On Little Plum Mountain.
Li Ping sprang into the air, turned into a streak of rainbow light, and vanished.
"What kind of technique was that? Uncle Li is simply unbelievable." Feeling the vigorous vitality within his body, Ji Shuchen's eyes filled with astonishment.
Uncle Li had merely infused him with a few wisps of magical power, yet he felt vastly better. His lingering ailments had all vanished, and he might even live several years longer because of it.
While marveling at Uncle Li's abilities, Ji Shuchen recalled what he had said before leaving. "Uncle Li said he would return in a while to open the cave abode beneath Little Plum Mountain. But didn't he say before that we shouldn't expose the underground spirit vein without a Core Formation Cultivator here to oversee things? Then why-"
Many thoughts flashed through his mind, and Ji Shuchen soon guessed at one possibility.
Surprise and delight rose on his face. "Could Uncle Li already be a Core Formation True Person?"
Less than half a day later.
Inside the Swordforging Manor's ancestral hall, a blue-robed figure stood tall and straight. Looking at two particular tablets among the dozens arranged in rows at the front, his eyes filled with wistfulness.
"Spirit tablet of our late, honored father, Lord Yan Guike!"
"Spirit tablet of our late, honored father, Lord Yan Jingxing!"
One tablet was old, the other new. Both received offerings of incense. They belonged to his master and his third senior brother.
Li Ping remembered that when he had returned to the Jiang Kingdom nearly seventy years ago, his third senior brother had already been in very poor health. He could not even walk alone and had needed someone to support him.
Even then, he had vaguely sensed that this would be their final meeting.