Chapter 2278: Planet Ominion
Mu Shang was briefly stunned when he heard Yu Hao’s response from behind the closed door, but then the Array Grandmaster started laughing happily. "So that"s why you don’t want to see me, Professor! In that case, it’ll be as you wish. The two of us will delay our first meeting for the future. I’ll be ready and waiting for the day that you feel ready to challenge me. If you’re able, you’re welcome to seize the t.i.tle of the youngest Array Grandmaster in history from me."
With that, Mu Shang happily turned around and left without saying another word.
Everyone on the paper ship remained silent.
Bai Weiwei stared at the cabin, admiration growing ever stronger in her eyes.
Nong Siniang was fervently muttering to herself as though praying.
No one had antic.i.p.ated seeing Prof. Hao Yu challenge Grandmaster Mu, the youngest Array Grandmaster in history, but that was exactly what had just happened. Not a single person present doubted that this day would go down in history, as the challenge would definitely take place in the future.
Everyone had just witnessed Prof. Hao Yu baring his fangs for the first time.
No one suspected that this Yu Hao, who was pretending to be Hao Yu, could be a fake, as how could anyone maintain a disguise in front of two Semi-Progenitors?
Inside the cabin, Liu Shaoge looked perfectly calm.
He had already come up with a plan to deal with things from the moment Mu Shang had first appeared. Just like when he had pretended to be Yu Hao for Lu Yin within Virtue Archives, such acts were child’s play for Liu Shaoge.
However, as Liu Shaoge stared at himself in the mirror, he could not help but think about who he was impersonating. Everyone on this paper ship respected Yu Hao, and even an Array Grandmaster had come to meet with him, but Liu Shaoge knew that Yu Hao was really Lu Yin. Did this mean that the gap between the two of them was growing at a terrifying rate? Lu Yin seemed to be constantly climbing higher and higher, and Liu Shaoge could not help but feel like he was losing sight of Lu Yin.
A few more days pa.s.sed, and the ship drew ever closer to Shenwu"s Sky.
Far away, Lu Yin continued to wait until he was finally able to roll his die again.
Ever since Lu Yin had first used Forgotten Ruins G.o.d’s name to deceive the four ruling powers into gathering all the members of Star Alliance together, he had rolled his die many times, and he had even rolled Possession on multiple occasions. Despite that, he had failed to ever Possess anyone from Star Alliance.
It was something that could only be accomplished with pure luck.
Lu Yin raised his hand and brought his die out to tap it. He stared as it slowly stopped on two pips. Useless.
He huffed in disappointment, and then tapped the die again.
Second roll: four pips. Timestop.
Rolling Timestop was never a waste. Even though Lu Yin was very far from mastering the Cosmic Art, it was important to continually work towards it.
His third roll was Pilfer, and a token fell out of the spatial channel, but it shattered when Lu Yin touched it, rendering the roll another waste. He sighed, as his luck had really turned rotten after he left the paper ship. He could only hope that his final roll would give him Possession.
When he saw the die come to a stop and reveal six pips, Lu Yin was overjoyed to have finally succeeded.
Once his consciousness entered the strange dark s.p.a.ce, Lu Yin instantly saw a ma.s.sive, overwhelmingly bright ball of light. Just the sight of it induced a wave of panic. Could it represent a Progenitor?
Lu Yin did not dare to get anywhere close to the brilliant orb, and he instead merged with a bright ball of light that was also close by.
As his consciousness entered the target, Lu Yin felt a very uncomfortable sensation spread throughout his body. His eyes snapped open, and he was met with the sight of a dark and desolate land. There was an enormous crowd off in the distance, but they looked as lifeless as a group of corpses. There was a majestic building further away, but it was completely void of life. High in the sky above, Lu Yin could see two enormous landma.s.ses: the Higher Realm and the Middle Realm.
Was this one of the planets in the Perennial World?
Memories started to merge with Lu Yin’s mind, and he stood frozen in place as his expression gradually changed. It took some time before the flood of information started to slow.
Lu Yin finally understood just where he was: the Outer Realm. He was on one of the seven defensive planets: Planet Ominion. It was also known as the evil world.
It was a very strange planet, as people could enter the planet, but not leave. There was no greenery or vegetation here, no flowers, birds, fish, or even insects. The planet only contained an unending silence and houses built from sand and stone. The planet was constantly experiencing an endlessly repeating doomsday, as both star energy and stellular energy surged chaotically, destroying everything that they came into contact with and producing an endless series of natural disasters. Beneath the planet’s surface lived poisonous insects and vicious creatures that could pop up and devour whatever trod the planet’s surface without any warning, making it impossible to remain in one place for very long.
It was a cursed planet. A place that most people would never want to get anywhere near.
Lu Yin had heard the Outer Realm be mentioned before, but he had known nothing about it. After he pa.s.sed the Celestial Frost Sect’s Sky Beyond the Sky trial, he had been given a very basic overview of the Outer Realm by Progenitor Bai Sheng, as the man had been about to return to the Outer Realm. From what Lu Yin understood, there were other, lesser known or unknown Progenitors in the Outer Realm, and it seemed that there was some kind of quota that had to be filled there.
Lu Yin found it a pity that Bai Sheng had been so closed-mouthed about the entire matter.
Lu Yin had Possessed someone who had been born and raised on Planet Ominion, and he had never left, though that might be because it was impossible to leave. He knew nothing about the rest of the universe, though he was very familiar with Planet Ominion.
Through the man’s memories, Lu Yin also learned a great deal about the planet.
While there was clearly star energy and stellular energy on the planet, it was impossible to cultivate with either of the two energies, as they were too chaotic and uncontrollable. Instead, the people of Planet Ominion cultivated with an energy unique to the planet that was known as ominion energy. It could not be absorbed from the ambient environment, but instead had to be absorbed from other creatures that lived on Planet Ominion, such as the poisonous bugs and vicious beasts underground, or even the other people who lived on the planet.
Lu Yin had Possessed a cultivator by the name of Thyssen, and he had cultivated ominion energy to the sixth stage.
The people of the planet had no understanding or knowledge regarding stellular energy cultivation, so they could not compare the power levels of the two systems, but Lu Yin could. Based on the brightness of the orb that Lu Yin had merged with to Possess Thyssen, the man was as strong as a six-tribulation Envoy, which meant his equivalent power level was a million.
Thyssen was clearly a powerhouse on Planet Ominion.
Memories continued to pour in, and Lu Yin looked over towards the towering, fortified temple that rose into the sky in the distance. The temple had been created by the ruler of Planet Ominion, and the man was known as Progenitor Ominion.
Unsurprisingly, the man was a previously unknown Progenitor within the Perennial World. Lu Yin was certain that there were absolutely no records of the man anywhere at all in the Perennial World.
Eh? Suddenly, Lu Yin found a very familiar figure within a memory. Was it really her? Liquor Hero?
After catching a glimpse of Liquor Hero in Thyssen’s memories, Lu Yin examined the memories much more thoroughly to check for anything that the man knew about Liquor Hero.
After some time, Lu Yin let out a long breath. Did the Fifth Mainland somehow restrict the abilities of its geniuses?
While Liquor Hero had been one of the Ten Arbiters withIn the Fifth Mainland and had qualified to compete with the best of her generation, she had not been superior to Qiu Shi, any of the other top geniuses from the Neoverse, or even the Perennial World’s w.a.n.g Yi, let alone the four Junior Progenitors.
However, after arriving on Planet Ominion, Liquor Hero had been forced to abandon her cultivation and restart from the beginning, cultivating with only ominion energy.
She had already reached the fifth stage of cultivation.
Given the fact that Thyssen was comparable to a six-tribulation Envoy once his cultivation reached the sixth stage of ominion energy, this meant that a fifth stage ominion energy cultivator was at least as strong as an Envoy. While Lu Yin had no idea if ominion energy had any advantages or disadvantages against stellular energy, he knew that Liquor Hero had the strength of an Envoy.
Wu Taibai had been one of the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Three Skies, and he was also one of the top geniuses from the Tai generation of Shenwu’s Sky. He was almost as famous in the Perennial World as Xia Taili, but he still had not managed to become an Envoy. As for the Fifth Mainland’s geniuses, their cultivation progress had stalled for the last twenty years as there was no star energy or stellular energy after the true universe had been drained.
The fact that Liquor Hero had improved so much indicated that she was at least as talented as Xia Shenfei.
Furthermore, due to her incredible progress and talent, Liquor Hero had been accepted as Progenitor Ominion’s disciple and become the saintess of the Ominion Temple. They had a saintess who was perpetually drunk.
From Thyssen"s memories, Lu Yin found something quite odd, which was that Liquor Hero had managed to remain constantly drunk even on Planet Ominion. One of their specialty alcohols was brewed from the venomous subterranean insects, and Liquor Hero loved it.
Lu Yin stood frozen where he stood for a long time, and he only roused from his stupor when he saw stripes rising into the sky.
Thyssen had no idea what the stripes were, but he had become as accustomed to their presence as Earthlings were to the rising and setting of the sun. However, from Lu Yin"s perspective, these stripes clearly were not a natural phenomena, but were instead some sort of man-made construct. With the presence of the stripes and the fact that neither star energy nor stellular energy could be used on the planet, there was something highly, highly unusual going on with Planet Ominion.
If it were possible to make stellular energy and star energy unusable as it was on this planet, then Aeternus would have never bothered trying to drain the true universe.
This entire planet was a complete oddity.
Lu Yin ended his Possession and allowed his consciousness to return to his own body.
While he was not concerned with Planet Ominion for the moment, he would absolutely return to the place again in the future.
Lu Yin had just used his final opportunity to roll his die. There was nothing left that he could do other than ask Progenitor Smoke to take him back to the paper ship.
…
Each of the four ruling powers had their own unique characteristic. The w.a.n.g family’s hand-shaped landma.s.s floated high in the sky in a manner that matched their surname: w.a.n.g, or king. Their homeland looked down on the entire world from high above.
The White Dragon Clan’s Dragon Mountain gave off an endless aura, and it spanned a ma.s.sive area while taking on shapes reminiscent of roving dragons. It was an elegant place.
The Celestial Frost Sect was shrouded in mystery, given the presence of the endless clouds. It appeared almost like some sort of celestial haven.
As for Shenwu"s Sky, Lu Yin discovered that it was an oppressive and overbearing place, and its most noticeable feature was the chained jiao imprisoned in the sky far above everything else nearby. It was a sight that shocked the students who saw the sight for the first time.
Even Lu Yin was shocked by the sight. He had Possessed Long Ke in the past, as well as many other cultivators from the Perennial World, and he had seen memories of Shenwu"s Sky before, but this was his first time seeing the place for himself. This was Shenwu"s Sky: domineering, cruel, vicious, and overflowing with killing intent. They were clearly trying to demonstrate their invincible power to the entire universe.
An unimaginable broken saber was stabbed into the caged jiao"s tail, and then deep into the ground. It was what held the jiao in place, and it was a terrifying display of sheer power.
"That- Is that the legendary imprisoned jiao?" Qing Feng was stunned by the sight. While he was Qing Chen’s disciple, Qing Feng had never visited Shenwu"s Sky before, so this was his first time seeing the trapped jiao.
Bai Weiwei"s eyes flickered. Every time she saw this jiao, she felt shocked again. There were legends that claimed that this jiao possessed an incomparably terrifying power, and yet it remained trapped in the sky high above Shenwu"s Sky, unable to escape for all eternity. It was condemned to serve as a light source for Shenwu"s Sky. This perfectly showed the Xia family’s desire to a.s.sert their dominance.
Everyone would be shocked when they first visited Shenwu"s Sky and saw the imprisoned jiao. It had ma.s.sive and terrifyingly sharp claws that hung down towards the ground that looked larger than mountains or rivers, yet sharp enough to slice anyone apart. They served as a powerful deterrent to any who visited Shenwu"s Sky.
Lu Yin was standing on the paper ship, and he stared at the jiao far overhead and at the nine huge chains that held it in place. Could those chains be the “Prison Lock” that Lu Yin had seen be mentioned in the Celestial Frost Sect’s Cloudforest Tower?
Was the imprisoned jiao still alive? How powerful was it? A strange glint appeared in Lu Yin"s eyes.
"Be proud! This is Shenwu"s Sky, the power that you belong to!" Xia Ziheng suddenly said.
Lu Yin looked away from the jiao and over at the Semi-Progenitor. "The power that I belong to?"
Xia Ziheng stared at Lu Yin. "You are a son-in-law to my Shenwu"s Sky. That means that you are, now and forever, a part of this place. When my Xia family worship our ancestors in the ceremony soon, you will stand at the front so that everyone can see you, and they will know that you are a part of our great power."
Suddenly, far off in the distance, someone tore through the void and abruptly appeared. A ripple of power swept through Shenwu’s Sky.
Xia Ziheng’s head whipped around to look, and his expression changed dramatically. "Wu Yao? You followed us?"