Chapter 3895: Responsibility

Suspecting something and having those suspicions confirmed were two completely different things. Venerable Lan Ye looked at Lu Yin enviously. “Do you understand what the power of karma means to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse? It is the oldest and greatest power in the entire history of our megaverse. Greater Sancte Green Lotus is known as the oldest cultivator in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, and we regard the power of karma as the very origin of cultivation. While no one else has been able to cultivate the power other than Greater Sancte Green Lotus, for endless years, its existence has served as the faith of countless people.

“The Nine Odysseys have continuously searched for someone who can comprehend karma, but no trace has ever been found. To all of us, karma is the heavens, absolute and inescapable.”

Lu Yin looked away.

The heavens?

As it turned out, the power of karma had an even greater influence on the Nine Odysseys Megaverse than he had imagined.

He had already known that the people of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse held the power of karma in extremely high regard. The first time he saw a family offer their thanks to the universe, Si Jiushi had mentioned that the family was seeking karma’s favor. The people of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse knew that karma was real, and they believed in it. It was no different from ordinary humans that believed in a god because they had seen one. It was a steadfast faith that was completely unshakable.

It was faith in something that could be felt.

No matter how high Venerable Lan Ye’s cultivation might reach, even if he eventually became an Immortal, he would always retain an instinctive awe and yearning for the power of karma.

With Lu Yin admitting that he had comprehended karma, Venerable Lan Ye looked at him in an entirely different manner. While he did not know if he would be able to become an Immortal himself, the man knew that Lu Yin would eventually be able to do so.

Already, he was the most powerful individual beneath the Immortal realm.

“Thank you, Mr. Lu, for telling me. I will take my leave now.” The matter that had been weighing down on Venerable Lan Ye’s heart had finally been settled. He had received an answer.

“Wait.”

Venerable Lan Ye looked back at Lu Yin. “Is there anything else, Mr. Lu?”

Lu Yin said, “You only recently became a peak Dukkhan, and yet you’re already on your way to see the Orchid Megaverse’s reset. Don’t you feel that things are being rushed?”

Venerable Lan Ye’s voice grew bitter. “There will only be one chance to witness the Orchid Megaverse’s reset. If I miss this chance, without becoming an Immortal, I won’t live to see another opportunity. It would be too long for even a peak Dukkhan to survive.”

“So why is the Orchid Megaverse’s reset coming so quickly?” Lu Yin was quite puzzled by this. Even if it was being done for Venerable Lan Ye’s sake, the Orchid Megaverse should not have been reset this soon. He was aware that Venerable Lan Ye had some sort of connection to the Orchid Megaverse; the man’s Lanleaf Strike was essentially a simulation of the Orchid Megaverse. There was no doubt that Lan Ye would have a better chance of becoming an Immortal through this megaverse’s reset than anyone else.

It was impossible that the Nine Odysseys had overlooked this detail.

Venerable Lan Ye sighed. “It’s actually my fault.”

Lu Yin was confused.

Venerable Lan Ye explained. “Previously...”

Lu Yin listened silently and quickly understood. There was a reason why the Orchid Megaverse was being reset so quickly, and it was actually because of Venerable Lan Ye.

Because of his special physique, the man had joined the Seventh Night Pillar on its expedition to destroy the Orchid Megaverse. Fighting against the megaverse had also been a way of cultivating for the man, and during his time there, he had become a peak Dukkhan. His progress had delighted everyone, even drawing praise from the Greater Sancti, which had exacerbated Venerable Lan Ye’s pride.

He had only become a peak Dukkhan because of the Orchid Megaverse, but during that process, he had absorbed too much of the megaverse’s miasma, which had destabilized it. Originally, it would have taken another hundred or even a thousand years for the reset to occur, but because it had also been destabilized after multiple parallel universes collapsed, the Orchid Megaverse’s reset had been accelerated, going from at least a century to just over ten years.

“I only learned of this recently. In fact, the Odyssey Commander was informed of this matter by a Greater Sancte a few years after the Seventh Night Pillar returned, but I was not informed, as they feared disrupting my state of mind. After I returned from my battle with you, he finally informed me upon seeing my change in attitude.” Venerable Lan Ye stared out into the darkness of the Aevum Inch. “If I could have slowly cultivated to the peak Dukkhan level and then watched the Orchid Megaverse’s reset, then with my special physique and my understanding of the Orchid Megaverse, I would have at least a ten percent higher chance of successfully breaking through.

“I was too impatient, but not even the Immortal Greater Sancti foresaw this.”

Lu Yin commented, “The Immortal Greater Sancti didn’t expect you to have such an impact on Orchid Megaverse?”

Venerable Lan Ye shrugged. “That’s exactly the case. I’m not even from the Orchid Megaverse, and yet I affected it so much. No one could have anticipated that. Fortunately, breaking through to the Immortal realm is not about the time that one has spent cultivating, but rather about their comprehension and the right opportunity.”

Determination firmed his gaze. “Immortality is a process, and what breaks through is one’s state of mind. At that moment, your perspective experiences the birth and death of all things. That’s what the Greater Sancte told me. While the time that one has spent cultivating is important, it’s not everything. If your perspective properly aligns, it is still possible to become an Immortal.

“Mr. Lu, you must have only cultivated for a short amount of time, but given your strength, I believe that, if you become an Immortal, you’ll be the youngest Immortal in history.”

Lu Yin met Lan Ye’s gaze. The man was seeking affirmation from Lu Yin. “Perhaps.”

Venerable Lan Ye took a deep breath. “I’ll take my leave.”

Another year passed, which made it three years since the Night Pillar had left the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

One day, Lu Yin saw a dark-green thing appear in the distance. As the Night Pillar drew closer, that dark-green color eclipsed the Aevum Inch and became the only color that could be seen.

As time passed, the others on the Seventh Night Pillar also noticed the change. The people who were part of the Seventh Night Pillar were used to the sight and thus felt nothing from it. However, the invited cultivators were amazed.

They had traveled from one megaverse to another, and they were seeing an entirely new environment now. Everything that they once knew was being replaced. The novelty was indescribable.

In particular, when many people saw the massive Mother Tree, they let out shouts.

Lu Yin stared at the distant Mother Tree in absolute shock. What was so special about these trees? The Tianyuan Megaverse, the Spirit Nidus, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, and the Orchid Megaverse all had one. Was it possible that every megaverse had a Mother Tree? Why?

The Nine Odysseys Megaverse had blackened the Spirit Nidus’s Mother Tree in order to avoid a catastrophe. Lu Yin could not understand how that worked, but it seemed possible for there to be some sort of connection between the Mother Trees.

If that’s true, then what of the tree with mirebound artifacts hanging from its branches that appears every time I make a major breakthrough? Which megaverse does that Mother Tree belong to? Or, is it possible that it’s not a Mother Tree at all?

The megaverse was dark-green, rather than black.

Even the outer space in the Orchid Megaverse had a dark-green tint to it.

The Night Pillar shot out of the Aevum Inch to smash into the Mother Tree. Nearly half of the pillar’s length became embedded in the tree.

The Mother Tree shuddered, and countless dark-green dots fell from it.

Lu Yin initially thought that the tree’s leaves and branches were falling, but when he looked closer, he realized that they were actually strange creatures. Their skin made them look like withered twigs covered with fangs, and they all charged at the Night Pillar.

Everywhere he looked, the same kind of strange creatures were swarming through the sky and across the ground. They came in all kinds of sizes and shapes, and looked less like creatures and more like plants that had grown claws and teeth. They crawled forward, dragging each other towards the Night Pillar.

Some people stepped away from the Seventh Night Pillar. “How are there still so many of them? These orchid beasts reproduce way too fast.”

“Orchid beasts?”

“You must not have heard about them. Brother Ji, ‘orchid beasts’ is what we call all of the Orchid Megaverse’s creatures. These things feed on the natural miasma in this megaverse, and they come in all kinds of strange shapes. There’s no fixed species, but they all lack intelligence and are filled with miasma. Their method of reproduction is also unique: two orchid beasts will connect their inner miasma, and from that merging, new orchid beasts are born.”

“These orchid beasts don’t seem strong.” Someone attacked, and they managed to destroy a massive number of the beasts.

Jian Hong stepped forward from the Seventh Night Pillar and looked up. A swing of his sword cleared a region of the sky. “Don’t underestimate these orchid beasts. They fill this entire megaverse. Each parallel universe gave birth to its own unique orchid beasts due to the presence of the miasma. The strongest creatures here once managed to cause even a peak Dukkhan to rot with their miasma. That person was even stronger than the current Venerable Lan Ye.”

People were shocked by that revelation, and many looked over at Venerable Lan Ye.

The man did not deny the claim.

Jian Hong had not been part of the expedition to destroy the Orchid Megaverse, but everyone who had would only use a single word to describe the war: brutal.

Realistically, every expedition to a foreign megaverse was brutal. The Nine Odysseys did not fight against a single universe, but rather against civilizations that had spread across countless parallel universes within a single megaverse. It was impossible to survive such a clash without sufficient strength.

Every expedition that the Nine Odysseys Megaverse launched resulted in countless casualties.

“What you currently see is the remains after the Orchid Megaverse’s civilization has already been destroyed,” one person from the Seventh Night Pillar said with a sigh.

The people who had been invited to watch the reset of the megaverse stopped looking down on the Orchid Megaverse. Expressions grew serious as people attacked the orchid beasts.

Lu Yin was staring at the Mother Tree. The miasma had spread to countless parallel universes throughout the Orchid Megaverse, eliminating all lifeforms that were unable to live with miasma, while also giving birth to more orchid beasts. Without the miasma, the megaverse would have been an entirely different place.

Lu Yin was finally seeing a third civilization, aside from humanity.

Eerie howls rang through the miasma.

All kinds of orchid beasts appeared in every direction. Some were as small as a person’s hand, while others were large enough to climb onto the Night Pillar, looking like giant, dark-green spiders.

Countless sword slashes rained down, killing a orchid beast that possessed countless tentacles. That creature had possessed the strength of a peak powerhouse, and it had been the strongest creature that had appeared so far.

“All members of the Seventh Night Pillar, exterminate the orchid beasts. Attack!”

The war drums boomed as Stormmaw's Roar carried the sound across the entire Orchid Megaverse.

Venerable Lan Ye stepped forward, his hand upraised as he grabbed hold of the void. The endless miasma was seized like a curtain and then compressed. Both the sky and the ground grew clear, and hordes of orchid beasts died. Without miasma, they were unable to live for very long.

“The orchid beasts live by relying on the Mother Tree. As soon as these creatures die, there will be almost none left in the Orchid Megaverse. However, as long as any miasma remains, new ones will still spawn.

“But that doesn’t matter. This megaverse is about to be reset.” Odyssey Commander Gu Duanke’s voice rang out as sword intent sliced the sky apart. The attack reached a great distance, and cut through something.

An indistinct, massive shadow twisted in the distance and then exploded.

Many shivered at the sight.

Strange and terrifying auras reached them from far away.

They were seeing the power of the Orchid Megaverse after it had already been defeated. None of the newcomers could imagine just how powerful the megaverse must have been in its prime.

Si Jiushi’s face turned pale. What a terrible place. He was lucky that he had not listened to his master and had avoided participating in the Nine Odysseys’ expedition to destroy a foreign megaverse. Going would have been suicide.

Wei Heng’s eyes were blazing. He struggled to suppress his fighting spirit as he waited.

At this moment, everyone needed to wait for the megaverse to be reset.

Qing Yun watched as countless orchid beasts swarmed them from above and below. Miasma spread out again, and she murmured, “We may see them as monsters, but we might be the monsters to other civilizations.”

Granny Yin’s expression turned grave. “That’s precisely why this Orchid Megaverse had to be destroyed. We don’t want to end up like them.

“Anytime one destroys another for their own gain, they are being hypocritical. Some who can shoulder that hypocrisy are needed. They carry a responsibility heavier than life itself.”