Li Xiangping

Li Xiangping is Li Mutian's third son and the young fisherman whose discovery of the Immortal Mirror opens cultivation to the Li household. A practical administrator and ruthless protector of its secret, he helps turn a farming family into a cultivator clan. His final campaign wins him followers and the title of Great King, but ends in a curse that his danger-warning blessing can anticipate without preventing. (Chapters 2, 13–14, 22, 85, 103–104)

Biography

The river mirror and a guarded household

Xiangping finds a damaged mirror while fishing and brings it home, unaware that Lu Jiangxian's consciousness resides within it. The discovery gives the household a problem as well as an opportunity: its members must investigate an extraordinary object without letting neighbors or stronger cultivators seize it. Xiangping receives a talisman seed and learns the Reception Method, drawing moonlight into cultivation despite the family's humble circumstances. His enthusiasm therefore becomes inseparable from secrecy. The mirror offers a future that ordinary farming could never provide, but the family cannot yet defend that future openly. (Chapters 2–3, 7–8, 11)

When his cousin Li Yecheng spies on the household, Xiangping treats the intrusion as a threat to the entire family and kills him with Golden Light. The act exposes the division within the brothers rather than drawing a unanimous rebuke. Li Changhu grieves their cousin and believes he could have been brought back to a better course; Mutian approves Xiangping's decisiveness and considers Changhu's mercy dangerous in a household guarding such a secret. Li Tongya also understands the protective motive. Xiangping's willingness to kill kin establishes an early limit to his kindness: he can care deeply for his family while making its security the justification for calculated violence. (Chapters 12–14)

His treatment of Li Yesheng shows that protection also means creating opportunities. He supplies books and supports the education of an impoverished relative, while the family's survey of Lijing's people turns individual talent into a matter of collective planning. Cultivation does not lead him to abandon village affairs. Population, spiritual crops, instruction, and relations with neighboring powers all become part of maintaining a household whose resources remain small beside its ambitions. Recognizing the Azure Pond Sect's territorial authority likewise requires practical accommodation rather than pretending that possession of the mirror has already made the Li family independent of stronger institutions. (Chapters 18, 22, 25, 28)

Marriage to Tian Yun and the birth of Li Xuanfeng and Li Jingtian make that future personal. Mutian names the twins, while Xiangping also prepares Changhu's son Li Xuanxuan for responsibility. In public, Xiangping claims Xuanxuan had his spiritual orifice measured a year earlier and is nearing his first chakra. In private, he tells Xuanxuan the truth: the boy has no spiritual orifice, and the mirror is what grants him the ability to cultivate. The false public story conceals the mirror's intervention and prevents suspicion. By treating the next generation's instruction as part of his own work, Xiangping begins building a succession that can outlast the brothers who first found immortality within reach. (Chapters 37–38)

A fragile clan learns to survive

Xiangping's advance to Azure Essence does not remove the limits of his aptitude. Progress slows, and practice makes the difference between him and Li Chejing increasingly clear. Chejing can master the Profound Water Sword's sword aura where Xiangping cannot, while also teaching the family how to reduce the expense of talisman practice by using cheaper materials. Xiangping accepts a division of labor in which the more gifted brother's opportunities may matter more than his own. His warning about sect recruitment reflects the same realism: a powerful institution values talented recruits for its purposes, so entry into it does not guarantee freedom or safety. (Chapters 52, 59–61)

Tongya's gift of an Ebony Bow gives Xiangping a weapon suited to his circumstances, but equipment cannot erase the disparity between Embryonic Breathing and Qi Cultivation. Against a hostile Daoist, he combines protective and movement talismans with repeated presentations of the mirror, forcing the enemy to consider an attack more dangerous than Xiangping's own cultivation. Flight and cooperation lead to an eventual reversal; surviving long enough to exploit uncertainty matters more than winning a direct contest of mana. The mirror's separate power is essential to this encounter and does not become proof that Xiangping personally possesses the attacks of a higher realm. (Chapters 52, 54, 70–75)

The resulting resources strengthen the household beyond the immediate victory. White qi taken from the captured jade pendant is transferred to the mirror and restores its ability to condense talisman pills. The pendant's physical possession and the mirror's absorption of qi are distinct parts of that recovery. Xiangping's work thus connects opportunistic survival to a more durable source of cultivation support: a dangerous encounter can benefit the whole family if its gains are understood and used carefully. His own future nevertheless still depends on appropriate qi and the help of his brothers. (Chapters 75–77, 89)

The River Crocodile sacrifice brings a more direct change. With the household conducting the rite and Lu Jiangxian choosing the response, Xiangping receives Evade Death, Prolong Life. The talisman qi raises him from Jade Capital to the Nascent Spirit chakra at peak Embryonic Breathing and gives him warning of approaching danger. River Pure Qi is subsequently gathered for an intended advance to Qi Cultivation. That plan remains unfinished: the blessing improves his chances and his cultivation, but neither the prepared resource nor his hopes constitute an attained higher realm. (Chapters 85–89)

Great Jueting and a warning that cannot save him

The Mount Yue conflict draws Xiangping into a campaign whose demands exceed ordinary clan administration. Refugees gather around him, and followers including Ahuici and Chen Donghe address him as Great King. Raids, provisions, command routes, and the safety of displaced people become interconnected responsibilities. His bow, talismans, and warnings help him avoid stronger enemies, while his growing following turns him into a figure of authority amid the disorder. The campaign also makes him resemble the powerful leaders against whom he struggles: people now depend on his commands, and his household's survival is entangled with their allegiance. (Chapters 90, 93–96, 102–103)

By the final stage of the campaign he is exhausted, ragged, and beginning to show white hair. Memories of childhood food and teasing conversation with Donghe briefly recover the young man beneath the commander. When Donghe's interest in Jingtian becomes a subject of discussion, Xiangping says he has no objection if Jingtian accepts, on the condition that Donghe make her his first wife. Ahuici then jokes that men on Mount Yue take any woman they fancy as a wife, and Xiangping teases him by asking if he wants to try. Their exchange is a joke, not Ahuici proposing that Donghe take an ordinary woman. These moments preserve Xiangping's insistence on Jingtian's choice and status even after prolonged warfare. (Chapter 103)

A clear pearl taken during the conflict responds to his talisman seed, suggesting a connection to the family mirror. When the blessing finally warns him of a death he cannot escape, Xiangping uses the knowledge to prepare others. He marks an escape route with charcoal, entrusts the pearl to Donghe for Tongya, and orders his people to return east under Donghe's command. Mu Jiaoman's resort to outside shamanic help has brought a threat Xiangping cannot overcome; the precise rank and identity of the curse's caster remain unknown. The forewarning gives him time for a final decision, rather than a way to save himself. (Chapters 102–103)

Black qi withers his body, and the gray talisman qi absorbs the remaining curse only after his death. His corpse disperses into locusts, while Donghe recovers the Ebony Bow and leads the survivors away. The seed returns to the mirror, carrying the cultivation Xiangping reached during his life; it does not return him alive to his family. Donghe's delivery of the clear pearl preserves the other part of his last instruction. Its shell later melts under Supreme Yin Profound Light, contributing to the mirror's recovery. Xiangping leaves Tongya the task of sustaining the household and his children a loss that the family's continued rise cannot undo. (Chapters 103–104, 111)

Appearance and personality

As a teenager, Xiangping is decent-looking and lively, with mischievous eyes. His curiosity and readiness to act make the mirror's discovery plausible as an extension of his ordinary life rather than a deliberate quest for immortality. Late in the Mount Yue campaign, long hair, worn clothes, fatigue, and a few white hairs reveal how far that life has changed. His joking recollection of childhood yams amid the fighting preserves the familial warmth beneath his hardened appearance. (Chapters 2, 103)

His strongest commitments are to the household's survival and its future generations. Those commitments produce both generosity toward Yesheng and the killing of Yecheng. He can subordinate his own advancement to Chejing's talent, organize resources patiently, and respect Jingtian's choice of a husband, while accepting lethal secrecy as necessary. His final conduct combines the same qualities: once he cannot preserve his own life, he directs his remaining authority toward the escape of his followers and the return of an object that may help his family. (Chapters 13–14, 18, 61, 103)

Abilities and cultivation

Mirror seed and Embryonic Breathing

The Profound Pearl Talisman Seed enables Xiangping to cultivate through the Reception Method. Moonlight gathered under the method enters his cultivation, giving him access to a path his ordinary background would not otherwise supply. The seed's gift is an opening rather than unrestricted talent. His advance through the early chakras is followed by stagnation at Azure Essence, and attaining later stages depends on continued practice and the family's supernatural resources. (Chapters 11, 18, 37, 52)

The sacrificial talisman qi eventually carries him to the sixth chakra and peak Embryonic Breathing. River Pure Qi is prepared for a subsequent Qi Cultivation breakthrough, but he dies before achieving it. His final seed returns that accumulated cultivation to the mirror after death. Neither the benefits Lu Jiangxian receives from that return nor attacks performed by the mirror can be treated as Xiangping's personal attainment beyond Embryonic Breathing. (Chapters 85, 89, 103–104)

Evade Death, Prolong Life

Lu Jiangxian selects Evade Death, Prolong Life after the River Crocodile sacrifice, granting the blessing through Xiangping's existing seed. The gray talisman qi provides warnings of approaching danger, allowing him to recognize threats and act before they fully reach him. During the campaign this favors evasion and practical preparation; its value lies in changing the decisions he can make, rather than providing a conventional weapon for defeating every source of danger. (Chapters 85, 90–96, 103)

Its final warning demonstrates its boundary. Xiangping perceives his impending death but cannot find a means of averting it, so he marks a route and passes his responsibilities to Donghe. The talisman qi's later absorption of the curse does not prevent the fatal withering or resurrect him. No fixed additional lifespan is established for his use of the blessing, and its name does not turn his eventual death into an exception to an otherwise unlimited guarantee. (Chapters 103–104)

Golden Light and ranged combat

Xiangping practices Golden Light from the spell shared within the household. Hand seals produce the cutting golden light with which he kills Yecheng. The spell gives an early cultivator a lethal advantage over a mortal, but that episode does not establish the ability to cut down stronger cultivators regardless of their defenses. His inability to reproduce Chejing's Profound Water Sword aura further shows that possessing a method and practising it do not amount to mastery. (Chapters 12–13, 61)

The Ebony Bow complements his mana with a physical ranged weapon. It gives him a practical means of fighting at a distance, while the resistance of stronger defenses makes its limits apparent. Movement and protective talismans supplement that arsenal. When facing the hostile Daoist, presenting the mirror also exploits the enemy's uncertainty about an external treasure's power. This combination makes him a resourceful survivor, but its strongest component depends on Lu Jiangxian's separate agency rather than an innate art belonging to Xiangping. (Chapters 52, 54, 70–75)

Talisman practice, sacrifice, and command

Talisman training joins cultivation to the family's economy. Chejing's instruction includes the use of cloth and diluted ink to make unsuccessful practice less costly, allowing Xiangping and Tongya to learn without consuming their limited stock of expensive materials. Xiangping's participation establishes a learner's practical understanding of craft and expense; it does not establish mastery of higher-grade talismans or every method contained in the household's manual. (Chapters 59–61)

The sacrificial rite likewise relies on cooperation and on the mirror's response. Preparing the offering and conducting the human side of the ritual cannot let Xiangping dictate Lu Jiangxian's choice of blessing. His administrative skill is more securely expressed in the survey of people, planning for spiritual crops, cultivation opportunities, and wartime supplies. Such organization makes limited resources useful across a household and a campaign, while the fatal curse shows that effective command cannot compensate for every disparity in supernatural power. (Chapters 22, 25, 85, 93–96, 103)

Power progression

Relationships

• Li Mutian: His father supports the family's cultivation and approves Xiangping's lethal response to Yecheng's spying. That judgment reinforces Xiangping's view that a vulnerable household must defend its secret decisively. (Chapters 3, 14)
• Li Changhu: His elder brother grieves Yecheng and believes reform was possible. Xiangping later helps prepare Changhu's son Xuanxuan for cultivation and leadership, preserving the dead brother's place in the family's succession. (Chapters 14, 37)
• Li Tongya: Brother, cultivation partner, and essential collaborator. Tongya buys the Ebony Bow, helps secure resources, and becomes the intended recipient of the pearl carried home after Xiangping's death. (Chapters 18, 52, 89, 103)
• Li Chejing: His more gifted younger brother teaches spells and economical talisman practice. Xiangping recognizes the disparity in their prospects and warns him to understand the interests behind sect recruitment. (Chapters 12, 61)
• Tian Yun, Li Xuanfeng, and Li Jingtian: His wife and twin children. His concern for their future survives the demands of war, and his discussion of Jingtian's marriage explicitly makes her acceptance a condition. (Chapters 37, 103)
• Li Xuanxuan: Changhu's son, whom Xiangping prepares as a future family leader. Giving the next generation a place in the household's work helps prevent its ambitions from ending with the founding brothers. (Chapters 37, 84)
• Chen Donghe: A trusted follower and prospective son-in-law. Xiangping entrusts him with the escape route, surviving followers, and pearl in his final moments. (Chapter 103)
• Lu Jiangxian: The consciousness within the mirror, whose seeds, restored pill production, and sacrificial response enable Xiangping's cultivation. Lu later receives the returned seed; this continuity belongs to the mirror and does not restore Xiangping's life. (Chapters 11, 77, 85, 104)

Items

Immortal Mirror and cultivation gifts

Xiangping discovers the Immortal Mirror in the river and brings it into the Li household. The family's custody of it does not make Lu Jiangxian's consciousness or autonomous decisions Xiangping's own abilities. The Profound Pearl Talisman Seed is the personal gift that opens his cultivation and later carries the warning blessing. After his death, that seed returns to the mirror. (Chapters 2, 11, 85, 104)

The white qi recovered from the captured jade pendant restores the mirror's production of the Talisman Pill. Xiangping's contribution to that recovery benefits the household's resources. The physical pendant is distinct from the qi supplied to the mirror, and restoring pill production is distinct from personally attaining every advancement later made possible by those pills. (Chapters 75–77)

Weapons, manuals, and the final pearl

Tongya purchases the Ebony Bow for him as a practical ranged weapon. It remains among the material traces of his last campaign, with Donghe recovering it after the curse kills him. The family's Spiritual Talisman Method supplies instruction whose cost Xiangping and Tongya reduce through Chejing's practice techniques. Neither possession establishes mastery of every art in the manual. (Chapters 52, 59–61, 103)

The clear pearl taken during the Mount Yue conflict responds to Xiangping's seed and becomes the object he prioritizes in his final instructions. Donghe carries it back, where its shell melts under Supreme Yin Profound Light. Its connection to the mirror gives the return strategic importance beyond ordinary loot; Xiangping preserves that possibility through another person's escape rather than surviving to investigate it himself. (Chapters 103, 111)