Chapter 731 – Black Buddha Realm, First Encounter with Yan Yu - Part 3

No...

Li Yuan made a decision to not take the hit.

In a flash, his figure vanished, slipping into the voidship.

In that instant, he leapt beyond the universe. He couldn’t leave the Underworld entirely. But for now, he no longer

existed

within its fabric.

The terrifying force slammed into nothing.

The palanquin, now suspended midair, seemed to stall, its various ghostly attendants momentarily stunned. No matter how these terrifying Underworld entities twisted their powers or searched, they couldn’t trace him.

Or, as people back on Earth would’ve said, the man had stepped outside the Three Realms and beyond the Five Elements.

The next second, using memory alone, Li Yuan began to rapidly pinpoint the palanquin’s position.

Then, without hesitation, he plunged back into the Underworld.

Li Yuan reached out and tried to grab the figure in front of him, only to find that he had just scooped up the red-dressed little ghost girl carrying a flower basket.

He instantly let go, aborting the move mid-motion. A wave of Yin energy surged toward him in retaliation, forcing him to dive back into the void once again.

Safely hidden, he quickly initiated a second round of spatial pinpointing.

His goal was simple now: get inside that palanquin and pull Yan Yu into the voidship for a proper conversation.

WHOOSH!

Li Yuan reappeared.

This time, he grabbed...the boar.

The boar opened its massive maw and lunged at him with a vicious snap.

And just like that, a barrage of attacks followed from all directions.

Li Yuan vanished once more.

He kept jumping in and out over and over again.

Finally, after countless attempts, he reappeared

inside

the palanquin.

And in that dim, shadow-filled space, he saw her, porcelain-white skin, delicate figure, clothed in dark azure robes.

Who else could it be but Yan Yu?

Floating beside her was a massive red question mark.

Li Yuan lunged forward and pulled her into an embrace, intending to drag her straight into the voidship. But as soon as he held her, he realized something was wrong.

She was unimaginably heavy.

It didn’t feel like he was holding a woman. It felt like he was carrying a world.

He could pull a person into the voidship, but not a world.

That moment of hesitation cost him.

Yan Yu’s hand had already clamped tightly around his neck.

The moment she did, Li Yuan felt his lifespan begin to drain away at terrifying speed. Even a second rank cultivator wouldn’t survive a grip like this. Within seconds, they’d be squeezed into a skeleton that had aged ten thousand years.

Li Yuan glanced at his lifespan counter, where the ∞ symbol had begun ticking down rapidly, the numbers behind it vanishing like water down a drain.

He looked up at that familiar face.

She was pale as death, a sovereign of the Underworld, yet what came to his mind was not this eerie figure before him, but the bright-eyed, spirited woman full of life he once knew.

In a rush of emotion, he pulled Yan Yu tighter into his arms and kissed her.

It was deep, desperate.

And then, a jolt of bone-deep cold shot through him. It was like plunging into an arctic blizzard with a fever. His whole body felt like it had caught the worst flu imaginable.

He broke away quickly, gasping. “Yan Yu, it’s me! Li Yuan!”

Perhaps the closeness, or the sound of his voice, or the name itself, something triggered a response.

Yan Yu’s lips moved. She murmured, “Yuan...?”

“I’m your husband,” he said again, urgently.

“Yuan...?” she echoed, dazed. “You...?”

“Yes, it’s me. Yan Yu, I know you’ve never forgotten me, not after all these years.”

That much, Li Yuan knew, was something the system would

never

lie about.

And then, slowly, he felt her death-grip around his neck loosen.

The very next second, something completely absurd happened. His lifespan began to

rise

.

That ∞ symbol started rapidly racking up numbers, going higher and higher.

Li Yuan was dumbfounded.

Wait...I can gain lifespan?

Then it hit him. The Northern Dipper governed death, and the Southern Dipper governed life. It seemed both starkin had been fused into Yan Yu herself.

“Yan Yu, you remember me?” Li Yuan asked, a little breathless, a little hopeful.

“Who are you?” Yan Yu replied flatly.

“Li Yuan,” he answered at once.

“Let go first,” she said.

“Oh, right!” Li Yuan immediately released her from his embrace. But Yan Yu’s hands were still clamped around his neck, funneling lifespan into him.

“Yan Yu, I don’t need it,” Li Yuan said quickly, baffled by this entire situation. He never thought he’d live to see the day someone

force-fed

him longevity.

Yan Yu finally let go. Then, without warning, she raised her hand and

smacked

him across the face.

The slap left Li Yuan dazed.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

“What exactly is our relationship?” Yan Yu asked coldly.

“We’re married!” Li Yuan replied, clutching his cheek. But he could tell—she hadn’t used much force. The Yin energy in that slap was minimal.

“Li Yuan... I...married?” Yan Yu murmured, tasting the words like they were foreign.

“I even brought our daughter,” he said, and released the large black crow.

The crow caught sight of Yan Yu and instantly grew excited.

“Mama!” it cawed, flapping its wings.

Yan Yu narrowed her eyes, staring straight through the bird. She could see the crow’s soul clearly, and she recognized pieces of herself entwined within it.

But there was more.

“There’s another ghost clinging to your soul,” she said.

“What do I do, Mama?” The crow, who outside was as fearsome as they came, reverted instantly to a helpless little girl, tossing the problem into her parents’ lap the moment she returned home.

Yan Yu didn’t answer right away. Instead, she turned to Li Yuan and said, “Some of my memories are missing. Are we really...husband and wife?”

“We are,” he replied without hesitation.

“I want to see your past,” she said.

“Go ahead,” Li Yuan said calmly. “Take a look.”

Yan Yu nodded, then turned to the crow. “Let’s start with

her

past.”

And just like that, the whole family of three sat down together inside the palanquin. With barely a ripple, it drifted straight into the deep recesses of the Underworld.

There, shadowed palace halls stretched endlessly in the gloom.

At the entrance of the first palace stood a massive, floating object draped in black cloth.

Yan Yu had Li Yuan stand before it. She stepped forward and pulled the cloth away herself.

Beneath it was a mysterious bronze mirror.

The mirror flared with light and cast it upon Li Yuan. Images began to ripple across its surface, scenes from his past, memories both grand and trivial.

Li Yuan suddenly remembered something and hurriedly grabbed the crow, sending her back into the voidship. Only then did he settle beside Yan Yu, ready to face the replay of his life.

“Who’s that woman?” Yan Yu asked suddenly, pointing at Li Youning in the mirror.

A beat later, she jabbed her finger toward Xie Yu. “And her?”

Then a moment later, another finger. “And this one?”

As the bronze mirror continued to unspool the story of his past, Yan Yu controlled the playback, rewinding, fast-forwarding, adjusting the pace at will.

Li Yuan kept trying to help from the side. “Jump back 249 years! I remember the exact day. We don’t need to watch every minute!”

“...” Yan Yu said nothing. She shot Li Yuan a cold glance, then turned her attention back to the mirror with unwavering focus.

Behind her, a crowd of high tier, terrifying underworld ghosts, beings from the most forbidden depths of hell, gathered silently to watch as well.

At one point, a ghost even dragged a torture rack over, seemingly prepared to

interrogate

Li Yuan on the spot. But after sensing something, perhaps the situation, perhaps her presence, it quickly turned around and slunk away.

The socially devastating replay continued for a long while, an excruciating marathon of Li Yuan’s life laid bare.

Finally, the scenes reached the part involving him and Yan Yu.

She watched in silence, then calmly reached out, covered the mirror with the black cloth once more, and turned to him with a cold, blank expression.

“Husband...” she said flatly.

That one word was her acknowledgment.

Though much of her memory had been lost during those brutal years of slaughter and madness, the bond between them, the one unbreakable thread, still remained. And now, after so long apart, they were together again.

As for the many women Li Yuan had taken over the years...Yan Yu said nothing. The bronze mirror had laid it all out, frame by frame, and it had clearly shown that she herself had given her approval.

“I need time to recover my memories,” she said suddenly. “So we won’t be sleeping together.”

In the past, she’d seen herself lying beside this man, their Yin and Yang interwoven in intimate union. But for now...she needed space. Time to remember who she really was.

Li Yuan nodded. “Yan Yu, let’s first deal with the problem haunting our daughter. That ghost... Right now, she—”

And with that, he explained everything, the Deathless Tomb, the possession, the strange balance keeping Sheng'er alive, and the trap they were stuck in.

Yan Yu fell silent in thought.

She brought Li Yuan and the crow to the deepest palace in the Underworld. Dressed in her flowing azure robes, she seated herself atop a massive black throne, surrounded by a current of whispering, writhing ghosts.

At a glance, Li Yuan could tell that the throne, casually placed as it was, wasn’t inferior to his own black lotus. No question, Yan Yu was a second rank cultivator as well. And a terrifyingly capable one.

That one move of actively transferring lifespan was already enough to blow his mind.

If he could do something like that, who needed the Deathless Tomb? He’d just top up his family’s years like a birthday gift every spring.

Of course, he suspected there had to be limits, nothing that powerful came without a catch.

He turned his gaze back to Yan Yu.

Her azure robes shimmered like formal regalia, embroidered with vivid depictions of hell. Her skin was porcelain-pale, yet flawless, unmarked by decay, unmarred by filth. She looked like a living sculpture carved from perfect jade.

Her hair was coiled into a high bun, jet-black and laced with ghostly mist. Her hands rested gently on the armrests of the throne. She leaned back slightly, long legs together, hanging naturally. Power radiated from her like a silent tide, the commanding grace of the strongest woman in the world.

Her face was expressionless, distant, as if emotion itself had been cut away. Her eyes were deep, lost in some vast internal thought.

And in that moment, Li Yuan suddenly felt younger, his heartbeat a little quicker, his breath a little short.

Yan Yu is really...adorable

, he thought quietly.