Tian En stared at Progenitor Ku in utter astonishment. He hadn’t died?

On the ground below, Sovereign Dou Sheng swung his cudgel and forced Arrow God to pull back as he let out a wild cackle. "Ku Jie, you finally showed up! I've been waiting for you for so long! We should have fought together ages ago!"

Progenitor Ku let out a low, raspy laugh. Even so, it was filled with the man’s heroic spirit. "You’re right, we should have fought together long ago. Now, let's see who on this battlefield can kill us!"

The Sovereign seemed reinvigorated. "Hahaha! Yes! Let's see who can kill us!"

The ground of the Scourge continued to break apart. Some sort of power was linking the Second Scourge to the Third and First Scourges.

Rivers of divine energy ran across the Scourges like flood dragons, flowing out from the black Mother Tree. They suddenly transformed into a blood-red barrier that enveloped the entire universe.

The Aeternals grew stronger from the divine energy, while all the humans were already weakened from being shunned by the Scourge. Thus, many of the human powerhouses were forced to go on the defensive.

While humanity had fallen to a disadvantage, they were not yet defeated.

Progenitor’s worlds clashed, and countless sequence particles filled the Scourge’s sky, which was lit up by myriad battle techniques. This battle was practically unprecedented and unparalleled in history. The only ones that could compare to it was the one that had destroyed the Heavens Sect or the Immemorial Citadel’s current battlefield.

Tian Ci's expression fell. He had not expected that, even with the addition of the Boundary Guardians, they still could not completely overwhelm the humans.

In particular, Garan Zhiluo was revealing all the Boundary Guardians’ secrets. If not for her, the Lord of Lightning, who was not even an Ortuser, would have been no match for Tian Ci. While Jiang Feng had mirebound artifacts, so did Tian Ci.

It was such a pity. He should have taken action earlier. If Tian Fa were still alive, they would have been the deciding factor in the battle.

Instead, they would need to slog through a bitter struggle, but as time plodded forward, victory would inevitably belong to them. The humans could not change that.

Battle raged across the Scourge, and The Abandoned shot forward to appear behind Fei. She was his opponent, and as his sequence particles allowed him to always be one step ahead, he could kill this woman.

A blade slashed through the air. As far as The Abandoned could tell, his attack should be more than enough to kill Fei.

However, even as he watched, Fei actually shifted locations. Impossible. His attacks should never miss. His accuracy was related to his sequence rules.

Fei had comprehended the Law of Reality, which allowed her to amplify the various senses. This could cause her enemies’ attacks to deviate from where they aimed. Lu Yin had suffered from her ability in the past.

Fei and The Abandoned were both sequence powerhouses. The Abandoned had fought against Arrow God multiple times and not died, while Di Qiong had considered Fei powerful enough to participate in the Divine Selection. The two proved to be evenly matched.

The fact that his own sequence particles had failed caused The Abandoned's heart to sink. He watched as Fei's eyes changed color, and she used the Pupilless Transformation. She reached for her opponent, but he again used his sequence particles to avoid her, even as he stared at Fei in surprise.

The woman did not stop. After The Abandoned successfully dodged, she thrust her sword in another direction, attacking Mu Shen, who stood still, looking a bit confused.

Mu Shen had been fighting against Lan Lan. That woman had the innate gift of Virtual Reality, which allowed her to treat anyone like a video game character, while she set the rules of the game.

This innate gift had allowed Lan Lan to become a nightmare for the people of the Nine-Star Civilization. If they had not managed to determine her innate gift, they might have been wiped out long ago. ȑ

At the moment, Lan Lan was using her innate gift to restrain Mu Shen.

Mu Shen was the ruler of the Arboreal Realm, and he was strong enough to hold his own against Ancient God before the Skygod had become an Ortuser. Xu Jin had recognized Lan Lan as strong enough to participate in the Divine Selection, which meant that both Mu Shen and Lan Lan were roughly as strong as the Seven Skygods.

Mu Shen wanted to defeat Lan Lan, but doing so was proving difficult. Similarly, Lan Lan found it incredibly challenging to defeat Mu Shen.

Mu Shen was feeling quite frustrated. He was stuck within the rules of Lan Lan's game, and the bizarre mechanics left him puzzled. He was barely able to fend off the woman’s attacks, which took advantage of her game’s rules.

Suddenly, Fei's sword appeared out of nowhere, and it stabbed straight at Mu Shen.

The Abandoned quickly released his sequence particles in an attempt to block Fei's sword.

As that happened, Lan Lan brought The Abandoned into her game, and its rules instantly applied to him. He watched in shock as his blade was reduced to fragments of sequence particles. What was happening?

Suddenly, Fei's sword diverted its path. There was an opening that had appeared the moment that Lan Lan had pulled The Abandoned into her game, and using that, Fei’s sword pierced Lan Lan's body.

Lan Lan froze, and she stared at Fei in complete disbelief as she focused on Fei's pupilless eyes. "You?"

Fei's replied in a cold voice. "I have been taught by Wu Tian and am his disciple. Today, I am leaving Aeternus."

With that, she swept her sword across, slicing Lan Lan's body in two. Blood splattered across the ground.

Lan Lan's power had been focused on her innate gift. The woman herself lacked powerful defenses.

The Abandoned and Mu Shen were still stunned, as they had never expected such a turn of events.

…

The black Mother Tree was rooted in all six Scourges. Underground, the Scourges were all connected. Lu Yin continued digging down through the earth, constantly moving closer to the rivers of divine energy.

When he had leaped into the roots, many Aeternals had seen him, but none had tried to stop him. That was because of the rivers of divine energy that flowed beneath the black Mother Tree.

No matter how strong Lu Yin might be, he would be effected by the rivers of divine energy. This was common knowledge throughout all of Aeternus.

Everyone understood that Lu Yin wanted to destroy the black Mother Tree.

However, none of the Aeternals knew that Lu Yin also cultivated divine energy and that the rivers would not harm him at all. Instead, they would strengthen his divine energy, effectively increasing his strength.

There was a splash as Lu Yin plunged into a river of divine energy. At this moment, the Primaldust in his forehead became blazing hot. It could clearly sense the presence of more pieces of Primaldust.

The closer Lu Yin moved to the other Primaldusts, the hotter the piece in his forehead became.

Following his Primaldust’s lead, Lu Yin continued to move closer to the other three particles.

Finally, a hazy glow appeared before him. There were three orbs of light, which contained the three particles of Primaldust.

Lu Yin immediately shot towards them.

Suddenly, he froze and then slowly turned his head. Close by, someone was sitting cross-legged, and they were even closer to the three particles of Primaldust than Lu Yin.

As he moved closer, the person’s eyes opened and met Lu Yin's gaze.

"Brother Xiaoxuan, I didn't expect you to find your way here."

Lu Yin's expression changed. "Bai Xian'er?"

There was no way Lu Yin would have ever anticipated encountering Bai Xian'er amidst the roots of the black Mother Tree, right next to three particles of Primaldust.

From the time that Lu Yin had become the Dao Monarch of the Heavens Sect and his prestige within the Sixverse Association had soared, he had constantly been searching for Bai Xian'er, who had betrayed humanity.

The Cyclic Universe had protested Lu Yin’s actions many times, but to no avail. He had been determined to find Bai Xian'er and learn her secrets.

However, he had never been able to find any trace of the woman.

It was only down in the roots of the black Mother Tree that he finally saw her.

Bai Xian'er's eyes remained bright and clear, even in the darkness of the lake of divine energy. "Brother Xiaoxuan, how did you learn about the pieces of Primaldust here?"

Lu Yin stared at Bai Xian'er and suddenly frowned. "You broke through and became a Progenitor?"

Bai Xian'er replied as though stating the obvious, "You could say that, but I don't need to break through."

Lu Yin did not understand.

Bai Xian'er smiled. "Brother Xiaoxuan, have we ever truly fought each other?"

Lu Yin's eyes flashed. "No."

When Lu Yin had become an Envoy, Bai Xian'er had lost her advantage over him. When the Python Ancestor had attacked Undying God, Bai Xian'er had gotten involved. At that time, Lu Yin had felt like it would have been possible to kill her. That feeling had persisted during their subsequent encounters, but feelings were one thing while actually killing Bai Xian'er had remained an entirely different matter.

Bai Xian'er was the only person Lu Yin had ever encountered who, despite being in the same realm of cultivation as him, had been capable of ignoring the power of his inner universe. She was the one person he felt he was capable of killing, yet had refrained from making an earnest attempt to do so.

Lu Yin had never underestimated Bai Xian'er. Never.

Bai Xian'er revealed the smallest smile. "Let’s have a match today. These three bits of Primaldust can serve as the victor’s spoils. If you win, you can take them, but if I win…"

She paused, and her smile grew much brighter. " I'll take Brother Xiaoxuan's life."

She did not wait for any sort of response, and Fay Blossoms bloomed all around the two people. This was Bai Xian'er's innate gift, and the flowers were bewitching and beautiful.

When the Lu family had been banished, these flowers had rained down across the Perennial World.

Lu Yin used Inverse Step and moved at the speed of time to charge towards Bai Xian'er.

Everything was frozen in place around him, including Bai Xian'er. However, her stillness only made Lu Yin feel uneasy.

Bai Xian'er was not someone who could be easily frozen by something like moving at the speed of time. She had already proven that she could ignore the power of Lu Yin’s universe, so there was no reason why she could not similarly ignore the power of time.

Lu Yin threw a punch, and the power of his attack traveled through the space separating them.

Bai Xian'er looked over and smiled. "Brother Xiaoxuan, you’re so cautious, aren’t you?"

She then gently raised a hand. Her movements served as a stark contrast to Lu Yin's vicious punch.

That attack had not contained all of Lu Yin power, and he had merely thrown it with his maximum physical strength.

Even so, the punch landed and crumpled half of Bai Xian'er's body.

Lu Yin's eyes narrowed. This was impossible. There was no way that Bai Xian'er could be injured so easily.

Before his thoughts could proceed any further, red flowers rained down, and they made him numb wherever they touched him. Lu Yin immediately used Extremes Must Be Reversed, and his body withered, only for it to recover just as quickly.

Lu Yin was startled by the speed at which his body recovered. This should not be possible. The Fay Blossoms caused numbness, but they should not do much actual damage. In that case, why was his body recovering so quickly from its withered state? The faster he recovered, the more damage his body was suffering from.

Something was very wrong. There was clearly more to the Fay Blossoms than what he knew.

At some point in time, Bai Xian'er's body had recovered, and she looked as though she had never been struck at all. She raised a pale finger, undoing space itself as she drew a line and released a Void Rip.

The black line swept past, though Lu Yin easily evaded it. By using the Dao of One Heavens, which he had learned from Ancestor Lu Tianyi, he was able to escape from even the most impossible situations, which meant that dodging something like Void Rip was incredibly easy.

Bai Xian'er then used Celestial Being Shows the Way, but Lu Yin dodged that attack just as easily.

She was only using the Celestial Frost Sect’s battle techniques, but none of them had any effect on Lu Yin.

Lu Yin clenched a fist while releasing Infinity. Lines of strength collided, and after boosting his strength even further with Extremes Must Be Reversed, Lu Yin threw a second punch at Bai Xian'er. This time, he held nothing back. If Bai Xian'er tried to endure the attack as she had the first one, there was no question that she would die without raising her defenses.

There was a loud bang. Once again, Bai Xian'er was struck by the punch, and it was a direct hit, as she had not attempted to use any defensive means whatsoever, which shocked Lu Yin.

This attack should have been too much for Bai Xian'er to endure, but even after taking the attack, she stood unscathed before Lu Yin. She met his astonished gaze, and her eyes started to radiate a disturbing light.

The lake of divine energy was the same as ever, and so was the black Mother Tree, but everything in Lu Yin’s surroundings seemed to have somehow changed. It was as though everything was moving slower. Ripples passed through the divine energy that should have moved quickly, but as Lu Yin watched the undulations, he could not help but wonder why they were moving so slowly. Their movements were slow enough to drive a person mad.

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA