Chapter 548: The Li Family

That old ghost...

Li Yuan's heart stirred subtly. Though he had learned of that old ghost's existence from the Spirit-Gazing Rite held by the imperial court when he listened to the Heavenly Sound, that was all he knew—he had no idea what that old ghost actually was.

Yet the meaning in Qin Yun's words suggested he was quite familiar with that old ghost, and rather wary of him...

"Fake, it's fake!"

At that moment, the little mother dragon's shrill voice rang out in Li Yuan's mind:

"What Zhuzhao Tian Shi Yuan? Does she not know how vast Tian Shi Yuan is? Let alone three suns—three hundred, thirty thousand could never light up Tian Shi Yuan!"

"Tian Shi Yuan is that big?"

Li Yuan was mildly shocked, half-doubting whether the little mother dragon was exaggerating. If thirty thousand suns erupting couldn't illuminate Tian Shi Yuan, how vast must it be?

"In any case, in any case, she is absolutely lying!"

The little mother dragon was a bit unsure of herself, but she still insisted: "Unless the things hanging in your sky aren't suns." Speaking of this, she paused, suddenly recalling the Eight Directions Temple—that was something even the gods would fight over.

o￠o

"Not suns."

Li Yuan picked up the Severed Shadow Umbrella and walked out of the great hall. By now the sun had already leaned west; he raised the umbrella and gazed into the distance. Clouds on the horizon blazed like fire, and the afterglow of the four great suns still illuminated the mountain ranges.

Outside the hall, Long Xi Xiang and the others were also gazing at the great suns from afar.

"What did he say?"

Nie Xianshan's hand loosened, and the divine sword returned to its sheath. Just now, outside the hall's door, he had been itching to try, every inch the posture of one eager to weigh the former World's Number One.

"If I wanted you to know, why the private talk?"

Long Xi Xiang turned his head and cut in, instructing Li Yuan: "Pay him no mind."

"You—!"

Nie Xianshan was rather annoyed. Had this old scoundrel forgotten that he himself was the senior disciple?

"He didn't say anything either."

Li Yuan hurriedly smoothed things over: "It was about the road in You Jing that leads to Tian Shi Yuan..."

"Enough!"

Long Xi Xiang swept his wide sleeve, and mist spread out, enveloping the three of them and blocking sound from leaking out. Xin Xin Wenhua, shut out on the outside, immediately felt speechless.

Four people in total, and they shut him out?

"There's no need, is there? Senior Brother Xin isn't an outsider!"

Li Yuan did not mind others knowing of this road's existence. If someone could blast through that road in one go, he'd be only too happy to be spared the trouble.

"It's good to give this lad a little push. He's been changing his blood for over half a year and still hasn't reached Great Accomplishment—at this rate, when will he ever enter the Dao?"

Nie Xianshan gave a cold snort, his mood none too good.

Li Yuan gave a small cough and said: "Just now inside the hall, Senior Qin asked about that road. I happened to know where it was beforehand, so I told him."

"What a coincidence?"

Long Xi Xiang frowned slightly and began asking about the conversation between the two of them.

Li Yuan only left out the part about the people of this heaven-and-earth possibly being unable to leave, and recounted everything else one by one.

"The road leading to Tian Shi Yuan..."

Long Xi Xiang and Nie Xianshan exchanged a glance. They didn't know much about You Jing. After a moment's thought, it was still Nie Xianshan who gave a small cough and began asking about matters concerning You Jing.

"The divine return to the nether, You Jing!"

Li Yuan pondered for a moment, then began recounting matters concerning You Jing for the two old men.

Most of his understanding of You Jing came from the little mother dragon, a small portion from Listening to the Sound, and the rest from his own guesses.

Based on his understanding, You Jing was like another dimension that enveloped the present world on the outside, imperceptible to ordinary people!

Similar to the collective notion of the Underworld and the Heavenly Realm from legends of his past life, yet with many differences.

You Jing had nothing to do with ordinary people.

Only martial artists who had cultivated to enter the Dao would have their divine souls fall into You Jing upon death.

All in all, Li Yuan spoke for over an hour before the two old men gained a preliminary understanding of You Jing.

"You Jing!"

Both men fell somewhat silent, digesting Li Yuan's words.

After a moment, Long Xi Xiang asked: "Traversing You Jing, one can cross mountains and seas, descending from elsewhere at extreme speed?"

"Correct!"

Li Zhou nodded, using Daoist Tianyun Daoist Tianyun Xuanbing as an example.

At this moment, he was at Dragon Tiger Temple. If he entered the Shan Xuan Jing Road here, then switched to the Jin Lin Road, he could head straight into the Divine Capital, to the Star-Gazing Platform.

Of course, this required no one to block the way, and the Great Sun Jin Lin Bell still had to be hanging on the Star-Gazing Platform.

"I see!"

Long Xi Xiang more or less understood, yet his heart was still deeply shaken: "That is to say, if one opens up that road leading to Tian Shi Yuan, one could ignore the Gang Winds and Cloud Heaven entirely and reach Tian Shi Yuan directly?"

"Correct."

Li Yuan nodded. When he had first learned this from the little mother dragon, his shock had been no less than that of the two old men before him now.

"A heaven beyond the heavens."

After a round of conversation, night had already fallen. The two old men went off on their own to digest the day's gains, while Li Yuan left the Surging Waves Hall.

Stars dotted the night curtain, and four great moons hung high in the sky, casting their light upon the accumulated snow.

The moonlight, utterly ordinary on any other day, now gave Li Yuan a chill as he gazed at it.

"Sun by day, moon by night."

Letting out a long breath, Li Yuan turned back toward Dragon Gate. After meeting Qin Yun, he no longer felt like hiding anything; he pulled off his mask and headed straight for his original little courtyard.

He had built this courtyard back then purely because it was closer to the Old Dragon Head, which put his mind at ease. The courtyard had been very crude, but now it had been repaired and tidied up.

Night had just fallen, the door was still open.

In the small courtyard, two little ones wearing thick cotton clothes were standing in stance and practicing fists with great seriousness — they were standing the Bai Yuan stance, and practicing a simplified Quan Fa derived from the Cloak Hammer technique.

Li Yuan watched with great interest. The two little ones' talent wasn't high, yet their stance work and Quan Fa were already quite presentable — clearly the Old Dragon Head had coached them.

Dragon Tiger Temple had its own rules; with these two little ones' talent falling short, they naturally couldn't be admitted through the front door, but with his connection involved, the treatment they received was clearly far from ordinary.

Anyone else — who could live right across from the Dragon Gate Sect Master's residence?

This martial arts treatment is far better than what I had back in the day.

Li Yuan watched with a faint smile.

Medicinal materials were not lacking, pills were not lacking, and with a Grandmaster giving pointers, these two little ones, though young in years, already had their blood and qi at the Minor Accomplishment stage. This was only because they were still young — otherwise reaching Major Accomplishment would be nothing to speak of.

"Those great clans all start out this way too, don't they?"

Watching the two little ones, Li Yuan's thoughts drifted. The so-called great clans mostly came about after a standout figure emerged from within the family and then fed back into the clan.

The two little ones' talent admittedly fell short, but normally speaking, a martial artist who had reached Major Accomplishment in Blood Exchange, if free of illness and disaster, could live to two hundred. If one genius appeared in seven or eight generations, there would be hope of continuing for another seven or eight generations.

Even if none appeared, they could still recruit a genius as a son-in-law, and after many generations of repetition, this is how a great clan was formed.

"Ya!"

As Li Yuan's thoughts wandered, a childish voice rang out from the courtyard. The two little ones were first a little wary, then Yu Yu Xuanji recognized Li Yuan: "Third Uncle!"

The two little ones showed none of the awkwardness of a first meeting — with a delighted cry, they ran over with beaming faces and threw themselves at him.

"You've gotten chubby, huh."

Li Yuan scooped the two little ones up in one go, and seeing his elder brother and sister-in-law walk out from the inner room, the restlessness in his heart instantly settled.

"When did you get back?"

Li Lin pulled Li Yuan inside, while Wang Juan went off with a smile to prepare dinner. The two little ones clung to their Third Uncle demanding gifts, and Li Yuan chuckled and took out two bone ornaments from his robes.

They were two pendants made from fox teeth, tempered through the Weapon-Forging Platform, with the properties 【Calm the Spirit】 【Focus the Mind】.

The two little ones took them happily and put them on, immediately letting out another round of delighted cries as they sensed the benefits.

"Get back to stance practice!"

Wang Juan poked her head out from the kitchen, and the two little ones were quite afraid of her, so they hurried off to practice stance with long faces.

"The Dragon Gate Master took your Bai Yuan Cloak Hammer technique and reorganized it to teach these two little ones. He said they must stand in stance for two hours every day, and over months and years, it can lay the foundation for martial arts training."

Li Lin's face was all smiles, paying no heed to the two little ones' complaints — of course he knew what a tremendous stroke of fortune this was.

When Li Yuan was this young, how could he possibly have had this

kind of treatment?

Stance practice doesn't need to be too long, and beyond that, food supplementation and medicinal baths must keep up — the focus is on solidifying the foundation.

Li Yuan had no objections to this either. With mediocre bone structure, if they didn't work hard, even if the sect took them in out of deference to him, they would struggle to achieve anything in the future.

Still, in his heart he was mulling over writing a summary of his martial arts insights for these two little ones.

Not to boast, but Li Yuan had yet to see any Wu Gong secret manual written as clearly and accessibly as his own — this had nothing to do with the level of the martial arts, purely a difference in how one thought and understood.

An oil lamp was lit inside the room.

Second Brother was still rather long-winded, pulling Li Yuan to tell him about everything that had happened over the past half year or so — mainly the business of the Weapon-Forging Shop. Although he didn't go often, he kept a tight grip on the accounts.

The Weapon-Forging Shop's business was very good — with Lei Lei Jingchuan and Jing Jing Shuhu holding the fort, it would be hard for it to be otherwise — but when it came to the accounts, he couldn't help but look a little troubled. The shop's business was great, but it couldn't keep up with Li Yuan's other instructions.

Those beast hides and beast bones were pure investment — not a single coin of return had been seen.

Figured up, over the past half year or so, they had actually lost over a thousand taels — speaking of this, even Li Lin felt a pang.

Regarding this, Li Yuan only smiled and said he had his uses for them. To him now, the greatest use of gold and silver was burning them as fuel when merging weapons.

In fact, the gifts of thanks from the two elders of the Xinyi Sect and the Azure Dragon Pavilion included sixteen Jin Shan, requiring no one to manage them — just sit and collect the money.

"Big Brother!"

After chatting for a while, Li Lin's expression grew a little complicated — some joy, some resentment: "He, he…"

"Why bring him up?"

Wang Juan came in carrying wine and dishes, and hearing this, she launched into a tirade without preamble. She was no mild-tempered woman — when Li Yue had come to the door, it was she who had driven him off with a scolding.

"Back when the Li family fell on hard times, he left without a word. If I hadn't married into this family, Third Brother would have starved to death at home — and now he knows to come back?"

The more Wang Juan spoke, the angrier she got, and she directly grabbed Li Lin's ear: "After all these years, has he ever cared whether you lived or died?"

Her rapid-fire scolding left Li Lin unable to even lift his head, and he could only look at Li Yuan with a bitter, awkward smile. The latter simply poured wine for the three of them.

After a good while, and with Li Lin begging for mercy, Wang Juan finally let him go.

"Third Brother, you pay him no mind either."

"Sister-in-law speaks rightly."

Li Yuan nodded repeatedly — his impression of Li Yue wasn't even as deep as that of the big water vat in the family courtyard.

"Let's not mention him anymore."

Wang Juan raised her cup: "Drink."

"Alright."

Li Yuan grinned and raised his cup to join her.

Li Lin raised his cup with a bitter smile, then suddenly turned his head and glared at the two little ones who were secretly snickering, immediately feeling he couldn't save face: "Stand your stances properly!"