Chapter 2926: Recruiting A Disciple
Close by, the young man kneeling on the ground looked up at Lu Yin and excitedly said, "Lord Lu! You are Lord Lu! Please, accept me as your disciple! Please!"
Lu Yin looked at the young man.
As he did, Yao Lan's expression changed, and she quickly moved to block Lu Yin's line of sight. She then politely said, "Lord Lu, Tuo Lin has forgotten his manners. Please forgive him. I will take him back to the Cyclic Universe and discipline him strictly so that he will not disturb you again, Lord Lu."
Lu Yin looked at Yao Lan. "He isn’t bothering me. I think that he is very good."
Tuo Lin grew even more excited, and he fell down to kowtow to Lu Yin. "I beg Lord Lu to accept me as a disciple!"
Yao Lan suddenly shouted, "Tuo Lin, be silent!"
Lu Yin frowned. "Yao Lan, are you here to make trouble for me?"
Yao Lan's expression turned ugly. "I wouldn’t dare. I merely don't wish to see Lord Lu grow upset with Tuo Lin. His ancestor made a great contribution to mankind, and for his sake, I ask that Lord Lu let Tuo Lin go."
Lu Yin laughed. "He came here to worship me as his master. There is nothing to forgive."
Yao Lan replied, "Tuo Lin is a child with absolutely no cultivation. Given his age, he has already lost any chance of being able to cultivate, and yet he still wants to become Lord Lu’s disciple. This is nothing more than trying to humiliate Lord Lu. After learning about this matter, I came here to collect him and take him back to the Cyclic Universe."
Yao Lan's words caused Tuo Lin's expression to fall. It was true that he had no cultivation and that cultivating was impossible for him. But despite that, it was what he desired most, and no one in the Cyclic Universe was able to help him. He had attended the Tea Ceremony and seen hope in Lu Yin.
Lord Lu was so young, but he had already created many miracles and become the most influential person in the entire Sixverse Association. How had he managed it?
Since Lu Yin had accomplished so much, it was possible that he could also create a miracle for Tuo Lin, which was why the young man had traveled to the Origin Universe.
"Lord Lu, no one in the Cyclic Universe can help me cultivate. This is why I came here, hoping to ask for Lord Lu’s help. I- I really want to cultivate," Tuo Lin begged as he prostrated on the floor. He was just an ordinary human, and yet he smacked his head on the floor with enough force to cause his forehead to bleed.
Yao Lan frowned. "Tuo Lin, let's return now."
Tuo Lin ignored the woman and remained on the floor. Blood continued to flow, and it stained the floor red.
Wu Da sympathized with the man, but unfortunately, he had no voice in this matter.
Lu Yin clasped his hands behind his back. "Tuo Lin, right?"
Tuo Lin lifted his head. He was feeling dizzy, and his face was pale. As he rose, he staggered back and almost fell. "Yes, I- my name is Tuo Lin."
Lu Yin calmly asked, "How long have you been kneeling here?"
Tuo Lin had lost too much blood, so his consciousness was a bit hazy. Still, he refused to pass out. "Five and a half years."
"Not bad."
"I will continue to kneel here as long as it takes, if Lord Lu will accept me as a disciple."
Yao Lan shouted, "Tuo Lin, stop talking and come with me!"
Lu Yin slowly smiled. "Alright, I'll accept you as my disciple."
Tuo Lin was stunned, and he stared at Lu Yin in a daze. "You- did you just say that you’d accept me as your disciple?"
Yao Lan turned to look at Lu Yin. She anxiously protested, "Lord Lu, please reconsider. This child will never be able to cultivate, so making him your disciple will only bring you shame. Lord Lu, please allow me to take him back to the Cyclic Universe. The Cyclic Universe will be most grateful.”
Lu Yin grew curious. "He’s just a young man. Is your Cyclic Universe willing to show its gratitude to me just for him?"
Yao Lan hurriedly replied, "This child's ancestor performed great deeds for humanity, and the Great Sovereign has asked that all of the family’s descendants be allowed to live in comfort in the Cyclic Universe and not cultivate. For the sake of the Great Sovereign, Lord Lu, please allow me to take this man with me."
Lu Yin shrugged. "The Great Sovereign has no right to ask me for anything."
Yao Lan's heart fell. She was aware that the relationship between the Lu family and the Great Sovereign was bad, but she had not expected things to be this bad. Lu Yin refused to show the Great Sovereign any respect at all.
"I said that I am accepting him as my disciple, so that’s what he is now. Tuo Lin, come over and accept your discipleship," Lu Yin calmly ordered.
Tuo Lin shakily rose to his feet. He felt weak and had almost no strength remaining, but he gritted his teeth and pushed through. His vision was spinning, but he would still move over to Lu Yin, even if he had to crawl.
Tuo Lin slowly moved past Yao Lan.
If it were at all possible, Yao Lan wanted to grab the young man and simply leave, but that was impossible. She was in the Heavens Sect, and Lu Yin was right in front of her. She could do nothing. No matter how badly she wanted to take Tuo Lin away, she could only do so with Lu Yin’s permission. Without that, she could do nothing but watch.
The two men were less than ten meters apart, but it still took Tuo Lin a minute to cover that distance, dripping blood the entire way. Finally, he arrived in front of Lu Yin and knelt down, kowtowing once again. "Tuo Lin greets his master."
Yao Lan gritted her teeth. "Lord Lu, please allow…"
Lu Yin completely ignored the woman as he looked down at Tuo Lin. "You are my first official disciple. From now on, you will be my, Lu Yin’s, disciple."
Ku Wei had accepted Lu Yin as his lockbreaking master, which made the man Lu Yin’s lockbreaking apprentice, but Tuo Lin was Lu Yin’s first disciple.
Lu Yin might not have accepted the young man as his disciple, but Yao Lan's attitude was very strange, and Lu Yin wanted to see how the Cyclic Universe would react to this matter. Surprisingly, Tuo Lin seemed to conceal some secrets.
Tuo Lin vigorously kowtowed to Lu Yin, as he had successfully become the Dao Monarch’s disciple.
As soon as Tuo Lin finished his three kowtows to his new master, he fainted.
Wu Da stared at Tuo Lin with a great deal of envy. Starting from today, the young man would ascend into heaven. Few people in the entire megaverse could compare to Tuo Lin in status anymore.
Wu Da had no idea how the young man had attracted the Dao Monarch’s interest, but the fact that a Progenitor-level expert from the Cyclic Universe had arrived for Tuo Lin suggested that his background was rather significant.
Yao Lan watched on, helpless and unable to stop anything from happening.
She looked up from Tuo Lin’s unconscious body lying on the ground to Lu Yin. "With how matters have developed, I would like to ask Lord Lu to treat this child kindly. Regardless of whatever relationships there might be between your universe and my Cyclic Universe, I ask that you not hold anything against him, Lord Lu."
"Do I need you to show me how to behave?" Lu Yin asked indifferently.
Yao Lan had no choice but to leave. Lu Yin's indifferent attitude and overbearing behavior was unpleasant for her to deal with. As the Heavens Sect gained greater and greater power, Lu Yin behaved more and more domineeringly. When had the Cyclic Universe ever been suppressed this much by another member of the Sixverse Association?
Once Yao Lan was gone, Lu Yin looked over at Wu Da. "Thank you for your hard work during this time."
Wu Da quickly bowed. "It has been my honor to be able to work for you, Dao Monarch. I will continue to do my best."
After acknowledging Wu Da’s response, Lu Yin left with Tuo Lin.
Seeing the empty spacecraft, Wu Da felt as though he had just woken from a dream. A Progenitor-level powerhouse from the Cyclic Universe had been scolded like a dog by the Dao Monarch before fleeing in humiliation.
Wu Da took a second look, but the young man was really gone. It had not been a dream. From this day forward, almost everyone in the Origin Universe would look up to Tuo Lin.
Lu Yin took Tuo Lin into the Heavens Sect and then examined him carefully. As he did so, Lu Yin’s expression grew strange.
It was not that Tuo Lin had never cultivated, but rather that it was impossible for him to do so. The energy channels in the young man’s body were all fake. What was this? It was as though Tuo Lin was nothing more than an empty shell.
Was the man a clone? No, that also did not seem quite right. What was he?
Lu Yin asked several different Progenitors to examine the young man, as it was possible that one of them might know something.
Unfortunately, no one knew what was going on with Tuo Lin. Finally, Lu Yin thought of someone else to ask: Senior Brother Mu Xie. He asked Mu Xie to come over and use Origin Tracer to search for the source of the young man’s issue.
"How do you know that Origin Tracer can do this?" Mu Xie was surprised. He had mentioned to Lu Yin that Origin Tracer could search through the past for certain individuals, but Lu Yin was asking for the opposite; he wanted to use a person to search for an event in the past. Even so, this was something that Origin Tracer was capable of doing.
Lu Yin shared how Mister Mu had helped Lu Yin learn the Ce Secret Art by showing him a scene from the past. At the time, Lu Yin had not understood how Mister Mu had accomplished such a feat, but he had come to understand that it was through Origin Tracer.
The blood of the Ce family had let Lu Yin observe a certain moment in the past. Specifically, Lu Yin had seen Ce Wangtian during a certain time with the chessboard. Then, Lu Yin, an outsider, had entered that time to learn the secrets of the Ce Secret Art.
As one’s cultivation level increased, many things that were previously incomprehensible would gradually be understood. However, the universe was too big, and there were still many things that could not be explained even in the ancestral realm. Otherwise, the ancestors would not have disappeared.
Ancestor Lu Tianyi didn’t even know what was going on with Bai Xian'er.
Senior Brother Mu Xie was far inferior to Mister Mu when it came to tracing the origins of ancient times, but it was not impossible to find the source of Tuo Lin’s problem with this method.
"You have dealt with Ye Bo, so I’ve been searching for a new target to practice Origin Tracer on. This child is acceptable, though I can’t say how long the search will take." With that, Mu Xie approached Tuo Lin and brought out his śarīra. This was the Progenitor’s true Progenitor’s world that he had placed in the Mother Tree’s trunk to perform Origin Tracer. Once Ye Bo had been dealt with, he had taken the śarīra back.
Mu Xie had not done much during the crusade across the Endless Frontier. There were not many opportunities for ordinary Progenitor-level experts to make a move, and the sequence powerhouses had not needed Mu Xie’s assistance. Thus, while the man’s true Progenitor’s World had returned, Lu Yin had not yet seen Mu Xie’s true strength.
"Senior Brother, what powers do you think you will wield when you become a Sequence Progenitor?" Lu Yin was looking forward to it.
Mu Xie laughed. "You’re better off waiting to see what Junior Brother Qing Ping will do when he breaks through and becomes a Progenitor. It should be soon."
Lu Yin's heart skipped a beat. "Is Senior Brother Qing Ping still on the Endless Frontier?"
Mu Xie nodded. "All I know for sure is that he’s still on the Endless Frontier, though I have no idea which universe he’s in. In the past, Master told us to not get anxious and to slowly cultivate, but things have changed. Junior brother, your rate of improvement is simply absurd, and it must be putting a great deal of pressure onto Junior Brother Qing Ping."
Lu Yin answered with a bitter smile. "I can't help it. It didn't take Senior Brother Qing Ping long to become a Semi-Progenitor, so there's no need for him to worry."
Mu Xie shook his head. Although their master’s disciples all got along with each other, that did not mean that there was no competition between them.
Their youngest junior brother possessed such a freakish level of talent that even Qing Ping felt the need to enter the Endless Frontier. Mu Xie was feeling the same sort of pressure, and even Senior Brother Mu Ke could not ignore Lu Yin’s rising strength.
Qing Ping needed to break through so that he could maintain his dignity as a senior brother.
The śarīra slowly floated over Tuo Lin’s head, and the void in the area started to warp. Time shifted, and images started to appear and flicker past them.
This scene was not unfamiliar to Lu Yin. He had seen it many times before. After learning how to chase and even reverse time, he understood what he was seeing much more clearly now.
The power of time was infinite, and they could only make contact with a mere drop in the ocean. The power of time was the basis for countless battle techniques that had appeared throughout the ages. In fact, Ancestor Tianyi believed that the battle technique that Bai Xian'er had used in the past most likely revolved around some aspect of time.
Lu Yin slowly walked away and stared off into the distance. He was very envious of Origin Tracer. It was a battle technique that suited him perfectly, but unfortunately, he had not received it.
He took a step and arrived beside the cauldron. He raised a hand and pressed it to the cauldron. A twig popped out and cutely reached out to touch Lu Yin's hand.
"With He Ran gone, are you lonely?" Lu Yin could feel Sapling’s emotions, so he asked the question with a small smile.
Sapling rubbed the back of Lu Yin's hand, feeling a bit bad.
Lu Yin smiled. "Alright, I'll find someone else for you to play with."
Sapling’s green leaves stood straight up, clearly delighted at Lu Yin’s words.