A young man woke from his sleep, hearing the sound of snow pressing down on bamboo outside the window.
He got dressed and pushed open the window to look outside.
The cold air bit at him, and the ground was covered in pristine white.
Another winter had come.
The young man was surnamed Li, with the given name Qingxiao, and his courtesy name was Bai Zao.
Li Qingxiao flipped out of the window into the courtyard, where he practiced a series of boxing forms to stretch his muscles. His punches made no sound breaking the air, but his movements were light and graceful. His footprints were extremely shallow, showing his considerable martial arts prowess.
After about half an hour, a figure appeared outside the waist-high courtyard wall, standing with hands behind their back, watching Li Qingxiao practice.
Li Qingxiao paid no attention, completing all his forms three times before settling his qi and finishing his practice. He then asked, "Outlander?"
The uninvited guest was a woman in purple robes, strikingly beautiful. She answered nonchalantly, "Your boxing style is interesting. While it's common, I can see your foundation is solid."
"I know, no need for you to tell me," Li Qingxiao's attitude was far from friendly, bordering on cold indifference, almost saying "get to the point."
The woman's alluring manner usually earned her some leeway when dealing with men, but Li Qingxiao's aloofness was rare. Of course, there were those who played hard-to-get games, but she could see through them instantly. She could tell this young man was genuinely distant.
The woman smiled brightly, her words having both a martial arts air and a hint of flirtation: "May I make your acquaintance?"
Li Qingxiao outright refused: "We are strangers, what talk of 'friendship'?"
The woman's smile froze for a moment before returning to normal: "We are both disciples of the Daoist Sect. I can call you Daoist Brother, right? What should I call you?"
The concept of "the court" no longer existed, replaced by the Daoist Sect.
The Daoist Sect ruled the land, with Jade Capital replacing the Imperial Capital, Golden Palace replacing the court, Nine Halls replacing the six ministries, Daoist Temples replacing government offices, Daoists replacing officials, and the Great Master replacing the emperor.
Under Daoist Sect rule, everyone was a Daoist Brother.
Li Qingxiao broke off a bamboo branch about three feet long, the broken end sharp like a sword: "I am surnamed Li."
This was actually redundant, as the entire Penglai Island was inhabited by the Li clan. It would be unusual for someone living there not to be surnamed Li. The woman was actually asking for his given name, but Li Qingxiao didn't want to say.
"Daoist Brother Li." The woman introduced herself, "I am surnamed Mei, given name Ning."
Li Qingxiao raised the bamboo branch, gesturing with it: "Technically, I should call you Daoist Sister Mei, but the stench of Fenglin Island can't be hidden. To put it bluntly, do you even deserve it?"
Mei Ning's face instantly changed.
Li Qingxiao continued: "What are the Fenglin Island Celestial Gate people doing on Penglai Island?"
Mei Ning was shocked that Li Qingxiao had seen through her identity, but she was a seasoned hand. She quickly recovered, giving him a seductive look with her sweet voice: "What makes you say that, Daoist Brother Li?"
As she spoke, she patted her chest, causing it to tremble.
But while speaking, Mei Ning had already used seduction techniques from her unorthodox methods, combined with her good looks, enough to make most men momentarily dazed.
Taking advantage of this moment, Mei Ning shook her sleeve, releasing a colorful mist, which she then pushed toward Li Qingxiao with palm wind. At the same time, she moved quickly to Li Qingxiao's side, pointing her delicate fingers at his qi sea point. If she could seal his true qi, this boy would be at her mercy.
The next moment, however, the green bamboo branch pierced through Mei Ning's abdomen. Half remained green and pleasant to look at, while the other half that had passed through was blood red, dripping blood onto the white snow.
White snow, red plum.
The bamboo branch, infused with true qi, was as deadly as a sword.
Mei Ning's face was pale, having lost the strength to fight back.
If viewed from above, Mei Ning's "seductive glance" had been wasted on a blind man. Li Qingxiao hadn't been affected at all, and he had held his breath to avoid the mist. Instead, it gave Li Qingxiao time to prepare and wait for her.
In the end, it wasn't Li Qingxiao who thrust the bamboo at Mei Ning, but rather Mei Ning who had run into it herself - the mist had blocked her vision, making her think Li Qingxiao was affected by the seduction and the mist, leading to her downfall.
In the end, Mei Ning's defeat wasn't unjustified, as Li Qingxiao's boxing practice earlier had deceived her into underestimating him.
But Mei Ning's defeat wasn't undeserved, as Li Qingxiao's boxing practice wasn't accidental but intentional.
Li Qingxiao wasn't a country bumpkin, but had been raised by the Daoist Sect's Myriad Phenomena Daoist Palace, becoming a formal Daoist and then entering one of the Daoist Sect's Nine Halls, the Beichen Hall, through succession.
The Beichen Hall was responsible for internal purges of traitors, external intelligence gathering, and protecting the Jade Capital. It was a top-tier department, known as one of the Upper Three Halls, emphasizing loyalty. Therefore, the Beichen Hall preferred to recruit orphans of loyal families as new members.
Like the ancient Imperial Guard, the nation's wings, growing like a forest, taking the children of those who died in service, raising them in the Imperial Guard Palace, teaching them the five weapons, known as Imperial Guard orphans.
Li Qingxiao was a Daoist Sect Imperial Guard orphan, a Daoist carefully cultivated by the Myriad Phenomena Daoist Palace and Beichen Hall, with exceptional martial arts skills and ruthless means.
"You've revealed your true colors, haven't you? How dare you come to Penglai Island to cause trouble?" Li Qingxiao released the bamboo branch, letting Mei Ning stagger backward clutching her wound.
"You, you…" Mei Ning found it difficult to breathe, making it hard to speak.
The usually expressionless Li Qingxiao finally smiled, though it was a cold smile: "Didn't you think I lived in a remote area with no neighbors nearby, making me easy to kill and use my home as your temporary base on Penglai Island?"
Mei Ning was already unsteady on her feet but realized she had misjudged the situation, provoking such a dangerous person. She should have known - who would dare live alone in such isolation?
Li Qingxiao clenched his fist and approached Mei Ning: "Tell me honestly, who sent you to provoke the Li family?"
A bamboo branch could kill, and so could a fist. The threat was clear.
Mei Ning took a breath and said with difficulty: "Of course we know Penglai Island is Li family territory and know how powerful the Li family is. Without the approval of a Li family elder, how could we dare come here?"
Li Qingxiao immediately understood this involved the Li family's main branch.
The current Great Master of the Daoist Sect came from the Li family, but the Li family's thousand-year lineage had branched out so much that it had become enormous. For someone like Li Qingxiao, a distant branch, they were practically ten thousand miles away from the main line, receiving no benefits, living like commoners.
Only the main branch Li family members were truly imperial descendants. But most of these Li family direct descendants lived in the Jade Capital, rarely returning to Penglai Island.
Li Qingxiao sighed: "You have accomplices, don't you? Now that I know about you, even if I let you go, you and your companions won't let me live. Very well, I'll send you on your way. No one will see you alive or dead, buying me some time while your companions search for you."
Mei Ning's face turned livid with fear: "If you kill me, you're dead. If you don't kill me, you're still dead. Either way, you're finished."
Li Qingxiao looked at the woman without emotion: "A double loss is better than a single loss. Please go first and wait for me on the Yellow Spring Road."
Mei Ning shouted: "And your family and friends will all escape! I'll trade one for your entire family, who wins?"
Li Qingxiao said expressionlessly: "How unfortunate, my father and mother have already gone to serve the Supreme Daoist in a land of plenty. I have no weaknesses for you to exploit. If we must talk about family, the Daoist Sect raised me, so it is my family. If we must talk about relatives, the Li family is my relatives. Feel free to kill - if you can manage it, don't even spare the Great Master."
Mei Ning felt despair - what wouldn't someone without weaknesses do?
Li Qingxiao continued: "Frequent killers know that killing is easy, but hiding the body is hard. Fortunately, I live in a remote area, with no parents and no neighbors. Plus, there's this snow. You're surnamed Mei - how does that saying go? Plum blossoms are three parts whiter than snow, but snow loses to plum blossoms in fragrance. What wonderful snow."
At that moment, Li Qingxiao suddenly sensed something, like sensing the wind before the cicadas. He suddenly turned, scanning his surroundings.
But there was nothing.
Li Qingxiao frowned.
Was it just his imagination?
In the distance, in the snow, a female Daoist wearing a cloud-patterned veil turned away, her gaze retracting. She walked away, holding a plum branch she had broken off somewhere, softly humming an unknown tune.
The female Daoist passed through an archway inscribed with four large characters: "Great Peace, No Worries."