Chapter 2421: Launch  

Lu Yin represented the Fifth Mainland, and the four ruling powers’ Progenitors represented the Perennial World. At this moment, all grudges and hatred between them had been set aside. In order to face their nemesis, humanity had united into one force for the first time in known history.

In the past, the Lu family had ruled over the Fifth Mainland and had also faced off against the Seven Skygods in the New World. The forces had represented the peak of strength and power for Aeternus and humanity, and there had never been any clear victor in their contests. In more recent years, it had seemed quite clear that the humans had fallen to the disadvantage. However, Lu Yin had suddenly appeared, and he was paving a road for mankind to launch a counterattack against Aeternus.

Bai Wangyuan’s greatest regret at this moment was that he had hesitated to reclaim the New World. It could have been his name that went down in history, but instead, Lu Yin’s name would shine the brightest.

However, at this moment, Lu Yin was not even thinking about leaving his name down in history. He also did not intend to die just yet. All he wanted to do was destroy that giant scarlet eye.

The giant eye sat in the deepest parts of the New World. The New World was connected to the rear battlefield that was behind the Mother Tree, and crossing the New World would take them to another part of the universe, one that Lu Yin had no knowledge of.

The giant eyes sat at the intersection between the New World and the unfamiliar part of the universe. With the speed that the jiao was traveling at, it would not take them long to reach that place.

Yi Ren was no fool, which meant that there was no way he would even try to stop Lu Yin. Yi Ren was also the only Progenitor that Aeternus had left behind in the New World, and Lu Yin had agreed to a truce with the four ruling powers. Right now, all of them were making their way across the New World as well.

Lu Yin’s assumption was spot on. At this moment, Yi Ren was standing in front of the giant scarlet eye between the New World and the foreign region of the universe. The Progenitor looked to the north and sighed. His chances of stopping the attackers were zero. The Seven Skygods had told him that no one would dare to invade the New World. However, not only had the humans done just that, but they had also launched a full force assault. Even if two of the Seven Skygods were present, they would only be able to mount a futile resistance, while Yi Ren was completely on his own.

He stared at the jiao’s massive body as the beast drew closer. The Progenitor knew that Lu Yin had to be there as well.

“The more impressive you become, the more horrible your death will be. Lu Yin, I’ll be waiting for that day,” Yi Ren said with a hint of reluctance. He then turned around and entered the giant scarlet eye.

The surviving Twelve Marquises had already left before the Progenitor. They were individuals who were regarded as far more important than any corpse king, and each of them had their own plans. This was why they feared death.

Lu Yin’s eyes landed on the massive scarlet eyes, and he also saw what lay beyond it. While there were fewer stars there compared to the Fifth Mainland, it was still a part of the same universe, even if it was a completely unknown region.

Behind Lu Yin, Bai Wangyuan and the other Progenitors were moving closer. They were already aware of Lu Yin’s intentions, and they wanted to steal the accomplishment of destroying the giant scarlet eye away from him. The honor of driving Aeternus out of the Perennial World for good was not something that should be given to the Lu family.

As the jiao grew closer, Lu Yin was finally able to make out details of the eye.

Suddenly, the jiao completely stopped. The beast remembered how attacking a similar object had previously brought out that horrifying monster that had attacked it. The jiao was scared of experiencing that again.

The sudden stop nearly threw Lu Yin off of the jiao’s head. He angrily shouted, “You stupid beast, what are you doing? Move!”

The jiao fearfully glanced around, expecting Corpse God to suddenly appear.

Lu Yin looked back, knowing that Bai Wangyuan and the others were about to arrive as well. He started growing anxious, and brought out the slipper. “Move, or else…”

At this moment, Lu Yin’s wireless jincan trembled, but he just ignored it. He lifted the slipper high to smack the jiao. If Lu Yin tried to cover the remaining distance by himself, Bai Wangyuan and the others would surely overtake him. Only the jiao’s speed would let Lu Yin reach the giant scarlet eye before them, which would let him be the one to destroy the thing.

Both Lu Yin’s wireless jincan and communication crystal alerted him to incoming calls and messages without end. After several hard smacks from the slipper, the jiao reluctantly continued moving closer to the scarlet eyes. Someone suddenly appeared in front of Lu Yin. They were an old man with a kind looking face. Both of the man’s eyes were scarlet, and he was holding a teacup in his hand.

Lu Yin frowned. “One of the Twelve Marquis?”

This old man was indeed one of the Twelve Marquises. He had only returned to the known universe after the last assault on the Perennial World, but instead of leaving through the scarlet eye, this man had remained behind. “I’m West Mountain Tea King. Descendant of the Lu family, I’ve hunted you once before.”

Lu Yin’s brow creased. He had no memory of this man, which meant that the marquis was saying that he had once hunted Lu Xiaoxuan, rather than Lu Yin. “Do you want to die?”

He had no time to waste with the old monster. Bai Wangyuan and the others from the four ruling powers were about to catch up. Lu Yin had to be the one to destroy the scarlet eye, so he prepared to order the jiao to attack.

“Murkiness.”

Lu Yin’s movements froze. He stared at the old man. “What did you just say?”

West Mountain Tea King stared back at Lu Yin. “Murkiness has already been set in motion. The Fifth Mainland’s safety is currently at stake. Descendant of the Lu family, someone should already be trying to contact you.”

Lu Yin pulled out his wireless jincan. It had been trembling for some time, but he had not bothered to deal with it. He quickly responded.

“We’ve got a massive problem. All of the star energy and stellular energy in everyone’s bodies has started flowing in reverse. Every last cultivator has been seriously injured,” Lu Buzheng quickly reported.

Lu Yin’s eyes grew wide from shock. He could no longer remain calm as he looked up at West Mountain Tea King.

At that same moment, all four of his stellular energy vortices started to circulate in reverse. He quickly suppressed the change with his death energy.

Unfortunately, while it was possible for Lu Yin to suppress his stellular energy with death energy, this was something that others were not capable of doing.

A sudden thought shot through his brain like a bolt of electricity. He quietly said, “It’s those liquid droplets.”

West Mountain Tea King replied, “I don’t know about that. I was merely tasked with offering you a deal. Aeternus can stop Murkiness and allow the Fifth Mainland to return to normal. In exchange, you cannot attack our cosmic door.”

“That enormous eye is a door?” Lu Yin asked.

“Correct. This deal works to your benefit. Don’t forget. As soon as Aeternus disappears, you won’t be the only one looking to come out on top—your enemies will as well. Once you lose us as your enemy and Murkiness unfolds, how do you expect to stop them?”

Behind Lu Yin, Bai Wangyuan and the others were drawing very close.

Lu Yin’s heart skipped a beat. “Even if I agree, they will never agree.”

“Regardless, our cosmic door must not be destroyed. It’s your decision, direct descendant of the Lu family. Since you’ve managed to force the four ruling powers to reach an agreement with you once, then you can do so a second time. I’ve stated the terms. Murkiness is extremely important to Aeternus, and the fact that we are offering this exchange in order to ensure that our cosmic door?is not destroyed should be an honor to you. Even after you’ve managed to reach this place, as soon as Murkiness is in full motion, the Fifth Mainland will be completely wiped out. All cultivation in the Fifth Mainland will come to an end,” West Mountain Tea King stated.

“If you destroy the cosmic door and we leave, you will doom yourself. It will be of great benefit for you to be a little selfish right now.”

Lu Yin closed his eyes. He could feel his stellular energy struggling against him to flow in reverse. Even with his death energy, he was having trouble suppressing his stellular energy. Others had to be having an even worse time. He could feel his wireless jincan and communication crystal vibrating nonstop. Countless people were trying to get in touch with him.

There was no more time to consider things. Lu Yin opened his eyes, and Progenitor-level runes enveloped West Mountain Tea King’s body, instantly weakening the marquis. West Mountain Tea King was shocked. “Direct descendant of the Lu family, you-!”

Lu Yin yelled, “Go!”

The jiao swiped a claw at West Mountain Tea King. The marquis was a peak Semi-Progenitor, whose strength and toughness was comparable to Qing Ping, but he was still only a Semi-Progenitor, and he was facing an attack from a beast with the strength of a Progenitor. The marquis might have been able to avoid the jiao’s attack if Lu Yin had been rushing through, but the man had simply never expected Lu Yin to attack him directly.

There was not a single Semi-Progenitor, Qing Ping included, who could escape a combination attack of being weakened by Progenitor-level runes while being attacked by the jiao.

West Mountain Tea King was instantly torn to shreds by the jiao’s claws. With Lu Yin’s continued threats, the jiao quickly rushed over to the giant scarlet eye, reaching it in the blink of an eye. Lu Yin quickly summoned E Chi and tossed the slipper to the champion. “Hit it!”

Still some distance away, Bai Wangyuan, Xia Shenji, Wang Fan, and Progenitor Long saw E Chi begin to attack the giant scarlet eye. With a resounding slap, a crack appeared.

The sight of the crack caused all four Progenitors’ expressions to turn to shock.

E Chi lifted the slipper and struck the eye a second time. This attack caused the giant scarlet eye to completely shatter into small pieces.

The fragments slowly fell down, the dark-red, glass-like material glittering in the light. A hushed silence fell upon the New World.

At this exact moment, all the surviving corpse kings completely stopped moving.

“See? I told you that we can defeat Aeternus,” Lu Yin said to Bai Wangyuan and the rest of the Progenitors. He then immediately answered the call requests spamming his communication crystal. Hen Xin was the first one that Lu Yin connected to. “Everyone’s star and stellular energy is circulating in reverse. We cannot remain in the New World any longer. Something’s very wrong.”

Lu Yin softly replied, “It’s not just the New World. It’s the entire Fifth Mainland.”

Through the image on his communication crystal, Lu Yin could see cultivators from the Fifth Mainland, all sitting cross-legged on ground that was stained with blood. Every last person that Lu Yin could see seemed to have been seriously injured. There was even blood on Hen Xin’s mouth.

“The Fifth Mainland? What are you saying?” Hen Xin asked with a sinking feeling.

Lu Yin ended the call. Murkiness had still ultimately been launched. Master, the Murkiness that you were investigating for so long has finally started. Just like you thought, this is Aeternus’s grand scheme to finish off humanity. Unfortunately, your disciple was unable to stop it. I couldn’t learn anything about it at all.

There was no way that Lu Yin could have protected the giant scarlet eye, as doing so would have forced him to wage an all-out war against the four ruling powers.

What Aeternus had asked Lu Yin to do went far beyond acting on a mere personal grudge; they had asked him to truly betray humanity. The moment the four ruling powers obtained proof that Lu Yin was a Redback, he would be doomed. Even if Aeternus kept their side of the deal and abandoned Murkiness and allowed the Fifth Mainland to recover, what would become of the Fifth Mainland without Lu Yin?

This was not Lu Yin being arrogant. In the Fifth Mainland, he alone was qualified to speak to the four ruling powers as their equal. As soon as he was removed from the picture, the Perennial World’s attitude towards the Fifth Mainland would completely change. The ultimate result for them would not be not too different from living with Murkiness.

Lu Yin was unwilling to sacrifice himself just to stop Murkiness.

With Bai Wangyuan and the others fast approaching his location, his only choice had been to ?immediately destroy the giant eye. As for Murkiness, he would come up with a solution later on.

The current situation in the Fifth Mainland affected every single person who had ever absorbed energy from the Fifth Mainland as a part of their cultivation. This even included people from the Perennial World who had visited the Fifth Mainland.

As for the people from the Fifth Mainland, their role in the war in the New World had reached its end.

Lu Yin ordered Yao Di to return the fourth array base’s troops. If Murkiness was not dealt with, the Fifth Mainland would be done for.

Lu Yin looked down at the broken shards of the scarlet eye that littered the ground. From what Lu Yin could remember, the Tree Realm had been pierced by the eye from the Starfall Sea. In that case, could these broken fragments serve any purpose?

“What? How did this happen?” Wang Fan exclaimed as he stared at Lu Yin.

News of what had befallen the Fifth Mainland’s cultivators had quickly reached Bai Wangyuan and the other Progenitors from the four ruling powers. They exchanged glances while also looking at Lu Yin for answers.

They knew that something had happened to the Fifth Mainland, but they were uncertain of the exact details. All they knew was that every single person who had visited the Fifth Mainland had suddenly found their star energy or stellular energy circulating in reverse. This was completely unprecedented.action