Chapter 4129: Heartrift Power

Ku Zhan saw what was happening and instinctively called out, “Mr. Lu, be careful!”

Not everyone was able to enter the Deep Rift Universe; only peak Dukkhans could.

He was not aware of Lu Yin’s cultivation. Even if the man exuded a pressure equal to Ku Zhan’s master, that did not necessarily mean that Lu Yin was a peak Dukkhan.

But Lu Yin heard nothing at that moment. He simply took one step after another towards the rift.

Finally, he vanished from sight.

Ku Zhan stared blankly.

He went in

.

He could only hope that the man would emerge again.

Ever since they defeated the Mindscape Megaverse, many had fallen into the Deep Rift Universe and never returned. It was considered normal, as cultivation was inherently dangerous.

The rift was completely dark, and Lu Yin kept falling deeper and deeper. He did not know how long he would fall for, nor could he measure the time.

Time was distorted in the rift, much like a vortex in the River of Aeons. A moment might pass, or it might be a hundred years. No one could know.

As his body sank into the rift, his heart sank with it, and his five aggregates emptied. He felt the despair of being crushed like an ant, and the sublime grandeur of merging with the rift itself.

He had no sense of time or space, nor could he feel himself. There was only the rift. Even without a single thought, he had never seen his inner heart so clearly.

He did not know how much time had passed before he saw a gray stream up ahead. It was the power of time.

He stretched out a hand to touch the grayness. The darkness was the same as ever, as was the rift. Nothing had changed, save that there were two figures crossing back and forth farther ahead. One grandly wielded a lance-like weapon, sweeping it about. The other was not human or even fully physical. It was small, constantly shifting in form, and there was something distinctly profound about it.

The two silhouettes clashed frantically, darting about the depths of the rift. Time and space were chaotic here, but the pressure of the rift meant nothing to either of the two figures.

Each one possessed peerless power.

Lu Yin could not help but throw a palm strike. The gray streams scattered, and the two figures vanished.

Startled, he wondered if the two had been temporal remnants from ages past.

One of the figures should have been Greater Sancte Awe Gate, while the other should have been the strongest creature that had lived in the Mindscape Megaverse. That creature had dwelled in the depths of the Deep Rift Universe.

During the war between the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and the Mindscape Megaverse, Greater Sancte Awe Gate had leapt into the rift of the Deep Rift Universe and slain the strongest creature in the megaverse in the depths. After that, she had gone off into the Aevum Inch, vanishing. By the time she returned, she had already become an Immortal.

Lu Yin must have seen a shadow of the battle that had been fought in the rift.

Gray streams of time continued to swirl about him.

Lu Yin brushed past the streams, seeing one scene after another. He saw fights that had taken place between Greater Sancte Awe Gate and the diminutive figure, as well as multiple scenes of various individuals enduring the pressure of the Deep Rift Universe. It was a place where even time was suppressed. As he peered through the ages, he saw many who had fallen in and been crushed. There were far too many. Eventually, he even saw Ku Deng sitting in the depths of the rift like a statue, unmoving as endless years passed by.

The streams of time recorded the past like ancient bamboo slips. A casual sweep of a hand sent countless figures flying out of the gray streams; there were scenes of battle, wailing, peace, and grandeur. The figures assembled to form the unique history of the depths of the Deep Rift Universe.

Lu Yin closed his eyes and took a seat in the rift like Ku Deng had done. He then slowly turned in place. Unbidden, he was reminded of the Wayfinder Sutra:

like a mountain, like my true intention, like sorrow and joy, like happiness, like the unity of heaven and earth, like hearing the approach...

The figures started to move more slowly. The battles, mourning, peace, and grandeur all slowed down.

Sometimes, the scenes became the gray power of time, at other times, they were mere silhouettes. They moved slower and slower. Gradually, as Lu Yin turned about, space itself started to be pulled around, and a gray stream of time coiled around him.

Was time moving forward or backward?

He did not know. The gray stream formed what looked like a cocoon that wrapped around him.

Rift... heartrift... When the heart sits as an abyss, it reflects the hidden depths. When the heart is still, the body does not move; when the body moves, the mind does not; when the mind moves, the spirit does not; when the spirit moves, the universe moves.

...

Beyond the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, still upon a green lotus leaf, Astral Anura was feeling completely different from before.

Kang Tian’s words kept echoing in the toad’s mind. He had guessed at numerous possibilities, including that the Immortal snail was helping the humans deceive Astral Anura. That was not at all unlikely. Even so, he did not dare to take the risk. Losing would mean death.

It was because he feared death so much that he wished for his own kin to arrive. But what if they brought not gifts but butcher’s knives? In that case, it would be better for them to stay away.

Life is fine right now. Humans might be a bit sly, and that Lu Yin is rather despicable, but my days aren’t bad. They’re actually pretty good, in fact.

Don’t come. Please don’t come!

“Don’t come. Please don’t come. Don’t come, don’t come...”

Xing Fan gave Astral Anura an odd look. The damn toad had actually started muttering to himself. Anyone else would have seen that Kang Tian was making things up. Even if some of what the snail said had sounded plausible, everything had clearly been intended to scare Astral Anura.

Still, as an outside party, Xing Fan was able to see the truth clearly, though she also knew that she might act the same if she were in the toad’s position. After all, this was a matter of life and death.

The mere thought of being a toad caused her expression to change drastically. She shot a look of pure disgust at Astral Anura before closing her eyes and returning to cultivating. Out of sight, out of mind.

“They’re here!”

The sudden shriek almost sent Xing Fan tumbling off of the lotus leaf. She had only just closed her eyes. She glared at Astral Anura. “What are you screaming about?”

Astral Anura trembled and looked at Xing Fan with despair in his eyes. “Th- they’re here.”

That caused the woman’s expression to change greatly as she stared at Astral Anura with even greater intensity. “Are you certain?”

Astral Anura nodded. Even his lotus leaf was starting to droop.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s voice reached them, “Are you certain that it is them who have arrived?”

Astral Anura bitterly replied, “I can’t say for sure that it’s them, but it feels familiar, very familiar."

“Compare the aura to when you sensed the Tricolor Skyborne from the Tianyuan. Try to judge the distance.”

Astral Anura thought for a moment. “Three years away.”

In the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s expression grew grave. “Three years? Then they are coming after all.”

Meanwhile, far beyond the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, directly in the direction Astral Anura was staring, a colossal toad hopped toward human civilization. It was the Seven-Treasures Astral Anuras’ Old Fourth. They looked like an enlarged version of Astral Anura, though with a crooked mouth and slanted eyes. Their entire body was streaked with colors, a lotus leaf was wrapped around their waist, and two steel forks hung over their shoulders, the hafts jutting straight out behind the toad as though blown back by the wind.

“Hmph, slugs, you want to escape? Did you really think that you could? Did you ask your handsome and mighty Lord Fourth before leaving? You are courting death!

“How odd... why is there the aura of a kin? It’s weak, but that is certainly one of us. Strange, strange...

“Could it be Old Fifth? No. Old Fifth’s aura isn’t that weak, and they aren’t smart enough to get ahead of slugs. They’re the dumbest...”

...

Greater Sancte Green Lotus peered out from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, his expression heavy.

Fifty years had passed since Blood Tower left, and while that was not a long time, he should have already returned.

Green Lotus hoped that the man would make it back before the next war.

He then turned to look in another direction, which was the direction of the Mindscape Megaverse.

I wonder how Lu Yin is faring.

***

In the Mindscape Megaverse, Ku Zhan pulled farther and farther back. For some time, the closer he was to the rift, the harder he found it to control himself. It felt as if the rift had come alive.

But how could that be?

Could it have something to do with that man?

He had been the guardian of the Mindscape Megaverse for so many years, but he had never felt anything similar to what he was feeling at the moment.

Ku Zhan continued to pull back, until he was finally forced to exit the Mindscape Megaverse entirely. He had discovered that it was not just the Deep Rift Universe, as the entire Mindscape Megaverse seemed to have come alive.

Damn it!

In the depths of the rift, Lu Yin opened his eyes and let a faint smile appear. By using the abyss to illuminate the depths within his heart, and with his mastery of the Wayfinder Sutra, he had finally cultivated Heartrift power.

The larger the heart, the vaster the world. Whatever the heart willed, the universe could follow. This was Heartrift power.

This meant that from now on, he could merge not only with the will of the Tianyuan, but with any megaverse that did not resist Heartrift power. He was no longer confined to the Tianyuan.

Of course, the prerequisite for merging with a megaverse through Heartrift power was that the megaverse itself offered no resistance.

If most of the creatures within that megaverse resisted, that was also a form of Heartrift power, and it would prevent him from merging with it.

It was no different from how most beings of the Tianyuan acknowledged Lu Yin and allowed him to unite with the will of the megaverse.

The will of all beings was Heartrift itself.

Heartrift power could be called limitless, yet it was also profoundly restricted.

It was a power whose limits could never be fully seen.

Unlike karma or time, Heartrift power was entirely unique.

Across the Aevum Inch, there had long been a joke about creatures being acknowledged by an entire megaverse and merging with its will. Such a thing was considered nearly impossible.

The existence of that joke reflected not only how difficult it was to gain the acknowledgement of all creatures, but also the fact that almost no one had ever comprehended Heartrift power. If anyone had, the joke would never have spread.

Lu Yin’s own comprehension of Heartrift power had only partly come from the Deep Rift Universe and the Wayfinder Sutra. The true key had been his previous merge with the Tianyuan’s will. That had given him a chance to experience what it meant to become one with a megaverse.

Without that, Lu Yin could never have even conceived of such a path.

He breathed out softly, only for his expression to suddenly change. Something was wrong.

How long has it been for the outside world?

He quickly left the rift and went to find Ku Zhan, confirming that only five years had passed. Only then was Lu Yin finally able to relax.

Only five years?

In truth, Lu Yin felt as if a far longer period of time had passed at the bottom of the rift. Time in that place was distorted. It was not as drastic as how time passed in the Mirari Realm, but it was still distorted enough that either a far longer or a far shorter amount of time could have passed at the bottom of the Deep Rift Universe.

He supposed that he had been lucky.

Standing by the rift, Lu Yin calmly looked forward. The gains from this journey were already immense. He had certainly not expected to directly master Heartrift power.

Ru Shi had truly been an incredible prodigy. No wonder his ambition had been so lofty, wanting to attain Immortality with only his Wayfinder Sutra.

While the possibility of success had been slim, the Wayfinder Sutra was indeed a unique path that had allowed the man to approach closer to the palace in the Willbound Spire than anyone before him.

If Ru Shi had also experienced the Deep Rift Universe, then even if he had failed to master Heartrift power, he might have still been able to advance further with his Wayfinder Sutra.

He had been the only one to turn will itself into a cultivation method.

Lu Yin had made the trip here to learn Heartrift power and see if he could advance Extremes Must Be Reversed to a higher level.

Extremes Must Be Reversed had been of immeasurable help to Lu Yin throughout his cultivation journey. It had not only enabled him to comprehend the power of time, but also saved his life in battle countless times.

If Lu Yin had to choose one ability that he was the most eager to evolve, there was no question that Extremes Must Be Reversed would be it.

This was especially true after visiting the Living Universe. Only Extremes Must Be Reversed had allowed Lu Yin to reach the bottom of that ocean. Unfortunately, the Activeness there had been so overwhelming that not Extremes Must Be Reversed had been able to keep up.

If that technique could transform even further, it might be enough to allow Lu Yin to withstand that flood of Activeness.