Chapter 24: The Advantage Is Mine

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That evening, Li Qi’s cousin, Li Zheng, built a bonfire in an open area of the village and dragged all their brothers and sisters out to join him. Li Qi was naturally among them.

A group of young people gathered around the fire, talking about anything and everything. The atmosphere was lively enough.

Then Li Qi received a message from his mother, asking him to bring Chen Di out to join them.

It was a trivial matter, and Li Qi did not want to make his mother unhappy during the New Year over something so insignificant, so he did as she asked.

The reply he received, however, was that Chen Di was busy and had no time.

Li Qi sent the screenshot to his mother, then promptly forgot about the matter.

Being “busy with no time” was merely another way of saying he was uninterested. If he truly wanted to come, he could have found the time even while playing World War II.

Besides, they had never been the same kind of people. That was a good thing.

And so the matter came to nothing.

As they continued warming themselves by the fire and chatting, Li Zheng once again brought up the question of who among the clan’s younger generation was the most outstanding. He seemed determined not to let the subject go.

The other brothers and sisters were clearly interested as well, and everyone began offering their own opinions.

Before long, Li Zheng shifted the topic to how he had carelessly lost last year’s championship, lamenting the matter at length.

As he spoke, he even picked up a piece of wood and used it as a sword, reenacting the contest from the previous year. He insisted that if he had not been ill at the time—if his strength had not been slightly diminished and his movements a little slower—the outcome would have been entirely different.

Clearly, he still could not let go of what had happened last year.

He went on to say that three days from now, he would have another bout with Li You’an. Someone who had not yet entered the realm might not necessarily be unable to defeat someone who had. He worked himself into such a fervor that his blood seemed to boil.

Intelligent people were usually rational, but once they became carried away, that was another matter.

The clan’s martial trials were generally held on the fourth day of the New Year.

From the first through the third day, many people had to visit relatives.

By tradition, however, from the first to the third day, Li Changqing would go to the village’s martial grounds to explain swordsmanship and guide the younger generation in their cultivation.

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It was said that in earlier years, Li Changqing would give a lesson every ten days or half a month. Nowadays, however, he did so only rarely.

The reason was naturally that he had grown older, and his energy was no longer what it had once been. After all, such lessons generally included demonstrations as well.

With swordsmanship, many things were difficult to convey through words alone. Only by demonstrating while explaining could one pass on even a fraction of the art.

From the fourth to the sixth day came the clan’s contests.

As for the seventh day, Li Qi guessed that this year they would be hunting a tiger.

There was a tradition behind it. More than twenty years ago, traces of a tiger had appeared in the surrounding area, and it had been killed on the seventh day of the New Year.

Of course, even if no tiger appeared, Li Family Village had always maintained the custom of organizing group hunts. Ever since Li Qi had turned twelve, he had participated every year. The stated purpose was to cultivate courage and martial vigor in the younger generation.

In truth, that was indeed the purpose. Riding and archery were among the six classical arts of the Confucian tradition, and every great clan had the custom of training its descendants through hunting. The prey itself was secondary. The true goal was to take life, see blood, and cultivate a spirit of courage, resolve, and perseverance.

When the time came, it would not be only Li Family Village joining the hunt. Several large villages in the surrounding area would come as well.

There were many villages in the region, but few of them were truly large. In a sense, Li Family Village was a newly rising major village, and whether a village was considered large depended on whether it possessed a clan lineage.

Compared with those other large villages that had controlled the lifeblood of the region for several hundred years, Li Family Village was still very young.

It was only because Li Changqing was so capable that they had managed to establish themselves here. Otherwise, it would have been exceedingly difficult, for the land had already been claimed by those who arrived first.

In a sense, the past had been a bloody age.

Now, the several great villages—or rather, great clans—organized a group hunt every year. On the one hand, it strengthened the bonds among the younger generation. On the other, it served to display their strength. For lineages such as theirs, nothing was more terrifying than having no worthy successors.

In earlier years, although Li Qi had begun training his strength with a longbow at the age of twelve, as his family required, it had only been a weak practice bow, not a powerful war bow. Combined with his poor swordsmanship and low cultivation level, he could manage only stationary targets. Hunting had never been his strength, so every year he merely went along to admire the scenery.

Fortunately, others had already surveyed the mountains, and people would be stationed to keep watch, so there was little danger. In previous years, it had been treated more as a spring outing.

Naturally, there were rewards for anyone who won the hunt, though they were nowhere near as valuable as the great medicinal tonics.

As for using the longbow to train one’s strength, that was entirely different from martial cultivation. It merely strengthened the muscles and bones and had nothing to do with the spirit. Once a child reached twelve and his physical foundation had begun to settle, he could start laying the groundwork.

Thus, they continued warming themselves by the fire until ten that night. Li Qi returned home punctually and practiced his swordsmanship. This time, he gained a full six points of proficiency—more than before. Yet after surpassing his limits four times, he still managed only seven strikes.

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Once again, he slept without dreaming. When Li Qi rose the next day, he discovered that it had snowed again during the night.

As for his status panel, his essence, energy, and spirit had each increased by 0.01.

At the same time, Li Qi had accumulated enough Fate Points. Now that he had grown stronger, his Fate Points naturally increased by three each day. After spending sixteen of them to elevate the trait at the root of his tongue to white and erase its negative effect, the bonus to Li Qi’s neural reflexes officially reached forty-eight percent, while the negative effect on his physical growth fell to negative seven percent.

Compared with the previous increase, which had directly raised his neural reflex speed to forty-six percent, this two-percent change was very small. Yet with his keen perceptive sense, Li Qi could still feel the improvement.

It was exceedingly subtle, but it truly existed—real and undeniable.

After completing all this, Li Qi had one Fate Point remaining.

At his current rate, he would need seven days of accumulation to elevate the final gray Fate Root to white and erase its negative effect. The greater the negative effect of a gray Fate Root, the more Fate Points were required for its elevation.

The final one required a full twenty points.

Calculating the time, today was the first day of the New Year. He would be able to accomplish his goal on the eighth.

After that, as usual, he practiced his swordsmanship.

Given his current condition, he would be one hundred percent certain to enter the realm by the fourth day.

Naturally, with his current combat strength, defeating Li You’an would be effortless. Unless some peerless expert—say, a sage—suddenly transferred his power into Li You’an and strengthened the other man’s spiritual martial arts, Li Qi would have no trouble whatsoever defeating someone who had only just entered the realm.

After all, even after entering the realm, the growth of one’s basic attributes was still a process. Though it was rapid, it was measured in months.

A realm was a realm, and strength was strength. One might comprehend the Dao in a single morning, but the growth of physical ability still had to follow the laws of nature.

Moreover, entering the realm was not the same as becoming an immortal. This transformation could be said to be the smallest change in the evolution of any living creature.

And Li Qi now possessed the Tiger Form and a forty-eight-percent enhancement to his neural reflexes. Even against a seasoned realm-entry expert, he was capable of exchanging blows.

By “seasoned,” this did not mean someone who had stopped striving after entering the realm. It meant an expert who continued to cultivate diligently, tempering himself and advancing a considerable distance along the path.

By the time he had finished resting, bathed, and eaten breakfast, the sun was already high in the sky, casting the mountains and rivers in a landscape of crimson and pure white.

Only then did Li Qi change into loose, heavy clothing and leisurely make his way toward the village’s martial grounds.