Chapter 4070: Seizing

The reason why Lu Yin had sat still in meditation for the previous two years had been to follow the ways of the Lost Clan. However, since the card still refused to cooperate, he could only change his approach.

Countless members of the Lost Clan blankly stared on as Lu Yin held the card in his hand. It trembled violently, trying to break free.

No one stepped forward to interfere. On one side was the card that had saved them, and on the other was Lu Yin. People did not know which to support.

In their hearts, their trust in Lu Yin outweighed their reverence for Shan Barrens, as the people here had no real impression of the Third Rampart. Their entire sense of identity belonged to the Tianyuan.

Lu Yin was the ruler of their megaverse. Everything in it belonged to him.

Only Great Elder Shan Gu felt conflicted, but he also did not intervene.

The Lost Clan respected and feared their cards, but they also resented them.

Shan Barrens was clearly a card from the Third Rampart, and yet it had refused to ever acknowledge anyone from the Lost Clan. Lu Yin was right; if the card had recognized their last emperor, then even if the Third Rampart had ultimately been destroyed, then no one could have been blamed. The Nest civilization would have also been forced to pay a far steeper price.

Additionally, if the Immortal Lord had not intervened, it might have been possible for the emperor to escape.

Of course, it was also possible that, even with Shan Barrens, the Lost Clan would have failed to escape and that all of them would have been annihilated.

Anything was possible, though people would have preferred for their emperor to wield Shan Barrens and fight to the death, rather than have the card carry them away.

With Lu Yin taking direct action, everyone hoped for him to succeed in controlling the card.

He held the card tightly. No matter how it trembled, it could not break free.

So what if it possessed a power comparable to an Immortal’s? No matter how powerful it might be, a card was still just a card. Without an Immortal to control it, the card’s efforts meant nothing to Lu Yin.

The sky trembled, and the Lost Clan’s universe quaked. Every card with an owner vibrated in resonance.

“You belong to the Lost Clan,” Great Elder Shan Gu’s voice rang across the stars, “Honor Lord Lu: take it!”

“Take it!”

“Take it!”

“Take it!”

...

Countless voices joined together, echoing throughout the universe, shaking all of reality.

In an instant, the card stopped trembling, as though it had been subdued by the collective will of the Lost Clan.

Lu Yin held the card and examined it. It did not look much different from cards like Evernight or Aurora, with one exception: the feeling that it radiated. It was not a difference in power, but in sensation.

It was similar to the feeling that Jiang Feng’s aura energy, the Origin Progenitor’s Doctrine of Rectitude, or Mister Mu’s mastery of time gave him.

It was a unique sensation with a distinctive rhythm.

It was neither Immortal matter nor Lifeforce, and yet there was a singular sensation to it. This means...

He used a bit of Immortal matter and pressed it to the card. It smoothly flowed into it.

As expected, the card could be reinforced with Immortal matter, which meant that it was equivalent to housing the power of an Immortal.

At the moment, Lu Yin was most eager to see the card’s trap.

He laid the card flat. It did not disappear. The moment it stopped shaking, it had accepted Lu Yin. It had not only accepted Lu Yin, but also the collective will of the Lost Clan. The card floated quietly in the sky.

Lu Yin entered the card, but nothing entered his eyes. The card’s pocket dimension was pure white, which was the complete opposite of Evernight.

He closed his eyes and calmly sensed his surroundings.

After a while, he opened his eyes. A square formation appeared around him. He flicked a finger, sending a powerful attack into one side of the formation. Ripples spread out from the point of impact, but there was no true effect.

He struck again, with greater power.

He still could not break the formation.

He attacked repeatedly, testing the formation’s limits, only to be surprised that the formation could withstand the power that he had used against the Immortal monster.

The trap’s endurance alone was enough to contend with the average Immortal, and yet the formation’s true ability was that it could cycle infinite attacks.

With the formation, any attack that was unleashed could be recovered, reused, and released again, endlessly.

Lu Yin had seen many energy-recycling techniques before, particularly Verdant Eternity. Even so, the formation within Shan Barrens was the only one that was capable of countering an Immortal’s Lawless Barrier. Even if the formation could not directly harm an Immortal, it could deplete their Immortal matter.

Combined with the formation’s defenses, there was no doubt that it could trap an average Immortal.

This was also only what Shan Barrens was capable of with the card’s first seal unlocked.

Yes, the formation was only the first seal.

The card contained multiple traps, each of which required progressive unsealing. It was no wonder why the card was so arrogant and had looked down on everyone. Even its first seal was enough to challenge an ordinary Immortal.

If either the droplet-shaped bug or the humanoid Verdant Sage had been trapped inside the card, they would not have been able to easily escape. If the card had been in the hands of Greater Sancte Awe Gate, the Immortal insects most likely would have been trapped forever.

Lu Yin was eager to unlock the second seal.

But doing so would take time. Lu Yin felt that it was time for him to enter the Mirari Realm for nothing else but the card. He wanted to see how many seals it held.

The Third Rampart’s understanding of Shan Barrens was far too shallow.

He dropped back down to the ground. The Lost Clan’s universe had calmed down once more, though countless people were staring at Lu Yin with a combination of anticipation and nervousness.

They were anxious that their most supreme card was no longer theirs, yet they were also hoping that it would be able to shine even brighter in Lu Yin’s hands and lead their people to greater heights.

Lu Yin landed in front of Great Elder Shan Gu and Emperor Slayer. He opened his hand for them to see.

He knew that Shan Gu had long desired to examine this particular card.

During the time that the Lost Clan fled from the Third Rampart, there had been no time to study it.

In front of him, Great Elder Shan Gu stared blankly at Shan Barrens in Lu Yin’s hand, swallowing excitedly. “Th-this is...the Primordial card?”

Emperor Slayer also looked at Shan Barrens, but it did not seem all that special to him.

At the moment, Shan Barrens appeared no different from any other card. It was hard to associate it with the Primordial card that had just appeared in the sky.

“This is Shan Barrens. Great Elder Shan Gu, would you like to visit its interior trap?” Lu Yin asked with a smile.

Shan Gu’s excited eyes rose to Lu Yin’s face. “May I?”

Lu Yin nodded, and then pulled the old man into the card, while also dragging Emperor Slayer in.

Emperor Slayer exclaimed in shock, “This has nothing to do with me!”

His voice quickly faded as he vanished.

Lu Yin then also entered the card.

In the white space, Shan Gu glanced around in confusion. When Emperor Slayer saw Lu Yin appear, he rushed over. “L- Lord Lu, I have no interest in this. Let me out.”

Lu Yin ignored the beast and simply activated the formation, allowing both Great Elder Shan Gu and Emperor Slayer to experience what a truly endless attack felt like.

He used only a small bit of strength, so as not to harm Shan Gu or Emperor Slayer, but the disturbing detail was that the attack continued endlessly. Much like when he used Verdant Eternity, there was no loss of energy, and each cycle of returned power was flawlessly reused by the formation, again and again.

Emperor Slayer tried to break the formation, only to utterly fail.

Even Lu Yin was impressed by the formation’s defensive power, let alone Emperor Slayer.

When the two finally emerged, they were in awe of Shan Barrens.

However, Great Elder Shan Gu appeared puzzled, as though there was something he wanted to say.

“It doesn’t seem powerful enough, does it?” Lu Yin asked.

Shan Gu nodded. “The endless attack and the defenses that can stump even you should be sufficient, but it still feels like something is missing.”

“It falls a bit short of the legends from your Third Rampart,” Lu Yin agreed. He then smiled. “That’s because there’s a second seal.”

Shan Gu’s eyes flared with excitement. “There’s a second trap?”

Lu Yin nodded.

The Great Elder finally let out a sigh of relief. If Shan Barrens only had the one trap that he had seen, then the card would indeed fall short of his people’s legends. The emperor should not have failed to control the card. A second trap explained things.

Throughout the history of the Third Rampart, there had been cards whose traps had been sealed. Shan Xiao’s Emperor’s Gaze had been one of them.

The two emperor cards had only ever belonged to the emperor, and only the emperors had known their secrets. Everyone else believed that there was only a single card that belonged to the emperor.

Indeed, within the Third Rampart, Emperor’s Gaze had been sufficient on its own. No foe had been worthy of the emperor’s second card. Only during the final battle, when Shan Xiao had betrayed humanity, had the full power of the two emperor cards erupted, revealing a portion of the Third Rampart’s hidden foundations. Even so, humanity had still lost.

Shan Barrens’ first trap had felt a little underwhelming. The only reasonable explanation was that the card had a second trap.

“Lord Lu, if you can release the second seal, then you might be able to externally manifest the card’s traps,” Shan Gu said, visibly excited.

Lu Yin had already had the same thought. Only with such an ability would Shan Barrens match the power described in Third Rampart’s legends.

He looked over at Emperor Slayer. “You contributed to luring out Shan Barrens just now. You still haven’t told me what you want.”

Earlier, when Emperor Slayer had asked how to progress towards the Immortal realm, Lu Yin had ended up enlightening himself instead. The path that he had pointed out for Emperor Slayer felt more like an experiment.

Everyone’s path to Immortality was experimental. Too few throughout human history had managed to reach that level, and not even Lu Yin truly understood the path.

Emperor Slayer thought for a moment. “Then... how about you allow me to go free?”

Lu Yin smiled. “You can go wherever you wish.”

“I would’ve gone back to the Spirit Nidus already, but I was stopped,” Emperor Slayer replied.

Lu Yin answered evenly, “You were stopped by your megaverse’s invincible being, not me. Besides, do you really want to return to the Spirit Nidus?”

Emperor Slayer had not expected the Spirit Nidus’s invincible being to stop his own people from returning home. There was no explanation why. In comparison to Lu Yin, their invincible being should care more about them, unless another one of Lu Yin’s schemes was in play.

During his years in the Tianyuan, Emperor Slayer had heard plenty of stories about Lu Yin. The beast’s strongest impression was that Lu Yin was ruthless, black-hearted, and dangerously clever.

There was no doubt that Lu Yin had not managed to reach his current heights through brute strength alone.

“Then... the right to live freely?” Emperor Slayer suddenly brightened.

Lu Yin arched a brow. “Oh? Is someone restricting your freedom?”

Emperor Slayer did not answer. He had previously been impeded by those scheming people in the Heavens Sect, but with Lu Yin back, his days had grown far darker.

Lu Yin agreed.

Emperor Slayer let out a breath of relief. Freedom was enough. It seemed that resources could not lead to Immortality anyway. If that were possible, the High Seraph would have already become an Immortal.

“That attack that you released... where did it come from?” Lu Yin asked as his gaze once again fell to the beast’s right index finger.

Great Elder Shan Gu also looked down.

The same question had puzzled everyone, but with the war with the Nest civilization over, they had all been too busy. No one had found the time to interrogate Emperor Slayer about the matter.

That energy sword had destroyed an Immortal’s attack. It had been terrifyingly powerful. In the current human civilization, aside from the few Immortals, it was possible that Lu Yin alone could survive such an attack. It was likely too much even for Jiang Feng.

That one sword attack had been even more powerful than the massive droplet.

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