Five years passed quickly as an arrow streaking through the treetops, and the village of Lijing had become the town of Lijing. The great clans of Willow, Chen, Xu, and Ren had all packed up their households and moved into Lijing Town, and the men above all said the same: this was a favor — to live near an immortal mountain was a blessing.
A mustache had grown over Li Xuanxuan's lip. Having broken through to the fourth layer of Embryonic Breathing, the Azure Origin Wheel, he had been sent by Li Xiangping to serve as clan elder. The youth's manner had lost its earlier naivety and gentleness, replaced instead by a mature stillness that made the younger members of the Li clan look upon him with awe.
What the people of Lijing Town loved most to talk about, however, was the twelve-year-old Li Xuanfeng. They gossiped of how, with a wild laugh, the boy had snapped six bows on the training grounds, flinging the broken arms out beyond the field and crying:
"Again!"
Li Xuanfeng paid no heed at all to the terrified looks of the clan soldiers on either side. He tilted back his head and roared with laughter — or rather, the boy was simply born wild and unrestrained, and once he lifted a bow there was no bird or beast he could not bring down with a single shot.
Li Tongya, shaking his head with a wry smile, had brought him back a pitch-black longbow from Crown Cloud Peak. It had no merit other than being tough and enduring, but at least it let Li Xuanfeng shoot to his heart's content.
By the side of the Meihe River.
"Brother Feng, what are you doing?"
Li Xuanling was just a little past ten. In the past few years he had been tested and found to possess no spiritual aperture, and as the eldest legitimate son of Li Tongya and an only son, he had naturally been inducted into the Profound Pearl Talisman Seed. Now he trailed after Li Xuanfeng with a long face, and seeing his elder cousin furtively poking his head out from behind a stone, could only lower his voice to ask.
"Look!"
Li Xuanfeng gave a sly grin and shoved Li Xuanling forward. The boy stumbled a step ahead, and without warning caught sight in the river of a woman's plump shoulders and rounded hips. Startled, Li Xuanling clapped a hand over his mouth and fell back, glaring hard at Li Xuanfeng and whispering:
"Li Xuanfeng, you really are wicked."
Li Xuanfeng, grinning, glanced at Li Xuanling's reddening little face and murmured:
"Wasn't she pretty?"
"Not much."
Li Xuanfeng had hoped for praise from Li Xuanling's lips and was sorely disappointed. Indignant, he slapped the boy's backside and whispered:
"A kid knows nothing."
"Li Xuanfeng, you really do have too much time on your hands."
Li Xuanling shook his head, a steadiness unusual for such a young face settling over his features, and asked:
"Have you broken through to the third layer of Embryonic Breathing yet?"
Li Xuanfeng gave a soft chuckle and answered:
"I've already stepped into the fourth layer."
Li Xuanling froze at once, an incredulous look flitting across his face. Dazedly he asked:
"You've already caught up with Brother Xuan?"
Li Xuanfeng nodded carelessly, and asked with an easy smile:
"That's only natural. Just watch."
He took the great dark bow from his back, planted his left foot on the green stone, and nocked the string as he pulled. The air about him changed utterly — no longer the carefree, heedless youth, but a piercing sharpness, so that Li Xuanling beside him felt a tension he could not contain creep over him unbidden.
Li Xuanfeng smiled and slowly leveled the bow at Li Xuanling. There was plainly no arrow nocked on the string, yet the boy's hair stood on end in a single instant, for he felt as though cold wind were slashing across his face and a dull buzzing filled his ears.
"Impressive indeed."
Li Xuanling swallowed hard and slowly stepped out from in front of Li Xuanfeng, watching as his elder cousin, still intent, held the bow in aim — that keen edge of sharpness sustaining and building, until the shrubs all around began to tremble.
Li Xuanling's eyes went wide, and he saw the quiver at Li Xuanfeng's waist leap slightly. Blinking, he rubbed his eyes, and saw that every single arrow in the quiver was trembling, as though in eager anticipation of something.
"Strike!"
Li Xuanfeng suddenly let the string go. Dozens of paces away, a great tree blasted apart with a resounding boom, splinters of wood flying in every direction and a great hollow opening blown through the trunk. It paused a breath or two, then tilted and crashed to the ground, startling a flock of forest birds into flight with a scattering of cries.
"Elder Brother."
Li Xuanling stared dazedly for a long while, then whispered:
"Have you already reached Qi Refining?"
"What are you thinking!"
Li Xuanfeng too drew a few deep, heavy breaths, his face a little flushed, and laughed:
"This is a bow technique I came up with myself. It only requires drawing on the spiritual apertures in my palms, and combining them with the arrow intent born of drawing and loosing. It's not hard."
Li Xuanling silently shook his head — but then he saw Li Xuanfeng's face turn somewhat sheepish as the elder seized him by the hand and ran, dragging him a dozen meters away in the space of a breath.
"You rotten scoundrel, spying on auntie bathing!"
Hearing the scolding from behind, Li Xuanling's face went white. He put more force into his steps and stammered in alarm:
"That was Aunt Xu at the mouth of the village?! Li Xuanfeng! This... what... what..."
Li Xuanfeng laughed awkwardly and murmured:
"It's not as though... I was only curious..."
On Lake Wangyue, Li Tongya trod lightly across the water, stepping into the air and standing suspended one footfall at a time. Clear, pure river true essence surged forth from the gray-white longsword in his hand, turning into streams of sword aura that pulsed and breathed. With lowered brows he regarded the great scaled beast circling in the water below, and standing quietly in the air he pinched his hand seals.
Dark-red blood spread slowly through the river. The river beast could no longer contain itself; the water of the river's face shimmered ceaselessly, and dozens of transparent qi blades tore through the air, shooting toward Li Tongya.
Li Tongya stepped forward, dodging most of the beast's attacks, while the play of light on the water around him rose to block two qi blades that came curving back around. He mused to himself:
"This Clear Air Shield of the River One Breath Scripture holds firm enough. The beast has no understanding of arts, and piles on raw power by brute force alone — it wastes immense true essence and still cannot break through my dharma shield."
This river crocodile had no inheritance to speak of. It had relied purely on stubborn cultivation to reach the peak of Embryonic Breathing, and had breathed in and exhaled for no one knew how many years to refine a breath of small clear spiritual qi, and only then ascended to Qi Refining.
When the river crocodile saw its attacks fail, it hastily dived and fled upstream against the current. Li Tongya naturally followed close behind.
Two years past, Li Tongya had already broken through to the first layer of Qi Refining. He had thought to slay some Qi-Refining beast to offer in sacrifice to the magic mirror, and had searched the mountains for more than a year. Everything he encountered was either as cunning as a fox or formidable in strength, and it had taken all that time to find this one slow-witted river crocodile — he could hardly let it slip away.
A practitioner of the Qi Refining stage could already walk on air. Although without a flying shuttle it was far from quick, it was still three or four tenths swifter than running flat out at the peak of Embryonic Breathing. And since this river crocodile had been wounded earlier in his ambush, it could not possibly flee far.
The Dark Water Sword Scripture and the River One Breath Scripture suited each other well. When he cast his sword light, its power grew by a tenth or a fifth of its own accord, and Li Tongya was delighted. Two pale sword auras struck the river crocodile's back, and pain sent it rolling and tossing about without cease.
Fearing the beast might lash out fatally with its last life, Li Tongya merely kept pace behind it, from time to time casting a sword stroke to wear down the crocodile's strength.
At last the river crocodile could endure no more. With an angry, hissing roar it burst up out of the water, sending a scattering of spray, and lunged into the air, snapping at Li Tongya. Li Tongya slashed behind himself and caught the beast's back, then pulled back, keeping his distance and steadily adding wounds to the crocodile's body.
After half an hour of this toil, the river crocodile finally toppled onto the bank in defeat. Li Tongya deliberately did not slay the beast, but drove his river true essence into it to seal away its vitality and cultivation, afraid he might kill it outright.
Only when he was certain the river crocodile posed no threat to life did Li Tongya seize the tip of the beast's tail and drag it, like hauling a small mountain, back toward the village.