The deepest vault of the Imperial Isolation Chambers—Lin Tian's secure prison—was thick with the scent of high-tier Primal Saint Energy. Lord Xing, the former apex of the Seven-Star Assembly, knelt before his infant master. His face was a mixture of utter terror and desperate anticipation. He had surrendered his power, his political life, and his lineage to Lin Tian, all for the singular promise of reversing his decades-long stagnation on the Dao of Time.
"Master," Lord Xing whispered, his voice catching. "I have followed the Purge Protocol. House Feng and House Shi are annihilated. The Assembly is secured under my singular command. I beg you, grant me the correction."
Lin Tian, sitting upright and radiating the power of a Golden Immortal Stage 5, accepted the submission. He had secured the Nine Heavens politically; now he would validate his rule conceptually. This moment was the greatest challenge to his Omni-Talent yet, as the Dao of Time was the most complex and volatile law he had encountered.
Lin Tian activated the Observer's Eye, focusing its entire analytical power onto Lord Xing's Sea of Consciousness.
[Target: Lord Xing. Flaw: Temporal Resonance Lock (Corrupted). Cause: Latent Reverse Causality Stress. Duration: 400 years.]
The Temporal Resonance Lock was a subtle spiritual mechanism that Lord Xing had intended to install to prevent his actions from creating paradoxes. However, due to his inherent grief and flawed cultivation, the lock had become corrupted, feeding chaotic energy back into his core and draining his potential.
Lin Tian began channeling the Cosmic Flaw Detector. He didn't need to learn the Dao of Time himself to fix the flaw; he needed to understand the logic of the flaw and introduce a perfect, non-corruptible counter-logic.
The air around the infant shimmered with invisible, theoretical equations. Lin Tian was attempting to manipulate the fundamental principle of time within a living entity—a feat that would instantly incinerate a normal Golden Immortal.
He channeled the Dao of Entropy—the law of perfect decay and finality he had mastered in Chapter 47. He carefully threaded the Entropy Qi into the chaos of the Temporal Resonance Lock. He wasn't destroying the lock; he was forcing its existence toward its perfect, intended form.
Lord Xing screamed, a silent, internal cry of profound spiritual anguish. He felt the entire fabric of his centuries of existence twist and pull as Lin Tian's power wrestled with the very laws of causality in his mind. Sweat instantly boiled off his skin.
Lin Tian remained serene. The Omni-Talent allowed him to calculate the precise moment when the Dao of Entropy had purged all corruption from the Lock without collapsing its core structure. He stopped the process instantly.
He then channeled the entirety of his Divine Purity—the energy that transcended the Tier 3 realm—and injected it directly into the purified lock mechanism. The pure energy acted as the final, absolute anchor, correcting the flawed temporal logic with a principle of Divine, Flawless Causality.
BOOM!
A massive, brilliant golden light erupted from Lord Xing's forehead. His crippled Dao of Time suddenly shattered its stagnation. Lord Xing felt the decades of exhaustion vanish. His potential surged past his former limits. He had achieved the ultimate stability on the most volatile Dao in the Nine Heavens.
[BREAKTHROUGH ACHIEVED! Lord Xing has achieved Golden Immortal Stage 8 (Advanced). Dao of Time Mastery Achieved.]
Lord Xing collapsed, hyperventilating. He rose, no longer trembling with fear, but trembling with an absolute, terrifying devotion. He had been given not just life, but the key to his greatest desire.
"Master!" Lord Xing thundered, the true, flawless sound of his Dao of Time mastery vibrating the vault. "You possess the true Dao of Causality! I am eternally your slave!"
Lin Tian accepted the devotion. His strategic gamble had paid off: he now commanded a Dao Master—a puppet whose power was exponentially higher than any he had previously controlled.
With the political and conceptual foundation secured, Lin Tian needed to finalize the defense of his Tier 3 realm. He issued the final command to Lord Xing. Your Dao is required. You will work with Elder Jiao. You will use your Dao of Time to subtly manipulate the protective formations of Constellation City, slowing the perception of time for any entity that attempts to probe my location. You will create a temporal shield.
Lord Xing nodded, recognizing the brilliance of the order. A temporal shield would make days of probing feel like minutes to an attacker, ensuring Lin Tian had complete, unchecked cultivation time.
Lin Tian settled back down. He had eliminated all mortal fear, secured all political assets, and mastered the Dao of Entropy. Now, he would use the limitless time granted by Lord Xing's shield to focus on his own ascent.
The Lower Heavens are secure, Lin Tian mused. It is time to cultivate the path to the Dao Emperor stage.