Building a Martial Dao Celestial Family by Laying Low

Outside Liyang City. A desolate village in the untamed wilds.

The setting sun was like blood.

A mass grave.

Crows perched on withered branches, letting out hoarse caws.

A few stray dogs were fighting over stale, moldy pastry offerings in front of a slightly more respectable-looking grave.

Just then, a figure in emerald green appeared silently at the edge of the graveyard.

The newcomer had a slender figure, clad in a green silk dress. She was exceptionally beautiful, but her eyes held a coldness that warned others to keep their distance.

Her appearance startled the stray dogs fighting over the food. They jerked their heads up, baring their teeth and letting out threatening growls.

But as if sensing danger, they immediately began to whimper, tucked their tails between their legs, and scattered in a panic.

The woman in green paid no mind to the fleeing dogs.

Her gaze was fixed on the desolate mass grave before her, her delicate brows knitted slightly, her expression growing grave.

She took an object from her robes.

It was an ancient, palm-sized Copper Mirror.

The woman in green extended a slender, jade-like finger. A wisp of Inner Qi swirled around its tip as she gently tapped the mercury surface of the mirror.

The mirror’s surface rippled with faint circles.

The woman in green held her breath, concentrating as she carefully sensed the faint fluctuations coming from the Copper Mirror.

A moment later, however, the grave look on her face deepened, and a hint of incredulous surprise appeared.

"How can this be?" she muttered to herself, a trace of confusion in her beautiful eyes. "The signal is strongest right here, so why is the mirror’s indicator moving?"

She channeled her Inner Qi again. The ripples on the mirror’s surface intensified, but the spiritual light indicating the direction was, indeed, moving.

She snapped her head up, her gaze sharp as lightning as she scanned her surroundings.

The setting sun, desolate graves, withered grass, crows... There was nothing but dead silence. Where could anyone be hiding?

But she quickly realized something. Her icy gaze instantly locked onto the stray dogs lingering in the distance, too afraid to approach yet unwilling to leave.

’Of course! The beasts!’

Her eyes swept over the dogs, finally settling on one old stray.

The woman in green flickered, leaving only a faint green afterimage in her place.

In the next instant, she reappeared as if by teleportation a few feet in front of the old dog.

The old dog seemed to sense the danger. Just as it raised its head in terror, the woman in green had already formed a sword-finger and pointed lightly from a distance.

"PUFF!"

With a dull thud, the old dog’s entire body exploded into a bloody pulp before it could even whimper. The stench of gore immediately filled the air.

The woman in green frowned, covering her nose with her sleeve, a flicker of disgust in her eyes.

She channeled her Inner Qi, creating a gentle Palm Wind that softly brushed aside the pool of blood and shredded flesh.

Amidst the gore, a mirror similar in style to the Copper Mirror in her hand was revealed, its surface caked with filth.

"Just as I thought!"

She snorted coldly. Suppressing her nausea, she once again channeled her Inner Qi to lift the small mirror out of the bloody mess from a distance.

Not daring to touch it directly, she encased the mirror in Inner Qi. After a few nimble leaps, she found a ditch nearby.

She submerged the Copper Mirror in the water, rinsing it several times until its surface was clean. Only then did she carefully wrap it in a clean, plain white handkerchief and put it away in her robes.

Having done all this, the woman in green glided back to the main road.

A carriage made of black nanmu wood was parked by the roadside. The two horses pulling it were exceptionally spirited, with long, slender pasterns.

The woman walked to the carriage window and said in a low voice, "Master, I’ve found it."

There was a moment of silence from within the carriage, followed by a low "Mm."

The curtain was lifted by a slightly plump hand with short, stubby fingers. A ruddy-faced, portly old man of about fifty leaned out.

He was dressed in silk robes and fiddled with an abacus, its counting beads glossy from use.

The old man took the handkerchief-wrapped Copper Mirror from the woman in green. He placed it in his palm without another word and sat cross-legged on the carriage shaft.

In the next moment, a faint light flashed at the crown of the old man’s head—his Celestial Spirit—followed by a burst of red light. A figure about a foot tall, with a face identical to the old man’s, materialized out of thin air. It was his Primordial Spirit.

The Primordial Spirit rapidly formed a series of hand signs for a Technique in mid-air, muttering an incantation. Streams of Primordial Qi—far more condensed than Inner Qi and imbued with a strange fluctuation—flowed into the Copper Mirror.

"BUZZ..."

The Copper Mirror began to tremble violently, its watery surface rippling madly.

The white light lasted for a few breaths before gradually fading. The originally dull mercury surface began to display a gory, indistinct scene, like a reflection on water.

But soon, the image rewound rapidly. The scene shifted, finally freezing on a pitch-black night.

A blurry, dark figure was stuffing the mirror into the old dog’s body.

Unfortunately, the night was too dark. The figure was not only shrouded in black night-crawling clothes but also wore a mask, making it impossible to discern any physical features.

The old man with the abacus frowned, channeling his Primordial Qi once more. The scene in the mirror continued to rewind further back in time.

The scene changed abruptly. It was no longer the wilderness, but a room lit by the dim, yellow glow of a candle.

However, just as the image was about to become clear, the entire image suddenly distorted and blurred violently, rendering it impossible to see anything clearly.

"Hm?"

The abacus-wielding old man’s expression hardened, a sharp glint in his eyes.

He clearly hadn’t expected the mirror’s scrying to be obstructed.

The small Primordial Spirit changed its hand seals, and an even more majestic surge of Primordial Qi poured into the Copper Mirror, attempting to forcefully break through the obstruction.

The Copper Mirror trembled violently. Its surface flashed erratically, and countless broken, distorted images flickered past at high speed.

At the height of the struggle, something unexpected happened.

A golden light, incredibly condensed and radiating righteous authority, took the shape of a finger. It approached from a distance, carrying an indescribable sense of majesty and pressure as it pointed directly at them.

"Primordial Spirit?! A Grandmaster!"

Startled, the old man with the abacus made a split-second decision. He cut off the flow of Primordial Qi and retracted his Primordial Spirit back into his body.

The old man’s face turned pale, his breathing becoming chaotic.

"Master!"

The woman in green turned pale with fright and hurried forward to support the old man.

The old man with the abacus waved his hand, signaling that he was fine.

After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the old man slowly opened his eyes. He let out a long, turbid breath, his eyes filled with gravity and uncertain suspicion.

"A Grandmaster acted personally?"

He muttered to himself, his brow furrowed. "How did they manage to provoke such a figure?"

The woman in green, who had heard him clearly, looked stunned. "Master, are you saying that Brother Tian and Senior Sister He were killed by a Grandmaster?"

The old man with the abacus nodded, his face a mixture of confusion and fury. "There’s no mistake. But... which Grandmaster is this? To stoop so low as to attack juniors with such ruthlessness? Utterly shameless!"

The woman in green hesitated for a moment before asking in a low voice, "Master, should we continue the investigation?"

"Investigate! Why wouldn’t we?"

A sharp glint flashed in the old man’s eyes. "So what if it’s a Grandmaster? Anyone who dares to kill someone from my Qingtian Bureau, even if he were the Jade Emperor himself, will pay the price. Otherwise, how could the Qingtian Bureau possibly maintain its standing in the Jianghu?"

...

「Afternoon.」

On a street corner in front of the Sun Mansion, several willow trees cast large patches of shade.

Under the shade of the trees was a tofu pudding stall, with a few square tables with peeling paint and several long benches.

The stall owner was an old man in his sixties, wearing a coarse cloth undershirt. He was leaning against his carrying pole, dozing off. Business was clearly slow.

A black nanmu carriage pulled up slowly beside the willow trees.

The carriage curtain was lifted, and an old man in his fifties holding an abacus stepped out. He was followed by a graceful woman in an aqua-green silk dress, who bowed as she disembarked.

The old man startled awake and quickly put on a smile. "Welcome, honored guests. Care for some tofu pudding? My tofu pudding is the best in Liyang."

"Two bowls," the old man with the abacus said calmly, then pointed to the carriage. "And send one to the driver."

Steaming hot bowls of tofu pudding, as white and smooth as jade, were served.

The old man with the abacus scooped up a spoonful and tasted it, his brow twitching slightly. "Old man, why is your tofu pudding sweet? And with the fragrance of osmanthus?"

The old man looked even more surprised than him. "Brother, if tofu pudding isn’t sweet, what other flavor could it be? We people of Liyang have eaten it sweet for generations. I even add the golden osmanthus I saved from autumn. You won’t find this kind of sweetness anywhere else."

The woman in green also took a bite. The cloying sweetness made her frown slightly; she was clearly not used to it.

The old man with the abacus, however, seemed to have taken an interest. "How do you make this osmanthus sugar syrup?"

The old man immediately shook his head like a rattle-drum. "I can’t tell you that. It’s not that I’m stingy, but the recipe for the syrup is my secret trade. It’s how I make a living."

The old man with the abacus flipped his hand, and a silver ingot worth about five taels landed on the greasy wooden table with a soft CLINK.

The old man’s eyes went wide. He snatched the silver, bit down on it hard, and upon seeing the clear tooth marks, his face broke into a huge grin.

"Brother, you’re a straightforward man."

With five taels of silver to pave the way, the old man’s floodgates opened. He seemed ready to pour out the secrets of eight generations of his ancestors.

The old man with the abacus listened quietly. When the stall owner finished talking about the syrup, he casually pointed to the sealed main gate across the street.

"This household looks quite grand. How did it end up in such a state? There are even seals from the Government Office on the gate."

The old man lowered his voice. "Brother, you’ve asked the right person. The government constables who came to seize the property even stopped here for some tofu pudding."

"This is the Sun Family. I heard they owed the Government Office a huge sum of money. When the Sun Family couldn’t produce the silver to pay it back, the Government Office had no choice but to seize their property to cover the debt, right?

Tsk tsk. I heard the Sun Family was incredibly wealthy—dozens of shops in the city, vast stores of grain, and tens of thousands of acres of fertile land in the countryside. It’s just like that line from the opera..."

As he spoke, the old man even began to hum an off-key tune from the opera, "...He has boundless wealth and a thousand hectares of land, while I have not a tile over my head, nor a speck of ground to stand on..."

The woman in green couldn’t help but frown. She interrupted, "Old man, are you saying the Liyang Commandery Magistrate’s Office seized all of the Sun Family’s properties?"

"Of course they seized it all."

The old man slapped his thigh. "I have a distant nephew who works at the Commandery Magistrate’s Office. He told me himself that a while ago, the Government Office divided up the Sun Family’s properties and sold them off. Several rich and powerful families bought them up. Tsk tsk, the silver was flowing into the Government Office like a river..."

"Do you know which families bought them?" the woman in green pressed.

The old man scratched his head. "That... I’m not too sure about."

The woman in green frowned and continued to ask, "And the members of the Sun Family? Where did they all go?"

"The people?"

The old man thought for a moment. "On the day of the seizure, a huge crowd of them were chained up by the government constables and taken away. As for where they were taken, how would a common person like me know? They were probably thrown in the dungeons, I’d guess."

The two asked no more questions and finished their tofu pudding.

The carriage started moving, rolling slowly down the street.

The woman in green said in a low voice, "Master, Brother Tian and Senior Sister He... could it be that the Liyang Commandery Magistrate’s Office was behind it?"

The old man’s fingers subconsciously flicked the counting beads on his abacus. "Perhaps. Or perhaps there’s something else going on."

The woman in green knitted her delicate brows. "Then how do we investigate? We’ve just arrived in Liyang. We don’t know the place or the people. Uncovering the truth will likely be very difficult."

"Investigate?"

The old man stopped flicking his counting beads and said flatly, "Why waste the effort? Since suspicion points to the local Government Office..."

He paused, his tone turning cold. "We’ll just go and ask them directly. Whether they’re telling the truth or not, whether they’re involved or not—we’ll know once we interrogate them."