A Little Something to Settle the Nerves

Fine rain veiled the landscape. An immortal family ferry traveling from south to north slowly docked at White Egret Ferry on Zhengyang Mountain's territory. A handsome man stepped ashore in a long blue-green robe and cloth shoes, opening an oiled paper umbrella with a handle made from an osmanthus branch. Beside him walked a youth in an ink-black robe, also carrying a small umbrella. Its shaft was ordinary green bamboo, but its canopy had been refined from an immortal family's emerald lotus. They were Chief Zhou and Cui Dongshan, disguised with false faces and an Illusion Technique.

Both carried swords on their backs, relics from secret treasuries in Central Divine Continent and Northern Juluzhou that had never appeared in Treasure Bottle Continent. The two ancient Sword Immortal relics were named Jiawu Sheng and Tianzhou.

Behind them came a group of Genealogical Cultivators also visiting Zhengyang Mountain, chatting and laughing. One young man was telling the graceful young woman beside him that his master and the Sword Immortal patriarch of Zhengyang Mountain's Cloud Parting Peak had been close friends for centuries. That patriarch had fought shoulder to shoulder with Li Jianxian of Northern Juluzhou on the Old Dragon City battlefield, joining swords to slay a Great Demon.

Cui Dongshan listened with delight and asked through a laughing voice transmission, "Chief Zhou, how about we trade umbrellas?"

Jiang Shangzhen glanced beneath the emerald lotus canopy, where everything was bathed in eerie green shade, and shook his head. "Forget it. That color does me no favors."

Among the group behind them was a bright-eyed child of seven or eight. Holding a large umbrella, he used a water technique to gather a great pool of rain on its canopy, then abruptly twisted the handle. Drops shot out in every direction like a volley of