Chapter 4452: Heart And Spirit

“She died in an astral phenomenon. Without incident, she could have lived as long as me, or even longer, but she died. After that, my heart grew cold.

“I have other descendants, but none of them are Xixi.

“After all those years, I left Earth. I’ve visited the Heavens Sect, seen its brilliant prosperity, and experienced what, to me, was a splendid life. I have no regrets, so I can face death directly while waiting for that final moment. But for you, that moment is a luxury. You will never wait for the moment of natural death, Lu Yin. I am sorry.”

Lu Yin found this amusing. “What do you have to apologize for?”

Zhou Shan closed his eyes. “Clearly, all of us live under your protection, yet you are not even able to choose your own manner of death while all of us can die peacefully of old age. This is too unfair to you.”

Lu Yin took another sip of tea. “You’re overthinking things. If one can live, who would want to die? Immortality is everyone’s pursuit.”

Zhou Shan set down his teacup. “I will do my best to stay alive. As long as you need it, even if I must force myself, I will hold out until the day when you no longer want to see me.”

“Hahahaha!” Lu Yin laughed loudly.

Zhou Shan laughed too. “Come, have a taste. I made these pastries. See if they are the same as the ones that Miss Long Xi makes.”

“Has Long Xi been here?”

“She brought me pastries once.”

“Let me try. Mm... not the same. These aren’t as tasty as Long Xi’s.”

“Really? I think they are about the same.”

“They’re much worse.”

“These are the ones that Long Xi made. I couldn’t bear to eat them last time, so I’ve kept them until now.”

“...”

Not long after that, Bai Xue also arrived. She was practically Zhou Shan’s last acquaintance still on Earth with whom he could chat with. She also brought Shang Qing with her.

Lu Yin looked at Shang Qing and then at Bai Xue, but he was not surprised.

They all chatted for a bit, and eventually, Zhang Dingtian and the others were mentioned.

“Old Zhang and the others went to Jupiter and never came back. It’s already been a long time,” Zhou Shan commented.

Lu Yin was surprised. “Jupiter? What were they doing there?”

Zhou Shan shook his head, as he did not know.

Bai Xue said, “My sister also went to Jupiter.”

“And Liu Shaoge as well,” Shang Qing interjected.

Lu Yin received a further surprise. “Bai Qian came back?”

Bai Xue nodded.

Bai Qian—her name was impossible to forget. Although he had only interacted with her a few times, Lu Yin had always remembered her. At one point in time, the two of them had joined forces to scheme against the Transcendent Universe. Later, she had been captured by Aeternus, but she had used the corpse of an Immortal to protect herself. Eventually, she had vanished without a trace. At that time, not even Lu Yin had been unable to find her.

He had not expected her to return.

Had Zhang Dingtian, Bai Qian, and Liu Shaoge all gone to Jupiter? And all of them had disappeared.

“How do you know that they disappeared?” Lu Yin asked.

Zhou Shan replied, “I contacted the Heavens Sect, but even after searching, they could not be found.”

Lu Yin looked towards Jupiter and stood up. “It’s time for me to go. I’ll take a look as well.”

Zhou Shan and the others all stood to bid Lu Yin farewell. Once he was gone, Bai Xue looked Zhou Shan over. “You have changed a bit.”

He smiled. “I should find some time to go to the Heavens Sect and ask for some resources. I need to try to live a bit longer.”

***

Lu Yin teleported to Jupiter, where he saw the familiar altar. All that had changed was that the stone placed atop the altar had cracked.

There were footprints around it that should have been left by Zhang Dingtian and the others.

Why had they come to this place? Lu Yin circled the altar once, but he could not find any reason.

This altar had once been used to worship Stillstorm. Before humanity appeared in the Tianyuan, Stillstorm had been the ruler of the megaverse. Earth’s cycles of extinction had been caused by Stillstorm’s power leaking out, as this planet was where Stillstorm had once lived.

At the moment, no one knew where Stillstorm had gone.

Lu Yin had used the stone sphere to suppress Stillstorm’s power, eliminating Earth’s problem of the cyclical apocalypses. Logically, the matter should have ended there.

Unless Stillstorm had returned.

However, the stone ball was broken, and Zhang Dingtian and the others had all disappeared. What connection could there be?

Lu Yin placed a hand over the altar and waved casually. Space trembled, and Stillstorm’s power was instantly dispersed. In the past, he had needed to use the stone ball to suppress Stillstorm’s lingering power in the altar, but he was currently capable of simply dispersing it.

It was no exaggeration to say that, even if Stillstorm stood before Lu Yin in person, unless it had managed to become a three-law Immortal, it would be difficult for the astral beast to pose a threat to Lu Yin’s life. He was not afraid of Stillstorm itself, let alone a bit of remnant power that had lingered for countless years.

After studying the altar for a while, Lu Yin united with the will of the megaverse and observed the entire Tianyuan. At the same time, he peered into one parallel universe after another, trying to find Zhang Dingtian and the others.

After more than half a month, Lu Yin ended his merged state. He had failed to locate them. Zhang Dingtian and the others were most likely no longer in the Tianyuan at all. But just where could they have gone?

Jupiter had once been able to transport people to the Perennial World due to a sourcebox array, but the Perennial World was still a part of the Tianyuan and thus completely bare to Lu Yin’s eyes. On top of that, Zhang Dingtian and the others’ disappearance had nothing to do with that array.

Was it possible that the altar also had an ability to send people elsewhere? He had never considered that before.

The sphere had already broken apart, so whatever ability it may have possessed had also vanished.

Lu Yin left Jupiter. Each person had their own opportunities. There was no need to interfere or force things. When it was time to appear, they would appear.

Several years later, one of the sequence strings in the Tianyuan trembled. Lu Yin glanced over and saw that Progenitor Chen had entered Dukkha. He let out a breath of relief. Lu Yin did not ask what Progenitor Chen’s Dukkha was, but after the man stabilized himself, Lu Yin took him back to the Mirari Realm so that they could continue cultivating the Star Fist.

As they proceeded, it became clear that Progenitor Chen’s mastery and speed at improving the Star Fist were completely different from before. He continuously lit up more and more stars, absolutely stunning Lu Yin. He had thought that the speed at which Progenitor Chen had illuminated stars while on Earth was already impressive, but at this moment, he was still accelerating.

Progenitor Chen’s Starfist Manual already encompassed the entire Outerverse, and he had lit up almost all the stars in the Outerverse.

But that was still not enough.

Partway through, Progenitor Chen left the Mirari Realm. He then proceeded to incorporate both the Innerverse and the Neoverse into his Starfist Manual, continuing to light up more stars.

Lu Yin stood within Progenitor Chen’s Starfist Manual, constantly moving towards the stars that were being lit in hopes of seeing his own path forward. Time moved on, and neither man knew how long they had spent in the Mirari Realm this time. It might have been 100 years, or perhaps it was 1,000.

One day, Progenitor Chen unleashed his own Star Fist. The Starfist Manual spun around him, and the fist intent of one star after another gathered together as he threw a punch at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin watched the punch approach, neither dodging nor blocking. He allowed the fist intent to strike him without suffering the slightest injury.

Progenitor Chen had not attacked with the support of the Nirvana Tree Path, and with just his Star Fist at its current level, he could rival the power of someone who had reached the pinnacle of strength beneath the Immortal realm. If he used the Nirvana Tree Path as well, it would be enough to raise his combat strength to the level of an Aberrant, just as Lu Yin had predicted.

On top of that, compared to experts like Qing Xing, who had used the Nirvana Tree Path to reach the level of an Aberrant, Progenitor Chen still had room for further growth. His Star Fist was far from complete, and when it came to cultivation, he had only just entered Dukkha.

Once the man became a peak Dukkhan or reached the pinnacle of power beneath the Immortal realm, he would certainly surpass the strength of an ordinary Immortal. This made Progenitor Chen the closest existence to Lu Yin out of anyone beneath the Immortal realm.

“How is it?” Progenitor Chen asked. He was trying to use this punch to enlighten Lu Yin, hoping that this would help Lu Yin find his own path.

Lu Yin shook his head. He had observed Progenitor Chen’s Star Fist, and with the Cosmic Art, Lu Yin could certainly copy the method, but doing so would never make it his own path.

Since Progenitor Chen could step onto his own path, why could Lu Yin not do the same?

The Star Fist and the Starfist Manual were the foundation for both men. Progenitor Chen had found his own path with that foundation. Lu Yin’s objective had been achieved. He had seen how Progenitor Chen followed his own path. That had been the purpose all along, to use Progenitor Chen’s talent to see how a new path could be walked.

Progenitor Chen was already walking it, yet Lu Yin remained standing where he had started.

“Perhaps you and I are fundamentally different,” Progenitor Chen commented, his voice low as he stared at Lu Yin. “I created the Cosmic Art. You want to use the Cosmic Art, and me as well, to find your own Star Fist, but that will ultimately only result in you comprehending my understanding of the Star Fist, not your own. I told you before—the Star Fist that I have comprehended is too narrow, narrow to the point where there is no room to breathe.

“Obtain the inheritance, learn the inheritance, and then break the inheritance. I have done it, and you can do it too.”

Lu Yin met Progenitor Chen’s eyes. “Narrow?”

The man nodded, his expression turning grave. “Yes, narrow. That is how I feel about my own Star Fist. It is like being trapped in a cage. Even if that cage is large, there is still an upper limit.”

Lu Yin’s eyes suddenly flared. A cage... An upper limit...

He took a step out of the Mirari Realm and entered the Tianyuan. He looked up at the sky and peered into the starry expanse.

That’s right, this is a cage.

Who said that the Star Fist had to light up actual stars? Lu Yin had used the Shattered Dipper to see the Starfist Manual and the path of the Star Fist, a path that required illuminating stars one after another. However, those stars did not necessarily have to be actual stars.

He thought of Ancestor Shan and his version of Anura’s Star-Plucking Hands. That battle technique was supposed to pluck stars, and yet Ancestor Shen had used megaverses in place of stars, plucking them from the Aevum Inch to unleash a terrifying attack that had overturned everything.

In that case, could Lu Yin also use megaverses as stars? If he lit up megaverses, would it not be the same as illuminating stars?

A megaverse had an upper limit, but the Aevum Inch did not.

Lu Yin had been warned countless times that the Aevum Inch contained vast and innumerable megaverses and civilizations and that he had to know his place. However, everyone had forgotten that those innumerable megaverses could also be used by him.

Thinking about this, he teleported to the top of the Mother Tree and stared across the Aevum Inch. Since using the stars of the universe for his Starfist Manual was too narrow, he would use the Aevum Inch itself to cultivate his Starfist Manual. The Aevum Inch was vast and endless; who could say that it had an upper limit?

If Lu Yin truly did reach that limit, he himself would have already become that limit.

In the Mirari Realm, Progenitor Chen sighed inwardly. Lu Yin was absolutely no less talented than Progenitor Chen himself. Just a few words were enough for him to find his own path. That was probably also why he had asked Progenitor Chen to help him cultivate the Star Fist.

The young man possessed astonishing talent, could judge people accurately, and was both ruthless and responsible. Perhaps all the calamities that their human civilization had endured had been for the appearance of someone exactly like Lu Yin.

Progenitor Chen had opened a path for Lu Yin, yet the man also hoped that the path Lu Yin found for himself would help enlighten him in return.

The Mother Tree was tall and massive, but no matter how tall it might be, it could never exceed the entire Tianyuan. Standing atop the tree, Lu Yin used his Mirrorlight Art to peer far into the Aevum Inch. Still, it was difficult for him to fully visualize it in his heart.

The Starfist Manual was a fist manual that consisted of stars. It was also a fist manual that consisted of one’s heart and vastness of spirit.

The greater one’s heart, the broader their universe was. This was not a heart technique, but a mix of heart and spirit, boldness and fearlessness.

Even if it was absolutely impossible for an ant to swallow the sky, the spirit behind that ambition had already surpassed the sky. If that same spirit could one day be put to use, it would shake the cosmos.

At this moment, Lu Yin wanted his own heart and spirit to become the Starfist Manual itself. He wanted to see the countless megaverses throughout the Aevum Inch as stars and draw them into his Starfist Manual.

Even if a person’s body was like that of an ant, their heart would reign over the universe.

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