercises using the secret methods recorded in the *Cloud Above Langlang Book*. Li Huai was simply too lazy to move and didn’t want to go shopping, only reminding Chen Ping’an to bring back something delicious for him. Cui Chan said he had some private matters and wanted to find the innkeeper to see if he could get a cheaper price. Yu Lu and Xie Xie each returned to their rooms.

In the end, only one old man, one big boy, and one little girl left the Autumn Reed Inn, walked through the Flowing Clouds and Water Lane, and went to find bookstores under the guidance of the old scholar.

The little girl kept showing off her book box to the old man, running circles around him, asking if her little book box was pretty. The old man, of course, said yes, yes, yes.

Chen Ping’an had been brewing for a long time, and finally couldn’t help but ask, “Venerable Wen Sheng, are you angry with me?” (*Wen Sheng* – Literary Sage)

The old man was almost praising Li Baoping’s little book box into a flower. Hearing this, he smiled, “Are you talking about rejecting becoming my closed-door disciple? No, no, I’m not angry. I was a little disappointed, but thinking about it again, it’s better this way. Qi Jingchun’s original intention, and Ah Liang’s subsequent following, wasn’t necessarily to give you, Chen Ping’an, something. And me secretly taking your jade hairpin last time, in the end…”

Saying this, the old man made a sweeping gesture with his hand, “It was to make you, Chen Ping’an, just Chen Ping’an. Without too many entanglements, you are just the boy from Niping Lane in the Lizhu Cave Heaven, surnamed Chen, named Ping’an, and then you take Li Baoping and the others on a journey to seek knowledge, that’s all.” (Lizhu Cave Heaven – a specific immortal realm)

The old man smiled, “Ah Liang, that lazy bum, was rarely serious, helping you ensure that these secular existences of the Great Li Dynasty don’t bring you and the children extra burdens. Before, Qi Jingchun had already managed to prevent the… guys above, from interfering. Because of my arrival, it caused your good-tempered immortal sister to show up, so there’s a little trouble, but don’t be afraid, this old, undying me still has some abilities, and will definitely not cause you any trouble. Reasoning with scholars is my specialty.”

The old man patted the young man’s shoulder, “From now on, just study in peace.”

The old man smiled to himself, “A young man’s shoulders should be like this, what national hatred and family feuds, what *haoran zhengqi*, don’t rush it. First, take on the clear breeze and bright moon, the willows swaying, and the grass growing and warbling with birds. A young man’s shoulders should be full of beautiful things.” (*haoran zhengqi* – a sense of righteousness and moral courage)

Li Baoping’s eyes lit up, and she gave the old scholar a thumbs up, praising, “Venerable Wen Sheng, you said that very beautifully.”

The old man laughed heartily and patted his belly, “Of course, I’m carrying a belly full of knowledge.”

Chen Ping’an looked at the old scholar and the little girl teasing each other, took a deep breath, and felt something warm in his heart. He couldn’t feel anything on his shoulders, but his heart was already warm.