Chapter 2803: Leaving Without A Word
Lu Yin stared at Sovereign Shao Yin for a long moment. If only a few people rose up to the surface at once, and if they needed to fight off all the attackers on the surface, then there had to be some limits in place. Otherwise, no one would be able to survive this process. Even so, those who survived had to be absolute geniuses. This also explained the bloodthirstiness that Lu Yin saw in the people down below, regardless of their age.
"Does this junior also need to go through this process?" Lu Yin asked.
Sovereign Shao Yin revealed a small smile. "Of course not."
The countless disciples down below all coldly glared at Lu Yin. All of them had gone through the same gauntlet to reach their current position. They had survived the cruel competition and fighting underground. Upon reaching the surface, they had managed to fight back and avoid becoming yin fodder, escaping nearly certain death. Only by surviving all of that could they finally stand on the surface. Even so, living on the surface meant that they needed to use their yin energy to resist the sun’s yang energy. The moment their yin energy was consumed, they would be roasted by the sun.
All of them were in the same situation, so why was the newcomer an exception to the rules?
Even the greatest geniuses, such as Shao Gu and Shao Qingfeng, had survived the same process. No one was ever exempted
At that moment, Lu Yin saw the coldness and the killing intent that filled countless eyes that were focused on him.
"You don't need to go through the same process, but the rules cannot be broken. You will need to find your own way to rise up with the yin and yang energies, as only those energies can be used to cultivate the path of Extreme Yin. If you fail to do this, Yin and Yang can only be transformed into ladders through the power of Extreme Yin. Otherwise, even an Ascendant will be incinerated by the sun. Xuan Qi, the progress that you can make in two months’ time will depend solely on you."
With that, Sovereign Shao Yin left.
Once the Sovereign left, the people down below all relaxed, and they separated, scattering in all directions. Everyone had their own place that they wished to return to.
Those locations were where the disciples believed that someone would rise up from underground.
Lu Yin walked over to where Sovereign Shao Yin had just been standing and looked down. He saw Shao Gu looking up at him.
The woman did not say anything, and she simply stared at Xuan Qi for a moment before turning around to leave.
The blazing sun baked the earth, and Lu Yin looked out. In every direction he turned, someone would send the occasional glare at him. Whenever Lu Yin looked at the people here, they would avert their eyes and go back to focusing on their own cultivation.
After a few days passed, Lu Yin heard a scream ring out, capturing his attention. He stepped forward and arrived at where a person had just screamed.
A screaming man howled and kept rolling over the ground as a green smoke rose from his body. The man’s body melted and was reduced to ash as Lu Yin watched.
A few people watched from further away, but they were indifferent, and no one intervened.
This was the man's fate. The yin energy within his body had been exhausted, which meant that he could no longer withstand the scorching sun. This was his only possible fate.
"Do you sympathize with him?" Shao Gu spoke up from behind Lu Yin.
He turned around and looked at the woman. "A bit."
Shao Gu sneered. Her gaze flitted in a bewitching manner.. "Sympathy is the most useless emotion here. Master does not allow for sympathy, and death is the norm.
"Everyone needs to take responsibility for themselves. This man lacked ability, and he failed to rob others, while also not having much talent for the path of Extreme Yin. Death was inevitable, and there is no escape."
"Have you never considered that you might one day suffer the same fate?" Lu Yin asked in a flat tone. He had not yet tried to cultivate Extreme Yin power, which meant that he could ignore the scorching sun for now. Only those who had started cultivating Extreme Yin power would find themselves unable to resist the sun after their yin energy was exhausted.
Shao Gu moved closer and arrived at Lu Yin’s side. Her body gave off a delicate fragrance. Whether it was intentional or not, the back of her hand still brushed against Lu Yin's hand, giving him a chill. "I will wait until those who are much weaker than me all die in turn. Their energy will eventually be mine, but who can say when that will happen?”
Lu Yin glanced around, noticing that, while Sovereign Shao Yin’s countless disciples had varying amounts of yin energy, Shao Gu unquestionably had the most. She was clearly one of the strongest disciples, and if she died from losing all her yin energy, it would mean that Sovereign Shao Yin no longer had any disciples.
"More people will soon rise up from underground. If you want to rise up through yin and yang to cultivate Extreme Yin power, then you need to do so by stealing yin energy from the people who reach the surface. If not, you will never be able to cultivate Extreme Yin power." Shao Gu glanced at Xuan Qi and gave him a little smile. "Others have already worked their hardest, sometimes even risking their lives to steal yin energy. They have been waiting for the rare opportunity that appears to people climbing up from underground, and should they fail to seize this opportunity, they will suffer the same fate as this man. Tell me, can you steal this opportunity from them? I look forward to finding out."
With that, the woman left.
Lu Yin averted his eyes. Steal the opportunity? He was certainly not a kind person, but Sovereign Shao Yin’s disciples were forced to walk an extreme path. They had not committed any crimes, so why were they forced down such a dark path? The only reason was that this was the path that Sovereign Shao Yin had forced upon them. And now, Shao Gu wanted to force Xuan Qi down that path as well. How absurd. Had Lu Yin begged to visit the Extreme Yin Realm?
Lu Yin left the universe without saying a word.
Shao Gu suddenly spun around, only to see Xuan Qi had torn the void open and was leaving. She was dumbfounded.
Sovereign Shao Yin appeared abruptly, an ugly expression on his face.
"Master." Shao Gu was startled and hurriedly offered a bow.
The Sovereign’s expression was cold. How could this man possibly be so bold?
Sovereign Shao Yin had seen what had just happened, and after meeting the slightest bit of intimidation, the boy had instantly left. This should not have happened, as people normally needed to show the Sovereign some level of respect. What a bastard!
Shao Gu was terrified, and she hated Xuan Qi more than ever. How could he leave so casually? I didn’t even say anything. What if Master blames me for this again?
Suddenly, she remembered what Xuan Qi had just asked her; had she ever feared encountering such a day? The truth was that, if her master blamed her and became angry, he could easily strip her power away, leaving her to disappear into ashes.
This thought terrified Shao Gu more than ever, and she fell to her knees. "Master, your disciple didn't say anything to Xuan Qi! This was his doing alone."
"Enough, I know." Sovereign Shao Yin snorted contemptuously. This was not the first time that he had faced such a situation, so he suppressed his anger and left.
Lu Yin returned to the Voidforce Universe and made his way back to the Red Zone.
Xu Wuji was stunned to see the young man. "Why are you back?"
Lu Yin casually replied, "I was just taking a look."
Before Xu Wuji could even react, Sovereign Shao Yin appeared. "Xuan Qi, let's return to the Extreme Yin Realm’s Yinyang."[1]
Lu Yin smiled. It felt good to have someone backing him. Did Sovereign Shao Yin want to force Xuan Qi to go? That was a joke, as it was impossible to do so.
Lu Yin could barely wait for his Lu family to return, which would also bring Ancestor Lu Yuan and Ancestor Lu Tianyi back, as well as many others. At that time, even if Lu Yin bulldozed his way through the Sixverse Association, would even the Great Sovereign attack him? Would Sovereign Shao Yin still scheme against him? It was absurd to even think about it.
Upon returning to the Extreme Yin Realm, Sovereign Shao Yin sent Xuan Qi straight to the area dedicated for his disciples to cultivate. The rules of the place were not even mentioned.
Shao Gu struggled to reign in her anger. Xuan Qi was such a bastard!
The Yiyang was the area both above and below the surface, encompassing the region where the two energies intertwined.
The blazing sun’s yang energy intersected with the dark yin energy, but the two never intermixed. If one stood in the yin energy and looked towards the scorching sun, they would not be able to sense the heat.
The two times that Xuan Qi had rejected Sovereign Shao Yin caused the Sovereign to not want to interact with Xuan Qi at all. All that was desired was for Xuan Qi to serve his role as quickly as possible, as that was the only value he held. Afterwards, the Sovereign would force the young man to understand the consequences of his actions.
Even so, Sovereign Shao Yin spent half a month explaining how to cultivate Extreme Yin power to Xuan Qi. Even Shao Gu and the other disciples had never enjoyed this level of guidance, as Sovereign Shao Yin always left them to cultivate on their own. Any randomly offered advice was always regarded as a great gift. Why was the Sovereign treating Xuan Qi so well? The teachings being offered were even extremely thorough.
Lu Yin received the best treatment possible, despite Xuan Qi not being one of Sovereign Shao Yin’s disciples.
After half a month, Sovereign Shao Yin left, leaving Xuan Qi to cultivate Extreme Yin power on his own.
There were rules to everything in the universe. Where there was yang, there would always be yin. Yin and yang each birthed the other, and while they were intangible concepts, they even applied to the human heart.
Sovereign Shao Yin raised his disciples as though he were raising gu. This not only made them as selfish as the Sovereign himself, but it also exposed them to the darkness in people's hearts.
During this time, Lu Yin had come to understand that Sovereign Shao Yin did not truly cultivate an extreme version of yin energy, but rather Rot.
While others might not understand this, Lu Yin had worked things out after seeing Sovereign Shao Yin interact with sequence particles that were related to decay and corrosion.
As soon as anyone started interacting with sequence of particles, their strength would rise to an unimaginable level.
Old Mo wielded sequence particles that were related to a universe’s laws of darkness. While it might seem that darkness was more powerful than rot, when it came to sequence particles, everything depended on the user’s control and application.
Even so, both men had touched upon sequence particles that leaned towards the dark, just like Evernight.
Lu Yin could not help but wonder if, by fully mastering Evernight, he would also be able to touch upon the sequence particles of darkness, just like Old Mo. After all, when the old monster had been pulled into Evernight, he had lost his ability to wield sequence particles.
For a time, Lu Yin quietly trained.
His talent meant that he could easily acquire Extreme Yin power, and if he wanted to improve that particular cultivation method, he would have to absorb the power into his chest. Other cultivators would not dare to directly absorb the energy, as their bodies could not handle it, or they might even be incapable of doing so. However, Lu Yin was different. The system in his chest could subdue not just Extreme Yin, but even divine energy.
Lu Yin tried absorbing Extreme Yin power onto the fatesand landmass, only to discover that Extreme Yin power did not take on a physical form. Instead, it formed what looked like the vast universe above the landmass. It was like the darkness created by the absence of light.
There were numerous laws to a universe, such as light, darkness, vitality, life, rot, time, space, and more. There were simply too many to count.
Once he had absorbed a bit of the yin energy, Lu Yin felt like he could now absorb a vast amount of energy to fill the sky above the landmass in his chest.
However, he could not do this for the time being, as Sovereign Shao Yin would obviously notice what had happened. Thus, Lu Yin could only build some foundations.
Wait, that’s not necessarily true. Lu Yin thought for a bit and felt like there was something else that he needed to do.
Sovereign Shao Yin had asked Xuan Qi to help the four ruling powers frame Lu Yin as a spy. It was impossible for Lu Yin to do this. Bai Wangyuan and the others were probably paranoid of people being in disguise after Lu Yin’s previous infiltrations. If Lu Yin went, he would instantly be exposed. For this reason, he had already decided on who he would send in his place to pose as Xuan Qi.
Sovereign Shao Yin had seen Lu Yin’s true appearance, but that did not mean that the Sixverse Association was aware of it. Lu Yin could send someone else to impersonate Xuan Qi, and as the four ruling powers were unaware of Xuan Qi's true appearance, unless Sovereign Shao Yin himself made an appearance, then no one would realize that someone was impersonating Xuan Qi.
Lu Yin suddenly felt like it was not a bad thing that Sovereign Shao Yin had seen through his disguise during the Lost Clan’s Shangsan Festival.
The four ruling powers must have received an image of Xuan Qi, but Sovereign Shao Yin had also most likely told them that Xuan Qi was disguising himself. If Lu Yin sent a replacement, then the four ruling powers would naturally assume that the person typically disguised themselves to look like the image of Xuan Qi that Sovereign Shao Yin had shared with them.
Sovereign Shao Yin knew that Xu Wuwei was supporting Xuan Qi, so there was no way for him to make a connection between Xuan Qi and Lu Yin. The four ruling powers would only be able to verify whether the fake Xuan Qi disguised himself.
This was the same idea as how, when visiting a different city, no one would assume that whoever they were meeting was the same person that they had met in the previous city. This was not stupidity, but rather simple ignorance.
It was impossible for the four ruling powers to form a connection between Lu Yin and Xuan Qi, who had created a name for himself in the Sixverse Association.
1. Yes, this really is the name of the place.☜
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