Lu Yin suppressed his numerous speculations regarding Chang and looked away from the beast.
No matter what Chang might be, even if it was Stillstorm, at this moment, the creature had only one identity: an enemy. Chang was a mortal enemy that had to be killed.
However, it was also an enemy that could only be left to Gu Duanke and others. The real problem at the moment was Unbroken Time.
Lu Yin had already used Word Manifestation on Unbroken Time, only to discover that it was useless. Truthfully, Lu Yin was not even sure if this thing was a living creature.
Of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s four battlefields, Lu Yin’s was the quietest at the moment. Neither sides’ forces had engaged, as only Unbroken Time and Lu Yin were facing each other.
Lu Yin used karma, as he wanted to understand exactly what he was up against.
The karmic spiral pierced Unbroken Time so easily that Lu Yin could hardly believe his eyes. There was not even an attempt to dodge.
However, the image that the karma revealed to Lu Yin left him speechless.
He could see the current battlefield, nothing else.
Lu Yin threw out more and more spirals of karma, but even after being struck ten times in a row, Unbroken Time never avoided a single one. Each time, Lu Yin saw the same scene. At most, he would see a different angle, though there was no doubt that each image was of the present battlefield.
His expression fell. As expected, this thing really was a master of the power of time.
Karma could reveal the past, as there had to be a cause for there to be an effect.
However, Unbroken Time had completely frozen its own time at a single moment. Another way of describing it was that the current moment had been extended out indefinitely, which meant that Lu Yin could only see the same, endlessly drawn out moment when he tried to view the past. This meant that, so long as Unbroken Time wished it, it could allow Lu Yin to only see what it wanted the human to see.
It had been years since Lu Yin had comprehended karma, and he had encountered all kinds of experts since then, having even fought against an Immortal beast. Even so, this was his first time coming across such a method.
Essentially, his use of karma had been countered.
Karma was a mighty power, but so was time, space, and a few other forces. While karma was certainly more mysterious, that did not make it invincible. If that were the case, Greater Sancte Green Lotus would be invincible and have no need to hide the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.
Lu Yin had known that he would one day encounter an existence that could ignore his karma. He simply had not expected it to happen so soon.
At that moment, Unbroken Time’s needle shifted, ticking once. Lu Yin’s heart skipped a beat as a feeling of danger fell upon him. The chill instinctively made him want to evade, only for a tearing pain to appear in his heart. He looked down, only to see that his body had been split apart. What is this?
He was not even the only one in such a condition. With a straight line drawn from Unbroken Time to Lu Yin, Lu Yin was merely the first person. He was far from the last, as the line seemed to stretch on without end, slicing the cosmos apart. The bodies of many other cultivators had been split apart.
People froze in shock. What was going on?
Before anyone’s thoughts could proceed any further, their bodies abruptly returned to normal, further confusing everyone. What had just happened?
Lightstream swirled around Lu Yin’s body, reversing time by one second and restoring his body. At the same time, he was able to clearly see the method that Unbroken Time had just used. The time along that line had been fixed. In that location, time had not been able to move at all, remaining the same as some immemorial point in the past. Anything that came into contact with that line, regardless of whether it moved or remained still, would have their time be fixed at the point of contact. If the object did not move, there would only be a single point of contact, but if the object moved, a line would be torn across it.
This was the sharpest blade, forged from time itself. It was something that not even Lu Yin’s defenses could evade.
No matter how strong his defenses were, he could not overcome time.
The only way to counter a blade of time was with time itself.
Lu Yin sharply shouted, “Everyone, retreat to the Nine Odysseys!”
No one could help with this battle. If people rushed forward, they would become cannon fodder. Until Unbroken Time was dealt with, any large-scale battle would be nearly impossible.
Lu Yin had expected Unbroken Time to be difficult to deal with, but he had not anticipated such a fierce attack. He had very nearly been caught completely off guard.
In front of him, the light of the alternating sun and moon on Unbroken Time grew more intense. It seemed that it had not expected Lu Yin to reverse time by one second and undo its attack. The needle ticked again.
Lu Yin did not hesitate for even a single moment, and he threw a punch while moving at the speed of time with Inverse Step to approach Unbroken Time.
The surrounding region suddenly grew dim and gray. It looked as if a gray curtain had been draped over a section of the cosmos, making it a bit brighter. Lu Yin’s heart sank. This was the power of time.
Once again, his punch had absolutely no effect. No matter how great his physical power was, it proved meaningless in the face of time.
The needle on Unbroken Time jumped to the fifth mark.
Tock.
It was such a light sound, and yet an indescribable weight descended. At that moment, Lu Yin felt as if he had been thrown into the cosmos’s vortex. Pressure crushed down at him from all directions, trying to grind him to pieces. He instantly used Extremes Must Be Reversed, and the Tri-Azure Sword Intent slashed at Unbroken Time from behind Lu Yin’s head, only to shatter the moment that it appeared.
The unseen, terrifying power assaulting Lu Yin was not physical, but it was more fearsome than any physical power.
In the face of the erosion of time, not even empowering his attacks with Immortal matter could enable Lu Yin to harm Unbroken Time. Its control over time was too frightening. By infinitely extending time, it could wear away any power.
Still, no matter how impressive its mastery over time might be, it was not an Immortal.
While enduring the unseen pressure, Lu Yin released a Wheel of Karma, hurling it at Unbroken Time.
It made no attempt to evade even this, though the result finally proved different from before. When the Wheel of Karma struck, the sun and moon both trembled, and visible cracks formed along them. The needle jerked back, and, for the first time, Unbroken Time moved to dodge.
The pressure crushing Lu Yin instantly vanished. He sneered. While this creature’s mastery over time far surpassed Lu Yin’s own, putting him at a temporary disadvantage, karma was not in any way inferior to the power of time. As long as a living creature sought to become an Immortal, it would inevitably have to struggle with overcoming Dukkha.
And the Wheel of Karma was an attack that specialized in targeting Dukkhans.
“Let’s see how much time you can waste.” Lu Yin raised a hand and brought down a Heaven and Earth Lock that was empowered by Immortal matter in an attempt to bind Unbroken Time.
Although the Heaven and Earth Lock was a consciousness technique, it was also an Immortal-level battle technique that could seal off all perception, power, and awareness. That included even the perception of time.
Unbroken Time’s sun and moon spun as the unseen power of time contested the Heaven and Earth Lock as it tried to extend time until the seal disappeared.
Lu Yin’s consciousness was vast, and he also had a tremendous amount of Immortal matter. He wanted to see if Unbroken Time was truly capable of withstanding both his consciousness and his Immortal matter reserves.
Suddenly, his expression changed. An unseen slash swept down, though a casual wave of a hand shattered it.
Ni had attacked, and it was also sending a swarm of bugs towards Lu Yin in an attempt to surround him.
Lu Yin took a step forward and punched at Ni.
The creature took the punch head-on. While the force of the blow sent it stumbling backward, it endured it with sheer toughness before releasing a counter in the form of an invisible power that swept through outer space.