Chapter 4431: Grandfather

“Are you refusing me?” Lu Yin demanded, his voice turning cold.

Ba Rong stared at Lu Yin. “How can you use karma?”

This human was even more troublesome than the last one. Damn it!

The fish had originally been relieved that it had not been caught by the previous human, but now, it would rather see that first human and be thrown back into that horrible place than be examined with karma. There was no Immortal in the Aevum Inch who would willingly allow themselves to be examined with karma.

Ba Rong's tone softened. “Human, no matter what, I am still an Immortal being. You should not use karma to examine me.”

Lu Yin agreed. “I shouldn’t.”

Ba Rong let out a sigh of relief.

“But I can.”

Ba Rong grew furious. “Human, at worst I will go back with you and return to that damned place!”

“You want to turn back into a little dog?” Lu Yin asked in return.

Ba Rong sounded helpless. “I have no other choice. Are you willing to let me go?”

That confirmed it. Ba Rong really had been that little dog. This fellow was truly unlucky. It had finally escaped from Manifest City, only to run into Lu Yin.

“I can spare you. Just stay still and behave.”

“You cannot use karma to examine me!”

“It looks like you are still not behaving.” As he spoke, Lu Yin vanished, teleporting away. A savage light flashed through Ba Rong's eyes, and then it went all out. The fish’s body did not move, but its scales scattered all around. It was shedding scales to survive.

Lu Yin reappeared, his Tri-Azure Sword Intent slashing down from every direction. Every single scale was struck, and one of those scales was actually Ba Rong itself.

Ba Rong was forced to cancel its escape technique. Seeing more Tri-Azure Sword Intent slicing its way, the fish flicked its tail and shattered the sword intent. At the same time, a ripple appeared beneath the fish. It looked like a white wave flowing through the dark and endless cosmos, and when it appeared, the fish frantically swam away atop the wave. It was an utterly absurd sight.

Despite the appearance, Lu Yin found that he could not even teleport closer to Ba Rong. The ridiculous situation had just become shocking.

Could this fish actually stop teleportation from approaching it?

Ripple after ripple appeared, spreading across the Aevum Inch. From afar, the whole cosmos looked like a black ocean, and the ripples looked like white surf. Only a single fish swam atop the waves while Lu Yin remained beneath them.

He teleported again, but he could only move directly beneath the wave. He could not cross the seafoam to rise above it and touch Ba Rong.

This was an Immortal’s unseen world, which Ba Rong had manifested through the cosmic law it resonated with.

Lu Yin watched as the fish madly swam away. It was as if every power that this fish possessed had been developed solely for the sake of escape. Even its unique world that was a manifestation of a cosmic law was the same.

Still, there was no denying its effectiveness. These waves seemed to spread across the Aevum Inch, but they were actually cut off from the Aevum Inch. That was why they were able to block teleportation.

If Lu Yin wanted to get close to Ba Rong, the only way was to break through the waves and charge into the fish’s world.

Ba Rong raced into the distance, not even looking back. Beneath it, waves stretched out without end, looking to split the cosmos in two.

Lu Yin raised a hand and slowly touched a wave. It seemed to exist in the same cosmos as him, but it actually belonged to a separate world. This wave was a dividing line separating a unique world from the rest of the cosmos.

He slowly drew back his arm. Ba Rong saw this, but it did not think that Lu Yin was giving up. Instead, the fish’s inexplicable sense of unease grew stronger and stronger. Could this human really break its wave? This was Ba Rong’s trump card. Right, You Che once broke through it too.

Just as that thought appeared in the fish’s mind, Lu Yin clenched his five fingers to form a fist and threw a punch. Star Fist: Beidou Fist Intent.

The cosmos spun around as the Dipper Fist shone brilliantly. It transformed into a fist that viciously smashed into the ripples from below, blowing them apart. A thunderous roar ripped through the void, shattering it layer after layer. In that instant, it became obvious that the gap between the fish’s world and the Aevum Inch had been broken. Lu Yin stepped forward, arriving directly above Ba Rong's head. A scythe appeared in the human’s hand, and it sliced down without hesitation.

“Stop!” Ba Rong shrieked.

The edge of the scythe stopped just above Ba Rong's head. Activeness endlessly surged into Ba Rong's body, and it felt itself swelling up like a balloon. The fish hurriedly cried out, “Is this Activeness? Stop! Human, we can talk this over! We can talk this over!.”

Lu Yin answered coldly, “If you try to run again, things will not end so simply.”

With that, he put the scythe away and looked down at the fish from above. Ba Rong let out a long sigh. “Why am I always the unlucky one? Human, what exactly do you want?”

Lu Yin said nothing, but karma spiraled around his fingertip before shooting at Ba Rong.

The fish desperately wanted to dodge, but it did not dare to actually move. Its means were nothing before Lu Yin. The fish’s life was already in the hands of another, which meant that it had no right to try to bargain.

With that, Lu Yin began examining Ba Rong's past with karma.

It took a great deal of time to see a creature’s past with karma, so Lu Yin simply took Ba Rong into the Mirari Realm and examined its past there.

Lu Feiyang and the stone monster were left behind.

Upon arriving in the Mirari Realm, Ba Rong's mood sank to the lowest point possible. Teleportation? Damn it, he really can teleport. So there’s actually a creature capable of that?

When the white magma had chased after Ba Rong, the fish had initially believed that the white magma had teleported, only to later realize that it had merely moved along a branch of the River of Aeons. With that realization, Ba Rong had been able to relax. After all, teleportation was merely a legend. But a short time after that incident, had true teleportation really appeared? How was such a thing even possible?

Ba Rong blankly stared at Lu Yin while karma continued passing through its body. It no longer had any secrets left.

Lu Yin quietly observed Ba Rong's past as time rolled on. Fortunately, they were already in the Mirari Realm.

He saw Ba Rong's time in Manifest City, including its interactions with the vine that had been the transformed Ba Yue. Lu Yin also saw the time when Ba Rong had been captured by You Che and forced into Manifest City. That memory was far too vivid.

You Che had not used much force against the fish; he had merely used his Starforged Sword to push Ba Rong to the despair of imminent death and had then very politely invited the fish to enter Manifest City. It was not truly a forceful capture and had been more like a half invitation, half capture.

That was why Ba Rong had spoken with You Che and had learned of both the Starforged Sword and You Che’s name.

While Manifest City, Ba Rong had been a little dog, and it had spent most of its time hiding beneath a bridge. After all, as a little dog, it had been afraid of being killed by humans, especially after hearing that some people enjoyed eating dog meat. That had frightened Ba Rong so badly that it had trembled and remained hidden beneath the bridge for a year without coming out.

In addition to all that, Lu Yin also saw the fish’s cultivation history, some things that it had experienced, including several civilizations and unfamiliar Immortals. All of that was perfectly normal.

Ba Rong had lived for so long that it had naturally accumulated abundant experiences.

Lu Yin observed in silence. He did not know how much time had passed when he suddenly frowned and focused on a particular scene from Ba Rong's past. “I see that you often spoke at the bottom of a body of water. What is down there?”

Ba Rong's eyes shifted, but just as it was about to speak, Lu Yin's eyes grew frigid. “I will verify whatever you tell me with karma. If you lie, I will tear your fish bones out and boil them into soup.”

Ba Rong shuddered. Its expression fell and it weakly replied, “That is my grandfather..."

Lu Yin stared in confusion.

“I lived in an ocean that floats in the Aevum Inch. That ocean is enormous, larger than any megaverse that I have ever seen. In that ocean are all sorts of powerful creatures, and from the moment I was born, I was destined to end up as food for my natural predators.

“Fortunately, I fell to the seabed. I was very small at that time, so I crawled into a shell and rolled closer to a crack in the ocean floor. I don’t know how long I rolled before I heard a voice calling to me.

“At first, I thought that it was calling to me, but I later learned that it was just snoring.” Ba Rong reminisced while staring across the nearby River of Aeons. It did not show much surprise at the sight of that river. “The dark seabed terrified me, but that snoring gave me an inexplicable sense of security. So, I stayed there and lived there. There was seaweed and all sorts of plants growing from the ocean floor, which was enough to keep me alive. I also cultivated by instinct.

“I don’t know how long it was before the snoring stopped, frightening me. However, a gentle voice then started teaching me how to cultivate. I didn’t even understand what I was cultivating. Regardless, I just kept cultivating as I was told, and after some time passed, I reached a bottleneck.

“That voice told me to seek out a megaverse being reset or to see my own heart clearly, and it said that above the realm I had reached existed the Immortal realm.

“By that time, I had long since moved away from the seabed and knew that Immortal beings were very rare in that ocean, and I could be considered the overlord of an entire region. I also wanted to break into the Immortal realm, so I left that seabed and even left that ocean to make my way into the larger cosmos.

“During the years that I cultivated on the seabed, I always called that voice ‘Grandfather.’”

Lu Yin looked away. Ba Rong had not lied. Karma had indeed revealed that the fish had mostly cultivated at the bottom of a sea. “You never saw the creature at the bottom of the sea?”

Ba Rong replied, “No. Later, after I broke into the Immortal realm, I returned to that ocean, wanting to meet Grandfather face to face, but I still couldn’t. Grandfather didn’t wish to see me, and he merely told me to be careful out in the Aevum Inch. I was told that Immortal beings are not invincible, that far too many Immortal beings have already died, and that only by being cautious can one stay alive.

“That’s why I deliberately manifested powers intended for survival.”

“What level of cultivation does that grandfather of yours have?” Lu Yin asked curiously.

Ba Rong did not know either. “Grandfather never said, but at the very least, he is an Immortal being.”

Lu Yin let out a breath. There was more variety of life in the Aevum Inch than could be imagined, and no one knew how many Immortals there truly were. Perhaps Ba Rong’s grandfather was a two-law Immortal or something even stronger.

None of that had anything to do with Lu Yin. He had only asked out of curiosity.

Next, it was time for Champions' Stage Purgatory.

Seeing the Champions' Stage Purgatory slowly appear, Ba Rong grew even more uncomfortable. “Human powerhouse, what are you planning to do?”

“Go take a walk inside.”

“But I didn’t fight back.”

Lu Yin smiled. “I won’t kill you, so relax. You carry no grudge against my human civilization, and I even have a grudge against You Che, who captured you. No matter how you look at things, that makes you half an ally. I won’t kill you.”

Ba Rong was surprised. “You have a grudge against You Che?”

Lu Yin nodded. “Go in.”

“Wait! Human, what if I tell you something and you just let me go?” Ba Rong offered.

Lu Yin was caught off guard. “Something valuable?”

It was impossible to see all of a creature’s past with karma. Seeing the full existence of a single Immortal would keep Lu Yin occupied for countless years. He could only see a very broad outline of events.

“It’s about You Che and his master,” Ba Rong offered.

Lu Yin's eyes narrowed. “Speak.”

The fact that Ba Rong knew of You Wu meant that this was undoubtedly real information.

Ba Rong replied, “I can speak, but only if you let me go.”

Lu Yin gave the fish a cold glare. It did not dare meet his eyes and said in a low voice, “Human, although the Aevum Inch is a place where the strong devours the weak and you don’t need any reason to kill me, I am offering you this information. This counts as helping you, doesn’t it? Exchanging my life for such help is very reasonable.”

Lu Yin stared at Ba Rong for a long moment. “Fine. Tell me, and I will let you go.”

“And that thing too! I’m not going inside it. Don’t tell me after this that you’ll release me after I go in,” Ba Rong warily clarified.

Lu Yin nodded. “Fine.”

“And also—”

“You are really testing my patience.” The scythe reappeared in Lu Yin's hand, its blade pointing straight at Ba Rong. The overwhelming killing intent that suddenly appeared caused the sky itself to tremble.

Ba Rong was startled and quickly said, “I’ll speak! I’ll tell you right now!”

Only then did Lu Yin retract his killing intent.

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