I, the leader of the esoteric sect, am doing great things in the infinite world!

I'm taking a break because I'm experiencing some writer's block. I'd also like to share some thoughts.

I was writing until midnight and got a bit stuck. There seems to be a problem with the arrangement of the next few chapters, so I need to revise it. There won't be any updates tomorrow; I'm not feeling well, so please forgive me.

My new computer arrived, and the Legion laptop is really fun. Now I'm just waiting for the old man ring to go on sale so I can buy it.

It seems the Tantric volume isn't receiving as good a response as the other worlds. I'm considering speeding up the plot; the next volume will be a mix of the Godslayer world and the Valkyrie world of the end, and naturally, martial ethics won't be emphasized.

I also found a new book today about Yao Li assassinating Jing Ke, about what it's like to become a saint, it's very good.

My luck with gacha pulls hasn't been great lately. In the Morgan banner, I only got two Gawain and one Yggdrasil after two or three hundred Saint Quartz. Genshin Impact was even worse; I got Qiqi at max constellation and only one Frostbite for free.

That's all for now. I'm taking a day off to change my perspective.

297 What is triangular trade?

If the people of Aleppo treated the exiles as mere friends, then their attitude towards Li Lin was one of respect.

Even Li Lin was somewhat doubtful about what it was about his universally disliked behavior that had earned him the respect of this immortal being.

“Compared to exiles, I think you are more certain of your future path, and several diviners have already placed their bets on you. In other words, your destiny is unstoppable, and nothing can stop your arrival.”

The Aleppo people said in a mysterious tone.

“Even Si Chen?” the exile joked from the side.

Even Si Chen.

To everyone's surprise, the Aleppo man nodded firmly, looking completely convinced, and seemed about to pull out a Meituan deliveryman's yellow robe from under his buttocks and drape it over Li Lin.

“The celestial beings contend with each other in the waking world, while their will manifests itself in the waking world.”

The Aleppo man shook his head, seemingly reluctant to discuss the matter. “In short, there is something I took because an exile in another history needed it, so as compensation, he asked me to deliver it to you.”

He took out a bunch of messy, wrinkled manuscripts from his coat pocket. The manuscripts had bright yellow stamps on their surfaces, and in the upper right corner of the top one was a sun-shaped emblem.

The Aleppo people handed these manuscripts to Li Lin, as if they were handing toilet paper to their buddy in the next toilet.

Li Lin lowered his head, and the data field displayed text.

[A rare and precious artifact: fragments of the Book of the Sun]

[Sexual aspects: lamp, cup]

[Appearance/Symptoms: Remnants of a painting. History did not originally unfold this way; things still remain, and their traces are far more numerous than imagined.]

A gift, from someone who is no longer the same.

[Sexual quality: Comfortable. There are some things that money can't buy; this is just one of them.]

[A torn manuscript page, adorned with ornate illustrations, torn from its original binding for separate sale. The language is incomprehensible—Persian? Arabic? Yet, somehow, it can be read under sufficiently bright light. Conflicts among the celestial beings, hidden bloodlines, secrets that destroy loyalty… Perhaps not much practical information, but there is something about “the voice that tempers the soul.”]

It is yet another remnant of a painting.

However, unlike the previous overpainted fragments, this one is incomplete.

The Aleppo people produced a total of nine manuscripts.

"So what exactly did you take?"

The exile asked anxiously, the more precious the reward from the Aleppo people seemed, the more she wondered what exactly the Aleppo people had taken away was.

"...It was a weapon you rightfully deserved, but I've taken it from you." The Aleppo man seemed hesitant to reveal the secret, but finally told him everything. He didn't want to make enemies with Li Lin at this time. "It was a weapon used by a named person, and it should have fallen into your hands by now."

"Which named person?" The exile's voice was unusually calm, as if he didn't care at all about what he had lost.

She knew it was pointless to argue with the Aleppo people, and that their respect wasn't directed at her.

“Bide”.

This is a named person who served under a colonel. Legend has it that he was once an alcoholic doctor in Arabia, and there are also legends that he was the incarnation of all mosquitoes in the world. People whose arteries were cut by him with a scalpel would not die immediately, but could only watch their blood flow out of the wound.

The exile knew his name, or perhaps it was her greatest enemy who once told her.

But during their exile, the exiles heard the name of Bede in many more places—in the Orthodox Church in Italy, in churches where people worshiped, and in small, unswept shrines by the roadside.

Among those with devout faith, Peter has another name: Saint Peter.

In the scriptures of the Orthodox Church, he followed the Messiah in spreading the faith, and after the Messiah opened his body in an extremely astonishing and terrifying ceremony, he also died as a martyr. It is said that he believed his glory could not match that of the Messiah, so he asked the Romans to nail him upside down on the cross.

“Yes.” The Aleppo man seemed reluctant to elaborate. “This is the scalpel that Bede used when he was a mortal. It can prevent the wounds of the victim from healing for a long time, and at the same time give both the user and the victim a strong feeling of alcoholism. But I can assure you, it is not a remnant.”

From this perspective, the exiles actually benefited.

"But I have something to say about this 'Book of the Sun'," the Aleppo man paused. "It's a relic from before the sun split. If there are different ranks among the remnants, it must be the most precious. Just as the sun split into four, this treasure that records the truths of the Golden Age also split into four..."

"Melina, why are you avoiding me!" Li Lin's illness came on suddenly.

"...In short, if we find the four manuscripts and piece them together, we can restore the Book of the Sun." The figure of the Aleppo man gradually faded away like ink in a painting, as if something was forcibly erasing his traces.

“I don’t have much time left here, so I’ll take my leave now.”

The immortal's form dissipated like mist, starting from his hat, his form gradually turning into spreading ink marks, like a drop of water falling into a desolate wasteland, shattering into countless tiny traces, and never to exist again.

The only evidence that an immortal had existed here just a second ago were the fragments of the "Book of the Pride of the Sun" on Li Lin's dark green table and the food on the table that had only been touched a few times.

The exile forced a smile: "It's alright, it's not a complete loss. After all, you gave me a weapon before..."

She froze, unable to continue speaking.

The Demon King's Blade was given to him by Li Lin. After he obtained the Demon King's Blade, the people of Aleppo arrived here ahead of time, took away the Blade of Bide that was rightfully theirs, and gave Li Lin a quarter of the Book of the Sun as compensation.

It's like a series of interlocking knots.

But what was the Aleppo people's purpose?

She pulled out the note, the handwriting on it perfectly matching her own. It would be easy to forge two notes with identical handwriting, but the exile was absolutely certain that it was her own writing.

Because no one dares to impersonate an immortal and forge correspondence.

The exile's gaze fell on the bright red sealing wax at the end of the note, its emblem bold and simple: a lion with its mane and beard bristling like flames. 68 3, 7.0, 29 9.5

That is the emblem of the eternal soldiers belonging to Sichen Lionsmith.

As Dr. Ibn Adim said, in another, brighter and greater history, another self has ascended to become the immortal of the Lion-maker.

298 LOL, he actually wanted to teach us!

Li Lin felt no pressure after this incident, but the exiles had lost their appetite.

The self in another historical period may not necessarily be of the same mind and purpose as the self in this historical period.

The exile sneered, clenching the note in his fist. A moment later, only a sliver of dull gray remained.

The path to ascension she has chosen is not the opposing force that compels Defor to ascend with her, but rather the search for the Remnants of the Overturned Painting, and through Ligeia's means, a sacrifice to Sichen Sining, using her own blood of the earth to become a secretly protected bloodline immortal.

In other words, whether or not Defort is killed will not affect her ascension process, because under the power of the silk, Defort will not even be able to find any trace of her.

“We’re going to the governor’s mansion now,” the exile sighed.

Ibn Adim's appearance had disrupted her plans. As he said, her spoils had already been taken ahead of time, so there was no point in continuing to wander around. She might as well go directly to the governor's mansion to find someone.

"Go and hang the governor?" Li Lin always managed to say the most inappropriate thing at the most inappropriate time.

To Li Lin's disappointment, the exiles would not do so. Hanging the governor would come at a price, and she had not yet decided to launch a rebellion and revolution. Instead, she planned to join forces with the governor's office to suppress the National Liberation Front.

It sounds very reactionary.

Before long, they arrived outside the Governor's Mansion. The guards responsible for protecting the Governor's Mansion had already noticed the two of them walking straight towards them and blocked their way from a few meters away with their rifles with bayonets.

"The Governor's Mansion is a restricted area; all visitors are prohibited from entering."

The exile calmly stepped forward: “We are friends with the Governor’s friend, Mustafa, just as the Quran says, ‘A friend of a friend is a friend.’ You should treat him with care and kindness. If he is a fellow believer, treat him as your own brother.”

The guards remained unmoved; words alone cannot persuade a person.

Seeing this, Li Lin stepped forward, poked the guard's nose with his finger, and said arrogantly, "This is the Awakening World. We are all noble Fourth Calamities, while you are pitiful NPCs. If you know what's good for you, then get out of here..."

The exile grabbed Li Lin by the neck and pulled back, saying, "Sorry to bother you."

But when they tried to leave, the guards wouldn't let them go so easily. With a gesture, a dozen or so patrolmen rushed forward and surrounded Li Lin and the exiles with unfriendly smiles.

Seeing that things were not going well, Li Lin shrank back and, disregarding his image, turned around and threw himself into the arms of the guard in front of him, pointing at the exile and crying out, "She forced me to do all this, it's all her fault!"

As the saying goes, "A wise man is one who knows when to yield to the times." Since I am so pragmatic, I can at least be considered a king among wise men.

Feeling enlightened and seeing a bright future ahead, Li Lin cried out, "It was all because I didn't realize how illustrious and great you all were before that I was persuaded by this woman to come here. Now I've abandoned darkness and embraced light, and I'm wholeheartedly devoted to the Governor!"

The exiles in the crowd looked at Li Lin with confusion, and then a sense of absurdity arose in their hearts.

Could he have really managed to sneak into the guard ranks?

The guard who had been harassed by Li Lin was about to angrily push him away, but he paused when he saw Li Lin's face: "A Ming Chinese?"

The three words were pronounced clearly and loudly, which frightened Li Lin so much that he stopped crying and looked up to carefully examine the disheveled-looking guard in front of him.

That's right, definitely European looks.

The guards seemed to have somehow identified Li Lin as someone from the Eastern Ming Empire, and they quickly released their grip on Li Lin and gave him a French military salute.

"It is a great honor to meet you here, a citizen of the great Ming Empire." Beads of sweat glistened on the guard's forehead. He had almost attacked a citizen of the Ming Empire, nearly causing a major diplomatic incident.

If this matter comes to light, losing one's own position would be the least of one's worries; even the governor could be teetering on the brink of ruin in the chain reaction.