Chapter 4426: White Magma
Chapter 4426: White Magma
Very soon, the king vessel started moving, and it proceeded to head back in the direction that it had come from. They were retreating.
The stone monster saw this happening. It watched the king vessel move farther away, unsure of what to do.
Lu Yin also saw what was happening and let out a breath of relief. Success. The stone monster's threat combined with his own strike had successfully intimidated the technological civilization. It was a technological fishing civilization and was definitely not afraid of him. A civilization could never reach that level solely by relying only on something as simple as the power of a two-law Immortal. It was just that fighting Lu Yin might not be worth the price.
Lu Yin had never imagined that he could intimidate a fishing civilization into retreating. So long as they retreated, it was good enough.
Although he had failed to use the technological civilization against the Divine Realm, at least the human civilization no longer faced the threat of an attack from that technological civilization.
However, if Lu Yin wanted to complete Obscura’s missions, he needed more civilizations that he could use as tools. It was best to leave the technological civilization alone. It would be wise to not provoke them, and in any case, he had never seriously intended to put any real effort into completing his missions. The potential rewards were no longer able to provide any meaningful help to his human civilization as a whole, so there was no point in helping them.
He returned to the Tianyuan and brought Lu Feiyang back. "Keep watching that oval light for me. The moment it changes direction, return and immediately tell me."
"Yes." Lu Feiyang was thrilled. Being able to do something for the ancestor would be considered an honor by anyone.
Lu Yin did not have the free time to keep an eye on the king vessel himself. For their human civilization to rest easy, the king vessel needed to move at least 100 years’ travel away. Spending 100 years just watching a vessel would be too great a waste of his time.
He still needed to find a way to take control of Manifest City, and he also had to visit the Trio from time to time.
He could already feel the restraints that Green Lotus’s absence placed upon him.
If Lu Yin could fully control Manifest City, then with that guardian artifact’s defenses, he would be able to act without fear.
But to take control of Manifest City, there were greater obstacles besides simply finding the correct method. To start off, there was You Che. Che had definitely left contingencies behind and was just waiting for Lu Yin to find a way to control Manifest City. This was why he needed not only the means to master Manifest City, but also the strength to face Che.
Fortunately, entering Manifest City was a way to cultivate his Willforce. As his Willforce steadily grew stronger, he knew that his time was not being wasted. What remained troublesome was that Manifest City could not be moved. If it could, he would simply take it back to the Trio.
Was it possible that its immobility was related to You Che?
Lu Yin arrived near Manifest City and entered. The stone monster stayed with Lu Feiyang to keep watch on the technological civilization’s movements. None of that Immortal’s kind remained within Manifest City, but that did not matter. Lu Yin simply did not need the stone monster anymore.
Several years later, Lu Yin emerged from Manifest City to find Lu Hui standing there waiting for him.
Seeing Lu Yin appear, Lu Hui grew overjoyed and quickly reported, "Ancestor, something has changed with the technological civilization."
Lu Yin's expression changed, and he immediately went to find Lu Feiyang. After multiple teleports, Lu Yin found him.
The Lu family trained their youths who awakened the innate gift of teleportation in methods that allowed them to locate one another, and naturally, Lu Yin had learned those methods as well.
When Lu Feiyang saw Lu Yin arrive, he finally relaxed. "Ancestor, that oval light suddenly changed direction a year ago, though I don't know why."
Lu Yin looked at the distant king vessel. Had it changed directions? It was no longer heading towards the Trio and deviated a slight bit away from the route that it had traveled on to arrive. While the angle might appear small, given the scale of the Aevum Inch, even a miniscule deviation could leave a Dukkhan wandering and lost for their entire lifetime.
Lu Yin peered along the vessel’s original route, using the Mirrorlight Art again and again.
The Mirrorlight Art did not work like ordinary vision, where seeing a location meant seeing everything between that point and the viewer; it merely allowed the user to see a point, rather than the entire line in between. Given the vastness of the cosmos, looking at a single point revealed practically nothing. Trying to find something with the Mirrorlight Art was very difficult. Its greatest use was to look at specific coordinates or into the distance to escape.
"Keep watching."
"Yes."
Lu Yin left again. As long as the technological civilization was not making its way closer to the Trio, that was good enough.
He re-entered Manifest City.
Inside the king vessel, the prince kept watching the display. It showed a fish, one with an exceptionally ferocious appearance. The king vessel had changed directions because of this fish.
Further ahead, along their predetermined route, they had detected this fish. It looked fierce on the screen, but in reality, the creature was even more terrifying. That was because the fish was absolutely enormous, comparable to one of the technological civilization’s vessels. More importantly, the king vessel had detected that this fish was an Immortal, which was why they had changed course.
At present, they did not wish to engage in a battle with an Immortal, and this fish had an exceptionally vicious appearance. It could even be considered the most ferocious Immortal that they had encountered thus far.
While the detection methods of the king vessel were vastly inferior to the range that Lu Yin could cover with the Mirrorlight Art, the vessel was able to cover a broad region, which was how they had detected the fish.
Several more years passed. Alarms rang out aboard the king vessel again. “Warning! Warning! Unknown lifeform detected. Warning! Warning...”
Something had appeared on the display, and it was moving towards the king vessel at a shocking speed. It had only just entered the vessel’s detection range.
The prince ordered, “Activate absolute analysis.”
“Absolute analysis activating. Analyzing... Analyzing... Analysis complete: Immortal being.”
“Another Immortal being?” The prince was stunned. Had they fallen into a nest of Immortals? First, that stone monster Immortal, then a human, a fish, and now another one? Just what was going on? They had traversed the Aevum Inch for countless years, yet they had never encountered so many Immortals in such a short span of time. “Change course.”
“Your Highness, should we identify what kind of Immortal it is?”
“No need. Immediately change course to avoid it. Something about this is wrong. We may have entered an unusual situation where multiple forces are contending with each other.”
“Warning! Unknown lifeform rapidly approaching. Warning! Unknown lifeform rapidly approaching...”
“What’s going on? Did it detect us?” The prince was stunned. Their light detection methods far exceeded the range that ordinary Immortals could sense, which was why the fish had not noticed the king vessel and also why the stone monster’s sudden appearance had been such a surprise.
Yet again, this new Immortal was actually adjusting its course to go after the vessel, clearly indicating that it had locked onto them.
“Turn away, maximum speed! Also, pull up its image on the display.”
“Warning! Unknown lifeform rapidly approaching...”
Inside the king vessel, alarms rang continuously. This new Immortal was far faster than the vessel itself, and it was continuously closing in. It had accurately locked onto their position. This weighed heavily on all the beings aboard and gave them a sense of impending disaster.
Suddenly, the image of the Immortal appeared on the display.
“Is that... white... water?”
“More like magma.”
“White magma?”
“Your Highness, in no more than ten years, it will catch up to us.”
“Prepare Cosmic Shear. Once it gets close enough, fire.”
“Yes.”
***
Elsewhere, Lu Yin exited Manifest City and found Lu Hui waiting for him again.
He immediately went to find Lu Feiyang, who reported, “It changed direction again. This time, I was able to find the reason. Ancestor, please look seventeen years’ distance in that direction.”
Lu Yin looked over, and his gaze tightened. Is that... white magma?
He stared into the distance. He had not been mistaken, it really was that white magma Immortal, the one which had enveloped and killed an Immortal from the Soul-Eater Megaverse. Back then, when another Immortal from that megaverse had entered the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm and been discovered, a karmic examination of that Immortal’s past had revealed that it had been fleeing from this white magma creature.
Lu Yin had even gone searching for this creature because three of the black armor plates had been in the possession of the other Immortal from the Soul-Eater Megaverse. So after its death, they should have fallen into the hands of this white magma creature. However, Lu Yin had not been able to find the creature during his search, as more than 100 years had passed between when it had last been seen and when he had started his search.
He had not expected to see it so suddenly.
This was also quite far away from where it had killed the Immortal from the Soul-Eater Megaverse. No wonder he had not been able to find it before.
However, when Lu Yin considered the fact that he could teleport, this Immortal had actually been lingering nearby all along.
What was this white magma doing? Hunting down the technological civilization’s vessel? Why?
Back when it had killed that Immortal from the Soul-Eater Megaverse, Lu Yin and the others had found its behavior strange. After all, killing another Immortal would drastically increase an Immortal’s karmic chain. Did this creature have no fear of that? It was no Plume Immortal.
Even if the Mudwater Dominion could designate karma, that only served as a means of self-preservation. If they killed other Immortals, they would still suffer the same increase in their karmic chains.
Despite that, this white magma seemed to deliberately target Immortals. It was too strange.
Lu Feiyang watched excitedly. His strength was nothing impressive, and he had never seen such a thrilling scene before. An Immortal chasing down a vessel from a technological civilization? Who knew what would happen next!
The Immortal stone monster could not see what was happening, and its only task was to protect Lu Feiyang. Seeing Lu Yin’s grave expression, it felt uneasy. Was it going to be ordered to do something again?
Time continued to pass. The white magma creature drew closer and closer to the oval light. No matter how the king vessel changed direction, the Immortal remained locked onto the vessel.
Once the two were very close to each other, Cosmic Shear was unleashed.
Lu Feiyang had never imagined that the cosmos could transform in such a manner. It was like seeing a child being pulled out from under the covers by his mother; the moment the blanket was lifted, it was as if daylight had arrived.
At this moment, the Aevum Inch had been lifted away, and Lu Feiyang’s understanding increased. The cosmos... can be like this? Is this the power of Immortals?
He had seen Immortals fight before, but he had never seen anything quite so shocking.
The stone creature was filled with awe. This power again? It is truly terrifying.
Cosmic Shear was, to date, one of the attacks that created the greatest changes to the Aevum Inch. Even if the power of this attack was far inferior to Ancestor Shan’s Star-Plucking Hand, the sheer scale of Cosmic Sheer brought about an unmatched sense of shock.
When the entire cosmos seemed to be stretched out, it was as if one’s very senses were being pulled apart as well. It brought about unparalleled shock.
The white magma was also being stretched. It had been caught up in Cosmic Shear, and its entire body was flattened and spread out, pulled in every direction. It was as if space itself intended to tear the Immortal completely apart.
But no matter how the creature was pulled, the white magma remained connected and whole.
Lu Yin frowned. This attack had been completely ineffective. The stretching and tearing of space had no effect on the white magma, and it was still approaching the king vessel. Not only that, but its speed was also not reduced in the slightest, even as its body was stretched farther and farther along, until it seemed to become endless. From afar, it looked like a white ribbon drifting through the dark, endless Aevum Inch.
The extreme distortion of Cosmic Shear could tear apart ordinary Immortals, but at this moment, it appeared utterly powerless.
Inside the king vessel, the prince was shocked. “How could this be?”
“Your Highness, there are an endless variety of species within the Aevum Inch. Some are inherently immune to Cosmic Shear—that is simply their nature. There is nothing to be done.”
“Fire Crystal Fall.”
One needle after another shot at the white magma. Already stretched out by Cosmic Shear, its body extended even farther when the needles stabbed into it.
Every strike hit its mark. Not one needle missed its target.