The moonlight was like water, and dots of starlight sprinkled over the courtyard.
With a gentle breeze, the small tree in Li Youdao’s hand vanished in an instant.
Immediately afterward, three dazzling pillars of light streaked toward the direction of the Qingxuan Sect, their speed fully thirty percent faster than when they had arrived.
Standing at the doorway of the study, Li Pingyi stared at the scene in shock, unable to recover his wits for a long time.
"Is this Golden Core Grade movement technique? Wow, if I had this kind of speed..."
He muttered to himself, his gaze chasing after the fleeting stream of light in the air, unaware even as saliva spilled from the corner of his mouth.
"Youdao, does this mean there is hope after all?" Liu Yaqin appeared by his side at some unknown point, her face brimming with tears, her voice trembling slightly.
In the courtyard, Li Youdao stood quietly, his figure appearing somewhat solitary in the night. He forced his emotions down, though his slightly trembling shoulders betrayed the turmoil within his heart.
"Soon, we will know soon." He replied in a low voice, his tone mixed with a sense of relief and an unspeakable sob.
After a long while, he slowly closed his eyes, clenching and loosening his fists several times before finally steadying his breathing.
"Pingyi, come inside as well. There are some things you ought to know."
Li Pingyi snapped out of his daze, hastily wiping the corner of his mouth as he followed closely with a heart full of doubts.
...
Inside the study, Li Youdao picked up the few items scattered across the floor one by one, neatly placing them on the desk.
He picked up the vine that Li Pingyi had casually tossed aside, his gaze complex as he gently brushed the dust from its surface.
"Spiritual Rhyme Green Vine. What a pity, the age is still lacking a bit of refinement. Otherwise, it would be a true Spirit Object, but now, it can at best be considered a top-grade spiritual medicine." He turned to his wife, a hint of inquiry in his eyes. "Yaqin, do you think this is Will of Heaven?"
A look of helplessness appeared on Liu Yaqin's face, words hanging on her lips before fading into a soft sigh.
At that moment, Li Youdao spoke slowly, seemingly sinking into memories of the past: "Back in the day, I was handsome in appearance, full of heroic vigor, and possessed a single spiritual root. My talent far surpassed that of my fellow disciples. No matter where I went within the sect, I was the focus of everyone's attention."
Li Pingyi swore that all the events of today combined did not equal the impact of this single sentence.
He turned his head in disbelief toward his mother, only to find that she actually wore a reminiscent look, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly as if she were... confirming it?
Li Pingyi was completely bewildered.
When he turned back to look at his old man, he found that he had somehow already moved to stand steadily by the windowsill, looking up at the night sky at a forty-five-degree angle.
The moonlight was like water, spilling across his face, and those triangular eyes reflected in the moonlight actually flickered with a peculiar brilliance.
No way, Dad, can you use teleportation too?
Li Pingyi frantically roasted him in his heart, never expecting Li Youdao to pull such a move and catch him completely off guard with a display of pure posing.
"At age twenty, Qi Condensation Great Perfection." Li Youdao's voice sounded once again, tinged with a touch of desolation. "Relying on my single earth spiritual root talent, True Person Gu of the Inner Sect looked upon me favorably and insisted on taking me as a personal disciple. It is fair to say that once Foundation Establishment succeeded, entering the Inner Sect was a certainty. At that time, how high-spirited and vigorous was I?"
Li Pingyi clicked his tongue inwardly.
Qi Condensation Great Perfection at age twenty—he probably should have had hopes of reaching Foundation Establishment before twenty-five.
With such talent, even within the top-tier Qingxuan Sect of Xizhou, he belonged to the ranks of geniuses.
One had to know that Senior Sister Ning Susu had only reached Qi Condensation Completion at twenty-five, already making her an outstanding figure of the Outer Sect and a genius praised as having hopes of Foundation Establishment within a few years, drawing the attention of many Inner Sect Elders.
"Pity that the winds of heaven are unpredictable." Li Youdao's voice sank. "During an exploration of a Grotto-Heaven secret realm, I encountered a Qi Condensation Great Perfection Monster Beast, and my Qi Sea... was shattered."
"Wait, that's not right. Although a Qi Condensation Great Perfection Monster Beast can't be killed, shouldn't one be able to escape?" Li Pingyi couldn't help raising the doubt in his heart. He remembered that while in the Grotto-Heaven, Ning Susu had once told him that she had crossed paths with that giant clumsy bear, and when she couldn't beat it, she simply ran away.
"Because there were two Monster Beasts. One of them discovered me beforehand, lying in wait and setting an ambush to the side."
"Hiss—" Li Pingyi drew in a sharp breath, marveling inwardly that his old man really ought to check the almanac before going out next time; this was just too unlucky.
"One Swift Shadow Leopard, one Double-Pupil Mouse."
"Hiss—hisss—hisss."
Hearing these two names, Li Pingyi drew in several more sharp breaths in succession. The Swift Shadow Leopard sounded like a typical agile-type Monster Beast just from its name, and as for the Double-Pupil Mouse, Li Pingyi was all too familiar with it. Born with double pupils and the innate talent of illusions, it was an insect heavily emphasized by instructors in class—a textbook example of an insidious-type Monster Beast...
"Son, has your snake venom acted up? Why are you mimicking a snake this whole time?" Liu Yaqin asked, looking at Li Pingyi, who kept leaning his head back and inhaling hard, her face full of worry.
Li Pingyi rolled his eyes and was just about to open his mouth to explain when he heard his father continue: "Actually, being able to come out alive was already quite fortunate. My Qi Sea was shattered at the time, and just when I thought I would perish in the jaws of the Monster Beast, your Uncle Ning and Uncle Wang suddenly rushed over."
"The two of them risked their lives to save me, sustaining heavy injuries themselves."
"Just as Uncle Ning and Uncle Wang were about to have their Qi Seas shattered and were preparing to fight the Monster Beasts to the death, disciples of the Qingxuan Sect who heard the sounds of battle arrived one after another. Everyone joined forces to painstakingly beat back the Monster Beasts, saving them and me together. After this battle, my Qi Sea was shattered, and my cultivation dropped to the Qi Condensation Early Stage."
With that, Li Youdao pointed to the scar level with his eyebrows, his expression solemn:
"This scar was left from that time. Even though this scar could be healed, I have kept it precisely to constantly remind myself."
Hearing this, Li Pingyi suddenly understood. So that was how it was; he used to wonder about it. Thinking that he was so handsome, cute, and sunny, he had figured there was no neighbor surnamed Wang next door, but it turned out his old man was half-disfigured.
He walked up to the desk, his fingertips lightly brushing the Spiritual Rhyme Green Vine, his voice low: "Back then in the Grotto-Heaven, it was also because of this Spiritual Rhyme Green Vine that I acted rashly out of momentary greed and fell into the Monster Beast's trap."
Suddenly, his gaze burned as he looked at Li Pingyi, every word weighing like a thousand pounds: "Pingyi, remember, the more alluring the fortuitous encounter, the more one must maintain composure. The two words 'caution' are a cultivator's life-saving talisman."
Although he was far more prudent than the average person, seeing such a rare, serious Li Youdao, he still nodded up and down vigorously to show he had received the message.
"After returning to the Qingxuan Sect, True Lord Gu exhausted his Spiritual Power to repair my Qi Sea and still insisted on taking me as a disciple." Li Youdao's voice suddenly turned hoarse. "But the foundation of my Qi Sea was destroyed. Even if the exterior shell could be mended, it would be difficult to form the Golden Core again. I could not ruin my master's teachings, so I could only..."
He sighed, a trace of desolation showing on his face: "Later, my state of mind underwent a drastic change, and I drowned my sorrows in alcohol all day long. It was your mother who stayed by my side, comforting me and encouraging me, until I pulled myself together again. Later on, there was you."
Having said that, he gazed affectionately at Liu Yaqin.
Only to see his mother's cheeks flushed red as well, her eyes filled with tenderness, returning his father's gaze with deep affection.
Wait, that's not right! Weren't a few too many details skipped here?
He gave a dry cough and scratched his head: "Tell me, Dad, your Qi Sea... is there really no other way?"
If his old man couldn't form the Golden Core, wouldn't his dream of being a second-generation cultivator be shattered?