Chapter 4050: Terminus Cycle

Of the entire battlefield, Luo Chan was the most frustrated participant. No matter where it went, it would crash into karmic walls. Unless it simply stopped attacking completely and left the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, it would not be able to move around without slamming into more barriers.

Being constantly restrained left the bug seething, but it was also utterly helpless.

Just wait, humans! Your extinction is inevitable!

Elsewhere, in the Spirit Nidus, more than one Verdant Sage had appeared outside the Arcanum Domain. After the insects discovered that the war in that megaverse was centered around the Arcanum Domain, they had evaluated that place as vital to the humans and had resolved to destroy it first.

So far, nearly half of the thirty-six domains had been destroyed. This was not because those domains had been deliberately attacked, but rather from collateral damage of the ongoing war.

The Arcanum Domain was the first true target to be destroyed.

The person leading the defense there was Qing Xing, with his Chaotic Ancient Qi Art.

He obliterated one Verdant Sage outright, while another, which was far stronger, though still weaker than the Insect Lords, managed to survive Qing Xing’s assault thanks to its unique abilities.

Qing Xing had not yet revealed his full power of multiple spirit seeds. He was keeping that hidden to serve as his trump card.

All around him, the insect swarms gathered together before surging toward the Arcanum Domain.

However, with someone as powerful as Qing Xing standing guard, the bugs could only be slaughtered.

Behind Qing Xing, the Arcanum Domain was also shielded by the Terminus Cycle. It would not be easy to break through the sequence base.

Just then, the Great Master arrived, and she raised a hand in the direction of the Arcanum Domain.

Instinctively, Qing Xing blocked her. “What are you doing?”

The Great Master coldly replied, “I’m going to use the Terminus Cycle to deal with Luo Chan.”

Qing Xing frowned. “No. Awe Gate explicitly told me to do nothing aside from guard the Arcanum Domain.”

The Great Master snapped back, “If the entire human civilization falls, what is the meaning of protecting a single domain?

“You already know about Luo Chan’s ability. If it keeps sapping our strength like this, we’ll all die.

“Believe me, I want to protect the Arcanum Domain even more than you, but there’s no other choice.”

Qing Xing hesitated, and the Great Master proceeded to ignore him. She pressed a hand to the domain’s boundary. Ripples spread from the top, reaching outwards and sweeping across the entire Arcanum Domain.

From the outside, the Arcanum Domain appeared to be covered by an inverted bowl. The barrier was transparent, and yet everything within was concealed.

Inside that barrier, within the Zhan family’s territory, cultivators looked up in alarm. What was happening? Was someone trying to break the Terminus Cycle?

Zhan Ming’s expression grew stern. That should be impossible. Who would try to break the Terminus Cycle?

It was not that the Terminus Cycle could not be broken, but rather that no one should even wish to do so.

The Zhan family’s records stated that whenever the Arcanum Domain was protected by the Terminus Cycle, no outsider could touch the domain. This was not because the sequence base was invincible, but simply because it would never be attacked.

Zhan Ming had never known why his ancestors had mentioned that in the family records. When he became the patriarch, he had asked why and had been told quite firmly that no one would ever attack the Terminus Cycle. If it was released, the domain would be safe.

That was why, after Emperor Wu’s death and before the High Seraph had led the campaign against the Consciousness Megaverse, Zhan Ming had released the Terminus Cycle so that he could seal off his family from any outside affairs.

Matters outside of the Arcanum Domain had gone completely out of control. The Zhan family simply needed to weather the storm.

But why was the Terminus Cycle faltering at this time?

In the Garden of Passing, Zhan Qianguhou was muttering to a tomb when he looked up, mouth agape. He could also see that the Terminus Cycle was failing.

Every member of the Zhan family stared upwards.

The barrier was supposed to stand for millennia; just how much time had passed?

What on earth was happening?

There was a swish, and the sky above grew dark. The stars which had been missing for so long returned, replacing the bright sky that the Zhan family had fashioned for themselves.

The entire domain saw what looked like a fisherwoman step into view, an oar on her shoulder. “I’m borrowing the Terminus Cycle. If I don’t die, I’ll return it.”

Zhan Ming was struck dumb, and he just stared upwards, unable to believe what he had just heard.

“Wh- what is that?” someone screamed in terror.

From all directions, swarms of insects surged into the Arcanum Domain. There were a great number of cultivators gathered above, and they all looked down.

“Hey, you people from the Spirit Nidus! Stop staring and get out here and kill some bugs!”

“We’re the ones protecting you.”

“Hurry up...”

Zhan Ming had no clue what was happening, but the fact that there were humans on one side of the conflict and insects on the other was enough for even a fool to know who they should help.

What baffled him the most was where these cultivators had come from. They all had auras of being from another megaverse. One in particular was releasing surging currents that were so oppressive that the man’s presence eclipsed even the High Seraph’s.

Such power!

Qing Xing’s face grew grim. Without the Terminus Cycle, his burden had grown much heavier. He could only hope that the Great Master was not mistaken.

The Great Master quickly returned to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, Terminus Cycle in hand. She quickly disappeared into the sky. “Mister Lu, help me trap it here.”

Lu Yin observed what the woman carried with a strange expression.

A... bowl?

He did not know that the bowl was the Terminus Cycle. While he was able to observe both the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and the Spirit Nidus, the fact that he had been focused on Luo Chan had prevented him from knowing where the Great Master had just gone.

However, the sight of her carrying a bowl made him feel like he was part of a bad joke.

The Great Master sneered. She held her oar in one hand and a bowl in the other. The two did not appear to contradict each other at all.

“This is the Terminus Cycle. It forms an independent space, severing all flows of energy and all senses. Unlike the Spirit Nidus’s other sequence bases, this was created by Greater Sancte Green Lotus himself. I refuse to believe that even Luo Chan can escape from this.”

Lu Yin’s focus instantly sharpened.

The Terminus Cycle? So that’s her plan. The Great Master went to the Arcanum Domain, but that means that that domain is now exposed.

Awe Gate had previously mentioned that the Terminus Cycle was not originally from the Spirit Nidus, but rather from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. She had failed to mention that it had been crafted by Greater Sancte Green Lotus.

If Greater Sancte Green Lotus had personally made the sequence base, it might actually be able to trap Luo Chan.

That bug’s ability to teleport would only work within the present megaverse. So long as the bug stayed in a megaverse, Luo Chan would not be able to teleport into a space that had been isolated from the rest of the megaverse. If the Terminus Cycle really did create an independent space, it would sever Luo Chan’s connection to the rest of the megaverse.

As Lu Yin’s mind processed the situation, karma rumbled, guiding the Great Master.

She strode along on time itself, gray streams of power swirling as she froze sections of the void. She was intimidating and unstoppable.

Seeing the woman charge straight towards it, Luo Chan immediately turned and fled. It had no intention of fighting against the Great Master.

Compared to Chang, Unbroken Time, and Shan Xiao, Luo Chan was not a powerful combatant. Its combat power had not reached the pinnacle beneath the Immortal realm. Luo Chan’s teleportation ability was the only reason why it had obtained a place among the four Insect Lords.

Facing an opponent whose attacks could always hit and who could almost never be hit was not a confrontation that Luo Chan wanted any part in.

Thud

.

It crashed into a karmic wall and numbly picked a different direction.

Thud

.

Another one? Just try again.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

With one crash after another, Luo Chan quickly realized that it was surrounded by barriers of karma.

It could not break through the karma. If Luo Chan were capable of that, the Nest civilization would have bypassed the karmic wall that had surrounded the Tianyuan months earlier.

Karma was a power that belonged to the Immortal realm, and it was beyond anything that Luo Chan could deal with.

Previously, Lu Yin had only blocked Luo Chan’s path. This time, he had surrounded the bug despite the enormous karmic expenditure.

Luo Chan kept ramming into the unseen barrier, confident that it could break free.

The Great Master raised her oar. “Behave!”

Luo Chan sneered. It might not be able to break through the barrier of karma, but the human was also unable to attack through the karma. Trapping Luo Chan in such a manner was pointless.

The oar slammed down, brushing past the karma. The Great Master spun around, pulling out the Terminus Cycle and flipping it over in one smooth motion. “In you go.”

There was a flicker of time, and the Terminus Cycle clamped down over Luo Chan. It no longer looked like a bowl, but rather a sphere.

Luo Chan blinked.

What is this?

It lunged. There was no karma present, and yet the bug slammed into the Terminus Cycle.

No, this isn’t the Aevum Inch, but a separate space

.

Its ability could only work within a single megaverse. It could not teleport from one megaverse to another.

It started flickering about within the Terminus Cycle, teleporting again and again, yet it was unable to breach the sequence base.

The Great Master let out a breath of relief.

It worked

.

Lu Yin was also able to breathe easier. Finally, they had a way to contain the bug.

At that moment, a wave of exhaustion struck. Lu Yin lost sight of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and staggered back a few steps. Panting, he retracted the Karmic Dao and severed his connection to the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

Trapping Luo Chan had drained his Karmic Dao yet again, and it was almost entirely depleted now.

He stared off into space. He had done all he could. Unless he could replenish his karma, he would not be able to help the Nine Odysseys Megaverse at all. In fact, he was no longer able to even watch the battle.

What he needed most was more karma.

The Tianyuan was still purging insects from the various universes. The fastest way for Lu Yin to replenish his karma was to imprison people in his Champions’ Stage Purgatory.

However, he could not order the Tianyuan’s people to do that. The Champions’ Stage Hell was not a good place to go, as all who entered it were forced to endure pure agony.

He had once forced powerhouses from the Spirit Nidus inside. On

Boundless

, Chu Yi and the others from the Tianyuan had also entered. That actually included most of the Tianyuan’s top experts. Sending the few who had not yet entered would not yield much karma.

After gaining vast amounts of karma from the meteorite creature, Yue Ya, the transparent moth, and others, what karma Lu Yin could gain from ordinary cultivators was pitiful.

There was only one place where he might be able to quickly replenish his karma: the Mirari Realm. Specifically, the karmic forbidden region.

“Did something happen in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse?” Lu Yuan asked from beyond the stone gate.

Lu Yin glanced back and nodded.

Lu Yuan sighed. “Shan Gu told me. How are things going over there now?”

Lu Yin offered a brief summary of the battle, which left Lu Yuan shaken. “Awe Gate? She sounds fierce. She’s even more terrifying than that madwoman, the Great Sovereign.

“If she really can hold off two Immortals, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse might not lose.”

Lu Yin nodded. “Ancestor, what happened to my master?”

He had noticed that Mister Mu had never appeared during the recent war. Lu Yin had assumed that his master had been suppressing the sequence strings in place of the Origin Progenitor. But later, he had learned that Wilderness God had been the one keeping a hold on the sequence strings beneath the Immemorial Citadel, not Mister Mu.

“We don’t know,” Lu Yuan replied, “After Yellowy took over the sequence strings, Mister Mu returned to the Heavens Sect just once, only to then vanish without a word.

“However, some time later-” The man’s expression grew odd. “Wei Nu came.”

Lu Yin was surprised. “Wei Nu?”

Lu Yuan coughed. “She told us that Mister Mu had dropped into the River of Aeons. She was hoping we would be able to pull him out.”

Lu Yin’s eyes widened. “Master dropped into the River of Aeons?”

Lu Yuan nodded. “That’s what she said. First, he fixed the Mirari Realm in place, and then he dropped himself into the River of Aeons. He’s treating the Mirari Realm like it’s his home. She wanted us to convince him to leave.”

Lu Yin laughed. He could very well imagine Wei Nu’s helplessness when she had said that.

However, what Lu Yin was hearing made sense. Mister Mu had a firm control of the Mirari Realm, and his control over the River of Aeons was unmatched. This time, he had literally sunk into the river.

Lu Yin had always held Mister Mu in high regard, but in hindsight, it appeared that he had still underestimated his master.