I, the Lord of the Fifth Throne, am the source of all things!

............

Seeking the Taoist Temple.

Although it contains the word "palace," it is not a hall or palace, but a vast and boundless grotto-heaven world.

What appeared before Duanmu Lian were countless long roads that seemed to have no end.

Each road stretches straight out in a different direction, and it's unclear where it will lead.

And all these countless long roads are branched off from a straight road.

On both sides of this straight road, countless densely packed golden transparent templates are also suspended.

The templates all have different text and symbols.

Duanmu Lian could understand some of the texts, but she had never even seen the rest.

"Here, here, come here, Lotus."

Just as Duanmu Lian was momentarily stunned, Dalian's call from not far away brought him back to his senses.

Following the sound, he saw that Dalian was already waving to him at the beginning of the road, signaling him to come over quickly.

"Does this road that forks from one path represent my own experiences?"

Duanmu Lian approached Dalian, glanced at the floating golden transparent cube template in front of her, and asked a question.

The original Duanmu Lian, and even the early Duanmu Lians, did not have the [Seeking the Dao Hall] available.

The sight of a road splitting into several smaller roads reminded Duanmu Lian of her past self.

They all share the same starting point (past life), but the paths they take afterward will inevitably differ.

Even if there is overlap, they will inevitably extend in different directions in the end.

"YES, everything on this straight road is to lay the foundation for you, but it's up to you to choose which path to take afterward."

Upon hearing Duanmu Lian's words, Dalian calmly nodded in agreement. She then reached out and touched the floating golden, transparent module, tossing it into Duanmu Lian's arms before continuing:

"At the same time, you also have the responsibility to enrich the scenery on both sides of the road. They left you something, and you should also leave something for future generations."

This is the duty of every generation of Duanmu Lian.

Since they have received gifts from their past selves, they must also leave something for the newly born lotus.

No one knows whether they can successfully realize their desires, and Duanmu Lian has no arrogant idea that he is the protagonist. Rather than soaring to the sky, he feels that he is more suited to being down-to-earth.

Therefore, this kind of accumulation behavior has become his instinct.

As soon as Duanmu Lian touched the golden plate thrown by Dalian, a mechanical and cold notification sound rang out.

[A new seeker of the Way has been detected; their soul and personality are compatible.]

[Initiating login of new seeker data, and recording data of previous seekers...]

[The path of magic extends 8421 meters; 98649 data modules on both sides of the road have been updated... Data recording complete.]

[Storing data of previous seekers... Storage complete.]

[New host data has been logged in.]

[Message from a senior: Welcome to the newcomer 'me' embarking on 'our' path. Best wishes for a safe journey.]

Upon hearing the notification sound, Dalian and Duanmu Lian reacted with different expressions.

The girl looked slightly sad and sighed, while the boy raised his eyebrows in surprise as he looked at the golden module in his hand.

The former seeker of the Dao refers to the previous demon god, Duanmu Lian, who is also the one with the authority to use this place.

When the new Duanmu Lian arrived here and came into contact with the golden module, the system here had already detected his soul.

The authority over this place has thus been transferred to the current soul of Duanmu Lian.

"Buzz—!"

After Duanmu Lian gained access, the golden transparent module in his hand immediately began to solidify.

Finally, the solidified square golden template rapidly split into countless small golden cubes the size of a fingernail before his eyes.

Each small cube is connected to the others by an energy line. They decompose and recombine in front of Duanmu Lian, eventually forming a huge dimensional portal.

"This is......."

Duanmu Lian and Dalian stepped through the open door and entered a technologically advanced room.

In the center of the room were several small cylindrical platforms, each topped with different objects: unidentified luminous jade, books, liquids, pills, and so on.

"These are your starting supplies. Go and absorb the blue light orb on that platform first."

Dalian gestured for Duanmu Lian to go forward and quickly get those things, while her eyes held a hint of nostalgia.

She had also been here and witnessed the previous generation's Duanmu Lian embark on her own path here.

After all, including the current Duanmu Lian, she has already experienced three generations of Duanmu Lian.

The first generation of Lian captured her here, the second generation of Lian met and fell in love with her, and the third generation... that is, the current generation of Duanmu Lian, made Dalian feel very melancholy and complicated.

"Ah."

Duanmu Lian first walked to the blue light jade that Dalian had indicated. After reaching out and touching the light jade on the cylindrical platform, power and information flowed into his body at the same time.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle!

In an instant, the blue-green energy snakes tore through the sleeve of Duanmu Lian's arm that touched the light jade, and climbed onto his body like spreading lightning.

Lines, resembling the magic circuits of Type-Moon, spread from Duanmu Lian's arm to her entire body, including her head.

The immense bioelectricity caused his muscles to swell, making him look ferocious and terrifying, and his hair stood on end.

The breath exhaled from the mouth and nose formed visible white arrows of air, as if a super-large steam engine was exhausting gas.

Power, power!

An immense power, like the waters of the Yangtze River, poured into Duanmu Lian's body. At this moment, his eyes were filled with azure spiritual light, and his pupils and the whites of his eyes were no longer visible.

At the same time, Duanmu Lian also understood what this power was.

There's nothing fancy about it; it's just pure physical strength. So the current just now was simply the human body's bio-energy forming a tangible current.

"The physical strength of a hundred people, wow..."

After the bio-energy currents surging throughout her body calmed down, Duanmu Lian's swollen muscles returned to their original lean and strong appearance, and she then let out a long breath of comfort.

Now his physique is like that of Sha Antian in "Martial God 300"—a strong and muscular combat body that is not bulky at all.

Every muscle on his body was perfectly proportioned, creating a physique that rivaled even the Saiyans in strength.

What power did Duanmu Lian receive?

Just as he said, it was only the maximum physical strength of a hundred people.

The blue orb we just saw was a supernatural seed created by a certain generation of Duanmu Lian. Its ability is a combination of storing and transferring power.

This is the power that Duanmu Lian, a certain generation, integrated after researching the X-gene superpowers of mutants and collecting the Quirks from the entire My Hero Academia world.

First, there's the One For All Quirk (superpower) from My Hero Academia.

This ability is a hybrid of two personality traits: "the ability to store power" and "the ability to bestow power upon others." It allows the user to gather the physical limits of many people into one person.

It can even be passed down, cultivated, and accumulated from generation to generation.

The physical abilities and personalities of each successor are constantly stacked up to their limits, resulting in a top-tier personality that grows stronger with each generation's inheritance and accumulation.

It can be said to be a special force with great potential.

This power was passed down through nine generations in My Hero Academia, with the ninth generation, Izuku Midoriya, being killed by Ren Duanmu.

The power accumulated over these nine generations is equivalent to the pure physical strength of a 'city-level' opponent.

The power that Duanmu Lian is currently receiving is the physical strength he has accumulated over a hundred lifetimes, representing the limits of a hundred generations.

The original [One For All] had its 'power storage' property limited after Duanmu Lian's research and experiments.

After accumulating for twenty-one generations, this personality reached its limit and could no longer store power.

The fact that it could accumulate to the level of hundreds of people was due to the completely new version that Duanmu Lian modified and enhanced herself later.

However, there are also restrictions.

That is—you can't accumulate strength by relying on others to train.

The reason is that people are different, and the accumulated strength is naturally different as well.

While accumulating power in that way is possible, mixing it together would result in impure power and make its transmission quite troublesome.

Such power can only be passed down for a maximum of twenty or so generations, and naturally, there are very high requirements for the person who receives this power.

Therefore, the power passed down to Duanmu Lian is actually the physical strength accumulated by his predecessors.

In a sense, it was a power he had already cultivated, so the inheritance and integration of it were naturally incredibly smooth.

However, 100 people is the absolute limit.

Considering the limits of this ability itself, as well as the limits of the host's endurance.

If this continues, the person who receives this power will suffer a physical breakdown and then explode on the spot.

"Next is this."

Seeing Duanmu Lian's clothes were tattered but her body had become even stronger, Dalian nodded, then pointed to a book floating on the cylindrical platform and explained:

"Physical enhancement is secondary; what's more crucial is your soul. This is a cultivation method specifically designed for the individual [Duanmu Lian] to cultivate the soul."

Throughout history, Duanmu Lian has placed great importance on her own soul due to the issue of the 'Abyss of the Soul'.

Previously, he had no choice; unable to enhance the quality of his soul, he could only use clumsy methods to increase the number of his souls.

This situation continued until Duanmu Lian went to cultivation-themed worldviews, such as "Chinese Paladin," "Zhu Xian," "Gu Jian Qi Tan," and "Xuan-Yuan Sword."

Only after visiting these Eastern-style worlds did Duanmu Lian's situation begin to improve.