Chapter 2097: Change
Suddenly, Lu Yin felt an incredible sense of danger, and at that moment, a blade appeared right in front of him. Chu Yuan was attacking again, and by the time Lu Yin even noticed the attack, it was already too late to dodge or block it. Chu Yuan had eliminated the travel time for his attack, and Lu Yin’s chest was sliced open as he was forced to retreat. Even though the wound was not deep, Lu Yin was unable to block Sky Garan's attack.
Sky Garan’s attack descended, and the blue light on the blood spears contained an overbearing pressure. If death energy was cold and radiated bloodlust, then this pale blue power felt like the pressure of a mountain bearing down. It was completely different from star energy, and it was extremely intimidating.
Big Sis raised her double hammers and smashed them upwards.
Boom!
A deafening noise rang out as the two hammers exploded, and Sky Garan's eyes went wide. "You want to use a mere Thundering Hammer to overcome the Garans’ innate gift? What a joke!"
The spear stabbed into Big Sis’s gut, and Sky Garan then used the spear to pick her up and throw her out of the plaza.
Lu Yin’s anger soared when he saw what happened to Big Sis, but Chu Yuan instantly reappeared right in front of Lu Yin. Lu Yin's body completely dried out, and he raised a hand and brought out 99,000 stars that revolved around him. They almost instantly converged to form the Celestial Sword, which Lu Yin slashed at Sky Garan.
The glowing blue spears of blood shot through the sky. At this moment, the power of the Garan family, which had been invincible in the Sixth Mainland, was fully revealed.
Jiu Yao and Lan Xian both watched with great anticipation. Only a portion of the Sixth Mainland’s legacy had been lost during their war against the Fifth Mainland, and certainly not all of it. The two Semi-Progenitors had heard of the horrifying power of the Garan family before.
While only members of the Lu family’s direct line had a chance to inherit the Champions’ Stage innate gift, it was more than likely that more than a single person would awaken the innate gift within each generation. In contrast, only a single person could inherit the Garan family’s innate gift from each generation, which meant that it was a rare innate gift.
If the Sixth Mainland had still possessed the power of the Garan family’s innate gift during their war with the Fifth Mainland, then Progenitor Chen would not have been able to exert as much pressure on the Sixth Mainland, and Progenitor Nan might have even been rescued.
There was an explosion as the Celestial Sword slammed into the blood spear. It was as though the clash was actually an ancient fight, a duel between Progenitor Chen and someone from the Garan family. Stars exploded, and the pale blue light swept out in every direction. Sky Garan’s shirt was torn off to reveal beautiful blue stripes on his back. This was the visual sign of the Garan family’s innate gift, and while the stripes were solid blue at the moment, when the pale color disappeared, it would mean that the power of the Eight-Stars Garan had been used up.
Countless spatial tears spread out from the point of impact between the two techniques, and Sky Garan was overpowered. However, this was not because the power of the Garan family was weaker than the Celestial Sword Technique, but rather because Sky Garan himself was weaker than Lu Yin.
The Cosmic Art had been created by Progenitor Chen, but not even he had mastered the fifth level of the cultivation art when he had been a three-tribulation Envoy. Rather, Progenitor Chen had stumbled along in unraveling and discovering the next portion of the Cosmic Art as he created it, constantly groping for the next level. Lu Yin had inherited Progenitor Chen's legacy, and by using his die’s Timestop, Lu Yin had obtained enough time to master the Cosmic Art to a level that even surpassed Progenitor Chen’s in the same cultivation realm. Naturally, this insane advantage allowed Lu Yin to completely overwhelm Sky Garan.
It was possible that only Chu Yuan’s observational technique could allow a person to see through Lu Yin’s Celestial Sword Technique at this moment, though that was not entirely certain either. Mastering the fifth level of the Cosmic Art induced a transformation in the cultivation art.
Sky Garan retreated step by step. He ground his teeth as he stared at Lu Yin. This should be impossible! The power of the Garan family's innate gift was not something that could be overpowered. The young man’s eyes flared as he formed another spear of blood while lashing out at Lu Yin with a palm strike. "Reincarnation Start."
Lu Yin casually just tanked the slap, though it caused his dried up body to recover slightly. With Extremes Must Be Reversed, Lu Yin was nigh unbeatable.
As for Chu Yuan, he was held back by Silver. Death energy surged out and enveloped Lu Yin and Sky Garan, and Chu Yuan could not even see his target.
Chu Yuan slashed at Silver with a blade, and the blade rose back up almost the same instant that it fell.
Blood covered almost all of Silver’s body. He was not Lu Yin, and he had nowhere near the same physique, so a single attack was enough to leave him a bleeding mess. He dropped to his knees and stared at the floor of the plaza, though his vision had already grown blurred. It was only at this moment that he understood the horror of the power of time. How could one resist attacks that erased portions of time that were truly instantaneous?
The battles in the plaza left all who were watching utterly silent.
Even the Semi-Progenitors like Hen Xin were paying attention, as the power and skills being used in the plaza were representative of the youths who would rise up to represent their own era in the future.
Jue Yi frowned as he observed Silver. In the end, the young man was still a bit lacking when it came to facing something as inscrutable as the power of time. Still, the God of Death’s power was not that easily defeated.
Elsewhere, Starsibyl was focused on the death energy that concealed Lu Yin and Sky Garan. It was impossible to see what was happening within, so after a moment’s thought, Starsibyl shifted her attention over to Big Sis. This stage of the Dao Chosen selection was coming to an end, and if Big Sis wanted to remain in the fight, she would need to somehow change, though Starsibyl had no idea what form that change might take.
Suddenly, Sky Garan came flying out of the shroud of death energy, clearly blasted by some overwhelming force. After he finally managed to stabilize himself, he stared at the death energy in horror. Just how did Lu Yin cultivate? He had succeeded in directly overpowering the power of the Garan family’s innate gift, and Sky Garan felt suppressed in a way that he had not felt even when facing off against Lu Tianyi.
At this moment, death energy isolated a region of the plaza, and Lu Yin alone remained hidden within it.
Both Chu Yuan and Sky Garan stood outside the death energy, staring intently at the hidden area.
Big Sis was still lying on the floor of the plaza. Her head was on the ground, and she was bleeding from her stomach.
Silver was on his knees, struggling to overcome his pain.
Only Heluo Mavis did nothing at all at this moment.
Sky Garan glanced at Chu Yuan. "His Extremes Must Be Reversed is almost impossible to overpower even if we work together. If he were born in our era, Lu Tianyi might not have been the one to end up as the Lu family’s Dao Chosen."
Chu Yuan had a headache. He possessed the invincible power of time, an innate gift of multiplication, as well as a battle technique that allowed him to see through any battle technique. He could be considered a practically perfect cultivator, and yet he had no solutions to deal with someone with such invincible defenses.
The Garan family’s unique power actually possessed a greater destructive power than Chu Yuan, but even that power was useless against Lu Yin.
"As I said earlier, we need to deal with him first. Otherwise, we won’t be able to stop him from carrying the statue to the gates. He can still become the Dao Chosen even without defeating us," Chu Yuan replied.
Sky Garan had also thought of this, and he could not stop himself from looking over at Heluo Mavis. "Why are you still hesitating? You’ll get Destina’s unquestionable support if you become the Dao Chosen, so why do you even care about the Lu Heavenly Gate?"
The strength of the Mavis family was absolutely vital if they wanted to hurt Lu Yin.
If Chu Yuan’s innate gift of multiplication was combined with the Garan family’s unique power that Sky Garan controlled and the Mavis family’s strength, it would be enough to overwhelm even Extremes Must Be Reversed.
Heluo Mavis took a deep breath and forced herself to stop hesitating. Lu Yin was the true threat at this moment. As for the others, regardless of how impressive the power that Sky Garan wielded or how mysterious Chu Yuan’s power of time was, Heluo Mavis was confident in her power of plants and being able to outlast either of her peers. Lu Yin was the only person who left her uncertain.
Given the situation, Heluo Mavis felt that she could not be blamed for her choice.
Every last one of the three former Dao Chosen felt confident about being able to defeat the other two, and only Lu Yin and his Extremes Must Be Reversed left them uncertain of victory. Thus, Lu Yin was the first one who had to be dealt with.
A smile appeared on Silver’s face. While the three had wasted time talking, his captain should have finished his God of Death Transformation, and Silver could not wait for this big reveal. He actually turned around to look into the audience stands at Jue Yi. Even the God of Death’s direct disciple was unable to generate death energy. That ability remained solely in the hands of Lu Yin.
Silver could not even imagine what sort of expression Jue Yi would make when he saw the God of Death Transformation, but Silver was eager to find out.
No one had noticed that Big Sis’s head and body had changed where she lay on the floor of the plaza. Her body became smaller and looked younger. She had taken on the appearance of a little girl.
Black was the first to notice, and she exclaimed, "Big Sis?"
The shout drew everyone else’s attention, and Starsibyl instantly focused onto Big Sis’s transformation. Starsibyl’s expression grew rather odd; who was it going to be this time?
The shout drew even the attention of Chu Yuan and the other two, and they all looked over at where Big Sis was lying on the ground. She completely looked like a child at this moment.
Sky Garan felt quite confused. What the hell had just happened?
Chu Yuan was similarly stunned. Why were there so many weirdos in the modern era?
The smile disappeared from Silver’s face as he looked over at Big Sis. What was happening now?
Big Sis opened her eyes and quickly hopped to her feet. She looked down at her hands and they saw her new arms and legs. She frowned and looked a bit confused. "What a pain. Hey, why are you fighting?"
As she spoke, she looked at the floor beneath her feet. It was stained red with her blood from when she had been stabbed by Sky Garan. She then looked up at where Sky Garan was standing in front of the death energy. "Sugar boy, I’m going to slap you to death!"
She then shot forward with a hand raised to slap Sky Garan.
He reflexively responded by raising his own hand to counter the attack.
There was a bang, and a body smashed into the floor.
The power behind Big Sis’s slap to Sky Garan’s head was so powerful that it left everyone shocked.
"I'll…” Pat, pat, pat. Big Sis continued to slap both of her hands against Sky Garan’s head with such frequency that it sounded like claps.
All Sky Garan could do was try to defend, and he felt quite upset knowing that everything he was suffering was being recorded.
Lu Buzheng was surprised. "That looks so familiar. I feel like I've seen that same behavior before."
Across the plaza, Hen Xin’s head snapped up. "Elder Tong!"
"Who’s Elder Tong?" Xia Ji was puzzled.
Hen Xin explained in a low voice, "The way she fights is exactly the same as that of someone known as Elder Tong during our time."
Xia Ji shook his head. "But she’s from this era."
Hen Xin frowned. This was quite odd. Elder Tong had possessed a truly unique combat style. She had always enjoyed slapping people's heads, and she had actually perfected it into a true skill. Once, she had even slapped a Semi-Progenitor's head while only an Envoy. It was a behavior that was unique throughout the ages, which made this situation very odd.
When he saw that Sky Garan was being suppressed by Big Sis’s slaps, Chu Yuan took action and slashed out with his blade. Big Sis whipped around and slapped at Chu Yuan’s head as well.
Sky Garan shot up from where he had been embedded into the ground, absolutely furious. Blood rose from the floor of the plaza to form another spear that pointed at Big Sis's head. "You’re courting death!"
The spear shot forward.
Two figures, one black and one white, suddenly shot over, and they grabbed hold of Big Sis before running away. They were Black and White.
Sky Garan snorted contemptuously, and his spear of blood shot through the air at the same time as a Reincarnation Start shot out from one of his hands. The spear was wrapped in a pale blue light as it streaked through the void. It was headed straight for Black and White. If it struck either of them, there was no chance of any outcome but death for them.
Big Sis quickly shoved the twins away to take the attack herself. She was slammed into the ground, spitting out blood as she fell.
Up in the audience, Starsibyl shook her head. Big Sis’s transformation was not weak, but it had not been enough to change the outcome of the battle.
Sky Garan’s spear rose up again. He intended to kill Big Sis.
At this same time, Lu Yin was inside the death energy and staring at his die as it spun. When it stopped on four pips, he heaved a sigh of relief. He had just rolled the die three times in a row, so this was his last chance. Luckily, he had gotten the roll he wanted: Timestop.
As the scenery changed before his eyes, Lu Yin entered the Timestop Space and sat down cross legged. His mind entered his chest, focused on the chaotic powers within him.
When Lu Yin had fully mastered the fifth level of the Cosmic Art with the tea from the Root of Intelligence, not only had he comprehended the power of the cosmos that Progenitor Chen had left behind, but he had also gained some understanding of the chaotic energies within his body: they were also related to the cosmos.
Lu Yin’s energies were sealed off from him and were unable to be utilized because of how disorganized and intertwined they had become. The only way for Lu Yin to mobilize those energies again was to find a way to circulate them.
In the human body, blood circulated. In the universe as a whole, stars revolved, powering galaxies and weaves. The power within Lu Yin’s body was the same.