The fire had already been set at Lichuan Pass. Scattered village militia faced the Mountain Yue in the lanes, shielding the wives and daughters behind them, while more people had already scattered in all directions, leaving the Mountain Yue free to pillage.
By the time Li Xiangping arrived with the clan soldiers, the Mountain Yue had dispersed entirely into the village to ransack, with no formation left at all. Frowning, he marched his troops along the stone path straight to the spirit field courtyard.
A dozen-odd Mountain Yue warriors surrounded the small courtyard, jabbering in their native tongue as they hoisted a great slab of green stone, hurling it into the courtyard. Fortunately, a formation array had been laid within — the great stone tumbled through the air, then slumped back outside the wall.
"It is good that the spirit field remains unharmed. This Wan Tianchou seems to know a few formations. I will find a chance to have him write them out for a look."
Li Xiangping brought up the troops, surveyed the scene with a nod, and gestured for the clan soldiers to advance. The Mountain Yue scattered in terror and were captured within moments.
"Patriarch!" Wan Tianchou, who could see clearly from within the formation, opened it of his own accord at the sight of Li Xiangping's relief, greeting him stiffly.
The Wan family had been wiped out overnight. Wan Xiaohua had destroyed every tradition on Huagan Mountain, and the promised formation legacy had vanished with it. Of the escapees, Wan Tianchou had carried out only a few formation platters, and his skill was shallow besides — of the ten Embryonic Breathing formations, he had learned only three. Still, he at least knew enough to lay down a formation so the spirit field would not fall to ruin.
"Hm—" As he was about to order a dispersed pursuit, Li Xiangping heard a deep horn blast. The Mountain Yue soldiers in the village drew back like the ebbing tide. He raised an eyebrow, lifted the Blue Crow Bow, nocked an arrow, listened attentively for a few breaths, then loosened his fingers — a streak of white light shot toward the hills.
"Pursue them for a stretch."
Li Xiangping waved his hand, and the clan soldiers behind him moved at once, striding off in the direction the Mountain Yue were fleeing.
---
"How did they get here so fast!" Ahuila sat in the forest, watching rank after rank of clan soldiers file into the village. He sprang to his feet with a shout: "Withdraw! Withdraw! Do not fight those men to the death — take what you can and go!"
These few hundred ragged survivors of his were only good for pillage; he had no stomach to skirmish with clan soldiers. Preserving his clansmen was the key.
So long as these clansmen remained, Ahuila could find a meal at any tribe. If they all fell here, his power and worth would plummet, and he would be reduced to a mere thug.
The tribe's shaman hurriedly fetched the horn and began to blow. As the clansmen streamed back toward the hills, Ahuila breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down by a tree.
No sooner had he relaxed than he saw a white streak rush toward him. The shaman blowing the horn beside him had his head burst open with a bang, spraying blood like a smashed watermelon, spattering Ahuila's face with red and white.
"Scared the hell out of me!"
Staring in terror at the long arrow still trembling in the tree, Ahuila swallowed and backed away a few steps, muttering: "Withdraw... pull back into the woods!"
Another shaman, shivering, grabbed the horn and blew twice before hastily crouching down with his head in his hands, which made Ahuila clench his teeth in frustration — yet he dared not seize it himself.
Hiding behind a great tree, Ahuila peered out, and by the keen sight of his Embryonic Breathing cultivation, made out the scene below. He breathed a sigh of relief.
The clan soldiers below had dogged the tribesmen's rear, snapping up near a hundred of them amid a chorus of curses and pleas. Hustled along by those hundred, the Mountain Yue host finally stumbled into the woods.
The clan soldiers swelled with fighting spirit and looked ready to charge into the forest after them — when the clang of gongs rose from the village. The soldiers hesitated, stopped the pursuit, and turned back with their prisoners.
"Cowardly bastards!" Ahuila cursed in frustration, leading his men deeper into the mountain woods.
---
After driving the soldiers to kill for a stretch and seeing all the Mountain Yue vanish into the forest, Li Xiangping hurriedly sounded the retreat. Surveying the dozens of Mountain Yue prisoners, the anger in his heart subsided somewhat.
Seeing Chen Erniu walking slowly back from the front of the village, covered in blood, Li Xiangping made a slight bow and said heavily: "Much gratitude for your work, Manager Chen."
"Cough... I would not dare—" Chen Erniu coughed twice and demurred again and again. Beside him, Li Xuanxuan, in armor, came forward with a string of Mountain Yue trailing behind, hands bound. Li Xiangping nodded and spoke low: "Xuan'er, have the men rest in place. This cannot end here — letting several hundred Mountain Yue simply make off with the goods and children of Lichuan Pass."
Raising a hand, he beckoned. Li Yesheng had already arrived at Lichuan Pass with the militia of several villages and hurried forward.
"I am returning to Lijing Mountain. You reorganize the men — there must be no overnight grudge left in these parts."
All acknowledged and withdrew. Li Xiangping turned and rode back at once. The moment he reached Lijing Mountain, he found Li Tongya, who had hurriedly come out of seclusion, his qi perfected — he had reached the peak of Embryonic Breathing.
"Now that Second Brother has emerged, this matter is far more certain." Li Xiangping laughed through gritted teeth, anger smoldering in his eyes. He changed his clothes, entered the ancestral hall, kowtowed three times and bowed nine times, then stepped over the offering table laden with fruit and incense, bowed respectfully to the mirror on the stone dais, and took the magic mirror down.
"Act with care." A hoarse voice came from nowhere — it was his father, Li Mutian.
Li Mutian had withered beyond recognition, sitting quietly in the courtyard. He croaked out the words, then breathed in deep gasps.
The old man often dozed off in the courtyard, awake but rarely, and would forget to go to the main hall for meals, so that Li Xuanfeng had to come call him in. Yet he was strangely sensitive to footsteps — Li Xiangping had barely entered the courtyard when the old man startled awake.
"Yes." Li Xiangping acknowledged, looking at Li Mutian's condition, a flicker of worry rising in his heart. He did not know how much longer his father could hold on, and a trace of reluctance crept across his face.
Clenching his teeth, Li Xiangping turned and left the back courtyard, speaking to Li Tongya: "We need not use the Profound Lunar Radiance — only the mirror's power to know what is near and far. Strike the Mountain Yue unawares. With the mirror at hand, even against a Qi Refining cultivator we can withdraw whole."
"So." Li Tongya descended the mountain with Li Xiangping, listening as his brother recounted the past days' events with a dark face, then nodded thoughtfully.
Without rest, they reached the encampment. The night was still deep, and the militia and clan soldiers were half-asleep, faces covered.
Two loud gongs struck. All sprang up, donning armor, taking up shields and knives, biting cross-shaped tally sticks and binding cloth tightly over their faces to keep them from falling, then gathering together.
Waiting as Li Xuanxuan and Li Qiuyang mustered their troops, Li Xiangping closed his eyes and reached quietly for the mirror, sweeping the whole mountain range clear in his mind.
He set the Blue Crow Bow, and several streaks of light flew into the hills, one after another, shooting dead the Mountain Yue sentries keeping watch in the woods. Only then did Li Xiangping sling the bow over his back and call out loudly: "Move!"