Li Tian motioned for Li Yang to leave after he finished saying his piece, his gaze drifting back to the documents he was reading. Li Yang's brows were slightly furrowed after being suddenly told that he was going to be betrothed to a stranger, but he didn't allow the thought to linger within his mind for too long. Being betrothed and married to someone didn't mean much, it wasn't like it stopped him from doing what he wanted to do, he didn't even have to be very close with his future wife.

He just had to maybe produce a child or two to show that they were close, that would be good enough for the two sects. Of course, if he could avoid marrying someone he detested then that would be for the best, but he had never met this girl before so he had yet to form an opinion of her. He cupped his hands and respectfully bid his father farewell while leaving behind the plaque, turning around and left the room through the door that was nestled in an opening between two bookshelves.

The door led him into a long hallway that actually looked like it had been carved into the toppled trunk of a massive tree, the walls were covered in brown bark and had small sprouts growing from them. A few windows were carved into the hallway to brighten it up while also giving people a view of the surroundings, a large and exotic forest growing around a hook-shaped mountain to the left and a sprawling city to the right.

The mountain and the forest around it was one of the places where the Deepsea King sect would send younger disciples to train, it was filled with Demonic beasts that the sect kept there for the express purpose of training the children. Quite a few people would die in there every year, but as this was a world where the strong reigned supreme, the sect considered the losses as a necessary expense to weed out the weak.

Li Yang rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck after he stepped away from the door, meeting his father always made him feel like there was a massive mountain weighing down on him. His eyes were suddenly drawn to the right side of the hallway while he was massaging his neck, his gaze landing on an approaching black-eyed and blue-haired boy who looked to be about 12 years old. Li Yang stopped massaging his neck, his standard cheeky smile creeping up on his face as he greeted the boy.

"Yo, Lil Yongi! I see father also called you over to talk about the upcoming sparring matches, but why are you walking here instead of using the plaque?"

Li Yang asked the question despite knowing the answer to it, the plaque would only be handed out when their father felt that the matter of the meeting had at least a bit of weight behind it. Since his younger brother was forced to walk, Li Yang would not let go of the chance to get a rise out of him. And just as he expected, the boy's eyes narrowed in displeasure when he saw Li Yang and heard his greeting, scoffing somewhat coldly in response.

"It's Brother Jueyong, how often must I tell you this."

Li Yang wasn't dissuaded by the cold scoff of Li Jueyong, pressing on in a casual tone as the two got closer and closer.

"You can tell me as many times as you want, it doesn't mean that I have to call you like that. When you're older than me, maybe then I'll change how I refer to you. But you didn't answer my question, why would you bother walking all the way here? I imagine that it takes you a bit of time with those short legs, you must be exhausted already."

Li Jueyong's expression sank even further as Li Yang continued his teasing. The two finally passed by each other, Li Jueyong turning his head slightly to give Li Yang a vicious glare that contained a mixture of anger and delight in what would certainly be his upcoming predicament.

"You can continue with your carefree and lazy ways now, but with the sparring matches coming this or next month, at least after your 15th birthday, you can no longer escape and hide as you always do. I will make sure that someone invokes the rite of passage to challenge you, we'll see if you can remain laughing so cockily after getting beaten down in front of everyone. Maybe then you'll finally learn to be more serious."

Li Yang also turned his head slightly to look at Li Jueyong, but his smile didn't drop when faced with Li Jueyong's glare, it only grew larger and cockier. He even gave a short chuckle while shrugging his shoulders, turning his head back and walking away.

"Go ahead, do what you want. But there's no way you can make me become more serious, the world has enough boring shorties like you so I'm fine with how I am."

Li Jueyong continued to look at Li Yang's departing back for a bit before letting out another cold snort and walking up to the door leading to Li Tian's study. Li Yang ignored him as he made his way to the end of the hallway, arriving in a circular building that had a little over ten smaller hallways leading away from it. The centre of the room was filled with several small spatial arrays that could be used to move around within the sect, Li Yang picking the appropriate one that would get him closest to his own home.

He teleported away and then took one more spatial array after arriving at his next destination, ending up only a handful of kilometres from his house. He made his way through the mess of buildings, stopping to tease some of the disciples he encountered, eventually reaching the rectangular building that was his house. He pushed open the door and entered the living room, which contained a few bookshelves, a square crystal table surrounded by two couches, and a few potted plants and flowers.

There was a door on the left of the room leading to his bedroom and the kitchen, a door to the right leading to the bathroom, and a door straight ahead that led to the main section of the building, an indoor training area. Li Yang raised his arms to stretch them while using his hands to grab their opposite shoulder, pushing open the door to the training area with his foot.

The training area was just a large stone room that was completely empty, thin lines running over the entire room and forming a large array. The array was a bit special as it was divided into several smaller parts that could be activated individually, one would strengthen the building while others would increase gravity or create stone puppets, one would even spawn small stone shards that continuously flew through the air so that you could train your reflexes.

Li Yang walked to the centre of the training room and lowered his arms again, crouching down and stretching out his legs one after the other to stretch them. He slowly stretched his entire body and then stood up with his arms hanging at his side, his eyes closing as he focused his mind on the blurry words ringing in his ears. With his mind focusing on the words, he became able to make out the occasionall sentence.

"The energy has to go into your wrist through the third vein and then make a full circulation, then bring it back to your heart..."

"The power has to be unleashed not through the toes but through the part of the foot just below the toes, otherwise it will scatter..."

"Breathe in deeply and draw the energy beyond your dantian, keep it a bit below it before exhaling and letting the energy ascend through your dantian..."

This was Li Yang's greatest secret and the reason he looked lazy to others, the reason he didn't pick up too many cultivation manuals from the sect's archives. By focusing on the blurry words ringing in his ears whenever he closed his eyes he could pick out these sentences, which would be beneficial for training about 70% of the time. The rest of the time it seemed like they were just casual chatter so he dismissed them.

Li Yang started to follow the instructions within the sentences, his arms and legs moving in seemingly random ways as he followed the breathing technique, which was one of the most repeated sentences. He sucked in a deep breath and felt faint traces of energy enter his body, the Qi within the surrounding area flowing into his body. He pulled the Qi down and had it pass through his body, following the various paths he had heard about up until now before finally moving the Qi through his dantian and settling it a bit beneath it.

He kept the Qi there by holding his breath for a few seconds, eventually exhaling and allowing the Qi to rise again. Most of the Qi settled within his dantian, a vast and empty white expanse that only contained eight runes, four transparent ones shaped like blurry lines and four transparent yet slightly brown ones that were shaped like downward spirals.

These runes were Li Yang's Law Runes, he could increase his cultivation by absorbing more Qi and inscribing the Qi with the laws he cultivated. Laws were the name given to the special abilities people cultivated, cultivators of the law of fire could create fire or scorching heat while cultivators of the law of earth could create earth and crushing pressure.

Li Yang had two sets of four runes but only by carving nine runes of one law and connecting them could he go from the Human Rune realm and enter the Ascending Heaven realm. Until he managed that, he would still be in the Human Rune realm, the middle-stage of it to be exact, as each of the three sub-realms was divided by three runes.

Right now, Li Yang's control over Qi wasn't perfect so not all of the Qi settled in his dantian, about 30% of it left his body and spread through the air again. He wasn't bothered by the lost Qi, drawing in another deep breath as his body continued to move, sweat already turning his robes damp. It not only took a lot of mental energy to focus on the words, but actually performing the movements that they spoke of drained a lot of his physical energy and would quickly leave him exhausted.

But his exhaustion was a small price to pay since he could feel himself improve slightly each time he finished training, he always grew a slight bit stronger. And strength was something he needed if he wanted to achieve his goal, to travel the world and see just how high the peak of existence actually got. He didn't want to remain here in the Deepsea King sect all his life, he wanted to travel and see what the world had to offer, he wanted to increase his strength endlessly to prove that he could achieve great things even if he didn't act as serious as everyone else.

And so, he continued to train until his exhaustion nearly caused him to collapse. He would then take a break to eat some food before training again, the evening and night quickly giving way to dawn. He slept a bit as the sun rose and then left his house to prowl around the sect a little, taking part in a lesson here or there while teasing people all the while.

News about the upcoming sparring matches was quickly spread, the entire sect starting to buzz with excitement as the younger generation looked forward to the chance to show off a little. And amidst this buzzing excitement, the day of Li Yang's 15th birthday finally arrived, countless disciples flooding to the centre area of the island.

Li Yang didn't get the chance to sleep much before someone threw him out of bed, literally, flipping the bed so that he fell onto the ground. Li Yang quickly sprung up from the ground, his eyes drooping slightly as his gaze landed on a mature woman with brown eyes and blue hair.

"Bloody hell, can't you wake me in a more gentle way, Sister Qin Gu? Surely, someone as innocent and adorable as me doesn't deserve treatment as rough as this. Well, I'd be more accepting of rough treatment if you were to administer it body-to-body, but I think the odds of that are pretty low."

The girl, Li Qin Gu, rolled her eyes heavily at Li Yang's antics and straightened up the bed again. She swiped her necklace, another interspatial treasure, and threw Li Yang a wooden plaque and a set of purple clothing embroidered with golden lines that formed sharks, leviathans, and hydras.

"Don't tempt me, cheeky brat, I might get a bit rougher than you'll like. Here, Father said that while you might not act properly, you have to at least look proper now that you're meeting your future wife. Put it on and then use the plaque to head to the venue of the sparring matches, Father and the others are already waiting there."

Li Yang accepted the clothes and quickly put them on, the tight-fitting pants and slightly loose shirt adding an additional flair of heroism to him. Li Qin Gu nodded her head after Li Yang put on the clothes, pulling out a plaque of her own and leaving behind a few words before she activated the plaque.

"See, you can do it if you just try. Well, this might just be a case of 'the clothes make the man'. Try not to look too tired and lazy when you meet her, although that might be a bit much to ask you right here in the morning."

Li Yang rolled his eyes at the empty space that Li Qin Gu left behind as she was teleported away, swiping his own plaque to activate it. He was teleported away from his house and arrived within an arched tunnel, the sounds of people speaking in hushed yet excited tones reaching him from one end of the hallway. He followed the sounds of people and quickly reached the end of the hallway, arriving in a row of seats located a short distance away from a large square stone stage.

Several more rows of seats continued on above and below him, forming a massive circular arena where the stone stage served as the centre. A large, nearly 500-metre wide crystal hung a few hundred metres above the stone stage, runes covering the entire crystal, several similar yet smaller crystals were also spread out around the stage. The crystals, or rather the array covering them, could be activated so that the largest crystal reflected what was going on below it, allowing everyone to see what was going on on top of the stage even if they were sitting far away.

Li Yang turned his head after he left the hallway, raising his head to look at the highest seating area where he could feel that his father was sitting. He felt a similar but unfamiliar pressure bearing down on him from the same height so he guessed that the Second Elder of the World-rending Behemoth sect was sitting up there as well.

He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders upon feeling the pressure, which increased in intensity for a short second after he arrived. He guessed that his father and the Second Elder had turned to look at him, resulting in the increase in pressure. They luckily looked away again shortly after, Li Yang turning his gaze onto the two seats to his left, a pair of seats that were padded with soft silk stuffed with feathers.

These seats were among the few that were somewhat separated from the rest of the seating area, meaning that those sitting here would be afforded a bit of privacy. There was even an array beneath the seats that would allow those sitting there to raise up a wall of energy that would prevent others from seeing them.

There was already someone present on one of the seats, a young girl who had stood up when Li Yang left the hallway. The girl had pitch-black and somewhat forlorn eyes, her silk-like and practically snow-white hair cascading freely down beyond her shapely bosom and down to her curvaceous hips and buttocks.

Her long and slender legs were covered by the flowing silver dress she wore but the somewhat loose dress couldn't hide her shapely body and beauty. The girl looked at Li Yang with some interest, reaching out with her hand while introducing herself, asking a somewhat strange question while looking intently at Li Yang's eyes.

"You must be Li Yang, the son of the Wave King. I am Mei Kongxu, the 33rd daughter of the Iron Tiger Lord. Tell me, what do you know of the Thunder's Roar and the howl of the Tyrant?"

Li Yang stretched out his own arm and returned the handshake, tilting his head somewhat confusedly at her words. He hadn't heard about either of those things before, letting go of her hand and shrugging his shoulders casually.

"Can't say I know anything about them, but I'm more than willing to listen if fairy Sister Kongxu wants to teach me, especially in private."

He had just met her but didn't abandon the opportunity to tease her slightly. But Mei Kongxu didn't respond too strongly to his teasing, the forlorn light in her eyes growing slightly as she sat down again, a soft and slightly despairing whisper involuntarily escaping his lips.

"So it isn't you either..."