Chapter 2296: Baring Fangs And Claws
The chained jiao"s sharp claws rose high once again, and it let out another roar that shook the world. It sounded intimidating and threatening, but it was facing Lu Yin and Progenitor Smoke. One held the broken saber, which left him unable to feel any of the pressure that the jiao radiated, while the other was simply fearless. Progenitor Smoke was currently unable to defeat the chained jiao, but that was only because she was not able to utilize her full strength. She was one of the most powerful humans to have ever lived, so how could she be afraid of a chained jiao?
Down below, everyone could only stare.
All of the members of the Xia family were overwhelmed with despair. Their ancestor’s broken saber had not been drawn by a member of their family, but by an outsider? Why? How had this happened?
Xia Ziheng"s entire life view had been shaken, and he even began to suspect that Lu Xiaoxuan might be an illegitimate child of the Xia family.
Only Xia Xing knew the true reason for Lu Yin’s success, and that knowledge crushed the patriarch with regret. He should not have told Lu Xiaoxuan that he had been able to move the broken blade because of Progenitor Chen"s blood. That knowledge was why the young man had poured Progenitor Chen"s blood over his hands, and that was also why he had succeeded in drawing the broken blade. Xia Xing regretted his words, and he would pay anything to be able to turn back the clock and take them back.
High in the sky, Lu Yin suddenly remembered something as he faced the chained jiao. The Xia family’s Saber Ritual had existed for countless years, and given the fact that Xia Shenji had everyone in the Xia family take this test, it indicated that he believed someone would eventually succeed in drawing the saber. Drawing the saber would free the jiao, so how was the jiao supposed to be controlled? By Xia Shenji personally stepping in? What if he was otherwise occupied?
Lu Yin refused to believe that Xia Shen would ever give the chained jiao an opportunity to simply escape. There was no way a Progenitor would fail to consider the possibility that he could be delayed in the Dominion Realm, as that would be too foolish.
There was only one logical reason why the Saber Ritual would be allowed at all, and that was that, even with the saber drawn, the Xia family still had a way to control the jiao.
With this thought, Lu Yin looked down at Xia Ziheng, but he only saw confusion, despair, helplessness, not to mention a blazing killing intent directed towards Lu Yin himself. He then looked back at Xia Xing, but the only thing on that man’s face was pure regret. Lu Yin glanced across the faces of all of the members of the Xia family, but all he saw were emotions that mirrored what he had already seen in Xia Ziheng’s eyes. In that case, how was the Xia family expected to control the jiao after the saber was drawn? Their sourcebox array? No.
Lu Yin clenched the broken blade’s hilt more tightly, and then his eyes ran down the blade and he gazed at the jiao.
The beast was still chained and staring at Lu Yin. It did not at all, and simply continued moving about, showing its fangs and brandishing its claws. After a long while, an odd expression appeared on Progenitor Smoke"s face. "Does this thing really think that it’s intimidating us?"
Lu Yin continued to stare at the jiao. It was not trying to escape, but why? Was it because of the broken blade in Lu Yin’s hand?
They were in Shenwu"s Sky, and the jiao had to be extremely familiar with both the place and Xia Shenji, which meant that it should be fleeing with all its might, as it would end up in deep trouble if Xia Shenji suddenly returned. Despite that, the beast did not try to leave, and just stared at Lu Yin. No, it was staring at the blade in his hand.
Yes, it was certain. The jiao was staring at the broken blade. It wanted the saber.
Lu Yin voiced his guess as he stared at the chained jiao, "You want this saber?"
The jiao roared, and it again raised sharp claws against Lu Yin, making sure its claws and fangs were displayed as much as possible.
Lu Yin pursed his lips. "No."
The jiao was furious at the response. Its paws kept dancing about, and then it suddenly reached out to grab Lu Yin, who responded by slashing the broken saber. As Lu Yin responded, Progenitor Smoke also moved her white fog to protect Lu Yin and prevent him from being injured by the jiao.
It was impossible for Lu Yin to strike the jiao with the broken weapon, but when the jiao moved close to the blade, the sharp edge tore right through the jiao’s claws. The amount of damage caused by the saber was absurd.
"Senior, take me to its head," Lu Yin requested of Progenitor Smoke.
The woman grabbed Lu Yin as her wei twined around the jiao and formed knots that bound it in place. As she did that, Lu Yin swung the blade again, slashing at the jiao.
The beast was terrified of the saber, and it pulled back without hesitation whenever the blade drew close.
Everyone on the ground below had their mouths fall open as they stared at the battle taking place in the sky. They watched as Lu Yin chased after the jiao with the ma.s.sive broken saber. That jiao had the strength of a Progenitor.
Xia Ziheng and the other two Semi-Progenitors glanced at each other, only to see that there was clearly nothing wrong with their vision.
The jiao continued to evade the broken blade while Lu Yin chased after it, protected by Progenitor Smoke. The chained jiao’s increasingly shrill and angry roar rang out, but Lu Yin was unfazed. The jiao refused to face Lu Yin head on, so there was nothing to fear from its intimidating roars.
Lu Yin was thrilled, and became increasingly excited. He raised the saber high into the air. "Hold it for a second!"
The chained jiao was furious, and it once again raised a claw, fruitlessly attempting to threaten its opponent.
Lu Yin constantly kept the blade between him and the jiao.
The jiao hurried back, its claws raised up once again. It seemed as though it was the only thing that the beast could come up with as a response. It apparently believed that the motion was somehow useful.
Lu Yin could see that the jiao was quite stubborn, but it never did anything more than wave its claws and roar. The more time that pa.s.sed as Lu Yin chased after the jiao, the more confident he was in his guess. He happily swung the broken saber around, completely forgetting about Shenwu"s Sky.
He did not even realize that they had already left Shenwu"s Sky.
Lu Yin had not been thinking about trying to escape, and neither had the jiao, yet they had moved far away from Shenwu"s Sky.
No one within the sect made any efforts to stop the two. After all, the Xia family had no idea how to control the jiao, and they were terrified that if they annoyed the beast, it would turn and attack them instead. At this moment, Shenwu’s Sky had absolutely no means to stop an attack from a beast with the strength of a Progenitor.
A truly bizarre scene was currently playing out in the Higher Realm.
A jiao, which was very clearly the one that had previously been chained up and bound in place in Shenwu"s Sky, retreated while showing its fangs and claws and roaring in a threatening manner. The whole time, the enormous beast was being chased and attacked by someone wielding an enormous broken saber. Everyone who saw the scene was dazed, as they could not understand what they were looking at.
Despite the oddness of the display, there was no mistaking the Progenitor realm pressure that the jiao released. Everyone who heard the beast’s roar fell unconscious, completely unable to resist at all.
The entire Higher Realm was quivering.
Finally, Lu Yin managed to land atop the jiao"s head, and the beast froze in the air, not daring to move at all.
The edge of the broken saber rested just half a meter away from the chained jiao"s scales. "If you dare to thrash about again, I’ll split your head open!"
The jiao"s eyes looked away, its sharp claws fell. It stopped roaring, and the pressure that it radiated disappeared.
Progenitor Smoke was amazed. "It clearly has the strength of a Progenitor, yet it seems to not have any intelligence. I’d say that its intellect is at the level of a child."
"Did you smack it stupid with the slipper?" Lu Yin was confused.
Progenitor Smoke rolled her eyes. "Of course not! That’s impossible."
"So are you saying that it never developed any sort of higher intelligence?"
"That should also be impossible. How could any creature reach the Progenitor realm without sufficient intelligence? How easy do you think it is to become a Progenitor? Despite that, this guy"s attacks were way too simple and direct." Progenitor Smoke stood atop the jiao"s head while studying it. Suddenly, her gaze shifted and she looked up.
Lu Yin followed her gaze.
The jiao was ma.s.sive, and just its head was the size of a continent. The sight of such a ma.s.sive beast just floating in the sky would be weird no matter who saw it.
Lu Yin held the saber in place while looking over to see what Progenitor Smoke was staring at, and he quickly noticed something very odd.
There was lightning flashing atop the jiao"s head.
"Don"t move!" Progenitor Smoke yelled as she gazed at the lightning with a very serious expression. After carefully looking, Lu Yin was able to see that the lightning was erupting from a large wound on the jiao’s head. The wound was branching, much like a tree, and it looked like the beast had been struck by lightning, and the bursts covered a ma.s.sive area.
"Senior, what?is?that?" Lu Yin refused to look away.
Progenitor Smoke spoke in a soft voice, "No wonder its behavior has been so strange. It’s because of that."
"Senior?"
Progenitor Smoke exhaled. "This jiao was seriously injured long ago by the lightning you see over there. If I’m right, then its brain is constantly being fried by the lightning, which has left it stupid and devoid of its original intelligence. All that remains are its instincts."
Lu Yin was surprised. "Lighting? Is that from Xia Shenji?"
"No, Xia Shenji doesn"t use lightning," Progenitor Smoke replied.
Lu Yin exclaimed, "This jiao has the strength of a Progenitor! Being able to leave it in this state with some lightning is already terrifying, but the jiao’s been chained up in Shenwu"s Sky countless years, which means that the lightning’s been torturing it for that entire time. Given the jiao’s strength, how could it be tortured for so many years? Do you know of anyone who’s mastered lightning to such a high level?"
"No. There’s no one from our generation. Even from before, I’ve never heard of anyone who managed to train to such an incredible level with lightning." Progenitor Smoke knelt down and reached out to touch the lightning. The closer she moved, the more frightened she felt, as she was able to sense more and more accurately just how powerful the lightning was. It felt as though she was seeing an entire universe that was completely filled with lightning to the point where lightning had actually replaced the universe.
Finally, the woman stopped and stood. "At my peak, I’d be able to deal with this, but I can’t even touch it right now."
Lu Yin stared intently at the wound for a bit. This creature had been tortured by this wound for so many years, yet it still showed no signs of healing.
Wait!?Lu Yin"s eyes suddenly lit up. The jiao’s head? Nine branches to the wound?
He had briefly forgotten Xia Xing’s comment about how the Nine Clones Secret Technique was on top of the jiao"s head. Did this mean that Lu Yin could get the secret technique?
Lu Yin immediately started searching for the technique.
"Kid, things have already started changing in the Dominion Realm. From the moment you drew the saber, several pairs of eyes have been focused on us. We need to get out of here quickly," Progenitor Smoke spoke up.
Lu Yin came to his senses. He understood that those eyes belonged to various Progenitors. It was because of the Aeternals that they were unable to leave the Dominion Realm most of the time, but that did not mean they were unable to do anything to Lu Yin.
He suppressed the urge to search for the Nine Clones Secret Technique and instead started threatening the jiao with the saber. "You go where I say and attack whoever I tell you to. Got it?"
Lu Yin had understood how to handle the jiao as soon as he learned about its current situation. It essentially had no real intelligence, and it operated on pure instinct. That meant that the broken saber would be enough to manipulate the beast, as long as no one took the blade away.
At the same time, Lu Yin understood why the Xia family had always held their Saber Ritual. Even if someone did draw the blade and the jiao was freed, as long as the Xia family retained control of the saber, the jiao would never be able to escape. With the blade, Shenwu’s Sky’s defensive sourcebox array was enough to contain the jiao.
The jiao remained frozen. After hearing Lu Yin"s words, the beast’s head did not move, but the jiao did lower its claws, which indicated a.s.sent.
Progenitor Smoke had a.s.sumed that Lu Yin would make his escape, but she was wrong. Instead, he directed the jiao in a very specific direction: towards where the members of Star Alliance had been gathered.
Lu Yin had given himself two primary goals for his trip to the Perennial World: rescue his family members from Crimson Garden, and rescue the members of Star Alliance. Everyone in Crimson Garden had gone missing, which meant that he could only rescue the members of Star Alliance. If he left them behind, the four ruling powers would have one more tool to use to threaten Lu Yin.
Even without almost any intelligence, the jiao still had the strength of a Progenitor, and that had not changed. When it moved, it instantly crossed vast distances, and it almost instantly appeared in the place where the four ruling powers had gathered the members of Star Alliance as bait to lure out the Seven SkyG.o.ds.
Given the fact that the four ruling powers had dared to set a trap for the Seven SkyG.o.ds themselves with the members of Star Alliance, they were clearly completely confident of success.
The people had been placed in the middle of the headquarters of the four ruling powers, within a forest of stone pillars.
Each pillar rose high into the sky, nearly reaching the height limit agreed upon by the four ruling powers themselves. They were all hexagonal, and they appeared to have been carefully polished.
At the center of this stone forest, all the members of Star Alliance could be found, aside from the people currently deployed to the rear battlefield, and of course, Yu Chuan. There were a total of 110 people in the stone forest.
110 Envoys. This was the bait that had been laid out to entice the Seven SkyG.o.ds into taking action.