Star Odyssey

Chapter 1396: Rewards

Lu Yin looked at Guo Shan in front of him, and politely replied, “Long Qi greets Senior.”

Guo Shan smiled. “I wasn’t expecting Little Brother to get here so soon.”

“Should Junior have arrived quite a bit later?” Lu Yin wondered.

Guo Shan replied, “I’ll tell you this, Junior, every task should be delayed a bit, especially when it comes to this Flying Armor Pass. This place is not like other places.”

Lu Yin smiled. “I was sent here because of my status.”

Guo Shan did not try to hide anything. “Not bad.”

“What’s the mission?” Lu Yin asked.

Guo Shan picked up his chopsticks and took a few bites of the food on the table. “Don’t worry too much about that. You have to make sure you’re enjoying life first. I’m someone who eats the sweet foods first, and saves the bitterness for later. Little Brother, you completed your last task very well, so let me give you the reward from Humility’s Gate.”

Lu Yin’s eyes lit up. “Thank you.”

Guo Shan laughed. “You don’t hold back at all!”

Lu Yin shrugged. “Humility’s Gate is big, and it has abundant resources, so why should I politely refuse my reward? It’s better to accept such generosity with gratitude.”

Guo Shan smiled. “Yes, but unfortunately you’re wrong about one thing; your reward isn’t resources, but me.”

Lu Yin blinked, his face completely blank.

Guo Shan smiled. “Little Brother’s domain is very powerful.”

Lu Yin’s eyes flashed. “It’s alright.”

Guo Shan nodded. “You caught it. Humility’s Gate’s reward for you is for me to train you how to cultivate your domain.”

Lu Yin was temporarily stunned, as he had not expected this sort of reward. “Could I ask how far Senior can train this junior?”

Guo Shan thought for a moment. “I’ve reached the spirit manifestation realm myself. No matter how talented you might be, that’s as far as you can cultivate.”

“What is the spiritual transformation realm?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s too annoying to talk about something so serious when you first meet someone. I’ll show you around Flying Armor Pass first.”

As for Lu Yin, even if he had entered the city quietly, he had still attracted the attention of the Flying Armor Troops the moment he had arrived in the city.

At the moment, there was an image of Lu Yin in Long Xian’s office in the Flying Armor Troops’ headquarters.

Long Xian seemed calm as he looked at Lu Yin’s picture, but his son, Long Ding, stood in front of the army commander, and looked decidedly unhappy. “Father, the princess really married this guy?”

Long Xian answered lightly, “Yes, him. His name is Long Qi.”

“Hmph! What dog-shit luck,” Long Ding said.

Long Xian looked up. “He’s not lucky. We all gave up when the princess announced that she was marrying a branch family.”

Long Ding’s face froze. When Long Xi had called for a husband, everyone had been unwilling to offer up their sons, as they were afraid of the Celestial Frost Sect. Long Ding had no one to blame for his loss, but he remained stubborn. “The Celestial Frost Sect won’t give up. He’ll die sooner or later.”

“Don’t underestimate him. Everyone first believed him to be some trash from a branch family, but he’s been with Humility’s Gate for only a few months, and he’s been arresting traitors non-stop, and he even exposed the Huaiyuan gate master as a Redback, which allowed him to be transferred to the Fourteenth Gate. He spent six days receiving an inheritance from the Sword Monument, which beats even Bai Xian’er’s record, and he exposed a member of the Liu family as a traitor. This brat’s quickly becoming a legend,” Long Xian explained.

Long Ding answered in a cold voice, “It’s nothing more than luck. Once your child opens the lower meridian point, I’ll be allowed to the Junior Progenitor Planet and will then win the right to travel with our Junior Progenitor to the Dominion Realm, where I will find some Origin Matter. I’ll open the middle or even the upper meridian point, and I’ll have a chance to become a Progenitor in the future.”

Long Xian was not happy with Long Ding’s response. While Long Ding had spoken easily, every single thing he had mentioned was a difficult feat to accomplish, especially the trip to the Dominion Realm. Even a Junior Progenitor could die in that place, not to mention someone like Long Ding. However, the trip was also crucial. Even if Long Ding did not manage to get any Origin Matter, he would still return with a closer relationship with Junior Progenitor Long Tian, and that could only allow his status within the clan to climb higher in the future.

Long Xian considered everything.

“Father, what did the clan say about the mission that Long Qi received that sent him here to our Flying Armor Pass? Is there a traitor or a Redback here?” Long Ding asked.

Long Xian frowned. “That’s simply impossible. I only have the Flying Armor Troops in Flying Armor Pass, and who qualifies to be a Redback? As for traitors, that’s also impossible.”

After remaining silent for a while, Long Xian waved a hand. “Okay, head out and practice. Since the Fourteenth Gate has sent someone to Flying Armor Pass, it means nothing good for us. You need to open the lower meridian point as soon as possible and reach out to the Junior Progenitor so that you can have a position on his team.”

“Yes, your son will take his leave.”

Inside Flying Armor Pass, Lu Yin and Guo Shan left the restaurant, and then Guan Shan led Lu Yin on a tour of the ancient, majestic city.

Said to be majestic, in fact, it is not too spectacular. Lu Yin has seen Ye Wangxing, Honor Mountain, and many shocking scenes. This Flying Armor Pass can only be regarded as a city.

“Don’t underestimate this city. The White Dragon Clan has their Flying Armor Troops here, as well as a very powerful sourcebox array.

“Look around. This place is all dark red, and the city’s been destroyed multiple times since ancient days, and rebuilt just as many times. These are blood stains that are almost a hundred years old, and even though it was only a hundred years ago, it still looks like the entire city was stained with blood. The same thing happened in the past, which shows how cruel the fights for this place are.

“Take a look at that brick! It might look like a brick- Eh? Um, sorry, that’s just a brick.”

…

Guo Shan led Lu Yin around all day and the tour continued into the night. Lu Yin was in no hurry, and even Long Xi suggested that Lu Yin stall for this mission. Also, there was no guarantee that Guo Shan was acting against the mission. Lu Yin just simply did not know.

While they were walking, Guo Shan suddenly pushed Lu Yin to the side.

Lu Yin instinctively resisted the push, and even if the push was unexpected, Lu Yin’s incredible physical strength meant that Guo Shan was not able to move Lu Yin very far, and Lu Yin even raised a hand, ready to counterattack with a Vacuum Palm. “Watch out! Assassins.”

Lu Yin moved a little ways away. The people in the area were giving the two men strange looks; one had just pushed the other away. There was something wrong with the two.

Guo Shan’s face was solemn, and he stared at the ground.

Lu Yin followed the other man’s gaze, but saw nothing more than a puddle of what looked to be some sort of green mud. “What do you mean there’s an assassin?”

Guo Shan pointed at the ground. “You know what that is?”

Lu Yin shook his head. The green was clearly no poison, as if it was, some changes on the earth would be noticed.

“This thing’s called rindmill. Well, actually, this is called mill, and there’s something else that’s the rind. Each one’s useless alone, but when combined, they can numb your channels and slow you down. So, even if they’re not fatal, what’s going to happen when your mind and senses slow down,” Guo Shan solemnly explained.

Lu Yin’s scalp went numb, and his back went cold. This was a terrifying poison. Lu Yin did not fear being poisoned or a toxin that slowed his body, but this was something that could actually slow his mind. Even if he had a plan to victory, it would be useless if his mind was too slow to implement it.

There were people who would train certain motions until they became reflexes, and they became able to respond to things faster than the average person, but such abilities were useless when faced with this sort of toxin, as it was able to slow both the mind and the body, which meant that any reaction would be delayed no matter what.

“So this is just mill?” Lu Yin asked.

Guo Shan nodded and turned to look at Lu Yin with a serious expression. “Someone analyzed your behavior, and set things up for you to step in this mill first, and then later would arrange for you to step in the rind, which would cause you to unwittingly be poisoned. After that, they would spring the attack and kill you. You’ve been studied, and they’ve already predicted your actions.”

Lu Yin’s gaze grew sharp. “Predicted?”

Guo Shan glanced around. “This assassin must be a domain master. He reflexively used his domain to predict your actions to make sure that you would step into both toxins. Even I didn’t sense anything, which means they’re powerful. They should be one of Realmless’s assassins.”

A strong killing intent flashed across Lu Yin’s eyes. Realmless assassins; they were after him again. They had attacked him the first time in the Lower Realm. Long Xi had been led away by one of the assassins, while the second had pretended to be dead and had then tried to sneak attack Lu Yin. Another assassination attempt had occurred while they had been traveling, and this was the third attempt on Lu Yin’s life.

Also, the attacks were becoming more bizarre, and it was becoming much harder to notice things. It was no wonder Realmless was known as the most powerful assassination organization. Each time an attack failed, they not only sent a stronger assassin, but also one who employed a stranger method of attack.

Lu Yin had been very careful all along. He no longer casually looked at anything, and yet he had still almost been attacked successfully.

However, he also did not understand. He was a member of the Fourteenth Gate, so even if Realmless was willing to target him, who would be bold enough to hire such a hit? Were they not afraid of the Fourteenth Gate’s retaliation?

Humility’s Gate protected their own, and they frequently would not even observe the need for any evidence when it came to such protection. If a member of Humility’s Gate was being targeted by assassins, Humility’s Gate would absolutely respond.

Since that was the case, how did Bai Shaohong have the courage to target Lu Yin with Realmless’s assassins? Or was it someone else?

“Looks like you’ve made a lot of enemies. You can only blame yourself for being too brilliant. You’ve become too visible, and now you’re like the rest of us. Normally, nobody will know anything when you expose a Redback, and so you don’t get all the attention.” Guo Shan shook his head and said.

Lu Yin was surprised. “Are you saying that a traitor or a Redback hired Realmless to kill me?”

“Of course. You’re part of the Fourteenth Gate. Our Commander is very protective of his underlings, so who would dare to target any of us? Even if someone wants to deal with you now, they couldn’t do so by hiring an assassin; only a Redback would take that risk. A lot of powerhouses in the Fourteenth Gate have been assassinated,” Guo Shan shared.

“The Commander didn’t go after Realmless? Or track down the traitors and the Redbacks through the attack?” Lu Yin wondered.

Guo Shan sighed. “Of course he took revenge, and he also destroyed many of Realmless’s bases, but you have to realize that wherever there’s light, there’s also darkness. Even if Realmless is destroyed, another group of assassins will pop up. It’s better to have a single, massive organization like Realmless. The bigger they become, the more cautious they become. They are very diligent about keeping their employers secret, and will not reveal anything even in death.”

Lu Yin understood this. It was impossible for anyone to completely eradicate the darkness. Light and darkness always coexisted. If Realmless was wiped out, there was the potential for multiple organizations to emerge in the Perennial World, and that would lead to chaos.

There were matters you needed to be cautious of, no matter how high you managed to climb. Lu Yin absolutely believed this to be true.

“Let’s keep going. I can’t find this assassin, but they won’t have an easy time getting to you with me around. Your strength isn’t enough to draw out the best assassins, and the pay and effort are not proportionate,” Guo Shan stated before laughing. “Now you can see the benefits of being able to predict an enemy’s attacks.”

Lu Yin nodded and respectfully said, “I’ll have to trouble Senior for your guidance.”