Hoping to threaten the technological civilization into attacking was unrealistic, so Lu Yin needed some other way to entice them to attack.
By using the fact that the technological civilization was not attacking, he would guide them into attacking.
Lu Yin looked up. Strands of Tri-Azure Sword Intent gathered as though forming a river. They shot upwards and then violently struck at the massive oval light.
Instantly, an alarm started to blare within that light. “Beep. Danger! Beep. Danger!”
“Do all cultivation civilizations like swords? How is anyone supposed to identify which civilization is which?”
“Five seconds until the danger arrives.”
“Fire Cosmic Shear.”
“Preparing Cosmic Shear firing sequence. Three, two...”
Simultaneously, Lu Yin was silently counting as well. He was tracking the time it took for his Tri-Azure Sword Intent to strike the ovoid light and then was subtracting one second. If the technological civilization did not fire an attack, the vessel would be doomed.
“Time to go.” When Lu Yin reached two seconds, he grabbed everyone and vanished.
Inside the black sphere, Ancestor Shan looked up. One.
Within the oval light: “One.”
Cosmic Shear fired for the fourth time. The omniverse moved. The void condensed upon the black sphere because Lu Yin had been the source of the Tri-Azure Sword Intent, and he had released it while standing right beside the seal.
For a moment, the entire Aevum Inch drifted.
Within their prison, Ancestor Shan struck. The boom of the impact perfectly synchronized with Cosmic Shear.
Huo and the others all completely ignored the black sphere. They were all confident that no one could break it. The One-Hundredth Seal was a tool and not an ability cultivated by one of the Blacklight creatures themselves. While it did not quite meet the legendary power of being able to seal away anything in the cosmos, if it was able to keep Ancestor Shan tied down, then no creature on the battlefield was capable of breaking it.
Hong and Duan carried the same confidence. None of them were concerned about the black sphere.
Only the warping caused by Cosmic Shear drew everyone’s attention.
Three times prior, Cosmic Shear had been fired. Each one had caused a tremendous commotion. However, there was something different about the fourth use of the attack; the void around the spherical seal, which should have been drifting, instead started to twist.
“Warning! Cosmic Shear has failed. Warning! Cosmic Shear has failed.”
“What’s happening? Zoom in immediately.”
“Warn—ing! Cos—mic Shear—has fa—fail—ed.”
Boom.
The massive ovoid light shattered, along with the nearby void. Space twisted and writhed like countless giant serpents before ultimately tearing open endless black rifts. After that, everything simply vanished.
From far away, Lu Yin and the others stared at the shocking scene with wide eyes.
“Is that... spatial distortion?” Old First said warily.
Mister Mu was surprised. “Spatial distortion?”
Old First’s voice grew heavy. “That’s right. This is the Aevum Inch’s spatial distortion. The technological civilization’s attacks are based on space: condensing space and then releasing it. The actual range of their attack is not very large and is limited to this immediate area. It might not even match the region that our battles affect. However, Ancestor struck at the same time in order to break that seal. When Ancestor’s power collided with the technological civilization’s spatial-law-based weapon, that collision created an uncontrollable spatial distortion.
“If you’re sucked into one of those dark rifts, no one can say where you might appear. It might be close by, but it could also be some place so distant that we can never reach it.”
Lu Yin frowned hard. Ancestor Shan wouldn’t have been swept away, would they?
The technological civilization’s weapons alone were not capable of creating spatial distortion, just like how an ordinary human’s punch could not tear space open. Such things were impossible.
Producing spatial distortion in the Aevum Inch was as difficult as an ordinary human opening a spatial rift.
However, Ancestor Shan was different. No one had ever seen the ancient toad’s true strength. By using the technological weapon as a catalyst, it was not strange that Ancestor Shan had managed to create spatial distortion.
Everyone merely hoped that Ancestor Shan had not been lost. If they were thrown to a distant location that the rest of them could never reach, would there be any difference from having never having rescued Ancestor Shan?
The spatial distortion only lasted for a brief moment. The Aevum Inch was capable of astonishingly fast recovery.
“Ancestor!” Old First was ecstatic. They saw Ancestor Shan.
Lu Yin and the others saw the toad too. More than half of the black sphere had been shattered. Black plates whirled about in a chaotic manner, and some of them were even swept into the black rifts before vanishing, while others were controlled by Huo.
A Seven-Treasure Anura sat within the broken sphere. It was Ancestor Shan.
Lu Yin and the others were thrilled.
Huo and the other Blacklight creatures were shocked. They had never expected that Ancestor Shan would be able to break free of the seal.
Ancestor Shan was panting, and black threads marred their skin. These marks had been left behind by the Darksky Seal. The toad’s skin was constantly peeling away, and even their lotus leaf had withered. A single glance was enough to see that Ancestor Shan was close to the end of their rope.
Just as Lu Yin was about to take Old First and the others to Ancestor Shan, the endless darkness of the Aevum Inch suddenly turned blue. In an instant, a blue color filled the entire region.
Lu Yin’s gaze tightened. “This is bad. It’s Lan Meng’s world!”
The blue descended upon the shattered black sphere. Layer after layer of blue halos fell onto Ancestor Shan, locking them in place.
Lan Meng emerged from the void, a long blue sword in its hand. A hand that looked like a dead branch rose up as multiple eyes stared at Ancestor Shan and a savage grin spread across the creature’s face. “An old thing like you should’ve died long ago.”
As it spoke, a clawed hand stretched forward, reaching out for Ancestor Shan.
Ancestor Shan’s body was falling apart. After enduring the One-Hundredth Seal, they had then shattered the seal. Doing so had pushed the Seven-Treasure Anura to the very edge. The toad did not even move as Lan Meng’s attack approached.
Huo did not recognize Lan Meng, yet it attacked in unison with the tree-like creature. Turbulent streams of energy roiled across the surface of the Blacklight creature as Ninety-Eight Seals swept towards Ancestor Shan.
Hong also took action, similarly using Ninety-Eight Seals.
Instantly, Lu Yin appeared, along with Old First and the others. Old First’s eyes were bloodshot and feral as they stared at Lan Meng. “You’re seeking death!”