Chapter 4422: Coming Here
Chapter 4422: Coming Here
That was right. Even this civilization’s pseudo-Immortals were still subject to karmic chains, which had led Lu Yin to speculate that the most direct reason why karmic chains existed might be because of one’s resonance with cosmic laws. It was also possible that the cosmic laws themselves were a form of restraint.
By aligning with the laws of the cosmos, living creatures were able to step into the Immortal realm, gaining immense power and becoming an undying existence. However, those same cosmic laws also placed a karmic chain upon them.
Laws were both the bridge through which living beings communicated with the cosmos and the goal that they pursued.
When Ba Se had first told Lu Yin about the Divine Realm, Lu Yin had even felt them to be a pity. If the pseudo-Immortality that they achieved did not include karmic chains, then the civilization would have been truly formidable. Even Obscura would have invited them to join and would have treated them with respect. After all, a single Aberrant could wield tremendous influence. An entire group of them would be impossible to measure.
Unfortunately, the Divine Realm Civilization could not do that.
Even so, they had already accomplished something quite remarkable. They had fifteen Immortals, ten of whom had once been pseudo-Immortals. Their civilization was considered a fishing civilization because of just that one absolute means. Given enough time, they could grow to an incomparable level.
Just imagine if the Divine Realm one day possessed dozens, or even hundreds, of Immortals. Even if Obscura could still crush them in terms of absolute power, Obscura would never dare to slaughter such a civilization. The resulting increase in karmic chains alone would be enough to cripple all of Obscura.
That was why, with just that one absolute means, the Divine Realm was qualified to be considered a fishing civilization.
Every fishing civilization possessed both the means to strengthen their entire civilization and the means to empower individual members. The Mudwater Dominion had its mud dolls and karmic designation. The Plume Immortals had teleportation and their All Paths Return to One. The Blacklight Civilization had their Life Overreach and the Darksky Seal. Each civilization possessed absolute means that strengthened their civilization, as well as powerful legacies that strengthened the individual as well.
The Trio was currently moving in that direction as well. Teleportation and the Nirvana Tree Path were, in fact, absolute means that a fishing civilization would possess.
Of course, if the Divine Realm only had fifteen alternative Immortals, Lu Yin would not have been concerned about their civilization, but the Divine Realm also had true Immortal beings, and they were anything but average.
The ruler of the Divine Realm was known as the Divine King. According to the information from Ba Se, the Divine King stood at the pinnacle of two-law Immortals, and there was even speculation that they were capable of briefly wielding the strength of a three-law Immortal.
That was a level of power that caused Lu Yin to hold back. He still could not defeat a peak two-law Immortal, as that was Hong Xia’s level. As for a three-law Immortal, Lu Yin did not have a death wish. Confronting that sort of powerhouse was meaningless.
Even though Obscura knew that the Divine Realm existed, it had never gone looking for trouble. That was partly because the Divine Realm was already being used by a member of Obscura and partly because the civilization was difficult to provoke. Once a war broke out, the cost of fighting it would be enormous, and it would likely lead to a mandatory draft.
Fortunately, the Divine Realm had always cast its net in directions other than towards the Trio. Lu Yin did not know why that was the case, but if not for that, the Human Trio would have been discovered long ago.
Using a five-star mission reward to purchase information about the Divine Realm had been worth the cost. Without that, Lu Yin might have directly attacked the civilization, and if he had drawn the Divine Realm in the Trio’s direction, it would have been a disaster.
For the time being, he had absolutely no intention of going to war with the Divine Realm.
After teleporting away, Lu Yin glanced back. Establishing laws within oneself and expanding them until they fused with the Aevum Inch was somewhat similar to the method of completely destroying a megaverse. He wondered if that was the inspiration behind this absolute means.
All things in existence generated and restrained one another. Where there was destruction, there would also be creation. It only depended on the relative suitability.
Those creatures endlessly pushing millstones were following a law established by one of the Divine Realm's immortals. Pushing millstones to maintain the operations of a megaverse could never align with the laws of the Aevum Inch. Who could align with such a law? But laws set within oneself were different.
However, the biggest problem at the moment was that the Divine Realm's reach had extended this far. That megaverse with the millstones was only 200 years’ travel from the Trio, which was very close.
Was this expansion the intention of the Divine Realm’s Divine King or of one particular Immortal?
Humanity could not afford to lose to a civilization like the Divine Realm. If they did, their descendants would be condemned to the pitiful labor of pushing millstones, and humanity would never be able to rise up again.
Fortunately, Obscura's protection period was still in effect. Lu Yin first needed to find out which member of Obscura was using the Divine Realm.
Now, they needed to look for other cosmic civilizations.
Not long afterward, Lu Yin entered Manifest City again and continued using Willforce to observe every person and object within the city. In this manner, another two years passed. After that, Lu Yuan suddenly arrived to see Lu Yin, and he also delivered something.
Lu Yin's expression changed the moment he saw the object. "When was this discovered?"
"Half a year ago, while mapping a star chart," Ancestor Lu Yuan replied.
Lu Yin's expression turned grave. "So they’ve finally found their way here. It's been about a thousand years, hasn't it?"
Ancestor Lu Yuan nodded. "Just about."
What Ancestor Lu Yuan had brought was none other than a sphere from the technological fishing civilization. Years ago, the technological fishing civilization had somehow discovered one of Obscura’s gates and taken action without warning by throwing a sphere through the gate. Together with the spheres that had been previously launched after the technological civilization destroyed the Swallow Seal Megaverse, they had been able to determine the coordinates of the Trio.
While Lu Yin and others had reacted quickly to collect and destroy the spheres, the Aevum Inch was too vast for them to see everything. Now, after 1,000 years, the sudden appearance of this sphere told Lu Yin that the technological fishing civilization was closing in on them.
That technological fishing civilization had once been used by Qi Xu, who had not been able to teleport. It was already remarkable that she had managed to locate the technological fishing civilization that was 1,000 years’ travel across the Aevum Inch. 1,000 years of distance seemed about right.
Lu Yin immediately returned to the Tianyuan and went to see the Infinity Empire. After years of research, the Infinity Empire had already determined the purpose of the spheres sent out by the technological fishing civilization.
"They intend to link these spheres together to draw a line that leads directly to our Trio." That was the Infinity Empire's answer.
The Infinity Empire had another emperor. Lu Yin had hardly met any of their leaders. Although the current generation's emperor greatly respected Lu Yin, he had no time to speak with the emperor.
Since the technological fishing civilization wanted to use its spheres to draw a path to humanity, then they could also use those spheres to draw a line and pinpoint the technological fishing civilization’s current location.
With that thought, Lu Yin took immediate action, and he asked Ancestor Lu Yuan to identify the position where the sphere had been found.
Lu Yin peered into the distance. "That way?"
He then vanished in a flash, deciding to strike first.
Teleporting continuously, Lu Yin soon saw flickering lights in the distance. With his Mirrorlight Art, he could see them clearly. They were the enormous oval lights that belonged to the technological fishing civilization.
After a thousand years, they were finally coming.
Lu Yin did not approach any closer. At a distance of fifty years’ travel, not even this technological fishing civilization could detect Lu Yin. If it could, it would have found Obscura’s gates long ago.
The limit of their detection range was a little over ten years of travel at most, while the range that they could survey in detail was much less than that.
Lu Yin stared at the ovoid lights in the distance. One of them was larger than any he had seen before, vastly larger. If he compared it to the next-largest light, the one which had once fired Cosmic Shear, this one was more than ten times larger.
This meant the weapon this larger oval light possessed had to also surpass anything that Lu Yin had seen from this civilization before.
Every fishing civilization had its own terrifying strength. Even if teleportation seemed to be the perfect counter to this technological fishing civilization’s weapons, Lu Yin had not seen the full extent of this civilization’s capabilities. Who knew what other weapons it might possess?
He did not want to test them himself, which meant that he needed someone else to do the testing for him. For example, the Divine Realm.
The technological fishing civilization's current position, when combined with the location of the Divine Realm and the Trio, formed a triangle. A slight shift in direction would send the technological civilization towards the Divine Realm, which was actually closer. While their current position was a bit more than 600 years’ travel to the Trio, it was just a little over 400 years’ travel to the Divine Realm.
But how could Lu Yin lure these vessels towards the Divine Realm? More than 400 years of travel was still an enormous distance. As soon as the technological fishing civilization determined the Trio’s direction, it would not easily change course.
Lu Yin thought things over and came up with a method, though he did not know if it would actually succeed.
He first went to Manifest City and brought out the Immortal stone monster. "Help me do something. Once it's done, you'll be free."
The Immortal stone monster immediately grew excited. "What is it?"
It was desperate for freedom, but in the presence of Lu Yin, it could neither escape nor hide. It had no options. Of course, it also understood that a task assigned by Lu Yin would not be simple, so it wanted to hear it first.
Lu Yin studied the Immortal creature. "Have you ever heard of scavengers?"
The stone monster was puzzled. "Scavengers?"
"Scavengers, beings who sell the coordinates of megaverses," Lu Yin explained.
The stone monster immediately understood. "I've heard of them. One even targeted us before, but I killed it. What? Did a scavenger find you? Don't worry, I'll handle it."
Lu Yin smirked at the creature. "I want you to act as a scavenger and sell coordinates to a civilization one time."
The stone monster grew wary. "Which civilization?"
"A technological civilization."
The creature stared at Lu Yin. "...A technological civilization?"
Lu Yin nodded. "The creatures of this civilization don’t cultivate, so relax. This will be very simple."
The stone monster bluntly refused. "I'm not going."
Seeing Lu Yin's expression darken, it quickly softened its tone and tried to butter him up. "Human powerhouse, I only know a little about the Aevum Inch, but if a civilization’s technology develops to the point where even you’re taking it so seriously, it must be a fishing civilization, right?
"A technological fishing civilization. Just the thought is absolutely terrifying. In the Aevum Inch, common sense says to not mess with a technological fishing civilization. That kind of thing is no joke. I don't want to go."
Lu Yin was puzzled. "Why is that common sense?"
The stone monster bared its teeth, not knowing how to answer. It refused to believe that Lu Yin truly did not know.
Of course Lu Yin knew. He simply had not expected even this stone monster to also know. Its civilization had only one Immortal, yet it still had some basic knowledge of the Aevum Inch.
"This technological civilization often trades with scavengers. Help me sell these coordinates, and I'll let you go. This will benefit both of us. Don't worry, if they attack you, I'll save you."
The stone monster did not believe that at all. "Human powerhouse, a technological fishing civilization cannot be touched. Just think about how difficult it is for technology to reach the level of a fishing civilization. Technology is the only path that can make use of all of the resources in the entire Aevum Inch. Cultivation refines one kind of power, while technology can extract every kind of power. The two are completely different. No matter what kind of power that technological fishing civilization studies, it is bound to be terrifying.
“On top of that, there's something even more important."
Lu Yin listened carefully as the stone monster stated, "I don't do unethical things."
Lu Yin just stared at it.