Hong Xia had once knelt to the Plume Immortals. Lu Yin had since realized that the beings that Hong Xia had knelt to were not ordinary members of the species, but had very likely been creatures far beyond the limits of Rang Yu's sight. In that distance, there had existed more than one unseen powerhouse. Those had been the beings that Hong Xia had truly knelt to.
At the time, Rang Yu had been too weak, and he had not been able to perceive anything.
It could be likened to an ant seeing a sapling and mistaking it for a towering tree. But in truth, the tiny sapling had merely enveloped the ant’s field of vision, covering its sky. All the while, behind that sapling stood a true towering tree.
"Were any of the Plume Immortals killed during the earlier battle?" Lu Yin asked.
Ba Se answered, "Not yet."
Lu Yin frowned. "I already dealt with Ming Yu, and yet the mighty Vestigium wasn't capable of killing even a single bird?"
Hearing that, even Ba Se sounded rather taken aback. "The Plume Immortals prepared long in advance, even creating an opportunity for Gao Tian to fight Transparent alone. Here in Vestigium, all of the Plume Immortals worked together. Not even Obscura could do anything against such a force."
"Are there still other three-law Plume Immortals?" Lu Yin asked.
Ba Se answered bluntly, "Yes. You should have been told all of this before the war began, but there was simply no time. Once the fighting broke out, I could only tell you about the opponents that you were most likely to encounter. Now, I can tell you everything."
Lu Yin's expression turned grave. Back at the Plume Immortals' great tree, Ba Se had explained most of the birds’ abilities and techniques and specifically mentioned Jiang Liu and Yue Ting. That was because Ba Se believed that Lu Yin was most likely to encounter those two Plume Immortals. As for Ming Yu, Obscura had very little information about it.
Because of their special nature and their confidence in their ability to teleport, quite a number of Plume Immortals had died over the eons. The most likely to drown are those who know how to swim, and the birds’ mortality rate followed the same principle. The more secure one felt, the less safe they truly were.
The Plume Immortals were particularly few in number, and after their previous war against Obscura, the latter had only truly identified about five birds.
"Those five are Gao Tian, Bei Qing, Nan Ling, Yue Ting, and Jiang Liu.
"Aside from Gao Tian, the other four are all two-law Immortals, but the gaps between some of them are absolutely enormous. For instance, Bei Qing and Nan Ling are very close to resonating with three cosmic laws. Yue Ting and Jiang Liu, on the other hand, are ordinary two-law Immortals and are roughly equal in strength to Ming Yu, whom you faced.
"Their own strength, when combined with their ability to teleport, allows them to fight beyond their level. On top of that, Plume Immortals naturally possess abilities like their Thousand Feathers, Thousand Changes, which makes it even more difficult to catch and kill them. When many of them move together, that difficulty rises even further..."
Lu Yin quietly listened, trying to understand the strength of the other Plume Immortals as clearly as possible. He would definitely run into the birds again in the future. The war was far from over for him.
Suddenly, a gate appeared far below in Vestigium, and Master Qing Cao rushed through it. "The Plume Immortals are attacking the Human Trio!"
Lu Yin's expression changed drastically the moment he heard the report. He instantly withdrew from Vestigium, and the moment he opened his eyes, he saw a Plume Immortal above the floating coffin, its talons already falling.
Lu Yin stared at the bird. He opened Heaven's Sight and released Manifestation Beyond the Pupil. Fifteen black plates of armor appeared in front of him.
Crack!
The floating coffin was instantly pierced by the Plume Immortal's talon, but when it slammed into one of the black armor plates of Lu Yin’s Manifestation Beyond the Pupil, a light clang rang out.
"Hm?" The bird sounded surprised. Had its strike actually been blocked?
Lu Yin's pupils shrank as pressure fell upon his entire body. This Plume Immortal was not a creature that he could face directly. It had damaged the red coffin with one strike. It was absolutely more powerful than either Ni Ren or Ming Yu. Even with the recent transformation in his physical strength, Lu Yin was not this bird’s opponent.
Taking advantage of the moment that Manifestation Beyond the Pupil blocked the talon, Lu Yin opened the coffin, sprang out, and teleported away.
The Plume Immortal sneered, its eyes turning cold and sinister. It was Nan Ling, and while it was a two-law Immortal, it was close to the level of a three-law.
The moment Lu Yin vanished, the bird also teleported, chasing after him.
Ming Yu had failed to kill this human, so Nan Ling would do it instead.
Lu Yin teleported into the Tianyuan, where he saw two Plume Immortals attacking the Heavens Sect without any reservations. Mister Mu was defending the sect with his cauldron, while Jiang Feng was attacking with lightning. Even so, the Heavens Sect was on the verge of collapse. The Outerverse was trembling, and stars were shattering. The Astral River flowed in reverse, and the Innerverse, Neoverse, and Starfall Sea were all trembling. The Plume Immortals' attacks encompassed far too great an area, which had drawn the entire Tianyuan into their battle. Countless people were terrified.
The Tianyuan Megaverse was not the only area under attack. The Spirit Nidus and the Nine Odysseys Megaverse were facing the same thing. The Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm was surging, as Greater Sancte Green Lotus was already fighting. Blood Tower, Awe Gate, and the other human Immortals were all engaged in battle as well.
The Plume Immortals had launched a sudden and full-force attack on their human civilization.
Lu Yin had not expected the birds to directly strike their civilization. At such a crucial moment right after a massive battle against Obscura, why had the Plume Immortals made this choice? Was it because Ming Yu had been captured? Because he had destroyed their great tree? Or was it because he had obtained the ability to teleport?
There was no time to think about any of that. At this moment, he could only fight.
Nan Ling appeared behind him, a Godplume Spear already piercing through the void. Lu Yin hurried to dodge, and then he watched as that one Godplume Spear pierced a massive region of the universe. It blasted through the Tianyuan and flew out of the megaverse, destroying an untold number of stars and reaping who knew how many lives along its way.
The Plume Immortals were beings who dared to kill other Immortals. They had their own unique standard when it came to karmic chains, and that made them extremely difficult to restrain.
Lu Yin stared at Nan Ling. He recognized the bird from the two white brows that trailed all the way to its feet. This was Nan Ling, one of the most powerful known Plume Immortals. It was equal to Bei Qing and second only to Gao Tian.
"Little thing, how did you become able to teleport?" Nan Ling raised its wings and beat them. Layer after layer of the void rolled up, transforming into a cosmic gale that blasted across the distance. Stars were swept up like marbles and then ripped to pieces.
Lu Yin's eyes grew bloodshot, and he vanished by teleporting away.
Nan Ling sneered. It did not need to consider anything that Lu Yin cared about, nor did it need to consider his weaknesses. It only had to kill him. No matter what Lu Yin did, he could never make up for the gap between them.
Lu Yin teleported away from the Tianyuan Megaverse and went to the boundary of the Spirit Nidus. Ba Yue, Master Qing Cao, and Kang Tian were all present.
Lu Yin’s presence at the Spirit Nidus was pointless. When it came to the Plume Immortals, even just Yue Lu alone had once thrown the entire human civilization into chaos.
Now, even after Green Lotus unleashed his full strength, he was only able to hold back Bei Qing. That was already an astonishing feat. Bei Qing had never expected this human civilization to contain a powerhouse who was capable of resisting it, no matter how briefly.
Green Lotus had shrunk his Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm so that it no longer enveloped all three megaverses. He could not handle everything at once. He was under too much pressure from Bei Qing.
In just a short span of time, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and the Spirit Nidus had already lost countless lives. Even the karmic wall had been shattered. It had managed to withstand the attacks of the Nest civilization, but it was nowhere near enough to withstand the Plume Immortals.
What about Obscura? What are they doing? Lu Yin teleported again, and Nan Ling continued its pursuit. The bird’s gaze grew colder and colder. Although it was absolutely far stronger than Lu Yin, it was not to the point where the Plume Immortal could casually crush Lu Yin. This brat, who was only a mere Aberrant, was still capable of freely teleporting even beneath the pressure that Nan Ling exuded. It was no wonder why Ming Yu had failed to kill him.
This brat must die!
At that moment, Nan Ling paused, as though hesitating. Then, its gaze grew even more vicious, and it screeched toward the heavens.
The next moment, one Plume Immortal after another vanished, all of them leaving the human megaverses.
The birds had appeared and left in the blink of an eye, though the damage that they had inflicted upon the human civilization was beyond comparison.
***
Far, far away, near the Plume Immortals' great tree, gates opened one after another. The war had been shifted back to the Plume Immortals’ home.