Chapter 683 – He Held the World in Both Hands, and With One Finger, Raised a Forest - Part 2

The next morning.

Li Yuan and Lady Yu rose to start the day.

From afar, four young maids approached, close attendants of the Tang Sect’s master. They came to tidy the room and change the bedding.

But these weren’t ordinary servants. They were the legendary Four Venom Fairies of the martial world, known as Tang Sect’s Four Poisons, Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Delight.

Before they became a quartet, each one of them had been a force to be reckoned with, deadly experts in their own right.

And yet, all four had willingly devoted themselves to the Tang Sect’s current leader, carrying out every task from secret missions to...cleaning up messes better left unspoken.

This morning, for instance, the

mess

they were dealing with involved bloodstained sheets laced with the unmistakable scent of last night’s intimacy.

Tang Xitu, the one called Joy, had an unusually sharp sense of smell, but she didn’t need it. The lingering aura clinging to the bedding made everything perfectly clear.

Expressionless, she picked up the crimson-streaked blanket, decorated now with a blooming red plum blossom, and passed it back to Tang Aizhu, Sorrow.

Tang Aizhu calmly sprinkled a powder over the bedding. At once, it began to sizzle and melt, eating away the fabric until nothing remained but a pile of brittle black ash.

Meanwhile, Tang Nulong and Tang Leyang, Anger and Delight, went about cleaning the rest of the room.

None of the four said a word.

They understood well the dangers of speaking out of turn. Serving someone as powerful and as unpredictable as their master meant treating every moment like walking a tightrope. Even if the situation reeked of gossip, they kept their mouths shut. Once the room was back in order, they stepped lightly onto the suspended iron chains and vanished into the morning mist.

But they hadn’t gone far before a piece of sensational news reached their ears. Lord Yu, since his reincarnation, had already stepped into the transcendent realm. And in seven days, he would spar with Lady Yu herself.

The four exchanged looks.

Truth be told, they were still skeptical of the whole reincarnation story. Such cases were rare these days, and even the last supposed reincarnator the Tang Sect had captured didn’t exactly inspire belief.

Privately, they suspected the entire story had been fabricated by Lady Yu.

Why? Maybe it was just one of her eccentricities. Perhaps she had an obsession, a need to marry a newborn boy, name him Lord Yu, and so fulfill some bizarre delusion.

After all, everyone in the Tang Sect, even across the martial world, knew Lady Yu suffered from bouts of hysteria. So this latest episode could easily be explained away. She simply found some infant and declared him her reincarnated husband to complete the narrative she’d constructed in her mind.

Tang Xitu toyed with a few throwing knives, her delicate fingers twirling them with casual elegance, and murmured with faint amusement, “Seven years old and already transcendent? Impressive.”

But the other three knew her well enough to see through her tone.

She wasn’t really praising Li Yuan’s talent.

What she was marveling at was how

easy

it apparently was to reach the transcendent realm. If even a child could do it, what did that say about the threshold?

After all, what could a seven-year-old boy possibly amount to? No matter how gifted, he was still just a boy.

Li Yuan had been hidden away in the central tower, training in seclusion, rarely appearing in public. To most outsiders, he was still just a baby who happened to grow up a few years. Still a child.

The idea of this little boy facing off against the fearsome leader of the Tang Sect...the image alone was laughable.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Seven days passed.

There was no little boy.

There was only a striking young man, standing tall and proud.

High above the ground, the young man floated above the layered clouds, his robes fluttering in the long wind. Such effortless suspension alone was proof enough. He had stepped into the transcendent realm.

Opposite him stood Lady Yu, dressed in a pale, cream-white gown that brushed the floor, its hems catching the breeze like ripples on spring water.

This duel had been sanctioned by Lady Yu herself, and she had granted permission for all inner disciples and above to witness it. As a result, the four towering watchtowers surrounding the platform were now packed with disciples, easily over a thousand of them.

Many had rushed back from far-flung towns the moment the news broke.

But they hadn’t come to see some so-called reincarnated Lord Yu who’d only trained for six years.

They came to see the Tang Sect’s master in action.

All the towers had mechanical windows, and with a chorus of clicks, those windows fully opened. Now, every disciple on every level could see clearly.

From the heights, Li Yuan gazed at Lady Yu.

A challenge like this was inevitable.

If he was to be accepted as the new head of the Tang Sect, he needed to show strength, real strength. Without that, rumors would swarm the moment he took the seat.

The Tang Sect leader’s just a puppet, Lady Yu’s the one pulling the strings

, or worse,

A seven-year-old as sect master? Please. I’m not taking orders from a child.

And if things got out of hand? Someone might get bold enough to try kidnapping him, hoping to unlock the secrets of transcendence. That was not the kind of nonsense he intended to tolerate.

He refused to take the route of first being underestimated, then proving himself with bloodshed and death. He had no interest in acting that overdone script out.

Even though Lady Yu had already agreed to hand over the sect, Li Yuan still insisted on a real fight.

And truthfully, Lady Yu was curious too. Her husband had certainly shown power before. Just one look from him had unraveled her feathers, but she hadn’t gone all out either.

Might as well test things properly now.

On top of the towers, the disciples stared in stunned silence at the young figure hovering in the air.

That’s a boy? That’s Lord Yu?

Lady Yu, however, bowed gracefully and declared, “My husband is a man of Heaven, no longer bound by mortal limits. Please begin.”

With those words, she not only acknowledged the boy as Lord Yu, but also offered a mystical explanation for his transformation.

Reincarnation, heavenly ascension, whether anyone else believed it didn’t matter. She had stated it plainly. Let them interpret it as they wished.

“Lady Yu,” Li Yuan returned the bow, “please.”

They stepped apart.

High in the sky, floating amid clouds and mist, the two figures paused for a fleeting instant, then shot toward each other.

The battle began.

Lady Yu’s long sleeves swept through the air like the wings of a pale phoenix. From her sleeves burst rays of golden light, forming countless hidden weapons that filled the sky and surged toward the young man like a tidal wave of shining death.

The power behind the attack was staggering.

Her four loyal maids, watching from the towers, were instantly reminded of a moment more than a decade ago. It was when the Tang Sect clashed briefly with the Western Capital. Back then, 300 Divine Soldiers had charged forward...only to be obliterated in a single motion when Lady Yu raised her sleeve.

And even then, she hadn’t been this strong.

Plume of the Divine.

A sound shimmered through the air, like divine music from some unseen realm.

This was no longer merely the art of hidden weapons. This was a transformation of energy into blades, a deadly aura turned tangible.

And what of Lord Yu? The blade at his waist remained sheathed.

He raised two fingers, and with swift precise jabs, golden light bloomed at his touch.

His elegant hand moved fluidly, leaving behind shimmering trails in the air like brushstrokes across a scroll.

It was as though he wasn’t countering an attack. He was painting.

In the span of a breath, his fingers moved like lightning, piercing, slashing, hooking, pressing, flicking...all in a seamless blur.

The air shimmered with the golden trails left behind by his fingers, forming not chaotic lines, but the shape of golden trees. Dozens. Then hundreds.

A forest bloomed in midair.

And into that forest, her feathers rained down like birds returning to their roost.

CRASH! BOOM!

In an instant, the golden light scattered. The feathers vanished. His fingers returned to his side, relaxed.

Li Yuan said softly, as if merely commenting on a painting, “With one finger, a forest.”

Back when the world had first begun to change, the Dusk character could only manipulate plants, or burn people from within, cause weakness, irritability, effects more spiritual than physical. Back then, it felt more like a spell.

But now, it had fused with his martial arts, transforming his every movement into something new, something profound.

This wasn’t sorcery. It was martial artistry refined to its highest form, a union between man and the natural world.

And as soon as those words left his lips, Li Yuan lunged forward.

Lady Yu, proud as ever, never backed down in a fight.

The moment she saw him charge, she shut her eyes to guard against her husband’s fearsome skill, and with a sweep of her hand, divine light turned to feathers and the feathers became a barrage.

The celestial melody that had filled the air vanished, replaced by a sharp, mournful cry, like a hundred birds wailing in grief as they rushed toward a glorious death.

The golden feathers swarmed into a dense tide, forming a towering pillar of light aimed straight at the approaching Li Yuan.

From the vantage point of the disciples, they could see it clearly now. Those weren’t just feathers. The swirling shapes had transformed midair into birds of pure gold.

Hundred Birds, Mourning Heart!

But Li Yuan didn’t draw his blade. He raised two fingers once more.

With the same simple skill, elegant skill, he pierced through the attack.

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

One move, used again. And again, it was enough.

A single stroke to conquer all.

The golden tide shattered.

In the blink of an eye, his fingers slipped through the sea of radiant feathers and pierced straight toward Lady Yu. The defense flipped into offense, his strike heading straight for her throat.

Lady Yu gasped, but the finger didn’t pierce.

Instead, it landed gently under her chin and lifted it with the softest motion.

In the next instant, Li Yuan stepped in close, his left arm slipping around her slender waist, pulling her effortlessly into him. His fingers gripped the fabric of her white robe, stretched taut over her graceful body, and with a swift tug, he pulled her forward and lowered his head into a deep, consuming kiss.

He kissed her boldly right in front of the elders and every single Tang Sect disciple, as if no one else existed.

Lady Yu froze, like she’d been struck by lightning. Her breath caught in the chaos of the moment. But then she yielded, returning the kiss.

They stayed like that for several heartbeats.

When they finally pulled apart, her eyes were glassy with emotion, and she buried her face in his chest, cheeks tinted pink.

Li Yuan, meanwhile, stood tall. He lifted his chin and swept his gaze over the stunned and utterly silent Tang Sect.

In that moment, Lady Yu was no longer the invincible Tang Sect master.

She was just a woman.

But there was no doubt in anyone’s mind. She hadn’t gone easy on him. That had been her full strength.

And Lord Yu...had bested her, cleanly and head-on.

He had dismantled a living legend. Shattered the myth of the undefeatable Tang Sect master.

If it had been anyone else, the martial world would already be in upheaval. Sects collapsing, power structures shifting overnight.

But this man? He was her husband.

Everyone was still lost in a dream.