Chapter 2281: Wielder Realm

Xia Ziheng frowned. "Given the care that Grandmaster Gu Yan has shown his apprentice, why would he not grant him at least this much face?"

"He claimed to be in the middle of studying a sourcebox array and that, if he succeeds in his research, the array has the potential to become the next Ceaseless Impetus. That’s why he says he can’t go anywhere," Xia Xing said.

Xia Ziheng snorted contemptuously. "That’s nothing but an excuse! What ‘next Ceaseless Impetus?’ Does he believe himself to be Progenitor Hui? Since ancient times, Progenitor Hui has remained unmatched when it comes to lockbreaking, and none could match up to his expertise even during the Heavens Sect era. Gu Yan might be the greatest living Array Grandmaster, but he still falls far behind Progenitor Hui."

Xia Xing said, "Let’s just forget it. We can’t force things if he refuses to come. As long as Yu Hao belongs to us, Grandmaster Gu Yan will never work against us, and that won’t change."

Xia Ziheng nodded. "The ceremony to worship the ancestors is fast approaching. Since Yu Hao is willing to join my Shenwu’s Sky, there’s no need to worry about that matter, but we do need to make sure to keep an eye on those three old monsters. I will handle that, and I’ll have to trouble the sect master to prepare everything for the ceremony."

"This is how things should be," Xia Xing replied. He watched as Xia Ziheng headed towards the valley that had been given to “Yu Hao.”

Semi-Progenitors had completely surrounded the valley, and if word of the situation ever leaked, countless people would be amazed. Who could warrant such treatment? This was more than even the four Junior Progenitors had ever received.

Lu Yin currently had four Semi-Progenitors standing guard outside his residence.

Nong Siniang turned and fled when she stopped by to visit her professor.

Eventually, the God of Food also stopped by, as he had grown worried that the four ruling powers would try to force “Yu Hao” to make a decision, and the old man wanted to offer his assistance.

Lu Yin preferred to keep to himself for these days, and he did not care to speak with his four guardians. The God of Food tried to visit “Yu Hao,” but the four Semi-Progenitors refused to allow the man access, afraid that the God of Food would share his bad opinion of the four ruling powers.

The God of Food and four ruling powers had never seen eye to eye.

Unfortunately, the God of Food had no recourse, and he could only remain outside the valley.

Simply put, the valley had become one of the most secure locations in all of Shewu’s Sky, second only to atop the imprisoned jiao.

Lu Yin felt a bit flustered at being surrounded by five Semi-Progenitors, but fortunately, he had Progenitor Smoke to shield him from spying eyes, which allowed him to remain fully confident. According to Progenitor Smoke, let alone five Semi-Progenitors, even fifty would be useless against her. Lu Yin quickly started flattering the woman and told her that she could deal with such small fries with the flick of her pinky.

Outside of Lu Yin’s valley, the rest of Shenwu’s Sky was bustling and busy as everyone prepared for the ceremony to worship their ancestors. The students from Virtue Archives who were present to attend the ceremony were escorted around and hosted by some of the sect’s cultivators, but Lu Yin remained isolated inside his valley and did not step out even once.

This pattern continued for ten days, after which it was time for him to roll his die again.

Lu Yin took a few deep breaths. I have to get it! I have to get it! I have to get it!

This thought kept repeating in his head as he reached out and tapped the die. He watched as it spun and slowly came to a stop.

Six pips. Was he really that lucky?

His consciousness instantly appeared in the mysterious dark space, and Lu Yin looked around. He immediately found a bright orb just to his right. All of the other balls of light were too dim to be worth anything, while this one light seemed perfectly suited for Lu Yin’s current strength. Such a perfect match meant that this person had to be as strong as a peak Envoy.

Lu Yin shot over and merged with the orb without a second thought. This orb was just about as bright as Qiu Ling, which represented the limit of what Lu Yin could safely handle during a Possession. This was a rare opportunity. There was no way that this would be a waste of resources.

No peak Envoy was a nobody.

There was one detail that left Lu Yin perpetually puzzled. He had greatly improved his combat strength while in the Perennial World, even if his cultivation had not changed at all. His mastery of Inverse Step and several other battle techniques had risen dramatically, and he believed that, if he released his full power, he should be able to go up against a Semi-Progenitor.

Even so, why was it so difficult for him to Possess a peak Envoy? It was a question that he had no answer to.

His mind entered the target’s body, and Lu Yin opened his eyes. He was met with the sight of an endless sea that had stars hanging in the sky above it. He saw stars in all directions, and islands in the sea, but everything was dark, as though night had fallen.

Lightning fell from the sky and struck the surface of the sea with tremendous force. Fish soon floated up, only to be shattered by another bolt of lightning.

As Lu Yin looked around, the memories started to flood in, and a strange expression appeared on his face. He had actually managed to Possess Hen Ye.

Hen Ye was a powerhouse who had been a subordinate of one of the Heavens Sect’s Twelve Heavenly Gates in the ancient era. He followed Hen Xin and was the leader of Team Resolution. The man had awakened in the current era after being released from an ancient sourcebox. He was well known to have the combat strength of a peak Envoy.

Every single member of Team Resolution had been personally selected by Hen Xin, and there were only nine of them. Each was someone with incredible perseverance who had reached their current level not with the support of a family or a sect, but rather through their own determination and willpower.

The fact that Hen Ye had been able to rise up to become the leader of Team Resolution was enough to speak for the man’s abilities.

Not only was Hen Ye a peak Envoy, but he had also cultivated his domain to the void god realm, which meant that he could manipulate and toy with the void.

As memories continued to flood his mind, Lu Yin's eyes lit up more and more. Hen Ye had indeed mastered the void god realm of a domain, which was exactly what Lu Yin needed at this moment, as he himself was only a single step away from this level.

Lu Yin immediately started scanning the various memories for anything related to training a domain.

Given the distance between the Perennial World and the Fifth Mainland, Possessing Hen Ye was going to be disturbingly expensive by the time Lu Yin finished, but such resources meant nothing compared to the value of the information on reaching the void god realm. Lu Yin did not even consider how much star essence he had to be burning through and instead focused entirely on Hen Ye’s memories.

Hen Ye’s mastery of his domain far surpassed Mr. Tang’s, and the memories that Lu Yin was receiving from the man essentially allowed him to incorporate the man’s experience into his own.

Lightning rained down from the sky as Hen Ye's body floated above the surface of the sea, motionless.

After a while, Lu Yin let out a breath and looked down at Hen Ye’s hand. He casually waved, and the void was sliced apart without any effort. Hen Ye’s body vanished, only to reappear in another location. This was the void god realm of a domain.

Hen Ye's understanding of a domain completely surpassed Mr. Tang's. In the end, Mr. Tang was dedicated to being a teacher.

Also, Lu Yin had learned something else from Possessing Hen Ye: the void god realm was not the ultimate level of cultivating a domain, just as aurelian force was not the ultimate level of battle force. Above aurelian force was the strange purplish-black substance that shrouded a person’s body, while above the void god realm of a domain was the Wielder - Void.

The Wielder - Void level of a domain was beyond Hen Ye’s reach, and it was even beyond Hen Xin’s abilities. In fact, even Gu Yizhi, who had once been the Dao Monarch of the Third Mainland, had never reached that realm of mastery in his domain. It was a level of mastery that was considered a legend, and it was only known because Gu Yizhi had predicted the possibility of such a thing.

Hen Ye had once heard Hen Xin mention that Gu Yizhi had claimed that, when it came to time, space, or the void, training with any of them would lead to the same destination. This meant that cultivating a domain could eventually allow a person to comprehend and control the power of time.

Wielder - Void was something that Gu Yizhi had determined existed, but it remained only a theoretical possibility as it was too difficult to cultivate a domain to such a level. At least, that was Hen Ye’s understanding from what he had learned from Hen Xin. It seemed that reaching the next level of a domain was so difficult that it was regarded as impossible.

Even Gu Yizhi, the ancient Progenitor who had ruled over the Third Mainland and been on the same level as the ancient Dao Monarch of the Lu family had only managed to reach the pinnacle with battle force, as he simply had not had the time to adequately research domains.

Of course, this information was all based on Hen Xin’s knowledge and understanding, and he had been frozen in the sourcebox for countless years, so the truth might be different from Hen Xin’s understanding. It was possible that Gu Yizhi had indeed reached Wielder - Void with his domain after he had betrayed humanity and become Aeternus’s Ancient God of the Seven Skygods. It was something that no one knew for sure.

Through Hen Ye’s memories, Lu Yin was able to see what Gu Yizhi had been like when he had been the Third Mainland’s Dao Monarch, as well as many other Progenitors and Semi-Progenitors who had all been part of the Third Mainland. Still, there were no memories of any other powerhouses from the other Mainlands, as Hen Ye’s status had been too low. If Lu Yin had Possessed Hen Xin, he would likely be able to gain such information.

Of course, Lu Yin’s greatest desire was to see memories of his Lu family’s ancient Progenitors.

As Lu Yin looked around again, he understood that he was in the Cosmic Sea. Hen Ye had been ordered to search through the Cosmic Sea for any remnants of Aeternus still present in the Fifth Mainland.

By relying on Progenitor Chen's power, Lu Yin had managed to unite the entire Fifth Mainland, reestablish the Heavens Sect, and become not only the sect’s Dao Chosen, but also the true ruler of the Fifth Mainland. Even Hen Xin and Jue Yi had essentially been banished to the Astral Beast Domain. There was no one in the Fifth Mainland who dared to stand against Lu Yin.

Lu Yin had arrived in the Perennial World with several companions, but as far as the vast majority of people knew, he was in seclusion studying the God of Death’s left arm. Lu Buzheng had been giving orders on behalf of the Heavens Sect in Lu Yin’s stead. Hen Ye was indeed the leader of Team Resolution, but even he could not disobey orders from the Heavens Sect.

Hen Xin had already searched and found no traces of any remnants of the Aeternals in the Cosmic Sea, and Lu Yin had Possessed the man while he was returning to the Neoverse.

Lu Yin had obtained many memories, and he believed that he had learned enough to reach the void god realm with his own domain.

He was just about to end the possession when he suddenly realized something; was this not the region of the Cosmic Sea that belonged to the Soldier Crew?

The Soldier Crew had been one of the four pirate crews of the Cosmic Sea for a very long time, but after the Ignition Crew and Longevity Brigade had been wiped out, Leon’s Armada had started to completely dominate the Cosmic Sea.

Lu Yin had been eyeing the Neoverse, and uniting the Cosmic Sea under Leon’s Armada had been a necessary step towards reaching that goal. However, the arrival of the Perennial World’s army had disrupted Lu Yin’s plans, and then Aeternus had attacked. The true universe had been drained, and people from the Heavens Sect era had inexplicably appeared. So many different events had distracted Lu Yin, which had caused him to completely forget about the Soldier Crew.

He was quite curious about how the Soldier Crew was doing.

When Aeternus had used the mysterious droplets to drain the stellular energy from the true universe, the Fifth Mainland had been split apart into different regions that had united to resist the Aeternals. The Soldier Crew had not gone to any of the rendezvous points, so they should have been wiped out by Aeternus. However, Lu Yin had not heard anything about them after returning to the present era.

He looked in the direction of where the Soldier Crew was based, and Hen Ye’s body disappeared. Lu Yin had already Possessed the man for a long time, and he was already past the point of trying to be careful about his expenditures.

Using the void god realm of domain mastery to travel through the universe made Lu Yin feel like he had become a fish in water. It felt easy and natural. It was completely effortless.

Lu Yin almost instantly arrived at the border of the Soldier Crew’s territory. It was a region that no one was allowed to enter.

In the past, he had experienced a close encounter with the Soldier Crew while traveling with the Arcadian Arrow Crew. Lu Yin’s impression of the members of the Soldier Crew were survivors who had lived through blood and fire. They had radiated a bloodlust that left others numb.

If Lu Yin had not been occupied by so many other matters, he would have definitely paid the Soldier Crew a call long ago.

Hen Ye’s Possessed body appeared in the sky above the region controlled by the Soldier Crew, and the man’s domain was fully unleashed. It swept across the Cosmic Sea, and his eyes suddenly locked onto a specific direction. An ancient warship appeared before Hen Ye’s eyes, and everyone on board appeared to be devoid of emotions. Their eyes were cold and indifferent, and all of them were staring straight at Hen Ye’s body.

Suddenly, all of the crew members raised their spears and smashed them down.

Thousands of spears fell, but there was only a single sound. It was exactly the same as what Lu Yin had heard before when he had approached the Soldier Crew’s territory. This was a threat to stay out.

Unfortunately, such a threat was useless against Lu Yin.

Lu Yin controlled Hen Ye's body, and it emerged from the void to step right on the Soldier Crew’s warship. Before Lu Yin could get a single word out, all of the soldiers raised their spears again. In perfect unison, following some unspoken understanding, all of the spears stabbed forward.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

...