Chapter 2470: Burned
Xiao Shi always enjoyed being asked questions, as it gave him a purpose when browsing through the Book of Destiny. Lu Yin had asked numerous questions as he had sought various answers. "Help me search for information regarding the Three Monarchs Universe."
Xiao Shi grunted in acknowledgement as he started to search. "There’s nothing."
This explained things a bit to Lu Yin. Destiny belonged to their own universe, and all the books that she had left behind contained no information regarding parallel universes.
Lu Yin asked, "Search for Dao Monarchs."
Flipping through the book, Xiao Shi responded, "Several people come up. Six in total."
"Does it only show their images?"
"Yes."
Lu Yin thought for a moment. "Search for secrets known only to Dao Monarchs."
Xiao Shi again flipped through the book, but after some time, he reported, "Nothing."
Was there truly nothing? Was that because Destiny had not recorded the information, or was it because she herself did not know the answers?
Suddenly, Lu Yin remembered something else. "Search for the Immemorial Citadel."
Xiao Shi flipped through the pages of the book, but unexpectedly, the pages started quickly turning by themselves, and then flames rose up and burned Xiao Shi.
He screamed and moved away from the book. Lu Yin tried to extinguish the flames with his stellular energy, but his efforts were fruitless. The flames seemed to exist in a different dimension, and while they burned the Book of Destiny, they had absolutely no impact on Lu Yin’s level of reality. Even Xiao Shi's hands were unharmed by the flames.
"Skymender!" Lu Yin sternly called out.
Upon rushing in, Skymender was startled to see the merged Book of Destiny covered in flames. He quickly started using Inverse Enigma.
At the same time, in the Perennial World, Bai Xian'er’s eyes snapped open. Her own Book of Destiny was in her arms and had started burning. She quickly grew pale. "What's going on?"
She raced to try to extinguish the flames.
Both Heaven’s Enigma and Inverse Enigma were used to attack the flames in the Perennial World and the Fifth Mainland, respectively. The flames possessed an indescribable power that exceeded what Lu Yin could touch. They seemed like a calamity that specifically targeted the Books of Destiny.
Elsewhere in the Fifth Mainland, nine black pearls hung in the air in front of a figure. If Lu Yin were present, he would instantly recognize the man as Mr. Zhu, who was supposedly dead. Eight of the pearls in front of him had appeared from the ruins of the destroyed Stargazing Decks. Mr. Zhu had collected all of the pearls, except for the one from Astral-3, which had been taken by the Sixth Mainland. Also missing was the pearl from Astral-10, as that Stargazing Deck remained intact.
The moment the Books of Destiny started to burn, a look of irritation flickered across Mr. Zhu's eyes. "Who dares probe into areas that even Destiny herself dared not to touch?"
Eight pearls circled around the man, and he started to use Destiny's power to attack.
In three different locations, three different individuals utilized Destiny's power for the same purpose.
Only Destiny's power was able to affect objects related to her, and since the flames were on the Books of Destiny, only Destiny's power could extinguish them.
Lu Yin watched as the merged Books of Destiny continued to burn. He was not even able to touch the flames, but they somehow felt strangely familiar.
Right! He suddenly remembered the torches that he had encountered when attempting to claim the inheritance from one of the Mountains and Seas. The flames from those torches had emitted a terrifying temperature that could have instantly reduced Lu Yin to ashes. Were the flames burning the Books of Destiny similar to what he had observed from those torches?
Lu Yin stared at the flames burning the merged Books of Destiny and then reached out with a hand once again. He refused to believe that he could not touch the flames.
"Brother Lu, don't touch it!" Xiao Shi fearfully warned.
Instinctively, Lu Yin's finger pulled back a bit. Honestly, he was a bit fearful that this flame would burn him to ash.
Suddenly, the flames noticeably weakened. Lu Yin looked over at Skymender.
His forehead was covered in sweat. "Several of Destiny's powers are acting on these flames right now, and they’ll soon be extinguished."
A thought struck Lu Yin. If Skymender and the others were able to extinguish the flames by using Destiny's power, then it meant that the flames might not be as terrifying as they seemed. They were simply on a level that was too high for him to touch. If he could touch the flames, then wouldn’t it mean that he could wield powers at that level of understanding?
The more Lu Yin thought about the possibilities, the more intrigued he became. Setting aside why the flames had even appeared and the possibility that someone did not want the words "Immemorial Citadel" to be investigated, Lu Yin truly wanted to obtain these flames.
He started trying various things, first reciting the Origin Progenitor's Sutra. The Origin Sutra was Lu Yin’s go-to solution for anything that he could not easily resolve.
However, it did not work. He was still unable to touch the flames.
He then released the power from within his chest. Fatesand was part of that unique power, and fatesand was another item that had come from Destiny. Hopefully, having the same origin would allow Lu Yin to touch the flames.
Unfortunately, he failed again. However, from a different perspective, if his fatesand could enable him to touch the flames, then it would also allow the flames to potentially burn the fatesand, which would have harmed Lu Yin.
Death energy similarly proved useless. Visualization did nothing. It was as though the small bit of flame did not even exist. It was burning the book, but he could not touch it.
It was an infuriating feeling, as though an invisible hand was controlling things and Lu Yin could not resist the hidden manipulation. It was incredibly frustrating.
He watched as the flames grew weaker and weaker. Finally, there was only a flicker left.
Lu Yin extended his hand, and his die spun. Pilfer. Useless. Again. Enhance. Useless. Again.
Just as the flame was about to disappear entirely, the die stopped on five pips. Again, Lu Yin reached for the merged Books of Destiny.
He had run out of options, as he had already tried everything he could think of. His innate gift was the only thing that he had left.
His palm touched the Book of Destiny, and the flame disappeared completely.
A short distance away, Xiao Shi let out a sigh of relief. Those flames had terrified him.
Skymender panted for breath. This disaster had left his back covered with sweat. Even though he had not been burned, just looking at the flames had left him feeling a fear that had welled up from the bottom of his heart. It had felt like a higher level power had been observing him. He had felt like an ant.
Lu Yin pulled his hand back and looked down at his die. On the face with five pips, a flame pattern had just appeared. He pumped his fist in joy—he had obtained the flame! While he had no idea just how powerful the bit of flames were, or where they had come from, the fact that he had been able to copy it with his die's five pips meant that the flames were someone’s innate gift, but whose?
That person had to be beyond terrifying if they were able to burn the Books of Destiny.
There was a loud bang as the merged Books of Destiny split apart into two books that fell apart. Almost half of each book had been burnt away.
Xiao Shi wailed, "How could this happen? It's over! These books belong to the library, and we'll be scolded for this!"
Skymender glanced sideways at Xiao Shi. Was that really the biggest problem in front of them? These were two Books of Destiny! On top of that, this young man was able to read the merged Book of Destiny. Could this man actually be Destiny?
Skymender suddenly remembered Lu Yin's question long ago about someone being able to read the text from a Book of Destiny without cultivating Heaven's Enigma or Inverse Enigma. Clearly, this young man was the reason for that question.
Lu Yin waved his hand, and the Books of Destiny floated up from the floor. Skymender and Xiao Shi each received one. Lu Yin ordered, "Check if you can still read them."
Xiao Shi hurriedly flipped through the pages, while Skymender took a deep breath before checking his own book.
After a while, the two glanced at each other, and then they both replied. "There's no text."
Lu Yin felt disappointed. Had the flames truly destroyed the two books?
At that moment, Lu Yin’s wireless jincan trembled. He glanced down and saw that Bai Xian'er was contacting him. She had clearly been one of the people working to fight against the mysterious flames that had appeared. How had her Book of Destiny turned out?
Lu Yin did not want to answer the message, but curiosity quickly got the better of him. "What do you want?"
"What did you try to look up?" Bai Xian'er asked.
Lu Yin indifferently replied, "That’s none of your business."
Bai Xian'er frowned. "Brother Lu, the universe is vast, and even after you become a Progenitor, you still might not understand everything. There are certain concepts that can only be grasped by Progenitors, and trying to touch those things too early will only bring disaster upon you."
"What happened to your Book of Destiny?" Lu Yin asked.
"It's burned."
Lu Yin glanced over at Xiao Shi and Skymender. Xiao Shi looked upset, while Skymender, though expressionless, probably held a strong grudge against Lu Yin. However, there was nothing that Lu Yin could do about it. Who could have thought that his question regarding the Immemorial Citadel would cause the Books of Destiny to be destroyed? Lu Yin had also hoped to learn a great deal more from the books.
"Can it be fixed?" Lu Yin asked.
"Not unless Destiny herself appears. The Books of Destiny are her power vessels, and only she is able to fix them," Bai Xian'er replied.
Lu Yin's eyes brightened. Right, they were power vessels, and since they were power vessels… He looked at his cosmic ring. Since he was even able to repair even the Origin Progenitor's sword, then why not the Books of Destiny?
Even though the Books of Destiny were truly mystical objects, the Origin Progenitor's sword certainly was not inferior to them.
It had cost Lu Yin ten trillion star essence to repair the Origin Progenitor's sword. With another ten trillion, he should also be able to repair the Books of Destiny.
This thought left Lu Yin feeling much better.
"If it can't be repaired, then so be it. It's not always good to know everything in advance," Lu Yin answered in a casual manner, though Bai Xian'er found the words particularly grating.
"Even with a Book of Destiny, it's impossible to learn about things that can burn one of Destiny's items. Brother Xiaoxuan, you have two Books of Destiny, don't you?"
Lu Yin denied the allegation. "You're overthinking things."
"A single book cannot cause what just happened," Bai Xian'er insisted.
"I already told you, you're overthinking things. Even if I did have two books, it doesn't matter now, as the books are already burned."
Bai Xian'er felt helpless, as Lu Yin was absolutely right; the books had all been burned.
Throughout her life, Bai Xian’er had always believed that she could control everything, including even Lu Xiaoxuan and the Lu family, her own family’s Progenitor, Bai Wangyuan, and the entire Perennial World. She had always been confident in her ability to control everything around her, and not even Lu Yin's regained cultivation had been enough to unsettle her. However, at this moment, for the very first time in her life, Bai Xian’er felt that things were slipping out of her control.
Only Destiny’s power could touch or influence the flames that had appeared and burned the Books of Destiny. It was certain that Lu Yin held two Books of Destiny, which was outside of Bai Xian’er’s expectations. What was even harder to accept was that her own Book of Destiny had been burned, which had severed her vision.
This was no different from going blind for a normal person, and Bai Xian'er felt helpless and vulnerable.
Lu Yin had no idea how badly he might have wounded Bai Xian'er in the past, but with all of the Books of Destiny being burned, he was confident that she had suffered greatly this time. That actually made the destruction of the Books of Destiny in Lu Yin’s possession worthwhile.
Lu Yin ended the conversation, pleased with how things had ultimately turned out. Even if the Books of Destiny could not be repaired, it was satisfying to know that he had exacted some bit of revenge.
"I'm done for! I'm going to be scolded so badly!" Xiao Shi lamented.
Lu Yin pursed his lips and said, "Enough, you won't be scolded. I'll send word to Senior Brother Qing Ping."
Xiao Shi nodded and answered through his tears, "The instructions for the cultivation art of Heaven's Enigma are gone now. Without those, the Mushroom Head Promotion is also dead."
The young man stared at Lu Yin in a pitiful manner.
Lu Yin was left speechless. It was hard to be stared in such a manner at by a man. Lu Yin quickly relented. "I’ll help you promote it, alright?"
Xiao Shi was thrilled. "Really? Thank you, Brother Lu!"
Skymender's eye twitched uncontrollably. Is that all?! The Books of Destiny, the mighty Books of Destiny, have been burned, but this is what you’re focused on?
Lu Yin looked over at Skymender and said, "From now on, I want you to stay here and teach Xiao Shi how to cultivate Inverse Enigma."
Skymender was startled. "You want me to stay here?"
Lu Yin replied, "I’ll inform the Hall of Honor that you’ll be staying here to teach him. You can leave when he’s learned Inverse Enigma."
With that, Lu Yin stepped away and left the library, making his way towards Senior Brother Qing Ping’s location.
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