By the time Li Xiangping reached Lichuan Pass, the battle was already drawing to a close. Out in the midst of the melee, Ahuila swung his great hammer as he harried the fleeing remnants of the enemy, conspicuous amid the slaughter.
In the years past, straggling Mountain Yue troops had crossed the border in a trickle, and so Li Xiangping had summoned Ahuila to Lichuan Pass, to persuade the tribes of his acquaintance. Ahuila had fought bravely in one engagement after another, winning the respect of the clan soldiers, and Li Xiangping had grown considerably more at ease with the man.
"Is this the wave of Mountain Yue so far, this year?" Li Xiangping knitted his brow, gazing toward the distant peaks, a vague unease stirring in his heart as he asked in a low voice.
"To report to the clan head — this is the sixth wave already!"
Li Qiuyang, standing beside him, answered in a low, heavy voice; he was covered in the dust of travel, evidently having only just arrived. In recent years he had risen to the fourth layer of Embryonic Breathing and taken a daughter of the Chen family to wife, and a son and a daughter now stood by his knees; the years had lent him a great deal of maturity.
Li Xiangping nodded, then turned and entered the courtyard, leaving behind a single order for Li Qiuyang: "Once the place is cleaned up, have Ahuila come to see me."
Within the hall, Li Xiangping set down his talisman brush and studied the silk spread across the tabletop. Years ago he had broken through to the fifth layer of Embryonic Breathing, the Jade Capital Wheel, and now he stood at the very peak of that realm, long since capable of wielding his brush to draw talismans. Li Jingtian, for her part, was adding oil to the lamp within the room. The girl was twelve now, quick of limb and nimble of hand, already grown into a graceful and open young lady.
Of the six Profound Pearl Talisman Seeds left by the magic mirror, Lu Jiangxian's legacy, the three surviving brothers of the Li house had each taken one; two more had gone to Li Xuanxuan and Li Xuanfeng, and the last had naturally been kept for Li Tongya's branch.
"Clan head! Ahuila requests an audience!"
Chen Donghe strode into the courtyard in his leather armor, a sword at his hip, full of youthful vigor. His gaze lingered for a single breath on Li Jingtian's profile by the window before he dropped his eyes and spoke in a low voice.
"Let him in."
Ahuila had now stripped away all the beast teeth he once wore about his neck, trading them for a fur coat in the manner of the townsfolk of Lijing. No sooner had he entered the courtyard than he called out in a loud voice: "Great King! Great King! Disaster is brewing!"
Behind him, Chen Donghe's mouth twitched; he suppressed the urge to cuff the fellow across the back of the skull, ducked his head low, and used Ahuila's bulky frame to shield himself from Li Xiangping's gaze, stealing a sidelong glance at Li Jingtian. She was trimming the lantern wick by the window; the dim golden lamplight leapt softly across her cheek. Hers was not the beauty of fine delicacy, but of clean-cut strength — her features bold and spirited, and only her eyes, which she had inherited from Tian Yun, were soft and round, so that the whole made her rather endearing.
"What is the matter?" Li Xiangping cast a low glance toward the window where his daughter was absorbed in trimming the candle, and a faint smile hooked the corner of his mouth. He found it quietly amusing — ever since he had broken through the fifth layer of the Jade Capital Wheel and given birth to his spiritual sense, he could know everything that passed within this courtyard without ever needing to look.
"My old brothers crossed the Great Fish Stream last night to come warn me... they said that Ganixo has shattered the enemy host, and may march east any day now!"
Ahuila's words stirred up a thousand waves. Li Xiangping and Chen Donghe both started in alarm, and even Li Jingtian at the window turned her head slightly, listening with worried intent.
"And what strength does this Ganixo command at present?" Li Xiangping knit his brow and asked heavily.
Ahuila hung his head and answered in a dull voice: "Ganixo must be at mid Qi Refining. He has brought the hundred thousand Mountain Yue of the northern foothills under one rein, and can muster some five to six thousand soldiers. Already four shamans in the Qi Refining realm, men who have swallowed the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, heed his commands, and he must count dozens of Embryonic Breathing chieftains in his train as well. But by good fortune these remain garrisoned in their scattered holdings across the northern foothills; they do not ride with his army."
At these words Li Xiangping was brought up short. He knit his brow and said in a low, heavy voice: "My Li clan offers tribute to the Qingchi Sect year after year; we are a family under its rule. Ganixo is no more than a single Mountain Yue host — that he wreaks havoc in the northern foothills is tolerable, but does he presume to ride east at his will? Does he truly take the Qingchi Sect for dead men?"
Ahuila dropped hastily to his knees, pressing his forehead close against the earth, and spoke in a trembling voice: "According to the words of the tribesmen who fled from the west, the demonic sects... the Qingchi Sect will not intervene..."
Li Xiangping bowed his head, a furious helplessness kindling in his chest. Even a common soldier of the Mountain Yue knew that the Qingchi Sect would not strike; as the clan head of a family under that sect's rule, he knew nothing at all of what bargain the two parties had struck.
"You may withdraw."
Ahuila and Chen Donghe hurriedly took their leave. When the two had gone, Li Xiangping slowly settled back into the seat of honor, shut his eyes, and said nothing at all.
"Father." Li Jingtian called to him in a low voice, drawing close to bow before him gently. "Our house may well become the knife and the fish for another. We should make ready early."
Li Xiangping raised his weary brow. "Go on."
Li Jingtian kept her eyes low and spoke softly: "For Ganixo to dare ride east so flagrantly, the Qingchi Sect must have reached an accord with the Great Shaman of the Mountain Yue — ceding land and people to them — and yet not notified our Li clan. They do not wish the Li family to mount a response..."
"You mean to say my Li clan, houses and all, has already been sold as goods in that accord."
Li Xiangping raised an eyebrow and looked down upon his eldest daughter.
"As this daughter sees it, this time our house runs the danger of spending money and exhausting its people, but not of extinction. Our father's younger brother still holds standing within the sect, and we have won connections to the Xiao family besides. The Qingchi Sect would not cast us aside in silence — no doubt they have merely permitted the Mountain Yue to cross the border and plunder, not resolved to bury our whole clan."
Li Jingtian arched a brow, lifted her head to meet her father's gaze, and went on in a soft voice: "The Qingchi Sect's territories and those of the various Mountain Yue hosts interlace and overlap, and the families caught among them are many. Since the sect has struck its bargain, it has had no choice but to pretend ignorance of the Mountain Yue crossing the border. Each family must keep itself whole by its own means."
Li Xiangping listened until his daughter fell silent, then set down the bamboo slip in his hand and raised his head. "And how do you think the Li clan should meet this?"
"Abandon the common people under our rule, take the whole house into hiding. The Mountain Yue raiders will never linger here; within a single day at most they will turn back for Lijing Mountain."
Li Jingtian fixed her eyes steadily upon Li Xiangping, testing the words as she spoke them.
"No!" Li Xiangping shook his head with an unyielding expression, and at once a smile bloomed across his daughter's face, making her round eyes all the more endearing.
"Were we to do that, my Li clan would be no different from the Qingchi Sect!"
Li Xiangping shook his head, his bearing weary. When he saw Li Jingtian part her lips again, he waved a hand to cut her off and said heavily: "I understand. Return to Lijing Mountain for now."
Li Jingtian nodded obediently and withdrew. Li Xiangping, in turn, clasped his hands behind his back and paced slowly out of the courtyard, gazing at the mountain forests under the moonlight. He felt a powerful premonition surge through him — this Ganixo was the fiercest foe he had met in all these years. This young Mountain Yue possessed not only a keen sense for war and a cunning mind, but an overwhelming strength besides.
"What line in the sand did the Qingchi Sect draw for the Mountain Yue, and how long did they grant you..." he murmured, the unspoken dread coiling cold about his heart.