Chapter Twenty-Three: In the Presence of the Dying Dragon — The Dismantling of the Throne
Beyond nine gates of spiritual steel, and beneath a hundred layers of defensive formations capable of crushing a Spirit Transformation cultivator into dust, lay the Dragon Vein Chamber.
It was not merely a room.
It was a rupture in space and time, buried at the deepest point beneath the Imperial Palace—where converging ley lines fused into a pulsating heart of molten gold.
The air was so dense that Ling'er was forced to stop at the Seventh Gate, unable to withstand the bone-shattering spiritual pressure.
Zhou Fan, however, walked forward calmly. His green robe flowed behind him as though it belonged to the void itself.
Beside him walked the Third Prince, sweat pouring down his face—not from fear, but from the overwhelming spiritual weight emanating from his father, Emperor Zhang Kong.
At the chamber's center stood a massive basin of radiant light. Translucent golden filaments extended from it, binding themselves to the body of an elderly man seated upon a throne made of dragon bones.
His body was withered, mummy-like—yet his eyes burned with dense white light, radiating terrifying, unstable power.
"Father…"
The Third Prince knelt on one knee, his voice trembling.
"I have brought Advisor Zhou, as you commanded."
The Emperor did not move.
Instead, the energy threads around him shifted.
His gaze slowly turned toward Zhou Fan.
A vast spiritual scan surged forward, attempting to dissect Zhou Fan's existence layer by layer.
"Advisor Zhou…"
The Emperor's voice sounded like stone grinding against stone.
"You possess no spiritual mass. You are merely emptiness given form. I have lived for a thousand years and calculated countless destinies, yet I have never encountered a variable like you. Tell me—were you sent by the Upper Continents… or are you a demon born from a fracture in the calculations?"
Zhou Fan smiled faintly and stepped forward, ignoring the spiritual pressure meant to force him into prostration.
"Your Majesty," he said evenly, terrifyingly calm,
"I am neither demon nor god. I am simply the inevitable result of your excess."
The Emperor's eyes narrowed.
"For a thousand years, you have attempted to solve the equation of immortality using the Dragon Vein as an external power source. But you committed a fatal error in your constant. You steal temporal energy from your people to live one more day—unaware that each theft increases the entropy coefficient of the Imperial Formation."
The Emperor's pallor twisted into suppressed fury.
The golden basin trembled violently. A spiritual shockwave erupted, forcing the Third Prince backward as blood spilled from his lips.
"How dare you criticize the Immortal Dragon Dao?!" the Emperor roared.
"This Dragon Vein protects the continent! Without me, Tian Long would turn to dust!"
"No, Your Majesty," Zhou Fan replied coldly as he raised his hand and opened the Lost Ledger of Calculations.
A three-dimensional projection of the Dragon Vein beneath the city burst forth.
"You are not protecting the continent. You are a parasite feeding upon it. These black nodes—these are regions where spiritual energy has already collapsed due to excessive extraction. In ten years, the formation will fail completely—not because your enemies kill you, but because mathematics will no longer permit your existence."
He paused.
"You divide the continent's vitality by your false immortality. The result is always annihilation."
Silence fell like a blade.
The Third Prince stared at the projection in shock. He had never realized his father's legacy was built upon collapsing foundations.
The Emperor's body began to tremble—not with rage this time, but with the bitter recognition of a truth he had avoided for centuries.
"And what is your solution, Advisor?" the Emperor asked hoarsely.
"Have you come to hasten my death?"
"I have come to reset the formation," Zhou Fan replied, his golden eye blazing.
"I require access to the core of the Dragon Vein. I will merge the Lost Ledger with the central matrix and convert the stolen temporal energy within your body into stable Null Energy."
He looked directly at the Emperor.
"You will die as a man—but your empire will endure as a self-sustaining mathematical system, one that no longer requires a monarch to survive."
"You wish to become the Processor!" the Emperor shouted.
"You want control over the empire's power from the shadows!"
"Control is a burden I do not desire," Zhou Fan answered as he stepped toward the golden basin.
"I seek only the information hidden within this vein. I want the second volume of the Lost Calculations—Higher-Dimensional Engineering. It is sealed within the Dragon Vein's core."
He turned back.
"Grant me access, and I will give your son an empire that endures for ten thousand years—without collapse."
The Emperor looked at his son.
Then at Zhou Fan.
What he saw was something beyond opposition.
Inevitability.
"Zhang Song," the Emperor said quietly,
"Do you trust this man?"
The Third Prince hesitated—then remembered the Blind Spot Algorithm.
"Father… we are already sinking. This man is the only lifeline that feels like steel. I accept his wager."
The Emperor exhaled a long, shuddering breath and slowly raised his trembling hands, opening the final formation.
"So be it… Advisor Zhou. If you betray us, I will self-detonate my soul and drag you into nothingness with me."
"Your Majesty," Zhou Fan said calmly as he placed his hand into the molten golden light of the Dragon Vein,
"In the realm of calculations, there is no betrayal—only logical outcomes."
The moment his hand made contact, the chamber exploded with indescribable light.
Millions of years of history and data surged into Zhou Fan's mind.
His body cracked.
Black Null Energy began devouring the golden radiance.
This was the beginning of the Grand Integration Process.
Outside, the city's inhabitants felt only a faint tremor.
But the powerful cultivators felt something far more terrifying—
The laws of the world had shifted… if only for a few seconds.
Within Zhou Fan's Sea of Consciousness, new words appeared in the ledger:
[Second Volume Discovered: 15% — Imperial Data Processing…]
Zhou Fan's conspiracy had now expanded beyond empires.
He did not want the throne.
He wanted the universe's operating system itself.