Chapter 2697 – The Woman In White
Looking at the Technocracy, Lu Yin was reminded of Progenitor Hui, Thought Manifestation, and Lord Wei.
Just what was the connection between the two men?
He had once believed that Thought Manifestation was Progenitor Hui’s innate gift, but since Lord Wei possessed the same ability, and even retained it even after losing one of his bodies, it seemed quite likely that Thought Manifestation was not an innate gift, but rather some kind of power that Progenitor Hui had acquired. Could it have been from Lord Wei?
It was just an idle thought, and Lu Yin took another step to appear at the edge of the Starfall Sea. He did not disturb any of the people stationed there and simply entered the Starfall Sea and made his way to the Mara River.
Upon arriving, he looked up at the waterfall of the Mara River. It was a spectacular sight, as the waterfall seemed to split the Fifth Mainland in two as it fell from the sky.
This was not an unknown location to Lu Yin. When he had traveled through time and s.p.a.ce in the Daosource Sect’s main hall, he had seen the Rune Progenitor ascend this waterfall with his civilization to invade the Sixth Mainland, which had been a disaster for that Mainland.
At this moment, Lu Yin intended to do the same thing.
The void warped, and Lu Yin traveled by manipulating the lines of s.p.a.ce in his field of vision. He instantly disappeared. To his eyes, both s.p.a.ce itself and the Mara River were clearly defined by spatial lines, and a single leap was all it took for him to leave the Starfall Sea and ascend nearly half of the height of the waterfall before continuing upwards.
As he rose, he noticed a corpse king with the strength of a Semi-Progenitor. The monster had been stationed at the Mara River to keep an eye on the Starfall Sea.
Lu Yin left the corpse king alone, as eliminating it would only alert the Aeternals.
The Mara River’s waterfall filled the sky and covered everything in sight.
Lu Yin’s next leap took him to the top of the waterfall, and he saw an endless river stretching off into the distance. He had arrived at the Sixth Mainland, a place that the Fifth Mainland had once hated.
This was the point from where the Sixth Mainland had launched their invasion of the Fifth Mainland, and also where they had fled from when they had escaped to the Fifth Mainland.
This was the place where the Rune Progenitor had fought to his death, as well as where Progenitor Chen had stained everything red with blood.
Lu Yin quickly disappeared. He had no idea where the stolen Stargazing Deck might be, but the most important thing was to first find some other humans.
When the people of the Sixth Mainland had fled, the cultivators and the core of the Sixth Mainland had been taken away, but too many people had been left behind. It had been impossible to evacuate everyone, and it was also impossible for them to all have been transformed into corpse kings. That meant that there was definitely an Aeternus Kingdom somewhere in the Sixth Mainland.
Lu Yin"s a.s.sumption proved accurate, as after spending some time searching, he found the first Aeternus Kingdom. It was in the Black Blood Region, close to the Mara River. It was also evident that, in a place as vast as the Sixth Mainland, there had to be more than one Aeternus Kingdom.
The entire purpose of the Aeternus Kingdoms was to allow corpse kings and humans to coexist. The Aeternals were seeking ways of coexistence, but to Lu Yin, such a thing was beyond ridiculous.
Creatures with emotions would never be able to coexist with creatures without emotions unless one side completely dominated the other.
That was also exactly what the Aeternals wanted: absolute dominance.
After spending some time searching, Lu Yin still had no clue as to the location of the Stargazing Deck, but he did find a battle. Are there still people fighting against Aeternus here?
While hidden in the void, Lu Yin saw a corpse king fighting against humans on a distant bit of land. Many humans were engaged in battles to the death, sometimes emerging victorious, and other times falling.
The Sixth Mainland had already been completely conquered by Aeternus, and they had too many powerhouses present. The most powerful humans still in the Sixth Mainland were only able to face off against Envoy-level corpse kings, and that was most likely only because of recent breakthroughs. If these fresh Envoys had fought against a Semi-Progenitor-level corpse king, they would have been completely destroyed.
Even so, the fighting continued for a long time.
Lu Yin continued to explore, and he found that there was not just one active battlefield, as humans continued to resist the Aeternals in many different locations, and they had even gathered together to build centers of resistance.
As Lu Yin looked around, he was reminded of the Transcendent Universe’s experiments with the cultivators from the Cloudflow Universe. Similarly, the Aeternals were giving the survivors of the Sixth Mainland hope. Perhaps this was part of an experiment, but perhaps not. Lu Yin could not say.
It was clear that the Aeternals could easily wipe out all traces of resistance still present in the Sixth Mainland, but they allowed the fighting to continue for some reason. Was it possible that, countless years into the future, the people born in the areas of resistance would believe that they were holding back Aeternus and be completely ignorant that the Aeternals could erase everything with a single thought?
Lu Yin’s thoughts drifted to the Fifth Mainland and the Sixverse a.s.sociation. Was there a chance that they were actually in the same situation?
Were they nothing more than people sitting at the bottom of a well, staring up at the small bit of sky that they could see, believing themselves to be doing well and maintaining hope, while in reality, that hope was being deliberately given to them by the Aeternals?
Lu Yin dismissed the idea the moment it entered his mind. It was simply too pessimistic and terrifying. If it were actually true, then what was the point of human existence? Being toys for Aeternus? Lu Yin would much rather prefer to believe that humans were actually holding the Aeternals at bay and that the drawn out war was real, rather than consider the possibility that humanity was nothing more than an experiment in the eyes of the Aeternals.
However, the battles that Lu Yin observed were not ones that he could get involved with.
Just as he was about to leave a battlefield, the void suddenly twisted and tore open a corner of the battlefield. A woman stepped out, carrying a sword that was about three feet long. White light that looked like scales flashed out, instantly splitting the battlefield in two. Wherever the woman pa.s.sed, all of the corpse kings died.
Lu Yin watched the battlefield. The power of the woman"s sword was at the Envoy level, which should not be enough to attract Lu Yin’s attention, but for some reason, wherever the woman pa.s.sed, the battlefield shifted, and it even felt as though the universe around her changed. It was as though every eye needed to be focused on the woman.
She wore white clothes and wielded a three-foot long sword as she tore her way across the grim battlefield.
Her face was not as beautiful as He Ran, Bai Qian, or even Ming Yan, but there was a unique charm to it. Something about the woman made it feel as though she would be the center of the universe wherever she appeared.
It was a feeling that Lu Yin had never experienced before.
He had seen many attractive women: some beautiful, s.e.xy, alluring, intelligent, heroic, and more, but he had never seen a woman who drew more attention than this woman. She had something about her that not even Bai Qian and others at her level did.
It was clear that the woman’s cultivation was not particularly high, and she also was not exceptionally beautiful, but she was still able to draw all attention to herself, which was quite strange.
White sword qi quickly took over the entire battlefield. The most powerful corpse king present was knocked back, easily torn apart by the woman"s sword. No matter how much blood covered the battlefield, none of it could touch the woman at all. She was like a beam of white light that would never fade.
"It"s the Battle G.o.ddess! The Battle G.o.ddess is here!" The cultivators started to frantically shout across the battlefield.
"It"s the Battle G.o.ddess! I"ve heard of her legends."
"We’ve all heard that wherever the Battle G.o.ddess goes, corpse kings retreat."
"Battle G.o.ddess!"
"Battle G.o.ddess!"
…
Countless humans across the battlefield raised their voices in excited shouts that spread like a wave that drowned out all the sounds of death and agony that had previously filled the battlefield.
Lu Yin watched in silence.
Singlehandly, the woman had shifted the balance of the battle. There was a truly powerful corpse king off in the distance, but it refused to take action.
Gradually, the corpse kings retreated. Just as the humans had claimed, wherever the woman went, the corpse kings retreated.
Lu Yin was intrigued, and he decided not to immediately leave. He continued to watch the woman, as she was quite odd.
Once the battle was over, the woman sheathed her sword. She just stood in the middle of the battlefield, inhaling the scent of blood, silent and expressionless.
The distant cultivators did not approach the woman and instead watched her from a distance while excitedly discussing things among themselves.
A day pa.s.sed. Two days. Three days.
Finally, on the fourth day, the humans pressed past the woman and continued to slaughter more corpse kings. An Aeternus Kingdom stood in the distance, and it was clear that the people here wanted to capture it and rescue the humans who were imprisoned there.
The corpse kings fought back, and a new battle erupted.
The first human to attack and kill a corpse king was the same woman.
She started slower than everyone else, and yet she was the first to arrive at the front lines and kill a corpse king.
Behind her lead, the rest of the humans’ spirits rose, and they fought in a frenzy as they pressed closer to the Aeternus Kingdom.
The Aeternus Kingdom did not only have corpse kings, as humans also lived there. They had already surrendered to the Aeternals, who had brainwashed them and now these humans were sent to fight on behalf of the Aeternals.
These were the attackers’ most difficult opponents, though not because of the defenders’ strength. Rather, it was because the attackers could not bear to kill other humans.
"Wake up! Those monsters are the enemy! We’re all the same race!" someone roared, only to be met with a sharp attack.
"Why is this happening?"
"Stop talking! They won"t listen. This is exactly why we came here to destroy this Aeternus Kingdom."
More and more deaths occurred across the battlefield.
The woman acted without hesitation, though she only killed corpse kings. She avoided attacking any of the humans who were citizens of the Aeternus Kingdom.
The corpse kings were not weak, but no matter if they were as strong as the woman or even stronger than her, all of them appeared weak before her attacks. In fact, the disparity felt odd to Lu Yin, as it seemed as though the corpse kings were unable to mount any sort of resistance against the woman.
Lu Yin had fought in countless battles, but even with his current strength, a battle against Aeternus was dangerous. There were always more powerful opponents waiting to take the field.
However, the woman appeared too relaxed, and her expression remained indifferent, as though she was bored or numb.
The longer Lu Yin watched, the stranger he felt things were.
Finally, he realized that the odd aspect about the woman’s combat was that she almost never clashed directly with any of the corpse kings. Every slash and move of her sword targeted a fatal point of the corpse kings. It was as if the woman had perfectly grasped her enemy, and with the way that she moved when facing the corpse kings, it almost appeared as if they had been sent to die to her blade.
While it sounded simple, it was far from easy to perfectly read each and every opponent on a chaotic battlefield and perfectly target their most vulnerable weaknesses.
Lu Yin had received an inheritance from the Sword Monument which allowed him to see through endless weapon techniques. Even so, he found it difficult to instantly pinpoint vulnerabilities in opponents of equal strength. At best, he could see through his opponents’ weapon skill, but it was impossible for him to target weaknesses like how this woman was seemingly casually doing.
In fact, she might as well just be strolling across the battlefield.
Not a spot of blood stained her sword. It was simply too abnormal.
Her combat abilities did not seem to belong to someone at her cultivation level.
The human attackers continued to press closer to the Aeternus Kingdom. As the woman led the way, the kingdom looked to be on the verge of falling.
Just as Lu Yin started to antic.i.p.ate the city’s fall, the Semi-Progenitor-level corpse king finally moved forward to protect the Aeternus Kingdom.
The difference between an Envoy and a Semi-Progenitor was a qualitative one. The moment the Semi-Progenitor level corpse king made its move, the woman stopped. She slashed her sword again, but this time, she stopped all who were still charging towards the Aeternus Kingdom. For the first time, the woman spoke. "Retreat!"
Not one person dared to hesitate in the slightest, and they instantly started to fall back after hearing the woman’s command.
Within the Aeternus Kingdom, the powerful corpse king moved forward, its scarlet eyes locked onto the woman as the monster walked out of the city. Traces of gold fell to the ground with every step that the corpse king took. It possessed an innate gift.
Everyone stared at the corpse king in fear. They had been fighting to overcome this particular Aeternus Kingdom for a long time, and because of that, they understood a bit about the local situation. However, they had never expected the city to contain such a powerful corpse king. If this corpse king had appeared when they had first attacked, not even the full forces of the attackers would have been enough to take down such an opponent.
Why had such a powerful corpse king never taken action despite being here?
"All of you must die," the corpse king stated in a hoa.r.s.e and broken voice. The moment it finished speaking, its right hand rose up and waved. Gold shattered the sky in a beautiful display. Unfortunately, that beauty was also deadly.