Chen Pingan, nearing the stone arch bridge, swallowed nervously, hesitant to proceed. After a brief internal struggle, he decided to follow the stream upwards. Reaching the narrowest point where the stream constricted, he sprinted and leaped across, finally reaching the path leading to the green ox’s back. Unbeknownst to Chen Pingan, his detour caused him to miss Ruan Xiu. The girl in green robes, carrying a pot of Peach Blossom Spring wine, dashed across the bridge. This time, while buying wine in the town, she lowered her head and hurried past the New Year’s money shop, afraid of being captivated by the dazzling pastries, as she was now saving up her own private funds.

Chen Pingan first went to Liu Xianyang’s residence. He lit an oil lamp, carrying it as he walked through the house, inside and out, ensuring nothing was missing. Only after confirming all the household belongings were accounted for, did he extinguish the lamp, lock the door, and return to Mud Bottle Lane. Passing the old, collapsed house with a gaping hole, Chen Pingan breathed a sigh of relief. The burden on his shoulders remained, but it felt significantly lighter than when he had left Mud Bottle Lane before. Chen Pingan couldn’t help but secretly rejoice; the feeling of having money in his pocket wasn’t bad at all!

In his entire life, Chen Pingan had only seen broken silver pieces. Heavy silver ingots were something he had never laid eyes on, let alone the legendary gold, as rare as immortals.

Back at his ancestral home, Chen Pingan opened the door, immediately running to make sure the courtyard gate was securely fastened. Returning inside, he carefully lit an oil lamp. The dim, yellow light illuminated the cold, mud walls. From a pottery jar at the base of the wall, Chen Pingan retrieved three money pouches: Spring Welcoming Money, Offering Money, and Amulet Money, containing twenty-five, twenty-six, and twenty-eight gold-essence copper coins respectively.

Seventy-nine copper coins in total.

Regarding these coins of extraordinary origin, Ning Yao had roughly explained that they were an extension of worldly currency. Their value, bordering on priceless, stemmed from their rarity. The most crucial reason, however, was that outsiders needed these coins as tokens to enter the small town. As for the origin of this unwritten rule, it was lost in antiquity. Ning Yao, not being a native of Eastern Treasure Bottle Continent, naturally couldn’t provide a detailed explanation.

From each type of coin, Chen Pingan took one and placed it on the table. The Spring Welcoming Money was inscribed with the auspicious phrase “New Year Great Fortune,” with openwork carvings of flowing auspicious clouds and an armored deity beating a drum.

The Amulet Money depicted the five poisonous creatures—snake, scorpion, centipede, gecko, and toad—on its front. The back bore the four characters “Heavenly Center Wards Off Evil,” along with an image of a turtle and snake entwined around a sword.

The Offering Money simply had the characters “Sincerity Brings Divine Response” on the front and “Immortals Above” on the back, lacking any elaborate designs and appearing the most plain.

Chen Pingan picked up a Spring Welcoming Coin, examining it repeatedly. The youth found it difficult to imagine that such a small coin could buy the entire Pearl Mountain. Chen Pingan knew that what Master Ruan referred to as a small hill was a place Yao the Old Man had first taken him when searching for soil. The soil’s properties could be classified by weight, fertility, and many other categories. More complicated was the need to identify which element the soil was naturally inclined towards – water, fire, metal, or wood. There were many subtleties involved. Chen Pingan had only learned seventy or eighty percent of Yao the Old Man’s “soil-eating” knowledge.

On that unremarkable Pearl Mountain, Yao the Old Man had stomped his foot and then said to Chen Pingan, who was digging in the earth, “The soil here is the most complete, but unfortunately, the place is too small, like a person crammed into a corner. You bump your head if you stretch it, and trip if you stretch your legs. In common parlance, such places are called ‘snail shells’.”

Chen Pingan gently placed the Spring Welcoming Coin down and picked up the Amulet Money, but quickly put it back down, a shadow passing over his face.

The fifth day of the fifth month was when the five poisonous creatures emerged. Ironically, it was also the youth’s birthday. Song Jixin from next door had even said that in many places, children born on this day were considered unlucky, with some even being drowned in the river.

Chen Pingan shook his head and picked up the last coin, the Offering Money, with its simple eight characters on either side.

Chen Pingan suddenly recalled something. When he first saw Ning Girl and Fu Nanhua and Cai Jinjian, he remembered them needing to give the gatekeeper a bag of copper coins each when entering the town. So, who ended up with those copper coins? Did they go into the private coffers of the Emperor of Great Li?

Chen Pingan sighed, not bothering to think about questions he couldn’t possibly understand. He began to mentally calculate. Master Ruan had said that Pearl Mountain only needed one Spring Welcoming Coin. Medium-sized mountains like Xuan Li Mountain and Lotus Lantern Peak would probably cost ten to fifteen coins. Large mountains like the Dry Spring Mountain Range and Fragrant Fire Mountain would require twenty-five to thirty coins.

Chen Pingan grasped Master Ruan’s implied meaning with little effort.

First, the Great Li Dynasty respected Master Ruan greatly, so they were freely giving him three mountains. Second, since Master Ruan wanted to establish a sect, it was best if the three mountains were connected and clustered together, otherwise having one in the east and one in the west would be inappropriate. This was probably where the court was clever, knowing that Master Ruan couldn’t possibly pick three of the most valuable mountains, so they were pretending to be generous. Finally, he, Chen Pingan, would of course need to follow Master Ruan and select mountains. Of course, Chen Pingan thought he could select one or two small or medium mountains elsewhere, like Pearl Mountain, which was very suitable. A small, unattended hill was something Chen Pingan particularly cared about. No matter how small, it was still an entire mountain, and it only cost one coin! Chen Pingan felt he had to acquire this hill and keep it safe!

Chen Pingan was not uninterested in the most expensive mountains, the Dry Spring Mountain Range, Divine Show Mountain, and Fragrant Fire Mountain that Master Ruan had mentioned. He would strive to buy a large mountain that was only slightly worse than them, expecting it to cost at most a pouch of gold-essence copper coins. Then he would buy some small hills like Pearl Mountain, aiming to spend about ten copper coins. All the remaining coins would be used to follow Master Ruan’s lead. Wherever he chose three large mountains, Chen Pingan would buy nearby, buy more, and buy as much as he could!

As for that unnamed large mountain with the Dragon Slaying Platform, Chen Pingan had completely given up on it, warning himself never to touch it. Even if no one knew about it and it was an excellent opportunity right in front of him, Chen Pingan would never buy it. Now the town welcomed guests from all directions, no longer the closed-off Lihua Small Paradise it once was. Even Chen Pingan could walk the hundreds of miles of mountain roads, so who could it stop in the future, let alone those immortals flying around on swords?

However, before spending money to buy mountains, Chen Pingan planned to personally go into the mountains one more time.

Spending so much money at once, without knowing what he was buying beforehand, even though he knew it was a profitable and guaranteed business, Chen Pingan would still feel uneasy all over.

This was simply because he was used to hardship.

Chen Pingan currently had eight snake gallstones that hadn’t faded at all. The remaining snake gallstones were hidden in his home and Liu Xianyang’s home, in considerable numbers. Perhaps because they had escaped the stream early and “avoided disaster,” although their color and luster had faded to varying degrees, and they didn’t look as bright and comfortable as when they came out of the water, they still had a bit of “spiritual energy.” This indescribable feeling was like when Chen Pingan first saw Gu Can in Mud Bottle Lane or Li Baoping in Fortune Street, he immediately knew they were clever and intelligent children.

Chen Pingan put away the three pouches of gold-essence copper coins and returned them to the pottery jar. At the thought of asking Master Ruan for leave to go into the mountains again, Chen Pingan felt a bit of a headache.

Yao the Old Man was like that, and so was Master Ruan. Chen Pingan suspected that he didn’t have much of a connection with elders, especially with masters.

Chen Pingan squatted down in the corner next to the bamboo basket, staring at the Dragon Slaying Platform inside. He reached out and stroked the black stone’s fine texture, which was cool to the touch. He was curious how such an unremarkable stone could be related to immortals like Ning Girl who stepped on swords, and he couldn’t imagine how sharp the Dragon Slaying Platform could sharpen a sword.

Chen Pingan suddenly thought of something. He took out the five locust leaves. Back then, the little girl in the red cotton-padded coat had picked up eight from the old locust tree, and Chen Pingan had given her three as payment. Chen Pingan carefully examined the locust leaves. Seemingly thin, they were actually quite tough. It was a pity that they had lost the ethereal green glow that flowed along their veins. Chen Pingan guessed that that was probably the so-called ancestral blessing, with only a few traces of green remaining at certain points.

Chen Pingan carefully inserted the five locust leaves into the Shaking Mountain Fist manual.

After doing all this, Chen Pingan went outside and began practicing stances in the courtyard.

Both neighbors on the left and right had already moved away.

Chen Pingan quickly immersed himself in the fist stances, completely forgetting himself.

His fist intent flowed like a stream.

Ning Yao Girl had said that practicing the fist a million times was only the beginning of martial arts.

Chen Pingan had no intention of being lazy.

He inadvertently thought of the vermillion dot ink characters on the wooden dummy, those legendary orifices and qi mansions through which qi flowed in and out.

His body felt comfortable and hot all over, as if there was a fire dragon quickly traveling through him, moving from head to toe, bumping and stumbling, not smoothly. Those orifices were like dilapidated and rough passes, and the roads between the passes were definitely not the Road to Yangguan. Some were wide but uneven, some were narrow and steep. When the fire dragon passed, it swayed, like a pedestrian walking across an iron chain bridge.

Finally, the fire dragon shuttled back and forth between several qi mansions near the lower dantian, seeming to look for the most suitable place for it to settle, as a dragon palace.

Ning Yao had said that there were three realms in martial arts body refinement. The first realm was the Mud Embryo Realm. When one reached the peak and perfection, one would give birth to a qi, like a mud bodhisattva sitting high on the altar. The qi would sink into the dantian, unmoving as a mountain. The body would have a new atmosphere, and it would begin to nourish the flesh, muscles, and bones, making the whole person seem to come back to life from withered wood. Many impurities and blockages would be expelled little by little.

Chen Pingan was walking on this road.

Without the guidance of a famous teacher, it could not be considered a lucky break.

He was relying on diligence to make up for his shortcomings, the whole eight years of going up and down mountains, traversing mountains and ridges, and a kind of breathing and exhaling that was crude but got the method.

Eight years, and he had not yet broken through the first realm of martial arts.

In the secular dynasties and the world of Jianghu, except for Ning Yao’s hometown, it was said that the poor studied literature and the rich studied martial arts. Fortunately, in the path of martial arts, there was no vulgar custom of comparing the speed of realm ascension. The more advanced the person, the more accomplished the grandmaster, the more they valued the solid foundation of each step, the solidity of each level of martial arts. However, someone as slow as Chen Pingan, it wasn’t embarrassing, after all, countless young people from powerful families were indeed blocked outside the first threshold. Throughout their lives, they couldn’t find the existence of that qi. But so far, Chen Pingan definitely couldn’t be considered a martial arts genius.

Chen Pingan suddenly “woke up” and gently exhaled a mouthful of turbid qi.

He walked slowly in the courtyard, gradually relaxing his limbs.

Chen Pingan looked down and saw the locust branch leaning against the corner of the wall. Suddenly, he had a fanciful idea: he wanted to carve a wooden sword for himself.

When he was a child after his parents left, Chen Pingan always watched the other children playing from afar at the Immortal’s Grave. Girls mostly flew kites, while boys used wooden or bamboo swords made by their fathers, sparring vigorously. Chen Pingan had always wanted one, but later becoming a pottery apprentice, he was too busy and tired all year round, so he gave up the idea.

Chen Pingan squatted in front of the locust branch, thinking that making one wooden sword was definitely not a problem, but making two would be more difficult.

Chen Pingan first moved the locust branch to the outside of the house and then took the firewood knife he used to open roads in the mountains, preparing to make a wooden sword for himself.

But when Chen Pingan sat on the doorstep with the firewood knife, he hesitated, thought about it, and put the knife back. He felt that the old locust tree couldn’t be regarded as just an old tree, after all, Mr. Qi had a conversation with the locust tree. So, the locust branch in front of him made Chen Pingan feel awkward.

Chen Pingan put the locust branch back against the base of the wall, found that he really had no sleepiness, and left the courtyard. After locking the door, he walked out of Mud Bottle Lane.

He came to the stone arch bridge as if possessed, thinking that he couldn’t jump in the river every time he crossed the bank. He gritted his teeth and walked onto the stone bridge, sitting on the middle stone slab again, his feet hanging over the stream. Chen Pingan was a little nervous, looking down at the dark water surface, and muttered, “Whether you are a god or a monster, we should have no grievances or hatred. If you really have something to say to me, don’t dream of me anymore. I’m here now, just tell me.”

An incense stick, a quarter of an hour, an hour.

Apart from being a little cold, Chen Pingan didn’t notice anything unusual.

Chen Pingan supported himself on the stone slab with both hands, swinging his feet, looking into the distance. When he was very young, he was curious where the end of the stream would be.

Chen Pingan was in a daze.

Liu Xianyang, Gu Can, Ning Girl, Mr. Qi, Yao the Old Man, they were all gone.

Chen Pingan had never been so wealthy.

But the boy had also never been so lonely.

—————

On the stone bridge behind the straw-sandal-clad boy, a tall figure in snow-white and splendid clothes, like an immortal and ghost, was also supporting himself on the stone slab with both hands, his feet hanging in the air, looking up at the sky.

However, this scene, not to mention Chen Pingan who had started talking to himself, even Yang the Old Man and Ruan Qiong could not detect.