Chapter 2416: The Might Of Lightning

Kacha!

The colors of the sky and sea both shifted. The entire Starfall Sea started to quake and break apart. Endless tongues of lightning appeared from the void, and all of them streaked toward Corpse God.

The dazzling glow of lightning lit up the entire Starfall Sea, the black barrier, and even the entire Fifth Mainland. Shock covered Corpse God’s face. “The Lord of Thunder?”

There was a deafening boom. The shockwave from the bolts of lightning sent the jiao careening toward the Fifth Mainland.

Lu Buzheng used the Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique, activating the sourcebox array that lay within Mt. Microcosms. The mountain slowly moved to reseal the entrance to the Starfall Sea.

Even though Mt. Microcosms moved slowly, Corpse God was helpless to stop the process. He was being attacked by incredibly powerful bolts of lightning. The blinding light of the lightning left everyone’s vision completely white. It was impossible to see what was happening through the blinding light.

Only after Mt. Microcosms had completely sealed off the Starfall Sea was anyone able to recover their vision. The first thing that they saw was the jiao’s mad dash towards the center of the Fifth Mainland. The beast was clearly still terrified. The lightning that had erupted behind it had felt disturbingly familiar.

Lu Yin was lying on the jiao’s back, panting. His entire body had gone numb, and his muscles were too sore for him to even move. Releasing that storm of lightning had also injured him. He needed to heal and recover. His body slowly withered into a desiccated husk as he allowed the jiao to freely rampage through the Fifth Mainland.

In the Dominion Realm, Forgotten Ruins God and Blackless God’s heads snapped towards the New World. They had both sensed an abnormally strong power.

Ancient God felt it as well.

A short time later, Corpse God returned, and his appearance created a massive sensation.

Throughout all the years that humanity had fought against Aeternus, Corpse God had launched numerous attempts to break through Ceaseless Impetus. He could be considered humanity’s most active enemy. However, he had rarely ever sustained any injuries. At this moment, wounds covered his entire body, and he looked as though he had been burned by lightning strikes.

“What happened?” Forgotten Ruins God gasped.

Corpse God brought out the enormous scarlet eye. The height of the eye rivaled his own, which completely dwarfed Forgotten Ruins God and the other Skygods. However, they could clearly see the fracture that ran through the eye.

Ancient God frowned. “The descendant of the Lu family did this?”

Corpse God looked at him. “It’s broken. We should make the most of it.”

Blackless God sighed. “This was supposed to be the final step of our plan. I never expected to be forced to use it now. It must’ve been discovered because it was too close. We need to place it further away next time. They aren’t that sturdy.”

“It doesn’t matter. There’s only one in this part of the universe as well. It will be enough,” Ancient God said. “Use it.”

Corpse God held the scarlet eye in both of his hands and then raised it high overhead.

As Bai Wangyuan and the other human Progenitors watched with confused and wary looks, Corpse God threw the eye toward the Perennial World.

No one, either in the Dominion Realm or in the Outer Realm, had ever seen such a scene before. The moment the eye touched the Tree Realm, it started to glow dark red, and a beam of light shot out from the eye. Where this red light of divine energy made contact with the Tree Realm, the barrier melted, creating a large hole.

“Not good!” Bai Wangyuan yelled.

Ancient God, Forgotten Ruins God, Corpse God, and Blackless God all immediately attacked. Dark-red divine energy shot through the hole that had opened in the Tree Realm, and into the Perennial World. It pierced through the Higher Realm, the Middle Realm, and the Lower Realm. Finally, it struck Undying God.

Undying God’s broken body started to recover at a visible rate. Xia Ziheng and the other Semi-Progenitors still present were terrified by the sight. “Run!”

“What a steep price to pay.” Undying God raised his head. His eyes traced the holes in the Middle and Higher Realms. He looked at the dark-red beam that had melted a hole in the Tree Realm. After suffering some level of damage, the hole had already begun to repair itself. The red beam would not be able to maintain the hole for very long.

Progenitor Long tried to block the beam of divine energy, but it instantly vaporized his arm.

Soon, Undying God’s body fully recovered, and his internal reserves of divine energy were also replenished. He looked down at the Python Ancestor and saw the snake staring back at him.

“Your master will never return. I’ll let you off this time, but soon enough, this part of the universe will be destroyed.” Undying God pushed the coils that had held him in place aside, releasing divine energy that burned the Python Ancestor’s body. The snake released a cry of agony, but it refused to loosen its coils. From overhead, the Divine Eagle swooped down, its claws outstretched to attack Undying God.

Undying God looked up. “Scram!”

His body disappeared, and the eagle clawed at nothing. Undying God reappeared in the Middle Realm, and he turned to face a specific direction where an item stood. Suddenly, a śarīra appeared. The ancient characters that circled it shot towards Undying God.

Mu Xie stood atop his śarīra, and he thrust a palm strike straight at Undying God. Threads of gray energy appeared from the man’s palm: Origin Tracer.

Undying God’s brow furrowed. “I thought that I had been mistaken earlier, but I see that it was truly this battle technique. I never expected him to have the time to accept disciples in this part of the universe.”

“Leave now! We don’t have any more time!” Ancient God called out.

Undying God reluctantly tore his eyes away from the distant Sword Monument, and then his body vanished.

Mu Xie missed his target. He turned around just in time to see Undying God shoot out of the Tree Realm and back into the Dominion Realm. No one could stop the Skygod from leaving.

“I wanted to take the Sword Monument with me,” Undying God grumbled after arriving in the Dominion Realm.

Forgotten Ruins God gave a cold laugh. “We just sacrificed a divine beam for your sake. You should be content with that. Right now, you’d best start thinking about how you’re going to explain yourself to True God Yi Wei.”

“We’ve delayed too long. Hurry, everyone. We’re leaving!” Ancient God shouted. He was then the first to leave.

Right behind him, Forgotten Ruins God, Corpse God, Blackless God, and Undying God all retreated as well. The flood of corpse kings receded like a tide from the rear battlefield, leaving just as quickly as they had arrived.

Bai Wangyuan and the other human Progenitors could do absolutely nothing to stop the Seven Skygods from leaving.

Mu Xie immediately sent a message to Lu Yin, worried that he might have returned to the Starfall Sea. However, Lu Yin could not go there even if he wanted to. The jiao had dived headfirst into the Astral River, nearly drowning Lu Yin.

At the moment, he did not even have the energy to punish the beast with his slipper. Lu Yin had even lost the Champions’ Stage at some point in the chaos. He simply allowed the jiao to continue its crazed rampage. The beast’s erratic behavior was not because of Corpse God, but rather because of the storm of lightning that Lu Yin had unleashed. That lightning had triggered the jiao’s trauma.

Boom!

The jiao crashed into something, and it was sent tumbling backwards, and Lu Yin was thrown off from the impact. At last, they had finally stopped.

Lu Yin looked forward. They were at the bottom of the Astral River, but the jiao’s overwhelming aura had frightened all of the nearby creatures away.

What is that? Lu Yin saw a gigantic metal box some distance away.

The jiao’s head lolled about, and then it slumped to the ground. It was already fast asleep.

Lu Yin approached the box. The huge rectangular face of the object loomed high above him. He knocked on it, confirming that it was indeed metal. It was an absurdly large box, and it was no wonder the jiao had crashed into it. Still, the material was incredibly durable, as even the impact of the jiao’s full weight had not chipped or dented any part of the box. Hang on, is that Progenitor Guai’s symbol?

Lu Yin took a moment to recall what he had learned about Progenitor Guai. Kui Luo said that Progenitor Guai had lived during the Daosource Sect era and that he had specialized in crafting weapons out of precious materials, though most people were unable to wield any of them. Also, the Progenitor had supposedly left behind a hidden armory. Could this box be that?

Lu Yin’s wireless jincan trembled, and it did not stop. He finally checked it, to see that Lu Buzheng was sending a message.

“How are you doing?” Lu Buzheng asked.

Lu Yin leaned against the side of the metal box. “How are things at the Starfall Sea?”

“We’ve sealed it with Mt. Microcosms.”

Lu Yin let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good.”

As he thought back to what had just happened, that lightning strike had been insanely, exaggeratedly powerful. He had not expected his die to copy such a frighteningly powerful innate gift. The person who had rendered the jiao an idiot, whose innate gift Lu Yin had managed to copy, was an absolute powerhouse.

After giving a few orders to Lu Buzheng, Lu Yin started carefully studying the metal box before him. As for the Perennial World, helping them was beyond Lu Yin’s abilities at this time. Furthermore, when Corpse God had arrived in the Starfall Sea, not a single Progenitor from the Perennial World had appeared. Still, that did not mean that the four ruling powers had definitely broken their promise. The fact that Senior Brother Mu Xie had sent Lu Yin a warning indicated that Bai Wangyuan’s group had not even had the chance to do so. If Lu Yin rashly entered the Starfall Sea, he might find that his luck had run out entirely. However, Aeternus had not paid a small price this time.

Lu Yin had already done his best.

Wait, has there been any change to the residual lightning atop the jiao’s head? Lu Yin hurried over to check. The remnant lightning that had been attacking the jiao’s forehead had disappeared.

Lu Yin touched the area but felt no trace of any sort of lightning. The innate gift had been used up by Gift Copy. Did this mean that the jiao’s intelligence would soon recover?

Lu Yin took a long look at the jiao and then quietly brought out the slipper and the needle-like weapon. He prodded the jiao with the needle.

The jiao instantly woke up with an angry snarl and claws extended. It was ready to murder whoever had disturbed its rest. But then it saw Lu Yin and the slipper in one of his hands. The jiao blinked rapidly and then retracted its claws and bent its head in submission.

Lu Yin breathed out in relief. It was good that the beast had not recovered its intelligence yet. It would be extremely difficult to tame the beast if it was not a complete idiot.

“Go back to sleep,” Lu Yin said.

Suddenly, he clutched at his chest and vomited a mouthful of blood. Even something as simple as speaking had aggravated the injuries that Corpse God’s attack had inflicted on him. If the corpse had failed to block that attack, then there was no way Lu Yin would have gotten away with such minor injuries. That attack had brushed aside even Lu Yin’s Wielder-realm battle force.

None of Lu Yin’s abilities were even remotely useful in protecting him from a serious attack from one of the Seven Skygods.

During the jiao’s panicked retreat, the Champions’ Stage had fallen, though retrieving that was a small matter. What was truly terrible was that the corpse had finally been damaged. On top of that, the Origin Progenitor’s sword had been cracked by True God's attack when Lu Yin had been in the Perennial World. The damage to the sword was a particularly massive loss for Lu Yin. He had no idea if it was even possible to restore the sword to its original state.

Instead of going back to sleep, the jiao looked at Lu Yin with evident curiosity.

Lu Yin circled the metal box, but he was unable to find any openings.

He looked up at the jiao and pointed at the metal box. “Flip it over.”

The jiao extended a single claw and pointed with it. Lu Yin looked where the beast indicated and saw a door. “That’s why I need you to flip it over.”

The jiao used a bit of strength and flipped the metal box on its side.

The metal box was about the size of the jiao’s head, and when it flipped over, it shook the entire Astral River, triggering tsunamis that crashed onto the shores. The people who were mining for pyrolyte along the shores found themselves dragged into the Astral River by the waves. Everyone believed that some sort of enormous creature had appeared.

Lu Yin struck the door with a bit of force, but it did not budge. He next tried the Overlaying Stacks Path. With a boom, the door flew open, and he entered.

To Lu Yin, the metal box was as large as an entire planet, but compared to the jiao, it was just a box.

As Lu Yin entered, he saw a mountain range that held some sort of liquid with an ultra-high temperature. It was scalding even to Lu Yin, which meant the liquid was far hotter than lava. The fact that the mountains were able to endure such heat showed that they were no ordinary mountains.

When the box had been flipped over by the jiao, the hot liquid had splashed everywhere, and some was even dripping down from above.

As he explored the interior of the metal box, Lu Yin soon found a hook-like weapon that was floating in a pool of the ultra-hot liquid. He waved a hand, and the weapon appeared before him.

The hook was around ten meters long, but it was only about as wide as a human’s palm. The length of the hook made the weapon unsuitable for humans, but the small size of the handle meant that it was impossible for even lesser giants to wield it as a weapon. Progenitor Guai’s symbol was imprinted upon it.

Lu Yin shook his head. This certainly matched Progenitor Guai’s style. No one could use this weapon.