Not long after Lu Yin arrived at the residence, Peach arrived with a tortured expression.
Lu Yin could already guess what had happened.
“I’m sorry. I lost your friend,” Peach sincerely apologized to Lu Yin, her face extremely cute.
Lu Yin smiled as he consoled, “Peach, Bai Xue is an adult and is responsible for her own behavior. Getting lost is her fault and not your responsibility.”
Peach obstinately said, “I don’t even know what happened. She just vanished mysteriously. I didn’t even sense anything when she disappeared.”
Lu Yin was shocked since he assumed that she had lost track of Bai Xue when Yu Academy had fallen into chaos when the second prince, Duke Yushan, defected. A portion of Yu Academy had left the academy grounds at that time, and it was very possible that Bai Xue had been taken out as well since she had an innate gift. But now it seemed that there might be other matters at play. “How?”
Peach didn’t know either. “I really don’t know.”
“Didn’t she go in the first round?”
Peach shook her head. “No, she went missing in the Sixth Imperial Squadron’s encampment. A super powerhouse should have been the one to take her away, but I couldn’t feel any trace of remnant star energy. I’ve reported this to His Majesty, and he said that only a Hunter or above powerhouse could have accomplished such a thing. And it must have been no ordinary Hunter, either, as the emperor couldn’t sense anything either.”
Lu Yin was shocked to hear Peach’s words. For someone to be able to hide their movements from Undying Yushan, they were definitely a super powerhouse. But why Bai Xue? And Zhang Dingtian, Seruzen, Xu San are all missing as well. Could their disappearances all be related to this mysterious super powerhouse? They were all very ordinary and their only commonality lay in their shared origin of Earth. But Earth should be a very ordinary planet without any connections to any super powerhouses.
Lu Yin felt helpless as he could not make sense of what had happened either. He told Peach, “It’s unrelated to you, so don’t blame yourself.”
Peach nodded with a gloomy face. She liked Bai Xue, but the woman had gone missing on her watch.
Peach left soon after, but before she left, she told Lu Yin that Wendy had brought her many snacks from the Innerverse. Lu Yin knew what she was hinting at, but he really had no more snacks and so could only gently push her away.
Torry Auna arrived shortly after Peach left.
“King Zishan, Your Highness, this is the Auna clan’s welcome gift for you. Please accept our good wishes,” Torry Auna said as he passed an information chip to Lu Yin.
Lu Yin received the chip and smiled at Torry Auna. “Please convey my thanks to Xueshan Auna.”
Torry Auna nodded and slowly left.
Lu Yin inserted the chip into his gadget and discovered that it was actually a list of names. More specifically, it was a list of names of those who were once loyal to the Zishan clan. Sigmund Mathers name was on the list. Additionally, there was a portion of the names that had been labeled as traitors.
This list of names was rather similar to Silver’s; it was more detailed, but the two lists were essentially identical.
This list represented the Auna clan’s sincerity in dealing with Lu Yin. If not for Silver’s gift, Lu Yin would have been extremely excited to receive this gift, but since it was just a copy of information that he already had, this gift held no practical value to him. Even money would have been better…
Lu Yin crushed the chip into dust and looked at his gadget, recalling something.
Master Wusheng had given Lu Yin several instructions before he left Astral-10. One was to wait for the network to finalize his approval as a Lockbreaker. Lu Yin did not know if it had finished yet, but he went ahead and entered the code that Master Wusheng had given him. The registration interface immediately popped up on his display.
After Lu Yin entered his serial identification number for the Lockbreaker Society and went through several rounds of authentication, a message finally appeared that stated, “Congratulations, Lu Yin, for successfully being verified as a Lockbreaker. Please choose a pseudonym and begin your great, lockbreaking journey.”
Lu Yin’s eyes gleamed and immediately entered a pseudonym—Seventh Brother.
A moment later, the display changed to a general interface. There were various guides and rules concerning Lockbreakers, and there was also a flashing icon in the bottom-right hand corner. Someone was trying to contact him.
Lu Yin curiously opened the icon, only to receive a flood of congratulatory messages from all over the universe. The senders included various empires of the universe, clans, companies, institutions, and even research organizations. The congratulatory messages were so numerous that they nearly overwhelmed him.
While he had known that Lockbreakers held a high status, he had never known that it was to this extent! He was just a new member with no accomplishments to his name, but so many people had already rushed to reach out and congratulate him. This was just too unbelievable! He was sure that even the Great Yu Empire was one of the well wishers.
Lu Yin immediately closed the messaging program. There’s too many. I don’t have the time to view them all.
An icon close to the messaging icon flashed on the display with the description, “Sourcebox Catalog,” below it.
Lu Yin’s eyes lit up. He had read through Master Wusheng’s books and now had some cursory knowledge about lockbreaking. For example, objects that required lockbreaking were called “sourceboxes.” Over the countless years of the universe’s existence, innumerable treasures had been birthed into existence before being covered in dust and sealed away. These were sourceboxes, and lockbreaking was the only method that could restore them to pristine condition.
The Sourcebox Catalog was essentially a collection of lockbreaking videos. Any Lockbreaker could film and then upload a video of them lockbreaking onto their own channel in the Sourcebox Catalog. This channel could then be sold, exchanged, and if suitably qualified, uploaded onto the Lockbreaker net itself for others to view and admire.
The flashing Sourcebox Catalog icon meant that there were new lockbreaking videos available to view.
Lu Yin opened it expectantly, and a series of messages appeared before his eyes: “Congratulations to Seventh Brother for entering the Lockbreaker Society. Mavis Bank has sent five videos from the Sourcebox Catalog,”
“Congratulations, Seventh Brother, for entering the Lockbreaker Society. Exotic Metal Union has sent three videos from the Sourcebox Catalog,”
“Congratulations, Seventh Brother, for entering the Lockbreaker Society. Shamrock Enterprises has sent three videos from the Sourcebox Catalog…”
Each message stirred Lu Yin’s heart. Every one of these messages had been sent by a powerful force of the universe, and there were dozens of messages. Lu Yin hadn’t even heard of half of them, but since they were able to enter the Lockbreaker network and send messages, they were definitely not simple, and they most likely even had Lockbreakers of their own.
Mavis Bank, Shamrock Enterprises, Daynight clan, Fire Realm… All sorts of powers expressed their goodwill towards Lu Yin. With regards to a Lockbreaker’s status, even a powerful, ancient family like the Daynight clan did not dare to act too haughtily. This was the respect that a Lockbreaker commanded.
Lu Yin rejoiced once again that he had successfully joined the Lockbreaker Society and that he was now able to experience another world.
In his excited state, Lu Yin started watching the Sourcebox Catalog videos that these powers had gifted him. First up was the one from Mavis Bank.
He saw a strange, towering black rock that stood in stark contrast to its desolate surroundings. A man slowly approached the rock, the void tearing apart as he neared. The desolate ground changed as well; the man’s appearance seemed to have disrupted the immediate area’s balance, causing it to break apart in stress fractures. The void started to crumble, but even this could not influence the man.
When the man finally reached the bottom of the black rock, he calmly reached out to touch it. He mumbled to himself as he circled the stone. After making a complete round, he began hitting it at specific points. An hour passed, during which cracks slowly spread across the black stone’s surface until it finally collapsed. In the instant that it collapsed, the surrounding void seemed to be on the verge of completely shattering. The man used one hand to stabilize the space and forcefully mend it back together. Finally, the desolate ground was enveloped by a green layer of light, and countless plants started to grow from it. Before the man appeared a towering green rhizome.
This rhizome had always been sealed by the black stone and was finally freed by the man.
Lu Yin was shocked. So this was lockbreaking; that black rock had actually been the universe’s star energy and all other sorts of special energies that had formed around the rhizome and sealed it in over the passage of time, turning it into a sourcebox. And it had been successfully unlocked in this video.
The process seemed simple, but every step was fraught with fatal danger. That entire desolate land had been within the pressure and influence range of the sourcebox, which meant that anyone who stepped in would face a tremendous pressure. It was such a dangerous place that even the void had collapsed upon the slightest imbalance. In order to successfully perform his lockbreaking, this man had spent a whole hour to shatter the outer shell formed by the energy. This was a laborious process where a single wrong move could cause the man to die, as well as cause the sourcebox to be destroyed altogether.
This man in the video was definitely a super powerhouse who could move freely throughout the universe, or he would not have been able to forcefully mend the shattered space back together. Lockbreaking not only required a deep control and understanding of star energy, but it also required one to have vast strength. Without a certain level of power, a Lockbreaker may not even be able to approach a sourcebox.
Lu Yin recalled the title page of the book that Master Wusheng had given him. There was a line that went, “No two identical sourceboxes exist in the universe.”
Each and every lockbreaking process was unique, which was one of the main reasons why lockbreaking had extraordinarily high requirements for one’s control over their star energy and even more stringent requirements for one’s experience. This was why there were hundreds and thousands of Lockbreakers constantly watching and studying the videos that other Lockbreakers had posted on the Sourcebox Catalog. By increasing their knowledge and experience, not only could a Lockbreaker improve their chances of success, but they could also improve their chances of surviving.
Lockbreakers enjoyed a lofty status in the universe, but in exchange, they had to bear an unimaginable danger. This was because sourceboxes were sealed by the universe, and unsealing any sourcebox was basically a battle against the universe itself.
Lu Yin muttered a couple inaudible curses as he clicked his tongue. He wanted to view that video again, but he could not access it anymore. Each video could only be viewed once, and he would have to pay to view it again. Damn…
There was nothing Lu Yin could do about it, so he selected the next one.
This time, the setting was at the bottom of an ocean. The angle was not a panoramic view, but rather only showed a pair of hands. This person seemed to have used their gadget to film, which meant that this Lockbreaker had shot the video by themselves.
The snow-white pair of hands were evidently a girl’s. As the camera moved and the video progressed, Lu Yin eventually caught sight of the sourcebox. This time it was a fish, or more accurately, a frozen fish stuck within a grey material.
Nobody knew how long this fish had been sealed away for, but it had an ancient aura around it. The sealed sourcebox slowly floated up from the ocean floor.
When it appeared, countless marine lifeforms with scarlet eyes swarmed over from all directions to attack the lady. The woman waved her hands, staining the water red with blood in an instant. Even the strongest of those marine creatures was merely as strong as a Melder, and the majority were only at the level of a Sentinel. The woman in the video was a Limiteer and had easily dealt with them with a wave of her hand.
Limiteers were generally only Junior Lockbreakers, so these videos that featured them helped Lu Yin greatly. The first video was something that he could only look up to; who knew how long it would take him to reach that standard.
With the marine creatures removed, the woman was able to easily grab the frozen fish. As she stroked it with her hands, she seemed to be sensing something. Lu Yin guessed that she was using her star energy to get a better sense of the fish’s surface so that she could better break down the dust that it was sealed in.
After a long time, the dark, dusty material on the fish’s surface gradually lightened. It had originally been dark grey, but it had now turned ash gray and was continuing to grow lighter with each passing minute.
After two hours, all of the dust that had been sealing the fish had vanished. The fish’s eyes flashed as it regained its original appearance; it was brightly colored and a wise radiance seemed to flicker across its eyes. It was clearly a valuable specimen.
The video ended there, not revealing the fish’s abilities or uses; it had been hidden by the video owner. Every sourcebox was valuable, but the sealed treasures would gradually deteriorate and disintegrate over time. Sometimes, after removing the seal, there might not even be anything left inside. However, anyone who came across a sealed sourcebox would be willing to have it unlocked, as there was always the possibility that an astonishing object was contained within.
