Chapter 480 - Spying, Secretly Learning the Cultivation Technique, Returning to the Earth Soul Realm! - Part 2

After parting with Snow, Li Yuan left the Trueflame Tribe and soared toward the Sea of Slumber.

From Snow’s account, he’d learned that Naran now traveled there once a month to cultivate. But something about their last meeting had disturbed her.

The son she remembered as broad-shouldered and full of fiery energy now gave off a chill that made her uneasy. He had been wrapped tightly in a heavy cloak, his whole body oddly swollen beneath it, like something was writhing to break free from under the fabric.

From that alone, Li Yuan deduced that Naran must be cultivating the Earth Soul. After all, he carried Li Yuan’s blood, and born beside the Everflame, he was naturally gifted for the Earth Soul path.

Apart from checking up on Snow, Li Yuan had returned to the Western Extremes to make some preparations.

He had agreed to accompany Xie Yu back to the Jade Capital for many reasons.

For one, he still couldn’t let go of Xie Wei. Then, there was the power base that had formed around her, one that tilted toward him. Abandoning that would be unwise.

The plans of the Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain also involved Yan Yu’s safety, and one of the envoys had already made their move in the capital. How could he let that person act unchallenged?

He needed to test his own strength too, to sharpen his skills by clashing with enemies on his level.

All these reasons and more. But through it all, he remained cautious and deliberate.

So before he made his move, that was he had begun gathering the pieces he had once scattered across the board.

He’d originally planned to include the Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain. If Yao Jue and the others had made it there, he could’ve used the thousand-mile thread to travel there himself. But that plan had gone up in smoke with his recent breakthrough.

Thankfully, here in the Western Extremes, Snow—the piece he had placed in the most precarious position—had not only survived, but had now given him an avalanche of precious intelligence. Even though he was far away, he could now see the whole board clearly.

As for why he treated Snow as a piece on the board?

The reason was simple.

Nowhere in the world was safe anymore. All his loved ones were already inside the game. To pretend he could still keep them tucked away and safe in some distant corner, untouched by pain or betrayal, would be willful ignorance at best and sending them to their deaths at worst. So he chose to be proactive. He refused to be a helpless, sobbing child, waiting for someone else to fix it all.

Li Yuan spent each day pressing forward, covering great distances. And in the time between his travels, he would quietly return to Swallowcloud Province.

The Nine Provinces Provisional Patrol Token turned out to be remarkably useful.

Li Yuan had once thought, if he ever got the chance, he’d thank the Dragon Vein in person.

But clearly, something had gone wrong with it.

Just a while ago, it was promising an alliance and swearing loyalty. And in the blink of an eye, it had turned its back on him like a stranger.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Several days later.

Li Yuan arrived at the Sea of Slumber.

Here, the blizzards had stilled. No howling winds, no mounds of snow. Just eerie calm. In the Evernight where storms were the norm, such quiet was anything but natural.

He transformed into a tiny white insect, as fine as a sliver of frost, and zipped across the icy terrain.

With his keen sense for the flows of Yin and Yang, it didn’t take long before he picked up a disturbance.

He darted toward it, keeping his distance as he observed the source.

What he saw first was a massive three-headed direwolf, at least 20 feet tall and stretching nearly a hundred feet long from snout to tail.

The direwolf was asleep. But even in slumber, the beast radiated a suffocating aura of bloodlust, savage and unrestrained.

It had a frightening combat power of 2,885~10,155.

A fourth rank beast, no question.

Li Yuan moved on and soon sensed another presence, not far from the first.

This time, it was a hulking figure with jagged white bone spikes jutting out from his back.

The young man was seated cross-legged in the snow, holding a few glowing red crystals in his hands.

Beside him, a giant golden axe was planted in the ground.

Snow had piled high. The axe was buried. The youth’s hair had turned white.

And yet neither the axe nor the person was unfamiliar to Li Yuan. Because that youth was his son, Jen’gal Naran.

At this moment, Naran looked absolutely terrifying. Yet his combat power was only 4,052~22,800, barely an improvement over what Li Yuan had seen three years ago.

But Li Yuan knew better. The System didn’t account for the bone spikes on his back, just like it didn’t account for his Earth Soul Heavenly Eye. That kind of strange, intangible strength couldn’t be measured by a number.

It was something else entirely.

Come to think of it, Naran had only turned 18 years old. And already, he had walked half the road of his life.

He trained with desperation—not for personal glory, but to one day shatter the prosperous lands of the Central Plains, to break apart the creeping Grand Union of Yin and Yang, to carve out a future where his people could finally live free, without fear, without oppression.

He was the Khagan. He bore the weight of the Nine Flames Tribe.

Li Yuan didn’t approach or reveal himself. He remained hidden, far in the distance, watching closely as the Yin and Yang energy surged within his son’s body.

He saw a small, pitch-black sphere embedded in the crimson Yang energy.

He recognized this. When he had clashed with Lu Xuanxian, he had seen this exact structure, the Yin energy forcibly compressed, locked into place by Yang, becoming a separate and self-contained

ghost item

.

Li Yuan didn’t rush to draw conclusions. He just kept watching his son silently, patiently. And in the meantime, he began blatantly stealing the Earth Soul cultivation technique.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Several days passed.

Eventually, Li Yuan saw a dark stele buried under the permafrost.

Ancient script was carved into its surface.

An old woman with a hunched back stood beside it, pointing to each symbol, explaining their meaning to the Khagan one word at a time.

Li Yuan didn’t look directly at her. He didn’t risk revealing himself. But something inside him stirred. It was a quiet certainty. This old woman was likely the Gravekeeper.

Because pressure from the outside world had grown too great, the Deathless Tomb had activated its emergency protocols.

And so now, its guardians were beginning to emerge.

In other words, whether it was the Gravekeeper, the old man who was training Sheng’er, or even his own cunning daughter-in-law, Meng Xingxian, any one of them could be a god in a weakened state.

Well...except maybe Meng Xingxian. That one he wasn’t so sure about. Because if

she

was a god, then... To marry some junior hundreds if not thousands of years younger than her and even give birth to his child? That would be...truly unprecedented.

Then again, Li Yuan thought, if he himself managed to live for thousands of years, and was still capable of having children by then, wouldn’t he eventually end up marrying some fresh-faced girl from that era?

My son really is something else,

Li Yuan mused to himself.

He might’ve actually fathered a child with a god.

From there, he returned his focus to the stone tablet. As the old woman explained its contents, Li Yuan silently memorized every word.

He was exceedingly cautious, taking no risks. And since no one in their right mind would suspect a random snowflake in the middle of the tundra to actually be a person in disguise, he remained completely undetected.