Star Odyssey

Chapter 2543: Arboreal Sanctuary

Before Xu Ji led Xu Yue away, he turned back towards “Xuan Qi.” "Don't disappoint me."

After everyone had left the area, including the three children, Lu Yin looked around and prepared to leave as well. However, he suddenly stopped and turned, choosing a different direction to take.

He had just received a message from Mu Sanye, who had informed Lu Yin that there were powerful trees in a specific direction.

In order to obtain Xuan Qi, Mu Sanye had basically cheated. Even so, how much of even being able to enter the Arboreal Sanctuary was actually based on pure merit? This was how the megaverse worked.

"He's already left, so why are you still staring?" Mu Sanye said as he sneered at Xu Xiangyin.

Xu Xiangyin felt puzzled. "Xuan Qi was clearly about to head west, so why did he suddenly change direction?"

He looked at Mu Sanye. "Are you behind that?"

Mu Sanye replied, "Don’t be ridiculous."

You Teng laughed. "Just wait patiently, both of you. It shouldn't be long for we see the results."

Xu Xiangyin nodded. "Mu San, stop making things difficult and just wait for the results."

Mu Sanye sighed. "I didn't expect that after so many years, we would be fighting with each other over a child. In a way, we relied on each other to survive that battlefield back then."

Xu Xiangyin's expression grew complicated. "Only those who have fought on a battlefield can truly understand the desire to recruit a genius like Xuan Qi."

Mu Sanye did not argue, and instead glanced at Xu Xiangyin before waiting in silence.

Inside the Arboreal Sanctuary, Lu Yin was utterly unfamiliar with how to navigate the place. Even if he had heard from Mu Sanye that there were powerful trees in a particular direction, he did not dare release his domain. After all, he was in the Arboreal Sanctuary, and the place was said to have been created by the Guardian of the Arboreal Realm. Who knows if that peak expert who had delivered them to the Arboreal Sanctuary was still monitoring Lu Yin? It would be better for him to be cautious.

In the distance, a woman's eyes lit up when a tree the size of a person’s hand emerged from the void. The tree had no features that resembled a face, and yet it gave off a feeling of pure innocence as it bounced up and down in a joyful manner.

"What a cute little tree!" the woman said. She then stretched out her hand. "Come here."

The little tree hopped toward the woman and jumped onto her palm as she watched it with delight.

The next moment, the woman screamed in agony as her arms were both crushed. The void collapsed, and black ripples spread out.

Lu Yin was astonished; was that gravity?

The woman retreated, and did not stop fleeing. All color drained from her face as she stared at the little tree.

Her arms had been destroyed. She was completely unable to resist the gravity. When she saw that the little tree was still hopping toward her, terror overwhelmed her. "Stay away! Stay away! AHH–!!"

The little tree hesitated, and then slowly retracted its branches. It reluctantly turned to move in another direction.

The woman gasped for breath and slowly crumpled to the ground. She had nearly died just then. A single touch had taken her arms. Fortunately, the little tree had not intended to attack her, or else she would have simply died.

Lu Yin shook his head. The woman could only blame herself. Even a tiny tree that emerged from the void would not be simple.

Before long, Lu Yin encountered a ten-meter-tall tree. Its branches hung low, each shaped like a plain, sharp sword. When the breeze blew, the branches sliced through the void.

A person was sitting in front of the tree, lost in thought with a bitter expression on their face. When they caught sight of Lu Yin, they immediately put their guard up. "Xuan Qi, I found it first!"

Lu Yin said nothing and simply left.

While that tree appeared to be extraordinary, it was not to his liking. Even so, an innate gift obtained from that tree would clearly be related to swords, which was not bad.

The Arboreal Sanctuary was an incredibly vast isolated space. After searching for several hours, only a few trees were able to catch Lu Yin’s attention, but none of them caught his interest.

Hmm? Someone’s over there.

On a towering mountain peak that shot high into the sky, Lu Yin saw a man had captured a child and was interrogating him.

"Boy, don't test my patience! I'll count to ten, and if you don't speak by the time I finish, you can forget about ever speaking again!" the man said menacingly.

The child was one of the three children from the Arboreal Realm. Despite his obvious fear, he refused to obey the man. "I won't speak!"

The man sneered, "One."

"Two."

"Three."

Lu Yin’s brow furrowed. It was clear that the man wanted to force information about the Arboreal Sanctuary from the child. A child who had managed to pick a tri-chromatic fruit at such a young age had to have an extraordinary background. His family would have told him what kind of trees to seek after arriving in the Arboreal Sanctuary. Since the man had not been able to find anything suitable on his own, he had decided to resort to such a method.

Each of the three children had their own goals, and everyone knew it. But However, most people would not lower themselves to harm a child.

"Four."

"Five."

The boy’s lips trembled as his eyes filled with fear. However, he clenched his fists tightly. "I won't speak! I won't!"

The man grabbed the boy’s neck and picked him up. "Then I guess you're tired of living."

Lu Yin was about to make a move, but suddenly, the sky went dark. He looked up and saw an enormous tree, as tall as a giant, raise its branches high. It reminded him of a giant stomping a foot down, and the mountain peak shattered. The young boy fell to the broken ground, a severed arm still clutching his neck. Blood trickled down the arm and onto the boy’s body.

He swallowed. The arm no longer had an owner.

The man had been crushed by the giant tree and been reduced to a mere puddle of blood. Only his arm remained intact as evidence.

The boy fled. He had also narrowly avoided being crushed to death.

Lu Yin watched as the giant tree left. Mu Sanye had warned everyone not to show any malic within the Arboreal Sanctuary. That tree had sensed the man's malicious intent, and he had met his fate. It had also been well deserved.

While it was possible that Lu Yin could obtain an innate gift from the colossal tree, Lu Yin had no interest in an innate gift that would cause his body to grow bigger.

As days passed, Lu Yin encountered a tree that had a river twined around it that radiated a dazzling light. Jiang Xiaodao was also chasing that tree. It was clear that it suited him almost perfectly.

Lu Yin also found a tree that shone like a bright moon in the sky. Several people tried to approach it, only to discover that it was difficult to even get close. He saw a tree with strange fruits growing on it. Some people managed to get their hands on the fruits, yet they hesitated to eat them.

As he witnessed the numerous bizarre trees of the Arboreal Sanctuary, he felt as though his eyes were being opened to the wonders of the universe.

Unfortunately, he had still not yet found any tree that truly caught his eye.

Lu Yin's ears picked up the distant echoes of a battle. He stepped through the void and looked, only to discover Luo Zang and Xu Yue engaged in a fierce fight. Not far from the two was a roaring storm of purple thunder that filled a vast portion of the sky.

Lu Yin's eyes grew large, and he felt a pinge of envy. That was clearly no ordinary tree. The destructive power of that purple lightning surpassed a power level of a million.

As they fought, Luo Zang and Xu Yue moved away from the purple lightning. Each sought to defeat the other.

Xu Yue's figure flickered as she avoided Luo Zang's battle techniques, but as time went on, Luo Zang started to close the distance.

"Close combat isn't the Voidforce Universe's focus. I'll let you leave for Xu Ji's sake. Don't engage in pointless battles," Luo Zang stated.

Xu Yue coldly contemptuously as her hair danced in the wind. She flipped and avoided a flick of Luo Zang's finger. The attack pierced the void and continued on in Lu Yin's direction. It pierced his shoulder and left a hole in the void.

Both Luo Zang and Xu Yue had noticed “Xuan Qi.”

Xu Yue frowned. This person was not even able to dodge Luo Zang’s finger flick, despite the vast distance between them. Aside from raw talent, it seemed that Xuan Qi had no redeeming qualities.

Luo Zang glanced curiously at Lu Yin. He had always believed that Xuan Qi was not as simple as he appeared. Had he not seen the finger flick, or had he truly been unable to react in time? With that question, Luo Zang raised his hand once again and pointed toward Xu Yue. The woman dodged out of instinct, and again the attack shot towards Lu Yin. This time, it was aimed straight for his head.

However, Lu Yin had already moved to a different location.

It was impossible to determine if Xuan Qi had moved because he had sensed the approaching attack, or if he had already been intending to move. Not even Luo Zang could tell, which made him very uncomfortable.

"Luo Zang, let me show you the power of my Voidforce Universe," Xu Yue said as she widened the distance between them. She raised her right hand and declared, "Voidforce puppet, appear!"

The next moment, the void twisted, and a blue phoenix appeared. It cried at the sky before its narrow eyes locked onto Luo Zang and it charged at him.

The blue phoenix’s extreme heat incinerated the void as it passed, leaving burned traces in its wake.

Luo Zang also made his move. "You may have a voidforce puppet, but so do I."

He pushed a hand forward, also twisting the void. As it distorted, it revealed... a table.

Lu Yin was astonished. A table? The first thing that came to his mind was the Voidforce School. Only the Voidforce School carried such strange puppets.

Xu Xiangyin had mentioned that many of the Sixverse Academy’s students were waiting for the opportunity to seek their life-bound voidforce puppets. Xu Yue's blue phoenix was undoubtedly her own life-bound puppet, while Luo Zang's table was just as clearly a puppet he had obtained from the Voidforce School.

Regardless, the origins of the table did not matter, as the strength it possessed was what was important.

Xu Yue had initially wanted to use voidforce energy to seize control of Lu Yin. If she had succeeded, she would have essentially obtained a human voidforce puppet.

The table slammed into the blue phoenix, but the bird disdainfully raised its talons.

There was a loud bang, and the table shattered. The voidforce energy was torn apart by the blue phoenix. While a portion of the blue phoenix's voidforce energy was also consumed, it remained more than powerful enough to pose a threat to Luo Zang.

The blue phoenix possessed ten times more voidforce energy than Xu Yue's internal reserves, which proved she was an exceptional genius within the entire Voidforce Universe. After all, her voidforce puppet could unleash attacks ten times more powerful than Xu Yue herself.

Luo Zang had no choice but to retreat before the blue phoenix.

His bright eyes remained fixed on the blue phoenix that pursued him. This was the sort of power he desired; the powers of the Voidforce Universe, the Arboreal Realm, the Lost Clan Universe, the Transcendent Universe, and the Cyclic Universe. He wanted to take all of those powers for his own, as only by doing so could he ascend to greatness.

The creation of the Sixverse Academy was not regarded as a big deal by the Cyclic Universe, but the Three Monarchs Universe had already expressed huge interest in the school, and had been actively promoting it. At this moment, it was finally revealing some results.

Not only did Luo Zang want to obtain a good innate gift from a tree in the Arboreal Sanctuary, he also wanted to find the most powerful life-bound voidforce puppet in the Voidchaos territory. Only then would his time in the academy not be in vain. In addition, he should get an energy converter from the Transcendent Universe. If he obtained all of that, where in the vast megaverse would he not be able to go?

There was no question that he would one day surpass his father, and Luo Lao'er was not worth even a second thought.

When Luo Zang turned around, he saw the blue phoenix fast approaching.

"Luo Zang, admit defeat, or you're finished," threatened Xu Yue.

The blue flames drew closer, and Luo Zang could feel a heat so extreme that it nearly melted his body. He saw Xu Yue behind the blue phoenix, as well as the more distant figure of Xuan Qi. Raising his hand, a stone cudgel appeared in Luo Zang’s grip. "The stone cudgel sweeps the world, leaving no trace in destiny."

As the last word fell, Monarch Essence surged from him for a moment before condensing onto the stone cudgel. He took a step forward.

Lu Yin arched a brow. This guy was seeking death. The destructive power of the blue phoenix was far beyond what Luo Zang could contend with. No matter what sort of power he might be capable of, he would definitely die if he tried to clash with the blue phoenix. However, Luo Zang was also not reckless.