Star Odyssey

Chapter 2701: Monster

Before this, Lu Yin had never considered eventually conquering the Sixth Mainland, but what he heard from Jiang Qingyue and Dragonturtle, and especially what they had passed on from Jiang Qingyue's father, had reminded Lu Yin of something. "Yes. I’m not afraid to look ahead, and there’s no need for me to lower my head. It’s good to stand at the front. Maybe I can be the spark that ignites a wildfire.”

Dragonturtle thoroughly approved. "Young man, that’s admirable! The old master will definitely like you very much. Just think about it! Someday, the two of you will charge forward, followed by Little Yue, Young Master Chen, and your sons and daughters. With such passion, I will even lend you my turtle shell when that day comes!”

Jiang Qingyue blushed brightly. "Shut up! You’re getting just as aggravating as that damn rabbit!"

Lu Yin smiled and turned back to look at the Stargazing Deck once more. While it had been left in a park, the park was empty, and no one was nearby.

The people who lived in this city wore fake smiles and would rather hide in their homes all day than go out. How could anyone visit the park?

Lu Yin walked closer. Jiang Qingyue was curious, so she joined him.

Just as Dragonturtle was about to follow, Jiang Qingyue glared at the creature and ordered, "Stay away from me!"

Dragonturtle just smiled. The more he saw Lu Yin and Jiang Qingyue be together, the more he felt that they were a perfect match.

The two young people walked over to the Stargazing Deck.

Jiang Qingyue felt curious. "What's so special about this tower that you came all this way for it?"

Lu Yin smiled as he squatted down and grabbed the Stargazing Deck. He suddenly lifted the building, as the truly valuable part was the pearl beneath the tower.

A single pearl had given Xiao Shi the ability to read a Book of Destiny and an exceptional affinity towards cultivating Destiny’s power. Destiny’s power had stained that pearl, and if Lu Yin could find this twelfth pearl, he might be able to locate his family.

After lifting the Stargazing Deck, Lu Yin looked around, only for his pupils to instantly shrink. Where was it? How could the pearl be gone? Could it have been lost when the Stargazing Deck had been transported to the Sixth Mainland?

Suddenly, a pulling force appeared, and Lu Yin and Jiang Qingyue disappeared without even being able to react.

Dragonturtle saw them vanish, which startled him as he called out, "Little Yue!"

The creature knocked the Stargazing Deck aside, only to see a card floating in the air that almost instantly disappeared.

"One of the Lost Clan’s cards?"

At the same time, inside the card, Lu Yin and Jiang Qingyue simultaneously exclaimed, "One of the Lost Clan’s cards!"

The two looked at each other before immediately taking action. They were determined to break free from the card.

However, they were surrounded by continuously emerging layers of light that did not dim. The layers could be seen in every direction, and they acted like a prison.

Lu Yin quickly pulled out his slipper and lashed out, despite already knowing that it would be useless. This card had sucked him into a pocket space without giving him any opportunity to react or escape, which indicated that it was an Immemorial Card, which had the power of a Progenitor. Who would hide such a card beneath the Stargazing Deck? The only possible answer was that this was a trap that had been set specifically for him.

Jiang Qingyue had led Lu Yin to the Stargazing Deck, but she could not have been the one to set him up. This trap had to have been put in place long ago. Aeternus had to have known that Lu Yin would eventually go looking for the pearl. Though, the trap might not have been set specifically for Lu Yin, but rather for whoever tried to retrieve the pearl. It might have even been a trap set for Destiny herself.

However, it was still a trap, which meant that Lu Yin needed to break free as soon as possible.

However, there was no end to the lights that acted like a prison. Each slap of the slipper caused the strands of light to instantly snap, but Lu Yin was unable to keep up with the speed at which the lights formed.

Fortunately, this did not last for long, and the lights soon disappeared. Lu Yin lashed out with his slipper, and the card shattered. He emerged, along with Jiang Qingyue, only to be confronted by a pair of slitted scarlet eyes and a fist.

Boom!

The sound was not terribly loud, and Lu Yin managed to raise his arms to block the punch, though he was still blown away by the impact. Given the strength of the punch, Lu Yin should have been sent flying, but as he flew backwards, before he had covered half of the distance he should have, the void started flickering and warping as it collapsed.

Lu Yin stabilized himself before glancing around. The space around him was unstable, and when he looked into the distance, he could see a massive sourcebox.

He and Jiang Qingyue were trapped in a sourcebox array, and from what Lu Yin could see, this particular sourcebox array seemed to be designed for only one thing.

He easily tore through the void, only to find that the void was in a state of chaos that made it impossible to locate any parallel universe at all.

Just as he had thought, it was impossible to escape from this trap by fleeing to a parallel universe.

This was the real trap.

Lu Yin had been knocked backwards by a Progenitor-level corpse king that was quietly standing in front of him, staring at Lu Yin with scarlet eyes as it slowly lowered its arms. "Whoever comes here, dies."

Lu Yin took a deep breath before saying, "Qingyue, come over here."

Jiang Qingyue tightly clenched the hilt of her sword while staring at the corpse king in fear. She was suffering from the monster’s terrible pressure.

She had faced Progenitor-level creatures before, but never had one that wanted to kill her appeared. Given her cultivation level, how could she hope to confront a Progenitor-level corpse king? A single finger was enough to crush her to death.

Lu Yin clenched his fists while feeling a twinge of pain in his arm. He had blocked the creature’s punch, but doing so had cracked his bones. This corpse king’s physical strength was absolutely terrifying. Just where had it come from?

Within the same realm of power, Aeternus’s corpse kings had much greater physical strength than humans. However, this did not apply to Lu Yin. His physical strength was enough to let him crush a corpse king that had undergone a red-eyes Corpse King Transformation, even if it was in the same realm as him. However, the corpse king before Lu Yin was a freak even for a corpse king when it came to physical strength.

One punch. Just one punch had already injured Lu Yin.

It was not possible for him to face this monster head-on.

Progenitors and those at their level employed unique combat methods that only peak powerhouses could do, and they were all extremely difficult to deal with. However, an individual’s base power remained the most difficult thing to counter. As Dao Monarch Gu had once said, the physical body was what humans should truly focus on cultivating, rather than relying on external powers.

Corpse kings were physically powerful, and their fighting was simple and basic. However, once physical power reached a certain level, there was no way to counter it.

"Keep your distance and find a way to escape," Lu Yin told Jiang Qingyue. The scarlet eyes that were staring at Lu Yin started to move towards him. While the corpse king did not appear to be moving quickly, it was more than sufficient within the confines of this space.

Lu Yin pushed Jiang Qingyue away and then took a look at the chaotic spatial lines. He did not dare to carelessly try to move with them, as if he was unlucky, he would suddenly appear right in front of the corpse king’s fist.

The wind from the fist brushed across Lu Yin’s cheek, drawing blood. Even the wind was too much for him to handle, and he retreated continuously.

The corpse king spun around and kicked Lu Yin. The monster’s movements were basic and simple. However, a purplish-black substance covered Lu Yin's entire body as he kicked back, successfully landing a strike on the corpse king.

There was another explosion, but the purplish-black substance that shrouded Lu Yin's form actually cracked on his feet. As for the corpse king, there was absolutely no hesitation as a second kick lashed out.

Lu Yin took out his slipper and slapped at the approaching foot. However, at the last moment, the corpse king pulled its foot back and struck out with a palm, attacking from a distance. The wind from the palm strike shattered the void, and Lu Yin's expression changed. Again, the slipper struck out.

The slipper overcame the palm strike, but the force almost knocked the slipper out of Lu Yin’s grip. Once more, the corpse king launched a palm strike, and Lu Yin could only fall back. He could not face this corpse king directly, or else he would die.

With the slipper in hand, the corpse king would not engage Lu Yin in close combat, which made Lu Yin even more certain that the trap had been laid specifically for him. This corpse king was clearly afraid of the slipper, which proved that it was well prepared to face Lu Yin.

Suddenly, the corpse king's eyes changed color and turned gray. This was not good, as it indicated another tenfold increase in the monster’s physical strength.

Lu Yin did not hesitate to bring out his Investiture of the Gods. Images of both Nong Yi and Cloudflow appeared at the same time as the corpse king struck out with a palm. The wind from this attack was several times stronger than before, and the pressure completely shattered the void, causing the Hollow to appear.

Jiang Qingyue was startled. Even though this attack had not been aimed at her, it still put more pressure on her than what she could bear, and it felt like her heart was about to burst.

Lu Yin was not in much better condition. The summon of Nong Yi raised his hoe, and it fell back down as he used the Nong family’s Plowing the Land battle technique. The images of countless other people overlapped with each other to create an endless momentum for the hoe. As for Cloudflow, the summon used his power to form a saber that slashed down.

The wind from the palm strike roared closer, knocking back both Progenitor Nong and Cloudflow. Both of Lu Yin’s summons were completely suppressed by nothing more than the wind produced by a single palm strike.

The corpse king stepped forward, its hand raised high. The hand fell, straight for Progenitor Nong.

Leaves appeared above Progenitor Nong’s head, and when the corpse king’s hand dropped, the leaves scattered. Progenitor Nong's figure grew a bit blurry.

From the side, cloud-structure appeared and struck with physical force as the corpse king was bombarded. This was Cloudflow’s equivalent to a Progenitor’s world: Thousand Streams Shatter the Dao.

Every blow contained the power of a Progenitor, and it was able to instantly kill a Semi-Progenitor.

Even so, none of the attacks had any effect on the corpse king. The monster was like an unshakeable mountain, and just a wave of the monster’s hand was enough to shatter all of the cloud constructs.

Cloudflow was no weakling, and he had killed multiple peak powerhouses from the Transcendent Universe who relied on black energy converters, but the man appeared incredibly weak against the corpse king.

The trap that Aeternus had set for Lu Yin was too powerful for him to deal with. Against this corpse king, Lu Yin was certain the monster was no weaker than Xia Shenji, though its physical strength clearly far exceeded Xia Shenji’s.

Lu Yin clutched his slipper and moved along the spatial lines. He instantly appeared directly behind the corpse king and attacked.

At the same time, still in the Aeternus Kingdom, Dragonturtle was furious, and he charged through the city.

One after another, the corpse kings in the city charged forward to attack the invader, only to be instantly eliminated by Dragonturtle.

He had not anticipated that a moment’s carelessness would cause Jiang Qingyue to disappear. If anything happened to her, how would he be able to explain the matter to his master? Given that they were in an Aeternus Kingdom, the Aeternals had to be behind this attack.

The thought of the Aeternals being behind whatever had happened caused Dragonturtle's heart to drop even further.

"What are you doing? That is the Lord of Lightning's daughter! If you dare to harm her, the Lord of Lightning will not let you go!" Dragonturtle roared. As he shouted, a dazzling light swept out and started melting the entire Aeternus Kingdom.

Off in the distance, a figure rushed over. It was Yi Ren. He was back in the Sixth Mainland.

When Yi Ren saw Dragonturtle crazily destroying the Aeternus Kingdom, he immediately attacked. "Dragonturtle, do you intend to fight the Aeternals to the death?"

Dragonturtle glared at Yi Ren. "You have captured the Lord of Lightning's daughter! Give her back!"

Yi Ren was startled. The Lord of Lightning’s daughter?

When he had been one of the Sixth Mainland’s Progenitors, Yi Ren had known nothing about the Sixverse Association, and almost nothing about Aeternus. Only after joining the Aeternals had he seen more of the megaverse and learned just how vast reality truly was and how many powerhouses there were.

Out of all the peak powerhouses, the Lord of Lightning unquestionably stood near the top. He was someone whom not even the Seven Skygods wanted to face in a true battle to the death due to his terrifying might.

"Who captured the Lord of Lightning's daughter?" While the Aeternals and the Lord of Lightning were enemies, Yi Ren did not want to draw the Lord of Lightning into the Sixth Mainland. That was also why the Lord of Lightning had been comfortable sending his daughter to gain experience in the Sixth Mainland with only Dragonturtle here to protect her. The Aeternals knew that she was there, but they would not do anything to her, as long as she did not go too far.

However, something had happened to the Lord of Lightning's daughter, and as soon as that man entered the Sixth Mainland, Yi Ren would have no chance of survival.

Dragonturtle pointed at the overturned Stargazing Deck. "What happened to her?"

Yi Ren saw the Stargazing Deck, and his eyes lit up. "Is Lu Yin also here?"

Dragonturtle's expression changed. "Is this a trap set up for that Lu Yin kid?"

Yi Ren’s expression turned ugly. "Why is the Lord of Lightning's daughter with Lu Yin?"

He received no answer, as Dragonturtle just roared while demanding that Yi Ren release Jiang Qingyue. Of course, Yi Ren did not want to see the woman die, but that was no longer something that he could control, as she was trapped with that monster.

...

Within the twisted confines of the sourcebox array, Lu Yin was sent tumbling through the air, the slipper nearly flying out of his grip. He had just launched a sneak attack with the slipper, but the corpse king had managed to evade it, and then had knocked Lu Yin back with the wind from a palm strike.