In the little courtyard atop Lijing Mountain, an ash-grey mirror blazed with white light, and the boiling white essence of the moon gushed forth from its face like water.
The moment Wan Xiaohua appeared, he entered Lu Jiangxian's spirit-sense, and the Profound Lunar Radiance within the mirror stirred, straining to loose itself. Lu Jiangxian held back his impulse to strike, wishing to see what last resource this cultivator of the Jade Capital Wheel kept hidden.
"…Seems there is little enough to it?"
Watching Wan Xiaohua suffer one setback after another, forced at last to draw a pale-blue talisman and go pelting beneath a screen of water toward the foot of Lijing Mountain, Lu Jiangxian lost all appetite for watching. He quietly took up his hand seal:
"Let the demon try my blade!"
At a stir of his thought, the twelve seals ringed about the mirror's edge flashed alight, and the ash-grey mirror, cradling its milky-white lunar essence, rose slowly and shifted its angle.
"Father…"
Beneath the astounded gaze of Li Tongya and Li Mutian, the white lunar essence gushed forth, shattering the skylight of the hut, and shot through the sky like a shooting star in full blaze, leaving a scatter of broken stone and fallen tiles behind.
Only after it had loosed its bolt did the mirror settle slowly to rest and sink back upon its platform.
At the sight of the shards and dust strewn about, Li Tongya could not gather his wits; Li Mutian, choked by the dust, coughed and waved at him:
"It must have to do with that demon… Go quickly and see how your young brother fares!"
Only then did Li Tongya, roused from his dream, break into a run, thinking:
"How else could it be? With such a commotion, no demon of the Embryonic Breathing stage — not a Qi-Refining demon either — would be left as more than pulp."
Wan Xiaohua slapped a Spirit-Walking Art upon his leg and went pelting in the direction Li Xiangping had pointed, toward Lijing Mountain, lamenting all the while:
"To think I must lose so much over this — one Water-Screen Talisman gone, and half a spirit stone with it."
A foul wind snatched at his ears; he swept out his spirit-sense, and a white shield took form behind him. Borrowing the force of that single blow, he widened the distance from the demon yet again.
"This…"
Wan Xiaohua looked upon the mountain ahead, meaning to reckon its distance — when a dazzling beam of white light leapt up from the summit, wheeled in mid-air, trailed a long plume of flame, and came streaking straight toward him.
"What the devil…"
Wan Xiaohua very nearly spat blood; he flung himself aside, but the white gleam paid him not the least attention and passed him clean by. Startled out of his wits, he sat down heavily in the snow and watched as that beam swept across the demon's neck as easily as thin paper torn through, leaving a headless wolf's corpse still leaping high in the air.
*Rumble!*
The great wolf's carcass slumped to the earth; the white gleam, in its wake, felled a swath of great trees before vanishing, shaking the snow from the whole dense wood so that it came down in one mass, burying Wan Xiaohua almost entire.
"Cough, cough."
Wan Xiaohua, in sorry state, spat out a mouthful of snow thick with dust and stared at the demon's corpse, which lay there like a little hill.
"Family Head!!"
Wan Tiancang's shout came swelling near; he snatched Wan Xiaohua up from the snow and asked in haste:
"Family Head! How fare you!"
Wan Xiaohua stared dully at him and murmured:
"To kill a fowl one need not use an ox-cutter…"
Wan Tiancang's face was all over sweat. From his bosom he drew the vine-thong, still hung with clinging snow, and said low:
"Tian Cang feared the treasure might be lost, so lay hid in the snow; when the wolf-demon went to chase the Family Head, Tian Cang fetched this artifact up again."
"Good, good."
At the sight of his artifact, Wan Xiaohua started from his daze, tucked the treasure into his bosom, scrambled to his feet, and made for the wolf's corpse, where, seeing the thick frost about the neck and not a single drop of wolf's blood spilled, he beat hand seals at the joints and great apertures, sealing away its spirituality.
"This wolf's carcass is a rare good thing indeed; its spirituality must on no account be let fly."
Wan Xiaohua smiled, laid a hand upon the wolf's broad back, large as a yellow ox, his face wreathed in smiles.
"Family Head… this demon… is likely theirs by right now."
At Wan Xiaohua's untold delight, Wan Tiancang took care to remind him.
Wan Xiaohua's joy froze; he dropped a low glance at Wan Tiancang and said quietly:
"I know it."
"Family Head Wan!"
As the two stood staring, a loud hail came; both turned and saw Li Xiangping and Li Tongya, with Chen Erniu and a whole band of villagers, coming to find them.
"Our thanks to Family Head Wan for riding to our aid!"
Li Xiangping smiled and clasped his hands; Chen Erniu, marking the look, bid the villagers go carry the carcass off.
"Do not make so free of praise."
Wan Xiaohua smiled a bitter smile, shook the snow from his garments, and asked:
"That white beam which rescued Xiaohua just now…?"
At these words Li Tongya stepped forth at once:
"But my father kept a few talismans of his own making from years gone by. Since the Immortal Master had come so far to aid us, and fearing the demon might do him harm, he bade us use them."
"So that is how it was!"
Wan Xiaohua let out a long breath; Li Tongya's answer differed but little from what he had guessed:
"Do give my thanks to your honored father, then."
"It is we who must thank the Wan family!"
After the polite exchange, Wan Xiaohua pointed at the demon's carcass and said with a smile:
"I wonder how your family means to dispose of this creature? A wolf-demon's corpse is hard to keep, yet a treasure through and through — its bones and blood serve for ink and medicine, its pelt for talismans and raiment."
Li Tongya and Li Xiangping exchanged a look, and Li Xiangping answered with a bitter smile:
"Our family's foundations are shallow; to write talismans or refine medicine is hard for us. Since Family Head Wan can come and go within the market-fair, better let us consign it to your family to sell."
"This wolf-demon is of no small bulk, and bears a strangeness — I suspect it has swallowed some precious herb. I will not deceive you; sold piecemeal at the fair, it might bring two or three spirit stones."
Wan Xiaohua thought a moment, eyed the two who listened so attentively, and went on:
"I have a spirit stone and a half upon me now; these I shall give you first, and for the rest I shall make up in other goods. Have you ever read the Miscellany of Cultivation Secrets?"
At Li Xiangping's shake of the head, Wan Xiaohua was somewhat taken aback, and thought to himself:
"Is Li Mutian a Foundation Establishment cultivator indeed? There must be more to it than meets the eye…"
Yet on his face he smiled:
"This miscellany records the cultivation insights of a loose cultivator of the Spirit-Initial Wheel. I fished it out of the market-fair for one or two spirit stones, and it holds such small arts as the Spirit-Walking and the Spirit-Sealing. How would it be if I set it all against your due?"
Li Xiangping eyed Wan Xiaohua's beaming face, musing:
"This wolf's carcass is of no use to us and keeps but poorly; better trade it with this Wan Xiaohua, even at some small loss — each taking what he needs."
"I shall be guided wholly by Family Head Wan."
"Good, good!"
Wan Xiaohua was beyond himself with joy, and went on:
"I pray your family send men to carry this carcass to the border of our two holdings, and I shall call for men to come fetch it."
"So be it."
They talked a while longer, till Li Xiangping looked up at the sky and said, clasping his hands:
"Will Family Head Wan come sit a while with us upon Lijing Mountain?"
"No need of that — my clan has much pressing business, and so I shall take my leave; but should aught arise hereafter, do but bid Tian Cang send word!"
Wan Xiaohua made haste to refuse, for there was a formation upon Lijing Mountain; though the two families seemed now on the friendliest of terms, who could say whether, once he entered, he would ever come out again? Knowing that Li Xiangping was bidding him a courteous farewell, he exchanged a word or two and took his leave.