Yi Shang felt his teeth start aching. “As I already told you, there won’t be any mistakes. There’s only a few tens of trillions of spirit seeds on the line.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“If this endeavor really isn’t going to work out, should I just give you the spirit seeds here and now?”
“Sure, give them to me,” Lu Yin instantly replied.
Yi Shang glanced at his cosmic ring. “I need to return to the Daquan Domain and have the Chamber of Commerce send them to you.”
“Let’s shake hands to seal the deal.”
“Again with shaking hands?”
“You can return to the Daquan Domain and have your people send me the spirit seeds, but since I don’t trust you, let’s shake hands to seal the deal.”
Yi Shang gritted his teeth. “I’m leaving to do that right now.”
“Swear it.”
Yi Shang’s expression turned bitter. He finally understood that Lu Yin was indeed looking to capture him.
“Seraph Lu, with how you are trying to force me, it appears that you were not just passing by. Rather, you deliberately sought me out, didn’t you?”
Lu Yin shook his head. “If you were to barge into another megaverse on your own, where you were completely surrounded by enemies on all sides, you would understand my caution. Besides, what could I need from you?”
Yi Shang met Lu Yin’s eyes. “We’re both intelligent individuals, so there’s no need for us to beat around the bush. It is certain that the odds will be announced and betting locations will be set up. Your portion of the profits will certainly not be lacking, Seraph Lu. I am not going to leave, so please don’t try to stop me.”
As the man spoke, he started to move back. As he did so, the conscient in the form of a giant astral beast also slowly retreated. Wariness filled the creature’s eyes, along with a hint of fear, and it made sure to keep pace with Yi Shang.
Lu Yin sighed. “As expected, no one in this Spirit Nidus can be trusted. Every last one of you is trying to work against me. In that case, you can’t blame me for being ruthless.”
As he spoke, he lifted a foot and shot forward at the speed of time.
Yi Shang’s eyes narrowed, and he grabbed the astral beast with one hand while taking another step back. However, that one step caused him to vanish entirely.
Lu Yin stared blankly at the empty space. Yi Shang was gone, having vanished without a trace. This was not something that could be done by crossing a vast distance or moving at great speed; only the power of space could have such an effect. Yi Shang must have gone to another universe.
Even for someone at the level of Lu Yin or the Origin Progenitor, it was necessary to tear through the void in order to access another parallel universe. That step was necessary, even if it was extremely quick.
However, Yi Shang had skipped that step entirely and simply vanished.
Was that the ability of his mirebound artifact? It was no wonder why the Origin Progenitor had said that he had not been able to see Yi Shang’s escape. Lu Yin also had not been able to see anything.
However, the astral beast had seen what had happened. As Yi Shang escaped, the conscient that looked like an astral beast had moved between him and Lu Yin and had been within five meters of Lu Yin.
Lu Yin’s goal in moving at the speed of time had not been to capture Yi Shang, as Lu Yin had already known that would be impossible. The goal had been to get closer to the conscient, in order to clearly observe just how Yi Shang had escaped.
During the time that Lu Yin had Possessed the conscient, he had failed to find any memory of Yi Shang’s mirebound artifact. It appeared that Yi Shang was extremely wary of the conscient as well, but the man had been so worried about Lu Yin that he had completely ignored the surrendered conscient. In such a situation, it was impossible for a person to hide their actions from absolutely everyone.
Yi Shang had succeeded in avoiding Lu Yin’s sight, but he had not been able to avoid the astral beast’s sight.
Being within five meters of the conscient had allowed Lu Yin to Possess it briefly, so he had clearly seen that, right before Yi Shang disappeared, he had pulled out a small item that had looked like a wooden wing.
Yi Shang had instantly vanished by using the wooden wing. That wooden wing was his mirebound artifact.
Mirebound artifacts were among the most miraculous objects in reality. Their abilities defied all logic, and not even the Origin Progenitor or Mister Mu could explain such things.
True God had repeatedly tried everything possible to obtain mirebound artifacts. As for Yi Shang, while his combat strength was rather average, using his mirebound artifact enabled him to escape right under the noses of the Origin Progenitor and Lu Yin. This alone proved how incredible mirebound artifacts could be.
That wooden wing was likely a treasure that was specifically used for escaping.
As long as Yi Shang had that wooden wing, it would be extremely difficult to catch him. However, Lu Yin’s first problem was even locating the man.
In an unknown parallel universe, Yi Shang let out a sigh of relief as he looked down at the wooden wing that he held. Unless it became absolutely necessary, he never used his mirebound artifact. Unfortunately, he had been given no other choice when facing Lu Yin.
Yi Shang had found his mirebound artifact by chance, and it had saved his life countless times. Without it, not to mention becoming a Seraph, it would have been difficult for him to have even escaped from the Daquan Domain.
He was a merchant, not someone devoted to combat or conquest, and yet he had succeeded in becoming one of the Seven Seraphs. He had overcome difficulties greater than what others could even imagine.
He put the wooden wing away, and a short distance away, the giant astral beast let out a deep roar.
Yi Shang was in no rush to return. Instead, he continued considering how Lu Yin had managed to locate him, given that Yi Shang had left behind no clues and that no one had been aware of his location. What could have possibly enabled Lu Yin to track Yi Shang down?
Could it be that? When Yi Shang had used his spirit cloudstone, his only call had been from Rong Xiang. Could Seraph Lu have used that connection to locate Yi Shang?
While Yi Shang wanted to avoid Lu Yin, he could not rest for even a day without understanding how he had been found. How could he guarantee that Lu Yin would not find him again? However, even if that happened, it was impossible for Lu Yin to capture Yi Shang before he even reacted. While Seraph Lu apparently lacked the means to capture Yi Shang, it was important to understand how he had been found.
After about half an hour, Yi Shang returned to the Spirit Nidus.
Lu Yin did not return to the Hundred Grasses Domain. Instead, he started rolling his die nearby. He still had more than a month to go before his battle with Emperor Wu, and there was no reason to return to Boundless during that time. Spending that time rolling the die would be far more valuable.
How many conscients lived in the Spirit Nidus? Of those, how many were hiding in parallel universes? What were those conscients thinking? After years of hiding, what might they have seen and learned? This was Lu Yin’s shortcut to better understanding the Spirit Nidus. Something that had previously been impossible had become feasible. It was as if a door to a new world had just been opened before him, and Lu Yin once again felt a sense of omniscience and omnipotence.
It was simply unfortunate that it was impossible to Possess the Spirit Nidus’s cultivators. If that were possible, things would truly be perfect.
However, that was impossible. Their cultivation method of using spirit seeds made it inherently impossible to Possess such cultivators, as the spirit seeds caused each individual to become a unique existence.
There were times when Lu Yin even wondered if the cultivators of the Spirit Nidus were truly human. Undergoing a Spirit Rebirth offered them the opportunity to become either human or beast. While this choice offered advantages for their cultivation path and was also a choice, were such cultivators still entirely human?
In the Tianyuan Megaverse, humanity, through willpower and rigorous training, had slowly risen to surpass the astral beasts. That had allowed humanity to rule the megaverse.
However, Lu Yin did not observe a similarly rigorous and dedicated cultivation. Instead, he saw a different perspective.
Humans in the Spirit Nidus could become beasts by undergoing a Spirit Rebirth. In that case, what was the fundamental difference between that and Aeternus transforming humans into corpse kings? Regardless of whether they became astral beasts or corpse kings, these people were no longer human.
Complex thoughts drifted through Lu Yin’s mind as he tapped his die with a finger. Thinking too much accomplished nothing. He needed to continue rolling his die.
There was only a little over a month left before the fight at the source of the Fu River. That was not much time for cultivators, and many had already gathered at the site of the scheduled battle, awaiting the fight.