Chapter 64

Five years later.

The morning sun broke through the layers of mist in the mountains, scattering through the gaps between the treetops and leaves, reflecting pale golden fragments all over the ground.

The Li family had been farming by the shores of Wangyue Lake for another five years. Sixteen or seventeen years had passed since they found the mirror. The stone path on Mount Lijing was gradually turning green, and birds were chirping in the branches—a scene of new life.

Old Man Xu sat blankly beside the moss-covered tombstone, his hunched body and the cold tombstone perfectly in harmony, his withered yellow hands tightly clutching a handful of dirt.

"Old man... why haven't you died yet?"

Old Man Xu had come to Mount Lijing a few years ago, saying he wanted to guard the graveyard for the Li family. Li Xiangping and the others couldn't dissuade him, so they had to let him be.

Li Xuanxuan had built a small hut for him beside the graveyard on Mount Lijing and often brought him things. Old Man Xu could perform tricks, weave grass crickets, and even draw a little. The Li family children all ran to the hut every few days. Li Xuanfeng had no playmates of his age on the mountain, and his father was busy, so he had grown up playing with Old Man Xu these past few years.

Just yesterday, Old Man Xu, shuffling and stumbling, had reached the age of eighty.

"Damn it, how can someone live to eighty and still not be dead?"

Old Man Xu squinted, looking toward the distant hillside. Under the golden sunlight, a small figure was waving on the slope, the golden light stretching his silhouette very long.

"Xuanfeng has come to see you~ Old Man Xu—"

The child was covered in stains, his face smeared with mud, his hair falling in strands. He looked quite dashing, even possessing a touch of wild, uninhibited spirit. He held a small wooden bow in his hand and had a small quiver tied to his waist.

The child hopped and skipped down the sun-drenched hillside, while Old Man Xu huddled in a dark corner, struggling in his final moments. At this moment, the two were like the two poles of the world, birth and death meeting on the mountainside of Mount Lijing.

"Is that Xuanxuan?"

Old Man Xu's consciousness was much clearer. He raised his head and spoke haltingly.

"Old Man Xu, I am Li Xuanfeng. My father is Li Xiangping, not Li Changhu."

Li Xuanfeng giggled, untied the rope on his pants, found a tombstone of similar height beside the old man, and began to urinate while humming a tune.

Just as he finished and was about to pull up his pants, Old Man Xu's eyes widened. He exerted his strength to lift his cane and gave Li Xuanfeng's bottom a whack, cursing:

"You damn brat, that's your great-grandfather's grave."

Li Xuanfeng stumbled, shook himself aggrievedly, and finally pulled up his pants, tying the rope at his waist. He spoke with a face full of defiance:

"He's already dead! Why can't I pee there? How did he die?"

"Poisoned."

This commotion had made Old Man Xu much more spirited. He struggled to sit up and recounted the story:

"Many years ago, your Li family wasn't as strong as it is now. There was a wealthy family called the Yuan family. They poisoned your great-grandfather and your second grandfather, wanting to annex the land."

"Later, your grandfather came back with a blade in hand, killed everyone in the Yuan family, and instead took their land and divided it up."

Li Xuanfeng propped himself up with his small hands, sitting on a mossy tombstone of medium height, giggled, and said loudly:

"Well killed!"

Old Man Xu glared at him before continuing:

"What's so good about it? The Yuan family... a child escaped, and twenty-two years later, he came back and killed your eldest uncle!"

"Huh?!"

Li Xuanfeng's eyes narrowed suddenly. The child's long eyelashes flickered between his brows as he cursed:

"It's all because Grandfather didn't do a clean job. He should have killed that whole family, but he just had to let one escape."

Old Man Xu stared at him blankly and said softly:

"What a wicked seed! You Li family members are wicked from a young age."

Li Xuanfeng shook his head defiantly and said loudly:

"Why is it that only the Yuan family can kill my Li family? If my Li family kills one too few, we wait to be slaughtered; if my Li family lets one child escape, we wait for him to come and take revenge! What kind of argument is there about good and evil?"

Old Man Xu also shook his head and said in a deep voice:

"When will this cycle of vengeance ever end..."

"If you aren't thorough, of course the cycle of vengeance never ends. If you slaughter the whole family and clan, what vengeance is there left to take?"

Li Xuanfeng cursed, his young face full of disdain, not at all like a seven or eight-year-old child.

Old Man Xu coughed twice and mocked himself:

"I've seen too much life and death, so I'm afraid of killing. I'm not as decisive as you, a mere child."

"Old Man Xu."

Li Xuanfeng stood seriously by his side and said:

"Sheep eat grass, wolves eat sheep, humans eat meat, demons eat humans. All things in the world are about you eating me and me eating you."

"That's what my father said."

Straightening his back, he put on a serious expression and spoke with a feigned air of age:

"Feng'er! The world is a place of great contention!"

After saying this, he laughed and rolled on the ground, making Old Man Xu on the ground laugh along with him, coughing as he did so.

After laughing for a while, Old Man Xu spoke slowly:

"Once there was a family living on the edge of a village. The father farmed diligently, and the mother took good care of their three children."

"One day, the father saw smoke and fire rising from the neighboring village, so he told his youngest son, Xu San, to go up the mountain to cut firewood. Xu San went up the mountain happily and played wildly until evening before returning."

"But as soon as he got home, Xu San saw blood all over the ground. A dozen people were sitting around his family courtyard, having set up a large pot. His parents were in the pot, and his two older brothers had already been butchered and stacked in two piles."

"Xu San was terrified. He turned and ran, hiding in the mountains for ten full days. Later, he heard that it was because the neighboring village had suffered a great drought, and the villagers were starving with no way out. His family lived far from the village, so they suffered this great disaster."

Li Xuanfeng was mesmerized, his face cold as he said in a low voice:

"I would kill them all."

"But Xu San was a coward. He was a coward his whole life. He didn't dare say anything and hid in the village his whole life. Xu San hated them, but Xu San hated that great bird even more, hated that immortal!"

Old Man Xu rambled for a while, reached out to pull Li Xuanfeng close, and said urgently and in a low voice:

"Xu San saw two servants releasing water in the mountains. They said... they said... luring this great bird to Mount Dali to eat people was to take the 'Crow Qi' from the flames for the young master of the Tangjin Sect to practice his Qi. Xu San heard it clearly, but Xu San was a coward for decades and didn't dare say it."

"Xu San, Xu San, um... dead, all dead."

Old Man Xu gasped for breath twice, his eyes blood-red, and spat out a few mouthfuls of blood. He tilted his head and fell to the ground, his withered yellow hand, which had been clutching Li Xuanfeng's pant leg, finally slowly loosening.

Li Xuanfeng stared at him blankly for a long time before suddenly speaking:

"Xu San, you're dead too."

Warm tears flowed down his face, dripping onto Old Man Xu's cold, stiff corpse. Li Xuanfeng sobbed a few times, collapsed onto his body, and wailed, crying until he was dizzy, crying with indignation.