Chapter 4597: The Past

Naturally, Lu Yin and the other Immortals could not attack the Lepidarch.

The skeleton clone did need to participate, though only at the end. It needed to answer to Thousand Machinations, and it would be unreasonable if the skeleton did not act at all. The various peak Dukkhans were only present to wear down the Lepidarch and leave it on the cusp of death.

Although the Lepidarch had been weakened greatly, its defenses were still more than what ordinary cultivators could overcome. Even peak Dukkhans or Aberrants would need to expend quite some effort to kill it.

"Do it," Lu Yin ordered.

Qing Xing immediately attacked, and countless attacks fell upon the Lepidarch.

At that moment, the butterfly was completely inundated. It was struck by countless attacks, and while they initially posed no threat, the Lepidarch’s condition meant that it would not last for very long.

It begged for mercy, not wanting to die. To survive, it was even willing to serve human civilization.

Some people were tempted and looked at Lu Yin, but he remained unmoved.

He also would love to have an expert like the Lepidarch strengthen the Trio and help ward off external threats, but the Lepidarch would never sincerely support them. The moment it encountered Wang Wen, just a few words might be enough for the Lepidarch to betray humanity.

Green Lotus's karma was not enough to restrain it, and any power that could not be used by humanity should be erased.

This was what Lu Yin believed at the moment. He had not yet reached the level of strength where he could use creatures of other species.

The Nine Ramparts had been powerful enough to allow other species to communicate across the Aevum Inch, and they had also been extremely tolerant towards other creatures and civilizations. And yet, their fate had been so tragic.

If one wanted to climb higher, one's heart also had to be hard enough. One had to withstand countless blows as well as endure loneliness and resist temptation.

The Lepidarch's Lifeforce weakened until it was nearly imperceptible. Qing Xing and the others attacked for several months. The Lepidarch's body shrank by an entire size, and its aura continuously grew weaker and weaker. Even so, it never stopped speaking, hoping that it would be able to survive.

All it received was Lu Yin's cold stare.

Even those who were tempted held themselves back. Lu Yin was the pillar of their human civilization.

Lu Yin stared at the Lepidarch's back. There were still primal talisman materials there, and he had not forgotten that fact. He planned to collect everything after the Lepidarch died and then see if he could improve the materials with his die's Enhance.

"I do not care what relationship you may have with that skeleton being. I once chased it after it. Do you know that?"

Lu Yin remained calm and silently watched as Qing Xing and the others continued attacking.

The Lepidarch called out again, "At the time, it was about to escape, and yet I still pursued it. Do you know why?"

Lu Yin did not react and just continued to stare.

His skeleton clone had killed four of the Immortal butterflies on the Lepidarch Continent. After the Lepidarch awakened, it had personally buried two more butterflies before chasing after him. There was nothing strange about that. After all, he had killed four Immortals.

The Lepidarch Continent had been a fishing civilization no matter how one looked at it. Going there and rampantly slaughtering the creatures of that civilization and then expecting to safely escape was not very realistic, nor should it be. The Lepidarch's pursuit, though irrational, had always been understandable. There had never been anything strange about it.

But at this moment, it suddenly brought that matter up again. "That skeleton created a great disturbance on my back. The reason why I chased after it was because I wanted to verify whether it had discovered that thing.

"The second time the skeleton found me, fought me, and then ran away, I thought that it must have discovered that thing, though it was never mentioned.

"Regardless of whether it discovered that thing or not, I still decided to move away. Even after losing one of my Immortal butterflies, I still left.

"Finally, when that skeleton joined forces with a toad and some green creature to ambush me and kill me, I guessed that it had to be because of that thing. Why else would it pursue me so relentlessly? That simply does not make sense. There was no grudge between us, so why should it pursue me? Was it worth paying such a steep price and wasting so much time?

"Since you are not bringing it up yourself even now, I will. That thing, do you want it or not?" The Lepidarch said a great deal, and its voice echoed across the Sea of Karma, allowing many people to hear it.

That thing? What thing? Greater Sancte Green Lotus and the others all looked at Lu Yin. None of them knew what the butterfly was talking about.

Lu Yin stared at the Lepidarch and raised a hand, ordering Qing Xing and the others to cease their attacks. The Sea of Karma grew calm once more.

The Lepidarch breathed a sigh of relief and stared at Lu Yin, its eyes filled with anxiety and nervousness, as well as reluctance.

"The thing that you keep mentioning, what is it?" Lu Yin asked, immediately reminded of Thousand Machinations.

Killing the Lepidarch was a task that Thousand Machinations had assigned to Lu Yin’s skeleton clone, along with the task of investigating the Lepidarch Continent. No matter how long it took, as long as Chen gained the ability, he was to go and kill the Lepidarch.

Even when assigned his task, Lu Yin had found it rather strange. Why did the Lepidarch have to be killed?

Thousand Machinations would not do anything without a reason. Everything was either for their own sake or for the sake of some greater scheme.

Lu Yin felt that he had just discovered a clue.

The Lepidarch panted, its body lying weakly within the Sea of Karma. Only after recovering for quite some time did it speak again. "What exactly is your relationship with that skeleton creature?"

Lu Yin's tone was icy. "I will ask you once more, and it will be the last time: what is that thing?"

The Lepidarch fell silent and simply met Lu Yin's gaze. It saw the killing intent hidden in the human’s eyes. The butterfly was simply lost in a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

It was a creature that had experienced despair and disaster. For such a being, it did not want to challenge the patience of one controlling its life. Losing this gamble would forfeit its own life.

"A mirebound artifact," the Lepidarch admitted, answering readily.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. "What mirebound artifact?"

"A very powerful one. It entered my body countless years ago, but even now, I still do not dare to touch it. As long as you agree to spare my life, I will give that mirebound artifact to you."

Lu Yin sneered. "If I refuse to spare you and simply butcher you, will that mirebound artifact not still be mine?"

The Lepidarch argued, "You cannot find that mirebound artifact. As soon as I remove the restriction sealing it, you will not be able to see it—no one will. An invisible mirebound artifact will disappear forever. Believe me, I have spent countless years sensing it, and I am absolutely certain that, once it disappears, you will not be able to find it.

"It is also one of the reasons why I have remained asleep for so much time."

Lu Yin stared at the butterfly and then exchanged glances with Green Lotus. The Greater Sancte offered a faint smile and nodded.

The next moment, Lu Yin released his Karmic Dao. He only allowed it to spread across a very small area, essentially just the Sea of Karma. Then, the karma within the Sea of Karma flowed into the Karmic Dao.

Green Lotus was merging his karma with Lu Yin's, allowing Lu Yin to use karma to examine the Lepidarch's past.

Using karma to view the past, especially when facing an expert like Lepidarch, would lengthen an Immortal’s karmic chain, but with Green Lotus's help, the increase to Lu Yin's karmic chain would be extremely small. Green Lotus was helping by bearing most of the karmic cost.

If Lu Yin were to offer his karma to Green Lotus, he would instead be the one shouldering the burden of lengthening his karmic chain. This was simply reversing that assistance.

The Lepidarch knew almost nothing about the power of karma. It clearly knew that Lu Yin wielded the power, yet it still wanted to act mysterious.

The Lepidarch looked up and saw Lu Yin controlling karma that was being directed towards it. A possibility suddenly occurred to it, and it threatened, "You want to use karma to see my past? Stop! If you continue, I will kill myself immediately and ensure that you can never find that mirebound artifact!

"Long ago, this very mirebound artifact was what drew Grand Clarity to fight a war against my Lepidarch Continent. The Grand Clarity Civilization placed great importance on that mirebound artifact.

"Also, this matter involves you humans."

Lu Yin paused his efforts and looked at the Lepidarch in surprise. "What was that?"

The Lepidarch panted heavily while warily eying the karma just above its head. It could see karma. "I know of humans. That mirebound artifact is related to your kind. As long as you agree to let me go, I will promise to never seek revenge, and that mirebound artifact will also belong to you." freⅇ

Green Lotus shook his head. "You overestimate yourself too much at this moment. Where do you think you are? This is the Sea of Karma."

The karma dropped and pierced the Lepidarch.

Lu Yin used karma to pinpoint the effect he wanted, targeting the past related to the Grand Clarity sourcebox array. He wanted to see what exactly had happened during that ancient battle. He had not expected to learn that humans had been involved.

The Lepidarch wanted to move, but it could no longer do so. Green Lotus was right. This was the Sea of Karma, which was within his Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. Let alone the Lepidarch’s current condition, but even at its peak, the butterfly would have still struggled to escape from this place.

Wanting to die was no different from wanting to escape; both were mere dreams.

The Lepidarch screamed, wanting to stop Lu Yin from seeing its past, but it could do nothing.

Scene after scene of its past was revealed by karma.

The first thing that Lu Yin saw was the familiar sourcebox array, a danger field shooting into the sky as the array, and lockbreaking methods being used together to isolate the colored butterflies.

Lu Yin saw the creatures of the Grand Clarity Civilization and watched that ancient battle.

Karma continued to pour into the Lepidarch, and the images of the past kept shifting. At times, they showed war. At other times, the images showed a pursuit. The battles between Grand Clarity and the Immortal butterflies had not been limited to a single place; the Lepidarch’s back had merely been the largest battlefield.

Suddenly, Lu Yin trembled. Peering at the Lepidarch's past, he saw several Grand Clarity creatures moving, trying to shake off the Lepidarch and escape into the Aevum Inch. In the middle of those creatures was a sourcebox array. That array seemed to freeze the void, completely isolating the area it enveloped. Within the void, there was a person.

There was a young man isolated within the void and being carried along by the Grand Clarity creatures. Fury could be readily seen on the young man's face, as though he were cursing. He struggled hard to break free of the array's restraints, but failed.

What Lu Yin saw next caused his eyes to bulge with rage.

The Lepidarch used Myriad-Metal Qi to slay the Grand Clarity creatures and break the sourcebox array. At the same time, the young man was torn apart and dismembered. His arms, legs, torso, and head were all severed and scattered in various directions as blood sprayed across the cosmos.

That was the extent of the scene that was revealed.

Karma continued to pour into the Lepidarch. Karma did not reveal the past chronologically nor in any sort of fixed sequence. What appeared was what Lu Yin saw.

He watched for a very long time, more than half a year. As he finally withdrew his Karmic Dao, he examined his wrist. His karmic chain had indeed increased, but only by the tiniest amount. The difference was nearly imperceptible.

Green Lotus's karmic chain had also increased. The two of them had shared the burden of examining the Lepidarch’s karma, and in doing so, the increase was still bearable.

The butterfly had fallen silent several months earlier. It had never been able to stop Lu Yin from seeing its past.

Lu Yin lifted his head and looked at the Lepidarch again. This time, his gaze carried overwhelming killing intent.

He had seen that battle clearly, and it had actually been an accident.

The Lepidarch had encountered some Grand Clarity creatures in the Aevum Inch. They had been using a sourcebox array to keep a young man frozen in place. They had likely been taking that young man to the four megaverses that were now the ruins of the Grand Clarity Civilization, but they had encountered the Lepidarch along the way, and a great battle had erupted.

During that battle, most of the Grand Clarity creatures had died, with only a few escaping.

Also, the young man imprisoned within the sourcebox array had died. He had not been killed by a Grand Clarity creature, but rather by the Lepidarch's Myriad-Metal Qi. Not only had he been cut to pieces, but the Lepidarch had also used its ability to absorb Myriad-Metal Qi to harvest the man’s body, reducing him to nothing more than white bones.

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