Snow had blanketed the landscape for three days, and silver snowflakes continued swirling in the air. Families kept the doors of their homes tightly shut, protecting themselves against the biting cold.
Li Tongya entrusted the care of Lijing Village’s small courtyard to Li Qiuyang. Together with Liu Rouxuan, they made their way up Mount Lijing.
Trudging through the deep snow, Liu Rouxuan, clad in a light gray fur coat, beamed as she held Li Tongya’s hand.
Her voice was light and cheerful as she said, “Brother Tongya, let’s get married this coming spring.”
“All right,” Li Tongya replied, brushing snow from her shoulder with a tender smile. He slightly tilted the umbrella he held, making sure it shielded Liu Rouxuan from the falling snow.
The ascent to Mount Lijing was not steep, and soon they emerged from the fog at the foot of the mountain onto the snow-covered stone path leading to a courtyard.
Upon entering their home, they were greeted by the sight of Tian Yun, sitting cozily by the fireplace, her cheeks flushed from the warmth.
“Second Brother and Second Sister-in-law,” she greeted them with a smile.
Li Tongya acknowledged her with a smile while Liu Rouxuan eagerly joined Tian Yun, who was older than her by five or six years, by the fire for a quiet chat.
Li Xiangping, having spent the morning showering the Rice Paddies with spirit rain, was now cultivating in the backyard.
Li Tongya removed his coat and hung it up on the wall. Looking at Ren Ping’er, who was silent sewing clothes at a side, he softly asked, “Where’s Father?”
“Still sleeping in his room. He seems to sleep a lot during the winter,” she replied, smiling as she noticed Tian Yun waving at her.
Setting aside the clothes she had been sewing, she moved to join the two ladies by the fire and began chatting with Liu Rouxuan.
Li Mutian spent the previous night expanding the roof window so he slept late and was still asleep in his room at this hour.
Gazing out at the snow-covered mountain, Li Tongya silently mused, “How wonderful it would be... if Big Brother was still around.”
————
As winter gave way to spring, the previous year's favorable conditions lingered. The spring brought adequate rain without drought, and autumn was dry without flooding. The year was free from hailstorms and locust plagues, making it a bountiful season.
Consequently, the field tax was a mere ten percent, a generous rate compared to previous years. This led to families having surplus food, ensuring that no one suffered or perished from the cold during the winter.
The second batch of Spirit Paddies planted in Lijing Village two years prior had also matured. The harvest yielded 170 jin of Spirit Rice and 50 jin of Spirit Bran.
Combined with the previous year’s harvest, the village amassed a total of 290 jin of Spirit Rice and 90 jin of Spirit Bran. That was more than enough to meet their 200 jin of Spirit Rice quota.
The arrival of Li Qiuyang and Liu Rouxuan significantly eased Li Tongya and Li Xiangping’s workload, allowing them to delegate the care of numerous spirit fields to the newcomers.
With that, both of them could finally devote more time and attention to their own cultivation.
The White Essence Fruit plant had begun to flower, its white blossoms hinting at the approaching ripeness of the fruit.
Li Tongya estimated that in a few months, the fruits would be ready to harvest just in time before the envoy from the Azure Pond Sect would come to collect the tributes.
Li Tongya, having just watered the spirit fields with spirit rain, spotted Wan Tiancang entering the courtyard with a distressed expression.
“Last night, Ji Dengqi crossed our borders and launched an attack. They burned and destroyed nearly all of our spirit fields and killed many mortals. They even came close to assaulting Mount Huaqian,” Wan Tiancang shared.
“Thankfully, our head of the family was prepared. He remained vigilant during the Spirit Rice ripening period and activated the formation in time. Ji Dengqi’s forces besieged us all night, only retreating at dawn,” he added.
Li Tongya set down his teabowl, his expression one of surprise. “Your family’s formation must be truly impressive to be able to withstand a siege by a cultivator in the Qi Cultivation Realm for an entire night.”
Wan Tiancang waved dismissively and smiled wryly. “It’s more of a coincidence. Two hundred years ago, a formation master in our family set up this grand formation with the help of a spirit spring on Mount Huaqian. As long as the spring flows, the formation can continually replenish its spiritual qi.”
“That’s really impressive!” Li Tongya expressed his admiration, while thinking to himself, Our formation on Mount Lijing truly pales in comparison. Xiao Yuanshi once mentioned the possibility of setting up a superior formation with the same formation flags if we found one! Sadly, our family lacks a heritage in formation arts...
Wan Tiancang noticed Li Tongya’s contemplative look and added, “Unfortunately, that formation master was overly ambitious. He perished while attempting to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm on Mount Hua Qian.”
“The Foundation Establishment Realm, huh? So he perished as a cultivator in peak Qi Cultivation Realm in the end,” Li Tongya remarked solemnly with a tinge of regret in his voice.
Wan Tiancang exhaled a long sigh, his tone tinged with a mix of yearning and regret as he said, “That was the golden era of the Wan Family. We had five cultivators in the Qi Cultivation Realm. After the death of that ancestor over a decade ago, our family lost three peaks successively in war, along with four cultivators in the Qi Cultivation Realm and ten in the Embryonic Breathing Realm. If not for some influential connections within the sect, our family might have been exterminated.”
“Over time, our elders passed away one after the other. The one in the immortal sect only cared about preserving the Wan Family’s bloodline and nothing else. Since then, each generation has struggled to match the accomplishments of its predecessors. But we’ve managed to survive, at least. It wasn’t until a little over ten years ago that our current head of the family achieved a breakthrough to the Jade Capital stage. This allowed him to access the storage bags left by our ancestors. Unfortunately, we discovered they contained little more than a few spirit Stones and talismans.”
“I see,” Li Tongya responded with a long sigh and refilled Wan Tiancang’s teabowl. Seeing how depressed the man was, he offered some comforting words.
Wan Tiancang took a sip of tea, then slammed his palm on the table in frustration. “I abhor the Ji Family! Back then, while we were at constant war with the Yu Family in the north, the Ji Family was just a minor clan. They didn’t even have a single cultivator in the Qi Cultivator Realm. Now, they’ve grown so powerful that they nearly drove my family to extinction.”
He looked at Li Yongya, then softly inquired, “What about the elder in your family?”
Realizing Wan Tiancang was referring to Li Mutian, Li Tongya was cautious in his response. He and his brother had prepared for such inquiries.
He took a sip of his tea and replied, “My father left home in his youth and joined the military on Guli Road. He served under General Yang in the campaign against Mount Yue.”
“I’ve heard a bit about that. Yang Tianya, a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Realm, led a brutal campaign to the east against Mount Yue. There were significant casualties,” Wan Tiancang remarked as he swirled the tea in his bowl.
With a doubtful look on his face, he added, “But I heard that your father was a mortal when he returned from that war...”
Li Tongya smiled ruefully and explained, “My father received guidance from an immortal at home and successfully attained the Qi Cultivation Realm, then attained the Foundation Establishment Realm during his military service. However, the reasons behind his loss of cultivation are not something we can freely discuss.”
Realizing that he had overstepped the boundary, Wan Tiancang quickly cupped his fist and apologized, “I’m sorry, I have overstepped!”
Is it possible that his achievement in attaining the Foundation Establishment Realm accidentally offended someone from a powerful clan? Only the disciples of those powerful clans revel in the act of reducing someone to a mere mortal without fearing retribution.
Despite his thoughts, he expressed his regret, “What a pity, indeed.”
Seeing Li Tongya’s reluctance to continue the topic, Wan Tiancang hesitated before revealing his true intentions.
“I’ll be frank with you, Brother Li. My visit today is with the hope of trading our clan’s formation legacy for a talisman of peak Qi Cultivation or Foundation Establishment Realm that could kill Ji Dengqi!”
It was at this moment that realization dawned upon Li Tongya.
So that’s why Wan Tiancang came here out of the blue. He’s after something after all!