The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws studied Lin Yuan repeatedly.
For someone currently only in the Path-Clearing stage to have already opened a side path with potential to reach the Chaos stage—that alone was extraordinary.
Given this, the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws concluded Lin Yuan had immense potential and could very well reach peak Chaos.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have listed those conditions.
The prerequisite for Lin Yuan working for the Myriad Dao Pavilion was that he reached peak Chaos.
If he couldn’t reach it, then the Pavilion would be on the losing end.
“How many side paths have you opened?”
After observing Lin Yuan for a few more moments, the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws believed he wasn’t lying.
“To open more than one side path from the Path-Clearing stage, even if the others lack the potential to reach Dominance, still proves the breadth of the main evolutionary path.”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws was visibly pleased.
“Did I really stumble upon a treasure this time? It’s been several cosmic eras since I’ve seen such terrifying potential in a Path-Clearing evolver.”
Even within the Chaos stage, there are distinctions—ordinary Chaos Great Saints versus Supreme Saints.
If Lin Yuan’s main evolutionary path could spawn multiple side paths at the Path-Clearing stage, it suggested he had a real chance at becoming a Supreme Saint.
And a Supreme Saint, even in the boundless void of chaos, was incredibly rare—someone the Myriad Dao Pavilion would find it extremely difficult to command.
“There are a few,” Lin Yuan nodded.
Up to this point, using martial arts as the main evolutionary path, he had developed a total of 361 side paths.
Among them, 99 had been fully refined and were already circulating within human civilization.
As for the remaining 200 or so side paths, while generally established, they still required detailed refinement—but were already viable for cultivation.
“They're all here.”
With a flip of his hand, over 300 jade slips appeared in front of him.
Of the 361 evolutionary side paths, aside from the nine he reserved for the nine Strongest Ones of human civilization, Lin Yuan brought out all the rest.
“So many?”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws was a bit taken aback. That life-and-death martial arts path had been recorded in just one jade slip—how could the rest require several hundred?
The old man carrying the wine gourd at the side was also intrigued.
He had been present the whole time, listening to the conversation between the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws and Lin Yuan.
As the branch master of the Myriad Dao Pavilion, the wine gourd old man was an insider and fully trustworthy, so the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws hadn’t hidden anything from him.
The old man could tell that the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws had high hopes for Lin Yuan—that golden scroll with its many conditions was predicated on Lin Yuan reaching peak Chaos.
Peak Chaos?
That was the realm of the Chaos Great Saints.
If the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws dared to speak of it, it must truly believe Lin Yuan had the potential to reach that level.
The Pavilion’s transcendent position to this day was thanks not only to the inscrutable existence that was the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws, but also due to its intricate ties with certain Chaos Great Saints in the void of chaos.
So, seeing the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws make a “deal” with Lin Yuan made the old man inwardly happy.
At least in the distant future, the Pavilion would gain another Great Saint supporter.
But when Lin Yuan flipped his hand and revealed so many jade slips, the old man was just as puzzled as the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws.
Could Lin Yuan’s other evolutionary side paths be so complex and intricate that each needed its own record?
But that didn’t make sense—a single jade slip could hold an enormous amount of information. Just how complicated were these evolutionary paths to require hundreds?
“Take a look.”
After laying out all the jade slips, Lin Yuan looked expectantly at the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws.
This was only what he had developed for now—given more time, he could forge even more evolutionary paths.
The martial path encompassed all daos. Theoretically, there was no limit to the number of evolutionary side paths it could produce.
But that was just theory. In reality, Lin Yuan could probably only develop a bit over a thousand side paths during the Path-Clearing stage. That number would increase at the Dominance stage, and surge explosively in Chaos.
If the Myriad Dao Pavilion took on the task of spreading all these evolutionary paths, even if Lin Yuan got a smaller share of the benefit, he wouldn’t lose much.
If he had to do it all himself, the effort required would be unimaginable.
Rely solely on internal dissemination within human civilization? Unrealistic. The population base wasn’t enough to produce that many twelfth-rank evolvers.
“Let me take a look?”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws paused, glancing at Lin Yuan, then at the hundreds of jade slips before it, hesitating.
Review them personally?
After a moment of hesitation, the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws began inspecting the first jade slip.
This one recorded the “Illusory Domain Martial Path,” a martial path built upon illusions.
The Illusory Domain Martial Path wasn’t especially strong in direct combat—its core technique was constructing illusory worlds to suppress and influence.
Swish.
In the depths of the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws’ pupils, countless illusion-based roads began to stretch and spread, stopping just short of the boundless chaotic layer.
“This evolutionary side path has peak Dominance potential.”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws reached a conclusion, but its expression showed no sign of relaxing.
So far, the Illusory Domain Martial Path had been fully recorded in just one jade slip.
One jade slip per side path?
Then what were all these hundreds of jade slips?
After pausing, the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws kept reading.
The second jade slip: Chaos stage evolutionary path.
The third: Chaos stage.
The fourth: Dominance stage.
The 123rd: Chaos stage.
The 233rd: Dominance stage.
The 312th: Dominance stage.
The 326th: Chaos stage.
After viewing over 300 evolutionary paths, exploring the future timelines and potential of each one…
Even the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws felt a little drained.
After all, it wasn’t a true thirteenth-rank time-based lifeform—just a fragmentary inheritor of that ability.
However—
Compared to its mental fatigue, what truly shook it was the earth-shattering impact of those 300+ evolutionary paths.
Forget Lin Yuan being at Path-Clearing—if he were at the Chaos stage, managing to develop a few dozen side paths would already be considered the limit.
But Lin Yuan? Hundreds?
And he was only at Path-Clearing?
What’s more, each of these side paths had at least Dominance potential, with many capable of reaching Chaos?
A mere Path-Clearing main evolutionary path, spawning hundreds of high-potential side paths?
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws was stunned. Since its birth, it had seen countless evolutionary paths—Great Saints, Supreme Saints, even those destined to touch thirteenth rank.
It had seen them all.
But a main path that could support hundreds of side paths at the Path-Clearing level? That was unheard of.
“You…”
A red glint flickered deep in its eyes.
It wanted to ask if these side paths were truly all developed from the same main evolutionary path.
But it suppressed that doubt. With its vision, it could see that all 300+ side paths, despite their diversity, shared a common origin.
That, it was sure of.
If it could tell the life-and-death martial path stemmed from one main route, then it could also tell these others came from the same root.
“What’s the name of this main evolutionary path?” it finally asked, voice slightly strained.
“The main path?” Lin Yuan was momentarily puzzled, but answered: “Martial Dao.”
“Martial Dao… Martial Dao!”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws nodded, eyes deep with thought.
“And these side paths—”
“I can help you spread them,” it cut in.
“Actually, I have more side paths still being refined—” Lin Yuan continued.
Even just in Path-Clearing, the Martial Dao could yield over a thousand side paths. The Dominance and Chaos stages would only expand that number dramatically.
“More side paths…”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws felt its scalp tingle.
Just what kind of transcendent path was this Martial Dao that it could develop so many side paths?
“Don’t worry. As long as they’re offshoots of your main path, I’ll help you spread them.”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws steadied itself and promised.
“Good.”
A satisfied smile appeared on Lin Yuan’s face.
If the Myriad Dao Pavilion was willing to spread all his paths without conditions, then doing one favor for them over ten cosmic eras was a fair trade.
A normal transaction.
“Then I’ll imprint a wisp of soul aura into it now.”
Lin Yuan looked at the golden scroll, its characters emanating a mysterious aura.
“Wait.”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws looked at the scroll too.
In that moment, the golden scroll began to collapse.
“Hmm?”
Lin Yuan glanced at it and felt a jolt in his heart.
Did the Eye think there were too many evolutionary paths? Was it reconsidering the deal or planning to demand more?
“I feel the terms were unfair,” the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws said slowly.
“You want to renegotiate?” Lin Yuan asked, a little resigned.
Should’ve known not to reveal everything all at once.
Still, it concerned his future after reaching peak Chaos—better to clarify everything now.
“So what do you want?”
Lin Yuan was ready for the Eye to make outrageous demands.
As long as it wasn’t too extreme, he could accept—spreading these paths on his own would be exhausting and possibly ineffective.
Creating and spreading evolutionary paths were two entirely different matters.
Without enough influence and deterrence, even the best paths could be blocked.
And it wasn’t just Lin Yuan. Chaos Venerables and Chaos Great Saints all worked to spread their paths, to stabilize their Dao anchors.
“Go on,” Lin Yuan said, waiting.
“I’ll do my best to help spread them all,” said the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws.
“Okay.” Lin Yuan nodded.
Waiting for more.
But nothing followed.
“You’re not going to ask me to do one thing for the Pavilion over ten cosmic eras?”
“No need,” the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws shook its head.
“No other conditions?”
“There is one,” it said.
“Go ahead,” Lin Yuan steadied himself.
“My condition requires no binding or consequence—not even karmic. I just want a promise that, if the Pavilion asks for your help in the future, and it doesn’t go against your will or exceed your ability—you’ll help us once.”
“That simple?”
Lin Yuan was shocked.
A promise without any obligation, not even karmic backlash—he could accept or decline at will, with no consequences.
To him, this was basically no condition at all.
“That simple,” the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws confirmed.
If Lin Yuan’s Martial Dao could only produce one Chaos-level side path, the Eye would have pressed for maximum benefit—asking for that one favor across ten cosmic eras would’ve been worth it.
A peak Chaos-level being acting once every ten eras? Incredibly valuable.
Lin Yuan only agreed because he hadn’t lived long enough to realize how short ten cosmic eras were to beings like Saints and Venerables.
But that was for typical cases.
If Lin Yuan had only a few side paths, the Eye might’ve pushed harder—maybe lowered the duration from ten to nine eras.
But this?
Not a few. Not dozens. Hundreds. And more to come.
How could the Eye dare demand anything more?
Yes, Lin Yuan was weak now.
But with the potential of Martial Dao, he couldn’t stay weak forever.
Sure, the Eye could take advantage of his current weakness for profit.
But those short-term gains could become future threats, once Lin Yuan reached his full potential.
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws pursued gain—but it wasn’t foolish enough to plant a ticking bomb under itself.
So instead, it asked for a promise that came with no strings attached.
This way, the initiative would always remain with Lin Yuan. If he truly rose to the top one day, he’d remember the goodwill and might actually fulfill the promise.
If he didn’t? The Eye’s only loss was missing out on one favor across ten cosmic eras—not a big deal.
“You think my promise will be that valuable one day?” Lin Yuan asked, recalling how the Mysterious Sovereign and the Devil Jade Tower master described the Pavilion and the Eye—as driven by fairness and gain.
Neither of those Supreme Saints had ever thought the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws would do anything altruistic.
So if the Eye still made such a conditionless offer, it could only mean one thing—it expected massive returns in the future.
“The Martial Dao you walk has great potential. My Myriad Dao Pavilion is willing to help you and forge a karmic bond.”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws was direct.
“You can develop such a powerful path. I expect you’ll go far. We won’t force you to serve us—we simply wish to form goodwill.”
“I see.” Lin Yuan understood.
“Then I agree. As long as you spread all my evolutionary side paths, I’ll help you once in the future, as long as it’s within my power and doesn't go against my will.”
“Good.”
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws breathed a silent sigh of relief.
The deal was sealed.
Lin Yuan chatted a bit more with the Eye.
Mostly him asking, the Eye answering.
“Those trapped in a time loop at peak Chaos will keep looping until they break free,” the Eye explained.
Lin Yuan wanted to know the consequences of being stuck in such a loop.
“There’s another way?”
“There is,” the Eye admitted.
“If you can seize a sliver of a time loop’s gap and burn all your essence, you might forcibly escape—but it would cost you your life shortly after.”
Once Lin Yuan got his answers, he rose and left the Pavilion.
The Eye of Ten Thousand Laws and the wine gourd old man watched him go.
“Lord Eye,” the old man finally dared to speak.
“Spreading so many evolutionary paths will be costly—it might even require favors from others. And all you asked for was one promise?”
He sounded confused.
He had never seen the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws act so… generous.
“Remember this—one day, far in the future, you will feel immense pride for being present today,” the Eye said, glancing at the old man.
“Because the person you just spoke to… may become a great Thirteenth Rank.”
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