The Dao of Reincarnation (410-411) (Patreon)

Chapter 410: The Ancient and Modern Recorder (Part 21)

An unknown number of years passed once more.

A middle-aged man on the shore accidentally discovered a bronze mask.

He unexpectedly stepped onto the path of cultivation, yet also invited disaster.

He died, and even the mask was taken from him, falling into the hands of a dissolute young master.

The young master was overjoyed. This was a tremendous opportunity.

In less than a hundred years, the once-dissolute youth became a powerful expert of his region.

Yet because he spoiled his descendants too greatly, he provoked an even more vicious demonic cultivator. Without a word, the man annihilated the entire clan of the former young master and seized many treasures, the mask among them.

That peerless demonic cultivator was later slain by others. The one who found the mask founded a sect and became its old ancestor, passing the artifact down through the generations.

Eventually, a supreme prodigy appeared. Wearing the mask, he stepped into the starry sky beyond the domain and contended with the heroes of the age.

The starry sky was vast, and geniuses beyond counting filled its reaches.

He killed others and was naturally killed in turn by even stronger beings. The mask changed owners once again.

Who could say how many cycles of spring and autumn had turned?

In the end, the mask fell into the hands of a youth named Zhu Yuhua. Relying on the mask, he rose against the current and, in a single leap, became the greatest Emperor of his era, unmatched in his lifetime.

The Jade Glory Great Emperor was often seen wearing the mask.

The bronze mask became formally known throughout the world.

It was revered as the Emperor's Mask.

After the death of the Jade Glory Great Emperor, countless forces fought over the Emperor's Mask.

Some hoped to rely on it to defy fate and rise as the Jade Glory Great Emperor once had.

Others sought to gain boundless power through it and avenge themselves upon old enemies.

Countless more years passed.

Even the name of the Jade Glory Great Emperor faded from the world's memory.

No one could count how many hosts the bronze mask had changed.

Among them were sovereigns who ruled the cosmos, patriarchs of great clans, unmatched demonic prodigies who suppressed all rivals, and also ordinary people of no distinction, peddlers and servants…

Some realized their ideals through the mask. Others were swallowed by greed and met accidental deaths.

The bronze mask eventually fell into the hands of a supreme genius named Ran Tianxia.

Ran Tianxia was invincible from the moment he appeared in the world. The prodigies of the entire universe were not even a match for him in a single exchange. He easily surpassed the Great Emperors of past and present.

"It is merely a small mask."

Ran Tianxia regarded it with disdain. The legendary mask that could change a person's fate was of no use to him. He was confident that without relying on any external power, he could still surpass this world.

He tied the mask at his waist.

He intended for the bronze mask to record his glorious life.

Ran Tianxia successfully broke free of the cage and entered an even vaster realm.

That world was far broader, and Ran Tianxia was no longer invincible.

He was imprisoned by an even more terrifying existence inside an alchemy furnace. Surging flames surrounded his body.

In the end, he still failed to escape that small furnace.

"I am not willing… How unwilling I am!"

Ran Tianxia died.

Yet the bronze mask within the furnace was not burned away. This surprised the existence behind the scenes.

"This mask… actually exists between void and reality. Who forged it?"

The one who had refined Ran Tianxia was a supreme Emperor Lord who raised the living beings of a hundred million realms as materials.

He was astonished that the bronze mask remained completely unharmed under the burning of his Chaos Fire.

Fortunately, he possessed sufficient knowledge.

The discovery filled him with both shock and delight.

Though the mask appeared to be bronze, it contained a far purer energy. He could not comprehend that energy, yet he knew it was an absolute treasure.

An entire era passed, and the supreme Emperor Lord still failed to unravel its secrets. He could only smile bitterly. "Perhaps this is the method of an Immortal."

With the outbreak of the great tribulation of the Dharma-Ending Age and the chaos of the era, that supreme Emperor Lord died. The mask he wore fell beyond the Three Thousand Realms.

The mask encountered new wearers once more.

Its existence seemed to have witnessed the rise and fall of one era after another.

The world underwent endless changes of ages. Only the bronze mask remained eternal.

In a deep and secluded place, countless years had already passed since the previous wearer of the mask had charged into the depths and perished.

In this world without light, several strangers suddenly appeared.

They were descendants of the Dark Night Emperor Lord, who had forced their way into the secluded depths in search of their ancestor's remains.

They successfully found the burial place of the Dark Night Emperor Lord. A colossal giant that seemed to pierce through the heavenly abyss lay there. Most of its body had already turned to white bone. A long spear still pierced its frame, and equally towering white bones lay at its feet—the remains of the great enemy who had died alongside the Dark Night Emperor Lord in ages past.

A bronze mask still covered the face of the Dark Night Emperor Lord.

It was said that the Dark Night Emperor Lord had originally been only a minor genius of an Emperor-rank power. After his clan's destruction, he had accidentally obtained this bronze mask, step by step annihilated his former enemies, founded the Longevity Clan, and became an Eternal Emperor Lord before finally falling during the Third Era Chaos.

His descendants had found his resting place.

Their gazes, however, fell upon the mask still worn on the Dark Night Emperor Lord's face.

As his descendants, they naturally knew how extraordinary that mask truly was.

Just as they were about to touch it, the bronze mask left the remains of the Dark Night Emperor Lord and floated into the air. The sudden scene left the descendants completely bewildered. Had their old ancestor been revived, or had the mask gained a spirit of its own?

Points of faint light bloomed across the surface of the bronze mask. Though extremely weak, strands of almost imperceptible rays seemed to take root in the void and extend outward from the mask. They saw an ordinary mortal elder carefully polishing the mask.

With another faint golden ray taking root in the void, the scenes upon the mask rapidly shifted.

Liu Hu… Dong Qiang… Zhu Hao… Li Zhiyuan… Liu Yizhi… Mu Ziqiang… Zhou Chong… Si Zhaonan…

One former wearer after another began to appear in succession. Countless golden rays spread through the void in a magnificent spectacle.

The light grew from the most insignificant glimmer until it illuminated the entire secluded depths, and then became as brilliant as a great sun floating high above the darkness.

"What is happening? What is going on?"

The descendants of the Dark Night Emperor Lord were completely stunned. They had only intended to retrieve the mask and its inheritance. How had they encountered such a bizarre event?

"This is bad. The disturbance here is too great. It will certainly attract the Lord of the Secluded Depths!"

The moment that thought arose, they felt a suffocating aura.

It was the Lord of the Secluded Depths!

Chapter 411: The Ancient and Modern Recorder (Part 22)

The Secluded Depths consisted of eighteen layers, and each layer was ruled by a Lord.

Every one of those Lords possessed the terrifying power to sweep across countless realms and was known as a Scourge among calamities.

Even an existence as fearsome as the Dark Night Emperor Lord, one of the few supreme experts across the heavens who had hope of becoming an Immortal, had only managed to fight a single Lord of the Secluded Depths to mutual destruction.

Within the profound dimensions, a towering shadowy figure overlooked the mortal world. Countless dried black points surrounded that shadow—they were withered universes reduced to insignificant dust.

In an instant, all light was swallowed.

The towering figure looked toward the bronze mask floating in the boundless black night. Though everything here was shrouded in deep darkness, a thin membrane formed of gathered light still clung to the surface of the mask.

"That is… the Lord of No Light, one of the top five among the eighteen Kings of the Secluded Depths!"

The descendants of the Dark Night Emperor Lord, who had entered the depths, trembled violently.

The mask had actually drawn the attention of such a terrifying existence.

The Lord of No Light was an opponent even their ancestor, the Dark Night Emperor Lord, would have treated with extreme caution in his prime.

At that moment, the evolution within the mask had not stopped. One peerless existence after another was manifested. Countless rays of light pierced the darkness. Those rays extended and interwove into the karma of all living beings. Far too many eras had passed since Su Chen first carved the mask. The bronze mask of old was no longer a pure mask; it had become an object interwoven with the karma of the carriers of all beings.

"So it was true after all…"

A murmuring voice echoed between heaven and earth. The mask suddenly transformed into a figure—the very Emperor Lord who had once refined Ran Tianxia.

"No…"

Before he could react, the surging torrent of history crushed over him and his body shattered at once.

This sudden change caught the descendants of the Dark Night Emperor Lord completely off guard.

Time and space seemed to freeze.

They could still think, yet their bodies could not move.

"That… that is our ancestor?"

As countless figures appeared one after another, the final silhouette to emerge from the mask was none other than the long-fallen Dark Night Emperor Lord.

The descendants of the Dark Night Emperor Lord were filled with excitement.

Was their ancestor about to revive?

The boundless pupils of the Lord of No Light, which contained myriad universes, suddenly contracted.

The figure of the Dark Night Emperor Lord also turned into golden sand and scattered as though blown away by a gust of wind.

Within the interwoven karma of those countless figures, something unexpected coalesced… an egg?

A figure was gestating inside that egg. Upon its face sat the strange bronze mask.

Its body continuously flowed and reformed, constructed from the interwoven karma of the myriad beings. Its existence seemed to lie outside this time and space, suspended between void and reality.

At that very moment, a low murmur sounded within the empty void of time and space.

"It succeeded? In the end, the one who seized the dominant position within the collective consciousness of all beings was still me."

In essence, Su Chen was already dead. He had died long ago in the Heavenly Origin Sect. Yet he had not immediately returned to the Reverse Fate Space.

With this mask, Su Chen had made certain arrangements. Though he possessed no cultivation at the time, laying down a guiding formation was not difficult. Because of that formation, after each wearer's death, a wisp of consciousness would remain within the mask, generation after generation…

Until the mask completely transformed into a product that witnessed karma, stained with the aura of cause and effect, and became immortal through the long river of years.

It had been a dangerous gambit. Across countless ages, the slightest mishap would have destroyed the mask. After experiencing countless wearers, if Su Chen's consciousness had not remained firm enough, he would have failed to seize the dominant position within the karma of all beings and return. Instead, he would have become nothing more than a wedding garment for others.

Su Chen could not afford to fail. This was his final hope. Fortunately, he succeeded.

Across the heavens, the Great Dao, karma, and fate stood supreme. What Su Chen sought was karma. At this moment, his destiny had already taken root in the long river of years of this spacetime. By stealing the power of karma, he became rootless and formless. As long as he did not actively expose himself, even an Immortal King would find it difficult to deduce his past.

Su Chen understood that relying solely on his own strength in this life to walk another path to Immortality would be far too difficult.

Therefore…He used the power of all living beings to seize the position of karma!

Looking at the countless threads of light that covered the golden figure like extending vines, fear actually appeared in the eyes of the Lord of No Light.

A True Immortal of the Karma Position! He had actually witnessed the birth of a True Immortal!

Su Chen glanced at the Lord of No Light, then looked down at the descendants of the Dark Night Emperor Lord below. He immediately understood what had happened.

Su Chen had no interest in taking action. As he vanished, everything seemed to return to silence.

Only after confirming that Su Chen had completely disappeared did the enormous body of the Lord of No Light slowly sink into a dimensional rift. The originally quiet Secluded Depths became even quieter, without the slightest sound.

Had Su Chen left? He had not.

Within a long, flowing river, he stood upon its surface. Countless lines of karma interwove and filled the space, finally transforming in his hands into a book of extreme antiquity that at first glance resembled the Reverse Fate Scripture.

This was not the Reverse Fate Scripture.

For a True Immortal of the Karma Dao to grow stronger required a different "source" from that of other True Immortals. The path Su Chen walked demanded that he record all living beings, record True Immortals, and even Immortal Kings… record the causes of their deaths. If they died completely and never returned, existing only within the Book of Karma, then Su Chen could obtain a portion of the "fruit."

Countless "fruits" gathered together would form a towering tree. If on that day he was not killed, he might one day prove the Dao of an Immortal King.

Time, to Su Chen, was merely a number. He began to walk the world.

Whenever a major historical event occurred that would influence the direction of the myriad realms of this spacetime, a figure wearing a mask and holding the Book of Karma would appear as if by destiny.

He took part in no conflicts and altered no history.

All he did was record that stretch of history.

With another cycle of eras, chaos erupted once more.

The Lords of the Secluded Depths poured forth in full force.

Yet in this era, they were mistaken. At the end of this era, an extraordinary figure was born.

A giant who stood between heaven and earth casually tore Emperor Lords apart with his bare hands. His strength had long surpassed all limits.

The Lord of No Light was filled with unwilling rage.

Yet… he was about to die.

In the unseen, he saw that behind the terrifying giant appeared a familiar bronze mask. The masked figure held a book in his hands.

The consciousness of the Lord of No Light completely dissipated.