One Move Ahead

The cave was a shambles.

Seeing Flying Light leave, the Household Heads were about to seize the chance to scatter, but Fei Cai raised his Great Halberd and barred the cave entrance.

"Household Head of the Fei Household, what are you trying to do?"

"Fei Cai, you damned bastard, you dare provoke all of us?"

"He's only at the Aperture Opening stage. So what if he has a magic artifact? Everyone, attack! Kill Fei Cai and go support Lord Flying Light!"

That gave everyone a fine excuse. Voices rose in agreement; some drew swords, others rolled up their sleeves. Cries to kill and calls to aid the monster tangled into a din.

Even the monsters that had survived the earlier thunderbolts by sheer luck fixed Fei Cai with hostile stares.

Angry shouts rang out, murderous intent seething.

Fei Cai had long since resolved to die. All he wanted was to delay them a little longer, and he was about to act.

Suddenly, the people and monsters charging so fiercely toward him all froze.

Fei Cai stared blankly.

The next moment, a teasing voice drifted up behind him. "Oh? You Household Heads... mean to aid a monster?"

"How is that possible?!"

Every hair on Fei Cai's body stood on end. He turned and met a pair of hawklike eyes, his heart jolting with terror.

Li Fuchan.

Seeing that vicious man appear again, the monsters that had just leaped up immediately flopped down and played dead. The Household Heads who had been shouting for blood fell silent as one.

Someone gave a few awkward laughs. "The Household Head of the Wang Household is drunk. He's drunk, hahahaha."

Then his head lolled to one side, and he pretended to faint.

Pressed for time, Li Fuchan had no intention of troubling them. He passed the motionless Fei Cai and approached the two corpses.

He retrieved Light-Deceiving, then bent a finger and tapped Fuchan Li between the brows, drawing Brow Peak back into himself. Only then did he lightly pat the two corpses.

At his touch, the corpses dissolved into a cloud of bloody mist, leaving only two talismans to flutter down, their spiritual light dim.

Li Fuchan's expression did not change. He turned to leave.

As he passed Fei Cai, his steps paused briefly. "A fine scheme, Household Head of the Fei Household. I, Li, was outplayed and fell into your trap, so there was nothing much for me to say. Fortunately, I had a few more tricks, and escaped with a fright but no harm. Now that the people of the Fei Household have gone, Household Head of the Fei Household... don't you owe me an explanation?"

His voice was level, betraying neither joy nor anger.

At that moment, Fei Cai's whole mind was filled with only those words: "Your household's people have gone." For a time, he seemed almost dazed. At last, he released a long breath of stale air that had weighed on his chest for untold years, and every joint in his body loosened a little.

Since Fei Yiming's departure, that back of his, which he had never dared leave unbowed, had grown ever more hunched over the years, almost folding into the earth. Yet now, somehow, though it remained bent, something seemed to have quietly stood upright within that crooked old spine.

He let his tears flow soundlessly, one thought turning over and over in his heart: Master, Fei Cai... did his best.

Faced with Li Fuchan's questioning, the old man instead became utterly open, no longer hiding or evading anything. He simply closed his eyes and said calmly, "Please take my Life Force, Senior."

Li Fuchan's expression changed.

Fei Cai waited for death with his eyes closed, a faint sense of anticipation actually stirring in his heart.

He wondered how astonished this senior would be upon seeing his true form.

As he pondered this, his hand abruptly emptied.

When he opened his eyes, Li Fuchan had already passed him. At some point, he had snatched away the Great Halberd and was now striding off with it, cursing, "Nothing but worthless junk."

On Greenbriar Mountain.

Fei Yangyu stood beside a mountain boulder with his hands behind his back, watching Fei Cai lead the great procession toward Filth Mountain. For a long while, he said nothing.

Only when even the tail of the procession vanished at the end of the mountain path did he turn and instruct his younger brothers, "Father has set out. We should leave as well."

Worry showed on Fei Yangxing's face. He hesitated, then finally could not help asking, "Father, and Yangxie and the others..."

"Yangxie will meet us along the way." Fei Yangyu patted his shoulder, his tone calm. "As for Father..."

He paused, looking past his younger brothers toward the now-empty end of the path, and said softly, "He's doing what he's wanted to do all his life, isn't he?"

Fei Yangxing fell silent for a moment, then nodded.

Everyone had long since finished packing. At the order, they filed down the mountain.

Though the procession of several hundred could hardly be called a mighty host, it was still an imposing sight. Dust rose faintly amid the jumble of footsteps.

They had only just reached the foot of the mountain when Fei Yangyu abruptly stopped.

Someone stood in the middle of the path, though no one knew when he had arrived.

The man wore black robes with broad sleeves. Tall and slender, he stood with his hands behind his back, his face obscured by the shadows cast by his robes.

Only his eyes gleamed out of the darkness, like a long serpent's.

There was clearly only one man, yet Fei Yangyu felt the morning light across the mountain dim, as though all the cold between heaven and earth had gathered upon those black robes.

A chill shot from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Fei Yangyu blurted, "Senior, you..."

Li Fuchan raised his eyes, something like a smile on his face. "What? Surprised?"

"You're allowed to scheme against a thunder cultivator, but a thunder cultivator isn't allowed to scheme against you?"

Fei Yangyu's Adam's apple bobbed twice. For a moment, he could not speak.

Li Fuchan's gaze passed over the younger brothers behind him, then swept across the hundreds following along the winding mountain path. He understood.

These were probably the Fei Household's Direct Lineage.

He could not be bothered to waste words on them. Raising a hand, he pointed at their waists. "Leave your things and get lost."

Everyone from the Fei Household went pale.

The Direct Lineage disciples looked particularly indignant, exchanging glances.

Fei Yangxing secretly tugged Fei Yangyu's sleeve, his eyes full of urgency, and transmitted his voice. "Elder Brother, we can't! If we give up all these assets, even if we reach the Northern Lands, we'll be nothing but a pack of homeless dogs. Who will spare us a proper glance? We'll never rise again!"

Fei Yangyu's face was livid, his mouth twitching as he hesitated.

But Li Fuchan had already lost patience. His gaze lowered slightly, those dark eyes passing over their silent faces, his expression too indifferent to betray any emotion. "I can take them myself, too."

At those words, deathly silence fell.

The taut string in Fei Yangyu's heart finally snapped. He gritted his teeth and barked, "Everyone of the Fei Household, heed my command! Remove every Storage Bag and follow me!"

Indignation marked their faces, their eyes filled with resentment and humiliation, but not one dared disobey.

Storage Bags were untied with a rustle and thrown to the ground.

Then, in silence, the procession followed Fei Yangyu, step by step, around that harbinger of calamity and away from the mountain.

Fei Yangyu's heart was dead ash. Only one thought remained in his mind: The Fei Household is finished.

Just then, that unhurried voice rang out behind him. "Wait a moment."

Fei Yangyu's steps stiffened.

At some point, Li Fuchan had taken a bulging Storage Bag into his hand. When Fei Yangyu turned, he casually tossed it over.

The Storage Bag landed squarely in Fei Yangyu's arms. He caught it instinctively, his face full of bewilderment. He looked down at the bag, then up at Li Fuchan, unable to fathom what the man meant.

Li Fuchan's face remained expressionless. He merely said evenly, "There's enough food inside to get you to the Northern Lands. Go."

Holding that Storage Bag, Fei Yangyu felt an indescribable jumble surge through his heart—shame, relief, humiliation, gratitude—all tangled together until his throat tightened and his eyes stung.

He dared not let those emotions show. Forcing down the humiliation filling him, he bowed and said hoarsely, "Thank you, Senior."

With that, he turned and did not look back.

The Storage Bag weighed heavily in his hand, making it tremble slightly.

Watching them leave, Li Fuchan let out a quiet breath of relief.

A rueful thought rose unbidden in his heart:

Those who coerce others with force will die an unnatural death.

But wasn't that precisely how this world worked?

Coercing others with force did not necessarily mean death, but refusing to do so meant dying very quickly indeed.

He had noticed something was wrong long ago.

He simply had not known what.

But that alone had been enough.

Li Fuchan's rule was this: whether or not you were scheming against him, he would assume you were.

Besides, the aura around Fei Cai was far too strange, far removed from a human's. It was deeply suspicious.

He should have simply run and been done with it, but he truly could not bear to abandon that Spirit Object.

Fortunately, the legacy he had received from Flying Earthworm had given him the means to probe the situation.

Myriad Transformations at Will Talisman Register.

After the two Spirit Talismans, Mirage Pavilion and Flying Glare, he had successfully refined a third—Qi Offering.

For cultivators, the perfection of the Six Apertures and the convergence of Dharma Power could not escape this principle: "Nutritive and defensive qi circulate like a ring without end. Blood qi is the spirit of man."

That was precisely why qi-formed false bodies were easily seen through and possessed little means of attack.

First, they were illusory and insubstantial, making it difficult to shape them into human form. But with the Three Lights Method as his foundation, the false bodies Li Fuchan fashioned were naturally lifelike.

Moreover, he could move Brow Peak into a false body, lending it an additional measure of reality and allowing it to wield the Three Lights, giving it a means of attack.

Second, they lacked sufficient Spiritual Nature and could not stray far from the original body.

Later, Flying Glare had given the false bodies lively Spiritual Nature, remedying that flaw as well.

But no matter what, a false body could not possess Dharma Power. It was only a mass of insubstantial qi, without the confluence of the Three Qi—Nutritive qi, defensive qi, and blood qi—and without the Six Apertures. How could it wield Dharma Power?

The Qi Offering Spirit Talismans could make up for this deficiency.

By offering his own Three Qi to the false body, he made it increasingly substantial and gave it Dharma Power to use.

For the first false body Li Fuchan created, he had used all three spiritual talismans together. He had also used some thunder qi to fashion its eyes so that it could bear the Thunder Sigil, then offered it so much of his own magical power and Blood Qi that he had nearly damaged his vital essence. He had also left the Flying Glare spiritual talisman directly on that false body.

He had then given it to Light-Deceiving to hold. After receiving the tribulation sigil, Light-Deceiving had developed spiritual awareness and could briefly conceal his Outer Scenery yang manifestation within its sheath.

With that, this false body possessed nearly seventy percent of his original body's strength.

When he drew his sword and killed people within the Fei Household's procession, he had mostly been testing the sword.

Seeing whether [Jiao-Driving Lightning] really delivered.

Afterward, he had fashioned another body and placed Brow Peak inside it, ready for any contingency.

The remaining ordinary bodies had been hidden near Filth Mountain.

After putting away the Storage Bags, Li Fuchan did not leave immediately.

Through his connection with the Flying Glare spiritual talisman, he could faintly sense what was happening to the false body on Filth Mountain.

Until he saw through Fei Cai's scheme, when the false body confronted Flying Light.

Li Fuchan turned and climbed Filth Mountain, sensing the Spirit Object within its belly. His face was pale, eerie light flowing through his eyes, his expression as still as an ancient well. "I was still one move ahead."