Chapter 1948: Tian Dou

It was impossible to describe the man’s aura. He gave off an aura of elegant evilness, but there was also something that made him feel unspeakably trustworthy.

His black hair contained a few strands of white, and he was holding a black scythe. There was also a chain wrapped around the man, and it clanged as he walked forward.

This was the Chief Justice of the Dark Interstellar Supreme Court.

"My name is Tian Dou." The Chief Justice and Lu Yin stared at each other as the older man spoke slowly. His voice carried a heavy weight, but Lu Yin felt no pressure at all.

Still, Lu Yin did not dare to relax his caution. This man was the Specter clan’s strongest powerhouse, and he had just proven that he was capable of instantly overpowering the Second Nightking.

However, Lu Yin quickly realized that, regardless of how wary he might be of this man, it was all pointless. All he could do was blame himself for being too careless and willingly entering the Specter clan’s nest on his own.

"No one in the entire universe would ever imagine that the Xie family, which has long been mortal enemies with the Specter clan, would actually be one of your bases. The Seven Courts themselves are hiding your presence in the Neoverse," Lu Yin commented.

Chief Justice Tian Dou replied with a hint of a smile, "The more impossible something seems to be, the more important it is for us to do it. For example, no one would ever believe that the leader of the Great Eastern Alliance, the person who protected the lives of countless people in the Outerverse, an overseer of the Hall of Honor who is praised by the entire Fifth Mainland, is actually the lord of the Specter clan."

The Second Nightking’s eyes went wide, and he turned to stare at Lu Yin in shock. This young man was actually the leader of the Specter clan?

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. "I never accepted that."

Tian Dou just smiled. "Tong Yu made the situation very clear for you."

"She never mentioned that you were hiding within the Xie family’s territory," Lu Yin said.

Tian Dou just stared at Lu Yin. "Are you upset, my lord?"

Lu Yin frowned.

"You were not informed about this because we did not want to make things difficult for you, my lord. In order to survive, we were forced to join the Neohuman Alliance, and if you knew of our base, would you share it with the Hall of Honor, my lord? If you knew and did not report us, then would that mean that you were guilty of betraying humanity?" Tian Dou asked.

Lu Yin retorted, "How can you be sure that I won't tell the Hall of Honor about you now?"

"Because you are our lord. The Specter clan is loyal, and we are committed to protecting and serving you, my lord, for the rest of your life. If we fall, it will not affect you, but as long as we exist, we can help you by taking care of tasks that would be inconvenient to leave to the Great Eastern Alliance. You will understand when you use us, my lord," Tian Dou explained.

Lu Yin had never accepted the Specter clan’s claim that they were loyal to him just because he had received the God of Death’s inheritance. Lu Yin found it much more believable that the Specter clan had made a point to approach him in order to steal any secrets related to the God of Death's inheritance.

Lu Yin was the only person in the history of the universe to have successfully cultivated the Arcane Art—Fatal Revival, so the secrets belonged to him alone.

"If you’re so worried about implicating me, then why are you revealing yourself to me now?" Lu Yin asked warily.

Tian Dou smiled as he replied, "Because you need us, my lord."

"What do you mean?" Lu Yin arched a brow.

Death energy spread out beneath Tian Dou and quickly formed a star chart of the Fifth Mainland below them. "My lord, you have already taken control of the Innerverse, and Leon’s Armada, which can be considered your family, controls the Cosmic Sea. Your next goal should be to either retake the Outerverse from the Sixth Mainland and drive them out, or to push onwards to enter the Neoverse with the Great Eastern Alliance while targeting the Hall of Honor. Regardless of which target you choose, both options are currently beyond the abilities of your Great Eastern Alliance.

"Only my Specter clan is able to help you complete either of these tasks, and we will break ourselves in order to protect your interests, my lord. The Xie family can work openly as part of the Seven Courts, and you can freely use them, my lord, to either retake the Outerverse or to push into the Neoverse. Regardless of whether you wish to force the Sixth Mainland out and start a war between the two mainlands, take over the Hall of Honor, or even invade the Astral Beast Domain or the Technocracy, my Specter clan will follow your orders. We dare not disobey your orders, my lord.” Tian Dou suddenly bent over to offer a deep bow to Lu Yin.

It was shocking to see the Chief Justice of the Dark Interstellar Supreme Court bow to Lu Yin. This was a man who had easily defeated the Second Nightking, and whom Lu Yin suspected to be about as powerful as his senior brother, Qing Ping, who had also been able to easily suppress the Second Nightking. Both men possessed a terrifying level of strength, and yet Tian Dou had readily and willingly lowered himself before Lu Yin. Either this man had truly submitted himself to Lu Yin, or there was some plot that was so important that the man was willing to sacrifice his own dignity.

Regardless of which option was true, Lu Yin did not dare refuse Tian Dou’s show of fealty.

Lu Yin therefore quickly stepped forward and used both hands to raise Tian Dou back up. "Senior, please stand."

Tian Dou stood back up. "I know it's not easy for you to trust us, my lord. After all, we have joined the Neohuman Alliance, and therefore it’s only natural that only time can prove our loyalty to you. Still, I ask you to trust us, my lord, as we will never betray you no matter what. This is because you form the very foundation of our existence and our future."

Suddenly the chains binding the Second Nightking in the air vanished, and the man moved to stand behind Lu Yin, where he warily stared at Tian Dou.

Tian Dou looked at the old man. "The only reason why you possess your current strength is because of how long you have lived. Given your talent, you should have never reached your current level, though it is enough for you to protect our lord."

This comment enraged the Second Nightking. He had lived longer than anyone else, but to his incredible frustration, both of the Chief Justices had easily defeated him.

"So your Specter clan lives here now?" Lu Yin asked as he stared into the depths of the palace.

"That’s right."

"What about her? Is she really part of the Xie family?" Lu Yin asked about Xie Ahua.

Tian Dou explained, "The Xie family is still the Xie family, though they have fallen under my Specter clan’s control, and they use their identity to conceal our presence."

"Aren't you worried that Xia Ji will find out?" Lu Yin was curious about this.

Tian Dou just smiled. "The Xie family is known to possess many treasures from my Specter clan, as well as many of our people’s bones. Thus, it’s only to be expected for death energy to exist here. No one would ever think that the Xie family was defeated long ago and is being controlled by my Specter clan. After all, everyone knows that we were defeated and were forced to escape to the Neohuman Alliance just to survive."

Lu Yin nodded. This misunderstanding had changed everyone’s thoughts on the matter. Xia Ji was indeed very powerful, but it was still impossible for him to see through everything.

Lu Yin then followed Tian Dou into the palace. There, he discovered that even the palace was nothing but another cover. The members of the Specter clan did not live in the palace itself, but rather inside a peaceful forest that could be found behind the palace. Actually, the forest was in a pocket dimension, just like the Bizarre Sect.

Lu Yin was caught off guard when he saw the Specter clan members living peaceful lives in pastoral mountains and forests. He had always had a preconception that the members of the Specter clan lived in oppression and only focused on cultivating. He had thought that they led similar lives as members of organizations that trained assassins, such as Aegis, but the Specter Clan was nothing at all like Aegis.

"There are only a few tens of thousands of members of my Specter clan still alive. Most of the people here are those people’s families, while the true members of the Specter clan are either training or hiding somewhere in the outside world. Still, despite our pathetic numbers, our strength is not inferior to that of any major power.” Tian Dou shared a bit of information as they walked.

Lu Yin laughed. This was perfectly accurate. After all, how could the Specter clan ever lead peaceful lives? Cultivating to raise their strength was the very foundation of such a clan.

"What about death energy?" Lu Yin asked.

Tian Dou had been left with no choice but to absorb death energy from Aeternus Nation, but after that place’s destruction, he had no choice but to absorb death energy from Gaia’s Swamp. The same was true of the rest of the members of the Specter clan as well.

Lu Yin could not help but feel a bit moved. While he was aware that Aeternus Nation had not truly vanished, he could not say anything about it. The Specter clan did not deserve such trust, or rather, they did not deserve such trust at the moment. If the day when he could truly trust the Specter clan came, he would allow them to live in Aeternus Nation. However, if that day never came, he would never breathe a single word about the parallel universe that held Aeternus Nation.

The Xie family’s Bone Plains were actually the Specter clan’s secret base, but not many members of the Specter clan could actually cultivate with death energy, and most of those who could were absent. Lu Yin did not see Tong Yu or Silver, but he did see an old acquaintance: Faceless. This person had once ranked seventh on the Top 100 Rankings, and Lu Yin had fought against him in the Sea King’s Dome.

At that time, Lu Yin had suppressed Faceless’s death energy with Fatal Revival, which had caused Faceless to believe Lu Yin to be a high-ranking member of the Specter clan, and he had eagerly obeyed Lu Yin’s orders after that.

Even back then, Lu Yin had already started making some guesses about the connection between the Arcane Art—Fatal Revival and the Specter clan.

Only recently had Lu Yin learned that the Specter clan had been the ones to release and spread Fatal Revival and that it was a cultivation art that came from the God of Death.

Lu Yin followed Tian Dou around the Specter clan’s territory, and when he passed by the place where the members of the Specter clan trained, he felt powerful auras. There were actually two Envoys.

"Does the Neohuman Alliance know about this place?" Lu Yin asked.

"They know."

Lu Yin was not surprised. Given the fact that the Specter clan had so many people hidden here, it would be more surprising if the Neohuman Alliance had remained ignorant of the place.

"Since we are within the Seven Courts’ territory and next to Xia Ji, the Neohuman Alliance has never been able to access this place. Before Aeternus Nation was destroyed, Tong Yu and I, as well as most of our most powerful people, all lived in Aeternus Nation. The Neohuman Alliance did not doubt us much then," Tian Dou explained.

"Your Specter clan’s gone over to the Neohuman Alliance, so why should they doubt you?" Lu Yin asked.

Tian Dou said, "They were the ones who found us. When they approached us, we were truly at the end of the road. The only reason why we managed to gain control of the Xie family is through the help of the Neohuman Alliance."

"How did you lose in the first place? Was the Xie family really strong enough to defeat the Specter clan?"

"Of course not. It was actually the Hall of Honor that was the one attacking us, and the Xie family also gained the cooperation of the entire Seven Courts. How else could we have been defeated?"

"What a pity."

Tian Dou agreed. "Yes, it is quite a pity. At our peak, my Specter clan would have been able to provide so much more assistance to you, my lord. It would not have been impossible for us to even face the Hall of Honor head-on."

…

Lu Yin did not intend to spend much time at the Bone Plains, and he also made sure not to ask Tian Dou any questions that were too delicate. When it came to the Specter clan, Tian Dou was correct in saying that Lu Yin did not really want them dead. In the past, Lu Yin had dared to attack the Daynight clan, and he had only achieved victory after dancing along the edge of a blade. Lu Yin was far more confident than back then, and he was not afraid to deal with the Specter clan.

"If you wish to leave, my lord, your servants will not keep you here. However, before you leave, would you like to see our Specter clan’s battle techniques that we have studied and developed after many years to utilize our death energy?" Tian Dou made a very tempting offer, and Lu Yin immediately agreed. Battle techniques always held a powerful attraction.

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While Lu Yin was able to use the God of Death Transformation, his fighting style was very simple in that form as he did not possess even a single battle technique that used death energy. Only after absorbing death energy during the destruction of Aeternus Nation had Lu Yin learned the Mask of Death battle technique, but even then, it was a technique that could only be used to alter his appearance. It possessed no combat utility whatsoever.

Lu Yin was very curious to see what sort of battle techniques the Specter clan had developed.

Wherever Lu Yin went, the Second Nightking followed, though Tian Dou was completely unafraid of the Second Nightking. The old man could not use death energy, and his spiritual force techniques were nothing more than simple blasts of air against Tian Dou; they were useless.

The Specter clan’s battle techniques were recorded in simple books, but the clan had no need to guard them. Everything that they possessed used death energy, and everyone who cultivated death energy was a part of the Specter clan. In other words, all of their techniques were useless to anyone who did not possess death energy.

Lu Yin flipped through the various books, checking out the Specter clan’s various battle techniques.

While some techniques were quite impressive, unfortunately, they would not be of much help to Lu Yin in a fight, especially after he underwent the God of Death Transformation. That transformation provided him with a scythe in his right hand, a shield in his left hand, as well as chains that wrapped around his body. The battle techniques of the Specter clan would be useless with that combination.

It was possible that the techniques he was looking at were quite useful to the members of the Specter clan, but everything that he saw was useless to Lu Yin.

On top of that, the Specter clan did not possess very many battle techniques. In fact, they only had a bit more than ten different techniques.