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

Chen Shouting gave a wry smile, lifted the curtain, and stepped down from the carriage—if the soldiers saw Li Lin with his deer antlers and cloud-like appearance, they would truly be astonished.

In this way, the tax collectors would not clash with Li Lin, who was sharpening his knives. While being exploited by these arrogant tax collectors, Chen Shouting gritted his teeth in secret, imagining Li Lin taking off the heads of these little devils and kicking them around like balls.

A full incense stick later, Chen Shoutin returned to his carriage, his face pale. He felt as if his heart was bleeding – half of his money over the past two years had been spent on bribing officials, and the rest had been embezzled before he even met his superiors.

"Alright, Immortal." Chen Shoutin rubbed his hands together, feeling the carriage rumble forward. "What are you going to do next...?"

It's no wonder Chen Shoutin asked that question. They were going to stay at a mansion specifically for receiving local officials. However, Li Lin's appearance as a deer with antlers and draped in clouds was bound to attract attention wherever he went.

Are we really going to turn Li Lin into a deer and have him stay in a rare animal park for two or three days first?

"I'm going to live in the inner palace," Li Lin said ruthlessly, "and incidentally, I'll settle scores."

"what?"

......

Yuanmingyuan Garden. Jiuzhou Qingyan Hall.

As Emperor Qianlong's sleeping quarters in the Yuanmingyuan Garden, the furnishings here are even more luxurious than those in the Yangxin Hall.

The white jade incense burner on the table emitted a faint incense smoke. Emperor Qianlong sat sideways on the couch, with a concubine dressed in a plain Manchu dress beside him, tending to a pot of fine jasmine Longjing tea, which the Manchus called "Dragon Eye Fish".

In this type of Longjing tea mixed with jasmine, there's always been too much jasmine, causing the floral aroma to overpower the tea's fragrance. Originally, it was only popular among the Manchu people who didn't know much about tea. Emperor Qianlong never liked this flavor, but he only reluctantly drank a few sips because one of his concubines liked it.

"Cui Lian".

Emperor Qianlong reached out and placed his hand on the shoulder of the woman who seemed as pure and holy as a lotus flower, pulling her into his arms. The lake breeze was cool, carrying the last wisp of lotus fragrance from late summer and early autumn.

Just then, the sound of heavy logging seemed to come from afar, instantly clearing Qianlong's mind.

The one making the bigger move was the concubine named Cuilian in Qianlong's arms. She looked at the doorway warily, a hint of panic flashing in her eyes.

Soon, this panic turned into utter terror, and fear spread from her eyes to her entire beautiful face, and even her body began to tremble involuntarily!

Then, Li Lin, draped in golden-purple clouds and sporting pure white deer antlers, pushed open the door and entered, his eyes radiating a deep purple light that almost overflowed.

"It's a long story; we've been entangled for tens of thousands of years."

Li Lin casually sculpted the charging eunuchs into the shape of Kirby from the movie "Kirby"—their bodies were compressed to the size of a basketball, their faces still lifelike, except that only their heads were connected to their feet.

Since his enlightenment at Hengshan, Li Lin's understanding of casting has become incredibly profound, but unfortunately, the part where he has reached such a profound level is rather morbid.

Li Lin sighed softly, "I didn't expect you to actually know how to use Luo Cuilian's appearance."

"Now that you've found it," Luo Hao, or rather, "Fate" using Luo Hao's appearance, coldly retorted, "then aren't you going to make your move?"

"Huh?" Li Lin changed the subject, "Are you talking to me?"

Fate was furious, and his chest heaved uncontrollably.

"Enough!" Emperor Qianlong shouted, finally remembering his identity. "Who exactly are you?!"

"Oh, I almost forgot the important matter." Li Lin rubbed his hands together, briefly gathered his strength, and then punched Qianlong in the face. "Did I tell you to speak? You old geezer!"

Emperor Qianlong was caught off guard and was punched off the bed and onto the ground.

"How dare you...attack me..."

Emperor Qianlong, who was dazed and confused after being punched by Li Lin, sat on the ground for a while before finally realizing what had just happened. Just as he was about to question Li Lin, Li Lin grabbed his shirt by the chest and punched him in the face four times in a row.

"I, I, you dog-legged emperor!" Li Lin was still not satisfied, so he grabbed Qianlong's braid and slapped him twice. "You Han Chinese, don't be too arrogant!"

"I am a Han Chinese?!" Emperor Qianlong, whose face was covered in bruises from the beating, was shocked.

“Don’t think I don’t know your real name is Chen Jialuo.” Li Lin sneered, leaving the somewhat delirious Qianlong aside, and plopped down next to Fate. “From today until the ninth day of the ninth month, I will live here.”

Fate bowed its head in silence.

Upon witnessing this scene, Emperor Qianlong realized that Li Lin was probably up to no good. He no longer cared about the possibility of being cuckolded; his immediate priority was to save his own life.

The problem was that Li Lin couldn't resist the urge to fight when he saw Li Lin's cowardly appearance.

"How many punches did I land on you just now?" Li Lin asked after counting on his fingers for a while.

"Seven, seven punches." Emperor Qianlong dared not speak his anger.

"How honest!" Li Lin nodded with a smile. "There aren't many honest old people like that anymore."

So Li Lin stepped forward and threw three more punches at Qianlong, one on each side.

"I...I have already answered truthfully!" Qianlong said, feeling wronged.

“Yeah, didn’t you call yourself the Ten-Fist Old Man?” Li Lin cracked his knuckles. “To round it up for you.”

436 A thumbs-up isn't just a compliment; it could also be an indication of something.

Fate, or rather, the embodiment of "fate".

As the central hub connecting the past and future of the Godslayer world, and even serving as the "seat" linking countless parallel world lines when the Last King had not yet awakened, it is itself without physical form.

However, it does respond to the wishes of those who come before it, appearing in the form they imagine.

—If Kusanagi Godou, who became the god-slayer, were here, then fate would manifest as the “Three Fates”; if Rama, the last king, were here, then he would manifest as Brahman, the Hindu god who weaves the destiny of all things in the universe; if Vereslana were here, then fate would meet him in the form of Mithra.

Ultimately, fate has an infinitely broad perspective, and the gains and losses in the course of time are not worth worrying about.

However, Li Lin's uniqueness far surpasses that of all the others. He is both paranoid and capricious, both kind and tyrannical, both seeking change and manifesting destruction. In the tens of thousands of years of backtracking, Li Lin's choices are different each time. His decisions are like the dice thrown by God, expanding endlessly until he can take the entire timeline into his palm.

He easily swallowed up the history of Kusanagi Godou, overshadowed the existence of Rama and Vereslana, and finally devoured the Mithra timeline as well.

Therefore, the way fate manifests itself is not due to fate's own wickedness, but rather because Li Lin has confined all his possibilities within this body. As time goes by, fate has fewer and fewer choices to make, like water whose every path is blocked.

Fate lowered its eyelids, and she passed through Li Lin's unguarded mental defenses, seeing that sun that was more blazing than ever before.

It watched as Li Lin's star devoured everything that belonged to it, throwing all its possibilities into this sun-like furnace like kindling.

"My light is far inferior to yours," fate said with a cold laugh. What other choice did it have?

"However, I'm still curious... what exactly are you?"

Destiny sat up straight, staring directly at Li Lin: "Have you ever really thought about what you truly are? The longer you entangle yourself with forbidden knowledge, the more you will transform into an indescribable forbidden entity. You and I have fought for twenty thousand years, but as for time travel, leaps, and parallel history resets, it will take hundreds of thousands of years—not to mention ordinary people, even the spirit of the Last King will decay over the long course of time..."

Li Lin leaned back slightly, as if he had been drawn into thought by the words of fate.

Fate felt a slight joy in his heart.

The next instant, a heavy punch came flying through the air, hitting Destiny on the left cheek and slamming her body off the bed to the ground, where she rolled around with the innocent Qianlong.

"I'm your father." Li Lin cracked his knuckles and said coldly, "Do you know how agonizing it has been for me to be unable to have sex with my wife for hundreds of thousands of years?"

Fate, lying on the ground, opened its mouth, but nothing came out.

According to the plot, he should spit out a tooth or some blood here.

Unfortunately, fate is a rather resilient body, existing in only two states—either remaining intact or remaining dead.

Enraged by this, Li Lin turned around and grabbed the innocent Qianlong, who was watching the scene unfold, and gave him a good beating—compared to the lack of impact from fate, it was more satisfying to hit Qianlong.

......

On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, Chen Shoutin, filled with trepidation, entered Donghua Gate as if he were going to his execution.

Starting from Donghua Gate, it became the venue for officials from various prefectures and counties to come to the capital to meet the emperor and participate in court assemblies. Civil officials dismounted from their sedan chairs and military officials dismounted from their horses. Who would dare to disrupt the order? Only local officials who had specially come to pay tribute were allowed to enter Donghua Gate and "meet the emperor" from a distance of hundreds or thousands of meters.

This was an opportunity that Han Chinese civil officials like him would never have had in the past, but now Chen Shoutin wished he could be as far away from the capital as possible. Just thinking about how Li Lin had taken him into the inner palace the night before last, risking a great sin, and having dinner on the backs of Emperor Qianlong and his concubines, Chen Shoutin felt as if his head had already been moved to another house.

He couldn't help but resent Li Lin: If he had such ability, why didn't he just kill Qianlong directly, instead of keeping him alive until today?

Of course, Chen Shouting only kept these minor emotions to himself, not daring to show them on his face or in his eyes, for fear that others would see them and use them to make a fuss.

Just as the officials were making a ruckus, a sudden uproar came from the Hall of Supreme Harmony, rising and falling like waves.

......

To everyone's surprise, the Crown Prince, who was about to ascend the throne as the Jiaqing Emperor, walked out from the rear hall with a noticeable bruise on his face and an barely suppressed rage.

If Jiaqing's condition could be attributed to the Empress Dowager's anger and the officials' inability to see it, then the tragic state of the certain "Perfect Emperor" was obvious even to a blind person.

A summer court hat woven from jade grass was placed properly on Qianlong's head.

The court hat was made with the finest craftsmanship of the Qing Palace Workshop. It was edged with gold thread, lined with red gauze, and decorated with gold Buddhas, gold ornaments, and pearls, all of which were among the best in the palace.

The pearl on top of the court hat is about an inch in size and shaped like a gourd. It was obtained by chance when Emperor Qianlong was boating in the imperial garden when he was young. He always regarded it as an auspicious omen and set it on the court hat used in the grand court. He was reluctant to wear it out easily.

At this moment, although Emperor Qianlong still possessed the imposing presence of a powerful ruler, his face was covered with several more wrinkles—as if overnight, the years that had been concealed by his health regimen had returned to him!

Even the bright yellow court robes he wore when presiding over grand court assemblies were now swaying precariously and barely holding their shape. Only the five-clawed golden dragons and the twelve imperial symbols wrapped in five-colored clouds on the robes remained as brilliant as gold, displaying the majesty of the imperial family.

Without the support of the concubine beside him, Emperor Qianlong would have had difficulty even standing up straight at this moment.

Who exactly tormented Emperor Qianlong to this miserable state?

As if echoing the questions in the minds of high-ranking officials like Heshen and Fukang'an, a figure draped in golden-purple clouds, with pure white deer antlers on its head and eyes brimming with purple emerged from behind Qianlong.

"have you had enough?"

Perhaps it was the presence of the civil and military officials that gave Qianlong confidence, for he actually pushed away the support of fate, forced himself to turn around, and glared angrily at Li Lin.

"I am the ruler of the Great Qing. Do you really think that by taking me hostage, you can glimpse the weight of the divine artifacts?" Qianlong sneered and flicked his sleeve. "Warriors of Bogda Khan, descendants of Genghis Khan, come out and seize this demon for me!"

Among the palace guards of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongol Eight Banners were always the most appreciated for their bravery and fighting spirit. Upon hearing Qianlong's summons, Mongolian voices immediately came from both sides of the hall: "Your Majesty, your servants are here!"

These Mongol princes and nobles drew their swords and charged across the procession toward Li Lin.

Perhaps feeling confident of victory and able to vent the pent-up frustration of the past few days, Emperor Qianlong sneered and said righteously, "You sorcerer, thinking you know some sorcery, dared to rush in and kidnap me. For your own fleeting ambition for power and fame, you have committed this unprecedented act of rebellion, disregarding the consequences for your descendants and the well-being of the people. You are determined to turn this peaceful and prosperous era I have created into a hellish realm. You are truly blinded by greed!"