Mirror Fragment

"Hey, Xiang Ping-ge."

Li Xiangping was carrying his basket home when a girl approached from afar. Her face was round, her features quite ordinary, but her beaming smile lent her brows and eyes a great deal of charm.

"Yun Meimei."

Li Xiangping smiled at the girl and handed her the basket of fish.

"Look at all these fine fish I caught. Take a few home and give them a taste."

"I couldn't possibly."

Tian Yun smiled and lowered her head. Girls matured early; though she was only eleven this year, she had already grown taller than thirteen-year-old Li Xiangping.

In Li Jing Village, men and women married at thirteen or fifteen. Among those of their generation, only the two of them were such a suitable match, and the girl had long since set her heart on the boy before her as her future husband.

"No, take them!" Li Xiangping forcibly stuffed two fish into Tian Yun's hands. He had not thought much of it; Uncle Tian was the most decent man in the village, and the one he liked best. Since he had run into his daughter, naturally he ought to look after her a little.

After bidding Tian Yun farewell, Li Xiangping hurried into his home and set the basket beside the small pond. After some thought, he took out the Mirror Fragment, wiped it clean, tucked it into his clothes, then picked up the three wooden boxes from the table and headed for the fields.

There, his two elder brothers were doing farmwork with their father.

The Li Clan had four brothers: Li Changhu, Li Tongya, Li Xiangping, and Li Chijing. In Li Jing Village, whenever anyone mentioned the Li Clan's four brothers, no one failed to give a thumbs-up. Whenever Tian Yun's father spoke of them, he would say enviously, "Li Mutian truly has good fortune!"

Yet Li Mutian, blessed with such good fortune, did not see it that way. As the only man in Li Jing Village who had ever traveled far from home, it pained Li Mutian deeply to watch his children toil in the fields.

"A good son should study and command troops. Working the fields makes a coward!" he would say, pointing at Uncle Tian.

But life was like this: those who had seen the light suffered all the more. Li Mutian had served in the army and killed men. When he returned to Li Jing Village in his forties, he used his military pay to buy land and became a wealthy landowner—yet he was the least satisfied of all.

When Li Xiangping reached the edge of the fields, his eldest brother Li Changhu was already waiting beneath the shade of a tree. He was the oldest; at seventeen, he already had a faint beard on his lips.

"Take your time, Third Brother. There's no rush."

Li Changhu smiled, rubbed Li Xiangping's head, and looked at him gently.

"Uncle Tian said you had quite the harvest today."

"So much, Brother!" Li Xiangping laughed heartily. "We can finally have a good meal tonight!"

"You."

Li Changhu wiped his sweat away, picked up a wooden box, and called into the fields, "Second Brother—"

"Coming!" His second brother, Li Tongya, strode over with a hoe in hand. He first sat down and called Li Changhu "Big Brother," then smiled at Li Xiangping.

"You all eat. I'm heading home." Li Xiangping had worked all morning and was starving, so he hurried back home.

While Lu Jiangxian was in Li Xiangping's basket, he had vaguely sensed some inexplicable force drawing him in. As they came closer and closer to the Li Clan home, that feeling grew stronger and stronger.

When they passed the Great Locust Tree at the village entrance and entered the village, the pull reached its peak. Lu Jiangxian felt tightness in his chest and shortness of breath. The Mirror Body in the basket trembled faintly, red light seeping through its surface.

That is a part of me—or something of vital importance to me. A realization dawned upon Lu Jiangxian.

To the north! In the direction of that great lake! As Li Xiangping gradually moved away from the village entrance, the pull slowly faded. Lu Jiangxian silently committed that direction to memory.

After following Li Xiangping around the village for roughly a circuit, combining his ability to sense their mental activity with his observations of their actions and tones, Lu Jiangxian could basically understand what everyone he saw was saying.

He discovered that this seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary little village. There were no martial arts masters leaping across roofs and walls, nor did he see any immortal cultivators flying through the air.

The people followed the rules, working at sunrise and resting at sunset. Neither their tools nor the scale of their fields held any surprises.

This place truly seems to be just an ordinary little village. Even the finest house is only a two-story earthen-and-wood structure... Lu Jiangxian pondered. If there were immortal cultivators, surely they would not be living in little mud huts? Great power brings great productivity. The little village before me is far too backward.

He had already gained a rough understanding, and a framework for his future plans slowly took shape.

The Li Clan home was especially busy that night. Their mother and the two younger brothers were occupied washing and preparing vegetables.

Li Xiangping had returned laden with a harvest, while his younger brother Li Chijing had actually caught a nest of fat field mice while picking mulberry leaves and tending silkworms on Back Mountain, secretly stifling them in a grain sack and bringing them home. Their father, Li Mutian, was so delighted that he gave the two boys a hard clap on the shoulders, praising them until their tails nearly stuck up in the air.

Fourteen and fifteen were the years when boys grew fastest, and most of the dishes on the table ended up in their stomachs.

Li Mutian only sampled a single chopstickful. Their mother, Liu Linyun, watched the four brothers with a smiling face, while only the big yellow dog ran around in frantic circles beneath the table, weaving between the six people's legs.

After dinner.

The moon slowly climbed over Great Li Mountain. Li Xiangping leaned against the corner of the wall with a long foxtail grass stem between his teeth, while his father Li Mutian frowned at the sky as though searching for something.

"Oh, right, Father." Li Xiangping patted his father's trouser leg and took the Mirror Fragment from his clothes.

"I picked this thing up in the river early this morning."

"Oh?" Li Mutian accepted the Mirror Fragment and squinted as he turned it over in his hands. "Neither iron nor copper. What sort of treasure is this?"

The cold moonlight slowly drifted down before the house, gathering above the mirror's surface bit by bit as if it had come alive, forming a faint lunar halo. Li Xiangping could not help rubbing his eyes. It was as though the most beautiful moonlight he had seen in all his thirteen years was emerging within that single halo.

"Father!" Li Xiangping called softly.

"Shut up!" Li Mutian's face changed drastically. Forcing his eyes away from the lunar halo, his hands trembling without end, he stuffed the Mirror Fragment into Li Xiangping's arms and whispered low into his ear, "Hide inside. Tell your brothers to take their blades and come out."

For the first time, Li Xiangping saw such fierce killing intent on his father's face. His eyes narrowed slightly, like an eagle poised to strike.

"Yes..."

His voice trembled and his legs went weak as he slowly shuffled through the doorway.

The night was still clear as Li Xiangping pushed open the door.

"Brothers... Father said to quickly take your weapons to the entrance."

Li Xiangping nearly cried out. Trembling, he spoke quietly to his two brothers, who were leaning against the head of the bed.

"What?!"

Li Changhu sprang to his feet in shock, grasped Li Xiangping by both shoulders, and looked at him anxiously. "Is Father all right? Did he say what happened?"

His second brother, Li Tongya, rolled over and drew two blades from beneath the bed. He then took down the rattan armor and long staff hanging on the wall, glanced darkly toward the window, and said in a low voice, "Most likely, an old enemy has come knocking."

He handed over a long blade and the rattan armor, gripped the long staff in his hand, and patted Li Changhu.

"Brother, there's no need to ask any more. Third Brother, take Mother and Fourth Brother to hide in the backyard."

"Alright."

Li Xiangping hurried off to find his mother. Li Changhu swiftly calmed down as well, donned the rattan armor, took up his blade, and headed toward the entrance.

Outside.

Li Mutian stood at the doorway, quietly gazing at the melon patch before the house. Once the two youths were standing behind him, he waved a hand and took the long blade.

"You two, search the front and rear of the house, one to the left and one to the right. Make sure no one is nearby." The two hurriedly acknowledged and went off in opposite directions to investigate.

Li Mutian himself had already strode openly into the melon patch. Bending down, he reached in and hauled a person out of the vines.