Lu Yin bowed to the Mountain Sword Sect’s ancestor. “This junior is Lu Yin, a descendant of the human survivors who were cast out as bait during the Nine Ramparts era. Greetings, Senior.”

“Oh? Then we’re the same. We are also descendants of bait, but compared to you, we fall far too short. I am sorry for causing you such trouble.”

“Please don’t say that, Senior.”

“Go. I’m glad to learn that there is still a human inheritance and that our civilization isn’t alone. Even if I die, I can accept it gladly. Thank you for being willing to come back, young man.”

Ni Ren barked, “Shut up!”

Its body quickly covered the old man’s head again.

Lu Yin relaxed his clenched hand. His scythe appeared, and he pointed it at Ni Ren. “Did you hear him? I can stay, or I can leave. Choose.”

Ni Ren hesitated for a moment. “Fine. Let’s see what you have to save him with.”

As it spoke, it threw the Mountain Sword Sect’s ancestor toward its Mudwater Dominion. “He’s right there. Go on, try to save him.”

Lu Yin vanished, teleporting. When he reappeared, he was already within the Mudwater Dominion, the Mountain Sword Sect’s ancestor in arm’s reach. However, beside the old man was a long white blade, one of Ni Ren’s twin blades. It was a civilizational weapon that had recorded an Immortal. The instant Lu Yin appeared, the white blade swept across the dominion. Its peerless sharpness caused Lu Yin to instinctively dodge, a forced move made in the face of mortal peril. He did not want to touch that blade at all.

The void was severed, and Ni Ren appeared. At the same time, the other white blade chopped down, forming a cross-shaped slash.

Space was sliced into four segments. Lu Yin quickly teleported to open up some distance. The cuts spread out endlessly. Again and again Lu Yin teleported, staring at the slashes that skimmed past him. He slashed back with his Tri-Azure Sword Intent to meet the slashes.

His Tri-Azure Sword Intent failed to slow them in the slightest and was instead simply severed.

Even with Extremes Must Be Reversed, Lu Yin had no intention of taking those slashes head-on. It was not just their sharpness, but also the fact that the slashes had been imbued with Ni Ren’s cosmic law. If he was forced into a direct clash, even Extremes Must Be Reversed might not be enough for Lu Yin to survive.

Ni Ren’s opponent had been Hong Xia, who was powerful enough to have a chance to prevail even when Green Lotus had joined forces with Old First and taken advantage of Lu Yin’s ability to teleport. The gap between it and Lu Yin could only be imagined.

In the distance, slash after slash covered the cosmos, slicing at the Mudwater Dominion from every direction. “Is this how you will ‘save’ him? You can’t even get close! Human civilization, is it? Don’t make me look down on you.”

Lu Yin frowned. From the tone, Ni Ren clearly knew nothing about humanity. That meant the Mudwater Dominion had not been part of the war that had destroyed the Nine Ramparts.

The Aevum Inch was vast, and the Nine Ramparts had only existed in the distant past. Only a few civilizations had taken part in that final war, and it was impossible to constantly run into them.

If all the civilizations in the Aevum Inch were randomly split into ten groups, then perhaps only two would have fought against the Nine Ramparts while the rest might not even know that humans existed. It was completely normal.

And that estimate was already being extremely generous.

Lu Yin’s body kept withering with Extremes Must Be Reversed. As he gripped Aberrant tightly, he stepped forward, teleporting directly into the Mudwater Dominion. However, this time, he did not appear beside the Mountain Sword Sect’s ancestor, but rather behind Ni Ren. Still, to be honest, Lu Yin could not tell the front from the back of a puddle of cement.

The Investiture of the Gods released the Tri-Azure Sword Intent: Hidden Blade, forming a river of sword intent.

A long white blade chopped straight down. Even after forming a river of sword intent, the Tri-Azure Sword Intent could not endure, and it was cut apart. The entire river was cleaved apart. It was unable to harm Ni Ren in the slightest. Even Ji He was capable of splitting the river of sword intent, let alone Ni Ren.

What Lu Yin actually wanted to use was his Dao Sword.

He had not used karma even once since stepping onto the battlefield with the Mudwater Dominion. He had kept it hidden as a trump card. Especially the Dao Sword, which he wanted neither the Mudwater Dominion nor Obscura to ever learn of. However, he no longer had any choice.

The Karmic Dao was rapidly consumed to form a hidden Dao Sword within the river of sword intent. When the river of sword intent was split open, the Dao Sword skimmed past the white blade and slashed at Ni Ren.

That single slash was something that Ni Ren had never expected Lu Yin to be capable of unleashing. Karma cut open its past. Lu Yin locked onto Ni Ren’s karma and cut. At that instant, the Karmic Dao shrank drastically as the Dao Sword swung down.

“Karma?” Ni Ren was shaken and retreated quickly, but beneath the Dao Sword, karma sealed off all paths of retreat.

As the Dao Sword fell, one of Ni Ren’s white blades suddenly blurred. Lu Yin had cut the karmic past of one of the twin blades, erasing the time when the civilization and Immortal had been recorded. He cut it all away, slicing away the fortune, memories, and experiences of that time.

At the same time, Lu Yin reached out to grab the Mountain Sword Sect’s ancestor.

He had not known which of the two white blades would be affected, but his luck proved good; it was the one beside the old man.

Just as Lu Yin was about to seize the Mountain Sword Sect’s ancestor, spatial tears suddenly spread out from his fingertips. They continued to spread through the entire void, and then the entire universe. They stretched out without end. This was an unseen world.

A cut appeared on Lu Yin’s palm. His withered flesh recovered again and again as a bleeding wound opened across his palm.

He grabbed and teleported.

He vanished, reappearing twenty years away from Ni Ren. Lu Yin was overjoyed, until he looked to his side. He was only holding an arm, the Mountain Sword Sect’s ancestor’s other arm. The man himself was still in the Mudwater Dominion.

Lu Yin’s face turned ashen as he turned to stare back.

It was at that moment that Ni Ren recovered. The cut of Lu Yin’s Dao Sword was not enough to completely erase a civilizational weapon. Ni Ren itself surpassed Lu Yin by far too much, and that civilizational weapon had recorded an Immortal. Unless Lu Yin sacrificed his entire Karmic Dao, he would not be able to erase it.

In the past, erasing just a portion of the Immortal Lord’s karma with a Dao Sword had cost Lu Yin what he typically obtained from an Immortal, and that had been the Immortal Lord. Not only that, but Lu Yin had also only cut out the karma related to himself, nothing related to civilizations or Immortals. One could imagine how much karma would be required to completely erase a white blade.

Even so, the Dao Sword still reduced the power of one of the white blades by a great deal.

Ni Ren appeared beside the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor. Two long white blades circled the creature as it faced Lu Yin. The sharp aura spread everywhere and continued to expand.

During the brief instant that Lu Yin had endured the spatial tears, those same fissures had removed the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor’s arm, causing Lu Yin to only teleport away with the arm.

“You said that you wouldn’t threaten me with him.”

“If I were threatening you, it wouldn’t have been an arm that was severed,” Ni Ren retorted. Its tone belied its surprise. “You actually comprehended the power of karma? I underestimated you. I almost allowed you to succeed.”

Lu Yin’s expression fell. “Being cut by karma doesn’t feel good, does it? If you don’t want your civilizational weapon to disappear, release him. Otherwise, even if you win this battle, when you return to the Mudwater Dominion, you’ll be inferior to the rest of the eight elders.”

Ni Ren sneered. “Try it! Let’s see how much karma you really have.”

“Don’t regret your decision.” Lu Yin teleported away, and the void where he had just been standing exploded, endless spatial cracks spreading. This time, the slashes came from far to near. Lu Yin teleported non-stop, attacking with his Tri-Azure Sword Intent from every angle, but he could not find any openings. Every one of his attacks was cut apart by the long white blades. The weapon could not be met directly.

Lu Yin was wary, but Ni Ren was more than simply shocked. How could an Aberrant actually fight it for so long without being defeated? Even if he was relying on teleportation, Ni Ren had seen how Lu Yin had been injured earlier by its world, and yet the human had quickly recovered. By all rights, even if its world was weaker than the slashes of its civilizational weapons, that was still more than what an ordinary Immortal could endure. And yet this Aberrant had done just that.

No matter if it was his movement techniques, defenses, or offense, this Aberrant could be considered flawless. It was only because Ni Ren was overwhelmingly stronger and was able to suppress Lu Yin with its realm alone that it held the upper hand. If their cultivations were equal, it would never be the human’s opponent.

Realizing this, Ni Ren’s killing intent grew even stronger.

This Aberrant was too great a threat to the Mudwater Dominion. Of the eight elders, aside from Ni Ren and Ni Bieluo, no one else could ignore this human.

Once he broke into the Immortal realm, he might even be able to fight Ni Bieluo, and then the Mudwater Dominion’s hopes of defeating Obscura would become even more of an impossibility.

He had to die.

Damn it, if not for teleportation, how could this man fight me at all?

Ping.

There was a gentle sound as a Tri-Azure Sword Intent struck the back of a white blade. It did not meet the edge of the blade but instead struck the spine.

The white blade flipped around and instantly struck, cutting the Tri-Azure Sword Intent apart.

For Ni Ren, whether or not the spine was struck meant little. It had two blades, and their edges could protect the entire Mudwater Dominion. However, it was different for Lu Yin.

Aberrant’s first strike hit the back of the blade, producing that light sound. When the white long blade flipped around to chop down, Lu Yin hurriedly pulled his scythe back; he could not directly clash against the civilizational weapon. Instead, he locked onto the back of the blade and struck again. Blow after blow rained down. Ni Ren thought that Lu Yin was struggling and was trying to break its white blade by striking its spine. How absurd. The white blade was a civilizational weapon that had recorded an Immortal. How could another weapon break it?

It was only then that the creature realized something was wrong. Activeness was entering its body. The scythe’s greatest power was to send Activeness into the bodies of Lu Yin’s opponents.

As that Activeness surged into Ni Ren without end, it exclaimed in surprise, “An Immortal’s cosmic law? You have a weapon forged from a dead Immortal?”

“That’s right.” Lu Yin struck the blade’s spine yet again. He focused on the blurry white blade, which was the one that his Dao Sword had already cut. Regardless of whether it could be broken or not, he would strike first and talk later.

Not even Immortals could endure the surging Activeness for long; it had to be actively resisted. And Ni Ren also needed to stay on guard against Lu Yin’s ability to teleport. No matter how small a threat the Activeness might pose, it still had to deal with it.

In a battle to the death, any lapse in focus could prove fatal.

Ni Ren had no choice but to reduce the frequency of its attacks so that it could defend against the scythe striking the spine of the blade. But even being on the defensive merely slowed the flood of Activeness. As time dragged on, the Activeness would continue to flood Ni Ren’s body until it could no longer ignore it.

The battle proceeded slowly. Lu Yin did not expect to defeat Ni Ren. Even if all of the Activeness managed to surge into Ni Ren’s body, it still would not be enough to beat it.

All Lu Yin wanted was a single instant, an opening to save the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor. Just one chance.

Spatial cracks spread across the cosmos. It was Ni Ren’s world: Rifted Firmament.

Lu Yin hurriedly teleported away. The moment Rifted Firmament appeared, all of the spatial cracks started flowing towards Ni Ren like water, eventually attaching to the two white blades, which then slashed at the distant Lu Yin.

Lu Yin dodged the slashes, his eyes locked on the two long blades. He could no longer strike either spine. If he did, his scythe would be finished.

Ni Ren had fused its world with the legacy of its civilization. This was a blade without bounds.

Slash after slash arrived from afar. Lu Yin kept dodging, his mind racing as he tried to figure out how to rescue the Mountain Sword Sect's ancestor.