Chapter 2282: Undead Warriors
The word “kill” echoed across the Cosmic Sea. While there were clearly thousands of spears stabbing at him, Lu Yin only saw a single spear. There was a slight surge of power, and it raised the attack to nearly match that of a monster with a power level of about a million.
Lu Yin understood how the Soldier Crew had been able to remain a dominant power in the Cosmic Sea and maintain their status as one of the four pirate crews. The power of this attack was enough to intimidate anyone in the entire Cosmic Sea, and even Highsage Leon would be overwhelmed by it.
However, these people were facing Hen Ye, a peak Envoy, who had been Possessed by Lu Yin.
The spear shot towards Hen Ye, but it failed to get close to the man. It was as though space had been stretched out to infinity. The spear would never be able to actually touch its target.
The Soldier Crew thrust out with a second spear attack, and another power appeared from an unknown place to reinforce the attack. To Lu Yin, it felt as though the second spear was falling towards him from the river of time, and it merged with the first attack that was already right in front of him. He heard words ring out in his ears. Death Soldier’s Supreme Spear: Deathseeker.
There was a bang as the void shattered, and Lu Yin's expression completely changed. The spear held a familiar power, the power of a Progenitor.
How was that possible? How could the Soldier Crew have the strength of a Progenitor, or rather, how could they borrow the power of a Progenitor? Who were these people really?
Right as the Progenitor’s strength was descending, Lu Yin felt the Possession ending. Hen Ye was a peak Envoy, which meant that, even with unlimited resources, Lu Yin would still be unable to maintain the Possession for too long. On top of that, he was feeling suppressed by a Progenitor’s power.
Before allowing the Possession to end, Lu Yin fell back as quickly as possible. He took three steps through the void and almost instantly returned to where Hen Ye had been standing when the Possession had started. At that same moment, Lu Yin’s consciousness passed back through the strange dark space and returned to his own body.
His eyes snapped open, and he let out a breath. The Soldier Crew’s second spear had been strengthened by the power of a Progenitor that had come from the river of time. Who did that power belong to? Why had they allowed the Soldier Crew to use it? If the Soldier Crew was able to use the strength of a Progenitor, then why had they remained in their little corner of the Cosmic Sea and not moved out?
Clearly, the Soldier Crew was powerful enough to sweep away all the other powers in the Cosmic Sea, and the power of a Progenitor was enough to intimidate even the Neoverse powers. Despite that, the Soldier Crew had never once taken a single step out of their chosen territory.
Was the Soldier Crew guarding something?
Lu Yin carefully went back over everything that he had just seen on the Soldier Crew’s warship. From his own memories, he seemed to have seen someone who might or might not have been part of the Soldier Crew. It was a person with a particularly long nose. Had he really seen Hua Wu?
It seemed that the Soldier Crew was continuously recruiting new members. Highsage Leon had once told Lu Yin that No. 0007, who participated in ZENITH, had been a fresh recruit from the Soldier Crew. Given the fact that they were recruiting new members, it was not overly surprising to learn that Hua Wu had joined them.
Hua Wu had inherited the Man of My Word secret technique that caused anyone who spoke to him to believe what they heard. It was not impossible for him to have joined the Soldier Crew.
Still, Hua Wu’s personality did not match the Soldier Crew’s at all.
Strange thoughts ran through Lu Yin’s mind as he rolled his die again.
The second roll failed to show six pips, and Lu Yin instead saw three. However, the sight of the two screens of light suddenly reminded Lu Yin that he had not checked how much of his funds he had just burned through.
Suddenly feeling incredibly nervous, he checked his cosmic ring.
Horrified to the point of spitting out blood would not be enough to describe Lu Yin's feelings at the moment. There was absolutely no star essence whatsoever in his cosmic ring. He immediately understood why the Possession had ended abruptly. It had not been because he had no longer been able to handle the Possession, but rather because he had run out of star essence to power it.
146 billion. A full 146 billion star essence had been consumed in an instant. Lu Yin really felt as though he was about to cough up blood.
He took a while to reign in his breathing, and after a moment of thinking, he realized that the cost actually made perfect sense. He had burned through more than 100 billion star essence when Possessing Grandmaster Qiu Ling, and while Lu Yin had Possessed Hen Ye instead of Grandmaster Qiu Ling, he had moved around and taken action, and he had also Possessed someone all the way in the Fifth Mainland. Given such a tremendous distance, as well as the time that he had spent in the Possession, this expenditure was perfectly reasonable.
Still, even if it was reasonable, Lu Yin could not accept his current situation. He could not feel secure at all when he had no money.
He had no idea what other people felt when they were broke, but Lu Yin did know that having no funds always left him extremely uneasy. It was as if all of his secrets had been made public.
No, I have to find some money. I need to!
Lu Yin’s status in the Perennial World meant that he could easily acquire more money, but he could not easily acquire large amounts of wealth. His die necessitated the use of tens of billions of star essence each time. This expenditure was something that not even the four ruling powers could keep up with.
Shenwu’s Sky had promised to provide Yu Hao with resources, but if he requested too much in one go, then he would make himself a suspect in the disappearance of the star essence from the Junior Progenitor Planets, which would expose him. The risks outweighed the gains.
Lu Yin needed to find a way to gain funds, but in secret. Actually, did Xia Taili know how Shenwu’s Sky gathered and stored their wealth?
Lu Yin spent a long time considering his situation, and while he felt that it might be possible to learn the location of Shenwu’s Sky’s treasury, the knowledge would gain him nothing. There was no chance that Progenitor Smoke would be willing to take Lu Yin to such a place.
It was not unexpected that Progenitor Smoke would help Lu Yin with matters like entering the Cloudforest Tower, disguising Liu Shaoge as Yu Hao, or helping Lu Yin to catch up to the paper ship. However, she would never agree to help Lu Yin steal resources.
Lu Yin struggled internally for a long time, but he eventually decided to go speak to Xia Taili to learn where Shenwu's Sky’s treasury was located.
He knew that it would be pointless to try and fool Xia Taili, as there was no way to conceal his intentions when it came to such a question, so Lu Yin decided to be direct.
Xia Taili stared at Lu Yin with big eyes. "You want to know where my family stores our resources?"
"No, I want to know about Shenwu’s Sky’s treasury," Lu Yin pointedly corrected the girl. She acted like he was asking about her own, personal wealth, but had clearly misheard what Lu Yin knew he had asked.
Xia Taili looked Lu Yin up and down. "You’re too shameless."
The side of Lu Yin's mouth twitched. "Don't be ridiculous. I just asked about Shenwu’s Sky’s treasury, not your Xia family’s."
"I heard that Lu Xiaoxuan of the past was an open-minded and righteous individual who fought against any injustices he found. He saved many people and took down many evil people, so why don’t you exhibit any of those qualities at all?" Xia Taili asked in an odd tone that revealed her contempt for Lu Yin.
Lu Yin just shrugged. If he had the same personality as Lu Xiaoxuan, he would have never been able to make use of his innate gift that was the die. Lu Yin likely would not have even managed to become a Hunter even after so much time!
"Shenwu's Sky's treasury is incredibly well protected. Just tell me, and when I go check it out, maybe I’ll get caught? Who knows, they might even end up finding a way to save you," Lu Yin tempted.
Xia Taili wanted to argue, but she quickly realized that Lu Yin was quite accurate with what he was saying. It all came down to a matter of who was stronger between Shenwu's Sky and Lu Yin, and between the two, Xia Taili was fully confident in Shenwu's Sky.
Of course, Xia Xing also had to know the location of Shenwu's Sky's treasury, but while Lu Yin had some level of control over Xia Xing, their relationship was more of mutual benefit, as the clone that Lu Yin had interacted with had wanted to become the main body and the sect master of Shenwu's Sky. There was no way that Xia Xing would do anything to truly harm Shenwu’s Sky.
If it were not for the fact that Lu Yin was controlling the man with a Death Seal, he was absolutely certain that Xia Xing would have exposed Yu Hao as Lu Yin the moment the clone had merged with the main body. After all, Xia Xing was still Xia Xing, and unless Shenwu’s Sky wanted to change sect masters, they would simply have to accept that a clone had replaced the main body.
The only reason why Xia Xing had not taken action against Lu Yin was because of the threat of the Death Seal, but that did not mean that Xia Xing was actually willing to help Lu Yin. That was impossible, and it meant that there were certain things that Lu Yin had to take care of on his own.
"Shenwu's Sky has a massive treasury, but if I tell you, I’m worried that you’ll be too intimidated to go there," Xia Taili tried to provoke Lu Yin, but his eyes just lit up.
"Where is it?"
A smile appeared on Xia Taili's face as she shared the location.
...
"The Perennial World is ruled by four powers to uphold balance and act as a foundation to support and uphold the Higher Realm. Today, Xia Xing, the current patriarch of the Xia family, honors the ancestors…"
Shenwu's Sky was filled with mountains that were covered with rugged roads. Countless people filled those paths and stared at Xia Xing as he stood in front of the broken saber and recited the ancient texts that were used for Xia family’s traditional ceremony.
Different families used different times and ceremonies to honor their ancestors on specific days. As for the Xia family, they celebrated on the anniversary of the day that the broken saber had appeared.
The broken saber was a relic from Progenitor Xia Chan, one of the Xia family’s ancestors. Due to how long it had been, no one knew where the broken saber had originally come from. Who had broken Xia Chan's saber? Ever since the saber had first appeared, it had already symbolized the Xia family's memory of Progenitor Xia Chan.
The Xia family conducted the ceremony to honor their ancestors once every ten years, but those ceremonies were not particularly important or grand. It was only the ceremony that took place every 10,000 years that was given extra weight. When the Lu family had still been around, their current patriarch would always attend the Xia family’s grand ceremony, and even Progenitors would take note of the event, which gave the Xia family a tremendous amount of face.
"Their last grand ceremony 10,000 years ago was attended by the Lu family’s patriarch, as well as one of their Progenitors. Even Senior Lu Tianyi watched, and all of the Xia family’s Progenitors attended. It was a truly grand event, but unfortunately, the Xia family had no outstanding geniuses back then." the God of Food’s voice entered Lu Yin's ear.
"Were you also present back then, Senior?" Lu Yin asked.
The God of Food shook his head. "I wasn’t, though I’ve been told that each of the grand ceremonies that’s held every 10,000 years is attended by Progenitors. Also, part of the ceremony is for the Progenitors to observe the family members participating in the Saber Ritual."
Saber Ritual? Lu Yin looked over at Xia Xing. He had a faint idea of the matter, but nothing specific as he had only glimpsed at one of Long Ke’s memories regarding it.
Nearby, Semi-Progenitor Wu Yao, Semi-Progenitor Chai, Mr. Yu, and the other powerhouses had gathered, and there were members of Shenwu's Sky quite literally everywhere.
Xia Shenguang was also just a short ways away.
After Xia Xing finished reciting the ceremony’s texts, the members of the Xia family started to step out and approach the patriarch.
At the front was Xia Shenfei, and behind him were several middle-aged men. They were their powerhouses from the previous generation or direct descendants of the Xia family’s main line. Some were even geniuses from the Shen generation. Everyone at the front of the procession was a direct descendant, as was Xia Xing, who was still reciting.
Xia Shenguang also stepped out. He was also a direct descendant, though his status could not come close to comparing to Xia Shenfei’s.
One by one, every member of the Xia family stepped out. Lu Yin was surprised to see just how many direct descendants there were, as well as the overwhelming numbers of members of the branch families.
At this moment, some people were led out from the other direction, and Xia Zhitong was at the front.
Xia Zhitong had already started to look like an old woman. Her face was haggard, and she lacked all of her previous energy and beauty. There was an indifferent expression on her face, and her eyes looked dead. She seemed numb to everything, as she was led forward like a puppet. There were several people behind her, some of whom Lu Yin had even seen before In the Yu family’s mansion. One of them had been a guard at the gate.
There were others whom Lu Yin had never seen before, but they were all people who had been brought out to serve as the Xia family’s compensation to Yu Hao. It was unknown if all of the people were guilty of assisting the Yu family’s downfall or not, but they were being treated as such.
There were a total of twelve people, just as Xia Ziheng had stated.
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