Chapter 2309: The Broken Scythe
Two days later, the experiment for the layered sourcebox array that Director Zhi had been participating in finally finished, and the man led Zhi Shao with him to meet with Lu Yin.
"Greetings, Dao Chosen."
"Greetings, Dao Chosen."
Lu Yin nodded as he looked at Director Zhi with great interest. "How were your results?"
Director Zhi sighed. "Combining a full twenty eight sourcebox arrays is simply too difficult. Even with the Technocracy’s assistance, there are still many issues that we need to resolve before we can succeed."
The news did not surprise Lu Yin. "That’s fine. Take your time. Here, I’ve brought you more of the Mother Tree’s bark. Will this be enough?"
A cosmic ring was handed over to Director Zhi. The man accepted it, examined the contents, and was thrilled by what he discovered. "We have been suffering from a shortage of bark. Many thanks, Dao Chosen."
"Just let me know anything that you’re missing. Microarray technology is the future of mankind, so I won’t hold anything back. There can be no mistakes," Lu Yin stated in a grand manner.
Director Zhi and Zhi Shao quickly offered another bow. "Your subordinates understand."
Both of the men clearly understood their current positions. In the current Fifth and Sixth Mainlands, Lu Yin deserved his position at the top, especially after he had appeared riding atop a dragon. That sight had caused everyone to submit to Lu Yin.
"Dao Chosen, other than the Mother Tree’s bark, we are also very short on pyrolyte," Zhi Shao answered respectfully.
"I know. I’ll get you more soon."
"Thank you, Dao Chosen." The two men were dismissed, as Lu Yin had simply wanted to hear about their progress. He intended to keep a very close eye on the development of microarray technology. This technology had even caught Hen Xin’s attention all the way back during the Heavens Sect era, and due to that, the man had not hesitated to offend people by stealing Aurora Enterprises. Naturally, Lu Yin had grown to value the technology even more.
Beep beep beep!
His gadget beeped with an incoming call.
Lu Yin had returned to using both his gadget and his wireless jincan after returning to the Fifth Mainland. He still was not satisfied with the wireless jincans, as he had not been able to use it to communicate with the Fifth Mainland while visiting the Perennial World. While the jincans were able to communicate between the true universe and the visible universe, they could not connect between the Perennial World and the Fifth Mainland.
Lu Yin had already ordered the people from the small town in Venom Flowzone to research the matter and find out what had caused the disconnect.
When Lu Yin connected to the incoming call on his gadget, he was met by the sight of a cold-faced woman with purple eyes. While she was not beautiful, she was certainly majestic, and the periodic flairs of purple light in her eyes were particularly noticeable, as they made her appear even more impressive. This woman was Big Sis. “Alright, Little Seven, while it’s not that I don’t believe the captain, I still can’t believe what I heard. Did you really subdue a beast with the strength of a Progenitor? Show me!”
Lu Yin smiled. "Of course it's true. Here, see for yourself."
As he spoke, Lu Yin stepped into outer space and arrived at the edge of Earth’s solar system, right in front of the jiao. At the moment, the beast was sleeping and its eyes closed, so Lu Yin kicked it awake. "Get up!"
The jiao was furious that someone had dared to disturb its sleep. It instantly bared its teeth and waved its claws to scare the offender, but the moment the beast realized that Lu Yin was the culprit, the claws were dropped, and the jiao lowered its head. It believed that it was showing that it was stepping back.
Big Sis stared at the jiao in shock. "That guy’s as big as Ancestor Tortoise."
"Just about!" Lu Yin answered proudly. He did not like to show off in public, but there were a few people that he did enjoy bragging to, and among those people were Big Sis, Wendy Yushan, and Ming Yan.
Big Sis sighed admiringly. "I thought that regaining the power that I had was impressive enough, since I’ve already managed to reach the Semi-Progenitor level. I never thought that you’d be even more impressive."
"Big Sis, you’re already reached the Semi-Progenitor level?" Lu Yin was stunned. Even though Big Sis’s cultivation had spiked before Lu Yin had gone to the Perennial World, she had only reached the level of a six-tribulation Envoy. Lu Yin had not expected her strength to rise so much while he had been gone.
"Just barely. I’m not regaining my strength too fast, but I’m definitely strong enough that most Semi-Progenitors don’t have a chance of beating me!”
“What about you? Can you beat a Semi-Progenitor?" Big Sis was also having a good time bragging. She had already shown off to Leon’s Armada, and she was also boasting to Lu Yin. As for the jiao, anyone with a brain would realize that Lu Yin could not have possibly tamed the beast with his own strength. That was completely impossible. Most likely, Progenitor Smoke was responsible.
Lu Yin answered in a modest tone, "I've only passed three stellular tribulations…"
Big Sis nodded. "That's true. My expectations are just too high, but don’t worry. Even if your talent isn’t as good as mine, Progenitor Yōu Ming, you’re still not bad, and I’ll happily give you a hand."
"I was barely able to fight against four Semi-Progenitors. I couldn’t come close to defeating them," Lu Yin continued.
Big Sis again sighed in admiration. "That's pretty good. All of the Envoys in history who were able to cross realms to challenge Semi-Progenitors were at least six-tribulation powerhouses. You’re doing pretty well if you can challenge a Semi-Progenitor after just three tribula- Wait a minute…"
Big Sis’s eyebrows rose high as she focused sharply on Lu Yin. "Repeat what you just said."
Lu Yin smiled in an embarrassed manner. "I was barely able to fight against four Semi-Progenitors. I don’t think I can beat that many."
Big Sis’s eyes narrowed sharply as she glared at Lu Yin. "Did you just say ‘Semi-Progenitor?’"
"Mm-hmm."
"Four of them?"
"That’s right."
"You fought four Semi-Progenitors?"
"Yep."
"Bullshit!" Big Sis let out a furious roar as she glared at Lu Yin. "Alright, Little Seven, you dare to play pranks on me now? You fought four Semi-Progenitors? Then there shouldn’t be any problem facing one, right? Then you can have a match with me, right?"
Lu Yin instantly realized that he had gone too far with his bragging to Big Sis, and he quickly tried to backpedal. "Of course not! I might have fought four Semi-Progenitors, but they all just overpowered me and beat me up. I was never even able to face a single one of them one-on-one."
At this moment, not even a threat of death would be able to force Lu Yin to admit that not only had he suppressed a Semi-Progenitor’s inner world, he had also killed a Semi-Progenitor, and one from one of the four ruling powers at that. The Wang family did not have average Semi-Progenitors among their numbers.
Big Sis stared at Lu Yin with a great deal of suspicion. "Are you trying to show off?"
Lu Yin forced out a nervous laugh. "Of course not! Absolutely not. I could never actually beat a single Semi-Progenitor. I just barely managed to survive when the four of them were attacking me."
Big Sis answered with a contemptuous snort. "You’d better not get a big head in front of me, or else I’ll skin you alive."
The corner of Lu Yin's mouth twitched. "I wouldn’t dare."
"Humph!" Big Sis raised her head to try to look down on Lu Yin. "While you’re clearly not as good as me, you’re just barely acceptable. At least it wasn’t easy for them to pick on you over there."
Lu Yin's expression instantly changed. "Those things will be settled soon enough."
Big Sis’s voice grew chilly. "Stall for a while, and I’ll do my best to recover my strength. Once I do, I’ll take you back there to fight them. What kind of shit are these four ruling powers? What kind of trash is this Celestial Frost Sect? Progenitor Yōu Ming will overpower all of them! There’s no one in this current era who can compare to me, so just do as you’re told and make a list for me. You don’t need to worry about anything after that.”
Big Sis’s words warmed Lu Yin’s heart. "I understand."
"This isn’t a joke! Hurry up and get me that list, but don’t bother mentioning anyone who isn’t at least a Semi-Progenitor, as it will just be a waste of paper." As Big Sis was speaking, she raised a hand, showing Lu Yin that she was holding a broken weapon.
"What’s that?" Lu Yin stared at the image of the broken weapon that Big Sis was showing him.
"The weapon that you use with that God of Death Transformation should be the God of Death’s weapon," Big Sis stated. She was holding a broken scythe in her hands. It was really just half of a pole, and the blade was also broken off. It could really only be considered a one-handed sickle rather than a full scythe.
Lu Yin was caught off guard. "Where did you find that?"
"Some poor bastard who was controlled by the Impious Sutra visited Burial Garden once, and he managed to get this out of there and keep it hidden. I happened to find him when I was searching for traces of the Impious Sutra, and the guy actually tried to fight back with this thing. Even though it’s completely broken, I felt danger from it, and I was forced to suppress the Impious Sutra itself to keep the man from attacking me. I have no idea what sort of situation I would have ended up in if I had let the guy actually use this thing.”
Lu Yin solemnly asked, "What was that person’s cultivation?"
"He was a Hunter."
This was startling, as it meant that Big Sis had felt danger from a mere Hunter, which meant that the threat definitely had not come from the man himself. Even Lu Yin had only been able to threaten peak Enlighters as a Hunter, and possibly survive against a one-tribulation Envoy. What sort of strength did Big Sis possess? She had at least been at the level of a six-tribulation powerhouse, and not even the Origin Progenitor himself could have overcome such a massive difference in strength.
The only possibility was that the broken weapon had posed a danger to Big Sis.
"There’s a ninety-nine percent chance that this thing is the weapon of a Progenitor who cultivated death energy, but there’s a tiny sliver of a chance that it was the God of Death’s own weapon," Big Sis stated very seriously.
Lu Yin suddenly remembered something, and he pulled out some shards of a broken weapon that he had picked up in Burial Garden from his cosmic ring. He looked back at the broken scythe that Big Sis held. "These are the shards of that broken scythe."
Big Sis stared at Lu Yin, and then raised her left hand to show that she had three weapon fragments as well. They looked quite similar to the ones Lu Yin held, though the shapes were different. "You got those from Burial Garden?"
Lu Yin nodded.
Big Sis stared down at the weapon in her hand. "If you’re right, and all of these are really pieces of this same scythe, then this really is most likely the God of Death’s weapon. Are you happy with my present?"
Lu Yin smiled. "I’m happy with anything you give me, Big Sis."
The woman sneered. "Don't try to give me that crap! I already asked the captain to have all of the pirates search the universe for more fragments, and I also spoke to your Heavens Sect’s Semi-Progenitor Lu. I don’t know how many of these pieces have been found, but there’s no way that all of the pieces have been found, as there has to be more still in Burial Garden."
"There’s no need to try to force things. We’ll just gather whatever’s possible."
"Alright, I’ll have someone deliver it to you."
"You aren’t coming yourself, Big Sis?"
"What? You want me to deliver your present in person?"
"It’s not that. I just haven’t seen you in a long time, and I wanted to catch up a bit," Lu Yin said with a smile.
Big Sis sneered, "Your face says you just want to show off! Let me tell you right now, I’ll always be your Big Sis, so you can forget about ever surpassing me, no matter if it’s now or in the future! I’ll send someone to deliver this stuff to you, but that’s it-"
"Wait! Wait! Big Sis, how’s your search for the Impious Sutra going?" Lu Yin asked.
Big Sis shook her head. "That’s my business, so you don't need to worry about it."
"Wait! One more thing!" Lu Yin quickly stopped Big Sis from hanging up. "What do you know about the Netherworld River?"
The question puzzled Big Sis. "The Netherworld River? Why are you asking about that? It's just a power vessel."
Lu Yin quickly shared what he had learned while in the Perennial World regarding Realmless. "The only way to find Realmless's real headquarters is if I can track down that Netherworld River."
Big Sis replied, "Go visit the Yōu family, as the Netherworld River is theirs now. Have them help you, but it should be possible to sense the location of that Netherworld River."
Lu Yin nodded.
When Lu Yin saw that the call had ended, he lowered his hand, knowing that he would need to wait for a few days.
He had wanted to immediately go to the Bizarre Sect and absorb more death energy, but Big Sis was sending him that broken scythe. Regardless of whether or not the weapon had once belonged to the God of Death, Lu Yin knew that he should take it with him when he visited the Bizarre Sect, as it might prove useful.
For the moment, Lu Yin just leaned his head back. He had not felt this relaxed in a very long time. Even if he had seemed to do little most of his time in the Perennial World, he had actually been on edge the entire time, worried that he would be discovered by some Progenitor who would crush him like a bug.
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