Chapter 3990: Convergence

In Dayi City, the central street ended at a mountainside. The mountain was shrouded in mist, and there was a rainbow bridge. A woman descended from that rainbow, followed by an old woman. They were Qing Yun and Granny Yin.

Waiting to greet them was Luo Ning.

“Why aren’t you out killing bugs? Why have you sought us out?” Granny Yin asked while staring at Luo Ning.

He bowed. “My lady, we are heading to Blackmarsh City.”

Qing Yun grew puzzled. “Why?”

“The contest for the title of First Scion will be held in the Blackmarsh.”

Qing Yun exchanged glances with Granny Yin. “Who told you that?”

“Senior Bai Xia.”

“My lady, shall I ask?”

“There’s no need. I have no interest in the title of First Scion,” Qing Yun replied. She had also once been frozen in the Scion Spire, and she had occupied the southern pod. Even then, she had never been interested in the title of First Scion.

Regardless of whether Qing Yun received that title, she would still have a unique status in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

She looked over and smiled at Luo Ning. “Thank you for coming specifically to inform me. When will you leave for the Blackmarsh?”

Luo Ning considered the question. “Little Lotus King has already set out. Since I’ve let you know, my lady, I will leave immediately.”

Qing Yun nodded, though she continued to stare intently at Luo Ning. “Let me remind you of two things.”

Luo Ning bowed again, his expression solemn. “Please instruct me, my lady.”

Qing Yun looked in the direction of the Blackmarsh. “The Scion Spire has a simple purpose in supporting you: it hopes that, in a hundred or a thousand years, one of you will be able to shine brightly enough to stand beside Lu Yin. No one from the current era has managed to do that, so all our hopes now rest on you all, the prodigies of various eras of the past.

“However, this is nothing but a fantasy.”

“My lady,” Granny Yin could not help but interject.

Luo Ning also gave Qing Yun a look of surprise. For someone with her status to say such a thing was not proper. She had just admitted that no one in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse could compare to Lu Yin.

Qing Yun forced a smile onto her face. “There will always be a gap between dreams and reality. Before, I did not think that no one in our megaverse was incapable of rivaling Lu Yin, not even after he managed to attack across the four domains of our megaverse with a sword. However, during the war against the Nest civilization, he managed to defeat two Insect Lords on his own. The Insect Lords are far more powerful than you can comprehend. Their might is not only from their power, but also the fact that they are each unique creatures. Even my mother finds them troublesome.

“If the Nine Odysseys Megaverse truly had someone capable of standing beside Lu Yin, they would have appeared long ago. They would not have waited for some First Scion contest or for more resources to support their rise. Support is not capable of producing a genius on Lu Yin’s level.”

Granny Yin’s expression grew complicated. She wanted to say something but could not.

Lu Yin was from the Tianyuan, and yet he had suppressed the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse until people could barely breathe. While the entire megaverse was certainly grateful to him, in the end, he was still a foreigner from the Tianyuan.

Against foreign civilizations, they stood as one. But what would happen if the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and the Tianyuan clashed one day? Such a future was not impossible.

Some people were already speculating about the possibility of Lu Yin allying with the Spirit Nidus to deal with the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and that the alliance was the reason why he had deliberately delayed fighting against the swarms of insects. Such suspicions had always existed and would not go away simply because of what he had accomplished.

Unless the three human megaverses truly united, there would always be rivalries and conflicts between them.

The Nine Odysseys Megaverse needed someone to step up and counter Lu Yin’s radiance.

Luo Ning took a deep breath. “I understand, my lady.”

Qing Yun said. “I tell you this so that you will not be blinded by others. Even if Lu Yin does not belong to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, he is still human. Moreover, there is nothing for you to rectify. My Nine Odysseys still has three Greater Sancti.”

Granny Yin’s expression eased. It was true; no matter how formidable Lu Yin might be, if he ever turned against the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, the Greater Sancti were still there. While none beneath the Immortal realm could rival Lu Yin, Immortals existed on another level. Even if he broke through and became an Immortal himself, he would still be just one man.

The Nine Odysseys Megaverse already had three.

“The second point is, do you truly wish to compete with Little Lotus King and the others for the title of First Scion?”

Luo Ning’s gaze dropped, and he said nothing.

Granny Yin studied Luo Ning.

This child is still lacking.

Qing Yun spoke slowly, “Your level of talent is not lacking. You were qualified to sleep in the Scion Spire, which means that you truly hold the qualifications to compete with them. But do you really understand them? To sleep in one of the cardinal directions is not the same as being placed in the other four pods. Luo Ning, you must see the truth in advance: those four pods are intended to be but whetstones for the primary four.”

Luo Ning was startled by this comment, and he stared at Qing Yun in a daze.

The woman did not say another word and instead departed with Granny Yin.

Left behind, Luo Ning stood, lost in a daze as he stared straight ahead at the rainbow, lost in his own thoughts.

While walking down Dayi City’s main street, Granny Yin nervously glanced back. “My lady, weren’t your words a bit too cruel?”

Qing Yun replied, “It’s better to tell him now than to let him wait and suffer the blow later. The Skyward Gate’s Luo family is to be pitied. I hope that he can endure this.”

Granny Yin sighed. “Yes, the illustrious Luo family is no more. It is clear that the child’s mentality has already changed. Truthfully, I rather admire him. It is said that he chose to die rather than accept a Seed Transfusion to make his escape when he was faced with Lu Yin.”

Qing Yun said nothing. That story was precisely why she had warned Luo Ning.

The young man had a backbone, and he was also highly talented. He could rebuild the Luo family. She hoped that he would not disappoint her.

At the same time, there were dozens of people traveling at the edge of the Blackmarsh when someone wearing crimson, blood-stained garments sped past them while carrying an odd weapon. The person vanished in an instant.

“Who was that? How were they moving so fast?”

“Father, where did this sudden stench of blood come from?”

“It must be from that man just now.”

“Him?”

“Senior, do you know that man?”

“I don’t know him, but I recognized the weapon that he was carrying. The Crimson Pavilion.”

“Xue Lou’s weapon?”

“I think I’ve heard of that.”

“I remember now! The Eighth Night Pillar’s Bloodwraith!”

“The Odyssey Commander of the Eighth Night Pillar? Blood Tower’s first disciple? That Xue Lou?”

“Impossible! Odyssey Commander Xue Lou should be at the Eighth Night Pillar. He is a peak Dukkhan, so how could people like us possibly see him here?”

“Senior, could you be mistaken?”

“I made no mistake, though currently, there are only two who can wield the Crimson Pavilion as their weapon. One is the Eighth Night Pillar’s Odyssey Commander, Xue Lou. The other is his son, Xue Zhan, a prodigy who was frozen in the Scion Spire.”

“So are you saying that that was Xue Zhan just now?”

Right as that question was asked, another gust of wind blew past, and a loud shout rang out. “Xue Zhan, don’t run away! Our destined battle starts now! For you, I have also slept until now!”

“Who was that?”

“I don’t know who that was, but for him to claim to be Xue Zhan’s rival, could he be another prodigy from the Scion Spire?”

...

Farther away, in a valley on a mountain where insects filled a stream, two figures stood in the middle of the water, surrounded. One was a massive figure, fully three meters tall, with thick muscles and dark-violet skin. Their fierce aura caused the stream to roil, while also forcing the insects to retreat.

Across from the giant stood a graceful, handsome man holding a folded fan. The breeze lifted his hair up while a hint of a smile lingered on his lips. He gave off an extraordinary aura.

Neither man moved, not until the surrounding insects surged towards them. Within the swarm was a Scrollbane Centipede as well as a gathering of at least 1,000 Lithic Drakes.

The three-meter-tall man’s eyes suddenly flared, and he clenched a fist. When he punched the void, it shattered, inch by inch. Terrifying shockwaves rippled out along each bladelike, black spatial crack. The destruction sliced out in all directions, tearing apart the valley as a searing heat shot into the sky.

At that same moment, the swarm of bugs vanished.

Only the man with the extraordinary aura standing atop the stream remained as unmoving as a mountain. He casually tapped his folded fan. “Impressive, Ji. After all these years, you’ve become even more incomprehensible.”

“Ning Xiao, stop the act! When will you fight me?”

“Are you that eager to face me? I merely occupied the northwest pod in the Scion Spire. The ones you should be challenging are Little Lotus King and the others in the cardinal directions. They are the true prodigies.”

“Don’t try to fool me! If I can’t defeat even you, how can I possibly face them? Enough of this nonsense! Come!” With that, the giant lunged forward, his five fingers curling to tear through the void.

Ning Xiao answered with a small smile as he stepped forward and brushed past Ji. The massive body froze and then twisted around, while his feet were seemingly bound in place. “Immobilization? Little Lotus King’s battle technique?”

With a growl, Ji raised his right leg, and with a thunderous boom that shook the universe, shattered the seal that had bound his feet. Unfortunately for him, Ning Xiao had already vanished.

“Ning Xiao, don’t run!” Ji roared, immediately giving chase.

...

In a certain ancient clan’s forbidden grounds, a pair of eyes opened to look at an old man.

“Third Brother, you’re awake.”

The eyes belonged to a young man. Initially, he appeared to be dazed, and it took some time for clarity to appear in his eyes. “What era is this? Has Little Lotus King awakened?”

“Yes. Our Nine Odysseys Megaverse has recently been attacked and fought a war against a foreign civilization known as the Nest civilization. However, that war is over. The Scion Spire’s prodigies have all been awakened to fight.”

“Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” the young man demanded, glaring at the old man.

The elder was an Ortuser, and yet he mildly accepted the youth’s rebuke, despite the fact that the young man was only a peak powerhouse.

His name was Jian Heng, and he had been born in the same era as Little Lotus King. The two had even competed for a pod in the Scion Spire. He could have chosen to sleep in the southwest pod, as his time was before Qian Shu was born, but he had refused. Jian Heng had been determined to get a pod in one of the cardinal directions. If that was not possible, he would rather not enter the Scion Spire at all.

The man had entered cryostasis within his clan, vowing to awaken only when Little Lotus King did so that he could compete with the man.

“We didn’t know if we would even survive this war. Third Brother, you are still only a Spirit Ancestor, and you couldn’t have helped at all in this war.”

“Was the Nest civilization that powerful? How many Immortals did they have?”

“No Immortals participated in the war, but...”

As the old man slowly explained, he filled in the gaps of history. When Lu Yin’s accomplishments were recounted, the young man was badly shaken.

He could not imagine that someone from one of the lower megaverses would defeat everyone in the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse and seize public recognition as being the most powerful individual beneath the Immortal realm. That wasn’t even mentioning how Lu Yin had commanded the war that had determined the fate of human civilization.

That man had suppressed the entire Scion Spire.

“Where is Little Lotus King?”

“He has gone to the Blackmarsh.”

“Good. I will go as well.”

...

In the South Domain, at the Scion Spire, Bai Xia irritably put away his communication device. “One after another, they’re all asking questions. If I knew, I’d have already said so. This is infuriating!”

Behind him, his maid carried a spear. She wanted to say something but hesitated.

Bai Xia frowned and glanced at his spear. “It seems that a spear no longer expresses my mood. Find something more unpleasant.”

“How about dual blades?”

“Carrying one in each hand? Not bad... I’ll consider it.”

“Young Master, what’s going on? All of the Scions are moving to the Blackmarsh while saying that the Scion Spire has announced the contest for the First Scion.”

Bai Xia clasped his hands behind his back and stared up at the starry sky. “How would I know? In any case, this has nothing to do with me. Someone is pulling at strings behind the scenes, though their purpose remains unclear.”

“Who could be pulling the strings? Those who are against Mr. Lu?”

Bai Xia shook his head. “Not necessarily. Those people want to find someone brilliant enough to stand beside Lu Yin, but that’s easier said than done. They want to focus on the Scion Spire? That’s useless. Do they think that I don’t realize just how monstrous Lu Yin is? If what they want were possible, I’d have already done it myself!”