Star Odyssey

"Why Lu Yin?"

Xia Meng solemnly explained, saying, "Lu Yin is the only one who can both suppress you and also enter and leave Astral-10 at will. If he teams up with Xia Luo, then what will you do?"

Xia Jiuyou fell silent. No matter how unwilling he might be to admit it, if he came across Lu Yin, then Xia Jiuyou would be absolutely powerless to resist.

It did not take long for Xia Meng's eyes to light up. "Lu Yin has gone to Southside Weave!"

"How do you know that?" Xia Jiuyou wondered.

Xia Meng said, "The Yōu clan coincidentally received this information."

The Yōu clan? Xia Jiuyou instantly thought of the woman with the Heart-killer Lotus technique that he had seen during ZENITH. "What's the deal with the Yōu clan? Is there some connection between the Yōu family and the Yōu clan?"

"I don't know the specifics. After all, the Yōu clan has always been mysterious. Regardless, Lu Yin's whereabouts have already been confirmed. Are you really heading to Astral-10?" Xia Meng asked.

Xia Jiuyou firmly replied, "I must go."

"I will report this matter to Elder Ji then," Xia Meng said.

Xia Jiuyou nodded. Elder Ji was the most powerful member of the Xia family, and he was also one of the Human Domain's seven Semi-Progenitors. Xia Ji was the true head of the Xia clan.

"How strange. Elder Ji is not responding. He was still secretly protecting a youth earlier," Xia Meng muttered to herself.

Xia Jiuyou said, "Perhaps Elder Ji has just returned to seclusion since he was in seclusion for many years before this. Let's just go. We can't let Xia Luo run away. He knows that I won't let him go either."

Xia Meng nodded. "Alright."

After Xia Meng left with Xia Jiuyou, an old man appeared where they had been standing. This man had deep eyes that seemed to have seen through the vicissitudes of life. He stood ramrod straight, his aura like a sharp blade that had been sealed for a long time. He was a Semi-Progenitor.

…

Astral-10 had experienced glory and catastrophe in the past, and at the moment, it was climbing high once more.

Their resurgence had started when they had performed the best during the Astral Combat Tournament. Then, Lu Yin, one of their students, had won the Tournament of the Strongest, which had allowed Astral-10 to return to the Innerverse. All of Lu Yin's subsequent accomplishments made Astral-10 shine even brighter.

Astral-10 no longer had a small number of students, but rather thousands of them, just like all the other branches of the Astral Combat Academy.

The most obvious difference was the number of teleportation stones guarded by the mentors. When Lu Yin had first joined the academy, Astral-10 had only had one teleportation stone. After that, Lu Yin had managed to win three more, making for four stones in total. Subsequently, Xia Luo, Lulu Mavis, and the others had all won teleportation stones on their own, ultimately gathering more than ten for Astral-10.

There were constantly students entering the teleportation battles.

On one particular day, the Trialmaster was loudly reporting the students' records as they exited their battles when his expression suddenly changed as he looked up.

The Rainmaster, the Sandmaster, the Starmaster, and Old Cai all looked up. Lu Yin was back.

Over the years, some of Astral-10's alumni had returned from time to time, but Lu Yin had been the only one who could draw all of the mentors' attention. Without Lu Yin, the current Astral-10 would not exist.

The ten branches of the Astral Combat Academy were ranked in order of merit, and technically, Astral-10 should have been known as Astral-1.

Lu Yin's spacecraft docked outside of Astral-10. As he stood in outer space and looked down, he was reminded that Astral-10, along with all the other branches of the Astral Combat Academy, was actually a battleship. It was unknown when they had been created, but the vessels were large enough to even carry stars. They were massive battleships.

When the Sixth Mainland had invaded the Outerverse, Astral-9 had been attacked by a World Imprinter, and the results had shocked Lu Yin. As Lu Yin looked at Astral-10, he was similarly stunned. Astral-10 was unbelievable; this battleship was far larger than Astral-9.

Before, Lu Yin had been unable to clearly see the size of the entire academy, and so he had not been able to understand it. At this moment, he could see it clearly, and he stared at the entirety of Astral-10. In fact, he was even able to make out the word "Boundless," which had almost been scrubbed away by the passage of time.

This battleship was called Boundless.

Lu Yin did not approach Astral-10 with his true appearance, as doing so would definitely reach Xia Jiuyou's ears, ensuring that he would never dare to approach the academy.

There were several students on duty in Astral-10's space station, so Lu Yin calmly walked over and showed them his credentials as an Astral-10 student.

"Huh? What's this?" The inspector was actually a cute girl, and she stared at Lu Yin's gadget in surprise.

Behind her, a young man approached them. "Xiao Xuan, what's the matter?"

The girl, Xiao Xuan, pointed at the gadget before looking back up at Lu Yin in shock. "Senior, his student ID is very strange."

The man was also surprised when he saw the ID number. When he looked back up at Lu Yin, his eyes were filled with excitement. "You- you were one of the Legend Ones?"

Lu Yin blinked, utterly confused. "What legend?"

Xiao Xuan was surprised. "Legend One? Senior, are you saying that this student ID is from the Legend One era?"

The man nodded, and the rest of the students on duty gathered around. "Yes, it's a student ID from the legendary first class."

"That's Arbiter Lu's year!"

"What Arbiter Lu? It should be Champion Lu."

"I think Arbiter Lu sounds better."

After hearing the two students' discussion, Lu Yin quickly understood that his class had become known as Legend One. His class was the one that had pulled Astral-10 out of its declining trend and set it onto a path towards prosperity. For many people, even more importantly, Lu Yin had been in the class.

"Senior, you and Arbiter Lu were in the same class. Have you met him before? Have you spoken to him?"

"Senior, isn't Arbiter Lu very good?"

"Senior, when will Champion Lu come back? Can you call him?"

…

Seeing all of the expectant eyes of the students in front of him, Lu Yin found the entire situation very refreshing.

Throughout the years, Lu Yin had accomplished too many things, and he had been both praised and envied by countless people. The people who flattered him were as numerous as the stars, but they could not compare to the adoring eyes of his juniors standing before him. Even with all the experiences that Lu Yin had gone through, he still felt a bit proud at this moment. Quite proud, actually.

Coming to Astral-10 made Lu Yin realize just how much he had grown compared to ten years ago. He was currently being described as a legend!

The only fly in the ointment was that he had not brought Ku Wei along, which was a pity.

Lu Yin coughed, and his eyes narrowed. Night Advent.

All the students suddenly felt as though their brains had been shaken, and they froze in place.

Lu Yin had not used much strength, only knocking the students unconscious so that he would not attract too much attention.

"I'm sorry," Lu Yin said quietly. He then passed by the many students to enter Astral-10, finding himself in a place that was both familiar and unfamiliar. This was the starting point of his cultivation path.

After Lu Yin left the space station, the students stirred and felt like they had woken up from a dream.

"Huh, wasn't there someone here?"

"Who?"

"That senior from Legend One just now."

"Yeah, I remember. What happened to him?"

Just like when he had first arrived at Astral-10, Lu Yin first went to the Rain Observatory.

The Rain Observatory had not changed at all. The bluestone platforms were still being washed by the rain all year long. As the rain fell from the sky, it created rivers on the ground and painted both the ground and the sky a beautiful dark blue. The only sound that one could hear was the soft pitter-patter of raindrops as they fell onto the slabs of bluestone.

Lu Yin looked around at the rainforest. Massive trees spread out beneath his feet while rain continued to sprinkle down from above. He stretched out a hand and caught one of the raindrops with his palm, its coolness soothing.

There were students in groups of twos and threes off in the distance. They were either comprehending something, or trying to write their names with star energy before sending it out into the rain.

Lu Yin had done the exact same things when he had first arrived.

Standing atop the Rain Observatory allowed one to start cleansing their star energy and start grasping the essence of controlling and moving it. Hopefully, one would enter the realm of changes and then slowly approach the level of comprehending a domain, though there were simply far too few people who could comprehend a domain.

Lu Yin still remembered that this place had something called the Rain List. His name was actually on the Rain List, though the person ranked first was someone named Shao Chen.

The Rainmaster appeared out of the rain in front of Lu Yin, the older man's eyes still filled with the vicissitudes of time.

In the past, Lu Yin had not been able to see through the mentors' strength. And to his surprise, he still could not see through the Rainmaster's strength. He had thought that he would be able to see through Astral-10's mentors by now, but it was still beyond him.

"Student Lu Yin greets the Rainmaster." Lu Yin bowed slowly and took on a respectful tone.

The Rainmaster observed Lu Yin and became quite emotional. "The little guy from back then has already become so powerful. In a blink of an eye, more than ten years have already passed."

Lu Yin replied, "It's this student's fault that I have never had a chance to come back to see mentor."

The Rainmaster looked at Lu Yin with a serious expression, and then he revealed a rare smile. "The Worldliness realm of star control. Not bad, and truly very good. For you to come back at this time, do you intend to graduate?"

Lu Yin answered, "I'll graduate if you allow me the chance."

The Rainmaster just smiled without saying anything. Then, he slowly disappeared.

Lu Yin took a deep breath and looked out into the distance. He saw that there were a set of ruins beyond the Rain Observatory. This place was actually above the deck of a massive battleship, and the Rain Observatory was simply the landscape outside of a cabin.

After leaving the Rain Observatory, Lu Yin visited the Sand Ocean next. He saw many students buried in the sand, trying to comprehend battle force.

Lu Yin remembered when the Sandmaster dragged him along to comprehend Flash Step. The stronger one's physical body, the faster one was able to move. This concept had been instilled into Lu Yin by the Sandmaster, and the mentor had also helped Lu Yin understand how to cultivate battle force.

A figure whistled through the air before crash landing in front of Lu Yin. Out of reflex, Lu Yin raised a hand to catch the person. It was a man who looked a bit childish with a stubborn expression on his face. He glanced at Lu Yin, said thank you, and then raced away.

The Sandmaster appeared next to Lu Yin. "Ever since you left, no talented students have emerged from Astral-10."

Lu Yin greeted the man. "Student Lu Yin greets the Sandmaster."

The Sandmaster waved a hand. "Don't speak like that."

After speaking, he looked at Lu Yin with a strange expression. The longer the man looked, the more amazed he became. "Kid, it's amazing that you were able to cultivate battle force up to nine lines."

Lu Yin humbly replied, "I was given a good foundation."

His battle force was actually no longer just nine lined battle force, as it had reached some higher level that Lu Yin did not understand. As for the Sandmaster and the Rainmaster, it was impossible for them to fully see through Lu Yin's current strength, and all that they could go off of was the strength that Lu Yin had revealed during ZENITH.

"Haha! Well said! Remember to say that publicly in the future. This Sand Ocean is too calm." The Sandmaster laughed.

Lu Yin was surprised. When he had been in Astral-10, the Sandmaster had not wanted people to train their battle force, but now he was saying the opposite. It seemed that the man could also be a good teacher.

"Sandmaster, this student has had a question in his heart for a long time, and I wonder if I can ask you," Lu Yin said.

The Sandmaster replied, "Ask."

Lu Yin spoke of his curiosity, "What is beyond nine lined battle force?"

The Sandmaster's eyes narrowed as he looked at Lu Yin. A smile slowly spread across his face. "Kid, you've got a lot of ambition. Aren't you satisfied with the level that you've reached?"

Lu Yin felt embarrassed as he said, "It's still a bit weak."

The Sandmaster nodded. "If not for that incomprehensible power that you possess, there's no way you could have beat the Hall of Honor's Shang Qing. At best, you would have been at the same level of strength as Progenitor Chen or Progenitor Hui, but there's no way you could have beaten both of them by yourself."

Lu Yin remained silent. It was true. Without the death energy, he would not have been able to defeat Shang Qing. Even if he had joined up with Wang Yi and Wu Taibai, they still might have lost, as Shang Qing was not weak even without his summons.

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA