Chapter 3686: Absolute Action

Fighting in the Consciousness Megaverse was far from simple. The Spirit Nidus’s invasion of the Consciousness Megaverse had gone on for countless years, and the fighting had resulted in a tremendous hatred towards the megaverse due to the endless number of Spirit Nidus cultivators who had perished there. The mortality rate remained extremely high.

Often, only half of the people who arrived on a battleship would survive their time in the Consciousness Megaverse and be able to return home. The fate of the other half remained a mystery.

Teams coordinated with each other to fight the conscients, but it was still quite normal for an entire team to be wiped out, leaving no one with any idea of what happened to them.

One reason for that was the traps like the one that Lu Yin had found.

The entrance to the parallel universe allowed conscients to attack after gauging the strength of the passerby Spirit Nidus cultivators. This allowed them to maintain a nearly 100 percent success rate for the ambushes.

Lu Yin quickly arrived at the entrance to the parallel universe. Passing through, he arrived in an unfamiliar universe.

When he looked around, all he saw were countless conscients.

While there were far fewer conscients than humans, given the fact that conscients could not reproduce in the same manner as biological creatures, their numbers were still impressive.

When the conscients saw Lu Yin suddenly appear out of nowhere, they howled and attacked. A flood of merging consciousnesses swept out to overwhelm him.

Lu Yin smiled. "This many? Not bad. There are even two Stellar-realm conscients, as strong as sequence powerhouses. I’ll help myself."

When Lu Yin emerged from that parallel universe, it was no longer a threat.

Boundless

continued onwards.

Hua Manyi's knowledge of the Consciousness Megaverse far surpassed that of any cultivator from the Spirit Nidus. As the battleship continued on, Lu Yin encountered entrances to several different parallel universes, and he made a point to visit each ambush site. While there were not too many conscients in each parallel universe, the numbers added up. Soon, he had devoured more conscients than in all the Spirit Nidus’s parallel universes, including those which had been imprisoned in the Consciousness Domain.

Still, devouring just one Universe-realm conscient would already surpass all of the conscients that he had devoured in the Spirit Nidus.

At the moment, his Nine Heavens were still growing and being strengthened within his inner universe, along with the star of consciousness, which was growing increasingly solid.

The route that the High Seraph had provided meant that

Boundless

would take two months to travel from the boundary gate to the Willbound Expanse. However, Lu Yin had no idea how long it would take the other battleships to complete their journeys. Regardless, he intended to stall, trusting that the High Seraph would wait until it was impossible to delay any further.

The High Seraph would not abandon his assault on the Willbound Expanse just because

Boundless

had failed to arrive.

Even the High Seraph was worried about being found by the Thirteen Luminaries. Although he was headed to a trap that the Thirteen Luminaries had personally prepared for him, the High Seraph did not know that.

Boundless

continued along, but it soon stopped traveling along the route that the High Seraph had given them. Instead, the battleship continuously changed course. Still, their general direction never strayed, and they continued moving closer to the Willbound Expanse.

A month quickly passed. During that time, Lu Yin had devoured an immense amount of consciousness. His Nine Heavens Transformation continued to be strengthened, and the star of consciousness soon surpassed even the star of divine energy. It slowly spun within Lu Yin’s inner universe.

Throughout the journey, Progenitor Xi carefully observed Lu Yin. She noticed that he possessed a thorough knowledge of the Consciousness Megaverse. After all, no matter which detour he took, the ship eventually returned to the original route. However, Progenitor Xi never learned why Lu Yin was straying from their original route. She very much wanted to know what he was doing, as well as how he had come to understand the Consciousness Megaverse so well.

Progenitor Xi was aware that Wu Wei was Lu Yin’s prisoner, but not even that ancient conscient should know the current Consciousness Megaverse’s layout this precisely. The Luminary had been gone for far too long, and many of the Broken Realms had moved or shifted, while new ones had also appeared.

More and more, Progenitor Xi found Lu Yin to be an unfathomable existence, and she was very glad that she had not tried to keep the Forbidden Tome a secret.

One day, Lu Yin suddenly ordered

Boundless

to stop. He frowned as he peered down at the area in front of the vessel.

Something’s wrong. This path isn’t right

.

The war between the Consciousness Megaverse and the Spirit Nidus had raged on for eons, and each side had continuously concocted traps for the other. The path before

Boundless

actually passed through one such trap, one that had remained hidden for an exceptionally long time. It had never been used by the Consciousness Megaverse.

The route passed through a region that was filled with dozens of planets. However, each planet contained a sourcebox, and as soon as they were even slightly disturbed, they would perfectly arrange themselves into a sourcebox array. This was one formed naturally by the universe, rather than a deliberate arrangement.

The most powerful function of this sourcebox array was that it would render everything that entered its range completely unable to move. As soon as the invaders were immobilized, the conscients would be able to strike without restraint.

This was a trap that had been saved for one of the Spirit Nidus’s Seven Seraphs. Even so, it was useless against

Boundless

. Lu Yin alone was strong enough to shatter the sourcebox array. Even if he did nothing, either the Origin Progenitor or the others aboard the ship could work together and achieve the same result.

Lu Yin had learned of this trap from Hua Manyi’s memories.

What was the High Seraph’s intention to have

Boundless

pass through this trap? There was no doubt that it was insufficient to destroy the ship. Even an ambush laid by the Thirteen Luminaries would be futile. Still, breaking free from this trap would inevitably expose

Boundless

, and that would attract far more conscients to attack the battleship.

Did the High Seraph intend to use

Boundless

as bait?

If that was true, then the High Seraph needed to be aware of this trap. Was he? Lu Yin could not be sure. Only the Thirteen Luminaries and a handful of Celestial-realm conscients knew of it. Even Wu Wei did not. For the High Seraph to know of this trap, he needed to have his own agents within the Consciousness Megaverse.

That was certainly not impossible.

Old Chief had arranged for Ye Meng to feign defection to the Spirit Nidus in order to lure the High Seraph into a trap. By the same token, it was certainly possible that the High Seraph had his own means to control a conscient.

Lu Yin had never considered this possibility before, but at this moment, he was forced to.

If the High Seraph did have moles within the Consciousness Megaverse, then was he truly ignorant of the trap waiting for him at the Willbound Expanse?

Logically, the High Seraph should have never allowed Lu Yin to suspect anything at all. Was it possible that it was nothing more than a coincidence that

Boundless

had encountered this particular trap?

At that moment, a strand of consciousness brushed past

Boundless

, and it caused Lu Yin’s expression to change rather drastically. He ordered the ship to remain where it was while he stepped away, instantly vanishing.

Far in front of

Boundless

, pulses of consciousness emanated from numerous conscients. One particular consciousness overwhelmed all the others. This consciousness belonged to one of the megaverse’s Thirteen Luminaries: a Universe-realm conscient by the name of Xing Jue.

While this particular trap that had been laid for the Spirit Nidus’s Seraphs had not been used for countless years, every so often, one of the Thirteen Luminaries would perform an inspection to ensure that even the Seven Seraphs would fall to it.

At this time, Xing Jue was performing the inspection of the sourcebox array. The conscient had been just about to leave when, on a sudden whim, their consciousness had swept through the nearby area, just to see if the nearby universe had changed. If a Broken Realm had inexplicably appeared nearby, there was no doubt that the Spirit Nidus’s forces would avoid the region, and that would render the trap useless.

Completely unexpected, that sweep had discovered

Boundless

.

Only cultivators from the Spirit Nidus used battleships, and discovering such a massive and unknown one nearby badly startled Xing Jue. The Luminary immediately ordered his underlings to send a report to the Willbound Expanse. As for the Luminary themselves, Xing Jue was certain that he had been noticed by the cultivators on the battleship. Even so, what of it? Xing Jue was one of the Thirteen Luminaries. In the Consciousness Megaverse, even the Spirit Nidus’s Seven Seraphs might be helpless against them, especially in this particular location.

If a Seraph was on that battleship, that would be ideal, as Xing Jue would be able to bury them with the trap. This would help to pave the way for the trap laid for the High Seraph.

The next moment, Lu Yin emerged from the void and looked up.

Far away from him, countless conscients had gathered at the very edge of the trap that Lu Yin had learned about from Hua Manyi’s memories. Some had transformed into various fixed forms, mostly human shapes, but others remained undefined. In Lu Yin’s perception, they appeared as dense black clouds. Naturally, the largest of the clouds was Xing Jue, the Luminary.

Lu Yin’s eyes lit up. Opportunity had just come knocking.

He had just been thinking about how devouring one of the Thirteen Luminaries would be more beneficial than all the other conscients he had devoured in the Spirit Nidus. He had not even finished that thought when one of the Thirteen Luminaries had appeared before Lu Yin. On top of that, judging by the situation, this Luminary had no intention of fleeing. This was quite interesting to see.

If his new target tried to run, Lu Yin was confident that he could stop them. Still, he was in the Consciousness Megaverse, and surprises like Broken Realms could always complicate matters.

Hua Manyi had left for the Spirit Nidus a very long time ago, and the area surrounding the trap had changed significantly.

“Human, state your name,” Xing Jue demanded. As they spoke, the gathered conscients spread out in an attempt to surround Lu Yin.

Lu Yin had suppressed his aura, and given his current strength, Xing Jue failed to see through the deception. Also, it was true that Lu Yin was only a Progenitor, which was all that they had been allowed to see.

Lu Yin stared at the vast consciousness that belonged to Xing Jue. “Are you one of the Thirteen Luminaries?”

“You're not afraid of me. Your eyes remain calm... You’ve hidden your strength. If I’m not mistaken, you should be an Ortuser who’s been trained in your Spirit Nidus's Consciousness Domain. That would indeed allow you to resist my consciousness and allow you to not fear a Luminary like me. Am I right?” Xing Jue said. The conscient was no fool, and Lu Yin’s behavior did not match the strength that he revealed.

Lu Yin smiled and clasped his hands behind his back. “Clever. I’m quite certain that you can’t deal with me. However, what I find odd is that, given the vastness of the Consciousness Megaverse, just how did I happen to run into one of the Thirteen Luminaries?”

Xing Jue's laughter echoed out. “You will never know! This day’s outcome was decided long ago. I’ll give you one chance: join my Consciousness Megaverse. Only then can you leave this place alive.”

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Lu Yin shook his head. “We are completely different lifeforms. How could we ever coexist?”

“Plenty have already joined us,” Xing Jue stated, utterly confident that Lu Yin’s life was in their hands. Thus, the Luminary spoke without restraint.

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered. So that was indeed the case. It was no wonder why so many parallel universes in the Spirit Nidus had hidden conscients. There had to be cultivators who had defected to the Consciousness Megaverse, and they had worked together to hide the truth. Still, in the Spirit Nidus’s grand scheme, such traitors were essentially useless. They had done nothing to harm the megaverse itself, and their efforts would never be noticed.

Those people only needed to keep things hidden.

Lu Yin believed that not even such traitors had ever had a clue about where the conscients had hidden themselves in the Spirit Nidus. The Consciousness Megaverse would have kept that a secret from any turncoats.

Such traitors were tools, nothing more.

“Any cultivator with my level of strength would never defect to the Consciousness Megaverse,” Lu Yin retorted.

Xing Jue sneered. “Even after cultivating to this level, you still don’t understand human nature? I can only pity you. Just die.”

With that, a tsunami of consciousness as vast as mountains and seas surged out to crush Lu Yin. Myriad consciousness-based battle techniques were used. Among them, Lu Yin even spotted an attack that resembled the Skyshearer Millstone. Clearly, some conscient had imitated Wu Wei.

Lu Yin stood tall, alone in outer space, yet he was utterly unmoving in the face of the bombardment of consciousness that rained down upon him. His eyes never left Xing Jue.

The Luminary was stunned. “Have you achieved the Celestial realm with your consciousness?”

Lu Yin smiled. “If that’s what you think.”

“You’re courting death!” Xing Jue attacked. A terrifying mass of consciousness blotted out the sky, eclipsing all of the other conscients’ attacks. The Luminary’s consciousness fell like a curtain of darkness that was practically solid.