Chapter 2045: Heavy Injury

Lu Yin was shocked. Jue Yi actually recognized the divine tree? This meant that the Mavis family had been very famous even back during the Heavens Sect era.

Lu Yin looked over at Yunying Mavis, but he saw that the woman showed no surprise at all. "Since you know of our divine tree, you should already understand how powerful it is."

Jue Yi stared intently at the divine tree. "Correct. The Mavis family’s divine tree is extremely powerful, and it used to cover the center of the Second Mainland. The Mavis family controlled the entire mainland. No one would dare to underestimate the divine tree. If this were the true divine tree, then let alone me, but not even a powerful Progenitor would likely be able to do anything to it. Unfortunately, this tree is fake."

Yunying Mavis became furious. "How could my Mavis family live in a false divine tree?"

Jue Yi's eyes dimmed, and his death energy surged. It took on the form of a phantom that stood behind him. It was a massive figure that looked down on everyone from on high.

Lu Yin was also familiar with this sight, as he had seen this figure both when absorbing death energy and in Burial Garden. This was the God of Death.

The God of Death had appeared behind Jue Yi, proving that the man was indeed a disciple of the God of Death.

"Even if the true divine tree of the Mavis family is incomparable to the Mother Tree, it was still large enough to cover the center of the Second Mainland. The divine tree granted the Mavis family control of all plants in the entire universe, and the family was in no way inferior to even the Lu family. While this tree does indeed possess a fragment of the divine tree’s power, it feels as though it is still growing. The divine tree that stood at the center of the Second Mainland is no more!" Jue Yi yelled as the enormous phantom of the God of Death that stood behind him transformed into a scythe that slashed at the divine tree.

Suddenly, Ancestor Tortoise moved his head, slamming into the scythe formed out of the God of Death’s figure. There was a bang, and sparks sprayed across space out of sight. Their passage caused the void to churn like a boiling lake, and countless spatial cracks appeared.

Jue Yi was bumped by Ancestor Tortoise’s head, and he was forced further and further back, badly startling him.

Lu Yin let out a sigh of relief. Jue Yi was clearly unbelievably powerful, but luckily, even Ancient God had been wary of Ancestor Tortoise. For Jue Yi, it was likely that he would likely be helpless against Ancestor Tortoise even if he weren’t under the suppression of the mental network and could unleash a full-powered attack.

Yunying Mavis also let out a sigh of relief. The techniques and abilities of the newly arrived ancient powerhouses were startling. Even if the woman was confident in the strength of her family’s divine tree and Ancestor Tortoise, she had still been nervous.

"Don't waste your time. Not even the Seven Skygods were able to do anything to that Ancestor Tortoise,” Wang Si suddenly spoke up, though her cold eyes did not leave Lu Buzheng. “However, we can help you deal with it as long as you help us get rid of Lu Buzheng."

Lu Buzheng angrily shouted, "You bitch, you’re asking to die!"

Ni Huang had not anticipated Wang Si attempt to coerce Jue Yi into joining them, but it was clear that the man’s help would be immensely useful and would instantly reverse the current situation. Realizing this, Ni Huang quickly moved to lock down Lu Buzheng while quickly checking on Hen Xin once again. The man still looked like he had absolutely no intention of getting involved in the current conflict.

Kui Luo suddenly shouted out some unexpected words. "You old whore, are you trying to hook up with yet another man? You already have two of your clients here, and now you’re not even sparing people from the ancient era? This is just too much! He could be your ancestor!"

Wang Si gritted her teeth. "Kui Luo, you bastard! You’re about to die as well!"

She then turned back to Jue Yi again. "You can only get to that kid by working with us."

Jue Yi shot the old woman a cold glance. "If even I can't breach this creature’s defenses, how could you help me?"

Wang Si sneered. "You don’t need to overpower anything. I already have a way to get that brat to leave on his own."

She then looked at Lu Yin with a smug expression. “Boy, did you really think that we would be willing to just return to the Perennial World with you? We were given an important mission. You once captured our people, and there’s no way we’ll ever let those people you care about go. We already know about how important Earth is to you."

Lu Yin's expression finally changed. The way he viewed Wang Si had just changed on a fundamental level. While Lu Yin had always wanted to get revenge for his family and kill the traitors like Wang Si, Lu Yin could still see the bigger picture and suppress his hatred with the threat of Aeternus present. Lu Yin would even work together with mortal enemies if it was for the sake of defeating the Aeternals. Even at this moment, Lu Yin had not made any real moves to kill Ni Huang and the others, instead simply hoping to suppress them and then use their strength to work together to resist the Aeternals.

This single sentence from Wang Si changed Lu Yin’s mind on this matter. Even if they were being threatened by the Aeternals and humanity as a whole was in jeopardy, Lu Yin was determined to kill this bitch.

Seeing Lu Yin's overflowing bloodlust, Wang Si could not stop herself from feeling a quiver of fear. The youth’s killing intent had left her, a Semi-Progenitor, terrified. She had already realized that Lu Yin posed a threat to her, and if he was allowed to continue to grow and develop, he would eventually be able to deal with not only Wang Si, but also the entire Wang family.

This thought made Wang Si continue, her voice growing cold. "As long as you capture someone that kid cares about, it will be easy to make him come out on his own. There are billions of people on Earth, so just see how long he can endure once we start killing 100 million people a day. There are also many, many people who have joined his Great Eastern Alliance, and we can use all of them to force his hand."

Lu Buzheng's visualization of the Immovable Heavenly King Elephant suddenly surged, growing more powerful until it nearly reached the strength of an inner world. "You bitch! You dare to threaten a descendant of my Lu family? I’ll kill you!"

Due to the rising levels of strength being used in the battle, more and more stellular energy was devoured by the nearby droplet, and at the same time, the mental network started to activate.

Lu Yin shouted, "Stop!"

The shout startled Lu Buzheng, and he glanced over at Lu Yin, as did Kui Luo, Wang Si, Jue Yi, and even Hen Xin, who still had not made a single move. All of them stared at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin was calmly staring at Wang Si. He seemed too calm, and it was a bit scary. "Your words just now have ensured that I will one day make your Wang family regret what you’ve said for 10,000 years."

Wang Si's eye twitched, but she quickly answered with a sneer. "Let's see if you can even survive first!"

She turned to Jue Yi. "So? Do you want to work together?"

Jue Yi just glanced at Wang Si. "In the era of the Heavens Sect, humanity reached its peak. Progenitors were encouraged to create their own, unique forms of power, and thus many organizations that did not rely on stellular energy appeared. Peerless experts such as the masters of the Three Realms Six Daos rose to power.

"During that time, the creation of new forms of energy and cultivation methods were greatly admired, schemes were always nothing more than the self-comforting lies of the weak."

Wang Si's expression grew dark.

Jue Yi continued, "There are people who are incapable of achieving strength themselves, and so they do their best to frame, threaten, lure, or use other such tricks to protect their own pathetic sense of value. Those are the types of people I hate the most.”

He stared at Wang Si as he finished up by saying, “That is the sort of person you are."

Wang Si's face twisted into a hideous expression. "You’ll never get a hold of that bastard without our help."

Jue Yi remained indifferent. "I don't need to capture him. I simply want to clean things up a bit. Even if I can’t deal with him now, I’ll just strip him of his power once I become a Progenitor and the second God of Death."

As Jue Yi spoke, he looked back at Lu Yin. "Whomever I allow to use death energy can use it, and whomever I forbid from using death energy can never touch it, even if it means that the power will vanish from the universe."

Lu Yin's eyes flickered. While he hated Jue Yi's condescension and incomprehensible arrogance, the man himself did not seem despicable. He simply followed the way of the people from the Heavens Sect era.

Every era possessed its own unique characteristics. After humans rose to prominence, there were times when a delicate figure was considered beautiful, and other times when thick, heavy bodies were seen as beautiful. There were eras that advocate strength and despised underhanded methods, and there were other eras that praised those who would do anything it took to achieve their goals. It was a matter of the perspective of the times.

In the current era, it did not matter if one used pure strength or acted as though the ends justified the means. This was why Wang Si was comfortable threatening Lu Yin, and it was also how Lu Yin had managed to unite both the Innerverse and the Outerverse. However, such behavior was incomprehensible to people from the Heavens Sect era.

This was why Sky Garan felt contempt for Wang Si’s tricks.

People’s perspective changed with the changing times. Humanity had reached its peak during the Heavens Sect era, and they had not dealt with any dire issues such as wars with outside powers. The Heavenly Sect had established a system to ensure the orderly development of humanity, which had firmly established the arrogance of personal power as the highest virtue. In the current era, humanity faced too many outside enemies.

Sky Garan and the others were unable to understand the perspective of the current era while Lu Yin and the others failed to understand the mindset of the people from the past.

Thus, Wang Si felt disgusted by Jue Yi’s reaction. Her method was quite practical, and it would very likely succeed. If Lu Yin saved himself while allowing Earth to be destroyed and everyone he held dear to perish, then it would permanently cripple his future progress. Why had Jue Yi objected? There was no downside to such actions, and yet not only had Jue Yi refused, but he had also openly mocked Wang Si for her plan. Such a reaction infuriated the woman.

Even Ni Huang felt that Jue Yi was rather old-fashioned, and the old man choked when he heard Jue Yi's words.

These words were clearly not simply mocking Wang Si. Jue Yi was mocking the current era, just like how Sky Garan had looked down upon Lu Yin.

Jue Yi's words left Wang Si and the others disgusted by his attitude, but his words had also distracted Bai Laogui and the rest of the Semi-Progenitors who were still fighting. Highsage Grandmaster grabbed hold of this opening to make his move. "Thousand Rivers Return to Sea."

Bai Laogui was startled. He had no idea what this Thousand Rivers Return to Sea might be, but he would naturally try to defend against whatever trick Highsage Grandmaster had planned.

However, Bai Laogui’s reaction was exactly what Highsage Grandmaster was aiming for. He had been inspired by his battle with Xia Ji, and he had realized that the secret technique Thousand Rivers Return to Sea could actually be used deceptively. People who were ignorant of the secret technique would automatically try to defend themselves, and the secret technique would transform all battle techniques back into raw energy. In other words, defensive measures were pointless, but Highsage Grandmaster was also unable to launch any attacks.

Xia Ji had exploited this secret technique to defeat Highsage Grandmaster and Elder Gong by taking them both by surprise. At this moment, Highsage Grandmaster wanted to similarly surprise his opponents by transforming all battle techniques into nothing.

Of course, Lu Buzheng and Kui Luo were also affected.

Even though everyone was doing their best to avoid using any techniques that utilized stellular energy at this time, it was instinct to rely on it in a critical moment. This was exactly the reaction that Highsage Grandmaster aimed to exploit.

If Arch-Elder Zen or any other Semi-Progenitors from the Fifth Mainland were present, they would have instantly been able to cooperate with Highsage Grandmaster to launch attacks against Ni Huang and the rest, but all of those people were elsewhere. The only ones present who understood the current situation were Highsage Grandmaster himself and Lu Yin.

The moment Thousand Rivers Return to Sea was released, Lu Yin pulled out the needle-like weapon that he had received from Dark Chief Justice Tian Dou. Using the Yu Secret Art, the weapon instantly appeared right in front of Wang Si, and at the same time, a palm strike appeared. Countless palm prints filled the space in front of Wang Si, converging and merging to create a single, powerful palm attack that struck the back of the needle-like weapon. The weapon pierced through Wang Si’s arm so quickly that she could not even react to it.

The weapon stabbed through her entire body, and she was sent tumbling backwards through space, splattering blood everywhere as she flew along.

Everyone was stunned by what had just happened. Highsage Grandmaster had been the one to release the palm attack. He had aimed at Wang Si at the same moment that he had unleashed Thousand Rivers Return to Sea. The needle-like weapon had simply appeared in the path of Highsage Grandmaster’s attack, and since everyone had been completely focused on the secret technique, not even Highsage Grandmaster had noticed the weapon. The appearance of the weapon was only noticed after Wang Si had been seriously injured.

Given Wang Si’s strength, it should have been very difficult for her to suffer such terrible wounds, and Highsage Grandmaster’s palm attack had not carried nearly enough power by itself. However, the palm strike had traveled at an incredible speed, and it had pushed the weapon forward to produce a devastating attack.