Family Cultivation: I Become a Mirror-Chapter 67 Ji Dengqi
Ji Dengqi knelt behind his father that year, shaking in the rustling autumn wind, as he watched the Wan Family Head slowly lift up his own father, spit on his blood-streaked face, and sneered lightly:
"The Ji Family is nothing more than this."
He lowered his head, tears continuously sliding down his face, dripping from his chin, dampening his thin autumn clothes, and moistening the cracks between the bricks on the ground.
He barely lifted his head, and standing quietly behind the Wan Family Head was a young man in splendid clothes, coldly laughing as he watched him.
Later, he learned that the youth’s name was Wan Xiaohua, the Young Master of the Wan Family.
Wan Xiaohua stood there with a cold laugh, while he, Ji Dengqi, knelt crying.
What kind of humiliation was this? The Wan Family launched a surprise attack on Huazhong Mountain, breaking through the Mountain Protection Array that had only been built for three years in nineteen breaths, slaying the current Ji Family Head, and dragging out every member of the Ji Family, even those still in their sleeping robes.
Twenty-nine members of the Ji Family’s direct lineage, most still in light clothes and sleeping blankets, knelt trembling in the courtyard, watching as Ji Dengqi’s father, the Young Master of the Ji Family, was humiliated.
Even outside the collapsed courtyard walls, a mass of commoners knelt, those who lived under the Ji Family’s rule, watching as the once-noble direct descendants of Immortals faced humiliation, female members of the clan dragged away with their blankets pulled off, shrinking into balls, male members trampled underfoot struggling.
Every night when he dreamed of this scene, Ji Dengqi was livid with rage, tears streaming uncontrollably, and he would sit up again to practice his cultivation.
The Wan Family Head kicked his father viciously, making him spit out fresh blood and collapse limply, and Ji Dengqi, crying, hugged the man’s leg and pleaded:
"The Ji Family will become dogs for you, the Ji Family will watch over the Yu Family for you under the Tang Jin Sect, the Ji Family will offer tribute every year..."
The man sneered coldly, kicked Ji Dengqi away, making his head spin and knocking out two of his teeth. He laughed haughtily and said:
"The two clans are mortal enemies. Countless families have perished along the boundary; if it were not for the fear that exterminating the Ji Family would bring us to the boundary of the Yu Family, could my Wan Family have spared you? The Ji Family wishes to become dogs, but my Wan Family dares not accept."
Wan Xiaohua followed behind the man, looking at him with a smile, his eyes filled with mockery.
The man plundered the wealth of the Ji Family, took away the high-and-mighty members of the Wan Family, leaving behind the ruins of Huazhong Mountain, the disgraced Ji Family, the onlookers with strange looks in their eyes, and the corpses in the courtyard.
Three days later, his father also died. His Xuanjing Wheel was shattered, his Spiritual Energy dissipated, and he died lying on the couch, whimpering weakly. Ji Dengqi, crying, leaned close to hear his father’s faint voice saying:
"Do not forget... to avenge my death... at the hands of the one who broke the Formation."
Ji Dengqi bit his lips until they bled and took his place as the Family Head.
Ji Dengqi began to kill, slaughtering those commoners who dared to look up at him, killing until the blood flowed in streams, until his hands were stained red with blood, killing until no one dared recall the night the Wan Family ascended Huazhong Mountain. The thirteen-year-old boy often liked to smash the heads of these commoners to pieces right before their eyes, to watch the blood drip down.
Two years later, news came that made Ji Dengqi ecstatic yet filled with regret. That man, proficient in Qi Cultivation and Formations, died tragically at the hands of an enemy in Da Li Mountain. The glorious era of the Wan Family ended without even a final note sung to its conclusion. Wan Xiaohua, who had hastily taken the position of Family Head, was once again forced to retract his power, and the land to the east fell to the Lu Family.
"But it’s not enough. Wan Xiaohua’s talent is better than mine, and the Wan Family has a deep foundation. This is far from enough."
Fortunately, an opportunity arose when the Young Sect Master of Tang Jin Sect sought an ingredient infused with nature’s spiritual energy on Wangyue Lake. Ji Dengqi, like a dog, fawned and busied himself for the favor of the man enjoying idle time under the trees. The man in a golden robe finally burst into hearty laughter and asked him what he wanted.
Ji Dengqi knew full well that the question was not what he wanted but on what grounds he presumed to ask for anything. Ji Dengqi replied that the dog did not wish for anything but wanted to present a woman.
In front of the indifferent eyes of the heavy guards surrounding the man in the golden robe, Ji Dengqi spoke in an ingratiating whisper:
"Your Highness requires someone close, a personal attendant with decent Spirit Aperture talent."
Ji Dengqi offered up his own younger sister, a girl with a Spirit Aperture and naïve innocence, that twelve-year-old girl who would smile and hug him, calling him ’Brother.’ The girl covered her face and wept, but with a choked yet firm voice, she said:
"Brother, I want to seek revenge, too."
And so, he watched his sister lie on that man’s bed, her delicate feet swinging at the foot of the bed. He dared not cry, and his sister dared not cry either.
His sister went with him and became the Young Sect Master’s servant girl. After that, year after year, elixirs and provisions arrived at their home. Ji Dengqi cultivated with relentless dedication, finally making a breakthrough in Qi Cultivation. The Ji Family, rather than celebrating or cheering, were moved to tears the instant this happened.
He immediately executed the old Qi Cultivator at the Fetal Breathing Peak from the Wan Family, guarding the lands once lost by the Ji Family—Wan Xiaohua’s uncle. It was then he discovered that Wan Xiaohua of Huaqian Mountain was no more than at the Yujing Wheel level.
No one could have anticipated the sudden death of Wan Family’s Qi Cultivator or that Ji Dengqi himself would reach the pinnacle of Qi Cultivation in just over a dozen years.
But the Great Formation left by Wan Huaqian, an ancestor of the Wan Family, proved as solid as a tortoise shell. Ji Dengqi harassed them for over ten years, and just as the Wan Family was making alliances with neighboring families, about to regain their footing, his hatred kept him awake night after night.
A few nights ago, Ji Dengqi received a letter from his sister, saying the Young Sect Master of Tang Jin Sect was about to visit Wangyue Lake again. He read and re-read the letter, a plan already forming in his mind.
After many years, that man returned to Wangyue Lake, still in search of that elusive nature’s spiritual energy. Ji Dengqi did not know what kind of wondrous spiritual energy kept bringing the man back, but he saw that the tide was turning in his favor.
He had his sister divulge the deep-seated hatred between their two families and repeatedly exaggerated the impregnability of the Wan Family’s Great Formation, finally stirring up the man’s competitive spirit. The man in the golden robe laughed heartily and said:
"Wan Huaqian was a recognized genius in formations by the Three Sects, astonishing and brilliant several hundred years ago. For the sake of Yu’er, this Young Master will give this Formation a try."
And so, alongside his family, Ji Dengqi, carrying a long saber, halted at the foot of Huaqian Mountain. The Ji family members, clad in leather armor, stood with him, quietly watching the flickering white light of Huaqian Mountain.
"Where is your support, Wan Xiaohua?"
Ji Dengqi muttered to himself:
"No number of Qi Cultivators will be of any use now. Your family’s downfall is sealed today. Your support, your trump cards, they will all be useless."
Suddenly, Ji Dengqi was filled with a profound sense of destiny. The gaze of his father, his grandfather, seemed to silently watch over him from behind, as he saw himself crushing through Huaqian Mountain.
"In this great battle, my Ji Family has the backing of the mighty Tang Jin Sect. There is a limit to human strength; you can neither see nor imagine it."
Tears suddenly streamed down his cheeks, his expression and resolute demeanor no longer tainted by servility. The torrent of malice and unceasing sorrow within Ji Dengqi solidified, rendering his otherwise small and fragile body extraordinarily staunch, refusing to let him be diminished any further.
