Chapter 296 - An Unusual Clue to a Breakthrough, a Night in the Same Cave as Gu Xuejian - Part 1

After leaving the north gate, Li Yuan ambled along and soon found himself back in Silver Creek.

Days of wandering had convinced him that, on the surface, Gemhill County still ran like any small, ordinary county, only now certain corners had turned lethally dangerous.

It could hardly be called a

forbidden death zone.

The Lotus Cult and the emperor both needed people alive; why drain the lake to catch a few fish?

As Li Yuan strolled past a roadside stall, he bought a paper bag of frostgrass candy. It was the same treat he used to see in Autumnlake County years ago; funny that it was still around.

He then turned west toward Little Ink Village, keeping an unhurried pace.

Night fell. Rather than push on, he chose a nearby resident as the new anchor for his thousand mile thread, then slipped back to Cloudpeak Province.

In the black market ghost domain, Li Yuan handed the candy to Sheng'er, and the family shared a hot meal.

Tang Nian had brought ample, high‑quality provisions, and the deep winter chill in Cloudpeak Province made storing food easy.

Cooking was still Yan Yu’s realm. She never ate herself; she would sit quietly and watch her husband and daughter enjoy the food.

It felt like any ordinary family of three.

Li Yuan, more relaxed than he had been in years, even drank a jar of wine—laced with a petal of burning heart flower, strong enough to make him tipsy.

Half drunk, Li YUan let Yan Yu help him out of his shoes and trousers and onto the bed in one of the larger rooms of the ghost domain.

A flick of her sleeve, and the blue robe melted away.

What followed was simply the routine of husband and wife.

The night slipped by.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Li Yuan woke up clear‑headed. After Yan Yu finished his Yin disguise, he twitched a finger and returned to the fixed point he had left the night before.

Perhaps it was his Eternal Youth—or the perfect Yin-Yang balance between him and Yan Yu—but his heart was perfectly calm. If patience could avoid a fight, why bludgeon his way through?

Following familiar paths, he noted every change since the old days.

Before long, Li Yuan stood in Little Ink Village.

His home, however, was no longer this shabby village; home was wherever Yan Yu, Sheng'er, Xue Ning, and Tang Nian were. He wished he could bring Cui Huayin, Jing Shuixiang, Gu Yaojue, and Ping'an too, but those three would never leave the Holy Tree Temple.

The village had been poor for as long as anyone remembered. Children he once knew were adults now, yet every household still worried about the next meal.

Curiosity drew him past his old house. He expected a cobwebbed ruin. Instead, it had become a forge.

A bare‑armed, muscle‑knotted man hammered steel outside the door, furnace‑glow reddening the sweat on his skin. A village girl in a blue handkerchief bustled in and out behind the curtain.

The blacksmith was seventh rank, the girl eighth, unheard‑of power for Little Ink Village.

A rider clattered up and stopped at the forge. He wore a red banana and rough leathers, the mark of a Red Lotus Rebel.

“This dump’s even got a blacksmith?” he sneered. “Think you can sell anything?”

“Why not?” The blacksmith paused and smiled. “Don’t judge by the looks, sir. Master Li once lived here. This is where his legend began.”

“Master Li...” The man fell silent, hatred and fear mingling in his eyes.

The front line had collapsed like sand.

One woman, one sword, She had shredded the defence and kept mowing down everything in her path.

And for reasons unknown, the Lotus Cult’s high command still hadn’t sent a real heavyweight after her. Some said even Peng Mi was dead by her hand; the next to go would have to be the cult leader himself.

The man had never seen the battlefield, but he had heard about how the woman was Gu Xuejian, a deputy temple master of the Holy Tree Temple, and the sword was called Sun And Moon Aloft, a demonic blade forged by the

deceased

Master Li.

It was that Peng Mi had been cut down by that very sword.

That alone spoke to the sword’s power.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

When the news spread, the entire Lotus Cult was stunned. The name

Master Li

shifted overnight from

A fool of a weaponsmith who used up his lifespan forging weapons

to

An aggrieved father who forged the peerless Sun And Moon Aloft to avenge his daughter.

Master Li’s reputation shot through the roof. It wasn’t just Master Zhu who was stunned by the creation of Sun And Moon Aloft. Every weaponsmith of the Lotus Cult who’d heard the prowess of the weapon were equally struck with awe. None of them dared to believe that Sun And Moon Aloft really possessed a vampiric spirit formation.

With that, the name

Master Li

became cemented in history—and wrapped in mystery and death.

The man stammered, “M‑Master Li...lived here?”

“Sure did,” the blacksmith said. “I admired him so much I moved my wife in.”

The word

admired

sent the bandit’s eyes spinning with schemes.

The blacksmith sighed, half to himself. “High Priest Tan said Master Zhu might drop by, maybe even today.”

At those two names, the man straightened, buried whatever crooked plan he’d had, and gave a quick bow. “If working here lets you catch a bit of Master Li’s teachings and forge stronger weapons, that’s a blessing for the Lotus Cult.”

He spurred his horse and fled.

The blacksmith’s lips twitched in a quiet snort, and he went back to the anvil.

Li Yuan, listening from the shadows, could already gauge the man’s level—a seasoned craftsman, stuck just shy of grasping the Quickening. Even so, a peak seventh rank blacksmith would be valued the moment he showed his skill.

Interesting guy

, Li Yuan thought, but not worth walking over to chat. Meeting his father-in-law could wait as well. He shifted his thousand‑mile thread to anchor on the blacksmith, then resumed his original route, circling the hills toward Martial Lodge.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Dusk arrived.

Li Yuan was a kilometer and a half out. He darted up an old tree, settled on a branch, and spread his senses.

What had once been a lone thatch hut by the lake had sprawled into a full compound. Clearly, the Lotus Cult now prized Martial Lodge.

Why?

Li Yuan wondered.

Changing angles, he spotted another surprise. The Grand Abode had been moved here too. The two sites merged under a new sign—Blade Seekers . The martial lineage he’d created was now gathered in one spot.

What could they be after...?

Li Yuan frowned, but he knew guessing blindly was pointless.

Just then, a handful of dusky birds fluttered past. Winter was harsh, but warm snows kept the small creatures alive. His old scouting birds were gone, so he linked to five newcomers and sent them fanning out.

Voices drifted from the surroundings.

“Training here’s a steal. If you reach seventh rank, they bankroll you to sixth.”

“They even have a visualization aid. See it and your odds of breaking through soar.”

“And folks who reach sixth rank with this technique come out stronger than normal sixth rankers. Three of them have already got tapped for big posts.”

“Aren’t Instructors Zhao, Xu, and Yang still around?”

“They’re in charge of running the place. Of course, they’re still around. But you know, they’re kind of...weird.”

“What do you mean?”

“Daytime’s fine; at night, it’s like they go mad... Have you heard of those howling noises from the deep chambers? Don’t you th—”

“Shh. Drop it.”

Every snippet fed Li Yuan’s picture of a situation spiraling into something twisted and chaotic. He had patience; the vantage point was good. He would watch for a few days.