After Lu Yin’s breakthrough, he started absorbing star energy faster than ever, and he soon completed his twenty first cycle, followed by his twenty second, then twenty third… After he finished his twenty fourth cycle, the star energy from the star essence he was using had been depleted, and the Skyblaze Stone’s raging flames had also disappeared.
Mister Mu’s eyes shifted to show a hint of curiosity and anticipation. He waved a hand, and a massive amount of star essence fell out. At the same time, the star energy in the nearby area started to melt, even without the Skyblaze Stone. Lu Yin continued to absorb the vaporized star essence, and his speed far exceeded what he had been capable of with the Skyblaze Stone.
Lu Yin was unaware of what was happening around him, as he was completely focused on his cultivation, and he simply continued to absorb star energy faster and faster.
Twenty five cycles, twenty six, twenty nine… He eventually completed his thirtieth cycle, and ultimately, his thirty second cycle.
After his breakthrough, Lu Yin managed to complete far more cycles as an Enlighter than an ordinary cultivator, and he had even surpassed the four Junior Progenitors.
This was the strength of his foundation.
Not even Mister Mu had expected Lu Yin to have established such a terrifying foundation.
There was actually no one, not even Lu Yin, who knew that Lu Yin had absorbed Progenitor Chen’s blood while in the powerhouse’s mausoleum. More recently, Lu Yin had opened all three meridian points, tempered his body with dragon saliva, absorbed Origin Matter, and used a seven-stage formcast model. Lu Yin’s foundation exceeded all others, and now, after his breakthrough, his cultivation also surpassed all of his peers. He had truly reached the peak.
Lu Yin opened his eyes and stood up. He felt the surging star energy moving through in his body. It was astonishing.
Lu Yin’s star energy reserves far exceeded those of his peers even when he had only been a Hunter, and those reserves had just drastically increased. Lu Yin had about ten times more star energy than his peers, but that also meant that he required ten times the resources to cultivate.
Why was there such a massive difference?
“Master? Did your disciple absorb all of the star essence that I took out?” Lu Yin was shocked to see that there was no star essence remaining on the ground.
Mister Mu looked at Lu Yin before ordering, “Take out all of the star essence that you have in your cosmic ring.”
Lu Yin reacted without hesitation, and star essence quickly piled into hills on the ground. Mister Mu took all of it.
Lu Yin was stunned. What did this mean?
“After becoming an Enlighter, you managed to complete your thirty second cycle, and by doing so, you absorbed the star energy of 600 million star essence,” Mister Mu casually explained.
Lu Yin then understood that his master was settling a debt. All of the star essence that Lu Yin had absorbed after his breakthrough had been provided by Mister Mu, and now that the breakthrough had ended, Mister Mu was settling the bill.
At the same time, Lu Yin felt rather speechless. Was this really fine? He might have more than 600 million star essence stored within his body, but he was broke once again.
Lu Yin wanted to ask for his money back, but after looking at Mister Mu, the thought died. After all, just the Root of Intelligence alone was worth more than the star essence that Lu Yin had lost.
“Master, are we going back now?” Lu Yin asked.
“Back where?” Mister Mu asked.
Lu Yin spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, “Back to the Fifth Mainland.”
Mister Mu lifted a hand and touched Lu Yin’s forehead. Lu Yin did not know what his master was doing, but there was no change to his body, so he felt rather confused.
“I just hid your cultivation so that no one will be able to clearly see your strength,” Mister Mu informed Lu Yin.
A bad premonition overcame Lu Yin, and he let out a dry laugh. “Master, what do you mean by that?”
“You came here alone, so you need to find your way back alone.”
What? Lu Yin was stunned. “Master, your disciple can’t go back there! There’s a shameless Semi-Progenitor keeping an eye on me, and your disciple can’t get rid of him!”
Mister Mu said nothing more, and his body vanished in an instant. Everything around Lu Yin returned to normal, except for the appearance of a single jade talisman.
Lu Yin stared blankly at his vacant surroundings. Mister Mu had just ignored him!
The jade talisman quietly fell to the ground. Lu Yin reluctantly picked it up with a sigh. Fortunately, Mister Mu had left one of these talismans behind, which meant that Lu Yin would be able to call his master. Otherwise, Lu Yin would have nothing to rely on.
Also, Mister Mu had hidden Lu Yin’s true cultivation, which was a very good thing. It would keep him from being too conspicuous.
“Hey Bro, are you out of seclusion?” The fat Wang Dashuai approached from a distance and seemed surprised to see Lu Yin.
Lu Yin was startled. Out? Wait… Lu Yin remembered something and asked in a casual tone, “How long has it been since we got back?”
The fatty thought for a moment. “More than a month.”
Lu Yin’s eyes flashed. Apparently, Mister Mu had not frozen time, and things had proceeded normally. However, Lu Yin had been taken to a strange space that had isolated him from everyone, which had given everyone a false impression of what he had been doing. This was as shocking a revelation as when Mister Mu had frozen time; it was an ability that Lu Yin could not understand at all.
After all, there was still a Semi-Progenitor in Huaiyuan Gate.
“Has anything happened while I was busy?” Lu Yin asked.
The fatty considered the question. “The White Dragon Clan’s Elder Long Kui stopped by once, but he left after hearing that you were in seclusion. There were also a few others who were looking for you… Right, Liu Ye and Fei Hua were among them.”
Lu Yin frowned. It looked like those two did not want to leave him alone.
“Also, some of the elders from my Wang family asked me to speak to you. They want to talk to you,” Wang Dashuai continued to say. “Also, Supervisor Qing Chen wants to speak with you. Actually, a bunch of people want to see you, but the White Dragon Clan has been the most active.”
“What about the Celestial Frost Sect?” Lu Yin asked. He had uncovered a jade butterfly, and that Yu Chen definitely would not let this matter go.
The fatty shook his head. “No one from the Celestial Frost Sect has looked for you. Also, the Smokecloud Sect has recovered, and they’re back to guarding the Cloud Shuttle. The four ruling powers sent down a bunch of powerhouses, and apparently, there are Envoys running things now. All of the old monsters have moved out.”
Everything that Lu Yin heard were updates that he had expected.
After speaking with Wang Dashuai, Lu Yin immediately went to go find Shang Qing and ask him what had happened with Yu Chen.
Unfortunately, Shang Qing had not had any contact with Yu Chen while Lu Yin had been gone. “She never trusted me in the first place. After you arrested those people, she preferred exposing the jade butterfly that she had hidden in Huaiyuan Gate than approach me about the issue.”
Lu Yin had been the one to arrest the girl, so it was impossible for anyone to release her unless they were from Huaiyuan Gate.
“Why do I feel like there’s something different about you?” Shang Qing showed a bit of surprise as he studied Lu Yin.
Lu Yin shrugged. “It’s not much of a difference. I just became an Enlighter.”
Shang Qing showed no surprise, as Lu Yin was overdue for this breakthrough despite already being the most powerful of their generation. “So it was a breakthrough? Congratulations.”
Lu Yin smiled. Mister Mu had hidden Lu Yin’s exact cultivation, but not the fact that he was an Enlighter. He could let people know that he was an Enlighter. After all, he had just been in seclusion, so it would be no surprise for anyone to discover that he had used the time to become an Enlighter.
This breakthrough was also an excuse for Lu Yin to reveal even more strength than he had before.
Next, Lu Yin went to find Cai Shu, only to learn that Qing Chen had headed to the Higher Realm and would contact Lu Yin after returning to the Middle Realm.
That night, the old Semi-Progenitor approached Lu Yin. “Hey kid, do you want to get some more credit with Humility’s Gate?”
“Not interested.” Lu Yin was very blunt with his response. After repeatedly dealing with this old man, Lu Yin had lost most of his fear. Plus, with the support of Mister Mu, Lu Yin was fearless, as he now had a way out.
“Kid, how can you act like such an old man when you’re still so young? Don’t you want to be famous in this universe? To make the four ruling powers jealous of you? Don’t you want to be a powerhouse? In the future, your descendents could become the White Dragon Clan’s main family. Let me tell you this—the clan’s current main family took their position from another family. Before that, they were just another branch family,” the old man said temptingly.
Lu Yin felt a jolt. He had nearly forgotten that he needed to investigate what had happened to the Lu family. Since he was unable to return to the Fifth Mainland, it would be a good time to start probing into the matter now.
Also, when it came to getting information about the Lu family, this old man was likely the best place to start. He was a Semi-Progenitor, so there should be no restrictions placed on his mind!
“Senior, what’s your goal?” Lu Yin said.
The old man lazily answered, “Like I said, I’m just looking to have fun. This old man has lived for too long, and I’ve learned many things that most people are ignorant about. I can share all of this information with you.”
Lu Yin and the old man stared at each other. “So what? Why are you using a junior like me for these things? This junior does not appreciate being used, but I’m willing to cooperate.”
“Hahahaha, kid, you think too much! You don’t qualify to cooperate with this old man! Many people have tried to get in touch with you recently, but all of them want to ask you questions. There’s no one else who’s willing to tell you anything. Do you want to know about the past? You should already know that not even Humility’s Gate was able to find out anything about Yun Mubai being a Redback. You also already know that if there was even the faintest suspicion, Qing Chen would not let the matter rest until it was resolved. Do you want that kind of man keeping tabs on you at all times?” The old man laughed.
“If Senior Qing Chen truly asks, then this junior will have to tell him the truth,” Lu Yin said somberly.
The old man made a point of not caring. “Alright, fine. Before you ran into this old man, where were you trying to take those two stellular liquid mules? What were you up to?”
Lu Yin’s eyes grew sharp. He really could not determine whether or not this old man knew that he was from the Fifth Mainland.
“This junior doesn’t understand what Senior is asking,” Lu Yin said.
The old man stretched his waist. “If you don’t understand, then you don’t get it.”
The old man then spread his fingers open to reveal a delicate jade pendant in his hand. “If you ever end up in a position where you don’t know how to deal with Qing Chen, just show him this thing, and he’ll understand.”
After that, the man slowly walked away.
Lu Yin stared at the jade pendant. He was becoming more and more confused by the old man. There had to be some sort of motivation behind the Semi-Progenitor’s actions, but why had the man still not said anything? Was he afraid of exposing his identity? Or had things not yet progressed to the point where the old man could reveal his purpose?
The old man was only increasing Lu Yin’s accomplishments within Humility’s Gate, so clearly, the old man’s ultimate purpose was connected to Humility’s Gate.
Lu Yin thought for a while. He believed that the old man had already moved far away, so Lu Yin closed his eyes and slowly let his domain spread through the air.
His breakthrough to the Enlighter realm had brought about changes to his domain as well, and he had instantly reached the spirit manifestation realm in his domain. This improvement did not offer much assistance in battle, but it did make Lu Yin’s domain much more sensitive, which meant that it was easier for him to perceive powerhouses like Cai Shu and the old man.
Naturally, such people were also able to sense Lu Yin’s domain, but they did not react to it. It was quite convenient for Lu Yin to use it to monitor the two.
Lu Yin saw that neither powerhouse was focused on him, so he set aside his cosmic ring. It was time to roll his die.
He found a hidden place, raised his hand, and brought out his die. He immediately tapped it, and it slowly spun around before landing on four pips. Lu Yin was delighted at how easily he had gotten his desired roll, and he instantly snatched up his cosmic ring as the scenery changed before his eyes, and he appeared within the Timestop Space.
The first thing that he did was extend his time in the Timestop Space. Unfortunately, given that he was practically out of star essence, his only option was to extract a bit of his internal reserves in order to extend his time.
Once that was done, he took out the Root of Intelligence. It was time to comprehend more of the Overlaying Stacks Path. The Vacuum Palm was still Lu Yin’s most effective attack method.
