My Cold Sword Master

Su Wanrou glanced at the small town, ignoring the fiery gazes around her, and spoke softly.

"Let's find an inn to rest first, and then continue our journey tomorrow."

"Oh." Shangguan Yun raised his little face and responded. He smiled and scratched the white fox lying on his shoulder. After being blocked by the white fox's lazily flicking its tail, he turned around and looked at the shops along the way.

There are a wide variety of shops, caravans, an ancient city built of bricks, stones and blue tiles, soldiers in armor, vendors walking the streets shouting their wares, and brothels with melodious string and bamboo music.

Everything in Yangling City is particularly curious to Shangguan Yun, a modern man who has lived in Qingyou Jiange for twelve years since childhood.

The boy's look around made Su Wanrou smile softly: "Come to think of it, is this Yun'er's first time traveling to a town outside of the ancient town?"

"Yeah, that's true."

Shangguan Yun nodded. Apart from the memory of his birth, all his other memories were spent in Qingyou Jiange. He even felt that he had not visited the ancient town at the foot of the mountain enough.

Every day in Jiange, I either practice sword skills or spend time in the library. This long journey is quite new to me.

"Yun'er, do you know where this place is?"

"This place is... Great Zhou Dynasty, Central Shenzhou, Eastern Region, Yangling City outside Yanyun."

"Yes, does Yun'er still remember the Records of Mountains and Seas of the Nine Provinces that she read in Jiange?" Su Wanrou asked again.

"I remember." The young man tapped his chin, recalling the ancient books in the library, "When the chaos began, the nine states were created: Shenzhou in the middle, Youzhou in the east, Qingzhou in the south, Yuanzhou in the west, and Manzhou in the north."

"These five states are controlled by the human race, while the remaining four states, Phoenix State in the south, Tiger State in the north, Dragon State in the east, and Dragon Turtle State in the west, are controlled by the four holy tribes of the demon race."

"The two tribes of humans and demons are separated by the natural barrier of Luo River. Only the eastern Youzhou and the western Longguizhou have a ferry crossing."

Su Wanrou: "Who controls these nine states?"

Shangguan Yun led the horse and stopped in front of a quiet inn. He took the beautiful woman's hand and led her off the horse, and answered.

"The Great Zhou Dynasty is the leader of the human race, occupying the central Shenzhou and the eastern Youzhou."

"The Xiongnu barbarians occupy most of the grasslands north of the Savage State. They are organized into tribes and, under the rule of the Centaurs of the Wulieer clan, have been harassing the Great Zhou Dynasty for many years. The fertile land of the Dayuan River in the south is guarded by the border king Dingmanhou of the Great Zhou Dynasty."

"The southern Qingzhou is a land of swamps, water and forests. There are many poisonous miasma, poisonous insects, snakes, ants, and poisonous tree monsters. It is occupied by the southern border tribes and the Great Zhou Dynasty cannot get involved."

"In the western Yuanzhou, the demons occupy the northern region, and the Buddhists occupy the western region."

"There are four states for the demon race. The four holy races, the Dragon Turtle, Dragon, Phoenix, and White Tiger, each occupy one state. The demon races, both large and small, are headed by these four races."

While answering, Shangguan Yun handed the waiter a few copper coins and asked him to prepare some fodder for the horses.

This white horse has been raised in Qingyou Jiange for many years. It has acquired some spiritual charm and understands some human nature. It does not need anyone to feed and take care of it.

"What Yun'er answered is all written in the book." Su Wanrou took off the boy's hat, smoothed his messy hair with her bare hands, and said softly.

"But the actual situation is different from what is written in the book."

"This Great Zhou Dynasty seems to occupy the Central Shenzhou and the Eastern Youzhou, and occupies the southern region of the Manzhou, which is fertile with water and grass. Yuanzhou also has influence. In fact, it only controls the territory around Yanyun, the capital of the Central Shenzhou."

"The major sects, aristocratic families, eight kings of the opposite sex, the Buddhist sects and demonic cultivators that infiltrated from Yuanzhou to the central Shenzhou have all divided up the dynasty's territory. The eastern Youzhou is even controlled by five kings of the opposite sex."

"Yangling City, where Yun'er is now, is the farthest city in the east where the influence of the Empress of the Great Zhou Dynasty can reach. Further east is the territory controlled by Anlan Hou, one of the eight heterosexual kings."

"Why has the imperial power of the Great Zhou Dynasty declined so much?" the young man asked curiously.

"It's not that it's in decline, but the imperial power today is not..." Su Wanrou stopped talking halfway.

"I'll talk to you about this later. Let's take a rest now."

"Oh……"

After entering the inn, the drinkers on the first floor stopped making noise as soon as they saw Su Wanrou, a plump, mature, and elegant lady in a white dress with fairy-like charm.

The pungent smell of alcohol mixed with the sultry weather made some brutal and bloodthirsty men feel hot and lustful when they looked at the beautiful woman's ripe and plump body that was almost dripping with honey.

But after seeing the long sword on the boy's back and his ethereal aura, the enthusiasm in these desperate men subsided, and they held their wine glasses and cast their glances at him secretly like salivating snakes.

Shangguan Yun glanced at the group of drinkers on the first floor who were carrying swords and knives. There were many cultivators among them, and even some in the Huayun realm mixed in, which made him frown slightly.

Among the human race in Jiuzhou, only those who are born with spiritual veins can sense the spiritual essence of heaven and earth, absorb spiritual energy and transform it into spiritual consciousness to cultivate immortality. On average, there is only one cultivator for every thousand people.

Although this Acropolis is the only way to the capital Yanyun, it is still a small city.

Although this place is located in the Dan Sect, the cultivators who seek elixirs will not mess with the mortal city, and the number of cultivators in the city along the way... is a bit too much.

"Two rooms, prepare the meals." The young man came to the counter and just threw out a silver ingot when a frivolous voice came from behind him.

"Hey! You little idiot! Are you blind?"

Two monks who were dressed frivolously and carrying long swords looked down at the young man with great arrogance. Their fiery and lustful gazes kept moving over the plump and mature figure of the beautiful woman beside the young man, and their tone was extremely contemptuous and obscene.

A young boy at the third level of Qi Condensation, a mature beauty with celestial elegance, an excellent prey.

Shangguan Yun glanced at the two of them indifferently, sighed lightly, picked up the silver ingot on the table, and the sword aura lingered.

"You little piece of trash, you just stepped on me, your uncle. You'd better apologize to me." The two Qi Condensation Level 7 cultivators stared at Su Wanrou's plump, mature and soft body under her slim white dress with lustful eyes and smiled lewdly.

"Of course, let the one next to you——"

Before he finished speaking, two silver lights shot out from the boy's hands like sharp swords, and flew straight towards the chests of the two men!

The two monks' eyes suddenly shrank, and they hurriedly used the light blue spiritual energy to protect themselves! But the next moment, it turned into fear!

This cold silver light shattered their protective spiritual essence as easily as shattering an eggshell! It was like two heavy hammers hitting their chests!

The two monks flew out like kites with their strings cut off! They smashed several tables and chairs along the way until they hit the load-bearing wooden stakes at the door and barely stopped.

"Puff!" The two Qi Condensation Level 7 cultivators who stopped their movements spat out two mouthfuls of blood mixed with internal organs and minced meat, then fainted on the spot. A silver ingot cut in two pieces rolled down from their sunken chests.

This action caused the eyes of the drinkers and those covetous desperadoes to freeze.

A kid at the third level of Qi Condensation defeated two cultivators at the seventh level of Qi Condensation with just a simple blow. This action easily made them think of the disciples of those big sects.

After realizing this, these desperate cultivators chose to be very careful with their words and no longer dared to look at the elegant and beautiful figure with fairy-like charm.

Before the waiter recovered from his shock, the young man took out another silver ingot and pushed it in front of him: "If you need two rooms and the money for repairs, ask those two."

"This... Immortal, there is only one room left." The waiter gritted his teeth and said in a trembling voice, "The rest, the rest of the rooms are all full."

Seeing the young man's strange expression, he hurriedly explained: "Of course, I can ask if there are any guests willing to vacate a room for you, Immortal."

"No need, one room will be enough." Su Wanrou's cold voice came slowly, and her autumn eyes swept across the drinkers in the building and the monks outside the street.

"Why are there so many monks here today?"

"You two are from other places, right?" The waiter breathed a sigh of relief, handed over two wooden plaques with the word "Di" on them, and explained, "Today is the Budan Conference, and these monks have come here specifically to ask for elixirs."

"The Boudin Conference?"

"Yes, there is a law in this city. Every year, the disciples of the Dan Sect will come to the Dan Yunfang in this small town to make elixirs and give alms. They will select some of the cultivators who come here to ask for elixirs, and give the elixirs they requested to the disciples of the Dan Sect to make as a training ground."

"Secondly, at the Budan Conference, some independent alchemists will be selected to refine some elixirs with them, and those who succeed will be selected to join the outer sect of the Dan Sect."

After a moment, on the second floor, in the No. 2 room.

Shangguan Yun took the wooden sign and the meal from Xiaoer, put the sleeping white fox on his shoulder onto the mattress, and looked around the room.

Although it is an inn in a small town, it is fully equipped with a desk, writing brushes, neat beds and a screen decorated with landscape ink paintings, which can be considered elegant.

The only slightly ambiguous thing is that behind the screen, there is actually a bathtub for two people to bathe together, which makes it quite charming.

The young man raised the wooden window slightly, looked at the busy street, and seemed to be thinking about something.

He had an impression of the place name, Yangling City, in the Eastern Region.

He vaguely remembered that when he was young and practicing sword in Qingyou Sword Pavilion, his master brought back a girl in a green skirt from outside Qingyou Sword Pavilion. It seemed that something happened to the girl's family, and she was sent to the Sword Pavilion by her mother.

It seems that he had come into contact with the girl's mother when he was young. She was a beautiful woman in a green dress with a gentle and intellectual temperament like a lady from a scholarly family, mature and beautiful like an orchid, and elegant and refined.

This girl is eight years older than him, but she has none of the gentleness of a sister. She is cold and quiet in front of her master, but when she is away from her master, she becomes particularly cunning and playful in front of him.

Unlike the eldest sister who was cold in nature but treated him gently like a big sister next door, this girl often teased him, or took him around the mountain, and in summer she would take him to the spiritual spring in the back mountain to play in the water.

The waterfall where he took a rest every day was the secret place where the girl had taken him to an appointment.

However, it seemed that something happened to the family later, and the girl left Qingyou Sword Pavilion when he was eight years old and never returned.

When we parted, she specifically told me that if I came down the mountain, I should come to the Budan Conference in Yangling City in the middle of summer to look for her...

But his master and aunt had never allowed him to leave Jiange, and it was not until today that he took a long journey.

Hmm...why don't we go take a look?

"Aunt, that Budan Conference..." The young man put down his sword and was a little stunned when he turned his head to look at the beautiful woman behind him, and a hint of redness appeared on his pretty face.

"Ok?"

Su Wanrou slightly tilted her head, her autumn eyes filled with a bit of confusion as she looked at the young man. Her bare hands casually untied the straps of her white gauze hat, took off her jade hairpin, and let her long apricot-colored hair, like silk brocade, fall to her waist like a waterfall.

"What's wrong, Yun'er?"

It was midsummer and the weather was hot and humid. Even though this room was in the shade, it was still a bit stuffy.

As a young cultivator, he could still bear it, but Su Wanrou, who had lost all her cultivation, felt a little stuffy under the plain gauze hat on the way here.

After taking off her bamboo hat and white gauze, the beautiful woman's fair and gentle face was already flushed with an alluring blush, like spring honey, with a gentle charm.

A few drops of crystal clear and fragrant sweat rolled down the beautiful woman's scattered hair and her fair and soft face, wetting her cloud-patterned collar, which was already considered thin and close-fitting.

The thin snow-patterned silk is fine when dry.

Now wet with sweat, it seemed soft and sticky to her snow-white and smooth skin, clinging to her already plump and round soft and fragrant breasts, outlining an attractive outline as plump and juicy as a ripe soft peach.

The snow-white, warm, fragrant and soft jade is like a ripe milk cake infused with honey, served on a white jade porcelain plate, or like a ripe, juicy, soft white peach hanging on a branch under the moon, dripping with peach honey, and every time it trembles, it will emit a milky aroma.

The snowy and soft milky color, under the slightly translucent collar, exudes a bit of the charm of a mature beauty, adding a bit of mature sweetness to the already slightly ambiguous and charming atmosphere, which makes the young man unable to help but fantasize.

"Silly Yun'er, stupid, just say whatever you want to say." The young man's stunned look made the beautiful woman smile softly and she lightly tapped his forehead.

"Yun'er wants to go see the Budan Conference, right?"

"Hmm..." The young man slightly shifted his fiery gaze and said nonchalantly, "Just a little bit, I want to observe Yuan... No, observe the alchemy."

"Yun'er can go if she wants." The beautiful woman's autumn eyes were filled with tenderness. She held her collar with her bare hands and whispered in the boy's ear, "But Yun'er has to wait for Auntie first."

"Auntie, there is something urgent. Yun'er will go outside and wait for you first."

The boy blinked, glanced at the bathtub behind the screen, and his ears couldn't help but turn red.

The author says:

Author's words: I want to write about bathing together, but I feel it will slow down the pace... Contemplating...

Chapter 6: The Bhutan Conference

An hour later, the street.

Shangguan Yun looked at the blue sky with the scorching sun hanging high in the sky, then looked at his aunt Su Wanrou who was walking leisurely on the street behind him in a slim and light white gauze green dress with lotus pattern, and sighed secretly.

This bath can last for an hour...

"Yun'er, try this."

The beautiful woman was obviously in a very good mood after bathing. She put her hands behind her back and walked leisurely with the young man as he went shopping. She handed him a string of red candied haws with a gentle smile.

The boy opened his mouth and took a bite. It was sweet at first, accompanied by the loose and sandy texture of hawthorn and the slightly sour fruity aroma. It was very suitable for the leisure of this summer.

"Yun'er is in Jiange, so she can't taste this." Su Wanrou smiled, her soft eyes sweeping over the hurried passers-by on both sides of the street.

"Come to think of it, Auntie has heard a little about this Budan Conference."

"Hmm?" The boy chewed the flesh and picked out the hawthorn seeds.

"This Dan Bu Conference is said to be a gathering to donate elixirs, but in fact it is to recruit disciples for the Dan Sect. It is not only held in Yangling City, but also in other cities. It's just that this city takes it more seriously."

Su Wanrou gently waved the candied haws and said leisurely.

"At the conference, the Alchemy Sect provides alchemy furnaces, earth fire veins, medicinal materials, and alchemy recipes to the new alchemists. This time, we will not look at the quality of the elixir, but the alchemist's technique, talent, precision of spiritual control, and the elixir patterns on the finished product."

"In Danzong, the dan patterns are used for rating. Nine dan patterns are the best and can enter the inner sect directly. Those with less than nine patterns can enter the outer sect. Those with less than five patterns are considered inferior and cannot enter Danzong. However, among the rookie alchemists in this Budan Conference, no one has been able to refine nine dan patterns in ten years. Eight patterns are even rarer."

"In addition to joining the Dan Sect, the winners of this Budan Conference will also receive prizes from the Dan Sect, mostly treasures that assist in alchemy."

"Danwen? This is the first time I've heard of it." Shangguan Yun took a bite of a candied haws and recalled the pharmacopoeia.

Danwen, the quality grade of Jiuzhou’s elixir now, nine danwens are the best, and one danwen is the worst.

This is a remedial measure used by alchemists to make up for the defects in elixirs since a large number of alchemy techniques were lost and the spiritual energy of Jiuzhou declined after the ancient war.

Each pill pattern represents that the pill can exert a 100% effect. If a pill pattern is of inferior quality, it will not only have a 100% effect, but it may even be mixed with impurities and pill poison.

The pill with nine patterns can almost exert all the effects, and there are very few impurities. As for the pill without patterns, only the master of alchemy can refine one in ten furnaces.