Chapter 740

A deeply hidden valley was ringed inside and out with elite soldiers in armor. The area had been completely sealed off; no one was allowed near.

Inside the valley, a crowd of men, women, and children huddled together—faces filled with fear and despair, yet none dared to resist. They could only wait for the final judgment to arrive.

“Who would’ve thought the last remnants of the former dynasty were hiding here? Saved us the trouble of searching.”

At the head stood a fierce-eyed man named Lü Ju. Staring at everyone in the valley, he instructed the elite soldiers beside him: “Keep a close watch. Don’t let a single person slip away.”

“Yes, sir.”

The soldiers on both sides nodded, then hesitated.

“My lord, how long are we supposed to keep watch?”

“I’ve already reported to the court. Someone should be here soon to take these remnants of the former dynasty away.”

Lü Ju’s gaze swept over them. “Finding remnants of the former dynasty is a great merit. There’ll be rewards for you.”

Ever since the Emperor of Great Yan founded the state, a bounty had been issued for tracking down remnants of the previous dynasty. In the eighty years since, quite a few had risen to prominence on the back of such discoveries.

Unfortunately, as time passed, the remnants of the former dynasty grew fewer and fewer. In the past ten years, there hadn’t been a single whisper of them.

Lü Ju felt that this group in the valley was probably the last of Great Feng’s leftover clan.

“Every time remnants were found before, the court would send people to take them away. Never understood why they bother with the trouble.”

So thought Lü Ju in secret. In his view, if you found remnants of the former dynasty, you should kill them outright to prevent future problems. Why cart them off?

But this was an order from the Emperor of Great Yan. Lü Ju didn’t dare object. In the world today, the Emperor of Great Yan was no different from a deity.

That status didn’t come from strength alone, but from the policies implemented after Great Yan’s founding.

Compared to the former dynasty, Great Yan was far more lenient toward the common folk—lighter corvée and taxes, and even proactive public instruction—things unimaginable in past eras.

Lü Ju revered the Emperor of Great Yan to an unusual degree. When the nation celebrated together in the thirtieth year of Great Yan’s calendar, he’d even rushed to the capital, just to glimpse the Emperor from afar.

A moment later.

Outside the valley, a young man had appeared at some unknown time.

He wore plain clothes, his expression calm, and was not at all intimidated by the elite soldiers sealing the place off.

“This should be where the Great Feng palace’s ‘Eunuch Liang’ and his descendants hid.” The young man was Lin Yuan, gazing at the valley from afar.

“Eunuch Liang” had served the last emperor of Great Feng for decades. Before the capital was besieged, he’d been exiled from the palace for a mistake, and then vanished without a trace.

Not long ago, while traveling the world, Lin Yuan had learned of this and personally hurried over.

“Who are you? This area is sealed! Move along, now.” The patrolling soldiers immediately spotted the young man and hurried to scold him.

Lin Yuan spared them a glance and didn’t make things difficult. Instead, he drew a token from his robe.

The token was crimson, with the character “Yan” engraved on its face.

Since the founding of Great Yan, Lin Yuan had spent most of his time traveling the land, searching for the true Great Feng emperor.

And traveling the land naturally required an identity to rely upon, to mobilize local forces when needed. An emperor’s identity was too conspicuous, so he carried this token instead.

This token represented the Great Yan dynasty and could command local authorities at will.

“The Great Yan Command Token?” The soldiers’ expressions shifted slightly, and they hurried to bow to Lin Yuan.

“This must be the person the court sent to take the remnants away,” one soldier thought.

Anyone who could produce the Great Yan Command Token had to be someone high up in the court. It was personally issued by the Emperor, symbolizing an exalted status beyond words.

Before long—

Having received reports from his men, Lü Ju rushed out.

But the instant he saw Lin Yuan, his expression shook. He dropped straight to his knees.

“Lü Ju, garrison commander of Qiong Prefecture, pays respects to Your Majesty.”

“You recognize me?” Lin Yuan gave Lü Ju a longer look.

As the founding Emperor of Great Yan, Lin Yuan rarely showed himself publicly and spent most of his time traveling.

“In the thirtieth year of Great Yan, this humble general was fortunate enough to glimpse Your Majesty from afar in the capital,” Lü Ju said quickly.

That glimpse had been from far away, but the impression had been unforgettable. Even after fifty years, Lü Ju recognized Lin Yuan at a glance.

“Mm.”

Lin Yuan nodded.

In the thirtieth year of Great Yan, he had indeed toured the capital.

“They’re all inside?”

Lin Yuan didn’t waste words.

“All inside.”

Lü Ju answered at once.

“Pull your men out. Wait outside.”

Lin Yuan said.

In the past, when remnants of Great Feng were discovered, they would be escorted to the capital, and Lin Yuan would meet them personally.

“Yes.”

Lü Ju nodded, then hesitated. “Your Majesty, these remnants of the former dynasty are a bit unruly. When I sealed this place off, they resisted…”

Lü Ju was worried for Lin Yuan’s safety. If he pulled all the soldiers back, wouldn’t Lin Yuan be facing those remnants alone? If anything happened, even a thousand cuts wouldn’t redeem Lü Ju.

“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

Lin Yuan spoke casually.

As early as eighty years ago, his strength had reached the limits of this world.

The limits of this world—not the peak of the Dao Masters of past eras.

Eighty more years had passed since then, and Lin Yuan’s power had grown by a large margin again. There were basically no beings left who could harm him.

“Very well.”

Lü Ju hesitated, then followed Lin Yuan’s orders and withdrew all the soldiers.

The moment Lin Yuan entered the valley, the soldiers outside grew restless.

They had all seen Lü Ju’s behavior just now.

Your Majesty?

Lü Ju had called that young man “Your Majesty”?

In the entire Great Yan dynasty, only the Emperor could be addressed as “Your Majesty.”

In the eighty years since Great Yan’s founding, the Emperor had remained on the throne. There had never been a second emperor.

“General, was that the Emperor just now?”

“The Emperor is so young—he looks younger than me.”

“The Emperor overthrew the former dynasty eighty years ago and established Great Yan. After eighty years, he still looks this young?”

The soldiers were thrilled. To see the Emperor with their own eyes would give them a story to brag about for a lifetime.

“Quiet—His Majesty is still inside.”

Lü Ju frowned and swept a glance over them, and the area fell silent at once.

“His Majesty…”

Lü Ju himself felt deeply shaken. He realized, too, that the emperor he had just seen was exceptionally young—no different from fifty years ago.

Fifty years ago he had been nineteen. Now, at sixty-nine, he was already showing his age.

But His Majesty? He had overthrown the former dynasty eighty years ago, so he had to have been at least over twenty then. Now he had to be over a hundred. Even a Dao Master should be near the end of his allotted lifespan.

Inside the valley.

Hundreds of men, women, and children trembled in fear.

At that moment, they realized all the soldiers had withdrawn.

Then a young man walked in.

His aura was completely restrained; to those present, he seemed weaker than any random elite soldier from before.

But the soldiers had left, and this young man had entered. Clearly, his status was high enough to command the troops.

“Who are you?”

From the crowd, an old man with graying hair stepped forward. He looked at Lin Yuan and probed cautiously.

“You don’t need to know who I am.”

Lin Yuan gave a slight shake of his head. “Who here knows ‘Liang Qin’?”

Liang Qin was the eunuch who had served the last emperor of Great Feng.

It was said Liang Qin had begun serving him when he was still crown prince, until twenty years before Great Feng’s fall, when he was expelled from the palace and vanished, his fate unknown.

“I know him.”

The gray-haired old man was silent for a moment, then said, “I’m the adopted son Liang Qin took in. We meant to return to our hometown together, but when we heard Great Feng had fallen, we hid here.”

“Did Liang Qin tell you anything? About the last Great Feng emperor?”

Lin Yuan asked.

In truth, Lin Yuan was already scanning the man’s past timeline, locking onto the parts connected to Liang Qin.

Perhaps, from this eunuch who had attended the last Great Feng emperor for decades, he could glean a trace of that man.

“He told me some things.”

The old man said, “I can tell you everything. But the Great Feng dynasty has nothing to do with these others. If you must kill, kill me.”

“Speak.”

Lin Yuan looked at him.

“On the way back home, my foster father told me that in the decades he served, the Great Feng emperor’s temperament underwent two subtle changes.”

“Two subtle changes?”

Lin Yuan’s expression grew thoughtful.

“The first was two years after his enthronement. The emperor, who had been extremely interested in governance, suddenly plunged into Dao cultivation, spending most of his time in the Dao Pavilion.”

The gray-haired old man said.

The Dao Pavilion was where Great Feng stored numerous Daoist texts and secret arts.

“Afterward, when my foster father cleaned the Pavilion, he found that besides normal cultivation methods, the emperor was very interested in certain secret arts—concealing one’s aura, damping blood and mind fluctuations. He’d spent a lot of time on those.”

“There were long stretches when he studied only those kinds of secrets,” the old man continued.

“Go on.”

Lin Yuan nodded.

“The second change was about a decade or two later. After serving him for so long, my foster father faintly felt that the emperor seemed like a different person. Even if his manners and behavior were exactly the same, there was just… that feeling.”

The gray-haired old man spoke.

When Liang Qin had told him this, he’d warned him never to spread it, or it would mean the headsman’s blade.

But now that Great Feng had been gone eighty years, saying it out loud didn’t matter.

Lin Yuan fell into brief contemplation.

From what the old man said, the second subtle change in the emperor’s temperament suggested a cause.

That was when a double took the throne.

No matter how closely a double resembles the original—

They are not the same person.

Courtiers, even family, might not perceive it.

But a eunuch attending the emperor day and night would not remain ignorant.

“I understand.”

Lin Yuan nodded.

He’d gotten the key information he wanted.

As for whether the gray-haired old man lied or concealed anything? Lin Yuan had just reviewed the man’s past timeline several times and was sure nothing was missing.

“My lord, I am indeed connected to the former dynasty. But the others are not. They were all born after Great Yan was established—they’re subjects of Great Yan.”

The old man pleaded at once.

“Don’t worry.”

“You’ll all live.”

Lin Yuan’s gaze swept the trembling crowd as he spoke.

He was not a man addicted to killing. If his own interests weren’t involved, he wouldn’t take lives needlessly.

From beginning to end, his target was only the Great Feng emperor.

As for the many “remnants” sent to the court over the past eighty years? Once Lin Yuan confirmed they knew nothing about the Great Feng emperor, he hadn’t killed them; he kept them in a small town.

Outside the valley.

Lü Ju saw Lin Yuan walk out and hurried up. “Your Majesty.”

“I’m going ahead.”

Lin Yuan glanced at him.

“What should we do with the people inside?” Lü Ju asked in a low voice.

“Don’t make it hard on them. Let them go.”

Lin Yuan said.

“Yes.”

Lü Ju bowed at once.

When he raised his head again, Lin Yuan was already gone.

“Your Majesty…” Lü Ju steadied himself, staring at the empty space before him, dazed.

Had he really just seen the Emperor of Great Yan?

On a mountain peak—steep and jagged—so forbidding that even birds were scarce and even a Dao Master would struggle to reach it.

A young man sat on a boulder.

He looked down from the summit, his thoughts complicated.

“The Great Feng emperor used all the primordial divine metal not to follow the Founding Ancestor’s last decree and cast nine cauldrons, but to forge a coffin?” Lin Yuan pondered.

Over eighty years, by mustering the strength of the realm, he had roughly figured out what the primordial divine metal had become.

Even if the Great Feng emperor hid the truth and silenced every craftsman involved.

Once something is done, it leaves traces. With Lin Yuan able to watch past timelines, after some effort he had pieced it together.

Compared to forging nine cauldrons, the emperor’s choice of a coffin left Lin Yuan silent.

A coffin cast from vast amounts of primordial divine metal, once completely sealed, was nearly impossible to open by external force.

Even if returned to the earthfire caverns for smelting, with the size and mass of such a coffin, it would take centuries to melt even half.

To melt it entirely might take six or seven hundred years.

“On top of that, he studied many secret arts for dampening aura and lowering the fluctuations of blood and mind. Was he cultivating a feigned death?”

Lin Yuan probed deeper.

If the Great Feng emperor used a feigned-death art and hid inside a coffin made entirely of primordial divine metal, then stashed it somewhere.

Who in the world could kill him?

Except—

Why would he do this?

Feigned death in a sealed coffin—how is that different from truly dying?

“Rather than be slain by me, he’d rather eke out a paltry existence? This is more than just knowing in advance that I intended to kill him.”

Lin Yuan shook his head lightly. “That Great Feng emperor, like me, fell into this time-looping world from outside. But while my trial is to kill him, his trial is simply to survive?”

Over eighty years, drawing on countless clues and his own observations, Lin Yuan had finally reached that astonishing conclusion.

If the Great Feng emperor were native to this time-loop world, he would never act this way. He could have negotiated—traded his life for Great Feng’s continuation.

Not ended like this: Great Feng dead, the emperor hiding in a coffin, surviving in a way no different from death.

“So this is my true trial.”

“An opponent like me—also from outside—who knows full well that I can and will kill him.”

Lin Yuan found it thorny. If he’d known sooner, he would have infiltrated the palace the moment he transmigrated, at all costs forging a karmic link with the emperor first.

Then no matter where the emperor fled, Lin Yuan could have found him.

A month later.

On the shore of the Eastern Sea.

The Eastern Sea was also called the Deep Sea—known as the Endless Eastern Sea, or the Endless Deep.

Lin Yuan stood with hands clasped behind his back, gazing out.

For eighty years, he had walked almost every inch of the land.

At each place, he would look along future timelines and, within that timeline, conduct exhaustive searches of the area—down to excavations a hundred thousand li beneath the ground.

The continent beneath Lin Yuan’s feet had, over the past eighty years, been turned over dozens of times across billions of timelines, and no trace of primordial divine metal had been found.

Which meant—

If the Great Feng emperor really hid in a coffin of primordial divine metal, then the hiding place couldn’t be on land.

“The deep sea…”

Lin Yuan looked at the endless, dark-blue ocean.

Leaving aside that he was close to the limit of his lifespan—his body would die in two months.

Even if he had time to spare, searching the Endless Deep the way he had searched the continent would take thousands, tens of thousands of years.

The Endless Deep was a thousandfold, ten-thousandfold larger than the land.

And the environment at the bottom was so hostile that Lin Yuan couldn’t even approach it; the immeasurable pressure would crush his body to pulp.

In this world, no matter how much he cultivated or pushed past limits, the upper bound of the body was fixed. He could not break the limit of lifespan, nor the shackles of flesh.

Even now, if Lin Yuan’s heart and brain were destroyed, he would still die—perhaps a bit slower thanks to his powerful mind—but die he would.

“Remarkable.”

Lin Yuan couldn’t help but admire him.

Right now, he also felt a measure of respect for that Great Feng emperor.

He had left Lin Yuan no chance at all.

“Even if I had infiltrated the palace at the moment of descent and forged a karmic link, learned his coordinates in the depths—it wouldn’t help much.”

Lin Yuan’s thoughts moved silently.

The seabed environment was too harsh. He had no means to retrieve the coffin.

The emperor relied on primordial divine metal to withstand the endless pressure. What could Lin Yuan rely on?

Even if he found the same amount of primordial divine metal, sealed himself inside, and endured the pressure—once he sank to the bottom, the instant he dared crack the seal, he would be crushed in a heartbeat.

As for developing technology—using it to explore the depths?

This time-loop world suppressed more than the fluctuations of great laws.

It suppressed basic physical laws as well. Climbing a tech tree wouldn’t work.

“Two months until the end of my lifespan.”

“Thirteen days until that time node.”

Lin Yuan withdrew his gaze from the dark blue sea.

Twenty years ago, after he had basically scoured the land and still couldn’t find the emperor, he suspected the man wasn’t on land at all.

Searching the deep wasn’t realistic. Even with a full hundred and fifty years, there was no way to comb every corner of the sea.

So he’d begun pondering other routes.

If he wanted to fathom the Endless Deep—or the entire world—in a short time, it wasn’t impossible, but it would require an unimaginably powerful mind.

If one’s mind were strong enough, a single thought could blanket the whole world.

But that was almost impossible.

The mind is nurtured by flesh and blood. With this world’s suppression of the body, such a mind could never be birthed.

This was a limit set by the world—by its supreme rules.

Lin Yuan couldn’t break it.

However—

He could not strengthen this body.

But he could replace it.

If Lin Yuan’s body were not this fleshly shell, but this world itself.

At his level, “body” was no longer confined to flesh and blood.

All things can gain spirit; bodies come in myriad forms. Taking a world as one’s body was also possible.

He only needed to use his will to replace this world’s will.

However—

Replacing a world’s will was enormously dangerous.

Especially in a world with such harsh rules, Lin Yuan’s mind could be counterattacked by the world during the attempt and utterly annihilated.

Only at the right time, in the right place, catching the instant of the world-will’s instinctive fluctuation and inserting his own will—would there be a chance of success.

And that right time was thirteen days away.

At that moment, the world-will would enter its deepest sleep.

That was Lin Yuan’s greatest—and only—opportunity.

This was the timeline he had fixed upon after watching countless future lines.

Every other attempt to replace the world-will had failed.

Only at this time point did he succeed.

At his realm, once he fully replaced the world-will, his mind would surge without limit, easily covering every inch of the world.

Then, as long as the Great Feng emperor was still within this world, Lin Yuan could lock onto him with ease.

And with the mind he’d gain after replacing the world, even the isolation of primordial divine metal wouldn’t save the emperor; Lin Yuan could pierce through and kill him outright.

“Thirteen days, then.”

Lin Yuan was in no hurry.

Even in the worst case—

If he failed at the right time—

He would burn the Boundary-Breaking Source Power and kill the emperor on the spot.

With Lin Yuan’s current mind, even if he failed and suffered backlash from the world-will, he could hold out for a few instants—long enough to trigger the Source Power and “clear the trial.”

Of course—

He preferred to succeed in replacing the world-will.

Not only to save four million units of Boundary-Breaking Source Power, but to give meaning to the past one hundred and fifty years.

If he had to rely on the Source Power in the end, why not use it the moment he arrived?

“Let’s go to An Mountain.”

Lin Yuan rose and departed.

An Mountain was the right place he needed to replace the world-will.

Only when the right time and right place aligned—

Was there a chance of success.

Time passed.

In a blink, thirteen days arrived.

Lin Yuan sat cross-legged on a mountain peak.

He could clearly sense a strange current flowing here.

At this time, this place was the thinnest patch of the world.

“Now!”

Lin Yuan drew a deep breath, and his mind ignited.

As it burned, his mind climbed higher without end, piercing the clouds to the vault of heaven.

Deprived of his mind’s control, his body began to age at a visible speed.

He had maintained a youthful appearance only through the control of a strong will.

Now that all his mind had left his body, it naturally could not hold its previous form.

Rumble—

As Lin Yuan’s mind rose, merging deeper and deeper into the world’s core—

The world-will, sluggish till now, began to awaken.

“Take the will of heaven with my own.”

Lin Yuan’s vast mind wove and spun, countless runes manifesting as they merged with the world-will.

As for replacing a world-will—he had done it before, during his first few transmigrations into the azure worlds of the boundless void.

He had experience.

Buzz, buzz, buzz—the mind kept merging into the world-will. The latter thrashed violently, but couldn’t stop him.

Lin Yuan’s attempt had been too sudden; the world-will had no time to prepare. And he had staked everything, burning all his mind for a massive surge.

At last, in a certain instant—

Lin Yuan’s mind completely replaced the world-will.

“This—”

Once he had replaced it, his mind began to swell without end.

Since descending into this world, compared to his true body, his mind had been feeble to an extreme.

But that was the body’s limit at work; such a weak shell couldn’t bear a stronger mind.

Now, with this world as his body, the strength of a world far surpassed that of an individual. Even if it still fell short of his true self outside, it could now unleash a measure of his real power.

Whoosh—the world at his back, Lin Yuan’s mind exploded upward, sweeping the world in a blink.

The Central Plains’ ninety-nine provinces, the many small states and tribes—all fell within his mind’s domain.

What had taken him eighty years to probe, now happened in an instant.

Whoom!

His terrifying mind spilled outward, covering the Endless Deep.

Soon—

The deep, too, was blanketed.

In the deep, colossal sea beasts sensed something as his will passed; they cowered and shivered.

“There…”

Lin Yuan focused on a point on the ocean floor—the deepest place in all the Endless Deep, almost devoid of life.

There, at the very bottom, lay a pitch-black coffin.

Rumble—

His terrifying mind swept over it. The primordial divine metal blocked all, but it couldn’t bar a mind backed by a world-body. The formless power seeped through, covering the figure within.

“What—”

Startled from feigned death, the Great Feng emperor’s eyes snapped open.

“Die.”

Without a shred of hesitation, Lin Yuan drove his mind through and erased the emperor in the coffin.

The instant the emperor died, the entire world seemed to freeze.

Lin Yuan grew thoughtful and let his mind return to his body.

His flesh was now extremely old, but not yet dead. He still had more than a month left.

He rose and looked around.

From the world’s edges inward, all matter began to unravel and collapse.

As if everything were a bubble, destined to vanish.

“I’ve broken the time loop.”

Lin Yuan lifted his head to the sky.

Somewhere in the unseen, he already knew he had passed the trial of the time loop.

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