Chapter 1925: Mask of Death
Lu Yin understood what the Chief Justice was talking about, as he had already heard from Jiang Chen that there were many, many parallel universes. A parallel universe might only reflect a given planet, or it could reflect the entire universe. Both time and space could be different in a parallel universe.
This was also why Jiang Chen had struggled to chase down the lightning rabbit so much, as the creature could easily and accurately travel between parallel universes, which was too difficult to deal with.
Pocket dimensions like where the Bizarre Sect’s ruins were hidden were somehow different from parallel universes, but Lu Yin did not really understand the details.
As for Jiang Chen, he was not actually able to break through to parallel universes by himself, instead doing so by relying on his father's strength.
"Senior Brother, is it difficult to accurately pinpoint a parallel universe? I mean, I’ve already visited that place before, and now we just want to return to that place," Lu Yin asked.
The Chief Justice remained silent for a while. "I can't do that."
Lu Yin was curious about this matter. "What level of strength is needed to do that?"
"I don’t know."
"Really? Could a Semi-Progenitor do it?" Lu Yin did not relent, and he continued to ask more questions. He was actually trying to understand how strong Jiang Chen's father was. When Lu Yin had last seen Jiang Chen, he had made a comment that indicated that the powerful praying mantis astral beast that Lu Yin had been fighting against was only worthy to be a gardener in Jiang Chen's perspective.
The universe was far from being as straightforward and simple as it initially appeared. They were only able to perceive their own universe, but there were countless parallel universes, not to mention hidden worlds. It was quite possible that many things were not as they first appeared to be.
"I don't know." The Chief Justice merely repeated the same three words.
Lu Yin shrugged.
They needed to wait for a corpse king to emerge from Aeternus Nation. As long as one came out, the Chief Justice would be able to force his way into Aeternus Nation. As for returning, there was no need to worry about such a thing. They were naturally able to return to the universe that was their birthplace. No matter how many parallel universes might exist, the one that gave birth to a person would always be like a brilliant lighthouse to them.
However, how were the corpse kings able to return to Aeternus Nation after they left the parallel universe? This matter seemed quite odd.
Despite the Chief Justice’s strength, there was nothing that the man could do at this moment other than patiently wait. None of them had any idea how long they would have to wait for.
Lu Yin began to absorb stellular energy.
Pulling stellular energy out of the true universe was far from easy, as one needed to avoid being detected by the true universe while cultivating. Lu Yin had to enter the true universe in order to slowly absorb stellular energy.
The Second Nightking saw Lu Yin’s actions and secretly shook his head. There were people who were talented and who could achieve great things, but Lu Yin’s talent was so exceptional that it was actually limiting his progress. There was no way to even estimate how long it would take Lu Yin to absorb enough stellular energy through the standard process to trigger his second stellular tribulation.
Several days later, Lu Yin emerged from the true universe with a bit of a headache from the frustration that he felt due to how slowly he absorbed stellular energy.
He had used cheat-like methods to cultivate from almost the moment he started cultivating, so being forced to train slowly was agonizing for him.
"Senior Brother, is there any more of that stellular liquid?" Lu Yin asked while licking his lips.
The Chief Justice just ignored him.
Lu Yin pursed his lips. "Senior Brother, what did you take from Venom Flowzone?"
The Chief Justice continued to ignore him.
Lu Yin was left speechless. His senior brother was much colder than Mister Mu. Even though Lu Yin rarely saw Mister Mu, each meeting had been incredibly beneficial to Lu Yin.
"Have your people search for as much of that stuff as possible," the Chief Justice finally replied.
Lu Yin quickly asked, "So, what is it?"
"We'll talk about that after you’ve passed through six tribulations," the Chief Justice said.
Lu Yin arched a brow. This sounded somewhat familiar…
Right, Kui Luo had once said that he would tell Lu Yin more about the Lu family after Lu Yin became an Envoy, but Lu Yin had completely forgotten about that matter. He needed to make sure that he brought this matter up with Kui Luo the next time he saw the old man.
Waiting was boring.
Lu Yin accompanied the Chief Justice for more than ten days as they waited, but Lu Yin could not handle any more than that, so he decided to visit the planet beneath them.
It was true that the quality of cultivators in the Neoverse was substantially higher than those in the Innerverse or the Outerverse. Just this single planet had three Enlighters and no less than twenty cultivators who were at least Explorers. A solitary planet boasted as much strength as an entire weave in the Outerverse.
Lu Yin wandered about the planet. Suddenly, he saw a familiar pair of cold eyes staring at him from within a crowd along with a foxish grin. It was Silver.
Lu Yin had not expected Silver to be so bold. He had previously approached Lu Yin during the push to destroy the Daynight clan, and he had reappeared when the Chief Justice was observing the planet.
"Captain, are you here to deal with Aeternus Nation?" Silver asked with a smile. The crowd kept moving, but the two young men remained where they were, facing each other. They were separated by a few meters, and the entire situation seemed a bit odd.
Lu Yin stared at Silver. "Aren't you worried that you’ll be noticed?"
Silver just shrugged. "I'm just a nobody who was sent here to deliver a message to you, Captain. It doesn’t matter if I get found out or not."
"Who sent me a message?"
"Judicial Commissioner Tong Yu."
Lu Yin's eyes flickered. "Let’s hear it."
One side of Silver’s mouth curled up into a smirk. "Actually, it's not really much of a message. The Judicial Commissioner merely feels that your training time is valuable, Captain, and that it would be a pity to waste your time waiting to complete your current task. So, she sent me here to guide you to Aeternus Nation."
Lu Yin was taken aback. "Aren't you afraid that the Aeternals will learn of this?"
Silver’s smile grew brighter than ever. "Six of the Seven Skygods have already died, and while Whiteless God is still around, she’s never shown herself in Aeternus Nation. Thus, she won’t even know that we’ve betrayed them. Compared to Aeternus, you’re much more important, Captain. You are our future!"
Lu Yin had heard these same words from Tong Yu, and he had even slightly believed her. However, there was absolutely no way Lu Yin would trust Silver at all. While this fellow seemed to hold a much lower status in the Specter Clan than Tong Yu, for some inexplicable reason, Lu Yin simply could not shake the urge to be rid of Silver every time they met.
Lu Yin was able to understand Xia Luo’s feelings better each time he saw Silver.
"Captain, you can go in now," Silver stated with a smile.
Lu Yin looked up and saw a familiar figure in outer space above him. It was Corpse Beast. Long ago, Silver had used Beast to hold back all of the Human Domain’s most talented youths in the Mountain and Seas Zone. It had been unstoppable at that time.
Beast moved closer to the planet and then suddenly disappeared. At that moment, the Chief Justice made his move, and a blood-red bell disappeared alongside Beast.
Right after that, space warped and shattered. Countless humans on the planet looked up in shock to see the sky break open. Through the massive crack, they saw a city, as well as seven tall, dark towers. There was also a pair of slitted, scarlet eyes, and further in, there was surging death energy. The entire thing looked like a picture from hell.
The blood-red bell shook and released a sharp ringing sound. Every single creature in Aeternus Nation, regardless of whether they were a corpse king or a regular human being held captive, felt as though a massive hand was reaching down to crush them. The people who had traveled with Lu Yin started charging into Aeternus Nation and massacring the corpse kings.
The brightness of the universe swept away the haze that covered Aeternus Nation. The Chief Justice stood alone outside of a city. As he faced the seven towers, he raised a hand high before pressing down.
The towers shattered, and Aeternus Nations was torn apart. Death energy started to rise up.
"Lu Yin!" the Chief Justice shouted.
Lu Yin leaped forward and approached his senior brother’s side. He faced the surging death energy and began to absorb it.
Lu Yin had absorbed death energy more than once before, but it had never caused a scene like the current one. The death energy that permeated the earth deep beneath Aeternus Nation had risen up to cover the ground and fill the sky. It snaked about like smoke, gradually merging back together to form a dark river that poured into Lu Yin’s body.
There was a bang, and a roar struck Lu Yin's brain. He peered down the long river of time to gaze upon the bleak and lonely back of a person holding a black scythe in hand. Before the figure was an endless horde of astral beasts.
There was a different aura to the figure this time as the God of Death that Lu Yin was looking at had an overbearing demeanor.
Lu Yin wanted to see the Ancient Progenitor’s face, but the figure moved further and further away, and the vision grew increasingly blurry.
Lu Yin tried to catch up, and this caused him to unconsciously accelerate the speed at which he absorbed the death energy.
The ground across Aeternus Nation completely shattered, and an endless flood of death energy filled the sky and surged towards Lu Yin, forming a vortex.
The Second Nightking, Judicial Commissioner Shadow of Death, and everyone else present were all completely shocked by this sight. They felt an oppressive pressure from the surging death energy, and an indescribable fear manifested within them. It felt as though death itself had appeared.
Almost instantly, Lu Yin had managed to cover a vast distance within the vision, and he appeared in the God of Death’s path. When Lu Yin looked up at the figure, his pupils shrank.
He still could not see the God of Death’s face, just a pale and expressionless mask that seemed to belong to a sculpture. Only a single thought entered Lu Yin’s mind when he saw this sight: it was the mask of death.
As Lu Yin stared, the God of Death raised his scythe and slashed down with it.
The vision that Lu Yin had fallen into suddenly disappeared. He opened his eyes and saw an endless flood of death energy pouring into his body. The black and white mist in his chest had condensed more than ever before, and it had almost solidified as yet more death energy entered Lu Yin’s body. This was the most death energy that he had ever absorbed even when all his previous sessions were combined.
Lu Yin’s tolerance for death energy had also greatly increased after he became an Envoy. He could tell that his strength would transform once again when he used the God of Death Transformation.
A question suddenly popped into his head: if the typical cultivation path saw cultivators absorbing star energy first, and then later on stellular energy once they became an Envoy and formed their stellular energy vortex, then was the black and white fog in his chest the death energy equivalent to a stellular energy vortex? Did the cultivation of death energy follow a similar cultivation path of star energy in that it required a vortex to be formed from death energy? If this was accurate, then Lu Yin had already surpassed countless others by reaching the Envoy realm with death energy as well.
From this perspective, it could be said that Lu Yin had five vortices.
As Lu Yin’s mind wandered, the rate at which he absorbed death energy started to wane. He looked down below Aeternus Nation. Even though he had just absorbed a tremendous amount of death energy, it was practically nothing compared to what still remained underground.
"Are you done?" the Chief Justice asked.
Lu Yin had already absorbed the maximum amount of death energy that he could handle at his current strength. “I’m done."
The Chief Justice then took action, and the ground shifted to cover up and conceal the remaining death energy.
Arch-Elder Zen had asked Lu Yin to help handle the death energy that was expected to surge when they broke into Aeternus Nation. Given the Chief Justice’s strength, death energy was nothing more than another kind of energy. As long as it was not being used by a powerhouse, the Chief Justice could easily subdue such energy.
Aeternus Nation had already been destroyed, and countless corpse kings had been eliminated.
The Second Nightking was currently facing Mr. Feng. The steward of Aeternus Nation had once attempted to make a deal with the Second Nightking. Although the man had protected Lu Yin in the past, Lu Yin had no desire to protect Mr. Feng in return.
Mr. Feng had only protected Lu Yin because of Shaman God’s nefarious scheme, and they were clearly on opposing sides and were enemies.
As he looked at the ruins of Aeternus Nation, the tragic fate of the humans living there was once again witnessed by Lu Yin. Some of the people there committed suicide while others lost their minds. All who were in the process of being transformed into corpse kings deep underground were killed without mercy.
Not everyone could be like Lu Yin. Most people were unable to control death energy, and being exposed to it meant that they would inevitably become tools for slaughter. It was only expected that such beings would be eliminated by those from the Interstellar Supreme Court.
Lu Yin moved through Aeternus Nation and arrived at a street with the restaurant that Silver had visited with Lu Yin in the past. Lu Yin could still remember the sight of the woman buying blood. Everything had looked so normal, but in reality, the woman’s internal organs had already all been harvested.
This place was hell, and it absolutely had to be destroyed. Lu Yin was completely convinced of this fact.
Mr. Feng was the only true powerhouse in the entire Aeternus Nation, and he was also the only expert with a power level of over a million.
Lu Yin actually wanted to fight against a corpse king, but he never even saw a corpse king with the strength of an Envoy.
Also, where had the Ghost Monkey gone to?
It was not long before Lu Yin approached the seven shattered towers. Each one represented one of the Seven Skygods, and Lu Yin had previously been taken to Shaman God’s tower.