Li Gewen was practicing his sword technique in the courtyard. With a flick of his fingers, a Flying Sword trimmed a locust-pine tree into a vibrant and spirited shape. Fallen leaves fluttered and were whipped back and forth in the air by the Flying Sword, scattering scraps all over the courtyard until the ground was covered.
"Take a rest, don't push yourself too hard." Li Chengji walked over. "Go out for a walk. You've been back for so many days, go pay your respects to your uncles."
"Alright." Li Gewen happily agreed, but after looking at the leaves covering the ground, he paused.
"Go ahead, I'll have someone clean this up."
After Li Gewen left, Li Lanming, who had been standing quietly behind Li Chengji all along, crouched down and grabbed a handful of leaves from the ground.
"They're all shredded. The Second Young Master has practiced the Xuanpin Wandering Sword Technique to the Seventh Realm."
"Not a word of this is to leave."
"The Li Family finally has a Seventh Realm expert. Among our generation, only his mother attained Seventh Realm cultivation. This is truly extraordinary."
Li Gewen was very fond of the fried sauce noodles at the East Street noodle shop. Part of the reason was indeed that the noodles were delicious, but another part was that people from all walks of life gathered here, and he could always hear plenty of fresh news in this place.
"The Peak of Yunxiao is really going downhill fast. I heard some of their disciples even live in caves and can't afford a proper meal."
"Really?"
"It's true. Have you ever heard of the North Street roast chicken shop?"
"I know it, very famous, a century-old establishment."
"That shop roasts chickens and consumes a huge amount of firewood, and they always want to buy it at a very cheap price. In the end, they got into an argument with a firewood seller, which was overheard by some disciples who had sneaked down the mountain. Those disciples claimed they could transport firewood down from the mountain for an even lower price, almost making the firewood seller furious to death."
"Such a trivial matter shouldn't amount to much."
"Don't interrupt. The story isn't over yet. There are five disciples in total, and they took turns delivering firewood to the roast chicken shop every day. After just a few days, they happened to see the kitchen cook using a Fire-Lighting Spell to start a fire. Well, all five of them dropped straight to their knees on the spot, practically begging the cook to teach them the Fire-Lighting Spell. Such a tiny, insignificant spell had all five of them weeping like babies. Later, people found out those five lived in a cave, which was damp and had no food, and none of them knew how to start a fire."
"That's a huge joke. A dignified immortal cultivation sect, and its disciples don't even know how to start a fire? Are you sure they weren't lying?"
"They belong to Luzhu Peak. I heard that lineage inherits the Li Family's Sword Sect branch, focusing purely on sword dao and learning no other Cultivation Formulas. That Lei Yunshen is obsessed with alchemy and didn't take these orphans seriously at all, exploiting them day in and day out to chop firewood and refine pills. Who would have thought his disciples would struggle just to make a fire? They live completely like ordinary people. Since they had no money to buy flint or fire starters, I heard they even tried drilling wood for fire, and all five of them wore their palms raw—so miserable."
"Did they teach them the Fire-Lighting Spell?"
"They did. I heard the cook at the roast chicken shop—who is also the owner—had ancestors who were disciples of the Peak of Yunxiao. Apparently, they made a huge contribution to the Peak of Yunxiao, and the sect rewarded their family with this spell. Later generations couldn't cultivate it, so they could only use it to start fires. You know what? What happened next is even more interesting. After learning the Fire-Lighting Spell, those five kept delivering firewood to Boss Hu's family to repay him, refusing to take a single coin for most of it. They packed his woodpile to the brim, and even when Boss Hu told them to stop, they wouldn't listen, acting as if they had a personal grudge against firewood. In the end, Boss Hu had no choice but to start selling that firewood."
"They originally needed to buy firewood, and now they've ended up selling it. Interesting."
Li Gewen approached, interrupting their conversation, and asked very politely, "The five disciples you were talking about just now—were they four men and one woman?"
"Who cares how many men or women there are? I don't have time to mind such business." The two men tossed down their noodle money and left.
Li Gewen thought for a moment, then walked toward the roast chicken shop on North Street. Sure enough, not far away, he saw Wang Yun and the four others enter the shop. He hurried in after them.
As soon as Wang Yun and the companions entered, Boss Hu pulled them into a private room, saying he wanted to introduce them to a lumber merchant. Li Ping stepped forward to greet the lumber merchant politely and asked the purpose of his visit.
"I saw you chopping such fine wood and giving it away to Boss Hu as mere firewood, which seemed like a terrible waste. I wanted to meet you younger brothers."
The group was baffled for a moment.
"My ancestors were also disciples of the Peak of Yunxiao. Later, when they decided against immortal cultivation, they went into the timber business." The merchant picked up a piece of wood from the table. "Top-grade pear wood, worth a thousand gold pieces, yet it's been chopped into this state. What a pity."
"Pear wood? What can it be used for?" Wang Yun asked.
"Every kind of wood has different uses, from building houses down to making cups and tables. You guys don't care about any of that, just hacking everything into firewood and burning it to start fires. Wouldn't the sect master of the Peak of Yunxiao feel heartbroken?"
"I'm not heartbroken, I'm hungry," Li Ping said.
The merchant handed them a book. "Can you read? This records the uses of various woods and harvesting methods. If you do as it says, I'll pay you market prices. Think about it."
Li Ping flipped through it for a moment. "It's not that we can't, but we only have a notched axe. I'm afraid it'll be very hard to chop it into the shape you want."
The merchant picked up the piece of pear wood from the table. "Didn't you chop these quite neatly?"
"That was carved out using sword qi. Someone like you probably couldn't do it with sword qi. Sword qi isn't like brute strength; it's not so easy to control," Li Ping said.
The merchant thought for a moment. "Fair enough, that makes sense. If you could really pull this off with sword qi, why sell lumber at all? You'd make money much faster just hunting demons."
With that, the merchant unhooked a small bronze axe from his waist. "Don't let its size fool you, it's extremely sharp. This is a Third Grade, Grade C Dharma Treasure; I'll lend it to you first. As a condition, you need to chop down a Yinyi tree for me—bring down an entire tree intact. How about it?"
"Yinyi tree? What kind of wood is that?" Wang Yun asked.
"There's one right here." Li Ping unfolded the book, and the others gathered around.
"Isn't there one just like this right in front of the cave where we live?" Du Ju said.
"That tree is so thick the five of us couldn't even wrap our arms around it. How are we supposed to move it down?" Zhang Zhong said.
"If you can get a Yinyi tree that thick down the mountain, I'll give you this axe as a gift, plus a thousand taels of silver."
"A thousand taels!" the five exclaimed in unison.
When the five came out of the roast chicken shop, Wang Yun saw Li Gewen calling out to him and parted ways with the others.
"You're going up the mountain to chop a Yinyi tree?"
"How did you know?"
"I followed you guys inside and heard everything you said." Li Gewen hesitated, but still asked, "How many years have you lived in that cave?"
"Six years."
Li Gewen gave Wang Yun a sympathetic look. "Why didn't I ever hear you mention it?"
"It's not exactly something to brag about."
"Let me see that axe of yours."
Wang Yun took it out rather reluctantly, terrified that Li Gewen might just take it and refuse to return it.
"The axe is genuine. If you master the Spirit Connection Scripture: Fourth Level and use this axe, chopping down that Yinyi tree won't be too difficult. But how do you plan to get the whole trunk down?"
"I have no idea."
"On the northern cliff face of Luzhu Peak, there is a Yinyi tree of about that thickness. You can chop down a batch of smaller trees to use as rolling logs, roll the Yinyi tree down into the Liuyun Pool at the foot of the peak, and from the pool head east into the Dongchuan River. Just have the lumber merchant pick up the cargo at Xiaoxing Wharf."
"Thank you, Young Master Li."
"Just call me Senior Brother Gewen from now on, no need to be so polite."
"Yes, yes, Senior Brother Gewen."
"Once you sell this Yinyi tree, you are strictly forbidden from secretly selling firewood anymore. All that timber is the property of the Peak of Yunxiao. Once an investigation starts, you lot will end up in prison."