Chapter 959: Young Master Changbai

Just as the Fourth Stage Augmenter’s hand was about to grab a hold of Cang Mu’s neck, the void split open, and another hand similarly stretched forward to protect Cang Mu. This second hand clashed with the Augmenter’s palm, and the elder’s eyes went wide. His five fingers instantly closed together into a fist that tried to break through the obstructing palm. However, the next moment, the old man found that a bit of his strength had vanished without any reason. An explosion rang out, and the two hands both pulled back as a figure appeared behind the second hand. It was Lu Yin.

Cang Mu was also forced by the collision between the two palms, and he looked at Lu Yin with a stunned expression.

Lu Yin looked at the old man in a serious manner. In terms of pure physical strength, Lu Yin was able to rival an Enlighter, but only an Enlighter with a power level of about 200,000. This old man had a power level of at least 400,000, and his physical body was incredibly formidable. If he hadn’t used Truesight to shave away some of the strength in the old man’s palm, Lu Yin’s hand would have been crippled by this impact.

Lu Yin had been too careless by using force to reply to force. He had momentarily forgotten that he had removed his universal armor when they had entered the Innerverse. If they were still in the Outerverse, then not even his upgraded universal armor’s defense would have been enough to stop this old fogey’s strike, since his strength likely surpassed that of the Sightless Clan expert who had tried to attack the battleships.

The Fourth Stage Augmenter elder looked at his hand in astonishment before turning to look back at Lu Yin. The man seemed to be at a loss. In the instant before their hands had touched, his strength had decreased rather significantly. Could this be a secret technique?

“Kid, you have a secret technique?” The old man looked at Lu Yin with fervent eyes.

Lu Yin waved his arms, and they released cracking sounds. He stared back at the old man. “Nope.”

The Augmenter sneered at the youth. “If that wasn’t a secret technique, then how could you have weakened my power?”

“You’re overthinking things—nobody was weakening your strength,” Lu Yin replied indifferently.

The old man grinned. “Interesting. The only members of your Fifth Mainland’s younger generation who can receive one or two of my attacks are those who have received the title of King from the Champions' Stage. Those who can actually fight me are even fewer. Little fellow, you’re from the Outerverse? So the Outerverse actually has someone like you. You can follow me.” And with that, the man leaped towards Lu Yin and pounded at the youth with a hammer.

Lu Yin felt his scalp go numb. Although he was much more powerful than when he had been journeying in the Starfall Sea, it was still a bit much for him to fight against such an old powerhouse. Against an Enlighter whose power level was above 400,000, or even an Imprinter, Lu Yin was able to use all sorts of methods to survive, but it was too difficult for him to win. Even now, the only Enlighter with a power level greater than 300,000 whom Lu Yin had actually killed himself was the Tong family’s Elder Song.

At that time, Elder Song had been the strongest person who Lu Yin could actually fight against. However, since then, he had become a Cruiser and also completed the First Sun. Thus, perhaps there was a chance that he could even fight against Enlighters whose power levels were higher than 400,000, but it was still unknown whether or not he could actually win, especially against a member of the Toolcasting family.

When he saw the hammer smash towards him, Lu Yin immediately moved to dodge, as he could not take this attack head on.

The hammer smashed the void apart, releasing a powerful ripple that swept out in all directions. Everything above and below the hammer was flooded by this strength, and Cang Mu was flung even further away while Elder Redmoon also hesitated for a moment. Vast waves could be seen on the surface of the lake.

In the distance, Ling Que could only feel his breathing be stifled, and he nearly choked.

Lu Yin felt a stifling feeling rise within his chest as well, and he looked up to see the elder swatting down at him with a single hand. Lu Yin gritted his teeth as he released his eight lined battle force and Fatesand while his pupils transformed into runes. He then used Truesight to directly weaken the elder’s attack while raising a hand to unleash One Hundred Stacks.

The elder’s gaze trembled; at that moment, he sensed his strength being weakened once again, which meant that he had not been wrong before.

With the rumbling of an explosion, the void tore open, and a fissure spread out in all directions.

The elder was thrown back a hundred meters by Lu Yin’s attack.

Under the suppression from the cosmic phenomenon, the elder’s power level could infinitely approach 200,000, and Lu Yin was no different. However, Lu Yin was able to use Truesight to reduce the elder’s runes by a bit, and correspondingly, his strength. This meant that the expert’s power level had dropped slightly, which determined the victor in an instant.

That was particularly true at this time, as Lu Yin was capable of removing far more rune lines than when he had last been in the Innerverse. He did not have much time to consider the implications of this improvement, but the situation was just as he had suspected: the Rune Progenitor had caused this cosmic phenomenon, which meant that the current Innerverse had become a testing ground for the inheritors of the Rune Technology civilization. Anyone who had managed to cultivate Truesight to the Clarity realm would gain an advantage over all others, even if they were facing off against an Imprinter.

However, the old man was still a terrifying existence with a power level that was higher than 400,000. Even if his attack had been weakened, it was not possible for Lu Yin to defeat the Augmenter.

An adult with an empty fist would still be able to suppress a knife-wielding child. The current fight between Lu Yin and the Augmenter contained the same principle, even if that adult was crippled with a dismembered arm.

“Sure enough, child, you’ve definitely comprehended a secret technique.” The old man was completely unharmed by Lu Yin’s attack, and he lifted the hammer up to once again pound down. This time, the Augmenter did not attack Lu Yin. Instead, he struck at the void.

The void distorted as waves of force rippled outwards and suppressed Lu Yin. It also affected Elder Redmoon who was trying to use her Moonlyre to complement her domain and influence all of the Sixth Mainland cultivators on the entire continent.

Lu Yin punched out, and the Daynight Punch appeared, causing the colors black and white to interchange as a spiritual force attack enveloped the area.

However, the attack was only able to stall the old man for a moment; the difference between the two was too much.

“Out of everyone from the younger generation whom I’ve seen, child, you’re second only to those few,” he expressed his admiration as he raised his hammer up high once again. The Augmenter’s star energy expanded nearly endlessly as it formed into the shape of a hammer high in the sky. Then, the hammer fell.

This attack was the most powerful one that the old man could display while being suppressed by the cosmic phenomenon. It covered the sky, the lake, and even the surrounding mountain range.

Numerous people rushed over from all over, including people from the Sixth Mainland as well as cultivators from the Innerverse and the Outerverse. At this moment, they all watched in astonishment as the giant sledgehammer covered the sky. This hammer would smash all of them to death!

Even Ling Que began to pray.

Suddenly, Elder Redmoon’s lyre music burst forth from the surface of the lake, and everyone heard an unprecedentedly explosive melody echo through the void. The sound caused the Augmenter’s body to waver, as his internal organs had borne the brunt of the attack.

Lu Yin’s pupils transformed into runes, and his lips moved slightly as he quickly eliminated the runes that he could see around the old man’s heart. The Augmenter’s expression suddenly changed, and in the next moment, an even more intense melody rang out, and the sound formed explosive notes that blasted at the Augmenter’s heart.

The old man spat out a mouthful of blood. Elder Redmoon was a powerhouse who was at his level, and as soon as she coordinated her attack with Lu Yin’s rune removal, the old man had been severely injured. He was even forced to abandon the hammer that he had wanted to use to smash everything.

Lu Yin stormed towards the elder and slapped out a palm. “Go die, you old fart!”

He was hoping to force the elder to use a power level of more than 200,000, as Lu Yin wanted to witness the extermination power of the cosmic phenomenon once again.

Elder Redmoon suddenly warned, “Be careful!”

The elder’s lips curled up even as blood flowed from his mouth, which made him seem exceptionally malevolent. “You people want to die.”

He then bent his right index finger as his knuckle smacked at Lu Yin’s palm. Even if he had been injured, he had not used any battle techniques this entire time, and his strength had also been reduced multiple times. This had allowed the old man to gain some understanding of Lu Yin’s ability to weaken his opponents. This attack of his was powerful enough to severely injure the youth, and it was based off of the premise that the old man’s strength would be weakened.

Someone who could cultivate to such a level would not be an idiot, and they would not repeatedly suffer from the short end of the stick against the same techniques.

But Lu Yin was no fool either; he still had—the Yu Secret Art.

He casually waved a hand and activated the Yu Secret Art. The old man’s attack was diverted and did not land on Lu Yin, but the youth’s palm landed on the older man’s chest, adding even more pressure atop the foundation that had been laid when Lu Yin had used Truesight to eliminate the rune lines around the elder’s heart. The Augmenter’s eyes narrowed, and he was unable to stop himself from spitting out a mouthful of blood as his body was flung into the ground like a meteor. The strength of the Hundred Stacks, Hundredfold Shockwave Palm had erupted within the man’s body.

Originally, the old man had been unafraid of Lu Yin’s attacks due to his physique as an Enlighter, but the man had first been severely injured by Elder Redmoon’s sonic attack before being forced to endure an attack of the Overlaying Stacks Path. This second strike had severely injured him even further, precisely because of the circumstances that had led to some of his rune lines being erased.

Lu Yin wanted to seize victory, and he continued to give chase, but at that moment, snow suddenly began to fall from the sky. The snow was white and very beautiful, but it was also quite deadly.

The surface of the lake was frozen in an instant.

The snowfall became even heavier, to the point where people were almost unable to see their hands in front of them.

Lu Yin turned to his right, where there was a man silently standing there while looking at Lu Yin with interest. “Are you one of the Fifth Mainland’s Ten Arbiters? Or are you from the Neoverse?”

Lu Yin’s gaze grew sharp. “And you are?”

The man’s lips curled up. “I am from the Sixth Mainland’s Bright Rainbow Realm—Skylake’s Young Master Changbai.”

Lu Yin grew solemn, as this person’s rune lines were right at the power level limit of 200,000. This indicated that this person’s true power level should be at the Enlighter level at the very least despite the man only being a Cruiser. For someone to be so young and yet have so much strength, the only possibility that Lu Yin could think of was the Realmlings.

“You’re a Realmling?” Lu Yin asked.

Young Master Changbai shook his head. “I am still unable to reach that level.”

Lu Yin instantly understood. Although this person had not quite reached the level of the Realmlings, he was definitely one of the few youths from the Sixth Mainland who approached the power of a Realmling. He clearly surpassed Autumnfrost Qing and Hong Ying in strength. This person should be about as strong as White Silkworm.

“You are able to fight against one of the Toolcasting family’s Fourth Stage Augmenters. That’s truly impressive. However, you still haven’t answered my question. Are you one of the Ten Arbiters? Or are you from the Neoverse?” Young Master Changbai asked.

“I’m from the Outerverse,” Lu Yin indifferently replied.

Young Master Changbai was blown away. “The Fifth Mainland’s Outerverse? There are actually experts like you in that place?”

At this time, Elder Redmoon’s music rang out once again, and the music formed rippling lines that blasted towards where the Fourth Stage Augmenter had fallen.

The old man coughed up more blood. He was not able to resist the attack as easily as before.

Elder Redmoon had been hiding her strength all along, just to take advantage of this crucial moment.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Young Master Changbai’s gaze trembled, as he was also responsible for protecting the resources being transported on the continent. There were countless geniuses from the Sixth Mainland’s nine realms fighting in the war against the Innerverse, and each one had their own tasks. Young Master Changbai’s responsibility at this time was to escort these resources to safety, and he could not allow anyone to disrupt the operation.

As he thought about his task, the snow in the area began to dance, and the temperature dropped once more. By now, even the void had begun freezing.

Lu Yin leaped down and raised a hand that was shrouded with eight lined battle force, causing a distant howl from an ancient beast to ring out. With his Skybeast Claw, Lu Yin did his best to put some pressure on Young Master Changbai.

Young Master Changbai was not confident in being able to deal with Lu Yin, as the Sixth Mainland youth knew that he would not have been a match for the Fourth Stage Augmenter himself. Lu Yin had been able to severely injure such a powerhouse, and although he had only succeeded by coordinating with Elder Redmoon, that accomplishment was not so simple. Young Master Changbai wanted to fight against Lu Yin, but had no plans of facing Lu Yin headon.

As he watched Lu Yin charge towards him, Young Master Changbai immediately dodged aside.

However, he had underestimated Lu Yin’s speed. Lu Yin’s physical strength could not compare to the Fourth Stage Augmenter’s, but Lu Yin’s physique was more than just a bit stronger than Young Master Changbai’s. Lu Yin was extremely fast, and he easily caught up to Young Master Changbai in an instant. Lu Yin’s star energy converged over his right palm. “First Sun.”

Young Master Changbai was shocked, and a flurry of snowflakes converged in front of him while the imprint of a beautiful figure appeared behind him.

The First Sun collided with the snowflakes. Although the snowflakes contained a deep chill that had been reinforced by an imprint and was cold enough to freeze normal Enlighters, it quickly melted against Lu Yin’s First Sun.

Lu Yin had absorbed the cauldron energy of one whole cauldron to complete the First Sun, and that completion had multiplied the technique’s strength many times over. For this attack, Lu Yin had gathered enough star energy to bolster the attack’s power level to approach 200,000. As a result, this attack was not something that Young Master Changbai could not endure, and he was forced to retreat back multiple steps. As the last of the snowflakes melted, Young Master Changbai’s palms moved together. “Skylake Snowpunch.”