Chapter 2075: High Profile
Ten years ago, a young man had been incredibly lucky and had stumbled across a massive amount of pyrolyte. He had immediately received a promotion to a team that was subordinate to Team Resolution, and he had also received a powerful battle technique, which made him a powerhouse. Before that opportunity, the young man had just been another average, run-of-the-mill cultivator.
The Fifth Mainland had seen drastic changes over the last few decades. Some people had suffered from despair, while others had seen renewed hope.
Most of the people mining pyrolyte maintained a bit of hope. After all, they were in one of the rare few places where they could potentially draw the attention of some of the most powerful people in the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate.
Even more relevant was the fact that a large number of fish from ancient times had been placed into the Astral River as food stock. Generally, eating the fish was able to strengthen a person’s body, and supposedly, there were even fish that Envoys would want to eat.
This was the hope that had drawn Xi Yue to the tidal flats. She hoped to enter the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate through this place and acquire enough power to avenge her clansmen. In the current universe, there was no way to recover star energy, which made battle force and domains the easiest and most common cultivation methods that people. Of the two, Xi Yue already had some experience with battle force, which was why she wanted to join the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate. This was her desired path.
Unfortunately for Xi Yue, if she had not met Lu Yin, she would not have been able to remain on the tidal flat; she would have been sent to the front lines of the war. There, it would be almost impossible for her to catch the attention of anyone powerful from any of the Heavenly Gates, and on top of that, the chances of death on the front lines were incomparable to the tidal flats.
For people who cultivated battle force, the tidal flats were the safest place, as well as where they had the greatest chance of being able to climb higher.
Lu Yin leaped into the Astral River along with everyone else. Twenty years ago, this would have been absolutely impossible. Only people who were at least Enlighters would have dared to enter the Astral River, but it had since become accessible to more and more people.
What Xi Yue had called the bottom of the Astral River was really just a slightly deeper part of the tidal flat, and it was not really the bottom. It was impossible for the people mining pyrolyte to go that deep.
Lu Yin followed Xi Yue into the Astral River, and as they traveled deeper, their surroundings went from being muddy, to slowly clearing up. Once they were 100 meters in, the Astral River had grown clear enough for Lu Yin to see quite a ways away.
Xi Yue suddenly raised a hand to grab at a small bit of gravel that was flowing through the river next to her. She examined it carefully and then handed it to Lu Yin. "If this kind of gravel has any pyrolyte, it will be in the middle, which is easy to notice."
Lu Yin took the bit of gravel, but it was too small. He tossed it aside, and then unleashed his domain.
His domain was quite powerful, and it had reached the same level of mastery that Unseen Light had achieved when Lu Yin had disappeared; it was much stronger than when they had returned from the Perennial World. Even when looking at the current universe where battle force and domains had risen to become the most common forms of cultivation, there was absolutely no one in the same generation who had managed to surpass Unseen Light in terms of mastering their domain.
Lu Yin's domain spread out in all directions.
Xi Yue was blown away. "If you want to stay here, then just make sure you don't get caught using your domain. If they notice you have one, you won’t be able to stay here."
Lu Yin collected bits of gravel from the area that was enveloped by his domain as he listened to Xi Yue. "Where do those people go?"
"I don't know, but they definitely won’t be allowed to stay here. As far as the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate is concerned, we’re just tools for harvesting pyrolyte. The talented fighters and people who can use a domain are sent to other places," Xi Yue said as she examined a handful of gravel that Lu Yin had gathered in front of them. She reached out and started to examine the grains of gravel one by one.
She did not expect Lu Yin to be able to collect almost any pyrolyte, but it was already clear that he would not remain on the tidal flat for very long.
Lu Yin watched as Xi Yue checked the gravel piece by piece. "You don't need to stay here much longer now that your battle force has stabilized. You’ve already reached four lines."
Xi Yue was caught off guard. Lu Yin was absolutely correct. Xi Yue’s injuries had been healed, and her battle force had also stabilized. There really was no need for her to stay on the tidal flats any longer.
Her entire goal was to enter the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate and cultivate a higher level of battle force, not to collect pyrolyte from the Astral River.
"How much do we need to collect each day?" Lu Yin suddenly asked.
Xi Yue replied, "The cut-off mark in this area is to gather a kilo each month, but the average is just 0.1 grams per person. That’s what people actually get. What really matters is passing a daily quota when the gravel that we collect gets inspected. We have to mark the pyrolyte with our battle force after checking it in order to avoid wasting time with multiple people checking the same pieces, and our daily quota is to mark at least 500 pieces of gravel."
Lu Yin felt embarrassed. Hadn’t he just thrown away a piece of gravel, even though that was actually the daily task?
Still, it was possible for him to gather a kilogram of pyrolyte in a month from this tidal flat, as there was much more pyrolyte present than had been on Planet Pyrolyte all those years ago. On top of that, this was just one tidal flat, and that was what could be gathered each month, not to mention how the other Heavenly Gates had their own gathering stations along the Astral River with their own people.
"Is the Lu Heavenly Gate also collecting pyrolyte?" Lu Yin asked.
Xi Yue nodded. "They should be. Still, it doesn’t matter how much they gather, as all they’ll do with it is sell it to the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate. Only the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate has the microarray technology."
For the rest of the day, Lu Yin collected gravel along the bottom of the Astral River. Gathering 500 pieces of gravel was too easy for him.
Only after the sun set did people leave the Astral River and line up to have their gravel inspected. All the gravel would then be stored in one location.
"Brother Hei, how are you doing? How much did you manage to gather today?" A short man walked over and asked.
The disguised Lu Yin replied, "Over 500 pieces."
"Just over 500? Weren’t you collecting 1,000 before?" The man was taken aback, but then he gave Lu Yin an ambiguous smile. "It looks like you used up too much energy last night, hahahaha!"
Someone then called out from behind, "Old Hei, take care of your body! Don’t get burned out."
"That's right. You’re one of the best on this entire tidal flat, and one of the people who’s most likely to get battle force training from Team Resolution. Don't let yourself be held back."
"Hahahaha."
Behind Lu Yin, Xi Yue's face flushed red. These bastards were looking at her while addressing Lu Yin, and their eyes were full of ridicule and amusement. It was like they were seeing through her with their eyes.
If she was with the real Old Hei, she would not be bothered at all, but Lu Yin was the one standing in front of her.
She suddenly remembered how she had gotten tangled up with Lu Yin in the Sand Ocean in Astral-10, and the memory caused her to blush.
A short time later, the two approached Xi Yue’s shack.
"Don't follow me. That’s Old Hei’s shack." Xi Yue pointed to the side before entering her place without a backwards glance.
Lu Yin was confused; so what if that was Old Hei’s home? What did that have to do with Lu Yin? He simply followed Xi Yue.
She blushed and buried her head in her knees as she sat down in a corner of the room.
Lu Yin walked into the shack.
"Didn't I tell you not to follow me?" Xi Yue scolded.
Lu Yin pursed his lips. "I'm not Old Hei."
Xi Yue stopped talking and just hung her head. It was impossible to know what was running through her mind.
Lu Yin took the Origin Progenitor’s sword out from his cosmic ring and examined it. The energies within his body were a complete mess, and he had no idea how to stabilize them. The different energies had gotten tangled together, and they were locked up in a way that made it impossible to move any of the energies. It was quite the headache.
"Why are you staying here?" Xi Yue asked.
"I’m just taking a few days’ break."
Xi Yue’s head stayed down. "Actually, there’s an opportunity here. He Xin, gatemaster of the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate, once publicly announced that aurelian force is not the peak of battle force, which he will teach to people if they train hard enough."
This did not surprise Lu Yin. During the major battle between humanity and the Aeternals, when Hen Xin and Ancient God had fought, neither had used aurelian force. Instead, their bodies had been covered with some strange purplish-black substance, which should have been Ancient God’s power.
Lu Yin had spoken about this with his third uncle, Lu Buzheng. He had learned that the ancient Dao Monarch of the Third Mainland had created a cultivation method that led to the pinnacle of body cultivation, while also creating the race of colossal giants.
That man had created battle force while blazing this particular path.
Hen Xin had been trained in the usage of battle force by the ancient Dao Monarch, so his mastery of battle force should be the highest out of any human in the current universe.
Lu Yin's eyes flickered. Could he learn the highest level of battle force from Hen Xin?
"Is everyone here from the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate?" Lu Yin asked.
"They’re the ones inspecting the pyrolyte." Xi Yue looked at Lu Yin. "Old Hei didn’t originally know battle force, but after he was taught in an open training session by someone from the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate’s Team Resolution, he managed to learn battle force and was sent here. With that sort of background, using his identity shouldn’t be a problem."
Lu Yin looked away. This was interesting information, as it meant that he could use his identity as Old Hei to accomplish something.
As for Lu Yin’s disguise being seen through, he had actually forgotten that he still had the bones that he had received from Tian Dou in his cosmic ring. Those bones had been processed according to the Xie family’s methods, and there was a lot of death energy in them. Thus, Lu Yin could use that to use the Mask of Death.
Lu Yin intended to do just that, so he pulled out a bone and extracted some death energy as Xi Yue watched in confusion: nothing at all happened. Lu Yin looked exactly the same as before, but only he knew that he had switched to using the Mask of Death to alter his appearance. No one would be able to see through his disguise of Old Hei.
At one point in time, Jue Yi had managed to use the Mask of Death to hide himself from even Forgotten Ruins God, and Lu Yin himself had succeeded in escaping a search conducted by Semi-Progenitors. As long as Lu Yin did not come into close proximity with a Semi-Progenitor, his Mask of Death would not be seen through. Just how far would Lu Yin be able to go with Old Hei’s identity?
Several days passed as Lu Yin calmly collected more pyrolyte from the Astral River while disguised as Old Hei. He said nothing about collecting pyrolyte, though he turned in much less than a single gram.
At night, he also went out to catch the fish that were supposedly from the Heavens Sect era that Hen Xin had placed in the Astral River.
However, the guards generally did not allow the people who gathered pyrolyte to casually go fishing, as they were worried that the people would be eaten by creatures in the Astral River, which would lower the tidal flat’s productivity.
…
A bonfire flickered on the tidal flat as Lu Yin leisurely grilled some fish. There were more than a dozen fish still lying next to him, and Xi Yue was sitting across from him. She stared at him, stunned. "This is being too high-profile!"
"Didn't you tell me that Old Hei made a point of standing out? This should be fine," Lu Yin answered indifferently.
Xi Yue rolled her eyes. Fine? This many fish on display was no longer simply standing out. Old Hei had gotten excited after catching just two fish. Not even the tidal flat’s guards were able to catch so many fish at once.
Some distance away, greedy eyes watched from the wooden shacks, eager to try to steal some fish.
Someone finally made an attempt, but they were smacked down into the gravel and tossed aside by Xi Yue.
Her four lined battle force was not something that other people in this area could compete with.
Suddenly, another person moved and emerged from the void. They were wearing the uniform of a servant of the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate, and there was a solemn expression on their face as they stared at Lu Yin with cold eyes. This person was the supervisor of this region of the tidal flat. He was a Hunter.
"Old Hei, did you catch all of these?" the supervisor shouted.
Lu Yin looked up and smiled at the supervisor. "That’s right. Do you want to eat some with me?"
The supervisor glanced at more than a dozen fish and grew slightly jealous. Still, he had his own standards that he felt he needed to maintain. "How high has your battle force reached?"
Lu Yin had asked about what level battle force Old Hei had mastered, but it had only been two lines. Still, that had been enough to make the man one of the strongest people on the entire tidal flat, as most people only possessed one lined battle force.
"Four lines," Lu Yin replied as he raised a hand. Purple battle aura gradually shrouded his hand, though it looked a bit unstable.
The supervisor was taken aback. "You actually reached four lined battle force? When did you make this breakthrough?"
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