Seeing Li Xuanxuan hang his head, Li Tongya softened his tone. "It is your first time managing the household. You have not committed any real mistake."
He paused to think, then looked down at him and said gently: "Go to the Meichi Mountain cave estate and think it over. Do not come out until you have broken through to the fourth layer of Embryonic Breathing, the Azure Origin Wheel."
"Thank you, Second Uncle!"
Li Xuanxuan clasped his hands. He almost seemed relieved as he bowed respectfully and withdrew.
Li Tongya went to the back courtyard to change his clothes, then sat in the main seat and flipped through the records of everything Li Xuanxuan had logged. Frowning, he said: "Call Yesheng in."
A clan soldier outside the gate went to fetch him. Li Yesheng hurried into the main courtyard, hunched low. He saw Li Tongya studying a wooden slip, not raising his head to look at him.
Li Yesheng's heart skipped a beat. "Damn it. I overplayed my hand."
In truth, Li Xiangping and Li Tongya had raised Li Xuanxuan as the future patriarch since childhood, but back then Li Xuanfeng and Li Xuanling had not yet been born. Who knew how the two brothers felt now? Li Yesheng had watched Li Xuanxuan make mistakes without intervening, using the situation to test their attitudes.
Now, seeing Li Tongya silent, he understood that his little scheme had been seen through. He quickly knelt to confess.
Li Tongya furrowed his brow and waved him off. "Explain it to the patriarch yourself when he returns."
He gathered the wooden slips on his desk and said darkly: "Sound the drum. Mobilize the clan soldiers."
---
Li Xiangping stumbled along, his steps unsteady. He found a large tree and leaned against it, sitting down to regulate his breathing. When his spiritual power had recovered by about twenty or thirty percent, he cast a Spirit-Walking Art on his legs and pressed on southward, fighting exhaustion.
He walked for an hour and a half before he dared to relax. He climbed a large banyan tree and lay there in a half-sleep for several hours, until he felt a little better.
The land was wild and remote, with no sign of human settlement. Li Xiangping caught a wild rabbit, roasted it, and ate. Over the next few days, he breathed in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, combing through his meridians to restore himself, and resumed his journey south.
His external wounds had mostly healed, but internal injuries took longer to mend. His organs still ached dully. He had recovered only about seventy or eighty percent of his strength. He moved cautiously, afraid of encountering some demonic creature, and by the time he reached his own territory, more than a month had passed.
As soon as he crossed the border, he spotted several patrols of clan soldiers moving through the forest. He thought to himself:
"So the household is still stable. The Ji family has not pushed west."
Though the soldiers wore his family's uniforms, Li Xiangping's caution made him detour around them. He crept all the way to Lijing Village, found everything as usual — no signs of upheaval — and only then did he feel safe enough to climb the mountain.
Li Tongya was frowning as he polished his sword. He heard footsteps and looked up, startled. When he saw Li Xiangping standing at the door, disheveled but smiling, the corners of his mouth lifted. "I knew you were too clever to die."
Li Xiangping snorted, sat down at the table, and gulped down a bowl of tea before exclaiming:
"What a mess! A Qi Refining cultivator chased me for a day and two nights. I almost got killed by a single palm strike."
He recounted the past twenty-odd days of pursuit and escape, then took off his outer robe. He gently placed the magic mirror on the table, watching the cyan-gray mirror float slowly upward. Then he tossed out a brocade pouch and a pale blue chunk of metal. "Take a look?"
Li Tongya nodded and extended his spiritual consciousness into the storage pouch. A small pile of items clattered out.
Aside from a heap of clothing, odds and ends, and gold and silver, the old Daoist's storage pouch contained twenty-five spirit stones, several Embryonic Breathing stage healing pills, a carefully sealed jade bottle marked "Jade Sprout Pill," a stack of yellowed talismans, and the white-glowing jade pendant.
Finally, with a clatter, a gray-white long sword fell out.
Li Xiangping had just picked up the jade pendant when Lu Jiangxian, half-asleep in the mirror, suddenly perked up. Watching the pendant — a mere inch from him — he gently tugged along the connection between them.
The pendant leaped up like a joyful bird, darting straight for the cyan-gray mirror.
"Hm?"
The movement caught them off guard. Li Xiangping could not snatch it back. The pendant flew up, pressed lightly against the mirror's surface, and white vapors billowed out, streaming into the mirror like homing birds returning to the forest.
The twelve seal-scripts along the mirror's edge lit up one by one. Lu Jiangxian felt a rush of ease, his spiritual perception expanding. A stream of information poured into him, and he sank into meditation, sorting through it.
Li Xiangping and Li Tongya watched the white light slowly fade from the pendant. With a soft clatter, it fell back onto the table. They exchanged a glance, returned the magic mirror to its stone platform, and waited another incense stick's time. Seeing nothing else unusual, they went back to the main courtyard to continue dividing the spoils.
The old Daoist's life had been frugal; even his healing pills were only at the Embryonic Breathing stage. Li Xiangping set aside those bottles of pills and the twenty-five spirit stones, then carefully opened the Jade Sprout Pill's seal. A refreshing fragrance of medicinal herbs burst forth, and just breathing it in made both men's spiritual power surge.
"This pill is even more potent than the two Snake Origin Pills we have left at home. And those are said to be suitable for both Embryonic Breathing and Qi Refining. This Jade Sprout Pill must be a Qi Refining stage pill."
He quickly resealed it. Meanwhile, Li Tongya had already picked up the long sword, examining it with obvious affection. Seeing this, Li Xiangping laughed. "What do you think of this sword?"
Li Tongya smiled and shook his head. "It was probably his weapon during the Embryonic Breathing stage. Worth maybe three or five spirit stones at most, but much better than any mortal iron."
That reminded Li Xiangping of his own Green Crow Bow. Li Tongya had bought it for two and a half spirit stones — a magic artifact, but not a light one. He had originally planned to release a single Profound Lunar Radiance and then retreat, so he had left the bow at home to avoid being weighed down. Who knew he would run into that old Daoist and have no suitable weapon for the fight?
"Can't say that. If I'd been carrying the bow, the old Daoist might have caught me sooner."
Li Xiangping was still lost in thought, analyzing the chase, when Li Tongya silently opened the stack of talismans and compared them carefully against the key points in the *Talismanic Art of the Spiritual Nexus*.
"These should be Embryonic Breathing stage talismans for summoning a dharma shield."
He studied them for a while, counted them — twenty-four in total, worth about eight spirit stones.
"Keep a few for Xuanxuan and Xuanfeng to protect themselves. Especially Xuanfeng — that boy has a mind of his own and loves to run off."
Li Xiangping remembered the large shield the old Daoist had summoned with twelve talismans, cursed under his breath, and laughed. "That old coot burned through his most precious and expensive techniques. I tricked him twice. No wonder he was so furious."
Li Tongya picked up the pale blue chunk of metal, inspected it, and could not make heads or tails of it. He looked at Li Xiangping and frowned. "Are you still injured? Take the medicine and rest first."