"Taiyin moon essence: pure white as frost, flowing like water, bright when the moon is full, dim when the moon wanes—it truly is as they say!"
"The entire cultivation world of the State of Yue flocks to it eagerly..."
"In three hundred years, merely five strands have ever been obtained, each painstakingly hoarded away by Foundation Establishment or even Purple Palace cultivators..."
"One strand enabled the Peak Master of Moon Lake Peak to achieve the Purple Palace several centuries ago; one was forged into the Qingchi Sect Master's Daxue Juefeng; two were quietly locked away in treasuries amid the great war of the three sects; and the final strand was fought over until the Xueji Gate, one of the seven gates, was nearly severed of its lineage."
"Such precious Taiyin moon essence."
Li Chijing swallowed hard and whispered, "And our family used it just to cultivate the Xuanjing Wheel?!"
He tilted his head, pondered for a moment, and suddenly burst into boisterous laughter.
From above, Lu Jiangxian listened to Li Chijing's muttering, feeling a wave of unease stir in his heart.
*The Yuehua Yuan Mansion has been secluded from the world for many years, yet this Taiyin moon essence triggers such frenzied scrambles. Cultivators claiming to be descendants of the immortal mansion were mercilessly surrounded and slaughtered at Lake Wangyue by the Three Sects and Seven Gates, and this mirror of mine is intricately tied to Taiyin moon essence. No matter how you look at it, a massive conspiracy must be lurking behind this!*
This only solidified his resolve: lie low in the deep mountains. Could an artifact spirit die of old age? Once the cultivators under his wing grew strong enough and he himself had mostly repaired his vessel, only then would he see how the situation unfolded.
*In any case, a month passes in the blink of an eye. I'll stick to lying low for five hundred years without budging! I can use the Li family as my hands and feet to gather information about the Yuehua Yuan Mansion, while I just need to keep my head down.*
After laughing for a while, Li Chijing looked at his bewildered kinsmen who were staring at one another, and said in a low voice, "This mirror condenses Taiyin moon essence! It is one of the types of spirit qi consumed to break through into Qi Refinement, far more precious than things like Pine Forest Northern Wind or Golden Autumn in the Lake."
He described in detail the bloody storms each public appearance of Taiyin moon essence had ignited over the past few centuries. Only then did Li Tongya and the others truly grasp what this substance was.
"If it is truly as Youngest Uncle says, that this Taiyin moon essence is so precious as to provoke Foundation Establishment and Purple Palace cultivators into violent competition, then our family must keep this secret at all costs. We cannot take it out to sell either."
Li Xuanxuan's joy faded, his brows furrowing as he spoke in a slightly childish voice.
"Indeed."
Li Xiangping nodded approvingly, though unease gripped his own heart. "Our family does not possess a Qi Refinement mantra for Taiyin moon essence either," he spoke up. "We cannot even use it ourselves. We're simply sitting on a mountain of treasure while courting disaster by harboring a jade."
While the others only knew Taiyin moon essence was precious, Li Chijing was the only one who truly understood what scale of war the mirror before them could unleash. Frowning, he replied, "There are only a handful of Qi Refinement methods that utilize Taiyin moon essence, and all of them are held in the hands of the Three Sects and Seven Gates. I could borrow the Moon Lake Autumn Reflection Formula, but I would have to swear a Xuanjing Spiritual Oath never to leak it."
"Are you thinking of cultivating that Moon Lake Autumn Reflection Formula?"
Li Mutian, who had remained huddled in silence at the side, finally spoke up, dropping the question out of nowhere.
"A fifth-rank method..."
A flicker of yearning and inner turmoil crossed Li Chijing's face. A storm of mixed emotions churned within him; he opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Li Tongya and the others fell silent as well, none offering a word. Only Li Xuanxuan, quick to speak, blurted out, "If that method is so formidable, of course you should cultivate it!"
Li Mutian stroked Li Xuanxuan's head and asked in a low, heavy voice, "And how will you account for it to the Immortal Sect?"
"Just say Youngest Uncle stumbled upon an opportunity on Lake Wangyue during his journey home! What could the Immortal Sect say? If five strands could appear over the past few centuries, why shouldn't Youngest Uncle find a sixth?"
Li Xuanxuan tilted his head and mumbled.
Li Xiangping slowly crouched down, resting a hand on the boy's head as he said in a low voice, "Then why didn't Li Chijing return earlier or later, but instead rushed home right when he was on the verge of reaching Qi Refinement, and then, in these mere few days, happened to stumble upon such a fortune on Lake Wangyue?"
"Xuan'er, dealing with the Immortal Sect is not like dealing with the village laborers under our command. With the laborers, any excuse is enough to drive them. They do not understand cultivation, so they fear us and obey our commands without even requiring an explanation."
Taking Li Xuanxuan's hand, Li Xiangping looked steadily into the boy's eyes and continued, "To the Immortal Sect, we are mere ants. With the slightest shred of suspicion, they could turn our entire Li family upside down, take what they want, and wipe us out in passing. When dealing with them, you must be cautious to the extreme. You have to consider every angle thousands of times and leave behind not a single flaw."
"As the patriarch governing a clan, you must understand how to command those below you, how to defer to those above you, and how to maintain a balance of power with your neighbors to secure benefits."
Watching Li Xuanxuan nod thoughtfully, Li Mutian withdrew his gaze in satisfaction. He let out a cough and said in a grave voice, "Didn't Tongya find a cave dwelling? He obtained a jade vial from it. Swap that whatever-it-is qi inside for the Taiyin moon essence, and say our Li family found it in that cave dwelling several years ago and called you, Chijing, back to examine it. Could that fool the immortal sect?"
Li Chijing lowered his head and pondered for several breaths before speaking: "The credibility would be seventy to eighty percent. The sect will likely send someone to inspect the cave. If the cave is more than three hundred years old, the chances rise to eighty or ninety percent."
"Back then, even that Foundation Establishment cultivator Si Yuanbai failed to discover the mirror. For a mere routine investigation, the Qingchi Sect wouldn't dispatch a Purple Palace cultivator, would they?" Li Xiangping asked hurriedly upon hearing this.
"Naturally not! How many Purple Palace cultivators does the sect even have? Several centuries ago, when the Peak Master of Moon Lake Peak was still in Embryonic Breathing, he obtained a strand of Taiyin moon essence and cultivated the Moon Lake Autumn Reflection Formula, yet the sect merely sent a Qi Refinement cultivator to collect the predecessor's remains."
Li Chijing answered resolutely. After reflecting for a moment longer, his expression relaxed slightly, and he continued, "Who would ever imagine a mirror capable of endlessly condensing Taiyin moon essence? They wouldn't even consider the possibility of two strands appearing in the same place. The sect sending someone would merely be routine business to look for clues regarding the Yuehua Yuan Mansion. Perhaps we are being overly cautious."
"Then it is settled."
Li Tongya nodded. He fetched the slender green jade vial from the side shelf and handed it to Li Chijing.
Li Chijing took it and inspected it closely, comparing it against the hundreds of kinds of heaven-and-earth spirit qi etched in his memory. After a moment's hesitation, he explained, "This should be baleful qi born from fire, usually harvested from earth fire vents. Among the various types of qi, it is not particularly rare, though it is seldom circulated in the State of Yue, mainly used to refine the quality of spiritual tools during smithing."
Unfastening a white jade vial from his waist, Li Chijing formed a hand seal for a qi-gathering technique. From the slender green jade vial, he drew out a stream of crimson air laced with brownish gray.
After guiding the earth fire baleful qi into the white jade vial and returning it to Li Tongya for safekeeping, Li Chijing picked up the empty, slender green jade vial and looked toward the Taiyin moon essence on the mirror.
Joining two fingers to form a qi-drawing seal, he watched as the Taiyin moon essence upon the mirror flowed into the slender green jade vial like water. Once the complete strand of Taiyin moon essence had settled inside, Li Chijing stoppered the mouth and sealed it with a spirit-sealing technique. Watching tiny specks of moon essence gather anew on the mirror's surface, he said softly, "Come, let us go see that cave dwelling."
Chapter 58