Chapter 3605: Heights And Shadows

Wu Wei was constantly moving about, and each search that Lu Yin conducted consumed a tremendous amount of his consciousness, which was rather stressful. It was simply too difficult for him to replenish his consciousness in the Spirit Nidus.

If he went to the Consciousness Megaverse, his consciousness would inevitably transform.

The High Seraph would soon lead the Seven Seraphs to the Consciousness Megaverse’s Willbound Expanse, and Lu Yin would definitely be taken along. However, he did not know if he would be able to devour consciousnesses there and counter the High Seraph.

While considering things, Lu Yin continued to search the dark space. There were times when he encountered barriers, indicating that there were parallel universes on the other side.

Suddenly, Lu Yin looked over in astonishment. There was another barrier in front of him, but on the other side, there were countless spheres of light of all sizes. How could there be so many? Each orb represented a separate conscient that he could Possess, but how could there be so many? The number was even greater than what he had initially seen in the Consciousness Domain.

Lu Yin rushed forward, and with his consciousness, broke through the barrier. After reaching the other side, he quickly merged into one of the balls of light.

It was the brightest of all the lights, though it was still rather dim in Lu Yin’s perspective. At best, he suspected that it belonged to a Stellar realm conscient.

He was most eager to find out what he had stumbled upon.

As he opened his eyes, his surroundings grew clear. Conscience did not have eyes, unless they maintained a specific form. Normally, they existed as a mere mass of consciousness that was invisible to ordinary people.

The conscient that Lu Yin had Possessed had a fixed form, which was that of a human.

He looked around, but everywhere, he saw more humans. He was on a planet that possessed advanced technology, and spacecraft occasionally launched from the surface, traveling into the distance, while others were periodically landing.

He continued to look around, but he still only saw more humans. However, most of them were actually conscients and were simply living among genuine humans on the planet that lacked any sort of cultivation methods.

"My lord, we’ve confirmed the news. All of our kin who have been hidden throughout the thirty-six domains have been sent to the Consciousness Domain." A voice spoke from behind him. It belonged to a beautiful woman with a charming appearance. Few would have suspected her of being another conscient just by looking at her.

These conscients all possessed fixed human forms.

Memories continued to pour in as Lu Yin calmly stared off into the distance. Slowly, he understood the situation.

These conscients had all been sent to the Spirit Nidus from the Consciousness Megaverse over the course of countless years and immediately sent into hiding. The Spirit Nidus had constructed massive battleships and long since maintained the advantage in the war. This had led them to believe that they were the ones controlling the rhythm of the war, determining when battles were fought and when there would be temporary truces. However, the Consciousness Megaverse was not filled with fools, and they had used various methods to send conscients into the Spirit Nidus.

Some of these conscients had spent extended lengths of time traveling from the Consciousness Megaverse to the Spirit Nidus, much like how Progenitor Xi had traveled to the Tianyuan Megaverse.

Other conscients made the journey after using various methods to access the Spirit Nidus’s battleships, such as pretending to surrender, getting captured, or more commonly, taking advantage of human greed and pretending to ally with them. All of these methods allowed the conscients to avoid the Ascendant Hall and eventually escape into the Spirit Nidus.

All of the conscients hidden throughout the thirty-six domains were the same as this. While the Ascendant Hall knew that various groups were keeping hidden conscients, they had tacitly agreed to turn a blind eye. Some could escape during the journey, while others simply turned on their masters. Since hiding conscients was a crime, all such incidents had to be covered up and hidden.

As time passed, more and more conscients had escaped, and they had eventually hidden themselves throughout various parallel universes, where they were led by certain conscients.

The planet that Lu Yin had found was home to many conscients who had been branded.

The reason why there were so many conscients was simply due to how much time had passed. Conscients were fundamentally different from humans, and they could live for so long that they would seem immortal to humans. Time was nothing more than a number to them.

On top of that, the conscients living on this planet all had a singular mission: to stay hidden and wait for the right moment to launch a counterattack on the Spirit Nidus.

Lu Yin stared off into the distance. He had Possessed the ruler of the conscients in this particular universe, which was a Stellar-realm conscient. There were many similar parallel universes where conscients had hidden themselves, gathering over the course of countless years, all of whom were waiting to counterattack the Spirit Nidus.

Why had the Spirit Nidus not found them? Because they were hiding in parallel universes which were not connected to any part of the Spirit Nidus.

The megaverse had too many parallel universes, and not even the High Seraph could see through all of them. It was no different from how it was impossible for Lu Yin to oversee all of the parallel universes in the Tianyuan Megaverse.

It was fundamentally impossible to search through all the parallel universes for conscients in hiding. To do so was much like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Lu Yin had used his die to search through the dark space many times, but this was his first time encountering any of the hidden conscients. This only served to prove that it was impossible for the Spirit Nidus to find them.

For the conscients, the universe where they lived was no different from the Consciousness Megaverse.

This was also why they deliberately lived among the humans of the universe. Even if they were found by the Spirit Nidus, it would be impossible for most people to immediately notice a problem. The conscients would then have time to leave, as tearing through the void to escape took only a moment.

"My lord?" the woman behind Lu Yin spoke up again, her confusion clear in her voice.

Lu Yin waved a hand, and the woman respectfully retreated.

The conscients were not in this megaverse by choice, but rather out of necessity. If not for the fact that their enemy was the formidable Spirit Nidus, the Consciousness Megaverse itself would not know peace, as conscients did not regard each other as kin.

"Kin" was a laughable concept in the Consciousness Megaverse, but in the Spirit Nidus, it had become a necessity.

They were prepared to counterattack against the Spirit Nidus and were simply awaiting the right moment. Lu Yin continued to skim through the conscient’s memories, and he learned that there were at least ten other parallel universes like the one that he had found. The number of hidden conscients was more than ten times that of the number of captive conscients in the depths of the Consciousness Domain. Even so, there were far too few conscients to pose a threat to the Spirit Nidus.

Their true strength was the Thirteen Luminaries.

Two of the Thirteen Luminaries were hiding within the parallel universes, which was something that no one in the entire Spirit Nidus knew.

On top of that, the opportunity to launch a counterattack against the Spirit Nidus lay with Ye Meng, who was actually only pretending to submit to the Spirit Nidus.

Lu Yin laughed, though not at the Consciousness Megaverse. While just three of the Thirteen Luminaries was far from comparable to the full might of the Spirit Nidus, the Consciousness Megaverse had been waiting for the perfect moment, and the Spirit Nidus was still completely unaware that two Luminaries had snuck over. The Spirit Nidus was too arrogant, which was also why they had never considered the Tianyuan Megaverse to be a real threat.

Lu Yin was laughing because the Spirit Nidus had stood too high and for too long; they had become unable to see the dangers lurking in the shadows. This was no different from how the ancient Heavens Sect had been tricked by Aeternus long ago.

The Consciousness Megaverse had fully exploited their advantage of being unafraid of the passing of time.

Did the Spirit Nidus know that conscients had escaped? Of course they were aware of that. They had even searched for the missing conscients. However, as time passed, it had become acceptable to not find the missing conscients. In particular, when one generation of humans died, the next would have already long forgotten about the matter. Even if only a small number of conscients escaped during each generation of humans, as the generations accrued, the number had climbed.

The Consciousness Megaverse could not defeat the Spirit Nidus in open warfare, so they intended to use their advantage of longevity, intending to wait until the Spirit Nidus completely forgot about their existence and they were entirely ignored by the Spirit Nidus. The conscients’ next attack would be when they showed their fangs.

Ye Meng was their opportunity. They clearly knew that Ye Meng would travel to the Spirit Nidus, which meant that Ye Meng’s capture had been deliberate. But why?

Lu Yin was reminded of the Willbound Expanse. Ye Meng had given away the location of the Willbound Expanse in order to lure High Seraph and the Seven Seraphs away from the Spirit Nidus. The Spirit Nidus was not stupid, so Wu Wei and Ye Meng would certainly be taken on the expedition, but no one had ever considered that there could be two of the Thirteen Luminaries hiding in the Spirit Nidus. Not only would they be able to defeat the Spirit Nidus, but they would also be able to rescue all of the captured conscients and prevent the Spirit Nidus from attacking the Consciousness Megaverse.

Then what about the Consciousness Megaverse?

Lu Yin did not believe that the Willbound Expanse had not made ample preparations.

He let out a breath. The Spirit Nidus had grossly underestimated the Consciousness Megaverse.

Old Yu wanted to ally with the Tianyuan Megaverse to reset the Consciousness Megaverse, but whether the Consciousness Megaverse would resist had never even been mentioned. As far as Old Yu was concerned, it did not matter whether the Consciousness Megaverse resisted, as it would be reset regardless.

Could he have known about the conscients hidden in the Spirit Nidus?

Could he be aware that two of the Thirteen Luminaries were also present?

Could he know that Ye Meng’s surrender was all just an act?

What about Wu Wei? Could he also be pretending to submit to the Spirit Nidus?

Lu Yin ended the Possession. He has seen enough of the conscient’s memories, though it was impossible to access all of them. Attempting to do so would take far too long.

Besides, Lu Yin had already learned enough.

The key was that he knew how to find that parallel universe.

Only conscients were allowed to travel to the thirty-six domains from that parallel universe. For the first time, Lu Yin could see the light of hope within the Spirit Nidus.

As Lu Yin ended the Possession, the Stellar realm conscient called for the woman. "How are things?"

The woman froze. "What are you asking, my lord?"

The man frowned. "What news do you have?"

The woman grew confused. Had she not just delivered her report? Seeing her lord's displeasure, the woman did not dare to hold back, and she quickly delivered the report again.

"Just who was it that did this? Who would be so reckless as to expose our existence?"

"My lord, we should have nothing at all to do with this. I’ve already contacted the other parallel universes, and no experts have appeared recently. The only ones capable of doing something like this are the Thirteen Luminaries."

"There’s no doubt that we are in trouble now. The Spirit Nidus has verified the presence of a powerful enemy conscient, which means that they are sure to start searching. For now, avoid traveling to the Spirit Nidus."

"Understood."

Far away, Lu Yin opened his eyes and let out a sigh of relief.

The Spirit Nidus had been observing

Boundless

, as it contained enemies from the Tianyuan Megaverse. They could attack, or they could hold back, but Lu Yin had constantly been testing the Spirit Nidus.

Lu Yin had seemingly been acting without any concern, recklessly rampaging about and antagonizing the High Seraph. However, the truth was that the more brazen Lu Yin’s behavior was, the more that others would hesitate to take action against him. If

Boundless

had acted timidly at the start, then the Spirit Nidus would have immediately started discussing how to deal with the enemy invaders.

Lu Yin was under a tremendous amount of pressure.

Those aboard

Boundless

did not fear death, but Lu Yin was still hoping to lead his people back home.

The Spirit Nidus was like a blade, and

Boundless

was beneath its edge, waiting for the blade to fall.

However, Lu Yin had just seen another blade appear. It was quietly shifting into position, and when it fell, there was a chance that it would not cut off

Boundless

's head. This was especially true since only Lu Yin knew about the blade’s existence.

The Spirit Nidus knew nothing of the hidden conscients, and the conscients were ignorant to the fact that Lu Yin had learned of their presence. The initiative had fallen entirely into his hands.

This was something to enjoy.

Lu Yin closed his eyes and waited for ten days to pass. After that, he would roll his die again.

He still had two months left before his battle with Emperor Wu.

Upon checking how much of his consciousness had been consumed by the Possession, Lu Yin felt a bit helpless. He had used more than expected, though that was mostly due to the time that he had spent searching.

If he could Possess a conscient the moment he entered the dark space, he would not consume nearly as much consciousness.

The problem was that a mere Stellar-level conscient already necessitated such absurd consumption while Lu Yin’s true target was Wu Wei.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Yin decided to first replenish his consciousness. He could let the Spirit Nidus believe that there were conscients hiding in the dark, or he could make the conscients believe that the Spirit Nidus had already discovered them, forcing them to be more cautious.