Chapter 2383: Consciousness

"Hey, get over there and get on your knees. Bow to the Soldier Crew. You need to pay for your crimes." Lu Yin suddenly stopped and released Hua Wu.

The man blinked. "Brother Lu, what are you talking about? On my knees? For what? What crimes?"

Lu Yin replied, "You betrayed the Soldier Crew, so naturally you need to face your punishment."

"Didn't you ask me to betray them? I'm on your side!" Hua Wu exclaimed.

Lu Yin replied, "That doesn’t mean that you didn’t betray the Soldier Crew. Since you joined them and became one of them, you need to keep your word to them."

Hua Wu felt as though he had just seen a ghost. Confusion overwhelmed him, and he could not understand Lu Yin’s intentions. Why was Lu Yin not helping him?

Still, with Lu Yin’s prodding, Hua Wu bowed to the members of Soldier Crew. "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have betrayed you! I'm sorry…"

After he finished speaking, Hua Wu lifted his head, only to see that Lu Yin was already gone.

The man rose to his feet while cursing. He then ducked his head and glanced around. He found a path and quickly slipped away. All these lunatics.

Lu Yin rode the jiao into the Innerverse. He first went to Daynight Flowzone, where he entered the pocket dimension that held the ruins of the Celestial Frost Sect. He quickly passed through the Celestial Frost Pond and checked on Progenitor Hui’s seal that was in the underground treasury to reconfirm for himself that the seal belonged to Progenitor Hui. That done, he ordered the entire place to be sealed off before making his way towards Blazing Mist Flowzone.

As soon as Lu Yin arrived in Blazing Mist Flowzone, he went to the pocket dimension that held the Royal Frost Continent and entered it.

It had been a very long time since Lu Yin had last visited the continent.

The cold weather of the continent was the same as ever. Lu Yin saw the distant Subzero City and immediately released his domain, enveloping the entire Royal Frost Continent.

The Frost Emperor suddenly lifted his head. This power?

The man stepped out of Subzero City, and he saw Lu Yin high in the sky. The Frost Emperor took a deep breath, stepped forward, and offered a slow bow. "Greetings, Dao Chosen."

Suddenly, Che Han appeared as well, and he excitedly offered a bow as well. “Greetings, Your Highness.”

Che Han still addressed Lu Yin as the regent of the Great Yu Empire.

Lu Yin nodded. "I was just passing through and thought that I’d take a look."

The Frost Emperor did not believe that at all. He had known Lu Yin for quite a long time, and he felt that he had a good understanding of the young man. There was no way that Lu Yin would visit the Royal Frost Continent without a good reason, but the Frost Emperor could not figure out what it might be.

For Lu Yin, the full might of the Royal Frost Continent was negligible.

Wait, the Frost Emperor suddenly remembered something. Could he be here about the seal?

"Is the seal still fine?" Lu Yin asked.

The Frost Emperor secretly felt that his suspicions had just been confirmed. "It's perfectly fine. Everything’s been completely normal."

"Has anyone checked on the seal since my last visit?"

"Only President Geoffrey stopped by a few times."

There was no way that anyone who knew that the seal formed by the incomprehensible sourcebox array had been created by Progenitor Hui could simply ignore it. Geoffrey had occasionally stopped in to confirm that there were no issues with the seal.

If only Geoffrey had visited the Royal Frost Continent, it meant that Hen Xin and his people did not know about the existence of the seal, as there was no way that man would have ignored such a thing.

"I see. I’m sure that you’re busy, so I’ll leave you to your work." Lu Yin dismissed the two with a wave of his hand.

The Frost Emperor and Che Han glanced at each other before offering another bow and returning to Subzero City.

Lu Yin moved through the sky and arrived above the frozen mountains that held the seal, and he looked down, once again gazing at Progenitor Hui's emblem. If not for Geoffrey, Lu Yin would have never noticed this symbol.

He dropped down and descended into the glacier.

At this moment, back in Subzero City, the Frost Emperor grew worried.

"Don't worry, his highness won't touch the seal," Che Han said.

The Frost Emperor sighed. "He wouldn’t have before, but now…"

The man was genuinely worried that Lu Yin might have become arrogant enough to believe that he could handle anything and everything and that he wanted to open the seal and find out what it kept hidden away.

There was no denying that Lu Yin was the current master of the Fifth Mainland. He had already forced back enemy Progenitors, which had not only shocked the entire Fifth Mainland, but also greatly encouraged them all. Lu Yin had earned a level of respect normally reserved for Progenitors. However, the more powerful he became, the easier it would be for him to lose his sense of caution.

In the Frost Emperor’s heart, Progenitor Hui was a truly elite Progenitor who had altered human history. If Lu Yin wanted to compare himself to Progenitor Hui, he would definitely remove the seal, but how?

Fortunately, the Frost Emperor was overthinking things. Not to mention the fact that Lu Yin was only a four-tribulation Envoy, but even if he became a Semi-Progenitor or a Progenitor and reached a level of power sufficient for him to face Bai Wangyuan and the others head-on, he still would not break any of Progenitor Hui’s seals.

There was no reason for Lu Yin’s hesitation aside from the fact that the seals had been left by Progenitor Hui. Progenitor Hui was the person whose intelligence Lu Yin admired the most. No matter how powerful the man became, his dedication to humanity had remained unmatched. Without Progenitor Hui, the Fifth Mainland would have ceased to exist long ago, and the Perennial World would have never existed at all. While the man might not have been an invincible Progenitor in terms of combat, Lu Yin felt that no other Progenitor deserved more admiration than Progenitor Hui.

Given the fact that the three seals had been left behind by Progenitor Hui, Lu Yin would never willingly open the seals, regardless of whether what lay beneath posed a threat to him.

Lu Yin had only visited the Royal Frost Continent to verify that the seal was safe and secure. On top of that, he had also wanted to examine the seals themselves, as they consisted of multiple sourcebox arrays. Lu Yin was curious to see how far behind his own lockbreaking abilities were compared to Progenitor Hui’s.

From what he could see, there simply was no comparison at all.

Realizing this both frustrated and motivated Lu Yin. He believed himself to be at the cusp of becoming an Array Grandmaster, and yet his lockbreaking skills did not allow him to understand anything about Progenitor Hui’s work.

Lu Yin was in the exact same position that Geoffrey had been in when the man had first seen the seal: absolutely nothing could be understood.

Geoffrey was another Lockbreaker who was at the cusp of becoming an Array Grandmaster, but he had not been able to do anything more than the slightest of repairs to the seal in the Royal Frost Continent. According to Geoffrey’s analogy, he had repainted a spacecraft, but that did not mean that he knew anything about how the vessel worked or what was inside of it.

Progenitor Hui had proceeded too far down the path of lockbreaking, and his mastery had reached such a profound level that even Array Grandmasters could scarcely see Progenitor Hui’s back.

It was possible that, in the current era, Grandmaster Gu Yan alone might be able to understand anything from the seals.

Lu Yin left after studying the seal for two days. There was no reason to spend any more time on the Royal Frost Continent, and he did not even say goodbye to the Frost Emperor before leaving.

He wanted to resume training in the Nine Clones Secret Technique. Lu Yin had coveted this secret technique for a very, very long time, but he had been repeatedly blocked from learning it. He was not able to return to the Perennial World for the time being, as things needed to stabilize, and he wanted the four ruling powers to relax a bit. It would be best for Lu Yin to use the opportunity that had opened up to train himself.

Just outside of the Heavens Sect, Ancestor Tortoise turned its head and looked at the massive jiao that was quickly approaching. The tortoise’s eyes rolled, and it pulled its head back into its shell.

The jiao had been eyeing Ancestor Tortoise from a great distance, and the jiao only felt content after seeing the tortoise pull its head back into its shell. Seeing that, the jiao could not help but brandish its claws a bit.

Lu Yin ordered the jiao to remain near the Heavens Sect. Then, Lu Yin quickly appeared on the part of the jiao’s head where the Nine Clones Secret Technique could be observed. Progenitor Chen's blood emerged from Lu Yin’s cosmic ring, and there were a full ten barrels of the blood, each barrel larger than an adult human. Even Progenitor Chen would feel dazed if he were present, as the man had not possessed so much of his own blood himself.

Lu Yin looked at the jiao’s scales beneath his feet. They looked no different from the scales on other parts of the jiao’s body, but as soon as Lu Yin touched these particular scales, they would turn blood red, and once that happened, Lu Yin would suffer a rejection from his own blood.

Lu Yin would not be in any real danger if he suffered backlash from his blood, especially since he had reached the Wielder realm of battle force and had the overbearing power that he cultivated in his chest. Lu Yin could likely completely ignore the backlash from his blood, but the problem was that the backlash was also preventing him from learning the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

During his last attempt to learn the secret technique, he had been able to clearly see the secret technique, and he had even gained a rough idea of how to actually go about using the technique. However, he would not know whether he could actually learn the technique until after he tried.

As Lu Yin considered this, Progenitor Chen's blood spiraled up from one of the barrels, and it covered Lu Yin's arm. Once his arm was completely blood red, he squatted down and reached out to touch the scales with that hand. He instantly entered what seemed to be a trance. He seemed to see a drop of blood appear from nothing. He suddenly observed the jiao’s bloodstained scales from the same high position that he had viewed before, and things continued to proceed in the same manner as before. He saw a person, and sometimes the person merged with themselves, and other times, they separated again, but even when there were nine copies of the person, they were all still connected to each other by a line.

Lu Yin stared at this connection, as it was the key to cultivating the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

At the same time, the backlash from interacting with the Xia family's blood suddenly appeared, and Lu Yin went stiff. The purple-black substance of the Wielder realm battle force appeared on his hand and then spread over his arms, though it remained hidden beneath a layer of Progenitor Chen's blood. As soon as the Wielder realm battle force appeared, it easily tore apart the backlash, rendering it useless. Stars appeared around Lu Yin, manifesting from the power in his chest, and they gave him a divine appearance.

The jiao turned its head and rolled its massive eyes in an attempt to look at Lu Yin, but the human was above the beast’s mouth, and he moved with the jiao’s head to always remain above the scales. So, the jiao was never able to catch sight of Lu Yin.

Both Lu Yin's Wielder realm battle force and the power from inside his chest made the jiao pay attention. Beasts possessed sharper senses than humans, and two powers that made the jiao nervous had suddenly appeared.

On the other side of the Heavens Sect, Ancestor Tortoise stared at Lu Yin, its head still pulled inside of its shell. In contrast to the jiao’s nervousness, the tortoise looked at Lu Yin with familiarity. After all, Ancestor Tortoise had once been the Lu family’s pet, and it had only been left behind in the Fifth Mainland because it had not wanted to part with the fruit of the Mavis family’s divine tree.

Above the jiao’s head, Progenitor Chen's blood continued to swirl around and envelop Lu Yin's arm. The blood was constantly being consumed, but as it was consumed, it also allowed Lu Yin to observe the secret technique for longer and longer.

Initially, he was only able to see a single figure that separated and merged back together, as well as the ethereal lines that connected the various separated figures. As time passed, Lu Yin was able to observe more of the changes within the figures as they merged together. Gradually, things were becoming clearer and clearer.

Lu Yin had no idea how long a direct descendant of the Xia family needed to comprehend the secret technique, but they would not have to deal with the backlash from their own bloodline, which meant that they could observe the various changes for as long as they wanted.

Lu Yin actually regretted not preparing more of Progenitor Chen's blood.

A day passed, and half a barrel of Progenitor Chen's blood was consumed. Lu Yin only had enough of Progenitor Chen's blood to endure for twenty days.

Would he be able to achieve success within twenty days? Lu Yin was not sure that he could master the Nine Clones Secret Technique within that amount of time, but his only option was to try his best.

It felt like an instant, but ten days quickly passed, and half of Progenitor Chen's blood had been used up. Lu Yin had been fully immersed in trying to comprehend the Nine Clones Secret Technique, but during this entire time, his Wielder realm battle force was also being consumed as he resisted the backlash from his blood. Neither Progenitor Chen’s blood nor Lu Yin’s battle force were infinite resources. Even Hen Xin had used up a great deal of his own battle force when he had helped Lu Yin achieve Wielder realm battle force.

Fifteen days passed, but Lu Yin was still immersed in trying to comprehend the secret technique.

Sixteen days.

Seventeen days.

Finally, on the eighteenth day, Lu Yin’s eyes snapped open, and he withdrew his hand. He looked to the side and saw that only a single barrel of Progenitor Chen's blood remained. As for the Nine Clones Secret Technique, he had finally learned it.

Progenitor Chen's blood was quickly put away as Lu Yin entered the Heavens Sect and immediately went into seclusion.

He raised a hand, and brought out his die. He quickly tapped it as he removed his cosmic ring..

This was not the time to risk rolling Possession. He needed to train while the experience was as fresh as possible.

The die slowly spun and finally stopped on three pips. Lu Yin instantly tapped the die again: two pips. Again, four pips. Finally, he had rolled Timestop.

After entering his Timestop Space, Lu Yin pulled out the Root of Intelligence that he had obtained from Progenitor Smoke and prepared some tea.

What better time to use a Root of Intelligence than now?

Lu Yin only had two Roots of Intelligence remaining, but they were only worth anything when they were appropriately used.

With this, Lu Yin was down to his last Root of Intelligence.

After taking a sip of the tea made from the Root of Intelligence, Lu Yin let out a breath and closed his eyes. It was time to truly start practicing the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

Two months later, pain twisted Lu Yin’s face. The seal that restricted his cultivation had appeared, and he was panting. His progress with the Nine Clones Secret Technique was being stopped by the seal.

After considering his situation, he decided to continue after resting for a day.

However, this time, only a single month passed before the seal activated and stopped him from training in the technique.