Immortal Paladin

It took me a little bit of effort, but I managed to escape them.

We had quite the wild chase through the forest. Branches snapped beneath my feet while half a dozen pursuers tore after me with enough determination to make me wonder what exactly the Tower had been feeding them. Fortunately, enthusiasm could only carry someone so far. The moment I found an excellent hiding spot, a cave concealed behind a roaring waterfall, I managed to shake them off completely.

As far as I could tell, their strength hovered somewhere between the Legendary rank of the Transcendent Method and the Sixth Realm, Essence Gathering, of the Longevity Method. It was an absolutely awful comparison, because Legendary rank usually corresponded to the Eighth Realm of the Longevity Method.

Make it make sense, damn it.

The Tower was weird.

No, weird wasn't even the right word anymore.

The conventional rules of cultivation simply didn't translate well to the people trapped inside this place. The discrepancy was even worse when I compared them to the Paladin Legacy I possessed back when I first arrived in this world. Their powers didn't progress according to any framework I recognized. They were like mutants, creatures stitched together from fragments of multiple systems and then thrown into a blender.

I preferred avoiding unnecessary killing for now, so I ran.

Well, not before snagging myself a captive.

"Let me go, you bastard!" the bald man beneath me shouted.

Life had become precious to the Hollowed World.

The recent apocalypse had nearly wiped us out. Then the Tower appeared and claimed even more lives. Whether I liked it or not, I couldn't afford to view matters solely through the lens of personal grievances. I was a ruler. Every living person represented potential, knowledge, talent, and possibilities that might one day benefit the Hollowed World.

Who knew what hidden gifts these people possessed?

As such, I wasn't particularly interested in killing anyone.

"Please, don't make this difficult for me," I told the person I was currently sitting on.

"Then stop pretending and kill me already!" he spat. "Isn't that what monsters like you do? You ruined everything! Every damned thing! Unholy Taint!"

The insult caught me off guard.

It had been a very long time since someone called me that, long enough that I almost forgot the title existed.

My gaze lingered on the bald man.

If my reading was correct, he was approximately four hundred years old. Not particularly old by cultivator standards. In fact, he hadn't even been born during the Sundering of the Summit. He wasn't old enough to have witnessed the Hollowed World War either.

According to the information gathered through the First Mystery, Who, he had once been a promising disciple of a respectable faction. Then a duel had gone badly. His cultivation had been crippled, his future destroyed, and sometime afterward he had been dragged into the Tower.

The familiar strain settled into my skull as my left eye throbbed and the power sustaining the First Mystery rapidly diminished.

This was complete bullshit.

The Tower had nerfed me so hard that every use of my Mystery and Ophanim felt like trying to drain an ocean through a straw.

"Bring them back," spat the bald man as he glared at me with bloodshot eyes. "Bring back my parents."

The demand struck harder than I expected. During my brief glimpse into his history, I had seen them. Their deaths. Their journey afterward.

I sighed. "I'm sorry."

His expression twisted.

"I'm serious," I continued quietly. "There's nothing I can do."

"You're lying."

"I'm not."

The First Mystery wasn't infallible inside the Tower, but it had shown me enough.

"Your parents already reincarnated."

The rage drained from his face, leaving only raw and helpless grief in its wake, the kind that never truly healed. I understood that feeling far too well. Before he could continue, I struck him lightly on the back of the neck. His eyes rolled upward, and he slumped into unconsciousness. I caught him before his head could hit the stone floor.

"I have questions," I muttered, "but those can wait."

Right now, I had more pressing concerns.

Namely food, water, rest, and not collapsing from overusing my abilities.

The cave was more than adequate for temporary shelter. The waterfall provided a constant source of fresh water, though the endless roar was loud enough to become irritating after a few minutes. As I surveyed the interior, something caught my attention.

A dragon vein.

My eyes widened.

"Nice."

That immediately elevated this cave from acceptable to excellent.

I carried the unconscious bald man toward a broad, flat stone and carefully laid him down. Afterward, I crouched beside him and began drawing a formation with my finger.

Divine power flowed from my body.

Golden lines emerged across the rock.

The design was based on Halo of Restriction, though I modified several sections to suit my current needs. If the bald man attempted to flee after waking up, the formation would immobilize him before he reached the cave entrance.

Since I was already doing the work, I made additional improvements.

Several runic layers expanded outward from the primary formation. Their purpose was simple: suppress the roar of the waterfall within a limited radius.

The cave gradually became much quieter.

Satisfied, I continued working.

A second formation spread throughout the cave walls. This one focused entirely on silence. Vibrations diminished. Echoes faded. Even my own breathing sounded strangely distant.

I had never been so grateful for the absurd amount of knowledge stuffed inside my head.

Of course, having thousands of techniques, formations, scriptures, and combat methods rattling around in my brain could become incredibly cumbersome at times.

This wasn't one of those times.

I spent the next hour setting additional traps throughout the surrounding area. Every one of them was derived from Halo of Restriction. Some would bind intruders. Others would slow movement. A few would alert me if someone crossed their boundaries.

By the time I finished, an invisible web covered the cave and the nearby forest.

Only then did I finally allow myself to relax.

Hm.

I should go look for food. With that profound realization, I left the cave. The moment I stepped through the waterfall, I jumped, activating Divine Step beneath my feet. The world blurred, and a heartbeat later, I appeared atop the cliff above the waterfall, landing gracefully near its source. I was completely naked. I stared at my bare body, then at the forest, and then back at my bare body again.

"...I probably should've stolen someone's clothes while they were chasing me."

Unfortunately, I have the intelligence of blue and wisdom of Leeroy Jenkins or whatever that meant.

I set off through the forest, carefully choosing routes my pursuers were unlikely to use. While searching for something edible, I also kept an eye out for herbs. There was no way I was going to eat plain roasted meat if I could help it.

A ruler had standards.

Even a naked ruler.

I collected whatever useful herbs I found and bundled them together. Since I lacked proper equipment, I improvised a pouch from broad leaves. A little weaving here, a little knotting there, and eventually I fashioned a surprisingly durable container. After that, I twisted several strands of grass together into a makeshift cord, allowing me to sling the pouch over my shoulder.

I examined my handiwork.

Leaf pouch.

Grass string.

No clothes.

"At this rate," I muttered, "I'm going to evolve backward and become a caveman."

The forest, thankfully, offered no commentary.

Before long, I found my prey.

A giant boar.

The thing was roughly Level 30, maybe a little higher. It stood three times my size, covered in thick hide and enough muscle to flatten trees. Naturally, I taunted it with the help of my Linguist Subclass. "Hey, buddy! Dad's home! Where's your mom?"

The boar charged, raging at the sight of me.

I charged.

Several nearby trees suffered greatly for their association with the area.

Despite its size, the creature couldn't compete with my Smites, Divine Might, and Monkey Grip combined. After a brief but enthusiastic wrestling match, I eventually flipped the beast onto its back and introduced its skull to the ground hard enough to end the discussion.

Victory. Lunch acquired, dinner acquired, and possibly next week’s meals as well. I stared at the enormous carcass, then down at my empty hands. I have neither knife, tools, nor equipment.

"...Right."

With a sigh, I got to work.

It wasn't dignified.

I used my bare hands for most of the process. Removing fur. Separating meat. Breaking bones. Processing organs. It took significantly longer than it should have, but eventually I managed to butcher the entire beast.

Afterward, I cleared a patch of land and gathered wood from the surrounding forest.

A fire soon crackled to life, and the savory smell of roasting meat gradually spread through the area. While tending to the meal, I noticed something strange. My powers felt different. It wasn’t just Quintessence; everything had changed. Mana, Qi, Divine Power, and even the various energies tied to my other inheritances still existed, but I could no longer manipulate them as freely as before.

I could evoke divine power without issue whenever I activated a skill, yet the moment I tried to use the same ability again immediately afterward, a strong resistance emerged. It felt almost like… a cooldown. I frowned. That sensation was all too familiar. LLO had operated under similar principles. The more I experimented, the clearer it became: the cooldown wasn’t absolute. By investing more effort at the risk of injury, I could partially bypass the restriction. The process was inefficient and expensive, but possible.

I tossed another log into the fire. “This place really is based on LLO,” I muttered. Then I paused. “No.” That wasn’t quite right.

The similarities were obvious, but the differences were impossible to ignore. The Tower felt stranger than any game ever could. It was as if the laws governing reality had become overwhelmingly prominent.

Everything possessed structure, rules, and limitations to an extent that felt unnatural. I attempted to sense my original body from here, but felt nothing. The connection was faint enough to be practically nonexistent. That alone was alarming.

Still, none of that changed my objective.

I was here for a reason.

Understanding the Tower could wait.

Surviving it came first.

A few local creatures interrupted my cooking session throughout the afternoon. Some were attracted by the smell. Others were simply territorial. However, none of them posed much of a challenge.

Interestingly, I didn't encounter a single Tower participant.

Apparently, I had chosen an excellent location.

By the time the sun began its descent toward the horizon, my preparations were nearly complete. The knowledge I had accumulated across countless lifetimes proved invaluable; there were surprisingly many useful things one could craft from a giant boar.

"This should make things more convenient."

By the end of the day, I had transformed considerably. A set of boar-hide clothing now covered my previously exposed dignity, the hide carefully cleaned, treated, and stitched together with durable grass fibers. I carried a crude backpack fashioned from the remaining hide, while a spear rested against my shoulder, its tip painstakingly ground from one of the boar’s tusks. Strips of preserved meat hung neatly inside my pack.

I looked myself over and let out a small chuckle. Honestly, I looked exactly like the caveman I had joked about earlier. At least I wasn’t naked anymore. After eating my fill of freshly roasted meat, I packed several portions for my captive. No matter how rude he was, starving prisoners was generally frowned upon.

By the time I returned to the cave, darkness had settled across the forest. Low-key, I had enjoyed the entire experience. There were no politics, no paperwork, and no world-ending disasters. Just hunting, gathering, crafting, and simply existing. Maybe this was the vacation I needed. That pleasant thought vanished the moment I stepped inside.

A familiar bald man was wriggling across the floor like an oversized worm, trapped within a halo of golden light. Every attempt to escape only dragged him right back to where he started. The sight was so ridiculous I almost burst out laughing. The bald man spotted me and immediately snarled, “You son of a bitch! Just kill me already! Stop torturing me!”

I blinked. This guy really hated me. Honestly, my feelings were starting to get hurt. I set down the backpack, pulled out a large chunk of roasted boar meat, and held it up. “What do you think about boar meat for dinner?” I asked.

His eye twitched. He pointed at the meat and growled, “Shove it up your ass.”

I stared back at him. Wow. Rude. I had spent an entire afternoon making that.

…

Baldy had been very uncooperative.

Fortunately, it wasn't like I needed his cooperation to gather information.

Three days passed inside the cave.

During that time, I fed him regularly, experimented with my abilities, and spent most of my days fighting the local monsters roaming the forest. The battles helped me grow accustomed to this body and the Tower's strange rules. Every fight taught me something new. Every injury revealed another limitation. Every victory confirmed that I was slowly adapting.

As for Baldy...?

I had learned far more about him through the First Mystery than I ever could through conversation. The man could certainly hold a grudge.

On the morning of the fourth day, I finished packing my supplies and rose from my seat near the fire. “I’m leaving.”

The words immediately stirred movement from the other side of the cave. Baldy sat up from his sleeping area atop several layers of deer fur, rubbing his eyes before staring at me in surprise. “You’re what?”

I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I walked over to the nearest formation and scratched a line through it with my finger, channeling a small amount of divine power along the motion with Divine Smite. The formation flickered, then collapsed. One by one, I dismantled the restrictions I had placed throughout the cave. Golden light faded, runes shattered, and the Halo of Restriction that had trapped Baldy vanished entirely. I dusted off my hands. “There. You’re free to go.”

He remained seated, staring at me in utter confusion. “What?”

“You’re free.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “Because I’ve learned enough about you.”

The answer was clearly not what he expected. His eyes narrowed. “This is some kind of trick.”

“It isn’t.”

“If I turn around and walk away, you’ll attack me from behind.”

I stared at him for a long moment. “Lin Yong.”

“What?”

“I don’t need to wait until you turn your back to deal with you.”

His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. “I…”

“So if you want to leave, leave.”

He looked increasingly conflicted.

After several moments, he frowned. "Maybe that's the point."

"The point?"

"Maybe you're doing this to dull your conscience."

I blinked, parroting his words. "My conscience?"

"That way you won't have to see my face when I die."

I rubbed my forehead.

Seriously?

Did this guy really think I was that soft?