Published at 26th of October 2026 5:31 am

Chapter 4599: Potential

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Lu Yin shrugged. "It was very difficult. If I had not used Obscura's help, I—"

"Shh!" Thousand Machinations gestured, and, as Lu Yin stared in bewilderment, the bear lowered their voice. "Do not speak so loudly. Be careful of being overheard."

Lu Yin was speechless. Not even he was afraid of that at this moment, so what was Thousand Machinations afraid of? Was this not backward?

"Keep your voice down," Thousand Machinations warned again.

Lu Yin said in a lower tone, "If I had not used Obscura's help, this junior could not have possibly killed the Lepidarch. This Lepidarch…"

He proceeded to share information regarding the Lepidarch's strength, absolutely stunning Thousand Machinations. "It actually reached the level of a three-law Immortal being? And yet you still killed it?"

"That’s why it was entirely thanks to Obscura's help. I used the Three Deaths Art to pour all of my Stillness into its body, which severely injured it," Lu Yin said.

Thousand Machinations praised him, "I said that I did not misjudge you. From the very beginning, I knew that your fighting talent was extremely impressive. See? You even managed to think of such a method. Despicable. No, impressive."

Lu Yin was speechless. He bowed low to Thousand Machinations. "Although I killed the Lepidarch, I failed the mission. I hope that you will forgive me, Senior."

Thousand Machinations blinked and stared at Lu Yin. "What mission?"

Lu Yin said, "Senior, you had this junior pursue and kill the Lepidarch not because of the creature itself, but because of the mirebound artifact within it. That was what you wanted, right, Senior?"

Thousand Machinations was taken aback. "There was also a mirebound artifact?"

"You didn’t know?"

"I did not."

"Then why did you have this junior go after the Lepidarch and kill it?"

"It was annoying."

Lu Yin grew even more confused. "What do you mean?"

Thousand Machinations explained, "That Lepidarch thought itself so clever, relying on the fact that it had no bones to approach my Death Megaverse. It used my Death Megaverse as a shield to protect it from quite a few dangers. It never even came into contact with Obscura. It was openly exploiting us. At first, I did not care, but the longer it went on, the more irritated I became. Think about it—who would willingly be used by someone else? And so openly at that.

"But the Lepidarch was also not weak. If it fought with its life on the line, then at worst, it would be a peak two-law powerhouse. Even if one was able to kill it, not just anyone would be willing to bear the increase in their karmic chain. Because of that, I ignored it.

"I only had you act because I saw that you stood a chance of victory. Killing the Lepidarch before becoming an Immortal being would give me so much face if word of the matter spread, and my karmic chain would not suffer at all either."

Lu Yin stared at Thousand Machinations. For a moment, he could not tell if the bear was telling the truth or lying.

"Right, what was the mirebound artifact that you just mentioned? Are you reporting a failure because you failed to obtain it?" Thousand Machinations asked.

Lu Yin did not care whether the Abyssal was feigning ignorance or not. He spoke under the premise that Thousand Machinations was already aware that the Yan Gate’s Seven Needles had been hidden within the Lepidarch. "Yes, the Lepidarch tried to buy its life with that mirebound artifact. This junior did not know what it was, so I ignored its pleas. In the end, the mirebound artifact disappeared and could not be found."

Thousand Machinations was surprised. "What do you mean, disappeared?"

"It was just gone. This junior destroyed most of the Lepidarch's corpse in search of that mirebound artifact, but I simply couldn’t find it. It was as if it had never even been there."

"Is it possible that there actually was no mirebound artifact?" Thousand Machinations asked.

Lu Yin answered confidently, "There absolutely was. This junior sensed its aura. Although it vanished in a flash, that brief moment was enough to make this junior's heart tremble. It was definitely a powerful mirebound artifact. What a pity…"

Thousand Machinations waved a paw. "Since it is gone, just forget it."

Lu Yin continued, "This junior thought that you wanted that mirebound artifact, Senior. Although I had to consider the consequences, I did not dare to hesitate. After all, the Lepidarch was too powerful. The slightest hesitation would—"

"You said that you relied on Obscura to kill the Lepidarch. Does that mean that Obscura is also aware of the mirebound artifact's existence?" Thousand Machinations suddenly interrupted Lu Yin, its eyes sizing him up.

Lu Yin calmly replied, "Obscura does not know because I was the only one who chased after the Lepidarch. When it temporarily attained the strength of a three-law powerhouse by consuming its foundation, the members of Obscura retreated. Only I chased after it in secret. I needed to wait while it wore away the Stillness that I had infused into its body, causing it severe injuries. After a time, its boosted power also disappeared. It was only after that that I was able to succeed."

Thousand Machinations nodded, but just as the bear was about to ask about something else, one of the distant spheres suddenly twisted.

The bear immediately looked over, and so did Lu Yin.

The black sphere twisted randomly, and the creature of flesh and blood inside it suddenly exploded, leaving no corpse nor even bones behind.

Thousand Machinations sighed. "Another failure… It seems that the method must be altered. This one is too aggressive. In the past, Devouring Trace supported things by continuously bolstering our number of Immortal beings, so such failures did not matter. Now that Devouring Trace is gone, the Death Megaverse will only have fewer and fewer Immortal beings. If I keep playing around like this, sooner or later, I will toy all of these Immortal beings to their deaths."

Lu Yin watched as the black sphere slowly dispersed, his mood growing heavy.

He had also once been in a black sphere. Even the slightest bit of carelessness would have granted him the same fate as that creature.

His attention turned to the remaining three black spheres, though he pointedly avoided staring at Ji in order to prevent Thousand Machinations from noticing anything.

"There is no need to worry. That Ji is still all right," Thousand Machinations suddenly commented.

Lu Yin was startled, though his expression remained unchanged. "This junior feels nothing like worry."

Thousand Machinations scratched its head. "I thought that you were worried about it. After all, you two faced death in battle together."

"It was just one battle. We briefly joined forces and very quickly separated again. Whether he lives or dies has nothing to do with this junior. I am only sighing that I should not have killed the Lepidarch."

Thousand Machinations did not understand. "Why not?"

"The Lepidarch possessed the abilities of Butterfly Bloom and Bloomdance Transfer. It should have been brought into my Death Megaverse. That way, it could have both filled the vacancy left by Devouring Trace while also allowing us to take that mirebound artifact from its body. We would have achieved two goals at once."

"What a pity."

"This junior also made the mistake of solely focusing on completing the task that you assigned me, Senior, and not considering these things."

Thousand Machinations was not bothered. "No one can replace Devouring Trace's efforts. Having Devouring Trace impersonate Ruinfall back then was a mistake, but at the time, there was no other choice. It was the only one who could go. Dark Prisonbone had to guard the Death Megaverse itself, while Withered Requiem is simply not strong enough."

"Then did you not consider having it leave a fragment behind?" Lu Yin asked.

"We did," Thousand Machinations replied.

Lu Yin was stunned and surprised. "There’s a fragment?"

Thousand Machinations nodded. "There is."

Lu Yin stared blankly at the Abyssal and pretended to be relieved. "It’s good that a fragment was saved."

That should not be right. How could there be a fragment? He had thrown Devouring Trace into the Champions' Stage Purgatory to strengthen his karma. Logically speaking, what had strengthened his karma should have been the entire creature. Also, if it still had a fragment, why had it not used that as a threat to force humanity not to kill it?

Right, its fragments never knew what the other pieces were doing.

Thousand Machinations smiled at Lu Yin. "Do you want to see the fragment?"

Lu Yin nodded. "I do. I am curious how strong the fragment is now."

Thousand Machinations sneered. "It is just a fragment that needs to grow. It needs endless years to grow and reach the Immortal realm, let alone Devouring Trace's level. If you really want to see it, you will have quite the wait."

Lu Yin calmly looked back at the three black spheres in the distance. He did not know what meaning there was in Thousand Machinations saying all this. Was it testing him? There was no need. It was not as though the Abyssal did not know that the skeleton had joined Obscura.

Thousand Machinations was the same as Wang Wen, giving off the vibe that it could not be fully understood.

After some time, another creature inside a black sphere shattered and died. Thousand Machinations lamented once more.

Lu Yin could not help looking toward Ji. Nothing will happen, right?

If not for the fact that Ji was in one, he would have been happy to see all of these creatures die. Each death was one less Immortal, which weakened the Death Megaverse.

Yet why did the karmic burden of these Immortals’ deaths not fall to Thousand Machinations’ karmic chain? When Lu Yin had asked, it had only replied, "It will not." As for why that was the case, the bear had not said.

This was what Lu Yin was most curious about right now.

Suddenly, Thousand Machinations raised a paw and waved it. Lu Yin watched in astonishment as one of the black spheres dispersed. The skeleton that had been inside the sphere fell down. All of its bones had shattered, and it lay broken on the ground, extremely weak.

Thousand Machinations sighed and shook their head.

"You do not need to continue trying. You failed," Lu Yin translated.

That skeletal creature looked at Lu Yin, then at Thousand Machinations. It nodded but said nothing.

In the end, only Ji remained.

Lu Yin watched, hoping nothing would happen.

Thousand Machinations also watched Ji, their back to Lu Yin as they quietly waited. "If I were not afraid that the losses would be too great, I would not interfere. In fact, certain creatures sometimes have a breakthrough at the very instant of certain death. There are precedents, which is why I generally do not interfere. If they die, they die. But not now.

"These few can be considered the only remaining experts of the Death Megaverse, aside from the Abyssals. If all of them are lost, our war with Obscura will become troublesome."

Lu Yin was curious. "You care about the war against Obscura, Senior?"

Thousand Machinations tilted its head. "It is not exactly that I care. I simply do not want things to be too ugly."

Time passed slowly. Whenever Thousand Machinations moved even slightly, Lu Yin's heart would tremble along with the movement. He was terrified that Ji would fail.

"Seventeen times now," Thousand Machinations commented.

Lu Yin's heart stirred. "That is much better than Withered Requiem's eleven times."

"Withered Requiem's talent cannot be considered very impressive. Even the toad surpassed them, completing fifteen cycles. As for you, there is even less to mention at thirty cycles."

Lu Yin looked at Ji. "I wonder whether he will succeed and how many cycles he will reach."

"He should succeed, based on my experience. As for how many cycles, that I cannot say. I estimate that he can complete nineteen, but the truth is that he has already exceeded my expectations. After all, the Seven-Treasure Anuras are naturally very talented. Being able to surpass that toad is quite exceptional," Thousand Machinations said.

Lu Yin’s expectations rose. Surpassing the Seven-Treasure Anura? That was already within his own expectations. He was more eager to see just how much Ji could surpass Old Sixth by.

"Eighteen times," Thousand Machinations said.

"Nineteen."

Even Thousand Machinations' tone of voice changed, betraying a bit of surprise. The bear was rarely surprised. "Ruinfall was truly wasteful with him. It actually kept this fellow at its side for so long, not sending him to me to try this. If he had come here earlier, that toad would have never had a chance to become an Abyssal.

"Twenty times."

Lu Yin's gaze deepened. Twenty times? He remembered Thousand Machinations saying that the most talented being it had ever encountered had completed more than twenty cycles, but the Abyssal had not said how much more. Ji had already completed twenty cycles, which meant that, in Thousand Machinations' eyes, Ji's potential ranked among the top three.

Thousand Machinations suddenly turned to look at Lu Yin. The bear raised a paw and pointed at the ground.

Lu Yin was confused. "?"

"You are a traitor. Do not watch."

"This junior's heart is loyal to the Death Megaverse. I joined Obscura to gather information."

Thousand Machinations simply pointed down again.

Lu Yin silently went underground. If the bear would not let him watch, then so be it. Although this was certainly interesting. Was there any meaning in not letting him watch? He would eventually know everything.

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