Chapter 15

Lu Jiangxian had been familiar with it for several months and had completely absorbed the power of the jade. He had long been able to perform the illusion minor arts recorded in the "Taiyin Breathing and Wheel-Nurturing Scripture" to communicate with the Li family.

But he pondered that the time was not ripe, so he never showed his intelligence, but lay quietly in the ancestral hall like a dead object.

After all, the Li family members were not stupid. Perhaps this mirror had a high status, but he, Lu Jiangxian, was truly an immortal cultivation novice.

Speaking now would not only require fabricating a background but also answering the Li family's full belly of doubts, adding a body of flaws for no reason.

Only the aura that occasionally flew over the Kong Kong Guli Road would wake Lu Jiangxian, making his heart tremble, feeling those majestic or light auras, and silently shrinking his spiritual sense into a ball.

Although the Li family had imagined him as some kind of immortal artifact magic mirror, he had a measure of his own combat power—Fetal Breathing Second Layer Bearing Brightness Wheel as a base, Fetal Breathing Fourth Layer Green Yuan Wheel as the limit.

Comparing himself to those auras that made Lu Jiangxian feel like he was on pins and needles even when shrinking in the mirror, he still felt he could be more cautious and hide for a hundred or eighty years before saying anything.

"Just, why would there be refugees coming on the Kong Kong Guli Road..." He muttered to himself in doubt.

————

Li Changhu led a group of villagers holding torches, holding grass forks, hoes, and other tools, standing at the village entrance and confronting a group of ragged refugees.

He had just finished Xiangping and Tian Yun's marriage these past few days. Li Changhu took time to cultivate, but saw a tenant of the Li family rushing to report that a group of refugees had come to the village entrance.

"Refugees?"

Li Changhu had last seen refugees more than three years ago, a group of Chen surname families who had crossed over from Meichi Mountain. In the past few years, the climate had been good, and the Meichi River was good at nurturing people, so there were no families in the upper and lower reaches who couldn't survive.

"They claim to have come from the Kong Kong Guli Road." The tenant saw Li Changhu and seemed to have found a backbone, answering respectfully.

"How is that possible..."

Li Changhu considered for a few breaths, waved his hand, walked toward the door, and said:

"Father has already gone to sleep, no need to trouble him. Call Uncle Tian and Uncle Ren, let's go take a look."

By the time Li Changhu walked to the village entrance, Liu Linfeng, the head of the Liu family, another wealthy family in Lijing Village, was already waiting at the village entrance with a dry tobacco pipe. Seeing Li Changhu, he opened his mouth with a smile:

"Changhu is here."

"Uncle."

Li Changhu also nodded. Liu Linfeng was the biological brother of his mother, Liu Linyun. Back then, Li Mutian killed the wealthy Yuan family and divided the land. Liu Linfeng's father took a fancy to this young man at a glance, overcame all opposition, and married Liu Linyun to him, forming a marriage with the Li family.

Li Changhu and Liu Linfeng led people to shout three times at the refugees. The refugees finally pushed out a middle-aged man. Although this man was covered in black and ragged, he had quite a bit of bearing in his gestures.

This middle-aged man bowed his hands and looked at the two with a bitter smile:

"I was the main person in charge of a merchant caravan on the Xia Li Road. The Wu Kingdom in the south took Jingxia City, and the Kong Kong Guli Road was full of knives and soldiers, with no peace. We were robbed on the road and fled here mixed in with the refugees. I am not talented, but I was recommended by the crowd to speak. I hope the two can take us in."

"This section of the Kong Kong Guli Road has been in disrepair for a long time, and wild beasts are rampant. You just came over like this?"

Liu Linfeng asked suspiciously.

"Naturally, many people died, and the old and children all died." The middle-aged man smiled bitterly.

The representatives of the two wealthy families were inquiring about each other's background. Old Man Xu among the crowd was holding a woven grass cricket in one hand and a hoe in the other, squinting and sizing up the refugees.

Now he was attracted by a young man among the refugees. This young man was wearing ragged cloth clothes, with a piece of animal skin wrapped around his waist, his eyes staring at Li Changhu and Liu Linfeng at the top like burning flames.

"These eyes are so familiar." Old Man Xu touched his pale beard, but couldn't remember where he had seen them.

"Everyone, listen to me!"

Liu Linfeng set the refugees, stepped forward, and shouted:

"I am the clan leader of the Liu family in the village. Lijing Village still has a large amount of wasteland available for reclamation. If you are willing, my Liu family can provide you with food and tools for this year. The reclaimed land will be counted as my Liu family renting it to you, and we will only collect 30% of the rent."

Li Changhu, as a younger generation, stood half a step behind Liu Linfeng and promised the same:

"My Li family is the same."

The young man among the refugees heard this, turned his head suddenly, stared fixedly at Li Changhu's face, and those eyes stared for a few seconds like burning flames, then quickly lowered his head in satisfaction.

Old Man Xu used the strength of nine bulls and two tigers to squeeze to the front of the crowd, sizing up the refugees carefully, but he couldn't find the young man anymore.

Turning his head to look, the young man had already squeezed to the position closest to the refugees, only a few steps away from where Li Changhu and Liu Linfeng stood.

The middle-aged man bowing and standing beside the two glanced at him, wondering in his heart:

"What sharp eyes. There are such characters among the refugees? Eating and living together for a full three months, I haven't seen this person."

"You can drink and eat meat, marry and have children in Lijing Village, but you must not steal, you must not commit adultery..."

Liu Linfeng was admonishing the crowd, but Old Man Xu's unease became stronger and stronger. He watched the young man fly out, kneel in front of Liu Linfeng, and sob.

"My whole family suffered from knives and soldiers, and only I escaped. I traveled thousands of miles to meet the two adults and take us in. I am extremely grateful! How dare I do those shameless things here!"

He cried so sadly that the refugees behind him were also reminded of sad things and burst into tears one after another. For a time, the sound of crying was everywhere, and even Liu Linfeng couldn't help but be moved.

Old Man Xu, however, looked at the ankle exposed by the young man kneeling, the scarred left foot stretching out from the ragged trouser leg, with several black moles distributed on the ankle joint.

A sense of familiarity that was about to come out emerged in his mind. He was as red-faced as if he were drunk, staring at the young man vigilantly.

Li Changhu behind him couldn't bear it anymore, looked at the young man kneeling on the ground with pity, and stepped forward to help him up.

Old Man Xu's brain exploded, and his eyes were blank, as if he had returned to that afternoon more than twenty years ago in an instant.

He, Old Xu, was still a tenant of the Yuan family. The golden rice fields were rising and falling in the autumn wind. The woman carried the child to the field, and he bowed and said auspicious words flatteringly:

"Looking at this mole on the child's foot, he must be someone who can do great things!"

"Wait!!"

Old Man Xu straightened his waist that had been bowed for more than twenty years with force, raised his head, stared, and shouted angrily.

"Wait!"

But he heard a voice coming from not far away, shouting in unison with him.

It turned out to be the middle-aged man pushed out by the refugees, looking at the young man's face in surprise, opening his mouth to stop him.

Before the two finished speaking, the young man had already raised his head suddenly, and Li Changhu met those eyes unprepared.

Those cruel and sharp eyes, like a wild beast.