If the Immortal Lord had led the strange bird to human civilization, there was no way that the bird would not have made an appearance during the Immortal Lord’s siege.

If the Immortal Lord had joined hands with that bird, the ambush would have never been carried out so smoothly.

This meant that the strange bird’s appearance had nothing to do with the Immortal Lord.

“What strange bird?” the Immortal Lord asked, puzzled.

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered. “The Plume Immortal Civilization.”

The Immortal Lord was shocked, and they stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. “How do you know that name?”

Their mind racing, they soon found an answer. “You thought that I lured a Plume Immortal to your megaverses, so you attacked me. Now, you’re sure that it wasn’t me.

“Has a Plume Immortal awakened? Yes, considering the time, it’s about right.” As the Immortal Lord spoke, the surface of the green stalk shifted, and the green light brightened slightly. It looked excited. “You have no way to deal with the Plume Immortals, do you? You hope to learn more about them through me. That’s the real reason why you ambushed me.”

Lu Yin shrugged, “That strange bird is too difficult to deal with. There’s no way about it. Even if we catch it, it can still escape.”

“Which of the Plume Immortal attacked you?”

“How many are there all together?”

“Ten. They’re called the Ten Plumes.”

Lu Yin exchanged glances with Mister Mu and the others. This matched what they had already suspected, but hearing the truth still caused their hearts to bottom out.

Ten. There were actually ten of those strange birds. It was no wonder why even Obscura found them difficult to handle. They certainly qualified to be a fishing civilization.

“Which one ambushed you? What’s its name?”

Lu Yin found this reaction odd. “You seem quite willing to share information about them with us.”

The Immortal Lord’s voice dropped low. “If I told you that I also want to deal with the Plume Immortals, would you let me go?”

“Are you begging me for mercy?” Lu Yin asked back.

The Immortal Lord fell silent for a moment. “Think whatever you want.”

Mister Mu suddenly spoke up. “What is Luo Chan’s connection to the Plume Immortal Civilization?”

The Immortal Lord spoke slowly, “By chance, one of my Nests drifted into the Plume Immortals’ old lair. It spawned Luo Chan, who obtained the ability to teleport. Luo Chan called to me, leading me to the Plume Immortal Civilization, as well as the Plume Immortals...”

There was no need to say anything more; Lu Yin already knew the outcome. He even found himself pitying the Immortal Lord.

The fact that they had not died after being led to the Plume Immortal Civilization meant that they had completely surrendered.

“Before the Plume Immortal Civilization, I had no power to resist, and yet Luo Chan’s existence roused their interest in me. They decided to treat me as fish bait. They wanted my Nest civilization to provide the coordinates of civilizations with Immortals to them, while also hoping that I would spawn more Verdant Sages with strange abilities. To them, I am a lamp illuminating the cosmos so that they can explore it, despite the fact that the Plume Immortals do not need to explore anything.

“From that moment on, I lost my freedom, and my Nest civilization became unable to break free from the Plume Immortals.”

The Immortal Lord’s voice rose. “I want to break free from those birds, but I am far, far too weak. I simply can’t do it.”

Lu Yin said, “Even if you tell us that, we won’t cooperate with you. There is no trust between us, and you don’t even qualify to work with us.”

The Immortal Lord said nothing. Lu Yin stared at them. “The strange bird that attacked us has a pink streak throughout its feathers. It also wore pink gauze as clothing and long white boots. It moved like a person.”

“Yue Lu,” the Immortal Lord stated.

“Yue Lu?”

“Correct. You should also have already seen their Thousand Feathers, Thousand Changes. Between that and teleportation, no one can catch them. Also, all of the Ten Plumes have mastered that ability.”

Lu Yin let out a breath, his mood heavy. “Give us details about the Ten Plumes’ abilities.”

The Immortal Lord’s voice grew bitter. “I can’t. I only know five of them. The Plume Immortal Civilization is very special in that they don’t destroy civilizations. Rather, they specifically hunt Immortal beings.

“Doing so increases their karmic chains, so the Plume Immortals have an inherited power called Thousand-Autumn Dream. It’s a technique that allows them to sleep within eggs. Time flows extremely fast within those eggs, far beyond what anything outside can compare to. They are essentially dragging the River of Aeons to them, and they use that to wash away their karmic chains.

“Each Plume Immortal awakens when its karmic chain has been worn down to an acceptable level, which allows it to go out to hunt again.

“I don’t know why the Plume Immortals hunt Immortal beings. They take those Immortals back to their lair, and from that moment on, that Immortal will never appear again. It’s much like how birds carry insects away.”

Lu Yin frowned. That was a chilling metaphor.

The Immortal Lord continued, “From the moment I first made contact with the Plume Immortal Civilization until now, I’ve only seen five birds awaken. Yue Lu happens to be one of them. Of the five, it should be the very weakest.”

Old First’s lips peeled back. The one at the bottom. A bottom-tier creature actually threw both humanity and us Seven-Treasure Anuras into chaos? How disgusting.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. “Then how strong is the strongest Plume Immortal that you’ve seen?”

The Immortal Lord fell silent for a moment. When they spoke again, they slowly stated, “They gave me the same feeling as what Ancestor Shan gave me.”

Lu Yin’s pupils shrank. An Immortal who resonated with three cosmic laws?

Mister Mu was shaken. No way...

Old First stared at the green stalk. Is this true or not? Powerhouses like Father shouldn’t be common in the omniverse.

Still, such an answer was not exactly unexpected, given that it was the Plume Immortal Civilization. Even Obscura was wary of them.

Ancestor Shan had once seen Vestigium, but he had not entered it, due to his wariness of Obscura. It was not unexpected for the Plume Immortal Civilization to have powerhouses at Ancestor Shan’s level.

The trouble was that the Immortal Lord had only seen five Plume Immortals. Who could say just how strong the remaining five might be?

This was trouble. Big trouble.

Furball’s mocking laugh echoed in Lu Yin’s ears. No, humanity could not afford to invite such trouble upon themselves. They had to redirect it.

“Given your knowledge, will Yue Lu continue to attack our human civilization?” Mister Mu asked.

The Immortal Lord answered without hesitation, “Yes.”

“But not now?”

“Given that you’ve managed to force it to use Thousand Feathers, Thousand Changes, you’ve already pushed Yue Lu to its limit. It won’t cause any more trouble for your civilization for the time being. But if you think that it’s given up, that is simply impossible. The Plume Immortals are extremely vengeful. If one is unable to accomplish something, two will work together. Don’t think that I’m trying to scare you. This is fact.”

If not for the information that he had already obtained from Vestigium, Lu Yin might have indeed believed that the Immortal Lord was trying to intimidate them in order to save themself. Unfortunately, Lu Yin knew that they were merely speaking the truth.

More than one person had mentioned how vengeful those strange birds were. The more vengeful they were, the more trouble humanity faced.

As for their human civilization exterminating the Plume Immortals, not even Lu Yin believed that that was possible. The birds were terrifyingly strong. Only Obscura could deal with them.

“Are you saying that we don’t need to worry about Yue Lu for now, as it won’t attack us anytime soon?” Lu Yin asked.

“That should be the case, at least until a second Plume Immortal awakens. When Yue Lu attacks you again, it will be confident that it can kill one of your Immortals.”

Lu Yin’s head ached. “It’s the same thing as always... Tell me everything you know about the Plume Immortal Civilization.”

The Immortal Lord did not refuse. They were actually quite cooperative and readily shared everything that they knew about the Plume Immortal Civilization.

If not for their ability to teleport, then even if the Plume Immortals had powerhouses equal to Ancestor Shan, Lu Yin would not feel this troubled.

He had never expected that, after obtaining the innate gift of teleportation, he would still be infuriated by this ability.

Similarly, the Immortal Lord secretly resented Yue Lu for not revealing that the human civilization had acquired the ability to teleport.

They wanted to break free from the Plume Immortals, but more than that, the Immortal Lord wanted to break free from this human civilization. Their life or death was in the hands of the humans.

As the Immortal Lord spoke, Lu Yin kept using karma, hoping to see the Immortal Lord’s past.

On their side, they were perfectly aware that their karma was being observed throughout the conversation. Even if Lu Yin failed to see much, the Immortal Lord remained very wary, and they did not dare to speak one lie.

As for the Plume Immortal Civilization, the Immortal Lord did not actually know very much, so they finished quickly.

Lu Yin asked Old First to throw the green stalk into his Champions’ Stage Purgatory.

The Immortal Lord looked at the Champions’ Stage Purgatory, not understanding its purpose, yet they felt no fear. Given their strength, Lu Yin would not be able to kill them easily.

Old First lifted the green stalk like a chick and tossed it into the Champions’ Stage Purgatory, and the cauldron moved to hover above it.

The moment that the Immortal Lord entered the Champions’ Stage Purgatory, Lu Yin’s Karmic Dao erupted uncontrollably. It frantically spread across the Aevum Inch and even easily reached a distant megaverse.

Lu Yin closed his eyes. Out of everything so far, nothing had granted him a greater increase in karma than the Immortal Lord.

He had gained karma from other Immortals, but there was no doubt that the Immortal Lord was the most powerful of them all.

Old First and Mister Mu looked upwards, feeling like they were seeing a second Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm.

Lu Yin did not know how vast his Karmic Dao would become after this. Who knew how long the Immortal Lord had lived for? They might be even older than Green Lotus.

Time flowed on. In the blink of an eye, half a year had passed, and yet the Karmic Dao was still growing.

At this moment, it had achieved enough size that it could envelop the three human megaverses, which essentially made it half of the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. And yet, Lu Yin’s Karmic Dao was still growing.

The explosive expansion of his Karmic Dao’s size meant an explosive increase of karma. Lu Yin fell into sudden enlightenment. He had once believed that, when his karma reached a certain level, it would transform. At this moment, he had reached that level.

On the path of karma, he had always leaned more toward deduction and examining the past through karma. This tendency was related to his die’s six pips: Possession. By learning so many secrets through Possession, Lu Yin had taken shortcuts on his cultivation path, which had led his cultivation of karma to unconsciously lean in that same direction.

At this moment, he shifted that focus. Karma also offered a path of slaughter.

Lu Yin reviewed the first half of his life. One battle after another flashed through his mind like photographs. He saw countless enemies and countless techniques. There were all kinds of odd battle techniques, and myriad innate gifts flowed past him like water. All of this came from karma and from his past.

Suddenly, he raised a hand and grabbed a segment of karma when he saw someone: Wei Nu.

Wei Nu had reversed segments of the River of Aeons, as though attempting to sever the past. Her method offered Lu Yin a bit of inspiration. With a casual wave of a hand, his karma became a river. He extended two fingers and snipped the flow, causing one segment of karma to vanish.

Karma, karma. Where there is cause, there is effect. If karma itself can be severed, then using that severing as the cause renders the present effect invalid. This is the principle of severing karma.

Lu Yin roamed the river of karma, testing out his thoughts again and again as he repeatedly severed karma. All that he cut and severed was his own karma. He could clearly feel that, when his karma was severed, it was the same as losing his past experiences, as well as losing the memories of those experiences.

Fortunately, all of the karma was under his own control. He could sever it, and he could also reconnect it.

However, what if he severed someone else’s karma?

Once, Uncle Jiang’s past time had been removed by Master Qing Cao, which had stripped him of his experiences from that time. However, the related memories could not be taken away, and Uncle Jiang had eventually been able to recover.

Only his time had been stripped away, and it was possible to restore it.

But what about karma? Once karma was severed, it was equivalent to stripping away the karma of that entire period. How could that ever be restored?