Taking the letter and examining the handwriting, Li Ximing saw that it was indeed from his elder brother. As usual, Li Xizhi's tone was polite and measured. When his brother had first assumed the post of Master of Jiutian Pavilion, his letters home had been just as courteous. Back then, it had seemed like humility; now that Li Ximing had become a Real Person, his brother maintained the exact same manner, showing not the slightest hint of opportunism.
Having read the letter, Li Ximing mused inwardly:
“Si Xunhui, ‘Kongying San.’”
Kongying San was precisely one of Mount Xiaoshi's three lineages. For a direct descendant of the Si family to cultivate this path, and for them to specifically send word requesting that he enter our family's mountain gate, made their stance abundantly clear:
“Yuanxiu does not have much lifespan remaining, after all. If Mount Xiaoshi's lineage trains one of their direct descendants, they might stumble upon some opportunity—Real Person Yuanxiu clearly wishes to have a hand in this.”
“And this chess piece, on one hand, enters Mount Xiaoshi through our family; on the other hand, it shows goodwill toward us. Studying under my elder brother also secures an ally for the Si family's future...”
Si Boxiu's overture was no bad thing for Li Ximing. Qingchi was at their rear, and for now, greater stability was undeniably better. He calculated the timings:
“Si Xunhui has only just entered Qi Refinement, while Wang Quwan is already about to attempt Foundation Establishment. The two will most likely never clash. However, the whereabouts of Mount Xiaoshi's remaining two lineages are still unknown, so there might yet be an opportunity.”
He fetched paper and brush, penned a reply, handed it to Li Jiangqian to send back, and asked:
“Looking at your expression, has something auspicious occurred?”
Li Jiangqian smiled and said:
“The Real Person has keen eyes indeed! The Guanxie Terraces are finished and erected at Chengqing Gate. Yuting has also been completed at the foot of Mount Yuting—palaces and chambers stretch in unbroken rows, and all the Court Guards have moved in: one Foundation Establishment, nineteen who have attained qi, eighty-nine at Embryonic Breathing, and over twenty thousand mortal elite troops, truly living up to the name. Beneath the mountain reside more than ninety-six thousand people, all far exceeding the requirements for collecting qi.”
“A few days ago, Guardian Li Wen went in to collect qi, and signs of [Ting Shang Hong Chen] truly appeared! The family's *Scripture of Baishou Kouting* can finally be cultivated!”
“Good!”
The Guanxie Terraces were a vital location for the family to forge a spiritual embryo. Li Ximing had always kept an eye on it, but because he had not yet secured a suitable magical artifact, he had not pressed for its completion. He had not expected it to be finished so early.
As for securing [Ting Shang Hong Chen] and adding another Violet Palace lineage to the family, Li Ximing was naturally overjoyed. Moreover, the *Scripture of Baishou Kouting* was originally an ancient manual cultivated by the direct line of the Jiang family, descendants of an immortal mansion. In an era like today when jade and stone flourished so greatly, it truly might not be weak at all!
Li Jiangqian bowed respectfully with a smile and asked:
“This junior has come to seek the Real Person's decree: how should this scripture be arranged?”
Li Ximing tapped on the jade table and replied:
“The family's Court Guards cultivate the fast-advancing *Court-Knocking Palace Guard Incantation*. Though not exceptional, it excels at carrying someone from Embryonic Breathing to Qi Refinement with extreme speed. It is usually given to cultivators of low talent chosen from humble backgrounds... When such people encounter those who cultivate the *Scripture of Baishou Kouting*, their lineage is subordinated, leaving them powerless to resist. The cultivation of the *Scripture of Baishou Kouting* must remain firmly in our own family's grasp.”
The Li family's choice to use the *Court-Knocking Palace Guard Incantation* went far beyond that. In fact, there was a far more crucial point: collecting qi for that technique only required Jade Well Cold Armor. One needed only to dig a well to draw the qi; the cost was astonishingly low, requiring hardly any spirit stones.
He asked:
“When the Jiang family fell, this technique was scattered. The Jiang descendants likely all had records of it, but fortunately they were wiped out over time, leaving only the An family's branch. I recall that my father cut off their inheritance long ago. Has this matter been thoroughly investigated and confirmed?”
Li Jiangqian replied respectfully:
“Reporting to the Real Person, this junior looked into it. In Nanzhang, there are still several families related to the Yu clan by marriage, but during the rebellion, they failed to break into the Yu family's treasury and did not obtain the *Scripture of Baishou Kouting*. However, while reading the Yu family's records, I discovered a small family surnamed Pu to the north of the eastern bank, who were descendants of the Jiangs. I specifically asked Granduncle Chenghuai to pay a visit, and he found that they had indeed concealed a copy of the *Scripture of Baishou Kouting*.”
Li Ximing signaled for him to continue, and Li Jiangqian explained:
“I invited the direct line of the Pu family over and had father and son swear a spiritual oath to sever the inheritance of the technique. In compensation, I established a hereditary position in Yuting to shelter and favor their descendants. This branch will cultivate in Yuting from now on, leaving behind a newborn descendant to inherit the title in the Pu family. Once two generations pass, the technique will be thoroughly cut off.”
“Well done. Although the qi is held in our own hands and the technique is useless to others without it, taking precautions prevents anyone from prying into the secrets of our lineage.”
Li Ximing took a sip of tea and answered aloud, but other thoughts stirred in his mind.
Li Zhouwei's children were not close to one another, as he had known for a while. It had been over a century since the founding of the clan; while the three remaining main branches still retained some closeness, their numbers were exceedingly sparse.
Meanwhile, more and more cultivators across the isles were geniuses produced through sheer numbers among the collateral branches of the main lines, who then returned to the main branch. Having rolled around outside the isles before coming back, these collaterals were even more distant. Now that Li Jiangqian governed the middle and upper ranks of the isles, the administration was gradually dominated by external surnames and these returned main-branch members.
*A gentleman's legacy is cut off after five generations. The Ji branch, leaning on my elder brother, at least brought forth Chenghuai and Zhouluo. Yet the Bo branch has sunk into the lake isles along with their massive mortal population; though they have many cultivators, not a single one is a genius...*
Li Jiangqian had handled this matter neatly, and Li Ximing nodded without saying much. Yet he understood just as well that the An clan held significant sway in Yuting, Li Wen was a solitary official without a faction, and placing this Pu branch in Yuting undeniably turned them into Li Jiangqian's people.
None of the cultivators in the family could be viewed merely as individuals. Li Jiangqian was not just Li Jiangqian; he belonged to the Zhong branch, and his maternal clan was the An clan. Whether it was Li Jianglong or Li Jiangxia, an innate love of authority was one thing, but the power they seized was never for them alone—it belonged to the factions behind them.
Li Jiangqian had a whole contingent behind him: the An clan, the Zhong branch, and even a large group of cultivators who upheld the primogeniture clan system. Seen from another perspective, was this move not also the An clan's attempt at self-preservation when their influence wavered after losing An Siwei?
This was not wrong, and Li Ximing said nothing more, merely instructing:
“This scripture is not weak. Someone from the direct line must cultivate it. If I recall, Jiangliang is only at Embryonic Breathing. By the time he succeeds, that qi will have just been collected. Have him cultivate it.”
“This junior obeys your command,” Li Jiangqian answered. “Only, a marriage between Jiangliang and Xuanyue was arranged in past years.”
“They wouldn't dare bring it up anymore,” Li Ximing replied casually, but hesitated for a moment. In case someone from Xuanyue actually broke through to the Violet Palace within a few years, it might not be impossible for that arrangement to hold after all. Thus, he said: “Then let Jiangnian cultivate it... As for Jiangliang... leave that to your father's arrangement!”
Li Jiangqian acknowledged the command and withdrew. After waiting a short while, Li Ximing vanished into the Great Void.
***
The East Sea.
Pitch-black reefs stood tall as dark waves surged, yet not a speck of white was to be seen; instead, the water was as black as ink, without even the faintest reflection across the surface. This was the far east of the East Sea. Spiritual energy had grown scarce here, and the Great Void had turned tranquil.
Beneath the surface, the sea was an expanse of pitch-black. Occasionally, a few spirit fish swam past, but nothing else could be seen. Moving through the deep seascape, a young man clad in a green robe with a golden tassel at his waist sat cross-legged and still in the depths of the ocean, his eyes shut tight.
Before him was a massive formation woven with jade-green lines. Like a colossal agate dome, it suppressed the ocean depths. Below it, reefs accumulated over tens of thousands of years—so solid that Foundation Establishment cultivators could scarcely dent them—had been sheared off cleanly like blocks of tofu, tumbled crookedly and strewn across the seabed.
After an unknown time, the young man finally opened his eyes slowly. His irises were pale green, and churning, restless Lu Water rolled around him, clashing sharply with the waters of this seabed as it converged into a pale jade-green halo.
“Fellow Daoist! How do you find my formation?”
The young man's cheerful inquiry drifted through the seawater, unaffected by the abyssal depths, and penetrated into the formation. A single breath later, the seawater surrounding the entire formation boiled violently as a thunderous shriek reverberated:
“Chi Buzi! What kind of madness has taken you?! When have I ever offended you?!”
Chi Buzi rose from the stone reef, descending step by step upon the water, and chuckled:
“Precisely because you have never offended me, I was able to trap you here, was I not? It has only been two years of refinement, and I haven't even made my move yet... What is Fellow Daoist so hurried about?”
“Moreover, this is Shiqi, the domain of True Lord Miaodao Huasheng. This humble Daoist holds the utmost reverence and admiration for Her Eminence, so naturally I would not take your life in this place. Rest assured!”
As Chi Buzi finished speaking, the demon in the formation was so enraged that she went dead silent for three whole breaths.
Chi Buzi naturally knew how aggrieved this demon felt. He had laid out the trap with his own hands piece by piece. As a late Violet Palace master wielding four divine abilities, he had bullied the weak, leaking hints of a supposed ancient ruin and feigning seclusion nearby, then sitting back to wait for the other party to come calling.
It was, after all, a Violet Palace's place of seclusion. Although the demon had spotted the formation within the Great Void, she had not thought much of it. The moment she approached, she was deceived by Chi Buzi's *Chougui Cang*, failing to realize that the formation was an entire span wider than it appeared to her spiritual sense.
Even so, the demon had called out from across the water from afar, still beyond the formation's reach. Chi Buzi patiently played along with her for nearly two years before she inadvertently stepped in front of the formation, deceived by his divine ability.
Once the demon was inside the formation, Chi Buzi suppressed it with a spirit artifact, reinforcing the divine abilities upon the formation daily with art and divine powers. He had waited in complete silence for two years, to the point where the demon almost thought the formation had malfunctioned and that Chi Buzi himself had been tricked.
Now that the truth was laid bare, she was so furious she could spit blood. Her voice turned out to be charmingly feminine as she cursed:
“Chi Buzi! Even beasts like us know to honor our parents! A man like you with neither sect nor clan, who sat by and watched Qingchi change hands—you truly are an erratic, vile rogue! Not a single word from your mouth can be trusted! I only regret believing your words, never imagining you were an unhinged lunatic!”
Chi Buzi merely laughed:
“Only beasts would fail to understand. Sects rely on whispered secrets and private transmissions, coercing and cheating through inner and outer orthodoxies; clans rely on bloodline closeness, acting autocratic and despotic through the division of surnames. The two intertwine, each within the other, and both are turbid currents. How could they make me, with a body endowed with divine abilities, bow down to the wretched squalor of the mortal dust? Only a beast like you, remembering nothing but parents, would reach for such words.”
Though also a Violet Palace, how could the demon out-argue Chi Buzi, who had read scriptures since childhood? Rendered speechless with a single retort, she snapped back:
“I may be a beast, but you are a demon! Why shouldn't I say it!”
Chi Buzi no longer answered her. Step by step, he treaded water into the formation. The seawater turned from black to cyan, separating from bottom to top into turbid and clear states, rising all the way to the ocean surface until rain poured noisily from the sky.
As Chi Buzi entered the formation treading upon Lu Water, the Violet Palace demon was seized with alarm. She had only recently broken through to the Violet Palace; once the Great Void was sealed off, how could she be a match for Chi Buzi? She cried:
“Chi Buzi, I bowed beneath the Tongxin Li tree after all, and the luan birds know my name! Look closely before you act!”
Chi Buzi met her words with a smile, answering only:
“It was precisely you I chose! What if they know? You merely bowed a single time—in this predicament today, who would bother with you?”
Instantly, violent crashing sounds erupted within the grand formation. The Lu Water divine ability surged, while intense Shaoyin radiance splashed across the array, manifesting into countless ice floes as white as snow. Gloomy currents of air welled up, only to be firmly suppressed beneath the Lu Water.
The demon had taken the form of a young maiden of exceptional beauty, clad only in a translucent blue gauze and nothing else. Alas, battered by the pounding Lu Water, she could no longer hold her shape and revealed her true form: a spiritual sparrow with blue and white feathers.
Chi Buzi had not cast so much as a glance at her previous maiden form, as if fearing it might soil his eyes. But now that she had reverted to her true form, his eyes lit up, and he could not help appraising her up and down, sighing:
“Good, good, good! Indeed another feathered beast! The ancient books say... Shaoyin manifests as feathers, Mingyang manifests as shells. The latter is often thought to be an error, but the former is practically spot on!”
The spiritual sparrow could not fathom at all why this person wanted to harm her out of nowhere. Hearing him ramble about ancient books, she gritted her teeth in fury and cursed:
“Stupid thing...”
The two clashed, churning the seawater surrounding the formation. Light and darkness interwove on the sea's surface, and the rain never ceased, falling uninterrupted for more than half a month. A few passing cultivators even paused on the surface to observe.
“The Lu Water never ceases. Could there be a treasure here?”
None of these cultivators had the cultivation to dive down to the seabed, so naturally they found nothing. Meanwhile, having battled in the depths, the Violet Palace demon found it unbearable. More than half of her feathers had been sheared away. She could only force her way against the Lu Water and charge toward the edge of the formation.
Without a second thought, the demon rammed headfirst into the barrier. Straining with every ounce of strength she possessed, there was a deafening boom—her entire head exploded into a ghastly white mist thick as blood, gushing forth and splattering across the formation.
A divine ability flashed. Having endured half a month of attacks and now struck by such a ferocious impact, the great formation finally wavered. In that fleeting instant of instability, a hairline fracture into the Great Void was exposed, and the demon vanished into thin air.
Chi Buzi remained unhurried. With a gentle wave of his hand, the great formation shrank rapidly and flew back into his sleeve. Enhanced by his physical divine ability and spirit artifact, the demon could not have outrun him in her prime, let alone now when she was gravely wounded.
He merely murmured:
“What an obedient demon. Told that she couldn't die in Shiqi, she truly ran elsewhere!”
Chi Buzi breached the Great Void and sped away. Yet the Great Void was empty and barren, seeming to have lost all traces. Without even a glance, he extended one hand, curled his little finger upward, pressed his thumb against his index finger, and chanted:
*Where do the clear and turbid arise? In the Flowery Pond ice is seen; great heat and cold are traces of Shaoyin.*
His eyes brightened, and he stepped through the Great Void in pursuit. Mid-transit, he caught sight of the sparrow. Her speed through the Great Void was fast enough, yet she still lagged behind him. Halfway through, she had no choice but to tear out of the Great Void and plunge back into the mortal world.
The moment the sparrow emerged from the Great Void, she arrived right at the sea's surface. That group of cultivators was still lingering around—a scattered dozen or so, confronting each other under the impression that a treasure had appeared. Having just suffered severe injuries, the Violet Palace demon devoured them in a single gulp, swallowing whole who knew how many clan ancestors and temple masters, before fleeing headlong.
Chapter 750