Li Xuanling had been a forced laborer in the Mountain Yue camp for over ten days. The slaves around him were collapsing from exhaustion and wailing in misery, but with his second-layer Embryonic Breathing cultivation, the work was effortless. The only challenge was pretending to be tired and wretched.
These slaves ate and slept in pen-like enclosures the Mountain Yue had thrown together. Excrement piled into mounds, the stench unbearable. A dozen or so soldiers stood guard around the perimeter. On the very first night, Li Xuanling had nearly kicked off his shackles and slipped away, but he was still waiting for news of Li Jingtian, and so forced himself to remain for ten long days.
The Mountain Yue appeared to be establishing a permanent fortress here — a base from which to monitor and suppress the Li family. Li Xuanling had studied the layout carefully. The most convenient moment to escape would be when they sent laborers outside the camp to haul timber. That would place him far from the camp's experts. A quick dispatch of a few guards, and he could vanish before the camp's powerful cultivators could respond.
"I could escape easily enough on my own, but getting my sister out would be far harder."
Li Jingtian had been frequently entering and leaving the command tents these past days, a sight that made Li Xuanling's heart race with fear. He lingered around the area constantly, searching for a chance to spirit her away.
While carrying timber through the camp, Li Xuanling quietly studied the layout from every angle. He overheard two Mountain Yue shamans chatting nearby:
"We set off for the Grand Court tomorrow, don't we?"
"That's what I heard… The Great King wants to build a massive stone platform at the Grand Court, to conduct a ceremony honoring all the shamans and mark the unification of the northern foothills…"
"Chaos for centuries, and finally we'll have some peace."
Li Xuanling was alarmed. He thought urgently:
"No matter what, I have to act now! Once we enter the Mountain Yue capital tomorrow, there truly will be no way out!"
He set down the timber gently and brushed his fingers over the magic mirror hidden in his robes. At once he detected Li Jingtian's location, and hurried through the camp toward her.
But in the mirror, Lu Jiangxian wore a strange expression. As Li Xuanling moved steadily westward, a sensation like a blood-bond link — a pulse of blood kinship — slowly surfaced in the distance.
"Impossible?"
Lu Jiangxian's mind went blank. He sensed that powerful aura in the distance, blazing like a torch in the night, and was shaken to his core.
"Register qi?!"
Deep in the mountains to the west, Lu Jiangxian recognized the unmistakable scent of register qi — and the deep, instinctive familiarity told him at once that this was a wisp of register qi dispensed by the magic mirror.
Not the gray register that Li Xiangping carried, but a brilliant, shimmering yellow register.
Register qi came in grades — gray, white, blue, yellow — corresponding to the cultivation realms of Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Purple Mansion, and Golden Core. A yellow register could only be condensed when the magic mirror received offerings and incense from a Golden Core cultivator.
As Li Xuanling continued to move, Lu Jiangxian could gradually establish a connection with that register qi. But suspicion held him in silence.
"This…"
After a moment of deliberation, a name surfaced in Lu Jiangxian's mind.
"Li Jiangqun — the Celestial Palace heir!"
But the thought was quickly dismissed, replaced by a cascade of doubts.
"Li Jiangqun appeared to be only at the Purple Mansion level. When they ambushed him, only Purple Mansion cultivators from the Three Sects and Seven Gates took part. How could they have produced a yellow register? Creating one requires not merely a Golden Core corpse — it demands the sacrifice of a living demon-beast, and the volume of incense required is astronomical."
Lu Jiangxian turned the puzzle over and over, arriving at no answer, but he caught a faint whiff of danger. He thought to himself:
"Whatever happens, I must not go lightly to this Grand Court. Who knows what monsters may be lurking there. Li Jiangqun's fate is a cautionary tale! Those who target the magic mirror cannot be merely the Three Sects and Seven Gates — there must be a far greater power behind them."
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Li Xuanling waited outside the tent for what felt like an eternity before Li Jingtian finally appeared. He had swapped duties with a slave carrying water, and moved slowly as he hauled water to a great vat, timing his steps to cross paths with Li Jingtian and her entourage.
Li Jingtian, draped in beast hide and adorned with jade, glanced briefly at Li Xuanling fumbling with the water buckets. Then she spoke sharply:
"Wait."
Several Mountain Yue attendants immediately fawned with smiles as Li Jingtian said softly:
"Add him to the group."
Two attendants seized Li Xuanling and pulled him away. He kept his head down as they walked, and heard them laughing:
"You lucky brat — the Great Marshal has agreed to give this little beauty ten slaves. You're the first."
Li Xuanling understood at once that Li Jingtian had found a way to communicate with him, and followed obediently.
After a quick rinse, Li Xuanling was shoved into Li Jingtian's tent. The Mountain Yue observed no proprieties — he stepped onto the floor mat still dripping wet, and looked around. Seeing only Li Jingtian inside, he quietly exhaled in relief.
Li Jingtian set down what she was carrying and hurried to his side, whispering in his ear:
"I've learned the Patriarch's whereabouts!"
Over these past ten days, Li Xiangping had pushed deep into Mountain Yue territory, appearing among various Mountain Yue settlements with multiple pursuers on his trail. He had rallied desperate Mountain Yue refugees from Ganixo's domain, stirring up chaos across the entire region.
Ganixo had been raiding the families under Tang Gold Gate to the north. Upon hearing the news, he ordered Mu Jiaofan to turn back and suppress the disturbance — hence tomorrow's march.
Li Xuanling stared in disbelief, murmuring:
"What is the Patriarch trying to do…?"
He shook his head and quickly recovered, whispering:
"Never mind all that! When the crescent moon is overhead at dusk, I'll be outside the camp chopping wood and will seize the chance to break free. I'll circle back to the forest to the east and make a sound. You slip out of the tent pretending to use the latrine. I'll kill your Mountain Yue attendants and carry you away."
Li Jingtian hesitated, whispering:
"Will it work? What about the patrol?"
"Trust me."
Li Xuanling nodded and said in a low voice:
"I've spent these ten days studying the tents of the Mountain Yue Embryonic Breathing officers. I won't alert them."
Li Jingtian thought for a few breaths, then nodded firmly and asked quietly:
"If we alert a large force…"
Li Xuanling faltered, then said haltingly:
"Then I'll set you down and head east. I'll draw them away."
Li Jingtian shook her head and said softly:
"If I'm captured again, Mu Jiaofan won't do anything to me. But you have a spiritual aperture — you're far more valuable. You absolutely cannot be harmed."
Seeing Li Xuanling lower his head in silence, Li Jingtian hesitated and asked:
"If Mu Jiaofan himself comes after us…"
"If the Qi Refining general pursues us?!"
Li Xuanling touched the magic mirror in his robes, uncertain how much damage a single Profound Lunar Radiance could do to Mu Jiaofan. He said gravely:
"The Mountain Yue are our family's enemies — wild-haired, tattooed, barbaric and without manners. If they catch us, nothing good will come of it! They might even abuse you and use you to threaten the family."
He looked deeply at Li Jingtian, gritted his teeth, and said fiercely:
"If it truly comes to that — I will kill you first, and then kill myself!"