Chapter 2319: That Place
Lu Yin just smiled at the sight of Skymender and Yao Di’s shocked expressions. "Do I need to report where I got all of my knowledge to you?"
"I wouldn’t dare! The Dao Chosen can do whatever he wishes," Skymender replied in a deep voice while doing his best to recover from his shock.
Yao Di dropped his head. His eyes flickered as his mind raced. There were only a few individuals in the entire Astral Beast Domain who were even aware of that place, and most of them remained there. In fact, the only ones with knowledge of that place who were not confined to that location were himself and Skymender. How could Lu Yin know about it?
Feng Lin and the other patriarchs were all confused, as they had no idea what this place where humanoid sourceboxes were kept was. Clearly, the emperor and the imperial advisor had kept this matter secret from even the patriarchs, but why was Lu Yin aware of it?
Everyone else was left behind, and only Skymender and Yao Di went with Lu Yin to lead him towards the location where they had stored the humanoid sourceboxes.
Of course, the jiao tagged along as well. If he were being honest, Lu Yin was actually quite afraid of Skymender, especially since Skymender possessed one of the Books of Destiny.
"Where"s your Book of Destiny?" Lu Yin asked.
Skymender answered respectfully, "I keep it in my home. I’ve been worried about Destina using Destiny’s methods to attack me through the book, so it’s not really convenient for me to carry it around."
"Bring it here and let me have a look at it," Lu Yin said. Once Skymender was gone, Lu Yin sent a message to Starsibyl through a wireless jincan, asking her to stop the attacks on Skymender.
In the Innerverse, Destina frowned. She found her situation to be quite uncomfortable. Lu Yin had actually given her an order. That was something that even Progenitors could not have done during the Heavens Sect era. After all, Destina was Destiny’s disciple and heir.
She found it pathetic that she was being forced to listen to Lu Yin in the modern era, but there was no one to help or support her.
During the Heavens Sect era, Destina had been able to rely on her status as Destiny’s heir to intimidate Progenitors, but with his ability to wield Progenitor Chen’s power, Lu Yin could easily kill Destina. She did not want to risk a confrontation with Lu Yin.
However, the Books of Destiny belonged to Destiny, which meant that they were things that could never be acquired by an outsider. As for Skymender? That beast would be forced to surrender the Book of Destiny to Destina eventually.
Lu Yin did not care for her opinion, as he was the undisputed ruler of the current era.
Skymender soon returned, carrying a huge book.
Lu Yin saw that the book looked exactly the same as the one that Xiao Shi had. "Open it."
Skymender opened the book and then looked up at Lu Yin. "Can the Dao Chosen see the text?"
Lu Yin shook his head. "What do you mean?"
Skymender explained, "No creature can see what’s written in this book aside from me."
Lu Yin instantly acted suspicious. "Is that actually true?"
Skymender quickly continued, "If the Dao Chosen doesn"t believe me, you can ask Destina."
Lu Yin looked half-convinced. "I"ll talk to Destina, but for now, show me."
Skymender handed the book over to Lu Yin. He had no worry that Lu Yin would steal the book. After all, Skymender already knew that he did not have the strength to stop Lu Yin from doing whatever he wanted.
The jiao was traveling towards a very specific location, following Skymender’s guidance. Atop the jiao’s head, Lu Yin was flipping through the pages of the Book of Destiny, his eyes flickering. He could not see a single word, but that did not mean that Xiao Shi would also be unable to do so.
Skymender did not know that Xiao Shi even existed, which was also why Lu Yin had put on such a show of not believing that he could not read the book. He wanted to ensure that Skymender started doubting things.
At this point in time, Lu Yin was aware of where all three Books of Destiny were. He was holding onto one, another was with Xiao Shi, and the last was with Bai Xian"er.
Despite being Destiny’s heir, Destina did not have one of the three books. However, since she had learned that Skymender possessed one, it was guaranteed that Destina would do her best to take it away one way or another.
"Imperial Advisor, why don’t you let me have this book?" Lu Yin suddenly asked as he kept his head bent over while flipping through the book. He did not even glance up at Skymender.
The astral beast’s expression never changed. "If the Dao Chosen likes it, you can have it."
Lu Yin looked up and smiled. "That doesn’t bother you?"
Skymender smiled back. "It makes no difference if the book is in the Dao Chosen’s hands or in mine. So, the Dao Chosen can just take it."
Lu Yin set the book down at his feet. "Since that’s how it is, I’ll have to be rude."
Lu Yin had only asked because he wanted to test Skymender and see how he would refuse. But surprisingly, the astral beast had agreed far too easily. Was this because he was absolutely confident that Lu Yin could not read the book and that it was useless to him? No, Skymender was aware of Destina, so then why was he still so willing to give a Book of Destiny away?
Thinking of this, Lu Yin looked back at Skymender while keeping his questions to himself.
Skymender"s expression never changed at all. Lu Yin could not see through the astral beast’s thoughts.
"It"s right here," Skymender suddenly said. Lu Yin quickly had the jiao stop, and then he looked forward. Once he released his domain, he sensed a hidden pocket of s.p.a.ce.
Skymender stepped forward and approached an empty section of outer s.p.a.ce. As he raised a hand, s.p.a.ce rippled, and then a dark crack appeared in the void. Lu Yin was no stranger to this particular spatial fissure, as he had seen it while Possessing a creeper. This same scene had occurred when the creeper and sound monster had to kill the astral beast who had accidentally stumbled across this hidden location.
The most impressive thing that Lu Yin had seen during that Possession was neither the ma.s.sive statue that Skymender had worshiped nor the numerous humanoid sourceboxes. Rather, it was something that the sound monster had said to the creeper: if the location that they protected was ever exposed, then both of their clans would be destroyed. The reference to the clans had actually been referring to the creeper and sound monster species of astral beasts.
Neither of the species had a low status in the Astral Beast Domain, but they would be completely wiped out if this location were ever exposed. This made it quite clear just how important this location was to Skymender.
"Dao Chosen, please." Skymender respectfully gestured for Lu Yin to enter.
Lu Yin frowned. Skymender believed that the frown indicated that Lu Yin was not comfortable, so the imperial advisor entered the spatial crack first and waited for Lu Yin inside the hidden s.p.a.ce.
However, Lu Yin had nothing to worry about. The only reason why he had hesitated was because he felt that Skymender was being too straightforward about everything. Lu Yin had a.s.sumed that he would be led to a false location, but Skymender had led Lu Yin to the true sight of the humanoid sourceboxes. Lu Yin could confirm this from when he had Possessed the creeper.
Despite his questions, Lu Yin dropped his hesitation and entered the spatial crack.
There were a total of five Envoy-level astral beasts within the hidden s.p.a.ce, and one of them was the creeper that Lu Yin had Possessed before.
Aside from the five astral beasts, Lu Yin also noticed the many, many humanoid sourceboxes that had been gathered here. Finally, he turned to look in a very specific direction at the ma.s.sive statue. When Lu Yin had Possessed the creeper, he had only been able to see the statue’s limbs, but he was finally able to see the full statue for himself now.
Behind Lu Yin, Skymender was more shocked than ever when he noticed Lu Yin quickly turn to stare straight at the hidden statue. Not only did the human know of this hidden place, but he also knew exactly where the statue had been hidden. Why? How could he know this?
Ever since this hidden sanctuary had first been created, any and all astral beasts who entered were forbidden from ever leaving. Even the guards were confined here, and any outsiders who approached the hidden location would be killed without question. Skymender and Yao Di were the only ones who knew of this location and were able to enter and leave it alive, which meant that it was impossible for anyone else to know about it. So just how had Lu Yin learned of it?
There was no way that Skymender would ever believe that Lu Yin had mentioned this place through something as simple as a coincidence. It was very clear that Lu Yin had previous knowledge of this place.
No matter how impossible this seemed, it was the only possible answer.
Lu Yin did not know that his subconscious actions had revealed a terrible conundrum for Skymender. "Skymender, why were you collecting all of these humanoid sourceboxes?"
Skymender maintained his respectful att.i.tude. "Since the Dao Chosen is asking, I won’t hide anything. I gathered all of these humanoid sourceboxes to open them."
Lu Yin laughed, and he turned to look at Skymender. "Is this a joke, Skymender? You’re trying to tell me that all of these sourceboxes were brought here to be unlocked?"
Skymender replied, "Opening these is not as simple as lockbreaking."
He suddenly hesitated for a moment, before slowly asking, "Dao Chosen, do you know where all of these human-shaped sourceboxes came from?"
Lu Yin shook his head. While he had seen a river of humanoid sourceboxes while traveling through time and s.p.a.ce and knew that most of them had come from the Fourth Mainland, he had only seen the destruction of the Fourth Mainland. There was no guarantee that that was where the sourceboxes had originated from.
"All of these humanoid sourceboxes are sealed humans. Each of them practiced a very unique battle technique," Skymender solemnly explained.
This was very surprising. "A unique battle technique?"
Skymender nodded. "The technique is known as Stone Origin. Using the technique doesn’t improve one’s combat strength at all, nor does it improve their cultivation. The only use is protection. All of these people are from the shattered Mainlands. They are powerhouses who were forced to use Stone Origin to protect themselves."
Lu Yin glanced around at the humanoid sourceboxes. He did not really believe such a story. "All of these are humans?"
"Yes."
"If they’re humans, then why would you gather them with the goal of unlocking them?"
"Honestly, my Astral Beast Domain falls far behind the Human Domain in pure strength, so I wanted to unlock these powerhouses and use their additional strength to attack the Human Domain."
Lu Yin blinked and stared at Skymender, who quickly explained, "These sourceboxes are truly all humans, so I would never unlock them rashly. Regardless of whether the person even managed to survive until now, there is no guarantee that any of the survivors would be willing to help my Astral Beast Domain. However, the person who created the Stone Origin technique also left behind a complementary sourcebox array known as the Stone Reversal Formation. Using this sourcebox array on people who used the Stone Origin technique plants a brand on them and allows the Lockbreaker to control the unlocked bodies.
"Because of the Stone Origin’s creator’s malicious intentions, he was killed. However, the Stone Origin technique continued to be pa.s.sed down. Normally, no one would willingly use the technique, but when faced with certain death, it sometimes became the only way for someone to survive."
Lu Yin remembered that, when he had seen the Fourth Mainland shatter, all of the humanoid sourceboxes had flown out from the destruction, which matched Skymender’s information. All of those sourceboxes had appeared the moment the Mainland had been destroyed, which made sense if people were trying to survive.
"In that case, Do you have the Stone Reversal Formation?" Lu Yin asked. This was the only reason for Skymender to have collected so many humanoid sourceboxes.
Skymender nodded. "Yes."
"Are you a Lockbreaker?" Lu Yin was surprised again.
Skymender turned to face Lu Yin. "I am an Array Grandmaster."
Lu Yin was startled. "You’re an Array Grandmaster?"
"Yes."
Lu Yin looked Skymender up and down. "Why have I never heard anything about that?"
The Human Domain had been at war with the Astral Beast Domain for far too many years. The fighting had never stopped ever since the Perennial World had been separated from the rest of the Fifth Mainland. And yet, despite Skymender’s long life, which no one actually knew the extent of, there had never been any hint that the astral beast was an Array Grandmaster.
Were there any other Array Grandmasters in the Astral Beast Domain?
Skymender answered respectfully, "Has the Dao Chosen ever seen me on a battlefield? Does the Human Domain have any information at all regarding my cultivation or strength?"
Lu Yin frowned. There was only one bit of information that the Human Domain had concerning Skymender; he could use divination like the Starsibyl Sect. There was truly no other information about the astral beast. He was clearly a Semi-Progenitor, but the Human Domain’s records claimed that Yao Di was the Astral Beast Domain’s sole Semi-Progenitor. It should not be that surprising that Skymender’s ability as an Array Grandmaster had also been overlooked.
Lu Yin suppressed his shock. "So, you have the Stone Reversal Formation, which means that as long as you can unlock these humanoid sourceboxes, you’ll gain complete control over the people who are released, right?"
"Yes."
"Then why haven’t you released anyone?"