Chapter 3416: A Terrifying Speculation

"Look at this darkness. Doesn't it look like a lid?" the Origin Progenitor asked.

Lu Yin was astonished. "A lid?"

The Origin Progenitor nodded. "We might all be covered by it, unable to see reality. Only by removing the lid will we be able to see it."

He turned to Lu Yin with a smile. "Like food kept under a lid."

Lu Yin was speechless. "Senior, that wasn’t a funny joke."

The Origin Progenitor just chuckled. "It wasn’t a joke. I didn’t even call you Pillar."

Lu Yin looked back up. This time, the longer he stared, the stranger the sight seemed.

A lid... A lid... Food?

The more he considered the Origin Progenitor’s comment, the more the darkness resembled a lid, which became increasingly disturbing.

Was this what the Origin Progenitor had meant by saying that his speculations were frightening?

Lu Yin stopped looking.

A few days later,

Boundless

came to a complete halt.

Lu Yin stepped off of the battleship. The space around him felt no different from the space in the Tianyuan Megaverse, but there had to be differences. It was simply that, at his current level, he could not sense those differences.

"Let’s begin," Chu Yi stated. It was time to build the next springboard.

Lu Yin took out a Zenith Mountain and released Yuan Qi and Astral Anura. "Work together."

Astral Anura looked confused. "On what?"

Yuan Qi frowned. "You want us to build a springboard?"

Chu Yi’s eyes swept over the two Dukkhans. "That’s right. Let’s go."

Astral Anura was utterly confused as he was led away. When he glanced back, he realized that they had truly left the Tianyuan Megaverse. The toad bitterly lamented his fate. He was a Dukkhan, and yet he might as well be a slave. What was the point of his years of cultivation?

After a year,

Boundless

resumed its journey, launched further through the Aevum Inch by the springboard.

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Year after year passed. Eighteen years later,

Boundless

was launched off of the last springboard they would have to build. After one more year, they would arrive at the massive springboard that lay between the three megaverses. That was the original springboard.

Eighteen years had passed in the blink of an eye. But aboard

Boundless

, not much had changed for the passengers.

For cultivators, a dozen years or so of seclusion would pass in the blink of an eye.

Lu Yin had long since passed the stage where a few years were enough for him to have another breakthrough. Given his current level, in order to further increase his cultivation, he either needed to achieve some form of enlightenment, strengthen his sequence particles, or improve his consciousness. His goal for this journey was not only to mend his karma, but also to improve his cultivation.

"That springboard must be under the protection of Spirit Nidus experts, though we don’t know just how many. Do you think that our arrival will be detected?" Progenitor Xi asked, clearly worried.

Ce Wangtian picked at his nose. "They have to have some means of communication. Look, before the temporal reversion, it took the Spirit Nidus ten years to reach the Tianyuan Megaverse. That means that they used the main springboard. No matter when they may have left the Spirit Nidus, it still took them ten years to travel from the central springboard to the Tianyuan Megaverse. The temporal reversion must have also caused them to roll back to the moment they left the springboard. The High Seraph? He probably wasn’t at the springboard.

"After time rolled back, the High Seraph managed to stop the Spirit Nidus’s vanguard from traveling to the Tianyuan Megaverse. That means that they are able to communicate between the two places."

Lu Yin and the others all turned to stare at Ce Wangtian in shock. His words were quite logical. It turned out that the man really did have a brain.

Ce Wangtian had always given people the impression that he was a sloppy man. He picked his nose, slapped his slippers around, and always looked disheveled. He rarely offered his thoughts or opinions, and no one had expected such sharp insights to come from him.

Ce Wangtian flicked away whatever he had pulled out of his nose. "Hey! What’s with those faces?"

Lu Yin withdrew his gaze. "Senior Ce Wangtian is right. There must be some means of communication between the Spirit Nidus and that springboard. While we might not know what that is, without it, the High Seraph wouldn’t have been able to stop the vanguard from reaching our Tianyuan Megaverse.

"Because of that, we need to act as soon as we reach the springboard. We need to take control of every Spirit Nidus cultivator there.

"Things most likely won’t be that simple. The springboard sits between all three megaverses, and the Spirit Nidus has waged war with the Consciousness Megaverse for countless years. There could be many experts stationed there, protecting the place."

Lu Yin then turned to Progenitor Xi. "Senior, do you have anything to add?"

Progenitor Xi had been the one who had first raised the concern of

Boundless

being detected by the Spirit Nidus. Lu Yin and the others were already aware of this possibility, but the fact that Progenitor Xi had brought it up suggested that she knew something.

While they might not have been previously aware of the springboard’s existence, it was still located in between the three megaverses. Thus, it was only logical that the Spirit Nidus had stationed many cultivators there to deal with the Consciousness Megaverse.

Lu Yin’s comment made Progenitor Xi’s expression change. This was not because she was hearing about the springboard, but rather because he had mentioned that it lay between the three megaverses.

Progenitor Xi had initially told Lu Yin that the Spirit Nidus lay between her megaverse and his megaverse, which was why it was able to attack either megaverse. She had always suggested that the Consciousness Megaverse lay beyond the Spirit Nidus.

The fact that Lu Yin was bluntly mentioning a point between the three megaverses made it clear that he knew the truth.

She had suspected that Lu Yin knew more than what he had let on the moment that Yuan Qi had appeared. Lu Yin had just confirmed that suspicion.

She stared at Lu Yin, her gaze unsteady.

Lu Yin no longer had the patience to entertain the woman’s lies. Bluntly mentioning the positions of the three megaverses was a warning for Progenitor Xi to be honest. One lie may be forgivable, but if she tried to deceive Lu Yin again, even if he might tolerate it, those with him would not.

Progenitor Xi took a deep breath and bowed to Lu Yin. "With how long I’ve been away from the Consciousness Megaverse, as well as the emergence of this springboard, I find myself uncertain of the current situation. Lord Lu, I ask for a bit of time to consider the situation before I present my suggestions."

Lu Yin nodded. "Very well."

Progenitor Xi bowed again and moved away.

Chu Yi stared at Progenitor Xi as she left. "The Consciousness Megaverse’s conscients cannot be trusted. They’re a completely different lifeform from us, and they have their own agendas. Everything that she says needs to be taken with a grain of salt."

Lu Yin agreed. "She has already deceived me on several occasions, both about matters in the previous timeline, and regarding our war with the Spirit Nidus. She has even tried to mislead me. Compared to her, I trust Yuan Qi more."

Ce Wangtian added, "Absolutely. That old freak Yuan Qi doesn’t want to die, and he’s terrified that you might kill him on a whim. He’ll tell you everything, and he’ll even be honest. Unfortunately, he’s been away from the Spirit Nidus for far too long, or else he’d be even more valuable."

"Regardless, we have around a year before we’ll have to fight a crucial battle. Things might not be too intense, but it will still be vitally important. If we fail to immediately subdue the people from the Spirit Nidus, we’ll be forced to fight an unimaginably difficult battle as soon as we reach the Spirit Nidus. Everyone, even if we set out on this journey expecting to take down nine of them for every one of us, I, Lu Yin, still don’t wish to see any of you perish. Please, be careful." Lu Yin’s voice rang across

Boundless

.

A short time later, Lu Yin arrived in the forest of the Rain Observatory. Each of the trees here was massive.

Lu Yin strolled through the forest, observing the wandering corpses that roamed about. Each one had a distinct appearance.

"Dao Monarch." Silver approached and bowed.

"How’s it going?" Lu Yin asked. He considered the bone grafter to be of tremendous importance. If an Ossis Ark could be built, it would be a tremendous disaster for the Spirit Nidus.

The Ossis Ark had been able to stand against the Immemorial Citadel, which had gathered almost all of humanity’s strongest experts for eons. An Ossis Ark would be able to at least stand against Heavenspire.

Silver replied, "There’s been some success, but wandering corpses are different from corpse kings. They aren’t able to immediately gain power after receiving a bone graft, unlike the Ossis Ark. I’m still researching."

"How many do you have?"

"Twelve."

"Is that the strongest one over there?" Lu Yin looked over at a wandering corpse that was lying on the ground and staring intently at a tree root. Whatever the being had been while alive, its current fixation was a mystery.

Wandering corpses had no self-awareness, unlike corpse kings. They were essentially animated corpses that were fixated on whatever they had cared about most while alive.

For example, Lu Yin had once seen a strange, one-legged wandering corpse that liked to stomp on others with its wooden prosthetic.

There had also been a wandering corpse that looked like a young girl. That one had enjoyed tapping people on the head.

Another one enjoyed playing hide-and-seek.

As for the wandering corpse that Lu Yin was looking at, while he had no idea what it had experienced while alive, at the moment it was laying on the ground and staring at a tree root while muttering to itself.

Lu Yin sensed a familiar, sharp aura from the corpse. There was no doubt that he had previously sensed this same aura on the Immemorial Citadel’s battlefield.

Silver replied, "Yes, that wandering corpse is able to wield seven swords."

Seven swords?

Lu Yin stared at the wandering corpse.

During the final battle at the Immemorial Citadel, while he had not personally faced the corpse king that had wielded seven swords, he had nonetheless felt its sharp aura across the battlefield.

When used together, those seven swords were invincible. They could harness sequence particles, and that corpse king had killed more than one human expert from the Immemorial Citadel. Whoever had originally wielded those seven swords must have been a master who had dominated their era during their life.

Even without fighting the wandering corpse, Lu Yin could sense its strength. It was as powerful as a sequence powerhouse.

"Keep going. I hope that we can have more wandering corpses with bone grafts by the time we go to war against the Spirit Nidus," Lu Yin said.

Silver gave another respectful bow. "Understood, Dao Monarch."

Silver was not True God. If he was, then Lu Yin might already be in possession of a copy of the Ossis Ark.

In fact, True God had not been limited by his bone grafting ability, but rather by the quality of the powerhouses’ bones that he had had access to.

If True God had been given the bones of 10,000 sequence powerhouses, he would not have just destroyed the Immemorial Citadel; he could have obliterated even the entire Spirit Nidus.

This thought caused Lu Yin’s eyes to flicker. True God should have already arrived in the Spirit Nidus. He would not reveal his identity, and he would also be able to stay hidden due to Tian Ci’s spirit seed mirebound artifact. What would True God do? Meet with the High Seraph? If Lu Yin were True God, he would never do that, as it would be too great a risk.

By rebuilding his body with the spirit seed, and then also using the divine energy that he had cultivated before, True God would experience a complete transformation while in the Spirit Nidus.

Lu Yin had to find the man before that transformation occurred.

...

Far ahead of Boundless, so far that it was unfathomable even to cultivators, a massive object sat in space. It looked like a springboard, but it was billions of times larger. This was the center point between the three megaverses. This was the original springboard that the Spirit Nidus had discovered.

springboards that were built by Ortusers from either the Spirit Nidus or the Tianyuan Megaverse were only powerful enough to launch something a tenth of the distance that the original springboard could cover. Even when a manmade springboard’s power increased by tenfold, it still fell far short of the original object’s might. There was an unimaginable gap that could not be crossed.

Even if all of the Ortusers from all three megaverses worked together, they still would not be able to duplicate such a massive springboard.

This was also the precise reason why the Spirit Nidus was so wary of it. If the springboard had formed naturally, it would be harmless. However, if some being had built it, then their power had to exceed everyone’s imagination. Perhaps only Immortals could contend with such a being.

This was why the Spirit Nidus was so wary of using the springboard.

The original springboard was a monstrous astral phenomena that sat in space, filling a massive region. There were no stars or planets nearby, but there was a man-made city that encircled the entire springboard. The Spirit Nidus had constructed this city, and they had named it Beacon City.

Beacon City was named as a symbol of vigilance that reminded all beings to not casually use the springboard. The springboard was like a beacon in the darkness. Using it might draw the attention of something completely unknown.