Chapter 2704: The Breath Of The Universe

"That's right." Dragonturtle stood on Jiang Qingyue's shoulder as he stared at Lu Yin. "Young man, you are incredibly unlucky. Not everyone is qualified to have the Aeternals scheme against them like this. If not for us, you would have definitely died just now."

Lu Yin solemnly replied, "Yes. I will need to be very careful in the future."

"The Aeternals have never been fools, especially the despicable and shameless bastards like Cheng Kong, who are much, much worse than the others. However, there’s something quite strange—when you were all inside my shell, why didn't Cheng Kong attack at full power? That bastard is second only to the Seven Skygods, and if you had been attacked by their full strength, not even I could have protected you," Dragonturtle commented.

Lu Yin also found this strange, and the only explanation that he could come up with was the 100,000 year promise that he had received from Blackless God. It had been both a promise and a deadline.

However, if Cheng Kong had not wanted to kill Lu Yin, then why had he been trapped and prevented from escaping?

"Are you heading back?" Lu Yin asked.

Dragonturtle replied, "We never expected to get into so much danger on this excursion. We need to return, and I need to report this incident to the Lord of Lightning."

Jiang Qingyue told Lu Yin, "We’ll meet again when we have a chance."

Lu Yin nodded. "We’ll definitely meet again. Please take care of Jiang Chen for me."

Right before they left, Jiang Qingyue remembered something, and she turned back to Lu Yin. "It seems like you’ve never felt aura energy."

Lu Yin was caught off guard. "What aura energy?"

Dragonturtle spoke up in a warning manner. "Little Yue..."

Jiang Qingyue glanced at Dragonturtle. "Father never said that I couldn’t tell others."

Dragonturtle shrugged. "It's not that you can't tell others, but that doing so will lead him astray from his path. We have taken shortcuts with our cultivation, but those shortcuts won’t benefit others, and they need to avoid them."

His explanation confused Jiang Qingyue, so Dragonturtle explained, "Aura energy is the comprehension of everything that exists in our universe, including form and consciousness. In other words, it is a shortcut developed by Master to allow mortals to conquer the heavens. Master was not even the first to find this path, as he learned it from his master before reaching the peak himself.

"Once a person understands their full potential, their combat strength will increase greatly, and for that reason, Master has shared this information with a few people when traveling among various parallel universes. However, none of those people have ever succeeded. Master doesn’t know the reason why, but he has guessed that it has to do with people’s differing levels when they learn it. Because he learned to practice aura energy before he was even able to travel the universe. It was his first stage of cultivation. If aura energy is learned after the initial level, then it seems that it will become forever impossible to harmonize with aura energy.

"On top of that, practicing aura energy has caused many people to stall with their original cultivation method, and some have even even been led astray by aura energy, which has caused their cultivation to suffer backlash. If you carelessly tell him, not only will you not be around to guide him, but you may even harm him."

Jiang Qingyue was stunned. "Father never told me any of that."

Dragonturtle gave a bitter smile. "Master never thought the day would come when you would take the initiative to share such things with another. He has apparently given up on finding a man for you."

Dragonturtle’s last words caused Jiang Qingyue to look quite irritated.

Lu Yin understood. "Was that how you were able to find Cheng Kong?"

"Yes."

Lu Yin was surprised. This aura energy sounded a bit like spiritual force or a domain, but also different. He believed that he had achieved a very high mastery of both spiritual force and domain, but he had not been able to catch a shred of Cheng Kong. Cheng Kong also had not been hiding in the void or a layer of space, as Lu Yin definitely would have been able to find the Aeternal there. Instead, Lu Yin had not been blind to Cheng Kong’s presence, while Jiang Qingyue could sense Cheng Kong’s breathing; was it entirely due to this aura energy?

"You see, if this young man is interested in aura energy, he will be led astray by it, if he is not careful." Dragonturtle shook his head and sighed. It seemed that he had already seen the same situation many times before.

Lu Yin smiled. "It doesn't matter. I'm not afraid of losing my path."

The power in his chest was already incredibly complex and chaotic, to the point where even Mister Mu had been surprised by it. What difference would one more type of energy or power make?

Dragonturtle retorted, "You don't understand the consequences of being led astray."

Lu Yin looked at Jiang Qingyue. "How do you practice this aura energy?"

Jiang Qingyue grew serious. "You should listen to Dragonturtle. If this is what my father said, there must be a reason behind it."

Lu Yin shrugged. "I'm just asking. I’m not necessarily going to practice it."

Jiang Qingyue shook her head. "I’m going to return and talk to my father about this before I tell you anything more."

"Alright."

Dragonturtle tore the void open. Right before Jiang Qingyue stepped through, she turned to look back at Lu Yin. "What we call aura energy is the ability to perceive the life and breath of a universe. If these words can inspire you to start cultivating aura energy, then you’ll have succeeded. If not, you should give up on the idea of practicing aura energy."

"Young man, we actually spend much less time cultivating than the people of your Fifth Mainland. Our strength is a shortcut. You would be better off continuing down your own path."

With that, both Dragonturtle and Jiang Qingyue disappeared.

Lu Yin stared at the vacant meteorite and let out a breath as he sank deep into thought.

The life and breath of the universe? How could he possibly cultivate aura energy with nothing more than those few words?

Still, it did not matter. As Dragonturtle had said, every universe had its own cultivation method, which meant that there was no need for Lu Yin to learn this aura energy.

Lu Yin looked around, but no matter how far he looked, there was no sign of the Stargazing Deck.

Lu Yin had assumed that the only difficult part of this trip would be finding the Stargazing Deck, but that if he was able to find it, there would be no trouble returning with it. He had not expected to walk into a trap.

The Aeternals had used the Stargazing Deck as a trap for him, which suggested that they knew about the importance of the Stargazing Decks. Finding it again would be as difficult as ascending into the heavens.

In the past, the Celestial Frost Sect had attacked all of the Stargazing Decks simultaneously, trying to destroy them to eliminate Lu Yin’s ability to harm Bai Xian'er. The multiple attacks had been a major incident, so there was nothing strange about Aeternus knowing about it. Lu Yin could only say that he had been careless. He had genuinely believed that all the Aeternals had been driven out of the Fifth Mainland and were ignorant of the situation there. The truth was that they were merely very well hidden. There were too many spies and Redbacks hidden among humanity, and who could say that there were none within the Heavens Sect?

Not knowing what else to do, Lu Yin tore through the void and returned to Aeternus Nation before arriving back in the Fifth Mainland and the Heavens Sect.

Once he arrived, he called for Destina, Skymender, and Xiao Shi. He had failed to recover the twelfth pearl, but he wanted to see if it might still be possible to use the eleven pearls that they did have to find both of the missing pearls.

"Dao Monarch!" Lu Buzheng arrived first, which Lu Yin did not understand.

"Why are you here, Third Uncle?"

Lu Buzheng looked solemn. "You have been getting more and more involved with Destiny recently, which is not safe. The people of my era all feared that woman."

Lu Yin nodded. "I know, but there’s no choice. I want to use her power to find our family."

Lu Buzheng was taken aback. "Find our family with Destiny’s power?"

Lu Yin relayed all that he knew regarding Destiny’s pearls, which got Lu Buzheng quite excited. "No wonder! If this is what you’re attempting to do, then it is certainly worth the risk of getting closer to Destiny."

Lu Yin was well aware of Lu Buzheng’s fear of Destiny, and Lu Yin was also quite afraid of the ancient Progenitor. Even so, Lu Buzheng seemed a little too afraid of Destiny. He was someone from the ancient Heavens Sect era who had witnessed Destiny for himself, and he should understand better than anyone that Destiny was nothing more than another cultivator. "While Destiny truly does possess a frightening power, so did the God of Death and Wu Tian, who were also part of the Three Realms. Third Uncle, why are you so scared of Destiny specifically?"

Lu Buzheng sighed. "Destiny is different from both the God of Death and Wu Tian. In our era, the God of Death suppressed the astral beasts completely. He focused almost entirely on the Fourth Mainland and had nothing to do with the rest of us. As for Wu Tian, he spread his battle techniques and uncovered geniuses, which made him very popular among humans. The one who differed was Destiny."

The man hesitated before very somberly explaining, "Destiny peers down the long river of time, which is something so mysterious that most people find it difficult to even fathom it. Additionally, the rumors and legends about Destiny never painted her in a very good light. No one wants someone else to see through them or know their future, and that includes the ancestors of our Lu family.

"Do you know why one of my summons for my Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique is Destiny? It’s because Destiny wanted to see the future of our Lu family, and our ancestor wanted the means to counter her. For that reason, he did his best to help me obtain Destiny as one of my summons in hopes that I would one day become a Progenitor and be able to fight against Destiny with her own Ancestral Qi summon."

"Third Uncle, are you saying that your fear of Destiny stems from an ancestor of our Lu family?" Lu Yin felt he understood.

Lu Buzheng nodded. "I am only a Semi-Progenitor, and I am unable to see through Destiny. All I can do is follow the guidance of our ancestor. My only advice is to not casually antagonize Destiny."

Lu Yin understood this, as Destiny had killed countless people by redirecting the karmic backlash from her divinations. As soon as Lu Yin learned that Destina had used that method to protect herself during her divinations, he understood Destiny a bit better. If at all possible, he would prefer to keep his distance from such a callous person. "By the way, Third Uncle, have you heard of aura energy before?"

Lu Buzheng looked confused. "Aura energy? What’s that?"

Lu Yin was unsurprised by this reaction. "Forget it if you don't know."

"Tell me a bit more. Maybe I heard our ancestor mention something back then." Lu Buzheng was interested.

Lu Yin replied, "Some people say that universes are alive and can breathe, which they refer to as aura energy."

Lu Buzheng exclaimed, "Ancestor also said something like that!"

Lu Yin was surprised. "An ancestor from our Lu family?"

Lu Buzheng nodded. He rubbed his chin while thinking back to what he had heard before. "I remember hearing our ancestor mention something, and it stunned me at the time. A universe is the space where we live, and it encompasses everything within it. No matter how you look at things, it’s impossible for a universe to be alive. Who mentioned this to you?”

"No one you would know."

Lu Buzheng grunted in response.

"By the way, did that ancestor ever mention anything else?" Lu Yin asked.

Lu Buzheng shook his head. "No, Ancestor only said a few words when he was upset. He might have drank too much, and I really didn’t understand much of what he said. If Dao Chosen Tianyi were there, he might have understood a bit more, as the ancestor shared many things with him, though that also proved to be a bit counterproductive at times."

Lu Yin felt a flash of envy. He wished that there was someone like that ancestor who would give him some advice. Mister Mu was unquestionably Lu Yin’s master, but the man never shared much information with Lu Yin. He would need to ask about this topic the next time he saw Mister Mu.

As Lu Yin considered the matter, he realized that this was not the first time he had heard this topic before. Someone else had made a similar comment before, but who? He could not remember.[1]

When Jiang Qingyue had introduced aura energy, Lu Yin felt as though he had heard something about the breath of the universe before.

It was not long before Destina and the others arrived.

Lu Yin led them to the mountain behind the Heavens Sect before asking them to try to find the two missing pearls.

Starsibyl was also present, and she appeared quite calm.

Lu Yin has no intention of paying any attention to her for the moment.

Destina and Skymender did not waste any time, and they immediately started the divination with the eleven pearls in Lu Yin’s possession.

Lu Yin did not cultivate Destiny’s power, which meant that he was unable to sense anything about what was happening. At this moment, he felt that it was possible that Destiny’s power was not as miraculous as people believe, but instead similar to runes or voidforce energy as only those who had cultivated the energy could detect or observe it. To those unexperienced with the power, it would appear truly magical.

However, such energies were not easy to gain access to, and few people had cultivated Destiny’s power even during the Heavens Sect era.

Lu Yin had never considered cultivating Destiny’s power, as he was already entangled enough with her. If he also cultivated her power, he feared that Destiny would directly target him.

For those reasons, he just calmly watched on.

1. Here's that old reference: Chapter 1757. ?