Chapter 2024

Chapter 2024

Lu Yin’s fingers brushed his cosmic ring as he prepared to bring out the Sky Pillar and make one final push forward with the help of the human Semi-Progenitors. As long as Corpse God did not make a move, it was very possible for them to seal off the Starfall Sea.

Suddenly, without any warning, the royal scepter appeared in Lu Yin’s hand.

His pupils shrank to pinpricks the moment he saw what he was holding.

Ni Huang quickly yelled, "Get rid of it!"

Lu Yin immediately tried to do so, but it was stuck to him like an extra limb. "How?"

Kui Luo and the other Semi-Progenitors all felt their scalps go numb. This royal scepter was the thing that had grievously wounded Ni Huang.

Lu Yin quickly blasted the scepter with the runes from the candle, hoping to counter the scepter’s runes.

"Are you worthy to hold the royal scepter?" A melodious voice entered his ears.

Lu Yin felt his blood run cold as he stared at the scepter in his hand like it was some sort of deadly beast. He felt as though he was reliving the scene of Ni Huang being pierced through by that bright light. Even one of the most powerful Semi-Progenitors alive had been badly wounded by this thing. Was this the end for Lu Yin? He had never expected Marquis Wang to somehow be able to ignore the egg’s protection. She truly deserved to be one of the Twelve Marquises.

The Semi-Progenitors could already see the scepter splitting open in Lu Yin’s hand and destroying his body.

Lu Yin himself was picturing the scene as well. He even tried using the Yu Secret Art to get rid of the scepter. It was too late to relight the candle. Were these really his final moments?

Everyone watched as the scepter started to emit a certain radiance that formed a stream of light that shot into Lu Yin's body.

Lu Yin felt time slow to a crawl as he waited for the attack to pierce through his body. His die appeared in his hand as he got ready to try to enter the Timestop Space where he could use Extremes Must Be Reversed to survive whatever injuries he was about to suffer.

Strangely enough, his body remained perfectly fine. Not only was he uninjured, but an indescribable and terrifying power started to accumulate within his body. It was unlike anything that Lu Yin had ever felt before. He stared down at his hand in amazement, and he felt as though he could even kill the Second Nightking with a single slap.

Marquis Wang’s expression turned to complete shock as she watched Lu Yin’s reaction. How was this possible?

Ni Huang and everyone else stared intently at Lu Yin, waiting to see what would happen to him.

"Boy, how are you?" Kui Luo asked hoarsely. His mouth had gone completely dry. He was terrified that Lu Yin was about to die.

Lu Yin swallowed and continued to examine his condition for a bit. "I feel good. Better than ever, actually."

"Have you gone nuts?" Lan Xian could not stop herself from asking. Even if Lu Yin died, she wanted to take back some of his blood for research.

Ni Huang was stunned. "You feel fine?"

"Yeah. I actually feel better than ever, and much, much stronger." Lu Yin turned to look back at Xia Ji. "I feel like I could kill you with one punch."

Xia Ji’s eyelid twitched from his sudden fury.

"I understand… Most of the people on this battlefield believe that you hold the qualifications to rule over them as king!" Ni Huang exclaimed.

His words were met with blank stares.

Ni Huang explained, "It’s not a mistake. Marquis Wang was the Heavens Sect era's gatemaster of the Rainflower Heavenly Gate, and her innate gift was Void Scepter. No one knows how that scepter forms, but it can sense the thoughts of everyone within a certain area. If the majority acknowledges the person holding the scepter as someone qualified to be a king and rule over them, then the scepter will grant that person the strength that this innate gift truly holds.

"But if the person holding the scepter is not recognized by the majority, then it will strike them down instead. This is the power of Rainflower Heavenly Gate’s gatemaster. Out of everyone who has ever been given this scepter by the gatemaster, few people have ever received such recognition, even going back to the very first records."

Lu Yin finally understood what had happened. He shot Marquis Wang an odd look. The woman had truly slapped herself in the face by trying to use this innate gift against him while he was in the Fifth Mainland. Every single person in the Fifth Mainland viewed Lu Yin as the person leading humanity in this war. Even if one considered his enemies from the Sixth Mainland or Xia Ji, who absolutely hated Lu Yin, it did not change the fact that he was their commander at this moment.

Most of the humans on the battlefield came from the Fifth Mainland, and everyone in the entire Fifth Mainland had heard Lu Yin’s name be mentioned countless times before, whether they had wanted to or not. This had only intensified after the Tower of the Fifth’s completion. There was no way to deny Lu Yin’s influence.

That essentially meant that as long as Lu Yin was in the Fifth Mainland, he was Marquis Wang’s natural nemesis.

With that thought, Lu Yin lifted his head up high. "Let’s continue. Leave her be. She can't do anything to me."

Kui Luo shouted, "Go!"

The group of Semi-Progenitors responded instantaneously, and they resumed their push towards the passage to the Starfall Sea.

Suddenly, Herb Immortal froze. A sourcebox array had appeared around his body at some point in time, trapping him. Right after that, Lan Xian, Jiu Chi, Xia Ji, and all of the other Semi-Progenitors were trapped by similar sourcebox arrays.

A figure stepped then appeared right in front of Lu Yin and raised a hand that pressed against the eggshell.

Lu Yin's pupils constricted sharply. "Whiteless God."

Once again, Whiteless God had appeared right when everyone had forgotten about her. Besides her, all the other incarnations of the Seven Skygods that had been in the Fifth Mainland had died when they attacked Burial Garden, which had led to the place being sealed off. Whiteless God was the only one of the Skygods who had not taken action at that time, which had allowed her to avoid being killed or trapped when Burial Garden had closed. Since that time, she had kept the Fifth Mainland’s people in a state of constant fear by appearing at critical junctures. Each time, she had managed to tip the balance into Aternus’s favor.

Lu Yin had thought that by ignoring Marquis Wang, he would be able to carry the Sky Pillar all the way through. Then, he could use the restriction arranged by Progenitor Hui to push Corpse God aside and seal the passage to the Starfall Sea. Unfortunately, Lu Yin had still been too naive.

Whiteless God was the final obstacle between them and the passage to the Starfall Sea. By using sourcebox arrays, she had managed to trap Kui Luo and all the other human Semi-Progenitors at the same time. This was something that not even Marquis Wang or Ancient God had been able to accomplish.

Boom!

The scenery in front of Lu Yin suddenly raced away from him at a shocking speed. Thanks to him being protected by the egg shell, he remained unscathed, but he was still sent flying at an unbelievable speed by Whiteless God.

All of the humans’ earlier efforts had been countered in a single instant.

All of humanity’s Semi-Progenitors felt their hearts drop. This was the end.

At that moment, the royal scepter reappeared, but this time it was in Xue Laogui's hand. At the same moment, he heard a voice. "Are you worthy to hold the royal scepter?"

All of the color drained from Xue Laogui's face. He moved his hand and desperately tried to shake the scepter off, but everything was in vain. Not even Ni Huang had been able to get rid of the scepter, so there was no way for Xue Laogui to remove it.

The royal scepter in his hand then turned into a beam of light that shot through the man’s head.

A powerful, respected Semi-Progenitor was dead before he could even react.

If he had been able to release his inner world in time, he would not have died from a single attack, but rather just seriously injured and trapped within the manifested thoughts.

Xue Laogui’s death caused every single Semi-Progenitor present to go stiff. Each of them suddenly looked at Marquis Wang with fear.

Kui Luo subconsciously balled his hands into fists, afraid that the scepter would suddenly appear in his own hand next. None of them here could ignore that item.

After Whiteless God’s slap, Lu Yin struggled to steady himself, but he was already far, far away from the passage to the Starfall Sea.

It was a distance that would normally be insignificant to a cultivator like Lu Yin, but at this moment, it was a path covered with thorns.

Lu Yin’s jaw clenched as he steeled himself to make another attempt. He refused to give up just yet. At that moment, a panicked scream echoed out, "The Progenitor of Combat… his imprint is gone!"

There were very few people from the Sixth Mainland who were qualified to receive an imprint from the Progenitor of Combat. Most who were qualified were either former or current Realmlings or people who had a very important status within the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect.

Everyone who had received the Progenitor of Combat’s imprint felt their power disappear at that moment, and not a single imprint from the man could be seen anywhere on the entire battlefield.

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Lu Yin felt his head spin when he saw corpse kings slaughtering the panicked cultivators off in the distance. The massacre was quickly accompanied by an unbelievable shout, "The Progenitor of Combat, he’s dead!"

Dead?

The Progenitor of Combat was dead?

Countless Sixth Mainland cultivators trembled at once, and they all turned to look towards the Starfall Sea, overcome with a feeling of dread.

Jiu Yao had also been staring at the Starfall Sea at the moment that the Progenitor of Combat’s imprint disappeared. He spat out a mouthful of blood, and his face grew paler than ever before. "Ancestor Progenitor…"

A flustered figure suddenly came out of the Starfall Sea. It was the Progenitor of Bloodlines.

He took a single glance at the battlefield and took off for the Outerverse without wasting a single single second.

The people of the Sixth Mainland felt as though the sky was collapsing. The reason why they had been able to hold out for so long was entirely because of their absolute faith in the Progenitor of Combat and the Progenitor of Bloodlines. Their Progenitors were fighting outside the passageway, which had made them fearless in their struggle for survival. However, they had just been abandoned by the Progenitor of Bloodlines who had fled from the war.

The morale of all humanity dropped to the lowest point.

People from the Sixth Mainland occupied half of the battlefield, and they had brought many more experts than the Fifth Mainland. These sinking emotions had an immediate effect on all parts of the battlefield.

Not a single human was able to reignite their fighting spirit. Reviving the Progenitor of Combat was the only way to give people the will to continue.

Arch-Elder Zen looked across the battlefield with a grave expression. A trace of pain flickered across his face, and then his voice sounded across the battlefield. "Everyone, retreat!"

With that simple order, the Fifth Mainland’s defeat had been set in stone.

Lu Yin looked at Arch-Elder Zen. He did not want to retreat, but he could also not see any hope of victory.

The longer the Semi-Progenitor’s battles dragged out, the worse the situation would become for the humans involved. Even if the true universe were in a normal condition, at this moment, humanity lacked the strength needed to overcome Aeternus.

On top of that, an enemy powerful enough to kill the Progenitor of Combat could enter from the Starfall Sea at any moment. No human could see any hope of victory.

Retreat.

The word was etched into every human’s mind.

Lu Yin saw Ancestor Tortoise heading towards him, and Yunying Mavis called out, "Alliance Leader Lu, over here!"

Lu Yin let out a deep breath as he leaped onto Ancestor Tortoise. The Great Eastern Alliance’s forces fell back, starting their retreat.

Given the scale of this battle, it was impossible for everyone to safely retreat. Just pulling back all of the warships and the soldiers that had been deployed onto the surrounding planets was a monumental task.

However, strangely enough, Aeternus did nothing to stop the humans, and they even retreated as well.

Lu Yin's expression grew increasingly solemn when he remembered his previous suspicions.

The Aeternals’ primary goal was to enslave humans and establish Aeternus Kingdoms. As long as they held an absolute advantage over humanity, they would prefer to transform humans into corpse kings. This was why they let the humans escape to safety instead of slaughtering them all.

Humans were being allowed to retreat in safety not because of kindness, but because of Aeternus’s long-term goals.

It took a full day to withdraw from the battlefield. Aside from the final vestiges of the fight between the corpse kings and the mechanical ants, the brutal battlefield showed not a single bit of conflict.

Ancient God silently watched as the humans retreated in three different directions. Not one of Aeternus’s Semi-Progenitors took action at this time.

"There are quite a few people in the Forsaken Land. If we manage to take control of all of them, how many valuable corpse kings will we obtain?" Forgotten Ruins God showed a charming smile as her eyes followed Ancestor Tortoise. Her only regret during the entire war was not being able to play with that kid. It did not really matter though, as there would be plenty of opportunities soon.

Marquis Green Bamboo twirled his bamboo flute. "With the Sixth Mainland under our control, countless corpse kings will rise up within a few years. If we add the Fifth Mainland to our territory, we will have a steady supply of corpse kings at our disposal."

"What a pity that she was too heavy-handed. Every single Semi-Progenitor is a rare treasure."

Ancient God indifferently answered, "Let’s give them some time. Once they gather together in one place, we can easily capture them. Only a small piece of an Aeternus Kingdom can be built right now, as we don’t have enough of that. Right now, we can only establish a maximum of five Aeternus Kingdoms in the Forsaken Land.”