Star Odyssey

"A Giant Emperor's intelligence isn't inferior to our own, and they are actually smarter than most humans. Once a Giant Emperor appears, the fighting capability of the entire giant tribe will spike, and a Giant Emperor can also control the other giants at will," Hui Santong continued his explanation.

"Stop spouting crap! Everyone here already knows all this. Tell us how we can get over those city walls," Ku Lei interrupted.

Hui Santong indifferently replied, "There's only one method, which is to mask our scent. We are basically ants to the guardian giants, so once we mask our scent, they'll practically ignore whatever us little ants are up to. Do you notice the ants on the ground?"

The group then turned to look at the city walls. Hui Santong's words were quite clear: they had to catch a giant and bathe in its blood to mask their scent.

A trio appeared across the way and also looked up at the giant city walls. Silver was very surprised. "A civilization was actually established here in Progenitor Chen's Mausoleum? It looks like a Giant Emperor was born."

Lu Yin was also surprised, and he remembered what he had experienced on Gigastar Planet in Umbral Butterfly Weave.

The giants on Gigastar Planet had loved smearing mud on their backs and using it as a form of defense. However, those giants had been very weak when compared to the guardian giants in the tomb.

The giants on Gigastar Planet were probably just a branch of the giant race, but their Giant Emperor had been highly intelligent, and it had often left people running about in circles. It also knew how to conceal its strength. If a Giant Emperor appeared in Progenitor Chen's Mausoleum, then its intelligence certainly would not be low, and it had most likely already discovered their presence.

"The Seven Courts' inheritors must be racking up their brains to find a way to cross that wall right now. We'll just sit back and wait. Once they draw the attention of the guardian giants, we'll sneak in from the back. What do you say, captain?" Silver beamed at Lu Yin.

Death energy filled Lu Yin's eyes, and he stared ahead blankly without saying a word.

Silver continued to smile, and he looked over to where Xia Jiuyou and the others were standing.

Before much more time passed, several guardian giants jumped down from the city walls and smashed the spikes erected before the wall. The earth trembled and broke open.

They had picked up the scent of Xia Jiuyou and the others.

"Hide!" Hui Santong urged.

They all masked their scents and began to fan out.

Three of the guardian giants moved out, sniffing the air as they separated into three different directions. As they walked, they smashed their clubs against the ground, as if extremely upset.

Xia Jiuyou and Lei Nu were tasked with luring two of the giants away while the rest of the group would deal with the final giant.

Boom!

The ground trembled as a guardian giant collapsed, its club falling to its side. Ku Lei formed a blade of lightning and cut open a gash on the giant's leg. Fresh blood spilled out onto the land, splattering everywhere as it covered Yōu Qin and the others.

Xia Jiuyou and Lei Nu returned at this moment and also drenched themselves in the blood.

The two other giants rushed over to where the youths were gathered, but Hui Santong said, "That's enough. We'll wait a few days before entering."

The crowd dispersed at his words.

The injured giant stood up after they left. His leg had been cut by Ku Lei, but with the giant's sheer size, this wound was equivalent to its skin being scraped by a tree branch.

The group had masked their scent, and the three guardian giants could only return to the city walls.

As for the injured giant, he was a tad slower than the other two, and he almost fell down when hopping back atop the city wall. Silver nearly erupted with laughter.

"Why wait a few days?" Ku Lei asked.

Hui Santong explained, "There's a Giant Emperor here, and it's definitely different from the other giants. We can't have the Giant Emperor's focus be on us."

No one rebuked him. If the Giant Emperor was as smart as a human, then that would make for a truly frightening foe. And as the leader of the giants, its strength would definitely be extraordinary.

No one felt certain of their chances against such a creature, and neither were they fully confident of being able to escape.

Yōu Qin looked at Xia Jiuyou and asked, "Why don't you go on ahead? For countless years, the Xia family has been fearless within Progenitor Chen's Mausoleum. Perhaps the giants won't attack you."

Xia Jiuyou dryly replied, "It's difficult to predict how the Giant Emperor will behave."

"Regular guardian giants respond to scent, and the rumors claim that the Xia family's home was once the weapon for one of Progenitor Chen's clones. Thus, it has the same scent as them, which is why they won't attack Xia family members. However, the Giant Emperor is different," Hui Santong said.

Xia Jiuyou looked at Hui Santong intently. On the surface, it might sound seemed like Hui Santong was offering an explanation for Xia Jiuyou's decision, but in truth, Hui Santong was telling everyone that the landmass where the Xia family lived, the one that was shaped like a blade, was actually a weapon that used to belong to one of Progenitor Chen's clones. The Hui family knew too much.

After two days passed, Xie Xiaoxian and Shu Jing arrived.

"We thought that you weren't going to come." Hui Santong looked at Xie Xiaoxian in surprise.

Xie Xiaoxian felt rather suppressed as she looked at Shu Jing. She had assumed that this fellow would not be able to endure for so long, but he had actually waited by the side of the pit for more than a month. What a lunatic.

Shu Jing was not overly concerned. His purpose for coming to this place was to improve his physical body, and the Xie family was filled with experts in that area. Since Xie Xiaoxian had entered Progenitor Chen's Mausoleum, then there was no reason for her to leave empty handed. Regardless, Shu Jing had almost no knowledge of Progenitor Chen's Mausoleum, so he had already set his mind on following Xie Xiaoxian the entire time, even if it drove her crazy.

"Hey, did you guys manage to get some giant blood? Is there any left? Give me some," Xie Xiaoxian said.

Ce Jiu laughed and pointed at the ground.

Xie Xiaoxian saw the puddle of blood that was still on the ground.

She pursed her lips. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You should understand what the appearance of these city walls means. We can only lure the giants out once. If we do it again, the Giant Emperor will notice us," Hui Santong said.

Xie Xiaoxian rolled her eyes. "Oh come on! We should have been discovered as soon as we showed up! Besides, didn't you hear those horns earlier?"

Ce Jiu said, "The Giant Emperor might have thought that it was because of some giants getting restless, not that it was a warning about us."

Xie Xiaoxian bit her lips. "I won't argue with you."

With that, she walked towards that puddle of blood, but just when she was about to use it to cover her body, Shu Jing jumped right in the puddle, and she had to fight him for the last bit of blood.

Soon after, both of them were covered in the giant's blood.

Hui Santong looked up at the black dome above their heads. "Three days. We'll wait three more days before crossing the walls."

Silver, who was observing the group from afar, said, "They shouldn't be able to wait for much longer. We'll follow them when they enter. Captain, if you're still conscious, then run when you can. Don't stab me in the back, as I haven't let you down in any way."

Lu Yin stood rooted in place and stared blankly at the wall in front.

There were no rune lines within Progenitor Chen's Mausoleum, and there was nothing else that he could see either. Despite that, his intuition was telling him that there was a threatening existence on the other side of that wall.

Lu Yin constantly reminded himself that these guardian giants before him were different from the giants that he had seen in the past.

At best, the giants on Gigastar Planet had been capable of destroying planets when their strength reached the limit. On the other hand, these guardian giants each possessed the strength to casually destroy a planet.

Suddenly, Lu Yin recalled that he had once obtained a massive, mechanical right arm from the planetary warehouse that belonged to the border warfront in Southside Weave. It was too large for a human, but it was far too small for any of these true giants to wield.

Three days passed in a flash. Nothing happened among the giants during this time, as everyone present had covered their scents with giant blood. The guardian giants roaming outside the city walls had all returned to the tribe, and the giants atop the city walls remained rather calm.

"Let's go," Hui Santong ordered. Although he wasn't the strongest of the group, it was generally accepted within the Neoverse that, whenever a group headed into battle, a member of the Hui family would be the one to make the calls. Over the course of countless years, the Hui family had shown that their members possessed remarkable wisdom. Even the leader of the Seven Courts, the Xia family, agreed with such an evaluation.

Although the city walls were extremely tall, the present experts were able to easily leap over them. After scaling the walls, they dashed straight to the other side, right beneath the noses of the guardian giants.

What awaited them on the other side shocked them. Even though they had all made various guesses about what they would see, when they saw the civilization that had formed among the giants, they were still flabbergasted.

On the other side of the city wall, there were incomparably massive houses, which were where the giants lived. Even though each house had been shoddily constructed from piles of rocks and gave off an impression of being deserted, they had obviously been designed. The streets were kept clean and perfectly straight. In a sharp contrast to the environment outside the city walls, there was a true civilization inside.

As they climbed the wall, they were first shocked by the city, but all of them soon looked off into the distance and at a building that had been erected in the center of all the other houses. At that location, there was also a truly vast pool filled with blood. The stench of the blood filled the area, and just one look sent the entire group's senses tingling. They felt as though they had seen an incomparably enormous giant standing tall in outer space. One wave of its arm was enough to easily destroy planets and anything nearby.

Their hearts sank as they all collapsed to the ground. Their instincts were driving them to seek cover even as they gasped for air.

Xia Jiuyou tightly squeezed his chest, utterly appalled at the vision.

What in the world is that? Why was there such an unbelievably massive giant? That thing made these guardian giants look like ants. Did such a giant ever exist? The aura and pressure that it gave off made it seem like the ruler of the universe… Could that have been Progenitor Chen's clone?

Xia Jiuyou was not the only one in the group having such thoughts.

Blood trickled down from Hui Santong's lips.

It's no wonder why a civilization was born in this place. Most likely, a giant uncovered this blood from Progenitor Chen's clone and gained intelligence from that, becoming a Giant Emperor. No, not only that. Given the potential and power of this Giant Emperor, it might have even inherited a bit of the strength of Progenitor Chen's clone as well!

Xie Xiaoxian eyed the pool of blood with excitement. This blood most likely came from Progenitor Chen's clone. And since there was blood in this place, then it meant that there were likely to be bones close by as well. What she wanted the most were Progenitor Chen's bones. If she was able to get her hands on those, then her strength would definitely rise by leaps and bounds. Her strength would not just rise by one level, as she might even be able to break through and reach the Enlighter realm with those bones.

So what if you have the Nine Clones Technique? So what if you have the Tri-Yang Technique?

She did not believe that such people were truly invincible. However, first, she had to get her hands on Progenitor Chen's bones.

Lei Nu and Shu Jing looked at each other, both in shock. Progenitor Chen's Mausoleum actually contained Progenitor Chen's blood. The value of this place was much, much higher than the Hall of Honor had initially assumed. In fact, the corpse of one of Progenitor Chen's clones might be buried in this place.

Everyone remained silent, and they each kept to their own thoughts.

Ku Lei was first to break the silence. "Now that we're over the city wall, everyone's on their own."

Hui Santong looked at Ku Lei, but did not speak.

Ku Lei snorted in derision and left first.