Chapter 701 - Four Realms, Great Leap, Peerless Among Mortals - Part 3

Li Yuan paused in thought, then shook his head.

Maybe that comparison wasn’t entirely fair.

First of all, the old Human Emperor system had never been fully developed. The Human Emperor’s power back then was half-baked, his power incomplete. Not to mention, he didn’t rely on just one character.

Second, at the time, the heavenly seal was centered around a single character. Today, however, one could simultaneously master multiple characters, at least in theory, meaning modern cultivators might have the potential to become even stronger. Then again...the Heavens themselves seemed more formidable back then, so it was hard to say for sure.

Third, in the Age of the Ancient Gods, the old gods could wield multiple aspects of the Heavens. In this era, people tended to specialize in just one. With that in mind, perhaps calling the third realm the Heavenly Seal wasn’t even the right term anymore.

Li Yuan pondered for a moment, then muttered to himself.

“At that point, man and truth become one. The character becomes meaning. The character

is

the person. And even a person’s temperament will be influenced by the word they bear. That’s what I’ll call it, True Will. No longer just your own intent, but a fusion of transcendence and self, a will that reshapes who you are.”

“If my guess is right, there’s likely another realm beyond True Will. Because if this current stage was originally the equivalent of second rank, then what lies beyond must surpass everything I’ve seen so far. Unfortunately, all this cultivation is still a castle in the clouds. Heaven first, humanity later. But if your foundation’s shaky, if you haven’t cultivated yourself, then the path will never be stable.”

Lesser Insight.

↓

Greater Insight.

↓

True Will.

↓

An Unknown Realm.

Li Yuan laid out these four realms, his rough framework for the New World’s power, and then rose lightly into the air.

The Tang Sect was nestled deep in the mountains. And beyond those mountains...wild beasts roamed. It was time to test his hand.

He soon arrived at a mountain stream. It was early spring, the height of the season, and beside the water, a bear was drinking.

Li Yuan locked his eyes on a black bear.

The bear saw him, froze, blinked its beady black eyes at him.

Li Yuan stepped forward.

The bear immediately spun around, wiggled its butt, and bolted. As it ran, its foot slipped, and it tumbled down the slope in a full-body roll, disappearing into the underbrush below.

Li Yuan lost interest in the chase.

Still, he had just made a breakthrough...his hands itched for a real fight.

So, he leapt into the sky and flew to the Tang Sect’s Poison Tower to find the elder on duty.

The moment the elder saw him, his expression lit up with reverence, quickly followed by delight. “Sect Master! You’ve emerged from seclusion!”

Li Yuan looked him over and asked, “Where’s Aizhu?”

The elder replied, “She just left, something to do with the Great Zhou.”

Li Yuan frowned. “The Great Zhou?”

“Yes,” the elder answered respectfully. “The Li Clan of the Great Zhou claims that the Primordial Emperor is their ancestors. They’ve come to pay their respects to the mountain. The one leading the delegation is their top general, Li Tianshi, son of the current Li Clan patriarch. He was willing to come all this way, clearly sincere. So Guardian Sorrow personally took people to greet him.”

Since Tang Aizhu wasn’t around, Li Yuan went looking for another of the four maids and eventually found Tang Xitu, also known as Delight.

Tang Xitu was training in the mechanical traps tower.

But the portion of Qi she’d been granted was small, and between her duties and her lack of single‑minded obsession, she hadn’t managed to enter even the first realm despite six years having passed.

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

She was now nearing 30 years old.

But unlike Tang Nulong’s squinty eyes and Tang Aizhu’s melancholic expression, Tang Xitu was simply...adorable. A round‑faced beauty with a perpetual youthful glow.

At 20, she looked 10.

At 30, she still looked about 15.

Li Yuan didn’t bother with small talk. “I want to fight a transcendent. Got any enemies?”

Tang Xitu froze, then shook her head awkwardly.

It wasn’t that there were none. It was that the very few transcendent beings alive were all hiding so deeply that even Tang Sect had no way to flush them out.

Li Yuan let out a silent sigh.

Every bone in his body felt itchy. He desperately wanted a fight. Even a beating would be fine.

But as the most prominent figure of the New World’s power system...who on earth could he fight?

“Xitu. Come here. Let me test your strength.”

Since he couldn’t find an opponent, Li Yuan simply pointed at the maid in front of him.

Tang Xitu blinked, voice soft and childish. “I-I don’t dare...”

“Come,” Li Yuan said, already turning toward the mechanical traps tower’s sparring floor.

The training level was wide and empty, built entirely of thick, reinforced steel, from the walls to the roof, designed to withstand heavy impacts.

Tang Xitu knew Li Yuan’s abilities. Her

full strength

was essentially limited to doing her absolute best to make him happy.

Even so, she gathered every ounce of power she had.

Her skills were all in hidden weapons.

And her hidden weapons...were all concealed on her tiny frame.

With a twist of her petite body, sparks of cold light shimmered from her sleeves.

Three throwing knives shot out, immediately followed by three more.

Six knives, then another six.

Tang Xitu spun like a top, silver streaks flinging outward in a dazzling whirl. Knives crossed and collided midair, splitting apart with impeccable precision before stabbing toward Li Yuan from every conceivable direction.

In an instant, the knives formed a cage, a

blade prison

.

Lady Yu had personally guided Tang Xitu’s skill, so her moves had shades of Lady Yu’s elegance in them.

But Tang Xitu had also added her own little twists, subtle, dangerous quirks that made this blade prison especially deadly.

And then, the next heartbeat shattered it.

Li Yuan hadn’t even moved.

The hundred‑plus flying knives simply...fell out of the air. As if the world had suddenly remembered gravity. They clattered to the floor in a rain of metallic klanking, piling at his feet.

At the same moment, Tang Xitu’s mind was struck by a sudden, crushing wave of despair.

A swarm of thoughts crowded her head, each darker than the last.

Why do people even live?

What’s the point of living?

I’m useless...completely useless. I should just die.

I remember when I was little...someone stole my lollipop. My lollipop was gone, and honestly, I didn’t want to live anymore. Maybe I should die now. If I die, everything will be over...

So sad...so miserable...

Tang Xitu suddenly dropped to the floor like a stunned duck, collapsing bonelessly as she burst into heart‑broken sobs. Her combat strength vanished entirely. She was just a little ball of despair on the ground.

And then, just as suddenly as it came, the sadness vanished.

“Huh!?” Tang Xitu blinked, confused.

Li Yuan stepped forward and pulled her up. “Are you alright?”

Of course she knew this was Li Yuan’s doing. She hurriedly wiped her tears and stammered, “M‑Master is incredible...”

Li Yuan said, “Tell me exactly what you felt just now.”

A short explanation later, Li Yuan understood the truth.

Once he stepped into the realm of Greater Insight, his power had truly crossed the threshold, from

martial arts

into the realm of

supernatural force

.

His Dusk character didn’t affect only people. It affected

thing

s.

The blades had felt despair.

Tang Xitu had felt despair.

And all he’d done was let his power flow naturally. He hadn’t even made a move.

He continued experimenting, having Tang Xitu cooperate with him. Soon, he discovered another detail. This power wasn’t an

active

ability. It was a

passive

effect triggered during combat.

In other words, he couldn’t deliberately project a

field of despair

over his enemies.

But any person or object that attacked him would automatically be affected, emotionally, mentally, even spiritually.

The only questions left were how far did this passive effect reach? And did it have a limit on how many targets it could affect?

“Xitu,” Li Yuan said, “let’s go down to the base of the tower. Gather some assassins from the main division.”

Tang Xitu immediately understood what he intended and bowed quickly. “Yes, Master!”

About 30 minutes later, 300 assassins from the Tang Sect’s elite main division had assembled on the grassy clearing below the tower. The mountain wind stirred the grass, and in the distance, mist rolled across the peaks.

Li Yuan stood in the center of the clearing and said, “Whoever can strike me with a hidden weapon...will become my personal disciple.”

The moment the words fell, the assassins’ eyes lit up like torches.

A lean, sharp‑eyed man stepped forward and cupped his hands. “Sect Master, are there any rules?”

Li Yuan waved a hand. “No rules. Any distance. Any weapon. Poison allowed.”

Tang Xitu was so excited she blurted out, “Sect Master, c‑can I...can I try too?”

Li Yuan nodded with a smile. Then he closed his eyes, clasped his hands behind his back, and said softly, “Begin. You have one incense stick of time.”

The 300 assassins exchanged glances, fire burning in their eyes.

The next instant, they moved.

Shadowy figures blurred into motion, and a storm of hidden weapons exploded toward the man standing calmly in the center, hands behind his back, wind brushing his sleeves.

But Li Yuan did not move.

He simply continued circulating his Qi.

The twin golden sheaths flowing over his body, though invisible to mortal eyes, flickered with a mysterious radiance as they pulsed in the air.

Arrows whistled. Explosions cracked. Small, large, every kind of hidden weapon streaked toward Li Yuan. Some drifted through the air like feather‑light whispers, others tore the sky open like thunderbolts.

Having suffered once already, Tang Xitu refused to get anywhere near him this time. Instead, she hauled out a siege‑rank repeating crossbow, leapt to the very top of the mechanical traps tower, and took aim from so far away that Li Yuan was little more than a dot.

Tang Xitu was a master of hidden weapons, especially of controlling them at a distance, adjusting for wind, weight, arc, vibration. She had her own internal calculus.

She narrowed her eyes, calculated the wind, drew a breath, and fired.

WHOOSH!

A bolt thicker than a child’s arm ripped through the air, shrieking straight toward Li Yuan’s back.

The steel tip gleamed with murderous light.

A heartbeat later.

KLANG!

The siege bolt hit the ground like a dropped stick, just like every other weapon.

At the same time, Tang Xitu once again felt that crushing sadness descend on her. Tears streamed down her cheeks in uncontrollable rivers.

Li Yuan swept his gaze around.

All 300 assassins were the same, crying, pounding their chests, wailing at the sky, muttering in broken, despair‑soaked voices.

He remained standing, hands behind his back, unmoving from start to finish.

And at last, he understood.

This 3,000~30.000 combat power truly lived up to its name.

In the previous age, a combat rating of 30,000 was firmly within fourth rank, those who wielded

domain power

.

But domain power back then was tiny, barely a thousand feet even at peak mastery.

Now, although his Dusk

aura

was passive and couldn’t be actively projected, it had no distance limit. Anyone or anything that attacked him fell under its influence.

People drowned in grief. Objects lost the will to strike.

Yet in the last era, a fourth rank expert could regenerate from a single drop of blood. They were nearly impossible to kill.

In contrast, the Greater Insight level of this era still relied entirely on the external Qi of Mountains and Rivers.

That meant if Li Yuan dismissed his dual golden layers of armor, he’d be turned into a pincushion by Tang Sect’s hidden weapons.

Even so...having such a devastating passive ability thrilled him.

But his testing wasn’t over.

He still needed to measure how long he could maintain the Greater Insight state and whether his passive effect would work on someone at Lesser Insight.

Just then, something thudded onto the ground beside him.

He turned.

It was Tang Xitu. She had suffered two full waves of despair...and had apparently leapt off the tower in overwhelming grief.

Li Yuan instantly withdrew his power, hurried over, and caught her. He laid her gently on the grass, wiped away her tears, then turned and headed off.

He still needed to test on Lady Yu.