Chapter 3985: Who?

The Frightened Sparrow Terrace was empty. For a hundred days, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse worked to eliminate countless insects, and the First Night Pillar had returned from the stars.

Lu Yin took a moment to think, and then he decided to search for Cheng Xue.

A very long time had passed since he had obtained Cheng Xue’s blood. It was time to try to find her.

He released his Karmic Dao and used a thread of karma to search for his target, which he set as Cheng Xue’s blood.

He watched as the karma coiled upward before shooting off in one direction. Lu Yin stepped out, following close behind.

Sure enough, the blood allowed him to track Cheng Xue. Lu Yin suppressed his aura to avoid being noticed by Yong Heng.

He pierced the void before finally landing on the ground.

Lu Yin was surprised at the location.

It was the same place where he had sensed Yong Heng and Cheng Xue watching him while he had been chasing after Cheng Hongyuan. Back then, by the time that his consciousness had reached the area, the two had already fled. Lu Yin had not considered the possibility that Cheng Xue could still be in that same place. No, she shouldn’t be here. What is she doing here? It doesn’t make any sense.

Lu Yin’s heart sank. He landed on the ground and casually swept aside the dirt, quickly uncovering Cheng Xue’s corpse. Her bones were gone, and only flesh and skin remained, the blood having soaked into the dirt.

He let out a breath. Cheng Xue had been skinned.

As expected of Yong Heng, there was not a single flaw in his escape. Lu Yin was not even surprised.

Beneath Cheng Xue’s corpse was a bit of writing. Lu Yin exposed it and found six characters: You are the second Tai Chu.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. Yong Heng had left this message specifically for Lu Yin. The man had anticipated Lu Yin would arrive, and so he had left the message.

How amusing. Lu Yin slowly smiled. I’m playing a game of cat and mouse.

The second Tai Chu?

Tai Chu was the Origin Progenitor. In the Tianyuan Megaverse, the Origin Progenitor had created cultivation and founded the glorious Heavens Sect. During that era, Yong Heng had fled from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and escaped to the Tianyuan. Despite his strength even back then, he had not held any advantage over the Origin Progenitor.

No matter how much stronger the Nine Odysseys Megaverse was than the Tianyuan, as the Tianyuan Megaverse’s Origin Progenitor, it had been far from impossible for Tai Chu to suppress someone like Yong Heng.

For that reason, at the time, Yong Heng had hidden in the shadows cast by the brilliance of the Heavens Sect, scheming until he finally caused its collapse. He had made Aeternus the most powerful force in the Tianyuan. If not for generations of heroes resisting, the Tianyuan’s humans would have long since been wiped out of existence.

What did Yong Heng mean by this message? By comparing Lu Yin to the Origin Progenitor, was True God claiming that Lu Yin would also fail to see through the shadows that lurked in the corners?

Lu Yin stared at the writing in a daze. It had been written in Cheng Xue’s blood, and the characters blazed scarlet against the darker earth.

It was clear that Lu Yin had always been wary of Yong Heng, so where did he get the confidence to compare him to the Origin Progenitor? Was Yong Heng truly confident that he could overturn the game?

Like a rat, he could only scurry and hide, so how could he ever expect to overturn anything?

Images of the Netherfiends, Silent Death, and other forces flitted through Lu Yin’s mind. If Yong Heng wanted to overturn the board, then he could only do so by relying on those forces. However, he had betrayed them in the past. Did he intend to replace them?

The old Yong Heng could not have done that. He had even referred to himself as a failed product. Whose failure was he? The Netherfiends’? Or Silent Death’s?

However, Yong Heng had changed. By cultivating a spirit seed mirebound artifact, he had rebuilt himself. He had broken through his former limits. It was highly possible that he was attempting to break through to the Immortal realm.

The man could not be left to roam free, not in the slightest. He was far too dangerous a schemer.

Lu Yin lifted his head to look up at the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. Yong Heng had predicted that Lu Yin would find Cheng Xue’s corpse and had left some words to taunt him. However, could he have also foreseen that Lu Yin was able to use the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm?

Before Greater Sancte Green Lotus returned, Lu Yin would borrow the Immortal’s Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm just once to see how far it could take him.

Let’s see if Yong Heng can deceive even the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

With that thought, the blood from Cheng Xue’s corpse beneath Lu Yin’s feet rose into the air as countless beads. Lu Yin’s finger, rising up with karma in a reverse spiral, joined with the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm high above.

Once more, the cosmos spread out around him, and Lu Yin could see an endless distance. His vision was vast and profound. With but a single thought, he could perceive all things.

Karma surged like rolling clouds.

When I alone am absent, what remains is benefit.

When I alone change, what remains is nothingness.

With clarity of heart, unafraid of desire...

With the Inner Clarity Technique, his Karmic Dao merged with the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. Using karma to search for any connections to the blood, each droplet shattered into crimson streams that eventually gathered together to form an image of Cheng Xue in the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. The universe shook, though no one else could sense it. Karma itself was shaking, and not just the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm’s. It was as though the karma had connected to something else, which was causing the megaverse itself to change.

Greater Sancte Awe Gate looked up at the sky. What is happening?

In the Spirit Nidus, Master Qing Cao also sensed something shift. The spirit threads of the thirty-six domains quivered.

The seven funnels, as well as the light that converged from them, trembled.

Who is stirring this megaverse?

Who moved what?

Qing Cao’s feeling only ever appeared when Greater Sancte Green Lotus took action. Had he returned?

In the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, beneath the Mother Tree, peasants were farming outside of huts. A man rested, sitting beneath the tree. As everything trembled, he frowned and looked up. What is this? The war’s over, so what’s causing such turmoil?

That man was Yong Heng.

No one could find him.

There was a loud boom, and the farmers cheered, “Spring thunder! Rain is coming!”

“Haha, the spring thunder is here!”

“Child, quick! Run home, or else lightning will strike you!”

“Grandpa got struck by lightning. He was peeking at Grandma bathing.”

“Grandpa was peeking at the baths!”

“You brats, get over here! Grandpa will beat you to death...”

Yong Heng looked away from the sky and gazed at the scene playing out before him. There was a group of people running barefoot through muddy water, all of them laughing.

Their joy suppressed his stray thoughts. So far, he had done nothing. This was not because he did not want to, but rather because he had not had the time. He had not expected Lu Yin to return from the Consciousness Megaverse so quickly, nor that he would shrink the battlefield. Those decisions had shattered Yong Heng’s plans.

At least one thing had been accomplished ahead of time; he had found the place. No matter how clever the strategies of those lofty beings might be, something would always be overseen. Things that mortals could think of, exalted cultivators might never even consider. This too was also a path.

He thought of Cheng Xue, and he immediately remembered the words that he had written beneath her corpse. Had Lu Yin seen them? There was no doubt that he would eventually come.

The war against the Nest civilization had provided Cheng Xue with a chance. Without that, who could say when she might have been able to slip inside.

That was a place that not even the Greater Sancti could find.

Just as he thought about that, Yong Heng’s vision shifted. He looked out at a pitch-black land where skeletons were walking about underground. They’ve arrived.

Even with his steady composure, Yong Heng failed to conceal his excitement at this moment. He had finally found it.

He was currently seeing Cheng Xue’s vision, and she had entered that place.

Before her, piles of bones stretched out across a vast, underground expanse. At the very center, there was a massive sourcebox array.

Through Cheng Xue’s eyes, Yong Heng stared at the sourcebox array, shaken. In his experience, the most magnificent sourcebox arrays that he had ever encountered was the Nine Odysseys. Each Night Pillar included five Boundless Advanced sourceboxes, and when all nine Night Pillars connected, there were a total of forty-five sourceboxes all together.

In addition, there were numerous Perceptive Intermediate sourceboxes in the array as well.

It was the greatest, most awe-inspiring sourcebox array in all of history.

Compared to it, even Hui Wen’s Ceaseless Impetus in the Tianyuan Megaverse was nothing more than a toy. Nowhere, neither in the Spirit Nidus nor in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, was there another sourcebox array that matched it.

Despite that, the array that Yong Heng was looking at, while still being unfinished, already contained thirty Boundless Advanced sourceboxes. When it was complete, who could guess how many it would include? Scattered around were even more Perceptive Intermediate and Discerning Elementary sourceboxes. Unlike the Nine Odysseys, which consisted of nine sourcebox arrays that were linked together, this underground array was a single sourcebox array that united all of the included sourceboxes. The two were completely different.

This is Zhu’s goal. It tried to capture Li Guo precisely to complete this sourcebox array.

Cheng Xue’s focus shifted to the edges of the sourcebox array. Although there were bones all around, she recognized a few figures. Famous Spirit Treasure Formation Masters from the Jue family, the Cheng family, and the Yu family were all present.

From up above, the massive sourcebox array resembled a cluster of starlight. It was subtle, yet also unfathomable.

Yong Heng blinked, severing the shared sight with Cheng Xue. Straightening up, he allowed a smile to touch his face. At last, he had found it. Zhu, so this is what you’ve been working toward for all these years.

The moment you sent people to capture Li Guo, you should have expected to be exposed.

It had been so many years, and Silent Death had always been extremely cautious. Yong Heng really needed to thank Lu Yin. If not for him pushing things so hard and nearly annihilating Skyveil City, Zhu would have never acted so hastily.

Now that it’s been found, it’s time to have some real fun.

At that same time, high above, Lu Yin was standing within the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. Cheng Xue’s image suddenly dropped down, aiming at a specific location. Lu Yin focused on the image, watching the crimson silhouette fall and eventually vanish.

He took a step forward and chased after it. Eventually, he descended into a black swamp. There were some dark-red streaks staining the ground. It was more of Cheng Xue’s blood.

Here bones were underground in this place.

Lu Yin studied the swamp, and after a moment’s consideration, he disappeared.

This swamp was known as the Black Marsh. While it was a swamp, it actually posed little obstacle to cultivators. Even so, there were special reasons why it had become a destination for many cultivators. There was a large city in the swamp, Black Marsh City.

It was a city inhabited almost entirely by cultivators, as ordinary people could never cross the vast swamp to reach it.

At the moment, Black Marsh City was wreathed in smoke and filled with the sound of battle.

“When are reinforcements going to show up? There are too many bugs here!”

“These bugs hide in the marsh, and we can’t defend against them. We can’t even escape if we want to!”

“Escape? If you dare to run away, don’t ever come back to Black Marsh City!”

“Damn it! These bugs have been wiped out almost everywhere else, but there are still so many here!”

“In the scope of the entire Temporal Heavens, the insects are practically exterminated, but in a few scattered corners, there are still plenty alive. Our family is also fighting them, and there are people crying for help everywhere.”

“And we’re supposed to thank that Lu Yin? Those ‘great experts’ can’t even see into our little corners.”

“Enough! Don’t bring trouble down upon yourself with that loose tongue...”

Outside of Black Marsh City, eerie black insects were swarming about. They were indistinguishable from the swamp itself. They rose up like jagged bamboo, stabbing up from the earth like swords. Again and again, cultivators were stabbed, killed, and then dragged underground.

Across the land, insects twisted into view without end in sight.

Farther away, even Black Marsh City’s walls were constantly being attacked by Scrollbane Centipedes. Screams filled the air. People suffered from Thousand Shards, which inflicted enough pain to drive people to commit suicide. The entire city was filled with terror.

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