Yu Yuanchen was eager to return home. He traversed the planes through the Hell Gate, moving at a speed that nearly tore through space as he returned to the Douluo Continent from the Demon Plane. When his figure, still carrying the lingering scent of lightning and a faint trace of blood, appeared once more before the familiar bedchamber of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan in Dragon City, his family members—who were busy chatting with Ye Zhilan inside—all looked up in astonishment.
At this moment, less than a day had passed since he had received the urgent report and departed!
"Yuanchen?" Ye Zhilan was sipping a bowl of calming and qi-replenishing soup that Madam Liu had brewed by hand. Seeing her husband return so soon, her beautiful eyes were filled with surprise and a trace of imperceptible worry. "You... why are you back so quickly? Is it... is it something about Demon Quelling City?" She instinctively touched her lower abdomen, terrified of hearing any bad news.
Yu Boxuan, Yu Mingfeng, Ye Kuan, and the others also stood up, their faces etched with confusion. They knew Yu Yuanchen was not a man to disregard the bigger picture; there must be a reason for such a hasty return. Yet, this was far too fast. Could it be... that some earth-shattering catastrophe had occurred in the Demon Plane that even he could not resolve? Or perhaps he had returned to retrieve something vital, or there was another urgent matter concerning the continent to attend to?
Yu Yuanchen looked at the expressions of surprise and worry on his family's faces, especially the clear eyes of Ye Zhilan, which were filled with inquiry. The murderous intent that had been churning within him instantly subsided, replaced by a warm current. He walked quickly to the side of the couch, first offering Ye Zhilan a soothing, gentle smile and taking her hand to feel the warmth of her palm, before turning to the elders.
"Grandfather, Father, Grandpa Ye, do not worry." Yu Yuanchen's voice was steady, carrying the ease of a settled matter. "The siege of Demon Quelling City has been lifted. Demogorgon has been slain by my hand. As for the remaining demon remnants, the cleanup is nearing its end under the leadership of Brother Qian Daoliu and Brother Tang Chen; they are no longer a threat. I was worried about Zhilan, so I returned first."
His tone was flat, as if he had merely performed a trivial task. However, the content of his words left everyone present in utter shock!
To travel to the Demon Plane and back within a single day, to slay the Shadow Demon King who had been lingering for years, and to break the siege of hundreds of thousands of demon troops at Demon Quelling City?!
This... what kind of thunderous means were these! What terrifying strength!
The hall fell into a brief, deathly silence where one could hear a pin drop. Then, there were sounds of gasping and irrepressible exclamations!
"In... in one day, you killed a Demon King and broke the demon army?" Yu Mingfeng stared at his son as if seeing him for the first time, his voice trembling. "Yuanchen, you... just how strong have you become, kid?"
Yu Boxuan's hand, which had been stroking his beard, froze. A gleam shot from his eyes, filled with incredulous ecstasy and pride: "Good! Good! Sweeping away the thunder and clearing the court! Yuanchen, this act of yours is enough to deter the petty and ensure the foundation of humanity in the Demon Plane for a hundred years!"
Ye Kuan also let out a long sigh of relief, a look of release appearing on his face: "That is excellent! Truly excellent! Zhilan can finally be completely at ease." He had been most worried that his daughter's concern would affect the health of her pregnancy.
Ye Zhilan held Yu Yuanchen's hand tightly, her eyes filled with a complex mix of pride and lingering fear. Although she had confidence in her husband's strength, hearing him mention the feat of slaying a Demon King in a single day so nonchalantly still made her heart race. Fortunately, he had returned safely, and so quickly.
"Brother Yuanchen, you aren't hurt, are you?" she asked softly, her gaze carefully examining him.
"Don't worry, a mere stray dog like that couldn't hurt me." Yu Yuanchen smiled slightly and patted the back of her hand, his tone carrying unquestionable confidence. He did not detail the battle; the blood and brutality were not meant to pollute this moment of warmth.
However, Yu Yuanchen did not take all the credit, instead speaking with a hint of solemnity: "But if it weren't for the Blood Shadow Spider Soul Emperor being able to use the flesh and blood of Demogorgon as a medium to precisely lock onto his escape route, it would have likely taken me ten or a hundred times the time and energy to find that hidden demon in the vast Demon Plane. It is even possible he could have escaped, leaving behind endless trouble."
He paused and continued: "This matter has also served as a reminder to me. In the soul master world of the continent, Martial Souls are strange and varied, each with different abilities. Some Martial Souls may not be strong in combat, but they possess irreplaceable, miraculous effects in special fields like tracking, investigation, support, and curses. My Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan was founded on Power Attack System Martial Souls, and our disciples are mostly adept at frontal combat; we have perhaps neglected such soul masters with special auxiliary abilities in the past. In the future, when the family recruits talent or trains disciples, we might pay a little more attention to such soul masters. Perhaps at a critical moment, they could play an unexpected role."
Yu Boxuan, Yu Mingfeng, and the others nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this. Yu Mingfeng sighed: "Yuanchen's words are very true. However... our sect is centered on the clan, the threshold for recruiting disciples of other surnames is high, and our training system is more inclined toward Battle Soul Masters. It is indeed not easy to attract and cultivate talents who have practiced special soul skills to such a high realm like the Blood Shadow Spider Soul Emperor; it requires long-term planning."
Yu Boxuan also added: "This matter must be done step by step, not too hastily, so as not to damage the foundation of the sect. However, Yuanchen's reminder is important. I will instruct the Foreign Affairs Hall to pay more attention. If we encounter special soul masters with excellent character and talent, we can recruit them as exceptions or build good relations with them."
Yu Yuanchen nodded. He had no intention of forcing the sect to change its model immediately; he only wanted to use this opportunity to plant a seed. After all, the foundation of a top-tier power requires not only towering pillars but also various rare flowers and grasses to decorate and support it.
With the major matters settled and the hidden dangers at home removed, the following days finally saw Yu Yuanchen completely at leisure.
He declined all unnecessary visitors and sect affairs, spending most of his time accompanying the pregnant Ye Zhilan. Every day, he would either walk with her in the garden to feel the warmth of the autumn sun, prepare medicinal cuisine for her by hand—though his skills were rusty, his heart was full—or sit quietly by her side, watching her focus on reading ancient texts and deducing runes, enjoying this rare, quiet time.
Although Ye Zhilan was pregnant, she had not completely put down her research into the Way of Beast Taming. She simply followed the advice of Yu Yuanchen and Gu Yuena, no longer conducting physical experiments herself, and instead focused her energy on theoretical deduction, organizing data, and perfecting the details of the contract system.
Gu Yuena also visited frequently. The two women, both top-tier in their respective fields, would often forget to eat or sleep when they got together to discuss those profound soul beast life runes and energy circuit configurations.
Yu Yuanchen initially tried to listen in, hoping to participate and spend more time with his wife. However, listening to professional terms like "bloodline resonance frequency," "soul power particle synergistic effect," and "form switching energy threshold," and looking at the complex, dizzying rune arrays and energy flow diagrams on the parchment, this Dragon Emperor Douluo, whose combat power was peerless on the continent, felt a deep sense of powerlessness and... confusion for the first time.
He was like an ignorant apprentice, unable to interject at all, and could only sit on the sidelines, watching the two talented women frown in thought, debate fiercely, or suddenly have an epiphany. His appearance, wanting to integrate but having no way to start, would occasionally lead to Gu Yuena giving him an unceremonious eye-roll and Ye Zhilan letting out a suppressed chuckle when he asked "layman" questions.
"Brother Yuanchen," Ye Zhilan finally couldn't help it one day. She put down the charcoal pencil in her hand and turned to look at her husband, who was sitting upright and frowning as he tried to understand the blueprints. She burst into laughter, her beautiful eyes filled with mischief. "If you are truly bored, go cultivate your martial arts or research new soul skills; don't 'get in the way' here. You are likely listening to what Sister Gu Yue and I are discussing in a daze, wasting your time for nothing."
Gu Yuena also glanced at him coldly. Although she didn't speak, her eyes clearly said: "Your presence here is truly an eyesore."
Yu Yuanchen's face turned red, and he touched his nose, feeling a bit embarrassed yet also relieved. He truly knew nothing about the profound aspects of the Way of Beast Taming; staying by force would only disturb their train of thought. He stood up and smiled helplessly: "Alright, it seems your husband is indeed redundant here. You two carry on; I will go to the back mountain for some quiet cultivation."
Driven out of the research room by his wife, Yu Yuanchen did not feel discouraged. He knew well that there is a sequence to learning and a specialty in every trade; the attainments of Ye Zhilan and Gu Yuena in the field of beast taming were far beyond his reach. He was happy to see his wife have a field she loved and excelled in.
With nothing to do, he focused his energy on his own cultivation. His cultivation level had reached the peak of Level 99, and his soul power had undergone a qualitative change. Improving further would not be a matter of a single day; it required the effort of grinding an iron pestle into a needle and a deeper understanding of the laws of heaven and earth. Thus, he focused on his self-created soul skills.
The soul skills he currently mastered, such as the Heavenly Tribulation Sacred Dragon Domain, Dragon King's Judgment, and Holy Dragon Town Prison Tribulation, were all powerful, rigid, and fierce offensive or enhancement-type soul skills. Combined with his qualitatively changed soul power and formidable physical body, they were enough to crush the vast majority of opponents. Even if he encountered powerhouses like the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King or Di Tian, he was confident he could fight them.
However, Yu Yuanchen's thoughts drifted to deeper places. He recalled the soul skills with bizarre and unpredictable effects that had appeared in the original Douluo Continent work from his past life memories—such as skills with absolute establishment, control skills involving the level of rules, and even forbidden abilities involving fate, causality, and the like.
Although such soul skills were extremely rare and the conditions for casting them were often extremely harsh, the vast world contained everything. The higher Yu Yuanchen stood now, the more he understood that one could not underestimate the heroes of the world. Open spears are easy to dodge, but hidden arrows are hard to guard against.
If one day, some fool or some hidden old monster truly mastered some niche but extremely troublesome rule-based ability and caught him off guard, even if he wouldn't fall given his current strength, he would inevitably capsize in the gutter and suffer a great loss.
"Brute force" is certainly satisfying, but wouldn't it be better to have "Immunity to All Laws"?
A thought gradually became clear in his mind—he needed to create a self-created soul skill capable of targeted defense, or even breaking rule-based soul skills!
He tentatively named this unformed soul skill—"Demon Breaking Seal"!
In his conception, "Demon Breaking Seal" was not an active attack or defense soul skill, but rather a temporary "state enhancement" or "law barrier." Once cast, it should allow him to generate strong resistance, or even immunity, to certain specific rule-based effects for a certain period.
Yu Yuanchen initially conceived the principle based on two points:
First, Dragon Bloodline: He possessed a Thunder Sacred Dragon Bloodline close to the Dragon King level. The dragon race itself possessed extremely high natural resistance to energy attacks, mental erosion, and even many negative states. This could be seen as a natural "law resistance" engraved deep within the bloodline. "Demon Breaking Seal" was meant to actively stimulate and amplify this bloodline instinct, turning it from passive resistance into active "repulsion" and "immunity."
Second, Cultivation Support: The reason rule-based soul skills were powerful was that they invoked the power of deeper laws of heaven and earth. To counter or even break this power, the caster must possess a sufficiently "heavy" energy level and understanding of laws. Yu Yuanchen's soul power had now undergone a qualitative change, comparable to divine power, and his understanding of laws was also very deep, which provided the possibility for him to forcibly "distort" or "offset" the external rules acting upon him. Simply put, it was to use his own higher status and purer "power" to forcibly interfere with and crush those "rule threads" that attempted to bind him.
As for the specific effect, he hoped to achieve: for rule-based skills cast by soul masters whose cultivation was far below his, he could directly be immune or the effect would be negligible; for rule-based skills cast by powerhouses of the same level, he could significantly weaken their effects, or even have a certain chance to completely offset them.
The idea was there, but turning the concept into reality was an extremely difficult task. This involved deep excavation and guidance of his own bloodline power, microscopic control of his soul power to the extreme, and the perception of and interference methods for "laws" themselves.
In the following days, Yu Yuanchen spent most of his time in the cultivation chamber in the forbidden area of the back mountain of Dragon City. He would sometimes meditate and look inward, guiding the vast Sacred Dragon Bloodline in his body to circulate along specific routes, attempting to stimulate that mysterious law resistance; sometimes he would release his soul power, attempting to construct a thin film of energy on his body surface containing his own will and understanding of laws to simulate the "demon breaking" effect; and sometimes he would flip through the books collected by the sect regarding ancient curses, seals, and records of various bizarre soul skills, looking for inspiration.
This process was boring and difficult, far less smooth and refreshing than creating offensive soul skills. Failure was a common occurrence, often leading to his qi and blood churning due to improper energy control, or the "barrier" he constructed being easily penetrated by the weak negative soul power effects he simulated himself.
But Yu Yuanchen was not discouraged. He knew that the difficulty of creating a defensive soul skill involving the rule level far exceeded that of creating ten destructive attack soul skills. This required patience, perseverance, and a deeper insight into the essence of power.
Outside the cultivation chamber, autumn leaves drifted and the first winter snow fell. Dragon City was vibrant with the spring breeze of martial arts, and the preparations for the "Tianxing Martial Arts Academy" were nearing their end. Inside the chamber, Yu Yuanchen was single-minded, immersed in the path of researching "Demon Breaking Seal."
Accompanying his wife and researching skills—this was the most peaceful and fulfilling life Yu Yuanchen had during the early stages of Ye Zhilan's pregnancy. The wind and clouds of the outside world seemed to be temporarily far away. But he understood that beneath this tranquility was the constant accumulation of strength. Only by being strong enough himself could he protect this hard-won warmth and welcome any wind and waves that might appear in the future.
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Translated by: randomtranslator.com
Proofread by: GodKun-Chan