LAVW – Chapter 12 A Night Visit to the Li Family

Between deception and honesty, Shi Qian chose virtue.

He understood that lies, once started, would only pile up until they eventually collapsed. It was better to face things head-on with courage.

Shi Qian explained, “Squeak Squeak—”

“Weakling” can refer to something weak, whether it’s a person, a spiritual beast, or a demon beast.

In the past, people raised pigeons to send messages. But as more pigeons were bred, some people, tempted by hunger, started eating them. To differentiate, messenger pigeons were called carrier pigeons, while those raised for food were called meat pigeons or cuisine pigeons. Over time, they were also referred to as rookies.

“Weakling” is basically the same as “rookie.”

Long Ye, who had just eaten roasted pigeon, paused. “Do you remember what we just ate?”

For some reason, he suddenly had the eerie feeling that he had eaten one of his own.

“…Squeak Squeak.” 

Roast pigeon.

Shi Qian quickly changed the topic. “Squeak squeak squeak?”

“My brother caught the pigeon. Wasn’t it delicious?”

Long Ye, speaking honestly, said, “It was quite tasty.”

Shi Qian seized the opportunity. “Squeak Squeak Squeak!”

“My brother is at the Golden Core stage.”

“So is my mother.”

“In our family of three, two of us are at the Golden Core stage. That day, the person who stopped us was also at the Golden Core stage. Before that, two demonic cultivators at the Golden Core stage tried to capture me.”

With a logical and well-supported argument, Shi Qian sighed. “Squeak squeak.”

“So… aren’t we just a bunch of rookies?”

Hearing this, Long Ye’s excitement about advancing suddenly diminished by eighty percent. He thought to himself: I really have seen too little of the world.

Not only had he not known that there were different kinds of treasure-hunting mice, but he also hadn’t realized that Golden Core cultivators were so common outside. Perhaps, he should have ventured out sooner.

But fortunately, it wasn’t too late now.

Long Ye looked at the little spirit beast, whose aura had weakened, and asked with concern, “Were you forming a contract just now? My cultivation has improved. How are you feeling, Xiao Qian?”

If he hadn’t asked, Shi Qian might not have noticed, but now he suddenly felt a bit exhausted.

He slumped in Long Ye’s hand. “Squeak squeak squeak—”

“I’m fine, just need some time to recover.”

Since he couldn’t cultivate, Shi Qian’s way of recovering was simply eating, drinking, and sleeping. Long Ye, being a cultivation maniac, had already grown accustomed to Shi Qian’s lazy lifestyle. After all, the past few days had been the same—whether he liked it or not, he had no choice but to get used to it.

Suppressing his other questions, Long Ye simply said, “Then sleep.”

But it was Shi Qian who didn’t want to sleep. “Squeak squeak—”

“I slept enough during the day. Let’s talk.”

He tentatively asked, “Squeak squeak squeak?”

“Where are we going next?”

Even though they had only just left home, Long Ye already had a plan.

He replied, “I want to find an opportunity to meet her—Li Qingxi. Once we see her, we’ll decide what to do next.”

“Then we’ll see if we can sell the spiritual ginseng, or maybe we’ll use it ourselves. And the secret realm… It’s so close, yet we haven’t had a chance to enter. What a pity.”

Secret realm?

Shi Qian chuckled inwardly.

Of course, he hadn’t forgotten—the secret realm was the key to Long Ye’s transformation into a true dragon among men.

Without it, how else would Long Ye skyrocket in power like a meteor—wait, no, it was more like ascending a ladder straight to the heavens.

He reached his tiny claws into the necklace and pulled out the demonic cultivator’s storage pouch along with a peculiar token.

Both the items and Shi Qian were cradled in Long Ye’s hand.

For the first time, Long Ye felt that his hand had never been this heavy before.

That small cloth pouch, exuding spiritual energy fluctuations… It was a storage bag, right? Even the cheapest one would cost thousands of spirit stones.

But Shi Qian ignored the storage bag and instead held up the token to Long Ye with a serious expression. “Squeak squeak.”

“I picked this up at Nine Heavens Peak. The one who collapsed the peak in the first place was a demonic cultivator trying to capture me.”

Long Ye was momentarily stunned. With one hand, he held the little spirit beast and the storage bag, while with the other, he took the token.

The token was diamond-shaped, with one side engraved with intricate ancient patterns of wild grass and birds surrounding a pair of closed eyes. The other side had a textured, scale-like pattern.

At first glance, there was nothing particularly special about the token’s appearance.

Looking further down, Long Ye noticed that the token’s bottom was adorned with a red cord. Dozens of fine threads held up a cluster of small, smooth black beads. Under the firelight, the beads seemed to swallow the glow, making the Guanyin Temple appear even dimmer.

The beads were mysterious, but the thin threads were just as remarkable—finer than a strand of hair, as if they could snap at any moment.

Shi Qian noticed Long Ye staring at the black beads and, unable to resist, reached out with his paw to tug at them.

It was probably just the instinct of a young beast drawn to shiny objects, a primal urge he couldn’t quite suppress.

The threads didn’t break, but they did leave a thin cut on his little paw. Startled, Shi Qian immediately pulled his hand back.

Long Ye held the token further away and couldn’t help but scold him, “Why are you curious about everything? This token looks extremely mysterious—you should be more careful with it.”

Shi Qian nodded obediently, but his mind went blank at Long Ye’s next words.

“You found this token when Nine Heavens Peak collapsed, and it has exactly thirty-six beads. Meanwhile, there are also thirty-six mystic realm rings.”

“If my guess is correct, this token can also grant entry into the secret realm.”

“There’s a good chance that this token can, to some extent, control the other mystic realm rings. Owning it might mean having a high chance of becoming the realm’s master.”

Long Ye looked at the tiny spirit beast, which was barely half the size of his hand, and said, “You’ve picked up a real treasure, Xiao Qian.”

Of course, Shi Qian already knew he had found something valuable. But… Long Ye’s reaction was a little too meticulous.

Did he actually count the beads? Was he a walking math problem in his past life?

Seeing the dazed little spirit beast, who still seemed confused about the situation, Long Ye reached out and touched his soft, furry chest.

Shi Qian immediately covered his chest. “Squeak Squeak?”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Long Ye explained, “You should hide this token properly. Don’t take it out carelessly.”

Shi Qian took the token and stuffed it into his storage necklace without hesitation.

With the token safely stored away, Shi Qian turned his attention to the demonic cultivator’s storage pouch.

His attempt to open it ended in failure.

Two rookies had no chance of breaking into a Golden Core cultivator’s storage bag.

As the night deepened, the firewood had burned out, leaving only faint moonlight streaming into the temple.

Under the silver glow of the moon, the solemn statue of Guanyin appeared gentler, almost like a mother’s face bathed in divine light.

By all accounts, it should have been an easy night to fall asleep.

But Long Ye couldn’t sleep. He kept starting conversations with Shi Qian, sometimes talking about himself, sometimes asking about Shi Qian’s past.

“Xiao Qian, where’s your home?”

“Squeak squeak.”

“My home is in Five Leaf Mountain. The mountain is big and beautiful.”

“How far is it from here?”

“Squeak Squeak.”

“I’m not sure, but it’s not too far.”

“Squeak squeak.”

“But Mother kicked my brother and me out, told us to go on a training journey. We can’t go home.”

“I thought you had snuck out on your own,” Long Ye said, “since you’re so small.”

“Squeak squeak squeak!”

“You’re the small one!”

“Then how old are you? I’m seventeen—I already had my birthday.”

This question was a bit embarrassing. Shi Qian did some quick math on his little brother’s age and, blushing, responded, “Squeak.”

“Five and a half.”

Shi Qian quickly emphasized, “Squeak squeak squeak!”

“For us spirit beasts, five years old is already grown up! My brother is even bigger than my mother, the Giant Rat King!”

“My brother is the strong one, and I’m the smart one—you get it, right?”

Long Ye chuckled. “I get it, I get it. According to books, Xiao Qian, you’re already a pretty intelligent spirit beast.”

Spirit beasts and demonic beasts usually weren’t very sharp—true intelligence was rare. Shi Qian’s mother was an exception, but most weren’t even as clever as his black-furred brother. Compared to them, Shi Qian was practically a genius.

As they chatted, the exhaustion from the contract ritual caught up with Shi Qian, and his little head drooped as he drifted off to sleep.

In reality, both Shi Qian and Hei Mao were still cubs—they wouldn’t be considered adults until they reached ten years old. But due to their bloodline differences, one had grown too fast while the other barely grew at all, resulting in their drastic size difference.

In the latter half of the night, Shi Qian felt something stroking him. Half-asleep, he groggily opened his eyes—only to be met with a fully awake, insomniac teenager.

Startled, Shi Qian rubbed his face with his paws.

“Squeak?”

“Why aren’t you sleeping?”

The moment he asked, he realized—of course, Long Ye couldn’t sleep. That made sense.

Shi Qian yawned twice in a row, slowly waking up.

He glanced outside the temple. It was the perfect time for a moonless, windless, dead-of-night adventure—so late even the dogs were asleep.

Feeling a sense of camaraderie, Shi Qian patted Long Ye on the shoulder. “Squeak squeak?”

“Since you can’t sleep, why don’t we go find Li Qingqian?”

The insomniac teen, Long Ye, tried to refuse. “It’s too late. You go back to sleep.”

Shi Qian immediately leaped to the ground and dashed out of the Guanyin Temple.

Upon reaching the doorway, he turned back and waved his little paw at Long Ye. “Squeak Squeak!”

“Hurry up! The midnight raid on the Li family begins now!”

Seeing his enthusiasm, how could Long Ye possibly not follow?

Once outside the temple, Shi Qian perched on Long Ye’s head, chattering away. “Squeak squeak.”

“Didn’t you want a companion? I’m keeping you company in the middle of the night—Long Ye, aren’t you super happy right now?”

Long Ye: “That’s not what I meant by a companion.”

“Then what did you mean?” Shi Qian, worried about making Long Ye go bald, parkoured his way onto his shoulder instead.

That shut Long Ye up. He couldn’t answer.

But the feeling was completely different. At dusk, he had felt genuinely upset. But now… Long Ming seemed like nothing special after all.

Seeing that Long Ye no longer reacted so strongly to the topic, Shi Qian secretly cheered in his heart.

Modern people really are wise—ending an old relationship quickly is best done by starting a new one.

Turns out, this even works with brotherly bonds!

As Long Ye led the way toward the Li family’s residence, he asked, “Xiao Qian, why are you following me?”

Shi Qian beamed. “Squeak squeak.”

“You’re a good person. You’re kind.”

A kind girl might not always find her prince charming, but when the “Dragon Ao Tian” of a beginner’s village is kind, he’ll definitely get scammed by a Totoro.

Long Ye chuckled. That recognition meant a lot to him—like tonight’s moon, the only light in the darkness.

Before long, they reached the walls of the Li family estate.

Long Ye carefully chose the right position, estimated the correct distance, and let Shi Qian handle their stealthy entrance into Li Qingqian’s courtyard.

The positioning was perfect, the distance precise—the concealment technique was a success.

They had arrived at their destination.

Shi Qian poked his head out, sniffing the air curiously. “Squeak Squeak.”

“There’s no one in the courtyard.”

Long Ye whispered, “They probably moved to the central courtyard.” Like the Long family, the central courtyard was the best one.

Being too smart wasn’t always a good thing. Right now, Long Ye was already trying to figure out which noble family that man came from.

He must be someone with considerable power and status—only that kind of person could elevate a woman’s position in the Li family overnight.

Shi Qian wasn’t ready to give up. He continued to analyze the lingering scents, trying to memorize them so he could track them later.

Long Ye pressed him down. “Let’s go back. Tomorrow, I have a way to make her come see me on her own.”

Shi Qian turned to look at him—gone was the nervousness from earlier. His face had settled into a calm, almost icy expression, like a thin layer of frost covering glass.

The next moment, just as Shi Qian was pitying the heartbroken boy, his head was suddenly RUA-ed.

Shi Qian: ???

With a swift movement, Shi Qian teleported himself outside.

Now crouching a short distance from the Li family’s walls, he leisurely cracked open pine nuts while watching Long Ye sneakily climb over the wall to escape.

Brotherhood—it’s built through moments like this.

Shi Qian bet that Long Ye would never forget the beautiful experience of being left behind all by himself on this fateful night.

Unexpectedly, Long Ye seemed in a good mood when he landed outside. It seemed the sympathy he saw in Shi Qian’s eyes earlier hadn’t been fake. But he didn’t want sympathy—he much preferred an infuriating Shi Qian. That was easier to deal with.

Suddenly, a loud voice broke through the silent night from within the Li estate—

“Who’s there?!”

The boy and the rat locked eyes in horror.

Shi Qian sprang into action, and Long Ye, completely in sync, scooped him up.

One human, one rat—off they went on their well-practiced escape routine.