Clan Cultivation: Starting from Foundation Establishment on Mount Luoxia

The gray-black void airship silently merged into the turbid mist above the "Thick Earth Golden Cliff," plunging headlong into the even darker, emptier void outside.

Li Xiaoyao sat cross-legged in front of the main control array, his face expressionless, unlike when he first entered three years ago.

At that time, I was forcing myself forward despite my uncertainty.

Now, the road is still the same road, but the weight on my shoulders is very real—the hopes of my whole family.

The flying boat glided through the void, following the path indicated by the signposts.

Day and night passed, only the thin path of light on the array plate crawled forward lifelessly, reminding him where his hometown was.

Occasionally, a glimmer of light from another world flashes in the far distance, cold and distant, as if watching him.

He kept his eyes closed most of the time, regulating his breathing to solidify the foundation he had built in the early stages of Foundation Establishment.

My mind went over what would happen after I got back:

How to bring it up with my cousin Mude, how to avoid being seen by others, and which clansmen and fellow villagers are willing to leave and can be of use.

What if something goes wrong? I have to think about each one in my mind several times.

Time seemed to pass strangely in the absolute silence; sometimes it felt unbearably slow, and other times it seemed to fly by.

Li Xiaoyao only opened his eyes when the flying boat gave a slight jolt and the array plate indicated that they had arrived at their destination.

Ahead, the familiar outline of that world, shrouded in moisture and greenery, emerged from the darkness.

Yunzhou, Luoxia Mountain.

After being gone for more than three years, he came back.

The familiar jolt as he passed through the dimensional barrier made his heart skip a beat this time, leaving him with an indescribable feeling.

As he looked down at the increasingly clear mountain shapes and the town's rooftops, the tension that had been building up in Li Xiaoyao's heart for three years finally eased.

What followed was an even more complex mix of emotions.

Feeling apprehensive as you get closer to home? Perhaps a little.

But more than anything, it's an observation, a completely different perspective on this homeland that was once the entire world of the Li family.

The flying boat didn't land directly on the summit of Luoxia Mountain—the cave there was already empty, and the formation had ceased to function. Nor did it linger over the town.

Li Xiaoyao, piloting his flying boat, slipped away like a ghost to a wild, overgrown ravine behind the mountain.

This place is remote; he used to come here often when he was a child and was taking a break from practicing swordsmanship.

After putting away the flying boat and activating its built-in ability to conceal his aura, Li Xiaoyao changed into a dusty old cloth robe.

He looked no different from an ordinary wandering cultivator returning from a long journey, and then he followed the path that was almost buried by grass, heading towards Luoxia Town at the foot of the mountain.

The closer you get to the town, the more striking that "different" feeling becomes.

The spiritual veins of Luoxia Mountain had long been pledged to the Immortal Sect's Good Deeds Pavilion, and no one was left to manage the mountain.

The thin layer of spiritual mist that used to hang on the mountainside has mostly dissipated, leaving the entire mountain looking bare and lifeless.

The town at the foot of the mountain seemed... even more dilapidated than when he left.

Wild grasses sprouted tall from the cracks in the stone-paved road at the entrance of the town.

The doors of several familiar shops were tightly shut, covered with a thick layer of dust.

There weren't many people on the street, and everyone's face looked worn down by the days.

The familiar smell of firewood and cooking oil was still in the air, but upon closer inspection, it seemed to be mixed with an indescribable, heavy sense of twilight.

Li Xiaoyao lowered his straw hat and walked without stopping through the deserted streets, heading straight for the old courtyard where the Li family lived together at the west end of the town.

Li Mude's house was one of the more tidy ones.

Li Xiaoyao didn't knock on the door, but scanned the inside with his divine sense.

After confirming that only Mu De and his wife, along with their two teenagers, were in the house and there were no outsiders, he moved swiftly, like a gust of wind, over the courtyard wall and landed at the entrance of the main hall.

"Who?"

Li Mude's alert, slightly hoarse voice came from inside the room.

"Mude, it's me."

Li Xiaoyao pushed open the slightly ajar door.

In the main room, Li Mude, who was wiping an old ritual implement with a coarse linen cloth, suddenly looked up, and the implement in his hand fell to the table with a "clatter".

His eyes widened as he stared at the familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar figure in the green robe at the doorway.

His face lit up instantly, a mixture of surprise and joy, as if he couldn't believe it, and there was also a hint of barely suppressed panic.

"Second...Second Brother?!"

Li Mude's voice trembled as he abruptly stood up, knocking over the stool behind him. His wife, standing next to him, covered her mouth, too shocked to speak.

"It's me, I'm back."

Li Xiaoyao walked into the house, closed the door behind him, and shut out the outside world.

He took off his straw hat, and his face was thinner than it had been three years ago, but the light in his eyes was calm and bright.

"It really is Second Brother!"

Li Mude's eyes instantly reddened. He rushed over, grabbed Li Xiaoyao's arm, looked him up and down, and his voice choked with emotion:

"We're back, we're finally back... Where's Big Brother? Xiang Ping, Chang Hu, and the others? Are they alright? What's the situation over there...?"

The words were pouring out like beans, he was extremely anxious.

"They're all fine, my older brother and the others are all well."

Li Xiaoyao patted his cousin's hand, his voice as steady as a rock, reassuring him:

"We've found a place, we've settled down. This time, it was my older brother who sent me to pick you up."

"Will you pick us up?"

Li Mude was taken aback, his eyes suddenly flashing with light, but the light flickered and then dimmed again, as he hesitated:

"But... what about the Immortal Sect? Our mountain and shop..."

"Let's leave those aside for now."

Li Xiaoyao interrupted him, his gaze sweeping over the clean yet distinctly cold main room, and the old magical artifact on the table whose spiritual energy was almost completely dissipated:

"Mude, these past three years, has life been difficult at home... in town?"

Li Mude's face showed a bitter expression. He sighed, told his wife to pour water, and then pulled Li Xiaoyao to sit down.

"Second brother, not long after you left, the deacon of the Immortal Sect came and took over the spiritual veins on the mountain and the shops in the market."

"According to the contract, they didn't make things difficult for us ordinary people who stayed behind. They even gave us some of the relocation compensation we were supposed to receive, but that's about it."

He pointed outside the door: "Without the protection of the immortal master on the mountain, and without that share of the spiritual vein profits, the ways to make a living in the town have suddenly become much narrower."

"The artisans and tenants who used to rely on our family for a living have either left or scattered."

"Among the branch families of our Li family that remain in the town, there are not many young people with spiritual roots to begin with, and their aptitude is also mediocre. Without resources, cultivation is even more difficult."

"Most of them can only do odd jobs, or go to distant markets to try their luck. Life... is not as good as before."

He paused, then lowered his voice:

"Even... those families that weren't on good terms with us before, seeing that we no longer have a Foundation Establishment cultivator, have been openly and covertly putting us under pressure."

"Fortunately, the rules of the Immortal Sect are still in place, so they don't dare to be too presumptuous."

Li Xiaoyao listened quietly and understood.

This is the inevitable decline that a small cultivation family, without its pillar of support, is destined to take.

Fortunately, they chose the more dangerous path initially, and now they have a chance to turn things around.