Family Cultivation: I Become a Mirror

Lijing Town, the Xu Family.

Bare-chested, Xu Xiao revealed his muscled arms. He had gone out early that morning and had noticed many things, but still felt some uncertainty. It was as if there were silver needles constantly twisting at his brow.

Hidden away within his house, Xu Xiao clasped a jade bead in his sleeve while adopting a meditative posture, his body's Qi fluctuating as his mind raced with thoughts:

'This morning, Constable Chen didn't patrol the street at the usual time... Either something has happened, or he was reassigned. If the Li Family is planning a major move, they certainly can't keep it hidden from him. They must have transferred him away first...'

Xu Xiao's subterfuge, with Elder Liu and Constable Chen secretly under his control, didn't give him much confidence. Deep down, he always felt uneasy, knowing he mustn't reveal any weakness due to Liu Lingzhen's timid nature.

He spoke disparagingly, but he knew all too well the deep-rooted power of the Li Family. Having these two in his grasp substantially increased the risk of exposure, causing him even more anxiety.

While out gathering medicinal herbs, he passed by a tavern and glanced inside to see if Elder Liu was drinking as usual. Instead, he found the tavern smashed up by troublemakers, now closed for rest.

Doubtful yet half-convinced, Xu Xiao returned to his yard, a sense of foreboding persistently nagging at him:

'If the Li Family is ready to oppose me, the executor of this plan is no simple character... But why go to such lengths... Why would anyone start with such overt aggression and secret plotting...'

He found it strange, constantly feeling a thorn in his side, wishing he could immediately flee, but with Liu Lingzhen still on the mountain, he found it hard to leave her behind.

Xu Xiao believed that if he could just have a decade or more, he would return in glory, breaking the Li Family's local hegemony and raising his own family to the ranks of the Noble Families. But before that time came, he certainly did not want an open break with the Li Family.

As the jade bead rolled in his palm, Xu Xiao suddenly envisioned many fantasies; his chest and shoulder blades ached, his heart was in turmoil, as if catastrophe loomed. His left hand was already pressed against the storage bag.

"Hiss!"

Suddenly, he felt a cold tingle on half of his face and leaped up from the water, back-stepping. A suit of crimson armor shone around his body, and as the entire wall collapsed, a black gleam emerged.

"Boom!"

With an explosive sound, dust flew everywhere as the room collapsed. A massive black tail swept across, its hook dark and sinister. Xu Xiao narrowly avoided the attack, merely grazed, his face paling momentarily.

"A Foundation Establishment monster!"

The black-cloaked young man before him wore an unyielding expression, his cloak rustling in the wind, and his boots pressing against the ground. Within his shadow, two black hooks twisted, exuding waves of chill.

Xu Xiao was horrified, exclaiming in shock:

"You're that hook serpent!"

Li Wushao, having missed his strike, suppressed his surprise and peered curiously, wondering:

"Indeed, there's something unique about you. A mere Qi Cultivator managing to dodge my attack."

As the cries of battle rose, several men charged with swords. Xu Xiao crushed a jade bead in response, a circular Qi Shield materializing before him as he eyed Li Wushao and shouted:

"I've never offended you. I merely stopped that young master from forcefully marrying a peasant girl, and yet you wield such tyranny, aiming to silence me by killing me!"

His words didn't show the slightest fear of the Li Family's Qi Cultivators; instead, he furrowed his brows, baffled, and took the offensive to question them. The encircling Qi Cultivators were of no real significance to him.

'They're nothing but a bunch of Third Grade Cultivation Techniques, without any Spell capability, they can't even scratch me.'

As expected, the Dharma Shield was of Foundation Establishment level; the Dharma Light from the attacking Qi Cultivators had no effect on the shield and bounced off harmlessly. Li Xijun, unseen from a distance, stood in the clouds, musing:

'Fortunately, Li Wushao is here; otherwise, even if all the family's elders were here, they wouldn't be able to touch him... Thankfully, it's Li Wushao and not Kongheng who stayed, and fortunately, his tail hook is repaired... Even the slightest deviation would have left us helpless against him today!'

Below, Li Wushao, originally a sea monster from the East Sea, didn't understand the concept of abducting a peasant girl and thought Xu Xiao was spouting nonsense, disregarding his words and continuously lunging with his tail hook. But Chen Mufeng couldn't let him keep shouting, and he protested:

"Demon! You killed Liu Yi! You used Demonic Skill to control the constable, breaking through from the Second Layer of Fetal Breathing to the Third Layer of Qi Cultivation in under two years! If that's not practicing Demonic Skill, what is it? You've undoubtedly consumed countless people in secrecy!"

As he spoke, Li Wushao's tail hook had already crashed against the Shield. The strength disparity between Foundation Establishment and Qi Cultivation was too great for Xu Xiao to evade. Hit head-on by the tail hook, even though the Shield dissolved much of the force, he still spat blood and crashed heavily into a section of the wall.

Li Wushao, a monster that had survived in the East Sea, relied heavily on his pair of tail hooks for his strength, harboring some cunning tricks. But he had been pinned down by a single Magic Artifact from Kong Tingyun, leaving him at the mercy of two others. Now that he had repaired his tail hook, his new prowess earned Li Xijun's approval.

'As for Xu Xiao... he doesn't seem that strong...'

Just one strike from Li Wushao was enough to leave Xu Xiao bleeding and beaten, allowing Li Xijun to breathe a sigh of relief. While watching the situation closely, he meticulously noted the reactions of those around him, preparing for future precautions.

'Indeed... Even a reincarnated Golden Core needs to reach the Qi Cultivating Peak to play around under the hands of the Kong Family's Foundation Establishment ancestor for that span of time... I've been too cautious.'