Star Odyssey

Chapter 1442: Life Experience

Lu Yin's eyes flickered, and he raised a hand, bringing out his Champions' Stage and letting it slowly rotate in place. It was possible to see the image of the Giant Emperor on it, looking almost as though it was still alive.

When Bai Shaohong saw the Champions' Stage, he was stunned stiff, as though he had been struck by lightning.

"So? Is this enough to prove my identity?" Lu Yin asked in a cold voice. This particular innate gift was the most solid proof of his past. Despite all of his guesses and deductions, he had nothing that connected him to the exiled Lu family aside from the Champions' Stage.

Lu Yin hoped to use Bai Shaohong to reaffirm his connection to the Lu family, and also to find out exactly what had happened in the past. While the chances of learning this information from the Junior Progenitor were very slim, Lu Yin would not give up as long as there was even the slightest possibility of success.

Bai Shaohong was struck dumb the moment he saw the Champions' Stage. Slowly, he managed to tear his gaze away from it and back at Lu Yin. It was as though Bai Shaohong was actually looking at Lu Yin for the first time.

His eyes held conflicting emotions, including disbelief, nostalgia, a great deal of resentment, jealousy, and… fear.

"I know who you are! Hahahaha, you're back! You really are back, hahahaha!" Bai Shaohong laughed like a madman as he stared at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin seized him by the collar. "Then tell me who I am!"

Bai Shaohong laughed. "I'm not stupid. You've lost all your memories, and you know nothing about the Lu family! You don't know where you came from, who's waiting for you, or even who your enemy is, hahahaha! You don't know anything! You're so pathetic. Do you know why you were even able to survive? It's simply because your fate is the most tragic, hahahaha!"

Lu Yin clenched his fists as he stared into Bai Shaohong's eyes. "I don't feel like my life is that tragic. You're in my grasp afterall."

"As expected, you're actually able to fight back. Still, it's all useless. Everything has already been determined, and you can't change things no matter what you do! You're even a trespasser now! It looks like you've received a lot of support from those bugs in the Forsaken Land, but so what? So what even if you amass the entire Forsaken Land to attack this universe? You can't even go up against the Celestial Frost Sect alone! You can't go against my sister, just like your siblings!" After he finished speaking, Bai Shaohong suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood as his body was torn apart. He had committed suicide.

Lu Yin had not expected Bai Shaohong to kill himself. Wordless, he let go of the corpse and watched as Bai Shaohong's body fell to the ground.

Bai Shaohong had been the Celestial Frost Sect's Junior Progenitor, and he had been beyond arrogant and conceited. Although he had done his best to stay alive, even sacrificing his dignity to do so, he had decisively committed suicide at that moment. It just went to show how much of an effect Lu Yin's identity had had on the Junior Progenitor.

Only when confronting someone they considered to be of an equal or higher status would such a person ever debase themselves. It was a common trait among those at the top.

From Bai Shaohong's perspective, Lu Yin had previously been nothing more than an ant from the Forsaken Land. Even if Lu Yin had received an inheritance from the God of Death, he still had not qualified to enter Bai Shaohong's sight. Whenever he looked at Lu Yin, Bai Shaohong only ever saw one thing: treasure. He had wanted to take everything from Lu Yin: the Origin Matter, his secret techniques, and even the God of Death's inheritance.

However, everything had taken a 180 after Lu Yin had revealed his Champions' Stage. Bai Shaohong had let go of his arrogance and sense of invincibility. He had abandoned his threats and forgone any hopes of finding a peaceful solution. Their relative statuses had reversed, which was why Bai Shaohong's eyes had been filled with more fear than resentment, and that was also why he had chosen to commit suicide.

The moment Bai Shaohong heard Lu Yin's surname, he had already known that there was no way to survive, and thus, suicide was his last decision to make. Bai Shaohong had not wanted to die at Lu Yin's hands.

Standing beside the Champions' Stage, Lu Yin's face had frozen stiff as he stared at Bai Shaohong's corpse.

"By my name, I appoint you as my champion." A chilly voice fell, and an image of Bai Shaohong was branded onto the Champions' Stage with life-like details.

Lu Yin stared at Bai Shaohong's corpse as the recent words repeatedly echoed in his mind.

Lu Yin had only revealed his surname to confirm things about his past. He had indeed managed to confirm where he came from and gained a lot of information, but there was still so much more to uncover.

The Lu family, the four ruling powers, and the White Dragon Rolls Over. These details were only the tip of the iceberg, and there was a great deal more hidden from him.

Bai Shaohong had said that the day of the Lu family's exile had been the same day as their festival. Apparently, the entire Lu family had only gathered because of this festival, which had presented the rare opportunity to cast all of them out at once. In that case, why had there been a festival? Who had been behind everything and caused the four ruling powers to join forces? There had to be a mastermind, as how else could the four ruling powers have joined forces so easily? Even if the White Dragon had rolled over, how had that managed to push the entire Lu family away? The Lu family had been powerful enough to force the four ruling powers to join forces, which meant that they had definitely been more powerful than any one of the four ruling powers.

Could the Lu family have lacked the strength to fight back? What about everyone else? For example, what role had the Liu family and Seed Garden played during those events? Why had Bai Shaohong been so certain that Lu Yin suffered from amnesia? Was the seal on Lu Yin's back that inhibited his various breakthroughs somehow connected to all of this?

There was just too much that Lu Yin still had to find out. More importantly, who was his family's enemy? Who was the hand in the dark that had directed the events leading to the Lu family's exile?

There were still too many secrets hidden from Lu Yin in the Perennial World.

After thinking about matters for a long time, Lu Yin finally released a pent up breath. He engraved all that he had learned into his memory and then looked at the cosmic ring. It was pointless to get caught up in the mysteries that he was pursuing right now, as he could only continue investigating after he left the Dominion Realm. At this moment, he had to focus on all the possible rewards that he could harvest.

Lu Yin found tens of millions of star essence in Bai Shaohong's cosmic ring, and when that was combined with everything else, it meant that Lu Yin had about 300 million star essence on him. It was quite a bit, but not a massive amount.

As he looked at a fruit that was stored in a box made of some strange crystal, Lu Yin felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity, but he could not remember from where. Had he come across this type of fruit before? If he had seen it before, then that memory seemed to have been sealed away.

Lu Yin put away the fruit, and next, he looked at a flower. It was red, delicate, and truly beautiful. Suddenly, Lu Yin went stiff with shock; he had seen this flower before as well.

Earlier, after rolling six pips on his die, he had Possessed an Enlighter and tried to find out any memories related to the Lu family. As he had done so, the Enlighter's head had exploded, and the last image that Lu Yin had managed to glimpse from the man's memories was of a shower of precisely these red flowers drifting down from the sky.

Lu Yin stared at the delicate red flower. He had no idea why Bai Shaohong had this flower, but Lu Yin intended to keep it. Finally, after sorting through Bai Shaohong's various power vessels, Lu Yin came across a square metal plate that had four lines on it. It was a sourcebox array.

Lu Yin was quite certain that he was looking at a sourcebox array, and the lines on this piece of metal seemed rather familiar to him. He felt that it was related to a certain battle technique.

Had someone managed to place Void Rip into a sourcebox array?

If so, then that person was an incredibly skilled Array Master. Just looking at the plate left Lu Yin feeling fearful. He was lucky that Bai Shaohong had not tried to use this sourcebox array, as Lu Yin might not have been able to withstand this attack. Clearly, it would not have given him any time to prepare his defenses.

Lu Yin placed the cosmic ring back onto the finger of Bai Shaohong's corpse and then started sorting through everything that he had looted from the other various people.

He had gained about 300 million star essence, but his most valuable gains were the pillar of tribulation crystals, the Origin Matter, the knife and hairpin that he had taken from Wang Su, the long spear with a strange green gelatinous substance attached to it that he had taken from Long Tian, the puppet that he had found on Xia Shenfei, and the sourcebox array from Bai Shaohong. Also, he had found the four Junior Progenitors' tokens along with various other odd knick knacks and items.

He had found more than 200 sheets of blank white paper. He could not figure out what the paper was for, but he had found it on Bai Shaohong and some of the others.

After sorting through everything, Lu Yin's mood greatly improved. During this trip to the Dominion Realm, he had made out exceptionally well. He had grabbed the pillar of tribulation crystal in the Voidsoul Palace as well as Progenitor Ku's battle technique. He was not certain of the abilities of this puppet that he had taken from Xia Shenfei, but if it worked well, it might be able to replace his universal armor.

Lu Yin merged his consciousness back into the withered corpse and carried his own body out on its back. He then dragged Bai Shaohong back within the Forgotten Ruins and set him in the same position as all of the others so that no one would be able to tell that he had already died. Lu Yin then looked for Unseen Light and the others and dragged them over to the chamber's exit one at a time.

Unseen Light, Wu Taibai, Shang Qing, and Liu Tianmu were all taken out. Then, Lu Yin stared at Yao Xuan; should this person be taken out as well? Lu Yin struggled momentarily, but he ultimately decided to take out the prince of the Celestial Beast Empire. After all, during the earlier fight, Yao Xuan had used his Force Explosion to rouse Lu Yin's consciousness, which had prevented him from suffering far worse injuries.

Five people were dragged to the edge of the Forgotten Ruins and then left there. Almost done, Lu Yin set the withered corpse to the side, reverted his consciousness back to his own body, and then dragged all five people out of the Forgotten Ruins in one go.

The moment the five left the range of the Forgotten Ruins, they instantly woke up and reflexively retreated.

Lu Yin pursed his lips. "You're safe now."

All five youths had put a certain amount of distance between themselves before looking at each other and then at Long Tian and the others still trapped within the Forgotten Ruins. Finally, they focused their attention back onto Lu Yin.

"You weren't affected by the Forgotten Ruins?" Wu Taibai was surprised.

Lu Yin looked at Wu Taibai. "You're from Shenwu's Sky, so why did you help us?"

Yao Xuan also spoke up. "I was surprised by that as well. What did Xia Shenfei mean when he said that you betrayed Shenwu's Sky?"

Wu Taibai shrugged. "I didn't betray them—I just have a different goal. You've already seen for yourselves how the people of the Perennial World look down upon the Fifth Mainland, but I don't agree with their viewpoint. The Fifth Mainland holds certain inheritances that this place is missing, and they can only be found there. Shenwu's Sky also has certain inheritances that are only reserved for Xia Shenfei's junior brother, so I just left."

"Is that really all there is to it?" Lu Yin did not believe this explanation.

Wu Taibai retorted, "What do you think?"

Lu Yin's eyes flashed. "How did you get to the Sixth Mainland and become the Progenitor of Combat's disciple?"

Wu Taibai leaned against the wall of the chamber. "Brother Lu, are you interrogating me? Don't forget—I helped you out just now, and I've never done anything to harm you from the very beginning."

Lu Yin's eyes flickered. Bai Shaohong had not known about the location of the Upper Three Gates, so there was no way that Wu Taibai could know. In that case, how had he entered the Fifth Mainland? No it should be the Sixth Mainland?

The Fifth and Sixth Mainlands. The Technocracy. The Wang family. Lu Yin seemed to gain some understanding, but this was Wu Taibai's business. "What are the Forgotten Ruins?"

Everyone else was similarly curious, and they could not suppress their desire to know the answer.

Wu Taibai glanced around at everyone. When he answered, there was fear in his voice. "The Wang family has a certain battle technique that's known as Forgotten Ruins. As the name suggests, it's a technique that can make a person forget everything, even their physical selves. The result of mastering this technique is the Forgotten Ruins, as the technique can be focused onto a specific place, though it needs someone to trigger the activation."

He looked over at the nearby corpse. "If I'm not wrong, that corpse is the key to these ruins."

Unseen Light and a few others had already noticed the corpse, and it was fairly obvious that Lu Yin was able to control the corpse, which was quite bizarre.