Chapter 717

Deep within his bloodline, the divine imprint formed from fundamental forces appeared illusory and ethereal.

As Lin Yuan continued to immerse his mind into it, a flood of information surged into his consciousness.

"This divine ability..."

Lin Yuan’s heart jolted.

Compared to the previous seven physical divine abilities he had acquired—

This newly awakened one was extremely unique.

It wasn’t an active divine ability,

Nor a passive one.

It was—

A status.

A Lord’s Status.

“Lord’s Status?” Lin Yuan carefully sensed every aspect of this divine ability, marveling inwardly.

“Could this divine ability originate from the Lord of Heavenly Radiance?”

“When he failed his attempt to reach the fourteenth rank and fell, his status collapsed and scattered into the bloodlines of the beings in this source world?”

“And I, through the path of martial evolution, refined my bloodline’s deepest power and unintentionally reassembled that status?”

Lin Yuan speculated.

The so-called Lord’s Status represented the stature and identity of a Time Lord, and was closely tied to a Time Lord’s own authority.

Specifically—

After condensing this Lord’s Status, Lin Yuan naturally gained access to some abilities that only a Time Lord could wield.

The first was that Lin Yuan’s past, present, and future timelines began to be sealed off.

Other time beings could no longer easily observe them.

Peering into a Lord’s timeline was far more difficult than viewing another time being’s.

A standard thirteenth-rank trying to forcibly peer into a Time Lord’s timeline would suffer serious backlash.

“My timeline is sealed?”

A smile appeared on Lin Yuan’s face.

All this time, in the same dimensional space, he had always been the target of observation by other time beings.

While this observation saved him many troubles—for instance, no one dared make him an enemy.

Multiple repeated observations were no different than letting others see him inside out.

Lin Yuan had never been outright resentful, but he certainly wasn’t pleased.

Still, there was nothing he could do about it. Until he became thirteenth-rank, the gap in life level was too vast.

Those time beings could observe his timeline with ease.

But now, things were different.

With the blessing of the Lord’s Status, the difficulty of observing Lin Yuan’s past, present, and future timeline was close to that of peering into a Time Lord’s—if not already comparable.

In the battles between thirteenth-rank beings, victory often came down to who could see further along the future timelines. If one side’s future couldn’t be discerned, they held the upper hand.

The advantage was immense.

Why did Time Lords reign above time beings? Aside from sheer strength—

It was their control over timelines, their ability to seal and collapse timelines, denying others the chance to peek.

With the blessing of the Lord’s Status, not only were Lin Yuan’s own timelines sealed, but observing future timelines also became far easier.

It was as if time itself favored him.

“I can feel that this Lord’s Status will only fully unleash its power once I become thirteenth-rank. As for now? It can only exert part of its might.”

Lin Yuan was in high spirits.

With this Lord’s Status, he was now effectively half a Time Lord.

Of course, this meant only in terms of stature—not direct power. In pure strength, he was still far from it.

He had already witnessed the power of a Time Lord through the Demon God.

Even just the Lord of Heavenly Radiance’s weakest form—the Black Demon body— lacking mental will, unable to use most of its techniques, and with its demonic energy scattered throughout the source world, still fought Lin Yuan to a standstill.

As for the other half—the Light body—it managed to tie down thirteen Eternal Lords.

The power of a Time Lord was beyond doubt.

“Even though I can’t unleash the full might of the Lord’s Status yet, at this point, I’m not so different from a true time being. The previous gap in life level has now been filled.”

Lin Yuan smiled.

“In fact, in some aspects, I’m already stronger than standard time beings—for instance, the sealing of my own timeline.”

Typically, time beings nearing the thirteenth-rank peak would begin trying to seal their timelines. Upon fully stepping into the peak and becoming a Time Lord, they’d formally start the process of sealing and collapsing their own timelines.

The stronger a Time Lord, the more terrifying this timeline sealing became. Some extremely powerful ones could, through fully collapsed timelines, travel back in time—or even slightly alter the past.

Of course, altering the past was something even Time Lords dared not attempt.

They could, but they wouldn’t.

First, because the backlash was unimaginably terrifying.

In the infinite dimensions, every moment of time branched into countless future timelines. Changing even one past moment could cause massive ripple effects—far too dangerous.

Not even Time Lords could endure the consequences.

Changing the past was fundamentally different from resurrecting a twelfth-rank being.

Resurrection targeted the ‘life imprint’ and didn’t affect the past itself.

But changing the past altered everything from then to now.

Secondly—

Even if one could withstand the backlash of slightly altering the past—

How would you know that the past you were changing wasn’t exactly what a perfect fourteenth-rank time being wanted?

To date, no time being had confirmed the existence of a perfect fourteenth-rank being.

But no one could disprove it either.

And with that uncertainty—

It was best not to touch the past.

Because if a perfect being did exist, and you altered the past under its watch, you would be going against it.

And in that case, even a Time Lord would die.

“…Hmm?”

Lin Yuan suddenly sensed something.

He looked across this source world.

The moment he condensed the Lord’s Status—

The physical strength and vitality of cultivators across the world plummeted.

Their potential also dropped drastically.

Returning to the level before the great transformation of heaven and earth.

This caused widespread panic.

If not for the fact that the current demonic disaster had been mostly suppressed by Lin Yuan, not only were there no Great Demons, even Demon Spirits were now rarely seen, there would’ve been heavy losses.

“When the Lord’s Status shattered and merged into the bloodlines of the world’s beings, their bloodline potential rose dramatically.”

“Now that I’ve reassembled the Lord’s Status, it’s like reclaiming that power—so naturally, everything returns to normal.”

Lin Yuan understood this well.

Still, with the demon disaster now under control—and once he reached the thirteenth-rank, he’d fully sweep it away.

He hadn’t taken advantage of anyone.

In fact, if not for Lin Yuan, even with enhanced physical potential, the people would likely have perished in the endless demonic disaster.

“This time’s awakened body was branded into my soul and will, so there’s no need to comprehend it or synchronize it with my other two true bodies.”

Lin Yuan continued to sense the Lord’s Status.

The previous eight divine imprints all required complete understanding to use across all true bodies.

But the Lord’s Status didn’t.

In a way, the Lord’s Status wasn’t really a divine ability.

It was branded into the soul and will—whoever condensed it first, it belonged to them.

So now—

Not only did his true body in this source world gain the blessing.

His true bodies in the chaotic void and first source world also gained it.

“That works.”

Lin Yuan nodded slightly.

With his thirteenth-rank breakthrough imminent, he naturally wanted to focus entirely on cultivation.

As for comprehending divine imprints?

He could wait until after the breakthrough.

Now that there was no need to specifically comprehend it, and it could be used by all his true bodies—it was exactly what he had hoped for.

Buzz buzz buzz—

Beyond the second source world.

In a space engulfed by infinite light.

Thirteen towering figures resisted the surrounding pressure while rapidly scanning Lin Yuan’s future timelines.

A future timeline destined to become a Time Lord held immense value for time beings—especially now, while Lin Yuan hadn’t yet become one.

It wasn’t hard to observe him now.

But once he did become a time being, such peering would become nearly impossible.

As the thirteen Eternal Lords studied carefully...

All timelines related to Lin Yuan seemed to be affected by some force, turning blurry and indistinct.

No matter how hard they tried, every future timeline gradually became sealed.

“Hm? What’s going on?”

“Why can’t I see anything anymore?”

The Eternal Lords were shocked. For true time beings, a lifeform below thirteenth rank was usually as easy to read as an open book.

Even if Lin Yuan’s combat strength rivaled theirs, he wasn’t a time being. He shouldn’t be able to stop them from observing.

“Milky Way isn’t even an Eternal Lord yet, and his timeline can already block our gaze?”

“He’s really a freak…”

One by one, the Eternal Lords realized what was happening and stopped forcing it.

They didn’t know the exact level of the timeline sealing, but as fellow time beings from the same dimensional space, they all held great goodwill toward Lin Yuan.

“Forget it. If we can’t see it, we can’t see it.”

The Eternal Immeasurable sighed.

He had known this day would come—but hadn’t expected it so soon.

Not a time being, yet already with Eternal Lord-level combat power—and now, he was beginning to seal his timeline and block all peering eyes.

Such a method was unheard of. Even with all his experience, including contact with time beings beyond source worlds, he had never encountered anything like this.

First source world.

The six Ancestors also noticed Lin Yuan’s future timeline growing blurry and sealed.

“How is Milky Way doing this?”

The six Ancestors were amazed. Not long ago, they had peeked into his future timeline and seen glimpses of his true strength—but before they could go deeper, their vision was blocked.

“At this rate, Milky Way will probably surpass me soon,” thought the Ancestor of the Grand Ancient Void Kingdom.

Among the six, he was the strongest, and the first time being born at the beginning of this world's creation.

Yet facing this rising star, he felt only despair and suffocation.

“Though maybe that’s a good thing.”

“At least if we can’t see the future, there’s no pressure.”

The Ancestor sighed inwardly.

Chaotic void.

“Hmm?”

“We just started observing—why can’t we see anything anymore?”

The seven thirteenth-rank time beings exchanged glances.

Though helpless, they understood. If they couldn’t see, it meant Lin Yuan didn’t want them to.

Under such circumstances, none dared force it.

Are you kidding? With a future guaranteed to become a Time Lord, none of them would risk angering him—even with ten times the courage.

With the Lord’s Status blessing, Lin Yuan suddenly felt that his three true bodies had become far more relaxed.

This feeling had no origin or reason—it was just there.

“Keep moving.”

Lin Yuan’s Tai Chi Primordial Spirit sped toward the Yin-Yang Life-Bloom.

The mysterious dimensional rift was truly boundless—able to accommodate countless time beings roaming within it.

“This journey has been quite fruitful.”

Lin Yuan’s heart was light. The dimensional rift, while vast and endless, had also birthed many dimensional treasures.

By observing his own future timelines, he had collected many such treasures along the way.

It was worth noting that to build the endless grains-of-sand world inside his body, Lin Yuan had poured in all of his resources.

He was currently in a very “broke” state.

These dimensional treasures were like a godsend.

"That's a massive chunk of Eternal Adamantine!" Lin Yuan’s eyes lit up as he looked at a golden mountain in the distance.

Eternal Adamantine—a thirteenth-rank metal—was used by the thirteenth-rank Lord Mo Xu to measure the power of internal universes when founding the Infinite Void inheritance.

The largest piece inside the jade gourd had only been a few hundred meters across. But this golden mountain stretched for tens of thousands of miles.

While Eternal Adamantine wasn’t rare at thirteenth rank, a mountain-sized piece was another story.

“Suppress.”

With a thought—

Black and white Yin-Yang energy swept out, pressing down on the golden mountain.

“There’s definitely something wrong.”

Lin Yuan instantly sensed resistance. Inside the golden mountain was a powerful lifeform. But facing Lin Yuan’s Tao of Chaos Tai Chi, anything below thirteenth-rank had no chance of resistance.

“A special kind of dimensional lifeform?”

Lin Yuan collected the mountain of Eternal Adamantine and discovered a golden insect within—it fed on the Adamantine itself.

“I’ll study it later.”

He casually tossed the golden mountain into the inner universe of his Tai Chi Primordial Spirit.

“The dimensional rift births countless treasures—and countless dangers.”

Lin Yuan sighed with emotion. Almost every treasure he had collected along the way came with danger. Only his overwhelming strength allowed him to ignore it.

The Eternal Adamantine mountain was no exception. The golden insect within wasn’t simple—an Invincible Supreme Saint would’ve been instantly killed upon approaching it.

“…Hmm?” As Lin Yuan continued on, he suddenly sensed a ripple. His expression shifted as he looked in another direction, eyes filled with contemplation.

“That… is it the greatest opportunity I saw among all those future timelines?”

...

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