Star Odyssey

Chapter 3877: This Sword

Baisha Tiancheng clenched his fists, and his voice dropped as low as it could go. “Are Skyveil City’s three great clans really going to destroy the covenant just because of one man’s words?

“Yu Jing, Jue Ling, let me make things clear: no reason is needed. My Cheng family is currently facing a crisis. We’ve invoked the three-clan covenant. Will you fulfill it or not?”

Yu Jing frowned. The only condition for invoking the three-clan covenant was that one of the three families was facing a crisis. There were no other conditions. This was the rule set in place by their ancestors.

As for reasons, what did such things have to do with the covenant? If a reason was needed every time the covenant was invoked, what would be the point of it?

“Today, my Cheng family is facing a dire situation! If you violate the covenant, you might one day face this same thing!” Baisha Tiancheng roared.

Yu Jing and Jue Ling looked at each other. They should honor the covenant. That was the correct choice. On top of that, Baisha Tiancheng’s words were not wrong.

Yu Jing very much wanted to know why Jue Ling was so reluctant to agree to fulfill the covenant. While many prices could be paid, there were some that were so high that not even all of Skyveil City could afford to pay it.

Lu Yin shook his head. “Decisions are only difficult because of ignorance.”

He looked at Baisha Tiancheng and then over at Yu Jing and Jue Ling before finally looking out at everyone who had gathered outside of the Cheng family’s complex. His scope covered all who were ready to attack at any moment, as well as the countless cultivators throughout Skyveil City. “I’ll give you a reasonable excuse... to break the covenant.”

He finished speaking, then raised his hand and pointed southeast. “In the Nine Odysseys Megaverse—divided into four—South Domain, beneath Whither Peak... slay!”

His voice caused the universe to tremble, and then he released the Tri-Azure Sword Intent. At the same time, he disappeared.

At that moment, everyone was overcome by a feeling of incomprehensible terror, especially those who were in Skyveil City. Their vision went black, and when they could see again, the sky was the same as before, and so was the ground beneath their feet. Nothing at all had changed.

But it was impossible for them to forget what they had just felt. It was a deep despair, as though their lives had been grabbed by some unfathomable existence.

Baisha Tiancheng, Yu Jing, and Jue Ling all felt their scalps go numb. While none of them knew what Lu Yin had done, that moment had caused them all to feel as though they had died once.

Meanwhile, in the South Domain, Whither Peak stood so tall that it seemed like an ethereal existence, as its peak was lost in the clouds. It was so tall that not even cultivators could see through the clouds to the summit.

The area surrounding the mountain was constantly shrouded in killing intent. From time to time, someone who was fleeing for their life would arrive and hide below the mountain. If their enemies continued pursuing them, those people would have no choice but to climb Whither Peak.

Only Dukkhans were capable of reaching the peak, but it was still sometimes better to take a gamble and attempt to climb the mountain. That way, they could at least hope to become an Immortal disciple and live for another hundred years. At least that was better than being killed by their enemies.

At the foot of the mountain, there was evidence of past battles absolutely everywhere.

Some people hid below Whither Peak, living in fear, terrified of being ambushed by their enemies.

Others lived with depression. They could not find a reason to continue living, but they also hesitated over whether they should attempt to climb the mountain.

This place was filled with people who carried too many stories.

Laughter suddenly echoed through the area, though it did not sound out of place. Whither Peak was a place full of tears, laughter, madness, and rage. Every emotion that humans were capable of feeling could be found in this place. It was the closest to death, while also being the furthest.

“Brother Cheng, what a brilliant plan! You forced your clan to fight to the death. We should learn from you, hahaha!”

“Precisely. If I’d thought of this earlier, why would I have escaped to this place where my enemies could strike at any moment? If it weren’t because I had met all of you, I would have never dared to even step out.”

“Still, it’s a very risky method. If anything goes wrong, not even your clan will be able to escape.”

Cheng Gong showed a faint smile. “Naturally, it took a great deal of preparation. Without complete confidence, I would have never done it. I was forced by that Lu Yin.”

Someone nearby bitterly complained, “That Lu Yin is nothing but a lowly otherborn from the Tianyuan Megaverse, and yet he dares to run rampant throughout the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Just who does he think he is?”

“His strength is certainly impressive. But if Brother Cheng enters Dukkha or even manages to become a peak Dukkhan, improving his carving abilities, he might not be any weaker than that man.”

“I’ve heard that the Cheng family is the most powerful of Skyveil City’s three great clans.”

Cheng Gong waved a hand and then continued to chat and laugh with the others who were present. There were more than ten people gathered around him, both men and women. One woman in particular was clinging to Cheng Gong’s arm with absolutely no shame, despite her very intimate behavior.

Everyone present had fled from their enemies to hide beneath Whither Peak. They had banded together to stave off their enemies, and they would help each other no matter who their enemies might be. It was how they had managed to survive.

Such alliances were common at Whither Peak, given that so many people fled to the mountain to escape from their enemies. Even if they had no intention of trying to climb the mountain, it was always possible to find help from others at Whither Peak. Some even used the location to conduct business, whether it was collecting debts or collecting corpses.

Some distance away, a drunk person lay sprawled across the mountainside. When he heard the raucous laughter, he threw a wine jug at the group of people. “Shut up.”

The jug smashed to the ground a short distance away from Cheng Gong and the others. He grew angry, but just as he moved to stand up, the woman beside him pulled him back, motioning for him to stay silent. She nervously glanced into the distance and then said, “Let’s go.”

The others in the group also did not dare to make a sound, and they all quickly shifted to a different location.

Cheng Gong was puzzled by their actions. “Who is that man, and why are you all so afraid of him?”

Most of the people accompanying him were sequence powerhouses, but several were Ortusers, and there was even a Dukkhan present. Despite their cultivation, everyone reacted with the same fear towards the drunk man, with no one daring to speak a single word.

The woman, still clinging to Cheng Gong’s arm, said, “That’s a star of misfortune. We thought that he was on the other side of the mountain. We never imagined that he would be so close.”

“A star of misfortune?” Cheng Gong frowned in confusion, but just as he was about to ask more questions, his heart suddenly froze. He was overcome by an indescribable sense of danger that caused his hair to stand on end. Run, run, run...

Further up the side of the mountain, the drunkard suddenly stood up and stared westward with bleary eyes. What... is that?

Some people hid beneath Whither Peak, others confronted death, more had become numb to life, and still others were attempting to climb the mountain.

Regardless of who they were, at that moment, everyone froze. They all heard a voice fill their minds, screaming at them to run, run, run.

Sword intent descended. Before Cheng Gong could even react, he was pierced by a slash that continued into the ground behind him before eventually vanishing.

Cheng Gong’s body went limp. How... could this be?

His thoughts grew scattered. The image of the sword attack kept replaying in his mind, along with the face that he had seen when the attack had arrived. Is that... Lu Yin?

Impossible. He’s clearly in Skyveil City! How could he attack me?

No matter how much Cheng Gong did not want to believe what was happening, it was inevitable for his thoughts to fade away. His body collapsed, powerless, and his blood trickled down the mountainside, drop by drop.

The woman at his side staggered back a few steps as she stared in horror as Cheng Gong’s body slid down the mountain. He was dead. What had happened in that moment?

The others nearby also stared blankly.

No one spoke, and silence reigned.

Only the star of misfortune farther up on the side of the mountain continued to peer westward, his drunken haze already gone. He could not believe what he had just seen. If that sword had been aimed at him instead, what would have happened? Where... had that sword come from?

There was an incredible distance separating the West Domain’s Skyveil City and the South Domain’s Whither Peak. The span of the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse lay between the two points, but when the Tri-Azure Sword Intent had merged with Immortal matter, the attack had crossed that inconceivable distance to strike down Cheng Gong, and it had even done so in an instant.

This was Lu Yin’s first time using Immortal matter in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. He did not try to hide it, as there was no reason to do so.

In Skyveil City, everyone stared blankly at the sky as the Tri-Azure Sword Intent warped the void, giving everyone in the city a view of Cheng Gong’s death.

Lu Yin’s sword had struck down Cheng Gong, and he had also revealed the matter to the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

His sword left the megaverse utterly speechless.

If one was not an Immortal, who would dare to fight this man?

If one was not Immortal, who was even capable of fighting the man?

No one. Not a single person. In the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse, there was no one who could surpass Lu Yin.

The West Domain and the South Domain were on different sides of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, which was why Cheng Gong had fled to Whither Peak. He had been certain that he would be safe there. Even if Lu Yin entered the South Domain, Cheng Gong would still have enough time to climb Whither Peak.

He had even been carrying a peak Dukkhan’s cultivated spirit seed with him so that he could accept a Seed Transfusion at any moment.

The Cheng family had prepared a great deal for Cheng Gong.

But all those preparations, all those schemes, were reduced to nothing beneath Lu Yin’s sword.

There was nothing left.

A single sword attack had crossed the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and slain Cheng Gong. It was as simple as that.

Was it difficult to understand? There was no need to understand. Lu Yin was simply strong enough to do that.

During his Ortuser breakthrough, Lu Yin had sent characters raining down across the megaverse, though he had not been able to control where they landed. He had simply thrown them out in all directions, and they had carried his power for all to see. This time, he had released a precision strike to kill his enemy in an entirely different region of the megaverse, and no one had dared to try to stop the attack along the way. This was something completely different from what he had demonstrated in the past.

It was the difference between two people who were both able to throw a stone a hundred meters. But one of them was not only able to throw it that far, but also had the accuracy to strike a single ant from that distance. The two were completely different concepts.

Throughout the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, countless eyes bulged as they stared in the direction of Whither Peak. They had felt the power of that sword intent.

Someone commented, “That is... the most powerful sword beneath the Greater Sancti.”

Lesser Sancte Dan Jin made the comment, but she merely voiced what everyone else was already thinking. No one could refute it.

A single sword attack had left both the Nine Heavens and the Temporal Heavens silent.

Yu Jing, Jue Ling, and the others felt overcome by an intense chill, even as they felt grateful that they had not taken action. If they had, no matter who had been struck by that sword intent, they would have died. That was not something that anyone beneath the Immortal realm could resist.

That... was the power of an Immortal.

This was the reasonable excuse that Lu Yin had promised.

In the face of his sword attack, the three-clan covenant was a joke as worthless as scrap paper. What covenant? What confidence? There was nothing at all.

No one would dare to mention the three-clan covenant again.

The Cheng family’s people were deathly silent. The fear and despair that had filled their eyes had disappeared. All that remained was numbness and an apathy toward life itself. They were not indifferent to others’ lives, but... to their own.

It was much like when ordinary humans faced a natural disaster; survival depended purely on luck. No action on their part would matter.

Baisha Tiancheng stood in place, dumbfounded as he blankly stared at the sky. That sword intent may have killed Cheng Gong... but it had also destroyed the entire Cheng family.

The old man lowered his head to look at Lu Yin. His eyes betrayed such an incomprehensible complexity that Lu Yin could not make any sense of what he was seeing.

Those eyes seemed to carry powerful determination, yet also relief and... regret?

“Well, Mr. Lu. Well done. That sword... The entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse has been underestimating you, Mr. Lu.” Baisha Tiancheng’s voice was low and hoarse.

Yu Jing shouted, “Baisha Tiancheng, what more do you want? Hurry and apologize to Mr. Lu!”

The man did not really care what happened to the Cheng family, and he was merely worried that Lu Yin might destroy the Yu family along with the Cheng family.

While that sword intent had rendered the three-clan covenant useless and the Yu family could theoretically take a step back, they were still in Skyveil City. Where could they escape to?

If the Cheng family was exterminated, the people of Skyveil City would know the reason, and they also know that no one could stop Lu Yin. However, outsiders would not know the details. They would simply believe that the Yu and Jue families had broken the three-clan covenant, which would cripple the two families’ reputations.

Baisha Tiancheng let out a long breath and barked a mournful laugh. “If we had any choice, the Cheng family would have never gotten involved with the Spirit Nidus. Mr. Lu, your sword just cut down the Cheng family’s entire future.”

Lu Yin frowned slightly. “Can Cheng Gong alone... represent your Cheng family’s future?”

Baisha Tiancheng closed his eyes.

From behind the old man, someone else spoke up, their voice trembling. “Cheng Gong has already killed all of our Cheng family’s descendants. He was the only one left alive. If he had lived, the Cheng family’s lineage could have still continued, but now... he’s dead.”

These words shocked everyone who had not already known about this.

Even Lu Yin was stunned. This explained everything.