Chapter 2294: Killing A Semi-Progenitor
The people who were going to be executed were not the prisoners from Crimson Garden, which meant that there was no need for Lu Yin to stay. Shenwu"s Sky’s entire reason for gathering and executing the surviving va.s.sals of the Lu family had been to draw Lu Yin into revealing himself. As long as Lu Yin could successfully leave the Perennial World, those captives would remain unharmed until the four ruling powers became certain that Lu Yin had returned once more.
If Lu Yin could escape, then the four ruling powers would make sure to gather everyone that he cared about so that they could threaten him with them, or coerce him into trying to rescue them. However, they did not know that Lu Yin had already captured the army that the Perennial World had sent to kill him, which meant that both sides had their own chips to bring to the negotiating table. Also, if Lu Yin could lure them into sending a few more people to the Fifth Mainland, he would be able to gain a few more hostages, and it would be difficult to say who would end up holding the initiative.
No matter how cunning and clever Bai Xian"er might be, she was nothing more than an ant against the power that Progenitor Chen had left behind. Lu Yin refused to believe that the woman could fight against Progenitor Chen"s power. After all, he had already seen how Bai Xian’er had not been able to resist Progenitor Smoke when she had trapped Bai Xian’er. If Lu Yin could get Bai Xian’er to follow him into the Fifth Mainland, she would be utterly helpless.
All Lu Yin needed to do now was escape from Shenwu’s Sky, and then the Perennial World itself. He needed to escape from the full might of the four ruling powers themselves, nothing more.
"Lu Xiaoxuan, if you dare to flee, the Lu family’s va.s.sals that we’ve captured will be punished with a thousand sword cuts!" Xia Ziheng screamed, trying to threaten Lu Yin.
Lu Yin looked back, but he did not say a word. There was no reason to say anything at this point in time. If he could escape, the captives would be safe. After all, what would be the benefit of attacking those people without Lu Yin nearby?
The only reason why all of those people would ever be gathered in one place would to try to force a showdown with Lu Yin. The four ruling powers would not take action for something as meaningless as venting their anger.
A roar suddenly slammed down from overhead, shaking all of Shenwu"s Sky. Lu Yin was forced to stop fleeing as he covered his eyes. He looked up, only to see the white fog torn apart and Progenitor Smoke falling down, looking a bit paler than before. "That thing is incredibly difficult to deal with even like this. No wonder Xia Shenji went ahead and used his ancestor"s broken saber to suppress it."
She glanced over at Lu Yin. "Are you able to leave, kid?"
"Let’s go!" Lu Yin replied.
Progenitor Smoke flipped a hand, and the fog in the sky above them was twisted like a knot. The chained jiao was rolled up with the fog and tied up. "Let"s go. This won’t keep it trapped for very long."
Lu Yin heaved a sigh of relief. All that mattered was if he could get free.
"You are underestimating my Shenwu"s Sky! We are one of the all-powerful four ruling powers! Do you think that you can leave just because you want to?" Xia Ziheng"s voice rang out. As soon as he spoke, the chains that had risen into the sky from the ground and been trapped by Progenitor Smoke’s fog broke free and shot down towards Lu Yin and Progenitor Smoke.
Progenitor Smoke frowned. "My wei can’t stop their sourcebox array if I’m going to keep the jiao trapped. Boy, give me that needle."
Lu Yin immediately took out his needle-like weapon and handed it to the woman.
The weapon had already been Enhanced twice, consuming hundreds of billions of star essence. Even when Lu Yin had first acquired the weapon, it had been capable of damaging a Semi-Progenitor’s inner world. After being upgraded, it had the strength to wound even Progenitors.
Progenitor Smoke took the weapon, and her wei shuttled it around, making it look like a needle attached to a gray thread. The weapon danced about, instantly stabbing through one of the ma.s.sive chains. The broken links crashed to the ground, crushing several mountains.
Everyone in Shenwu"s Sky fled as fast as they could, shocked to see Shenwu’s Sky’s defensive sourcebox array be shattered so easily.
Xia Ziheng was similarly incredulous, and he grew incredibly pale as clenched his teeth.
"Can you stop them?" Mr. Yu asked quietly.
"Yes!" a cold voice answered.
More and more chains rose up from the ground. Each was a manifestation of the sect’s protective sourcebox array, and each had been made from extremely rare materials. Each one was strong enough to bind a Semi-Progenitor, but Progenitor Smoke"s flying needle shattered each chain in turn, and they continuously smashed to the ground. Such a thing had never before been seen in Shenwu"s Sky.
Even when the Lu family had ruled over the Fifth Mainland, Shenwu"s Sky had been a top power that had been second only to the Lu family. Shenwu’s Sky had never before suffered such destruction. Not in the Fifth Mainland, nor in the Perennial World.
Lu Yin started to get a bit anxious, and he looked up towards the Dominion Realm. He was growing increasingly worried that Xia Shenji or the four ruling powers’ other Progenitors would suddenly appear. They had to be aware of what was happening in Shenwu’s Sky.
Lu Yin had believed that the sourcebox array would only have a few chains, but Progenitor Smoke had used the needle-like weapon to shatter at least a hundred of the chains so far, and more were constantly rising up from the ground to block their path.
Another roar rang out, and Progenitor Smoke"s expression changed. "We’re in trouble! That beast broke free."
Lu Yin"s expression turned ugly, and he pulled the slipper out of his cosmic ring and handed it over to Progenitor Smoke. "Senior, use this."
Progenitor Smoke glanced at the slipper and ground her teeth tightly before accepting it with a disgusted look on her face. "When we’re done here, you’re going to have to find a way to compensate me for my emotional damage!"
She then shot into the sky, the slipper raised high to slap the jiao’s face.
The jiao ignored the approaching attack. It had just fought with Progenitor Smoke, and the entire time, the jiao had been the aggressor while the woman had pa.s.sively defended. The jiao simply ignored Progenitor Smoke’s sudden aggression.
Then, the slipper struck the jiao’s head, and the earth-shattering roar was cut off half-way through, caught in the jiao’s throat. It had been dazed by the unexpected power of the blow that it suffered.
Xia Ziheng and the other Semi-Progenitors all stared into the sky in a daze of their own. They gazed at the chained jiao that had just been slapped senseless. The beast’s clawed feet stretched and clenched, but nothing else moved.
Lu Yin swallowed. Progenitor Smoke"s attack had been far from gentle.
When Lu Yin had first acquired the slipper, he had smacked Ancestor Tortoise, and the beating had actually caused the ancient tortoise to weep. Lu Yin did not even want to think about how powerful an attack had to be to stun a beast with the power of a Progenitor.
Progenitor Smoke held the slipper ready as she eyed the chained jiao in a questioning manner. Was it dazed?
Silence covered Shenwu"s Sky.
Progenitor Smoke was thrilled to see that she had knocked the jiao out, and she hurried over to join back up with Lu Yin and said, "Let’s hurry up and get out of here!"
Once again, chains rose up, surrounding the two people. Lu Yin simply could not understand where Shenwu’s Sky had acquired so many chains.
One of the chains did not attack the two people, but instead moved to slap the jiao, but neither Lu Yin nor Progenitor Smoke noticed it.
The chain slammed down upon the jiao’s head, and clarity returned to the beast’s eyes, though it was badly startled. It reached up to touch its head where it had been slapped, clear confusion in its eyes, but then it suddenly remembered. The beast’s eyes turned red, and it glared down at Progenitor Smoke, furious. It had been slapped and stunned by the attack with the slipper, and in much the same way that a person would be upset and humiliated by being slapped, the jiao felt embarra.s.sed by being dazed by an attack. An uncontrollable surge of anger erupted, and the jiao roared as its claws fell upon Progenitor Smoke and Lu Yin.
Progenitor Smoke was taken aback. "Why did you wake back up?"
"Senior, go slap it again!"
"I might not be able to land another hit, but I’ll give it a try." Progenitor Smoke shot back into the sky, straight for the jiao.
However, the chained jiao had already learned its lesson, and it caught sight of the slipper in Progenitor Smoke"s hand. It would not let that thing touch it again.
Without Progenitor Smoke’s a.s.sistance, Lu Yin could not leave Shenwu"s Sky. The chains formed walls that surrounded him on all sides.
"Lu Xiaoxuan, as I said, you can"t escape! Not even the help of a Progenitor is enough! You can’t escape, and you are going to die like you deserve!" Xia Ziheng took direct action, and countless blades fell upon Lu Yin. Mr. Yu, Wu Yao, and Semi-Progenitor Chai all joined the attack as well.
The G.o.d of Food watched, feeling terribly conflicted. He owed Lu Yin a favor and wanted to repay it and help the young man, but it was impossible.
Boom!
Mr. Yu’s fist struck Lu Yin, and his desiccated body recovered once again. He used Extremes Must Be Reversed again, but it did not stop his dried up body from regaining a normal appearance as the four Semi-Progenitors’ attacks rained down upon him again and again.
Eventually, Extremes Must Be Reversed reached its limit. After being struck once more by the half-moon ring, Lu Yin’s body maintained its normal appearance. He could not become dried up anymore. Extremes Must Be Reversed was not a truly invincible technique; the gap between Lu Yin’s three stellular tribulations and a Semi-Progenitor’s strength was too vast, and even a casual blow from a Semi-Progenitor surpa.s.sed Lu Yin’s natural limits, and he was being attacked by four Semi-Progenitors.
However, the repeated use and recovery from Extremes Must Be Reversed had acc.u.mulated an incredible amount of power within Lu Yin’s body. After his final recovery, Lu Yin’s head snapped up, and he raced through the sky with Inverse Step, a field of chaotic time and s.p.a.ce surrounding him as the Immovable Heavenly King Elephant appeared above his head as he used his family’s visualization method.
In an instant, Lu Yin appeared right in front of Semi-Progenitor Chai. A fist flew out, carrying all of the power that had acc.u.mulated within Lu Yin’s body over the course of the battle from Extremes Must Be Reversed. On top of that, he was using the Immovable Heavenly King Elephant visualization method, aurelian force, the G.o.d of Death’s Transformation, and even the power from within his chest that could force back a Semi-Progenitor’s inner world.
This punch was the strongest attack that Lu Yin was currently capable of.
This one punch caused Semi-Progenitor Chai"s head to simply explode.
Everyone watched as Semi-Progenitor Chai"s body fell from the sky, horrified. A mighty Semi-Progenitor had just died in an instant.
No one had believed Lu Yin could kill a Semi-Progenitor while being a.s.saulted on all sides by four of the powerhouses. The difference between a Semi-Progenitor and a three-tribulation Envoy was such that a Semi-Progenitor could stand still and do nothing, not even release their inner world, and the three-tribulation Envoy would not be able to induce even the slightest bit of damage.
Despite that, Lu Yin had just killed a Semi-Progenitor in a split second.
Beyond that, the shockwave from the attack blasted Mr. Yu away from where he had been standing behind Semi-Progenitor Chai, and he even coughed up blood.
The punch that Lu Yin had just used was powerful enough to kill any one of the experts present, but he had specifically chosen Semi-Progenitor Chai because the man’s inner world was the most difficult for Lu Yin to deal with. He could not maintain the power that he cultivated within his chest outside of his body at all times, and if that power was depleted, Lu Yin would not have anything left to fight back with.
The blood of a Semi-Progenitor stained Lu Yin’s body.
He stood in the sky, chest heaving as he panted. He was still surrounded by three Semi-Progenitors, but the men were suddenly staring at Lu Yin with fear and caution. There was even an almost imperceptible trace of terror.
It was not easy for even Semi-Progenitors to kill another Semi-Progenitor, yet Lu Yin had just pulled it off. No one could understand how he had accomplished such a thing.
However, Semi-Progenitor Chai’s death also caused the killing intent directed towards Lu Yin to rise to unprecedented levels.
There was no longer any need to say useless words, no need to threaten him with death. Xia Ziheng and the other two all silently attacked Lu Yin. Their silence indicated just how serious they were taking this battle, as they felt that they could no longer afford even the slightest distraction. They no longer wanted to talk. All they wanted was to see Lu Xiaoxuan dead, so that they could be a.s.sured that their future troubles were eliminated.
As the three men looked at Lu Yin, they felt the same sensation that they had previously felt from the Lu family: unparalleled power. This youth would one day be able to control everything.
If they allowed Lu Yin to develop any further, all of their previous efforts would prove meaningless.
Three silent Semi-Progenitors were a terrifying sight, and Lu Yin could no longer use Extremes Must Be Reversed. He had also revealed too many of his abilities, including Inverse Step, the unique power he was cultivating in his chest, Extremes Must Be Reversed, the G.o.d of Death Transformation, Truesight, and even the Thirteen Swords. One by one, every last one of Lu Yin’s trump cards had been forced out. He even used a sourcebox array, but his Channeling Diagram was not good enough to defend against a Semi-Progenitor"s attack in the slightest.
The half-moon ring sliced Lu Yin"s body open, and blood rained down from high in the sky, quickly followed by Lu Yin’s entire body.
What else did he have left? The Champions’ Stage? His most powerful champion was just Tian Dou. The Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation? The power was perfect, but the technique required too much time to prepare, and there was no way that the three Semi-Progenitors would ever give him the time needed to use it.
Lu Yin used a hand to pick himself up off the ground. Xia Ziheng and the other two Semi-Progenitors instantly appeared right in front of Lu Yin, their faces somber. This battle had been too difficult, not only for Lu Yin, but also for all of the Semi-Progenitors. They found it incredulous that it had been so difficult for them.