Star Odyssey

Chapter 4017: Bitter And Sweet

Lu Yin smiled at Xiang Siyu’s question. “Our actions are actually helping your Nine Odysseys Megaverse more than anyone else’s. If you want compensation, ask Greater Sancte Awe Gate or the Great Master.”

“Mr. Lu, does it feel nice to hold my hand?”

Lu Yin nearly choked. He could not stop himself from glancing down at her hand. He had no idea how to respond.

Xiang Siyu offered a small smile. “Helping you doesn’t mean that I’m selling my body. Still, since you’re going to keep holding my hand, I’m already unmarriageable.”

Lu Yin sighed. “We’re only holding hands. We’re hardly going that far.”

Xiang Siyu’s expression grew earnest as she stared at Lu Yin. “In this Nine Odysseys Megaverse, it does.”

Lu Yin was suddenly reminded of what happened in the Sea of Karma’s lotus pond. At that time, Greater Sancte Green Lotus had said something very similar.

“Mr. Lu, you can choose to stop hunting the Netherfiends, but you’ve already held my hand. If you still won’t accept me, I will never marry anyone in my life.” Xiang Siyu then offered Lu Yin a smile. “Does this satisfy your possessiveness?”

Lu Yin met her gaze. “You don’t need to say anything. I won’t talk.”

“I’ll definitely talk.”

“...”

This was not Lu Yin’s first time dealing with such a situation. It was not easy for someone to put him on the back foot. If any other woman spoke to him in the same manner, he had a thousand ways to retake the initiative, and he certainly would not end up on the losing end. But for some reason, with Xiang Siyu, he just could not recover.

The woman’s temperament was unlike any other cultivator’s.

Was it because she was blessed with incredible luck? Was it because she had never suffered? Any time Lu Yin looked at her, he felt like he was looking at a small child.

How could he take a child to task?

Xiang Siyu sighed. “So you truly don’t want to marry me... Then just forget it.”

Lu Yin heaved a sigh of relief. He could not ask for anything more. He simply nodded and sat down cross-legged to rest.

No further words were exchanged, and several days passed in silence.

One day, Xiang Siyu finally spoke again. “Mr. Lu, do you know why I want to marry you?”

Lu Yin opened his eyes. “You said that it’s because of Blood Tower’s Greater Sancte.”

Xiang Siyu gazed absentmindedly at the Mother Tree. “I’m lucky, so most of the time, I don’t have to think much. But you’re the exception—you make me think.”

“I thought for days and finally understood. Mr. Lu, you misunderstood me.”

Lu Yin was puzzled.

Xiang Siyu turned her back to him. He looked at her as the breeze brushed past her, carrying a faint, pleasant fragrance.

“It wasn’t Greater Sancte Blood Tower who told me to marry you. He told me your life has been nothing but struggle.”

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered as he looked at the woman’s back.

Xiang Siyu said, “Greater Sancte Blood Tower said you’ve suffered. You’re nothing like me. My life has been too smooth, all sweetness. Yours is bitter.”

She turned and smiled at him. “That’s why I want to marry you. I want to see just how bitter your life really is. I want to take some of that bitterness into my own life, and give you some of my sweetness in return.”

Lu Yin stared at her, and memories flooded his mind. The cultivation world where survival meant nine deaths for every life. The endless intrigues of power struggles. Elusive pursuits. Civilizations resigned to their place in the cosmos. He had carried too many burdens, and even at the moment, while he was in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, he had picked up still more.

Looking back, there seemed to have been little laughter throughout his life. Had it been bitter?

“Mr. Lu, is your life bitter?”

Lu Yin stared at Xiang Siyu for a long time before finally looking away. “No.”

Xiang Siyu shook her head. “I don’t believe you. Greater Sancte Blood Tower never lies to me.”

Lu Yin said, “His perspective has limits. He saw the bitterness of my life, but not the sweetness.”

He smiled. “I have family, a lover, a teacher, disciples, friends—people whom I want to protect, people I’m eager to see again. There are so many that I care about. All of them are mine.

“I endure the hardships so that I can protect the sweetness in my life.

“My life hasn’t been bitter at all. You’ve picked the wrong person.”

Xiang Siyu’s eyes grew hazy. “All those things you have... I seem to have none of them.”

Lu Yin’s eyes twitched as he looked at the woman.

She turned so that her back was again facing Lu Yin. Propping her chin in a hand, she resumed staring at the Mother Tree.

While he gazed at her back, Lu Yin’s eyes held a touch of pity.

Which of the two of them had really lived a bitter life, and whose life had been sweet?

Ten days quickly passed. After their conversation, they had fallen into days of silence.

Lu Yin lifted his hand, bringing out his die while stretching out his left hand.

Xiang Siyu appeared to be perfectly at ease, and she offered her hand out, clasping his.

Once again, he felt that same soft, boneless touch.

Lu Yin inhaled deeply. “Thank you.”

Xiang Siyu smiled. “Use me as you please. You don’t need to take responsibility.”

Lu Yin was left speechless. Once again, her words carried a peculiar undertone.

He tapped the die with a finger. It spun slowly before coming to a stop on six pips.

Lu Yin was not even surprised this time. Had he become numb to such good luck?

His mind appeared in the dark expanse. He could see a bright orb. It was far away, but clearly visible.

He was thrilled to see it, as that was his goal. The ball of light was nearly as brilliant as his own in the dark space. It might be even brighter than Zhi’s orb, and that man had fused with three spirit seeds.

Lu Yin’s consciousness shot through the darkness towards the bright light, and then he noticed the invisible barrier. It was the membrane that separated parallel universes. He had encountered this in the Tianyuan before.

Charge.

The first time Lu Yin encountered such a barrier, he had not been able to break through it. At the moment, doing so was easy.

Breaking through the barrier, Lu Yin’s mind slammed into the bright orb and merged with it.

His perspective shifted. Is this... a planet’s core?

At that moment, Lu Yin found himself standing in the core of a planet in a parallel universe. There was red magma flowing everywhere around him.

Memories then poured in.

After half a day, he left the planet’s core and stared out at the starry sky.

It was a perfectly ordinary parallel universe, and the Netherfiends did not even have a base here. When Wu Er had sensed that one of the Netherfiends in a floating coffin was behaving abnormally, she was reminded of how many Netherfiends had been caught in recent months. Thus, she had quickly guessed that someone was able to send their consciousness into specific Netherfiends. She had then fled without any hesitation.

After all, she had even guessed that Lu Yin was the one sending out his consciousness.

That was because Lu Yin was the strongest consciousness cultivator in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

She had even guessed that he might have obtained the power of Word Manifestation, given the fact that he had killed Yue Ya, who had been a being of manifested thought.

Wu Er believed that, if Lu Yin was present, Greater Sancte Awe Gate had to be as well. That meant that there had been no time to bother with the Netherfiends in the floating coffins. Wu Er had slipped away without so much as a word. To her, the Netherfiends that she had abandoned had held little value. They were not a great loss.

She had hidden herself in a parallel universe whose name she did not even know, simply to be safe against Greater Sancte Awe Gate.

Memories continued to surge. Wu Er had lived for too long, and it was difficult for Lu Yin to go through all of her memories. They were vast, and there were many that he could not access without actively thinking about them.

Lu Yin was most curious about the method behind fusing with multiple spirit seeds, information regarding the Netherfiends, and information about Qi Xu. Everything else in the massive collection of memories was information that he did not care about at all.

While reviewing Wu Er’s memories, Lu Yin tore through the void and returned to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s main universe.

Wu Er was a native of that universe, which allowed her to easily return to it.

After returning, Lu Yin pulled out Wu Er’s communication device and contacted Greater Sancte Awe Gate. As a gate appeared in front of him, he stepped through it and returned to where he had once fought Zhi. He looked ahead at his own body and Xiang Siyu, which were still clasping hands.

Xiang Siyu stared at Wu Er in a daze as she stepped through the Awe Gate. After a moment, she looked back at Lu Yin. Xiang Xiyu wanted to say something, but no words came out.

The fact that Wu Er had emerged from an Awe Gate indicated that she had been allowed to do so by the Greater Sancte.

Lu Yin controlled Wu Er’s body and had her slowly walk closer to his body.

Xiang Siyu frowned. “Who are you?”

“Lu Yin” looked at Xiang Siyu. “Don’t worry. I’m him.”

Wu Er’s finger pointed at Lu Yin.

Xiang Siyu’s eyes went wide in disbelief. She stared at Wu Er and then at Lu Yin. “You’re him?”

A smile appeared, touched with a hint of mischief.

Xiang Siyu quickly understood. “Possession? Very impressive, Mr. Lu.”

For someone of her strength, there were very few phenomena for which there were no explanations.

Lu Yin continued to control Wu Er’s body until she was standing just five meters away from him. Only then did he end the Possession.

The instant his mind returned to his own body, Lu Yin jabbed a finger forward. At almost the same moment, Wu Er regained consciousness and tried to press a finger to her own brow, but she was half a step too slow. Lu Yin had already struck her brow. “Quick reflexes, but not quick enough.”

The old woman stared at Lu Yin in a daze. He was so close to her. So it was him, but how did he find me?

Wu Er knew that even a Greater Sancti would struggle to find her among the countless parallel universes of the megaverse. Lu Yin should not have been able to succeed so easily.

She focused her spirit into the finger pressed to her brow. Heaven and Man Invert: World-Encompassing Thought; this was Wu Er’s power, her cultivation art, passed down to her from Qi Xu.

If Wu Er had managed to touch her brow just a moment sooner, she might have escaped. She had inherited her battle technique from Qi Xu, an Immortal. Even Lu Yin would need to take such a thing seriously, which was why he had made sure to stop her in advance.

Greater Sancte Awe Gate had mentioned that Wu Er’s battle technique was what had once enabled her to be one of the most powerful individuals in the entire Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Heaven and Man Invert: World-Encompassing Thought.

Unfortunately, even though Lu Yin had learned the technique through Wu Er’s memories, he could not cultivate it himself. It required being externally guided by Qi Xu’s power, which had dissipated long ago. That power was not the same as the emotions that had been fused into the Seven Fairies.

Even so, it did not matter. While it was certainly formidable, the battle technique was not invincible. If it were, Wu Er would have already become an Immortal.

Qi Xu had not relied on the technique to become an Immortal either.

At best, the technique could allow someone to stand supreme beneath the Immortal realm, but Lu Yin had already accomplished that.

Even if Wu Er fought Lu Yin, she would not be his match. At best, she was as powerful as the Insect Lords.

In Wu Er’s memories, Lu Yin had seen how the Nine Odysseys Megaverse had once poured resources into strengthening her and raising her up. She had been the greatest Lesser Sancte of her era. Back then, Qi Xu had not yet revealed herself as an enemy of humanity. When she had first arrived in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, she had shown that she was willing to join humanity.

With an Immortal seeking to join the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, even if the Greater Sancti had been unwilling, they would not have been able to outright refuse the request.

Qi Xu had never had any intention of leaving. At that time, Greater Sancte Green Lotus and the others had not been able to drive her away, so they had allowed her to stay.

Wu Er was Qi Xu’s disciple, and Qi Xu had given much of what she had received from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse to her disciple. In particular, before Qi Xu turned against humanity, Greater Sancte Green Lotus and others had greatly admired Wu Er’s talent and even offered her additional resources. This had led to the appearance of an incredible powerhouse.

With Qi Xu’s death, Wu Er had lost the power that she had inherited from the Immortal. Her cultivation and combat strength had both stagnated, and she was no longer able to advance any further.

This revealed both the strengths and weaknesses of Wu Er’s cultivation art.