Star Odyssey

Chapter 2648 – Peak Of The Sixth Level

Suddenly, Old Lady Mu attacked. Long needles pierced through the void and formed a divine hologram that pressed down upon Fu Yuan and Shui Ningqiu. “Whether you give me permission or not, I will be checking the delivery of flourishing crystals today. If there is no issue, I will apologize and go to Monarch Luo to receive appropriate punishment.”

Fu Yuan pushed Shui Ningqiu aside. His palm trembled as he gathered his monarch essence into a tri-colored palm print that slammed into the divine diagram.

There was an explosion that tore the spacecraft apart as Fu Yuan stumbled back. Simply put, he was no match for Old Lady Mu.

Old Lady Mu was from the same generation as Monarch Mu. While Monarch Mu had been blessed with incredible talent and become a Monarch, Old Lady Mu’s talent was worse than her sister, but she had still managed to become a peak Demi-Monarch. The only person in the entire Mo Courtyard who had surpassed the woman was Chen Le. Fu Yuan lacked the necessary strength.

“Old Lady Mu, are you trying to steal the flourishing crystals?” Shui Ningqiu shrieked.

At this moment, Fu Yuan whirled around and grabbed Shui Ningqiu's hand. Even as she stared at him in disbelief, he snatched her cosmic ring away from her. “I'm sorry, but we can't hide this anymore. We'll meet again if fate allows.”

The man then turned back to throw another palm strike at Old Lady Mu while also tearing through the void and fleeing.

Shui Ningqiu was left completely dumbfounded. She had not expected Fu Yuan to flee as she had already planned everything out: since Old Lady Mu had no authority to check the delivery to the rainbow wall, Fu Yuan would hold the woman back, which would give Shui Ningqiu the time she needed to put back the stolen flourishing crystals. After that, they would reluctantly allow Old Lady Mu to check the delivery, which would confirm that there were no issues. Monarch Luo would not condemn them just because they had previously been in a relationship, as he would not care about such matters.

Fu Yuan running away was completely outside of Shui Ningqiu’s expectations, especially so quickly and openly. His escape was essentially the same as admitting that the two of them had been stealing flourishing crystals from the delivery, which meant that Fu Yuan had betrayed Shui Ningqiu.

“Fu Yuan-” Shui Ningqiu roared in fury.

However, the void had already recovered, and Fu Yuan had vanished without a trace.

Old Lady Mu's divine diagram swept through space, but it completely missed the fleeing man.

Her eyes grew cold. “He certainly ran off quickly.”

The old woman then turned to Shui Ningqiu. “So, there really is something wrong. Just how many flourishing crystals have you two stolen over the years? Let's see how you intend to explain yourself to Monarch Luo.”

Shui Ningqiu’s face turned ashen. Fu Yuan had fled, which meant that there was no longer any need for an investigation. Everything was already over.

A short time later, Old Lady Mu was respectfully facing a display. She was in the process of contacting none other than Monarch Luo himself.

As soon as Monarch Luo connected to the call, he saw both Old Lady Mu and Shui Ningqiu. "Did Fu Yuan escape?"

"Yes. Your subordinate was incompetent and failed to keep him here," Old Lady Mu apologized.

Monarch Luo stared at Old Lady Mu. "How did you discover that they have been stealing flourishing crystals?"

"I received a report, and we also coincidentally discovered the two’s relationship from their younger years. On top of that, Fu Yuan's progress in recent years has been suspiciously fast. Despite only recently becoming a Demi-Monarch, he has been quickly improving, and at the moment, he has almost caught up to me. Because of all of these clues, I felt the need to investigate them, but I didn't expect Fu Yuan to escape so decisively," Old Lady Mu replied.

Monarch Luo then turned to Shui Ningqiu, whose face had lost absolutely all color. He spoke in a soft tone, "Take care of this. You are the Head Collector starting today."

Old Lady Mu was thrilled. "Thank you, my Lord."

Just as Fu Yuan had said, Monarch Luo could not care less about such a trivial number of flourishing crystals. They came from his own power, which meant that he could create as many as he wanted. As long as Monarch Luo was not alerted that funds were being embezzled, there would not be any problems. However, the moment things were exposed, there was no longer any reason for Shui Ningqiu to be kept around.

Monarch Luo saw every cultivator in the Three Monarchs Universe as his own servants. He did not care if Shui Ningqiu lived or died, nor the reason behind the actions that she had taken. He simply had no need to know.

Old Lady Mu hid her excitement. The Head Collector was not just responsible for charging the rainbow wall with flourishing crystals; this person would also control the amazingly powerful Crystal Bank. Being given such a position would further increase the Mu family’s influence in the Three Monarchs Universe.

Monarch Mu was indeed missing, but the Mu family would never collapse while Luo Zang still lived. Giving Old Lady Mu this position was also Monarch Luo’s way of demonstrating his own position and making it clear that he supported the Mu family.

As the image disappeared, Old Lady Mu sighed and gestured for someone to take Shui Ningqiu away. The old woman remained silently standing where she was.

The next moment, the void split back open, and Fu Yuan stepped out.

Old Lady Mu's eyes flickered as she looked over. "You!"

She was prepared to attack, but Fu Yuan's face suddenly transformed, morphing into Xuan Qi.

Old Lady Mu held back from attacking, and she stared at Lu Yin with a strange expression on her face.

Ever since the woman had first laid eyes on this man, Monarch Mu had disappeared, as had the the Fenglei clan. Now, the Three Monarchs Universe was not the same place that it had once been.

Old Lady Mu was not sure that Monarch Mu's disappearance was related to this man, but she was unable to think of any alternative explanation.

For more than two years, her life had hung by a thread as she awaited this man's return.

Every time she met with Monarch Luo, she had been gripped by fear, terrified that the Monarch would see through her.

Never before had she experienced such a crisis. After all, Old Lady Mu had never been sent to the front lines to fight against Aeternus.

"Well done," Lu Yin praised the woman with a smile. He had captured Fu Yuan after the man entered the spacecraft. Even if Fu Yuan was a complete fool, he would have never fled the scene immediately. Where could he run to? Fleeing would mean never being able to return to the Three Monarchs Universe, and as someone who cultivated monarch essence but had yet to become a Monarch, staying in a universe without monarch essence meant that his energy reserves would eventually run out.

"Why did you help me?" Old Lady Mu asked.

Lu Yin took a seat. "I'm not helping you. I'm simply after some resources. If not for the imperial treasury, I would have taken what I needed from your Mu family."

The Mu family possessed a large amount of resources, though it was unlikely for them to have even ten billion flourishing crystals.

Everyone in the Three Monarchs Universe could be regarded as a servant of the three Monarchs. Even if the Mu family was an exception to that standard, they would never be allowed to gather such an exorbitant amount of resources.

Old Lady Mu stared at Lu Yin for a long moment. "Are you connected to Monarch Mu's disappearance?"

Lu Yin met Old Lady Mu's eyes. "I have her."

A chill ran down the old woman’s spine. Monarch Mu was a peak powerhouse, and yet she had been captured by this man. Just who was this man? What kind of strength was he hiding? She could not even imagine it.

"What are you planning? Is the Fenglei clan behind-?" Before Old Lady Mu could even finish her question, Lu Yin was already gone.

She stared blankly at the suddenly empty space before her. A feeling of complete powerlessness washed over her.

… 

What happened in the Three Monarchs Universe had no effect on Xuan Qi, who had been resting in his quarters, nor did it affect Cang Bi, who remained close to Xuan Qi at all times.

Stepping into the courtyard, Lu Yin drew a deep breath. "Every universe has its own feeling. Which universe do you find the most comfortable in the Sixverse Association?"

Cang Bi replied, "I belong to this universe, so it’s only natural that I find my own universe to be the most comfortable."

With a laugh, Lu Yin replied, "On the other hand, I find the Voidforce Universe to be much more comfortable."

Cang Bi just smiled and made a point of not continuing the conversation. His job was to monitor Xuan Qi. Helping the young man in his investigation was nothing more than an excuse to justify the Demi-Monarch’s presence.

Lu Yin only took a brief walk before returning to his quarters. He stated that he intended to go into seclusion for a time, claiming to have obtained a bit of insight.

Obtaining insight was something that any cultivator would envy.

Flourishing crystals contained monarch essence, but unlike star crystals, flourishing crystals were simply containers for the energy and not objects formed from pure monarch essence. Because of this, Lu Yin was slightly uneasy when rolling his die.

Fortunately, he found that it was not a problem to draw monarch essence from the flourishing crystals because of his level of control over the energy.

At the moment, he had a staggering 930 million flourishing crystals, all of which he had taken from Fu Yuan.

Fu Yuan's wealth had become Lu Yin’s. As for the 10 billion flourishing crystals intended for the rainbow wall, Lu Yin had not touched any of it.

A loss of a few tens of millions of flourishing crystals would not be noticed, and Monarch Luo did not care about such an amount. However, if an obvious amount went missing, it would be a different story. There was no denying that the Three Monarchs Universe was under Monarch Luo's control.

Surrounded by hundreds of millions of flourishing crystals, Lu Yin looked up. His die appeared, and with a tap of a finger, it started to spin.

Two pips, Blackhole Disassembly. Useless. There was nothing that he needed to disassemble.

Again. Four pips: Timestop. As time froze for him, the scenery around Lu Yin shifted.

Within his Timestop Space, Lu Yin continued to focus on practicing the Cosmic Art and reciting the Origin Sutra like normal. He firmly believed that the Origin Progenitor’s Sutra would continue to bring him various benefits.

After spending nearly a year within the Timestop Space, Lu Yin's vision changed, and he reappeared in the real world, where only a single second had passed.

Again. The flick of his finger caused the die to slowly spin before coming to a halt. Once again, Lu Yin had rolled Timestop.

Of the six sides of his die, the most common roll was Pilfer, and Lu Yin always received something for that roll, though what he received could be either good or bad. However, both the most useful and the most troublesome roll for Lu Yin was Timestop.

While rolling Timestop granted him almost an entire year of extra time, there were occasions when Lu Yin did not want to practice, but he was never able to bring himself to waste such an opportunity.

With no other choice, Lu Yin once again chose to continue his training.

Perhaps he was under some kind of curse, but the less Lu Yin wanted to train, the more he was forced to do so.

His third roll was also Timestop. He had gotten the same result three times in a row now… 

Each time, Lu Yin extended the duration of Timestop to nearly a year. It was important that he continue to constantly train. He could not afford to waste any opportunities.

Rolling Timestop three times in a row meant that Lu Yin had spent almost three continuous years training. After ending his third session in his Timestop Space, Lu Yin felt as though his training session had lasted a lifetime.

During the three years that he had focused on cultivating the Cosmic Art, he had successfully simulated 370,000 stars.

Mastering the sixth level of Cosmic Art meant that one had mastered 380,000 stars, and Lu Yin was only one step away from reaching perfection in the sixth level.

Despite initially not wanting to train, Lu Yin suddenly found himself hoping to roll Timestop for his fourth roll. He was eager to experience the changes in the Cosmic Art when he reached the seventh level.

The seventh level of Cosmic Art was supposed to be the pinnacle of the cultivation art. At that level, a person was no longer supposed to focus on how many stars they could simulate, but rather on simulating an entire universe!

Suppressing his excitement, Lu Yin simply rested for more than a dozen days. Only after that did he continue to roll his die, hoping to see either Timestop or Possession.

… 

A month later, Lu Yin opened his eyes and stood up to look past the courtyard outside his personal quarters

His seclusion was finally at an end.

He had mastered the sixth level of the Cosmic Art, simulating 380,000 stars. He was just a single step away from reaching the seventh level, but he had failed to take that final step.

He had no idea how to proceed with the seventh level of the Cosmic Art.

Despite spending nearly a year in his Timestop Space relentlessly practicing the Cosmic Art, Lu Yin had made no progress at all. He found himself unable to move beyond 380,000 stars. Forget reaching the seventh level of the Cosmic Art—he was not even able to increase the number of stars he simulated beyond 380,000 no matter how hard he tried.

Helpless, Lu Yin had been left with no option but to cultivate his other powers when he rolled Timestop, such as monarch essence. Due to this, he had become his monarch essence had reached the Retainer realm, and the continent of fatesand in his chest had considerably increased the amount of tri-colored soil, which had appeared along the banks of the river of voidforce energy. Green sprouts could be seen within this soil, which was the power of the Arboreal Realm.

The various energies within Lu Yin’s chest were each growing and improving, and it gave the system in his chest a colorful, though chaotic, appearance.

Aside from spending his time cultivating, Lu Yin had also managed to roll Possession a few times. As he had expected, it was possible to use the monarch essence stored within flourishing crystals to Possess cultivators in the Three Monarchs Universe.

He had Possessed several individuals of varying strength. One person was even a Demi-Monarch from the Mo Courtyard.

Lu Yin’s luck had not been bad at all. Of the people he had Possessed, there had been several spies. After all, people who were selected by Aeternus to become spies were typically good matches for Lu Yin’s Possession, as both he and Aeternus sought out powerful individuals with widespread influence. Possessing a spy was not purely reliant on luck.