There was one other important detail: Lu Yin had reached the Opened Eyes stage of Truesight from the Sky Platform in the Astral Combat Academy. He had also heard rumors saying that some of the Ten Arbiters had also climbed to the peak of the Sky Platform in the past. Given all of the Ten Arbiters’ high talent, whoever had climbed the Sky Platform had also likely reached the Clarity realm, or perhaps an even higher one.
There had to be others who were also looking for Rune Technology ruins.
If there were Rune Technology ruins in the Innerverse, then Lu Yin might not be able to defeat the other people searching for them. However, if anything was in the Outerverse, then it would definitely belong to him.
“The Zi family has only found four ruins after all these years?” Lu Yin asked.
Zi Fang fell silent.
Lu Yin grew excited. “Tell me the truth. Not only can I help you become the Zi family patriarch, but I can also help the Zi family return to being one of the four great conglomerates of the Outerverse once more. In fact, The Zi family will become the only intelligence network in the entire Outerverse.”
Zi Fang’s eyes lit up. He hesitated for a moment, but then he gritted his teeth. “Actually, the Zi family found a fifth ruin about a hundred years ago. However, we didn’t share this information with Gods’ Origin as my father wanted to use the location of these ruins as a bargaining chip to have Gods’ Origin take us into the Innerverse. The Zi family is fed up with staying in the Outerverse.”
Lu Yin shook his head. Zi Tianchuan was too ambitious. All Rune Technology ruins were extremely important, and there had to be someone else helping Gods’ Origin search for ruins in the Innerverse. Moreover, they might have found even more ruins in the Innerverse. Thus, it was impossible for Gods’ Origin to agree to Zi Tianchuan’s demands.
“Your father must not have negotiated with Gods’ Origin yet, right?” Lu Yin asked.
Zi Fang was curious. “How did you know that, Alliance Leader Lu?”
“If you had negotiated with them, the Zi family would have disappeared a hundred years ago,” Lu Yin spoke confidently.
Zi Fang sighed. “The location of the fifth ruin is my Zi family’s greatest secret. Alliance Leader Lu, I can tell you the precise location, but I hope that you can promise to not do anything detrimental to me provided that I don’t betray you. Also, you must ensure that I will become my family’s patriarch. These are my conditions for helping you.”
Lu Yin instantly agreed. To him, the Zi family’s greatest value was in providing information for him. He did not care if Zi Fang or Zi Xianxian was in charge of the family, as long as they continued to provide him with information.
Although it appeared that Lu Yin was closer to Zi Xianxian, that had been before Zi Rong’s death. Now, Zi Xianxian had no more good feelings towards him.
The location of the ruins ended up being very close to Armament Weave, and it actually lay between two weaves. That region had an unstable cosmological phenomenon surrounding it at all times. Thus, most spacecraft typically avoided the area, making it a desolate location.
Lu Yin immediately headed out the moment he received the exact coordinates. There weren’t any pressing issues for him to deal with in the Great Yu Empire or the Great Eastern Alliance. Additionally, everything that Lu Yin wanted to do was impossible for him at the moment, such as the situation regarding Undying Yushan.
He had also received the profits from the last Lu’s Grand Auction, which netted him almost 450,000 star essence. Before Endless Weave’s invasion, such an amount would have been an astronomical sum to Lu Yin since he had been relatively poor during that time. Even though he had more than two million star essence now, it was still a large sum.
This was just what he had received after everything was tallied up. The auction house itself had also earned a large sum, and they also belonged to Lu Yin.
The auction house’s profits had initially been earmarked for the auction house’s operational costs, but Lu Yin ordered Bei Qing to use that money to start a charity foundation under his name: the Lu Charity. Lu Yin also personally donated tens of thousands of star essence to the foundation.
Suddenly, the Lu Charity became an enormous charity even on the scale of the entire Outerverse.
How much was tens of thousands of star essence? It could be converted to an almost infinite amount of universal currency that could then be used to improve an astronomical number of people’s lives.
Ninety nine percent of the money in the universe was held in the hands of a select few people while the hoi polloi shared the remaining one percent. Thus, an insignificant percentage of Lu Yin’s wealth could change countless people’s lives.
It was just a small gesture, and cultivation was still Lu Yin’s ultimate goal.
Lu Yin had learned from his ambush last time, when he had headed out alone to investigate that mysterious source of heat. Thus, he preemptively put on his universal armor and even made sure that he could take out his walnut at any time. With his current equipment, he felt certain that, even if Zi Fang was working together with the Neohuman Alliance, he would still be able to escape unscathed.
Lu Yin was quite paranoid about this trip even though the incident with Zi Rong had caused the Hall of Honor to conduct a thorough investigation into the Zi family. They would have definitely found out if Zi Fang was working with the Neohuman Alliance or not.
Lu Yin only became certain that the ruins were real when he saw the unstable cosmic phenomenon, as it was actually a swirling mass of runes. Additionally, it was very similar to the cosmic phenomenon currently covering the Innerverse. However, in this case, it simply covered a small region of space.
Lu Yin did not know what effect this cosmic phenomenon had, so to be prudent, he removed his universal armor and suppressed his power level to under 10,000 before slowly entering the region with the cosmic phenomenon.
He entered fine, so he slowly raised his power level while nervously keeping an eye on the cosmic phenomenon. The phenomenon remained the same and continued swirling above him in an unstable manner.
Lu Yin sighed in relief. This was his first time interacting with a Rune Technology ruin, and he didn’t know what function those runes served. However, he would be happy as long as they did not erase his existence.
Rune Technology was truly amazing. Even though Lu Yin had the walnut, he was not confident in his ability to successfully escape from a remnant power of the Rune Civilization. When facing this unknown power, he was extremely nervous.
The Rune Technology ruins was actually a destroyed city floating through space. There was no land under it and nothing supporting it. It was just a small, abandoned city floating through the universe.
Lu Yin slowly walked into the city. His sight was greeted by rows of abandoned buildings. As he walked, he made sure to not step on anything. Every time he took a step, a group of runes would appear under his feet and hold him up. The entire city was supported by runes.
Meanwhile, black flames occasionally flitted through the sky, making it look like the city had been burned by black flames.
The layout of the city was very simple. The houses were built out of an unknown material, but it was likely very sturdy since it was able to survive in space without any assistance. However, due to the great deal of time that had passed, the houses crumbled the moment Lu Yin touched any of them.
Lu Yin obviously wasn’t the only person to have visited this place, as he could clearly see that a few houses had been recently destroyed by other people.
It wasn’t hard to enter the city, but it was difficult to find. One could reach this place as long as they passed through the cosmic phenomenon, though most people would not dare to do such a thing. The cosmic phenomenon looked quite scary from the outside, and the rune lines that Lu Yin had seen were nearly comparable to a peak Hunter’s.
Any spacecraft that approached the cosmic phenomenon would detect a power level ranging between 190,000 to 200,000, which was a very high power level for the Outerverse. Thus, it made sense why nobody dared to approach such a thing.
Although the city was not very large compared to the cities that Lu Yin had seen before, it was about the size of a normal country on Earth.
Lu Yin saw a knife in the corner of the abandoned city that had lain there for countless years. Its surface was pockmarked, but there was not a single hint of rust to be found.
When he picked it up, his eyes flashed. This was not a normal knife, as it had been formed from rune lines, which was why it had not rusted despite the passage of countless ages. However, the runes that formed the knife had slowly disappeared over the years, which had led to its pockmarked appearance. Perhaps after tens of thousands more years, the knife would simply cease to exist, not even leaving a trace behind.
Lu Yin furrowed his brows. He was able to reduce his enemy’s rune lines, but this knife indicated that it was also possible to gather runes and form any object that he desired. This was no longer something that belonged to the realm of battle. This was—creation.
Could runes truly create? Was it possible to create an entire person? A living creature? Or even a civilization?
Lu Yin could not comprehend such concepts, as it far exceeded his understanding.
Theoretically, according to the civilization created by the Rune Progenitor, everything in the universe was formed by runes. Therefore, it was possible to remove certain runes or even cause certain things to cease existing. Similarly, it was also possible to use runes to create certain items. This was the power of Rune Technology.
This idea still made sense for Rune Technology. However, everyone knew that something could not be created from nothing. Otherwise, the universe would have descended into chaos long ago. No human was able to create on their own, not even Progenitor realm powerhouses. Thus, Lu Yin also did not think that anyone had the power to create something from nothing.
However, what he was currently looking at was definitely real. The knife had truly been formed from rune lines, and he could clearly see that the knife consisted of runes. This meant that the other artifacts in the Rune Technology ruins might also be made of runes.
How did Rune Technology actually work?
Clarity was only the foundation of Rune Technology.
Lu Yin wanted to know how Rune Technology experts had fought against each other in the past; could they have truly created items out of nothing?
“Monkey, what do you know about Rune Technology?” Lu Yin asked.
The monkey replied, “Not much. However, according to the memoirs of a powerhouse, Rune Technology belonged to a civilization that should have never existed. This civilization was too astounding. Normally civilizations either focus on cultivation, technology, or remain primitive. But despite that limitation, the Rune Civilization was able to achieve everything, and it was slightly similar to human civilizations where cultivation coexisted alongside technology. However, they had one major difference, which was that the Rune Civilization focused more on creation than on research, but I don’t really know the details.
“The most common saying that people know about Rune Technology is ‘a sky covered by another sky.’”
A sky covered by another sky; Lu Yin didn’t understand what this saying meant. The sky of the Innerverse had been covered by the Rune Progenitor. Was that what that phrase was referring to? However, how could that be related to creation?
Lu Yin held the knife as he continued to wander deeper into the city. His domain spread out as he ventured inwards, but he was not able to find anything else that resembled the knife.
Half a day later, Lu Yin leapt up and flew towards a corner of the city. He had discovered a strange building with his domain, and the building’s style was quite different from the others.
Eventually, Lu Yin landed in front of a strange looking building. There were many construction styles throughout the universe, and Lu Yin was unsure of what style this building fit into. However, the most prominent feature of this building was the pair of eyes carved onto the door of the building; the pupils were made of runes.
This was a very familiar sigh. When one achieved the Clarity realm of Truesight, their pupils would transform into runes.
Lu Yin lifted his hand and pressed it against the door. He then exerted some strength and pushed the door, but it still did not budge. He continued pushing harder and harder, but it refused to move. Lu Yin’s domain had been blocked from entering the building, so he could not investigate further unless he opened this door.
