Chapter 3762: Che

The man observed Yue Ya for a moment and then placed a hand on his chest and offered a slow bow. “If I startled you, I truly apologize. I am here hoping that you will do me the courtesy of returning my belongings to me.”

Yue Ya continually retreated while remaining intently focused on the unknown man. “Exactly who are you?”

The man revealed a bit of frustration. “It’s inconvenient for me to say, and I am also unable to explain. After all, you have not yet reached that level.

“If you must have a name, you may call me Che.”

Yue Ya failed to make sense of what “that level” meant. He had succeeded in becoming one of the Lesser Sancti, meaning that he was just one step away from breaking through to become an Immortal. Could this man possibly be an Immortal?

“Are you an Immortal?”

Che just smiled and placed a hand on his chest before offering another bow. “I still must ask you to do me the courtesy of returning my belongings to me.”

“What belongings?” Yue Ya stopped questioning the man’s power. Yue Ya just wanted to get away from Che.

“The fragment of my Starforged Sword,” Che slowly stated.

Yue Ya was shaken. The Starforged Sword. It had taken him and the people of Ruler Garden tremendous effort to shatter that sword. Yue Ya had assumed that the sword was a living creature, but no, it was merely this Che’s weapon.

Without any hesitation, Yue Ya flung the shard of the sword that he had picked up at Che. Yue Ya’s first and only priority was to transform his manifested thought, and thus he cared about nothing else for the time being.

Che caught the fragment and smiled at Yue Ya. “Thank you.”

The man then stepped back, gradually vanishing from sight.

Yue Ya remained lost in a daze until well after the man had disappeared.

Was Che really an Immortal? If so, where had he come from? Why had he been so polite? Multiple questions filled Yue Ya’s mind as he turned to stare in the direction o fthe Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

While both the Greater Sancti and Lesser Sancti embodied the will of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, the two titles were completely different.

The positions of the Lesser Sancti were constantly being fought over. Even someone from a lesser megaverse like the Spirit Nidus could be given the position of a Lesser Sancte. No matter how one looked at things, the Lesser Sancti existed to maintain balance between the different megaverses.

On the other hand, the Greater Sancti were almost never seen. Forget other people—even the Lesser Sancti found it difficult to meet with the Immortals.

Similarly, while many people and organizations were qualified to report to the Greater Sancti, did that mean that the Greater Sancti responded to every submitted report? Not even close. If the Greater Sancti decided to respond once out of every ten submitted reports, it would be considered remarkable.

This was even true for the Lesser Sancti’s reports.

The Greater Sancti had always been untouchable. The Immortals were truly above the mortals and were inaccessible.

Yet the Nine Odysseys Megaverse was of a limited size. Under its banner lay not only the Spirit Nidus, the Consciousness, and the Tianyuan megaverses, but also more remote ones. Those places shared the Spirit Nidus’s fate, having been harvested and dominated. It was clear at a glance that those megaverses had no future. In that case, why did the Greater Sancti remain so mysterious?

The more mysterious they were, the more everyone would clamor after the Greater Sancti. Who did not wish to achieve Immortality? Who did not want to rise up and become a Greater Sancte? It looked like it was rising to an entirely new level of existence.

Over the course of countless years, only the four Greater Sancti had ever risen to power. Their positions had remained forever unchanged. Even when one of the Immortals died, their vacant seat had been fought over, despite no one being confident that they could ascend to the Immortal realm.

If the Lesser Sancti were considered emperors among mortals, then the Greater Sancti truly reigned above all as gods.

If Che was truly an Immortal, then only the Greater Sancti might possibly know his origins.

After all, the common understanding was that the only Immortals around were the three Greater Sancti and Master Qing Cao.

Far away, Che stepped out before the High Seraph, and as the man stared on in astonishment, Che smiled and asked, “Is it you? No, it’s not you. You’re only one of them.

“Could you please return my belongings to me?”

The High Seraph’s eye twitched. “What belongings?”

“The fragments of the Starforged Sword.”

Gleaming shards appeared, and the High Seraph immediately returned them to Che.

Che nodded. “Thank you.”

He then stepped back, and slowly vanished from sight.

When he next appeared, he was quite close to Boundless. “There are two fragments left; one is here, but the other...”

He looked toward the megaverse’s boundary, his gaze seemingly piercing the megaverse and even the Aevum Inch to see a figure who was rapidly moving along with the assistance of a springboard. “There it is. No matter, I can catch up.

“Hmm? Is this person cultivating? It would be inconvenient for them to be disturbed, so I’ll just wait a bit.”

He took a step forward and boarded Boundless. No one noticed Che’s arrival, even as his second step delivered him behind Lu Yin and Old Chief. The man then slowly leaned against a wall and smiled as he watched.

Not only did no one aboard Boundless notice Che’s arrival, but Lu Yin himself also remained unaware.

He once again Possessed Old Chief in order to experience the conscient’s memories.

It was incredibly difficult to alter the conscient’s memories to simulate the pressure from the palace. Lu Yin continuously experimented, constantly choosing new approaches. In the blink of an eye, months passed.

The more deeply that Lu Yin understood the vastness of Old Chief’s memories, the more powerless he felt. While the pressure resembled the pressure from the palace in the Willbound Spire: illusory, ethereal, and yet strong, there was nowhere to apply the pressure to. Lu Yin could not invert the pressure or form a memory string. But he needed to form a memory string to connect the two sensations and thereby invert them.

He could not forget Gui Shaoqing’s case either. If Lu Yin’s own memory string snapped, and he briefly entered a vegetative state, then the pressure from the palace’s memories would disappear. That also seemed like a viable path.

Lu Yin spent some time exploring this alternate route and attempted to snap a string of memories while retaining control of himself.

He still could not find any clues, nor could he achieve any sort of breakthrough.

Months of trials had resulted in a direction forward, but he encountered one wall after another. How long would he need to overcome them all? It would be an incredible length of time.

Old Chief suffered this entire time. He was certain that he was being repeatedly Possessed and having his memories scoured. It was torture. Not only was Old Chief’s life in Lu Yin’s hands, but not even the conscient’s memories were safe from the human.

It was agonizing to simply wait for death.

Che was also waiting. He had observed Lu Yin attempt every possible method to manipulate memory, only to fail at every attempt. Che shook his head in resignation; he could not wait any longer. If he delayed any further, the other person would slip away. There was still one more fragment of his Starforged Sword that needed to be recovered. He could not allow his loyal weapon that had accompanied him through so many life or death battles to remain incomplete.

With that thought, Che softly commented, “By changing form, one can change the function.”

Lu Yin’s eyes snapped open as he was struck by a flash of insight. Form, function, memory... Of course! How did I not think of this before?

Suddenly, his head turned and he looked back at Che.

Lu Yin had heard a stranger’s voice and now noticed a stranger’s presence.

At that moment, Lu Yin just stared at Che, not moving at all. He released his consciousness to cover all of Boundless, and he could see Chu Yi and everyone else. There was no sign of even the smallest disturbance. Clearly, no one had noticed this person’s approach or arrival.

Who is this man? What is his cultivation realm? What does he want? Countless questions flooded Lu Yin’s mind, just the same as with Yue Ya.

Che smiled at Lu Yin while placing a hand on his chest and slowly bowing. “My apologies for interrupting you. I had wanted to wait a bit longer, but my time is limited. I had no choice but to intrude upon your efforts. I hope that you won’t hold this against me.”

Old Chief stared blankly at Che. He’s not a member of Boundless? When did he get here?

Lu Yin suppressed his shock and calmly asked, “Who might you be, sir?”

Che smiled. “You don’t hold any hostility towards me and are actually quite friendly.”

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered. Hostility? Of course not. Someone had silently approached him and then observed him for so long without him or any of the other experts aboard Boundless noticing a thing; what was the point of hostility? Lu Yin was certain that neither the High Seraph, Yue Ya, nor any of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s other Lesser Sancti could sneak up on him in such a manner.

Those people were all peak Dukkhans, considered to be the most powerful beneath the Immortal realm. If those people were unable to sneak up on Lu Yin, then there was absolutely no doubt that this man was an Immortal.

Lu Yin had always been wary of Master Qing Cao. Both when fighting in the Willbound Spire and later when fighting against Yue Ya, Lu Yin had always remained aware of his surroundings, just in case Master Qing Cao suddenly appeared. Such precautions were pointless, but only those who had faced an Immortal could understand the helplessness and despair that Lu Yin had felt.

The moment he laid eyes on the man, Lu Yin knew that he was looking at an Immortal, as he felt the same sense of powerlessness as when he had confronted Master Qing Cao.

There was no point in showing hostility towards such a person. Whether or not they were enemies was not for Lu Yin to decide; the other man held the full initiative.

“My name is Lu Yin.”

“You may call me Che, as in clear.”

Lu Yin made a point to soften his gaze as much as possible. “Clarity? A fine name.”

Che smiled. “You truly are quite kind. Are you sure you’re not angry I disturbed you?”

Lu Yin showed a slight smile. “Not at all. Is there anything I can assist you with, Senior?”

Che smiled. “There’s no need to call me Senior, just Che is fine.”

“Alright then. Is there anything I can help you with, Che?” Lu Yin did not argue.

Che bowed again, and very politely asked, “If I may trouble you, could Your Excellency return the fragment of the Starforged Sword to me?”

Lu Yin did not hesitate for even a moment before pulling out the shard. “Here you go.”

Che accepted it. “Thank you, Lu Yin.”

“You’re welcome. Is the Starforged Sword yours?”

“Yes. It’s my weapon. While it might be a bit disobedient, it’s very loyal.”

Lu Yin swallowed hard. As expected, this man was an Immortal. A mere weapon had forced Yue Ya to work with others to defeat it, and it had been far beyond Lu Yin’s ability to deal with. Who but an Immortal could control such a weapon?

“Your Starforged Sword was shattered. Do you intend to find those who broke it?”

Che shook his head. “That’s unnecessary. I’ve already spoken to that being of manifested thought. Quite the pleasant individual, if a bit overly cautious. Still, that’s fine. He’s still a good person.”

Lu Yin said nothing, despite his inner protests. Who would dare to misbehave in front of you? Yue Ya had to have realized that you’re an Immortal.

But where had this Immortal come from? Che seemed to have appeared from absolutely nowhere.

The man smiled at Lu Yin. “Thank you once again. Well then, I’ll take my leave.”

Lu Yin nodded and then watched as Che stepped back and slowly disappeared. Only after enough time had passed for half an incense stick to have burned away did he let out a breath of relief and clean the sweat dripping from his forehead.

An Immortal, and a completely unknown one, at that. What is going on?

Ever since Lu Yin had learned of the Spirit Nidus’s existence, his horizons had been continuously expanded, granting him a glimpse into an entirely new realm.

The truth was that both the Tianyuan and Spirit Nidus had been shielded from the truth. Who else knew that an Immortal had arrived? Was the Nine Odysseys Megaverse aware? Did the three Greater Sancti know Che?

There was also the shard of the broken Starforged Sword, which had allowed Lu Yin to see the specks of light within the Broken Realms. What was the connection between those specks of light and the blade shard? It was a pity that he had to return the shard, as it meant that Lu Yin could no longer see the specks of light. He had not even been able to make sense of their existence.

Wait. He suddenly realized that he had forgotten to even check if the man had a karmic chain on his wrist.

Thinking back, Lu Yin felt confident that there had not been any such mark. If there had been, he was certain that he would have noticed it.

If there was no karmic chain, then was Che really an Immortal?

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