Star Odyssey

Chapter 3121: Shattered Cosmic Doors

Lu Yin wiped the blood from his mouth, his face ashen. "This is a problem. That old man won't let me go. Senior, I might not be able to hold on for much longer. Let's go back to the cabin. If I can't push through, then we'll have to leave. Don’t worry, as I will definitely find a way to return and rescue you from the Mirari Realm."

"Boy, there's no need to rescue anyone. If you leave, I'll leave too, and then we’ll settle things outside. I’ll make sure you suffer!" Feng Bo's venomous voice echoed.

Lu Yin shook his head and exchanged a glance with Hongyan Mavis. They both saw amusement in the other's eyes as they walked toward the cabin.

Hongyan Mavis did not understand why Lu Yin had deliberately antagonized Feng Bo into placing candles on his shoulders again, but she did know that the flames were harmless to Lu Yin. The candles were not a threat.

Lu Yin had indeed been goading Feng Bo to get the candles again; how was he supposed to have Lightstream devour more moments of time without them? His inner world needed to devour time to strengthen its ability to peer into the past, which essentially meant that Lu Yin was cultivating Lightstream while he focused on learning True God's Natural Art.

Feng Bo was no fool. Lu Yin had been genuinely injured, but the blood that he had spat out was because he had made a mistake while learning True God's Natural Art. That had not been a ruse.

Lu Yin’s injury was more serious than anything he had received while fighting against Feng Bo, so why would Feng Bo not believe Lu Yin’s words?

In a way, this was similar to how Hongyan Mavis had been convinced that Lu Yin was not acting after she had witnessed the ferocity of his battle with Feng Bo.

Lu Yin had simply taken advantage of a genuine injury, as he could not think of any other way to provoke Feng Bo into attacking again and using against Lu Yin.

The candles’ flames would save Lu Yin a great deal of time.

Once they were at the cabin, even if Lu Yin were not in the Mirari Realm, Feng Bo would not be able to harm Hongyan Mavis. Lu Yin could then cultivate without any worries as Lightstream continued to absorb time from the candle flames.

True God's Natural Art was incredibly difficult to cultivate. Lu Yin kept trying, but each time he cut a lantern, he would spit out blood. This convinced Feng Bo that the candles were indeed severely injuring Lu Yin.

Even Hongyan Mavis started to wonder if Lu Yin was being genuinely harmed by the candles’ flames, seeing how much blood he was losing.

After training for a long period of time, Lu Yin finally opened his eyes. He looked exhausted.

Hongyan Mavis anxiously asked, "How are you?"

Lu Yin sighed. "There are some problems that I don't know how to resolve."

"Tell me. Maybe I can help," Hongyan Mavis suggested.

Lu Yin looked at her. "Senior, have you heard of True God's three ultimate techniques?"

Hongyan Mavis was caught off guard. "Are you trying to cultivate one of the Aeternals’ battle technique?"

Lu Yin nodded. "I succeeded in infiltrating Aeternus and happened to obtain one of True God's ultimate techniques. I intended to use that to deal with Feng Bo."

Hongyan Mavis frowned. "Don’t be ridiculous. How could you possibly cultivate any of the Aeternals’ battle techniques? Those techniques all use divine energy as their foundation, and regardless of whether you possess divine energy, a defining characteristic of that energy is heartlessness. Can you make yourself heartless?

"Even if you were capable of cultivating such a technique, there’s only a remote possibility of success. If Yong Heng’s techniques were that easy to master, there wouldn't be so few Aeternals who can use them.

"Back when the Second Mainland was destroyed, Aeternus fought a decisive battle with the Origin Universe, but I never saw a single Aeternal use Yong Heng’s techniques."

Hongyan Mavis thought back to that time, the memory still filling her with a feeling of awe. "During that battle, no one held back any of their power. If any of the Aeternals could have used Yong Heng’s techniques, they would have done so..."

Seeing that Hongyan Mavis was starting to reminisce, Lu Yin sighed to himself. Once again, the woman was getting lost in her memories. The more a person lived through, the more memories they would have to remember.

This reminded Lu Yin of the Origin Progenitor and Big Face Tree.

Big Face Tree always recounted the battle of the Third Mainland, and Hongyan Mavis was currently remembering the battle of the Second Mainland. However, Lu Yin was most curious about how the First Mainland had been destroyed.

The First Mainland had been the first to fall, and it had happened at the very peak of the Heavens Sect’s power, when all of the Three Realms and Six Daos had been present. How could the First Mainland have been destroyed by Aeternus? With the Origin Progenitor suppressing everything, who could have overwhelmed him?

Unfortunately, not even Hongyan Mavis had any idea how the First Mainland had been defeated.

That was because everything had happened too quickly.

Ignoring the woman, Lu Yin returned to his training.

True God’s ultimate technique involved discarding all of a person’s preconceived notions and becoming one with the universe. Was it truly impossible for Lu Yin to learn it?

Time continued to pass, and one day, the candles’ flames suddenly disappeared.

Lu Yin opened his eyes and shook his head. Had Feng Bo noticed that something was off? The man was no idiot, and despite how frequently Lu Yin coughed up blood, he was still alive and had persisted for a very long time. It was clear that something was off about his condition. Feng Bo was uncertain whether his was actually harming Lu Yin, so the old man had canceled his technique.

If the candle flames were not injuring Lu Yin and the young man was trying to provoke Feng Bo into using his technique, then the old man could not even imagine what the results might be.

With the candles gone, Lu Yin activated Lightstream and looked back in time.

2,375 seconds. He could look back in time a total of 2,375 seconds. Lu Yin was ecstatic. This was more than double what Lightstream could do before Lu Yin had encountered Feng Bo, and it was nearly four times what it had been capable of before Lu Yin entered the Mirari Realm.

Lu Yin had initially intended to try transforming Lightstream after he was able to look a thousand seconds back in time, but Feng Bo had interrupted him. It was finally time.

Hongyan Mavis observed Lu Yin's training with open curiosity.

Given her level of power, a single glance told her that Lu Yin's path of cultivation was beyond anything she could help guide. He needed to follow his own path.

As Lightstream appeared, Lu Yin's gaze fixed on his inner world, and he continuously tried to alter its form. At first, nothing at all happened. He tried again, but there was still no reaction. This continued on to the fifth, the tenth attempt, and beyond. It was only after the thirtieth attempt that Lightstream started to change.

Lu Yin’s eyes lit up as he started pushing Lightstream towards the transformation that he had envisioned.

...

Lu Yin spent a very, very long time training in the Mirari Realm. He had already transformed Infinity, and then he had fought against Feng Bo. After a fierce battle, he finally started to transform Lightstream. From Lu Yin’s perspective, he had experienced several centuries in the Mirari Realm.

However, the Mirari Realm was not connected to the rest of reality’s time, which meant that almost no time had passed from the moment that Mister Mu had taken Lu Yin from the Second Scourge.

Despite the brief bit of time that had passed, news of Lu Yin's death was already quickly spreading across the entire Sixverse Association. The speed of the news spread was completely unexpected by the Lu family, Mister Mu, and anyone else who tried to keep the matter a secret.

It was as though an invisible hand was accelerating the spread of the news.

There was no denying Lu Yin's importance to the Sixverse Association. His influence was second only to the Great Sovereign, and it had been earned through a number of great battles.

His Semi-Progenitor’s tribulation that had occurred during the Great Sovereign's Tea Ceremony had left a huge impact on many people throughout the Sixverse Association.

If not for the Great Sovereign's incredible strength, no one in the Sixverse Association would have been able to restrain Lu Yin.

People might have held back from trying to cause trouble as long as Lu Yin had been present, but they currently believed him to be dead. Thus, all of their grievances and frustration towards the young man erupted.

As news of Lu Yin's death spread, there was no overt reaction, but many people secretly rejoiced, including some of Sovereign Lotus’s disciples and many other cultivators from the Cyclic Universe. There were even people from the Origin Universe who had long harbored resentment towards Lu Yin, but who had never dared to give voice to their grievances. Lu Yin’s death made many people secretly happy.

Still, people kept their joy hidden for the moment. Lu Yin had been far too influential, and many people greatly respected him and were grateful for his efforts and accomplishments on the Endless Frontier and how he had made the Sixverse Association's various borders safer. Countless lives had been lost on the many battlefields, which meant that many people genuinely appreciated all that Lu Yin had accomplished.

In the Origin Universe, Lu Yin was even more revered than in the rest of the Sixverse Association. He had been recognized by the Fifth Mainland; the fact that his fourth inner world was the Wordless Heavenly Book served as the best proof of that.

As news of his death spread, countless people were stricken by grief or became enraged. Many refused to believe the news. All eyes focused on the Heavens Sect, as they waited for someone to make an announcement on the matter. People were waiting for Lu Yin to show himself.

On the mountain behind the Heavens Sect where Lu Yin frequently stayed, several cosmic doors led to different universes, including the one where the Scourge Occupation was based out of, as well as Ye Sheng’s universe.

One day, figures with dark-red auras appeared outside of the Heavens Sect, and they charged forward while roaring. They were frenzied corpses.

While the First Scourge no longer had any frenzied corpses, Aeternus still had some in the other Scourges. The Divine Commandment was still in place, which meant that the Aeternals were launching an all-out attack against humanity.

An alarm sounded in the Heavens Sect, and experts like Arch-Elder Zen stepped out to fight.

No one had expected the Aeternals to abruptly attack the Heavens Sect so quickly after word of Lu Yin's death had spread. They had taken action very swiftly.

As battle raged outside the Heavens Sect, within it, at the foot of the mountain that held the cosmic doors, another group appeared. These individuals were not corpse kings, but rather human traitors, spies loyal to Aeternus. The fact that they were present within the Heavens Sect meant that each one had been thoroughly vetted and cleared. They had been able to stay hidden because Aeternus had never given these people any missions. These were Aeternus's deepest sleeping agents in the Fifth Mainland.

None of these people were particularly powerful, but they had successfully infiltrated the Heavens Sect, which made them invaluable.

As the frenzied corpses attacked and chaos erupted outside the sect, the traitors moved as well. Their target was the cosmic doors.

Leng Qing was standing guard over the cosmic doors, but not even a Progenitor could stop the spies. After all, the cosmic doors had originally belonged to Aeternus.

None of the people tried to defeat or even fight Leng Qing. Their only goal was the destruction of the cosmic doors.

As soon as divine energy was released, the cosmic doors ceased to be under Leng Qing's control.

The battle outside the Heavens Sect ended as soon as Lu Tianyi arrived. He instantly slaughtered all the frenzied corpses. The traitors sent to destroy the cosmic doors also perished, but they had never considered surviving their mission.

On top of that, the cosmic doors had all been destroyed.

Lu Tianyi stood at the peak of the mountain, staring at the shattered fragments of the cosmic doors with a grim expression.

Arch-Elder Zen sighed. "I was careless. I didn’t think that Aeternus’s target would actually be the cosmic doors."

Leng Qing clenched his saber tightly. "This is my fault."

Lu Tianyi looked at the two men. "No one is to blame. The Aeternals have been watching the Heavens Sect for a long time, and those traitors were spies long before this Heavens Sect was even established, even before Little Seven started cultivating. This is not your fault."

Wang Wen arrived nearby, and he held his head as he looked at the broken remains of the cosmic doors. "This is a problem! Without those cosmic doors, those people can still reach us, but we can’t touch them. The fact that Aeternus targeted the cosmic doors means that they'll attack very soon. They'll either attack us while we’re isolated, or they’ll go after the other civilizations."

Arch-Elder Zen asked, "Who do you think will be targeted?"

Lu Tianyi also looked over at Wang Wen. He had never underestimated the young man, despite his modest cultivation. Wang Wen had helped Lu Yin a great deal, and while he might be one of the weakest people in the entire Heavens Sect, his status was comparable to Arch-Elder Zen’s.

Wang Wen replied without hesitation, "Us."