The years flowed by, spring passed, and autumn came.
Another thirty years slipped quietly through his fingers.
The Great Sui Dynasty continued to run steadily and swiftly along the path of the Enlightened Prosperity Era.
During this time, the realm was at peace, and the people lived in prosperity.
The reforms of old had long since taken root in people's hearts, becoming an everyday reality that the new generation took for granted.
Lin Hanzhou had also been emperor for eighty years.
For a mortal, eighty years was almost a whole lifetime.
For Lin Hanzhou, who was at the peak of the Pulse Opening Realm, it was also most of a lifetime.
Lin Hanzhou no longer looked anything like he had in his youth. He had become an old man with hair and beard as white as snow.
His gaze had grown ever more profound, and his bearing as a man of power stood out all the more. Ordinary people hardly dared meet his eyes.
But in the end, he had grown old. His qi and blood had withered, and his meridians had declined, leaving him unable to break through into the second-tier Qi Gathering Realm.
Lin Hanzhou knew this was a problem all martial artists faced in their later years.
Before reaching the third-tier Qi Sea Realm, martial artists over sixty suffered from depleted qi and blood and found it difficult to cultivate.
Only by reaching the Qi Sea Realm and opening a qi sea, which added three hundred years to one's lifespan, could one somewhat resolve the problem.
But the third-tier Qi Sea Realm remained far beyond his reach, and he could only endure the decline of his qi and blood for now.
Fortunately, all of this was happening only in the Dream World. As soon as he returned to reality, he would recover.
However, an urgent report from the Seventh Prince's residence shattered the stillness that had settled over his heart for decades.
His seventh brother, Seventh Prince Lin Yuan, was gravely ill and on the brink of death.
The moment he received the news, Lin Hanzhou's hand paused slightly as he was reviewing memorials.
How long had it been since he had heard that name?
Ten years? Fifty?
The floodgates of memory slowly opened.
He remembered that pitch-black night eighty years ago, and his gentle elder brother at the post station, full of worry as he urged him to leave.
That was the first—and only—pure familial affection he had felt since arriving in the Dream World.
After ascending the throne, mindful of Lin Yuan's kindness, he had enfeoffed him as Prince Anle.
He had also sent innate masters to serve as guards and bestowed countless riches upon him, so he could stay far from courtly strife and enjoy a life of wealth and comfort.
For eighty years, he had been busy with reforms and cultivation. Before he knew it, he had gradually forgotten this elder brother.
Only now, with news of his impending death, did he remember him.
"Prepare the imperial carriage. We're going to Prince Anle's Mansion."
Lin Hanzhou set down his vermilion brush. His voice held a complicated emotion he himself had not noticed.
When the emperor's carriage arrived at Prince Anle's Mansion for the first time in eighty years, the entire household was thrown into an uproar.
Lin Yuan's descendants knelt in a crowd, trembling and at a loss.
Lin Hanzhou paid them no mind and went straight into Lin Yuan's bedroom.
The room was thick with the smell of medicine.
On the sickbed lay an old man nearing the end of his life.
His hair was entirely white, his face gaunt and withered. He no longer resembled the handsome, refined young man he had once been.
At the sound, Lin Yuan struggled to open his cloudy eyes.
When he saw the familiar yet unfamiliar figure beside the bed, a spark suddenly lit up in his eyes.
"Eleven... No, it's... Your Majesty..."
He struggled to sit up and pay his respects.
"Seventh Brother, there's no need for formalities."
Lin Hanzhou stepped forward and held him down, then sat on the edge of the bed himself.
Looking at Lin Yuan's aged face and recalling the refined young man he had once been, Lin Hanzhou could not help marveling at the passage of time.
For the first time, he understood the cruelty of birth, aging, sickness, and death with such stark clarity.
"Your Majesty... you've grown old too... and I'm no longer what I was..."
Memories and emotion surfaced in Lin Yuan's cloudy eyes.
"Seventh Brother, you've had a hard time all these years."
Lin Hanzhou took his hand, dry as a chicken's claw, and sent a thread of pure spiritual energy into him, easing his pain for the moment.
Lin Yuan's spirits lifted considerably. He grinned, his smile open and carefree.
"It hasn't been hard... My life has been worth it."
"I have more money than I could ever spend, innate masters guarding me, and Your Majesty watching over me. I've lived like a king, all thanks to your grace."
He began reminiscing, rambling on about the past.
He recalled how the two of them had depended on each other in the palace when they were young.
He recalled that night thirty years ago, when he had thought they were parting forever.
He recalled the shock and pride he had felt when he later heard that Lin Hanzhou had ascended the throne, swept away the powerful clans, and ushered in an age of prosperity.
"The thing I'm proudest of in my life... isn't being born a prince. It's... having a younger brother like you..."
As he spoke, Lin Yuan's voice grew fainter and fainter, and the light in his eyes slowly began to fade.
"Your Majesty... No, Eleventh Brother, I'll go see Father first... You must... take good care of yourself..."
He summoned the last of his strength to squeeze Lin Hanzhou's hand.
Then Lin Yuan's head slumped to one side, and his breathing stopped for good.
After seeing his most beloved younger brother one last time, Prince Anle passed away peacefully, content and at ease.
Lin Hanzhou sat quietly beside the bed, holding that now-cold hand. For a long time, he said nothing.
As emperor, he could command the life and death of countless people and change the course of an entire era.
But he could not keep his mortal elder brother alive.
Although he knew that all this had happened only in the Dream World, it had all felt too real.
Over the past eighty years, he had often forgotten that this was only a dream world.
Everyone here had their own thoughts and feelings. It was as if this were a real world.
Lin Hanzhou shook his head and stopped himself from dwelling on it. At that moment, something in his mindset had already changed.
He rose, tucked the covers around Lin Yuan, and walked out of the bedroom.
"Convey my decree."
He addressed Lin Yuan's descendants, kneeling outside, along with the officials who had accompanied him. His voice brimmed with supreme authority.
"Posthumously ennoble Lin Yuan, Prince Anle, as Prince He, and grant him a state funeral befitting a prince. His title shall pass to his legitimate eldest son."
"We... thank Your Majesty for your boundless grace!"
Lin Yuan's descendants knocked their heads to the ground, overcome with gratitude.
Lin Hanzhou did not look at them again. He turned and climbed into the carriage.
On the way back to the imperial palace, he lifted the curtain and watched the bustling life outside, feeling a faint stir in his heart.
Only then did he realize that in all these years, he seemed to have done nothing but cultivate or attend to state affairs in the palace.
The only time he had ever gone out was when he had personally led the campaign.
Perhaps he really should go see this world for himself, and take a good look at the peaceful, prosperous age he had built.
Once the thought took root, it spread like a wildfire, impossible to suppress.
Back in the familiar imperial palace, Lin Hanzhou felt for the first time that its resplendent halls were like a gilded cage.
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