Li Xiangping closed his eyes to sense the surroundings for a moment, and his face instantly went pale. Gritting his teeth, he cursed under his breath:
"Ten damn Qi Refinement cultivators? How the hell is anyone supposed to save them? Where did the Ji family get so many Qi Refinement cultivators?!"
Within the mirror, Lu Jiangxian continuously channeled power into the mirror to transmit information. Watching the seven auras flanking the central one, he thought to himself:
*What a mess. If Li Xiangping hadn't been exceedingly cautious, anyone else rushing in headlong would have died on the spot.*
Only then did Lu Jiangxian let out a sigh of relief, yet to his shock, another Qi Refinement aura surged up from Lake Wangyue.
Li Xiangping closed his eyes to examine again. From afar, he sensed a formidable presence rising from the direction of Lake Wangyue, swaying slightly in midair before heading westward.
Alarm bells rang wildly in Lu Jiangxian's mind. Feeling the intense familiarity and attraction emanating from that presence, he nearly cursed aloud:
*Damn it, this is clearly the very aura in Lake Wangyue I sensed a few years back that could repair the magical mirror!*
Within the range of his divine sense, the raw greed and malice of that Qi Refinement aura flashed like a giant red beacon. Thoughts flashed through Lu Jiangxian's mind like lightning:
*This person is definitely coming for me. He must have lurked beneath Lake Wangyue for at least a dozen years!*
Li Xiangping was also stunned. Seeing the aura streaking straight toward him like a shooting star, the hair on his arms stood on end. Slapping a Divine Movement Technique onto his legs, he pivoted and bolted northward.
*Who is this now?! How can he be heading straight for me so accurately from so far away? Damn it, the Wan family has dragged me into a right disaster!*
As he sprinted for his life, thoughts raced through Li Xiangping's head.
*He is flying through the air, so he must be a Qi Refinement cultivator. I cannot run west toward home! Dying is a small matter, but if I lead him back to my family, no amount of deaths could atone for my guilt.*
*The magical mirror is still in my hands. I cannot lose it under any circumstances.*
***
Wan Xiaohua glared at Ji Dengqi standing quietly outside the formation, venom practically spilling from his eyes. Beside him stood an arrogant man with a broad forehead, draped in a slate-blue kesi cloak, complaining impatiently:
"Brother Wan, why haven't the Li family made their move yet? Didn't we agree they would strike the moment the Earth-Locking Huaqian Formation went up?"
"Brother Pingyuan, patience. Let us wait a bit longer!"
This man was none other than the Lu family's newly advanced Qi Refinement cultivator whom Li Tongya had encountered atop Guanyun Peak. The Wan family had paid a hefty price to enlist his aid, determined to slay Ji Dengqi.
Wan Xiaohua forced a bitter smile, doubts multiplying in his mind. *Li Xiangping is an intelligent man. How could he not understand that when the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold? Once our Wan family falls, the Ji family will border both the Li and Lu families. Even an idiot like Lu Pingyuan understands the necessity of keeping the Wan family on life support—how could Li Xiangping not?*
Letting out a deep sigh, Wan Xiaohua grew increasingly uneasy.
After waiting another incense stick's worth of time, Lu Pingyuan stood up, cursing under his breath. Ignoring Wan Xiaohua's protests, he rode his flying shuttle out of the formation and hollered down at Ji Dengqi at the foot of the mountain:
"Hey, head of the Ji family!"
"You can't crack this tortoise shell anyway, so what's the point of wasting your time surrounding this mountain? My Lu family is protecting the Wan family! Get lost now, before you and I have to throw down."
The moment the words left his mouth, Wan Xiaohua on the mountain and Ji Dengqi below were both left speechless. Wan Xiaohua felt suffocated with rage, cursing furiously in his head:
*Even a fool like this can reach Qi Refinement?! The heavens are truly unfair!*
Ji Dengqi narrowed his eyes, full of contempt, and muttered under his breath:
"My dirty undergarments have more brains than this clown."
With that, he hefted his blade and prepared to leap forward. But suddenly, booming laughter echoed from empty air. As if an invisible curtain had been pulled away, a man clad in golden robes, flanked by a cohort of cultivators, finally revealed himself. Clutching his belly, he pointed down at Lu Pingyuan and roared with laughter:
"Hahaha! How amusing! To think there's someone even more arrogant than this young master!"
Inside the formation, Wan Xiaohua looked up into the sky. Seeing the figures of that group of cultivators hovering midair, his face drained of all color, his head buzzing in a blank daze.
"One, two, three... eight... Qi Refinement... every last one of them is Qi Refinement... How is this possible?!"
A suffocating tightness seized his chest, nearly making him vomit blood. Straining his voice, he shouted:
"Yuankai! Wan Yuankai!"
Wan Yuankai was equally terrified. Hurrying forward to support the family head, his eyes rimmed with red, he said in a heavy voice:
"Family Head, Yuankai is here."
Wan Xiaohua gasped for breath, then said in a cold voice:
"Today, our Wan family will likely not escape this calamity. Li Xiangping hasn't shown himself; I fear he has met with foul play as well."
"Gather all direct lineage descendants of the family. The moment the formation breaks, split them into groups heading in different directions over the mountain toward the Li and Lu territories."
Wan Xiaohua's face was deathly pale, but his mind became piercingly lucid. He slapped himself hard across the face and said in a grim voice:
"No. Ji Dengqi will never let our Wan family off so easily."
"Pass down my order: only those whose direct lines over the past three generations produced a spirit aperture, and who are between seven and fifteen years old, may flee westward. The rest of the direct descendants, including you and me, will remain on the mountain. When the formation breaks, we scatter and flee in all directions. Ji Dengqi won't rest until he slaughters us all."
"As for the collateral branch children..."
Just as Wan Xiaohua was issuing commands, the grand formation shook violently. A shower of blood rained down from the sky. Lu Pingyuan had failed to plead for mercy; in a single clash, the golden-robed man had laughed and torn him into shreds.
The golden-robed man flicked his hands and casually scooped up Lu Pingyuan's storage bag. Sweeping his spiritual sense inside to inspect it, he furrowed his brow and cursed under his breath:
"Pauper."
Turning his gaze toward the gleaming golden Earth-Locking Huaqian Formation, a long saber wreathed in crimson flames appeared in the golden-robed man's hand. He chuckled:
"Let me test the craft of this Wan Huaqian."
***
Li Xiangping had only run for a short while when foul winds began howling around him. An old man clad in Daoist robes, riding a flying shuttle, came to a slow halt ahead of him. Lightly flicking the horsetail whisk in his hand, the old man smiled and spoke:
"Fellow Daoist, where are you off to in such a hurry?"
Inside the mirror, Lu Jiangxian stiffened. Feeling waves of attraction pulsing from the old man—as though an invisible thread bound them together—his thoughts stirred, and he muttered inwardly:
*This man has already reached the mid-stage of Qi Refinement, looking to be around the fifth or sixth layer. Now we're in trouble.*
Li Xiangping gritted his teeth and said in a low voice:
"Who might you be, and why bar my path?"
The old man laughed heartily and said unhurriedly:
"This old Daoist has kept watch over Lake Wangyue for nearly thirty years, and at last, I have waited until you arrived, Fellow Daoist."
With that, his hand twitched slightly as he brought out a pure white jade pendant. The pendant faintly emanated a white glow, its tail end tugged as if by an invisible thread, pointing straight at Li Xiangping.
"Fellow Daoist, if you hand the item over, this old Daoist might still leave your corpse intact."
Chapter 69