Chapter 968 - 963: Breakthrough Point, Fortune!

Chapter 968: Chapter 963: Breakthrough Point, Fortune!

Within the scene of karmic links from five thousand years ago.

Lü Yang frowned deeply. He firmly believed that a Variable must exist. The Saint Sect Ancestral Master couldn’t have erased all the Variables, or else he would have already done whatever he pleased.

He thought, "A Variable that even the Saint Sect Ancestral Master failed to discover must be hidden extremely deeply."

Inside the isolated island Cave Mansion, Lü Yang fell into deep thought. After a long while, an idea finally struck him, and his eyes lit up slightly. He thought, "The only one capable of influencing a Master of Dao should be another Master of Dao!"

The Bhagavat!

He pondered, "Since he let me hitch a ride to five thousand years ago, it proves he definitely left a contingency plan back then to ensure the feasibility of my plan."

In other words: perhaps this Variable to break the deadlock was very close to the Bhagavat?

"Ang Xiao? That’s right! It’s him!" he realized.

Lü Yang recalled that in his memories, before Ang Xiao killed Fortune back then, he had once visited Pseudo-History to do a dry run!

He also possessed dual karmic links!

For a moment, Lü Yang was ecstatic, but he quickly frowned again. "At this point in time, Ang Xiao has already faked his death. I can’t find him," he thought.

The Veil of the Trees was simply too overpowering. At the very least, it was impossible for Minor Metal and the Primordial Celestial Demon to discover Ang Xiao. Unless he personally took action to search for him, but doing so would expose him. The result would only be the shattering of the scene of karmic links, making all his efforts fall short at the final hurdle. This realization made Lü Yang feel quite uncomfortable.

"Has this loophole also been plugged?" he wondered.

Lü Yang scratched his head, but he did not give up. "There’s no rush. I arrived extremely early. At this point in time, Fortune is still the True Monarch of Celestial Destiny."

Ang Xiao would have to show himself sooner or later. Otherwise, how could he kill Fortune?

"I don’t need to look for Ang Xiao," he thought. "I just need to keep my eyes on Fortune. By tracking Fortune, Ang Xiao will show up eventually, and I’ll be able to make my move then."

Thinking of this, Lü Yang calmed his emotions.

He began to patiently track Fortune, even having the Primordial Celestial Demon and Minor Metal reside directly in his Spiritual Space. Heart Demons were incredibly elusive, and Fortune remained completely ignorant of this.

Very soon, two and a half years passed.

Time flowed like water. Lü Yang watched as the True Monarch of Celestial Destiny roamed unhindered across the Immortal Pivot, killed Outer Dao cultivators, refined True Treasures, was abandoned by the Heavenly God, and then went into secluded cultivation—

"BOOM!"

Suddenly, one day, Fortune died. Without any warning, not even giving the Primordial Celestial Demon and Minor Metal hiding in Fortune’s Spiritual Space a chance to react, Fortune suddenly exploded with a bang. Even he himself had a look of bewilderment on his face.

By the time anyone realized what had happened, the Long Brilliance Treasure Light Grotto Heaven had already shattered, falling from the Fruit of Lamp-Cover Fire, and his Golden Soul lightly drifted down into the Netherworld.

"What!?"

Such an unexpected mutation instantly alarmed Lü Yang. His first reaction was that Ang Xiao, cloaked in the Veil of the Trees, had given Fortune a brutally literal "heart-to-heart" exchange.

As for Minor Metal and the Primordial Celestial Demon being completely unaware, this was normal. After all, at this time, Ang Xiao was highly likely already a Great Perfected Lord. Even if he wasn’t, given the strength of the Fruit of Great-Forest Wood and Ang Xiao’s profound attainments in it, Lü Yang would actually find it strange if they had managed to discover him.

However, Lü Yang’s expression quickly changed.

Because he hadn’t noticed anything either. Bright Light surfaced in Lü Yang’s eyes, shining brilliantly. The Profound Mysterious of the Fruit of Lamp-Cover Fire had already been pushed to its Extreme, yet he still couldn’t see a single soul.

"Impossible!" Lü Yang’s expression immediately turned serious. He thought, "Although Ang Xiao is strong, the him from five thousand years ago was absolutely not strong enough to blind me completely. After all, I am also a Great Perfected Lord now."

"Something isn’t right. Did Ang Xiao not make a move?"

At this thought, Splendid Light abruptly gathered in Lü Yang’s eyes, transforming into a Round Mirror of interwoven brightness and darkness. With its bright side facing outward, he shone it toward Fortune’s direction.

Yin Yang Divine Mirror Dao Fruit!

This Fruit Arcana, primarily based on the Fruit of Lamp-Cover Fire, was enough to unleash the Profound Mysterious of the Fruit of Lamp-Cover Fire—piercing through darkness to reveal the hidden—to its Extreme, seeing through all concealed methods.

Finally, under Lü Yang’s careful observation, an image surfaced on the Round Mirror formed by the Yin Yang Divine Mirror Dao Fruit. It was a blurry silk thread; one end vanished into the void, while the other end was connected to Fortune. It was precisely this thread that directly triggered Fortune’s downfall.

"Is this... karmic links?" he thought, completely stunned. Fortune’s death wasn’t because of Ang Xiao’s attack, but because of karmic links? Was he fated to die in that exact moment?

"How is that possible!" he thought.

Lü Yang shook his head. Fortune was definitely killed by Ang Xiao—this was something Ang Xiao had personally admitted. The method of killing couldn’t have been through karmic links either. Because the Fruit of Great-Forest Wood didn’t specialize in this. The Fruit of Rampart Earth was the true expert in this field.

He thought, "That’s right. The only thing that could cause Fortune to die so bizarrely under the influence of karmic links is the Fruit of Rampart Earth... The Bhagavat? No, it should be Pseudo-History!"

At this thought, Lü Yang suddenly saw the light. "Fortune dies and reincarnates into the Netherworld—this is the ’Effect.’ But what about the ’Cause’?" he thought.

This "Cause" should be Ang Xiao, but in reality, no one in the authentic history ever saw this happen, nor could anyone verify this event.

Ang Xiao killing Fortune.

How was he killed? Where was he killed? In what manner was he killed? Nobody knew!

But now, Lü Yang had figured it out. "Fortune’s death... is in itself a part of Pseudo-History!" he realized. "He didn’t die after the Bhagavat’s Attainment of the Dao and his Change of Cause and Effect, but rather, he died before the Bhagavat’s Attainment. The karmic links of his death were covered up by the Bhagavat!"

This was the Variable!

"The Variable isn’t Ang Xiao at all; it’s Fortune!" he thought. "He is the one hidden the most obscurely, the person who simultaneously possesses the karmic links of both the authentic history and Pseudo-History!"

Thinking about it carefully, Ang Xiao had a close relationship with the Bhagavat. Could the Saint Sect Ancestral Master possibly not know this? If the Bhagavat had placed the key on Ang Xiao, how would it be any different from playing with his cards face up? Instead, it was Fortune who had absolutely nothing to do with the Bhagavat, nor was he an important pawn in the Stain Sect...

Why wasn’t he important? One only had to look at his treatment to know. Both were favored by the Heavenly God, but what kind of treatment did Mu Changsheng receive compared to Fortune? The latter was clearly not valued at all.

Of course, more importantly, he theorized, "Fortune’s karmic links are probably very closely aligned with the karmic links of the Bhagavat’s Attainment of the Dao. Only in this way could the Bhagavat use his own karmic fluctuations to conceal Fortune. And only in this way could Fortune slip under the Saint Sect Ancestral Master’s radar."

To put it bluntly, the time of Fortune’s death and the Bhagavat’s Attainment of the Dao were very close. It was even possible that right after Ang Xiao killed Fortune, the Bhagavat achieved Attainment.

This Variable—it was likely meticulously crafted by the Bhagavat, specifically created so that if someone from the future traced back to this time, they could use it to establish a connection with him!

"The Bhagavat... he really has been plotting this for a long time!"

Lü Yang grew increasingly certain that the Bhagavat most likely also had an idea similar to his own Plan for the Collapse of the Other Shore, only he never put it into action.

Of course, at the moment, this was merely speculation.

He could also have guessed wrong. It was possible that Fortune wasn’t the Variable to break the deadlock, and it was possible that the Saint Sect Ancestral Master had also been keeping an eye on him and wasn’t completely clueless.

However—this was his limit.

"With my current intelligence, this is as far as I can deduce," Lü Yang thought, his expression calm. "If the Variable isn’t Fortune, the worst-case scenario is that I throw my life away here."

Doing great things inherently required taking risks. The fiercer the storm, the more precious the catch!

"When it’s time to gamble, one still has to gamble!"

Lü Yang took a deep breath, then walked out of his secluded Cave Mansion. With a slight deduction, he quickly locked onto Fortune’s reincarnation, and then he took a step forward.

The next second, he tore through the void and arrived in front of the newly reincarnated Fortune. With Minor Metal and the Primordial Celestial Demon providing cover, the current Fortune was naturally completely oblivious. Not wasting any time, Lü Yang once again held the Fruit of Rampart Earth in his hands. Wielding a trace of the Profound Mysterious, he transformed it into a Causality Dharma Light.

Zhi Gu Jin!

Illuminated by the Causality Dharma Light, Fortune’s karmic links were revealed in minute detail. In an instant, a vast expanse of distinctly divided karmic links surfaced in the depths of Lü Yang’s eyes.

Fortune’s karmic links were extremely special.

Most areas of it were vividly colorful, reflecting many scenes from Fortune’s life. Yet, right at a specific node, a massive fracture appeared. The fractured karmic links all turned into a bottomless dark abyss, difficult to touch and impossible to observe.

"That’s it!"

Lü Yang’s gaze flickered. Without the slightest hesitation, and empowered by Zhi Gu Jin, he leaped forward, diving directly into that abyssal segment of Fortune’s karmic links.