14: Chapter 14 Mistaken Spring

Before dawn, mist had already risen in the place on the Main Peak where Spring was cultivated.

That place was at the western foothills of Qingsang Main Peak, called Nuanshi Hollow.

The name sounded warm, but once you actually walked in, it was colder than outside.

On both sides were boulders half a person's height, with white Qi drifting slowly out from the crevices.

Jiang Chengning held the secondary token, walking in the lead.

Jiang Yuhe followed behind, hiding that Start of Spring Bud Stone and half a cup of Rain Water Dew in her sleeves.

These were what Jiang Chengning had exchanged the wooden ruler Spiritual Artifact for some time ago, and they were also the greatest source of confidence for their daring to enter Nuanshi Hollow today.

The guide from the Zhou Family was a middle-aged steward in his forties, with a thin face and thin lips; he didn't say a word the whole way, just led them toward the west.

"The secondary token only allows entry to the outer circle." He stood before a stone gate and looked back at Jiang Chengning. "Inside are mostly wild Spring, mostly first-grade. Whether you encounter any, and whether you can catch it if you do, depends on your own fate."

Jiang Chengning nodded.

"Understood."

The steward didn't leave; he pointed behind the stone gate.

"Don't go to that white mist in the deepest part." He said, "In places where the mist is heavy, the Qi is chaotic. A Cold Household got greedy for the path the year before last; after going in, his lungs were damaged by the chaotic Qi, and he coughed blood until he died."

After saying this, he stepped back half a pace.

When Jiang Chengning stepped through the stone gate, Zhou Wang felt something was wrong from within the family genealogy.

The "Spring" in this place was too quiet.

Normal Spring, even stable Qi like Start of Spring or Rain Water, shouldn't be as quiet as a frozen stone.

The white Qi in Nuanshi Hollow looked like Spring, but inside, there wasn't the slightest sign of vitality.

Jiang Yuhe slowly let that bit of Listening to Rain in her ears sink down.

There wasn't much wind in Nuanshi Hollow, but there were faint, fragmented sounds from the stone crevices.

If Spring Qi were truly alive, it should be pushing upward and expanding outward, but that mass of the whitest mist deep in this place seemed to be contracting inward.

She felt a growing sense of doubt in her heart.

But since they had already come in, there was no reason to just stand there.

Jiang Chengning skirted around two boulders and finally saw that puff of "Spring" in a shallow stone pit.

It was very small.

A mass of white Qi the size of a fingertip floated gently against the bottom of the stone.

The exterior had a faint tinge of green; at first glance, it looked like a newly sprouted Start of Spring bud.

The secondary token was originally meant for Cold Households to pick up scraps.

Jiang Chengning didn't hesitate; he sat down by the stone pit, steadied his breath, and then reached his hand out.

That puff of white Qi, guided by him, drilled into his body along his fingers.

The first breath, nothing happened.

The second breath, Jiang Chengning's shoulders and back suddenly stiffened.

The third breath, his whole body violently arched downward.

Not right, the path was wrong.

After that puff of Qi entered his body, it didn't follow the Spring path it should have taken according to the Inheriting Spring Guide.

That puff of Qi first contracted inward, then suddenly drilled into the joints of his limbs, so cold that his teeth felt numb.

Jiang Yuhe's face turned pale instantly.

"Dad, let go!"

Jiang Chengning wanted to let go, but his hand wouldn't obey.

That puff of Qi was like a thin white thread, traveling up from his palm, and in the blink of an eye, it climbed to his shoulder.

As his shoulder turned white, frost began to form even on the edges of his eyebrows.

Jiang Yuhe grabbed his wrist and pressed the Listening to Rain into him.

This time, she heard it clearly.

This was not Spring at all.

This was clearly a winter intent wearing a skin of Spring, first quiet, then constricting.

The Inheriting Spring Guide followed the path of Spring.

Jiang Chengning pressed it in, and the path was completely wrong.

Jiang Yuhe immediately pulled that Start of Spring Bud Stone from her sleeve and crushed it directly.

The pale green stone powder dissolved in her palm like a bit of tender Qi, and she pressed it all into Jiang Chengning's chest.

Immediately after, she uncorked the half cup of Rain Water Dew and poured it all into his mouth without leaving a drop.

"Turn, turn it back..."

She said this with her mouth, but in her heart, she knew it was difficult.

Turning winter intent into Spring was not something she should be dealing with right now.

Furthermore, this puff of Qi had already entered Jiang Chengning's body; the first step of the Inheriting Spring Guide's path was wrong, and every subsequent step felt like walking on ice.

She could only force it.

First, she used the Start of Spring Bud Stone to add a layer of "Spring Bone" to the wrong path in his chest, then used the Rain Water Dew to moisten the Meridians that were beginning to harden.

But she was only at the second level of Grain Rain; to go against the current and change it like this, it would be lucky to change even one-tenth of it.

Jiang Chengning's face was already turning blue.

He could still speak, but his voice was deep and hoarse.

"The Zhou Family... likely still has a backup plan..."

Jiang Yuhe's eyes reddened, but her hands became steadier.

She didn't answer him, still pressing down inch by inch on that misdirected Qi.

Only when the frozen, hardened flesh under her hands loosened slightly did she dare to let out a breath.

Zhou Wang also sensed that something was wrong from within the family genealogy almost at the same time.

Yuhe was pushing too hard on this side, and that puff of Qi in Jiang Chengning was already sealing inward; if they didn't save him, his Meridians would shatter, and he would either die or be crippled.

Sending Spring.

The last bit of genealogy ink in the family genealogy, which had been painstakingly cultivated back, was completely drained, and the paper pages dimmed along with it.

Zhou Wang felt as if a layer of his entire being had been scraped off the paper.

As that drop of ink fell onto Jiang Chengning, his chest, which had been almost completely sealed off, finally found a chance to breathe.

Jiang Yuhe also immediately withdrew her hand.

She first draped Jiang Chengning's arm over her shoulder, then propped him up.

"Let's go."

She only said one word.

The father and daughter stumbled toward the outside.

Outside the stone gate, the guiding Zhou Family steward was still standing in the same spot. Seeing them come out, he first noticed the layer of unmelted white frost on Jiang Chengning's temples; his eyelids twitched, but he didn't ask a single question.

He just moved aside to clear the path.

Jiang Yuhe didn't look at him.

She knew in her heart that this "Spring" going wrong was absolutely not a coincidence.

But right now, she didn't even dare to ask one extra question; she could only take her father away first.

What she didn't see was that after she passed, the steward lowered his head to look at the mass of white mist that had dispersed inside the stone gate, and the corners of his mouth moved very slightly.

When dawn broke, it was the most relaxed hour in the Jiang Family ancestral house.

Lin Suwen got up early; she had already stabilized the fire under the stove, and the pot was bubbling slightly.

She had only just inherited a puff of Start of Spring yesterday, and her Qi was still shallow; if she really had to use it for a fight, she might not be much stronger than a Mortal.

Zhao Xing was drying cloth in the courtyard.

Zhao Zhi and Ah Shi were squatting by the threshold, flipping through bamboo shoot shells; the two little ones had recently become close, and even little peach knew to follow behind and learn.

Jiang Xingchuan sat by the door of the east wing, holding the medicine packet sent by Chen Xiaoyan, and was sniffing it.

The medicine was acrid and pungent.

He frowned, but still brewed the medicine.

Suddenly, two figures vaulted over the wall.

It was Fifth Feng and Fourth Aunt Feng, their movements light; the courtyard was so quiet that not even the chickens crowed.

Fifth Feng had been driven to a dead end these days.

He hadn't grabbed the fields.

He hadn't touched the well.

The Main Peak used the corpse case to pressure the Jiang Family, but ended up almost crushing the Feng Family as well.

He knew he had no future left, but the Mortal enmity with the Jiang Family was a great worry in his heart.

What he wanted to break most was this Qi of the Jiang Family.

He wanted to scatter this family first.

So he chose the emptiest time.

Jiang Chengning and Jiang Yuhe went into the mountains.

Jiang Shoushan hadn't returned yet either.

Zhao Xing was just a girl who had just married into the family.

Lin Suwen, although she had inherited Spring, was still a novice at Qi Refining.

His and Fourth Aunt Feng's pounce was intended for a massacre.

Zhao Xing, holding the freshly wrung-out wet cloth, was just about to hang it on the bamboo pole when she suddenly heard a very faint rustling sound outside the wall.

She was stunned and immediately called out: "Aunt—"

She only managed to shout half a sound before the people on the wall had already vaulted in.

Fifth Feng.

As soon as he landed, he charged straight toward the kitchen.

Fourth Aunt Feng was even faster; she turned toward the door and directly blocked the main entrance of the ancestral house.

Lin Suwen looked up, unable to think of anything.

"Go inside!"

Ah Shi and Zhao Zhi were both stunned by her shout, and little peach was so scared that she cried out on the spot.

Zhao Xing reacted the fastest, grabbing the few little ones and shoving them violently toward the back room.

Fifth Feng's blade was already before her.

Lin Suwen couldn't even grab a fire poker at hand; she only had time to protect the vital points on her chest, forcibly deflecting the blade by half an inch.

The blade didn't cut into her chest.

But it slashed all the way across her shoulder and back.

Her clothes tore on the spot, and blood surged out instantly.

The intense pain distorted Lin Suwen's face, and she backhanded the hot ash from the stove into Fifth Feng's face.

Fifth Feng was scalded and closed his eyes, cursing; his blade momentum finally faltered for a beat.

In that half-beat, Jiang Xingchuan had already arrived.

He had originally been sitting by the door of the east wing brewing medicine; hearing his mother's shout of "Go inside," he didn't even think, and his whole body had already lunged out.

He had been feigning injury all this time.

Fifth Feng had also been treating him like a half-crippled invalid.

Therefore, when Jiang Xingchuan's palm pressed against him, Fifth Feng only gathered True Qi in his chest.

A mere Mortal, worthy of injuring a Cultivator?

Thunder Bud.

The Thunder Intent of the second level of Awakening of Insects was tightly suppressed in his palm; usually, he only dared to test it on damp wood, and the results were always poor.

At this moment, Jiang Xingchuan was anxious to save his mother, and that fierce, swift energy surged into his palm, in astonishing alignment with the imagery of Awakening of Insects.

He pressed his palm against Fifth Feng's chest, like a bolt of white lightning exploding fiercely inside.

Fifth Feng's entire body stiffened for a moment.

When he looked down, there was already a charred palm-shaped hole in his chest, its edges still faintly smoking.

Blood didn't come out at first; only a "gurgle" sound was heard in his throat, as if something had shattered.

The smugness and malice on his face hadn't yet fully faded before shock crept up.

"You—"

Seeing Fifth Feng struck, Fourth Aunt Feng immediately lunged back, slapping a damp talisman onto Jiang Xingchuan's wrist. As the water Qi entangled him, the Thunder Bud in Xingchuan's palm was instantly disrupted and dissipated.

It was at this very instant that Shoushan returned from the backyard.

When he pushed the door open and entered, the first things he saw were the blood on Lin Suwen's shoulder and back, the dissipating Thunder Bud in Jiang Xingchuan's palm, and that dark, gaping hole in Fifth Feng's chest.

Shoushan didn't ask anything.

His blade left its sheath, and he charged straight forward.

Fifth Feng still wanted to retreat, but his legs went weak first. Shoushan's strike was silent and traceless, slicing diagonally into his ribs and exiting through his back.

Fifth Feng's eyes were wide open, his mouth agape, and only then did blood gush out with a "whoosh."

Even in death, he couldn't understand.

Where did the Jiang Family get two Qi Refining Cultivators?

Seeing Fifth Feng go limp, Fourth Aunt Feng was stunned for a heartbeat.

The next moment, she actually knelt down first.

"Don't kill me."

These words came out too quickly.

Even Shoushan paused for a moment.

Fourth Aunt Feng's face was ashen, her lips trembling, and tears were streaming down. Just a moment ago, she was the one who had come to slaughter the family, yet now, kneeling on the ground, she looked as if someone had pulled out her bones.

"It was Fifth Feng's idea... I didn't mean to..."

As she spoke, she retreated backward.

She didn't retreat fast, but her eyes kept glancing at Lin Suwen and Jiang Xingchuan.

Lin Suwen, supporting herself against the stove, suddenly said in a low voice: "Xingchuan, be careful."

The plea in Fourth Aunt Feng's eyes vanished instantly.

She sprang up from the ground like a snake turning to bite, slamming the last talisman in her sleeve into her own palm, and lunged toward Jiang Xingchuan's chest with her blade.

She couldn't beg for her life.

So she would trade it.

Jiang Xingchuan's palm was still numb from striking through Fifth Feng with the Thunder Bud, and his Awakening of Insects Qi had been disrupted by the damp talisman; unable to summon lightning again in time, he could only cross his arms to block.

Fourth Aunt Feng's talisman exploded first.

A wave of extremely filthy Evil Qi slammed into his chest. Immediately after, the blade followed; although his blocked arm deflected it by half an inch, it still sliced open the flesh on his shoulder.

Jiang Xingchuan staggered back, his face turning pale on the spot.

Previously, Shoushan had some reservations; if the Feng Family collapsed like this and the Jiang Family's two Qi Refining Cultivators were exposed, it would inevitably attract great attention from the Zhou Family.

The Zhou Family wanted stable Cold Households that relied on the Main Family.

Not a Jiang Family with the strength to annex other Cold Households.

We are currently in the sensitive period of the Zhou-Zhao conflict; if even the balance provided by the Feng Family were gone, the Zhou Family would likely strike at the Jiang Family immediately, perhaps without even needing a reason.

But now, there was no turning back.

He stepped forward, a layer of extremely thin white frost from the Silent Winter Qi brushing across the back of his blade, and then the edge slashed across Fourth Aunt Feng's throat.

Fourth Aunt Feng's body stiffened, her eyes still wide open, but she fell backward.

The courtyard finally fell silent.

Only the sound of Xiao Tao's sobbing remained, terrified and gasping.

Zhao Xing pulled the three little ones tightly into her arms, her face covered in tears.

Ah Shi was the first to react, breaking free from her embrace and running to Lin Suwen's side to press against the blood on her shoulder.

Lin Suwen's face was as pale as paper, yet she still looked at Xingchuan first.

"Look at your brother first."

Zhao Xing pushed the three little ones into the back room and ran out to support Jiang Xingchuan.

As soon as her hand touched his arm, she felt that his entire body was burning, with Evil Qi rampaging through his chest.

Shoushan lowered his head, looked at the blood on his blade, and said slowly: "The news won't be suppressed; we have already forged a blood feud with the Feng Family, and there is no room for turning back."

Lin Suwen, supporting herself against the stove, her breathing tinged with the scent of blood, still nodded.

"Kill."

At this one word, everyone in the room understood.

With Fifth Feng and Fourth Aunt Feng dead in the Jiang Family's courtyard, once this news spread, it wouldn't be as simple as just having people come to their door.

The Main Peak, the He Family, the Wang Family, and even that newly arrived household at North Pass would all be watching.

Since things had come to this, the hidden danger of the Feng Family could not be left behind.

Just then, rapid footsteps suddenly sounded outside the courtyard gate.

Zhao Xing's face turned pale, thinking someone else was coming, and she gripped her hands tight. Shoushan grabbed his blade and headed for the gate, but when the door opened, it was Jiang Yuhe who walked in.

She was soaked through, her shoulder bent under the weight of Jiang Chengning.

Jiang Chengning's face was livid, his lips covered in frost; he had barely been dragged back, relying almost entirely on Yuhe.

"Father!"

Ah Shi cried out first.

As soon as Yuhe entered and saw the two corpses in the courtyard, she didn't stop, simply helping Jiang Chengning into the house.

"Close the door first."

Her voice was hoarse.

Shoushan turned around, immediately realizing that the situation was even more chaotic than the bloodbath in their home.

He kicked Fifth Feng's corpse aside to clear the way. Zhao Xing dragged the long bench from the room and spread bedding over it; Lin Suwen, barely able to stand herself, still reached out to help take him.

When Jiang Chengning was placed on the bench, the cold radiating from his body was almost palpable.

Yuhe composed her thoughts and spoke word by word: "Not Spring Qi... it's Pseudo-Spring... wrapped in Winter Intent... I only reversed less than half a percent..."

As she said this, she finally saw the blood on Lin Suwen's shoulder and the patch on Jiang Xingchuan's chest, and she froze for a moment.

"At home..."

Lin Suwen held on and said: "Save your father first."

The Jiang Family members were all united in an instant.

Zhao Xing went to boil water.

Ah Shi pushed Xiao Tao and Zhao Zhi into the back room.

Shoushan covered the blood in the courtyard with straw ash and dragged the two corpses behind the mill shed.

Jiang Xingchuan, blood still dripping from his chest, forced himself to sit up to help Jiang Chengning, but was held down by Lin Suwen.

"You sit right there."

As soon as she said this, she swayed herself.

Yuhe had no time to see who was more severely injured; she pressed her fingertips onto the frozen, hardened area on his chest, continuously channeling Grain Rain Qi into him.

But she had only managed to reverse less than ten percent of that misdirected energy; that he was still alive was only because Zhou Wang had used Sending Spring to hang onto his life.

Zhou Wang, huddled in the book, was nearly drained dry by this point.

He had already exhausted his ink while using Sending Spring in the mountains earlier, and now, seeing the blood-filled courtyard and the wounded in the house, he was powerless to help further.

Jiang Chengning was groggy, yet he still held onto a sliver of consciousness and hadn't passed out.

He opened his eyes just a crack, and the first things he saw were Fifth Feng's eyes, still not closed, and further in, the blood on Xingchuan and Suwen.

He took two breaths and whispered: "We cannot just wait."

Shoushan had by now dragged the two corpses into the back shed; when he returned, he wiped the blood from his body and his blade.

"I'll go."

Jiang Chengning looked up at him.

Shoushan only said: "The news hasn't spread yet. The Feng Family doesn't know that Fifth Feng and Fourth Aunt Feng died here. I'll go over first and deal with everyone left in the Feng Family who can still talk."

When this was said, Zhao Xing looked up first.

Her eyes were still red, but her voice did not tremble.

"I'll get your coat."

Shoushan looked at her and nodded.

Jiang Chengning did not stop him.

He understood in his heart that stopping him would be useless. This blood tonight had to be suppressed within the Feng Family's gates.

When Shoushan left with his blade, the wind in the courtyard had turned completely cold.

Zhao Xing stood by the door, wrapping the coat around him; as her fingers brushed against the hilt of his blade, she paused slightly.

"Come back."

She only said these two words.

Shoushan gave a grunt of acknowledgment and said nothing more.

As the door opened, the cold wind rushed in violently.

As the door closed, only the smell of blood, medicine, and the sound of boiling water remained in the room.

Shoushan stepped into the night and headed toward the bottom of the slope.

The wooden gate in front of the Feng Family's house was half-open, and the threshold still held the uncleaned mud and frost of winter.

He walked to the gate and stomped down hard with his boot, landing right on that threshold.

This night was not yet over.