Chapter 2069: The Mainland Collapses
It was a terrifying thought, but it also seemed to be the most likely possibility.
There was most likely a true universe constantly being created and then dissipating inside of the main hall.
The blade fell, and Lu Yin raised a hand towards it. The attack was sharp enough to slice the void apart, but it was completely unable to break through Lu Yin's defenses. After all, this attack was far from matching Leng Qing's true strength.
There was a bang as the blade shattered.
Above Lu Yin’s head, a fourth attack for his stellular tribulation appeared.
Chu Yuan's face fell. All of Lu Yin’s accomplishments had defied the young man’s understanding. Chu Yuan had always been the person to surpa.s.s others’ understanding, especially when it came to the size of his internal energy reserves. Anyone who encountered him would be puzzled as to how he could possess a stellular energy reserve that was comparable to that of the Lu family’s Dao Chosen. At this moment, Chu Yuan could empathize with those people’s confusion; just how did Lu Yin have so much stellular energy within his body? Why did this stellular tribulation launch so many attacks?
Just how did this person train?
Lu Yin progressed further and further down a road that others could not comprehend.
Suddenly, Chu Yuan's expression changed once again. No, he's about to finish his breakthrough!
As Lu Yin crazily devoured stellular energy to gather enough energy to trigger his breakthrough, it did not mean that the others around him had been unable to absorb stellular energy. Rather, their rate of absorption had merely slowed down.
However, the amount of time that the surges of stellular energy lasted was growing longer with each cycle, and Chu Yuan had reached his limits. Finally, a tribulation appeared over his head as well.
Lu Yin looked over. So he’s breaking through, too.
Heluo Mavis quickly got away from Chu Yuan.
The young man’s complexion did not look good. He had already been at the peak before his third tribulation, so it should not be a problem for him to break through, but he did not want it to be like this. Chu Yuan craved attention, which was the reason why he had not stopped Heluo Mavis and Lu Yin from following him through the Daosource Sect ruins. At this moment, everyone was focused entirely on Lu Yin, which meant that Chu Yuan could only serve as a foil to Lu Yin. This was unacceptable.
The two tribulations fell at the same time.
Lu Yin and Chu Yuan both simultaneously pa.s.sed their stellular tribulations.
Chu Yuan became a three-tribulation Envoy, while Lu Yin became a two-tribulation Envoy.
Even after the two young men’s breakthroughs, stellular energy continued to rush into their bodies without slowing at all.
Just like Heluo Mavis, Chu Yuan decided to try to suppress how much stellular energy entered his body.
On the other hand, Lu Yin continued to use the Cosmic Art to pull in ever-increasing amounts of energy.
Those droplets of the mysterious liquid had emptied the main universe of stellular energy, rendering the true universe completely useless. How was Lu Yin supposed to gather enough energy needed for future breakthroughs? If he could face his tribulations at this moment, then he fully intended to take advantage of the situation. Besides, his foundation was st.u.r.dy enough to support these breakthroughs. In fact, if others understood Lu Yin’s foundation, they would question their entire lives.
Everyone just stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. He wanted to push for another breakthrough? Was he insane?
A cute smile appeared on Forgotten Ruins G.o.d’s face. "Kid, are you afraid that you won’t be able to make any more breakthroughs with the true universe empty? I like your personality! You won’t let go of any opportunity you see, will you? Haha!"
Lu Yin pursed his lips, as the woman was absolutely right. Why should Lu Yin abandon an opportunity that had fallen into his lap?
Heluo Mavis did not have such concerns. While she also cultivated with stellular energy, she was more focused on the Mavis family’s cultivation methods, so she simply needed to find the divine tree.
Chu Yuan frowned heavily. It was true; the true universe was empty, so what should he do? He had not reached a level where he could create his own cultivation method, and he had only focused on cultivating with stellular energy, just like the members of the Lu family.
Chu Yuan could not help but look over at Lu Yin. Should he copy Lu Yin’s methods? Doing so would defeat Chu Yuan’s original goals.
After the two tribulations ended, stellular energy continued to surge into everyone's bodies. The statue had absorbed too much stellular energy, and it far surpa.s.sed what Lu Yin and the others were capable of handling.
The four stellular energy vortices in Lu Yin’s body continued to grow, and it looked like they were quickly approaching the threshold needed for his third tribulation.
The main hall suddenly trembled, and everyone went stiff for a moment. They were about to witness another event in time and s.p.a.ce.
The furthest point in history that Lu Yin knew about was the war between the Fifth and Sixth Mainlands’ Daosource Sects. He had not seen any history related to anything before that time, and it seemed as though such information was considered unimportant, or at the least, unimportant to the Fifth Mainland when compared to people like Progenitor Chen, Progenitor Ku, and their histories.
Lu Yin was very interested in those people.
However, they were not necessarily going back straight through time or visiting locations in s.p.a.ce in a specific order. It was possible that this next scene would be a more distant point in time, but it could also be something far more recent.
A white light flashed outside the main hall. Everyone turned to look at it, and they saw a scene from outer s.p.a.ce that was filled with a chaotic white light. The light suddenly turned dark red, and then it shot out in all directions. Lu Yin was unable to even see what was happening.
"This is the scene of a Mainland’s collapse!" Jiu Yao blurted as he stared into the distance in absolute horror.
Even Forgotten Ruins G.o.d was surprised. "So it’s when that Mainland collapsed? I really missed this sight."
Leng Qing could not believe what he was hearing; a Mainland had collapsed? An entire Mainland? He had heard that five of humanity’s Six Mainlands had fallen, but he had not believed it. At this moment, he was seeing the destruction of a Mainland with his own eyes.
Soil, rivers, mountains, planets, enormous land ma.s.ses, and regions of outer s.p.a.ce all moved in various directions. Of course, all of this chaos ended countless lives.
How many creatures would die with the destruction of a Mainland? No one could fathom such a number. Even a small planet like Earth had been home to billions of human beings before its apocalypse, and that was not even considering any other creatures. However, how many planets the size of Earth existed in a single Mainland? That was also impossible to know, as there were simply too many.
The destruction of a Mainland signified the disappearance of a civilization.
Lu Yin opened his eyes wide, and he saw the brightest and cruelest scene that the universe had ever known. The dazzling white light that mixed with the ominous dark-red light was beyond terrifying, and Lu Yin felt as though he could hear the cries of countless lives, hearing their despair before they were reduced to dust.
From beginning to end, Chu Yuan and Heluo Mavis watched in silence as the Mainland was destroyed. They had never imagined they would ever see such a sight.
It was one thing to hear about such destruction, but an entirely different thing to actually see it.
"So it's the Fourth Mainland," Forgotten Ruins G.o.d commented when she recognized what they were seeing.
Above the main hall, planets and stars exploded, and countless strange lifeforms living in those places were instantly wiped out. These creatures were not humans, but at this moment, life was life.
Astral beasts inhabited most of the Fourth Mainland, and the Astral Beast Domain was a remnant of the creatures that had survived the Fourth Mainland’s destruction. Both Skymender and the Celestial Demons had come from that place.
In the distant past, the astral beasts had lived in a place that was comparable to the entire Fifth Mainland.
The Fifth Mainland consisted of not only the current Innerverse, Outerverse, and Neoverse, but also the Astral Beast Domain, Technocracy, and even the Perennial World. One could only imagine just how powerful the complete Fifth Mainland had been, and the Fourth Mainland had been fully comparable to the Fifth.
Such a huge and prosperous place had been completely destroyed, disappearing from the universe. Even Lu Yin could have never imagined such a scene, yet he was seeing it for himself at this moment.
Everyone stayed silent. The ending of life was always something that seemed to deserve silence. It was likely that Forgotten Ruins G.o.d was the only that was enjoying what they were seeing. She had seen the same thing several times before, but such destruction was also caused by her and the Aeternals.
Lu Yin subconsciously clenched his hands into fists. Would the Fifth Mainland suffer the same fate?
Eh? He suddenly noticed something familiar. Was that a humanoid sourcebox?
The destruction of the Mainland felt like an entire region of the universe had exploded, and the annihilation of so much matter produced countless black holes. In this scene of endless destruction, one humanoid sourcebox after another flew out in various directions. There were so many that Lu Yin even forgot about the destruction of the Mainland.
Why were there so many?
More and more humanoid sourceboxes shot through s.p.a.ce. They did not originate from just one location, but from many, many places. What was going on?
Xiao Shi had told Lu Yin that humanoid sourceboxes absolutely could not be unlocked, and Array Grandmaster Xiu Ming had given Lu Yin a similar warning. Lu Yin had taken careful note of these warnings, and he had given all of the humanoid sourceboxes that he had found over to Xiu Ming.
However, no one had ever been able to tell Lu Yin just where the humanoid sourceboxes came from.
At this moment, as the Fourth Mainland collapsed, he saw countless humanoid sourceboxes. How were there so many?
He suddenly remembered what he had seen when he had once Possessed a Creeper. The Celestial Beast Empire was in possession of a great number of humanoid sourceboxes, and it looked like they had been collecting them.
What was the relationship between the Celestial Beast Empire, the Fourth Mainland, and the humanoid sourceboxes?
The main hall trembled, and it returned to the river of time. It felt as though the endless destruction that they had just witnessed had been nothing more than an illusion.
Chu Yuan and the others remained silent. What they had just seen had already happened. Hearing about historical events was entirely different from witnessing them in person.
Lu Yin's heart grew heavy.
The statue started to suck in stellular energy once more, and everyone just allowed it to happen.
They had just witnessed the end of the Fourth Mainland. Would their next stop be the destruction of the Third Mainland, the Second, or even the First? Would they see the Heavens Sect era?
How far back in time could the sword take them?
It was not long before the statue started releasing stellular energy again, and Lu Yin immediately started using the Cosmic Art. It was as though he was doing it subconsciously.
However, the first person to have another breakthrough was Heluo Mavis. She once again failed to hold back the surge of stellular energy, and much to her frustration, she became a four-tribulation Envoy.
If most people experience such a rapid rise in cultivation, they would go insane. The amount of time that most cultivators needed to gather enough stellular energy to trigger a stellular tribulation was exorbitant, and that was not even considering the caution that was needed when absorbing stellular energy from the true universe.
However, there were no such concerns in the main hall. Beyond that, not only were there no restrictions, but they were actually being forced to absorb ma.s.sive amounts of stellular energy, and their cultivation was being forcibly improved.
It would be amazing if this could happen to all humans, Lu Yin suddenly thought.
Heluo Mavis was a four-tribulation Envoy, which greatly improved her strength, but such an effortless improvement left her quite disgruntled.
It was only a short time later that Lu Yin’s four vortices reached maximum capacity, and they simultaneously triggered his third stellular tribulation.
Lu Yin had never cultivated so quickly before; he was already facing his third tribulation!
These tribulations were not difficult, but just like before, while others only faced a single attack for their minor tribulations, Lu Yin had to face four.
After the four attacks finished, Lu Yin officially became a three-tribulation Envoy.
He knew that his strength had improved a tremendous amount, and he might have even reached a level where he could face off against old monsters with power levels of over a million, like Yuan Shi. If Lu Yin was able to stay in the main hall for long enough, he might even reach a power level of a million himself!
Of course, this was just an idle thought. Even if he could reach a power level of a million, he would avoid doing so. His foundation was sufficient for him to become a three-tribulation Envoy, and likely even for his fourth tribulation. But to climb higher, it was important for Lu Yin to continue strengthening his foundation.
Ideally, he would go train in the Perennial World, though the downside of that option was that he would be hunted down by the four ruling powers.
When Lu Yin looked up, he saw everyone staring at him, clearly wondering when he would trigger his fourth tribulation.
Lu Yin looked away and glanced over at the distant forms of Chu Yuan and Heluo Mavis. Suddenly, Lu Yin remembered something, and his eyes lit up. He felt that it was possible for him to try to seize the statue.
Just as he was considering this, the main hall shook, and everyone looked out at the same time. They were both eager and nervous to find out what they would see next.
This time, the main hall appeared above an endless ocean. No, this was… a lake?
Lu Yin looked around. It really was a lake that was so large that he could not see the other side. The only reason he knew it was a lake instead of an ocean was because of a distant jungle that they could see. The trees were just as large as the Mavis family’s divine tree.
Despite the distance, even if it was impossible to see the sh.o.r.e of the lake, they could clearly see the jungle’s ma.s.sive trees in all directions. Each tree was large enough to hold stars, and even further away, they could see the Mother Tree itself.