Chapter 3058: The Third Scourge
Lu Yuan lashed out again, with the same simple and straightforward palm strike.
However, this time, Di Qiong used his divine energy.
Beneath the ground, Lu Yin spat out a mouthful of blood. He looked up and saw dark red divine energy filling the sky. Just as he was about to leave, the divine energy suddenly dropped, enveloping the earth. "Lu Yuan, this is not the time. I will find you and fight you sooner or later."
"You little b.a.s.t.a.r.d, don"t run!" Ancestor Lu Yuan roared.
The next moment, a pitch black darkness fell in front of Lu Yin. This is bad!
Was he being taken away? This was the end! Not even his ancestor could save him. As soon as Lu Yin was taken away by Di Qiong, his fate was clear: he would undoubtedly die.
None of Lu Yin’s powers could break through the divine energy, and he was also unable to use Inverse Step.
His mind raced and his eyes grew focused. Suddenly, he lashed out behind and to the right, striking someone’s forehead. The Chiliagonist died instantly.
Lu Yin then took out Cheng Kong’s bubble and shifted his own appearance. Despite his unwillingness, it seemed that he would need to rely on Ye Bo in order to survive.
The next moment, light again touched his eyes, and Lu Yin fell to the ground. He coughed a few times, and then looked up. A familiar red ground met his eyes. He was in a Scourge, though he did not know which one.
Chong Gui was beside him, and the man was making strange noises.
Further away, Dual Bladeform also fell to the ground, in addition to the Chiliagonist’s corpse.
"Where is Lu Yin?" Di Qiong looked down at the people he had rescued, feeling a little puzzled. He stared at Ye Bo and the others.
Lu Yin held a hand to his chest as he looked up. "Where are we?"
"The Scourge. This is the Scourge! This is great! Brother, we"re back! This is the Scourge!"
"Wow, the Scourge! Love is rewarded! This is the prize of love! I"m back, hahaha."
Di Qiong frowned as he observed the small group, but Lu Yin was not among them. Could he have run away? Di Qiong remembered how Lu Yin had managed to reverse time by a second at the end of their battle. It was not impossible that Lu Yin had managed to escape.
Di Qiong continued to stare at the people on the ground. "Who are all of you?"
The blue-haired man of the Dual Bladeforms stood up and answered respectfully, "We are the True G.o.d Guard Captain Dual Bladeform. Greetings, Your Excellency."
Chong Gui also quickly got to his feet. "True G.o.d Guard Captain Chong Gui. Greetings, Your Excellency."
Lu Yin gave a respectful bow. "True G.o.d Guard Captain Ye Bo. Greetings, Your Excellency."
Di Qiong stared down at them. "The True G.o.d Guard? There is such a group in the First Scourge. Do you know Zhong Pan?"
"Zhong Pan? The True G.o.d Guard Captain? Is he from here?" Chong Gui exclaimed.
Di Qiong stared at Chong Gui. "I felt divine energy in your body. Are you certain that all of you are from my Aeternus?"
His eyes moved to Dual Bladeform, and then to Ye Bo. "What about you?"
Dual Bladeform spoke respectfully, "Your Excellency, we have used up all of our divine energy, but Chong Gui can serve as a witness, vouching that I am a True G.o.d Guard Captain."
Chong Gui shouted, "Your Excellency, Dual Bladeform is a captain! We are friends!"
"No." The long pink-haired woman spat. She despised Chong Gui. The man only ever talked about love, which was revolting.
Di Qiong looked at Lu Yin, who explained, "This servant’s divine energy has also been exhausted, but Dual Bladeform can vouch for me. Additionally, if you don’t believe me, I can absorb divine energy to prove myself to you, Your Excellency."
Di Qiong felt quite disappointed. Were all of these people really True G.o.d Guard Captains? That was such a pity. He had really been hoping to find Lu Yin among them. That young man’s methods were quite strange, and it would not be unreasonable for him to have the means of altering his appearance so thoroughly that even Di Qiong was deceived. As long as he could capture Lu Yin, he would be able to slap the First Scourge right in the face.
After a moment of silence, Di Qiong spoke, "This is the Third Scourge. Wait here, and I"ll take you to the First Scourge in a while. If you have a cosmic door, you can return on your own."
The blue-haired man glanced over at Ye Bo. "Ye Bo, do you have a cosmic door?"
Lu Yin shook his head. "No."
"We don"t either."
"The Third Scourge? We haven"t been to any of the other Scourges yet. Thank you, Your Excellency, for bringing us back. However, none of us have a cosmic door, so we can"t go back on our own."
Di Qiong glanced at the Chiliagonist’s corpse. "Was he also a True G.o.d Guard Captain?"
"Huh, how did the Chiliagonist die?" Chong Gui only realized that the Chiliagonist was dead when it was pointed out.
The pink-haired woman replied, "Lu Yin probably killed him when he fell down."
"Or he killed him before he escaped," the blue-haired man said.
Ye Bo remained silent.
Di Qiong frowned. It did not particularly matter if the man was dead or not, but all of the First Scourge’s True G.o.d Guard Captains were valuable people, as all of them could cultivate divine energy.
Di Qiong soon left. It would be some time before he could send the rescued captives back to the First Scourge.
Once he was gone, the pink-haired woman let out a breath. "That was so scary! He"s on the same level as the Seven SkyG.o.ds, right?"
The blue-haired man’s voice was somber, "Each of the Three Pillars and Six Skies is incredibly powerful."
Chong Gui screamed, "I"m back! Haha, I"m back! My babies, I"m back! Hahaha!"
The pink-haired woman sneered. "Disgusting."
She looked over at Ye Bo. "Ye Bo, why are you still so cold? Aren"t you happy to be back?"
Lu Yin could not say how he felt at this moment. Was he happy? Mu Ji was aware that Ye Bo was really Lu Yin, and running into that man again would spell trouble. Technically, Ye Bo should return to the First Scourge, as he did not belong to the Third Scourge. However, Wu Tian was supposed to be in the Third Scourge, and so long as Lu Yin was disguised as Ye Bo, he should be safe.
It might be possible to learn the truth about Wu Tian.
So, was Lu Yin happy or not?
He really had no idea, so he could simply continue to act indifferent to everything.
He would remain in the Third Scourge for the time being, and would do his best to learn more about Wu Tian. If Wu Tian really was trapped in the Third Scourge, Lu Yin might as well take the man with him when he left.
With that in mind, Lu Yin stared off into the distance. He would never return to the First Scourge. That place was too dangerous for him.
***
At this same time, in Aeternus Nation, Ancestor Lu Yuan and the others were unable to find Lu Yin, which led them to guess that he had been taken away by Di Qiong.
"The Dao Monarch should be fine. He can simply disguise himself as Ye Bo," Arch-Elder Zen suggested.
Big Sis agreed, "That kid can"t get into any trouble. He"s more cunning than anyone."
Ancestor Lu Yuan frowned. He hoped nothing would happen to Lu Yin. Little Seven, you must come back!
No matter how worried everyone was, there were things that needed to be done.
The Divine Maiden was mourning. All three of the elephants were dead. Before leaving, Di Qiong had killed them all with his divine energy. That had been his goal all along, and he had completed his task. This was how the Aeternals worked, and most of the time, even when things went wrong, they would accomplish their goals.
Forgotten Ruins G.o.d had already left the Fifth Mainland. As for whether or not the Infinity Empire would leave after the scare they had been given by the Forgotten Ruins G.o.d, no one could say.
Without Lu Yin, the Heavens Sect lost its sense of direction.
...
In the blink of an eye, Ye Bo and the other True G.o.d Guard captains had spent half a month in the Third Scourge. They did not see Di Qiong again, and no one sought them out. It was as though they had been entirely forgotten.
This made Lu Yin a bit happy, though he could not continue to wait forever. As soon as Di Qiong returned, he would take the captains back to the First Scourge.
It was also impossible for Ye Bo to tell Di Qiong that he wanted to remain in the Third Scourge, which meant that Lu Yin needed to find a way to stay.
During this half a month, Lu Yin and the others had seen a great many corpse kings. There was not much of a difference between the Third and First Scourges, but one important difference was that all of the corpse kings in the Third Scourge could use the Corpse King Transformation.
"It’s said that Di Qiong created the Corpse King Transformation, and that’s why all of the corpse kings in the Third Scourge can use the technique. If they can’t use the technique, they aren’t allowed to stay here in the Third Scourge." The blue-haired man sighed as he looked at the various corpse kings in the distance which were trying to master the Corpse King Transformation.
"Hey, how do you know about that? It is forbidden to mention anything about the other Scourges in our First Scourge! That’s a betrayal of love we have for the First Scourge!" Chong Gui yelled.
The pink-haired woman grimaced. "That"s what Progenitor Xi said. She was the one who took us to the First Scourge, and she told us many things. None of which are any of your business."
Lu Yin"s heart skipped a beat. "Progenitor Xi took you to the First Scourge?"
The pink-haired woman"s eyes lit up. "Ye Bo, are you interested in talking now?"
Lu Yin remained indifferent and refused to reply. The pink-haired woman rolled her eyes. "Fine, don"t talk. I don"t care."
Lu Yin turned to look at the distant black Mother Tree. Despite only a few days pa.s.sing, Lu Yin was already worried that Di Qiong would tell Progenitor Xi about the True G.o.d Guard Captains ‘ rescue, and that Progenitor Xi would share the news with Mu Ji and the others. Lu Yin had no confidence that Mu Ji would keep his secret.
Lu Yin was in a very dangerous situation. Whether or not Progenitor Xi believed Mu Ji, she would certainly investigate the accusation, and Ye Bo’s ident.i.ty would not be able to stand up to that.
The reason Lu Yin wanted to stay in the Third Scourge was to investigate what was going on with Wu Tian, but that did not mean that he could just wander about right away. However, since several days had already pa.s.sed, he felt that it would be reasonable to start to explore.
With that thought, he started moving in a specific direction. It was the same direction that he had seen all of the corpse kings heading.
“Hey, Ye Bo. Where are you going?" the pink-haired woman called out.
Lu Yin did not even turn his head. "To look around."
"I"m going too!" The pink-haired woman had already grown impatient, but the blue-haired man hesitated.
"Brother, let"s go take a look! Look, Ye Bo is already gone," the pink-haired woman begged.
To the side, Chong Gui yelled, "Let’s go! We’ll go together and look around! It will be an exploration of love!"
"Get lost!" The pink-haired woman was disgusted.
The blue-haired man said, "Di Qiong may have already forgotten about us. He won"t go visit the First Scourge just for our sake. Let"s look around this Scourge for now. I"m also curious about it."
Lu Yin did not wait for the others, and continued walking. He had his own purpose, so how could he wait for the others? It would be best if he could separate from them.
Unfortunately, while Lu Yin wanted to go off on his own, Dual Bladeform and the others wanted to stay together, so they followed after him.
Tall towers dotted the ground. There were more of them than in the Fourth Scourge, showing that the Third Scourge surpa.s.sed the Fourth Scourge, though it fell far from the strength of the First Scourge.
They were moving away from the black Mother Tree, which meant they were moving towards the outskirts of the Third Scourge.
The further they walked, the more corpse kings they saw. There were also human cultivators among the corpse kings. Some of the humans were wanting to cultivate the Corpse King Transformation, while others were attempting to cultivate divine energy.
While the Third Scourge did not have any True G.o.d Guard, cultivating divine energy would cause a powerhouse’s status to transform, and they would be elevated above their peers. There was a clear hierarchy in place, and cultivating divine energy placed one on a different level, regardless of the Scourge.
Bang
They heard a distant collision, and Lu Yin looked over to see two individuals attacking each other. They had both used the Corpse King Transformation, and yet they were both human.
Could humans cultivate the Corpse King Transformation? Of course they could. The first person Lu Yin had seen do this was Zi Rong, but his mastery of the technique had been far from complete. The two people who were clashing did not show any awkwardness when using the Corpse King Transformation, and they had also both reached the stage of being able to use the Green Eyes Transformation.