Star Odyssey

Chapter 3035: Corpse God’s Whereabouts

Marquis Wu let out a breath. He took a few steps to the side and sat down on a large rock. “It’s a long story, but I’ll keep things short. The truth is that I was placed in Aeternus by my father and Senior Lu Tianyi.”

Lu Yin and his two senior brothers were all stunned. “Progenitor Hui and Ancestor Tianyi?”

Marquis Wu nodded.

Lu Yin glanced at Senior Brother Qing Ping and then at Senior Brother Mu Xie. They had entered this parallel universe from the Lu Sanctum, and they had even done so right in front of Ancestor Tianyi. The man had known all along. They should have asked about this matter earlier.

“Are you sure?” Lu Yin asked.

Marquis Wu made a welcoming gesture. “You can ask Senior Tianyi about it whenever you wish, though if you can contact my father, that would also be good. There’s no way he’s dead.”

Lu Yin did not hesitate at all as he turned and walked to the cosmic door, which left Marquis Wu quite puzzled. “What is he doing?”

“He’s going to go speak with Senior Tianyi. He’s just on the other side of that cosmic door,” Mu Xie explained.

Marquis Wu felt this was a bit odd. “You didn’t mention anything to Senior Tianyi before coming here?”

Neither Qing Ping nor Mu Xie answered. It was true that they had spent half a month in the universe without speaking to Progenitor Tianyi, but that was mostly because the man had not asked about what Lu Yin and the other two were doing.

Lu Yin was already meeting with Lu Tianyi.

“Ancestor, you know about Hui Wu,” Lu Yin directly said.

Lu Tianyi was caught off guard. “Why are you asking about him at this time?”

Lu Yin explained, “One of Aeternus’s True God Guard Captains, Marquis Wu, is just on the other side of that cosmic door. He claims to be Hui Wu.”

Lu Tianyi showed no surprise at all. “Then it seems that he has learned of something vitally important. He wouldn’t have exposed himself otherwise.”

Lu Yin blinked. “Is he really a spy?”

Lu Tianyi walked to the cosmic door. “Let’s go meet him.”

He stepped through, and Lu Yin quickly followed.

On the desolate planet, Marquis Wu’s expression changed quite strongly when Lu Tianyi appeared. There was both excitement and relief upon his features.

Lu Tianyi looked at Marquis Wu. “We didn’t meet when the Scourge was invaded. I didn’t expect you to reach out to us on your own. It’s been a long time, Little Wu.”

Marquis Wu’s face betrayed complex emotions as he stood up. He clenched his fists and then relaxed them again as he took a deep breath. He released it in a roar that was so forceful it cracked the ground. It was as though the man was venting.

Lu Yin and the others watched Marquis Wu at this moment. He changed. A moment before, he had been like one of the Aeternals’ corpse kings, but at this moment, he seemed entirely human, both flesh and blood.

“It’s been a long time, Senior Tianyi. I thought that I was doomed to live out the rest of my life in Aeternus.” Marquis Wu looked back up and let out a heavy sigh.

Lu Tianyi expressed his regret, “I’m truly sorry that the troubles of my Lu family have worried you.”

Marquis Wu held his head. He appeared rather helpless at this moment. “It’s so ridiculous that the mighty Lu family was exiled. If you weren’t able to return, and if my father never showed up, I would have never been able to even acknowledge my ancestors. Senior Tianyi, please, let’s not deal with such issues again in the future. I also want to go home.”

Lu Tianyi nodded and gave the man a small smile. “It won’t happen again.”

Lu Yin stared at Marquis Wu. This man had been planted within Aeternus by Ancestor Tianyi and Progenitor Hui. How impressive! Lu Yin had been questioning if there might be a problem with Wang Xiaoyu, but the spy in Aeternus had turned out to be Marquis Wu.

“Let’s introduce ourselves formally. I am Hui Wu. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you,” Marquis Wu said in a low voice. His features were weathered, but he was still able to smile at this moment.

It was possible that not a single person in Aeternus had ever seen the man smile. The expression looked extremely forced.

Lu Yin observed at Hui Wu. “All of us here know each other, and while I truly respect what you’ve done, I still want to clarify just how you were able to gain the Aeternals’ trust.”

Hui Wu met Lu Yin’s gaze. “I have long admired you. When I was on the rear battlefield, I wanted to meet you. You are the one who brought back the Lu family. Without you, Dao Monarch Lu, I would have been a lost soul. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“As for my story, you can ask Senior Tianyi about how I joined Aeternus. I believe you’re asking me about how I became a True God Guard Captain,” Hui Wu continued.

Lu Yin nodded. This man understood Lu Yin’s hesitation. While Hui Wu was indeed admirable, the man had basically embraced death when accepting his task to infiltrate Aeternus. Even so, the man’s loyalty needed to be confirmed, as both the Fifth Mainland and the entire Sixverse Association lay behind Lu Yin, and he could not afford to make any mistakes.

Lu Tianyi did not intervene.

His expression serious, Hui Wu said, “It’s quite simple. I’ve cultivated divine energy.”

Lu Yin arched a brow. At this moment, he finally empathized with what Ancestor Tianyi and Ancestor Lu Yuan must have felt when they had learned that Lu Yin was cultivating divine energy. They trusted Lu Yin, but trusting Hui Wu was difficult. Lu Yin was the only one who truly understood the effects of cultivating divine energy.

How was Hui Wu managing it? How had he successfully cultivated divine energy without being controlled by it?

Hui Wu shifted his shoulders and sat back down on the rock. When he continued, he sounded nostalgic. “My birth, and even the path I would walk throughout my entire life, was all planned by my father. In fact, from the beginning, the purpose of my birth was for me to join Aeternus.”

Lu Yin, Qing Ping, and Mu Xie were all stunned. Could Progenitor Hui have really done such a thing?

Lu Tianyi was not surprised, as he had known about this for a long time.

“From the moment I was born, my father publicly entered seclusion. However, the truth was that he was planting the seeds of the Golden Meteors within me. He intended for me to one day cultivate divine energy by using those seeds. What is your impression of Progenitor Hui? Intelligent? Wise? To me, he was cruel. How is it anything less than cruel to burden a newborn babe who didn’t even know the color of the sky with such a great mission? He wasn’t qualified to be a father.”

Lu Yin did not argue. Progenitor Hui’s actions were indeed too much for a father.

“Even so, I accepted my fate. From a young age, the idea was drilled into me, and it would not have been easy for me to reject it. Also, I admired him. Who else could plot against Aeternus? He was the only one. Starting in my childhood, he planted the seeds of the Golden Meteors in me, thinking about matters countless years into the future. The reason why I was never controlled by the divine energy after I started cultivating it is because all of the divine energy went into the seeds of the Golden Meteors. My father planted those seeds, which means that they came from him and were separate from me, though I can use the Golden Meteors battle technique to draw the divine energy back out from those seeds. In this manner, the Aeternals believe that I’ve been cultivating divine energy.

“Does that explanation satisfy you?”

Lu Yin looked towards Lu Tianyi. Was this actually possible?

Lu Tianyi sighed. “What Hui Wen did was certainly cruel, but also quite feasible. We devised this method together, and we originally intended to use it on more people and have them infiltrate Aeternus. However, even with Hui Wen’s power, that proved impossible. Every seed of the Golden Meteors that he planted drained his life’s cultivation. Each one that he planted meant ten years of cultivating in seclusion. There are a limited number of seeds within Hui Wu, which is why he has been cautious and has not cultivated too aggressively. There was a fear that there wouldn’t be enough for the seeds for when it came time for him to cultivate divine energy. Otherwise, given his talent, he would have surpassed the Progenitor level by now.

“He is the only member of Aeternus to have cultivated the Corpse King Transformation as a human and managed to reach the Pupilless Transformation.”

Lu Yin was shocked. “Pupilless Transformation?”

A smile spread across Hui Wu’s mouth. “That’s right, Pupilless. I am the only person in Aeternus—no, more precisely, the only human in the First Scourge to have cultivated to the Pupilless Transformation, as well as the only being to have cultivated divine energy without being controlled by it.”

Lu Tianyi glanced at Lu Yin. Hui Wu was not really the only one.

Lu Yin was amazed. “Just how many countermeasures did Progenitor Hui set up within Aeternus?”

Hui Wu scoffed. “Who can say? Even you might be part of his plots.”

Lu Yin looked back at Hui Wu. “Since you aren’t under the control of divine energy, it means that you are still one of us. Why have you contacted us at this time?”

This question sobered Hui Wu up considerably. “To kill Corpse God.”

Lu Yin and the others were caught off guard. “Corpse God?”

Hui Wu solemnly explained, “Right now, Corpse God is in Giants' Purgatory. While the Scourge is sealed off, Aeternus can’t send reinforcements. That means that, if we can prevent Corpse God from escaping, he is as good as dead.”

Lu Yin felt a bit confused. “How do you know that Corpse God is in Giants' Purgatory?”

Such a secret would typically only be known to Progenitor Xi, and even she most likely did not know where all Seven Skygods were. There was no reason for one of the True God Guard Captains to know such information.

Hui Wu took a moment to consider things. “Actually, the Lu family’s exile has proven to be a blessing in disguise.”

He looked over at Lu Tianyi. “The Aeternals excel at tempting humans to betray our own kind and become spies, but that also means that humans can plant their own spies within Aeternus. The Aeternals suspect all cultivators who aren’t corpse kings, regardless of what those cultivators might have done, and that includes me as well.

“Even with my father’s intelligence, I faced many tests after he placed me within Aeternus, and it was done specifically at the order of the Seven Skygods.

“After the Lu family was exiled, someone in Aeternus happened to share with me that Corpse God was hiding in Giants' Purgatory. They even mentioned that he seems to have originally been one of those super giants from Giants' Purgatory. When he’s in that universe, he has a vulnerability. If we can find it, we can kill him.

“As a side note, the colossal giants which were created by Ancient God merely belong to the Origin Universe. The super giants from Giants' Purgatory have nothing to do with Ancient God. Do not confuse Corpse God with Ancient God. Such a mistake could be costly.”

Hui Wu’s gaze swept over Lu Yin and the others. “I believe this information about Corpse God. The Aeternals have their own means of making me believe things, much like how my father had his own means of getting me into Aeternus. When I learned about Corpse God, I was already preparing to inform Senior Tianyi, but that was when the Lu family was banished.

“It’s ironic that even the Lu family could one day be betrayed. The entire Lu Sanctum vanished. I even went to the Higher Realm, but I was still unable to get in touch with Senior Tianyi. The information never made it to humanity’s forces because I don’t trust the Celestial Frost Sect or the others.”

Lu Tianyi was surprised. “So, that’s how you passed Aeternus’s test?”

Hui Wu nodded. “That’s right.”

Mu Xie considered the information. “A great deal of time passed between when you joined Aeternus and when the Lu family was banished. Why would the Aeternals test you at such a time?”

Hui Wu looked at Mu Xie. “A Semi-Progenitor who is one of Twelve Marquises doesn’t deserve to have one of Aeternus’s Seven Skygods test them. Even back then, the Aeternals were planning to choose one of the Twelve Marquises to become a new True God Guard Captain, and possibly increase the number of captains to twelve. I, Marquis Wang, Marquis Wu Yi, and West Mountain Tea King were all candidates. Only peak powerhouses qualify to be tested by Aeternus in such a way. Anyone beneath that level doesn’t warrant any concern, even if they are traitors. No single traitor can actually have an impact on Aeternus.”

Lu Yin’s eyes flashed. That’s right. When I disguised myself as Ye Bo and joined Aeternus, I was also given various tasks, but all of them were completely unrelated to the Sixverse Association. If not for the fact that a large number of Aeturnus’s peak powerhouses were dying, I might not have had any contact with the Fifth Mainland for a very long time.