Chapter 1888: Att.i.tude
Zhu San had also mentioned the Yinyang Trisage Technique before. He had even used Combat Tactics to try to learn the beginning of the Yinyang Trisage Technique, but he had only ever managed to learn the initial portions. However, that was incomparable to the true Yinyang Trisage Technique.
Even Qiong Xi"er herself had only brushed against the border of the true Yinyang Trisage Technique.
Apparently, Lu Yin had just seen the old man break through Lan Xian"s inner world with the Yinyang Trisage Technique.
"Are you Qiong Xi"er"s master?" Lu Yin asked.
The old man hiccupped. "Did she mention me?"
"No, but I heard her mention the Yinyang Trisage Technique that you just spoke of," Lu Yin replied.
The old man gave a disdainful snort. "That girl has absolutely no intention of cultivating at all! What"s the use of toying around with the economy all day long and thinking about how to make more money? Her elder disciple’s been studying star energy all this time, but now she’s gone missing."
The old man suddenly turned to look at Lu Yin. "Did you see my older disciple in that place?"
"Your older disciple?" Lu Yin felt utterly confused.
"Liquor Hero." The old man took another drink of his wine.
Lu Yin was taken aback. "Liquor Hero’s your disciple?"
The old man wiped his mouth clean again. "Yeah, did you see her? She never came back after going to the Perennial World."
Lu Yin was completely surprised. Was this old man both Liquor Hero and Qiong Xi"er’s master? No matter how one looked at the two, there were no similarities at all! To begin with, the difference in strength between the two was too much. One had been one of the Ten Arbiters and had finished among the top ten of ZENITH while the other was entirely devoted to acquiring ever greater wealth. There was no need to even mention Qiong Xi’er’s strength, as just like the old man had said, she was completely casual about her cultivation. No one would ever believe the two women had the same master, not to mention a master who was a Semi-Progenitor.
If Lu Yin had previously known that Qiong Xi"er"s master was a Semi-Progenitor, he would have never had been so brazen when acting against Millions City. Back then, forget a Semi-Progenitor, Lu Yin had only rarely encountered Envoys, which had been one of the reasons that Millions City had had been coveted by all. The first reason was the city’s wealth, while the second reason was that it had been built upon a mobile fortress that could unleash attacks with the power of an Envoy.
Still, even Millions City’s most powerful blast would not even be enough to ruffle a Semi-Progenitor’s hair. Lu Yin had never considered that Millions City’s greatest treasure was not the city itself, but rather Qiong Xi"er.
"Senior, this junior never saw Liquor Hero there," Lu Yin replied.
The old man sighed. "My elder disciple, the only one qualified to inherit my mantle is gone, which means that the only one who can take over when this old man pa.s.ses on is that lazy little disciple, eh…"
Lu Yin quickly spoke up. "Even if you can"t live forever as a Semi-Progenitor, you should still have many great years remaining. On top of that, you might even be able to break through now and become a Progenitor, which would effectively mean becoming immortal, Senior."
The old man cracked a grin upon hearing Lu Yin’s words. "You’ve got a slick tongue, but unfortunately, breaking through and becoming a Progenitor is too difficult of an obstacle. That old broad Lingzhi already died trying to do it, and I have no idea which one of us will be next.”
He patted Lu Yin’s shoulder. “Really, the one with the greatest chance of becoming a Progenitor is you. Kid, keep working hard. After you become a Progenitor, you’ll be invincible in the entire universe. We’re all waiting to see that day.”
The old drunk then wandered off.
Lu Yin stared at the empty s.p.a.ce that the old man had just been standing in. He had heard the longing in the man’s voice at the end, and it felt like the old man was not far from death. Could he be arranging his attempt to break through and become a Progenitor?
This old man was the one of the Human Domain’s seven Semi-Progenitors that Lu Yin had never met or heard of before, Jiu Chi. Surprisingly, the old man had been the one to save Lu Yin.
Lu Yin quickly called Qiong Xi"er, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Is your master Jiu Chi?"
Qiong Xi"er was taken aback. "How do you know that? Did you meet him?"
Lu Yin was stunned. "Why haven’t you ever mentioned him before?"
Qiong Xi"er felt confused. "Why would I bother mentioning him? He’s just a drunk. Did he say something to offend you, Alliance Leader Lu? Please don’t take any offense. Drunks often say too much when intoxicated, so there’s no need to treat anything he says to heart."
"What did he say to you about me?"
"Nothing much, just some comment about finding the time to beat you up a bit. What a joke! He can’t even come close to comparing to your strength, Alliance Leader Lu, hehe."
Lu Yin choked and coughed. "Do you know how strong your master is?"
Instead of a response, Lu Yin heard the sounds of laughs coming through the call, and he even vaguely heard the maid, Nana’s, soft voice. "What was that? Alliance Leader Lu, could you repeat that?"
Lu Yin struggled to remain calm. "Do you know how strong your master, Jiu Chi, is?"
"Of course! He’s an Enlighter," Qiong Xi"er replied.
Lu Yin laughed. "Alright, just act like he’s an Enlighter. Make sure to treat your master well, and if possible, get him to stick around in the Great Eastern Alliance. After all, it wouldn’t be good if an old man like him wandered off. If he stays around in the Great Eastern Alliance, we’ll make sure to treat him well with the best food and wine, and we’ll also make sure to get him plenty of wine.”
He then ended the call.
On the other end, Qiong Xi"er was embracing Nana. She felt a bit confused by the call, but she was intelligent and quickly put some pieces together. “Is my worthless drunk of a master actually a powerhouse? This is great! Haha, Nana, come here and let this young master give you a kiss to celebrate!"
"Young Master, you’re so annoying." Nana was trapped. "With how bad things have been in the war in the Outerverse, we’ll look bad if we don’t go join them."
Qiong Xi’er just rolled her eyes. "Don"t worry. This young master knows Lu Yin better than anyone. There’s no way that guy will ever take a loss. He must have someone already lined up to take over the war, so there’s no need to worry. Your young master isn’t going anywhere, haha."
…
Lu Yin stood in s.p.a.ce at the border between Northcastle and Frostwave Weaves. In front of him stood the Sea King.
Boom!
Lu Yin threw out a Hollow Palm, and it slammed right into the Sea King, sending him tumbling backwards. When he finally came to a stop, he bent over and coughed. When he straightened back up, he stared at Lu Yin in utter shock. "You’ve gotten this much stronger?"
Before pa.s.sing his stellular tribulation, Lu Yin had been strong enough to fight against Envoys with power levels of over 700,000, but he had needed to use various special techniques to do so, such as the visualization method and his G.o.d of Death Transformation. At the moment, Lu Yin had used nothing more than pure physical strength when attacking the Sea King, and yet he had been able to knock the older man back.
It had to be remembered that the Sea King was no ordinary powerhouse. He was just like Highsage Leon. Both of them were Realmbreakers who could fight against Envoys with power levels of 800,000.
Lu Yin’s strength had spiked after surviving his stellular tribulation, and he was now able to beat the Sea King back with a single attack. In other words, he could go up against fourth tribulation Envoys, which meant that he could fight against World Imprinters.
This greatly excited Lu Yin. All the stellular energy that he had absorbed after surviving his tribulation had transformed his body, and this was his level of strength in a normal state. In fact, Lu Yin was much weaker than he should be, as he had resealed all three of his meridian points, lowering his strength. However, the transformation that his body had undergone from the stellular energy was too exaggerated. Even in his current, sealed condition, his physical strength could compare to that of a four tribulation Envoy. If he reopened his three meridian points and unsealed all four of his stellular energy vortexes, he had no idea what level his strength would reach.
"Let’s go again!" the Sea King yelled as he shot towards Lu Yin.
Lu Yin raised a hand to stop the Sea King. "This is enough, Senior. I just wanted to test my strength out for a bit. I don’t want to have a match right now. After all, there’s still a threat just to the north of us."
The Sea King grew furious. "You slapped me and want to stop with just that?"
Lu Yin smiled wryly. "What do you want me to do? I just suffered an attack from Lan Xian, and I’m quite injured right now. We’ll have a match after I recover."
Lu Yin then quickly left the area.
The Sea King snorted contemptuously. As if Lan Xian needed to hide her attacks!
When Lu Yin returned to the flagship, he was met by Elder Jiu Shen. Shock could still be seen within the old man’s eyes.
The Cosmic Art formed the very foundation of the Cosmic Sect, and the Cosmic Art had been created by Progenitor Chen. However, Lu Yin had just defeated Progenitor Chen while both of them were at the Enlighter realm, which was beyond shocking to Jiu Shen.
Still, the most startling piece of information was that Progenitor Chen had actually started developing the Cosmic Art while only an Enlighter. This was something that no one had known about before.
"It"s time for you to improve your mastery of the Cosmic Art. Fighting Progenitor Chen should have greatly aided your understanding of the cultivation art," Elder Jiu Shen said.
Lu Yin nodded. "Progenitor Chen was absolutely amazingly talented. It’s unbelievable that he managed to create the Cosmic Art while only an Enlighter, and his mastery of the art also far surpa.s.ses my own."
"Brown-noser." Elder Jiu Shen rolled his eyes. "Hurry up and achieve mastery of the Cosmic Art and then return my Cosmic Sect’s inheritance to us. This war should be over now, and the Sixth Mainland will take over things from here."
Lu Yin blinked. "Senior, do you want to go back?"
"I had nothing to do with this in the first place," Elder Jiu Shen growled. He was completely fed up with being led around by the nose by Lu Yin, but the inheritance that was on the bottom of Lu Yin’s foot was too important to ignore.
"Senior, please wait a bit longer, and this junior will soon give you an answer," Lu Yin said.
Elder Jiu Shen left.
Lu Yin wanted to call Xu Qing next. Lu Yin had a comprehensive strategy for this war, and things had finally entered the final stage. The hardest part of his plan had been for the Great Eastern Alliance to endure through the early stages of the war.
Since Lu Yin had managed to accomplish that, he had gained the initiative.
Before Lu Yin could make the call, he received a call request from Arch-Elder Zen.
"Senior," Lu Yin instantly called out in a very respectful tone as he answered the call.
Arch-Elder Zen was clearly in no rush, and the call remained silent for a while before the old man spoke. “Progenitor Chen is an incredibly difficult opponent."
Lu Yin had already known that Arch-Elder Zen was calling because of Lu Yin’s stellular tribulation. The Semi-Progenitor would not be the only one to do so either, as everyone who knew Lu Yin and learned of his battle with Progenitor Chen would try to call him. “It was a very difficult fight. I almost lost."
"Throughout all of human history, going back to the beginning of time, there have been too few who were capable of facing Progenitor Chen. I’m not convinced that even the Ancient Progenitors would have been able to defeat Progenitor Chen at the same cultivation realm. Your victory over him in the same realm of cultivation is something that deserves to be recorded down in history," Arch-Elder Zen declared.
Lu Yin quickly and humbly answered, "This junior was merely lucky."
Arch-Elder Zen smiled at that. "How is the war going? Can you continue?"
Lu Yin decisively replied, "Yes."
This caught Arch-Elder Zen off guard. According to what he knew of Lu Yin, this should have been the time when Lu Yin started complaining and finagling to gain the Hall of Honor’s support. Why in the world was Lu Yin answering so bluntly?
"Do you need any a.s.sistance? Perhaps some supplies?" Arch-Elder Zen asked very gently. He was treating Lu Yin in the exact same manner that he had before Lu Yin’s ident.i.ty as Lu Xiaoxuan had been exposed.
Lu Yin clearly sensed this shift. No matter what, even if Arch-Elder Zen was the leader of the Fifth Mainland’s Hall of Honor, he was still a pragmatic person. Lu Yin had defeated Progenitor Chen during his stellular tribulation, and if Lu Yin eventually became a Progenitor, he would be truly invincible in the entire universe. This was the reason behind the change in Arch-Elder Zen’s behavior.
As for the offered support, even though Lu Yin was already an Envoy, his die still needed star essence, and an endless supply at that. "Supplies would be of tremendous a.s.sistance."
Arch-Elder Zen gave a small smile, but his tone almost immediately changed after that. "This was merely your first stellular tribulation to become an Envoy, and yet you faced Progenitor Chen and also absorbed a hundred times more stellular energy than an average Envoy. Do you understand the implications of that?"
Lu Yin became confused. "What are you saying, Senior?"
Arch-Elder Zen solemnly explained, "It means that it will be incredibly difficult for you to continue cultivating."
Lu Yin’s eyebrows rose, but he remained silent.
Arch-Elder Zen then continued, "An Envoy needs to absorb stellular energy in order to progress, but stellular energy is not the same as star energy. It is nowhere near as easy to absorb, and it also takes a great deal more time. The time it takes to absorb more stellular energy is typically measured in years, and you may not survive long enough to reach your next breakthrough. Even if you do reach that breakthrough, you will face more after that. If you try to absorb stellular energy too quickly, you could easily draw the attention of the true universe. What’s more, this is not something that can be completely avoided through the use of curios, as you need far too much stellular energy."
This was not an issue that Lu Yin had considered before his stellular tribulation, but his heart sank lower and lower as he listened to Arch-Elder Zen’s explanation. It was completely true; he needed far too much stellular energy.
Before his breakthrough, his reserves had contained about 200 times more star energy than that of an average Enlighter at his cultivation level. That was why Lu Yin had scrounged around for star essence and had used heat sources to speed up his cultivation, as the combination had given him a shortcut to quickly improve his cultivation with.
However, were there any similar means to accelerate his cultivation speed now that Lu Yin was an Envoy?