Star Odyssey

Chapter 3086: The Ruins

"Don't be fooled by my people's desire for violence. We have never taken the initiative to attack another human civilization. Even astral beasts, as long as they don't show any hostility towards us, are not harmed. This is a rule that was put in place for my tribe by our ancestor, and we have always followed it diligently," E' Ji explained.

Arch-Elder Zen inquired, "Your mad ancestor?"

E' Ji nodded.

Arch-Elder Zen was amazed, "Given the chance, I would love to visit your ancestor. The fact that he put such a rule in place for your people demonstrates great character."

E' Ji instantly refused, "That's simply not possible. Our ancestor is insane, and allowing any outsiders to see him would damage his image. When he was still sane, he was very particular about his appearance. His favorite saying was," E' Ji paused. "'Where's my comb?'"

Lu Yin blinked. "Your ancestor certainly has a unique personality."

From the moment he had first met the Scourge Occupation, Lu Yin had sensed that there was something unusual about the tribe. They seemed to be a violent people, and yet they refused to bully the weak. They were quite blunt and straightforward, and they also had a rather dark sense of humor.

It was possible that these traits naturally developed when people possessed immense power, yet very limited lifespans.

Given their limited time, they tried to live as freely and extravagantly as possible.

Lu Yin decided to get straight to the point. "I am from the Origin Universe, which is a member of the Sixverse Alliance. We are an organization of dozens of parallel universes which have united in order to fight against Aeternus. Even with our alliance, we still struggle to endure. I hope to ally with the Scourge Occupation to fight against Aeternus."

"Is this Aeternus truly so formidable?" E' Nan asked.

Lu Yin's expression turned serious. "I won't lie to you. While I don't know how strong your ancestor is, there is no doubt that there are individuals within Aeternus who can match him. On top of that, they are sane."

E' Ji's eyes narrowed. "Sane, and yet as strong as our ancestor?"

Lu Yin nodded. "There are limits in this megaverse, but so far, no one has managed to breakthrough to become an Immortal. Your ancestor is presumably confined to those limits as well, while Aeternus also have people who have reached those limits. We have similar individuals on our side, or else we would have been destroyed long ago."

E' Ji sighed with relief. "You should have said as much from the beginning. I was just trying to come up with the best way to turn you down."

Lu Yin was yet again rendered speechless by the woman.

E' Nan spoke in a bitter voice, "You can’t blame my mother for her bluntness. You need to understand that all of us endure the power of our ancestor's blood for both our own sakes, as well as to keep him alive. We don't want to see our ancestor die, but we also wish to enjoy our short lives as much as possible. While we seek worthy opponents, we don't seek death."

"I understand. Right now, Aeternus and humanity have achieved some level of balance. This is why Mister Mu sent me here to find you. Even if you don't trust me, you should trust him. You've known him for a long time. If he didn't believe that we have a chance of victory, he would not have gotten you involved."

"That’s why we agree," E' Ji interjected.

Lu Yin turned to face the woman.

E' Ji smiled. "No matter what, we owe your master a great debt. Given his character, if he believed that we would lose, he wouldn't simply send us to our deaths.

"Besides, even if we wanted to refuse you, doing so would be humiliating."

E' Nan nodded, as he felt the exact same way.

Lu Yin grew curious. "Just what exactly occurred between your tribe and Mister Mu?"

"You don't know?"

"Nothing at all."

E' Ji explained, "It's quite simple. Occasionally, our Scourge Occupation encounters powerful enemies while destroying parallel universes. We once ran into a strange enemy who slaughtered half of our tribe, including our then chief. We were unable to absorb any of our ancestor's blood, which pushed him to the brink of self-destructing. Fortunately, Mister Mu appeared at that time, and he managed to suppress the pending explosion. He then stayed with us for an entire century, until our population recovered.

"If not for Mister Mu, both our tribe and our ancestor would have perished."

Lu Yin now understood why the tribe held Mister Mu in such high regard.

It was one thing to have saved the tribe and their ancestor, but staying with them for a century was a significant favor. While 100 years might not mean anything to someone like Mister Mu, it meant a great deal to the Scourge Occupation, and that time had fostered a deep bond.

"Enough talk of business. Our Scourge Occupation will host you properly! Lu Yin, Arch-Elder Zen, Leng Qing, come enjoy some music and dancing," E' Ji offered in a grand manner, and she immediately called for the start of a demonstration of luxury that left both Arch-Elder Zen and Leng Qing quite uncomfortable.

Lu Yin was not particularly bothered. He was still young, by the standards of cultivators, and he quite enjoyed the music, dancing, and food.

He also took the opportunity to observe the other members of the tribe. There were several who were capable of enduring enough of their ancestor's blood to wield the strength of Progenitors, while E' Ji seemed to possess the strength of a sequence powerhouse. However, Lu Yin had not yet seen anyone from the tribe in action.

He was eager to see how these people fought, given that their strength came from another.

Lu Yin remained at the Scourge Occupation for five days, though Arch-Elder Zen and Leng Qing both left on the second day.

After five days, Lu Yin returned to Aeternus Nation. He returned with E' Nan so that the man could leave a trace on the coordinate seal, which would allow the people of the Scourge Occupation to travel between the two universes. That done, Lu Yin bade the tribe farewell.

The Scourge Occupation's attitude left Lu Yin hopeful about the other cosmic doors.

He had initially used Bi Rong’s compass to find parallel universes where time flowed faster, but he had also been hoping to find allies who could join the fight against Aeternus. Finding God’s Domain had strengthened Lu Yin’s belief that his goal was possible. If not for certain events, he would have continued to explore more unknown parallel universes.

However, Mister Mu had given Lu Yin eight cosmic doors, which represented eight powerful civilizations. Even if there were only eight individuals, that would be eight new sequence powerhouses, which would be crucial for when the war with Aeternus resumed.

Even more importantly, Mister Mu had most likely already laid the groundwork to cooperate with them long ago. Without his relationship with the people of the Scourge Occupation, allying with the tribe would have been incredibly difficult due to their hostility toward outsiders.

The stronger the civilization, the more self-serving they tended to be.

Lu Yin was confident that he could rally other civilizations into the war against Aeternus, provided that they were human. The only uncertainty was the time it would take him, and Mister Mu had saved Lu Yin a tremendous amount of time.

Lu Yin took out the next cosmic door, and once again he was accompanied by Arch-Elder Zen and Leng Qing, as they feared the worst. If Mister Mu was able to find other civilizations, then so could Aeternus. If Aeternus had set a trap, it would be very dangerous for Lu Yin to visit the parallel universes.

As long as Lu Yin was escorted by both Arch-Elder Zen and Leng Qing, Aeternus would find it challenging to instantly defeat all of them.

On top of that, an escort of Progenitors gave Lu Yin a great deal of prestige, as he was not yet a Progenitor himself.

Lu Yin activated the cosmic door and passed through it, only to find himself in a familiar universe. This place had been the home of God’s Domain.

Arch-Elder Zen and Leng Qing stayed right with Lu Yin.

"God's Domain?" Arch-Elder Zen exclaimed.

Leng Qing was equally surprised. "Is this God's Domain’s original universe?"

Lu Yin had not expected one of the cosmic doors to lead to God's Domain, but after thinking about it, it was not particularly surprising. God's Domain had been a very strong civilization with the four elephants and the Divine Maiden, who could wield the elephants’ powers since she had been recognized by their universe. That essentially meant that the civilization had had five sequence powerhouses. Only the Five Spirits Alliance could match such numbers.

It was not surprising that Mister Mu had found God's Domain.

Unfortunately, that civilization’s strength had already been destroyed.

When the Sixverse association had invaded the First Scourge, Arrow God had been called over to support the First Scourge. After the invasion, the First Scourge had sealed itself off, and the Aeternals had been forced to change their strategies. The other Scourges had been urged to eliminate their opponents so that they could help the First Scourge destroy the Sixverse Association.

That was why Di Qiong had attacked the God's Domain with his full strength.

Coincidentally, the Infinity Empire had also found God's Domain in the past, and by using some unknown method, they had reconnected to it. Lu Yin had not known that the Infinity Empire possessed such a technology, and he had tried to lure Forgetting Ruins God to the Infinity Empire. However, the spatial rift had been diverted to God's Domain.

Due to nothing more than lucky timing, Lu Yin had been able to help God's Domain fight back against Di Qiong. While all three of their elephants had perished, the people of God’s Domain had been able to survive.

For the moment, those people were living in Aeternus Nation.

God's Domain's original universe was a complete ruin, as Di Qiong had destroyed the place. All of the people of God's Domain had been relocated, leaving the universe empty.

Arch-Elder Zen sighed. "I never thought that the once-powerful God's Domain would be reduced to this."

Lu Yin felt quite fortunate. "If the Infinity Empire hadn't sent me here back then, God's Domain would have been completely destroyed."

"Speaking of them, Dao Monarch, the Divine Maiden has asked about the Immovable Heavenly King Elephant," Arch-Elder Zen mentioned.

Lu Yin turned to the man. "What did you tell her?"

"The truth."

Lu Yin nodded. "I'll talk to her."

The trio left the ruins of God's Domain with heavy hearts. If God's Domain was in this state, then what about the civilizations represented by the remaining six cosmic doors? Mister Mu's discovery of these civilizations might span a long time, long enough for anything to happen.

The Scourge Occupation had given Lu Yin some hope, but visiting God's Domain’s ruined universe sombered the atmosphere.

He stared at the third cosmic door for a moment, reminding himself to stay calm. Not even Mister Mu could find every powerful civilization throughout the countless parallel universes. These eight cosmic doors did not represent the eight strongest civilizations throughout the megaverse.

After activating the cosmic door, Lu Yin hesitated, but Leng Qing stepped forward and vanished.

None of them had any idea what might lay on the other side of the cosmic door, but Leng Qing did not want Lu Yin to take such a risk.

Lu Yin glanced at Arch-Elder Zen, who nodded. After that, the two men passed through together.

On the other side of the cosmic door, they found themselves on a vast grassland.

Such a prairie was not unusual, as it was possible for the cosmic door to connect to a planet. However, there was something strange—the sheer size of the grassland. Even with Heaven's Sight, Lu Yin could not see the end, though he did notice signs of battle.

"Let's go." Lu Yin led Arch-Elder Zen and Leng Qing towards the conflict.

The expansive grassland reminded Lu Yin of the Outerverse, as the prairie was not any smaller than the Outerverse.

The Origin Universe had originally had six Mainlands with a starry sky above them all. The Mainlands had formed the universe, with a star-filled sky up above, which was very similar to the grassland where Lu Yin and the others had found themselves.

Soon, Lu Yin and the other two found an Aeternus Kingdom on the grassland.