The sky was dim, and Li Xuanfeng landed in the courtyard. It was still deathly quiet around him, with no sounds except for a few distant wails at the edge of the sky. The dark sky would have buried all traces of blood, yet Li Xuanfeng's Qi Cultivation Level allowed him to see everything clearly.
"My dear girl... Brother will go kill that young master first to avenge you."
He turned a door panel into a makeshift coffin and carefully arranged each fragnt, using mana to fit the body parts together. It took nearly an hour for him to make it resemble a human figure. As Li Xuanfeng was arranging, he talked to himself and found so clothes in the wardrobe to dress her in, but then he suddenly caught sight of several children's garnts.
Li Xuanfeng picked them up, and saw they were clothes for a four- or five-year-old child. Underneath the first layer, there was an array of children's items. Counting the days, if she had beco pregnant the last ti, the child would have been about that age by now.
With blurry eyes from tears, he saw the na Yuanyu embroidered on the cuffs. The fisherwoman was once the daughter of a major fisherman by the river, and even though she later fell into the Green Mansion, she still knew so characters. Whether it was because the stitching was poorly done or her handwriting was naturally crooked, the characters "Yuanyu" looked like a ss.
"Yuanyu..."
Then, he realized that there was a child he had never t, sowhere in the city, which made him feel even more guilty and pained. He knelt on the ground for a while before closing the coffin and murmured,
"Calculating the ti, there are no traces at ho; could it be that they were at school or out playing in the streets..."
Taking several sets of children's clothing with him, Li Xuanfeng carried the coffin and flew around the courtyard. Under the dark sky, he didn't find the body of a four- or five-year-old child and, wiping away tears, he headed towards the nearby schoolhouse.
But there, the ground was littered with the remains of children. Li Xuanfeng fumbled in the heap of blood, unable to distinguish anything. He thought he would only be able to erect a cenotaph and with a sigh, he shook the blood off his hands, and went to the Li Family's shop.
Carrying the coffin on the wind, he browsed through the Li Family shop and vaguely identified the bodies of Wan Tianchou and his own clansman at the entrance. Grinding his teeth, he said,
"I always told you to practice diligently, not to slack off, and here you are, having fled to the county to enjoy yourself! Now, you couldn't even withstand a single ray of light from soone's magic artifact!"
He opened his mouth but, looking at Wan Tianchou's eyes of despair, couldn't bring himself to continue. Li Xuanfeng said with a rough voice,
"Don't bla you... bla this world!"
"I'll have the family co to collect and bury."
Li Xuanfeng sighed deeply and carried the coffin westward, flying over the blood-stained city walls. Not long after, he saw Xiao Ruyu waiting on the ancient Lidao. Guilt flushed over Xiao Ruyu when he saw the coffin in Li Xuanfeng's hands. He called out,
"Brother Xuanfeng, I've received news... that young master is indeed dead!"
"I know!"
Li Xuanfeng answered dully and rode the wind toward the Li Family's direction, leaving Xiao Ruyu standing blankly as the sky gradually brightened, and then he returned to the mountain.
----
Lijing Mountain.
Li Xuanxuan led Li Yuanxiu up the mountain. The boy was now twelve, quiet and polite. A Spirit Aperture was discovered in him a few years ago, and he began practicing. Now he has reached the stage of Fetal Breathing in the Xuanjing Wheel. Li Xuanxuan planned to share so family responsibilities with him to give the child so practice.
Li Yuanjiao was also eight now, also with a Spirit Aperture, and the news from last year had made Li Xuanxuan dance with joy.
Li Xuanling was doing no worse. Lu Wanrong gave birth to two children, a girl and a boy, for him. The girl was nad Li Qinghong, and the boy was nad Li Yuanyun. Now the eldest daughter was four, the second child three, both lovely and endearing.
"Xuanling's children have grown up too. In another three years, when the children are older, we will ask for a Talisman Seed before the Dharma Mirror..."
Li Xuanxuan looked at Li Yuanxiu, who was seriously reading the Wooden Slip below, and silently sighed:
"It's just hard on Xiu'er, the elder brother, to wait for his younger siblings."
After setting down the teacup, Li Xuanxuan saw Li Tongya, seated at the head, with a startled expression. He suddenly stood up and took a few steps outside the courtyard, calling out in a deep voice:
"What has happened!"
Li Xuanxuan hurriedly got up and went outside as well, only to see Li Xuanfeng covered in blood. His robe was a mix of red and purple from the blood, and he was holding a heavily damaged, bloodstained large wooden box, looking utterly dejected.
Having composed himself on the way, Li Xuanfeng, upon seeing all his father and brothers gathering around, felt an overwhelming fatigue and said softly:
"The Green Pond Sect and Tang Jin Sect have started another killing spree. Hardly anyone in Li Xia County survived. All the people from the Li Family I was in charge of, including Wan Tianchou, are dead. She... and the child I never got to et, have both perished."
The brief words stunned everyone. Li Xuanxuan, with Li Xiewen behind him, was taken aback, nearly gasping out loud. His own younger brother had been in charge of defending Li Xia County, which they had thought a favorable assignnt, yet he had unexpectedly lost his life.
Li Tongya opened his mouth, looking at the child's weary face, and said in a low voice:
"For now... let's bury them on the mountain..."
Li Xuanfeng nodded, answering with a trembling voice:
"I couldn't find the child's remains, so I brought back a few articles of clothing. That's all I can do to erect a cloth and crown tomb for him."
Li Xuanxuan's eyes moistened upon hearing this. He watched as Li Xuanfeng excused himself to bury his wife and child in the mountains. Turning to Li Tongya, he said with a strained voice:
"Uncle... what is this!"
"How unpredictable this world is."
Li Tongya sighed and replied. He could not rember how many tis he had used those words to comfort them. Li Tongya had first heard these words from Li Mutian's lips but had co to experience their profound truth repeatedly throughout his own life.
anwhile, Li Xuanxuan had sent people down the mountain to call the families of the clan mbers so they could take care of the bodies. When he saw Li Xiewen nodding repeatedly and hurrying down the mountain, he quietly proceeded into the mountain himself.
Watching Li Xuanfeng shovel by shovel dig a grave, burying the coffin made of ebony he had switched into and then carefully placing clothes into another grave, and burying them ticulously, he finally looked up at Li Xuanxuan and forced a faint smile, saying softly:
"I buried my father, and now I bury my wife and child. When the day cos for my burial, I will have to trouble my elder brother."
"What nonsense are you talking about!"
For the first ti, Li Xuanxuan exhibited the deanor of an elder brother, staring at him fiercely. He was about to speak when he saw Li Xuanfeng waving his hand, replying:
"Elder brother... this won't defeat . With a vendetta for my father's murder and hatred for my family's enemies, Xuanfeng is all the more determined to cherish his life."
As they conversed, Li Tongya had already reached them in the mountains, and Li Xuanling had also hurried up the mountain. The three of them listened to Li Xuanfeng describe how he had used his archery skills to kill a noble son from the Tang Jin Sect. Li Tongya looked at him with a furrowed brow, wanting to scold him yet fearing it would upset him further, so he simply sighed and said:
"Don't do such dangerous things again in the future."
Li Xuanfeng nodded without uttering another word, while Li Xuanling, leaning against a rock and seeing that neither his father nor his brothers had anything to say, quietly added:
"Life is tough for every household... we can only move forward."
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