Chapter 2331: One Person
Upon hearing Lan Xian's words, Fan Shun respectfully replied, "This junior knows this."
Lan Xian looked back at the members of the Jiu family. "The summons to the battlefield are of the utmost importance. Don’t make any more trouble."
With that, Lan Xian vanished.
The members of the Jiu family all heaved sighs of relief. They shot angry glares at Fan Shun, but not one person dared to make another move.
Fan Shun did not even look at his attackers, and he simply continued traveling towards the location that everyone was being summoned to.
Lu Yin had conscripted the entire Fifth Mainland and ordered them all to gather in one location. However, gathering countless people together in one place naturally led to various conflicts. Old hatreds and grudges were exposed, but a single roar from the massive jiao silenced the entire region in an instant. No one had the courage to act up, and so the gathering continued in silence.
Lu Yin stood atop the jiao’s head, watching as countless people gathered. One after another, Semi-Progenitors and Envoys arrived, as well as Enlighters, Hunters, and countless weaker cultivators. Everyone present obeyed Lu Yin, as he was the sole ruler of the Fifth Mainland.
As more and more people gathered, more and more eyes filled with reverence, fear, and even fanaticism fell onto Lu Yin. Regardless of whether the gathered people hated or supported Lu Yin, at this moment, everyone could only obey him. There was no need for Lu Yin to even consider if he had any enemies present, nor to think about balancing the various parties against each other, not even after the ancient powerhouses from the Heavens Sect era were thrown into the mix. Even if every single person had their own plans and schemes in play, at this moment, all of them had no choice but to listen to Lu Yin.
Seeing the massive numbers of people arrayed before him, a surge of pride surged within Lu Yin’s chest. That pride transformed into aurelian force that erupted from his body, burning the void as it spread. It reached three miles, ten miles, a hundred miles, and then a thousand miles. It kept spreading, further and further. 3,000 miles. 5,000 thousand miles.
The void warped and churned as it burned thousands of miles away from Lu Yin, looking like paper thrown into a fire. Lu Yin stood at the center of a blazing realm of space.
The endless arrogance exploded within Lu Yin's heart. He clenched his fists. Finally, his aurelian force stopped spreading. There was a bang, and it suddenly encompassed everything within a million miles of Lu Yin.
Given the size of the entire universe, a region of millions of miles was less than a drop of water in the ocean. However, when Lu Yin condensed his aurelian force back on himself, its density far surpassed anything that he had been capable of using in the past.
Lu Yin had once Possessed Hen Ye. That Possession had allowed Lu Yin to comprehend the void god level of his domain and even surpass Mr. Tang’s level of mastery. Lu Yin’s domain was no longer inadequate for his level of strength.
At this moment, seeing the strength of the entire Fifth Mainland gathered before him, seeing both humans and astral beasts obey his orders had stimulated his pride. The resulting emotion had helped Lu Yin break through his aurelian force.
He could not even guess how powerful his aurelian force had become now.
Lu Yin pulled his hand back, and his aurelian force retracted until it completely disappeared.
Aurelian force was a very powerful ability, and Lu Yin felt that his aurelian force had reached the level where he could solely rely on it to challenge a seven or eight-tribulation powerhouse. Still, Lu Yin’s aurelian force was only aurelian force. What he truly wanted to acquire was the purple-black substance that Hen Xin possessed. That was the next level of battle force that existed beyond even aurelian force, and so far, Lu Yin had only seen two people possess that level of battle force: Hen Xin and Ancient God.
It was clearly impossible to acquire the method to achieve the next level of battle force from Ancient God, which meant that Hen Xin was his only option.
However, that matter would have to wait until after the Perennial World was handled.
***
In the Perennial World’s Dominion Realm, the Progenitor level corpse kings that had been fighting with Bai Wangyuan and the other human Progenitors retreated as soon as Xia Shenji went to the Fifth Mainland.
Before Bai Wangyuan and the others could even recover from their battle, Xia Shenji had returned.
The battle with Lu Yin in the Fifth Mainland had not lasted very long, and Xia Shenji had quickly sent one of his clones back to the Perennial World.
"Why are you back? Have you already dealt with Lu Xiaoxuan?" Wang Fan asked as he looked at Xia Shenji in surprise. "You aren’t the main body."
Xia Shenji's clone spoke, his expression downcast as he shared the details of the battle in the Fifth Mainland.
Bai Wangyuan and the other Progenitors remained silent. As they listened, an uncontrollable killing intent billowed up in their hearts.
Bai Wangyuan sneered. "Some tiny three-tribulation Envoy managed to force you to retreat, Xia Shenji? Should I be happy that you revealed his strength quickly, or upset that it still took you so long to find out?"
Wang Fan softly commented, "He’s still just a three-tribulation Envoy. Once he passes six tribulations, or even becomes a Semi-Progenitor, will anyone at all be capable of restraining him?"
The man looked over at Xia Shenji's clone. "Who did that Champions’ Stage belong to?"
The clone replied, "If my guess is right, it should be Lu Jian’s."
"Lu Jian? He should already be dead." Progenitor Long was surprised.
All of them had been born in the same era, and while Progenitor Long had taken much longer to become a Progenitor, the innate longevity of the White Dragon Clan had given him the time needed to become a Progenitor. In truth, Progenitor Long had been born before any of the other men’s parents had even been born. Naturally, Progenitor Long had known Lu Jian.
Xia Shenji's clone replied, "I thought of him because he was the only person from the Lu family who achieved any true level of mastery in Old Fu’s cultivation method. Lu Jian could not have become a Progenitor, but it seems that Old Fu’s cultivation method allowed him to do just that. There’s no other way for him to have managed to force me back."
"So you faced Lu Jian, the jiao, and E Chi, who was summoned from the Champions’ Stage. That would have certainly been a difficult battle." Bai Wangyuan’s eyes locked onto the clone. "But even all of that should not have been enough to stop you from killing Lu Xiaoxuan."
Xia Shenji stared back. "Try it for yourself and find out."
"You still want to go to the Fifth Mainland?" Progenitor Smoke's voice was suddenly heard as she arrived. She looked at Xia Shenji with open interest. "It looks like you had a rough time there."
Xia Shenji glared at Progenitor Smoke. "You already knew about Lu Xiaoxuan's capabilities within the Fifth Mainland, but you didn't stop me. You were already certain that I couldn’t kill him, weren’t you?"
Progenitor Smoke arched a brow. "Am I obliged to explain myself to you?"
"You!" Xia Shenji became furious.
Bai Wangyuan stepped forward and moved to Xia Shenji's side. "I'll go with you. Lu Xiaoxuan must die."
Xia Shenji nodded and then moved to leave, not even looking at Progenitor Smoke again.
Progenitor Smoke frowned. "The Aeternals pulled back just now to let us fight among ourselves. If you go to the Fifth Mainland, there will definitely be a massive war, and the only ones who will benefit is Aeternus."
"If Lu Xiaoxuan doesn’t die, he will remain a constant danger to humanity," Wang Fan retorted.
Progenitor Smoke’s voice grew cold, "I can prevent him from starting a war among humans. If war will benefit Aeternus, he won’t be willing to fight."
"He won’t want to start a war between humans?" Bai Wangyuan looked over at Progenitor Smoke. "If you can prevent him from doing that-"
The man suddenly stopped, and everyone turned to look at him, waiting for him to continue.
Hope arose within Progenitor Smoke as she stared at Bai Wangyuan.
Finally, Bai Wangyuan’s head rose. "I want him dead more than ever."
"Why?" Progenitor Smoke felt quite puzzled.
Bai Wangyuan answered coldly, "Lu Xiaoxuan will never forget about his hatred for my four ruling powers. If he’s willing to stop now, he will simply wait for a better opportunity in the future. Given his talent and combat strength, he will become a threat to all of us, even if he never succeeds in becoming a Progenitor. We won’t be able to outlive him, and even if he is never able to deal with us, he will certainly be able to deal with our descendants. Just tell me, who in his generation can stand up to Lu Xiaoxuan?
"The Lu family was able to dominate the Fifth Mainland for so many years because their bloodline has never been cut off. From their legendary ancestor, to Lu Tianyi, and later to Lu Feng and Lu Qi, which one was not an unparalleled genius? Which one could not dominate an entire era? The members of the Lu family are too terrifying, and if we allow Lu Xiaoxuan to mature, the Lu name will once again rule the universe."
Progenitor Smoke could not refute a word Bai Wanyuan said, as everything was undisputable. No matter how impressive the Bai, Xia, and Wang families might be, they remained too inferior to the Lu family to even compare.
Xia Shenji's expression grew ugly. "Just Lu Jian, someone who could never become a Progenitor, is able to summon a Progenitor with his Champions’ Stage, which gives him the ability to fight against an ordinary Progenitor. On top of that, he also cultivated Old Fu’s cultivation art. This perfectly demonstrates the abilities of a direct descendant of the Lu family. How could we ever allow Lu Xiaoxuan to live?"
Progenitor Smoke was caught off guard. "Lu Jian?"
Xia Shenji sneered. "Aren’t you very familiar with Lu Xiaoxuan? Don't try to pretend! Lu Xiaoxuan was able to force me back because of Lu Jian's Champions’ Stage!"
Progenitor Smoke’s eyebrows climbed high. What was this? Why was there no mention of Xia Shang's power? With Xia Shenji's personality, he would have never missed a chance to blame Xia Shang for things. Did this mean that Lu Yin never used Xia Shang's power against Xia Shenji? What about Lu Jian's Champions’ Stage?
It was only then that Progenitor Smoke remembered the ownerless Champions’ Stage. That kid actually forced Xia Shenji to retreat with a few of his tricks? What's wrong with this universe?
Even though Progenitor Smoke was rather well-informed regarding Lu Yin, the truth of what had happened was a bit much for her to accept it right away.
Bai Wangyuan stepped past the woman to head to the Fifth Mainland.
At this moment, another person arrived: Mu Xie.
Mu Xie’s sudden appearance caused Xia Shenji and the others to instantly grow wary.
"Mu Xie, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you protecting your assigned territory?" Xia Shenji shouted angrily.
Bai Wangyuan stared at Mu Xie. "What do you intend to do?"
Mu Xie calmly raised a single finger. "One."
"One what?" Progenitor Long asked in a low voice.
Mu Xie casually replied, "Only one of you here is allowed to settle scores with my junior brother, no more."
Xia Shenji instantly became furious. "Mu Xie, are you determined to pick a fight with us? Do you want to die?"
Mu Xie glanced over. "You can't kill me."
Xia Shenji reflexively wanted to attack.
Bai Wangyuan frowned. "Mu Xie, who is your master?"
Progenitor Smoke immediately focused on Mu Xie at this moment as well, as she was very curious. Just what kind of person could raise such monstrous disciples like Mu Xie, Qing Ping, and Lu Yin?
Any such person should be renowned throughout history.
"You don't know him," Mu Xie replied.
Wang Fan's voice grew cold. "Stop making up stories! How could we not know your master, given our positions? Mu Xie, you’ve clearly already joined the Lu family, so it only makes sense for you to help Lu Xiaoxuan when he appears. Your master never existed at all!"
"No," Progenitor Smoke interjected, "I remember that the kid also has a senior brother in the Fifth Mainland. What’s his name? Qing? Qing Ping? Right, Qing Ping."
"Qing Ping? Why does that name sound so familiar?" Progenitor Long muttered to himself. Suddenly, he remembered. "Qing Ping! Qing Ping is the trespasser who went to the Dominion Realm after the last Yuanlan Festival and competed to find Origin Matter! He even defeated the Lu family’s top youths!"
Bai Wangyuan's eyes grew cold, and he turned to stare at Progenitor Smoke. "Are you talking about the same Qing Ping who came after the last Yuanlun Festival?"
Progenitor Smoke rolled her eyes. "How should I know about any of that? I only know his name."
Everyone turned to look at Mu Xie, who nodded. "That's right. My junior brother came here before, and he defeated members of the Lu family."
Bai Wangyuan and the others glanced at each other. So Qing Ping really was the same person whom they were familiar with. Were the three disciple brothers? They had always assumed that the mention of a master was a lie concocted by Mu Xie as an excuse for him to save Lu Xiaoxuan, but it was starting to look like the matter was true.
Wang Fan stepped forward. "No matter what happens, Mu Xie, your primary responsibility is to eliminate Redbacks. To save humanity and protect us all, Lu Xiaoxuan must also be eliminated to prevent a civil war. Are you really going to abandon so many years of effort just to save this child?"
Mu Xie clasped his hands behind his back. "My junior brother alone will be enough to protect all of humanity in the future."
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