Chapter 154: Little Goose

Li Yuanyu was huddled at the foot of the bed, half-asleep, when he was startled awake by loud cries – some from weeping, others from shouting. He saw fog everywhere, both in front of and under the bed, making everything blurry and indistinct.

"Mother!" Li Yuanyu exclaimed. He turned his head to find that Jiang Yunü, who had been sleeping beside him, was gone. He looked around and saw the sky was astonishingly dark. Getting up, he walked to the window, where a bright moon suddenly appeared before his eyes.

"How strange," he murmured. He took a few steps forward, then stepped out of the room. But his feet found no solid ground; he felt a void beneath him and plunged downwards.

"Ah!" he cried out as his collar tightened, and he was lifted up, his limbs flailing wildly. He looked up to see a towering city wall before him. He realized he was in a basket and had already been taken outside the county. The middle-aged man he had seen earlier was smiling down at him.

The middle-aged man's face was deathly pale, his lips were blood-red, and his eyes were terrifyingly black as he stared intensely at Li Yuanyu.

"It seems my sorcery hasn't slackened too much," the man chuckled. "I might not be good at stealing other things, but snatching a child is still well within my capabilities!"

"You!" Li Yuanyu cried. The middle-aged man took the copper coin from Li Yuanyu's embrace, carefully tucking it into his own clothing. Then, he spoke sternly:

"Since you've accepted my payment, you must come with me."

Li Yuanyu was startled. Biting his lip, he asked in a childish voice, "Why did you bring me out... Are you an immortal?!"

"No," the man replied. Hearing this, his face contorted into an ugly frown, and he said indignantly, "The so-called immortals killed your mother! And yet you keep spouting 'immortals, immortals'!"

Li Yuanyu felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He stared at the man with wide eyes and cried out, "You... what are you saying?!"

The middle-aged man chuckled and stepped forward. With a sweep of his hand over the city gate, water-like patterns instantly spread, revealing the scene of a courtyard. Li Yuanyu took just one glance at the gory, dismembered spectacle, choked, and nearly fainted, crying out, "Ah!"

Li Yuanyu's small face instantly turned pale, and he began to cry and wail. The middle-aged man, however, paid him no mind, chuckling softly as he said, "My name is Jiang Boqing. From now on, you will follow me and cultivate incantation arts! What is your name?"

Li Yuanyu, naturally, didn't believe him and was unwilling to go along, so he burst into loud sobs. Seeing that Li Yuanyu continued to cry incessantly, Jiang Boqing's expression grew smug. He picked him up and chuckled, "Then you shall take my surname and be called Jiang Yan!"

Li Xuanfeng was flying along the Ancient Li Road on the wind when he noticed five-colored lights flowing on Mount Guanyun, as if a formation had been activated. His heart skipped a beat, and he thought to himself, "Could someone still dare to cause trouble for the Xiao family? What's going on?"

Doubts swirled in his mind, yet Li Xuanfeng did not stop. He saw the city gate road below was deserted, with overturned carts, scattered clothes, and various foods strewn across the ground, which unattended horses and oxen were chewing on.

This sight finally unsettled him. Li Xuanfeng's face became stern as he flew over the city wall of Lixia County. He glimpsed hundreds, even thousands, of bloody handprints all over the wall, as if someone had tried to scale it, slipping in their own blood, only to fall back down again and again, bursting their bellies and splattering the ground below the city with blood-mixed feces and urine.

The small courtyard was in an alley and not difficult to find, especially since the vast city was completely deserted. Li Xuanfeng landed in front of it and saw a crookedly embroidered little wild goose hanging on the door. Stained with a bit of blood, it swayed in the wind as if trying to open its wings and fly away.

"Creak..." The small door was ajar, and Li Xuanfeng pushed it gently open. On the steps, he saw a tender, pale little foot that had been severed with a clean, precise cut about a fist's distance from the ankle, which was as smooth as jade.

But he recognized it at a glance: it was one of the small feet he had caught and caressed countless times under the blankets.

These were the feet he used to tickle, making Jiang Yunü blush and glare at him. In those years, as a youth experiencing intimacy for the first time, he would hold her feet and ask her, "How can something be so beautiful?" Jiang Yunü, with her lovely, round face and almond eyes, would stare at him, then blush and look away.

Li Xuanfeng felt as if he had been slapped. His eyes flinched away, and as if burned by fire, he recoiled from the small foot. But then he saw two bloody intestines hanging from the wall. With a thud, he finally collapsed to the ground, letting out a silent, low wail for a long while. Like a forlorn male dog, he picked up the foot, crying out, "You!"

Tears streamed down like a broken dam. Li Xuanfeng took a step forward and picked up two more snow-white, jade-like arms, only for the small foot to foolishly drop back to the ground. He hastily picked it up and moved forward.

Round, jade-like buttocks, long black hair, two fallen breasts. Finally, he saw half a face, adorned with Jiang Yunü's round, lovely almond eyes. These eyes, which had countless times been full of hope, staring intently at him, were now extinguished and desolate, like dead fish eyes.

The hands and feet he was holding all dropped to the ground. Li Xuanfeng half-knelt, feeling the world before his eyes subtly swaying. His father, Li Xiangping, old man Xu San, and countless other figures flickered in and out of his vision.

Li Xuanfeng found the lower half of her face in a corner. Tremblingly, he pieced her back together, carefully placing the shattered teeth back into her mouth. He closed her eyes, his face ashen, and said in a gentle voice, "My little woman... wait for your brother."

Blood seeped from his lips. Li Xuanfeng, who had never used such a gentle voice before, kissed her and murmured softly, "This is my fault, your brother's fault. Your brother is a fool, but I'm still alive. I will surely send this person to you... my little woman..."

"No matter who it is... whether a young master from an immortal sect or a fiendish villain from the demonic path... your brother will make him die before your eyes. Just you wait! Just you wait!"

He shakily stood up, his eyes burning with a terrifying, painful fire, as if he had drunk two jars of strong liquor, the heat searing him from head to toe. He spoke softly to the two halves of the woman's skull on the ground, "It's not that your brother doesn't want to bury you, but your brother is afraid... afraid he will escape. Your brother will go and inquire, then return to find you."

With those words, he turned and left the courtyard. He took down the crooked little wild goose from the wall, carefully clutching it in his hand, and flew off on the wind, soaring over the mountain of corpses and sea of blood below, heading towards Mount Guanyun.

Xiao Ruyu stood blankly on the mountaintop, his heart both empty and sorrowful, when he heard a cold voice: "Li Xuanfeng has come to visit... I ask the elder to open the mountain gate."

Before Xiao Yongling could speak, Xiao Ruyu jumped up in fright, exclaiming, "This is bad! There are still Li clan members in the county..."

Seeing Xiao Yongling's stern face and silence, Xiao Ruyu's mind raced. He thought to himself, "Li Xuanfeng is probably filled with rage. He absolutely cannot be allowed to meet with my clan uncle. If he says anything reckless or offensive, it will cause a rift between our two families."

So he volunteered, saying in a deep voice, "Clan Uncle! Leave it to me..."

Xiao Yongling stroked his chin and nodded slightly, clearly having considered the situation thoroughly. Xiao Ruyu then rose on the wind, moving out to meet him from the formation, his face filled with sorrow as he lamented, "Brother Xuanfeng!"

Li Xuanfeng, however, appeared calm, his face devoid of expression. He asked softly, "What's going on below?"

"The Tangjin Sect invaded... they slaughtered my Lixia County, and my family dared not resist."

"I understand," Li Xuanfeng said. He raised his eyebrows, startling Xiao Ruyu, who lost focus for a moment. In Li Xuanfeng's eyes, there was no longer the former wild and unruly look; instead, they were filled with a strange, chilling ferocity.

If Chen Donghe had been present, he would have been stunned. This very expression had appeared countless times on Li Xiangping's face, and now it had finally surfaced on Li Xuanfeng's, those grayish-black, sinister eyes seemingly transplanted onto his features, causing a tremor of fear in anyone who saw them.

"Which way did they go?" Li Xuanfeng asked.

"East..." Xiao Ruyu responded, then cried out as he watched Li Xuanfeng rise on the wind and head east. "Brother Xuanfeng! Don't be impulsive!"

Biting his lip, Xiao Ruyu stood stunned for a moment. Still, he rose on the wind, chasing after Li Xuanfeng to the east.