Chapter 366: The Ancient Emperor's Playground

The process of passing through the space channel was very strange, like passing through a kaleidoscope of incredibly bizarre images.

At the same time, he could feel an extremely powerful force tearing at his body and soul.

The good news was that his divine body and soul were strong enough to resist this tearing.

But Luosen could clearly feel that if it were an ordinary person's body, forcibly passing through would result in instant pulverization.

After about ten or so seconds, the tearing force gradually dissipated, and the omnipresent, rapidly twisting bizarre images like swirling oil paint also began to stabilize, gradually turning into blue sky, white clouds, sandy beach, green waves, and schools of fish swimming through the waves and seabirds flying back and forth over the waves to catch fish.

If the lost plane were a lifeless, decaying world, then what lay before him was a vibrant world teeming with life and burgeoning growth.

Luosen appeared at an altitude of several hundred meters, with the sea below and the shore roughly several hundred meters away.

As soon as he appeared, his body began to fall uncontrollably downward.

Instinctively he tried to cast a levitation spell to steady himself, but found he could not use it.

"Spell failure? What's going on?"

He immediately switched to other similar flight spells.

Within a few seconds he switched through nine of them in succession.

The result was that whether it was high-level pure force or low-level gale technique, or any other flight spell he mastered, they all failed.

"Plop"

Luosen finally fell into the blue-green water and quickly sank to the seabed.

Fortunately, the Dawn Guard's protective chamber was completely sealed, so he didn't have to worry about suffocating in the seawater.

But soon Luosen discovered that the elemental life-sustaining array inside the protective chamber had also failed.

No, more accurately, all arrays were in an almost failed state.

He carried various magical devices on his person, and aside from the supreme crown perfectly fused with his body, everything else had failed.

Naturally, the Dawn Guard, as a magical construct, was also almost completely nonfunctional.

The entire puppet could not move at all, only the puppet's soul retained a minimal operating level.

But this was the seabed, with a depth exceeding 50 meters, and the air inside the protective chamber was limited.

If he didn't leave promptly, Luosen would inevitably suffocate to death on the seabed.

Fortunately, the Dawn Guard had a manual control system, and his divine body's strength was sufficient, so escaping was not difficult.

Luosen didn't rush to leave; taking advantage of the remaining oxygen in the protective chamber, he tried to clarify the current situation.

First he tried to activate the linking magic ring, but not only could he not link it, he couldn't even feel its presence.

Upon careful perception he found that the ring did exist, but its power was extremely extremely weak, almost negligible.

"If the ring is this weak, then any power related to it must be completely ineffective, right?"

He tried casting spells again.

Luosen mastered many spells of various types.

At this point he tested them all one by one.

As expected, the spells almost all failed.

Upon careful perception he discovered that the spells were actually cast successfully, but their power was extremely extremely weak, to the point that he could hardly feel any effect.

"Tsk tsk, this is a bit troublesome."

A mage who can't use spells is practically a cripple.

Luosen was unwilling to give up and continued testing.

When ordinary spells didn't work, he tried using soul spells.

He found that soul spells were also greatly limited, but the limitation was somewhat less than for ordinary spells.

He attempted to use a soul spell to contact Tiralin.

As expected, he received no response.

But it was not completely ineffective.

He could faintly sense that Tiralin was still alive, and vaguely feel the general direction of her soul, occasionally sensing some faint soul fluctuations.

But that was all; he could hardly use any method to maintain continuous information exchange with her.

"Fortunately, Tiralin came to no harm."

Anyway, this was a great piece of good news.

After thinking, Luosen began trying the time spell he had just mastered.

This time there were even more differences.

The time spell was of course also subject to considerable limitation, but the degree of limitation was obviously an order of magnitude less than that of the previous two.

Using the time spell was enough to produce a non-negligible effect.

With Luosen's current ability, he could accelerate his thinking by about ten times, greatly increasing his reaction speed.

But wanting to project the spell outward to bind an opponent or defend against an opponent's attack was far beyond his capability.

"In this world, spells have become purely auxiliary power."

But how could this be achieved?

Luosen pondered carefully.

He recalled what Tiralin had once said.

She said, "Actually, there is only one thing in this world: spacetime."

"Time, space, the ring, elements, and everything else that exists are essentially derivations of spacetime, or rather, attributes of spacetime."

"Whoever masters the mystery of spacetime gains the ability to create."

Now it appears that the Dawn Empire should have mastered a great deal of the mystery of spacetime.

For only in that way could one bring into being a world with its own unique laws.

Who else did it?

And why would they do such a thing?

It is obvious that the only one with both the condition and the willingness to do this is the reclusive Emperor Safenuosi.

At this point, the oxygen in the protective cabin was running low, and Luosen planned to leave.

Just as he was about to open the cabin, another thought flashed through his mind.

"I almost forgot the Divine Body!"

The Divine Body can generate an internal law ring and directly draw power from the outside; I don't know if this ability is useful.

First, sense the internal law ring.

The internal law ring is likewise under tremendous suppression and basically unusable.

He then tried to draw power.

The Dawn Guard contains 26 kilograms of solar essence, an inexhaustible source of power for an individual.

Luosen then tried to draw power from the solar essence.

After a few seconds, Luosen felt great joy.

"The power-drawing ability is also restricted, amounting to less than one-thousandth of the original, but it still works."

After a rough estimate, he found that combining solar essence with the Divine Body not only gives the Divine Body inexhaustible power but also, when needed, boosts the potency of time magic by an order of magnitude and increases his reaction speed a hundredfold.

At this moment, the cabin's oxygen was about to run out; without time to think, Luosen immediately removed all the solar essence powder, packed it into a bundle with his coat, and slung it onto his back.

He then opened the cabin door.

"Whoosh—"

Seawater rushed in violently, and Luosen, relying on the Divine Body's immense strength, withstood the pressure and forcefully swam out of the cabin.

Once outside, he immediately saw the Extinction Law Sword.

In this world where techniques are heavily restricted, the Extinction Law Sword turned dull and gray, like an ordinary steel sword.

But a divine artifact remains a divine artifact—the blade is extremely sharp, flashing with a keen cold light in the seawater.

"It makes a decent defensive weapon."

After taking the sword, he then swam toward the beach.

Fortunately, the shore was not far and the water was not deep; the Divine Body's strength is dozens of times that of an ordinary body.

Soon, Luosen reached the beach.

He looked around and found it was an uninhabited beach, aside from seabirds scattered across the sand and sand‑crabs crawling everywhere, there was nothing but fine, sparkling sand.

He arrived only five seconds after Tira Lilin; considering this world's current multiplier, that amounts to less than two hours of play.

In theory, Tira Lilin should not be far from him. That girl wears glasses and is slow to react, and Luosen truly fears she might meet with an accident.

He immediately followed the faint soul guidance and began searching for Tira Lilin.

At the same time, he also carefully sensed Laifu's condition.

Then he made a very pleasant discovery.

Laifu resides in the deepest part of his soul, consuming little energy; thus its performance is only slightly affected, reduced by roughly thirty percent.

At the same time, Laifu's resonance link with the spirits outside the world is greatly affected, but not completely severed.

The link is intermittent, with a very high signal‑loss rate, but because time flows extremely fast in this world, he has an extremely high fault tolerance.

Despite the cancellation, he can still in fact control Emperor Luosen of Swan Castle.

As long as he allocates sixty percent of Laifu's computing power, Emperor Luosen can handle all imperial affairs normally, just as before.

This made Luosen happy, and he decisively allocated sixty percent of the computing power.

"The Natural Empire is my foundation; I must maintain it well."

While thinking, he had already left the uninhabited beach and entered the inland.

The inland is a dense tropical forest teeming with life, where all kinds of flora and fauna can be seen.

Occasionally, traces of human activity can also be seen.

Luosen felt he lacked understanding of this world, and with his magical power presently restricted, rashly entering a human settlement would be unsafe.

After thinking, he slowed his advance and carefully examined the information previously sent back by the Dawn Guard within the forest.

Because techniques are restricted, most of the information is blurry, but the total volume is huge, so there is still plenty of clear, discernible data.

This information greatly helped Luosen.

"According to historical records, the level of national organization has remained in the feudal era, with no unified empire. Because there are no law rings, there is also no budding of any modern techniques."

"Feudal lords carve out domains, states contend, wars are constant, and cold weapons are universally used. In the common folk's view, the fiercest weapon is the crossbow."

"Humans' cognitive level is low; upon seeing the Dawn Guard, they panic terribly, label it a demon, and try every means to destroy it."

"There exists a specialized organization called the Eternal Blazing Sun Church, which claims to be the mortal emissary of the creator god and specializes in hunting heretics bewitched by devils."

"Those said to be bewitched by devils are precisely the people who propose various progressive ideas."

After reading this information, Luosen somewhat understood Emperor Safenuosi's intentions.

"After being struck down by a strong one in the real world, did he create a world solely for himself, play a childish house‑keeping game, and keep at it for a full ten million years?"

He felt considerable contempt, but regardless, the ancient emperor's actions have caused him great trouble.

Luosen also discovered that the spawn points of outsiders entering this sealed world are randomly distributed.

He had previously sent many Dawn Guard in; according to their puppet‑soul reports, the teleportation points are randomly scattered within a three‑hundred‑kilometer radius.

That means Tira Lilin could be far from him.

If so, should Tira Lilin appear in a human settlement, given her temperament she would likely be branded a witch and burned at the stake by the Eternal Blazing Sun Church.

Speaking of which, the Divine Body does not fear ordinary flames, but it dreads piercing by sharp weapons.

If someone were to pierce the Divine Body's brain with a sharp sword, the target could be killed instantly.

Luosen greatly needed Tiralin's guidance, so to avoid her having an accident, he began to speed up to meet with her.

The Divine Body's power far surpasses that of mortals; when running at full speed on flat ground, the top speed can reach 90 kilometers, and thanks to the solar essence powering it, it can be sustained continuously.

Of course, he wasn't just running blindly; while running, he used mud to cover up the original appearance of his clothing, to avoid attracting attention and inviting unnecessary trouble.

Furthermore, based on the fragmentary information transmitted by the Dawn Guard, he entrusted Laifu with training in this world's language.

After proceeding like this for over an hour, he finally emerged from the coastal forest and, in the distance, saw a very backward mountain village.

Soul magic indicated that Tiralin was nearby, not farther than 20 kilometers.

Ahead was a human gathering area; to avoid trouble, Luosen first stayed hidden and observed for a while.

After confirming everything was normal, he then came out of his hiding place.

He wore a look of 'exhaustion' as he staggered to the village entrance, and somewhat rudely said to the firewood-chopping old man at the gate: "Old man, give me a drink of water."

As he spoke, his gaze kept wandering over the young woman hanging clothes in the courtyard: "Old man, your daughter is really pretty."

At this moment, Luosen was covered in dirt, with a single-handed sword equally caked in mud hanging at his waist, playing the part of a foreign adventurer far from home.

The old man glared at Luosen without good grace: "If you want water, go scoop it yourself from the vat in the yard; and besides, that's not my daughter, she's my daughter-in-law."

"You foreign wanderer, you'd better keep your eyes to yourself; my son is quite a hothead."

Luosen shrugged, averted his gaze sensibly, and went to draw a bucket of not-so-clear water from the vat.

After taking a hearty gulp, he said: "Old man, I'm not a wanderer; I'm a demon hunter, and I'm pursuing a purple-haired witch."

The demon hunter information was naturally passed to him by the Dawn Guard; they have no special abilities, just a bunch of roaming fellows who know some martial arts and act as mercenaries helping people solve troubles.

He was just trying his luck with the question, not really expecting an answer.

Unexpectedly, this old man had actually seen Tiralin; he shrugged and said: "Then you'd better hurry up."

Luosen felt a surge of joy and quickly asked: "What, has she been targeted by the church's lackeys?"

"That's right, and she might already have been captured."

Luosen immediately asked: "Where did you see that witch?"

"I haven't seen her myself; I heard it from Red-haired Pete."

"Which direction did she go?"

The old man gave a hehe laugh: "I won't just tell you for nothing, unless you give me something in return."

Luosen naturally knew how to deal with these stubborn mountain folk; he drew his magic sword and flourished it with a smooth sword flower.

"Old man, my temper isn't great either, and my patience is limited; you'd better not provoke me into anger."

"Alright, Red-haired Pete said she ran off to the north."

"Where is Red-haired Pete?"

The old man shrugged: "He might be in the tavern, or maybe at Widow Luo Si's house; who knows?"

"Thanks."

Luosen never believed a single source of information; after leaving the old man's courtyard, he entered the village and asked everyone he met.

He questioned over a dozen people, successfully found the red-haired Pete, obtained much new information, and roughly pieced together the truth.

About two hours ago, a strange woman with purple hair arrived; she was very beautiful, wore strangely styled fine clothes, had glittering gold decorations on her face, and spoke words no one could understand.

The village elder said she was a witch and demanded the village militia seize her for trial.

But the woman was very vigilant; she turned and ran.

She ran extremely fast; the village's hunting dogs couldn't catch up, and she vanished in an instant.

No one knew where she ran to; the only certainty was that she headed north.

Because of the witch, the village militia took their hunting dogs and pursued her, and they have not returned yet.

And then there was nothing more.

"Since Tirralin revealed her true form, it shows she has already abandoned the Dawn Guard."

"She is wearing attire conducive to movement—long pants and a short robe, which does not hinder her movement, but she has no weapons or combat skills, and being pursued by a group of militia, she is likely in danger."

Thinking this, Luosen immediately accelerated his pursuit as soon as he left the villagers' sight.

Beyond the village lay mountains and forests; in the forest there was only a narrow muddy path, where many fresh footprints could be seen.

There were human footprints, dog footprints, and horse footprints, some of which belonged to Tirralin.

From the footprints, it could be seen that both pursuer and fugitive were running along the path, and their speeds were gradually slowing.

After pursuing for a while, Luosen realized: "Oh no, Tirralin didn't bring her power source; her stamina is limited."

In that case, she would most likely be caught by the native militia.

Luosen immediately gave chase at full speed.

About five minutes later, he heard ahead the barking of dogs, neighing of horses, men's shouts, and the clashing of blades.

It seemed a fierce struggle had taken place ahead.

At the same time, Luosen clearly sensed Tirralin's soul aura, less than a Chinese mile away.

"It looks lively; I need to be careful."

Although the divine body is strong, it is ultimately not as useful as magic; being too flamboyant makes it easy to capsize.

Thus, Luosen used the roadside thickets for cover, crouched low, and sneaked over.

(End of chapter)