Clan Cultivation: Starting from Foundation Establishment on Mount Luoxia

Li Xiaoyao stood in the void, calmly scanning the area. He recognized the people from the Paradise of Reincarnation—Iron Bone stood at the front, followed by six fourth-tier beings.

The people of the Starry Sky Gods Kingdom wore silver-white robes, and the leader was a woman with a cold face, golden hair and blue eyes, and starlight flowing around her.

The people at Dragon Tiger Paradise were the most flamboyant. A man and a woman, the man shirtless with tiger tattoos and the woman with a green dragon wrapped around her waist, stood side by side like two door gods.

The people in the vegetable garden were the most inconspicuous. An old farmer dressed in a linen tunic squatted on the edge of the void, holding a pipe in his hand and puffing away.

But his aura was the deepest of all.

There are also local forces.

An elderly man with white hair and beard stood with his hands behind his back in the center of the void, wearing a gray-white Taoist robe and with an ancient long sword hanging at his waist.

His aura was at the peak of the Purple Mansion realm—half a step towards the Golden Core stage. He was the sect leader of the Yuan Yang Sword Sect and the strongest native to the Yuan Yang Great World.

The moment Li Xiaoyao appeared, everyone's eyes fell on him.

No one moved, no one spoke.

The void was as still as a stagnant pool.

Finally, the old man spoke first. His voice wasn't loud, but it reached the ears of everyone present clearly: "Hand over the goods."

Li Xiaoyao looked at him calmly: "What is it?"

Iron Bones from the Paradise of Reincarnation spoke up, his voice cold and hard: "Hand over everything from the Golden Core True Monarch's treasures—the keys, the beads, the stone tablet, the cultivation techniques.

Li Xiaoyao shook his head: "It's not here with me."

Tie Gu sneered, "You came out of there, so where else would you be if not here?"

"In the hands of that young man named Candle."

Li Xiaoyao's gaze shifted from the iron-boned face to the old man's face, then to the old farmer squatting and smoking in the vegetable garden. "You should know him. Golden eyes, claims to be a transmigrator, no system. He took the bead, the rest... I don't know. I only took a stone tablet that was useful to me."

There was a moment of silence in the void.

The old man looked at the old farmer squatting and smoking: "Is your seal reliable?"

The old farmer took a puff of his cigarette and slowly exhaled a cloud of white smoke: "If he were unreliable, wouldn't the person below have run away?"

The old man nodded, then looked at Li Xiaoyao: "Is that candle still inside?"

"When I came out, he was deeper inside. I didn't follow the path behind that crack," Li Xiaoyao said truthfully.

The old man was silent for a moment, seemingly weighing something. Then he spoke, his tone unhurried yet carrying undeniable weight: "I know the power behind you is not to be trifled with. Sending you in at a time like this is no ordinary act."

Li Xiaoyao did not respond.

"But they—" the old man pointed to the fifth-tier experts all around, "are not to be trifled with either."

He withdrew his hand, stood with his hands behind his back, and looked calmly at Li Xiaoyao:

"So please stay here for a while. If what you say is true, and the candle is still inside the ruins, I guarantee you my life that I will let you go."

He paused, his tone suddenly becoming very soft, as soft as a falling leaf:

"But if you're lying—"

He didn't finish his sentence. But everyone knew what came after it.

This time next year will be your death day.

Li Xiaoyao was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"I'll wait."

He had no other choice. Dozens of Purple Mansion cultivators surrounded him, a half-step Golden Core cultivator stood before him, and the old farmer from the vegetable garden was unfathomable—he couldn't win in a fight, and he couldn't escape either.

Besides, he wasn't lying. The candle was indeed still inside, and the bead was indeed in the candle's hand. As for the stone tablet... he got it, but it was his mission objective, and he couldn't hand it over; giving it to them might make things worse.

The old farmer stood up from mid-air, tapped his pipe on the sole of his shoe, and tucked it into his waistband.

He nodded to the old man, then formed a hand seal, and an invisible seal rose from the entrance of the ruins, like a transparent film, sealing the entire ruins again.

"He can't get out," the old farmer said. "Unless he's stronger than me."

No one asked how strong he was. But everyone knew that someone who had been able to play this game in the Yuan Yang Great World for so long without being overthrown was no weakling.

The void fell silent again.

Dozens of figures hovered in various directions, each with their own thoughts, yet none moved. They were waiting. Waiting for the seal to be broken, for the candle to emerge, waiting for an outcome.

Li Xiaoyao hovered in the center of the void, surrounded by everyone, like prey caught in a jar.

He didn't move.

His consciousness remained at the entrance to the ruins; the seal was indeed exquisite—the methods of the Vegetable Garden, based on spiritual plants and secured by vitality, were completely different from ordinary Five Elements seals. For the candle to escape, it either needed to break the seal, or…

Li Xiaoyao suddenly thought of a possibility.

If Zhu is truly the reincarnation of the original owner of this ruin, then he wouldn't need to come out from the entrance at all.

The ruins were his; he knew every path here better than anyone. The entrance was blocked, but he could find another way.

But the old farmer had obviously thought of that as well.

His seal not only blocked the entrance, but locked the entire void where the ruins were located. Breaking the seal from the inside would require overwhelming power.

Do you have any candles?

Li Xiaoyao didn't know.

All he knew was that all he could do now was wait.

In the void, time passed little by little.

No one spoke, no one left. All the fifth-tier powerhouses from all the factions remained suspended in place, like silent statues.

Li Xiaoyao closed his eyes, suppressing his aura to the extreme, like a stone suspended in the void. He was waiting.

Waiting for a result.

Deep within the ruins, in the darkness behind the cracks.

Zhu sat cross-legged, the bead hovering above his palm, slowly rotating.

The bluish-white light cast flickering shadows on his face, and his golden pupils gradually lost focus in the light.

"finally……"

His voice was very low, so low that only he could hear it.

In the darkness, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

That smile was hard to tell whether it was relief or bitterness.

The bead melted little by little, spreading down his palm, wrist, and arm, all the way to his chest, throat, and brow.

That power was too strong, so strong that his body couldn't withstand it—his bones were cracking, his muscles were trembling, and something seemed to be moving beneath his skin, like a snake, like a dragon, like a river that had been sealed for thousands of years and was finally breaking free.

He began to grow taller inch by inch, like bamboo in spring, like a sapling that had been suppressed for too long finally getting sunlight.

His shoulders broadened, his back straightened, and his originally thin figure became tall and robust in just a few breaths.

The clothes changed; the drab black cloak turned to ashes and scattered, replaced by a long robe of crimson gold, with cloud patterns embroidered on the hem, a white jade belt tied around the waist, and a dark gold trim around the collar—it was the attire of a certain era a thousand years ago, simple, solemn, and heavy.

His level of understanding is soaring.

Early stage of Purple Mansion, Middle stage of Purple Mansion, Late stage of Purple Mansion —

Golden Elixir.

Golden light burst forth from his body, illuminating the entire underground ruins.

Those thousand-year-old murals came to life in the golden light, depicting a young man entering the Tao, a middle-aged man attaining enlightenment, and a man passing away peacefully in his old age—

Images peeled off the stone wall, turning into streams of light that entered his brow.