Chapter 4083: At The End Of The Road

At that moment, Lu Yin also saw the scene play out in karma. “There!”

He rushed out of the Sea of Karma, traveling in a single direction, tearing through the void as he descended to the ground.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus and Awe Gate both appeared at the same time, and they watched Lu Yin.

A wave of Lu Yin’s hand caused the ground to collapse, exposing a vast underground chamber. Skeletons rushed out, scattering in every possible direction, but with the Greater Sancti present, there was no real resistance.

In only an instant, even time itself could be frozen, let alone a few skeletons.

Lu Yin approached a corner of the underground chamber. It was empty, just like the corner that he had once approached beneath Blackmarsh.

Even so, he spoke to it. “Don’t bother trying to hide. You can’t escape.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus and Awe Gate also arrived. The ground trembled, and dust rose before quickly settling back down. It was as if the entire earth was being turned to dust.

What finally appeared before their eyes were some bones; more precisely, it was half a skeleton.

“How can there only be half?” Lu Yin was stunned.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus observed the half skeleton. “This belongs to the one who marked me, but he is already dead. No... this half of his skeleton is dead and immobile, but that does not necessarily mean that Zhu himself is dead.”

“Look under the bones,” Awe Gate reminded.

Beneath the half skeleton was a black shard. It was an inconspicuous object, but given its location, that inconspicuousness was precisely what made it stand out.

How could the master of Stillness keep something useless by his side?

The black shard drifted up to land in Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s hand. He glanced at it, and his expression quickly changed, growing somber. “Someone used a mirebound artifact to block karma.”

“Yong Heng’s Five-Leaf Clover,” Lu Yin blurted.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus and Lu Yin exchanged glances, one startled and the other doubtful.

Had it been Yong Heng? If so, it would make sense. After all, Lu Yin had been searching through his own karma. Yong Heng was able to block one such attempt, but not another.

As long as he continued to scheme against Lu Yin, he would eventually be found.

But what was the meaning of the half skeleton?

If Zhu could leave half of his skeleton behind, where was the other half?

If the two had known that Lu Yin would use karma to search for them, then splitting off half of Zhu’s skeleton was pointless unless there was some other means of escape.

“There.” Greater Sancte Green Lotus had already located the Five-Leaf Clover. Awe Gate opened a gate that the three immediately passed through. On the other side, they found themselves in another dark, underground chamber.

In the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, underground was the only place that was suitable for hiding.

However, there was nothing at all in the chamber.

Lightstream flickered around Lu Yin. “Let me see what happened here.”

If karma could not find the truth, then time would.

Lightstream could reveal all that had happened within the chamber in the last three days.

Yong Heng could block karma, but he could not escape time.

Awe Gate was stunned by Lu Yin’s methods. With all that lay at his disposal, was there anything that could be truly hidden from him?

As Lightstream shifted, the three watched the images of the past three days. During that time, there had only been two beings underground: Yong Heng and half a skeleton. The two sat back to back, silent and doing nothing at all.

The only time there was any change at all was the moment when Greater Sancte Green Lotus had helped Lu Yin examine his own karma. At that moment, they saw Yong Heng take out the Five-Leaf Clover and use the last leaf to block the karmic search. After that, Yong Heng and Zhu borrowed the strength of a Morrow Behemoth to hurl themselves away into a parallel universe.

After seeing the events of the last three days play out, Lu Yin’s face grew solemn.

Awe Gate let out an emotional sigh. “No wonder you consider him to be such a terrible adversary. Even we were pulled into his plot.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus said, “Using the Five-Leaf Clover to block karma was a sort of signal. They used that moment to distract us with the discarded half of Zhu’s skeleton while sealing themselves within a sourcebox and being thrown into a parallel universe.

“Furthermore, by sealing themselves in a sourcebox, they essentially entered cryostasis. How can they plot against anyone while unconscious? Even if we try to search for them again, we won’t be able to find them.

“He planned this all out meticulously. He abandoned our human civilization without hesitation. He is ruthless towards his enemies, but he is even more ruthless towards himself. This Yong Heng is quite remarkable.”

Lu Yin commented, “He’s betrayed humanity, the Netherfiends, and even Stillness. After all of that, he actually succeeded in persuading Zhu to discard half of his skeleton as a distraction for us while they both escaped. He really is quite cunning, but where is he headed?”

“Could it be?”

The three looked at each other, having simultaneously thought of the Death Megaverse.

Yong Heng had convinced Zhu to use half of his skeleton as a distraction, but buying a moment to escape was not the end of things. Yong Heng had also obtained a guide who could take him to the Death Megaverse. If not for that alliance, there would be absolutely no indication of where Yong Heng might go.

Not only that, but the man also seemed to know Stillness’s Bone Script. If Yong Heng could reach the Death Megaverse, then even ignoring his cooperation with Zhu, Yong Heng might be able to survive on his own.

“He is a man who is able to easily pick things up or set them aside. If he is one day able to become an Immortal, he will be a formidable adversary,” Greater Sancte Green Lotus mentioned with evident caution.

Lu Yin had repeatedly fought against Yong Heng, and each time, he had expected Yong Heng to escape, no matter what Lu Yin did. He had never underestimated the man.

However, while Yong Heng’s latest escape had been successful, Lu Yin had not anticipated that.

Even the Immortal from Obscura hiding in the Tianyuan had been forced to take action when Lu Yin had examined his karmic connections, paying the steep price of shattering the red sword and leaving Forgotten Ruins God and the others’ fate undetermined. On the other hand, Yong Heng had managed to escape entirely.

It felt as though the man had endless backup plans.

However, for Yong Heng to try to escape from all of human civilization, he had to have truly reached the end of his rope. There was no other reason why he would be willing to leave.

If Yong Heng really did reach the Death Megaverse, it would be an absolute disaster for the human civilization, as he would undoubtedly expose humanity to the fishing civilization.

The consequences would be beyond dire.

Awe Gate and the others turned to Lu Yin. Yong Heng had various means at his disposal, and his patience and planning were both unmatched. Even so, Lu Yin had managed to force the man to flee from human civilization. There was no denying that Lu Yin was the truly ruthless one.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus, Awe Gate, and Master Ku Deng all took action. They started searching through various parallel universes in hopes of finding Yong Heng.

Unfortunately, their efforts were like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Yong Heng and Zhu had sealed themselves within a sourcebox, entering a form of cryostasis that released no trace of their auras. They might have continued on in the direction that the Morrow Behemoth had launched them, or they might have entered a random parallel universe.

“He cannot escape. To contact the Death Megaverse, they must be within this universe. Eventually, they will need to return here.”

“All of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s countless parallel universes are still part of the same megaverse. That means that, when they reappear, they will be forced to enter the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. After all, it spreads far beyond just this megaverse,” Greater Sancte Green Lotus said.

“But they went a step further. If they truly wished to just hide, they could have simply sealed themselves within a spirit treasure, entering cryostasis in some parallel universe where no one can find them. However, not only did they use the last of the Five-Leaf Clover’s power, but they also used a Morrow Behemoth. This suggests that they may have found a way to escape from the range of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm,” Awe Gate cautioned.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus did not deny the possibility. “There are so many parallel universes that it is not impossible. There are even some which might directly connect to the Aevum Inch. But even if they escape from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and enter the Aevum Inch, it would take them an extremely long time to move beyond the range of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. The power of a Morrow Behemoth is not enough to hurl a sourcebox directly out of range. They will have to cross a vast distance with their own power.”

“And we are waiting for exactly that journey,” Master Ku Deng agreed.

“It’s only a matter of time before we catch them. They have no way to contact the Death Megaverse,” Greater Sancte Green Lotus stated coldly, “Rest assured, no matter how long it takes, I will keep watch. The moment they appear will be the moment of their deaths.”

Lu Yin sighed. “But we still let them escape this time.”

Yong Heng had escaped through his own scheming, but he had not managed to escape beyond the reach of the Immortals.

The only way forward was with time.

It was possible that the entire megaverse would have changed by the time Yong Heng and Zhu reappeared.

After leaving the Sea of Karma, Lu Yin released his consciousness across the universe, searching for Ming Yan.

He soon found her, leisurely drifting down a river on a bamboo raft. Her face was lit up with a glowing smile. He did not hurry to disturb her and instead went to the Spirit Nidus, where he traveled to the Arcanum Domain.

Not only was the Gate of Laws there, which he wished to see, but also the Great Master.

During the previous war, the Great Master had taken the Terminus Cycle to counter Luo Chan, and only recently had she returned the sequence base. She had finally gone back to the Arcanum Domain to give it back to the Zhan family.

When Lu Yin had seen the Great Master beside the lotus pond in the Sea of Karma, he had forgotten to ask her about a few things.

After the Terminus Cycle was taken away, the Arcanum Domain had been reconnected with the rest of the Spirit Nidus. The Zhan family had been overwhelmed by all that they learned, saw, and experienced; their previous worldview was shattered.

For ages, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse had been plundering the Spirit Nidus for resources. That megaverse’s people essentially had two lives. Then, the Nest civilization had invaded, and the Spirit Nidus had even needed to send support to the Tianyuan. Those were just a few matters that the family had learned of.

Details of countless events crashed down upon them all at once, leaving Zhan Ming utterly bewildered.

Originally, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse had sent the Zhan family to the Spirit Nidus with the task of protecting the Gate of Laws, along with the assistance of Master Qing Cao and the High Seraph. However, as time passed, the family had forgotten about the history of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Like all other cultivators in the Spirit Nidus, Zhan Ming needed to start rebuilding his worldview.

Also, during the war against the Nest civilization, Zhan Ming had personally seen the overwhelming power of Qing Xing and the Great Master, both of whom were even more terrifying than the High Seraph. Just seeing them had left the man feeling suffocated.

Confronted with all of the new revelations regarding the cosmos as a whole, the man grew confused, and he did not know what to do.

When the Great Master returned the Terminus Cycle, Zhan Ming’s first thought was that his family should reseal themselves for the next 10,000 years.

“Great Master, what will happen if Luo Chan reappears?”

“We will need the Terminus Cycle to deal with it.”

“So...?”

“Don’t seal yourselves again. What’s the point of hiding like a turtle? Besides, you can’t hide forever.”

Zhan Ming felt helpless. He did not want to hide his family, but their new reality was too terrifying to face.

His family’s ancestral teachings stated that, if things ever became confusing, they were to immediately use the Terminus Cycle to seal themselves. No matter what happened elsewhere, the Arcanum Domain would remain safe.

Those instructions had been passed down through the Zhan family to ensure their survival, and they had indeed been saved. No matter how much things had changed in the rest of the Spirit Nidus, even when a High Seraph died, no one had ever touched the Arcanum Domain.

However, the Spirit Nidus was no longer the only place of concern. There had been a war between civilizations, and other civilizations would not care about the Arcanum Domain. Such things had nothing to do with outsiders.

Zhan Ming sighed deeply. The cosmos had changed too quickly, and he truly did not know what to do.

The High Seraph had gone missing. The invincible being had not returned. As for the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, there were too many overwhelmingly powerful experts there. Zhan Ming glanced at the Great Master. The woman with the straw cloak clearly did not have any consideration for his Zhan family.

All of his old acquaintances were gone.

“All right, take me to see the Gate of Laws,” the Great Master ordered.

Zhan Ming felt conflicted. The family’s ancestral teachings dictated that no outsider could be allowed to lay eyes on the Gate of Laws, but he did not know how to deny the Great Master.

At just that moment, someone came rushing over in such haste that they nearly stumbled over. “Patriarch! Patriarch, he’s here! He’s here!”

Zhan Ming sternly demanded, “What’s with this panic? Who’s here?”

“Lu Yin!” the man reported with a troubled expression. He was Zhan Hua, Zhan Yan’s uncle.