The majestic emperor of a nation now stood on the stage holding a broken bowl, his clothes filthy and disheveled, the spitting image of a street beggar.
However, Emperor Xueye did have some acting skills up his sleeve. He knew that a beggar wouldn't always stand tall and proud, so he broke with his usual habits, bent his spine, and in an instant, his posture dropped several degrees.
The distinction between a beggar and an emperor is most obvious in their demeanor, and clearly, Emperor Xueye was aware of this as he strived to draw his own air closer to that of a beggar's.
Looking on from below, Gu Rong couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Why do I have this premonition... that from now on, Your Majesty will present himself in this guise? This might not be very appropriate..."
With a seventy percent increase in damage boost, Emperor Xueye's upcoming attack hardly needed the assistance of the Lightning Conduit Kite, nor did it essentially require the Martial Soul True Body.
There was no need for a guise during attack time. Emperor Xueye put away his begging props and straightened up. Looking at Lin Yi, his single ninth soul ring emerged around him.
"Ninth soul skill, Blue Thunder Blast!"
Blue-purple scales covered Emperor Xueye's skin. Since he wasn't employing his Martial Soul True Body, his form remained human-sized, but the shimmering lights from the scales were still dazzlingly beautiful, only missing the violent aesthetic brought on by the Martial Soul True Body.
He pushed out with his palm, and in an instant, dense blue-purple lightning disintegrated into countless splendid light spots hovering mid-air, resembling the stars scattered across the sky. In Qian Renxue's eyes, if it were a night scene at the moment, Emperor Xueye's ninth soul skill would undoubtedly be the most beautiful among all the skills on display.
It was just as beautiful as the star-filled sky Lin Yi had demonstrated to her in that dream, a scene forever etched in Qian Renxue's memory.
Of course, Lin Yi may have long since forgotten about it, Qian Renxue took a deep breath and thought to herself.
On stage, Lin Yi was surrounded by flickering lightning spots. Emperor Xueye clasped his five fingers, and in an instant, dense streams of electricity branched out from the light spots, connecting them all. It seemed as if a Skynet had enveloped him at that moment.
Lin Yi slightly furrowed his brows; these lightning spots had transformed from individual entities to a collective whole. It seemed that with the seventy percent damage increase, the skill had also been upgraded to a "strengthened version".
"Humming noise—"
Lightning spread continuously within the Skynet, and at the peak of the brilliance, all the light spots began to explode. The surging energy of lightning blanketed the entire platform. Even without the real body, the Lightning Conduit Kite, or the Scepter of Destruction's enhancement, the energy was still as strong as ever.
Merely a beggar's outfit, and the boost it provided was comparable to three buffs bundled together—outrageously and overwhelmingly powerful...
Once the attack ended and the energy dissipated, Emperor Xueye took out the Scepter of Destruction and easily crushed the damage rebound with another skill.
Lin Yi looked at the panel.
[Blood Loss: 467354]
[Remaining Health: 899866863467]
[Damage Level: Red Mid Level (Downgraded)]
[Random Reward: Time Machine (can only go back to the past, cannot influence the future)]
[Host Reward: Time Machine (can go back to the past, but can influence the future)]
At the sight of these four words, Lin Yi was somewhat surprised.
A Time Machine seemed to be appearing for the first time in the reward pool, right?
However, in the rewards that had appeared before, there was also the possibility of a Time Machine, such as the Hundred Treasures Bag that Little Golden Crocodile had drawn.
Doraemon's Magic Pocket does contain a Time Machine, but what kind of treasures one can pull out of it depends on luck.
It seems Little Golden Crocodile has never gotten his hands on the Time Machine thus far, or rather, this gluttonous creature has long since set the Hundred Treasures Bag aside and ignored it.
Because Lin Yi hadn't seen the pocket on him for several days straight already.
A Time Machine is clearly an entity capable of disturbing the temporal order, bringing about numerous space-time bugs, but the system here had set many constraints on this reward, and Lin Yi gave the annotations a quick scan, finding them fairly reasonable.
He said to Emperor Xueye, "Damage 467354, according to the rules downgraded to Intermediate Red, your reward is a Time Machine."
Emperor Xueye hesitated for a long while before he repeated the words quietly, though still with a questioning tone.
Lin Yi, "This device allows you to return to any given time point in the past."
"Return to the past?!"
"That's right, but you can't influence the past. Your spiritual body will be set to return to the past, unseen and unheard by the people there. For you, while you can see the scenes and hear the sounds of the past, you won't be able to physically touch anything. Under these settings, there's no possibility of influencing anything from the past."
"Can I enter someone's dreams?"
"No."
The corners of Emperor Xueye's mouth twitched, "So this reward means I can only go back to the past to be a mere spectator? To powerlessly watch things happen for a second time without being able to do anything?"
Lin Yi spoke seriously, "To witness past events once more is a blessing itself. The reward is only Intermediate Red Level, and you need to acknowledge that."
"If a Time Machine that could change the past or even travel to the future existed, it would only lead to the formation of time branches, creating many parallel universes. Yet, everything in our current universe is immutable, because it's already been determined."
"However, the impact would be huge for such a device, because the number of parallel universes could be vast. You could completely dominate in any one of these parallel universes. Thus, a Time Machine capable of such effects would definitely rank above Gold-tier advanced rewards, or could even be considered at the Platinum Level."
Having listened to Lin Yi's explanation, Emperor Xueye felt goosebumps all over his body.
It's not like he had regrets in the past that he had to deal with... So, it seemed pretty good to just quietly be an observer.
Lin Yi continued, "Each trip to the past can last only one hour. After one hour, you'll return to the present and will have to wait a day before you can use the Time Machine again. The flow of time in the past and the present is the same; an hour traveled through in the past is an hour gone in the present."
Emperor Xueye nodded, "I understand."
How to say it? This was a somewhat chicken-ribbed but sufficiently novel award for him.
With this reward, he could witness the continents' origins, see himself as a baby, and look upon any past he wished to see...
Lin Yi tossed the red ball of light in his hand to Emperor Xueye, where it transformed into a simple bracelet on his wrist.
"Press the button on the bracelet when you want to use it."
The moment he finished speaking, Lin Yi suddenly felt as if he were being observed by an invisible gaze in the space around him.
After a brief consideration, he smiled lightly and said, "It looks like a future version of you has already returned to this moment and is watching me right now."
ps. Today there is only one update; also, I've been updating continuously for a month and a half, so let me take a slight break for one day... Updates will resume as normal tomorrow.