Star Odyssey

Chapter 4401: Chen Jian

It had already been ten years since Lu Yin had brought Jiang Feng over to the Starfall Megaverse. A decade was enough time for him to clearly understand the megaverse.

Lu Yin teleported again and again until he finally arrived at the Starfall Megaverse. Using the Mirrorlight Art, he quickly located Jiang Feng. They had previously agreed that Jiang Feng would wait for Lu Yin in the location where they had first entered the Starfall Megaverse.

A single teleport brought Lu Yin to a mountain peak. Not far away, Jiang Feng was sitting quietly. He was not at all surprised to see Lu Yin appear.

“Uncle Jiang, how is it?” Lu Yin asked.

Jiang Feng replied, “I am not sure whether this megaverse’s Immortal is suited to join our Human Trio.”

Lu Yin was surprised. For Jiang Feng to say such a thing indicated that the Immortal was not a good person, though they were also not necessarily a bad one either. A person could not be judged solely as good or evil.

Lu Yin took Jiang Feng to a rather prosperous interstellar city in the Starfall Megaverse. They sat by a window in a tavern and ordered some dishes and then proceeded to have a slow chat.

Jiang Feng took his time. The Starfall Megaverse was a peculiar place. If everyone from Crimson Starshade cultivated the same Path of Dispassion, then everyone in the Starfall Megaverse cultivated both the same cultivation art and the same battle technique.

Lu Yin was astonished. How is that actually possible? An entire megaverse cultivating the same thing?

He had thought that Crimson Starshade was already standardized enough with everyone cultivating the Path of Dispassion. He had never considered the possibility of encountering something even more uniform.

Jiang Feng said, “Star Fist, everyone in the Starfall Megaverse cultivates it. It is both a cultivation art and a technique. Here.”

He casually pulled out a fist manual and tossed it to Lu Yin. He took it in confusion. As simple as that?

Jiang Feng continued, "You don’t need to bother reading it. It is a very ordinary boxing method, and its essence lies in the broken star in the sky, which they call the Shattered Dipper."

Lu Yin looked up at the starry sky, as did Jiang Feng. There, high above them, hung a shattered star. Most of the astral body had already shattered, and the small remaining portion seemed to still be crumbling away, with dust visibly drifting away.

If Jiang Feng had not pointed the star out, Lu Yin would not have noticed it at all. The broken star was interesting, but only because it could be seen from any corner of the current universe.

A single universe was vast. Even within a solar system, one might not be able to clearly see a shattered star, yet this one could be seen by everyone.

"The cultivators of the Starfall Megaverse use this Star Fist as their foundation. Their ultimate technique is to draw upon the power of the Shattered Dipper and unleash a powerful fist intent. The stronger the person, the stronger the fist intent that they can draw out. It is said that even Chen Jian, this civilization’s Immortal, draws upon that same fist intent, and yet even he is unable to see the limit of the Shattered Dipper's power.

"There is a legend in this Starfall Megaverse that claims that whoever can completely draw upon the fist intent of the Shattered Dipper will become invincible in the cosmos," Jiang Feng said.

Lu Yin arched a brow. "What a boast."

Jiang Feng smiled. "Yes, it is a tremendous boast, and it only goes to show how little this Starfall Megaverse has seen. I have read their history, and their strongest powerhouse is this Chen Jian, but he is timid and hesitant. He doesn’t even dare to deal with the Starfall Megaverse's mortal enemies. Instead, he allows humanity and their enemies to wear each other down. He lacks the ambition to push forward without looking back. If someone like that is able to become the strongest in this megaverse, then how can this civilization have the courage to boast of invincibility?"

Lu Yin had no interest in the power of the Starfall Megaverse. Obscura rated its destruction as only warranting a two-star mission, which meant that it was rather weak. Having one Immortal was already the civilization’s limit, and it was far inferior to even the Nine Odysseys Megaverse of old. Invincible? The narrower a person's horizons, the more likely they were to believe in invincibility.

Long ago, when the Tianyuan’s Origin Universe had lacked so much as a Progenitor, there had been quite a few legends of invincibility. Lu Yin himself had once believed himself to be invincible, only to understand better after experiencing the Aevum Inch. The word seemed more ridiculous the more that he learned.

And yet, within the same realm, Lu Yin truly did believe himself to be invincible. No matter how vast the Aevum Inch might be, no matter how far back in time history might go, it was not just Lu Yin alone who believed himself to be invincible within his realm; the Plume Immortals and even Obscura shared that same belief. No one had ever heard of a mere Aberrant single-handedly killing a two-law Immortal. He was truly the first.

"Tell me about this Chen Jian. What about him makes even you uncertain about whether we should bring him into the Trio? Just what has he done?" Lu Yin asked curiously.

At that moment, the waiter arrived with their food. The street below was also bustling and noisy.

Just as Jiang Feng was about to speak, a loud boom shook the ground. Lu Yin looked down at the street, where two people were fighting. One was chasing, and the other was fleeing. What interested him was that both were using fist techniques.

The Starfall Megaverse was founded upon the Star Fist, so did that mean that everyone in the entire megaverse cultivated fist techniques?

When it came to fist techniques, the figure who had left the deepest impression on Lu Yin was the middle-aged man in the splendid robes who had once fought against the Ten-Eyed Divine Crow. That man had been one of the Nine Ramparts’ Rampart Wardens, and he had cooperated with Hong Shuang and another old man to kill the Divine Crow.

Lu Yin had witnessed that past scene when obtaining Crow Immobilization.

The old man in that vision must have been the Seventh Rampart’s Rampart Warden, as Lu Yin had seen the man use the Yan Gate’s Seven Needles.

Another person who had brought his fist technique to an impressive height was Ji He. That man had been hidden away too carefully by Hong Xia, and Lu Yin was unable to find any trace of Ji He.

Boom!

Another loud boom rang out. Lu Yin frowned. Both men were unleashing destructive power that far exceeded their own realm.

The source... He looked up at the Shattered Dipper again. These two men’s strength all came from the Shattered Dipper, yet he could not tell how they were drawing upon its power. Was it impossible to see? Or could there be another method?

Lu Yin looked away, his eyes falling to the Star Fist manual with open interest. This was becoming somewhat interesting.

Everything around them suddenly grew quiet. Jiang Feng had sealed off all outside noise as he started to talk about the civilization’s Immortal, Chen Jian.

"Chen Jian is the only Immortal here in the Starfall Megaverse. He has lived for an extremely long time, to the point that his existence has even surpassed the history of this megaverse.

"Simply living for a long time doesn’t necessarily mean impressive strength. It could also simply mean that he is an Immortal who has never faced any truly great storms. But the position he has given himself, and the pressure that he has forced himself to bear, are unlike anything I have ever seen." Jiang Feng looked up at the Shattered Dipper. "The man has severed all affection and cut off all bonds. Family, love, friendship, and even the bond between master and disciple—he has severed them all. He is truly alone. In the Starfall Megaverse, there is no one whom he cares about."

Lu Yin raised a brow. The Path of Dispassion?

"Did you just think of the Path of Dispassion?" Jiang Feng asked.

Lu Yin nodded, which caused the other man to shake his head. "At first, I had the same thought, only to later realize that he has poured all of his emotions into this megaverse, into what he recognizes as human civilization.

"He severed all emotion and all bonds so that he would not be burdened by anything. He did this to leave himself with no weakness. He always watches over the entire megaverse, and to do that, he sacrificed everything he is and has.

"Much like Qing Cao, this man is unwilling to take any risks. He would rather see generation after generation of people fight and kill their mortal enemies rather than personally take action and wipe them out, because he fears that, if he makes a move, he will attract some being that he cannot withstand and bring about this megaverse’s destruction. This is my conclusion after ten years of observation.

"Chen Jian is a purer guardian than Qing Cao. He has cut off his own weaknesses, and he does not look at the gains and losses of individuals, or even of groups. Everything is focused solely on the continuation of this civilization. To him, nothing else matters..."

On the far side of the Shattered Dipper from where the two men sat, there was a floating mountain range. It was barren and lifeless, without even a blade of grass growing on it. There was only one person and one house there. This was where Chen Jian resided.

He stood with his hands clasped behind his back as he looked at the many memorial tablets inside the house. They belonged to his family and his beloved, people that he had once cared for the most. But now, they had all turned to dust.

He had not stopped anyone from leaving and had instead sealed off his own heart and cut away all of his emotions. Only a heart that remained forever calm could protect this civilization.

Even though he had sealed away his emotions, he remained human. The Immortal was not truly emotionless. The thing he enjoyed most each day was standing here and staring at these memorial tablets, acting as if the people themselves were still present.

Without speaking a single word, he simply stared at them. That was enough.

To the north of the Starfall Megaverse, a vast number of all kinds of creatures poured out of the mountains. They were confronted by countless human cultivators, all of whom raised their fists and attacked. Kill, kill, kill...

The earth in that area was stained red, and an endless stream of cultivators rushed over from every direction. It was a perfectly normal scene; in the history of the Starfall Megaverse, this battlefield held a unique place because it had never once seen peace.

Countless people had begged Chen Jian to take action and destroy their mortal enemies with his strength as an Immortal, but Chen Jian had never taken action. Instead, he had allowed the war to drag on for countless years.

Inside the interstellar city, Lu Yin listened on in silence. Chen Jian was the same kind of person as Qing Cao. It was no wonder why Uncle Jiang was unsure whether the man should be taken back to the Trio. If there were more people like Qing Cao, then once humanity encountered some danger that they believed impossible to resist, they would very likely be the first to betray their own civilization. The most terrifying part was that such people would not even see their actions as a betrayal, as it was justified in the name of continuing human civilization. That kind of self-justification was enough to make such people go even further.

It was such justifications that had led to the death of Mi Jin.

When compared to Qing Cao, Chen Jian had taken things even further, and he was even more cautious.

Lu Yin stared into the depths of space. His eyes were capable of sweeping across the entire Starfall Megaverse. He saw one person after another cultivating, he saw the perpetual battlefield, and he also saw the mortal enemies of the Starfall Megaverse.

Everyone had their own way of protecting what was dear to them. Qing Cao protected through betrayal. Green Lotus and the others protected through confrontation. The ancestor of the Mountain Sword Sect had not dared to take any risks, and he had simply left his native megaverse to search for a distant land.

Chen Jian did not have any thoughts of gambling. He accepted every possibility simply to keep the current situation from changing. He did not want to accept even the slightest change.

In that regard, he was the exact opposite of Lu Yin, who actively accepted change, came to understand change, and ultimately adapted to change.

It was impossible to say who was right and who was wrong. Perhaps if Lu Yin’s luck had been a little worse in the past, the Tianyuan might already be gone.

Jiang Feng said nothing more. He had thought about this for years, yet he had not been able to decide whether to invite Chen to the Trio. The man was an uncertain factor. If he joined, he might become a weakness for the Trio.

If Qing Cao had not been involved in matters long ago, Mi Jin would not have died so easily. Adding additional Immortals to the human civilization was not wrong, but this particular Immortal was a somewhat unstable factor.

Both Lu Yin and Jiang Feng were certain that if Chen Jian saw Obscura easily destroy a civilization with ten Immortals, he would go even further than Qing Cao had.

Lu Yin teleported away, taking Jiang Feng to the ancient battlefield. "That is one of Obscura’s gates."

Jiang Feng nodded. "Chen Jian recognizes Obscura’s gate. He knows of Obscura, which is why he does not dare act, and instead allows this war to continue. But from beginning to end, no one from Obscura has ever appeared. It has always only been just these creatures.

"To be honest, the man is admirable while also pitiful."

"Wait for me a moment." Lu Yin teleported away from the Starfall Megaverse. He returned to the Spirit Nidus and grabbed Qing Cao.