Li Clan

Li Mutian woke at the hour of the tiger. With one eye open, he stared at the broken roof of his home, where a faint glimmer shone through the pitch-black darkness.

A small hole had opened in the roof several days ago, but Li Mutian had no time to fix it. He had not slept well for three whole days. Looking at the woman beside him, sleeping like the dead, Li Mutian let out a deep sigh.

"The woman doesn't know the lengths and depths of things. Those immortals who came and went through the air had been flying madly around Great Li Mountain these past few days, as though they wanted to dig three feet into the ground. Everyone was frightened into trembling; whenever a streak of light flew past, they would kneel and kowtow..."

Li Mutian furrowed his brows, his heart full of worry. The few little villages at the foot of Great Li Mountain had always lived carefree lives, but these past days, everyone had been on edge, fearing for themselves.

"The mountain roads are narrow and deep; the imperial court can't govern this place, and we don't care for its governance either. But if immortals start fighting, a single immortal art could leave not even one dog alive in Li Jing Village."

Li Mutian turned over, unable to sleep any longer. Rising to his feet, he gazed out at the dense night beyond the window.

"The little brat grows bigger by the day and eats more with every meal. Tomorrow, I'll send him to Meichi River to get some river fish and crabs."

"If I get killed by an immortal art someday, then that's fate. The Li Clan has tilled this wasteland for over two hundred years. Mother cannot be moved, Father cannot be shifted." Li Mutian lowered his eyes and shook his head, then went out with his hands clasped behind his back.

The big yellow dog outside was still sleeping stupidly. Li Mutian strolled slowly through the thin morning mist, looking at Li Jing Village as it woke from sleep—roosters crowing, dogs barking, smoke from cooking fires curling upward.

"Xiang Ping—" Li Mutian raised his voice and called toward the house. A clattering erupted inside, and when the front door opened, a half-grown boy came rushing out, grumbling all the while.

"Father!" Li Xiangping's features were fairly delicate, his eyes crafty as he looked up at Li Mutian.

"What work are we doing today?"

"Go to Meichi River and get some river fish and crabs."

Li Mutian waved his hand.

"There's no work today. Go get something fresh for your mother to eat."

"Great!"

Li Xiangping nodded excitedly, grabbed a rope basket and a long fork, and slipped away in one breath.

Li Mutian laughed twice and headed for the fields.

Meichi River was shallow and broad, with vast mudflats and reeds along its banks. The village raised geese and ducks by the dozens and hundreds, without needing to feed them. They merely let them out in the early morning, and they would all go into the river.

Later in the day, someone only had to walk to the riverbank and call out once. The geese and ducks had been raised tame and knew the familiar voice, so they would dawdle back home after it.

When Li Xiangping arrived, the geese and ducks had not yet been released. Meichi River was empty, with two small wooden rafts rocking by the shore. He rolled up his trouser legs and sleeves, knelt in the mud with both legs, and blindly felt around before him with both hands. Then he fixed his eyes on the river and spotted a flash of green.

"What a fine fish."

Li Xiangping pressed down hard, held his breath, and plunged beneath the water. His right hand tightened, and he had already seized Green Tail by the gills and hauled it up.

"Hehe."

Li Xiangping laughed loudly a few times and tossed the fish into his basket. The fish of Meichi River were never this stupid. This Green Tail had most likely darted down from the upper reaches, a wild fish that had let this boy pick up a huge bargain.

Li Xiangping looked down at his feet, a trace of puzzlement appearing on his face. There seemed to be an excessively smooth patch beneath the water, faintly gleaming silver.

Just as he was about to hold his breath and dive down again to investigate, a loud shout rang out from the bank.

"Brother Xiang Ping!"

Li Xiangping instinctively hid the basket behind his back and looked toward the shore, where a child of around ten or so crawled out from the reeds.

"Ye Dier, here to let out the ducks...?"

"Mhm!"

His cousin, Li Yesheng, nodded obediently and said with a smile, "I heard something strange this morning. A huge stag got bitten on the leg by a snake and died at the village entrance. Its antlers were as big as a table, frightening as anything."

Li Xiangping merely breathed a sigh of relief as he listened to the idle chatter. He held out the basket. "Look at this Green Tail. I caught it with my bare hands."

"What a fine fish!" Li Yesheng lowered his head to look into the basket, smiling enviously.

Li Yesheng's father had been bedridden with illness for years, while his elder brother was an idle loafer. They often had food for one meal but none for the next, so Li Yesheng usually had no choice but to beg for food at the home of his First Uncle, Li Mutian. His cousin Li Xiangping had always treated him as a real younger brother.

After chatting for a few more moments, Li Yesheng shook his head. "All right, Brother, I'm going back to watch the ducks. If two go missing, my brother will beat me to death."

"Go on, go on."

Li Xiangping was also anxious to see what lay at the riverbed and hurriedly waved him away.

"Right!"

The moment Li Yesheng left, Li Xiangping held his breath and dove to the riverbed. He felt around everywhere, back and forth, and really did find a round object.

"Pah."

Li Xiangping wiped his face and examined the object in his hand.

It was about the size of a palm. At its center was a round, blue-gray disk, ringed by what seemed to be a narrow band of dark iron. Nothing about it appeared particularly remarkable.

Its front had shattered into seven or eight pieces, held together only by the rim, while the back bore a rather strange symbol. Li Xiangping stared at it for a long while without figuring out what it resembled.

"It does look a little like Aunt's Mirror Fragment." His aunt's family had the largest fields, and only she could afford a Mirror Fragment. Ordinary village girls simply used water for a reflection. When his aunt acquired that Mirror Fragment, his mother had even taken Li Xiangping to see it. It truly was more convenient than water.

But the Mirror Fragment in his hand was far too blurry. It was hazy, and he could see nothing in it. Li Xiangping shook his head regretfully, tossed the thing into the basket, and turned back to catching fish.

Lu Jiangxian had already spent nearly half a month in the water. Starting from the third day, the moonlight aura had stopped moving and no longer increased. He had tried hard for another week, yet made no progress at all. Other than making himself glow, he could do nothing.

That morning, as he stared blankly at the Large Black Carp beside him, a huge hand pressed the fish straight into the mud. Everything around them shook, and then a hand seized the fish by its gills and lifted it away.

Lu Jiangxian was still caught up in the complicated feelings of seeing an outsider for the first time when a huge hand scooped up his true body as well.

Seeing a fairly handsome large face, Lu Jiangxian grew somewhat nervous. The other party chirped a few words, then casually tossed him into the basket, where he found himself staring wide-eyed at Green Tail.

In that instant, Lu Jiangxian realized a serious problem as well. He could hear them, but he might not understand them.

The pronunciation in this land sounded somewhat like the dialects of Fujian and Zhejiang from his previous life. He truly could not understand a single word. That meant that even if he could speak, the other party would not understand him at all. This would greatly hinder his ability to integrate into this world.

As fish after fish were tossed into the basket, Lu Jiangxian gathered his aura and calmed his mind, probing the situation around him.

Watching the boy cautiously raise his wooden fork, Lu Jiangxian gave a soft sound of surprise. From this perspective, he could vaguely sense the boy's mental activity; the boy's attention was roughly focused on whichever fish lay at the riverbed.

With the help of this probing perspective, the boy muttered to himself every time he caught a fish. Before long, Lu Jiangxian had learned the precise pronunciations of the numbers three through six, as well as several different kinds of fish.

I'll take it one step at a time.

Watching the boy get up and leave, Lu Jiangxian sighed. The child looked like a farmer's son and would probably first hand this bronze-like object over to his parents.

He needed to have more contact with people and see whether he could gradually learn the dialect of this land. While keeping himself safe, he needed to find a way to increase the power of moonlight.