Chapter 751

Third Source World.

Inside a majestic imperial palace brimming with extraordinary phenomena, Lin Yuan sat cross-legged and slowly opened his eyes.

"This Source World..."

Lin Yuan's expression was pensive as countless pieces of information flashed through his mind.

This vast world was called the Great Wilderness Source Realm, home to countless terrifying races.

The vessel Lin Yuan descended into belonged to the human race.

And not just any human—but the only Extremity Practitioner of this era among humanity—

The Celestial Emperor Tianyuan.

"Celestial Emperor" was a title, not a specific realm.

Anyone who stood at the peak of the Great Wilderness Source Realm could be called an Emperor.

Or a Celestial Sovereign, or a Supreme.

For Lin Yuan to be recognized as the Celestial Emperor of this era, his strength was unquestionable.

Even if he wasn't the absolute strongest—

He was undeniably among the strongest.

Unfortunately—

Lin Yuan was not occupying Tianyuan's prime state.

But rather the twilight years of an aging Emperor—

A declining body, a lifespan near its end.

In truth, the Celestial Emperor Tianyuan had already exhausted his lifespan and passed away.

Otherwise, Lin Yuan wouldn’t have been able to descend and take over as his vessel.

The transmigration of the Gate of Myriad Realms could only target beings on the brink of death—or already dead.

That Lin Yuan was able to descend meant the original Tianyuan had already died.

"This Source World’s laws are indeed unique. It even has a lifespan limit as a shackle."

Lin Yuan let out a soft breath, carefully adjusting the vitality within his body.

If converted into Chaos Void terms, an Emperor's power would equate to a perfected twelfth rank.

But in terms of combat strength, an Emperor far surpassed even an Invincible Supreme Saint, nearly reaching the level of the Abyssal Dragon in the first Source World.

Yet such a powerful being did not enjoy eternal life. At most, they lived a little over a million years.

If they consumed an Immortal Medicine, they could extend their life into a second lifetime—two to three million years total.

Going even further, breaking through their limits, they might live into a fourth or fifth life.

Of course—

Lin Yuan’s vessel—Tianyuan—was considered average among all historical Emperors.

He had only lived into his second life thanks to an Immortal Medicine he’d acquired long ago.

But ultimately, he had never broken through his own limits and reached a third life.

"The body's vitality has finally stabilized."

Lin Yuan withdrew his thoughts. When he first descended, he could barely detect any vitality at all.

Tianyuan had exhausted nearly all his life essence just to live a little longer. Once he passed, it would have been complete obliteration, leaving nothing behind.

Only Lin Yuan was able to forcefully hold on to a single breath and gradually regenerate the body's core life force—

Surviving in the process.

"Now that I’ve gotten through the first step, the rest will be much easier."

A smile appeared on Lin Yuan's face.

Before descending into the third Source World, Lin Yuan had several dozen vessels to choose from.

In the end, he chose Tianyuan precisely because this starting point was the highest—it would allow him to regain his peak strength in the shortest time.

And Tianyuan’s physique was special—through viewing future timelines, Lin Yuan had discovered some subtle clues.

Even Tianyuan himself never knew what his true constitution was.

The only downside was the problem of lifespan depletion.

But for Lin Yuan, that wasn’t a major issue.

"This Source World is too unique..."

Lin Yuan looked around at the world. In his vision, the Dao laws of this realm were manifest—almost tangible.

In the Chaos Void or the previous two Source Worlds, this would’ve been unimaginable.

"No wonder one can reach the Emperor realm in just a hundred thousand years."

Lin Yuan nodded slightly.

Current Emperors—regardless of combat power—had a realm equivalent to perfected twelfth rank.

But in the Chaos Void, reaching perfected twelfth rank would take at least a cosmic era.

Here, though?

Most Emperors became Extremity Practitioners within a hundred thousand years.

Some monstrous talents managed it in just tens of thousands of years.

Tens of thousands of years to reach perfected twelfth rank? That was almost catching up to Lin Yuan himself.

Only with such a cultivation environment, where Dao laws were so overtly revealed, could so many Emperors be born.

"And then there’s the operation of the origin Dao..."

Lin Yuan felt the ripples of the world’s operation, his eyes gleaming.

The operation of this world's origin Dao was entirely different from the previous two Source Worlds—and vastly separated from the Chaos Void’s dimensional gap regions.

The insight it offered him was unprecedented.

"Perfect Essence—the Perfect Essence here far exceeds the second Source World."

The Lord of Heavenly Radiance had paid a massive price to merge with the second Source World, all because of the so-called Perfect Essence it contained.

Yet the third Source World contained even more.

Perfect Essence was tied to the fourteenth rank—the more, the better.

Choosing Tianyuan as his vessel—

The benefit was a high starting point. As a current Emperor, he had access to far more resources and rare treasures than any other option.

As for downsides?

First was the lifespan limit.

But that was inevitable. Had it not been for that, Tianyuan wouldn’t have died—and Lin Yuan would never have had the chance to descend.

And now that issue had already been resolved.

With Lin Yuan’s methods, once he endured the initial phase of his descent—

He was basically free from the lifespan constraint.

This so-called lifespan limit only applied to beings below the thirteenth rank.

Under this world's rules, such beings had their souls decay with time.

But Lin Yuan was inherently a thirteenth rank time being—his soul and will occupied Tianyuan’s body. Even if his power hadn’t returned to the thirteenth rank, there was no lifespan limit.

Because Lin Yuan’s will would never decay.

The second downside came from Tianyuan’s identity as a current Emperor and the associated dangers.

To become an Emperor of the human race—even if average—he had climbed to the top of mountains of corpses and oceans of blood.

Tianyuan had slain countless genius prodigies of other races in the past—even direct descendants of their Celestial Sovereigns and Supremes.

At his peak, those other races had no choice but to endure—even if they had deep foundations and ancient Celestial Sovereigns who had severed their own paths.

No one wanted to battle a peak Emperor head-on.

Beyond those alien races, many Lords of Forbidden Zones also had their eyes on Tianyuan.

The origin of a current Emperor was enough to nourish their twisted wills and souls.

"In this world, the human race is weak—insignificant among the myriad races. Before Tianyuan’s rise, they had never produced an Emperor-level powerhouse."

Lin Yuan reflected.

So after Tianyuan became an Extremity Practitioner, the human race rapidly expanded.

With Tianyuan as their pillar, the other races had no choice but to retreat.

Unfortunately, Tianyuan never succeeded in grooming a new Emperor for the human race.

It was clear: once he died, the humans would face retribution from the alien races.

Lin Yuan now possessed all of Tianyuan’s memories.

He knew Tianyuan had made many preparations for the time after his death.

As early as 100,000 years ago, he had begun contracting the human race’s territory.

Now, their current holdings weren’t even one-thousandth of their peak from a million years ago.

Tianyuan had also considered severing his own path like those ancient Supremes, to drag out his lifespan.

But to do that, he would have had to enter the Yellow Springs Forbidden Zone and soak for ten thousand years.

Only then could he extend his life, at the cost of becoming a Yellow Springs Body—forever unable to advance.

However, in his youth, Tianyuan had killed several descendants of the Yellow Springs Lord.

The two sides had a death feud.

To enter the Yellow Springs alone, Tianyuan had been unwilling—and ultimately gave up on the idea.

In fact, very few Emperors or Celestial Sovereigns ever chose to sever their path.

The cost of soaking in Yellow Springs was far more than just losing advancement potential.

Tianyuan had made many preparations to help the human race survive his death.

Yet when Lin Yuan viewed the future time streams, he clearly saw—

After Tianyuan's death, the human race would be wiped out by those powerful alien races.

Those races didn’t want the risk of another human Emperor appearing.

So they joined forces to annihilate them completely.

And Tianyuan’s own body?

It was divided up among the Forbidden Zone Lords.

That was Tianyuan’s ultimate fate.

Of course—that was before Lin Yuan descended.

Now that he had taken over, all futures were being rewritten.

"For now, the top priority is regaining my full strength."

Lin Yuan thought to himself.

In this Source World, an Emperor was a top-tier powerhouse.

Beyond that was the Mortal Immortal.

Only Mortal Immortals could break the constraints of lifespan and roam freely.

A Mortal Immortal corresponded to a thirteenth rank time being.

They stood high above—even though named after the mortal world, they were no longer part of it.

They existed at a higher level of the Great Wilderness Source Realm.

Mortal Immortals were the ultimate pursuit of every past Emperor, Celestial Sovereign, and Supreme.

But becoming one wasn’t just about breaking the cycle of time—

They also needed to gather vast amounts of Undying Substance.

Using it to nurture the body, soul, and spirit until they fully transformed into the Mortal Immortal level.

Every generation of Emperors tried to gather Undying Substance.

But even with Emperor-level power, it could take tens of millions—or even over a hundred million years to accumulate enough.

In other words, only Emperors who had lived seven or eight lives could gather enough to attempt breaking time’s cycle.

But Lin Yuan’s will had already reached the time-being level. He didn’t need to undergo another cycle.

He just needed to accumulate enough Undying Substance—and he could return to peak form.

"Undying Substance..."

Lin Yuan focused, quickly sensing the faint traces of energy diffused throughout the world.

It contained the essence of undying and eternal existence—

Undying Substance.

"A normal Emperor would need tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years to accumulate enough... but I don’t need that long."

Lin Yuan thought to himself.

He wasn’t truly an Emperor. His actual realm was on par with a Mortal Immortal time being—his speed of gathering Undying Substance far surpassed any Emperor.

The You Clan.

Among the nine most powerful clans of the Great Wilderness Source Realm—

The You Clan ranked at least in the top three.

In their ancestral land, deep within—

A pair of eyes that seemed to have slept for countless ages suddenly opened, cold and piercing, gazing toward Tianyuan's imperial palace.

Then, one pair after another opened—all looking in the same direction.

Tianyuan Imperial Palace—the residence of the current Celestial Emperor, and the core of the newly elevated Human Clan.

"Tianyuan should be dead by now, no?"

"With his accumulation, there’s no way he broke past his limits and lived into a third life."

Several You Clan Supremes who had severed their paths whispered to each other, estimating Tianyuan’s current state.

"Just a little longer. Then we’ll awaken fully, storm his palace, and divide the Emperor’s corpse."

One of the You Clan’s Celestial Sovereigns muttered.

They too had once ruled the Source Realm—but after too many years in slumber, and with the toll of the Yellow Springs Body, they longed to devour an Emperor’s flesh and soul.

"Yes. Tianyuan’s there. He can’t run."

The others nodded.

Since they had severed their paths, they were weaker than true Emperors—so they had no desire to face one still clinging to life.

Forbidden Zone: Yellow Springs.

Pairs of eyes also opened—closely monitoring Tianyuan’s palace.

"He still hasn’t come... Seems he doesn’t trust us. Doesn’t trust Yellow Springs."

"So be it. It’s troublesome, but after all, it’s the origin of a living Emperor. That’s enough to restore our near-dead souls—worth acting personally."

The existences within Yellow Springs quickly communicated.

Had Tianyuan followed their words—come to their territory, and allowed himself to be suppressed and drained—

That would’ve been ideal.

But clearly, Tianyuan harbored suspicions.

He would rather die naturally than go to them.

This troubled the Yellow Springs dwellers.

But only slightly.

At worst, they would just revive more fully.

With the origin of a living Emperor, the cost of revival would be paid off entirely.

The ones eyeing Tianyuan were not limited to the You Clan or Yellow Springs.

Numerous special and taboo beings were watching—

All waiting for the first opportunity to divide the current Celestial Emperor.

After all, even with his lifespan depleted, his body was still at peak condition. Only his soul was spent.

Compared to those ancient Sovereigns who had survived countless eons, Tianyuan was a delicacy beyond compare.

Inside the Tianyuan Imperial Palace.

Lin Yuan was now attempting to condense Undying Substance.

Waves of energy were stripped from the heavens and gathered in front of him—nearly materializing.

Had other Celestial Sovereigns been present, they would’ve been utterly stunned.

Even for them, condensing Undying Substance meant slowly accumulating it over endless ages.

But now?

To have it nearly take physical form?

Every breath Lin Yuan took yielded Undying Substance equivalent to centuries—perhaps millennia—of effort for a normal Emperor.

"It’s done."

Lin Yuan suddenly opened his eyes.

Looking at the fully formed Undying Substance before him, a strange expression flickered across his face.

...

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