Chapter 627 - The Depths, A Painting - Part 1

Five years passed in the blink of an eye.

With the abundant resources stored within the Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain, and the last remnants of spiritual energy before the world’s collapse, Li Yuan’s breakthrough had gone smoothly, without any bumps in the road.

Now, as he opened his eyes again, he felt nothing but calm.

A sense of complete mastery bloomed quietly in his heart.

He raised his hand. The lotus flower still bore 36 petals. But this time, the flower appeared perfectly harmonious, as though it had reached its true form.

Hands clasped behind his back, Li Yuan stepped out of the Lotus Heart Pavilion. Moonlight flowed like a gentle stream, stars scattered across the sky. The disciples on night duty outside turned to look at him, but their eyes were filled with confusion, as if they didn’t recognize him.

In their eyes, Li Yuan saw alarm, awe, disbelief, and bafflement.

Landing lightly, he asked one of them, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

The disciple looked as if she was about to flee, but Li Yuan moved too fast.

By the time he appeared before her, the terror and shock in her eyes had already begun to dissolve into a blank, muddled expression.

She halted her retreat, then hurriedly bowed. “Greetings, Alliance Leader.”

After a short pause, like she’d only just realized what she’d seen, she continued, “Just now, from a distance, I didn’t see you, I...I saw a sphere spinning in the air. One side of the sphere was a pitch-black tide of ghosts. The other side was a radiant golden giant. And between the two...a mass of red. The giant kept chasing the ghost tide, but it also looked like the ghost tide was chasing the giant.”

“You couldn’t see me?” Li Yuan asked.

“Only when you got closer... Then I could,” the disciple stammered.

“You may go.” Li Yuan nodded.

The disciple bowed again and left.

“Hmm...” Li Yuan fell into deep thought.

This was a phenomenon he hadn’t encountered before. But thinking about it logically, he could guess at the reason. His power had grown so overwhelming that it masked his physical form, like the sun whose light was so intense that no one could actually see its true body.

Curious to see it for himself, Li Yuan soared into the sky and made his way to a quiet lake.

Hovering above, he summoned the three-colored lotus and looked into the reflection on the water.

Sure enough, what he saw was a spinning sphere.

One side black. One side gold. A band of red swirling between them.

He stared for a while, then glanced at the string of fresh numbers floating beside him, 106k~5.16mil. A strange memory surfaced in his mind, videos he’d watched before crossing over, footage from astronomical telescopes capturing the night sky.

In those videos, the cosmos shimmered, dazzling, vast, and unknowable. Far from the solar system, deep space held countless bizarre, unspeakable, yet breathtaking celestial bodies.

Some planets were sheathed in frost. Some were gas giants. Others were wreathed in flame, poison, or bore alien landscapes. From afar, their surfaces glowed in all manner of colors.

And just like his current form, those colors spun slowly in the dark.

Before crossing over into this world, Li Yuan would’ve naturally chalked all this up to

gravity

.

But now, a strange thought took root in his mind. What if this wasn’t gravity at all, but rather a kind of Yin and Yang chasing each other? Like the white fish and black fish in the taijitu, endlessly swirling, tail to head, each pursuing the other. Wasn’t that what he had become?

Except...the image of the Taiji was a symbol of harmony, perfectly round, its rotation graceful, beautiful even. But in the real world, Yin and Yang were rarely so balanced. Their push and pull often resulted in distortion, in tension.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

And now that his power had grown so immense, the aura around him began to take on this very feeling, two primal forces chasing, clashing, cycling in equilibrium. To lower-level martial cultivators, that glow became everything. They could no longer see

him

, only the storm of forces he embodied.

“If that’s the case,” Li Yuan murmured, “then maybe all the strange sights I’ve seen in this world weren’t truly real. Maybe I was just too weak to see past the illusion...to glimpse the truth hidden behind the veil.”

He fell into deep contemplation. “To others, I appear as a sphere of swirling light. But when I look up at stronger beings...isn’t it the same? Could it be that the ancient halls and the Yin-Yang fish in the Deathless Tomb were once actual beings, not just symbols?”

He shook his head and brushed the thought aside. That felt too far-fetched, even for him.

Instead, he lifted his eyes toward the night sky.

The stars. One by one, they twinkled, almost like...presences.

“Starkin?” A flicker of insight stirred in his heart. “If that’s true, then is the Life Star Art meant to transform one's power into a star? But if the whole sky is filled with stars, each one a cultivator who’s used the Life Star Art, then where

are

all these cultivators now?”

The realization sent a cold chill creeping up his spine.

And just then, the flap of wings broke the silence. A little crow came fluttering toward him from the distance.

Sheng'er was always by her father’s side. When he cultivated, she’d obediently wait outside. Once he was done, she’d immediately fly over to him.

“Papa.”

The little crow landed on his shoulder.

“You were watching from afar, could you see me?” Li Yuan asked.

“Mhm! But...it feels like you’ve gotten even stronger,” she replied, then let out a sigh. “I don’t know why, but my three other Tree’ers have been progressing really slowly. We have more than enough Heavenly Fire Spirit Stones, but somehow they don’t seem to stick to me anymore...”

“There’s only one explanation, your Yin energy has suddenly become too strong.” Li Yuan said.

“But maybe it’s this world that’s changing. You’ve already reached the fifth stage in both the Earth Soul and Human Soul, so the Heaven Soul followed naturally. But I can’t do that. Not yet.” Sheng'er frowned. She quickly added, “But that’s okay! I’ve made peace with it. Ping’an hasn’t reached the fifth stage either.”

Li Yuan thought for a moment, then said firmly, “No. If there’s even a sliver of hope for you, you mustn’t give up. A few days ago, I asked Ying Zhuoyao, she said we have two years before the end comes. In those two years, I want you to do whatever it takes. At any cost. I want one of your incarnations to break through to the fifth stage.”

“But what’s the point of reaching the fifth stage?” Sheng'er asked. “Mama Xingxuan’s been at the peak of the fifth stage for ages. Every now and then, she says she feels like she’s improved again, like she’s just one step away from the second rank.

“But I’ve been hearing that same line for ten years. That step... she still can’t take it.No one can. It’s always right there, just within reach, but no matter how talented they are, they can’t seem to break through. Even if I reach the fifth stage, I’ll just end up like them. There won’t be enough time for me to go any further.”

Li Yuan shook his head. “I’m not asking you to break through. I just want you to reach it. Because I can’t shake this feeling, something bad is coming. And if you don’t stand at the peak when the time comes, the door will shut forever. This is the last chance. I have no proof. Just a gut instinct.”

Sheng'er didn’t argue this time. She simply nodded and said, “Okay, Papa. I understand.”