Chapter 3977: This Day

This was the day that the Nest civilization and humanity’s war erupted in an unprecedented battle. Fighting surrounded the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse as the hordes of insects approached. The bugs’ corpses rained into the megaverse, falling onto the land. Human corpses also constantly fell, some intact, but most were not.

Spirit seeds were continuously exploding. Each death was actually a cultivated spirit seed that had been sent out from the person’s body.

More and more people moved out to join the battle: families, sect, and countless independent cultivators. This was the day when all of humanity had but one goal: kill the bugs.

The Nest civilization was a calamity that had arrived at the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

The pain induced by the Thousand Shards would go down in the annals of their history.

The Lithic Drakes that worked together to form a disaster would also be remembered forever.

The Scrollbane Centipedes destroyed written records, annihilating the humanity’s inheritances, permanently traumatizing generations of humans to be afraid of books.

On the ground below, countless insect corpses piled up, needing to be cleaned up.

This was only the beginning.

In addition to the four Insect Lords, the Nest civilization had many other powerful Verdant Sages, each with their own strange form. There were myriad abilities that were impossible to defend against.

Unable to stand up to Chang, Gu Duanke instead went after Hua Yan.

In an earlier battle, Qing Xing had dealt with Ci Liu. The man had fought on the western battlefield and held the bug back, but he had later fought against Chang, which had resulted in deep wounds. Dan Jin had also been badly hurt and was unable to fight. At the moment, E Xiu, Ming Jie, and the other experts from Deathmound were fighting against Ci Liu.

Xing Fan was once again confronting Shan Xiao, though this time, Shan Xiao was demonstrating to Xing Fan what it meant to be an Insect Lord. Her Thousand Sails Celestial Mirror was completely useless.

One human powerhouse after another rushed over to offer support.

In every direction, death could be found.

The grandest battle was always Lu Yin’s clash with Chang. The collision of strength against strength shook the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Like thunder crashing, their battle rang in the ears of every cultivator.

Space shattered, only to be restored again and again. Black fissures were constantly snaking out, turning the nearby battlefield into a region of death.

Not far from Whither Peak in the South Domain, Bai Xia thrust his spear into a Verdant Sage that was shaped like a caterpillar. Exhausted, he sat down. He was breathing heavily, and his body was covered in brown blotches.

His maid rushed over to him.

“Stop! Don’t get any closer!” Bai Xia shouted harshly.

She stared at him blankly. “Young Master?”

Bai Xia exhaled. “I’ve been poisoned. While it won’t kill me, it’s a fate worse than death. I need time to recover. Don’t come near me for now. Instead, go help the Rift of Suffering and the others.”

The maid bit her lip hard. “Understood, Young Master.”

Watching the maid leave, Bai Xia let out a sigh. While he appeared to be calm, he was suppressing incredible pain.

He was a true powerhouse. As the master of the Scion Spire, he served as the guardian of the most gifted members across multiple generations of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. He was nearly as strong as Qing Xing, who had once been regarded as the most powerful cultivator beneath the Immortal realm. Bai Xia was comparable to Gu Duanke, and yet he had unexpectedly run into a terrifying Verdant Sage.

He stared at the caterpillar-like Verdant Sage in the distance. It had not been hard to defeat, but at the moment of its death, it had released a poison. How could such a creature exist? Had it been born solely to die?

The bone-piercing pain left the man unable to even move.

Very well, in that case, I’ll rest.

Far away, Ku Zhou, Luo Ning, and others were fighting against more bugs. Hundreds of thousands of Lithic Drakes had merged, and their combined destructive power was even greater than what peak powerhouses were capable of.

Ku Zhou used Heartrift to directly clash with the Lithic Drake calamity.

A young man’s eyes were cold as he walked across the land. While he did not seem to be moving, each step resulted in a Septastar Blade perishing.

Septastar Blades could move incredibly fast, and they were only visible to peak powerhouses given that they could almost move at the speed of time. They also possessed incredible destructive power. Despite that, every step that the young man took caused the bugs to fall like raindrops. The young man was Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s most talented disciple, and he was known as the Little Lotus King.

Luo Ning watched as the Little Lotus King effortlessly eliminated Septastar Blades, a bitter taste in his mouth. This demonstrated the difference between them. Luo Ning was only able to handle Lithic Drakes, and he would instantly be cut down by the countless Septastar Blades, whereas the Little Lotus King found it easy to defeat them.

From both above and below, even stranger insects started to appear, and they were soon surrounded by a swarm of bugs.

Fortunately, there were more experts protecting the Scion Spire than just Bai Xia.

On Loneswan Island, Zhang Hongyun fought like mad. Strange insects kept rising up from the sea. Some took on the form of water and roared with the waves while flooding onto the island. It was impossible to even tell what was water and what was a bug.

In the East Domain, Everchange Valley’s ravine had a swarm crossing it. Human cultivators fought against the swarm of bugs, which almost filled the abyss.

In the West Domain, Thirteen Cities lay in ruins. Hui led the cultivators of the Spirit Coalition, along with countless otherborn, and they all charged at the horde of insects that lay beneath the yellow sands.

In the North Domain, Jing Lian, Wei Heng, and the others protected the Skyward Gate. At the moment, the North Domain was the weakest of the four directions. With the Rift of Suffering leaving to defend the Spirit Nidus, the north had been left to the disciples of the Greater Sancti, along with experts from Deathmound.

More and more insects surged into the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Battles raged everywhere, both inside and outside the Night Pillars.

All thirty-six of the Spirit Nidus’s domains had been inundated with insects.

Countless people cursed Lu Yin for allowing the insects to multiply so much. That was the reason why the fighting had spread absolutely everywhere. Still, the insects were proving to be less difficult to deal with than people had imagined. Many of the bugs were weak and relied solely on their natural abilities to fight, which meant that they could be easily swept away in vast numbers.

Still, the insects’ numbers made people’s scalps go numb.

From the Frightened Sparrow Terrace, Greater Sancte Awe Gate was observing the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse with a calm expression. The swarms of insects were certainly vast, but given enough time, they would all be dealt with. The true problem was the Verdant Sages, which were causing devastating casualties.

Nearly every human expert had already joined a battle.

Still, the determining factor of the war would be the battle between the top combatants. While considering this, Awe Gate looked at a distant point in outer space, which was where Lu Yin and Chang were still fighting.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Each deafening impact reduced vast expanses of universe into regions of absolute death that none dared to approach.

Fists clashed with claws, while strength matched against strength. Lu Yin was able to brawl to his heart’s content.

So far, Chang was the only creature that was capable of matching Lu Yin in terms of brute strength. It was no wonder why the Immortal Lord had referred to the beast as the strongest creature beneath the Immortal realm. Shan Lie’s reverence for Chang was not without reason.

According to Shan Lie’s memory, Chang was a terrifying creature capable of shattering an entire universe. When Chang arrived and ripped a megaverse open, a war was finished.

Lu Yin certainly acknowledged Chang’s strength. The cosmos gave birth to an endless variety of creatures. Creatures like the Pridebeast were born with a natural strength that reached the limits of what was possible, and these creatures could also cultivate. Some that were born far weaker than the Pridebeast could cultivate and greatly surpass the creature’s strength.

Lu Yin was a perfect example of that. As for whether or not Chang was the same, he did not know. It was possible that, when it had come into being, its strength had already surpassed the Pridebeast’s. This was actually a very strong possibility, given the fact that Chang looked exactly like Stillstorm.

Chang let out a roar of excitement as it fought across universes, endlessly clashing with Lu Yin. Never before had it encountered a creature that could compete with it in brute strength, let alone a human. That species seemed so weak, yet this one possessed such terrifying physical strength. This gave Change hope of being able to advance further.

If cultivation could allow a human body to obtain physical strength that rivaled its own, then if it could obtain similar cultivation, would its strength not advance even further?

If its strength could grow, then Unbroken Time would not be the only creature able to kill Immortals without being one itself.

Unbroken Time had relied on the Immortal Lord’s help to do so, but Chang intended to reach a similar level of power on its own.

This thought ran through its mind as its claws fell yet again, grabbing at Lu Yin. Chang wanted to understand the essence of this human’s strength.

Lu Yin curled five fingers and seized the void, which he then flung out. The five claws tore through the void as they descended, only to be stopped by one of Lu Yin’s hands. He watched as spirals of karma pierced the claws.

Let me see what you truly are

.

Using karma to examine a bug risked severe backlash, as the Immortal Lord stood behind the Nest civilization. Despite the risk, Lu Yin was too eager to learn about Stillstorm’s whereabouts.

This was not only because Stillstorm hailed from the Tianyuan, but also because Old Salamander had once seen the ancient beast emerge from the Gate of Laws. If Lu Yin could learn Stillstorm’s location, he might also be able to uncover the secrets of the Gate of Laws, even though those secrets might already be known to the Greater Sancti.

The problem was, Lu Yin did not dare to trust all the information that the Greater Sancti had shared with him.

He had long since grown accustomed to relying on himself.

Karma continued to penetrate the giant beast, and while Chang noticed what was happening and even recognized the power to be karma, it paid no heed to what was happening.

It was invincible without any weaknesses. It was impossible for this human to use the same method that he had used against Unbroken Time on Chang.

Karmic Lines collided, revealing scenes of the past. Lu Yin was searching for Chang’s origins, as its form had to be connected to where its Nest had spawned it.

Chang’s five claws viciously tore the void open as they slammed down upon Lu Yin again and again. “Human, fight with strength, win with strength! Don’t use petty tricks.”

Lu Yin blocked Chang’s attacks while examining the scenes of the past.

In the eyes of countless cultivators in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, Lu Yin looked like he had fallen to a disadvantage at this moment, given how he was constantly being suppressed by Chang.

Strangely, many still had faith in him. He had already produced too many miracles. The more that people learned about his past, the greater their faith in him, even if many did curse him for allowing the insects to multiply unchecked.

“Human, stop your tricks!” Chang roared in fury. As long as Lu Yin refused to counterattack, the bug could not attempt to comprehend his strength, which made Chang feel insulted. Its massive body writhed about, crushing the void as it turned to charge into the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. It would change its target to the Mother Tree.

In the Frightened Sparrow Terrace, Greater Sancte Awe Gate’s expression hardened as she watched Chang shift to aim at the Mother Tree. Her fists clenched.

Courting death!

Master Qing Cao continued to watch on calmly. “Each of the four Insect Lords embodies a true extreme beneath the Immortal realm. Unbroken Time was the extreme of the power of time, Luo Chan is either speed or space, and this Chang possesses strength. As for Shan Xiao, I do not know what she represents.

“It is unfortunate that Blood Tower is still absent. He might have managed to break through if he had comprehended how Unbroken Time used the power of time.”

Greater Sancte Awe Gate said nothing, and she remained entirely focused on Chang as the creature crushed the void, moving ever nearer to the Mother Tree.

Lu Yin looked over. “Stop.”

Word Manifestation, a power resulting from the fusion of consciousness and manifested thought, was enough to force even Chang to a halt.

Chang’s enormous eyes turned to glare at Lu Yin. It had been just about to crash into the Mother Tree, but it had inexplicably been forced to stop. Its body had been forced to make a choice that was the complete opposite of its desires. This human was extremely strange, reminiscent of that civilization.

“Human, if you wish to kill me, use your strength!”

Lu Yin gave the beast a cold glare. “I did not expect your species to also fear a single creature.”

Chang’s gaze sharply flared. “What are you saying, human?”

Lu Yin sneered, pointing at Chang. “Your Nest civilization fears that beast.”

Chang stared blankly at Lu Yin.

Karma! He saw it with karma! Damn it! Karma is such an abominably strange power. Damn it!

Lu Yin had indeed seen Chang’s past. With Stillstorm as the target, Lu Yin had pursued Chang’s origin and seen Stillstorm sleeping in the void. The creature was massive and majestic, its body shrouded by a blood-red hue, and it had even seemed to be wounded.

Nest after Nest was thrown towards Stillstorm, as the Nest civilization had sought to produce a Verdant Sage from the monstrous creature that they had found, but their actions had disturbed Stillstorm.

Most of the Nests ended up being destroyed. Only one Nest had been stained with Stillstorm’s blood and successfully spawned a Verdant Sage. That Verdant Sage was Chang.