Chapter 2849: Lu Yin And Mu Ke

The more that Lu Yin thought about the possibility of Possessing peak powerhouses, the more excited he became. While the idea had occurred to him before, he had forgotten about it. This was his first time thinking about it since becoming a Semi-Progenitor.

Yes, it would be best to roll his die and Possess a peak powerhouse.

There were only so many peak powerhouses in the entire Sixverse Association. Aside from the sequence powerhouses, Lu Yin felt confident that he could Possess anyone else.

Excitement filled Lu Yin's eyes. If he could accomplish this, he would be able to indirectly control the decisions of more than half of the Sixverse Association.

This meant that, once again, Lu Yin’s problem was money. He simply did not have enough star essence, though that was not all that he lacked. He also needed voidforce energy, the power of the Arboreal Realm, and more. Out of all the different parallel universes, the most troublesome was the Transcendent Universe. That universe did not cultivate any specific power, which meant that there was no way to Possess anyone.

Still, that was not terribly important. For now, Lu Yin could ignore the Transcendent Universe. After all, the Cyclic Universe was the most important.

Of the Three Sovereigns and Nine Sages, Lu Yin believed that he could Possess the vast majority of them.

However, he lacked money. It always came down to a lack of funds.

Lu Yin did not even dare to consider how much it would cost to Possess a peak powerhouse. Even if it was not as ridiculous as the price to Enhance the Origin Progenitor’s sword, there was no doubt that it would be an exorbitant amount.

After thinking for a while, he eventually decided to visit the Arboreal Realm to first meet with his senior brother, Mu Ke.

During the Tea Ceremony, Lu Yin had realized that Mu Ke was one of his senior disciple brothers, but they had barely spoken. There was finally time to do so, and it would be good for them to meet each other.

Lu Yin entered the Arboreal Realm for the second time, and just like the first time, he was taken to the universe by Mu Sanye.

The trees filled the entirety of the Arboreal Realm, and Lu Yin looked at the endless growth once again.

While visiting the Arboreal Realm, the person Lu Yin wanted to see the most was to see Mu Ke, the least was Mr. Daheng.

Mr. Daheng was unquestionably a sequence powerhouse, and he seemed to be at the same level as Xu Wuwei. He had first learned about Mr. Daheng and the Liberation Palace from Chen Le.

Even though Mr. Daheng’s attention had been shifted over to Luoshan, the fact that Chen Le had publicly joined the Heavens Sect meant that Lu Yin could not be certain of anything regarding Mr. Daheng.

"Senior Mu San, I'm sorry to need to trouble you," Lu Yin apologized.

Mu San's expression changed, as he was scared by Lu Yin’s apology. "Lord Lu, it’s a pleasure. Please, follow me."

Lu Yin nodded.

Once Lu Yin’s true identity was exposed, Xuan Qi’s network and relationships had naturally changed. Now, Mu San, the bureau members, and Xu Xiangyin all treated Lu Yin differently from before.

There was no way around this. Once a person reached a certain level of status, their influence would be infinitely amplified by that status. As the ruler of the Origin Universe, especially with the backing of the Lu family, Lu Yin enjoyed the support of no less than ten peak powerhouses. Such support was terrifying even to peak powerhouses in the Sixverse Association.

And that wasn’t even mentioning Lu Yin’s Semi-Progenitor-level contacts; there were many people who lacked even that much strength.

Mu San led the way, and the two men made their way towards Mu Ke.

When Lu Yin had last visited the Arboreal Sanctuary, the entire group had been delivered there by Mu Ke, saving them a great deal of time. Looking back, Lu Yin realized that the blade slash that had moved them might have been a greeting to him.

After some time, Lu Yin started to sense an indistinct pressure from far away. It felt very familiar, as it was the same pressure that he had felt protecting him at the Tea Ceremony. This was his senior brother, Mu Ke.

"Lord Lu, Senior Mu Ke is just up ahead. I will take my leave now." Mu Sanye spoke very respectfully.

Lu Yin nodded. "Thank you for your hard work."

Mu Sanye offered a few polite words before quickly leaving.

Once Mu San was gone, Lu Yin continued on towards where he sensed Senior Brother Mu Ke. It did not take long for Lu Yin to arrive. "Senior Brother."

Mu Ke looked up. "Have things in your universe stabilized?"

“Yes.”

Mu Ke was sitting on the trunk of a tree, his eyes covered by a strip of black cloth. He sat as though staring off into the distance. "Some years ago, Master visited me and said that he had accepted a disciple. I asked him if he was satisfied with his new disciple, but Master said that he did not know himself.”

Lu Yin felt confused, but Mu Ke continued speaking. "Master's standards for accepting a disciple is that they must demonstrate some sort of power that can impress him, or even better, surprise him. I succeeded in this, but I only managed to earn half of his satisfaction. Mu Xie also succeeded, but he only received four points out of ten. Qing Ping also succeeded, and he received six out of ten points. However, for you, Master simply did not know.”

"At that time, I asked about you, but Master explained that your path was constantly changing. He could not determine how it would develop, and he even said that he could not influence your path or see through it. He simply had no way of determining how far your path can take you, which completely surprised him.”

"Now, I see that Master was right. Junior Brother, no one can see through you."

Lu Yin shrugged. "Senior Brother, you must think that I am very insidious."

Mu Ke gave Lu Yin a grave look. Despite not being able to see the man’s eyes, Lu Yin could feel his gaze. "Only by taking a different path can the shackles of the current situation be shattered. The prosperity of the Origin Universe came about precisely because of your Origin Progenitor and the Three Realms Six Dao. Each of them blazed a unique path for themselves. The Aeternals are indeed truly powerful, but they only follow the path of True God. If a path is used well, it can be extremely powerful, but if it is used poorly, it will break.”

"That is also true of the Cyclic Universe’s Three Sovereigns and Nine Sages. The Great Sovereign believes that her path is correct, but she has never succeeded in surpassing the Aeternals. In my opinion, that is evidence that the Main Universe will never reach the same heights as the Origin Universe."

Lu Yin was curious about something. "What level has Master reached?"

Mu Ke remained silent for a moment. "I don't know. He may be equal to the Great Sovereign or possibly even stronger. I’ve never seen Master truly take action. It’s possible that the only place where Master will ever truly reveal his power is at the Immemorial Citadel."

"Brother, just what is the Immemorial Citadel?" Lu Yin asked. When he had asked Ancestor Lu Yuan about it, the man had answered with only a few words: sequence string. Lu Yin still had not been able to make any sense of the term, but he remained very curious. Maybe he could learn more from his senior brother.

Mu Ke turned so that he faced Lu Yin. "If I told you that you would die if I stabbed you, would you act obediently and accept being stabbed by me?"

Lu Yin was speechless. "Of course not."

"What if I told you that, as long as you did not die, you would break through?"

"What can guarantee my survival?"

"What can guarantee that your current understanding of the world won’t be shattered by learning about certain matters?" Mu Ke retorted.

Lu Yin gave a bitter smile. He understood that, just like Ancestor Lu Yuan and Ancestor Lu Tianyi, there were certain things that Mu Ke would not share with him. Learning of certain matters would disrupt Lu Yin’s current mindset, and who could say if that would be good or bad?

Lu Yin was walking a path that had never been paved before, and not even Mister Mu could see through Lu Yin’s cultivation path. All that could be said was that Lu Yin was already walking down his own path.

If Lu Yin cultivated a standard method, then he would be able to receive guidance from his seniors, but he was not following a standard path. Rather, if he learned about that path, it could alter the direction of his cultivation.

"I understand. I won't ask any more about that," Lu Yin said with a sigh. While he still knew nothing about the Immemorial Citadel, he was at least certain that it had some connection to the universe he knew, the standard cultivation methods, and even to sequence particles and the laws of the universe.

"By the way, Senior Brother, have you ever visited the Origin Universe?"

"No."

"Then have you met Senior Brother Mu Xie and Senior Brother Qing Ping?"

"Master mentioned them."

"When I was visiting the Lost Clan, you were the one who attacked me with the eighty-one slashes, right?"

Mu Ke’s hand settled on the hilt of his saber. "I wanted to see what was so special about you that made it impossible for even Master to see through you."

Lu Yin felt he had no choice but to reply, "I must have disappointed you, Senior Brother. I was not able to take your eighty-one slashes."

Mu Ke turned back to Lu Yin. Even with his eyes covered, it was clear that the man was looking at Lu Yin oddly. "It would have been strange if you had been able to take them."

Lu Yin blinked. "Then why did you attack me eighty-one times, Senior Brother?"

"Being able to endure that series of attacks proved that you were already very strong, or at the very least, that you had a strong will. Not everyone can keep their presence of mind after being attacked eighty-one times by me," Mu Ke answered casually.

Lu Yin's face twitched. "What if I hadn’t been able to endure your attacks and had collapsed?"

"Then it would have meant that Master had either lied to me or misjudged you."

Lu Yin looked at Mu Ke for a long moment. It seemed that Senior Brothers Mu Xie and Qing Ping were much better seniors than Senior Brother Mu Ke.

Senior Brother Qing Ping had his own sense of justice and morality. Anyone who violated those rules would be judged by him, including Qing Ping himself. That was his code of beliefs.

As for Senior Brother Mu Xie, the man had dedicated himself to catching Redbacks, and he refused to be swayed by the will of the four ruling powers. Even if the Lu family had tried to intervene, the man would have persisted.

All of them had their own determination.

Being accepted as one of Mister Mu’s disciples required more than mere talent.

In comparison, Senior Brother Mu Ke was more pure and straightforward in a sense. Put more bluntly, he was single-minded. Simply because of Mister Mu's evaluation of Lu Yin, Mu Ke had gone and attacked Lu Yin eighty-one times. While such a focused person would excel in their area of focus, they would also be difficult to get along with.

"You accepted my eighty-one attacks, and those eighty-one attacks were a greeting gift for you," Mu Ke stated.

Lu Yin bitterly replied, "Senior brother's greeting gift is truly unique."

Mu Ke appeared puzzled. "Truly?"

Lu Yin understood that Mu Ke was genuinely confused. In this man’s mind, Lu Yin had to have been capable of withstanding the eighty-one slashes. After all, he had received such a unique evaluation from their master. As long as Mu Ke did not question Mister Mu, he would similarly never question whether or not Lu Yin could endure the eighty-one attacks. In that case, since Lu Yin was able to endure the slashes, then the final miniature saber was a greeting gift. This made perfect sense to Mu Ke.

It had never even occurred to the man what the consequences would be if Lu Yin had failed to endure the attacks.

In short, regardless of what may have happened, there was no reason for Lu Yin to not relax around Senior Brother Mu Ke.

Mu Ke stared at Lu Yin. "The saber formed from those eighty-one slashes was used. Who was it?"

"Cheng Kong," Lu Yin replied.

Mu Ke's voice dropped a bit as he commented, "They’re still not dead."

Lu Yin arched a brow. "After they were attacked by the eighty-one slashes on the Endless Frontier, they disappeared. When Aeternus attacked the Tea Ceremony, the Heavens Sect, and even the Sixverse Association’s Endless Frontier, no one saw anything of Cheng Kong."

Mu Ke replied, "I’ve fought them before, and those eighty-one slashes are not enough to kill them."

Lu Yin's heart sank. This was a problem. Because Cheng Kong had not shown up during the big attack, Lu Yin had assumed that they were dead.

In the past, Lu Yin had not been able to determine Cheng Kong’s true strength. After all, Lu Yin had not been able to determine the strength of the person who had attacked him with eighty-one slashes either, but the times had since changed. Lu Yin knew that Senior Brother Mu Ke was powerful enough to face off against the Seven Skygods. Regardless of whether he would win or lose, the fact remained that Mu Ke could fight against the Seven Skygods, which meant that he was a sequence powerhouse. Even so, his eighty-one slashes were not enough to kill Cheng Kong, which meant that Cheng Kong had to be at the same level of strength.

More and more, Lu Yin was slowly coming to understand the true strength of Aeternus: True God, the Seven Skygods, Cheng Kong, the captains of the True God Guard, as well asa the other more ordinary peak powerhouses like Yi Ren and the True God Guard.

This was the power that Aeternus had revealed, and it was an amazing amount of strength. If they still had more hidden reserves, it would be truly difficult for the Sixverse Association to deal with.

"Given your current strength, if you encounter Cheng Kong again, you will at least be able to stay alive, but if you want to escape, you will have to pay a steep price," Mu Ke commented.

Lu Yin looked at the man. "What are you saying, Senior Brother?"

"I'll give you another eighty-one slashes," Mu Ke gravely stated.

Lu Yin grew serious as well. "Can we skip the part where you attack me eighty-one times and just give me the miniature saber?"

"It can’t be skipped."

"About that..."

"You don't want it? Then just forget it."

"No, I want it. Alright, I’ll have to trouble you, Senior Brother."