After seeing off his daughter Li Jingtian, Li Xiangping found unease creeping over him like thorns pricking his back. Seated cross-legged on the couch to cultivate, he could not settle his heart; several times he tried to enter stillness and failed. At last he rose to his feet and spoke, his voice low and heavy:
"Someone!"
Chen Donghe had been keeping watch before the tent in full armor all along. Hearing the call, he entered the tent and answered:
"Patriarch."
"Did the scouts return with any news?"
Chen Donghe shook his head:
"None."
"It has been a full hour since Lichuan Gap sent word. Call someone back to ask."
Li Xiangping shook his head and watched Chen Donghe answer and withdraw, turning the matter over in his mind:
"Ganixo only smashed the enemy lines in a surprise stroke the day before yesterday — surely he cannot advance east so soon? There's no logic to it. Surely his troops are not men who never tire and never die? And the mountains to the west are sown with scouts of my laying; there is no way he could move in utter silence."
He rose, pulled on his armor, and looked at the blazing brazier. The red firelight was reflected in his eyes, and his heart missed a beat. He knew at once that things were going badly.
"This man has fought a dozen years of war on the northern range and won time after time. One cannot measure him by the common rule. I had better ferry the troops back across the river first."
He sheathed his long blade, slung the Green Crow Bow across his back, and cried out in a loud voice:
"Beat the drums!"
At once the order passed down, and the booming of drums rose from all sides, stirring up a great clamor. Li Xiangping had barely stepped out of the camp when he ran straight into the hurrying Chen Donghe.
"Patriarch!"
Chen Donghe came close, his voice full of alarm, and bent his head to whisper in Li Xiangping's ear:
"Patriarch! Lichuan Gap has already fallen into the hands of the Mountain Yue. The men we sent were all killed. Two or three thousand troops are encamped across the river, and several of the pontoon bridges have been destroyed. Our rear has been cut off!"
The words struck like a thunderclap out of a clear sky. Li Xiangping started, stood stunned for two breaths without speaking, then clutched his long blade tight, his grip making it creak, his fingers gone white.
"The news has not spread, has it?"
Chen Donghe hurriedly shook his head and dropped his voice still lower:
"No, your subject has sealed off the news. I dared not let the men know, for fear of shaking the morale of the army."
Li Xiangping let out a long breath and murmured:
"Assemble the troops."
Chen Donghe withdrew with a solemn face, while Li Xiangping shut his eyes and silently began to weigh his options.
"There is no way to use these thousand men to cross east and retake Lichuan Gap. Nor can Ganixo have come with only these two thousand troops. And he has Qi Refining cultivation..."
"Ganixo smashed the enemy and came on at a dead run; his rear must be none too stable. Far better to march west and test the ground. The longer we linger here, the more dangerous the hour!"
Li Xiangping paced slowly to the rear of the tent, looked at the towering stack of grain, and did his figuring for a good while. The storage pouch at his waist rose, and mountains of rice and beans poured into the embroidered pouch. The well-worn pouch had the roominess of a whole courtyard, and only just managed to hold these stores of grain.
Coming round to the front of his gathered clan soldiers, Li Xiangping drew in a deep breath, ground his teeth, and spat out two words in a loud voice:
"March west!"
With that the whole host struck camp. Eight hundred clan soldiers with two hundred Mountain Yue made up a thousand men in all, and without so much as a backward glance they plunged into the woods to the west.
---
The moment Ganixo's troops set foot on the borders of Lijing Village, his Qi Refining cultivation was laid bare and woke Lu Jiangxian from his stillness. His divine sense swept once from top to bottom, and he thought to himself:
"So it is that Ganixo, having taken Lichuan Gap, means to strike east and seize Lijing Town."
He stretched his divine sense to its limit and at once found the several men of the Li family.
Li Tongya was with his wife Liu Rouxuan on the reeds of the river marsh, gathering the river clear qi of the streams on behalf of his third brother Li Xiangping, who was striving to break through to Qi Refining. The two were pinching their hand seals, waiting for the moment at dawn when the clear qi rose and the turbid qi sank.
Li Xuanxuan and Li Xuanfeng, for their part, had finished clearing away the demons in Lidaokou to the west, and were soothing the wounded among the villagers. The beast-demons had wrecked the streets, and hands were still needed to repair them.
On Lijing Mountain, Tian Yun and Lady Ren sat by the hearth chatting, wrappped in the glow of the fire. The two were growing old, and Lady Ren in particular, past forty now, could no longer sleep soundly of a night.
Li Jingtian leaned against the window, her round, glossy eyes full of worry fixed on the distance. The light breeze of the deep night lifted her black hair, while beside her Li Xuanling slept obediently on the couch.
Though his sight took in all the cultivators of the Li family, Lu Jiangxian's divine sense could only roam within the bounds of Lijing Town. He gave it a breath of thought, worked an illusion by hand, and cast it into the mind of Li Xuanling upon the couch.
Lu Jiangxian's divine sense far outstripped the spiritual awareness of an ordinary cultivator, and Li Xuanling before him was only a mere pup of the second layer of Embryonic Breathing, his Luminous Understanding Wheel formed. The mirror-spirit readily and smoothly took over Li Xuanling's dream.
---
"Crack."
Half-awake, Li Xuanling heard a jarring sound of porcelain shattering and started sharply out of the dream. He sat up covered in sweat, staring blankly at the empty windowsill.
A pair of tender white hands was carefully gathering up the fragments of the tea set on the floor. Li Jingtian said softly, with apology in her voice:
"Ling'er, I woke you."
Li Xuanling was drenched in sweat, and the chill draft that struck him brought him fully awake. He answered in a dry voice:
"Sister, I dreamed... of a great many dead people. Ganixo defeated Uncle, brought his troops up the mountain, and killed so many of the family."
Li Jingtian's expression grew ever more worried. Li Xuanling's words struck straight at the knot of anxiety she had been unable to sleep over all night. Forcing a smile onto her face, she softly soothed him.
Li Xuanling nodded distractedly, brooded in silence for a few breaths, then mumbled:
"I'm going to pee."
With that he slipped down from the bed, crossed the threshold, rounded out of Li Jingtian's sight line, and crept quietly toward the back courtyard.
No sooner was he in the back courtyard than he saw a lone, broken wooden chair set in the middle of the yard. Li Xuanling pursed his lips, remembering Li Mutian.
He pushed open the door of the house with some effort and smelled the thick scent of sandalwood. The lamp burned dim, and in the faint light he caught a glimpse of a cold, tall stone platform, upon which the small grey-green mirror was turning with pale-white moonlight flowing across its face.
He rose on tiptoe, reached his hands through the slightly cold moonlight, and carefully lifted the magic mirror up in both hands. Only then did he realize the artifact was warm and smooth to the touch, most pleasant to hold.
Remembering his father's words, Li Xuanling cradled the mirror and recited, with full seriousness:
"Li Xuanling of the Li family, receiving the Profound grace, reverently begs the Profound Mystery Wondrous Method, and humbly summons the Profound Lunar Radiance, to slay the wicked and the contrary, to break the foul and seize the demon!"
Lu Jiangxian nodded silently and let his range of sight spread wide. Li Xuanling at once felt himself float lightly into the air, rising to a very great height, gazing down in stillness upon Lijing Town beneath his feet.
The night moon was tranquil, and Lijing Town slumbered in its sleep. Li Xuanling let his gaze reach far, and saw that Lichuan Gap in the distance was thick with shaven-headed, tattooed Mountain Yue, and that even two companies of Mountain Yue soldiers in leather armor were marching southward, their direction pointing straight at Lijing Town. Their purpose needed no saying.
Li Xuanling broke into a cold sweat of fear. He shook his head hard, finally slipped out of the vision, stuffed the mirror into his bosom, and bolted headlong out of the back courtyard.