Unsheathed

Chapter 428 (4): Time for Autumn Hunting, Please Enter the Trap

Chapter 428 (4): Time for Autumn Hunting, Please Enter the Trap

At the top level of a tall building in Pond Water City where the view was wide and the door was open, there sat a young man in white with a birthmark on his glabella. He was accompanied by an old man in Confucian robes, and both of them were gazing at the spectacular scenery of Bamboo Scroll Lake in front of them.

They were none other than Cui Dongshan and Cui Chan.

The two of them had once been a single person, Imperial Preceptor Embroidered Tiger of the Great Li Empire and the first disciple of the Scholarly Sage.

Cui Dongshan's expression was solemn as he controlled his flying sword with a golden tassel to create a small ring around them. This would serve as a warning to him that he shouldn't step outside this area no matter what happened.

Cui Chan glanced at Cui Dongshan and said with a faint smile, "As expected of a master and disciple. Both of you like to imprison yourselves."

Cui Dongshan gritted his teeth and spat, "I'll definitely concede if I lose, so make sure you don't rely on your power to play dirty and deny things if you lose!"

If it weren't for the old bastard forcefully setting up this situation and giving him no wiggle room to break free, would he have been willing to sit down at the table and make this bet? Right now, he sincerely detested the title of big brother. At the same time, he was also extremely unwilling to partake in gambles that offered big risks with big rewards.

However, the old bastard didn't give him a choice, so what could Cui Dongshan do?

On the other hand, Cui Dongshan felt like he would do the exact same thing as Cui Chan if their positions were switched.

After all, how could he not understand himself?

This was a very simple bet where Cui Dongshan and Cui Chan were going to determine who was primary and who was secondary. This was all, and their bet wouldn't pertain to life or death.

It was also because of this that Cui Dongshan was unwilling to take things too far and go all out against Cui Chan. Of course, this was also what made Cui Dongshan hate himself the most. As a "single entity," he was naturally well aware of where his bottom line lay.

If Cui Chan lost, then he would allow Cui Dongshan to essentially become a powerful ruler in the Great Sui Nation. Moreover, not only would Cui Chan place his bets on Chen Ping'an, but even the Great Li Empire's Imperial Song Clan would place their bets on Chen Ping'an. Chen Ping'an would be worthy of their bets.

The previous time Cui Chan and Cui Dongshan had met, the former had smiled and said, "Even I think this game of Go is an insurmountable death trap for Chen Ping'an, so if he's able to overcome it, then he's naturally worthy of my admiration. If I'm unable to easily kill this kind of person, then... I can only adopt the opposite extreme and do everything in my ability to win over him. There's nothing embarrassing about this."

If Cui Dongshan lost, then he would have to leave the mountains and depart from Mountain Cliff Academy. He then had two options, one in which he would need to assist Cui Chan in formulating strategies to defeat and conquer the Luminous Vermilion Empire, after which he would need to help strategize the deployment of the Great Li Empire's heavy cavalry following their detour around Lake View Academy. Otherwise, he could assist in suppressing the various forces to the south of the Great Li Empire and to the north of Lake View Academy, allowing the empire to rapidly digest the resources of the many nations that made up half of the Eastern Treasured Vial Continent, turning these resources into fuel and power that truly belonged to the Great Li Empire.

In addition, Cui Dongshan would need to obediently return to the philosophy of pragmatism and become the opening disciple of Cui Chan's school of pragmatism.

Why was the immortal ship from the Azure Phoenix Nation dilly-dallying and traveling so slowly? Why were there no immortal ships that traveled directly to Bamboo Scroll Lake from Old Dragon City, the Azure Phoenix Nation, and the Yellow Court Nation? Why had Chen Ping'an refined his second bonded item at the Great Sui Nation's Confucian academy? Why had people in the Dragon Spring Prefecture suddenly started to sell their mountains again?

Everything was for the sake of making the necessary preparations at Bamboo Scroll Lake. Even the east wind was at their disposal.[1]

However, everything pertaining to this process needed to be reasonable and follow the great trend of the continent. In other words, it wasn't the case that Cui Chan had forcefully set up this situation. Rather, Cui Chan's Go pieces had all been played in a reasonable manner under the watchful gaze of Cui Dongshan.

The Great Li Empire had secretly infiltrated Bamboo Scroll Lake a long time ago, and it was now time for them to silently haul in the net.

As a critical territory that bordered the Luminous Vermilion Empire, Imperial Preceptor Cui Chan viewed Bamboo Scroll Lake as a region that would definitely fall into the hands of the Great Li Empire one day.

River Severing True Lord Liu Zhimao wanted to unite Bamboo Scroll Lake, but who would he hand Bamboo Scroll Lake to after he succeeded? He would naturally sell it to an empire for an exorbitant price.

However, this empire was quite far from Bamboo Scroll Lake, so they would naturally sell the lake off to someone else. And who would this someone else be? It would be the Parasol Leaf Continent's Jade Tablet Sect. The Jade Tablet Sect planned to choose a location with exceptional feng shui to establish a lower sect, and they had already come up with three potential locations. The first option was to split the Dragon Spring Prefecture into two, with Ruan Qiong and the Jade Tablet Sect taking half each, the next option was to find a location close to the Cloud Forest Jiang Clan and the Azure Phoenix Nation, and the final option was Bamboo Scroll Lake.

Liu Zhimao had always been a fierce and wildly ambitious individual, and his swift actions, recruitment of allies, and show of benevolence and intimidation in the past few years had already painted him as a domineering ruler who was on the verge of conquering the entire Bamboo Scroll Lake. He would also receive assistance from cultivators of the Great Li Empire during the final and decisive battle, so it was entirely possible for him to achieve victory and thus decide the fate of Bamboo Scroll Lake.

Ruan Xiu should have been considered as Gu Can's opponent, and they should have waited until the new ruler of the lake was chosen, after which there would be a continuous cycle of killing as each victim took advantage of the former's weakened state.

However, none of this mattered.

Ruan Xiu was never on the Go board to begin with, so whether she entered the Go board or not wouldn't affect the final outcome. She would at most allow them to put some icing on the cake.

According to the plan, Chen Ping'an should have returned to the Dragon Spring Prefecture to happily purchase one or two mountains, following which he would practice fist techniques in the bamboo building in Downtrodden Mountain and casually chat with the little boy in azure and the little girl in pink. Everything should have been joyous and harmonious.

"Because after traveling around the world for so long, he didn't rigidly adhere to the inflexible principles in the books. He understood that noble people should either yield or stand tall depending on the situation, with both being equally as important. He further understood the notion of adapting to local customs.

"You were smiling very widely, and you didn't care about those picture scrolls at all. In your eyes, those picture scrolls weren't even worth a single copper coin. Moreover, Chen Ping'an was willing to treat you as a close companion, and that's why he appeared so unreasonable at the time. It was clearly Pei Qian and Li Huai who were in the wrong, so why wasn't he willing to adhere to the fundamental principles of sequential order that he told you about? This is called adapting to local customs.

"All of the principles in the world need to appropriately conform to those human feelings that are so-called not wrong. Your intention was clear, and you wanted Chen Ping'an to have a long hard think after learning of Gu Can's behavior and actions. How did Gu Can transform into a little devil who wantonly kills innocent people after arriving at Bamboo Scroll Lake? Perhaps there are certain factors that make his actions forgivable? Perhaps this is the nature of the current world, so Gu Can's wrongs aren't as severe as they appear?"

Cui Dongshan's expression was solemn.

Cui Chan smiled and continued, "But were your actions truly effective? Do you truly believe that you made a very clever move? Your move might have been clever if Chen Ping'an were still the young boy from Clay Vase Alley, yet to the Chen Ping'an who already has many principles acting as ballast stones in his mind, your move is simply adding fuel to the fire. You'll only cause him to think more and think deeper, eventually reaching a state where he's at a complete loss as to what he should do. Cui Dongshan, things have already come to this, so are you still unable to recognize the truly interesting nature of my moves?"

Cui Chan appeared calm and relaxed, not turning around to glance at Cui Dongshan from the beginning to the end. He certainly wouldn't become aggressive or forceful either.

"How are my moves interesting? They're interesting because of the balance that was maintained. The complicated nature of principles arises from the fact one can adapt to local customs, thereby rendering principles optional and dispensable. One can either adhere to principles or ignore them altogether. Between laws and principles, the laws of a land and the principles of a person, the two can be mixed and blurred.

"Bamboo Scroll Lake is a lawless area, with the laws of the mortal world being completely useless. The principles expounded by the sages are even more ineffective. In fact, even the rules established between the islands don't work. This is a place where big fish eat small fish and small fish eat small shrimp. Humans devour fellow humans, not treating each other as humans as they do so. Everyone relies on their fists to speak, and almost everyone is guilty of violence and slaughter. Swept along by the environment of Bamboo Scroll Lake, no one can stand removed from this phenomenon and become an exception.

"These are all legitimate excuses that Chen Ping'an can use to take a step back and search for peace of mind. I purposely left all of this wiggle room for Chen Ping'an, presenting him with countless possibilities and choices. The Great Dao and the fork roads all lie in front of him, and there's no one standing in his way. In this way, I can teach him to experience the world for himself — as it turns out, there are seemingly no principles that are genuinely innate and justified. Through his relationship with Gu Can, I want Chen Ping'an to be left with no option but to disapprove of his current mindset. I want him to accept the shameful but widespread mortal view of there being no notion of right and wrong, with standpoints being the only thing that matters."

Cui Chan smiled faintly and said, "When a good person who adheres to principles comes across a person who believes more in strength and only discusses principles in a perfunctory manner, the former will be left bloodied and bruised due to the restrictions that they've placed on themself. They would have essentially imprisoned themself. Let me see Chen Ping'an, let me see how you can still discuss hope and disappointment in the future."

Cui Dongshan smiled in a pitiful manner and remarked, "How ingenious, how unspeakably ingenious."

Cui Chan continued to explain the situation, with each sentence he spoke being like an additional blade driven into Cui Dongshan's heart.

"Gu Can's mother invited Chen Ping'an inside and offered him food back then, so Chen Ping'an feels like she saved his life.

"Chen Ping'an views Gu Can as family, and the relationship between them is no inferior to the relationship between Chen Ping'an and Liu Xianyang. Indeed, Chen Ping'an views Gu Can as a blood brother.

"In fact, even that small catfish was personally given to Gu Can by Chen Ping'an.

"Cui Dongshan, you sneakily encouraged Chen Ping'an to read Buddhist scriptures, attempting to use Buddhist philosophies to save him. However, can he truly be saved? Doesn't Chen Ping'an believe the words on that plaque? Refrain from looking outward. The karma of those innocent people who were killed can be explained, but once a person practices Chan, attempting to create a peaceful Buddhist realm beyond the principles of Confucianism, a new problem arises.[3] Regarding the earliest karma that's related to Chen Ping'an, can he still remember it? And can he still see it?

"If Chen Ping'an pretends that he can't see it, then nothing else will matter too much, since he would have essentially lost his pure heart already, the matter that Qi Jingchun cherished the most. Victory and defeat between us will also be decided.

"If Chen Ping'an genuinely can't see it, however, then that doesn't matter either. I'll find someone to remind him."

In the end, Cui Chan concluded by saying in a calm voice, "No one can save him this time, and Chen Ping'an will find it even more difficult to save himself."

He didn't appear overly delighted.

Cui Dongshan remained silent as he sat there and listened.

Cui Chan finally turned around to look at Cui Dongshan, smiling and asking, "Young men should be filled with energy and spirit, so why do you appear even duller and more lifeless than me?"

Cui Dongshan closed his eyes, with tears streaming down his face as he murmured softly, "Here's wishing that Master's mind enjoys eternal spring, eternal spring..."

The louchuan had already docked, and the "middle-aged man" with the surname Chen was still standing under the yellowing willow tree in the distance. He ultimately didn't drink, and he was filled with hesitation after he retied the wine gourd to his waist.

He was seventeen years old this year.

Cui Chan stood up, extending a hand and saying with a slight smile, "Please enter the trap!"

1. There is a saying in Chinese, "Everything is ready, all we need is an east wind," meaning that only one small but crucial item is missing. This refers to a battle in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms where Zhou Yu planned to attack Cao Cao using fire, yet after making all of the necessary preparations, Zhou Yu discovered that he couldn't win unless there was wind blowing from the east. ☜

2. Self-cultivator (自了汉) refers to people who only cultivate themselves and don't care about external matters. ☜

3. Chan (禅) refers to the school of meditation of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China. It is more commonly known as Zen, the Japanese pronunciation of Chan. ☜