Night was deepening over Mount Qingdu. Li Xijun had not entered secluded cultivation; instead, he stood amidst the clouds over the peak, braving the wind and snow. After waiting a short while, he saw a streak of purple lightning weaving through the shroud of clouds before halting before him, resolving into two figures.
"Aunt! Little Sister!" Li Xijun called out.
Before him stood Li Qinghong, spear in hand, and his young sister Li Yuexiang. Li Qinghong dispelled her lightning, descended, and said softly, "Jun'er."
Li Yuexiang followed behind her and offered a greeting.
Li Xijun nodded and offered his congratulations: "I congratulate Aunt on your great advancement in strength. Hearing how chaotic the overseas waters had become, I kept thinking of going to fetch Little Sister, but could never spare the time. I was planning to write a letter to Zhi-ge'er, but as fortune would have it, you returned along the way. Was the journey back safe?"
Li Qinghong descended with him into the hall. Only after they were seated did she speak: "There were some mishaps. Thinking on it carefully, there must be something peculiar afoot."
She recounted everything that had occurred along the way. Li Xijun listened attentively, fell into deep contemplation, and asked, "Could it be related to metallic affinity and the nature of gold?"
"My guess is that someone recognized Duruo and used this method to inform the Miao family," Li Xijun said. "Yet thinking on it further, why would anyone go to such lengths? If an enlightened person truly harbored designs on it, it is merely a Foundation Establishment magical artifact. Were they to come to our doorstep and demand it, could our family even refuse?"
"【Profound Thunder Sky Stone】... Just by its name, it is clearly no ordinary object," he added. "For Miao Quan to press for it in defiance of pressure from two Zifu masters, it must be something of crucial importance."
"Could it be that Real Person Chuting used the mouths of those two to inform Aunt of the Profound Thunder Sky Stone? Yet there was no need for that either; sending a messenger would have sufficed. Doing it this way left everything murky, and in the end we only know its name."
Having stayed long in the Eastern Sea, Li Qinghong had adopted an Eastern Sea mindset, considering the worst-case scenario first in all things. She said, "I have heard the Miao family also possesses an enlightened person. If this artifact were truly so vital, they could have simply torn through the Great Void and plucked it from my hands as easily as taking a robe from a couch. It would have placed our family in their debt, and we would have had to thank them. Why bother with such convoluted twists and turns?"
Li Qinghong unclasped her jade armor, placed it gently upon the table, and pulled out a white outer robe from her storage bag to drape over herself, blending seamlessly with her snow-white undergarments.
Only then did Li Xijun speak: "Even if Aunt had not intervened, Shen Yanqing certainly would have held out until the Shen family patriarch arrived. In my view, it is unlikely that the Shen family's enlightened person used Aunt's strength to rescue her. Nor have I heard that this enlightened person's lifebound divine ability excels at such calculation. It ought not to be him."
Aunt and nephew exchanged a glance, seemingly arriving at a tacit consensus, and swiftly moved past the subject.
"There are indeed peculiar things afoot, yet the matter remains obscure," Li Qinghong murmured. "The Eastern Sea is so vast—how did I happen to run straight into the Miao and Shen clans? Perhaps some faction is at work behind the scenes..."
"Regardless, I will investigate this object thoroughly," Li Xijun said.
Li Qinghong then related the intentions of the Chongzhou Cui family, hesitated a moment, and repeated her conversation with Chi Buzi. Hearing it, Li Xijun broke into a cold sweat, daring only to listen without speaking. He answered, "The Cui family said the Ning family might have it, so I shall write a letter to inquire in the Southern Border."
After conferring for a time, Li Xijun dipped his brush and began to write. Pressing his sleeve down with one hand, he said gently, "We have no trusted artifact refiners of our acquaintance among the various market towns. In these times, ceaseless turmoil reigns; never mind taking the materials and fleeing, I simply cannot trust them."
Li Xijun brushed a hand across the storage bag at his waist and retrieved several items.
The first was a sheet of gleaming iron: "This is 【Mishui Cold Essence】. The iron mine at home has been excavated for several decades. The cold iron mined has undergone extensive forging, and the purest essence was preserved here. Refined over seven hundred times, it finally yielded this Foundation Establishment-grade material."
The next was a golden flake, which Li Xijun explained: "Aunt knows this item as well—it is that 【Tanjin Stone】, obtained back then alongside the healing and life-saving 【Diwang bloodstone】. It too is of Foundation Establishment grade, though modest in size..."
The final piece was a light-blue mineral roughly the size of a human head: "This is 【Heyucui】. It barely reaches Foundation Establishment grade, but its advantage lies in its quantity, retrieved from the Yu family's treasury."
He handed all these materials over to Li Qinghong, saying, "Aunt, the family possesses a few spiritual ores... including several of Foundation Establishment grade. Yet we have not forged a set of spiritual armor or a feather robe for you to wear. Qingchi Sect will inevitably conscript Foundation Establishment cultivators to head north. It will suffice for you to lead our people there, and having a piece of spiritual armor will be much safer. Please take these to forge spiritual armor and a feather robe for yourself."
Li Qinghong quietly noted this and thought to herself, *In some time, Xizhi might arrive... It is better to entrust these matters to him.*
Surprised for a moment, she nodded and accepted them, saying gently, "My cultivation has grown now, and I no longer have need of this spiritual armor, so I am returning it to the family. Does our heir have protective armor? I was thinking that when an opportunity arises, I might forge a suit for him."
Li Xijun furrowed his brows, but saw Li Qinghong smile. He replied, "He is merely cultivating within the clan for now and will oversee the family business in the future. With his decisive character, what fine treasure will he lack in the days ahead? Aunt, think of yourself first."
Li Xijun had intended to bring up the marriage prospects of his little sister Yuexiang. But seeing his aunt look over with a gentle smile, he remembered that his own match had yet to be settled, and broke off in slight embarrassment.
"Yuexiang..."
Li Qinghong fell silent for a moment, then said softly, "That may be so... but if any of them can carve a path out from the slaughter, it would be quite something to see. If opportunities arise that are not so perilous, we might bring the children of the Chengming generation along."
Li Xijun felt a stir of agreement at the thought: "Aunt speaks rightly."
Li Xijun was devoted wholeheartedly to cultivation and held little interest in magical artifacts. But with the great upheaval approaching, he had decided to take these out ahead of time for crafting. These materials had originally been reserved to forge an artifact for Li Ximing; later, when Li Ximing obtained the Sun-Facing Ring, they had thought they had a ready weapon. However, as the fame of Qingsong Abbey grew increasingly tumultuous, the clan dared not use it openly.
***
Meanwhile, within the Qingchi Sect, Li Xizhi searched through several pavilions on Changtian Peak without finding a single book. There was no fire vein, no alchemy furnace, and the medicinal garden lay utterly desolate.
With the demise of the last peak lord, Zhang Lingshu, this lineage had been effectively severed. All mnemonics and secret manuals had vanished, leaving behind only a single technique—the seventh-grade *Mercury Ingestion and Pellet Formation Art*.
The lineage could be traced back seven hundred years to a founder known as the Changtian Daoist. He had cultivated within the Helin Mountains before joining the Qingchi Sect, where he was granted a peak. He had excelled in the path of spiritual armor and the art of 『Secret White Mercury』, and alongside Ning Wenyue—the Moon Lake Peak Lord who attained 『Lake Moon Autumn』 at the time—they were hailed as the twin marvels.
Later, after the Changtian Daoist perished, his method was passed down to the sect. Successors attempted to cultivate it, yet none could match his achievements; their progress proved agonizingly slow, inferior even to common cultivation arts. The peak declined generation after generation, yet generation after generation stubbornly persisted in practicing it.
Only in the central main hall, concealed behind the hall's rear, hung a jade slip. With his Foundation Establishment cultivation and meticulous inspection, Li Xizhi retrieved it at a glance.
Li Xizhi read through it once. Changtian Peak truly possessed quite a history; its inheritance within the sect had been passed down in a single line, retaining its own distinct cultivation arts and seldom drawing from the sect's general collection. The technique was indeed an excellent one, but it seemed copies had long been available for borrowing within the sect. Furthermore, it lacked an annotated qi-gathering method, and the art required a strand of 【Baigong Vermilion Liquid】, which appeared exceedingly rare.
A Yang family cultivator had even left a note indicating that to this day, no one in the sect's Library Pavilion showed any interest in this technique, which was also known as the *Mercury Ingestion and Pellet Formation Art*.
Li Xizhi spent fifteen minutes retrieving the sect's copy of the technique from the Library Pavilion. Comparing the two carefully, he felt a mild disappointment.
Holding his jade cup, Li Xizhi nodded slightly and said, "The two copies are identical with no discrepancies. The only difference is that the copy obtained on the peak is unconstrained by sect oaths and can be sent back to the family."
Yang Ruizao strolled with him across the mountain, chatting at leisure. After a while, someone delivered an item: a translucent jade slip.
Yang Ruizao listened, fell silent for a moment, and said softly, "Xizhi, this 『Secret White Mercury』 belongs to the path of spiritual armor."
To Li Xizhi, the name sounded like a Metal Virtue art. Yet the three metals were Dui Metal, Geng Metal, and Dao Metal; there was no metal art of spiritual armor. He asked, "If categorized alongside the Five Waters of Water Virtue, Five Fires of Fire Virtue, the Twelve Qis, Primordial Magnetism, and Yin-Yang, the spiritual armor path falls under none of them, but rather belongs to 『ancient arts』?"
Yang Ruizao nodded and said, "The 『Xiukui』 of the Great Xiukui Temple, the 『Yuzhen』 of True Monarch Shangyuan, and even the 『Hengzhu』 of Hengzhu Dao all belong to this category. Most bear an ancient flavor: shamanic, bizarre, unpredictable, difficult to gauge between real and illusory, refining mercury and seeking gold."
Li Xizhi nodded.
Yang Ruizao asked, "Are you thinking of practicing it?"
Li Xizhi shook his head and replied, "Yet in the descriptions... this 『Secret White Mercury』 is remarkably bizarre and miraculous. Perhaps it is inferior in direct combat to the popular arts of today, but the breadth of things it can accomplish across different domains is far, far greater... Since I have inherited another's lineage, when I take disciples and impart teachings in the future, if this spiritual qi can be obtained, someone should cultivate this path."
Yang Ruizao heard the underlying meaning and, without waiting for him to ask, smiled.
Li Xizhi inquired closely and learned that the sect possessed a small amount of 【Baigong Vermilion Liquid】. After returning the manual, he weighed matters back and forth; to be safe, he made a trip to the Library Pavilion.
He turned his thoughts over and decided against seeking out Chi Buzi directly. Instead, he flew toward the Hall of General Affairs and used his new token to receive his assignment.
Yang Ruizao was now a figure of peak-lord rank, backed by the Yang family, and his sources of information had grown well-informed. Seeing that Yang Ruizao seemed quite knowledgeable about the situation, Li Xizhi softly recited the assignment from his token: "Stationed at Baixiang Valley in Mount Yan on the border of Daxu, under command and deployment, to resist demonic cultivators..."
Yang Ruizao shook his head and said, "Indeed. Although the official deployment has not yet come down, the benefits have already been bestowed, so you are certainly required to go. With only two departures remaining, you should head out early, Xizhi. If you delay and miss the time, I'm afraid others will surely seize upon it as a pretext against you."
"I wonder who will lead the contingent?" Li Xizhi asked.
Yang Ruizao's expression grew solemn, and he whispered, "The Chi family has committed tremendous force to this affair. Aside from several peaks under the command of the sect's Real Person Yuanxiu, the remaining peaks have almost all dispatched direct descendants. I might even have to go myself."
He paused, then added, "Two brothers from my family... are to go along as well."
Li Xizhi took a pragmatic view of things. Between great clans, one could never rely on sentiment alone; mutual benefit was the true foundation. The Yang family had many daughters; for Yang Ruizao to treat him with such warmth was due first to his own outstanding cultivation, and second to the formidable strength of the Li clan. If the Li clan were still in the weakened state it had been in when Li Tongya fell, this brother-in-law would have offered nothing more than a polite smile upon meeting. How could there be so many doors opened for him?
Yet Li Xizhi saw clearly that the Yang family's weaknesses were equally apparent. During the upheavals of years past, the Yang family's secular mortal clansmen had been nearly wiped out. Now consolidated as a single peak within Qingchi, their population was sparse. Descendants were often set to cultivate from birth, and the extinction of entire family branches was a frequent occurrence. What was more, the Yang family possessed no foundation outside the sect. Almost every member exhibited the detached aloofness, self-indulgence, and lack of foresight typical of great-clan scions; having cultivated on immortal peaks since childhood, they were far more extreme in this regard than other clans.
"Brother-in-law, please bring your kin along," Li Xizhi said. "We can travel together, so that we may look out for one another on the road."
"Not at all."
Putting away the manual, he noticed rosy clouds flying in once more from the south. Yang Ruizao looked up in surprise, calculated the time, and remarked, "It appears to be the second batch of forces. The sect's internal personnel have mostly departed, so they should now be conscripting the various clans."
Cultivators took to the winds from all thirty-six peaks. Li Xizhi and his brother-in-law Yang Ruizao stood amidst the clouds riding the wind, watching as the grand formation over the cloud vessel dissolved. Both watched with keen attention and flew upward on the wind together, witnessing the massive yet graceful Rosy Dawn Cloud Vessel fold its long wings of iridescent light and slowly descend into the formation.
The two exchanged a glance. Li Xizhi merely nodded, while Yang Ruizao chuckled and remarked, "I wonder if that order includes your name, Xizhi..."
As the grand formation of rosy radiance slowly faded away, a golden-armored cultivator could be seen standing at the vessel's prow. His eyes sat somewhat deep, his shoulders were broad and thick, his eyebrows long and his hair white. His aged eyes were slightly narrowed, and across his back was slung a formidable, fearsome golden bow.
The armor upon the old man reflected white light in the luminescence as he stood with hands clasped behind his back. Yang Ruizao showed a trace of shock, glanced at Li Xizhi beside him, and chuckled, "So it is 【Jingeng Gangxian】 Li Xuanfeng!"
Li Xuanfeng went to the main hall to report his mission, with only members of the Ning family coming forward first to exchange polite greetings with him.
Since Li Xuanfeng was leading this vessel out, Li Xizhi naturally was to embark as well. Just as he prepared to fly toward the cloud ship, Yang Ruizao beside him paused slightly and said, "Wait a moment, the members of the Yang family have arrived as well..."
Li Xizhi waited briefly, and the Yang family members soon arrived. Li Xizhi found only a few of the brothers familiar, having perhaps caught glimpses of them when fetching Yang Xiao'er; they followed inside the cabin. Arriving before Li Xizhi, though they all offered greetings, they stepped aside and began cracking jokes, showing not the slightest sense of urgency or danger about heading into life-and-death combat. Though their robes were resplendent, their cultivations were shallow, giving them a frivolous air.
Those were still the better ones among them. One of them possessed merely Qi Refinement cultivation, his bodily blood and qi thoroughly sullied, and was even leading a woman of Embryonic Breathing cultivation. Her appearance was strikingly seductive, and the technique she cultivated was peculiar, seemingly that of a human cauldron.
Li Xizhi glanced around the group and found not a single remarkable figure among them. *It seems my brother-in-law rarely has an easy time in his daily affairs,* he thought. It was quite likely that Yang Ruizao had obtained word in advance and arranged for the Yang family members to travel alongside Grand-Uncle Li Xuanfeng, carrying out the arrangement with seamless naturalness.
Yang Ruizao smiled and took his leave. Li Xizhi pondered briefly, then stepped into the belly of the vessel to seek out a cabin and enter first.
Chapter 539