At that moment, Lu Yin suddenly understood. The Plume Immortals, with their teleportation, were planning to exploit a gap in timing.
His eyes flickered. The greatest advantage that teleportation offered was the ability to ignore distance. How had he forgotten that?
When the Nest civilization had attacked humanity, the bugs had relied on the advantage of being able to ignore distance. As soon as enough distance opened up on the battlefield, humanity would inevitably lose. Their countermeasure had been to lure the Nest civilization into fighting a decisive battle within a fixed range.
The Plume Immortals were currently planning to take advantage of that same strategy. They intended to destroy every gate and then gather together to exploit their advantage of being able to ignore distance.
Obscura had ways to retreat almost instantly, but using a gate still required time. Even a single second was enough for a Plume Immortal to strike. One Plume Immortal meant one attack. What about ten?
Lu Yin stared into the distance. This had to be their strategy. He took a deep breath. If he could think of it, then Ba Se and the others certainly could as well. He had never considered himself to be the smartest.
Obscura had a far greater understanding of the Plume Immortals than Lu Yin. There was no way they would have failed to see what was happening.
Unfortunately, Obscura had no solution. Teleportation itself was an absolute means. Even if Obscura saw through the Plume Immortals’ intentions, how could a counter-strategy be prepared?
The only thing that Obscura could do was to establish the battlefield as the Plume Immortals’ great tree from the very beginning of the war. This tree was the birds’ nest, and they could not abandon it.
The battlefield that the Plume Immortals wanted to shift to should be inside Vestigium. That was Obscura’s nest that could also not be abandoned.
Both sides were striking at each other’s weak points. The entire structure of the war had become clear. Lu Yin retreated. He had already completed one mission, so as long as Ba Se did not force him to action, Lu Yin would just hide for the moment. At worst, he could claim to be injured.
What came next would be brutal.
Just as Lu Yin had predicted, as soon as all the gates were destroyed, a vast and terrifying aura shook the cosmos within a seemingly endless range. Even from his location, he felt an indescribable pressure settle upon him. It was an oppressive force at the level of Ancestor Shan’s.
Some being who resonated with three cosmic laws was taking action, but were they from the Plume Immortals or from Obscura?
Lu Yin peered into the distance. Regardless of which was true, he was not getting any closer.
Far away, around the Plume Immortals’ tree, the strange birds soared through the sky, attacking Second Furball, Old Man Hehe, and Obscura’s Black.
Three more Plume Immortals arrived. They had been fighting elsewhere on the battlefield, and they returned in an instant to join the current assault.
Second Furball fled in a panic. Against creatures who could teleport, they could only endure.
Old Man Hehe was driven away immediately.
The absolute darkness that surrounded Black was pierced through, like a cave shattering.
A moment later, another gate appeared, and Furball and You Che charged out of it. The Plume Immortals’ great tree had just become the only battlefield.
The intensity of the fighting made Lu Yin completely unwilling to get involved. He saw the main stream of the River of Aeons being drawn out as Old Man Hehe reappeared.
Surging divine energy boiled through the cosmos. That had to be Furball’s power.
From the Plume Immortals, Godplume Spears repeatedly pierced space. The cosmos seemed like a flat surface that was being repeatedly punctured, which made the entire Aevum Inch appear tiny.
Lu Yin retreated even farther back. Ba Se had no time to deal with him at this moment.
In truth, he wanted to get closer to the battlefield so that he could observe it. Given the intensity of the fighting, it was likely that he could get a better understanding of certain things, such as You Che’s true strength, the form of Obscura’s Black, or even Ba Se’s true form. It was possible that even Ba Se had joined the battle.
But Lu Yin could not go. In a war of this level, a single mistake would mean death.
The battle raged in the distance while Lu Yin endured the tense wait.
Suddenly, all of the pressure simply vanished. He stared into the distance. What was happening?
All of the Plume Immortals had vanished from the distant battlefield, leaving only the members of Obscura, the great tree, and the suppressed Gao Tian.
“Return to Vestigium immediately.” All members of Obscura opened their own gates and went to Vestigium.
Gates could not allow them to move as quickly as teleportation. By the time everyone had returned to Vestigium, the Plume Immortals were already launching a coordinated assault. Nearly half of the countless gates scattered throughout Vestigium had been destroyed. The Plume Immortals circled the Divine Tree, crying triumphantly, “The moment you tried to suppress Gao Tian, you already lost! Some costs that you refuse to pay will only lead to even greater ones.”
Vestigium trembled.
Ba Se responded, “That depends on whether the price is worth it.”
***
Around the Plume Immortals’ great tree, everything grew silent.
Lu Yin teleported several times to get closer to the battlefield, and he stared into the distance. The battlefield was empty. Everyone was gone. The battlefield had shifted in an instant. By this time, all of the fighting should have moved into Vestigium.
When fighting against Plume Immortals, even Obscura was forced onto the defensive.
He was suddenly struck by a thought: since the Plume Immortals were all gone, their nest should be unprotected for the moment. He looked at their great tree. Could there be something valuable there? Perhaps a mirebound artifact?
The idea was tempting, but after thinking things over, Lu Yin chose to continue hiding. Gao Tian was still in the tree’s canopy, and no one knew if that bird might suddenly awaken.
At that moment, a sword suddenly appeared above the great tree. It was completely transparent.
The instant the blade appeared, Lu Yin’s scalp went numb. This sword was both terrifying and familiar. He had seen it before. This was the very sword that had cut apart the Meteor Realm and the Human Trio, nearly killing Awe Gate.
This was the sword of Obscura’s Transparent.
Lu Yin watched in shock as the transparent sword sliced downward. It was clearly targeting the great tree.
Just when he thought that the tree would be chopped apart, heaven-shaking talons appeared, followed by a suffocating pressure. The entire cosmos changed color. Both above and below, there were only those talons and the slowly emerging Plume Immortal.
At that moment, the Aevum Inch truly felt like it was no larger than a square inch, as everything was replaced by this Plume Immortal.
Lu Yin felt like his chest was about to explode. Waves of pressure swept through the region. The birds that had been fighting for the Plume Immortals against Obscura’s civilizations all collapsed, trembling. Even the great tree itself bent slightly beneath the pressure.
It was like a giant stepping into a kingdom of ants. At this moment, the giant had awakened.
“Gao Tian.” An unfamiliar voice spoke. It belonged to Obscura’s transparent member.
Lu Yin was stunned. Was that bird Gao Tian? Had it not been sealed away with the sourcebox array?