To make an Immortal this terrified, horrified before anything even happened, meant that this existence had to be strong enough to crush the cosmos.
It was no different from when Kuang had encountered Ancestor Shan. At that moment, Kuang’s own emotions must have resembled those of the original owner of this remnant consciousness.
Lu Yin looked out at the stars. This megaverse had clearly been reset, and yet it had still drawn out his memories of that scene. That suggested that the Death Megaverse was most likely connected to this reset. It was also possible that he was sensing some sort of power that the Death Megaverse had left behind and that that power had awakened the original owner’s fear.
He had already guessed that the power used by the Death Megaverse’s power was Stillness, which was also the name of the faction that Zhu had created in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Stillness was also the reverse of Activeness.
When Lu Yin had used Extremes Must Be Reversed to transform Activeness into Stillness, the resulting Stillness had felt very similar to what Zhu had used to implant Bone Script. This somewhat confirmed his hypothesis.
If Zhu used Stillness, then could he absorb it?
With that thought, Lu Yin took out Aberrant. The instant the scythe appeared, the surrounding universe started to churn like a manifesting storm. The void began to tear apart even more violently, and there was a sense of incompatibility, as if the two could not mix.
As expected, the power of Stillness was still present in this megaverse.
Lu Yin held Aberrant horizontally in front of him with one hand. His body withered as he used Extremes Must Be Reversed, applying it to Aberrant’s Activeness. In an instant, the Activeness vanished, and his whole body erupted with terrifying Stillness. It devoured all life and was devoid of all vitality. Compared to when he had just obtained Aberrant, Lu Yin’s control over the scythe’s energy had grown even more refined because he himself had grown stronger.
The next moment, thunder echoed around him, and space warped. Streams of Stillness kept converging upon him, like rivers gathering and flowing towards Lu Yin.
Lu Yin’s expression turned grave. This universe contained a great deal of the power of Stillness. Could Stillness and Activeness not be fused? No, they could not. However, when Activeness and Stillness existed simultaneously, the resulting destructive force was terrifying. Even though the two could not merge, maintaining them in balance still constituted a form of power.
Lu Yin took a deep breath and kept trying to release Aberrant’s Activeness, but it was not easy. He mostly released either too much Activeness and too little Stillness, or too much Stillness and too little Activeness. He needed to find the tenuous point of balance.
Day after day of attempts followed. The power of Stillness kept surging into Lu Yin’s inner universe, and another star appeared there. Unexpectedly, the power of Stillness proved to be very stable, even more so than divine energy.
Perhaps it was because he had once cultivated death energy. Death energy was not Stillness, but the natures of the two were quite similar. Cultivating death energy had effectively allowed Lu Yin to adapt to Stillness ahead of time.
There was no need to rush the attempt to balance the two powers. Lu Yin decided to first absorb the residual Stillness left in the megaverse.
After some time, he looked at the star of Stillness rotating within his inner universe. While it could not compare to his star of divine energy, it was still quite substantial. Why had the Death Megaverse left so much Stillness behind in this megaverse? Was it possible that they simply did not care about it?
Lu Yin raised a hand. The power of Stillness appeared over his palm. It was the epitome of black and moved like flames. He raised his other hand as well, and Activeness surged forth. This energy was the epitome of white.
One black and one white: when these two energies achieved balance, the destruction they could wreak would catch anyone by surprise.
Next, there was something else he needed to try: rolling his die. He needed to try use Possession with the power of Stillness.
At the moment, there were not many hidden threats within human civilization. Only the mysterious Immortal from Obscura who remained hidden, Zhu, and Yong Heng were left.
The latter two had been used by the mysterious Immortal to threaten Lu Yin into joining Obscura.
For years, Green Lotus had been observing his Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. As long as the two revealed themselves, they would instantly be captured. Lu Yin had no idea if they were still within the sourcebox that they had sealed themselves in, or if they might have been taken away by that hidden Immortal.
Zhu cultivated Stillness, which meant that Possession might allow Lu Yin to Possess Zhu and thereby locate him.
The power of Stillness that Lu Yin produced by using Extremes Must Be Reversed on Activeness was too unstable, but the residual Stillness that he had absorbed from the current megaverse was the genuine energy of the Death Megaverse. Only such power would be suitable for attempting such a search.
This thought prompted him to return to his human civilization, and Lu Yin appeared in outer space near the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. He raised a hand, and his die appeared. He tapped it with a finger.
It spun slowly: one pip. Something useless dropped out. Again. Two pips. Again. Three pips.
Lu Yin was speechless. Is it increasing one dot at a time?
Again.
Six. The power of Stillness erupted from Lu Yin’s body, and his consciousness appeared in a dark space as he started to search.
Some time later, he opened his eyes. He had not found anything, but he would not give up yet. He would try again.
Time passed, and three months later, Lu Yin rolled Possession for the fifth time. Again, his mind entered that strange dark space. Suddenly, he looked at a distant orb of light. It was faint, not at all bright to him, but its mere existence caused a surge of excitement to rise up within Lu Yin. That had to be Zhu. Aside from Zhu, every other being who had cultivated Stillness had already been dealt with.
Finally, I’ve found you!
There was a barrier between him and that ball of light, which meant that they were not in the same parallel universe, but that did not matter. Lu Yin could easily smash through such barriers now.
He moved closer and closer to the orb, until he finally merged with it.
Darkness. Slumber. That was Lu Yin’s only sensation after Possession began.
He abruptly opened his eyes. In front of him was a face that he could not be more familiar with: Yong Heng.
Lu Yin stared at Yong Heng. The two were close to each other and facing each other, as they were both sealed within the sourcebox.
Lu Yin really had Possessed Zhu. Zhu was nothing but a skeleton, but at one point, Lu Yin had Possessed a machine. Thus, he had not expected a skeleton to be a problem.
They were still sealed within the sourcebox. Did that meant that it had not been taken away by the mysterious member of Obscura?
Lu Yin instinctively wanted to break the sourcebox open and drag Yong Heng back, but after thinking things through, he suppressed that impulse.
Zhu and Yong Heng were no longer a threat to him. The real threat was that hidden Immortal.
At this moment, no one knew that Lu Yin could Possess Zhu, not even that mysterious Immortal. This meant that, if Lu Yin could one day force that mysterious existence to use Zhu and Yong Heng as a threat, it might be possible to force that mysterious being out and expose them.
Lu Yin stared at Yong Heng’s all-too-familiar face. The sight triggered memories from more than a thousand years ago. Just how long had it been? Around 1,500 years, perhaps.
Back when Lu Yin had still been roaming the Tianyuan Megaverse, he had been a nobody, as weak as an ant. He had since grown to this point.
Aeternus... It was both a familiar and unfamiliar name, given how long it had been sealed away in a corner of his memory.
Only when Yong Heng truly died would Aeternus truly vanish forever.
Memories started to appear, Zhu’s memories.
Lu Yin saw when the skeleton had been released from the sourcebox, how he had torn through cultivators’ flesh, wearing their skin as a disguise. How he had lived, and how he had created Stillness. There were brutal, bloody scenes that flashed by, one after another. As that happened, Lu Yin also learned how to use Bone Script.
Bone Script was a terrifying battle technique that had been created from the power of Stillness. As long as there was enough Stillness, even an Immortal’s bones could be given new “life,” forcing that Immortal’s bones to separate from their flesh.
It was both horrifying and powerful. To Lu Yin, Bone Script felt similar to the principle of Extremes Must Be Reversed. Both grew stronger as the wielder grew stronger, and there was no absolute upper limit to either technique. All it required was enough Stillness.