Chapter 2: The Morning After & The Arrogant Steward.
The Morning After.
Sunlight filtered through the intricate lattice of the window, dancing across the disarray of the bridal bed.
The silken sheets were tangled, a silent testament to the storm of the previous night.
Su Ruoyan was the first to wake. Her body felt heavy and uncharacteristically sore, yet beneath the surface,
she felt a thrumming vitality she had never experienced before. Her cultivation,
which had been stagnant at the Early Spirit Core Realm for months, was suddenly restless—pulsing as if on the verge of an explosive breakthrough.
She turned her head. Jiang Yi was still deep in sleep, his arm thrown possessively across her waist.
Memories of the night flooded her mind. The suffocating heat. The loss of her legendary composure. The way she had reached for him, her dignity melting under the sun-like intensity of his touch.
"Heavens..." Ruoyan buried her burning face in her hands, her heart racing. "What have I done? He was supposed to be a shield... a transaction. How could I let a mortal...?"
She stole another glance at him. His skin, previously sallow and sickly, now possessed a healthy, jade-like luster. Even in sleep, he radiated a faint, masculine pressure that made her breath hitch.
"The Primal Chaos Yang Body," she whispered, her eyes wide as she sensed the lingering golden energy in the air.
"He isn't 'trash' anymore. He's... something else entirely."
Terrified by her own rising emotions, she dressed in a flurry of silk and fled the room, leaving the "Groom of Shame" behind in the quiet sunlight.
One Hour Later.
Jiang Yi stirred, his eyes snapping open. The bed was empty, but the lingering scent of orchids and milk reminded him that last night was no dream.
He stretched, his joints popping like firecrackers. Every fiber of his being felt recharged.
"She ran away?" Jiang Yi grinned, tracing the spot where she had been lying. "Shy, even after all that. Interesting."
He checked his internal state. The Primal Chaos Yang Body hadn't just repaired his Dantian; it had turned it into a furnace of golden Qi.
He had skipped the mundane levels of cultivation entirely, sitting firmly at the Peak of the Earth Spirit Realm.
"I need to see what this body can do."
Jiang Yi dressed in a simple black robe and made his way toward the Su Family's Myriad Treasure Pavilion training yard.
The yard was already occupied.
A middle-aged man with a sharp goatee was barking orders at a group of trembling servants.
This was Steward Wang, a distant relative of the Su family. For years, he had made a sport of tormenting the original Jiang Yi, treating him worse than the stable hounds.
When Wang saw Jiang Yi, his lip curled into a practiced sneer.
"Well, look at this.
The 'Groom' has finally crawled out of his hole. Tell us, Young Master Jiang—how does it feel to be the city's most expensive pet?"
The servants snickered into their sleeves. To them, Jiang Yi was still the powerless live-in husband.
"Steward Wang," Jiang Yi said, his voice calm but carrying a strange resonance. "I need the training yard. Clear your people out."
Wang laughed so hard he nearly choked. "You? Train? Stop pretending, Jiang Yi.
You have a shattered Dantian. If you so much as punch a sandbag, your wrist will snap like a dry twig. Go back to the bridal chamber and wait for the Lady to feed you your porridge."
"Get out of my way," Jiang Yi repeated, his eyes narrowing.
"Or what?" Wang's face darkened.
He was a cultivator of the Mid-Earth Spirit Realm, and he took a menacing step forward.
He released his spiritual aura, intending to crush Jiang Yi into the dirt. "You think because you climbed into the Lady's bed, you've become a tiger? Let this old servant teach you the meaning of 'status'!"
Wang didn't draw a weapon. He threw a heavy, sweeping slap toward Jiang Yi's face—a move designed to humiliate, not to kill.
[System Analysis: Tier 1 Technique—Iron Palm.]
[Flaws Detected: 12. Conclusion: Pitifully slow.]
To Jiang Yi, the world seemed to decelerate. Steward Wang's hand moved like a snail through thick honey.
With his Peak Comprehension, the "Iron Palm" looked like a child's tantrum.
"Too slow."
Jiang Yi didn't dodge. He stepped into the strike.
Tier 1 Art: Iron Back Fist!
BOOM!
Fist met palm in a sickening collision of bone and Qi.
Steward Wang's confident sneer vanished instantly. His eyes bulged as he felt like he had struck a mountain of solid adamant.
"ARGH!"
A horrific crack echoed through the courtyard.
Wang's arm twisted at a grotesque, unnatural angle. He was sent spiraling backward like a ragdoll, smashing through a heavy weapon rack and scattering iron swords across the stone tiles.
The laughter died instantly. The servants stood frozen, their mouths hanging open.
Jiang Yi stood in the center of the yard, casually blowing a speck of dust off his knuckles.
"Steward Wang, your 'Iron Palm' is a bit soft. Did you study under a tofu maker?"
Wang clutched his shattered limb, his face pale with agony and shock. "You... you hidden dragon! You're at the Peak of the Earth Spirit Realm! How?!"
"Scram," Jiang Yi commanded.
Wang didn't wait for a second invitation.
He scrambled to his feet and bolted, his tail between his legs. "You... just you wait! The Elders won't overlook a common son-in-law beating the staff!"
Jiang Yi ignored the threat and walked over to a heavy iron-wood training dummy.
Whoosh! Bang!
He unleashed a flurry of strikes. With the System's guidance,
techniques he had never even seen before began to click into place with terrifying speed.
* Gale Wind Sword—Mastered!
* Lightning Steps—Mastered!
"Good," Jiang Yi muttered, "but I need more. The Sky Spirit Realm is the true threshold of power."
Just then, the courtyard gate creaked open. Su Ruoyan walked in. She had regained her icy, professional mask—the "Queen of Gold" was back.
But when she saw the splintered remains of the iron-wood dummy and the wreckage of the weapon rack, her mask shattered.
"Husband?" She stepped closer, her eyes scanning the destruction. "Did... did you do this?"
"Just a morning stretch," Jiang Yi smiled, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow.
Ruoyan bit her lip, a flicker of something—admiration? fear?—crossing her face. She reached into her sleeve and pulled out a carved jade box.
"I heard about Steward Wang. He was overstepping his bounds," she said, refusing to meet his eyes. "This is for you. Consider it...
compensation for last night."
Jiang Yi opened the box. Inside lay a Sun Spirit Fruit, radiating a faint, golden warmth.
"Ruoyan," Jiang Yi said, his voice serious.
"Don't read into it!" She turned away quickly, her ears tinged with pink. "I just won't have my husband bullied by mere servants. Take it and break through. I need a shield that doesn't break."
She turned to leave but paused at the threshold."And... tonight...
" she whispered, her voice barely a breath. "Come back to the room early.
The... 'treatment'... isn't finished yet."
She vanished before he could respond. Jiang Yi looked at the fruit, a predator's grin spreading across his face.
"Soft on the outside, fire on the inside. What a perfect wife."
He sat cross-legged in the center of the yard as the sun began to set.
"System! Refine the Sun Spirit Fruit! Force the breakthrough!"
He swallowed the fruit whole.
BOOM!
It was like swallowing a star.
Scorching, violent energy erupted in his gut, racing through his meridians like a stampede of dragons. For any other cultivator, this would be a death sentence. Their veins would have disintegrated.
But the Primal Chaos Yang Body roared in delight. It didn't just absorb the energy; it devoured it.
"Refine!"
A golden vortex manifested around Jiang Yi, the wind whipping his hair into a frenzy. Inside his Dantian, the gaseous Qi began to compress, screaming under the pressure until—
Drip. Drip.
The gas turned to liquid. Golden, heavy, and overflowing with power.
[Ding! Energy Threshold Reached.]
[Breaking Limiter...]
"BREAK!" Jiang Yi roared.
Two beams of pure golden light erupted from his eyes, piercing the twilight. A shockwave of spiritual pressure blasted outward, cracking the stone tiles and shaking the very walls of the courtyard.
[Ding! Breakthrough Successful: Sky Spirit Realm (Early Stage).]
[Unlocked Ability: Sky Steps (Short-term flight).]
[Unlocked Ability: Spirit Pressure.]
Jiang Yi stood up, feeling the liquid True Qi roaring through his veins. He felt as light as a feather, yet as heavy as a mountain.
"Yesterday, I was a dog," Jiang Yi whispered, the golden aura slowly receding into his skin. "Today, I am a Sky Spirit Master."
He looked toward the main house, where the lights were flickering in Ruoyan's window.
"And tonight... I'm going to thank my wife properly.
Want to read ahead?
7+ chapters available on Patreon: