Star Odyssey

Chapter 4427: The Ferocious Fish

The figure of white magma bulged with protrusions at the places where it was pierced by the needles until it looked like a hedgehog. Even so, none of the needles could penetrate it. The next moment, those needles were all repelled and scattered in random directions.

Crystal Fall was also completely ineffective.

Next, light fell as the anti-radiance weapon was used.

Also ineffective.

The king vessel unleashed various attacks, some of which were not even qualified to use against an Immortal, yet they were still deployed. There was no other choice, as they were attempting to find some sort of weakness in the white magma.

However, the white magma seemed to have no weaknesses. No matter how it was attacked, it could not be broken, torn apart, repelled, or killed.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. He recalled a scene that he had witnessed when examining the past of the Immortal from the Seal-Eater Megaverse with karma. Another Immortal from that megaverse had been enveloped by this white magma, and they had been completely unable to escape from it. In terms of defense, this white magma was far more formidable than it initially appeared, and it could also move exceptionally fast. It regarded all living creatures as prey to be captured.

Just what exactly was this thing?

In the course of the pursuit, a megaverse appeared in Lu Yin’s range of sight. The oval light directly entered that megaverse, passing through it and exiting, utterly unconcerned about the potential destruction that doing so might cause to that megaverse.

Suddenly, the white magma vanished.

Lu Yin’s eye twitched. This was impossible. He had been watching the white magma the entire time, so it could not disappear without teleporting.

The next instant, the white magma reappeared, and it was unexpectedly on the opposite side of the megaverse, already ahead of the oval light. No one had expected it to abruptly appear. Its speed was indistinguishable from teleportation.

Lu Yin’s pupils flickered as he stared intently at the scene. How was that possible? Only the Plume Immortals and the Lu family should possess the ability to teleport, so how could this white magma have the same ability?

And if it was not teleportation, then what explanation was there for what he had just witnessed?

Lu Feiyang was similarly stunned. “Ancestor, this...?”

Lu Yin frowned. It seemed that he would have to deal with this white magma.

As the two continued to watch, alarms continuously blared within the king vessel. The sudden appearance of the white magma in front of the vessel was completely unexpected. Crystal Fall was immediately fired, but aside from turning the white magma into a spikey hedgehog again, it had no other effect.

In the end, the white magma passed through all of the attacks and reached the oval light. It attached itself to the light, expanded, and then began to devour the vessel.

The light dimmed as the king vessel was covered in white magma, and the cosmos seemed to instantly grow darker.

It was over.

Lu Feiyang peered into the distance. The vessel from the technological civilization was done for.

He could not help but glance over at Lu Yin. What kind of monster was this white magma? It looked extremely difficult to deal with. Could this ancestor of the Lu family handle it?

Lu Yin remained calm as he quietly observed. Although the white magma had withstood attacks like Cosmic Shear, that did not necessarily mean that it was going to win. Some creatures were much more specialized in offense or defense, like Second Furball. If Lu Yin remembered correctly, then one of the two Immortals from the Seal-Eater Megaverse had managed to escape from this white magma.

Those two Immortals had possessed the most ordinary strength that Lu Yin had seem among Immortals, and yet one had still managed to escape. That suggested that this white magma’s offensive power might not be particularly impressive.

The cosmos grew dim as the oval light was obscured. However, its trajectory remained unchanged. The vessel continued along its predetermined path, only at a reduced speed.

Inside the king vessel, the alarms rang in the ears of all of the occupants, just like when Lu Yin had previously attacked while undergoing a tri-colored divine energy transformation.

“How long can our defenses hold?” the prince asked.

“Reporting to Your Highness, based on this creature’s offensive power, they can hold for a long time.”

“Specifically how long?”

“As long as the strength of its attacks do not increase, it will theoretically be enough for us to return to the empire.”

The prince was astonished. They had already fallen into despair. Although they would not die, this king vessel would be destroyed, which would be a massive loss to the empire. Unexpectedly, this white magma was not very strong offensively. Everyone had assumed that, since it was able to withstand Cosmic Shear and other similarly powerful attacks, it should also be able to overwhelm the king vessel’s defenses, but that did not seem to be the case.

“Of course, actually returning to the empire is still a distant prospect. This creature is dragging us in a specific direction, but as long as we have sufficient resources, we can continue along our route. However, once our resources are exhausted, we can only be dragged away by this thing.”

“Try to communicate with it.”

“Understood.”

A voice was transmitted from the king vessel as they attempted to communicate with the white magma, but there was no response at all. The prince did not give up. Given their current circumstances, communication was the only remaining option. Otherwise, their resources would certainly be exhausted before they were able to return to the empire, and they would be truly doomed as soon as that happened.

Their only remaining idea was to contact the empire and request support.

The king vessel could not harm the white magma, so even if the empire sent reinforcements, it would be useless unless an imperial vessel was deployed. The importance of an imperial vessel far exceeded that of a king vessel. The empire would rather abandon the latter than risk the former.

While the technological civilization attempted to communicate with the white magma, Lu Yin continued watching. After some time, the king vessel slowly moved away from the megaverse.

Lu Yin brought the Immortal stone monster and Lu Feiyang along, teleporting into that megaverse to investigate it. He wanted to know how the white magma had managed to instantly move from one side of the megaverse to the other. It had not done something as simple as cross through the megavere, as it had traveled beyond that distance, covering a distance equal to several years’ travel for an average Immortal. That was not at all a simple achievement.

The megaverse’s civilization was quite ordinary, and it had not even developed cultivation yet. The creatures lived purely by instinct.

After observing for some time, Lu Yin finally understood; it was a branch of the River of Aeons.

The white magma’s sudden movement was explained by a branch of the River of Aeons. The thing had not moved through the Aevum Inch; rather, it had instead moved along the megaverse’s branch of the River of Aeons, using the flow of time to instantly shift from one end of the megaverse to the other. As long as it was within the area covered by that particular branch, it was possible for the white magma to move freely.

This was not the power of time but the power of space. The thing had used space to anchor time. This was somewhat reminiscent of how Lu Yin used space to chase time, except that one emphasized spatial movement while the other emphasized the flow of time.

Having understood this, Lu Yin let out a breath of relief. As long as the white magma could not teleport, it was fine.

Even so, this method of movement was still quite formidable. Obscura’s White was able to open gates that used the River of Aeons’ main stream. Could this white magma’s ability to move along the river’s branches be related?

Obscura’s White and white magma... While the strength of the two was certainly incomparable, there might be some connection between them.

Lu Yin peered into the distance, his curiosity deepening.

As time rolled on, he continued to pursue the technological civilization’s vessel and the white magma. The speed of the two grew incredibly slow as both sides pulled against each other, but ultimately, the vessel could not outlast the white magma, as the vessel had limited resources.

What happened next depended on what sort of methods they had to enable them to escape from the white magma.

Suddenly, the entangled pair changed direction and started moving elsewhere. They actually shifted to follow the exact direction that the white magma had been pulling in.

Lu Yin was surprised. What did this sudden change mean? Had the technological civilization given up so quickly? Could they have run out of resources?

With the oval light no longer resisting, the white magma moved with impressive speed, shooting in the direction it had intended to go.

“Ancestor, the technological civilization lost,” Lu Feiyang observed.

The stone monster was unable to see anything, given their distance from the white magma and the vessel. Lu Yin did not want to be detected by the white magma.

Lu Yin watched the two that were still entangled. Had they lost? That was impossible. He had not forgotten how a smaller oval light had once managed to fire off multiple rounds of Cosmic Shear. How many times had this vessel used that attack so far? There was no way that the vessel had already run out of resources. If they had resisted the white magma for hundreds or thousands of years, he might believe that to be the case, but given the brief amount of time that had passed, absolutely not.

What exactly was this technological vessel trying to do? Lu Yin continued his pursuit.

Inside the king vessel, the prince stared at a display. “Are you certain?”

“Reporting to Your Highness, the king vessel’s analysis is absolutely certain. The fish’s trajectory and speed place it at this exact location right now.”

“The direction that this white creature is moving in deviates from the direction that the fish is taking.”

“That deviation is where we must intervene. The king vessel will calculate the coordinates precisely to ensure that we move in the fish’s direction.”

“Calculate the time of encounter.”

“Calculation complete.”

“Good. I want to see which is stronger: this white creature or that fish.”

“Your Highness is wise. At this point, the worst outcome would be mutual destruction.”

Another half a year passed quickly. Lu Feiyang continued to stare into the distance and quietly said, “Ancestor, this technological civilization won’t just be dragged away by the white magma like this, will it?”

Lu Yin clasped his hands behind his back and calmly replied, “Not necessarily. They must have some method that they are relying on. We just don’t know what it is yet. Keep watching. If anything unusual happens, contact me.”

He did not know how long this situation would last, so it was better to leave Lu Feiyang to monitor things alone. Lu Yin had his own matters to tend to.

However, he would not return to Manifest City. Entering and exiting that place took time, which could cause delays. He needed to return to the Trio to oversee matters there.

After teleporting back to the Trio, Lu Yin continued building the wall in his heart. In fact, staying within Manifest City and observing every individual there with Willforce also helped to build that wall, but the speed was relatively slow due to the limited scope of Manifest City. Even with differing experiences, people’s understanding in that place remained limited. It could not compare to the vastness of the Trio.

Moreover, Lu Yin still needed to deduce more layers of the Mirrorlight Art, which required him to enter the Mirari Realm. Doing that in any other place would consume far too much time.

He assumed that things would remain stable for a long time, but unexpectedly, after a little more than a year, Lu Feiyang came to find him.

Lu Yin and Lu Feiyang teleported repeatedly until they saw the technological civilization’s king vessel and the white magma, still entangled. Moving towards them from even farther away was an incomparably ferocious... fish.

Lu Yin was surprised. An Immortal?

A bit of fear entered Lu Feiyang’s voice. “Several months ago, the vessel suddenly started to exert a bit of force, struggling against the white magma’s pull to shift their direction. At that time, I felt that something was wrong. Since they were clearly capable of still resisting, why wait so long to act?

“So I deliberately looked in the new direction that they were heading in and happened to spot that fish. Ancestor, that is an Immortal, right?”

Lu Yin nodded. “It is indeed an Immortal.”

Although the fish was large, given the vastness of the Aevum Inch, it was still insignificant. Even with repeated use of the Mirrorlight Art, Lu Yin might not have noticed it. It could only be said that Lu Feiyang had been lucky to spot the creature before it encountered the two entangled entities. The fish itself had not yet noticed the white magma and the king vessel.

However, the fish had certainly been detected by the technological civilization, especially when considering the earlier change in direction.

So this was it. The technological civilization had discovered the fish much earlier, and it was the reason why they had changed directions. If not for that, the vessel would have never encountered the white magma. Now, they were drawing the white magma over in order to have it face the fish.

In the resulting three-way contest, only one would ultimately remain.

“Feiyang, well done,” Lu Yin praised.

The younger man grew excited and was greatly encouraged. “Thank you for your praise, Ancestor.”

Lu Yin patted his shoulder, his eyes returning to the two that were fighting each other before looking back at the fish.

It would not be long before the three parties met. Interesting.