The dark-gold cloud churned so violently that it was almost burning, which caught Lu Yin off guard. Yue Ya’s reaction to being imprisoned in the Champions' Stage Purgatory was unlike anyone else’s, but after a moment’s thought, Lu Yin understood why.
Normally, people were forced to relive their past while they were imprisoned in the Champions' Stage Purgatory, which would reopen old emotional wounds. Only conscients were able to disregard such torment.
However, Yue Ya was not even a living creature; he was pure manifested thought. Manifested thought had no history, and it existed solely in the present.
What Yue Ya had endured in the Champions’ Stage Purgatory had not been physical agony, but relentless thought. His manifested thoughts had churned until they had almost combusted. Lu Yin could not tell if Yue Ya had been tormented, numb, or utterly indifferent. Just imagine: what kind of torture would it be to have your mind forced to think non‑stop for more than ten days, as though your head might explode?
Lu Yin was unconcerned with how Yue Ya felt. The dark-gold cloud was enveloped by Lu Yin’s inner universe. With both Verdant Eternity and consciousness, the manifested thought was easily suppressed. Yue Ya suddenly shouted, “This time I’m being honest, Lu Yin! What do you want? I can help you become a Lesser Sancte! I can help the Tianyuan avoid being reset. You can’t kill me!”
A massive hand slammed down on the dark-gold cloud. A terrifying force scattered the cloud into streams that sprayed out in all directions. Unfortunately, no matter where they went, they could not escape from Lu Yin’s inner universe.
At the same time, the Nine Heavens collapsed behind Lu Yin. He had deliberately ended the technique, eliminating all of his released consciousness so that he could use it to search and capture the dark-gold manifested thought.
The moment he started doing that, a strange phenomenon unfolded in his inner universe.
The stars started to spin. The stars of divine energy and consciousness drove countless more stars to start quickly moving. The astral river shot upwards as a storm picked up the tricolored dirt and swept it across the landmass. Green sprouts filled the air, carried by the wind. In outer space, Infinity flowed about unseen. High above all else, the Wordless Heavenly Book hung, while the Investiture of the Gods radiated a golden light. Throughout the entire universe, dark-gold streams of light shot about, looking like a meteor shower covering the starry sky.
As the dark-gold streams radiated out, dark waves of consciousness also moved, tangling and colliding with the manifested thought, creating sparks that erupted across the expanse.
Dark-gold and black powers repeatedly clashed with each other, landing upon one star after another in a dazzling spectacle.
Lu Yin’s expression fell. What’s going on? Why can’t I capture them?
Both the Origin Progenitor and Yue Ya had said that Lu Yin’s physical strength was insufficient for him to merge with the manifested thought. The power of Word Manifestation was a path that Yue Ya could walk, but not Lu Yin.
However, Che had mentioned to Lu Yin that, by altering the form of something, the function would also change.
That had led Lu Yin to consider dispersing his memories into clouds of consciousness so that he could approach the palace in the Willbound Spire without suffering from the memory pressure.
More recently, he had thought of dispersing Yue Ya’s manifested thought; he could capture portions with threads of consciousness and then slowly fuse the two. There was no need for the process to be completed all at once. Each successful fusion would grant him a bit of the power that would be produced by merging consciousness and manifested thought.
This insight had been inspired by Immortal matter.
There was no need to integrate with all of Yue Ya’s manifested thought at once. As long as Lu Yin could restrain the manifested thought and gradually merge it with his consciousness over time, he would eventually obtain the exact power that Yue Ya had dreamed of.
Lu Yin did not know precisely how powerful Word Manifestation would be, but it had to be extraordinary. There was no other reason for Yue Ya to have been so obsessed with it.
In fact, it had never been Yue Ya himself who was obsessed with Word Manifestation, but rather the true source of his manifested thought, and that being had been a powerful Immortal.
Additionally, not even Greater Sancte Green Lotus had denied that Yue Ya would have obtained the power of Word Manifestation if he had successfully devoured Lu Yin’s consciousness. All that Green Lotus had said was that he had refused to allow Yue Ya to succeed.
Even a Greater Sancte did not want to see Yue Ya succeed; instead, they wanted to prevent the return of a dead Immortal. The terrifying potential of Word Manifestation could only be imagined.
Despite that, Lu Yin was failing at the very first step. He could not capture the manifested thought.
The streams of manifested thought continued to scatter about the inner universe, each one acting as if it was an independent lifeform. While the various threads of consciousness that Lu Yin controlled were almost all stronger than the streams of manifested thought that they pursued, the dark-gold streams seemed to be toying with the pursuing consciousness—not a single one was captured.
It was like watching a dumb brute trying to catch a clever but skinny monkey.
This led to sparks constantly erupting throughout Lu Yin’s inner universe, producing an unprecedented display of fireworks.
“Lu Yin, you’ve failed, hahahahaha!” a spiteful and mocking voice rang out from one of the dark-gold streams. It was quickly followed by more ridiculing voices. “Who do you think you are? You think you’re worthy of Word Manifestation?”
“Ridiculous!
“You deserve to die!
“I curse you to die a miserable death, hahahaha...”
Countless voices echoed across the universe. Each dark-gold stream was Yue Ya, and every last voice was filled with hatred and rage as they freely unleashed curses and insults at Lu Yin.
He watched calmly as the manifested thought and consciousness repeatedly clashed. While it was possible to forcibly seize the manifested thought with pure strength, what was the point of that? Ultimately, the consciousness needed to fuse with the manifested thought, so if his consciousness could not capture the dark-gold streams, Lu Yin’s attempt was indeed a failure.
“Come on! Try to catch me! Can you?
“Is this the essence of your power? You’re finished! I’ll destroy you! You’re dead!
“Lu Yin, I’ll make your life worse than death...”
One dark-gold stream after another started to crash into the stars, particularly aiming for the star of divine energy and the primary landmass.
However, as Infinity swept through, all of the dark-gold streams were pushed back. Some ended up crashing into ordinary stars, but all of the stars had been born from Lu Yin’s Cosmic Art, and as long as the technique was active, the streams would be promptly swept up and flung away.
Yue Ya was already a defeated foe. His power was continuously fragmenting into more and more streams of manifested thought. If Lu Yin wanted to erase the manifested thought, it would not take any effort on his part.
But doing so would be such a shame.
How could he capture the manifested thought and fuse with it?
Yue Ya’s cursing and insults echoed across the universe. Lu Yin clasped his hands behind his back, closed his eyes, and quietly listened.
Cursing was all that Yue Ya was capable of doing at this point. His cursing was a sign of his helplessness.
As time passed, Yue Ya’s insults grew nastier, and they became laced with dirty language. Compared to this, even Emperor Slayer’s verbal assault on the High Seraph had sounded like praise. However, Lu Yin heard something different from pure insults: Yue Ya’s manifested thought was changing.
Throughout the universe, the dark-gold streams dispersed more and more. The more scattered they became, the harder it became to control the dispersed manifested thought.
Lu Yin’s eyes snapped open. “You should’ve died long ago.”
“Hahahaha, you finally can’t resist insulting me back, huh? Does it help? All you can do is curse me! Try erasing my manifested thought, if you dare. Lu Yin, you won’t do it! You won’t, hahahaha!”
Lu Yin’s voice dropped low. “Your death has nothing to do with me, but rather is a decree from the Greater Sancti. You’ve been on their must-die list for a long time.”
“You’re lying! I am Yue Ya, a Lesser Sancte! Who but the Greater Sancti can do anything to me in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse?”
“If that’s true, why are you here with me right now?” Lu Yin shouted in a harsh tone. He waved his hand, and tore a dark-gold stream into more than ten streams.
Yue Ya roared, “That’s because of Greater Sancte Green Lotus! He helped you! Without him, you would have never stood a chance against me! It was all him!”