Published at 13th of May 2026 5:34 am

Chapter 4268: Search

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

As Lu Yin turned to face the Immortal Lord, his Karmic Dao abruptly contracted. His formerly boundless karma condensed into a Dao Sword that slashed down at the green stalk. At this moment, the green stalk was just that. But beyond it, only Lu Yin could see karma. It was the Immortal Lord’s karmic past. Lu Yin found the beginning of their most recent fight with the Immortal Lord, and he intended to utterly erase that segment, and with it, the Immortal Lord’s awareness of this battle.

The Dao Sword cut.

The green light that covered the surface of the Immortal Lord’s form suddenly blossomed. Vast amounts of Lifeforce erupted as they exploded with their Nine Revolutions of Qianyuan. The Immortal Lord wanted to resist.

Above their head, the cauldron pressed down. More and more cracks opened up across the green stalk. Even the Nine Revolutions of Qianyuan was crushed.

The Immortal Lord was too heavily injured and no longer had the strength to resist.

The Dao Sword swept through the karma. At that same instant, Lu Yin’s karma rushed towards his Dao Sword like a surging river. The process of severing karma was undoubtedly fast, but in Lu Yin perception, it took an unbearably long time. In a single moment, vast amounts of his karma poured into the Dao Sword. If the flow slowed by even the smallest bit, his Dao Sword would dissipate.

At that moment, Lu Yin experienced anticipation, confusion, reluctance, and resolve.

He hoped to accomplish precisely what he had envisioned: severing a specific portion of the Immortal Lord’s karma and leaving the Dao Sword buried in the Immortal’s karma. However, Lu Yin became lost in the fact that he was consuming far too much karma in the process. The more that was consumed, the more unwilling he became. It took less than a moment to consume half the karma that he could gain from a single Immortal. Lu Yin struggled to accept such a loss. This single attack was costing him far, far too much. Still, he ultimately completed his slash with renewed resolve.

To deal with the Plume Immortals Civilization, he would risk everything.

The Immortal Lord was themself an Immortal being. Their cultivation greatly surpassed Lu Yin’s, and their combat strength was also greater. Even if Lu Yin wanted to weave their karma, the karmic cost would be staggering, let alone the fact that he wanted to sever a portion of the Immortal Lord’s karma.

Truthfully, as Lu Yin was completing his attack, he shamelessly found himself wanting to ask Green Lotus to shoulder some of the karmic cost.

As the Dao Sword slash fell, the green stalk shuddered, and its green halo steadily grew dimmer.

Lu Yin casually swept his Dao Sword through Luo Chan’s karma as well, causing the bug to lose the same karmic experience as the Immortal Lord. However, the Immortal Lord’s injuries remained.

That done, Lu Yin then teleported away, heading for where the Seven-Treasure Anuras’ home had once been. That was the only route where he still had pathfinding stones spread out, and more importantly, it was far from where they had fought the Immortal Lord. It was impossible for him to deliver the Immortal Lord to where they had been before coming to the human megaverses; unless Lu Yin could see his destination, he could not teleport to it. His only choice was to leave the Immortal Lord in a random location.

As for whether or not the Immortal Lord would grow suspicious, Lu Yin simply did not care. Having lost a segment of their past, the Immortal Lord would not dare to mention such a thing to any one else, let alone the Plume Immortals.

After setting the green stalk down, Lu Yin casually tossed Luo Chan onto its leaves before suddenly vanishing again.

Soon after, the Immortal Lord regained consciousness and looked around. Where is this?

A leaf suddenly developed a slight crack. To the Immortal Lord’s utter disbelief, it discovered that they were in a strange place and also terribly injured. They did not dare to linger and immediately left with Luo Chan.

Elsewhere, Lu Yin was still mourning the loss of his karma.

When he released his Karmic Dao, he found that it had noticeably shrunk. The amount missing was as much as what he might hope to gain from a typical Immortal.

Just how many Immortals could a single being kill throughout their lifetime?

Few. Very, very few.

For an Immortal to kill another Immortal, unless they were like the Plume Immortals Civilization with a method similar to the Thousand-Autumn Dream, it would be extremely hard for an Immortal to deliver the killing blow to another Immortal. Doing so would increase their karmic chain by too much.

Non-immortals could kill Immortals without such costs, but that was only if they possessed the requisite combat strength.

If Green Lotus were to pay the cost in karma for what Lu Yin had done with his Dao Sword, it would be quite difficult for the man to make up for that loss. Fortunately, it was Lu Yin who had done so. He was an Aberrant powerful enough to kill ordinary Immortals. While he had suffered a devastating loss, it was possible for him to quickly recover it, provided that he could find an Immortal to throw into his Champions’ Stage Purgatory.

Thinking of this helped Lu Yin’s mood to greatly improve.

His new Dao Sword would be useful, but it could not be used often. The number of times he could capture Immortals could never possibly compare to the number of times he wanted to use his Dao Sword.

“What happened to the Immortal Lord?” Mister Mu asked.

Lu Yin explained, “They lost all of their experiences in this period of time, and they’re also gravely wounded. There’s no chance they’ll linger around, and the farther away they go, the better. As for the Plume Immortals, the Immortal Lord absolutely will not speak of what happened to them. They already fear the Plume Immortals and want to break free. Mentioning this will make those birds suspicious, and it might even provoke them into attacking the Immortal Lord.

“Despite knowing full well that someone has done something to them, the Immortal Lord can’t breathe a word of the matter.”

Old First was impressed. “Lu Yin, that was an absolutely brilliant maneuver. The Immortal Lord doesn’t even know who acted against them, and yet they still can’t escape from what you’ve done. Really quite vicious.”

Lu Yin shrugged. “If not for my karma undergoing a transformation, I wouldn’t have been able to do it at all. Still, I won’t be able to use it again in the future.”

Mister Mu was puzzled. “Why not?”

Lu Yin sighed. “Just using it this once consumed more than half of my Karmic Dao. For me to use it again, I’d need to capture two or three ordinary Immortals, or a powerhouse equal to the Immortal Lord, to increase my karma, and that kind of expert isn’t easy to capture.”

Mister Mu let out an emotional sigh. “That’s true. After all, the Immortal Lord is far stronger than you. It’s impossible to scheme against such a being without paying a matching price.”

Lu Yin shot a glance at Old First. Those words were intended for the toad’s ears.

No one wanted to be schemed against, and the Dao Sword was too perfect for such schemes. It was natural that Old First would grow wary, fearing the day when he might possibly be schemed against and left not even knowing who his enemy might be. While Old First was confident in his own strength, the Immortal Lord was also impressively strong, and yet they had still fallen to Lu Yin’s schemes. Who knew what other methods humans might devise?

Mister Mu’s comment caused the toad’s expression to noticeably soften.

The cost of using the Dao Sword was not an empty claim. Old First and Mister Mu had personally watched Lu Yin’s Karmic Dao shrink. Lu Yin had already taken the future into account after comprehending the Dao Sword, and thus, he had tested it repeatedly.

“I hope that you can use it to deal with the Plume Immortals,” Mister Mu continued.

Lu Yin then delivered his master back to the Tianyuan, and Old First to the Consciousness Megaverse. Only when that was done could the battle truly be considered over.

No matter what the Immortal Lord might be thinking about at the moment, they definitely would not appear before humans again anytime soon. To begin with, they needed to heal.

Lu Yin reported to Green Lotus and the others what he had learned from the Immortal Lord, and he also included one more thing: what he planned to do next.

In reading the Immortal Lord’s past through their karma, Lu Yin had found something with a connection to humanity: a Thread of Heaven.

In order to determine whether the Immortal Lord was responsible for the strange bird appearing in their human civilization, Lu Yin had used humanity as a trigger while searching the Immortal Lord’s past. In doing so, he had actually managed to learn a few things. Aside from what the Immortal Lord had personally said about how they had learned that humanity had once been a fishing civilization from other civilizations’ records, there were other matters in the past as well, though they had not been related to Lu Yin’s human civilization. The Nest civilization had sent a Verdant Sage to a Thread of Heaven. Coincidentally, it was the same bug that the Immortal Lord had sent ahead to scout out the megaverse where they had sensed their power.

Lu Yin removed that Verdant Sage from a Zenith Mountain.

The bug had the appearance of a snow-white bird, and it vanished the same moment that it emerged.

Lu Yin gave a small smile and then also vanished. When he reappeared, he was already holding that snow-white bird. “I caught you once, and I can catch you again. Don’t force me to just kill you.”

The snow-white bird did not dare to move. Its little eyes stared at Lu Yin with utter disbelief.

It was a powerful Verdant Sage, whose strength approached that of the former Insect Lords. It was a creature that had achieved the pinnacle of power beneath the Immortal realm, and with its ability, not even most Immortals could capture it.

Despite all of that, Lu Yin had captured it with ease.

During the attack on the Immortal Lord, Lu Yin had casually grabbed the Verdant Sage. He was just happy that he had not casually killed it.

A being who possessed the pinnacle of strength beneath the Immortal realm was held in just one of Lu Yin’s hands, completely unable to move. It was as helpless as a common bird.

Helplessness filled its little eyes.

“You’ve seen me before.” Lu Yin met the snow-white bird’s gaze, and the sudden confusion in its eyes caused him to correct himself, “More accurately, you’ve seen a creature of the same species.”

The snow-white bird stared at Lu Yin, examining him closely before commenting in a clear voice that betrayed a bit of surprise. “I have…”

Lu Yin acknowledged. “Go on.”

“In a Thread of Heaven, other beings drew your shape, but they were immediately stopped by the Thread of Heaven’s master, who said that this form belonged to a fishing civilization and was not to be discussed.” As it spoke, fear appeared in the snow-white bird’s eyes. “Are you a fishing civilization?”

It had not been many years since the Immortal Lord had left human civilization, but this particular Verdant Sage possessed a peculiar ability that had allowed it to reach an impressive level in a short amount of time. It had never interacted with human civilization before.

Lu Yin slowly smiled. “What do you think?”

“You are a fishing civilization. No wonder you dare to act against our Nest civilization.” The snow-white bird was already certain.

Lu Yin asked, “Tell me everything you know about my kind.”

The snow-white bird was forthright and answered without hiding anything. It recounted, from beginning to end, all that had happened in the Thread of Heaven, providing an even more detailed account than what it had given to the Immortal Lord. There was no choice, as its life was literally in Lu Yin’s hands.

The Immortal Lord was too far away. At least for the moment, the Verdant Sage was completely outside of the Immortal Lord’s influence.

Lu Yin listened in silence. The knowledge regarding humanity was extremely limited, as the Thread of Heaven’s master had quickly stopped the discussion, but the bird did mention a key detail that had been shared before the master could intervene. One creature had claimed to know the direction of a human civilization.

This excited Lu Yin, as it meant that he had found another human civilization.

For that human civilization to be confirmed to be a fishing civilization by a Thread of Heaven in the same region, it had to be a truly formidable civilization. The master of the Thread of Heaven was likely an Immortal, so the fact that they had still been so wary said enough.

The Thread of Heaven’s location was somewhat off route to where the Immortal Lord had been before returning to near the human civilization. It was also extremely far away. Even at the speed that an Immortal could travel, it was more than 200 years away from the human civilization, which was a great deal farther than the Seven-Treasure Anuras’ home had been. It could be regarded as part of an entirely separate cosmic ecosystem.

Lu Yin’s luck proved to be quite good. Given the vast distance, if not for the fact that Luo Chan had constantly been teleporting about the Aevum Inch and had accidentally appeared close by and sensed Ancestor Lu Yuan cultivating the Immortal Lord’s power, then the Immortal Lord might have never sensed a thing and never returned.

No matter how formidable the Immortal Lord might be, they could not sense their own power from such a shocking distance. Not even Ancestor Shan could do such a thing.

Success had come from teleportation, and so had failure.

The snow-white bird was sincere, and it said a great deal. Nonetheless, Lu Yin could not completely trust it, so he examined its karma.

Some time later, he went to speak with Green Lotus and shared the discovery of another human civilization with him.

Green Lotus was not excited. He had inherited the hatred of his civilization’s ancestors towards the former Nine Ramparts. That hatred stemmed from the fact that they had been abandoned and used as bait by the Nine Ramparts.

Lu Yin could not truly feel that same emotion, but it was profound for Green Lotus.

He had even chosen to abandon the Crimson Starshade.

“Searching for the civilizations of the former Nine Ramparts isn’t to save them, but for our own self-preservation,” Lu Yin explained.

Green Lotus remained calm. “I understand that, but you’re not suited to this task. Let others take this road instead.”

“Who?”

“The Seven-Treasure Anuras.”

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