Chapter 3080: That Sight
w.a.n.g Fan was not very wary of Di Xia. He had just led Bai Mu towards Di Xia in order to join forces with the corpse king to fight against Bai Mu. When Di Xia had attacked Bai Mu with divine energy, the attack had brushed past w.a.n.g Fan, lowering the Progenitor’s guard significantly. Divine energy was a clear sign of one’s allegiance to Aeternus. That, combined with other recent events, meant that w.a.n.g Fan would never guess that who he a.s.sumed to be Di Xia was actually Lu Yin.
Lu Yin drew closer to w.a.n.g Fan. This time, things were different.
Before, w.a.n.g Fan had been wary of Di Xia, but Lu Yin had decided that this was the moment to take action. w.a.n.g Fan could not be allowed to return to Aeternus alive.
While w.a.n.g Fan was not yet a Sequence Progenitor, he would undoubtedly eventually reach that level, given more time. He would not be a weak Sequence Progenitor either, as he had cultivated death energy and inherited a battle technique from his Mountain and Sea, which was the Shadows of Life.
Shao Yin had managed to merge Extreme Yin and Extreme Yang together, and his sequence particles granted him a level of power that nearly rivaled the Seven SkyG.o.ds. He had managed to severely injure Sovereign Lotus in an instant. Given that w.a.n.g Fan had mastered a battle technique from a Mountain and Sea, as well as cultivated death energy, he would become a grave threat to the Origin Universe if he ever became a Sequence Progenitor. The man’s cunning nature only made him more dangerous.
Lu Yin moved within a few meters of w.a.n.g Fan. "Let"s go."
w.a.n.g Fan chose a direction and started to move.
Up above, the bell continued to reverberate, and its tolling blended with the sound of the flute. The resulting pressure overwhelmed s.p.a.ce and started to melt it away. Reality seemed to become an oil painting whose colors were dripping off; reality was stripped away to reveal the Hollow.
Lu Yin felt his scalp go numb. The clashing powers in this confrontation went beyond his imagination. He looked up, but Heaven"s Sight ached, and he was unable to make out anything. The powers here surpa.s.sed Lu Yin’s comprehension, and the sequence particles had solidified as they worked to erase s.p.a.ce itself.
"This way," Lu Yin growled, suddenly charging in another direction as the s.p.a.ce in front of them disintegrated.
w.a.n.g Fan was terrified. This was a battle far beyond the level of just Progenitors, and he was incapable of getting involved in any way. This proved that he had been right to believe that the Divine Selection would not be easy.
This was the Immemorial Citadel"s battlefield.
Legends claimed that the Immemorial Citadel held the method for humans to transcend, which was why countless people throughout history had striven to reach the Immemorial Citadel. However, w.a.n.g Fan and his peers had never entertained those thoughts. If the Immemorial Citadel was so great, then why had no one ever returned from that place?
w.a.n.g Fan wanted to leave this battlefield alive and then return to the Immemorial Citadel at a later time when he was better prepared.
Pain shot through the man’s arm, and w.a.n.g Fan froze. He slowly looked down, only to see that his right hand was missing.
There was a spray of blood, and to his side was the glaringly conspicuous form of someone shrouded in a black robe. w.a.n.g Fan stared at the figure. "Why?"
Lu Yin had attacked while w.a.n.g Fan was distracted by the chaos above the battlefield, and the Progenitor’s right arm had been severed, along with w.a.n.g Fan’s cosmic ring that had been on his right hand.
"Simple, to kill you." Lu Yin remained hidden beneath the robe as he struck out again. A withered arm struck out with a hundred confined punches.
w.a.n.g Fan"s pupils shrank as his eyes blazed with a crazed light. He felt even closer to death at this moment than when an entire universe had been destroyed. He was reminded of the time when Xia Shang had almost killed him, and w.a.n.g Fan suddenly relived that moment. In his eyes, the black robe in front of him transformed into Xia Shang.
Death energy started to spread, and it was immediately followed by a yellow liquid. It was the Yellow Springs.
Lu Yin had expected the Yellow Springs to be in w.a.n.g Fan"s cosmic ring, but the man had instead hidden it beneath his skin.
Regardless of what power w.a.n.g Fan tried to use, he was unable to stop Lu Yin"s attack. The fist pierced through the Progenitor’s chest, spraying blood into outer s.p.a.ce.
High above everything else, the bell and flute clashed with each other on a battlefield that was unreachable for practically everyone else in the nearby area. Compared to that grand battle, Lu Yin and w.a.n.g Fan’s exchange was like the fighting of mere ants, and it went completely unnoticed.
The s.p.a.ce around them was being erased, and no one paid any attention to the minor skirmish.
Lu Yin and w.a.n.g Fan were like two moths which had been caught up in a volcanic eruption, and they could be easily obliterated at any moment.
w.a.n.g Fan grabbed hold of Lu Yin"s arm with his remaining hand. The man had become frantic. "You aren’t Di Xia! Who are you? Why do you want to kill me?"
The Yellow Springs crept towards Lu Yin from w.a.n.g Fan"s arm. Uncertain of the Yellow Springs" effect, Lu Yin used Inverse Step to move at the speed of time. w.a.n.g Fan seemed to freeze in place, though the power that was destroying s.p.a.ce around them continued without pause. It was a power that exceeded the limits of time or s.p.a.ce. If it caught hold of Lu Yin, not even Inverse Step would be able to save him.
However, w.a.n.g Fan was unable to touch the power of time.
Lu Yin pulled back, and he tore off w.a.n.g Fan"s left arm before grabbing the man’s neck and stopping Inverse Step.
In an instant, w.a.n.g Fan"s left arm had been removed, and the black-robed figure was right in front of him. Familiar eyes stared at w.a.n.g Fan from beneath the robe’s folds.
The Progenitor had never expected to meet this person in this place.
Lu Yin looked up, and the flames of the lotus illuminated his face. "Surprised to meet me here, w.a.n.g Fan?"
w.a.n.g Fan could not believe his eyes, and he stared blankly at Lu Yin"s face. "Lu Xiaoxuan?"
Lu Yin"s lips curled up. "Killing you here at the Immemorial Citadel is all too easy, though I’ll let you see humanity"s strongest before you die."
w.a.n.g Fan"s face turned red. "You little bast... Lu Xiaoxuan, don"t kill me! I can be useful to you!
"I was never willing to betray humanity. I was forced by my ancestor! My ancestor forced me to become a traitor! I couldn"t disobey her.
"It was Xia Shang and Ku Jie! Those two wronged me. If they hadn’t humiliated me, I would have never betrayed mankind! Lu Xiaoxuan, you have to spare me! I"ll help you fight against Aeternus to redeem myself. Spare me—I can be useful."
Lu Yin stared as w.a.n.g Fan struggled. The man’s arms were already gone, giving him a pathetic appearance, though Lu Yin felt no pity.
"Your four ruling powers banished my Lu family. Shaman G.o.d, Blackless G.o.d, and even True G.o.d tried to recruit me, but did I ever betray humanity?" Lu Yin asked in a glacial voice.
w.a.n.g Fan’s terror mounted. "If I die, I’ll lose all value. I"ll tell you the secret of my w.a.n.g family"s floating landma.s.s! It’s not actually a piece of land, but a hand. Spare me, and I"ll take you to find the other hand. Those are the Origin Progenitor’s hands!"
Lu Yin had already guessed as much, and he even knew where the other hand was: Burial Garden.
The Origin Progenitor had transformed one of his hands into Burial Garden, using it to support those who had fought against Aeternus and were unwilling to accept defeat. Burial Garden had been established to give humanity the hope to be able to resist in the future.
Lu Yin had no idea how the w.a.n.g family had obtained the Origin Progenitor’s other hand, but that also did not matter.
s.p.a.ce around the two men continued to melt. Lu Yin’s grip tightened.
Bang!
Lu Yin’s hand relaxed, and w.a.n.g Fan"s lifeless body dropped.
Long ago, Lu Yin had vowed to avenge his family. He had never imagined that he would be able to kill w.a.n.g Fan so effortlessly.
Xia Shenji"s main body had already been destroyed, and w.a.n.g Fan was now dead. Long Er had died years ago, which left only Bai w.a.n.gyuan.
Whether or not Bai w.a.n.gyuan was a traitor to humanity, he would have to pay for his crimes.
Lu Yin looked around, looking for the area with the fewest number of sequence particles, and then raced away. He was eager to leave this dangerous place. He had been within range of the battle between Mister Mu and the being called Yuan Qi Laoguai. Lu Yin had never witnessed such a powerful fight before. Just touching any of the attacks’ aftershocks would end him instantly.
Lu Yin quickly succeeded in escaping from the expanse of melting s.p.a.ce, and then he looked back to see Mister Mu standing high above the Immemorial Citadel.
Lu Yin was at the northwest corner of the citadel.
The battle still raged fiercely at the southeast corner, but the fighting at the northwest was similarly relentless.
The fighting never ceased anywhere near the Immemorial Citadel, and peace could only be found by escaping from the entire region.
Lu Yin did not so much as glance backwards as he fled from the northwest corner. He did not want to be accidentally killed by Mister Mu.
However, no matter how far he fled, he was still able to hear the bell"s tolling and the flute"s melody.
The battle raged on for three days, but the bell and flute still had not stopped.
The region of melting s.p.a.ce continued to expand, and it had even started approaching the Immemorial Citadel.
During these three days, Lu Yin occasionally got caught up in the aftermath of the battle. He had suddenly run into some of the Aeternals’ corpse kings, as well as some of the Immemorial Citadel’s powerhouses. Some of those individuals were not even human. Lu Yin saw several strange-looking lifeforms that used all different kinds of battle techniques.
On the fourth day, the Ossis Ark emerged from the Hollow, and it headed straight for the Immemorial Citadel.
Lu Yin watched in shock as the Ossis Ark tore through the flaming lotus to crash against the Immemorial Citadel. The walls of the city were destroyed, and it looked like the boat was trying to smash the city in two.
People moved out to block the Ossis Ark, and at the same time, corpse kings emerged from the boat. The battle was dragged into the Immemorial Citadel.
The ma.s.sive Ossis Ark seemed unstoppable, and the sight of it crashing into the Immemorial Citadel sent chills down Lu Yin"s spine. Would this be the day that the Immemorial Citadel fell?
The ground beneath the Immemorial Citadel tore open, and multiple powerhouses were shattered. From across the city, Chu Yi and Ce w.a.n.gtian both arrived to attack the Ossis Ark.
A ma.s.sive figure rose up from the depths with a roar, "Move aside! I"ll handle this."
Boom!
The ground shook, and s.p.a.ce trembled almost imperceptibly. The enormous figure managed to hold the Ossis Ark back, but the force of the impact tore open the ground, the resulting fissures reaching far beneath the Immemorial Citadel.
With Heaven"s Sight, Lu Yin witnessed an astonishing scene.
He saw all of the countless sequence strings converging beneath the Immemorial Citadel. When the enormous giant collided with the Ossis Ark and the ground beneath the city was torn open, Lu Yin caught sight of a person down on one knee. They were armless, and they were holding all of the innumerable sequence strings in their mouth to prevent them from moving.
Even when the Ossis Ark shattered the wall of the Immemorial Citadel and the ground beneath it tore apart, this figure remained unmoving.
For a moment, everything around Lu Yin froze. The epic battle, the death, the bloodshed—everything seemed to disappear as Lu Yin"s eyes locked onto the half-kneeling figure underground. They held countless sequence strings between their teeth, forming the very foundation of the Immemorial Citadel as they held everything up.
It was the Origin Progenitor.
Was the Origin Progenitor still alive? No one had ever been able to give Lu Yin a definitive answer.
True G.o.d had claimed that the Origin Progenitor was dead. The Great Sovereign had once said the same thing, but Ancestor Lu Yuan insisted that the Origin Progenitor still lived.
No one had ever been able to give Lu Yin a straightforward answer, but at this moment, he was able to see the truth for himself: the Origin Progenitor was beneath the Immemorial Citadel, holding up the entire city while biting the sequence strings. The man had lost his arms, so he used his mouth to stabilize countless parallel universes.
Was the man even alive? Lu Yin did not know, as he could not tell. It was possible that the Origin Progenitor was still alive, but he might also already be dead. What Lu Yin could see did not actually prove that Origin Progenitor was alive.
"Rise!" A roar echoed out, and from within the Immemorial Citadel, the enormous giant flipped the Ossis Ark up and forced it away with a push.
Chu Yi, Ce w.a.n.gtian, Bai Mu, and many others charged out to attack the Ossis Ark.
The ground beneath the Immemorial Citadel closed back up, the fissures that had just opened disappearing like a dream.
Lu Yin stood frozen in outer s.p.a.ce as he stared at the Immemorial Citadel in a daze. What had he just seen? Had it been real, or just an illusion?