Chapter 4163: Courtesy First, Then Force

“Just one strike was enough to push the defenses to the limit. That must be an Immortal lifeform. My death will have meaning. Initiate the nonstandard weapon Crystal Fall.”

“Crystal Fall initializing. Crystal Fall initializing. Crystal Fall initialization complete.”

“Fire.”

The ovoid vessel of light shifted so that it was pointing at Lu Yin and Greater Sancte Green Lotus. Suddenly, it launched a ten-thousand-meter-long metal rod that pierced the void as it shot towards them.

Once more, Lu Yin flicked a finger, sending out a burst of power to meet the metal rod. There was a bang as the rod shattered. He was taken aback.

So fragile?

The moment the thought occurred to him, the shattered fragments of the rod transformed into countless smaller metal rods, or rather, needles.

The countless needles shot at Lu Yin and Greater Sancte Green Lotus, each one piercing through the void. It was as though they could tear through anything, and each one had a cold, razor-sharp gleam.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus was surprised. “What a formidable large-area attack. Every single one of those needles is powerful enough to kill the average Dukkhan. This weapon is truly impressive.”

As impressive as it was, such a weapon remained meaningless before Lu Yin and Greater Sancte Green Lotus.

Lu Yin casually waved his hand again, and all of the needles were frozen in place. No matter how much force they may have been launched with, they instantly came to an abrupt halt.

From within the ovoid vessel, alarms were still sounding. “Crystal Fall failure! Crystal Fall failure...”

“As expected, the attack failed. After all, it is an Immortal lifeform. Transmit our final report back to the empire.”

“Report transmitting... Transmission complete.”

“In that case, my mission is over. Even from this simple exchange of blows, we can discern some of these creatures’ habits, their preferred uses of power, and so on. The next time the empire encounters you, you will be the ones on the back foot.

“Only the final step remains. As long as they dare to approach, the empire will learn even more about them.”

“Warning! Defenses have exceeded maximum capacity. Warning! Defenses have exceeded maximum capacity.”

“What? They still refuse to approach? Extremely cautious... In that case, it’s all over.”

Far away, Lu Yin raised his hand and clenched his fingers. Terrifying power fell, crushing the ovoid light to pieces.

The technological civilization had already attacked, and each move made had been an attempt at killing them, so there was no need for any sort of courtesy.

As for what kind of creature might be inside the light or what their true purpose might be, no matter how curious Lu Yin might be, he could not afford to get close.

The closer he got to such an advanced vessel, the more likely it was that he would expose information about humanity.

Simply destroying the ship was the safest choice.

Everything vanished like smoke, including the beams of light that had been shining into the distant megaverse.

While those lights might have appeared to be harmless, Lu Yin understood that those lights had uncovered his and Green Lotus’s presence. Those lights were what the technological civilization used as their means of detection.

Right after that, Lu Yin vanished together with Greater Sancte Green Lotus.

No matter how powerful the technological civilization might be, an ability like teleportation could not be tracked. At least, not unless the civilization could detect things at a range that surpassed every location that Lu Yin might teleport to, which was simply impossible.

That range would far exceed even the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm in size.

Lu Yin was willing to believe that the technological civilization might possess greater power than the human civilization, and he could even accept it surpassing the Seven-Treasure Anuras. However, he absolutely refused to believe that their technological means could surpass Greater Sancte Green Lotus by so much.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus served as the pillar of human civilization, and he alone existed in a completely separate category of power.

Around that same time, a streak of light slipped into the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, and the moment it did so, Blood Tower detected it from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Before departing, Greater Sancte Green Lotus and Lu Yin had set things up so that Greater Sancte Blood Tower would be able to to monitor the entire Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, just as Awe Gate had once done.

The Greater Sancte stepped out of the megaverse to peer into the distance, his expression grave.

So fast. What is it? It’s not a living creature, and yet it carries the aura of an Immortal.

If not for that aura, he would have never noticed the object.

The streak of light was not headed for the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. After traveling through the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm for more than a month, it simply came to a stop.

Greater Sancte Blood Tower stepped forward, moving towards the streak of light.

The object had moved far faster than what most Immortals could manage. Even though it had only traveled for a bit more than a month through the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm, it had managed to get quite close to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

It only took the Greater Sancte a little over two months to approach the object.

As he observed it, the streak of light dispersed to reveal its content. Seeing it left him taken aback.

What is this? A token?

Within the shimmering remnants of the streak of light, there was a seven-colored object that looked like a token quietly floating in space. Lakes, mountains, and lotus leaves were etched on the face of the token, while the reverse side featured an etching of a single toad.

Clearly, this item belonged to the Seven-Treasure Anuras.

Their human civilization had been waiting for the Seven-Treasure Anuras to arrive. Unexpectedly, the toads had not arrived in person, but merely sent a token.

When Greater Sancte Blood Tower grasped the token, his body jolted violently. The cosmos seemed to invert entirely, and he felt as though he was crossing an endless expanse in a blur. He caught a glimpse of a pair of eyes; these murky eyes radiated baleful intent as they looked down upon him. They grew endlessly, soon replacing everything in existence, even the universe, as they pressed down to crush him.

The Aevum Inch was no longer filled with pure darkness, but rather pure malice. It was a boundless, limitless malice that filled the entire Aevum Inch. It was like a vortex poised to swallow the man whole. Not even Blood Tower was able to immediately break free.

His heart stopped beating. Blood, sweat, thoughts, and power—everything within him slowed to a stop.

It only lasted for a single instant, but what kind of being could be so terrifying? It had been nothing more than a trace of baleful aura left on the token, and yet even just that was unimaginably horrifying.

Blood Tower’s jaw clenched.

No matter how overwhelming, it cannot crush me. It is nothing more than a strand of killing intent, just a strand.

Beneath that surging tide of malice, he let out a deep growl as a violent aura of slaughter shot upwards with enough force to shake the stars. The aura spread outward, centered on him.

The entire Aevum Inch shuddered, and even the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm roiled in response.

The clash between malice and slaughter even shook the distant Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Countless people looked up, instinctively feeling scared and nervous. They could taste the most primal sense of death.

Suddenly, the baleful aura vanished, and the colossal eyes faded away.

Blood Tower let out a long breath, clutching the token tightly while gasping for breath. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead as his pupils fluctuated. His entire body was trembling uncontrollably, though not from fear. It was due to resisting too fiercely and briefly losing control of his own body. One could also say that the Immortal had overexerted himself in that instant.

It was quite a while later before he was able to calm himself down. As he did so, his focus returned to the token in his hand.

...

Half a year later, Lu Yin and Greater Sancte Green Lotus returned.

Their trip to the Active Megaverse had allowed Greater Sancte Green Lotus to confirm his suspicions, but unfortunately for Lu Yin, he was still unable to claim a new weapon.

They had also exchanged blows with the mysterious technological civilization and had later discovered yet another megaverse, whose Mother Tree they had ultimately destroyed.

Two megaverses had been found before that, but neither of their Mother Trees had been destroyed. The inhabitants of both of those megaverses revered their Mother Trees, just as humanity did. The trees were regarded as the source of all things, and something flourishing like that should not be casually destroyed. As for the final megaverse that they had found, internal wars had left their Mother Tree riddled with wounds, so Lu Yin had merely helped it the rest of the way.

They had originally hoped to find a new home for humanity to settle down in, but the range revealed through pathfinding stones was too limited. To truly find such a refuge, they would likely need a thousand years or more. They did not have that much time to waste, so they had returned.

Lu Yin instead pinned his hopes on the civilization that Awe Gate had mentioned, the one that specialized in cultivating vision techniques. If he could see far enough, his teleportation ability would undergo a qualitative transformation.

No sooner had the two returned to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse than did Greater Sancte Green Lotus sense that something was amiss. The Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm had had a strong reaction at some point in time.

He and Lu Yin immediately appeared on the top level of the Blood Tower to meet with the other Greater Sancte.

Seeing that the two had returned, Blood Tower stretched out a hand to reveal the token and pass it over to Greater Sancte Green Lotus. “Take a look at this.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus accepted it and glanced at it. “A token from the Seven-Treasure Anuras?”

Blood Tower’s expression remained solemn. “Half a year ago, this token suddenly appeared. I went to retrieve it and was nearly killed by the malice within it. That old monster is certainly vicious enough.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus handed the token to Lu Yin. When he accepted it, he found that all of the killing intent was gone. It was nothing more than an ordinary token.

Blood Tower looked at the two, his expression grave. “There are some monsters that you only truly understand after facing them. When I grabbed that token, we also received an invitation. The Seven-Treasure Anuras’ old monster is inviting us to visit and return Astral Anura. With that, they claim that the past will be written off. That is the purpose behind sending us this token.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus clasped his hands behind his back. “Courtesy first, then force, is it?”

Lu Yin stared intently at the token. “It seems that they don’t want to go to war with us, either. This is related to Obscura.”

“This is a good sign, but only on the condition that we visit the Seven-Treasure Anuras,” Greater Sancte Green Lotus quietly stated.

Civilizations in the Aevum Inch did not communicate with one another, and the Seven-Treasure Anuras did not even have a fixed home. They constantly drifted about, much like a fishing civilization, walking a path separate from most others. They had even sent a token inviting the human civilization to have a talk and asked the humans to visit the toads’ own home. Who would dare go? Going might forfeit their very lives.

“What does Kang Tian say about this? Does it know anything about this token?” Lu Yin asked.

Blood Tower shook his head. “It doesn’t. I asked as soon as I returned with the token. In the snail’s own words, its species isn’t qualified to receive a token from the Seven-Treasure Anuras.”

Lu Yin pondered aloud, “Since the Seven-Treasure Anuras chose to send us a token instead of simply attacking us, they have at least shown some level of sincerity. We have no choice but to accept whatever sincerity they demonstrate. The other choice of going to war with them would put us at too great a disadvantage.”

Ku Deng arrived, having already learned of the token. “What if we simply return Astral Anura to them?”

Lu Yin did not answer. He was lost in his own thoughts.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Greater Sancte Green Lotus shook his head. “This token represents the dignity of their own kind. Since the Seven-Treasure Anuras issued an invitation in this manner, refusing to go would be disrespectful. In the past, they might have refrained from war out of concern for Obscura or the strength of our human civilization. But since this token was sent to us, that is no longer an option. Dignity is something every species will defend.”

Ku Deng was puzzled, “Doesn’t this put them in a tight spot?”

Lu Yin’s eyes glinted. “That might be exactly what their old monster wants. Given how long they’ve lived, they must be extremely confident in themselves.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus looked at Greater Sancte Blood Tower. “How do you feel about that old monster?”

Greater Sancte Blood Tower looked unpleasant. “They’re a true monster. I can’t stand against them at all.”

Kang Tian arrived, and the giant snail stared at the etching of the toad on the token with pure disgust.

“Kang Tian, given your knowledge of the Seven-Treasure Anuras, is this invitation one that we can accept?” Greater Sancte Green Lotus directly asked.

He was actually inclined to go. The other party was an ancient Immortal. It was unlikely that such a being would stoop to deception. There was simply no need. At that level, there were certain acts that were beneath them.

Still, it was better to ask, just in case. If humanity truly intended to pay a visit, an Immortal would have to go. Sending anyone else would be far too disrespectful.

If an Immortal was deceived and killed, that would be true injustice.