Star Odyssey

Chapter 3839: The Sixth Night Pillar

“Did you see that Lu Yin?” The Azuresword Sovereign’s voice rang out like metal striking metal; every word hit like a hammer. While he spoke a sentence, it sounded as though each syllable had been individually pounded out.

Xian Ding’s eyes flickered. “Yes, I saw him. I reported that encounter after I returned from the Four Commands Sword Sect.”

“Tell me again.”

“Understood.” Xian Ding had no idea why the Azuresword Sovereign wanted him to repeat the story. Had someone overheard his conversation with Lu Yin? With growing unease, Xian Ding recounted everything that he had said in his earlier report. He could not change anything at this point in time.

The Azuresword Sovereign listened in silence. He had heard Xian Ding mention Lu Yin once before, and he had taken note of the name at that time. However, it had been nothing like how he was focusing on his disciple’s tale at this moment.

The man had single-handedly annihilated the Autumnspring Slip, which was something far beyond the means of most experts.

In fact, the Azuresword Sovereign knew that not even he could have completely destroyed the Autumnspring Slip on his own.

Lu Yin had also emerged from the Sea of Karma. His background, cultivation, and combat strength could not be understood, and yet he had chosen to involve himself in the affairs of the Night Pillars.

Xian Ding spoke slowly, and he essentially repeated the same words that he had used in his earlier report, not leaving anything out.

The Azuresword Sovereign frowned as he stared off into the distance, not saying a word.

After a long while, he sighed. In a weary voice, he said, “You are dismissed.”

“Yes, Master.” Xian Ding hurried to get away.

Suddenly, the Azuresword Sovereign directed his piercing gaze towards his disciple and sharply demanded, “Did you offend the man?”

Xian Ding blanched as he automatically remembered how he had been interrogated by Lu Yin. For a moment, he lost focus.

The Azuresword Sovereign’s gaze grew even sharper. A hand thrust out from his black robe, grabbed Xian Ding, and pulled him closer. A cold light glinted in the old man’s eyes. “Did you offend the man?”

“No, Master! I did not offend him!”

“Liar! Exactly what happened between you and the man?” the Azuresword Sovereign roared in fury. He had only thought to ask the question because he could not understand why Lu Yin seemed to be determined to obstruct the Fifth Night Pillar. After asking the question, the old man had noticed the dazed look on Xian Ding’s face. Clearly, something had happened.

This explained everything. Whatever had transpired between Xian Ding and Lu Yin had prompted the latter’s interference and was the reason why he was targeting the Fifth Night Pillar.

Hatred seethed within him. This matter was of the utmost importance to him. If it failed because of his disciple, he would grind Xian Ding’s bones to dust.

Terrified, Xian Ding said, “Master, I really didn’t offend him! He simply asked me a few questions.”

The Azuresword Sovereign gritted his teeth. “Why didn’t you mention this last time? What were his questions?”

Trembling, Xian Ding shared his full conversation with Lu Yin.

The Azuresword Sovereign stared at the young man while the words echoed endlessly in his mind.

How had Lu Yin learned that the Fifth Night Pillar was preparing for war? Who had told him? Only a few members of the Nine Odysseys were aware of that matter. That’s right, Ming Zhou was also present at the time. That man personally mentioned that Lu Yin emerged from the Sea of Karma, and they also exhibited an unusual relationship. Ming Zhou most likely told him.

The man is from one of the three lower megaverses, and when the Fifth Night Pillar first started our war preparations, the unknown megaverse hadn’t been found yet. Our initial target was likely going to be one of the three megaverses, so is he here to stop that? Or could there be something else?

If he were determined to stop an attack, he could have gone straight to the Fifth Night Pillar, so why help the Sixth? That doesn’t make any sense. From his perspective, if the Fifth Night Pillar attacks the newly discovered megaverse, the three lower megaverses will be safe, so why obstruct us?

The Azuresword Sovereign could not make sense of the matter.

He had once thought that their greatest obstacle would be the Seventh Night Pillar, specifically, the Qiunan family of Stormmaw's Roar, who shared an unbreakable bond with the Sixth Night Pillar. The appearance of an outsider like Lu Yin had never been considered.

Bang!

Xian Ding crashed to the ground. He lay flat on his stomach, too frightened to even lift his head as his whole body trembled.

The Azuresword Sovereign’s eyes flickered. Lu Yin, the three lower megaverses, the unknown megaverse, Qiunan family of Stormmaw's Roar, the Seventh Night Pillar, the Sixth Night Pillar... Could there be some hidden connection between all of them?

At the same time, Yue Ya also received a report about Lu Yin’s interference at another location in the Fifth Night Pillar.

While the man had been punished by being forced to join the Fifth Night Pillar and had lost his title of Lesser Sancte, both his cultivation level and combat strength were more than enough to qualify him to become the Odyssey Commander. Within the Fifth Night Pillar, Yue Ya enjoyed an almost unmatched status.

Even the Azuresword Sovereign did not dare to overstep himself in front of Yue Ya.

There was no doubt that the former Lesser Sancte was the most powerful expert currently in the Fifth Night Pillar.

However, the most powerful cultivator in a Night Pillar did not always become the Odyssey Commander, and that was precisely why the Azuresword Sovereign had not given up yet.

At that moment, a grim smile stretched across Yue Ya’s lips. “You’ve come. You’ve finally come. I knew you would. I have to devour you and complete my power.”

As his manifested thought surged, he returned to a more practical question: how was he supposed to devour Lu Yin?

There was no doubt in Yue Ya’s mind that he was no longer Lu Yin’s equal. Even in the Consciousness Megaverse, Yue Ya had been forced to flee. That discrepancy in power had not changed after returning to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Yue Ya was still no match for Lu Yin.

In particular, after learning that Lu Yin had erased all of the Autumnspring Slip on his own, Yue Ya understood full well that he might not be the one devouring Lu Yin; Lu Yin might very well be targeting Yue Ya for the same purpose. Others might not realize this, but Yue Ya knew that Lu Yin had not just destroyed the Autumnspring Slip—he had also succeeded in escaping from a pursuing Immortal beast. Yue Ya still found that unbelievable.

Even the Skyward Gate’s Luo family only knew that Lu Yin had been targeted by the Immortal beast when it arrived at the Skyward Gate. They did not know that the monster had chased Lu Yin all the way here from the Consciousness Megaverse. If they knew that, they would have never dared to block his path.

Fortunately, Yue Ya had managed to return to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, which meant that he still had room to maneuver.

The biggest problem was Lu Yin’s connection to the Sea of Karma. Yue Ya was already convinced that Lu Yin had comprehended the power of karma, but did that mean that he had already become Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s disciple? That thought was enough to send Yue Ya into despair.

Throughout the Nine Odysseys, countless eyes watched events unfold.

However, the moment that Lu Yin took action, people stopped watching. They all knew that the interference of such an overwhelmingly powerful individual meant that not even the united strength of the entire Fifth Night Pillar would be enough.

Lu Yin quickly arrived within the Sixth Night Pillar’s region, delivering Jian Hong.

“Is the Sixth Night Pillar not even bothering to send someone to welcome you? They’ve truly fallen and become a wasteland,” Lu Yin casually commented while staring at the distant towering mountains.

Jian Hong sighed. “The Sixth Night Pillar has almost no true experts left. They don’t even have more than one person qualified for the position of Odyssey Commander. Aside from Liu Li, there’s no one they could send to welcome me.”

Lu Yin nodded. “But things will change as soon as the Night Pillar initiates a war. Experts from all across the Nine Odysseys Megaverse will swarm towards them, completely reversing the Sixth Night Pillar’s current fortune.”

“Exactly. That’s precisely what we’ve been hoping to see,” Jian Hong replied.

The Night Pillars were colossal pillars that supported the land of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

The megaverse’s landmass stood at the center, with the Mother Tree’s roots anchoring the tree in the ground. Under that landmass, surrounding it in a ring, stood the nine colossal Night Pillars, which were collectively known as the Nine Odysseys.

Each of the Night Pillars stabbed deep into the ground. Most of their mass remained hidden below, and only a portion stretched into the sky. Even the exposed portion rose into the heavens, towering above the clouds. The massive structures were visible from a great distance.

When Lu Yin and Jian Hong finally laid eyes on the Sixth Night Pillar, they saw an enormous, oval-shaped stone that leaned at an angle where it was lodged into the earth. The closer they drew, the larger the stone became. It eventually became an entire mountain range, and then a vast region. Finally, it dominated the entire sky and became the only thing that they could see.

They only truly arrived when the Sixth Night Pillar blotted out the entire sky.

A cold killing aura filled the air. Cultivators frequently shot by, occasionally casting curious glances at Lu Yin and Jian Hong.

These people were different from the cultivators that Lu Yin had seen in the East Domain. Their eyes were calm, but they were actually too calm. That calmness belied a bloodlust that they could suppress or release at will.

These were not normal cultivators.

Cultivators throughout the cosmos stood united against foreign enemies, regardless of their megaverse, and they would face them without fear of death. This was common behavior. Even so, cultivators were still cultivators, and they were more attuned to internal conflicts; they tended to fight and scheme among their own kind. To them, the battlefield was nothing more than another part of the cultivation world.

But the cultivators near the Sixth Night Pillar seemed born for war. The ubiquitous schemes and power plays in the world of cultivators felt out of place among such people.

Lu Yin could feel this difference the moment he had laid eyes on Jian Hong.

Lian Jing had given off the same feeling.

They were people who understood how to obey far better than the average cultivator, and they also had even less fear of death.

There was a steely, blood-soaked aura about them.

Lu Yin stepped into the region. The trees around him shot straight up, unnaturally sharp. Each leaf was as keen as a blade. This was no forest, but rather a mountain of knives.

Beneath their feet, the earth trembled from heavy breathing.

Lu Yin stopped walking and stared down, looking underground. “A Morrow Behemoth?”

Jian Hong nodded. “There’s a Morrow Behemoth beneath each Night Pillar. Their strength is the only thing that can launch the Pillars through a special method.”

“A special method?”

Jian Hong glanced around and then casually swung his sword to rip up the ground and reveal a strip of some sort of grayish-brown material. It looked like leather and was thick, rubbery, and elastic.

Lu Yin followed the strip of hide and saw that it led to the Sixth Night Pillar and instantly understood. “A slingshot.”

Jian Hong chuckled. “Exactly, a slingshot. But only the Morrow Behemoths are strong enough to pull them back.”

Lu Yin had not expected the Night Pillars to be launched in such a manner. It felt more like a child’s toy.

A child launching pebbles with a slingshot... That was the truth behind how the Night Pillars were hurled into the Aevum Inch.

It was utterly childish, and yet also perfectly reasonable.

“Is there a Morrow Behemoth beneath every Night Pillar?”

“Yes. The Morrow Behemoths are pinnacle creatures that were discovered in a megaverse that was destroyed. They’re absolutely massive.”

“I’ve seen one.”

“In the Spirit Nidus?” Jian Hong asked. Just like everyone else, he believed that Lu Yin had come from one of the three megaverses, and to most people, that meant the Spirit Nidus. After all, the Consciousness Megaverse only had conscients, and the Tianyuan had never had any contact with the Spirit Nidus, let alone the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Lu Yin nodded, and Jian Hong said, “The Morrow Behemoth in the Spirit Nidus isn’t very big.”

He pointed downwards. “But the one beneath us is absolutely massive.”

Lu Yin had already clearly seen the creature. A single sweep of his consciousness was enough to expose everything.

The underground Morrow Behemoth’s strength caused the space near the creature to churn. Lu Yin’s earlier guess was accurate; the Morrow Behemoth was indeed a megaverse’s pinnacle lifeform, just like the Megalith and the Pridebeast. However, the Morrow Behemoths were far stronger, tougher, and they were also capable of reproducing.

Lu Yin could only imagine how magnificent the sight of Morrow Behemoths charging into battle in swarms must have been. Just a single round of such an assault might have very well been enough to crush the entire Tianyuan Megaverse.

That also proved just how powerful the Nine Odysseys Megaverse was.

People started to exit the Sixth Night Pillar, and they quickly dropped down to land in front of Lu Yin and Jian Hong.

The people were led by a plain-looking woman. Her face carried a hint of exhaustion and years of experience.

She had to be Liu Li, the only person in the Sixth Night Pillar who could hope to qualify to become an Odyssey Commander, as she was peak Dukkhan.

Sequence powerhouses and Ortusers stood behind the woman, but not a single Dukkhan could be seen.