Chapter 4571: An Old Acquaintance, Unexpected
Chapter 4571: An Old Acquaintance, Unexpected
In fact, if not for the Death Megaverse learning the locations of various megaverses over the countless years, it would have taken them even longer to finish making all their preparations.
It was not difficult to capture a branch stream of the River of Aeons. What was difficult was not being dragged off by the main stream of the River of Aeons while doing so. What was even more difficult was finding megaverses and locating branch streams of the River of Aeons. That was what consumed the most time.
Their goal of gathering 100 branches of the River of Aeons within a millennium proved that the Death Megaverse did not destroy every civilization it encountered. They also made choices. It was just that Lu Yin did not know the standard behind those choices.
Several more decades passed. One day, Thousand Machinations abruptly found Lu Yin and gave him a set of coordinates, telling him to deal with the civilization at that location.
Lu Yin was surprised. "This megaverse isn’t too far away. Why deal with it now?"
Thousand Machinations replied, "It is not too far, but it is also not too close. The positions of the Abysses constantly change, and I cannot see everything around me.
"Also, this civilization has sent me a signal of the Death Megaverse."
Lu Yin's heart stirred. "A signal of the Death Megaverse?"
"It is a signal sent from a sourcebox array that transmits across the vast stretches of the Aevum Inch that only my Death Megaverse can detect. This is the Death Megaverse’s means of fishing. Did you not know of this?"
Lu Yin casually replied, "I did. I just heard it be called something different. We call it resonance."
"The meaning is the same. Since a signal has been received, go and deal with it. This is the duty of a being of the Death Megaverse," Thousand Machinations ordered.
Lu Yin left. Duty?
Years ago, Zhu's task in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse had been to collect sourceboxes throughout the entire civilization in order to set up a sourcebox array that would transmit the location of the megaverse out and attract the Death Megaverse.
The signal that they had received was exactly that. Lu Yin’s human civilization had stopped the call to the Death Megaverse, but other civilizations might not be successful.
That megaverse was several decades’ travel away from Thousand Machinations' Abyss, roughly equal to the distance between the Trio and the Seven-Treasure Anuras’ old home. For Lu Yin’s skeleton clone, it was not a great distance, but it was an exceptional range for a signal to be transmitted. Without being able to see across such a vast distance, it would be impossible to fully understand one’s surroundings within such a distance.
The civilization was one of savage violence. The creatures’ intelligence seemed to have been suppressed, which led to the civilization only resolving their conflicts through force. War never ceased.
It was precisely because of this endless violence that no creature had realized when all the sourceboxes in the megaverse had been collected.
The strongest being in this megaverse was a peak Dukkhan. Logically speaking, any powerhouse that was able to reach such a level of power should have had an impressive mental state, but different species had different methods for their breakthroughs and different states of mind.
This civilization’s nature was that of violence and brutish struggle. To cultivate to a higher realm within this civilization, each individual had to conform to the same nature.
If a human entered this megaverse, their cultivation would never be able to reach the level of a Dukkhan because the entire civilization would interfere with their progress.
This was the effect of a civilization.
Lu Yin found the being from the Death Megaverse that had sent the signal. It was a skeleton of a native creature of the megaverse. It had collected all the sourceboxes in the entire civilization and set up an array that Lu Yin remembered seeing before.
He took away the civilization’s cultivators, granting them all Bone Script before taking them back to Thousand Machinations' Abyss. There, they were thrown underground.
This was his first time granting Bone Script to an entire civilization. It was cruel, but it was also necessary.
It would be too hypocritical for him to claim that he had no other choice, but this was the law of survival in the cosmos.
After he returned to Thousand Machinations' Abyss, the Abyssal itself did not care about the skeletons that Lu Yin had brought back. As usual, Lu Yin was told to work on fusing the two powers.
After some time, Lu Yin asked about the Abyssal’s comment that the seven Abysses moved about. "This junior is mostly curious about the relationship between the Qi Megaverse and our Death Megaverse. It so close, and we even know that a member of Obscura is nearby. Why do we still not do anything?"
Thousand Machinations snapped its fingers. "Because of tacit understanding."
"Tacit understanding?"
"Yes, there is a tacit understanding between Obscura and the Death Megaverse. You can also understand it as a tacit understanding between colossi." Thousand Machinations sat down and smiled at Lu Yin. "Currently, you are still unable to clearly see the truth of the Aevum Inch. When you do, you will understand. The Qi Megaverse happens to straddle two regions."
The Mother Tree that spread across the Aevum Inch appeared in Lu Yin's mind. Two regions?
"Killing one member of Obscura is easy, but if war breaks out, it would not be worth it. Civilizations do communicate with one another, and such communications are reflected in both sides estimating the other’s strength. Communication does not necessarily require conversation," Thousand Machinations explained.
Lu Yin nodded. "This junior understands. Actually, I was very fortunate that there was a member of Obscura so close. If not, this junior definitely would have died."
Thousand Machinations smiled. "Do you know which two Abysses are closest to us?"
The seven Abysses were spread out with the Death Megaverse itself at the center. Abyssal Displacement could connect the seven Abysses to the Death Megaverse, which meant that each Abyss had to have exactly two neighboring abysses.
"Which two?"
"Ruinfall and Death's Dominion. Oh, now it is that little toad."
Lu Yin was surprised. "Is Death's Dominion right next to us?"
Thousand Machinations nodded.
"Then when the position of Abyssal was being fought for, why did the toad come from another direction?" Lu Yin was puzzled about this. He had clearly seen Old Sixth come from the direction that directly connected the Death Megaverse itself to Death's Dominion's Abyss. But now, he was hearing that the toad should have come from a neighboring Abyss, just like him.
Thousand Machinations replied, "It was very confident and calculated the timing precisely. Within that time, it wanted to eliminate as many strong enemies as possible, so it probably went in another direction first. I did not bother asking."
Old Sixth had fought that pure black creature a total of five times. According to the toad, that creature should have come from Ruinfall's Abyss, and Ruinfall's Abyss also neighbored Thousand Machinations’. In other words, to go to Death's Dominion's Abyss, that creature had to either pass by Thousand Machinations' Abyss or go towards the Death Megaverse itself and then towards the final destination.
When considering this new information, had Old Sixth done that to avoid clashing with the creature earlier, or had the toad known that the creature would take the second route and had gone to deal with it in advance?
Lu Yin could no longer make sense of the damned toad's thoughts.
Putting everything else aside, Lu Yin looked out across the Aevum Inch. With a general understanding of the location of Thousand Machinations' Abyss, once he returned to his true body, it would be easy to find.
However, this Abyss was also not too far from the Trio. He estimated that it was nearly 2,000 years’ travel away. Normally, such a distance would be exceptionally far, but when dealing with a colossus like the Death Megaverse, it was not much.
Lu Yin continued trying to fuse the two powers with a heavier heart.
Several more decades passed. One day, he suddenly looked up at the sky. Something had just entered the Abyss.
The Mirrorlight Art allowed him to see far away, but it was impossible for him to observe the Aevum Inch at all times.
A streak of white descended from the sky, smashing into the ground with a roar.
Lu Yin stared. That was a fragment of Devouring Trace. Did Thousand Machinations' Abyss also have a fragment?
Devouring Trace had spread its fragments throughout the Aevum Inch to search for Immortals and capture them, granting them Bone Script to increase the number of Immortal skeletons that belonged to the Death Megaverse.
Almost every Abyss had a fragment, but despite being in Thousand Machinations for so long, Lu Yin had never seen one before. He had simply assumed that there was none.
Suddenly, he stood up and stared in shock at the creature that the fragment of Devouring Trace was wrapped around. Is that... Chang Tian?
Lu Yin questioned what he was seeing, wondering if he might have fallen into some illusion Thousand Machinations was using.
How could Chang Tian be in this Abyss? He was someone from Lu Yin’s memories from 4,000 years ago. How could he suddenly appear in this place?
It had been 4,000 years since Lu Yin and Awe Gate had traveled to the Longevity Civilization through the Meteor Realm. During that journey, Lu Yin had confirmed that the Longevity Civilization was actually the Fourth Rampart, one of the Nine Ramparts. Their people were the Heaven's Sight Clan.
800 years after confirming that matter, the Meteor Realm had reappeared. Lu Yin had wanted to return to the Longevity Civilization, but the Meteor Realm had been destroyed by Wang Wen's sword. That slash had also severely injured Greater Sancte Awe Gate and almost split the Trio asunder.
That was the moment that revealed to Lu Yin that Wang Wen was limiting the height that human civilization could rise to. He would not allow the Longevity Civilization to communicate with the Trio, and neither would he allow the human civilization to grow stronger.
That was also the time when Lu Yin had started to feel an increasing amount of pressure.
But even when the Trio had been attacked, he still had not found a good method to press forward. He had been forced to sacrifice himself, use a nearly complete karmic chain to lower Wang Wen's vigilance, and have a clone walk through the darkness in the hopes of raising up the light.
It could be said that, if Lu Yin had been able to unify the Longevity Civilization and the Trio back then, the assault on the Trio would not have been so difficult to overcome. If Wang Wen had decided to restrict human civilization, he would have needed to mobilize the full power of Obscura.
That was because the Longevity Civilization was incredibly powerful. Chang Chuan was an old monster. He might even be a match for Shan.
If, if, if. It’s all just ifs. There just aren’t that many ifs in the entire cosmos.
In the end, the Trio had not been able to connect with the Longevity Civilization.
It had been nearly 4,000 years since Lu Yin had first met Chang Tian, and he had certainly never imagined that their reunion would actually take place under such bizarre circumstances.
Lu Yin was in no hurry to go look. The more shocking the situation, the less he could risk revealing anything different from normal.
No matter how curious he was about Chang Tian’s presence.
Could the Longevity Civilization be nearby?
In the distance, the fragment of Devouring Trace slowly flowed across the ground.
Thousand Machinations walked over, step by step. Staring at Chang Tian’s unconscious form, the corners of the bear’s mouth curved up. They waved in Lu Yin's direction, signaling for him to come over.
Lu Yin took a deep breath, suppressed his emotions, and went over to Thousand Machinations' side.
"What is this? It looks so human?" Lu Yin asked.
The Longevity Civilization had used some unknown method to conceal their human form, turning their entire bodies green with leaf-like patterns covering their skin. On top of that, there were not legs below their knees, but rather vines.
Although their upper body looked human, there was no problem with Lu Yin asking such a question.
Thousand Machinations continued to study Chang Tian. "He is a human."
Lu Yin was secretly shocked, but he showed no reaction. "With this appearance?"
Thousand Machinations' paw suddenly slapped Chang Tian. Lu Yin nearly stopped the Abyssal, afraid that the slap would kill Chang Tian. Fortunately, he managed to restrain himself.
The bear’s paw struck Chang Tian's forehead, right between his brows. A bit of flesh was torn off. Without that flesh, an eye was exposed. At the same time, Chang Tian's body changed. The vines beneath his knees became two legs, the green color faded from his skin, and even the leaf-like patterns faded away. He truly looked the same as a human.
Lu Yin just stared at Chang Tian's forehead. "A third eye?"
Thousand Machinations laughed. They sounded absolutely delighted. The bear looked over at the fragment of Devouring Trace. "Well done! You have brought me a wonderful surprise. I will give you another chance to attempt to break through your limits."
There was no way to know whether the fragment understood or not. It simply leapt into the air and headed back into the Aevum Inch.