Star Odyssey

Chapter 3732: Ruler Garden

Within the Consciousness Megaverse, Yue Ya turned to look in the direction of the boundary gate. He might not have a body any longer, but his manifested thought had condensed into the form of a human. He adopted the same middle-aged appearance, and a smile tugged at his lips. “So, have they finally arrived? Very well. In that case, let the hunt begin.”

At the same moment, far away on Boundless, Lu Yin and the Origin Progenitor both sensed something dangerous arrive. In particular, Lu Yin felt some intangible warning, and it sent a chill down his spine.

He hurried over to the Origin Progenitor and asked the old man to hide Boundless in a parallel universe.

“I can also sense the danger, though it’s hard to describe. You should hide as well,” the Origin Progenitor urged, but Lu Yin shook his head.

“I need to know what this threat is. I can’t hide forever.”

“Theoretically, it should be Yue Ya,” the Origin Progenitor said.

Lu Yin had the same thought. At the moment, Yue Ya was the only one fixated on Lu Yin, as the being of manifested thought was determined to seize both Lu Yin’s body and his consciousness.

The Spirit Nidus’s four battleships were Lu Yin’s bargaining chips for negotiating with the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, but they could not be used to threaten Yue Ya. According to the High Seraph, Yue Ya was no longer a Lesser Sancte. Yue Ya had repeatedly committed grave crimes, and he was currently risking everything while ignoring the consequences of failure.

“Senior, Boundless must leave. The feeling of danger is increasing,” Lu Yin pressed, his expression suddenly changing.

The Origin Progenitor did not hesitate, and he immediately ordered Chu Yi to direct Boundless and the other battleships into a parallel universe while the Origin Progenitor himself remained behind.

“Pillar, don’t forget that you still haven’t surpassed this old man,” the Origin Progenitor stated.

Lu Yin did not argue. The situation had just changed, and the danger felt even greater than when he had fought against the High Seraph and Yong Heng in the Willbound Spire. This danger might as well be a ringing alarm bell. Rarely had Lu Yin ever sensed such intense danger, and the few times he had, his life had been at great risk.

He found it difficult to imagine that anyone other than an Immortal could still threaten his life, given his strength.

Not only did he possess a consciousness as powerful as a peak Dukkhan, but he also had many techniques and abilities. Just the fact that Lightstream could reverse time by one second had saved Lu Yin on multiple occasions. Despite that, he still felt an overwhelming sense of danger. Just what was going on with Yue Ya?

Just half a day after Boundless and the other four battleships left, a dark-gold cloud appeared.

“I found you.” Yue Ya’s expression turned vicious. He stepped forward, moving straight for Lu Yin.

Behind him were those who had arrived on the green lotus.

Lu Yin stood in the middle of outer space, far away from Yue Ya. Consciousness erupted from his body, spreading across the megaverse to summon the High Seraph. As long as he cooperated with the Origin Progenitor, Lu Yin refused to believe that the High Seraph and Yue Ya could truly put him in danger, not unless Yue Ya had brought several peak Dukkhans with him.

Space warped, and Yue Ya emerged. He was accompanied by an old man and four other individuals. Each one of the five was a Dukkhan.

Lu Yin’s expression changed. How could there be so many Dukkhans?

Only a handful of such experts had risen up in the Tianyuan Megaverse, and even in the Spirit Nidus, while there were certainly more Dukkhans present, it would be difficult to gather so many at once.

Dukkhans were certainly not as common as cabbages.

Then, Lu Yin understood; this was the result of Seed Transfusion.

The greatest advantages of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse were twofold. First, the external cultivation of spirit seeds essentially granted cultivators a second life. The second was the inheritance system of Seed Transfusion.

Powerhouses could release their spirit seeds before dying, leaving them for future generations. Any cultivator who accepted such a spirit seed would gain the cultivation of the person who had cultivated it originally, though they would never be able to cultivate again and would be stuck at that level.

Every organization in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse had accumulated many of these inheritances through the ages. This meant that, regardless of the era, it possessed the full strength of their predecessors.

That was what truly made the Nine Odysseys Megaverse terrifying.

It was only a slight exaggeration to say that any given faction from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse could produce more top-tier experts than the entire Tianyuan Megaverse; they might even be able to match the full power of the Spirit Nidus.

Yue Ya, as a former Lesser Sancte, almost certainly secretly controlled some organizations in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

This explained everything. Yue Ya had been waiting for these people to arrive.

In particular, the old man felt particularly threatening to Lu Yin. This was someone who was undoubtedly at the High Seraph’s level. Even if the man was not truly a peak Dukkhan, he was quite close. His combat strength might be equal to Lu Yin’s own.

For the first time ever, Lu Yin was directly facing the terrifying power produced by the Nine Odysseys Megaverse’s cultivation system.

“Take him.”

The Voidheart Mirror that covered the starry sky suddenly dropped down towards Lu Yin like a meteor. At the same time, Yue Ya reverted to his cloud form and shot towards his target.

Beside the dark-gold cloud, the old man stared at the Origin Progenitor. The elder took a step forward, unleashing the Nine Heavens. The Origin Progenitor replied in kind, and two terrifying auras clashed with enough force to move even the stars.

Lu Yin’s inner universe exploded from within him, and he shoved the star of consciousness up to smash into the approaching cloud.

During their previous exchange, Lu Yin had been suppressed, but that was no longer the case.

Manifested thought clashed against consciousness to produce a tangible, unstoppable storm that swept out in all directions. Even the Dukkhans who had arrived to assist Yue Ya were blasted back by the maelstrom, and they stared at Lu Yin in shock.

The Nine Odysseys Megaverse had no shortage of incredibly powerful youths, but most of those people had achieved their power from inheritances, by accepting another’s Seed Transfusion. In contrast, Lu Yin’s strength was entirely his own.

This was the second time that the two were competing with their manifested thought and consciousness. Previously, the High Seraph had helped Lu Yin attack Yue Ya, but this time, Yue Ya had allies and was the one besieging Lu Yin.

The four Dukkhans surrounded the battlefield and attacked in perfect unison. In front of each one of them, a ruler engraved with the number nine appeared. When the weapons spun, space warped, and even the stars started to distort.

“Nine-Rulers: Heaven-Defying Art,” the four intoned in unison as they charged at Lu Yin.

As Lu Yin continued to fight against Yue Ya with consciousness, he also faced an assault from the four Dukkhans.

Four palm strikes shot out in quick succession, an inexorable force driving back the attackers. They exchanged startled looks and glanced at their rulers.

Each one showed a measurement that was nearly at its limit.

“Strength that reaches the limit...”

“What a monster!”

“We can’t take another attack like that.”

“Attack!”

The four Dukkhans attacked again. The mark of the four rulers dropped back to the bottom as they worked in unison, using the Nine Heavens Transformation to unleash a power that could threaten even Lu Yin, let alone the fact that there were four of them.

Each of them had unleashed an attack comparable to Emperor Wu’s power.

Lu Yin’s consciousness stalled for an instant when all four Dukkhans’ attacks struck his body. The terrifying blows cracked his skin and drew blood. Without an overwhelming level of physical strength, Lu Yin’s body would have been shattered by the assault.

Lightstream flashed, and time rewound by one second.

Lu Yin moved at the speed of time with Inverse Step. However, even as he did so, his consciousness hesitated again.

His star of consciousness was holding back Yue Ya’s main body, but that did not mean that Lu Yin could restrain all of Yue Ya’s manifested thought.

Yue Ya was not able to overpower Lu Yin for very long, but he was still capable of briefly seizing control of him. Not even the High Seraph was immune to that.

With his defenses broken, Lu Yin instinctively retaliated: Setting Sun.

“A comprehension technique!”

Setting Sun incinerated all knowledge of martial arts. The four Dukkhans all coughed up blood, yet they still attacked Lu Yin.

No... Lu Yin stared at the four who surrounded him, as well as the rulers in front of them as he reviewed what had just happened. None of these four were capable of wielding the same level of strength as Emperor Wu. The power that they had unleashed had come from Lu Yin.

Those weapons were able to absorb power.

Lu Yin needed to use his consciousness to fight back against Yue Ya, who was as powerful as the High Seraph. Aside from his consciousness, the only thing that Lu Yin could use to fight back was his physical power.

Since those rulers were able to absorb his attacks, Lu Yin would have to find out just what their limits were.

Wielder - God battle force covered his body as his skin withered and Infinity flowed through his body. He met the four attackers with another four palm strikes.𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Four thunderous impacts rang out. Again, the four Dukkhans were driven back, and the marks on their rulers nearly touched the end.

No matter how odd their technique might be, it was still a battle technique. It was impossible for it to truly transcend and reach the Immortal level. There was a limit to all battle techniques, and Lu Yin’s palm strikes had nearly touched that limit.

The four attackers stared at their rulers. “Again!”

The marks on the rulers dropped back down, and a surge of power passed through the spinning rulers, warping space as the attacks shot straight at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin had attacked with four palm strikes, and thus he had to endure the power of his own attacks as they were returned to him.

At that same moment, Yue Ya seized control of Lu Yin with his manifested thought, rendering the young man unable to defend himself.

However, Lu Yin had never intended to do so. These attacks were precisely what he had wanted.

His body accepted the full power of the four attacks, and his withered skin was restored to normal as Extremes Must Be Reversed absorbed the damage. His eyes lit up. Now!

Another four palm strikes flew out, and the first succeeded in instantly shattering a Dukkhan and his ruler. The force of Lu Yin’s attack had surpassed what the battle technique could absorb.

The other three attacks shot out in unison, but they drifted off target and shot past the three people to destroy vast portions of the universe.

Yue Ya had interfered again. He always managed to use his manifested thought to seize control of Lu Yin at a critical moment.

If not for Yue Ya, not one of the four Dukkhans would have survived. Even so, one had already died.

In the distance, the old man facing off against the Origin Progenitor was startled. “How can he resist Yue Ya’s manifested thought and still slay another opponent? This youth is a rare genius throughout all of history.”

The blade of the Origin Progenitor’s sword struck the ruler in front of the old man’s body, and the mark on the ruler rose by a notch. “After all, he is the ruler of my Tianyuan Megaverse.”

The elder shook his head. “Such a pity, as he will still end up disappearing. Still, his body may yet be able to stand at the top of the omniverse.”

“Really?” Verdant Eternity spread out to surround the Origin Progenitor.

The old man in front of the Origin Progenitor frowned, and his ruler spun furiously. “With the Nine Rulers as the axle, the sky itself shall turn! Nine-Rulers: Heaven-Defying Art!”

Boom!

The collision was powerful enough to shake the megaverse itself, and it instantly drew Old Chief’s attention.

The Luminary briefly hesitated before heading towards the newest battlefield. They were still in the Consciousness Megaverse, but the conscients home had been reduced to being someone else’s battlefield. Old Chief needed to understand which supreme experts had arrived.

Lu Yin had killed one Dukkhan, cowing the surviving three. For the moment, none of them dared to attempt another attack.

Their Nine-Rulers: Heaven-Defying Art was Ruler Garden’s signature technique, as well as its most powerful. Any attack could be absorbed, converted into power as long as it fell within the span of the nine chi, and then released. “Within nine chi, I am invincible” was the description of the members of Ruler Garden.

In theory, those nine chi could contain every power in existence and thus make one invincible. However, the amount of power that the technique could absorb varied with the strength of each cultivator using it.

Lu Yin had instantly surpassed the Dukkhans’ limit.

If not for Yue Ya, they would have all died.

There were people who refused to accept Seed Transfusion and instead sought to advance further on their own. However, entering Dukkha was impossible for most cultivators, no matter how long they lived for. These three Dukkhans had fought too long and hard for the opportunity to receive the spirit seeds that they had used for Seed Transfusion, and they did not want to die.

Seeing that he had intimidated three of his opponents, Lu Yin turned and focused on Yue Ya. At best, Lu Yin’s consciousness was able to hold back Yue Ya’s manifested thought, but that was not enough to defeat Yue Ya.

Even without any interference, if Lu Yin and Yue Ya fought to the death, Lu Yin would most likely end up losing. Yue Ya’s manifested thought was not only able to briefly seize control of Lu Yin, but it could also erode his mind.

Lu Yin could feel his mind growing restless and his movements growing sluggish. This was the result of his own thoughts being worn away. The longer this fight dragged on, the worse things would get for him.