Chapter 1688: The True Leader

Discipline was the Hall of Honor’s most infuriating secret technique, as it reflected the wounds that one had suffered onto their opponent. Almost every enemy of the Hall of Honor had experienced this technique in the past, and it was a very difficult secret technique to overcome.

The Warden retreated multiple steps as blood dripped down the corner of his mouth. He had basically suffered the effects of his own attack at the same time that Liu Huang had used the Fourteenth Sword: Misery. This sword forced anyone who faced it to relive the worst moments of their lives. This was unavoidable, as there was no one who had lived a completely happy life. Liu Huang’s sword magnified the bitterness that one felt, which was a truly difficult experience for the Warden.

The Warden was ultimately unable to withstand it despite his aurelian force, and he coughed up blood.

The next moment, the sourcebox array of spiritual force, the Ten Prison Formation, activated. The Second Nightking was cooperating with Can to defeat the Warden.

The Warden was heavily injured by the eruption of the sourcebox array.

Discipline had injured his body.

The Fourteenth Sword had wounded his soul.

The Ten Prison Formation had hurt his spirit.

The Warden knelt on the ground, as he was not able withstand the three combined attacks. His aurelian force slowly dissipated until it completely disappeared.

He tried to stand back up.

Lu Yin just shook his head; it was over. While aurelian force was beyond merely being dominating, it also exacted a terrible toll on the person using it. Both Zhou Tang and the Warden were only able to use their aurelian force in short bursts.

With this, the three attacks had sufficiently and completely defeated the colossal giant.

The Warden collapsed onto the ground, causing Gaia’s Swamp to shake.

Can sighed in relief. He turned to the Second Nightking in ecstasy.

The Second Nightking also turned towards Can, though the Second Nightking had an odd expression on his face.

The sword formed from stellular energy disappeared from Liu Huang’s hand, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

Lǜ Cha anxiously rushed over to Lǜ Yan’s side. “Father! Father! How are you?”

Lǜ Yan coughed up blood. He had suffered the worst injuries, and he was almost dead. Lǜ Cha continuously fed her father pills for him to recover.

With the Warden’s defeat, the rest of the guards were useless. Can absorbed the spiritual force that had been used to set up the Ten Prison Formation, and at the same time, glowing globes of spiritual force appeared over all of the corpses of prisoners and guards, which Can absorbed as well.

The Second Nightking observed the entire thing. “I’ve never seen such a method for cultivating spiritual force. How interesting.”

Can warily glanced over at the Second Nightking. “The Warden has been defeated, so we can leave now.”

Only a few people in Gaia’s Swamp remained conscious, as nearly everyone had fainted from either the Warden’s attacks or Can’s spiritual force, including even some of the most powerful prisoners.

Upon hearing Can’s words, Lǜ Cha immediately pulled Lǜ Yan up so that they could leave, and Liu Huang also slowly rose.

At this moment, Lu Yin appeared with Emperor Luo, Liu Ye, and Fei Hua.

Can glared at Lu Yin. “Do you want to stop us?”

Lu Yin smiled and glanced over at the unconscious Warden. “I warned him not to be overconfident. You guys really aren’t easy to handle, but-” His gaze swept over across Can and the others. “You guys have also reached your limit, haven’t you?”

“Young man, you’re not from the Gaia’s Swamp, so you have no reason to stop us. Let us go, and we will make it worth your while,” Can said.

Lu Yin’s eyes grew sharp.

“The Hall of Honor has a dark side as well. You don’t need to stop us,” Liu Huang added hoarsely.

Lǜ Cha glared at Lu Yin with cold eyes. “Go away.”

Lu Yin smiled. “No.”

Can ordered, “Let’s attack together! This is our only chance of escaping.”

His spiritual force crashed towards Lu Yin as Can formed a claw with a hand and reached out for Lu Yin’s forehead. While the attack looked quite similar to the Skybeast Claw, this attack was actually a spiritual force technique. It had fused a physical battle technique with a spiritual force one to form a truly wicked battle technique.

Can had been captured by the Hall of Honor and locked away in the Gaia’s Swamp precisely because of this battle technique.

This attack could instantly shatter a cultivator’s head, and Can would then be able to absorb their spiritual force. He had killed countless cultivators with this battle technique.

At the same time, Liu Huang reformed his sword from stellular energy and slashed out at Lu Yin. He was using the Fourteenth Sword once again. The man only had enough energy for a single attack, as he was still exhausted from their battle with the Warden.

Lu Yin remained as he was, and neither Liu Ye nor Fei Hua moved.

Can was attacked by a Ten Prison Formation before his own attack could strike Lu Yin—the Second Nightking had struck. Before the Warden collapsed, Lu Yin had already ordered the Second Nightking to set up a Ten Prison Formation beneath Can’s feet.

Can screamed and fell to the ground. He had not expected the Second Nightking to suddenly betray him. He had actually felt the Ten Prison Formation activate but had assumed that the Second Nightking was using it against Lu Yin. Can had not even considered the possibility of the sourcebox array being used against him.

Although Can had powerful spiritual force attacks, he was heavily injured by the Ten Prison Formation, and he fell unconscious.

Lu Yin completely ignored Can, as he was instead studying Liu Huang’s Fourteenth Sword. This was an unavoidable technique, but it had no effect on Lu Yin since he had also learned it. This was the greatest flaw of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Swords: they both targeted the spirit, which meant that they were either unavoidable or utterly useless.

Liu Huang helplessly let go of his sword when he saw Lu Yin calmly looking back at him. The swordsman’s stellular energy dissipated—he had failed. This youth was able to completely ignore the Fourteenth Sword, which was proof that Liu Huang’s greatest accomplishment was flawed.

Can lay on the ground, betrayed by the Second Nightking. Liu Huang had been defeated, so the only people remaining were Lǜ Cha and Lǜ Yan. However, Lǜ Yan was already terribly wounded and could not even stand.

Lǜ Cha clenched her fists. They were one step away, just one step away from success! Why did this person have to appear? They should have been able to escape, so why? Why?

The woman’s body trembled, and her pupils suddenly went dark. Lǜ Yan, who she was holding, was startled. He pulled at Lǜ Cha’s sleeve. “Xiao Cha, calm down! Stop! Stop!”

But it seemed as though Lǜ Cha could not hear her father’s words. She had somehow become a different person, and there was a very disturbing aura around her at this moment.

Suddenly, the death energy in Gaia’s Swamp was pulled towards Lǜ Cha, and she absorbed it. A whirlpool of death energy formed.

Lu Yin’s eyes went wide; what was going on?

“Xiao Cha, stop! Stop!” Lǜ Yan screamed anxiously.

Lǜ Cha kept absorbing the death energy, and she was undergoing a massive change.

Her rune lines kept increasing, and they soon exceeded a power level of 500,000. She had entered a new realm.

Becoming an Envoy was a threshold, as only a few people were able to fight against an Envoy.

The four Junior Progenitors in the Perennial World were capable of challenging Envoys, which qualified them to be called Junior Progenitors. Others could not achieve the same feat and would therefore never be able to reach the same level as the Junior Progenitors. While Lǜ Cha had cultivated for much longer than the four Junior Progenitors, it was still incredibly difficult for an Enlighter to reach an Envoy’s power level.

However, this was not the part that surprised Lu Yin. He was more startled by the fact that this woman was able to absorb death energy. Was she from the Specter Clan?

After Lǜ Cha’s runes exceeded a power level of 500,000, she stopped absorbing the death energy. Her eyes opened wide, but they had become silver. This was a characteristic of the Specter Clan, as their eyes could be white, silver, or gold. Not many people had golden eyes, so this silver color indicated that the woman was a senior within the Specter Clan.

“Xiao Cha…” Lǜ Yan said helplessly as he vomited blood.

Lǜ Cha gently set Lǜ Yan down and then glared at Lu Yin. “Leave.”

Liu Ye and Fei Hua stepped in front of Lu Yin, as they were able to sense the sudden change in Lǜ Cha. Although she most likely could not harm Lu Yin, the two Envoys did not want to run that risk. They were on their last trip with Lu Yin, and they would end up in deep trouble if Lu Yin was harmed while with them.

Lu Yin waved a hand to dismiss Liu Ye and Fei Hua before stepping forward. “I wasn’t interested in you before, but I didn't expect you to be a part of the Specter Clan. How interesting. Just how did you manage to join the Hall of Honor?’

Lǜ Cha had no desire to speak with Lu Yin at all. Death energy streamed out of her body and formed chains that wrapped around Lu Yin.

He allowed the chains to twine about him. Fei Hua wanted to help, but Lu Yin shot her a glare. “Don’t interfere.”

Fei Hua was growing anxious, but Liu Ye set a hand on her shoulder. He shook his head; Lu Yin was not someone who would look for trouble.

Lǜ Cha’s chains managed to bind Lu Yin, much to her surprise. Still, with Lu Yin captured, everything was over. She pulled the chains towards her, as she wanted to use Lu Yin as a hostage while escaping with her father.

However, no matter how Lǜ Cha manipulated the death energy, Lu Yin did not move an inch. It felt as though she was unable to control her own death energy, but how was that possible?

Lǜ Cha had kept this ability of hers completely hidden, but she was still aware of just how powerful death energy was, as it allowed her to contest Envoys. Even though she was not able to view the true universe, she could still fight against Envoys, and this demonstrated the ample power of death energy. So, why was it not working right now?

This was impossible! Lǜ Cha exerted more force, and she absorbed even more death energy from Gaia’s Swamp.

“Are you from the Neohuman Alliance?” Lu Yin asked as he studied Lǜ Cha.

Lǜ Cha gritted her teeth and met Lu Yin’s gaze with her silver eyes. She was trying to intimidate him, as most people would lose their minds after looking into her silver eyes. Regardless, Lu Yin remained unfazed.

“Why? Why are you immune to death energy?” Lǜ Cha asked.

Lǜ Yan then suddenly remembered the final match of ZENITH where Lu Yin had transformed; could the rumors actually be true?

He shouted, “Xiao Cha, stop! You can’t use death energy against him. He’s the true master of death energy.”

Lǜ Cha became even more confused.

Lu Yin smirked. He raised a hand and beckoned with a finger. The death energy surrounding him suddenly reversed and bound Lǜ Cha instead. She was completely unable to struggle free.

Lǜ Yan bellowed, “Lu Yin, the rumors are true! You’re the God of Death’s heir!”

Lu Yin slowly approached Lǜ Cha. “Are you from the Specter Clan?”

Lǜ Cha coldly glared at Lu Yin with her silver eyes.

Lǜ Yan grew anxious and quickly said, “She’s not from the Specter Clan! She’s just a cultivator who was successfully transformed. It’s my fault, as I took her to Aeternus Nation to undergo the transformation. Release her, Lu Yin! It’s not her fault! She’s never betrayed anyone!”

Lu Yin turned to face Lǜ Yan instead. “You were once a Judicial Commissioner, weren’t you? Your crime was betraying humanity, so it seems that you were working with the Neohuman Alliance.”