Chapter 2253: Incomprehensible

The God of Food’s words caused Semi-Progenitor Chai to internally curse the shamelessness of Virtue Archives. It was clear that they simply did not have enough sourceboxes to give them to all the students.

Actually, where had Virtue Archives even gathered all these sourceboxes?

Semi-Progenitor Chai looked over at “Yu Hao” and the rest of the chaperones. The academy only had three Array Masters: Headmaster Wen, Prof. Xiao Wen, and the recently arrived Yu Hao. Just who had so many sourceboxes on them?

Ultimately, the Wang family decided to just step aside. If they stopped the students from entering the Tri-Petal, then all of their previous efforts would be ruined. The resources that they could potentially lose were not that important compared to all of Virtue Archives.

All of the students entered, and the area suddenly felt rather desolate.

Lu Yin chatted with Prof. Wei. Mr. Tang closed his eyes and rested. The God of Food had nothing else to do, so he pulled out a recipe book and started reading it.

Semi-Progenitor Chai shot an occasional glance over at “Yu Hao.” The old man could not help but feel that the young man’s lockbreaking ability was unbelievable. Despite not being a Lockbreaker himself, as a Semi-Progenitor, the old man had been fascinated by lockbreaking for many years, and he had learned a great deal about the profession. Using sourceboxes to arrange a sourcebox array for people with absolutely no knowledge of lockbreaking was an exceptional accomplishment. In fact, could most Array Masters even do this?

Reports suggested that Yu Hao was a Realm Array Master. Semi-Progenitor Chai’s questions about the matter were not because he was ignorant of the abilities of a Realm Array Master, but rather because he had never heard of anyone setting up a sourcebox array in such a manner.

As the Semi-Progenitor continued to think about what he had seen, he finally had Wang Yan summon the Wang family’s resident Realm Array Master.

Aside from the White Dragon Clan, all of the four ruling powers had their own Realm Array Masters. This was due to the foundations that they had accumulated over the years, and this was also why the White Dragon Clan had been so excited when they had learned that Long Qi was a talented Lockbreaker.

The White Dragon Clan was desperate to catch up and reach the same level as the rest of the four ruling powers, but unfortunately, their inadequacies could not be compensated for in a short amount of time.

"Could you tell me what exactly the Tri-Petal is?" Lu Yin asked while looking at the massive three-petaled flower with a great deal of curiosity.

Prof. Wei smiled as she answered, "There are many fierce beasts, as well as some criminals that the Wang family imprisoned there as training opponents. Actually, some of the groups are quite large, and I’ve even heard that there’s an entire nation inside it."

"An entire nation?" This was quite surprising, and it reminded Lu Yin of the mission that he had received in the Astral Combat Academy to go visit Shenwu Continent.

Prof. Wei grew a bit more animated as she spoke. "Big families like the Wang family have spent eons finding ways to establish adequate training opportunities for their people. For example, the mountains, rivers, landforms, and cultures inside the Tri-Petals will periodically be changed so that challengers won’t be able to gain much from their predecessors’ experiences."

This was something that Lu Yin could understand. "I just hope that they’ll be able to obtain something."

"It won’t be easy. These kinds of training opportunities are best for powerful people to challenge on their own. For our students, if they want to get something, they’ll have to struggle to get it as a team. Otherwise, they’ll just spend all of their time roaming about and searching," said Prof. Wei.

Lu Yin slapped his forehead, as he realized that he had made a big mistake; he should have assigned leaders to each of the groups of students so that someone would be guiding and directing them with a focused purpose.

All of the treasures in the Tri-Petal would be dangerous to acquire, but as long as the teams of students could find something valuable, they should be able to easily overcome any of the challenges that they ran into. Lu Yin could only hope that the students were smart enough.

Across the way, the Wang family’s Realm Array Master arrived, and Wang Yan quickly explained what had happened. The Realm Array Master's first reaction was that such a thing was impossible. “He’s too young to be able to do something like that. Even if he became an Array Master as a child, there simply hasn’t been enough time for him to accumulate the necessary experience to be able to do such a thing. This is not something that can be done with pure talent. Rather, it requires experience, and a great deal of it at that. Honestly, I think that this should be beyond anyone except an Array Grandmaster. Array Grandmasters can alter and manipulate a sourcebox’s danger field to use it, but that is not something that can be mastered with just talent."

Semi-Progenitor Chai spoke up. "To your knowledge, who could do this?"

The Realm Array Mastered spent some time considering the question. "Our Perennial World has four Array Grandmasters. Grandmaster Gu Yan is the most accomplished, and he could definitely do this. Grandmaster Li focuses on combat, and he is not as accomplished at lockbreaking as Grandmaster Qiu Ling, so he might not be able to do this. As for Grandmaster Qiu Ling herself, I’m not really sure. She’s exceptionally talented at both lockbreaking and arranging sourcebox arrays, so I really couldn’t say.

“Finally, there’s Grandmaster Mu, who’s famous for being the youngest of the Array Grandmasters.

"No one questions Grandmaster Mu's talent for lockbreaking or sourcebox arrays, and even Grandmaster Gu Yan once said that Grandmaster Mu would surpass him. But given his current age, I’m not sure if Grandmaster Mu has the experience needed to do this."

Semi-Progenitor Chai frowned. People without the requisite talent could never understand those who possessed it. For example, Semi-Progenitor Chai was widely regarded as a genius as he had become a Semi-Progenitor, despite the fact that he would never be able to become a Progenitor. The Wang family’s resident Realm Array Master was similar to Semi-Progenitor Chai in a way, as he would never become an Array Grandmaster. It was for this reason that the Semi-Progenitor only believed about half of what he said. There was no way that a Realm Array Master could understand what Grandmaster Mu or Grandmaster Li were capable of.

There was also the existence of Bai Xian'er to consider, as no one knew just how high her mastery of lockbreaking had reached.

"If Headmaster Wen were present, he might be able to do it. After all, the Wen family had produced Progenitor Wen, who was both an Array Grandmaster and a powerful Progenitor. It’s possible that he left something behind for his descendants, and it’s also known that Headmaster Wen has extensive lockbreaking experience himself," the Wang family’s Realm Array Master explained.

Semi-Progenitor Chai replied, "Headmaster Wen is clearly not here, and it would be impossible for him to set this up over a call through a communication crystal."

"It’s definitely beyond my abilities," the Realm Array Master stated. He then looked over at “Yu Hao” with open admiration. "If that young man really is responsible for what happened here, then his lockbreaking talent is beyond terrifying. He might even surpass Grandmaster Mu to become the youngest Array Grandmaster in history. After all, he’s already a Realm Array Master.

"Who is he?"

Wang Yan was the one to answer this time. "His real name is Yu Hao, but he uses the alias of Hao Yu while hiding in Virtue Archives. He’s Grandmaster Gu Yan’s apprentice."

"Grandmaster Gu Yan’s apprentice?" This shocked the Realm Array Master. "No wonder. No wonder. Could we possibly recruit him? If we can bring him into our Wang family, we will definitely have an Array Grandmaster in the future. We did lose our last Array Grandmaster on the rear battlefield over a decade ago, and as for me… Well, I know that I will never be able to become an Array Grandmaster."

Semi-Progenitor Chai's eyes flickered, as the Realm Array Master’s comment reminded the Semi-Progenitor of something. Of the Perennial World’s four Array Grandmasters, Grandmaster Gu Yan was completely unaffiliated and hated all four ruling powers. Grandmaster Li was entirely focused on researching the sourcebox arrays on the rear battlefield. He was almost entirely devoted to studying Ceaseless Impetus. Grandmaster Qiu Ling had a close connection to Shenwu's Sky, and she could basically be considered as a part of the sect. Grandmaster Mu was close to the Celestial Frost Sect, and he was regarded as a member of that sect. As for the Wang family, they had no connection to any Array Grandmasters.

This was also just public knowledge. It was impossible to know if the Celestial Frost Sect or Shenwu's Sky had any hidden Array Grandmasters.

Additionally, Shenwu's Sky was putting extensive efforts into recruiting Yu Hao, which would not only give them a future Array Grandmaster, but also Grandmaster Gu Yan, which was killing two birds with one stone.

Semi-Progenitor Chai turned to look in the direction of Shenwu’s Sky.

Ever since Bai Teng had disappeared, everyone had pointed fingers at the Celestial Frost Sect, but they had also forgotten that Shenwu's Sky had managed to rise up to almost the same level as the Celestial Frost Sect. After all, Shenwu’s Sky already had the largest number of Array Grandmasters, and yet they were still working on winning over Yu Hao. Even if the Celestial Frost Sect was guilty of everything that they had been accused of, there was no denying Shenwu's Sky’s attempts to pull Grandmaster Gu Yan over to their side.

In reality, Shenwu’s Sky and the Celestial Frost Sect were equally threatening to the Wang family.

In fact, unrelated sources had basically confirmed that Aeternus’s forces had captured the four patriarchs, and if that was true, the Celestial Frost Sect would soon become much less of a threat. On the other hand, the threat that Shenwu's Sky posed would only continue to grow.

Semi-Progenitor Chai stared at “Yu Hao.” If not for the incident with the students and the sourcebox arrays, the old man would have never noticed just how grave a threat Shenwu’s Sky had become.

In fact, Semi-Progenitor Chai immediately sent a message to Wang Xun, warning the other Semi-Progenitor to be on his guard against Shenwu's Sky.

Lu Yin had never expected his actions to cause such a reaction, as his only thought had been to force the Wang family to cough up more rewards for the students. It was Semi-Progenitor Chai’s fear of the other four ruling powers that had triggered such a strong reaction.

The four ruling powers enjoyed a special relationship between each other. While things appeared balanced and equal on the surface, all four of them wanted nothing more than to shatter the balance and replace the Lu family as the undisputed and solitary overlord of the Perennial World.

The established balance should have taken many, many years to fall apart, but Lu Yin’s appearance had destabilized everything. His strength meant that his every action created ripples with ever-spreading repercussions, and he was even affecting the balance between the four ruling powers. This shift in the balance of power was causing each ruling power to suspect the others.

Wang Miaomiao approached “Yu Hao.” "Old Chai’s got his eye on you. Watch out, or else he’ll pull one over on you."

Lu Yin glanced over, and sure enough, Semi-Progenitor Chai was staring straight at him. The two men stared at each other for a moment, and Lu Yin could see a dangerous glint and a hint of wariness in the old man’s eyes.

"With Senior God of Food present, the old man can’t do anything to me," Lu Yin replied.

Wang Miaomiao shook her head. "Don't underestimate any of these people. Their sneakiness was enough to banish even the Lu family."

She hesitated for a moment and then laughed. "Actually, today’s a very good day, as someone’s finally made the Wang family bleed a bit!"

Lu Yin smiled. "Thank you for your help. I could have never done it without all the sourceboxes that you provided. But are you going to be alright? If they discover what you did, won’t you be in trouble?"

Wang Miaomiao responded with a brilliant smile, "That doesn't matter. What can they even do to me? Wang Zheng is still missing, and hopefully, that old bitch Wang Si will die in the Forsaken Land. It’s what she deserves!"

She should die in the Forsaken Land? Wish granted! Lu Yin really wanted to say his thoughts out loud.

After Wang Miaomiao left, Lu Yin asked, "Why does she hate her own family so much?"

Prof. Wei and Wang Miaomiao had chatted while the group had been traveling to the Wang family’s homeland, and Prof. Wei had learned quite a bit about the other woman. "She’s one of the few members of the Wang family who was very close to the Lu family. She’s actually been locked up until now."

"Did she actually yell at a Progenitor?" Lu Yin was quite surprised. He had heard the story from Nong Siniang, but it had sounded so unbelievable that he had not given the story any credit. The fact that Prof. Wei was saying the same thing suggested that it was true.

Prof. Wei nodded and looked suitably impressed. "Not just anyone has the courage to do that."

Lu Yin agreed, "I have no idea no idea what the Lu family must have done to cause the four ruling powers to team up and exile them, but there are clearly many people who were very close to the Lu family, even within the four ruling powers themselves. I can’t help but wonder what kind of relationship this Fairy Miao had with the Lu family."

A strange expression appeared on Prof. Wei's face, and she glanced sideways at Lu Yin. "It sounds like you’re quite curious, Prof. Hao Yu."

Lu Yin smiled. "Just chatting. The students will be gone for at least half a month, and just standing around silently would be too boring."

Prof. Wei stared at the Tri-Petal for a moment. "Everyone says that Fairy Miao was close to the Lu family, and that that’s why she reacted so strongly when they were banished, going so far as to even scold her own ancestor. However, there’s another rumor that claims that she wasn’t particularly close to them, but rather had a love-hate relationship. Supposedly, she was teased by a member of the Lu family. The teasing continued, and she ended up developing feelings of both love and hatred for that person."

This was quite shocking, and Lu Yin blinked in surprise. "There’s really a rumor like that?"

Prof. Wei responded with a small smile. "I find history to be very interesting, as it’s possible to see how mankind has grown and developed, as well as learn about outstanding historical figures and what they accomplished. At the same time, you tend to find quite a bit of gossip. I must confess, I enjoy the gossip."

Lu Yin pursed his lips. "Me too."

"That’s why I believe the second rumor," Prof. Wei said. She started leaving, but she spoke over her shoulder as she did so, "The students will be in there for at least half a month, but there’s no need for us to wait right here."

Lu Yin stared at Prof. Wei's departing figure as he fell deep into thought.