I Refused To Be Reincarnated
Chapter 525: Lin Yao’s Regret

Chapter 525: Lin Yao’s Regret

As his facial features decomposed, Leon chuckled at his reaction and continued.

"This little friend here already understood. My real name is Lin Yao, a cultivator stranded in this world of magic."

It may sound a little surprising or even surreal for the others, but to him, Leon... No! Lin Yao’s words rumbled and crashed in his mind with the strength of a tsunami.

Despite his shock, the aged king continued, the green flash in his eyes intensifying with each word he spoke until it engulfed their previous gray sheen.

"I was the heir of the Yǒngcháng village. Special since birth, my family showered me with love and care."

He saw Lin Yao’s lips curled into a wistful smile, a reminiscent expression flashing in his now jade green eyes. But he frowned at the man’s face, swearing it had subtly changed.

But he shrugged the detail off, focusing on the next part of the story.

"After training me for seven years, my grandfather sent me to the Qingming sect. I’ll never forget the hopes shining in his eyes. Accompanied by my friend, I overturned everyone’s conception of cultivation before the sect elder recognised my worth at fifteen and entrusted me with a critical mission."

Lin Yao’s face turned solemn, the noise of his cracking teeth resounding under his clenching jaws.

"I had to free an Ethereal serpent held captive by a rogue sorcerer. However, things went out of control the moment we confronted him. That bastard! He had driven the serpent mad and used it to fight us. Despite my strength, I was just in the core formation realm, the equivalent of the fourth tier, and failed to stop it in time and..."

Lin Yao’s voice trailed off, grief and regret engulfing it as his fists trembled on his legs. No matter what his grandfather had hoped for, he had never seen him after that day.

Still, he forced himself to continue revealing his heaviest regret in the dimly lit cave for the first time in his long life.

"It seized my friend in its maw and tried to escape into another realm. I had to save her! I launched myself on its back and pounded it as it travelled from one world to another until it lost strength and collapsed in the Belloria Kingdom."

He bit his lips at the man’s sad story, noticing how it still affected him sixty years later through his lowered head and labored breath, not to mention his whitening knuckles crumpling the fabric of his pants.

Lips twisted in empathy, he wanted to say something, to congratulate him for saving his friend at least.

But Lin Yao continued first, causing his face to pale and his luminous eyes to dim.

"I lost her... When I checked its mouth, she was gone. At first, I thought I would find her nearby, so I sifted through the country and asked its noble houses to search for her. I then visited a canyon on the borders after learning she might have died and turned into a ghost. After defeating the Dullahan, the ghost king spoke with me through it and assured me she wasn’t in his city. He also offered me a grimoire I had no use for."

Lin Yao shook and raised his head, the soft wrinkles covering his face gone and his skin glistening healthily.

’The heck is happening?!’

His eyes enlarged at the subtle transformation, yet he could already see verdant hair amidst the gray ones as if the old man grew young again with each passing minute.

But Lin Yao continued his story, ignoring his confused gaze and the frown carved on his brows.

"After years of searching, I reached the city-state of Alkemia Al-Nur. I met with a young mage who enjoyed collecting grimoires there and sold him a copy of the Qingming Sutra and the useless grimoire I got in the canyon as I inquired about her. After a brief discussion, he emitted a theory I hated, but that proved true... What if, in his pain, the serpent dropped her in a foreign world?"

He heard Lin Yao’s defeated sigh, sympathising with him after all the hardships he went through to rescue his lost friend.

But he sighed, too. The young mage was Shepard and if his mentor’s theory proved true, it could only mean one thing.

’He never found her.’

A sad silence engulfed the cave, the soft hum of mana the only noise disturbing it for five minutes before the king continued.

"I searched for years in vain until I arrived in the Jadeval kingdom ruled by a tyrant. The poor citizens died of sickness and hunger daily without any hope of seeing the situation improve. Worse, even his descendants were no better. So... I killed the entire royal family and usurped the youngest’s identity."

Everyone’s eyes enlarged in stupor this time. No one had expected the king to drop such a bomb. Yet, even if they now knew the truth, who could blame him?

After all, his rule was nothing short of exemplary. The citizens lived happy and safe lives in shining cities while the economy boomed despite the crown’s debts.

And those facts prompted the question: didn’t his actions save millions of lives from misery? Was it so wrong to usurp the throne if his rule made life better for the people?

As they pondered the question in silence, divided between the importance of bloodline and legitimacy and the ruler’s actions, Lin Yao continued with the last part of his story.

"With no hope of seeing her again, I focused on our dream to make Lóngshān’s valley an independent prefecture where everyone lived happy lives. I substituted it with the Jadeval kingdom and worked hard, hoping we’d reunite one die. But The Beast Emperor... He saw me use Qi and reported it to the magus thirty years ago. Because of him, I became the tenth arcanist in name and bowed my chin to his rules. Yet, he never accepted me and always found trouble with me."

Lin Yao’s anger reignited, sending his now verdant hair in a wild dance and revealing his youthful appearance for all to see. From an aged man in his eighties, he looked no older than sixteen now and exuded a colossal amount of life force that sent Julius’ mind spinning in dread and admiration.

With his words, Mathias’ and Alice’s eyes enlarged as they remembered the incident at the grand gathering fifteen years ago. Alice wasn’t the cause but an excuse to target Lin Yao by taking out one of his trusted councillors.

Meanwhile, Lin Yao took his regal robes off. A ring on his finger shone a bright light the next second as the clothes he wore when he first stepped into this world reappeared.

The clothes of a cultivator mixing green, dark, gold, and red in intricate yet delicate patterns, reflecting the harmony they pursued.

The clothes of a stranded man who lost everything and failed to see the person who counted the most in his life once more.

The clothes of a man who gave himself one last mission and readied himself to fight and, finally, the clothes he’d wear on his deathbed if he failed.