Chapter 3843: Choice

Lu Yin revealed a bitter smile. He had not just offended Xing Fan, but had also tried to fish them out of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. That incident had led Yue Ya and Xing Fan to both be punished by Greater Sancte Blood Tower. Most likely, Xing Fan absolutely hated Lu Yin.

Even so, Lu Yin had no regrets. Xing Fan had cooperated with Yue Ya to slaughter countless people in the Spirit Nidus. Even if those lives had belonged to an enemy megaverse, they had still been countless lives. Given the chance, Lu Yin still wanted to settle the score with Xing Fan.

Ask Xing Fan for a recommendation? That was simply impossible.

"Then is there no other way?" Lu Yin asked helplessly.

Ming Zhou thought for a moment. “There is another option, and your chances of succeeding that way are much greater.”

“What’s that?”

“Go straight to Master. A Greater Sancte can simply appoint a Lesser Sancte. That way, no recommendation is needed.”

Lu Yin fell into thought.

Ming Zhou said, “You don’t know Master. Do you know why I always call you ‘junior brother?’ It’s because I understand Master all too well.

“To say that I understand an Immortal is a bit of an exaggeration, but Master is still Master. As I see him, he’s not just an Immortal, but also someone I can understand, and even want to understand.”

The man looked at Lu Yin with growing intensity. “Master has never cared about anyone as much as he does you, not even my junior brother, the genius sleeping in the Scion Spire. He was praised by Master as being the ‘Little Lotus King.’ Everyone believed that he would eventually follow in Master’s footsteps, but he still hasn’t. On the other hand, you have already stepped onto that path.

“While the tasks that you are completing for the Seven Fairies were called a test, the reality of the situation is that they are Master’s way of allowing you to learn about the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.”

Lu Yin was shaken by that.

A process? It started with fate, followed by the requests, and will conclude with karma.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus had used the word “fate” to bind Lu Yin to the Sea of Karma and then used the Seven Fairies’ requests to bind Lu Yin. That had been the beginning of a connection.

Through completing the Seven Fairies’ tasks, Lu Yin had met Ming Zhou, and he would eventually meet more of Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s disciples. He was going on a journey by completing the requests.

In that case, what was the ultimate destination?

From the very beginning, Lu Yin had refused to accept the Greater Sancte as his master, so why had Green Lotus persisted? Could it be that discipleship was not the true goal? Could there be another destination that he was approaching on this path?

"Don’t avoid Master’s help. He would be glad if you turned to him," Ming Zhou advised.

Lu Yin looked at Ming Zhou. “In that case, how do I approach Greater Sancte Green Lotus?”

Ming Zhou gave a mysterious smile. “Have you forgotten? There’s a world that only you and Master can see.”

Lu Yin instinctively looked up, thinking of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

"That’s all I’ll say, Junior Brother. Go ahead. No matter what you choose to do, the Sea of Karma will always support you." With that, Ming Zhou ended the call.

Lu Yin put away the communication device, a small smile on his lips. He sat down cross-legged and released his Karmic Dao.

It was true that there was a world that only he and Greater Sancte Green Lotus could access.

The Greater Sancte’s power of karma spread across both the Spirit Nidus and Consciousness Megaverse, and there was no way that it did not also encompass the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. So long as one was within the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, it was possible to contact Greater Sancte Green Lotus.

Ming Zhou’s words had opened Lu Yin’s mind and dispelled many doubts. It was possible that he had been noticed by the Immortal the moment that he had first started to comprehend his Karmic Dao in the Spirit Nidus.

Actually, does the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm envelop the Tianyuan as well?

Lu Yin was curious.

His own Karmic Dao had grown much stronger over the last two years, not only from the karmic buds he had absorbed, but also from his fortune-telling.

Lu Yin had no idea why fortune-telling for non-cultivators had strengthened his karma so much. His karma had been improving just as fast as when he had been imprisoning powerful cultivators in his Champions’ Stage Purgatory, and it was still improving. As he released his Karmic Dao, he gradually saw previously invisible threads that stretched through the void. While he could not see where they started, all of them ended with him.

There was no doubt that those invisible threads were spirals of karma, yet they were so tiny that Lu Yin was almost unable to see them.

There were so many.

This was the first time Lu Yin had released his Karmic Dao after he had spent time fortune-telling.

He stared at those invisible threads in a daze as he recalled all that he had done for two years. One, two, three... 568 threads.

There were 568 invisible threads that were connected to him from every direction. It looked like a lot, but even with Lu Yin’s strength, he had almost overlooked them, because of how hard they were to see. In the vastness of the void, they were almost impossible to find. However, the precise number was rather intriguing.

If he was not mistaken, these threads were connecting him to the people that he had told fortunes for. However, most of those people were ordinary humans, and he had also never imprisoned any of them in the Champions' Stage Purgatory. So where was all this karma coming from? Why was he constantly receiving more? Was it just because he had told their fortunes?

While the threads were tiny and the karma from 568 people was barely more than what Lu Yin could obtain from a single karmic brick, he had only spent two years telling fortunes.

It was normal for cultivators to live for hundreds or thousands of years. Lu Yin was no longer able to even estimate how long his lifespan might be. Just how many karmic threads would he end up with?

In that case... was fortune-telling enough?

Lu Yin stopped thinking about the matter there. He had completed another one of the Seven Fairies’ requests, and there was no telling how long it would take for the next woman to decide on a request for Lu Yin. He had plenty of time to do more fortune-telling, which would not only strengthen his karma, but also help him complete himself and prepare to enter the Origin realm.

With that thought, he raised a hand, and a spiral of karma shot out from his fingertip, shooting high into the sky.

No one but Lu Yin could see what he had done.

Within a world that only Lu Yin could see, the spiral of karma shot past the stars in the sky and created ripples that moved through the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm that shrouded the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Compared to the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, Lu Yin’s spiral of karma might as well be a pebble thrown at a mountain. It was impossible to have any impact at all, but a bit of sound could be made.

In the Sea of Karma, a pair of eyes opened, and a smile appeared. One step was taken, and someone vanished.

On the Sixth Night Pillar, Lu Yin rose to his feet and also took one step, disappearing.

No one noticed his departure.

Above the stars in the sky, two people stood, facing one another. Despite standing high in the sky, no one could see them, not even those who passed by. But in those two people’s eyes, they stood in a completely different world.

Lu Yin was stunned as he observed the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm that covered the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse. It was unmatched. Lu Yin had already expected Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s karmic domain to be vast, but not to the extent that he was seeing.

Only when he met with Greater Sancte Green Lotus did Lu Yin see the full scope of the Immortal’s karma. It enveloped the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse like a lid, and that was not the end of it. The karma extended far outward, reaching the Spirit Nidus, the Consciousness Megaverse, and even stretching far out into the Aevum Inch.

There was no end in sight.

Karma... It was a world. A world that only the two of them could see.

Beneath it, the vast Nine Odysseys Megaverse spread out with its boundless sky, the colossal Morrow Behemoths, the sky-piercing Mother Tree, and the endless East Domain. All of those things were nothing more than a region sealed beneath a lid.

To an ant, a human might as well be the sky. To a human, the stars above them formed the sky. But to all creatures, the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm was the sky. Even the endless breadth of the Aevum Inch seemed like nothing. Lu Yin could already imagine a day when that would also be completely enveloped.

It was an outrageous thought, and yet that was exactly what he felt from the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

When a person suddenly realized that there was a sky above the sky, the shock that they felt could shatter their soul.

Even with his mental preparations, Lu Yin was left speechless by what he was seeing.

Insignificant. That was the only word that could be used to describe all that he had experienced throughout his entire life. Everything that he had once taken pride in became utterly insignificant beneath the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus stood with his hands behind his back, calmly smiling at Lu Yin.

The young man’s face went pale. When he finally regained composure, he looked at Greater Sancte Green Lotus in a completely different light.

This was the power of an Immortal Greater Sancte.

This was Greater Sancte Green Lotus, the terrifying strength of the oldest human Immortal.

When they had first met in the Sea of Karma, Lu Yin had not felt that Greater Sancte Green Lotus was completely overwhelming, merely unfathomable. The Immortal was an opponent that Lu Yin could not defeat, and yet Lu Yin had still felt worthy to confront such an opponent.

Only at this moment did he understand just how naive he had been.

Worthy to confront the man? How ridiculous! It was a complete joke.

Forget Lu Yin—even the Immortal monster that had chased after him was less than an ant when compared to the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

No matter how massive that beast might be, it could never escape the reach of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

This... this was truly infinite might.

This explained how an Immortal cultivator like the Spirit Nidus’s Master Qing Cao had been suppressed and rendered so helpless.

Extracting karmic bricks? Lu Yin almost laughed. How long would it take him to pry out enough bricks to achieve even a tenth of the vastness of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm? It was an impossible dream.

"Shocked?" Greater Sancte Green Lotus looked quite pleased with Lu Yin’s reaction. "I am, after all, an Immortal."

Lu Yin turned to face Greater Sancte Green Lotus and bowed low. “Greetings, Senior Green Lotus.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus smiled at Lu Yin. “I’ll give you one more chance. Are you willing to become my disciple?”

Lu Yin exhaled. To say he was not tempted would be a lie, but a man needed to cling to his conviction, loyalty, love, and faith. None could perfectly preserve all four. Apprenticing under Greater Sancte Green Lotus might well avert the Tianyuan Megaverse’s crisis, which was Lu Yin’s very reason for entering the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, yet doing so would cost him his principles.

His resolve was not only for himself, but also for his entire megaverse.

The people of Tianyuan could not be looked down upon. To betray the bond of master and disciple was something that Lu Yin refused to do.

It was quite likely that Mister Mu would also be willing to have Lu Yin become Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s disciple in order to save the Tianyuan Megaverse, but Lu Yin knew he could not compromise on everything. There were times to yield, and there were also times to be willful and doing as he pleased with no regrets or complaints. He had risen from being the innocent Lu Xiaoxuan to the calculating Lu Yin, yet in this moment of choice, both personas stood firm.

If he abandoned even that backbone, then should the Tianyuan survive, what true legacy would remain?

“Thank you for your kind offer, Senior. But I already have a master,” Lu Yin said, bowing once more.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus just smiled softly. “I will tell you this. I will not look down upon you in the slightest for abandoning your master. Because you have comprehended karma, you are the only one who can enter my world. My legacy can only be received by you.

“Now then, what is your choice?”

Lu Yin lifted his head and smiled. “Even if I receive a hundred opportunities, my answer will remain the same: I already have a master.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus sighed. “Stubborn. Laughable. Naive.”

Lu Yin did not argue. That was how anyone would see his choice.

“Still, it does show a certain purity.” Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s tone changed, and there was a tiny hint of admiration as he looked at Lu Yin. “The bond between a master and their disciple cannot be forced. Since fate does not bind us, then let it be. Now, what have you come to see me about?”

Lu Yin answered respectfully, “This junior wishes to help the Azuresword Sovereign become the Odyssey Commander of the Fifth Night Pillar.”

Ming Zhou was right. Setting aside whether or not Lu Yin could become a Lesser Sancte, even if he obtained that title through Greater Sancte Green Lotus, using that status to expel Yue Ya from the Fifth Pillar, or even to simply kill him, would not only offend Greater Sancte Blood Tower, but also humiliate the Nine Odysseys.