Star Odyssey

Chapter 1651: Challenge

Lu Yin had initially wanted to give Long Yi a curio so that the dragon could utilize his full power, but after hearing Long Yi's explanation, Lu Yin changed his mind. He only had fifty cloakstones, and even if he gave all of them to the dragon, it would not be enough for half of Long Yi's clones.

They continued sparring, and Long Yi continued trying to defeat Lu Yin. As for Lu Yin, his mind was on other things.

At that moment, Ku Wei arrived in his normal form. He suddenly screamed.

Lu Yin stopped.

"Master, the Sword Sect's gone nuts!" Ku Wei shouted.

Lu Yin frowned. "What happened?"

"Do you remember former Arbiter Liu Tianmu? She wants to challenge you as the Sword Sect's representative," Ku Wei yelped.

Lu Yin arched a brow. "Liu Tianmu wants to challenge me?"

He also immediately assumed that the Sword Sect and Liu Tianmu had gone crazy. She already knew that he was strong enough to defeat an Envoy, and yet she still dared to challenge him. She had to be crazy!

Long Yi also felt that the Sword Sect was insane. Not even the Sword Sect's Elder Lianxin was able to defeat Lu Yin, and she was an actual Envoy. There was no need to mention Liu Tianmu.

Lu Yin checked his gadget and saw that news of Liu Tianmu's challenge had already been released on the network, and Liu Tianmu was even letting Lu Yin choose the time and place for their battle.

Lu Yin's gaze grew more focused; something was wrong. Liu Tianmu was either crazy or well prepared, but why would she believe herself capable of defeating him? Did she have some sort of item? A power vessel? That was impossible, as such things were not allowed in these formal challenges. In that case, why had she challenged him? Could it be that she was just trying to delay his attack on the Sword Sect?

"Master, the woman's gotta be crazy. There's no need for you to waste your time as I can settle this for you." Ku Wei became very excited, as he wanted to fight against Liu Tianmu. He was confident that he would be a match for the Arbiters.

Lu Yin waved Ku Wei away as he continued to browse the available information.

Before long, Li Zimo called Lu Yin. "Liu Tianmu obtained a black sword from somewhere underground in the Sword Sect. The sword's from Liu Guai."

"Liu Guai?" Lu Yin was shocked. He had heard this name before; Burial Garden's Yōu Qi had mentioned it. You Qi's innate gift was a book that allowed him to use the power of dead people, such as Dun Jiu and Liu Guai. Lu Yin still remembered how Yōu Qi had used Liu Guai's Thirteen Swords.

"Liu Guai was a unique person in the history of the Sword Sect, as he managed to learn the Thirteen Swords, but he only used five years to master the First to the Twelfth Sword. He was considered a true genius, but he was stuck on the Thirteenth Sword for twenty years. Nobody knows why. Even though he experienced romance and had familial ties, he still wasn't able to understand the Thirteenth Sword.

"Also, no one knows how he managed to master the Thirteenth Sword, but his version of the technique was unavoidable, just like Liu Tianmu's," Li Zimo explained.

It sounded like a normal story, but that could not be everything. If that was all there was, then Liu Guai would have never been included within the Sword Sect's records. He would have just been considered a typical cultivator who had managed to comprehend the Thirteen Swords.

"I've asked my master why Liu Guai's sword was kept beneath the Sword Sect, but she only told me that Liu Guai's Thirteen Swords was very tempting. She would not elaborate beyond that. However, there was one odd thing about Liu Guai: he was killed by someone else from the Sword Sect," Li Zimo continued.

Finally, Lu Yin's expression changed. This was a strange detail; the fact that Liu Guai had been killed by someone from the Sword Sect was a big deal, as the Sword Sect generally placed a tremendous amount of importance on the Thirteen Swords. How could one of their disciples who had mastered the Thirteen Swords been killed by someone else from the same sect? This was very strange.

Furthermore, if Liu Guai had been killed inside the Sword Sect, then how was someone from Burial Garden able to use his skills?

"Where's Liu Guai's corpse?" Lu Yin asked.

"I don't know. All I know is that Liu Guai was killed inside the Sword Sect, but Master didn't say anything else. Oh right, Liu Guai's sword is known as Heaven and Earth." Li Zimo hung up as soon as he finished talking.

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Lu Yin lowered his gadget and smiled. It was no wonder why Liu Tianmu had dared to challenge him. It seemed that there was something special about Liu Guai's sword. However, Liu Tianmu would not be allowed to use any additional items during their battle, so would a sword be of any help even if it was special?

Could she stand up to one of his attacks?

Lu Yin was a cautious person, and he was aware that Liu Tianmu was not irrational. Since she had challenged him, she had to have some measure of confidence. This meant that Liu Guai was at the heart of this issue.

Lu Yin immediately reached out to Da Qiu and San Liang, as he wanted to use the Hall of Honor to gather more information about Liu Guai.

The Hall of Honor had incarcerated Liu Huang within Gaia's Swamp, and they would naturally have the most knowledge about the Sword Sect outside of the sect itself.

"Alliance Leader, Liu Guai was one of the Sword Sect's many powerhouses in their history to master the Thirteen Swords. There was nothing particularly special about him," Da Qiu informed Lu Yin.

The Interstellar Supreme Court's records had nothing special pertaining to Liu Guai, which meant that Lu Yin's only remaining resource was San Liang.

San Liang soon got back to Lu Yin. "There's only one detail that the overseers' council has regarding Liu Guai: he went insane."

"Insane?"

"Yes. Nobody knows the details of what happened, but after Liu Guai went crazy, the Sword Sect dealt with him, and I heard that the Sword Sect even sealed themselves off for an entire year afterwards. Thus, they are the only ones who know the truth of what happened back then," San Liang explained. He had perused the overseers' records, which covered all major events that had occurred in the Fifth Mainland, regardless of if it pertained to the Interstellar Supreme Court, military conflicts, or even the Lockbreaker Society. The overseers had the right to view any information that the Hall of Honor's subsidiary powers had access to.

Lu Yin fell deep into thought. It appeared that Liu Guai had been quite famous, and even the Hall of Honor had only been able to gather a small amount of information regarding the man. This meant that Lu Yin would have to go to the Sword Sect and Burial Garden if he wanted to find out more about Liu Guai.

Burial Garden was far too mysterious, and Lu Yin actually had no way of contacting them.

Lu Yin was just about to hang up when San Liang hesitantly said, "Alliance Leader, um, there's one more thing, but I'm not sure whether or not I should tell you."

"What is it?" Lu Yin asked.

"The rumors claiming that the Great Eastern Alliance is working together with Sixth Mainland to deal with the Sword Sect have been spreading wildly, and even the overseers' council are arguing about this matter. Alliance Leader Lu, you're not actually working with the Sixth Mainland, right?"

Lu Yin's eyes flickered. "What's your position in this matter?"

San Liang was confused. "What?"

"You're stating a position, so tell me, what is it?" Lu Yin asked calmly.

San Liang turned pale. "Alliance Leader Lu, I'm not trying to express my position, I'm just-"

"San Liang, do you remember how you first made contact with Wang Wen?" Lu Yin asked.

San Liang's heart fell. "Yes, I remember, Alliance Leader Lu."

"Since I was able to make you into an overseer and one of the most influential people in the entire Fifth Mainland, I can also bring you back down. You have no right to interfere in anything I wish to do, and you have no right to even express your position," Lu Yin icily stated.

San Liang paled even further. "Alliance Leader Lu, I understand. I'm sorry, Alliance Leader Lu. I won't do it again."

Lu Yin hung up and stared up at the sky. People easily became arrogant after attaining power, and San Liang was one such person. He had desperately wanted to become an overseer and had spent a great deal of time studying psychology rather than cultivating and training, which showed his ambition. However, after he had succeeded, he became dissatisfied at being a puppet of the Great Eastern Alliance and had wanted to express his position on matters.

Fortunately, Lu Yin had discovered the man's arrogance at an early stage, as otherwise, Lu Yin would have had to replace the man once he had become too ambitious, and that would be troublesome.

San Liang was just one of many people under Lu Yin's control, and it was possible that some of the others had a similar mindset.

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What about Wei Rong? Lu Yin was still concerned about Wei Rong, as the man was too intelligent, and smart people did not readily reveal their ambitions.

Fortunately, Lu Yin had already planted someone near Wei Rong.

Lu Yin went back to his gadget. Since the Sword Sect wanted to challenge him, he had no reason to refuse. No matter what skills Liu Guai might have had, Lu Yin did not believe that they would let Liu Tianmu measure up to him. Lu Yin had always been the one to successfully challenge people stronger than himself.

He set the date for their battle to take place in seven days, and Lu Yin smiled when he chose the venue: the Sword Sect.

Countless people became intrigued in former Arbiter Liu Tianmu's challenge to Lu Yin, and it became a topic of discussion for many across the universe.

Still, while most people were confident that Liu Tianmu would not be able to defeat Lu Yin, as Lu Yin had left a strong impression on everyone during the final battle of ZENITH, there were some people who supported Liu Tianmu nonetheless. This was because the Thirteen Swords were just too famous as a technique, and it swayed some people into favoring the Thirteen Swords even though Lu Yin had withstood the Thirteenth Sword before.

Liu Tianmu sat on the ground on Sword Mountain. A black sword and a white sword lay next to her as she waited for Lu Yin's reply.

Liu Shaoqiu was worried.

Long Yun and others had mixed feelings, as a former Arbiter was currently needing to challenge someone else instead.

At this moment, even Liu Qianjue was waiting for Lu Yin's reply.

"Sect Master, Lu Yin has accepted the challenge. He chose to have the match take place in seven days, and he's also chosen the location," Elder Li hesitated for a moment before continuing, saying, "The Sword Sect's Sword Array Plaza."

Liu Qianjue frowned. Was Lu Yin overconfident and too arrogant? Why else would he choose to have the battle take place within the Sword Sect? The Sword Sect had become Lu Yin's enemy, but he still dared to fight in their home.

The Sword Sect disciples were all outraged. Sword Mountain constantly emitted sword qi, which made it a perfect place to fight, but particularly so for the Sword Sect's own disciples. Lu Yin was being far too arrogant by choosing to fight within the Sword Sect, let alone the Sword Array Plaza where he had once destroyed their sword array.

"Agree to his terms. I'll wait for him in the Sword Array Plaza in seven days," Liu Tianmu replied.

Liu Qianjue nodded and then raised his head. "Disciples of the Sword Sect! Open the gates and prepare to receive our guests!"

After two days, many cultivators had arrived in First Flowzone, as they wanted to enter the Sword Sect to watch the battle between Liu Tianmu and Lu Yin. Most of these visitors were part of the younger generation, as the Ten Arbiters had only recently stepped down due to age. Thus, to many youths, the former Ten Arbiters were still the overseers of the younger generation.

Not many older cultivators were interested in this particular battle, as they already knew that Lu Yin was able to fight on par with Envoys. Even though many were curious about why Liu Tianmu had willingly challenged Lu Yin, they still believed that Lu Yin was guaranteed to emerge victorious and that the Sword Sect was just stalling.

Since Lu Yin was supposedly cooperating with the Sixth Mainland to deal with the Sword Sect, the only thing that the Sword Sect could do was delay the attack with something like this challenge.

As far as most people were concerned, this challenge was nothing more than a waste of time.

In the Neoverse, in the Cosmic Sect, Sect Master Yuan Qiong arrived at Elder Jiu Shen's training grounds. "Elder, Lu Yin is in trouble."

Elder Jiu Shen opened his eyes, his gaze expressing his rage and helplessness. "What's wrong?"

Yuan Qiong spoke bitterly, as he had no desire to visit Elder Jiu Shen for this matter, but the sect master had been left with no choice. Since Lu Yin had not been able to directly reach Elder Jiu Shen, he had forced the sect master to visit on his behalf. "He wants you to protect him for a few days."

Elder Jiu Shen instantly became outraged. "He dares to try to force me to protect him?"

Yuan Qiong helplessly explained, "He said that he might soon die without your protection."

Elder Jiu Shen gritted his teeth. "Doesn't he have that Liu Ye and Fei Hua with him?"

"He said that his enemy might be a Sixth Mainland powerhouse with a power level of more than a million."

Elder Jiu Shen's eyes flashed. "What's going on?"