Chapter 2743: Proximity
Lu Yin did not want Cang Bi to die. While the man was from the Three Monarchs Universe, which was an enemy of the Origin Universe, Cang Be had not participated in that matter. Additionally, as someone with the strength of a Semi-Progenitor, he could be extremely useful in the Gemini Universe.
If Lu Yin faced off against a peak powerhouse while in the Big Stone Universe, he could not guarantee Cang Bi’s safety.
Lu Yin soon arrived at the portal that connected the Gemini Universe to the Big Stone Universe. He had spent two months fighting in the Gemini Universe to trigger the universe’s green light, but he had no idea how long it would take before the corpse kings returned.
A crowd of cultivators from both the Gemini Universe and the Sixverse Association started at Lu Yin, watching as he passed through the portal and entered the Big Stone Universe.
A single step forward took Lu Yin from one universe into the other.
The moment he arrived in the Big Stone Universe, he felt uncomfortable. It was as if he had stepped into a quagmire.
However, it was not the time to think about such things, as a massive, slitted, scarlet eye was directly in front of him.
Lu Yin's pupils shrank sharply, and he used Inverse Step to escape.
Right where Lu Yin had been standing, a hand fell. It tore through the void as a Progenitor-level corpse king attacked. The pressure from the single attack nearly sent Lu Yin flying.
He had not even had a chance to evade by escaping along the spatial lines, and he had been lucky to even use the Inverse Step. The reversed time from the technique had allowed Lu Yin to escape the sudden attack.
The corpse king’s eyes moved, fixed upon Lu Yin. The monster acted as though it had not expected Lu Yin to avoid the attack.
Lu Yin frowned as he stared back at the corpse king. Cang Bi had warned him that it was common to be ambushed when passing through a portal on the Endless Frontier. Both the Aeternals and the Sixverse Association frequently left traps at portals in an attempt to deal with enemies who traveled between universes.
Each parallel universe on the Endless Frontier had two key locations: the local data center where information was gathered and sent on to the Endless Frontier’s command center, and the portals that connected the various parallel universes together.
Both the Sixverse Association and Aeternus did their best to seize control of both locations in every universe.
Lu Yin exhaled. His opponent was clearly a Progenitor-level corpse king, but why did it only have one eye? It also looked injured.
"Die." The large corpse king stretched out a hand to grab hold of Lu Yin.
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. He had not expected to encounter a Progenitor-level enemy the moment he passed through the portal. The Big Stone Universe might be even more dangerous than his initial estimations.
Lu Yin did not fight against the giant corpse king directly, as he instead continuously avoided its attacks.
The corpse king was fast and nimble, but Lu Yin was even faster, especially because he was able to perceive spatial lines. No matter how quickly the corpse king moved, it was unable to land a single hit.
Lu Yin cautiously threw out a palm strike, leaving an imprint on the corpse king’s body and knocking it back a step.
It seemed that it was not particularly powerful!
Lu Yin took out his slipper. This enormous corpse king did not genuinely possess the strength of a peak powerhouse; rather, it simply possessed a physical strength at that level. A normal Progenitor might struggle to defeat this corpse king, but that was not true for Lu Yin.
Realizing the truth of the situation, Lu Yin moved forward, instantly appearing right behind the corpse king, the slipper already raised and ready to strike.
At that moment, black lines appeared across the giant corpse king's body, quickly covering its entire form.
The slipper slammed down, smashing half of the huge corpse king's head to pieces. This attack was so powerful that it had even threatened Undying God.
Logically, such an attack should have been more than enough to instantly kill Lu Yin’s opponent.
However, after the giant corpse king fell apart, the black lines that covered its body reconnected and restored the shattered head.
"An undying attribute?" Lu Yin was surprised, and he attacked a few more times.
Unless someone had the ability to avoid the slipper entirely, there was no way for even a peak powerhouse to endure the power of such an attack.
Just as Lu Yin was preparing to continue his assault, the giant corpse king roared, stepped away, and fled.
Lu Yin was taken aback. It wanted to escape? It was not easy to encounter an opponent who could not even defend themselves. It would be pathetic if he failed to kill such an enemy while wielding the slipper.
In the end, the corpse king was not a peak powerhouse, but it did possess the physical strength of one. Killing such an enemy would be a massive accomplishment for Lu Yin, and it might even be enough to excuse him from the rest of his service on the Endless Frontier.
Just as he was about to give chase, an indescribable chill fell upon Lu Yin. He suddenly remembered the unique characteristics that he had heard about the Big Stone Universe, and he quickly fell back.
In the place where he had just been standing, the void turned chaotic and then abruptly exploded. The damage spread out in every direction, looking as though something had just burned a portion of the universe.
Lu Yin was startled. Was this the deadly law of the Big Stone Universe?
What had just happened?
He looked around, transforming his pupils into runes as the God of Flames figurine appeared on his shoulder. Runes spread out, and he instantly saw that they were in absolute chaos.
The number of runes that appeared could give an indication of the strength of a person or even an attack, but the current scene before Lu Yin was nothing more than pure chaos.
What in the world had happened?
He had never before seen such chaotic runes before, and it appeared as though various different powers had become entangled together without any sort of order.
No fighting had taken place in that location, and no power had been used. Lu Yin even reduced his own strength to the point where only a single rune remained. If anyone else were standing in his location, they would only see a calm region of the universe, not sensing any power that could shatter space. However, the runes in Lu Yin’s vision revealed a completely different story.
From what he could observe, let alone an ordinary human, even an Envoy would be torn to pieces by the forces at play. However, oddly enough, the power that he was observing was not dangerous, and an ordinary person would not be harmed at all.
Lu Yin spread the runes out to observe a larger region of the universe, trying to get an image of the overall universe.
However, the scene before him appeared as though the entire universe was in complete chaos, with countless different powers and energy tangling together. Despite all that, it was invisible to ordinary people.
Suddenly, the universe’s law struck again, and Lu Yin quickly evaded it. It appeared as though the place where he had just been standing had been smashed by stones with such force that even the void cracked. He had been able to predict the arrival of the law by observing the runes, and they had revealed that the universe’s law that had nearly struck him was as powerful as a Semi-Progenitor’s attack.
It was no wonder why the twin elders from the Gemini Universe had strongly recommended that Lu Yin find one of the universe’s unique stones to carry around to protect him from the universe’s law. Still, what kind of stone could protect him from the laws of a universe, such as what he had just witnessed?
Was this the laws of the Big Stone Universe?
A distant object approached Lu Yin. It appeared to be a spacecraft, and Lu Yin remained where he was. He spread his runes out to envelop the approaching object and discovered a group of people within who were nervously observing him.
It really was a spacecraft, though its style was completely different from what was used in the Fifth Mainland. This design was much rougher and wilder in appearance. It was covered with spikes, and there were even blood stains on the hull.
Inside the vessel, all the cultivators were staring at a display that showed Lu Yin standing in the middle of outer space.
"Aside from this one person, there is no sign of any life near the portal," a mechanical voice stated.
A middle-aged man clenched a fist. "As we thought, something happened here. This person may be the corpse king, so be on guard."
The spaceship slowly approached Lu Yin.
He stared at it and said, "I am a cultivator sent by the Sixverse Association to support the Big Stone Universe."
The people in the spacecraft did not relax at all. The middle-aged man replied, "Please prove your identity."
Not many people sent to the Endless Frontier were able to travel between the various parallel universes like Lu Yin. Most reinforcements sent to the battlefield would remain in a single universe for the duration of their time on the front lines.
When traveling between parallel universes, the only way to prove one’s identity to their allies was to share a secret code, which could be used by the information centers to check with the battlefield’s command center. Whenever cultivators traveled between universes, they were supposed to check in with the command center.
When Lu Yin had gone from the Lilliput Universe to the Gemini Universe, he had not bothered to do this, as Cang Bi had handled such matters. But now that Cang Bi had been left behind, Lu Yin needed to deliver a password to prove his identity to the Big Stone Universe.
The password that Lu Yin gave was Great Yu.
It did not take long for the middle-aged man to get in contact with the Big Stone Universe’s information center and confirm Lu Yin's identity with the Endless Frontier’s command center. Additionally, the ship’s commander was informed that Lu Yin had already cleared both the Lilliput and Gemini Universes.
The man’s eyes lit up, and he quickly stepped out from his vessel.
"This humble one is the Big Stone Empire’s Pei Ji. I greet Lord Lu Yin."
All of the cultivators aboard the ship who had the strength of an Explorer or above exited the craft and bowed to Lu Yin. Those who were too weak to survive in outer space remained inside the vessel, but they still bowed to Lu Yin.
All the people here looked quite happy, as the arrival of such an expert was good news for the Big Stone Universe.
After all, Lu Yin had not arrived directly in the Big Stone Universe; rather he had first cleared both the Lilliput and Gemini Universes, making his purpose in the Big Stone Universe obvious to everyone: he wanted to clear the Big Stone Universe as well.
Regardless of whether or not Lu Yin could do so, at the very least, his presence would greatly strengthen the universe’s forces and reduce their pressure.
Lu Yin grunted in response and instead observed the rock on top of Pei Ji's back. "Can the murderous intention in the universe be offset by rocks?"
Seeing that Lu Yin carried no stone, Pei Ji quickly replied, "Lord Lu, please don't use any power, as you may attract the law of the universe. Let’s get you aboard the ship."
Lu Yin soon shared what he had encountered after passing through the portal, and Pei Ji’s scalp went numb. If what Lu Yin had said was true, then the portal had been taken over by a very powerful corpse king, and Pei Ji and his crew would have died upon arriving at the portal.
The man quickly thanked Lu Yin once again before passing along the information.
At the Endless Frontier’s command center, the woman in charge pulled down her wide-brimmed hat down while staring at a display. "Everyone stationed at the Big Stone Universe’s first portal is confirmed dead, but it is impossible to prove the veracity of Lu Yin’s report. We will temporarily regard it as true. Send a report that Big Stone Universe is confirmed to have two enemy powerhouses and that the universe needs to be very careful. Also, find peak powerhouses in nearby parallel universes who can be sent to reinforce the Big Stone Universe."
"Understood."
The woman in charge was a bit dazed, as Lu Yin was even more powerful than she had expected. There was no reason for him to lie, which meant that he had really driven away a powerful corpse king. That meant that Lu Yin truly did possess the strength to fight against peak powerhouses, despite merely being a seventh-level Demi-Immortal. He was not even a peak Demi-Immortal, let alone an Ascendant or a peak powerhouse like the Three Sovereigns and Nine Sages. Just how did the man possess such strength despite his inadequate cultivation?
It was no wonder why he had been able to confront Luo Shan and draw the Great Sovereign’s attention.
"Inform the Big Stone Universe that I want to talk to Lu Yin," the woman said.
Many of the female personnel in the command center were caught off guard. Ma’am, are you actually giving so much attention to this Lu Yin? There was no shortage of peak powerhouses active on the Endless Frontier, but it was very unusual for their commander to take the initiative to speak to anyone at all.
What the woman was requesting was not a verbal conversation, but rather a way to exchange messages directly with Lu Yin without passing information through a third party.
Lu Yin could choose to bypass the Big Stone Universe's people and communicate directly with the woman, or he could allow the Big Stone Universe's people to act as intermediaries on his behalf.
As for the commander, she had the same option.
In the Big Stone Universe, Lu Yin received the message. "Direct communication?"
Pei Ji respectfully answered, "That’s right. I can ask for someone to guide you to my Big Stone Universe’s information center. If you prefer, there is no need to make the trip yourself, and you can use this humble one to send messages on your behalf."
Lu Yin thought for a bit. The information center was vitally important to each parallel universe, as it was the communication hub between the Endless Frontier’s command center, as well as the parallel universes that formed the battlefield.
Lu Yin remembered that the command center also had a name: Proximity.
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