Chapter 3245: The Boundary

Tian Ci’s sword snapped out, repelling Jiang Feng. At the same time, Garan Zhiluo appeared in the distance, her white spear piercing through space to create a single brilliant point of light that approached, moving through the dark universe.

Down below, Lu Yin also thrust his earthen spear forward.

Two spears attacked in unison.

Tian Ci’s eyes flashed, and sequence particles exploded into action around him.

Garan Zhiluo shouted out a warning. “Be careful!”

While Lu Yin was still unable to see sequence particles, he could clearly feel their presence.

The sequence particles that surrounded Tian Ci forcefully stacked every attack within their range, including both his own and those from Lu Yin and the others. No attack was able to get any closer than 100 meters.

Finally, everything erupted at once.

A terrifying destructive power radiated out in every direction.

The Megalith and the Pridebeast both beat hasty retreats. Neither had healed from their battle against Lu Yin, and they had no desire to get any closer to the maelstrom.

The shockwaves also pushed Garan Zhiluo back.

Jiang Feng charged his way forward through the shockwaves, accompanied by the crack of thunder.

Lu Yin released his inner universe, and with it, Verdant Eternity.

Tian Ci and Jiang Feng’s sword clashed relentlessly. They were isolated from the nearby universe in a way that made it nearly impossible for anyone else to approach the two without being sliced to shreds.

Seizing the opportunity, Lu Yin threw a powerful punch.

As Tian Ci’s sword struck Jiang Feng’s, Lu Yin’s punch arrived. Jiang Feng pulled back, and Tian Ci turned to face Lu Yin’s strike. A wave of a hand caused sequence particles to stack the approaching attack.

However, the punch scattered the sequence particles, to Tian Ci’s utter shock. How was that even possible?

The blast from the punch grazed Tian Ci’s head, and just that tiny bit of contact caused half of his body to go numb.

Such power

...

He stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. How could a human possess such strength?

He could accept it when creatures like the Megalith and the Pridebeast possessed overwhelming might. However, Tian Ci simply could not accept that a human like Lu Yin could wield such power. If humans could acquire that level of physical strength, then they would be completely different from the powerful astral beasts.

This was a true transformation of power.

"You've improved again?" Tian Ci stared at Lu Yin in horror. Who was this young man? What kind of creature was he? Only a short amount of time had passed, but Lu Yin’s strength had already transformed multiple times. He was only a Progenitor, and he was very far from comprehending the laws of the universe and mastering sequence particles, let alone reaching the Origin Realm.

Despite Lu Yin’s limited cultivation, just his physical strength alone was enough to shake someone like Tian Ci. That was very difficult to accept or counter. Just what would happen if Lu Yin was allowed to become an Ortuser? Tian Ci did not dare to imagine such an outcome.

He could not wait another moment. This child had to be eliminated as quickly as possible.

However, this battle was not about Tian Ci eliminating Lu Yin; rather, Lu Yin was hunting Tian Ci.

If one punch was insufficient, then Lu Yin would throw two, or even twenty. Just as he had done to the Megalith and the Pridebeast, ultimate strength could render any defense as fragile as paper.

Lu Yin punched again.

Despite the overwhelming power of the punches, Tian Ci was able to dodge them. One punch after another rained down on the man.

Tian Ci did not have any abilities or techniques that used the power of time, but given his cultivation level, it was not terribly difficult for him to manipulate the power of time in small ways. No matter how strong Lu Yin’s punches were, they were useless if they could not hit him.

Despite the situation, Tian Ci was not very optimistic about the battle. Jiang Feng, Garan Zhiluo, and the others had stepped back and were no longer participating in the battle.

They could see that Lu Yin’s attacks were unable to hit Tian Ci, but they were still holding themselves back. This could only mean one thing: Lu Yin had to have some way to guarantee his punches hitting, but what was it?

Tian Ci was unwilling to take risks, and he stepped forward with enough force to make space collapse beneath his feet. Each step shattered the void. The universe itself trembled beneath the man’s feet. Spatial cracks opened up, revealing the Hollow.

It was at that moment that Tian Ci noticed something strange. There should not have been stars in this particular universe, and yet he was surrounded by them. All of the stars were also untouched by Lu Yin’s overwhelming power.

Tian Ci moved closer to one of the stars and shattered it with a single attack. The star seemed ordinary, but it immediately reformed.

Many of the stars in Lu Yin’s inner universe had been created with the Cosmic Art. After fusing Verdant Eternity with the inner universe, the power of those stars would never disappear. No matter how many times the stars were destroyed, they would always instantly reform. This was true of the star of divine energy, the gray one formed from the Withered Bark, the star of voidforce energy, and also the sea of stellular energy.

However, the stars alone were not enough to deal with Tian Ci.

What could truly threaten Tian Ci was the landmass, a Progenitor’s world formed from Dust World.

The continent filled the sky, overshadowing everything in sight. It looked as though it was going to fill the entire universe.

Tian Ci’s expression changed. He had already been wary of Lu Yin’s earthen spears, but this was an entire continent pressing down upon him. This power was on par with what Tai Chu had been capable of using. Tian Ci hurriedly tore through the void and escaped.

As he reacted, a new threat appeared; stars hurtled towards Tian Ci from all directions.

These stars were manifestations of Lu Yin’s power. Within the bounds of Verdant Eternity, his energy would never dissipate. In the same way that the Origin Progenitor’s Verdant Eternity had taken the form of a palace filled with carvings that the Three Realms and Six Daos had been tasked with fighting through, Lu Yin’s Verdant Eternity was filled with stars.

The Cosmic Art had allowed Lu Yin to skip the process of creating Verdant Eternity, as it allowed him to directly manifest his power into reality. All of the stars in his inner universe were physical manifestations of Lu Yin’s power.

Stars rained down from every direction.

Tian Ci kept dodging, but the number of stars never decreased. As long as they were within Verdant Eternity, the stars would not lose any power. In fact, the number of stars rose with every attack that Lu Yin launched.

There was a loud bang as one of the stars slammed into Tian Ci’s sword, sending him hurtling backwards.

The man’s arm was numb.

How could this be happening?

He looked around and saw that the stars looked more like meteors as they crashed down upon him. They posed a very serious threat.

This was wrong. Tian Ci’s strength meant that he should be capable of easily destroying entire universes. These stars were not at all normal.

One after another, the stars fell, and Tian Ci cut them all down with his sword.

The landmass continued to drop down from up above, bringing down a terrible pressure.

Tian Ci was suffering the full experience of being suppressed by Lu Yin. This should have been impossible; he was an Ortuser! How could a mere Progenitor overpower

him

? This could not happen!

Sequence particles surged and spread out around Tian Ci as he tried to stack the power of the falling landmass, but instead, the sequence particles were suppressed, and they were even shattered by the falling stars. It was this sensation that caused Tian Ci to realize something undeniable.

He stared at Lu Yin in abject horror. “Verdant... Eternity?”

Lu Yin was not surprised that Tian Ci had recognized the technique.

After all, the Boundary Guardians had once ganged up on the Origin Progenitor, and Verdant Eternity was one of that man’s ultimate techniques. It would have been stranger if Tian Ci had not recognized it.

“How do you know Verdant Eternity?” Tian Ci stared at Lu Yin, unable to believe what he was seeing.

Lu Yin’s gaze was cold. “Surprised? You four once used the Four Locks Formation on the Origin Progenitor and sealed his Verdant Eternity. Today, I’ll make sure that you die to it.”

From both above and below, stars struck, engulfing Tian Ci.

Boom!

Stars expanded throughout the universe and then exploded. Tian Ci’s hair was horribly disheveled, his breathing became heavy, and he pointed his sword at Lu Yin. Just as the man opened his mouth to speak, the landmass slammed down from above, burying him.

Everywhere, the universe started to fracture. The stone gate itself trembled, and the dust that fell from it threatened to fill the entire region.

Buried beneath the landmass, Tian Ci let out a roar of fury as he hacked at the landmass in an attempt to tear through it.

Jiang Feng and Garan Zhiluo stepped onto the continent together, attacking with sword and spear. Blood sprayed and fell onto the ground.

Far away, the Pridebeast and Megalith exchanged glances, each thinking of how brutal the battle had become.

The golden light of the Investiture of the Gods shone once again as the summoned forms of Wu Tian and Hongyan Mavis appeared. They joined Jiang Feng and Garan Zhiluo to attack Tian Ci. This was their best opportunity. If they failed to kill Tian Ci here, they might never have another chance.

Beneath the landmass, Tian Ci was in a miserable condition. Wounds covered his entire body, while Jiang Feng and the others continued to rain down attacks onto the Boundary Guardian.

Tian Ci ground his teeth. Overflowing hatred filled his eyes as he released his sword.

The weapon started to spin around him. Eventually, it turned into a cyan glow that entirely surrounded the man. As though unstoppable, he broke free of the landmass before racing towards the stone gate.

Lu Yin had been waiting for Tian Ci to attempt to escape. There was no way it would be that easy to kill a Boundary Guardian.

Lu Yin was particularly curious about the blood-red figure that had appeared after Tian Fa had died. Would it show up again?

As the cyan glow shot forward, Lu Yin pulled out the God of Death’s left arm and scythe and released an attack.

Death energy swept across the universe, splitting it in two. The two sides were as smooth as a mirror, impossibly precise.

However, the slash of death energy actually failed to cut through the cyan glow, and it instead acted as a powerful shove that pushed the cyan glow straight along Tian Ci’s escape route, right to the stone gate.

Lu Yin quickly attacked again. With Verdant Eternity, he could release the death energy slash countless times.

Unfortunately, the cyan light slammed into the stone gate, slipped through a crack, and vanished without a trace.

The slash slammed into the stone gate, and while it left a deep cut, it had failed to stop Tian Ci. The gate shook violently, which caused even more dust to fall down, threatening to drown the entire universe with a gray haze.

Everyone hurried over, and they tried to push their way through the crack in the stone gate, only to discover that there was no crack. What they had thought was a crack was actually nothing more than a small gap where the two doors met and formed a black line. Upon closer inspection, they found that there was no way for any living creature to pass through the gap.

That was despite the fact that they had just seen Tian Ci escape through it.

Lu Yin placed his hand on the stone gate and pushed with his full strength. The gate trembled, and as he increased the force, the trembling grew stronger, but the doors refused to budge.

Jiang Feng, Garan Zhiluo, the Pridebeast, and the Megalith all tried their best as well, but no one could open the gate.

The stone gate towered tall in the universe, as though it held up the sky itself.

“Senior, do you know what’s on the other side of this gate?” Lu Yin asked.

Garan Zhiluo shook her head. “I’ve been here several times while I was sealed within Tian Feng, but I never heard any of them mention what’s behind it. They never even talked about the gate itself. They acted like it didn’t even exist.”

Lu Yin stared at the gate and considered a possibility. “Could this gate lead to Tian Ci’s megaverse?”

Jiang Feng agreed. “That seems quite possible.”

Garan Zhiluo also felt that this was a reasonable idea. “If that’s true, then opening it carelessly might cause us to face an enemy from another megaverse. Tian Ci might not even be the strongest powerhouse from that place.”

“First, we need to figure out how to open the gate. That’s not going to be easy,” Lu Yin remarked.

As he spoke, he positioned himself between the two doors and placed a hand on one of them. Again, he tried to push the doors open, but no matter how much force he used, the gate refused to open and would only shake increasingly violently.

Jiang Feng said, "It’s no use. The gate can be opened, but there’s something on the other side preventing it from happening."

"Are you saying that there's a bar locking it?" Garan Zhiluo asked.

Jiang Feng nodded.

Lu Yin glanced at the narrow gap where the two doors met. "There really might be a bar holding it shut. That would mean that we can’t force it open with brute force. First, we’re going to have to get rid of the bar. Unfortunately, no matter how small we make ourselves, we can't get through this gap. Tian Ci must have had some special way to get through."

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Unable to open the gate, they started searching through the rest of the area, only to gradually come to a terrifying realization.

The parallel universe with the stone gate had a boundary.