Swallowing the Stars: The cheat system only comes when I'm almost a god?

Night was falling.

The spaceship hovered silently, and most people had already drifted off to sleep.

At that moment, a figure silently left the spaceship and flew towards the Central Mountain Range.

Lin Yuan walked on air at a leisurely pace, as if taking a stroll.

He did not deliberately conceal his figure, but his body was enveloped in a faint fluctuation of law, perfectly blending with the surrounding environment.

Soon, he reached the summit.

The magnificent temple stood under the moonlight, its white jade walls gleaming with a warm luster, and the bas-reliefs on its four giant pillars appeared even more mysterious in the night.

Lin Yuan stepped into the hall.

Inside the spacious hall, the jade sculpture of the goddess stood silently, the ball of light in her palm slowly rotating.

His gaze swept across the surroundings.

On the giant pillar in the east, the relief of the Azure Dragon is lifelike, with its scales shimmering with a faint blue light. At this moment, an Azure Dragon is coiled in the pillar.

The white tiger relief on the western pillar exudes a fierce and murderous aura.

The Vermilion Bird on the Southern Pillar looks as if it might take flight at any moment.

The entire temple, and even the entire mountain, depended on the Black Tortoise in the north, which had never revealed its true form.

Lin Yuan completely concealed his aura, and he stood in the center of the hall without eliciting any reaction.

The Azure Dragon did not wake up.

Xuanwu was unaware.

It was as if he didn't exist at all.

He walked slowly to the jade sculpture of the goddess and looked up at it.

The jade carving has a flawless face, but lacks vitality; it is merely a beautiful but lifeless object.

But Lin Yuan could sense that deep within this jade carving, there was a wisp of extremely faint true spirit sealed away.

"An ancient goddess..." he murmured to himself, "She has been asleep for three thousand years, and her true spirit has not completely dissipated. That's quite rare."

He stretched out his right hand, his index finger lightly touching the base of the jade carving, a flash of crimson-gold fire in his eyes.

Nightmare Sky Mist!

Like spring rain nourishing all things, it silently enveloped the entire statue, the mist seeping into every line of the jade carving, eventually converging at the center of the statue's brow.

Immediately afterwards, in the blink of an eye, he arrived at a strange place, an ancient battlefield, where he saw two groups of people fighting fiercely.

A thick black fog filled the sky.

Eighty-one demon gods forged by Chi You stomped the ground with a thunderous roar, and bronze giants stood like mountains. With their giant hands sweeping across, ordinary soldiers were scattered like weeds, and bronze halberds could only scatter sparks when they struck the armor of the demon gods.

Golden light pierced through the clouds high in the sky.

Yinglong spread its thousand-foot dragon wings and swooped down, its dragon claws gleaming with a cold light, directly crashing into the soldier demon god at the front.

With tremendous force, the bronze giant staggered and fell, its dragon tail sweeping across, shattering several demon soldiers into pieces.

On the ground, the Yellow Emperor personally led the human army in a desperate battle.

Spears and halberds clashed, arrows rained down, soldiers wielded their blades to slash at the weak points of the demon's joints, flesh and blood surged forward one after another, shouts of battle shook the heavens, and blood splattered on the yellow sand.

Chi You stood on a high hill, stirred up demonic energy, and commanded the demon gods to surround and kill Yinglong and the Yellow Emperor's army.

Yinglong circled in the sky, its giant mouth spewing out lightning, which blasted the body of the Demon God into pieces, sending fragments flying everywhere.

The Yellow Emperor brandished his sword and commanded his chariots to charge, while his infantry formed ranks and fought a desperate battle against the giant bronze shadow.

……

The illusion of an ancient battlefield unfolds before your eyes, with the war between Chi You and the Yellow Emperor raging and the clash between Yinglong and the God of War shaking the heavens and the earth.

Lin Yuan quietly watched this historical scene that had been sealed for more than three thousand years, analyzing every detail.

Just as the bronze giant shattered and Yinglong's blood splattered on the field, a figure silently appeared beside him.

She was a woman enveloped in a soft divine light, which was not dazzling but rather gentle and warm, outlining her slender and graceful figure.

"A person from beyond the realm." Her voice was cold and clear. "My name is Xi."

Lin Yuan didn't turn his head, but a slight smile appeared on his lips: "Aren't you also from outside this world? What are you pretending to be a native for?"

The divine light rippled slightly.

"I have been in this world for over three thousand years, and our destinies are intertwined." Xi remained calm. "But the aura of another world emanating from you is too strong, making you incompatible with this world."

Lin Yuan finally turned his head, his gaze piercing through the divine light as if trying to see through its essence: "Then, can you explain why the aura emanating from these demonic soldiers and that Yinglong all originates from you?"

He smiled knowingly: "Could it be that Chi You and the Yellow Emperor were both your disciples?"

The divine light fluctuated again, this time even more noticeably.

After a long silence, Xi's voice rang out again, and she sighed, saying, "You guessed half right."

She floated to the front of Lin Yuan and met his gaze.

"More than 3,100 years ago, I fought a fierce battle with a powerful enemy in the outer space. That battle lasted for many years, and I finally managed to kill him by sacrificing my own essence."

She raised her hand, her fingertip pointing at the bronze giant in the illusion: "The extraterrestrial meteorite iron used to forge the core of the Demon God's weapon is actually a fragment of my divine weapon from back then. It was scattered when I fell into this world and was eventually obtained by Chi You of this world."

Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly: "So, Chi You's technology for creating the Demon God of Soldiers..."

"He figured it out on his own," Xi interrupted his guess. "Those fragments only provided the materials; the Daoist principles and laws within them have long since dissipated."

"Chi You was a true genius; he figured out how to control the fragments based solely on their inherent properties." Her gaze shifted to the Yinglong circling in the sky:

"As for it... in all the myriad worlds, the historical timelines of any world with the legends of the Yellow Emperor and Chiyou are roughly similar."

To prevent my mistake from causing too much disruption to this realm, I had the Azure Dragon, the leader of the Four Spirits born in the Guixu Cave Heaven, split into seven innate reverse scales.

The illusionary scene then changes.

A giant azure dragon tore itself apart in agony, and seven dragon scales flowing with divine light detached from its body, intertwining and merging in the air, eventually transforming into a thousand-foot-long Yinglong, which broke through the barrier of the cave and descended into the world.

"Yinglong was originally the reverse scale of the Azure Dragon. It helped the Yellow Emperor defeat Chiyou and pushed history back to its proper course." Xi's voice echoed in the illusion.

"Once its mission is complete, it will dissipate into its reverse scales again, and Ji Xuanyuan will have them sealed in seven specially made bronze boxes, which will be scattered throughout this world as proof of future communication between the grotto-heaven and the outside world."

The final image shows the Yellow Emperor holding the Xuanyuan Sword, standing atop a mountain of the remains of the demon gods and soldiers, gazing up at the gradually dissipating phantom of Yinglong in the sky.

The illusion slowly faded, and the two returned to the empty temple.

"A very reasonable story." Lin Yuan nodded, but then changed the subject: "This does explain the origin of the God of War and the Seven Constellations of the Azure Dragon, but I have another question."

Xi's body shone with a calm, unwavering divine light: "Oh?"

"After I entered this world, I observed the local customs and traditions." Lin Yuan's gaze became somewhat playful. "The novelty of the aesthetic concepts of clothing here and the uniqueness of the style are quite different from those of the normal historical world."

Their bold depiction of forms and their preference for minimalist decoration were nearly two thousand years ahead of the natural course of civilization. Could this also be related to you?

The divine light suddenly paused.

Although it was only for a brief moment, Lin Yuan keenly noticed the subtle change.

Immediately afterwards, most of the divine light surrounding Xi dissipated, then quickly reformed.

But that fleeting glimpse was enough for Lin Yuan to see everything clearly and instantly connect all the clues.

She was an exceptionally beautiful woman, appearing to be in her early twenties, with skin as smooth as jade and features as exquisite as a painting.

But what's most striking isn't her appearance, but her clothing—

A black bodycon dress that perfectly accentuated her figure; extending from the hem of the skirt were a pair of long, slender legs encased in sheer black stockings. She wore a pair of simple yet exquisite black high heels.

Her long hair was tied into a neat single ponytail at the back of her head, with a few stray strands hanging down in front of her forehead.

This is a completely modern urban woman's professional attire!

In an instant, Lin Yuan understood everything.

Why would a world clearly set in ancient China exhibit such a modern and sexy style in its clothing aesthetics?

The source is right here!

A goddess who had been to modern society created Yinglong to interfere with history.

As Yinglong was her creation and extension of her will, her unconscious aesthetic preferences during her years of activities in the mortal world would inevitably have been observed and imitated by people at that time.

This mythologized aesthetic tendency, after three thousand years of inheritance and evolution, has become deeply ingrained in the genes of this world culture, resulting in its clothing design concepts being two thousand years ahead of the normal historical development trajectory!

Having figured out this absurd chain of cause and effect, Lin Yuan's eyes were practically overflowing with amusement.

The divine light stabilized again, but Xi's voice carried a hint of embarrassment: "Observant to the extreme."

Lin Yuan crossed his arms and looked Shen Guang up and down, his teasing undisguised: "You are not a legitimate ancient god of this world, and you may not even be a god in the conventional sense."

He took a step forward, and with each word he uttered, his tone became more certain:

"System host?"

A divine light flickered.

"Paradise Contractor?"

The divine light fluctuations intensified.

"Or... a reincarnator from the cycle of reincarnation?"

The moment the last four words were uttered, the divine light trembled violently, and the killing intent flashed by, but was then forcibly suppressed by Xi.

Lin Yuan smiled: "As expected, you are a reincarnator."

A brief silence fell over the temple.

After a long while, the divine light surrounding Xi slowly dissipated, revealing her true form.

A wry smile appeared on her face: "Now that you've seen through me, there's no point in hiding it anymore."

She raised her hand to brush away the stray hairs from her forehead: "That's right, I come from the cycle of reincarnation, or rather, I used to come from there."

"In the past?" Lin Yuan raised an eyebrow.

Xi's eyes deepened, as if she had returned to a distant past: "I have experienced forty-seven mission worlds, climbing from the lowest-level F-rank newbie all the way to the peak S-rank reincarnator. In that space, I stayed... according to the time of the Main God Space, for eight hundred and twenty-six years."

Her tone was calm, but Lin Yuan could hear the deep-seated hatred and exhaustion within it.

"I thought I was strong enough." Xi smirked, revealing a mocking smile. "Peak S-rank, there are only a few people in the entire space who are above me. I thought I was strong enough."

"So you rebelled," Lin Yuan continued.

"It's not just me." Xi shook her head. "We are a total of 372 S-class reincarnators. After secretly connecting for hundreds of years, we finally found an opportunity during a large-scale team battle mission."

We joined forces to set up the Heaven-Sealing God-Locking Array, launching our attack while the main god was distracted processing the task settlement.

A flicker of pleasure crossed her eyes, but it was quickly replaced by deeper pain: "We succeeded, at least we succeeded at the time. We blew up that big ball of light."

"And then?" Lin Yuan pressed.

He didn't think the story would end there.

Xi's smile turned bitter: "Then we realized that the bastard had been preparing for this all along."

It planted a primordial imprint deep within the soul of every reincarnator, undetectable under normal circumstances, only triggered upon death.

She took a deep breath: "Out of 372 people, 169 of them had their souls annihilated on the spot, without even a chance to be reincarnated."

The rest were all seriously injured, the least serious of whom had their souls shattered and their very essence scattered.

I was lucky; I managed to preserve 40% of my soul thanks to a soul defense artifact I acquired early in my life.

With my last ounce of strength, I dragged my mangled body through a spatial portal, then plummeted into this world, where I can only eke out a living here.

After hearing her story, Lin Yuan's expression turned strange.

It wasn't because the story was tragic, but because of... the disparity in strength.

According to Xi's description, at her peak, she should be equivalent to the peak of the World Lord of the Swallowed Star World, and those S-level reincarnators were roughly at the same level.

Three hundred or so realm lords can destroy the main god of a reincarnation space?

This god is far too incompetent.

It should be understood that in the Swallowed Star world, although the World Lord can be considered a strong person, he is still like an ant in front of the true peak existence.

An immortal god could easily annihilate thousands of realm lords with a single thought, and the main god of a cycle of reincarnation should theoretically be at least a higher level of existence.

Either the level of the reincarnation space where Xi is located is not high to begin with, or the main god himself has some fatal flaw.