Chapter 3011: A Civilization’s Sorrow

Naturally, Lu Yin wanted to take a look at the meteorite.

It headed towards Lu Yin.

He stood still and slowly raised a hand, aiming it at the meteorite.

As he did so, the meteorite suddenly changed directions and moved to his left.

Lu Yin smirked. Sure enough, there was something different with the meteorite. It was not just a meteorite. He tore through the void and looked inside.

Heaven’s Sight revealed a miraculous world. It was rather similar to the 3,000 hidden worlds, as there were three continents inside of the meteorite. People lived on them, cultivated, and carried out all the normal activities of everyday life. Everything that normal people did was happening inside the meteorite.

What intrigued Lu Yin the most was that these people were not humans, but rather consciousnesses. All of them were nothing but consciousnesses, and the world that they lived in was not a real world, but an illusion. More accurately, the world inside of the meteorite appeared to be something like a game.

Lu Yin took a step forward and again blocked the meteorite’s path.

It changed directions again, but Lu Yin continued to block it. After several attempts, the meteorite finally stopped, and a deep voice spoke up. “Sir, please don’t make things difficult for us. We are just failures who have lost our physical bodies.”

Lu Yin was curious. “Come out and talk.”

A figure slowly took shape outside the meteorite. He had the appearance of an old man, and he somberly stared at Lu Yin with eyes that were filled with fear and nervousness.

This old man was a peak powerhouse. His figure was not a physical body, but rather a condensation of consciousness, similar to Progenitor Hui’s manifested thought. Lu Yin was quite surprised.

The old man bowed to Lu Yin. “I implore you to spare us. We are simply a group of failures who couldn’t even save our physical bodies. We are of no use to you, so please just let us drift through the universe to live and die on our own.”

Lu Yin examined the old man in front of him. Despite being formed from consciousness, the man wore clothes like a regular person, and the style was similar to the Transcendent Universe’s. On top of that, the illusionary world inside of the meteorite suggested a technologically advanced civilization, and yet they had a peak powerhouse.

“Are you humans?” Lu Yin asked.

The old man answered in a respectful tone, “Yes, just like you, all of us are humans.”

“Why did you lose your physical bodies?”

The old man sighed. “We lost a battle. Our physical bodies were a temptation that drew powerful enemies, so our only means of escape was to abandon our physical bodies.”

Lu Yin’s eyes flashed. “Tell me more.”

The old man did not hesitate and shared what his people had gone through.

It was a simple story. The old man’s civilization had been defeated, and he had used his Progenitor-level strength to carry the illusory world away. This world had been created by his civilization before they knew that their loss was imminent, but it had been prepared for such a day. The old man had used his innate gift to move all everyone’s consciousnesses into the meteorite.

In other words, within the illusory world of the meteorite, the other people had already forgotten that they had lost their physical forms. They believed that the world was real and not just an illusion.

The old man had also abandoned his physical body and sent his consciousness into the meteorite. Then, he guided it to drift through the universe as he sought a place for them to settle.

This was the civilization’s sorrow.

Lu Yin stared at the old man. “Who defeated your people?”

The old man answered in a dry, scared voice, “Aeternus.”

Lu Yin was not surprised. After all, Aeternus needed the physical bodies of humans to transform them into corpse kings. These people had been defeated, and they had abandoned their physical bodies and fled. The abandoned physical bodies had become useless to Aeternus, while beings of consciousness were also useless.

“Who led the Aeternals to defeat you?” Lu Yin asked.

The old man was astonished. “You know of Aeternus?”

“They have enemies in many parallel universes, so of course I know of them,” Lu Yin replied.

The old man trembled. “Enemies across multiple universes? And here I had believed that only we faced such a formidable foe.”

After a pause, the old man continued, “The one who led Aeternus...”

A short while later, Lu Yin returned to the jiao.

Jiang Qingyue asked, “What happened?”

Lu Yin shared what he had learned, and the story amazed Arch-Elder Zen and the others.

“That really happened?”

“They had to abandon their bodies and enter an illusory world with only their consciousnesses in order to escape? That really is sad. They seem so helpless. Why not send them to the Sixverse Association?”

Lu Yin casually replied, “God’s Domain also refused to go to the Sixverse Association. These people have given up their physical bodies, keeping only their consciousness in order to escape. They are even less willing to go to the Sixverse Association where they would have to face Aeternus directly.”

One thing Lu Yin did not mention was the fact that he could not guarantee that he could keep the people alive.

The Aeternals fought wars across multiple parallel universes, but unfortunately, the various human civilizations who fought against Aeternus did not even know about each other. This was a terrifying detail.

While Lu Yin was traversing parallel universes, it would be exceptionally challenging to unite all of humanity and lead them against Aeternus.

Besides, what could the consciousnesses in the illusory world even offer Lu Yin? He could absorb their consciousness, and doing so would significantly increase the strength of his own consciousness, but how could he do such a thing?

Ghost Monkey sighed. “Even something like this is possible. By abandoning their bodies, they made it pointless for the Aeternals to go after them. However, they also abandoned their own humanity. It was a smart move, making themselves useless. While no one will pay any attention to them, they also won’t face any danger.”

His words were rather harsh, but they were also quite true.

“We need to change our destination. Since we’ve encountered Aeternus here, we should face them and see what sort of strength the other Scourges possess,” Lu Yin stated resolutely. The Sixverse Association was not currently at war with their Scourge, so Lu Yin was eager to understand what was happening in the other Scourges.

Di Qiong was someone from another Scourge.

Undying God had mentioned right before he had died that Wu Tian might be in the Third Scourge, and from the illusory world, Lu Yin had just learned about a new Aeternal powerhouse. Lu Yin did not intend to let this opportunity slip by.

He wanted to see how different the other Scourges were from the First Scourge.

Following some directions that he had received from the civilization of consciousnesses, Lu Yin and his group soon found Aeternus’s forces.

They stared at a distant Aeternus Kingdom. This was something that Lu Yin had seen many times now.

Aeternus had an obsession with establishing their Aeternus Kingdoms, even in other universes.

“The strongest person in this Aeternus Kingdom is someone known as Da Hui. He was the one who defeated that powerhouse, which forced that civilization to abandon their physical bodies and store their consciousness in that illusion to preserve their lives,” Lu Yin explained.

Arch-Elder Zen said, “Let me go first.”

Jiang Qingyue also jumped in. “Let me go attack. The Aeternals won’t be so wary if it’s me.”

Lu Yin nodded. “Alright. Be careful, Qingyue.”

While Lu Yin was confident that he could prevent Da Hui from escaping, Jiang Qingyue was on this journey in order to gain experience. This was a chance for her to practice facing off against a peak powerhouse.

They watched as Jiang Qingyue entered the Aeternus Kingdom, and two hours later, they witnessed a dazzling display of sword skills.

The jiao lifted its neck, baring its teeth and claws. There were no threats to the beast in this Aeternus Kingdom.

“She started. I wonder how long she can last for without using that ability,” Arch-Elder Zen commented.

The ability he was referring to was not Jiang Qingyue’s normal battle techniques and sword skills, but rather the attack that she had used to kill the Progenitor-level mantis. It was an ability that came from the dead Kong Tianzhao. Without using that ability, it would be very difficult for Jiang Qingyue to defeat a peak powerhouse.

As they were thinking about such things, Jiang Qingyue suddenly shot away from the Aeternus Kingdom, blood streaming from her shoulder.

Arch-Elder Zen frowned. “So soon?”

“An expert.” Lu Yin took a step forward. He passed Jiang Qingyue in an instant and saw a long spear approaching. The tip seemed to have been magnified countless times over, and it released a pale glow as it stabbed at Lu Yin.

He stopped moving and leaned to the side while using Inverse Step to create a field of chaotic time and space.

“Hmm?” In front of Lu Yin, a middle-aged man was holding the spear. This man was Da Hui. After seeing Lu Yin evade his spear, especially that movement technique, Da Hui felt a bit confused. His eyes grew more focused, and the spear slammed down, sweeping through space.

Lu Yin took a step forward, appearing right in front of Da Hui. The spear swept behind Lu Yin, while a fierceness blossomed in Da Hui’s eyes. Energy boiled from his body and added a powerful thrust to the sweeping attack, directing an attack towards Lu Yin from both the front and the back. The intention was to crush him.

There were countless parallel universes, and many of them cultivated different energies.

Da Hui cultivated an energy that was even softer than stellular energy. It seemed to be more gentle, but it also lacked the inclusive nature of stellular energy.

After observing his opponent’s energy, Lu Yin once again used Inverse Step and easily evaded Da Hui’s pincer attack, shocking the man. While it was clear that the young man had a similar cultivation level to the young woman from before, there was a vast difference in combat strength. The girl possessed exceptional swordsmanship and a power that intimidated Da Hui, but her actual strength was far below his own.

However, this young man? Da Hui did not dare to underestimate him. The spear thrust forward again. “Who are you people?”

“You forced us to abandon our bodies, and yet you still ask who we are?” Lu Yin snapped back as he released a palm strike. There was a terrible bang as the palm strike distorted the tip of the spear. This horrified Da Hui, as regardless of his own physical strength, he could not come close to comparing to Lu Yin.

“Are you from the Totem Civilization?”

“What do you think?”

“That’s impossible.” Da Hui pulled his spear back and then stabbed at Lu Yin from a very tricky angle. At the same time, multiple spear images flickered into being. Even another peak powerhouse might find it difficult to see through Da Hui’s attack, and while he acknowledged that Lu Yin had an impressive combat power and a strange movement technique, that did not mean that he had the insights to understand Da Hui’s spear technique.

Da Hui’s spear technique was quite impressive, though Lu Yin saw it as merely average. Most of his recent opponents had been sequence powerhouses. Unless he reached that level, Da Hui would not be strong enough to fight against Lu Yin, especially since he lacked an overwhelming strength, such as the Seven-Star Mantis’s speed. Da Hui was simply too weak.

If not because Lu Yin was buying some time for Jiang Qingyue, the fight would not have lasted this long.

Just as Lu Yin was thinking about it, Jiang Qingyue’s sword thrust forward from behind him. This sword happened to hit the weakest point of the spear’s shaft. Not only had Jiang Qingyue seen through all the spear images, but she had also successfully prevented Da Hui from using a follow-up attack.

Da Hui took a step back as he stared at Lu Yin and Jiang Qingyue.

While neither of these people’s cultivation realms surpassed Da Hui’s, they were both capable of fighting against him. Where had these two Realmbreakers come from?

If he could capture them and take them back to Aeternus, there was no doubt that it would be treated as an impressive achievement.

This thought caused excitement to light up Da Hui’s eyes. “No matter who you might be, since you’ve attacked me, you can forget about leaving this place alive!”

The next moment, Jiang Qingyue was once again fighting against Da Hui. The sword and spear clashed in an example of the most primitive form of weapon-based combat. Jiang Qingyue’s mastery of the sword was no less than Da Hui’s expertise with the spear. Her movements allowed her to always anticipate her enemy’s actions, but unfortunately, her lower cultivation realm meant that Da Hui was able to retake the initiative with powerful attacks.

Even so, Da Hui struggled to force Jiang Qingyue back again.

This was because, any time Jiang Qingyue was unable to endure, Lu Yin would intervene.

Da Hui was feeling quite stifled, and he gradually figured things out. The young man was treating Da Hui as a sparring partner for the woman! “Are you using me for training? Unbelievable! You’re seeking death!”

At that moment, vortices appeared all around Da Hui, and one of them nearly swallowed Jiang Qingyue.

Lu Yin arched a brow. Was this the man’s Progenitor’s world? Even if he cultivated a different energy, all peak powerhouses possessed similar abilities.

Da Hui had released his Progenitor’s world, so unless Jiang Qingyue used her white sword, she would not be able to compete with him any longer.

Jiang Qingyue stepped back. There was no need for her to continue this fight. Things would instead be left to Lu Yin.