In the East District of Sifang Market, right outside the Abode of Immortals.
Seeing Li Pingyi suddenly materialize, the surrounding crowd instantly focused their gazes on him, their eyes filled with shock, which quickly morphed into bizarre expressions.
Before Li Pingyi could carefully ponder everyone's reaction, a strong, heavy hand landed on his shoulder.
"Let's go home first."
He turned and looked back, and what came into view was his old man's trademark triangular eyes. The heart that had been hanging in his throat instantly settled back into place.
Just as he was about to open his mouth to reply, a dizzying whirlwind suddenly swept over him, and the surrounding streetscape rapidly receded backward in a blur.
Within a few breaths, he was back home.
Li Youdao closed the front door, turned around, and asked anxiously, "What kind of getup are you wearing? Are you hurt? Let me take a look."
Li Pingyi instinctively reached toward his waist, only to feel empty-handed. A sense of foreboding suddenly washed over him, and he hurriedly looked down to see half a snake's body quietly dangling on the floor between his legs.
He smiled awkwardly and said, "If I told you I brought this back specifically to nourish your health, would you believe it?"
Li Youdao quickly parted Li Pingyi's clothes to check his wound, grabbed the snake's head with both hands, and applied a slight twist. With a snap, the entire snake head was effortlessly peeled away.
Before Li Pingyi even had time to cry out in pain, the snake was neatly detached and tossed aside.
Immediately following that, Li Youdao quickly produced a black medicinal plaster and applied it meticulously to the wound. The injury, which had just begun to ooze blood, healed at a visible rate. Li Pingyi's eyes popped out in disbelief.
"Pingyi's back? Pingyi, Pingyi! Are you hurt?"
Liu Yaqin's anxious cries came from outside the door, the sound drawing closer from afar.
Li Pingyi hurriedly called back, "Mom, I'm fine, completely fine! If you'd come back any later, my wound would've healed on its own."
The moment the door opened, Liu Yaqin pulled Li Pingyi into a tight embrace and thoroughly checked him from top to bottom. Only after confirming he was unharmed did she let out a long sigh of relief. "As long as you're safe, as long as you're safe."
"Dad, Mom, not only am I fine, but I also brought some things back from inside."
With that, Li Pingyi winked at Li Youdao.
Li Youdao caught the cue instantly, turned around, and walked into the study.
"You little rascal, didn't I tell you to just focus on cultivation once you went in? What were you going looking around for? Do you have any idea how dangerous a Grotto-Heaven is? In case of any mishap, leave alone a corpse, not even a single hair would make it out. There wouldn't even be anyone left to collect your bones! Stop daydreaming all day long about heavenly treasures and secret manuals—how could there possibly be such..."
Accompanied by his mother's nagging, the family of three stepped into the study.
Li Youdao flicked his right hand, and a ripple of Spiritual Power flashed as he said:
"Secondary sound-isolation array. Even a Golden Core cultivator would have to break a sweat trying to eavesdrop on this. Speak, what did you bring out? It better not be just that half a snake by the door."
With that, he nonchalantly began brewing some spirit tea. The smile at the corner of his mouth and those trademark triangular eyes looked increasingly kind and warm to Li Pingyi.
In truth, Li Youdao hadn't expected Li Pingyi to bring back any treasures. Even though it was merely a Qi Condensation-grade Grotto-Heaven, heavenly treasures were mostly guarded by Monster Beasts. It would be a miracle if Li Pingyi actually managed to bring back anything decent.
Thinking of this, he secretly shot a glance at Liu Yaqin standing beside him. She instantly caught on and began mentally rehearsing the shocked expression she should put on shortly.
Li Youdao even started practicing quietly in his mind.
*"Should I shout this 'Ah' really loud? No, how about swapping it for an 'Oh'? Would that be too over the top?"*
Just as the two of them were deep in their private deliberations, a loud "thud" suddenly rang out. A spirit-soil box appeared by Li Pingyi's feet, overflowing so much that some third-grade spirit soil had spilled out onto the floor.
Next, a large jar of snake gallbladder and a pouch of snake fangs were pulled out, followed by three top-quality Earth Spirit Grasses.
Li Youdao's "Ah" made it only halfway out before stopping abruptly, as if someone had grabbed him by the neck. His triangular eyes began to twitch uncontrollably.
Liu Yaqin's "Oh" pitch kept climbing higher and higher until, finally, she let out a loud hiccup.
When Li Youdao caught sight of that mesmerizing shade of purple in Li Pingyi's hand, he could no longer sit still.
"Spirit Void Bamboo? It's actually Spirit Void Bamboo?"
Li Youdao snatched the bamboo right out of Li Pingyi's hand and inspected it closely. "It's actually this long?"
He exclaimed in shock.
However, upon noticing the dog-chewed bite marks on both ends of the bamboo, his face instantly contorted into an expression of extreme agony, as if his heart were being ruthlessly wrung.
*"Hah, look at the two of you acting like you've never seen the world,"* Li Pingyi thought to himself, his hands moving without pause.
"These all need to be divided up. Senior Sister Ning gets a share of this Jade Slip and the beast-skin scroll too. Oh, right, almost forgot—and this little tree! It didn't bear any fruit, so I couldn't figure out what it is either. Dad, what does this look like to you? I had to use every ounce of strength I had just to get it out. Dad, I'm telling you, you almost didn't get to see your son again—that wok-sized bear paw was a mere inch away from my head..."
Li Pingyi held the withered little sapling high in his left hand while vigorously waving a dark green vine with his right, spinning an eloquent and thrilling tale of his epic battle against the Great Earth Fierce Bear.
With a sudden "thump," the Spirit Void Bamboo in Li Youdao's hand dropped to the floor.
His face flushed red, and his hands swayed up and down in sync with Li Pingyi's gestures. His mouth opened and closed as if he wanted to say something, but not a single sound came out.
Li Pingyi looked at his bizarrely acting old man, then turned to his mother standing there in a daze. A trace of unease welled up in his heart:
*"Could this thing have been planted by some Evil Cultivator? Did I accidentally trigger some mechanism by messing with it earlier? No wonder that bear was so dim-witted, that must be it!"*
At this thought, he hurriedly hurled the things in his hands away.
The two items traced a graceful arc through the air.
In a flash, a figure in front of him leaped sideways into the air without the slightest hesitation. In that split second, time seemed to freeze, and Li Pingyi clearly saw the distorted face of his old man mid-air, twisted in sheer terror.
Li Youdao gently scooped the items into his embrace, landed steadily on his feet, and asked with a trembling voice, "Where did these things come from?"
"Senior Sister Ning helped hold off the Monster Beasts inside the Grotto-Heaven while I snuck in and stole this little tree. The rest I picked up inside a wooden cabin by a small lake. The snake and the Spirit Void Bamboo were both found in the bamboo grove right next to that cabin."
Noticing that his old man's expression was abnormal, Li Pingyi honestly recounted the entire sequence of events.
Upon hearing this, Li Youdao strode quickly out into the small courtyard, sharply whipped out a Spirit Talisman, and hurled it forcefully into the sky.
The surrounding Spiritual Qi instantly condensed into a sphere and shot upward like an arrow leaving a bow, before suddenly bursting apart and scattering into countless dazzling points of light.
A few streaks of light instantly soared from the nearby Qingxuan Sect, arriving above Sifang Market in less than three breaths.
Before they could even land steadily, Li Youdao's sonorous voice rang out:
"Outer Sect Deacon Li Youdao reporting! Qingxuan Sect Outer Sect disciple Ning Susu and Outer Sect school disciple Li Pingyi entered the Grotto-Heaven and chanced upon a Spirit Object. Because its Spiritual Qi is already extremely faint and time is of the essence, I humbly request an Elder to come and take it away."