Chapter 2086: Sounding Out

When Lu Yin actually thought about the matter, his stellular energy vortices had already contained enough energy to rival the Second Nightking’s when Lu Yin had triggered his third stellular tribulation.

Every single last one of Lu Yin’s vortices far surpassed those of his peers. Everyone from the Lu family possessed far greater reserves of stellular energy and star energy than other people. While Chu Yuan had managed to push his cultivation to the level where he approached the Lu family’s energy reserves, he was nowhere close to comparing to Lu Yin’s. After all, Lu Yin greatly surpassed even other members of the Lu family, and his energy stores were large enough to leave even a Dao Chosen like Chu Yuan questioning his entire life.

The heat from the five suns allowed Lu Yin’s body to recover as the stellular energy of the suns filled his internal energy reserves. He then rested for a few days, which finished up his session in the Timestop Space.

His next goal was to continue cultivating the Cosmic Art. Elder Gong’s comment had done well in reminding Lu Yin of his previous enthusiasm, and his motivation for improving his mastery of the Cosmic Art had skyrocketed yet again. He raised a hand, and his die appeared. He tapped it and watched as it stopped on five pips.

He pursed his lips, but then he suddenly remembered something; did he not have quite a few people still on Zenith Mountain? In particular, there was Liu Shaoge.

Liu Shaoge had been Lu Yin’s most feared enemy when he had first started cultivating. It was beyond difficult for someone to rise up from being a common Earthling with no resources or background, to being a high-ranking member of the Celestial Frost Sect who had managed to draw the attention of even a Semi-Progenitor. However, Lu Yin had never managed to understand what sort of innate gift Liu Shaoge possessed.

At this thought, Lu Yin quickly pulled out Zenith Mountain and jumped in.

On Zenith Mountain, Yu Chen and Liu Shaoge stayed far away from each other almost all the time, and they rarely spoke to each other. They were simply waiting for the day when Lu Yin released them, and they both considered Zenith Mountain to be their prison.

Lu Yin entered the mountain, appeared right in front of Liu Shaoge, and instantly slapped a hand at Liu Shaoge while the man stared blankly at Lu Yin.

In order for Lu Yin to use his die’s Gift Copy ability, he needed to make physical contact with a person within ten seconds of rolling his die in order to borrow the person’s innate gift. Seven seconds had already passed, but that just meant that Lu Yin still had three seconds remaining.

Lu Yin's hand moved incredibly slowly as he moved to attack Liu Shaoge, as Lu Yin was curious to see just how Liu Shaoge would react. The strike was aimed straight at Liu Shaoge’s forehead, and no matter how anyone looked at Lu Yin’s actions, it seemed quite clear that he was determined to kill Liu Shaoge.

There was absolutely nothing that Liu Shaoge could do to stop this attack, so he simply watched Lu Yin’s hand approach with eyes that expressed his complete confusion.

Lu Yin set his hand upon Liu Shaoge's forehead and stared into the man’s eyes.

Liu Shaoge blinked. "Brother Lu, are you playing around?"

Lu Yin's eyes flickered, and he withdrew his hand as he stared intently at Liu Shaoge for a moment. "Even a completely normal person wouldn’t remain that completely unresponsive if they saw someone attacking their head, not to mention our relationship. Liu Shaoge, you still remind me of what I felt the first time I saw you."

Liu Shaoge reacted with a wry smile. "Why bother reacting, Brother Lu? You’re far stronger than me, so if you want to kill me, trying to dodge would be useless."

Lu Yin nodded. "True. If I wanted to kill you, it’d be impossible for you to get away. However, this is also what’s so scary about you.”

Lu Yin paused in the middle of speaking to stare at Liu Shaoge for a moment. "You almost instantly came to the best decision, which means that you made that decision on instinct. Most people don’t have those kinds of instincts. I get similar vibes from you as I did from Nightking Zhenwu, though there’s still something different.

"He was always extremely cautious. No matter how underhanded or sneaky he needed to be, he would make sure that his enemies died, and he would enjoy the entire process. On the other hand, you only care about the final results. Whether you enjoy the process or not doesn’t matter to you, as you only care about the end."

Liu Shaoge retreated a few steps. He was suddenly very on edge, as he was able to feel a hint of bloodlust from Lu Yin's words. "Brother Lu, you and I aren’t enemies. We’ve already erased our past debts, and there’s no need for us to become enemies. It’s not like you to kill someone who’s not your enemy."

Did Lu Yin truly want to kill Liu Shaoge? If they both possessed the same level of strength, it was quite possible, but at this moment… "I really want to see just how far you can go. Don't worry, I’ll let you go soon."

Lu Yin then immediately left Zenith Mountain.

Liu Shaoge let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Lu Yin was gone. The man’s back was soaked with sweat, and he stared at the ground in frustration. I was careless! I should have dodged and acted scared like a normal person instead!

Liu Shaoge could only blame the fact that Lu Yin was too unpredictable. Who could have expected such a sudden attack? Was Lu Yin testing Liu Shaoge or something? What was the reason behind the unprovoked aggression?

Liu Shaoge could not make heads or tails of what had just happened. The difference in their power was too overwhelming, and Lu Yin had absolute control over Liu Shaoge’s life and death, so why the test?

Forget Liu Shaoge—not even Progenitor Hui would have been able to unravel Lu Yin’s actions.

Lu Yin had acted on pure whimsy. He had wanted to use Gift Copy to borrow Liu Shaoge's innate gift. Since Lu Yin had needed to touch Liu Shaoge, he had simply decided to test the man as well. In the end, many things were pure coincidence.

Lu Yin’s interaction with Liu Shaoge also gave him a sudden idea; if Aeternus was able to plant spies within humanity, then why could humans not do the same with the Aeternals? Not all members of Aeternus were corpse kings, and of the Seven Skygods, Forgotten Ruins God seemed to be fully human.

Wait. Lu Yin suddenly thought of something else; if he wanted to send spies into Aeternus, then it would be best to use people from the Xia family, as they had the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

No one knew just who within the Xia family practiced the Nince Clones Secret Technique, but if someone from the Xia family sent one of their clones to the Aeternals, then even if that clone was forced to become a corpse king, they might still be able to act as a spy for humanity.

Why had Lu Yin not considered this possibility before? If he looked at the situation from this point of view, then was it possible that there were already spies within Aeternus? Progenitor Hui had been able to predict various outcomes and plan for the future; was it possible that the man had never entertained such a thought?

Lu Yin was enamored with this possibility, and as he thought about it, he looked down at his die. The face with five pips now had a symbol on it that looked like a sun. Lu Yin had absolutely no idea what it meant.

Lu Yin resumed rolling his die. His next roll was Enhance, which was useless, while his fourth roll was Pilfer. The spatial tunnel opened up, and something fell out. Lu Yin twitched when he looked down and saw what had appeared. A slipper?

No, he was not mistaken. Right on the ground was a slipper. It looked completely ordinary, though it had a black footprint in it. It looked absolutely revolting to Lu Yin; who would keep their slippers in a cosmic ring? Were they afraid of losing them?

Lu Yin became upset. After seeing what he had obtained, he casually waved a hand to get rid of the footwear, and the slipper went flying. But surprisingly, it was completely undamaged.

Lu Yin was caught off guard, and he waved his hand again. He used a bit of power this time, though just enough to overpower a Hunter. Still, when the force struck the slipper, it was simply blown away without being damaged in the slightest. Even the black footprint remained the same.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

There was something wrong with this. How could any slipper endure a level of force that could overwhelm a Hunter?

Lu Yin did not believe in superstition, so he lashed out yet again, and this time, he used a Vacuum Palm. This attack was enough to instantly eliminate an Enlighter.

Regardless, the slipper remained indifferent to Lu Yin’s efforts. It was knocked into the air and then fell back onto the ground. The black footprint was to the top and facing Lu Yin as though mocking him.

Lu Yin's expression grew solemn. He picked the slipper up and squeezed it hard. It twisted and was completely deformed, but it suffered no actual damage. He used more strength, and he even used the Immovable Heavenly King Elephant visualization method. How could this slipper endure such overwhelming power?

Clearly, there was something unusual about the slipper. It had to be a power vessel or some sort of rare treasure, but even if that was the case, Lu Yin had no intention of ever using it. How could he use a slipper? Still, he was quite curious about just how much force it could endure without breaking.

Given Lu Yin’s impressive physical strength and the Immovable Heavenly King Elephant visualization method, he had put enough strain on the slipper that even experts with power levels of over a million might not have been able to handle it. But despite that, the slipper remained the same as ever.

Lu Yin could understand what he was seeing. His pupils transformed into runes as he stared at the slipper, but there were no runes. Just what was going on?

He took the slipper and slapped it against the ground.

The ground trembled, and a howl rang out right before the entire area started heaving up and down.

Lu Yin was badly startled. He had gone into seclusion on the back of Ancestor Tortoise. Was that really a howl that I just heard? That couldn’t have been Ancestor Tortoise, could it?

Elsewhere on Ancestor Tortoise’s back, the members of the Mavis family were absolutely terrified, and many held on to whatever was nearby. Ancestor Tortoise was thrashing up and down as though someone had just stepped on its tail. The beast’s massive eyes darted about, and there were even signs of tears falling. It was suffering. Just who had hurt it?

It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! Ancestor Tortoise had not felt anything close to this sort of pain for eons, and it was simply not used to such agony.

The creature craned its neck to look at its back, and it stared at where Lu Yin was in seclusion. The place where it had been struck ached so badly!

Up in the canopy of the divine tree, Heluo Mavis was holding onto the trunk. "What's wrong with this turtle?"

Yuhua Mavis had no idea at all. "I don't know! This has never happened before! Ancestor Tortoise is even looking back!"

Heluo Mavis's eyes instantly lit up. "I get it! It must have sensed the presence a Dao Chosen! It wants to acknowledge me as its master!"

Yuhua Mavis could not find any words to say to Heluo Mavis. The woman had a quick temper, and she was also narcissistic and arrogant. It was very difficult to communicate with such a person.

Yunying Mavis and the other members of the Mavis family moved over in front of Ancestor Tortoise and tried to comfort the creature. Tears poured from Ancestor Tortoise's eyes. It was hurting so much! Someone had hit it!

Many people in the surrounding area had also seen the tortoise thrashing, especially Lu Buzheng. He had been terrified that Ancestor Tortoise might accidentally crush Earth.

Still in his place of seclusion, Lu Yin blinked. Had that really been Ancestor Tortoise making that noise? He decided to slap the slipper down again. Had it just been a coincidence? After all, Lu Yin was just holding a slipper, so he went ahead and smacked the ground again.

Ancestor Tortoise’s mouth opened wide as it let out another wail. This time, it jumped up and down and began rampaging across Frostwave Weave. It was in terrible, terrible pain.

The divine tree growing on Ancestor Tortoise’s back shook and swayed wildly, leaning from side to side.

The entire Mavis family was startled, and they all tried their best to calm down Ancestor Tortoise.

The tortoise felt badly offended. Just who had it antagonized? It had been hit a second time! The more the beast thought about it, the more upset it became. It just wanted to sleep! As it thought about its suffering, Ancestor Tortoise let out another wail. The beast had been completely silent for many, many years prior to this.

Ancestor Tortoise’s activity drew attention from all across the Human Domain. Hen Xin, Jue Yi, and the other Semi-Progenitors all turned to focus on the Outerverse.

Ancestor Tortoise’s mere existence was one of humanity’s greatest weapons against Aeternus, and yet the beast was showing such an abrupt change in behavior. Just what had the Mavis family done?

Many people immediately thought of Heluo Mavis. Before she had appeared in the current era, Ancestor Tortoise had never altered its behavior, and not even Ancient God had been able to do anything to the beast.

No one had any clue what had happened to the giant tortoise.

Even Lu Buzheng did not even consider Lu Yin’s involvement in the matter, as it was impossible for him to harm Ancestor Tortoise in the slightest. At this moment, Ancestor Tortoise was clearly in pain.

"Could it be in heat?" Kui Luo had returned, and he muttered to himself as he looked out at Ancestor Tortoise’s tears.

Lu Buzheng was stunned speechless; was this what being in heat even looked like? Besides that, what were they supposed to do if Ancestor Tortoise was in heat? Where would they ever find another massive tortoise?

"Did I hear that that kid Lu Yin’s back? Where is he?" Kui Luo asked.

Lu Buzheng replied, "He went into seclusion on Ancestor Tortoise’s back."

Kui Luo was taken aback, and after a moment, he pointed at the weeping tortoise. "There?"

Lu Buzheng nodded. "I hope that the tortoise's actions haven’t bothered him."