"How could there ever be peace and joy year after year in this world! Life, death, rise, and fall happen in the span of a single day. I have no fear of that. My only worry is whether our children and grandchildren will be equal to the task."
Li Xiangping gave a wry smile and dropped the subject. He brought over cloth and an ink brush, asking Li Chijing to write down the sword technique.
"I have only written one sword move for this technique so far. Let's call it..."
Li Chijing tilted his head in thought as the image of that crescent-shaped arc of moon-white sword qi surfaced in his mind. He spoke up:
"Let's just call it the Lunar Crescent Sword Arc."
With that, he lifted the brush and wrote across several pieces of cloth with flowing ease, recording the qi circulation route, the distribution of dharmic power across the sword blade, the sword delivery technique, and other details with meticulous precision before finally resting his brush in satisfaction.
"Once you leave for the immortal sect, I will transcribe it onto wooden slips," Li Xiangping said with a beaming smile, carefully putting away the pieces of cloth as if they were priceless treasures.
Looking at the sky, another two hours had already slipped by. Li Chijing instructed Li Xiangping in some key points of talisman crafting. That night, he conversed with Li Mutian until dawn, nourishing the old man's body with cultivation techniques and tonics, before finally setting off for Lichuankou.
***
After sitting aboard the Rosy Dawn Cloud Vessel for a quarter of an hour, Li Chijing still had his mind on affairs back home. Seeing his distraction, his senior sister Yuan Tuan asked in a soft voice:
"How is the elderly man's health?"
Only then did Li Chijing remember that his ostensible reason for returning home had been to visit family. Silently, he tightened his grip on the slender azure jade bottle at his waist and said in a subdued voice:
"He can still take food. I tended to his body, so he should manage for a few more years."
Yuan Tuan sighed softly, assuming Li Chijing was grieving, and comforted him:
"Even cultivators cannot escape birth, aging, illness, and death, let alone mortals. The best one can hope for is that he suffers as little pain as possible."
Li Chijing made halfhearted conversation, all the while carefully considering how to explain the origin of this Taiyin moon essence to Si Yuanbai.
*Not only must the Golden Autumn in the Lake be sought from the sect, but simply borrowing the Moon Lake Autumn Reflection Formula requires Master's approval. Practicing the formula in secret is out of the question; I must sound Master out first.*
With this thought, Li Chijing smiled at Yuan Tuan and asked softly:
"Senior Sister, is Master on Qingsui Peak?"
"Oh, I received a message from the peak. Master returned to Qingsui Peak yesterday. Hearing that you were bullied, he hurled twelve Rain Gathering Talismans at Yuanwu Peak, nearly drowning the entire place."
Yuan Tuan chuckled, replying with an amused smile.
"Huh?"
Li Chijing froze for a moment, a wave of warmth rising in his heart.
"In the end, disciples from neighboring peaks all rushed over to watch the spectacle, and it was only when the peak master of Yuanwu Peak personally apologized and dispersed that thick layer of clouds that the matter ended."
"Master has gone to so much trouble for me."
Li Chijing gave a wry smile. He had not felt particularly aggrieved; if anything, Deng Qiuzhi had suffered a fair bit of a setback at his hands. The Deng family was a prominent clan, and Li Chijing had actually worried about offending them too deeply.
The Rosy Dawn Cloud Vessel was exceptionally swift. After the two chatted for a while, the mountain gate of the Qingchi Sect came into view. Yuan Tuan dropped Li Chijing off at Qingsui Peak and steered the vessel toward the main peak.
Li Chijing stepped onto the ground and walked along the mountain path for a while. He saw his senior brother, Xiao Yuansi, gathering the morning glow and refining pills, just sealing the finished pills into a bottle. Xiao Yuansi's eyes lit up upon seeing Li Chijing, and he grinned:
"Your senior brother vented your anger for you—I gave that Deng Qiuzhi a sound thrashing!"
"Thank you, Senior Brother!"
Li Chijing laughed heartily, took a few brisk steps up the stone stairs to draw close, and asked in a low voice:
"What pills were you refining, Senior Brother?"
"Just fiddling around, testing out a few new ideas of mine."
Xiao Yuansi shook his head, patting the still-warm pill furnace with a smile, before turning serious. "Master is at the summit. Go see him without delay."
"I was just heading there."
Li Chijing nodded. He retrieved ten spirit stones from his storage bag and smiled:
"I almost forgot our family still owed Senior Brother ten spirit stones. Now I can finally repay you."
Xiao Yuansi waved a dismissive hand, casually accepted the spirit stones from Li Chijing's hand, tossed them into his storage bag, and lowered his head to read his alchemy manual.
Li Chijing bowed to take his leave, treading lightly along the path for a while until he saw a small pavilion veiled in pale white mist in the distance.
Just as he stepped onto the terrace at the summit, he saw a man clad in azure robes, appearing in his thirties or forties, with handsome features and a gentle smile. A gleaming white sword hung at his waist as he stood by the pavilion with an ethereal, otherworldly air.
Li Chijing hurried up the stairs and cupped his hands respectfully with a smile:
"Master!"
Warmth shone in Si Yuanbai's eyes as he said softly:
"That Deng Qiuzhi came in person to Qingsui Peak to apologize to you, only to make the trip in vain. I heard you went home to see your father."
Remembering Li Mutian, Si Yuanbai wore a slightly peculiar expression as he looked down at Li Chijing.
Yet Li Chijing bowed his head, dropping to his knees with a thud.
"Disciple begs Master's forgiveness! I deceived Senior Sister and Senior Brother. My return to Lake Wangyue was actually for another urgent matter!"
Si Yuanbai's expression shifted immediately. Hurrying to help Li Chijing up, he said solemnly:
"Why go to such lengths? Rise quickly and speak."
Keeping his head lowered, Li Chijing spoke with trepidation:
"Before the new year, Chijing received a letter from home. A senior's immortal cave was discovered back home. After going through immense hardships, they broke through the formation gate, only to find the cave swept clean, leaving behind nothing but an azure jade bottle.
"My family inspected the azure jade bottle. Inside was preserved a portion of heaven-and-earth spirit qi, pure white as frost and flowing like water."
Si Yuanbai furrowed his brow and murmured in a deep voice:
"Pure white as frost, flowing like water?
"Frost Qi in Snow? Pine Forest Northern Wind? No... it couldn't possibly be..."
Si Yuanbai shook his head, then suddenly his eyes widened, and he blurted out:
"Taiyin moon essence?!"
Li Chijing nodded heavily and said solemnly:
"Disciple searched through the Scripture Repository for a long time and found it unbelievable. So I made up an excuse to return home and check, and it truly was that Taiyin moon essence!"
"Let me see it!"
Li Chijing promptly presented the slender azure jade bottle. Si Yuanbai took it, nodded, and murmured:
"This azure jade bottle is indeed in the style of a century ago."
Closing his eyes to sense it for a while, Si Yuanbai snapped them open and exclaimed in delighted surprise:
"It truly is Taiyin moon essence! You handled this well."
After comparing it carefully for a time, Si Yuanbai looked down at Li Chijing and asked gently:
"This Taiyin moon essence is exceptionally precious. You must think carefully about how you wish to handle it."
"I leave everything in Master's hands!"
Li Chijing replied, cupping his hands respectfully.
"You sly child, always having so many calculations."
Si Yuanbai laughed heartily, patted Li Chijing's head, and then turned serious:
"Your cultivation has already reached the peak of Embryonic Breathing. If you wish to cultivate the Moon Lake Autumn Reflection Formula, this Taiyin moon essence must under no circumstances be reported to the sect. We can only have your senior sister borrow the formula, and I will go request a quota for the Golden Autumn in the Lake. You must cultivate this formula to completion first—once the raw rice is cooked into a meal, only then can we report it to the sect.
"Once word leaks out, even if several Patriarchs in the sect refrain from acting out of concern for their dignity, the faction on Moon Lake Peak will scheme by every means possible to wrest this Taiyin moon essence from your hands."
Si Yuanbai's eyes filled with worry. Whatever he was fretting over, he said in a low voice:
"The Qingchi Sect has had this lineage broken for a full three hundred years. They have waited for far too long..."
Hearing these words from Si Yuanbai, Li Chijing gritted his teeth with a pang of guilt. Though he voiced his agreement, his thoughts were tangled.
Both Li Xiangping and Li Chijing were naturally suspicious and guarded men. Having left home at a young age, Li Chijing was wary of everything around him. But looking now at the warm, gentle face of Si Yuanbai, he was deeply moved, finally letting down his guard toward Qingsui Peak and all his martial brothers and sisters.
"Disciple thanks Master!"
Chapter 62