Chapter 817: The Fall of Mount Yan Pass (II)
Mount Qingdu.
The coldest days had passed and the heavy snow began to ease. Though the lake’s ice had yet to thaw, it had grown much thinner. Li Xuanxuan finished drawing a talisman, folded his sleeves, and strolled through the mountain.
He had heard that the northern situation was growing ever more chaotic, but news from their own people was growing scarcer by the day. Li Zhouwei had become busy, and Li Ximing remained in seclusion with no resolution regarding that child’s matter.
Li Xuanxuan deliberated for a moment, then decided to find Li Zhouwei, only to run into him at the temple gate. The young man wore a solemn expression and now stood a full head taller than Li Xuanxuan. Golden light flowed through his eyes, and his face was filled with thought. His black cloak was dusted with slowly melting snow.
“Huang’er... how did it go?” asked Li Xuanxuan.
Li Zhouwei bowed slightly and answered, “A devil cultivator just slipped into Mount Yue and conspired with some remnants of the Western Tan lineage to steal spirit paddies and flee. It has been dealt with. I came right away to report to you.”
Li Xuanxuan nodded. Li Zhouwei raised his hand to shut the temple doors and activated the isolation formation. Only then did worry show on his face as he spoke softly, “My trusted men stationed along the northern river have just returned. They reported rampant demonic smoke spreading southward. It’s spreading so much that even Mount Yan Pass was covered in it. It’s likely been breached by devil cultivators. The situation looks grim.”
Li Xuanxuan let out a long sigh and asked quietly, “Have there been any signs from the family’s life jades?”
Li Xuanxuan was referring to the life jades the core members of the Li Family all nurtured in the ancestral hall. If any faced life-or-death danger within five to ten years, the life jade would show signs.