Chapter 3987: Mark

Buried treasure, Cheng Xue’s bones, underground—is this the Netherfiends or Silent Death?

Is the reason why they’ve avoided the Greater Sancti’s searching all these years because they’ve been doing this?

Even if the Greater Sancti scoured every inch of land in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, when they reached Blackmarsh City and saw so many people digging for treasure, they most likely would not care about the place.

The best way to hide was by doing so in plain sight!

While it appeared as if the insects had been purged from the enormous Nine Odysseys Megaverse, the truth was that it was difficult to fully eliminate them from the various hidden corners. Doing so would take time: perhaps a year, possibly more than ten.

Fortunately, thanks to the Nine Odysseys’ spirit treasure formation, no Nest had entered the megaverse. Had that occurred, there would have been endless bugs.

More than ten days later, people from the city lord's manor arrived to reassign cultivators to defend the other side of the city, as there were too many defenders in Lu Yin’s location.

Many were reluctant to leave because the other side of the city was where the Scrollbane Centipedes occasionally appeared. Insects only climbed out of the swamp in their current location, and those bugs were only as powerful as weak Spirit Warriors.

Lu Yin left, along with Ling Guang, his sister, and several others who were either courageous or confident in their own luck.

“The bold are rewarded, while the timid starve. If I don’t make this trip count, when will I ever be able to join the city lord’s treasure-hunting team? Even if I don’t accumulate enough merit, just getting familiar with them will help me in the future,” someone muttered to console himself.

Several others echoed their agreement.

The city lord’s representative that had come to reassign the independent cultivators gave a small smile. This logic was sound, but a person had to first survive long enough to get familiar with the city lord’s people. The last groups drafted to help defend the walls had been almost entirely wiped out. These people were actually just bait, as the Scrollbane Centipede always prioritized attacking weaker cultivators whenever they appeared, and that bought time for others to react to the bugs.

Still, if the independent cultivators did manage to survive to the end, they would certainly be praised and rewarded by the city lord.

After all, courage did matter.

Soon, Lu Yin and the others arrived on the opposite side of Blackmarsh City, where they would defend the walls, and the fighting quickly resumed.

Through battle after battle, they saw the others who had arrived with them gradually die off. Eventually, the city lord’s men delivered another batch of defenders.

Still, Lu Yin and the two Ling siblings all survived, due to them working in perfect coordination. No one even noticed that Lu Yin was concealing his cultivation. Things became even better after Ling Guang had a breakthrough mid-battle. Ling Shu’s delight lasted for several days, as the fact that her brother had reached the Semi-Progenitor level meant that they were no longer completely helpless against the Scrollbane Centipedes.

As time passed, the three grew increasingly familiar with the city lord’s men. If they managed to survive until the end of the fighting, the city lord's manor would guarantee places for them on a treasure-hunting team, as well as entry to cultivate there.

The sky was rather dark above the Blackmarsh. All year round, there was no sunlight. This was due to both the swamp itself, as well as the Mother Tree’s canopy overshadowing the region. The swamp was essentially among the tree’s roots, which meant that there were endless leaves stretching out overhead.

After one battle, Lu Yin wearily sat down at one corner of the wall to drink some water.

The Ling siblings approached. “Fugui, are you alright? It looked like you got grazed,” Ling Guang asked.

Ling Shu simply tossed a pill over, but Lu Yin waved their concerns away. “I’m fine. It just hurts a bit.”

Ling Guang nodded. “If only you could also break through. With us brothers working together, and my sister supporting us from afar, we’d be guaranteed to make it through to the end.”

Lu Yin smiled. “I’ll do my best.”

Soon after, he closed his eyes to rest.

“What are you doing?” Greater Sancte Awe Gate’s voice entered his ears, startling Lu Yin. He opened his eyes but was relieved to see that no gate had appeared.

If a gate had opened in front of him, it would have been a truly bizarre occurrence for those nearby. A gate suddenly appearing meant Greater Sancte Awe Gate’s presence, and her interference would completely turn Blackmarsh City upside down. Even a fool would understand that there was something off about Fugui.

“I may have found some information related to Silent Death or the Netherfiends.”

“In Blackmarsh City?”

“Underground.”

“Oh? I investigated that area once, but that was very long ago. Right under my nose, are they? Quite the provocation.”

Lu Yin said, “Senior, don’t startle them. Silent Death and Netherfiends are one matter, but I also need to find Yong Heng, and he might not be here.”

“I understand. There’s no other reason for you to hide your identity. With your strength, no one in the Blackmarsh could escape once you take action. I only reached out to ask if you’ve learned the Nest civilization’s location.”

Lu Yin stared straight ahead. In front of him, there were scattered pockets of fighting, and commotion echoed outside the city. “They don’t have a fixed location. Shan Lie isn’t able to deceive me, but the Immortal Lord should be steadily moving closer to us.

“The Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm prevents Immortals from freely entering our region of the Aevum Inch. Does that mean that, if the Immortal Lord makes contact, you’ll be able to detect it?”

Greater Sancte Awe Gate slowly answered, “The condition is for the Immortal Lord to personally come into contact with the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm and enter it. Without that, I won’t know anything. After all, this power belongs to Greater Sancte Green Lotus. While we Immortals are able to somewhat borrow karmic power that already exists, what we can do is quite limited.”

Lu Yin was reminded of the time in the Mirari Realm when Master Qing Cao had borrowed the forbidden region’s karma to seal him.

Master Qing Cao had not comprehended karma, and yet he had still been able to use it. Even a limited application had been enough to seal Lu Yin at that time.

He could still remember that Master Qing Cao had said that the seal would only last for 100 years.

There had been a massive gap between Lu Yin’s strength and an Immortal at that time, which was why Master Qing Cao had only bothered to seal him for a century. Such a seal also proved that the man had only borrowed the forbidden regions’s karma; otherwise, Progenitor Ku would have never been able to save Lu Yin.

If Greater Sancte Green Lotus had been the one to seal Lu Yin at that time, then forget Progenitor Ku, as not even the current Lu Yin would be able to break free. If he said that a seal would last 100 years, it would last 100 years.

Lu Yin let out a helpless sigh. “So you can’t do anything, and neither can Master Qing Cao. Luo Chan’s ability means that the Immortal Lord can freely enter the Nine Odysseys Megaverse at any time. That would be a disaster.”

“I know. Hopefully, Green Lotus and Blood Tower will return soon,” Greater Sancte Awe Gate agreed.

Lu Yin frowned. Even though human civilization had four Immortals at the moment, which seemed to be a great deal more than the Nest civilization, how many of those human powerhouses were free to act? At the moment, they could only ensure that the war was limited to beneath the Immortal realm, and that was barely enough.

That was also not even considering Master Qing Cao, who was such an unpredictable anomaly that there was a possibility of betrayal at any time.

“Senior, there is something that this junior cannot understand. Please enlighten me.”

“What is it?”

Lu Yin looked up in the direction of the Frightened Sparrow Terrace. “Even after so many years, has Greater Sancte Green Lotus really not found any trace of Silent Death or the Netherfiends?”

By merging his Karmic Dao with the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, he had quickly found Cheng Xue’s bones. However, the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm belonged to Greater Sancte Green Lotus. After so many years, Green Lotus should be capable of seeing the entire Nine Odysseys megaverse. How was it possible that he had not found any traces of Silent Death or the Netherfiends? It simply did not make any sense.

Greater Sancte Awe Gate replied, “Because he has been marked.”

Lu Yin was startled. “Marked?”

“Qi Xu was behind the Netherfiends, and while she has already died, there are specific reasons why Green Lotus did not allow her power to simply vanish. That is what allows the Netherfiends to continue hiding, as they use Qi Xu’s power. After all, she was an Immortal. On top of that, Qi Xu was aware of Green Lotus’s Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, so she prepared means to hide from it, which prevents the Netherfiends from being easily found.

“As for Silent Death, they appeared later, but behind them is the Death Megaverse. That is a cosmic civilization that brings about absolute disaster to humanity, subjecting all to death. They wield strange powers. When the Death Megaverse drew near, Silent Death’s master, Zhu, used that power to mark Green Lotus. If Green Lotus uses his Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm to search for Silent Death, he will be detected. Zhu is thus able to detect the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.”

Lu Yin was shocked. “Zhu isn’t an Immortal, and yet he managed to see through the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm?”

“Not see through it. Just because he can detect it does not mean that he is able to fully perceive it. It merely means that he can sense when that power is used against him. That awareness is from the Death Megaverse. You should have seen Silent Death’s methods already—they are able to separate bones from a living body. That is another manner of marking, or you could say that it means that their Bone Script was implanted. Remember, never allow any creature from the Death Megaverse to implant Bone Script within you. Never allow your power to be marked. Should that happen, everything that you are capable of will be seen through,” Greater Sancte Awe Gate warned.

Lu Yin remembered what he had heard when he had seen that pair of eyes. Could those words have been marking him?

The methods used by the Death Megaverse were truly bizarre. They could extract bones from a living creature. That was what had gravely injured Li Guo and dealt a blow to the Netherfiend, Jie Zun. Lu Yin could not imagine what it must feel like to have his own bones removed.

However, doing so should not be very easy.

Li Guo had shared some information regarding the battle at Cragpeak with Lu Yin, and he had explained how Cheng Hongyuan had implanted Bone Script in him. The two’s cultivation had been equal, and yet Cheng Hongyuan had needed to spend a good bit of effort to implant the Bone Script. Against someone like Lu Yin, it should be much more difficult. As for being marked...

Lu Yin kept feeling like the words that he had heard from that being whose eyes he had seen somehow indicated that he had been marked.

If he really had been marked, then was it possible that the location where he had detected Cheng Xue’s bones was false? Could he have been deceived?

Lu Yin stood up, moved to the city wall, and then peered down at the ground. At the moment, there were only a few possibilities. The first was that Yong Heng and Silent Death had been toying with him and Cheng Xue’s bones really were beneath the Blackmarsh. However, just like her body, those bones had been deliberately left there by Yong Heng to distract Lu Yin.

The second option was that he had not been marked and really had found Cheng Xue’s bones through his own efforts, even if he had used the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm to accomplish it. If Greater Sancte Green Lotus was marked and Silent Death could sense the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, then could they also sense when Lu Yin used it? Did that mean that Cheng Xue’s trail was false?

Third, there was a chance that Lu Yin had been marked and yet had still managed to find Cheng Xue’s bones. This would mean that he had not succeeded by his own ability, but rather because of Yong Heng.

Yong Heng had betrayed Silent Death, and since Cheng Xue followed him, she had also betrayed them.

The fact that Silent Death had managed to mark Greater Sancte Green Lotus meant that they were certainly capable of marking Yong Heng. Even so, they had not managed to find Yong Heng, which meant that the man had some means of countering Silent Death. He might have extended that ability to Cheng Xue, which had indirectly helped Lu Yin.

If Yong Heng’s countermeasures meant that Lu Yin’s discovery of Cheng Xue was hidden, it would make it hard for Silent Death to detect what was happening. Also, since Yong Heng and Cheng Xue were not capable of marking Lu Yin or Greater Sancte Green Lotus, they were similarly ignorant.

Following this reasoning, Lu Yin felt that his presence in Blackmarsh City should be unknown to both Silent Death and Yong Heng.

However, which possibility was accurate? Lu Yin could not tell.

He favored the third option due to his confidence in Yong Heng. Lu Yin believed that Yong Heng was indeed capable of hiding himself from Silent Death’s mark and could also root out their location. Lu Yin was all too familiar with Yong Heng’s abilities.

If that was true, then Silent Death itself might lie beneath Lu Yin’s feet.

“I hope that I’m right. That would be quite the coincidental partnership,” Lu Yin muttered. Whether his suspicions were correct or not, he would continue to hide in Blackmarsh City. Such a short amount of time meant nothing.

He did want to return to the Tianyuan, but it was not time yet. The Immortal Lord could arrive at any moment, and Greater Sancte Awe Gate would only know when that Immortal entered the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. On the other hand, Lu Yin might not have those same limitations. Given enough time, he would likely be able to observe every inch of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

That included even the Tianyuan.

After considering that possibility, Lu Yin stared off into the distance. He missed his home, and he intended to find some time to examine this idea.

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