Chapter 545 – The Underworld Stretches Boundless, Myriad Lineages Academy - Part 3

May of the following year.

Li Yuan walked across the vast lands of Ocean Province, hair loose and unkempt, face weathered by wind and time.

It had been half a month since anyone had vanished without a trace. Half a month since he last entered the Underworld.

The Underworld was gone. Or rather...it had sunk even deeper. Hidden itself so well that he couldn’t find the door anymore.

And elsewhere, the world was changing.

Fourth rank meat fields were sprouting up like bamboo after the rain. Even third rank meat fields, once incredibly rare, were beginning to appear in alarming numbers.

The Human Emperor had crushed the martial world beneath his heel. Towering palaces now rose across Ocean Province like mountains carved from ambition.

He moved the capital. Abandoning the old Jade Capital, he brought the court here.

And so, the land’s original name ceased to matter.

With the Emperor’s arrival, it was renamed the Central Capital.

The Central Capital became the heart of the Empire. The new seat of power.

The former capital, the Jade Capital, was now simply called the Upper Capital.

In the Central Capital, the Emperor gathered all the lineages of the world and housed their knowledge in a single palace. He personally named it the Myriad Lineages Academy.

Every sect, every school of cultivation, all their teachings were collected here. The dreams of countless generations were folded into its walls.

In addition to the traditional Six Ministries, the Emperor established a seventh, one under his direct control called the Ministry of War.

Unlike the other ministries, the Ministry of War received no funding from the treasury. Its funds came straight from the Emperor’s own hand, lavish and unrestrained.

Those who served there began calling themselves, with no small pride, Disciples of the Son of Heaven.

Supporting these changes came new laws and systems—forbidden fields, meat taxes, and more.

The forbidden fields, of course, referred to the meat fields.

No private individual could own or purchase one unless granted explicit permission from the imperial court.

To defy this law was to court death.

That said, because the number of meat fields had exploded, the court would sometimes reward loyal clans with lower rank meat fields, like the Ying and He Clan who had followed the Emperor into conquest.

These lesser fields weren’t powerful in themselves, but they carried huge advantages when applying to the Myriad Lineages Academy.

Naturally, these great families were also expected to pay enormous

meat taxes

in return.

Decrees flowed from the court like riverwater.

The rest of the Empire remained barren. Meat fields across the land were deteriorating. Only the lands around the Central Capital thrived, lush, fertile, and overflowing with cultivation potential.

And so, power...

all

power began to flow toward one man, toward the Emperor. The Empire had never been more unified. Unified beneath a single will.

Meanwhile, far from this tide of history, Li Yuan finally gave up his search for the Underworld.

He returned to Gemhill County.

There too, the meat fields were decaying. The third rank meat fields had already disappeared.

In the end, whether the Emperor absorbed the southern lands or not...it no longer seemed to matter.

Li Yuan made his way to his old house.

Under the apricot tree in the courtyard, Xie Yu sat cross-legged, dressed in red, still immersed in her cultivation.

Nearby, Zhen’er was practicing her swordplay with a wooden sword.

“Hahhh!” She swung, stumbled, her left foot tripping over her right, and cried out as she teetered toward the ground.

But a gentle flow of domain force rose up to catch her.

Blinking, she looked up at the figure who had arrived, head tilting in confusion as recognition slowly dawned on her. Then, shyly, she scurried to the side of the red-robed beauty under the tree.

“Mom,” she whispered. “It’s Dad... Daddy’s home.”

Xie Yu opened her eyes and looked at Li Yuan.

She looked at him and saw the fatigue in his eyes, the road dust on his shoulders, the exhaustion settled deep in his bones.

Then she turned to Zhen’er and said softly, “Your father’s back. Go play with him for a while.”

“Okay!”

The little girl dashed toward Li Yuan.

He crouched down, scooped her up in his arms, and spun her around a few times.

She burst into laughter, giggling with delight.

But as she spun, Li Yuan’s gaze caught the faint numbers hovering above her head, 0~1.

In a place like this, where cultivation conditions were ideal, and under the careful instruction of both Xie Wei and Xie Yu...such stagnation was unthinkable.

He frowned inwardly.

Still, he didn’t say anything. He played with Zhen’er a little longer, then made his way into the house, sat down at the desk, and began to write.

All those months wandering alone in the Underworld, many of his ideas for a fourth rank cultivation path had quietly taken shape. Now it was time to put them to paper, for the sake of the Bladeseekers.

“The greatest of heroes serves the people and the nation, and lifts their kin from decline.

Those of the demonic or path of freedom, once they reach the fifth rank and form three ancestral seal seeds, may reshape themselves into heroes.

To reach higher realms, one must nurture righteous intent, flawless as white jade, pure as a lotus rising from the mud.”

Three paths, all returning to one.

This was the fourth rank path he had paved. It hadn’t been tested yet, but in his mind, he’d simulated it hundreds of times and believed it to be entirely feasible.

Once finished, he titled it the Jade Seeding Method.

To plant righteous intent in the heart was to sow a flawless jade at the core of one’s being.

After that, he began compiling a fourth rank blade skill.

It was a skill rooted in domain force, built upon gathering and spiralling force, a simplified version of the terrifying Great Moon Blade he wielded.

And so, when he completed it, he gave it the modest name, Lesser Moon Blade.

With both manuals complete, Li Yuan revised them again and again, ensuring every line was precise. Then he handed them to Xie Wei and said, “Take the Bladeseekers and Court of Judges to the Central Capital. Bring Yu’er with you. There, you’ll have access to the best resources in the world.”

Xie Wei blinked in surprise as she took the texts. She flipped through them briefly and instantly understood what they were.

Her eyes, always calm and clever, fixed on the man before her, unable to speak.

This was no ordinary cultivator. This was a man who could

create

cultivation techniques from scratch.

In terms of raw talent, compared to the Human Emperor’s luck and might, this man was the true anomaly. The real prodigy.

She didn’t argue. Going to the Central Capital was, without a doubt, the best choice for everyone in the south.

Right now, people still lingered here. But once the meat fields fully degraded to fifth rank, there would be mass desertion. If they ever fell to sixth rank...no one would stay behind.

Handing over such a powerful sect and complete legacy to the Human Emperor wasn’t surrender, it was

alignment

.

And she was the Emperor’s birth mother. Xie Yu, his aunt.

That gave them legitimacy. And with legitimacy and alignment came unimaginable benefits.

She had faked her death to leave the capital once, back when the Jade Capital was a nest of hidden schemes and shadows. But now, all those old intrigues had vanished, burned away by the Emperor’s brilliance.

This time, as they journeyed north, the Xie Clan would truly rise to become the greatest clan under heaven.

She was certain the Human Emperor wouldn’t hesitate to reward them. He might even carve out a section of high rank forbidden land, one of the rarest, most coveted meat fields, and offer it freely to the Xie Clan.

"Come with us," Xie Wei said softly, her voice warm as her eyes rested on Li Yuan. "Zhen’er needs you. And I suspect even Ji Hu wouldn’t mind sharing tea and wine with you."

Li Yuan smiled faintly and shook his head.

First, he had no intention of drawing attention by standing publicly at the Emperor’s side, especially when there were still unknown variables surrounding him.

Second, he still hadn’t found a way to reach Yan Yu.

And third, after he returned, Sheng’er had brought him news. After that devastating battle with the Human Emperor, Naran had been wounded. Two and a half years of recovery hadn’t restored him. In fact, he looked worse than ever, as if death was fast approaching.

Naran had wished to walk into the withered flame, to die as his father had, in fire.

But he had been stopped.

And so, Li Yuan made his decision.

He would set off, back to the Western Extremes.

Now, the region no longer posed the same danger they once did.

Li Yuan had grown stronger. The army of the Nine Flames Tribe had been crushed by the Emperor, and their source of people had been relocated.

As the tides shifted, so did the risks. He could walk there in peace.

As he turned the thought over, Li Yuan raised a hand. Two mirage sparrows appeared and landed gently in his palm.

He turned to Xie Wei and murmured, “Take them to the Central Capital. I might visit the Xie Clan for a cup of tea someday, just make sure you don’t bar me at the door.”

“Li Yuan...” Suddenly, Xie Wei stepped forward and pulled him into a tight embrace. Her eyes glistened red. “Yan Yu has already become a force of destiny. And me...and Yu’er, we’re your women too.”

“...” Li Yuan said nothing. He simply placed a hand gently on her back, his voice soft as a breeze. “I know.”

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Thump! Thump! Thump!

A deep, heavy resonance rolled across the thick, murky waters of the Yellow Springs.

Draped in an ghostly azure dress, Yan Yu stood atop the black steps of the ghost palace, gazing into the distance.

She remembered that someone she loved was out there. She remembered their names. She remembered their faces.

"Li Yuan. Sheng’er." she whispered their names, over and over, forcing herself to hold on.

Never forget. Never let go.

THUMP! THUMP!

The drums sounded louder now, like war drums beaten with flayed human skin, shaking the marrow of the entire ghost domain.

A colossal, ornate coffin floated along the Yellow Springs and drifted to rest beside the ghost palace.

Creak...creak, creak!

The lid began to open, a thin sliver at first.

From the blackness inside, a single pale, slender hand emerged, smooth as white jade. The moment it appeared, it shot out with impossible speed, lurching toward Yan Yu.

Its five fingers, like a cage forged in hell, closed in around her.

CRACK!

In the blink of an eye, the hand clutched tight.

But it had not grabbed Yan Yu.

It had seized a white-robed female ghost who had suddenly appeared in front of her, carrying a massive iron cage on her back.

Author’s Note

Some readers mentioned the book feels like it has no outline.

Just to clarify, there is an outline! I, Peach Blossom Pastry, swear by it. A full framework of intertwined storylines, powers, and characters.

That said...I’m still new at this. So yes, sometimes it’s hard to balance everything, and pieces can fall through the cracks. But I’ve been refining things as I go.

Another reader asked what this book is

really

about.

The answer is that this is the life of a man with eternal life...in a strange world.