Published at 9th of August 2026 8:44 am

Chapter 4442: Let’s Make A Deal

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Every place had its own distinct rules. The Tianyuan, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, and the Spirit Nidus were all like this. Lu Yin understands those three megaverses too well, to the point where, when he met people or encountered new events, he often already knew what choices would be made. Consequently, the efficacy of cultivating his mental state in those places was continuously dropping.

However, Crimson Starshade was a different place. The Path of Dispassion that was predominant here had always been an opportunity that Lu Yin wanted to use to strengthen his mental state. The people, events, and things that he ran into here in this unfamiliar megaverse would all be different from what he could find in the Trio. That unfamiliarity would be of enormous help in building the wall in his heart.

In the blink of an eye, seventeen years passed. One day, Lu Yin set down his cup of wine and then instantly vanished.

Across from him, Xiang Siyu also set down her cup, muttering to herself, “There he goes again… Does having a breakthrough in one’s mental state really have to be like this? But Greater Sancte Awe Gate, Greater Sancte Blood Tower, and the others all are perfectly normal. I’ve even spoken with Immortal Ba Yue, and she is also quite normal. So why are things so different when it comes to him?”

Some distance away, there was a vast space within the mountains that was filled with blood and violence. It was the territory of a certain family that enslaved other cultivators to support their own cultivation of the Path of Dispassion. This family’s cruelty was so extreme that it was hard to describe. Their ancestors had once followed Bing Xu, and they had greatly admired his method of cultivating through extreme pain and used it for inspiration for their current practices.

Lu Yin took a step forward, looked over while clenching the shaft of his scythe, and then slashed down.

“Who is it?” someone shouted sharply. With that, people charged at Lu Yin, one after another.

In Lu Yin’s eyes, these people were no different from ants. He could simply erase them with a thought, and yet he did not do so. Instead, he raised the scythe and cut through them, one strike at a time. Each slash reaped one life. Blood dripped down the scythe’s blade, staining the ground red.

More and more cultivators continued to charge forward as darkness coiled around Lu Yin’s body. This was the dark portion of the wall in his heart, invisible to outsiders. With every kill, block after block was added to the dark portion of that wall, constantly building it up to match the white portion.

At this moment, Lu Yin saw only good and evil. The evil part of the wall was being built higher and higher. Since the evil of others was being used to construct the wall, it was using evil to restrain evil.

To survive in the cosmos, if one was not ruthless, then one could only wait for death. The greatest flaw in human nature was to practice kindness after reaching great heights of power. There were countless beings who wanted to drag others down, and kindness could not change them; only the butcher’s blade would do.

The defeat of the Nine Ramparts might not have been entirely unrelated to this.

Before long, Lu Yin returned to the raft and calmly picked his wine cup back up to take a sip. Across from him, Xiang Siyu said nothing. She was used to his behavior by now.

The raft continued to drift downstream. Lu Yin looked at the riverbank and let out a breath. “The lives of mortals really are carefree.”

Xiang Siyu rolled her eyes. “They have their own struggles. Mortals envy us cultivators for being able to soar through the heavens and burrow through the earth, having no idea how frequently we cultivators encounter death.”

Lu Yin nodded. “Yes, they envy us, while we envy them. In truth, both of us share the same common goal.”

“To live well,” Xiang Siyu answered immediately.

Lu Yin looked at her. “To stand higher.”

“Profit?”

“What else?”

“Lots of people don’t care about profit and retire to the mountains and forests. Those people are the truly carefree ones.”

“Why do they retire to the mountains and forests?”

“Because they’ve seen through it all.”

“And how does one see through it all?”

Xiang Siyu was left speechless.

Lu Yin continued staring at the riverbank. “You reach the peak, see through everything, and then retreat to the mountains and forests. That is the effect, but what is the cause? How many people were overtaken on the way to the top? How many were dragged down? How many corpses were stepped over? Do you think that one comment about retiring to the mountains is enough to end all of that?”

Xiang Siyu frowned. “What do you mean?”

Lu Yin swirled his wine cup and smiled at her. “What you take from the world of cultivators, you must also return to the world of cultivators. What you take from the court, you must also return to the court. That is karma.”

Xiang Siyu sank into thought. Karma?

So that is karma.

No one could escape it; every effect must have a cause. Karma, karma: where there is cause, there is effect.

In that case, what about Xiang Siyu? The effect of enjoying all the good luck throughout her life so far had ultimately culminated in the insurmountable final barrier that she was currently facing. “How can I repay this karmic debt?”

Lu Yin was just about to speak when his gaze suddenly grew sharp and his eyes locked onto the riverbank.

Xiang Siyu stared at him. “Lord Lu, can you tell me how to repay this karmic debt?”

Lu Yin set down his wine cup. “It seems that I’ll have to help you repay it.”

Xiang Siyu did not understand. Following Lu Yin’s gaze, she saw a man walking along the river with a blank expression on his face. Everyone he passed by moved aside to let him through. His entire being was steeped in killing intent, causing people to fear him.

Xiang Siyu looked at Lu Yin. “Lord Lu, do you know him?”

Lu Yin smiled. “Your good luck really is no joke.”

He then turned back to smile at Xiang Siyu. “Let’s make a deal: repay your own debt yourself.”

“Hmm?”

The man continued down the riverbank leading to the ferry landing, where many people were boarding boats. However, the expressionless man stepped onto the river itself and simply walked across the water to reach the opposite shore.

Many people were watching, and quite a few of them envied the man. From the conversations drifting about, it was confirmed that the man was a cultivator, one who was capable of soaring into the heavens and burrowing through the earth. He was capable of anything, even achieving immortality.

His power was such that many fell to their knees and begged to become his disciples.

The expressionless man continued along, step by step walking to the opposite bank, never showing the slightest concern and only stopping when his path was blocked by a small raft.

He glanced at Lu Yin and Xiang Siyu who were sitting on that raft, his expression darkening.

Lu Yin looked at the man. He had never expected to run into this man here. Bei Xia was a model that Second Furball had designed to resemble Hong Xia since long ago. On the day of Bei Xia’s wedding, he had suffered a devastating blow, and that incident had forcefully stirred up Hong Xia’s hatred for Rang Yu, breaking an anchor of his Path of Dispassion. Later, Second Furball had died and the first thing that Hong Xia had done upon returning home had been to take Bei Xia away.

At the time, Lu Yin had felt Bei Xia’s disappearance to be a pity. Whether the man died or stayed, he would have continued to break that anchor of Hong Xia’s Path of Dispassion. The only thing that could not be allowed was for Hong Xia to take the man away. Once that happened, it would be possible for Hong Xia to make Bei Xia a new anchor for his Path of Dispassion, repairing the broken part of his path that was related to forgiving Rang Yu.

But by the time that Lu Yin thought of him, Bei Xia had already been taken away by Hong Xia, and the man could no longer be found.

The only lucky detail was that, even if Bei Xia did become another anchor for Hong Xia’s Path of Dispassion, the man first needed to break through to the Immortal realm. That would be a very long process, and as long as they dealt with Hong Xia before that, there would be nothing to worry about.

Lu Yin had simply never anticipated encountering Bei Xia on this trip.

Bei Xia had to be cultivating. Hong Xia could not possibly keep the man tied to his side while allowing him to cultivate. Bei Xia needed to wander about Crimson Starshade in order to grow step by step. Otherwise, even with Hong Xia’s help, it would be nearly impossible for Bei Xia to break into the Immortal realm.

And by sheer coincidence, Lu Yin had run into Bei Xia during his wandering.

Bei Xia stared at Lu Yin. “Do we know each other?”

Lu Yin’s lips curved upward. “Of course.”

“From where?”

Lu Yin opened his mouth to reply, only for Bei Xia to suddenly vanish. In his place, Hong Xia appeared. His overpowering might knocked the mortals along the riverbanks unconscious and caused the river to start boiling.

Lu Yin casually waved a hand, sweeping the overwhelming force away. Otherwise, Xiang Siyu would not have been able to endure Hong Xia’s presence any better than the mortals.

The river gradually settled back down. Hong Xia stood atop the water, his hands clasped behind his back. He appeared calm, yet his hands were clenched into fists behind his back belied the true state of his mind.

In contrast, Lu Yin was genuinely calm. He even felt a touch of pleasant surprise.

“How did you find him?” Hong Xia demanded in a terrifyingly low voice, his eyes locked onto Lu Yin.

The younger man just smiled. “Do I need to answer you?”

Hong Xia’s eyes sharply flared. All around him, droplets of water began to rise up into the sky. In an instant, dark clouds shrouded everything overhead. The weather served as a reflection of the man’s mood.

Xiang Siyu’s face turned deathly pale. Even though Lu Yin was blocking the pressure of this Immortal for her, her instinctive feelings from facing such a terrifying being were painfully clear. When she looked at Hong Xia, Xiang Siyu felt as if she were standing before a prehistoric monster and that her life was completely outside of her own control.

She had not felt anything this intense even when she had sparred with Ba Yue in the past. She forced herself to remain calm and sat back down, refusing to look at Hong Xia.

The man himself had never cared about Xiang Siyu at all. She was nothing more than an ant in his eyes. The only individual present he even saw as a person was Lu Yin, and yet Hong Xia had no good response to Lu Yin’s words.

Fight? Hong Xia could not fight Lu Yin. Doing so would break Obscura’s rules. On top of that, it was even possible that he would not be able to do much to Lu Yin.

Ask? The young man would say nothing.

Hong Xia genuinely could not understand how Lu Yin had managed to find Bei Xia. By all logic, it should have been impossible.

Only Hong Xia knew of Bei Xia’s whereabouts, and he had been watching him at all times. The Crimson Starshade Megaverse was so vast that, unless someone knew a precise location, there was no way for such a chance encounter to occur.

Lu Yin also had not examined the entirety of the megaverse. As long as Hong Xia was present, Lu Yin could not do that.

And yet Lu Yin clearly had some means of locating Bei Xia.

“What are you doing here?” Hong Xia demanded.

Lu Yin lazily stretched. “Enjoying a change of scenery and broadening my mood.”

“You’re cultivating your mental state.”

“You could say that.”

“This is the Path of Dispassion.”

Lu Yin smiled. “I don’t need you to remind me. I am also aware that this is the wrong Path of Dispassion.”

Hong Xia continued to stare at Lu Yin. “If it is wrong, then what sort of mental cultivation can you glean from it?”

Lu Yin no longer answered. He simply sat back down and poured himself a cup of wine.

Hong Xia stared for a long moment and then left. Only after he was gone did the pressure on Xiang Siyu vanish. She gasped for breath, still shaken. “Was that person Hong Xia?”

Lu Yin looked over and smiled. “Well? What did it feel like?”

Xiang Siyu answered softly, “I’ve never felt such an intense cold before.

“I previously heard that Hong Xia is the greatest traitor that human civilization has ever seen, and I once believed that, if there were ever a chance, he must be dealt with. But…”

She said no more. She had only ever had such thoughts whereas Lu Yin was actively pursuing that goal. He was directly going after Hong Xia. Thinking and doing were two entirely different things.

It was at this moment that Xiang Siyu finally understood what kind of pressure Lu Yin and the others at the top of the Trio truly faced. The power of an existence like Hong Xia far surpassed anything she had ever imagined.

Lu Yin poured her a cup of wine. “Don’t overthink things. He’s mine. You just need to focus on what you need to do.”

The way that Xiang Siyu looked at Lu Yin changed a bit. The man carried far more than what others realized.

The small raft continued to drift downstream. Lu Yin was very curious to know if Bei Xia would be allowed out again. This incident meant that Hong Xia had already set his sights on Lu Yin, but he did not care much about that. He had not been deliberately seeking out Bei Xia in the first place. Their encounter had been pure luck.

However, with Hong Xia watching, how could Lu Yin run into Bei Xia again? After thinking about it, he decided that he could not be entirely unconcerned about the matter.

After that, the raft simply vanished, reappearing atop a random river in the megaverse, the aura of those sitting on it completely concealed.

Even with Hong Xia’s strength, it would still take some time to find Lu Yin and Xiang Siyu as long as their auras were concealed in this manner. The only exception was if Hong Xia was capable of merging with the will of the megaverse, which was impossible.

In a distant corner of the megaverse, Hong Xia frowned. Have they teleported away? Are they gone, or are they still here?

He turned to look at Bei Xia, whose five senses had been sealed. As long as Hong Xia wanted to use this man as a new anchor for his Path of Dispassion, Bei Xia had to be allowed out to cultivate and grow.

However, what if Lu Yin had not left? How exactly had he found Bei Xia?

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