Only a few months after Li Qiuyang returned to town, his father, Li Chengfu, passed away. The funeral was reasonably grand, with the main house sending emissaries to offer condolences. Li Qiuyang thanked the guests one by one, then sat alone in the mourning hall, staring blankly at his father's coffin. His elder brothers treated him with utmost reverence and deference, which made him feel thoroughly uncomfortable.
Li Chengfu had died peacefully enough. He had held out until Li Qiuyang's return to the town before breathing his last, finally letting go with a sigh of relief as he quietly passed away in bed, holding Li Qiuyang's hand.
Looking at the mourning hall draped in white banners, Li Qiuyang vaguely recalled the year he was seven. Li Chengfu had heard that the main house was testing for spirit apertures and, without a second word, scooped him up and marched out the door. After they had walked along the stone-paved path for a while, he asked his father,
“Daddy, where are we going?”
“To seek immortality!”
Li Chengfu said this and chuckled gleefully.
Later, after they were welcomed back into the clan and resumed the surname Li, the surrounding villagers and members of the Ye clan came in droves to curry favor. Li Chengfu was sharp-eyed and capable. Not only did he keep the elder brothers strictly in line so they never caused Li Qiuyang any trouble, but he also found various tasks to handle within the clan, allowing this branch to prosper with each passing day.
One day, when Li Chengfu was drunk with him, the old man chuckled softly and said, “When I was young, catching fat rats in the fields, I could already tell there were three smart men in the village. One was Li Mutian, and another was Chen Erniu! Between those two, one was ruthless and calm, while the other was clever and capable.”
“And who was the third?” Li Qiuyang had asked with a smile.
“Ye Chengfu.”
Li Chengfu had burst into hearty laughter, his eyes misty with wine as the bowl in his hand shook continuously.
Li Qiuyang snapped back to the present, glancing toward the cold coffin where Li Chengfu lay. A toddler came bounding into the hall, a white strip of mourning cloth tied across his brow, looking at him with tearful eyes.
“Daddy!”
Scooping his youngest son into his arms, Li Qiuyang murmured softly to himself, “Not one of you eight has a spirit aperture. Where does the hope for my lineage lie?”
“Your father can only ensure a lifetime of wealth and comfort for you all. Lacking spirit apertures, you might even pass on before your father does.”
He gazed at the bewildered child and had only spoken a couple of words when a clan soldier stepped through the doorway, bowing low.
“Clan Uncle, the Patriarch summons you.”
Li Qiuyang quickly stood, straightened his clothes, and hurried up Mount Lijing. After walking along the stone-paved path for a short while, he came upon the massive corpse of a patterned serpent coiled across the ground.
“What a fine serpent!” Li Qiuyang praised. Without waiting for Li Xuanxuan to speak, he sensibly bent over and cast the Spirit Sealing Technique into the monster’s carcass.
Li Xuanxuan asked with a pleasant smile, “How is Clan Uncle’s cultivation progressing?”
“Fourth layer, the Qingyuan Wheel,” Li Qiuyang chuckled.
Beside them, Li Xuanfeng wiped down his bow. Clad in plain mourning attire, he remained silent, clearly in no bright mood.
A clan soldier rushed up from below, drenched in sweat. He bowed and whispered into Li Xuanxuan’s ear, “Patriarch! Word has come from the Shanyue—Jianixi is dead! He was assassinated during the Shanyue Great Sacrifice!”
Li Xuanxuan froze for a moment, then beamed with delight. He rose to his feet at once and said to the other two, “Jianixi is dead, assassinated during their Great Sacrifice! We can finally sleep in peace! We must drink a deep draught to celebrate!”
The two were caught off guard. Li Xuanfeng paused his hand, remarking coldly, “He got off too easy.”
Li Qiuyang’s expression turned somewhat conflicted. He spoke softly, “When I was within Shanyue territory, I saw many Shanyue commoners who held deep reverence and affection for him. How could he have been assassinated…?”
Li Xuanxuan nodded and took up the thought, wondering aloud, “What is more, his cultivation was at least at the peak of Qi Refinement. Aside from a Foundation Establishment cultivator, who could have killed him? There are far too many suspicious points in this; the waters run very deep.”
“Where is Second Uncle? Only he might know the crux of it!” Li Xuanxuan looked up and asked.
Li Xuanfeng answered, “He went to hunt monsters.”
***
Li Tongya followed the mountain ridges and veins for a time. Guided by his memory, he found a large banyan tree with whitening leaves beneath a cliff on a slope. It stood tall on the hillside, shedding showers of pale leaves that dusted the ground in mottled white.
Having found the spot from his memory, he indeed saw a large crimson fox sleeping soundly beside the tree. The moment he halted his steps, the great fox’s ears twitched sharply upright, and it squinted at him with narrowed eyes.
Li Tongya watched it quietly for a moment. This beast’s cultivation was around the fifth level of Qi Refinement. He had caught sight of it the last time he sought a sacrifice for talisman qi; back then, merely looking at it from a distance, he had been deterred by its imposing aura. Now that his own cultivation had advanced, it was the perfect opponent to test his sword against.
The great fox’s eyes were quite lively. It stared at the sword in his hand, licked its paw, opened its wide jaws, and actually stammered in human speech,
“I… haven’t… eaten humans.”
Li Tongya was caught entirely off guard. Surprised and doubtful, he swept his spiritual sense across the great fox, confirming that it was merely at the fifth level of Qi Refinement and not Foundation Establishment. It was his first time encountering a monster that had opened its sentience and refined away the vocal bone in its throat. For a moment, he did not know how to respond, and could only say softly,
“Fellow Daoist… I merely wish to spar with you, stopping short of causing harm.”
Seeing the fox open and close its mouth in speechless shock, Li Tongya chuckled. He raised his hand and slashed toward the great fox. The beast leapt up from the spot and brought its claws up to block. Instantly, the ringing clashes of metal on iron rang out continuously. After the man and fox exchanged dozens of moves, Li Tongya gained a clear measure of its strength, opened up some distance, and unleashed his sword qi to strike.
The monster fox suddenly found itself constrained. After parrying a few arcs of sword qi, it opened its mouth and spat out a string of fox fire.
The fox fire was a blazing, fiery red, surging toward Li Tongya’s face in a relentless chain and forcing him back several paces. Yet the fox fire clung to him like a shadow, attaching to Li Tongya’s protective true essence with a furious sizzling.
Li Tongya expended several bursts of true essence to extinguish the fox fire, by which time the great fox was already lunging forward with bared teeth and claws, seeking to engage him in close-quarters combat.
However, Li Tongya had already reined in his blade and gathered his power. A brilliant white light erupted from his hands, and the Lunar Crescent Sword Arc surged forth with tremendous force. The white crescent arc was extraordinarily sharp, making the fox’s fur stand on end. The beast retreated repeatedly, spitting out several fireballs before it finally neutralized the sword aura.
No sooner had it fended off the Lunar Crescent Sword Arc than several more arcs of sword qi swept right before its face. The great fox shrieked in panic, its speech suddenly becoming far more fluent as it yelped repeatedly,
“Stop fighting! Stop fighting! …I have a monster general above me! You… you cannot kill me!”
Li Tongya checked his blade. Thinking he could take this opportunity to gather intelligence, he sheathed his sword and smiled. “Fellow Daoist’s fox fire is truly formidable!”
“Not as good as your sword.”
The fox let out a low sigh, showing a distinctly human trace of defeat. It plopped down beneath the banyan tree and answered, “Are you… the immortal from the family at the foot of the mountain? There’s someone using a bow who has hunted quite a few monsters. Do you know him?”
Recognizing that it referred to Xuanfeng, Li Tongya cupped his hands. “Thank you for your forbearance, Fellow Daoist. That is indeed a junior of my family.”
The great fox smacked its lips, groomed its fur, and called out lazily, “Doesn't matter to me how many of them die, just so long as you don't disturb that big mountain boar. The monsters in these outer fringes are yours to hunt as you please.”
“May I ask about this monster general?” Li Tongya asked, cupping his hands.
The great fox stood on its hind legs, grinding its teeth. “It’s a Foundation Establishment boar monster! All the monsters in this area are under his thumb. Downright… overbearing! Eats this, eats that, and demands that I deliver spiritual bamboo shoots to him every year…”
Li Tongya nodded, silently reflecting, *There really is a Foundation Establishment monster within these mountains. It is a good thing I did not rush deep inside recklessly, and only made a circuit around the outer periphery.*
Chapter 106