Consumption

“I will gladly lay down my life for Your Eminence!” Yu Mugao responded with deep deference. Chi Zhiyan waved a hand dismissively and answered, “No need. It is merely a trivial matter; none of these clans could stir up any real trouble even if they tried! Were it not that the Sect Master has no wish to move against these Foundation Establishment cultivators, one word from us would have the likes of Li Tongya and Fei Wangbai scurrying obediently to Yishan City. Now that we ask only for a few Qi Refinement cultivators, would they dare refuse?” Yu Mugao’s eyes flickered, and he asked in a humble, fawning tone, “The Li family has a Sword Immortal within the sect. I fear Senior might have to treat them with leniency...” Chi Zhiyan froze for a moment before letting out an odd, rasping chuckle. As a direct descendant of the Chi family, he was naturally well aware of what had transpired in Nanjiang; it was only because Chi Wei had handled the matter dishonorably that he had consistently avoided mentioning it. Now, he replied, “Sword Immortal? Nanjiang is fraught with perils, and he may not even return alive! That title carries no weight with me! Things will be done as they ought to be done!” Yu Mugao was shrewd. Hearing this, he immediately found confidence, quickly putting on an aggrieved look of lamentation, and wailed, “My Lord might fear nothing, but relying on their Sword Immortal’s prestige, the Li family has run rampant across this lake, acting with complete lawlessness! One of my kin by blood still has had their mountain seized by the Lis, and that relative is even serving in their household as an enslaved servant. We were terrified and dared not speak up...” Chi Zhiyan shot a sidelong glance at Yu Mugao and sneered, “My junior brother already told me about it. There’s no need for you to add fuel to the fire here. Your Yu family is an established clan after all; you wouldn't be pushed to such a pathetic state by the Li family. Listen well.” Chi Zhiyan paused, then continued, “Li Chijing will most likely never return. Muxian refines artifacts on Yuanwu Peak and has earned some renown within the sect; his backing is far sturdier than that Sword Immortal’s, so you have nothing to fear. As for the open conflicts and covert rivalries among your clans, the mountain sect has never meddled. The Li family only has some slight goodwill with Yuan Tuan, and unless their entire clan faces extermination, Yuan Tuan cannot easily intervene.” Yu Mugao assented repeatedly, overjoyed in his heart. Lowering his posture even further, he raised his head with utmost humility. Chi Zhiyan glanced at him and said with a blooming smile, “No matter how much of a mess you make on the lake, keep this firmly in mind!” Chi Zhiyan bent down, leaning close to Yu Mugao’s lean, robust face. Extending one hand, he lightly patted the man’s cheek, while raising two fingers before his eyes with the other. “Two people must not die. One is named Li Tongya—though you couldn’t kill him right now anyway. The other, whose name you might not yet know, is called Jiang Heqian.” Cold sweat broke out across Yu Mugao’s skin and his thighs trembled violently; he wished he could bury his head straight into the dirt. Chi Zhiyan straightened up with a chuckle and remarked, “If either of them is killed, not even Muxian will be able to shield you... As for Fei Wangbai’s Byway Brocade, he is nothing more than dried bones in a tomb, merely waiting to die.” Yu Mugao’s eyes went wide and round, red veins bulging through the whites as he shakily voiced his agreement. Sweat dripped from his neck, pooling into a small puddle on the ground. Chi Zhiyan, looking every bit the poised gentleman, casually kicked him in the shoulder and roared with laughter. Several more figures flew down from the cloud vessel riding the wind, all clad in the grey robes of the Qingchi Sect’s Yuanwu Peak. One of them, with a head like a buck and eyes like a rat, wore a sycophantic grin as he rushed up to Chi Zhiyan’s feet like a dog, respectfully inquiring, “Milord, please give the orders...” Chi Zhiyan gave a snort of laughter, standing with his hands behind his back as he answered, “For the Fei family... pick that young family head or whatever he calls himself! For the few Qi Refinement families, take whoever has the highest cultivation. As for the Li family... that fellow Li Xuanfeng will do... Lixia Commandery has already been slaughtered, so that man no longer serves any purpose.” “Yes! Yes!” The rat-faced cultivator nodded fervently. Chi Zhiyan glanced at Yu Mugao, who stood dazed and trembling beside them, and smiled. “Cultivate well. Your Yu family is qualified to dine at the table. As for the Li and Fei families... they are merely dogs circling beneath it. Were it not that blood sacrifices are forbidden on Lake Wangyue for the time being, these people would have been finished off sooner or later...” Yu Mugao forced a smile onto his face, though inside his terror and dread had reached an absolute peak, his legs constantly twitching against the ground. Seeing him reduced to this, Chi Zhiyan grew even more invigorated, adding, “As for that old ancestor of yours, Yu Yufeng...” Yu Mugao already had a foreboding presentiment. Hearing this, he hastily jerked his head up, only to see Chi Zhiyan laugh heartily, an ironic curl on his lips, as he said, “He has been dead for quite some time!” Yu Mugao froze, his voice dropping low. “Why... This lowly one does not understand. Which faction’s Purple Palace intervened to claim Old Ancestor’s life...?” “No harm in telling you!” Chi Zhiyan chuckled darkly. By nature malicious and cruel, he took immense delight in trampling supposed geniuses and strategists underfoot. Seeing Yu Mugao so meek and submissive brought him immense gratification, and he answered, “Yu Mugao... Yu Yufeng was slain by our Qingchi Sect in league with Xiao Chuting! And this matter was personally agreed to by your very own younger brother!” *** Lixia Commandery, Xianyou Peak. *Splash...* An old man hauled with effort, hoisting a gleaming piece of jade from the lake. With a forceful flick of his jade fishing rod, he shook off the clutching spray of the lake water beneath and brought the jade ashore. Xiao Chuting narrowed his eyes and remarked, “Not bad.” “Chuting, the Rosy Dawn Cloud Vessel has headed toward Lake Wangyue.” Beside him, Xiao Chuchou sat cross-legged as well. He murmured quietly, looking toward Xiao Chuting with a complicated expression. Xiao Chuting, indifferent, merely examined the jade and asked, “Xiao Chuchou, do you hate me?” Xiao Chuchou’s utterly decrepit, wrinkle-covered face twitched faintly, and he replied, “There is nothing to hate. It was out of necessity, that is all. When I abandoned the family and left all those years ago, I imagine you must have hated me even more.” Xiao Chuting let out a soft chuckle, a touch of nostalgia in his expression, and replied gently, “At first, I did hate you. But when the Qingchi Sect specifically dispatched Yu Yuxie to sever Yu Yufeng’s path of Dao, I suddenly realized that the one who drove you to make that decision back then might not have been yourself.” Xiao Chuting’s grizzled brows and beard all twitched, undulating like reflections on disturbed water. Filled with a profound sense of loss, he spoke in a low murmur, “The haze within the Great Void is far too thick. From that moment on, I lived in fear and dread. On countless agonizing nights, I would ask myself: Xiao Chuting, is the ‘you’ of today truly you, or are you merely a hand manipulated by some Purple Palace, Golden Core, or Maha Dharma Aspect?” “It would have been better not to know, sparing yourself such maddening obsession.” Xiao Chuting’s mouth did not open; his voice seemed to emerge from somewhere within the void. He said gently, “Yu Yufeng refused to believe in fate and sought to heal those hands of his through blood sacrifice. He truly was a genius, managing to drag himself forward several paces along that severed path of Dao; after several decades, he was even on the verge of breaking through to the late Foundation Establishment stage.” “And so, he died completely. Two Purple Palaces intervened, augmented by the two divine abilities ‘Heavy and Turbid’ and ‘Old Man on the Brook’—how could he not die? How could he possibly survive? The Yuzhen Sixty-Nine Harmonious Void nature must not be cultivated, nor may its immortal foundation ever be formed. From the moment he took up the *Classic of the White-Headed Court Knocker*, he was already a dead man.” Xiao Chuchou showed no surprise. Having traveled far and wide across the land, he knew little less than Xiao Chuting. A cold smile appeared on that decrepit face as he replied, “Indeed... Have you ever wondered why you, Xiao Chuting, cultivated ‘Old Man on the Brook,’ while I, Xiao Chuchou, cultivated ‘Obscured Long Clouds’? What a coincidence... How exquisite! That we happen to be mutual dao complements to each other...” Xiao Chuting nodded and slowly rose to his feet. A lethal gravitational pull emanated from him. Snowflakes whipped up into a frenzy across the entirety of Xianyou Peak, while from the sky above came the booming roar of crashing ocean tides, faintly accompanied by the hiss and roar of a serpent-dragon. Xiao Chuchou’s body withered further and further, the old man shrinking smaller and smaller until he was reduced to a withered pile of bones. Several dry rasps of laughter emerged from his throat. Wisps of fluttering, drifting smoke poured out of his body, out of his shriveled eyes that had shrunk like two rat droppings, out of his pitch-black mouth and ears. The old man cried, “Xiao Xianyou... It was Xiao Xianyou! He calculated it all clearly long ago! What he cultivated was precisely ‘Vast Sea,’ precisely ‘Dragon King of Jing River’! Truly wondrous beyond words, wondrous beyond words!” Xiao Chuting stood amidst the smoke above, dharmic radiance flowing all across him like a celestial deity. His expression was sorrowful and solemn, even touched by a hint of the divine. “Brother, you and I had no road left to walk; you and I had no path of retreat.” *Clang—* The tolling of the bell atop Xianyou Peak drifted ethereal and distant, rolling through the mountain range like thunder. Across the entire expanse of the mountains, flying snow arrived without rhyme or reason, yet blanketed heaven and earth as if to shroud every impurity. One after another, members of the Xiao family fell to their knees, looking up in bewilderment. “It’s a Foundation Establishment... An old ancestor has passed away...”