Lu Yin looked at the multicolored Divine Tree in the distance. He had not expected this twist. It was a good thing for humanity. 1,000 years of protection from Obscura would prevent Hong Xia from targeting the Human Trio. Of course, they would also be prevented from striking Crimson Starshade.

It was incredibly tempting.

He had long since worried that Hong Xia would launch a surprise attack on the Trio, which was why he had even tried to find ways to trap Hong Xia within Crimson Starshade.

But when facing someone with no bottom line, any such plan was futile.

Hong Xia was free. As long as he did not attack Lu Yin himself, he could do anything at any time.

1,000 years was relatively short and merely a benefit granted by Obscura. In fact, it was more likely that members of Obscura who participated in a war used these 1,000 years to recuperate. Otherwise, if their enemies used that period to attack, it would be extremely unfavorable to any who fought on behalf of Obscura.

Regardless of the reason, Lu Yin needed those 1,000 years. That was enough time for him to make another breakthrough attempt. At the very least, he could revisit the Longevity Civilization and maybe try to pluck the remaining eyes of the Ten-Eyed Divine Crow. He could build the wall in his heart higher, track down Furball, and do many, many other things.

No matter how brutal the war might be, for someone who could teleport and had Crow Immobilization, escape would always be possible as long as he did not encounter some being who resonated with three cosmic laws.

"Ba Se, given my level of strength, you won’t assign me to deal with some old monster who’s a two- or three-law Immortal, right?" Lu Yin asked.

"This war can only be won, not lost. Every member of Obscura is precious."

Lu Yin pondered for a moment, then clenched his jaw. "Fine, I’ll participate."

With those words, multiple scenes appeared within the coffin that housed Lu Yin's consciousness. They were images of the formidable enemy that Obscura was about to fight.

The images shared all available information regarding the enemy. Anything that Obscura knew, Lu Yin was able to see it. Nothing was kept hidden. Of course, seeing the information was not the same as understanding it.

Lu Yin stared blankly at the images. The enemy... is it really that?

As that thought swirled through his head, he heard voices outside the coffin.

"This will be troublesome. So it’s actually this civilization? Ba Se, can I change my mind?" Furball was the first to speak.

Old Man Hehe chuckled and spoke up as well. "Sigh. Our losses this time will be heavy."

Che also joined the conversation. "If this war can be avoided, it should be. Ba Se, this is far too disadvantageous for us."

Ba Se did not reply. Clearly, there was no avoiding this war.

Lu Yin was in no hurry to say anything. He had already finished reviewing all the information Ba Se had provided. He let out a breath. So that was the situation. No wonder those old fellows did not want to fight. For them, this was truly a huge complication.

"By the way, is that Lu Yin brat fighting in this war?" Old Man Hehe suddenly shouted as he had just thought of something.

Furball raised their voice as well. "Yeah, where is that little thing? Come out and say something!"

"Ba Se, please have Lu Yin join this war. He can turn the tide," Che agreed.

Ba Se finally spoke. "Lu Yin has agreed to participate."

"Good."

"Hehe."

"Thank you."

"We'll be counting on him."

"Furball, Lu Yin may not be willing to help you."

"What? And he’ll be willing to help you?"

"I will help no one," Lu Yin stated in a firm voice. His announcement caused Vestigium to instantly fall silent again.

After a long while, Che spoke again, "Lu Yin, you should understand our enemy civilization by now. Can you help everyone a little?"

Lu Yin smirked. "No. After all, we are not friends."

Che’s voice sounded helpless. "This war is for the sake of Obscura."

Lu Yin replied, "For Obscura, I can offer up even my life, so I will go all out in this war. Still, everyone should look after themselves."

"Brat, don't be so arrogant! Do you really think that we can't manage without you?" Furball shouted angrily.

Lu Yin sneered. "I had originally planned to help you, Furball. After all, we've visited each other. But now, I won't."

Furball fumed in silence.

"Hehe, brat, state your conditions."

"Old Man Hehe, stop pretending to be so mysterious. Why don’t you tell me who you are first?"

"My lineage would mean nothing to you even if I told you."

"Tell me anyways. Someone will know about it."

"I can tell you something about Hong Xia that you definitely don't know," Furball suddenly interjected.

Lu Yin was certainly interested in that. "Sure, go ahead."

"If I tell you, will you help me?"

"Hmph. How can I know it’s new information if you don’t say it? Are you trying to get something for nothing? Do you think everyone is as stupid as you?"

"You...!” Furball was furious.

Che continued to be very polite. "Lu Yin, war requires a unity of purpose to achieve victory. Our opponent this time will not be easy to deal with, and they can even be said to be very powerful. If you help us, we will also help you."

Lu Yin agreed, "Che is right. Fine, for his sake, you can leave the final blow to me."

Old Man Hehe was caught off guard. "It's not that simple. If it was, they wouldn’t be called Aberrants in the Aevum Inch."

"Then what else can be done? You don't expect me to handle things on my own, do you?"

"Nothing that excessive, but you will definitely need to put in some effort. After all, when the other side senses something amiss, it may already be too late, so..."

"You still want to put on a performance? That won't do. This is too mentally exhausting. Do as you please," Lu Yin said before simply leaving Vestigium.

In Vestigium, Old Man Hehe and the others called out several times, but there was no response.

Furball angrily spat, "He's playing us!"

Che remained calm. "Not necessarily. Lu Yin already said that he will land the final blow."

Furball snorted contemptuously. "Does leaving the final blow for him count as him helping us? I can find someone who’s reached the pinnacle of strength beneath the Immortal realm as well. These are Aberrants—even a slight mistake and we'll be in trouble.

"Ba Se, must we really go to war?"

Ba Se replied, "A war is not initiated by only one side."

Old Man Hehe laughed. "For this war, simply avoiding losses can be considered a victory. What that child wants is to receive some benefits. Offer him enough, and he will eventually cooperate with us. Ba Se, when will this war begin?"

"There are still 100 days left."

Elsewhere, Lu Yin’s expression was solemn after leaving Vestigium. This war would not be simple, and he needed to prepare.

The first step was to conduct an investigation with karma.

He arrived on the mountain behind the Heavens Sect, and after greeting Mister Mu, proceeded to toss out the living pile of mud.

The pile of mud had been the master of the Thread of Heaven that looked like the surface of a pool of water. Lu Yin had even found the location of Crimson Starshade’s megaverse through that Thread of Heaven, and after severely injuring the pile of mud, Lu Yin had thrown the creature into a Zenith Mountain.

He had always wanted to examine the pile of mud's karma but had not had the time due to being delayed with the Crimson Starshade affair. Now, there was no choice but to look because Obscura was about to go to war with the pile of mud’s civilization, the Mudwater Dominion.

The pile of mud looked absolutely miserable when it was thrown out. Despite so many years having passed, it had not managed to recover from its injuries yet.

Upon seeing the pile of mud again, Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. As expected, it had already fallen from the Immortal realm. That was not because its injuries were too severe, but rather because it had never truly been an Immortal to begin with.

The Mudwater Dominion was a strange civilization that used Immortals as bait. It was infamous in the Aevum Inch.

The civilization was both very powerful and extremely difficult to deal with. It specialized in studying civilizations for war and then using civilizations themselves as weapons to restrain Immortals. The true reason why the civilization was despised was because of their absolute means: karma designation.

The so-called “karma designation” was not a means of mastering the power of karma, but rather the ability of every creature of the Mudwater Dominion, before their deaths, to assign the karma of their own death to another creature of their choice. It did not matter if that creature was their actual killer or not, they could still assign the karmic burden to them.

This was precisely why all powerful beings throughout the Aevum Inch who knew about the Mudwater Dominion were unwilling to fight them.

What Immortals feared most was increasing their karmic chain. Even though the Immortal Plume Civilization focused on hunting down other Immortals, they relied on extended hibernation periods and the temporal power of their Thousand-Autumn Dream to dissolve their karmic chains rather than outright ignoring them.

No one could ignore their karmic chains. Not even Ancestor Shan had been an exception.

This was why the Mudwater Dominion as a whole was considered an Aberrant. All Immortals detested them yet were unable to deal with them.

But civilizations without Immortals were also unable to obtain victory because the Mudwater Dominion was a fishing civilization with far more than one Immortal.

Upon learning the details about the Mudwater Dominion, Lu Yin felt as if he had encountered an Aberrant. He finally understood what others felt when they ran into him.

Immortals did not want to deal with him. Losing would cost them their lives, while victory would only increase their karmic chain. At the same time, anyone beneath the Immortal realm was utterly incapable of defeating Lu Yin. It was a truly infuriating situation, which was why such individuals were called Aberrants.

The Mudwater Dominion was the same. Stronger civilizations were unwilling to fight them, since destroying a thousand of them would mean suffering 800 casualties of their own. Immortals could not afford pyrrhic victories, nor could they afford to damage the foundations of their own civilizations. Weaker civilizations, on the other hand, simply could not defeat the Mudwater Dominion.

This was also why Old Man Hehe and the others were so irritated about their opponents for the upcoming war.

They hoped that all of the creatures of the Mudwater Dominion would use karma designation to assign their deaths to Lu Yin. Since he was not an Immortal, any karmic chain increase directed towards him would be useless. However, it would not be easy to have the creatures designate Lu Yin as the target of the assigned karma. The creatures were not stupid, and they could also freely choose the target of their karmic designation. That meant that Lu Yin would have to attack before the beings were certain of their own deaths while the others hid far, far away. There needed to be enough distance to avoid having their karmic chains designated.

This also required relying on Lu Yin's abilities. They needed him to first take them away and then have Lu Yin single-handedly fight against the creatures of the Mudwater Dominion.

Pulling off such a scheme would not be easy.

If at any point the creatures of the Mudwater Dominion felt that their deaths were certain, they would designate the karmic chain of the beings who attacked them before Lu Yin appeared, and that would cause the plan to fail.

This designation of karma did not have to occur only at the time of certain death; it could also be done when a creature simply believed their death to be imminent.

If Lu Yin was unwilling to fully cooperate, then everything would be left to question.

No matter if it was Old Man Hehe or Furball, no one wanted to carry the karma of killing Immortals. They could not bear the burden.

Lu Yin was willing to deliver the final blow on their behalf, or even toss the powerful beings of the Mudwater Dominion into his Champions' Stage Purgatory before killing them, as that would also benefit him. However, none of the conditions that needed to be negotiated could be ignored. He wanted far more benefits than simply increasing his own karma.

As for the pile of mud, it had never been a true Immortal. It was written into existence by the powerhouses of the Mudwater Dominion using civilization-forged ink, then infused with Immortal matter and Lifeforce to temporarily elevate it to the Immortal level.

The characteristics of the creatures of the Mudwater Dominion meant that the pile of mud had indeed achieved the Immortal realm in the short-term, but as soon as the ink within its body was exhausted, it fell from that realm.

The Mudwater Dominion was a fishing civilization, and their bait was not Threads of Heaven, but rather creatures like this pile of mud, which was essentially a pseudo-Immortal.

Such beings were called mud dolls.

The information provided by Ba Se made it very clear that the Mudwater Dominion scattered mud dolls in every direction of the Aevum Inch. Each mud doll had its own means to attract the attention of civilizations with Immortals, ultimately using themselves as bait to draw the Mudwater Dominion over.