Li Tongya dragged the river crocodile all the way back to the village of Lijing, and naturally clan attendants gathered to take over the burden. The Li family's sacrifice had been in preparation for some months already; the greater part of the ritual vessels were in readiness, and the ordained procedures were largely complete, awaiting only the order of the several legitimate heirs of the great clan.
"The tribute of the fiefs shall serve the sacrifice."
The great and lesser lineages of the Li family had all assembled. The great lineage stood upon the circular altar, the lesser lineages below it, while the remote branches knelt in a ring around them.
On the first tier of the platform before the altar stood Li Xiangping, the clan head of the day, with Li Tongya half a step behind him. Counting Li Chijing far away in the southern borderlands, this was the second generation of Li family stewards.
On the tier below, foremost stood Li Xuanxuan, clan elder, with Li Xuanfeng and Li Xuanling behind him.
The opening dozen procedures were intricate and long-drawn, and it was only when Li Xiangping set the incense sticks in the censer and pinched out the hand seals of the Blood Sacrifice Method to reach the magic mirror that Lu Jiangxian slowly stirred awake.
"Here stands the Li family of Lijing, reverently proffering pure libations, common foods, and cold sacrificial offerings, their incense burning unbroken year after year. Dwelling in the northern range of Lijing Mountain, they sow in spring and reap in autumn, drive off the plagues of insects; their summer wheat hangs heavy, they slay beasts to stay the snow, remove harm and level the fields; for the Three Origins and the Six Festivals there is no rite left undone; at sacrifice they feast the day, and worship does not fail... with smoking burnt offerings they worship, with blood offerings they honor, serving the gods and seeking blessing."
That said, Li Xiangping stepped forward, and the ritual blade in his hands drove straight through the skull of the river crocodile at the center of the altar. The beast had been on the brink of death all along, its four limbs and meridians sealed fast by river true essence, and it died on the instant.
Guided by Lu Jiangxian's divine sense, strand after strand of essence gathered up out of the river crocodile's body, converging with its scattered, drifting spirit-soul, and gushed forth along the wound cut by the ritual blade, rising like a column of smoke knit together from primordial energy.
In a world the assembly could not perceive, strands of faint golden mist flowed out from the body of every person standing below, like swallows returning to the nest, and all poured into that column of smoke, tingeing it a faint gold.
The smoke rose for a few breaths, then scattered into countless gray light-points invisible to the naked eye and drifted toward Lijing Mountain.
Lu Jiangxian gathered all the energies and, following the canon, condensed them into a gray register. He was just about to bestow it when, unbidden, a powerful sense of pull rose up within him, reaching across a thousand mountains and rivers to make contact with him.
The image of that old Taoist's jade pendant flashed through his mind. Alarmed, Lu Jiangxian hastily reined in his aura and severed the connection, withdrawing even his divine sense back into the mirror.
That aura descended slowly, hovering at the edges for a while, until at last, reluctantly, it retreated.
At the Jinyu Sect. The Jinyu Sect was one of the Three Sects of the state of Yue, and together with the Qingchi Sect and the Xiuyue Sect made up the Three Sects. Most of its disciples were skilled at driving artifacts. The master peak of the sect was called Jinyu Peak, and upon that peak hung a radiant talisman, within which, so rumor had it, six strands of solar essence were sealed, set specifically to suppress baleful evil.
The highest cave-dwelling of Jinyu Peak was a grotto where a practitioner of the Purple Mansion realm had long been in seclusion, and from time to time brilliant purple smoke drifted out of it, which was why the disciples called it the Purple Smoke Cave.
Now, however, the Purple Smoke Cave was in chaos. Three Transcendently elegant Purple Mansion cultivators, each clutching a length of jet-black iron chain, were locking fast a glittering shard the size of a quail's egg, while the ground was strewn with toppled refining furnaces and shattered relic fragments that gave off a faint glow.
"Why has this mirror shard suddenly gone into turmoil?!"
The glittering shard dashed against the formation several times, and one of the Purple Mansion cultivators wore a sour expression, cursing low:
"With this, the quota of Profound Brilliance qi for this cycle is unlikely to be made up."
"Could it be that the immortal mirror has shown itself?!"
Another Purple Mansion cultivator murmured to himself:
"Impossible. The cultivators of our Three Sects and Seven Gates patrol the whole state of Yue bearing their relics, and there has been no trace of it at all. Could it have drifted beyond the borders of Yue?"
"What does the Qingchi Sect say?"
No sooner had that cultivator asked than he heard the first Purple Mansion cultivator curse:
"The whole sect is busy dreaming up ways to prolong that Chi Wei's life, begging everywhere for spirit medicine. When have they any time to spare for this!"
"Enough, enough."
The cultivator who had asked shook his head, a touch of despondence in his bearing.
"He, Chi Wei, may be a scoundrel, but still he was a genius that cut a swath across his age for a time..."
"Pah!"
The hot-tempered Purple Mansion cultivator spat hard and shouted:
"I only wish he would die the sooner — good riddance! The wretch!"
Another man smiled and teased:
"Junior Brother, is our Jinyu Sect really all that clean? No need to be so harsh on him."
The hot-tempered cultivator fell silent at once, and only after a long while let out a slow sigh.
"Cultivate the cultivation, lengthen the six senses, refine the inborn frame, transform one's aptitude, raise the degree of one's substance, mend the lacks and flaws... Truly fine register qi, this."
The gray register leaped off the mirror's face, and Lu Jiangxian guided it with his divine sense down onto Li Xiangping. The gray register circled once, then flew into his Shengyang point.
Li Xiangping's sight blurred before him, and several lines of great characters surfaced.
At the very top, the brushstrokes were drawn in a deep crimson, giving off a fierce, baleful aura to the eye.
"Strength to Pierce a Thousand Jun."
In the middle, the strokes were a pale gray, writhing and twisting like a long serpent.
"Extend Years, Lengthen Life."
At the last, the strokes were pale green, clean and decisive.
"Dodge Death, Extend Life."
Lu Jiangxian understood at once — this was the choice of which power to invest in the gray register. He pondered for a long while, and thinking that Li Xiangping was head of the Li clan, he chose the seal of "Dodge Death, Extend Life."
This register qi could only be bestowed according to one's talents upon one who carried the Profound Pearl Talisman Seed; for an ordinary man, it could merely lengthen cultivation and refine the inborn frame.
Below, Li Xiangping's whole body shuddered, his aura rising without cease. The cultivation he had held at the fifth layer of Embryonic Breathing since the year before last rose another step, reaching the peak of Embryonic Breathing, and a line of pale green characters suddenly surfaced in his mind.
"Dodge Death, Extend Life."
Before he could collect himself, Li Tongya had already looked over with concern, waving a hand to signal the sacrifice at an end. Li Xiangping closed his eyes and sank into thought.
Only after the crowd had all dispersed did Li Xiangping come back to himself. Gazing at Li Tongya, he said in a low voice:
"We'll talk up on the mountain."
The two hurried up the mountain, and Li Tongya swept it with his spirit sense, at once discovering that Li Xiangping's cultivation had reached the peak of Embryonic Breathing. He said quietly:
"Was it the register qi?"
Li Xiangping nodded, and told Li Tongya all that he had seen and heard before. The two were flushed with delight when a clan soldier came to report that yet another band of Mountain Yue had come drifting eastward.
In these past years, as Ganixo advanced eastward, he had smashed many tribes, and the Mountain Yue fleeing east had grown more numerous — bands of a few dozen at the smallest, a few hundred at the most. Li Xiangping had no choice but to station his clan soldiers west of Lichuan Gap, and he sat command there in person, on guard against bands of roving Mountain Yue falling upon the village.
"How fares the situation?"
Li Xiangping asked a single question, and the clan soldier answered:
"They're said to number a few hundred, and they are hurling themselves against the battle line."
In these years the people under the Li family's rule had already grown to over fifteen thousand, two thousand of them Mountain Yue who had come drifting in, and the number of clan soldiers had reached a thousand — no small figure.
"Come, let us go to Lichuan Gap."
Li Xiangping nodded, exchanged a glance with Li Tongya, and hurried down the mountain.