Family Cultivation: I Become a Mirror-Chapter 107 - 101: Severe Drought_2
"A single arrow?"
"A single arrow!"
Li Xuanfeng lifted his head proudly, tossed the pitch-black longbow over his shoulder, and bent over to reach into the empty eye socket of the Pig Demon, directly pulling out the long arrow. He nonchalantly shook off the red and white matter on his hand and replied:
"I chased this Pig Demon all night, and at dawn, while it was gnawing on bamboo, I shot an arrow that destroyed its eye and pierced its brain, killing it instantly."
"Not bad."
Li Tongya praised him and then advised:
"Although this mountain Pig Demon died from your single arrow, if you let such a creature get close, a mere charge could burst your bowels and leave you without a place for burial. You must still be careful and seek to kill weaker demons."
"Oh..."
Li Xuanfeng replied in a low voice, somewhat reluctantly:
"This demon wouldn't even be able to touch the hem of my clothes!"
Li Tongya chuckled, patted his shoulder, and explained:
"I know your archery skills are exceptional, and only your uncle from your father's side possesses a talent in the Sword Dao that can compare with you. I just want you to remember how fragile the human body is."
Seeing him serious, Li Tongya spoke solemnly:
"Although Fetal Breathing Qi Cultivation grants strength to lift boulders and run up eaves, compared with demons, humans are far frailer. Your uncle has fought many times with enemies at the Qi Cultivation Stage. Do you know what often causes the defeated ones to suffer heavy injuries?"
"The enemy's spells?"
Li Xuanfeng asked eagerly, driven by curiosity.
"Not at all."
Li Tongya shook his head and said solemnly:
"It is from falling."
"Cultivators who walk on air are often weak of heart. If they are wounded by an enemy, pain and fear overwhelm them, and they suddenly lose control of their spell and plummet to the ground. With broken tendons and shattered bones, how can they have the strength to battle the enemy with spells?"
At these words, Xuanxuan and Xuanling around him pondered deeply, and Li Xuanfeng nodded in realization, eagerly agreeing, and said with a grin:
"Uncle, it's good to have you in the family."
"You child."
Li Tongya couldn't help but laugh and shake his head, then saw Li Xuanfeng pick up the burlap sack in his right hand and said with a smile:
"Uncle, look!"
He untied the rope, and three squealing piglets tumbled out. Li Xuanfeng grabbed the neck of one piglet with one hand and explained:
"I found these three mountain piglets in the beast's lair. Can we raise them at home?"
"We have some Spirit Rice Bran and leaves left over, and with the leftovers from killing the demon, we could raise them. But the mountain pigs eat a lot, and even raising one would be quite difficult."
Li Tongya nodded and then Li Xuanfeng laughed:
"That's easy to handle!"
With a snap, Li Xuanfeng exerted force with both hands, and the two piglets in his grasp met their end. Only the one in the sack remained, still frantically trying to escape.
"Ordinary people surely cannot handle this young Pig Demon. Find an outside disciple with some cultivation to watch over it."
As he said this, Li Tongya turned his head to look at Li Xuanxuan, who was casting a spell over the corpse, and said in a deep voice:
"Xuan'er, how are the external and branch family cultivators?"
"Huh."
Li Xuanxuan quickly raised his head and respectfully replied:
"Apart from Chen Donghe and Li Qiuyang, there have been three cultivators from the external and branch families over the years, one of them bearing the Ye surname. I've already taken care of it, and now they have been readopted into a branch of the Li family. The outside cultivators have also married into or been betrothed into the Li family."
"Not bad."
Li Tongya nodded appreciatively and asked further:
"How is their cultivation going?"
"Not quite satisfactory!"
Li Xuanxuan shook his head and explained:
"The Fetal Breathing techniques used by the branches of our family all come from the 'Qingyuan Cultivation Method' left by our predecessor Si Yuanbai. The cultivation speed compared to our family's spell...uh..."
Li Xuanxuan opened his mouth to say "Taiyin Breathing and Wheel Nourishing Scripture," but the Mysterious Pearl Talisman Seed in his Sea of Qi Acupoint interrupted him, breaking his speech. Even Lu Jiangxian, who was engrossed in his research, was alerted. His Divine Sense swept over and he immediately understood the situation. Li Xuanxuan suddenly became tongue-tied, knowing he had misspoken, and he changed his words:
"The cultivation speed compared to our family's spell is day and night apart. The highest level they can achieve now is only the second layer of Fetal Breathing, the Chengming Wheel. On normal days, they just cultivate Spirit Rice and feed the Wu zha caterpillars, that's all."
Having heard this, Li Tongya nodded and mused to himself:
"We must see if we can exchange these Fetal Breathing techniques for better ones. There are only six Talisman Seeds of the Mysterious Pearl. Sooner or later, it won't be enough for the major clan disciples. Let's hope they won't have to resort to using these common goods."
After Li Xuanxuan and Li Xuanling had finished dealing with the entire pig demon, calling people to drag it away, Li Xiewen came up to report that someone from the Liu Family had come to announce a death. His uncle Liu Linfeng had passed away this night.
"Sigh..."
While the members of the Li family's Xuan generation were still naive, a tightness gripped Li Tongya's heart.
Counting the years, he himself was now forty years old. Liu Linfeng was twenty-five years older than him, and having lived to sixty-five, was considered long-lived in the village.
"Do not inform mother."
Madam Liu's health had been deteriorating in these past years, and ever since Li Mutian had passed, she seemed to have lost her soul, constantly misplacing things. Sometimes, staring blankly, not knowing where she had wandered off to, Li Tongya was afraid of hurting the elderly woman.
"I'll go down the mountain to have a look."
————
Chen Donghe followed the path that Li Xiangping had drawn all the way, never encountering any large forces of Shanyue soldiers, not even the stationed troops were still there.
Along the way, apart from the corpses littering the ground, there were only vultures and jackals feasting on the bodies. The cracked earth was devoid of water sources, with only a few small ponds remaining in the dried-up riverbeds.
The line of people walked along dispirited, and the only sounds in the entire troop were the intermittent sobs.
Out of the thousand men that had set out, only slightly more than two hundred had returned. Though their enemies had suffered ten times the casualties and a hundredfold chaos, the men who returned were still injured and wore faces filled with sorrow.
Chen Donghe glanced at Li Yesheng, who lay curled upon a stretcher, his spine broken, and had been unconscious for three days. Finally, he saw him slightly open his eyes and softly asked Chen Donghe:
"Where's the Family Head?"
"Ahead."
Chen Donghe forced a smile, seeing Li Yesheng smile and close his eyes. His heart ached, yet he noticed a tear rolling down Li Yesheng's cheek and, with a choked voice, said:
"Uncle Yesheng, I know I can't hide it from you."
Li Yesheng's eyes remained tightly shut as he asked warmly:
"How did he die?"
"Killed by a witchcraft curse."
Chen Donghe held back his tears as he replied. Li Yesheng sighed deeply from the pit of his throat and tears welled up in his eyes once more.
Li Yesheng mourned the abrupt end of such a powerful person like Li Xiangping, and at the same time grieved over the complete termination of his power and position. As for his feelings toward Li Xiangping, they were as complicated as a bowl of mixed-up lumps in spilled porridge.
"Brother Xiangping, in truth, we were the same kind of person."
Li Yesheng knew Li Xiangping better than Li Xiangping knew himself.
He knew that the blood on the bluestone when he was fifteen was that of his elder brother Li Yesheng, and he knew what kind of guilt Li Xiangping felt that year. Li Yesheng understood it all too well, yet pretended not to know.
When he was twelve, Li Yesheng was always beaten and molested by his elder brother, and after gritting his teeth he counted – there were three knives in Lijing Village: one big, two small. To get rid of his brother Li Yesheng, he had to intensify their conflict.
Thus, Li Yesheng's ears were always filled with various rumors about the Li Mutian family. Carefully treading on thin ice, he pushed for three years and finally killed him.
Li Yesheng thought it would be Li Mutian who would take action, but instead, it was with the knife in the hand of Li Xiangping. Li Yesheng then became his faithful dog for life but did not expect Li Xiangping to die before him, causing him unbearable pain.
"Brother Xiangping, in the next life, I want to be your true brother, a good one like Brother Tongya, as close as Brother Changhu."
Li Yesheng whispered to himself, struggling to lift his hand, and unhitched a bottle of medicine from his waist.
This was what he'd prepared, in case he fell into the hands of the Yue and suffered at their hands; he didn't yet know its taste.
"Surviving is just lingering on in misery. Xiewen has already grown up, and he's very close to Xuanxuan. Everything I've set up for my parents is already enough."
Li Yesheng, with much effort, lifted his hand and felt the cool liquid slowly flowing into his mouth. Instantly his mouth went numb, and his body began to convulse. His white hair scattered on the stretcher, shaking gently.
"Damn it, it's bitter," he thought resentfully at the end of his life.
