Star Odyssey

Chapter 3751: Various Innate Gifts

Blood spilled onto the bridge as a single sword slash tore into the Origin Progenitor, sending him stumbling backward. Yong Heng’s Return of the Myriad Swords was an overwhelmingly powerful and virtually unstoppable technique. At close range, even a peak Dukkhan would suffer.

The attack wounded the Origin Progenitor, but it also allowed a spiral of karma to strike Yong Heng.

As the spiral of karma entered True God’s body, Lu Yin caught a glimpse of a hand that was formed from bones and shone like white jade. It was hovering above Yong Heng’s head.

Was there really a hand above Yong Heng’s head?

Lu Yin tried to track the hand with his eyes, but the spiral of karma instantly snapped. Both Lu Yin and Yong Heng spat out blood and staggered back. Within the space of a single heartbeat, every last bridge in the Broken Realm shattered, and even the Broken Realm itself vanished.

For a single moment, Lu Yin believed that he had seen the hand move.

Again he was struck by karmic backlash. His vision went white, and he instantly lost consciousness.

In a short span of time, Lu Yin had been struck by karmic backlash twice, and his body was unable to endure the strain.

Yong Heng’s face had gone deathly pale as he was ravaged by the same karmic backlash as Lu Yin.

His body split open, and blood soaked his clothes. The Origin Progenitor scooped Lu Yin up and fled.

Unwilling to give up, Yong Heng grabbed his sword and pursued.

This was his one opportunity to kill Lu Yin.

It took Lu Yin a full day to regain consciousness. During that time, the Origin Progenitor had carried him while fleeing from Yong Heng, who refused to abandon his pursuit. There were dozens of bleeding wounds on the Origin Progenitor’s back. There were no spirals of karma to deter him, which allowed Yong Heng to chase the pair far more efficiently than before. If Lu Yin had taken any longer to regain consciousness, the Origin Progenitor would have been forced into a desperate battle to the death.

Lu Yin’s own clothes were similarly soaked in blood, though he could not tell if it was his own or the Origin Progenitor’s.

In a weak voice he said, “Left... there’s another Broken Realm over there.”

They soon entered another Broken Realm, one that was also recorded in the Forbidden Tome. This time, Yong Heng did not hesitate for even a moment, and he instantly attacked the Broken Realm itself. Yong Heng, Lu Yin, and the Origin Progenitor were all caught up in the chaos of the disturbed Broken Realm, but after half a day, Yong Heng had smashed everything apart and continued the chase.

In this same manner, Lu Yin and the Origin Progenitor passed through multiple Broken Realms. At no point did Yong Heng show even the slightest intention of giving up.

Lu Yin wanted to slow the man with spirals of karma, but he did not dare to actually attack with karma. He had been gravely wounded by the second karmic backlash, and he needed at least a year or two to fully recover.

He could not understand what had happened; the spiral of karma had clearly struck Yong Heng, so how could Lu Yin have suffered karmic backlash? Could the owner of that hand be Greater Sancte Green Lotus? If not, then what other explanation was there for the karmic backlash? It clearly had not been Yong Heng’s doing, as he had also suffered from the backlash.

Several days later, Lu Yin and the Origin Progenitor entered yet another Broken Realm, but this time, they saw something familiar within it: the meteorite.

The meteorite turned so that its eye faced the two men. It looked much calmer than when they had first encountered it.

Lu Yin and the Origin Progenitor stared at the rock, and the meteorite stared back at them. Neither side made a move.

When Yong Heng arrived, the meteorite turned to look at him. The eye initially froze, and then it became completely bloodshot. It instantly shot forward, completely ignoring Lu Yin and the Origin Progenitor.

The two quickly moved out of the way and simply watched as the meteorite slammed into Yong Heng. Finally, they would be able to catch their breath.

Sword shadows shattered. Yong Heng tried to stop Lu Yin and the Origin Progenitor from escaping to a parallel universe, but this time, he was blocked by the meteorite.

Yong Heng could not understand why this meteorite would help Lu Yin. He had clearly seen the two fighting against each other at the Willbound Expanse earlier.

The man was given no choice. The meteorite was already shooting towards him, which meant that he had to deal with it.

Out of the corner of his eye, True God watched as Lu Yin brought out a die and held it in his hand.

Yong Heng’s expression drastically changed. His sword sliced out, only for the meteorite to yet again get in the way.

Lu Yin tapped the die with a finger, causing it to spin. When it stopped, it showed one pip. He immediately rolled it again.

“I’ll also fight him and buy you as much time as I can. Pillar, if it really comes down to it, go to a parallel universe by yourself,” the Origin Progenitor urged before attacking Yong Heng with his Verdant Arsenal.

The gap between the Origin Progenitor and Yong Heng had narrowed considerably due to the Nine Heavens Transformation, but there was still a gap between them. The Origin Progenitor was simply not as powerful as Yong Heng.

Lu Yin glanced at the Origin Progenitor and his blood-soaked back. The man’s entire body had been stained red. With a grave expression, Lu Yin continued rolling his die.

It slowly came to a stop: four pips. Timestop. He had actually rolled it.

The scenery changed before his eyes, and he quickly found himself within his Timestop Space.

He let out a long breath as he looked at the familiar surroundings. Rarely had he been so eager to enter this place.

The last time he could remember being so desperate to roll Timestop had been during his battle against Nightking Zhenwu.

He sat down cross-legged and began to heal himself. A full year of recovery should be enough.

As Lu Yin recuperated, he thought about the Lower Heaven’s Blade. When the sword of consciousness combined with the Upper Heaven's Blade and the Middle Heaven’s Blade, they formed the Tri-Azure Sword Intent. He had seen the power of the unified attack in a memory shock that he had suffered while trying to approach the palace in the Willbound Spire, and he was eager to master the technique.

Lu Yin also needed to revisit Old Chief’s memories regarding the Heaven and Earth Lock.

Old Chief had only comprehended a portion of the technique. Through the conscient’s memories, Lu Yin intended to comprehend the complete Heaven and Earth Lock for himself. If Lu Yin relied solely on Old Chief’s understanding of the technique, the technique would be extremely limited in use against Yong Heng and the High Seraph.

Lu Yin believed that Old Chief’s memories would allow him to quickly master the Tri-Azure Sword Intent. Despite that confidence, after nearly half a year had passed, Lu Yin had not even reached the threshold of the sword technique. This far surpassed his expectations.

The technique appeared simple, but it was exceedingly intricate.

One sword of consciousness cut the result, while another cut the process. As for the third, Lu Yin had noticed that it connected the process and result. The unified technique appeared to be quite straightforward, yet it proved maddeningly difficult to grasp.

He was able to attack with all three consciousness swords at the same time, but how was that any different from how Old Chief and Xi Wen had used the attacks?

When he had been struck by the memory shock atop the cliff, the Tri-Azure Sword Intent that he had seen had not been a mere combination of the three sword techniques. It had indeed appeared quite ordinary, but it had given Lu Yin the sense that it could cut the very existence of whatever it struck. That effect could not be attained purely through a powerful cultivation. That blade had truly been unstoppable.

Simply releasing three separate sword slashes would never result in such power.

Lu Yin opened his eyes and let out a deep breath. He was still unable to grasp the technique. It felt like chasing a mirage; the deeper he delved into the technique, the more confused he became. This was his first time encountering such a situation with a battle technique.

Additionally, there was the Heaven and Earth Lock. He had assumed that by repeatedly reviewing Old Chief’s memories, it would be possible to master the technique. Sure enough, Lu Yin’s mastery had already surpassed Old Chief’s, but instead of learning the true Heaven and Earth Lock, Lu Yin had merely seen through the technique.

The Heaven and Earth Lock was not actually a battle technique, but rather just the first step in learning the technique.

Realizing this had prompted Lu Yin to repeatedly review Old Chief’s memories until he was certain that he was correct.

A sword technique analogy would be that it was necessary to first pick up the sword before slashing it. It was a continuous series of movements. The Heaven and Earth Lock was essentially the first step, similar to picking up a sword.

All that Old Chief had comprehended was ultimately nothing more than the most basic upward motion. Despite that, the conscient had kept the Heaven and Earth Lock as his secret trump card. It had succeeded in briefly restraining even the High Seraph, sealing his mind and all external senses. Who could even guess at just how powerful the complete Heaven and Earth Lock would be?

Lu Yin gave a wry smile. He had believed himself capable of mastering both the Tri-Azure Sword Intent and the Heaven and Earth Lock within a year. Clearly, he had greatly overestimated himself. Neither of the two battle techniques had been created by an ordinary expert. While Lu Yin did not know anything about the true Heaven and Earth Lock, the Tri-Azure Sword Intent was a terrifying attack that had managed to sever the limb of a creature whose claws had been large enough to grasp an entire universe. He would never believe that the beast was anything less than an Immortal.

This meant that both battle techniques had been created by Immortals.

However, not even an Immortal’s techniques should have rendered Lu Yin this clueless.

Karma was also a power that was supposed to be exclusive to Immortals, and yet he had managed to create his Inner Clarity Technique. As for physical strength, Lu Yin remained confident that, as long as he continuously improved, his physical might would eventually reach the power of the Immortal realm, even without stepping into that cultivation realm.

The High Seraph’s ability to replace the universe with himself or borrow the power of a universe felt like they had already touched upon the power of the Immortal realm.

While the Immortal realm was still far out of reach, the power of that level was not.

In that case, why were both techniques completely beyond his ability to comprehend?

The deeper he studied the Tri-Azure Sword Intent, the fainter his sense for Heaven's Blade became. If he continued in this manner, he might soon find himself unable to unleash even the three separate sword techniques.

While he would not forget the Heaven and Earth Lock, repeatedly reviewing Old Chief’s memories offered no help. Lu Yin needed to witness the original memory.

Old Chief... consciousness. At this point in time, the powers that Lu Yin most urgently needed to continue to strengthen were his consciousness and his mastery of powerful battle techniques, and both of those powers were connected to the Thirteen Luminaries.

Even though Lu Yin had failed to master the two battle techniques, he had physically recovered a great deal. He was at least capable of facing Yong Heng.

When the scenery around him changed again, only a moment had passed in the outside world. As Lu Yin appeared, he threw a palm strike that shook the sky. The Origin Progenitor instinctively dodged the shockwave, and the meteorite’s eye darted about as it also evaded the attack.

Yong Heng raised his hand to meet Lu Yin’s attack head-on.

There was a bang, and both men were forced back.

Divine energy erupted, radiating in every direction.

Startled, Yong Heng stared at Lu Yin and then down at his hand. “Your mirebound artifact can give you a year of time in an instant. A nice toy.”

Lu Yin tightened the muscles in his arm. “That means that it’s my turn now.”

His consciousness erupted, revealing the Nine Heavens as his skin withered. As his fist swung forward, he used the Setting Sun.

Yong Heng’s eyes flickered, and he retreated further and further. The light of the Setting Sun vanished beneath shattering sword shadows. Not even a comprehension technique could withstand the erosion of time.

Lu Yin stabbed a finger forward, using it to release a powerful sword technique.

Yong Heng answered with his own finger attack, which flattened everything it encountered.

Lu Yin’s attack slid past True God’s body.

Lu Yin’s eyes shifted. “Ju Ji’s innate gift.”

Ju Ji had been another one of Aeternus’s True God Guard captains, and she had possessed a formidable innate gift: Planar Conversion. It had been nearly impossible for almost any attack to touch the woman, unless her attacker was vastly more powerful.

If Ju Ji was present, she would not have been able to block Lu Yin’s attack, and his finger sword would have torn her apart. However, when Ju Ji’s innate gift was wielded by Yong Heng, things became a completely different story.

Yong Heng continued to reveal new innate gifts. He had already shown that he could use the Eight-Star Garan, which left Lu Yin wary of harming others nearby.

“Since you’ve recovered, let’s stop things here,” Yong Heng casually stated as he smiled at Lu Yin. “I look forward to our future cooperations.”

With that, he stepped back and vanished.

To the side, the meteorite viciously shot forward, but Yong Heng was already gone.

The Origin Progenitor frowned. The man had revealed yet another innate gift.

Lu Yin exhaled. “Seen and Unseen. Xu Jin’s innate gift. He really does make things difficult.”

Yong Heng had far too many things in his toolkit, including multiple mirebound artifacts and innate gifts. The man lacked absolutely nothing. He had even recultivated with the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s spirit seed method, which meant that Lu Yin could not Possess the man. Even before, Yong Heng’s great seal had prevented Lu Yin’s Possession. Lu Yin did not know if that seal was a battle technique or mirebound artifact, as he could not tell, but Yong Heng also had a five-leaf clover that was able to protect him from karmic backlashes. The man was a far more difficult opponent than the High Seraph.

On top of that, no one knew what connections Yong Heng had to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Most terrifying of all to Lu Yin was the hand that he had seen. Just seeing the hand through karma had triggered karmic backlash, which prevented Lu Yin from using karma against Yong Heng again in the future.

Compared to how restricted he felt when fighting against Yong Heng, Lu Yin would happily choose to fight against High Seraph again.

As soon as Yong Heng was gone, Lu Yin and the Origin Progenitor both turned to look at the meteorite.

The eye in the rock stared at where Yong Heng had disappeared, and as it stared, the blood veins shrank, and the eye turned to look at Lu Yin.

He met the eye’s stare. After all, Lu Yin had also fought against the meteorite before.