Chapter 1696: A Mysterious Place

The die slowly spun around before finally landing on Pilfer. A bag of snacks fell out.

Lu Yin blinked; what a waste of time! He used his die again, but it landed on Pilfer again. This time, a piece of scrap metal dropped out. Lu Yin pouted. He rolled the die a third time, only to roll Pilfer yet again.

Lu Yin was speechless; why was he so unlucky this time? Why did he keep rolling Pilfer?

A leaf dropped out of the sky and landed on the ground.

Lu Yin’s face twitched; a leaf? Who would store a leaf in their cosmic ring? Hang on…

Lu Yin’s expression suddenly changed as he picked up the leaf. His mouth fell open in shock. This… was this Origin Matter?

The sprout in his upper meridian point trembled and radiated vitality as Lu Yin grabbed the leaf. The leaf in his hand also trembled in unison.

Lu Yin was stunned. He had never even thought that his die could grab someone’s Origin Matter.

Was he dreaming? Lu Yin pinched himself, but he was not dreaming. He really had Pilfered Origin Matter!

The leaf’s aura slowly spread outwards, and Lu Yin quickly stored it away.

Whose Origin Matter had he stolen with his die? Who even had Origin Matter? He immediately thought of the Fifth Mainland’s Semi-Progenitors. Could he have stolen it from one of them? Or was his die actually able to reach the Perennial World? There was definitely more Origin Matter in the Perennial World than the Fifth Mainland.

There was definitely more than one piece of Origin Matter in the Dominion Realm. If not for Aeternus’s schemes, the expedition to the Dominion Realm would have taken much longer, and they would have returned with more than just one leaf of Origin Matter.

Each expedition to the Dominion Realm was intended to be a test for the Junior Progenitors, and each one of the four ruling powers naturally kept some Origin Matter reserved in case their Junior Progenitor was unable to find any during their expedition.

Whose Origin Matter had Lu Yin taken? Had it belonged to one of the Fifth Mainland’s Semi-Progenitors or to someone in the Perennial World? Lu Yin gulped. Still, he did not care who it had belonged to before, because it had become his. He was going to give it to Ming Yan.

He had already given the two extra tribulation crystal pillars that he had gained to Ming Yan so that she could open her lower and middle meridian points. With this Origin Matter, she would be able to open her upper meridian point as well, which would open up the path for her to potentially become a Progenitor in the future.

Lu Yin was overjoyed, and he wanted to tell Ming Yan about it immediately.

However, Ming Yan was not even a Hunter yet, so it was still too early for her to open her meridian points. He would have to wait for her to become a Hunter before giving her the Origin matter.

Lu Yin felt that this was his lucky day.

He lifted his hand again and brought out his die. This was his fourth roll, and he hoped he would get Timestop.

Lu Yin was delighted when he saw the die land on Timestop. This really was his lucky day.

Lu Yin appeared in the Timestop Space, and he immediately took out the Karmic Flame, which was the catalyst for the Blaze Realm’s Karmic Flame Sword. The flame had already been very powerful when Lu Yin had first acquired it, but after upgrading it six times, the Karmic Flame’s runes were now comparable to those of an expert with a power level of 700,000.

Still, there was no reason to save the flame. Lu Yin decided to let the Skyblaze Stone absorb it right away so that he could cultivate faster.

…

Extreme heat covered his arms, and the entire Timestop Space was filled with vaporized star energy.

Lu Yin quickly absorbed the star energy by using the Skyblaze Stone in tandem with the Cosmic Art. As he did so, his golden battle force shrouded his body.

Without his golden battle force, Lu Yin would have been unable to endure the high temperature of the Karmic Flame.

He had already reached his thirty second cycle after becoming an Enlighter in the Perennial World, and he was working on completing his thirty third cycle at this moment. He needed to use 100 million star essence per cycle whereas normal cultivators only needed a million star essence. It was a shocking discrepancy.

He was a member of the Lu family, and they simply could not support their Champions’ Stage without a correspondingly large amount of star energy.

Lu Yin still did not know what had happened to him back then. When he had still been Lu Xiaoxuan, he must have had quite a few champions in his Champions’ Stage, but his current Champions’ Stage seemed brand new.

Had he been able to summon Envoys as an Enlighter or maybe even a Hunter before? Lu Yin withstood the high temperature of the flames while considering his forgotten past.

At a glance, the entire Timestop Space looked like a blazing red star as vaporized star energy surged into Lu Yin.

Thirty fourth, thirty fifth. The Skyblaze Stone’s flames soon expired, as Lu Yin had not had much of the Karmic Flame. Fortunately, he would still be able to use it one last time.

The Karmic Flame that he had picked up in the Blaze Realm only had three uses, and there was one remaining.

Lu Yin did not have much time left in the Timestop Space, so he left after practicing the Cosmic Art for a bit. After ten days passed, He used his die once again.

He rolled Timestop right away, and he continued cultivating.

He used the Skyblaze Stone again, and the Timestop space once more became burning hot.

Some time later, Lu Yin managed to complete his thirty ninth cycle, and the flames completely disappeared from the Skyblaze Stone.

Lu Yin took a deep breath. He had just completed his thirty ninth cycle, which meant that he was only one cycle away from completing his fortieth. He was drawing closer and closer to becoming an Envoy.

He had used almost a billion star crystals to progress from his thirty second to his thirty ninth cycle.

Lu Yin sometimes wondered if it was even possible to gather such an absurd amount of star essence without the ambition to unite the Fifth Mainland. How would he have cultivated? Would he have been forced to rob people?

Back when the Lu family had ruled the Perennial World, had they been forced into such a position because of the amount of star essence required for their cultivation?

Lu Yin also had not even included the star essence that he had used with his die, as his expenses would be truly terrifying if he had done that.

He had used an astronomical amount of star essence so far, possibly exceeding even the funds of the Innerverse’s major forces.

He wondered how he would answer if Ming Yan ever asked him how he used his star essence.

It was a question that could not be answered.

Lu Yin had become much more powerful after completing his thirty ninth cycle; he was able to even challenge Envoys with power levels of 600,000 now. Against a powerhouse like Cang Zhou, Lu Yin would no longer be easily defeated and would actually stand a fighting chance.

Still, he felt sad at the thought that he had just consumed a billion star essence.

He checked the time, and he had already spent a year and a half in the Timestop Space.

Done advancing for now, Lu Yin recited the Stonewall Scriptures as he practiced the Cosmic Art. He left the space after his time expired, but he continued to roll his die. In the outside world, only ten days had passed.

At this same time, Ming Yan opened her eyes and sighed. “Moonstar is very powerful. It’s such a shame that I can’t teach it to Brother Lu.”

She stood up and looked out her window at Black Street.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

If she had not taken control of Bu Laoweng, she would have been in a terrible situation.

Ming Yan fell deep into thought. Some time later, she suddenly thought of something, and she happily took out two tribulation crystal pillars. “These were a present from Brother Lu. He said that I should only use them after becoming a Hunter. I wish that I could do that already so that I could give Brother Lu a surprise.”

It seemed as though she had found a source of greater motivation, and she continued cultivating after putting the tribulation crystal pillars away once more.

Lu Yin exited the Timestop space and resumed rolling his die. In addition to improving his cultivation, he also wanted to Enhance some items, such as the initiate ore that he had picked up in the Celestial Frost Sect’s ruins. He wondered if he could upgrade it, as he planned to integrate it into his armor if it was possible to Enhance it.

The die eventually landed on Possession.

Lu Yin’s eyes gleamed. Given his current strength, anyone whom he Possessed should be an Envoy, which meant that they would be a senior in their organization.

He appeared in the same strange place as always, and he saw countless balls of light. He chose the one that was the brightest and closest to merge with it.

When his senses returned, he was confused. What was this feeling? Lu Yin felt very odd. He opened his eyes to find that he was surrounded by darkness. He looked down, he could not see even his own body. Was he Possessing some sort of astral beast?

Lu Yin had indeed Possessed a type of astral beast that he had seen before: a Creeper.1

Lu Yin was shocked to discover that he was in the Astral Beast Domain. He clenched his fists and tried to get a sense of how strong this Creeper was. These creatures often worked together with Soundseekers,2 and their combination was very powerful.

Lu Yin had struggled greatly to deal with a Creeper at Erudite Flowzone’s border.

Lu Yin could feel how powerful this Creeper was. It was an Envoy with a power level of about around 600,000, but it was also extremely strong. Its physical strength was comparable to Lu Yin’s, and it could easily defeat a powerhouse with a power level around 600,000 with its physical strength alone.

Possessing an astral beast was a strange experience, and Lu Yin saw only darkness in his surroundings. However, as an Envoy, it was easy to observe his surroundings.

The first thing that he found was an enormous statue. As Lu Yin looked up, he could not find the top of the statue. All he could see was one of the statue’s four legs, and the head was nowhere to be seen. Lu Yin quickly accessed the Creeper’s memories.

He froze for a moment and then stared at the statue in disbelief.

The Creeper didn’t know who the statue was of, but it did know that the Celestial Beast Empire’s Skymender often and faithfully prayed to it.

Even in the Human Domain, Lu Yin had heard of Skymender. He was able to divine the future like members of the Starsibyl Sect, and he was someone whom even Semi-Progenitors were wary of. Despite all of that, such a powerhouse still prayed to this statue.

Who was this statue of?

Lu Yin browsed through more memories of Skymender praying to the statue, and he quickly found the reason why the Creeper was in this place. It was responsible for moving humanoid sourceboxes.

Lu Yin continued to observe the Creeper’s memories after finding one of the Creepers moving a humanoid sourcebox. However, the only memories that Lu Yin could find were those of the Creeper moving humanoid sourceboxes, Skymender praying to the statue, and the creature’s childhood.

The Creeper did not know who the statue represented, why it needed to move humanoid sourceboxes, or what the humanoid sourceboxes actually were.

[1] An edit from many, many chapters ago. In Chapter 239, these creatures were introduced as Yin Guais. This literally means "hidden/concealed monster," so it was decided to try to get a better name. ☜

[2] Similar to above. These creatures were introduced in the same chapter, and were originally introduced as Sheng Guais (sound monsters). ☜