Chapter 3896: Megaverse's Reset

Far away, Gu Duanke stepped out. His previous fatigue was nowhere to be seen, and his eyes revealed a newfound depth as he moved to the top of the Mother Tree.

Lu Yin looked over. He could see sequence strings filling the sky, all of them converging upon the Mother Tree, much like how they had converged upon the Immemorial Citadel in the Tianyuan Megaverse. This was the origin and end destination of the megaverse’s sequence threads.

In the Tianyuan, the Origin Progenitor had held the sequence threads tight, but in the Orchid Megaverse, the miasma seemed to be suppressing them. However, Venerable Lan Ye had absorbed a tremendous amount of that miasma, which had caused the sequence threads to scatter and push the timeline of the megaverse’s reset forward.

Gu Duanke’s task was to immediately push things to the point of no return.

The Seventh Night Pillar’s people slaughtered the Lan Beasts while the invited guests stared at the sky, waiting for the reset to be triggered.

A sword attack sliced across the sky, cutting through the ground below as well and causing the universe to tremble. The surviving Lan Beasts screamed, producing strange and piercing cries. Dark-green miasma scattered in all directions as the Mother Tree cracked. Its bark continued to peel back, and miasma erupted from within, looking like a dark-green waterfall.

Cracks appeared across the starry sky as universes clashed, overlapping and pressing against each other. Stars shattered, and the megaverse itself started to collapse.

Gu Duanke landed beneath the Night Pillar and raised his sword up to tap one end of the pillar. An unseen force struck the Seventh Night Pillar, and it flew off.

Everyone who was on the Seventh Night Pillar went with it.

Lu Yin arched a brow as he peered downwards. The strike that Gu Duanke had just used on the Night Pillar was a bit intriguing. He had not used brute force, but something even stronger. He had swept his sword intent across the Night Pillar, but he had not actually struck it. Instead, only the weight of the sword intent had acted on the Night Pillar. While a single strand of sword intent could not move the Seventh Night Pillar, in one slash, Gu Duanke had released hundreds of strands of sword intent, and they had worked together to push the Night Pillar out of the Orchid Megaverse.

The Odyssey Commander lacked the physical strength to move a Night Pillar, but his sword was able to cut through everything.

By using sword intent to simulate brute force, Gu Duanke had accomplished something that others could not, and he had done so quite easily. This was the ability of the Sword Sovereign of the Nine Odysseys.

It was impossible to say how long it would take Gu Jing to reach the same level of mastery.

After all, Gu Duanke had only released a casual strike.

Aside from Lu Yin, no one paid any attention to Gu Duanke’s attack. They were all staring at the Orchid Megaverse, watching as the reset started.

When a megaverse underwent a reset, stars would burst apart and be annihilated. All things would cease to exist. Sequence threads snapped chaotically, throwing parallel universes into disorder. Celestial phenomena overlapped and intertwined, forming countless scenes that defied comprehension. These scenes were exactly what was sought by those who were not yet peak Dukkhans, yet were still able to witness a reset.

Each person was born in a megaverse and would also die in a megaverse. Everything existed because of the megaverse, and all that came into being within the megaverse would follow the same logic as the megaverse itself. In fact, even cultivation was nothing more than applying that logic to an individual.

The Immortal realm was essentially obtaining the mentality of the eternal existence of the megaverse.

Many people were able to achieve enlightenment by witnessing a megaverse’s reset, and just a single moment of enlightenment could alter an entire life.

Venerable Lan Ye did not return to the Night Pillar. He remained in the Orchid Megaverse to experience the restart.

Soon, another person shot away from the Seventh Night Pillar, returning to the Orchid Megaverse. It was a peak Dukkhan who Lu Yin had never seen before.

There were many experts hiding throughout the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

As the man shot off, Lu Sizhan, Wan Lou, Jing Lian, Wei Heng, and many others also headed back to the Orchid Megaverse.

Even Luo Ning and Si Jiushi went.

Even peak powerhouses were just barely able to withstand the dangers of a megaverse’s reset. If they encountered a powerful astral phenomenon, they would still die. Anyone weaker than that was incapable of even attempting such a thing.

Of the almost 1,000 people who had been invited to join the Seventh Night Pillar to witness the reset of the Orchid Megaverse, nearly everyone raced back to the megaverse. No one who feared death would have accepted the invitation.

Only by experiencing a reset up close could they have any chance of gaining some insight.

Some of the people from the Seventh Night Pillar also rushed back into the megaverse.

Qing Yun joined them. Granny Yin wanted to accompany the young woman, but she was stopped by Qing Yun, who told the old lady to seek out her own enlightenment.

Jian Hong and Jiu Xian also went.

Gu Duanke took a step forward, heading back into the Orchid Megaverse. “While I’ve witnessed a megaverse being reset once before, I still have to try.”

Lu Yin likewise moved back towards the Orchid Megaverse.

He had not expected to see a megaverse’s reset so soon.

He wanted to see for himself how a megaverse being reset could allow someone to step into the Immortal realm.

As soon as he entered the Orchid Megaverse, he was surrounded by extremely unstable space. Spatial tears criss-crossed through the entire megaverse, and there was hardly a region with stable space. Several of the cultivators who had entered had already been devoured by the tears, while another had been crushed between two parallel universes, leaving nothing behind.

Lu Yin stood in outer space, surrounded by black fissures, though none of them could cause even the slightest bit of harm to him.

A roar rang out above his head as lightning exploded. At times, the Hollow appeared, devouring everything it touched.

This was the end of the megaverse.

The Mother Tree had already collapsed, and it was floating through outer space, breaking apart and shrinking as its fragments were swallowed by the spatial tears.

Even the miasma was absorbed by the spatial tears.

When Lu Yin peered into the distance, the farther regions looked brighter. At the limits of his vision, there was a single point of light that kept twisting and changing. It moved as if the megaverse itself was breathing, each breath shredding countless universes.

Lu Yin saw Gu Duanke. The man was deliberately seeking out places where parallel universes overlapped, and he seemed to be grabbing at something.

Venerable Lan Ye sank into the broken Mother Tree as miasma continued to spread everywhere, and he was also grasping for something.

The unknown peak Dukkhan was doing the same thing.

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered, and the feeling of frenzied madness rose up within him. With it, he could see what was happening. There was densely packed Immortal matter everywhere. That was what Gu Duanke and the others were trying to capture: Immortal matter.

Were they actually capable of seeing Immortal matter?

No, that did not seem quite right. The peak Dukkhans were only able to see the Immortal matter that appeared in the places where universes overlapped. However, there was Immortal matter everywhere in the megaverse. It was just that they were unable to perceive it.

Lu Yin did not bother considering where the Immortal matter had come from. He immediately understood why peak Dukkhans were able to break through to the Immortal realm during the reset of a megaverse.

That was because it was the only time when they could find and capture Immortal matter at the intersections between universes. There was no other time and no other cultivators that could perceive the Immortal matter. No wonder, no wonder.

But this was not enough. Simply possessing Immortal matter was not enough for a breakthrough.

Lu Yin focused on Venerable Lan Ye. The man had successfully grabbed the most Immortal matter by using the miasma, and for some unknown reason, multiple universes kept overlapping around him. Was it possible that this was because he had formed a connection with the Orchid Megaverse?

Gu Duanke and the unknown peak Dukkhan could not compare to Lan Ye’s success, even when their efforts were combined.

There were moments when every breath that Lan Ye took pulled more Immortal matter into his body.

Lu Yin also started to capture Immortal matter. He could not ignore such an incredible opportunity.

He had not expected the thing that he desired the most, Immortal matter, to be so abundant during a megaverse’s reset.

Nothing else mattered. He would first capture as much as possible.

That frenzied sense of madness allowed Lu Yin to see Immortal matter, and with that, he could capture it freely, and at a speed that was incomparable to what he had enjoyed in the Consciousness Megaverse.

In the Consciousness Megaverse, Immortal matter had only existed in the Broken Realms, which had forced him to slowly search for it. But in the shattering Orchid Megaverse, he simply needed to enter the area with the densest Immortal matter and grab it all. It was more than ten times faster compared to the Broken Realms.

Lu Yin’s eyes grew bloodshot. The more Immortal matter he gathered, the greater his chances were of standing against an Immortal opponent again.

He also continued to observe Gu Duanke and the others, just as they were observing him.

When they saw that Lu Yin was actually able to seize Immortal matter, everyone was shocked. This was only exacerbated by the fact that it was clear that Lu Yin was not even focusing on the places where universes overlapped. No one could understand how he was still succeeding.

He was a young man who had only just become an Ortuser, and he had not even entered Dukkha yet. Was it possible that he could skip Dukkha entirely and directly break through to the Immortal realm?

Not even Gu Duanke could understand the situation.

Venerable Lan Ye also noticed Lu Yin. Miasma filled his eyes. So long as he was in the Orchid Megaverse, he was like a fish in water.

When the man saw that Lu Yin was capturing Immortal matter at least as quickly as Lan Ye himself, he was also completely shocked. Still, he quickly composed himself. It did not matter what Lu Yin was doing. Lan Ye’s own breakthrough was all that truly mattered to him.

Aside from Lu Yin, the others were either capturing Immortal matter or simply observing the phenomena that appeared as the megaverse collapsed and reset. Some experienced sudden enlightenment, some died, and others coughed up blood from a lack of patience.

Qing Yun told Granny Yin not to worry about her and to try to break through to the Immortal realm herself, but she only received a bitter smile in return. The woman had become a peak Dukkhan by accepting a Seed Transfusion, which meant that she had no chance of ever becoming an Immortal. For her, there was no point in even trying.

Besides, she was not even capable of perceiving Immortal matter.

Peak Dukkhans were split into two distinct groups. Those who had cultivated on their own to reach that level were able to see Immortal matter, while those who had accepted a Seed Transfusion could not.

The cosmos was fair, and there was no shortcut to Immortality.

The reset of a megaverse was a slow process and not an instantaneous event.

However, Immortal matter only appeared during the initial years of the process, which was why those years were all that people cared about.

Half a year passed by quickly. Lu Yin’s eyes were still bloodshot, as he continued to capture Immortal matter ten times faster than he had in the Consciousness Megaverse. How could he not be excited?

One day, he suddenly felt a strange sensation, and he quickly moved across the universe to where the Mother Tree had fallen. There, he saw Venerable Lan Ye.

At that moment, Lan Ye was almost dead. This was not due to any sort of external cause, but rather because the Immortal matter that he had gathered had triggered a backlash.

Lu Yin had never even thought about whether it was possible to experience backlash from Immortal matter.

It was clearly Immortal matter, and yet it could still cause one to die. The cosmos was a truly strange place.

And yet, Lan Ye was taking a vital step towards achieving the comprehension needed to enter the Immortal realm.

After capturing Immortal matter, a cultivator would use it to force their body into a repeating cycle of birth and death, harmonizing with the megaverse that was being reset. Success would result in them becoming an Immortal, with the Immortal matter permanently fusing with them, able to be used or seen freely. However, the most crucial detail of this step was not the Immortal matter itself, but rather one’s state of mind.

Only by harmonizing with the destruction and rebirth of a megaverse with the destruction and rebirth of one’s own self could one become an Immortal.

Lu Yin had believed that there was no shortcut to the Immortal realm, but the truth was that resetting a megaverse itself was a shortcut.

Breaking through to the Immortal realm without any outside means and overcoming Dukkha was incredibly difficult, to the point where it was practically unheard of. However, if one could substitute their own self with the megaverse and harmonize their mind with the megaverse, it would be easier to take that step into the Immortal realm.

If Venerable Lan Ye could align his mindset with the destruction and rebirth of the Orchid Megaverse, he would be able to absorb the Immortal matter that he had gathered. Not only would he not suffer any backlash, but he would also immediately enter the Immortal realm.

That was the step that he was trying to take, because he had already gathered enough Immortal matter for him to suffer a backlash.

Gu Duanke also arrived and observed Venerable Lan Ye.

“I’ve tried to take this step before... only to fail.”

Lu Yin looked at Gu Duanke. “What does it feel like?”

Gu Duanke gave a bitter smile. “If I understood what I felt, how would I still be stuck as a Dukkhan?”