Chapter 175: 175- Fang Clan Meeting [1]

With a dismissive flick of his wrist, Fang Yuan swiped the golden screen away.

As the screen the dissapears, the world snapped back into focus, the cavern’s damp, stagnant air heavy in his lungs.

He also retracted his divine sense, leaving behind a hollow silence within him.

He let out a weary breath that misted in the cool air.

"I wish I had the time to figure out what those teleportation traces are," he muttered to the empty tunnel.

Steeling himself, he took a step forward, then another, leaving the scene of his miraculous transgression behind.

Emerging from the cavern’s mouth, the weak sunlight felt abrasive.

As his divine sense had already informed him, the family guards who were usually a permanent, watchful fixture were conspicuously absent today. The clearing was eerily still.

Before he could even process this anomaly, that familiar, dispassionate voice resonated directly within his consciousness, cutting through his fatigue.

[Host, the system highly recommend you integrate the knowledge of ’Guide to the Hollow Spirit Realm’ before proceeding ahead.]

A flicker of irritation rose in him, quickly smothered by a deeper, more pragmatic weariness.

He didn’t have the energy to argue with the system or tell the system that there were more immediate problems at hand.

[The integration process will require no more than one second. Do not underestimate the system’s capabilities.]

Fang Yuan paused as he stared at the golden screen.

One second? He was stunned for a moment there.

"Fine," he conceded inwardly, "Alright system, learn it."

The command was barely a thought before the world vanished once more.

A tsunami of pure information slammed into the core of his awareness.

It was like a flood of diagrams etching themselves onto the back of his eyelids, not of meridians, but of the very fabric of spacetime, mapping folds and fractures he had only just begun to feel.

Concepts of spatial resonance, void energy assimilation, and spiritual stabilization unfolded with terrifying, crystalline clarity.

He felt the foundational principles of his new realm, the very laws that allowed his fingers to brush a distant rock earlier lock into place in his understanding, as if they had always been there, merely waiting to be recalled.

A violent tremor wracked his frame. His muscles locked, his breath catching in his throat as the knowledge branded itself onto his soul.

It was a searing, instantaneous enlightenment that left no room for doubt or question. In the span of a single heartbeat, a lifetime of esoteric study was compressed and forced into his being.

And then it was over.

Fang Yuan swayed on his feet a little before he balanced himself real quick. He then blinked and his eyes saw the world in a new light.

The space around him no longer felt like a mystery. Instead it felt like a tool, an extension of his own will, its properties now as familiar to him as the back of his own hand.

The exhaustion was still there, a deep ache in his bones, but it was now underpinned by a thrumming, terrifying certainty.

A slow, blood-flecked smile touched his lips, devoid of warmth, full of sharp-edged understanding.

He then flew to the sky with his qi, gliding effortlessly through the skies heading straight towards the Phoenix Soul Pavilion.

From above, he caught sight of the massive reservoir carved beside the cultivation caves, a grand project he had told his elders to complete.

It was finished, the earth was hollowed and shaped just as planned, yet the whole place looked abandoned, its stone edges already dulled and weathered as if long forgotten.

How much time has truly passed? The question pressed against his chest, heavy and disquieting.

At least the clan had not suffered any fatal calamities so far.

He could bank on that because if they were, he didn’t doubt that his aunt won’t hesitate to come and ask for him even at the cost of rousing him from a breakthrough.

That, in itself, was a small comfort.

Although the estate’s aura of life felt diminished compared to the joyous aura he could recall before going into seclusion.

When he arrived at the Phoenix Soul Pavilion.

The place loomed in quiet majesty, its crimson pillars etched with flowing flame patterns that seemed to shimmer faintly under the lamplight.

Fang Yuan’s figure slipped through the pavilion’s wards as though they didn’t exist.

A faint smile tugged at his lips as none within had noticed his arrival, though he could feel each presence as clearly as stars in the night sky.

They were gathered and deep in discussion, completely unaware of his presence.

With a casual step, he descended from the air and landed softly at the entrance.

And when he did, the reactions were instantaneous.

Chairs scraped against the floor, robes rustled, breaths caught. One by one, the elders rose to their feet, shock flashing across their faces.

"C–Clan Head?" Fang Jingyi blurted, her eyes wide.

"It’s the Clan Head!" Fang Chen exclaimed, his voice unable to mask his surprise.

Around them, the hall stirred with excitement.

Fang Mei, Fang Sun, Fang Ra, Fang Joshua, Fang Long, Fang Yang, Fang Bo, Fang Ruì, Fang Yin—each elder’s expression lit up with reverence as they looked upon the man who had so casually appeared among them.

At the far end of the pavilion, upon the raised dais, stood the Patriarch’s Seat, the symbol of Fang authority.

Ordinarily, that single chair would command the entire hall. Yet tonight, another seat had been placed beside it.

Upon it sat a woman of breathtaking poise.

Her eyes shimmered like distant galaxies, deep and unfathomable.

Her smile carried a serene grace that quieted the heart.

Though the elders were in a stir, her gaze was fixed wholly upon him, as though the world beyond him no longer existed.

Lin Zhaoyue.

The pavilion’s lamps seemed to burn brighter, as if bowing to her presence.

Like courtiers before the queen.

Fang Yuan’s gaze locked with hers. For a heartbeat, silence reigned and then her lips parted, her voice gentle and sweet.

"Husband... I’m so glad you’re alive."