Star Odyssey

Chapter 1965

Leaf King sneered. “I already told you—you aren’t on the same level as me!”

Even as the man spoke, his hands lashed out and grabbed ahold of Lu Yin’s hands while the youth attacked Leaf King. As Leaf King held Lu Yin down in place, another Leaf King appeared. Lu Yin noticed the second Leaf King with his domain, and it completely shocked him. “The Soulsplitting Technique? How is this possible!”

Leaf King just smiled. “This is the end.”

The Leaf King behind Lu Yin released a palm strike aimed at the back of Lu Yin’s head, but at the last moment, the attack was blocked by an invisible force.

The second Leaf King’s attack had been extremely powerful, but a Channeling Diagram had managed to divert the attack into thousands of streams of force that shot out in all directions. As this happened, a third Leaf King appeared from the side.

The Lingling clan’s Soulsplitting Technique could allow a person to split their body three times, and the third Leaf King had just appeared.

The third Leaf King also attacked Lu Yin’s head with a palm strike. The original Leaf King was still holding Lu Yin’s hands in place and preventing him from moving, and he had already used the Channeling Diagram to block the attack of the second Leaf King that had appeared behind him. So, as far as Leaf King could see, the attack of his third clone should be unavoidable.

Lu Yin’s expression grew serious, and an astral chessboard suddenly appeared beneath his feet: Board Manipulation.

Shockingly, the third Leaf King’s attack returned back to him along the exact same path that it had taken towards Lu Yin. Everything was returned to its previous state.

This was Board Manipulation, which allowed a person to reverse events that had already played out within a region of space. Whatever had impacted space would be returned to its previous state, and it would do so by perfectly reversing what it had just done. Everything within the affected space would be restored.

Given Lu Yin’s current mastery of the Ce Secret Art, he was able to revert the third Leaf King’s actions by a single second.

One second was plenty.

Lu Yin’s eyes were locked in front of him, and a small bit of stellular energy grew larger. This was the concept of the expression “a flower was a world in and of itself.”

The Leaf King who had been holding onto Lu Yin suddenly disappeared before suddenly reappearing. He had briefly been absorbed into a droplet of stellular energy by Lu Yin due to his Creation realm of star energy control. After becoming an Envoy, Lu Yin had needed to spend some time to adapt to his newfound strength, but his stellular energy control had already reached the same level as his star energy control.

Leaf King was stunned, and he stared at Lu Yin in shock. “You actually-“

Lu Yin waved a hand, and his simulated stars coalesced once again. The Celestial Sword Technique reappeared, and the blade slashed out with the Fourteenth Sword. The two additional Leaf Kings who had appeared were torn apart, and the sword moved to point straight at the original Leaf King. “That really was surprising. The Hall of Honor, the Hui family, and the Lingling clan’s techniques. Just who are you? It’s somewhat understandable for you to have the Hall of Honor’s secret technique and the Hui family’s battle technique, but the Lingling clan’s Soulsplitting Technique is their inherited technique. It should be impossible for anyone to learn that technique without the clan’s bloodline, so how did you learn it?”

Leaf King’s eyes grew cold. “There’s no such thing as an inherited battle technique to me.”

The man’s eyes suddenly went wide, and they positively shone with a blazing excitement. “It’s incredible that you’ve reached this level with just a few decades of training. Your blood should be quite powerful and will be very valuable to study.”

Lu Yin glanced at Leaf King, and then he looked at the massive tree that stood high in the sky. The Second Nightking was still trapped within the trunk, and Lu Yin could not tell if the man was actually trapped or simply faking it. Regardless, the Second Nightking had not yet emerged. Leaf King did not seem concerned about the ancient powerhouse at all, and he was even relaxed enough to talk to Lu Yin. So, it did not seem that the Second Nightking was fighting to escape from the tree.

Still, Lu Yin could not know that for certain.

He was unwilling to use the Sealed Cage Technique on the Second Nightking to control or kill the man, which had given the old man an opportunity to potentially sit to the side and watch the current fight play out.

“You’ve only just become an Envoy, but you’ve already reached this level. You are truly surprising, Lu Yin, but that’s all that it is.” Leaf King moved his arms as a smile appeared on his face. “I’ve heard that you’re rather close to Yuan Shi. Do you know about the battle technique that he uses?”

Lu Yin felt taken aback by the random question. Yuan Shi’s battle technique?

“Shangwu’s Technique is quite weak at the initial stages of mastery. It’s merely a technique that allows a person to study and analyze other people’s battle techniques while also helping the user improve the power of their own battle techniques. However, the more one masters Shangwu’s Technique and the more they study other battle techniques, the stronger the effect of the technique. Yuan Shi was actually able to survive his seventh stellular tribulation because of Shangwu’s Technique, but I can already tell you that his mastery of the technique can’t compare to my own. I’ll let you see the true power of Shangwu’s Technique!” Leaf King declared. He curled the fingers of a hand, and a strange fluctuation spread out in all directions, encompassing the entire hidden world.

This was the Starswitched Leaf yet again, but this time, Leaf King was not just using the technique on Lu Yin, but rather on the entire hidden world. At this moment, all of the star energy and stellular energy in the entire hidden world was transformed into leaves that drifted about the place.

It was an amazing sight, and it looked as though the air itself had been replaced by drifting leaves. They flitted about as far as the eye could see in every direction.

Suddenly, Leaf King charged at Lu Yin. He moved forward with strange steps that almost looked like Inverse Step, which startled Lu Yin. The man almost instantly appeared in front of Lu Yin with a hand outstretched to grab hold of Lu Yin. Given the fact that Lu Yin was unable to use any of his battle techniques, such as the Cosmic Art, his only option was to rely on his physical strength. However, the same was also true for Leaf King.

Lu Yin had never been afraid of going up against anyone in a competition of physical might.

Bang bang bang!

Deafening sounds rang out without end. Each bang was another collision between Lu Yin and Leaf King.

Such an exchange should have gone on for a long time, but Lu Yin suddenly felt a strange numbness in his hand. This was not due to the secret technique that amplified the five senses, and it also was not due to Lu Yin being overpowered by Leaf King. Even after ten more exchanges, Lu Yin could not understand why his right hand had gone completely numb, but he was forced to rely solely on his left hand to fight.

There was another bang, and Lu Yin retreated dozens of meters. He looked down at his hand in astonishment before glancing up at Leaf King. “You—did you find Hollow Palm’s weakness?”

Leaf King sneered. “Every battle technique has a weakness. The Hui family’s secret technique Omnibreak can see through anything and find its weaknesses, but Shangwu’s Technique is able to surpass even the Hui family’s secret technique after one fully masters it. And yet despite that, no one other than Yuan Shi has ever tried to learn this technique. It really is a treasure that’s been left to gather dust. Lu Yin, you must be the most talented person to die to Shangwu’s Technique.”

Leaf King shot forward once more.

Lu Yin dodged with Inverse Step. Even he had not known that Hollow Palm had a weakness, but Leaf King had discovered one. While it was an invisible attack, it could still be observed and studied with Shangwu’s Technique. The power of the battle technique that Leaf King was using was truly startling, as the longer he fought, the more he would see through Lu Yin’s techniques and injure the younger man.

Starswitched Leaf truly synergized with Shangwu’s Technique, and if a person was stuck within the hidden world and unable to simply overpower and crush Leaf King, they would eventually be defeated by Leaf King.

Lu Yin continuously evaded with Inverse Step, constantly chased after by Leaf King. The two were moving faster and faster as Leaf King studied Inverse Step with Shangwu’s Technique.

However, Lu Yin refused to believe that Leaf King could fully analyze Inverse Step.

Leaf King’s expression changed as he chased after Lu Yin who fled with Inverse Step. Why? Why could he not see through this movement technique? Leaf King had absolute confidence in Shangwu’s Technique, but for some reason, he could not see through this movement technique. Lu Yin was clearly stepping backwards, yet also moving forwards. Was he manipulating the void? Or space and time?

This thought caused Leaf King’s eyes to go wide. From his perspective, Lu Yin was nothing less than an absolute treasure! This youth had so many valuable battle techniques, skills, and even secret techniques. At this moment, Leaf King was looking at a movement technique that somehow used the concepts of both time and space!

If Leaf King had known that Lu Yin held such priceless secrets, there would have been no need to wait until Lu Yin had pushed too far. Instead, Leaf King would have moved to kill Lu Yin the moment the young man had entered Shamrock Enterprise’s headquarters.

“How is it? Have you thoroughly analyzed it yet?” Lu Yin looked back and asked.

Leaf King was caught off guard. “You’ve been deliberately allowing me to study your movement technique?”

Lu Yin answered calmly, “I wanted to see the limits of Shangwu’s Technique.”

Leaf King remarked, “I can’t actually can’t see through your technique, so I’ll make you a deal. There’s actually no real reason for us to kill each other. The Second Nightking is trapped, so you can’t kill me, and your movement technique means that I might not be able to kill you either. Why don’t we work together? I can teach you anything that you wish to learn and even support you with Shamrock Enterprise’s resources. All you need to do is give me that little tree. What do you say?”

Lu Yin just laughed. “What? Are you no longer confident that you can kill me with Shangwu’s Technique?”

Leaf King’s eyes narrowed. “Given enough time, Shangwu’s Technique will certainly see through your technique, so if you insist on seeing this fight through, it will all depend on whether or not you can survive long enough for the Second Nightking to escape. Do you really want to gamble on whether my Shangwu’s Technique succeeds faster than he can escape?”

Lu Yin shook his head and let out a breath. “It looks like you really don’t have any confidence in being able to analyze this technique, so your question’s pointless. Instead, answer this question: have you ever heard of the Champions’ Stage?”

As Lu Yin spoke, his Champions’ Stage appeared in front of him, startling Leaf King. “A Champions’ Stage?”

The older man’s expression changed drastically. “The Lu family’s Champions’ Stage?”

Lu Yin’s expression also changed. Leaf King actually knew about this innate gift? This was something that very few people knew about, especially in the Fifth Mainland. After the primeval surnames left the Fifth Mainland, many efforts had been made to erase all records of them. The Fifth Mainland hated the primeval surnames, and with the exception of a very few people, no one was aware of the Lu family’s Champions’ Stage. In fact, not even the masters of the Innerverse’s eight great flowzones knew about this innate gift, so how did Leaf King recognize it?

It was becoming increasingly clear that Leaf King’s identity was not simple. This man had learned many techniques, and yet he had always kept his strength hidden.

“I’m growing even more curious about you. You know about my Lu family, so just who are you, Leaf King?” Lu Yin was becoming increasingly wary and curious about his opponent.

Leaf King acted like he finally understood Lu Yin for the first time, and he stared at the young man for a long moment. “I didn’t expect you to be a member of the Lu family, let alone have the Champions’ Stage innate gift. It’s no wonder why you’ve been able to improve so quickly—you have the Lu family supporting you. It seems that the primeval surnames actually haven’t forgotten about this place. They have plans for this place, don’t they?”

Leaf King’s words gave Lu Yin a sense of relief. Clearly, the man did not know everything, which showed that he was not in touch with Arch-Elder Zen. On top of that, it sounded that Leaf King was ignorant of the recent developments in the Perennial World, which meant that everything the man most likely only knew about the Lu family from ancient records.

Of course, it was also possible that Leaf King was someone like the Chief Justice who had personally visited the Perennial World in the past. Back then, the Lu family had still been in power, and the four ruling powers had not yet existed.

“It seems like you know quite a bit about my Lu family,” Lu Yin calmly replied without revealing anything.

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Leaf King’s eyes flickered, and his heart dropped. He did not care about how high Lu Yin’s status might be in the Fifth Mainland, but everything changed if the Lu family was behind the youth. The Lu family was an absolute monster, and to Leaf King’s knowledge, the Lu family had always stood at the top of the Fifth Mainland, holding absolute sway. No one dared to stand against them.

In particular, everyone from the Lu family who possessed a Champions’ Stage was an invincible powerhouse.

Leaf King had never dreamed that Lu Yin would actually be part of the true Lu family. There were many people in the universe with the Lu surname, but how many of them were part of that Lu family?

No, even if Lu Yin was a part of the Lu family, there was nothing to fear. The Fifth Mainland hated the primeval surnames, and even if the Lu family’s strength was terrifying, they were not able to control the Fifth Mainland. Leaf King was familiar with Lu Yin’s history, and even though the young man’s story was miraculous, he had still almost died on several occasions. If he was truly supported by the Lu family, then how could he have suffered so badly?