369: One of the future segments: The Road to Kingship

Inside the Daoist Temple, an invisible pressure was like solidified tide.

Lü Yingxin continued, her clear, cold voice flowing as if narrating a magnificent epic.

"In the future, you will enter the Foreign Land alone."

"Not by stealth, but by descending with an unstoppable momentum."

"Then... you will rise because of a single sword."

"Before an ancient altar, you will pull out the broken sword embedded in the bones of myriad races. When the sword sings, half of the Foreign Land's Kings will feel a tremor deep within their Bloodline."

"You will become a Venerable King. The first being in the history of the Foreign Land to ascend to the throne as a Human Race."

Qin Wangchuan's fingers moved slightly, but he did not interrupt.

This information was very useful.

Lü Yingxin's gaze was still unfocused; she seemed immersed in fragments of memory from a distant time and space:

"Then, you will begin the path of slaying all Kings."

"That path will be very difficult."

"The black mist will constantly erode your Physical Body and Divine Soul. The forces under those Venerable Kings are deeply entrenched, and you... will be alone."

"At least at first, you will be almost alone."

"But even so."

"You will still kill the first Venerable King, using that broken sword to cut off his head and hang it above his royal city."

"The second, the third... When you slay the third Venerable King, the entire Foreign Land will finally realize that you are not an insect to be crushed at will, but a catastrophe about to sweep through everything."

"All the remaining Venerable Kings, those who had fought each other for tens of thousands of years and wished for each other's immediate demise—for the first and only time, united."

"They jointly issued a kill order."

"The entire Foreign Land, all races, all forces, must participate in hunting you down."

"It will be the largest and most brutal hunt in the history of the Foreign Land, with only one target: a Human Race who ventured into the Foreign Land alone and dared to dream of slaying all Venerable Kings."

Qin Wangchuan's breathing subtly quickened for a moment.

He seemed to see that scene: under a sky filled with black mist, countless foreign eyes lit up in the darkness, like dense stars, each one gleaming with cold killing intent.

"But you will endure."

For the first time, Lü Yingxin's tone carried a faint hint of admiration, "Not only will you endure, but you will grow stronger with each battle."

"You will inspire and conquer more and more foreign races in battle. They will begin to believe in your 'Two Realms Becoming One,' and in the future you envision."

"Your influence will grow like a snowball. Until one day..."

She paused.

Her golden eyes focused on Qin Wangchuan's face, yet it was as if she was looking through him, seeing another person in another time and space.

"You will stand before me."

"At that time, I will be the heir of the Huan Yan Royal Court, a princess of the Foreign Land, and one of its Venerable Kings."

"We will have fought countless times."

"Sometimes I will hunt you, sometimes you will besiege me. The final battle will last for ten days and nine nights."

"Ultimately, I will be defeated."

"You will not kill me, but capture me, intending to use my identity and abilities."

Lü Yingxin suddenly chuckled softly as she reached this point.

"Later, feelings will develop over time."

She repeated these four words, her voice as light as a sigh, "I will then become one of your concubines."

Not just a concubine, but merely one of them.

Qin Wangchuan listened quietly, but his brow furrowed slightly.

What she described was not the 'present future' he cared about, but more like a fragment of possibility from a distant temporal branch.

It had almost no reference value for his current decisions.

Moreover... Qin Wangchuan looked up, his gaze sharp as he looked at her, his tone tinged with doubt, "Feelings develop over time?"

He had always upheld the principle of 'no debts, no regrets' in matters of emotion.

Without special Karma ties, the so-called 'feelings developing over time' could never happen to Qin Wangchuan based on mere passage of time.

A very obvious deception.

Lü Yingxin met his gaze, the faint smile at the corner of her lips deepening slightly.

"Of course, it won't be a simple case of feelings developing over time."

"Rather, at a certain moment, I will be moved."

Her voice gradually softened, as if drawing someone into a long-forgotten dream:

"After I am captured by you, the Huan Yan Royal Court will begin to hunt you down—to reclaim me, and to kill you."

"The enemy will be too strong, and you will be severely wounded from our battle. We will only be able to flee."

"We will flee for seven days and seven nights, finally escaping into an ancient foreign mountain range at the edge of the Royal Court's territory, named 'Thousand Skull Mountain.'"

"Just by passing through this mountain path, we will be able to rendezvous with the approaching reinforcements and temporarily escape the pursuit."

"My change of heart towards you will happen within that mountain range."

...A distant future.

Foreign Land, Thousand Skull Mountain Range

The mountains were a dark, blood-brown, with jagged, grotesque rocks piercing the sky like twisted bones.

The black mist here was exceptionally dense, almost solidified into a viscous liquid, slowly flowing between the rock crevices.

A team of about thirty people was trudging through a narrow mountain crevice.

Leading them was Qin Wangchuan—but that was a Qin Wangchuan from another timeline.

He had multiple wounds on his body, the blood already dried and blackened, but his gaze was still sharp as an eagle's.

In the middle of the team, Lü Yingxin's hands were bound by dark golden rune chains, her disheveled black hair clinging to her pale cheeks.

She walked steadily, but her slightly rising and falling chest betrayed her exhaustion.

Her golden eyes stared blankly ahead, as if indifferent to everything.

"Faster! Beyond this mountain is the rendezvous point!" a foreign race member with a scaled tail growled, his voice hoarse, "Damn it, after being hunted for so long, we're finally safe."

The team's spirits lifted, and their pace quickened.

The mountain crevice was so narrow that only one person could pass at a time, the rock walls wet and cold, with only a faint sliver of pale sky overhead.

Finally, the light of an exit appeared ahead.

"We're here!" someone shouted in surprise.

However.

Before them, the end of the mountain crevice was not an open area, but a stone chamber.

Countless pale skulls were crudely impaled in the earth and rock crevices, densely packed, extending as far as the eye could see.

Their hollow eye sockets all 'gazed' back the way they came, gleaming with an eerie cold light in the dim illumination.

The team fell silent instantly, followed by hushed discussions.

"It's the Bone Race's territory..." an elder foreign race follower in the team spoke with a dry voice, "This tribe has a custom: after death, the skulls of their people are displayed outside for descendants to examine and worship, while their bodies are buried in the earth, returning to their ancestral land."

Another companion didn't care about any of that.

He quickly stepped over the skulls, felt the rock wall at the far end, and then shouted excitedly after his inspection.

"The rock wall isn't too thick! With our combined strength, we can break through it! If we open this up, we can immediately link up with the reinforcements and shake off our pursuers." The man said, looking at Qin Wangchuan with fervent eyes, just waiting for an order.

All eyes were on him.

Panting, the faint sounds of pursuit from afar, mingled with the eerie silence of the place.

Qin Wangchuan's gaze slowly swept over the silent skulls, remaining silent for a moment.

Then, he uttered four words, clear and resolute:

"Turn back, take a detour."

These few words, however, were like cold water poured into boiling oil.

The team instantly erupted!