News of the An Family

A gentle spring drizzle fell across the land, nurturing everything it touched. Across thousands of qing of fertile fields, vibrant green shoots sprouted from the earth. Farmers in straw rain capes straightened their backs from the soil, watching the soldiers and horses marching hurriedly homeward with worry in their eyes. "My boy joined the ranks. I wonder if he was hurt..." Several days earlier, word of the western victory had already reached the peasant. There had been barely any casualties. Though he had heard that men from several units had been beheaded for indulging in lust and debauchery, he was not particularly anxious, thinking to himself, *I raised that boy for over a decade. He would never do something like that!* Cartwheels churned through the muddy earth. Weapons and armor clattered rhythmically in the rain, glinting with a cold light. Crystal droplets struck a razor-sharp long lance and split in two before rolling down and dripping onto Xu Gongming's brow. Xu Gongming looked toward the dark carriage ahead, carefully reflecting on his conduct throughout the march. Confident that he had not fallen short of Old Master Xu's teachings, he finally felt at ease. Just then, he spotted a rider galloping forward through the mist, a flag mounted on the man's back indistinct in the light rain. *Galloping on horseback in the rain... There must be an urgent dispatch!* Xu Gongming focused his attention and hurried forward. Noting that the rider had a cultivation base at the third layer of Embryonic Breathing, he watched the man rein in before the carriage, roll off the saddle, and present a bamboo tube with both hands, saying in a deep voice, "A letter from Mount Huaqian!" Xu Gongming took it, stepped onto the carriage's footboard, and shook off the rain. Just then, Li Pingyi drew the curtain aside, took the bamboo tube, bent low, and retreated inside. *The first line of the lesser branch...* Xu Gongming cast an envious glance after Li Pingyi. Li Yesheng's line had always been trusted confidants of the main family. Deeply respected among the various branch lineages and prominent surnames, they took pride in their position as the main line's inner circle and rarely mingled with ordinary lesser branches or distant offshoots. They stood a cut above even Li Qiuyang's line, a status he naturally could not help but envy. *If only those elders hadn't been so useless back when Duke Xuanxuan, who cared for our Xu family the most, ran the household. Otherwise, how could we have ended up in this state today...?* Xu Gongming jumped down from the carriage, turned to the courier, and asked with a smile, "May I know your name, sir?" "Tian Zhongqing." The youth raised his wet eyebrows and replied politely. "So you are a son of the Tian clan." Xu Gongming smiled faintly and ended the conversation there. Mindful of Old Master Xu's admonition never to curry favor with the prominent surnames, he held his tongue and said no more. *** "Young Patriarch, a letter from Mount Huaqian." Li Pingyi removed the cloth cover from the tube and stepped to Li Yuanxiu's side. Li Yuanxiu lifted his gaze from the wooden slips and murmured, "Mount Huaqian? What could possibly happen at Mount Huaqian..." Taking the wooden case, he slapped away the wax seal and withdrew the white silk within. As he read it closely, only a single sentence met his eyes: *Confidential: Letter from the spy in the An family. An Zheyan slipped while drunk. Confirmed that An Jingming has broken through to the eighth layer of Qi Refinement.* "The eighth layer of Qi Refinement?!" Li Yuanxiu froze. He looked up in disbelief and breathed, "How is that possible! That An Jingming... he's only twenty-three or four, isn't he? Is he going to reach Foundation Establishment by thirty?! What kind of monstrous talent is this!" Li Pingyi was at a loss for words. Li Yuanxiu knit his brows, pondered for a moment, and said in a heavy voice, "Bring the courier in." Li Pingyi nodded and went out. Before long, he led a youth inside. The messenger had already shed his straw cape; his fitted robes were slightly damp as he cupped his hands respectfully and said, "Tian Zhongqing greets the Young Patriarch." "Tian Zhongqing..." Li Yuanxiu found the name familiar, though he could not place it right away. He asked softly, "Which generation do you belong to?" It was Tian Zhongqing's first time meeting Li Yuanxiu, yet he showed no fear. He raised his head and smiled. "The wife of Duke Xiangping, Tian Yun, is my father's paternal aunt—my great-aunt." "Ah." Seeing that he was seventeen or eighteen, already held the cultivation of Embryonic Breathing layer three, and bore himself with calm composure, Li Yuanxiu committed him to memory. Nodding, he said, "Take this letter to the rear carriage in the army and deliver it to my father." "Understood." Tian Zhongqing took the wooden case and slipped it into a cloth bag. Since the wax seal was gone, he covered it with two layers of cloth instead. He quickly climbed down from the carriage, mounted his horse, and rode westward along the marching column. "That man is the eldest grandson of Old Master Tian, the leader among the younger generation of the Tian clan," Li Pingyi stepped forward to remind him. Li Yuanxiu nodded. "Not bad at all." Gently rolling up the wooden slips in his hand, Li Yuanxiu thought to himself, *No wonder the surrounding families rarely allow outside surnames among them to cultivate. How could a single family compete with the pooled bloodlines of many? With enough people, a few geniuses will always emerge. If an outsider becomes the premier cultivator of the household, who knows whose surname the family will bear in the end!* *Fortunately, our family has the magical mirror and talisman seeds, which boost our cultivation speed and ensure that our descendants' innate talents aren't lacking. Only because of that do we dare employ them without fear...* Pulling his thoughts back, Li Yuanxiu picked up the wooden slips from the low table and said in an undertone, "With talent and brilliance like An Jingming's... and with An Zheyan being so careless and sloppy in his conduct, how could they possibly survive for long?" After turning it over in his mind, Li Yuanxiu felt increasingly uneasy. Setting down the wooden slips, he said firmly, "No, I must seek out Father in person!" With that, he donned a straw rain cape and swiftly stepped down from the carriage to look for Li Xuanxuan. *** Li Tongya slowly opened his eyes. After waiting a few breaths, a soft knock sounded at the carriage door. He exhaled a wisp of white breath and said quietly, "Come in and speak!" Li Xuanxuan pushed the door open and stepped inside. Outside, the rain was pouring heavier, yet not a single drop clung to him. Li Xuanxuan was approaching forty, but much of the gray at his temples had vanished after his breakthrough to Qi Refinement, leaving him looking barely in his early thirties. His expression was grave, and behind him followed Li Yuanxiu, whose clothes were lightly dampened by the rain. "Second Uncle, An Jingming has broken through to the eighth layer of Qi Refinement." Li Xuanxuan looked up at Li Tongya with a solemn countenance, adding, "This matter is of grave importance. The moment I received the news, I came to report it." Li Tongya's brow arched in shock. He had expected An Jingming's cultivation speed to be remarkable, but he had never imagined it would be this swift. He asked in a deep voice, "An Jingming isn't even thirty yet, is he?" "Twenty-three or four." Li Tongya calculated the time. The last time he had seen An Jingming was seven or eight years ago. Back then, the boy was fifteen and at the third layer of Qi Refinement. Now, he had already reached the eighth layer. Li Tongya murmured, "A layer every single year, plain and simple..." Incredulity welled up in Li Tongya's heart. For normal cultivators capable of reaching Qi Refinement, advancing a single layer took upwards of five years; three to five years was already considered fast, and those of mediocre talent might require seven or eight years... Yet An Jingming had broken through five layers in seven years, two of which were in the late Qi Refinement stage that demanded profound accumulation. At this rate, he was on the verge of catching up to Li Tongya himself! One had to remember that had Li Tongya not received the Vast Ocean Leviathan Talisman, his current cultivation would at best be at the seventh layer of Qi Refinement—a step below An Jingming. Below him, Li Xuanxuan had only recently broken through to Qi Refinement. Having cultivated for some time, he understood the grueling difficulty of the path. Seeing Li Tongya fall silent, he felt deeply unsettled and whispered, "The earth veins of Mount Huazhong are shallow, and its spirit veins are poor, not even matching Mount Huaqian, let alone Qingchi Peak. I have heard that even sect disciples who consume heavenly treasures and bathe in spirit liquids advance only one layer every two or three years! How could anyone break through a layer every year?" Li Xuanxuan paused, gritted his teeth, and continued, "I once overheard talk in the market of immortal cultivators reincarnating to cultivate anew, which allows them to progress at staggering speed. Could this man be... the reincarnation of some immortal or god...?" "Impossible." Though equally shaken, Li Tongya shook his head and said in a heavy voice, "If he were the reincarnation of a mighty figure at the Golden Core realm or above, we would have been wiped away long ago. How would the Yu family still be prancing around here?"