Star Odyssey

Chapter 802: Ce Secret Art

Mister Mu had killed the elite powerhouse from the Specter Clan without even moving. 

The present Enlighters were all shocked to their core. Just what was going on today? Experts were showing up one after another, each more powerful than the next.  

Mister Mu waved a hand, causing Yuehua Mavis and the others to fall unconscious, leaving Lu Yin as the only person awake. 

Lu Yin practically wanted to worship his master. “Master, you came at the perfect moment!”

Mister Mu calmly answered, “Blackless God should have only had one strand of spiritual force in the Outerverse. Now that it’s been destroyed, you probably won’t encounter him again.”

What was Mister Mu saying? Was he not going to give him another jade talisman? Lu Yin started to grow anxious. “Master, the Neohuman Alliance is planning something big. There are seven Skygods in total, so there might still be another one in the Outerverse.” 

Mister Mu replied, “The Outerverse is not significant enough to warrant the personal attention of any of the seven Skygods, though there might be some of their other elites lying around.” He then passed another jade talisman over to Lu Yin. “You’re not allowed to use this unless there is an urgent need. Otherwise, I’ll disown you as my disciple.” 

Lu Yin was extremely grateful. “Thank you, Master.”

Mister Mu glanced at the people who were now lying on the floor, and his gaze also lingered on Zhu Tiezhu’s corpse for a moment. “I didn’t expect to see someone from the Ce family in this place.”1

Lu Yin was confused. “The Ce family?”

“The Ce family of the Court of Seven Names,” Mister Mu explained.

Lu Yin finally remembered now. The Ce family was a part of the Seven Courts. Upon realizing this, Lu Yin looked down at Zhu Tiezhu in shock. “He’s from the Ce family of the Seven Courts?”

Mister Mu looked back at Lu Yin. “I previously said that I had been planning on giving you an opportunity, but of your own volition, you gave that opportunity to that girl. Today, I can give you another opportunity, but you’ll have to grasp this one with your own ability. It will be up to your own comprehension as to whether or not you are able to receive it.”

He lifted a hand, causing Zhu Tiezhu’s body to float off of the floor. A droplet of blood emerged from the dead man’s forehead that Mister Mu then tossed towards Lu Yin, only for it to enter Lu Yin’s body. “This is the Ce family’s blood. I can help you traverse the rivers of time to watch the chess match.” 

Lu Yin’s eyes glazed over as his sight went dark. Moments later, he appeared in an enclosed space completely devoid of light. The only visible area was a corner illuminated by a faint beam of moonlight. Within the moonlight, he could see an ancient chessboard. He instinctively walked up to it and carefully examined it. He didn’t know how to play chess, but at that moment, he felt as though he had been integrated into the chessboard. 

If someone could see Lu Yin at this moment, they would instantly notice that he was no longer Lu Yin, but rather Zhu Tiezhu. His appearance had completely changed into Zhu Tiezhu’s. 

The chessboard was ancient, and the chess pieces on the board were all covered in dust.

Lu Yin stared at the board in a daze as scenes of chess games started to whirl through his mind. He saw people laughing, strategizing, and feeling regret. The matches that he saw were very exciting, and he vicariously experienced the tumultuous vicissitudes even though he couldn’t understand the games themselves. 

Every chess piece was a star while the chessboard was the universe. He was on the chessboard, and he was also in the universe. 

Was he a chess piece or a player? Was he being manipulated, or was he manipulating others? Lu Yin lost his sense of self and felt as if he had become a chess piece but also a laughing player at the same time. 

“Hahahaha, I, Ce Wangtian, have finally created a secret technique: Astral Chessboard. After playing chess for decades. I’m the only person in the universe who can take back a move! Nobody can rewind their life, but if I want to do so, then only I can take back my move! Ce Secret Art: Astral Chessboard.” 

A chess piece landed on the chessboard with a bang. The sudden change dispersed the darkness, and Lu Yin was jolted back to reality. His vision was no longer filled with scenes of the ancient chessboard, as he was back in Millions City, and Mister Mu was standing in front of him. 

Lu Yin was covered in a cold sweat when he recalled what he had just seen. Ce Wangtian? Taking back his move? The Ce Secret Art: Astral Chessboard? That must be the Ce family’s secret technique! 

“How was it?” Mister Mu asked calmly. 

Lu Yin hesitantly answered, “Master, I’m not sure whether or not I understood what I saw.”

Mister Mu nodded. “That’ll be up to fate. But even if you don’t understand it, it was still an experience.” 

Lu Yin still wasn’t sure whether or not he had comprehended what he had just witnessed. The Ce Secret Art was very different from the Yu Secret Art. He was able to practice the Yu Secret Art, but this Ce Secret Art felt more like a mindset, and it seemed to be some sort of inheritance left behind by Ce Wangtian through the chessboard. “Master, where is that chessboard?” 

He wanted to experience what he had seen again, as it would be a waste if he couldn’t comprehend the Ce Secret Art. Although he didn’t even know what the Ce Secret Art’s true power was, the speech he had heard from Ce Wangtian had inspired him. If one could take back a move, then that implied having the power to turn back time and retrying an event that had already occurred. Ce Wangtian had managed to do so, and he was the only person who had succeeded in doing so. 

Could the Ce Secret Art help Lu Yin achieve that as well?

He really wanted to learn this Ce Secret Art. 

“That chessboard is an ancient inheritance of the Ce family from the Court of Seven Names, and even the true heirs of the Ce family only ever have one chance to see it in their entire lifetime. This person never visited that place, and I only helped you get in by using his blood. You can only go there again if the Ce family agrees to it,” Mister Mu explained. 

Lu Yin anxiously asked, “Master, the son and grandchildren of this man are just outside of here, so can their blood take me back to that place?” 

Mister Mu looked at Lu Yin with a complicated expression. “Yes, but they will have to die to do so.” 

Lu Yin smiled awkwardly. “Never mind then.”

He had no enmity with the Zhu family, and he didn’t want to kill any of them. Mister Mu would probably disown him as a disciple if he truly asked him to kill Zhu San so that he could take another look at the chessboard. 

“Oh, right. Master, what should we do with the rest of them?” Lu Yin asked. 

Mister Mu suddenly disappeared as Lu Yin heard him say, “Some parts of their memory have been removed.” 

Lu Yin sighed in relief, as that was a good thing. He didn’t want them to remember that he had saved them from the cannon’s energy blast. Wait a second, since their memories had been removed, then did that mean that their cosmic rings now belonged to him? 

Lu Yin blinked and rubbed his chin in consideration. Would it be too despicable for him to simply keep them? In the end, he felt bad about it as he had already taken all of these people’s star essence, so he should probably return their cosmic rings. 

Lu Yin returned everyone’s rings to them, except for Sall Phoenix’s. He was no saint, and Sall Phoenix was his enemy. Thus, Lu Yin felt that he was already being kind by not killing the man.

Actually, should he kill him? Lu Yin was torn. 

Suddenly, he thought of something and unleashed his domain. He quickly found Qiong Xi’er and Zhu San nearby, and they had both fallen unconscious as well. Mister Mu had not left anyone awake. However, Qiong Xi’er should have been under that Specter Clan expert’s control. 

Lu Yin collected a bit of Qiong Xi’er’s blood for safekeeping as he had heard that Millions City was controlled by the Qiong family’s blood. If that was the case, then he should probably prepare a backup plan. As for Zhu San, Lu Yin had already realized that the young heir wasn’t a normal person back when they first met, though he had never expected this family to be part of the Court of Seven Names. 

Lu Yin had already met people from the Yōu, Yu, Ce, and Ku families of the Court of Seven Names. There were now only three families that he had never encountered. 

The incidents underground hadn’t affected the situation on the surface at all.

Wei Rong was still cooperating with many others to attack the barrier that had formed around Millions City. Hoffman had also regained consciousness, though he was now planning to escape instead of making his way underground.

When he had first regained consciousness, he had wanted to kill the corpse king. However, he wasn’t able to kill the corpse king no matter how fiercely he attacked. The Grey Eyes Transformation meant that the corpse king’s power had increased by tenfold, and not even Hoffman was able to defeat this transformed corpse king. Thus, the only thing he wanted to do at this point was to leave. 

The corpse king roared, and the Lotus Strike trapping it started cracking. It didn’t take long for it to completely shatter. 

Hoffman and countless other cultivators were all still attacking the barrier covering the city. But when the corpse king bellowed, its roar shook Millions City to its core.

Hoffman’s expression changed, and he turned to look at the ground. The corpse king glared at him in the same moment that he looked down before leaping into the sky. Black lightning then descended upon the city. 

Millions City fell into darkness once again as black lightning streaked across the sky, injuring numerous cultivators. 

Starfox and the others quickly dropped to the ground. 

Qiong Shanhai spat out a mouthful of blood, as his injuries had only started slowly recovering just now. He ignored the corpse king’s attack and ran towards the underground entrance, as that was the most important location to him at this moment. 

The corpse king used his black lightning to attack everyone in the sky as he dove towards Hoffman. 

Hoffman’s body suddenly transformed into a humanoid beast that was ten meters tall before he turned to clash with the approaching corpse king. 

This was Hoffman’s innate gift: Tyrant Bluster. 

A shockwave tore through the sky, looking like a black screen that covered all of Millions City, which caused many to scream in terror. 

Even though Hoffman had activated his innate gift and transformed, he still couldn’t match the corpse king’s raw power. His claw attack was pierced through, and the corpse king suddenly appeared above Hoffman’s head. The black lightning struck Hoffman head on, and the man screamed in pain as he frantically pushed the corpse king away. He then clenched his clawed fingers and rushed at the corpse king. This time, he used his Overlaying Stacks technique, which reverberated throughout all of Millions City. 

In response, the corpse king gathered all of the surrounding lightning and unleashed it all in one powerful attack. 

Many people in Millions City died from internal bleeding caused by the aftershocks of the two powerhouses’ clash in the sky, and even Wei Rong was bleeding from his mouth. He looked up in shock and saw that the Tyrant Bluster’s arm had been broken. The corpse king then flew down in front of the Tryant Bluster and another round of black lightning sent the Tyrant Bluster tumbling to the ground, where it transformed back to Hoffman’s original appearance. His head was completely charred, and his breathing had also stopped. The corpse king’s black lightning had seared the man’s brain, instantly killing him. 

The corpse king had already possessed a higher power level than Hoffman, and after its Grey Eyes Transformation, there was nobody among the gathered Enlighters who could defeat the transformed corpse king aside from Yuehua Mavis. 

Qiong Shanhai managed to find everyone who had gone underground, and he also saw Hoffman’s death on a screen. He immediately removed the protective barrier surrounding Millions City. 

The corpse king leaped into the sky and disappeared. 

Qiong Shanhai was relieved. When he glanced at the monitors again, he saw that everyone was unconscious. So, he immediately moved to wake Qiong Xi’er up and ask her what had happened.

However, Qiong Xi’er could only remember running into the Specter Clan expert and pretending to be under his control, but she didn’t remember anything else after that. 

She had forgotten almost ten minutes worth of memories, which corresponded to the time between when the cannon had been activated and when Mister Mu had left. Everyone’s memory of this period of time had been removed, with the sole exception of Lu Yin. 

Lu Yin pretended to be unconscious like the others, and he was soon “awakened” by Yan Yan.

The rest of the people slowly woke up as well, but nobody could remember anything that had happened during those ten minutes. 

Everyone was stunned to discover this, as it wasn’t easy to remove the memories of cultivators. Furthermore, Yuehu Mavis was also affected; the Mavis clan members were especially protective of their memories, but her memories had still been altered. This was proof that someone very powerful had come. 

Finally, both Zhu Tiezhu and the expert from the Specter Clan were found dead. Zhu Tiezhu’s blood had even been completely drained of all blood, which was very disturbing. 

Everyone present immediately contacted the major forces supporting them before trying to confirm their memories of what had happened with each other. 

1 Ce means strategy in Chinese. Also, many of the names in this story have important meanings to them. Please comment if you would like us to keep sharing the meanings or not.