After five consecutive teleportations with the Mirrorlight Art, Lu Yin peered into the distance to see a sheet of water hanging in the Aevum Inch. It was the Thread of Heaven. He had found it.

This Thread of Heaven was exactly what Little Eighteen had been searching for. However, the toad was not there, and neither was there any trace of pathfinding stones with his consciousness nearby.

Lu Yin stared at the surface of the water for a long moment. He did not go right in, but instead teleported back to his human civilization.

Seven teleports were enough for Lu Yin to return to his human civilization, and he immediately went to the Consciousness Megaverse to find Old First.

“Is Little Eighteen missing?” Old Fourth was shocked.

Lu Yin’s expression was grave. “I can’t sense any pathfinding stones...”

He explained everything he had learned.

Old First replied in a low voice, “This isn’t on you. Roaming the Aevum Inch always comes with dangers. Lu Yin, take me to where they vanished. I’ll find Little Eighteen.”

“I’ll search with you.”

“There’s no need. We Seven-Treasure Anuras have our own means to search. You do what you need to do,” Old First said.

Lu Yin did not argue. The Seven-Treasure Anuras had not fallen to the point of needing him to look after them.

Little Eighteen had climbed up step by step through fighting and slaughter, not talent. Even if they died because of this journey, no one would blame Lu Yin.

Lu Yin first took Old First to the place where Little Eighteen’s trail had disappeared.

The old toad looked at Lu Yin. “My father once said, ‘if you’re born in this cosmos, life and death are already destined. If we can find them, that is lucky. If we can’t, that’s fate.’”

No one brought up the possibility that Little Eighteen might have left on their own without finishing their mission. Everyone knew that the Seven-Treasure Anuras were dedicated to keeping their word. Little Eighteen would have endured for 200 years easily. Lu Yin had never even considered that possibility.

He then arrived back at the Thread of Heaven that looked like a sheet of water. As he approached it, he sensed the aura of an Immortal.

While there was no explicit rule, only an Immortal was qualified to create a Thread of Heaven. Otherwise, how could a Thread of Heaven move around in the Aevum Inch?

Lu Yin was not an Immortal, and even if his combat power had reached the level of an Immortal—and not a weak one at that—so long as he restrained his aura slightly and allowed the master of the Thread of Heaven to confirm that he was not an Immortal, Lu Yin could still enter.

He approached the water’s surface and raised a hand, feigning cautiousness with a hint of anticipation; this was the mindset of any creature that saw a Thread of Heaven for the first time. In the blink of an eye, Lu Yin slipped inside. When he reappeared, there was flowing water in every direction. He was inside a bubble that had been pushed down into a riverbed. Beautiful aquatic plants and fish drifted around him. When he looked up, light streamed down through the surface, bringing brightness to the depths.

Looking around, he couldn’t see any other bubbles, but everyone who entered this Thread of Heaven was inside the same kind of bubble.

The Verdant Sage that looked like a white bird had told Lu Yin about how this particular Thread of Heaven worked.

In this Thread of Heaven, communication was done in a script that had been created by the master of the Thread of Heaven, and the means of delivering that script was paper boats.

A paper boat floated toward him. Lu Yin reached out to grab it. The boat was small, yet it was completely covered with conversations.

- Can anyone tell me what’s going on? Where is this place? The moment I saw this sheet of water, I entered without thinking. It was like something was pulling me in.

- If you’re drawn in, it means you’re weak. This is a Thread of Heaven, a place made specifically for beings from weak civilizations so that they can understand just how terrifying the Aevum Inch is.

- Hello, weak one.

- Hi, I’m a weak one. How terrifying is the Aevum Inch? Can you tell me?

- No, weak one.

- Sorry, I’m weak too. I also want to know.

Lu Yin released the paper boat and let it drift away before snatching another.

- I’m from a civilization that’s currently under attack. I beg the civilization attacking us to withdraw. Our civilization has nothing. If you can see this, respected civilization, please withdraw. I beg you.

- Begging like that is useless. This is the survival rule of the cosmos.

- Pathetic. Though, I’m curious how far this attack has progressed. If you are able to enter this place, you’re probably the strongest in your civilization. Does the attacking civilization have an Immortal?

- Do you even need to ask? Of course not! If they did, could this creature have found a Thread of Heaven? It wouldn’t have even been able to leave its own megaverse.

- Please... respected, powerful civilization, withdraw. We truly don’t want to fight anymore. Please, please, please...

Lu Yin let the boat go. Begging? If that worked, how could the cosmos remain so cruel? The more that someone begged in that manner, the more brazenly the other side would attack.

All that could be said was that the defending civilization was still failing to clearly see the Aevum Inch.

In truth, without a Thread of Heaven, that civilization would lack even a place to beg.

He read paper boat after paper boat. Though he couldn’t see other bubbles down here, there were countless boats left behind by creatures who had wandered in by accident.

- Master of this Thread of Heaven, can you go back to where you were and drop me off? I don’t even know where I’ve been taken. The moment I leave this Thread of Heaven, I’ll be lost.

- Same here. Why did the master take us away without even saying a word?

- How ridiculous! You expect the master to babysit you? A Thread of Heaven only gives you a chance to understand the Aevum Inch. It never promised to help you. For ants like you, even a Thread of Heaven is dangerous. Hala-hala.

- Huh? That laugh... Dayi, is that you?

- Who are you? Why do you know my nickname?

- Nonsense. I’m your father.

- Dad, you’re not dead?

- I’ve been in this Thread of Heaven for a long time. Dayi, how did you end up here too?

- Can even a father and son reunite like this? Go cry somewhere else.

- A family reunion.

Lu Yin shook his head and kept reading.

He read many boats, and he also left some messages on them as a way of searching for Little Eighteen: he bluntly asked if anyone had seen a big toad. The replies he received were bizarre and varied, and none were helpful.

Suddenly, his gaze sharpened as he stared at the paper boat in his hand.

- It’s not easy for us to gather in a Thread of Heaven. I’ll be leaving soon, but before I go, I’ll share what I know about fishing civilizations so that you won’t step in their traps. If you step into that pit, it’s instant destruction.

- There are two fishing civilizations I know of. One keeps placing springboards about, and many civilizations probably already know about that. I’ve been to no fewer than three Threads of Heaven, and every time I mentioned this, someone says that they’ve seen one. If you ever see a springboard, don’t touch it. Remember! Absolutely don’t touch it.

- The second wears red clothes and carries a red umbrella. If you ever see a creature matching those traits moving through the Aevum Inch, avoid them and stay far away. Don’t ever lead that kind of creature to your native megaverse, or you’ll end up in trouble. By the way, this is what they look like.

Lu Yin saw a picture of a human. This was precisely the conversation that the white bird had seen before.

Lu Yin also saw that a creature had replied, saying that they knew the direction of the Crimson Starshade Civilization, but after that, there were no other replies. Lu Yin tried to write beneath it, but he found that it was impossible. Clearly, the master of the Thread of Heaven was preventing further discussion.

Lu Yin released that paper boat and took another. It was covered with writing, all of which were discussions about the Aevum Inch.

Every civilization had their own theories about the Aevum Inch, and Lu Yin found them interesting. He skimmed through them and then wrote at the bottom: “I’ve also seen that red-clothes, red-umbrella civilization. Be careful! They move about everywhere. The next place they run to might be your home.”

Then he took another paper boat and kept writing.

It felt familiar. He had done the same thing back in that other Thread of Heaven, writing on one stone after another and tossing them out.

For a full half a month, Lu Yin wrote on a number of paper boats. After that, he finally started to see some replies.

- Don’t scare people.

- Then go find whoever said it.

- I don’t believe it.

Another paper boat read:

- If it’s a fishing civilization, they should have a fishing method. How does this civilization fish?

- I want to know too.

- Shh! Don’t reply! Maybe this is how they fish.

- ...You just replied too.

Yet another paper boat read:

- Is someone actually discussing that civilization? The master of the Thread of Heaven always seems to stop this. People discussed it a while ago, but after just a couple lines, they couldn’t continue the conversation.

- Everyone’s interested in fishing civilizations.

- Want to talk about the springboard-placing civilization? With my many years of strategic brilliance, I can tell that they’re not simple.

- Obviously.

- Obviously.

Lu Yin read the messages one by one, but he did not find any replies from the creature who had claimed to know the direction of the Crimson Starshade Megaverse.

Just then, the water rippled as if a beam of light was sweeping through it. When Lu Yin looked back at the paper boats, all the information related to Crimson Starshade had been erased, as had all information about the springboard civilization.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. The information had been censored. Why would the master of the Thread of Heaven do that?

Suddenly, the scenery surrounding him drew back, and Lu Yin found himself back in outer space. He had been expelled from the river bed. He looked around at the Aevum Inch surrounding him. He had been kicked out. Clearly, the master had seen him, a creature in the shape of a human asking about Crimson Starshade. They might even suspect that Lu Yin himself was from there.

Hmph, you want to run? Interesting.

In that instant, the sheet of water had moved, going very, very far away. The Immortal was fleeing, and without the Mirrorlight Art, Lu Yin would not have been able to even find them. Even with teleportation, as long as the Thread of Heaven managed to go farther than what he could see with the naked eye, it would be difficult to locate.

But now, no one would be able to escape.

Mirrorlight Art.

Lu Yin scanned his surroundings, and he suddenly stared in one particular direction. A smile crept across his face. He had found it.

He teleported, instantly arriving in front of the sheet of water. A smile still on his face, he said, “Come out.”

The surface of the water suddenly twisted, and then the entire thing shot off in a different direction, looking like a streak of light.

Any creature capable of creating a Thread of Heaven had to have the ability to move quickly. Without that, the Thread of Heaven itself would be a danger to the Immortal who created it.

Lu Yin had once been thrown off by an escaping Thread of Heaven, but that was no longer possible.

Again he appeared directly in front of the sheet of water, his hands clasped behind his back. “Let’s talk. If you’re willing to create a Thread of Heaven, you clearly want to give weak civilizations a chance to survive. I don’t want to use force on you.”

“Are you a Crimson Starshade?” A low voice came from the water surface, the gender indistinguishable.

Lu Yin said, “I’m looking for them.”

“That has nothing to do with me. You may be an Aberrant, but I am an Immortal. If we fight, even with that unbelievable speed of yours, you won’t be my match. Move aside. I won’t get involved in your matters.”

Lu Yin asked curiously, “Why won’t you allow for any discussion of the Crimson Starshades? What are you hiding?”

“I simply don’t wish to have contact with any fishing civilization.”

“How do you know the Crimson Starshades are a fishing civilization?”