Li Yesheng

Li Yesheng

"First Uncle, spare me!"

The man was scared out of his wits. The moment he hit the ground, he began begging for mercy, clutching Li Mutian as he curled into a ball.

"Ah! Spare me, First Uncle, spare me, First Uncle, spare me..."

Li Yesheng had never imagined that he had only wanted to steal a melon to satisfy his craving, yet in the blink of an eye, the First Uncle he feared most was standing before him. He was so frightened he could not move. Then Li Mutian raised the long blade in one hand, and terror shattered his very soul.

"Yesheng?" Li Mutian took a closer look, his brow drawing tight. His expression shifted between light and shadow as he stroked his beard and stared fixedly at him.

Li Yesheng was Li Yesheng's elder brother. Their father had been bedridden for years, while Li Yesheng spent his days loafing about and mooching off others wherever he went.

The two youths hurried over at the sound. Li Tongya raised his long staff and pressed it straight down onto Li Yesheng's arm, frightening him until tears and snot streamed down his face. Li Changhu lifted his head to inspect him and could not help but be moved.

"Cousin?" Li Changhu let out a long breath and asked in confusion.

"Why are you here?" Li Tongya asked coldly, without easing the force of the staff in his hand.

"He came to steal your melons!" Seeing Li Yesheng stammering and stuttering, Li Mutian answered for him with a cold face. He sheathed his blade and turned away.

"Cousin, pardon the offense."

Li Tongya withdrew his strength and lifted the staff. Leaving those words behind, he followed his father back into the house. Only Li Changhu remained, helping Li Yesheng to his feet, wiping his face, speaking a few gentle words of comfort, and politely seeing him out of the courtyard.

Inside the house.

Li Chijing and Li Xiangping sat blankly by the table, the Mirror Fragment hidden against Li Xiangping's chest. Li Xiangping did not dare move a muscle. Fortunately, before long, his father and second brother entered the hall.

"Where's Eldest Brother?"

He looked behind them and hurriedly asked.

"Seeing the guest off."

Li Mutian shook his head.

"I knew that Yesheng often came to mooch off us, but I fear that word of tonight's affair may leak out and reduce the whole family to ashes."

Li Tongya found a small stool and sat down. Hearing this, he turned to glance at Li Xiangping and was about to speak.

Creak.

The main doors closed. Eldest Brother Li Changhu sat down on a stool with a puzzled expression and spoke to his father, Li Mutian.

"Father, why go that far?"

He shook his head.

"Yesheng merely stole a melon. You would not even do him that small favor, and instead chose to offend his family."

"What his family, what our family? There is only one Li Clan. I am legitimate, and you are concubine-born."

Li Mutian leaned by the window and listened closely. He beckoned to the woman and the youngest child. "Go crouch behind the front and back doors. If anyone comes, call out."

The two answered and withdrew. Li Mutian turned around, tightly shut the doors and windows, patted Li Xiangping, and said, "Speak!"

Li Xiangping nodded hard and began in a tiny voice, "Today, I went to the Meichi River to catch fish and picked up an object from the water."

Having said that, he looked at his father, Li Mutian. When Li Mutian nodded, he drew a Mirror Fragment from his robes.

Li Changhu looked at his younger brother, then at his father. He accepted the blue-gray Mirror Fragment and examined it closely, but could not make head or tail of it.

Li Mutian took the Mirror Fragment from his eldest son. Finding the small hole in the roof, he moved a stone stool beneath it and placed the Mirror Fragment below. Narrowing his eyes, he looked at his two sons.

They watched as the moonlight rippled like water, then gathered above the mirror's surface like young swallows returning to their nest. A pale white lunar halo, like a gemstone, emerged.

Li Changhu sprang up from his chair, staring fixedly at the lunar halo on the Mirror Fragment. Li Tongya's face changed as well, and he stared at it thoughtfully.

For the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the Li Clan stared silently at the Mirror Fragment without saying a word, each wearing a different expression.

It was only Li Xiangping's second time seeing this sight, yet he was still shaken pale. He muttered, "Since childhood, I have never seen such beauty..."

"Ha, forget you. Even your old man has never seen anything this fine."

Li Mutian chuckled, but there was no amusement in it. Instead, his eyes were fierce.

"This may be an immortal's possession."

Li Tongya spoke quietly. He picked up the long blade and kept wiping it, his gaze seemingly calm as it rested on the Mirror Fragment. Yet his trembling hands betrayed his heart.

"If word leaks out, it will bring disaster upon our family."

Li Changhu paced back and forth in the hall, anxious yet excited.

"If it is something an immortal lost, what if they use their arts to find it tomorrow? What will become of us?"

Li Tongya stared steadily at his father and spoke with undisguised worry.

Li Xiangping nodded, lowering his brows as he said in a muffled voice,

"Whatever reward the immortal gives us, our family would benefit without end."

"Bullshit."

Li Mutian waved a hand.

"I have heard that many immortals are bloodthirsty by nature. Absolutely not! This Mirror Fragment has been in the water for who knows how long. If its owner had wanted to retrieve it, they would have taken it long ago. Why would it fall into the hands of us mortals? I say that immortal has most likely met with misfortune."

Li Changhu was horrified by those outrageous words. He frowned, not knowing what he was thinking.

But Li Tongya suddenly understood. He spoke in a low voice, "Could that brat Li Yesheng have seen it?"

"I showed Father this object in front of the house. Brother Yesheng should have been in the fields then." Li Xiangping lowered his eyes.

"I'll go kill him!"

Li Tongya's expression turned savage. Without the slightest hesitation, he threw on his vine armor, picked up his blade, and headed outside. It was the first time Li Xiangping had seen such a look on his brother's face, and he could not help looking twice.

"Come back!" Li Mutian called Li Tongya to a stop with a frown. He shot Li Xiangping a glance that left him looking flustered.

"Father!" Li Tongya finally grew anxious, his voice hard.

"Li Yesheng is heartless and unrighteous, ostentatious beyond measure, yet he bites the hand that feeds him. Rather than let him loose his tongue and spread word of this, bringing extermination upon the Li Clan, it would be better to let him die first."

Second Brother has learned quite a lot from the village teacher. Li Xiangping silently thought, lowering his head in shame. Their father had sent all three of them to study under the teacher. Both his elder brothers had won the teacher's favor. Only he had been ignorant and mischievous in his youth, and now he could not even understand the idioms in his brother's words.

"And if your youngest brother bit the hand that fed him and could not keep his mouth shut, would you kill him too?"

Li Mutian laughed loudly and questioned his second son.

"There is no such coward in our family."

Li Tongya said flatly.

Li Mutian shook his head, raised a hand to straighten the wooden table, then leaped up and lightly tapped the tabletop. From the rafters, he pulled down a wooden box.

He set the box on the table and spoke solemnly to the three brothers before him.

"There are some things you should know as well. I left home at thirteen and entered An Li County along Gu Li Road. General Yang had accepted an imperial order to attack the Mountain Yue and was conscripting soldiers along Gu Li Road. At the time, your father had nowhere else to go, so I became a soldier."

"General Yang governed the army with strict discipline, yet he ate and lived with men like us, as close as one family. He passed down the Yue Soldier Battle Method to us and told us to train diligently. This battle method is widespread, easy to learn but difficult to master. Even if an ordinary person trains it to completion, they will merely become agile and strong, without any remarkable wonders." Li Mutian sighed. Seeing that they were listening intently, he continued.

"After I returned home, I learned to read and write and copied the battle method onto this Wooden Slip. I have already had you practice it carefully, yet nothing much has come of it. That is the first matter."

Li Mutian opened the wooden box. Inside lay a Wooden Slip, a talisman, several fragments of silver, glazed glass, and other miscellaneous items.