Chapter 4616: The Truth Of The Past
Chapter 4616: The Truth Of The Past
As Xiang Siyu watched the darkness recede into the distance, she coldly said, “Even if you flee with the Death Megaverse, where can you possibly escape to?”
Her gaze then turned back to Lu Yin, and her arrogant superiority returned. “She gave you good luck, allowing you to save your civilization. But the cosmos is fair. Where there is good luck, there is also bad luck. Humanity once tried to resist and failed. You are not even seeds yet.”
With that, she turned and vanished, as did Hong Xia.
Before leaving, Hong Xia shot a glance over at Lu Yin. In his eyes at that moment, it was as though he had returned to the time when he had betrayed humanity and joined Obscura. To Hong Xia, that was the glorious moment when he had escaped death. Glancing back, he actually disregarded Lu Yin.
Human civilization should cease to exist.
Only Lu Yin, Old Man Hehe, and Ji remained where they were. Lu Yin looked at Old Man Hehe. “What exactly is going on?”
“I cannot clearly explain the matters of your Nine Ramparts. Go back. The Aevum Inch has fallen into complete chaos. No one knows what this region will become.” Old Man Hehe then took out a gate. “Child, let me remind you of one thing: never contend against the Primacy Paths, because everything that you cultivate originally stems from them.”
With that, they passed through the gate and disappeared.
Lu Yin’s eye twitched violently. All around him, time and space were in absolute chaos, constantly shifting. The Clear Sky Locked Earth Array was shattering.
Far away, a megaverse that he had seen before was also in utter chaos. Creatures would grow old one moment and become young again the very next. Space kept shifting, cutting and leaving mark after mark. Countless beings perished, and the terror brought by the karmic chains that had suddenly appeared felt like divine wrath.
Some beings received grave wounds, only to be healed by the white light. It was as if even death had become a luxury.
At this moment, the Aevum Inch had become a completely strange place.
Lu Yin looked at Ji. “Are you leaving with me?”
Ji spoke in a deep voice. “I will return to the Death Megaverse. Send me to the nearest Abyss. Perhaps I can still be taken away.”
“Senior, you...”
“I have my own responsibility. No one knows how this upheaval will ultimately play out. Descendant of the Lu family, do your best to survive.”
Lu Yin stared at Ji for a long moment, but then he cast aside all hesitation. He teleported repeatedly, quickly carrying Ji towards the Abyss that had once belonged to Death’s Dominion. Now, it belonged to Ji.
Before joining the latest war, Ji had already been stationed in his newly assigned Abyss, which meant that he could use Abyssal Displacement.
After sending Ji away, Lu Yin teleported back to the Human Trio.
At this moment, humanity’s megaverses were also in absolute chaos. Just like the other megaverses across the Aevum Inch, time, space, karma, life, and everything else was in disorder.
No one knew what had happened. Not even Qing Cao, Green Lotus, or any of the other Immortals could explain things.
They did everything that they could to stabilize the Trio, but the chaos of the powers of the Primacy Paths was something that not even the Immortals themselves could withstand.
Every objective power in existence originated from the Primacy Paths. Even the power of time, which could be clearly observed, had become a sharp blade that could kill an Immortal at this moment.
Green Lotus tried to suppress the chaotic karma, only to cough up blood.
Mister Mu tried to suppress a branch of the River of Aeons, but that merely resulted in him inexplicably aging greatly. He could do nothing to stop it.
Ba Rong darted up and down, but space seemed to be playing a joke on the fish, shifting its position in inconceivable angles.
The Radiance's End Civilization’s technological weapons kept exploding.
Space was being compressed.
No one could escape.
From afar, every part of the Trio was being pulled apart. The Tianyuan’s Mother Tree might shatter at any moment.
***
In an unfamiliar universe, everything had been thrown into chaos by the powers of the Primacy Paths. Wang Wen and Thousand Machinations stood facing each other, calmly observing the chaos surrounding them.
“I haven’t had enough fun yet. What a pity.”
Thousand Machinations stared at Wang Wen, who just shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I didn’t expect something to happen so quickly either. Something must have changed during this battle. I never predicted that the Death Overlord would appear so soon. It seems that they were drawn out ahead of time by something else.”
Thousand Machinations turned to look in the direction of the Death Megaverse. Its purpose in launching this war had been to deplete Obscura’s strength and buy some time. Aside from Thousand Machinations and the native creatures of the Death Megaverse, no one else knew the meaning of that extra time, not even Nethersea Suppression.
As for Obscura, their purpose from beginning to end had been the Death Overlord. They had also sought to consume the Death Megaverse’s strength, pushing for a decisive battle while also seeking an opportunity to force the powers of the Primacy Paths to descend upon the Death Megaverse.
Thousand Machinations had not thought that Obscura would easily achieve its goal. However, it had underestimated the resolve of the Primacy Paths to descend, and it had also overestimated the lingering wounds that the Death Overlord had suffered in the war against the Nine Ramparts.
That mistaken judgment had led to the currently unfolding situation.
Compared to what was happening, the war between Obscura and the Death Megaverse’s Abysses, and even who lived or died, were not truly important.
However, Wang Wen would not lie. His preparations had never been wrong. This could only mean that something truly unexpected had occurred during this war, which had drawn out the Death Overlord far earlier than expected.
What could have happened that was so unexpected?
“Enough. We should leave as well. No matter what may have happened, it has nothing to do with us. There is no place for you or me in this vast Aevum Inch, so let’s go back.” Wang Wen stretched lazily, a smile appearing on his face as he looked into the distance. “What a pity. Your Royal Chesspiece, you’ll never have another chance to seek revenge against me.”
Thousand Machinations felt rather regretful. It had not yet won. However, since it had left Chen in its Abyss, there should not be any problems.
The Death Overlord would leave with the Death Megaverse, and they would also take the seven Abysses away. This was precisely why Thousand Machinations had forbidden Chen from leaving the Abyss before the war started.
Since a wager had been made, how could there be no winner or loser?
The Death Overlord would not be defeated so easily, and Chen also would not die so easily. There would still come a day when they met again. On that day, if Chen could truly smoothly merge those two powers, Thousand Machinations would win.
Thinking of this, it looked back at Wang Wen, and slowly smiled at him.
Wang Wen glanced over. “That smile makes me rather uncomfortable. What nasty scheme have you kept in reserve?”
Thousand Machinations said nothing. Its paws clasped behind its back, it slowly disappeared.
Wang Wen looked away and then also slowly vanished.
Everything was over. In the end, he had failed to find Hong Shuang. So be it. Since you have taken that path, I will wait for you at the end. Only then will I be able to show you true despair.
***
Lu Yin returned to the Trio, and his consciousness swept across the megaverses. Just like everywhere else, the entire Trio was in absolute chaos.
Every minute and every second, countless people and creatures died miserable deaths, and the countless more that survived met unforeseen disasters. Cultivators could not rely on their cultivation or even control themselves. Mortals were unable to understand the world; old people became young in an instant, while young people suddenly became old. There were even some people whose bodies split into pieces as they walked along.
The entire cosmos was changing. Branches of the River of Aeons boiled or flowed back into the main stream.
Zhao Ran worked hard to guide her boat while trying to suppress the force that was drawing the river away.
Lu Yin stared in a daze. He felt powerless in a way that he had never experienced before. Even when the Trio had faced calamity, when those supreme powerhouses had come to destroy humanity, Lu Yin had at least been capable of fighting back. Even if he died, he had been certain that he could drag one enemy down with him.
At this moment, he did not even know where the enemy was. This was a backlash coming from power itself.
People were born from the cosmos, and the cosmos would ultimately reclaim them.
He heard countless people calling out to him, calling to Lord Lu and begging him to do something. As far as many people were concerned, Lu Yin was capable of anything.
But Lu Yin truly did not know what to do at this moment.
Suddenly, a stick of incense appeared outside the Trio and was lit.
Lu Yin blankly stared at that stick of incense. What is that?
A figure appeared behind the incense, though its form could not be discerned. It flickered with gentle white light, exactly the same as the white light that had illuminated the entire Aevum Inch.
“I burn a stick of incense for you. You must not be extinguished.”
A simple sentence, and yet it instantly awakened Lu Yin from his confusion and helped him understand some things.
Those words were not spoken to him, nor to even the Trio, but rather to the entire region. Those words were directed to the entire Aevum Inch that was being affected by the various powers of the Primacy Paths.
Some existence was burning incense and offering rites to the cosmos.
Why offer rites? Only the dead were given such rites, and as long as the incense did not go out, life would not end.
The touch of this white light brought vitality, but this vitality was not aimed at the living themselves, but rather at the Aevum Inch.
Lives might perish, but the Aevum Inch would not.
Why had this stick of incense appeared in this exact location? This was supposed to be the bad luck that Xiang Siyu had granted to humanity. How could Lu Yin protect the Human Trio?
He saw megaverses in the distance flicker between existence and destruction. The megaverses persisted, yet everything within them seemed to have been reset. Even if all life was enveloped by this white light and healed of stubborn ailments, they would soon be devoured by time. Even if they escaped time, there was still karma, fate, and every other power capable of determining whether they lived or died.
This same situation would soon spread to the Trio. In fact, if not for the many Immortals present working to restrain the chaos, the human megaverses would have already been reduced to the same state as the other megaverses.
What could possibly protect the Trio? What should Lu Yin do? What exactly could he do?
His eyes grew frantic as he peered out at the distant cosmos. These powers had shaped existing life, and they could also strip that life away.
But human civilization should not be stripped away.
Lu Yin realized at that moment that this was the truth of the war against the Nine Ramparts.
Claims that humanity had allowed cosmic civilizations to communicate with each other, or that humanity had become too great a threat to other civilizations were all false. At most, those had been triggers that had started the war, as they had caused resentment to accumulate over countless years. Those excuses were no different from the claim that the Nine Ramparts’ act of killing the Divine Crow had been perceived as too great a threat to other civilizations.
None of those could be the true reason for that ancient war. The true reason had to be related to these powers of the Primacy Paths.
That was why Old Man Hehe had warned Lu Yin.
In an instant, countless images flashed through his mind. They encompassed his experiences from the moment he had first started cultivating until the present. Thousands of years were seen in an instant as scene after scene appeared. Finally, the mental review froze on the image of Hong Xia kneeling before Xiang Siyu and on Wang Wen’s mysterious and unfathomable smile.
Perhaps the Nine Ramparts had encountered this same situation back then. It was just that the Nine Ramparts had possessed the power to resist, whereas the current Trio completely lacked that ability.
On one piece of black armor, Ancestor Shan had mentioned that the war against the Nine Ramparts had been a contest for the powers of the Primacy Paths. This should be the same sort of situation. It was just that the Nine Ramparts had not been this passive. They had been able to resist, while the Trio absolutely lacked the strength to fight back.
Nine Ramparts, Nine Ramparts... Lu Yin suddenly teleported, vanishing. Reappearing, he was already outside of Manifest City.
The Immortal stone monster stationed there was absolutely terrified. The more powerful the being, the more they understood the despair that they were currently facing. The more that one had taken from the cosmos, the more that would be taken back from them.
Mortals only had their lives, but Immortals had their cultivation and all of their understanding of the cosmos.
The Immortal stone monster was facing exactly this.
Lu Yin stepped into Manifest City. Since the Nine Ramparts had once resisted the Primacy Paths and Manifest City was regarded as the strongest defensive mirebound artifact they had, then he would try to use Manifest City to protect humanity from their current catastrophe. He would see if Manifest City could truly protect the Trio.