Chapter 261 The First Second of Eternity
"I seem to have guessed who you are."
As he spoke with a hint of self-mockery, the atmosphere around him became stagnant.
Lin En stood on this land woven by the threads of fate, gazing at the countless translucent threads of fate hanging from the sky, each representing a possible life trajectory.
In the face of this power that enveloped everything, Lin En felt that humans were like dust, just chess pieces being manipulated at will by the gods.
"From the moment you asked me to sacrifice my real name, I guessed your true identity." He coughed lightly, his breath a little weak, "You are me."
"Of course, this is just a guess."
"What really confirms my guess is what you just said—I'd rather die in glory than live in disgrace."
The prisoner of fate seemed to have suddenly fallen silent, only the threads of fate were still surging.
Seeing this, Lin En smiled softly, "This was my favorite expression in my previous life on Blue Star, but the language of the Saint Laurent Empire doesn't have such a strange and awkward expression."
"It's obvious that even after living for countless years, you still haven't changed this language habit."
As soon as the words fell, the threads symbolizing fate seemed to stop wriggling and dancing at the same time, as if the pause button was pressed abruptly, and they were frozen in the void.
However, unexpectedly, although the other party showed unprecedented loss of composure, he did not directly answer his question.
"Are you ready to accept this trial?"
The voice of the prisoner of fate seems to be the resonance of countless souls interwoven, like a distant echo that travels through the torrent of time and space, and like a whisper from the abyss ringing in the ears.
Seeing this, Lynn took a deep breath.
Sometimes, no answer is the best answer.
Besides, things have come to this point and he no longer has any choice.
The next moment, countless threads of fate suddenly rushed towards him, quickly weaving into a dense and opaque cocoon, completely wrapping him up.
The space inside the cocoon is strange and distorted, and time seems to have frozen at this moment.
"Have you ever heard of such a story?"
The voice of the prisoner of fate penetrated the cocoon wall and reached Lynn's ears clearly.
Lin En didn't say anything. At this moment, he was in the endless darkness and chose to listen quietly.
"Once upon a time there was a king who asked a shepherd boy, 'How many seconds are there in eternity?'"
The shepherd boy replied: There is a diamond mountain. It takes an hour to climb up and an hour to walk around it. Every hundred years, a bird flies to the mountain and pecks at it with its beak. When the entire diamond mountain is pecked flat, the first second of eternity has just passed.
The Prisoner of Fate paused for a moment, as if giving Lin En some time to think.
"In reality, eternity is a journey without an end. Finite beings cannot imagine infinite eternity, just as mortals cannot truly understand the boundaries of the universe. The trial you are undergoing now will be carried out on this scale of eternity."
These words sent a chill down Lin En's spine. An indescribable fear, like an electric shock, instantly spread from his back to every part of his body.
"If you wish to inherit my authority, you will be trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation, experiencing the infinite possibilities of fate. Pain will follow you through every life, and the end will be tragic and devastating."
"This process will be repeated for a long time beyond eternity."
The air inside the cocoon seemed to grow heavier, and Lynn could almost hear the echo of his own heartbeat.
"No one can sustain themselves in such a test. They will either go completely insane or completely degenerate, becoming another drop of water lost in the torrent of fate."
“No soul can withstand eternal attrition. Even the most resilient of beings will be crushed by the cycle of reincarnation until they completely dissipate.”
Hearing this almost desperate reminder from Prisoner of Fate, Lin En wanted to say something, but found that the voice was stuck in his throat and could not come out.
At the same time, the cocoon of fate was shrinking rapidly, and a suffocating feeling of oppression came from all directions.
Lin En clearly felt that his consciousness was sinking into the abyss, and countless fragments of light and shadow began to swirl around him - that was the first life waiting for him.
And the trial of the prisoner of fate has just begun.
Lynn's consciousness was like a huge rock sinking into the deep sea, falling continuously in the endless darkness.
When Lin En woke up again, the experience of time travel once again swept over his body.
The next second, a sharp neighing of a warhorse tore through the silence, and what followed was not the real feeling of waking up, but a biting chill and an indescribable feeling of squeezing.
He suddenly opened his eyes, but found that his vision was blurred and he could only feel the violent shaking.
Lynn realized that he was being tightly wrapped in some soft and thick fabric, and every bump made his small body rise and fall uncontrollably.
I could hear the sharp sound of weapons clashing, the rough roar of men, and the intermittent wails of the dying.
Obviously, a fierce battle was going on all around, and Lin En was currently riding on a speeding carriage in the center of the battlefield!
"Protect Master Lin En! We must rush out!"
The guard leader's voice had become hoarse, and there was a sense of despair and ruthlessness in his voice.
Immediately afterwards, there was a muffled sound of a blade cutting into the body. Someone groaned, and a few drops of warm blood splashed onto Lin En's face, with a fishy smell like rust.
Lin En tried to move his hands and feet, but it was in vain. He now had no ability to control his body.
After all, he was just a baby who had just left the mother's body and was extremely fragile.
Through the swaying gaps in the carriage curtains, he saw the flashes of swords and sabers outside. A brutal battle was underway, and lives were constantly fading away.
In this symphony of chaos and killing, a memory that did not belong to him but was extremely clear flooded into his confused consciousness like a torrent, giving him a splitting headache.
If similar experiences happen a few more times, the excessive memory can easily turn a person into an idiot or even a schizophrenic.
In this life, he is the supreme commander of the Scott Empire guarding the northern border and the only son of "Iron Wall General" Simon Miles.
At this moment, they were being attacked by the elite troops of their mortal enemy, the northern barbarians. In order to cover the evacuation of the family convoy, the father personally led the guards to cover the rear. The carriage they were riding in was the main target of the barbarian cavalry.
The next moment, the carriage tilted suddenly after an even more violent collision and almost overturned to the ground. At the same time, the final roars of the guards and the wild cheers of the barbarians were heard outside.
However, the expected death did not come.
A heavier and more disciplined sound of horse hooves came closer like thunder, and a familiar black tiger flag suddenly came into view. It was the emblem of the Miles family!
"The general is here!"
The remaining guards shouted in ecstasy at having survived the disaster.
Lin En tried to turn his neck, and through the swaying curtain, he caught a glimpse of a figure as majestic as a mountain, wearing heavy armor stained with blood, holding a huge sword, rushing into the enemy camp like a god of war. Wherever he passed, people and horses fell to the ground, and the barbarian cavalry was not able to match him.
The man didn't even have time to look at the carriage, but the absolute power and sense of security he brought instantly reversed the situation on the battlefield.
That was his father, Simon Miles.
The crisis was temporarily resolved, and the carriage, surrounded by the remaining guards and the elite troops under his father's command, galloped towards the fortress.
Lynn lay in his cradle, looking at the sky dyed red by the bloody sunset, feeling the relentless shaking of the carriage beneath him.
At this moment, the cruelty of the battlefield, his father's strength, and his own extreme insignificance and fragility were deeply imprinted on his newborn soul.
In this life, Lynn was named Lynn Miles by his father. He did not have any warm memories of his childhood. Ever since he could remember, all he could hear were the sounds of swords clashing, war drums and horns. At such a young age, he was accustomed to the separation of life and death.
Lin En learned to walk on the training ground of the military camp, and even his toys were broken arrowheads polished by his father and small discarded shields.
The sandstorms of the frontier, the icy city walls, and the extremely cruel barbarians that one must always be vigilant against were Lin En's entire world during his childhood.
However, when Lin En was ten years old, King Otto VI personally issued an imperial decree, summoning the son of the great general to return to the imperial capital to study in the Royal Academy, which only the children of the most prominent nobles were eligible to attend.
However, although the imperial capital is prosperous and peaceful, and is a place that many people dream of, Lin En doesn't like it at all. What's more important is that he doesn't get along at all with those spoiled aristocratic children.
Six years have passed, and instead of being blunted, he has become even more daring.
When he just turned sixteen, he gave up everything without hesitation and chose to join the army like an eagle breaking out of a cage.
Cruel twists of fate followed one after another. In a decisive battle with the northern barbarians, the Empire's ironclad general Simon Miles died a heroic death.
His father's giant shield collapsed, and the young Lynn took over the blood-stained family giant sword and was appointed by Alto VI as the new commander of the empire guarding the northern border.
The baptism of blood and fire tempered him to become more and more sharp. In just five years, he was named the youngest duke since the founding of the Scott Empire for his outstanding military achievements and iron-blooded tactics.
People all call him "The Iron-Blooded Duke". His name frightened countless barbarians in the north, forcing them to seek peace. Lin En did something that even his father had never done.
But as his reputation grew, he attracted countless suspicions in the imperial capital.
Two years later, the sky of the empire was once again covered with dark clouds. His Majesty Otto VI was suddenly poisoned by a traitor and was about to die. The huge power vacuum instantly detonated the long-accumulated contradictions. The empire fell into unprecedented internal and external troubles and was on the verge of collapse.
At this critical moment, Lin En was urgently recalled from the northern border to the imperial capital.
The kind but ultimately weak monarch used his last bit of strength to grab his hand, his cloudy eyes filled with endless pleading and deep worry.
"Lin, I was right about you. That little fellow back then has now become the most solid foundation of the empire." Otto VI's breath was as weak as a thread, but his eyes were fixed on his face. "Alia and the entire country are now entrusted to you."
Lin En followed the gaze that Alto VI was struggling to turn, and saw the fourteen-year-old eldest princess Arya curled up in the corner, her thin shoulders trembling slightly due to crying, like a fawn that was lost and panicked in a storm.
At this moment, there was no need for any more vows or promises. An unquestionable determination to protect had been cast in his heart like steel.
He will be her shield, her sword, until the last drop of blood is shed.
The next ten years were a decade of blood and fire.
The empire's borders are in constant war, the resurgent northern barbarians are rising again and ready to make a move. The governors of the southern provinces hold heavy troops and do not take the young empress seriously at all. They are lip-service to her decrees, and even the major churches have begun to infiltrate and try to interfere in the internal affairs of the empire.
Lin En hardly had a single day of sleep. He led the imperial legions in battles across the country, and defeated the barbarian army of 100,000 with an army of 30,000 in the "Black Forest Canyon". He wiped out the barbarians in one fell swoop, completely resolving the troubles that had plagued the Scott Empire for hundreds of years, but this also earned him the stigma of "butcher".
He made plans in the imperial capital, helping Arya eliminate those sinister Senate nobles and gradually bringing the finances back to the throne.
Not only that, he also personally taught Arya swordsmanship, political strategy, and imperial mentality, and watched her grow from a timid girl into an empress with firm eyes and majestic manners.
He had blocked three assassination attempts for her. In the most serious one, the poisoned dagger was only an inch away from his heart.
Even when an unprecedented natural disaster struck and the empire's finances were on the verge of collapse, he sold all his fiefdoms and ancestral property, put the money into the national treasury, and stabilized the people's hearts.
Lynn did everything and more.
However, as Arya's wings grew stronger, cracks began to appear between them.
She began to call him "Your Excellency the Duke" instead of "Teacher Lin En".
She began to reject his proposals on some political affairs and promoted some young nobles who were good at flattery.
Rumors began to spread in the imperial capital, saying that Lin En's power had long surpassed that of the empress - not only did he hold a large number of troops, he also had his eyes on the throne and had the intention of usurping the throne.
Lin En heard these rumors, but just laughed it off and didn't even try to argue.
He knew clearly that it was time for him to leave.
But just when he made up his mind to completely withdraw and stay away from this vortex of power, a sudden imperial decree came from the palace -
The Empress summoned him urgently.
Without hesitation, Lin En took off his sword and walked into the palace that he was very familiar with, just like he had done countless times before.
The palace was unusually empty, with only the fire crackling in the fireplace.
Arya sat on the dazzling golden throne, her face looking both beautiful and cold in the flickering firelight.
The people standing beside her were no longer her old ministers, but her confidants whom she had promoted again.
"Lynn Miles." Her voice was clear, yet without a trace of warmth, and it echoed throughout the hall. "Do you admit your guilt?"
Lin En's heart sank, but he still knelt on one knee and bowed his head, saying, "Your Majesty, I don't know what crime I have committed."
Arya didn't look at him, but just raised her hand slightly.
The newly appointed presiding judge stepped forward, unrolled a scroll of parchment, and read in an emotionless voice: "Lynn Miles is suspected of colluding with the enemy and intending to rebel. The evidence is irrefutable! According to his crime, he should be beheaded!"
The so-called evidence was the secret letters between him and the Prime Minister of the Colin Empire, Gallagher Arnold, with the handwriting imitated perfectly, as well as the testimonies of several subordinates who refused to yield under torture and were forced to "confess" after their families' lives were threatened.
All this is ridiculous, yet chillingly vicious.
Arya finally turned her gaze towards him. The dependence and tenderness of the past were gone from her eyes. Only the emperor's ruthlessness and a hint of complex emotions that he couldn't understand remained. "The evidence is conclusive, Lynn. What else do you have to say?"
At this moment, Lin En understood everything.
It's easy to find a pretext to accuse someone of something. The mastermind behind all this was the very person he'd dedicated his life to protecting. She no longer needed him; his very existence was his greatest sin. A profound sense of sadness and absurdity instantly overwhelmed him, even overwhelming his anger.
The palace guards rushed over and pinned him down. He did not resist, but stared at the woman on the throne.
He didn't say anything, but his eyes were burning as he met Arya's.
Arya seemed to feel guilty and avoided his gaze. She was silent for a moment, then, as she approached, she whispered, "For the Empire, you must be sacrificed. Your presence will unsettle the nobles, and the people will only know Lynn Miles and not the Empress."
"Sir Lin, I think you should understand that the Scott Empire does not need a second sun."
The next moment, she waved her hand, as if brushing off a speck of dust: "Drag him away, sentence him to death, and hang his head at the city gate for three days."
The cold sword blade cut into the neck. The moment the severe pain came, the last scene Lynn saw was Arya's face slightly turned, and it seemed that a tear had slipped down, but she quickly wiped it away with her fingers.
Perhaps it was an illusion, or perhaps it was the last remnant of this cruel drama.
His head rolled to the cold ground and his vision fell into eternal darkness.
At the last moment when his consciousness left him, what Lin En felt was not pain, but a bone-chilling coldness and a mockery of being completely manipulated by fate.
When he woke up again, Lin En was enveloped in warm candlelight. He found himself in a simple but tidy wooden house, still a baby in swaddling clothes.
In this life, he was born in a small border town in the Principality of Eugene. His father was Nell Silas, the only pastor in the town. He wore a simple linen robe and looked kind and pious.
Lynn Silas was born with a subtle understanding of various herbs and an affinity for sacred magic. Under the careful teaching of his father Nell, he soon showed extraordinary talent.
In this life, Lynn is gentle, compassionate, and firmly believes in the love and salvation in the Goddess's teachings.
The town of Vistaria is located on the border of the Principality of Eugene. The land is barren and monsters from the nearby Woma Forest often come out to harass people. The people live in poverty and lack medical resources.
When Lin En grew up, he took over his father's position. He used herbs collected from the Wo Ma Forest to make decoctions and cured the injuries of countless people in the town. With his glowing palms, he used holy magic to heal the wounds of hunters who were seriously injured by the claws of monsters.
Even during a terrible plague, Lynn ignored his own safety and prayed, cast spells, and healed day and night, eventually curbing the spread of the epidemic and saving tens of thousands of lives.
His fame spread quickly, and people called him "Saint Silas." People from not only Vestalia, but also surrounding towns and even farther places came from thousands of miles away, just to receive a healing or blessing from him.
Lynn never charges any fees and only accepts some food or daily necessities as donations.
The town gradually prospered because of him, and smiles appeared on people's faces again.
However, beneath the light, shadows began to grow.
The town's original old priest was jealous and uneasy about his growing reputation. The bishop of the church in the provincial capital also took notice of this "unruly" country priest - he had not received rigorous seminary training, and the divine magic he used seemed to be different from the records in orthodox scriptures, but the effect was surprisingly good.
Thus, rumors began to spread quietly: some said that his power did not come from the goddess, but from a deal with the monsters in the forest; some said that the people he healed had their souls tainted.
Lin En didn't care about it. He firmly believed that the innocent would be cleared, and he continued to help everyone who needed him day and night.
The turning point came one rainy night. A leader of the Knights of Inquisition from the capital arrived in the town with a group of elite knights. They claimed to have received a report that Lin En was suspected of using dark magic, colluding with demons, and was a heretic lurking among humans.
Panic spread quickly. Some of those who had benefited from Lynn stood up to defend him, but more chose to remain silent or even turn against him out of fear and incitement.
"Will the disease he cured come back?"
"The magic he used does seem a bit strange."
"Why else would he be so powerful? There must be something wrong!"
Suspicion and ignorance grow wildly like poisonous weeds.
The trial was hastily held in the town square, and the so-called evidence was full of loopholes: several ancient herbal medicine notes whose meanings were misinterpreted, several thugs who identified him after being tortured, and the "divine induction" spoken by the leader of the Knights of Inquisition - he claimed to feel a "dark aura" on Lynn.
Linn was tied to the rack and tried to explain, but his voice was drowned out by the increasingly loud shouts of "Burn him!" and "Heretic!" from the crowd around him.
He saw those people whom he had tried his best to save, now looking at him with fear and hatred; the children he had helped were held tightly in their mother's arms, not letting him look at them.
A despair colder than death slowly permeated his soul.
There are no miracles, no goddess salvation.
The jury unanimously sentenced him to death by burning.
On the day of the execution, the sky was gloomy.
Lynn was stripped of his robe and left wearing only a single layer of clothing. He was tied firmly to a cross in the center of the square, with dry firewood soaked in pine resin piled at his feet.
The leader of the Knights of Inquisition held up the torch, loudly announced Lynn's "crimes", and finally threw the torch into the firewood pile.
Flames suddenly rose up and waves of hot air rushed towards us.
The severe pain devoured his skin and flesh. The people around him were cheering and praying, as if celebrating the demise of a devil.
The smoke choked his lungs, making it impossible to breathe and his vision began to blur.
At the moment before his consciousness was completely burned, he seemed to see through the leaping flames the thread of fate hanging high in the sky, flickering coldly and mockingly.
He suddenly realized that this was not a punishment for his crime, but the unilluminated darkness deep in human nature and the cruel joke of the fickle fate.
The flames finally engulfed him, leaving only ashes on the ground and a lingering smell of burning in the air.
The small town of Vistaria quickly returned to its former silence, as if there had never been a saint named Lynn Silas.
After countless reincarnations, this awakening was accompanied by the rustling sound of a quill scratching across parchment and the noisy applause coming from outside the window.
Lynn sat at an ornate desk, surrounded by mountains of books and manuscripts. He was Lynn West, the continent's most celebrated novelist, poet, and philosopher.
He was born into a declining but highly culturally rich aristocratic family, and showed amazing literary talent from an early age.
"Allegory of the Starry Sky", published when he was twenty years old, became popular throughout the continent with its magnificent imagination and profound philosophy, and was regarded as a classic by countless nobles and scholars.
The stories he wrote are magnificent, praising freedom, love and courage, and satirizing rigid dogma and hypocritical dignitaries.
He is handsome, elegant, and graceful in conversation. Whether it is a powerful arcanist, a noble queen or an ordinary citizen, they are all his loyal readers.
He toured the world giving readings, drawing crowds wherever he went; he debated with wise men in top salons, delivering witty remarks; he was even openly admired by several queens and princesses.
Lynn's life is like a bright star, hanging high above all living beings, emitting an enviable light.
He had almost everything: talent, fame, wealth, looks, and noble status.
He sincerely loves the world and uses his pen to depict the ideal country in his heart.
However, he forgot that the ultimate glory also casts an ultimate shadow.
Disaster loomed when he accepted the invitation of the Royal Academy of the Kingdom of Norton to give a lecture tour in this most powerful empire in the north, but also known for its harsh despotism.
The old king of the Kingdom of Norton has just passed away, and the new king Augustus III has come to the throne. This young king is violent, suspicious, extremely self-deprecating and arrogant.
He longed for recognition from the cultural community, but his own knowledge was shallow. He tried to win over Lynn, hoping that he could sing praises for the royal family, but was politely rejected by Lynn - his works never served specific powerful people.
Just at this time, Lynn's latest work, "The Nightingale in a Cage", was published and became popular throughout the continent.
The book describes a story about a cruel and foolish king who, out of jealousy of a nightingale's freedom and singing, imprisoned it in a golden cage, and the nightingale eventually died of depression.
This is a common metaphor in literature, but in the eyes of Augustus III and the flatterers around him who are good at guessing the emperor's intentions, this is undoubtedly a huge humiliation and innuendo to the new king.
"He is mocking Your Majesty! He is challenging the majesty of the royal power with his damned words!"
The ministers whispered in the king's ear.
Augustus III's wrath was instantly ignited. Without any trial proceedings or even public accusations, that very night, a ferocious royal guard stormed into the kingdom's most luxurious hotel, arrested him on suspicion of defamation and slander against the monarch, and secretly imprisoned him in the deepest cellar beneath the palace.
The hellish days began. Augustus III not only wanted Lynn to die, but also wanted to completely destroy everything he was proud of.
The king personally came to the dungeon and sneered at the chained Lin En. "Sir Lin En, aren't you adept at writing eternity with your pen and describing ideals with your words? Today, I will teach you what true reality is."
The jailers first used a red-hot iron to destroy Lin En's handsome face, which had captivated countless people. The smell of burnt flesh filled the filthy air. The excruciating pain nearly made him faint, but he gritted his teeth and refused to beg for mercy.
Then, the executioner used a heavy hammer to cruelly smash his knees and ankles, making it impossible for him to stand and walk again, let alone embark on his beloved speaking tour.
Then they gouged out his blue eyes, which once shone with wisdom and insight, and cast him into eternal darkness.
Finally, they cut off his right hand, which he used to write everything, and broke the fingers of his left hand one by one.
The star that once dominated the continent was now a pile of broken, bloody waste in a dungeon. No reader knew what had happened to the master they admired; the official announcement was simply that Lynn West had quietly left the kingdom.
Augustus III was satisfied, believing he had completely crushed the "nightingale".
In the endless darkness and severe pain, in Lynn's remaining consciousness, those forgotten fragments of memory: Arya's betrayal and the backstabbing of the townspeople began to flicker and connect.
A kind of enlightenment that transcends individual suffering slowly arises.
This endless cycle, this repetitive despair.
When the guard threw a piece of moldy bread to Lynn, he used up his last bit of strength and slammed his forehead against the cold, rough stone wall.
The darkness completely swallowed him.
This time, death brought not only the end, but also a hint of cold mockery that had accumulated countless times.
After experiencing billions of tragic and desperate cycles of death, this almost eternal trial finally reached its first second.
In the void outside the cocoon, for the first time, the Prisoner of Fate showed almost stagnant waves.
He gazed at the soul within the cocoon, which had not dimmed but had become increasingly condensed through billions of destructions, even emitting a cold glow. A tremor he had never experienced before quietly emerged.
This is illogical.
This shouldn't exist.
No matter how resilient a soul is, under the onslaught of despair on such a scale, it will either completely collapse and turn into a complete madman; or all edges and self will be worn away, and it will melt into another drop of unconscious water in the torrent of fate.
This is the rule, the constant.
However, Lynn became the only exception.
Not only did he maintain his complete self-awareness and not fall into depravity or loss, his soul even became more difficult to fathom.
A premonition of being out of control, like a subtle but cold poisonous sting, quietly pierced into the vast perception of the Prisoner of Fate, bringing a hint of fear that even it itself had not expected.
He realized that this couldn't go on any longer!
So, just when Lin En had just calmed down from the aftermath of death in the last reincarnation and was preparing to face the next reincarnation, the scene before him suddenly became distorted and blurred!
It is not the previous sense of tearing caused by space transformation, but more like a forced covering and tampering at the level of consciousness.
A severe dizziness struck Lin En, and before he could even catch any breath of the Prisoner of Fate, he completely lost the perception of the "consciousness inside the cocoon".
When I suddenly opened my eyes, what I saw was not a bloody battlefield or a cold throne, but a spotless white ceiling. The air was filled with the faint smell of disinfectant.
A weak pain came from my body, especially my head, which felt like it was hit by a heavy object.
He rolled his eyes blankly, and saw several faces filled with worry and surprise surrounding the bed.
"Lynn! You finally woke up! You scared me to death!"
(End of this chapter)
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