The setting sun slowly dipped below the western horizon, and night quietly descended.
Li Pingyi returned home in a leisurely mood, only to find both Li Youdao and Liu Yaqin in the main room. Before he could even say a word, Liu Yaqin tossed a Qiankun Pouch toward him with a smile and said:
"I forgot to mention this to you earlier today, but you need to report to the Outer Sect tomorrow. This is a newly upgraded intermediate Qiankun Pouch I got for you, and the items inside have all been restocked. You must use them sparingly. I won't go on and on, but remember this above all else: when you encounter danger, play it safe and don't blindly rush ahead like a fool."
Li Pingyi caught the Qiankun Pouch with a beam of joy, just about to check what had been prepared inside, when he heard Li Youdao slowly speak:
"The things in there are all meant to save your life, and there are also two Dharma Artifacts. Take some time to get used to them. Remember, external items like Spirit Talismans are only for emergency self-preservation; don't rely on them too much. You still have to put your main effort into your own cultivation. Understood?"
Li Youdao spoke with the utmost solemnity, but he knew his son's temperament well. Li Pingyi had never given anyone cause for worry since he was little, so Li Youdao only gave these few brief instructions.
"Later on, Uncle Ning and Uncle Li are coming over to discuss the Jade Slip and the beast-skin scroll you brought back. Go back to your room and tidy up first. If you're missing anything, go to the Market Town yourself tomorrow morning. Your mother will take you to report to the Outer Sect in the evening," Li Youdao said unhurriedly, raising his teacup for a sip.
"Hey, is that it? You're actually chasing me back to my room? This script isn't right! I thought you two were specifically waiting for me here. Shouldn't you be crying and weeping, reluctant to see me go? Oh, you're breaking my heart."
Li Pingyi cast a sidelong glance at his parents, who were sitting there pretending to ignore him. He raised an eyebrow and added:
"Even if you don't say anything, I know what you want to ask... Don't ask, we've loved..."
With that, he drooped his eyes, pressed his lips tightly together, put on a forced look of anguish, covered his face, and shook his shoulders, all the while peeking through his fingers to observe their reaction.
Just as Li Youdao set down his teacup and clenched his fists to stand up, Li Pingyi bolted toward his room at lightning speed, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Watching the direction where Li Pingyi had disappeared, Li Youdao shook his head helplessly and sat back down.
Liu Yaqin gazed at the empty space where Li Pingyi had left, her brow furrowing tightly as she finally let her worry show: "Youdao, Pingyi is just going off to the Outer Sect like this. My heart just doesn't feel settled."
Li Youdao gently patted Liu Yaqin's hand to comfort her: "Don't worry too much. A child has to grow up eventually, and cultivating in the Outer Sect is a good thing for him."
Liu Yaqin sighed: "I know the reasoning, but Pingyi has never left us since he was little. Now that he's gone off to the Outer Sect, how can I, his mother, possibly rest easy?"
Seeing his wife still sighing, Li Youdao rolled his eyes and said softly: "It's barely any distance at all from our house to the Qingxuan Sect Outer Sect. A simple flight spell takes five minutes. What on earth are you worrying about?"
Liu Yaqin was instantly at a loss for words: "......"
Hearing her husband's remark, Liu Yaqin found it somewhat amusing herself and quickly picked up her teacup to take a sip, covering up her embarrassment.
"How did that matter get resolved? I heard another incident similar to that happened recently in the Outer Sect."
"How else could it be? The Wanlei Sect is like a dog with a bone, impossible to shake off. I heard recently that a new Deity Transformation Stage cultivator just broke through within their sect, so they've become even more arrogant. Sigh..."
Li Youdao sighed, took a sip of the tea on the table, and continued:
"You know what the situation is like in the Qingxuan Sect—it's basically a hands-off approach. For decades now, when have you ever seen our sect lock horns with another faction? After that probing test a few decades ago, the Wanlei Sect tasted sweetness, and lately they've become even more unscrupulous. You know the master's temperament..."
Liu Yaqin sighed along with him.
Lingxuzi, the master of the Qingxuan Sect, was rather different from the masters of other sects. While most sect masters maintained a lofty aloofness, Lingxuzi always wore a beaming smile and wandered everywhere within the sect. Sometimes he would sneak into an Outer Sect lecture to audit, and other times he would appear at the Martial Arts Hall to watch the disciples practice their spells. Once, Liu Yaqin had even spotted him lurking suspiciously at the entrance of the Spirit Spring pool—which happened to be where the sect's female cultivators bathed.
In any case, he never concealed his actions and never put on airs with the disciples. Sometimes, when he got caught up in the excitement, he would even step down into the arena to personally guide the sect's disciples. Such a personality made him genuinely adored by most people within the sect, but outside the sect's borders, it truly became a bit awkward.
When you go around wearing a smiling face every day and never show any temper, it would be a wonder if others didn't bully you.
Take this current affair, for instance. Wang Zhi, the brother who had saved Li Youdao's life in the Grotto-Heaven not long ago, was hunting Foundation Establishment Monster Beasts around Wanhe River Market recently when people from the Wanlei Sect hijacked his efforts. His severely wounded Monster Beast was snatched away, and he was beaten half to death. In that critical moment, thanks to a precious Spirit Talisman, he managed to flee back to Wanhe River Market, where he bumped into fellow sect members and barely saved his life, needing a long recovery period to heal.
At the time, our sect's Golden Core Elder went to the Wanlei Sect to demand an explanation, but the Wanlei Sect members insisted it was the work of Monster Beasts, and even shamelessly claimed that they were the ones who saved Wang Zhi—almost making Wang Zhi vomit blood all over again.
Li Youdao shook his head. The situation was far too similar to the affair with Elder Gu a few decades ago; the Wanlei Sect seemed to know only these few underhanded tricks.
"Still, the Sect Master's approach is a bit..."
Liu Yaqin left her sentence unfinished, seemingly unwilling to criticize the Sect Master, but Li Youdao understood the look in her eyes immediately.
"I know what you mean: avoid creating trouble, smooth things over, cultivate the body to refine the character, and nurture the mind to calm the spirit—that's what the Sect Master always has on his lips. Although the Golden Core elders are dying to charge right over there, they've all been held back by the Master, sigh... True Lord Gu and Elder Meng almost got locked in solitary confinement, and even I got an earful from True Lord Gu."
"An unmerited disaster," Li Youdao said, then shook his head helplessly once more.
True Lord Gu harbored both old grudges and new grievances, and had long been eager to teach the Wanlei Sect a lesson. As for True Lord Gu's good buddy Elder Meng, he was purely a warmonger; as could be seen from the Grotto-Heaven in Sifang Market last time, Elder Meng was definitely a hardliner.
Liu Yaqin rolled her eyes at Li Youdao, who was still putting on an act, and chuckled softly: "Hmph, wasn't that plan your idea? Sending people to the Intelligence Pavilion to buy information on those who made a move, with the Golden Cores keeping watch while you Foundation Establishment folks did the dirty work to cripple them... Hahaha, and you claim you're innocent?"
"If you're innocent, there isn't a single clean person left in this world. You're killing me."
Hearing this, Li Youdao was utterly astonished. He had kept this plan hidden precisely from his wife out of fear that she would worry, so how on earth did she know about it in such detail?
"It was Wang Zhi. When you specifically went asking around about the perpetrators last time, he felt something was off, fearing that you guys would act impulsively and get punished by the sect afterwards, so he asked me to talk some sense into you. But there was no way I could talk you out of it, so I..."
"The person who leaked the secret to True Lord Gu was actually you?"
"That's right, it was me. What about it?"
"Time for family discipline! Today I simply must reassert my authority as the head of the household!"
......