Li Tongya stayed in the commandery for several days until he finally heard that the Tangjin Sect had withdrawn. Burning with anxiety, he bade farewell to the Xiao family, readied a cart, and set off for home along Guli Road, cutting across the Xunlin Plain.
Li Tongya had no driver. Coming from peasant roots, he did not know how to ride a horse either, though he could handle an ox cart. Thus, he had no choice but to drive an ox cart back alone. After traveling along Guli Road for an hour, he could not help but cover his nose.
"What an overpowering stench of corpses."
It had just rained yesterday, and the heaps of corpses lining the road had soaked in the rainwater and swollen terribly. Huge, greenish-black blisters bulged across their skin, the flesh and blood rotting within to emit a foul, suffocating reek. After baking under the morning sun, the odor had become unbearable.
"What a sin."
As he drove, Li Tongya had to stop from time to time to haul corpses off the path. The ox cart was difficult to maneuver as well, frequently swerving off the road on account of severed arms and legs piled in the dirt. In the end, even the ox refused to move from the foul stench, leaving Li Tongya no choice but to abandon the cart and return on foot.
Covering his mouth and nose, Li Tongya frequently had to pause to wipe away the tears brought on by the pungent air. His chest swelled with strange and intense emotions. Having gone without food for a full day and night, he walked on alone over countless corpses.
*How will the Qingchi Sect record this?*
The thought suddenly popped into Li Tongya's head. Mocking the sect's detached tone, he gave a cold laugh and spoke aloud:
"'In the fourth month of summer, the Tangjin Sect invaded the Xunlin Plain, retreating within days.'"
He shoved aside layers of corpses, sat for a while upon a blood-stained slab of bluestone, and let out a cold sneer.
Li Tongya did see living souls. The villagers who had crawled out from the mounds of the dead seemed to have lost the ability to speak. Whenever two met, they would simply clasp their heads and weep together, and once their tears ran dry, they would resume sifting through the ruins in search of food.
Li Tongya's clothes were relatively neat, and with a long saber in hand and no bloodstains on his robes, he looked like a merchant passing through the Xunlin Plain. Before long, children began trailing behind him in twos and threes. Most were five or six years old, gazing up at him with pitiful eyes.
Li Tongya walked the mountain paths in silence. Whenever he hunted a wild boar, wolf, or the like, he tossed it to the children behind him, letting them roast and eat it half-raw. Stumbling his way along, he finally reached the territory of the Wan family.
The several villages belonging to the Wan family were now completely deserted, devoid of inhabitants and guards alike, strewn as before with blood and rotting corpses.
"Xuanfeng?!"
As Li Tongya walked, he caught sight of a small figure pacing back and forth atop a massive heap of corpses. Looking closer, he realized it was actually Li Xiangping's eldest son, Li Xuanfeng. With disheveled hair, the boy was digging through the corpses, his body caked in dried blood.
"What happened?! Where is your father? Why are you rummaging through a pile of corpses! What if you catch a sickness?"
Li Tongya frowned, his heart lurching. He lifted the boy up, and seeing his parched, pale lips, his unease deepened.
Li Xuanfeng pouted, kicked a severed hand on the ground, and mumbled, "I'm looking for my father!"
"Xiangping... Your father hasn't come home?"
A grim premonition instantly seized Li Tongya, and he asked in a soft voice.
"Brother Xuan wouldn't tell me, but Father definitely went to aid the Wan family. Now no one knows where he is."
Hearing Li Xuanfeng's answer, Li Tongya pondered for a few breaths before saying in a deep voice, "Come home with me first."
"Oh..."
Li Xuanfeng mumbled an acknowledgment, then added under his breath, "This Ji family is truly vicious. Not a single person in the Wan family's five villages was spared—slaughtered down to the last soul. Why did it have to come to this?"
"The people were killed by the Tangjin Sect and the Qingchi Sect."
Li Tongya dropped the cryptic remark out of nowhere. Li Xuanfeng blinked in confusion, then muttered secretly to himself:
*This Tangjin Sect and that damned Tangjin Young Sect Master are utter scum. When this young master grows up, I'll wipe out the entire Tangjin Sect, shoot off that young master's head, and kick it around like a ball!*
***
Li Xuanxuan sat alone in the courtyard, deeply troubled. Over the past few days, he had quietly searched all over Lidaokou, but he had found no sign of any fighting, let alone any trace of his uncle Li Xiangping.
*I don't know where Feng'er ran off to either... I sent people to search for him all day, but there hasn't been a sign of him.*
Li Xuanxuan had a splitting headache. Li Xuanfeng had just been bestowed a talisman seed, and the moment he came down the mountain, he vanished into thin air. Every so often he would come shouting and asking where Li Xiangping was, forcing Li Xuanxuan to wrack his brain for ways to coax him.
Yet the boy was exceedingly clever. From eavesdropping on adults' conversations and knowing about the Wan family's crisis, he had pieced together most of the truth and dashed out the door in a frenzy.
As the Li family's eldest di grandson, Li Xuanxuan naturally could not act as recklessly as Li Xuanfeng, charging into what was now Ji family territory to search for someone. Though burning with anxiety behind closed doors, Li Xuanxuan still had to put on a smiling face and deal with the village managers, striving to keep the situation stable until Li Tongya returned. It was far from an easy task.
"Young Clan Head!"
While Li Xuanxuan was lost in thought, footsteps echoed outside the courtyard. Li Yesheng entered with a smile and said solemnly, "The Immortal Master is back!"
Li Xuanxuan froze for a moment. Feeling the heavy burden lift from his shoulders at once, he was overjoyed and hurried down the mountain with a wide smile to greet him.
Having settled the children who had followed him along the way, Li Tongya ascended the mountain covered in travel dust. Coming face-to-face with Li Yesheng and Li Xuanxuan, his expression gave nothing away. He patted Li Xuanfeng on the shoulder and said softly, "Go take a proper bath and get some good sleep."
Watching Li Xuanfeng nod and head inside, Li Tongya entered the courtyard alongside Li Xuanxuan. Dismissing Li Yesheng, he finally asked in a quiet voice, "Speak. What happened?"
Dejectedly, Li Xuanxuan recounted everything that had occurred over the past several days. Li Tongya listened closely to the end before asking in a chilly voice, "Have you scouted the situation in the Wan family's territory?"
Li Xuanxuan shook his head and murmured, "Your nephew only ordered the people at Lidaokou not to reveal their whereabouts to the east. I didn't send anyone across the border."
Li Tongya let out a cold sneer and said softly, "The Wan family has been wiped out for over a month, yet you didn't even know the foot of Mount Huaqian was completely deserted! Your uncle has been missing for over a month, yet you were still tiptoeing around those few managers! You haven't uncovered a single shred of news, and you even let Feng'er slip off into Ji family territory all on his own!"
"Li Xuanxuan! What a splendid job you've done!"
Struck as if by lightning, Li Xuanxuan dropped to his knees right in the courtyard. A stinging soreness flooded his eyes; he opened his mouth, but not a word came out.
"What was there to fear?!"
Li Tongya shook his head and said in a heavy voice, "Even if something happened to Xiangping, I, your second uncle, was out in the world, and your fourth uncle is still cultivating in the sect. Who would dare harbor any treacherous thoughts against you? The moment your uncle failed to return after one night, you should have dispatched the clan soldiers to patrol the forest immediately and posted Li Qiuyang to guard Lidaokou! With weapons in hand, who would dare look down on you? Even if a few of them guessed that Li Xiangping ran into trouble, which of them would dare peep a word?"
With a soft sigh, Li Tongya lowered his voice:
"Do not waste your time playing mind games with those managers. They are nothing more than a few dogs kept by our Li family! When we are in a good mood, we toss them a few bones. If they dare drag their feet or test you, simply cut them down with a single blade!
"The power of our Li family stems from blades and cultivation! You must be decisive, you must be ruthless, and you must dare to kill! What our Li family needs is not a master who merely clings to legacy and guards what has been built, but a fierce lord of wolves and tigers who charges forward!"
Chapter 74