Training in the Qingyu Ruins Realm (1)

"A mixture of the kingly way and the way of hegemony? It sounds more like the methods Mingyang used to educate the people... that whole system of hierarchy, morality, and order. What a pity..."

"Seeking stability is quite troublesome. Since you have a mind to do it, go ahead and give it a try."

After listening, Ye Qingming tapped the air twice with his fingertips. The Spiritual Qi in the hall congealed like iron. After a long while, an inscrutable curve crossed his lips.

Ye Jinyu's gaze grew absorbed. A flash of inspiration struck him, and he bowed solemnly. "I understand, Grandfather. I won't let you down."

With a wave of his sleeve, a gentle breeze rose and carried Ye Jinyu out of the hall.

"Cangxuan has always been a place where the weak are prey to the strong. That theory is sound enough, but in the end, it fails to see the essence of things."

"With the world's might vested in one person, who would dare refuse to submit? I wield Divine Abilities, and none under heaven dare disobey. What of it if the cultivators of the Ruin Realm are fish and meat at my disposal?"

"I am Yunlan. I am all under heaven..."

"He puts too much weight on methods and schemes. He is your offspring; teach him yourself... He has good aptitude. Don't hold him back."

Only after a long while did Ye Qingming speak.

He had always scorned such talk. In the great age of today, it did no more than protect the weak.

Ye Qingming believed in the supremacy of strength, but hearing that someone in his Lineage placed his hopes in such things-and that it was his own grandson, no less-he could not help feeling... his heart surge.

Ye Zhanqiu stood there as cool and aloof as ever.

"Without sitting in a palace above the clouds, one often dwells on the thoughts of mayflies."

"But which of those now above the clouds did not climb there from the weeds? How could they give ants a chance to follow their example?"

"Still too naive..."

Qiuran Palace, bedchamber.

[Host's State of Mind has broken through. Reward: 10,000 Heavenly Mandate Points]

[Current Heavenly Mandate Points: -40,000]

[Items: Heavenly Cauldron of Fate (Dao Transformation Fate Path), can condense Dao Seed x1, Bifeng Qi x1, Bifeng Dao Calamity Scripture]

[Task 1: Take sole control of/seize a Ruin Realm. Reward: determined by degree of completion]

[Task 2: Young master's trial. Reward: unknown. Penalty for failure: permanent loss of status as young master of the Ye Clan and exclusion from succession]

Ye Jinyu stood in the hall, staring at the system notifications in silence.

Reading webnovels in my past life led me astray. Isn't this the sort of thing all the senior transmigrators said?

Shouldn't they have praised me, agreed with me, and appointed me young master of the Ye Clan on the spot?

Why is there a trial too?!

That flash of inspiration flickered in his mind as Ye Qingming's words echoed within it.

"Rise and fall are no more than a thought from those on high. What they call honor and disgrace rests on me alone."

"With the mighty power of heaven and earth vested in me, I am the myriad heavens."

"I am all under heaven. I am Yunlan. In this age of great contention, whatever the Sima Clan can take, my Ye Clan can take as well."

"If need be, turn the Lineage into a nation..."

Methods and schemes were only means to an end. In this world, strength alone reigned supreme.

Let the winds blow from every direction; I'll break through them all.

"Then I understand. When dealing with a Ruin Realm, there are only three things to do: invite them to dinner, behead them, and take them in as dogs."

"Before that, I'll raise my cultivation as much as I can," Ye Jinyu thought silently.

Then he calmed his mind, focused his spirit, and began cultivating, honing his meridians and flesh.

He continued until the first faint light of dawn.

Still cultivating, Ye Jinyu suddenly felt the world spin around him, as though a great hand had seized him. He had no control over his body, and the system gave no warning.

He felt as helpless as an ant or a mayfly gazing up at the blue sky.

Suffocating and dizzy, he felt a cool force envelop him.

In the next instant, space suddenly tore open, creating a passage. Then daylight pierced his eyes.

He was thrown straight down, and Ye Jinyu stumbled as he landed on the ground. The soil was soft with humus, and dense wood-attribute Spiritual Qi rushed at him, mingled with the animal stench of Demon Beasts.

He looked around. Ancient trees towered into the sky, vines hung like pythons, and the faint roar of beasts came from afar.

Where have I been dumped?

Could someone be trying to kill me?!

Just as Ye Jinyu's thoughts ran wild,

Ye Zhanqiu's soft chuckle sounded in his ear. "I picked a good place for you. Get a proper taste of blood. For the next three months, rely on your own strength, squeeze out your potential, and stay alive."

"Don't let all the trouble I've gone to be for nothing."

The voice faded, and there was no further response.

Only a cyan spirit sword, a storage ring, and a rough map were left behind.

All that remained were the roars of the various Demon Beasts lurking in the forest.

Starting with nothing but a sword?

Is this wilderness survival cultivation?! Why is this trial just like a Rogue Cultivator's life?

Am I not the legitimate son of a Golden Core cultivator, a direct descendant of an immortal clan?

Shouldn't I be steadily and rapidly raising my cultivation, surrounded by heavenly materials and earthly treasures, resources, and a whole crowd of guards?

Hiss-

A stench peculiar to snakes wafted over. On an ancient tree in the distance, a snake lay coiled and winding around the trunk, its blood-red eyes fixed on Ye Jinyu.

Such delicious flesh and blood...

It was an Azure Qilin Snake at the Fetal Breath Late Stage Peak. Its enormous body had to be over fifty zhang long.

Seeing a Demon Beast of this world for the first time, he would have been lying to say he wasn't afraid.

But isn't it just a matter of seeing blood?!

Ye Jinyu gritted his teeth, steeled himself, and picked up the cyan spirit sword.

In this world, strength reigns supreme. And I, Ye Jinyu, am even more ruthless.

Kill!

The Azure Qilin Snake also lunged into attack, and the two became locked in a fight...

Three months later.

In a dense ancient forest.

A Red-Eyed Tiger at the Qi Refinement Middle Stage crashed to the ground, its enormous body falling with a boom. Violence and a trace of disbelief remained frozen in its clouded red eyes.

Bifeng ravaged its body, entered its soul, and dispersed its demonic spirit. The tiger became a shriveled skeleton, with only a scarlet demon core left at its Dantian.

Ye Jinyu slowly withdrew his spirit sword. Warm beast blood dripped along the cyan blade's groove.

Slaying the beast and taking its core, he performed the whole sequence as smoothly as flowing clouds and water.

Then he hurriedly retreated several steps. Feeling his spiritual power nearly drained, he slid down against an ancient tree and sat on the ground, his chest heaving. Three gaping claw marks cut almost to the bone.

Pain. Excruciating pain.

At that moment, he took a pill from his storage ring and swallowed it.

The pain grew clearer, but as the pill reached his stomach, vast spiritual power boiled like lava in his Dantian, nearly bursting through its confines.

Ye Jinyu's mind grew colder and clearer still.

He slowly closed his eyes, yet his lips curved in a manner utterly at odds with his grievous wounds, almost as though he found them amusing.

He laughed, free and exhilarated.

The Spiritual Qi around him surged, and the Law Power he had refined through the Bifeng Dao Calamity Scripture spread through his body.

He tempered himself with the intent of a wind calamity, just like a masochist.

Every strand of spiritual power he circulated carried the sharpness of a calamity wind. As it traveled through his meridians, it was like a blade scraping bone, but his soul grew stronger along with it.

The calamity winds between heaven and earth were exceedingly destructive and strange.

Every time was painful, but it worked. His foundation was incomparably solid and robust.

After three months, he was in tatters from head to toe. None of the graceful splendor he had possessed in the Lineage remained.

He had killed who knew how many Demon Beasts, squeezing out his potential every day. Then, at midnight, cultivators assigned to the task would bring him resources and pills...

In three months, he had advanced from the Fetal Breath Middle Stage to Qi Cultivation and refined the Bifeng Qi.

Having refined a breath of Qi in his chest, he could live for 120 years. He could already be considered to have left the mortal realm behind.

[Host has passed the three-month trial and reached Qi Cultivation. Reward: 10,000 Heavenly Mandate Points]

"Again! Again! Why aren't there any Demon Beasts left?!"

"Someone, find this young master two more Qi Refinement Demon Beasts! How can I stop before I've had my fill..."

"No, bring me two Qi Refinement cultivators..."

Ye Jinyu said with a somewhat crazed, bloodthirsty smile.

Outside the forest were twelve men in matching cloud-white brocade robes embroidered with flying fish, wearing black masks.

Some hid in the trees, some in the water, and some stood in the air with their hands behind their backs. They had the broad backs of tigers, the waists of bears, the legs of mantises, and eyes like cold stars.

Flying fish trailed across their robes; clad in brocade, they moved in darkness.

"As you command."

The Cloud Guards answered.

Before long, they tossed two Qi Refinement Rogue Cultivators into the forest where Ye Jinyu was.

Seven days later.

A colossal bronze gate, a hundred zhang high, stood in Yunlan territory.

Wind patterns covered its doors. A cyan vortex slowly revolved across them, tearing open the fabric of Great Void Space.

Ye Jinyu stood before the realm gate in a white cloud-brocade robe, the young master's Azure Nether Jade at his waist.

Behind him stood twelve Cloud Guards, all wearing cloud-white brocade robes embroidered with flying fish. Their presences were refined and concentrated, and masks covered their faces. The weakest among them was at the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.

They were truly elite.

Xu Feng stood hunched slightly behind and to his side. He looked old, but his presence was as deep as an abyss, and he was like a shadow.

On both sides of the realm gate, a crowd had already knelt.

At their head was a middle-aged man in a cyan robe, pale and beardless. He was none other than Ye Guyi, the garrison envoy.

Behind him were dozens of cultivators, including stewards dispatched by the Ye Clan and representatives of the Qingyu Realm's local forces.

"Welcome, Young Master!"

The three-month trial had helped Ye Jinyu grow considerably, leaving Ye Zhanqiu quite satisfied.

So he had entrusted him with a medium-sized Ruin Realm.

He recalled the words of his father, Ye Zhanqiu.

"In years past, whenever the imperial court conquered a Ruin Realm, it always began by killing every expert within it."

"It turned the Ruin Realm into a battlefield for military merit, letting Cangxuan cultivators enter to fight and plunder. Military merit, resources, reputation... all could be taken from it."

"First, it trained troops and bred gu. A life of ease only makes one stand still."

"Second, it united the hearts of Cangxuan's cultivators. Third, it expanded heaven and earth, devoured origin essence, and gathered fortune. The benefits were boundless. With every realm gained, how many more could reach the Purple Mansion or Foundation Establishment?

"You must understand, the capacity of a realm's heaven and earth is fixed..."

"More importantly, prestige and momentum are always built upon victory after victory. In another thousand years, how many will know Mingyang Weiwu, and how many will remember the Former Wei's illustrious glory?"

Governing a Ruin Realm might be worth a try.

As for the fate nurtured by this world, I'd like to see what it's made of.