Chapter 4001: Calculating Oneself

The loud impact echoed through the entire mountain village, and it prompted many households to light their lamps.

The oar separated the two skeletons, but it failed to stop the dark-red energy from spreading, and the skeletons almost instantly melted away.

The Great Master stirred the void with her oar, and the universe turned gray. The lamps that had just been lit were extinguished, one by one. This was not done by human hands, but was rather a result of time flowing backward.

As a ferryman of the River of Aeons, the Great Master was capable of reversing time to a certain extent.

But even though time rolled back for the small mountain village, the melted skeletons showed no change, no matter how much time was reversed.

The Great Master closed his eyes, feeling helpless as she took out her communication device. “It failed.”

Reversing time was not an omnipotent ability. In the Tianyuan, Destiny had once given Lu Yin a chance to reverse time, which had also allowed the ferryman of the River of Aeons to restore time to its proper course.

Even though the entire megaverse’s time had been rolled back, it had not been able to affect an Immortal. Even the High Seraph had merely been forced to return, and his time had not been fully reversed.

That was because the High Seraph had been a peak Dukkhan at that time.

The energy that had melted the skeletons was from Yong Heng. In the past, Yong Heng had already been a peak Dukkhan, but he had become far stronger than before. Now, he was walking a path that no one could fathom.

Not even the Great Master could reverse that energy.

Lu Yin’s voice came through the communication device. “As expected.”

“Then why did you still have me attack? Did you just intend to see me fail?” the Great Master grumbled.

Lu Yin replied, “It was worth the attempt. What if Yong Heng had been careless?”

The Great Master stared at the marks on the ground from the skeletons melting. “Someone like him would never be careless. I was the one who was careless. If I had known that he was so decisive, I would have captured one skeleton first. It would at least be better for it to be alive than dead.”

“Capturing her would have been meaningless.”

“Is there meaning in allowing her to be melted? If I’m not mistaken, she was your only lead on Yong Heng. With her gone, what do you plan to do now?”

Inside the city lord’s manor in Blackmarsh City, Lu Yin stared at his communication device and calmly replied, “There is still another method that I can try. Senior, just give me a bit of time.”

“How much?”

“I don’t know. This could be quick, or it might be slow.”

“A completely useless answer. Still, I have plenty of time, and this isn’t a bad location. Take your time.” With that, the Great Master put her communication device away and turned out to stare at the distant fields the breeze was blowing through. She sneered. “That traitor really knows how to enjoy the pleasures of ordinary people.”

Inside the city lord’s manor, Lu Yin put his communication device away. He closed his eyes as he sat in a courtyard, mentally replaying the scenes of the recent past.

He appeared to be calm and cautious, but he was unable to eliminate his mindset of standing at the top. He believed himself to be wary of Yong Heng, but was he the only threat hiding in the shadows?

Lu Yin often reflected on his own thoughts and behavior, as he was determined to never walk the same path that the Origin Progenitor had so long ago.

However, had he not already stepped onto that same old road?

It was highly likely that Yong Heng was not alone in the dark. It was possible that others were also watching Lu Yin, waiting to replace him.

The message that Yong Heng had left behind was like a brand that had been burned deep into Lu Yin’s heart.

It was impossible for him to investigate every shadow. Not even the Greater Sancti could manage to do that. Since that was the case, all that Lu Yin could do was rely on himself.

His Karmic Dao was released, and it rose up to merge into the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. He stood up and spread out his arms. “Let me see, who is plotting against me? I will target myself while searching with karma.”

Lu Yin proceeded to indirectly examine himself, using his own existence as the target. Karma was being used on his own self, so if anyone was scheming against him, Lu Yin hoped to find out by using the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

There was a thunderous boom as a peal of rolling thunder shook the universe.

Countless people looked up. The sky above them had somehow changed. It pressed down upon them, as if it had dropped lower.

Lu Yin watched as the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm churned. It was linked to his Karmic Dao, and spirals of karma formed and pierced his body. Multiple Karmic Lines shot out and collided with each other. As that happened, an indescribable sensation appeared, causing Lu Yin to instinctively glance in different directions. In one direction, he saw a middle-aged man. In another, an old woman. In yet another, he saw...

He saw a number of people, far too many. All of them lived within the cause and effect of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. While Lu Yin had never directly interacted or even seen any of them before, the scope of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm allowed him to reach across the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and look at them.

Seeing the people with his own eyes was not important. Karma revealed every scheme. Wherever there was an effect, there had to also be a cause. With cause, an effect could be drawn forth.

As the Karmic Lines continued to collide, certain patterns were revealed to Lu Yin.

He saw how these people gathered at certain moments, and how a few specific events had occurred at those times. The karmic threads that were exposed revealed the entire sequence of cause and effect.

Lu Yin’s eyes grew cold. Some of the people he was examining had tried to kill him back when he had first entered the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

There were people with both direct and indirect connections to him. Some wanted the overall trend of the megaverse to be to judge Lu Yin and drive him out.

Some of the people had slandered him during the war against the Nest civilization. They were the ones who had spread rumors through the Nine Odysseys Megaverse that Lu Yin had deliberately delayed the battle so that the insects could grow numerous enough to force the war down a path of mutual destruction.

Lu Yin had believed that matter to already be resolved, as the ones who had secretly manipulated those events were the Netherfiends. Specifically, they had used a man in the South Domain known as Black Lord to force the Yan family to work with several other factions and rally many cultivators to denounce Lu Yin.

Either the Netherfiends or Yong Heng had been behind that matter.

However, in addition to those people, other voices of condemnation against Lu Yin had risen up across the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, not all of which belonged to the Netherfiends. There were people who simply disliked Lu Yin and had joined the crowd of people denouncing him.

The same people who had spoken against Lu Yin during the war were currently calling for a First Scion to be appointed who could be raised up to replace Lu Yin.

Those were people who looked down on the Tianyuan and the Spirit Nidus, considering the Nine Odysseys Megaverse as superior to all other human megaverses. Even if they were cast down into the dust, they would still remain arrogant and contemptuous, all the while personally lacking the courage to openly stand against Lu Yin.

He immediately sent images of those people to Deathmound. This was a matter that he had to let the Nine Odysseys Megaverse resolve internally.

Such people were not qualified for him to personally take action.

So long as he was in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and examining himself with karma, he could discover the people and events that were working against him within the megaverse.

Of those various karmic ties, the stronger an involved person was, the more karma that Lu Yin had to spend to find and expose them, and the greater the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm’s response.

Lu Yin stared up at the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. It appeared that there were a great number of people plotting against him.

The first ones to be revealed were mere small fry, and they were unworthy of creating almost any stirs in the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. It was only as Lu Yin pressed things further that a commotion erupted.

Karma started to boil in the universe, sending off more peals of rolling thunder.

All across the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, countless people started to panic. Many knelt in prayer, not understanding what was happening. In particular, those who had fought in the brutal war against the Nest civilization were unwilling to experience another war between civilizations.

In the Frightened Sparrow Terrace, Greater Sancte Awe Gate stared up at the sky.

Is this commotion all from the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm? That means that Lu Yin can get a stir out it... How has he managed to do that?

As an Immortal, Greater Sancte Awe Gate was able to somewhat perceive karma, and she could even use karma for certain actions, but she could not truly control karma, let alone use Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

The fact that Lu Yin could stir up the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm was like an ant being able to tip the scales. Even Greater Sancte Awe Gate was left completely baffled.

In the Spirit Nidus, Master Qing Cao also looked up.

He let out a deep breath. “The Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm... If you were to enter the Mirari Realm again at this time, I fear that I would struggle to deal with you even with the Mirari Realm’s karma. This is all the more reason for you to see the true face of the cosmos. Whether you make the same choice as me or a different one, I will watch and see.”

The Mother Tree swayed, leaves falling and scattering across the sky.

They cast countless black shadows that drifted across the land.

In the city lord’s manor, the wind grew stronger as the leaves scattered, and it lifted Lu Yin’s hair.

Karma rose above the sky from the ground. It was a truly magnificent scene that no one else could see.

Suddenly, the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm churned, and Lu Yin’s eyes snapped open. He peered across a vast distance to see a man. He seemed to be sitting calmly atop a mountain peak, and yet he was the one person that the violent churning of karma pointed straight at. This man was scheming against Lu Yin.

Who was he? The amount of karma that had been consumed just to point out this man and the massive reaction that had occurred in the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm was beyond even the response to a peak Dukkhan.

The war against the Nest civilization had already exposed the depth of Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s foundations to Lu Yin. He had learned of the existence of the seven elders on the First Night Pillar who had not appeared for the majority of the war. At this moment, Lu Yin was learning about yet another expert who had been hidden behind those seven. This man was not ordinary.

The Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm dropped yet again, the pressure weighing down upon countless people.

The man sitting on the mountain peak slowly lifted his head. Naturally, he could also sense the commotion, and it was accompanied by a rising sense of unease.

He should not feel nervous.

At this moment, all the man felt was a desire to fight, and it was directed solely at Lu Yin.

The fight against Chang had thoroughly ignited the man’s battlelust. He was sitting on the mountain peak to suppress that desire, but for some reason, it continued to grow increasingly powerful. His entire mind was consumed with thoughts of Lu Yin. Fight. He had to fight.

The surging battlelust was mirrored by the surging Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

A gate opened up in front of Lu Yin; Greater Sancte Awe Gate was offering assistance. A step through it delivered Lu Yin to the top of the mountain.

There, the man’s desire to fight froze the moment the gate appeared. He stared at the gate.

Greater Sancte Awe Gate?

Lu Yin stepped out to stand before the man.

Eyes narrowed as they stared at Lu Yin. Lu Yin was also able to clearly see the slitted scarlet eyes that were locked onto him.

“A Netherfiend.” Lu Yin slowly smiled. Examining himself with karma was truly proving to be useful. He could have never examined himself with only his Karmic Dao, but the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm allowed him to do exactly that.

At the moment, he was the only person capable of examining themselves with karma, and that was because the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm actually belonged to Greater Sancte Green Lotus. Not even Green Lotus himself could examine his own karma.

This granted Lu Yin a truly unique advantage, and that advantage had just allowed him to find a Netherfiend.

He had originally hoped to use Cheng Xue to find Yong Heng. Lu Yin had felt that it was highly likely that the Netherfiends had been hiding beneath the Blackmarsh, only to make the surprising discovery that Silent Death had been there instead. This time, he had been searching for Silent Death, only to instead find a Netherfiend.

How very interesting

.

The man continued to stare at Lu Yin. “How... did you... find me?”

Lu Yin retorted, “Was it supposed to be difficult? I was given a method by Greater Sancte Awe Gate.”

“Impossible.” The man’s voice was deep and rasping, his words broken. “Immortals... cannot find us. You... used something... else.”

Lu Yin shook his head. “That just shows that you don’t understand the Greater Sancti well enough.”

While speaking, he attacked. He locked down the void while also moving at the speed of time to reach out and grab the man.

Having already witnessed several Netherfiends die from being melted by the red energy, Lu Yin was naturally cautious. He wanted to make his best attempt to capture this man first.

Time and space both froze as Lu Yin’s hand steadily approached the man.

The man’s body did not move, though his eyes followed every movement that Lu Yin made.

Lu Yin saw that, and his consciousness erupted. This man was not simple.

“Fall!”

It was a sharp shout, and the word forced reality to comply.

And yet, the man was not affected at all. Netherfiends’ minds were all restricted, and they also possessed an ability to even hide from Immortals.

It was an Immortal-level power that originated from Qi Xu. As long as Qi Xu’s power persisted, Immortals would never be able to fully expose the Netherfiends.