Star Odyssey

There were always cultivators standing guard along the Astral River, but Chroma Flowzone’s forbidden zone was an exception, as anyone who entered the area would die.

"Alliance Leader, this is Chroma Flowzone’s forbidden zone. According to my family’s ancient records, no one has been able to come back out alive. There were once even Envoys sent in by the Hall of Honor, but they did not return, either. The only person to ever return was my ancestor who followed the Hall of Honor’s people. He was also the only person to have ever seen the black crystal," Yan Xiao explained.

Lu Yin asked, "How did all of those people die?"

He had been assuming that everyone had been killed by a corpse king, just the same as Venom Flowzone’s forbidden zone. These black crystals were incredibly important to the Aeternals, so it was impossible for them not to be protected.

However, how could the Hall of Honor have left this place alone if there was a corpse king?

"According to my ancestor’s account, there’s a strange, massive fish in there, and they were almost devoured by the fish. This entire region is that fish’s nest," Yan Xiao replied.

This was unexpected. "A strange fish?"

Yan Xiao quickly pulled out the ancient records of his Yan family from his cosmic ring. Lu Yin checked it, and immediately saw that it did indeed describe a strange and massive fish. It had been powerful enough to cause even the Hall of Honor to abandon the idea of investigating the area and leaving it to the fish without worries of hidden danger, which indicated that the fish was very powerful.

It's not a corpse king? Lu Yin's eyes flickered. No wonder Aeternus had been so comfortable leaving the black crystal in this place. The Hall of Honor would not have any concerns about some weird fish, and the creature could even help guard the border of the Human Domain.

"I see. This is a massive contribution you’ve made. From now on, you’re the deputy commander of the Seventh Division," Lu Yin said before asking Yan Xiao to return.

Yan Xiao suppressed his excitement and left after giving another respectful bow.

He did not know what was about to happen, but it did not concern him. Yan Xiao was thinking about how he had just been promoted from being the number three in the Seventh Division of the Allied Forces, to being the deputy commander!

Forget Chroma Flowzone, a deputy commander of the Allied Forces could walk sideways through Northline and Tempest Flowzones.

"Your turn." Lu Yin glanced back at the Second Nightking, and the old man moved forward into the forbidden zone.

Lu Yin had no desire to take any risks at this time. He knew he would be safe with the Second Nightking’s protection, but it was still better to avoid unnecessary risks.

Just a short while later, space shattered in the forbidden zone, and a faint roar could be heard.

Lu Yin's eyes instantly focused; the Second Nightking had just made his move.

It was impossible that this odd fish was something beyond the Hall of Honor’s abilities to deal with, which meant that they had simply not seen the need to bother. Lu Yin knew this to be true since the Yan family’s ancestor had been able to escape. This showed that the fish was not impossibly strong, and also indicated that the Second Nightking was more than enough to handle the creature.

Before long, the Second Nightking emerged from the forbidden zone, dragging the strange fish behind him.

It was indeed massive, but Lu Yin had seen the Python Ancestor before, so there was no shock when seeing a comparatively tiny fish.

"It was pretty strong. Power level of more than 700,000," the Second Nightking commented while keeping the fish completely suppressed. The creature’s furious eyes kept darting about before glaring at Lu Yin.

ƒ𝑟𝑒𝙚𝚠e𝗯𝘯𝗼𝘃𝑒𝚕. c𝒐𝒎

Lu Yin just glanced at the fish before moving into the forbidden zone.

The Yan family’s ancient records mentioned a specific location, and once Lu Yin arrived there, he found a huge chain that was all tangled up forming what looked to be something like a nest.

"This fish was stuck on the end of that chain," the Second Nightking said.

Lu Yin ordered, "Pull it."

The old man’s eyes tightened, but he moved forward and grabbed the chain with a hand and started pulling. Link by link, the chain was pulled from the Astral River into Chroma Flowzone. Lu Yin could not figure out what the chain was made of, but despite its obvious age, there were no signs of any sort of corrosion.

Lu Yin watched the chain move, and felt a bit surprised that the Aeternals were unconcerned of the possibility of the creatures living in the Astral River eating or damaging the black crystal. The Astral River was not a peaceful place, and there were some very powerful creatures that lived within it.

Soon, an enormous black crystal was dragged out of the Astral River. The outside of the crystal looked identical to the one Lu Yin had seen in the Autumnfrost family’s territory in the Outerverse: it was pitted and aged, looking quite worn out.

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Lu Yin's eyes lit up, as this really was the same sort of crystal that he had been searching for. They had found another one.

As for the Second Nightking, a flicker of fear appeared in the depths of his eyes. Sure enough, this was the same sort of crystal as they had encountered before.

The old man would never be able to forget how the black crystal they had found in the Outerverse had made the Neohuman Alliance go insane when it had been destroyed. They had reacted so recklessly that one of the Seven Skygods had died, and then they had attacked the Sixth Mainland in a fury that had produced heavy casualties that included even the death of a Semi-Progenitor.

Just why were these black crystals so important?

Lu Yin stared at the black crystal the size of a planet. He instantly assumed that the center of this crystal had to contain another bubble with that strange liquid.

As he thought about this, Lu Yin called First Edition City’s deputy city master, Little Bear, and asked for his location to be leaked to Wang Si and the other humans at Sky Creation Academy.

Lu Yin had spent a great deal of time thinking about how to deal with the Perennial World’s eventual attack, as well as how to drag Aeternus into the conflict once a war broke out. Whatever happened, Aeternus had to suffer a loss.

However, he had not been able to come up with a solution even after the Tower of the Fifth had been completed and opened.

The Perennial World’s four ruling powers would never give up on killing Lu Yin. If the Fifth Mainland wanted to protect him, war would be the only possibility. If the Fifth Mainland did not try to protect Lu Yin, they would try to capture him to turn him over, and Lu Yin would never allow that. This meant that war was inevitable. In that case, Aeternus could not be left watching from the sidelines.

The discovery of this black crystal had given Lu Yin the confidence to pull the Aeternals into the war.

Lu Yin knew his own value to Aeternus, as he understood his importance to Shaman God’s plan. However, the black crystals were also clearly very important. That one crystal that had been found in the Outerverse had quickly led to the deaths of several very powerful corpse kings, not to mention the death a Skygod and one of the Sixth Mainland’s Semi-Progenitors. It was very clear that these black crystals were extremely important.

In that case, it was time to test just how important they were to the Aeternals…

***

More people from the Perennial World arrived at Sky Creation Academy after passing through the New Corridor.

Wang Si stared eastwards, her eyes brimming with excitement and a powerful killing intent. She had been waiting for this moment for a long time. She had been impatient to kill Long Qi from the moment she had learned that he was really Lu Xiaoxuan. His death would eliminate the final root of the Lu family, which would eradicate a great deal of future trouble, not only for the four ruling powers, but more importantly, for Wang Si herself. She absolutely hated the Lu family—every single one of them—but especially that little bastard Lu Xiaoxuan.

Things would end soon, as it was impossible the Forsaken Land would be willing to fight the Perennial World’s invasion force for the sake of Lu Xiaoxuan. Even though the Forsaken Land hated the primeval surnames for abandoning the Fifth Mainland, strength trumped everything else, and the Forsaken Land could not compare to the power of the Perennial World. They did not have any powerhouse comparable to Elder Ni Huang who was at the absolute cusp of becoming a Progenitor.

At this moment, Sky Creation Academy’s Headmaster Senn approached. "There’s something I need to tell you."

Wang Si looked at the android with frigid eyes. White Sage had killed Wang Yun, and thus Wang Si’s first actions upon arriving at Sky Creation Academy had been to interrogate White Sage. However, the man had absolutely no memory of the event, and it had quickly become clear that the man had been controlled. There were only a handful of powerhouses in or near Sky Creation Academy with the strength to control White Sage. Headmaster Senn had been the first individual to come to Wang Si’s mind when she had realized this, but he had denied his involvement, and Wang Si could not think of any reason for the android to do such a thing.

The attack remained a complete mystery, which meant that White Sage could not die. He had to be kept alive so that they could pursue the investigation.

"What's wrong?" Wang Si asked in a sour tone. The Perennial World had been able to pass through the New Corridor not because of Sky Creation Academy’s cooperation, but because the Perennial World had paid an astronomical price. Things had grown worse after White Sage’s attack, and Headmaster Senn was rather afraid to allow them passage to travel to the Fifth Mainland. If not for the exorbitant price that they have paid, Headmaster Senn would not have changed his mind and continue allowing them passage.

Headmaster Senn answered softly, "We’ve received news about Lu Yin."

Wang Si whipped her head around to stare at the android, and she eagerly demanded, "Where is he?"

"The Innerverse. Chroma Flowzone," Headmaster Senn said before opening a star chart and indicating the location.

Wang Si stare at the star chart and quickly asked, "How did you find out about this?"

"We learned about this from First Edition City. They established an alliance with Lu Yin, and coincidentally, they were arranging to send a new batch of items to him to be decomposed, and so they were given his location," Headmaster Senn explained.

Wang Si became ecstatic. This was wonderful!

The Semi-Progenitor had learned that the bastard Lu Xiaoxuan had built something known as the Tower of the Fifth as soon as she had arrived at Sky Creation Academy. This tower was to raise up the entire Fifth Mainland by sharing multiple inheritances and gather people from across the entire Forsaken Land. Anyone who received an inheritance would also acknowledge the bastard as a half-master. This news had allowed Wang Si to instantly see through everything to Lu Xiaoxuan's motivations behind all of this: he wanted to entrench himself as an irreplaceable figure in the Forsaken Land.

If she was honest, Wang Si had to admit that the idea had a great deal of merit, but what she had not been able to understand was why Lu Xiaoxuan had even done such a thing, unless… Could he have known that the four ruling powers were about to attack the Forsaken Land? But how could that be possible?

It was at the moment that she heard news of Lu Yin from Headmaster Senn that everything fit together in Wang Si’s mind: if Sky Creation Academy was able to learn of Lu Xiaoxuan's location from this First Edition City, and that city was similarly able to spy on Sky Creation Academy.

This realization caused Wang Si to shoot a cold glare at Headmaster Senn before she turned and left.

The Tower of the Fifth had already been completed and opened to the public, which had given that bastard Lu Xiaoxuan an unprecedented status in the Forsaken Land. It had become highly unlikely that the Forsaken Land would be willing to deliver Lu Xiaoxuan to the Perennial World through mere negotiations. Even if the Forsaken Land was willing to do so, it was unlikely that they would actually take the initiative to act against Lu Xiaoxuan. The best choice would be to simply go and capture Lu Xiaoxuan immediately.

If they could capture him, it would be best, and even if they failed, they could simply open negotiations with the Forsaken Land.

It was impossible for Wang Si to move out on her own. She could never forget what she had seen when Lu Yin had had his breakthrough to become an Envoy and how he had caused the true universe to tremble and had caused a resonance that had allowed the entire Perennial World to see him. That bastard most likely had a Progenitor backing him, and this was the reason why the Perennial World did not send their Progenitors here.

Wang Si was not entirely confident of being able to take Lu Xiaoxuan away if she encountered one of the Forsaken Land’s Semi-Progenitors, which meant that she would need to move together with Elder Ni Huang.

It was only short time later that Wang Si and Ni Huang left the Technocracy on their way to the Innerverse’s Chroma Flowzone.

There was a dark expression on Ni Huang's face. While the old man knew that he should be eager for Lu Yin’s death, the words of Long Quan still rang out in the old man’s mind. Those words made Ni Huang feel like he was losing his mind. It was undeniable that Long Qi was Lu Xiaoxuan, and the existence of the Champions’ Stage was irrefutable proof, and yet Long Quan’s declaration as he died caused Elder Ni Huang to hesitate a bit. The man’s crazed rant before he had killed himself had almost completely dissipated Ni Huang’s killing intent for Lu Yin, and the Semi-Progenitor found himself frequently thinking back to what had happened on Dragon Mountain. If Long Qi had not been exposed at that time, how differently would things have turned out from what had actually happened?

Regardless, the first thing that needed to be done was to capture Lu Xiaoxuan.

...

In Chroma Flowzone, Lu Yin had ordered the Second Nightking to destroy the black crystal as soon as his location was leaked.

As long as people from four ruling powers came to Chroma Flowzone, they would take the blame for shattering the black crystal, and that would cause Aeternus to start making trouble for the four ruling powers.

There was no way the Aeternals could be ignored, and it was vital that humanity not fight among themselves if they wanted to deal with Aeternus.

"Be careful," Lu Yin warned.

The Second Nightking waved a hand, and the black crystal shattered and exploded in all directions.