After a brief wait, Li Chengliao, who was clad in a gray cloak, ascended on the wind. At his waist hung the Dragon Coiling Pillar, patterned like fish scales. Having managed the family’s affairs for years, he was a prudent man. He halted before Li Xijun, clasped his hands in greeting, and reported, “Greetings, Eighth Uncle. The eighteen towns and five immortal peaks of Milin Prefecture are now fully under our control. The seven remaining branches of the Yu Family have all been captured and sent to Lijing.”
Li Xijun nodded and spoke softly, “Good. Make sure none are overlooked. Detain them all first.”
He gave his instructions, then asked in a lower voice, “Have you decided on how to handle them?”
Li Chengliao drifted forward with him on the wind and responded in a measured tone, “Eighth Uncle, do you still recall the many shamanic strongholds in Mount Yue?”
Li Xijun gave a slight nod and replied, “Of course.”
With the Li Family’s takeover of Mount Yue, the ancestral grounds of the Yue shamans hidden within the towering mountains were gradually unveiled. These places harbored deeply ingrained cultic worship and were frequently engaging in human sacrifices. The shamans numbered over a hundred thousand, scattered across various regions where ninety-nine percent of them were mere mortals.
As soon as the Li Family conquered Mount Yue, these remote wild temples sent envoys and claimed allegiance to the Li Family. Yet, their territories were barren and treacherous, technically within the domain of the demon den of Mount Dali.
Naturally, the Li Family was unwilling to risk provoking the demon den by delving deeper. Moreover, these mortals were fanatical cultists that were difficult to manage. The cost of governing them far outweighed any potential benefits, so they accepted only their tributes.
Near these desolate lands lay the ruins of Huo Luo’e, another spiritually barren region with a violent populace. This was the very shamanic lands Li Chengliao referred to.
“My plan is this... First, relocate all seven families to Lijing Mountain and register them individually. Then, use them to populate the shamanic territories deep within Mount Yue.
“Those heretical mountain temples are full of brutal customs. Most of the Yue people don’t even speak our language. The land is wild, barren and lacks spiritual energy. So, no cultivator from our family would ever want to go there. Sending our own people would be more of a punishment than a deployment... These seven families are the perfect fit to fill that void!”
Li Chengliao chuckled, clearly having planned this long ago and respectfully added, “These seven families aren’t weak. Placing them there will force them to consume each other while reshaping the culture. At the same time, they will serve as a deterrent to those wild temples, preventing them from engaging in blood sacrifices.”
Hearing this, Li Xijun nodded slightly and responded softly, “It is indeed a good plan. But make sure to send reliable people to oversee them. Keep a heavy hand on supervision.”
Li Xijun raised his sword-like eyebrows slightly and explained, “That place already lacks strong spiritual energy. These seven families are accustomed to consuming blood food, indulging in blood pills and rice meats. If they are sent there, they may only become more extreme... Worse still, they might collude with the wild mountain cults and prey upon the common people together.”
With these words, Li Chengliao immediately understood. He respectfully bowed and replied, “Thank you for your guidance, Eighth Uncle!”
Li Xijun chuckled softly and said, “It’s not really guidance. If you were in my place, you would have seen it yourself. It’s just about planning ahead to minimize losses... If we had acted just two days later, who knows how many more lives would have been lost...”
Li Chengliao nodded and followed behind. Li Xijun descended on the wind, soon arriving at the towering Milin Peak. Though not the best spiritual vein in Moongaze Lake, it was the most expansive and robust one. It was nearly half the size of Xianyou Peak of the Xiao Family.
Milin Prefecture consisted of one main peak and five additional peaks. This place was handled personally by Li Ximing, the highest cultivator present. He merely released the Radiant Origin Pass into the sky and the cultivators in the mountain, bathed in its dazzling light, emerged and surrendered without resistance.
After all, the formation guarding this mountain was no longer the Foundation Establishment Realm formation once built by the Yu Family. Having endured multiple chaotic battles, it had long since fallen into disrepair. Various foreign branches had conspired to dismantle it, each taking a share of the remaining spirit items.
The current formation was barely at the Qi Cultivation Realm, it was hardly enough to withstand even a few strikes from the Radiant Origin Pass. Li Ximing patrolled the mountain and found its core still intact. The spiritual energy and geomantic lines had not suffered severe damage, but the mountain itself had been stripped of nearly all structures.
The Yu Family had suffered too much turmoil during its fragmentation. Every family had seized what they could and carried off whatever was movable. Almost nothing was left behind, even the Alchemy Pavilion and medicine courts had long since become barren ruins.
Li Xijun landed atop the main peak, where Li Ximing stood waiting. Dressed in a golden Daoist robe, his entire body radiated with dazzling light.
Li Ximing’s cultivation had deepened significantly and his expertise in alchemy had improved as well. Two members from external branches had begun training in the Dao of Alchemy under him and now assisted in his alchemy room. Within the family, he was highly respected and even rogue cultivators occasionally came to seek his medicine.
Seeing Li Xijun and Li Chengliao descend, he first nodded toward Li Chengliao before smiling and saying, “The Yu Family’s storage vaults have been almost completely looted. It’s so empty you could fit a farm in there. I searched carefully twice and only then discovered a few hidden chambers.
“These chambers are reinforced with Foundation Establishment Realm blessings, likely requiring a token or a specific lineage to unlock. These families are all at the Qi Cultivation Realm before and after their split. I suspect only Jiang Heqian had access to them.”
He had clearly waited for Li Xijun to examine them together. Seeing his younger brother nod, he stepped forward, a hint of sentiment in his expression. Tilting his head to glance at him, he sighed and said, “Do you still remember An Jingming?”
Li Xijun naturally nodded and replied in a warm tone, “Other families may not know, but our family remembers him well. Any direct descendant who has read the Family History knows his name.”
Li Ximing sighed and retrieved an object from his sleeve. It was a gray, preserved head. Enchanted with spell arts, it was slightly dried from long storage. Its eyes remained tightly shut, the features lifeless, yet faint traces of heroic spirit still lingered in its brows.
“So now we finally see his face!” Li Xijun glanced at it briefly, noting how much it resembled An Siming and An Siwei, the two brothers. Li Ximing murmured, “An Jingming was too unnatural. After his death, his own family devoured his flesh, leaving only this head behind. The Yu Family couldn’t comprehend its significance, so they preserved it with mana and stored it in their treasury.”
“Later, the Yu Family suffered repeated upheavals, with internal warfare breaking out. The warehouses were rarely visited and when the family finally fractured, their secret vaults were raided. Blood was spilled everywhere.
“In the chaos of looting, no one cared for this head. It was left abandoned in a corner, thrown together with mundane items. If I hadn’t scanned the area with spiritual sense and deliberately searched for it, I might have missed it entirely.”
He silently put the head away, his voice carrying an inexplicable tone as he said, “I’ll store this away in our archives. If I recall correctly, Yu Mugao’s head is still somewhere... Ah... In the end, no matter how much one struggles, it all comes down to death, the destruction of one’s family, and the head falling into another’s hands.”
Li Xijun paused briefly before replying, “Take this back and give it to An Zheyan, so he can properly lay it to rest. As for Yu Mugao’s head, bury it somewhere as well... Let this be the end of past grudges.”
His sharp brows lowered slightly as he continued speaking in a quiet voice, “Today, we look at these severed heads and sigh with sentiment. But I fear that a hundred years from now, if our family were to decline and others break into our vaults, they too might look upon these same heads and sigh. ‘In the end, all past grudges amount to nothing but death and the annihilation of a family.’”
Li Ximing swallowed his words in silence. The two of them walked through the empty treasury until they reached its deepest chamber. Before Li Ximing could speak, Li Xijun had already raised his head, gazing at a blank section of the stone wall. He murmured softly, “There is indeed a hidden chamber. I should have known you’d spot it with your spirit eyes.”
Li Ximing remarked casually. The two of them studied the area for a while before Li Xijun’s keen eyes caught certain details. Though he wasn’t highly knowledgeable about formations, he could still discern some aspects and said in a low voice, “To activate this formation, it likely requires either the Yu Family’s direct lineage or a key from Jade Smoke Mountain. If we attempt to force it open, we might end up destroying whatever lies inside without someone highly skilled in formation arts.”
As soon as Li Xijun said this, Li Chengliao immediately understood and responded, “I’ve heard that after the Yu Family was destroyed, their direct lineage was almost completely wiped out. There may be very few survivors left. I will go investigate right away.”