Chapter 2392: Shocking Change
"No, she’s not Big Sister Lu Qian. She's another big sister," Lu Yin explained. Lu Qian was the name of his big sister from the Lu family, who had also been the eldest of the Seven Heroes. She had been called Xiao Qian.
Elder Song nodded. "I was going to say that she doesn’t look like Xiao Qian."
Right when Lu Yin was about to continue speaking, Big Sis turned her back to Elder Song and winked at Lu Yin. His pupils shrank, and he clenched a fist. Suddenly, Elder Song simply disappeared. Lu Yin struck out with a palm, but he was a step too late. The old man had already left.
Big Sis turned back around and attacked at the same time as Lu Yin, but she also failed to catch Elder Song.
When Big Sis had turned away from Elder Song, she had sent a voice transmission to Lu Yin and told him that she had sensed a trace of the carrion beetle’s aura on the old man. The carrion beetles were only in Realmless’s headquarters. This meant that, for the old man to have come into contact with the carrion beetle before, he had to be a member of Realmless, which was why Lu Yin had attacked. Surprisingly, he was still too late.
"Jiao!" Lu Yin yelled.
The jiao was still keeping a tight hold on the carrion beetle it was playing with, but at Lu Yin’s shout, the beast looked around before focusing directly behind Lu Yin.
Lu Yin spun around. At some point in time, Elder Song had arrived next to the corpse. He grabbed hold of the body, looked up, and smiled at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin reflexively released a Hollow Palm while simultaneously sealing the void with his domain in an attempt to trap Elder Song.
However, Lu Yin watched as Elder Song stepped away, completely unbothered by Lu Yin’s domain and Hollow Palm.
"Die, old man!" Big Sis tore through the void to stop Elder Song with a blood-red lotus. The old man gave the flower a gentle flick, and three layered blasts of powerful wind instantly smashed the lotus to bits. Big Sis was completely incredulous.
At this moment, the jiao arrived, and the power of a Progenitor was released. Elder Song’s expression finally changed, but in one step, he disappeared.
Lu Yin was able to sense the void with his void god domain, but he could not even sense a trace of Elder Song’s movements, which should have been impossible. Anyone who moved through space would leave evidence of their passage. If a person could see something, then it meant that it had been touched by the light, and even something as faint as that could be detected by a void god level domain. However, Lu Yin could not sense anything at all from Elder Song.
"That old guy knows who I am, or else he wouldn’t have been able to defeat my battle technique like that," Big Sis said with a gloomy expression, "Let’s go after him!"
The two rode the jiao and raced after Elder Song. Unfortunately, as soon as the jiao left the underground area, it looked around in confusion, unable to determine where to go.
"It can't find any trace of him?" Lu Yin found this hard to believe. The jiao was a creature with the strength of a Progenitor, but it could not find any trace of Elder Song, who was just a Semi-Progenitor. Even though the jiao seemed to be a bit thick-headed, it was still a Progenitor realm creature.
Lu Yin’s Senior Brother Qing Ping claimed to be a Realmbreaker Semi-Progenitor, but at best, he was able to stand up to one of Xia Shenji’s Progenitor-level clones, and it was practically impossible for Qing Ping to ever seize victory in such a fight. This was similar to how it had been extremely difficult for Qing Ping to defeat a Semi-Progenitor as a peak Envoy.
It should be very difficult for anyone to escape detection from anything with the strength of a Progenitor, but Elder Song had perfectly disappeared while being pursued by the jiao.
"Big Sis, you said that he knows you?" Lu Yin asked as soon as he remembered something.
Big Sis explained, "No one can shatter my blood lotus battle technique the first time they face, at least not without using pure strength, which is what Xia Shenji's clone did. He used his own battle technique to directly confront the blood lotus, but this old man shattered the lotus without the slightest hesitation. He used merely three blasts of wind to strike the battle technique’s weak points, shattering it. He’s definitely faced my blood lotus before, and more than once at that.”
"After retrieving my secret technique, I’ve been regaining more and more of my memories. I’ve only ever used that blood lotus battle technique in the Fifth Mainland, and even then, I only used it a few times. I’ve never seen that old man before. This was my first time facing him.
"However, who aside from me knows my battle techniques?"
Lu Yin immediately thought of Yōu Ye'er, as she had also used the blood lotus battle technique during ZENITH. However, Yōu Ye'er could have never run into someone like Liu Song.
"If what you’re saying is true, then it sounds like Liu Song might be someone who knew you during the Heaven’s Sect era, right?" Lu Yin said.
Big Sis nodded. "He definitely knew me in the past, but I can’t tell you who he is, as I can’t remember anything about him."
Lu Yin looked up at the Middle Realm. "Well, looks like it’s time to go visit the Liu family."
"The Liu family? Is that the powerful family that’s almost as strong as one of the four ruling powers here in the Perennial World? They were apparently quite close to your Lu family, and I know that you want to win them over. If you ruin your relationship with them because of this Liu Song, will it be worth it?"
Lu Yin's expression grew solemn. "That depends entirely on who Liu Song really is. If he’s another person who’s awakened their memories of their time as an ancient Progenitor from the Heavens Sect era like you, then it won’t matter, but I’m afraid…"
"Afraid that he belongs to Aeternus." Big Sis nodded.
This was Lu Yin’s greatest concern. For Liu Song to know Progenitor Yōu Ming’s battle techniques, it meant that he had either lived since the Heavens Sect era, or he had somehow awakened or obtained memories from the Heavens Sect era, much like Big Sis. The worst possibility was that the man was one of the Seven Skygods themselves.
Those seven old monsters all seemed to be ancient powerhouses from the Heavens Sect era.
The problem was, the last possibility was also the most likely. Liu Song had probably taken action against Lu Yin and Big Sis not only because he wanted to grab the Progenitor corpse, but also because his connection to Realmless had been noticed. After all, why would a Semi-Progenitor from the Liu family be connected to Realmless? Realmless was not only an assassination organization, but also an information broker that possessed countless secrets. The mere fact that one of the Liu family’s Semi-Progenitors had had access to so much information and yet done nothing about it presented a massive problem. Despite being a Semi-Progenitor and a member of the Liu family, Liu Song had not given his family the support he was capable of, proving himself to be as cold-blooded as the rest of Realmless.
It was beyond terrifying that such a person had been hiding within the Liu family.
"That old man dared to run away because even if we go to the Liu family, we don’t have any proof. We can’t accuse him of being a member of Realmless just because he had traces of the carrion beetles on him," Big Sis mentioned.
Lu Yin also felt rather frustrated. Liu Song had moved faster than Lu Yin and Big Sis, and his actions showed that he was not worried about being exposed, or about Lu Yin confronting the Liu family about the matter. Clearly, the man was confident that his identity was safe, which was a big problem that needed to be dealt with.
"No matter what, we need to first go visit the Liu family and find him. The fact that he was willing to expose himself just to recover that corpse suggests that there’s something special about it," Lu Yin said.
However, before going to visit the Liu family, everything needed to be stripped from Realmless’s headquarters.
It was a tremendous amount of resources, but Lu Yin’s perspective had changed drastically after receiving the Technocracy and the Astral Beast Domain’s resources. The wealth of Realmless was not nearly enough to cause Lu Yin to lose his composure.
He also discovered that, unfortunately, a great number of the power vessels and natural treasures had been chewed to pieces, likely by the carrion beetles.
Lu Yin glanced at the carrion beetle that the jiao still held in its claws but decided not to do anything to the bug for the time being. The tiny creature might end up being useful.
As for the Envoy slave who had never known of the world outside of the tunnels of Realmless’s headquarters, Lu Yin took him away as well, as he was not a cold-blooded murderer.
They failed to find any information at all. It appeared that Xia Shenfei had exposed Realmless's intelligence center, which was also one of their primary bases. Practically all of Realmless’s assassins had been eliminated.
Lu Yin had hoped to acquire more information, but that proved to be impossible.
Still, he had uncovered Liu Song.
Before this incident, Lu Yin had never even considered that there might be something wrong with Liu Song. The man was a Semi-Progenitor, but he was relatively unknown. He had accomplished very little in the Perennial World as a whole and had hidden himself and his abilities extremely well.
"Let's go visit the Liu family," Lu Yin said.
He had already wanted to visit the Liu and Nong families during this visit to the Perennial World, and Lu Yin had just found a much stronger motivation to do so.
…
As always, people were lined up in a seemingly endless file, waiting to visit the Liu family’s Sword Monument.
Not everyone was allowed to visit the Sword Monument, as only arriving within ten meters of the Sword Monument could be considered truly visiting it. Some people had waited just outside of the Liu family’s home for decades but were never allowed to get close to the Sword Monument. Such dedication showed just how much importance people placed on the Sword Monument.
When Lu Yin and Big Sis arrived without issue, Lu Yin immediately released his domain, announcing his arrival to the Liu family’s powerhouses.
The person who stepped out to greet Lu Yin and Big Sis was Liu Lu, who had once sparred with Long Qi. At the time, they had both been Hunters, but Liu Lu had since become an Enlighter, which was quite impressive.
Others could not match Lu Yin’s cultivation speed, and over the course of several decades, it was quite decent for a talented cultivator like Liu Lu to become a thirty-cycle Enlighter.
"Who are you?" Liu Lu asked as he stared at Lu Yin and Big Sis.
Big Sis was quite surprised. "The Liu family is really looking down on us! They only sent a mere Enlighter to greet us?"
Liu Lu heard the comment and confidently said, “This area belongs to my Liu family! No one would dare to cause any trouble here! Let alone an Enlighter like me, visitors wouldn’t dare to make trouble if a Sentinel greeted them!”
Big Sis raised a brow. "Boy, you’re quite arrogant, aren’t you?"
Lu Yin stepped forward, and as he stared at Liu Lu, Lu Yin’s true face was revealed.
As soon as Liu Lu saw who was visiting, his expression completely changed. "You?"
Lu Yin reverted back to his disguise and put a finger to his lips to indicate silence. "We’re here to visit the Liu family, so please show us in, Brother."
Liu Lu stared at Lu Yin in shock. Lu Yin was not Long Qi, nor was he even Yu Hao. Lu Yin was a powerhouse who was able to negotiate with the four ruling powers’ Progenitors, as well as personally fight against a Progenitor.
"Please wait for a moment." Liu Lu instantly delivered a report. Given just how important Lu Yin was at the moment, he did not dare to simply allow Lu Yin in.
The Liu family had already assumed that Lu Yin would visit them, but they had not expected a visit quite so soon.
Lu Yin’s arrival likely indicated that things would change in the Perennial World as a whole, and Liu Lu did not dare to get involved in anything on such a massive scale.
Big Sis looked over at the distant Sword Monument with great interest. "While my memories are vague, I know that I must have seen that thing before. I do remember that there was a guy who guarded the monument back then—he was Wu Tian's disciple."
"Wu Xing. He’s now the Seven Skygods’ Undying God," Lu Yin replied.
Big Sis became a bit upset. "What happened back then? Everything’s changed, and I’ve even forgotten how I ended up as I did. Still, I’ll definitely remember one day!"
Liu Lu quickly finished submitting his report, and he motioned to Lu Yin and Big Sis to welcome them in. "It's not convenient for our patriarch to greet you himself, so we hope that the two of you won’t take offense to being received by a junior such as myself."
Lu Yin smiled. "You and I are of the same age, so please show us in, Brother Liu."
"This way, please."
Big Sis was soon looking around at the Liu family’s living conditions around the Sword Monument. To her, the entire setup looked primitive and barbaric. "This Liu family is really able to put up with some rough situations."
Liu Lu replied, "My Liu family studies the Sword Monument every day. We wake and sleep while observing the Sword Monument.
Big Sis shook her head. She could never live such a rustic lifestyle.
Liu Lu led Lu Yin deep into the Liu family’s territory, and they approached a larger house. There was a fence around the house, but it was made of sword blades. The closer one approached the house, the stronger the fierce aura of the sword blades.
"This sword qi is completely exposed. Is this the sword style that your Liu family has comprehended?" Big Sis indicated towards the fence with her head.
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