The enemy stood in the light while he remained in the shadows.
He had no fear of taking action openly.
But that would inevitably beat the grass and startle the snake.
Clashing with the Yue Kingdom's cultivation forces now would not fit the strategy Xu Xuan had set for the Xu Household: concealing their brilliance and biding their time.
Better to work mischief in secret and trip them up first.
That would both vent Qingchan's anger and ruin the Black Water Gate's plans.
After a moment's consideration, Xu Xuan immediately transmitted his voice to Xu Qingchan.
"Follow my instructions in a moment..."
Xu Qingchan nodded.
A little later, she suddenly rose, seemingly to relieve herself.
As she passed the Black Water Gate disciples' table,
an inconspicuous jade talisman slipped silently from her sleeve and "just happened" to fall beside Senior Brother Chen's feet.
Senior Brother Chen instinctively looked down.
The jade talisman had an archaic design, with several twisted patterns engraved on it.
It faintly emitted an exceedingly weak aura that resonated with the detection artifact in his robes.
"This is...?"
Something stirred in Senior Brother Chen's mind. He picked up the jade talisman and carefully examined its aura.
That trace of cold, sinister aura was very weak.
Yet it closely resembled that of the target he had been ordered to track.
He abruptly raised his head and looked at Xu Qingchan's retreating back.
Her figure was slender and graceful, bearing some resemblance to the female cultivator described in the rumors.
And her aura seemed somewhat unstable, too...
"It's her?!"
A glint of greed and ruthlessness flashed through Senior Brother Chen's eyes.
He gave his companions a meaningful glance, and the three immediately rose and followed her without drawing attention.
Following Xu Xuan's instructions, Xu Qingchan did not leave the teahouse directly.
Instead, she turned into a secluded corridor in its rear courtyard.
The three Black Water Gate disciples followed close behind.
At the corridor's end was a dead corner piled with miscellaneous goods.
Xu Qingchan stopped and slowly turned, her expression "panicked."
"The Black Water Gate?!"
"What do you want?"
Senior Brother Chen gave a savage laugh.
"What do we want?"
"You bitch!"
"You harmed our Black Water Gate disciples and stole a spiritual treasure, and you still think you can run?"
"If you know what's good for you, hand over the map to the cold jade marrow vein and come back to the Black Water Gate to answer for your crimes!"
"What vein map?"
Xu Qingchan retorted with "outward ferocity masking inward weakness," her hand already resting on her newly acquired Autumn Water Sword.
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Hmph, you won't shed tears until you see the coffin. Seize her!"
Senior Brother Chen waved his hand, and all three attacked at once.
Two black water arrows and a Spirit-Binding Cord shot straight at Xu Qingchan.
Just then, two sounds suddenly rang out as something cut through the air.
On the walls flanking the corridor,
Xu Xuan had already placed several Metal and Stone Talismans and Entangling Talismans at some unknown point.
Now spiritual light flared, and several golden chains appeared out of thin air.
In an instant, they bound the two early Qi Refining stage disciples tightly.
At the same time, over a dozen tough vines burst from the ground and wound toward Senior Brother Chen's feet.
"An ambush!"
Startled, Senior Brother Chen hurriedly swung his sword to sever the vines.
Xu Qingchan's Autumn Water Sword had already left its sheath.
A fierce streak of blue sword light slashed toward him like a long ribbon of silk.
Senior Brother Chen hastily blocked.
But the pure magical power within the sword light sent his blood and qi churning, forcing him back several steps.
He was utterly aghast.
Wasn't this woman injured? How did she still possess such strength?
Before he could think further, Xu Xuan appeared behind him.
Holding two fingers together like a sword, he lightly touched a vital acupoint on Senior Brother Chen's back.
A surge of magical power invaded his meridians and sealed his dantian.
"You..."
Senior Brother Chen's vision went black, and he collapsed limply, his eyes filled with terror and incomprehension.
From Xu Xuan's first move to subduing all three,
only an instant had passed. It was clean and efficient, without disturbing the teahouse's front hall.
He bent down and searched Senior Brother Chen's robes, retrieving a detection jade disc engraved with the Black Water Gate's emblem, along with some spirit stones and miscellaneous items.
He picked up the detection jade disc and understood its function after a brief examination.
It was used to track the Black Water Needle's aura.
With a cold laugh, Xu Xuan circulated his magical power.
He completely erased the traces of Xu Qingchan's aura remaining within the jade disc.
Then he adjusted it to point in another direction within the market.
There stood the base of the Blazing Sun Lineage, a Qi Refining Lineage in the Yue Kingdom that had a grudge against the Black Water Gate.
"Qingchan, let's go."
Xu Xuan dragged the three unconscious men behind the pile of miscellaneous goods and hid them.
After erasing the traces of the battle, he swiftly left the teahouse with Xu Qingchan.
Then he found a beggar and had the item delivered to the Black Water Gate's station in the immortal market.
Half a day later, at the Black Water Gate's station.
Elder Wu stared at the detection jade disc in his hand, which pointed toward the Blazing Sun Lineage's base, his face livid.
"That Blazing Sun Lineage!"
"They dared strike in secret and abduct my disciples, and now they want to frame someone else?"
"Do they really think our Black Water Gate is made of mud?!"
His fury was irrepressible.
He immediately assembled his men and charged toward the Blazing Sun Lineage's base in a menacing procession.
By then, Xu Xuan and Xu Qingchan had long since changed their attire and left the Yue Capital Immortal Market.
Inside the carriage, Xu Qingchan took the pill Xu Xuan had given her.
After regulating her breathing for a while, some color returned to her pale face.
Looking at Xu Xuan, who was resting with his eyes closed, she could not help asking,
"Grandfather, with the two of us working together, why didn't we simply..."
Xu Xuan opened his eyes and said calmly,
"Killing them would not have been difficult."
"But it is still too early to clash directly with the Black Water Gate behind them."
"Now we've diverted the flood of trouble eastward. Let the Black Water Gate and the Blazing Sun Lineage tear at each other like dogs, while we sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight."
"Since the cold jade marrow vein lies in the Sinking Sand River, the Black Water Gate will not be allowed to lay a finger on it."
"They still cannot pinpoint the vein's location. Taking this opportunity to develop and strengthen ourselves is the proper path."
Xu Qingchan asked worriedly,
"What if they discover the vein's location before then?"
Xu Xuan paused, a cold glint flashing through his eyes.
"If that happens, the Black Water Gate will cease to exist..."
Destroying a bottom-tier immortal sect would yield an entire cold jade marrow vein,
and he believed many people in the Azure Wood Sect would gladly make that deal.
For the time being, Xu Xuan did not want to report it.
First, monopolizing the spiritual mineral deposit could accelerate the Lineage's development.
Second, once he reported it, the sect would certainly send a Qi Refining realm elder to oversee the place.
At that point, Xu Xuan would no longer have a say.
The Lingyan Xu Lineage would also have to watch others' expressions before it could develop.
Along the way, he repeatedly confirmed the details with Xu Qingchan.
The entrance to that vein had already collapsed and lay buried deep beneath the Sinking Sand River.
The supposed vein map did not exist at all.
Even if she wanted to find it again, she could only vaguely identify a direction.
It would probably be no easy task for that Old Monster Wu of the Black Water Gate to find it either.
Upon returning to the Lineage,
Xu Xuan immediately arranged for people to establish a post at the Sinking Sand River.
They would secretly search for the vein's location while monitoring the Black Water Gate's movements.
As for the Black Water Gate's extortion,
it was not because of Xu Qingchan, but merely the usual friction between forces.
He paid little heed to friction on that level.
He simply spread word that his Household had the Azure Wood Sect behind it.
With a little inquiry, the Black Water Gate learned that Elder Zhou had rebuked the Xiao Household and driven them away.
The petty troublemakers in the surrounding area naturally quieted down.
Time slipped by.
In the blink of an eye, another ten-odd years passed.
The Lingyan Xu Lineage had firmly taken root among these mountain ridges, with rows of houses stretching on and its members numbering a thousand.
Paths crisscrossed the spiritual fields they had opened, and spiritual herbs flourished in the medicinal gardens.
Supported by the mountains' mineral deposits and local specialties, trade grew increasingly prosperous, and the Lineage's treasury became ever more abundant.
As the head of the Household, Xu Xingzong handled affairs with increasing composure and competence.
With resources piled upon him, his cultivation had actually reached the threshold of Qi Refining.
He needed only to find heaven and earth metal qi suited to his attributes to challenge the barrier in one stroke and break through the Innate realm.
Under Xu Xuan's care, Xu Qingchan had long since recovered from her injuries.
Over these years, she had honed her cultivation ever more deeply within the Qi Refining realm and reached the third level of Qi Refining.
Her swordsmanship was exceptionally fierce, firmly establishing her title as the Xu Household's foremost expert.
Few forces around Spiritual Expanse Mountain could threaten the Xu Lineage.
Even those that could kept their intentions buried in their hearts, deterred by the Azure Wood Sect.
Although friction arose from time to time, these were only isolated conflicts that could not damage their foundations.
As for Xu Xuan himself,
after breaking through to the Qi Refining realm, he appeared in public even less often.
The further he cultivated, the more he discovered how difficult his own cultivation was and how slowly he progressed.
Even with the aid of a Spirit-Gathering Formation, spiritual pills, and precious medicines, this remained the case.
Looking inward, he found the magical power in his qi sea dense and abundant, far surpassing others at his level.
His blood and qi seemed plentiful, and his movements showed no decline.
But he knew well that, in this life, he had already missed the best time for cultivation.
Mortals declined at sixty.
This decline did not refer solely to the depletion of blood and qi.
It was also related to spiritual root aptitude.
Past sixty, everything began to weaken, whether blood and qi, magical power, physique, or spiritual vitality.
There was even an established rule in the cultivation world.
If one could not break through to Foundation Establishment before sixty,
achieving Foundation Establishment in that lifetime would be extremely difficult.