"Of course." Zhang Tianshi nodded. "However, the founder who studied the Rhino Emperor Game most deeply in the history of the Celestial Master Palace solved only a little over 2,500 boards. I'm afraid we can offer little help to you, brother... to you, Palace Master."
As he spoke, Zhang removed a pouch from his waist and took out an old, somewhat battered book. "Besides keeping books in the libraries at our highest-ranking outposts, the Celestial Master Palace has also gathered all our inherited knowledge into Complete Canons like this one. We did so to prevent a situation like the present from cutting off the Palace's knowledge.
"This Complete Canon is made of the same material as the Rhino Emperor Game Array Books the Celestial Master Palace gives its disciples. You can send your consciousness into either of them, making them the best way to preserve knowledge."
Yan took the book and glanced down at it. Sure enough, just like the Rhino Emperor Game Array Book, he could immerse his consciousness directly into its pages.
After putting the book away, Yan nodded to the three Grand Celestial Masters. "The Celestial Master Palace's many years of accumulated knowledge should be a great help to me. I'll devote myself to studying it for now. As for keeping order in Jing Kingdom, I'll leave that to you three. If you run into any problems you can't resolve, come to me."
"That would be best." The three old Celestial Masters nodded in agreement.
"Senior Brother, are we really betting everything on this boy, when we know so little about him?" After they left the courtyard where Yan was resting, Celestial Master Lu couldn't help asking Zhang.
"This is the only option we have now. You know as well as I do that among the Celestial Master Palace outposts in the various kingdoms, ours in Jing Kingdom is the strongest. If we've suffered losses this severe, it wouldn't be surprising if the other outposts had been wiped out entirely." Zhang shook his head and sighed. "This boy has limitless potential, and from what I can tell, he doesn't seem wicked by nature. If I've misjudged him, then perhaps this is simply humanity's fate..."
Zhang's words filled the other two with sorrow, but they had to admit the truth. The three of them were old and frail, and the Celestial Master Palace's disciples were mostly ordinary talents. Thinking they could deal with the monsters was pure fantasy.
And so Yan became the new leader of the Celestial Master Palace in Jing Kingdom. But despite being its Palace Master, he made no further moves. Instead, he returned to his devoted study of the Rhino Emperor Game.
He was unrivaled among humans now, but he was still far from matching the White-Gold Horned Lizard.
Yan didn't know how the monsters attacking other kingdoms compared with the White-Gold Horned Lizard. To be safe, he felt he needed to reach at least its level before trying to take on the other monsters.
Unexpectedly, though, once the White-Gold Horned Lizard was gone, the ordinary monsters seemed to have become no more than ordinary beasts, having lost all their abilities.
Under the leadership of the three Celestial Masters and the Celestial Master Palace's ordinary members, the monsters occupying Jing Kingdom were swiftly wiped out in less than two years.
And no new monsters appeared.
This only strengthened Yan and the others' belief that the eight supreme monsters were at the heart of the catastrophe.
With the crisis in Jing Kingdom resolved, the three Celestial Masters discussed with Yan whether to send aid to the other kingdoms or, at the very least, bring as many survivors there as possible to Jing Kingdom.
The catastrophe had devastated Jing Kingdom and taken a terrible toll on its population, but it had also left plenty of land. After two years of farming, the granaries had some food in them again, so accepting a group of survivors wouldn't be too difficult.
After much discussion, they decided to send scouts into the neighboring kingdoms of Yong, Liang, Wu, Yue, and Song to see whether anyone had survived.
As for Qi and Yan, thousands of miles away, Jing Kingdom was in no position to help them for the time being.
Exploring neighboring kingdoms was nothing like clearing out the monsters in Jing Kingdom, which had lost their abilities. The supreme monsters in the other seven kingdoms were still alive, and even the ordinary monsters retained their powers. Facing them wouldn't be easy.
So Yan stopped devoting himself to cultivation all the time and began joining Jing Kingdom's adventuring parties on their expeditions.
After two years of dedicated study, Yan had made steady progress in the Rhino Emperor Game and had now solved more than 2,800 boards, far surpassing the greatest achievement in the Celestial Master Palace's history.
At first, given how quickly he'd solved the first 2,000 boards, he shouldn't have made such rapid progress in only two years. But ever since merging with the White-Gold Horned Lizard's body, Yan had gradually realized that his thoughts and comprehension had both leaped forward.
It was as if some part of him that had always belonged to him had been made whole. Combined with the Celestial Master Palace's accumulated knowledge, this was the main reason he'd solved boards 2,000 to 3,000 faster than before.
Otherwise, every additional thousand boards in the Rhino Emperor Game represented a huge bottleneck. At his original rate, he'd have been lucky to reach board 2,200 by now.
After witnessing Yan's abilities firsthand several times, people quickly came to respect the mysterious new Palace Master.
Even the surviving Grand Celestial Masters from other kingdoms, who had been rescued and brought to Jing Kingdom, submitted to him after seeing his strength and terrifying rate of progress.
Yan could now fully control the newly reestablished human kingdoms.
At this rate, once I've dealt with the remaining seven supreme monsters, I'll rule the world... Then I'll see what happens. Yan silently considered the prospect.
"The three-thousandth board of the Rhino Emperor Game has been solved!"
In Jing Kingdom's capital, Yan had long since moved into the newly rebuilt Celestial Master Palace. As for the old royal palace, it had become a thing of the past, with swallows flying from the halls of princes and kings into the homes of ordinary people.
A vast number of commoners' homes had been built on the site of the old palace. Nothing remained of the royal majesty that had once filled it. The palace had occupied a huge area, and the new homes were now large enough to house tens of thousands of people.
The royal families of every kingdom had been all but wiped out in the Monster Catastrophe. Even in Jing Kingdom, which had suffered the least, the direct royal line and its close branches had all perished. The few distant branches left were no different from ordinary commoners.
After discussing the matter internally, the Celestial Master Palace decided simply to preserve the status quo and have the Palace organize the people's reconstruction efforts. That would also prevent trouble from flaring up over the royal families at such a critical time.
Yan was happy to let the Palace handle things that way. It could only benefit him.
"Back in Bauhinia Village, it took me a full five years to solve 2,000 boards. Now, after just five more years, I've reached 3,000... Did the White-Gold Horned Lizard's body really improve me that much?" Yan couldn't help marveling.
Although he didn't often transform into that form, after several years Yan had come to understand that the White-Gold Horned Lizard must have been part of him all along. His origins were probably far more complicated than those of a boy from a remote mountain village.
But over these five years, Yan had made progress in more than just solving the game. He often spoke with the old Celestial Masters, and he had repeatedly led expeditions into other kingdoms, taken in refugees, and fought monsters. After experiencing so much, he was far more mature than he'd been five years ago and no longer dwelled on things so easily.
"Now that I've solved 3,000 boards, it's time to deal with the other monsters." Setting aside his thoughts for the moment, Yan rose and left his Quiet Room.
Over the past five years, Jing Kingdom had risen from the ashes and established a relatively mature new system centered on the Celestial Master Palace. Though Yan, as the Palace Master, didn't handle administrative affairs, his strength and prestige made him Jing Kingdom's undisputed leader.
Yan summoned the Celestial Master Palace's seven remaining Grand Celestial Masters and told them he planned to take on the other monsters.
"As you know, each kingdom's capital has a pillar of light that reaches from heaven to earth. We don't know what it does. Although the monsters' progress has slowed since the pillar of light here in Jing Kingdom was destroyed, there could still be trouble if we wait too long."
It didn't take Yan long to convince them. In the end, three Grand Celestial Masters decided to set out with him. One was Zhang, who had been the first to come to Yan's aid. The others were Celestial Master Lu from Liang Kingdom and Celestial Master Han from Yong Kingdom.
Yan's first target was Liang Kingdom. If all went well, he would also deal with Yong Kingdom's supreme monster, then take on the monsters occupying the other kingdoms one by one.
A green whirlwind spun beneath their feet as Yan led the three Celestial Masters swiftly toward Luo City, the capital of Liang Kingdom.
They combined Teleportation with flight along the way, traveling far faster than Yan had when he first set out on his own.
No wonder the White-Gold Horned Lizard said my spatial ability wasn't strong enough back then... It's only after mastering the complete spatial ability that I can bring out its full power. Feeling how much more skillfully he could use Teleportation now, Yan couldn't help marveling.
The ability he'd gained after solving the three-thousandth board was Space Lockdown. Only after mastering it did Yan realize that Teleportation, Strangulation, and Space Lockdown were the three aspects of spatial power.
Once he had mastered them all, each one was far more powerful on its own than before.
"But the White-Gold Horned Lizard had mastered the complete temporal ability back then. Had it really solved 3,000 boards...?"
Recalling their battle, Yan felt uncertain. Now that he had solved 3,000 boards himself, he sensed that the White-Gold Horned Lizard hadn't been quite as powerful as he'd once thought.
Then how had it mastered the complete temporal ability?
Maybe it was lucky? Maybe the temporal ability didn't appear at one of the thousand-board milestones? Yan wondered, frowning.
The explanation didn't seem convincing, but the White-Gold Horned Lizard was dead. And back then, Yan hadn't been strong enough to judge how many boards it had solved. He would never get an answer.
How strange.
But after years of accumulating questions, Yan had learned to accept them. If he could just eliminate all the monsters behind the catastrophe, the answers would eventually come.
Four days later, Yan and the three Celestial Masters arrived at Luo City, the old capital of Liang Kingdom.