Calamity in an Instant

A chorus of shrieks instantly erupted across Mount Huaqian below. Watching Lu Yuanlu's headless corpse plummet into the mountain woods, the grand array protecting the mountain began to waver. Only now did regret dawn upon the crowd. Some wailed, some cried out in terror, while others dropped to their knees and kowtowed. The base of the mountain was surrounded so tightly by the Li family's troops that not a drop of water could trickle through; there was nowhere to run. Before long, the grand array atop Mount Huaqian collapsed with a resounding crash. Riding the wind, Li Tongya landed upon the mountain. A swath of people was already kneeling before him. A middle-aged man bowed his head timidly and cried repeatedly, "Lu Anyu, Patriarch of the Lu family, pays respects to the Li Family Ancestor!" Only now did Lu Anyu and the rest of the Lu clan realize what Lu Sisi had meant by the "calamity in an instant" he had murmured of before dying. Lu Sisi had only been laid to rest that very morning, yet by the dead of night, disaster had already arrived at their doorstep—a turn of events that left one sighing in sorrowful disbelief. Li Tongya took a look at him, only to see the man lift a mournful face and cry out, "We beg the Ancestor to spare our lives! Our Lu family will disband immediately. Both Mount Huaqian and Mount Tiaoyun shall belong to the Li family, and the disciples of our clan will obey the Ancestor's every command, harboring no disloyalty whatsoever..." "Quickly, please rise!" Li Tongya was exceedingly polite, his face bearing a look of regret as he said, "I held great respect for Senior Sisi. It was only because this Lu Yuanlu went too far that I stepped forward to punish him. Patriarch, you must not blame me." "How could this humble one dare!" Lu Anyu exclaimed. Without waiting for him to say more, Li Tongya asked gently, "Now that the Lu family has lost its Qi Refinement cultivators, it is indeed impossible to maintain a foothold here by Lake Wangyue. Has the Patriarch thought of a way forward?" The middle-aged man froze for a moment, then finally caught his drift. Overcome with mixed joy and sorrow, he hurriedly said, "We are entirely at the Ancestor's disposal!" Li Tongya nodded and addressed the direct lineage of the Lu family below: "After all, the Lu and Li families once shared good relations, and I hold Senior Sisi's character in high esteem. Thus, I will give you all two choices. "First, submit and integrate into our Li family's four towns. The men shall marry as matrilocal husbands, the women shall remarry, and none may retain the surname Lu. From then on, your descendants will be no different from the townsfolk of our Li family, and you may still live as wealthy gentry to enjoy your twilight years in peace. "Second, if any of you still harbor thoughts of rebuilding the Lu family, we do not wish to exterminate you down to the last person. We will grant you a way out, seeing you respectfully across our borders so that you may seek your own fortunes." No sooner had Li Tongya finished speaking than Li Xuanfeng, having understood immediately, stepped forward with an indifferent expression and smiled. "Those who wish to rebuild the Lu family may follow me down the mountain." The entire place instantly fell dead silent. Everyone kept their heads bowed, not daring to move. After a long while, a woman finally stepped out, standing indignantly before Li Xuanfeng. Li Xuanfeng glanced at their surroundings and led her down the mountain. Seeing the troops surrounding the mountain part to open a path, others gradually worked up the courage to follow. In an instant, nearly half of the Lu clan members at the summit departed, led by the few Embryonic Breathing cultivators as they slunk crestfallen down the mountain. Li Tongya sneered inwardly, looking at Lu Anyu with a smile: "Will the Patriarch not follow them down the mountain?" Hearing this, Lu Anyu looked up and gave a wry smile. "We possess no spirit apertures. Leaving the mountain, we would merely end up as servants to other cultivators—what point is there in that! We might as well submit to the Li family. At least we can live out our days in modest wealth, spared the misery of wandering in our old age only to die forgotten in some ditch." Cupping his hands, Lu Anyu smiled ingratiatingly and whispered, "The Lu family still possesses several legacies! I shall go retrieve them for Senior at once." With that, he naturally took a step to leave, but Li Tongya swept a cold glance over him from head to toe and said icily, "Halt!" Lu Anyu froze, then dropped to his knees with a thud, not daring to utter a word. Though everyone in the Lu clan seemed utterly worthless and incompetent, Li Tongya remained cautious. Fearing this man was merely feigning subservience while secretly intending to destroy the legacies, he whispered to Li Qiuyang, who stood alert at his side, "Go and watch him." Understanding his meaning, Li Qiuyang nodded, hauled Lu Anyu to his feet, walked a few paces, and warned him, "Stay honestly behind me. Don't go entertaining any crooked ideas!" Before long, Li Qiuyang emerged from the courtyard holding three jade slips, followed by Lu Anyu, who wore an obsequious smile. Li Qiuyang said respectfully, "Clansman Uncle, there is a spirit spring inside the cave dwelling on Mount Huaqian with quite a high density of spiritual energy—ten percent higher even than the cave dwelling on Meichi Peak. It is indeed a fine place." Li Tongya nodded, took the three jade slips from his hands, and probed them with his divine sense, praising, "Not bad." These three jade slips were all Qi Refinement mantras. Two were common, first-rank run-of-the-mill mantras that did not duplicate the Li family's collection, so Li Tongya naturally accepted them. The last one was rather peculiar, titled Dongquan Limpid Chant—a third-rank cultivation method that refined qi using Dongquan limpid qi. 'Qi Refinement achieved through this Dongquan limpid qi brims with vitality and endures with immense staying power. Lu Sisi insisted on having Mount Huaqian all for the sake of the spirit spring within the mountain. No wonder Lu Sisi himself used a common technique to refine qi, while Lu Yuanlu had already taken up the Dongquan Limpid Chant.' With a lingering question resolved, Li Tongya waved his hand. Clan soldiers immediately escorted this group of Lu clansmen back to the four towns, while Li Xuanxuan and Li Tongya entered the Lu family's cave dwelling in the mountains to inspect the spirit spring. *** Li Xuanfeng led the group of Lu clansmen who wished to rebuild their family down the mountain. Lowering his gaze, he swept his eyes over them and caught more than a few glints of hatred. Sneering ironically, he led the group forward for a time until a band of men emerged before them. "Brother Feng, are they all here?" Li Xuanling was clad in armor, a blued blade held in his hand. Behind him, the cold steel gleaming in the hands of the clan soldiers sent chills through anyone who saw it, yet he asked with a genial smile. "They're all here. I kept a close eye on them the whole way; not a single one slipped away." The faces of the people behind Li Xuanfeng drained of color at once. Someone forced himself to remain calm and spoke up, "Your Old Ancestor promised to see us respectfully across the border! Do not take it upon yourself to act recklessly and make your elder break his word!" Li Xuanfeng sneered. Only now did the crowd realize that they had already been surrounded on all sides by the Li family's troops. Glancing at him, Li Xuanfeng chuckled: "This place has long passed beyond the Li family's borders, so how does this not count as seeing you respectfully across the border? It was merely that you met with bandits on the road, suffered heavy casualties, and fled in all directions without a trace, and thus were unable to rebuild the Lu family." "You... you...!" Surrounding them in silence, the clan soldiers surged forward as one. Wails and pleas for mercy instantly erupted in a chaotic din. Cold-gleaming blades splashed blood across the ground, and the crowd fell in swathes like harvested wheat. Li Xuanfeng raised his bow and shot dead, one by one, the few Embryonic Breathing cultivators who still put up desperate resistance. Seeing that every last one had fallen, Li Xuanling stepped forward to personally inspect each body before murmuring, "These clan soldiers were all handpicked for their absolute loyalty. Not a word of what transpired here will ever spread. This way, both sides of the matter are satisfied!" "Indeed." Li Xuanfeng slung his bow across his back. Below, the clan soldiers had already begun digging pits to bury the corpses. Pondering for a few breaths, he said, "However, we must still guard against whether there are any clever individuals harboring ill intentions among those who surrendered. Once we return to the towns, they must be kept under close surveillance so that no unrest breaks out." "We can leave those matters to Brother Xuan." Li Xuanling smiled slightly. Being able to return and give an account to Lu Wanrong brought him no small sense of relief. The two brothers exchanged a smile and led the troops deeper into the forest. Having finished dealing with the Lu family members atop Mount Huaqian, Li Tongya knew time was pressing and did not dare dawdle. Immediately rising on the wind, he hurried eastward toward Mount Tiaoyun, the Lu family's ancestral nest. 'The Lu family's legacies shouldn't be limited to just these three. When the Ji family wiped out the Wan family back then, although Wan Xiaohua destroyed the Wan family's array formations legacy before dying, still...'