Chapter 2300: Under My Charge Now

Before learning that Mu Xie was his senior disciple brother, Lu Yin would have been worried that Mu Xie would not be capable of saving him, regardless of any possible connection or relationship.

After all, Mu Xie was standing against Xia Shenji, a Progenitor who had risen to power during the Daosource Sect era. He was someone from the same generation as the masters of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas, a powerhouse who stood at the pinnacle of mankind.

However, what of Mu Xie? He had become a Progenitor in the Perennial World, and he clearly did not have a history nearly as impressive as Xia Shenji. In fact, Mu Xie was even younger than Progenitor Wen, so how could he be expected to fight against Xia Shenji?

However, Lu Yin was completely unconcerned, and the reason for that was simply because Mu Xie was Lu Yin’s senior disciple brother. The fact that Mu Xie had received Mister Mu’s approval was more than enough.

Mister Mu demanded nearly impossible standards from anyone he accepted as his disciples. Just how many people throughout all of human history could meet the man’s requirements? Any who could do so were peerless individuals, such as Qing Ping, and even Lu Yin himself.

Since Mu Xie was capable of becoming Mister Mu’s first disciple, then he naturally held the same qualifications as his two junior disciple brothers. This was why Lu Yin had no fear with Mu Xie standing against Xia Shenji.

"Mu Xie?" Xia Shenji appeared quite confused. "Why are you here?"

Mu Xie calmly looked back at Xia Shenji. "Progenitor Xia, he’s under my charge now."

Xia Shenji's expression changed, and his eyes grew cold. "Is this a joke? Do you understand just who he is?"

"I do, but that doesn’t matter. Regardless of who he might be, I will protect him," Mu Xie replied in a completely relaxed tone of voice. He sounded as though he were discussing a glass of water.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Xia Shenji's expression grew ugly. "That person is Lu Xiaoxuan, the last living descendant of the Lu family! A sworn enemy of the four ruling powers who absolutely must die. Do you really want to protect such a person?"

Mu Xie just smiled. "I already told you, I don’t need to know who he is, as he’s now under my charge."

Xia Shenji’s eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"I don't want to say," Mu Xie answered bluntly.

Lu Yin gave Mu Xie an odd look. His senior brother's reply would clearly upset Xia Shenji. He was the Ancestor of Shenwu's Sky! Who would dare defy him, let alone talk back to him? But Mu Xie’s every word was antagonistic. It was as though he was literally asking for a fight.

Xia Shenji’s breathing grew ragged. "It appears that my four ruling powers's tolerance of Humility’s Gate has allowed you to become arrogant, Mu Xie! Don’t think that we can’t do anything to you just because you’re a Progenitor! Many human Progenitors have died throughout the years, and if not for your Humility’s Gate, you would have already been cast into the Outer Realm!"

Mu Xie simply smiled. "I won't die, as you can't kill me."

Xia Shenji's eyes flared, and the Shenwu World that enveloped the Higher Realm erupted. Everything changed in an instant, and countless blades appeared in the sky and on the ground, and they all attacked Mu Xie. Everything in existence in the Progenitor’s world transformed into blades, and the air, which was formed from Divine Martial Armor, formed chains that reached out to bind Mu Xie.

This was the first time that Lu Yin had ever witnessed the explosive power of a Progenitor, and it felt as though the sky was trembling while the earth was quivering. It felt like the world itself was being destroyed.

Before this sort of power, all of Lu Yin’s methods suddenly seemed ridiculous. Even if he Enhanced an item to the Progenitor level, it would be impossible to do anything against this sort of power. This was a different level of existence. A level where a human had stepped into the realm of gods. This was the power of a god. This was the pinnacle of human cultivation.

To rise from being an ordinary human to a cultivator, the change took place in one’s body and the presence of star energy. To transform from an ordinary cultivator into an Envoy, the difference was in the introduction of stellular energy, which was capable of dissolving star energy. To rise from being an Envoy to become a Semi-Progenitor, one had to acquire an inner world. In the presence of an inner world, an Envoy could hide nothing and could only wait to be crushed. However, each of those gaps could be overcome, and Lu Yin had even done so himself. It was only when feeling Xia Shenji’s Progenitor’s world that Lu Yin felt that he was facing an insurmountable distance.

Lu Yin was capable of crossing realms and challenging powerhouses, but he could not replace the entire world. Xia Shenji had replaced the Perennial World with his Progenitor’s world. For Lu Yin to challenge such a thing, he essentially needed to be able to fight against the entire Perennial World. This was not as simple as wanting to fight back; rather, Lu Yin had no idea how to even treat a world as an enemy.

This was a Progenitor, a true Progenitor. This was the same level of power as Progenitor Chen's stars that filled the Fifth Mainland, or the Rune Progenitor’s runes that filled the universe. This was a personal universe that had replaced a portion of the universe. The Perennial World’s Higher Realm had been replaced with Xia Shenji's Shenwu World.

The power to replace a portion of the universe was a truly unfathomable level of strength, but beneath the endless power of the universe, a single stone remained blazing with a dazzling light, and it dispelled the irresistible power of the surrounding world.

Xia Shenji stared at Mu Xie. "Let’s see if your ?arīra can withstand the pressure of my Shenwu World!"

Mu Xie casually replied, "You can refer to it as a relic, but it’s really just a pebble. Pebbles need to be polished, and the greater the pressure, the greater the shine."

"How arrogant." Xia Shenji raised a hand, and infinite blades replaced the sky. All of them fell down. From a distance, it looked like rain, though it was a rain formed from nothing but blades.

Lu Yin looked upwards, fearless. He knew that he was incapable of resisting Xia Shenji's Progenitor’s world, but despite being helpless before the might of the Shenwu World, he had no concerns of dying to this rain of blades.

A smile appeared on Mu Xie's face. Beneath his feet, the light of the ?arīra condensed, but then they started forming various characters that began to revolve around the stones. They looked almost alive, and they even expanded and spread outwards as the blades began to fall. As the blades slashed, it seemed as though the universe itself was collapsing, unable to endure the power of a Progenitor. Lu Yin’s vision was filled with darkness. It was a devouring darkness that looked as if it could swallow everything. This was not like a black hole in space that was black because of the absence of light, but rather a blackness that was simply pure black, nothing more.

Two Progenitors clashed with one another, and the impact tore the void. Behind every tear was the same pure black color.

The blackness was so complete that it seeped through people. No one dared to approach, as it looked like the mouth of an abyss.

Still, this was not the time to think about the darkness. Lu Yin stared upwards at where the glowing characters were still revolving, despite being struck by the endless barrage of blades. The assault created a circle where the void was shattering, and if even one of the glowing characters failed, Lu Yin would instantly die. Despite that, he was fearless. He knew that Senior Brother Mu Xie could not be defeated.

Xia Shenji's expression turned ugly. No one really knew anything at all about Mu Xie. He had never accomplished anything of note from the time he had first appeared to the moment he had become a Progenitor. Aside from the four ruling powers, not even the Lu family had paid much attention to the man until he had become a Semi-Progenitor. Even then, he had been regarded as an independent cultivator who had managed to rise to the Semi-Progenitor level. He had never displayed any shocking level of strength, so he had simply been ignored for his entire life.

Only when challenging his breakthrough to become a Progenitor had the Lu family and the rest of the most powerful forces of the Perennial World paid any real attention to Mu Xie, but unfortunately, it was already too late. He completed his breakthrough without any issue. In fact, it was actually odd how smooth it was. It almost appeared as though he had been fated to become a Progenitor, and the ease of his accomplishment left others jealous.

After becoming a Progenitor, the first thing that Mu Xie had done had been to establish Humility’s Gate with the sole purpose of hunting down and eliminating Redbacks. He had refused all offers from the Lu family and other organizations, and his goal for Humility’s Gate had been greatly approved by the Lu family. Thus, he had won their support for his efforts.

In the current era, history claimed that Humility’s Gate had been founded by the four ruling powers, but that was nothing more than a self-flattering lie concocted by the four ruling powers themselves.

The term “four ruling powers” was something that had only appeared after the Lu family had been exiled, while Humility's Gate had been established long before, when the Lu family had still been in power. However, the Lu family had been too powerful and had overshadowed all others, so Humility’s Gate had not been well known. Still, Humility's Gate had operated with the support of the Lu family, and a large number of Redbacks had been exposed and eliminated. It was simply that Humility’s Gate had gained a great deal more fame in recent years.

Everyone had believed that the Lu family's support that they offered to Humility's Gate had been an attempt to win over Mu Xie, but that was not the case at all. Despite so many years passing, the Lu family had never once tried to recruit Mu Xie, and the man was genuinely dedicated to hunting down and eliminating Redbacks. After many years, everyone had abandoned thoughts of recruiting Mu Xie.

After the Lu family had been exiled, the four ruling powers had tested Mu Xie once more, but he had still refused to join another power. His only desire was to eliminate Redbacks, and so the four ruling powers had also abandoned thoughts of recruiting the Progenitor. They had eventually accepted the existence of Mu Xie and Humility's Gate, despite their incredible level of strength.

As for Mu Xie's personal strength, he had focused on eliminating the Perennial World’s Redbacks, and even the strongest Redback was only a Semi-Progenitor. No one had ever been able to force Mu Xie to use his true strength. Even when some of Aeternus’s powerful Progenitors had attacked the Dominion Realm, Mu Xie had only attacked after Bai Wangyuan and others, and the man’s performance had not been impressive at all.

All of this contributed to why Xia Shenji had never believed that Mu Xie could stand up to him. It should be impossible. Only three people truly stood at the pinnacle of the Perennial World, as not even Progenitor Long was qualified to stand equal to them. Mu Xie was behaving exceptionally arrogantly. Could it be because he was certain that the four ruling powers would never touch Humility's Gate because of Mu Xie’s existence?

Xia Shenji had already started contemplating how he would deal with Mu Xie.

But as time passed, Xia Shenji discovered that his Shenwu World was completely unable to suppress Mu Xie. Instead, it was the Shenwu World that was being slowly destroyed.

A blade formed, and cracks appeared all around the Higher Realm as soon as it appeared. It was clear that the Higher Realm was unable to withstand the power of this saber.

In the midst of dropping his saber down in a slash, Xia Shenji hesitated for a moment. Regardless of whether Mu Xie could block this attack, it would badly damage the Higher Realm. At the very least, a massive portion of the Higher Realm would be destroyed, and countless cultivators would die. This was not something that the four ruling powers wanted to see. "Mu Xie, I'll give you one last chance: step back."

Mu Xie's expression finally grew serious. "Your blade truly is quite powerful, but it still can't kill me."

Xia Shenji's eyes turned exceptionally cold. He desperately wanted to attack, and finally, after thinking about it a moment more, he decided not to continue. The Higher Realm belonged to the four ruling powers, and it represented their absolute authority over the rest of the Perennial World. If the Higher Realm was destroyed, Mu Xie would not be the one who lost the most.

Xia Shenji let out a breath. "It seems that you are determined to protect Lu Xiaoxuan. In that case, I'll kill him in front of you. Humility’s Gate’s only duty is to hunt down Redbacks. I hope that you won’t betray your mission."

Lu Yin's heartbeat suddenly accelerated, and he felt a mysterious sense of dread encroaching upon him from the surrounding darkness. He quickly pulled the corpse back out as he glanced around. The sense of impending danger did not fade even with the corpse present, and it instead increased more and more. It felt like Lu Yin had a knife to his neck, and he could not catch his breath.

Where was the danger? Was it one of Xia Shenji’s clones? Was it something else? Where was it?

Lu Yin abruptly remembered something, and his pupils transformed into runes as the God of Flames’ figurine appeared on his shoulder. Runes filled the area, and Lu Yin used them to try to find the danger.

He succeeded. He looked down at the soles of his feet, and the runes that belonged to his feet disappeared into nothingness right beneath him, and there was a line that stretched away from his feet. "Senior Brother."

In front of Lu Yin, Xia Shenji was startled, as this was his first time hearing Lu Yin address Mu Xie. The man was Lu Xiaoxuan’s senior brother?

"Mu Xie, are you from the Lu family?" Xia Shenji shouted. For Lu Xiaoxuan to call the man senior brother, he had to be a member of the Lu family. In fact, why else would Mu Xie be so determined to help Lu Xiaoxuan? So it turned out that Mu Xie was actually another vassal from the Lu family.

[1] This is a generic term that refers to Buddhist relics. .