Chapter 88: He’s Here

The moment Li Xiangping looked up at the distant mountains, the neigh of a horse echoed from the mountaintop. A completely black horse, without a single speck of another color, galloped joyfully on the mountain, its hooves seemingly not touching the ground as it traversed the rugged path. It was, surprisingly, a demonic creature with Qi Condensation cultivation.

The dark hooves lightly stepped in the mud, and then the horse simply floated into the air. The rider wore leather armor and had no adornments of animal bones or jade, looking like an ordinary human.

Gani Xi gently patted his old companion's head, squeezed with his legs, and turned to look at the village below the mountain.

All the Shanyue people of the northern foothills claimed Gani Xi had four eyes and eight arms. But in reality, Gani Xi looked very ordinary, with even slightly small eyes and sparse eyebrows. If he stood in the fields with his eyes closed and hands on his hips, no one would think he was anyone special.

Only when his brownish-yellow eyes opened and quietly stared at someone did it send shivers down their spine.

"My King, ahead is the territory of the Demonic Sect."

Listening to his long-braided attendant speak from behind him, Gani Xi raised an eyebrow. His brownish-yellow eyes swept over the army formation below the mountain, and he nodded:

"To defeat them, a quarter of an hour is all it takes."

His voice was light and high-pitched, his tone flat, as if he were reading.

The long-braided man bowed his head slightly, listening quietly to Gani Xi. Behind him, not a single soldier or horse was visible. As the king who unified the northern foothills' Shanyue, he had surprisingly entered the territory of the Azure Pond Sect with just one follower, only about three hundred *zhang* from Li Xiangping's military tent.

After a few glances, Gani Xi lost interest in the tribal soldiers below. He squeezed with his legs, and the horse obediently turned around, heading back the way they came, moving as smoothly as if on flat ground despite the rugged mountain path.

"We don't have much time; there's no need to wait any longer."

The long-braided follower urged his horse to catch up, hesitating:

"It's just that ordinary people are cunning. Who knows how many human shamans are in this Demonic Sect army? My King, do not underestimate them."

Gani Xi chuckled softly, raised the long blade in his hand, and looked up at the moon obscured by dark clouds, his lips moving.

"Who said I was going to fight them?"

***

When Chen Sanshui groggily awoke, a leather-clad Shanyue stood before him, holding his collar tightly with a large hand, pulling it so hard that he felt suffocated.

"Thud." He was violently thrown out of the courtyard, hitting the ground so hard that he saw stars, his vision blurred. Two of his teeth had been knocked out. Everything spun around him. Seeing the Shanyue soldiers standing rigidly on both sides, Chen Sanshui wiped the blood from his face and fumbled to find his teeth.

But his hand was stepped on. Looking up at the brownish-yellow eyes, Chen Sanshui had to face the cruel reality: in the quarter of an hour he had been asleep, Pear Creek Pass had fallen without any resistance.

"How could it be so fast?!"

What about Li Xiangping's tribal soldiers, stationed just across the river? Were they defeated so silently?

And Li Tongya, who flew high in the sky? What about the other immortals of the Li family? How did these people control Pear Creek Pass so silently? Chen Sanshui felt suffocated. The pain in his mouth no longer mattered; countless questions surged in his mind.

"Where is the Li family's old lair?"

The man stepping on his hand spoke calmly. Chen Sanshui looked at his sparse eyebrows and those fearsome eyes, with only one question remaining in his mind.

"If Father Chen Erniu were here, what would he do?"

Soon, Chen Sanshui had no time to think. Gani Xi casually tore off his left hand, spilling blood, sinew, and flesh onto the ground. Chen Sanshui's eyes rolled back, and saliva gushed from his mouth. Pain overwhelmed all his thoughts.

"It hurts... so much."

Gani Xi tapped his head with a finger, casting a spell to restore his consciousness, allowing him to fully experience the suffocating pain, while also preserving his vitality so he wouldn't bleed to death.

"Li... Lijing... Mountain."

The thought of being a hero struggled to surface in his mind for only a moment. The waste beneath him reminded him: he was just an ordinary person. He wasn't a martyr oblivious to pain, nor was he his father, or Li Xiangping. Moreover, even Li Xiangping might not fare much better in this situation.

"Take us there."

Chen Sanshui was lifted up. Hanging upside down, he watched the Shanyue's moving feet around him. A fatal intuition, painstakingly taught to him by his father Chen Erniu for over twenty years, finally awakened within him. Chen Sanshui knew he was doomed. Recalling all the foolish things he had done in his life, a profound sense of loneliness filled his heart.

The Shanyue soldiers around them moved. Simple runes were etched on their ankles, making their footsteps silent. Two contingents of Shanyue soldiers followed Gani Xi out of Pear Creek Pass, heading towards Lijing Mountain.

Chen Sanshui saw a Shanyue man behind Gani Xi, also holding a person—a key figure from the village. He realized that reporting a false route would only increase his own suffering, and he thought bitterly to himself:

"How cunning people are."

From a young age, he had lived in the shadow of the Li brothers, just as his father Chen Erniu had lived in the shadow of Li Mutian. He always heard his father say:

"Among the four Li brothers, Li Changhu is docile and pitiable like a gentle deer; Li Tongya is quiet and cautious like a jiao-snake; Li Xiangping is treacherous and vicious like a hungry wolf; and Li Chijing is intelligent and handsome like a white fox."

"What about me?! What am I?"

Chen Sanshui looked at his father, full of excitement and expectation.

"Useless."

Chen Sanshui was greatly disappointed, and from then on, truly became useless, mindlessly marrying and having children, relying on his father's prestige and influence to indulge in reckless pleasures.

It wasn't until Gani Xi tore off his left hand that he seemed to fully awaken. Everything suddenly became clear before him. He even resented Gani Xi for not tearing off his left hand ten years earlier, saving his father years of unnecessary worry.

"How often do you communicate with those soldiers?"

Gani Xi spoke softly. He had long seen that the man in his hand was terrified and wouldn't deceive him. However, he didn't realize that the man in his grasp had awakened from a chaotic past. The one he held was no longer the thirty-year-old Chen Sanshui but rather resembled the sixty-year-old Chen Erniu.

"Every six hours."

Chen Sanshui's heart was as calm as still water. He pretended to tremble as he spoke, finally feeling a sense of peace that he had not entirely failed the main family after twenty years of luxurious living.

Lijing Mountain slowly appeared before them. Gani Xi reined in his horse, casually twisted off Chen Sanshui's head, and looked at the headless corpse, a tangled mass of bone and flesh, blood staining the ground crimson. He laughed coldly.

"Useless!"

As the world spun, Chen Sanshui's head lightly landed by the roadside. His eyes stared blankly at the cloud-filled night sky, and only one thought surfaced in his mind:

"Li Xiangping, this is all I could do, old man. You're tough as nails, but you've finally met your match!"