Chapter 2694: Found

As he thought about Destiny, Lu Yin returned to Aeternus Nation, and then to the Fifth Mainland. He had already agreed to meet Bai Qian on Earth.

They met on the same beach where they had previously met, and when he arrived, the sun was setting. The waves crashed on the shore, and many people were playing nearby.

Lu Yin lounged on a chair, casually sipping a drink.

He spent the day relaxing, as well as the next and the next. Bai Qian did not arrive until the fifth day.

"You’re able to get away now?" Lu Yin asked.

Bai Qian replied, "Lord Wei doesn’t have time to waste keeping an eye on me. One of his bodies was destroyed, so he’s eager to replace it."

Lu Yin took a sip of his drink. "Once you reach a certain level, your body will also become one of his. It’s clear that he’s taken bodies of both men and women."

Bai Qian nodded and laid down to lounge on her own chair. "A woman's body changes quickly, and it will change every 10,000 years. A man's body is different, as it can remain the same for a long time. The You family was able to take advantage of Lord Wei because of his habit. Lord Wei had selected a body long ago, but that man escaped, which caused him to suffer certain losses. That left a loophole that was exploitable, as if he had managed to get that man’s body, not even Sovereign Shao Yin would have been able to do anything to Lord Wei."

Lu Yin grew curious. "Can you actually escape? If you just stay here, wouldn’t that mean that you’ve escaped?"

Bai Qian shook her head. "All of us have controls placed into our bodies by Lord Wei. As long as he confirms that we’ve escaped, we’ll die without question."

"That makes sense."

Bai Qian stared at Lu Yin. "You must have placed your own means of control into many people."

Lu Yin did not deny the accusation. "It lets me feel relieved."

"It’s such a crude method," Bai Qian said bluntly.

Lu Yin arched a brow. "Oh? Do you have a better way to control your enemies?"

"Simple, just give them a more powerful enemy to focus on."

"That’s a pain."

"Maybe."

Lu Yin looked away. The two of them had different opinions, which meant that there was no point in continuing this particular conversation.

"For now, at least, Lord Wei doesn't trust me. I can't find out where Zi Jing is, and I don't dare to push things. I’ll learn everything I can about the Transcendent Universe as quickly as possible, but we can’t rush it," Bai Qian commented.

Lu Yin replied, "I didn't ask you to meet me here because of Zi Jing. You left Earth after receiving an invitation from Starsibyl."

"That’s right."

"Where is that invitation?" Lu Yin leaned closer as he asked.

Bai Qian did not understand Lu Yin’s curiosity about her invitation. Given his status in the Origin Universe, Starsibyl should be far beneath his notice. "You want it?"

Lu Yin nodded.

Bai Qian touched her cosmic ring.

Lu Yin grew nervous. If even Bai Qian's invitation had disappeared, then it would be extremely difficult to track down Starsibyl and Mr. Zhu. Destiny had always been a thorn lodged in Lu Yin’s throat. This was not only because he feared Destiny, but also because he was worried about the future. If Starsibyl and Mr. Zhu divined Lu Yin’s future and then spread what they saw, Lu Yin would lose the support of the Origin Universe, which would cause him to lose everything. If that happened, Lu Yin would also become the Sixverse Association’s primary target.

When Lu Yin saw Bai Qian pull out an invitation from her cosmic ring, he let out a sigh as he took it from her. This was good. Very good.

Bai Qian grew increasingly puzzled. "There are many people in this universe who’ve received Starsibyl’s invitations. Why are you so concerned about this?"

Lu Yin said, "I have my own reasons. You can head on back now."

Bai Qian did not press for further answers, and it was also undeniable that she could not remain absent from the Transcendent Universe for very long.

After Bai Qian left, Lu Yin hurried to the Neoverse to see Xiao Shi, who had been studying Destiny’s cultivation art with Skymender. Lu Yin did not have time to say much, so he simply collected the two and returned to the Heavens Sect to meet Destina, whom Lu Yin had asked to meet them.

When contacting Destina, Lu Yin had also reached out to Xuan Jiu, but he was unable to reach the man. It was clear that the old man was deliberately avoiding Lu Yin.

Forget it, it doesn’t matter if I can’t find Xuan Jiu. Who knows? Maybe he’s with Starsibyl and Mr. Zhu.

"Xiao Shi, how’s your training been going?" Lu Yin asked once they arrived at a mountain at the back of the Heavens Sect.

Xiao Shi tilted his mushroom head and looked over at Skymender with a blank expression.

The astral beast bitterly complained, "Dao Monarch, do you truly believe that this mushroom head could be Destiny?"

"How presumptuous!” Destina had just arrived, and she instantly attacked Skymender with a thread of power. Lu Yin casually intercepted the thread, and with a flick of his fingers, the void twisted, and the thread disappeared. When it reappeared, it was already broken.

Destina was startled, as this should have been impossible. While she had known that Lu Yin possessed the strength to fight against Progenitors, he had only done so by relying on external sources of strength. If Lu Yin were to face off against Destina, her methods would not let him use such means, and she did not believe she would lose to Lu Yin.

However, he had just snipped one of her Threads of Destiny in an instant, and he had done so with a power that she was unable to even perceive.

Destina was Destiny’s disciple, and she had also been one of the gatemasters of the ancient Heavens Sect’s Twelve Heavenly Gates, which signified that she had a strong chance of one day successfully becoming a Progenitor herself. She was one of the most powerful Semi-Progenitors alive, and average Semi-Progenitors could not even dream of facing her. Bluntly put, Destina could deal with even ten Ke Jians without breaking a sweat. The woman could most likely escape unharmed from the average Progenitor.

Given Destiny’s methods, even someone like Chen Le would not have been Destina’s match as a peak Demi-Monarch. It was for this reason that gatemasters like Destina, Lu Bu Zheng, Cai'er, and Hen Xin had always been extremely arrogant.

However, Lu Yin had just used a single hand to deal with one of Destina’s attacks, and the ease of his actions left her so befuddled that she forgot to continue attacking Skymender.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Lu Yin gave Destina a frosty look. "Do you know where you are?"

Destina frowned, as she did indeed fear Lu Yin. Still, she remembered why she had lashed out, and she shot a glare at Skymender. "He insulted Master!"

Skymender quickly apologized, "I was not insulting Destiny, but it’s simply that this child has learned Destiny’s methods too easily, to the point where it defies all understanding. On top of that, he can read a Book of Destiny, so..."

Destina suddenly turned to stare at Xiao Shi. "You can read a Book of Destiny?"

This was the first time that Destina had heard of Xiao Shi's existence. Skymender had been one step ahead of her, but it was only one step.

Xiao Shi feared for his life, so he moved to hide behind Lu Yin.

Destina grew puzzled. "You only just started cultivating Inverse Enigma? How old are you? How can you read a Book of Destiny?"

As the woman spoke, she turned to look at Lu Yin. "Dao Monarch, what is this?"

Lu Yin raised a hand to calm Destina down. As far as the woman knew, the only person in existence who could read a Book of Destiny without cultivating Heaven’s Enigma or Inverse Enigma was Destiny herself. This matched Skymender’s initial understanding as well, but meeting Xiao Shi had destroyed both people’s understanding, and Destina could not accept what she was hearing.

Lu Yin briefly recounted Xiao Shi’s situation, which left Destina stunned. Was this child truly able to simply read a Book of Destiny?

"I don't believe it. Show me!" Destina demanded.

Lu Yin's eye twitched. Show her? How was that even possible? The three Books of Destiny had all been burned, but Lu Yin could not afford to let Destina know that.

He quickly glanced over at Skymender, ??who was smart enough to quickly pick up on the situation. "Dao Monarch, why were you so eager to gather us here? Have you found Starsibyl?"

Mention of Starsibyl successfully diverted Destina's attention, and she turned to stare at Lu Yin.

As the two people stared at him, Lu Yin pulled out Starsibyl’s invitation.

Destina’s eyes flickered. "I finally can see that bitch’s power!"

As she spoke, Destina took the invitation and used the power of Destiny to search for Starsibyl. She did not dare to tally even a moment.

At the same time, Skymender took action.

Lu Yin had brought Xiao Shi along for the sake of convenience. One more person connected to the power of Destiny would offer them a bit more reliability. After all, Destiny’s power of divination was truly miraculous. However, after seeing the current situation, Lu Yin realized that there was no need for Xiao Shi at all.

Lu Yin had never understood how Destiny’s power worked, or where these powers originated from, but after his most recent visit to the universes of the Sixverse Association, he felt that he had started to understand some of the more esoteric abilities he had encountered.

Divination was a matter of peering into the past and the present, which Lu Yin believed entered the realm of sequence particles, which formed the fundamental rules of a universe.

Human beings would only be born when a universe operated under normal rules, not when humans were forced to adapt to the universe.

There were countless rules to these normal operations, and divination allowed a person to observe these rules and peer into the past with the present in great detail.

However, this was only enough to view the past and present; how was it possible to determine the future?

If divination was a power that truly allowed a person to see the future, then it meant that the future was predetermined. Could reality really match what Seruzen had mentioned? That regardless of what happened, the cause and effect of karma had already been determined?

What kind of power was capable of arranging the entire future of a universe, influenced by karma and time?

As Lu Yin’s thoughts wandered, Destina’s eyes snapped open, and a thread appeared that stretched out endlessly. "I found her!"

At that same time, on a very ordinary planet in a solar system that had not even developed the most primitive ancient civilization, a pair of eyes suddenly opened that were filled with panic and wariness. "Not good!"

The very next moment, indescribable pressure descended upon the planet.

Lu Yin had instantly used Progenitor Chen's power to observe the entire Fifth Mainland. The moment that Destina found Starsibyl, so had Lu Yin. When he found her, he also found Mr. Zhu.

Mr. Zhu tried to tear the void open to escape, but the pressure that fell upon the planet was too much for him to resist. It was the strength of a Progenitor.

"Mr. Zhu, where are you trying to go?" Lu Yin appeared directly in front of Mr. Zhu. A short distance away, he saw Starsibyl.

The next moment, both Destina and Skymender arrived.

The planet that Mr. Zhu and Starsibyl had been staying on was actually very close to the Heavens Sect, and it was actually in a neighboring solar system. This meant that Mr. Zhu and Starsibyl had been hiding directly under their noses. Learning this made Destina feel ashamed and angry that she had never found them.

"You bitch, where can you run now?" Destina shouted in fury as she cussed in a manner that clashed horribly with her appearance. This was the first time that she had lost her cool and felt such panic.

Starsibyl was unbothered by Destina’s eruption, and she instead focused on Lu Yin. "Brother Lu, you still managed to find us."

Mr. Zhu sighed. "What's coming is inevitable."

Mr. Zhu and Starsibyl were then taken by Lu Yin to the mountain at the rear of the Heavens Sect.

After finally finding the two, Lu Yin was finally able to feel a bit more at ease.

"You dare to try to trick me?" Destina was still furious with both Starsibyl and Mr. Zhu.

When Destina had first appeared and found Starsibyl, she had been told that Mr. Zhu was already dead. Destina had not thought much of the matter at the time, and she had never even considered that it could be a lie.

She could accept being threatened or insulted, but she could not accept being deceived, no matter the situation. She was Destina, Destiny’s heir and disciple. She was supposed to be able to peer through the river of time to see the past, present, and future, and yet she had still been deceived.

"Destina, leave," Lu Yin ordered.

Destina frowned. "You’re telling me to go?"

Lu Yin looked at her and waved a hand. "All of you need to leave now."

"This is related to Destiny! Why should I leave? I want to know why she was hiding from me, as well as the truth behind the beads. This is something that involves my master." Destina was unwilling to leave.

At this moment, Master Shan arrived, and he slowly walked towards Destina. "The young master has given you an order, so please leave."

Destina's expression grew cold. "Master Shan, if something is connected to Destiny, it doesn't make sense for me to not be involved."

"The young master has said that there is no need for you to be present." As Master Shan spoke, an illusory mountain appeared in front of him. It was his inner world. While he had failed in his Progenitor stellular tribulation, which had caused him to suffer irreparable consequences, he had continued to cultivate his inner world.

Destina did not care about Master Shan at all. She was a Semi-Progenitor, and she feared no one in the same realm.