Chapter 1803: Sneak Attack
The Sixth Mainland"s Toolcasting family was extremely powerful. Their ancestor had been an Empyrean Imprinter, and they had even been one of the Sixth Mainland’s Four Empyreans. However, he had died to the Rune Progenitor’s remnant power when the Sixth Mainland had invaded the Fifth Mainland, and his death had caused the family’s status and power to plummet.
At its peak, the Toolcasting family had had Toolwielder Ancestor, who had been an Empyrean Imprinter, as well as many World Imprinters and ordinary Imprinters. The family’s experts had been as numerous as the clouds. They were from the War Martial Realm and had organized their Imprinters by calling them Augmenters. The Progenitor of Combat had not interfered in such arrangements.
The family had even had a Realmling, who had been Toolwielder. He was powerful and arrogant, and he had even been able to forcefully take control of Wendy Yushan’s sword.
However, the Toolcasting family’s glory was a thing of the past, and it was possible that the Imprinter that Lu Yin saw enter the palace on the wandering corpse’s back was their last living Imprinter.
Lu Yin had no idea what sort of power level the Imprinter who had entered the palace possessed, but he did not want to risk a fight with them. He simply hoped that the Imprinter would be slapped to death by the wandering corpse when they tried to leave the palace.
However, Lu Yin ended up disappointed, as the Imprinter never came out. Days pa.s.sed, and although some people occasionally rushed away from the palace, they were all other cultivators. The Imprinter from the Toolcasting family never reappeared.
Lu Yin had already spent more than ten days following the enormous wandering corpse, and he had been tempted to enter the palace and explore it himself several times, as more than one person had been lucky enough to escape from the the giant wandering corpse’s deadly swat when they left the palace, though they were not able to escape from Lu Yin. Still, he resisted the temptation. He could not go into that palace. Absolutely not.
One day, a pale man appeared a little ways ahead of the wandering corpse. The man kept on traveling through the void, occasionally glancing back. He was clearly avoiding something.
Despite there being no movement for a while, the man’s expression never relaxed, and he actually looked even more nervous as time pa.s.sed.
Suddenly, the man"s body froze in the sky, and his skin started to dry up. It looked as though the moisture had been pulled from his body, but he quickly pulled out an umbrella to cover his body, allowing him to quickly recover.
"As long as you tell me where that umbrella came from and how to use it, I’ll let you go. What do you say?" A cold voice was heard as a woman appeared behind the man. She had a somber expression and cold eyes. Her eyes were filled with murder, and she appeared to be exceptionally arrogant.
"You’re an Envoy. Don"t you feel any shame in hara.s.sing an Enlighter like me?" the man retorted in a cold voice.
The woman sneered. "I fought an Enlighter even younger than you just a short while ago, and yet he managed to escape. So what if you’re an Enlighter?"
The woman was Jiu Han.
The man frowned. "Are you talking about Lu Yin?"
Jiu Han’s expression tightened. "Tell me where that umbrella came from and what it does, or else you’ll never leave this place alive."
However, just as she finished speaking, she turned to stare off into the distance, and astonishment covered her face when she saw the wandering corpse of the astral beast walking around with a palace on its back. This was a truly shocking scene.
The man also saw the giant, and although his pupils shrank sharply, he instantly fled.
Jiu Han snorted disdainfully. "That umbrella might be able to stop me from extracting the water from your body, but do you really think that you can use it to block my attacks?"
She waved a hand, and the man was slapped to the side with enough force to knock him out of the void.
Jiu Han was an Envoy, and she was much more powerful than an ordinary Envoy at that. As for the man, he was only an Enlighter, and he was not even able to endure against an Enlighter with a power level of 300,000.
Lu Yin was unique throughout the entire universe.
However, the man was not injured. Three streams of qi swirled around his body, and they transformed into different shapes at the same time.
Jiu Han sneered. "I’ve already dealt with your Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique before, and while it might indeed be an invincible battle technique, it’s not enough to compensate for the gap between us."
A clone of Progenitor Chen that wielded a knife formed from one strand of ancestral qi, and it quickly merged with the illusory clone of Progenitor Chen that had also appeared. The combined figure slashed a knife forward, and at the same time, Progenitor Hui was formed from the third strand of ancestral qi. The clone of Progenitor Hui shot past Jiu Han and instantly set up an As If Closed sourcebox array.
Jiu Han lifted a single finger and pointed it forward. Martial prints appeared at the tip of the finger, and they easily shattered the sourcebox array. Even though two of Progenitor Chen’s clones had merged together, the woman was still able to easily deal with the summoned clone.
She was not an average Envoy, but rather someone who stood head and shoulders above her peers, and she also had a power level of more than 600,000.
"Enough playing around! Give me that umbrella!" Jiu Han shouted as she appeared right in front of the young man. She slapped a palm down at him, clearly showing no mercy at all.
The man raised his own hand. "Banishment."
His efforts were useless. Jiu Han was only forced a single step back by the secret technique, and her palm landed on his forehead.
The man thought that he was dead, but it turned out that Jiu Han had not actually attacked the young man, but rather grabbed him by the neck. After that, she dragged the young man towards the palace on the back of the wandering corpse.
"Don"t worry, I’m not going to kill you. I remember that you are Shang Qing, and you’re more useful alive than dead. Actually, I want to know more about that Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique that you use." Jiu Han"s voice became much softer as she looked at the young man in her grasp.
This was her true purpose. The moment she had recognized the young man, her thoughts had turned to the Tri-Yang Technique.
The technique had blazed like the sun during ZENITH, and Shang Qing had overwhelmed his peers, including even the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Three Skies. At that time, Shang Qing had even encouraged everyone to attack him at once, as he had wanted to break through the Tri-Yang Technique, but the Progenitor of Combat had stopped him.
If not for Lu Yin’s appearance and his demonstration of a legendary power, Shang Qing would have become peerless within his generation. He would have been unstoppable.
Jiu Han had also watched ZENITH from within the Daosource Sect. At the time, she had felt a strong curiosity and desire for the Tri-Yang Technique, and she had not expected to run into Shang Qing while in Burial Garden. She had naturally seized this opportunity.
She did not care about any sort of consequences, as the Progenitor of Combat would protect her regardless of what she did.
Even if Jiu Han killed Shang Qing or captured him, the Hall of Honor would not know anything.
Shang Qing was not surprised to hear that Jiu Han wanted to learn the Tri-Yang Technique. "You can"t learn it."
Jiu Han sneered, and then her eyes fell onto the Voidsoul Umbrella that Shang Qing was holding. "Just what is this umbrella of yours? It’s actually able to stop me from extracting water from your body. I almost managed to capture Lu Yin as well, but unfortunately, he escaped. The two strongest youths of your entire Fifth Mainland almost fell into my hands."
Jiu Han caught up to the wandering corpse as she dragged Shang Qing along with a hand. When she saw the corpse’s face, she was just as startled as Lu Yin had been.
"So it"s actually an astral beast? This Burial Garden really has everything," Jiu Han muttered to herself.
From behind the wandering corpse, Lu Yin stared blankly at Jiu Han, who had just appeared up ahead of the giant and the palace. He looked at the person in her grasp; was that Shang Qing?
Lu Yin saw Jiu Han, but the woman’s full attention was directed towards the wandering corpse, and she was completely unconcerned about anything else at this moment.
Jiu Han did not notice Lu Yin, so he quickly ducked his head and hid himself even more carefully. He was not afraid as Xia Yi was not present. However, Lu Yin could not allow Jiu Han to escape again. Also, he needed to rescue Shang Qing.
Jiu Han was a genuine Envoy, and that meant that she not only had powerful cultivation, but she had also survived various difficulties. It was impossible for anyone to become an Envoy without enduring various hardships, not even the Progenitor of Combat’s descendants.
She remained cautious. Despite seeing the palace, she did not rush straight in. Instead, she took the same action as Lu Yin. She kept a hold of Shang Qing and waited.
Lu Yin could only fall further behind in order to prevent her from finding him.
Before long, someone else appeared. This person also did not go straight into the palace, intending to wait and observe from a distance. Jiu Han lost her patience, and she shot over in front of the newcomer and threw them into the palace.
The man was not even a Hunter, so he was as powerless as a child against Jiu Han.
As soon as she saw that the man had entered the palace without being harmed, Jiu Han sneered and twitched a finger. The man had intended to continue into the palace, but he was suddenly yanked back by an unstoppable force. At that moment, the man was slapped into a puddle of blood. Not a single bone remained.
Both Jiu Han and Shang Qing’s faces changed color in unison, and they were both too frightened to even look at the wandering corpse. Did this thing actually take the initiative to attack people?
It was readily apparent that the palace housed ancient treasures, and Jiu Han wanted those things, but she had no desire to risk her own life. She glanced at Shang Qing. No, this was the person who could provide her with the Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique. His life was also too valuable to risk.
Her only option was to wait from a distance. Jiu Han decided that she would wait, and if anyone went in, then she would simply collect whatever they gathered from within the palace after they were slapped to death by the wandering corpse.
Jiu Han’s thoughts aligned perfectly with Lu Yin"s.
At this moment, Lu Yin had already moved around in a wide circle in front of the wandering corpse astral beast. He then set up a sourcebox array while calculating the trajectory of the path that Jiu Han was going to take following the wandering corpse.
Lu Yin was quite lucky that the Envoy’s full attention was devoted to the ma.s.sive wandering corpse; otherwise, she might have noticed Lu Yin’s movements.
An hour later, Jiu Han was still holding on to Shang Qing and following behind the wandering corpse, waiting for someone to enter the palace.
Suddenly, Jiu Han’s face became highly focused. She had detected star energy fluctuations. She looked around and saw a pool of blood on the ground some distance away. There was a cosmic ring in the puddle of blood, and the fluctuations of star energy had originated from there.
She wondered how anyone could have died there, let alone in the same manner as how the wandering corpse killed people.
Despite the oddity of the situation, she did not give it much thought. She dragged Shang Qing along and approached the puddle. Right when she was about to reach down and grab the cosmic ring, Shang Qing disappeared from her grasp and reappeared thousands of meters away. Jiu Han was startled. There was a sourcebox array here!
She immediately moved and entered the true universe in order to avoid the enemy attack.
All of a sudden, Lu Yin appeared with the Ce Secret Art. His hand was wrapped around with his golden battle force, and he instantly released a Vacuum Palm.
Jiu Han had not expected to be ambushed by Lu Yin. The moment she saw him, she reflexively protected her body from his Vacuum Palm with the water ripples. Her reaction was almost instantaneous, and the Vacuum Palm struck the water ripples. Still, she was forced out of the true universe by the attack. Lu Yin’s eyes were cold, and his spiritual force erupted: Daynight Praises.
The Progenitor of Combat’s imprint appeared behind Jiu Han, and her stellular energy instantly suppressed the star energy in the area, locking down both Lu Yin and Shang Qing’s star energy. Jiu Han was able to stifle their star energy, but she could not dispel spiritual force or Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palms.
When the two had last fought, Lu Yin had already realized that Jiu Han"s greatest weakness was her spiritual force, while that just happened to be one of Lu Yin’s fortes.
It was Lu Yin’s strongest aspect against Jiu Han’s weakest, and Jiu Han instantly fell into the illusion of Daynight Praises. She saw the Progenitor of Combat appear, and she learned the Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique. However, her impression of the technique was illusory.
Suddenly, the Progenitor of Combat struck at Jiu Han.
It was an attack that fully integrated Lu Yin’s knowledge. Within the illusion of Daynight Praises, this attack was enough to severely injure or even kill Jiu Han.
However, Lu Yin had underestimated the Progenitor of Combat’s descendants too much.
A light shone from Jiu Han"s forehead, and a martial print appeared. This martial print not only shattered the illusion, but it also attacked Lu Yin.
Lu Yin had not been this badly surprised even when he learned that Jiu San had fought against Corpse G.o.d. After all, Jiu San was the Progenitor of Combat’s great grandson, and he had managed to kill Corpse G.o.d by using a martial print that the Progenitor of Combat had left within his descendant’s body. Jiu Han had the same sort of martial print in her body, and even if it was weaker than the one that Jiu San had been given, it still was enough to pose a fatal threat to Lu Yin.
His pupils instantly constricted, and he waved his hand to cause the Voidsoul Umbrella that Shang Qing had been holding to appear in his hand instead. He opened the umbrella and aimed it at the approaching martial print.
There was a deafening bang, and the void was torn open while Lu Yin was blasted back. The shockwave from the explosion ripped through the surrounding area, and it even shook off the dust on the feet of the enormous wandering corpse.
Some time later, after the dust dissipated, Lu Yin lowered his arm. The Voidsoul Umbrella remained unharmed.
In front of Lu Yin, Jiu Han"s face had gone pale. "Impossible! That was a martial print from the Progenitor of Combat himself! How could that umbrella stop it?"