Chapter 2439: Do You Have Money?

Lu Buzheng asked in a low voice, "Is changing the very foundation of our cultivation system the only way that we can remove Time Poison?"

Attendant Wu said, "It cannot be removed. Our universe still has Time Poison, but we simply no longer absorb it."

Lu Buzheng looked at Lu Yin, whose eyes had narrowed after hearing Attendant Wu’s answer. Lu Yin had never heard of a poison that could affect time before. How had Aeternus developed such a thing?

Attendant Wu also was not lying, as there was no reason for him to do so.

"Let's go visit Shenwu Continent first," Lu Yin said, immediately leaving with Attendant Wu.

Attendant Wu was still reeling from the shock of realizing that this universe’s cultivation civilization had already been destroyed by Time Poison. When the man looked at Lu Yin, his expression was different from before.

What kind of person could not only survive Time Poison, but even retain his strength? That might be beyond even the Three Monarchs. Time Poison had thoroughly destroyed the previous cultivation civilization of the Three Monarchs Universe, but this person acted as though nothing had changed for him. What kind of terrifying control did this man have over his own power?

Attendant Wu could not even begin to imagine it.

In fact, Lu Yin’s achievement was as unbelievable to Attendant Wu as the idea of a person smashing a planet with a punch or wandering among the stars was to an ordinary human.

During the return to the Tower of Resonating Light, Attendant Wu's attitude had changed completely.

He regretted his previous arrogance and the fact that he had already offended people whom he could not afford to offend. His status in this unknown universe was actually quite similar to what he had enjoyed in the Three Monarchs Universe. In fact, it was possibly even lower, given that he was not a native of this universe.

With a clear goal in mind, Lu Yin easily found a large seal at the base of the Tower of Resonating Light. It was identical to the one that had been in Aeternus Nation. Beneath the seal, he also found an area in the void that appeared rather unstable, though it was firmly suppressed by the seal. It would be difficult for him to remove the suppression, let alone Attendant Wu.

It was no wonder why the man had said that he was unable to return home.

"It's difficult to open the passage from this universe, and it’s even harder to open it from the Three Monarchs Universe," Attendant Wu commented.

"Can your Monarch Luo open it?"

"This small one does not know. Even without the suppression of the sourcebox array that Gu Yue put in place, it may or may not be possible. A thousand years ago, Monarch Luo failed to open it, and he said that it was because of Gu Yue's sourcebox array, though the Monarch had also mentioned that the passage would eventually open on its own. Monarch Luo was able to influence Gu Yue's array in this universe."

"Influence?" Lu Yin looked up at the starry sky. The five sealing planets… A thousand years ago… Wait, aren’t there records in the Shenwu Continent's history that claim that Ming Tai moved the five sealing planets to defend the Shenwu Continent during a war against a foreign civilization?

Was it just a coincidence that Ming Tai had moved the five sealing planets during the same period of time when Monarch Luo had tried to open the passage?

Gu Yue's five sealing planets essentially sealed the passage to the other universe, not Shenwu Continent. The reason why Shenwu Continent had been sealed later on was that Ming Tai had moved the five sealing planets. However, how could an Enlighter like Ming Tai have successfully moved Gu Yue's sourcebox array? There was a massive gap in strength between the two men.

If the sourcebox array had not been moved by Ming Tai, but rather by Monarch Luo’s attacks from the other end of the passage, then everything made far more sense.

Following this reasoning, no one in Shenwu Continent had ever done a single thing to the five sealing planets.

Things were finally starting to make sense. Why else would such a huge sourcebox array protect a tiny place like the Shenwu Continent?

Even if one scoured the entire Fifth Mainland, only the Lockbreaking World possessed a sourcebox array of similar size, and even Grandmaster Gu Yan had commented how difficult it was to find sourceboxes of such size. Why had Gu Yue spent so much effort to find these massive sourceboxes just to defend the Shenwu Continent? The only reasonable answer was that he had wanted to seal the passage to the other universe.

After sorting out his thoughts, Lu Yin felt that he finally uncovered the truth behind the Shenwu Continent.

In that case, how had Gu Yue ultimately died? Why had he insisted on sealing the passage?

Lu Yin did not believe that he had to clarify every single detail of the past, as some truths would be forever lost to history.

However, he also knew that Grandmaster Gu Yan would never give up. It was quite possible that the old man should be made aware of these details that Lu Yin had just learned.

Back when Grandmaster Gu Yan had visited the Tower of Resonating Light, he had asked who the Three Monarchs were. At the time, Lu Yin had been entirely focused on reopening the entrance to the Starfall Sea, and thus he had not paid much attention to the question. Looking back, there had to be a reason for it. After observing the entire Tower of Resonating Light with his domain, Lu Yin found a block that had some writing etched onto it. It read, "Beware of the Three Monarchs."

If not for Grandmaster Gu Yan's question, Lu Yin might have missed those words, even with his domain. The characters were crooked, faint, and covered with such a thick layer of dust that they had been rendered practically invisible.

It was no wonder why Grandmaster Gu Yan had asked who the Three Monarchs were. The old man definitely believed that Gu Yue had been killed by them.

It was clear that Grandmaster Gu Yan had been completely heartbroken after visiting the Tower of Resonating Light, and it was certain that he had meticulously examined every single inch of the tower and that he had discovered the writing.

Lu Yin took out his wireless jincan and contacted Grandmaster Gu Yan, quickly connecting to the old man.

Lu Yin shared everything that he had recently learned about the Three Monarchs Universe.

There was a long silence before Grandmaster Gu Yan sent a reply. "I will rearrange the five sealing planets array. Since Gu Yue wants that passage sealed, it shall be done."

"Senior, although Gu Yue was wary of the Three Monarchs, that does not necessarily mean that he was killed by them. After all, the Three Monarchs are Progenitor-level powerhouses. If they had actually wanted him dead, he would not have been able to return to this universe, let alone set up the sourcebox array with the five sealing planets," Lu Yin replied.

Grandmaster Gu Yan grunted and sent back. "I understand. You don't want to completely seal off all access to the Three Monarchs Universe. Am I right?"

Lu Yin replied, "This concerns the overall strategy of the war against Aeternus. This junior would like to first gain a clearer picture of things."

"Very well. I can set up the sourcebox array so that it still leaves a way through," Grandmaster Gu Yan sent over.

Lu Yin ended the conversation and then made arrangements for Attendant Wu to stay in the Heavens Sect before going to the Neoverse to visit Xiao Shi.

"Help me look up Time Poison," he said.

Xiao Shi immediately flipped through his massive book. He pushed his glasses up and scratched his mushroom head. "I found it. ‘Time Poison is used specifically to affect time. This poison causes time to flow irregularly, or even in reverse.’"

There was only a single sentence written on the matter. Xiao Shi looked at Lu Yin, waiting for the next prompt.

"Who developed it?" Lu Yin asked.

Xiao Shi shook his head. "It doesn't say."

"Your book records past events that occurred in this universe, so this means that Time Poison appeared in this universe before, right?" Lu Yin asked.

Xiao Shi blinked. He did not answer, but instead flipped through his book again.

Lu Yin continued to ask, "Is there any mention of how the poison can be removed?"

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Xiao Shi's fingers moved deftly as he flipped through the book with laser-sharp focus. After some time, he looked up. "Nothing was mentioned."

Lu Yin was disappointed.

"But there's an image." Xiao Shi then copied the image onto the floor.

The star energy in Xiao Shi’s body had also reversed its flow, leaving him unable to cultivate, which was why he had no choice but to draw on the floor.

Referencing the book, he drew a sword on the floor.

Lu Yin stared at the drawing, and his brow furrowed. How was this anything other than the Origin Progenitor's sword?

"What does this mean?" Lu Yin asked.

Xiao Shi looked a bit confused as he said, "I don't know. When I asked how it was possible to remove Time Poison, the only thing that appeared was a drawing of this sword."

Lu Yin studied the diagram of the Origin Progenitor's sword. Suddenly, his head jerked up as an idea occurred to him.

The entire cultivation system of the Three Monarchs universe had once been destroyed by Time Poison. The Fifth Mainland should have also dealt with Time Poison at some point in the past; otherwise, nothing would be recorded in the Book of Destiny.

Time Poison and the Origin Progenitor's sword; one created a chaotic flow of time, while the other could travel through time and space, allowing people to dive into the river of time.

In ancient times, the Origin Progenitor had established the Heavens Sect, which had overseen six Mainlands, each of which had held one of the Origin Progenitor’s six swords.

Lu Yin had previously thought that the Origin Progenitor’s six swords had been placed there with the intention of suppressing the six Mainlands as a symbol of the Origin Progenitor’s authority and a means of raising the Heavens Sect's prestige. However, this new information seemed to suggest that there was more behind that than Lu Yin had initially believed.

If the Origin Progenitor's swords were truly related to Time Poison, then was it possible that their entire purpose was to counter Time Poison?

Lu Yin silently thumbed his cosmic ring.

Xiao Shi stared at Lu Yin with evident curiosity while waiting for any further questions.

Instead of asking another question, Lu Yin pulled the Origin Progenitor's sword out of his cosmic ring.

Ever since True God Yi Wei had cracked the Origin Progenitor's sword when Lu Yin had tried to use it against Undying God, Lu Yin had not taken the sword out again. More than three years had passed since that day.

As soon as the Origin Progenitor's sword appeared, a visible ripple spread out, and it quickly covered the entire Fifth Mainland.

The strange ripple caught Lu Yin completely off guard. There did not seem to be any power from the ripple, but wherever it passed, the Fifth Mainland was slightly distorted.

Lu Yin lifted the Origin Progenitor's sword. There had not been any such reaction when he had taken it out before. What was going on?

Suddenly, the ripple shattered, dissipating in every direction that it had traveled. At the same time, strange phenomena started to manifest across the Fifth Mainland. Many people suddenly returned to their previous locations, carrying out actions that had already occurred, while others who had originally been in one place suddenly appeared elsewhere. Some people even recovered from their injuries.

The ripple had created a disturbance in time.

At first, Lu Yin did not notice anything. However, he soon received call after call informing him about all the phenomena. Many people had just experienced a disturbance in time.

Lu Yin had known that the Origin Progenitor's sword could travel through time and space, but it had never caused any disturbances before. Why had it suddenly done so at this point in time?

The only difference from the previous times that Lu Yin had brought the sword out and the current moment was… Time Poison.

The presence of Time Poison was the only plausible explanation.

Time Poison was indeed related to the Origin Progenitor's sword, so any abnormality that appeared along with the sword most likely had something to do with Time Poison. Determination filled Lu Yin's eyes. It was very possible that the sword was the key to removing Time Poison.

However, given the fact that the Origin Progenitor's sword had been damaged, repairing it was essentially impossible for anyone other than the Origin Progenitor.

Lu Yin let out a slow breath. There actually was another way; Enhancing it with his die.

He could use Enhance and an absolutely terrifying amount of resources to test if the sword could be repaired.

If he set his heart on Enhancing the sword, then the amount of star essence that he would need to fully enhance the weapon was unimaginable. Even exhausting the entire Fifth Mainland’s resources might not be enough. This was the Origin Progenitor's sword, which was an object that was far, far more valuable than the slipper. This was likely going to be his most costly upgrade ever.

If enhancing the sword did not fix the problem, then the Fifth Mainland would suffer a huge loss.

To Enhance or not to Enhance?

Lu Yin pondered for a while before he put the Origin Progenitor's sword away again. He then squatted down to look directly at Xiao Shi. "Do you have any money?"