Realm

Ning Yongrui and his son left.

Yun Long stood at the valley entrance, watching the two figures disappear completely at the end of the mountain path.

He slowly turned around. The faint fragrance of tea from the reception hall seemed to still linger in the air.

The letter and jade slip still lay quietly upon the table.

"From what I know, the conflict between them has built up to the extreme. A major clash is already an arrow on the string."

Ning Yongrui's words still rang in his ears, dressed up in lofty and righteous-sounding terms.

The three families of Wanfang Lake had stood in a three-way balance for many years. Open and covert struggles were commonplace, but with their interests entangled, matters had yet to reach the point of fish dying and nets tearing.

Yun Long saw it as clearly as a mirror: it was precisely this newly appointed Commander Ning, coveting Wanfang Lake's abundant resources, who had moved his entire family here.

The various schemes he had employed in secret were the true driving force behind the destruction of the former balance and the escalation of the factions' conflicts. His intentions were plain for all to see.

Naturally, Yun Long would not wholly believe Ning Yongrui's one-sided account.

Just how deep the waters of Wanfang Lake ran would have to be discovered by the Yun Clan personally stepping into them and wading through them one step at a time.

Ning Yongrui's visit this time had certainly not been to deliver this intelligence for no reason.

He had his open schemes, and Yun Long had his own calculations.

If the Yun Clan wished to gain a firm foothold here, they could not proceed entirely according to the script Ning Yongrui had laid out. They had to see the whole board and keep the initiative firmly in their own hands.

His slender fingers lightly picked up the jade slip, and his Spiritual Sense sank into it.

In an instant, a flood of complex information surged into Yun Long's mind.

A detailed map of Wanfang Lake, the territories controlled by the three Cultivation Families—the Li Family, Lu Family, and Mo Family—the composition of their core members, the distribution of their various industries, and detailed descriptions of the coveted Three Treasures all appeared before him.

The Li, Lu, and Mo Families had occupied this region for several centuries. Their roots ran deep, and their web of connections was tangled and intricate.

The jade slip also mentioned several frictions between the three families in recent years, yet they were nowhere near as tense as Ning Yongrui had claimed. They seemed more like the usual probing tactics born of long-standing competition.

Yun Long slowly withdrew his Spiritual Sense, his expression as still as an ancient well without a ripple.

The information in the jade slip did have value, but that was all.

He abruptly rose to his feet and strode toward the rear courtyard.

After passing through an elegant covered corridor, he arrived at the quiet little courtyard where Li Lingyue lived.

Flowers and trees flourished within the courtyard, lush greenery everywhere, and the atmosphere was peaceful and serene.

Li Lingyue sat quietly beneath the eaves, her jade-like hand gently stroking her slightly rounded abdomen. Her brows and eyes were filled with a mother's tenderness.

When she saw Yun Long enter, a soft and captivating smile immediately blossomed across her cheeks.

Yun Long walked slowly to her side and sat down, naturally taking her soft, warm hand in his.

He could clearly feel the faint yet resilient pulse of life within her womb.

This would be the first member of the Yun Clan's fourth generation!

Its significance was extraordinary.

"Commander Ning and the others have left?" Li Lingyue asked softly, her light voice carrying a trace of barely perceptible concern.

"Yes, they left," Yun Long answered warmly.

"What did Commander Ning say?" Li Lingyue raised her eyes and looked at her husband with concern.

Yun Long briefly told her about the situation at Wanfang Lake that Ning Yongrui had mentioned, as well as the Three Treasures.

As for his shocking claim of Entering Immortality through Martial Arts, and Ning Yongrui's veiled probing filled with hidden barbs, he cleverly left those matters out.

Li Lingyue listened quietly, lowering her head as she pondered for a moment.

"Wanfang Lake does not seem to be a peaceful place either." She sighed softly, then raised her gaze to Yun Long. Her eyes shone with utter trust and reliance. "Still, since we are here, we shall make the best of it. No matter what lies ahead, our Yun Clan will always carve out a great road to the heavens that belongs to us."

She paused, her tone carrying both urgency and resolve. "Husband, you should hurry back to cultivating. Father and the others are caring for me attentively, so you need not divide your attention worrying about me. Your strength is the greatest safeguard for our Yun Clan to establish itself here—and the only safeguard."

Yun Long gazed into his wife's eyes, seeing the worry and steadfast support hidden within them. A warm current flowed through his heart.

He knew that Li Lingyue was right.

What the Yun Clan most urgently needed now was a rapid increase in his own strength.

"All right, I'll listen to my wife." Yun Long stood, bent down, and gently pressed a kiss to her smooth forehead. "Rest peacefully."

After bidding Li Lingyue farewell, Yun Long headed directly toward the clan ancestral hall.

From the day the ancestral hall had been completed, he had chosen to sit in meditation and cultivate in its courtyard, directly facing the hall's main doors.

He wanted the Yun Clan's ancestors to watch over him at all times, to spur him onward, so that he would not dare slacken in the slightest.

The division of realms within the Qi Refining Stage seemed simple, but in truth, the difference in strength between each level could be negligible—or as far apart as clouds and mud.

Cultivating the first strand of qi refinement meant reaching the first level of Qi Refining.

The second strand meant the second level of Qi Refining.

Only upon cultivating the fifth strand of qi refinement could one reach the Third Layer of Qi Refining.

The early Qi Refining Stage, namely the first through third levels of Qi Refining, had a maximum of nine strands of qi refinement.

Nine was the ultimate number. Breaking through the limit of nine strands was the first major threshold of the Qi Refining Stage.

Once one cultivated the tenth strand of qi refinement, one would formally enter the fourth level of Qi Refining.

The nineteenth strand of qi refinement marked the fifth level of Qi Refining.

The twenty-eighth strand of qi refinement marked the Sixth Level of Qi Refining.

The Mid Qi Refining Stage, namely the fourth through sixth levels of Qi Refining, allowed for as many as thirty-six strands of qi refinement. This was the Number of Heavenly Spirits.

Breaking through the shackles of the Heavenly Dipper Number was the Qi Refining Stage's second, even more difficult threshold.

Ning Yongrui was at the Sixth Level of Qi Refining.

Yet even among those at the Sixth Level of Qi Refining, a person who had just condensed the twenty-eighth strand of qi refinement and one who had perfected all thirty-six strands stood worlds apart in strength.

In fact, if their qi refinement was of equal quality, someone who had only just entered the Sixth Level of Qi Refining possessed no great advantage over a cultivator at the peak of the fifth level of Qi Refining.

Yun Long had moved here less than half a year ago, yet he had already successfully broken through to the Mid Qi Refining Stage.

However, after entering the Mid Qi Refining Stage, he found every step forward exceptionally difficult and obscure.

He did not know that the mysterious card's boost to his cultivation speed had only lasted through the Third Layer of Qi Refining.

After breaking through to the Mid Qi Refining Stage, every step ahead would have to depend entirely on his own effort and comprehension.

Now, instead, the advancement of his own cultivation was gradually driving the quality of that Character Inheritance Card to rise.

The Shaolin Monk Card in his Sea of Consciousness was no longer First-Order Low-Grade.

It had risen to First-Order Mid-Grade, barely matching his current cultivation realm.

The Bodhidharma Muscle-Tendon Classic was an immensely powerful and unfathomably profound cultivation art.

Yet the Vajra Primordial Qi it cultivated required an amount of Spiritual Energy that ordinary qi-refining arts could not begin to match.

The twenty strands of Vajra Primordial Qi within him, condensed as though tangible, seemed as if each had been forged from molten refined iron—indestructible and incomparably heavy.

Yun Long slowly closed his eyes, letting his mind sink completely into his Dantian Sea of Qi.

Under his inner sight, twenty strands of radiant golden Vajra Primordial Qi lay coiled within his dantian like dormant little golden dragons, emanating boundless and majestic power.

Under the guidance of his will, they slowly circulated, blending perfectly with his flesh, blood, sinews, and bones until there was no distinction between them.

He began circulating his cultivation art, drawing in the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth as it frantically gathered toward him.

He carefully refined and compressed the Spiritual Energy flooding into his body, attempting to condense a twenty-first strand of Vajra Primordial Qi.

His admission to Ning Yongrui that he possessed no Spiritual Root yet had still broken through to the Qi Refining Stage had been a decision Yun Long made after careful consideration.

The Yun Clan had no shortage of secrets, and as the clan developed, there would only be more secrets to conceal in the future.

Especially the unique nature of that mysterious clan genealogy—it absolutely could not become known to outsiders.

The Yun Clan had to give the outside world a reasonable explanation to conceal these earth-shaking changes.

Since his own abnormality could no longer be fully hidden, he might as well draw every eye onto himself.

He would establish himself as an unparalleled Martial Dao genius unseen for a thousand ages.

That was right. I, Yun Long, am a Martial Arts Grandmaster seen only once in a thousand years, entering immortality through martial arts by my own power—and making the Yun Clan extraordinary in the process.

As for that set of Arhat Fist techniques, while it surpassed ordinary mortal martial arts, it was still far from a supreme art like the Great Arhat Fist that pointed directly toward the Qi Refining Stage.

It was merely smoke Yun Long had deliberately thrown out to confuse others.

Yun Long's strength had undergone earth-shaking changes, and the strength of the Yun Clan's other core members had likewise improved remarkably.

Yun He had already reached the peak of the Xiantian realm half a year ago.

She was only one step away from cultivating the Xiantian section of the Wudang Xiantian Gong to major accomplishment and entering the Qi Refining Stage in one stroke.

When the clan had faced a catastrophic crisis, Yun Long had relied on consuming a great quantity of medicinal pills to luckily break through to the Qi Refining Stage.

Now, the clan's financial resources were no longer what they had once been. They could afford some medicinal pills that would aid a breakthrough and give Yun He a helping hand.

Yet without Yun Long even needing to suggest it, Yun He had taken the initiative to refuse this method of relying on external aid to break through.

It was not because Yun He did not wish to break through quickly and become a true Qi Refining Stage cultivator.

Her true purpose was to personally experience the difference between a natural breakthrough achieved without relying on pills, solely through the gradual accumulation of her own true qi until quantity transformed into quality, and a forced breakthrough accomplished through medicinal pills.

Apart from those mysterious ancestors, their generation was the Yun Clan's pathfinder on this road of cultivation.

Some trials and some sacrifices had to be made.

The precious experience gained from blazing this trail would also become an indispensable part of the clan's foundation.

Yun Hu's Martial Dao aptitude was considerably inferior to that of his younger sister, Yun He.

Now eighteen years old, he had only just managed to break through into the Xiantian realm.

Back when Yun Long had been eighteen, he had fused with the mysterious card for the first time and broken through to Xiantian in one stroke.

The gap between their talents was clear at a glance.

Li Lingyue's aptitude was actually quite good, but comprehending cultivation arts required her to spend more time than the Yun siblings.

As a result, her cultivation speed had been roughly comparable to Yun Hu's, and she had only recently broken through into the Xiantian realm as well.

Not long after breaking through Xiantian, she became pregnant.

The Wudang Xiantian Gong was already extraordinarily profound. Li Lingyue could now put aside her former impatience for rapid progress and focus instead on comprehending its mysteries while calmly nurturing her pregnancy, killing two birds with one stone.

Li Pinghu and Shi Tie had only just begun their cultivation arts, so their realms had not changed greatly.

Yet the true qi within their bodies had already condensed into a milky white color, causing their combat power to rise steadily. They had earned a formidable reputation throughout the Wanfang Lake region and become a powerful trump card for the Yun Clan to show the outside world.

As for Yun Ji, the old man now lived in seclusion. Apart from his daily meals and routines, as well as caring for his pregnant daughter-in-law, he rarely showed himself before others.

He had long been at the peak of the Xiantian realm. Now he devoted himself wholeheartedly to secluded cultivation, hoping to see through the bottleneck as soon as possible and truly step into a higher level of cultivation.