Chapter 723 – Reunion with Sheng'er, the Deathless Tomb's Trap - Part 1

The great sermon in the Cloud Capital lasted three whole years.

In that time, practically every soul in the world with even a sliver of ambition for cultivation made their way to this place. Some brought their own little stools, some simply sat cross-legged on the ground, while others found spots in the nearby buildings. Regardless of where they were, all looked up reverently toward the lotus high in the heavens, where the Lord of Light sat, listening intently as he expounded the path of cultivation.

In the old days, Li Yuan would have needed breaks, food, rest, and bathroom runs. But that was before. Now, his true body had returned, and with the power of the mountains and rivers coursing through him, he had ascended even further. Breaks were a thing of the past.

With a single thought, he could blanket the entire land with his presence.

With a single intention, he could step onto a vessel, cross the great void, and appear wherever he wished.

That said, he wasn’t perched in the sky 24/7. He had a schedule, nine to five, off at nightfall.

He didn’t need rest, but cultivators still did.

And after night fell, he spent time with Xie Yu, Lady Yu, and Li Youning, his family. At the same time, he ventured ceaselessly across the realms, into the Underworld, across the Eastern Sea, to the far reaches of the Western Extremes.

Places once unreachable by mortals, now, he could go there with ease.

In this way, three years passed. The cultivation techniques for every rank from ninth to second were now publicly shared with the world.

But it wasn’t just techniques, Li Yuan also spoke of his personal insights, including battle tactics and troop maneuvering. So much so that even ordinary folks, completely untrained in the mystical arts, could now watch a clash between masters and comment,

Oh, that’s the long-lost technique of such-and-such

, or

He must’ve reached the third or second rank by now.

Gone were the days when people stared blankly at high-level duels, too clueless to speak.

Still, no matter how many techniques you handed out, understanding had to come from within. With the return of Yin and Yang, what this world would eventually become, Li Yuan couldn’t say.

But what he

did

know was this. As long as he was here, this age would

not

descend into chaos.

That thought brought to mind the old giants of the past, the Northern Dipper, Polaris, and the like. He found himself comparing, wondering silently. Why were they trapped in this world, unable to break free, while he could?

And after much reflection, he found a clue.

The Dragon Veins and Ghost Lake, they were the starkin of Polaris and the Northern Dipper.

When one’s cultivation reached the third rank, the soul would split into three, Heaven, Earth, and Human. Starkin were essentially an advanced form of the Earth Soul. But they weren’t born of cultivation, they were born of the world itself, incarnations of cosmic will.

As for whether it was possible to

cultivate

one’s way into becoming a second rank Earth Soul, Li Yuan had never seen it done. To even have a chance, one had to first use a shadow blood technique to reach the very peak of third rank Earth Soul.

But before the Xia Dynasty, shadow blood techniques didn’t exist.

And after the Xia Dynasty, there was no technique to ascend into the second rank and connect with the Heavens.

In all the history Li Yuan could recall, there had never been a true second rank Earth Soul.

But now? In

this

era, could one finally appear?

Li Yuan didn’t have a clear answer. Over the years, he had constantly been attuned to the state of the spiritual energy in the world, and his conclusion was this.

It was alarmingly weak.

Not only did it pale in comparison to the Eastern Sea’s Immortal Domain from the previous era, but even the backwoods of Cloudpeak Province back then had more ambient spiritual energy than now.

In this day and age, trying to reach the peak of third rank Earth Soul using a shadow blood technique might actually be harder than comprehending dual layers of true insight through one’s own sheer effort.

As for Polaris and the Northern Dipper, Li Yuan decided to assume for a moment that they

were

second rank Earth Soul starkin.

It still wouldn’t matter.

Their essence was that of beings born fully-formed from this world itself, skyrocketing to greatness without the long grind of cultivation. They never practiced shadow blood techniques. They were rootless in the traditional sense; or rather, their roots were the world itself.

Likewise, from what Li Yuan had discussed with Li Ying, he had some theories about second rank Heaven Souls. He suspected it was some strange form of life birthed by the world through the Path of Chaos.

He had never seen such an entity and couldn’t imagine what it might look like. But following the same logic, chaos, like starkin, also had roots within this world and would be unable to transcend it.

By the same reasoning, in the Age of the Ancient Gods, the sky teemed with Gods and Buddhas. They had mastered the heavenly seal, founded sects, and passed down entire schools of cultivation.

Some, like the Radiant Treasure Buddha, even forged entire realms of their own, the legendary 3,000 Worlds.

In today’s terms, such beings would have reached what Li Yuan called the Heavenly Will Realm, perhaps even beyond it. These were, without a doubt, second rank Human Souls.

And yet, the ancient gods, the chaosborn, and starkin all had one thing in common. Their roots were embedded in the fabric of this world. They couldn’t break free of it.

And if one’s roots weren’t within themselves, how could you ever leap beyond?

In that sense, whether starkin, chaosborn, or ancient god, they were all, in the end,

pseudo

second rank beings.

That might explain why the starkin were so desperate to seize the Ancestral Land. It was said to be the place where the Heavenly Dao was first born. Perhaps they hoped to tap into that primal force, to ride it like a ship sailing into the void. If they could take the helm of the world itself, then whether to stay aboard or jump ship, they could choose for themselves.

A pseudo second rank Earth Soul were the starkin, born of the world, untouched by human hands.

A pseudo second rank Heaven Soul were the chaosborn, birthed by the Dao, never seen by man.

A pseudo second rank Human Soul were the ancient gods, masters of the heavenly seal and cosmic truths, able to forge realms of their own. Though they could not reach the stars, their power was immense, hidden and vast.

But if all of these were

pseudo

second rank beings..then what did a

true

second rank look like?

What

was

a true second rank?

Li Yuan believed it was him.

His roots were within himself, not this world.

Perhaps he was the first to truly achieve the union of Heaven and Man, the first to step onto a vessel and sail across the void.

To be fair, even though he was strong now, if he were to face Polaris or the Northern Dipper in their prime, he wasn’t sure he’d win.

And for good reason. Polaris had been grievously wounded, hanging by a thread, and even in that state, he could still summon the Dragon Vein and rekindle the Qi of the Mountains and River. Imagine if he had never been injured, how terrifying would his full strength have been?

In truth, a genuine second rank didn’t overpower a pseudo one through brute strength alone.

But what the pseudo second rank chased with such madness, the one thing they longed for but could never grasp, was exactly this.

To cast off the

pseudo,

and make it

real

.

It was to transcend.

As Li Yuan’s cultivation deepened and his sermons continued, the veil over this world grew thinner in his eyes. Everything became clearer.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Three years later, with his teachings complete, Li Yuan finally pieced together the situation in the Western Extremes.

Though a single thought was enough for his senses to sweep across every inch of the Ancestral Land, actually

seeing

what was there required focus, more like a satellite scan than some mystical omniscience.

So for those three years, whenever he wasn’t teaching, he was scanning.

And the Western Extremes...were far vaster than he had imagined.

Hidden within endless mountain ranges and forests, locating the Deathless Tomb among all that wilderness was anything but simple.

Li Yuan remembered that in cultivation stories he read before his transmigration, Immortals would calculate with a flick of the fingers to divine the future. He’d never really understood whether that flick meant activating a spiritual GPS or something even more advanced. Whatever it was, he didn’t have it. All he could do was patiently sweep, scan, and search.

And why was he searching for the Deathless Tomb first?

One reason was the Empress Dowager. Her days were numbered, and Li Yuan had decided she, too, would be buried within the tomb.

The second reason was that there was no sign of Ping’an in the Eastern Sea, and the Underworld remained frustratingly shrouded, its secrets unreachable from the outside. To understand what had become of those places, he would have to go in himself.

Eventually, after years of tireless searching, Li Yuan found it.

Deep in the farthest reaches of the west, nestled among towering mist-shrouded peaks, there stood a massive old locust tree. Its bark was black, its branches heavy, and its roots burrowed deep into the earth. Aerial roots as thick as giant pythons twisted through stone and soil, stretching far and wide.

Between those roots buzzed bees the size of mandarin ducks, wandered black-furred goats with four horns, and loomed eerie, human-shaped figures cloaked in shadows.

These strange figures looked...afflicted. Some were clearly well past the age when death should’ve claimed them, yet still clung to life, lying face-up in the sun, unmoving. It was impossible to tell what state they were in. Living? Dead? Something in between?