Family Cultivation: I Become a Mirror

Chapter 296 - 271: Taking the Medicine

"I’ll die in your service, Your Highness!"

Yu Xiaogui replied respectfully. Chi Zhiyan waved his hand dismissively and said,

"No need, just some trivial matters. Those Noble Families can’t create any real trouble! If it were not for the Sect Master’s reluctance to move against these Foundation Establishment Cultivators, with a single command from us, people like Li Tongya and Fei Wangbai would obediently head to Yi Shan City. Now, they dare to make excuses to a few Qi Cultivators?"

Yu Mugao’s eyes shifted slightly as he asked in a low and obsequious voice,

"The Li Family has a Sword Immortal within the Sect. I’m afraid you’ll need to deal with him with a soft hand, senior..."

Chi Zhiyan paused, letting out a strange chuckle from his throat. As a direct descendant of the Chi Family, he naturally had a thorough understanding of matters in the Southern Border. It was just that Chi Wei had acted dishonorably in this affair, always avoiding mentioning it. He answered,

"What Sword Immortal, the Southern Border is fraught with dangers; he may not even make it back alive. He can’t wield any power here! We’ll do as we see fit!"

Yu Mugao was very astute. Hearing this, he immediately felt reassured and quickly began to lament,

"Your Excellency might not be afraid, but the Li Family, relying on the name of their Sword Immortal, has been acting tyrannically on this lake, doing whatever they please. I have a blood relative who to this day has their mountain occupied by the Li Family, and even my kin is reduced to a servant in their household. We are fearful and dare not speak out..."

Chi Zhiyan glanced at Yu Mugao and sneered,

"My disciple brother has already spoken to me about this. You don’t need to exaggerate here. Your Yu Family, being a Noble Family, surely isn’t oppressed by the Li Family to such a degree. Now listen carefully."

Chi Zhiyan paused, then continued,

"Li Chijing is unlikely to return. Muxian is up on Yuanwu Peak refining artifacts and has gained some reputation within the Sect. His background is much stronger than that Sword Immortal’s, so there’s no need to fear anything. The clandestine struggles among you Noble Families are your own business, and we on the mountain do not intervene. The Li Family only has some connection with Yuan Tuan, and unless it’s a matter of family extermination, it’s not easy for Yuan Tuan to take action."

Yu Mugao complied eagerly, overjoyed. He bowed even lower, humbly raising his head. Chi Zhiyan spared him a glance and said with a smile,

"No matter what kind of mess you make on the lake, remember this well!"

Chi Zhiyan bent down, drew close to Yu Mugao’s sturdy face, and gently patted his cheek with one hand while stretching the other in front of him, showing two fingers.

"There are two people who must not die. One is Li Tongya, whom you can’t kill now, and the other, someone you probably don’t know by name yet, called Jiang Heqian."

Yu Mugao listened, breaking out in a cold sweat, trembling with fear, wishing he could bury his head in the ground. Chi Zhiyan, laughing, stood straight and said,

"If one of them dies, Muxian won’t be able to protect you anymore... As for Fei Wangbai’s ’Jiandao Jin’, he’s nothing but a dry bone in the tomb, waiting to die."

Yu Mugao’s eyes bulged, bloodshot, as he shakily gave his assent, cold sweat sliding down his neck and pooling into a small puddle on the ground. Chi Zhiyan, graceful as ever, kicked his shoulder and laughed heartily.

Several people descended from the flying boat on the wind, all wearing the grey robes of the Green Pond Sect’s Yuanwu Peak. Among them, one with a weasel-like face, full of ingratiating flattery, rushed to Chi Zhiyan’s feet like a dog, saying respectfully,

"Please give your commands, great lord..."

Chi Zhiyan snorted with laughter, standing with his hands behind his back, and replied,

"The Fei Clan... just take that lesser family. Among the Qi Cultivation Families, take those with the highest Cultivation Level. As for the Li Family... that good-for-nothing Li Xuanfeng will do... Having been to Li Xia County and done what he did, he’s of no use now."

"Yes! Yes!"

The weasel-faced cultivator hastily nodded. Chi Zhiyan looked over at the overwhelmed Yu Mugao, laughed, and said,

"Cultivate diligently. Your Yu Family is qualified to use a banquet record. As for the Li and Fei Families... they’re just dogs scurrying underfoot. If it weren’t for the fact that we can’t conduct a Blood Sacrifice on Wangyue Lake now, I’d have dealt with these people long ago..."

Yu Mugao forced a smile on his face but was filled with extreme terror and anxiety in his heart. His legs kept twitching on the ground. Seeing his state, Chi Zhiyan’s excitement intensified as he replied,

"As for your ancestor, Yu Yufeng..."

Having an inkling of what was coming, Yu Mugao quickly raised his head, only to see Chi Zhiyan laugh with a somewhat mocking expression and say,

"He’s been dead for a while now!"

Yu Mugao was taken aback and said in a low voice,

"Why... I don’t understand, which power of the Zifu intervened, causing our ancestor to lose his life just now..."

"There’s no harm in telling you!"

Chi Zhiyan chuckled wickedly, naturally mean-spirited, he reveled in humiliating prodigies and strategists beneath his feet, the subservient look on Yu Mugao’s face pleasing him immensely as he replied:

"Yu Mugao... Yu Yufeng was killed by the joint hands of our Green Pond Sect and Xiao Chuting! And this was agreed to by your own brother!"

-------------

Li Xia County, Xianyou Peak.

"Splash..."

The old man exerted himself to lift a sparkling Jade Stone from the lake, with a strong flick of the jade fishing rod, freeing it from the clutches of the lake below and hauling it ashore. Xiao Chuting narrowed his eyes and replied:

"Not bad."

"Chuting, the Rosy Clouds Boat is heading for Wangyue Lake."

Xiao Chuchou, who sat cross-legged beside him, murmured softly, casting a complex look towards Xiao Chuting who, unconcerned, simply examined the Jade Stone and asked:

"Xiao Chuchou, do you hate me?"

Xiao Chuchou’s face, wrinkled to the extreme, twitched slightly as he answered:

"There’s nothing much to hate, it was a last resort. When I abandoned the family and left, I suppose you must have hated me more."

Xiao Chuting laughed softly, his expression somewhat nostalgic, as he warmly responded:

"At first I did hate you, until Green Pond Sect specially sent Yu Yuxie to interrupt Yu Yufeng’s path, and I suddenly realized that the decision you made back then wasn’t necessarily your own."

Xiao Chuting’s grizzled eyebrows and beard trembled, like the reflection on water constantly undulating. He looked lost as he softly said:

"The shadows in the Great Void are too deep. Since then, I’ve been both shocked and fearful. In countless agonizing nights, I still had to ask myself, ’Xiao Chuting, are you still you, or just the puppet of some Zifu Golden Core or Maha Dharma Appearance?’"

"Perhaps it’s better not to know, to spare oneself this madness."

Xiao Chuting’s lips did not move, yet a voice seemed to emerge from somewhere in the void as he softly said:

"Yu Yufeng did not believe in fate and even tried to heal his hands through a Blood Sacrifice. He truly was a genius. Unbelievably, he managed to progress a few steps on his broken path, and after decades, he was even on the brink of breaking through to the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment."

"So he is completely dead. With two Zifu striking, with the Divine Skills ’Heavy Turbidity’ and ’Hermit on the Stream’ bestowed upon him, how could he not die? How could he not die? With a combination of Jade True sixty-nine, his innate nature prevented him from practicing cultivation, let alone achieving Immortal Foundation. From the moment he began cultivating the ’White-haired Courtyard Bowing Scripture’, he was already a dead man."

Xiao Chuchou was not surprised. Having roamed far and wide, his knowledge was not much less than Xiao Chuting’s. His extremely aged face cracked into a cold smile as he replied:

"Yes... Have you ever considered why you, Xiao Chuting, cultivated ’Hermit on the Stream,’ and I, Xiao Chuchou, cultivated ’Long Cloud Darkness’? How coincidental... How ingenious! Just so happens to be mutual guidance for our paths..."

Xiao Chuting nodded, slowly stood up, a deadly allure rising from his being. Snowflakes danced up from the entire Xianyou Peak, while the sound of colliding seas thundered above, faintly accompanied by the hiss of the Serpent Jiao.

Xiao Chuchou’s body became increasingly withered, the old man shrinking smaller and smaller until he was nothing but a pile of bones. He emitted a series of laughs from his throat, cottony smoke fluttering out from his body, from his eyes reduced to two rat droppings, from his inky black mouth and ears, the old man said:

"Xiao Xianyou... it’s Xiao Xianyou, he had it all figured out clear and crisp. The very ’Vast Sea’, the very ’Jing Dragon King’ he practiced! Ineffably wonderful, ineffably wonderful!"

Xiao Chuting stood amidst the smoke in the sky, Dharma Light flowing around his body, looking like a deity. His expression was mournful and solemn, even with a tinge of sanctity.

"Brother, we have no path to follow, nowhere to retreat."

"Clang——"

The bell on Xianyou Peak tolled faintly and distantly, walking through the mountains like thunder, as the snowfall that came out of nowhere blanketed everything. It seemed to cover all impurities. People of the Xiao Family knelt down, looking up with confusion.

"It’s Foundation Establishment... an ancestor has passed away..."