Chapter 3449: Karmic Dao

"I can’t recognize you, and you don’t exist in my previous karma. In that case, this is reality." Lu Yin smiled as a small trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. Even so, his smile was very gentle as he stepped forward.

Bu Ya did not understand why this person was smiling. What was he saying about karma and reality? Bu Ya simply could not understand.

However, whether or not he understood did not matter.

Lu Yin pressed a hand to Bu Ya's head, forcing the man into the ground. Only his legs remained sticking up, and he was unable to breath.

This man had tried to kill Lu Yin, but there was no need to know who he was. Lu Yin had enemies everywhere in the Spirit Nidus.

Upon rising to his feet, Lu Yin slowly looked around. The numerous wheels of karma were still there. They had been created by him with his Inner Clarity Technique. He had previously felt confused and had wondered whether he existed because of karma, or if karma existed because of him.

If he one day died, would someone else walk his path for him?

Was the final result of the omniverse predetermined?

Such questions had troubled him.

The madness he had just experienced had simply been an endless magnification of his confusion about karma. If not for Bu Ya, a person Lu Yin had never met, helping him recognize reality, Lu Yin did not know what would have happened. It was possible that he would have remained lost in karma, or he might have eventually found his way out.

He did not want to be confused by karma any longer.

Still, he did not know why he existed. Did he exist because of karma? No, karma had to exist because of him. First, there had to be him, and then there could be karma. If karma existed before him, then he would break that karma and rewrite it all.

Lu Yin exhaled, and streams of karmic spirals emerged from the karma wheels to rise into the sky.

His inner universe spread out to envelop the karma.

His Investiture of the Gods appeared above his head, its golden light illuminating the darkness of the universe. Under his feet, the Champions' Stage broke the ground, the patterns on it eerie and terrifying.

Lu Yin raised his hand, causing karmic spirals to emerge from his body, pierce the sky, shatter the earth, and surround the Investiture of the Gods and Champions' Stage, forming a cycle of karma.

"Since I am confused about karma, then I will be the one to define it.

"The Investiture of the Gods above serves as the heavens.

"The Champions' Stage below becomes a purgatory.

"Cyclic repetition is the Dao of Heaven. This is the Inner Clarity Technique: Karmic Dao."

Boom!

A roar ran through the minds of countless people near the Bifrost Domain. It was as though the universe had been struck by lightning, and it shook everything in the universe.

A phenomenon manifested in the universe and then spread beyond the Bifrost Domain and across the Spirit Nidus, much like if a massive stone had been thrown into a calm lake. Countless people fell unconscious, and many cultivators coughed up blood. They felt that there was something watching them from the void.

In the Ascendant Hall, the High Seraph shot to his feet, staring at the Bifrost Domain. His face grew pale as an unbelievable surge of killing intent filled his eyes, along with fear. He suppressed his urge to attack. "How? How is this possible? This shouldn't happen here. No one here can comprehend that. Lu Yin, Lu Yin, you must die. You must die... it’ll be soon, soon."

Throughout the Spirit Nidus, Seraphs Yi, Bao Qi, Yuan Qi, Zhan Ming, and others at their level all stared at the stars in shock. They could feel that the megaverse had somehow changed.

The Origin Progenitor stepped off of

Boundless

to stare in the direction of the Bifrost Domain with a look of admiration.

Next to Meng Sang, True God also turned to look towards the Bifrost Domain. "Who is it? Who’s managed to reach such a level? It’s incredible."

In the Aevum Inch, Master Qing Cao turned his head to look in the direction of the Spirit Nidus, both disbelief as well as some indescribable complex emotions on his face.

The Spirit Nidus was vast, but the Karmic Dao that Lu Yin had just created had shocked the entire megaverse.

This earth-shattering power had been created by him with his Inner Clarity Technique after suffering a wave of karmic backlash. However, at this moment, Lu Yin did not personally understand just how shocking his creation was for so many people.

All that he knew was that his Investiture of the Gods and Champions' Stage had become useful again.

As his strength rose, the usefulness of his Investiture of the Gods and Champions' Stage had diminished, and even his die had become nearly useless, as he had no place to use it.

He could not overcome the gap between his strength and those more powerful with just talent or an innate gift, and he could already defeat those who were weaker or even equal to himself with other methods. There was simply no need for Lu Yin to use his innate gifts at all.

However, by fusing his innate gifts with karma and combining it all with his inner universe, he had created the Karmic Dao.

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

He did not not know how far his Karmic Dao could reach, but Lu Yin could sense that it seemed to have tremendous potential and should be able to help him for a long, long time. After all, the premise of the technique was vast, as it was built on the concept of defining karma.

If the megaverse was filled with karma, then it was akin to Lu Yin creating a megaverse.

Lu Yin lifted his head and slowly waved a hand. Light shone out and dispersed the blood-red color.

Behind him, eyes peered out from the Bifrost Palace, filled with fear as they stared at him. These were the eyes of the children who had been taken to the Bifrost Palace.

Lu Yin could see Bian Xiaoxiao. Her little face was pink and round. She was quite the cute little girl.

He then looked down at Palace Master Yao.

The woman was laying on the ground, her eyes lifeless. She was like a rose that had been plucked: beautiful, but devoid of its living luster.

The woman no longer held any meaning for Lu Yin, as he had already suffered the backlash of his broken karma with her. Whether she lived or died really made no difference whatsoever.

However, this was also the perfect time to test his Karmic Dao.

Lu Yin's expression turned cold. "Palace Master Yao, today, I cast you into the Karmic Dao, into the purgatory that is the Champions' Stage."

With that, Palace Master Yao's body transformed into a streak of light that shot towards the Champions' Stage, which she then entered.

She did not die, and neither was she anointed as a Champion. She still lived, but was trapped within the Champions' Stage.

For the Karmic Dao, Lu Yin’s Investiture of the Gods meant ascending into heaven, while his Champions' Stage served as purgatory. In essence, Palace Master Yao had been cast into hell.

As the woman fell into the Champions' Stage, she looked around in confusion. She could see former acquaintances, both her friends and her enemies. Everything she saw was part of her karma.

She wanted to avoid these people, as seeing them was like seeing ghosts. However, no matter how hard she tried, she could not escape.

She was forced to face her karma, even the people and things that she wanted to avoid more than anything else in existence. This was purgatory.

This was the purgatory of the Karmic Dao.

At this moment, Lu Yin noticed that there were spirals of karma emerging from his Champions' Stage, entering his Karmic Dao and expanding its size.

He was astonished by this sight, but he quickly understood that this was a new way to strengthen and improve his Karmic Dao.

Just Palace Master Yao alone was able to noticeably improve his Karmic Dao. If he added in more sequence powerhouses, his Karmic Dao would continue to grow and expand. If the day came when his technique could encompass the entire megaverse, would it remain the same megaverse, or would it be overtaken by Lu Yin’s Karmic Dao?

He did not know.

That might make him the true ruler of the megaverse.

Suddenly, he found himself filled with anticipation.

Bian Ji and Yan Xiang'er had already found Bian Xiaoxiao. They did not dare to approach Lu Yin, though they did express their gratitude from a distance.

Lu Yin looked away. This trip had taken an unexpected turn. He had underestimated the High Seraph, who had plotted against Lu Yin. Even so, by sheer chance, he had succeeded in creating his Karmic Dao, which would become his new path forward.

The High Seraph had seen through Lu Yin, knowing that Lu Yin needed to mend his broken karma. No matter what Lu Yin did, the High Seraph would always maintain the upper hand.

Because of this, Lu Yin considered taking a different approach and following the path of karma. With karma, he would be able to suppress his karmic backlash and also strengthen his Karmic Dao. He had a feeling that his Karmic Dao was able to protect him from karmic backlash. So, by continuously improving it, he had a chance to overcome his need to resolve his karma. This would effectively counter the High Seraph’s efforts.

This was the only way forward. Anything else would simply be Lu Yin being led around by the High Seraph.

The key point to implementing this plan was that Lu Yin could not let the High Seraph immediately unite the entire Spirit Nidus against Lu Yin and the others from the Tianyuan Megaverse.

Just the fact that Lu Yin had comprehended his Karmic Dao might have already made the High Seraph wary. If the man no longer cared about the consequences, just a few words would rally most of the Spirit Nidus’s top experts against the Great Universe Manor. Even this would not count as breaking his promise to not take personal action against Lu Yin or his people.

If the Spirit Nidus united against them, Lu Yin would not have enough time to improve his Karmic Dao.

The best way to delay the High Seraph from uniting the Spirit Nidus against the Grandverse Manor was to ensure that the man no longer had any reservations.

If the Grandverse Manor and the major forces of the Spirit Nidus found themselves in an advantageous position, or even if they just revealed signs of some sort of alliance, the High Seraph would undoubtedly become more cautious. If that did not happen, the situation would be different.

That decided things. Lu Yin’s goal for the moment was to reduce the High Seraph’s concerns, and to do that, Lu Yin would make all of the Spirit Nidus’s most powerful organizations hate the Grandverse Manor even more. At the same time, Lu Yin would be able to strengthen his Karmic Dao.

He looked to the edge of the Bifrost Domain and spoke slowly. His voice echoed throughout the universe. "There are no truly powerful experts left in the Spirit Nidus. I, the Third Boss of the Grandverse Manor, challenge all of the megaverse’s top experts. All who believe that they can fight me, step forward."

The battle in the Bifrost Domain had exceeded people’s understanding. The reality was that the battle had been a part of the game between Lu Yin and the High Seraph. All of the spectators and even Palace Master Yao had only served as pawns.

The High Seraph believed that he had complete control over Lu Yin. By controlling Lu Yin’s karma, the High Seraph could control Lu Yin’s future. No matter what Lu Yin did, his ultimate goal would always be to mend his karma.

The High Seraph had only used a single, minor attack, but he had never expected that, not only would Lu Yin overcome the karmic backlash, but also comprehend the Karmic Dao. Because of this unexpected development, Lu Yin’s public challenge of the Spirit Nidus’s top experts was something that the High Seraph had not anticipated.

Not even the High Seraph, let alone Chu Yi and others, had expected Lu Yin to issue such a challenge.

All along, Lu Yin’s goal had been to prevent the High Seraph from taking action, while also sowing discord throughout the Spirit Nidus. It was necessary to disrupt their cultivation culture and antagonize the various forces. Lu Yin’s goal was to break the Spirit Nidus, and in doing so, mend his broken karma. He had basically been trying to accomplish everything else while pursuing that final goal.

The Spirit Nidus was far from being truly united. The more chaos that erupted, the more likely it was that certain organizations would try to take advantage of opportunities to alter the status quo.

Five domains had lost their ruling powers, and while it appeared to others that the Grandverse Manor had retaliated to establish their authority, the truth was that Lu Yin and his allies were happy to leave the domains empty. Doing so would give opportunities to the forces which wanted to use chaos to alter the political balance. Regardless of whether the five domains had been united by the Wisdom Domain or not, such developments still hurt the High Seraph’s position while benefiting Lu Yin and his people.

The more the status quo changed, the more opportunities the Tianyuan Megaverse would find.

While it looked as though the Grandverse Manor had offended the entire Spirit Nidus, the more organizations they offended, the safer they would actually become.

The Spirit Nidus’s internal strife was far more intense than what they had initially imagined.

However, Lu Yin’s sudden challenge to the megaverse’s top experts genuinely baffled Chu Yi and the others.

From their perspective, such a challenge seemed pointless. If their goal was to create trouble, there were other ways to go about it. People who joined the Grandverse Manor allowed them to make problems for specific groups in power. What was the point of challenging the megaverse’s top experts? This would only waste time and make it easier for others to see Lu Yin’s true intentions.

When Lu Yin traveled through the Spirit Nidus to challenge the most powerful cultivators, his aura as an outsider would be immediately sensed.

So far, the Spirit Nidus’s major forces had speculated that

Boundless

had come from the Consciousness Megaverse because Yuan Qi had once fought in the Consciousness Megaverse before going to the Tianyuan Megaverse. While fighting in the Consciousness Megaverse, the Seraph had accomplished great things. It was expected for him to have conscients under his command. With foreign auras mixed with others that belonged to the Spirit Nidus, people could not specifically tell which auras did not belong to the Spirit Nidus. With the rotation of the boundary defenders, people had not paid attention to the fact that

Boundless

contained outsiders.