Chapter 3915: Going Back

Su Shidao’s mood grew heavy. He turned to face Lu Yin and offered a deep bow. “On behalf of the countless cultivators of the Spirit Nidus, I thank you, Mr. Lu.”

Lu Yin had not lied. He had blocked Xing Fan’s solution and prevented it from being carried out. Of course, the alternative plan was simply to remove several generations of cultivators from the Spirit Nidus. That was a plan that many in Nine Odysseys Megaverse supported. However, “remove” did not mean simply slaughtering all of those people, but instead sending them to the Night Pillars to wage war against foreign megaverses on behalf of the Nine Odysseys until every last one of them died in battle.

That option was even crueler, as people would still be forced to die while serving the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

By moving everyone to the Tianyuan Megaverse, Lu Yin was indeed saving them.

Just as Greater Sancte Awe Gate had said, the key to Lu Yin’s plan was not opening the Skyward Gate, but rather sending everyone to the Tianyuan. Once there, it would be impossible for them to return.

Long ago, the Sixth Mainland had similarly been relocated to the Fifth Mainland, as had many cultivators from the Perennial World. The same kind of relocation plan had even been carried out for the Three Monarchs Universe. Lu Yin had already performed multiple relocations, and he was quite familiar with the process.

It was simply that this latest relocation mission was on a scale that far exceeded anything that Lu Yin had participated in before.

It would be a long, ongoing task. Also, it was necessary to first deal with the threat of the Nests.

For people from the Spirit Nidus, whether or not the crisis in the Tianyuan was resolved depended on Lu Yin, not on them.

So long as Lu Yin said that the threat remained, it had not been dealt with.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

People needed freedom, but there were times when freedom was not necessarily the correct choice.

While one man might be willing to trade his life for freedom, that did not mean that everyone else was willing to do the same.

There was a collective will that determined such things.

Su Shidao could not refuse. He needed to go to the Tianyuan Megaverse. If he refused, no one could ensure that he would not find a way to spread the truth.

As long as Lu Yin was around, Su Shidao supported him and maintained a good relationship. However, what would the man do if Lu Yin was no longer nearby?

Given the severity of the matter, no carelessness could be allowed.

For that reason, Su Shidao was not alone. All experts from all of the megaverse’s thirty-six domains were gathered, including Shi Xiu and the others. Most of the Spirit Nidus’s most powerful cultivators would be on the first journey to the Tianyuan. Later, there would be a second and third journey, but by then, it might not even be necessary for the Spirit Nidus to agree to leave.

Half a month passed. Beneath a starry sky, a spiral of karma pierced a conscient, using an act of karma to search for a target. Lu Yin was looking for Bu Wen.

The last of the Consciousness Megaverse’s Thirteen Luminaries had been hiding in a parallel universe in the Spirit Nidus. While the creature posed no threat to Lu Yin, since it could strengthen his consciousness, why not go after it?

“Are you Lu Yin? How can your consciousness be so powerful? This is impossible! Your consciousness is even greater than Old Chief’s!” Bu Wen had taken the form of a beautiful woman, but at this moment, terror warped her features.

Lu Yin did not bother responding. Conscients were not people, so there was no need for him to hold back.

Just a short while later, his consciousness improved slightly.

He then went to the Ascendant Hall and, as Zi Tianshu watched, dragged Ye Meng away, who had been a prisoner for quite a long time.

By devouring yet another one of the Thirteen Luminaries, Lu Yin’s consciousness improved yet again.

By now, the four universe-class battleships were all prepared. Countless people from the Spirit Nidus had already boarded them, and they were waiting to leave for the Tianyuan Megaverse.

Lu Yin stood outside the Gate of Laws. He was tempted to break through the Terminus Cycle to see what lay on the other side of the gate.

However, the Great Master’s warning kept ringing in his mind, and it ultimately forced him to abandon the idea.

“Thank you for not placing me in a difficult position,” a familiar voice commented from behind Lu Yin. It was Deathmound’s Chao Yi, the peak lord of the Sixth Peak. There was a group of people from Deathmound behind the man. Each person showed a cold expression and was releasing a shocking amount of bloodlust. It was clear that they were not ordinary cultivators.

Without even turning his head, Lu Yin asked, “Did the Great Master send you?”

“Yes.”

“To guard the Gate of Laws?”

Chao Yi looked at the Gate of Laws. “You haven’t done anything to this place, and yet you’ve already mentioned the Great Master. Did the Great Master tell you something?”

Lu Yin then turned to look at Chao Yi. A hand rose, and as the people of Deathmound warily watched, the hand patted Chao Yi’s shoulder. “Stay at your post. The Great Master said that this place is important.”

With that, Lu Yin walked away.

Chao Yi stared at Lu Yin’s receding figure and then glanced at his own shoulder. At that moment, he had wanted to dodge, only to find that it had been impossible for him to move.

He’s grown stronger. That man is now far stronger than when he was in the Consciousness Megaverse.

The destroyer of the Autumnspring Slip and the Cheng family, someone capable of simultaneously attacking people in all four domains of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, and someone who had driven back the entire Spirit Nidus on his own. That was Lu Yin.

That man will one day become an Immortal

.

“Oh, and send a message to Xing Fan for me. Have her use her spirit threads to observe the entire Spirit Nidus and see if any Nests were missed and are still around,” Lu Yin said with a backwards glance.

Chao Yi was startled. “Xing Fan? Will she agree to that?”

Lu Yin smiled faintly. “Tell her it’s a message from me. She’ll do it.”

He then vanished.

The people of Deathmound stared blankly at the empty space. How arrogant! Was he even ordering a Lesser Sancte about? Then again, Xing Fan was no longer a Lesser Sancte. Still, even after losing the title, she remained one of the most powerful peak Dukkhans in existence.

Chao Yi took a deep breath. Xing Fan was not someone who was easy to deal with in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. She was someone who could flippantly ignore anyone, aside from the Immortal Greater Sancti. Would she really listen to Lu Yin’s message?

Apparently there’s something between that man and Xing Fan that others don’t know about

.

A few days later, Lu Yin boarded the battleship

Genesis

. His gaze swept over the four battleships that were full of cultivators from the Spirit Nidus. It was quite a satisfying sight, especially since there were even more than he had expected.

While the people of the Spirit Nidus hated the Nine Odysseys Megaverse for treating them as goods to be harvested, there was also a longing to be part of that megaverse.

Lu Yin’s consciousness swept through the area, and his expression suddenly changed. He disappeared and reappeared on a desolate planet beyond the four battleships. An old man stood on that planet and was staring at the battleships with a complicated expression.

Lu Yin abruptly appeared in front of that old man.

The old man’s eyes bulged as he stared at Lu Yin. He slowly knelt down, crying while piously calling out, “Lord Lu!”

Lu Yin hurriedly supported him, staring in surprise. “E' Nan?”

The old man’s eyes flushed red as his tears streamed from them. “That’s me, Lord Lu! That’s me! I’m E' Nan!”

Lu Yin stared at the man. “How did you end up like this?”

E' Nan clutched Lu Yin’s arm as he laughed. “It was worth it! Everything was worth it! Seeing you again, Lord Lu, even if I die right now, it was all worth it!”

“What happened?”

E' Nan was panting heavily. His body was in terrible condition.

Lu Yin immediately used his overwhelming power to transform the old man’s body, filling it with new strength.

However, E' Nan was just an ordinary human. He had never cultivated. The power that he had once possessed had come from his ancestor, E' Jia. Despite Lu Yin’s incredible strength, he was unable to restore the old man’s youth. His body had already withered away, and his vitality had long since faded. It was impressive enough that he had managed to live for so long, given his condition.

All that Lu Yin could do was prolong the man’s life, allowing him to endure. The man’s strength was gone for good, but he would at least be able to live for many more years.

“Thank you, Lord Lu... Thank you... it was all worth it... All of it was worthwhile. Finally, I can see you again...” E' Nan muttered. He shared all that he had experienced with Lu Yin.

Lu Yin listened without saying a word. Events had unfolded much like he had guessed, though he was surprised to learn that Uncle Jiang was the one who had sent E' Nan on the mission to deliver the Nest to the Spirit Nidus.

E' Nan had carried a Nest all the way to the Spirit Nidus and left it there. As time passed, his body had started to fail. His cultivation had faded, and he had only been able to cling to life. He had struggled to move through outer space, eventually becoming completely powerless. He had not even been able to board one of the battleships. Ultimately, he had been left on the desolate planet to die.

If Lu Yin had not swept through the region with his consciousness, E' Nan would have never been found.

Over the recent months, Lu Yin had constantly been searching for bugs, as well as for any of his old acquaintances from the Tianyuan Megaverse. Unfortunately, the Spirit Nidus was simply too vast, and his consciousness was not enough to envelop everything. On top of that, many of the bugs had fled to parallel universes, which had cost him a great deal of effort. That was why he had not found E' Nan earlier.

Lu Yin’s last sweep of consciousness had been his final hope before leaving for the Tianyuan Megaverse with the four battleships. He felt that, if anyone had delivered a Nest from the Tianyuan, they would surely try to return with the battleships.

His guess had proven correct, as E' Nan had wanted to return with the battleships, but he had been unable to board them.

Lu Yin was grateful that he had not given up, as that would have led to E' Nan dying alone in the Spirit Nidus.

“Lord Lu, I did not betray the trust the Tianyuan gave me! I delivered the Nest to the Spirit Nidus,” E' Nan excitedly reported.

Lu Yin was moved. He nodded and praised the man, “You’ve done well, E' Nan. Come, I’m taking you home.”

E' Nan was overwhelmed with emotion. He had long believed that he would die in the Spirit Nidus. The moment he left the Tianyuan, he had resigned himself to the fate of dying in the Spirit Nidus. He had never imagined that he would be given the chance to return.

Only those who had left the Tianyuan could understand the man’s loneliness.

Given the chance, he would always choose to return home, even if only to die there.

The Tianyuan Megaverse was his home.

Lu Yin delivered E' Nan onto one of the battleships. There was nothing further to be said, and he gave the order for the ships to depart. Their destination: the Tianyuan Megaverse.

The four universe-class battleships roared to life and set off.

When

Genesis

was thrown away by a springboard, Lu Yin once again laid eyes on the Aevum Inch. However, after having gone on an expedition with a Night Pillar, he understood that what he was seeing was nothing more than the tiniest sliver of the Aevum Inch. It was nothing more than a section within the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s sight.

The true Aevum Inch was something that even the Nine Odysseys Megaverse chose to hide from.

Self-awareness was the strongest weapon that a civilization could wield within the cosmos. Even individuals needed to possess self-awareness.

Just as the universe-class battleships left for Beacon City, in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s North Domain, someone was staring at the Skyward Gate. “Gone... If you hadn’t left, it would have been quite inconvenient for me to come here. All along, I’ve been ahead of you, yet you’ve since surpassed me step by step... However, you don’t realize that, the faster you go, the sooner you will see the darkness.”

Having said that, the man turned around and disappeared.

Right where he had stood, the void twisted, and a figure appeared. This time, it was a woman. She wore white boots, and her long, disheveled hair was also as white as snow. She looked like a snow witch.

As soon as the woman appeared, the air around her grew frigid, though only within a meter of her. Past that, nothing at all had changed.

She started searching for traces of the man who had just vanished. Suddenly, her expression changed. Someone had just appeared behind her. “Are you looking for me?”

She slowly turned to look at the man.

“You are looking for me, aren’t you? I’m curious, just how were you able to track me? It appears that I’ve underestimated you.”

The woman stared at him. “Are you... Yong Heng?”

The man was indeed Yong Heng. As Lu Yin had suspected, Yong Heng had used the chaos in the Spirit Nidus to pass through the Skyward Gate and enter the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. “That’s right.”

The woman stared into his eyes. Her eyes were somehow both bright and lifeless. It was as if she was looking at Yong Heng, and yet... not actually seeing him. The dissonance was eerily terrifying.

After a moment, her expression shifted to pure disbelief. “Impossible... you...?”

Yong Heng smiled faintly at her. “Surprised?”

“Why... didn’t it work?”

“Without being certain, how could I have ever betrayed him? Did he really only have the courage to tell you about my Bone Script? Too bad. Even if he had come himself, it would still be useless.”

The woman’s face turned pale, to the point where it was even paler than her snow-white hair.