As Lu Yin watched the Warden’s various changes, he took Lǜ Cha away from the castle. Lu Yin had no idea how much the Warden’s strength would rise, or how much larger he would grow, but Lu Yin was eager to find out.
Lǜ Cha was confused by the entire matter. "Dao Chosen, what is this?"
"It's fine. He’s just getting a boost to his strength," Lu Yin answered casually.
Some distance away, Lord Piggy glanced up at the castle, only to quickly burrow down into the swamp again, terrified. The Warden had been forced into such a miserable condition as soon as that man had returned to Gaia’s Swamp, and Lord Piggy could absolutely not see him! Never again! He was too scary!
A roar exploded in the sky high above Gaia's Swamp, and the churning power forced the void back in a manner that could be seen by the naked eye. The castle almost instantly shattered, as the Warden was quickly growing. 70,000 meters. 100,000 meters. 120,000 meters… Finally, he stopped at 150,000 meters.
During the entire time the Warden was growing, his combat strength was also rising. Unfortunately, with the true universe depleted of all stellular energy, the Warden’s cultivation could not improve, and it was impossible for him to face any of the corresponding stellular tribulations. Despite the incredible rise in strength and size, the Warden’s stellular energy cultivation had not changed, which meant that the difference would not be overly impressive.
Just as this thought occurred to Lu Yin, the Warden’s body became visible, and roiling battle force covered the giant’s entire body. It continued to spike and surge, constantly burning the void.
It was clearly aurelian force.
In the past, the Warden’s aurelian force had been able to encompass an area within 100 miles of the Warden’s body, but the range started increasing and expanding. It soon reached 500 miles away from the Warden, then 1,000 and 5,000. Finally, it stopped expanding when it had spread out to encompass everything within 10,000 miles of the Warden. This was the new limit to his strength.
His battle force had grown much, much stronger.
The Warden grew increasingly excited as he felt the massive increase in strength of his aurelian force. He could not resist looking down at Lu Yin, and at that moment, Lu Yin was also looking up at the Warden as well. Their eyes met, and the Warden felt a cold flash. It felt as though someone else was holding his life in their hands.
It was clear that Lu Yin was only a three-tribulation Envoy, so why was he so terrifying?
"Congratulations on a successful breakthrough. As long as the true universe recovers, you’ll reach a power level of at least a million," Lu Yin complimented the giant.
The Warden released a pent up breath, and then his body started to shrink until he reached the same size as before. He then offered Lu Yin a very respectful bow. "I only succeeded thanks to the Dao Chosen."
"Do you know whose blood that was?" Lu Yin asked.
"Progenitor Chen's."
"That's right. I gave you Progenitor Chen’s blood, which allowed your strength to rise tremendously. Shouldn’t you offer me some sort of compensation?" Lu Yin gently prodded.
The Warden felt terribly puzzled. "What do I possess that the Dao Chosen would be interested in?"
Lu Yin just smiled.
Lu Yin soon appeared outside Gaia's Swamp, a satisfied expression on his face.
The Warden had provided Lu Yin with a great deal of blood. Given the size of the colossal giant, and the fact that he had literal rivers of blood, Lu Yin should have more than enough to serve his purposes, even if Enhancing the blood did reduce the quantity by a significant amount.
He needed to gather enough of Progenitor Chen’s blood to be able to learn the Nine Clones Secret Technique.
His next task was to visit the Astral River in order to see if he could dig up a good amount of pyrolyte from the bottom.
Naturally, this was not something that Lu Yin could accomplish on his own. If he was going to excavate the bottom of the Astral River, he needed to dig up a significant portion of it.
Lu Yin therefore returned straight to the Heavens Sect, and he sat himself down upon the jiao's head before kicking it awake. "Why are you sleeping again? Come on, let's go!"
The jiao opened its eyes, startled but the sudden impact. It wanted to demonstrate its rage by threatening and intimidating whoever had disturbed it, but it could only close its mouth when it discovered Lu Yin’s presence. Frustrated, the jiao could only obey Lu Yin and move over to the Astral River.
On this particular day, the miners who worked on the mud flats alongside the Astral River were treated to a show that they would never be able to forget. Massive, sharp claws fell from high above and stabbed into the Astral River with enough force to almost overturn the river.
Since Lu Yin was using the jiao to dig, it would be a waste to use the beast to excavate the banks of the astral river where sand and gravel was fused with the pyrolyte, making it difficult to sift through and extract. Each piece had to be checked visually, which was not something that the jiao could help with. Instead, the jiao could reach down, dig up the bottom of the Astral River, and reveal what was concealed down there.
The jiao’s claws fell, but it found nothing. An endless amount of filth and gravel fell out from between the beast’s claws, but when the paw was fully pulled up, it held nothing more than some moisture and some flopping fish.
"Again!" Lu Yin ordered, and the jiao reached down and dug up more dirt.
"Again!"
The jiao reached down again.
"Again!"
It continued. Again and again, the jiao reached down and pawed at the bottom of the Astral River, churning up the river, and almost upsetting the distant Astral River Ark.
Despite numerous efforts, no pyrolyte was discovered, though the beast did dig up a massive fish. It was about as big as the jiao’s claws, and given the absurd size of the jiao, the fish was truly enormous. Even more importantly, the fish was as strong as a Semi-Progenitor, and when it flailed its tail and flopped about, even the jiao’s claws vibrated. Still, it was utterly impossible for the fish to actually injure the jiao even the tiniest bit.
Lu Yin told the jiao to hold still, and then he moved down to its claws to inspect the fish.
The fish appeared perfectly ordinary, just stupidly big. When it saw Lu Yin approach, it opened its mouth and tried to bite him. To Lu Yin, the two rows of teeth looked like mountain ranges, and the mouth of the fish emitted a horrible stench.
Lu Yin frowned. "Can you understand me?"
The fish kept snapping at Lu Yin, trying to bite him, but the jiao held the fish firmly, and it was unable to move at all. Strangest of all, the fish was clearly unafraid.
Any creature that had not yet reached the Progenitor level itself would feel an overwhelming pressure from a creature that had reached that level. The fish did not have the necessary strength, and yet it continued to struggle non-stop in vain attempts to break free.
.
After observing the fish for a long time, Lu Yin came to the conclusion that it had no spark of sapience.