As dawn broke and the sun crept over the horizon, a carriage rattling along a dirt road slowed upon entering Li Family Clan territory.
From within, Li Lian sat quietly by the window, looking at the familiar streets as they passed.
In the past 2 years, she had only returned once, but hardly anything had changed in that ti.
Beside her sat Li Qin, posture straight, gaze forward.
And between them sat a partially translucent figure. That person was none other than their Ancestor, Li Xianyu.
She did not speak as the carriage entered the city.
She hadn’t returned here once since the day she died.
More than three thousand years had passed since she last walked these lands with flesh and blood. Since she last stood as a proud daughter of the Li Family Clan—alive, ambitious, certain she would one day step into the Immortal Realm.
She never did.
That failure clung to her now like an old wound that never fully healed.
Li Xianyu’s eyes moved slowly across the city below. Towers of jade. Layered districts. Flowing traffic of cultivators and civilians alike. Formation lights shimred faintly in the air, interwoven so seamlessly that even a careless observer could sense the scale of it.
The Li Family Clan no longer occupied a single city. It spanned four. A far cry from the clan she rembered.
Her chest tightened.
So much growth. So much prosperity. And she had not been here to witness any of it.
Everyone she once knew—friends, rivals, elders, disciples—were long gone. Reduced to nas in records, if rembered at all. That knowledge dulled the edge of her sha, but it never erased it.
In the end, Li Xianyu simply swallowed it.
She straightened, her expression returning to its usual calm, dignified mask.
Li Lian noticed imdiately.
The mont they crossed the clan boundary, sothing about their ancestor had shifted. Not outwardly—not in any way that could be nad—but the air around her felt heavier. More distant.
Li Qin noticed it too.
"Ancestor," Li Lian said gently, breaking the silence. "Is sothing wrong?"
Li Xianyu shook her head lightly. "No."
Her voice was steady. Too steady.
"I was simply... thinking."
Neither Li Lian nor Li Qin pressed further. They both understood better than to pry. Still, unease lingered between them, quiet and unspoken.
’I once vowed that I wouldn’t return here until I beca an Immortal,’ Li Xianyu thought. ’But sotis I wonder... was this the place I needed to be to ascend?’
It was too late now, even if ascending was still her goal, her cultivation was only a fraction of what it used to be. She’d need to recover it all back before she could think of attempting it again.
As the carriage entered further into the inner city, Li Xianyu’s gaze sharpened with faint disbelief.
"This place..." Li Xianyu murmured at last. "When I left, the Li Family struggled to defend even a single district."
Li Qin allowed herself a faint, proud smile. "We’ve expanded steadily over the past thousand years. In just the last century alone, we’ve endured three major beast hordes."
She paused, then continued evenly, "Each ti, we turned calamity into opportunity. We rebuilt stronger than before. Now, the clan directly governs four cities, with nurous subsidiary families extending our influence far beyond them."
Li Xianyu humd softly, neither praise nor criticism in the sound.
"Impressive," she said.
The carriage slowed again, angling up toward the elevated inner district where the clan’s core resided.
Li Xianyu turned slightly. "Where are you taking us first?"
Li Qin answered without hesitation, "to see my father."
Li Lian looked at her cousin, then nodded in agreent.
"The Patriarch should be inford of our return," Li Qin continued. "Especially with everything going on."
"Mn, let’s see him first," Li Lian replied.
.
.
.
The fresh morning air over the Li Family Clan was tense—quiet, but not calm.
Within the inner military courtyard, torches still burned low as orders were quietly passed from one captain to another. This was not a mobilization yet—but it was close enough that anyone with battlefield experience could feel it in their bones.
Xiao Fang, standing at the center of it, took a long breath in.
’Slls like ho,’ he thought.
Sensing Li Huxin up ahead, Xiao Fang quietly approached. Now standing near the edge of the courtyard, Xiao Fang patiently watched as the soldiers under Li Huxin’s command prepared to depart.
His posture was relaxed, his hands were clasped behind his back. Around them, soldiers moved with practiced discipline, obeying every order that was passed to them.
"Fang, there you are," Li Huxin said. "Gather your things. We’ll be leaving soon."
Before Xiao Fang could respond, he noticed Li Huxin’s gaze lift—fixed on sothing behind him.
Xiao Fang heard nothing.
Frowning slightly, he turned his head and activated a visual technique.
[ Spirit Perception ]
A faint blue glow flickered within his blindfold as all forms of Qi suddenly ca into view. Through the corner of his eyes, he finally saw her.
It was Xun Wei.
She had arrived without making a sound, floating down from the roof tiles as if the air itself had carried her.
’She’s getting better at that,’ Xiao Fang thought, impressed.
The only other person who had ever managed to approach him without being detected was his grandmother. That technique was unique to their spirit attribute—a thod that ford an invisible air-shell around the user, absorbing all sound produced by their movents, as well as any sound that struck the shell from outside.
There were many conventional stealth techniques that assassins commonly learned—thods of suppressing Qi, masking presence, or blending into their surroundings. But this technique was especially effective against Xiao Fang since he relied heavily on sounds while he was blindfolded.
’If she can one day master my grandmother’s technique, that along with her [ Stealth ] skill will make her no different than a ghost,’ Xiao Fang thought.
The mont Xun Wei landed, her gaze went imdiately to Xiao Fang.
"Fang, she’s here," Xun Wei said quietly.
Xiao Fang turned his head slightly. "Li Lian?"
She nodded. "I didn’t see her, but I heard she had arrived with Li Qin. If this is where they were headed, then they should be here at any mont."
There was the faintest pause.
Looking all around her, Xun Wei quickly realized that Xiao Fang and everyone present were preparing to leave, so she asked,
"Should we wait for her?"
Xiao Fang shook his head.
"No," he said calmly. "We’ll see her when we get back."
Li Huxin glanced at him walking up next to him at the edge of the courtyard, a flicker of approval passing through his eyes.
Just as Xiao Fang was about to turn and leave, his body went rigid.
He saw sothing—sothing he never expected to see here. Just to verify what he saw, he focused his hearing, and there it was.
High above the city, barely visible against the sky, hovered a translucent orb no larger than a skull. It pulsed faintly, its presence subtle enough to escape ordinary perception. Xiao Fang had encountered this technique before—but this was the first ti he had seen one so clearly through [ Spirit Perception ].
’A [ Demon Eye ]...’ his thoughts darkened. ’What is the Chaos Sect doing here?’
If mbers of the Chaos Sect were secretly participating in this conflict, then this war was far more personal, and dangerous, than he had initially believed.
’If there’s a Demon Eye here, then a spy must be nearby.’
For a brief mont, Xiao Fang considered destroying it outright. But then he stopped. The spy was unaware that Xiao Fang knew it was watching, this could co in handy later on.
Still, a faint ripple of killing intent leaked from him, Xun Wei imdiately sensed the change. Her expression hardened as she stepped closer, her voice low and cautious.
"Fang... where exactly are we going?"
Xiao Fang began to walk towards the exit as he uttered words that shook her being.
"To war."
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