Star Odyssey

Chapter 2654 – Unending

A worried expression flickered across Lu Yin’s face. Was the man dead?

Chen Le thought the same thing. He had once tried to forcibly break the door that had been implanted within him by battering it with his own monarch essence. He had ended up severely injured to the point where he had needed to go into seclusion for a year. Mu Xie had struck the door with so much force that Chen Le thought his organs were being shredded.

Mu Xie's expression grew stern. "As expected, it's strong."

Suddenly, the śarīra that had been sent inside Chen Le split apart; one became two, three, and finally, three became nine. Nine identical śarīras formed a circle, and at the center of that circle of Mu Xie’s power, a tolling bell rang. It was a sound that somehow blended both a sacred feeling and a disturbing unpredictability.

Chen Le felt everything the most, as the sound of the bell seemed to ring right beside his ears.

It was the sound produced by the clashing energies of the nine śarīras.

When all nine śarīras appeared, they took on the appearance of a glowing bracelet that once again smashed against the door inside of Chen Le.

Puff!

The man spat out blood. This impact felt like his entire body was being torn to pieces.

Mu Xie stopped to examine Chen Le’s body. The door within him had been shattered.

However, the bracelet formed by the śarīras had also shattered.

"Just a mere trace of power that was left behind was able to destroy my śarīra. That door seems to have been placed inside of him without much thought, and yet it was powerful enough to kill a Progenitor. Junior Brother, this person is not someone to be trifled with." Mu Xie was shocked by the results.

Lu Yin was even more shocked. “Senior Brother, your śarīra was destroyed? What are you going to do?”

Mu Xie said, “It's not a problem. I’ll just make another one.”

Was he really being serious?

Mu Xie’s śarīra was his Progenitor's world. Could a person really just reform a broken Progenitor's world? If that was possible, then the Progenitor of Bloodlines could easily recover from his injuries, right?

“Senior Brother, your śarīra is your Progenitor's world. Can a shattered Progenitor's world recover?” Lu Yin was puzzled.

Mu Xie clasped his hands behind his back as he looked at the unconscious form of Chen Le, who was laying on the ground. “While my strength is comparable to the masters of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas, in terms of endurance, not even Lu Tianyi can surpass me. Everyone has their own strengths. Lu Tianyi is exceptionally powerful and can use his Investiture of the Gods to rule the universe. Progenitor Chen, Xia Shang, is a peerless warrior. The Rune Progenitor is incomparably talented. Each person has their own strengths that allow them to rise above the rest. As for me.” The man met Lu Yin's eyes. “My strength is my endurance. Progenitor Ku, with his Extremes Must Be Reversed, has a body that can never be destroyed, while I have unending power.”

As if he worried that Lu Yin would not believe him, Mu Xie raised a hand. Over his palm, another śarīra appeared and quickly grew larger. Beneath the man’s feet, a bit of writing appeared in a circle around him, exactly the same as when he had first unleashed his Progenitor's world in Lu Yin’s presence.

Lu Yin was blown away. "In that case, Senior Brother, does it mean that your Progenitor's world can never be destroyed?"

Mu Xie nodded. "You can say that. Thus far, I haven’t met anyone who can permanently destroy my Progenitor's world."

Lu Yin was shocked, but also felt that this explained many things. This was someone whom Mister Mu would acknowledge as his disciple.

Of Mister Mu’s three known disciples, Lu Yin's qualifications did not require any explanation. Qing Ping was able to fight a Progenitor despite only being a Semi-Progenitor, which proved his exceptional talent. Meanwhile, even though Lu Yin’s Senior Brother Mu Xie was able to stand his ground against the masters of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas, he had always somehow seemed to be a bit lacking. He did not possess the indomitable aura of someone who truly stood above his peers. It was true that being able to stand on the same level as the masters of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas was awe-inspiring and worthy of being recorded in history, but Lu Yin had always felt that there was something missing.

At this moment, he finally understood. Mu Xie was like a bottomless pit. He did not wield overwhelming power that could suppress all others, but instead an infinite power that could eventually grind anyone down. Given Mu Xie's personality, he was likely not exaggerating anything he was saying.

While Mu Xie was not capable of defeating people like Bai Wangyuan or Nutjob Lu in a short battle, if it became a battle of attrition, there was no one in existence who could outlast the man. He had even compared himself to Progenitor Ku, who had been confident enough to invade Aeternus’s territory to attack True God Wei Yi. It was clear that Mu Xie was confident in his own strength.

This was Senior Brother Mu Xie's defining trait: unending power.

If the Progenitor of Bloodlines possessed such a trait, he would have never fallen from the Progenitor realm.

To some extent, Mu Xie’s power would never grow weaker, and it would instead steadily grow as time passed.

In terms of the growth of his power, Mu Xie was the most reliable of everyone Lu Yin had ever encountered. The man’s strength did not experience dramatic, erratic surges, but instead followed a smooth and steady progression that avoided any negative backlashes. The day would eventually come when Mu Xie would reach heights that most could only dream of.

This was the kind of person that Mister Mu could acknowledge as his disciple.

Cough, cough!

Chen Le coughed up blood as he opened his bleary eyes. Both Lu Yin and Mu Xie turned to scrutinize the man. "Senior Brother, his injuries… they’re not serious, right?"

Mu Xie replied, "Nothing vital was damaged, so he’ll be fine after resting for a few days. He’s suffered nothing more than a flesh wound."

Upon hearing this, Chen Le struggled to his feet, leaving a bloody handprint on the ground as he picked himself up. He then offered a deep bow to Mu Xie as he said, "Senior, I am sincerely grateful for your help."

Chen Le was quite clear on just how horrifyingly powerful someone had to be for them to counter Mr. Daheng's power. The fact that this mysterious powerhouse was completely unscathed caused Chen Le’s wariness of Mu Xie to rise to new heights. Was it possible that the man was equal to Mr. Daheng?

A smile tugged at the corners of Lu Yin's mouth. It could be readily seen that Chen Le held Mr. Daheng in extremely high regard, though he seemed uncertain of Monarch Luo or Senior Brother Mu Xie’s relative power. However, since Mu Xie had broken the door that Mr. Daheng had placed in his body, Chen Le felt that Mu Xie had to at least be close to Mr. Daheng’s level of strength. At the very least, the Demi-Monarch regarded Mu Xie as unquestionably superior to Monarch Luo.

Things were getting interesting.

"Chen Le, I told you that I would help you break down the door inside of you. How do you feel now? Are you confident about your breakthrough?" Lu Yin asked.

Chen Le turned to look at Lu Yin. His eyes were filled with wariness as he answered, "It should be possible."

Lu Yin stated, "I'm not helping you for free."

In one smooth motion, he placed a Death Seal within Chen Le.

The man instinctively tried to resist with his monarch essence, but the Death Seal instantly dissolved the power.

Chen Le was horrified. Just what was this energy?

"Don’t assume that you’ll become some high and mighty figure once you become a peak powerhouse," Lu Yin warned, "You will never be able to escape from my power. Sparing your life comes with a condition: you work for me now. Alternatively, you can naturally choose to die."

Chen Le's eyes shifted, but before he could even reply, Mu Xie also took action. He lightly tapped Chen Le's body with a single finger. The first time the Progenitor had touched Chen Le, the door blocking his progress had been broken down, which had given the Demi-Monarch hope. However, Mu Xie’s second tap plunged the man into an abyss.

"I've also left a bit of my own energy inside of him. Regardless of whether he reaches the next realm of his cultivation, the energy that I’ve left behind can cause him to explode and perish. The only way he can dispel it is if his cultivation eventually surpasses my own," Mu Xie casually stated.

Chen Le's countenance turned grim. He suddenly found himself in an even worse situation than when he had been under Mr. Daheng's control. Mr. Daheng had only left behind a door that blocked Chen Le’s next breakthrough, whereas he was currently being threatened with death.

Chen Le had no desire to be controlled by others. He was on the verge of becoming a peak powerhouse and had already caught a glimpse of the greatest heights of human potential, and he was determined to reach it. Unfortunately, he found himself unable to break free from the two people before him.

He could either ascend to the peak and become a puppet on a string, or fall and perish without even leaving a corpse behind.

These were Chen Le's only two options.

Mu Xie left, unconcerned with whatever Lu Yin planned to do next. His junior brother used many schemes and tricks, and Mu Xie was curious about what their master thought of such things. Both Qing Ping and Mu Xie were quite pure in their pursuits: one judged the guilty, while the other eliminated spies. Only their junior brother dabbled in everything, which set him apart from his two seniors.

"What do you want me to do?" Chen Le asked.

"It doesn’t matter what I want, as you simply need to do it. That's the price," Lu Yin declared.

Chen Le's voice dropped low, "Once I become a Monarch, I can help you greatly. I want to be treated fairly."

"No," Lu Yin bluntly refused, "I'm giving you one final chance. You either accept your fate and be controlled by me, or you die. You don’t have any other choices."

Chen Le was completely under Lu Yin’s thumb, unless the man chose death.

Chen Le already understood that the Bai clan and Old Dian would never let things go. As for himself, he would do everything possible to break free from Xuan Qi’s control. What was the point in speaking with pretenses and saying unnecessary words?

In the end, Chen Le chose to live. Only by living could he hope to one day become free again. He refused to believe that he could not shake off the controls placed on him even after he became a peak powerhouse. When the time came, he might even be able to leverage Mr. Daheng's strength to gain his freedom. After all, Chen Le was aware that Xuan Qi held the stone that Mr. Daheng wanted, and that was a valuable piece of information.

There would always be a sliver of hope, and Chen Le intended to do whatever it took to seize it.

… 

One month later, an overwhelming surge of monarch essence pressed down upon the Mo Courtyard and everything nearby.

Old Greenpeel and the others looked up, shock filling their eyes. Was this…?

From his position atop the rainbow wall, Monarch Luo turned to look at the event, an unusual glint in his eyes. "Is he breaking through? Good. We will finally have another one, hahaha."

Arch-Elder Zen looked into the depths of the Three Monarchs Universe. Was someone breaking through to the Progenitor level?

What did such a breakthrough in this universe look like? Arch-Elder Zen felt quite curious.

While the Three Monarchs Universe was a relatively small universe, the person attempting a breakthrough cultivated monarch essence, which was the same power that Monarch Luo had used to reshape the universe. Did that mean that Monarch Luo had the ability to disrupt the breakthroughs of anyone in the entire universe?

No one could give Arch-Elder Zen an answer to this question. All he could do was watch and see.

Lu Yin stepped out of his courtyard and stared off into the distance with an awestruck expression. "Senior Cang Bi, what is going on?"

Cang Bi was visibly excited. "Senior Chen Le is breaking through!"

"Senior Chen Le? Is he about to become a peak powerhouse?" Lu Yin looked astonished.

Cang Bi nodded. "Our Three Monarchs Universe will finally have another powerhouse."

Lu Yin gazed into the distance. Chen Le had to succeed at his breakthrough, or else all of Lu Yin’s efforts would have been in vain.

The breakthrough was met with great anticipation, not only by the Three Monarchs Universe, but also by the entire Sixverse Association. Everyone hoped to see Chen Le become a peak powerhouse. All eyes were fixed on the man, excited for the final outcome.

Peak powerhouses were the backbone for every universe’s combat strength. Despite the varying levels of strength among such individuals, anyone who stepped onto that level possessed enough strength to gain the Great Sovereign’s attention. 

Heavy pressure from the gathering monarch essence left everyone in the Mo Courtyard gasping for breath. Chen Le rose upwards in one smooth movement as a howl tore from his throat. His arrows pierced the nearby clouds, their deadly sharpness on full display. 

The arrows shot upwards into the sky, unstoppable and deadly. They looked like they could pierce the universe itself. 

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. Chen Le possessed an impressive level of combat strength and had only failed to react to Lu Yin’s attack because of the surprise factor. Only at this moment did Lu Yin understand that Chen Le's arrows were similar to the manifestation of a Progenitor's world, only formed from monarch essence. It was no wonder how the man had been able to kill a corpse king in the same realm as him with a single arrow. These arrows were not merely a demonstration of Chen Le’s strength, but could also be used as a battle technique.

Arrows were deadly weapons, and with a successful breakthrough, Chen Le would be able to play a significant role in the war against Aeternus. 

Chen Le was not the first Demi-Monarch from the Three Monarchs Universe to try to become a Monarch. There had been another attempt before, but it had failed. Chen Le was the second Demi-Monarch to face this challenge.

While monarch essence had been created by Monarch Luo, the man was unable to control whether a person succeeded or failed at their breakthrough. This final breakthrough to become a Monarch meant that Chen Le would acquire the power to alter the universe. This meant that the very nature of his power would change, even if he continued to cultivate monarch essence. This was what it meant to be a peak powerhouse.