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Chapter 1848: The Origin Of The Arcane Art
“Wait!” Tong Yu shouted, looked at Lu Yin, and then seriously said, “My Lord, whether you believe it or not, you will eventually become the lord of my Specter clan.”
“I believe you,” Lu Yin replied.
Tong Yu blinked. “You don’t believe me.”
“I believe you,” Lu Yin repeated.
Tong Yu hesitated, but then a stubborn expression appeared on her face. “You don’t believe me.”
Lu Yin was stunned at the woman’s reaction. “I just told you that I believed you.”
Tong Yu pursed her lips. “You don’t really believe it.”
“What should I say to convince you that I believe you?” He really had no idea what to do. While he truly did not believe what Tong Yu had said about him becoming the Specter clan’s lord, Lu Yin just wanted to get away from the woman as fast as possible.
Tong Yu considered his question for a bit. She looked genuinely confused. “I don’t know. All I know is that I get the feeling that you don’t believe me, and I was given the task of convincing you that you are the Specter clan’s lord and that we are willing to follow and serve you.”
“Task?” Lu Yin became curious. “Who gave you this task?”
“The Chief Justice,” Tong Yu replied.
Lu Yin’s heart skipped a beat. The woman’s answer had nearly given him a misunderstanding, as he had automatically thought of his senior disciple brother, the Chief Justice. However, Tong Yu was speaking of the Chief Justice of the Dark Interstellar Supreme Court.
“Is the Chief Justice the patriarch of your Specter clan?” Lu Yin asked.
Tong Yu nodded. “That’s right, and he asked me to visit you and verify that you believe in our Specter clan’s sincerity in wanting to follow you.”
“What if I just don’t believe you?” Lu Yin asked back.
Tong Yu remained stubborn. “Then I’ll follow My Lord until you believe it.”
Lu Yin pressed a bit, “You won’t attack me?”
Tong Yu laughed loudly. “My Lord is so funny! You are the lord of our Specter clan, so how could any of us attack you? Haha.”
“What if I want you to attack someone else?”
“I don’t know how to fight,” Tong Yu responded in a perfectly natural tone, but just as Lu Yin was about to say something, she added on, “I only kill.”
Lu Yin let out a long breath. “Well, this is where we end things today. If I don’t return, the Warden will become suspicious.”
“Then I’ll kill him,” Tong Yu stated in a completely indifferent manner.
Lu Yin’s gaze grew sharp as he stared at Tong Yu. “I don’t believe it. Are you really going to follow me?”
Tong Yu nodded and then smiled at Lu Yin. “Don’t worry, My Lord, no one will discover anything at all.”
Lu Yin came down with a headache. He could not tell if Tong Yu was telling the truth or not. If this woman really did start following him around, then his life would become very complicated and difficult, as there were just too many secrets that he could not allow others to see. “How strong are you?”
A playful smile slowly crept across Tong Yu’s face. Her golden eyes glittered. “I’m at around the same level as one of the Sixth Mainland’s Empyrean Imprinters.”
Lu Yin’s expression changed drastically. This was a level of strength that only the Second Nightking could stand up to, and even then only at his peak. However, given the strangeness of the Specter clan, it was possible that not even the Second Nightking was capable of standing up to Tong Yu. Lu Yin’s only options to get rid of this woman were either enlisting the help of a Semi-Progenitor or entering Burial Garden.
Was he going to have to return to Burial Garden?
“What are you thinking about, My Lord?” Tong Yu felt quite curious as she smiled and stared into Lu Yin’s eyes. She was not ignorant of the ways of the universe, and she certainly was not unfamiliar with Lu Yin, especially after seeing what he had accomplished during the last battle of ZENITH when he used the God of Death Transformation. That scene had had such an incredible impact on the Specter clan that they had been forced to stop themselves from chasing after Lu Yin as fast as possible. After all, the Aeternals were still watching them.
While Tong Yu had no idea what their Chief Justice was thinking, it did not particularly matter, as she was quite intrigued by Lu Yin anyways.
Lu Yin thought for a moment, before looking back at Tong Yu. “If you want me to believe you, then I need you to answer a few questions for me.”
“My Lord, please tell me.” Tong Yu smiled.
“Between me and the Aeternals, which will you choose?” Lu Yin asked.
Tong Yu was caught off guard. “My Lord, you ask a very direct question that gets straight to the point.”
Lu Yin just stared into Tong Yu’s eyes.
The woman fell silent for a bit. “Personally, I will choose you, My Lord. Since the Chief Justice asked me to come to you, My Lord, I believe that he will also choose you. However, there are many members of the Specter clan, and we might not represent the decisions of the majority of our clan members. Just like how many humans are willing to turn to the Aeternals, the same is true of my Specter clan.”
This sounded like a very honest answer, so Lu Yin continued with his next question. “After ZENITH finished, the Seven Skygods wanted to kill me. Did your clan know about that?”
“We knew.”
“And yet there was no reaction? If I had died, the God of Death’s inheritance that you believed me to have would have most likely disappeared.” Lu Yin continued to carefully watch Tong Yu.
The woman just shrugged. “What were we supposed to do? We don’t have any powerhouses who can stand up to the Seven Skygods. My Lord, you must understand—if my clan had an expert at that level, how could we have ever lost to the Xie family?”
Lu Yin’s eyes flickered. “That’s another thing I’ve been wondering about: how did the Xie family ever manage to defeat the Specter clan?”
When this question was brought up, Tong Yu’s expression finally turned solemn. “It wasn’t just the Xie family, but the entire Seven Courts and even the Hall of Honor acting against us. If not for that, how could the Xie family alone have managed to defeat my Specter clan?”
This was a perfectly reasonable answer. In the Perennial World, the Xie family had been completely eradicated long ago by Specter Abyss, and Specter Abyss was nothing more than another branch of the Specter clan.
The truth was that Lu Yin did believe that there were people from the Specter clan who were willing to acknowledge him. In the Perennial World, a powerhouse from Specter Abyss had sacrificed himself in order to allow Lu Yin to escape. However, Lu Yin did not trust this Chief Justice of the Dark Interstellar Court or their Judicial Commissioners. These people had spent untold years cultivating and improving their strength. They had fought against fate and had even joined hands with the Neohuman Alliance to survive and continue on. How could such people be willing to entrust their future and their existence to a stranger?
“What exactly does my existence mean for your Specter clan? Don’t repeat that bit about me being your lord because of the God of Death’s inheritance, as there’s absolutely no evidence that the God of Death ever even existed,” Lu Yin remained solemn.
Tong Yu smiled. “You seem to have developed a bit of trust in me from my answers so far. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have asked me this question. Still, this is something that I can tell you, My Lord.”
Suddenly, the woman turned serious as she stared at Lu Yin more intently. “The death energy here in Gaia’s Swamp has shrunk down to a few million miles, and the death energy beneath Aeternus Nation is also decreasing. If there comes a day when there is no longer any death energy in the universe, what will my Specter clan do?”
Lu Yin was stunned. Was death energy diminishing? He had never even considered that possibility.
“If the day comes when this universe no longer holds any death energy, my Specter clan will also disappear. We are only able to use death energy while you, our Lord, are the only one able to create death energy.
“Your mere existence guarantees that death energy will eventually be created once again, which will ensure the survival of my Specter clan. This is what your existence means to us. You promise the survival of our entire clan.”
Lu Yin’s hands clenched into fists. “I can’t create death energy.”
“But you’re the person closest to being able to do so,” Tong Yu retorted.
Lu Yin’s eyes suddenly grew suspicious. “Have you all never considered just taking the inheritance from me?”
Tong Yu suddenly fell silent and dropped her head. Lu Yin instantly was put on guard, and he took a few steps back. He regretted voicing that question, as it was an extremely sensitive topic. What if this woman suddenly attacked him? Even though she was not a Semi-Progenitor, she was not far from that level. To Lu Yin, Tong Yu was an unstoppable powerhouse.
He had been stupid to ask that particular question.
There was a smile on Tong Yu’s face that was hidden by the fact that she had lowered her head. She actually looked incredibly happy, and her whole body was trembling. She looked like she had just heard the greatest joke.
Lu Yin took a few more steps back, his vigilance rising higher than ever.
Tong Yu lifted her head to show her brilliant smile. The golden eyes had disappeared, and her eyes appeared normal. Because of how hard she was laughing, her hair had become a bit messy. “The God of Death is someone only spoken of in legends, and there is no evidence to suggest that that person ever even existed, as not even death energy can do that. There’s no way to prove that death energy was created by the God of Death. Have you considered this before, My Lord? If the God of Death truly existed, then how could all traces of such a powerful person have been erased? Both the Rune Progenitor and Progenitor Chen left inheritances behind, and there are also records of them. But what about the God of Death? There is absolutely nothing.”
Tong Yu smiled and stared at Lu Yin. “That’s because the God of Death’s inheritance is not something that can actually be regarded as an inheritance at all, but rather a matter of fate. Only specific people can successfully cultivate the God of Death’s inheritance. My Specter clan has the most knowledge about the God of Death out of anyone in the universe, so we are absolutely certain that no one can take the inheritance from you.”
Lu Yin’s eyes lit up, but he just listened quietly.
“If the God of Death’s inheritance could be taken from someone, do you really believe that you would have enjoyed all these years of peace? Forget the Neohuman Alliance—even my Specter clan would have attacked you. I don’t deny that at all. If your power could be taken away, why would we have waited until now to approach you?” Tong Yu’s explanation continued, “It’s because this power cannot be taken from you or even passed on to another person. Even if your offspring wish to receive this inheritance from you, it is impossible. Or, is it possible that you know how you managed to receive the inheritance, My Lord?”
Did Lu Yin know this? What a joke! He had no idea what he had done, and he only had a few guesses about what had sparked the formation of the black and white mist in his chest. How could he pass anything at all onto someone else? Beat them to death and try to get them to use the Arcane Art—Fatal Revival? If that was possible, it would already have been done.
“My Lord, you should be someone who has managed to cultivate the Arcane Art—Fatal Revival,” Tong Yu suddenly said as she stared at Lu Yin with bright eyes.
His expression changed drastically. “How did you know that?”
“Because my Specter clan was the one to release the Arcane Art!”
Lu Yin was startled.
“The Arcane Art is the only evidence supporting the God of Death’s existence. This is because it is an inheritance passed down by my Specter clan, and it came from death energy itself.
“Once, long ago, one of our ancestors died while crazily absorbing death energy. However, they managed to achieve a moment of clarity right before they died. During that moment, our ancestor left behind the Arcane Art—Fatal Revival. After that, before they could say another word, they were reduced to mere bones. This is why only my Specter clan knows that the Arcane Art came from death energy and that it is actually the God of Death’s inheritance. It is the God of Death’s mark,” Tong Yu explained.
A light flickered in Lu Yin’s eyes. So this cultivation art came from death energy? He suddenly remembered the back of the figure that he had once seen while absorbing death energy. That figure might have been the God of Death themselves. Others might not believe Tong Yu’s story, but Lu Yin did.
“The Arcane Art is the only thing supporting the idea that the God of Death may have truly once lived, and my Specter clan once believed that we had finally received the God of Death’s inheritance. However, no matter how many years passed, not one person from my clan has ever managed to successfully cultivate the Arcane Art—Fatal Revival. It requires a person to resurrect from death, and a person must literally die in order to cultivate this art. However, death is final, so who could ever succeed?”
Sadness entered Tong Yu’s voice. “There was a time when my Specter clan was so powerful and impressive that even the Daosource Sect had to take notice of us, but because of the appearance of the Arcane Art—Fatal Revival, many of our ancestors perished. As a result, our strength withered and has only fallen from that time until now.
“Despite the passage of countless years, not a single person has ever managed to successfully cultivate Fatal Revival. Some of our ancestors suggested that the clan spread the cultivation art into the rest of the universe so that more people could try cultivating it. Then, we could simply find anyone who succeeded, take them back to our clan, and have them absorb death energy, turning them into a member of the Specter clan.
“We completely believe that the Arcane Art is the God of Death’s inheritance and that successfully cultivating it will naturally allow a person to absorb death energy and become part of the Specter clan. However, after all these years and the Arcane Art spreading throughout the universe, no one has ever managed to cultivate it. Over time, we even began to forget about it and abandoned all hope.”
Excitement suddenly blossomed in Tong Yu’s eyes as she suddenly looked at Lu Yin. “My Lord, you are the only person to ever succeed in cultivating Fatal Revival throughout the eons!”
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