Chapter 6

As for Li Tongya and Li Xiangping, they entered the reed marsh, pushed aside the layers of reeds, and looked. The blue-gray mirror was warm and flashing with white light. Li Xiangping looked at the direction and whispered:

"This is the direction of Wangyue Lake. Just walk along the Kong Kong Guli Road for half an hour."

Li Tongya shook his head and said: "You can't walk on the Kong Kong Guli Road. Go through the reed marsh."

Li Xiangping whispered "yes" and crouched down to walk through with his brother.

Lu Jiangxian only felt that the pull was getting stronger and stronger. Entering the reed marsh, his eyes lit up, and a blurry scene appeared before him. It seemed to be a clear and transparent lake, with more than a dozen white gulls standing on one leg on the shore to rest.

As Li Xiangping continued to move forward, the blue-gray mirror in his hand became hotter and hotter, making him feel uneasy. He looked up at his second brother. Li Tongya also had a cold face and didn't speak, only his eyes were full of worry.

"Is immortal fate really something mortals can touch..." Li Xiangping touched the mirror, completely unaware that it was hot.

"Good mirror, obedient mirror, we'll be there soon." He held the blue-gray treasure mirror and muttered.

Before long, the two drilled out of the layered reed marsh, and the sparkling Wangyue Lake and a beach of startled gulls leaped into view.

Lu Jiangxian looked straight at a pile of rocks and sandbar in the lake. Among the moss-covered rocks, a piece of white-glowing jade was stuck firmly in a crack.

The hot blue-gray mirror gushed out a pale white lunar radiance. Li Tongya and Li Xiangping saw the sandbar and the white-glowing jade in the crack vaguely appearing before their eyes.

Li Xiangping and Li Tongya looked at each other, seeing surprise and joy in each other's eyes. Li Xiangping nodded forcefully, stripped off his clothes, and was about to step into the lake.

"Wait!" Li Tongya pulled him back and shook his head:

"I'll go get it. You wait on the shore with the mirror. If the moon moves to that position and I haven't returned yet..."

He pointed to the position in the sky.

"Yes..." Li Xiangping had a crying tone without knowing it, looking at his second brother with tears in his eyes.

Li Tongya smiled, took off his clothes, revealing his strong arms, turned, and swam into the lake, leaving Li Xiangping hiding in the reed marsh, staring blankly at his brother.

He had come to Wangyue Lake with his father and brothers in previous years, and had swum back and forth countless times, so he was familiar with the road and swam to the center of the lake.

He carefully probed in many cracks, and after the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, he had walked all over the sandbar.

"Nothing." Li Tongya frowned, checked carefully again, and took out five or six small river crabs.

Sure enough, he felt a cool touch between his fingers, touched something smooth, used force with two fingers, and took out a piece of jade two fingers wide.

This jade was long and narrow, with some characters engraved on the surface. Li Tongya identified them by the moonlight:

"Tai... Yue... Qi... Yang Lun..." He only recognized a few characters roughly. Li Tongya had learned to read at the teacher's place when he was young, and he could recognize most characters, but the patterns on this jade were complex and really hard to identify.

He looked calmly at the shore, held the jade in his hand, and swam toward the shore.

"Third brother!"

He went ashore and called out low into the reed marsh, and Li Xiangping emerged. Li Tongya was just about to show the jade, but as soon as he opened his hand, the jade turned into a white light and "whooshed" into the mirror.

The two were scared by this change, looking at the white light surging on the mirror surface, and the moonlight also turned into lunar halos and poured into the mirror one after another.

Lu Jiangxian, however, felt as if he had been struck by lightning. A white light hit him straight on, and vast knowledge surged into his mind rapidly. He let out a painful cry and fainted refreshingly.

Li Tongya and Li Xiangping watched as the mirror in their hands slowly calmed down after swallowing the jade, and the white light gradually dimmed.

The golden-red morning glow climbed into the sky, falling on Li Tongya's naked upper body, revealing golden lines. He lowered his head and said to his brother:

"Let's go home first."

————

Li Mutian sat by the red-lacquered wooden table, listening to his two sons explain the ins and outs, and nodded to Li Tongya:

"Well done."

He and Li Changhu had tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. Now that he saw his two children return safely, the heart he had been hanging finally fell.

"Our front and back courtyards are not small, and the backyard leans against the back mountain. I'm thinking of tearing down the two melon fields in front to build two houses, connecting them into a large courtyard. Once the front gate is closed, there's no need to worry about people peeking."

Li Mutian said slowly. He had had this idea for years. The children were growing up day by day, and it looked like they would soon divide the family.

The Li family could be said to be a prominent family in the village, relying on his savings. Li Mutian bought more than ten mu of paddy fields after returning from the army, plus the more than five mu of good fields inherited from his father, totaling nearly twenty mu.

Lijing Village was good at nurturing people with water and soil, and the reed marsh and mudflats were treasures for survival.

If you deduct the labor, twenty mu of land could support more than ten people in a good year. The Li family was already at the level of being able to close their doors and be landlords.

"Now this family cannot be divided, and we must find wives who are our own people."

Li Mutian remembered the appearance of those wealthy families he saw in the city: a large courtyard for the direct line, studying to become officials, practicing martial arts to lead soldiers—how glorious! But poor farming families divided everything cleanly; you don't pull me, I don't drag you.

"Let's do it!"

Li Mutian's eyes lit up, and he greeted the two children.

"Okay." Li Xiangping had tossed and turned all night but was still full of energy. Hearing this, he slipped out the door in a flash.

Li Tongya looked at his father, pondered for a moment, and then spoke:

"Is Father going to learn the clan laws in the books, establish an ancestral hall, open a clan mansion, study to become an official, and practice martial arts to lead soldiers?"

"My Li family has accumulated for two hundred years; it is time."

Li Mutian waved his hand with a smile.

"As for studying and practicing martial arts, the Kong Kong Guli Road is extremely dangerous, and entering and leaving Great Lishan is a life-and-death situation. Studying and practicing martial arts cannot be sold to the Emperor of Yue; it is nothing more than seeking to inherit the family business and seek self-preservation..."

Li Tongya nodded and said in a low voice:

"There might be things more wonderful than studying and practicing martial arts."

"Stop talking nonsense here."

Li Mutian laughed heartily, patted Li Tongya on the shoulder, raised his head, and walked out with his hands behind his back.