Chapter 3867: Humanity’s First Gate

Any action that harmed the Mother Tree was no different from making an eternal enemy of the Rift of Suffering.

Of course, not just anyone was capable of actually harming the Mother Tree.

In the distance, a cascade of jet-black hair hung down like ink spilling from the sky. The sight startled Lu Yin. He looked over to see a woman floating in the sky, staring at him with open curiosity.

Her hair was at least a hundred meters long, and it trailed from her head in a rather unsettling way.

“Ku Nan, what are you doing here?” Ku Cheng asked.

The woman floated closer, though her hair continued to hang about a man’s height above the ground. As she descended, her hair rose up, billowing into the sky. The fact that it was at least a hundred meters in length gave her a very disturbing appearance.

“Senior Brother, is this the one who just fought against Uncle Ku Ji?” Ku Nan asked. Her hair was half-hiding her face, but her eyes remained fixed on Lu Yin.

“Mind your manners,” Ku Cheng reprimanded the woman, “This is Mr. Lu Yin, from the Tianyuan Megaverse. Greet him properly.”

Ku Nan turned to Lu Yin and offered a slight bow. “Greetings, Mr. Lu.”

Lu Yin returned the gesture while studying Ku Nan.

Ku Cheng introduced the woman, “Mr. Lu, this is my junior sister, Ku Nan. She is also an Eighth Rift cultivator. She’s been climbing the Mother Tree this entire time.”

Lu Yin nodded. “Your junior sister’s hair...?”

“I want to cut it,” Ku Nan interjected.

“Then cut it,” Ku Cheng retorted.

“I haven’t climbed out of the rift yet.”

“How much longer do you plan to keep growing it?”

“I’ll cut it as soon as I break through to the Ninth Rift. Senior Brother, don’t let me surpass you,” she warned.

Ku Cheng gave a wry smile.

Lu Yin understood. The long hair was both Ku Nan’s rift and her Dukkha. She wanted to cut it, yet she was unable to do so. Who knew how many more years it would take for her to step into the Ninth Rift realm?

Ku Nan stared at Lu Yin. “Mr. Lu, did you defeat my martial uncle?”

Lu Yin replied, “We only had a friendly spar, so there’s no need to worry about winning or losing.”

Ku Nan’s eyes sparkled. “So you won. Will you take me with you?”

The question startled Lu Yin, and Ku Cheng immediately scolded the woman. “Don’t be ridiculous!”

Ku Nan shot back, “It’s not ridiculous! I want to follow Mr. Lu as he roams about the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Climbing the Mother Tree is no longer enough to satisfy me.”

Ku Cheng shook his head. “Even Master climbed the Mother Tree until he achieved the Ninth Rift. Only after that did he go to the Mindscape Megaverse. What makes you think that you’re any different?”

Ku Nan muttered, “Because I’m better than you...”

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” Ku Nan quickly replied

She then looked at Lu Yin with an expectant expression, but Lu Yin pretended not to notice.

Was this a joke? Take this woman to roam about the Nine Odysseys Megaverse? His reputation would be ruined in no time. Her hundred-meter-long black hair was far too distinctive.

“Mr. Lu, you seemed to have gotten lost in your thoughts while you were looking at the Mother Tree,” Ku Cheng remarked.

Lu Yin nodded and looked back at the Mother Tree. “The Mother Tree bears too much.”

Ku Cheng’s eyes lit up. “You also think so?”

Lu Yin glanced at Ku Cheng. “Let’s get started.”

Ku Cheng nodded. Then, as Lu Yin watched, the man started using the Heartrift. One rift after another appeared, causing the area to grow dark as the void started to collapse. After a moment, the rift inverted, and it instead started suppressing Ku Cheng.

Rift power could empower anything, but it could also be used to suppress a person’s own strength.

Ku Cheng was using the Heartrift to suppress his own strength, leaving him no different from an ordinary human. Only then could he climb the Mother Tree. Doing so as a cultivator held little meaning.

Lu Yin watched as Ku Cheng’s cultivation fell, bit by bit. Eventually, every scrap of power was gathered into the rift, including even the man’s physical strength. It was astonishing to see, though it also served to confirm that the disciples of the Rift of Suffering did not particularly focus on developing their physical strength. It was just the Heartrift that empowered them.

This left Lu Yin even more curious about the Heartrift. Since it was able to enhance a cultivator’s physical strength, if he managed to master the technique to the Ninth Rift, then would his physical power take another leap forward?

Ku Cheng had just demonstrated how they were supposed to climb the Mother Tree. It sounded simple, but Lu Yin was more interested in seeing if the Rift of Suffering disciples were actually able to restrict themselves to the point where they were no different from an ordinary human. As it turned out, they really could.

This proved that the Heartrift really was a method to cultivate the heart, rather than just another type of energy that could be cultivated.

Even the most common cultivators altered themselves the moment they first started cultivating, but the people of the Rift of Suffering were an exception.

The cosmos was vast, and there were innumerable civilizations. Despite all of that, this was a truly unique cultivation method.

The question then became, how should Lu Yin go about trying it?

“We can use Heartrift to suppress you, Mr. Lu. You should be able to experience this same feeling,” Ku Cheng said.

Ku Nan blinked, anticipation sparkling in her eyes. She really wanted to see what it would look like if the two of them both used the Heartrift to suppress someone who had defeated Ku Ji.

Lu Yin remembered how it had felt when he had fallen into Ku Ji’s rift. It was true that, for a moment, everything had been suppressed, including even his physical strength.

“You two... can manage that?”

Ku Nan cocked a brow. “Mr. Lu, are you looking down on us?”

Lu Yin continued to look at Ku Cheng.

The man considered for a moment. “It would be better for us to ask our martial uncle to do it.”

Ku Nan was taken aback. “Senior Brother, would even the two of us working together not be enough?”

Ku Cheng shook his head. “If Mr. Lu wants to have the genuine experience of climbing up the Mother Tree as an ordinary human, the two of us together really won’t be enough.”

Ku Nan was astonished. Even if the people of the Rift of Suffering did not have a love of fighting, they were not completely at peace. If they were, then how could their sect have become the strongest faction in the North Domain?

She was very familiar with Ku Cheng’s personality, and since he was saying this, it had to be true.

Was Lu Yin really that strong?

She had assumed that, even if Lu Yin had managed to defeat Ku Ji, it must have been a narrow victory, but Ku Cheng’s reaction was suggesting that might not have been the case.

It did not take long for Ku Ji to arrive, and he immediately unleashed the Ninth Rift of the Heartrift. While this did not create as much of a commotion as before, it was still considerable. It drew the attention of the nearby Rift of Suffering cultivators who were currently climbing the Mother Tree, while also startling some nearby passersby.

There were very, very few people, even in a place as large as the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, who possessed the power of the Ninth Rift.

The rift descended and swallowed Lu Yin.

Again, he felt the sensation of being devoured and suppressed. He raised a hand and touched the Mother Tree, but his fingers still dug into the bark. His physical strength had not been fully suppressed. Not even Ku Ji was able to fully suppress Lu Yin.

“Please, both of you join him,” Lu Yin said.

Ku Cheng and Ku Nan automatically looked to Ku Ji, who just nodded. “Mr. Lu’s power is unmatched. We of the Rift of Suffering can only admire him. You two, help me.”

Ku Nan was truly stunned at that moment. She took a deep breath as she released her Eighth Rift, its darkness merging with Ku Ji’s, making the rift even darker.

Lu Yin looked up. As he had expected, they could fuse their techniques.

The hallmark of factions from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse was that they could merge their techniques with one another.

Ruler Garden, the Autumnspring Slip, and the Four Commands Sword Sect were all capable of merging techniques, and the Rift of Suffering was no exception. Merging techniques allowed them to erupt with far greater power.

Ku Cheng’s Eighth Rift also merged with Ku Ji’s rift.

The suppression of three merged rifts left Lu Yin unable to see anything in his surroundings, and even the Mother Tree vanished. There was only darkness. He felt his consciousness dropping and his entire body falling.

Unfortunately, it still was not enough.

He pressed his hand against the Mother Tree. It was possible that it would have worked before his breakthrough to the Origin realm, but given Lu Yin’s current might, without another Ninth Rift added, the Heartrift could not suppress his physical strength.

Even just Lu Yin’s physical strength was more than what Ku Ji and the others could suppress combined.

They did not understand just how vast the gap between them and Lu Yin truly was.

As Lu Yin’s fingertips trembled, the other three were startled, and the rift dissipated. “Mr. Lu, is it still... not enough?”

Lu Yin turned and smiled at Ku Ji. “Thank you, Senior, but it seems that this path doesn’t suit me.”

Ku Ji was amazed. “Even with the three of us combined, we still can’t suppress your physical strength. Your power is truly exceptional throughout the ages.”

Ku Nan was stunned. Were they still unable to suppress this man? How many people in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse were capable of resisting such power?

“It’s possible that your path lies in the Mindscape Megaverse, just like Greater Sancte Awe Gate’s in the past,” Ku Cheng said.

Lu Yin was intrigued. “Greater Sancte Awe Gate?”

Ku Cheng nodded. “Greater Sancte Awe Gate stepped into Immortality by using the Mindscape Megaverse as a catalyst.”

Lu Yin had never heard anything about this before. When he had been in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse for a bit of time, no one had ever been willing to speak about the Greater Sancti. The few times anyone had, they had only revealed absolute reverence, and they had never mentioned any of the Greater Sancti’s pasts.

“She broke through to the Immortal realm in the Mindscape Megaverse?”

Ku Ji looked up at the starry sky, as though peering through the Mother Tree’s canopy. “It happened so long ago that not many know about it any longer, but our Rift of Suffering has an ancient lineage. Thus, we’ve managed to preserve some of the story.

“There have always been Greater Sancti here in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Even when I was born, this was simply common knowledge. Many see the Greater Sancti much like they do the Mother Tree, as both are seemingly eternal. However, the Greater Sancti all achieved what they have through cultivation.”

Lu Yin grew thoughtful. This explained why, throughout his time in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, no one had ever discussed the Greater Sancti. In most people’s minds, the Immortals had always existed, just like the Mother Tree. There was no need to question their existence.

Only those who had managed to become peak Dukkhans and possessed the qualifications to pursue the Immortal realm would seek out knowledge of such things.

Ku Ji was clearly one such person, as were Ku Cheng and Ku Nan. All of them had achieved their cultivation through their own efforts, having never accepted a Seed Transfusion.

“Greater Sancte Awe Gate was a peerless genius throughout all of history. During her era, she was truly able to claim to be unrivaled. She created a list of the megaverse’s most powerful experts and then fought them through in the sky and across the earth. Even when she faced an Immortal, while she retreated seven steps while spitting out blood, she did not fall. That happened to be the same era when we went to war with the Mindscape Megaverse.

“The Nine Odysseys’ experts fell one after another as countless people threw themselves into the Mindscape Megaverse. In the end, all that remained of that megaverse was the Deep Rift Universe. Everyone who entered that place never returned. Even Greater Sancte Green Lotus said that only an Immortal could enter that rift and eliminate the most powerful being in the Mindscape Megaverse.

“Yet Greater Sancte Awe Gate plunged in anyway. At the time, she wasn’t even an Immortal, but she still entered the Deep Rift Universe alone.” As Ku Ji spoke, his eyes burned with excitement. His respect for the Greater Sancte had reached the peak. “Even now, after the Mindscape Megaverse had been destroyed, very few would dare to jump into that rift. Even without that powerful being lurking in its depths, who would actually dare to jump in?

“I once stood above the Deep Rift Universe... but I did not dare to jump.

“Across all the generations of the Rift of Suffering’s sect masters, those who dared to jump can be counted on one hand.”

“I also didn’t dare,” Ku Cheng said.

“Me neither,” Ku Nan added.

Ku Ji was staring at Lu Yin. “We could not jump, though not because we feared death. It was because the Deep Rift Universe contains a soul-chilling terror. It amplifies the rift within your own heart. The more you want to jump, the less you will dare to actually do so. Just stand at the edge, and the darkness will be enough to drown you. Death isn’t that frightening... The Deep Rift Universe is far more terrifying than death.

“It provokes a primal fear that your very being can never overcome.

“Despite that, Greater Sancte Awe Gate jumped. She slew the most powerful being of the Mindscape Megaverse within the depths of the Deep Rift Universe, climbed back up, and then vanished into the Aevum Inch for a thousand years. When she returned, she had already become an Immortal.”

Ku Ji lifted his head and intoned,

“Enter this Gate, and on the Jade Terrace the spirit is reborn divine;

tread the Sparrow’s Path, and a startled swan takes wing toward Immortality:

Humanity’s First Gate.”

Lu Yin stared at Ku Ji, his words echoing endlessly in his mind.

Making a list of the megaverse’s experts.

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Fighting through the sky and across the earth.

Going to war with the Nine Odysseys.

Retreating seven steps, yet still standing.

Leaping into the Deep Rift Universe.

The human race’s Awe Gate.

That... was Greater Sancte Awe Gate.