Five centuries were enough for mountains to erode into hills, for empires to fade into footnotes, and for gods to become nothing more than fairy tales whispered to children.
Wei Yuan awakened from Grand Stillness to a sound he did not recognize.
It was not thunder.
Not the tremor of spirit veins.
Not the cry of beasts or the resonance of immortal artifacts.
It was screeching.
A harsh, rhythmic shrill—metal grinding against stone.
Crude. Persistent. Mechanical.
His eyes opened.
Within the Void-Steel chamber buried deep beneath the earth, a soft silver radiance bloomed. His Nascent Soul illuminated the walls as if moonlight had been trapped underground. His body was no longer flesh. It had reached the Translucent Jade state—blood like liquid light, organs silent, his heart beating once every hour.
He did not breathe.
System, he thought calmly. Report.
[Grand Stillness concluded.]
[Current Age: 610.]
[Daily Reward Multiplier (500-Year Streak): 10×.]
[Total Stillness Essence: 145,000.]
[Cultivation: Nascent Soul — Late Stage.]
[Estimated Lifespan: 5,420 years.]
[Current World Era: Age of Ash and Iron (Twilight of Magic).]
Wei Yuan opened his Era-Crossing Eye.
Five hundred feet of bedrock ceased to exist in his vision.
The Grey Desolation was gone.
Where once soul-devouring mists drifted endlessly, iron now dominated the land. Soot-choked skies. Rails. Chimneys. Steam.
Directly above his chamber stood a colossal drilling rig—black iron and brass, its pipes hissing, its gears shrieking. Men in soot-stained overalls ran across its platforms, shouting orders through copper speaking tubes.
No spiritual energy.
Only coal. Pressure. Industry.
Wei Yuan observed silently.
Ether-Drilling, he concluded.
Crates littered the site, each stamped with crude lettering:
"Ancient Fossilized Energy — Republic Survey Division."
They were not searching for spirit stones.
They were scavenging the corpse of the old world.
[Warning: Destiny Event Detected.]
Wei Yuan's gaze sharpened.
[Target Identified: Lu Chen.]
[Classification: Natural Genius.]
[Karmic Weight: Elevated.]
[Conclusion: Subject has deduced the existence of a Zero-Point Energy Node beneath this location.]
[Objective: Power source for 'Mechanical Sovereign' project.]
Wei Yuan watched as a young man stepped forward on the rig, goggles pushed to his forehead, slide rules clutched in hand. Fate clung to him like a dim flame in the dark.
A protagonist.
How tedious.
[Option 1:]
Allow excavation to reach the Void-Steel chamber.
Reveal yourself as an Ancient Immortal.
Reward:God-Emperor of Iron.
Ripple Cost:85,000 — Catastrophic.
(Will of the Era intervention likely.)
[Option 2:]
Destroy the rig. Eliminate all personnel.
Reward:Heart of the Slaughterer.
Ripple Cost:500 — Moderate.
(World-Protectors alerted.)
[Option 3:]
Rewrite geological data.
Redirect excavation into Abyssal Tar pocket.
Reward:Geological Camouflage (Permanent).
Ripple Cost:0.001.
Wei Yuan chuckled softly, the sound like parchment rubbing together.
"God-Emperor?" he muttered. "I'd rather be a janitor."
Dead men created investigations.
Investigations created history.
And history attracted attention.
Option three.
Five thousand Stillness Essence vanished.
With a subtle adjustment—no force, no power display—he guided a pocket of ancient腐败 organic matter into the drill's path. Remnants of long-dead herb gardens. Time-compressed. Corrosive.
Aboveground—
The rig screamed.
Black sludge erupted from the drill shaft, melting gears, clogging valves, soaking workers in acidic filth.
"Captain Lu!" someone shouted.
"Dead pocket! Abyssal Tar! The bit's dissolving!"
Lu Chen stared at the mess, disbelief flickering behind his lenses.
"Impossible… the structure was perfect…"
Wei Yuan watched fate hesitate.
So he nudged it again.
A low-frequency vibration pulsed upward—not spiritual, not detectable.
Just dread.
The kind embedded in human bones.
Ten minutes later—
"Pack it up," Lu Chen said hoarsely.
"This site is a failure. We relocate east."
[Destiny Event Diverted.]
[Ripple Value: 0.0001.]
[Reward Integrated: Geological Camouflage.]
Silence returned.
Deep underground, Wei Yuan reclined within his jade body.
The world was louder now, even without magic. Steam engines. Radio waves. Endless motion.
The Age of Decay is mature, he mused.
Spirit density: 5% of Blue Mist Era levels.
Cultivators likely rebranded Qi Refinement as "mental enhancement."
He opened his internal ledger.
Reflections on the Age of Ash:
Magic replaced by mechanics.
Veins replaced by nodes.
Protagonists are engineers, not swordsmen.
Current Objective:
Reach Soul Transformation before the Great Rebirth.
Three thousand years remained.
When the Great Rebirth arrived, spirit energy would flood back violently. Mountains would grow. Beasts would ascend. Geniuses would slaughter one another for dominance.
Wei Yuan needed an escape route.
But Soul Transformation required union with the world's laws.
And he avoided the world.
System. Is there another path?
[Query: Independent Law Formation.]
[Method: Cultivate an Inner World.]
[Requirement: 1,000,000 Stillness Essence.]
[Catalyst: Seed of a New Cosmos.]
Wei Yuan blinked.
"I need better passive income."
The answer came quickly.
[Recommendation: Hidden Legacy.]
Influence the world indirectly.
Harvest Vicarious Stillness through peace, prevention, and stagnation.
He smiled.
Days later, without moving, he prevented a continental war with a single dream transmitted through radio waves.
[Karmic Action: Preventive Peace.]
[Ripple Value: 0.000001.]
[Stillness Essence +5,000.]
[Daily Passive Income Increased.]
Wei Yuan closed his eyes.
"Excellent," he murmured.
"I'll make this world so boring that no one ever digs for immortals again."
He set his internal timer.
"Wake me when they invent spaceflight," he said.
"The moon sounds quiet."
Deep beneath rust and progress, a lone Nascent Soul glowed.
Waiting.