"Morning, what do you think of the scenery here?" Trickster asked as he led Lu Yin around.
"It's different from Delight City. It doesn't look like a place where creatures from the Death Universe live."
"How do you feel?"
"Not bad."
"Pick a place for your grave."
Lu Yin was startled and looked at Trickster's back warily, not saying anything for a moment.
Acting of a Thousand Trickeries turned around and smiled at him. "If you want to reach the limit of your potential, you have to pay a price. You have to be close to death, or even the price of death. If you fail, you will really die. So, choose a place that you like.
Lu Yin stared blankly at Trickster, "Is it very dangerous?"
Trickster thought about it, "Very dangerous."
"Can I refuse?"
"Yes."
Trickster's reply was straightforward, "I'll send you to the Ancestral Butterfly Continent and collect everything you can about the Taiqing Civilization. You can also eradicate that civilization while you're at it."
The Ancestral Butterfly Continent was the fishing civilization nearby.
If Trickster sent him there now, it would be the same as sending him to his death. Even Lu Yin's main body couldn't destroy a fishing civilization when he was a rogue, let alone a skeleton avatar.
Lu Yin fell silent for a while.
The Thousand Trickeries didn't rush him either. He just looked at the world leisurely.
"I'll have to trouble you, Senior." Lu Yin bowed deeply to Trickster.
Trickster asked, "Are you going to the Ancestral Butterfly Continent or increasing your potential?"
"Increasing my potential."
Lu Yin didn't hesitate any longer. Cultivation wasn't always smooth sailing, and this avatar was already on the brink of death. He'd already died once, so he could just try again. He'd hesitated because he was worried that Trickster would plot against him, but this worry was unnecessary.
With Trickster's strength, killing him would be as easy as flipping a hand. There was no need to plot against him at all. It could only be said that his years of cultivation had made him overly vigilant and subconsciously worried.
This worry was meaningless.
Thousand Trickery raised his hand and pointed at the sky. "Choose a place."
Lu Yin calmly replied, "Here."
"So casual?"
"It's up to fate."
Trickster grinned, "Stand still." He then retreated step by step.
Lu Yin looked at him in confusion.
It was still retreating, but at that moment, a shadow loomed over his head. Lu Yin looked up and saw a huge black sphere slowly descending towards him. Its surface was smooth and glossy.
As the black ball approached, the wind was still the same. Nothing had changed, but that was what made it so terrifying.
Any existence would cause a commotion when they made a move, yet he was unable to detect the sudden appearance of such a large black sphere. This in itself was a problem. Furthermore, this black sphere definitely contained an extremely terrifying power. This was the feeling he had when he first saw it. However, as he stared at it, that feeling actually disappeared.
What a huge gap.
He looked deeply at the Thousand Trickeries.
Thousand Trickery's voice rang out, "It's rare to find a good material, don't die."
As soon as he finished speaking, the black sphere suddenly descended and pressed down on Lu Yin. In that instant, Lu Yin felt the sky darken, followed by a terrifying deathly stillness. It was bone-chilling, and it felt like it was stripping away all of his senses. His entire body floated up into the air, but he still stood where he was and did not move.
It was as if his soul was floating and leaving his body.
Not far away, Thousand Trickeries watched calmly.
This black sphere was the boundless deathly stillness that it had condensed using the Three Deaths Technique.
The power condensed towards the center in the same manner as the Three Deaths Technique, forming this sphere.
Although it was just a black sphere with a diameter of a few dozen meters, it contained more deathly stillness than the entire Thousand Trickeries Abyss.
It was using the Three Deaths Technique to compress Lu Yin, causing him to collapse and even die.
Every time Lu Yin was on the verge of death, the black sphere would completely shrink. When it shrank to the size of the lifeform within, the sphere would expand if it was still alive, but if it was dead, it would shrink back into the Three Deaths Technique and become a black dot.
In the past, many lifeforms from the Death Universe had died here of their own volition. Those that did not die had all reached the limits of their potential.
Le Gujin had experienced this before.
Sixth Toad had experienced it as well.
Most of the strongest lifeforms in the Death Universe had experienced it before.
When they reached the limits of their potential, both their strength and their ability to absorb the deathly stillness would increase. How much increased depended on the individual.
However, there was a pattern to this countless times.
When a normal lifeform was on the verge of death, the black sphere would shrink and expand about five times. After five times, if they had reached the limits of their potential, they would naturally sense it and walk out. If they wanted to continue, they would definitely die. However, the black sphere's deathly stillness did not decrease in the slightest. Potential was like a spring; it could be buffered, but once it reached its limit, there would be no buffering, and the pressure would directly shatter the body.
Thus, no lifeform would continue after reaching the limits of their potential. That would be courting death, and it would be meaningless.
Lifeforms with outstanding innate gifts could go through about seven times.
Some powerhouses would go through even more, such as Le Gujin, who had gone through eleven times.
Old Toad Six Classics
After going through fifteen times, his potential had surpassed Le Gujin's.
In the past, he had seen the greatest potential go through more than twenty times. That was very shocking, as it meant that the lifeform's potential was incomparably great.
He was very curious as to how many times Lu Yin would go through.
An icy pressure came from all directions, and Lu Yin's entire body was immersed in the Three Deaths Technique. His bones creaked as death drew closer and closer to him.
This was true death, and he felt his bones unable to withstand it. His consciousness was blurring, and he felt like a drowning person desperately trying to grab onto something. He felt like he could not breathe, and the suffocating pressure was about to crush him.
Was he really going to die?
The world was dark, and there was no light. There was only that terrifying deathly stillness. It had been so familiar, but now, it felt so foreign.
This was the deathly stillness of the Thousand Trickery Trickery, and it was different from anything he had encountered before. Even the Life and Death Palm and Le Gujin's deathly stillness had not given him such a feeling.
It was as if life was evolving within the deathly stillness.
This life force could not be seen or touched, and it was getting further and further away from him. However, that strand of life force was definitely there.
What was this feeling?
What was he thinking?
In the eyes of the Thousand Trickery Trickery, the black sphere was shrinking towards Lu Yin's skeletal body.
Lu Yin's consciousness was becoming more and more blurry, and this was the feeling of approaching death. However, he suddenly moved.
In the outside world, Actor of a Thousand Trickery was shocked, and he stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. He moved! This guy just moved! That's impossible! How could he move?
The black sphere didn't use the power of deathly stillness to suppress the creatures inside, making them unable to move. Instead, it used the power of deathly stillness to wipe out the creatures, truly suppressing the creatures to the point where they couldn't move.
What moved was not the power of silence, but the arrival of death.
After all, when a person died, how could he still move?
This was common knowledge in the Thousand Trickeries.
But at that moment, Lu Yin moved. Damn it, he actually moved! It was as if a dead man was moving! This was impossible!
Trickster glared at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin moved again, turning his head to look at both sides.
Trickster rubbed his eyes and scratched his head. How could this be?
Lu Yin didn't know why he was feeling this way. The feeling of being on the brink of death should have been one of despair, but he was very familiar with it. Right, he suddenly remembered that he had experienced death before, and not just once, but many times.
His die's Enhance had entered the bodies of too many creatures. Some of them had directly committed suicide under his control, while others had sought death. Either way, they had died.
There was even a time when he used Enhance to specifically experience the feeling of death to increase the death energy in his Arcane Art of Life and Death.
So, this kind of death wasn't unfamiliar to him?
Yes, it wasn't unfamiliar to him. That was why he was very conscious.
What should he do?
How could he experience death when he was so conscious?
How could he reach the limits of his potential?
This method didn't work on him.
He was a little confused.
Actor of a Thousand Trickeries was also confused. What was going on?
He couldn't figure it out.
He thought about how he had confidently asked Lu Yin to choose a grave, but now he felt like he had slapped himself in the face.
Watching Lu Yin's white bones move in the black sphere, Actor of a Thousand Trickeries lost his composure. This had never happened before. He was dead, but he wasn't given the Bone Language. He was truly dead. How could he move when he was dead?
Since he could move, it meant that he was conscious, but his body shouldn't be able to hold on.
When the skeleton withered, even powerful Eternal Realm experts like Sixth Toad would die. Those who weren't Eternal Realm experts wouldn't be able to withstand it.
His body couldn't hold on, but could his consciousness?
Actor of a Thousand Trickeries arrived in front of the black sphere.
Inside the black sphere, Lu Yin was also looking at it, as if they were looking at each other.
The black sphere had already condensed outside of Lu Yin's body, which meant that Lu Yin's white bone clone was on the verge of death. However, it quickly expanded again.
Actor of a Thousand Trickeries looked at it deeply. The process of condensing and expanding was the same as other creatures, but what was the difference between the two?
He couldn't figure it out either, but this was really interesting. This experimental material was really interesting.
Lu Yin looked at Actor of a Thousand Trickeries and retreated step by step. His body was getting lighter and lighter. Although he could move a little, he couldn't move in a large area. He didn't see that his white bone clone was covered in cracks and was on the verge of shattering. Even his head was cracked.
He couldn't see any of this.
He only knew that he was too familiar with this feeling of being dead yet not dead. It was so familiar that he could wake up with just a thought.
The black sphere condensed again.
Crack!
A cracking sound entered Lu Yin's ears. Was it his own body?
He wanted to look down, but he couldn't move his head. He could only move his fingers.
Actor of a Thousand Trickeries stared and moved again.
Condense and expand.
Condense and expand.
Lu Yin's white bone body was constantly hovering between being completely shattered and not, condensing and expanding again.
It had already happened nine times, and there would be a tenth soon.
The Moon Skeleton Withering had already condensed eleven times.
Actor of a Thousand Trickeries had expected Lu Yin to surpass Le Gujin. He calmly watched as the black sphere condensed and expanded eleven times. Lu Yin's white bone body was getting more and more shattered, but he still had a complete human form.
Without destruction, there would be no construction.
Who?
Inside, everyone would go through this step until they reached the limit of their potential. Then, they would recover, and that would be a new beginning.
But if they couldn't cross it, they would die.
It didn't try to scare Lu Yin. Too many creatures had died here.