Chapter 1825: Poison Triggered
"No, absolutely not! I used to have a normal appearance, but my nose turned into this after I learned the secret technique. Senior, I really don’t know who created this secret technique. Something accidentally smacked my head, and I suddenly learned this technique. I never saw or learned anything at all about the person who made it." Hua Wu spoke honestly and practically swore that he was telling the truth.
Lu Yin believed that Hua Wu did not have the courage to lie at this moment.
"Since you have an ancient bloodline, what sort of legacy does your family have?"
"Senior, I swear that if my family has any legacy at all, this secret technique will never be used again!" Hua Wu loudly declared.
Lu Yin was left speechless at this reaction, as he had only been mildly curious.
He then moved over next to the sourcebox array with Hua Wu. "Wait here, and I’ll take you out with me."
He then stepped forward and entered the sourcebox array.
Hua Wu\'s eyes flashed, and he debated with himself over whether or not he should try to escape. Was this guy testing him?
Lu Yin actually did not care if Hua Wu left or not. If the man left, it was no problem, and if he stayed, then Lu Yin would take Hua Wu through the exit. After all, Hua Wu was someone with an ancient bloodline, as was Lu Yin. Their meeting was a bit of fate.
After all these years, the sourcebox array was not as powerful as it had once been, and Lu Yin only needed half a day to unlock it. He looked back and saw that Hua Wu was still waiting for him.
"Let\'s go." Lu Yin grabbed Hua Wu and passed through the exit gate to leave.
The next instant, they arrived somewhere with a brilliant, star-filled sky overhead. They were surrounded by people who were warily staring at the gate and holding weapons. Nearby, there were even powerhouses who were at the cusp of becoming Envoys, which Lu Yin easily determined based on the number of runes he saw.
"State your names and turn over your cosmic rings!" A command was shouted by the most powerful Enlighter present.
Lu Yin gave a small smile, took a step, and vanished.
All of the guards were stunned.
The Enlighter’s expression changed drastically, though he also felt a powerful sense of relief. They had run into a true powerhouse who had to have at least been an Envoy. Luckily, the expert had not bothered himself with them, as otherwise, they would not have even known how they died.
Lu Yin and Hua Wu appeared at the bottom of a skyscraper. They were in a roaming city. Lu Yin released his domain and was pleasantly surprised to learn that they were in the Neoverse.
He had exited a gate that had taken him straight out of Burial Garden and into the Neoverse.
"You can head out by yourself. We’re in the Neoverse," Lu Yin said as he released Hua Wu.
Hua Wu could not believe his ears. "I- I can go?"
"Were you thinking of something else?" Lu Yin asked back.
Hua Wu pursed his lips. "So can I leave?"
Lu Yin’s gaze suddenly focused. "Unless you want me to introduce you to a master?"
Hua Wu was startled, and he quickly replied, "Senior doesn’t need to do that! This junior enjoys his wild ways and freedom. I just can’t attach myself to a master, so I’ll take my leave!"
He then quickly fled.
A small smile appeared on Lu Yin’s face. He found Hua Wu to be quite interesting. Lu Yin had genuinely wanted to introduce the young man to a master: Kui Luo. However, it seemed that Hua Wu had misunderstood something.
Hua Wu had misread Lu Yin’s intentions. It was not an uncommon occurrence for a master to steal an inheritance that their disciple found. Hua Wu had mistakenly thought that those were Lu Yin’s intentions and that Lu Yin coveted the Man of My Word secret technique. He was also afraid that Lu Yin would react poorly if he did not get the secret technique.
However, Hua Wu had overthought the matter. Lu Yin was aware that secret techniques could not be easily spread from one person to another, and he even knew of one secret technique that only a single person could know at a time, which was the Yōu Secret Art.
As for the master that Lu Yin had offered to find for Hua Wu, it had naturally been Kui Luo. If that man learned that someone had inherited something like Man of My Word, his interest would absolutely be roused. Unfortunately, Hua Wu had walked away from the chance to have a Semi-Progenitor as his master.
Hua Wu left, and Lu Yin took out Zenith Mountain to release someone: Ku Lei.
Ku Lei was quite miserable at this time, as he had been tortured by Crown Prince Gui Qian during his entire time on Zenith Mountain. He had not been able to defeat the prince, nor had he been able to escape. Only a few months had passed, but Ku Lei had lost so much weight that Lu Yin had nearly failed to recognize the young man when he saw him.
"You can leave now. We’re in the Neoverse," Lu Yin stated.
Ku Lei grew excited. "The Neoverse? I\'m back?"
Lu Yin said, "Go on."
Ku Lei stared at Lu Yin’s cosmic ring for a long moment, resentment building up in his eyes. He would not forget the debt that Crown Prince Gui Qian owed him, and Ku Lei was determined to repay the torture that he had suffered over these few months.
After releasing Ku Lei, Lu Yin wanted to report what had happened, but he quickly decided to do so after he visited Black Street.
Fortunately, the exit that Lu Yin had come out through was rather close to Black Street, as it was already in the northern region of the Neoverse.
Black Street was quite famous, and Lu Yin had also visited the place before. Thus, it was not difficult for him to find it.
Shortly after he left the roaming city, a pair of black eyes swept through the region and locked onto Lu Yin’s path. It was one of the desiccated corpses.
Given the corpse’s speed, it shouldn’t have been able to catch up to Lu Yin, but it was coincidentally situated in front of Lu Yin’s path.
After just half an hour, Lu Yin ran into the corpse.
"Ancient bloodline detected. Target acquired: kill." The corpse\'s eyes were locked onto Lu Yin, and it shot towards him with a hand raised to grab him.
Lu Yin was caught off guard, though not by the desiccated corpse. He was surprised because there were several figures behind the corpse who were staring at him.
Just as the corpse tried to grab Lu Yin, several cultivators moved as one. Two of them went after the desiccated corpse while the third one targeted Lu Yin. "Follow us."
He tried to pull Lu Yin away several times but soon found that it was impossible. The man looked at Lu Yin in surprise, and it was only then that he got a good look at Lu Yin’s face and realized that this person looked very similar to the desiccated corpse. The man reflexively released Lu Yin. "What the hell?"
The other nearby cultivators also turned to stare at Lu Yin in surprise, though the two who were keeping the corpse occupied continued to fight it.
The corpse only had a power level of about 200,000, and the people who had been following it were all Enlighters.
"What are you doing?" Lu Yin asked.
The cultivator who had tried to drag Lu Yin away just stared at him. "You can talk? Aren\'t you a corpse?"
Lu Yin glanced over at the dried up corpse and understood the situation. "You guys are fishing with those corpses, huh. Are you looking for ancient bloodlines?"
"I’m glad that you figured it out, so come with us. We’re sending you into Burial Garden." The man tried to pull Lu Yin away once again.
Lu Yin shook his head and disappeared. Right after that, the desiccated corpse stopped moving.
The group of people were all startled, and they glanced at each other. They all realized that they had just targeted a true powerhouse.
"We’re lucky that he didn’t attack us! He cleared the corpse’s detection range in an instant. That’s not someone we can go up against." One person was terrified by what had happened.
"What now? Keep going?"
"Of course we continue! He didn’t attack us, which basically means that he approves of us fishing for more ancient bloodlines with the corpse. What are you so afraid of? Aren’t all the most powerful organizations in the universe doing the same thing? If we don’t flush out the ancient bloodlines, then how can we make sure that the inheritances in Burial Garden will activate?"
"Those people are the most ruthless there are. You and I might be grabbing the people with ancient bloodlines, but those powers are the ones controlling us."
"You don’t need to say it out loud! No one likes to hear that. Let’s just keep going. There are many people with ancient bloodlines, and we can always find more."
…
Of course, Lu Yin was indeed hoping that more people with ancient bloodlines would appear. Even though people were sneaky and clever enough to come up with ways to control the people with ancient bloodlines and force them to enter Burial Garden, those people were still obtaining many unique inheritances in Burial Garden. Hua Wu and Unseen Light were both examples of that.
Standing at different heights allowed people to see different perspectives.
An ordinary cultivator would hope for the people at the top to make decisions that benefited them, especially regarding the ancient bloodlines. However, the people standing at the top were not seeing individual gains and losses, but rather what would benefit the entire Fifth Mainland.
The more inheritances that appeared, the better it would be for the Fifth Mainland, regardless of who obtained them. In particular, those who knew about the Aeternals had this bigger picture in mind. It did not matter who obtained the inheritances, as all of humanity had a common enemy: the Aeternals.
The more inheritances that were acquired, the greater the blow to the Aeternals. This was the entire reason why Burial Garden had opened.
The ancient bloodlines were the key, and the people with those bloodlines could either obtain an inheritance for themselves or be used by others. It was all dependent on their destiny.
This was the way of the universe.
Lu Yin had no intention to act as a guardian for the ancient bloodlines. He did not have the energy to attempt such a thing. If he happened to stumble upon a situation, he would help if possible, but he would not make himself into an enemy of the entire universe just to help the people.
In fact, Lu Yin even had hopes that the ancient bloodlines would be found and that their bearers would be tossed into Burial Garden. That was the only way that even more inheritances could be released and used to deal with the Aeternals.
The thinking of those at the top had always been different from that of ordinary people, and it was because their perspectives were different.
Still, Lu Yin had always maintained a bottom line. For example, in order to establish a battlefield for the Sixth Mainland to fight upon, he had given up Ironblood Weave. He would one day take the weave back and fulfill the promise that he had made to the defenders of the weave. This was Lu Yin’s bottom line. He was willing to make sacrifices for the greater good, but whatever he sacrificed would have to one day be taken back.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, he arrived at Black Street.
…
Back in Burial Garden, Dojo Master Si stared off into the distance at the enormous wandering corpse of an astral beast that was carrying a palace upon its back. A terrible killing intent flared up in her eyes, and water flowed out of the void to surround a group of people who were following the giant corpse. The water quickly took on the form of the Water God’s Tears.
By the time the giant was completely out of sight, rivers of blood flowed across the ground.
Yang Kong emerged from the void. "As expected of the master of Water God Dojo. You’re quite ruthless with your attacks."
Dojo Master Si replied indifferently, "If they don\'t die, I will."
Yang Kong smiled. "If only that Lie Yanzi could be as smart as you."
Dojo Master Si grew puzzled. "What happened to him?"
Yang Kong looked upwards. "I mentioned before we entered Burial Garden that none of you could leave Burial Garden and that you had to first speak with me if you wanted to leave. No one would be allowed to leave without my consent. Unfortunately, Lie Yanzi did exactly that, so he’s going to die."
"How do you know that he left Burial Garden?" Dojo Master Si wondered.
Yang Kong casually replied, "The communication crystals won’t connect, which means that he has either been destroyed, or he’s left. Regardless, it means that his life is over."
Dojo Master Si’s eyes narrowed. Yang Kong was casually speaking about an Envoy’s death, and his words truly did mean that Lie Yanzi would die. Yang Kong was clearly far more ruthless than Dojo Master Si, and he handled his affairs in the same manner as the Aeternals.
…
Lu Yin and Ming Yan were reunited in Black Street, though his appearance startled her quite badly. He was forced to explain himself multiple times before Ming Yan actually believed that Lu Yin was who he claimed to be.
Suddenly, the poisons in his body erupted.
Lu Yin spat out a mouthful of blood, and he felt his life fading. His expression changed completely. "This is bad!"
As he spoke, he quickly consumed some medicinal pills to help him survive.
Ming Yan was startled, and she grabbed Lu Yin tightly. "Brother Lu, what\'s wrong?"
"Bring out your white-haired self! I’ve been poisoned with Vitality Poison," Lu Yin said in a low voice. He had not expected the poison to erupt so suddenly and without any sort of warning.