Chapter 3001: Lu Yin’s Game
Even though the Seven-Star Mantis was moving at the speed of time itself and making Lu Yin feel like he was out of phase with the universe, he still managed to endure and hold onto its blade. Lu Yin’s strongest attribute was his physical strength at this moment, and it confused the mantis. How could a non-peak powerhouse possibly endure this speed?
The mantis’s other blade swung down. Even if the human was able to endure the mantis’s speed, him should not be able to counterattack. This slash should be the final blow.
Lu Yin briefly lost sight of the Seven-Star Mantis’s body, even with Heaven’s Sight. While the technique was capable of seeing through the flaws of any weapon technique and could even peer through parallel universes, it struggled to keep up against the mantis’s incredible speed. However, the moment the mantis raised its other blade, Lu Yin sensed danger in his very bones. He did not hesitate to slap the slipper down with his right hand, slamming it into the blade that Lu Yin was grabbing in his left hand.
There was a bang as the blade shattered. Lu Yin heard a wail as the mantis quickly pulled back.
Lu Yin was thrown aside. He was so dizzy that he nearly succ.u.mbed to the resulting nausea.
As he looked up, he saw that he had indeed shattered one of the mantis’s blades. All six of the beast’s wings were open, and they slowly flapped as the beast stared straight at Lu Yin. There was a grimace on its triangular face, which still had green blood dripping down it. “Human, who are you?”
Lu Yin’s eyes flickered. Despite the odd sensation of being out of phase with the universe while moving at the speed of time, he had gained a unique insight. He had learned two improved versions of Inverse Step: Undying G.o.d’s skipping time and Progenitor Chen’s moving parallel to time. Progenitor Chen’s version’s effects were very similar to what happened when the mantis moved at the speed of time.
The difference was that one relied on a battle technique to achieve the effect, while the other used pure speed.
While Lu Yin had learned the battle technique, he was still struggling to comprehend how he could actually move parallel to time.
Could he first comprehend moving at the speed of time, and then apply that understanding to the technique?
This thought opened up a new path for Lu Yin, and he suddenly stared at the mantis with not just killing intent, but also greed.
“Human, who are you? Why are you targeting me? Did you come here to kill me?” the Seven-Star Mantis shrieked.
All the while, off in the distance, the battle between Jiang Qingyue and the Progenitor-level mantis continued, just as intense as ever.
Lu Yin said nothing as he approached the mantis with Inverse Step.
After learning its lesson twice, the Seven-Star Mantis had already decided to stop fighting Lu Yin. It had realized that the entire universe was a trap.
After living for all these years and encountering numerous parallel universes with human inhabitants, how many peak powerhouses had the mantis faced? This human had not even reached that level, so it should have been impossible for him to ever kill it.
The only culprit the beast could think of was the Sixverse a.s.sociation or Whitecloud City and its allies.
Suddenly, the mantis shouted, “You’re the Heavens Sect’s Lu Yin!”
Lu Yin was stunned that the mantis had accurately determined his ident.i.ty.
The mantis opened all six pairs of wings and turned around, fleeing towards its own universe. It had decided to not even bother fighting anymore. It had grasped the situation, and if it was indeed facing Lu Yin, then only trouble awaited. As proof, the mantis had already encountered three impressive cultivators.
Lu Yin had already killed Jing Zhe, and then he had sent the Sixverse a.s.sociation’s powerhouses to attack other outsider powerhouses. Aeternus’s allies had all retreated, as there was no need for them to fight against the Sixverse a.s.sociation.
Lu Yin chased after the mantis, but how could he match the speed of time itself?
Time froze.
There was no need for Lu Yin to give chase. He had already spent decades in this universe, and he had long since been prepared for this exact moment.
At almost the exact moment that the mantis opened its six pairs of wings to move at the speed of time, its body shuddered. “Sourcebox array?”
Over the course of decades, Arch-Elder Zen had used his Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique to summon Progenitor Hui, who had set up a sourcebox array that covered this entire universe.
Fortunately, the universe was quite small, and the sourceboxes that Lu Yin had been given by the Big Stone Universe were finally made use of.
By sealing the void with a sourcebox array, Lu Yin was able to prevent the Seven-Star Mantis from tearing through the void to escape. This was his means of keeping the mantis in the trap.
Of course, this only prevented the mantis from returning to its own universe, but that did not mean that the Seven-Star Mantis was incapable of leaving. The only problem was that going to a random parallel universe inherently contained unknown dangers.
Given the mantis’s cautious nature, it would never choose that option unless it was certain that it had no other choice.
Right now, the mantis did not lack the confidence that it could defeat Lu Yin; rather, it merely did not want to take any unnecessary risks.
The two options available to the beast both involved risk, and it had to choose one.
Naturally, it chose to leave.
Lu Yin had already killed Jing Zhe, which had made him infamous among outsider powerhouses. The Seven-Star Mantis would rather risk entering an unknown parallel universe than stay and fight Lu Yin to the death.
Given the mantis’s strength, what were the chances that it would run into some unmanageable danger when entering a random parallel universe? Staying and fighting against Lu Yin was clearly far more dangerous, so why would the beast stick around?
It made the correct choice, but it made its decision too late. The sourcebox array had been in place for decades, but it had never been intended to trap the Seven-Star Mantis. Lu Yin had only ever wanted it to create an opening.
When the Seven-Star Mantis attempted to tear the void a second time in order to escape, Lightstream flickered around the beast, reversing time by one second.
The torn void returned to how it had been, bewildering the mantis. Had time been altered?
A single second was enough to both prevent the mantis from leaving and give Lu Yin the chance to get close. Just one second was enough time to do many things.
In that extra second, Lu Yin arrived behind the Seven-Star Mantis, reached out, and grabbed it.
The mantis’s six pairs of wings flapped rapidly, but there was no indication that the mantis wanted to fight. All it wanted was to get away from Lu Yin.
Moving at the speed of time was enough for the Seven-Star Mantis to escape from Lu Yin, who could not clearly see the beast at those speeds. As long as it could open up a bit of distance and tear through the void again, it was certain that the human would not be able to stop it. Lightstream had taken advantage of the brief moment when the sourcebox array had blocked the mantis’s move. Without that brief moment, Lu Yin’s inner world would not have been able to even approach the mantis.
The mantis moved at the speed of time and created a bit of distance. At this moment, it believed Lu Yin to be completely helpless.
Normally, this would be an accurate a.s.sessment. The plan had changed greatly after Lu Yin’s first attack. Arch-Elder Zen’s sneak attack had failed, but after Lu Yin stopped the mantis from escaping, the Seven-Star Mantis abandoned all thoughts of fighting a drawn-out battle. All it wanted now was to escape, and when a creature with unmatched speed wanted to escape, it was impossible to stop it.
Unfortunately, it had run into Lu Yin.
The mantis wanted to escape by relying on its speed that matched time itself and taking advantage of Lu Yin’s inability to clearly perceive what was happening.
However, Lu Yin was able to look an entire eighty-eight seconds back in time. However, for this battle, he only needed to look back one second.
Lighstream reversed time by one second. The Seven-Star Mantis could do whatever it wanted, as it had no desire to attack Lu Yin. It only wanted to escape.
With Lightstream’s two abilities, Lu Yin knew the direction and even the exact location of the mantis’s escape route.
After pinpointing the position, Lu Yin used Lightstream to move towards where the mantis would appear.
The Seven-Star Mantis instantly appeared, believing that it had already escaped from Lu Yin’s reach. It wanted to tear through the void, but Lightstream was already close at hand. Everything took place in a single brief second.
It was just one second, and it was so fast that Arch-Elder Zen and the others were unable to understand anything that happened. Not even the Seven-Star Mantis could comprehend the full situation.
It took an entire second to tear the void and escape, but this second gave Lu Yin’s Lightstream enough time to catch up. The moment the mantis tore the void apart and was about to leave, Lightstream arrived and reverted time by a second. Right after that, Lu Yin arrived, the slipper raised high and already swinging down.
The Seven-Star Mantis was horrified. What’s going on? How did he find me? I need to try again.
The same thing played out a second time. The Seven-Star Mantis believed that it could escape, but as soon as Lu Yin saw the direction and location of the beast’s escape, Lightstream would ruthlessly hunt the mantis down and prevent it from escaping.
The Seven-Star Mantis was slumped. How was this possible? How was the human keeping up with its movement? It should be impossible. Not even Aeternus’s sequence powerhouses were able to catch up to the mantis, so how was this human doing it?
“Arch-Elder Zen, the sourcebox array!” Lu Yin coldly commanded.
Arch-Elder Zen suppressed his injuries and manifested his Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique to summon Progenitor Hui. The summon instantly took control of the sourcebox array, greatly increasing its power.
Lu Yin wanted to make it even more difficult for the Seven-Star Mantis to tear through the void, ideally increasing the time it needed to do so from one second to two. To that end, besides the sourcebox array, he could also rely on the power of s.p.a.ce.
He observed the spatial lines and moved along them.
The Seven-Star Mantis kept moving through the void with Lightstream relentlessly pursuing it. Every time the beast tried to tear through the void, Lightstream would reverse time by one second, which ensured that Lu Yin could keep up no matter where the mantis fled.
Finally, by manipulating the spatial lines and cooperating with Arch-Elder Zen and the sourcebox array, Lu Yin was able to slow the Seven-Star Mantis’s escape attempts by two seconds. Two seconds was a significant amount of delay, and this time, Lu Yin did not even reverse time with Lightstream, but instead grabbed the mantis’s wings. They felt cold and hard in his grip.
The Seven-Star Mantis was horrified by this development. “Human, release me!”
“Can you still escape?” Lu Yin retorted in a frigid tone. Wielder-realm battle force spread across his hands as his grip tightened.
Not even the tough wings of the Seven-Star Mantis could endure Lu Yin’s strength, and the creature started wailing, “I’m not a part of Aeternus! Release me, and I’ll help you fight against them!”
“You sound just like Jing Zhe when he begged before dying,” Lu Yin commented indifferently.
The Seven-Star Mantis trembled. “Then you really are Lu Yin. Let me go! I’ve done nothing to help Aeternus, and I’m willing to serve you. Release me.”
Lu Yin squeezed even harder.
The mantis’s triangular head suddenly turned around completely, its mouth open to bite Lu Yin. It was a disturbing sight, as the creature really was a mantis, and its mouth looked terrifying.
Lu Yin snorted contemptuously. He continued to tightly grip the wings with his right hand while his left hand pulled out the slipper. Then, he aimed ata the Seven-Star Mantis’s face.
Terrified, the mantis blocked the slipper with its other blade, which instantly shattered even though its blades were the toughest part of its body. It knew that, if it was struck again, it would surely die.
“Lu Yin- Dao Monarch! Dao Monarch Lu! I don’t dare! I’ll do whatever you command, just please, let me go! Let me go!” the Seven-Star Mantis pleaded.
Lu Yin’s voice remained as cold as ever. “Don’t you like to manipulate humans’ desires? Well, how about you and I play a game. Fly as fast as you can, and I won’t attack you. See if you can shake me off. If you succeed, I’ll let you go. However, if you fail, you’re dead.”
The Seven-Star Mantis felt terribly confused. “Fly?”
“Don’t want to?”
“Of course I do! I’ll do it! You really won’t attack me?” it asked fearfully as it eyed the slipper.
“We’re just playing a game. You like games, and so do I. Let’s see who wins this one,” Lu Yin said in a relaxed tone. One of his hands clenched a wing while the other held the slipper that radiated unimaginable danger.
The Seven-Star Mantis glanced around with its narrow eyes. Abruptly, all six pairs of wings opened up, and it vanished.
Normally, no one could touch it the moment it moved at its top speed. The only exceptions were opponents who could control the power of time, which was exactly what Lu Yin had relied on. This truly frustrated the mantis, as it had encountered its nemesis in Lu Yin.