Hong Xia kept tapping the frozen space with his index finger. Cracks continued to endlessly spread out, making it impossible to approach the man.

In an instant, Lu Yin carried Green Lotus far away from the frozen region. The ice spread further than an average Immortal could see. If not for Lu Yin’s Mirrorlight Art and pathfinding stones, he would not have been able to escape.

“We can’t get close. Those ice fissures can even kill Immortals,” Lu Yin said warily. He was especially frustrated since he could not attack at all.

Obscura’s methods were unpredictable, and there was no doubt that Hong Xia was keeping an eye on Lu Yin. The moment he lashed out, Hong Xia would report the matter to Obscura. After that, the situation would get far more difficult.

But right now, Hong Xia was unable to directly target Lu Yin. That was why every one of Hong Xia’s moves was a wide-area attack. If Lu Yin walked into the damage on his own, he would not be able to blame anyone, as Hong Xia was not purposely attacking him.

Teleportation meant that the initiative remained in Lu Yin’s hands. If he was hurt, it would be his own fault.

Green Lotus said, “Take me to that place.”

Lu Yin had no idea what Green Lotus intended to do, but he did not need to know anything. He was an outsider in this battle, not a participant. The ones who had truly arranged the situation to reach this juncture were Jiu Wen and Green Lotus.

Lu Yin teleported away, reappearing to deliver Green Lotus just past the ice under Hong Xia.

Hong Xia looked downward. Though he looked down, it was still a vast distance, beyond what an average Immortal could even see.

Green Lotus raised both hands: Thousand-Petaled Lotus Hand.

As he thrust both palms upwards, a lotus bloomed and then rapidly expanded. It eventually spread beneath the entire mass of frozen space... and lifted it up.

Lu Yin was stunned. He had seen Little Lotus King and others use Thousand-Petaled Lotus Hand before, but he had never seen anything even close to this magnitude. This was no different from lifting up an entire megaverse.

The area of frozen space was about the size of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, and yet the Thousand-Petaled Lotus Hand forced it up all the same.

Hong Xia let out a disdainful snort and pressed down an upraised hand. The void froze again as white frost descended towards Green Lotus and Lu Yin. The Greater Sancte’s eyes went still. As one hand continued to support the lotus, the other attacked. His finger pierced the frozen region: Thousand Faces of Karma, Karmic Heavenwheel. One finger split the frozen region as it shot towards Hong Xia.

The man himself appeared unconcerned, but how could he truly disregard a karmic attack? Green Lotus was extremely strong himself, and his Karmic Heavenwheel was one of his most powerful techniques. There was a clang as a red sword appeared in Hong Xia’s hand. He slashed down once, splitting the frozen region in two and shattering it with a thunderous crash.

The Twelvefold Path of Dispassion. The red sword. Greater Sancte Green Lotus stared intently as the slash drew closer and closer. The moment his Karmic Heavenwheel was about to meet the red sword, Green Lotus vanished. Hong Xia’s expression changed—teleportation. He spun around, slashing his sword to the side, but there was no one behind him. Instead, the Karmic Heavenwheel dropped down from overhead. Hong Xia raised his other hand to block the attack.

A finger and a palm collided, and this time, Hong Xia’s palm was pressed back by the force of the attack pushing towards his body. His sword rose in a counterattack, but Lu Yin once again carried Green Lotus away. After the clash, Hong Xia withdrew his hand and glanced at it. His palm had almost been pierced.

Elsewhere, Green Lotus’s expression was grave. His Karmic Heavenwheel had failed to even pierce Hong Xia’s palm.

Lu Yin’s expression wasn’t much better. Hong Xia’s defense was absurd.

Hong Xia clenched a fist and stared at Lu Yin. “Do you really think that Obscura won’t do anything to you? Breaking the rules is courting death!”

Although four anchors of his Twelvefold Path of Dispassion had been broken, as long as more than six were not broken, the man’s strength would barely be affected.

Lu Yin shot back, “I haven’t broken any rules. There’s an element of coincidence when it comes to teleporting. You know that.”

Hong Xia’s face fell. Unless Lu Yin attacked him outright, him teleporting around would not prove anything. Even if everyone knew that Lu Yin was acting deliberately, so what?

Since Obscura had specifically invited him to join, they would tolerate his willfulness, but even that tolerance had its limits.

Hong Xia gripped the hilt of his sword and slowly raised it before taking a step forward. The space around him froze, and in an instant, sword slashes scattered in all directions.

Lu Yin immediately teleported away with Green Lotus. A moment later, enormous rifts raced after them like a devouring beast.

“Retreat!” Green Lotus barked in a low voice.

Lu Yin vanished again, this time moving twenty years’ travel away, which was the limit of his Mirrorlight Art. Even so, he could still see the spatial tears closing in on him. Hong Xia was getting serious, and he was displaying a terrifying level of power in the form of a wide spread attack. The area that his attack encompassed was enough to make one’s scalp go numb.

Hong Xia sneered. He did not chase after Lu Yin but instead headed toward the Human Trio.

Lu Yin’s expression sank. This was the worst possible outcome. Hong Xia had no intention of fighting them. His target was the Human Trio.

As long as Lu Yin and Green Lotus cared about the Human Trio, those megaverses would be their weakness.

Teleportation.

Lu Yin and Green Lotus instantly appeared before Hong Xia. The man was already prepared for them, and his sword slashed forward. With the power of the Twelvefold Path of Dispassion, not even Green Lotus wanted to receive the attack head-on. Lu Yin prepared to teleport again, only for a red umbrella to open without any warning. An orange line appeared along the edge of the umbrella, connecting one rib to another, as though adding a base to the umbrella’s ribs.

There was only a single line that was connected to every rib, cutting the plane beneath the umbrella into countless square segments of space.

Lu Yin’s teleport failed to bring him outside of the umbrella’s range. Instead, he simply moved from one square segment of space into an adjacent one.

He stared at Hong Xia in shock, but the Immortal just leveled a cold stare his way. The red sword dropped.

Beside Lu Yin, karma appeared in front of Green Lotus, moving to intercept the red sword.

The slash cut into karma, only to be strangely redirected to fly back at Hong Xia himself.

The man twisted his body aside to evade the attack, which ripped through the void behind him. The damage continued far into the distance, effectively splitting the Aevum Inch within their sight.

Hong Xia stared at Greater Sancte Green Lotus. “Karmic reversal.”

Green Lotus stared at Hong Xia and asked Lu Yin, “Did you see it clearly?”

Lu Yin let out a breath. “So that’s how it is.”

He had failed to teleport, though not exactly. He could still teleport, but the space around him had been completely cut off. This was no different from how humanity had captured Luo Chan; they had severed the bug’s connection to the Aevum Inch.

It was just that it was extraordinarily difficult to sever an Immortal’s connection to the Aevum Inch.

Jiang Feng’s cosmic law was only able to prevent Yue Lu from interacting with the Aevum Inch for a mere instant, whereas Hong Xia had used his red umbrella as a foundation and Obscura’s orange line as a weapon to completely isolate all space within his umbrella’s range. Even so, this did not fully sever it from the Aevum Inch itself.

The man abandoned a brief, total severance in exchange for a long-lasting segmented region of space that used severed space as a barrier.

It was still possible to teleport within this segmented space, but only to adjacent segments. That was because each neighboring segment was thoroughly isolated and would remain isolated for a long time.

The larger the area that the umbrella enveloped, the greater the number of segmented sections of space. It was still possible to escape, but Lu Yin would need to teleport continuously to do so.

But Hong Xia would not give them that chance. This was his method for dealing with the Plume Immortals’ teleportation ability.

By combining Crimson Starshade’s inheritance with Obscura’s line, Hong Xia had created a trump card against the Plume Immortals.

“No wonder you chose Obscura. The Plume Immortals must have gone after you more than once, and you were able to slip away with this trick,” Lu Yin observed.

Hong Xia’s eyes were icy. “Teleportation is indeed a troublesome ability to face, but no innate gift is truly invincible. Even Plume Immortals die, and throughout history, plenty of those birds have fallen. Anyone who knows about their ability will study counters. You are no exception.”

“I should thank you for teaching me,” Lu Yin nodded.

Hong Xia sneered. “It doesn’t matter. When Obscura goes to war against the Plume Immortals, if I don’t teach you this, Ba Se will.

“Leave on your own. I won’t attack you, but you will not be able to take him with you.”

Lu Yin exchanged a look with Green Lotus.

“That’s enough,” the Greater Sancte said.

Lu Yin nodded and then released Old First, the Seven-Treasure Anura.

The moment the toad appeared, Hong Xia’s expression changed. He remembered this toad. It was an expert who resonated with two cosmic laws.

Old First looked around. He saw the Path of Dispassion and the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm both covering the cosmos. the red umbrella, the segmented sections of space, and the shattered area of frozen space off in the distance that appeared to be as large as an entire megaverse.

This battle would not be easy.

The harder the battle, the more necessary it was to fight. As that thought passed, a thick blackness shrouded Old First’s body. He swelled up, growing larger and larger. The void could not bear his weight and started to sink. Even the segment of space severed by the red umbrella and orange line started to sink.

Hong Xia stared at Old First. “I remember now. You are a Seven-Treasure Anura.”

Old First’s lips peeled back. “Human, if you don’t want to die, then scram!”

Lu Yin stood between Old First and Greater Sancte Green Lotus. He had to admit—there was an overwhelming sense of security in this position. Even if the two of them together were unable to kill Hong Xia, he was similarly unable to do much to them.

Hong Xia stared at Old First. “The legends say that the Seven-Treasure Anuras once had close ties with the Nine Ramparts, but during that war, your species didn’t help the Nine Ramparts—you fled.”

Old First’s eyes flooded with black. “How ridiculous. I wasn’t even there back then. Are we fighting or not? If not, get lost.”

Hong Xia frowned before looking upwards. No matter how they fought, karma was constantly fighting him for control over the Aevum Inch. Why? Did Green Lotus need it, or were they on guard against him?

Could they be on guard against his law?

Hong Xia recalled his conversation with Jiu Wen. There was still some hidden hand behind the scenes. That hand had told Jiu Wen about Hong Xia’s past, enabling the man to scheme against him. How much did that hidden figure truly know about Hong Xia?

He suddenly felt uneasy. If he fought these people to the death here, would that hidden figure be the one to ultimately end up profiting?

This toad and Green Lotus were already not easy opponents. Even if Hong Xia could kill them, the price that he would have to pay would be enormous.

Staring at Old First, the man remembered Ancestor Shan’s death. In Vestigium, Lu Yin had said that Ancestor Shan had not fled because something had been watching him.

The more that Hong Xia thought, the more nervous he became. He looked and stared at Lu Yin and the others before his eyes settled on Green Lotus. “Why do you keep your karma released at all times?”

Lu Yin laughed. “You think that we’d tell you? This is a fight to the death, not a friendly spar.”

“You know what my cosmic law is!” Hong Xia shouted, glaring at his three opponents.

Neither Lu Yin nor Green Lotus showed any change in expression, but Old First’s eyes rippled slightly, despite having already turned entirely black.

Seeing that, Hong Xia knew that he had guessed correctly. He turned and left without hesitation.

“Not fighting anymore?” Lu Yin provoked.

Old First glanced at Lu Yin, desperately wanting the human brat to shut up.

With a grim expression on his face, Hong Xia moved away, heading back to Crimson Starshade.

Once he was completely gone, Old First let out a breath. “We scared him off.”

Green Lotus remained concerned. “Could he have been testing us? With teleportation, if we truly were confident in being able to kill him, we would not let him escape. The fact that we did not give chase makes us look unsure.”

Lu Yin stared into the distance. “This wasn’t a test. He’s afraid of that hidden mastermind, the one that told Senior Jiu Wen about the Absolute of No Absolute.”