Chapter 90: Marching West

After sending away his daughter Li Jingtian, Li Xiangping felt uneasy, as if pricked by needles. When practicing on the couch, he couldn't settle his heart. After several failed attempts at entering meditation, Li Xiangping finally stood up and said in a deep voice:

"Someone!"

Chen Donghe had been guarding in front of the tent in armor. Hearing the sound, he entered the tent and responded:

"Patriarch."

"What news have the scouts found?"

Chen Donghe shook his head and answered:

"None."

"Lijingkou hasn't sent anyone to report for an hour, right? Call someone back to ask."

Li Xiangping shook his head, watching Chen Donghe go down to respond, and thought in his heart:

He stood up and put on his armor, looking at the burning fire basin. Li Xiangping's eyes reflected the red firelight, his heart skipped a beat, and he secretly said it was bad.

"This person has been fighting for more than ten years in the northern foothills and has won every battle. I'm afraid he cannot be judged by common sense. It's better to ferry the troops back across the river first."

Putting away the long knife in his hand, Li Xiangping carried the Qingwu bow on his back and ordered loudly:

"Beat the drums!"

Immediately, the messengers went down, and the sound of drums rose everywhere, stirring up a commotion. Just as Li Xiangping walked out of the tent, he ran into Chen Donghe, who was in a hurry.

"Patriarch!"

Chen Donghe walked up, his voice full of shock, and whispered in Li Xiangping's ear:

"Patriarch! Lijingkou has been controlled by the Mountain Yue. Those sent were all killed. There are two or three thousand troops stationed on the other side of the river, and several floating bridges have been destroyed. Our retreat has been cut off!"

These words were like a thunderclap on a clear day. Li Xiangping was shocked, stunned for two breaths without speaking, his long knife gripped tightly, creaking, his five fingers turning white.

"The news hasn't spread, right?"

Chen Donghe hurriedly shook his head and lowered his voice:

"No, the subordinate blocked the news, not daring to let everyone know, for fear of shaking the morale of the army."

Taking a deep breath, Li Xiangping muttered:

"Go and organize the troops."

Chen Donghe retreated with a solemn face, and Li Xiangping closed his eyes, calculating silently.

"It's impossible to use these thousand troops to cross the river to the east to retake Lijingkou. It's also impossible for Jia Nixi to have brought only these two thousand troops. And he is at the Qi Refining stage..."

"Jia Nixi broke the enemy army and immediately raided. The rear must be unstable. It's better to move west to probe. Every moment we stay here, it becomes more dangerous!"

Li Xiangping paced slowly, walked to the back of the tent, looked at the high grain pile, and calculated for a while. The storage bag at his waist rose, and the mountains of rice and beans flowed into the brocade pouch at his waist. The old Daoist's storage bag was the size of a courtyard and could barely hold the rice and grain.

Walking to the clan soldiers, Li Xiangping took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and shouted two words:

"March west!"

A group of troops broke camp one after another. Eight hundred clan soldiers plus two hundred Shanyue soldiers, totaling one thousand people, drilled into the forest to the west without looking back.

————

Jia Nixi's troops had just stepped into the territory of Lijing Village, and his Qi Refining cultivation was exposed without doubt, waking Lu Jiangxian. His spiritual sense swept from top to bottom, and he mused to himself:

"It seems to be Jia Nixi. He has controlled Lijingkou and is moving east to take Lijing Town."

Expanding his spiritual sense to the limit, Lu Jiangxian immediately found several people of the Li family.

Li Tongya was on the reed marsh with his wife Liu Rouxuan, collecting clear energy from the river for his third brother Li Xiangping to break through to Qi Refining. The two were pinching magic formulas, waiting for the moment at dawn when the clear energy rises and the turbid energy sinks.

Li Xuanxuan and Li Xuanfeng had just finished clearing out monsters in Lidaokou to the west, comforting the injured people in the village. The monsters had destroyed the streets, and they still needed people to repair them.

Tian Yun and Ren Shi on Mount Lijing were sitting around the fire stove chatting. Both were getting older, especially Ren Shi, who was over forty, and she couldn't sleep soundly.

Li Jingtian was leaning by the window, her round eyes looking into the distance with worry. The night breeze slowly lifted her black hair, and Li Xuanling was sleeping soundly on the couch beside her.

Although he saw the Li family cultivators, Lu Jiangxian's spiritual sense could only wander within the range of Lijing Town. After thinking for a breath, he cast an illusion and projected it into Li Xuanling's mind on the couch.

Lu Jiangxian's spiritual sense far exceeded that of ordinary cultivators, not to mention Li Xuanling, who was only a small cultivator at the second level of Embryonic Breath, the Chengming Wheel. He successfully took over Li Xuanling's dream.

————

"Crack."

Li Xuanling heard a harsh sound of porcelain breaking in his sleep, woke up from his dream in a cold sweat, sat up, and stared blankly at the empty windowsill.

A pair of tender white hands were carefully picking up the fragments of the tea set on the ground. Li Jingtian apologized softly:

"Ling'er, I disturbed you."

Li Xuanling was covered in sweat, and after being stimulated by the cold wind, he woke up immediately. He answered dryly:

"Sister, I dreamed of... many dead people. Jia Nixi defeated Uncle, brought troops up the mountain, and killed many people in the family."

Li Jingtian's expression became even more worried. Li Xuanling's words hit the knot in her heart that she hadn't slept all night. She barely squeezed out a smile and comforted Li Xuanling softly.

Li Xuanling nodded one after another, pondered silently for a few breaths, and muttered:

"I'm going to pee."

After speaking, he slipped off the bed, crossed the threshold, bypassed Li Jingtian's field of vision, and quietly walked toward the backyard.

Just entering the backyard, he saw a lonely broken wooden chair placed in the center. Li Xuanling pouted, thinking of Li Mutian.

Pushing open the door hard, Li Xuanling smelled a thick sandalwood scent. The candle was dim, and in the faint light, he caught a glimpse of a cold and tall stone platform, on which the pale gray small mirror was flowing with pale white moonlight.

He stood on tiptoe, his hands passing through the slightly cool moonlight, carefully holding up the magic mirror. Only then did he discover that this magic tool felt warm and comfortable to the touch.

Recalling his father's words, Li Xuanling held up the magic mirror and said earnestly:

"Li family disciple Li Xuanling receives the profound grace, respectfully requests the Xuanming Wonderful Method, carefully releases the Taiyin Profound Light, executes the evil and rebellious, breaks the filth and captures the demons!"

Lu Jiangxian nodded silently and opened his field of vision. Li Xuanling felt himself floating into the air, flying into the extremely high sky, looking down quietly at Lijing Town at his feet.

The night moon was peaceful, and Lijing Town was sleeping in a dream. Li Xuanling looked into the distance, only to see that the distant Lijingkou was full of Mountain Yue with broken hair and tattoos, and even two teams of Mountain Yue soldiers wearing leather armor were coming south. Looking at their direction, they pointed straight at Lijing Town, and their purpose was self-evident.

Li Xuanling was so frightened that he broke into a cold sweat. He shook his head, finally dropped out of the perspective, stuffed the magic mirror into his arms, and rushed out of the backyard in a hurry.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 91 =====