Chapter 4550: The Way Of Grand Clarity

As Lu Yin followed the underground river, strange creatures would peer up at him from the riverbed from time to time.

Above him, countless bizarre bat-like creatures hung upside down, letting out eerie sounds that made one’s teeth ache.

Piles of white bones lined both sides.

If an ordinary person were present, they would surely be scared to death. Even ignoring the strange creatures, just the sight of Lu Yin was frightening enough. A skeleton rowing a boat was eerie just to think about.

Before long, the current carried the wooden boat into a vast, dark canyon. This location should be inside a massive mountain. The walls were so thick that they could hide entire stars, making it easy to imagine just how vast the place was.

Lu Yin continued to travel through the dark canyon. This place reminded him of the underground area of Thousand Machinations’ Abyss. The difference was that the former was filled with skeletons, whereas the latter had long been filled with water. There was very little land, along with some strange plants growing out from the water.

Lu Yin looked at the riverbed. A black shadow swam past, quickly moving away.

A casual wave of his hand caused the water to move away from the riverbed. Many of the aquatic creatures struggled in the muddy riverbed. Without the water, they could not move.

Lu Yin scanned the canyon, and his focus quickly locked onto a specific corner. He vanished from where he stood, and when he reappeared, he was already in that corner. He hovered in the air and looked down. His hand rose, and he pushed the mud aside, slowly exposing a bit of rock. It had been hidden beneath the water for an unknown length of time, but there were still some visible marks on its surface. They could only be vaguely made out, but it was clear to Lu Yin that this was a primal talisman.

He had found one.

Another casual wave of his hand caused the ground to sink down, and gradually, other bits of stone as well as cube-shaped boxes were revealed. They were primal talismans.

Lu Yin was excited. He had finally found them.

He looked at the primal talismans before him. Huh? No, something’s wrong. These ones are different from before.

They felt different from the primal talisman that Old Man Hehe had given him back then. It felt as if these ones had lost something.

Lu Yin opened one of the cube-shaped boxes. It was completely empty inside. There was nothing in it at all. He opened the other primal talismans as well, but all of them were empty.

These primal talismans had certainly never been opened before, so they should have contained sealed sourcebox arrays. Instead, all of them were gone.

Lu Yin looked at these primal talismans. Their Myriad Metal Qi had been devoured.

The reason why he had been sent to the Lepidarch Continent was to search for the remnants of the Grand Clarity Civilization, specifically their primal talismans. Primal talismans could seal sourcebox arrays because of what they were made from. This material was a key item that the Death Megaverse wanted to use to help conceal Ruinfall. Similarly, the Lepids of the Lepidarch Continent could consume that same material as a rich source of Myriad Metal Qi.

Lu Yin should have thought of this earlier. Since the Lepids could devour Myriad Metal Qi, why could they not devour the Myriad Metal Qi in these primal talismans? Every one of these was useless.

Useless was useless. It was not as if he could not complete his mission.

Lu Yin glanced at his surroundings. Evidence of primal talismans could be seen everywhere. This should be where the Grand Clarity Civilization had fought against the Lepidarch Continent. He examined the primal talismans one by one and finally focused on the one at the very center. This primal talisman was the deepest and the largest, and he discovered that all the other sealed sourcebox arrays had been placed around this one. He did not know what this sourcebox array might be used for.

As an Array Grandmaster, Lu Yin had never abandoned the path of lockbreaking. He excelled at both combat and lockbreaking.

He landed near the largest primal talisman and carefully studied it.

As he did so, the thick rock walls moved slightly. Pebbles fell into the mud of the exposed riverbed, but they did not draw Lu Yin’s attention. He was already immersed in studying the sourcebox array.

The Grand Clarity Civilization placed tremendous emphasis on lockbreaking, believing that lockbreaking was the key to unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos. Because of that, their focus on sourcebox arrays came second. Even so, they still stood supreme on the path of sourcebox arrays.

This sourcebox array captivated Lu Yin because it opened up another path for him. No matter if it was the Tianyuan, the Spirit Nidus, or even the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, the essence of studying sourcebox arrays was always the same. Even the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s method of carving in the void was based on sourcebox arrays. The essence of sourcebox arrays had not changed.

However, the Grand Clarity Civilization’s method of arranging sourcebox arrays changed that essence.

The Trio’s sourcebox arrays were founded on the idea that sourceboxes’ danger fields could be combined. Once one’s study of this path achieved adequate mastery, an array master could transform their own power into a danger field and then use that to create a sourcebox array. That alone was enough to make one an expert. For example, Grandmaster Gu Yan, Su Shidao, and several others could all do this.

However, the Grand Clarity Civilization’s sourcebox array was something that Lu Yin simply could not understand. It did not use something as simple as a sourcebox’s danger field. This array was actually based off of lockbreaking.

It was as though the lockbreaking was being performed within the sourcebox’s danger field, but in a manner that left behind traces. However, what was there to unlock within a sourcebox’s danger field? How was there supposed to be any lockbreaking?

The Grand Clarity Civilization valued lockbreaking above all else, but surely they would not perform lockbreaking while setting up a sourcebox array.

Lu Yin became completely immersed in the sourcebox array, to the point where he did not notice that more and more pebbles were falling from above.

A white skeleton kept circling the enormous stone that sat in the mud, occasionally stopping as if to study something before continuing onward.

In the deep, dark underground, the sound of falling stones could be heard from time to time.

At first, Lu Yin paid the sound no attention, but when a pebble struck his head, he snapped back to awareness and looked up. His first glance only saw a dark rock wall, but his second glance saw a Lepid’s wings.

A Lepid?

A flower appeared on the front of Lu Yin’s chest. As it appeared, Myriad Metal Qi stabbed down from above.

Lu Yin had not expected a Lepid to appear in this cavern, especially not an Immortal Lepid. This was the tenth Lepid that had been hiding all along. Had it actually been hiding in this place?

He evaded the Myriad Metal Qi, which stabbed into the ground. From beneath the rock walls of the cavern, a Lepid flew into the air. Just as Lu Yin was about to move, his chest received a heavy blow, and he was sent flying. He smashed into the cave wall, shattering the mountain as a tremendous power pushed him up and into outer space.

This Lepid was clearly far stronger than the ones that he had encountered before. This was a peak one-law Immortal.

As he flew through the air, Lu Yin felt his consciousness grow hazy.

Not good. His spiritual force was being absorbed.

Butterfly Bloom could absorb one type of power from whoever was marked. Previously, Lu Yin’s physical strength had been absorbed, but this time, it was his consciousness.

The moment he was blasted through the sky, the other Immortal Lepids noticed him and started moving towards him.

How unfortunate. He had actually run straight into the hidden Lepid.

Lu Yin steadied himself and charged back down. His chest received another heavy blow. This Lepid had not absorbed any of his physical strength, and yet the power of its attacks was even greater than the Lepids that had absorbed his strength. However, Lu Yin was prepared for the attacks this time, so he was not sent flying by a single blow.

Before his eyes, countless streams of energy stabbed at him. It was Myriad Metal Qi.

He reacted with the Yan Gate’s First Needle.

You absorbed my consciousness, so I will beat you until you’re braindead.

Streams of Myriad Metal Qi pierced through the void. Only one strand of energy flew in the opposite direction, aiming straight for the shattered mountain.

Lu Yin clenched a fist and threw a punch. His body was enduring the force of Bloomdance Transfer, but it only shook slightly. His fist struck what felt like a blade, yet it still immediately scattered the numerous streams of Myriad Metal Qi.

As that happened, the one strand of energy that had become the Yan Gate’s First Needle stabbed into the Lepid that had emerged from beneath the cave’s rock wall, and the impact caused it to freeze for an instant. Lu Yin seized that chance, descending with his hand stretched out to grab the Lepid’s wing. As soon as he made contact, he exerted a violent surge of power. The Lepid vanished.

Lu Yin was stunned, only for the Lepid to inexplicably appear on his right. What is going on?

It was at this time that the Lepid regained consciousness. It stared at Lu Yin in equal confusion, but it attacked without hesitation. Myriad Metal Qi shot straight forward, aimed at Lu Yin’s face. In the sky above, one Immortal Lepid after another appeared. They surrounded Lu Yin from every direction.

Facing the Lepid before him, Lu Yin ignored the Myriad Metal Qi and lashed out with a palm strike: Endless Recall. At the same time, countless stars of the Cosmic Art appeared and revolved around him before exploding.

It was the same scene as before, and Stillness filled the universe.

The Lepid froze for a second time. However, this time, Lu Yin did not seize the opening to attack. Instead, he moved beneath the shattered mountain and returned to the center of the sourcebox arrays that the Grand Clarity Civilization had left behind. Stillness circulated and poured into the only remaining sourcebox array.

While Lu Yin had only studied this sourcebox array for a short amount of time and was still unable to understand it, his expertise as a Lockbreaker meant that he had no problem activating the array. After all, this one sourcebox array had been preserved intact.

Using Stillness as the sourcebox’s danger field, he would be able to see exactly what secrets this Grand Clarity sourcebox array contained.

Beams of black light shot straight into the sky, piercing the black Stillness. Lu Yin stood among the shattered rocks and peered up. One Lepid after another flew about, and countless streams of Myriad Metal Qi descended upon him.

Two more flowers appeared on his body. He trembled. At this moment, he was continuously being attacked through all three flowers. His consciousness and physical strength were both being continuously drained away and absorbed.

Suddenly, the Stillness filling the sourcebox array changed. It was as though it was being controlled. The same Stillness was then stripped away, layer by layer.

Lu Yin watched. So that’s it.

He understood. It was no wonder why there were traces of lockbreaking within the sourcebox’s danger field. It was because lockbreaking was the true danger field of this sourcebox.

The Grand Clarity Civilization had taken a bizarre and unorthodox path with their sourcebox arrays. Through lockbreaking, they continuously released a sourcebox’s danger field, layer by layer. Each layer of danger would combine to form a sourcebox array. Once that danger field was unlocked, a new danger field would emerge, forming a new combination. A single sourcebox’s danger field could be unlocked multiple times, and each time, a different combination would appear. Calculated this way, a single sourcebox array could have many possible configurations. In other words, while it was only one sourcebox array, it could contain two, three, five, or even more sourcebox arrays within it.

Genius. Absolute genius. He did not know who had first thought of this method, but no one in the Human Trio had ever considered it.

Lu Yin also would have never been able to think of such a possibility if he had not forcibly activated this sourcebox array. If not for his own mastery in the field, he would have never understood it.

This method was simple once it was understood, but if one could not understand it, they would never be able to make sense of what they were seeing.

Of course, this so-called simplicity only meant that the method could be understood. Actually setting it up was an extraordinary feat. Not only did it require an extremely profound mastery of sourcebox arrays, but they also needed to integrate lockbreaking into the sourcebox array itself, seal away a sourcebox’s danger field as if it were a sourcebox, and then use the danger fields of other sourceboxes as triggers to release it layer by layer.

It was complicated just to think about.

In Lu Yin’s eyes, the Grand Clarity Civilization’s sourcebox array was like a blooming lotus, constantly unfolding as it released its own radiance.

In the sky above, the Lepids hurriedly moved away.

The Lepid that had just attacked Lu Yin let out an even more shrill scream. It recognized this sourcebox array. The Lepids had once waged war against Grand Clarity, and this sourcebox array had been used at that time.

The Lepid could have avoided the array, but it did not do so. Instead, it rushed into the array to charge at Lu Yin and kill him.

Lu Yin was surprised. It still dares to come after me?