"Hmm?"
Lin Yuan watched the newly reformed Devil Jade Tower master in the distance, his expression serious.
He was ready to concede and exit the ninth floor of the tower at any moment.
First, he had just detonated his external universe and was in a weakened state.
Second, although the current Devil Jade Tower master's aura wasn’t as powerful as before, the threat he posed was far greater. Even standing there silently gave the feeling that he alone reigned supreme over all time and space.
"Not bad."
The Devil Jade Tower master stared at Lin Yuan for a moment, a smile appearing on his face.
"Not bad?" Lin Yuan’s expression changed slightly.
According to what the six-armed figure Shen Ji had said, the imprint left behind on the ninth floor was nothing more than a kind of preset "program."
But now?
He had just spoken a phrase clearly containing personal sentiment—“not bad”?
"Very good."
The Devil Jade Tower master continued to observe Lin Yuan and gave another evaluation.
"Senior?" Lin Yuan called out tentatively.
He wasn’t sure what state the Devil Jade Tower master was in now, but since the other party hadn’t attacked him immediately, it likely wasn’t hostile.
"Relax, you’ve passed the ninth floor of the tower."
The Devil Jade Tower master smiled slightly.
"The current me is a strand of consciousness left behind by my original self, which had completely severed its connection with the true body. But now that I’ve awakened, the connection is reestablished—I’ll soon fall back into a time loop."
Lin Yuan was inwardly shocked.
As expected.
This version of the Devil Jade Tower master wasn’t just some emotionless "imprint."
It was a true fragment of his consciousness.
And this consciousness was different from the "soul split" of Great Saint Tuolong.
A soul split becomes a completely new being, merely sharing the same memories as the original.
But a strand of consciousness... was still the Devil Jade Tower master himself.
In fact, many Chaos Great Saints were unwilling to leave behind such soul splits.
The stronger the saint, the more reluctant they were.
A soul split without power could fall into the hands of rival Great Saints, with often unpleasant outcomes.
And since this consciousness was still the Devil Jade Tower master, even a brief awakening would quickly draw it back into the time loop.
The time loop one falls into when attempting the thirteenth rank is a trial imposed by the Chaos Void itself. As long as it's the same being, no means or methods can avoid it.
"You must’ve trained in a legacy tied to that existence’s foundation? No... similar but not quite. It seems you've fused it with other legacies of the same rank?"
"To merge different thirteenth-rank legacies... that's impressive."
The Devil Jade Tower master looked Lin Yuan up and down with interest.
He had seen everything when Lin Yuan fought against the imprint, especially the terrifying power released when detonating his external universe.
Thus, the information he had gathered was far more detailed than the special entities who had observed Lin Yuan’s fight with Heiyao and Dual-Source from afar outside the Mysterious Emperor Universe.
Lin Yuan hadn’t gone all out in that previous fight.
Not only had he not detonated his external universe—he hadn’t even fully activated it.
Of course, neither had Heiyao or Dual-Source. With the Mysterious Emperor Universe yet unopened, none of them had truly unleashed their killing moves.
"I was just lucky..." Lin Yuan replied immediately.
He wasn’t surprised that the Devil Jade Tower master could see through his cultivation in Infinite Void.
To a Supreme Saint, thirteenth-rank legacies were not particularly secretive.
But the fact that the Devil Jade Tower master could tell he had fused other thirteenth-rank legacies left Lin Yuan slightly shocked.
It meant the Tower master had a deep understanding of Infinite Void, enough to know its range of effects.
"There's no such thing as luck." The Devil Jade Tower master smiled.
"Training a thirteenth-rank legacy is incredibly difficult. Back then, if I hadn’t slain that lifeform, I wouldn't even have met the threshold to cultivate my own thirteenth-rank legacy."
"Senior, you’ve also trained in a thirteenth-rank legacy?" Lin Yuan asked.
He understood all too well how terrifying a thirteenth-rank legacy could be. His ability to rival Chaos Great Saints at the Dominance stage wasn't solely due to Infinite Void...
But that legacy played a major role in raising his foundation to such terrifying heights.
The Devil Jade Tower master, being a Supreme Saint and a cultivator of a thirteenth-rank legacy—how strong must he be?
Maybe not invincible among Supreme Saints, but probably close.
"The hardest part of thirteenth-rank legacies is not obtaining them, but cultivating them," the Devil Jade Tower master said. "At your current level, once you reach peak Chaos, your power might surpass even mine."
Lin Yuan nodded quietly. Based on his own estimates, that was indeed true.
If he reached peak Chaos, ordinary Supreme Saints wouldn’t be able to match him.
At that point, the only ones who could threaten him might be other Supreme Saints who had trained in thirteenth-rank legacies, or those unique and special Supreme Saints.
But even then, it would be only a slight threat—Lin Yuan had too many trump cards.
"When I first built this tower, my intention was to cultivate a Chaos Great Saint. I never managed to do so while I was alive, yet now, after falling into the time loop, one has finally appeared..."
The Devil Jade Tower master looked around, his tone tinged with emotion.
In its prime, the Devil Jade Tower had been led by the invincible Tower master, who had subdued the Chaos Void. Some Chaos Great Saints and even Supreme Saints had aligned themselves with him.
But they were outsiders—not core members of the Tower—and didn’t even qualify to enter this space, let alone pass the ninth floor.
The Tower’s own attempts to cultivate a Chaos-level being had failed to produce a single Great Saint.
Chaos Great Saints weren’t something one could simply raise into existence.
Even someone as powerful as the Tower master could not force such an outcome.
If he could, the Devil Jade Tower would never have declined.
"Senior, you’re still trapped in the time loop?" Lin Yuan asked carefully.
"You want to know about the time loop and ascending to the thirteenth rank?"
The Devil Jade Tower master smiled faintly. "I did leave behind some arrangements in other places, but they’ve probably already been discovered and taken."
Lin Yuan wasn’t surprised.
Just like how the Mysterious Emperor had left behind the Mysterious Emperor Universe, the Devil Jade Tower master had likely created a similar place.
The fact that the Mysterious Emperor Universe only now emerged didn’t mean the Tower master’s legacy hadn’t already appeared—it all depended on fate and timing.
Whether it was the Mysterious Emperor or the Tower master, they were already attempting to break into the thirteenth rank, and their influence over the outside world was minimal.
"However, if all you want is information about the thirteenth rank and the time loop, that I can give you."
The Devil Jade Tower master smiled again.
Treasures and weapons only existed once. But knowledge and intelligence—those could be shared and copied.
"Thank you, Senior." Lin Yuan was overjoyed.
Why had Heiyao, Dual-Source, and so many other Chaos Great Saints rushed to the Mysterious Emperor Universe at great cost?
Just for the treasures and rare artifacts?
Those were factors—but not the real reason.
What these Great Saints truly sought was the Mysterious Sovereign’s insights and understanding of the thirteenth rank and time loops.
All those treasures and artifacts... in the end, they were just external forces. They offered no real help in breaking through.
Buzz.
The Devil Jade Tower master raised his right hand and pointed at Lin Yuan.
Instantly, an enormous flood of information poured into Lin Yuan’s mind.
"Breaking through to the thirteenth rank... time loop..." Lin Yuan fell deep in thought.
The Devil Jade Tower master and the Mysterious Sovereign had both arrived at their insights not through random speculation, but by building upon the legacy of others.
However, no one trapped in a time loop could transmit information to the outside world—let alone communicate what they were experiencing.
So...
The only way to obtain accurate insight into the time loop was from those who had successfully passed through it.
In other words, thirteenth-rank time beings.
That’s why so many Supreme Saints had traversed the Chaos Void, seeking out the traces of thirteenth-rank time lives.
The Devil Jade Tower master had traveled to countless void domains, delved into countless ruins, and had once been fortunate enough to encounter a thirteenth-rank time being—who had pointed him in the right direction and shared much of what he knew about breaking through and about the time loop.
"Every Chaos peak lifeform faces a different time loop. Simply put—you can’t prepare in advance." The Devil Jade Tower master looked at Lin Yuan. "When you try to break through one day, your loop will be something you’ve never experienced before. It will be your greatest weakness."
"For instance, if your space mastery is high, then your time loop will have nothing to do with space."
"In my view, the time loop is tailored to attack whatever you’re worst at."
That was what the Devil Jade Tower master said.
"I see..."
Lin Yuan felt enlightened. No wonder the Eye of Ten Thousand Laws had told him not to worry too much about the time loop—it wasn’t something you could prepare for anyway.
What’s the use in worrying, if you can’t prepare?
The information shared by the Tower master contained numerous explanations and even concrete examples.
For instance: in this Chaos Void, one thirteenth-rank time being, when attempting their breakthrough, encountered a time loop...
Where they were trapped inside the body of an ant.
Yes—literally an ant.
That ant’s world had no rules, no extraordinary power. All the rules and insights the Supreme Saint had once wielded were useless here.
Even their mental processing speed was slowed dramatically.
To escape the loop, they had to lead the ant species to become the strongest race in that world.
But ants were the weakest beings there.
Without any cultivation, no powers, no mysticism—how could they rise?
This thirteenth-rank being nearly gave up, but after many cycles and intricate planning, they climbed the technology tree—constructing advanced weapons based on physical laws alone.
Eventually, they crushed all the beings that dwarfed the ants by countless times in size.
Only then did they escape that time loop.
"That’s... brutal." Lin Yuan couldn’t help but feel daunted.
You’re the most gifted spectacle lifeform of the Chaos Void? Then experience life as the weakest—an ant.
You’re a solitary master? Then you’ll be forced to lead the weakest race to supremacy.
You’re the undisputed invincible Great Saint? Then your loop won’t test strength—it’ll be a world where strength doesn’t even exist.
You excel at something? The loop strips that away.
"Technology..."
Lin Yuan realized the key to escaping for that thirteenth-rank time being had been technology.
Apparently, they had never encountered it before—thus, their test was technology.
Had they known technology, the loop would have been something else.
"No wonder, throughout Chaos Void history, so many have reached Chaos peak... but so few ever ascend."
Lin Yuan thought to himself. If the time loop was always this targeted, even Supreme Saints stood almost no chance.
"I wonder what kind of loop I’ll face when I try?"
Lin Yuan couldn’t help but wonder.
But one thing was certain—it would not involve any of the abilities or insights he currently possessed.
"Senior, I’m currently inside the Mysterious Emperor Universe..."
Lin Yuan began, hoping to learn something about the Mysterious Sovereign from the Devil Jade Tower master.
Even if time loops couldn’t be prepared for, the exploration insights shared by the Tower master had already helped him greatly.
Since he couldn’t defend against the unknown directly, he needed to broaden his understanding of all possible domains.
The more he understood, the greater his chances of passing his own time loop.
Thus, he was very eager to learn anything the Mysterious Sovereign had left behind about the time loop.
"The Mysterious Sovereign, huh..."
The Devil Jade Tower master thought for a moment. "I don’t know much about him—only that when he sought to ascend, it wasn’t for freedom, but to resurrect his former Dao partner."
"Resurrect... a Dao partner?"
Lin Yuan was momentarily stunned. A thirteenth-rank time being can see both past and future, and can revive any being that once existed—even those twelve-rank beings who had already escaped the river of time.
"I don’t know much more than that."
The Devil Jade Tower master shook his head. "But I heard that before trying to break through, he once entered a certain dimensional rift. After returning, he immediately began preparing. So perhaps he encountered something inside it."
"I see."
Lin Yuan nodded.
A dimensional rift—an interstice between different dimensions.
Any dimension capable of bordering the Chaos Void was probably just as powerful as the Void itself. The gap between them might very well give birth to terrifying existences.
...
And you? If you were a Chaos Supreme Saint preparing for your breakthrough to the 13th rank, what do you think your trial would be?
This esteemed 20th-rank senior is curious. :D
...
20 chapters ahead on patreon: patreon.com/David_Lord
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