Li Yesheng's father passed away last year, and all the family lands and properties went to him, the eldest son. He was extremely pleased with himself and quickly sold a piece of land for some money, which he spent generously in the village store.
After that, with nothing much to do every three days, he loafed around the village and up on the mountain, becoming even more brazen with his teasing and thievery. In the whole of Lijing Village, apart from his uncle Li Mutian, there was no one he feared or respected.
Poor Li Yesheng, who was about the same age as Li Xiangping, had to suffer alone and in destitution. While Li Xiangping had been studying with a scholar in the village since he was a child, Li Yesheng faced the cold and hunger by himself.
Just a teenager who had lost his father, he had to herd ducks and watch cows for others every day. If it hadn't been for Li Mutian's occasional help, he probably would have starved to death at home.
Li Yesheng couldn't care less about his younger brother's life or death. Whenever he had free time, he became restless and looked with envy at Li Changhu's family entering and exiting their large courtyard built with blue bricks.
"We all share the surname Li, so why do you get the legitimate inheritance while I'm the collateral branch? Why do you have enough money to buy good farmland and build a high-walled courtyard? You're just a wealthy family in the village, what are you showing off for? As if there were treasures kept in the courtyard!"
He suddenly sat upright, his mind flashing back several years to a night of tense faces and the knife in Li Mutian's hand.
"Li Mutian has treasures..."
Li Yesheng, with a blade of foxtail grass in his mouth, gazed at Li Changhu, who was laughing and talking with a tenant in the field, feeling upset in his heart.
"It's just a matter of being born into a good family."
After taking a short nap under the shade of a tree and noticing that it was getting dark, Li Yesheng spat out the blade of grass and rolled up his trouser legs, sneaking toward the Li family compound.
Circling around the yard, Li Yesheng couldn't even find a crack in the wall. Scratching at it, he found the surface smoothly plastered; it seemed impossible to climb over.
"Damn thing."
Li Yesheng spat on the wall and, feeling determined, ran towards the back mountain.
"I don't believe you've put a cover over the top of the house."
The Da Li Mountain stretched windingly, and the back mountain of Lijing Village was just one of its peaks. The villagers were too lazy to name it, so they called it the back mountain.
Beyond the back mountain to the south was Meichi Peak, and further south down the mountain was Jingyang Village. A small path through the mountain was the way villagers from both places exchanged necessities.
Li Yesheng brushed aside the bushes and climbed along the path for a quarter of an hour, finding a place on the mountain with an unobstructed view to lie down and observe the small courtyard below.
Rubbing his eyes, he could barely make out several figures moving as if sitting cross-legged, some carrying bluestones back and forth, their purpose uncertain.
"I heard there are stone locks placed in the eastern courtyard, could it be that Li Mutian has acquired some martial warfare techniques outside and is secretly teaching them to those things?"
Li Yesheng looked up at the sky; it was dark and overcast, the bright moon obscured by clouds, shrouding the land below in darkness and making the figures indistinguishable.
It was late at night, the mountain echoed with the cries of high apes, the howling of jackals and wolves, and the cool breeze passed through the bottom of Li Yesheng's pants, chilling his legs and causing him to sit down abruptly on a large rock.
"This is getting rather eerie."
Li Yesheng sat for another quarter of an hour, his nose dripping with cold mucus, and silently concocted the rumors he would spread in the village:
What family treasures passed down from their ancestors? He, Li Yesheng, was also a Li, so why couldn't he have a share? If it was martial warfare techniques, he didn't care to practice them, but selling them for money would allow him to live lavishly for quite some time.
Looking down at the courtyard, which was now void of any figures, Li Yesheng wasn't concerned and prepared to head home after tightening his cuffs.
"My goodness!"
But as he turned his head, he saw a figure standing silently on the mountain path, which scared Li Yesheng so much that he soiled himself and scrambled behind the large rock.
Trembling, he peeked out and saw a handsome young man with refined features, looking down at him—it was his cousin, Li Xiangping.
Li Yesheng's eyes widened, and he braced himself to act tough, but then he saw Li Xiangping holding a gesture in his hand.
"What's this?"
Before his eyes, a dazzling golden light emerged, a sharp pain gripped his throat, and the world around him started spinning. One moment he saw the bright full moon, the next a courtyard blurred under the moon's light.
Li Yesheng's head suddenly flew up and heavily fell onto the mountain path, his remaining consciousness confusedly watching the cold smile on Li Xiangping's face, feeling his cousin to be more unfamiliar than ever.
Behind a rock, a headless corpse spurted blood from the neck, the steaming spray of blood staining the green stones, dirt paths, and dry leaves, flowing all the way to Li Xiangping's feet.
Stepping back with disdain, Li Xiangping watched Li Yesheng's body collapse, pondered for a while, then pinched a spell and conjured another golden light.
He crouched down and, with a suitable ratio, sliced the corpse into large pieces with a chu-chu sound, to ensure that the wild beasts drawn by the smell at night would carry parts to different places in the mountains.
After doing all this, Li Xiangping stood and looked around, noting the shadows between the trees now filled with many gleaming green eyes. He clapped his hands and whispered softly,
"Enjoy, my friends."
————
The Li Family.
Li Changhu awoke from meditation only to find his two younger brothers missing, the vast backyard quiet save for the chirping of insects. Puzzled, he hastily strode to the main courtyard, where he found Li Tongya.
Seeing Li Tongya flipping through a spell at the wooden table, Li Changhu asked with some confusion,
"Where's Xiangping?"
"Gone to wash his hands."
Li Tongya rolled up the wooden slip leisurely and, while looking at his elder brother, spoke.
"Tongya, have you started preparing to condense the Xuanjing Wheel?" Li Changhu pressed his hands on the wooden table, asking with a hint of envy.
"In a few days, I'll be able to converge eighty-one strands of moonlight. We are far from Chi Jing's level, I always feel the need to wait and prepare for a few more days."
Li Tongya smiled as he took a small piece of white cloth and wound it tightly around the wooden slip, tying a slipknot.
"Big brother, among the four of us, who do you think resembles our father the most?" Li Tongya suddenly asked, his gaze intently fixed on his older brother Li Changhu.
"Naturally, it's you."
Li Changhu blurted out, then paused and found a place to sit, before continuing with a smile,
"I'm too easygoing, Xiangping is too restless, Chi Jing is too shy, only you, Li Tongya, with your calm composure and quiet demeanor, are most like him."
"Hahaha."
Li Tongya laughed dryly, waved his hand, and spoke seriously,
"Brother, spare me your flattery. In my view, among us four brothers, it is Xiangping who resembles him the most."
"Why?" asked Li Changhu, looking at his brother with curiosity.
Li Tongya slowly began,
"When we were kids playing in the courtyard, our father once said: 'When you first kill a man, you might hear ringing in your ears, feel hot-headed, lose all sense of direction, tremble uncontrollably, or roar endlessly, not knowing the heavens from the earth.'
"But when Li Mutian killed for the first time, he sheathed his sword, drank wine, and was as jovial as ever. After saying it, he burst into loud laughter, very pleased with himself."
"Xiangping is the most like our father,"
Li Tongya lowered his voice, leaning close to Li Changhu's ear and whispered softly,
"Because he is cruel enough."