Chapter 1999: Gaze

Everything Lu Yin had done over the years flickered through Arch-Elder Zen’s mind. Regardless of how one viewed Lu Yin’s actions, the child was not someone selfless enough to share his strength with others to help them improve, and yet that was exactly what he had done. Lu Yin had established the Tower of the Fifth, and its existence drew the most talented cultivators from the entire Fifth Mainland. However, everyone who received one of Lu Yin’s inheritances had to acknowledge him as a half-master.

Arch-Elder Zen had initially believed that Lu Yin simply did not want to deal with certain troubles, but at the moment, it suddenly looked as if Lu Yin had already known that the Perennial World would send people searching for him and demanding he be given to them. Viewed in this light, all of Lu Yin’s actions became reasonable and logical.

Arch-Elder Zen had not been able to understand why Lu Yin had bargained to keep the new universal armors at the Tower of the Fifth for a few extra months before delivering them to the Hall of Honor, but if the Semi-Progenitor’s suspicions were correct, then Lu Yin had pushed for such a thing because the universal armor could prove important to the Fifth Mainland refusing to turn him over to the Perennial World.

Many things instantly fit together in Arch-Elder Zen’s mind, though they all led to an even bigger question: how could Lu Yin have known what the Perennial World was doing?

It was the Perennial World. Not even the Hall of Honor could spy on that place, and logically, it should be impossible for Lu Yin as well. Even if he had people there watching things, there should be no way for them to contact Lu Yin.

Construction had started on the Tower of the Fifth more than half a year ago, and it should have been impossible for Lu Yin to know of the Perennial World’s plans so long ago.

Strange. Very strange…

"Hey, what are you thinking about? You aren’t actually thinking of not protecting the kid, are you?" Kui Luo stared into Arch-Elder Zen's eyes as he shot out a question.

Arch-Elder Zen just laughed. "I said I won’t turn him over, and so I won’t."

Kui Luo had to ask, "Just because he stopped the astral beasts’ invasion and built the Tower of the Fifth?"

"Isn't that enough?" Arch-Elder Zen countered.

Kui Luo did not know how to respond. From his perspective, such things were far from sufficient, but that was because Kui Luo and Arch-Elder Zen were completely different people.

Kui Luo was a selfish person who wanted to toy with the entire universe and who seldom considered anyone other than himself. On the other hand, Arch-Elder Zen was someone who always took the perspective of what was best for all of mankind. His selflessness had created a barrier for Arch-Elder Zen to try to break through to become a Progenitor. The two were complete opposites.

"That child has saved the lives of countless people in the Outerverse, and also blessed the entire Fifth Mainland. He is truly talented, and he has a very good chance of eventually becoming a Progenitor. Such a person is completely qualified for my protection," Arch-Elder Zen said.

Of course, there was also another reason: that man and the Chief Justice.

Arch-Elder Zen had no way of knowing how Mister Mu would feel about the current situation, but since he had accepted Lu Yin as a disciple, Lu Yin had to be protected.

Chief Justice Qing Ping’s attitude had already been made very clear: Lu Yin was his junior brother. If Arch-Elder Zen decided to sacrifice Lu Yin for the good of mankind, Qing Ping would not agree. If Lu Yin created strife within humanity which aggravated the Aeternals’ attacks, then Qing Ping would deal with Lu Yin himself. That was Qing Ping's position on the matter.

Arch-Elder Zen could not ignore Qing Ping.

There were too many people in the Fifth Mainland who cared about Lu Yin. Why Lu Yin had built the Tower of the Fifth did not matter. He had not betrayed the Fifth Mainland, and so Arch-Elder Zen could not betray Lu Yin.

Kui Luo nodded. "I hope you really will protect him. I’ll offer you another reason why you need to protect him."

Arch-Elder Zen grew curious.

Kui Luo became far more serious than before. "The Lu family isn’t dead."

Arch-Elder Zen's eyes went wide in disbelief. "What?"

Kui Luo continued, "The Lu family wasn’t killed, but were simply exiled. The four ruling powers have never been capable of eliminating the Lu family."

Arch-Elder Zen struggled to believe what he was hearing. "If the four ruling powers united, they would certainly have more Progenitors than the Lu family, so why wouldn’t they be able to destroy the Lu family?"

"You are also someone from that era. Have you forgotten the Lu family legend?" Kui Luo asked.

Arch-Elder Zen's body trembled. Was the man referring to that legend about the Lu family?

Memories kept tumbling through Arch-Elder Zen’s head, and his eyes flickered about before he finally turned back to Kui Luo. "Are you saying the legend is true? Is there really someone like that in the Lu family?"

Kui Luo was solemn as he replied, "I don't know if there is or isn’t, but I am certain that the Lu family still lives. Lu Xiaoxuan is the only one able to bring the Lu family back, which means protecting him is the same as protecting his entire family. Once the Lu family returns, this place will no longer be the Forsaken Land. The Fifth Mainland is wherever the Lu family is, as the Lu family is the Fifth Mainland.”

Arch-Elder Zen stared upwards into space. "The Lu family may have ruled the Fifth Mainland, but that doesn't make them the Fifth Mainland. Only the Daosource Sect and its countless members can truly represent the Fifth Mainland."

Kui Luo did not argue. "If you don't believe me, I can swear an oath that the Lu family was merely exiled and not wiped out."

Arch-Elder Zen raised a hand to stop Kui Luo from doing as he offered. "I believe you, don't worry. Besides, I already said I’ll protect the child, so I will do so no matter how high the price climbs."

The old man then looked in the direction of the Outerverse, and bitterly lamented, "After the war with the Sixth Mainland, we had to make space for them to migrate over. But now, because of the Perennial World, we actually need them to join forces with us to chase the people of the four ruling powers away. As ironic as it seems, fate is destined, and people are helpless to fight it."

Kui Luo left, intending to search everywhere for Lu Yin. Kui Luo had already tried to call Lu Yin, but there had been no connection to the kid’s gadget. Where could the kid have gone?

A Semi-Progenitor’s strength meant that searching all of Chroma Flowzone was an easy task.

Kui Luo entered the flowzone’s forbidden region, and immediately found the shards of the black crystal. Instantly, he thought of the Neohuman Alliance, and so he immediately called Arch-Elder Zen.

Arch-Elder Zen was surprised. Even the Neohuman Alliance was involved in this matter?

Ni Huang had already driven Whiteless God off before Jiu Chi had arrived, and everything had happened at the border of Chroma Flowzone, so no one had noticed the flowzone’s forbidden area.

The Second Nightking had not spoken a single word while the Semi-Progenitors had been meeting. It would have been impossible for him to send any message to Arch-Elder Zen and the others in front of Wang Si and Ni Huang.

"Could he actually have been captured by the Neohuman Alliance? Could it have been that Wang Si and the old man weren’t the ones to injure the Second Nightking, but the Neohuman Alliance?" Kui Luo turned pale. Such a thing would not be even a tiny bit better than if Lu Yin had been Wang Si and the Perennial World.

Arch-Elder Zen replied, "The only one in the Neohuman Alliance who could beat the Second Nightking is one of the Seven Skygods, and the only one of them still alive for now is Whiteless God. Let’s leave it at that and investigate first. There’s no need for random speculation, so we’ll discuss things later."

This really was the only option. Kui Luo was not able to investigate Sky Creation Academy, and there was also no way of him tracking down Whiteless God.

...

The Hall of Honor started searching for Lu Yin, as did a few of the core members of the Great Eastern Alliance. On top of that, Xia Ji was searching for Lu Yin as well.

At this moment, Lu Yin was standing on a barren planet, surrounded by a massive crowd of people. Everyone present was panicking, and hopelessness painted their faces.

They were in the Technocracy, and Wang Si and Ni Huang were moving about above the planet, as well as many people from the Sixth Mainland.

As soon as Wang Si and Ni Huang had appeared, Whiteless God had sent Lu Yin onto a planet in Chroma Flowzone so that Lu Yin would not be found.

Whiteless God's action had been a bit brute forced, as Lu Yin had been left dazed after landing on the planet. Fortunately, Lu Yin had quickly recovered, and had been up and moving before Wang Si had pulled the population of the planet into her inner world.

This was different from when Lu Yin had been captured by Xia Ji. Xia Ji had not restricted Lu Yin with his inner world or tried to kill him, and so Lu Yin had been able to find a chance to escape by using his futon to enter the Daosource Sect’s ruins.

On the other hand, Wang Si had carefully monitored everyone on the planet, including Lu Yin. He would have instantly been noticed if he had tried to use the futon again to escape.

Lu Yin had been trapped within Wang Si's inner world, and the woman had quickly released a great deal of pressure, knocking everyone unconscious, including Lu Yin. However, he had managed to use the Mask of Death to alter his appearance before losing consciousness, as he had seen no other options. He could not do anything to alert Wang Si while within her inner world.

When Lu Yin had woken up, he had already been moved to the planet he was currently standing on.

Looking up, Lu Yin could recognize that he had been taken to the Technocracy. He had ended up being captured by Wang Si.

Lu Yin was quite worried, as he was terrified Wang Si would find him. He had no idea how reliable the Mask of Death might be, but since it was one of the God of Death’s battle techniques, it should be pretty effective. The Mask of Death was not only able to hide a person’s appearance, but also hide their stellular energy vortex with death energy. After all, death energy was a completely different power from stellular energy.

High above the planet, Wang Si's expression grew dark. Lu Xiaoxuan was not among any of the people she had captured. Just where had that brat gone hiding?

"Was Lu Xiaoxuan really there right before we arrived?" Wang Si asked again.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The Second Nightking's body had already recovered a lot, though he still was in pretty bad condition. He answered respectfully, "Yes."

Wang Si stared at the man with cold eyes, not believing a word the Second Nightking said. She called Wang Shang over and ordered the man to escort the Second Nightking back to the Celestial Frost Sect so that the Bai family could deal with him.

The Second Nightking’s fingers shook. Wang Si treated the man far worse than Lu Yin ever had. This woman truly regarded the man as nothing more than a slave.

"Elder, what should we do with all of these people?" Another Envoy who was an elder from the Wang family approached and asked Wang Si.

Wang Si felt disgusted by the people’s mere existence. "They’re untouchables from the Forsaken Land. There’s no need to concern yourself with taking care of them."

She then turned and left.

The Wang family elder did not sense anything odd about the people on the planet, so he also left.

Lu Yin had only glanced up when he had first awoken, as he had not dared allow his gaze to linger out of fear that he would rouse Wang Si’s attention.

One day. Two days. Three days passed, and yet no one paid any attention to the people on the barren planet.

Most of the people were ordinary humans. The atmosphere on the planet was thin, and many people started to demonstrate bizarre conditions. The greatest suffering was from hunger and thirst. No one paid any attention to the people, and there were very few cultivators among them. Furthermore, very few of those cultivators had cosmic rings, and so there was a very small amount of food available even from those sources.

Lu Yin hated what he was seeing, and he wanted to save the people around him, but he was not able to even protect himself.

Finally, on the fifth day, some people arrived from Sky Creation Academy. They were actual humans, and not androids.

There were many humans who lived in the Technocracy. There had been numerous people who had betrayed humanity even in ancient times, and those traitors had taken refuge in the Technocracy, so it was only to be expected that there were quite a few humans living there.

The visitor was an Enlighter, and he led hundreds of other cultivators to distribute food to the people on the planet. Everyone was informed that they would never again return to Chroma Flowzone and that they would have to live out the rest of their lives in the Technocracy.

Five days had passed before anyone had arrived to care for the captured humans, and half of them had already died from starvation or dehydration. The survivors could not care less whether or not they returned to Chroma Flowzone. All that mattered was that they could survive.

Lu Yin let out a sigh of relief. It appeared that his Mask of Death had successfully hidden him from Wang Si and the others who had been searching for him.

He had no idea if he had escaped because the Mask of Death was so effective, or if it had simply been because Wang Si was too arrogant. Lu Yin assumed that if Wang Si saw Lu Yin alone and up close, she would be able to see through his disguise. After all, he had only recently become an Envoy.

All that could be said was that Lu Yin had been lucky.

The people numbly boarded a spacecraft under the supervision of the people from the Technocracy, but just as the ship was about to take off, it suddenly stopped.

There was no explanation given as everyone was driven off the vessel and back onto the planet.

Lu Yin's heart sank. Just what had happened this time?

A group of cultivators appeared in the sky overhead, and they arrogantly started checking everyone on the ground. The appearance of one particular person in the sky startled Lu Yin. Liu Shaoge?

He had not expected Liu Shaoge to suddenly show up. He even seemed to be leading the most recent group to arrive.

As Lu Yin was looking at Liu Shaoge, Liu Shaoge suddenly glanced over at Lu Yin.

Their eyes briefly met, and at that instant, Liu Shaoge's pupils constricted the smallest bit before he looked elsewhere.

Lu Yin stared at Liu Shaoge. He must have been recognized! Lu Yin had altered his appearance, but it was hard to alter a person’s eyes. The more familiar a person was with another, the more likely they would recognize someone’s eyes.