Back then, Xia Yuan had been casually tossed into Mount Supreme, and he only remembered now.
Xia Yuan looked around blankly, and his attention was immediately drawn to the Hellwyrm's enormous body. His legs went weak, and he almost fell over. "Hellwyrm?"
Lu Yin looked up and stared at him.
The Hellwyrm roared, baring its fangs and claws.
Xia Yuan was paralyzed with fear and fell to the ground. As an Emissary, he shouldn't have been so cowardly, but he had grown up in Shenwu Plane, and the Hellwyrm was like the sky to every member of the Xia family. Although it was an imprisoned sky, if it was revived one day, the impact on the Xia family would be unimaginable.
Even Xia Ziheng was terrified, let alone Xia Yuan. After the Hellwyrm had been released, he hadn't dared to say a single word. He hadn't even dared to approach Lu Yin's group when they were escaping from the Central Realm.
The Hellwyrm was too much of a threat to the Xia family.
"Xia Yuan," Lu Yin barked.
Xia Yuan slowly turned around and looked at Lu Yin. "You- you are?"
He felt that Lu Yin looked familiar.
At this moment, Lu Yin wasn't using Yu Hao's appearance; he was using his original appearance, so Xia Yuan couldn't immediately recognize him.
Lu Yin pointed at Xia Shenji's clone. "See if you recognize him."
Xia Yuan looked down and saw Xia Shenji sprawled on the ground. His eyes narrowed, and he blurted out, "Ancestor?"
Xia Shenji's expression changed, and he was about to speak.
Lu Yin grabbed Xia Yuan and appeared beneath the Hellwyrm. Above his head, the Hellwyrm's sharp jaws slowly descended. Xia Yuan was terrified to the extreme, and he couldn't react at all. All he could think of was Xia Shenji's face and his miserable appearance on the ground.
Why was this happening?
How could the Ancestor be like this?
Impossible! It's fake! It's all fake!
With a roar, the Hellwyrm raised its claws and bared its fangs.
Xia Yuan was given another fright, and he looked up at the Hellwyrm in shock. He was completely stunned.
"I'll ask, and you'll answer. Otherwise, you'll end up like Xia Shenji," Lu Yin said slowly.
Only then did Xia Yuan react, and he looked at Lu Yin. "I remember now. You're Lu Xiaoxuan."
Lu Yin stared at him coldly. "Where is the Nine Clones Technique?"
Xia Yuan met Lu Yin's gaze, but he didn't say anything. His eyes were filled with confusion and fear. He looked at Xia Shenji in the distance and saw the fury and shock in his eyes.
"I'll ask you one more time. Where is the Nine Clones Technique? If you don't tell me, I'll throw you into the mouth of the Caged Wyrm. It likes to eat people from the Xia family," Lu Yin said slowly.
Xia Yuan despaired. "Why? Why is the patriarch like this?"
Lu Yin frowned, grabbed Xia Yuan, and appeared in front of the Caged Wyrm. The Caged Wyrm's eyes looked straight ahead, forming a cross-eyed expression as it stared at Lu Yin and Xia Yuan. It couldn't understand what the two were trying to do, and Xia Yuan's face instantly paled when he saw the Caged Wyrm's huge eyes.
"Nine clones, the Nine Clones technique is on the Prison Dragon's head, I've heard of it before!" Xia Yuan shouted anxiously.
"I know that, but where exactly is it?"
Lu Yin asked. Xia Yuan had been on the verge of collapse after seeing the Caged Wyrm and Xia Shenji, and now that he was frightened by Lu Yin, he naturally told him everything.
Xia Yuan shook his head. "I don't know, I didn't learn the Nine Clones Technique. It's something only direct descendants can learn, but I heard that you have to look down from a very high place. It's engraved on the head."
Lu Yin's eyes lit up, and he put Xia Yuan back into Mount Supreme before leaping up and looking down at the Caged Wyrm. "Lower your head and don't flip over. Just lie there."
The Caged Wyrm's head lay on the ground as if it had been wronged, but its eyes kept rolling.
Lu Yin rose higher and higher, and the Caged Wyrm's head became more complete. Gradually, he realized that something was wrong. There was a change in color above the Caged Wyrm's mouth, and the higher he went, the more obvious the change became. On the other hand, the closer he descended, the less obvious the change was.
Lu Yin's eyes flashed, and he locked onto that location. He descended and appeared beside the spot where the color had changed.
The Caged Wyrm stared at the corner of its mouth and grunted, clearly unhappy.
Lu Yin looked at it. "What, does this position make you uncomfortable?"
The Caged Wyrm's eyes turned elsewhere.
Lu Yin thought about it for a moment, then squatted down and pressed his hand on the spot. In that instant, his mind went into a trance, and the scales that should have been the same color suddenly turned blood-red. He looked up and vaguely saw a drop of blood fall from the void and land on the spot. Then, all sorts of images appeared in his mind. They were of people and sets of people.
Their movements sometimes separated and sometimes overlapped. When they separated, Lu Yin saw that there was an invisible connection between each person, and when they overlapped, he saw the changes in the body of the only person.
His mind buzzed, and a power suddenly appeared in his heart. Sirius descended, and he took several steps back. His hand had been torn apart at some point, revealing white bones that stung his nerves.
This was a clash of bloodlines. Lu Yin looked at his palm. He had found the Nine Clones Technique, but his bloodlines were in conflict. It did not mean that the Xia family's bloodline was required to cultivate the technique, but rather that the bloodline in this area was suppressing him. If not for the powerful power in his heart, his body would have been torn apart.
This suppressive power had nothing to do with one's cultivation, and even a Half-Ancestor would be instantly torn apart. It all depended on whether or not one could resolve this suppressive power.
The power in his heart was a fusion of ten thousand changes. Even the Sixth Mainland's Sanlan's power, which was comparable to the Lu family's bloodline, could be resolved, let alone the Xia family's bloodline.
Lu Yin looked at the scales beneath his feet that were no different from the others, and he knew that this was the Nine Clones Technique that he had always dreamed of. Now, he just needed to suppress this bloodline's suppressive power.
He could use the power in his heart to suppress it, but he could not cultivate it himself. It seemed that he still needed Progenitor Chen's bloodline.
Lu Yin left the Caged Wyrm's head and arrived in front of Elder Chan and the others. He smiled. "Looks like you've all been waiting for me."
Elder Chan smiled wryly. "What's going on here?"
Lu Yin gave a simple explanation of what had happened in the Cosmic Tree Realm.
He spoke casually, but to Elder Chan and the others, it sounded inconceivable. It even sounded like a fantasy story.
"You captured the Four Cardinal Scales Sect Master, stirred up chaos in the Top Realm, forced your way into Shenwu Plane, subdued the Caged Wyrm, and even fought against Xia Shenji. None of these are things that we can do. You're only at the third stage of Origin Tribulation, but you were able to do all of this. It's unbelievable."
He had lived since the era of the Daosource Sect, so what had he not seen?
He had even witnessed the scene of the Mother Tree being moved away. Even so, Lu Yin's actions had still shocked him to the core.
Elder Gong was constantly rejoicing that Lu Yin had not died, or else his feet would have been crushed.
Elder Chan's foot would have been gone.
Celestial Master Xiu Mingshi was more concerned about the lockbreaking aspect. "Celestial Master Gu Yan is the number one Celestial Master in the Cosmic Tree Realm?
How many Origin Celestial Masters are there? "
Lu Yin replied, "Four. This Celestial Master Gu Yan is the number one Celestial Master. He has a strange temper and doesn't like the Four Cardinal Scales, but the Four Cardinal Scales can't do anything to him."
Celestial Master Xiu Mingshi smiled. "If he can become the number one Celestial Master in the Cosmic Tree Realm, his lockbreaking cultivation must be shocking. No matter how stupid the Four Cardinal Scales are, he wouldn't dare offend such a person. It's normal for you to play around with him as his disciple. By the way …" He paused and looked at Lu Yin strangely. "You've become a Realmplain Array Master?"
Lu Yin nodded.
Celestial Master Xiu Mingshi sighed. "I thought that it would be difficult for you to improve even though you were talented in lockbreaking. I didn't think that I'd underestimated your talent. Come to my place when you have time, and we can play a game of chess."
That was exactly what Lu Yin wanted, as lockbreaking would become more and more useful the further one progressed. Ancestor Hui's own power level did not matter, but he had created a limitless power sourcebox array that had protected humanity for countless years. This was an achievement that no one could compare to. There might be a limit to a person's strength, but a sourcebox array could turn something rotten into something miraculous. It could do things that powerhouses could not.
Lu Yin knew that he had the die's Enhance, and he could cultivate like a cheat. When he fused with Celestial Master Xiu Mingshi, Mu Shang, and Celestial Master Gu Yan, he might be able to become the number one Celestial Master of this era. He longed to be like Ancestor Hui, who had created a sourcebox array that would benefit the future generations.
However, fusing with Enhance was still a method, and he still needed to familiarize himself with it. Playing chess with Celestial Master Xiu Mingshi was the best choice.
Qing Ping left, and Lu Yin had successfully broken through to Half-Ancestor. The Fifth Mainland had gained another Half-Ancestor, and one who believed that he was invincible within the same realm.
Kui Luo left as well, as the old man had his own place to go. Lu Yin guessed that Kui Luo was probably fishing. When he thought about fishing, Lu Yin thought of the Astral River. It was only in the Cosmic Tree that he had learned that the Astral River flowed around the Mother Tree, and the pyrolyte was formed from the Mother Tree's decaying roots. It was also known as the Mother Soil. There was not much pyrolyte left in the Cosmic Tree, but there was plenty in the Astral River. He would have to find some time to dig it up.
Lu Yin looked back at the sourcebox array. He had not even completed half of his goal in this trip to the Cosmic Tree, but he had already alarmed the Four Scales. Now, he would have to face them head-on.
He wanted to see how the Four Scales would deal with him.
Liu Shaoge was left behind in Shenwu Plane, and his fate would depend on his own luck. However, it should not be too bad. Lu Yin had not even asked Liu Shaoge, so it was obvious that he had abandoned him. Anyone in Shenwu Plane who was not stupid would have realized this. Someone who had been abandoned by Lu Yin might be useful to them.
However, Liu Shaoge would not be able to escape from Lu Yin's grasp unless he removed the Death God's Seal.
Also, Tong Yu had been left behind in the Cosmic Tree. Lu Yin had not abandoned her, but rather had not had the time to take her away.
Bai Teng and Wang Zheng were still in Mount Supreme, as well as the people he had captured earlier. These people were all bargaining chips that Lu Yin needed to negotiate with the Four Scales.
The most unfortunate thing was the mirror. He had lost the Fog Ancestor's mirror, and he did not know how to get it back. When he had faced Xia Shenji, his thoughts had been in a mess, and he had not thought about it. Now that he thought about it, he wondered if the Fog Ancestor would blame him. Would the Four Scales hide the mirror?
With that thought in mind, Lu Yin grabbed Xia Shenji and rode the Hellwyrm towards the Outerverse.
Lu Yin himself did not dare to believe that he would one day be able to capture and ride a Progenitor. Progenitors were the peak of human cultivation.
…