Star Odyssey

Chapter 2298: What Makes A Progenitor?

Progenitor Smoke stared hard at Xia Shenji for a long moment. "When the Lu family was at its peak, humanity was able to launch counter attacks. Now? I’ve learned about the present universe, and if not for that Ceaseless Impetus sourcebox array that Hui Wen left on the rear battlefield, things would already have ended long ago. Even with that, his grand sourcebox array itself has become the battlefield, as the Aeternals have taken complete control of the New World. How would such things have been allowed if the Lu family were still around?"

"So, are you determined to help Lu Xiaoxuan?" Xia Shenji shrugged. "Whether we were right or wrong to banish the Lu family, the fact remains that it has already been done, and the Lu family will never return. Will Lu Xiaoxuan abandon his hatred? Will he live in peace with us? If not, he is the greatest threat facing humanity. If it wasn’t for the Aeternals interfering, Lu Xiaoxuan would have already died on Dragon Mountain. Why did Aeternus step in at that time? It’s because they want him alive! They want Lu Xiaoxuan to weaken humanity. As long as he lives, only the Aeternals will reap the benefits."

Progenitor Smoke frowned.

"What’s all this irrelevant crap you’re spouting? Good dogs behave and don’t stand in the way." Lu Yin spoke up in a stern tone while holding the enormous saber and leaning around the jiao’s shoulder to look at Xia Shenji. The young man’s eyes were full of aggression and hatred.

Xia Shenji looked over at Lu Yin. "We meet again, Xiaoxuan."

Lu Yin glared at Xia Shenji. "Are you here to catch up on old times? Sorry, but I don't remember them."

Xia Shenji responded with a small smile. "There's no need to reminisce about the past, as all that used to be has already been erased. Even if it wasn’t done cleanly before, it will be now."

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. "Go ahead and try it!"

The broken saber was pointed back at the jiao’s head, causing the beast’s heart to tremble. "Get him!"

The jiao instantly reached out for Xia Shenji.

The Progenitor frowned. "How did you manage to draw the broken saber of my Xia family’s ancestor?"

As he spoke, he casually evaded the claws. He was clearly much more relaxed about facing the jiao than Progenitor Smoke had been.

"Figure it out for yourself!" Lu Yin was not interested in a fight against Xia Shenji. Progenitor Smoke still had not regained her full strength, while the jiao was basically an idiot. Even by working together, the two would likely not be able to fight against Xia Shenji. Lu Yin’s only goal was to escape as quickly as possible.

Progenitor Smoke also took action. She worked together with the jiao to force Xia Shenji back and open up a path.

Upon seeing that Xia Shenji was retreating and not fighting back against the jiao and Progenitor Smoke, Lu Yin quickly ordered the jiao to escape.

The jiao’s body twisted, and it instantly disappeared, shooting into the Middle Realm from the Higher Realm at an incredible speed. However, it left Lu Yin behind.

The jiao’s sudden disappearance left both Lu Yin and Progenitor Smoke feeling confused. Why had they been left behind?

Abruptly, the broken saber that Lu Yin held dropped to the ground, as though some mysterious force had caused Lu Yin to let go. Lu Yin could not understand what had happened.

In front of Lu Yin, Xia Shenji looked up, his eyes unbelievably cold as he stared at Lu Yin. “Things should have been properly cleaned up long ago.”

He then raised a hand and pointed a finger. An indescribable coldness enveloped Lu Yin’s entire body, and he felt as though he were standing before endless blades. It was just a finger, yet it felt like the most terrifying blade in the entire world.

That one blade was headed for Lu Yin.

Progenitor Smoke's expression changed drastically, and she instantly moved to stand in front of Lu Yin. A single strike from Xia Shenji’s finger instantly destroyed half of Progenitor Smoke's body, causing her strength to rapidly dissipate.

"Run!" A bit of fog wrapped around Lu Yin and tried to fling him away.

Xia Shenji shook his head. "It's useless, Xi Wei. Out of all of us, you were always one of the few to not excel in combat. You don’t even have your full strength, so how do you expect to save him?"

The blade that was his finger grew increasingly sharp, and then it pierced Progenitor Smoke's body and continued on to stab Lu Yin as well. "Just one finger is enough."

What was a Progenitor? It was a question that Lu Yin had considered countless times in the past. It was a question that countless people throughout the universe contemplated. Progenitors were the pinnacle of human cultivation. They were a level of life that defied understanding.

Over the years, Lu Yin had interacted with several Progenitors before, but Xia Shenji was clearly on a completely different level from the Progenitors that Lu Yin had interacted with before. This man possessed an absolute and oppressive power. He had used some unknown method to hold Lu Yin and Progenitor Smoke back when the jiao had fled, and then he had used a single finger to stab through Progenitor Smoke, who was capable of wielding a level of power that seemed to be at the very cusp of the Progenitor realm at the very least. It was clear that this finger was not something that Lu Yin could withstand.

Lu Yin was able to use various methods to cross realms and fight against Semi-Progenitors, and he had even fought off several Semi-Progenitors on his own. But against Xia Shenji's single finger, there was nothing he could do.

Xia Shenji had arrived alone in the Higher Realm in order to erase the past. This was because he was more than enough, even on his own.

Lu Yin could clearly see Xia Shenji’s finger approach him. The Progenitor was far away from Lu Yin, but the finger pierced through space, and to Lu Yin’s perspective, the finger crushed everything as it drew closer.

It was just a single finger, yet Lu Yin was facing the power of an expert at the level of one of the masters of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas.

Xia Shenji was completely confident. He had seen everything after Lu Yin arrived in Shenwu's Sky, and as far as a Progenitor was concerned, even Lu Yin’s ability to face off against four Semi-Progenitors was nothing more than a trick. The youth was no match for Xia Shenji’s finger.

Lu Yin knew that he himself could do nothing, so he pulled out a corpse. It was the corpse that he had found in Burial Garden, and he placed it in front of himself.

Xia Shenji’s finger struck the corpse between its eyebrows, but nothing happened.

Progenitor Smoke blinked and stared in a daze.

Xia Shenji stared at the corpse in astonishment, also apparently stunned.

Lu Yin stayed hidden behind the corpse as he pulled out the slipper and tossed it over to Progenitor Smoke. "Senior, slap him."

Progenitor Smoke reflexively took the slipper, as she was still dazed. There were no thoughts in her mind about attacking Xia Shenji, as her mind was instead entirely on the corpse. What the hell was it? How could a corpse block Xia Shenji's finger?

Who would ever have imagined that a mere corpse would be capable of blocking Xia Shenji's finger? The results had exceeded even Lu Yin’s expectations. He had simply wanted to create an opening to escape with the corpse. He felt that the corpse could likely create a brief opening, but he was shocked to see it completely stop Xia Shenji's finger. On top of that, based on the outcome, it seemed like the corpse was capable of blocking far more than a single finger.

Xia Shenji just stared at the corpse, examining the face of the departed, but he did not recognize the person. Why was this corpse able to stop his attack? Clearly, it was the corpse of a Progenitor, but it would be impossible for even Bai Wangyuan’s corpse to block Xia Shenji in such a manner.

Lu Yin hid behind the corpse and peaked out at Xia Shenji. Seeing the man still in a daze, Lu Yin called out again, "Senior, attack him!"

Progenitor Smoke moved the slipper and smacked Xia Shenji with it.

Xia Shenji frowned and stepped forward as another person appeared as well. This second figure was also Xia Shenji, and one of the two went straight for Progenitor Smoke while the other instantly appeared next to Lu Yin. The fact that Lu Yin had managed to block one of Xia Shenji’s attacks had to be a fluke, but it did not matter. Xia Shenji would treat his next attack more seriously, and no one beneath the Progenitor realm could stop this attack.

Lu Yin had forgotten about the fact that Xia Shenji also had the Nine Clones Secret Technique. Even if not all of the man’s clones had reached the Progenitor realm, even Semi-Progenitor clones were more than Lu Yin could hope to deal with.

After all, Xia Shenji had been exceptionally powerful even when he had been a Semi-Progenitor.

Progenitor Smoke whirled around and slapped one clone with the slipper, but at the same time, the other clone was already attacking Lu Yin.

Lu Yin hoped to be able to use the corpse again to block the attack, but it was impossible. Forget a corpse—even if Lu Yin could wield the sky itself as a shield, it would still be impossible for him to block Xia Shenji’s attack.

"Stop!" Progenitor Smoke screamed.

Xia Shenji reached around the corpse and grabbed for Lu Yin.

Lu Yin gritted his teeth and instantly tapped the die as he stared at Xia Shenji's approaching hand.

Just as the hand was about to make contact, the die stopped spinning. Four pips: Timestop. Lu Yin's expression changed as he instantly disappeared.

He arrived in his Timestop Space, gasping for air. He felt incredibly lucky that he had instantly rolled a four, as any other result would have forced him to use the God of Death’s left arm to try to force Xia Shenji’s clone back. After all, only a clone had been sent to deal with Lu Yin. It would be impossible to force back Xia Shenji’s true body with nothing more than the God of Death’s left arm.

Lu Yin checked the countdown. He could extend his time to nearly a year, but he would eventually have to leave. The only thing he needed to do here was return to his peak condition.

Thinking about this, he closed his eyes.

Soon, Lu Yin’s time was up, and the scenery around him changed as he reappeared in his original position.

Regardless of how much time Lu Yin spent in his Timestop Space, the rest of the universe only experienced the passage of a single moment. That moment was more than enough time for Xia Shenji’s clone to capture Lu Yin, but Lu Yin had reappeared with his needle-like weapon in his hand, poised to attack.

The long needle pierced Xia Shenji's hand, which the man found truly unbelievable.

In fact, when Progenitor Smoke saw what had happened, she had the exact same reaction.

Even if Xia Shenji's clone was not itself a Progenitor, it was at the very cusp of that level, and yet Lu Yin had managed to injure the clone. This was more startling than when Lu Yin had faced four Semi-Progenitors on his own.

However, it was not his wounded hand that shocked Xia Shenji the most. "The power of time! You actually controlled the power of time, even if it was only for a second!"

Progenitor Smoke had seen the same thing.

After all, Lu Yin had rolled his die right in front of both ancient powerhouses, and he had not expected to hide it from them. He lifted a foot and fled with Inverse Step. Xia Shenji’s clone could not catch up.

"Inverse Step?" Yet again, Lu Yin surprised Xia Shenji.

Lu Yin frowned. This man was able to see the truth of everything Lu Yin did. Inverse Step was a technique that Progenitor Chen had personally used, and Xia Shenji was from the same era, so it made sense for him to recognize the movement technique.

Xia Shenji's clone looked down at his palm where he had been stabbed by the needle-like weapon. Blood dripped from the wounded hand.

"I have truly underestimated you, Lu Xiaoxuan." Xia Shenji sighed as he looked back up at Lu Yin. "It really is a pity. If the Lu family had not been exiled, with your talent, you would have absolutely become a Progenitor."

As the man spoke, the clone disappeared.

The Nine Clones Secret Technique was terrifying to many people because the possibility of facing multiple clones created a difficult battle, and most people could not handle such a situation. Lu Yin had it even worse. It was likely that all of Xia Shenji’s clones were Semi-Progenitors, but Lu Yin believed that at least one clone had to have reached the Progenitor realm.

The fact that Xia Shenji did not even feel the need to use another clone was far more threatening to Lu Yin, as it proved that the Progenitor was not treating him seriously.

There was a roar. The jiao had returned. It had realized that there was nothing above its head, not even the broken saber that it desired most of all. It needed to find that broken blade.

As soon as he heard the jiao’s roar, Lu Yin's first reaction was to think of the broken saber. Where had it gone?

He looked down, and quickly saw that the broken blade had stabbed into the ground near a mountain and was actually blocking a river.

Lu Yin dropped down, hoping to grab the weapon.

Progenitor Smoke was still wielding the slipper, swinging it at Xia Shenji. As long as she could land a single hit, it would daze the man, which would give them the opportunity to escape.

Behind Xia Shenji was the edge of the Higher Realm, as well as the enormous form of the roaring dragon. The beast acted like a backdrop for the Progenitor.

Xia Shenji appeared perfectly calm. "You seem to have forgotten—what makes a Progenitor."

This question caused Progenitor Smoke's expression to instantly change.

"Xi Wei, look at my Progenitor’s world. How does it compare to the one that you remember?"

With that, the entire world trembled, and every living creature felt its heart stop at that moment. Then, the world broke apart.

Lu Yin instantly froze, and he looked up at the sky in horror before glancing around in every direction. He saw how space was peeling away and how the void was forming blades. The very air was forming chains. Everything in existence was transforming. The entire Higher Realm—no, the entire Perennial World had been replaced with another world.