Lu Jiangxian had spent several months absorbing the jade stone's power. By now, he could use a minor illusion technique from the *Lunar Nourishing Wheel Scripture* to communicate with the Li family. But he judged the timing premature and remained silent, lying in the ancestral hall like an ordinary object.
The Li family wasn't stupid. This mirror might be a high-grade artifact, but Lu Jiangxian? He was, in truth, a complete novice at cultivation. If he revealed himself now, he'd have to fabricate a backstory and answer endless questions — exposing more holes than he could patch.
For now, his divine sense covered the entire Li compound with ease. He slept when he wanted. When awake, he watched their lives unfold like a television drama. Quite pleasant, really.
Only the occasional presence sweeping through the skies above the Ancient Li Road jolted him awake. He would shrink his divine sense into a tight ball, feeling those vast and weightless auras pass overhead. *The Li family thinks I'm some immortal artifact, but I know my limits. Illuminated Understanding at best — Verdant Origin on a good day. Compared to those entities out there...* Better to lie low for a hundred years. Maybe two hundred.
*"But why,"* he wondered, *"are there refugees on the Ancient Li Road?"*
---
Li Changhu stood at the village entrance with a crowd of villagers — torches in one hand, pitchforks and hoes in the other. Facing them was a ragged, hollow-eyed mass of refugees.
He had been cultivating when a tenant rushed in with word: refugees at the gate.
"Refugees?" The last group he'd seen was three years ago — a Chen family who'd climbed over Meichi Peak. The climate had been good since then. Meichi River was generous. No one along its length had reason to flee.
"They say they came from the Ancient Li Road," the tenant reported, visibly relieved to find Li Changhu in charge.
"Impossible." Li Changhu thought for a moment, then stood. "Father is already asleep — no need to disturb him. Fetch Uncle Tian and Uncle Ren. Let's take a look."
At the village entrance, the head of Lijing's other prominent household, Liu Linfeng, was already waiting, a pipe clamped between his teeth. "Changhu," he greeted.
"Uncle." Liu Linfeng was Li Changhu's maternal uncle — his mother Liu Linyun's elder brother. Years ago, after Li Mutian dealt with the Yuan family and divided their land, Liu Linfeng's father had seen something in the young man and married his daughter to him against all advice.
Li Changhu and Liu Linfeng called out three times before the refugees pushed forward a spokesman. The man's face was smeared with grime and his clothes hung in tatters, but he carried himself with a certain dignity.
"Good sirs," the man said with a bitter smile, clasping his hands. "I was a caravan master on the Xia-Li Road. The southern Kingdom of Wu has taken Jingxia City. Our road is chaos — soldiers everywhere, bandits at every turn. We were robbed and fled with the refugees. These people have asked me to speak on their behalf. I beg you — shelter us."
"This stretch of the Ancient Li Road is overgrown and crawling with beasts. You crossed it?" Liu Linfeng asked.
"We lost many. The old. The children. All dead." The caravan master's voice was hollow.
---
In the crowd, Old Xu clutched a grass cricket he'd woven for Li Changhu's unborn child. He had been at the village entrance since dawn, roused by the refugees. When he heard Li Changhu was coming, he'd brought the toy to give to Ren Ping'er.
But now his attention was fixed on a young man among the refugees. The youth wore a tattered cloth, a beast-hide wrap at his waist, and his eyes — his eyes burned like live embers as he stared at Li Changhu and Liu Linfeng.
*"Those eyes. I've seen them before."* Old Xu stroked his white beard but couldn't place them.
"Listen, everyone!" Liu Linfeng stepped forward, addressing the crowd. "I am head of the Liu household. Lijing Village has fallow land enough for all. If you're willing, our Liu family will provide this year's grain and tools. The cleared land will be rented to you at thirty percent."
Li Changhu, as the junior, stood half a step behind. "The Li family offers the same."
The young man's head snapped toward Li Changhu. Those burning eyes fixed on his face for three full seconds — then dropped, satisfied.
Old Xu had pushed his way to the front, scanning the refugees. The young man was gone. Then he spotted him — wedged among the foremost refugees, barely an arm's length from Li Changhu and Liu Linfeng.
The caravan master noticed too. *"Such sharp eyes. How did I not see this man in three months of traveling together?"*
"You may drink and feast in Lijing Village," Liu Linfeng continued. "You may marry and raise children. But you shall not steal. You shall not—"
A cold certainty was building in Old Xu's chest. He watched the young man lunge forward, fall to his knees before Liu Linfeng, and weep.
"My lords!" the youth sobbed. "My entire family died to the blades! I alone escaped, a thousand li on foot, only to find your mercy! I would sooner die than commit such shameless acts in this place!"
His grief was so raw that the refugees behind him broke down wailing. The night filled with the sound of weeping. Even Liu Linfeng was moved.
Old Xu's eyes were on the young man's ankle, exposed where he knelt. The scarred left foot, the torn trouser leg — and there, on the ankle joint, a constellation of dark moles.
Recognition hit like lightning.
His mind reeled back twenty-odd years. Autumn, golden rice fields rippling in the wind, the Yuan family's tenant fields. A woman carrying her infant to the fields. Old Xu, bent and obsequious, speaking auspicious words: *"Look at those moles on the child's foot — he's destined for great things!"*
"WAIT!"
Old Xu straightened a back that had been bent for twenty years. He threw his head back. Eyes blazing. Voice roaring.
"WAIT!"
From another direction, the same word rang out — the caravan master, staring with sudden alarm at the young man's face.
Too late.
The young man raised his head, and Li Changhu, reaching down in compassion, found himself staring into a pair of eyes.
Wild. Predatory. Burning like a caged beast.
Those were the eyes of revenge.