Chapter 2219: Absurd Upgrades

As Lu Yin looked down at the seemingly endless mountains of star essence on the ground below, he took several deep breaths. The place smelled of money and power.

Finally, the day had come where he no longer needed to worry about how much he spent, where he could carelessly consume without any restraint.

"I don't understand why you need so much star essence. You’re already cultivating with stellular energy, not star energy." Progenitor Smoke felt rather surprised as she observed Lu Yin. She felt this guy was keeping some secrets from her.

Lu Yin coughed. "Senior, um, could you- I mean, this junior- Could you please return to the mirror?"

Progenitor Smoke’s brow furrowed. "What’s that supposed to mean? You don’t want me to watch? What are you going to do, cross the river and tear down the bridge? Brat, you’re really pushing things!"

Lu Yin quickly apologized, and he also tried to offer some reassurances. "This junior has a secret, and while I don’t want to hide it from you, Senior, it’s really awkward for other people to see it. All this junior can do is make a promise to you, Senior. In a few days, I’ll share this secret with you, and in the best outcome, you might be freed from your prison."

Progenitor Smoke's eyes grew large. "Free me? Are you certain? Can you actually do that?"

Lu Yin remained firm. "I’m going to try. So, Senior, could you…?"

Before Lu Yin could even finish asking his question, Progenitor Smoke had already returned to the pocket dimension within the mirror. Before vanishing, she did leave a warning. "I’ll tell you this right now—if you fail, or prove that it will be impossible in the future, you can forget about getting any more help from me again."

Lu Yin stored the mirror away. He did not question Progenitor Smoke's resolve in the slightest. After all, the woman controlled one of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas, but a puny three-tribulation Envoy had used the woman on multiple occasions. Even if Progenitor Smoke had not said anything, Lu Yin knew full well that she was not comfortable with her situation.

Regardless, Lu Yin could not casually reveal his innate gift. Kui Luo had seen Lu Yin use his die once, but he was not clear on the specifics. Even if Progenitor Smoke did not fully understand what she saw, she was still far more perceptive than a Semi-Progenitor.

If possible, it was best for Lu Yin to not reveal his secrets.

Since he had promised to do his best to free Progenitor Smoke, Lu Yin made sure that the first thing that he would Enhance would be the needle-like weapon.

While he wanted to Enhance the slipper, he was not sure if even the exorbitant resources available on the Junior Progenitor Planets were enough to upgrade the slipper even a single time. According to his rough estimates, each of the Junior Progenitor Planets held somewhere between 300 billion to 500 billion star essence, but it would probably take multiple trillions of star essence to fully Enhance the slipper even once. Even if the slipper was Enhanced to the level where it could kill a Progenitor, it would be worthless if Lu Yin could not get close to a Progenitor. Thus, its current level suited Lu Yin’s abilities. On the other hand, it was still worthwhile to Enhance the needle-like weapon.

Of all the various power vessels that Lu Yin possessed, the needle-like weapon was the only one that could potentially be improved enough to be able to help free Progenitor Smoke. At the moment, Progenitor Smoke was only able to exert the power of a Semi-Progenitor outside of the mirror because of the needle-like weapon and the slipper.

At the moment, Lu Yin was on the Junior Progenitor Planet that belonged to Shenwu’s Sky. The guardians of the planet had already been knocked out, so Lu Yin raised a hand and brought his die out. He simply needed to roll three pips.

Lu Yin did not have a cosmic ring big enough to take away all the star essence that was on the planet, so even rolling Timestop would be useless.

His luck was not great, as his first roll landed on Blackhole Disassembly and the second on Timestop. Then, he spent nearly a year in the Timestop Space, training with the Cosmic Art. He had considered storing as much star essence as possible in his cosmic ring and trying to enhance some things while in the Timestop Space, but he had almost immediately realized that it would not work. Then, he had instead concentrated entirely on the Cosmic Art.

His third roll was Gift Copy, and only on his third roll did he manage to roll Enhance.

Lu Yin stared at the two screens formed from light, and he started to move his arms. He needed to shift massive amounts of star essence over.

He already knew that it would be incredibly expensive to upgrade the needle-like weapon even once. After all, it could already shatter a Semi-Progenitor’s inner world at its base level, so there was no way that Enhancing it would be cheap.

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

460 billion. It cost a total of 460 billion star essence to Enhance the weapon a single time.

Lu Yin stared at the seemingly unchanged weapon and gulped nervously. He had never before spent so much star essence on any Enhancement before.

Almost all of the star essence on Shenwu’s Sky’s Junior Progenitor Planet had been consumed. All that remained was a thin layer that covered the surface, and Lu Yin only left that behind to prevent the loss of star essence from being seen by the God of Food who was in Hope Restaurant.

After seeing just how much money he had consumed with this single upgrade, Lu Yin could not help but feel rather shaken.

He slowly picked the weapon up, but there seemed to be no difference at all.

It was extremely cold to the touch, but Lu Yin did not dare to try to test the weapon out, as he could not risk breaking anything. Also, there was a good chance that the God of Food would notice any drastic changes.

He looked down at his cosmic ring and then out at the other Junior Progenitor Planets.

There was nothing else that Lu Yin could Enhance while on the same Junior Progenitor Planet. After realizing that, he pulled out the mirror and asked Progenitor Smoke to take him to the next one.

After coming out, Progenitor Smoke automatically glanced around, and curiosity and disbelief quickly covered her face. "Where did so much star essence go?"

Lu Yin pursed his lips. "Senior, it's really inconvenient to tell you this junior’s secrets, but don't worry. After leaving this place, this junior is confident that I will be able to help you release more of your strength."

Progenitor Smoke stared at Lu Yin for a long moment, though she said nothing. Finally, she took him to the next Junior Progenitor Planet.

The next one was the Junior Progenitor Planet that belonged to the White Dragon Clan. This was the place where Lu Yin had plotted to prevent Nong Lie and several others from being selected as members of Long Tian’s team in the Dominion Realm. That had given Lu Yin the opportunity to go instead.

He had also used a good bit of star essence on the planet, though it had been a negligible amount in the scope of the entire planet.

The mirror quickly went back into his cosmic ring. Lu Yin had already decided what he wanted to Enhance next, which was the Withered Bark that possessed the power of time.

In Lu Yin’s mind, Progenitor Ku was someone very, very important. While the man had not possessed Progenitor Chen's domineering invincibility, Progenitor Hui's incomparable intelligence, or the Rune Progenitor’s mysteriousness, when it came to sheer endurance and determination, Progenitor Ku had been without equal. Even Progenitor Smoke had admitted that Progenitor Ku was virtually unkillable, and Wang Miaomiao, who was Forgotten Ruins God, had mentioned the same thing.

Progenitor Ku had possessed the courage to charge into the heart of Aeternus on his own. His confidence had come from his own power.

The Withered Bark that Lu Yin had was a power vessel that Progenitor Ku had personally left behind.

Lu Yin had already mastered Extremes Must Be Reversed, which essentially allowed a dead tree to sprout anew. And yet, this Withered Bark possessed the power of time. Lu Yin had long since started wondering how Progenitor Ku’s power was connected to the power of time, as there was no record of such a thing in the Ku family.

The only mention of it had come from Ku Rong, who had claimed that Progenitor Ku had mastered the power of time, though the man’s only evidence to support his claim was the Withered Bark.

Lu Yin felt that there had to be a reason for why the Withered Bark held the power of time, but given Progenitor Ku’s low-key personality, it was impossible for anyone to know just what the man had comprehended.

Lu Yin has seen just how miraculous the power of time could be from Wendy Yushan and Chu Yuan, as well as when he had personally traveled through time and space. He had practically witnessed the entire history of humanity! Lu Yin had a very powerful desire to master the power of time, even if the chances were minuscule.

Lu Yin calmly stared at the Withered Bark as he rested for ten days. After the required time had passed, he resumed rolling his die.

He watched as the die slowly came to a stop, and when he saw that it landed on six pips, Lu Yin’s eyes lit up. Next, he appeared in the dark space that was filled with orbs of light of varying brightness. There was no time to waste, so he immediately shot towards a bright light and merged with it.

When he opened his eyes, Lu Yin found himself on a violent battlefield. It was dark, and a massive formation was underfoot. He was on the rear battlefield.

Several corpse kings in front of Lu Yin attacked him, and he dodged out of reflex. He had Possessed a five-tribulation Envoy, so he easily retreated into the true universe. However, all of the attacking corpse kings were also at the Envoy level, and one had even undergone a Green Eyes Transformation and revealed an innate gift. It was the corpse king that the Possessed person had been wariest of.

Memories started to pour in, and Lu Yin finally knew whom he had Possessed.

This man was a commander of the fourth array base: Jiu Zizai. He was the most powerful of the array base’s colonels, and he was essentially the second-in-command of the array base. Jiu Zizai was even more powerful than Colonel Zhuo, whom Lu Yin had met before.

If this was all there was to the man, then Lu Yin would immediately end the Possession.

However, Lu Yin had already learned from Jiu Zizai’s memories that the man was actually a Redback. During the second battle that he had participated in on the rear battlefield, thousands of years ago, he had been recruited and turned, becoming a Redback. He had killed his own comrades and begged the Aeternals for mercy. Marquis Wu Yi, one of the Twelve Marquises, had personally overseen Jiu Zizai’s training.

For nearly a thousand years, Jiu Zizai had never been asked to do a single task. All that had happened was that Aeternus had tried to avoid affecting the man’s time on the second array base. He had eventually risen from being an Enlighter, to a five-tribulation Envoy. All of Jiu Zizai’s accomplishments on the battlefield had been provided to him by Marquis Wu Yi, solely to improve the man’s status even further.

Jiu Zizai was already the most powerful of the fourth array base’s colonels, and he answered only to his general and the commander of the rear battlefield. After just one more breakthrough, Jiu Zizai would become a useful tool for Marquis Wu Yi.

Through the memories that he saw, Lu Yin learned that Marquis Wu Yi had never asked this colonel to do anything at all on the rear battlefield. The five array bases operated as a unified whole, so even if Jiu Zizai managed to become a Semi-Progenitor or was promoted to be the general of an entire array base, he would never be able to influence the entire battlefield.

Rather, Jiu Zizai would be the most useful if he eventually returned to the Perennial World from the rear battlefield. Only then would he start to serve his designated purpose.

The possibilities available to a powerhouse who had survived the rear battlefield for thousands of years and had risen up to become a six or seven-tribulation Envoy were unimaginable. Every organization would court such an expert, and he would become the most important Redback in the entire Perennial World in a single step.

The memories that Lu Yin saw left him shocked. Most people believed the rear battlefield to be a dam that existed to block Aeternus from entering the Perennial World, and it was indeed the Aeternals’ greatest obstacle.

However, there were many people in the same position as Jiu Zizai on the rear battlefield. The Aeternals had an excellent grasp of the weaknesses of human nature. As long as a person wanted to survive, they could be easily coerced into becoming a Redback, especially after they returned to the Perennial World.

No one would suspect these people, and even Humility’s Gate would hesitate to question such heroes, as there would be terrible backlash from making a mistake.

Lu Yin controlled Jiu Zizai's body in a fight against the corpse king, though it was a struggle for him to not simply force the body to commit suicide. Still, after thinking about it, Lu Yin held himself back. Since he had managed to uncover Jiu Zizai as a Redback, there was nothing that the man could keep hidden from Lu Yin. It might even be possible to use the man as a double spy and learn about Aeternus’s secrets.

Also, it was true that Jiu Zizai had never done anything to harm humanity. On the contrary, Marquis Wu Yi had deliberately allowed the man to accomplish impressive achievements, though everything was actually thanks to the corpse kings.

Lu Yin suddenly had a strange idea; if a large number of people turned traitor and tried to join Aeternus as Redbacks, then would the Aeternals work to give all of those people impressive military achievements to help them get promoted? How much would the Aeternals be willing to cough up to improve the statuses of their Redbacks?

After all, any costs would be recovered if the people were truly Redbacks, but what sort of losses would the Aeternals suffer if the Redbacks were not truly traitors to humanity?

As soon as this idea occurred to Lu Yin, he could not dismiss it. His eyes glowed brighter and brighter, and he ended up being so distracted by his thoughts that he was almost taken out by a corpse king.

After all, none of the corpse kings present were aware Jiu Zizai was a Redback. They were truly trying to kill him. Only the most powerful corpse kings on the battlefield, the ones that posed a genuine threat to the colonel, were aware of his status. They were the ones who would create opportunities for Redbacks during critical moments.