Chapter 1966

Chapter 1966

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Any randomly selected expert from the Lu family could easily crush the entire Fifth Mainland underfoot.

After realizing the situation, Leaf King’s eyes blazed as he looked at Lu Yin. The man was more excited than ever. "The Hall of Honor shouldn’t know that you’re a member of the Lu family, as they would have had someone kill you if they didn’t just do it themselves. You should have ended up here by accident, as why else would a direct descendant of the Lu family be in this place?”

"Actually, there’s another possibility, which is that you’ve been exiled here after the Lu Family committed some terrible crime."

Lu Yin sneered. "You sure have a vivid imagination."

Leaf King’s voice turned cold. "Regardless of whether or not anyone from the Lu family is protecting you, you’re still going to die here today. Keeping you alive will just invite a disaster, so why shouldn’t I fight to the end? If someone from the Lu family showed up to protect you, I’ll readily admit my defeat."

Lu Yin shook his head. "You don’t need to worry about the Lu family, as you won’t stand a chance after I use the Champions’ Stage."

Leaf King sneered. "Even members of the Lu family need to use stellular energy to use the Champions’ Stage, and besides, given your strength, how many champions can you even summon? Stop bragging and just die!”

Before seeing the Champions’ Stage, Leaf King had still been hoping to negotiate a cooperative relationship with Lu Yin, but the fact that Lu Yin was a member of the Lu family changed everything. Lu Yin’s blood was far too valuable to Leaf King, and he was desperate to obtain it. Besides, the Second Nightking still had not made a single move, and while Lu Yin might not know that, Leaf King was well aware that the ancient powerhouse had made no attempts to escape.

There were two layers to the tree that imprisoned the Second Nightking, and the man should have already broken free from the inner layer. However, despite so much time passing, nothing had happened. This gave Leaf King some understanding of the Second Nightking, and thus, Leaf King became even more eager to kill Lu Yin and take his blood.

Lu Yin just felt contempt for Leaf King. Almost none of Lu Yin’s true strength had been used so far. Not to mention the God of Death Transformation, he had not even reopened his three meridian points. He was simply testing out another battle strategy, and he wanted to summon his champions with death energy instead of stellular energy.

Lu Yin was hoping to expand upon what he had learned about death energy from Tian Dou.

"With my name, I summon a Champion," Lu Yin called out, and there was a click as a series of figures appeared above the Champions' Stage. Lu Yin had just summoned five Envoy realm champions with his death energy: an Amethyst Beast, Cang Zhou, Long Yi, Jiu Han, and the Imprinter from the Sixth Mainland’s Rock Realm.

Leaf King was horrified at the lineup before him. "Impossible! How can you summon one let alone five champions without stellular energy? Each of these champions should require stellular energy!"

Lu Yin could not be bothered to explain anything. While each of the summoned champions was much weaker than Leaf King, the man was unable to use stellular energy himself due to using his Starswitched Leaf technique. Thus, Leaf King was restricted to techniques that relied on his own physical might, and given the immortality of the summoned champions, they were more than capable of putting up a fight against Leaf King.

At Lu Yin's command, all five Envoys shot towards Leaf King.

The man casually pierced through Long Yi’s body. The sylvan dragon was incapable of putting up any resistance at all, but he quickly reappeared and continued charging at Leaf King.

The five Envoys were continuously killed by Leaf King, but they were still able to keep him busy.

While this happened, Lu Yin tried to use the Death Energy Guardian, the defensive battle technique that he had learned from Tian Dou.

It was not long before death energy formed what looked like an eggshell around Lu Yin’s body.

Leaf King crashed through the blockade formed by the five summoned Envoys and slammed a full-strength palm against the barrier protecting Lu Yin. It was a direct hit, but an expression of shock appeared on Leaf King’s face as he took a step back. What was this?

Behind him, the five Envoys had already reformed and caught back up to him.

Leaf King felt incredibly frustrated, but there was nothing he could do. This was the power of the Lu family's Champions’ Stage. A champion would never die after being summoned unless either the summoner died or the energy used to summon the champion was completely exhausted.

Leaf King had already figured out the situation: Lu Yin had not used stellular energy to activate the Champions’ Stage, but rather death energy.

There were rumors circulating that claimed that Lu Yin had received the God of Death’s inheritance and that he could cultivate with death energy. There had even been a huge commotion in the Neoverse when the Neohuman Alliance had captured Lu Yin and attempted to transform him with death energy.

"You are infuriating!" Leaf King spat out between his gritted teeth.

Lu Yin appeared, his head held high. "Now, it's my turn."

As he spoke, death energy moved to wrap around his body, and he stepped out with an outstretched hand. He used Inverse Step to approach Leaf King and try to grab him. Leaf King reflexively threw out a hand to counter Lu Yin’s grab as the older man retreated. The two hands struck, and once again, both men were forced back by the impact. But this time, death energy wrapped around Leaf King’s hand, and he watched in astonishment as the death energy formed chains that started to wrap around him.

Leaf King tried to escape, but the death energy eroded everything that it touched, so how could it possibly be easy to remove? Lu Yin dismissed the Champions’ Platform as he pulled Leaf King over. A sword formed from death energy appeared in Lu Yin’s right hand, and he swept the blade out.

There was a slicing sound, and half of Leaf King's body was cut open. However, once again, there was not a drop of blood to be seen, which still surprised Lu Yin. "I really want to find out just what you are."

The chains of death energy continued to twine around Leaf King as Lu Yin went after the man with the sword of death energy.

Not only was the death energy eroding at Leaf King's body, but the chains were also restricting his movements. Death energy was completely different from stellular energy, and while Leaf King’s body was strong enough to endure Lu Yin’s Hollow Palm, he could do little against the sword of death energy.

Stellular energy and death energy were simply completely different forms of energy.

"Lu Yin, are you really going to push for one of us to die here?" Leaf King roared.

Lu Yin sneered. "You think you’re on my level? Let’s find out!"

As Leaf King fled, he canceled the Starswitched Leaf technique, allowing him to once again use stellular energy. He raised a hand to use Banishment to force Lu Yin back, but while he succeeded in forcing Lu Yin back, Leaf King was still wrapped up in the chains of death energy. It did not seem to matter how far away Lu Yin moved, as the death energy never relaxed its grip on Leaf King.

It would be useless even if the man cut off his own arm, as he had been cut by the sword of death energy, which meant death energy had already invaded Leaf King’s body.

It was at this moment that Lu Yin finally understood just how terrifying death energy could be.

In the past, he had only ever used death energy to perform the God of Death Transformation, but that always quickly consumed Lu Yin’s reserves of death energy, which made the technique nothing more than an explosive burst of strength. However, the battle had quickly shifted when Lu Yin tried utilizing death energy instead of stellular energy in his battle techniques, and the death energy was completely suppressing Leaf King.

It was not as simple as death energy being superior to stellular energy. Rather, Leaf King had no means with which to resist this unique form of energy.

If Qing Ping were to face the same situation as the Leaf King, there was no guarantee that the death energy would have any advantage whatsoever. After all, any advantages that Lu Yin enjoyed from using death energy all depended on the abilities of the person facing it.

Leaf King had already been branded with death energy, and he knew that he would not be able to defeat Lu Yin regardless of what happened now. At the same time, the tree that imprisoned the Second Nightking some distance away started to crack. Lu Yin’s eyebrows rose. Had the Second Nightking really been trapped? When Lu Yin had been pushed back by Leaf King, there had been no sign of the Second Nightking breaking free, but once Lu Yin seized the advantage, the Second Nightking had started to move, which strengthened Lu Yin’s doubts.

Leaf King's face contorted into an ugly expression. The Second Nightking must have noticed that Leaf King had no hope of winning, so the old man was breaking free. Seeing this made Leaf King want to escape from his hidden world and run to Mt. Microcosms. Only there would he be safe. He had donated countless pills and medicines to the Hall of Honor over the years, and he had also contributed greatly to the development of Mt. Microcosms. As long as Leaf King could escape to Mt. Microcosms, he was confident of surviving.

A crack appeared in the sky of the hidden world, and Leaf King shot through it and disappeared.

At the same moment, the Second Nightking broke free of the tree and stepped out.

A cold glint flickered across Lu Yin's eyes, and an astral chessboard appeared beneath his feet.

The crack in the sky suddenly disappeared, and Leaf King seemed to be dragged back by some invisible power. The Ce Secret Art’s Board Manipulation was simply too terrifying. It was no wonder why no one from the Ce family had been able to comprehend the power even after so many years. Their secret technique surpassed that of an ordinary Progenitor, and the ability to revert space to a previous state reminded Lu Yin of the miraculous power of Progenitor Ku’s Extremes Must Be Reversed.

Even though the two techniques used completely different concepts, they were both similar in how unbelievable they were.

Leaf King was dragged back into the hidden world with the Ce Secret Art, and the Second Nightking quickly took action and pointed a finger at the other man.

Leaf King no longer had the strength to stand up to the Second Nightking, and the finger knocked Leaf King out of the sky and pressed him against the ground. His entire body was covered with cracks, but there still was no blood.

Lu Yin landed on the ground and looked down at Leaf King, who was lying on the ground. Leaf King glared back at Lu Yin and the Second Nightking.

There was no path to escape anywhere in the entire hidden world for Leaf King.

The man slowly lifted his head to stare at Lu Yin. The man’s entire body was falling apart. "You- you can't kill me! I’ve made countless contributions to the Hall of Honor! I’ve supported your Great Eastern Alliance! I’ve never been your enemy."

"Forget you, I even dared to hold Xia Yi prisoner. You tried to take advantage of Yu Mu’s betrayal to give me a stellular energy pill to use against me. If I hadn’t happened to produce Sapling, I would still be ignorant about the danger that those pills hold. Tell me,” Lu Yin asked as he studied Leaf King, "Just what the hell are you?"

Leaf King panted for breath as his eyes darted about.

Lu Yin sneered at the man. "Consider your words carefully, because if I don’t buy them, you’ll suffer a worse fate than death. You know the Hui family’s inherited technique, the Hall of Honor’s secret techniques, and even the Lingling clan's inherited battle technique. On top of it all, you even know the truth of the history behind the primeval surnames and the Lu family’s Champions’ Stage. You better give me a story I believe, as otherwise I’ll teach you the meaning of despair."

Leaf King stared at Lu Yin and gritted his teeth. "If I tell you, will you let me go?"

Lu Yin squatted down to look at Leaf King from up closer. "That depends on whether or not keeping you alive has any value."

Leaf King's eyes went wide. "Of course it does! I can use the stellular energy pills to help you monitor the locations of everyone who has one, and I can even cause the pills to explode. Even if the target is as strong as you, they’ll definitely die from the explosion. This is how I killed Yu Mu."

Lu Yin nodded when he confirmed what had caused Yu Mu's death. "That’s quite useful. Keep going. Also, let me just remind you that Balsam is still in this hidden world, and while I’m not sure how much she might know about you, if your stories don’t line up, you’ll be the one to suffer."

Leaf King's expression changed yet again. Finally, he let out a long sigh. "The techniques from the Hui family, the Hall of Honor, the Lingling clan, and even Truesight are all things that I’ve learned over the years because of my innate gift."

This was an unexpected answer. "Your innate gift?"

Leaf King explained in a bitter tone, "I really am human, or at least I was. My innate gift is absorption, and it allowed me to transform my body by absorbing a certain substance from the Mother Tree. My absorption ability is also what allows me to use the Lingling clan’s inherited technique. I obtained various inherited battle techniques and also acquired other techniques with this ability, and it even allowed me to raise my mastery of Shangwu’s Technique to a level that surpasses Yuan Shi’s.

"The stellular energy pills are actually seeds made from my current body. They aren’t even pills, but rather a condensation of my own power, and they retain a trace of me in them. This means that I can locate every single one of the stellular energy pills. I sent Balsam after you to tempt you with more pills because I lost control of one of the pills that you were given.

"Honestly, I started off as nothing special. The only reason why I know about the primeval surnames and your Lu family is because I lived during the Daosource Sect era. Back then, I was just a new, weak cultivator who had just started training. That was when I managed to obtain a piece of the Mother Tree’s bark, and I absorbed it, which led to the transformation into my current state. However, it took many, many years to complete that process. If not for that process taking so long, I would be far stronger than I am now. I would have a power level of at least a million, or might have even become a Semi-Progenitor by now. Transforming my body has provided me with unlimited potential, but it also greatly slowed the speed of my cultivation, I…"

Lu Yin quietly listened to Leaf King's story without interrupting. He said nothing at all until Leaf King had completely finished speaking. "What kind of tree did you use to trap the Second Nightking?"