Chapter 2078: Chaotic Times

A few days later, Lu Yin and Xi Yue were in a spaceship, standing by a window and looking outside. They had already left the tidal flat along the Astral River, and they were currently headed to First Flowzone and Sword Mountain.

Sword Mountain had once belonged to the Sword Sect, but twenty years ago, when the Aeternals had launched their all-out assault on the Fifth Mainland, the Sword Sect had followed the Great Eastern Alliance to escape to the Outerverse. After that, due to the ongoing fight against the Aeternals, it had become imperative for everyone to be protected by a Semi-Progenitor. Thus, the Sword Sect had not been able to return to First Flowzone, as doing so would cost them the protection of a Semi-Progenitor.

They were helpless, and they could only remain with the Great Eastern Alliance in the Outerverse, where it had eventually become the Lu Heavenly Gate.

At this point in time, Sword Mountain and all of First Flowzone had already become the the area Team Resolution used to select potential recruits and where they trained their affiliated teams. The battlefield between humanity and the Aeternals had been pushed to the west, so First Flowzone was not as dangerous a place as it had once been. However, if the Sword Sect wanted to return to First Flowzone, they would have to join the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate. No matter how badly the Sword Sect wished to return to their ancestral home, doing so would mean betraying the Lu Heavenly Gate. Lu Buzheng was no fool, which meant that it was impossible for the Sword Sect to make such a decision.

For this reason, Sword Mountain had remained under the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate’s control for more than ten years.

"They’re using a blackhole class Aurora just to transport the two of us? Hen Xin really does have access to an obscene amount of resources," Lu Yin commented.

Xi Yue whispered, "Twenty years ago, because of the Hall of Honor’s rules and restraints, there were many things that couldn’t be done, but those rules no longer exist. The strong can kill the weak, and even annihilating entire families has become common. The entire universe is descending into chaos."

Lu Yin clasped his hands behind his back. "That's not necessarily true. Humanity has always been ruled by the law of the jungle, and the previous rules were simply put in place by the most powerful people. If the Heavens Sect is rebuilt, then it will play the role of humanity’s ruler and overseer. It’s just that things are chaotic for now."

"You enjoy this kind of chaos, don’t you?" Xi Yue asked in a low voice.

Lu Yin neither admitted to nor denied anything.

He was already completely convinced that it would be much more convenient to deal with certain matters in the current universe now than it would have been twenty years ago.

After a few days passed, Lu Yin frowned as he looked at Sword Mountain in front of him and observed the various changes. The mountain had once possessed a seemingly infinite amount of sword qi that could be sensed the moment a person entered First Flowzone. But now, those sights had faded, and the mountain was becoming increasingly ordinary.

His pupils transformed into runes as he stared at Sword Mountain.

At this moment, the greatest source of runes that Lu Yin could see was only comparable to a one-tribulation Envoy’s, which meant that there was no powerhouse present.

Suddenly, a wave of rune lines shot towards the spaceship. It was an amount that somewhat exceeded a power level of 10,000, which meant that it was as powerful as an attack from an Explorer.

Given the strength of this attack, Lu Yin assumed that it was not really an attack, but rather Team Resolution’s assessment for newcomers that Xia Sheng had mentioned.

Boom!

The vessel exploded, and shockwaves swept out from the point of impact. Both Lu Yin and Xi Yue were revealed, shrouded with four lined battle force. While they looked rather miserable at the moment, they had both managed to stop the shockwaves from the attack.

Lu Yin looked over and saw someone slowly lowering a gun. The attack had been launched from this weapon.

The weapon had been made with pyrolyte, and it was considered the most basic kind of weapon. Still, even if an ordinary person fired the gun, they would be capable of unleashing an attack that had the strength of an Explorer.

From what Lu Yin had learned from Xia Sheng, the most powerful weapons that humanity was capable of producing used a combination of micro-array technology and pyrolyte. Micro-array technology could replicate any battle technique at the Enlighter realm, and pyrolyte was able to push that power even higher. The combined force could produce attacks with a power level of over 300,000 or even 400,000, depending on the amount of pyrolyte used.

Long ago, the Sea King had wrapped pyrolyte in Progenitor Chen's blood-stained cloak and used the combination to blast open the Upper Three Gates. Pyrolyte’s potential power was truly immeasurable.

Lu Yin and Xi Yue safely landed on the ground.

The man who had attacked their vessel looked at them with cold eyes. "Follow me."

The two followed him onto Sword Mountain.

There were sporadic bits of sword qi that rose up from beneath their feet, which was a unique characteristic of Sword Mountain.

After walking for a long time, the two arrived at the Sword Array Plaza.

This was Lu Yin’s third time visiting this plaza.

At the moment, there were no less than a hundred people standing in the plaza, and they encompassed nearly all ages. They were also encircled by another group of people.

Lu Yin was surprised by what he saw. Team Resolution's affiliated teams should consist entirely of people who cultivated battle force, domains, or spiritual force. But given the sheer number of people present, just how many people were members of Team Resolution’s affiliate teams?

Twenty years ago, not many people throughout the Fifth Mainland had focused on cultivating battle force, domain, or spiritual force. Even in the Astral Combat Academy, very few students had been able to cultivate both battle force and a domain. As for the Sixth Mainland, people had even believed that the alternative cultivation methods held no path forward, so no one had wanted to pursue them.

Who could have imagined that alternative cultivation methods would eventually become the most common cultivation form and that they would spread across the entire universe?

Lu Yin had also struggled when he started cultivating battle force, but in the current universe, there was room to grow in that aspect.

"Fall in," their escort shouted loudly.

Lu Yin and Xi Yue walked to the back of the group of a hundred people.

Everyone glanced at Xi Yue with curiosity. Black cloth shrouded her entire body, which gave her a rather conspicuous appearance.

A short time later, Lu Yin looked up right before a figure fell from the sky and smashed into the ground with enough force to shake the entire plaza. A surge of vicious battle force swept out, and many people were thrown from where they had been standing.

This person was Xing Kai, and his battle force had already reached nine lines.

This change quite surprised Lu Yin. Twenty years ago, nine lined battle force had been the peak level of mastery in the entire Fifth Mainland, and just a single breakthrough would see Xing Kai reach the same level of mastery as Lu Yin. This had been accomplished in a mere twenty years of training.

However, even if battle force had become a mainstream cultivation method, how well did it compare to stellular energy?

This was something that Lu Yin had always wondered about. He had heard that Hen Xin had reached his current strength by cultivating battle force, domain, and spiritual force. In that case, how had he broken through to the Semi-Progenitor realm? While an Enlighter might succeed in comprehending aurelian force, they would still be inferior to the average Envoy who trained exclusively with stellular energy. In that case, how could one become a Semi-Progenitor with battle force?

The only explanation was that battle force, domain, and spiritual force could each be cultivated to a level comparable to the stellular energy of an Envoy who could enter the true universe.

If Xing Kai had already managed to cultivate nine lined battle force, then what would his battle force become once he broke through to the Envoy realm? Or when he reached a power level of a million? How would he become a Semi-Progenitor? Lu Yin was very curious about all of this.

Given Xing Kai's current strength, it did not seem possible for him to fight against even ordinary Envoys.

"Everyone who was tossed aside has been eliminated." Xing Kai spoke very softly, but his three-meter-tall body gave off a very oppressive aura. As he spoke, the nine lined battle force disappeared from his body, and instead, six lined battle force appeared.

Lu Yin could not understand what was going on.

"Use one lined battle force to cover your body and endure for five days. If you can’t hold out for that long, you’re disqualified," Xing Kai announced in a loud voice.

A third of the people in the plaza had already been eliminated, which left just a bit more than sixty people standing in the plaza.

However, as soon as they heard Xing Kai's words, everyone shrouded their bodies with battle force.

Lu Yin did the same, though many questions were running through his head. Was this how the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate had people cultivate battle force? He remembered hearing people tell him that he should maintain his battle force for a longer period of time, but he had never paid attention. It was never necessary to maintain battle force consistently throughout an entire fight.

According to Xing Kai, the applicants all needed to maintain their battle force for five consecutive days. This was absolutely impossible for most people who had only recently started cultivating battle force.

However, the applicants were not alone, as even Xing Kai maintained his six lined battle force while he stood within the Sword Array Plaza with them. All the people from Team Resolution’s affiliate teams surrounding the plaza also maintained their battle force, and Lu Yin could see that some were maintaining three lined battle force, while others only used two lines.

Less than half a day passed, and yet several people had already failed to endure and were disqualified.

One day passed, then two. Nearly half of the applicants had been eliminated. On the third day, even more were disqualified.

All of these applicants had managed to achieve four lined battle force, which indicated that they had some level of talent for this cultivation method. Despite that, many were unable to maintain even one lined battle force for a long time.

Lu Yin was unconcerned with the others, as he wanted to compete with Xing Kai. Lu Yin wanted to see how long he could maintain six lined battle force, but attempting that would be too much. Old Hei was reported to have only recently achieved four lined battle force, and if Lu Yin revealed six lined battle force, even an idiot would realize that something was wrong.

By the fifth day, less than ten people remained standing in the Sword Array Plaza.

Xi Yue had also managed to persevere. She had long been considered a genius, and she had attended the Astral Combat Academy, as well as received the resources of the Souldream Tribe. Even though her battle force had not improved beyond four lines, she had still made steady progress, and she surpassed many other people’s mastery of battle force.

After the five days were over, only six people had passed the test. Aside from Lu Yin and Xi Yue, the other four were all quite young. They were much younger than Old Hei, and they could be considered youths.

Young people were generally very malleable, and given these people’s ages, they had not focused too much on cultivating star energy before the universe changed. Their clothing indicated that they also came from decent families, and it was possible that they had been informed well in advance what sort of assessments they would face when trying to join one of Team Resolution's affiliate teams.

None of the four were surprised that they had passed, but they were quite curious about Lu Yin and Xi Yue.

Xing Kai looked at the six people and asked for housing to be arranged for them. "Whether you’re able to remain here will depend on the final assessment of the members of Team Resolution. Don't mess around as you wait for them."

As soon as he finished speaking, Xing Kai left.

The four other people moved together to discuss something, and Lu Yin heard them mention something about illusions, battle force entering their body, and other such things.

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered as they followed Xing Kai.

Given Lu Yin’s identity at this moment as Old Hei, even if he qualified to train with one of Team Resolution's affiliate teams, it would take a long time for Lu Yin to gain access to the information regarding the higher levels of battle force, let alone gain access to anything regarding aurelian force. Lu Yin could not afford to wait around for that long.

His best option was to change his identity again.

Lu Yin was given a wooden house to live in on Sword Mountain, though it was only a bit better than the shacks on the Astral River’s tidal flats.

Lu Yin stared out into space. At this moment, the matter that concerned him the most was still the chaotic energies within his body. He simply had no idea how to recover from this mess. He found that it was impossible to use his death energy, and he was quite confident that such a situation had never occurred during the God of Death’s era.

Death energy, fatesand, and stellular energy had all mixed together.

Lu Yin let out a sigh. He waited for a bit, and once the sky was completely dark, his body flickered. He quickly made his way towards where Xing Kai stayed.

In all of Sword Mountain, the most powerful individual was only a single one-tribulation Envoy, at least from the runes that Lu Yin could observe. Well, that was the level of strength that the person possessed. Lu Yin had no idea if the person was actually an Envoy, as there was no longer any stellular energy available.

However, that person was also far away from Xing Kai.

Lu Yin ran into no difficulties while moving towards where Xing Kai was staying. He was actually staying next to the pond where Liu Qianjue had enjoyed fishing.

Xing Kai quietly stood beside the pond. His height that was comparable to a lesser giant, and his nine lined battle force gave the man an oppressive presence, but unfortunately for Xing Kai, Lu Yin was not impressed. Xing Kai was not nearly as powerful as Wang Su and the other Junior Progenitors.

There was a bang, and Xing Kai was knocked out. Even his nine lined battle force could barely do anything to protect him.

Before Xing Kai comprehended aurelian force, Lu Yin would be able to overpower the former Arbiter with nothing more than brute physical strength. Even if Lu Yin had made no progress at all during these last twenty years, the difference between his strength and Xing Kai’s was not something that twenty years could compensate for. On top of that, Xing Kai had not been able to improve his star energy cultivation at all during these twenty years.

Zenith Mountain appeared, and Xing Kai was tossed in before Lu Yin quickly followed.

Everyone on Zenith Mountain watched as Xing Kai fell, but only Liu Shaoge recognized the man. War King Xing Kai? Why did Lu Yin send him in?