Lin Qiye Emerged from Seclusion, Leaving Everyone Speechless

Lin Qiye stared at the towering god standing amid the chaotic mist. The golden divine eye open on his forehead held not a trace of mortal emotion. Within it, only laws of absolute, boundless indifference intertwined and evolved. Under its gaze, Lin Qiye felt that the resentment and despair he had accumulated over the past two years, even the secrets buried deepest in his soul, had been laid bare.

Inherit the Heavenly Eye. Carry on the warrior's spirit!

Become the enemy of the "great horror" that had destroyed the Heavenly Court!

Any mighty figure from the Canglan Realm standing here would likely have seen their resolve collapse beneath such terrifying primordial divine might. They might not even have dared to look directly at the god. But Lin Qiye was different. Two years at rock bottom had not worn away his pride. Instead, they had tempered his spirit like cold iron in an abyss, making him steadier and more resolute.

"I, Lin Qiye, am willing to inherit the True Lord's karmic burden!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Qiye dropped to both knees upon the golden waves and clasped his fists. His voice was hoarse but firm. "Even if an abyss lies ahead, even if I must make an enemy of the great horror across the heavens, I will not retreat a single step! True Lord, please bestow your art upon me!"

"Good!"

In the void, True Lord Qingyuan Miaodao Yang Jian seemed to lift the corner of his mouth in a proud smile that looked down upon all worlds.

The next instant, the black divine hound beside Yang Jian, as massive as a mountain, raised its head and let out a thunderous roar. Yang Jian himself slowly lifted his right hand, joined two fingers like a blade, and lightly touched Lin Qiye between the brows.

Boom—!!

In an instant, the golden Heavenly Eye erupted with boundless, blinding light. It became a golden torrent of countless profound symbols that surged into Lin Qiye's forehead.

This was no ordinary inheritance of a cultivation art. It was a karmic imprint from a supreme deity!

Lin Qiye's soul was mercilessly torn open. Countless fragmented scenes flashed through his mind: the god wielding the Three-Point Double-Edged Blade as he fought an indescribable pitch-black demonic shadow amid shattered galaxies; the Heavenly Gate drenched in blood as gods and Buddhas across the sky turned to ash; and the god, his body broken, still holding his head high as he resolutely forced the Heavenly Eye on his brow to pierce the darkness of myriad worlds.

Then a supreme art—overbearing, vast, and beyond every Great Emperor's ancient scripture in the Canglan Realm—seared itself into the depths of Lin Qiye's memory like a branding iron.

The Eight-Nine Profound Art!

"Break, then rebuild. Become an Indestructible Vajra. Embrace the transformations of the heavens and turn heaven and earth..."

The vast scriptures of the Immortal Dao began circulating through Lin Qiye's body of their own accord. At that moment, the transformation of both flesh and soul brought pain beyond words.

In the waking world, inside the dilapidated stone hut on Falling Geese Peak.

Lin Qiye sat cross-legged on his bed, his body trembling violently. Great patches of black-red, foul blood seeped through his skin. It was the abyssal demonic poison that had lurked inside him for two whole years and nearly tortured him to death. Now, scoured by the fierce and uncompromising golden light of the Immortal Dao from the Eight-Nine Profound Art, the poison that even the Holy Land's Grand Elders had been helpless against melted like snow beneath the blazing sun. With shrill hissing sounds, it turned into wisps of black smoke and was forced out through his pores.

With the demonic poison expelled, the rebuilding began!

The meridians inside Lin Qiye, long since broken into hundreds of pieces and reduced to mush, began reconnecting and extending at a near-frenzied speed within the golden divine power. Every newly formed meridian bore a faint dark-gold sheen and was hundreds of times tougher than before. Runes of law from the age of myth flickered faintly upon them.

His shattered Qi Sea became a sea of chaos. A miniature cauldron rose and sank within it—the core of power formed by the Eight-Nine Profound Art, radiating undying might.

The most astonishing change took place on his face.

The skin of Lin Qiye's forehead began to writhe violently. A hair-thin bloody fissure appeared, but the dark-gold divine power swiftly healed it. In the end, it became a faint ancient golden mark that looked as though it had always been there.

He had no idea how much time had passed. When the first glimmer of morning light reached the stone hut, Lin Qiye's eyes snapped open.

"Hah—"

He breathed out two years of pent-up stale air. It became a white arrow that shot several yards across the room and struck the stone wall with a sharp, muffled thud.

Lin Qiye slowly raised his hands and stared blankly at his palms.

He could see again.

More than that, the entire world looked different to him. The once-gloomy stone hut was now threaded with flowing strands of spiritual energy. He could even see through the thick stone walls to a dewdrop sliding slowly down a leaf outside, and hear the faint sound of insects crawling through the soil below.

The pain that had tormented him for two years was gone. In its place was a surging power that filled him to the brim. Every ounce of muscle and every bone held the unbreakable essence of a vajra.

"For two years... my meridians were destroyed, and demonic poison seeped into my bones."

Lin Qiye slowly rose from the bed. His newfound strength was so great that when his feet met the floor, they stamped two deep footprints into the hard bluestone.

He raised a hand and gently touched the hidden golden mark on his forehead. At a single thought, the terrifying power beneath it—power capable of piercing every illusion and destroying heaven and earth—would stir, ready to be unleashed.

"It wasn't a dream... Erlang Manifesting Sage True Lord, the Desolate Ancient Heavenly Court's greatest warrior..."

Lin Qiye drew a deep breath, and two dazzling beams shone from his eyes. The hardships of the past two years kept him from losing himself in joy at this heaven-defying fortune. Instead, he grew calmer.

He had not forgotten the heavy karmic burden the god had entrusted to him at the end of the dream.

"The Heavenly Court truly existed, and the path to immortality truly was severed. The great horror that destroyed the Heavenly Court may now be lying in wait deep within the heavens... And I am the True Lord of Qingyuan Miaodao's successor in this era."

Lin Qiye walked to the corner of the stone hut. The Broken Sword he had sharpened yesterday stood there in silence.

He reached out with his right hand and gripped the rough hilt.

Boom!

The instant he took hold of the hilt, the Eight-Nine Profound Art, poised to surge within him, seemed to sense his will to fight and began circulating on its own. A strand of pure, ancient power of the Immortal Dao, tinged with golden divine radiance, flowed down his arm and into the Broken Sword.

The discarded piece of iron began to tremble and hum wildly. Rust peeled away from the blade inch by inch, revealing tempered dark-gold metal beneath. From its broken edge, a golden sword glow extended an inch or so, tearing tiny black fissures in the surrounding void.

Without a word, Lin Qiye swept the Broken Sword behind his back and stepped out of the stone hut.

On Falling Geese Peak, the morning sun was rising.

Golden sunlight fell across Lin Qiye, casting a sacred glow over his coarse hemp clothes. He stood straight as a sword, with no trace of his former weariness or gauntness. Instead, he radiated a fierce will to challenge the highest heavens.

Today, he would descend Falling Geese Peak once more.

Not to prove he had reclaimed his former glory, but to strike the first blow of the Desolate Ancient Heavenly Court against this broken world!

Meanwhile, at the edge of the Primeval Holy Land, inside the Library Pavilion.

Su Chen stood at a wooden desk by the window, an old parchment scroll in his hands. He appeared to be leafing through it without much interest.

Yet at the center of his vision, the system's virtual panel flashed with blinding golden light. A rapid succession of notifications exploded through his mind:

[Ding!] Agent "Lin Qiye" has successfully fused with the [Erlang Xiansheng Zhenjun Inheritance Fragment] (fusion rate: 15%). The agent has successfully rebuilt himself after destruction, mastered the first level of the Eight-Nine Profound Art, and awakened the Heavenly Eye's primal light! The karmic feedback mechanism has been triggered. The agent's understanding of reality has undergone a major distortion, deeply binding him to mythic karma!

[Mythic spread surges!] Spread of the "Desolate Ancient Heavenly Court" in the Canglan Realm has increased: 12% → 25%! Congratulations, host. You have received tenfold karmic feedback from your agent: +18,000 Karma Points! Congratulations, host. Total available Karma Points: 28,900!

"More than twenty-eight thousand Karma Points."

Looking at his available funds, which had nearly tripled, Su Chen's lips curved into an inscrutable smile.

He could clearly sense that, as Lin Qiye successfully fused with the inheritance, a faint but exceptionally high-order divine law bearing the essence of Yang Jian, the god of war, had flowed along an invisible karmic chain and silently merged into his body.

His body had not undergone the earth-shaking transformation Lin Qiye's had, but under the baptism of that pure divine power, every cell and every strand of his soul had grown denser and more profound. If Su Chen had once been merely a spectator disguised as a mortal, there was now a faint air of immortality in his every movement, as though he held the karma of the Heavenly Dao in his hands.

"The first piece has made its opening move. Now let's see how much turmoil it can stir up on the Canglan Realm's board."

Su Chen walked to the window and pushed it open. His gaze passed through layer upon layer of cloud toward Falling Geese Peak in the distance.

From that direction, he could faintly sense a primordial will to fight. Though still young, it was exceptionally pure, rising like the morning sun as it tried to tear through the oppressive Purple Qi hanging over the Primeval Holy Land.

Ji Changkong and the other mighty figures were still searching everywhere for the "fragment of the Heavenly Court's Southern Heavenly Gate." They would never imagine that the true "orthodox inheritance of the Heavenly Court" had quietly awakened right under their noses, on a desolate, fallen peak.

"Once Lin Qiye descends the mountain, he's bound to attract endless suspicion and scrutiny."

Su Chen closed the parchment scroll. A calm light glimmered in his gentle eyes.

"With less than a tenth of the inheritance mastered, he isn't quite ready to face the storm that will soon sweep the entire Canglan Realm."

"To make this grand drama more exciting, and to keep those old monsters who've lived for thousands of years exercising their talent for wild speculation... it's time for me, the mastermind behind the scenes, to unveil the second act of a grand mythic spectacle for the Canglan Realm."

Su Chen clasped his hands behind his back and sank his consciousness once more into the system's vast exchange store.

His gaze passed over the tier-two items and settled on a terrifying function in the tier-three exchange section, one that spanned the heavens and myriad worlds and required an enormous sum of Karma Points to unlock.

The [Myriad Worlds Projection Mirror].

He would use a sweeping vision of the heavens—one that would leave every ancient being in the Canglan Realm and countless neighboring star regions speechless—to protect his agent as he forged ahead!