Chapter 217 (1): Sword Immortal

Chapter 217 (1): Sword Immortal

Anyone who had ventured into the world for any substantial period of time had some trump cards up their sleeve.

As soon as the scholar with the Chu surname heard Chen Ping'an utter the word "First," he felt a sense of foreboding, and he knew that this was most likely one of Chen Ping'an's trump cards.

However, he couldn't identify where this sense of peril was coming from. His mind was racing, and he gritted his teeth as a white ball slid out of his sleeve. The ball was glowing brightly even in the darkness of the night, and it was clear that it was no ordinary object.

The scholar clutched the ball tightly in his hand, and it melted like wax in the face of fire, turning into a liquid as viscous as mercury. The stream of liquid then quickly spread over his arm and soon covered his entire body. All of a sudden, it was as if he had put on a suit of pristine white armor.

The breastplate at the center of the suit of armor was shimmering brightly, and it had been forged to resemble the suits of radiant armo worn by deity statues in the temples and monasteries of the mortal world.

If it weren't for the fact that the scholar could sense that his life was under threat, he would've sooner reverted back to his true form than use this priceless armor pellet. Armor pellets were supreme Militarian treasures extremely revered and sought after, and there was no ceiling to how expensive they could be.

Furthermore, demand had always far outweighed supply for these things, and they were generally jointly forged by Mohist mechanists and cultivators from the talismanic branch of Daoism.

In their normal state, armor pellets were fist-sized balls that were very portable and didn't take up much space. Upon being injected with True Qi, they instantly transformed into an all-encompassing suit of indestructible armor.

The armor protecting the scholar was giving off a layer of faintly rippling white light, illuminating the surrounding rain-covered ground a bright white color, and as he rose to his feet, he appeared far calmer than before as he said with a wry smile, "You've truly screwed me over, kid.

“I prepared this suit of radiant armor in the potential case of a disagreement when splitting the spoils and both Daoist White Deer and that mountain god turned on me, but now that I've been forced to reveal it, they'll already know that I have this suit of armor in my possession, so what am I to do now?"

Despite the casual tone of his voice, the scholar didn't dare to let down his guard in the slightest. He was rather perplexed about why there had been no followup after Chen Ping'an had uttered the word "First". No sword had flown out of the opposite room from his wooden box, nor had any allies lurking in the shadows sprang forth to make their presence known.

The scholar knew that Chen Ping'an definitely wasn't the type of person who liked to make jokes.

With just two punches, Chen Ping'an had almost forced him to revert back to his true form, and he was confident that even that brash saber-wielding man with his fourth tier powers wouldn't have been able to achieve the same feat.

Hence, even though this "First" was yet to make an appearance, the scholar knew that as soon as it appeared, it would definitely be a formidable opponent, or a powerful treasure, either of which would be sure to pose a serious threat to him.

Meanwhile, a slightly frustrated look appeared on Chen Ping'an's face as he gave the Sword Nurturing Gourd hanging from his waist a firm slap.

Inside the Sword Nurturing Gourd, First had inexplicably undergone a drastic change in personality. Prior to this, it had been very violent and short-tempered, often administering physical punishment upon Chen Ping'an for no reason.

However, upon leaving Downtrodden Mountain, it had become extremely lazy, laying around and doing nothing all day, and it couldn't even be bothered to punish Chen Ping'an anymore. Even after that firm slap of the Sword Nurturing Gourd, First remained completely unmoved, hovering in a stationary manner in the space within the Sword Nurturing Gourd.

In contrast, Fifteenth was buzzing around incessantly, voluntarily engaging in communication with Chen Ping'an to the best of its abilities, as if it were telling him that if First didn't want to heed his call, then it would be happy to fight in First's stead.

After attaining sentience, the pair of flying swords resembled infants that were still not yet able to speak. They possessed intelligence, but not to a very high degree, and they still acted mostly according to their instincts.

They could clearly sense Chen Ping'an's intentions and emotions, but communication was often quite difficult between them. Furthermore, Chen Ping'an only had a vague sense of what they were feeling at any given point in time, which further impeded their communication.

However, this was not so obvious to Chen Ping'an as he had only just begun to learn to read and was still only at the stage of learning the pronunciations and definitions of characters, so he was still far from the stage where he could dissect characters and glean their implicit meanings. After all, he was nowhere near as well-read as the likes of Cui Chan or Wei Bo.

Chen Ping'an took a moment to examine the suit of armor worn by the scholar with the Chu surname, then decided not to use Fifteenth for now. Instead, he was going to take this opportunity to test out the power of his fists so that he could gauge what level he was at as a third tier martial artist.

With that in mind, he asked, "What tier of Qi refinement have you reached?"

"I'm only at the fifth tier," the scholar replied with a smile.

Of course, he was being modest in his use of the word "only."

He was only one tier away from reaching the Middle Five Tiers, and that was certainly nothing to be scoffed at. Even in major cultivating sects, cultivators of the Middle Five Tiers were considered to be extremely valuable assets, and they were either elders of lofty status or figures with substantial administrative power in their respective sects, and this was even more true for tiny nations like Ancient Elm Nation and Colorful Garment Nation.

However, Chen Ping'an was rather ignorant to such intricacies, and he took the scholar's statement at face value. Thus, the scholar's attempt at modesty fell upon deaf ears. To Chen Ping'an, his interlocutor was one of the fifth tier "great demons" that Zhang Shan had spoken of, and the young man flexed his wrists from side to side as a faint smile appeared on his face.

He couldn't beat the female ghost in the red wedding dress, but he could certainly try his hand at this opponent. If he could beat the scholar to death with his fists, then that would naturally be best, but even if he couldn't, he always had his flying swords to bail him out.

Even back when Chen Ping'an had only just begun practicing fist techniques, he had dared to lead that Mountain-moving Ape of Sun Scorch Mountain on a wild goose chase. Setting aside how much power he possessed, he was certainly not lacking in courage.

In fact, very few martial artists in this world could match him in this regard. Of course, that didn't mean that he was brash and reckless. On the contrary, his caution and intelligence in battles were also strong suits of his.

An exasperated look appeared on the scholar's face. "Why do you still insist on a fight?"

Chen Ping'an gave him a very straightforward answer: "If I don't beat you, my friend and that man with the saber will be in a lot of danger."

A cold look appeared in the scholar's eyes. He was a fifth tier cultivator who was used to being respected and revered, even by the imperial clan of Ancient Elm Nation, so he was naturally no pushover.

"It sounds like you're not going to repent until you've met an early grave! Let me tell you this: there are still two other people just as formidable as myself waiting to pounce outside the estate. Are you sure you want to get involved in this? Do you really think I'm scared of you?"

Chen Ping'an's response instantly had the scholar fuming.

"Whether you're scared of me or not has nothing to do with whether I'm going to fight you."

Chen Ping'an took a deep breath, and he had wasted this much time talking to the scholar not because he was trying to show off or anything like that. Instead, he was taking this time to gauge the attitudes of the two flying swords in his Sword Nurturing Gourd.

That was a key factor that determined how he was going to approach this fight.

Back when it first appeared in Chen Ping'an's house on Clay Vase Alley, First had emerged in the form of a tiny streak of white light suspended in mid-air. Even though its blade was very slender, it was filled with a vast aura of righteousness, and it had displayed itself in its full power and glory without making any attempt at concealment.

In contrast, Fifteenth, which Chen Ping'an had obtained from Old Man Yang, was less direct and confrontational. It had a more peaceful disposition, and whenever it moved around inside the Sword Nurturing Gourd, it would always do so in a jerky manner, moving extremely quickly with abrupt stops and starts.

Furthermore, whenever it drew close to the inner wall of the Sword Nurturing Gourd, it would always come to an abrupt halt just short of striking the wall, in stark contrast with First, which would always fly around wildly inside the gourd, crashing into its walls with reckless abandon.

Hence, Chen Ping'an had determined that Little Capital—or, as Chen Ping'an had renamed it, First—was sharper than Fifteenth and also more sturdy. Its flaws, however, were also very clear, namely its lackluster speed and how difficult it was for Chen Ping'an to control. Hence, whenever Chen Ping'an used it, he would always find it to be lacking in precision and accuracy.