# Chapter 339: Breaking the Loop

Upper Layer of the Land of Origin. Sky-Mending City. Gravity Room.

Lu Yuan sat cross-legged on the floor, Spirit Power surging around him. Wisps of bronze-colored sand drifted in slow orbits, while the phantom of a clock and the spectral outline of the River of Time revolved behind him.

He was tempering the Sands of Time.

Nothing particularly pressing had come up lately, so Lu Yuan had simply been cultivating as normal. By now, the Sands of Time had reached roughly fifty percent Tempering Proficiency. His base attributes had improved dramatically, and his command over temporal power had grown far more intuitive.

Naturally, the greatest improvement was to the strength of his Temporal Domain Combat Technique—but as for comprehending the Laws of time, he still had very few leads.

He wasn't in any rush. Once he broke through to War God and inscribed his final Transcendent Gene, then fully completed his tempering, he could devote himself entirely to comprehending Laws.

For now, building his foundation was what mattered most.

Just then, Lu Yuan's eyes snapped open. Clock hands turned within his irises.

As his Spirit Power dissipated, the clock hands slowly faded.

Lu Yuan pulled out his Communication Crystal. White light flickered across its surface—someone was trying to reach him.

He glanced down. It was Si Tingyu.

After connecting, her pretty face appeared on the light screen.

But Lu Yuan noticed her expression seemed somewhat tense.

He raised an eyebrow, puzzled. "Mentor, what's wrong?"

Si Tingyu's expression was strange. "...Come back first. Someone's here to see you."

"Someone's here to see me?"

"Mm." She nodded, her expression still odd.

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow, then smiled. "Alright, I'll head back now. Give me a moment, Mentor."

With that, he rose to his feet, left the Gravity Room, and used Space Teleportation to return to the villa in Sky-Mending City.

He pushed open the door and stepped inside, finding the place unusually quiet.

On the sofa in the main hall, Si Tingyu and Shuangyue sat side by side, looking stiff and uneasy.

Across from them sat a woman with deep blue hair cascading past her shoulders, breathtakingly beautiful, with an air of regal composure. Currents of water orbited her body in slow, graceful loops.

At the sight of her, Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly.

It wasn't because of her beauty—his own mentor and Shuangyue were no less stunning, and that wasn't the point.

The point was that he sensed an overwhelming threat radiating from this woman.

The power within her was slightly weaker than the Mirage Dragon's, but not by much. She was a powerhouse of the same tier.

*A War God?*

This was the first time Lu Yuan had encountered a War God among the Human Race—not counting himself, of course.

Strictly speaking, he was merely a Battle Saint who possessed War God-level combat power.

As Lu Yuan studied Ruoshui, she was studying him in turn.

Beside them, Shuangyue and Si Tingyu glanced between the two but said nothing, tension written across their faces.

Then Lu Yuan broke the silence with an easy smile.

"May I ask who you are, Senior?"

Ruoshui rose to her feet, a warm yet noble smile gracing her features.

"I am Ruoshui—one of the Human Race's eight War Gods. I'm sure you've already sensed my aura."

A flicker of complexity crossed her expression.

"I'd heard your name before and looked into your background. I didn't expect you to be even stronger than I'd imagined."

When Lu Yuan had sensed the threat from Ruoshui, she had felt the very same from him—if anything, even more intensely.

She could say with certainty that Lu Yuan was no weaker than her. He might even surpass her.

And this was a human who had been cultivating for barely over four years.

Even with her composure, that was no easy thing to accept.

But she quickly steadied herself and restored her calm.

Lu Yuan smiled. "So you're Senior Ruoshui. It's an honor. You flatter me—I still have a long way to go. I feel like I'm far from where I need to be."

Ruoshui, having just regained her equilibrium, felt the corner of her mouth twitch. Her composure wavered again.

She was momentarily speechless.

*Barely four years of cultivation and you've reached this level, yet you claim you're "far from where you need to be"?*

Seeing the silence stretch, Lu Yuan took the initiative. "May I ask what brings you here, Senior?"

Ruoshui refocused. She looked at him and spoke slowly.

"I've come because something major has happened in the universe."

"Something major?"

Surprise flickered across Lu Yuan's face.

Off to the side, Si Tingyu and Shuangyue—who had been doing their best to blend into the background—also turned to look at Ruoshui.

If a War God called it major, the gravity of the situation was self-evident.

"Yes. You should be aware of the Aberrant Beasts beyond the Cosmic Boundary—the root source of all Aberration."

Lu Yuan nodded. "Yes, I've heard of them."

Si Tingyu and Shuangyue stared in wide-eyed shock.

This was the first they'd heard of such a thing—creatures existing beyond the boundary of the universe itself.

*So Aberration exists because of these so-called Aberrant Beasts?*

The two women exchanged glances, seeing their own shock and burning curiosity mirrored in each other's eyes. They wanted to know more.

But Ruoshui, seeing that Lu Yuan was already informed, had no intention of elaborating for their benefit.

And neither Si Tingyu nor Shuangyue had the nerve to question a War God.

They'd been on edge since the moment she arrived.

After all, this was one of the beings who stood at the absolute pinnacle of the entire Human Race.

Granted, by all rights, Lu Yuan belonged in that same category.

But their relationship with Lu Yuan was a fundamentally different thing from their relationship with any other War God.

The two women swallowed their curiosity and listened as Ruoshui continued.

"In the Mechanical Dominion—the star domain of the mechanical lifeforms—something has gone wrong. A breach in their section of the Cosmic Boundary was torn open by Aberrant Beasts working in concert with traitors from within the Dominion. Massive numbers of Aberrant Beasts are now pouring into the universe. That breach has become a beachhead for an invasion."

Lu Yuan's eyes went wide.

"What?! The Aberrant Beasts have broken through?!"

*This is way too fast.* From what the Mirage Dragon had told him, he should have had considerably more time to grow.

And yet—it had only been a matter of days!

The Cosmic Boundary had been breached?

*Who can possibly hold against that?*

Did he even have enough time left to reach the point of mastering Laws?

His mind reeled.

*This is moving so much faster than planned!*

Meanwhile, Si Tingyu and Shuangyue looked dazed and frightened. They could tell the situation was dire, but without the full context, they couldn't grasp the specifics.

It was the first time they'd ever seen Lu Yuan look so shaken. If even he reacted this way, the severity of the crisis needed no further explanation.

After his initial shock, Lu Yuan quickly regained his composure. He took a deep breath.

"Senior, if that's the case, what do we do now? Won't the entire universe be overrun by Corruption before long?"

Ruoshui's expression turned solemn, but she offered reassurance.

"It's not as dire as you think. It's only one breach, after all. As long as we blockade the surrounding star zones and prevent the Aberrant Beasts from flooding into the Mechanical Dominion proper, we can hold for quite some time. The problem is that blockading an entire star zone is far more difficult than sealing a single breach. So our plan is to counterattack—reclaim the breach."

Lu Yuan let out a quiet breath of relief.

*Not on the brink of total collapse. Good.*

Otherwise, even someone like him couldn't grow that quickly. If things had truly spiraled, he'd have no answer for Law-level monsters.

After a moment's thought, he spoke. "So you've come hoping I'll deploy to the Mechanical Dominion and support the counteroffensive?"

Ruoshui smiled faintly. "That was the original plan, but not anymore."

"Then what is it you need from me, Senior?"

Lu Yuan watched her steadily.

"One of the key reasons the Mechanical Dominion's breach fell was that the Blood of the Machine—their equivalent of our Heavenly Calamity Cult—coordinated with the Aberrant Beasts from the inside. They destroyed the defensive perimeter beyond the breach and pinned down the other War Gods. Without that betrayal, the breach never would have fallen. We need to learn from their mistake. If the Heavenly Calamity Cult attempts something similar in our territory, we need enough manpower ready to respond. The Human Race will send two War Gods to reinforce the Mechanical Dominion, but at the same time, we need people guarding our own territory against the Cult."

Understanding dawned on Lu Yuan.

A thought struck him. "Does the Heavenly Calamity Cult have Divine Grade powerhouses?"

Ruoshui nodded.

"Yes. The Cult has three Bishops in total, all War God-level. The Grand Archbishop is quite formidable. The other two were forcibly elevated to War God level through the Aberrant Beasts' Corruption blessing—they're on the weaker end among War Gods and shouldn't pose a threat to you. The only one you'd need to worry about is the Grand Archbishop."

"I see. Thank you for the warning, Senior Ruoshui."

Lu Yuan paused, then looked at her with curiosity. "Senior, isn't it possible to simply destroy the Heavenly Calamity Cult preemptively? With the number of War Gods the Human Race has, eliminating the Cult shouldn't be that difficult, should it?"

A trace of bitterness crossed Ruoshui's face.

"Most of our War Gods are needed to garrison the boundary breaches. The remaining ones could potentially take down the Cult's Bishops, but the Heavenly Calamity Cult operates in deep secrecy. We've never been able to locate their headquarters. They've been impossible to root out."

"I see..."

Lu Yuan nodded. He'd captured a Heavenly Calamity Apostle himself once, yet hadn't managed to extract any useful intelligence. Hearing Ruoshui confirm it now, he understood—finding the Cult's headquarters was genuinely difficult.

*Too bad I have no way to pry the information out of those cultists.*

*Maybe I should consider picking a Transcendent Gene with that kind of ability for my next inscription?*

As he mulled it over, a flash of inspiration struck. His eyes widened slightly as a bold idea took shape.

He realized his thinking had been trapped in the wrong framework all along.

His original approach assumed he needed to extract the Cult's headquarters location from someone who already knew it.

But everyone who knew that location was either a Heavenly Calamity Apostle or a cultist. Twisted by Corruption as they were, getting information out of them was impossible.

A dead loop.

But now, stepping outside that loop, Lu Yuan realized he already possessed an ability that might locate the Heavenly Calamity Cult on its own.

The Wheel of Fate.

Specifically, the Fortune Pathfinding method he'd used before.

If he layered an extremely powerful Fortune buff on himself and followed that guidance, there was a real chance he could find his way straight to the Cult's headquarters.

Based on past experience, the odds of success were quite high.

The more he thought about it, the more eager he became.

*What if I search for the Cult's headquarters on my own, then notify Ruoshui and the others? We could launch a joint assault—hit them before they even know what's coming.*

As long as they struck without warning and brought overwhelming force, there was a genuine chance of tearing the Cult out root and branch.

Of course, this all hinged on whether his Fortune Pathfinding method could actually lead him there.

Noticing the odd look on Lu Yuan's face, Ruoshui asked, "What is it? Was there something unclear about what I said? If anything doesn't make sense, please just ask."

Lu Yuan snapped back to the present and smiled. "No, no questions. So you'd like me to step in if the Heavenly Calamity Cult actually makes a move?"

Ruoshui nodded.

"Exactly. When the time comes, I hope you'll lend your support."

Lu Yuan grinned. "No problem at all. If the Cult makes any moves, don't hesitate to contact me, Senior. I'll respond immediately."

Seeing him agree so readily, Ruoshui felt a quiet wave of relief. A smile touched her lips.

"Then allow me to thank you on behalf of all the living beings in Human Race territory."

Lu Yuan shook his head. "You're too kind, Senior. This is something I should be doing. If the boundary breaches fall, the entire Human Race suffers—myself included. Helping you is helping myself. And besides, you and the other seniors have been guarding the borders all this time for the sake of everyone in our territory."

He paused, a note of apology entering his expression.

"By rights, I should be garrisoning a breach alongside you. But my cultivation hasn't reached its ceiling yet. I hope you understand, Senior. Once I've reached my limit... perhaps we'll find another way."

At his current strength, if he truly committed to garrisoning a breach, he could probably hold it indefinitely.

But merely holding a breach treated the symptoms, not the disease. What Lu Yuan needed most was to break through to the Law tier, then eradicate the Aberrant Beast Mother Nest at its source.

Hearing his words, Ruoshui smiled warmly.

"Just focus on your cultivation. We've deliberately avoided disturbing you all this time precisely so you could train in peace. If you managed to break through beyond War God, we'd be overjoyed. If the situation weren't urgent, I wouldn't have come to you at all."

Lu Yuan returned her smile. "Thank you for understanding, Senior."

Ruoshui regarded him, a light laugh escaping her.

"Honestly, your growth trajectory is staggering even by our standards. If there's anyone in the entire universe—among all the War Gods—who has the best chance of surpassing that level, every one of us agrees it's you. We're counting on you to achieve what we never could."

Lu Yuan realized that Ruoshui and the other War Gods likely didn't know about the Cosmic Origin.

It made sense, when he thought about it. If they knew the Evolution Cube could evolve genes and help one comprehend Laws, they might not be nearly so calm about it.

After all, the Origin Will had chosen the most suitable vessel—but from the War Gods' perspective, some might trust that choice while others would sooner trust themselves.

If they truly knew, some War God might have simply killed him when the Cosmic Origin first merged with him, ripped it out, and claimed it for their own use.

By contrast, the Mirage Dragon and the other guardians had been created by the Origin Will. There was no need to worry about that with them.

Lu Yuan kept these thoughts hidden behind a look of quiet sincerity.

"I'll do everything I can."

Ruoshui nodded, smiling. "I've accomplished what I came here for. I should be going. Keep up your training."

Lu Yuan nodded. "Let me see you off, Senior."

As for locating the Heavenly Calamity Cult's headquarters—he chose not to mention it. He planned to search on his own first. If he actually found it, then he'd notify Ruoshui and the others.

Bringing it up now and then failing to deliver? That would just be embarrassing.

Worse, it would leave the impression that he was all talk—unreliable.

Until something was confirmed, Lu Yuan believed it was better left unsaid.