Chapter 758 – Fairies Bloom in the Peach Blossom Sanctuary, Four Seekers Enter the Ancient Hall - Part 2

Li Yuan, seeing the opportunity, simply ordered the peach fairies to attend class there.

With the patriarch himself giving the command, no teacher dared refuse.

And so, a group of peach fairy girls began showing up at school each day with little satchels woven from bamboo slung over their backs. The teacher’s peach stash, meanwhile, was soon piled high into little mountains, tribute, perhaps, or bribes, depending on how you looked at it.

Fairies and humans living together, day after day, gradually formed a kind of harmony.

To Li Yuan, this was nothing more than a charming little interlude.

Ever since he'd reached his current realm of strength, changes like these had become natural. The world around him subtly reshaped itself in response to his presence.

Once the peach fairies settled in and became proper members of the village, Li Yuan returned to his favorite pastime. That was sitting by the lake, fishing in its clear waters. While his line danced lazily in the water, he continued ascending beyond the limits of the second rank, a peak no one had ever reached before, and waited quietly for the arrival of the ancient halls.

As for what awaited at first rank...he had some ideas.

Once someone reached third rank, their soul split into three parts, Heaven, Earth, and Human.

He had a vague sense that the first rank for the Earth Soul path was becoming the

Heavenly Dao

itself, the divine law of the cosmos. Those on that path could freely peer into the past...perhaps even

return

to it.

That theory had grown clearer ever since he’d learned of Yan Yu’s Mirror of Karma, which could reveal a person’s past sins. With that in mind, he was now certain.

Yan Yu was on the path to becoming the Heavenly Dao.

Earth Soul at third rank, Starkin at second rank, and Heavenly Dao at first rank...it all lined up.

And what about himself?

Li Yuan was clearly on the path of a second rank Human Soul.

But after more than seven hundred years since he preached atop Cloud Capital, not a single other cultivator had reached second rank.

Even if another second rank did appear one day, Li Yuan had a hunch that they wouldn’t have a voidship.

That meant...he was different.

That meant...he might be able to transcend, break free of the Three Realms, and step outside the Five Elements.

The Heaven Soul path went from Heaven Soul at third rank, Chaosborn at second rank, and...the first rank remained a mystery.

As he quietly contemplated all of this, the world outside was changing again.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

The Peach Blossom Sanctuary’s tiny village continued to grow.

Even after nearly a thousand years, and even with birth control in place, the population had swelled into the tens of thousands.

Fortunately, the peach fairies had also multiplied.

Some among them had now reached fourth rank.

So the village was eventually divided into an inner and outer village.

Li Yuan placed the direct descendants, those closest to him, with known ancestry and loyalty, in the inner village. The more distant, generations-removed descendants were sent to live in the outer village.

Between the two lay a maze formation made of fourth rank peach fairies.

Bit by bit...Li Yuan let go of control over the outer village.

In time, to the people of the outer village, the Old Patriarch became more myth than man, a symbol.

Children were born and raised there. Some, restless and curious, couldn’t bear the isolation. Despite being told time and again that beyond the village lay endless cycles of death and slaughter, there were always those determined to venture out anyway.

Eventually, there were parents who were moved by the unshakable determination of their children. Quietly, they sought out the outer village chief and found ways to help their sons or daughters slip out into the world beyond.

More and more youths left the Peach Blossom Sanctuary and began to enter the mortal world.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Time passed.

It had been five hundred years since Li Yuan first discovered the peach fairies.

In the human realm, dynasties continued to rise and fall. Even the far-off island chains overseas had formed their own kingdoms and nations.

That year, after centuries of lying dormant, the Church of Light finally rose again, emerging from the shadows with renewed vigor.

But it was no longer the same church it once was. This time, it had merged with Buddhism.

Why Buddhism, you ask?

Because the era of the Age of the Ancient Gods had once included the forces of both the Dao and Buddha. Somehow, Yan Yu had seized control of these long-dormant powers, who knew from where, and infused them into the children of destiny. And so, new beings were born as natural-born Buddha and Dao children.

These extraordinary figures reshaped both the Buddhist and Daoist traditions from the ground up.

What made things even more interesting was that some of the newcomers entering the world from the Peach Blossom Sanctuary weren’t just eager young villagers, but peach fairies as well.

Being born near the inner village, these descendants of Li Yuan had already inherited tremendous blessings. Every one of them was strong. And the peach fairies were no exception.

This sudden influx of power and influence eventually led to the rise of two new sects.

One was called the Root Sect, which revered Heaven and Earth and preached harmony with nature, blending with it, not dominating it.

The other was the Spirit Sect, which taught the equality of all beings under Heaven. To them, even grass and trees could become fairies. Their doctrine accepted anyone, human, beast, or plant.

Meanwhile, the Church of Light, having merged with Buddhism, adopted a new creed.

“Worship the Light, Praise Maitreya.”

And in the chaos of the age, a single man rose above the rest, cutting through the thorns of a fractured world, uniting the lands under one banner. From the Church of Light, he took the character Light (明) and declared it the name of his empire.

Then, in a twist as sudden as it was ruthless, he turned around and suppressed the very church from which he’d taken that name.

All of this, rise and fall, cause and effect...Li Yuan observed only in passing, casting a brief glance from afar.

But these waves of history left him with an unsettling feeling, deep in his bones. As if he were staring into a twisted funhouse mirror that reflected back some distorted version of the world he’d once come from.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

That summer, the weather turned strange.

Blizzards came in full force, blanketing the land so heavily that the snow rose past a child’s head.

Sensing something, Li Yuan said a few words to his family and set off for a certain place deep within the Eastern Sea.

Moments later, he stood suspended in the sky.

Below him, the sea churned with a massive vortex, its waters pitch black, surging inward with terrifying force.

With a single thought, he stepped into the voidship, and that’s when he saw it.

Three thick mists clung tightly to the Ancestral Land, hazy and world-sized.

These were the three ancient halls.

Their true roots, however, seemed to lie far deeper, buried within the heart of the fabric of existence itself. No wonder he hadn’t been able to find them in the stars.

Now that the ancient halls had appeared, it was time to go through the front door.

Li Yuan returned to the Ancestral Land, released his domain, and the tsunami-level waves that had been raging moments before...quickly calmed into silence.

The force that had birthed the tsunami, Li Yuan suppressed it with ease.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Three days later.

Li Yuan suddenly sensed a small boat cutting through the sea toward him.

It was fast, very fast. As he looked closer, he saw that the boat was being carried by some strange creature lurking beneath the waves.

Aboard the vessel stood a woman, a girl, and a boy.

Li Yuan’s heart lifted with joy. He flashed forward and landed gracefully at the bow.

“Yan Yu, Ah Ting, Xiao Xu, you’ve come.”

“Father.”

“Dad.”

Ah Ting and Xiao Xu greeted him sweetly, standing obediently at their mother’s side.

Li Yuan looked at his children and nodded with quiet pride.

They were just ordinary human children, no remarkable bloodline, no powerful destiny, even the numbers above their heads read 0~1. But somehow, time and time again, they came through for him when it truly mattered.

That was why, this time, as he was about to set off with Yan Yu’s soul fragment to explore the ancient halls, he’d brought them along.

The family of four settled temporarily on a nearby island, quietly waiting for the halls to fully emerge.

Meanwhile, Li Yuan took up the role of guardian.

This time, three halls were emerging simultaneously, and on a scale far grander than anything seen in the old era, over a thousand years ago. If he didn’t intervene, the upheaval would likely drown most of the islands scattered across the sea, with even the coastal regions of the ancestral land suffering devastating disasters.

But as long as Li Yuan sat here...no disaster could rise.

On the island, the family built a fire, found shelter in a cave, and spent the nights chatting by the warmth of the flames, surrounded by a gentle and peaceful atmosphere.

As expected, Ah Ting and Xiao Xu proved themselves useful yet again. The two children shared a trove of information about the ancient halls, describing their structure, their history, and even the elusive Dao Fruit hidden at the end of each hall. It was practically a step-by-step guide on how to reach the innermost depths.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

And just like that, three more months passed.

Then, without warning, three deep black vortices tore open the sea, and three massive obsidian temples emerged, like paintings come to life, embedding themselves into the fabric of the world.

The dark ancient halls resembled hungry beasts, ready to devour everything in sight. The moment they appeared, the sea surged toward them as if drawn by an invisible force. Water, fish, shrimp, everything nearby was sucked into the cracked void around the temples.

Li Yuan tried to maintain contact with a few of the sea creatures, but the moment they crossed into the void, they vanished completely from his senses.

So, he raised his hand and summoned miniature worlds, sending them flying out to plug the voids and stabilize the space.

The runaway seawater finally slowed. The chaos began to calm.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Several more days passed.

At last, the three ancient halls settled into place.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Three deafening, thunder-like sounds echoed one after another, the sound of doors swinging open.

Li Yuan glanced at Yan Yu’s soul fragment and said, “Let’s start with the Hall of Life.”

She nodded in agreement, though her eyes remained fixed on the other two doors, her expression solemn.

Xiao Xu mumbled, “This time...the doors are really open. Who knows what might come out.”

Ah Ting nodded, equally serious.

Their words struck a chord.

Whatever lay behind those doors was no longer sealed. The concern in Yan Yu’s eyes deepened.

She looked at Li Yuan.

He simply smiled.

With a flick of his hand into the void, he pulled out a jade ruyi scepter and a golden vajra bangle. Without hesitation, he tossed them toward the other two ancient halls, sealing off their connection to the mortal world.

With that, even if something strange or sinister emerged from those halls, it would only end up inside the worlds contained within the

ruyi

and the bangle, nowhere near the mortal world. It was like adding a protective bubble inside a larger one, isolating the danger from reality.

Of course, the jade ruyi and vajra bangle weren’t ordinary artifacts. They were world sealing armaments Li Yuan had crafted over the years, each housing its own small world. Though not as indestructible as the original gourd, they were more than sturdy enough to keep unwanted guests locked in.

Then, with a single thought, Li Yuan froze the surrounding sea. The water solidified into a bridge of ice, stretching from the island to the towering gates of the Hall of Life deep in the ocean.

The family of four descended onto the ice path.

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

But the moment they landed, a powerful force surged out from the ancient hall.

Before they could react, Xiao Xu and Ah Ting were suddenly swept up by that force, slammed against the outer wall of the Hall of Life, and shattered into dust.

Li Yuan didn’t even blink.

The instant the accident occurred, all memory and connection to Xiao Xu and Ah Ting were severed. In his perception, they no longer existed. No bond. No causality. It was as if they had never been born and never lived.

Turning to Yan Yu’s soul fragment, he said calmly, “Let’s go in.”

She nodded gravely and stepped forward, gripping the staff adorned with gleaming beads, each one containing a world of its own.

As soon as they crossed the threshold, Li Yuan spoke a single line.

“Let there be light.”

At once, radiance flooded the interior of the hall.

This was another of his second rank abilities, a skill called Lesser Heaven and Earth Shift, a power that allowed him to relocate environments as he pleased, transposing the weather, the terrain, even the very light from one place to another.

The simplest use was conjuring wind and rain. What he’d just done, inviting light into darkness, was little more than a parlor trick by comparison.

Still, those three words, delivered with such divine flair, left Yan Yu’s soul fragment stunned.

She turned to him in disbelief. “Main body’s husband...you’ve grown that powerful? You can create light now?”

Li Yuan replied coolly, “Just a small trick.”

Hearing this, she scoffed and spat lightly in mock annoyance.

Their teasing cut through the solemnity of exploring the final frontier. The tension of venturing into the heart of a primeval mystery simply... evaporated.

Back on the island outside the Hall of Life, Ah Ting and Xiao Xu stood silently before the fire, staring at the icy road in the distance.

“We’re too weak,” Ah Ting said quietly. “We can’t go in.”

“Then we wait,” Xiao Xu replied.

Just then, a tall man appeared out of nowhere.

He had a dazed look in his eyes, glancing around like someone unsure of where or who he was.

Then his gaze locked onto the two children.

Ah Ting and Xiao Xu stared him down coldly.

“There are already two,” Ah Ting said.

“No more than three,” Xiao Xu reminded.

The tall man didn’t argue. He simply vanished without a trace.