The first decade of the New Era was the quietest time of Han Zhao's life.
The world was a blank page. The "Heavenly Purge" had not just taken the people; it had taken the colors, the sounds, and the very friction of existence. The crystalline white sands of the desert eventually gave way to a landscape of grey stone and silver-leaved forests that grew without sunlight, nourished by the faint, residual hum of the earth.
Han Zhao, Su Lian, and the tireless Stone-Humped Camel had settled in a valley sheltered by three sleeping volcanoes. Here, the air was warm, and a spring of "Heavy Water"—water so dense with minerals it felt like liquid silk—bubbled from the rocks.
[Current Life Expectancy: 88 Years, 340 Days.]
[Status: 'The Only Flame in a Cold World'.]
Han Zhao sat in the doorway of his mobile library, which had now been expanded into a permanent stone structure built into the side of the camel's favorite resting spot. He was holding a small, glowing seed in his palm—a fragment of the Azure Dragon Core that had finally crystallized.
"The Qi is returning," Su Lian said, walking up from the spring. She looked younger now, her skin glowing with a soft, translucent light. Without the pressure of the old world's competitive cultivation, her body had adapted to Han Zhao's 'Still Grain' method with terrifying efficiency.
"It's not returning," Han Zhao corrected, tapping the seed. "It's being born. This isn't the chaotic, violent Qi of the Blue Cloud era. This is... 'Virgin Qi'. It's soft. It's malleable."
He looked at the silver forest. "If we let the cycle repeat, in a thousand years, there will be new sects, new 'Chosen Ones', and a new Purge. The farmer will come back for his harvest."
"Then we change the crop," Elder Hùn said, hobbling out from the archives. The old man had become the official "Librarian of the Dead," spending his days transcribing the wooden slips into grand ledgers of memory.
Han Zhao stood up. He walked to the center of the valley and knelt.
[Task: Initiate 'The Great Seeding'.]
[Strategy: Disperse 'Passive Cultivation' nodes across the Ley-Lines.]
Han Zhao didn't want to build a school. He didn't want disciples. He wanted to create a world where power was a slow, steady climb rather than a frantic sprint. He pressed the Dragon Seed into the grey soil.
As the seed sank into the earth, Han Zhao channeled his 'Nameless Longevity Script'. He didn't push his power out; he invited the world in. He wove his own philosophy of "Low-Key Survival" into the very foundations of the local ecosystem.
[System Integration: 'The Law of the Hidden Leaf' established.]
[Effect: In this valley, those who seek power through violence will find their Qi dissipating. Those who seek longevity through peace will find their lifespans doubled.]
"There," Han Zhao exhaled, his face pale.
[Longevity Cost: 2 Years.]
[Current Life Expectancy: 86 Years, 340 Days.]
He didn't mind the loss. He was playing the long game. By setting the "Rules of the World" now, while the clay was still wet, he was ensuring his own safety for the next millennium.
The peace lasted for another five years until the "Second Survivor" appeared.
Han Zhao was in the basement, optimizing a recipe for 'Immortal Tea' that tasted less like dirt, when the System's alarm—a sound he hadn't heard in ages—shrieked in his mind.
[Warning: High-Level Energy Signature Detected.]
[Signature Type: 'Corrupted Ancient'.]
[Distance: 2 Miles and Closing.]
Han Zhao's blood ran cold. The Purge was supposed to be absolute. To survive it, you either had to be as insignificant as a pebble (like him) or as heavy as history (like Hùn).
He stepped out of the library, his shadow stretching out until it touched the edges of the valley.
Coming over the ridge was a carriage. It wasn't pulled by horses or camels, but by four skeletal figures wrapped in golden chains. The carriage itself was made of 'Soul-Iron', a material that shouldn't have survived the silver sky.
The carriage stopped. The door creaked open, and a man stepped out.
He looked like a scholar, dressed in robes of midnight blue, but his eyes were voids of absolute darkness. He didn't breathe. He didn't have a heartbeat. He was a Lich—a cultivator who had escaped the Purge by killing himself and anchoring his soul to an object of extreme malice.
[System Scan: 'The Archivist of Agony'.]
[Cultivation: Half-Step Nascent Soul (Damaged).]
[Status: Starving for Qi.]
The man looked at Han Zhao's valley—the green grass, the bubbling spring, and the gentle, hidden Qi. He licked his lips with a grey, withered tongue.
"I thought I was the only god left in this graveyard," the Lich rasped. his voice sounding like grinding bone. "But I see someone else had a clever hiding spot. A librarian? How fitting."
Han Zhao didn't bow. He didn't tremble. He simply adjusted his glasses.
"You're trespassing," Han Zhao said softly. "The 'Social Invisibility' of this valley is very high. Most people would have just walked right past it."
"I am not 'most people'," the Lich sneered. He raised a hand, and the golden chains on his skeletons began to glow with a sickly, necrotic light. "I am the memory of the Old World's hunger. Give me your Dragon Core, and I might let you keep your books."
Han Zhao looked at Su Lian, who was already reaching for her 'Still Grain' Qi. He shook his head.
"Su Lian, go inside. Elder Hùn, protect the ledgers."
"But Han Zhao—"
"Go," Han Zhao commanded, his voice suddenly carrying the weight of a mountain.
When they were safe inside, Han Zhao turned back to the Lich. He didn't draw a sword. He didn't chant a spell.
"You survived the Purge by becoming a monster," Han Zhao said, walking forward. "I survived the Purge by becoming a shadow. You are a 'Great Weed' that the farmer missed. I am the 'Soil' itself."
[Activating 'Nameless Longevity Script' - Level 5: 'The Void That Consumes'.]
The Lich laughed, a hollow, rattling sound. "A Qi Condensation brat? You think—"
He stopped. He realized, too late, that the ground beneath his feet wasn't stone. It was Han Zhao's shadow. The entire valley—every blade of silver grass, every drop of Heavy Water—had been infused with Han Zhao's "Social Invisibility" for fifteen years.
In this valley, Han Zhao was the only thing that "Existed." Everything else was a ghost.
The Lich's golden chains began to rust and crumble. His Soul-Iron carriage began to evaporate into grey mist. The Lich himself started to fade, his very memory being scrubbed from the fabric of the New Era.
"What... what are you doing?!" the Lich shrieked, his skeletal servants collapsing into piles of dust.
"I'm auditing your existence," Han Zhao said, his eyes glowing with a cold, blue light. "And I've decided you're an overdue library book. It's time to return to the shelves."
[System: Consuming 'Corrupted Ancient' essence...]
[Longevity Gain: +25 Years.]
[New Passive: 'The Forgotten Warden'.]
The Lich didn't even have time to scream. He simply... ceased. No explosion, no dramatic death rattle. One moment he was there, and the next, there was only a light breeze blowing through the empty valley.
Han Zhao stood alone in the silence.
[Current Life Expectancy: 109 Years, 340 Days.]
He let out a long breath and wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. "Twenty-five years. Not a bad profit for five minutes of work."
He walked back to the library. Su Lian was standing at the door, her eyes wide.
"Is it over?"
"The audit is complete," Han Zhao said, picking up his tea cup. "But it seems the New World isn't as empty as I thought. We're going to need to build a bigger fence."
He sat down and opened his ledger.
"And I think it's time I finally wrote the first chapter of my own book," he whispered. "The one where the librarian stops hiding and starts making sure the world stays quiet."
[New Quest: The Architect of the Long Peace.]