Star Odyssey
Chapter 3622: Funnel

Chapter 3622: Funnel

In the Consciousness Domain, Lu Yin glanced around. "Actually, none of you seem to be very happy to welcome me here."

Shi Lin was startled by the comment, and he quickly refuted the accusation, "Of course we do! If you don’t mind, Seraph Lu, you are welcome to visit my Revolt Alliance. I would be honored to give you a tour. If our alliance’s disciples could receive a bit of guidance from you, it would be their greatest fortune."

Lu Yin responded, "That’s unnecessary. You can all leave. I'll stroll around on my own."

With that, he moved down to the ground.

Shi Lin glanced at Zi Tianshu, who shook his head. "Leave him. Are any of us even capable of stopping him? Even if he decides to destroy the entire Consciousness Domain, there’s nothing that we can do about it."

Shi Lin looked back down. He felt utterly helpless, but they had no choice.

Since it was impossible to stop Lu Yin, they could only allow him to do as he pleased.

No one followed Lu Yin, and no one tried to observe him. He was given unrestricted freedom to roam about the Consciousness Domain, or more accurately, the entire Spirit Nidus.

Of the seven major powers, Lu Yin had not visited the Gate of Laws or Heavenspire yet, but he intended to find an opportunity to visit them both.

Lu Yin arrived at the location where Wu Wei had once hidden. Once there, Lu Yin stopped moving and stayed there for several days.

While Shi Lin and the others made it a point to not watch Lu Yin, they still had a rough idea of his whereabouts.

After seeing that he had no intention of leaving Wu Wei’s former location, people started to wonder if Lu Yin might be planning to stay there indefinitely. That did not seem very likely, and any such assumptions would be foolish.

Zi Tianshu took Zi Yi and left. As far as he was concerned, the further away he was from someone like Lu Yin, the better. The young man was unpredictable, and he seemed to act on his whims, which was precisely what made him so terrifying.

Naturally, Shi Lin did not want Zi Tianshu to leave, but he lacked the means to convince the man to stay.

As for the Ascendant Hall, Zi Tianshu reassured them that he would continue protecting the Consciousness Domain and that he just needed to move out for a bit in order to relax. He would soon return to his station.

The Ascendant Hall was left with no choice but to accept the excuse. After all, Zi Tianshu was a Dukkhan; not even the High Seraph could force the man to stay.

As for how long Zi Tianshu’s "soon" might be, that depended entirely on when Lu Yin decided to leave.

More than ten days passed before Lu Yin raised a hand. A spiral of karma twined around his fingertip before being flung away. It pierced the ground, but it produced no reaction.

He then unleashed a Wheel of Karma, also sending into the ground, but still, nothing happened.

Could it be that I have to use Heaven's Blade?

Lu Yin was not in the Consciousness Domain just to search for Wu Wei. He had already known that the conscient was hiding in Heavenspire to stay away from Lu Yin. Instead, Lu Yin’s goal was to see the same strange scene that he had witnessed once before in the Consciousness Domain.

His consciousness erupted behind him. The Nine Heavens Transformation unfolded, and Heaven’s Blade shot out of the ninth layer. Lu Yin suddenly appeared directly in front of the sword of consciousness, his hand raised and unleashing a spiral of karma from a fingertip. The karma struck the blade.

At that same moment, a roar ripped through the entire area, and white light filled his sight.

It was the same strange phenomenon that he had seen once before.

Lu Yin looked around, and once again, he saw the towering walls of karma. Beyond them was a vast land completely shrouded with karma that stretched far out of sight. This time, he was prepared, and he focused intently on the distance. What is that?

In an instant, the phenomenon vanished. As Lu Yin reflected on what he had just seen, he realized that it was one of the seven funnels he had seen on the Day of Offering.

There was no doubt that he had just seen one of the inverted funnels.

So, the phenomenon is always present. It doesn’t just appear on the Day of Offering.

These funnels are made of karma... No wonder most people can’t see them.

The people who were able to witness the strange scene on the Day of Offering were said to be qualified to become the next High Seraph. Did that mean that the ability to perceive karma was required to take that position? Or did witnessing the strange scene indicate that they had some sort of ability to comprehend karma? Could it be that seeing that scene simply meant glimpsing a certain truth, one that only the High Seraph could truly understand?

Lu Yin was certain that very few people in the entire Spirit Nidus were aware of the funnels’ existence, though the High Seraph was certainly one of them.

He turned to look in the direction of the Ascendant Hall. The High Seraph had been tolerating Lu Yin’s continued presence in the Spirit Nidus, and that tolerance had to be connected to what Lu Yin had witnessed. The fact that the High Seraph had allowed Lu Yin to become one of the Seven Seraphs and witness the strange scene, combined with the presence of the seven lands of karma that could only be perceived with comprehension of karma...

The High Seraph had been guiding Lu Yin in a particular direction the entire time, but could not reveal why.

Lu Yin’s brow furrowed, and he once again unleashed Heaven’s Blade as a spiral of karma twined around his fingertip before shooting forward to clash against the blade.

The flash of white light blinded him as the phenomenon reappeared yet again. This time, Lu Yin was able to make out the details with even greater clarity.

However, the phenomenon vanished just as quickly as it appeared. Still, the funnel appeared every single time.

Again and again, Lu Yin used Heaven’s Blade to repeatedly observe the strange phenomenon, hoping to make out more details.

He could see that the karma forming the funnel originated from a point in the distance. In fact, it was the exact center of the “灵” character. The karma spread from that point into the funnel. The funnel was not motionless, but rotated slowly. Lu Yin also knew that this was not the only funnel, as there were seven in total spread throughout the Spirit Nidus.

By following the direction of the karma’s flow, Lu Yin tried to see further and more details.

After countless attempts, he finally saw something. It appeared to be the origin of the karma at the center point. What was it? It was thin, rectangular, and shrouded within the layers of karma, which made it difficult to make out any details. However, its shape suggested that it was a piece of paper.

The phenomenon vanished from Lu Yin’s once again.

He was absolutely exhausted. He had used Heaven’s Blade and karma too many times, and he needed to rest before he continued. He was determined to find out exactly what the item that he had been looking at was.

Far away, in the Ascendant Hall, the High Seraph stood frozen, peering in the direction of the Consciousness Domain. There was no happiness or sadness to be seen on his face. It was eerily calm.

Lan arrived, seeking an audience with the High Seraph. "My lord."

One of his fingers twitched, and some invisible power sent Lan flying far into the distance.

She landed in a disgraceful pile and turned to stare at the Apex Palace in shock. Had the High Seraph really just flung her away? That had never happened before. Even when he had been in seclusion and she had accidentally disturbed him, he had never reacted in such a manner.

What was going on?

She had never seen the High Seraph exhibit such behavior before.

The High Seraph was always calm and collected, no matter what happened. He radiated an aura of being in absolute control, but Lan could swear that the High Seraph had seemed... nervous? Uneasy? Could it have been an illusion? No, that was real.

Lan had not seen anything, but rather felt it. She had spent years in the High Seraph’s presence, and because of that, she was able to sense his most subtle changes.

What she had felt was very mysterious, and there was no logical explanation for it. Still, she had clearly sensed the High Seraph’s emotions for a single instant.

The High Seraph had never acted like that before.

In the distant Apex Palace, the High Seraph was still silently standing in the same place. Without him even realizing it, his once impassive expression, which always lacked both sorrow and joy, had become tense. “Don’t let me down.”

...

In the Consciousness Domain, Lu Yin rested for a while before resuming his experiments of colliding karma and Heaven's Blade to observe the odd phenomenon.

Unfortunately, he was unable to make out any more details, and he could only discern a vague outline.

Is it a sheet of paper? Or maybe something like an iron plate? But how can a mere item give off karma? Ah, could it be a mirebound artifact? Only one of those things could have such a miraculous ability.

He stared at his finger in a daze as karma spiraled and pulsed around it. He felt that it would be quite normal if just being able to perceive karma allowed him to see the funnels, but why did he need to combine karma with Heaven's Blade to see them?

Was there some inherent connection between Heaven's Blade and karma?

Heaven’s Blade skipped the process and stabbed directly at the result. This seemed to resemble karma. If the attack was the cause, and the damage was the effect, did that not form a complete karmic cycle? Could this be... a karmic technique?

Lu Yin could not make any sense of it.

If Heaven’s Blade is a karmic technique, how did Wu Wei manage to master it? If it isn’t a karmic technique, then it’s too much of a coincidence, and it’s impossible to explain how the attack works.

Even if Lu Yin had learned Heaven’s Blade elsewhere, it should have been impossible to learn such a technique without first comprehending karma.

Taking advantage of his break, Lu Yin started to analyze Heaven's Blade.

Unfortunately, he had Possessed Wu Wei for much too brief a time, and had focused solely on learning Heaven's Blade. Because of this, he had failed to acquire almost any other memories. Next time, Lu Yin had to get within five meters of the conscient so that he could access the being’s memories without consuming all of his consciousness.

He had to pay a visit to Heavenspire.

For now... A glimmer flickered in Lu Yin’s eyes. Since he could see the strange phenomenon, could he also touch it?

If he could extract the karma from the funnel, then could he possibly replenish his own karma? That possibility caused Lu Yin’s breathing to quicken. If this was possible, then his Karmic Dao would instantly undergo a complete transformation. He would no longer need to produce spirals of karma or a Wheel of Karma. Instead, he would be able to simply hurl out a mass of karma so large that no one would be able to escape.

The more he considered the idea, the more plausible it seemed. Lu Yin released Heaven's Blade once again, and the spiral of karma at his finger tip struck the blade.

One funnel after another appeared. They covered the entire Spirit Nidus, but despite their immense size, no one could see them.

Is this a megaverse hidden within another? No. From Lu Yin's perspective, it felt more like a megaverse that stood above another.

On the Day of Offering, the giant figure he had seen had stretched lazily above the Spirit Nidus, treating it like nothing more than a world of ants. The inverted funnels drew some kind of liquid upwards. Lu Yin had no idea what that liquid was, but the feeling he got was clear: the Spirit Nidus was being drained.

The better he understood this megaverse, the more Lu Yin realized that the Spirit Nidus might not be as formidable as he had once believed.

He reached out for the wall of karma that rose up before him, the spirals of karma coiling about his fingertips as he attempted to touch the infinite karma.

There was no resistance as his hand passed right through it. He had failed to make any sort of contact.

The funnels and the wall of karma were completely unchanged. Lu Yin had not created so much as a ripple of a disturbance.

He let out a breath as his vision returned to normal. He dropped his hand, defeated. He could not touch the wall of the funnel, despite it being entirely composed of karma.

In both the Tianyuan Megaverse and the Spirit Nidus, he had always been able to interact with any karma that he had been able to observe. He could even use Karmic Lines formed from others’ karma. Also, his Wheel of Karma was able to deal severe wounds to Dukkhans, but the funnel of karma eluded his touch.

As he considered the two megaverses, he noted that he had encountered two individuals who were unexpectedly able to defy his understanding of karma. One was the High Seraph, who could briefly resist karma, while the other was Jiang Qi, the young man on Boundless who always kept a blanket wrapped around him. Karma could not penetrate that blanket.

Finally, Lu Yin had encountered a third anomaly: the vast amount of karma that he could see, but not touch.

Was it truly impossible to touch it?

Lu Yin stood where he was, lost in thought. There was a pattern to every phenomenon in existence. Even when the pattern itself appeared to be pure chaos, that was still a pattern.

He suddenly had an idea. Given the sheer number of powers and abilities Lu Yin had cultivated, he decided to test each of them out. If there was anything that could allow him to touch this karma before him, he might be able to claim it for his own.

...

In a distant corner of the Spirit Nidus, a young man stood on a rooftop in the middle of a bustling city, staring up at the starry sky. There were two rows of attendants standing to either side of him. While there were both men and women present, every last individual boasted striking features.

There was rich wine, beautiful women, music, and a lakeside view. There was everything that a person could desire within reach.

The city was located on a technologically advanced planet. The civilization was thriving, though there was almost no hint of any sort of cultivation within the civilization. The people had elevated material and spiritual pleasures to the limits of what their people could achieve.

The young man on the rooftop was the wealthiest individual on the planet. He had acquired all of his wealth in just one second, yet the enjoyment that he had reaped from that was something no one else on the planet could ever hope to match.

The young man waved a hand, and the two rows of attendants withdrew.

His hand then slowly pressed downwards, and the city's lights went out.

Two people stepped out behind the young man: Meng Sang and Old Salamander.