Li Wei pushed open the large wooden doors of his home, the comforting aroma of herbal tea wafting through the air. The spacious yet warm interior of the house was bathed in soft golden light as the evening sun streamed through the windows.
"Li Wei! You're back!" came his mother's voice, high and clear. Lin Mei appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. Her eyes widened as she took in his disheveled appearance—clothes torn, face slightly bruised, and dried blood streaking his arms.
"Good heavens!" she exclaimed, rushing to him. "What happened to my baby?! Did a wild beast attack you?"
Before Li Wei could respond, heavy footsteps echoed through the hall as Li Qiang strolled in, a satisfied grin on his face. "Ah, there's my boy! I see you survived the puppet training."
"Survived?" Lin Mei rounded on her husband, hands on her hips. "You call this surviving? Look at him! Bloodied and bruised! What were you thinking, Qiang?!"
Li Qiang shrugged nonchalantly, his grin unfazed. "It's all part of his growth, Mei. You can't forge steel without a little heat—"
The resounding thwack of Lin Mei's palm against his shoulder cut him off mid-sentence. "Steel? He's five years old! Five! What's next? Throwing him off a cliff to see if he grows wings?"
Li Wei couldn't help but stifle a chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. "Mother, it's fine. I did win, after all."
"You did?!" Lin Mei's expression softened, her tone a mix of pride and worry. "Of course, you did! That's my boy." She turned her head and shot a glare at Li Qiang. "But that doesn't mean your father isn't crazy!"
Li Qiang sighed, feigning a dramatic wince. "Crazy? Mei, I'm ensuring our son becomes a legend!" He looked down at Li Wei with a conspiratorial grin. "Isn't that right, son?"
"Um…" Li Wei hesitated, torn between agreeing with his father and avoiding his mother's wrath. "Let's just say it was… educational?"
Lin Mei pinched her husband's ear. "Educational?! The boy looks like he wrestled a tiger!"
"Technically, it was a puppet," Li Qiang muttered, trying to free himself.
Lin Mei tightened her grip. "You're lucky I don't throw you into a horde of demon beasts for some real training. That'd toughen you up faster than any puppet could!"
Li Wei finally laughed aloud, the tension easing into playful banter. "Mother, it wasn't that bad. I'm already feeling better after taking the Verdant Renewal Elixir."
"Of course, because my baby is amazing!" Lin Mei declared, letting go of Li Qiang and beaming at Li Wei.
Li Qiang rubbed his ear with a mock pout. "You spoil him too much, Mei. Anyway, we've got something important to discuss."
"Oh?" Lin Mei raised an eyebrow.
Li Qiang nodded and gestured for them to sit in the family room. As they settled around the low wooden table, he leaned back, crossing his arms. "There's an event coming up. Happens every five years. Last time, you weren't born yet, Wei."
Lin Mei's eyes lit up. "Oh, the Celestial Blossom Festival! It's a grand occasion, Li Wei. The entire clan gathers, and it's celebrated with music, dances, food, and all sorts of activities. You'll love it!"
Li Wei's curiosity piqued. "What kind of activities?"
Li Qiang smirked. "Well, at the end of the festival, there's also a family competition. It's for ages 15 to 30. Observing it will be invaluable for you, Wei."
Before Li Wei could respond, Lin Mei swatted Li Qiang on the arm. "Competition? Why would you tell him that? He's too young to be thinking about such things!"
Li Qiang winced, holding up his hands in surrender. "I'm just saying it's good for him to see what's out there! The techniques, the strategies—"
Lin Mei's glare was withering. "You're not dragging him into another crazy training scheme, Qiang. Let him enjoy the festival like a normal child!"
Li Qiang chuckled, ignoring the sharp look Lin Mei shot his way. "Mei, give the boy some credit! He's only five, but he works harder than people three times his age. You've seen it yourself!" He gestured toward Li Wei with a proud grin. "And he just beat a puppet that most children much older than him would struggle with!"
"That doesn't mean he should miss out on childhood fun!" Lin Mei snapped, hands on her hips.
Li Wei raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Mother, Father, it's fine. I'd love to enjoy the festival and watch the competition."
"See? Balanced thinking. That's my boy!" Li Qiang said, puffing out his chest.
Lin Mei shook her head but couldn't suppress a smile. "You're lucky he's sensible, Qiang." She ruffled Li Wei's hair affectionately. "Alright, you'll get to see it all, Wei. But no crazy stunts, understand?"
Li Wei grinned. "Understood, Mother."
As the conversation turned toward the festival, Lin Mei's face lit up like a lantern during the harvest moon. "Oh, I almost forgot! Your grandfather, Li Zheng, will be returning home soon!"
Li Wei's head shot up. "Grandfather? He's coming back?"
"Yes, just in time for the festival!" Lin Mei said, her voice brimming with excitement. "It's been nearly two years since he left for Changming, the central city of Jinshui Prefecture. He went to seek opportunities for the family and... well, you too."
"Opportunities?" Li Wei's eyes widened, thoughts racing. His memories of Grandfather were faint—booming laughter, warm hugs, and tales of faraway places. Now, after so long, he'd finally see him again.
"And not just that," Lin Mei added, "you'll get to meet your maternal relatives from Fenghe, a border town in the neighboring Zhaoyang Prefecture."
Li Qiang grinned and leaned in conspiratorially. "Your uncle talks so much, you'll think he's trying to sell you your own shirt. And your aunt—don't get me started on her cooking. You'll leave with three extra chins."
Lin Mei swatted her husband. "Stop scaring the boy! My family is wonderful. You'll see, Wei. They're from a family just as well-regarded as ours."
"Great," Li Wei muttered. "I hope they don't bring up how much I eat or how 'delicate' I look."
Lin Mei smirked. "Oh, they will. That's what relatives are for."
As the conversation drifted, Li Wei's thoughts turned inward. The mention of Changming and Fenghe had stirred a profound realization about the world's sheer size.
His home, the border town of Jingyang, felt enormous. Spanning 250 kilometers in diameter, it was home to over 1.5 million people—enough that he'd still get lost in its maze-like streets from time to time. But compared to the greater world, Jingyang was little more than a pebble in a mountain range.
The Jinshui Prefecture, where Jingyang was located, was vast beyond comprehension. It had dozens of towns, thousands of villages, and over 30 cities. The largest, Changming, was so massive that it stretched 10,000 kilometers across and housed 100 million people.
And yet, Jinshui Prefecture was just one of 100 prefectures in the Qinghe Province, a colossal region spanning 50 million kilometers and home to over 500 billion people. Its landscapes ranged from bustling cities to untamed wilderness, with wealth and power concentrated in certain prosperous prefectures like Jinshui.
Even the vast Qinghe Province was a mere piece of the Qinglong Kingdom, a realm so titanic it boggled the mind. Spanning over 2 billion kilometers from north to south, the kingdom was home to over 100 trillion people. Traveling from one end to the other would take decades, even with immense cultivation and advanced transportation, and that was assuming no delays from the dangers that lurked in within.
Li Wei sighed, running a hand through his hair. "This world is absurdly huge."
"Talking to yourself again?" Li Qiang's voice rang out from the doorway, his father leaning casually against the frame with a smirk.
"No," Li Wei muttered. "Just... thinking about how small we really are."
"Small?" Li Qiang gasped in mock offense, puffing out his chest. "The Li Clan is no pebble! We're a boulder, at least!" He flexed his arms dramatically. "A man should be more hot-blooded! Why worry about being small when you'll be big enough to crush mountains someday?"
Lin Mei, who had been calmly tending to dinner, paused, turned to him with a raised eyebrow, and then shot Li Qiang a look that could melt steel. "Oh, really? Because that worked out so well the last time you tried to 'bargain' your way through a shop in Changming."
Li Wei blinked. "Wait, what?"
Li Qiang's face flushed red. "That was a misunderstanding! The shopkeeper was overcharging me!"
Lin Mei's lips twitched. "Right. And how did you end up with that giant bruise on your forehead if the shopkeeper was the problem?"
Li Wei couldn't help but laugh.
Li Qiang sputtered, clearly flustered. "It was not just any shop, okay? The man was selling fake goods, and I—"
Lin Mei raised an eyebrow. "You what? Did you try to argue your way out of paying, or did you just start yelling at him?"
Li Qiang turned redder. "I may have... gotten a little heated. I wasn't yelling, I was—uh, negotiating firmly."
Lin Mei crossed her arms. "Negotiating firmly? Last I checked, firmly wasn't a code for 'getting kicked out' of a shop after making a scene."
Li Wei tried to stifle his laugh, but it was impossible.
Li Qiang grinned sheepishly. "Look, I had to make a stand. He was trying to sell me imitation jade as if I wouldn't notice."
"And you ended up on the floor instead of getting a deal," Lin Mei added, smirking.
Li Qiang was now playing for sympathy, rubbing the back of his neck. "That wasn't the point! The point was—well, the jade wasn't real, and someone needed to call him out on it."
Lin Mei just raised an eyebrow. "Someone also needed to call you out on your temper. And someone else, apparently, needed to call you a healer after you got knocked out by that shopkeeper's bodyguard."
Li Qiang puffed out his chest, trying to hold on to his dignity. "Look, that's not how it went down! It was... a misunderstanding of epic proportions!"
Lin Mei shook her head, smiling at her husband's antics. "An epic misunderstanding, huh? Maybe next time you'll just leave the shopping to us."
Li Wei, still chuckling, turned to his father. "Maybe I'll stick to asking for discounts and leave the 'negotiating' to you, Father."
Li Qiang nodded sagely, clearly missing the point. "One day, Wei, one day you'll see. When you're out there bargaining with the best merchants in the land, you'll remember your old man—standing tall, firm, and undeterred!"
Lin Mei's eyes gleamed mischievously. "Firm and undeterred? More like firm and flailing."
Li Wei couldn't hold back his laughter, his heart warmed by the familiar banter. The world might be impossibly vast and dangerous, but with moments like these—filled with laughter, teasing, and family—he felt like it was small enough to call home.