The Isolated Courtyard and the Inner Sea

Bai Yuan returned to her courtyard.

Yang Xuan’s private quarters were vast, spacious enough to grant each of his wives and concubines their own secluded courtyard, complete with a retinue of maids and matrons.

Yet, simultaneously, they felt incredibly small.

Bai Yuan’s courtyard, for instance, was relegated to the furthest, most secluded corner. Separated by several winding passages and towering walls, it lay adjacent to Tianhe Gate’s Disciplinary Hall and Imperial Guard Hall.

The surroundings were desolate and quiet, rarely seeing a single soul in days past.

A fitting reflection of her status.

Bai Yuan returned late that day. By the time she reached the entrance to her own courtyard, dusk had already settled.

However, the courtyard was deserted. Of the two lanterns hanging by the gate, one had been extinguished by the wind, while the other swayed precariously, casting an intermittent, dim glow.

The interior of the courtyard was plunged into complete darkness. Coupled with the surrounding silence and desolation, it exuded an eerie, unsettling feeling.

The maids and matrons who should have been attending the courtyard were nowhere to be found.

‘Perhaps, since I was out for half the day, and with the grand celebration banquet at Tianhe Gate tonight, they couldn’t resist and went off to find some fun?’ she mused.

Bai Yuan paid it no mind. These two servants had been assigned to her by Tianhe Gate, and she had always given them free rein, never bothering to manage them much.

For the first half-year, they had been somewhat diligent, but later, slacking off and skipping duties became almost commonplace.

Thus, she had grown accustomed to it.

Having cultivated to her current realm, Bai Yuan naturally possessed night vision; the darkness before her was inconsequential.

Pushing open the door, Bai Yuan lit a candle. She retrieved two naan breads, which she had deliberately bought extra of at noon, from her sleeve. Sitting at the table, she slowly chewed them, washing them down with plain water.

This would serve as her dinner for the night. She hadn’t expected the maids to remember to bring her a meal anyway.

The slightly warm flatbread was meticulously chewed and then swallowed. As she felt her empty stomach gradually fill with food, Bai Yuan entered the inner chamber, sat cross-legged on the daybed, with her five centers facing upward, and slowly closed her eyes.

The thunderous roar of ocean tides gradually began to echo in her ears.

Beneath the pitch-black night sky, the surroundings stretched boundlessly, an endless expanse of ocean.

Layers of surging tides rose, one after another, each overpowering the last. Countless fragments of jade and scattered snow churned, ultimately stirring up towering waves.

This was the manifestation of her inner vision.

It was cultivated using the Bai family’s inherited ‘Azure Wave Suppressing Sea Art’ as its foundation.

However, Bai Yuan’s attention was not fixed on these tumultuous, sky-high tides.

Her consciousness swept across the surface of the sea, bypassing the immense waves, and settling upon an inconspicuous rocky islet.

This was where her Dao foundation truly lay.

As Bai Yuan gazed at the island, half-hidden amidst the surging waves, a bitter smile involuntarily bloomed in her heart.

‘Inner contemplation to forge the Dao foundation, outer perception to connect with heaven and earth, drawing in vital energy. When inner and outer align, and yin and yang harmonize, one can then seek the opportunity to step into the Xiantian realm, opening the true gate of the Great Dao.’

In her previous life, after the system departed, she had mistakenly believed the towering waves to be her Dao foundation. She had cultivated diligently every day, yet her inner vision never achieved completion.

She was seemingly just one step away from the Xiantian realm, yet she could never quite grasp it. Eventually, her thoughts went astray, leading her down a misguided path. It was only after falling into demonhood, and with the aid of external forces, that she realized her error.

The crux of the ‘Azure Wave Suppressing Sea Art’ lay in ‘Suppressing,’ yet she had been relentlessly fanning the flames, naturally leading her far astray.

By then, however, it was already too late. In order to take that final step, her hands had long been stained with indelible blood, entangled in countless karmic debts, leaving her no path to return.

In her previous life, at the peak of her power, this rocky islet had boasted towering cliffs and a city like a mountain. Every blue brick, every corner, was steeped in dense demonic energy, making it an impregnable fortress that firmly suppressed the rolling tides of blood below.

Upon each of the four city walls stood a colossal cannon, inscribed with the characters: ‘Slay,’ ‘Massacre,’ ‘Trap,’ and ‘Annihilate.’

Their design and mechanism originated from the ‘Grand Abyss Demon-Slaying Cannons,’ forged by an alien race that the Six Heavens Demonic Prison had spent over a century to eradicate. These were renowned conquest weapons, capable of annihilating a Demon Lord with a single strike in their prime.

At that time, within the demonic city, a vast sea of blood below served as a continuous supply of power, while a profound demonic will above locked onto enemies. A single cannon shot, transformed by secret arts into the peerless sword intent of ‘Immortal Slaying and God Massacring,’ slaughtered countless Buddhist and Daoist sects, causing rivers of blood to flow. Its terrifying might and infamous reputation were truly monstrous.

Of course, that was all in the past.

Now, atop the low-lying reef, there was only a small fortress.

Its height was barely a zhang, its parapets were only half-built, and there was no sign of the four colossal cannons – the entire city was, at best, a miniature, unfinished product.

The only comforting aspect was that this city, in this life, had been meticulously crafted by her own hands. Its laws were rigorous and complete, its concept profound and intricate. Though still unfinished, its entire structure already emitted a clear, watery radiance.

Aside from the ‘Grand Abyss Demon-Slaying Cannons’ needing to be re-calibrated from demonic to Dao energy, everything else simply required slow, continuous construction, brick by brick, without much further complication.

Therefore, her current cultivation was essentially a slow process of ‘moving bricks’ – a task with which she was quite familiar.

Counting from her life before her previous one, she had been ‘moving bricks’ for three entire lifetimes. She was practically a ‘Xiantian Concrete-Mixing Saint Body’; this kind of physical labor was utterly effortless for her.

Unaware of the passage of time, Bai Yuan slowly opened her eyes after an indeterminate period of cultivation, exhaling a mouthful of turbid air. She looked at the darkness before her, silently.

The crackling sounds of firecrackers drifted in through the open window, carried by the night breeze.

Bai Yuan tilted her head slightly, looking out. She saw brilliant fireworks shooting into the sky in the distance, illuminating half the night with vibrant colors.

Indeed, if one listened carefully, faint sounds of joyous revelry and celebration could be heard.

Bai Yuan was aware of this. A few days prior, she had overheard her maids chatting about it: Tianhe Gate’s recent expedition, led by Elder Hu Feng as the chief commander and Second Madam Qian Ying as his deputy, had taken three thousand elite members westward. They had utterly defeated the Moluo Cult, pushing their forces all the way to the Western Extremities.

This not only completely reclaimed their ancestral lands in Shenzhou but also thoroughly deterred the surrounding minor factions.

Hence, this celebration banquet was being held, along with the distribution of rewards for their merits.

The manor was naturally adorned with lanterns and streamers, bustling with activity. Not only were the masters and their relatives from each household expected to attend, but even the maids and servants seized the opportunity to gather, hoping to receive some bounty.

However, none of this concerned her in the slightest.

A melancholic tune drifted in on the wind:

“Like a caged bird, with wings unable to spread,

Like a lone tiger, separated from its mountain,

Like a lost swan, scattered from its flock,

Like a shallow-water dragon, trapped on a sandbar…”

Tsk… who requested this particular act from ‘Northern Sky Gate’? While sung beautifully, it was a famous piece about wartime campaigns, and its ending was quite good. However, this particular segment sounded far too sorrowful; it truly didn’t match the celebratory atmosphere at all.

Bai Yuan was silently grumbling to herself when suddenly, as if sensing something, a faint glint flickered in her eyes. She gracefully descended from the bed and walked to the outer room.

Just then, a knock sounded at her door.

Tap-tap—

The sound was rhythmic and polite.

Bai Yuan stepped forward and opened the door.

In the extremely dim light, a beautiful young woman, around twenty-four or twenty-five years old, stood at the doorway. She was dressed in luxurious purple brocade robes.

Her elegant hair was meticulously coiled, giving her a look of extreme nobility and solemnity, a stark contrast to the somewhat desolate scene of the courtyard.

The young woman’s delicate brows were slightly furrowed, and a hint of displeasure clouded her face.

“First Madam.”

Bai Yuan met her gaze for a moment, a subtle light flashing in her clear eyes, then she bowed in respectful greeting.