Chapter 2468: Pearl
The Fifth Mainland lacked the time for their talents to fully grow into their own power, but Arch-Elder Zen's Progenitor breakthrough had given Lu Yin hope. So what if the four ruling powers did not approve? They had no right to rule the Fifth Mainland.
Lu Yin picked up his vibrating wireless jincan. "Dao Chosen, this is Astral-1."
"Has your Stargazing Deck been destroyed?" asked Lu Yin.
"It was the four ruling powers. They sent an Envoy. Immediately after destroying the Stargazing Deck, he killed himself by self-destruction. He left no evidence behind whatsoever."
"It doesn’t matter. It's fine," Lu Yin sent back.
Truthfully, he was not at all indifferent to the matter, but with the Stargazing Decks already destroyed, there was nothing that he could do about it. He could only continue to protect the Stargazing Deck in Astral-10.
"A pearl emerged from the ruins of the Stargazing Deck."
"A pearl? What do you mean by that?" asked Lu Yin, puzzled.
"It’s just a pearl. It looks perfectly normal, just like the ones that people wear as jewelry. The only special aspect about it is that it survived the destruction of the Stargazing Deck. I’ve contacted several of the other academy branches, and all of them also found a pearl in the ruins of their Stargazing Decks as well."
"Wait for me," Lu Yin replied. He then told Astral-10’s headmaster that he would be leaving for a bit before making his way for the other academies.
He understood that the Stargazing Decks could be used to trigger Destiny, but he had also uncovered the reason why they allowed a person to peer into the river of time. Since each destroyed Stargazing Deck had left a pearl behind, these pearls had to somehow be connected to Destiny. However, Lu Yin had never heard of Destiny having any connection to pearls.
Wait a minute. Lu Yin's pupils suddenly contracted. The Sect Master of the Starsibyl Sect, Mr. Zhu!
Lu Yin quickly arrived at Astral-2, which was the closest academy branch to Astral-10. To his horror, he was greeted by a sea of blood that looked like a boiling crimson wave. A group of pale-faced students and teachers surrounded the horrible scene.
Lu Yin tore through the void and stepped out in front of the crowd. "What happened?"
He had visited Astral-2 before, so he knew that he was standing where the Stargazing Deck had once been. The destruction of the Stargazing Deck and the death of the academy’s Starmaster were within his expectations, but what was with this sea of blood? How many people had died in this place?
One of Astral-2’s mentors stepped forward to greet Lu Yin and then respectfully reported, "Dao Chosen, our headmaster is dead. All of the mentors and students who tried to rescue him died as well. Among them was Han Chong, of the Han family."
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed as he asked, "How did they die?"
"We don't know. Everyone within a certain area died, leaving nothing behind but this sea of blood. No part of their bodies remained," the mentor replied.
Lu Yin's expression changed and he stepped into the void again, heading towards the other combat academies. Similar zones of death emerged in all the other academies, except for Astral-10. These zones weren’t always seas of blood, and neither were they always located at the Stargazing Deck's position. However, they all shared one thing in common—they were all where the pearls had been located.
"The headmaster left this place with the pearl that appeared from the Stargazing Deck. I saw it with my own eyes, but- but-" The mentor choked up. "When I turned around again, the headmaster was already blown to pieces! There was no one around. Absolutely no one!"
Lu Yin's expression darkened. The Astral Combat Academy had a total of ten branches. Astral-3 had been destroyed during the Sixth Mainland's invasion, and their Stargazing Deck had also been lost to the Sixth Mainland. The other nine academy branches had not suffered any real damage at that time, but just now, eight headmasters of the remaining nine branches had perished. No one had seen anything. All that remained of their deaths was a sea of blood. There was no other evidence that anyone had stood where the headmasters had been standing before they died.
Not a single person in any of the affected academies understood how the headmasters had died or who was responsible.
The four ruling powers? That was impossible. Their only goal was to destroy all the Stargazing Decks, not to start a war. Such an act would be too far even for them. If the four ruling powers were discovered to be the culprits, then war would be inevitable.
Lu Yin fully believed that the four ruling powers were not that foolish. The Stargazing Decks had already been destroyed, so they had no reason to kill the academies’ headmasters as well. There was nothing to gain from their deaths.
Aeternus? Impossible.
Lu Yin stepped away and headed back for Astral-10. He was afraid that something might happen there as well, though he also found himself somewhat hoping that some mysterious attack would occur. If not, there would be no denying the horrifying speculation that had just appeared in his mind.
Upon returning to Astral-10, Lu Yin found that the Headmaster had completely transformed. Gone were the perpetually filthy clothes. The man now looked refined, and he possessed a gentle demeanor and a ruddy complexion. However, beneath the appearance of softness lay an unmistakable killing intent in the man’s eyes.
"Who did it?" he asked.
"You already know what happened?"
"All the other headmasters of the Astral Combat Academy have perished. How could this still remain a secret? Have you learned who did it?" the Rainmaster asked.
Old Cai and the others all solemnly listened as well.
Lu Yin did not answer, but instead asked his own question. "Is everything alright here?"
"With the headmaster here, what could possibly happen?" the Sandmaster asked.
Everyone stared at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin's heart sank. Were his suspicions actually correct? Could it be that the headmasters had not been killed by a person, or even Aeternus, but rather by… Destiny?
The only common factor in all of the deaths was that all of the headmasters had come in contact with the pearl left behind by the destruction of the Stargazing Decks.
Pearls, Mr. Zhu, Starsibyl Sect, Destiny… What was the connection between all of them?
Lu Yin went back to the Stargazing Deck and asked for Destina and Skymender to join him.
"Pearls?" Destina exclaimed in surprise.
Lu Yin stared at her. "Do you know something about them?"
"My master did indeed have a string of pearls, but they were nothing more than a bit of jewelry. They weren’t anything that could be considered a treasure or a power vessel. What kind of pearls appeared?" Destina asked.
"A few solitary pearls," Lu Yin replied.
Destina almost said that the description was useless, but she held herself back and instead asked, "I meant to ask, what do they look like?"
Lu Yin frowned, as he did not actually know what the pearls looked like. He had started moving as soon as he had received the call from Astral-1's headmaster, and then everything had practically happened in an instant. Even with Lu Yin’s speed, he had not been able to arrive in time. "Tell me what you know about the pearls."
Destina thought back. "My master wore a bracelet of pearls on her wrist for many years. I saw it while I was with her. Before I was sealed away, there were only eleven pearls of the original thirteen, since my master had given away two of them.
"One was given to a child, while the other was given as a gift to the Lu family after Lu Tianyi was selected as a Dao Chosen."
Lu Yin arched a brow. "A pearl was given to my family? To whom? Progenitor Tianyi?"
Destina shook her head. "I don't know whom it was given to. My master only told me to deliver it to the Lu family. I personally placed it in the hands of a member of the Lu family’s direct line. From there, it either found its way to the Lu family's senior Progenitor or Lu Tianyi. That's all that I know about those pearls. There was honestly nothing special about them."
Suddenly, Skymender asked, "What about the child?"
"I don't know why my master favored that child. I asked, but my master didn't say."
Skymender grew more curious and asked, "What kind of child was it?"
Destina glanced at Skymender, and the white clouds surrounding her shifted to block his view, which was rather disconcerting to Skymender. "I never saw the child myself. My master never said much about them, just that she had given one of her pearls to a child."
Lu Yin had a headache. He was not afraid fear of directly confronting the four ruling or dealing with their various tricks, but he was afraid of getting involved with Destiny. She was just too mysterious. Lu Yin felt this even more strongly after witnessing the prediction of the future that had shocked him so deeply. At this moment, some items connected to Destiny had caused numerous deaths. This situation needed to be taken very seriously, and a thorough investigation was required.
However, this investigation would absolutely cause him to be tangled up with Destiny.
Even more disturbingly, Destiny had gifted a pearl to the Lu family. Lu Yin did not know what the Lu family’s attitude towards Destiny had been at the time, but if he were to receive the gift now, he would definitely throw it far away.
Given that this matter was related to Destiny, Lu Yin could not seek help from Xiao Shi, as Lu Yin feared that doing so would cause Destiny to drag Xiao Shi into the situation as well.
"Skymender, investigate these pearls." Lu Yin tossed the Book of Destiny over to Skymender.
Skymender caught the book and immediately started flipping through it.
Destina stared intensely at the book, but she was unable to see even a single word. Only after a long period of cultivating Heaven's Enigma with the book would a person be able to even see the text.
News of the headmaster's breakthrough quickly reached the Perennial World, as well as Lu Yin’s appearance at the Astral Combat Academies and the deaths of all the other headmasters.
The attack targeting the Stargazing Decks had not been planned overnight. Many backups had been placed and hidden in order to prevent the possibility of failure. They had known that, if they failed at their first attempt, their future attempts would become far, far more difficult.
The final results were a mix of success and failure. Almost all of the Stargazing Decks had been destroyed, with the sole exception of the one in Astral-10. As long as the headmaster was present, then even the hidden backups that they had put in place would find it impossible to destroy the Stargazing Deck. Not even the Semi-Progenitor that they had sent had been able to succeed, and the four ruling powers lacked the manpower to send two Semi-Progenitors.
Aside from Astral-10, only Envoys had been sent to destroy the Stargazing Decks in the other academies. This was because Astral-10 had once managed to stop Xia Meng from forcefully barging in, and the four ruling powers had learned of this during their investigations. For this reason, they had sent a Semi-Progenitor, but even that had not been enough.
At this moment, Bai Wangyuan and the other two were not only concerned about the remaining Stargazing Deck, but also the surviving headmaster.
"Is this really true? Could they be mistaken? How could anyone have passed two consecutive stellular tribulations given the state that their true universe is in? It's simply impossible," Progenitor Long responded with shock.
Wang Fan added, "Exactly. After passing the eighth stellular tribulation, there is a long and arduous road before one can trigger the tribulation to become a Semi-Progenitor. How could someone who’s unable to even absorb stellular energy after his eighth stellular tribulation even trigger a Semi-Progenitor tribulation, let alone succeed?"
Bai Wangyuan's eyes flashed as he spoke. "The appearance of a phenomenon is already an unusual event. In our era, who was able to trigger a phenomenon?"
"Xia Shang and Ku Jie," Progenitor Smoke’s voice rang out as she answered.
The three men turned to see Progenitor Smoke approaching. "I knew that there would be nothing good from you three gathering together."
"You know what happened too?" Wang Fan was surprised.
Progenitor Smoke sneered, "Do you really think that only you three have the ability to get information regarding the Fifth Mainland?"
"Then I'm guessing that you also know about the madman's breakthrough to the Semi-Progenitor realm," Bai Wangyuan said.
Progenitor Smoke instantly grew solemn. "To cross from the realm of existence to the realm of non-existence, and then to use non-existence to break through existence. This person is someone who has achieved true enlightenment. The Fifth Mainland is blessed to have him.”
"To my knowledge, during our era, the only people whose breakthroughs caused phenomena were Xia Shang and Ku Jie. Lu Xiaoxuan should have done so as well. He certainly isn’t an ordinary cultivator."
Wang Fan replied, "Unfortunately, this man hasn't opened his three meridian points, so he will never become a Progenitor."
Progenitor Smoke rolled her eyes. "Who can decide that? As long as he gets some tribulation crystals, there’s still a chance that he'll succeed. In fact, you three should provide them, as having another Progenitor will benefit us. That fool, Xia Shenji, is gone, and you three killed Liu Yue. We simply don't have enough manpower."
"Lu Xiaoxuan also drove Nutjob Lu away, so why didn’t you mention that?"
"Nutjob Lu is most likely a Redback, and even if he isn't, given his personality, who knows if he might randomly attack his own allies? He's already shown that he’s willing to interfere in another person’s stellular tribulation, and if he had succeeded, he would have dragged the entire Higher Realm down with him. Can you really trust someone like that?"
"That's still no reason for Lu Xiaoxuan to have driven him away."
"Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not going to bother quibbling with you anymore. I'm going to go visit this amazing person," Progenitor Smoke retorted as she started making her way towards the Fifth Mainland.
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