Chapter 44: New Year

It snowed for three days. Silver-gray snowflakes raged in the air, and every household closed their doors tightly. The weather became completely cold. Li Tongya tidied up the small courtyard in Lijing Village and handed it over to Li Qiuyang to look after, holding Liu Rouxuan and went up Lijing Mountain.

Stepping deep and shallow on the snow, Liu Rouxuan put on a light gray long fur, holding Li Tongya's hand with a smile, and chirped:

"Brother Tongya, let's get married in the spring."

"Good."

Li Tongya brushed the snow off her shoulders, smiled and tilted the umbrella in his hand slightly, shook off the snow on the umbrella surface, and leaned the umbrella towards Liu Rouxuan.

Lijing Mountain is not high. Li Tongya led Liu Rouxuan through the mist accumulated at the foot of the mountain, stepped on the stone path covered by snow, and arrived in front of the courtyard.

Just entering the house, he saw Tian Yun hugging fur and sitting in front of the stove with a smile, her face slightly red. Seeing Li Tongya and the two, she called out:

"Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law."

Li Tongya responded with a smile. Liu Rouxuan was generous in the face of this sister-in-law who was five or six years older than herself. She huddled by the stove and giggled and discussed with Tian Yun in a low voice.

Li Xiangping went down to apply spiritual rain to the rice fields early in the morning and was currently cultivating in the backyard. Li Tongya took off his big coat, hung it on the wall, turned his head to look at Ren, who was silently sewing clothes, and said softly:

"Where is Father."

"The old man is sleepy in winter and is still sleeping in the room."

Ren raised her eyes and smiled. Seeing Tian Yun by the stove waving to greet her, she put down the fabric in her hand and sat over together, smiling and asking Liu Rouxuan in a low voice.

Li Mutian personally widened the skylight yesterday and was busy until late at night. He was still sleeping in the room. Li Tongya looked blankly at the snow covering the whole mountain outside the window and said silently in his heart:

"If Big Brother were still here... how good it would be."

————

Winter passed and spring came. The beginning of the year was prosperous. The spring rain was fine and not dry, the autumn was dry and not waterlogged, there was no hail or locusts. The tax was one-tenth of the field, which was much more affluent than in previous years, so every household had surplus grain, so no one froze to death in winter.

The second batch of spiritual rice planted in Lijing Village the year before last had also matured. The spiritual rice was harvested, peeled and bran removed, and one hundred and seventy catties of spiritual rice and fifty catties of spiritual rice bran were obtained. Added to the spiritual rice harvested before, it was a total of two hundred and ninety catties of spiritual rice and ninety catties of spiritual rice, which was enough to pay the two hundred catties of spiritual rice for tribute.

With the addition of Li Qiuyang and Liu Rouxuan, Li Tongya and Li Xiangping were much more relaxed. They handed over many spiritual fields to the two to take care of, so they could put more energy into cultivation.

Li Tongya had just applied spiritual rain, but saw Wan Tiancang enter the courtyard with a sad face and complained to Li Tongya:

"Fortunately, my family head was agile. He was vigilant during the maturation of the spiritual rice and sat in the array in time. Ji Dengqi led people to besiege for a whole night before retreating in dismay at dawn."

Li Tongya put down the teacup in his hand and said with some surprise:

"Your family's array is really powerful, able to hold off the siege of Qi Refining stage cultivators for a whole night."

Wan Tiancang waved his hand and said with a wry smile:

"It's just taking advantage. Two hundred years ago, my Wan family produced an array master who built this great array with the help of a spiritual spring on Huaqian Mountain. As long as the spiritual spring is not broken, this array can continuously restore spiritual energy."

"What a powerful magic array!"

Li Tongya couldn't help but praise, thinking to himself:

"The array on Lijing Mountain in my own home is inferior to it. However, Xiao Yuansi once said that if you encounter a better array, you can still use those array flags to set it up! It's a pity that my home has no array inheritance..."

Wan Tiancang looked at Li Tongya low, seeing his thoughtful look, and continued:

"It's a pity that he was arrogant and wanted to refine the Dao foundation, and died on Huaqian Mountain."

"Refining the Dao foundation?"

Li Tongya couldn't help but feel a wave of regret and said in a deep voice:

"That was also a predecessor at the peak of Qi Refining."

"Alas..."

Wan Tiancang sighed long and said with some yearning:

"That was the most glorious era of my Wan family. There were five Qi Refining cultivators in the family. That ancestor died for more than ten years, and the family lost three mountain peaks that were painstakingly managed, and four Qi Refining and ten Embryonic Breath cultivators died in battle. If it weren't for some connections in the sect, the family would have been destroyed long ago."

"Later, the elders left one by one. The one in the sect just protected the Wan family's bloodline and stopped caring about things. Since then, each generation has been worse than the last, but at least it has survived. It wasn't until more than ten years ago that the family head broke through to the Yujing Wheel that he could open the storage bags passed down by the ancestors, only to find that only a few spirit stones and talismans were left, and there was no help."

"So that's it."

Li Tongya sighed deeply, filled the teacup in front of Wan Tiancang, and comforted him in a low voice.

Wan Tiancang drank the tea and slapped the table fiercely, saying angrily:

"Hateful is that Ji family. Two years ago, my Wan family was constantly fighting with the Yu family in the north. The Ji family was just a small family in the cracks. Now they are playing both sides and have grown to this extent, almost forcing my Wan family to a dead end."

Looking at Li Tongya, Wan Tiancang asked in a low voice:

"I don't know about that master in your family?"

Li Tongya understood that Wan Tiancang was referring to Li Mutian, and became vigilant. Fortunately, the brothers had already agreed on the story, drank the tea, and said:

"Father left home early, joined the army in Guli Dao, and followed General Yang to attack Shanyue."

"Tiancang has heard of it. Yang Tianya has Foundation Establishment cultivation and led troops to attack the Shanyue branch in the east, and many people died."

Wan Tiancang moved the teacup and asked suspiciously:

"But I heard that when your father returned, he was a mortal..."

Li Tongya gave a wry smile and explained:

"Father received guidance from an immortal cultivator at home, refined Qi, and gained opportunities during the war in the army, refining the immortal foundation. As for why he abandoned his cultivation, it is not convenient to pass it on."

"Tiancang was rash!"

Wan Tiancang bowed, thinking to himself:

"I'm afraid he refined the immortal foundation at a young age and offended those big family children because of his youth and arrogance. Those big family children are not afraid of revenge and love this kind of drama of abandoning cultivation to become a mortal."

He said regretfully:

"What a pity, what a pity."

Wan Tiancang looked at Li Tongya and stopped talking, gritted his teeth, and finally said:

"To be honest with Brother Li, Tiancang came here this time, hoping to use the clan's array inheritance to exchange for a talisman at the peak of Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment to kill that Ji Dengqi!"

Li Tongya suddenly realized, thinking to himself:

"I said why this Wan Tiancang came to my place to talk about family affairs for no reason. This guy originally had this idea!" ===== CHAPTER 45 =====