Family Cultivation: I Become a Mirror-Chapter 87 On Yi Shan City
Li Chijin stood atop the grey-white towering city wall, gazing down at the surging flock of beasts without a word.
Time had not left any marks on his face; he still had the appearance of a youth, only his demeanor was substantially more mature.
After battling in the Southern Border for five years, Li Chijin’s swordsmanship had become increasingly proficient. He had mastered several sword techniques of his sect and had made quite a name for himself—everyone knew that Qing Sui Peak had produced a young Sword Immortal, his swordsmanship extraordinarily formidable.
Wiping the blood off his longsword, Li Chijin took a deep breath facing the rising sun and exhaled a puff of pure white spiritual energy from between his lips and teeth.
"This Yi Shan City really is sturdy."
The disciple from Green Pond Sect standing behind him, with a smile in her voice and the magic artifact beads in her hand floating up and down, was none other than Deng Qiuzhi.
Li Chijin nodded, swallowed the spiritual medicine in his hand, and kept adjusting the mana within his body, hoping to recover his condition as soon as possible to make the next shift change a bit easier on him.
"Well, isn’t that ironic? The very shift I take at Yi Shan City, and we’re hit by a beast tide, fiercer than the last!"
Deng Qiuzhi said with a cold sneer, her tone mocking, drawing glances from the people around her.
Seeing that Li Chijin remained unmoved and continued with his cultivation, Deng Qiuzhi sat down on the ground and muttered:
"However, they’ll all have to be buried with you if they want to devour you or me."
"There he goes, going crazy again..."
"Aren’t all the people from the Deng family like this?"
People around were whispering, looking at Deng Qiuzhi with peculiar eyes. Li Chijin frowned upon seeing this and said in a stern voice:
"Stop talking, and recover your mana, unless you want me to save you again!"
Deng Qiuzhi was taken aback, laughed, and shook his head, but then heard a cheer from below.
"They’ve retreated, they’ve finally retreated! The beast tide has backed down!"
It turned out that the wave of the beast tide had finally receded, giving everyone a chance to breathe. Everyone cheered and climbed down from the city wall. A smile also appeared on Li Chijin’s face, and as he descended the ladder, he thought about writing a letter home.
Deng Qiuzhi shamelessly followed him, squinting against the brilliant morning sun and laughed:
"Don’t you think something is off?"
"What’s off?"
Li Chijin raised an eyebrow. He sheathed his green-white Green Peak sword, and with a smile full of playfulness, he looked at her and teased:
"You’ve been talking nonsense lately; could it be that the deeper you practice that technique, the closer you are to becoming possessed?"
Having fought side by side in the Southern Border for five years, Deng Qiuzhi and Li Chijin had long put behind the incident from their early days and had become close friends, reliant on each other in life and death.
"Every time we’re exhausted, the beast tide graciously recedes. When has such a considerate occurrence ever happened?"
Deng Qiuzhi said with a smile, yet her eyes were filled with profound meaning.
"In a life or death situation, who can afford to hold back their strength? Not just you and I—every sect’s disciple on this city wall is completely spent," Li Chijin retorted with a smile and greeted someone at his side.
"Think about it."
Deng Qiuzhi patted his shoulder and said in a low voice:
"If you were the Demon King of the Southern Border, would you senselessly send thousands of beasts and demons to die for nothing? Wouldn’t it be better for him to consume them himself to increase his cultivation level? Could these creatures really topple Yi Shan City? Handing them over to the Three Sects and Seven Doors on a silver platter, isn’t that the act of a fool?"
"Moreover, if the Demon King wanted to kill these sect disciples, he could just push the beast tide to wear us out till death. Coming in waves like a fool, occasionally relaxing and resting in between—it looks like he is simply delivering us meals..."
Li Chijin laughed, greeting another person beside him, and effectively cutting Deng Qiuzhi off, which made him glare at Li Chijin before leaning in and whispering into his ear: 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
"Do you know when was the last time Yi Shan City fell!"
Li Chijin wore a faint smile and replied softly,
"Twenty-five years ago, many perished in the conflict among the Three Sects and Seven Doors, including the Foundation Establishment Cultivator Yu Yuxie, who practiced the ’Green Smoke Illuminates the Moon Technique’ and had consumed the Taiyin Moonlight."
Deng Qiuzhi suddenly became rigid, his eyes filled with shock, and he stuttered in response,
"You... know..."
"Of course, I know."
With a smile, Li Chijin nodded. The two climbed the mountain without another word and entered Li Chijin’s Cave Mansion.
Once Deng Qiuzhi had followed him inside, Li Chijin pinched a spell with his hand to isolate the inside from the outside before silently gazing at Deng Qiuzhi.
"I’ve been in this cursed place for five years now. I’ve read all the Secret Manuals in the city, and together with the events at Mushroom Forest Plain, it wasn’t hard to see something was amiss."
"All I didn’t know was when they would make their move and how long they intended to keep me... But you, why are you involved?"
Deng Qiuzhi clenched his fists, grinding his teeth as he said,
"The Green Pond Sect had long discontinued the legacy of the Taiyin Moonlight. My Deng family has a unique constitution, so I was forced by my family to practice that Secret Technique generation after generation, turning us into supplements, commodities to be traded with the Demon King of the Southern Border for Spiritual Objects."
"In the early years, the Secret Technique was incomplete; it drove members of my Deng family insane. Over the centuries, we’ve made improvements, and it actually doesn’t affect one’s mind as it used to, but we still have to play the fool and the madman..."
Li Chijin said nothing. He took off his Feather Clothing and began making tea at the stone table.
After a deep sigh, Deng Qiuzhi paused and said,
"I’ve checked the various Spiritual Medicines and Spirit Pills given by the Sect. They are all deeply medicinal components, this is... to refine a Human Pill."
"A Human Pill?"
Li Chijin filled the teacups in front of them and said with a smile,
"I just wonder which Demon King in the Southern Border is preparing for a breakthrough. Such a grand gesture indeed."
Seeing Li Chijin’s smiling face, Deng Qiuzhi relaxed a bit and replied irritably,
"And you still can laugh."
"What else can we do?"
Li Chijin shook his head and said in resignation,
"The Green Pond Sect is too powerful, and we have no way out. My pointless death here in the Southern Border will seem like a sacrifice for the Sect on the surface. At least there might be some compensation for my family. Can we try to escape and bring about the destruction of our entire clan?"
Deng Qiuzhi sipped his tea, lowered his head in resentful agreement, and exclaimed,
"Even so... we’ve lived our lives in vain, only to be devoured by beasts in the end!"
The smile on Li Chijin’s face faded as he spoke with a forlorn expression,
"We are the fish on the chopping block under the knife; as fish, we need to have the resolve of fish. Hasn’t your Deng family also endured from generation to generation in silence? The Green Pond Sect has flourished for five hundred years; can they continue to thrive forever? There will come a day of decline. As long as the family survives, silently accumulating strength, there will be a day to seek revenge for the grudges of nine generations."
"Cultivators live long lives; it’s uncommon for today’s grudges to be avenged tomorrow. Every generation has its own mission."
Li Chijin stood up slowly, looking at the Green Peak in his hand, and continued,
"Our mission is to feed the Green Pond Sect, to provide our families a chance to breathe. If not for this, what else can we do? Can we expect to advance to Zifu as easily as characters in pulp fiction, compelling the Green Pond Sect to revoke their orders?"
"Let’s take it one step at a time."
Deng Qiuzhi sat down cross-legged, uttered in dejection,
"No matter what, escaping is out of the question. If you and I fled Yi Shan City, our families back home would be finished."
