Chapter 2954: Anointing Progenitor-Level Champions
The three people chatted for several hours. Lu Yin was very curious about the other universes. While the rulers of the Sixverse a.s.sociation’s member universes undoubtedly knew about many outsider powerhouses, all of those people were currently in seclusion. Thus, there was no one who could share any details with Lu Yin.
Lu Yin had also asked Jiang Chen and a few others about such matters before, but they knew little.
Since he had the opportunity to speak with the Ice Lord, Lu Yin wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to ask about these things.
From the Ice Lord, Lu Yin learned a great deal about other parallel universes. The so-called “outsiders” did not refer to a specific region, but rather to all existences who did not belong to one’s own forces. For example, the people of the Sixverse a.s.sociation regarded the Five Spirits Alliance and Whitecloud as outsiders, but as far as the Five Spirits Alliance was concerned, the people of the Sixverse a.s.sociation were outsiders.
There was little to say about outsider powerhouses, but that was mostly because there were simply too many parallel universes. There was no telling when some terrifyingly powerful creature might appear.
The Ice Lord knew the most about the Five Spirits Alliance, Aeternus, and the Luna Alliance. He had had little contact with any other outsider powerhouses.
Lu Yin learned that almost all the powerful outsiders that the Five Spirits Alliance knew about were somehow connected to the Lord of Lightning, either as friends or as enemies. It was also only now that Lu Yin understood why Jiang Qingyue had received special treatment from the Aeternals in the Sixth Mainland. Even when the opportunity had arisen, they had not killed her. It was clear that there were some very powerful alliances beyond the Sixverse a.s.sociation. Why did the Great Sovereign treat Jiang Qingyue so well? For the same reason, how could the Lord of Lightning alone possibly intimidate the Aeternals so much?
As for the Ice Lord, he was quite curious about the Sixverse a.s.sociation. Jiang Qingyue had not shared much, and the Lord of Lightning himself did not have much time to chat with the Ice Lord.
Lu Yin shared many details concerning both the Sixverse a.s.sociation and the Origin Universe. The two were exchanging information about their respective civilizations.
There were too many parallel universes throughout the megaverse, and they were filled with a gamut of civilizations. The Aeternals were the enemy of humanity, but that was not necessarily the case for other races. No one wanted to make enemies for no reason, especially powerful enemies.
Many humans fantasized about uniting various civilizations across the megaverse in order to destroy Aeternus, but to most of those civilizations, the Aeternals were just another race of beings. They were of no threat.
In the current situation, the Aeternals had attacked the Ice Spirit Tribe, and the Five Spirits Alliance would not ignore this.
But the Aeternals did not know that they had been exposed. Shao Yin had escaped, while Qi You and the old woman had both been captured and were awaiting a decision regarding their fates. Unless there was a traitor within the Ice Spirit Tribe who reported to Aeternus, the Aeternals would continue to believe that the Ice Spirit Tribe had been deceived by the attack.
"I’m going to destroy these two humans to vent some of this hatred." The Ice Lord looked at the frozen forms of Qi You and the old woman as he casually mentioned his intentions.
Qi You and the old woman were terrified, and their eyes darted about.
"Senior Ice Lord, can you give these two to me?" Lu Yin asked.
Qi You’s eyes turned to Lu Yin. The man had an uneasy feeling...
The Ice Lord also turned to Lu Yin. "Dao Monarch Lu, while I do admire you, please don"t make things difficult for me. My Ice Spirit Domain was destroyed during this attack, the culprits must pay a price for that. I understand your feelings for your fellow humans and the desire to save powerful cultivators, but still."
Lu Yin smiled. "Senior, you must be joking. I meant to ask to allow me to deal with these two people. I will settle things in front of you so that your Ice Spirit Tribe can receive an explanation."
The Ice Lord grew puzzled. "As long as they die, what difference does it make?"
Jiang Qingyue"s eyes lit up. "Brother Lu, you want to be the one to kill them?"
Lu Yin nodded.
The Ice Lord was left puzzled, as were Qi You and the old woman. They might have heard about the Origin Universe, but they had no real knowledge of the universe. After all, no one from Aeternus would ever praise the Lu family’s innate gifts of their Champions’ Stage or Invest.i.ture of the G.o.ds.
Before they had been sent to attack the Origin Universe, it was possible that not even the True G.o.d Guard Captains had known about these matters.
Lu Yin briefly explained things to the Ice Lord, and the Ice Spirit became quite interested. "Is that really possible? Very well, then feel free to proceed, Dao Monarch Lu."
The Ice Lord subsequently removed the ice that had sealed Qi You and the old woman.
The cold had seeped into their bodies, immobilizing for a while even after the ice was removed.
"Senior Ye, Ye Bo, are we alright?" Qi You asked. He had no idea how Lu Yin had managed to infiltrate Aeternus. It defied all that the man understood. "Senior, don"t worry, we are already considered dead, so we won’t return to Aeternus for as long as we live. It’s impossible for us to return, and we truly know nothing.”
Lu Yin laughed. "You have seen my real face."
Qi You"s pupils shrank. "This junior is willing to swear loyalty to you, Senior. You can demand my death, and I won’t hesitate. I merely ask that you spare us."
The old woman also started begging. "Please, Senior, let us go."
Seeing the two beg made Lu Yin lose all interest in speaking to them. He had wanted to learn more about the Scourge from Qi You, but he had lost all interest.
A hand rose, and a palm strike shot out before Lu Yin lowered his hand. In the eyes of the two Ice Spirit powerhouses, Lu Yin had not even moved. Only the Ice Lord himself was capable of clearly seeing Lu Yin’s attack, as the young man had moved too quickly. Even the Ice Lord was amazed by the speed.
The Ice Lord stared at Lu Yin for a moment. While the two of them had fought very briefly, Lu Yin was not yet a peak powerhouse. Despite that, he was capable of defending against the Ice Lord’s sequence particles. If Jiang Qingyue had not stopped the fight, it was very possible that Lu Yin was capable of doing even more. Just as the rumors claimed, this person was an absolute monster, and his cultivation did not reflect his power at all.
Qi You slowly collapsed. Even at the moment of his death, he had not expected to be killed so simply. He did not even know Lu Yin"s true ident.i.ty, as Lu Yin’s conversation with the Ice Lord had ended before the two traitors were brought over.
The old woman stared at Qi You’s crumpling corpse in a daze, and she felt an approaching chill. She was overcome by the terror of her own impending death, and her vision seemed to go dark.
The Champions’ Stage appeared, and Lu Yin grew solemn. "By my name, I anoint a Champion."
The Ice Lord and Jiang Qingyue watched in shock. They had never witnessed such a magical scene before. Even the dead could be used. They looked at the various images on Lu Yin’s Champions’ Stage. Was he really able to summon all those powerhouses?
If all of those images reflected peak powerhouses, then just how strong was Lu Yin?
Lu Yin"s face remained solemn. Qi You had not been particularly powerful, and he had only possessed the strength of the most ordinary Progenitors. There was no backlash from anointing such a champion.
He had already anointed the Cyclops King, and that giant could have killed several people as strong as Qi You with a single slap.
Qi You’s image soon appeared on the Champions’ Stage, and the Ice Lord’s white eyes went wide at the sight.
This was Jiang Qingyue’s first time seeing a champion anointed, and she was also shocked by the sight.
The Lu family possessed truly enviable abilities. They were able to borrow the power of the living and anoint the dead as their champions. There was no one the Lu family could not use. As long as they were provided with enough resources, the Lu family alone was capable of rivaling a powerful alliance of multiple parallel universes.
The old woman stared at the scene, dumbfounded. She was suffering from not only the fear of death, but also the fear of the unknown.
Was this her fate? What power was this?
"Monster, monster, you’re a monster! You’re a monster–!" the old woman shouted as she collapsed.
Lu Yin slowly turned from his Champions’ Stage to look at the old woman. "To those you betrayed, you are also a monster."
The old woman shrieked. Her mind had snapped. "You monster! I don"t want to die! You’re a monster–!"
She did her best to resist the invasive chill and rise to her feet to try to escape. After just a few steps, her vision went dark, and her body fell. She was already dead.
Lu Yin showed no mercy. This old woman had betrayed her universe and everyone in it, leaving her own people to the fate of being transformed into corpse kings. Just how desperate had those people been?
Lu Yin did not consider himself a good person, and he did not feel qualified to judge anyone for their actions. He acted only according to his own judgment, which he felt was enough.
He did not follow some greater morality or sense of righteousness, but merely his own conscience.
He had acquired the strength to be able to do that.
The old woman was quickly anointed as well.
Lu Yin"s mind felt a bit hazy, and he was overcome with exhaustion after anointing two Progenitor-level champions in a row. Still, the dizziness was incomparable to the pain of anointing the Cyclops King.
The Ice Lord exclaimed, "Dao Monarch Lu, you have shown me the infinite possibilities of humanity. It is no wonder why your species is the only one in existence that can face the Aeternals head-on. So this is why Aeternus only transforms humans into their corpse kings."
He then looked back at Jiang Qingyue. "Humans have too many options. When the Lord of Lightning first visited the Five Spirits Alliance, he was still very weak, but he quickly rose to power. That is what humans are capable of."
Jiang Qingyue slowly bowed. "I wish to thank the Five Spirits Alliance for granting my father those opportunities in the past. My father has often said that, without the Five Spirits Alliance, the current Lord of Lightning would have never come to be."
The Ice Lord smiled. "That was all due to your father"s own efforts. Our Five Spirits Alliance has also prospered over the years because of the Lord of Lightning’s a.s.sistance."
Once his Champions’ Stage disappeared, Lu Yin exhaled. There was sweat dripping from his forehead.
Jiang Qingyue stepped forward. "Even with your level of talent, it"s not easy to anoint two Progenitor-level experts at once."
Lu Yin forced out a smile. "It"s not that bad. I can manage."
Jiang Qingyue nodded.
The Ice Lord observed Lu Yin and Jiang Qingyue together. "What kind of relationship do you two have?"
The two were caught off guard, and they did not understand what the Ice Lord was asking.
He smiled at them. "We Ice Spirits don’t have males and females, but you humans do. I feel that you two have an unusual relationship."
Lu Yin realized that everyone seemed to be pairing him up with Jiang Qingyue. Right, where was Dragonturtle?
"Where"s Dragonturtle?"
Jiang Qingyue replied, "He talks too much, so I left him at home."
Lu Yin nodded and did not ask anything further.
"What will you do next? How will the Aeternals respond?" Jiang Qingyue asked.
Lu Yin suddenly turned to the Ice Lord. "Senior, have you ever heard of froststones?"
The Ice Lord replied, "Of course. My people have many froststones, and we can differentiate between them by their age. The oldest froststones are absolute treasures that can freeze even the vitality of a person."
"Is there any connection between the froststones and the Iceheart?"
The Ice Lord answered openly, "The Iceheart is really just a froststone that has lasted for countless years, growing more powerful. It’s hard to estimate just how old it must be. Why do you ask?"
"Senior, could you allow me to take a look at the Iceheart?" Lu Yin asked solemnly. He had just come up with an idea.
The Ice Lord did not refuse. "Of course."
The Ice Lord"s ready agreement made Lu Yin take a second look at the Ice Spirit Tribe. The Iceheart they were speaking about was clearly not some ordinary treasure, but rather the source of power for the Ice Spirit Tribe.
When the Ice Lord had faced off against Shao Yin, through Heaven’s Sight, Lu Yin had seen the Ice Lord use sequence particles that had come from the Iceheart. Only with that boost had Shao Yin been defeated and forced to retreat. The Ice Lord alone was not powerful enough to drive Shao Yin back, and the battle could have potentially lasted for much, much longer.
The Ice Lord led Lu Yin deep underground. The further they descended, the more extreme the cold. Even with Lu Yin’s cultivation, he still felt as though he was about to be frozen solid.
Jiang Qingyue was protected by the Ice Lord, which was the only way she was able to join them. On her own, she would have frozen.
Soon, Lu Yin saw the Iceheart.
"It"s so beautiful," Lu Yin unconsciously remarked.
Ahead of them, the Iceheart looked like a blooming lotus formed from mist. The snow-white mist of ice spread out into what looked like petals in the air above the stone. It was stunningly beautiful.
Jiang Qingyue was also impressed. "My father once said that the Iceheart is the most beautiful flower he has ever seen."