Chapter 700 - Four Realms, Great Leap, Peerless Among Mortals - Part 2

After countless trials, two more months passed.

And then, he finally created a new form, the

Old Man’s Fist

.

A technique of contradiction, aggressive at the start, feeble at the finish. It flew in the face of all conventional martial principles.

In the martial world, no one would bother inventing something like this. Everyone hid their killing intent in the final blow. A real expert struck hardest at the end. Who would attack ferociously, only to pull back like a gentle breeze? That wasn’t combat. It was flirting!

And yet, this wildly unorthodox Old Man’s Fist turned out to be a perfect fit for Li Yuan.

With its rhythm, his body could now begin layering a second sheath of Qi over his skin.

As it formed, he felt that familiar sensation, the unmistakable sign of a breakthrough.

The realm was rising. And it demanded he enter seclusion.

Truthfully, Li Yuan had never intended to get too involved in Tang Sect’s affairs. His return had only been to complete one ritual, a symbolic mountain-river handover, to transform his status from being Lady Yu’s

consort

to her

lord

.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Now that the ritual was done, he left all matters of administration to the Four Poisons as well as the newly restructured Tang Sect elder council, handpicked and reformed by Li Yuan himself.

He had his own plans. As for executing them, that was someone else’s job.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Snow fell like feathers from the sky.

Li Yuan stood in the Poison Tower, one of the four towers of Tang Sect, hands behind his back as he watched the snow blanket the world in white. Beside him, Tang Aizhu reported on current affairs.

She held a thick stack of folded reports and files in her arms, organizing them as she spoke.

“Master, the idea of reincarnators existing in this world...has started to take root in people’s minds. Still, most refuse to believe it.

“The power struggle in the Western Capital hasn’t ended since the fall of Sovereign Ye. In fact, it’s getting worse. The capital has split into two major factions. One is the Divine Blood faction, the other the Skygale faction.

“The Divine Blood faction insists that only those of divine royal blood can ascend the throne. Unfortunately, back in his reign, Sovereign Ye all but ruined his own bloodline. That faction is weak, but they’ve naturally gained the support of many Divine Lords and Generals. Because to them, someone of divine blood is the perfect puppet.

“The Skygale faction, meanwhile, has chosen a very different path. And with a bit of nudging from their side, they’ve begun advocating for the return of the ancestral founder. Their stance is clear. The Divine Sovereign was once a disciple of the Skygale Sect. And so, their founding ancestor Xie Yu should rightfully assume the position of Supreme Elder.

“They argue that a divine nation should not resemble the petty monarchies of the mortal world. The previous inheritance through the royal bloodline brought only disaster. From now on, leadership should be decided by the ancestral founder in consultation with the Divine Lords.”

Tang Aizhu continued reporting in her calm, unhurried voice.

“To the west of the Divine Dominion, the head of the Song Clan died suddenly. But instead of chaos, his son, Song Chengye, smoothly inherited the position. Song Chengye is a man steeped in scholarly tradition. Even after coming to power, he remains devoted to the teachings of the Ink School, encouraging learning and moral cultivation.

“As for Great Zhou, the Ying and Xie Clans are essentially finished. The Li Clan has suppressed them completely. At this point, The Li Clan’s ascension to the imperial throne is just a matter of taking the final step. So far, none of the Ying, Xie, or Li Clans have responded to the rumors of your return or Xie Yu’s.

“The western expeditions haven’t yielded anything concrete yet. However, our agents discovered that one of the former Eight Pillars, the Gao Clan, has been quietly investigating the Western Extremes for years. They refer to a figure known as the Divine Mother of the West, claiming she holds the secret to immortality. Because of that, many groups have begun their own searches in the west. We’re not the only ones.

“The Golden Tent Nomads have effectively become the outer perimeter of the Phantom Camp’s domain. But the Phantom Camp’s northern territory stretches vast and deep. That land is so immense that trying to locate their stronghold is like searching for a needle in a haystack. Just like hunting for the Divine Mother in the Western Extremes, it’s close to impossible.”

Li Yuan closed his eyes and listened quietly.

The supernatural world of today was no longer what it had once been.

In the past, once someone reached fifth rank, they were virtually immortal, impossible to kill.

But now, being extraordinary felt more like wearing a suit of mech armor. Yes, it was powerful. But only when activated. Without it, their bodies were no different from ordinary people. A knife through the heart could still kill someone if they were caught without their Qi.

Li Yuan mulled over everything for a moment, then issued his instructions, brief and to the point.

“Assist the Skygale faction in the Western Capital. Let their elders seek out the ancestral founder. Try cooperating with the Gao Clan. Tell them that the Primordial Emperor knows quite a bit about the Divine Mother of the West. Continue searching for the Phantom Camp. Identify anyone who might be able to pinpoint its location. But remember, there are still transcendent beings out there. If you spot one, don’t act rashly. Observe from a distance. I’ll be entering a short period of seclusion. Once I’m out, I’ll handle it myself.”

He rubbed his forehead, feeling the weight of it all.

He knew the Phantom Camp had been built atop the foundations of the Huyan Clan.

If possible, he would’ve loved to take their heads, wipe out the clan in a single decisive move. But he didn’t even know where they were.

And judging by recent intelligence, it was highly likely that the Huyan Clan harbored powerful reincarnators.

“Yes, Master,” Tang Aizhu replied. Then, after a pause, she added, “Actually, I still have some confusion about my cultivation.”

Li Yuan nodded, and Aizhu lit up with visible joy. She eagerly began laying out the questions she had accumulated.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

New Year’s Eve.

Li Yuan checked once more on the situation outside, then gave personal guidance to the Four Poisons. For convenience and to better reflect their true status, he formally promoted them to the rank of Four Guardians.

This was more a matter of ceremony than substance. In truth, the four maids already operated as guardians in all but name. Li Yuan was merely making it official.

Afterward, he summoned the Tang Sect’s elder council, painted them a grand vision of the future, then promptly withdrew from public view.

He had begun to sense the arrival of the second realm of the New World’s power. Now that the moment had come, he had to seize it, break through, and evolve.

In this world, power was everything.

True, power here was now intertwined with authority. But even that authority was merely a tool, a means to an end. And that end...was still power.

Li Yuan would never forget that.

After spending New Year’s Eve with Tang Nian, Xie Yu, and Lady Yu, sharing a quiet reunion dinner, Li Yuan made his way alone to the top floor of the Tang Sect’s central tower. There, in the innermost chamber, he entered deep meditation and began his seclusion.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Days passed. Then weeks. Then months.

A year.

Two years.

Three years.

In the blink of an eye, six years had gone by.

Inside the chamber, Li Yuan practiced the Old Man’s Fist daily, drawing in QI, immersing himself fully in the mysteries of the Dusk character.

And then, one day, a strange sensation stirred in his heart.

With each breath, with each movement, he felt it, a transformation. He looked down and saw it. A second layer of golden armor formed across his body, no longer a temporary flicker but a stable, flowing sheath of Qi.

One layer of golden armor, one layer of

meaning

.

Two layers meant two points of perception. Two fields of awareness.

But for this to work, the two points had to be interwoven concepts, not just arbitrary elements.

Standing with hands at his sides, Li Yuan glanced at the figures floating beside him.

His combat power had grown from the previous 1,000~3,000 to a staggering 3,000~30,000. The growth was monstrous, absurd, even.

He had broken down the Dusk(暮) character, separating it into its core components, Forest (林) and Sun (日). These two ideas now served as anchors for the dual flows of Qi around him.

And in that moment, he felt something snap into place, a sense of wholeness. The completeness of a concept made flesh.

He took a step forward and threw a punch.

The strike landed in empty air, quiet and unremarkable. But beneath its silence was a force vast as the sky, and heavy with death.

Golden light wrapped around his fist, two separate currents, two textures of energy flowing simultaneously. They shimmered like twin films of molten gold.

To mortal eyes, invisible. Only the transcendent could see them.

Li Yuan studied the twin golden sheaths, watching carefully for any inconsistency. After a long while, he noticed it, a subtle anomaly.

Although the flows were distinct, each with its own rhythm, there were rare moments where they overlapped.

And at those intersections...a familiar shape emerged, the character for Dusk (暮).

So that’s how it is...

In stepping into the second realm, Li Yuan had already glimpsed the third.

The first realm was Lesser Insight.

The second realm was Greater Insight.

Built upon the foundation of one truth, one gained another, two harmonized insights. And under broader access to the world’s mountain-river authority, one crafted a physical technique suited to themselves, drawing in dual flows of power.

This is where I stand now. Then the third realm...

Li Yuan mused,

should be the Heavenly Seal.

Round and round it went, but in the end, it all circled back to the same root, a power not unlike that of the ancient gods.

The heavenly seal of the Age of the Ancient Gods, after all, was something anyone could wield, so long as one had hands to write with.

But now? Tapping into the heavenly seal was anything but easy. To attain it, one had to fuse the dual mountain-river flows acquired through Greater Insight into a singular current, creating a stream of script-like force that coursed through the body.

Reaching that point...the resulting power might just rival that of the Human Emperor.