Dawn.
The sun burst over the Great Li Mountain, spilling gold across Moonview Lake. Wind swept through the endless reed beds and carried the laughter of children playing at the Meichi River.
Chen Erniu sat on the ridge between fields, worries piled high in his chest, thinking of his bedridden wife.
He had been born in Lichuan Pass, east of the Great Li Mountain. Twenty-some years ago, Lichuan Pass suffered an inexplicable drought. No rain fell, and the ground itself began to seep white smoke. The villagers scattered.
Chen Erniu had been just a boy, not even grown. He drifted blindly until he stumbled into Lijing Village. He threw himself on the mercy of a farmer named Li Genshui, who took him in. The next year, the old man rented him a mu of land so he could survive.
By the time he came of age, he had rented another mu of paddy field, built a mud-brick house, and married Li Genshui's daughter. He had put down roots, proper and proud.
Then his wife fell ill. He had some savings, at least — enough to carry her to the village head and have Teacher Han take a look. The verdict: nothing serious. A few doses of medicine and she'd be fine. He left her resting at the teacher's place, but his heart would not settle. One illness could ruin three generations.
"Uncle!" A bright voice yanked him from his thoughts.
A handsome young man strode toward him from the courtyard gate, face warm with a smile.
"Ah — Changhu! No need, no need for that!" Chen Erniu ducked his head. He had only married a concubine's daughter of the Li family, and he was their tenant besides. He could not accept such a greeting from the eldest son.
Old Li Genshui had been shrewd and capable, but his appetites got the better of him — not satisfied with one wife, he brought two more women home from the road as concubines. His principal wife bore him two sons. His concubines gave him three sons and four daughters.
When Li Genshui lay dying, the only one at his bedside — his youngest son by the principal wife — had been struck down dead, just like that. The concubine-born sons, all young and strong, circled the family's ten-some mu of land like wolves.
Then Li Mutian came home, blade in hand, with his war-brothers at his back. That brutal old soldier cut down the treacherous steward with a single stroke. The wealthy house that had poisoned his younger brother and schemed to swallow the Li estate — he wiped them out to the last man. Even their dog did not survive.
Li Mutian and his two sworn brothers dragged the bodies through the village on a cart, blood smearing the road from the village tail to its head. Every household bolted its doors. Li Mutian's half-brothers were so terrified they could barely breathe, sure they would lose every inch of land.
Instead Li Mutian summoned them and spoke of how the principal and branch lines were branches of the same tree. He divided up the rich household's land — two mu per brother — and gave his sworn brothers four mu each. His half-brothers wept with gratitude and called him "Elder Brother of the Main House." And so the hierarchy was settled.
Now, looking at Li Changhu's gentle smile, Chen Erniu could not help but see it fused with another image: Li Mutian's cold face, splattered with blood. He shivered under the blazing sun and bowed low.
"What brings you, Changhu?"
"Ah, Uncle is too polite." Li Changhu smiled. "I heard Aunt is ill. Father figured you'd have no time to cook, so he sent me to invite you and Xiaoze over. Mother wants you to taste her cooking."
"I... I'm too embarrassed," Chen Erniu managed, caught between gratitude and dread.
"It's settled. Mother has already prepared the meal." Li Changhu gave him a pat on the shoulder and took his leave.
Chen Erniu forced a smile and shook his head. "Xiaoze!" he called into the house. "Clean yourself up. We're eating at your uncle's tonight."
---
The Li compound had doubled in the last two years. It sat facing south, a long rectangle stretching back. The front courtyard had been paved with stone and fitted with stone locks for martial training — heavy things that made Chen Erniu whistle under his breath. "The Li family really does have a martial tradition. Those locks are no joke."
He crossed the stone path into the main courtyard. A pond sat at its center, a few blue-black carp swimming within. Flanking the main hall to either side were the private quarters of Li Changhu and Li Tongya. Every threshold, every walkway, every gatepost rested on cut stone. The place had weight.
Li Tongya welcomed him in. He was eighteen now and still unwed. Li Changhu had married the second daughter of the Ren family not long ago, in a wedding grand enough to match the new courtyard.
Chen Erniu and the Li family ate dinner together and lounged in the courtyard afterward, trading idle talk. Then Li Chijing hurried through the front gate and whispered something in his father's ear.
Li Chijing was only nine, but he was beautiful — fine-featured, sharp-eyed, clever in a way that charmed everyone who met him. Uncles and cousins alike doted on him.
Li Mutian had been enjoying the evening. He heard his youngest's whisper: "Father, the mirror... it's glowing."
He smoothed his face into perfect calm. He patted his knees and rose. "My old bones can't sit still anymore. I'll rest. You all keep talking." He turned and walked toward the back. Everyone murmured their respects. Chen Erniu took his cue and made to leave.
---
The rear hall held several chambers. Li Mutian entered the largest, set at the very center. Inside, an ancestral shrine displayed spirit tablets and fresh offerings of fruit — six generations of ancestors, pieced together from the village chronicles.
He pressed a section of the wall and it slid aside, revealing a hidden chamber.
A skylight let the moonlight fall directly onto a gray-green bronze mirror resting on a platform of blue stone. White light rippled across its face like water.
"Three years," Li Mutian breathed. He frowned. "Jing'er, go get your brothers."
"Yes, Father." Li Chijing raced off.
---
When Lu Jiangxian woke, his mind was packed with information. He spent the time it takes to burn one stick of incense sorting through it.
*The Supreme Lunar Breathing Wheel-Nurturing Art!*
This art taught how to open the body's apertures and channel the qi of heaven and earth, drawing down the essence of the lunar moon to cultivate the Six Wheels of Embryonic Breathing. Once the Six Wheels were complete — glowing like full moons — one could enter the Qi Refining stage.
The art also contained several minor techniques: the Golden Light Art, the Robe-Cleansing Art, the Water-Averting Method, the Evil-Banishing Art, the Heart-Meridian Art, and others. Any cultivator who had formed the Six Wheels could activate them by following the art's instructions.
Furthermore, the art described the Six Realms of Immortal Cultivation: Embryonic Breathing, Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Purple Mansion, Golden Core, and Nascent Soul. This jade stone, it turned out, had been issued by the Moon Essence Primordial Palace of the Yue Kingdom's immortal sects — a cultivation manual for their Embryonic Breathing disciples.
After absorbing the jade stone, Lu Jiangxian felt an intangible clarity settle over him. His divine sense range had expanded to twenty zhang. His lunar essence capacity had multiplied dozens of times over. As long as he had enough essence, he could now cast the minor techniques from the art within one zhang of the mirror.
But most importantly, a spell had surfaced from the mirror's own memory.
It was called:
*The Profound Pearl Sacrificial Spirit Art.*