Li Changhu saw only the youth fling back the beast hide, revealing a flash of cold steel. Those savage, sharp eyes—wild as a predator's—did not blink once, glaring into Li Changhu's gaze with vindictive fury.
The cold glint was as swift as lightning, lunging straight for Li Changhu's throat. In his terror, he had time only to take a single step back and hurriedly raise a hand to ward it off.
Too fast!
This single thrust had been practiced for twenty-two years, tearing through countless bundles of straw and carrying the pent-up hatred of endless nights.
Though the cold light struck like a bolt of bright silver lightning, it deftly darted around Li Changhu's blocking hand like a swimming fish and plunged straight through his throat.
Li Changhu could muster only a few blood-soaked whimpers before collapsing heavily to the ground. His vision blurred, the screaming and furious roars around him fading into a distant rumble.
"You beast!"
Standing behind Li Changhu, Tian Shoushui let out a heart-wrenching roar. He was shorter than Li Changhu and had been completely shielded from view; only when Li Changhu fell did he realize what had happened.
His eyes bulged bloodshot, veins throbbing across his forehead as he lunged to seize the youth.
Having landed his blow, the youth abandoned the dagger. Taking advantage of the chaos as everyone rushed forward to catch Li Changhu, he rolled across the ground, slipped past Tian Shoushui's grasping hands, and darted into the crowd of refugees like an agile mouse-deer.
Tian Shoushui bounded forward in pursuit. The refugees scattered as though a hornet's nest had been stirred. Tian Shoushui caught sight of the youth ducking into the reed marshes beside the village, sprinting off into the distance like a wisp of smoke.
"Damn him!"
Without looking back, Tian Shoushui tracked the trampled trail into the reeds, leaving behind the panic-stricken refugees huddling together in terror.
"Plague-ridden cur! May dogs tear you apart!"
The villagers finally came to their senses. The middle-aged spokesman was pinned hard against the corner of a wall by the villagers, wailing and cursing through his tears: "It has nothing to do with me! I don't know that boy—he slipped in among us along the road!"
"Shut your mouth!" Liu Linfeng snarled, his face pale and sickly green. Gritting his teeth, he knelt to support the fallen Li Changhu and glared daggers at the middle-aged man, completely losing his composure.
Watching his nephew spitting bloody froth, clearly beyond saving, Liu Linfeng's mind was a muddled mess. How could he face his younger sister? How could he face Li Mutian? His nephew had died right before his eyes, for nothing!
Ren Ping'an sat frozen on the ground. His daughter, Lady Ren, had only just conceived after marrying Li Changhu, and now Li Changhu was dead—the boy he had watched grow up was gone, just like that!
Amidst the panic, Li Changhu lay on the ground, staring wide-eyed at the sky, feeling scalding blood spill over his chest as his consciousness began to fade.
*I've only wronged Xiangping... turning his joyous wedding into a funeral.*
Li Changhu's fading mind thought bleakly before the pain and suffocation dragged him into boundless darkness.
Amid the turmoil, unnoticed by anyone, a sliver of silver light quietly lifted from his dantian. Trailing a tail of radiance, it soared toward the sky like a fledgling swallow swooping into an embrace, twirled in a swift circle, and flew toward the Li family's backyard.
Not far off.
Old Man Xu stood trembling, his back hunched. Having watched the youth plunge the blade into Li Changhu's neck until the point protruded slightly from the nape, he felt a violent rush of blood surge from his chest straight to his head. Darkness swarmed his vision, nearly making him faint.
"What an ill-fated curse!"
Tears streamed down his weathered face. His hand tightly clutched the string of woven straw crickets he had meant to give Li Changhu, and he pressed his other hand to his chest in agonizing sorrow.
"You beast..."
Old Man Xu gasped heavily for breath and wiped the tears from his cheeks. Breaking into a run toward the back mountain, he muttered ceaselessly under his breath:
"This old man outlived his wife and watched his masters get wiped out! I've seen more men in my life than the droppings a wild wolf like you has left behind! Just you wait! Just you wait! This old man will see to you!"
***
The Li residence.
In the ancestral hall, Lu Jiangxian let out a silent sigh. He had awakened the moment Li Changhu was attacked, but the entrance to the village was simply too far away. There was nothing he could do; he could only watch helplessly as it all unfolded.
Looking at the silver glow fluttering beside the mirror like a butterfly, he knew that with a single thought, this talisman seed could dissolve into pure essence to nourish his soul.
Yet Li Changhu had never formed the Xuan Scenery, so the benefit from the talisman seed was minuscule. Sighing, Lu Jiangxian reversed the incantation. Drawing upon the Xuanzhu Spirit-Sacrifice Art, he stimulated the spiritual consciousness within the talisman seed. Strands of magical power drawn from the seed surfaced in the courtyard, stretching outward toward the members of the Li family within.
Li Mutian had tossed and turned for more than two hours before finally drifting into a hazy slumber. In his dream, moonlight poured like water through the window and the cracks of the door, illuminating the grounds outside as bright as day. His eldest son, Li Changhu, stood quietly beside the bed, gazing down at him.
"What has happened?" Li Mutian asked his eldest son in a hoarse voice.
Li Changhu pursed his lips and said nothing, studying Li Mutian's face intently, as if committing every detail to memory.
"Cough, cough, cough."
Li Mutian coughed forcefully a few times and asked with a furrowed brow, "Changhu, what happened?"
Li Changhu bowed respectfully to his father and said in a choked voice, "Father, take care..."
The moment the words left his mouth, Li Changhu's figure dispersed in the wind like grains of sand. The flowing moonlight slowly dimmed, and the courtyard, once bright as day, faded into darkness.
Li Mutian was overcome with dread. He reached out blindly, shouting without pause, "Speak to me, boy! Changhu! Li Changhu!"
He jolted awake in his bed, staring blankly out the window.
***
The side room.
"Can cultivating bring dreams as well?"
In the side room, Li Chijing opened his eyes with tears streaming down his face. He got up and walked outside, finding Li Tongya sitting by the wooden table.
Seeing his younger brother emerge, Li Tongya hastily wiped away the tear tracks on his own cheeks and forced a smile. "What is it?"
Li Chijing stared blankly at his brother, then looked up and asked, "Where is Eldest Brother?"
"He was called away by a tenant first thing this morning. Probably something to do with the fields," Li Tongya replied with a smile.
Just then, a wooden door creaked. Li Mutian stood in the doorway, calling out with an uneasy expression, "Tongya! Go bring your eldest brother back... Never mind, I will go myself."
Li Mutian hurriedly slipped on his shoes and walked into the front courtyard. Pushing open the gate, he froze.
A large circle of villagers had gathered outside, all holding torches with tears streaming down their faces. Below the stone steps knelt three men, and before them lay a shape draped in white cloth.
Looking at the ashamed and grief-stricken expressions of Tian Shoushui and Ren Ping'an, Li Mutian's dread reached its peak. With trembling hands, he stepped down the stairs, brushed past Liu Linfeng who tearfully stepped forward to steady him, and gently lifted the white cloth.
Blackness swarmed Li Mutian's vision, and he nearly collapsed. Behind him, the brothers who had followed outside grew anxious as well. Li Chijing stepped forward, took one look, and fell to his knees with a thud, crying out in raw agony:
"Brother!"
Throwing himself onto Li Changhu's body to check for breath, Li Chijing jerked his head up. Weeping through choked sobs, he glared at the surrounding villagers and roared:
"Who! Who did this?! Who dared?!"
That furious roar was like a tiger's bellow, startling everyone into stumbling back several paces as they stared at him in trembling dread.
Chapter 16