Star Odyssey

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Even though Lu Yin was only a Hunter, at this moment, his towering killing intent was enough to surprise even these leaders of the Innerverse.

"Everyone considers the people of the Outerverse to be nothing more than sheep, and even I see them as nothing but sheep. How many people control the major powers of the Outerverse? Those 409 are only a handful among the minority, and most of the other leaders have already reached an agreement with you. They have agreed to cooperate with you after your Purge starts and will immediately withdraw from the Great Eastern Alliance! However, can they truly leave?"

Lu Yin's eyes rose and swept across the experts before him. "You were able to come up with this Purge, but I, Lu Yin, can also create a plan. A master wants to kill an ordinary person, and I can't protect them. However, what if I also want to kill an ordinary person? You all see these leaders of the Outerverse organizations as ordinary people, and to me, they are also ordinary people."

Cang Zhou's eyes went wide, and he stared at Lu Yin in surprise. This kid was quite ruthless.

Liu Qianjue's expression sank, and his rage burned hot enough in his heart to burn jade and incinerate stones.

Wen Zizai stared intently at Lu Yin. Others had spoken about how Lu Yin had only managed to unite the Outerverse due to an ideal timing and his background, but at this moment, Wen Zizai became absolutely certain that Lu Yin had the ability, boldness, and decisiveness to dominate the Outerverse.

It was clear that Lu Yin was planning to simply shuffle the cards. While all of the leaders for the factions that had joined the Great Eastern Alliance against the Innerverse would die, another group would be chosen to take their places.

"Hmph. Junior, you really think this can scare us? You're talking about people from the Outerverse. If you do this, then it will just cause the Great Eastern Alliance to collapse even quicker. Additionally, you will be seen as an enemy by all of those people," Leader Hong quietly retorted.

Lu Yin looked up. "Naturally. However, I, Lu Yin, have never been afraid of anything. You can ask around and see how many dissenting voices spoke up after I established the Great Eastern Alliance. However, those voices are still there, and their descendants are also still alive. If I, Lu Yin, dare to do this, then I will take on all of it."

"Is this how you plan to threaten us into negotiating?" Ling Qiu asked.

Lu Yin looked over at her.

Ling Qiu shook her head. "What you're saying is useless. Even after the current targets are all eliminated, we can target their replacements just as easily and reenact our Purge. We don't care, but how many can you watch be killed? Do you think that this is just between you and us? Even if this is the choice that you make, what about the people themselves? If you allow too many to die, the resistance will grow endlessly, and things might even escalate to the point where your Great Yu Empire is dragged into the fray. Then, no one will be able to save you."

Cang Zhou found the entire matter to be amusing. This child was determined, but unfortunately, he was not thoughtful.

The corners of Lu Yin's mouth curled up. "Senior Ling Qiu is right. Once again, I, Lu Yin, will have to be hated by hundreds of millions of people. Compared to dissolving the Great Eastern Alliance, this is something that is much more difficult to accept, which means that I'm unlucky, as I will not let you all be comfortable.

"You all want the Great Eastern Alliance to disappear so that you can continue profiting off of the Outerverse, whether by plundering, trading, or deception. To be blunt, the Innerverse wants to gain riches from the Outerverse. However, what if those profits become unreliable? For example, the shipments might be raided by pirates, some insider information concerning various transactions might be leaked, or some recently discovered resources might end up being destroyed. Could you still rest easy?"

Everyone's expressions instantly changed. The pirates that Lu Yin was referring to were not ordinary pirates, or even a group of pirates. Rather, he was talking Leon's Armada that was led by the Pirate King himself. One sentence from that man could summon most of the pirates in the entire universe, and he had even been able to overwhelm Daynight Flowzone. His pirates were amazingly powerful.

"Junior, are you threatening us?" The mountain's voice had gone cold.

Lu Yin smiled and replied, "This junior said from the beginning that we should fight it out."

Wen Zizai said, "Pirates can't act openly, and the only reason why they succeeded against the Daynight clan was because the clan was not prepared for such a thing and because they never expected it. If Alliance Leader Lu believes that some pirates are enough to make us step back, then your thoughts are too simple."

Lu Yin nodded. "This junior admits that is true, and honestly, I'm facing incredible pressure by standing up to you seniors. No matter what happens, it seems useless to go against you seniors. There might be only six of you, but you represent the majority of the Innerverse and can even direct the direction that the Innerverse moves. Not to mention me, Senior Liu mentioned that not even one of the Hall of Honor's overseers can stop all of you.

"The things I just mentioned were only intended to be used as an example to entertain you seniors. If you all don't take this seriously and insist on following through with your Purge, then this junior will be forced into a dead end. If that happens, then you can't blame this junior for his actions. For example-" Lu Yin's eyes sharpened as he looked at Ling Qiu. "I might visit you one by one and challenge all the best cultivators within my generation."

Ling Qiu's expression changed.

Wen Zizai and Liu Qianjue's expressions also changed.

"This junior has always been curious about the innate gifts of the Lingling clan as well as the Wen family's Literary Prison and the Sword Sect's Thirteen Swords. Of course, I'm also very curious about Chaosgod Mountain's hand-to-hand combat as well as the strange creatures that the Beast Tamers control. This junior is fascinated, and I have decided to challenge my peers as ZENITH approaches and make sure that the best of them all fail to enter ZENITH." Lu Yin's voice was loud and confident.

His words left everyone silent, but everyone's expressions had changed.

If ZENITH was just an ordinary competition, then none of them would care, but they were all privy to certain secrets, and thus, they were all aware that the importance of ZENITH far exceeded what most people thought it to be. Even if these six did not know what rewards would ultimately be given to the top ten finalists, they had an idea and were aware that this was an opportunity for the contestants to change their destinies.

Other than ZENITH, their youths would never receive another opportunity to even compete for such an opportunity.

This was not merely a chance for the contestants to change their fates, but also for the powers standing behind each of them to change.

The Daynight clan had always wished to enter the Neoverse, so when Nightking Zhenwu had stepped onto the path of becoming one of the Cosmic Five, the entire clan had celebrated and, Zhenwu had instantly become the first in line to become the next clan patriarch.

The Sword Sect also wanted to enter the Neoverse, as did the Lingling clan and Chaosgod Mountain. Honestly, was there anyone who did not want to move into the Neoverse? Was there anyone who did not want to alter their destiny?

ZENITH was precisely that opportunity to change their destiny.

When news of ZENITH had been released, and when these six had received some private information, all of them had prepared themselves to spend all of their organization's best resources to prepare their most outstanding youths in an attempt to take one of the top ten places.

However, at this moment, Lu Yin stood as an obstacle in their path.

Others could not threaten them in such a manner, but Lu Yin absolutely could. His list of accomplishments was too impressive, and his strength was too overpowering.

If he really did move out to challenge his peers, even if their youths were able to match up to Lu Yin, they would still be unable to qualify for ZENITH in the end.

This was a price that they could not afford to pay.

This was not a matter of profit, but rather a matter of destiny.

"You don't want to participate in ZENITH?" Ling Qiu challenged.

Lu Yin smiled. "It doesn't really matter. I am quite satisfied with progressing from an ordinary person to my current level of strength, and the Great Eastern Alliance is more important to me than a competition. If you want to destroy my Great Eastern Alliance, then I will destroy that which you hold dear: Ling Gong's Skycastle is amazing, and I would love to face it."

"Is the Great Eastern Alliance really so important to you? Whether or not it exists has little impact on you, and as far as the Neoverse is concerned, you can be replaced as the master of the Outerverse at any time," Wen Zizai inquired.

Lu Yin replied, "It's very important. I see that you seniors don't believe me. In that case, let me add that Eversky Island's Highsage Grandmaster has nominated me to be a gatekeeper of Zenith Mountain. If you seniors don't understand what that means, then please ask, as it's a very important bit of news."

"You've been nominated to be a gatekeeper?!" Cang Zhou finally lost his demeanor.

Liu Qianjue also stared at Lu Yin in complete shock.

Lu Yin smiled. "It would seem that you seniors are already aware of what that means, so you should also know what will happen when your juniors show up for the challenge."

The six people looked at each other.

As the masters of the Innerverse's eight great flowzones, they had received a lot of secret information after ZENITH had been announced. Of course, that information included the role of the gatekeepers.

The people known as gatekeepers would be tasked with limiting the number of participants in ZENITH. Only the most powerful participants qualified to become gatekeepers, and there would only be five gatekeepers. To put it more simply, gatekeepers were seeded contestants who were preemptively recognized as the strongest contenders for the final ten contestants.

Ling Qiu was quite confident in Ling Gong. She would be invincible until the final ten, but despite the matriarch's confidence, she had never even considered the possibility of Ling Gong being nominated as a gatekeeper, as it was too difficult to qualify.

The only gatekeeper that had been identified so far was Shang Qing, the undefeatable user of the Tri-Yang Technique. He was the only person who was clearly qualified to be a gatekeeper.

None of the six elders had considered that Lu Yin had been nominated for such a role, especially by someone like the Highsage Grandmaster.

Eversky Island's master was someone who stood at the pinnacle of humanity, and his vision could not be doubted. Was Lu Yin really able to compare with Shang Qing?

There was nothing else that Lu Yin could say to threaten these six except for this. This threat was aimed at their sole chance to alter their fate, and any price was worth it to obtain such an opportunity.

Regardless of whether or not they believed that their juniors could make it to the final ten in ZENITH, they would not dare to take such a risk at this time.

Lu Yin was the type of person who would follow through on what he had said.

"Battles help to improve one's battle strength, and young cultivators grow the fastest while fighting. The more you fight, the faster you improve. I'm looking forward to fighting against the others for the final ten," Lu Yin commented with a sigh as he threatened everyone once again.

"Junior, don't think that defeating two of the Ten Arbiters makes you invincible. Ling Gong, Wen Sansi, and Liu Tianmu have all become Enlighters, so how could you possibly deal with any of them? Any of them could easily deal with you. You want to use this to coerce us into canceling our Purge? Impossible!" Leader Hong shouted angrily. At this moment, he wished that he could personally strike Lu Yin down.

Lu Yin looked at the older man with contempt and disdain. "In the Blaze Realm, there is no one who can do such a thing, and you don't even qualify for me to challenge any of your youths. Actually, challenging you would just flatter you and humiliate me."

The arrogant Leader Hong grew furious, and he stared at Lu Yin as though he were about to devour the youth.

Liu Qianjue casually asked, "Are you confident that you can deal with the Thirteen Swords?"

Lu Yin lightly replied, "It doesn't matter. Regardless, I'm absolutely certain that I won't die to the Thirteenth Sword, and as long as I don't die, I can drag my enemy down."

Liu Qianjue went silent.

Cang Zhou sneered, "Go ahead. After all, you can only challenge the other Arbiters."

Lu Yin looked at him. "Even if the Ten Arbiters don't participate, your youths will still have to face the people from the Neoverse. Don't forget—the Cosmic Five are all from the Neoverse, and only the Ten Arbiters can help deal with them."

Wen Zizai sighed. "I'm actually being threatened by a child. It's more comfortable to sweep the floor."

The mountain stared at Lu Yin, as did everyone else. They had all been placed in a very difficult position.

If a junior, one of the Ten Arbiters, or even someone who was actually peerless within their generation dared to threaten these six powerhouses, then they simply would not care. They could be completely confident that the youth would never even be able to get close to experts at their level. However, Lu Yin was different. His backing was simply too terrifying, and any one of the many powerhouses who backed him left the six people feeling helpless.

* The actual title for this chapter translates to "jade and stone burn together." This is a Chinese expression that means that fire is blind and burns both the good and bad together. Since this is voluntary in this situation, mutual destruction was the best we could come up with. Still, I like the original title better even if it does need an explanation.