He calmed his mind and continued to read the most important part: what happened after he entered the Returning Source Cocoon, or as the book described it, after his "death."
In the 18th year of the empire, Holy Yuan Emperor Li En. Tanding, the founder of the empire, passed away. The royal court announced that the emperor was unwell and required long-term recuperation, with the Grand Imperial Advisor and his cabinet acting as regents.
However, the rumor of the emperor's death quickly spread. Under pressure from various factions, the royal court admitted the truth and initiated the Crown of the King Founder ritual.
Due to the power he wielded, which surpassed normal understanding, Lien was unable to have offspring with ordinary people, making the succession of the throne a problem.
To continue his bloodline, he undertook an unprecedented and likely never-to-be-repeated task.
He used a drop of his own blood to forge the empire's sacred artifact, the Crown of the King Founder.
The future king would be chosen by this Crown of the King Founder.
Once the Crown of the King Founder ritual was activated, ten children aged fourteen throughout the empire would manifest a Holy Mark. This was a symbol of being chosen by the Crown of the King Founder. They would become crown princes, be gathered and sent to the imperial capital, and complete six assessments within three months. The ultimate successor would be crowned as the next emperor of the empire.
After the coronation, he would be granted Li En. Tanding's blood from the Crown of the King Founder, receiving his bloodline inheritance.
Under the supervision of the Crown of the King Founder, all chosen crown princes possessed the character and morality sufficient to bear this heavy responsibility. Every word and action during the assessment period would also be fully recorded by the Crown of the King Founder. Any improper behavior would result in the disqualification of the crown prince.
The Crown of the King Founder ritual should have been conducted while the emperor was still alive, personally nurturing the chosen imperial prince until he could take over the government.
However, due to the suddenness of the event, he had already entered the Returning Source Cocoon for reconstruction when the Crown of the King Founder ritual began, so everything was fully entrusted to the prime minister.
Four months later, a new emperor was born. As he was still young, Prime Minister Sotos acted as regent for the empire and provided him with imperial education.
During that period, the empire was extremely chaotic. Various major forces harbored ulterior motives and were eager to act, with constant conflicts and a turbulent situation.
Fortunately, Grand Prime Minister Sotos, who was second only to one person, was loyal enough to Lien. During this period, he both nurtured the emperor and deterred the officials, maintaining the stability of the empire.
Additionally, Gleisa surprisingly stepped forward to govern the empire. As the person closest to the emperor, she commanded prestige no less than Lien's. Her appearance finally stabilized the situation at the time.
Good times did not last. Four years later, Gleisa contracted a serious illness and passed away in the imperial palace at the age of 62.
Two years later, Prime Minister Sotos also died of illness.
Caesar stared at this passage for a long time. It didn't mention what last words these two said before their deaths, only this brief sentence, ending their lives.
He remained silent for a long time, then continued to read.
After Sotos's death, the new emperor had reached a level where he could rule independently. The function of the Crown of the King Founder became apparent; Leanne II displayed the necessary qualities of a qualified emperor. After ascending the throne, he eliminated heretics, quelled rebellions, reformed laws, and further strengthened the empire's national power, leading to unprecedented prosperity.
But.
In the 50th year of the empire, a great fire broke out in the imperial palace, and Leanne II, only 43 years old, disappeared in the blaze.
This great fire became an unsolved mystery in history. Current historians have various theories because the imperial palace, protected by various guardian spells, should not have been affected by fire. It could only have been a deeper cause.
Since the emperor's body was never found, whether Leanne II was still alive and where he went also became a historical enigma.
However, it is known that the core members of the royal court, including the prime minister, the Magic Tower Grand Sage, and the newly elected imperial prince, all perished in this great fire. Overnight, the empire became politically hollow, an event known as the "Moon Rift Incident."
What followed was predictable: various forces simultaneously raised armies, each citing different reasons, and the era of warlordism and great chaos began again.
Upon reading this, Caesar frowned.
The imperial palace fire... the empire he painstakingly created was gone due to a fire...
No, the history books say it was a fire, but reality must have been far more complex than what the book described. There must have been another reason for the empire's destruction.
Because thirty years had passed since he entered the Returning Source Cocoon, he couldn't be sure what exactly caused it.
He made several conjectures in his mind, then ruled them out one by one.
Thinking about this now gave him a headache. He shook his head and continued to read.
One year after the great fire, in the 51st year of the empire, the precarious imperial court finally collapsed completely.
Subsequently, the fragmented situation continued for nearly twenty years.
And what ended it all was not another emperor, but a great catastrophe.
History refers to it as the "Great Destruction."
Starting in the 67th year of the empire, when the giant volcano in the Cypros Mountains, dormant for a thousand years, suddenly erupted, various natural disasters followed one after another for the next seven years.
Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, meteor showers, volcanic eruptions, plagues, floods, droughts...
These once-in-a-century, super-scale disasters, as if a seal had been broken, occurred one after another, or even multiple at once, and were global in nature, spreading to every corner of the world.
It was as if the gods were angry, intending to trigger the apocalypse and destroy all living beings in the world.
Perhaps one had just climbed a mountain to escape floods when a strong earthquake shattered the entire mountain range.
Perhaps one went to sleep in the heat at night, only to freeze to death in bed the next morning.
Perhaps today the land was still cracked due to drought, and the next day heavy rain poured down, submerging everything...
Even more terrifying was the disorder of magic elements.
Magic elements, existing everywhere like air, became unconstrained and underwent terrifying chaotic reactions, resulting in destructive power akin to a nuclear explosion.
All Magician could no longer control these chaotic magic elements. Even casting a simple illumination spell would result in a backlash, causing their bodies to explode.
Under such circumstances, unordered, frequent, and baseless natural disasters ravaged the world for seven whole years.
During the Great Destruction, society collapsed, and there was no order whatsoever.
No race was spared; naturally scarce races went extinct, and those that survived were sharply reduced to endangered levels.
The previously mentioned Blood Demon Race was also completely annihilated as a result.
The world's population plummeted from 600 million to 20 million.
There have been several theories regarding the cause of this Great Destruction. The current mainstream theory is that the world's magic elements had accumulated to a critical point, exceeding the threshold limit, which led to the widespread natural disasters.
Of course, there is also a more superstitious theory that the gods, seeing the various atrocities in the world, became enraged and sent down punishment.
During the seven years of natural disasters, the Dragon Race and the Elf Race suffered the greatest blows among the major powers.
Due to their naturally small populations and difficulty in reproduction, these two races, which once dominated vast territories, are now almost extinct.
The greatest impact of these natural disasters on the world was the massive death of Magician, coupled with the fact that after the Great Destruction ended, the world's magic elements declined to an extremely low level. Future Magician also found it difficult to advance, and magic could no longer support the functioning of society.
Thus, the era of magic, which had lasted for over three thousand years, came to an end.
