The Twenty-Third of July

Li Fuchan did not consider himself a man who relished violence or ruthless struggles.

Quite the contrary, he had always treasured his life. If he could lie low, he did; if he could avoid trouble, he avoided it.

But if there truly was something to gain, or if he was driven into a corner with no retreat, he would turn ruthless without so much as a furrow of his brow.

That had been true in Flying Earthworm Cave, and it had been true when he faced the Wisdom King.

Nor was he any upright gentleman. Half the reason he had not turned on them and fled after receiving the cultivation art was his fear that Li Thunder would turn on him and strike him down; the other half was that he could not gauge the Fei Household's true resources.

An aristocratic clan that had established itself in the Southern Border for so many years might still have a few trump cards tucked away, even without an Outer Scenery cultivator holding the fort.

After hearing Fei Cai's words, Li Fuchan remained silent for a long time.

His eyes were lowered, his fingertips tapping lightly on the table, while his mind raced through the calculations.

Was a cultivation art worth confronting a monster that might already have completed its Nature Root?

The monster called Flying Light could restrain all the monsters of Filth Mountain single-handedly, and understood how to trade blood offerings for peace. Such a creature would be anything but easy to deal with.

If I'm going to switch cultivation arts, Wandering Gold is indeed the best choice. I'm bound far too deeply to Li Thunder now. Wandering Gold moistens without stagnating and flows without running dry; it could help wash the thunder essence out of me. Changing Dao Lineages wouldn't be much trouble either. Only... this art must be extremely difficult to master, or the Fei Household wouldn't have gone more than twenty years without a successor. Still, it wouldn't be entirely true to say they have no path to cultivating it. If there were no hope whatsoever, why would they cling so desperately to their ancestral estate? There must still be hope.

He remained silent for a long while, never giving an answer.

Fei Cai waited a little longer. Seeing that Li Fuchan still would not commit either way, he gritted his teeth inwardly and finally spoke again, pushing his last bargaining chip onto the table. "I dare not conceal this from you, Senior. My clan still possesses a Spirit Object of the Wandering Gold path, left behind by our ancestor. I am willing to offer it in exchange for your intervention on this one occasion."

You should have said you had that sooner! What am I holding back for?

Li Fuchan's eyes lit up. He raised his gaze, though his voice remained calm. "Might I be allowed to take a look?"

Fei Cai nodded, but a trace of difficulty appeared on his face. "Of course. However, the Spirit Object is lively by nature and adept at burrowing away and hiding. It is currently confined deep within the mountain range and cannot be brought out. You may first read through the Gold-Gathering Secret Origin Art, Senior. Using the qi-gathering method recorded in it, you should be able to sense something of it."

Li Fuchan wasted no words and immediately opened the cultivation manual in his hands. The Treasure Light of Brow Peak glimmered faintly between his brows, and wherever his gaze swept, the archaic text poured into his mind like flowing water.

Within a mere half hour, he gently set the manual down. Under Fei Cai's utterly astonished gaze, he raised a hand and formed a seal, already putting the qi-gathering method recorded in the Gold-Gathering Secret Origin Art into practice.

Fei Cai's pupils contracted slightly, and towering waves of shock surged through his heart.

Less than half an hour... how is this possible? Though this art is incomplete, it is still extraordinarily abstruse. Could this man's insight into the Dao truly have reached such heights?

Li Fuchan had no time to concern himself with his astonishment.

He sank his mind into the qi-gathering method, slowly extending his spiritual perception along the course of Greenbriar Mountain's earth veins.

A moment later, he indeed sensed something moving slowly deep within the mountain range.

The object was suffused with spiritual vitality, its aura pure and harmonious, utterly unlike the surrounding earth, stone, and spiritual veins. It faintly exuded a sense of unhindered flow.

Even this rough perception from afar was enough to establish how abundant its Spiritual Nature was.

It was beyond anything an ordinary spiritual material could compare with.

Using it to complete my Nature-and-Fate Root in the future does indeed hold great promise.

Li Fuchan was secretly delighted, but showed none of it on his face.

He withdrew his Dharma Power and raised his eyes again. His gaze held a little more warmth as he looked at Fei Cai and asked gently, "On what day is the ceremony set?"

At those words, Fei Cai's taut shoulders suddenly relaxed. Unable to suppress the joy on his face, he hastily cupped his hands and replied, "Senior, it is set for the twenty-third of July."

"Very well. I will accompany your clan then. If that Monster still knows its bounds, so be it. But if it oversteps them and commits grievous harm or slaughter, my thunder and fire will not spare its Life Force."

Li Fuchan tossed out a simple boast.

It coaxed a beaming smile from Fei Cai.

After inviting Li Fuchan to go and rest, Fei Cai was left alone in the hall. He stood before the Regional Maps with his hands behind his back, his somber gaze fixed on the winding boundary between Filth Mountain and Greenbriar Mountain, silent for a long time.

Before long, Fei Yangxie entered with quiet footsteps.

He stood behind his father and hesitated for a moment. Finally, lowering his voice, he asked the question he had kept bottled up for so long. "Father, this... aren't we inviting a wolf into our home?"

Fei Cai did not turn around.

He was silent for several breaths, first nodding, then slowly shaking his head. His voice carried a profound weariness. "Things have already come to this. At this ceremony, those clans will join forces with the Monsters of Filth Mountain to pressure us. If no one stands behind our Fei Household, once the tribute is increased, it will be like slicing flesh with a blunt knife. Sooner or later, they will cut our clan to death."

He turned to look at his son, who, though young, already had a mind of his own. "Rather than stake our lives and fortunes on rogue cultivators of unknown origins, we are better off trusting a Thunder Cultivator. At the very least, Li Thunder would not misjudge a man. If his heart were crooked, that thunder would have struck him down long ago."

He paused, then continued, "Besides, the Ning Household's ancient records have long documented this. When Li Thunder is surrounded by monstrous miasma, if he sees evil and does not kill it, his Dao Attainment will suffer, and it may even backlash against the cultivator himself. Once Senior Li enters Filth Mountain with us, leaving will no longer be so easy. With those Monsters parading before his eyes, especially once he sees the one that has devoured the most blood offerings and reached the highest realm, he will find it difficult not to act."

After hearing this, Fei Yangxie looked somewhat reassured, though a trace of worry still lingered between his brows. "I only fear... that if Senior realizes we are using him and comes to resent us, the aftermath will be difficult to settle."

Fei Cai waved a hand, his gaze returning to the Regional Maps, his voice calm. "Each of us is getting what we need. We have shown ample sincerity, and he has agreed. As for what he thinks afterward, heh, whether he will even have an afterward is far from certain. Even if he comes through unharmed, Li Thunder will not allow him to do evil."

Fortunately, Li Fuchan did not hear his words.

Otherwise, he really would have had to give him a harsh lesson in what it meant for Li Thunder to look askance.

He was a man who had dared charge even the Wisdom King.

If things truly became impossible—

It would only cost him some Dao Attainment. He did not care.

Li Thunder would understand.

After dismissing Fei Yangxie, silence returned to the hall.

Fei Cai went alone to the Fei Household's Ancestral Hall, pushed open the door, and closed it behind him.

His gaze fell upon a memorial tablet bearing the gilded seal-script inscription, "Spirit tablet of my late father, Lord Fei, personal name Yi Ming." The strokes were bold and vigorous, yet years of incense smoke had coated them in a dull layer of ash.

Fei Cai lifted his robe and knelt, respectfully kowtowing three times. His forehead touched the floor, and he did not raise it for a long while.

"Ancestor." His voice was extremely low, as though he feared the night wind outside the shrine might hear him.

"The monsters of Filth Mountain have bullied our Fei clan beyond endurance. At this ceremony, those clans will join forces with the monsters in the mountain to pressure us. They mean to drive us into a dead end. To keep the Fei line from dying out, I have taken the liberty of secretly contacting Jade Rooster Mountain in the north. The Hidden Worthies Gate has agreed to accept our clan."

He straightened and gazed at the tablet, emotions churning in his eyes that were impossible to distinguish as guilt or resolve. His voice grew still lower. "Whatever may happen once we reach the Northern Lands, even if we ultimately throw in our lot with Buddhist Cultivators, at least our bloodline will not be extinguished. Under the Monsters' rule, we would not even have that possibility."

He paused, then continued, "But a move north on such a scale cannot be hidden from Filth Mountain and those clans. The monsters along the way, the clans' informants—any one of those barriers could trap our clan on the road and doom us. So..."

His voice trembled slightly, revealing both joy and guilt. "So I have been waiting. Waiting for a variable that could stir up the situation, waiting for someone who could draw everyone's eyes away. Fortunately, at last I have found a cultivator who practices Li Thunder."

"On the day of the ceremony, as long as he clashes with the monsters of Filth Mountain, chaos will surely follow. If he and Flying Light can fight until both are grievously wounded, our Fei clan can break camp and move north amid the confusion. By the time they come to their senses, we will already be a thousand miles away."

Only his breathing could be heard within the Ancestral Hall. The flame of the ever-burning lamp flickered slightly, casting Fei Cai's expression alternately into light and shadow, revealing a hint of savagery.

"If that Senior Li survives the chaos... I will use my own life to keep his life here."

Within the dim Ancestral Hall.

Fei Cai bowed his head, murmuring something too softly to make out. It was certainly not "Ancestor."

(A small piece of foreshadowing paid off here. You may all have forgotten it, or perhaps never even noticed it. You can look back at the conversation in Chapter 25, when the person who laid the Hidden Worthies Gate's formation returned to Jade Rooster Mountain.)