Chapter 4152: Lu Yin And Luo Chan

Everyone on the battleships was still a bit dazed. They had genuinely believed that they were evacuating the human megaverses. Everything that the Nine Odysseys Megaverse had done had indicated that that was reality. They had fooled the evacuees as well as the rest of human civilization.

It was a grand game of chess, a play that mobilized the entirety of human civilization. It was something that would have been impossible without all of humanity’s Immortals working together.

The game was finally entering the endgame. Lu Yin and the other combatants, as well as all of the people aboard the battleships, had earned merit. No one had been used by anyone else; all of them had contributed their fair share to human civilization.

It was impossible for anyone to resent such a thing. Ultimately, they had merely gone on a journey. Compared to what they had done, witnessing Lu Yin’s fight in the Allsense Megaverse had left everyone feeling as if they had just watched history unfold. They felt lucky.

Five years later, Lu Yin and Master Qing Cao returned to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, only for Master Qing Cao to immediately be sent away.

“Mr. Lu, this wasn’t the attitude that you showed when you were using me.” Master Qing Cao was well aware that this had been humanity’s greatest victory yet over the Nest civilization. It even surpassed the time when the droplet-shaped Immortal Verdant Sage had been killed. Naturally, Qing Cao also wanted to see Luo Chan.

Lu Yin bluntly replied, “I’m afraid that you might free Luo Chan the moment we look away, Senior.”

Master Qing Cao was left speechless. “I have nothing at all to do with this Luo Chan.”

“Who can be sure of that? Unless you swear to fully support humanity, explain everything you know about Obscura, and atone for your past actions against Senior Mi Jin, this is the only way that we can continue to accept you, Senior,” Lu Yin replied.

Master Qing Cao shook his head and left.

Lu Yin watched the man’s back as he departed. Given how firm the man remained with his position, just how much did he actually know about Obscura?

At the top of the Blood Tower in the Mother Tree’s canopy lay Greater Sancte Blood Tower’s residence.

This was Lu Yin’s first time visiting the place.

To the vast majority of cultivators, the top level of the Blood Tower was hell. Anyone who reached that level could become Greater Sancte Blood Tower’s disciple, but each level was soaked with the blood of endless slaughter. On the other hand, to Lu Yin and a few others, it was nothing more than a different bit of scenery.

Lu Yin himself cared nothing for the carnage. He was responsible for nearly as many deaths as Greater Sancte Blood Tower himself.

Lu Yin had changed after slaughtering the Tricolor Skyborne.

When it came to wars between civilizations of the Aevum Inch, mercy did not exist.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus, Greater Sancte Awe Gate, and Ku Deng were already present. When Greater Sancte Blood Tower saw Lu Yin, he smiled and raised a hand. Inside of a Blood Tower lay Luo Chan, quiet and motionless as if dead.

At their feet lay half of the Immortal monster’s body.

“These two aren’t already dead, are they?” Lu Yin was startled by what he saw. It appeared that Greater Sancte Blood Tower had been rather heavy-handed with his attacks.

The man himself just laughed. “Relax. I heard that you needed living Immortals to grow your karma, so I kept that beast alive for you. As for this little thing, I didn’t dare get distracted for even a moment, and yet I still nearly allowed it to escape.”

Lu Yin let out a breath of relief as he gratefully said, “Thank you, Senior. In that case, I won’t stand on ceremony.”

His Champions’ Stage Purgatory then appeared, and he threw in the remaining half of the Immortal beast’s body.

The creature’s sole eye stared at Lu Yin, its hatred impossible to conceal.

As the beast entered the Champions’ Stage Purgatory, Lu Yin’s Karmic Dao swelled visibly. He did not know by how much his karma would increase by, but he was at least certain that the monster could not compare to Kang Tian. Still, it was more than any other karmic increase with that one exception.

The karma that Lu Yin had gained from Kang Tian was already enough for Lu Yin’s Karmic Dao to encompass more than a single megaverse. With this most recent increase, it could extend out into the Aevum Inch as well.

The size of his Karmic Dao was getting closer to that of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, though there was still a vast discrepancy between the two.

A few more living Immortals might allow him to catch up to Green Lotus.

As his karma surged, Lu Yin stared at Luo Chan inside the Blood Tower. His breathing started to quicken. “Finally caught you.”

Throughout all the years that humanity had been at war with the Nest civilization, Luo Chan had caused terrible suffering. If the Immortal Lord had known of Greater Sancte Blood Tower’s existence, it would have been impossible for them to catch Luo Chan.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus sighed. “Yes, we finally caught it.

“The Immortal Lord was very cautious. Before allowing Luo Chan to try to move the beast, they tested where all of us Immortals were, and they only took action after confirming that we were all in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. They never imagined that we have not only Master Qing Cao, but also Blood Tower. Not to mention that Blood Tower is perfect for capturing something like Luo Chan.

“If not for that, who knows if we would have ever succeeded.”

Even Greater Sancte Awe Gate let out a rare sigh of relief. Luo Chan had frustrated her to no end.

Everyone’s attention fell upon Luo Chan.

The bug lifted its head, its small eyes sweeping across its observers in abject misery. Who could have imagined that this human civilization had hidden so many terrifying Immortals? Why had these experts not acted earlier?

They had not shown themselves even when the humans had been fighting against the snails and Obscura. Their patience was beyond terrifying.

This was human civilization.

It was no wonder why Shan Xiao had called humans insidious and treacherous creatures. It was absolutely true.

Luo Chan glanced at Lu Yin. Since the man himself was present, had Luo Chan’s master also failed? They had just mentioned another Immortal, which meant that humanity had kept two Immortals hidden. If all these Immortals had revealed themselves at the start, Luo Chan knew that its master would never have targeted the humans at all.

Apart from lacking some sort of absolute means, this civilization differed little from a fishing civilization.

This human civilization is powerful, frighteningly so!

“Luo Chan, do you remember me?” Lu Yin asked, his face appearing right in front of the bug.

Since the Blood Tower was only the size of a hand, Lu Yin’s face practically covered the sky for Luo Chan, making it impossible for the bug to not see him.

“Human, Lu Yin,” Luo Chan replied.

Lu Yin stared at it. “Tell me everything about the Nest civilization.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus interjected, “It has already told us that much. However, it has refused to reveal whether there is some other civilization behind the Nest civilization.”

Lu Yin looked at Luo Chan.

The bug continued lying in place, clearly intending not to speak.

“What about its origins?” Lu Yin asked.

Blood Tower replied, “It refused to say anything. It hasn’t said what species its teleportation ability came from either. The little thing is quite stubborn. If it wasn’t that you wanted to try something, I would have already killed it.”

Luo Chan suddenly raised its head.

Try something? Try what?

Lu Yin ignored the bug as he spoke with Green Lotus and the others. He soon learned everything that Luo Chan had shared about the Nest civilization and the Aevum Inch so far.

The insects had destroyed many civilizations. Some of their wars had been hard-fought, and they had nearly been routed at times. At their peak, there had been seven Insect Lords, but three had died before they encountered humanity. If Unbroken Time had not killed an Immortal using its temporal template, the surviving four Insect Lords might have also died before reaching human civilization.

Luo Chan itself had played an enormous role in those past wars.

Every defeated civilization had possessed their own unique traits. There were two that had benefitted the Nest civilization the most. The first was a human civilization, the Lost Clan’s Third Rampart. That had resulted in the birth of the humanoid Verdant Sage. Humanity possessed immense potential.

The second had been the civilization of the droplet-shaped Verdant Sage.

The humanoid Verdant Sage and the droplet Verdant Sage had broken through to the Immortal realm in different ways.

The droplet creature had spawned from a megaverse inhabited by similar creatures. Their combat strength was rather weak, but they were exceptionally fast at cultivating and almost never suffered bottlenecks. That civilization had had Immortals and even more than one. They had had even more Immortals than humanity had during the Nest civilization’s first invasion, but all of the droplet Immortals had been pitifully weak, markedly different from normal Immortals. This was what had drawn the Immortal Lord’s interest in the droplet-shaped creatures. They had thrown many Nests into that megaverse to spawn a number of Verdant Sages. Finally, one of those Verdant Sage had broken through to the Immortal realm.

As for the humanoid Verdant Sage, it had not originally possessed a human form, but had been a different kind of creature. Luo Chan had revealed that such creatures had three opportunities to change their species. The first time, it adopted the form of the droplet-shaped creatures, hoping to use that form to break through to the Immortal realm, only for the attempt to fail. The droplet-shaped creatures’ trait was not something that could be fully acquired just by changing species. That was because the creatures themselves were a lifeform that was capable of reaching the Immortal realm.

The second change had been to adopt the form of a human, which had occurred the moment that the Third Rampart was discovered.

These transformations were similar to how a Verdant Sage could inherit the strengths of whatever species lived in the megaverse in which they spawned. Humans were not like the droplet-shaped creatures that could easily become Immortals. However, there was one thing about humans that caught the Immortal Lord’s eye: their potential. How the Immortal Lord perceived potential, Luo Chan did not know.

Regardless, once they noticed the Third Rampart, the Immortal Lord had immediately ordered that Verdant Sage to undergo its second transformation and take on a human form. Before the final battle in that megaverse, the Verdant Sage had successfully broken through to the Immortal realm.

While it may have seemed like the humanoid Verdant Sage had sacrificed their life to save Luo Chan, the truth was that the bug still had a third transformation in reserve. Since it was already an Immortal, it would retain its realm after its third transformation, though the process might take longer.

Aside from those details, Luo Chan had said nothing about whether there was a civilization behind the Nest civilization, nothing about the Immortal Lord’s origins, nor which species Luo Chan’s teleportation ability had originally come from.

Lu Yin understood. Luo Chan had shared everything that there was to say about the Nest civilization. Everything that it had refused to answer either did not exist or was kept secret in order to sow doubt and suspicion within the humans.

“You said that the Immortal Lord saw the potential of the Third Rampart’s humans. At that time, were the bugs already at war with the Third Rampart, or had any nests been thrown into their megaverse?” Lu Yin asked, staring at Luo Chan.

The bug stared back at him. “Human, you had best release me.”

“Oh? You still dare to threaten me even now?” Lu Yin looked at it with interest.

“I already told them that you had best release me. I won’t tell you what you want to know, but you’ve already guessed the truth. If you push things too far, you will receive an outcome that you cannot bear.”

“The fishing civilization behind the Nest civilization?” Lu Yin asked.

Luo Chan remained silent.

Lu Yin smiled. “Then let me make one more guess. Why has that fishing civilization never appeared? It’s because Obscura is here.”

Luo Chan looked up at Lu Yin, yet it said nothing.

Lu Yin continued to stare at the bug, as though trying to gain some insight, but how could anyone read the emotions of an insect?

“Fishing civilizations have their own rules. Obscura has already taken this human civilization as a target. If another fishing civilization were to step in, how would they distinguish sides? How would they face each other? Not to mention, it seems that more than just one Immortal from Obscura is here. Also... you must have seen that springboard.”

Luo Chan trembled. Hearing about the springboard induced nightmares.

Lu Yin closely observed Luo Chan. There was a reaction. The moment he mentioned the springboard, the bug had reacted. Was it really because of the springboard? Or was it just an act? Was Luo Chan deliberately responding to lead them to believe that there was a fishing civilization behind the Nest civilization that had not yet appeared because they feared the civilization behind the springboards? Was this the bug’s bid at gaining a chance to survive?

There were times when people would overthink things. Doing nothing might make things simpler, and yet Lu Yin could not do that.

He would rather overthink and prepare more escape routes than blindly wait for fate to unfold. He preferred to believe that Luo Chan’s reaction was real.