Chapter 1698: Guess
The little tree started to move as Lu Yin stared at it. It suddenly rose up vertically and moved to face Lu Yin.
Its green leaves twitched a bit, and then it stopped moving.
Lu Yin blinked and moved closer to the tree.
The tree moved again, retreating a small distance. It seemed as though it was scared.
Lu Yin took another step forward, and the leaves on the small tree glowed with greater intensity, creating a beautiful green halo behind it.
Lu Yin slowly approached the tree as it continuously retreated. However, it finally stopped retreating after Lu Yin touched his hand to a branch. Upon contact, the tree moved forward and used a branch to rub against Lu Yin’s hand while conveying a happy feeling.
Lu Yin smiled when he felt its emotion. This was not the smile that he had shown after taking over Blazing Mist Flowzone, nor the one typically appeared after defeating an enemy. This was a gentle smile that radiated pure happiness.
The branch was hard, but also flexible, and it was brimming with vitality.
At the same time, the sprout of Origin Matter in Lu Yin’s upper meridian point also started to radiate vitality, and it even interacted with the little tree.
Lu Yin was astonished; could this tree also be made of Origin Matter? That was impossible. Shamrock Enterprise had produced a great number of stellular energy pills, so how could this tree possibly be Origin Matter? If the pills were made with Origin Matter, then Leaf King would have to be the Mother Tree.
Wait a moment, the Mother Tree?
Lu Yin’s expression changed as he suddenly thought of something. He studied the little tree more closely.
It seemed that the little tree was able to sense Lu Yin’s emotions, and it suddenly trembled and retreated a bit as soon as Lu Yin grew serious. Its branches also shrunk in onto itself, and it acted scared.
Stellular energy pill, Mother Tree, sprout, Leaf King.
Lu Yin thought of a scary possibility after linking all of those things together. Since plants had seeds, then could the stellular energy pills contain Leaf King’s seeds?
That could be the reason why the stellular energy pills allowed one to enter the true universe, as Leaf King had the same ability. This was also how Yu Mu had died; he had not been assassinated by someone from Shamrock Enterprise, but rather killed by his stellular energy pill! This was also why Balsam had given one of the pills to Lu Yin so easily.
Lu Yin had actually believed that he had succeeded in forcing Shamrock Enterprise to give him the stellular energy pills, but in truth, he had fallen into Shamrock Enterprise’s scheme; they would be able to kill him at any time through these pills.
Lu Yin was confident in this conclusion.
He had already faced the Nine Clone Secret Technique, as well as Undying Yushan’s glowing orbs of spiritual force. It was therefore not overly difficult for Lu Yin to accept that Leaf King could produce seeds, as it would explain why the stellular energy pill had sprouted. Everything made sense if the pills contained Leaf King’s seeds, as it was natural for seeds to sprout.
Lu Yin turned to look at the little tree with excitement. This meant that this little thing was the new Leaf King.
The little tree was scared by Lu Yin’s emotions, and it retreated from him once again.
Lu Yin smiled and approached the little tree. “Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you.”
The little tree’s leaves shook, and it behaved very affectionately towards Lu Yin; it had imprinted upon Lu Yin in the same manner that baby animals recognized their parents. The tree felt happy when Lu Yin smiled, and it used its branch to caress his face. It then happily leaped into Lu Yin’s arms.
Lu Yin had never expected that the first child he held in his arms would be a sapling rather than his own child.
The little tree felt very close to Lu Yin, and he also had a strong urge to protect it. He thought of the little tree as a member of his family, as it had been birthed under his care.
“I’ll call you Sapling from now on, ok?” Lu Yin smiled.
Sapling was thrilled, and it happily waved its branches like a child.
Lu Yin soon took Sapling out of the Timestop Space. It was scared when it saw a new place, and it twined a branch around Lu Yin’s finger.
Lu Yin smiled, but the corner of his mouth twitched when he glanced down at his cosmic ring. He was out of money again, as he only had 100 million star essence remaining. While this was still a huge amount to a normal cultivator, it was just pocket change to Lu Yin, as it could not support his die at all.
Lu Yin sighed as he walked out with Sapling. The tree twined a branch about Lu Yin’s finger, and it happily followed Lu Yin around. Lu Yin was able to sense the tree’s fear as it observed the unfamiliar places as its branch would wind more tightly around Lu Yin’s finger.
At the same moment that Lu Yin left the Timestop Space with Sapling, Leaf King exited his seclusion in Shamrock Enterprise’s hidden world.
Leaf King had always been a very mysterious individual, and very few people had even seen him. Balsam acted as his representative to the outside world.
Still, nobody would expect Leaf King to be a handsome young man who was even better looking than Yao Xuan. He looked very young, and people would assume that he was around Lu Yin’s age.
Balsam bowed as soon as she saw Leaf King appear, though she was shocked to see that he had ended his cultivation early.
“Leaf King, why did you come out early?” Balsam asked.
Leaf King stood in place, clearly in deep thought. There was a stellular energy pill in his hand.
Balsam did not dare to disturb the man and merely silently stood behind him.
“Who has been given a stellular energy pill?” Leaf King asked.
Balsam immediately provided a list.
Leaf King fell back into thought as he read through the list.
Leaf King explained, “We’ve lost control of one of the stellular energy pills.”
Balsam was shocked. “Lost control? It’s been used?”
As soon as she spoke she regretted her words; how could they lose control of a pill after it had been used?
Leaf King remained calm. “From this list, who is able to cause us to lose control of a stellular energy pill?”
Balsam quickly skimmed through the list. Although Shamrock Enterprise had not publicly revealed the stellular energy pills, they had merely hidden the true function of the pills. They had actually already handed out quite a number of the pills to various forces, such as the Hall of Honor and other various forces in the Neoverse, including the Court of Seven Names.
Multiple organizations were already in possession of a stellular energy pill, and there had not been any issues over the last few years. The stellular energy pills had all been weakened so that none of them could provide access to the true universe, and nobody had paid much attention to them. It was also no surprise that people were seen using them, as the weakened pills were only able to open a small tear in space.
owever, losing control of a pill was a big problem, as it meant that someone had discovered the secret behind the stellular energy pills, which would cause huge trouble for Shamrock Enterprise.
“Leaf King, if someone has learned the secret-”
Balsam was interrupted by Leaf King. “Nobody will find that out. It’s impossible,” Leaf King coldly refuted.
Balsam suddenly thought of Lu Yin.
She had recently given Lu Yin a stellular energy pill, and he also was aware of the true function of the pills. He was the person with the greatest chance of learning the secret behind the pills, as he was exceptionally lucky, possessed a strong background, as well as a powerful master. Nobody truly knew the youth’s limits.
“Spread out the stellular energy pills according to plan,” Leaf King ordered.
Balsam was startled. “Are we accelerating the plan?”
Leaf King did not reply, and he simply held a stellular energy pill in his hand.
Lu Yin reappeared within the Ross Empire, accompanied by Sapling, which shocked many people.
Lu Yin had no worries that Sapling would be recognized, as there were many unique beings throughout the universe. There were astral beasts who could transform into humans, and there were even plants and even black holes that had successfully managed to cultivate. There were many strange things in the universe, so nobody was overly surprised to see a small tree follow Lu Yin about.
The Second Nightking and Liu Huang showed no surprise at all, as they had already seen everything before given their long lives.
Ku Wei approached Lu Yin, and he stared at Sapling in a daze. “Master, what’s that?”
Ku Wei spoke in a very loud voice and scared Sapling. It immediately hid behind Lu Yin and only revealed half a branch to peek at Ku Wei.
Lu Yin asked, “Why’re you here?”
Ku Wei grinned. “Everything’s good right now, and I missed you.”
He resumed studying Sapling with curiosity.
Sapling waved its leaves while conveying its curiosity to Lu Yin. It was very curious about everything nearby.
“If you don’t have anything to do, then go find some more strange plants that can move,” Lu Yin ordered.
Ku Wei wanted to know why Lu Yin wanted these things, but he already knew that Lu Yin would not answer that question. Thus, Ku Wei left after taking another look at Sapling.
Beep beep!
Lu Yin’s gadget rang.
Sapling was scared by the sound, and it immediately wrapped itself tightly around Lu Yin.
Lu Yin patted the tree and calmed it down.
“Alliance Leader Lu, sorry for disturbing you. This is Balsam.”
Lu Yin’s eyes flashed, and he glanced down at Sapling. “Why are you calling me?”
Balsam smiled. “I wanted to congratulate Alliance Leader Lu for gaining control of Blazing Mist Flowzone and entering the Innerverse. I congratulate you on behalf of Shamrock Enterprise. Also, we would like to send the Great Eastern Alliance a batch of pills as a gift.”
“Blazing Mist Flowzone has been isolated from the neighboring flowzones. Can you get here?” Lu Yin asked.
Xiang Zhi smiled. “Shamrock Enterprise has been doing business throughout the Innerverse and the Outerverse for many years, so we are certainly able to do that much.”
“Alright, then thank you,” Lu Yin said.
Balsam soon ended the call.
Lu Yin smiled. He was more convinced than ever that his guess was correct. Shamrock Enterprise was not on good terms with him, and while they were not enemies, they also could not be considered allies. It was far too suspicious for them to be willing to offend the Innerverse’s major forces by entering Blazing Mist Flowzone just to give him a gift. If his guess was correct, then Balsam would personally visit him to ask about the stellular energy pills that he had been given.
Lu Yin immediately called Ku Wei and asked him to quickly start looking for strange plants that could move around. At the same time, Lu Yin also considered the various natural treasures that had reached the level of sensing danger. He wondered what Balsam’s expression would be when she saw such things around him.
If nobody had seen Sapling before, then these actions would make Balsam even more suspicious. However, many people had already seen Lu Yin with Sapling, and he believed that Balsam would definitely learn about it from those people. This meant that Lu Yin could only find more mobile plants in order to distract people. As for Sapling, he had become quite attached to it and had decided to hide it.