Having drained every scrap of information Wan Yuankai knew, Li Xiangping finally saw off the dejected Wan Yuankai, carefully tucked away the rough map he had drawn, and took Li Yesheng with him back to Lijing Village.
Thanks to the steady stream of land taxes sent year after year from the surrounding villages, the Li family was able to support ever more craftsmen. These men spent most of their effort on building the small compound at the foot of the hill behind the village, and in their spare time saw to repairs in Lijing Village itself.
After half a year of renovation, Lijing Village had quite changed its look. Polished slabs of bluestone were fitted together piece by piece, running from the gates of the Li household all the way to the mouth of the village. As the main thoroughfare, it spread the village's influence as a hub of power over the surrounding villages.
The wealthier families of the village had taken to imitating the Li household's green-brick, gray-tiled houses, making over their own rammed-earth and thatch dwellings. Liu Linfeng and the others dared not use green brick, settling for the lesser white brick instead, and outlining the mortar joints with gray plaster. It was not as fine as the green brick's white-pointed seams, but it passed for respectable enough.
Looking far off at the cluster of buildings behind the village, the small white-brick courtyards huddled around the master residence of green brick and gray tile. In the drifting wind and rain, it took on the flavor of a small Jiangnan town.
Li Xiangping had no sooner returned to the compound than he saw Li Mutian seated at rest with Li Xuanxuan. Li Mutian was in fine spirits, his movements brisk, a bowl of tea in his hand, sitting unhurriedly at the table, as though he had already walked free of the grief of losing his eldest son all those years ago.
These days Li Mutian rarely troubled himself with affairs of the household, yet no one dared look down on the old man. Though he was only a mortal, Li Yesheng and the others feared him far more than they did Li Tongya or Li Xiangping.
"Xuan'er!"
Smiling, Li Xiangping scooped up Li Xuanxuan as the boy came hurtling toward him. The child had reached the age for study, and the Li family had engaged Han Wenxu as his tutor. Li Xuanxuan was quick and clever, so teaching him gave little trouble.
"Today I went with Xiewen to the reed marsh. He said that Uncle Yesheng used to herd ducks there when he was small!"
Grinning, Li Xuanxuan wrapped his arms around Li Xiangping and piped up in his young voice.
The Li family had arranged a marriage for Li Yesheng, and Li Xiewen was his son, a boy just over two years old who trailed after Li Xuanxuan day in and day out, dashing this way and that.
"Is that so?"
Li Yesheng answered with a smile from behind.
"Call Second Brother back."
Li Xiangping turned his head and gave the order with a smile. Watching Li Yesheng acknowledge and withdraw into the distance, he turned his gaze at last to Li Xuanxuan.
"Back then, your Third Uncle stood right there catching fish. Those fish were fat, clad in blue-green scales, slick and slippery."
He set the boy down and pinched Li Xuanxuan's plump cheek, but his gaze drifted and wandered, staring blankly into the distance, as though lost in some deep memory.
"That fish was the best your Third Uncle ever ate. It was a fish from heaven, a fish among immortals…"
"How goes the Wan clan?"
Li Mutian shot a low glance his way, set his cup of clear tea down on the table, and broke into Li Xiangping's reverie.
"Far mightier than our Li family, with deep roots and long history. Their clan has a patriarch at the Jade Capital Wheel, and there's Wan Yuankai himself, who reached Azure Origin at a young age."
Li Xiangping patted Li Xuanxuan and let the boy go off to play on his own, then raised his head to answer.
Even as he spoke, Li Tongya strode into the compound, his face grave, found a seat, and listened closely to Li Xiangping's account.
Li Xiangping ran through all of Wan Yuankai's words in one breath, then took up his tea bowl, drinking deep draughts between sentences as he looked between the two of them.
"If the Wan clan is truly squeezed from within and without, then we should lend a hand where we can. The Ji clan sits right on our doorstep. If the Wan clan truly fell, the next to feel the cold of lost lips would most likely be our own Li family."
Li Tongya listened in silence to Li Xiangping's words, holding the rough map up to look at it.
"The Wan clan must be saved, but there must be a way to save them — and the way must be the one most to the Li family's profit. Xiangping, listen closely."
Li Mutian narrowed his eyes, raised one eyebrow, and gazed quietly into the tea in his cup before speaking again:
"The Wan clan says the Ji clan has seized its spirit rice. Then let us answer in kind — say that our Li family still has spirit fields to spare, but lacks the hands to work them, and bid them send a man to us, to plant the rice right here. In return, our family takes three parts in ten of the harvest. If Wan Yuankai truly sends someone, then that will confirm beyond doubt that his Wan clan is truly beleaguered by the Ji clan and at wits' end."
"Precisely."
Li Xiangping nodded; clearly he and his father had hit on the same thought. He said soberly:
"But the Ji clan knows every inch of the Wan clan's spirit fields, so the inside of that household must be a sieve. This matter absolutely must be kept secret by Wan Yuankai. Our Li family must not, at this moment, cross blades with the Ji clan. We need only push and support quietly from behind the Wan clan."
"Quite right."
Li Mutian nodded in approval, took a small sip of tea, and went on:
"Both clans are far mightier than ours. For now, we must keep our edge sheathed and husband our strength. The Ji clan presses us hard, and its intent is clear enough. And the Wan clan, though it too lives under the Azure Pool Sect, lies by our bedside, and must also be guarded against."
Li Tongya studied the map for a long while, then spoke up suddenly:
"In this map, does the Ji clan border on our Li family?"
"It does."
Li Xiangping nodded, tapped a finger at Lidaokou, and said in a low voice:
"The Ancient Li Road forks here. One road runs north, straight into the Ji clan's territory. The other runs east, leading into the Wan clan's lands."
He paused, saw Li Tongya lost in thought, and went on:
"I asked Wan Yuankai. Over a hundred years ago, some demon beast rallied a few lesser yao and dug a demon den on the road into Ji territory, and so that road was cut off for good. Even the Ji clan abandoned that swath of land, though in name it still belongs to their jurisdiction."
"Ah, I see," said Li Tongya, suddenly enlightened. "Then there is no need to fear the Ji clan crossing the border. So long as the Wan clan does not fall, the Ji clan can never threaten this place."
"That demon beast was clever enough too. It chose the boundary between the Azure Pool Sect and the Tang Gold Gate, and has simply holed up in its den to cultivate, never coming out to stir up trouble."
Li Xiangping said this softly, then turned his gaze to Li Mutian:
"Wan Yuankai tells me that Mountain Yue have been seen prowling west of our lands. Father, in your battles with the Mountain Yue back then, had you any word of them?"
Li Mutian waved a hand and spoke:
"As for their looks, those Mountain Yue differ little from us — save that they cut their hair short and bear tattoos, and their speech is unintelligible. Moreover, the Mountain Yue love martial arts and practice battle, setting great store by valor and strength. Their tribes have those shamans, who are skilled in curses and driving beasts. Not easy to deal with."
"Only heaven knows how well your Evil-Banishing Art works against them. If it can manage their curses, and the village guard are on a level with the enemy, then they could still be dealt with."
"No need to rush."
Li Tongya spoke up, circling a finger around the Li family's spot on the map:
"The Wan clan has been squeezed and sliced at many times by the Ji clan, while the territory Si Yuanbai carved out for our Li family is vast. As things stand, our Li family's land even exceeds the Wan clan's."
"Broad land but few people, and our Li family weak in strength. We are merely bloated. If the Mountain Yue do not come, then we need not provoke them. Let the Wan clan stand guard in front for now, and wait a few years while our Li family grows and takes firm hold of all this territory before we speak of anything else."