Star Odyssey

Chapter 1445: Return

While following the maps, they had encountered numerous withered creatures, so as the youths returned to the Junior Progenitor Planets, they decided to join forces. During this return trip, they even discussed their formation so that they could rush back to the Junior Progenitor Planets as quickly as possible.

The fact that all four Junior Progenitors had been trapped was a disaster for the Perennial World. It was essentially a fracture in the continuity of inheritances, which could not be allowed.

Lu Yin forced a withered creature back with a single palm attack. However, not only was the creature not killed, but it actually became even stronger. Behind him, Xia Taili felt frustrated. "Why are you so useless?"

Lu Yin retorted, "Really? I'm injured right now!"

"Get to the middle and don't get in the way!" Xia Taili was in a particularly irritable mood at the moment, so she yelled harshly at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin casually returned to the middle of the group. He looked quite relaxed as everyone else protected him.

Xia Taili gritted her teeth. If not for the fact that she needed this wastrel to confirm her story and prevent the White Dragon Clan from not believing her, she would never have brought Long Qi along.

Suddenly, Lu Yin exclaimed, "Yuhua!"

Xia Taili was startled, and she looked at where Lu Yin indicated. Off in the distance, a withered creature was attacking another person: Yuhua Mavis.

"Trespasser!" Xia Taili shouted fiercely as she raised a hand and attacked with a palm. The energy of her Divine Martial Armor forced many of the creatures back as it shot towards Yuhua Mavis.

Yuhua Mavis frowned and responded with a punch, causing a powerful force to clash with the Divine Martial Armor. Xia Taili's attack was shattered, and Yuhua Mavis fled in another direction.

Xia Taili quickly gave chase, and simultaneously, Yao Xuan, Lu Yin, Shang Qing, and Unseen Light also pursued her.

Yuhua Mavis had not expected that five people would break off from the group to pursue after her.

Xia Taili had not wanted anyone else to join her in her pursuit, and she looked over at Lu Yin in surprise. "What are you doing?"

Lu Yin looked solemn, and he quietly said something to Xia Taili. His words startled her, and she seemed to instinctively not believe Lu Yin.

Xia Taili looked up and saw that Yuhua Mavis was getting further and further away, so Xia Taili raised a hand. A lock appeared on Yuhua Mavis. It was the Xia Secret Art: Lock.

Yuhua Mavis would not be able to break free from the technique in a short amount of time since Xia Taili was about as strong as Wang Yi.

Xia Taili immediately attacked with another palm, clearly intending to smash Yuhua Mavis's head apart with her Divine Martial Armor.

Suddenly, a ball appeared in front of Xia Taili. "Force Explosion."

She quickly pulled back, and the void trembled as an impressive amount of spiritual force swept out in all directions, affecting Xia Taili's consciousness.

She looked back up, only to see that Unseen Light had just saved Yuhua Mavis.

"You really are trespassers!" Xia Taili snapped.

Shang Qing attacked, and three streams of ancestral qi shot towards Yao Xuan and Unseen Light.

The three people counterattacked, which shattered the streams of qi. Lu Yin also attacked, and his Vacuum Palm managed to injure Unseen Light. Yao Xuan coldly stated, "There's no need to chase after us. You'll never see us again."

With that, he threw something out of his cosmic ring.

Lu Yin, Xia Taili, and Shang Qing quickly fell back as the void tore open in front of them. A power vessel with a strength that surpassed an Envoy's had been used, and it produced a shockwave that swept everyone up into its chaos. The attack then struck the ground and opened up a fissure in the branch.

Once things grew peaceful once again, Yuhua Mavis and the other two had already disappeared.

Xia Taili frowned as she stared into the distance. They had run away. Had that attack been a power vessel?

She heard Lu Yin cough as he approached. "I didn't expect all of them to be trespassers."

Xia Taili turned to glare at him. "If you suspected it, then why didn't you tell me before?"

Lu Yin acted helpless. "I wasn't sure. I grew suspicious because I happened to notice that Unseen Light didn't make any moves against Yuhua in the Voidsoul Palace."

"He's an old friend of yours, which is also why you stayed quiet," Xia Taili countered.

Lu Yin sighed. "These trespassers are too powerful. Now that I think about it, they probably befriended me on purpose in order to hide their identities."

Shang Qing approached. "Let's go."

Xia Taili looked around once more, but then she helplessly returned to the group.

Behind Xia Taili's back, Lu Yin and Shang Qing glanced at each other before following the young woman.

They had come up with this plan a long time ago. Since Yuhua Mavis had already been exposed, it was highly unlikely for just a single trespasser to have infiltrated the teams traveling to the Dominion Realm. After returning to the Junior Progenitor Planets, even if the elders were preoccupied by the fact that the four Junior Progenitors had been trapped, they would still pay attention to all of the youths, and each one would be thoroughly investigated.

Out of everyone, Unseen Light and Yao Xuan were the two with unverifiable backgrounds, so the two had simply hidden themselves in Lu Yin's Zenith Mountain along with Yuhua Mavis.

Lu Yin had the identity of the White Dragon Clan's main family's son-in-law, and he had even passed the clan's blood test.

Shang Qing came from Nest, but no one knew all of the prisoners from there. Some people were even born in that place, so it was impossible to confirm anything.

Wu Taibai was from Shenwu's Sky.

As for Liu Tianmu, she was an actual member of the Liu family. The Liu family in the Fifth Mainland had originally been a branch of the family in the Perennial World, and even the Thirteen Swords had come from this universe. Thus, Liu Tianmu had also passed a blood test. Lu Yin still remembered the occasion when Liu Tianmu had shown a rare hint of emotion when explaining this matter to him. "Do you think that the Liu family is full of idiots? That you can just join by claiming to have the Liu surname?'

Exposing Unseen Light and Yao Xuan as trespassers not only made things easier for everyone else and helped remove any suspicion of the remaining people being trespassers, but it also allowed the three people to be safely taken away from the Dominion Realm. In short, this move killed two birds with one stone.

After all, the trespassers all knew each other and would want to work together. What person would think that there were still more trespassers?

Long Xi had told Lu Yin that in the past, during the excursions into the Dominion Realm, it was normal for all of the trespassers to die. At best, only one or two had escaped, which was considered incredibly lucky. No one had ever thought that Lu Yin's presence would allow everyone to return safely. Not even a Progenitor would consider this possibility.

The truth was that the trespassers' greatest source of support was the nature of the four ruling powers. They were not united, as if the Perennial World was ruled by a single power, it would be much more difficult for trespassers to sneak in and out.

The return trip was much faster than the trip out of the Junior Progenitor Planets. After only a few days of travel had passed, everyone saw the planets appear up ahead.

Xia Taili let out a sigh of relief and quickly shouted, "Senior Jun!"

"I am not allowed to set foot in the Dominion Realm. Please return to the Junior Progenitor Planet first."

Xia Taili breathed heavily before leading everyone to Shenwu's Sky's Junior Progenitor Planet.

As the entire group arrived on the planet, the void twisted before them, and an old man emerged. "Taili, what happened? Where is our Junior Progenitor?"

Xia Taili quickly shared everything that had happened with the old man.

The old man was shocked, and he immediately contacted Shenwu's Sky.

While he was doing that, three more people appeared in front of the youths.

Altogether, there were three men and one woman, and all of them were quite old. These four were the strongest powerhouses among the guardians of the Junior Progenitor Planets, and all of them had survived six tribulations. By the Fifth Mainland's standards, these four's power level had all exceeded a million, and they were all comparable to Yuan Shi.

It was because of these people's ages that they had no hope of proceeding any further in terms of cultivation, and that was also why they had been forced to rely upon the Junior Progenitors. They could only hope that the youths would eventually become Progenitors who would then help the elders' cultivation take another step further.

While these four were all quite old, their ambition was still undiminished.

The moment they heard that the Junior Progenitors had been trapped in the Forgotten Ruins, several people panicked.

Lu Yin looked back towards the Dominion Realm. At the moment, it was impossible to determine what fate had in store for them. He also thought of the location that Unseen Light had mentioned where all of the trespassers were supposed to go to for someone to take them back to the Fifth Mainland. However, would they even be able to reach that place?

Throughout the Fifth Mainland's history, many people had been sent to the Perennial World to grab Origin Matter and fight for the opportunity to become a Progenitor. However, very few had ever succeeded. Each person sent to the Perennial World was among the Fifth Mainland's most gifted youths, and none of them would be any worse than Yuhua Mavis.

When it came to survival, luck mattered more than strength.

At this point in time, everything was a matter of fate.

Before long, a terrifying aura descended, causing Lu Yin and the others to all look up at the same time. An unfathomable power had entered the Dominion Realm. This person should be a Semi-Progenitor.

Soon after, another terrifying aura fell upon them.

Lu Yin's scalp went numb. No one knew what these elders were capable of. Lu Yin silently uttered a prayer, hoping to give those monsters a bit of strength. While this was wrong, Lu Yin nonetheless did not want to die.

A day passed, and then two. Before long, five days had passed. Everyone was still quietly waiting on Shenwu's Sky's Junior Progenitor Planet. Not one person spoke, not even the ancient powerhouses.

Finally, after ten days passed, they received word from the four ruling powers. The first thing that happened afterwards was that everyone was separated and questioned individually about what had happened during their time in the Dominion Realm.

Regarding the two days that it had taken Xia Taili and Nong Sanniang to catch up to everyone else at the trap, everyone had already discussed their stories.

With Unseen Light and Yao Xuan being removed, everyone else had a strong background. While there might be a few missing or twisted details, it would not be anything that truly mattered.

At this point, the only thing that the four ruling powers were concerned about was whether or not there were still any trespassers hidden within the excursion teams. As for the four trapped Junior Progenitors, that had nothing to do with Lu Yin and the others. It had already been determined that it was impossible to extract the four from the Forgotten Ruins, and it was quite obvious that the trap had been set by those monsters.

As for finding Long Xi and others, no traces could be found. No matter how the various powerhouses searched, they were unable to find anything. Thus, there was no need to say anything further about that matter either.

"It's quite clear that this place is truly a Forgotten Ruins, but not an ordinary one. Something further must be hidden there. If we forcibly take them away, we might trigger something."

"Bai Laogui, I want to speak with your grandchild and the other children."

"Long Laogui, what are your thoughts?"

"Hmph, no."

"Then don't spout off nonsense. Your heir is also trapped in that place, so give the matter some more thought."

"Alright, stop wasting time!" an old woman shouted to the others.

The two fell quiet.

"This particular Forgotten Ruins is incredibly old, and it should have been left behind from the ancient war. This trap was laid down when Progenitor Ku was still alive."

"True. If one is able to set up this sort of trap, then it means that they have no fear of rescue. Let's wait for our Progenitors to come out. It shouldn't take long."

"That's such a cowardly plan. It doesn't sound like what Xia Yingxiong said." An old white man smiled.

Long Laogui2 also had a strange smile. "You're the hero."1

"Shut up, you two! Let's put this matter aside for the moment. What about those children? Long Laogui, I heard that you lost another one of your clan's children."

"Hmph, there is no guarantee of survival when exploring the Dominion Realm."

"You aren't human," Bai Laogui3 said.

Long Laogui grew furious. "Old Bai, do you want to fight?"

"Enough!" the old woman shouted yet again. Suddenly, her voice dropped. "Aside from our four ruling powers, Virtue Archives, Specter Abyss, the Yun clan, and the Liu family all have people missing. Those monsters were able to set one trap, so it's not impossible for them to have set up a second one as well. However, it seems like the missing people suffered from bad luck more than anything, and we need to consider how we'll explain this matter to those organizations."

"There's no need to explain a thing. Such a result is expected when exploring the Dominion Realm. Even the four Junior Progenitors were trapped, so what can anyone else say?" Bai Laogui replied.

"There were three ants from the Forsaken Land who managed to sneak in, so we still need to make sure there aren't any others hidden among us," the old woman said.

"That's not very likely. It's already pretty good that they were able to sneak three people into the teams," Xia Yingxiong said.

"Ahem, the Forgotten Ruins are something created by your family. Do you not have any thoughts on this?" Bai Laogui asked.

The old woman replied, "You don't know what happened to my Wang family back then."

Everyone stopped talking.

[1] Yingxiong means hero, so the guy's teasing his old friend. ☜

[2] Long Laogui = "old monster" Long. Old people being friendly to each other by calling each other names. ☜

[3] Bai Laogui = "old ghost" Bai. Very similar to Long Laogui. ☜