In the distance, Supreme was being besieged by three sequence powerhouses from the Spirit Nidus. Finally, the mecha cracked under their combined pressure. No matter how resilient its hull might be, there was a limit to everything, and the mecha eventually revealed a weakness.
The intensity of the battle at the megaverse’s boundary drew everyone’s attention, even to the point where the Immemorial Citadel was being overlooked. That place was the Spirit Nidus's true goal, as they wanted to use the sequence strings held there to destroy all of the parallel universes in the Tianyuan Megaverse, which would reset the megaverse. This was the invaders’ plan.
From the very beginning, the Spirit Nidus had started this bloody battle against the forces of the Tianyuan Megaverse at the stone gate to lure all of the indigenous powerhouses to the boundary. While that battle was being fought, a Seraph, cloaked in black, made their way to the Immemorial Citadel to proceed with the true mission.
Beneath the Immemorial Citadel, the Origin Progenitor was sitting cross-legged while holding the sequence strings. He was feeling quite frustrated.
There was no one who could help him with his current task. Even though his body had already recovered, he was forced to stay in the same place as before, all because he needed to suppress the sequence strings.
He reminisced about the early days of the ancient Heavens Sect. The young ones who had eventually become the Three Realms and Six Daos had been following him, eager and excited. Tai Hong had frequently stopped by to meddle, and occasionally, astral beasts would fly through the universe in groups, bullying humans. Whenever that happened, he had stepped in to teach the beasts a lesson. Those had been such simple, wonderful times.
As the Heavens Sect had grown stronger, the astral beasts had stopped acting out, and some had even been enslaved by humans. Many parallel universes had subjected themselves to the Origin Universe, and the legend of the Heavens Sect had spread through the entire Tianyuan Megaverse.
Looking back, those days had been truly wonderful.
In the blink of an eye, so many years had passed. The Heavens Sect still existed, but even though Big Thug and others were working hard to destroy the uninhabited parallel universes, their efforts were not enough to prevent the number of sequence strings from increasing. The Origin Progenitor was forced to stay beneath the Immemorial Citadel, suppressing the megaverse.
He would wait. Once Big Thug and the others broke through to the Origin realm, or even entered their own Dukkha, they would be able to take Tai Chu’s place. Finally, he would be able to leave.
Tai Hong had always been meddling and absurdly arrogant. When I break through and become an Immortal, I want to see if she still has the gall to act so high and mighty! Also, Astral Anura. That little creature might not seem powerful, but he is quite sly. If he manages to overcome Dukkha first, he could become the Immortal, and even I won’t be able to defeat him then.
He lifted his head while letting out a long breath.
“Master,” someone called out as they approached.
The Origin Progenitor looked over and smiled. “Musclehead, what brings you here?”
“I’ve hit a bottleneck in my cultivation and can’t make any further progress. Master, is humanity’s future tied to the universe and the megaverse, or to our own selves? Am I wrong to choose to walk my own path?”
The Origin Progenitor shook his head. “You’re still as stubborn as ever. What is right? What is wrong? Aren’t humans a part of the universe and the megaverse?”
“Humans are just humans, and cultivation allows us to transcend one realm after another. For ordinary humans, a single planet is their entire world, but for us, can even the universe truly hold us? If we rely on the universe to rise to a higher level, and then transcend that, what is even the universe?
“If we truly rely entirely on the universe, how can we continue to rise higher? Master, I don’t understand.”
The Origin Progenitor sighed. "While you haven’t even entered the Origin realm, I can already see what Dukkha you'll eventually face. Child, there are no absolute rights or wrongs in this universe—it all depends on how you perceive things. Tai Hong’s stubbornness is even deeper than yours. She’s always wanted to surpass me and be the first to overcome Dukkha, but even now, she still hasn’t been able to find her Dukkha."
"Master, I still don’t understand."
"Musclehead, I really wish that I could explain this to you clearly. I miss you so much!" As the Origin Progenitor’s last words were spoken, the universe fractured. The man looked up to stare in a specific direction. "Thank you for allowing me to see Musclehead again. Your method of inducing dreams is quite powerful. You must be one of the Seven Seraphs."
Beyond the Immemorial Citadel, a black-robed figure was astonished. "You actually broke free from my Dreamshade? You’re even more formidable than I imagined."
Far below, the Origin Progenitor shook his head. "Old Mu, send him off."
The sound of a flute rang out, and the black-robed figure instantly vanished.
Mister Mu stepped out. "A single attack followed by an immediate retreat. There was no hesitation. He acts more like an assassin."
"It seems that the Spirit Nidus isn't doing so well in the battle at the boundary. Go on. I can handle things here," the Origin Progenitor said.
Mister Mu glanced over and nodded. He then vanished into the void.
Beyond the battle at the boundary, on the battleship outside the stone gate, everyone was staring solely at Bao Qi, terrified that the Seraph might lose control.
The horror of an insane Seraph was not something they could imagine.
The battleship had already pulled away from the fighting several times, and it could retreat no further.
On the deck, the man and two women who had killed the Abandoned were also warily watching Bao Qi.
Suddenly, all three of them looked to their left. Sequence particles swept across the battleship. Deep fear sprouted in people’s hearts, and no one was exempt. It was a fear induced by sequence particles. Second Life’s Second Gu had attacked.
"Severing Bones: Third Form." White bones knit together outside of Second Gu’s body as he leaped forward and charged across the battleship to attack the man and two women.
The three people exchanged glances before all of them simultaneously responded to their attacker. They had cooperated to kill the Abandoned, and they knew that anyone from the Tianyuan Megaverse who dared to step aboard the battleship had to possess an impressive level of strength.
These three were known in the Spirit Nidus as the Three Assassins, and they had always worked together. Meanwhile, Second Gu was part of a group of criminals known as Second Life, whose five members had roamed across many parallel universes together. There was no way the Three Assassins and Second Life could avoid fighting as they both fought in groups. With all of them on the battleship’s deck, a fight broke out.
Piercing Flurry, Seven-Star Raven, Spirit Transformation weapons, Secret Technique: Assimilation, sequence particles, Severing Bones: Third Form, and Destiny’s Cohort were all used.
Blood ran across the deck.
Second Gang fell, his body nearly destroyed. Half of Second Meng’s body was gone. As for their opponents, one of the two women was dead, and the other was seriously injured. Blood stained that woman’s hair red.
Nothing at all was said. Everyone was focused solely on killing their enemies.
Neither side had anyone who was particularly talkative.
The battle on the deck drew attention from all the young elites who were hidden within the battleship. They grew nervous as they watched. They had thought that the invasion of the Tianyuan Megaverse would be an easy excursion and that this would be recorded in history as one of the Spirit Nidus’s victories. However, they were watching the Three Assassins’ apparent defeat. The three were not able to hold the enemy back.
Finally, the last of the Three Assassins fell. The man was the last to go down.
Covered with blood, the man fell to the deck, taking Second Gu down in his final moments.
Second Life was an incredibly strong team, and yet two of them had died in order to defeat the Three Assassins. However, those two were not truly dead.
Second Zi used Destiny’s Cohort, reviving both Second Gang and Second Gu.
Their resurrection caused all aboard the ship to despair. What was this? Could these people return from death?
This scene shattered all that the young people understood to be possible. The path of cultivation in the Spirit Nidus was too smooth and too predictable. From birth, it was already clear what cultivation method best suited a person. They knew what they would pursue, as well as what level of power they would eventually achieve. Everything was known from the start, aside from if and when they would undergo a Spirit Transformation. While this predictability granted the Spirit Nidus tremendous power, it had also stifled their creativity.
Seeing something as miraculous as Second Life’s resurrections, as overwhelming as the Tianyuan Megaverse’s massive mechas, or as shocking as the myriad powers that Lu Yin controlled was like arriving at an entirely new world for the people of Spirit Nidus.
For the moment, the battleship needed to deal with Second Life.
Lu Yin had deliberately timed Second Life's assault on the battleship to strike at the most advantageous moment, as he wanted to eliminate a generation of the Spirit Nidus’s elites, inciting fear in the invaders.