Thunderfire Hall, front hall.
When Lu Ming followed Lu Qingyan into the hall, voices were already drifting out amid laughter and conversation. Besides Lu Jin's voice, there was another, clear and soft.
Lu Ming looked up to see a beautiful woman in a purple dress sitting upright in a chair beside Lu Jin. She carried herself with dignity, her brow and eyes radiating a gentle composure, and she had a distinguished bearing.
She was Li Yan, the matriarch of the Li Clan. Though called its matriarch, she was in fact the clan head currently in charge of its affairs.
She was also Jingyi's mother.
"Xiao Ming, you're here," Li Yan said, looking at the two as they entered the hall. A gentle smile spread across her graceful, dignified face.
"Auntie Li." Lu Ming bowed in greeting. Because of what had happened back then, the two sides were quite familiar with each other.
Smiling, Li Yan invited Lu Ming to sit and asked him a few concerned questions. Then she took a wooden box from her sleeve and opened it, revealing a pale pink paper crane.
The paper crane was inscribed with numerous intricate patterns of light. Its wings fluttered constantly, making it seem almost alive.
This was a "Flying Crane Letter." Using fixed coordinate base stations as anchors, it could carry messages back and forth across ten thousand li, much like a carrier pigeon. The flying crane was faster and more discreet, however, and could also transmit voices.
But the thing was quite expensive to make. Even Thunderfire Hall couldn't afford to use one.
"Here, it's another Flying Crane Letter that girl A-Yi sent back." Li Yan handed the pink paper crane to Lu Ming, an indulgent smile on her face.
Lu Ming took the paper crane and held it beside his ear. Its beak opened and closed, and sound waves wrapped in faint Primordial Qi traveled into his ear.
It was the girl's familiar, crisp voice, like pearls and jade falling onto a silver plate, inexplicably refreshing the heart and soothing the mind.
There was nothing important in the girl's message; it was mostly complaints. But she only showed that side of herself in front of Lu Ming.
Only at the very end did the girl speak softly.
"Lu Ming, it isn't fun here. I really want to go back to Qingyuan Market, but they won't let me leave."
"If I can't go back to Qingyuan Market in the future, will you come find me?"
Lu Ming watched the patterns of light on the paper crane in his hand gradually fade. The girl's delicate, lovely face flashed through his mind, and he couldn't help feeling a little conflicted.
Seeing that Lu Ming had finished listening to the recording, Li Yan smiled and said, "That girl had nothing but complaints. It seems her cultivation has indeed been very hard lately."
"A-Yi is exceptionally gifted, and her father's clan values her greatly. Some time ago, they even warned me that this was a crucial point in her cultivation, and that I should send her fewer messages from now on and not hold her cultivation back."
"That's really unreasonable. Can't a mother even show concern for her own daughter?"
"But her father's clan is indeed strict. I don't much like it either, but there's nothing I can do except put up with it."
"..."
Listening to Li Yan chatter on, Lu Ming's eyes flickered. Then he handed the paper crane back and said, "Auntie Li, Jingyi is at a critical point in her cultivation. I won't reply to her this time, so she won't be distracted."
A trace of hesitation passed through Li Yan's eyes, but she smiled and nodded all the same. She took the paper crane and put it back in the wooden box.
Afterward, she resumed chatting and laughing with Lu Jin and Lu Qingyan. During their conversation, she also brought up Zhang Yue and offered them words of comfort. After all, the matter was now the talk of Qingyuan Market.
Half a shichen later, Li Yan rose and took her leave with her maid.
Watching Li Yan depart, Lu Jin lit his pipe and fell silent.
Lu Qingyan, meanwhile, teased Lu Ming. "Did you understand what she meant?"
Lu Ming rolled his eyes. "Dad, what are you gloating about?"
"I'm not gloating. I'm just telling you to keep a clear head," Lu Qingyan said.
Lu Ming said helplessly, "I've told you so many times already. There was never anything between us, but you wouldn't believe me."
Of course he had caught the unspoken meaning beneath Li Yan's earlier words. She wanted him to keep some distance from Jingyi and not stay in such close contact as before.
"It looks like Jingyi sent paper cranes too often this past year, and her father's clan noticed some of her feelings."
Lu Jin shook the ash from his pipe and said to Lu Ming, "This probably wasn't Li Yan's intention. Most likely, pressure from Jingyi's father's clan forced her to come here and express it tactfully. So don't blame her. She's the esteemed head of the Li Clan, and she's already shown us a great deal of consideration."
"Before you came, she said the Li Clan wanted to buy this year's Moon Spirit Grass at twice the market price. I tried to decline for ages, but she brushed aside every excuse. In the end, I gave up. Poverty wears down a man's resolve, and you need resources right now... Sigh, Li Yan has always handled things without leaving a drop to leak. There's no fault to find with her."
Thunderfire Hall owned a medicinal garden that cultivated a spiritual herb called Moon Spirit Grass. Each year, the garden's yield was Thunderfire Hall's largest source of income apart from the fees it collected from disciples.
And the Moon Spirit Grass had always been purchased by the Li Clan.
Clearly, Li Yan wanted to give Lu Ming some compensation, but it wasn't appropriate for her to give him anything directly. So she planned to use the purchase of Moon Spirit Grass as a pretext to bring Thunderfire Hall some extra income.
Lu Ming nodded. "I don't blame Auntie Li. I can see she didn't have a choice in this either."
If Li Yan hadn't wanted him to have contact with Jingyi, she would have found a way to stop it long ago. There would have been no need to wait until now.
Lu Jin looked at the youth before him and suddenly smiled. "You really don't feel anything about it?"
Lu Ming curled his lip and said frankly, "Being looked down on like that, of course I'm a little unhappy."
Jingyi's father's clan clearly didn't care who he was. After all, what sort of person from a little place like Qingyuan Market could possibly catch their eye? So when they learned that some feelings had begun to stir in Jingyi's heart, they moved to sever them without hesitation.
Such a domineering act left the youth somewhat indignant.
"If I'm not sending a flying crane back, so be it. I can't afford to reply anyway. But if I get the chance in the future..." Lu Ming paused, then said calmly, "I'd also like to see just how overbearing Jingyi's father's clan can be."
Right now, he perhaps amounted to nothing in the eyes of Jingyi's father's clan. But the future was another matter.
With a near-heaven-grade divine ability bone and the fortuitous opportunity of the mysterious fire lotus, Lu Ming was qualified to chase after any power he faced.
After all, no matter how powerful Jingyi's father's clan was, could it be more powerful than the black hand that blotted out the heavens and had schemed against the Lu Clan?
At Lu Ming's words, Lu Jin smiled and praised him. "That's more like it. A young man needs that kind of unruliness, that ignorance of the height of heaven and the depth of earth, to break through the layers of shackles and chains in this world."
"Go on. First, go with your father to the divine ability training ground. It's time for you to begin formally cultivating divine abilities too."
Hearing this, Lu Ming immediately gathered his thoughts, anticipation rising in his eyes.
Was he finally going to start cultivating divine abilities?
He had been looking forward to this day for a long time!
Outside Thunderfire Hall, Li Yan boarded a luxurious carriage with the help of her personal maid. The curtain fell, and her gentle expression grew somewhat cold.
"Hmph, they meddle in far too much. Even when my daughter makes a friend, they have to point fingers. Now they've even forced me to play the villain," Li Yan said with a cold snort, her words full of dissatisfaction.
The maid beside her said in a low voice, "Clan Head, a message came from the lord. He said it would be best to have Lu Ming send a letter rejecting her, so the young lady would give up her hopes and not let her thoughts run wild."
"He certainly has it all worked out. What ability does it take to bully a child? Whatever else you say about Lu Ming, he once saved A-Yi. Was there any need to make things so ugly?" Li Yan said coldly.
"Hmph, I imagine it's that old woman's idea again. After all these years, she's still so hidebound and overbearing!"
Listening to Li Yan's angry rebuke, the maid didn't dare answer and merely kept her head lowered.
After cursing a few more times, Li Yan sighed helplessly. She could only curse in private. After all, compared with the Jing Clan, the Li Clan was only a small household. That old woman had looked down on even her all these years, let alone Lu Ming.
"Lu Ming is a clever child. Although I didn't put it so plainly earlier, he should be able to guess what I meant. From now on, he most likely won't contact A-Yi through us again."
"A-Yi is still young, after all... Perhaps, little by little, she'll forget this youthful infatuation."
"After all, she can meet so many young heaven's chosen over there, every one of them someone who could never appear in this little Qingyuan Market. When that time comes, perhaps these thoughts she has about Lu Ming will fade away."
"This attachment she feels for Lu Ming is only a shadow in her heart left by the upheaval back then."
"For Lu Ming, perhaps this is a good thing too."
"He's a good child, but he and A-Yi truly aren't people on the same path."
"Now that their innocent feelings have only just begun to sprout, it's better for both of them to cut them off early."
With a soft sigh from Li Yan, the carriage gradually traveled into the distance.