This third-layer Qi Refining cultivator had been killed by Lu Changan single-handedly.
He had sole claim to the spoils, and the Mu family cultivators raised no objection.
"Lu Changan, well done!"
Mu Yunfei wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and could not help but look at him with new respect.
That Lu Changan had killed a third-layer Qi Refining cultivator surprised several of the Mu family cultivators.
But it was hardly world-shaking, either.
Besides being a cultivator, Lu Changan was also a martial expert, and his target had merely been a Zheng family rookie with no real combat experience.
"To stay alive for a while with a mid-Qi Refining cultivator hunting him—that's nerve and guts for you. The boy's a talent."
The Mu family head felt a private pang of regret.
Immortal seedlings like Lu Changan, already rejected by the sects, had proven their potential insufficient; their future achievements would be limited.
Even if a fish or two had slipped through the net among them, the Mu family would not pour effort into raising them.
To a cultivation family, loyalty mattered most of all; seedlings were selected and nurtured from among bloodline descendants.
Lu Changan had already passed the best age for cultivating loyalty.
This, too, was why the immortal sect examinations set age requirements—not for potential alone.
"Pauper."
Lu Changan finished tallying the spoils.
Besides that shoddy magic treasure, he had also gotten three and a half spirit stones and a first-rank, low-grade Wind-Walking Talisman.
Not even a storage pouch.
"Get used to it. This is what the bottom of the cultivation world looks like."
Lu Changan knew the haul was about normal. The one he had killed was merely an early Qi Refining cultivator of the Zheng family's new generation.
Just then came the sound of something tearing through the air.
Seven or eight Mu family cultivators flew over from the direction of Feiyue Lake.
"Maode, what's the situation?"
The leader was a tall man in a black robe, with hawk-like eyes, radiating a powerful fluctuation of mana.
"Second Elder!" Mu Yunfei and the others bowed respectfully.
The newcomer was the Mu family's Second Elder, Mu Renlong.
Ninth layer Qi Refining.
Among the Mu family's older generation, he had the best hope of advancing to Foundation Establishment.
"Zheng Centipede brought his men to ambush us. Good thing I had the horned beast as a hidden card, or we'd have taken a heavy loss this time..."
Seeing Mu Renlong, the Mu family head let out a long breath.
As he recounted it, he shot Lu Changan an involuntary glance.
In truth, Lu Changan's contribution had been no small thing.
If he had not killed one of them and held off that ugly woman of the fourth Qi Refining layer for a while, the Zheng family's plan would have succeeded.
"So these are the immortal seedlings?"
Mu Renlong's presence was imposing, and his blade-sharp gaze swept over them.
"Greetings, Elder."
The surviving youths' breath caught; they felt an invisible spiritual pressure and broke out in cold sweat.
Lu Changan showed awe at the proper moment and lowered his head slightly.
Mu Renlong only gave them a cursory glance, and the pressure quickly faded.
"Father, you aren't hurt, are you?"
A girl's voice rang out, clear and sweet.
It was like spring water running through the heart, easing everyone's mood.
The surviving youths looked over instinctively.
It was a young woman, gentle as jade.
Moth-brows knit in kingfisher green, a snow-pale face like a lotus unfurling.
Her long skirt brushed her shoes; star-bright eyes, white teeth, clear and refined, far above the common run.
The youths' faces went slack with wonder—when had they ever seen a woman of such bearing and beauty?
"Xiuyun, what are you doing here? I'm fine, only a little drained of mana..."
Mu Maode's expression was stern, but a trace of fondness showed in his eyes.
Xiuyun. Mu Xiuyun.
The youths silently fixed the Mu family's young lady's name in their minds.
Lu Changan, too, looked Mu Xiuyun over a couple more times.
Because of the Nine-Seal Stele's peculiar nature, though he had reincarnated through two lives, his mindset was not that of a centuries-old monster.
His original heart was unchanged; he was as he had been when he first crossed over—capable of joy, anger, grief and delight, and capable of appreciating beauty.
It was only that he had seen too much, and the ordinary beauties of the world could hardly move him.
Skirting the vast, mist-wreathed expanse of Feiyue Lake, the group made for the Mu family's home ground.
Mu Maode and Mu Renlong flew at the very front.
"Renlong, I fear the Zheng family's attack was not simply to cut down this batch of seedlings. Taking such a risk—perhaps they meant to test the old ancestor..."
Mu Maode's tone was grave, his face shadowed with worry.
"Hmph! Those capering clowns! Their old ancestor is badly hurt himself, and they still dare provoke us at our own gate? We must answer in kind!"
Murderous intent suffused Mu Renlong's face.
The Mu family head shook his head. "We must think this through at length. Our able-bodied cultivators are no match for the Zheng family's. Don't fall into their trap."
The Mu family's clan land was built along the lake, with towns and villas scattered here and there.
Along the shore of Feiyue Lake, Lu Changan saw spirit fields planted with the lowest-grade spirit grain.
The true core of the clan land was Moonheart Island, in the middle of Feiyue Lake.
Beneath Moonheart Island lay a second-rank spirit vein, fit for Foundation Establishment cultivators to cultivate upon.
Outsiders like Lu Changan naturally had no right to set foot on Moonheart Island.
They were settled in "Feiyue Villa" by the lake.
This villa was the closest of all to Moonheart Island—only a little over twenty li.
Beneath the villa were two first-rank spirit veins, branch veins of the second-rank one beneath Moonheart Island.
"A first-rank, high-grade formation: the Water Screen Light-and-Shadow Formation."
Lu Changan read the layout at a glance.
A layer of transparent ripples, all but invisible to the naked eye, covered the whole of Feiyue Villa, providing concealment, protection, and warning.
"Cultivate in peace here at the Mu family."
Before leaving, the Mu family head said to the six immortal seedlings:
"So long as you fulfill the conditions set out before, you may stay or go as you please hereafter. If you wish to remain with the Mu family, we will treat you as one of our own."
"Yunfei, get them settled."
His instructions given, Mu Maode, blue-robed, flew off toward Moonheart Island in the heart of the clan land.
"Come with me to get your identity tokens."
Mu Yunfei led the way, describing Feiyue Villa as they went.
The Mu family's immortal seedlings, and its lower- and mid-level cultivators, cultivated here year-round.
Mu Yunfei was no exception.
Only those at the seventh Qi Refining layer or above were qualified to apply to live on Moonheart Island, where the second-rank spirit vein lay.
The Mu clansmen they passed on the way gave them peculiar looks.
Some whispered behind their backs, and there was no lack of amused, dismissive glances.
Lu Changan had been prepared for this.
Who could blame them? They were outsiders, here to be matched up... to marry into the family.
Besides, a cultivation family's tolerance had never matched a sect's.
By Lu Changan's reckoning, if a sect was a multinational corporation, a cultivation family was a family-run business.
Two hours later.
Lu Changan and the other five received their identity tokens.
Each picked out a house with its own gate and courtyard.
The houses were single-story and not large, about half a mu (roughly a twelfth of an acre) including the courtyard.
"With the spirit qi from a first-rank spirit vein, it just barely counts as a small cultivation ground."
Lu Changan's heart settled, and he relaxed considerably.
So what if he was living under another man's roof?
As long as I have a place to cultivate, who says freeloading isn't sweet?
The courtyard he chose was rather out of the way, close to the Feiyue Lake shore, though quite damp.
Li Ergou deliberately picked the courtyard next to Lu Changan's, only a few dozen meters away.
"Silly kid."
Lu Changan had chosen an out-of-the-way spot to cultivate in quiet and have less to do with people.
But Li Ergou was honest and simple by nature, and there was no scheming in his company.
The night passed without incident.
As Lu Changan cultivated the Evergreen Art, his whole body seemed to turn into a dead log, merging with the plants and trees of the courtyard.
The next day, Lu Changan's cultivation was interrupted.
The Mu family wanted to hold a welcome banquet, to wash the dust of the road from these "new clan members."
Everyone had to attend.
"Wash the dust of the road?"
Lu Changan did not need to think hard: it was surely not that simple.
In a spacious hall of Feiyue Villa.
Six youths of other surnames, one table each, with mountain delicacies and rare seafood, fine wine and choice dishes.
Onto the carpet in the middle of the hall came several dozen young women, one after another, each with a graceful figure, slender as a swallow or rounded as Yang Guifei.
For a time, fragrance filled the hall.
Every woman was beautiful, of uncommon bearing, without the painted air of the pleasure houses.
Some were gentle and refined, smiling without showing their teeth.
Some had a cool, aloof air, in white like snow.
Others stood slender and graceful, pure yet alluring.
And some were full-figured, in gauzy, half-transparent silk, bewitching enough to steal a soul...
"These are our Mu family's finest mortal women. Every one of them has been schooled by great Confucian scholars of the secular world; they know books and propriety, and are accomplished in zither, chess, calligraphy and painting..."
"Rest easy—they are all untouched!"
A Mu family steward, seated at the head of the hall, said with a smile.
"Today they will wash the dust of the road for you. If any of you finds a sweetheart, this old man offers his congratulations in advance."
No orders from the steward were needed.
These beautiful, well-bred Mu women went tripping lightly toward the individual tables.
Pouring tea and wine, reciting poems and matching couplets.
Sweet breath on the air, zither and flute.
These young Mu women were mostly descendants of cultivators; within the clan they were no maids, but held status and a measure of choice in their own affairs.
They had come of their own accord, to choose the seedling youth they favored.
Lu Changan, with his mid-grade spirit root and both talent and looks, drew several of the prettiest Mu girls.
Lu Changan's face was blank as he waved away every beauty who approached.
He drank on his own, and no one came near again.
Li Ergou, by contrast, surrounded by several Mu women, flushed red and flustered, put his arm around a young girl's waist, drawing a burst of giggling and chatter.
An hour later, the welcome banquet ended.
Li Ergou had set his heart on a Mu girl of short stature, fair-skinned and pretty.
"Brother Lu, what do you think of the wife I picked?"
Li Ergou came over, unable to hide the excitement on his face.
Lu Changan thought, You're asking my opinion on picking a wife?
"What do you like about her?"
Among these young beauties, the one Li Ergou had chosen ranked only middling-to-low in looks and bearing.
"She looks like Cuihua!"
"She's the village beauty of my village! And prettier than Cuihua, too..."
Li Ergou looked thoroughly satisfied.
"Not bad at all." Lu Changan was briefly silent, then nodded.
He asked, "When's the wedding?"
Li Ergou rubbed his hands. "The steward says if I'm in a hurry, we can hold the banquet and go into the bridal chamber tonight."
Lu Changan: ...