Star Odyssey

Chapter 3731: The Darkness Behind

Despite feeling like she was facing an insurmountable power, Progenitor Xi did not dare to try to avoid the spiral of karma. She stood in place, unmoving.

Suddenly Lu Yin’s pupils shrank as he stared at Progenitor Xi. He saw a single character appear on her forehead: Slave.

It was the same character yet again, but Lu Yin had never imagined that Progenitor Xi would also be under its control.

Ye Zhang and the four Boundary Guardians had all been controlled by the same character. Lu Yin had assumed that Progenitor Xi was unrelated to that matter, but the same character had just appeared on her forehead as well.

No, it was impossible for this character to have a connection to Master Qing Cao. Why would that man have sent Progenitor Xi to seek the Tianyuan Megaverse’s aid?

Once again, things did not add up.

When Tian Ci had claimed that the “Slave” character was from Master Qing Cao, Lu Yin had already felt that something about the matter was wrong.

Suddenly, his spiral of karma snapped. Lu Yin retreated several steps as another character rose above Progenitor Xi’s head: “Heaven.” As soon as it rose, it descended once again.

Boundless shuddered, and everyone’s attention was drawn over.

In front of Lu Yin, Progenitor Xi disappeared entirely. Nothing at all was left behind, not even her consciousness.

Lu Yin stared on in a daze. Progenitor Xi was dead.

The Origin Progenitor, Chu Yi, and others all appeared, looking to Lu Yin for answers. “What happened?”

Lu Yin’s mood soured. Just who was responsible for those “Heaven” and “Slave” characters, and how many had been left behind? Progenitor Xi had been on Boundless for a great deal of time; did that mean that the one behind the characters had been constantly observing the battleship? Had they seen everything that Lu Yin had done? There was no chance that the person was Master Qing Cao. It was impossible.

Abnormal behavior had exposed Progenitor Xi as a chess piece. Lu Yin glanced around Boundless. Could there be other chess pieces present as well?

Was this matter directed at Lu Yin? It might not have originally been so, as Progenitor Xi’s odd behavior was not at all recent. However, as Lu Yin rose to power, various chess pieces seemed to have closed in on him, and that realization left Lu Yin momentarily breathless.

He felt that whoever was behind the “Heaven” and “Slave” characters was even more terrifying than the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s three Greater Sancti.

Wait, could it be one of the three Greater Sancti?

“Pillar, what exactly happened?” the Origin Progenitor asked.

Lu Yin exhaled. “That character appeared again.”

The Origin Progenitor twitched. “Slave?”

Lu Yin nodded.

“On who?”

“Progenitor Xi.”

The Origin Progenitor’s face fell. “We need to find out who is behind this.”

“Master, even if we find them, we can’t do anything to them,” Chu Yi protested in a bitter tone.

The Origin Progenitor sighed. “They must be an Immortal.”

Immortal. A single word caused everyone’s hearts to grow burdened.

At this moment, they realized that it was impossible to clearly see the true state of the megaverses without entering the Immortal realm.

Lu Yin felt more urgency than ever before to reach the Immortal realm, even if only his combat power reached that level.

The Origin Progenitor had been weakened, and Mister Mu’s power had been restricted. The God of Death had disappeared long ago, and Destiny was still hiding. Countless peerless geniuses who had been born in the Tianyuan Megaverse had lost their future because of this hidden hand. This individual was their megaverse’s true greatest enemy.

Staring at the empty space in front of him, knowing that Progenitor Xi was dead, Lu Yin remembered the look in her eyes just moments before. She had likely never understood the reason for her odd actions.

Even the Boundary Guardians had been aware that they had been controlled, yet Ye Zhang and Progenitor Xi had both been ignorant of the fact. That was more terrifying than anything else.

What unsettled Lu Yin even more was that the mastermind was aware of everything about him, and yet they had never intervened. This indicated that they were fully confident that they could control him.

When would he become an Immortal?

Lu Yin rolled his die. Before he had realized anything, danger had already drawn so close to him.

He had believed himself impressive after gaining enough strength to no longer fear the High Seraph, establishing a tenuous balance with other apex powers like Yong Heng and Yue Ya, and he had even had a chance to shatter that balance. Lu Yin had never realized that the true peril had been hiding in the dark behind him all along.

Had he not noticed Progenitor Xi’s odd and illogical behavior, Lu Yin would still be watched.

Six pips: Possession. Luck was on his side. Lu Yin’s mind entered the dark space, and he quickly moved about as he searched for the brightest sphere of light.

Before long, Lu Yin left Boundless again, having located a Celestial-realm conscient that he quickly devoured.

That done, he resumed rolling his die.

A bit more than a month flashed by. One day, just as Lu Yin dealt with yet another Celestial-realm conscient, he was struck by a sudden chill. Far away, a pair of eyes opened, and a hand rose to point out with a single finger. A dazzling light appeared, and Everlasting Will sliced across the megaverse, instantly reaching him from the hand to pierce Lu Yin’s body.

Everlasting Will pierced him, and then Boundless, Yuan Qi, the Megalith, and Bian Ji. All of them were attacked along the same line.

Everlasting Will had skewered four people in total after being released from somewhere far behind Boundless. All in its path was erased.

The sudden calamity caught everyone completely off guard.

Lu Yin focused on Everlasting Will as Lightstream flickered around him. Time was reversed by one second, and Everlasting Will vanished. The Celestial-realm conscient was flung away, and the very next moment, when Everlasting Will reappeared, it destroyed the conscient instead. The attack passed by Boundless before vanishing into the distance.

Everything occurred within the span of a single second.

Yuan Qi, the Megalith, and Bian Ji had not had time to react. Their bodies that had been destroyed by Everlasting Will had already been restored, and none of the three had any idea of what had happened.

Lu Yin’s expression turned grim; the High Seraph was plotting against him.

The High Seraph’s Everlasting Will was able to ignore both time and space when it was unleashed, though there also appeared to be specific conditions. In the Willbound Expanse, the man had successfully attacked Yong Heng by coordinating with Lan Huifeng. This time, Lu Yin had been pierced when Mo Shang had taken advantage of a Celestial-realm conscient.

The conscient certainly had not been cooperating with the High Seraph. After all, the attack had destroyed the conscient as well.

The High Seraph did not need a partner to use Everlasting Will, but he was able to use some means that accomplished the same thing. It seemed that he was able to use another creature as a set of coordinates.

Lu Yin was reminded of the wooden wing. The mirebound artifact had been inexplicably moved by the High Seraph to block Yong Heng’s attack.

Both the mirebound artifact and the conscient had been used as coordinates. How many coordinates had Mo Shang put in place?

Fortunately, Lu Yin had reacted quickly enough, reversing time and successfully deflecting Everlasting Will’s trajectory. Without that, he would have been gravely wounded, and several people on Boundless would have been instantly slain. Even the ship itself would have been pierced.

The High Seraph felt threatened by Lu Yin. This attack had not been an attempt to kill the younger man, as the High Seraph knew that a single use of Everlasting Will could not kill Lu Yin.

The goal was to prevent Lu Yin from wantonly devouring more conscients and growing even stronger.

With his lesson learned, how would Lu Yin dare to continue casually devouring conscients? Who could say how many of them the High Seraph had prepared in the same manner?

A single attack with Everlasting Will was enough to instantly kill an Ortuser.

On Boundless, aside from Lu Yin himself, only the Origin Progenitor and a few other Dukkhans could survive such an attack. Anyone else who was even touched would die on the spot.

Even Lu Yin would end up severely injured, just like Yong Heng.

Far away from Lu Yin, aboard Boundless, Yuan Qi was still badly shaken. He felt chills from how close to death he had come.

Was that the High Seraph’s power? How had it reached him?

Recalling the flash of light, Yuan Qi quickly moved to another location. It had simply been bad luck that he had been in a line with Lu Yin. In the future, he would need to be careful and avoid ever being in a straight line with Lu Yin.

The Megalith curled up. It had been nearly erased by Everlasting Will, and the beast was traumatized.

The Pridebeast offered a thumbs-up, but the Megalith was in no mood to respond.

On the other hand, Bai Jian felt nothing at all. He was weak enough that being struck by Everlasting Will did not cause any pain—it just simply killed him.

He believed that the entire incident was nothing more than an illusion.

The Origin Progenitor and several others went to question Lu Yin, who hid nothing.

The attack weighed heavily on everyone’s mind. They had still underestimated the High Seraph. That man’s methods could never be ignored.

Mo Shang had allowed Lu Yin to run free in the Spirit Nidus, believing that he could keep the young man in hand. But as soon as the High Seraph felt threatened, he had started reining Lu Yin in. Worse still, the man certainly had the means to do so.

All the “initiative” that Lu Yin had believed to have had simply been allowed by others.

From the moment he had left his megaverse, Lu Yin had never truly held the initiative. The High Seraph was capable of making the situation go his way whenever he felt like it.

The incident with Progenitor Xi had shown Lu Yin that he had never actually held the initiative in the Tianyuan Megaverse either. A hidden mastermind had been the true player of the game.

Seeing Lu Yin’s terrible mood, everyone retreated to leave him alone.

Lu Yin sat on the edge of Boundless, staring off into the darkness of outer space. What a joke. After all that I’ve done, have I just been preparing a wedding dress for someone else?𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

He had believed himself to be a chess player, only to learn that he was still nothing more than a chess piece, simply on a far greater board than he had ever imagined.

So long as others chose to do so, they could stop everything that Lu Yin was attempting.

It really was a terrible joke.

Lost in his own thoughts, Lu Yin stared into the darkness. Players, pieces, the board, the omniverse... people were born as pieces, yet each longed to be the one pulling the strings. What gave one that right?

Do you really think that you can handle me? Can you truly see through me?

Lu Yin slowly smiled.

Everyone believed that Lu Yin was depressed by Progenitor Xi’s death and being restrained by the High Seraph, and that wasn’t even mentioning the unrelenting pressure from Yong Heng. There was also Yue Ya’s greed to consider. There were wolves on every side, but was that not exactly the situation that Lu Yin wished everyone to see?

While he and Yong Heng were indeed mortal enemies, that had not stopped Lu Yin from admiring Yong Heng’s patience and planning.

Even when the Heavens Sect had been dazzling beyond compare, it had eventually been destroyed by a slitted scarlet eye hiding in the shadows.

There was one grand figure after another; each was an Immortal, and each was also confident that they were a master strategist. Such individuals would hardly spare a glance for the fish that was being eyed by everyone.

Far off in the distance, Lu Yin seemed to see a cauldron slowly spinning.

“Master, do you have the same thought? In that case, let’s allow them to see just how far the two of us—master and disciple—can go.”

...

At the Consciousness Megaverse’s boundary gate, many powerful cultivators from the Spirit Nidus were standing guard. They were awaiting the day that the Consciousness Megaverse was completely destroyed. The seven battleships had arrived, led by the High Seraph himself, and so everyone believed the day of destruction was close at hand.

Unfortunately, one surprise after another had appeared.

A meteorite had smashed through the gate. Emperor Slayer had charged out, only to quickly return. A Dukkhan had died. A conflict between manifested thought and consciousness had left many feeling that the Consciousness Megaverse had suddenly transformed, becoming an unfamiliar place.

Too many powerful experts had appeared recently.

Of the three Dukkhans and five Ortusers who had originally stood guard at the boundary, several had already died.

Those still alive understood that the boundary was no longer a safe place.

The gaping hole in the gate filled them all with dread.

One day, they saw a single green lotus drifting through the Aevum Inch, steadily moving closer.

The people from the Spirit Nidus standing guard at the gate were stupefied. What was this? Even the two Dukkhans were bewildered. A lotus leaf? Where had it come from? There were also a great many people atop the leaf, and they reached the gate in an instant.

An old man stood at the front of the green leaf. His kindly face belied the ferocity in his eyes. The auras of those behind the old man were overwhelming, and the guardians at the gate were horrified.

Everyone stared at the old man with ashen expressions. His aura left them trembling, as the only time that they had ever sensed something similar was from the High Seraph himself.

This man was clearly a peak Dukkhan.