Chapter 2304: Taming
The stars violently exploded, and not only did the saber fail to finish falling, but it was also struck from Xia Shenji’s hand as he was blown back by an overwhelming force.
The explosion also struck the jiao, and it went tumbling head over tail until it smashed into the ground.
Everything happened in an instant, yet Xia Shenji and the jiao were both completely stunned. They could not understand anything that had just happened, as all they could see were some stars moving about in the sky.
The people of the Sixth Mainland had moved into the Fifth Mainland, so there were many powerhouses who sensed the moment that Lu Yin had accessed Progenitor Chen’s power once again. However, this time, all of them knew that the power they felt was being used by Lu Yin.
It was his ability to tap into Progenitor Chen’s power that had let Lu Yin subdue all the ancient and contemporary Semi-Progenitors throughout the Fifth Mainland. Not only had the Heavens Sect been reestablished, but the Sixth and Fifth Mainlands’ forces had also been united, which meant that Lu Yin was the first person in history to ever rule over two Mainlands, and he had done so while still only an Envoy.
Xia Shenji lay on the ground, the skin covering his body almost completely torn apart. He was still dazed as red blood leaked from his wounds and stained the ground red.
The man’s pupils fluctuated as he stared at the ground in disbelief. What just happened? What was that power? It’s clearly a Progenitor’s power, and that of an amazing Progenitor. This strength is absolutely no weaker than my main body that’s still in the Perennial World! How can such a power exist in this Forsaken Land? Why does it feel so familiar? Stars. There are stars in the sky.
The man then suddenly remembered what Lu Yin had just asked. Progenitor Chen! Yes, this is Xia Shang"s power. It’s that Cosmic Art one of his nine clones created.
Xia Shenji’s head snapped up. At some unknown point in time, Lu Yin had arrived, and he was looking down at Xia Shenji.
The clone looked up at Lu Yin, and then asked in a hoa.r.s.e voice that betrayed his utter disbelief, "Xia Shang… You- are you Xia Shang?"
Lu Yin knelt down and calmly observed Xia Shenji. "I am Lu Yin, and also Lu Xiaoxuan."
"That’s impossible! How can you use Xia Shang"s power?" Xia Shenji refused to accept things.
Lu Yin sneered. "Progenitor Chen never had anything to do with your Xia family, so why would there be any issue with me using his power?"
Xia Shenji stared at Lu Yin, his eyes filled with confusion. The man’s entire perception of the world was being rocked.
Lu Yin stretched out a hand and set it on Xia Shenji"s shoulder. Progenitors did not have a stellular energy vortex, as the one that they had had as an Envoy had transformed into their Progenitor’s world. There was also no realistic way for Lu Yin to place a restriction on a Progenitor, which meant that his only option was to leave the man wounded severely enough that Xia Shenji could not unleash enough strength to even compare to a Semi-Progenitor.
Xia Shenji grunted. Lu Yin’s unique power that he was cultivating in his chest surged out and broke down Xia Shenji’s body, instantly disintegrating and melting the man’s Divine Martial Armor in the process.
Once again, Xia Shenji was absolutely shocked. When had his Xia family"s Divine Martial Armor become so fragile?
Kui Luo and the other men present were unsurprised by the scene playing out before them. Anyone who arrived in the Fifth Mainland would be in Lu Yin"s world. Not to mention Xia Shenji"s clone on the ground—even if Xia Shenji’s true body arrived, the man might not be able to defeat Lu Yin. Of course, it was also impossible for Lu Yin to defeat Xia Shenji just by relying on Progenitor Chen’s remnant power, but he would at least be able to defend himself.
There was also no way that Xia Shenji would ever be willing to fight to the death against Lu Yin.
Regardless of who the Progenitor might be, even the ones from the Perennial World’s four ruling powers who regarded Lu Yin as their mortal enemy, would likely be unwilling to engage Lu Yin in a deathmatch in the Fifth Mainland, as it simply was not worth the cost and effort.
A short ways away, the jiao’s claws twitched. It then ripped its head out of the ground and shook it. The beast looked rather dazed and confused, as it could not understand what had just happened. Who had kicked it?
Lu Yin’s head turned so he could look at the jiao. He then slowly walked over towards the broken saber.
The jiao shook its head again and chased away the last bit of daze. It realized that the man who had been on its head was gone, and it instantly noticed the location of the broken saber. By this time, Lu Yin had already approached the blade.
The sight of someone else approaching the broken blade infuriated the jiao, and it bared its teeth and flashed its claws as it released the pressure of a Progenitor to suppress everyone. The claws rose high and dropped down.
"It looks like you still haven’t learned your lesson!" Lu Yin sneered and stomped down with a foot. Once again, stars moved through the sky and exploded, sending the jiao tumbling.
This was the second time that the jiao had been thrown back, and its head smashed into the ground again. Its claws twitched.
Jiu Chi rubbed his eyes. Was this like training a dog? It really did look like Lu Yin was using Progenitor Chen’s power to train a beast with the strength of a Progenitor.
Kui Luo grinned, as he suddenly felt like Lu Yin was about to obtain a Progenitor level mount. That was too excessive: far, far too excessive. Fortunately, there seemed to be something wrong with the jiao’s brain.
The jiao yanked its head out of the ground again and shook it. It turned to stare at Lu Yin, and then opened its mouth in a roar while baring its teeth and claws.
Lu Yin sighed and grabbed the broken saber that he pointed at the jiao. "Senior Brother, please smack it with that slipper."
Qing Ping’s eyebrows climbed high as he looked down at the slipper in his hand.
Everyone else looked over at that moment and noticed that Qing Ping was holding a slipper. What the h.e.l.l? A slipper?
Kui Luo"s eye twitched.
Qing Ping stared at the slipper, and then looked up at the jiao. In an instant, the man appeared next to the jiao’s head, the slipper already raised high.
The resounding slap slammed the jiao’s head back to the ground, and the beast’s eyes glazed over, clearly dazed by the impact.
When Lu Yin had still been in Shenwu"s Sky, Progenitor Smoke had slapped the jiao with the slipper, and she had knocked it out cold with one blow. Lu Yin did not want to waste Progenitor Chen’s stars, which made the slipper the perfect option.
Lu Yin moved over and took the slipper from Qing Ping. He then carried the broken saber over to the jiao’s head.
The beast wobbled as it straightened its neck. Confusion filled the enormous ma.s.sive eyes, but the familiar dizziness was frightening. It reflexively started searching for the slipper.
"You useless thing, do you want to die?" Lu Yin threatened the jiao with the broken saber.
The jiao"s eyes refocused, and it opened its mouth to roar, but Lu Yin held the slipper in front of himself. He held off from doing anything for the moment. The fact that the beast would obey whoever threatened it with the broken blade indicated that it could be tamed.
Time pa.s.sed, and Lu Yin continued to abuse the jiao with a slipper in one hand and a broken blade in the other.
A majestic creature with the power of a Progenitor initially let out intimidating roars, but they soon transformed into pitiful wails that caused Kui Luo and the rest of the people watching to begin pitying the beast.
In the end, the jiao surrendered. It had suffered enough at Lu Yin’s hand.
The jiao preferred to intimidate people, but this person would not be intimidated no matter what. The jiao felt quite offended.
"You better remember this lesson, because I’ll beat you up all over again if you mess up!" Lu Yin threatened.
With the jiao settled, Lu Yin moved on to check on the members of Star Alliance.
All of them had remained on the jiao’s back this entire time, aside from the few va.s.sals of the Lu family who had died while trying to buy time for Lu Yin. As for the people who remained, all of them had lost consciousness.
After all, these people had not had an easy time of things. Even if they had not partic.i.p.ated in any of the battles, the power released by both the jiao and Xia Shenji had not been anything that the members of Star Alliance could endure. Even the Semi-Progenitor had fainted. Fortunately, none of these people’s lives were in any sort of danger.
After seeing Lu Yin completely subdue the jiao, Xia Shenji"s clone could not stop himself from spitting out more blood as he collapsed.
The jiao’s brain had been terribly wounded, which left it with little more than its base instincts. It was mentally no different from a regular beast, which made it too easy to tame.
Lu Yin just glanced at the Progenitor before he started to search the jiao’s head for the Nine Clones Secret Technique. He had wanted the technique for a very, very long time, and he was hoping to finally acquire it.
To the side, Jiu Chi and the other people still watching glanced at each other. There were sighs of relief from many of them. "This was way too exciting! What happened? What kind of trouble did you kick up in the Perennial World to be chased by a Progenitor? No, to be chased by two Progenitors!"
Highsage Grandmaster and everyone else reflexively glanced over at Kui Luo in unison.
The man was utterly speechless. "I honestly have no idea!"
Everyone looked over at Qing Ping instead.
It was only then that they realized that Qing Ping gave off a different feeling from before. It was especially noticeable to Highsage Grandmaster, as he was both a Semi-Progenitor and an Array Grandmaster. He actually felt a bit of pressure from Qing Ping. What did that mean? Highsage Grandmaster was very clear on that.
"Qing Ping, congratulations on becoming a Semi-Progenitor. Next is to challenge the Progenitor realm, but that shouldn’t be a challenge for you," Highsage Grandmaster said excitedly.
Before Qing Ping could respond, Kui Luo b.u.t.ted in, "It won’t be any challenge at all! Old man, I saw their senior brother for myself! He’s someone named Mu Xie, and while I didn’t see any of his specific techniques, the power of a Progenitor is absolutely terrifying."
"I’m just wondering, but who is this?" Tianshi Xiu Ming asked while pointing at Xia Shenji.
Qing Ping answered calmly, "He’s the Progenitor of one of the Perennial World’s four ruling powers, Shenwu"s Sky."
Highsage Grandmaster and all of the others were stunned. "The Progenitor of one of the four ruling powers?"
"Xia Shenji?" Arch-Elder Zen suddenly appeared, as he had been drawn by the Progenitors’ power he had sensed. As soon as he arrived, he heard the name Xia Shenji be mentioned, and the old man could not believe it. "Did you just say that he’s Xia Shenji?"
Kui Luo answered with a creepy smile. "That’s right, he’s Xia Shenji. Old Zen, have you met him before?"
Everyone present was aware that Arch-Elder Zen had lived since the Daosource Sect era, and he was likely the only person present who had seen any of the powerhouses from that previous era.
Arch-Elder Zen stared at Xia Shenji. "I never saw him back then. I was just a n.o.body during the Daosource Sect era. Receiving Progenitor Lu Tianyi’s notice was already an incredible blessing. How could I have ever seen someone like Xia Shenji?
“But why did he end up like this? Who could reduce Xia Shenji to such a miserable state? Even if he’s not the master of one of the Nine Mountains and the Eight Seas, he is certainly at that same level of power."
Everybody glanced over at the top of the jiao’s head and at the person who was completely focused on searching for the Nine Clones Secret Technique.
"Lu Yin? You’re telling me that he did this to Xia Shenji? That’s impossible. Even if Progenitor Chen were still alive, he wouldn’t be able to easily injure Xia Shenji," Arch-Elder Zen instantly refuted what he was being told. "So that"s what it was. The second Progenitor that I sensed was that creature over there."
"This Xia Shenji here is just a clone of the real Xia Shenji, and this clone barely possesses the power of a Progenitor. In fact, he can’t even compare to the Sixth Mainland’s three Progenitors. Still, given his unique abilities, he could probably defeat any of those three," Qing Ping stated, referring to Xia Shenji’s control over the power of time.
The clone was weaker than the Sixth Mainland’s three Progenitors in terms of pure strength, but given the clone’s ability to wield the power of time, it was difficult to predict who would be the victor in an actual fight.
Arch-Elder Zen then understood. "That makes sense. I knew that it was impossible for Xia Shenji to have been beaten so badly. If he were reduced to this condition in the Fifth Mainland, then the Fifth Mainland itself would have been completely destroyed by the battle."
Lu Yin was still on top of the jiao’s head. He had noticed that Arch-Elder Zen had arrived, but he was too busy to greet the old man. Where is the Nine Clones Secret Technique? Why can"t I find it?
Even after searching for a long time, Lu Yin could not find anything at all.
Frustrated, Lu Yin reluctantly approached Xia Shenji. Lu Yin squatted down in front of the clone and asked in a cold voice, "Tell me, where is the Nine Clones Secret Technique?"
Xia Shenji looked up. "Do you expect me to tell you anything at all? Lu Xiaoxuan, you may be able to use Xia Shang"s power to wound me, but I am still Xia Shenji, one of the most powerful men even during the Daosource Sect era! A child like you can’t interrogate me. I won’t give you anything, and even if I could, I’m just a clone."
Lu Yin frowned. Xia Shenji was not the same as Xia Xing, which made things far more difficult. It was likely truly impossible to gain any information about the Nine Clones Secret Technique from Xia Shenji.
That thought reminded Lu Yin of something, and he pulled out Zenith Mountain and brought someone out: Xia Yuan.
Xia Yuan had been sent to deliver a letter to the w.a.n.g family, and he had tried to use the Lei family to gain access to the w.a.n.g family"s floating mainland. He had not had even the slightest suspicion that the Lei family was part of the Hidden Earth Society, and Lu Yin had devised plans to reach the w.a.n.g family’s home using the Lei family as well. This coincidence had resulted in Lu Yin capturing Xia Yuan and then using his ident.i.ty to visit the w.a.n.g family, where he had ultimately captured their patriarch, w.a.n.g Zheng.