When Li Chijing woke, the lamplight before his eyes burned dim and unsteady; beneath him was spread a soft couch, and Senior Sister Yuan Tuihuan was gently spreading ointment over his back. The wound lay cool and comfortable, and no longer pained him overmuch.
"Mmph..."
He raised his head with no small effort, and seeing the room furnished all about with medicine pots and pill tomes, knew at once that this was Senior Brother Xiao Yuansi's attic; so, hoarsely, he asked:
"Where is senior brother?"
"He has gone to Yuanwu Peak."
Yuan Tuihuan answered softly; her hair fell in cascades like a waterfall, and the ebon tips of her tresses brushed lightly against the nape of his neck.
"You stand but in Embryonic Breathing, and cannot bear those healing pills; I have mended your wound by sorcery, and with this ointment besides, you shall be well again by the day after tomorrow."
But Li Chijing still had Xiao Yuansi upon his mind, and asked with some urgency:
"Has senior brother gone alone to that Yuanwu Peak?"
"And the master with him."
Yuan Tuihuan smiled, and explained:
"Even though that Deng Qiuzhi be the scion of some great house, yet may he not so oppress our Azure Ear Peak."
"That fellow is not right in the head."
Li Chijing bowed his head and spoke in a muffled, sullen tone.
"The Deng clan are all of that fitful, changeful cast; take no heed of him."
Yuan Tuihuan set aside the ointment, and spoke softly again:
"The Deng family's art was from the first mutilated of one vital breath; it is called the Night Moon Fierce Qi. Generation upon generation of Deng ancestors strove and labored, treading each upon the heels of the other, to reshape and perfect it, and this hundred years past at last made it cultivable — yet it left behind a malady that clouds the very reason, so that they who master it grow ever somewhat fitful and perverse, doing all their deeds by whim and passing humor."
Li Chijing paused a moment, and asked:
"This art — of how many grades is it, that the Deng folk must needs cleave to it?"
"Five grades."
Yuan Tuihuan answered flatly; and seeing the wave of astonishment that crossed Li Chijing's face, she smiled:
"When this news first reached me, in years gone by, I too was struck with wonder. Not to speak of the sect's secret transmissions, even the Qingchi Sect's most renowned Yuanqing Rain-Commanding Art is but of four grades — and here a mere family under its sway holds an art one grade the higher."
Laying the ointment up on its shelf, Yuan Tuihuan went on:
"I have heard that this art of theirs came down from the upper court — the Moon Essence Primordial Palace; and centuries ago that Court Immortal Palace was wont often to bestow this Night Moon Fierce Qi. Such an art has the Qingchi Sect likewise, called the Moon Lake Mirroring Autumn Art, of the selfsame five grades; and because that Immortal Palace has withdrawn itself from the world and comes no more forth, this art too is wanting that one vital breath, and none among men has ever trained it through to its end."
"That much I know."
Li Chijing nodded, and answered:
"Senior brother told me of it — this art lacks one breath, named the Taiyin lunar essence; and I have heard that only one at Moon Lake Peak, by a lucky chance, ever came by it."
"It is to be had at Moonview Lake."
Yuan Tuihuan answered in a soft voice, a look of envy upon her face:
"All the measures of Taiyin lunar essence which the Three Sects and Seven Gates have reaped in these centuries past were won from Moonview Lake — whether from the discarded shells of the ancients, the ruined remnants of their cavern-heavens, or the secret realms descended from their transmissions..."
But Li Chijing sat staring dully at the pillow before him, and in his breast his heart gave a sudden stir; a guess welled up and pressed, unbidden, to his very lips, yet he swallowed it down ere it could come forth.
"Senior sister, I should like to go home for a time."
"Mm?"
"The brothers wrote in their letters that in these years our father's health has dwindled by the day, and this junior... would see him yet a few times more."
Yuan Tuihuan looked down, surprised, considered for a few breaths, and answered:
"A few months hence I must fare to Xunlin Plain to collect the tribute; the Greater Li Mountain lies due west of Xunlin Plain, so the going and the coming will be convenient enough."
"Good; I thank senior sister."
Li Chijing smiled his thanks to her, and lying down again, fell to musing in silence upon something.
-----
Li Xuanxuan had cultivated through the night; at morning he cast his Spirit Rain and came out of the courtyard, and went a little way along the flagstone path. The villagers bearing hoes along the way smiled and hailed him, each calling him "little immortal master."
The Li family had picked up that mirror nigh on a dozen years by now, and a new generation of labouring folk had grown up in the several villages; the people, too, had grown used to the rule of the Li. What the villagers feared was Li Xiangping, what they revered was Li Tongya, and what they held dear was Li Xuanxuan, whom they had watched grow from a babe. Scarce any of the young men had memory of Li Mutian, who sat nestled in his mountain home; only the few stewards who went up from time to time to render report kept a deep awe of him within their hearts, and only the old folk, gathered under the eaves to talk over the bygone years, would at the last bring that old soldier back to mind.
Li Xuanxuan walked a while, pushed open the gate, and entered the courtyard, and saw a great stand of lacquered wood, a full half-man in height, set up like a great bed; scattered loosely upon it were straw and withered yellow rice-leaves, and here and there little nests had been heaped from shaved wood-chaff and broken earth, which made a sight entertaining enough.
"Aunt."
He smiled, and clasped his hands in greeting to Liu Rouxuan, who stood at the stand's edge peering closely at it, then asked:
"How is it that I see neither of my two uncle-fathers upon the mountain?"
"Your second uncle took some Clarifying Spirit Powder, and drew besides a Snake Origin Pill from the house, and has gone into seclusion to break through to the fifth wheel of Embryonic Breathing — the Jade Capital Wheel; he should be coming forth ere long, I should think."
Liu Rouxuan laughed lightly, set down the few spirit-rice leaves in her hand, and stroking Li Xuanxuan's head, explained:
"The spirit fields in the several villages are all in use by now, so your uncle bethought himself of seeking on the Meichi Mountain next door, to see whether he might survey some new spirit fields from of it."
"Ah, I see!"
Li Xuanxuan nodded, and was about to speak, when there came a light knock at the courtyard gate, and a voice from beyond it called:
"Is the young cousin within? The young clan-lord has some commands."
Li Xuanxuan made haste to open the gate, and seeing Li Qiuyang and Li Yesheng without the courtyard, asked in a rush:
"What is amiss?"
"We talk as we walk."
Li Qiuyang took his hand, craved leave of Liu Rouxuan, and hurried up the mountain with Li Yesheng.
"The young clan-lord has spied something amiss upon the Meichi Mountain, and bade Uncle Yesheng fetch us — he says there is a formation upon that mountain."
"A formation?!"
Li Xuanxuan came to a dead stop at once, and asked, astonished:
"The Meichi Mountain has lain waste and deserted all these years; that formation must be some centuries old by now, must it not?"
"That it must."
Li Qiuyang nodded, and answered in a low voice:
"The best would be some immortal's cavern-abode, that our house might reap some gain from it."
Li Xuanxuan, being but eight or nine years old, found it something of a strain to keep pace with two grown youths; he knit his brow and shaped the hand-seal of the Spirit-Walking Art, clapping a white light upon his legs to give himself ease in following their steps, and then went on:
"Yet must we beware of some manner of laid snare! The master said it aforetime — there is no truth in the saw of the pie dropping from a cloudless sky."
The two went on a while, climbing as they went; a full hour's ascent up the mountain it took them, and there they found Li Xiangping seated upon a great blue stone, breathing and settling his power. Seeing the three come up, he smiled:
"Watch, now."
So saying he rose, took the grey-crow-hued longbow from his back, and setting a foot upon the blue stone, drew shaft and notched arrow, drew back that bowstring white and shimmering, and squinting, took aim at the little slope of ground not far off.
"Whoosh!"
A shaft of white light sped from his hand, to fall in a trice upon that hillside — but peaks and ripples rose through the air, and the arrow, as though it had struck upon something, clattered with a ring and fell to the earth.
"A swift arrow, that."
Li Qiuyang praised it first, and then fell to peering at the slope, thoughtful.
"This bow is a spirit instrument; I call it the Green Crow Bow."
Li Xiangping smiled, and said in a grave voice:
"Beneath this slope there should lie an illusion formation, and perhaps, besides, a spirit formation meant all for defense."