The fate of his family rested upon his shoulders, crushing the breath from his body. His father's fall, the rumor of betrayal, and finally, the dark shadow that loomed over the Canglan Domain—what elder cultivator did not endure those burdens with ease? But Ye Wushang had a stubborn persistence, as deeply ingrained as the ancient blood running through his veins. A determination that would only falters if some great fire consumed him. He wouldn't fall. He would take it upon himself, with the system on his side, borne of his own personal strength.
**[System message: Investigate current goals. Action taken: Raise personal cultivation level. Seek strategic relationship. Investigate the controlling entity of Ye Batian.]
Easy for you to say, Ye Wushang grumbled, his gaze faraway. I am still a league behind the power that took my father. And alliances? Who would trust the son of a man consumed by darkness?
**[System reply: available resources analysis. Find the most promising offspring. Suggest checking the 'Lineage Legacy System' module.]**
Ye Wushang frowned. He recalled reading about that part of the system interface when he first activated it. At the time, it had all been pointless. The system often overexplained the most obvious things. He was the last of the Ye Family, at least as far back as he knew. What could use a "Lineage Legacy System" without any lineage?
Yet it was the system's insistence that piqued his interest. He let out a sigh and mentally accessed the sub-module. Lines of text opened out in his mind describing a reward and benefit system tied into offspring generation. The stronger the bloodline of his chosen partner, the greater the potential in their offspring, meaning the larger the rewards he would receive.
"How fascinating., he thought, remembering stories about Li Su's feats of daring. If the system was to be trusted, then this dire predicament might just become an opportunity in disguise. He could use the power of the system for protecting his family and maybe even to set his father free from whatever had been tying him down.
This was a long shot, a last shot, but he never turned his back on a challenge that lay before him. He would trudge along this path laid out for him, step by reluctant step, and become the leader his family needed.
Weeks became months as Ye Wushang poured all his energy into training, pushing his body as well as his cultivation to their respective limits. He pored over ancient texts, searching for even the slightest hint that could guide him to the secret realm his father had gone to visit or even to the entity that welled out of it. He started taking a closer look at the young women in his clan, considering not only their potentials as partners but also as mothers for the future generations of Ye Family cultivators. But the more he sought those quests, the more questions he conjured up.
The Hidden Realm was veiled in mystery, behind some unseen veil. Only the elders knew where it lay, and their lips were sealed. The more Ye Wushang learned about the creature that had taken over his father, the less he understood. It was old, that much was obvious, but its intent, its history, eluded him, keeping him locked in a cycle of irritation. One evening, in the course of an especially grueling sparring session with Yue Rushuang in the training court, she became conscious of his distraction. She parried a particularly vicious swing with fluid precision and lowered her wooden practice sword. "Your mind is elsewhere, Little Brother," she said, her voice soft but firm. "Tell me, what troubles you?"
Ye Wushang hesitated, then let his own sword drop to the ground. He trusted his sister completely, but the weight of what he knew—the road ahead, fraught with uncertainty—felt too heavy to share. Not yet.
"It's nothing, Sister," he lied, forcing a smile. "Just the usual anxieties of a future patriarch. I need to prove myself worthy of our legacy."
Yue Rushuang studied him closely, but she didn't push. She knew he wasn't telling the whole truth, but she said nothing. Instead, she smiled wryly.
"Yes, our family history is messy, didn't you think?" she said, looking in the direction of the ancestral hall across from her, starkly etched against the coming sunset. "But sometimes, I guess the greatest strength comes from embracing the unexpected, from forging your own path-even if that path is one of defiance."
Her words were obscure, but to Ye Wushang, they spoke with crystal clarity. He could not lean back on the system; he could not put all his hope on other people's desires to make him stand. He had to think for himself. He had to be flexible. Power would not come from blind instruction through the system or on a smooth runway. Maybe the truth lay in what no one could predict-not even the system.