Star Odyssey

Chapter 1028: Unexpected Fortune

Usually, a planet experiencing an apocalypse would only have two or three corpse kings appear, but this one had actually produced so many all at once. On top of that, the weakest one was at the Sentinel realm while a few were even Limiteers. 

The member of the Second Imperial Squadron who had been tasked with protecting Luo Shen had been killed by a corpse king in the Limiteer realm.

She had been fleeing for a day thus far, and she could not fly in the air due to the unstable star energy.

Behind her were several Melder realm corpse kings chasing after her. Each one had an innate gift, and they were also intelligent enough to know how to surround her.

There was a bang as a building shattered and a corpse king shot out of the rubble while carrying a girl in its hands. The creature began to fiercely tear the girl apart, causing fresh blood to spill out and stain the sky. 

Luo Shen’s face turned a deathly shade of white as an intense fear burgeoned within her. She had seen similar scenes far too many times over the past ten hours, and each time she witnessed such carnage, she grew even more desperate. Eventually, she would be torn apart just like that girl. 

A fishy smell filled her senses, stunning Luo Shen. She instinctively dodged to the side, and a corpse king flitted through where she had just been standing. This corpse king’s innate gift was that of speed, and it was the only one that could catch up to Luo Shen. 

She had successfully dodged the attack, but as a result, she had run into a wall. She crashed through it and entered a room.

A few corpse kings dashed in after her, raised their rotten claws, and swatted down.

Luo Shen shut her eyes; she was doomed. 

Suddenly, the earth split apart as a powerful wave of white hot energy surged up and swallowed the corpse kings. Luo Shen nearly collapsed, but fortunately, she was lucky enough to step on a rock and leap away.

The planet’s surface was shattering, and everything was broke from the center outwards.

Luo Shen emerged from the wreckage of the building and looked off into the distance. She saw that the entire city had been split in half by a giant fissure in the ground that was already more than a hundred meters wide. White hot lava constantly spewed up from underground. This lava was even hotter than red lava, and the temperature was so high that not even Explorers could endure it. 

Luo Shen closed her eyes as Lu Yin’s image appeared from her memories. It was over—even if she did not die at the hands of a corpse king, she would still be swallowed by this planet and end up as cosmic dust. 

But that was fine; ending up as ashes was still better than being devoured by a corpse king.

As she thought about her inevitable end, Luo Shen threw her gadget away. She had sent a desperate message to Lu Yin several hours earlier, but he clearly had not been able to make it in time. The entire city was sinking into the ground, and soon, she would accompany the city as they both burned to nothingness. She regretted sending that message to Lu Yin, as dying quietly was better than causing someone to worry. Or, he might not even remember her.

The city continued to collapse, and quite a few survivors were wailing at the peaks of the buildings. Their desperate sounds were accompanied by the zombies’ snarls and the munching sounds of the corpse kings. It was a scene that came straight from hell. 

A Limiteer realm corpse king flew over from the distance, and it glanced around before spotting Luo Shen. A bloodthirsty glint flashed through its eyes as it rushed over to decapitate Luo Shen with a swipe of its claws.

Luo Shen’s body slanted to dodge the attack as she leaped off of the building, choosing to die rather than be so much as touched by the corpse king.

As her body fell, she was embraced by a powerful arm, and she suddenly flew up while listening to a voice in her thoughts. “Just one step further and you would have been ashes. I couldn’t tell, but you’re pretty stubborn.” 

Luo Shen opened her eyes and was excited to see Lu Yin holding her. She muttered, “So I’m dead?” 

Lu Yin was amused by her reaction. “How could you still see me if you’re dead?”

“It’s because I’m dead that I can see you. If I were still alive, I wouldn’t be able to do so,” Luo Shen softly explained. 

Lu Yin’s heart skipped a beat. At this moment, Luo Shen reminded him of Ming Yan when she had eaten the poison. Luo Shen was demonstrating the same type of feebleness and desperation. 

Roar! 

The Limiteer realm corpse king leaped up and slashed at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin’s eyes turned cold as he lightly tapped out. The strength that he released quickly became a gale that tore through the void. Not only was the Limiteer realm corpse king crushed, but the attack also pierced the entire city, and destroyed a huge number of zombies as it swept through everything. 

Luo Shen turned to look down at where the entire city was falling into the white magma. “Your Highness, please save the city. There are still many other survivors.” 

Lu Yin nodded and pressed down with a hand. His star energy formed a giant palm that picked up the entire city. 

Even Limiteers were capable of lifting an entire city, let alone someone with Lu Yin’s level of strength. Saving these people took very little effort on his part. 

His domain swept out and spread across the city, exterminating every single zombie and corpse king. 

Lu Yin sighed. This had been such a large city, but there were only some tens of thousands of survivors left. This scene was too familiar to Lu Yin, as it was similar to what he had seen during Earth’s own apocalypse. However, the situation on Earth had been much better than this planet’s and nowhere near as cruel. 

During Earth’s apocalypse, only regular zombies and corpse kings had been present, while Limiteer realm corpse kings had shown up on this planet. In fact, they could even be found in every direction. As Lu Yin considered this difference, he looked to the east, where he could see a boundless amount of rune lines in the sky that clearly belonged to an Enlighter. That place held an Enlighter realm corpse king. 

Lu Yin set Luo Shen back down as his expression grew serious. “Take care of yourself for a moment. I need to do something.” 

Luo Shen became worried. “Is there trouble?”

Lu Yin put on his universal armor. “It’s just a small matter.”

He then tore through the void and disappeared. The next instant, Lu Yin reappeared on the summit of a burning mountain tens of thousands of kilometers away and was greeted by a snarling Enlighter realm corpse king. “You’re looking to die.”

Lu Yin had a frosty expression as he put on the giant mechanical arm and struck out in response to the corpse king’s attack. “I’ve been looking for you guys for a long time, Neohuman Alliance.” 

There was a huge bang as a shockwave exploded out and severed the mountain range. The aftershocks tore through the atmosphere and shot out into space. 

The Enlighter corpse king was flung away, and the right half of its body was shattered apart. The creature stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. “Im- impossible.”

Lu Yin looked at the corpse king with an arrogant expression, as not even Yu Mu could resist the power of this upgraded mechanical arm. After all, it had reached a level where it could even threaten experts with a power level of 400,000, so how could a mere Enlighter realm corpse king with a power level of barely 200,000 stand up to Lu Yin’s attack? Even if corpse kings’ physical bodies were extremely tough, its body could not possibly reach the same level as that of a powerhouse with a power level of 400,000. 

Lu Yin fiercely pressed his advantage, and he stretched out his right arm, intending to capture this corpse king. 

The corpse king’s scarlet eyes stared at Lu Yin with a ruthless and sinister sheen. The creature then leaped up into outer space and tried to escape. 

Lu Yin snorted. When it came to speed, Lu Yin definitely would not be any slower than a corpse king. 

The corpse king folded its arms, causing strange lines to appear within the void that attempted to push Lu Yin away. This was the corpse king’s innate gift, but Lu Yin simply waved his right arm, and with his overbearing physical strength, dispersed the lines and reached out to grab at the creature once again. 

Just as Lu Yin was about to capture the corpse king, the creature howled. “Lu… Yin, there will… come… the day… where you will… pay the price… for offending… the Neohuman Alliance.”

After it finished speaking, its abdomen swelled before suddenly exploding. 

Lu Yin’s expression changed, and he decisively swept out his right arm to tear through the void with his tremendous strength. A giant spatial tear was opened up, and it swallowed all of the force from the corpse king’s self-destruction, preventing the explosion from harming the planet. 

This planet was already on the verge of shattering, but there were still people on it. Thus, Lu Yin would not allow it to be destroyed too soon. 

At that moment, a golden radiance entered his sight, and Lu Yin looked over; was that True Insight? 

During the Outerverse’s Lockbreaker competition, the grand prize was some pages of True Insight, and they had been taken away by Deng Pu while the battle had raged on Sourcepeak Planet. Later on, they had been sold to the Zhu family. Then, the Neohuman Alliance had attacked Millions City, and the battle ultimately concluded with a corpse king stealing the pages and fleeing into the Outerverse. That battle had also exposed the fact that Millions City was a mobile fortress. 

Countless people had fought intensely for those pages of True Insight, but in the end, they had gone missing. Later on, Lu Yin had been ambushed by the Neohuman Alliance, and the corpse king that had stolen True Insight had seemed to be among the group that had ambushed him. However, after the creature was destroyed, the pages of True Insight had not been found. 

Lu Yin would have never dreamed that it would appear in this place; was this corpse king the one that had stolen True Insight from Millions City’s Zhu family? 

Still, that was not important at this moment. Lu Yin already had five pages of True Insight, and this would just be one more. 

Now, all of the pages of True Insight in the entire Outerverse were in Lu Yin’s possession, which put him in high spirits. As long as he could break through and become an Advanced Lockbreaker, he would be able to study these pages of True Insight. 

He rather looked forward to learning about sourcebox arrays. During the battle in the Cosmic Sea, if not for the sourcebox array, how else would Bu Kong have been able to strike down five powerful experts, of which one was God Taiyi? In the Innerverse, Qiu Shi had also used a sourcebox array to throw the Champions’ Stage off of the miniature mainland. Her array had also repelled Bu Kong. 

Sourcebox arrays were terrifyingly powerful, and they were not inferior to secret techniques at all.

Lu Yin scanned the space around him before returning to the planet.

Not long after Lu Yin left, strange lines appeared where the corpse king had seemingly self-destructed, spiraling as they coalesced together. 

Since Lu Yin was using the massive mechanical arm to tear through space, the excessive strength of his movements gave off a tremendous amount of star energy, preventing him from noticing the strange lines gathering together. 

On the planet, Luo Shen was busy working to rescue the trapped survivors. With her strength as a Melder, she was able to push aside entire buildings, so she was quite efficient in her efforts. 

When Lu Yin returned, he swept his domain across the entire planet. His forcefield took the form of the towering tree, and its branches enveloped the entire city as he rescued all of the survivors. 

All of them knelt down and prayed. In their eyes, Lu Yin was a god.

This planet, like many others in the universe, had not developed a cultivation system, so Lu Yin’s actions were no different from those of a god to these people.

Lu Yin did not give any explanations, as he planned to simply take Luo Shen away. It would still take a bit of time for this planet to be destroyed, and it was not too far from where the closest Great Eastern Alliance troops were stationed. Thus, he could easily delegate the remaining tasks over to them. 

Luo Shen could not help herself. “Your Highness, let’s save them.” 

Lu Yin replied, “Don’t worry, the soldiers will be here shortly.”

Luo Shen pursed her lips.

Lu Yin then asked, “Why did you come here?”

Luo Shen explained, “This is the Outerverse’s border, so I came here to promote the alliance, but I was captured by the Neohuman Alliance and thrown to this planet.”

Lu Yin did not understand Luo Shen’s job, so he did not ask any further questions.

He retrieved his collapsible spacecraft, and he was just about to head out with Luo Shen when the strange lines that had gathered in the void formed themselves into a dark-red radiance that shot towards Lu Yin at a shocking speed. Fortunately, Lu Yin had seen this radiance before it drew too close to him, so he had ample time to put on his universal armor. The remnant strength from the corpse king’s innate gift was not enough to harm Lu Yin. 

However, no matter how many calculations Lu Yin made, Luo Shen was still next to him. She coincidentally saw the radiance, and without any hesitation, she moved to help Lu Yin block the attack. 

Luo Shen suddenly moved in front of Lu Yin, and she met the dark-red radiance head on before it could touch Lu Yin. By the time Lu Yin was able to react, she had already been struck.

Lu Yin was astonished, and he quickly pressed a hand against Luo Shen’s body as his star energy permeated her body to counteract the dark-red beam’s corrosion. 

That dark-red beam had been the remnant strength of the corpse king’s innate gift after it died, but it could still be considered a part of the creature’s innate gift. It was just a remnant force, and it was so weak that Lu Yin would have been able to withstand the strike even without his armor, but for Luo Shen, it was far too much.