Since Li Yesheng lost his father last year, all the family land and money had gone to him, the eldest son. He was delighted; he immediately sold a few acres of poor land for silver, ate and drank to his heart's content in the village tavern, and was entirely carefree.
From then on, he was idle all day, either causing trouble in the village or running wild in the mountains. He teased women without scruple and stole chickens and dogs. In the entire Lixi Village, except for his uncle Li Gengye, he placed no one in his eyes and feared no one.
Poor younger brother Li Yesheng—though clearly similar in age to Li Yunping, and while Li Yunping had attended the village school since childhood to listen to the teacher—Li Yesheng was lonely and helpless, suffering from hunger and cold.
A child of just ten or so, having just suffered the pain of losing his father, he not only had to herd ducks every day but also look after oxen for others. If not for the frequent aid from Li Gengye's family, he would likely have starved to death at home long ago.
Li Yesheng did not care whether he lived or died. In his idle moments, his heart was always restless and uneasy. Watching Li Gengye's family enter and exit that blue-brick compound, his eyes were full of jealousy and madness.
"We all have the surname Li. Why are you a legitimate son while I am a concubine-born son? Why do you buy good fields and build high courtyards? Just a village bumpkin rich man, yet you imitate the style of great families to build this deep, walled compound. As if some rare treasure is hidden inside!"
He suddenly straightened up, recalling the night several years ago, the tense expressions of a few people, and the cold, gleaming steel knife in Li Gengye's hand.
"Li Gengye definitely has a treasure..."
Li Yesheng had a foxtail grass stem in his mouth. Looking at Li Gengye on the field ridge, smiling and talking to a tenant farmer, he felt secretly displeased.
"Isn't it just because he was born into a good womb."
He dozed for a while under the shade of a tree. Seeing the sky grow dark, Li Yesheng spat out the grass stem with a "bah," rolled up his trouser legs, and silently crept towards the Li compound.
He circled the wall once but couldn't find even a crack. He clawed at the wall a few times with his hand; the surface was smooth and even, wanting to climb over would be no easy matter.
"Damned thing."
Li Yesheng spat a mouthful of saliva on the wall, exerted his vicious strength, turned around, and ran towards the back mountain.
"I don't believe you bastards can put a lid on the roof."
Cangwu Mountain wound and rose. The back mountain of Lixi Village was just one of its peaks. The villagers were too lazy to name it, so they simply called it the Back Mountain.
Crossing the Back Mountain to the south was Qingxi Peak, and further down the mountain was Qingyang Village. The two villages interacted with each other, traveling along this small mountain path.
Li Yesheng pushed aside the bushes and climbed along the path for a quarter of an hour. He found a place in the mountain with high terrain and a wide view, crouched down, and looked towards the small courtyard below the mountain.
He rubbed his eyes. He saw several blurry figures moving, seemingly sitting cross-legged, and others holding bluestones walking back and forth, not knowing what they were up to.
"I heard there are stone locks in this courtyard. Could it be that Li Gengye obtained some nonsense martial art or battle technique outside and is secretly teaching it to those few little bastards."
Li Yesheng looked up at the sky. The mountains were already dim, and now the bright moon was covered by dark clouds. The earth was pitch black, and even the human figures were gradually becoming indistinct.
The night was deep. Apes cried and wolves howled in the mountains. The cool wind drilled straight up Li Yesheng's trouser legs, freezing him so much that he clamped his legs together and sat down heavily on the large bluestone.
"Truly damned strange."
Li Yesheng sat for another quarter of an hour, his nose running from the cold, but he had also secretly prepared the rumors he planned to spread in the village:
What about the ancestral treasure? He, Li Yesheng, was also a descendant of the Li family, so why couldn't he get a share of the pie? If it were a martial art or battle technique, he couldn't be bothered to practice it. If it were sold for money, he could live happily and freely for a few days.
Looking down at the courtyard again, it was empty of people. Li Yesheng didn't care, tightened his cuffs, stood up, and prepared to return home.
"Mother!"
Who knew that as soon as he turned his head, he saw a human figure standing quietly on the mountain path. Li Yesheng was scared out of his wits, scrambling and crawling to shrink back behind the large bluestone.
Trembling, he poked his head out to look. That person had delicate features and was looking down at him. It was actually his cousin Li Yunping.
Li Yesheng widened his eyes, just about to put on a fierce attitude and make a scene, when he saw Li Yunping make a hand seal.
"What?"
Suddenly, a brilliant golden light appeared before his eyes. A sharp pain struck his throat. The world before his eyes instantly spun; one moment he saw the bright moon, the next he saw the blurry small courtyard under the moonlight.
Li Yesheng's head flew up and landed heavily on the mountain path. His residual consciousness looked in confusion at the cold smile on Li Yunping's face, feeling that this cousin was unprecedentedly strange.
The headless body behind the stone was spurting blood from its neck. The hot blood dyed the bluestone, the dirt path, and the withered leaves red, flowing all the way to Li Yunping's feet.
Disgusted, he took a step back. Li Yunping watched Li Yesheng's body fall, pondered for a moment, made a hand seal again, and cast a spell, summoning a golden light.
He squatted down and cut the body into large chunks with a puchi puchi sound according to a certain ratio, so that the beasts attracted by the smell of blood at night would carry the chunks to various parts of the mountain.
After doing all this, Li Yunping stood up and looked around. In the shadows of the forest, many green eyes had lit up. Li Yunping clapped his hands and whispered:
"Enjoy yourselves, gentlemen."
————
The Li Family.
Li Changhe woke from his meditation but did not see the two younger brothers. The large backyard was so quiet that only the chirping of insects remained. Puzzled, he hurriedly stepped into the main courtyard and only then saw Li Tongyan.
Looking at Li Tongyan sitting at the wooden table reading the spell formulas, Li Changhe asked somewhat puzzledly:
"Why is Yunping not seen?"
"Washing his hands."
Li Tongyan calmly rolled up the wooden slips and spoke to his eldest brother.
"Tongyan, have you started preparing to condense the Mystic Light Wheel?" Li Changhe placed both hands on the wooden table, asking with a hint of envy.
"In a few more days, I can condense eighty-one strands of Moon Essence. Our aptitude is far inferior to Chixi's. I always feel we need to wait a bit longer and prepare for a few more days."
Li Tongyan smiled, took a piece of white cloth, wrapped it tightly around the wooden slips a few times, and tied a slipknot.
"Brother, who do you think among the four of us is most like Father?" Li Tongyan suddenly spoke, staring seriously at his eldest brother, Li Changhe.
"Naturally you."
Li Changhe blurted out, then paused, found a place to sit, and continued with a smile:
"I am too lenient, Yunping is too active, and Chixi is too shy. Only you, Li Tongyan, are calm and composed, showing no emotion, and are most like him."
"Hahaha."
Li Tongyan gave a dry laugh, waved his hand, and said solemnly:
"Brother, stop flattering me. In my view, among the four of us brothers, Yunping is most like him."
"Why?" Li Changhe looked at his brother in confusion.
Li Tongyan spoke slowly:
"When we were playing in the courtyard as children, Father once said: When killing someone for the first time, one may have ringing in the ears and a hot head, losing composure in advance and retreat; or one may tremble, unable to control one's body; or one may roar endlessly, unaware of the heavens and earth."
"Only he, Li Gengye, when he first killed a man, sheathed his knife, drank wine, and talked and laughed freely. Then he laughed heartily, immensely proud."
"Yunping is most like Father."
Li Tongyan lowered his voice and leaned close to Li Changhe's ear, whispering:
"Because he is cruel enough."