Star Odyssey

Chapter 4128: Fear

Xing Fan finally looked away. Her conflict with Lu Yin was still the greatest humiliation of her entire life. It had even cost her her lofty status of Lesser Sancte.

Worse yet, she did not dare to even resent Lu Yin for what had happened.

As his status continued to climb higher and higher, she only grew more hesitant to hold anything against him.

She hated whenever someone brought up her past conflict with Lu Yin, especially if a damned toad did it. If not for the fact that the toad was useful, she would have already skinned him alive.

Just then, another green lotus leaf drifted towards them from the distance, causing both Xing Fan and Astral Anura to look over.

The leaf was carrying Kang Tian.

At the sight of the Immortal snail, Xing Fan’s expression changed. She stood and offered a respectful bow.

No matter what, the giant snail was an Immortal.

In contrast, Astral Anura felt a sudden swelling of innate pride, and he nearly blurted something out. Only reason held him back.

Kang Tian approached. “Well? Have you felt anything?”

Whenever its eyes fell on Astral Anura, the snail felt a surge of unease, disgust, hatred, and fear. These were its instinctive feelings towards all Seven-Treasures Astral Anuras.

Astral Anura shook his head. “Nothing.”

“It seems that they haven’t come close enough yet. Lucky you.”

The toad blinked. “Lucky... me?”

“Yes. I’ve never seen a Seven-Treasures Astral Anura as lucky as you.”

“How so?” Astral Anura asked, perplexed.

Kang Tian mused, “If you hadn’t wandered off somehow, you’d likely be gone—eaten clean without even bones remaining.”

The toad twitched. “What do you mean? Who would have eaten me?”

“The other Seven-Treasures Astral Anuras, of course.”

“Aren’t they my kin?”

“Heh. Kin? Yes, they’re your kin, but the closer the kin, the crueler they are. The Seven-Treasures Astral Anura are powerful, but do you know how that power is gained?

“It’s because your species has a trait, an innate gift known as Devouring Treasures.

“In truth, the Seven-Treasures Astral Anuras were originally called Treasure-Devouring Anuras. But they grew so dominant that no one in the Aevum Inch dared to spread that name, which is how their current title took hold.”

Astral Anura was stunned. “Devouring Treasures?”

“Devouring Treasures means devouring completely. They cannibalize their own kind to rapidly boost their power. As they cultivate, they continually consume their kin at every realm. To keep the clan both strong and concealed, only seven may exist at any one realm: seven Ortusers, seven Dukkhans, and so on. Every realm is like this. So calling them Seven-Treasures isn’t wrong, either. That is the true origin of the name...”

As Kang Tian spoke, the darkness permeating the Aevum Inch seemed to grow ever deeper.

Astral Anura felt a chill spread across his entire body as terror inundated him like ice water. How can this be? Is this true?

According to Kang Tian, thousands of Seven-Treasure Anuras were born each year, but only seven of each realm could survive. Many fled with their children, but very few succeeded in escaping. The rare few to make it to safety could not escape their fate of being devoured by their peers, should they be found.

Xing Fan gave Kang Tian an odd look. The Immortal spoke in a nearly mystical manner, but most of it sounded like complete nonsense. Still, there were some bits that made sense.

“Are you saying I’m going to be eaten?” The toad could not believe this. The tale sounded absurd, but it also made a bit of sense: the Treasure-Devouring Anuras and the origin of their nickname of Seven-Treasures fit too well, at least in Astral Anura’s mind.

Kang Tian smiled. “Of course, though there’s a chance that you’ll devour one of your peers and be the one to ascend instead. Who knows? If you succeed and become one of the seven Dukkhans, your clan will take you back. That would be good for you, in a way.

“Though, that’s all assuming that you can devour your kin.

“Enough of this talk. There’s not much time, and I came here to give you this.” The snail spat out a piece of Colored-Glass. “This was prepared just for you.

“Anyway, I’m off.”

Astral Anura felt incredibly flustered. “Wait! Tell me more!”

The Immortal snail spoke while moving away, its voice fading. “There’s no need. You’ll understand everything when they arrive. Enjoy your family reunion.”

Astral Anura stared blankly after the snail. His mood had been completely ruined.

All along, he had been expecting a loving reunion with his family. What did human civilization matter for? However... Could it be true? Do we devour our own kind in order to advance? How cruel!

Did Great-Grandma escape with me, which is how I ended up all alone?

Treasure-Devouring Anura, Seven-Treasures Astral Anura. Too cruel! No! Absolutely not.

He continued to stare off into the distance. They mustn’t come. They mustn’t!

Within the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, Lu Yin looked away and turned to meet Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s gaze.

It looked like Kang Tian had scared the toad straight. After all, Astral Anura was too timid by nature.

“I never thought that there would be a species that advanced by devouring their own kind. There really is everything in the cosmos,” Lu Yin sighed.

Kang Tian had not completely fabricated the tale that it had spun for Astral Anura. Rather, the snail had tacked another species’ trait onto the Seven-Treasures Astral Anura and manipulated the name of the species a bit. This had led to a story that the toad found bizarre yet believable.

After all, there was indeed such a species elsewhere in the cosmos.

Greater Sancte Green Lotus said, “It’s quite normal. The better you understand the Aevum Inch, the more often that the unimaginable will appear. Speak with Awe Gate when you can. Her knowledge may well match my own.”

Lu Yin then remembered that, after Awe Gate left the Mindscape Megaverse, she had wandered the Aevum Inch for a time. When she returned, she had already been an Immortal.

What did she encounter while wandering?

Also, who is Qing Yun’s father?

Right, there’s also the Mindscape Megaverse itself.

It was time for Lu Yin to visit the Mindscape Megaverse.

***

The Mindscape Megaverse was unlike any that Lu Yin had seen before.

From a distance, it looked like a rift. The closer he approached, the stronger the sensation of the cosmos caving in.

The rift seemed to envelop the entire megaverse, creating an illusion. The actual rift was only the endless darkness at the center.

That was the Mindscape Megaverse’s Deep Rift Universe, which had also served as the battlefield where the Nine Odysseys’ cultivators had fought against the natives of the Mindscape Megaverse.

Lu Yin left the green lotus leaf to enter the megaverse, and he quickly arrived at the edge of the rift. There were only a few cultivators present, all of them members of the Rift of Suffering.

One of them stepped forward and offered the Rift of Suffering’s unique salute to Lu Yin. “I am Ku Zhan. May I ask what brings you to the Mindscape Megaverse?”

Lu Yin observed the sturdy, middle-aged man. Unlike anyone else that Lu Yin had met from the Rift of Suffering, Ku Zhan’s eyes were bright and sharp, as befitting his name. “I am Lu Yin, from the Tianyuan Megaverse. I came on one of Greater Sancte Green Lotus’s green leaves to train.”

Ku Zhan was startled. “From the Tianyuan?”

The man studied Lu Yin. The Rift of Suffering had no particular opinion regarding the Tianyuan, but the Nine Odysseys Megaverse rarely ever interacted with the other human megaverse. It was surprising to see someone from that place.

“Mr. Lu, you came here on a green lotus leaf?”

“Yes.”

“In that case, please go ahead.”

Lu Yin nodded and moved past Ku Zhan to approach the rift.

Ku Zhan watched the younger man go. Regardless of the man’s origins, the pressure that he gave off was unmistakable. Ku Zhan had only ever felt such pressure from his master before. He’s strong.

From the Tianyuan? Since when has the Nine Odysseys Megaverse interacted with that megaverse?

Ku Zhan had been gone from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse for many years, and much had changed in his absence.

Rumbles often came from up above in recent years, and the Mindscape Megaverse had also been restless. Ku Zhan had wanted to return home for quite some time. It might be possible to leave with Lu Yin.

In front of him, Lu Yin approached the rift while recalling what Awe Gate had told him before he left.

“Feeling no fear is something many can do. What you must do is make yourself afraid, for only fear can awaken your potential.

“The Deep Rift Universe is bottomless. With my strength, I could completely shatter a universe; what is a mere rift to me? But only by entering it will you understand what you are truly facing.”

“It isn’t a rift, nor a universe, but a beast. A beast that must be tamed.”

She had shared her own understanding of the Deep Rift Universe, as well as what she had felt from it.

Ku Deng had also warned Lu Yin: everyone could see the rift before them, but not everyone could see the rift within. The Rift of Suffering taught one to climb out of the abyss, not just the one ahead, but the one in the heart.

The Heartrift Technique held that when the heart reached out to the universe, one attained unity with heaven. If the heart was invincible, all else followed.

The heart was the root of all things.

Lu Yin had first come for the power within the rift, but now he finally understood what “heart” truly meant.

Heart for heart. This was how he had merged with the Tianyuan’s will and fought two Immortals.

That was the power of the heart. In that moment, his heart had been invincible, and so had he.

Will was another power of the cosmos. The greater the heart, the vaster one’s world.

He hoped to witness his inner rift here. If that rift one day covered the cosmos and all within it, would he be able to merge his will with the boundless Aevum Inch itself?

Heartrift power truly was Infinite.

Lu Yin did not proceed any farther. He stopped in place, slowly sat down, and motionlessly gazed into the rift before him.

In the distance, Ku Zhan stared blankly at Lu Yin. The man was neither advancing nor retreating; what was this supposed to be?

After a moment, Lu Yin’s aura started to dwindle, shrinking further and further until it vanished entirely. And yet, he was clearly still there.

This scene was not strange to Ku Zhan. When his master had been in the Mindscape Megaverse, he had done the same thing. However, his master had spent a long time to fully erase his aura and merge with the rift. How had this Lu Yin succeeded so quickly?

Could he be challenging the Immortal realm like Master once was?

Legends claim that the Tianyuan is the weakest of the human megaverses and that they lack even a proper peak Dukkhan. How could that place have produced someone like him?

Ku Zhan stood quietly in place, simply observing Lu Yin. Could this man be Ku Zhan’s own opportunity?

He had chosen to be the one to stand guard over the Deep Rift Universe, not because he did not want to return to the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, but rather because his nature made the next step of his path difficult for him to take.

He was only an eight-rift expert, which placed him below both Ku Han and Ku Ji. That was because of a single word: battle.

All his life, Ku Zhan had loved battle. Only in the Mindscape Megaverse could he suppress his urge to fight. Only by breaking free from his martial heart could he become a nine-rift expert.

In Lu Yin, Ku Zhan could see one such possibility.

Lu Yin did not know that training beside the rift had granted Ku Zhan a chance for a breakthrough, and Lu Yin also did not need to know. Human civilization was not weakened with one less nine-rift expert.

Ninety-nine days.

Lu Yin sat cross-legged beside the rift for ninety-nine days. He was just like an ordinary human as he stared into the bottomless depths. He felt fear and tasted helplessness.

When the heart sits as an abyss, it reflects the depths of the underworld.

Lu Yin saw the rift within, and it seemed to merge with the one in front of him. That merging compelled him to rise without thought and move toward the rift.