"Brother Xuan!"
Riding the wind close to the ground, Li Qiuyang called out. Beside him, Li Xuanxuan's face was livid. Tugging the scorched monkey along, he periodically fished a talisman from his sleeve and hurled it backward over his shoulder.
*Boom!*
The talisman had barely burst into radiance when a blood-red shadow of a hammer smashed into it, brutally shattering the spell into a sky full of drifting light. The burly man wielding the sledgehammer laughed heartily: "Look at that, a rich young master! Loaded with treasures, aren't you!"
The two had deliberately sought an escape route through areas shrouded in baleful fire, but Li Xuanxuan had never possessed good fortune. They had still run into a demonic cultivator—someone at roughly the mid-stage of Qi Refinement, wielding a sledgehammer and looking quite formidable.
Li Xuanxuan and the monkey were already in terrible shape, and Li Qiuyang was merely a miscellaneous qi cultivator. How could they possibly contend with such an opponent? They had immediately taken to their heels to flee for their lives.
*Fortunately, this guy's cultivation method is wide and sweeping, not nearly as swift as that earlier demonic cultivator's. We can stall for a bit longer.*
Li Xuanxuan fingered the jade pendant inside his sleeve, calculating his chances. Though he was low on magic power and could not build up speed, he relied on the River-Crossing Torrent Steps to tumble and weave from side to side, stubbornly holding out until now.
Behind them, riding rolling black clouds, the demonic cultivator held his sledgehammer, tailing them like a cat playing with mice. Every so often he surged forward and swung his blood-glowing hammer, forcing Li Xuanxuan to expend talismans to repel him.
This demonic cultivator was clearly seasoned in battle, far more cautious than the twin-blade-wielding cultivator Li Xuanxuan had dealt with earlier. He continually wore down their magic power, forcing him to burn through talisman after talisman.
"Brother Xuan, this can't go on. Why don't I cover the rear?" Li Qiuyang gritted his teeth, murmuring as he looked at Li Xuanxuan's dreadful complexion.
"No need."
Though his magic power was parched dry, Li Xuanxuan gripped the jade pendant within his robe tightly. Being pursued like this along the way had filled his belly with fury, and he sneered internally: *According to the jade pendant's guidance, our Qinghong is barely a li away. Just you wait... You really think us Lis are easy pickings!*
Seeing that despite his ghastly complexion Li Xuanxuan spoke with absolute confidence, Li Qiuyang could only silently follow behind.
Qi Refinement cultivators moved swiftly to begin with, and as they were fleeing for their lives with all their might, only a few breaths passed before a woman could be seen flying toward them from the distance.
The woman appeared around sixteen years old, clad in bright-white jade armor glowing with clear cyan radiance. Her almond eyes flashed with fury, tinged with a faint shade of violet. In her hand she held a spear, pointing diagonally toward the ground.
Her countenance was radiant and striking, brimming with heroic spirit. The ribbons on her jade armor fluttered in the wind. Her hair was simply bound and secured with an ordinary jade hairpin, black tresses spilling down and lifting gently in the breeze.
"Mistress Qinghong!"
Finding a path to life from desperate straits, Li Qiuyang instantly beamed with wild joy. He finally understood where Li Xuanxuan's confidence came from. The two stumbled to a halt before her, letting out a massive breath of relief.
The demonic cultivator's face darkened, momentarily intimidated by Li Qinghong's awe-inspiring presence, and he hurriedly checked his pace. But upon closer inspection, she was merely at the mid-stage of Qi Refinement. He burst into laughter, cursing: "Damn it, these immortal cultivators look prettier than the last! Such shallow cultivation, yet putting on such a grand show—anyone who didn't know better would think you were some immortal general from an immortal abode!"
The demonic cultivator could tell that the magical instruments equipped on Li Qinghong were extraordinary, yet he was not in the least afraid. Having slaughtered countless people, he knew all too well what kind of shoddy cultivation methods the clan cultivators and loose cultivators of Jiangnan practiced—some couldn't even refine a single flavor of orthodox qi. None of them were worth fretting over.
Whereas his own cultivation was derived from demonic methods passed down directly by several devil lords, equivalent to a fourth-rank immortal method in Jiangnan. He let out a cold sneer and barked: "Little girl, you—"
Before he could finish his words, Li Qinghong had already lunged forward, drawing her spear. The jade armor on her clinked and chimed. A flurry of bright-purple spear silhouettes swirled in her grasp, graceful as a swimming dragon. In a mere instant she was upon him, thrusting straight toward his face.
The demonic cultivator was forced to swallow his taunting words and hoisted his sledgehammer to block. He watched as bright-purple lightning surged along the spear, morphing into a swimming dragon that smashed heavily against the blood-colored hammer. A thunderous crash erupted, blazing with dazzling purple lightning.
*Rumble!*
The demonic cultivator felt a surge of annihilating lightning power crash through his sledgehammer with immense force. The magical instrument in his hands wailed, and a burst of lightning exploded between his palms, sending up wisps of black smoke. His face instantly drained of color, turning pale and green.
Li Qinghong knew full well that this was no place to linger; ending the fight quickly was best. From the very start, she had drawn the Duruo Spear, catching him off guard while he was careless and underestimating her, unleashing the Fei family's supreme technique right away: Swimming Dragon's Returning Shadow.
For some reason, the talisman qi Perilous Sparrow in the Vast Sky within Li Qinghong became extraordinarily active upon encountering this man. Streaks of dark-red radiance traveled along her elbow onto the spear, adding yet more power out of thin air. As the dragon-like shadow of lightning surged forward, thunder detonated from the ground, dealing him a grievous blow.
"A lightning cultivator!"
The demonic cultivator grunted, his arms dropping limp and powerless. He felt his cultivation suddenly cut down, unable even to hold onto his magical instrument, which fell clattering to the ground. Terrified, he shrieked: "Since when did Jiangnan produce an orthodox lineage like this?!"
Without even bothering with his magical instrument, he whipped up a whirlwind of blood-red wind and scurried frantically into an alleyway.
*With treasures strewn all over the ground waiting to be looted, only a fool would fight her! Putting aside whether I could win in the end, half my cultivation would be stripped away!*
This demonic cultivator excelled most at fleeing and preserving his life. In the blink of an eye, the bloody wind had reached the end of the alley, leaving only the hammer clattering on the ground.
Li Qinghong watched him flee with a faint smile, entirely unhurried. Arching her willow-leaf brows, she twisted her fair, slender hand to reverse her grip on the spear, slinging it behind her back. Freeing her other hand, she drew a talisman in empty air, tracing profound and mystical violet lines that lit up in the air.
*Crackle... crackle...*
The lightning talisman gradually took shape, glowing with concentrated violet brilliance, dazzling to behold. The Purple Lightning Secret Origin Method Li Qinghong practiced hailed from ancient times, possessing an archaic and profound nature. It contained a couple of secret techniques, and this was one of them.
Li Qinghong let out a soft laugh and flicked her finger. The lightning talisman chased after him like a shooting star. Without even waiting to see the result, she picked up the sledgehammer from the ground, turned back at her leisure, and said gently: "Uncles, please, let us leave quickly!"
Li Xuanxuan and Li Qiuyang had long been stunned by her prowess in repelling the foe with a single thrust. They nodded repeatedly without delay. The three had barely flown a dozen paces on the wind when a deafening roar erupted from within the market.
*Boom!!*
Purple lightning erupted as black smoke billowed into the air, punctuated by several shrill screams and curses. Multiple red lights rose through the demonic smoke, their sounds making Li Xuanxuan and the others pull their heads in. Even the monkey looked utterly terrified, secretly edging away to put some distance between itself and her.
Hearing such a massive commotion, Li Qinghong quietly calculated the situation. Having secured her two uncles, she looked closely and only then realized that her younger brother, Li Yuanyun, was nowhere to be seen. A deep grief gripped her heart, and she asked softly: "Uncle, where is Brother Yun?"
Li Xuanxuan and Li Qiuyang exchanged a glance, neither knowing how to speak of it. All that remained were sighs. Li Qinghong understood at once; she pressed no further and flew onward in sullen silence.
***
On Guli Road.
Li Yuanjiao and his group had waited in place for a time, driving off a few loose cultivators who had come to scavenge scraps. Only then did he see Li Qinghong flying over with the others. He hurriedly rode the wind to meet them, and upon seeing Li Xuanxuan's appearance, he said dumbly: "Father?!"
Li Xuanxuan lifted his head. His left leg hung limply and crookedly, his body emaciated to bone and skin, his face withered and haggard. Staring with an eye that was half-gray and half-white, he chuckled self-deprecatingly: "Jiao'er!"
Though Li Yuanjiao had some minor grievances with his father, deep down he still cared for him. He rushed to support him, asking in a muffled voice: "How did it... come to this!"
"Ah!"
Li Xuanxuan, on the contrary, was full of relief—his heart was brimming with the wild joy of surviving disaster, and a hint of boastfulness even crept into his tone as he sighed: "Everything your father did in his entire life doesn't add up to what I managed to do right in this single hour!"
Li Xuanxuan had always considered himself mediocre and incompetent. Thinking of how he had hovered on the brink of death multiple times, he couldn't help feeling a surge of pride, tears welling in his eyes as he thought: *It must be Second Uncle's spirit in heaven watching over me! It must be the virtue his old self accumulated...*
Only now did Li Xuanxuan truly understand why Li Tongya had placed the River-Crossing Torrent Steps and its appended Blood Escape Technique into his hands so early on, instructing that the direct line must practice them diligently...
Without these two secret methods, he would have died an unnatural death in some unknown place long ago. At this thought, tears trickled intermittently from his eye that had been scorched a grayish-white.
The crowd sighed and lamented. For a moment, no one even thought of Li Yuanyun. Only Li Qinghong held her spear, weeping in silence. Heavy-hearted, Li Yuanjiao handed his father over to Xiao Guiluan, who was adept at healing, offered some words of comfort, and returned home together with them.
***
Upon Lijing Peak.
Li Yuanjiao and his companions returned to the peak. He dispatched Tian Youdao and An Zheyan—one to Xianyou Peak, the other back toward Guanyun Peak—to monitor the situation from afar and gather intelligence. He then personally assisted Li Xuanxuan into the cave dwelling to heal his injuries, while the remaining cultivators returned to their respective peaks.
Li Yuanping hurried up to check on Li Xuanxuan, tending to him personally for a while. Li Qinghong called over the brothers Li Xicheng and Li Xijun and explained what had happened to Li Yuanyun, waiting only for the disaster at the market to subside before going to see if they could recover his remains.
Having lost their father, the two brothers were naturally struck with profound sorrow. Having lived through multiple partings of life and death, Li Qinghong understood how to handle such things; rather than letting them dwell on it, she tested their lessons, assigned them heavy and tedious tasks, and hurried back down the mountain.
The Guanyun Peak market having suffered this disaster, the Xiao family naturally bore the greatest loss. While Li Xuanxuan slept to recover from his wounds, Li Yuanjiao and Li Qiuyang made an estimate: the Xiao family had likely lost dozens of Embryonic Breathing cultivators and a dozen or so Qi Refinement cultivators inside.
Those dozen or so Qi Refinement cultivators were not much to speak of, mostly bearing different surnames or serving as guest elders, with few truly bearing the surname Xiao. Instead, among the dozens of Embryonic Breathing cultivators lost, there were quite a few members of the Xiao family's direct lineage who had been sent down to temper themselves. Who knew how many had managed to escape?
As for the Foundation Establishment cultivator Chen Taojing, fighting four on his own—even with the "Vast Sea" at his disposal, holding them off was easy, but escaping was hard. He was probably no longer among the living.
Next in line were the various clans of Lixia Commandery and the loose cultivators in the market. Most clans in Lixia Commandery were vassals of the Xiao family, and they too had suffered varying degrees of losses in this disaster.
After all, the Xiao family was powerful, and Lixia Commandery was vast. The Xiao family held two-fifths of it, while the vast majority of the remainder consisted of small clans directly or indirectly controlled by them. Even most of the clans on the eastern shore of Lake Wangyue bordering Lixia Commandery were under their control. Many had frequent dealings in the market and suffered heavy casualties in this campaign.
"As for the loose cultivators, after this battle, who knows how many heritages will be severed..."
Li Yuanjiao sighed inwardly, yet doubt arose within him: *However, the Xiao family is an important ally of Qingchi, and the demonic plague has always been said to be Qingchi Sect's hound. Yet the Xiao family was bitten severely by the demonic cultivators without the slightest defense...*
Stroking the sword at his waist, he murmured: "Either Qingchi has fallen out with the Xiao family, or the demonic cultivators have slipped their leash... or perhaps someone among the Three Sects and Seven Gates has intervened, swaying the overall course of events."
Recalling the hint Yuan Tuan had given when visiting the Li family, Li Yuanjiao put aside these thoughts of speculating on the broader situation, knowing in his heart: *If these demonic cultivators scatter across Lixia Commandery, it will be our Lake Wangyue's turn to suffer.*
He felt a touch of anxiety, secretly contemplating whether to ingest another pill to break through to the seventh layer of Qi Refinement first. Just then, the stone door before him rumbled open, and Li Xuanxuan hurried out.
Li Xuanxuan had changed into a clean Daoist robe. The burn scars on his body had healed considerably, but his eyes still bore traces of grayish-white, and his face remained withered and haggard, lacking his past solemn dignity.
"Where is that monkey?!"
The first words out of Li Xuanxuan's mouth upon waking were to ask about the well-behaved spirit beast he had brought back, leaving Li Yuanjiao caught between tears and laughter. Turning to a clansman guard beside him, Li Yuanjiao instructed: "Go and lead that spirit beast up here."
He then looked eagerly at Li Xuanxuan. Having managed the household for many years, Li Xuanxuan understood immediately. Beaming with delight, he unfastened the storage bag from his waist and laughed: "Come, let's take a look at our harvest!"
The family had spent more than it took in for many years, so Li Yuanjiao and Li Yuanping had their eyes fixed on Li Xuanxuan's haul from the disaster at the market. At his words, they nodded repeatedly.
*Clatter...*
Li Xuanxuan swiped across the storage bag, pouring out a glittering array of items with a clatter. Most had been retrieved from the storage bag of the twin-blade-wielding cultivator, while the rest consisted of a few Daoist robes and several pills.
The magical instruments were all of the Qi Refinement grade. Setting aside four low-grade and inferior items, the first mid-grade magical instrument among the rest—what clan and loose cultivators referred to as a mid-stage Qi Refinement magical instrument—was called the Six-Stone Cloud Plate. It was an oval, earthen-yellow shield crafted by a renowned master, exceptionally sturdy.
As for how the two knew its name and that it came from a master craftsman, it was naturally because a line of small characters was carved along the shield's rim: *Six-Stone Cloud Plate, Mid-Grade, forged by Yu Muxian of Yuanwu Peak.*
"This!"
The two were struck dumb. It was their first time learning that sects referred to the mid-stage of Qi Refinement as "mid-grade." Li Yuanjiao lifted the Six-Stone Cloud Plate and tested its balance in his hand, finding it light and easy to handle. He remarked: "To think it's the handiwork of an old acquaintance. This Yu Muxian does have some skill."
"After all, it comes from the long-lost Golden Melting Cave."
Having grown used to hearing gossip in the market, Li Xuanxuan had heard about this as well. He set aside the Six-Stone Cloud Plate first and brought out a pair of twin blades.
This pair of blades was likewise mid-grade, flat and thin. Without the demonic cultivator's magic power bolstering them, they displayed a faint cyan-blue hue. The two examined them for a moment; there was no maker's mark on them, so they were likely not crafted by the Three Sects and Seven Gates.
Li Yuanjiao gave them a swing. Pale-blue blade qi sprang from the edges, thinner than sword qi yet far sharper. Without specialized martial techniques, an ordinary person would truly struggle to wield them.
"Let's call them the Azure Blades."
The Li family's current stockpile of Qi Refinement magical instruments was countable on one's fingers, and previously they had not possessed a single mid-grade Qi Refinement instrument. Being a paired set, the Azure Blades were considerably more valuable, so they naturally had to record them properly. Li Yuanjiao put them away again, thinking they might come in handy in the future.
After all, the form of each magical instrument determined the length, reach, and range of qi and astral energy, each bearing its own properties. Having a wider variety of weapon heritages in reserve was of immense benefit to the family.
"There's also a magical instrument sledgehammer in Qinghong's hands. Who knows what grade it is."
Having sorted through these magical instruments, Li Xuanxuan set the pills aside for now and picked up a jade slip from the table, clicking his tongue in wonder: "This demonic cultivator is quite odd as well, carrying his heritage right on his person without a care. Perhaps he had no fixed residence to begin with and nowhere else to keep it..."
Li Yuanjiao sneered, offering a different view: "If not for this, how could demonic cultivators have expanded so rapidly across Jiangnan? Who knows how many copies each of them has transcribed and spread around indiscriminately. It wouldn't be surprising if they kept several spares in their storage bags!"
Li Xuanxuan immediately felt that made sense. He too had witnessed the bizarre nature of demonic cultivators—their tenacious vitality, their myriad hidden trumps, and their freedom from fear over ruined bodies or damaged paths. It was only natural that countless loose cultivators, unable to resist temptation, turned to demonic cultivation.
Picking up the jade slip, he probed into it with his spiritual sense. Several large characters surfaced in his mind:
*Xuemo Dharma Book: Anonymous Annotations, Part One.*
Not daring to delve deeper, Li Xuanxuan merely looked at the title. A sudden wave of doubt rose within his heart, and he murmured: "*Xuemo Dharma Book*... Why does this name sound so familiar?"
Chapter 345