The fact that the Immortal from the Mudwater Dominion had managed to stop Lan Meng from escaping despite Lan Meng taking out their coffin and gate indicated that the Mudwater Dominion Immortal was at least a two-law Immortal. Why would Ba Se assign Lan Meng to such an opponent?

Ba Se clearly knew that Lan Meng had been heavily injured after their ambush against Ancestor Shan. And yet, Lan Meng had still been sent to face this opponent. This was sending Lan Meng to their death.

No, that should not be the case.

Ba Se had just told Lu Yin that Obscura would not deliberately arrange for any member to die, only for the very next moment to make him suspect exactly that. That was too much of a slap in the face. Ba Se was not that stupid.

Lu Yin stared at Lan Meng's corpse. Where were the wounds? They had been heavily injured by Ancestor Shan, and even though Lu Yin had not seen exactly where they had been hit, there had to be visible wounds.

The grievous injuries dealt by Ancestor Shan would be difficult to heal after only a few hundred years. Despite that, there was not a single wound to be seen on Lan Meng's corpse.

Lu Yin’s brow furrowed as he stared with greater intensity. The longer he looked, the more wrong the situation felt.

That was not Lan Meng's corpse, but an illusion. They were not dead

Even so, Lan Meng had to be on this battlefield, or else the Mudwater Dominion's Immortal would not be trying to trick others with Lan Meng’s corpse.

Lu Yin exhaled and took a step, appearing on a barren planet in the distance. With the Mirrorlight Art, he looked outwards in every direction from the location of Lan Meng's corpse, searching for the Mudwater Dominion Immortal that was using the illusion as bait.

Lan Meng was not dead, but a battle had certainly been fought. That meant that the Mudwater Dominion Immortal on this battlefield could not be too strong. At the very least, it was not beyond Lu Yin’s abilities to face.

There were both strong and weak Immortals among the eight elders. If he ran into a weaker one, he would deal with it. Lan Meng could escape, so there was no need to even consider them.

Found you. Lu Yin stared at a point that lay to the right of the illusion of the corpse. It was not too far away. There was a puddle of cement there. It was easy to miss with just a glance, as it was the exact same color as the ground. However, there was evidence of a previous battle there, which was how Lu Yin had noticed it.

Heaven’s Sight opened on Lu Yin's brow. He instantly vanished, reappearing directly above the puddle of cement, a hand already raised. As his hand pressed down, he released a river of sword intent.

This river of sword intent struck so suddenly that it startled the Mudwater Dominion Immortal. It had not been able to sense Lu Yin’s movements at all, though it still quickly tried to dodge. At the same time, sheets of paper appeared, folding into civilizational weapons that slammed into Lu Yin. All around him, droplets suddenly formed in the void, each one flickering with a strange light that distorted everything in view. These lights made it impossible to judge distance or space.

Lu Yin smiled. This was an interesting battle technique, but unfortunately, it could not fool Heaven's Sight.

He had cultivated far too many powers and abilities, making it nearly impossible for others to counter him. At the same time, he was able to easily counter many formidable enemies.

The cement charged at Lu Yin, taking advantage of the droplets' glow to try to envelop him.

Lu Yin also moved towards the cement, though the cement merely thought that the human’s sense of space had been distorted by the light, confusing his sense of direction and causing him to accidentally move toward the Immortal.

The cement expanded, ready to engulf Lu Yin.

His hand flicked, and a river of sword intent surged down his arm and sliced right through the cosmos, cutting through the cement that was closing in on him.

The cement was horrified. How can this be?

It then saw the teasing glint in Lu Yin's eyes. No, this member of Obscura had not been affected by the light. He’s an Aberrant, not an Immortal? How could Obscura accept an Aberrant?

It would much rather fight an Immortal.

Lu Yin raised his hand, using a finger as a sword. Directly in front of him, a droplet flashed with a five-colored light that contained a vast amount of Lifeforce and Immortal matter. Even so, the sword technique released by Lu Yin’s finger pierced and scattered that light.

The next instant, a beam of light connected all the scattered droplets together, and then they converged onto a single point. Even so, the combined strength of all the droplets were still not enough to stop the attack, and Lu Yin shattered that droplet as well.

This Immortal isn’t even as powerful as Ni Gui.

As that thought passed through his mind, his attack veered away from the cement. The strike missed.

Lu Yin was surprised. I missed?

"You are Ni Fan." Lu Yin spoke, thinking of one of the Mudwater Dominion's eight elders. This was Ni Fan, who was also known as Water Moon.

Water Moon was a very poetic name, and it came from Obscura’s description of Ni Fan. This Immortal was skilled at twisting the void near it to refract an opponent's attacks. According to Obscura’s information, while Ni Fan was only a one-law Immortal, at its peak, it had managed to refract the attacks of a two-law powerhouse and escape.

Compared to Ni Gui, Ni Fan was not a powerful attacker, but rather a much more skilled survivor.

"When did Obscura accept an Aberrant?" Ni Fan's voice was soft and gentle. More droplets were constantly gathering in the area. A river of sword intent sliced down through the void, but the attack was completely refracted by the droplets, and the attack missed again.

Lu Yin’s first attack had landed because he had held the advantage of Ni Fan not knowing anything about it, but now that the Immortal was on guard, it had grown just as wary of Lu Yin as it was of Lan Meng. It treated Lu Yin as if he were an Immortal. It would not be easy to land another attack.

However, no matter how highly Ni Fan might estimate Lu Yin’s strength to be, it would at most consider him equal to Lan Meng.

But Lu Yin was not Lan Meng.

There was a roar as purple sight power descended with Pressure Over All Living Beings. All around Ni Fan, its droplets instantly plummeted, unable to withstand the pressure.

Lu Yin raised his hand, and his scythe swept to the side.

A surge of Activeness flooded Ni Fan's body, much to its horror. Was this a cosmic law? This was no ordinary Aberrant. It wanted to retreat, but Pressure Over All Living Beings made every movement a struggle. As the scythe swept by, ripples spread around the Immortal, instantly spreading into the distance. The scythe slash had missed.

Lu Yin arched a brow. He had clearly slashed Ni Fan, but the scythe had passed straight through the creature. This was its world.

Ni Fan's appearance kept warping as though it were ripples atop a pool of water. Even its voice was distorted. "Just who are you? For you to be a part of Obscura, there is no other Aberrant with strength like yours."

Lu Yin clenched his weapon Aberrant and chopped down. The scythe missed again.

He frowned. This was not as simple as distorting the void. Anyone who could reach the Immortal realm had to be a genius who had developed their own methods. Ni Fan had focused on developing evasion methods, and it truly had some impressive tricks.

As Lu Yin fought, Heaven's Sight kept sensing the gaze of other creatures. They belonged to other Mudwater Dominion members.

Some of the creatures clung to the ground as Ni Fan had. It had not brought over an entire Mudwater Dominion like Ni Gui had.

Ni Gui and Ni Fan had very different temperaments. One was flamboyant and aggressive, while the other tried to stay low-key and focused on survival skills.

Even so, neither could avoid Lu Yin.

He suddenly paused and turned to stare into the distance. Lan Meng.

They were far away, having been avoiding Ni Fan for some time. They were already seriously injured, having not recovered over the course of multiple years. If not for the fact that Lan Meng had already used their one chance to refuse a mandatory draft, they would have never joined this war.

Even if Ba Se had arranged for Lan Meng to face Ni Fan, one of the weakest of the eight elders, they were still not a match for the Mudwater Dominion Immortal.

After several exchanges, Lan Meng had been forced to hide, and Ni Fan had not been able to find them.

Now, they saw that Lu Yin was actually fighting Ni Fan. No matter if it was Lu Yin or Ni Fan, Lan Meng did not want to face either.

After a single glance, they prepared to move away. This sort of battle could easily shift over to where they were hiding.

Just a moment later, Lan Meng made eye contact with Lu Yin.

How did Lu Yin see me? Lan Meng was shocked and did not hesitate even a moment as they raced into the distance to flee.

Lu Yin sneered and vanished, teleporting away.

Left behind, Ni Fan was stunned. It stared at the empty cosmos. Where did he go?

Its heart kept sinking. This Aberrant was an absolute expert. Ni Fan was not able to even see through his movement technique. It was not an opponent for him at all. It could not linger on this battlefield.

Elsewhere, Lu Yin appeared in front of Lan Meng.

"You weren’t thinking of escaping when I can teleport, were you?" Lu Yin directed a bright smile at Lan Meng. Many years had passed since their first meeting. Originally, Lan Meng was the one who had sensed Qi Xu's death and then accepted the mission to destroy the Human Trio, targeting humanity with the Tricolor Skyborne in order to lure the Seven-Treasure Anuras over.

Lan Meng themself had fought more than one fierce battle against human experts.

Back then, Lu Yin had been no match for Lan Meng, but at this moment, Lan Meng no longer had the courage to even stand up to him.

Lan Meng warily eyed Lu Yin. "What do you want to do? This is a war between Obscura and the Mudwater Dominion. Don’t think that your actions here can be hidden from Obscura."

Lu Yin sneered. "You want to threaten me with Obscura? Fine. I won’t do anything to you, but I can bring Ni Fan to you. How long do you think you can last against it?"

Lan Meng's eight eyes locked onto Lu Yin. Each one radiated a cold light. Behind their skull-like face, the ring of their blue halo could be faintly made out. It was hard to see, but there was also a blue coffin always floating at their side. "I can flee back to Vestigium."

Lu Yin nodded. "Then run away. There will be more than one war that we are forced to fight in, and believe it or not, even if there isn’t a draft, I have other ways to see you dead.

"I forced Hong Xia to hide in Crimson Starshade, unable to even come out."

Lan Meng's eyes flickered. While staring at Lu Yin, they were also looking in all other directions as well. Lan Meng was completely on guard.

Of course Lu Yin would not attack Lan Meng. Striking at this moment would be courting death. Ba Se would not let such a matter go.

Still, as long as he did not strike, his actions were fine.

As for the war between Obscura and the Mudwater Dominion, he did not care who won or lost. They were all his enemies. It would be best if they destroyed each other.

After thinking for a while, Lan Meng decided not to return to Vestigium. It was not possible to leave a forced conscription at will. Lu Yin might not fully understand Obscura’s wartime rules, but Lan Meng understood them very well.

If it was possible for members of Obscura to leave at any time, then how could they fight a war?

In order to be allowed to leave, they needed to encounter true mortal danger. At minimum, Lu Yin would have to draw Ni Fan over, creating a lethal threat to Lan Meng. Not only that, but they would also have to be in a near-death state before they were allowed to retreat. Anything else would be considered desertion.

"Lu Yin, I no longer have anything to do with your human civilization. My mission there has been canceled. Why are you still targeting me?" Lan Meng gritted their teeth and spoke in a low voice.

Lu Yin looked at Lan Meng. "Who told you to ambush Ancestor Shan?"

"The Seven-Treasure Anuras are not part of human civilization. Even if you want to avenge those toads, you should not target me. I did not fatally wound Ancestor Shan."

"Listen carefully to my question: who told you to ambush Ancestor Shan?"

Lan Meng's skull-like face twisted into an even more ferocious expression. "This has nothing to do with you!"

Lu Yin nodded. "Then me bringing Ni Fan over here has nothing to do with you. You just happen to be here, which I cannot help."

"Lu Yin, don’t go too far!"

"The Seven-Treasure Anuras would love to visit the Bluebright Realm."

Lan Meng was beyond furious. That despicable Furball had spilled their information. Without that, Lu Yin would have never even heard of the Bluebright Realm.

Hong Xia was also to blame. He was going against Lu Yin, and yet Lan Meng was the one to suffer from their conflict.

"Answer my question!" Lu Yin barked.

Lan Meng breathed heavily, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "I do not know."

Lu Yin arched a brow. "You don’t know?"

In Vestigium, Lan Meng had mentioned that no powerful being had been watching Ancestor Shan from the shadows and that they had only attacked because they had judged that Ancestor Shan was at the end of his strength.

However, both of them understood the reality of the situation. How could Lan Meng have appeared at precisely the right time, with another Immortal to help ambush Ancestor Shan at such a critical moment? It was clear that the entire ambush had been planned long in advance. At this moment, Lan Meng did not even bother repeating such a pointless excuse.