Chapter 3979: Ultimate Battle

Ci Liu, together with its eighteen blightspike bugs, had become synonymous with death on the battlefield. Countless lives had been lost to their spikes. Even with so many experts from Deathmound surrounding the bugs and targeting them, it had still taken Xiang Siyu and Li Guo’s cooperation before they were finally all tracked down.

Ci Liu had been extremely difficult to eliminate, no different from Ni and Hua Yan. Fortunately, not many of the Verdant Sages were that formidable. They were also fighting in humanity’s home field of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, which meant that each powerful enemy would eventually be eliminated.

What remained behind was a swarm of countless insects. They subjected the Nine Odysseys Megaverse to immense suffering, as far too many ordinary cultivators and even countless mortals had been killed by the bugs. While cultivators worked to protect the mortal cities, many ordinary humans still died as collateral damage. Smoke covered the land, and the stench of blood filled the sky.

Across the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s vast landscape, scenes of bright red could be seen everywhere.

High above the stars in the sky, Lu Yin continued to wear away at Chang’s Immortal matter. The beast let out roars of fury, and it constantly demanded that Lu Yin engage in a contest of physical strength. But how could Lu Yin possibly be a match for Chang’s strength in the current circumstances? Even though Lu Yin also possessed a great deal of Immortal matter, he would never waste so prodigiously.

Such endless consumption was meaningless.

Chang glared at Lu Yin. “Human, do you know what consequences await you if your Mother Tree is destroyed?”

Lu Yin frowned. “Try it.”

Chang stopped, its body still armored with Immortal matter. Its formidable aura continued to press upon the universe, causing clouds to constantly appear and disappear. Then, as Lu Yin watched in amazement, faint white streams moved out from beneath the scales, draping the creature in a white mist and giving it an incomparably sacred appearance.

“Lifeforce.” Lu Yin’s voice dropped low.

Master Qing Cao had mentioned that Chang possessed Lifeforce, which was why the Immortal had not tried to reclaim the Third Night Pillar when the insects had taken it. While it was possible for an Immortal to kill Chang, the price to do so would be steep.

Lu Yin already knew that Chang had mastered Lifeforce. By forcing the beast to consume more and more of its Immortal matter, he had sought to minimize its ability to fuse Immortal matter with Lifeforce. Unfortunately, only a small bit of Immortal matter had been consumed so far. Chang’s temper was even more violent and impatient than Lu Yin had imagined.

Lifeforce spread forth as Chang roared at the sky.

The shockwaves sent ripples through the void that swept across the universe in all directions, eventually washing over the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Countless people looked up in terror, feeling utterly crushed by the weight of such might.

Even the swarms of insects paused for a moment, cowed by Chang’s aura.

In the Frightened Sparrow Terrace, Greater Sancte Awe Gate’s expression turned grave. This power was comparable to an Immortal’s. It was horrifying that any creature could possess so much power before reaching that level, and Chang also had an abundance of Immortal matter. There was no doubt that everything that the beast possessed had been granted to it by the Immortal Lord.

Master Qing Cao commented in a low voice, “This is it. When I pressured the beast before, it revealed enough power that my karmic chain would increase drastically if I struck it down. It’s a price that I cannot bear.”

Chang’s power caused the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse to quake.

Chang showed a hideous grin as it glanced at Lu Yin before racing towards the Mother Tree. “Human, just try to stop me!”

Lu Yin ordered Chang to stop with the power of Word Manifestation, but after being empowered by both Lifeforce and Immortal matter, Chang was like an unbridled beast. The restraints of Word Manifestation could no longer stop it at all. It frantically charged at the Mother Tree, determined to shatter it.

Greater Sancte Awe Gate clenched a fist, her eyes becoming frigid.

Master Qing Cao’s expression also turned grave. If Lu Yin failed to stop Chang, it would fall upon the two Immortals to take action. Was that the moment that the Immortal Lord was waiting for?

When Immortals clashed, it was not as simple as a contest of power, but also in how limited they were. If Awe Gate and Qing Cao acted against Chang and their karmic chains grew close to their limit, then even if the Immortal Lord only had one more strike than them, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse would be doomed.

Lu Yin, hold on.

Chang crushed the void as it barreled towards the Mother Tree, its pressure cataclysmic.

Gu Duanke’s sword intent soared into the sky, Li Guo deployed his Heaven, Earth, and Man: Threefold Link Script Array, while Xiang Siyu, Ming Zhuo, Wu Cheng, and many other experts unleashed attacks in an attempt to block the monstrous bug. However, Chang brutally swept everyone aside, completely fearless of any form of assault. Every strike felt so feeble that there was no point in even blocking them, as none were able to harm Chang in the slightest.

Most people were ignorant of the consequences of the Mother Tree being destroyed. Even Odyssey Commanders like Ming Zhuo and Lesser Sancte Dan Jin knew nothing about this matter. Still, as Chang drew closer to the Mother Tree, they were gripped by an inexplicable sense of crisis. Their scalps went numb, and they felt as though the entire megaverse was about to be destroyed.

More and more attacks shot upwards, people becoming desperate to stop Chang.

The Great Master even abandoned her pursuit of Luo Chan, passing through a gate to slam her oar against Chang’s head. The impact sent the Great Master staggering back. Chang swung its claws down, but the Great Master simply fell through a gate, vanishing. Chang’s strike missed, but it did not care. It simply continued its vicious charge at the Mother Tree.

No one could stop the beast. At this moment, Chang’s strength made it invincible. Who but an Immortal realm could block such a creature?

In Shan Lie’s memory, Chang could destroy a megaverse, shattering its parallel universes. The beast’s arrival heralded the end of war.

The present scene was eerily similar to Shan Lie’s memory.

A gate opened in front of the Mother Tree, and Lu Yin stepped through it. He stared at the charging Chang. “If you want a competition, then let’s have one. Step by step, humanity has risen up to our current heights from being as weak as ants. Our starting point may be low, but who knows how high we can rise. I too want to see where the end of this power lies.”

He then clenched a fist and slowly brought his arm up. A slight ripple passed through the void, but compared to the vast ripples that Chang had stirred up with its frantic charge, Lu Yin produced almost nothing. However, that tiny ripple canceled out all of the massive ripples. Despite how small it was, it was unyielding, no different from Lu Yin himself. Compared to Chang, he appeared insignificant, but as his punch moved forward, the universe thundered. Countless creatures’ eardrums nearly burst. The swarms of insects quivered, and everything fell silent. Only Chang continued as before, its claws descending and its eyes brimming with ecstasy.

Come, human!

Boom!

There was a thunderous crash, the echoes of which never ceased. The Mother Tree swayed from the wild winds. The sky of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse instantly grew dark, the light driven away by the impact. As countless eyes watched in horror, Chang stopped moving forward. It had been stopped.

Lu Yin’s expression remained calm. His fist was sheathed in Heaven’s Seal’s sequence particles, which were entwined with streams of white energy. It was Lifeforce, which Lu Yin had gained after his Wielder - God battle force evolved. That Lifeforce had also been fused with Immortal matter.

Given Chang’s power at this moment, Lu Yin could not hold anything back.

Chang let out a roar of excitement. Blocked. It had been blocked in its most powerful state. How many years had passed since the last time that this happened? The moment it came into existence, not a single creature had ever managed to give it a satisfactory contest of brute strength. Not one. At this moment, a puny human had appeared, possessing strength equal to Chang’s own, and that stirred up a battlelust deep in its bones.

This was not an insect’s battlelust. Such a thing was foreign to the bugs. All they knew was destruction. What Chang felt was a battlelust that came from Stillstorm’s blood. Chang was an insect, a Verdant Sage, but it also came from Stillstorm.

Endless power pressed down as Chang’s body bent as though it was folding the void.

Lu Yin was pressed down by the overwhelming force. He looked up as his consciousness erupted behind him. It replaced the sky as multiple layers appeared and he underwent the Nine Heavens Transformation.

An explosion sent a shockwave ripping across the universe. It tore through the Nine Odysseys Megaverse like a colossal white blade, severing the sky.

A punch knocked Chang back. It swung its claws, grasping for Lu Yin, but Infinite was surging through his body, fusing with Lifeforce and Immortal matter. He attacked again, and Chang’s claws were blasted aside. Lanterns appeared around the two as Lu Yin used Natural Art.

Chang trembled with excitement as it attacked with its five claws.

Lu Yin’s fists rose up, launching one punch after another at his opponent.

There were no techniques being used. It was an exchange of raw strength. The clash raged above the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, deafening booms causing countless creatures’ heads to feel as if they were about to explode. Shockwaves fell like white waterfalls, ripping apart the sky and the ground. Even the Mother Tree never stopped swaying.

It was the most spectacular battle since the beginning of the war.

In a sustained clash of physical power, it was only a question of who would falter first.

In the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s North Domain, Shan Xiao stared on in shock. Chang had actually been stopped.

Each of the four Insect Lords possessed combat power at the limit of what was possible beneath the Immortal realm. Time, space, and physical strength: each one had reached the pinnacle beneath Immortality. By all reason, none but an Immortal could stop any of them.

Unbroken Time’s death could be passed off as the result of a siege, and it was possible that there had been some Immortal interfering in some manner that the insects could not perceive. However, the fact that a non-Immortal had stopped Chang was undeniable. Lu Yin could even wield Lifeforce. His strength was simply inconceivable.

The fact that he had managed to survive Unbroken Time’s ultimate move had already shattered the Insect Lords’ understanding. The Immortal Lord had personally said that no creature could survive an encounter with Unbroken Time unless they were also an Immortal.

The current human civilization was nothing like the Third Rampart. The Immortal Lord had miscalculated.

As the insects all stared at the terrifying battle being fought in the distance, regardless of whether Chang won or lost, the insects had already been defeated.

Chang had been stopped. Who else could force an Immortal to take action? Luo Chan was also being thwarted, which left only Shan Xiao.

However, the humans had more than one Immortal.

“In the end, is it our civilization that is doomed?” Shan Xiao murmured to herself. The Immortal Lord had once said that this day was inevitable. By no means was the Nest civilization the strongest in the cosmos. There were fishing civilizations above them, civilizations whose strength not even the Immortal Lord could fathom.

The Nest civilization destroyed any foreign civilizations that they encountered, but sooner or later, they had always known that they would run into an unbeatable civilization.

Still, that civilization was not supposed to be a human one.

Humans were just so weak. It took endless years for them to gain great strength after being born. During that time, how could they avoid being discovered by a fishing civilization? How could they ensure that their civilization’s legacy was passed down? Humans should have been cowering in some hidden corner of the omniverse, trembling in fear and not daring to risk being noticed by any other civilization.

Instead, the Nest civilization had run into a powerful human civilization.

A needle shot toward Shan Xiao. She dodged and looked over. “Will you really not give up? Do you not fear death?”

In the distance, two people were staring at her: Xing Fan and Yu, Odyssey Commander of the Second Night Pillar.

“Could it be that you think this is all I am capable of?” Shan Xiao slowly smiled. “I have a thorough understanding of humans, as I am also one. Have you never thought that I, like you, might simply be hiding my strength?”

Xing Fan’s eyes narrowed, yet she said nothing.

Suddenly, Shan Xiao realized the situation. “Ah, you’re stalling for time! You already know that you aren’t my match, but you also can’t just let me go. That’s why you’re dragging things out as much as you can. You’re too afraid to infuriate me, aren’t you? Heh.”

Yu’s heart dropped. The humanoid bug had seen through them. They no longer had any choice. It was true that they were not Shan Xiao’s opponents, but she would not have an easy time killing the two of them either. After all, they were peak Dukkhans, and Xing Fan had even been a Lesser Sancte.

“So, are you human or insect?” Xing Fan finally asked, her eyes never leaving Shan Xiao.

Cradling her doll, Shan Xiao’s blue eyes met Xing Fan’s gaze. “Since I’ve seen through you and you know that you can’t stall any longer, are you changing tactics?”

Xing Fan frowned. “It’s still not certain that you can beat me. I still haven’t gone all out.”