Chapter 2113: The Origin Progenitor
The obnoxious fish looked over at Chu Yuan. "Hey, you look like a familiar two-legged beast. Has Lord Fish seen you before? Come, show some respect to Lord Fish! Lord Fish will teach you how to become a Progenitor."
Chu Yuan stared at the fish in a daze. Even if death approached at this moment, Chu Yuan would continue to stare at the fish. They were so close to each other. "You’re still alive?"
"What do you mean by that? Are you trying to curse Lord Fish? You’re going too far! Girl, kick his a.s.s!" The fish slapped Xi Qi’s head.
Chu Yuan stared at the fish in rising confusion. Was this really that same fish? That fish had been so ma.s.sive and powerful, while the one that Chu Yuan was staring at could not compare at all. Even though it had the exact same tone and sound to its voice that made anyone who heard it want to cook the fish, it was practically impossible for them to be the same fish.
"You recognize it?" Lu Yin asked.
Chu Yuan returned to his senses, suddenly remembering Lu Yin’s presence. "It feels just like it, but it shouldn’t be the same."
"You’re referring to the fish that was in the lake in the Origin Progenitor’s garden, right?" Lu Yin asked.
Chu Yuan replied, "Didn"t you see that fish as well? Not even the eagle could do anything to it. There’s no way that this is that same fish."
"Maybe it just lost all of its cultivation," Lu Yin suggested. If Big Sis was actually Everchanging Yōu Ming, why was it impossible for Xi Qi’s fish to be the Arkfish? Still, it was not guaranteed to be true, and it might just be some descendant of the Arkfish.
Chu Yuan stared at Lu Yin. "So this is why you called me over. It doesn’t recognize me, and I can’t tell you whether it’s really the Arkfish. Even if it is, it looks like it can’t remember its own past, so calling me over to check was pretty pointless."
Lu Yin dismissed Xi Qi, and the sound of Lord Fish’s voice faded away. Lu Yin asked, "I’ve been rather curious as to why you stayed in this solar system."
"Given your strength, there’s no need for you to be the Dao Chosen," Chu Yuan said.
Lu Yin laughed. "You still want to become the Dao Chosen? Destina supports me, so even if you do become the Dao Chosen, it won’t mean anything."
Chu Yuan raised his head high. "This is the first step to my perfect plan for my life: first, become the Dao Chosen. Then, after getting the Heavenly Gates’ gatemasters to follow me, take control of one of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas. Finally, I will become a Dao Monarch."
"You’re thinking too much. You’re in a good position right now, given that you’re the strongest of our generation aside from me. However, that doesn’t guarantee that you’ll become a Progenitor. Besides, it’s not that easy to take control of one of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas," Lu Yin countered.
Chu Yuan"s eyes flickered. "Have you already tried it?"
Lu Yin smiled. "Yes, and I failed."
"I will not!" Chu Yuan remained confident.
Lu Yin shook his head. "Perhaps, but obtaining those inheritances isn’t dependent on your cultivation. Still, even if you do manage to become a Progenitor, I’ll do the same. You will always remain beneath me. Your plan isn’t perfect anymore."
Chu Yuan clenched his fists. This really had been his plan for the perfect life, and he had been utterly confident in accomplishing each step. However, the person in front of him had overpowered him, and it was impossible for Chu Yuan to defeat Lu Yin. An absolute monster had been born in this era, and it was still difficult for Chu Yuan to accept Lu Yin’s existence.
Lu Yin was a bit disgruntled when he saw the ugly expression on Chu Yuan’s face. Lu Yin was quite familiar with this expression, as he had started to see it on other people’s faces when he had first become the champion of the Astral Combat Tournament, and then again when he had started to climb the Top 100 Rankings. Things had only gotten worse when Lu Yin had become one of the Ten Arbiters and one of the Cosmic Five, let alone after he defeated the four Junior Progenitors. Every step of the way to Lu Yin’s current status, he had stepped on his peers in order to climb higher, and he was only too familiar with the expression on Chu Yuan’s face.
The only value that Chu Yuan held for Lu Yin was the fact that Chu Yuan had once met the Origin Progenitor himself during the Heavens Sect era.
"What kind of person is the Origin Progenitor?" Lu Yin asked.
…
After Chu Yuan left, there was a weird look on Lu Yin’s face. Was that really what the Origin Progenitor had been like?
There was no point dwelling in the matter. Regardless of what sort of personality the Origin Progenitor had had, it had nothing to do with Lu Yin.
He pulled out Zenith Mountain and entered it.
He had actually intended to release all the captives still trapped on Zenith Mountain earlier, especially Xing Kai, but Hen Xin had never even asked about Xing Kai. Most likely, Hen Xin a.s.sumed that Lu Yin had already killed Xing Kai. After considering the situation for a bit, Lu Yin decided to hold off from releasing anyone until the New Corridor was restored and the connection to the Perennial World was reestablished. That would be the right time to start releasing the prisoners.
This also meant that Lu Yin’s captives would have to wait for a bit longer.
Long Xi was the sole exception, but she had no desire to leave.
When Lu Yin entered Zenith Mountain, he first arrived close to Long Xi. He wanted to take Sapling away, as he felt that it was unfair to the young tree to keep it locked away for too long.
As soon as Lu Yin arrived on Zenith Mountain, in addition to seeing Long Xi and Sapling, Lu Yin noticed Xia Taili’s presence. As soon as she noticed Lu Yin’s arrival, she ground her teeth and leaped to her feet to attack, only to be easily stopped by Lu Yin. "Attack me again, and I’ll literally lock you up."
Xia Taili stared at Lu Yin. "What"s the difference between that and my current state?"
Lu Yin answered by simply tossing her far away.
Sapling was jumping up and down, and it quickly twined its little branches tightly around Lu Yin"s fingers. It gripped Lu Yin much tighter than ever before. It had already learned its lesson; Lu Yin had told Sapling during his last visit that he would take Sapling away from Zenith Mountain, but it had not happened. Sapling had no intention of letting go of Lu Yin this time.
"Take it with you. It"s bored," Long Xi said.??ℯ??????ѵ?l. c??
Lu Yin nodded. "And what about you? Don’t you want to leave?"
"How are things going out there?"
"Everything’s stable for now."
Long Xi stared at Lu Yin. "You are completely relaxed, which means that you’ve managed to gain the advantage out there, right? In that case, what happened to the Perennial World’s forces in the Fifth Mainland?"
Lu Yin fell silent for a moment before answering, "I captured all of them."
This was exceptionally surprising to Long Xi. She had a.s.sumed that Lu Yin had managed to gain a favorable position, which indicated that the Perennial World’s forces were likely not in the best situation. However, she had not expected to hear that Lu Yin had captured all of them.
At the moment, the Aeternals were the enemy of all humanity, so even if Lu Yin wanted to deal with the Perennial World’s forces sent to capture him, it should have been impossible for him to do so at this time. Unless…
"The Aeternals are no longer a threat?" Long Xi was shocked.
Lu Yin nodded. "At least for now, the Fifth Mainland is safe. Unfortunately, there is still no stellular energy in the true universe, and no one has any ideas how to fix that. Humanity’s cultivation as a whole is stagnating, but we’re lucky that some powerhouses from the Heavens Sect era have appeared, and the inheritances that they’ve brought with them have helped relieve a bit of that stagnation."
"How are you planning on dealing with the army sent by the Perennial World?" Long Xi asked.
This was something that Lu Yin still had not decided upon. Given that the army had been sent to kill Lu Yin, he normally would not be willing to let them go. Unfortunately, killing those people would most likely have a very bad impact on the current situation in the Fifth Mainland. Regardless of Lu Yin’s enmity with the four ruling powers, killing their army would only be publicly perceived as Lu Yin killing his own comrades, and that was a nightmare to deal with.
There were certain people who would never give up any opportunity to discredit him, and that would make it difficult for Lu Yin to maintain control over the Heavens Sect.
Also, regardless of how unwilling Lu Yin was to just kill everyone from the Perennial World, he also could not simply let them go free. There was an inescapable hatred that existed between the Lu family and the four ruling powers. Could Lu Yin really be swayed from his need for revenge just because the four ruling powers had actively fought against the Aeternals? If that were true, then what remained to motivate Lu Yin to resist the four ruling powers and stay alive?
To save the Fifth Mainland, the Lu family had been willing to suffer eternal infamy while they worked to keep the Aeternals out. Despite those efforts, the four ruling powers had moved to exile the entire Lu family. They had to pay the price for their crimes.
Lu Yin had no desire to be a martyr to appease people, but he also refused to be the cause for humanity’s civil war.
This was Shaman G.o.d"s entire plan, and it made it impossible for Lu Yin to pursue revenge or simply give up on it.
"Semi-Progenitors were not nearly enough to deal with the Lu family," Long Xi stated.
Lu Yin looked up and met Long Xi’s eyes. He understood what she was getting at.
The hatred between the four ruling powers and the Lu family did not simply stop with the Semi-Progenitor powerhouses. Even if Ni Huang and the other Semi-Progenitors from the four ruling powers insulted and hated the Lu family, their exile had nothing to do with Semi-Progenitors at all. Lu Yin’s real enemies were the four ruling powers’ Progenitors.
"The Progenitors are definitely the biggest problem, but these Semi-Progenitors from the four ruling powers and all the cultivators who insulted my Lu family are also part of the issue. If not for them, the Perennial World would have never grown to hate my Lu family. It’s impossible for the Progenitors to personally act to spread propaganda, and spreading such hatred and lies is not a minor crime. In particular, that old wh.o.r.e w.a.n.g Si has to die!" As soon as w.a.n.g Si was mentioned, killing intent blazed in Lu Yin’s eyes.
Long Xi said, "The four ruling powers are absolutely determined to kill every last member of the Lu family. Still, they can’t just slaughter everyone who is loyal to the Lu family."
"Are you talking about the Star Alliance?" Lu Yin slapped a hand to his head. He had almost forgotten about the Star Alliance, which was an entire army of Envoys who were loyal to the Lu family or simply hostile towards the four ruling powers. The four ruling powers could not simply kill these people, so they had been sent to fight on the main battlefield against the Aeternals, left there to either die or be forgotten.
The Star Alliance had inspired Lu Yin when his Great Eastern Alliance had first formed the Redemption Army. Why had he suddenly forgotten all about it? If not for Long Xi"s reminder, Lu Yin would not have remembered them at all.
Ni Huang, Xia De, Bai Laogui, w.a.n.g Si, and Xia Ji were five Semi-Progenitors, and they and the rest of the army sent from the Perennial World could be added to the Redemption Army to fight against the Aeternals. They would become Lu Yin’s sharpest blade against humanity’s greatest enemy.
The Redemption Army remained the same as ever, and the only difference was that while it had previously belonged to the Great Eastern Alliance, the alliance was gone. This meant that the army now belonged to the Heavens Sect, and Lu Yin remained the person in charge of the Redemption Army.
Long Xi felt rather helpless, but she felt like she had no other options. If it came down to Great Elder Ni Huang being killed by Lu Yin or this, it would be far better for him to join some organization that resembled the Star Alliance. Then, at least the old man would have a chance of surviving.
Given the White Dragon Clan’s overall power, they would not have any real problems saving Ni Huang in the future, and this option also gave Lu Yin a chance. It would keep him from completely destroying any potential relationship with the White Dragon Clan.
Long Xi did not want to see Lu Yin become the White Dragon Clan’s irreconcilable enemy. This was her own selfishness.
A short time later, Lu Yin took Sapling with him and left Zenith Mountain.
Sapling acted a bit nervous upon returning to the outside world, and it kept its twigs tightly wrapped around Lu Yin, and it would not let him go. Only after Lu Yin took Sapling around to play for a long time did the tree recover.
"Where"s that big tree that keeps trying to run away?" Lu Yin sent a question to w.a.n.g Wen with a wireless jincan.
w.a.n.g Wen checked into the matter. "We don’t know. It ran away after we relocated out here. Balaror was the one looking after it, and he reported the matter, but who could spare the time to worry about a tree back then?"
Lu Yin shook his head. He would just forget it. It was just a moving tree that had escaped. There were too many bizarre things in the universe, and Lu Yin had too many mysteries that were more important to unravel. He simply did not have the time to spend searching for that tree.
Sapling went to look at Ancestor Tortoise, clearly very curious about the giant beast.
Lu Yin quietly watched as Sapling played around. Looking at the little tree left Lu Yin feeling happy and relaxed.
Sapling bounced around as though it were dancing, and it showed no sign of tiring even after playing for a long time.
Lu Yin took Sapling to play on the back of Ancestor Tortoise, and then out into outer s.p.a.ce before finally visiting Earth. There, Lu Yin reserved an area for Sapling to play. Lu Yin intended to finish absorbing the cauldron energy from the last four cauldrons to finish learning the Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation.
Some time after Lu Yin left, Sapling grew bored. Lu Yin was gone, and so was the big tree, so there was no one for Sapling to play with. Its branches drooped, and it looked like the tree was contemplating its life.
After some time in this position, the green branches suddenly rose back up, as though Sapling had just thought of something. There was a slight shaking, and then Sapling slowly disappeared. It was not gone, as it had simply entered the true universe.