Chapter 411: The Sixth Rite (Two in One)

Several long seconds passed before the entities within the Great Curtain finally seemed to recover their senses, their complex gazes falling entirely upon Yan Jing.

In that final fraction of a second, they thought they had seen a figure sit down cross-legged behind him.

The man looked exhausted, weariness etched into a face that commanded natural authority. Gripping the Black Halberd for support, he leaned against Yan Jing and closed his eyes as if to rest.

Finally, tilting his head back slightly, he dissolved into motes of light and slowly faded away.

A moment later, another streak of blood appeared on the Crown atop Yan Jing's head.

The Emperor of the Five Eras had lost.

The crowd was utterly speechless.

That peerless entity had suppressed five entire eras and remained undefeated until his dying breath. Yet now, the Crown he left behind after death had lost to the man standing before them—and by the looks of it, had even acknowledged him.

Even if it was just a Crown, that alone spoke volumes.

This young man's future was absolutely limitless.

The same thought echoed in the minds of everyone present.

"Even placed within the Golden Generation, he would be an absolute monster—far, far stronger than I was back then..."

Someone murmured in admiration. The person next to him twisted the knife, saying, "And his current strength isn't even that far off from what yours was when you first entered this realm."

The first speaker choked. Eventually, he muttered a quiet defense, "Well, there's still a bit of a gap, isn't there?"

He felt his face heat up as soon as the words left his mouth.

How old had he been back then? Yan Jing was simply too young. With his terrifying progression speed, it likely wouldn't take long for him to catch up entirely.

And when that time came, he would be able to...

Touch this very Great Curtain.

"Little friend, I wonder if you could take me out of here?"

A cold, melodic voice suddenly rang out. Everyone looked up at the figure seated upon the high stone.

A direct dialogue.

The surrounding entities were somewhat astonished. They hadn't expected that figure to be far more desperate to leave than she had let on.

After all, she had yielded the opportunity the last time.

But to speak up now, braving the Great Curtain's backlash, proved just how eager she was.

Her refusal last time was likely exactly as she had claimed—the offered item had simply lacked the required quality.

Yan Jing raised his head and looked at the figure.

Their gazes met through the pitch-black clouds for several seconds. Finally, the figure in the mist spoke again, her voice transmitting directly into Yan Jing's ears alone. "Rest assured, I can swear an oath never to harm you or those around you. In fact, those of us behind the Curtain would never choose to interfere with the present world anyway."

"Why?"

Given the rare chance to converse with someone of this caliber, Yan Jing naturally wanted to pry for information he couldn't normally access.

Her voice remained calm. "We should have died a long time ago. We are merely lingering behind the Great Curtain. If we manifested in the present world, we would not be recognized by the current era. It might be fine if we acted carefully, but if we ever fought, the resulting backlash would be immense and heavily tax our lifespans."

"Then why do you want to come out?"

"Because of time..."

Yan Jing couldn't hear the rest of her sentence. He was certain she had spoken, but some unseen force seemed to violently warp her words, letting no sound through.

If this were a standard plot development, the conversation would have ended right there.

But Yan Jing wasn't about to accept a standard outcome.

He channeled the power of Moonlight, and finally, faintly, he caught the rest of her words.

"Because of the River of Time. There is an item within the Great Curtain that entities of our level can use to leap into the River of Time, salvage histories affected by mutation, and save those we wish to save."

Yan Jing nodded.

He wanted to press for more details, but the figure on the other side couldn't hold on much longer. Through the black mist, he saw blood seemingly weeping from her eyes. The backlash was hitting her, and it was severe.

Finally, streams of pitch-black mist poured out from the Crown atop his head. Exuding a bone-chilling cold, the mist vanished into the Great Curtain.

This was the energy contained within the Crown. Just like the previous Rituals, even if the figure on the high stone hadn't spoken, Yan Jing wouldn't have been able to contain this energy anyway. It had to be "purified," exactly like before.

The most likely outcome was that the figure on the high stone would simply sweep away the others and hoard all the energy for herself.

Therefore, by speaking up and actually explaining things to him, she was granting him an enormous amount of face.

Yan Jing had no reason to refuse.

Soon, the true integration began.

Strands of light cascaded down from the Crown and sank into his body.

Yan Jing could feel that the Crown was completely different from what it had been at the start.

First, it now contained the power left behind by the fading of that peerless figure. Then came the energy of the Ritual Blessing Coupon. And finally, a strange, icy energy reminiscent of the Crystals surrounding the figure on the high stone.

The Crown began to undergo a transformation, as if struggling to cross an incredibly difficult threshold.

"The Roaming Domain claims this man under our protection."

"If anyone comes seeking opportunities here in the future, just give them that name."

The figure spoke, leaving behind a highly gender-neutral title before instantly vanishing into the Great Curtain.

Outside the Great Curtain, Yan Jing felt a freezing aura approach him, only to vanish just as quickly.

Then, everything returned to a dead calm.

An unknown amount of time passed before the chime of an electronic clock woke him. Yan Jing slowly opened his eyes.

He found that he had already withdrawn from the Great Curtain.

[Tailao Rite: Peerless Laurel Crown (Sublimated)]

[Quality: Silver (Gold markings)]

[Tailao Rite Ability 1: Crown of Victory]

[In life, the master of this crown defeated almost every opponent he faced. Victory was his lifelong pursuit. For every opponent you defeat, you will accumulate one point of Momentum of Victory. This momentum will grant you courage that will not falter even before a Deity, boost your physical constitution—including your Weird Energy—and allow you to acquire the final ability used by the opponent you defeated. Note: The power of this ability will not scale with your own strength; it is forever locked at the level of the exact moment you defeated them, and you may use other people's abilities a maximum of ten times per day. Note: Upon losing a battle, you would normally lose half of your Momentum of Victory, but another supreme existence has exempted you from this penalty.} {Tailao Rite Ability 2: Peerless]

[Grant a peerless form to one of your other abilities, allowing it to erupt with unimaginable power.]

[Tailao Rite Ability 3: Undefeated]

[You enter a completely Immortal and Indestructible state for one minute.} {Tailao Rite Extra Trait: Space - A supreme existence well-versed in the path of Space has left two blessings upon you. All of your abilities involving Space will receive a tenfold amplification and will continue to grow slowly. You can temporarily open a 333m x 333m x 333m Space Grid to store items or briefly pull an opponent inside. You cannot cross spatial boundaries with this grid, or it will collapse.]

Reading the ability descriptions before him, Yan Jing felt an unprecedented sense of calm for the first time.

These were immensely powerful abilities—so powerful they bordered on the absurd.

But after witnessing that peerless figure in person, he no longer harbored any feelings of complacency.

The first three abilities of the Crown were essentially the exact powers of that figure. In fact, the man had wielded them with even greater mastery during their battle. Despite being restricted to a maximum of ten borrowed abilities, he had seamlessly woven them into thousands of unpredictable variations. Yan Jing had truly benefited immensely from that fight.

Yet, even an entity as formidable as that man had ultimately returned to dust. Knowing this, Yan Jing understood there was absolutely nothing to be arrogant about.

The road ahead was still long. Now, he also wanted to try chasing the footsteps of those towering figures, to see exactly what lay at the end of the path that compelled so many to throw their lives away in pursuit of it.

He would walk forward alongside his friends.

That was what he needed to do.

He looked over at the sofa and found that Shen Youran had fallen asleep at some point.

Smiling, he gently shook her awake.

"Xiao Yanzi?"

Shen Youran rubbed her groggy eyes, only then realizing she had nodded off.

As if suddenly remembering something, her eyes cleared up. She turned to Yan Jing and rapidly sputtered, "Xiao Yanzi, listen to me, I just saw someone."

"A woman. She was wearing an antique white dress, and her legs were super long, and then..."

A hint of confusion crept back into Shen Youran's clear eyes. What did the woman look like again?

Why couldn't she quite remember?

After thinking hard for a long time and failing to recall, she simply said, "She smacked me in the chest, and then I passed out."

Yan Jing blinked.

That figure had made a move?

Hadn't she just claimed she wouldn't interfere unless it was for something critically important?

He looked at Shen Youran and asked, "Teacher Shen, check yourself. Did you lose anything, or gain anything new?"

Shen Youran blinked back at him, dashed into the room to rummage around, and finally returned, shaking her head. "Nope."

"Then it was probably a hallucination."

Yan Jing brushed the incident aside and proceeded to share the details of his newly acquired Rite with her.

Silver-red.

Filtered through the Fear Tree's disguise, the Crown displayed a completely "reasonable" color.

Overjoyed, Shen Youran instantly forgot all about her mysterious encounter.

The two of them ordered a mountain of takeout and feasted.

After chatting for a good while, Shen Youran brought it up. "Xiao Yanzi, aren't you supposed to leave in a few days?"

Calculating the time he had agreed upon with the domain lord of Yueyin, it was just about time.

"Yeah."

Yan Jing nodded. "I plan to leave tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

Shen Youran clearly hadn't expected it to be so soon. Her eyes went wide.

"Yeah, tomorrow."

But Yan Jing had already made up his mind.

It was time to go.

His main concern right now wasn't the Yueyin domain lord's malice toward him; rather, he worried the enemy might figure out certain things and shift their crosshairs onto Shen Youran. He couldn't just sit and wait for them to come knocking.

He had always been pretty good at taking precautions before the storm.

The next day.

Shen Youran saw Yan Jing off at the airport.

—

Ling'an didn't have many flight routes. He had to fly to a bustling district in the Fifth Ring Domain first, then catch a connecting flight. The entire trip would take at least three or four days.

"Stay safe out there, Xiao Yanzi. Take care of your health!"

Even though she knew someone of Yan Jing's strength was infinitely safer than she was, Shen Youran still nagged him endlessly.

From how to board at the gate to how to handle his layover, she handed over a complete, meticulously prepared itinerary.

During her previous background check on Yan Jing, she had discovered he had never been on a plane before, so she explained everything with excruciating care.

Yan Jing quietly listened to every word, and then the two of them shared a smiling goodbye.

"Don't go butting heads directly with the domain lord. It's not time for that yet..."

Knowing Yan Jing's personality, Shen Youran threw in one final warning.

Yan Jing was wearing a long brown trench coat today. She reached up to straighten his scarf, then pressed an item wrapped in red cloth into his hand.

"What is this..."

Yan Jing looked down at the bundle.

"I know you advance quickly, Xiao Yanzi. You might even hit the Seventh Rank before you come back," Shen Youran said with a smile. "This is the last thing my family has left. After this, you'll have to rely on yourself." With that, she immediately bolted away, waving at Yan Jing from a distance. "Bye-bye, Xiao Yanzi!"

"Come back soon!"

Then she ran a little further away and murmured in a voice only she could hear, "I'll wait for you at home."

What she didn't realize was that no voice was ever truly out of earshot.

The man whose scarf she had personally tied was the designated musician of a supreme existence.

Yan Jing stared at the red cloth in his hand.

This was an item potent enough to stir up a storm in the outside world, the final Rite of that severed path to godhood. Most importantly, it was the very last "memento" of Shen Youran's family.

It was time to leave.

The wind was picking up.

He waved back and turned away.

Finish early, come home early.

He boarded the plane and took his seat in first class.

Pressing the "Do Not Disturb" button, he flagged down a flight attendant to give some brief instructions. Then, staring out the window at the scenery, Yan Jing shifted his consciousness into the Inner World.

He still had four or five hours before landing for his layover. The Federation had arranged for people to receive him there, so he could use this time to settle a few matters.

Right now, the Inner World was in utter chaos.

After the initial panic of the first day regarding the mutation, everyone had assumed things would take a turn for the better on the second day when the detection method was exposed. To their surprise, that was only the true beginning of the chaos.

Once the news spread that Fertile Soil could detect the spores, the public finally realized just how widely this "plague" had already spread!

Those whose symptoms were previously too mild to notice now joined the panic, throwing the entire Peace Heavenly Kingdom into absolute disarray.

Amidst all this, only a tiny handful of people stood to profit.

One of them, naturally, was Crocodile.

As the first to publicly release and systematize the detection method—even providing relatively complete parameters—he was now hailed by countless people as a savior. He was even invited to give a speech on Peace Mansion's premier media network.

His victory in tomorrow's parliamentary election was practically a done deal.

Then there was Nuochen Biotech.

This was all because Zeng Qing had prepared massive stockpiles of Fertile Soil ahead of time.

Not to sell.

But to prevent others from selling it.

Guided by Mao Si's occasional pointers, she had grown increasingly ruthless in the business world, frequently employing reverse psychology in her strategies. So, despite agreeing to Boss Rat's terms, she had covertly hoarded a massive supply of soil in advance.

Just as she predicted, the moment the news broke that Fertile Soil could detect the spores, the price skyrocketed to the point where people were fighting tooth and nail for it.

Many unscrupulous corporations—even one of the Big Four, the Song Wang Group—began putting on a show of hawking it at "discounted prices."

Zeng Qing's maneuver completely obliterated their schemes.

Hundreds of tons of soil were divided into small packets and shipped directly into the hands of everyone, including those living in the Anthill.

This act not only shattered the previous "false rumors" tying Nuochen Biotech to "Yan Jing," but it also firmly secured her position within the conglomerate. Now, Zeng Qing's name was widely known. Anyone inside the company who wanted to move against her would have to seriously weigh the catastrophic damage her removal would inflict on stock prices.

Of course, the root cause of this widespread chaos was simply that this capitalist-controlled nation had rotted to the core a long time ago.

There was no coordination. There was no cohesive response.

It was as if the government was simply leaving everyone to die.

This drove public resentment toward Quan Dazhong to a boiling point. The streets were now flooded with protesters demanding his resignation.

And Quan Dazhong's response to all this...

Was no response at all.

In fact, out of the four highest officials directly beneath him, only one—Liao Junliang—was actually dealing with the crisis.

Take the Minister of the Security Department, Che Taizai, for example.

Two or three days had passed.

He had only done one thing in all that time.

Hunting down Luo Sheng.