Li Qinghong followed Shen Yanqing down to a small mountaintop where an old man sat, wearing a broad-brimmed hat and sporting a long, fine white beard. He held a fishing rod, casting it into the sea of clouds below.
Li Qinghong subtly looked away. The Man on Creek was the first Purple Mansion Realm Life Divine Ability that the Li Family had encountered, and it had left a deep impression on her. The sight of the fishing rod made her uneasy, so she avoided looking at it. The old man, however, called out to her.
"Who goes there?"
Shen Yanqing pressed her lips together in a smile, preserving his dignity in front of a guest, and replied, "Senior Lingyanzi, she is a member of the Li Family!"
"Oh!"
Lingyanzi suddenly jumped up, his fishing rod clattering to the ground as he hastily put it away with an awkward expression.
"I thought it might finally be a disciple…"
"Li Qinghong of Mount Qingdu greets the elder," she cupped her fist and said respectfully.
Lingyanzi, now at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment Realm, raised an eyebrow as he studied her and sighed with regret, "What a pity about Daoist Tongya… I was in seclusion then and could not pay my respects. By the time I emerged, I was unable to leave the sect at will… Truly unfortunate."
Li Qinghong was not sure if he was sincere or just making excuses, so she responded politely. Shen Yanqing, understanding the situation, quietly withdrew. Lingyanzi led Li Qinghong inside where they sat together, and he chuckled as he spoke, "Your family once saved my life… a debt that remains vivid in my memory. I never thought that seventy or eighty years would pass, and now even his descendants have reached the Foundation Establishment Realm."
He glanced at her, and then, seeming to catch something that alarmed him, quickly rose to shut the door to the cave dwelling. Only then, in a nervous tone, did he ask, "Fellow Daoist—no, I mean, Qinghong—are you cultivating the Purple Thunder Secret Origin Technique ?"
Not understanding his concern, Li Qinghong answered slowly, "Yes, that is correct."
Lingyanzi looked thoroughly shaken, cautiously asking, "Has anyone been told that you obtained this technique from me?"
Li Qinghong answered in a low voice, "Of course, I have not mentioned it to anyone… but what is this all about?"
"Thank goodness!" Lingyanzi exhaled with relief, whispering, "If anyone ever brings it up, you absolutely must not say you got it from me! It would be the death of me!"
Sensing that something was amiss, Li Qinghong fixed him with a serious look and asked, "What exactly is the matter with this technique? Please, explain everything."
Lingyanzi sighed miserably and replied, "You have no idea… Back then, I was young and clueless, completely ignorant of the weight behind Thundercloud Temple ."
He began to recount his tale.
"I was just a mid-level Qi Cultivator back then, born a commoner with no backing in the sect… I was looking for an opportunity and recklessly ventured out to the Eastern Sea, traveling aimlessly until I reached the Qunyi Straits in the southeast. There, I stumbled upon an underwater ruin. I must have triggered some hidden mechanism because I suddenly found myself in a grotto heaven!"
"A grotto heaven...?" Li Qinghong looked at him in surprise, shooting him a skeptical glance.
Lingyanzi, seeing her doubt, grumbled, "Do not look at me like that! I am telling you… I have no thread of fate on me—pure coincidence. That grotto heaven was filled with lightning everywhere! I did not realize what it was at the time and, being as timid as I was, did not dare touch anything. I only picked up a few scraps in a nearby pavilion and left in a hurry."
With a face full of regret, he muttered, "Foolish! Absolutely foolish! I have been bottling this up for almost a hundred years, not daring to tell anyone—not even a Daoist Master."
Li Qinghong nodded, still unsure, and asked gently, "How did you manage to deceive a Daoist Master?"
"Listen, let me finish the story," Lingyanzi continued, "After leaving Qunyi, I flew all the way into the heart of Yue State, where I ran into those two bumbling outsiders from Changxiao Gate. They got fixated on my Purple Smoke Spirit Shield and chased me relentlessly… I was almost run to the ground."
Lingyanzi recounted, "Eventually, I joined your grandfather, and we dealt with them, killing them both and disposing of their bodies. When I flew back to the sect to ask about that grotto heaven, what had been only a few months inside the grotto turned out to be ten years in the outside world!"
Li Qinghong was left speechless, and Lingyanzi could only manage a wry smile, adding quietly, "The scariest part, though, was that after that, no one could accurately divine my whereabouts. The Changxiao Gate simply dropped the matter, unable to trace it back to me."
"Daoist Master Zimu even tried to divine my whereabouts himself, but he could not figure it out. He said I was entangled with some higher power, making it impossible to track me through divine ability, so he let me stay here in the sect, whiling my days away in the mountains."
Li Qinghong studied him closely, her mind racing over his words. "You mean to say… that this Purple Thunder Secret Origin Technique of mine—other than you and a few people in my family—nobody knows where it came from, and nobody else has ever cultivated it?"
"Precisely…" Lingyanzi admitted with a hint of relief, letting out a rueful chuckle.
"I never dared tell the Daoist Master. His divine abilities are so powerful that, if he found out I had been involved with a grotto heaven, he would have torn me apart. So, I just dragged it on, day by day…"
Li Qinghong eyed him thoughtfully, then her gaze wandered over the empty space in the cave. Startled, she whispered, "Since you know how highly the Daoist Master regards you, and since an old friend has come to visit… how do you know he has not crossed through the great void and is now hidden within this formation, listening to us?"
Lingyanzi's expression froze, his wide, old eyes staring at her, then he laughed weakly.
"Huh? Wha—?"
Realizing the possibility, he broke into a cold sweat, his face pale as he waved his hand. "No, no! My nerves cannot handle that kind of scare!" he spluttered.
Then he explained, "There was trouble over the Eastern Sea, so all the Daoist Masters went there! Otherwise, I would not dare speak about this! Besides, if a Daoist Master did know, would we still be sitting here calmly? He would have already revealed himself and dragged me away."
He continued in a low voice, "The Daoist Master does not actually regard me that highly… There are others like me, too. Compared to Liu Changdie, the troublemaker, my importance is like a firefly next to the moon. I was somewhat valued in my earlier years, but now they treat me like someone who once accidentally met a Golden Core Realm cultivator, then gradually forgot all about me."
Li Tongya had repeatedly warned about Liu Changdie. Although, at that time, the Li Family members did not yet understand the concept of fate, the Li Family knew he was anything but ordinary, so Li Qinghong was not too surprised by this. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, casting a wary glance around the empty cave before muttering, "It looks like you have given my family quite a mess to clean up. If anything goes wrong with you, it could drag me down with it."
The allure of a grotto heaven thunder technique was strong enough to make Purple Smoke Gate's Daoist Masters disregard any backing behind the Li Family. They might even reach out to Xiao Chuting, drawing him into the fray and dividing the grotto's resources.
As for Li Qinghong, who had cultivated this secret technique, and Lingyanzi, who had ventured into the grotto heaven, their best possible outcome would be to return unharmed. Perhaps, if she relied on Xiao Chuting, Li Qinghong could gain a minor benefit—but the risks were enormous.
If this group of Purple Mansion Realm cultivators decided to open the grotto heaven, Li Qinghong and Lingyanzi would find themselves in the eye of the storm. The thought alone revealed the extreme danger they faced, filling both of them with lingering fear. Lingyanzi fell silent, and Li Qinghong, too, held her tongue. They exchanged glances, neither daring to speak further.
After a few moments, Li Qinghong steadied herself and murmured, "This thunder technique came to me thanks to my grandfather's thread of fate; it was by pure chance that I obtained it. Back when I saved you, all I received in return was a handful of spirit stones and this token that allowed our family's younger members to join the Purple Smoke Gate."
"Yes, yes, exactly!" Lingyanzi quickly nodded, his deferential posture making him look like a junior, adding, "Qinghong speaks the truth!"