Star Odyssey

Chapter 945: Breakthrough

People always had the mentality that, the more difficult something was to obtain, the more precious it was. 

Lan Si was no different. He had waited outside this large door for two months, even delaying his own cultivation in the process. This was a surprising boon for Lu Yin!

Elder Tie walked over to Lan Si, and the old man shook his head. “He still doesn’t want to meet you.” 

Lan Si’s expression turned grim. He had asked Elder Tie to look for Elder Daggs, as he had hoped to meet with Yuan Shi and make a request of him. However, Yuan Shi had no interest in meeting with the Arbiter. 

The Ten Arbiters enjoyed a high position among the younger generation, but their influence could, at best, affect Enlighters whose power levels were around 200,000. Yuan Shi, in comparison, was a powerhouse whose power level was close to a million. If not for Lan Si’s status as an Arbiter under the Hall of Honor, the youth would not have even qualified to ask to meet with Yuan Shi. 

“Did you tell him that the meeting won’t be about the earlier incident?” Lan Si asked in a low voice. This news had put him in a bad mood. 

In the past, he had requested to meet Yuan Shi over the Honored Chosen position, but Yuan Shi had already given that seat to Lu Yin. This was also why Lan Si had challenged Lu Yin to a duel. However, the Arbiter wanted to meet with Yuan Shi regarding another problem at this time.  

Elder Tie answered, “I made sure to pass that message along, but Yuan Shi refuses to meet with anyone.”

Lan Si felt helpless. He wanted to meet Yuan Shi to ask about a futon. The Ten Arbiters had each been given a futon for them to enter the ruins of the Fifth Mainland’s Daosource Sect. This was one of the main benefits that the Ten Arbiters enjoyed, as it gave them the chance to search for ancient inheritances, and the ruins were similar to the Neoverse’s Astral Tower.  

There was always an intense competition for the opportunity to visit the Astral Tower while they similarly had to compete with the youths of the Sixth Mainland in the Daosource Sect’s ruins, which made things relatively fair. 

However, Lan Si had… lost his futon. 

Chills ran down Lan Si’s spine whenever he thought of this. The futon had been his most precious possession, and it was an inheritance that had to be left for his successor. However, he had somehow lost it. He had thoroughly searched through his cosmic ring, but he still had not been able to find it. 

He did not even know when it had disappeared, as it had randomly disappeared. He had not yet dared to tell anyone about this, even after several years. 

Lan Si actually suspected that some powerhouse must have knocked him unconscious and then used his blood to steal the futon. Otherwise, how else could the futon have simply disappeared from inside his cosmic ring? 

Who could steal something from within a cosmic ring? That was impossible.

Lan Si did not believe that the Human Domain only had ten futons, and he wanted to ask Yuan Shi if he had an extra futon. Even if Lan Si could only borrow it for a period of time, he still wanted to return to the ruins of the Daosource Sect and look for inheritances while the war was raging in the Innerverse.

However, Lan Si was not even allowed to meet Yuan Shi at this time.

The Arbiter was still clueless as to how he had lost his futon. It was truly a mystery.

Meanwhile, behind the door, the pile of star essence had been nearly exhausted. Lu Yin had wanted to complete five cultivation cycles, which would take up around 300,000 star essence. As such, he had dumped nearly 400,000 star essence on the floor, and some of it had been vaporized by the intense heat while the rest had been absorbed by Lu Yin, going towards his fifth cycle. 

As the pile of star essence fully disappeared, Lu Yin’s body released a cracking sound. His eyes slowly opened as he let out a breath of air so hot that the space in front of him distorted. 

He had completed his fifth cultivation cycle; he was now a Cruiser. 

Lu Yin slowly raised a hand. His physical body had improved, and although the improvement was not as drastic as the one he had received within the space with the golden sea, it was still an upgrade. In fact, even his five senses had become more sensitive. 

Before he reached the Cruiser realm, he had been able to fight against peak Hunters, and with his secret technique and Truesight, Enlighters with power levels of around 200,000. Thus, at this moment, Lu Yin was confident that he could battle with Enlighters with a power level of more than 200,000. 

At this time, Lu Yin felt that his strength had likely surpassed both Aden and Cai Jianqiang’s. 

Aden had an impenetrable defence, and the combination of his Thunder Mountain Breach and his nine lined battle force allowed him to fight against Enlighters. 

On the other hand, Cai Jianqiang possessed a peerlessly aggressive attack and was invincible within his generation. However, there hadn’t been any Arbiters in his generation, and he had basically been the strongest youth in the Innerverse during his time. His status had been comparable to the Ten Arbiters of the current era, but the times had changed. 

Zi Rong had also been peerless during his youth, but he had still lost to the Ten Arbiters.

The Ten Arbiters were extremely powerful, but Lu Yin had already broken some of the Ten Arbiters’ records. His talent was definitely comparable to the Ten Arbiters, but they were already able to easily defeat Enlighters, which showed just how strong they were. 

The Ten Arbiters symbolized the zeitgeist of the current era. Lu Yin was slowly approaching their level, and he had gotten very close to them now. However, Lu Yin was aware that while he was closing the gap between him and Lan Si, it still was not time for their confrontation. Also, Lu Yin still was not fully confident in being able to defeat Lan Si, as Lan Si was also improving during this time. The other Ten Arbiters were also constantly making great improvements, so he had to constantly strive to strengthen himself even more. 

He suddenly realized that he had been cultivating for ten years, which meant that some of the Ten Arbiters must be nearly forty years old! Once they exceeded forty years of age, they would no longer be considered a part of the younger generation. At that point, they would have to give up their positions and leave empty seats among the Ten Arbiters. 

Lu Yin wondered how old Lan Si was.

Despite that, Lu Yin did not want to wait for the Arbiters to abdicate their positions. He preferred to chase after them, particularly the mastermind behind the loss of those seventy two lives. Lu Yin would definitely eliminate that person himself.

The lines of heat on his body soon felt like nothing. No matter how high the temperature became, the heat would eventually dissipate as time passed. 

After such a long period of cultivation, most of the high temperature sources in the Outerverse had to have been exhausted! 

Lu Yin thought that it was time to leave; the Outerverse had a limited amount of resources.

If he was in the Innerverse, then there would likely be numerous Envoy realm powerhouses, and their flames might allow him to train for an entire year. That amount of time might even be enough for him to cultivate to the Hunter realm.

However, cultivating too fast was not a good thing, as one’s body needed to steadily adjust to the increase in star energy, and that required time. 

Becoming a Cruiser was just a small milestone, and the upgrade was negligible. Only by breaking into the Hunter realm would Lu Yin experience a true upgrade in realm. 

He would have to use his formcast model at that time. Lu Yin’s expression turned grim when that thought came up; when he attempted to reach the Hunter realm, he would have to deal with the seal restricting his cultivation that had appeared in the past. 

After finishing his thoughts, Lu Yin stood up and stretched his body. 

He then looked at the door. There were still many people waiting outside, and if he opened the door, then they would never leave. 

He did not want anyone to see him opening the door, as if that happened, he would never be able to use this method again in the future. 

Thus, Lu Yin raised his hand and prepared to use his die. He was going to upgrade some items so that he could reward these people for their efforts. 

He carefully placed his cosmic ring aside and then tapped the die. It slowly spun around before finally landing on Gift Copy. Lu Yin was annoyed at this outcome, as there were many people near him, including even Arbiter Lan Si, but he was unable to go out. 

Hang on. He suddenly thought of an important detail: did Lan Si even have an innate gift?

People were born with innate gifts, but a person would only realize whether or not they possessed an innate gift after they began cultivating. He had always seen Lan Si fight with the Overlaying Stacks Path, but had never seen the Arbiter use an innate gift. Was it possible that Lan Si did not have an innate gift? 

Lu Yin didn’t know for sure, but he had assumed that all of the Ten Arbiters had an innate gift. It was possible for one to be giftless, but the odds were miniscule.

So if Lan Si did have an innate gift, then what was it? 

Lu Yin then recalled what he had read about Lan Si in the information that he had received from Zi Xianxian and the Zi family; Lan Si was working on a battle technique. Lu Yin had been intrigued by that mention of an unknown battle technique, and he suddenly realized that he had forgotten about the Arbiter’s innate gift. 

The importance of an innate gift was monumental, as Lu Yin would not have been able to achieve everything that he had without his die. Many experts in the universe similarly relied on their innate gifts, and it was typically their true trump card. 

Lu Yin sighed, as he had almost forgotten about this excruciatingly important detail, which would have been a fatal mistake. Lan Si was very secretive and had never exposed his innate gift, but that did not mean that the Arbiter did not have one. 

Lu Yin could not afford to be too arrogant since he did not know what the Arbiter’s trump card was. Had White Knight truly used her full power during her battle against Blood Looney? Lu Yin did not know. Perhaps she had, but perhaps she had not. 

Lu Yin felt that he should further delay his battle with Lan Si just to play it safe. 

If Lan Si was willing to let Lu Yin use his various external items, then Lu Yin felt that he was practically guaranteed to defeat the Arbiter right away. Lu Yin did not believe that anyone could defeat him if it was a contest of comparing external items. Just the walnut that he had received from Yuan Shi was able to instantly kill an Envoy. 

Lu Yin continued rolling his die. 

His second roll was Timestop.

Lu Yin quickly grabbed his cosmic ring and entered the Timestop Space.

Lu Yin added six months to the timer, but that only cost him about 400 star essence.

He wanted to get accustomed to his increased strength during these six months, practice his old battle techniques, and also recite the Stonewall Scriptures. There were so many things that he wanted to do. 

…

In a flash, Lu Yin returned to the building. Only a second had passed in the outside world, but he had stayed in the Timestop Space for half a year.

Staying in that place any longer would not allow him to improve much further, so he had chosen to return. 

He then continued rolling his die.

This time, it landed on Enhance.

He was not overly concerned about whether he could roll Enhance this time around, as he could simply leave some random items behind if he didn’t. However, the people outside were quite lucky that he had. 

Lu Yin immediately thought of his cosmic ring.

He had wanted to upgrade his cosmic ring back on Zenyu Star, but he had ended up Pilfering a piece of paper which had led to him recovering a strange memory that made nostalgic. That had ended up delaying his attempt to upgrade his cosmic ring until this moment. 

Lu Yin placed his cosmic ring on the light screen, but nothing happened.

Lu Yin took out all of the items that he had stored in the cosmic ring, but still, nothing happened.

After thinking about it, he realized that it was probably related to space.

One could not create space from nothing, and the space within a cosmic ring would have to be enlarged when the ring was upgraded. However, where would that extra space come from? It could not appear from nothing. 

It was a shame that he could not upgrade a cosmic ring, as that would have been a truly lucrative business. 

Since he was unable to upgrade his ring, Lu Yin browsed through the random items that he had returned to his cosmic ring, and he finally decided to upgrade some ancient pills. 

He had obtained twelve pills previously, and he had upgraded three of them already. Each pill had cost him 20,000 star essence to upgrade, and he still had two of the upgraded pills. 

His decision made, Lu Yin upgraded the remaining nine, using 180,000 star essence in total. He also upgraded three of the pills to the point where the rune lines matched a power level of about 300,000, which meant that they would be able to heal the injuries of an Enlighter with a power level of around 300,000. After he finished, he placed one of the pills in front of the statue, as that would be these people’s reward. 

He did not want to give them any more of the pills.

That pill had cost him 50,000 star essence to upgrade, which was a fairly large amount.

Lu Yin paused and then realized that a single pill would be too boring. Next, he took out a drop of gemspring water and placed it next to the pill. He was about to leave, but then realized that he really could not be stingy in this situation. Otherwise, no one would be excited to discover ruins in the future. He had no desire to extinguish these people’s passion. 

Finally, Lu Yin gritted his teeth and scattered 10,000 star essence on the floor of the building.

How many people could throw away 10,000 star essence like he had just done? Even if the Mavis Bank scattered money about, they only ever scattered universal currency. 10,000 star essence was the equivalent of one billion star crystals. Just how much universal currency was that? He couldn’t even calculate the number, and Lu Yin felt that he was being extremely generous.