Chapter 4595: Cognition Weapon
Chapter 4595: Cognition Weapon
A defensive barrier appeared outside the imperial vessel. Lu Yin's power tore through space, slicing open a dark slash beside the imperial vessel.
At the same time, the imperial vessel unleashed Cosmic Shear, sending it towards the Lepidarch.
This was not a single Cosmic Shear but rather seven. Seven Cosmic Shears had been unleashed at once. This was the imperial vessel's automatic counterattack.
The Lepidarch knew perfectly well that it was being used, but after being attacked again and again by Cosmic Shear, it could no longer suppress its rage. It flapped its wings, and countless streams of Myriad-Metal Qi shot toward the imperial vessel.
The entire cosmos seemed to tilt toward the Lepidarch. Cosmic Shear tore at space while also tearing at the Lepidarch's body.
Another pair of wings vanished from the butterfly, leaving only two pairs. Of those two pairs, one was even missing a wing section. Being attacked by Cosmic Shear drove the Lepidarch into a rage.
Most of the Myriad-Metal Qi had been slightly redirected by the Cosmic Shear, causing the attacks to fail to hit the imperial vessel. Only a very small percentage of the attack actually landed.
The imperial vessel was unharmed.
Lu Yin was surprised. Had this imperial vessel actually withstood the Lepidarch's Myriad-Metal Qi head-on? This vessel’s defenses were quite formidable.
One had to know that, even without nine pairs of wings, the power of the Lepidarch's Myriad-Metal Qi was no weaker than that of any other two-law powerhouse. When Lu Yin’s skeleton clone had first faced the butterfly, he had not dared to directly take such an attack, and yet this imperial vessel could actually endure it.
Inside the imperial vessel, the alarms had never stopped blaring. "Warning! Defense consumption at twenty percent. Warning! Defense consumption at thirty percent. Warning! Defense consumption..."
"Your Majesty, the enemy's attack power is extraordinary. I fear that it will be difficult to defend against."
"Powerful creatures exist in the cosmos, and the empire has encountered them before, but we have never encountered a creature this powerful. With the imperial vessel's defenses, we can withstand three waves of attacks at best. After that, the imperial vessel will collapse."
"Cognition weapon activation complete."
"Your Majesty, shall we fire the cognition weapon?"
"Fire immediately!"
In outer space, the Lepidarch again released its Myriad-Metal Qi, shooting it at the imperial vessel like raindrops.
The vessel suddenly trembled, and in Lu Yin's eyes, it instantly became blurred.
Lu Yin's eyes widened. It’s blurry?
Blurring was a very vague concept. Such a phenomena could be caused by high speed movement, but it could mean that something was about to disappear, or that an object had fragmented apart.
However, the blurring of the imperial vessel was not caused by any of those things. This phenomena seemed more like the cosmos could no longer bear the entire weight of the vessel.
Buzz.
A soft sound murmured out, causing a sense of unease to rise in Lu Yin's heart. He abruptly disappeared, teleporting far away.
Where he had just stood, the cosmos trembled. Everything shook once, including the Lepidarch.
Then, nothing happened. The Myriad-Metal Qi did not change at all, and neither did it meet any sort of obstruction. All of the attacks struck the imperial vessel.
The vessel's defenses were instantly broken. One strand of Myriad-Metal Qi even pierced the imperial vessel, triggering an explosion.
The Lepidarch froze in place. Like Lu Yin, it had felt a flash of unease, but it lacked Lu Yin's speed. It had reflexively used Infinite Expansion, but ultimately, it had felt nothing at all.
Instead, its Myriad-Metal Qi broke through the imperial vessel's defenses.
What was that? The Lepidarch examined itself, but nothing had happened to it. Even so, the unease that it had felt was undeniable. Was it possible that the imperial vessel’s attack had failed?
From far away, Lu Yin stared at the Lepidarch. He was also unable to tell what had happened, and he considered the same possibility as the Lepidarch's thought: had the attack failed?
The imperial vessel's defenses collapsed.
The Lepidarch raised both wings. At this moment, the solitary wing of the second pair disappeared. The creature returned to its original state, with only two wings.
As its wings flapped, a powerful force swept through the Aevum Inch, ready to send the imperial vessel flying.
Even now, the Lepidarch had no intention of completely destroying the imperial vessel. It wanted to avoid any increases to its karmic chain that it cold.
However, after just a moment, its wings stopped moving, and they did not move again afterwards.
The cosmos returned to normal.
Lu Yin frowned. It seemed that the Lepidarch was unwilling to truly attack the technological civilization even once. It was about to run.
But the Lepidarch did not run, nor did it attack. It simply remained frozen in place, as if struck dumb.
The imperial vessel moved closer to the Lepidarch.
Lu Yin’s frown deepened. Clearly, something was wrong. Why would the imperial vessel dare to approach the Lepidarch, unless it was certain that the butterfly could no longer attack? But the Lepidarch was clearly unharmed.
Lu Yin studied the Lepidarch again. What could have happened? There had indeed been a reason for that flicker of unease.
In the middle of outer space, the Lepidarch was feeling overwhelming terror. What just happened? Why is this happening?
It no longer knew how to flap its wings. Its wings were right there, so why could it not flap them? Why? The same was true of its Myriad-Metal Qi. It clearly possessed that power, yet it could not release it. It was as if it no longer knew how to do anything. Just what was going on?
Seeing the imperial vessel approach, the Lepidarch wanted to do something: attack, or even better, flee. However, it could not do anything at all. It did not know how to.
It was like a person who clearly knew how to swim was suddenly unable to do so.
The terror and unease that the Lepidarch felt came from its most primitive instincts. Exactly what is happening?
Lu Yin's expression fell. This technological fishing civilization really did have a hidden trump card. It had actually made even the Lepidarch suffer a loss. Lu Yin had no idea what had happened to the Lepidarch. Only the technological fishing civilization could provide that answer.
From afar, the imperial vessel was much, much smaller than the Lepidarch. After all, the Lepidarch was carrying an entire civilization on its back. Before the Lepidarch, the imperial vessel looked like an ant.
And yet, the approach of this ant caused the Lepidarch to feel increasingly uneasy. From its back, countless colorful butterflies flew up and rushed at the imperial vessel.
The imperial vessel released Cosmic Shear again, this time unleashing five rounds at once, tilting the cosmos. This time, the attacks caused tremendous damage to the Lepidarch.
The only remaining pair of wings broke. A massive tear opened across its entire body, and the attack even spun the butterfly around. Across its back, mountains, rivers, continents, stars, and streams were all thrown off and into the Aevum Inch. Countless living beings died miserably, and not a single colorful butterfly that tried to approach the imperial vessel survived.
The Lepidarch's aura grew extremely weak. When fighting against Lu Yin's skeleton clone and the other two, it had used its foundational power, and it had also been badly wounded by the infusion of Stillness. Now, after suffering repeated attacks from Cosmic Shear, especially the final five attacks that had struck when it had been completely defenseless, its body was almost torn apart.
Inside the imperial vessel, that emperor spoke in a low voice. "Activate Absolute Analysis. See if it can be collected."
"Absolute Analysis activating. Analyzing... Analyzing... Analyzing... Analysis complete. Unable to collect."
"Still unable to collect?"
"Your Majesty, there is not enough time. The duration of the cognition weapon is insufficient to destroy this creature. We must quickly withdraw."
"Withdraw."
The imperial vessel fled, heading into the distance.
Lu Yin watched calmly. Was it running? That could only mean that the technological civilization was not confident that it could kill the Lepidarch. The effect of the unknown attack should end quite soon.
Just as that thought occurred to Lu Yin, the Lepidarch started moving again. There was a surge of Lifeforce and then a cry of unmatched rage. Myriad-Metal Qi shot at the imperial vessel.
However, the imperial vessel had already left, and even the Myriad-Metal Qi could not catch up to it anymore.
The Lepidarch swayed unsteadily, weak and nearly crippled.
Lu Yin knew that it was time for him to act. One teleport delivered him in front of the Lepidarch.
It stared at Lu Yin, who had appeared too suddenly. It knew that this was the Immortal being who had forced it to face the technological civilization. However, this form looked the same as the skeleton that it had recently fought. Were the two the same creature?
"So in the end, I still failed to escape that civilization that brings death." The Lepidarch's voice was weak.
Lu Yin smiled and slowly moved closer. Butterfly Blooms appeared on its body, and he arched a brow. "You still want to resist?"
The Lepidarch stared at Lu Yin. "I cannot simply allow myself to be killed."
Then, Myriad-Metal Qi slashed at Lu Yin.
He had no intention of fighting the Lepidarch and simply vanished by teleporting.
The Lepidarch was stunned. He’s gone? Completely gone? Is this teleportation?
Butterfly Bloom was the Lepidarch's absolute means and innate gift. When coupled with Bloomdance Transfer and its ability to bury Immortal butterflies, the Lepidarch was confident that it could face off against any powerful enemy. However, it had happened to encounter a creature who could teleport. That ability to instantly leave the region meant that there was no chance to even use Butterfly Blooms.
Lu Yin also let out an emotional sigh. If his skeleton clone could teleport, it would not have been beaten so badly by this butterfly, and neither would their battle have been so tense.
A moment later, the clone arrived, appearing before the Lepidarch. It stared at the skeleton, and Myriad-Metal Qi slashed at it. No matter who it was facing, it would not be easy to kill the Lepidarch.
However, the skeleton was different from Lu Yin. Lu Yin was an Immortal being, which was why the butterfly had clung to hope that it might not be killed. The Immortal being’s karmic chain served as the ultimate protection to its life. However, this skeleton brought the butterfly utter despair. This was not an Immortal being, and the price of killing it could not restrict it at all.
Lu Yin threw a palm strike, shattering the Myriad-Metal Qi before he charged at the Lepidarch and flashed past it.
The massive body floated in space. It had no strength left to resist.
His consciousness and awareness returned to his original body, and Lu Yin grabbed the Lepidarch, disappearing. He returned to the Trio, where he threw the Lepidarch into the Sea of Karma, asking Green Lotus to watch the creature. It was not yet time to kill it.
Lu Yin immediately left the Trio again. This time, his target was the technological civilization, or rather, its imperial vessel.
In the end, things had to be settled with that civilization.
He teleported again and again. The imperial vessel’s location had already been confirmed, so he quickly reached it.
Because the distance between Lu Yin and the vessel was too great, the imperial vessel failed to detect him approaching, so no alarm sounded.
Most importantly, the battle against the Lepidarch had broken the imperial vessel's defenses, and even the vessel itself had been damaged. Lu Yin entered by teleporting inside. It was absolutely effortless.
Only once he was inside the imperial vessel did violent alarms ring out. All of the creatures within the imperial vessel started to panic, as an enemy was confirmed to be inside with them.
Lu Yin looked at the motionless black dots around him in surprise. These black dots were the natives of the technological civilization that inhabited the vessel. They were beetles.
Yes, beetles.
However, every beetle had a hazy halo, as well as two especially obvious, pitch-black eyes. Lu Yin could clearly see the creatures’ emotions in their eyes.
Who could have imagined that the creatures of this technological fishing civilization were actually insects? The egg-shaped lights that they had seen before were nothing more than mechanical avatars.
Lu Yin was surrounded by a group of beetles, which all stared at him blankly.
Lu Yin was far larger than these insects.
"Attack!" A shriek rang throughout the imperial vessel, and countless attacks shot at Lu Yin. Some came from the beetles, but most were attacks launched by the imperial vessel itself.
He disappeared, teleporting away.
The spot where he had just stood was left empty, and all of the attacks missed.
Lu Yin teleported to a specific chamber within the imperial vessel. This chamber only held a single beetle, and it was immersed in a green liquid. Its entire body was connected to countless tiny tubes.
The instant that Lu Yin appeared here, alarms filled the room, and howling sounds came from every direction. The void was being torn apart.
Lu Yin was surprised. Was this a miniature version of Cosmic Shear? The power of these attacks was quite impressive, as they were able to tear apart an ordinary one-law Immortal.
These were the chamber’s final defenses.
Lu Yin ignored the miniature Cosmic Shears and stepped in front of the green liquid. He stared at the beetle within it. "Attack me again, and I will kill you."
The alarms instantly turned off, and the room's lights went bright.
Even the noise outside the room stopped.