Ahuila had crossed the mountain forest a few days earlier, riding his horse with his tribesmen all the way to the Great Fish Stream his people had spoken of. He summoned the tribe's shaman to drive off the beasts of the hills and let his clansmen pitch camp, and it was then that an elder came to urge him back.
"Great King, east of the Great Fish Stream lies the domain of the demon sects. Turn back!"
Ahuila's eyes flared wide. The beast fangs and jade ornaments on his person clinked against one another as he snarled: "Old fool, do you want to turn back and throw yourself against that rabid wolf Ganixo? To carry your head into Li Mountain to be sent to your death? Or can you use shamanism to fly across Moonview Lake and find a place for our nine hundred clansmen to settle?"
The old man fell silent, sighing as he returned to the tribe.
Ahuila snorted, took a swig of fruit wine, and saw several clansmen enter the tent, dragging out a clean and fair-skinned stranger with his hair tightly bound, tossing him before Ahuila with a grin: "Great King, this stranger was skulking around the camp, so we caught him!"
It was a clan soldier the Li family had sent out to scout. His skill at lurking in the mountain forests was, of course, no match for the Mountain Yue, who threaded those woods year-round — and so he had been seized.
Ahuila ran his hand over his face, revealing the four lines of marks upon his cheek, tokens of his fourth-layer Embryonic Breathing cultivation. He hauled the man up, sneering coldly: "A stranger? It has been quite a while since I last saw one!"
Seeing the man's eyes bug out in terrified struggle, Ahuila laughed coldly for a time before flinging him to the ground and barking: "Someone!"
A shaman dragged the man away at once, arranging venomous insects and bee-stings for him. A chorus of screams drifted out from beyond the tent. Ahuila happily drained a cup of fruit wine, and by then the man had confessed everything.
"The Li clan?" Ahuila frowned, shaking his head. He listened as the shaman prattled on for a while, catching not a whisper of the words "Qi Refining," and bellowed at last: "To hell with them! Ransack them first!"
"Get to work, all of you!"
---
Gray had crept into the hair at Chen Erniu's temples. Over these years his fortunes had been good, and since his youngest son, Chen Donghe, had entered the immortal path, he would boast about it to anyone he met.
Chen Donghe had wailed lustily at birth, and Chen Erniu, the more he liked the boy, had discarded the name he had thought up himself and gone to ask the schoolteacher Han Wenxu to pick one.
Han Wenxu saw Chen Erniu trudging through the deep snow in the dead of winter, clutching fine wine and a chunk of dried meat, and could not decide whether to laugh or cry. He followed the Chen family tradition of rivers and lakes to name the boy — Chen Donghe, the winter river.
Chen Donghe had been clever since childhood, and Chen Erniu, watching his worthless elder brothers, finally breathed easy. Yet a few years ago, they even discovered a spiritual aperture in him — Chen Erniu was beside himself with joy and sent the boy to cultivate at Li Xiangping's side.
"Ah." Chen Erniu sighed. Wan Tiancang had died at Huagan Mountain, and the Lichuan Pass was now held by Wan Tianchou, a kind enough lad who got along well with Chen Erniu. But beasts kept creeping out of the western forests, and Chen Erniu had not slept well these past days, a nameless unease weighing on his heart.
He had lain in bed a while, drifting half into sleep, when suddenly he heard a burst of panicked shouts.
"Father! Father!" Chen Sanshui burst through the door with such a thunderous crash that Chen Erniu, startled, tumbled from the bed to the floor, yelping in pain.
"Wretched brat! Your moth—" Chen Erniu had no time to finish the curse before Chen Sanshui dragged him, stumbling, to the doorway and pointed east for him to see.
"Damned misfortune..." Chen Erniu gripped the doorframe, frozen, staring blankly at the scattered points of firelight on the eastern hillside.
One after another, bare-chested Mountain Yue with patterns tattooed on their arms emerged, laughing as they brandished long knives and charged down the slope. The host, stretching like a long dragon, had already cut its way into the village, and faint wailing and screaming drifted from within.
Behind him, Chen Sanshui was rifling through the room, gathering valuables, stammering: "Father, run! Father, while there is still time..."
A weight pressed down on Chen Erniu's chest; he nearly choked and fainted from sheer fury. He cuffed Chen Sanshui across the head, roaring: "Go tell the main household!"
Seeing Chen Sanshui standing there dumbstruck, Chen Erniu kicked him in the rear, and as the boy fled in panic, Chen Erniu felt the firelight before him spin dizzily, a profound helplessness surging in his chest.
"Utter waste."
Steadying himself, he went inside, hauled out his second son Chen Qiuishui, who was sleeping like a pig, and ground his teeth: "The patriarch already noticed something amiss in the east days ago. The clan soldiers are camped behind the village. Get out there and see what is happening!"
Seeing Chen Qiuishui milling about the room half-asleep, Chen Erniu's fury nearly made him black out. He squeezed his eyes shut, muttering to himself: "Easy, easy. The household still has Donghe."
Only then did he draw his saber, throw a rattan vest over his shoulders, and stagger out of the courtyard grinding his teeth, slinking into the shadows along the lanes.
---
"Patriarch!"
Li Xiangping slowly opened his eyes to find Li Yesheng, covered in dust and thoroughly disheveled, stumbling into the courtyard. "The Mountain Yue from the west have attacked Lichuan Pass!"
Li Xiangping was alarmed and rose at once, throwing on the armor hanging from the wall and taking up the Blue Crow Bow in his hand. Beside him, Chen Donghe obediently fastened his quiver.
"What is the situation? How many men? Any cultivators?"
"At a rough glance it must be several hundred, and none seen flying through the air." Though Li Yesheng had never cultivated, he understood the ranks of cultivation, and had seen cultivators slay monsters before — he knew most beasts that ran on the ground were not to be feared.
But Li Xiangping and Li Tongya had instructed him that the moment he saw anyone or anything hovering in midair, he was to retreat and report to the mountain — for they knew it was the ones who could fly who were truly dangerous.
He slapped a Spirit-Walking Art onto his leg and barked low: "Send word to summon Li Qiuyang and Li Xuanxuan!" After a moment's hesitation, Li Xiangping did not disturb Li Tongya, who was in seclusion. He stamped lightly and raced down the mountain.
"Yesheng, bring the village militia to reinforce shortly!" Li Yesheng cried after him, and seeing Li Xiangping vanish among the hills, hurried off to summon the men.
As he threaded his way along the road, drawing near Lichuan Pass, Li Xiangping saw that the camp of eight hundred clan soldiers had already erupted in the pounding of drums. The centurions he had appointed paced about with troubled faces, and a man sat slumped on the ground, his face buried in his hands, weeping.
Li Xiangping glanced down and thought the fellow's face had some likeness to Chen Erniu's. He flicked his jade token lightly and pressed on westward.
The centurions had recognized Li Xiangping at once, so the token was mere formality. They quickly roused their soldiers and followed, threading through the woods with a rustle, making for Lichuan Pass.
Only Chen Qiuishui was left sitting dazed in the dust, puzzled by all that had happened in an instant. He stood, brushed himself off, and looked about, not knowing where to go.