Chapter 2888: The Immortal Lu Qi
One of the bubbles popped with a clear sound, and Lu Qi's skin flushed red. An incredible pressure erupted with the arrival of a scorching heat that spread out, evaporating the Middle Ocean in its wake. The entire Middle Ocean started to boil. Countless dead fish floated to the surface, as the ocean had instantly started boiling.
A shockwave blasted out, the high temperature warping the air. Countless spatial cracks appeared, and the Higher Realm was rattled by the pressure that shot upwards into the sky.
Just a short distance away, Cheng Kong was startled. What was this? What kind of power had just appeared?
Lu Qi's clothes were completely burned away, exposing his scarred body. There was practically no part of his body that was unblemished. The terrifying pressure that reached even the Higher Realm did not crush the man.
"Where’s that rat who dared to attack me? Don't you know that I’m called the Immortal Lu Qi?" Lu Qi searched for Cheng Kong, but he had already vanished.
It was only natural for an assassin to escape if the attack failed.
Cheng Kong had instantly sensed that his attack had failed. This was not his first failure either.
Anytime Cheng Kong launched a sneak attack, the target was either on guard and Cheng Kong failed to seize control of them, or the target was controlled and eliminated. Nine times out of ten, Cheng Kong would succeed, but he had first failed with Lu Yin, and then again with Lu Qi. His attacks on both the father and son had failed. What was going on?
It was also clear that Lu Qi was not particularly strong.
Lu Qi had no idea that Cheng Kong had already left, and he continued to search for his attacker.
At this time, people started to shoot up out of the Middle Ocean. "It's so hot! Which bastard screwed up so badly?"
"I nearly got cooked!"
"Who was it? Get out here!"
"Shh! Keep your voice down! It might have been some powerhouse we can’t afford to offend."
…
Lu Qi stared blankly at the numerous people emerging from the Middle Ocean. They were all quite familiar to him. Aside from the cultivators from the four ruling powers who had been condemned to the 100,000 currents, all of the other guardians were people that Lu Qi were responsible for.
All of the guardians of the 100,000 currents had risen to the surface.
Clearly, the 100,000 currents had been damaged.
The Aeternals!
A fog appeared above the ocean, blocking everyone’s sight.
Lu Qi waved his hand, dispersing the fog. He stared out at everyone, and everyone stared back at him.
Someone quickly shouted, "Lu Qi, you lied to us! Where are the resources that we were promised?"
Many others also started to glare at Lu Qi.
All of the people looked to be in miserable condition, and some were even quite skinny, looking like they had starved for a long time.
In order to prevent the 100,000 currents from being found by Aeternus, the Lu family had hidden them to ensure that they could not be used to attack the Mother Tree. This also prevented the guardians from leaving their posts.
In the past, the Lu family has sent the various guardians training resources on a regular schedule, but after the Lu family’s exile, none of the guardians had received any resources during the many years that the family had been missing for.
Lu Qi had been sent to the Middle Ocean with the task of delivering the neglected resources, but he had never gotten around to it as he had been considering what he should say to the guardians of the 100,000 currents.
That the Lu family had been exiled? That was too humiliating, but what would be best?
Before Lu Qi could come up with some excuse, the Aeternals had destroyed the 100,000 currents, releasing all of the guardians.
While the sourcebox array used to hide the 100,000 currents could conceal them from average cultivators, it was impossible to hide the currents from the Aeternals’ peak powerhouses. In the past, due to the presence of the Lu family, the Aeternals had not dared to approach the 100,000 currents, but at this moment, they attacked manically.
Everyone who had appeared above the ocean was staring at Lu Qi.
,000 cultivators who were at least Enlighters should have been guarding the 100,000 currents, but nowhere close to that number appeared before Lu Qi, even with the cultivators from the four ruling powers. There were significantly more than half, but even so, a great number was missing.
Even so, it was a shocking number of cultivators.
Because of this, Lu Yin noticed the odd situation above the Middle Ocean even from the rear battlefield. He immediately changed course when he saw tens of thousands of cultivators who were at least Enlighters surrounding Lu Qi. Many of them looked as though they had been starving for years, and it made for a rather impressive spectacle.
Everyone was waiting for Lu Qi's explanation.
However, his face twitched. "Shut up!"
Everyone's hearts trembled. Only when Lu Qi shouted did they realize that the man was no longer the man that they had known. Had he become a Progenitor?
Everyone on the Middle Ocean gradually bowed to the Progenitor before them. Such cultivators stood at the peak of human cultivation. Had Lu Qi, that absolute bastard, actually become a Progenitor?
In the face of a Progenitor, no one dared to be too bold, and their attitudes became far more subdued.
Lu Qi pointed at Bai Qi. "You, explain things to them."
The woman’s expression instantly changed.
She turned and looked at the eyes of the tens of thousands of cultivators that were focused on her, but just as Bai Qi was about to speak to them, Lu Qi waved a hand. "Move away a bit. I don't want to see their faces."
Soon, all the various guardians of the 100,000 currents moved away together. After hearing an explanation of what had happened, the guardians learned that there was a group of people who would continue to guard the 100,000 currents, but many of them were done with their time there and could return.
Lu Yin arrived at the island. "Father, what's going on?"
Lu Qi was still upset as he shared what had happened.
Lu Yin was stunned. "Cheng Kong sneak attacked you?"
"So that’s Cheng Kong? I’ll be sure to remember this!" Lu Qi snorted coldly.
Lu Yin was quite frightened. Cheng Kong had attacked again. The threat posed by that person had been magnified by an infinite degree with this particular attack.
"Cheng Kong killed Sage Jiang, as well as the previous Stone Sage," Lu Yin said quietly.
Lu Qi grew solemn. "It’s a pity that I couldn’t find that rat, or else I would have burned him to death."
Lu Yin grew curious. "Father, how did you break free of Cheng Kong's control?"
Lu Qi blinked. "I didn’t break free of anything. He can’t hurt me."
Lu Yin’s confusion only increased.
Lu Qi was clearly not as strong as Lu Yin, and with Heaven’s Sight, Lu Yin knew that Lu Qi had not mastered any sequence particles. There was no one beneath the level of a Sequence Progenitor who could threaten Lu Yin, he was certain of it. However, while Lu Yin was confident that he could escape from Cheng Kong’s control or simply not be harmed by the assassin, what had Lu Qi relied on?
Lu Qi moved a hand, asking Lu Yin to sit with him. The older man took a bit to organize his thoughts. "I have a nickname—Immortal Lu Qi."
Lu Yin still did not understand.
"How should I explain this? When I was a child, I accidentally touched Progenitor Chen’s Heaven’s Furnace. Fortunately, he found me in time and was able to alleviate some of the pressure from the furnace. He then cooperated with Ancestor Tianyi to save me. Even so, for all these years since, a great deal of pressure remains in my body, which constantly puts me in pain, but it’s also saved my life many times during battle.
"If not for that pressure, I would have died alongside our ancestors when our family was exiled."
Lu Yin was stunned. "Progenitor Chen's Heaven’s Furnace?"
Lu Qi grinned. "You never got to meet Progenitor Chen, so you don't know how terrifying his Heaven’s Furnace is. It’s one of his clones’ innate gift, and he once used it to destroy one of the Sixth Mainland’s Progenitors. Just think about that! A power that can obliterate a Progenitor is terrifying, and yet your dad can handle it! Awesome, huh?"
Lu Yin agreed. "That is awesome."
Of course, Lu Yin was no stranger to Heaven’s Furnace. During his first stellular tribulation, he had faced a humanoid tribulation of Progenitor Chen. Lu Yin had fought against eight of Progenitor Chen’s clones, including the one with Heaven’s Furnace. If not for Extremes Must Be Reversed, Lu Yin would have been crushed to death by that furnace.
Lu Qi mentioned the matter rather simply, but no one could understand just how painful it was for his body to constantly suffer from the terrifying pressure.
"Father, where’s your Champions’ Stage?" Lu Yin suddenly asked.
Lu Qi was taken aback, and his eyes started to dart about. "My Champions’ Stage? I didn’t need it, as I couldn’t find the rat who attacked me. If I had, I would have crushed him to death."
Lu Yin stared at Lu Qi. "I want to see my father's Champions’ Stage."
Lu Qi's eye twitched. "Well, I'm pretty tired right now, so let’s do that next time, alright? I'll show you next time."
Lu Yin quietly said, "It must have broken."
Lu Qi was startled. "How did you know about that?"
Lu Yin’s voice turned bitter. "It broke when you saved me."
"Ancestor Tianyi told you?"
"When you were attacked in Food Paradise by the strange power that was headed your way, it was Heaven’s Furnace’s pressure in your body that kept you from dying, wasn’t it?"
Lu Qi stared at Lu Yin as though seeing a ghost. "You know about all of that? I never mentioned that bit to Ancestor Tianyi. Xiaoxuan, how do you know about that?"
Lu Yin let out a breath. "Thank you."
He paused and looked over at Lu Qi. "Dad."
Lu Qi stared at Lu Yin in a daze. Being called “Dad” had touched him deeply, and he felt as though he was seeing Lu Xiaoxuan again, with his bright smile. Lu Qi saw the Seven Heroes all waving to him, encouraging him to have a drink. How long had it been since he had seen that scene? It felt like so much time had already passed, but it had not been very long at all.
Lu Qi's eyes started to flush red, and he quickly pulled out a bottle of alcohol and took a drink.
Lu Yin stood to leave.
"Xiaoxuan, don't dwell on things. Everyone wishes for you to live a good life," Lu Qi said solemnly.
Lu Yin gulped. Yes, all of his family wanted him to live a good life, but he wished the same for all of them. Why was such a simple wish so difficult?
Sometimes the simpler the wish, the more difficult it was to realize.
After leaving the Middle Ocean, Lu Yin returned to the rear battlefield.
The Aeternals had invaded in massive numbers, but no powerhouses were among them.
"Ancestor, these monsters are acting like they’re at the warfront," Lu Yin commented.
Lu Tianyi looked solemn. "It seems like they attacked this place to divert our attention from the sneak attack on the 100,000 currents."
Lu Yin's eyes turned cold. "You can never underestimate the Aeternals."
Lu Tianyi nodded. "Even the incredible Heavens Sect was destroyed by them, and back then, Aeternus was much, much weaker than the Heavens Sect. Even so, they managed to destroy the other Mainlands, one by one. They instigated traitors, like Wu Xing, Wang Miaomiao, Gu Yizhi, and so many others. Now, the Aeternals are no longer what they once were, so of course we cannot underestimate them.”
As Lu Tianyi spoke, Lu Yin looked upwards. Senior Brother Mu Xia and Master Shan had both arrived there. The Heavens Sect’s Progenitor-level experts were scattered all over the megaverse.
Chen Le, Cloudflow, Bai Sheng, Xia Shenji, Xia Qin, Nong Yi, and Progenitor Smoke were all helping to protect other parts of the Sixverse Association. Meanwhile, Lu Tianyi, Master Shan, Mu Xie, and Lu Qi were standing guard over the Perennial World. In the Heavens Sect itself, there was Big Sis, Arch-Elder Zen, Leng Qing, Monarch Xing, Shao Chen, the jiao, and Ancestor Tortoise.
The Heavens Sect was not impregnable, but it was getting there.
Even after more than ten days of fighting on the rear battlefield, no Progenitor-level corpse kings ever appeared.
Finally, Lu Tianyi stepped away from the array bases and headed towards the New World. He wanted to see who was directing the Aeternals on the rear battlefield.
The results were disappointing. There really were none of Aeternus’s peak powerhouses. Not to mention the Seven Skygods, there were not even any of the captains of the True God Guard.
Any Progenitor could easily sweep away all of the attacking corpse kings.
Lu Tianyi casually destroyed the Cosmic Door.
This was the second of the Aeternals’ Cosmic Doors to be destroyed in the Perennial World.
With the Cosmic Door destroyed, the Aeternals were unable to send out more corpse kings to the rear battlefield. The defenders of all five array bases moved out and eliminated the rest of the corpse kings from the New World in a matter of days. Of course, this was in part due to the fact that Lu Yin also took action.
However, Aeternus showed no reaction at all even after all of the corpse kings were wiped out.
On top of that, no Progenitor-level corpse king appeared with another Cosmic Door.
Lu Yin wondered why it had been so incredibly difficult to destroy the first Cosmic Door. After all, Corpse God had personally moved to protect the Cosmic Door in the Astral Sea when Lu Yin had gone to attack it. There was no question that the Cosmic Doors were extremely important to the Aeternals, so why had it been so easy to destroy this one?
No one could understand this until Lu Yin received a bit of news.