Star Odyssey

Chapter 3721: Scene

Even if Yi Shang’s mirebound artifact had been tampered with, the man himself had certainly never known. Lu Yin recalled how he had gone to such lengths to capture Yi Shang and obtain his mirebound artifact. It was all a massive joke in hindsight. Despite all that Lu Yin had kept hidden, the High Seraph could have used the wooden wing against him at any time. It had been a part of the man’s plan.

If not for Yong Heng using Eight-Star Garan, the High Seraph would have never exposed this particular trick.

It was vicious and deadly, and it was clearly something that he had been saving to kill Lu Yin. He had no idea how many other traps the High Seraph had prepared. While the man had allowed Lu Yin to act freely in the Spirit Nidus, that did not mean that the High Seraph had done nothing in secret.

The moment that Lu Yin had captured Yi Shang, the High Seraph must have been watching.

The Spirit Nidus was the High Seraph’s home, and Lu Yin had been on the back foot at every turn.

At this moment, eliminating Yong Heng was the top priority. So long as the High Seraph’s plan that involved Lu Yin remained unfinished, the man would not allow Lu Yin to die.

The High Seraph was a formidable enemy, but Yong Heng was Lu Yin’s archenemy.

The Spirit Nidus and the Tianyuan Megaverse were struggling over resetting a megaverse and reaching Immortality. It was about cultivators fighting cultivators. In contrast, Aeternus sought to remake humanity into a different species. The nature of the two conflicts was completely different.

Lu Yin may have briefly worked with Yong Heng, but that had been nothing more than a temporary necessity. Given any opportunity to do so, Lu Yin would do everything within his power to annihilate True God.

A heaven-sent opportunity was right before him.

Yong Heng looked up at the flames raining down towards him, but he merely laughed. “Do you truly think I will lose?”

A breeze swept by, and the flames disappeared.

The Origin Progenitor’s weapons from his Verdant Arsenal shattered one inch at a time.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. He could sense something more powerful than anything he had felt before. It was a power that blotted out the sky, shook the universe, and caused the stars to tremble. The Willbound Expanse felt like it was starting to collapse, leaving the distant Luminaries aghast. They had fled, though they were still close enough to watch the battle.

They felt as though they were witnessing the birth of a new Immortal.

The High Seraph’s expression changed as he felt the indescribable power sweep over him.

How can he be so strong? The High Seraph’s heart was trembling. This power was beyond that of a peak Dukkhan, and it had drawn infinitely close to that of the Immortal realm. The High Seraph had only ever seen one such person in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Had Yong Heng really kept such a terrifying power hidden?

True God’s head rose as an infinite, boundless aura shot into the sky, shaking people’s souls as it rose higher and higher, never stopping.

The High Seraph was completely on edge. At this moment, he knew that it was impossible for him to compare to Yong Heng.

Lu Yin met the Origin Progenitor’s eyes. The old man was also eager to retreat. Was it really possible that Yong Heng had already entered the Immortal realm?

“Run! Run for your lives!” Astral Anura shivered as he stared at Yong Heng in terror. “His power might be monstrous, but his control is even more terrifying! Look at his feet! The ground hasn’t been damaged at all! It’s insane.”

Lu Yin glanced at Yong Heng’s feet, and sure enough, there was not the slightest change to the ground. Not so much as a speck of dust had shifted.

How can the ground remain undisturbed beneath such terrifying power?

Is it really necessary for Yong Heng to control his power so perfectly? This was a fight to the death.

While the Willbound Expanse appeared to be about to collapse, it was also perfectly intact.

“No, that’s the power of illusion!” Lu Yin blurted.

Yong Heng turned and disappeared.

Lu Yin shot after him, even using Lightstream, but he was still a second too late. The horror of the power that Yong Heng had revealed had dulled Lu Yin’s reactions.

Damn it! It really was the power of illusion!

The Origin Progenitor asked, “Power of illusion?”

Astral Anura, Chu Yi, and everyone else turned to Lu Yin, waiting for an explanation.

He did not want to explain, but Yong Heng had already escaped. With a heavy sigh, Lu Yin said, “The power of illusion produces something that exists if you believe in it and vanishes if you don’t. Back when we fought against Corpse God in the Giants’ Purgatory, we met someone by the name of Ye Zhang. The entire Giant’s Purgatory was...”

Lu Yin’s explanation allowed everyone to realize that Yong Heng had undoubtedly been bluffing. He had first declared that it was impossible for him to lose, which had caused people to believe him. After all, he was Yong Heng. The moment anyone believed that, the power of illusion had erupted. The more that the power flared, the more that people had believed it was real. The stronger people’s belief, the fiercer the power grew. Eventually, it had reached a level that was infinitely close to the Immortal realm, which had frightened away even the High Seraph.

Lu Yin and the others had also been prepared to escape.

Had Astral Anura not commented on the ground, Lu Yin would have never seen through Yong Heng’s bluff.

It was impossible to guard against the power of illusion, as everything depended on how it was used. When used well, it was a power that could completely reverse a battle.

Long ago, when Ye Zhang, Tian En, and Tian Ci had died, each one of their deaths had caused a “slave” character to appear. Tian Ci had claimed that the characters belonged to Master Qing Cao. Yong Heng had a connection to the Immortal, so it was not impossible for him to have obtained the power of illusion that Ye Zhang had cultivated.

The problem was that it was an exceedingly rare power. Throughout all the years that everyone present had lived, Ye Zhang was the only one anyone had ever heard of cultivating the power of illusion.

Even the Origin Progenitor and other ancient powerhouses had never seen a similar power during the days of the Heavens Sect.

It was a power intended for deception, and no one would have guessed that Yong Heng would choose to cultivate such a thing.

Yong Heng had escaped, and the High Seraph had fled, along with Old Chief and even Lan Huifeng, who had helped the High Seraph ambush Yong Heng. Only the meteorite remained within the Willbound Expanse.

Regret served no purpose; Yong Heng was already gone. The next step was to deal with the meteorite and see if it was possible to reenter the Willbound Spire.

Earlier, the green lotus had interfered with those in the Willbound Spire, unleashing the power of the Immortal, Greater Sancte Green Lotus. It had been impossible for Lu Yin or anyone else to withstand that power, and if he was being honest, he still was a bit nervous about the idea of returning to the Willbound Spire.

In the distance, Sovereign Dou Sheng and the others resumed attacking the meteorite. A moment earlier, they had been so stunned by Yong Heng’s power of illusion that they had frozen in shock.

With Yong Heng gone and the meteorite still present, it was their only remaining enemy.

Both Lu Yin and the Origin Progenitor attacked the meteorite.

It was a bizarre stone; at times, it was so weak that a single Envoy could bat it away. At other times, it was so strong that not even the combined might of Lu Yin and the Origin Progenitor could budge it.

Outside the Willbound Expanse, on the battleships, Zi Tianshu, Old Salamander, Meng Sang, and all the others watched as Boundless’s experts besieged the meteorite, accomplishing nothing. With so many powerhouses pummeling a single rock, knocking it about like children kicking a ball, it should have looked comical, but no one could bring themselves to laugh.

The meteorite had destroyed one of the battleships, and even Lu Yin was completely helpless against it.

Everyone within the Willbound Expanse attacked the meteorite again and again, yet no one could inflict the slightest bit of damage to the stone.

No matter how much power Lu Yin unleashed, he was unable to harm the meteorite even with Heaven’s Blade.

He became increasingly curious about the meteorite and its solitary eye; was it a living creature or an inanimate object?

He released a spiral of karma that passed right through the rock. The image that was revealed to Lu Yin was that of a pitch-black, endless sky.

There was absolutely nothing else.

More and more spirals of karma were sent out, yet each one revealed nothing more than empty space.

Lu Yin saw the same emptiness again and again, only to finally realize that he was not seeing the darkness of a universe at all, but the Aevum Inch. Could this meteorite have originated from that place?

It was perfectly normal for a meteorite to travel through outer space, but this one had an eye, history, karma, and could even fight. Clearly, it was a living creature.

The meteorite’s strength waxed and waned as Boundless’s experts attacked it for half an hour. Even after so long, they could not break it.

While others attacked the meteorite, Lu Yin released dozens of karmic attacks, yet all he managed to see was the emptiness of outer space.

There was nothing that could explain the meteorite’s origin.

Lu Yin could only keep attacking with karma.

When another spiral of karma struck the meteorite, Lu Yin saw the same familiar scene as before. As he looked at the emptiness of outer space, Lu Tianyi attacked with a finger, and his Law of Undoing struck the meteorite. As it was attacked, the rock became immeasurably stronger, and it did not move despite all the attacks raining down upon it from all sides.

Suddenly, Lu Yin’s eyes bulged as he viewed the karmic vision that had appeared from the meteorite. The image was rushing through outer space, and Lu Yin saw one fantastical creature after another. Outer space was no longer empty, as it was filled with living creatures.

Just the sight of living creatures alone would not have been enough to startle Lu Yin so badly. What stunned him was the fact that he had seen a familiar species: Scrollbane Centipedes.

He saw endless streams of jade-colored centipedes, all traveling through outer space in the same direction. In addition to the Scrollbane Centipedes, there were swarms of countless other strange creatures. Some, Lu Yin recognized like thee Ghost Orchids and Sky Orchids, but most were creatures that he had never seen before.

They were creatures born from Nests.

Was this the Nests’ home megaverse, or was it the Aevum Inch?

There was a bang as Sovereign Dou Sheng’s golden cudgel slammed into the meteorite. As the blow landed, the stone became exceptionally weak. Without any ability to resist the blow, it was sent hurtling away.

“It’s so tough!” Sovereign Dou Sheng exclaimed.

Others watched as the meteorite sailed away, feeling quite frustrated. They would not feel this helpless even in a fight against the High Seraph. While it was likely that many of them would die in such a fight, the man could at least be wounded. In contrast, the meteorite seemed to be impervious to everything.

Lu Yin gave chase, leaving Boundless behind. The prisoners from the Spirit Nidus were too important, and the Origin Progenitor needed to be present to stand guard.

Imprisoning the crews of the Spirit Nidus’s five battleships was Boundless’s greatest move of retaliation since they had left the Tianyuan Megaverse. They would also serve as Lu Yin’s strongest card in future negotiations.

Did the High Seraph care about the lives of the people of the Spirit Nidus? Yong Heng was right, most cultivators were ruthless. However, the High Seraph was forced to care about the people on the battleships, as they represented an entire era of the Spirit Nidus. They were the strongest of their generation who had cultivated spirit seeds, which meant that they would receive the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s attention.

The Nine Odysseys Megaverse harvested the Spirit Nidus’s power through liquified spirit seeds. If all of these cultivators perished in the Consciousness Megaverse, the Nine Odysseys Megaverse would lose out on an era’s worth of spirit seeds. That would not be a blow to just the Spirit Nidus, but to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse as well.

This was why the High Seraph was forced to rescue the captives, as well as why he had attacked Yong Heng.

No matter how ruthless the High Seraph might be, he could not afford the consequences of losing those people.

The consequences would be far graver than when he had defeated and killed Lesser Sancte Ru Shi.

Even so, the captives were leverage not only against the High Seraph, but also against the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Eventually, Lu Yin would need to communicate with that megaverse, and his captives would be his greatest collateral. Nothing could be allowed to happen to them.

As for the meteorite, Lu Yin could not ignore it either. He had seen creatures from Nests, and that endless swarm of the insects had clearly been traveling towards a specific destination.

If the vision was of something that had happened within the Nests’ own megaverse, it would be one thing, but most of the karmic scenes that Lu Yin had seen from the meteorite had taken place in the Aevum Inch.

If the Nests’ creatures were traveling through the Aevum Inch, then where were they heading? Lu Yin cannot help but wonder about that.

Could they be moving towards the Tianyuan Megaverse?

That seemed highly likely. Since Nests had already appeared there, there was no guarantee that the Immortal Lord would not target their megaverse again.

If that swarm reached the Tianyuan Megaverse, the entire megaverse would be doomed.

While the meteorite might not be able to fully reveal the Nests’ trail, Lu Yin had to at least try to find it.

If they really were on their way to his home, then his only option would be to return with Boundless. So long as he maintained control of his captives from the Spirit Nidus, he would at least maintain the upper hand.

His only worry was whether Master Qing Cao would interfere. No one in the Tianyuan Megaverse could stand up to an Immortal.