Chapter 1440: Spoils of Victory

Lu Yin moved directly behind Long Tian. "I've been wanting to tell you this, but you spout off a lot of bullshit!"

He swung his scythe, and Long Tian raised a hand to grab the weapon, only to realize that he had been entangled by Lu Yin’s black chain. The chain was not a physical item, but rather solidified death energy. The moment Lu Yin appeared, Long Tian had already been locked down.

There was a loud squeal as the scythe tore through half of Long Tian’s body. Blood fell to the ground, and Long Tian’s pupils dilated as his body was hurled to the ground in the distance. He stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. This person was completely terrifying.

Long Tian remembered everything that he had said to Long Qi in the past. This guy had clearly been playing with him from the beginning.

Long Xi's face had also gone pale, though there was clear disbelief on her face as well. It was common knowledge that Junior Progenitors were invincible within the Perennial World. Each one was nurtured and groomed by the entire universe, and everyone looked up to or even worshiped them. And yet, Long Tian had just been badly wounded by a casual attack from Long Qi. How was such power possible? What was Long Qi’s true identity? This was a truly peerless individual.

Lu Yin glanced over at Long Xi. If not for her sake, he might have killed Long Tian with the last attack. Then, Lu Yin looked towards Bai Shaohong and raised his scythe high.

Chills ran down Bai Shaohong's back. He had not expected Long Qi to actually be able to overpower each and every single one of them. This was an impossible level of strength, and Long Qi had shattered Bai Shaohong’s common sense.

Bai Shaohong was not the only one with such a reaction, as Shang Qing and the others from the Fifth Mainland were similarly stunned. The strength that Lu Yin had revealed during ZENITH was enough for him to take on a single Junior Progenitor, but he had not been strong enough to utterly crush one. But now, his battle force had risen to ten lines, and his overall strength had risen extremely sharply in the amount of time that had passed. Also, Lu Yin had taken the dragon saliva, improved his cultivation by multiple cycles, and even opened his lower meridian point. This last point, in particular, had led to an incredible increase in Lu Yin’s physical strength, and it was the main reason why he was able to overwhelm the Junior Progenitors.

As the scythe fell, Bai Shaohong raised a hand, pointed a finger, and released a Celestial Being Shows the Way. The water in the phantom pond behind him was completely drained now, but this also meant that this was the most powerful Celestial Being Shows the Way yet. A shower of blood fell down in front of him. He had just been seriously injured.

The Celestial Being Shows the Way overpowered all of Lu Yin's battle techniques, but Bai Shaohong had forgotten that Lu Yin had been a match for a Junior Progenitor even before using his God of Death Transformation. Lu Yin’s left hand had moved to release a Vacuum Palm at the same time.

The Celestial Being Shows the Way broke through and continued on towards Lu Yin, but his Vacuum Palm was even faster, and it shot towards Bai Shaohong. This attack not only targeted Bai Shaohong, but also Xia Shenfei, Wang Su, and Long Tian. The Vacuum Palm that the transformed Lu Yin unleashed was enough to force all of them to vomit blood as they retreated. In particular, Bai Shaohong had just been badly injured by the scythe, and he had little chances of surviving if this attack struck him.

Helpless, he resorted to using a power vessel that barely managed to block the Vacuum Palm. At the same time, he shouted, "Don't hold back! Deal with them with power vessels!"

Lu Yin had revealed a level of strength that was just too overwhelming. Even a powerful and arrogant person like Bai Shaohong was forced to use power vessels to gain any advantage, which was no different from admitting that he was inferior. This would cause psychological damage to him regardless of the outcome of the fight.

This was also true for Wang Su, Xia Shenfei, and Long Tian. Lu Yin’s strength after undergoing the God of Death Transformation was terrifying beyond anything they could ever have imagined.

Lu Yin raised a hand, and a Channeling Diagram appeared to block the Celestial Being Shows the Way. After the attack shattered the sourcebox array, it was no longer a threat to Lu Yin. At this moment, he was preoccupied with Bai Shaohong's power vessel, as well as the precious power vessels the others would take out.

Shang Qing and the others all felt their hearts sink. The time had come to fight with power vessels, which meant that the fight would be determined by the various backgrounds supporting the youths. How could anyone from the Fifth Mainland have a background that could compare to one of the four ruling powers of the Perennial World?

Upon hearing that the fight would shift into one of power vessels, Lu Yin let out a sigh of relief. The death energy that he had absorbed from Crown Prince Gui Qian had been almost completely exhausted, and it would be better to use power vessels at this point. That was a competition that Lu Yin did not fear. He did not believe that Bai Shaohong and others could possibly produce more power vessels than him, and if all else failed, he could just suppress them with Zenith Mountain.

Everyone had become preoccupied with the Origin Matter, and while they had been fighting to the death, they had all forgotten that the chamber they were in was actually a trap. Given that it was a trap that the ancients had set with tribulation crystals and Origin Matter as the lure, how could the trap have been disarmed that easily?

When the four Junior Progenitors had all started using the visualization method, no one had noticed that the previously smashed apart dried up corpse had been oddly restored to its previous state. When Bai Shaohong took out a power vessel and prepared to end the entire fight, the sourcebox array that he had placed on the ground of the chamber was suddenly broken.

Lu Yin was the first to notice that something was wrong. After all, he was an Array Master. He had comprehended multiple sourcebox arrays, and he had also reached the Worldliness realm of star energy control. All this allowed him to sense something strange.

However, it was already too late. The corpse opened its eyes, and everyone suddenly froze. Confusion could be seen in everyone’s eyes, and they all moved to sit down on the ground, cross-legged. They moved like they were being manipulated, but everyone had also calmed down.

"The Forgotten Ruins are no longer shielded. Hurry up, break free, and escape!" Wang Su struggled to speak. Only she, Bai Shaohong, and a few others were barely able to retain a sliver of their consciousness. They all wanted to escape, but they were clearly all struggling to do so. The same was also true of Shang Qing and the others. Just like what Lu Yin had seen when he entered the chamber, everyone calmly sat down on the ground, and there was no further movement.

Lu Yin was reciting the Stonewall Scriptures, and it allowed him to retain a fraction more of his mental faculties than Wang Su and the others. Temporarily stabilized, Lu Yin looked over towards the dried out corpse.

Lu Yin’s body disappeared, and when he reappeared, he was within five meters of the corpse. He looked at the body, and then his consciousness Possessed the corpse. For his main body, the God of Death Transformation ended, and he returned to his normal state.

Rolling six pips on his die allowed him to Possess people at random, but once he had Possessed someone, as long as he was within five meters of their body, he could Possess them again. This was a part of Lu Yin’s innate gift.

He was capable of moving towards the exit of the room with the Ce Secret Art, which would allow him to escape from the Forgotten Ruins that Wang Su had mentioned. However, if he left, then what would happen to the others? In particular, Long Xi was his wife in name, and that alone was enough for him to subconsciously not want to abandon her.

Since he had managed to Possess the corpse, he had the confidence to leave the chamber whenever he wished.

Instead, the question was how he could take everyone else out? Lu Yin had Possessed the corpse, so he tried to move his hands. This time, he was able to move the body. He was thrilled, as this was just perfect.

First, he had to take care of himself. He controlled the corpse into a standing position and placed his own body on the corpse’s back. He then moved towards Wang Su, who was the closest to him. He suddenly grew wary for a moment. This was a trap, which meant that there should not be anyone or anything waiting around to attack them. If there were, then the trap would be redundant, as any invaders could simply be directly dealt with.

After thinking things through, Lu Yin unconsciously tried to cough, only to discover that the corpse he had Possessed was incapable of coughing.

He felt a bit apologetic, but they were enemies. They would never leave this place, so there was no need for them to keep anything for themselves. Lu Yin tried to comfort himself even as he removed Wang Su’s cosmic ring and pricked her finger to draw a drop of blood. He then started to clean out her cosmic ring. As he looked through the ring, he became incomparably excited, as it was time to collect his loot.

While he was certainly capable of rescuing everyone present, most of these people would never feel any gratitude for his efforts. At the very least, Lu Yin knew for certain that Bai Shaohong and Long Tian would never do so, and neither would that creepy Crown Prince Gui Qian. Lu Yin would not risk his own life to save these people, but he also could not simply eliminate these people. This trap had been set by humanity’s ancient enemy, and killing the Junior Progenitors would be no different than giving those monsters a helping hand.

He could not save them, but neither could he eliminate them. All he could do was leave things as they were, and also take a bit of a reward for not harming them.

Lu Yin had expected to find a great deal of star essence in Wang Su’s cosmic ring, but the contents left him disappointed. At most, there were a few tens of millions of star essence. It might be enough to help others, but it was far too little to mean much to Lu Yin.

In addition to the star essence, Lu Yin also found many personal items in the cosmic ring, and while such things did not interest him, he still glanced through everything. Eh? A hairpin caught his eye. He frowned and took it out to examine it. After a look, he became excited as this was a lockbreaking tool. How odd; why was there a lockbreaking tool in the shape of a hairpin?

Since he had almost missed a treasure, Lu Yin casually laid it on the ground and continued going through the cosmic ring. Next, he found some white paper. What? Why would anyone store blank paper in a cosmic ring? It had to be something special. He also removed that and set it on the ground before continuing to look through the ring. In the end, he also found a small knife that was very similar to the one that had destroyed his ring-shaped power vessel, though it was a bit different.

The only power vessel in the entire cosmic ring was only the small knife. Clearly, it was an invaluable power vessel, and there was no need to think otherwise. Lu Yin knew that this power vessel was not simple, so he removed it from the ring, only for the blade’s sharpness to nearly cut him when he looked at it. It was quite powerful and valuable.

Lu Yin took the knife away without hesitation. Next, he moved on to Dong He. This person was already dead, so Lu Yin walked the dried out corpse over to the fresh one and removed Dong He’s cosmic ring. He used a bit of Dong He’s blood to sweep the ring clean.

This ring also only had a few pieces of star essence. In addition to that, Lu Yin just found some medicinal herbs and a few power vessels, though there was nothing very good. There were also some blank sheets of paper. What was this? Lu Yin found a bottle that held a red powder. There was a single word written on it: “chili.”

Lu Yin was left speechless. Chili? Was this real or fake? Who carried chili powder with them?

Then, Lu Yin remembered Silver. That guy had claimed to be a gourmet, and he had always carried some condiments with him. It looked like Dong He was the same.

Lu Yin took the bottle out of instinct. No matter how small a mosquito was, the flesh of a mosquito was still meat.

Lu Yin continued to sweep through the various cosmic rings. Still, he only targeted his enemies, skipping people like Unseen Light. He would not kill them. However, Lu Yin still found it somewhat regretful.

From Yun Tingting, he took some healing pills and rather useless power vessels. Also, he found some smoke. This smoke was truly incredible, and it was most likely Yun Tingting’s last resort. However, Lu Yin showed no hesitation and simply took it away.

He found nothing in Wen Diyi’s ring aside from a pile of books and some ink.

Lu Yin pursed his lips. This guy even carried ink! What a nerd! However, when Lu Yin remembered how Wen Diyi had always treated him well, Lu Yin skipped the man. After all, he did not even have anything worth stealing.

Lu Yin glanced around and saw that Crown Prince Gui Qian was next. This person had already provided Lu Yin with a great deal of help, as without the prince, Lu Yin would not have had enough black and white mist in his chest to sustain his transformation for as long as he had. Still, the prince had also been the one to expose Lu Yin. If not for this person, Lu Yin would have been able to maintain his cover as Long Qi, though not for much longer. Still, it had not been easy to expose Lu Yin as a trespasser.

Lu Yin felt a mixture of gratitude and anger as he looked at Crown Prince Gui Qian. He shamelessly took the massive pillar of tribulation crystals, and Lu Yin also cleaned out the prince’s star essence and other various treasures. Out of everything, the item that intrigued Lu Yin the most was the skeleton of some giant beast. Lu Yin felt suppressed the moment the skeleton was removed from the cosmic ring, so he quickly stored it away once again. Those bones were not simple.

When Lu Yin got to Xia Shenfei, he still felt rather resentful. Xia Shenfei’s secret technique was so infuriating that many people had grown to hate him, as it was a truly shameless technique.

Xia Shenfei's cosmic ring was stuffed full of wine, which instantly made Lu Yin think of Liquor Hero. The two were a perfect match.