Young Master System: My Mother Is the Matriarch-Chapter 186: Jade And Fire

The Second Trial was known as the ’Thousand Threads’, Mei Yu unfurled a set of five glowing scrolls around her. Light wove into thin strands of qi numbering well into the hundreds, twisting like luminous silk worms in a canopy

"The second trial involves harmony with nature," she said softly. "Pass through the threads without disturbing them."

The disciples swallowed hard, as the took one step forward.

Another step followed

Shhhhhh

A dozen failed instantly as the threads trembled and tightened like snares wounding up the failed candidates tightly, Mei Yu sighed gently. "That is the result of your own impatience," she said. "Next group."

Leng Yue watched, arms crossed. She felt every pulse from the threads as well as beneath their feet, the ground’s tremor deepened. The leyline of the mountain was reacting again

Leng Yue clenched her jaw, knowing that the battle outside was reaching a catastrophic end. The Third Trial followed soon after the second had come to an end

Ning Xue raised her arm.

Frost spilled across the stone, forming jagged peaks of ice.

"The final trial," she called. "Ascend the frozen summit. Without shattering the ice."

Dozens sprinted upward, causing twenty of them to slip and fall down pathetically. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Ten were able to reach halfway, while only five made it to the top. Those five knelt before Leng Yue, observed her quietly. Their breathing was steady and vision clear.

Potential was present, but only time would tell for sure.

Leng Yue’s head snapped toward the fissure in the sky, as a massive shockwave rippled across the subspace. One that buckled warriors and sent children tumbling, even the various disciples stationed in the vicinity were faltering.

Leng Yue alone remained upright, as the altar behind her cracked. Glowing webs of emerald vein splits across the valley wall, Jia Lin staggered forward. "That tremor, Senior Sister is something about to happen?"

"Yes," Leng Yue said, voice low.

A roar echoed deep beneath the earth, not of human or bestial origin. Obviously not anything mortal made that sound, rather an existence ancient enough to shake dust from the ceiling and knock torches from their sconces.

The disciples froze, while Mei Yu clutched her chest solemnly. "Senior Sister? Have our action truly angered the mountain..."

Leng Yue stepped toward the altar. "That is not the case." She touched the ebony surface and remained silent. Ning Xue whispered faintly, "Could Li Wei be involved?"

Leng Yue’s voice grew soft, almost reverent. "Something from this continent’s epoch era has risen up, it appears the mountain is also unsettled by this development"

Another shockwave even stronger then the one prior rocked the structure, causing the altar stones split. Numerous runes long dormant glowed across the valley wall, while bright green lines began forming ancient characters.

Leng Yue’s breath slowed down, as she contemplated the events tranipiring. Although everything appeared vague and unclear, she understood one truth. The mountain was relaying a message

"To what end...?" she whispered to herself. The leyline pulsed violently and a vision struck her mind like a spear. Li Wei was Broken and Bleeding facing an abyss of golden light.

An Imperial magistrate with an enormous hand of heavenly mandate rose up behind him, Tang Li stood next to him. While an emerald light was engulfed by swirling vortex from a rift in the sky.

Leng Yue staggered, grabbing the altar for support. Jia Lin quickly rushed to her side. "Senior Sister!" The maiden pushed her away gently. "I am fine." her eyes were wide and awestruck.

Mei Yu could not contain her curiosity and whispered softly, "W-what did you see?"

Leng Yue looked toward the fissure. "Li Wei may die tonight," she said plainly.

Every disciple went still, Leng Yue continued. "But if he survives... the mountain will undergo a wondrous change

Jia Lin’s eyes widened. "A change? into what exactly?"

Leng Yue exhaled, "We will find out soon enough..." She closed her eyes for a moment. "Prepare all the clan forces and strengthen the altar. The subspace will shift. The mountain has chosen to act."

She opened her eyes again and their glow was eerily reflected with emerald lightning flashing through the fissure above. "And we must be ready...."

The outside world had begun settling down slowly, like dust resolving after a collapsed dynasty.

Fragments of jade still fell from the air, clinking like broken bells. The once-pristine ceremonial platform, a centerpiece of Oolong power was now existing only as two sundered slabs leaning drunkenly toward the plaza below.

Smoke curled from deep cracks, where Li Wei’s final technique had torn formation lines out by their roots. Buildings along the perimeter had lost balconies or entire walls, and the distant streets rang with shouts of soldiers scrambling to restore order.

But in the epicenter only silence ensued.

Li Wei stood alone amid the ruins, one knee buckling beneath him, one hand gripping the cracked remains of his war rod. His breath came thin, thready, scraping at the edges of consciousness like a blade dragged against bone.

He had known Compass of the Verdant Abyss would be a gamble, but the young master did not expect it to feel like his meridians were turning to molten wire. His entire arm burned with numbness. Qi leaked from him in faint emerald wisps, the lingering residue of a technique not meant for a half-cultivated mortal body.

Blood trailed from the side of his mouth, down his collar, dripping on his shattered rod, he remained standing as for the prisoners behind him. A majority had collapsed in heaps, pale but alive.

The execution light snuffed out like a candle crushed underfoot while Magistrate Yun was nowhere to be seen. Only the faint shimmer of golden dust drifting to the ground hinted that the man had been forced back, even if only a step. Even if only for an instant.

A weak cough sounded from behind the fallen railing.

Tang Li stumbled into view, gripping the child against her chest.

"Senior Wei...!"

Her steps faltered as she took in the devastation—the chasm torn through the platform, the smoke curling around fractured stone, the deep fissures glowing faintly where emerald qi still pulsed.

"You... you’re still bleeding."

He didn’t turn toward her. His eyes scanned the drifting haze instead. "He’s still here," Li Wei murmured.

Tang Li froze and her throat tightened.

"Where could he be?"

Li Wei lifted the cracked war rod just as a single droplet of golden light fell from the sky and struck the platform with a resonant chime. The air warped as Magistrate Yun emerged from the fractured haze stepped .

He looked different now.

His scholar’s robe hung in tatters, though his flesh had not a single wound. His aura, once carefully restrained, now pressed fully upon the plaza like an imperial edict personified. Golden light draped over his shoulders like a mantle. Dust curled away from his feet before he even stepped.

He had not been killedd, merely wounded.

"You truly are a disgrace," Yun said quietly, surveying the broken platform. "A cultivator who would tear apart a city block simply to protect criminals. Tell me, did your master teach you nothing of proportion?"

Li Wei lifted his chin.

"You have talked enough old man. Am a prodigy of the present, while your time is coming to a close."

Yun’s eyes sharpened. "That might be true, but the result is not certain..." Tang Li’s knees trembled. Even without a high level of cultivation, she felt the suffocating weight of Yun’s killing intent. The child whimpered softly, burying his face in her sleeve.

Li Wei didn’t look back, there was no need to. "Move away from here," he said simply.

Tang Li’s breath hitched. "I... I can’t leave you."

"You can," he said. "And you will."

Her eyes stung, and she clutched the child tighter. "You’re barely standing—"

"I’m not asking," he said.

The tone was gentle, but absolute.

Tang Li’s throat closed. She nodded weakly and retreated toward fallen beams, carrying the child behind a half-collapsed pillar. She kept her gaze on his back, every breath shaking.

Yun descended the shattered steps, hands clasped behind him.

"You cling to ideals like a child clinging to the corner of a blanket," Yun said. "This world is not moved by compassion, Li Wei. It is moved by structure and order. Punishment will be dispatched to those that resist. The Oolong Group maintains peace because it is willing to crush those who threaten it."

"Peace?" Li Wei scoffed. "You’re burning cities to protect your measly ledgers."

Yun smiled thinly. "Civilization is built from the bones of those who defy order. You did not grow up among magistrates. You do not understand what is required."

Li Wei spat blood to the side. "I understand enough."

Yun tilted his head. "Then you should stand taller, since you speak of justice."

Li Wei’s legs nearly gave out. His fingers tightened around the fractured rod.

Yun raised his hand slightly. "It ends now."

Li Wei drew a breath so thin it barely entered his lungs. "That we can agree on..."