Star Odyssey

Chapter 2275: Lu Yin And Bai Wangyuan

Lu Yin first selected a scroll that was made from some kind of animal skin. It was clearly very old.

There was a picture on the scroll providing an exact location, but there was absolutely nothing else.

Lu Yin showed the picture to Yu Chen, who said, "That should be where the sect extracts stellular liquid from the Mother Tree."

"Extracts stellular liquid? The Celestial Frost Sect is actually doing such things now?" Progenitor Smoke was absolutely furious.

Yu Chen nodded. "They should be doing so in the location in the picture."

Progenitor Smoke started ranting, "These beasts are actually attacking the Mother Tree themselves? The Mother Tree is what protects humanity! If anything happens to it, mankind will be doomed. It won’t matter how many Progenitors there are, as all of them will be useless to stop it. Senior Lu Tianyi absolutely hated it when anyone tried to extract stellular liquid in the past, and it was utterly forbidden within the Fifth Mainland. There were even fights against the Sixth Mainland a few times because of this issue. I didn’t think that, just because the Lu family was gone, these animals would actually start extracting stellular liquid themselves!”

Lu Yin quietly commented, "All of the four ruling powers are doing the same. I looked into it once."

Progenitor Smoke gritted her teeth. "I'll settle things with them!"

Lu Yin replaced the scroll. He took a few steps forward and grabbed another record, and after glancing at it, he looked over at Yu Chen. "There used to be a powerful sect in the Middle Realm known as Central Base?"

"Central Base was formed from a group of independent cultivators, and it was founded by an independent cultivator who managed to become a Progenitor. He actually completed our sect’s Sky Beyond the Sky trial before founding Central Base."

Lu Yin lowered the scroll. Central Base had been completely wiped out overnight, and the Progenitor had never been seen again. No one had been able to find out what had happened. Even after the Lu family had investigated, they had found nothing.

However, the unknown truth of the matter was that the Progenitor who had founded Central Base had gone to the Outer Realm in place of one of the sect’s Progenitors after being forced there by the Celestial Frost Sect. The Celestial Frost Sect had also been the ones to destroy the rest of Central Base.

They had been able to do so because the Progenitor had actually joined the Celestial Frost Sect shortly after passing the Sky Beyond the Sky trial.

As for where in the Outer Realm the Progenitor had been sent, there was no mention in the scroll. All that the scroll recorded was that the Progenitor had gone to the Outer Realm and had never been seen again.

Central Base was actually the predecessor of the current Root Organization. Central Base had been considered destroyed because many of the sect’s important members had died, while the rest had been banished to the Lower Realm, where they had eventually developed into Root.

Lu Yin then picked up a jade slip and examined another record. It detailed an account from the Daosource Sect era which involved the Wang, Liu, and Lu families. It was a very old incident, and many things had happened where the right or wrong of the matter had not been considered at all. Every family had skeletons in their closet, and not even the Lu family was exempt from this.

The Cloudforest Tower housed all of the Celestial Frost Sect’s most tightly guarded secrets. Lu Yin read through the various records with great interest. He learned about many things regarding the Celestial Frost Sect, but much of the information had become useless and meaningless due to how much time had passed. Lu Yin was mostly searching to find information regarding the Lu family.

Without him being aware of it, several hours had already passed, and it quickly approached dawn. At daybreak, someone from the Celestial Frost Sect would absolutely try to visit “Yu Hao.”

While the Cloudforest Tower was not particularly large, it would still take several days for a person to read through every record that was stored there.

Even though Lu Yin was curious about many of the records stored in the pagoda, he eventually decided to start specifically searching for information regarding his Lu family.

Many of the records were quickly put back after Lu Yin glanced through the first paragraph, and he quickly moved on from one record to another, and then moving through the different floors of the tower. Finally, he found a record that was only marked with four words: White Dragon Rolls Over.

He quickly checked the jade slip, only to find that there was no detailed record stored in it, but rather a simple list: Yellow Springs, Prison Lock, Celestial Frost Fruit, and Nutjob Lu.

Lu Yin stared at the slip of jade. What did these things even mean?

White Dragon Rolls Over clearly indicated the White Dragon Clan, but what about the Yellow Springs? Who was that supposed to represent? What about Prison Lock?

It was also clear to Lu Yin that Celestial Frost Fruit represented the Celestial Frost Sect, but then, what about the Nutjob Lu that was last in the list?

It was clear that Lu Yin was not seeing a complete record and that only these few names on the list had been left behind.

He stared at the words “Yellow Springs.” All he could think of when seeing those words was Burial Garden, as that was where the Yellow Springs was found.

What sort of connection could there be between the Yellow Springs in Burial Garden and the Yellow Springs referred to in the list?

Lu Yin tried to come up with something, but nothing came to mind. In the end, he asked Progenitor Smoke.

"The Yellow Springs? Isn't it in Burial Garden?" Progenitor Smoke was surprised by the question.

Lu Yin felt a bit of hope. "Senior, do you know what the Yellow Springs is?"

Progenitor Smoke shook her head. "All I know is that it’s powerful enough that even a Progenitor wouldn’t willingly touch it. I have no idea where it came from or how it came to be."

"Senior, do you know anything about Burial Gardens?" Lu Yin asked again.

Progenitor Smoke thought back. "Burial Garden seems to have bits and pieces of important areas from the first four Mainlands, as well as the graves of some important people. Even in my era, Burial Garden very rarely opened. After surviving through some dangerous encounters, I stopped going in, and then after I became a Progenitor, I focused on researching other things. I never had the time to go investigate it.”

Lu Yin was disappointed to learn nothing.

He tried to figure things out on his own. If the five names listed represented the five families involved, then Nutjob Lu had to be a traitor from the Lu family. White Dragon Rolls Over was clearly the White Dragon Clan, and Celestial Frost Fruit should be the Celestial Frost Sect. In that case, were the Yellow Springs and Prison Lock referring to the Wang family and Shenwu’s Sky?

This would explain why those four organizations had eventually become the four ruling powers.

As Lu Yin continued mulling things over, he remembered a comment that Prof. Wei had made. There were rumors that the Wang family was not actually mining ore on their hand-shaped floating landmass, but rather some sort of yellow liquid. Could it be the same yellow liquid that formed the Yellow Springs that was in Burial Garden? Could that be what “Yellow Springs” was referring to?

The more Lu Yin considered the possibility, the more likely he felt that this “Yellow Springs” was referring to the Wang family. That left “Prison Lock” with Shenwu’s Sky, which would have everything match up nicely.

The Lu family had been banished from the Perennial World not only because of the White Dragon Rolls Over, but also because of the other powers from each of the four ruling powers. It was just that the White Dragon Rolls Over was the most famous power that had been used.

"It's almost dawn," Yu Chen warned.

Lu Yin looked outside the pagoda, and his eyes flashed. He pulled out Zenith Mountain again. Yu Chen assumed that she was going to be sent back in, and while she was not wrong, Lu Yin brought someone else out as well: Xia Xing’s clone.

As soon as the clone appeared, he glanced around in a daze. Right when he was about to speak up, Lu Yin asked him, "Are you able to sense the location of your main body?"

The clone solemnly nodded. "Yes."

Lu Yin replied with a nod of his own and then immediately returned the clone to Zenith Mountain.

He then also removed Long Ke and left him trapped within the Cloudforest Tower. Progenitor Smoke's wei meant that not even Wu Yao would be able to sense Long Ke’s presence for some time.

After everything was taken care of, Lu Yin sneaked back out and returned to his own quarters while Progenitor Smoke kept him hidden.

While it was possible for Lu Yin to release Long Ke, he could not release Wang Zheng, as Wang Zheng knew exactly who had captured him, while Long Ke knew nothing.

***

At the same time, in the distant Shenwu's Sky, Xia Xing’s main body shot to his feet. He had just sensed his clone’s location, and when he stared in the direction that he had felt it come from, he was staring towards the Celestial Frost Sect.

While the direction that Xia Xing was staring at encompassed an absolutely massive area, his first thought was of the Celestial Frost Sect.

He immediately called Xia Ziheng.

"Semi-Progenitor Ziheng, I just felt my clone’s location," Xia Xing stated in a low voice.

Far away, Xia Ziheng was in a terrible mood after being toyed with and delayed for so long. "What was that? You felt your clone? Where is it?"

"I felt it in the direction of the Celestial Frost Sect," Xia Xing replied.

Xia Ziheng's expression instantly changed. "Are you sure?"

"I’m absolutely sure of the direction, though I can’t say for sure if my clone is actually in the sect. However, it’s definitely in that direction," Xia Xing answered. He refused to make an accusation without proof.

However, confirmation was exactly what Xia Ziheng heard. He gritted his teeth and said, "I will look into this."

He was already completely enraged, and this gave him the perfect opportunity to vent his anger onto the Celestial Frost Sect.

***

Lu Yin had only released Xia Xing's clone on a whim, and he had not really thought about what sort of consequences his action would have. It also did not matter to him, as he would happily destroy the four ruling powers if given the chance. Lu Yin’s hatred had grown stronger than ever after seeing the jade slip and reading the names listed on it.

He returned to his guest quarters, and Wu Yao soon came to talk to him. They arrived at almost the exact same time.

Wu Yao had seen “Yu Hao” the previous day, but Lu Yin had literally just passed the man.

"Senior Wu Yao, when will we be allowed to leave?" Lu Yin asked.

Wu Yao replied, "There’s no rush. Prof. Hao Yu, what do you think about my Celestial Frost Sect’s Progenitor Bai?"action

Lu Yin's expression turned solemn. "He’s a powerful Progenitor who works to defend and protect all of humanity. Naturally, he’s someone deserving of a great deal of respect."

Wu Yao smiled. "Progenitor Bai would like to speak to you."

Lu Yin’s first thought upon hearing that Bai Wangyuan wanted to speak was that Bai Sheng must not have said anything.

If Bai Wangyuan knew that Bai Sheng had already spoken with “Yu Hao,” then there was little chance that the Progenitor would try to speak with him as well. Even if “Yu Hao” had completed the Sky Beyond the Sky trial, that did not make him qualified to have two of the Celestial Frost Sect’s Progenitors try to recruit him.

In much the same way that, while the Wang family and the White Dragon Clan had tried to lure Virtue Archives’ students into joining them through offering benefits and such, the Celestial Frost Sect had put on a show of suppressing the students. This was how the Celestial Frost Sect usually handled matters.

"Progenitor Bai wishes to speak with me?" Lu Yin pretended to be overwhelmed. The reality of the matter was that Lu Yin was no longer overly impressed about the idea of speaking to Progenitors after meeting with Progenitor Smoke. He had been surprised that Wang Fan had reached out to him earlier, but that had only been because Wang Fan had been the first of the Perennial World’s Progenitors whom Lu Yin had come into contact with.

Lu Yin suddenly realized that, if the Celestial Frost Sect had Bai Sheng as a hidden Progenitor, then it was highly likely that the Wang family also had unknown Progenitors.

Wu Yao left the communication crystal with “Yu Hao” and left.

Lu Yin stared at the communication crystal while his mind raced.

The crystal soon trembled, and Lu Yin heard a voice when he answered. Just as when he had spoken with Wang Fan, there was only sound and no image.

"I am Bai Wangyuan."

Lu Yin answered in a very respectful tone. "Junior Yu Hao greets Progenitor Bai."

Bai Wangyuan's voice sounded quite calm. It was not particularly soft or harsh, and he sounded like any other regular person. "I’ve heard about you. What are your conditions to join my Celestial Frost Sect?"

Lu Yin thought for a moment. "My grandfather, Yu Chuan."

Bai Wangyuan remained silent for a while. "Yu Chuan is held by Shenwu's Sky. Does this mean that you have already decided to join Shenwu's Sky?"

The question instantly threw Lu Yin for a loop. Previously, Bai Sheng, Wu Yao, Bai Su, and everyone else had done their best to try to recruit “Yu Hao,” and Wu Yao had even suggested simply abandoning Yu Chuan. On the other hand, Bai Wangyuan had turned things around by asking a question of his own: would Yu Hao join Shenwu’s Sky or not?

This perfectly demonstrated the Celestial Frost Sect’s attitude. If Lu Yin answered that he would definitely join Shenwu's Sky, then while the Celestial Frost Sect would not move against him, there was no guarantee that nothing would happen.

Lu Yin still had not rescued the members of Star Alliance, or the members of the Lu family imprisoned in Crimson Garden. He did not want to risk any accidents happening.

"What would you suggest this junior do, Progenitor Bai?" Lu Yin turned the question around to Bai Wangyuan once again.

The Progenitor immediately answered, "Abandon Yu Chuan. I can promise you that he will be kept alive and that Shenwu’s Sky will release him once you become a Progenitor."