Star Odyssey

Chapter 1562: A Game

Lu Yin felt completely helpless. No sourcebox array was easy to deal with. To record down these sourceboxes' danger fields, he would first have to disassemble the sourcebox array and then record down each sourcebox separately while dealing with all three sourceboxes' danger fields at the same time. Lu Yin's current level might be enough to let him succeed, but it would take a long time, and time was not something that he had.

Right when he was about to leave, he glanced to the side and saw a man approaching a little ways behind him. The man looked quite old and had a solemn expression on his face. He stopped at a similar distance away from the sourcebox array as Lu Yin and simply stared at three Perceptive Intermediate sourceboxes.

"Might I ask who Senior is?" Lu Yin asked.

The man looked over at Lu Yin. "Xu Feng."

Lu Yin had never heard of this person. "This junior is Lu Yin."

"I know. I've been keeping track of your progress," Xu Feng replied. He then returned his attention to the three Perceptive Intermediate sourceboxes. "Even if it is complicated, it's not that rare for sourceboxes to naturally form an array, though they do take a bit of time to study."

"Then this junior won't disturb Senior," Lu Yin said before moving to leave.

Xu Feng stopped him. "Wait."

Lu Yin looked back.

"Are you recording sourceboxes?"

"Yes."

"How many have you recorded so far?"

"Seventy-six."

Xu Feng was surprised. "You must have spent a long time here in the Ancient Spirit Sea."

Lu Yin considered his time. "Just over ten days."

Xu Feng was amazed. "As expected of a genius who exceeds even Wu Dan." He actually seemed rather emotional. "If my talent matched yours, I would have gone and recorded down this entire Ancient Spirit Sea by now."

"How many sourceboxes has senior recorded?" Lu Yin asked, curious.

Xu Feng's smile grew rather bitter. "Just over a hundred different sourceboxes."

"How many sourceboxes are in the Ancient Spirit Sea?"

"More than a hundred, possibly even more than two hundred."

Lu Yin did not believe it. If there were over two hundred sourceboxes, then why could he not find them?

"The deeper one goes in the Ancient Spirit Sea, the higher the rank of the sourceboxes. Even the sourceboxes that were used to create the Six Ancient Spirit Array came from the greatest depths of this Ancient Spirit Sea. Every Lockbreaker who visits the Lockbreakers World is among the best, so naturally, the majority of the sourceboxes in this sea are Perceptive Intermediate with only a few Discerning Elementary ones," Xu Feng explained.

Lu Yin looked down. He wanted to go deeper.

If he kept going down, then did that mean that he would eventually reach a depth where all of the sourceboxes were at the Boundless Advanced level? He refused to believe that the sea contained so many sourceboxes of that level, so it really must have mostly Perceptive Intermediate sourceboxes.

"Then this junior won't disturb Senior anymore," Lu Yin said before leaving.

Xu Feng continued to look at the three Perceptive Intermediate sourceboxes that naturally formed a sourcebox array. There were many people similar to Xu Feng in the Lockbreakers' World, and that was because Xiu Ming had once stated that whoever was able to record down all of the sourceboxes in Ancient Spirit Sea would be accepted as his disciple.

Over the next few days, Lu Yin purposely searched for Perceptive Intermediate sourceboxes that were easier to record, and he even occasionally returned to the upper layers of the Ancient Spirit Sea to search for new Discerning Elementary sourceboxes. This methodology was much faster and efficient, and he soon recorded down a hundred sourceboxes.

Delighted with his success, Lu Yin returned to Xiu Ming's residence. "Junior Lu Yin greets Senior Xiu Ming."

Xiu Ming stared at Lu Yin. "Why are you here? Did you finish your task?"

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"This junior has finished recording all of the required sourceboxes." He then opened his gadget and switched the display to show the records of the shapes and danger fields of all the sourceboxes that he had recorded down.

Wu Dan watched on with curiosity.

A hundred sourceboxes: thirty-six Discerning Elementary, forty-three Perceptive Intermediate, and twenty-one Boundless Advanced ones.

Wu Dan's fists tightened when he saw that Lu Yin had recorded twenty-one Boundless Advanced sourceboxes. While he had also successfully recorded down a hundred sourceboxes, he had not had such an impressive report. Among Lu Yin's list, Wu Dan even saw the large gourd-shaped sourcebox that he had never been able to approach. In fact, more than half of the advanced sourceboxes that Lu Yin had recorded down were ones that Wu Dan had seen but not been able to approach.

Xiu Ming was not at all surprised to see that Lu Yin had completed his given task. "What are your thoughts?"

Lu Yin replied earnestly, "There are no two sourceboxes in the entire universe that are the same. This time in the Ancient Spirit Sea has greatly shored up this junior's understanding of sourceboxes."

"Shored up? You still don't understand anything about lockbreaking," Xiu Ming countered.

Lu Yin grew frustrated; did this person still want to block him from progressing?

"Forget it. It seems that your thoughts are set on lockbreaking. Unlock two one star Boundless Advanced sourceboxes and one three star advanced sourcebox," Xiu Ming ordered.

Lu Yin was thrilled that the chairman had finally agreed to allow Lu Yin to take the promotion exam.

"Chairman, this disciple has a request," Wu Dan suddenly spoke up, addressing Xiu Ming, "This disciple wishes to play a game with Lu Yin."

Lu Yin's brow rose—a game?

Wu Dan then turned towards Lu Yin, an antagonistic expression on his face. "Lu Yin, do you dare to play a game with me? It's an Array Master's game."

Lu Yin blinked. "What's the game?"

"Stable Zone," Wu Dan said. Arrogance filled his eyes, as he assumed that Lu Yin did not know about this game.

Lu Yin said nothing and instead simply stared at Wu Dan.

"Stable Zone is a game that has been passed down since ancient times, and it's remained popular among Array Masters. The rules are very simple…" Wu Dan then began to explain the game, as he truly believed that Lu Yin did not know anything about Stable Zone.

Before going to Dragon Mountain, Lu Yin actually had been ignorant of the game, but during his time there, Grandmaster Qiu Ling had introduced him to the game and the limitless possibilities within it. In fact, Lu Yin quite enjoyed playing the game, but could he tell Wu Dan that he had already played against an Array Grandmaster? And that Array Grandmaster had even exclaimed at his talent.

Lu Yin's game had shocked countless people, including even an Array Master, Master Deng Guo.

"How about it? Lu Yin, do you dare to play?" Wu Dan stared at Lu Yin as he taunted him. Wu Dan really could not accept Lu Yin's talent. This person barely cared about lockbreaking at all, but he was still was able to surpass all of Wu Dan's accomplishments. Even Grandmaster Xiu saw Lu Yin as someone with greater potential than Wu Dan even though Lu Yin was not focused on or devoted to lockbreaking. Wu Dan had already lost to Lu Yin during ZENITH and now at lockbreaking. So, he had to seize at least one victory from Lu Yin.

Stable Zone was a game that comprehensively tested every aspect of a Lockbreaker's understanding and control over a set of sourceboxes' danger zones. It was a thorough way of testing a Lockbreaker's abilities, as it could even reveal their natural talent for lockbreaking. If Wu Dan was able to defeat Lu Yin at this game, then it would prove that Wu Dan was not inferior to this person.

"Okay. If you want to play, then I'll join," Lu Yin said.

Wu Dan was ecstatic. "I won't bully you. We'll first play a game to let you learn and get used to the rules. Then, the second game will be our official match," he said.

He then turned towards Xiu Ming. "Might I ask Senior to be the judge?"

Xiu Ming showed a small smile. "Stable Zone. It's been a long time since I've played a game with Highsage Grandmaster. I truly miss it.

"Alright, you can play a game with two sourceboxes, and I'll judge your game." As Xiu Ming spoke, he tossed out two one star Boundless Advanced sourceboxes. This was the lowest difficulty level for Stable Zone, but this was also a game that could only be played by Array Masters.

Of the two sourceboxes, one released a gray fog the moment it appeared. If one looked closely at it, they would see that it was not actually fog, but rather an unknown energy that twisted the void into multiple, nearly indistinguishable folds. Once the folds accumulated to a certain density, the distortion started to take on the appearance of fog.

The other sourcebox had an invisible danger zone. It released an inaudible sound, but it was also powerful enough to cause the void to tremble.

Neither of the two sourceboxes had a very powerful danger zone, but both were potentially fatal to Wu Dan. After all, he was only a Hunter.

The two sourceboxes' danger zones overlapped and then merged. They canceled each other out in some areas while superimposing on themselves in others to create an unpredictable and chaotic danger zone.

Xiu Ming waved a hand, and his star energy spread out into the new danger zone. The sourceboxes eliminated the majority of the star energy, and the remainder transformed into black and white to form the game pieces for Stable Zone.

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"Begin. Choose your color," Xiu Ming stated.

Wu Dan looked at Lu Yin. "You can choose first."

"White," Lu Yin casually replied.

Wu Dan became solemn. "Very well, I'll be black. The game has started. You can enter the danger zone at any time, and even if I don't enter, you can move to destroy all of the black star energy if you can."

Lu Yin nodded. Just like when he had played with Grandmaster Qiu Ling, he took his time to observe the area that was the game board.

Wu Dan did the same.

After enough time for a stick of incense to have burned halfway down passed, Wu Dan's expression worsened. This game board was extremely complicated. He was not very powerful, and it was also very difficult for him to enter the game board without disturbing the danger zone. The moment it was disturbed, there was no way of predicting what sort of reaction would occur.

Wu Dan was a talented and arrogant Array Master, but he would never do anything without full confidence. This was a part of him that he could not change.

Suddenly, Wu Dan looked up at Lu Yin, startled. Lu Yin was moving.

Xiu Ming also looked over at Lu Yin.

At this time, several other Lockbreakers arrived at Xiu Ming's home. There were both men and women, and all of them held very high statuses in the Lockbreakers World, and they were also all Array Masters.

Stable Zone was not merely a game; it was also an effective means for an Array Master to study and improve themselves. No Array Master would not be willing to watch a game, and this was also a key reason behind why the game had endured for so long.

Several people were shocked to see Lu Yin moving already. "Is he really that confident after such a short amount of time has passed?"

"Well, this is his first game. It's natural for the kid to want to take a risk and try it for himself."

"If the sourceboxes' danger zone is triggered and destroys all of the black and white energy, then he'll lose."

Lu Yin chose a peculiar starting position while everyone watched on. Right after that, he lifted a hand and waved it, triggering the sourceboxes' danger zone. His movement ignited a chain reaction, and the black pieces were quickly destroyed. A bit of the white star energy was also destroyed at the same time, but such a thing was unavoidable.

Wu Dan was shocked. Impossible! How?

Even an idiot could see that Lu Yin had not randomly messed around with the sourceboxes' danger zone. He was truly playing the game, just as he had against Grandmaster Qiu Ling, and he was intent on destroying his opponent's game pieces.

The game with Grandmaster Qiu Ling had allowed Lu Yin to make incredible progress in his Lockbreaking abilities, and that was not even considering the fact that the current game board was much simpler than the one that Lu Yin had played on before. While the danger zone looked complicated to Wu Dan, Lu Yin was able to see through it clearly.

Wu Dan just stared blankly at Lu Yin's move. The black star energy was destroyed bit by bit, but Wu Dan was not able to step onto the game board even after all of his black energy had been eliminated.

The gathered Array Masters who were watching were also surprised to see the game end so quickly.

Xiu Ming sighed in admiration. This was true talent. This child's talent was almost unbelievable, but unfortunately, his heart was not set on lockbreaking. If he did, the Lockbreakers World would belong to him, and he would lead all of the Fifth Mainland's Lockbreakers. Really, it was such a pity.

Lu Yin looked at Wu Dan. "Sorry, the game's over."

"What? How? Why are you so fast?" Wu Dan still could not believe that he had lost.

Lu Yin shrugged. "You told me that I could move before you stepped onto the game board. Maybe I was just lucky."

Wu Dan refused to accept the results of the game. "Let's play again!"

Lu Yin did not say no. After all, they had already agreed to play two games. "Sure."

Grandmaster Xiu Ming stared at Lu Yin for a moment before taking out two more sourceboxes. These ones were also one star Boundless Advanced sourceboxes. Their combined danger zone closely matched the level of difficulty of the one from the first game.

Everyone intently watched.

After enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn, Lu Yin once again made his move.

This time, Wu Dan also moved. He had not fully understood the danger zone that formed the game board, but he was not willing to suffer another crushing defeat.

Both youths stepped onto the game board simultaneously.