Chapter 188
To #888, the current Lu Chuan with max Sanity was cloaked in a dazzling golden glow—every frame, every second, unbearably beautiful.
This was exactly what its host should be like.
And yet, it had betrayed such a perfect host? It deserved death.
[Host, I’m sorry, I… I…] #888 stammered, unable to finish. In front of this perfect host, it couldn’t put its true feelings into words.
“No matter when, I’m still Lu Chuan. One version of me has just lived more, the other less.” Lu Chuan smiled faintly. “You don’t need to dwell on such trivial things. Shouldn’t you be happy to see me right now?”
[Ah, yes, yes!] #888 immediately reacted, [Host, I really am happy to see you.]
Lu Chuan couldn’t help but laugh.
#888 was still too easy to fool.
“Drinking this much calming potion just to call me out… looks like I was suffering pretty badly in this instance.” Lu Chuan glanced at the potion bottles strewn across the floor, patted his bloated belly—then watched as it quickly returned to normal. “Let’s go, #888. We’re ending this time-instance. After all these years, the God of Time still loves these little tricks.”
[O-okay.] #888 was stunned at the implications in his words. Why did it sound like this host had quite a close relationship with the God of Time?
Was this host really human?
#888 tried to probe further—
“#888, don’t. Not yet. Wait until you’ve upgraded enough, then we’ll talk.” Lu Chuan suddenly spoke, as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
#888 froze, not daring to move again.
Lu Chuan then tracked down the God of “Empty Dreams,” using threats and bribes until the god yielded up its god-seed—its strongest one, capable of weaving dreams indistinguishable from reality.
During this whole process, the Dream God was completely suppressed, unable even to muster resistance. Instead, it handled Lu Chuan with utmost care, as if standing before a human vessel of a far stronger deity—not just a mere player.
Next, Lu Chuan sought out several other gods, taking either their treasured artifacts or their god-seeds—never leaving empty-handed.
After sweeping through the divine side, he lingered past the moment he should have jumped timelines, waiting until Wen Renxu arrived.
At first, Wen Renxu was shocked at how drastically Lu Chuan’s aura had changed. But Lu Chuan instantly launched into a seamless routine: “I’ve traversed countless times but can’t break this death loop. Please, Guildmaster, trust me this time. I’ve tried everything and failed—this is our final chance.” With this, he tugged hard at Wen Renxu’s guilt, nailing it perfectly.
Countless times? In truth, it was just once.
But Lu Chuan was a skilled actor, and the young, naïve Wen Renxu couldn’t see through him. Instead, he thought Lu Chuan’s changes came from all the hardship he had endured, and so obeyed him completely.
This was when #888 truly realized that “every Lu Chuan is still Lu Chuan.”
Even if max-Sanity Lu Chuan seemed gentle and divine, when it came to action, he was the same Lu Chuan—just stronger, smoother, and more efficient.
Soon, Lu Chuan and Wen Renxu finalized their plan to “hunt down Number 6.”
First, they would use various evil gods’ seeds to lure Number 6 to the very spot where Lu Chuan had first encountered him.
Then, the moment Number 6 appeared—before he regained clarity—they’d use the Dream God’s seed to weave a dream identical to reality, trapping him so he couldn’t tell real from false. That way, he wouldn’t be able to devour other gods, and the “gods” he consumed would all be dream constructs. This would prevent him from regaining his memories, and he’d have far fewer ways to fight Wen Renxu. With Lu Chuan and Wen Renxu joining forces, suppressing him wouldn’t be too hard.
After that, everything was straightforward.
Number 6 suppressed, the other gods no longer dared to run wild under Lu Chuan and Wen Renxu’s watch. Together, they repelled the invading deities again, and the world grew significantly more peaceful. The only task left was removing divine pollution—slow work that required humanity’s united effort.
Meanwhile, Lu Chuan made a tidy business.
For every piece of land cleansed of divine corruption, he built a house, a tower, or a shop—leaving his mark and preparing to accumulate worldly wealth.
To humanity, land without divine corruption meant freedom from disasters, and they could farm with their own hands. Nothing was more attractive. So each cleansed area immediately filled with eager settlers. With so many people choosing honest livelihoods, fewer and fewer were willing to gamble their lives worshipping evil gods.
Time flowed smoothly for fifty whole years.
Lu Chuan had become a refined, extraordinary old man.
Only then did Starry Ming appear with his team, slowly stepping into this new world.
The moment he entered, he was dumbstruck.
Seeing the magnificent, flourishing city before him, he nearly thought he was dreaming.
Even in the real world, cities weren’t this splendid. Was this not the Forbidden Zone of Humanity instance—the one with no return? Starry Ming had braced himself to die, since even the guildmaster had entered and couldn’t come out. But now, faced with this scene, he was utterly baffled.
At last, all timelines had reached their conclusion.
Max-Sanity Lu Chuan had shattered the chains of time.
Wen Renxu lived.
Number 6 never regained his memories.
The world returned to how it was meant to be.
Everything seemed so real and beautiful.
#888 praised Lu Chuan every day, thinking he was simply amazing. Its only worry was that, after so many years of compliments, it had run out of new words—it struggled daily to think of fresh ways to flatter its host.
And since Lu Chuan’s enterprises spread across the entire world, he had discovered a gold vein after purging the pollution, reestablishing a wealth system that used gold as currency. All the world’s prosperity gathered into his hands.
In other words, within the God of Time’s domain, Lu Chuan had also seized part of the God of Wealth’s power, enough to match the God of Time in a contest of strength.
Then, like a bubble bursting, everything shattered.
One moment, Lu Chuan and #888 were chatting happily in their room, and the next they were pulled into an unfamiliar space.
[Host, your face!] #888 cried out first.
Lu Chuan was no longer the graceful old man he had become, but once again his twenty-something self, just like when he first entered this dungeon.
“Looks like we’ve broken free from the old time loop, letting the world move forward on the right path. That means we’ve escaped the God of Time’s script. Now this god must be displeased and has dragged us here.” Lu Chuan smiled into the void. “It’s been a while, God of Time.”
#888 looked toward where Lu Chuan was staring, but in the next instant, it froze in place.
Time stopped flowing over it—it was locked into stillness.
This way, it couldn’t hear any of the conversation between Lu Chuan and the God of Time.
“Thanks to the time seed you gave me back then, I was able to heed the calls of my past selves across countless parallel timelines and go back to help them.” In Lu Chuan’s palm, a strange hourglass appeared.
It was the materialized form of the God of Time’s divine seed.
The universe could contain countless parallel worlds, and in each of them there might be a Lu Chuan.
But at a single point in time, there could only be one Lu Chuan.
Thus, after painstaking effort, Lu Chuan obtained the divine seed that allowed him to rewind time, finally giving him the chance to correct the mistakes of his past.
Though his successes were very few.
“You shouldn’t interfere so much.” The God of Time’s voice rang in his mind.
“I don’t want to interfere either. But your dungeon is too hard—you never intended to let any Executor or player leave your realm. And you’d never allow the Main God System to encroach on your authority.” Lu Chuan smiled faintly. “But I have to save myself time. I can’t waste years in scheming like before. With Wen Renxu’s approval and Starry Ming’s submission, once I leave this dungeon, I can immediately become Guildmaster. No need to waste time subduing his followers or winning other players’ recognition.”
Becoming guildmaster of the Star Guild was by no means easy.
You could be the most favored player in the guild, but once you sought leadership, the old guard would find every way to oppose you.
Lu Chuan had tried many methods, but the fastest was only this—gain Wen Renxu’s acknowledgment and Starry Ming’s support.
The first gave him legitimacy, the second removed resistance, allowing him to unify the guild quickly without wasting time on internal strife.
“My time is almost up. The Main God System has locked onto me. It knows my divine name. It’s already sending my teammates to hunt me. I never thought that with only 60 sanity points, a man blinded by power and obsessed with wealth, I’d somehow make so many friends? Friends who should have been my mortal enemies.”
Lu Chuan sighed at the strangeness of fate.
The God of Time could still be traced, but the legendary God of Fate never appeared before mortals—or perhaps the convergence of every life’s fate was the God of Fate.
Cynthia and her brother, Messiah, Starry Shasha… all of them were supposed to be rivals.
Especially Cynthia—in countless parallel worlds, she and her Resurrection Guild were the hardest obstacle when unifying the Five Great Guilds. Lu Chuan had spent endless time trying to subdue them, and even then, there were always those who wanted independence.
Yet now, they had all somehow become his teammates?
Even the former God of Desire, once his fiercest rival for the God of Wealth’s authority, now had a strangely ambiguous relationship with him?
A mortal enemy turned into a potential lover—it was absurdly funny.
If not for his maxed-out sanity, Lu Chuan might have gone insane in such a ridiculous world.
And yet, this seemingly unreliable world was the one most likely to escape the Main God System—and even save his life.
So Lu Chuan had to enter the God of Time’s domain, and he had to become guildmaster as quickly as possible.
“The Main God System has always wanted your authority, but we both know it’s impossible. At most, it only makes you work harder.” Lu Chuan continued, “For the sake of friendship, please keep this dungeon intact. I broke Wen Renxu and Number 6’s time loop, but that only changed the present inside the dungeon, not the established facts. If you erase this dungeon and let time move forward, Number 6 would be fine, but Wen Renxu is human—his time is up. So please keep him here. When the chance comes, I’ll ask you to send him out.”
The God of Time said nothing.
But Lu Chuan knew silence meant consent.
To such eternal gods, whether it was him or the God of Desire, they were like unruly children—deserving of some special lenience.
“Then it’s settled.” Lu Chuan smiled. “Please send us back. My sanity can’t hold much longer. Only in your domain could I risk staying so long.”
Otherwise, the Main God System would have long branded him an intruder and hunted him endlessly.
He took a deep breath, conjured a wall of gold with his wealth power, and slammed into it headfirst.
Time flowed again.
#888 was about to speak but forgot what it wanted to say.
“Little System, my head hurts.” Lu Chuan rubbed a large bump on his skull. “That rational version of me went overboard. If he wanted to erase memories, fine, but did he have to smash my head so hard? Easy for him—he doesn’t feel the pain.”
[Uh… host, maybe look at what’s written on that wall?] #888, distracted by Lu Chuan’s casual tone, suddenly felt relieved—its money-crazed master was back!
“Compensation for ramming me?” Lu Chuan read the big words on the golden wall and pouted. “Tch, isn’t it still my own stuff? Nothing impressive. But fine—since he apologized so sincerely, I’ll graciously forgive myself.”
He spoke while quickly sweeping the golden wall into his storage.
Refreshing!
His stash of gold had vanished earlier, probably even draining some of his real-world assets. He’d been heartbroken, but now he had a small refill. Not much, but better than nothing.
[Congratulations to player Arrival of the God of Wealth for completing the dungeon Forbidden Zone of Humanity. Your rank on the master-rank Leaderboard has risen. Please check your new position. Transmission will begin shortly.]
[Dungeon closing. Unfinished players will be expelled. Please prepare for transmission.]
[3…2…1]
In the next moment—
Lu Chuan and Starry Ming were spat out like discarded prey, tumbling in the air before awkwardly landing on the ground.
They exchanged glances, then Starry Ming suddenly shouted toward the dungeon exit, “Wait! Where’s the guildmaster? What about my teammates—why didn’t they come out?”
Lu Chuan was silent for a while.
He didn’t know where Starry Ming’s memories currently stopped, but he remembered what the vice guildmaster had once told him: that Starry Ming’s teammates had all perished, and only Starry Ming had barely survived, though even his whereabouts were uncertain. That was why the vice guildmaster had begged Lu Chuan not to risk entering the dungeon.
Now, the two of them had been expelled, which meant the others had already died in the time loops. Even breaking the stalemate couldn’t bring them back.
“Where do your memories stop?” Lu Chuan finally asked after Starry Ming calmed down a little.
“Of course, when the guildmaster used his ability God’s Descent to erase Number 6’s divine power and memory.” Starry Ming steadied himself, though his eyes still burned with fury. “After that, didn’t the guildmaster soon fall asleep? He didn’t die. He only chose to sleep here in this dungeon, because otherwise he might lose control and spawn a new personality at any moment.”
If only he had been stronger and killed that Executor, then the guildmaster wouldn’t have been trapped in that dungeon forever.
“So it was that time.” Lu Chuan naturally remembered it clearly.
But the loop where they broke the shackles of time seemed to have left no memory for Starry Ming.
Well, that made sense — even Lu Chuan himself didn’t remember much.
The one who finally broke the temporal deadlock was the version of himself with maxed-out sanity. Lu Chuan knew that version had hidden a great many things, but he himself knew nothing about them.
Fortunately, Lu Chuan wasn’t someone who got trapped in overthinking. He believed that once the time came, he would understand.
After all, tricking himself wasn’t something new — he’d done it more than once. He’d long since made peace with that.
“Don’t worry. I’ll remember what the Guildmaster said. Since you were the one who first found him, and he’s acknowledged you, I naturally won’t make trouble for you.” Starry Ming glared fiercely at Lu Chuan. “I’ll clear the obstacles for you. But if I find out you’re using the Star Guild to satisfy your own selfish desires, even if you’re the Guildmaster, I won’t show mercy. There’s always a way to kill you.”
“Got it, got it.” Lu Chuan replied with a cheerful smile. “You’re only being tough with me now. Once I officially become the Guildmaster, remember to address me respectfully — no more casual talk. Even if I don’t put on airs, I can’t let you all treat me like an equal.”
The title of “Guildmaster” wasn’t his yet, but he was already playing the part.
Starry Ming clenched his fists in anger, wanting to vent but finding no outlet, forcing himself to swallow his temper.
At that moment, nearly all of the players on the “Master Ranking” immediately received news of a change.
Especially those ranked below fourteenth — all of them automatically dropped by one place.
And there, gleaming in golden letters on the leaderboard, the words “Arrival of the God of Wealth” firmly occupied the fourteenth spot.
A leap from ninety-ninth place straight into the top fifteen — the jump was so huge it was almost unbelievable.
How could that be possible?
Every shift in the rankings had a reason.
Could it be that this “Arrival of the God of Wealth” had already completely hunted down their corresponding deity and devoured all its power, causing their rank to skyrocket?
Or had this player cleared an ultra-high-difficulty dungeon no one had ever completed, earning the highest evaluation and a massive rank boost?
For a moment, the entire leaderboard stirred.
Players in the top fifteen rarely showed themselves anymore. They were said to still exist somewhere in this world, but where exactly, whether they could still communicate, or if they retained any shred of humanity — almost nothing was known.
Lu Chuan, on the other hand, was young, and his whereabouts and activities were easy to track down.
All this information instantly became something countless leaderboard players were eager to obtain. They were willing to trade away all their treasures for the secret behind Lu Chuan’s meteoric rise.
Moreover, if Lu Chuan had climbed so quickly, did that mean he’d also obtained a Divine Seed?
If used well, perhaps they too could transform into gods — not impossible at all!
Lu Chuan’s information was immediately sold by the Extremely Evil Loan Company for a sky-high price.
Chen Ji was so delighted he could hardly sleep, wishing fortune like this would come every day.
Meanwhile, Shen Li — who was busy in the Golden World, working hard on the Golden Tower and already designing its interior — only checked the news after finishing his work for the day.
It was normal for his rank to drop since he hadn’t entered a dungeon in so long.
But when Shen Li saw Lu Chuan’s name hanging high on the leaderboard, he fell silent.
Didn’t someone say they were just going to clear a “casual dungeon”?
