Chapter 757 – Fairies Bloom in the Peach Blossom Sanctuary, Four Seekers Enter the Ancient Hall - Part 1

Peach Blossom Sanctuary.

Fifty years passed in the blink of an eye.

That spring, the Tang Dynasty fell. The last young emperor was forced to abdicate by a rebel warlord who claimed to be restoring royal order.

And with that, the Great Tang Empire was no more. The vast empire splintered into chaos, plunging into an age of fractured power, where warlords rose like weeds after rain. It became common knowledge that if you could offer sacrifices to the mountains and river, you could declare yourself king. One after another, formidable contenders stepped into the spotlight, vying for the throne once reserved for a single sovereign.

Once, there was only one emperor under Heaven.

Now, emperors sprang up like mushrooms after a storm.

At first, Li Yuan couldn’t quite wrap his head around it.

The Church of Light he founded shouldn't have been so fragile. The mighty ones he'd left behind were capable of suppressing all sorts of threats and chaos. Even in the face of calamity, it shouldn’t have fallen to the point of becoming a minor, dwindling sect.

But with just a glance, he saw it clearly. Once a glorious beacon, the Church of Light had become a scurrying rat, hiding in rural villages and small towns, its few remaining members too afraid to show their faces, let alone boast any real strength.

It had only been 170 years since the Tang Empire fell into ruin, and already the Church of Light was reduced to this.

As for the embers of the old era he had scattered across the land more than seven centuries ago...well, they had long since taken root. Each had nurtured its own power base, backing different factions they believed in.

Two reasons explained this state of affairs.

First, the Heavens no longer had that mighty hand to stir the fate of all beings.

Second, a new breed had emerged in the world, those born with knowledge.

These born-knowing ones came into the world needing no teacher. From the moment they left the womb, they grew powerful with terrifying speed.

They were the true reason the Church of Light unraveled so quickly.

They were the chosen ones of destiny.

And Li Yuan knew exactly where their power came from.

It was nothing more than the lingering might of Polaris’ Dragon Vein.

Ever since Yan Yu fused with the Dragon Vein, she had climbed to unimaginable heights, surpassing even the legendary Archon Star itself.

The Dragon Vein could grant its power to all beings. But if the recipient’s soul was not aligned with the source, the infusion could be fatal.

Yet in the Underworld, where souls could be molded like clay, this danger was meaningless. In the hands of the ruler of that realm, such risks didn’t exist.

Yan Yu took the souls of loyal and brave individuals, cleansed their memories, and when they were about to reincarnate, she imbued them with innate knowledge. And so were born the so-called

children of destiny

.

And so, the current age was a true hellscape, a battlefield where only the strongest survived, and the strong devoured each other in a brutal cycle.

Ever since Li Yuan preached atop the Cloud Capital and scattered the sparks of the old era from the Deathless Tomb, both new and old legacies had taken root.

The bridge between the third and second rank, once a mysterious void, was now illuminated. The path to the second rank lay clearly ahead.

At this point, with the rise of the born-knowing children of destiny and the endless reincarnation cycle engineered by the Underworld’s reincarnation system, many heroes now simply made a round trip through the mortal world. They’d descend to the human world, fight and die, return to the Underworld, and then reincarnate again, over and over in a relentless loop.

If your heart wasn’t made of iron or stone, you simply couldn’t bear to witness such a cruel cycle, watching brave souls meet their end again and again, only to rise once more and walk the same bloody path. It was an endless farewell to countless fallen heroes.

So, Li Yuan chose not to watch.

But Yan Yu was watching. She was managing it all.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Drizzle, drizzle, drizzle...

In a quiet loft, one could sit and listen to the spring rain, watching as it merged with the lake and sky beyond.

The Peach Blossom Sanctuary was now completely cut off from the outside world.

Whatever happened out there no longer touched this place.

That day, Li Yuan woke up on his bed. The woman curled in his arms stirred gently. Today’s guest was Cu Huayin. Gone was her former haughty disdain; in the face of divinity, that pride had long since melted away.

She had always been a proud woman, but her pride was built on power, worldly strength and influence. Li Yuan had long surpassed both. Naturally, she had surrendered completely.

Li Yuan didn’t mind this kind of down-to-earth, even slightly vain, temperament.

After all, if we were talking about being worldly, he could match anyone, anytime.

Outside the window, the spring rain kept falling, a soft rhythm on the eaves. He leaned back into his wife’s embrace, eyes closed, drifting in and out of sleep, until a sudden commotion outside stirred him awake.

“Ah Jiao! Where’s Ah Jiao gone off to?”

A worried woman, elegant and mature, paced anxiously, wringing her hands on the fabric of her checked jacket.

Smoke from the kitchen chimneys behind her had already thinned. She muttered under her breath, “She ran out early, said she was going out to play. I told her to come back in time for lunch. Lunch was ready, I called her, but she didn’t answer. I’ve looked everywhere. She’s gone. She’s really gone.”

“Ah Jiao! Ah Jiao!” the woman called out again, voice rising with panic.

This was a descendant from Ping’an’s branch of the family. Ah Jiao was her daughter. In the village, they were simply known as Ping’an’s household.

The Peach Blossom Sanctuary was home to many powerful individuals. It didn’t take long for one of the Jen’gal men to rush over, axe in hand.

“Don’t worry, Niece,” he said. “No one dares cause trouble in the Peach Blossom Sanctuary. I’ll help look for her.”

“Thank you, Uncle,” the woman replied gratefully.

The man from the Jen’gal Clan was broad and burly, with the build of a warrior. Out in the world, he’d be the kind of tiger general every power would scramble to recruit.

But here in the Peach Blossom Sanctuary? He was just a regular guy, the kind who wasn’t busy cultivating and could still hear someone shouting outside.

A moment later, the man shot into the sky with his axe, moving like a bolt of lightning. Even if he was considered

ordinary

here, he was still a fifth rank powerhouse.

He scanned the skies, then dove down to search, the lake, the fields, the pigpens, the doghouses, the mountain caves, and the peach blossom forest.

Then he touched down some distance away.

The worried mother ran over with a few others close behind.

“Uncle,” she asked, breathless, “did you find her?”

The burly man scratched his head awkwardly and said, “Didn’t see Ah Jiao. Are you sure she really got out?”

The woman’s eyes turned red with worry. “It’s all my fault... All my fault...”

The commotion finally roused Li Yuan from his leisurely morning.

He found it amusing.

After all, the Peach Blossom Sanctuary was his own creation. He had personally set up the grand formation here, with peach blossoms as the core. No one could enter without his leave, and more importantly, no one could leave. A disappearance? That was beyond strange.

As that thought passed through his mind, a strange fog stirred in his consciousness.

It hit him like a cold wave, leaving his hands and feet clammy. For a brief instant, it felt like he was on the edge of recalling something vital. But the moment he tried to grasp it, it vanished without a trace.

What was this creeping unease?

Li Yuan didn’t know what it was exactly, but he could feel it. Something was wrong.

His expression grew serious as he sat up from the bed.

The silk blanket slid off his body, revealing a soft curve of creamy white beneath, a glimpse of fragrant, delicate skin.

Cui Huayin tugged the blanket back and kept sleeping.

Her husband was wonderful, but his power was overwhelming. Every time they did

husband-and-wife

things, it felt like a poor little bunny being mauled by a dragon. So naturally, she needed to rest until well past noon before she could even think about getting up.

Li Yuan pulled on his dark robe and fastened the old gourd at his waist. He hadn’t paid it much attention the night before, but now, curiously, it had grown a strange bulge, like a tumor pressing outward in an eerie lump.

He gently ran his hand across it, and the bulge slowly receded.

Ever since Yan Yu’s soul fragment began crafting monsters using the power of the Four Symbols, Li Yuan had been struck by how much they resembled creatures from his memories of the Classic of Mountains and Seas. So, in his mind, he had taken to calling this gourd his own little Mountains and Sea World.

And this Mountains and Seas World was currently hosting a full-scale monster battle royale.

Each sub-world inside was nurturing its own monstrous overlord, and eventually, the final victor would devour all the others, becoming a terrifying creature unlike anything the world had ever seen.

That was why the gourd could only be kept at Li Yuan’s side. Anywhere else, it would be a full-blown world-ending disaster.

Now dressed, he took a deep breath, released his divine perception, and focused on that lingering, inexplicable sense of dread. Then he began scanning the area.

It only took a moment for him to locate Ah Jiao.

So, where was she?

Ah Jiao was playing hide-and-seek.

She was laughing, surrounded by a group of giggling little girls dressed in red, white, and pink skirts.

Li Yuan blinked. Where had all these girls come from?

And then he couldn’t help but laugh.

“What is it, husband?” Cui Huayin asked drowsily.

Li Yuan replied with a wry smile, “The peach trees in our formation...they’ve become fairies. And not just any fairies, these girls were born as fifth rank great demons.”

“Huh?” Cui Huayin looked baffled.

Tree fairies were one thing, but born as fifth rank demonesses?

Li Yuan understood, though. A mountain became famous when a sage resided upon it. But would an immortal ever settle down next to some mundane, ordinary blossom? Of course not.

As the saying went,

when one person attained the Dao, even his chickens and dogs ascended to Heaven.

Li Yuan had long since reached a realm so unfathomably high that his very presence distorted the balance of Yin and Yang. Just by existing here, he had become the greatest stroke of fortune this world could offer.

He spent his days resting in the Peach Blossom Sanctuary, and over time, even the peach trees that formed the core of the formation began to gain sentience.

Old trees couldn’t become fairies, of course. But peach trees had short lifespans, cycling through life and death quickly. Old trees withered, new ones blossomed. And through that constant renewal, the grand formation itself was always adapting, always rejuvenating.

Because of Li Yuan’s influence, this cycle of life and death began producing something strange, mutated trees.

These mutant trees were stronger and lived longer.

And then, among the mutants, even stronger variations began to appear.

Eventually, as if reaching a critical threshold, just like the Ice Folk who once transformed under the power of the Yang flame, these evolved trees made a leap. One day, without warning, they gave birth to something entirely new. That was peach fairies, born already at fifth rank.

The twist was these peach fairies had the temperament of playful little children.

As for Ah Jiao, she must have wandered right into their territory. The fairies had lured her into a maze-like illusion, simply to play a game of hide-and-seek.

Back in the village, the worried mother was close to panic. Even the brawny Jen’gal clansman who’d gone searching looked completely lost.

Then, a thunderous voice rolled down from the sky.

“Little ones...had enough fun yet?”

A simple phrase echoed across the land.

The woman, the Jen’gal man, and everyone else didn’t understand what it meant, but they instinctively bowed with reverence.

Before they could react further, a little girl came sprinting out of the peach grove, laughing with joy, arms flailing as she ran straight into her mother’s arms.

The woman pulled her in, hugging her tightly, voice trembling. “Ah Jiao...”

Then she snapped in exasperation, “Where did you run off to, you little rascal?!”

As she scolded, a rustle came from the woods.

Out popped a whole crowd of tiny girls in red, white, and pink skirts, giggling as they toddled out of the trees.

The Jen’gal man frowned and gave a cold snort. “Demon fairies?”

He started to draw his axe, but before it left its sheath, Li Yuan’s voice echoed from above once more.

“They’re harmless.”

Only then did the man sheath his weapon, bowing deeply and murmuring, “Yes, sir...of course.”

The little girls didn’t seem to care. They giggled and waddled into the village, heading straight for Li Yuan’s house. Once there, they all dropped to their knees and bowed clumsily in his direction, calling out in unison.

“Holy one! Holy one!”

They didn’t understand much, but some instinct told them clearly where their greatest source of fortune lay.

Li Yuan opened the door and stepped out. He looked over the crowd of spirit children, holding a Yearscribe in his hand. One glance was enough. Their lifespans hovered around 390 years, spot on for fifth rank beings. These were clearly newborn peach demons.

The villagers stared at them in shock, not knowing whether to be afraid or amazed.

Li Yuan gave them a proper explanation, and only then did the villagers understand. These were the very peach trees from the Peach Blossom Sanctuary, transformed into fairies. Not only that, but they had been born already at fifth rank.

They were naive and innocent, still blank slates.

They needed to be taught.

The Peach Blossom Sanctuary had its own teachers.

Among Li Yuan’s lineage and the descendants of his old friends, there were always a few well-read scholars. So naturally, the village had its own private school.