Chapter 513 – The Great Restraint and the Great Spiral; Invasion, Palace Upheaval - Part 2

Time passed.

Minute by minute, hour by hour.

Night faded into dawn.

Then came noon.

A summer rain began to fall, sudden and heavy.

But the man beneath the trees didn’t move, frozen in that pose of contemplation.

His gaze was dry and still, yet brimming with life.

Because within his mind, the battle continued.

A storm of self-evolution, fueled by the complete mastery of two fourth rank skills, spiraled ever faster toward something new.

This was no ordinary fourth rank skill, not something one could learn from books or inheritance. It was born from the fusion of two extraordinary forces, the withered flame and 18,000 ancestral seal seeds.

And now, Li Yuan was ready to climb higher, using these skills as stepping stones.

He had found the breakthrough he’d been waiting for.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Days blurred by. Another half-month passed in silence.

Then one blazing afternoon, sunlight filtered through the trees, casting swaying shadows on the ground.

Li Yuan’s eyes suddenly snapped open. He drew his blade and slashed.

There was nothing fancy about it. No brilliant light, no thunderous force.

Just a simple, silent stroke.

And yet, Li Yuan burst out laughing. He hadn’t laughed like that in a long time.

“I did it!” He had fused the Great Restraint and Great Spiral into one.

The force of domain collapse was destructive beyond words. But what if, in the instant that collapsing domain surged outward, it was immediately contained, then made to spiral around the blade in a controlled orbit?

That, he realized, was the path he had been seeking all along.

He sheathed his sword and let out a long breath.

Step one, complete.

Next, he would integrate the withered flame into the blade.

Only when both the collapsing domain and Yang energy could flow densely and cyclically around his strike...then, and only then, would this blade be worthy of being called a fourth rank Human Soul ultimate skill.

He was right in the middle of refining this idea when something odd caught his eye.

He looked down.

His formerly fine seventh rank blade was now just a speck. The size of a sesame seed.

He stared in disbelief.

That simple-looking strike just now, on the surface so calm, had exerted such an immense compression force that the blade itself had been crushed into near-nothingness.

He wanted to keep experimenting.

But suddenly...he remembered something.

Something he’d said half a month ago.

Something about

coming home early

to his wife.

And now? Half a month had flown by.

“Oh...”

Li Yuan checked his status window. No change in his combat power.

But inside, he could

feel

it. His Human Soul was nearly equal to his Heaven Soul now.

And that was no small thing. His Heaven Soul had already reached the second stage of third rank, while his Human Soul was still fourth rank.

“...I should probably head home.”

For some reason, he felt a little...guilty.

“Wahhh! Stupid, stupid, stupid Gucheng!”

Back at the residence, a red-dressed beauty was flailing her long legs in frustration, kicking up a storm. Her eyes were full of grievance, so much so, she was practically turning into a walking ball of resentment.

Fuming, she began to pack. She had made up her mind. If that man didn’t show up today, she was running away from home.

He said he’d be back that night. Night after night, in fact. But not only had he skipped the night; he’d skipped half an entire month! Vanished without a word.

“Oh, Xie Yu, he doesn’t care about this home at all. He doesn’t care about

you

at all...” Xie Yu muttered to herself as she stuffed the last of her things into a giant bag, slung it over her shoulder, and marched to the door.

She took a deep breath, prepared to leave. But the moment her boot touched the threshold, she felt it.

A ripple in the air, behind her, inside the house.

She turned, and Li Yuan had appeared.

Xie Yu didn’t say a word. Didn’t even look at him.

With quiet fury, she stepped her second foot across the door, reaching to slam it shut behind her—

And then—

“Pfft!!” Li Yuan suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, red mist bursting from his lips.

Xie Yu froze. In a flash, she turned around and dashed to him, catching him before he could fall, her eyes full of panic.

She held him tightly, watching the sweat stream down his face as he struggled to breathe.

“...Elbow...” he mumbled weakly.

“Elbow what? Hey, stop talking, I’ll help you to bed first.” Xie Yu’s eyes brimmed with tears as she supported him. “What happened to you? Why are you like this?”

Li Yuan muttered, “Elbow...fire...deviation...”

“Huh?” Xie Yu blinked. “Never mind! Stop talking and just lie down and rest.”

“Mhm,” Li Yuan replied obediently.

Of course, he wasn’t actually injured. He hadn’t suffered any source blood deviation or cultivation backlash. He’d only seen how furious Xie Yu had become, her whole body radiating

I can’t be coaxed

energy, and in a moment of inspiration, decided to fake an internal injury.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A few days passed.

Xie Yu cared for him with painstaking attention, never leaving his side.

And just like that, Li Yuan gradually

recovered

.

That night, after downing a double dose of the secret aphrodisiac, he lay on top of the red-dressed beauty once more.

She placed a pillow under her waist, her soft arms encircling him from behind. Her star-like eyes stared up at him, calm yet gleaming, filled with anticipation.

And in the silence of the night, the room came alive with heat.

The next morning, Xie Yu stirred, her body still sore. She was just about to get up when she heard the creak of the door opening.

In walked her man, carrying a porcelain bowl.

Inside was steaming hot meat stew.

The slices were impossibly fine, each one as thin as a strand of hair.

Xie Yu closed her eyes, opened her mouth, and made a soft

ahh

sound.

Li Yuan fed her gently.

After a few bites, she smiled. “Where’d you buy this?”

Li Yuan grinned. “I sliced it myself.”

“Congratulations,” she said with a knowing smile, the corners of her lips curling mischievously.

Li Yuan gave a small laugh.

Back in the kitchen, lying quietly on the floor, was a dense, pitch-black, handleless iron block, his new kitchen knife.

To forge this knife, he had consumed thousands of blades from the temple’s armory, compressing them with his power until they became...a cleaver.

“I wonder if I’ll get pregnant,” Xie Yu said, a hint of worry in her voice. “We’ve been married for 20 years. If I don’t have a child soon, I’m afraid I never will. Without a child...both of us would be missing something important.”

Li Yuan didn’t dare meet her eyes. He simply replied, “We’ll keep trying tonight. If we work hard enough, we’ll succeed.”

Xie Yu shot him a glare and pouted, “You were so rough last night! I’m already fifth rank, and you still managed to make me sore.”

Li Yuan shrugged. “At least the bed didn’t break.”

Xie Yu giggled. “Yes, yes, I know. You’re a master of the blade, and even in bed you’ve mastered the art of force control, channeling every bit of strength into

me

without damaging the bed.”

The two exchanged a smile, and her earlier intention of

running away

was quietly forgotten.

Then Xie Yu’s expression shifted.

“I’m a little worried about my sister,” she murmured. “She usually sends me letters in secret, at least once a month. But this time...it’s been three months. Not a word. That means something must’ve happened. Stuck here, I don’t know what’s going on out there.”

The quiet made her melancholy even more obvious.

Her eyes carried a loneliness she couldn’t hide.

She loved this man. She’d follow him anywhere. But that didn’t mean she didn’t miss her family.

Li Yuan gently pulled her into his arms.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A few days later.

At Yan Yu’s temple, a man in grey stood silently on a cliff’s edge.

Crows circled around him in slow, lazy spirals.

Behind him, just cresting the mountain and squatting at the cliff’s edge, was a large, ancient tree.

It leaned slightly forward, its wide canopy casting a shadow over the man, shielding him from the midday sun.

From the distant temple, faint sounds could be heard, subtle movements, murmurs carried by the wind.

Inside the temple halls, the King of Chu’s youngest daughter was walking silently beneath the ancient beams, dressed not in royal finery, but in the white robes of a temple guard.

Outside the shrine, a grand procession of six sedan bearers set down an ornate palanquin.

The curtain lifted, revealing a man in regal black robes embroidered with a golden flood dragon coiled across the back, his very presence commanded awe.

A Tree’er, half-hidden behind the gray-clad Li Yuan, said softly, “That’s the King of Chu.”

A nearby crow added in its cawing tone, “The King came to see his daughter. But the temple doesn’t allow outsiders inside, and Xiang Yan doesn’t want to meet him. Still, he keeps going on about father-daughter bonds and just wants a single conversation.”

“I see...” Li Yuan murmured absently, eyes still resting on the distant temple. Then he turned to the birds, adding, “Your Sixth Mother seems a little lonely. If you’ve nothing better to do, why don’t you go keep her company?”

“Okay!” the crows chirped excitedly. “We like Sixth Mother too!”

Li Yuan chuckled and nodded. That was all he’d come here to do today, so he was ready to leave.

But just as he turned to go, his steps suddenly halted. He narrowed his eyes and called out to the crows that were already flapping away.

“Hey, are the King of Chu and his youngest daughter close?”

The crows shook their heads vigorously.

“Not at all. We saw it clearly in Mama’s bronze mirror. That poor girl, she was always mistreated at the palace. Bullied, humiliated. Never did anything wrong, and that’s probably why she didn’t go mad when she was shown the mirror. Only then did Mama agree to take her in and let her serve at the temple.”

Another crow piped up, “It’s obvious. Now that Xiang Yan’s become a temple guard, the King’s trying to use his daughter to cozy up to Mama. That’s why he keeps coming around.”

“Keeps coming?” Li Yuan’s eyes flickered sharply.

A dark ripple spread out from within him, faint but unmistakable.

Though his gaze still shone with light, it only made the shadow rising beneath the surface seem colder, more dangerous.

He stopped completely now, hands clasped behind his back, standing on high ground and gazing out toward the temple below.

His eyes followed the King of Chu as he climbed the temple steps.

But the King wasn’t the point.

His gaze dropped lower, to the six men carrying the palanquin.

And then to one man in particular.

That man was scanning the temple’s surroundings with casual curiosity. Nothing about him stood out.

No unusual aura. His displayed seventh rank strength looked normal. Even his internal balance of Yin and Yang showed no deviation.

Li Yuan slowly withdrew his gaze, his expression unreadable. Then he smiled faintly and said, “Take good care of your Sixth Mother.”

“Got it, Papa,” the crow chirped obediently.