Chapter 680 – The Path to Second Rank, the New Lord of the Tang Sect - Part 2

Li Yuan had always been connected to this land. His Life Star Art was intertwined with it.

But that connection had never meant dominion. It merely allowed him to store power here, to cycle endlessly through life and death.

Yet now, as Lady Yu recited the invocation, something shifted.

He felt it. From the bestowal altar, golden light began to ripple outward. It was faint but unmistakable, spreading like waves through the mountains and rivers and reaching across the territories Lady Yu had conquered.

At the same time, a strange sensation stirred deep within him.

He closed his eyes and focused.

Then it struck him, a sudden and sharp clarity.

This...might be true control. Not just borrowing the land’s power, but gaining its recognition. If he could align with this earth, perhaps he could master it. Perhaps he could become its sovereign.

For years, he’d pondered the meaning of second rank.

He had seen the flame gods. He had encountered the ghosts from the Outer Region. He had glimpsed the starry sky, where a single star could contain an entire world.

And slowly, a realization had begun to form. Second rank wasn’t just about power. It was about becoming a world.

Before the Great Upheaval of Heaven and Earth, he’d already suspected that even if the Ancestral Land changed beyond recognition, it would still remain a single, unified world. The New World and the Old were likely still connected in unseen ways.

That was why he had poured everything into cultivating his Three Souls to the very peak. Only then could he grasp the Life Star Art.

Since then, he had searched tirelessly for new power.

And now, in this moment of ceremony and snow, he understood.

This so-called New World power might not be something wholly foreign. It was simply another path, one that ultimately led to the same place.

True second rank, becoming a world unto oneself.

His mind flashed with memories.

One, during his exploration of the Outer Region, he had once discovered a stele, cracked and weathered by time. Its inscription was worn but barely legible.

“Heaven...power...mistake...man...forbidden...marker...as...warning...”

Another was a corridor deep in the Hall of Life, where souls had carved their final memories into the walls. One such memory had shown him that before the Great Xia, there was the Great Yu.

But in the Great Yu, there were no cultivation techniques for Heaven, Earth, or Human Souls. No elaborate systems. One only needed a teacher’s guidance to begin walking the path of the heavenly seal.

A third was Lady Yu, standing beside him, chanting and whispering.

“The mountains and rivers must know me. Only through obsession can one grasp true insight.”

True insight meant attaining absolute comprhension into one aspect of the world. That insight would reflect back into one’s martial path, transforming it into something unique, something beyond ordinary skills.

Image after image surged through his mind. A thousand fragments, now beginning to align. And from it all, a single thought rose, bold and unsettling.

The Great Yu Dynasty must have belonged to the Age of the Ancient Gods.

And there was no doubt now. The heavenly seal was a form of second rank power.

Back in the Yu Dynasty, that power had been easily accessible. So why would anyone waste time cultivating their physical self? Even though the world back then was flooded with spiritual energy, martial artists were scorned, called crude, boorish brutes.

Those who wielded the heavenly seal called themselves Immortals, Gods, and Buddhas.

Martial cultivation and the immortal path were two roads, worlds apart. They never truly mingled. One was rough and grounded, the other lofty and divine. One looked up, the other looked down.

But was that really the truth?

Those so-called Immortals, Gods, and Buddhas, powerful as they were in their own era, still couldn’t escape destruction. And if those terrifying figures like the blood walkers, flame gods, and Outer Region ghosts were all twisted remnants of the Ancient Gods...well, that raised even more intriguing questions.

The Great Yu Dynasty had clearly endured a spiritual depletion just like now.

In today’s age, when the spiritual energy dried up, martial artists simply aged and died. That was it.

But back in that era, when the spirit energy vanished...why did those Immortals and Buddhas turn into monsters like blood walkers, flame gods, and ghosts?

There was only one difference. They hadn’t started from the ninth rank like martial artists. They jumped straight into wielding the power of the second rank, the heavenly seal.

That stele he’d once found in the Outer Region had warned that heavenly power was a mistake and humans must not encroach up on it.

Maybe it wasn’t claiming heavenly power was flawed, but that human beings were never meant to touch it. It could’ve meant that heavenly power was not mistaken, but to reach for it without first grounding oneself in mortal cultivation is pure folly. This stele stood as a cautionary mockery.

So perhaps, back then, someone

had

discovered the truth.

But no one believed them. Worse, they made him into a laughingstock. The stele wasn't a warning. It was a joke at his expense.

Ironically, it became a prophecy of their own downfall.

Of course, this was all just Li Yuan’s theory.

Still, the signs were there. This era was beginning to resemble the dawn of the Age of the Ancient Gods, an era where one could gain immense power simply by offering sacrifice to Heaven and Earth.

Lady Yu’s current combat power of 300~800 might seem modest, but this was just the beginning.

Back in the Age of Ancient Gods, this power was called the heavenly seal.

Now, Lady Yu called it something else,

true insight.

And if his speculation was right...then in this lifetime, and for countless lifetimes to come, no one would be able to cultivate to the peak, just like in the early days of the Age of the Ancient Gods.

The cruel irony was that in the Age of the Ancient Gods, the world was brimming with spiritual energy, yet people refused to practice martial arts.

Now, in this age...the spiritual energy was gone and people

couldn’t

practice martial arts, even if they wanted to.

The bridge between Heaven and Man had collapsed. The grand path to the divine was still there...but only one person remained capable of walking it.

As these thoughts whirled through his mind, Li Yuan suddenly saw the road ahead, his own path to cultivation.

Now that I’ve linked my Life Star to the Ancestral Land, I must claim the lands tied to it, draw the mountains and rivers into myself, until they become a world of their own. That is how I’ll break into second rank.

And yet, Li Yuan couldn’t help but feel exasperated.

In the old era, he went out of his way to stay low-key.

Now, in the new one...it seemed he’d have to do the opposite.

To conquer the world.

To command the mountains.

To stand atop the altar and proclaim dominion.

He glanced at his status window.

Divine Ability 3: Imperial System 3 (?/?)

In that moment, it all clicked.

His path to second rank had been sealed the moment the Imperial System appeared.

He was meant to become the Human Emperor, but not the same Human Emperor that Polaris or Valley Obscura had hoped to hijack for their own rebirth.

No, he would be a true emperor, one who had formed a pact with the land itself, whose Life Star was bound to this very earth.

And that would be his completed path.

The one-year-old boy smiled.

From the distance came sudden shouts, the clash of blades, and the unmistakable sound of battle.

Li Yuan opened his eyes and looked toward the northern edge of the forest near the bestowal altar. From the small clearing there came the sound of fighting.

He said nothing, simply let his arms fall to his sides and stood still.

Lady Yu spoke beside him. “Countless people in the martial world have lost everything because of me. Naturally, their kin and friends hate me to the bone. Once word spread that I left the Tang Sect, they must have seen it as a rare chance and came hunting.”

When she’d said earlier that everything was arranged, she hadn’t just meant the rituals for the altar.

She meant this, too, the ambush.

To bring the Tang Sect to power, she’d had to kill ruthlessly. Schemes in the shadows, force in the open, too many had died. And every one of those debts now had her name on it.

“In the future,” she added, “they’ll hate you too.”

Li Yuan didn’t react. He simply said, “Let’s go.”

He had accepted power. That meant accepting karma. No big deal.

Lady Yu looked at him, so calm, so composed, and a charming smile spread across her face. She answered softly and followed him down the steps of the altar.

But halfway down, she paused. Her expression turned cold.

“Useless fools,” she muttered.

Just then, from the northern woods, several disheveled and injured Tang Sect disciples came stumbling back. And emerging behind them weren’t just lone swordsmen or vengeful martial artists. There were rows of elite cavalrymen in precise formation, broad-shouldered, long-bowed, sabers in hand, faces hidden behind stark, bone-white masks.

They rode wolves, huge, slate-grey beasts with ice-bright eyes.

There were around three hundred of them, each rider like a walking mountain, exuding overwhelming pressure.

Lady Yu’s gaze settled on them.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

To her memory, no one in the Central Plains, nor even the northern territories, had the ability to

ride

wolves.

No one...except the mysterious force even further north, the Phantoms of the Northern Wasteland.

But that force was far to the north. This was the south.

So what were

they

doing here?

In an age where the secrets of the supernatural governed everything, no move was without motive. And this was no coincidence.

These direwolf riders were powerful. More than that, they came prepared. Against such a disciplined, monstrous unit, even the Tang Sect’s elite might not hold.

Li Yuan’s eyes narrowed, his gaze frosty as he stared at the approaching riders.

“You go,” he said coldly.

But Lady Yu shook her head.

She would never leave him behind, not now, not ever.

She knew better than anyone the danger of a decoy tactic. She’d used it countless times herself. If she rushed off, they might not meet again.

Instead, she looked away from the direction of the fighting, not at the crumbling Tang Sect defense but toward another patch of forest that seemed...too still.

She watched it for a long time.

Then, silently, she took Li Yuan’s hand.

Together, they descended the altar and stepped into the waiting carriage.