Finally, Xia Yingxiong spoke up, “We elders can only fight and kill. Academic work like this should be left to the kids.”
“Has anyone found Xian’er yet?” the old woman asked.
Bai Laogui answered, “No. My younger brother is stuck for the moment, but once he comes out, he will not be unmoved by this matter.”
“When she makes a move, everything will be taken care of, so why bother wasting time thinking about it?” Long Laogui commented.
The old woman replied, “The Progenitors’ support is the biggest thing, but even the Progenitors have their own difficulties. They cannot move at will. For now, we should await the Progenitors’ instructions. We shouldn’t expect those monsters to unite us through this. As for Long Xian, kill him on sight. Long Laogui, I assume that you have no problem with this.”
Long Laogui solemnly responded, “Of course not. My White Dragon Clan has already lost enough face from this.”
“So then, we are decided.”
…
On the White Dragon Clan’s Junior Progenitor Planet, Lu Yin and Liu Tianmu stood beneath the statue of Long Tian. They felt the ground tremble as bridges reconnected the four planets to each other before the planets started moving back towards the Middle Realm.
The current excursion to the Dominion Realm had ended.
As for Lu Yin, he felt it was a pity. Only he had gotten any Origin Matter, and no one else had grabbed any.
Long Xi had mentioned that while it was always a challenge to find Origin Matter in the Dominion Realm, each excursion found several pieces rather than just one. All that could be said was that the excursion had been cut short due to those monsters’ trap.
The monsters had used Long Xian to leak a map that had lured everyone to a trap. It was a chilling plan. Even if the four Junior Progenitors were eventually rescued, they would be barred from continuing to explore the Dominion Realm unless they were willing to break the rules. Doing so would be no different from crossing the Progenitors’ wishes, which would have a profound impact on their future. The four ruling powers would have to decide whether such an excursion was worth it or not.
If Lu Yin had a choice, then he would break the rules even if he was told no by the four ruling powers.
All of the youths were kept under strict guard on one of the Junior Progenitor Planets, just as Lu Yin and the others had expected.
While there was nothing suspicious about any of the remaining youths, it was impossible for the four ruling powers to simply believe their reports. Thus, this observational period was both expected and accepted.
This was as far as the plan that they had made went. Next, everyone had to find a way to return on their own.
As for Lu Yin, he needed to stall for time. He did not know how much the investigations would reveal, but if Wang Yi stepped forward, everything would be discovered.
Lu Yin wanted to escape ahead of the others and get to the rendezvous point that Unseen Light had shared with him first.
Although the White Dragon Clan’s Junior Progenitor Planet was not that big, Lu Yin still did not know where to go. In the end, he simply returned to the dark black magma where he had trained earlier.
After remembering his gains from the Dominion Realm, Lu Yin let out a long breath. If he wanted to, he could open up his middle meridian point at any time. After all, he had two pillars of tribulation crystals: one big and one small. However, that led to a rather large problem: he had no way of explaining how he had opened his middle meridian point when it was inevitably noticed. Lu Yin slowed his racing heart more and more.
He did not know if anyone was watching him, so Lu Yin released his domain, and eventually, he noticed a middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man noticed Lu Yin’s domain, and he gently told Lu Yin, “Elder Long Kui ordered me to tell you that he will escort you to the top of Dragon Mountain in the Higher Realm.”
The older man then closed his eyes and simply quietly stood in place.
Lu Yin retracted his domain and frowned. With Long Xi gone, the White Dragon Clan would not hold the same attitude towards Lu Yin that they had before. It was good for him to keep this in mind, as there were some members of the White Dragon Clan who wanted to get rid of Lu Yin, as his current status was a bit embarrassing to the clan.
No, he could not follow Long Kui to Dragon Mountain. If he reached the mountain, he could forget about leaving the place alive.
After having this thought, Lu Yin raised his head and brought out his die. There was no one in the Perennial World who could help him aside from Humility’s Gate, but if Lu Yin stepped foot onto Dragon Mountain, Humility’s Gate would no longer be able to provide him with any assistance. Therefore, he had to find a way to let Humility’s Gate assign him a mission.
It was impossible to get in contact with the outside world from any of the Junior Progenitor Planets, so Lu Yin’s only hope was to roll a six with his die.
Lu Yin had once tried to roll six pips with only a small amount of star essence nearby, and it had allowed him to Possess Guan Yun, who had been relatively close. With Lu Yin’s current strength, no matter who he Possessed, it would be beneficial to him..
The middle-aged man was acting with restraint, and so he was not actively monitoring Lu Yin. This was his only chance.
Lu Yin retrieved a bit of star essence from outside, but not much. He then set his cosmic ring aside, raised a hand, brought out his die, and tapped it. The die started to slowly spin around before ultimately stopping at five pips: Gift Copy.
This was useless, so Lu Yin rolled the die again.
His second try landed on one pip, and a piece of star crystal fell out. Lu Yin was left speechless, but he used the piece of star crystal to restore his die and roll again.
His third roll landed on two pips: Blackhole Disassembly. This was also useless, so he rolled the die for a fourth time, only to get a five.
Lu Yin frowned and took a deep breath before saying a silent prayer and rolling the die a final time. It stopped on three pips: Enhance.
Lu Yin blinked as he stared at the two light screens before waving a hand to disperse them.
Even though the middle-aged man was not actively monitoring Lu Yin, it did not mean that Lu Yin was willing to upgrade his items out in the open. What if he was discovered? It would have been fine if he rolled six pips, as he would simply appear to be training.
Originally, Lu Yin was limited to only rolling his die five times before he was forced to rest for ten days. Even though his cultivation had improved drastically since he had first awakened his first innate gift, this limit had not changed.
During the next ten days, Lu Yin behaved normally as he melted star essence over the magma and quickly absorbed it.
While he did this, the middle-aged man occasionally swept through the area with his star energy, but he was unconcerned after seeing that Lu Yin was simply cultivating.
Lu Yin felt afraid. It seemed that the various organizations were still concerned about the youths. But even if they had doubts and suspicions, nothing serious had come to light. It was normal for people to die while exploring the Dominion Realm, and any survivors could only be considered to be lucky.
After ten days, Lu Yin raised his hand and brought out his die again.
This time, he was lucky. His very first roll was six pips, and he watched as the scenery around him change to that strange, dark space. There, he saw an array of orbs of light appear. He immediately merged with the closest orb, and he soon felt lightheaded. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was being held by a pair of jade-white arms.
Lu Yin was stunned; what the hell?
“Let’s just rest for a while. That old man won’t be coming back anytime soon since he went to the Island of Hope to curry favor with the Junior Progenitor.” The owner of the jade arms was a beautiful woman who was curled up like a kitten within Lu Yin’s arms. Lu Yin had Possessed someone named Zhu Xian, and he was holding another man’s wife.
Memories continued to pour in as Lu Yin stared at the beautiful woman he was holding with a strange expression.
This person was from a branch of the Xia family in the Middle Realm. The branch patriarch, Xia Ru, was a powerhouse almost as strong an Envoy. Thus, he had traveled to the Island of Hope to offer his compliments to Junior Progenitor Xia Shenfei. Lu Yin had Possessed Xia Ru’s sworn brother, and the woman that he was holding was actually Xia Ru’s wife.
This matter was nothing much. Rather, even more bizarrely, Zhu Xian had actually been placed within the Xia family by the Celestial Frost Sect. He was a traitor who had also started an affair with the wife of another family’s patriarch. Xia Ru himself greatly respected Zhu Xian and hoped that the man would become an Envoy, which was why Xia Ru intended to allow Zhu Xian to observe the tribulation when he attempted to become an Envoy.
There was nothing straightforward about this matter. What a mess! Lu Yin felt a headache.
As Lu Yin held her, Madam Xia opened her eyes and looked at Zhu Xian with a smile. “You look so silly right now! Why? We’ve been doing this for so long, so why are you still afraid? You already have this branch family under your control, and if not for Xia Ru’s identity, you would already be its master.”
As she spoke, she leaned closer and closer to Lu Yin.
Lu Yin grew flustered as he saw Madam Xia approaching him, so he quickly ended the Possession. He returned to the dark space and then back to his own body. He opened his eyes and let out a long breath. That had been very tempting.
For some reason, Madam Xia had reminded Lu Yin of Madam Nalan. However, Madam Xia could not compare to Madam Nalan’s natural seductiveness.
Lu Yin shook his head vigorously and put no more thought to the matter. He lifted his head and brought the die back out to roll it again. Zhu Xian clearly had not been of any help.
The second roll ended on four pips.
Once again, Lu Yin’s vision changed, and he appeared in the Timestop Space.
As long as he entered this place, he would be able to get whatever roll he needed, but Lu Yin did not have enough star essence to Enhance any items at this time. He also did not want to cultivate with his own resources, as he wanted to stabilize his cultivation while embezzling some star essence into his own cosmic ring. At the moment, he needed to slow down his rate of improvement.
Still, he could study the Origin Matter.
Lu Yin took out the leaf. He looked at it all over, but it did not look like anything special. However, he could not tear it apart with his strength.
He also tried using star energy, but that also gave no response. After thinking for a bit, Lu Yin dripped a bit of his blood onto the leaf, but there was still no response. This thing was quite strange.
This was supposed to help a person open their upper meridian point, so how could there be no response at all?
Did a person have to first open their middle meridian point before the Origin Matter would have any response?
Lu Yin studied the leaf for a few days, but he could not discover anything at all. After three days passed, he left the Timestop Space. He actually did not see any reason why this Origin Matter was not fake! He felt like this was actually very likely since it had been used in a trap set by those monsters. They might have used a fake that was even able to deceive the Junior Progenitors.
Lu Yin gritted his teeth at the thought that he had been tricked.
He secretly cursed before continuing to roll his die.
On the fifth roll, it landed on six pips again, and Lu Yin reentered that dark space. Without any hesitation, he chose a bright orb of light and merged with it.
Lu Yin’s eyes instantly snapped open, but before he could get a clear look at anything, the body that he had Possessed was seized by a massive tentacle. He instinctively wanted to resist, but the body that he had Possessed could not use the Ce Secret Art.
Lu Yin felt stunned, and his body was dragged into the ground. What the hell was going on? He saw that he was not the only creature being dragged away by the tentacles; were those things all around him terror ants?
Lu Yin’s scalp went numb, and his whole body trembled. He had actually fallen into a terror ant colony. No, the terror ants were also being grabbed by the tentacles.
A foul stench assaulted his nostrils, and Lu Yin turned to see an unforgettable scene. There was a round mouth that looked like a black abyss, and it was sucking him in along with a horde of countless terror ants. This was an anteater!
Lu Yin’s consciousness went blank. The body that he had Possessed had died.
His consciousness returned to his body. Inside his chest, the black and white mist trembled and increased by a small bit. Lu Yin did not even notice it, as he was busy remembering what he had just witnessed.
He must have been in the Lower Realm, as terror ants could only be found in that place.
Terror ants were the natural enemy of countless creatures in the Lower Realm, and when Lu Yin had traveled to the Lower Realm with Long Xi, they had both possessed power vessels that could protect them from Envoys. But even then, they could only flee when faced with a horde of terror ants.
And yet, those same terror ants were nothing but the food of that terrifying anteater. What level of strength did that creature possess? It had to have a power level of at least a million, or perhaps it was even comparable to a Semi-Progenitor!
