Chapter 3964: Karma And Time

Lu Yin suppressed his numerous speculations regarding Chang and looked away from the beast.

No matter what Chang might be, even if it was Stillstorm, at this moment, the creature had only one identity: an enemy. Chang was a mortal enemy that had to be killed.

However, it was also an enemy that could only be left to Gu Duanke and others. The real problem at the moment was Unbroken Time.

Lu Yin had already used Word Manifestation on Unbroken Time, only to discover that it was useless. Truthfully, Lu Yin was not even sure if this thing was a living creature.

Of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s four battlefields, Lu Yin’s was the quietest at the moment. Neither sides’ forces had engaged, as only Unbroken Time and Lu Yin were facing each other.

Lu Yin used karma, as he wanted to understand exactly what he was up against.

The karmic spiral pierced Unbroken Time so easily that Lu Yin could hardly believe his eyes. There was not even an attempt to dodge.

However, the image that the karma revealed to Lu Yin left him speechless.

He could see the current battlefield, nothing else.

Lu Yin threw out more and more spirals of karma, but even after being struck ten times in a row, Unbroken Time never avoided a single one. Each time, Lu Yin saw the same scene. At most, he would see a different angle, though there was no doubt that each image was of the present battlefield.

His expression fell. As expected, this thing really was a master of the power of time.

Karma could reveal the past, as there had to be a cause for there to be an effect.

However, Unbroken Time had completely frozen its own time at a single moment. Another way of describing it was that the current moment had been extended out indefinitely, which meant that Lu Yin could only see the same, endlessly drawn out moment when he tried to view the past. This meant that, so long as Unbroken Time wished it, it could allow Lu Yin to only see what it wanted the human to see.

It had been years since Lu Yin had comprehended karma, and he had encountered all kinds of experts since then, having even fought against an Immortal beast. Even so, this was his first time coming across such a method.

Essentially, his use of karma had been countered.

Karma was a mighty power, but so was time, space, and a few other forces. While karma was certainly more mysterious, that did not make it invincible. If that were the case, Greater Sancte Green Lotus would be invincible and have no need to hide the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Lu Yin had known that he would one day encounter an existence that could ignore his karma. He simply had not expected it to happen so soon.

At that moment, Unbroken Time’s needle shifted, ticking once. Lu Yin’s heart skipped a beat as a feeling of danger fell upon him. The chill instinctively made him want to evade, only for a tearing pain to appear in his heart. He looked down, only to see that his body had been split apart.

What is this?

He was not even the only one in such a condition. With a straight line drawn from Unbroken Time to Lu Yin, Lu Yin was merely the first person. He was far from the last, as the line seemed to stretch on without end, slicing the cosmos apart. The bodies of many other cultivators had been split apart.

People froze in shock. What was going on?

Before anyone’s thoughts could proceed any further, their bodies abruptly returned to normal, further confusing everyone. What had just happened?

Lightstream swirled around Lu Yin’s body, reversing time by one second and restoring his body. At the same time, he was able to clearly see the method that Unbroken Time had just used. The time along that line had been fixed. In that location, time had not been able to move at all, remaining the same as some immemorial point in the past. Anything that came into contact with that line, regardless of whether it moved or remained still, would have their time be fixed at the point of contact. If the object did not move, there would only be a single point of contact, but if the object moved, a line would be torn across it.

This was the sharpest blade, forged from time itself. It was something that not even Lu Yin’s defenses could evade.

No matter how strong his defenses were, he could not overcome time.

The only way to counter a blade of time was with time itself.

Lu Yin sharply shouted, “Everyone, retreat to the Nine Odysseys!”

No one could help with this battle. If people rushed forward, they would become cannon fodder. Until Unbroken Time was dealt with, any large-scale battle would be nearly impossible.

Lu Yin had expected Unbroken Time to be difficult to deal with, but he had not anticipated such a fierce attack. He had very nearly been caught completely off guard.

In front of him, the light of the alternating sun and moon on Unbroken Time grew more intense. It seemed that it had not expected Lu Yin to reverse time by one second and undo its attack. The needle ticked again.

Lu Yin did not hesitate for even a single moment, and he threw a punch while moving at the speed of time with Inverse Step to approach Unbroken Time.

The surrounding region suddenly grew dim and gray. It looked as if a gray curtain had been draped over a section of the cosmos, making it a bit brighter. Lu Yin’s heart sank. This was the power of time.

Once again, his punch had absolutely no effect. No matter how great his physical power was, it proved meaningless in the face of time.

The needle on Unbroken Time jumped to the fifth mark.

Tock

.

It was such a light sound, and yet an indescribable weight descended. At that moment, Lu Yin felt as if he had been thrown into the cosmos’s vortex. Pressure crushed down at him from all directions, trying to grind him to pieces. He instantly used Extremes Must Be Reversed, and the Tri-Azure Sword Intent slashed at Unbroken Time from behind Lu Yin’s head, only to shatter the moment that it appeared.

The unseen, terrifying power assaulting Lu Yin was not physical, but it was more fearsome than any physical power.

In the face of the erosion of time, not even empowering his attacks with Immortal matter could enable Lu Yin to harm Unbroken Time. Its control over time was too frightening. By infinitely extending time, it could wear away any power.

Still, no matter how impressive its mastery over time might be, it was not an Immortal.

While enduring the unseen pressure, Lu Yin released a Wheel of Karma, hurling it at Unbroken Time.

It made no attempt to evade even this, though the result finally proved different from before. When the Wheel of Karma struck, the sun and moon both trembled, and visible cracks formed along them. The needle jerked back, and, for the first time, Unbroken Time moved to dodge.

The pressure crushing Lu Yin instantly vanished. He sneered. While this creature’s mastery over time far surpassed Lu Yin’s own, putting him at a temporary disadvantage, karma was not in any way inferior to the power of time. As long as a living creature sought to become an Immortal, it would inevitably have to struggle with overcoming Dukkha.

And the Wheel of Karma was an attack that specialized in targeting Dukkhans.

“Let’s see how much time you can waste.” Lu Yin raised a hand and brought down a Heaven and Earth Lock that was empowered by Immortal matter in an attempt to bind Unbroken Time.

Although the Heaven and Earth Lock was a consciousness technique, it was also an Immortal-level battle technique that could seal off all perception, power, and awareness. That included even the perception of time.

Unbroken Time’s sun and moon spun as the unseen power of time contested the Heaven and Earth Lock as it tried to extend time until the seal disappeared.

Lu Yin’s consciousness was vast, and he also had a tremendous amount of Immortal matter. He wanted to see if Unbroken Time was truly capable of withstanding both his consciousness and his Immortal matter reserves.

Suddenly, his expression changed. An unseen slash swept down, though a casual wave of a hand shattered it.

Ni had attacked, and it was also sending a swarm of bugs towards Lu Yin in an attempt to surround him.

Lu Yin took a step forward and punched at Ni.

The creature took the punch head-on. While the force of the blow sent it stumbling backward, it endured it with sheer toughness before releasing a counter in the form of an invisible power that swept through outer space.

Lu Yin arched a brow. Just as Ku Ji and the others had reported, the creature was able to absorb energy and release it back as an intangible force. When Lu Sizhan, Ku Ji, and the others had attacked, they had been able to do nothing to Ni.

It was quite impressive that Ni had managed to withstand Lu Yin’s punch.

In that case, another one.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Lu Yin dodged the intangible attack that Ni had released. A hand rose, and a finger flicked the void, causing it to tremble. An attack shot forward, only for the power to quickly fade and disappear. Turning his head, Lu Yin saw that Unbroken Time was interfering, its sun and moon shifting even faster.

It was able to both resist the Heaven and Earth Lock and block Lu Yin’s attacks at the same time.

Lu Yin had to admit that Unbroken Time was extremely strong, even to the point of being terrifying. Almost nobody in the three human megaverses could fight against the thing, and it was even capable of standing up to an Immortal given its impressive mastery of the power of time.

Still, it was a bit lacking when trying to block Lu Yin.

He might not be able to kill Unbroken Time, as the thing was simply too bizarre, but there was nothing that could stop Lu Yin from killing Ni.

He did not even bother using Inverse Step and instead simply walked over to Ni. Facing the endless swarm of insects, a wave of a hand erased an entire swathe.

A sense of crisis descended. Unbroken Time’s needle moved one more mark, but before its movement finished, Lu Yin had already moved away. He avoided the line of frozen time, only to be startled to discover that the line could move.

The line swept across the region, and it even sliced through the horde of bugs, tearing apart countless insects.

It was a line of time and was thus invisible to the naked eye. Unbroken Time’s control of time was too intimidating, and Lu Yin was forced to use Lightstream to undo the attack yet again.

Lightstream was not a weak ability. Even if Lu Yin’s mastery was far from comparable to Unbroken Time’s, Lightstream had absorbed a tremendous amount of time that had been cast out of the River of Aeons, which allowed it to greatly suppress the power of time. Its ship form could traverse the River of Aeons, so blocking a mere line of time was nothing for it.

Like a blade, the line of time slashed at Lu Yin again and again, only to be stopped by Lightstream every time.

Lu Yin again started walking towards Ni.

The swarm stopped attacking Lu Yin, and it instead turned to assault Ni.

Creatures like Jade Wardens, Sentinel Waltzes, Lithic Drakes, as well as some creatures that Lu Yin had never even seen, all attacked Ni’s shell from its sides.

As the insects continued to spawn and evolve without stopping, there were far too many different kinds. Even the Immortal Lord might not recognize all of them.

Some of the bugs were extremely strong, and their blows even managed to create vibrations when they struck Ni’s body.

The creature continued to absorb all of this force, its eyes always fixed on Lu Yin.

Step by step, Lu Yin closed the distance. Ni did not retreat, and it instead advanced. The two’s eyes remained locked.

When they were less than 10,000 meters apart, Lu Yin stopped. He lifted his hand and clenched all five fingers. The power in his hand caused the void to twist and warp in a way that caused the hand to appear to grow larger as it reached for Ni.

Unbroken Time was constantly attacking with lines of time, but it found it difficult to disrupt Lu Yin.

Countless people from both the Spirit Nidus and the Nine Odysseys Megaverse watched as an enormous hand reached across the cosmos.

Ni continued to be attacked from both sides as it released a massive wave of intangible force that swept through outer space to clash with the giant hand.

Ku Ji, Lu Sizhan, and many others stared. They were all too familiar with Ni’s abilities. Ever since they had first encountered this creature to the moment that they had retreated from the battlefield, they had attempted every conceivable method to overcome the creature’s ability. Ultimately, retreat had been their only option.

Yes, they understood Ni’s defenses quite well, and they had been utterly powerless before them.

No one knew how far Lu Yin would manage to go. After all, he was not only facing Ni, but also Unbroken Time.

The human powerhouses had been informed of the four Insect Lords.

On top of that, they had already seen Unbroken Time’s attacks. That eerie and terrifying mastery of time had filled people with chills. It was possible that no one in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, other than Lu Yin and the Greater Sancti, could truly stand against it.

After all, time was a power that could not be seen or touched. Even the smallest bit of carelessness could cause one to fall into a trap. However, Lu Yin had not only comprehended karm, but also the power of time.

While Lu Yin’s battlefield was quiet, compared to the other three battlefields, it was also the most dangerous.

The enormous hand continued to stretch out, tearing through the void while clashing against the intangible force that Ni continuously released.

Space twisted and then shattered. Countless black cracks shot out, tearing apart the insect swarm.

Far away, the humans watching were appalled. They felt lucky that Lu Yin had ordered them to retreat. Just the shockwaves from this battle would have killed too many of them.