Star Odyssey

Chapter 412: Calculations

Lu Yin’s gaze was fixed in front of him as he stared on in shock. With his altered eyes, he could see indescribable numbers of rune lines gathering in the distance. The amount that had congregated here was almost enough to pierce through the horizons, and it greatly surpassed what he had seen when that finger had formed in the Ocean of Death. Whatever this thing was, it had caused an extreme amount of rune lines to converge, and it was undoubtedly incomparable to the Hunter war spirit. 

A sudden spike of pain stabbed into Lu Yin’s eyes, and two streaks of blood flowed down his cheeks. He looked down and rubbed his eyes, unable to continue looking at the runes in front of him any more. He then expelled the star energy from both eyes. 

When he looked up again, this time, he saw a mountain towering in the distance, blocking most of the golden radiance. The mountain’s dark outline sharply contrasted against the golden light and cast a shadow over the forest, dividing it in two. 

Currently, the trio was within the shadows, chasing after one another. 

Lu Yin could not imagine what lay in the distance, and he did not even dare to look. It must be a terrifying being of strength, and its power level was definitely more than a few hundred thousand. 

After some time, the war spirit gradually caught up with the Cruiser, who tried to probe the Hunter realm war spirit by exchanging some blows, but the Cruiser ended up being beaten to the point of spitting blood. 

The Cruiser also noticed that Lu Yin was following behind them, and he growled in indignation.

Lu Yin immediately stopped. With the Hunter realm war spirit’s presence, he should not be concerned about this person’s anger. 

The man had no choice but to continue moving forward to escape. Since the war spirit had latched onto him, the man’s hopes of escaping were quickly dwindling. 

He pushed the trees of the forest aside and leaped forward. When he next looked up, he saw that the scenery around him had changed drastically. He was no longer a forest, but instead, a golden ocean. 

The Cruiser was shocked at the sight of this golden ocean. 

A terrifying strength approached him from behind, and the man’s body turned to stone as he crossed both arms to block the blow. With a bang, the war spirit sent him flying before he crashed heavily into the white beach. The Cruiser spat out a mouthful of blood and looked up in terror, only to realize that the war spirit had not pursued him any further, remaining on the fringe of the forest. 

The man was ecstatic. It seemed that the war spirit was afraid of the golden ocean, not daring to approach it. 

Lu Yin had also discovered the ocean, and he flitted over to the white beach by going around the war spirit. There, he was able to fully view the distant, boundless golden ocean and the massive mountain towering up from within the ocean. This mountain was what had caused his eyes to bleed before, and it was definitely no ordinary mountain since its rune lines represented a power level that was more than several hundred thousand.

Cough cough

Lu Yin turned around.

The Cruiser stood up with some difficulty and wiped the blood from his lips. He stared coldly at Lu Yin. “Why didn’t that thing attack you? Do you know how to get out of here?”

Lu Yin’s lips quirked up, and he slowly walked towards the man. “If I were you, I wouldn’t be thinking of how to get out. Rather, I’d be thinking of how to save myself.” 

The Cruiser laughed as he retrieved something from his cosmic ring and quickly swallowed it. “You actually think that I can’t beat you if I’m injured! You’re underestimating a Cruiser.” 

Lu Yin frowned, as this person was troublesome; his strength was not that of a normal Cruiser’s. Based on power level, this person could probably rival an expert at the bottom end of the Top Hundred Rankings, and he wasn’t inferior to Northgate Lie by much. Although Lu Yin could use Progenitor Wushang’s hide to catch this person off guard and kill him, he had already used this tactic once in outer space while both of them were trying to escape from the storm. So, this person would almost have precautionary measures against Lu Yin using it for a second time. 

The Cruiser stared at Lu Yin, as he was aware that his own injuries were severe enough that they would not be easily treated even with Shamrock Enterprises’ special drugs. Moreover, this Limiteer in front of him was not weak, and was actually one of those top freaks in the Limiteer realm. More importantly, the Cruiser still remembered being inexplicably dazzled when they had fought in outer space. This person had some kind of strange weapon. 

He looked through his memories and then closed his eyes. 

Lu Yin’s heart jumped, and he smiled bitterly. Sure enough, this person was being vigilant about being stunned again.

Neither of the two acted immediately.

From Lu Yin’s point of view, it was not prudent to fight in this unsafe environment, which would be equally detrimental to both of them.

“Seventh Bro, where are we?” the monkey suddenly spoke up, startling Lu Yin since he was in the middle of a fight. 

On the white beach, neither Lu Yin nor the Cruiser spoke. The monkey rejoiced that he had not died and immediately started spouting nonsense about how he could be killed so easily. Lu Yin could not cut off the star energy to his right hand, as he had to keep his guard up against the Cruiser. 

“It wasn’t right how we treated you in space, but you killed my brother, so let’s cancel our grudges for now. How about it?” The Cruiser spoke first before continuing, saying, “Don’t think that I’m afraid of you. Under these circumstances, neither of us will benefit from being injured. I’ve traveled through the universe for many years, and I’m much more experienced than you. You should listen to me.” 

Lu Yin muttered to himself for a moment before answering, “Sure.”

The Cruiser opened his eyes, but he didn’t dare to look directly at Lu Yin out of fear of being stunned by Progenitor Wushang’s hide. “We’re already inside the storm. It probably transported us to a secret dimension, so it’ll be nearly impossible for us to get out.”

“What? Inside the storm? Secret dimension? Seventh Bro, you didn’t escape?” the monkey lamented. 

Lu Yin was vexed, and he directly cut off the star energy to his right arm. “It’s rumored that people have walked out of here alive before.”

“They all lost their memories,” the Cruiser dryly replied. 

Lu Yin looked at the golden ocean and noted that it seemed as if all remnants of the Rune Technology Civilization had oceans, such as the Ocean of Death and this golden ocean.

The Cruiser glanced at Lu Yin, wanting to hear from this person himself why he had not been attacked by that war spirit from before. However, he knew that he would receive no answer even if he asked. He would recuperate first and then dispose of this kid. 

Lu Yin pointed at the tall mountain in the middle of the golden ocean. “What do you think? Do you think that climbing that is the way out?” 

The Cruiser nodded. “Possibly.”

The two did not speak any further. The Cruiser only wanted to treat his injuries without delay. Meanwhile, Lu Yin walked over to the forest and snapped off a branch. He then approached the ocean and used the branch to probe the water. 

The Cruiser watched on carefully.

The branch touched the water without event.

Lu Yin hesitated and then shot star energy through his fingertip into the water. It created a ripple, but there were no other changes.

“It should just be normal ocean water,” the Cruiser spoke, hoping that Lu Yin would directly touch the water.

Lu Yin was not fooled. “Right, it’s only normal water. However, there’s a golden light, so there might be treasures under this ocean.”

The Cruiser’s eyes gleamed, as that option was indeed possible. He looked up at the sky and then at the gold color. As far as he could see, the entire ocean was tinted gold. At this point, it would be more unbelievable to him if there were no treasures here.

He did not wait for Lu Yin to act and personally moved to test the water. As his finger probed the water, his hand felt cold, but his body itself was not harmed. He immediately became delighted, as it was indeed just normal water, which meant that there had to be treasure hiding on the seafloor or in the depths of the ocean. 

He emotionally looked into the distance; could this be an opportunity for him to profit from a disaster?

But then, his face quickly sank, as he was not alone. He thought about it and then glanced at Lu Yin, who was seemingly enthralled by the tall mountain. The Cruiser was puzzled. “Why do you keep staring at that mountain?” 

Lu Yin answered, “The treasure could also be hidden at the top.”

“The golden light is obviously coming from the other side of the mountain.”

“That’s true,” Lu Yin replied with a nod after thinking about it. He then turned around to look in the other direction and showed his back to the Cruiser.

The Cruiser’s eyes quivered, and his fingers bent as he considered ambushing the youth, but he ultimately decided against it. He would wait a little longer for his condition to improve before acting. He definitely would not allow Lu Yin to survive, as this person had killed his brother. 

Lu Yin’s back was to the man, but his eyes were twinkling. Then, he turned around and sat down cross-legged on the ground. “Let’s rest for a while.” 

There was no nighttime in this area, as everything was permanently illuminated by the golden light.

Lu Yin looked at his gadget. It must be under the influence of the space he was in, as it had stopped working. He silently estimated the time and concluded that five days should have passed since he had first arrived. He waited on the beach for another day, and the Cruiser also refrained from acting. 

Lu Yin gradually relaxed his vigilance as he was fascinated by the golden ocean more and more. 

“Have you eaten?” the Cruiser suddenly asked Lu Yin.

Lu Yin shook his head.

“I’m going into the forest to look for any spacecraft wreckages. What about you?”

Lu Yin replied, “We don’t trust each other, so being together might not be the best idea.”

“This area is rather tricky. We should cooperate.”

Lu Yin was puzzled. “How do you want to cooperate?”

The Cruiser squinted. “We’ll take turns looking for food and exploring the ocean.”

Lu Yin thought to himself for a moment and then nodded. “Okay.”

“To show my sincerity, I’ll go and look for food first. Rest assured, I won’t hide any if I find some. I hope that we’ll be able to find some treasures together and then get out of this damned place,” the Cruiser said before walking into the forest. 

Lu Yin continued to stare calmly at the mountain as he fell deep into thought.

Quite some time passed, but the Cruiser still did not return. Lu Yin relaxed and closed his eyes to quietly rest. 

In the forest, a kilometer away from Lu Yin, the Cruiser’s eyes widened as he stared ferociously at Lu Yin’s back. He had never left from the very beginning and had instead been patiently waiting for the moment Lu Yin mentally relaxed so that he could launch an ambush. Rather than cooperating, the Cruiser felt that he might as well capture Lu Yin and use him as an extra life to search for a safe route. 

The man did not use any star energy as he was afraid that Lu Yin would notice his approach. He gripped a branch, and a ruthless glint appeared in his eyes. He ferociously dashed out of the forest with the stick pointed straight at Lu Yin’s back. With his strength as a Cruiser, even without star energy, his all-out physical strike should be enough to instantly kill a normal Explorer. Even if this person was a freak, the Cruiser did not believe that Lu Yin’s defense could surpass an Explorer’s. 

As the branch in his hand rushed towards Lu Yin, the branch struck Lu Yin’s back almost before he could even react. However, the expected spurt of blood did not appear, and the man only felt the branch snap as if it had run into a boulder, and he even nearly injured his own hand. He stared in disbelief at Lu Yin’s back; how could this kid’s body be so sturdy? It was no weaker than a Cruiser’s body. 

But before the man could gather his thoughts, the clothes on Lu Yin’s back tore apart to reveal a piece of Progenitor Wushang’s hide. 

The man looked directly at the hide, and his brain was heavily jolted. No longer able to control himself, he spat out a mouthful of blood and fell to the ground with a deathly pale face.

Lu Yin slowly stood up and looked down at the man. “I waited a long time for you.”

That was the last sentence the man heard before losing consciousness.

Lu Yin definitely would not lower his guard when an enemy was nearby. He had instructed the monkey to use his innate gift of shadows to hide Progenitor Wushang’s hide on his back and then waited for the Cruiser to launch an ambush. The Cruiser was wary of the hide and would never open his eyes in a direct  confrontation. Thus, the only path to success was for Lu Yin to bait the Cruiser into sneak attacking his exposed back.

Just as expected, the Cruiser had attacked Lu Yin’s back, only to be stunned by Progenitor Wushang’s hide.