Chapter 2215: Overwhelming Power
Xia Shenfei's eyes were blurry from drinking too much. "The Virtue District is a ways away from the Blue Moon District, but it doesn't look that far."
Xia Xing was surprised. "Do you also suspect him?"
Xia Shenfei burped. "If what you’ve said before is true, then what could be impossible if he had the help of the Celestial Frost Sect?"
"That's why we need hard evidence, since this involves the Celestial Frost Sect," Xia Xing said.
Xia Shenfei's eyes flickered. "The Celestial Frost Sect can’t replace the Lu family in just a day or two, though I am rather interested in this Yu Hao. Supposedly, Grandmaster Gu Yan spent decades training him, which is quite intriguing.”
"Are you certain he is actually Yu Hao?"
Xia Xing looked over at Xia Ziheng, who replied, "There’s no sign of any sort of disguise. It’s his real face and appearance. We’ve observed everything that he’s done since he’s appeared, and it all lines up with what Yu Hao’s expected to do."
Xia Shenfei shrugged. A person’s behavior could easily change, but it was completely impossible for anyone to conceal themselves in front of a Semi-Progenitor, unless the person was at least as strong as the Semi-Progenitor in question. Why would such a powerhouse pretend to be Yu Hao?
Was the person who had appeared the real Yu Hao? Xia Shenfei was getting more and more curious about this person.
In the Virtue District, just a short ways away from the academy, Lu Yin met with Yu Chuan briefly before finding a place to go into seclusion for a bit.
He raised his hand and brought out his die. After tapping it, the die slowly spun around before coming to a stop at three pips.
Lu Yin had no intention of Enhancing anything, and he just stared at the two screens of light for a moment.
The deposit that he had paid to Realmless had been the Netherworld River, and it had cost him about forty billion star essence to Enhance it to the Semi-Progenitor level. After upgrading the power vessel, Kui Luo had delivered it to the Azure District to a location that had been agreed upon with Realmless.
This meant that Lu Yin only had a bit more than 160 billion star essence left. While that might sound like an exorbitant sum, it was not nearly enough. Given Lu Yin’s current level, any sort of Enhancement would cost tens of billions of star essence. Upgrading something several times? Too expensive.
Whenever Lu Yin felt like his funds were insufficient, he was reminded of the Junior Progenitor Planets. That also reminded Lu Yin of the God of Food. The God of Food ran Hope Restaurant, which was on the Island of Hope right in front of the Junior Progenitor Planets. If it was possible to visit the God of Food on the Island of Hope, then would it be possible to “visit” the Junior Progenitor Planets?
The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. Before his thoughts ran away, Lu Yin deliberately suppressed them and quickly tapped his die again.
It slowly came to a stop: four pips. This was easy enough, but it was also no surprise, as Timestop was usually quite easy to roll.
After entering his Timestop Space, Lu Yin took out Zenith Mountain and Xia Xing.
In order to prevent Xia Xing from recovering his strength and making trouble on Zenith Mountain, Lu Yin had made it a point to ask Progenitor Smoke to place a minor restriction on Xia Xing's body. Thus, the sect master was hidden behind a cloud of smoke and could not be seen by anyone else on the mountain
After he was released from Zenith Mountain, a bit of fog slowly dissipated, and Xia Xing’s body was finally revealed to Lu Yin.
More than half a month had passed since Xia Xing had been attacked by Realmless and subsequently captured. While he had been unable to move during this time, his injuries had recovered a great deal.
After the fog surrounding him dissipated, the sect master instantly attacked as soon as he saw Lu Yin. A knife shrouded with Divine Martial Armor slashed out. It was a terrifying attack.
? ? ? ? ? ?
A smile appeared on Lu Yin’s face, and he slowly raised a hand. Shining stars surrounded him, and Xia Xing’s blade entered the area filled with stars. A blank expression appeared on the man’s face, because as his knife fell, it dissipated and vanished until only a hilt was left in his hand. It looked like a child's toy.
The man stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. This was even more shocking than what this mysterious man had revealed to Xia Xing in the past.
When the two had first clashed, Lu Yin had used a single hand to completely suppress and tame Xia Xing’s Divine Martial Armor, which had stunned the sect master. That scene had replayed itself again and again in his mind in the days since his capture. He still did not want to believe that the Xia family’s almighty Divine Martial Armor could be suppressed so easily, which was why it had been Xia Xing’s first attack when his captor revealed himself. Not only did Xia Xing want to use the knife attack to free himself of his captor, but he also wanted to verify what he had seen before. He was desperately hoping that what he had seen had been an illusion.
Unfortunately, the results of the attack were even worse than before. The combined power of the Divine Martial Armor and the Xia family’s most powerful knife technique was not even able to touch Xia Xing’s captor. Some mysterious power had easily dissolved the Divine Martial Armor. What power could be so horrifying? This was beyond even the Lu family’s capabilities.
"Are you Lu Xiaoxuan? What did you just do?" Xia Xing was badly frightened.
Lu Yin had returned to his original appearance for this meeting, and he calmly faced Xia Xing. "Nothing much. It’s just that your power can't touch me."
Xia Xing's pupils instantly shrank to pinpricks. These casual words were essentially eroding the very foundation that had upheld the Xia family for countless years.
Their almighty Divine Martial Armor could not even touch this person?
Lu Yin gave a small smile. Xia Xing? Impossible. After all, even Wang Si’s power as a peak Envoy had been completely dissipated by Lu Yin. Everyone who had seen that exchange had been terrified by the power of the Origin Progenitor’s sword, but the fact that Lu Yin had tapped into the power of Progenitor Chen had completely overshadowed Lu Yin’s own, personal mastery of the Cosmic Art. The truth was that Lu Yin’s capabilities frightened even himself.
Forget the Divine Martial Armor—Lu Yin was even capable of disintegrating the power of the Garan family, which had ruled over the Sixth Mainland and wielded power on par with the Lu family. How could some Divine Martial Armor compare to the Garan family’s unique power?
"Impossible! My Xia family's Divine Martial Armor is overbearing and invincible! How can it not even touch you?" Xia Xing shouted. He threw the handle of his knife away and then launched a palm strike at Lu Yin, still using his Divine Martial Armor.
Lu Yin’s feet did not move, and he stood in place as the palm strike shot towards his heart. However, by the time the attack landed, there was no force behind it. All of the attack’s strength had been eliminated before it reached Lu Yin, erased by the miniature cosmos that was in Lu Yin’s chest.
Xia Xing saw everything play out before him. He saw the stars revolve around Lu Yin, and he felt as though he was staring at a confined universe. Was this… was this an inner world?
"Are you a Semi-Progenitor?" Xia Xing exclaimed.
Lu Yin's eyes turned cold, and his index finger shot forward to press between Xia Xing's eyes. "Sect Master Xia, you and I are entire worlds apart."
Once Lu Yin finished speaking, Xia Xing was sent flying by an invisible force. The moment he was struck, his mind went blank, and all thoughts disappeared. Only when he felt the pain of being slammed into the ground did he recover from his daze. But even then, he could not stop himself from spitting out a mouthful of blood, and he could not even stand up straight.
A person who had once stood high above Lu Yin and seemed to be unreachable was currently lying on the ground before him like a dead dog.
The majestic ruler of one of the four ruling powers could be casually eliminated on a whim by Lu Yin.
Lu Yin was eager to launch a massive war, lead the Fifth Mainland against the Perennial World, and stomp out all resistance in their path. However, doing so was akin to a moth rushing into the flame. The four ruling powers each had their own Progenitors, and even if Lu Yin had the capability to face the four ruling powers’ full strength, he still had to take the Aeternals into consideration as well.
It was impossible for Lu Yin to act as he wished in life, as there were too many things that he needed to take care of or protect.
Xia Xing panted as he struggled to prop himself up from the ground. The sky was spinning to him, especially Lu Yin’s figure. Xia Xing’s vision was blurry, and he could not focus on anything at all.
"Lu Xiaoxuan, you can't be a Semi-Progenitor, but you have clearly mastered some unimaginable power. This must be the power that was left for you by the Lu family," Xia Xing guessed as he stared at Lu Yin and slowly regained some clarity.
Lu Yin stared at the man. "Are you a clone or the main body?"
Xia Xing's eyes flashed. "I am me. My nine clones have already become one."
Lu Yin shook his head. "No, you’re just a clone."
There was absolutely no change to Xia Xing's expression. "What are you going to do now that you’ve captured me? Do you want to avenge the Lu family? That has nothing to do with me. My strength is not nearly enough to have affected the Lu family’s banishment."
"I want to know about the Xia family’s portion of the restrictions placed on the members of Star Alliance," Lu Yin slowly said. He saw no reason to beat around the bush.
Xia Xing's pupils shrank. "You want to rescue Star Alliance?"
Lu Yin said nothing.
Xia Xing quietly asked, "How do you know that restrictions have been placed on the members of Star Alliance or that our four ruling powers each control a quarter of the whole? How did you even get back to the Perennial World? What happened to the army that we sent after you?"
Lu Yin's eyes flashed, and a figurine appeared on his shoulder. It was God of Flames.
Xia Xing looked at the wax figurine in confusion.
The next moment, the skin across his entire body started to break down. It seemed like it was about to disappear, and as this happened, terrible pain wracked the man’s body.
Lu Yin was using Truesight’s runes to erase the sect master’s very existence. He had gained this power from God of Flames, and it was comparable to a Semi-Progenitor. This was more than enough to completely erase Xia Xing.
The sect master gritted his teeth and watched as his skin started to disappear while his flesh and blood was exposed. The fear of completely disappearing burgeoned in his heart. Given his past experiences in life and death crises, he felt like he was dropping into hell.
He could not understand what sort of power he was facing. He had been born in the Perennial World and had not lived during the Daosource Sect era. He had never interacted with Truesight or runes before.
"I'm questioning you. You are not questioning me," Lu Yin stated in an indifferent tone as he stared at Xia Xing with frigid eyes.
Xia Xing dropped halfway down to his knees, struggling to endure the pain. "Since you’ve already guessed that I’m just a clone, then you already know that I don’t fear death. It’s impossible for you to get what you want from me."
As soon as Lu Yin realized that he had only captured one of Xia Xing’s clones, he had already known that it would be impossible for him to extract the information he wanted from the man. The clones that came from the Nine Clones Secret Technique did not fear death unless they wanted to replace the main body, as had been the case with Xia Luo.
Lu Yin still had no understanding of this secret technique, or how the clones were connected to the main body. So even though Xia Xing was in front of him, he could not seize the initiative. Fortunately, there was still something that he wanted to try.
"I was really hoping that you’d be the main body, but unfortunately, you aren’t," Lu Yin said, still speaking in a casual tone. He then pulled a bottle out from his cosmic ring that held a bit of liquid. "This is Progenitor Chen’s blood."
Xia Xing's eyes grew large, and he looked like he had just heard the most shocking bit of news in the universe. "Progenitor Chen's blood?"
Lu Yin simply removed the bottle’s cap. "Feel it for yourself."
The moment the bottle was uncapped, an ancient and domineering pressure descended, filling Lu Yin’s Timestop Space.
Despite preparing himself in advance, being directly exposed to Progenitor Chen’s blood still briefly dazed Lu Yin. He felt like he had seen a giant standing in outer space, utterly invincible.
This was the drop of Progenitor Chen's blood that Lu Yin had obtained from Ku Wei, who had absorbed some of the Progenitor’s blood from the blood pool that had been protected by the guardian giants in Progenitor Chen’s Mausoleum. After using his die’s Enhance, Lu Yin had improved the blood until it was as pure and powerful as if it had come from Progenitor Chen himself. This blood had originally come from Progenitor Chen’s clone with the blood of the colossal giants. It was the same as what Gaia’s Swamp’s warden had absorbed after awakening long ago.
The pressure from Progenitor Chen's blood instantly made Xia Xing cough up even more blood, but the man did not even notice. The moment the pressure descended, the sect master had been able to sense its connection to his blood.
Progenitor Chen and Xia Xing were both from the Xia family, and their blood shared the same origins. While the two men came from different branches of the family, Progenitor Chen had become a Progenitor, which meant that his blood was no different from the blood of the Xia family’s founder, the first Progenitor in their family.
Xia Xing was himself a direct descendant.