Chapter 2588: Nipping It In The Bud

The lake that was Sage Hua's Progenitor’s world spread past the Pure Realm. Any corpse king that the water touched melted away. It was a sight that sent chills down the spines of the countless onlookers.

The Progenitor-level corpse king kept retreating. Sage Hua charged straight into Aeternus's territory as though he were walking into the embrace of death. All the while, his lake surged out.

Days later, the lake had shrunk by nearly half, and its surface had been stained a bloody red.

"Unsullied Lake is Senior Sage Hua's ultimate power," Shi Jiao mourned, "He once compared it to a human soul, insisting that it must remain unstained. Despite its great might, it has become stained with blood. Senior... is leaving us."

You Teng and the other overseers of the Sixverse Academy clenched their fists as they watched the lake steadily shrink.

They heard mournful howls from the Progenitor-level corpse king, as well as crazed laughter from Sage Hua. The man’s laughter was tinged with suppressed misery and despair.

An unusual calm settled upon the Pure Realm. Countless cultivators stood along and above the wall, each of them staring off into the distance, respect on their faces as they slowly bowed.

Two days passed, and Aeternus’s corpse kings were nowhere to be seen throughout the Pure Realm. The Unsullied Lake had melted countless monsters away, putting a temporary pause to the endless battle, though that also marked the end of the lake itself.

"Cheng Kong!" a howl of rage ripped out of Sage Hua’s throat.

Everyone shuddered and stared in horror at the distant lake. The bloody waters suddenly scattered throughout space, piercing stars, planets, and even the wall that was the Pure Realm. People were able to vaguely make out the sight of Sage Hua's body being torn apart. The man’s corpse king opponent roared as it relentlessly hammered at the man. Each blow produced a crack in Sage Hua's skull, but the man still defiantly clutched the corpse king’s neck. A final burst of power erupted.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Cheng Kong!" Sage Hua roared at the sky while unleashing his full power. The area around him was plunged into a perfect darkness.

The darkness was so complete that it left Lu Yin trembling. Not even Progenitors would dare to enter a place so devoid of light.

Sage Hua used the last dregs of his strength to drag the Progenitor-level corpse king into the endless darkness. Alas, he had already exhausted his power. While the corpse king's lower body was completely destroyed, the upper half managed to escape. The Progenitor-level corpse king did not die, though it had clearly been greatly weakened for a time.

Beyond the Pure Realm, Sage Hua's power suddenly transformed into beams of light that shot back towards the Cyclic Universe and straight towards a high and mighty place where a pair of eyes seemed to be watching.

Shi Jiao bowed. "Farewell, Sage Hua."

Everyone else bowed as one. "Farewell, Sage Hua."

"Farewell, Sage Hua."

...

Rain fell upon the Pure Realm. Each drop contained portions of Sage Hua's final reluctance to leave the world of the living. It was part of his last radiant eruption of power, and his feelings for being forced to perform Holy Sorrow had filled his Progenitor’s world with a profound reluctance. Upon receiving the Great Sovereign's command, Sage Hua had been ready to atone. He had been willing to accept death, but he did not wish to die. Up until his very last moment, Sage Hua had hoped to find Cheng Kong, wishing to die with that terrible enemy. If not for Cheng Kong, Tu Shuangshuang would have never betrayed Sage Hua, and he would not have been forced to bear this burden of sin.

He had lived the life of a Sage, but he had died so tragically. Despite dying in the war to protect humanity, Sage Hua had not died in a deserving manner. The Cyclic Universe would only ever remember him as a pitiful figure who had been condemned with Holy Sorrow in order to atone for his sins.

No one spoke. Regardless of whether they were a combatant in the Pure Realm or a student of the Sixverse Academy, everyone felt their hearts being weighed down. They wanted to release the feeling, but they did not know how to go about it.

Had sacrificing Sage Hua for the sake of Tu Shuangshuang been worth the price? The more pointless such a sacrifice appeared, the more indifferent the Great Sovereign seemed. Such an individual had not been concerned with Sage Hua's life or death at all.

Lu Yin stared off into the distance. Progenitors stood at the pinnacle of human cultivation. Regardless of their varying strengths, such individuals did not deserve such a death. Sage Hua had died in as wasteful a manner as Progenitor Liu.

Progenitor Liu had been slandered and murdered by the four ruling powers’ collusion, whereas Sage Hua had been implicated by Tu Shuangshuang’s betrayal of humanity and thus been forced to pay with his very life. Both Progenitors had suffered the most tragic fates that Lu Yin had ever witnessed.

This was the way of the Cyclic Universe, which followed the will of the Great Sovereign. Even Progenitors could not defy such things.

Witnessing Sage Hua’s death had granted Lu Yin a new understanding of the Cyclic Universe. While the universe’s civilization appeared to be quite similar to that of the Origin Universe, the cores of the two universes were entirely different. This was no different from how the two star energies were incompatible with each other.

It was no wonder why Xu Wuwei had told Xu Xiangyin to never accept the seat of any of the Three Sovereigns and Nine Sages, if he was ever given the opportunity; such positions did not grant real power.

It was even possible that, at the end of his life, if Sage Hua had wanted to betray mankind and defect to Aeternus, he had been prevented from doing so due to his strength being granted to him by the Great Sovereign.

What was the point of being a Progenitor with such artificial power?

After a moment of silence, Shi Jiao lifted her head and glanced around at the Sixverse Academy’s students. "Within 100 years, someone must inherit Sage Hua’s seat. Work hard on your cultivation with the goal of entering the Great Sovereign’s sight within this time. Chase after Sage Hua’s seat with everything that you have."

In the past, such a statement would have created a stir of excitement within the students, but at the moment, for some reason, the seats of the Three Sovereigns and Nine Sages had lost a great deal of appeal.

Lu Yin could not comprehend why the Cyclic Universe had chosen to show such a tragically heroic scene to the Sixverse Academy’s students. Were they being told to strive to become a Sage themselves? Or was it a reminder that, even if they ascended to the heights of the Three Sovereigns and Nine Sages, they would still be under the Great Sovereign’s control? If that was the case, why pursue any of the seats?

It was also possible that the Great Sovereign was simply sending a message: throughout all time and across the vast expanse of the megaverse, the Great Sovereign alone ruled supreme!

After returning to the Sixverse Academy, the students silently dispersed. Shi Jiao spoke to Lu Yin for a moment, but the conversation was rather stilted.

Shi Jiao's perspective was that Sage Hua's death had deeply affected Xuan Qi. All she could hope to do was comfort the youth and caution him not to overly dwell on the matter, while also encouraging him to chase after Sage Hua's seat.

As Lu Yin watched Shi Jiao leave, he considered how every creature in the Cyclic Universe lived under the rule of the Great Sovereign. Even if a person became that universe’s equivalent of a Progenitor, nothing would change. Was that even a universe? To Lu Yin, it sounded more like a prison.

Half a month passed, and one by one, students started to leave the Sixverse Academy. Shao Qingfeng, He Shu, Mu Mu, Luo Zang, and many others departed. There was nothing more for them to learn within the Sixverse Academy. If they wanted to pursue any of the cultivation methods that they had learned, they would need to visit the home universe that they were interested in. This would involve much more than simply integrating the different universes’ civilizations into an academy.

Lu Yin started considering when he should leave the academy as well.

He had underestimated the cultivation level that he should reveal. When he had been taken to the Transcendent Universe by Ke Jian, Lu Yin finally understood that he should have revealed a level of strength close to that of an Envoy. However, given his age, such strength also would have drawn too much attention.

After all, people like Shao Qingfeng who possessed such strength were the pride of the Sixverse Association. Lu Yin had originally intended to keep a low profile, but he was starting to understand that it would not be as easy to leave the Sixverse Academy as he had expected.

Why had there not been any reaction from the Arboreal Realm? They should have already learned something from his exchange with Xu Yue. After all, even Xu Ji had noticed that something was off, which would make it strange if the Arboreal Realm had not noticed anything.

All Lu Yin could do for the moment was wait. Was there any way he could demonstrate a large increase in strength from some kind of breakthrough? Would a moment of enlightenment be enough to warrant such a transformation?

Instead of being approached by the Arboreal Realm, Lu Yin was instead approached by an alluring aroma. The scent of food was so wonderful that his mouth watered.

Throughout his years of cultivating, Lu Yin had rarely craved food so eagerly.

He followed the tantalizing scent. Who could have produced food with such an irresistible aroma that not even he could hold back?

Lu Yin soon parted some bushes to reveal a campfire burning in the grass. Next to it stood a person with their back to Lu Yin. There was something roasting over the flames, and the scent that had drawn Lu Yin to the fire came from that meat.

"High-quality ingredients often need nothing more than simple roasting. The true essence of food is in the original taste. Hehe, it’s delicious." An aged voice came from the man sitting on the ground who was facing away from Lu Yin.

Without a moment of hesitation, Lu Yin turned to leave. The moment he had laid eyes on this man, he had felt an instinctive warning of danger. He had felt such danger more than once in the past, but each time had been a premonition of life-threatening danger. This man was not someone to be trifled with, and Lu Yin did not even consider probing the man with his domain.

However, when Lu Yin turned around, he found himself once again facing the man’s back and the roasting meat. When did that happen?

He turned back around, only to discover that the place where the man had been standing just a moment before had already been reduced to a pile of ashes.

Lu Yin’s pupils shrank. This man had instantly moved at a speed too fast for Lu Yin to even notice anything, which should be impossible. Not even someone as powerful as Xia Shenji could move fast enough to leave Lu Yin unable to even react. Who was this man?

"Child, why are you trying to run?" the man asked, his back still to Lu Yin. He stood and dusted off his behind before casually rotating the meat on the spit. "Feeling guilty?"

Lu Yin maintained his composure. "Junior Xuan Qi greets Senior."

The meat sizzled on the spit as the fat dripped onto the fire. The man sprinkled a bit more something onto the food, and the mouthwatering smell grew even more enticing. Lu Yin gulped, not even realizing what he was doing. His eyes were inevitably pulled to the roasting meat. The smell was far too enticing, and it could even be regarded as otherworldly. How could a primitive food like roast meat give off such an extraordinary scent?

"I am Xu Wuwei," the man casually stated as he continued to turn the spit.

A heavy weight fell onto Lu Yin's heart, and he bowed a second time. "Junior Xuan Qi greets Senior Xu Wuwei."

Xu Wuwei kept his back to Lu Yin and his eyes fixed on the meat that he was cooking. "That kid Xiangyin tells me that you possess great talent. He’s begged me time and again to meet with you. Hmm, his efforts have not gone to waste. It’s true, you do possess impressive talent."

Lu Yin remained silent.

"You are even able to keep your true strength hidden from him. Aside from peak powerhouses, there should be no one capable of seeing through your disguise. That is a very rare ability," Xu Wuwei continued as he turned to look straight at Lu Yin. He had the appearance of an old man whose face told tales of struggles endured. Even so, the man’s eyes remained bright, and he seemed to see through all that Lu Yin was.

Lu Yin's heart dropped even further. Just as he had suspected, it was impossible for him to deceive this man. There were varying levels of strength even within the Progenitor realm, and Xu Wuwei was clearly someone at the very top level. He was at least on the same level as the masters of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas, if not even higher. However, the man had not reached Mister Mu's level yet, or else he would have similarly sensed the power that sat in Lu Yin's chest. If Xu Wuwei could see that, then his attitude would lkely be much different.

Even Mister Mu had been astonished by the power system that Lu Yin was developing in his chest. The only other possibility was that Xu Wuwei far surpassed Mister Mu’s cultivation, which was simply impossible. Every time Lu Yin met Mister Mu, his understanding of his master was transformed. Lu Yin was absolutely certain that Mister Mu was a powerhouse on the same level as the Great Sovereign at least; there was no other way for the man to guarantee that the Great Sovereign would not lay a hand on Lu Yin.

No matter how strong Xu Wuwei might be, there was no way he was greater than the Great Sovereign.

"The fact that you’ve hidden your strength here in the Sixverse Academy initially led me to assume that you might be a spy from Aeternus," Xu Wuwei calmly stated as he turned back to look at the food he was cooking. It seemed evident that the man did not view Lu Yin with the same importance as the roasting meat.

Lu Yin's heart pounded, "Senior, I am definitely not a spy from Aeternu-."

Xu Wuwei raised a hand to stop Lu Yin from speaking. He leaned closer to the grilled meat and sniffed. "The smell is a bit off... Did it overcook? No, that's not it. The seasoning is wrong. Let me think..."