Chapter 2073: Twenty Years

A soft silver light shone down on the tidal flat from the stars above, and it also illuminated a woman in a wooden shack who was wrapped up in a black cloth.

Although there were not many women on the tidal flat, there were still a few. Some had stable battle forces and were able to collect pyrolyte, while others simply relied on men. This woman was different from the other ones. Her injuries left her battle force unstable, and her appearance caused all the men except for Old Hei to avoid her.

Boom boom boom!

"It's me. I caught two more fish," Old Hei called out. He sounded absolutely exhausted, and his breathing was ragged.

The woman in a black cloth was taken aback. The tidal flats tonight were extremely dangerous as someone had died, as the scent of their blood would attract powerful creatures from the Astral River. Because of this, after someone died, people would usually wait at least three days before fishing at night again. Old Hei was certainly quite determined.

"I’ve saved five fish for you. These are the fish that the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate stocked the Astral River with. They’re supposed to be from a very ancient era and should be good for stabilizing a person’s battle force and helping them recover from injuries. The only problem is that whoever gets the most fish gets killed. As thanks for catching five for you, I almost lost my life! You should appreciate what I’ve done for you," Old Hei growled.

The woman shrouded in black cloth answered with a hoarse voice, "I didn't ask you to catch them! Go eat them yourself! Leave!"

Old Hei grew furious, and he pushed the wooden door open to glare at the woman in black. "I’ve had enough! I’ve been helping you ever since I recognized you, but it’s never enough! I try to help you, since you’re hurt. I catch you fish, and if anyone hurts you, I’ll protect you. And yet, you still treat me like this! What’s with your attitude? What do you have left that lets you be so arrogant? Do you think that you’re the same as before?

"You’re ugly now, and no one will even take a second look at you! Your voice is ruined, and your sect is gone. Who’s going to help you other than me? You can’t find anyone!"

As he finished his rant, Old Hei caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to look at the bed and saw a person lying on it with a sword sticking out of his chest. It was a shocking sight. “Isn’t- isn’t that the guy who got swept out of the Astral River a few days ago?”

The woman in black shot over to stand next to the bed, and she glared at Old Hei through a pair of beautiful eyes. "Get out! Get out!"

Old Hei responded with a vicious smile. "So that's how it is! That kid isn’t actually dead, is he? You've fallen for him! Someone who didn’t die even with a sword in the chest? Do you know him? I want to see who he is."

The man shoved the woman aside and walked towards the window next to the bed.

The woman reacted almost instantly, and she struck out with a palm at Old Hei.

The man dodged out of pure reflex, but he quickly realized that the woman was not able to use any battle force at all, which caused him to let out a sigh of relief. The woman had been very strong in the past, far beyond anything Old Hei had ever been capable of reaching. But luckily for him, her battle force had grown unstable, as otherwise her attack would have killed him.

"Are you trying to kill me because of this kid? I will absolutely take you today!" Old Hei roared out with all his suppressed emotions before charging at the woman in a crazed manner. The people in the neighboring shacks heard the commotion, but no one interfered. This was perfect for Old Hei. As long as none of the guards showed up, no one would do a thing.

When the woman saw Old Hei rushing towards her, she panicked and lashed out with another palm strike. However, this attack had a purple light to it, and it slammed into Old Hei's shoulder.

The man’s right shoulder was shattered by the palm strike, and he retreated while letting out a wail. He stared at the woman in horror. "Four lined battle force?"

Four lined battle force was very rare in the tidal flats. Anyone who was able to cultivate their battle force to that level would be rounded up and taken to other places.

If the woman truly did have four lined battle force, none of the people in the tidal flats would be her opponent, but unfortunately, her fighting spirit was unstable. Only on rare occasions could she successfully release a burst of her full power.

Old Hei gritted his teeth as he glared at the woman. She screamed, "Get out!"

However, the purple light faded from her hand even as she shouted. Her eyes grew nervous, as she knew that it was impossible for her to maintain her battle force.

Old Hei sneered. "You want me to go? You just tried to kill me! I’m going to kill that bastard before I leave!"

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He whipped around to face the man on the bed, grabbed a hold of the sword hilt, and ripped it out. This gave Old Hei his first opportunity to actually see the face of the man on the bed.

Instantly, Old Hei’s big black pupils shrank to almost nothing, as though he was seeing something unbelievable. That face? That person? Is he-?

Old Hei did not have a chance to finish his thoughts, as his arms were the first to transform into specks of light that dissipated, but the effect quickly spread to the rest of his body.

Old Hei was startled, and he blankly stared on as his body vanished. He looked both helpless and terrified as he stared at the man on the bed. What? What- what's going on?

The woman in the black clothes was close by, and she watched on in horror as Old Hei disappeared. In the end, there was no trace of the man to be found.

Her eyes fell to the sword, which suddenly fell out of the air and struck the side of the bed as it tumbled down. Old Hei had managed to remove the sword. He had died, but he had still taken the sword out.

…

Lu Yin was dreaming. In his dreams, he had been stabbed by a sword. The truth was that given his cultivation realm, not even a pierced heart would be enough to kill him. As long as his body and head were not completely destroyed, he would eventually be able to recover.

However, Lu Yin had no idea why, but he was completely unable to move no matter how hard he tried.

There was also a sharp pain in his chest. Could he have really been stabbed in the heart by a sword? Even if that was true, why was there nothing but terrible pain? Lu Yin’s mind remained very clear.

I'm conscious, but I can't open my eyes. I can't move, but oddly enough, I can feel my body. Am I dreaming? If not, then what is this?

He kept wondering if he was dreaming. Then, he felt an abrupt pain in his chest once more, and he sat straight up. He was met with the sight of a dark, damp wooden shack, as well as a person standing close by. All Lu Yin could make out were a pair of beautiful eyes that felt rather familiar.

…

Inside the shack, the woman who was shrouded in black cloth blankly stared at the man sitting up on the bed. Her eyes showed a few conflicting emotions, but the dominant one was clearly surprise. The person who had been lying on her bed was Lu Yin.

Lu Yin looked at the woman in black clothes. She felt very weak and seemed to be seriously injured. "Who are you? Where am I?"

As Lu Yin spoke, he caught sight of the sword next to the bed, and he reached out to grab it.

"Don't touch it!" The woman hurried to stop him. She had just seen what happened to Old Hei after he touched the sword’s hilt. Absolutely nothing of the man had been left behind.

Lu Yin asked, "It’s mine, so why can't I touch it?"

The sword was one of six that had belonged to the Origin Progenitor. Lu Yin had taken control of it, but he remembered that it had stabbed his chest in the Daosource Sect’s main hall. Thinking of that incident, Lu Yin looked down and saw that his chest was still bleeding. It had definitely not been a dream; he had been stabbed by the sword.

Lu Yin felt completely confused; why had he been stabbed? Was it because both he and Chu Yuan had simultaneously recited the Origin Sutra and they had somehow confused the sword? That did not seem impossible.

Wait. Lu Yin's expression changed. What had happened to his power?

For a long time now, Lu Yin had had multiple distinct energies and sources of power within his body. There was the black and white mist within his chest that was kept hidden by fatesand, three stellular energy vortices hidden within his three meridian points, and a fourth vortex outside of them and within his heart. These were Lu Yin’s individual sources of power that resided within his body ever since he had become an Envoy.

However, at this moment, besides the black and white mist within his chest around his heart, there were also odd little specks dotted around that looked like stars. In the past, the fatesand, the black and white mist, and the stellular energy vortex had all been separate and distinct. But now, Lu Yin noticed that his stellular energy vortex was mixing with the black and white mist and the stars.

Lu Yin was dumbfounded as he observed his chest. What had happened? What had the sword done to him? His power sources had completely changed.

Fortunately, his four stellular energy vortices were all still present, but it seemed like the rest of the star-like specks were being pulled towards the vortex in Lu Yin’s heart. More importantly, his fatesand seemed to have shrunk, and there was even a dot in the middle. That dot must have been where the sword had struck him.

Lu Yin looked at the tip of the sword and then touched his chest. He had not been mistaken. The sword had truly pierced his heart, but the tip had been blocked by his fatesand. Somehow, the sword had triggered the fatesand, and it had begun to disintegrate. Could fatesand actually break down? He had never even thought about it. After all, fatesand was not a physical substance—wait, it might be an actual substance… What was happening?

From what Lu Yin could see, the energies in his body were in a completely chaotic state. His death energy, stellular energy, and even his fatesand seemed to be merging to form a strange unity.

In that case, the question was, how was Lu Yin supposed to use this new fused power?

He wanted to take control of the different energies and force them back apart, but none of the chaotic energies would budge in the slightest. The death energy stuck to the stellular energy, while stellular energy simultaneously enveloped the death energy. This prevented Lu Yin from using death energy. As for his stellular energy vortices, the energy within them seemed to be functioning in a normal manner. However, Lu Yin could not sense any ambient stellular energy at all, which meant that, at this moment, the only methods that Lu Yin could rely on were his battle force and Truesight.

"Is stellular energy still being devoured?" Lu Yin asked as he glanced over at the woman wrapped in black.

She nodded. "Yes. No one has been able to recover even star energy, so any techniques that rely on it can’t be used."

Her voice was hoarse and hard on the ears.

Lu Yin sighed. "How did you end up like this, Xi Yue?"

A quiver shook the woman's body, and she dropped her head to stare at the floor. Her fists clenched tight enough to elicit pain as her fingernails cut into her palms. Blood dripped down.

She was Xi Yue, who had once been among the brightest stars in the universe.

Lu Yin took out some Enhanced medicine that he had gotten from Shamrock Enterprise as he rose up from the bed and approached Xi Yue. "This can take care of your injuries. It’s very effective."

Xi Yue just stared at the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees. She kept her head down, and did not answer or speak at all.

Lu Yin had no idea what to say. Xi Yue had once been the brightest star of the Souldream Tribe, and when Lu Yin had first been admitted into Astral-10, Xi Yue had been one of the biggest celebrities in the entire Innerverse. She had countless suitors chasing her, and a single word from her could see a person drown in the spit of her followers due to her otherworldly voice and entrancing grace. Lu Yin had once had a disagreement with the young woman, but later on, the Souldream Tribe had joined the Great Eastern Alliance, which had made Xi Yue fall under Lu Yin’s command.

"I have no idea what’s happened to you, but you can tell me if you want to," Lu Yin offered.

Xi Yue remained silent for a long time. In fact, light shone down as the sky started to brighten, and when the silvery light fell onto her, Xi Yue’s eyes were filled with tears. "It’s been twenty years since you disappeared! We received word confirming your death, and during these twenty years-"

"Wait!" Lu Yin was stunned, and he stared at Xi Yue in shock. "What was that? Twenty years?"

Xi Yue nodded. "That’s right, twenty years."

Lu Yin frowned. "Twenty years since when?"

"Since the Daosource Sect ruins appeared here in the Fifth Mainland," Xi Yue replied.

Lu Yin swallowed. It had been twenty years. He had just been traveling through time and space, and even if he included the time that he had been incapacitated, less than a month had passed for Lu Yin. However, had the rest of the universe seen twenty years go by? This was clearly the power of the Origin Progenitor’s sword from when Lu Yin had fallen into the river of time. He was lucky, very lucky, that only twenty years had passed. If it had instead been two hundred, two thousand, or even twenty thousand years, things would be very different.

"How did everyone determine that I was dead?" Lu Yin was rather taken aback. Even if twenty years had passed, he should not be considered dead. It was perfectly normal for cultivators to go into seclusion to train for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Xi Yue explained, "Dao Chosen Chu Yuan and Heluo Mavis, as well as a Semi-Progenitor from the Bloodlines Heavenly Gate, all verified your death."