Star Odyssey

Chapter 2145: Karmic Cause And Effect

Just as Lu Yin was about to respond to the Starmaster’s stern warning, his wireless jincan twitched. He glanced down and was surprised to see a message from Destina.

"Senior, please explain it to them," Lu Yin asked Progenitor Smoke before stepping to the side to take the message.

In Lu Yin’s place, Progenitor Smoke stared at the mentors. "So, brats, why are you all making a mountain out of a molehill?"

…

"Dao Chosen Lu, what did you just do?" Destina’s initial message to Lu Yin was a blunt question.

His eyes flickered. Had she sensed that he had triggered Destiny? It was not impossible. When Lu Yin had triggered Destiny last time, he had caused people skilled in divination to vomit blood, and Xuan Jiu had instantly determined that Lu Yin was the one behind the matter. Thus, it was not terribly surprising that Destina was capable of doing the same. Actually, Xuan Jiu had only honed in on Lu Yin because he was the only one who possessed enough fatesand to cause such an event. It had been more of a guess than anything else.

"I didn't do anything. I was just enjoying some tea," Lu Yin replied.

Destina sent no response for a time. "I saw it."

Lu Yin arched a brow. "Saw what?"

"I saw you trigger Destiny through Heaven’s Enigma," Destina replied.

Lu Yin stopped believing her. "Are you trying to say that you can observe me with Heaven’s Enigma? What a joke! Are you saying you can observe everyone?"

Destiny replied, "Heaven’s Enigma is not able to see you, but Destiny can. Through that, I was able to sense that Destiny was triggered, and you are the person who appeared in my mind. You must have triggered Destiny. Don’t deny it."

Lu Yin thought for a while before replying, "Fine. Even if I did trigger Destiny, what of it?"

"Aren't you unwilling to have anything to do with Destiny?" Lu Yin’s admission caught Destina off guard.

Lu Yin shrugged. "I need a divination performed on a person and a thing, so my only choice is to try by triggering Destiny."

Destina sent back, "Your attempt failed. I don’t know what you did to trigger Destiny, but your actions will only draw Destiny’s attention and induce a backlash. This is not a means of divining. Thus, it would be best for you to abandon this path. Otherwise, you will draw Destiny out one of these days, and the results of that are beyond anything you can imagine."

Lu Yin found this amusing. "You are Destiny’s disciple, so if she is drawn out, you should be quite happy about it. Why does it sound like you don’t want Destiny to return?"

"Because I want to overcome my predecessor and become the next Destiny," Destina answered promptly, showing her determination.

There was nobody who did not dream of becoming a Progenitor, as such powerhouses stood at the peak. However, once a person’s own strength reached a certain level, the desire would only grow stronger. The gatemasters of the Twelve Heavenly Gates were all at that level of strength. They all had a very decent chance of becoming Progenitors, so why would they not want to attempt the breakthrough?

Hen Xin longed to become a Progenitor and become the master of the current era.

Jue Yi dreamed of surpassing his predecessor and becoming the next God of Death.

As for Destina, she also wanted to surpass her master to become the new Destiny.

This made things much simpler for Lu Yin. After considering his options for a moment, he replied, "Your goals don’t matter to me. I need a divination on a word, a person, and an item. If I can’t get those answers, then I will continue to try to trigger Destiny. If it’s not possible to succeed through normal means, then I’ll break the rules. You may not believe me, but there’s nothing that I won’t try to get these answers.”

"Aren’t you afraid that Destiny will appear and take control of this era?" Destina asked.

Lu Yin just laughed. "That would be wonderful for humanity! Destiny is one of the Three Realms Six Dao, and I would be more than willing to let someone that powerful appear and lead humanity."

Destina did not reply for some time, and Lu Yin had no idea what thoughts were running through the woman’s mind. Still, the longer she took to reply, the more certain Lu Yin that his current plan would succeed.

Xuan Jiu had vomited blood when Destiny had been triggered last time, and the old man believed that anyone connected to Destiny would suffer terrible luck. The fact that Destina had contacted Lu Yin so quickly suggested that she had suffered a similar injury and had likely endured serious injuries. If not, there was no way she would ever reveal her goal of replacing Destiny to Lu Yin. Destina would absolutely do her best to stop Lu Yin from triggering Destiny again.

However, she did not even realize that, the more she wanted to stop such an outcome, the more leverage she gave Lu Yin.

Things were getting interesting.

"What do you want divined?" Destina eventually asked. During the Heavens Sect era, she had never once encountered any hardship. It had not happened when she had first started cultivating, and not when she became a gatemaster of one of the Twelve Heavenly Gates either; this was all because she was Destiny’s disciple. Not only had no one dared to cross her, but even the most talented geniuses had also been willing to step back for her. She had been the most dazzling star in the Heavens Sect’s sky.

However, in the current era, she was being bullied by Lu Yin. The only time she had ever encountered such a situation in the past was when Lu Buzheng had stolen Destiny’s power within his Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique. Destina felt the same sense of being bullied once again.

The only two times that Destina had ever felt threatened were both caused by members of the Lu family.

A smile slowly crept across Lu Yin's face. "Are you willing to perform the divinations for me?"

"I can try," Destina replied. She really did not want to agree, as anyone who managed to reach Lu Yin’s level would not ask for something easy to be divined. However, Destina really had no choice. Anything was better than allowing Lu Yin to continue triggering Destiny and injuring Destina in the process. If Lu Yin tried to trigger Destiny when she was attempting to breakthrough, it would be fatal for her.

Suddenly, Destina felt as though there was something squeezing her throat.

"Alright, first, the word. I want you to look into the word ‘Murkiness,’" Lu Yin sent over. When the forces of Aeternus drained the stellular energy from the true universe twenty years ago, Lu Yin had assumed that that was their “Murkiness” plan, but he had no way of confirming it. If trying to divine “Murkiness” at this time caused no problems, then “Murkiness” had likely already been carried out. However, if there were dangers encountered, then the plan had not yet started. After all, not even Mister Mu had been certain if “Murkiness” had started or not when Lu Yin had last spoken with his master.

In the Outerverse, Destina was standing in the middle of an asteroid belt. In the depths of the belt, there were asteroids that were as large as planets, and there were also primitive civilizations living on them. The people there fought off wild beasts and prayed to the astral bodies that they could see. Some civilizations had developed cold weapons and stable governments, but none of them had developed any form of cultivation. At best, some of the cultures had just embarked on the path of science, but none were able to even enter outer space yet.

Destina and Starsibyl frequently observed the development of the burgeoning human civilizations on these primitive planets, using them to perform divinations and perfect their abilities.

When Destina saw Lu Yin's reply, her voice spread out of her white cloud. "He wants me to investigate a word: 'Murkiness.'"

"You can’t!" Starsibyl was startled. "Lu Yin once asked me to do that same divination when he visited the Starsibyl Sect. It was that divination that caused my master, Master Zhu, to suffer injuries so severe that it killed him! You can’t investigate this word!"

Destina sent Lu Yin her response: "Choose a different word."

Lu Yin sneered and immediately responded, "That’s the only word. Don’t think that I won’t look into it on my own."

"Back when you asked the Starsibyl Sect to do this divination, the attempt killed the sect master. What does this word represent?" Destina demanded.

Lu Yin was startled by the contents of the message. "Master Zhu is dead?"

"That's right. Starsibyl informed me that he died because he tried to divine this word. The attempt injured him so badly that he died of his wounds," Destina explained.

Lu Yin's expression grew ugly. He had not expected that attempt to kill Master Zhu. It was no wonder why Lu Yin had not seen the man. He had simply assumed that Master Zhu had followed Destina, the same as Starsibyl. The possibility that the man had died had never even occurred to Lu Yin.

"When did this happen?" Lu Yin asked.

Destina checked with Starsibyl. Destina knew nothing of Master Zhu, as she had never even met him. By the time Destina found the Starsibyl Sect, Starsibyl was the sole survivor.

Starsibyl stated, "It was before the true universe was emptied."

Destina sent the answer to Lu Yin.

Lu Yin shook his head, internally apologizing to the Starsibyl Sect and Master Zhu. While Lu Yin had not had many interactions with the sect master, Master Zhu had given Lu Yin some help, and he had even died trying to help Lu Yin investigate “Murkiness.”

This information also showed just how quick Xuan Jiu’s reflexes were. He had merely suffered grave injuries when trying to divinate the word. Xuan Jiu’s skill for divination might not be on the same level as Master Zhu’s, hence he had managed to escape death.

"I don't know how to investigate this word," Destina sent another message.

Lu Yin's expression firmed. "You are a Semi-Progenitor, and Master Zhu was much, much weaker than you. Either do the divination, or I’ll trigger Destiny myself."

"Dao Chosen Lu, what does this word represent? How did you learn of it? You must provide me with a clear explanation," Destina insisted.

Lu Yin remained unmoved. "Either do the divination, or I will trigger Destiny. There’s no other option."

In the Outerverse, Destina was quickly finding Lu Yin to be even more despicable than Lu Buzheng had ever been. "Wait."

With that message, Destina turned to Starsibyl. "Do the divination together with me. Heaven’s Enigma is not a technique that depends on strength, but rather solely on skill and ability. Work with me in this attempt."

Starsibyl felt trapped. Publicly, the Starsibyl Sect had always claimed that Xuan Jiu was the only person to use Heaven’s Enigma, but the truth was that both she and Master Zhu had learned it as well. While they claimed to use a divination technique known as Stargazing, that was nothing more than a mask to deceive people; Heaven’s Enigma was the technique that was actually used.

While the Starsibyl Sect had succeeded in deceiving others, they had not been able to trick Destina.

"You actually want to do a divination? This matter is not simple." Starsibyl hesitated.

Destina put her wireless jincan away. "All we can do is try. If not, he will not stop or let this go."

Starsibyl was truly trapped. She had a decent understanding of Lu Yin, and knew he could be extremely stubborn. He had encountered numerous opportunities, and had frequently come across extraordinary things and information. Being forced into such a corner reminded Starsibyl of when Lu Yin had made a similar request of the Starsibyl Sect and how they had not been able to refuse him. At this moment, Starsibyl felt even more helpless than before.

In space around them, Destina controlled various meteorites to move into a new pattern. A ring of 108 meteorites surrounded her and Starsibyl.

The white cloud disappeared, and Destina’s true appearance was revealed. Her eyes glittered, and mysterious depths appeared in Starsibyl’s eyes as well, despite glowing like on a bright day. The two women looked at each other at the same time, and then invisible fluctuations swept out and warped space around them. The 108 meteorites trembled, and a word appeared in the void: Murkiness.

With no warning, all of the meteorites shattered at the same time. Starsibyl spat out blood and retreated several steps, unable to maintain control of herself.

The shattering meteorites caused expanding destruction, and even quasi-planets with more advanced technological civilizations and powerful weapons were unable to react to the wave of destruction. Even if they had received sufficient warning, they would have been able to do nothing to stave off their destruction.

The wave of destruction caused countless people to die in an instant.

With divination, a cause would always have an effect. The greater the cause, the greater the effect. The effect that was the backlash from the attempted divination was too much for Destina or Starsibyl to endure, so it had been shifted away from them, and transferred to the surrounding meteorites, which had caused the wave of destruction.

Master Zhu had died because he had not transferred the effect of his divination, so his fate differed from the two women’s. This was the method that Destiny had taught to Destina; any time that one tried to peer down the long river of time, it would be easy to trigger backlash, and this method of transferring the karmic effect was the only way to survive such dangers.

Destina struggled to catch her breath, startled by what had just happened. She had just caught a glimpse of someone. Was it really him?

"What did you see?" Destina asked Starsibyl.