Immortal Ascension Through Marriage: Investing in My Wife Get Returns

As the other Emperors stared at the crater, Emperor Tianxu’s mind drifted backward, plunging into a memory from months ago, when the Five Emperors had convened in a secret, heavily warded sanctuary deep beneath a City within the Central Continent.

In the flashback, the five sovereigns stood around a central pedestal of black jade. Resting upon it was an artifact of unimaginable antiquity: the True and False Domain Star Orb. It was a flawless glass sphere, but inside it swirled a miniature, living galaxy. And it was vibrating violently, emitting a constant, high-pitched hum that rattled the teeth of the Void Refinement experts.

"It has not stopped shaking since we brought it from the barrier realm," Tianxu had said, his face grim. "The starry sky within the orb shakes to fortune. Someone within the Central Continent currently possesses sufficient fortune to completely change the tides of reality."

"We need him," Emperor Xiyan had growled, pacing around the pedestal. "The Nine Heavens Ward is failing. For the first time in ten thousand years, the ancient seal binding the demonic Hollow Beyond has begun to crack."

Emperor Beiming had nodded slowly. "The Hollow Beyond... the barrier that separates our lower world, the Nine Provinces, from the Imperial Domain above. The demonic entities are pressing against the cracks. I and the other continents have already sent our elite cultivators into the hidden Sacred Ground for accelerated cultivation, preparing them for the coming war."

"We cannot just send our standard Geniuses," Emperor Nanheng had argued. "They are strong, but they are bound by this realm weak Dao laws. They wouldn’t be enough against the demons of the Hollow Beyond. We must use your tournament to weed out the fated one. We must find the person that the Star Orb is reacting to. Once we find them, we will send them to the Sacred Ground and push their cultivation to the absolute limits of this realm."

Tianxu had looked at the vibrating orb. "The tournament will be a crucible. Only the one destined to save or shatter this world will rise to the top."

The flashback ended. Emperor Tianxu looked down at Lin Yuan, who was currently accepting the adulation of the adjudicator. The Emperor knew that the true war was only just beginning.

"Match concluded! Victory goes to Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province! Three hundred and fifty merits!"

The jade monolith updated, cementing the Zhao Province’s absolute dominance over the tournament.

The matches continued, but the energy in the arena had fundamentally shifted. The spectators were no longer watching a competition; they were watching a coronation.

Finally, Round 6 of the Upper Division quadrant commenced.

"Match! Lin Yuan of the Zhao Province versus Chu Kuang of the Chu Province!"

Chu Kuang stepped into the arena, looking like a broken, hollow shell of the man who had entered the tournament thirty days ago. His armor was cracked, his halberd replaced by a lesser spare, and his eyes were dull with the agonizing realization of his own inferiority.

"You think you’ve broken me, Zhao rat?" Chu Kuang spat, his voice a hoarse, rattling wheeze as he dragged his weapon across the star-iron. "I am still a Peerless Genius! I am the heir of the Chu Province! I will drag you down with me!"

"A genius does not crawl," Lin Yuan replied, his voice devoid of pity. "And an heir without an empire is just a beggar with a crown."

Lin Yuan did not even draw his sword. He used a fraction of his Supreme Stage Qi, executing a flawless Palmstrike. The blow bypassed Chu Kuang’s pathetic guard, striking him in the chest and sending him tumbling across the star-iron floor like a discarded toy.

Chu Kuang lay on his back, coughing up blood, entirely defeated. Lin Yuan turned to walk away.

Suddenly, the ambient spiritual Qi in the arena violently curdled.

A blinding, sickening crimson aura erupted from the lower spectator stands. It was a foul, corrupted light that smelled of rotting blood and ancient malice.

"For the Blood Lotus Sect!" a voice shrieked with absolute, homicidal madness.

A cultivator, clad in ragged robes, vaulted over the Void Refinement barrier—which inexplicably failed to stop him—and landed directly in the combat quadrant. His skin was gray, his eyes burning with a maniacal, blood-red light.

"Is that a Chu trick?!" Bai Chen yelled from the Zhao pavilion, drawing his sword. "Are they interfering to aid Chu Kuang?! That violates the tournament!"

"No," Lord Zhao Shenming rasped, his eyes widening in terror. "That is not a typical Chu Province technique. That is the Blood Asura Dao! It is a forbidden, demonic art!"

The invading cultivator, revealing himself to be Xie Chen, flared his corrupted aura. He did not attack Lin Yuan. His blood-red eyes locked entirely onto the prone, weakened form of Chu Kuang.

Chu Kuang coughed, his eyes widening in terror as he recognized the ragged figure. "You... you are that remnant from the Blood Lotus... The adjudicators will flay your soul for interfering!"

"Let them!" Xie Chen laughed, a broken, manic sound. "My soul was flayed the day you wore my sister’s core as a necklace! The Heavens are blind, so I brought my own justice!"

"You butchered my master! You slaughtered my sect for your desires!" Xie Chen screamed, tears of blood streaming down his face. He was a survivor, driven completely insane by vengeance. "I am not strong enough to kill at your peak state... but since you are weak, I will kill you here and now!"

Chaos erupted in the arena. The adjudicators rushed forward, but Xie Chen was too fast.

Realizing that the adjudicators were closing in, Xie Chen let out a final, despairing laugh. He did not strike with a weapon. He ignited his own cultivation.

"Explode!" he roared.

Xie Chen’s body violently expanded, glowing with the apocalyptic light of a detonating Nascent Soul fueled by the Blood Asura Dao.

The explosion was catastrophic. A massive sphere of boiling blood and shockwave force consumed the center of the quadrant. Chu Kuang, too battered to raise a defense, screamed for a fraction of a second before the blast vaporized him entirely. The heir of the Chu Province was dead, erased from existence alongside his would-be assassin.

But the shockwave did not stop. It tore through the weakened spatial barrier, hurtling directly toward the eastern spectator terraces—straight toward the Zhao pavilion.

"Qingyue!" Lin Yuan roared, his eyes widening in sheer terror.

He moved faster than light. Activating the Thunder Step, he materialized directly in front of the Zhao pavilion’s viewing box.

[Heaven and Earth Shift] fused with [Heaven as Net, Earth as Web].

Lin Yuan threw both hands forward, generating a massive, golden-purple web of localized spatial mirrors. The tsunami of boiling, explosive blood crashed against his barrier. The sheer force drove Lin Yuan back a foot, his boots carving deep gouges into the stone, but the shield held flawlessly.

He protected the surrounding bystanders, cementing his heroism in front of tens of thousands of terrified cultivators, while ensuring that not a single drop of corrupted blood touched Bai Qingyue.

"He... he saved us!" a young Lower Division disciple gasped, collapsing to his knees as the crimson mist dissipated against the shield. "That demonic blast would have melted the entire eastern terrace!"

"He didn’t even flinch," a senior elder from a neutral province murmured, staring at the golden-purple web in sheer awe. "To risk his own foundation to shield the innocent bystanders... the Chu heir brought us a demon, but the Zhao province brought us a true sovereign!"

"Senior Lin! Senior Lin! Senior Lin! Senior Lin!" the crowds began to chant, the genuine reverence washing away the last traces of their previous disdain.

High above, the Five Emperors locked eyes. They did not look at the crater where Chu Kuang had died. They looked at the residual crimson mist lingering in the air.

"The Blood Asura Dao," Emperor Xiyan whispered, a cold dread pooling in his stomach. "That is not a technique of the Nine Provinces. That corruption... it originates from the Hollow Beyond."

"The influence is already leaking through the weakening Ward," Emperor Tianxu confirmed, his voice grave. "It infected that boy’s grief and twisted his foundation. The demons are already reaching their hands into our world. We are out of time."

With the chaotic, bloody conclusion of Round 6, the adjudicators declared the final standings.

The Zhao Province had won!

"It is real. A Lower Division Province has conquered the sky," a Jiang province sword-master whispered, bowing his head in ultimate defeat.

"The era of the Six Peerless Geniuses is over," another elder proclaimed loudly to his stunned disciples. "A new dynasty is born today. The Zhao Province will dictate the next thousand years!"

"All hail Lord Zhao! All hail Daoist Lin!" the Lower Division delegations roared in unison, their voices shaking the clouds.

With that, Heavenly music played from various lutes, showers of golden lotus petals drifted down from the sky, and the provincial lords were summoned to the central dais.

Lord Zhao Shenming stood tall beside Lin Yuan. When Emperor Tianxu looked down at them, offering the customary ultimate request to the victorious province, Lord Zhao did not hesitate.

"The Zhao Province bows to the Emperor," Lord Zhao spoke, his voice booming with pride. "But the victory belongs solely to our General. Daoist Lin shall make the request."

Lin Yuan stepped forward. He did not ask for supreme-grade artifacts, mountains of spirit stones, or territories.

He looked directly into Emperor Tianxu’s eyes.

"Remove the Soul Transformation restriction from my wife, Bai Qingyue," Lin Yuan requested.

"He... he used the ultimate request of the Central Continent... just for his wife?" a high-ranking aristocratic woman from the Xuan Province gasped, covering her mouth in shock. "Not for a supreme artifact? Not for a domain?"

"He doesn’t need their artifacts," an old hermit cultivator chuckled from the stands, his eyes shining with profound respect. "He possesses the strength to take the world, yet his Dao Heart only desires her healing. That is the mark of a man the Heavens cannot control."

"To cast away unimaginable wealth for love... truly, he is unmatched in both power and devotion," a Pure Cloud sect disciple wept softly.

Emperor Tianxu nodded slowly. "Since this is what you request from me, then I will."

The Emperor raised his hand, pointing a single, glowing finger toward the eastern pavilion where Bai Qingyue sat in her wheelchair.

A beam of pure Void Refinement energy shot across the arena. It struck Bai Qingyue gently in the chest.

The Soul Transformation restriction that had shattered her dantian and crippled her meridians, shattered like fragile glass under the absolute authority of the Qilin Emperor.

The reaction was instantaneous, epic, and profoundly beautiful.

A massive pillar of brilliant, crystalline blue spiritual Qi erupted from Bai Qingyue’s body, piercing the clouds above Sky Jade City. The ambient energy of Heaven and Earth rushed into her repaired meridians with the force of a tidal wave. She was lifted from her wheelchair, hovering in the air as her black hair whipped wildly around her.

Her cultivation, suppressed and starved for years, skyrocketed. The blockages were eradicated. She broke through the initial stages of Qi Condensation in a heartbeat. She breached the Foundation Establishment realm, the pure Void refinement energy pushing her higher and higher until she settled firmly at the Peak of the Foundation Establishment realm, radiating a majestic, serene aura that left the audience breathless.

She slowly descended, her bare feet touching the star-iron floor. For the first time in years, she stood under her own power. She looked at her hands, tears of absolute joy streaming down her face, before looking across the arena at her husband.

Lin Yuan smiled, a genuine, beautiful expression that melted away the ice of his expression.

Emperor Tianxu, watching the emotional display, stepped down from his throne. He approached Lin Yuan, holding a magnificent, glowing standard forged of golden silk—a Fortune Banner.

"You have claimed the victory, Lin Yuan," Emperor Tianxu said, holding the banner out. "But the Heavens wish to test the depth of your destiny. If one with immense fortune holds this banner, their cultivation will experience a miraculous, instantaneous leap. Take it."

It was a test. The Emperor wanted to confirm if Lin Yuan was truly the fated one from the Star Orb.

Lin Yuan reached out and grasped the golden staff of the Fortune Banner.

The other four emperors held thier breath, expecting another apocalyptic eruption of power.

But Nothing happened.

The banner remained completely inert. Not a single spark of energy transferred into Lin Yuan’s body.

Emperor Tianxu blinked, his composure faltering into genuine confusion. He is not the one? the Emperor thought frantically. But the Tri-Dao... the Origin power... if he does not possess the immense fortune, then who in the Heavens does?!

Lin Yuan looked at the inert banner, thoroughly unimpressed. With a casual flick of his wrist, he dropped the artifact into his spatial ring, entirely unbothered by the failed test. He did not care about the Heavens’ definition of fortune. His fortune was standing across the arena.

He walked past the baffled Emperor, crossing the star-iron floor until he reached Bai Qingyue.

She threw her arms around his neck, burying her face into his chest, sobbing with pure happiness. He wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her slightly off the ground, spinning her in a joyous, triumphant circle before pulling her in for a deep, passionate kiss.

As their lips met, a profound, world-shaking realization settled over Lin Yuan’s spiritual sea.

He looked at his wife, whole, standing on her own feet, her cultivation restored. The absolute, burning obsession that had defined his Dao Heart since the moment he broke through to the Spirit Severing realm was finally, and completely fulfilled. The tether that bound his soul was no longer a source of agonizing desperation; it was a source of infinite peace.

Because his Dao Heart was fulfilled, the Heavens could no longer suppress him. The blockage imposed by his heretical obsession instantly dissolved.

Lin Yuan’s Dao Resolve trembled.

A massive, invisible shockwave of conceptual enlightenment blasted outward from his body. His foundation leaped bounds that defied logic.

He bypassed the remnants of the Supreme Stage in a single heartbeat.

Wooooom!

The golden-purple mist within his mind condensed into a solid, indestructible core.

Lin Yuan stepped into the absolute zenith of the Spirit Severing Realm. He entered the Transcendent Stage—the Tenth Step of Dao Resolve!

Author Note:

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A/N: Thank you to everyone who has made it this far into the story!

For those who have been complaining about Bai Qingyue not having enough screen time, that is about to change. Now that her Soul Transformation restriction has been removed and her cultivation has been restored, the true essence of this story can finally begin.

From this point onward, you’ll get to see Lin Yuan and Bai Qingyue truly step into their roles as Dao Companions and gradually make their names known throughout the entire cultivation world.

And yes, Bai Qingyue will not be weak. Her cultivation will gradually rise to match Lin Yuan’s, and Lin Yuan will naturally assist her with everything he has gained from the system.

Their journey has only just begun. The two of them will walk the Dao together, grow stronger together, and eventually shake the entire cultivation world.