Lu Yin was suddenly struck by a boundless pressure. His body trembled as his skin broke open. He barely managed to resist spitting out blood as the pressure tried to break his body apart. There was a snap as his Champions’ Stage disappeared, as well as Bai Shaohong. Almost immediately after that, Cang Zhou was also unable to endure the mounting pressure.
This pressure was unlike anything that Lu Yin had ever experienced before. It really did feel like he was being refined by heaven and earth. He clenched his fists and wrapped his battle force around his body even as his skin continued to crack and break. His battle force eventually shattered, causing the pressure he felt to suddenly increase.
The countless people watching the battle were stunned. They could see inside the cauldron, and it was clear that space had collapsed within the Heaven and Earth Cauldron. It looked as though that part of the universe had returned to a primordial state with only Lu Yin existing as an anomaly that vainly tried to escape destruction.
How difficult was it to break open the universe? Lu Yin was already covered in blood, and he was growing desperate. He started reciting the Origin Sutra, and although it let him relax slightly as the ancient voice called out, the pressure did not fade or diminish. Instead, it started to grow even stronger than ever.
It was at this moment that Lu Yin understood why his stellular tribulation had manifested Progenitor Chen as an Enlighter. Lu Yin was facing a crisis. His opponent really did seem to be invincible.
Lu Yin had believed himself to be peerless. After all, he was an Enlighter who could fight against Envoys with power levels exceeding 700,000. This was something practically unheard of throughout history, but Progenitor Chen had been capable of doing the same thing.
Blood ran down Lu Yin’s body and dripped into space. He looked terrible.
To the west, Lan Xian was startled, and she slowly commented, “Progenitor Nan was refined right in front of the Daosource Sect’s gate by Progenitor Chen’s Heaven and Earth Furnace. Countless people were forced to watch, unable to do a thing as the Progenitor was refined. It was a terrible tragedy.”
Qing Hua knew that if the Progenitor of Combat or the Progenitor of Bloodlines were to be refined in the current era, the Sixth Mainland would face an unimaginable disaster. The situation had not been very different back when Progenitor Nan had been refined.
Heaven’s Furnace was not opaque, so everyone could clearly see everything within it. This was what had made Progenitor Nan’s fate even more tragic, and it made the event a complete humiliation for the Sixth Mainland. What had happened back then? What had instigated Progenitor Chen into acting so domineeringly?
Regardless of the motivations behind Progenitor Chen’s actions, the event had been a humiliation that the Sixth Mainland had erased from history, and Progenitor Nan’s disgraceful end had forced him to be erased from history as well.
Lu Yin’s blood continued to leak into Heaven’s Furnace, and he was starting to weaken. He stumbled when he lost the Immovable Heavenly King Elephant, but his pupils still transformed into runes as he tried to use the Knowing realm of Truesight.
All of the pressure that Lu Yin felt instantly disappeared, but the cauldron did not break or disappear. The Knowing realm of Truesight could make Lu Yin temporarily invincible and unable to feel the pressure from the cauldron.
However, Lu Yin would not be able to maintain the Knowing realm of Truesight for too long. Truesight was still a technique, and it was impossible to use it without limits.
There should have only been three of Progenitor Chen’s clones left outside of Heaven’s Furnace, but they quickly became seven. No, there was one more who had appeared, which meant there were eight clones present.
The eighth clone immediately stared straight at Lu Yin after it appeared.
Lu Yin stared back at the clone and then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The longer the fight with Progenitor Chen lasted, the more helpless Lu Yin felt.
He had always heard that Progenitor Chen was invincible, and everyone had always admired the man, but they had also secretly wished to one day fight Progenitor Chen to see just how invincible he had been.
Only when actually fighting against Progenitor Chen could one understand such a level of powerlessness.
Everyone who was watching also felt hopeless. Although it was only a battle between Enlighters, it even left powerhouses like the Second Nightking breathless.
Even though Lu Yin had obtained nearly an endless number of opportunities, he had already used up almost everything at his disposal. This thought brought a smile to his face. “This has been so much fun. Progenitor Chen, I hope that one day in the future, I’ll have the chance to face you for real.”
As soon as Lu Yin finished speaking, his skin began to dry up. He had just used Extremes Must Be Reversed.
This was a truly miraculous technique that allowed the user who had reached an extreme state to be reverted back. Activating the technique would cause a person’s body to become desiccated, but their body would also gradually recover as they were attacked. The stronger the attack was, the faster the person would recover and accumulate strength.
Lu Yin had not wanted the technique when he first obtained it. He had not felt that Progenitor Ku had been a very impressive powerhouse. Although the man had been a Progenitor, his reputation was practically nonexistent. In the Perennial World’s Dominion Realm, Progenitor Ku’s territory had been located rather deep, and Lu Yin had once heard someone say that the further away from the center of the Mother Tree their territory was, the more powerful the Progenitor had been.
When Lu Yin had obtained Progenitor Ku’s technique, he had thought the Progenitor to be average at best.
Time had passed, and Lu Yin had learned that he had been horribly mistaken. Extremes Must Be Reversed had allowed Lu Yin to heal from the injuries that the Semi-Progenitor Wang Si had inflicted upon him, and it had also allowed him to survive being poisoned by the Aeternals, despite the poison targeting something like a person’s time. On top of that, Lu Yin had learned from Xin Nü that Progenitor Ku had controlled one of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas.
Lu Yin’s expectations for Extremes Must Be Reversed had completely transformed, as it was the battle technique that had been stored in the Voidsoul Palace in the same place as Progenitor Ku’s secret technique. Lu Yin had initially thought that Extremes Must Be Reversed was a useless technique, but he had later discovered it to be the most precious treasure in the Voidsoul Palace. Its value even surpassed the Ku Secret Art.
Luckily, Lu Yin had been the one to obtain Extremes Must Be Reversed, as without it, he would have almost no chance against the cauldron that he was trapped within.
Lu Yin was almost unable to endure the pressure from the cauldron, but it was not enough to instantly overwhelm him, which made it perfect for Extremes Must Be Reversed.
Everyone outside the cauldron watched as Lu Yin suddenly seemed to ignore the pressure from Heaven’s Furnace, but then they saw his body dry up. No one had any idea what Lu Yin was doing.
Everyone had heard of Progenitor Chen before, and countless people admired him. In contrast, Progenitor Ku was practically unknown, and not even Lan Xian had heard the Progenitor of Bloodlines mention the Progenitor before, let alone Extremes Must Be Reversed.
Not a single person watching had any idea what Lu Yin was doing.
Once his body was completely desiccated, he undid the Knowing realm of Truesight and allowed the pressure to return.
As soon as the pressure returned, Lu Yin’s body recovered halfway back to normal almost immediately. He quickly used Extremes Must Be Reversed again, which caused him to dry back up. The pressure continued to mount, which led to an endless cycle of Lu Yin recovering, drying up, recovering, and drying up yet again.
No one knew what Lu Yin was doing, nor did any of them understand it. Even Lan Xian, a Semi-Progenitor, was clueless.
Still, not understanding did not reduce the amazement that they all felt by what Lu Yin was doing.
Heaven’s Furnace was a truly terrifying and legendary thing, but what Lu Yin was doing within it was even more absurd. He was going against Heaven’s Furnace, which was an innate gift freakish enough to refine even Progenitors. Back then, both Progenitor Nan and Progenitor Chen had been Progenitors, and yet Progenitor Nan had been refined by this cauldron. Similarly, both Progenitor Chen and Lu Yin were Enlighters, and yet Lu Yin was able to resist Heaven’s Furnace.
Lan Xian grew increasingly excited as she watched. “Is there really a person who can directly face Progenitor Chen?”
One day. Two days. Three days… Seven days passed with the same cycle repeating itself over and over. It looked like this cycle would never end.
On the ninth day, space distorted, and Heaven’s Furnace faded away. Not even Progenitor Chen was able to maintain his innate gift indefinitely.
Everyone stared at Lu Yin. He was still sitting cross-legged in the same place as ever, and his body was completely dry. What had happened? He was not dead, was he?
Boom!
Progenitor Chen did not wait, and the colossal giant with aurelian force that burned the void punched at Lu Yin, sending him flying. Right after that, black ropes stretched across space and bound Lu Yin up. It was the Wang family’s secret technique, Confinement.
The Xia family’s Triple Blade Will. The Cosmic Art. One attack after another appeared, and all of them fell directly on Lu Yin. He was like a sandbag that was being beaten by all of Progenitor Chen’s clones.
Everyone stared in confusion. Had Lu Yin given up?
Lan Xian also felt rather confused, but then she noticed something. Every time Lu Yin was attacked, his body recovered a bit. What was this? What technique had he learned?
Lu Yin looked pathetic with blood covering his entire body. His skin was completely dry, and it also looked like it was cracking.
Many people gave up on Lu Yin when they saw him being beaten by Progenitor Chen’s clones without fighting back or even defending himself. There were only a few people whose sight was a bit more discerning, and they were able to see that, even though Lu Yin was being attacked, there were no injuries on him whatsoever, which was very odd.
Lu Yin’s body slowly and miraculously recovered, and then his eyes opened. A terrifying aura swept out, throwing all eight of Progenitor Chen’s clones back.
The eight clones suddenly merged together, and a knife of star energy appeared and slashed out in a single attack. All eight clones had merged into one, and Progenitor Chen had unleashed his strongest Triple Blade Will yet straight at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin’s eyes blazed. His foot rose, and then he shot forward. There were no battle techniques or fancy moves, just a simple, direct punch. It shattered the Triple Blade Will and continued on to Progenitor Chen. Lu Yin finally came to a stop a thousand meters past Progenitor Chen, and he relaxed his fist. “It’s over.”
Behind Lu Yin, Progenitor Chen’s body slowly faded away. He transformed into bolts of lighting that drifted up and returned to the vortex that was the stellular tribulation.
Everyone was flabbergasted. He won? Had Lu Yin actually defeated Progenitor Chen?
No one had expected the battle to undergo a sudden reversal. Had Lu Yin actually defeated Progenitor Chen? No one could understand what had happened.
Lu Yin let out a long breath. He had been suppressed in Heaven’s Furnace for nine days, and during that entire time, he had been using Extremes Must Be Reversed and gathering power. That last attack had released the stored power, and it had been enough to utterly defeat Progenitor Chen.
He turned around and stared back at his humanoid tribulation as Progenitor Chen disappeared. There was a solemn expression on Lu Yin’s face. Progenitor Chen had been as invincible as Lu Yin had expected, and he was the only person who could challenge Lu Yin within the same realm.
Suddenly, Lu Yin frowned. Eight clones. Only eight of Progenitor Chen’s clones had appeared, but everyone knew that Progenitor Chen had possessed nine clones. What had happened to the ninth clone? Why had it never appeared?
It should not have been that there was not enough time for it to appear. Lu Yin had spent days accumulating power with Extremes Must Be Reversed, and his final punch had done nothing less than release the full power of Heaven’s Furnace accumulated over the course of those nine days in a single attack. Without that accumulation of power, Lu Yin would have been stuck in a very difficult battle, and he most likely would have been forced to use the God of Death Transformation to end things.
This realization caused Lu Yin to laugh. He had not expected Progenitor Chen to inadvertently help him release his most powerful attack ever. Still, Lu Yin was incredibly curious about Progenitor Chen’s ninth clone.
Progenitor Chen was the representative of the Xia family while Lu Yin represented the Lu family. The Lu family had always suppressed the Xia family, but Progenitor Chen had been different. He had been an absolute genius and utterly invincible within his generation. No one from the Lu family had been able to compare to Progenitor Chen, and yet Lu Yin had defeated him.
After countless years of Progenitor Chen being acknowledged as invincible, Lu Yin had defeated the man. This stunned everyone to the point where even a Semi-Progenitor like Lan Xian was staring at Lu Yin in disbelief.
Progenitor Chen had demonstrated an inconceivable level of combat power, but Lu Yin had been even more unfathomable.
Lan Xian then remembered that the Progenitor of Bloodlines had once said that Progenitor Chen was unique throughout the ages. Who could ever compare to him? That person had finally appeared. Even though Lu Yin was still just an Enlighter, who could foresee the future?
“This was truly the most desperate stellular tribulation ever,” some people remarked. No one could deny it. Encountering Progenitor Chen during a stellular tribulation was absolutely the unluckiest one could be, but it also indicated that the person who had triggered the tribulation was unprecedentedly powerful. How many people were qualified to face Progenitor Chen?
“It’s over. Lu Yin has passed his tribulation! I can’t even imagine what his combat strength will rise to from here.” Elder He smiled and let out a long sigh of relief.
Ling Qiu responded with a wry smile. He had never expected Lu Yin to survive this tribulation and actually beat Progenitor Chen. The youth would become the next Progenitor Chen. If Lu Yin became a Progenitor, it meant that joining the Great Eastern Alliance would actually be an incredible opportunity.
