Chapter 681 – The Path to Second Rank, the New Lord of the Tang Sect - Part 3

“Too many people covet your power. If they come at you in waves, taking turns to wear you down, even you will fall eventually. They didn’t have that chance before. But now, with me here...I’ve become your burden,” Li Yuan said.

Lady Yu’s combat power placed her roughly at the peak of sixth rank from the Old Era.

And sixth ranks couldn’t fly.

She could technically levitate herself, yes, but nowhere near the effortless freedom of someone from the Old Era’s fifth rank. And definitely not while carrying someone else.

Her face had gone ashen.

She had expected trouble today. She had made preparations. But never did she imagine that wolf riders from the far northern frontier would bypassHarmony and Ocean Provinces to show up

here

.

What did that mean? It meant there was almost certainly a traitor inside the Tang Sect. Without someone on the inside, there was no way such a large movement could’ve slipped past her watch.

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

A bitter thought bloomed in her heart,

So... I’m not perfect after all.

Yes. Ever since mastering transcendent power, she had grown careless, forgotten the vigilance and caution that once defined her.

She looked down at the little boy beside her.

He wore the same calm expression as always.

She paused, startled by his serenity. And just like that, her own breathing evened out. Her thoughts steadied.

She gave a simple command, “Return to Westgorge.”

“Yes, Sect Master,” the woman driving the carriage answered.

And just as Li Yuan had predicted, small squadrons of wolf riders began flitting through the forest, taking advantage of their terrifying mobility to wage a war of attrition.

Lady Yu was immensely powerful, but attrition was its own weapon. She couldn’t leave Li Yuan’s side for fear something might happen to him. She was bound by caution, restrained by care.

Fortunately, she had stationed backup the Tang Sect forces in the surrounding area. With their arrival and coordinated counterattack, the wolf riders were soon annihilated.

A few survivors were captured and hauled away for interrogation.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Over a month passed.

Li Yuan returned to the Tang Sect stronghold in Westgorge.

Now that the bestowal ceremony was complete, it was time to begin serious cultivation.

At the central tower of the Tang Sect, he sat cross-legged, working his breathing method. The slim blade rested in his lap as he began his training in earnest.

Meanwhile, Lady Yu followed his instructions and dispatched separate teams toward the Western Extremes and the Eastern Sea, tasked with searching for the legendary Deathless Tomb and Immortal Domain.

As for the Huyan Clan, who had migrated north into the Great Wasteland, Li Yuan had no intention of sending anyone.

He already knew the answer.

The moment he saw the wolf riders, everything clicked into place.

Zhangsun Sanniang was the only one in the world who could tame wolves. She had married into the Huyan Clan.

Decades ago, the Huyan Clan had moved north. And now wolf riders had begun appearing in the north...

That was more than enough evidence.

The Huyan Clan had broken their oath to him, so he would claim what was owed with his own hands.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Time passed.

Six years flowed by in silence.

Li Yuan, once a small child, had grown into a youth.

A child born of Heaven and Earth was never truly the same as an ordinary human, just as he had not been in his past life.

It was now early spring, March.

Dusk spilled its dim golden light across the mountains.

Li Yuan stood atop the mountain, drawing in the breath of the land using his unique breathing method.

With each inhale and exhale, golden radiance imperceptible to ordinary eyes pulsed within his body.

His judgment had been correct all along.

He didn’t need to obsess over the word

Dusk.

He had already grasped

true insight

.

To put it plainly, it was like this.

He had found a massive loophole.

Picture a hacker sneaking a treasure from an unreleased version of a game into his storage before the update hit. Then, once the new version went live, and the storage could be opened again, he already had the treasure waiting.

That’s what this was.

Back when Li Yuan was still deciphering the essence of the word Dusk, the Human Emperor had only just defeated the Khagan who once led a cavalry of 20,000 direwolf riders into battle.

That was now ages ago, so far back it was hard to even place on a timeline.

Under normal circumstances, any transcendent being lucky enough to survive the collapse of the old world would lie low after entering the new one. They’d quietly study the rules of the new era, starting over from scratch.

It was just like the Celestial Sovereign of the Xia Dynasty, who pretended to be nothing more than an ordinary cultivator, blending into the markets and alleyways, inching forward, carefully studying the new systems of power, and rising again step by step.

But Li Yuan was different.

Before the laws of this world had even fully taken shape, he had already plucked its first ripe fruit.

Now that he’d grasped the breathing method in the essence of the land, the

Qi

of the Mountains and Rivers

, his progress was as smooth as flowing water.

And it showed.

His mastery of Dusk turned out to be far more advanced than expected. The moment he fully assimilated its true insight, his combat power jumped dramatically from an unarmed 6~8...straight to 1,000~3,000.

Clearly, the insight he had seized ahead of time was no small thing.

But even with that leap, Li Yuan could feel he hadn’t hit the ceiling yet. There was still more to come.

It was like bandwidth being throttled.

There was plenty of

qi

in the land, more than enough to draw from, but only a trickle flowed to him.

Why? Because despite having offered tribute to Heaven and Earth, he was still not this land’s recognized master.

The one who had officially performed the bestowal ceremony and sealed the bond with these mountains and rivers...was his wife, Lady Yu.

The moment he realized this, Li Yuan stood up and stretched lazily.

In the distance, under the fading light of dusk, a white-robed figure glided across a suspended ropeway, light as a feather on the wind.

It was the the Tang Sect’s master, Lady Yu, returning like a drifting plume.

When she saw him, she asked, “How’s the training going?”

Her tone brimmed with anticipation.

He’d only been cultivating for six years, true. But this was

Lord Yu

. She was sure he would’ve had some kind of breakthrough. At the very least, he should be catching up to her by now.

Li Yuan glanced at her combat power of 320~850.

Then, without warning, he stepped forward.

Lady Yu blinked, surprised, then gave a soft laugh. “Is my husband...trying me?”

She casually placed one hand behind her back. Without any visible movement, she floated backward a step, graceful and effortless. Her white sleeve fluttered in the wind, drawing the air into her palm, where threads of golden feathers formed, each one spinning rapidly like a vortex.

But instead of shrieking through the air, they let out crisp, musical chimes.

That was divine light woven into martial skill, refined, elegant, and beautiful.

She gently pushed her hand forward, creating a shimmering barrier before Li Yuan.

And then, she saw his eyes.

What kind of eyes were those?

Brilliant gold. Soul-piercing. Eyes that made her freeze, limbs heavy and numb.

In an instant, she felt weakness and decay, like her strength was being siphoned away, her very essence unraveling in silence.

The golden light in Lady Yu’s palm dimmed noticeably, just enough for the boy-turned-youth to effortlessly swat her counter away.

With her guard broken, she didn’t resist further. Instead, Li Yuan stepped in close, bent slightly, and with one smooth motion, swept his right arm under her legs and his left around her shoulders, lifting the Tang Sect’s iron-blooded sovereigness into a bridal carry.

“What are you doing?” she asked, startled, half-confused.

Li Yuan answered calmly, “We never had a wedding night. I thought I’d make up for that today.”

With that, he turned and walked straight into the tower, carried her up the steps, and tossed her gently onto the bed.

Mist-pale robes slipped away, embroidered shoes dropped to the floor, and silk trousers were tugged aside with little ceremony.

Lady Yu’s face went blank, then flushed a brilliant red.

Her usual poise and imperious aura were nowhere to be seen. Staring down at her pale, exposed skin, her long legs, her slender waist, she tried to redirect the moment with a cool, distracted tone.

“What power did you just use? I still haven’t figured out what you’re obsessed with.”

Li Yuan leaned in and whispered, “I’m obsessed with you, of course.”

The next instant, her surprised gasp filled the air.

Hysteria may have been her affliction, but a marriage was still a marriage. This sudden consummation left Lady Yu in a daze.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

The peach blossoms had only just begun to bloom in the valley and were already met with wind and storm.

Lady Yu lay beneath him, lost and distant, as though her thoughts had drifted far, far away.

Did she truly love this man?

Li Yuan leaned in close, his voice warm in her ear, “It feels like we’ve done this...many times before.”

Something flickered in her eyes.

She remembered those imagined memories. Before Lord Yu had ever truly appeared, she had already spent decades living alongside him in her heart.

“You felt it too?” she asked, softly.

Reason told her it was a lie.

But her heart, her ever-passionate heart, told her it was fate.

“I’ve always felt it. I just worried you wouldn’t believe me,” Li Yuan murmured.

He paused.Her breath quickened. After a long moment, a quiet moan escaped her lips, the daze in her eyes finally fading away.

Her heart had won.

And really, wasn’t she always the emotional one? How else could she have climbed so far, so fast?

Time passed, long and slow.

The two lay curled together in the soft folds of the bedding.

Lady Yu lounged lazily against him, whispering little stories from the past, her voice soft and peaceful. Old memories surfaced, then melted away in the hush of shared conversation.

Li Yuan seized the moment.

“I’ve caught up, and surpassed you. I can focus on cultivation now, quietly and steadily. Why not let go of all the mundane burdens? Hand the Tang Sect over to me.”

Lady Yu blinked. Then, after a moment of thought, she gave a small nod. “Alright...”