Chapter 3167: A Familiar Scene

Lu Yin was startled to see the sheets of white liquid suddenly transform into blades that held immense power. Together, they rivaled the strength of Xia Shenji's Shenwu World. This had to be The Abandoned's most powerful knife attack. This attack brought out dozens of blades at the same time, and they attacked from every direction.

How had the man pulled this attack off?

Hongyan Mavis looked up as she took a step forward. Ripples spread out from her body, and they swept through the entire cave, shattering all of the short blades that had formed from the white liquid.

In a corner of the cave, The Abandoned's pupils contracted. He could not win. He quickly stepped back onto the teleportation device to escape, but the grass covering the device prevented it from activating. When the man tried to tear the void open in order to escape, a hand was already gripping his shoulder.

Lu Yin had caught The Abandoned.

The Abandoned could stay one step ahead of his opponents, but Hongyan Mavis's strength had already pushed all of the sequence particles away, which meant that The Abandoned could not use them. He was no longer able to perceive Lu Yin when the young man moved at the speed of time.

The moment the man sensed Lu Yin’s hand on his shoulder, The Abandoned froze. He could tell that it would be impossible to overcome the young man’s strength. The Abandoned had always been able to stay one step ahead of his opponents by using his sequence particles, but without access to his law of the universe, he lacked the power to make up for the difference in raw strength.

The Abandoned lowered his arm, a cold expression on his face.

Lu Yin continued to hold the man’s shoulder. "I tried talking to you nicely, but you wouldn't listen. Aeternus has declared a Divine Commandment, and they are gathering their full power to destroy all human civilizations. Do you really think that you can keep fighting on your own? If multiple experts as strong as Arrow God ambush you, do you think that you can escape?"

The Abandoned replied in a mocking tone, "I've always known that I'd eventually die. It doesn't matter."

"Then make your death mean something. I can find a place worthy of your death. For now, you can't die. Join us in fighting against Aeternus. I’ll let you keep targeting Arrow God, and there will even be someone to protect you from her attacks. As for killing her, that will be up to you." With that, Lu Yin released the man’s shoulder.

The Abandoned looked over at Hongyan Mavis. "Who’s she?"

If not for Hongyan Mavis, The Abandoned was confident that Lu Yin would not have been able to stop him from leaving.

Making a display of physical strength visible was relatively simple, but having the raw strength to repel sequence particles was absolutely terrifying. The Abandoned had never encountered anyone with such formidable power before.

Lu Yin laughed. "How could I get you to stick around without bringing a powerhouse with me? Come with me to the Heavens Sect."

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The Abandoned sighed. "Do I even have a choice?"

"I remember now! This is Mirrorbane," Hongyan Mavis commented excitedly as she stared at the milky white liquid on the ground.

Lu Yin was puzzled. "What's Mirrorbane?"

Hongyan Mavis turned to The Abandoned. "Is this the substance that returns your exact attack back to you if you hit it?"

The Abandoned nodded. "Yes. I discovered it by accident. It's rather odd, but no one besides me seems to know how to use it."

The man grew much more curious about Hongyan Mavis. She had mentioned earlier that it would be appropriate to call her “Ancestor” due to her age. Just how long had she lived for?

Hongyan Mavis smiled. "Sure enough, it's Mirrorbane. I never thought that I'd see this again."

"Senior, can you explain?" Lu Yin asked curiously.

Hongyan Mavis answeed, "We call this substance Mirrorbane. It's the pettiest substance in existence. If you hit it, it will always retaliate perfectly. If you stab it with a knife, it will transform into a knife and stab you back. That's why so many knives appeared earlier, which I understand now."

She looked back at The Abandoned. "You really know how to use this well."

Lu Yin's eyes lit up. "Is what you said true?"

Hongyan Mavis flicked a drop of the liquid into the air, where it transformed into a flat plane.

Lu Yin bent a finger and flicked the liquid. The moment his finger struck, the plane transformed into a bent finger that struck back at Lu Yin.

The force of the counterattack was exactly the same as his own. This was truly remarkable.

He looked at The Abandoned. "I understand that the blades that appeared are the attacks that you used earlier, but aren’t the attacks supposed to target whoever made them? Why did it attack us?"

He suddenly realized something. "The direction?"

The Abandoned nodded. "It's not alive, and there’s no intelligence behind its reactions. It simply retaliates in a given direction. When I attacked it, I attacked it from your direction, so its retaliation was aimed towards you."

Lu Yin was amazed. There truly were countless wonders in existence, and this Mirrorbane was clearly one of them.

"In the past, whenever we got bored of cultivating, we all played with this stuff." Hongyan Mavis grew nostalgic as she crouched down and pulled up a bit of the liquid. "But as time passed and our cultivation improved, this stuff wasn’t able to keep up. It couldn't withstand the power of our attacks later on, so we eventually stopped playing with it."

Lu Yin asked, "What's the maximum amount of force that it can counter?"

The Abandoned replied, "It can withstand my full-strength attacks, but when I tried attacking it twice at the same time, it could no longer handle it."

Lu Yin was taken aback. "That's still very impressive. After all, you're a sequence powerhouse, and there’s not much that can withstand one of your full-powered attacks."

Hongyan Mavis jumped in. "While it’s better than nothing, it’s useless against people at our level of strength. I’m just taking a bit for the memories."

Lu Yin also collected some of the liquid. He was able to upgrade things, so if he could Enhance the white liquid to the point where it could withstand attacks from the Three Realms and Six Daos, or even stronger attacks, it would become invaluable.

He was curious to see if it could be improved.

After leading The Abandoned back to the Heavens Sect, Lu Yin decided to check on the Nine-Star Civilization, as he had no idea how they were doing.

He was particularly interested in their nine-star technique, Restart. If Kakawen had not used Restart, destroying his universe in the process, Xu Jin would not have been gravely wounded, and it would have been far more difficult for Lu Yin to have killed the eyeball.

The Nine-Star Civilization was fundamentally different from Ye Wu and The Abandoned.

Their universe had been utterly destroyed. It had been reduced to a dark, chaotic realm that was devoid of anything. It was as though Restart had taken everything in the universe away with it.

The Nine-Star Civilization had moved to a parallel universe that was connected to their old universe, though the only thing that remained was their Star Capital.

Star Capital was a vast city, but it had been impossible to save everyone in the Nine-Star Civilization from the destruction of Restart.

The civilization had suffered unbelievable losses.

Lu Yin's arrival created an uproar in the Nine-Star Civilization. Everyone felt grateful to him, as if not for his efforts, all of them would have been captured by Aeternus.

"On behalf of the Nine-Star Civilization, I, Mimina, welcome you, Lord Lu!" Mimina announced.

"Welcome, Lord Lu," everyone in Star Capital echoed the woman’s words.

"Welcome, Lord Lu..."

Lu Yin had not expected such an overwhelming reception. "Mimina, there's no need for things to be so formal. Please, everyone, relax."

"Thank you, Lord Lu..." The entire city trembled with excitement.

The Nine-Star Civilization was genuinely grateful to Lu Yin. He had given their people a chance to survive. Their gratitude had also been strengthened by people like Wuwude, who had been very proactive in sharing an account of what had happened.

Everyone had their own agendas, and Wuwude was hoping to ensure that Lu Yin would feel the genuine respect and admiration of the Nine-Star Civilization. This would hopefully draw the Heavens Sect's attention, and then they might offer further support for their Nine-Star Civilization. Wei Rong had already mentioned this to Lu Yin, as such motivations were completely transparent to Wei Rong.

Lu Yin was not offended at all. Everyone needed to consider their own civilization's survival and what was best for them, and Wuwude was not plotting against Lu Yin in any way.

The people of the Nine-Star Civilization were sincere in their admiration for Lu Yin, and he also did not mind helping them.

Starting in the same simple room at the bottom of the bell tower, Mimina accompanied Lu Yin up the familiar stairs. They walked this path out of respect for Kakawen. In this place, both Mentors and students were treated equally, and they all acted as ordinary humans.

After pushing the ancient wooden door open to the familiar room within, Lu Yin sighed. "This place is still the same, even when the people are gone."

Sadness painted Mimina's face. "Mentor Kakawen always knew that this day would come. He said that, when his time was up, he would make sure to enter Aeternus’s territory to release Restart. It was intended to be the final flash of brilliance for his life. Unfortunately, before that day arrived, our Nine-Star Civilization needed someone else who could use Restart to appear. Without that insurance, our entire civilization would collapse with Mentor Kakawen’s death.

"We never expected Aeternus to act so quickly."

Lu Yin sat down at the exact same place where he had sat during his last visit to the room. "Mentor Kakawen was a respected senior, and he deserved our admiration."

He looked over at Mimina. "Your Nine-Star Civilization has another powerhouse in the Immemorial Citadel. His name is Babal, correct?"

Mimina nodded. "Mentor Babal and Mentor Kakawen were the oldest powerhouses in our Nine-Star Civilization. Originally, Mentor Kakawen could also have gone to the Immemorial Citadel, but one of them needed to stay here.

"Lord Lu, once again, I want to thank you for helping my Nine-Star Civilization." The woman then offered a deep bow.

Lu Yin raised a hand in protest. "There’s no need for that as we’re allies. I even came here to invite your Nine-Star Civilization to participate in the upcoming military declaration that my Heavens Sect is hosting."

Mimina was puzzled. "Military declaration?"

Lu Yin explained, "We’ll be announcing and demonstrating to all parallel universes that the Heavens Sect has no equal and that we will fight Aeternus to the death."

Mimina's eyes blazed with determination. "The Nine-Star Civilization will stand with you. There’s no question about that."

Lu Yin nodded. "We have a date, so just decide who will attend. However, there is one thing that I need to clarify.

"The martial declaration's entire purpose is to demonstrate our strength. There are going to be some positions that can only be determined by individual strength, not by the strength of one’s civilization."

Mimina was taken aback. "Solely by personal strength?"

Lu Yin continued, "I know that your Nine-Star Civilization will produce someone else who can use Restart, but until that happens, there are certain positions that will remain unavailable to your people, not until such a person appears.

"Many outside civilizations have allied with us, but most are merely allies. Before they achieve a certain level of power, they won’t be able to participate in military announcement and will only be allowed to observe."

Mimina exhaled. "I see. However, Lord Lu, I can use Restart."

Lu Yin was surprised. "You can use Restart?"

Mimina nodded solemnly. "It would cost me my life, but that is my path. Seeing the brilliance of Restart allowed me to take that last step. It was only at that moment that I understood that the final step one must take to be able to use Restart is to actually witness it.

"Only by seeing Restart can one reach the state necessary to use it themselves."

Lu Yin praised the woman, "I see. In that case, congratulations, Mimina. You have become the new Mentor of your Nine-Star Civilization."

Mimina smiled bitterly. "I wish Mentor Kakawen were still here."

Lu Yin stood and walked over to the window. "Mentor Kakawen's dying wish was to save your Nine-Star Civilization and raise up another who can use Restart. He’s achieved both of those things and can rest in peace."

Lu Yin then looked upwards and stared at the sky. Suddenly, he froze. This was a familiar sight, but where had he seen it before?

"Lord Lu-" Mimina began, but Lu Yin raised a hand to stop her. He continued to stare at the sky. He knew that he had seen it somewhere before. It was this exact same scene, from this exact same angle. The stars were the same, as well as the windowsill in his peripheral vision. The corner of the clock tower visible above him was the same, and even the distant houses were no different. He had seen this exact same sight before.

Had it been during his first visit, when he had met Kakawen? No, Lu Yin had not looked out the window during that meeting.

Suddenly, it hit him; he had seen this scene while fishing in the River of Time.