Chapter 3003: Anointing The Mantis
The Seven-Star Mantis raced towards Lu Yin, only to abruptly stop and then change directions, leaving Lu Yin puzzled.
After repeating this several times, Lu Yin noticed that the mantis had left behind seven dots in s.p.a.ce. They surrounded Lu Yin.
“Seven Star Slash!” The Seven-Star Mantis’s blade fell. Lu Yin tried to break free from the encirclement, but he was too late. The point closest to Lu Yin released an explosive attack. Each subsequent dot released a greater number of attacks, until the seventh point released thirty-two slashes.
Lu Yin used the slipper to obliterate the first strike. The slash may have been powerful enough to kill a Progenitor, but it posed no threat to him.
The only real challenge was the sheer number of attacks.
The seventh point released thirty-two slashes, each one as powerful as the first one. Lu Yin needed to endure thirty-two of the Seven-Star Mantis’s attacks. Even so, while it might have been difficult for others, it could not threaten Lu Yin. He had already faced a similar situation against the Luna Alliance’s Moon Fairy and her Fairy Moon - Water Reflection.
The slipper flickered between the slashes, destroying one after another. The Seven-Star Mantis was unable to move away, as it had to be close by to release the attacks and control the seven points.
When its attack proved ineffective, the Seven-Star Mantis shouted, “Seven Stars, Unite!”
The seven points reappeared, and then they unleashed 128 attacks. It wanted to overwhelm Lu Yin.
The universe shattered into fragments.
Dragonturtle panicked at the sight, and he swiftly dragged Jiang Qingyue and Zhao Ran away from the universe. At the same time, the jiao and Arch-Elder Zen fled. Only Lu Yin and the Seven-Star Mantis were left behind in the broken universe.
Fortunately, just a bit earlier, Lu Yin had gathered all of the humans in the universe and placed them onto the jiao’s back. If not, no one would have been able to escape the destruction.
The entire universe was breaking apart.
Beneath the rain of attacks, Lu Yin stopped defending himself with the slipper. His entire body was covered in Wielder-realm battle force as he directly resisted the attacks.
The Seven-Star Mantis was astonished. It knew just how powerful its attacks were, especially in these numbers. Most peak powerhouses would have to be wary of these attacks, so how was this human able to simply endure them?
Lu Yin received the overwhelming rain of attacks, shattering the slashes that were in his path. He faced the Seven-Star Mantis and raised the slipper to strike down.
In the mantis’s eyes, Lu Yin had become a giant at this moment, and it was overcome with despair as the slipper gave off a fatal aura. It wanted to escape, but that was impossible. The Seven Star Slash was its greatest battle technique, and after it was activated alongside the Seven Stars Unite, the mantis would be connected to the technique and unable to leave. If not for that, it would have fled long ago.
Even at the brink of death, it was unable to harm Lu Yin.
“Lord Lu, I beg you!”
There was a bang right before the Seven-Star Mantis finished speaking. Lu Yin slapped the mantis dead with a single slap of the slipper. Even as it died, the Seven-Star Mantis could not believe its fate.
It had always thought that its speed would be enough for it to stay alive. After all, that ability had even caught the attention of Aeternus.
The mantis had a.s.sumed that, by not getting directly involved in the war between humanity and Aeternus, it would be able to stay free from the conflict.
It simply enjoyed playing games, but one human refused to let the mantis go, even after it had tried to submit to him. Lu Yin did not care about the mantis’s impressive power.
Lu Yin panted as he clutched the slipper tightly. He watched the Seven-Star Mantis’s corpse drift away and let out a deep breath. It was over.
After Lu Yin had become a Semi-Progenitor, aside from Sequence Progenitors, he had felt that all other peak powerhouses were around the same level and relatively easy to deal with. However, the Seven-Star Mantis had been a new experience for Lu Yin.
Sequence particles were not the only means to gain strength. No matter if it was physical might, speed, toughness, or any other other attribute, achieving a certain level would grant one extraordinary power. The Seven-Star Mantis had just happened to encounter Lu Yin, but if it had run into someone else, even an ancient powerhouse like Lu Tianyi, the mantis might have been able to escape alive.
This thought caused Lu Yin to immediately anoint the mantis as a champion.
“By my name, I anoint a Champion.”
As he watched the image of the Seven-Star Mantis appear on the Champions’ Stage, Lu Yin heaved a sigh of relief, feeling rather invigorated.
Lu Yin felt no pity for the Seven-Star Mantis. First of all, the creature had to pay for what it had done, and secondly, there was no need for the mantis to submit to him. Regardless of whether or not a creature was willing, Lu Yin had a way to utilize its power. That was the terror of the Lu family.
At the moment, Lu Yin’s Champions’ Stage could summon nineteen peak powerhouses. In the past, the strongest had been the Cyclops King, but that position now belonged to the Seven-Star Mantis, particularly because the champion version of the Cyclops King could not use sequence particles. In comparison, the Seven-Star Mantis was able to wield its full strength from when it had been alive.
In the past, Lu Yin had also anointed astral beasts like the Amethyst Beast and the patriarch of the sylvan dragons. For this reason, he felt that it was only natural to anoint the Seven-Star Mantis.
This new champion gave Lu Yin even more confidence at contending against outsider powerhouses.
The universe around Lu Yin continued to collapse and break apart, the fractures revealing the Hollow.
This universe had been completely destroyed, though luckily, it lacked any sort of life. This was one of the reasons why Lu Yin had selected the universe. Also, it was quite small.
Soon, Lu Yin returned to the Seven-Star Mantis’s home universe, and he stared at the stack of continents in the distance. The countless mantises that lived there and hunted the humans had no idea that both the Seven-Star Mantis and the Progenitor-level mantis had just been killed.
When Jiang Qingyue saw Lu Yin arrive, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Is the Seven-Star Mantis dead?” Arch-Elder Zen immediately asked.
Dragonturtle also looked over at Lu Yin. The Seven-Star Mantis was a creature that even the Lord of Lightning needed to pay attention to.
Lu Yin smiled. “Anointed.”
Arch-Elder Zen burst out laughing.
Jiang Qingyue heaved yet another sigh of relief.
Dragonturtle stared in awe. “What a monster...”
Anointing the Seven-Star Mantis meant that Lu Yin now officially had the strength to face off against even sequence powerhouses on his own. This was a qualitative change in strength, and it was a powerful rea.s.surance to everyone on their journey.
Lu Yin looked towards the seven continents in the distance. “Let me use these mantises to gain this universe’s recognition.”
He then took a step and vanished.
“Young Mistress, Master will definitely be satisfied with this man as his son-in-law! He even dealt with the Seven-Star Mantis. While it wasn’t extremely strong, its speed was peerless, and it was capable of surviving against almost anything. Hearing that it’s dead will probably put a smile on Master’s face,” Dragonturtle praised.
Jiang Qingyue completely ignored everything that Dragonturtle said as she stared at the seven continents. The Seven-Star Mantis? That might not be what Lu Brother is most concerned about here. His goal for this journey is to visit parallel universes where time pa.s.ses differently. What sort of transformation will he experience given the extreme rate of time flow in this universe?
Arch-Elder Zen’s face was still a bit pale. When his sneak attack against the Seven-Star Mantis had failed, the Progenitor had thought that victory was impossible. Unexpectedly, Lu Yin had still managed to create a miracle. The young man’s power was unfathomable, and there was no doubt that he would lead humanity to even greater heights in the future.
The time in the Seven-Star Mantis’s home universe pa.s.sed eighty times faster than in the Origin Universe, which was considerable. This was something that Lu Yin was absolutely willing to pay a bit extra to deal with.
He had waited thirty-five years to fight against the Seven-Star Mantis, but now that he had dealt with that, he swiftly swept through all seven continents, eliminating all the mantises that took pleasure in slaughtering the humans who lived there. After that, Lu Yin spent another ten years to become the spiritual pillar of all the people who lived in the seven continents, which finally gave him the acknowledgement of the universe. With this, Lightstream was now able to look 245 seconds into the past.
The additional eighty seconds provided Lu Yin with a different perception of Lightstream.
He already had a feeling that looking back through time was not the true way to use Lightstream, and that intuition had only grown stronger.
Lu Yin felt as though he was about to grasp something, but he was still missing something. He needed to be able to look further back into the past.
He needed to search for more parallel universes where time pa.s.sed at a different rate.
He had spent nearly forty-five years in the Seven-Star Mantis’s universe, but only half a year had pa.s.sed in the Origin Universe.
All together, more than three years had pa.s.sed since Lu Yin had left the Heavens Sect, and it was time to return in case any mishaps occurred. Of course, before leaving, Lu Yin also needed to settle the affair with the people on the seven continents. After all, if he had missed any mantises in his purge, there might be disastrous consequences after he left the universe.
He had used the compa.s.s to find this universe, but returning home was straightforward; Lu Yin simply went straight back to Aeternus Nation.
As the void twisted, the jiao disappeared from the universe right behind Lu Yin and the others.
However, less than half an hour later, someone else arrived in the universe. If Lu Yin had still been present, he would have instantly recognized the individual. Zhong Pan, the True G.o.d Guard Captain, had arrived.
He was there to see the Seven-Star Mantis, as Aeternus needed the mantis’s a.s.sistance.
Zhong Pan quickly discovered that all of the mantises had vanished from the seven continents. The entire universe had undergone significant changes.
He immediately returned to the Scourge to report the changes.
After Lu Yin returned to the Heavens Sect and confirmed that everything was fine, he and his companions set back out to continue searching for parallel universes where time flowed differently.
In the blink of an eye, two years pa.s.sed in the Origin Universe. However, for Lu Yin and his group, they had lived through sixty years. Lightstream could see another twenty-five seconds into the past, allowing Lu Yin to look 270 seconds back in total.
While visiting various parallel universes with Arch-Elder Zen and Jiang Qingyue, they encountered no significant dangers during these sixty years.
Zhao Ran remained as innocent and cheerful as ever, happy as long as someone was enjoying her tea. There was nothing out of the ordinary about her at all.
Jiang Qingyue also remained the same, though Lu Yin had noticed a softening in her gaze. He had learned exactly what she had done to kill the Progenitor-level mantis.
It was a technique that combined an attack with a mental trauma. This was something that would be a grave danger during a Progenitor’s tribulation, but Jiang Qingyue was from Whitecloud City and followed a different cultivation path than stellular energy. Even so, no matter which path a cultivator took, becoming a peak powerhouse was never easy. If Jiang Qingyue did not overcome her mental trauma, she would have to pay a steep price one day.
Arch-Elder Zen had long since recovered from the backlash that he had suffered from using Lu Tianyi’s power.
The most notable change was Ghost Monkey. Surprisingly, the monkey claimed that he would soon break through and become a Progenitor. Lu Yin was left rather speechless at this claim, as he wondered if the monkey had ever even cultivated.
Aside from adding time to Lightstream, Lu Yin had also developed his proficiency in Inverse Step, mastering the ability to move parallel to time. He felt that, one day, he would be able to demonstrate the same level of mastery of the power of time as Mister Mu and cause time to freeze upon his arrival.
“Careful, we’re about to arrive.” Even if the chances of meeting danger when entering a new universe was minimal, it was imperative that they always remain cautious. Every time they entered a new universe, Lu Yin would give the others a gentle reminder.
They were not entering a universe where time flowed differently, but rather a regular parallel universe. They intended to use the compa.s.s in this one to find their next destination.
The void twisted, and the jiao emerged from it, instantly looking about in a wary manner. There was no danger, but the scene before the jiao was exceptionally beautiful.
Lu Yin and the others were also staring straight ahead. Universes were supposed to be dark and mostly empty. After visiting multiple universes, they had only found a few exceptions to this rule. However, there was a faintly glowing structure in front of them that nearly filled the entire universe much like how the Fifth Mainland had once been.