Chapter 3901: Elimination

Verdant Sages embodied the collective strengths of all creatures that had been born from the Nests in that megaverse. They were creatures of destiny, possessing extraordinary talent that allowed them to cultivate to great heights in a very short amount of time. Still, no matter how fast they could cultivate, there was still a limit. This Verdant Sage could not surpass the power that Wilderness God had gathered over the course of countless years. Ultimately, the Verdant Sage was beaten to death by Wilderness God.

As the Verdant Sage died, a stunningly beautiful woman with delicate features and snow-white skin calmly watched on from an inconspicuous location in the universe. She looked like a crystal sculpture; her beauty was completely flawless, save for the fact that her eyes were pupilless and were completely white. She was Mo Bai, and she was also a Verdant Sage.

Standing next to Mo Bai was Yu Leng.

Yu Leng was shocked by the power revealed in the battle between Wilderness God and the Verdant Sage, and he looked at Mo Bai. “You really won’t interfere?”

Mo Bai blandly replied, “I can’t. Humans are a highly adaptable species. Just a single journey outside of their megaverse has completely transformed them.”

“That’s a Verdant Sage that we painstakingly raised.”

“It doesn’t matter. The Verdant Sages must also face elimination.” As she finished speaking, she peered up at the stars in the sky with a slight frown. “Why... does it feel like it’s getting farther and farther away?”

...

In the Orchid Megaverse, Lu Yin sat atop a peak on the Seventh Night Pillar with his eyes closed. He rested for ten days.

He was suffering from an indescribable headache. He felt as if his skull was resetting along with the megaverse.

It was the aftermath of overusing the frenzied madness; he had experienced a similar backlash in the Consciousness Megaverse. Lu Yin had thought that the backlash would be tolerable after he became an Ortuser, but apparently, he had severely underestimated the ferocity of that madness.

The backlash felt similar to rolling six pips on his die, as though he was breaking through some kind of barrier. All he could do was force himself to endure the pain.

Still, it had taken much, much longer for the backlash to appear, compared to in the Consciousness Megaverse.

He had already gathered nearly 30,000 bits of Immortal matter. Fifteen years had passed since they left the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, which meant that they had spent twelve years in the Orchid Megaverse.

Many people had died during those twelve years. Lu Yin had personally witnessed the deaths of Lei Gong and Venerable Lan Ye, but almost a hundred others had also perished. All of them had entered the Orchid Megaverse so that they could experience the reset of a megaverse up close. But instead, they had died.

Everything had a cost. People wanted to experience a transformation, but they had paid with their lives.

Gu Duanke returned again to ask Lu Yin when he intended to leave.

“Are you in a hurry?”

“Not really. If you wish to stay longer, Mr. Lu, of course we can. But... you probably won’t gain much more.”

“Why’s that?” Lu Yin was puzzled.

Gu Duanke looked at the distant Orchid Megaverse that was still being reset. “It takes a very long time for a megaverse to be reset, but only the first few decades are valuable to us, as that is when Immortal matter is released and concentrated near the sequence threads. After that, the Immortal matter will disperse. While we might initially be able to grab ten a day, it will soon become just one a day, then one every ten days, and then one every hundred days. The deteriorating collection rate happens very quickly.

“At first, just a year or two of gathering is enough for us to attempt a breakthrough to the Immortal realm, but later, say after a hundred years, it might be impossible no matter how much time passes. It becomes incalculable, because the Immortal matter disperses throughout the entire megaverse as it resets. It becomes as difficult to catch Immortal matter as it is for a mortal to catch a butterfly. Once it’s fully dispersed, finding even a single bit of Immortal matter is like fishing for a needle in the ocean.

“Even for you, Mr. Lu, it won’t be easy.”

This was outside of Lu Yin’s expectations. This meant that it would soon be even more difficult to gather Immortal matter in the Orchid Megaverse than in the Consciousness Megaverse.

In the Consciousness Megaverse, Immortal matter was confined to the Broken Realms. So long as a Broken Realm was discovered, there would be Immortal matter there. It was different in the Orchid Megaverse. As the Immortal matter dispersed, it would become more difficult to find it than a needle in an ocean. He would not even be able to rely on his strength to instantly search through an entire universe. That thought alone gave him a headache.

It would be no easier than a mortal searching through outer space.

“I thought that it would take at least a few decades for the Immortal matter to disperse,” Gu Duanke continued, “But I didn’t expect that, besides Lan Ye who collected it at an extraordinary speed, you, Mr. Lu, would be even faster. That caused the entire process to accelerate.”

Lu Yin nodded. “In that case, let’s head back.”

For the last year, he had noticed that it took him much longer to find Immortal matter, which had resulted in his gathering speed slowing drastically. He also did not know how long he would suffer from the aftereffects of the frenzied madness. There was simply no sense in staying any longer.

He had already gathered nearly thirty 30,000 bits of Immortal matter. While this was no match for a true Immortal, it would at least allow Lu Yin to throw his weight around a bit.

Gu Duanke breathed a sigh of relief. “Alright. We’ll return now.”

A bit more than half a month later, the Seventh Night Pillar trembled as the spirit treasure formation released the power of the Morrow Behemoth from its base. As that happened, the Night Pillar shot forward, moving back towards the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

It left in the same manner as it had arrived, retracing the exact same path backwards.

Lu Yin stared back at the Orchid Megaverse, which grew smaller and smaller in his sight. Once the reset finished, no one would return to the megaverse. Even after billions of years passed and new life appeared, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse would most likely not return to the megaverse. At least, not unless it presented a reason to be destroyed.

Would Lu Yin still be around at that time?

He might, if he became an Immortal. What would he be like at that time?

Lu Yin continued to stare back in a daze, until the Orchid Megaverse was completely gone from sight.

The Aevum Inch was pitch black. Many of the nearly 1,000 cultivators who had been invited on the journey had died, but those who had survived had all undergone transformations. All of them were eager to return to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and shock their families and loved ones.

It had taken three years to reach the Orchid Megaverse, and it would take another three years to return to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

For the first year of the journey, Lu Yin did not move. Even after the aftereffects of using the frenzied madness faded away, he remained where he was. He released his inner universe and explored the green light that had appeared.

However, no matter what he did, he could not figure anything out, so he eventually gave up.

In his inner universe, there was a tremendous amount of liquified spirit seeds and Immortal matter, which gave him great confidence. 30,000 bits of Immortal matter was enough for him to unleash the Tri-Azure Sword Intent 30,000 times. He could already imagine releasing that many Immortal-level Tri-Azure Sword Intents. They would fill the entire sky. Even if he faced that Immortal monster again, he would be able to unleash a storm.

He absolutely had to thank the Great Master for providing him with a place in this journey.

He definitely had to pay a visit to Deathmound.

𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Some time later, Lu Yin wandered about the Seventh Night Pillar, and he eventually found Jiu Xian.

She gave him a helpless look as she slowly bowed to him. “Mr. Lu.”

Lu Yin observed Jiu Xian. When they had met in the Spirit Nidus, she had treated him as a child, but her attitude was completely different at this moment. “When did you return to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse?”

“Shortly before the Seventh Night Pillar left for the Orchid Megaverse.”

“Where were you before that?”

“First, I was in Beacon City, and later, I returned to the Spirit Nidus.”

“How is Beacon City?”

Jiu Xian thought for a moment, and then she let out a heavy sigh. “Beacon City was completely destroyed. That Immortal beast merely brushed past it, and yet more than half of the city vanished. If you hadn’t warned us in time, Mr. Lu, I don’t know how many people would have died.”

Lu Yin’s voice dropped low. “No matter what, I was the one who led it there. Any deaths are on me.”

Jiu Xian did not argue. There was no right or wrong in this matter. Lu Yin had used Beacon City’s springboard to escape from the beast, which had not been wrong. It was in line with how cultivators behaved. The others had merely been unlucky to get caught up as collateral damage. Such things happened every day among cultivators.

Lu Yin had warned the city, which had let some flee in time. Others had not reacted quickly enough and had died. That was on them.

Jiu Xian was clear on one thing; no one from Beacon City blamed Lu Yin. They were aware of reality, and there were no saints among cultivators.

She was simply surprised to learn that Lu Yin felt guilty over that incident. She had assumed that he did not care at all.

“How are things in the Spirit Nidus now?” Lu Yin asked.

Jiu Xian hesitated. “Not very good.”

Lu Yin was puzzled. “What do you mean? Didn’t Master Qing Cao go back?”

Jiu Xian’s expression turned heavy. “Someone exposed the truth regarding the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.”

That startled Lu Yin, and he immediately thought of Yong Heng.

“I returned to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse because I sensed that something was wrong. Someone’s been stirring up trouble. While I can’t understand their goal, I know that, if I didn’t return right then, I soon wouldn’t be able to.” Jiu Xian’s brow furrowed as she took a sip of wine. “When I left the Spirit Nidus, people were already entering Heavenspire, though the Skyward Gate hadn’t noticed anything yet, so I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to get involved in that.

“Years have passed since then, and I might not know the current situation, but whoever is behind everything clearly has a purpose.”

Lu Yin was curious about something. “You didn’t tell Lesser Sancte Dan Jin about this?”

Jiu Xian shook her head. “I told you, I don’t want to get involved in anything. After spending so many years in the Spirit Nidus, I’ve seen through all of it.”

“You can see both the Spirit Nidus and the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s side of the matter, which makes you feel conflicted, doesn’t it?” Lu Yin saw right through the woman, and she did not deny his insight.

She was a native of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, but after living in the Spirit Nidus for so many years, it was impossible for her to say that she did not care about the place.

The Nine Odysseys Megaverse had suppressed the Spirit Nidus far too much. While the situation had been fine so long as no one knew the truth, as soon as that truth was exposed to the Spirit Nidus, how could they ever breathe easy again?

She had developed a bit of sympathy for them.

Jiu Xian was a Dukkhan, and she had become one of the Spirit Nidus’s Seven Seraphs. However, she was still just a Dukkhan and was unable to see the overall picture.

It was fine for her to sympathize with the Spirit Nidus and be a bit selfish.

Aside from that, whether she had said anything would not make much of a difference. Did the Luo family really not know?

Even with the overall strength of the Spirit Nidus, just one or two random factions from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse could suppress the entire Spirit Nidus. What truly mattered was who was pulling the strings behind the scenes.

Lu Yin started thinking. Master Qing Cao was in the Spirit Nidus, but Yong Heng had also returned to that place. It had to be one of those two manipulating things. Who in the Spirit Nidus could stand above them?

Suddenly, Lu Yin thought of the being behind Yong Heng.

Qing Cao, Yong Heng, and the being behind Yong Heng... Just what are they planning?

Do they want to trigger a war between the three megaverses and the Nine Odysseys Megaverse? That doesn’t make any sense. As soon as a single Immortal steps forward, who can do anything? A war between weaker cultivators can’t affect the larger picture, especially when it involves just the Spirit Nidus.

Fighting could be heard in the distance. People were sparring, trying to understand their power.

Jiu Xian did not disturb Lu Yin. She could afford to not think about such things, but Lu Yin could not.

To a certain extent, Lu Yin was a representative of the three megaverses.

Lu Yin did not dwell on the matter for long. He was already certain that the Spirit Nidus was no longer the same as when he had been there. Also, since he had entered the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, many of the things that involved the Spirit Nidus were no longer his concern.

“What’s the deal with Qing Yun?” Lu Yin asked. This question was the real reason why he had sought out Jiu Xian.