Chapter 99: Viewing All Things from the Perspective of

At the same time, the news of the Masked Rider’s emergence swept across global media headlines, with news agencies from the Lantern to Sakura frantically reporting the appearance of Masked Rider Gatack.

The Great Xia Daily: “Heroic Legacy! A Young Man of Great Xia Inherits the Unlicensed Rider’s Will and Gains Recognition from the Gatack Insect Device!”

The Lantern Times: “Masked Rider Descends into Reality! A Masked Rider Gatack Transformer Emerges in Great Xia!”

Sakura News: “Dimensional Wall Shattered! Real-Time Record of Masked Rider Gatack’s Battle Against the Deep King!”

“.”

Although Masked Riders have a smaller audience outside Great Xia compared to Ultraman, the news still triggered a global uproar, with related topics surging at astonishing speed across social platforms worldwide:

【#MaskedRiderHasArrived#】

【#IWantToBecomeAMaskedRider#】

【#GatackInsectDevice#】

【#WhyDidGreatXiaGetTheMaskedRider#】

Countless Rider fans passionately debated online:

“Why Great Xia? Why not me?!”

“If Gatack appeared, what about Kamen Rider Koutoku? What about Tendō Sōji? I want to see Tendō Sōji in real life!”

“At least it’s Gatack’s transformation device—so long as the Time King Driver doesn’t show up!”

Especially veteran tokusatsu fans, unable to sleep through the night, dug out their cherished belts and kept trying to transform.

Even though they had already tried upon purchase and confirmed these were not Celestial Treasures, what if? What if, during this period, they suddenly became Celestial Treasures?

In Akihabara, Sakura, a group of Rider enthusiasts spontaneously organized a celebration, wearing various Rider suits and holding banners reading “Congratulations on the Emergence of Masked Rider Gatack,” drawing passersby to stop and take photos.

All these scenes further fueled the popularity of the event within Great Xia.

But compared to Masked Rider fans, nations placed far greater importance on the implications behind it.

Great Xia already has two fifth-rank experts, while their own nations have yet to produce even one.

They haven't even seen a fourth- or third-rank expert!

Now Great Xia has produced yet another Masked Rider whose power rivals a fourth-rank!

Though Masked Riders are heroes who “fight for human freedom” and only protect humanity, not posing a threat, the feeling that only Great Xia produces geniuses while their own lands produce nothing at all is truly unbearable.

Where are our Celestial Treasure bearers? Come out already.

I promise I won’t steal your Celestial Treasures or use you for experiments—just come out already!

The power Ye Xuan displayed in this battle made nations take even greater notice of him.

He killed the powerful Deep King with a single punch—how vast is the gap between fifth-rank and fourth-rank?

If we compare it to characters they know, which one fits best?

Their questions were countless, yet no one could answer them; they merely intensified their search for potential psychics and Celestial Treasures.

Great Xia has already pulled ahead in this new era—if things continue like this, the gap between them and Great Xia will only widen further. Change must come.

The changes unfolding outside did not affect Ye Xuan.

Perhaps because after his previous attempt, he often observed the essence of heaven, earth, all things, yin and yang while in Emperor Armor, his interest in many mundane matters gradually faded.

No, it wasn’t because of Emperor Armor—Emperor Armor merely expanded his perspective, allowing him to perceive the world from a higher dimension, seeing the hidden “concepts” beneath all things.

Life, death, reincarnation, cause and effect, time, space.

Even though limited by the Rat Talisman’s ceiling, he saw only a weakened version of Emperor Armor’s viewpoint, yet it was still something he could never perceive under normal circumstances.

Even if his power reached or surpassed the Holy Lord’s, he still could not see it.

Emperor Armor is this way because of its unique nature—it is the embodiment of Heaven’s Dao. Even if its power and status are diminished, it remains Heaven’s Dao!

Standing at the perspective of “Heaven’s Dao,” Ye Xuan observes all things. Even if only for cultivation, prolonged exposure alters his way of thinking.

This is neither good nor bad.

Normally, as Ye Xuan’s power grows and his life tier rises, his perspective expands gradually over time, and his heart cultivates accordingly; though Ye Xuan’s power has not yet reached the true level of a “god,” he has indeed surpassed “humanity” itself.

Precisely speaking, the moment he used the Hōgyoku to transcend his limits, he stepped beyond the realm of "humanity."

But that was only an increase in his power and life tier—his mindset remained within the human sphere, even showing little difference from ordinary people.

Because his power rose too quickly, while his personal experiences and the things he had witnessed were too few to match the pace of his cultivation’s growth.

Emperor Armor accelerated his heart cultivation, allowing him to raise his mindset to match his power within an extremely short time.

The only problem? It rose too fast.

So fast that even though Ye Xuan had barely used Emperor Armor, his heart cultivation had already surpassed his actual power, leaving him with almost no experience of the normal psychological transition from ordinary person to transcendent.

Ordinary people must observe, experience, and comprehend for themselves—but Ye Xuan only needed to look through Emperor Armor’s eyes, and all comprehension was instantly complete.

Were Ye Xuan not concerned about the gap between his power and his heart cultivation, he could now elevate himself to the Daoist pinnacle of “Supreme Forgetting Emotion.”

Not merely a single-minded pursuit of the Dao, but a state where his mind is flooded with cosmic insights, leaving no room for concern over anything else.

If anything could still spark his interest now, it would only be “debating the Dao” with characters from the worlds manifested by the Rat Talisman.

Previously, he mainly exchanged sword techniques with sword masters from other worlds and fought opponents of similar strength; now, alongside these exchanges, they also discussed their cultivation philosophies, differences between their systems, and their understanding of their own “Dao.”

Though these Celestial characters originated from human-created works, their personalities, understandings, and insights all stemmed from their authors—but that was only within the works; the moment they descended into reality, their established traits became their foundation, and every experience written by their authors became their perfect, complete justification.

(End of Chapter)