Chapter 609 - Joyous Union - Part 3

In truth, Li Yuan had come here because he spotted something unusual.. He had a habit of checking the combat power of those in his surroundings everywhere he went. And here in this city, one particular individual stood out like a beacon. Above their head floated a

900k

.

That kind of number didn’t blend in. Not even close.

So after a moment’s hesitation, he decided to investigate for himself.

Now, playing the part of a drunken pleasure-seeker, he fished out a gold ingot from his robes and tossed it to the approaching madam at the door.

She took one look at him, clearly wealthy, and not the kind of drunk who’d make trouble, and immediately relaxed. Just another rich young master come to enjoy himself. She beamed and began making arrangements.

Li Yuan allowed it because he knew that no matter what arrangements she made, he would end up exactly where he wanted to go.

Anyone on par with the Fire or Earth Hall Masters was a monstrous force in this realm, someone whose name could shake the heavens.

And he’d come in person. What kind of giant wouldn’t show their face?

As for why he changed his appearance and disguised himself as a drunken guest, that was just the most basic rule of operational secrecy.

Success favored silence. Leaks brought ruin.

Sure enough, something strange happened.

The madam, midway through leading him to a third-floor room, suddenly looked dazed. Her eyes went unfocused. Her original route forgotten, she passed the intended door and kept climbing up to the very top floor of the brothel.

There, she stopped before a shadowed doorway, opened it, and said with a dreamy smile, “This is where our finest girl awaits you, my lord.”

Li Yuan glanced at the doorway.

Inside, red candles flickered softly, and behind a sheer curtain of red silk, a lithe and graceful silhouette danced in the dim glow.

A woman?

He’d already made his guess.

Without hesitation, he stepped through the door.

The madam drifted away, still in her haze, and moments later resumed greeting other guests, seemingly having forgotten the entire episode.

Outside, Meng Xingxian furrowed her brow. Something felt off. The moment Li Yuan stepped inside, his presence vanished.

It was gone, completely.

That door wasn’t just a doorway. It was a boundary. A seal. A veil.

Seven white lotus flags had fallen into place. And within that space, the world had already been transformed.

The flickering red candlelight flared into brilliance. The empty darkness bloomed with movement as a dozen dancers emerged, one after another.

They were stunning. All curves and fire, bare navels and willow waists, each woman wielding a different instrument as they swayed with mesmerizing grace.

Their silk dresses clung to youthful, supple bodies, and from those bodies wafted a subtle, natural fragrance, heady and intoxicating, like the breath of some ancient aphrodisiac.

Li Yuan felt the ancestral seeds within him tremble, as if a foreign intent was beginning to worm its way into his mind.

The thoughts that rose were fierce, dark and overflowing with desire.

It was as if a single, pale foot, slender and flawless, were tapping on the weakest part of his mind, trying to pluck the strings of his will.

Just one touch, and the heart would lose its balance.

And once the heart lost its rhythm, it would no longer sync with the blood. And without that harmony, he wouldn’t be able to use third rank power at all.

That little toe, so graceful, now seemed more like the finger of a devil monk, brushing the beads of his spirit, stirring something primal.

Pop!

One of the ancestral seal seeds stirred.

Pop!

Another moved.

The taps came faster and faster. In just a breath, over a hundred of his ancestral seal seeds had been stirred into motion.

For anyone else, their will would have already shattered. Their mind would’ve sunk fully into lust, irretrievably lost.

But Li Yuan...had 138,800 seeds.

Of the 138,800 ancestral seal seeds in Li Yuan’s body, 138,000 were accumulated before. The last 800 were more recent, newly harvested from the Myriad Lineages Academy.

Eight hundred fresh sixth-ranks over several years. That alone spoke volumes about how scarce and precious meat field resources had become.

But still, 138,800 was more than enough.

Once he recognized the nature of the attack, an extremely refined spiritual assault, Li Yuan didn’t fight back. He simply allowed his true form to emerge, pulled up a golden chair in the luxurious palace hall, and sat.

The dancers swirled and played around him, but he remained unmoved.

And so, unable to breach his defenses, they could only keep trying to seduce him without success.

Twang!

Suddenly, a sudden burst of music rang out, like a silver flask shattering on stone, like cavalry thundering into battle, like floodwaters bursting a dam.

A new dancer entered the fray.

She wore an iridescent dress, ribbons fluttering like spirits, her bare feet skimming the ground as if descending from the heavens. A celestial beauty falling from the sky to tempt a mortal man.

The others followed her lead, swirling closer, each reaching toward the quiet boy seated in the center of the chamber.

They brushed against him, caressed him, tried to stir his blood.

But none could touch his heart.

More and more of his ancestral seal seeds were stirred. The number was rising.

As the music reached a frenzied peak, the seeds responding had already surged from a hundred or so to over three thousand.

Clap... Clap... Clap...

Li Yuan applauded softly, smiling. “Well done.”

And in that instant, the heavenly dancers near him twisted.

Their beautiful faces began to rot, peeling away to reveal glistening white bone beneath.

Where once there were enchanting eyes, now only hollow sockets stared at him, cold and soulless.

On the crystal floor, where reflections had moments ago shown graceful dances, there was now only chaos, skeletal women, howling ghosts, and a parade of death.

And when Li Yuan glanced down, even his own reflection had turned to bone.

The skeletal dancers circled him, eager to drag him with them into oblivion.

And where they went, death would follow.

A strange, almost sacred fear began to take shape in Li Yuan’s chest. It wasn’t planted by logic. It bloomed naturally, flowing from the music into his soul.

His ancestral seal seeds stirred again like beads on a rosary being flicked at lightning speed.

The number surged. The three thousand became six.

Even for a peak third rank cultivator, such an attack would be devastating. It reached directly into the heart, and few would walk away unscathed.

But of course, no third rank expert would ever sit quietly and endure it.

And the illusions weren’t done.

Children appeared, tugging at his hands and calling him.

An old white-haired woman hunched over beside him, cane in hand, whispering, “Husband...”

All of them overlapped, different roles, different voices, all at once. Li Yuan was a thousand men at the same time. The sound of countless lives surrounded him, whispering nonsense and truth alike, until the line between what was real and what was imagined completely dissolved.

Even the palace around him began to change. Golden halls turned to ruined cottages. Towering mountains bowed behind him, and yellow earth beckoned below.

Everything shifted. Nothing remained constant. All was impermanence.

And yet, Li Yuan sat still...casually, regally, like a warlord on a golden throne.

He faced all the illusions with a calm smile, as if nothing could move him. He was like the gilded statue of a deity enshrined in a sacred temple. Unshaken by the eight winds, seated atop the purple-gold lotus.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Those 138,800 ancestral seeds were not just power. They were his lotus throne. The very foundation of his will.

And finally, after a long silence, the illusions faded.

At the height of the illusion, the number of seeds stirred had peaked at 10,800, but no higher.

Li Yuan asked calmly, “Is that all?”

Darkness melted away. The spectral images faded, leaving only the warm flicker of red candles and the soft veil of silk curtains.

From behind the veil, the woman sighed.

It was a long, gentle sigh, heavy with defeat.

She had begun with a simple test. But when she realized she couldn’t shake him, even slightly, she shifted to a true, full-force spiritual assault.

And yet, even then, he had endured it all. Not just endured, he’d sat through it with composure, eaten the entirety of her offensive like a meal...and walked away utterly unharmed.

“You’ve already done your best.” Li Yuan heard the sigh and offered her a rare kindness. Then his tone sharpened slightly. “You’ve made your move. Now it’s time you told me who you are and what you want. I hope you won’t disappoint me.”

Behind the red curtain, the woman finally spoke:

“Faculty of Seduction. Bai Xinxuan. I offer myself as a vine to your tree. Through the secret art of Joyous Union, I wish to bind myself to you in union and spirit, heart to heart, side by side.”

As she spoke, her foot rose gently and hooked the edge of the red veil, drawing it back like a stage curtain opening on a dream.

Her toes, tinted with flower pigment, looked like tiny red plum blossoms hidden in the mist.

And behind that flowered curtain stood a woman of peerless beauty, radiant, enchanting, eyes like spring water, a living masterpiece.

There was no doubt. This was the most beautiful woman Li Yuan had ever seen.

The kind of beauty sung of in old tales, whispered about in dreams, the archetype of the most beautiful woman made flesh.

“Are you speaking for yourself? For the Five Spirit Institute? Or for someone else?” Li Yuan asked.

She replied softly, “If I said I came here in secret, my lord would surely not believe me. But perhaps...if we consummate our union first, you’ll understand that my words are sincere.”

Li Yuan lowered his gaze and thought in silence for a moment. Then he stood, walked to the edge of her bed.

Her leg moved, just a subtle bend of the knee, and with the grace of a winding vine, it curled around him and drew him in.

The red curtain fell closed behind them.

All sound was sealed away.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Over an hour passed.

Li Yuan stepped out of the brothel.

And now, he understood that Bai Xinxuan had not lied.

The Joyous Union ritual was more than physical. It created a strange resonance between the two participants. A subtle harmony of thoughts and desires, like an invisible red thread tied by the matchmaker god himself.

Beyond that, the ritual bestowed tangible benefits to both sides.

Bai Xinxuan had absorbed a tremendous amount of his power. In that short time, her combat power rose from around 900,000 to approximately 960,000. Once she consolidated that gain, she’d be even stronger.

Li Yuan had received something too, a rare essence of

balance

.

Until now, he had only been able to fuse his Heaven Soul and Human Soul, manifesting the powerful Twelve-Petal Crimson Lotus.

But now, he could feel his Earth Soul's Lotus Throne begin to stir, finally beginning to integrate into his system.

And there was one more thing.

Something that genuinely startled him.

The seductive, manipulative, and famously dangerous leader of the Faculty of Seduction had still been a virgin.

She had preserved herself to ensure the Joyous Union ritual would yield its maximum effect.

And that alone proved her sincerity.