Lin Yuan turned his gaze to the Eternal Painting he sensed with his mind.
It stretched without end, like a real “Source World.”
But Lin Yuan could clearly feel that the framework of the great painting had been erected, yet within it, many regions were still blurry and blank, not yet drawn.
“This is a painting not yet completed.” Lin Yuan’s expression grew solemn.
If this enormous painting were fully finished, it would be a true “Source World.”
At that time, relying on this painting alone, Lord Wu Shan could at least step into the thirteenth-rank lordly tier.
At the heights of time-life, all pursuit is tied to one’s own Dao. Lord Wu Shan steps into the thirteenth rank via the Dao of painting; to go further, he must paint a complete “Source World.”
“Remarkable.”
Lin Yuan studied the Eternal Painting.
How vast and immeasurable is an Source World? It’s no longer a matter of size or area, but of containing countless rules and Daos.
To paint an Source World is tantamount to creating one—the difficulty far exceeds cultivating Infinite Void to its theoretical seventh layer.
The ultimate goal of Infinite Void is the Chaotic Void, and though the Source World is on the same tier as the Chaotic Void, it is more perfect.
The thirteenth-rank time-lives of the Chaotic Void left many special places
to make up for the Chaotic Void’s hidden flaws, but the Source World needs no such patches.
Because an Source World bears no such flaws; it is itself near-perfect.
“Though unfinished, it’s enough for me.”
Lin Yuan watched the eternal great painting.
The painting itself was composed of endless runes.
Lord Wu Shan used runes as his brush to paint an Source World that encompassed the cosmos.
[Your Unrivaled Insight is extraordinary. By studying an unknown great painting, your understanding of the Rune Dao increases.]
Lin Yuan immersed his mind in the boundless Eternal Painting, improving across the board.
The Rune Dao is, in essence, an auxiliary Dao, compatible with any cultivation system.
With runes, one can accomplish many things previously impossible—or prohibitively difficult.
For instance, the particle worlds Lin Yuan was currently opening.
Normally, maintaining each particle world’s existence required a little mental effort.
For Lin Yuan, whose goal was to open endless sands-of-constellations particle worlds, that was unacceptable.
But the Rune Dao fixed this flaw: let runes operate to maintain each particle world, with no mental effort spent.
He did not know how long had passed.
Lin Yuan slowly opened his eyes.
“How was it?”
The golden figure looked at him and asked.
“Profoundly enlightening.”
Lin Yuan nodded.
That Eternal Painting was now branded deep in his mind.
He could study it whenever he wished.
“That alone moved you so much?”
The golden figure smiled.
“Hm?”
Lin Yuan looked at him.
The implication was—there were other benefits?
“Senior.”
Lin Yuan called out at once.
“Haha.” A smile surfaced on the golden figure’s face.
By his seniority, even eternal children addressing him thus was only natural.
But Lin Yuan?
Lin Yuan’s strength was too monstrous.
So monstrous that the golden figure no longer regarded him as a life beneath an Eternal Lord.
“What is the purpose of this trial space?” the golden figure asked.
“To cultivate a new Eternal Lord.” Lin Yuan thought for a moment, then answered.
That was what the golden figure had told him at the start.
The trial space was Lord Wu Shan’s arrangement before the great upheaval, meant to cultivate an Eternal Lord for this heaven and earth after the demon calamity descended.
Only thus could the demon calamity be cleared away.
“Then do you think the great painting Lord Wu Shan left can cultivate an Eternal Lord?”
The golden figure asked.
“This—”
Lin Yuan’s expression turned pensive.
The Eternal Painting Lord Wu Shan left was unfathomably deep.
Even other thirteenth-rank time-lives would need to study it slowly.
For Lin Yuan, all the more so.
Even after stepping into the thirteenth rank, he would continue to benefit from it.
But essentially, the painting didn’t explain how to step into the thirteenth rank.
Even if one fully comprehended this Eternal Painting, as for stepping into the thirteenth rank— especially breaking through the time-loop—there was no qualitative help.
If one couldn’t step into the thirteenth rank, couldn’t raise the chance of breaking the time-loop, then the painting’s significance wasn’t great—less than another practitioner added to the martial path Lin Yuan spread.
At least it would further secure the “anchors.”
“In fact, besides the great painting composed by the great Lord Wu Shan himself, there is another inheritance.”
The golden figure looked at Lin Yuan and continued: “The inheritance of the Lord of Heavenly Radiance.”
“The Lord of Heavenly Radiance?”
Lin Yuan’s heart stirred.
Whether in the records of Qingyun Sacred Mountain or in the legacies of other Freedom Third Realm powerhouses he had found, all mentioned this Eternal Lord.
The Lord of Heavenly Radiance was the earliest appearing Eternal Lord of this heaven and earth, and the most mysterious.
He is “earliest” because no one knows when he became an Eternal Lord.
At the birth of heaven and earth? Or earlier?
No one knows.
They only know that the first time he appeared before all beings, he was already an Eternal Lord.
It was precisely because of the Lord of Heavenly Radiance that this world’s cultivation system flourished; the Rune Dao originated from him.
“Though the great Lord Wu Shan has some experience on becoming an Eternal Lord, we must admit—compared to the Lord of Heavenly Radiance, the gap is vast.”
The golden figure continued: “Without the Lord of Heavenly Radiance, there would be at least half as many Eternal Lords today.”
“Though he didn’t directly cultivate any Eternal Lord, all current Eternal Lords bear causality with him, achieving supreme sublimation upon the cultivation system he established.”
His tone was reverent; he held the Lord of Heavenly Radiance in great esteem.
“I see.” Lin Yuan nodded slightly.
Every Eternal Lord walks a different path and pursues different ends.
The Lord of Heavenly Radiance laid the foundation robust enough for this world’s cultivation, and then Eternal Lords emerged one after another.
“The Lord of Heavenly Radiance once created a special inheritance on how weak lives could become Eternal Lords. There are thirty-three originals in total, and the great Lord Wu Shan obtained one of them.”
The golden figure said.
An “original” inheritance was written by the creator’s own hand. While it could be copied, the resonance would diminish; for impact on a cultivator, the original was the most direct and true.
“This is that inheritance.”
The golden figure turned his right hand, and a book appeared before them.
“An inheritance created specifically for breaking through to the thirteenth rank?”
Lin Yuan’s heart surged. Up to now, every thirteenth-rank inheritance he’d acquired bolstered his foundation, but one crafted solely for the breakthrough itself? He had none.
His understanding of how to break through to the thirteenth rank—how to break the time-loop—was quite limited.
He only knew that spreading his own evolutionary path, letting more beings cultivate it, would form “anchors” and “Dao markers” for his time-looped self, and that the time-loop standing before the thirteenth rank would be a trial he had never faced. If he failed the first time, the relevant memories would be wiped, and he’d repeat the same loop.
Hence the name “time-loop.”
Lin Yuan immediately picked up the book.
It was very thin, the color of green jade.
“You can only comprehend this original inheritance here. Don’t take it out,” the golden figure said at once.
There was only this one original. If Lin Yuan took it away and didn’t return it, future trial-passers would lose the chance to study it.
“Of course.”
Lin Yuan nodded.
At most, he would leave an avatar here long-term.
No trouble at all.
“The Lord of Heavenly Radiance’s understanding of breaking into the thirteenth rank—”
With keen anticipation, Lin Yuan opened the book.
The instant the green-jade book was opened, countless messages poured out into Lin Yuan’s mind.
The messages coalesced into a towering figure.
He stood beneath the vast firmament, radiating infinite light that shone in all directions—utterly different from the sun’s blaze.
The First Source World’s Liyang Ancestor’s radiance was an invasive power—what the sunlight touched fell under his dominion.
But this infinite light was all-embracing, embracing everything, with no sense of corrosion, no sense of oppression.
Lin Yuan gazed at the towering figure beneath the heavens, and felt profoundly “warm and at ease.”
“This is the Lord of Heavenly Radiance?” Lin Yuan understood at once: this figure of infinite radiance was the Lord of Heavenly Radiance.
Strictly speaking, it was an imprint left by him to carry the inheritance.
“Too strong,” Lin Yuan thought.
Even if the figure gave him no pressure, he instinctively felt the Liyang Ancestor could not compare.
Even the other five Founders of the First Source World could not compare.
The Lord of Heavenly Radiance’s strength no longer needed the crutch of oppressive presence; it touched a higher plane.
“How to become an Eternal Lord, how to transform into a time-life…” The Lord of Heavenly Radiance smiled. “The core is how to break the time-loop.”
“The time-loop is the greatest threshold for all lives in infinite dimensions to transform into time-life.”
“A life caught in the time-loop will face a test it has never encountered before; all previous means and abilities will lose effectiveness.”
“So, there are generally two choices for breaking the time-loop.”
The Lord of Heavenly Radiance smiled: “One is to do nothing. Since the test within the loop is something you’ve never encountered, any preparation is meaningless.”
“The second is to take everything to the extreme. Though the Dao is infinite, it is also finite; if you can prepare for every test, reach ‘omniscience and omnipotence,’ you can break the loop with ease.”
His voice was gentle.
Lin Yuan listened intently.
What he said, Lin Yuan broadly knew; this should be the basic overview of breaking the time-loop.
“Next, I’ll explain how, in my way, to break the time-loop.”
The Lord of Heavenly Radiance smiled. “First, what do you think runes are?”
“What are runes?” Lin Yuan pondered.
The rune inheritances he had encountered were all methods and secret arts, with almost “universal tool” utility.
They could maintain the existence of particle worlds, amplify the power of killing techniques, and so on.
“In your view, runes are merely a technique. If you specialize in runes, then within the time-loop, naturally you cannot use them,” the Lord of Heavenly Radiance said.
“Yes.” Lin Yuan nodded.
He was already prepared to lose all means and abilities in the loop.
Runes?
Inner cosmos?
Flesh and blood?
The more he specialized, the less he could use once trapped in the time-loop.
“But for me, runes are not a technique; they are the foundation of all things in existence. Even time can be replicated with runes. So even within the time-loop, runes can be used.”
The Lord of Heavenly Radiance continued.
“Runes usable within the time-loop?” Lin Yuan’s pupils tightened slightly.
“By what power do you condense runes—mind-force? Soul-force? Blood and qi? Or other forces?” the Lord of Heavenly Radiance asked.
Lin Yuan listened carefully.
He condensed runes using the power of his inner cosmos.
It was one of his main methods.
“The time-loop does avoid and seal everything you specialize in. If you specialize in condensing runes with mind-force, then within the loop, you cannot use any mind-force.”
“If you specialize in soul-force, it seals the soul; if blood and qi, then those as well.”
The Lord of Heavenly Radiance looked at Lin Yuan gently.
“But the runes themselves do not disappear.”
“Only your method of activating them is sealed, creating the illusion that the runes vanish.”
Lin Yuan absorbed the discourse in fascination. The other’s understanding of runes was beyond his imagination; no wonder ‘Li Hong’ felt that among the Eternal Lords, the Lord of Heavenly Radiance’s power was uncontroversial.
Now not only did ‘Li Hong’ think so—Lin Yuan did as well.
“This is the essence of runes.” Lin Yuan’s eyes were full of awe.
The inheritance recorded in the book provided no direct boost to his power.
Far less than opening a single particle world.
Yet Lin Yuan felt his comprehension of runes surge by a great margin.
To put it plainly—
Originally, runes to Lin Yuan were a keen sword.
Now, they were not only a sword.
A shield? A longblade? A massive mace?
Lin Yuan could wield any weapon with ease.
“If runes truly can be used within the time-loop, the chance of breaking it will rise by a great deal,” Lin Yuan thought.
In a loop where rules limit everything, being able to use runes is basically a cheat.
Chaotic Void.
“Runes.”
Lin Yuan felt his understanding shift—no longer confined to a technique, but as all things.
“Gather.”
With a thought, countless runes assembled, forming an avatar.
This avatar’s aura was terrifying, penetrating layered space-times, with power near that of an Abyssal Dragon.
And this was only an external application of runes by Lin Yuan; as for the elevation to his own strength, it was even more inconceivably great.
...
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