Gu Longyu paid no heed to the child. The chances of a child inheriting their parent’s talent outside of a special constitution were ultimately slim. And even then, it was unlikely for the child to inherit the same powerful constitution, especially without enough resources. Tianyi did not have a special constitution. His talent stemmed from the fact that he was a Dragon Emperor clone.

  So, Gu Longyu ultimately dismissed the child as a threat.

  Having tasted failure after failure, Gu Longyu kept himself concealed. Step by step, he walked toward his clone. He would not reveal himself until the moment his blade flew toward Tianyi’s neck.

  In his early days, the Dragon Emperor had heavily relied on concealment and poison techniques to survive, but as he grew stronger, he slowly abandoned those methods. When he reached the Pathfinding Immortal Realm, he had completely abandoned those techniques. If Gu Longyu had attempted this on a true immortal, he would have undoubtedly failed. Luckily, he was confident that a mere soul nourishing grandmaster would never sense him, even a clone of himself.

  When he was less than ten meters away, Tianyi’s movements jerked. He gave an apologetic smile toward his son and entered the starting stance before going through the movements once more.

  For a moment, Gu Longyu thought Tianyi had sensed him. But after some subtle probes, he brushed off that possibility. I was too sensitive. Even if he had the same potential, he did not inherit my memories.

  Gu Longyu resumed his movements, inching closer to his target’s back. When he was no more than three meters away, he gripped his blade.

  It was at that moment Tianyi struck. He, who was displaying a sword technique, suddenly slashed toward Gu Longyu.

  Shock did not appear on the reborn Dragon Emperor’s face. Although his mind told him it was impossible, his gut told him the opposite, so he had never lowered his guard. The moment Tianyi started his attack, Gu Longyu had already acted.

  A dragon’s roar for blood accompanied the ivory-white saber leaving its scabbard. The saber struck the silver sword head-on. It wasn’t even a contest. The sound of steel wailing thundered in the air. Tianyi was knocked away, but he was not alone, as he grabbed his son with his free hand. Still in the air, he threw the child toward Daoyi.

  Gu Longyu never took the two into his eyes. Even when his father wanted to capture Daoyi, he didn’t place too much importance on it. Otherwise, he would have stayed in the Core Formation Realm. Besides, although it seemed Daoyi inherited some soul cultivator’s legacy, she was still just a core formation master, meaning that she was stuck at a bottleneck, and her potential and talent were not a threat.

  He jumped into the air, charging at Tianyi. The Dragonbone Saber left a trail of white as it slashed through the air. Although Tianyi had already stabilized himself in the air, he only had enough time to raise his sword in defense.

  Once more, Tianyi was blasted away. Like before, wailing steel accompanied the clash. A shard of steel fell.

  Gu Longyu didn’t glance at the discarded shard. He knew what it was. After all, he had seen the sword split into six during their first clash.

  Tianyi’s right hand was trembling. The force behind the attack had numbed his entire arm. He glanced at Daoyi and his son before charging at Gu Longyu. The latter certainly knew what Tianyi was planning, but he was happy to oblige.

  He ignored Daoyi and the child retreating, ignored the child’s unwilling shouts, and even his hate-filled eyes. It was nothing more than impotent rage.

  Instead, Gu Longyu focused all his attention on his clone. He attacked with the intent of severing Tianyi in half.

  In contrast, Tianyi played a defensive game. He needed to attract Gu Longyu's attention long enough for Daoyi and his son to flee. Only then could he flee, but by then, Gu Longyu would never let him leave alive.

  Tianyi didn’t attempt to block Gu Longyu’s attacks but dodged them—only blocking with his sword if it was impossible to dodge. It was much easier said than done.

  Both Gu Longyu and Tianyi were mid–soul nourishing grandmasters, but not only was Gu Longyu a nascent soul cultivator, he could also utilize his energy more efficiently than Tianyi. He also possessed saber intent. Even if he didn’t actively use it, the Dragonbone Saber would still display its power. It was akin to attacking an invisible layer on top of the blade that extended its reach and power.

  Within a few breaths, Tianyi had already blocked Gu Longyu’s saber four times. Those four clashes left him holding a bladeless hilt. Theoretically, his sword could split into six, meaning he could block at least six to twelve times, but reality was much different. Each blow transmitted through all the other swords upon each contact.

  Seeing his chance, Gu Longyu raised the Dragonbone Saber above his head and slashed down. However, when the saber made contact with Tianyi’s body, the feeling of slicing flesh did not transmit through the handle and up his arms. Rather, it felt like slicing a block of iron.

  Immediately after, black specks drifted out from within the folds of Tianyi’s robes. Gu Longyu recognized them at a glance.

  Black iron sand.

  It was a rather rare material, but only in the hands of a skilled artificer could it demonstrate its value. According to legend, a legendary immortal gained the title of Black Steel Sword Immortal thanks to the artifact forged from processed black iron sand.

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  For Gu Longyu, black iron sand was nothing special. Even though Tianyi turned them into micro-projectiles, he easily shielded against them by covering himself in a layer of qi. He even held his breath and blocked his orifices to prevent the sand from entering his body and wreaking havoc from within.

  Tianyi indeed had such intentions. He gave up when he saw it fail. Black iron sand continuously flowed from his robes, making the surroundings blacken from the countless specks. Naturally, Gu Longyu would not give up just because of the black iron sand.

  Yet, while his saber blade did not slow to a crawl, it felt like he was cutting through butter with a hot knife. While that may seem fast, it had to be remembered that he was slicing through air before. This difference allowed Tianyi much more breathing room to dodge even though he had lost his sword.

  And he needed it. Although it seemed that Gu Longyu’s saber strike had failed to cut him, the force behind it did not dissipate. Some of it was absorbed by the black iron sand, but Tianyi’s body still suffered. Now, a dark blotch stained his purple robes.

  Tianyi didn’t bother clutching his crippled arm and used his free hand to control the black iron sand even more finely. He kept half of the black iron sand and condensed the rest into forty-nine swords. These black swords formed a powerful formation.

  Gu Longyu felt something extra in the formation now compared to before. Has he already started comprehending the concepts? Judging by the feel, it should be the Concept of Magnetism under the Law of Lightning. As expected of my clone.

  But the more talent Tianyi showed, the more Gu Longyu wanted to kill him. Otherwise, what if Tianyi replaced him as the reborn Dragon Emperor?

  He no longer held back. He fully mobilized all his understanding of the Law of Destruction his body was capable of utilizing. The Dragonbone Saber’s ivory-white blade turned pitch-black, like obsidian. It sliced through the black iron sand and destroyed the formation Tianyi erected.

  Tianyi was clearly unprepared for Gu Longyu’s outburst. The blade cleaved through his arm, and blood spurted from the stump. His crippled arm hung limply to the side, unable to clutch his dismembered stump.

  Gu Longyu wanted to deal the finishing blow, but his danger senses blared. The seemingly docile and conquered black iron sand exploded. A powerful sword intent appeared, and Gu Longyu used all his power to defend against the sudden attack.

  When the sword intent disappeared, Gu Longyu heaved a heavy breath. He gritted his teeth as his body trembled from the pain. Ironically, it was not the sword intent that caused such damage, but his overuse of the Law of Destruction. The Law of Destruction was a powerful law focused on offense. If the user wasn’t careful, the damage might rebound onto him. Even a true immortal faced this, much less a grandmaster like the current Gu Longyu. Only when the cultivator reached the Seamless Immortal Realm and constructed their body using the law would this danger be diminished to its lowest point.

  He didn’t have time to pay attention to the damage around his body; Gu Longyu had to chase down Tianyi. Luckily, the attack only lasted an instant, and Tianyi now comprehended the Concept of Magnetism and not speed-related concepts under the Law of Lightning.

  The world seemed against him. Just as he was about to kill Tianyi, he saw a squad from a rival sect. Although they would not be able to discern his mastery of the Law of Destruction, if they returned and told their elders or masters, the truth might be revealed.

  Gu Longyu absolutely couldn’t let anyone who saw his actual strength survive. So he chased after that group, placing less focus on Tianyi. Luckily, they were much easier to deal with than Tianyi. Even the transcending-mortality saint was average at best, falling in one strike.

  However, this detour gave Tianyi enough time to escape. They were already near the sea, and Tianyi had fled into the sea. Under the water, Gu Longyu’s spiritual sense was weakened, and the darkness aided in Tianyi’s escape.

  Although Gu Longyu had landed one more blow on Tianyi, he didn’t think this was enough to kill him. No one knew how tenacious and tough the Supreme Dragon Martial Body was better than him.

  Since he couldn’t find Tianyi, he would force the latter to come to him. And he had two perfect targets.

  Gu Longyu didn’t return to the Rising Dragon Sect. He first stabilized himself before recovering from the damage the Law of Destruction brought about to his body. Once the danger passed and he returned to his peak, Gu Longyu returned to the location where he had discovered Tianyi’s family of three.

  There, he used an induction technique. It wasn’t the same one he used to discover his clones, but one to locate his descendants. Tianyi shared the exact same appearance except for his eyes, meaning that they were extremely close in terms of blood, maybe even closer than brothers or father and son. In that case, he should be able to use the bloodline induction technique to sense the latter’s son.

  After eliminating Tianyi’s traces, Gu Longyu noticed a faint trace. He had long noticed that except for Tianyi’s eyes, the child inherited most of his mother’s features. This meant that he had inherited little of Tianyi’s bloodline, weakening the effect of the bloodline induction technique.

  Gu Longyu was lucky. Because the child stayed for a relatively long time, and not much time had passed since the latter escaped, Gu Longyu was able to follow the child and Daoyi’s trail. Although he had a trail, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. He had almost lost track of the mother and son duo several times. However, no matter how much they ran and hid, what was coming would eventually arrive.

  In fact, there was a bit of luck in Gu Longyu’s success. He had lost the trail of the mother and son, with no leads to find them again, but Daoyi decided to undergo her Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation. He didn’t know it was her at the time, but his intuition told him.

  He hadn’t seen her undergo it or caught her afterward, but he had heard rumors of a heavenly tribulation nearby. When he neared, he caught traces of Tianyi’s bloodline once more.

  Compared to Tianyi, Gu Longyu had an easier time against Daoyi. She did not have his comprehension of the concepts. What she did possess was a talent for soul methods. Against any other dual cultivators, they would have been helpless. Even if she couldn’t defeat them, she could still escape.

  However, Gu Longyu was now a triple cultivator of the spiritual, martial, and soul paths. His focus on the soul path was geared toward defense, and it had only grown since their last encounter. It rendered her offensives and attempts at fleeing useless.

  That said, he had lowered his guard.

  Just when Gu Longyu thought he had everything in the bag, Daoyi actually sent the child away. Once more, Gu Longyu saw the child glare at him with hate-filled eyes as he was forced away. It was a pity, but one Daoyi was more than enough to lure Tianyi.

  Forgetting about the now fourteen-year-old, Gu Longyu did not return to the Rising Dragon Sect. He waited at a constructed stronghold near a cultivator city. He did not hide his presence, nor Daoyi’s. No one knew her name, but portraits of her had circulated.

  Some said she was his maid; others said Daoyi was his lover. A few even speculated that she was the one Gu Longyu longed for but who rejected him. Unfortunately, she rejected him, causing him to imprison her.

  Gu Longyu didn’t care. “Tianyi, I’m waiting for you.”

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