"My apprentice actually possesses the Heavenly Dao Double Pupils?"
"I understand now! All these years, the reason he kept the Heavenly Dao Double Pupils suppressed was to avoid revealing his brilliance too early. The tall tree catches the wind, and the forest is battered by the gale. For Qiye to understand such a truth at this tender age—what kind of inner fortitude is this?!"
Sect Master Xu Qingyun swallowed hard, completely dumbfounded.
The Heavenly Dao Double Pupils—this was an innate physique destined to tread the true path of the Great Emperor. As long as Chen Qiye did not perish before achieving the Great Emperor realm, he would face virtually no bottlenecks along his entire path.
Once Chen Qiye cultivated to the Saint Realm and fully unlocked the Heavenly Dao Double Pupils, he would truly achieve invincibility among his peers and the ability to fight opponents of higher realms!
"His marriage shall be decided by himself alone! From this moment on, no one within the Qingxuan Sect is permitted to interfere with his decisions again!"
"The Heavenly Dao Double Pupils—he now has the qualifications to decide whatever he wishes to do! I hereby announce that he is the next successor of our Qingxuan Sect!"
In the back mountain of the Qingxuan Sect, amidst the vibrations of all parties, a calm and gentle voice echoed from the ancestral tombs marked by a pitch-black stele.
As this voice resonated, everyone felt as though a gentle spring breeze was caressing them.
The voice seemed entirely devoid of oppressive pressure; merely hearing it brought a profound sense of inner clarity and ease.
"Thud!"
"Xu Qingyun, twenty-first generation leader of the Qingxuan Sect, pays respects to the ninth-generation Ancestor!"
"Zhao Xuanhe, Law Enforcement Elder of the Qingxuan Sect, pays respects to the ninth-generation Ancestor!"
"Yun Jiutian, thirteenth-generation leader of the Qingxuan Sect, pays respects to the ninth-generation Ancestor..."
Yet the moment that voice rang out, inside the Immortal Lord Hall, the Sect Master, the elders, the supreme elders, and even the thirteenth-generation ancestor suddenly dropped to one knee, bowing in unison toward the direction of the back mountain.
"C-Could it be? Eldermost Senior Brother has actually startled even the legendary ninth-generation ancient ancestor slumbering in the back mountain's ancestral tombs? The Ancestor has spoken in person?"
"Eldermost Senior Brother went so far as to expose the legendary Heavenly Dao Double Pupils ahead of time, all for that woman of the Xiao Family?"
Standing beside the doors of the Immortal Lord Hall, Xu Bingyun stared at Chen Qiye, her mind ringing and her expression dazed. She suddenly felt that her Eldermost Senior Brother was even more heaven-defying than she had ever imagined.
"Do I now lack even the qualification to be Eldermost Senior Brother's concubine?" A bitter taste lingered in Xu Bingyun's mouth.
Yet shortly after, a trace of steadfast determination surfaced in her eyes. "No, I can do it! Mother said the bloodline within me is about to awaken as well. Once it awakens, I will be able to enter that forbidden zone. I will definitely catch up to Eldermost Senior Brother's footsteps!"
"Chen Qiye really possesses the Heavenly Dao Double Pupils? And I was just mocking and pressuring him?" While kneeling to pay respects to the ninth-generation ancestor, the Law Enforcement Elder felt a thunderbolt crash through his mind.
As the Law Enforcement Elder, he was acutely aware of how terrifying the Heavenly Dao Double Pupils would be in the future. Although he was a millennium older than Chen Qiye, before the Heavenly Dao Double Pupils, this seniority and realm would ultimately be utterly worthless.
As the Law Enforcement Elder, he did not merely represent himself; he had children, grandchildren, and an entire clan. Should Chen Qiye hold a grudge... he simply dared not let his thoughts wander further.
"That old scoundrel of a Sect Master set me up!"
"Chen Qiye is his apprentice; there's no way he didn't know about this heaven-defying trump card. That old bastard, I curse eighteen generations of his ancestors! No, I must find a way to get on good terms with Chen Qiye!"
Shock and fury warred within the Law Enforcement Elder's heart, yet countless thoughts had already flashed through his mind in this brief span of time!
***
Meanwhile, deep within the Heavenly Abyss Forbidden Zone, inside an ancient great hall.
"Hm? Ye Beichen, why is the Heavenly Dao fortune upon you declining?"
"It has dropped seven times in just a single day? Have you encountered anything or anyone unusual lately?"
Within the hall, an ancient and mysterious statue slowly opened its eyes.
At the statue's words, the taboo creatures lurking in the forbidden zone around the hall abruptly prostrated themselves and retreated, as if harboring extreme terror toward the statue.
"Fortune is declining? That shouldn't be. I've only just obtained your inheritance and rescued the Holy Maiden of Yaochi; how could my fortune possibly drop? This makes no sense!"
Practicing his cultivation, Ye Beichen froze at the sound.
As a transmigrator, he knew like the back of his hand many of the fortuitous encounters that would occur in the Southern Domain over the next twenty years.
He had already mapped out his path: conquering holy maidens and goddesses all the way, acting arrogant and defying the heavens all the way, and harvesting all the known fortuitous encounters destined to appear in the Southern Domain. He had mentally prepared himself to suppress an entire era within twenty years.
Right now, he had just collected two encounters—how could his fortune possibly be declining?
Could it be that these two encounters were fakes?
That shouldn't be the case!
In his previous life, the person who obtained the divine statue's inheritance had stepped defiantly into the Saint Realm within a decade!
And the person who rescued the Holy Maiden of Yaochi had won her heart; she had stolen her sacred land's Imperial Weapon to assist his cultivation, ultimately unleashing a single sword strike that cast frost across fourteen states!
Now that he had personally seized these two encounters in advance, how could the astonishing Heavenly Dao fortune he had just accumulated possibly be dropping?
"No, something must be wrong with these two encounters."
"At this point in time, an Imperial Weapon in the Southern Domain desert is also about to manifest. Perhaps I should go to the Southern Domain first, retrieve that Imperial Weapon, and then investigate the changes in my fortune! Maybe this is just an accidental fluctuation."
Ye Beichen's expression flickered with uncertainty. However, as a transmigrator, he acted with extreme decisiveness; after a brief hesitation, he immediately resolved to head to the Death Desert of the Southern Domain to claim the Imperial Weapon.
"Hm? No, Ye Beichen, the Heavenly Dao fortune upon you seems to be dropping even further!" Right at that moment, the divine statue spoke once again!
"What? How is that possible?"
"Could it be that the Imperial Weapon cannot be touched either? Is there a trap in that place? That's not right either—didn't the young man who obtained the Imperial Weapon in his previous life defy the heavens and attain the position of a Half-Step Great Emperor?"
Could his memories contain errors?
Ye Beichen's body suddenly stiffened.
Within his mind, he frantically reviewed every detail he could possibly remember from his past life!
***
Qingxuan Sect, Immortal Lord Hall.
Three days later!
As evening approached, the miraculous phenomena finally dissipated.
It took a full three days for Chen Qiye to integrate his Heavenly Dao Double Pupils.
When Chen Qiye opened his eyes once more, the Dao rhythms within them had converged inwardly, and his demeanor felt as though he had undergone yet another complete rebirth!
"Qiye, you've had a hard time all these years."
"You actually concealed a heaven-defying trump card like the Heavenly Dao Double Pupils; were you worried about being spied on by outsiders? True, something like this..."
The Qingxuan Sect Master had already mentally constructed the entire process of Chen Qiye enduring hardships and deliberately hiding his talent. The moment Chen Qiye awoke, he could not help but step forward to speak.
He had stood guard right here for three full days!
"Xiao Yanyue has begun cultivating with the medicinal herbs you gifted. You gained Xiao Yanyue's favor, Heavenly Dao Value +39!"
"Xiao Yanyue has broken through. You gained Xiao Yanyue's favor, Heavenly Dao Value +47!"
"Xiao Yanyue has broken through once more. You gained Xiao Yanyue's favor, Heavenly Dao Value +32! Ding, Heavenly Dao Value has accumulated past two hundred, rewarding you with one Fifty-Fifty Combat Card..."
Yet before the Sect Master could even finish, Chen Qiye heard several system notifications ringing in his mind once again.
Chen Qiye's stalwart body trembled!
His fiancée had started cultivating? Damn, she was this fierce? Breaking through seven realms in three days?
Chen Qiye did not care much about the commotion he had caused within the sect, because he knew very well that his current pillars of support were the system and his fiancée.
Even with the Heavenly Dao Double Pupils, he was certainly still lacking in many aspects compared to a genuine Child of Fortune!
"By gaining my fiancée's favor, I can plunder Heavenly Dao fortune. I wonder whose Heavenly Dao fortune is actually being plundered?"
Chen Qiye pondered for a moment, then shook his head.
This question was not important. The system had already stated that the person whose fortune was plundered could never track him down; it severed all cause and effect. As for who the other party was, it no longer mattered much.
Children of Fortune were all individuals blessed with abundant fortune; surely they wouldn't mind too much if a little of it was taken.
"Now that I've obtained the Heavenly Dao Double Pupils, perhaps my next step should be to write another letter to my fiancée, and then send her a few more gifts."
"As for the video recorded by a few of my junior martial siblings in the Immortal Lord Hall using a Memory Crystal, I must find a way to let my fiancée catch a glimpse of it unintentionally. I need her to know my utmost sincerity! Just now, I didn't even spare a single extra glance at Junior Sister's ample assets."
Several thoughts flashed rapidly through Chen Qiye's mind once more.
Yet, even as he pondered this matter, he could not suppress a fleeting recollection of that breathtaking glimpse he had caught of his Junior Sister back on Tongtian Peak.
He had only been in seclusion for three years; how could she possibly have grown so fair, and so ample?
"Ancestor! Sect Master! This is bad!"
"People from the Yuhua Dynasty have arrived! Over the past three days, the news of Qiye Senior Brother rejecting the marriage alliance with the Yuhua Goddess has spread all the way to the Yuhua Dynasty! They've sent people over! They said... they're here to execute Qiye Eldermost Senior Brother!"
Outside the doors of the Immortal Lord Hall, a third-generation disciple of the Qingxuan Sect suddenly spoke in an urgent voice from outside.
"What the hell! People from the Yuhua Dynasty? To execute me?"
Chen Qiye snapped awake. As if suddenly remembering something, his movements froze abruptly the next instant!