Chapter 744 - Mirror Worlds, Life Creation and World Sealing - Part 2

In the mountains, time flowed differently. Days passed without count, seasons turned without names.

Twenty years slipped by like a dream.

Li Yuan returned from the Underworld, standing once more in the swirling mists of Everpeak.

During these years, he had finally unlocked another second-rank ability, Free Roaming Step.

It was a supreme movement skill, clearly a higher-tier evolution of the

movement

path he had once cultivated.

Without hesitation, he poured in 309,999 stat points, maxing out the skill.

A torrent of thoughts surged into his consciousness, followed by ancient and boundless memories streaming into his mind like a flood.

Among them were glimpses from the Age of the Ancient Gods.

There, he saw a Daoist, not the revered Dao Sovereign, but another.

This Daoist stood at the threshold of a modest thatched hut in the middle of a snowstorm. Outside, people of all walks of life had come to bid him farewell, bowing deeply in reverence.

In the distance, a towering figure approached, broad-shouldered, draped in golden armor, a man who looked more like a celestial war god than a mortal. His voice echoed across the cold air.

“The Heavens are about to collapse. Where are you going, Fellow Daoist?”

The Daoist replied with perfect calm, “To mend the sky.”

With that, he clasped his hands behind his back, his long sleeves swaying as he stepped forward and vanished in the blink of an eye.

One step, and he was gone from the mortal world.

That was the man who had once wielded the power of Free Roaming Step.

And now, that power belonged to Li Yuan.

He studied it carefully. This divine speed ability allowed him to instantly teleport to any location he had visited within the past ten years. Beyond ten years, it could not reach.

A hazy memory flashed through his mind.

He vaguely recalled someone once telling him that the Heavenly Dao not only saw the past, but could return to it. And this Free Roaming Step...it faintly brushed against the very rules of time itself. No wonder it was a second rank skill perfected to the highest degree.

The ability to leap to any place he’d visited in the last ten years. This expanded his

wandering range

immensely.

The interstellar journey he had temporarily put on hold could now resume.

But for now, he waited for the return of his disciple.

He already knew everything Wu Mei had done over these 20 years.

She had fallen in love with a striking young man named Wang Yunzhi from the Bladeseekers, one of their rising stars. Together, they cultivated side by side, hearts and paths intertwined.

But as the deadline neared, Wu Mei quietly left behind a letter.

In it, she wrote that their fates had run their course.

Then, though her heart lingered with sorrow, she slipped away without a word, heading back toward the Everpeak.

She had kept her promise to Li Yuan. She had never meddled in royal affairs, never once tried to contact the prince she once secretly met, now the reigning emperor.

Meanwhile, the Tang Dynasty had passed smoothly into a new era. The transition was complete, and a new crown prince had already taken the stage.

It left Li Yuan with a strange feeling.

“This world is not the same as Earth,” he mused. “And yet...something about it mirrors it.”

It was like standing before a warped mirror, one that reflected fragments of Earth into this world, while leaving the rest utterly unfamiliar.

Still, this was exactly the outcome he had hoped to see.

Wu Mei hadn’t brought chaos to the Tang Dynasty. That lingering thorn in his heart was finally pulled free.

A cloud of dust kicked up at the foot of the mountain as Wu Mei galloped back on her demonic horse. She dismounted at the mountain pass, then dropped to her knees before the old man with snow-white hair standing beneath the gate. Her face was filled with deep, long-held yearning.

“Master,” she said with reverence. “Mei’er has returned.”

The young girl he had taken in was now a grown woman, graceful and composed.

Li Yuan stepped forward. “And how did you find the mortal world?”

Wu Mei recounted everything she had experienced at the foot of the mountain, down to the last detail.

Li Yuan raised an eyebrow. “So, shall we bring that Wang Yunzhi fellow up the mountain too? You two could live like an immortal couple.”

Wu Mei froze, startled by the question. Then she quickly bowed her head. “My heart has settled, Master. From now on, I wish only to serve by your side. I dare not hope for anything more.”

During her time down the mountain, she had quietly tried to investigate her master’s identity, subtly asking the master of the Bladeseekers, but she found nothing.

But Wu Mei was sharp. So instead, she changed her approach and began digging into the background of Zhao Chunxin herself.

The deeper she dug, the more stunned she became. Zhao Chunxin’s origins were a complete mystery.

And yet, the people Zhao Chunxin regularly dealt with were towering figures, leaders of the Church of Light, nobles, royalty...

And for such a woman to treat Wu Mei with special care, all because of a single handwritten letter, there could only be one explanation.

Her master’s identity was beyond exalted, beyond comprehension.

In front of him, Wu Mei wouldn’t dare show even a trace of defiance.

Li Yuan chuckled. “I gave you the chance. If you love someone, hold onto them. Daughters of Tang should be bold in love and fearless in heartbreak. What now? You dare to love, but not to claim it?”

Wu Mei took a deep breath, then another, but still responded stubbornly, “I only wish to serve you.”

Li Yuan smiled and gently placed a hand on her head. “Then stay. Tie your hair here, settle down, and cultivate in the mountain.”

“Yes,” she replied, bowing respectfully.

But inwardly, her heart dimmed.

She and Wang Yunzhi had loved each other truly. But from now on...it would be farewell.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A month passed.

Wu Mei was in the mountains, deep in cultivation, when she noticed a figure approaching. He was clad in a simple azure robe, blade at his side, following behind the white-haired elder.

She looked up, instinctively glancing at the man and froze in place.

The azure-robed blademaster looked back at her, his expression filled with emotion. His voice trembled as he called out, “Mei’er...”

Wu Mei didn’t dare answer. She simply looked at Li Yuan.

Li Yuan gave a small, knowing smile, then turned to the swordsman and said solemnly, “Wang Yunzhi, are you willing to become my disciple?”

Wang Yunzhi stammered, caught off guard. “I-I’ve already sworn myself to the Sect Master. If I take another master...I fear...”

He was a man who honored the path of the blade and the rules of the sect. No matter how powerful this elder was, he could not abandon the teacher who had first guided him.

Wu Mei looked at him and, for a moment, felt an overwhelming urge to march over and scold him.

Li Yuan, as if unfazed, said calmly, “Very well. But understand this. Once you set foot on this mountain, you are not to descend again unless I command it. Think carefully before you answer.”

Wang Yunzhi lifted his chin and replied with quiet resolve, “As long as I can stay by Mei’er’s side, then even a prison cell would be worth it, let alone a mountain.”

Li Yuan nodded, glancing briefly at Wu Mei before turning to Wang Yunzhi again.

“Then call her

Auntie Master

.”

“Huh?” Wang Yunzhi looked stunned.

“What...?” Wu Mei was equally shocked.

Li Yuan put on a stern face and said, voice hardening, “Zhao Chunxin is my disciple. Wu Mei is also my disciple. So what else would you call her?”

“...” Wang Yunzhi fell speechless.

By the time either of them could react, Li Yuan had already swept his sleeve and vanished. The next instant, he reappeared atop the clouds, gazing down from above.

Below, among the scattered wooden huts and newly built pavilions, he saw Wu Mei chasing after Wang Yunzhi with a grin, tugging playfully at his ear. “Go on, say it!”

The two of them bickered and laughed like any young couple in love.

Watching them, Li Yuan felt an unfamiliar ease settle over him, something soft, something like youth.

Then, with a turn, his white hair shimmered into black, and he took a single step, ten years away...

With his Free Roaming Step maxed out, Li Yuan could instantly reach any place he had visited in the last ten years. Theoretically, that meant he could now stretch the boundaries of his travel indefinitely.

He could board his voidship and drift into the stars, then at the ten-year mark, teleport back to the Underworld, and begin a new ten-year journey from there. Rinse and repeat. Eventually, he could reach places a hundred, a thousand, even ten thousand years away in travel time.

Of course, without a voidship, he’d have to fly the whole way himself, which meant no distractions. No side tasks. Just pure, endless flight.

But Li Yuan had all the time in the world now. And if he ever grew weary mid-journey, he could always use Free Roaming Step to instantly return to the Underworld, Everpeak, or any corner of the Ancestral Land.

And so, in search of peace, Li Yuan once more set out into the stars.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Time passed.

Decades flew by like galloping steeds over a snowy plain.

The Tang Dynasty still stood, though one emperor after another came and went like the changing of the seasons.

Meanwhile, the Underworld's judge system grew more refined and efficient by the day.

Yan Yu, now honored as the Primordial Earth Mother, finally left the Karma Hall with an unburdened heart.

She descended into the deepest part of the Underworld, where the Ancestral Land was slowly being engulfed by thick, roiling Yin energy. Her face was solemn.

The Ancestral Land held many

gates

.

Among them were the Gate of the Beast Path, Gate of the Wood Path, and Gate of the Mortal Path.

As the Underworld wrapped itself around these gates, they began to anchor themselves to it. One by one, they became part of the Underworld’s vast system.

And so, the souls of the dead would no longer return to the old reincarnation realm. They would come here, to this new domain of death.

Soon, a new cycle of reincarnation would be born.

But before it could begin, there were still two critical problems to solve.

First was the issue of memories. If the reincarnated could remember their past lives, wouldn’t that throw the mortal world into chaos?

Second was power retention. This problem hadn’t yet surfaced, but Yan Yu knew if someone reached the Heavenly Will Realm, then upon entering the Underworld, their power wouldn’t naturally return to the world. It would stay with them.

And that, she feared, could change everything.

In addition to everything else, Yan Yu had begun a new line of

research

centered on the reincarnation of souls steeped in great sin.

The power of the Four Symbols had granted her the ability to alter soul destinies. Now, she intended to use these cursed, karmically-tainted souls as raw material, subjects for experiments in creating

stronger lifeforms

.

Harmony between Heaven and Man had always been the goal.

And if stronger lifeforms could be created, that harmony would become more stable, more effective, more profound.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Time flowed on, as it always did.

The Yin and Yang energies bathed the world. All Yin energy now flowed into the Underworld. As it grew denser there, Yan Yu grew steadily more powerful with it.

North of the Yellow Springs, in addition to the Hall of Karma and Underworld Palace, a third ghostly domain had begun to form, birthed from the ever-thickening veil of Yin.

Meanwhile, Li Yuan wandered deep into the starry void, vast stretches of lifeless desert scattered across the cosmos.

And during that long solitude, two of his long-studied paths of beast taming and weaponsmithing finally broke through into peak second rank.

The second rank skill for beast taming was called the Divine Beast Codex. Upon maxing it out, it mutated.

At the Expert level, it merely allowed him to tame second rank beasts. In theory, at least, none such creatures existed in the current world. But the limit had been lifted, and that alone was progress.

However, at the Master level, it underwent another transformation, just as his lower rank skills had once done before.

From the depths of Li Yuan’s memory emerged the story of another cultivator, someone who had chased the path of beast taming to its absolute peak. That person had faced the same dilemma Li Yuan now did. There were no more beasts to tame.

After countless years of contemplation, that man encountered a strange, faceless being, an encounter that sparked revelation.

He then spent several more centuries refining his insight, until finally, his skill twisted into something new.

If there are no beasts left to tame...then he would create them himself.

And so beast taming evolved into the act of creating life.

At the Master level, the Divine Beast Codex granted a new power. Using soil, stone, and riverbed clay from the land, one could mold the shape of a creature. Then, by inserting a soul into it, the form would become a living being. However, since such creatures had not passed through the Six Paths of Reincarnation, they could not cultivate. And upon death, they would return directly to the cycle.

As for weaponsmithing, its second rank skill was called the World Sealing Armament Creation.

Upon mastering it, Li Yuan realized just how laughably simple the 3,000 Worlds of the Radiant Treasure Buddha and the Black Buddha Statue had been. These things were all child’s play in hindsight.

Now, his eyes were set on the Hall of Life. Once he found it, he planned to mine its material essence and forge weapons capable of sealing entire worlds.

Author’s Note

Some readers misunderstood the previous chapters and thought I had run out of plot.

That’s not the case at all.

Rather, the upcoming story arc is massive, filled with details and complexity. If I slow down to cover it in full, it risks becoming dry and tedious, like the early stages of a painting where scattered lines mean nothing to the viewer.

So instead, I’ve chosen to speed up the pacing and push forward to the next major turn in the plot.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.