Chapter 651 – Journey to the Imperial Capital, Heavenly Master’s Manor, and Immortal Attendants - Part 1

Losing the items wasn’t the worst possible outcome. At least they were taken by someone. And as long as someone took them, there would be clues to follow.

Besides, Li Yuan didn’t even know what use the secret steles or the Beast Gate had in this era. So even if someone else got their hands on them, they probably wouldn’t know what to do with them.

What really mattered was figuring out what had happened to the Zhangsun Sanniang’s family, and who had taken the items in the first place.

Returning to an old place...things were the same, yet everything had changed.

Li Yuan still remembered what it was like when he left. Back then, even the Northern Dipper hadn’t yet fallen out with him, still pretending to be his little handmaid.

Now, even he himself had taken on a different face, coming back here in a new guise.

He searched the house quickly and thoroughly. Apart from the obvious fact that Zhangsun Sanniang’s home had been abandoned for years, there wasn’t much else to go on.

Li Yuan wasn’t in a rush. He had plenty of patience. Quietly, he returned to the inn.

The family of three was still lying on the bed. He climbed back in beside them like a mischievous child sneaking in after a nighttime trip to pee.

Maybe it was the effect of the Life Star Art and his

rebirth

, but even though he had spent all this time close to them, he didn’t feel much emotional attachment. At most, it was a kind sort of affinity.

If this had been when he first crossed into this world, he might have treated them as his own family. But now...those feelings had faded.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Next morning.

Li Yuan opened his eyes and found Ah Ting’s face pressed close to his, as if she’d been watching him while he slept.

Her eyes were calm and deep, like dark pools, giving off an inexplicable sense of peace.

When she saw him wake up, she broke into a plain, heartwarming smile. “Papa and Mama sold a lot of fish today. They were so happy.”

Li Yuan smiled. “And what about you, Ah Ting? Are you happy?”

“Happy!” Ah Ting stretched lazily, then dashed off like a squirrel.

Li Yuan noticed she was wearing clothes a size too big, clearly hand-me-downs. In fact, they were the same style as what he was wearing. These must have belonged to the fisher couple’s son.

He said, “Let your dad and mom buy you some new clothes.”

“No need!” Ah Ting blinked. “Come on, get up! Eat breakfast, then we’re heading back to the village!”

“Sure.” Li Yuan nodded.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

On the road back, Hei Niu’s cart rolled past Zhangsun Sanniang’s house. Li Yuan took the opportunity to ask around. But simple fisherfolk like Hei Niu and Wu Niang knew nothing about it.

Hei Niu thought hard for a while before saying, “I did hear something... There was a horse-breeding family in Herderton who suddenly disappeared. The authorities searched high and low but never found a trace of them.”

Li Yuan narrowed his eyes. He needed more information.

The wooden cart creaked along as the wheels groaned beneath it. Ah Ting sat at the edge, peering into the distance with wide, curious eyes. She always looked at the world as if it was filled with wonder.

Li Yuan’s gaze swept constantly across the scenery. He was also curious. This was a world reshaped by a great transformation. Others might not know that the supernatural still existed, but he knew. After all, he had personally used the

Dusk

character to slay powerhouses of the old world.

Extraordinary powers still existed.

He’d been pondering things on his own and realized there was some unknown factor he was missing, something he hadn’t yet unearthed.

So now, he was trying to see if the world itself might already hold the answers.

If there really was something out there, he wouldn’t mind copying a few answers.

Li Yuan swept his gaze across the crowd, but the combat powers he saw never went beyond a 5. Occasionally, there’d be some sword-wielding loudmouth bragging about their strength, but even those were only around a 4~5 at best.

Honestly, this felt like the kind of world where slaying a single tiger could earn you the title of

Tiger-Slaying Hero

.

He pulled his gaze back, only to notice that Ah Ting was still staring off into the distance.

Curious, he followed her line of sight. What he saw wasn’t someone admiring the scenery. Her pupils were unfocused, dazed. She was just blankly letting her eyes drift along with the passing view, seeing whatever came into frame with the movement of the cart.

This wasn’t sightseeing. She was zoning out.

Li Yuan called out, “Ah Ting.”

She answered without looking, “Big Bro Yu.”

Big Bro Yu

was Ah Ting’s nickname for him.

Li Yuan had borrowed the Li surname from his past life and added a Yu. He was now Li Yu, a boy who’d lost his family to mountain bandits and now wandered alone.

“What are you looking at?” he asked.

“The town,” Ah Ting replied.

“Is it that nice to look at?” Li Yuan asked.

Ah Ting nodded. “Isn’t it?”

“But I don’t see you looking at anything in particular,” he said.

“Because everything is beautiful,” she explained. She flashed a wide, radiant grin, her white teeth peeking out, sleeves much too large drooping down from her raised arms. Then she added, as if trying to help him understand, “There are so many colors. So many sounds. Wide streets. And so many people.”

“Oh,” Li Yuan responded, without much interest in keeping the conversation going.

He folded his arms and leaned back against the cart’s inner wall.

Outside, Hei Niu, the fisherman, was driving the cart.

Inside, the big wooden barrel used for selling fish still reeked. No one had really washed it. The strong, salty stench filled the air. But the family was used to it; they were fisherfolk, after all.

When they returned home, Wu Niang dragged the barrel down to the lake to scrub it clean. Meanwhile, a neighbor came over to find Hei Niu, saying he wanted to partner up for fishing.

Word had spread around the village by now, about how Hei Niu’s daughter was always yelling about the River God, and how they’d taken in a strange boy.

No one actually believed the boy was a river deity, but people had eyes. Hei Niu’s fishing hauls had been getting better and better. Just yesterday, he’d brought back a cart overflowing with fish, sold the whole lot in town, and returned empty-handed but with heavy pockets.

Naturally, Hei Niu didn’t want to share the wealth.

But the next day, even more villagers came knocking.

Li Yuan overheard bits and pieces, the usual stuff about how Hei Niu shouldn’t hog all the good fortune and that fellow villagers should share.

Hei Niu didn’t have much of a spine. Seeing so many people pressuring him, he gave in.

But Li Yuan had no plans to play divine fisherman for them every day. After a few attempts, people started to realize that fishing really did depend on luck. Once the illusion wore off, the so-called

Fishing Alliance

quietly fell apart.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

With Li Yuan now settled on land, and a place to call home, he no longer needed to skulk in the shadows. Life gradually returned to a quiet sort of peace.

One day, after Hei Niu and Wu Niang had gone out to fish, Li Yuan stepped into the courtyard with a tree branch in hand.

He gave it a few quick swings.

Only a few, but there was something about the way he moved. A grace hidden in simplicity. A power concealed in restraint. Something beyond skill.

A glimpse of true mastery.

His strength was all sealed away in the Ancestral Land, but true skill needed no storage. It was rooted deep in his soul.

The branch in his hand swayed and spun, casting dancing shadows as it sliced through the air with sounds that sped up and slowed down unpredictably.

Li Yuan glanced at his status window.

As expected, there was no sign of a martial skill manifesting.

In the past, something like this would have naturally evolved into a skill of its own by now.

He continued swinging the branch, trying to use methods like restraining, explosive, and rotational force. But none of them would come.

After a while, the whole thing just felt pointless. Bored, he tossed the branch aside and went to rest.

As a celestial, Li Yuan was growing fast.

In just under half a year, he looked like a sturdy teenage boy and had even started helping Hei Niu fish and sell their catch in town.

Ah Ting, however, still looked like the same little girl, unchanged.

Meanwhile, several families in the village were falling into hard times. They couldn’t keep up with their taxes, and while no one had yet sold their wives or daughters, the situation was edging dangerously close to that line.

Hei Niu’s family was one of the few exceptions. Thanks to Li Yuan’s presence, the mysterious black rainbow fish kept showing up in their nets. Every year, they managed to catch enough to earn a tax exemption.

But that spring, a mishap occurred.

Hei Niu was bitten by one of the black rainbow fish while fishing. The bite wasn’t serious. They quickly got a doctor, and he recovered, but it left him bedridden for a while.

Still, the fish had to be sold in town.

Li Yuan volunteered to take care of it.

It was the perfect excuse to visit Herderton again and dig around for any new word on Zhangsun Sanniang’s family.

But Wu Niang wasn’t having it.

“You’re still too young,” she said.

In response, Li Yuan casually picked up the massive water jar in the courtyard, filled to the brim, and lifted it overhead three times before gently setting it back down. Not a drop spilled, and his breath didn’t even hitch.

Wu Niang stood there, stunned. Then finally, she relented.

Ah Ting wanted to go with him, but Li Yuan refused.

“Wait until you’re a little older, then you can go with your brother,” Wu Niang chimed in.

Ah Ting nodded obediently, didn’t argue, and darted off to chase some newly-hatched butterflies outside.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The next day.

Li Yuan returned, having sold every last fish.

And with that, he officially earned the right to sell fish in Herderton.

The fish market now had a new face, a teenage boy selling black rainbow fish.

Naturally, that boy started asking questions.

Some were about Zhangsun Sanniang’s family.

Others were about martial cultivation.

The fish vendors included more than a few ex-martial artists turned merchants, and they were a boisterous bunch. Li Yuan would often chat with them, letting them brag and tell their tall tales.

Before long, he uncovered his first piece of information. The sealed-off residence used to belong to the matriarch of the Huyan Clan. About nine years ago, the entire Huyan household vanished overnight. The authorities eventually sealed their home, but no one knew where the family had gone.

Li Yuan could only sigh at the lack of leads.

The second bit of information was that the current emperor was named Ying Mo. He was a tyrant by all accounts. His predecessor was Ying Cheng, posthumously titled Emperor Xi.

Li Yuan didn’t know either of these names, but he guessed they were descendants of Ying An.

He thought quietly for a while, then made a decision.

He would go to the imperial capital.

There were four reasons for this journey. The first was to use the Emperor’s power to trace the whereabouts of the vanished Huyan Clan.

The second reason was to uncover what exactly happened the year the world changed, particularly if there was any trace of Sheng’er. After all, Ying An should’ve entered the Deathless Tomb too.

The third reason was that he wanted to deepen his understanding of this new world, to better prepare for future reincarnations. This first transformation was just a trial run, after all.

And the fourth? He wanted to show a bit of strength, just enough to see if anyone was secretly pulling strings from behind the scenes.

Though truth be told, Li Yuan had his doubts there even was a puppet master.

Because if someone

had

been orchestrating things behind the scenes, the best time to strike would’ve been when he was merging with his Life Star. Back then, he’d just gone toe-to-toe with the Northern Dipper, had already played most of his cards, and was at his weakest. If a hidden hand existed, that was the moment to act.

But nothing had happened.

No one showed up.

Which suggested the Life Star Art might really have just been...there. Waiting.

Still, just because there might not be a mastermind didn’t mean he could ignore the possibility. He had things to do. And the sooner, the better.

Besides, Li Yuan also wanted to test what would happen if he reclaimed some power from the Life Star and how long it would take to recover afterward.

With his mind made up, he decided it was time to buy a proper blade, say goodbye to Hei Niu and the family, and set off for the imperial capital.

But things weren’t as simple as they used to be.

Back then, he could’ve just flown there.

Now? He needed to scrape together travel expenses. Ideally, he’d find a merchant caravan heading to the capital and pay to tag along.

But that was easier said than done. Even if money weren’t an issue, Herderton was pretty remote. Trying to find a trade caravan bound for the capital was...well, a pipe dream.

Traveling solo wasn’t much better. He had no maps and plenty of logistical problems.

Li Yuan, despite being someone who preferred to operate in the background, didn’t see himself as particularly grand. But he certainly didn’t expect to be tripped up by something as mundane as travel.

And so the plan dragged on...until the end of the year.