Chapter 4349: Conviction
The Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor had already been recorded, which had then been folded to create a civilizational weapon. That meant that Ni Ren could no longer draw the man’s image again. Even if the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor were rescued and recovered, it could do nothing without first recapturing the man and covering him with cement.
No innate gift was invincible. The stronger the innate gift, the more restrictions it had.
The Mudwater Dominion’s legacy also had limits. If not, anything touched by their cement would be drawn, which would have made Mudwater Dominion invincible long ago. Even if they lost a fight, they could just run and hide in a corner and draw their enemy’s image, erasing them again and again. Who could withstand such a thing?
But the Mudwater Dominion did not have that kind of ability.
From the very beginning, when Ni Ren had first told Lu Yin to save the old man, it had been preparing a trap for Lu Yin. It was a trap specifically designed to deal with his ability to teleport. Ni Ren had wanted Lu Yin to rescue the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor, but it could not let him succeed too easily. If the fight looked fake, Lu Yin would have grown wary.
Lu Yin had to exhaust every means available to him in order to save the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor, which had pushed Ni Ren into recording the old man and folding him into a civilizational weapon. That was the moment that Lu Yin had been waiting for to truly rescue the Mountain Sword Sect’s ancestor.
Earlier, even if the old man had not dodged Lu Yin’s hand, Lu Yin would have still been wary of Ni Ren’s innate gift and would not have allowed the cement to touch him.
A fight to the death was a contest of both strength and intelligence.
Ni Ren was not stupid; it had laid multiple traps, step by step. While Lu Yin was young, his combat experience and understanding of the Mudwater Dominion gave him a chance to prepare appropriately, which had ultimately enabled him to rescue the old man.
Staring at Ni Ren, Lu Yin said nothing. He simply teleported away with the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor, choosing to first get far away from Ni Ren.
Ni Ren was furious. It had no idea that it had been seen through all along. It simply believed that, at the last moment, Lu Yin had used karma to plot against it, using its own power to restrain its own slashes. It refused to accept the truth, absolutely refused to do so.
Lu Yin teleported again and again, not stopping until he had teleported more than five times and left Ni Ren’s attack range.
“Senior, how are you? I’ll place you in a Zenith Mountain so that you can recuperate first. There are Immortals there who can help treat you.” He was about to do so, but the old man stopped him.
The Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor had lost both of his arms and could only lean on Lu Yin. In a hoarse voice he said, “Run... Don’t worry about me. If you carry me, you won’t be able to get away.”
“Senior, we’ve already escaped.”
“No!” The Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor looked at Lu Yin through blurred vision, urging anxiously, “Its power is still inside my body. Run... RUN!”
“Who-?” Before Lu Yin could even finish his question, the cosmos was overturned, and a suffocating pressure descended upon them. Lu Yin looked past the old man to peer into the distance. There, at some unknown point in time, an immense Mudwater Dominion had appeared. It was the largest that Lu Yin had ever seen, far surpassing Ni Ren’s.
If Ni Ren’s Mudwater Dominion was a city, then this Mudwater Dominion was an entire star.
When it entered Lu Yin’s line of sight, he felt as if a gaze from within that Mudwater Dominion had met his own.
Clang!
His Mirrorlight Art shattered. Lu Yin staggered back several steps, horrified. This was terrible; Ni Bieluo had arrived. Just a glance was enough to break his Mirrorlight Art. He grabbed the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor and teleported away. Even if the Mirrorlight Art had shattered, Heaven’s Sight was still able to let Lu Yin see a distance of twenty years’ travel.
Run. Run. Run!
Sheets of paper fluttered out from the vast Mudwater Dominion. They formed a bridge that instantly crossed the vast distance to hang above Lu Yin’s head.
Lu Yin teleported repeatedly, but the paper bridge continued to fall from above him. It encompassed a range that he could not escape with just a few teleports.
At that moment, he remembered Ancestor Shan’s comment about how teleportation was not invincible. There were some beings who could not be escaped from.
He could not escape. At this moment, Lu Yin knew that clearly.
The paper sheets drew close, like a soul-snaring rope. His face turned deathly pale. To deal with him, an Aberrant who was not even an Immortal, just how great a price had the Mudwater Dominion paid? They had first sent Ni Ren, and now even Ni Bieluo had gotten directly involved. They did not care at all about the outcome of the war, just about Lu Yin.
Just as the paper bridge was about to fall, a voice called out from afar. “Hehe, child, you owe me a life.”
Lu Yin looked over. Old Man Hehe?
Whoosh!
The cosmos opened up and rivers surged out. Lu Yin’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. Are those... Rivers of Aeons? One, two, three...
He did not know how many Rivers of Aeons had appeared in various directions, moving like water dragons as they smashed through the paper bridge and scattered the sheets of paper everywhere.
Lu Yin let out a breath. He had not even had time to see what kind of creature Old Man Hehe was. He teleported again and again, fleeing.
Teleportation was fast—even a moment was enough to get away. For ordinary people, Lu Yin moved exceptionally fast, but on the current battlefield, every moment was a luxury. Even after Lu Yin teleported multiple times, a cold dread still clung to him like a shadow. He looked back and faintly saw vast surging rivers. Could that be the main stream of the River of Aeons?
Before he could see clearly, two streaks of light appeared. Ni Ren?
Lu Yin’s expression changed drastically as Ni Ren’s long white blades chopped down, sealing off Lu Yin’s paths with various slashes. He could only teleport or dodge.
Continuing straight forward might allow him to leave Ni Bieluo’s range, but dodging would mean only moving around within Ni Bieluo’s territory.
“You can’t escape! Die!” Ni Ren’s blades chopped down.
Lu Yin gritted his teeth and kept teleporting. The Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor spoke up. “Let go of me, Lu Yin. Escape on your own. If you carry me, you absolutely won’t be able to escape.”
Lu Yin ceaselessly teleported about. Ni Ren, by somehow borrowing Ni Bieluo’s power, was able to actually keep up with Lu Yin, which forced him to constantly adjust his trajectory.
“Child, humanity’s legacy needs you. I’m already old. Let me go and leave.”
Lu Yin dodged another slash and teleported.
“Lu Yin, the greater good comes first!” the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor shouted harshly.
Lu Yin clenched his teeth. “Many lives are won by taking a risk. In the Aevum Inch, no creature can be completely self-sufficient. Every species, even fishing civilizations, has to take risks: risks so that they can live, risks so that they can continue on. Senior, I’ve taken such risks many times.
“As for the so-called greater good, you’ve either already lost your bet, or you never dared to actually gamble.
“I will bet my life on tomorrow. Mere cement can’t kill me.”
The old man saw the determination in Lu Yin’s eyes and recalled the first half of his own life. Suddenly, he understood why his civilization had lost under his lead; he had feared that their inheritance would be destroyed, feared humanity would die out. That had pushed him to retreat again and again. He did not dare to take risks, so he had lost. He had lost in his own megaverse, and he had also lost in the Aevum Inch.
He would rather sacrifice himself than allow Lu Yin to take such a risk, but Lu Yin was not merely wagering his life, but also his convictions.
The Mountain Sword Sect’s ancestor was not wrong. If he had lost even once, his human civilization would have vanished. It could only be said that the tides of the world had shifted and Heaven’s order was unpredictable; his luck was not enough to withstand the flow of destiny.
Staring at Lu Yin, the old man realized that this child’s luck could absolutely suppress such things.
The slashes continued to sweep by. Lu Yin did not know what the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor was thinking, only that he could not abandon this senior who had sacrificed everything for humanity. At this moment, Lu Yin was not considering gains or losses; human spirit surpassed all such things.
Ni Ren kept swinging its blades. “How long can you dodge for? Obscura has already won this war, but only one person has come to help you. You’ve been abandoned. “I’ll give you one chance: join my Mudwater Dominion, and I will not kill you.”
Lu Yin was desperate to send the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor into a Zenith Mountain so that it would be easier to escape, but that was nothing more than wishful thinking. There was not even a single instant of opportunity.
Hearing Ni Ren’s words, Lu Yin glanced back. What a joke. Anyone who gained the upper hand would try to persuade an opponent to surrender, but did it even pay attention to his species? Join cement? Absurd.
If it was truly impossible to escape... Lu Yin stared at Ni Ren. If not for his fear of Ni Bieluo, he would already have used Crow Immobilization on Ni Ren.
But even that would be useless. Even if Lu Yin froze Ni Ren, he still would not be able to leave Ni Bieluo’s range, and Ni Ren would simply catch up.
Damn it! The gap was too great. He could only wait for Old Man Hehe to finish their battle.
Far away, beyond what Lu Yin could see, he did not know how the battle between Ni Bieluo and Old Man Hehe was proceeding. He had not expected Old Man Hehe to be powerful enough to directly face Ni Bieluo. The old bastard was far stronger than expected; Lu Yin had believed them to be about equal to Furball.
Furball was completely incapable of fighting Ni Bieluo.
Obscura’s waters ran too deep. Normally, a powerhouse of Old Man Hehe’s strength should be taciturn, no? And yet they were the most talkative, as well as the most infuriating.
Time rolled on. As long as Ni Ren did not stop its pursuit, Lu Yin was not out of Ni Bieluo’s range.
Before long, Ni Ren suddenly vanished.
Lu Yin looked back. Using Heaven’s Sight, he could see that Ni Ren was still in the same place as before. It was not chasing him. Has the battle between Old Man Hehe and Ni Bieluo ended?
Suddenly, Lu Yin’s entire body went cold. A strange, terrifying killing intent erupted from the void. He immediately teleported away, only for a trident to appear before him. It possessed a cold, sharp light as it closed in on him. Lu Yin stared at the weapon. Was it Ni Bieluo’s?
Ni Bieluo’s trident was a civilizational weapon that consisted of three recorded civilizations and three Immortals. Lu Yin had never imagined that he would face such a weapon himself.
The trident’s sharp points had locked onto him. Teleportation was not enough to budge it. Everything around him was pushed away, and the cosmos collapsed onto him. At that instant, Lu Yin’s mind went blank. He had no power to oppose this.
He was suddenly shoved aside. In front of him, he saw the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor rush forward and meet the trident.
Lu Yin’s pupils constricted. He stared in a daze as the trident pierced the old man’s body, sending blood spraying across the Aevum Inch. As the void collapsed, the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor’s body shattered. Nothing at all of him remained. All that he left for Lu Yin was a memory of a determined back.
There had been no words at all—just a single moment, and then the man was reduced to absolutely nothing.
The trident hesitated, and rivers surged over, striking the trident aside from behind. Old Man Hehe called out, “Careless, but not dying is truly your good luck, hehe.”
Lu Yin stared ahead. He saw multiple Rivers of Time and also the trident retreating into the distance.
He had not died, but the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor had. Had Lu Yin’s gamble been a win, or had the old man’s gamble lost?
“I’ll send you on your way. Remember, child: you owe me a life.”
Lu Yin clenched a fist. “Wait!”
As he spoke, he teleported far away, arriving in front of Ni Ren. The creature froze, not expecting Lu Yin’s sudden appearance.
Lu Yin raised a hand. Plates of armor wrapped around his arm as he grabbed one of the long white blades, his expression dark and his eyes terrifying. “Send me away.”
Time and space flowed. Lu Yin saw nothing but gray while only hearing the roar of great rivers. When he could see again, aside from Ni Ren, all he saw was an unfamiliar patch of the Aevum Inch.
He and Ni Ren had both been sent away.
Lu Yin did not know where they had been sent. He knew just one thing: vengeance. He would avenge the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor. At the very least, Lu Yin would kill Ni Ren.
