Unsheathed-Chapter 428 (1): Time for Autumn Hunting, Please Enter the Trap

The autumn wind rises, the crab roe is succulent. This was the best time to enjoy golden garb crabs in Pond Water City, and the entire city would be filled with the unique fragrance of the crabs whenever it was mealtime.

In fact, some people would travel thousands of kilometers from the Luminous Vermilion Empire to drink and enjoy crab at all kinds of waterside residences and restaurants where they had good relationships. Of course, few people from the Stone Brush Nation which was located closest to Bamboo Scroll Lake came to Pond Water City to enjoy the delicious crab this year. After all, even staying alive was a challenge right now.

The meeting between island masters in Bamboo Scroll Lake was set to begin in about ten or so days, and approximately one hundred island masters would travel to Palace Willow Island, an island where the island master had been absent for many years. There, they would vote for a new ruler of the lake.

The River Severing True Lord, Liu Zhimao, from Cyan Gorge Island was naturally expected to win the popular vote.

However, this was Bamboo Scroll Lake, a place where more than four hundred vagrant cultivators had joined forces to encircle and kill a Nascent Tier cultivator and a Golden Core Tier cultivator immediately after leaving the harmonious banquet.

Another piece of news spread throughout Pond Water City over the past two days, saying that Little Devil Gu was going to visit the city to enjoy some crab. Because of this, Pond Water City's Young City Lord Fan Yan had already started to spend huge sums of money to purchase the fattest and most succulent golden garb crabs available from Bamboo Scroll Lake. This was an extremely rare breed of golden garb crab called the bamboo branch.

These crabs were extremely large, and they were filled with an abundant amount of water fortune essence. Ordinary fishermen didn't need to dream about catching a single one of these crabs in their lifetimes. In fact, they wouldn't even be able to catch a glimpse of one. Indeed, this breed of golden garb crab was a type of treasure that could only be caught by lucky Abode Tier cultivators.

Cyan Gorge Island was at the peak of its power right now, and Liu Zhimao finally stopped expanding his territory and force during the past year. Like a person voraciously wolfing down their food, he had finally become bloated and needed to rest for a while to digest what he had eaten. Otherwise, things might appear great on the surface, yet there would be instability and disunity among the members of the force. Liu Zhimao remained very conscious of this issue, so he was very strict when screening the vagrant cultivator who came to join Cyan Gorge Island. Regarding the specifics, everything was handled by one of his disciples, a female cultivator called Tian Hujun.

She had initially been Gu Can's second senior sister, yet she had eventually become just senior sister. After all, their senior brother had already been killed by Junior Brother Gu Can, so they naturally couldn't leave the position vacant for too long. That would be unreasonable, and it would also be a bad look for their force.

Right now, there was a large group of young cultivators and wealthy descendants with impressive backgrounds hanging out with Gu Can. For example, Young City Lord Fan Yan from Pond Water City was the only child of the city lord, and he was going to host a banquet for his so-called Big Brother Gu. He was completely spoiled by his mother, so much so that he wasn't even afraid of the heavens. It was said that he would not yield to any terrestrial immortals or whatnot, and would only admire truly gallant heroes.

To put it simply, he was someone without a brain.

He was close to thirty years old, yet he still liked to refer to Gu Can as Big Brother Gu. Because of these reasons, everyone in Pond Water City liked to view him as nothing more than a joke.

Apart from him, there was also Cyan Gorge Island's Fourth Brother Qin Jue and Sixth Brother Chao Zhe, and they were both very outstanding cultivators in Bamboo Scroll Lake. Not only did they possess impressive talent, but they never showed any mercy when slaughtering their victims either. They were both capable generals who fought alongside the River Severing True Lord as they conquered new lands.

There was also Lü Caisang, the junior brother of Oriole Island's island master. He was several hundred years younger than his senior brother, but because he was the last disciple taken by the old ancestor before he entered seclusion, he enjoyed a surprisingly lofty status.

Before Cyan Gorge Island had flourished and grown in power, Oriole Island had been one of the few large islands that could rival its power. Of course, things had now changed, and it was definitely no longer able to rival Cyan Gorge Island.

There was also Yuan Yuan, the young island master of Drumbeat Island who had the nickname Roundy.[1] His parents were immortal Dao partners, with both of them being at the Golden Core Tier. His mother's surname was Yuan, and his father's surname was Yuan, and it was actually his father who had married his mother's family, hence his surname was Yuan instead of Yuan.[2]

Yuan Yuan's mother was a shrewish and unreasonable woman, so much so that she even caused headaches for Liu Zhimao. Most importantly, it was said that this female cultivator had a very powerful background, having once been the adored mistress of a Nascent Tier sword cultivator in the Luminous Vermilion Empire.

In addition, there was also Prince Han Jingling of the Stone Brush Nation as well as Huang He, the son of a great general.

All in all, there was Gu Can, the profligate Fan Yan, Qin Jue, Chao Zhe, Lü Caisang, Yuan Yuan, Han Jingling, Huang He, and Senior Sister Tian Hujun, the person who didn't like to show herself in public yet always needed to look to Gu Can for directions.

Apart from Tian Hujun who was forcefully dragged into the group by Gu Can, the remaining eight people were all like-minded individuals. Following Gu Can's suggestion, they had caught a large rooster from some unknown place and smeared its blood on their lips to become brothers and form an alliance. They referred to themselves as the Ten Heroes of Bamboo Scroll Lake.

To say nothing of everyone else in Bamboo Scroll Lake, even the eight other members of the group couldn't help but grumble in confusion. There were clearly nine of them, so why did they refer to themselves as the ten heroes?

At the time, Little Devil Gu Can had stood barefoot on the chair beside the main chair, hopping around as he pointed at the empty main chair and saying with a grin that they would leave this position vacant for the moment.

Gu Can was still very young, yet he had grown like a bamboo shoot in the spring rain after arriving at Bamboo Scroll Lake. His height had increased significantly over the past year, and he was as tall as young boys who were fourteen or fifteen years old even though he was only ten years old.

There were some rumors swirling around, saying that the flood dragon that liked to snack on cultivators was able to feed its energy back to Little Devil Gu and thus temper his physique. Of all the assassination attempts that Gu Can had faced, only one at Cyan Gorge Island had come very close to success.

That time, the assassin had swung his saber and viciously struck Little Devil Gu in the back. If Gu Can were an ordinary mortal, then he would have definitely been killed on the spot. Even if he were a Qi refiner at the Lower Five Tiers, he would have needed to recuperate in bed for at least two to three years.

However, he had quickly reappeared on the island after just two short weeks. Sitting on the head of the flood dragon that he liked to call Little Catfish, he had continued to merrily wander around Bamboo Scroll Lake.

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Gazing out at Bamboo Scroll Lake from the tall buildings in Pond Water City today, one could see a gigantic louchuan slowly sailing over. The louchuan was the same height as the city wall of Pond Water City.

The gigantic louchuan sliced through the water, giving rise to small waves that created faint and imperceptible ripples on the lake more than three hundred meters away.

A person who looked like a young boy was surprisingly dressed in dark green official garb and sitting barefoot on the railing at the bow of the ship. He swung his legs back and forth, habitually sniffing from time to time as if there were still two trails of snot hanging from his nose even though so many years had passed and even though he had grown so much taller. It was as if he needed to drag the two green dragons back into their den.

There were three people standing behind him, with one of them being Senior Sister Tian Hujun who now controlled the life and death of almost ten thousand people in Cyan Gorge Island and its vassal islands. She already possessed a sense of dignity and might similar to that of the River Severing True Lord. Standing to her left and right were her two junior brothers, Qin Jue and Chao Zhe.

Standing behind them was a row of a dozen or so beautiful and shapely open collar ladies, all with their own unique attractiveness. Since they were traveling outside, however, they were now wearing relatively conservative and refined dresses instead of leaving their collars extremely low and open.

Meanwhile, in the water beneath the louchuan...

There was the "small catfish" that measured several hundred meters in length.

Young City Lord Fan Yan of Pond Water City had already cleared out the dock and seized it for private use, shooing away all outsiders who weren't part of Gu Can's group. Right now, Young Island Master Yuan Yuan from Drumbeat Island, Lü Caisang whom a large group of old white-haired cultivators from Oriole Island referred to as young ancestor, and Prince Han Jingling of the Stone Brush Nation, who had already sought refuge here for half a year, were standing together on the dock and enjoying a hearty conversation with each other.

Only Huang He, the son of a great general of the Stone Brush Nation, was absent due to factors out of his control. This was inevitable, as his father who commanded sixty thousand elite soldiers in the southeastern region of the Stone Brush Nation was rumored to have betrayed the emperor not too long ago, surrendering to the heavy cavalry of the Great Li Empire.

Not only that, but he even planned to support Prince Han Jingling and prop him up as the new emperor of the Stone Brush Nation. Thus, he was extremely busy at this moment, and Huang He wasn't spared either. In the end, he could only ask someone to deliver a secret letter to Pond Water City, telling Brother Han Jingling to sit tight and wait for the good news.

The silhouette of Pond Water City became increasingly clear.

Tian Hujun walked over to the railing and asked in a quiet voice, "Are we truly going to change our route when entering the city and purposely give those assassins an opportunity?"

Cui Can placed his hands behind his head and replied with a grin, "Or else? Did you truly think that I came here just to eat some crabs? I've eaten so much of this crap that I'm almost about to vomit. Not only that, but it's also incredibly annoying to eat these crabs, and they're not even as delicious as the fried crabs from the small stream in my hometown. Those were deliciously crunchy, and I didn't even need to use chopsticks to eat them. That was the definition of deliciousness. You bumpkins from Bamboo Scroll Lake don't understand shit! You feel all smug and mighty simply because you have a few more stinky coins in your pockets. But look at me, do I need to bring any silver with me? Do I need to bring a large group of subordinates with me?"

Tian Hujun smiled and replied, "Junior Brother is a dragon among mortals, so mortals like us naturally can't compare to you."

Cui Can leaned back and turned his head, chuckling, "Senior Sister, you won't gain the right to become an open collar lady even if you flatter me like this. You're too ugly, and your chest is also too small. Tsk, how pitiful. To ordinary-looking women like you, any mirror in the world is essentially a demon-exposing mirror."

Tian Hujun smiled awkwardly, not thinking that this was a bad thing at all.

On a serene path beside the lake far away from the ferry station, there stood a middle-aged man next to a yellowing willow tree. He gazed at the louchuan in Bamboo Scroll Lake from afar, and he grabbed the wine gourd from his waist, lifting it up and putting it down again and again. He couldn't bring himself to drink.

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As the local residents of the Dragon Spring Prefecture became increasingly familiar with the so-called immortals from the mountains, some people finally came to the realization that not all doctors in the world could concoct medicines that would allow one to sleep peacefully and without pain when one was suffering severe sickness.

At the same time, the Dragon Spring Sword Sect continued to recruit new disciples, even taking disciples from among the prisoners and refugees from the Lu Empire. Two children ascended to the heavens in a single step, becoming little immortals in Divine Elegance Mountain.

The Yang Family's medicine shop started to become busy, with many middle-aged women bringing their children and young relatives to the medicine shop and doing everything they could to meet an immortal. Moreover, it was obviously Old Man Yang who was always sitting in the backyard who they suspected most of being an immortal.

Due to the chaotic scenes, the Yang Family's medicine shop was almost forced to close its doors. Every generation of the Yang Clan would have a clan rule passed down by their ancestors, and the clan leader felt so ashamed at these scenes that he almost fell to his knees and kowtowed to Old Man Yang in apology.

The visitors were all residents from nearby or familiar faces from the small town, and they were able to get closer to the Yang Family's medicine shop through all kinds of networks and relationships. The Yang Clan wasn't part of the small town's Four Families and Ten Clans, and it was instead just a relatively well-off clan. Thus, it wouldn't be a good look if the medicine shop started to shoo patients and customers away. In any case, they wouldn't be able to shoo these persistent people away unless they truly steeled their resolve and resorted to physical intervention.

Left with no other option, the medicine shop eventually hired people to stand at the entrance, sincerely explaining to everyone that Old Man Yang wasn't an old immortal or whatnot. Rather, he was just an old man who knew a few secret prescriptions passed down by their ancestors.

However, who would believe these unconvincing explanations? The more the medicine shop tried to explain, the more people grew suspicious that Old Man Yang was a powerful figure concealing his true identity.

Fortunately, Old Man Yang didn't seem to care too much about these matters, and he didn't order the Yang Clan to directly shut down their medicine shop. Instead, he told them to announce that he knew some physiognomy and bone-appraising techniques, but he would need to charge the customers for each child that he tested for cultivation aptitude. Moreover, the price wasn't cheap, costing a whopping one snowflake coin per child.

The residents of the small town had been poor for far too long, so even those who had suddenly become rich and wanted to give their descendants an opportunity to become an immortal in the mountains wouldn't waste away their money as if it were nothing. Some people sold many of their possessions, doing everything they could to save up one thousand taels of silver. Meanwhile, some people borrowed money from their friends who had suddenly gained immense wealth after selling off their ancestral heirlooms. Of course, the large majority of people chose to sit back and observe the situation first.

On the first day, not too many people visited the medicine shop to have their children examined for cultivation aptitude. Old Man Yang spoke a lot of profound and incomprehensible immortal terms, yet this wasn't important to the customers. What was important was the fact that Old Man Yang simply shook his head again and again, saying that not a single person possessed cultivation aptitude.

When the number of customers started to dwindle, the medicine shop made another announcement that customers wouldn't need to pay a snowflake coin anymore. Instead, they only needed to buy some medicine from the medicine shop. They were all neighbors, after all, so charging one snowflake coin was indeed a little unreasonable.

This announcement caused the number of customers to drop off a cliff.

The Yang Family's medicine shop had gone mad thinking about money!

Afterward, many previous customers started to regret their spending, going to the Yang Family's medicine shop to ask for a refund of their one snowflake coin. They cried and rolled on the ground, pulling no stops in an attempt to get their money back.

The medicine shop was extremely firm regarding this matter, refusing to take a backward step and refund its customers. To say nothing of one snowflake coin, it wasn't even willing to refund its customers a single copper coin. The transactions had been voluntary and mutual, so was there any reason for them to provide a refund? Did they truly think that the Yang Family's medicine shop was a charity?

Everyone was turned back, yet news suddenly spread one day that a person who had a good relationship with the Yang Family's medicine shop had become drunk and revealed that he had taken advantage of his relationship with the medicine shop to ask for his money back. Moreover, even the shop attendants admitted that Old Man Yang was actually a scammer who was mechanically applying the principles that he had learned from an old and tattered fortune-telling book. In fact, everything that the medicine shop had announced before was on purpose and according to their plans. It was for no other reason than to make more money.

Chaos ensued.

The reputation of the Yang Family's medicine shop was obliterated in a single night, and the descendants of the Yang Clan were all like rats as they scampered along the streets. They grumbled in displeasure, and they asked their clan leader to fire that old man who dared to act mysteriously and scam customers even though he was a talentless hack. They wanted to kick him out of the medicine shop.

However, the clan leader went to great lengths to defend the old man and appease his restless clan members.

Afterward, the medicine shop finally became peaceful and quiet.

Even if Old Man Yang and the medicine shop begged people to come to have their fortunes told, it was very likely that not a single person would come. In fact, they would refuse to accept the offer even if it was free of charge. Of course, it would be a different story if they were paid to go.

Business at the medicine shop was so poor that people didn't even care about the fact that two shop attendants had now changed. One was a kiln worker from Dragon Riding Alley, and one was a child from Peach Leaf Alley.

When it came to these trivial matters, outsiders watched for fun, insiders watched to determine one's skills, while those who were fated would watch to observe the Great Dao.

1. Yuan Yuan's (元袁) name is a homonym with the character for round (圆), hence his nickname Roundy. ☜

2. This is confusing in English, but there is a clear distinction in Chinese where his mother's surname is Yuan (元) and his father's surname is Yuan (袁). ☜