At Mount Qingdu .
The long-deserted grand hall finally welcomed its owner. A young man in white robes read meticulously through a stack of letters. Li Yuexiang sat beside him, occasionally chiming in with a few comments to fill in the gaps.
Li Xijun had just broken through a critical stage. After spending a few days stabilizing his cultivation, he emerged from his cave dwelling to handle family affairs. He leafed through the letters and quickly obtained a comprehensive understanding of the household’s current situation.
His eyebrows lifted in surprise, and he muttered, "Yuan Hudu... This man is something else."
Based on the gathered intelligence, the Yuan Family had stabilized itself under the leadership of the Second Elder, Yuan Hudu. This alone was not unusual. What truly caught everyone off guard was Yuan Hudu's approach: he had completely exonerated and reinstated the adversaries who had opposed him during the internal power struggle. Except for a few individuals who were injured during the conflict, the family had emerged virtually unscathed.
"How dare he?!" Li Xijun exclaimed, his tone laced with incredulity.
While this move undeniably preserved the Yuan Family’s overall strength, it left an indelible stain on Yuan Hudu’s claim to the position of family head. After all, even though he had wrested it from Yuan Huyuan, the upper echelons of the family were hardly his loyal supporters. Failing to take advantage of such an opportunity to purge dissenters seemed tantamount to digging his own grave. Even with the backing of the Chi Family, this decision felt overly audacious.
The situation had unfolded beyond everyone’s expectations. It was likely that not even Yuan Chengdun or Yuan Huyuan had anticipated such a turn of events, let alone the surrounding families. After a series of internal conflicts, the Yuan Family appeared outwardly unscathed, with only the disappearance of Yuan Huyuan raising suspicions and fueling speculation.
"There’s an eighty or even ninety percent chance that this was the Chi Family’s doing. Let’s observe for now," Li Xijun remarked. His face betrayed a trace of doubt, as though he had arrived at some unpleasant conjecture. He fell silent, deep in thought.
Nearby, the aged Li Xuanxuan watched quietly. He had an enigmatic expression as he broke the silence. "I recall meeting Yuan Huyuan once in my youth, when our ancestor had just reached the Foundation Establishment Realm. Yuan Huyuan came to congratulate him and said something that I still remember today."
"What did he say?" Li Xijun asked.
"He said... he aspired to be a diner at the table, carving out his share of the feast, rather than a mere hunting dog. But now, it seems, even those who sit at the table are nothing more than chess pieces in the eyes of the Chi Family. A marriage alliance means little in the grand scheme of things."
Li Xijun responded, "There is no such thing as diners carving a share of the feast. In the end, it comes down to whether or not one has reached the Purple Mansion Realm... or if one can leverage a connection to a Purple Mansion Realm cultivator. Xiang’er, continue reading."
Li Yuexiang nodded and continued explaining. She spoke at length about recent events, and eventually mentioned Yuan Fuyao.
Li Xijun listened for a while, frowning, then suddenly raised his hand to interrupt her. "Have you observed closely? Is Yuan Fuyao truly unaware of everything? Did Yuan Huyuan not send any loyal followers to keep an eye on him?"
"No, he didn’t," Li Yuexiang replied. She hesitated for a moment before adding, "But it doesn’t feel like complete ignorance. It’s as if he knows fragments of the truth but is missing much of the bigger picture."
Li Xuanxuan hesitated for a moment, and a hint of astonishment flashed across his face. Unable to hold back, he turned to Li Xijun and asked, "I wasn’t aware of his thoughts either. Yuan Chengdun not sending anyone to watch over this child is one thing. But even Yuan Huyuan didn’t assign a reliable person to oversee him? He left him to his own devices? He’s just a half-grown boy... what could he possibly understand?"
"Oh?" Li Xijun’s eyes fell to the paper before him, and he wrote a few notes. After a brief moment, he spoke calmly, "Yuan Chengdun trusted the wrong person and fell into the schemes of Yuan Huyuan and Yuan Hudu."
"What?"
Li Yuexiang and Li Xuanxuan were both visibly shaken by this revelation. They fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts.
Li Xijun seemed to have caught a thread of the bigger picture. He murmured, "I fear Yuan Tuan is beyond saving as well."
Before he could elaborate, a subordinate approached from the lower end of the hall, leaned in, and whispered a few words into his ear.
Li Xijun’s expression darkened slightly. He asked, "He left?"
"Yes, my lord," the man replied. "The young master claimed to be in secluded cultivation, but in truth, he slipped out of our territory late at night and headed south. Our people followed him for a while but didn’t dare intervene and had to let him go."
"He’s likely returned to the Yuan Family." Li Xuanxuan, naturally overheard the whispers, and his face darkened with displeasure. "How can he act so recklessly? He’s not afraid of offending our family! Fortunately, this matter was privately agreed upon between the two families. Otherwise, if word got out, people might think he fled from the marriage arrangement!"
However, Li Xijun set the letter in his hand aside and leaned back against the wooden chair. His sharp eyebrows knitted slightly, and he pondered aloud, "If you ask me, despite this Yuan brat offending our family, as long as Yuan Chengdun's death isn't confirmed, he will always have another way out. There’s no guarantee that Yuan Huyuan isn’t betting on both sides and engaging in some clever schemes."
Li Xuanxuan appeared confused as he sank into thought in an attempt to make sense of it. However, Li Xijun was seemingly indifferent. He sipped his tea leisurely and explained, "Just wait. If Yuan Huyuan and Yuan Hudu are truly united, and if Yuan Chengdun trusted the wrong person, then Yuan Huyuan will show up at our doorstep any moment now."
Li Yuexiang, catching on, speculated quietly, "Could it be that the chaos in the Yuan Family was intentional?"
But before her words could even fade away, a commotion erupted at the lower end of the hall. A Jade Court Guard, clad in gleaming armor, stepped forward with a crisp clang of metal.
Bowing respectfully, he announced, "My lord, Yuan Huyuan from the Yuan Family seeks an audience."
Li Xijun chuckled, glancing at Li Xuanxuan. His voice turned cold as he remarked, "As expected. The direct bloodline staged a grand show of infighting and sacrificed Yuan Chengdun and his son to protect the bigger picture! The Yuan Family wants to sever all ties with us, with Qingsui, and with Yuan Tuan, just to become obedient lapdogs under the Chi family’s banner!"
Despite the declining influence within the Azure Pond Sect, the Yuan Family had once been a significant power with considerable autonomy. They had thrived for many years when Yuan Licheng, a disciple of Chi Buzi, was still alive. But now that Yuan Licheng had passed away and Chi Buzi was missing, the Yuan Family had become a battleground between two sects. It seemed inevitable that they would fall under the Chi Family’s control as a vassal.
"It seems Yuan Chengdun might have left someone behind or sent a letter to warn the boy, but Yuan Huyuan intercepted everything." Li Xijun’s eyes glimmered as he revealed his pristine white teeth in a sharp smile. "How could the Chi Family’s dog possibly cozy up to the Xiao Family’s dog? Yet, they must obey the Chi Family’s orders. They’re aiming to loudly and clearly sever ties with every family. At the same time, they fear truly offending us. So, they’ve sent Yuan Huyuan as a mediator. What a calculation! What a plan!"
Li Xuanxuan had finally pieced everything together. He mulled over the matter and finally spoke in a hushed tone, "You’re saying... the Yuan Family never intended to resist. They pledged allegiance to the Chi Family long ago, and everything was just a show to gain the trust of others. Yuan Huyuan and Yuan Hudu have been colluding from the start. Yuan Chengdun tried to do the right thing with good intentions, but Yuan Huyuan twisted it into a move to humiliate our family and curry favor with those above?"
Li Xijun’s eyes narrowed. "That’s more or less the case. Our family allied with the Ning and Xiao Families, so the Yuan Family, now serving as a lapdog, naturally cannot act as it once did. They’ve placed their bets on two fronts.
"The first is whether they can locate Yuan Tuan, and the second is whether they can drag our family into this mess. If these two matters can be resolved clearly, the Yuan Family would obviously prefer independence. But if we refuse to get involved, the marriage arrangement becomes a convenient excuse to publicly sever ties with our family. Whether we agree or not, as long as word spreads that Yuan Fuyao fled the engagement, it will drive a wedge between the two families."
Li Xijun’s deductions came together swiftly and clearly. He concluded softly, "The day Yuan Huyuan came seeking Granduncle’s assistance and was denied was the day he decided to pledge loyalty to the Chi Family. From that moment, Yuan Chengdun’s letter would have never reached Yuan Fuyao. No matter what, Yuan Fuyao has now become the trigger for the rupture between the two families."
Li Xuanxuan’s face darkened with a mix of anger and sorrow. "Yuan Huyuan once met my Second Uncle. I thought the Yuan Family would maintain a friendly relationship with us for generations. How could it come to this? Even if the situation forced their hand, there was no need to resort to such underhanded tactics!"
He began to rise, ready to confront the matter, but Li Xijun raised a hand to stop him. The younger man’s calm demeanor contradicted the sharpness of his tone as he said, "I’ll handle him."