Chapter 2062: Vanish
"You’re a freak!" Heluo Mavis shouted while staring at Lu Yin in both apprehension and fear. It was clear that he had never released his full power in their earlier battle. It was quite possible that Lu Yin was even more dangerous than Chu Yuan.
It was obvious that the current era was greatly inferior to the Dao Chosens’ own, so how had such a freak managed to appear?
Chu Yuan had noticed the same thing while observing Lu Yin. "You said that your name is Lu Yin?"
Lu Yin looked over. "Didn’t we already go over that?"
Chu Yuan took a deep breath. "It's an honor to meet you."
These words shocked Heluo Mavis. Chu Yuan had been famous for his arrogance in their original era, as he did not even care about the other Dao Chosen. This was the first time that he had ever humbled himself to someone else from the same generation. This Lu Yin appeared to be no older than the Dao Chosen, which meant that they were essentially from the same generation.
"It’s an honor for me to meet you as well. Lu Yin, I was underestimating you before," Heluo Mavis interjected. She no longer wanted to work together with Lu Yin to deal with Chu Yuan, as Lu Yin had hidden his strength even more deeply than Chu Yuan. She was no longer confident that she and Chu Yuan could defeat Lu Yin even when teaming up.
During the earlier fight, when it had been a three-way fight, two of them had always teamed up to deal with whoever had appeared to hold the advantage. Even at this point in time, Heluo Mavis had no idea which of them was truly the most powerful.
When they had been fighting, Lu Yin had limited himself to only using techniques from the current era. It was known that he possessed death energy, which neither Heluo Mavis or Chu Yuan had really cared about at the time, but it was quite possible that Lu Yin also possessed other inheritances from the Heavens Sect era. He had truly hidden his full strength quite deeply. It was no wonder why they had heard Lu Yin arrogantly limit himself to five moves to defeat them two Dao Chosen.
Chu Yuan suddenly remembered the inexplicable weakness that had a.s.saulted his body just a short while ago, and he instantly looked at Lu Yin with even greater caution. Just how much of his strength had Lu Yin kept hidden? That weakening had nothing to do with star energy.
Finally, all four of Lu Yin’s stellular energy vortices were completely drained.
He sighed. It was done.
The others also let out long breaths when they saw that Lu Yin had finally finished.
Just a short while after Lu Yin’s stellular energy was fully extracted, Lan Xian was also drained. She had only lasted a short while longer than Lu Yin.
Seeing this sent another wave of shock through everyone. Lan Xian was a Semi-Progenitor, and what sort of terrifying reserves of stellular energy did such powerhouses possess? In the end, Lu Yin’s total amount of stellular energy had come very close to comparing with that of a Semi-Progenitor, even if it was a Semi-Progenitor who had not opened their three meridian points and had no Origin Matter. More importantly, Lu Yin had only pa.s.sed a single stellular tribulation.
Seeing everyone staring at him yet again, Lu Yin could no longer endure the attention. "Don't look at me like that! After fighting several battles, her stellular energy reserves are a lot less than her peak, and she hasn’t had any time to recover. There’s no way that someone with my level of cultivation could come anywhere close to possessing the same amount of stellular energy as a Semi-Progenitor."
Chu Yuan and Heluo Mavis glanced at each other, as this sounded quite reasonable.
"I was actually able to recover a great deal of stellular energy, so I was quite close to my maximum capacity just now," Lan Xian spoke up. She looked at Lu Yin with glittering eyes that seemed to contain various schemes.
Lu Yin was left speechless. What was that supposed to mean?
The way that Chu Yuan and everyone else was looking at Lu Yin changed yet again. Was this guy still trying to hide things? They had almost been tricked.
Lu Yin no longer tried to offer any excuses. No matter what he said, no one would believe him any more.
He turned to look at Lan Xian. "Why on earth do you want people's blood?"
At this moment, even Jiu Yao looked over at Lan Xian. He had asked her this before, but she had merely replied that it was related to some sort of training. However, what sort of training required other people's blood? On top of that, Lan Xian did not care about the blood of other Semi-Progenitors at all, and she only tried to get the blood of the Lu family, or more recently, the Dao Chosen.
Lan Xian held her three-stringed instrument. She was quietly standing in a corner of the main hall, and she slowly replied, "You’ll find out if you give me some."
"Get them to agree first." Lu Yin pointed at Chu Yuan. "Especially him. He’s the leader of his group of people from the Heavens Sect. He’s the only one who was acknowledged by the Origin Progenitor, which means he should have the greatest bloodline of his era."
Chu Yuan’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead. "I'm just a regular person. There’s nothing special about my blood."
Lu Yin grew serious. "If you can meet the Origin Progenitor, then even an ordinary person will become someone extraordinary."
Suddenly, Lu Yin remembered something, and he turned and looked Chu Yuan up and down. "Actually, what sort of relationship is there between you and the Origin Progenitor? It can’t be… Are you his descendant?"
Chu Yuan's eyes grew large. "Brother Lu, don't be ridiculous! I was certainly not the only person from my era to see the Origin Progenitor."
"But you were the only one from the younger generation. Right, Heluo Mavis?" Lu Yin turned to the woman as he addressed her.
Heluo Mavis nodded. "Chu Yuan is the only one of the Dao Chosen to personally meet the Origin Progenitor."
Chu Yuan frowned and stared at Lu Yin rather intently. Lu Yin was purposely obfuscating the matter of seeing the Origin Progenitor with the power of one’s bloodline, and he had also made it a point to mention Heluo Mavis’s name as a subtle means of bringing up her bloodline as well. With a single question, Lu Yin had subverted Chu Yuan’s comment while also dragging the Mavis family into the mix. This person was quite cunning.
"Didn’t you also mention that Chu Yuan received his name from the Origin Progenitor?" Lu Yin asked with open curiosity.
Heluo Mavis nodded once again, but then she suddenly felt like something was off. She had not even realized, but she had just cooperated with Lu Yin once again. Noticing this unconscious action put her on edge, as she did not want to team up with Lu Yin. Between Chu Yuan and Lu Yin, which was the true monster?
Chu Yuan stared at Lu Yin. "Brother Lu, I had thought that you were someone who relied on tricks and flexibility while not focusing on pure strength of cultivation, which is the very foundation of one’s strength. However, it looks like your stellular energy reserves surpa.s.s even a Semi-Progenitor’s, and that’s in addition to your endless battle techniques and abilities. I truly misunderstood you. If you had lived in our era, you might have been the one to meet the Origin Progenitor instead of me."
Lu Yin arched a brow. "You’re overthinking things, Brother Chu. It might simply be that your stellular energy was drained faster than mine because I was further away from the statue."
This sounded rather reasonable, as of the three youths, Lu Yin had indeed been the furthest away from the statue. On top of that, all three of the Semi-Progenitors had been closer to the statue than the youths. The statue had risen into the sky above the first level of the main hall, while Lu Yin and the other two had remained down below. In addition, Lu Yin had been the furthest away from the statue.
"No matter how far away you were, there’s no way your stellular energy was being taken away that slowly. You lasted just about as long as a Semi-Progenitor," Chu Yuan retorted.
At this time, Jiu Yao finished being drained, and just a short while later, Leng Qing also finished. Despite that, the statue continued to drain the ambient stellular energy around them, and its pull seemed to become even stronger and more frantic, almost like it was an actual person.
"Like I already said, she might be a Semi-Progenitor, but she used up a lot of her stellular energy in recent battles. She just doesn’t want to admit it because she doesn’t want to be looked down on," Lu Yin countered.
Chu Yuan would not back down. "Using stellular energy in a battle doesn’t mean that there was any less in her body, at least not enough to even bother considering."
The two were simply trying to shift Lan Xian’s focus onto the other with their words.
Leng Qing suddenly shouted, "Shut up! How can you mouth off so much before the Origin Progenitor’s statue?"
Lu Yin and Chu Yuan glanced back at each other, and they could both see the other’s intentions.
Even Heluo Mavis was able to understand what the two men were attempting to do, but knowing left her irritable and twitchy. She was not quick-witted with words like these two, and so she had stayed silent.
Everyone could see that the vortex around the statue was growing stronger as it pulled in more and more stellular energy.
Suddenly, someone rushed into the main hall. While it was impossible to escape, there were no obstacles stopping anyone from entering. The person leaped right over Jiu Yao and shot towards the statue. As they flew through the air, a visible stream of stellular energy was pulled from their body into the statue.
Lu Yin’s pupils shrank when he saw this person. "Forgotten Ruins G.o.d!"
Leng Qing lifted a hand and slashed at Forgotten Ruins G.o.d. The man’s body became a blade. This was man and blade as one.
Forgotten Ruins G.o.d raised her own hand and struck out with a palm strike: Sit and Forget.
Sit and Forget was a technique that used stellular energy, so the moment Forgotten Ruins G.o.d attacked, her technique was devoured by the statue. Forgotten Ruins G.o.d had not thought that the statue would actually dominate stellular energy so thoroughly, and she was stunned for a moment. During that moment of hesitation, Leng Qing’s slash arrived and cut into the SkyG.o.d’s leg, smashing her against the colorful barrier that surrounded the Daosource Sect’s main hall.
Forgotten Ruins G.o.d was not actually injured. There was the slightest hint of hesitation, and then her eyes changed and took on a new depth. A stream of red energy began to swirl around her, giving the nearby area an oppressive chill. This was the power bestowed upon Forgotten Ruins G.o.d by the Aeternals. They called it divine power.
Forgotten Ruins G.o.d did not say a single word and merely raised her hand towards Leng Qing and attacked again, still using Sit and Forget. With divine power driving the technique this time, it was unaffected by the devouring of the statue. Leng Qing raised his own arms and swung them down in a vicious chop. There was no stellular energy in this attack, but the explosive power that emerged from his fusion of body and blade was still impressive. However, it did not reach the level of a Semi-Progenitor’s attack, and the man was blown backwards by Forgotten Ruins G.o.d's attack.
Forgotten Ruins G.o.d charged at the statue again. Not once did she utter a single word. Every aspect of her personality and behavior was completely different from what Lu Yin had seen before. The only thing that she seemed to see was the statue.
Chu Yuan was startled. "Stop her! Don't let her touch the statue!"
Even as he spoke, he removed his gold-trimmed white robe and threw it forward in a desperate attempt to block Forgotten Ruins G.o.d.
While Forgotten Ruins G.o.d remained wary of the mental network suppressing the Fifth Mainland and could not reveal the full power of a Semi-Progenitor, there was no way that the white robe was enough to stop her, even if it could block a peak Envoy.
Each of the Seven SkyG.o.ds was an absolute monster, and the only people capable of actually standing up to their Semi-Progenitor avatars were the masters of the Twelve Heavenly Gates. Otherwise, they were simply too strong even for someone of Ni Huang’s caliber.
The white robe was instantly destroyed by Forgotten Ruins G.o.d’s attack, though it did manage to block her for a single moment. With this moment of time, Leng Qing attacked again, and a slash of the man’s strangely merged body shot towards Forgotten Ruins G.o.d.
Heluo Mavis suddenly spoke up. "Chu Yuan, isn't that statue what you were looking for as well?"
Chu Yuan's expression contorted badly.
Lu Yin glanced over and thought to himself that Heluo Mavis’s comment seemed quite accurate. However, Chu Yuan had been searching for this statue, and Forgotten Ruins G.o.d had gone straight for it while ignoring everything else; just what was so special about this statue?
There was a loud bang as Leng Qing was blasted back once more. Without stellular energy, how could he compare to Forgotten Ruins G.o.d when she was using divine power?
Forgotten Ruins G.o.d grabbed hold of the statue.
Within the confines of the main hall, there was no one who could stop her.
Lu Yin stared at Forgotten Ruins G.o.d, his knees weak and his arms heavy.
At this same moment, the hand that had remained wedged between Mt. Microcosms and the barrier protecting the Fifth Mainland suddenly moved. No longer simply peacefully resting in place, it resisted the mental network and stretched forward, extending further and further into the Human Domain.
The manifest thoughts activated and tried to capture the hand.
The mental network twined all around the ma.s.sive hand in an attempt to bind it in place, but the hand continued to extend through outer s.p.a.ce. It reached the Innerverse, and it almost instantly appeared right outside the main hall in the Daosource Sect ruins.
As soon as it arrived, the hand dropped down to capture the main hall.
This was the exact same moment that Forgotten Ruins G.o.d grabbed hold of the statue.
At this moment, no matter if it was Lu Yin and those with him in the main hall, or the people in the rest of the Fifth Mainland, everyone saw the incomparably ma.s.sive hand dropping down upon them. It was as if the sky was collapsing. This was the power of a Progenitor. No, this was the power of an exceptional Progenitor.
Suddenly, the main hall disappeared.
That palm clutched at air.
Countless people were looking up at the hand that was above them, and so they saw when the main hall suddenly disappeared, leaving just an empty hand in s.p.a.ce.
No one knew just where the main hall had gone, or what sort of power had taken it away from right underneath that hand, aside from the people who were inside the main hall.
…
There was a violent shaking so bad that Lu Yin and others nearly fell over. Lu Yin supported himself on the stone wall beside him as he tried to look around. The main hall was pitch black. Had they been captured by that hand?
Suddenly, a berserk force raced into his body, and it completely replenished his four empty stellular energy vortices.