Star Odyssey

Chapter 3282: Recognizing Reality

Professor Wei stood still. She did not move at all and simply allowed Lu Yin's hand to pass through her body.

His expression changed. Was this a fake? No, it was the power of time.

A casual wave of a hand caused Professor Wei's figure to scatter like light, but then she simply reappeared in the same place.

Lu Yin stared at her and his expression fell. “You’re hiding within time.”

Professor Wei nodded and commented with admiration, “There’s no shame in Bai Xian'er losing to you, but she’s not me. Also, I’m not everything. What you face now is me, and I am completely different from Bai Xian'er.” n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Lu Yin realized this. Given his current strength, even if Bai Xian'er succeeded in becoming an Ortuser, she might not be able to measure up to Lu Yin. However, he was dealing with Professor Wei.

He had no idea how Professor Wei was related to Wei Nu’s identity, but he did know that Bai Xian'er corresponded to when he had been Lu Xiaoxuan. She was his peer. In contrast, Professor Wei was not from Lu Yin’s generation.

He was confident that he could defeat anyone within the same cultivation realm, no matter how ancient they might be. However, it would be much harder to defeat an old monster who had cultivated for countless years with the same level of talent as Lu Yin.

The power of time was something that needed to be mastered slowly, and who could say how long Professor Wei had been doing that? This was why she was capable of hiding within time and how she could see the future.

Lu Yin was looking at a version of Professor Wei from the future. She had seen her own past, which was what had allowed her to avoid Lu Yin’s attack before he even lashed out.

Even if Lu Yin clearly understood the situation, overcoming it would be incredibly difficult.

Regardless of whether or not Lu Yin attacked, everything was part of the future that Professor Wei had already seen as her past.

She had built a bridge across the River of Aeons. It was a bridge for just herself alone.

“If you really want to attack me, take your time and think—there’s always a way. However, I’m not here to fight you. I would like you to stop focusing on me. We don’t have to be enemies,” Professor Wei stated softly.

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered. Yes, there absolutely had to be a way. If Lightstream was able to move against the flow of the River of Aeons, then it could also flow downstream. There was no need for Lu Yin to build a bridge. He just needed to see past the bridge that was there, or even destroy it.

“If I wanted to attack you, I just need to wait until I can see your future. While others might not be capable of seeing your future, I can,” Professor Wei continued.

Lu Yin arched a brow. “You can see my future?”

A gentle smile touched Professor Wei’s lips, making her already serene and elegant appearance even more intoxicating. “I’m from the same generation as Tai Chu. I was the first to discover that the Mirari Realm was anchored to this megaverse.”

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. “You were the first to notice?”

“I admire Tai Chu, as well as your master. They accomplished things that others would never even dare to attempt. What they face now are the consequences for their actions. They burned a lot of bridges, I suppose.” Professor Wei studied Lu Yin. “If I were truly your enemy, I would have helped Yong Heng eliminate the Immemorial Citadel long ago. With me at their side, you wouldn’t have stood a chance against the Aeternals.”

Lu Yin’s eyes glinted dangerously. “It’s not like you’ve never acted against us.”

Professor Wei laughed. “What happened with the Lu family doesn’t count as me acting against you! Do you really think that someone like Lu Tianyi could stop me? Or that your father, Lu Qi, could hold me back with his Champions' Stage? Doesn’t that sound like a joke? Also, there’s you."

She stared at Lu Yin very intently. "Six of the Seven Heroes died, while only you survived. I didn’t prevent that.”

Murder blazed in Lu Yin’s eyes. “You’re the one who killed them.”

"In order to complete you," Professor Wei calmly replied.

Lu Yin clenched his fist. "I don’t need that kind of completeness."

Professor Wei chuckled. "Without their innate gifts, how could you have become your current self? I waited here for you just to tell you that we are not enemies. By now, you should have a better understanding of this megaverse. Rather than focusing on me, you should be thinking about how you are going to survive. Three of the Boundary Guardians are dead and Aeternus has been defeated, which is not a situation that Destiny would have wanted to see."

Lu Yin frowned. This woman also knew about Destiny, which clearly indicated that Professor Wei was Wei Nu.

"What’s going on with Destiny?"

Professor Wei’s smile shrank. "That’s my business and none of your concern. Regardless of whoever shows up to deal with that, it won’t be you. If you insist on trying to make trouble for me, I’ll be forced to show you reality."

"Reality?"

Professor Wei’s smile faded. "You’re still not quite at our level."

Lu Yin’s eyes grew frigid as he stared at Professor Wei.

She opened a hand and held out a paper cutout so that Lu Yin could see it clearly.

It was the image of a woman, but while that much was clear, exactly who the woman was could not be discerned.

"This cutout is of someone named Nightqueen Yanqing."

At first, Lu Yin felt confused, but then disbelief appeared on his face. "Nightqueen Yanqing?"

Of course, he knew who that was. She was Nightking Zhenwu’s sister, and she was also from the Daynight clan. Nightqueen Yanqing had treated Lu Yin as an enemy while he was in Astral-10, and she was the one who had forced Lu Yin to use the Third Nightking’s location to manipulate the Daynight clan. It had been a very dangerous time for Lu Yin.

Nightqueen Yanqing had been one of Lu Yin’s first enemies when he had started cultivating.

However, the collapse of the Daynight clan had caused the Nightking surname to slowly fade away. Even the Celestial Frost Sect, which had enslaved the Daynight clan, were nothing more than ants in Lu Yin's eyes, let alone someone like Nightqueen Yanqing.

Without Professor Wei mentioning the woman, Lu Yin would have forgotten about her entirely.

Professor Wei’s smile returned. "You remember her, don’t you? Nightqueen Yanqing—you once hated her, while also respecting her as an enemy. She might only be a minor character to you now, but she once had a large impact on your life.

"What do you think would happen if that impact was erased?"

Lu Yin’s eye twitched. "Erased?"

Professor Wei nodded. "Erased. Completely vanished."

"Impossible," Lu Yin immediately rejected the idea. "Erasing Nightqueen Yanqing would alter the past as well as the future. Things have already developed into the current situation, and you can’t change that."

It was not impossible to change the past in order to alter the future, but such things could only be done on a small scale; essentially, only a single person or a single life could be altered. For instance, Ancestor Lu Yuan had wanted to change the fact that his son had died, and theoretically, that was possible, though doing so would have exacted a terrible price.

"It’s just the life of one person, a small blip in time. This doesn’t have to involve others’ karma at all."

Professor Wei wanted to erase Nightqueen Yanqing to alter the past. Doing so would mean erasing the enmity that had existed between Lu Yin and Nightqueen Yanqing, which would subsequently eliminate his feud with the Daynight clan and the resulting series of events. This was impossible.

Not even the Origin Progenitor or Mister Mu could do such a thing.

Lu Yin was certain that this simply could not be done. No one could pull off such a thing.

Professor Wei held up a pair of scissors and slowly moved them closer to the paper cutout of Nightqueen Yanqing. “You claim that it’s impossible, but I say that it can be done. What do you think? When the past is changed, what will happen to the present? Do you care to find out?”

Lu Yin stared at the cutout of Nightqueen Yanqing that Professor Wei held in her hand. “Try it.”

Professor Wei looked at Lu Yin. “Are you really that confident?”

Lu Yin answered softly, “You can’t shift the River of Aeons. No one can. If you could do something like that, why would you bother talking to me?”

Professor Wei laughed, which was a beautiful sound. “You’re right, I can’t.”

The scissors moved to the cutout, and with a single snip, it was cut in two.

That cut was as if a kite string had suddenly snapped. The world shifted colors from black to white.

The world spun crazily around Lu Yin. A moment passed, though it could have also been a long time. He eventually regained his senses and stared at Professor Wei. What had happened?

Nothing at all.

The woman was still holding the scissors, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Lu Yin. While she was dressed as a man, there was an unquestionable femininity to her aura, and a gentle smile still hung on her lips.

Just as Lu Yin was about to speak, he heard the roar of a powerful river fill his ears. He instinctively sensed that something was wrong, but there was nothing that he could do about it. A powerful force surged towards him from some unseen place. He was struck, and his head rang. He could not see any enemy or attack. He could not see anything at all.

Blood sprayed from his mouth, and he nearly collapsed. His face grew pale, and he stared up at Professor Wei in shock.

Her hand dropped. “It looks like it worked.”

Lu Yin stared intently at Professor Wei, his mind racing. He looked around. Virtue Archives remained unchanged. It appeared that nothing at all had changed in the universe. The flow of time had not been shifted. All that had happened was that Lu Yin had been injured.

"A time... paradox."

Professor Wei nodded. “You could call it that.”

Lu Yin understood how he had been injured. Just as he had suspected, Professor Wei was incapable of altering the present by erasing people in the past. It was impossible to alter events in such a manner. However, by cutting the paper, she had indeed erased a person in the past. With that person gone, the present should have changed. However, the River of Aeons had instead flowed onwards without so much as a pause. It did not reverse or change because of Professor Wei’s power.

She was not nearly strong enough to accomplish such a feat. It was far beyond the Origin Progenitor and Mister Mu as well.

How could an ordinary person shift the River of Aeons?

While people might be able to stir up waves in the River of Aeons, they would eventually be swept under by the relentless flow.

The attempt to erase Nightqueen Yanqing had created a ripple that went against the current of the River of Aeons, as the attempt had tried to reverse the flow of the river. With enough power, it might be possible to shift the River of Aeons’s flow and alter the future. However, her force had been far too weak. In the end, nothing had changed. Nightqueen Yanqing had not been erased, and the present remained unaltered.

The only real change that had occurred was that Professor Wei had created a ripple in the River of Aeons. As that ripple was swept away by the relentless flow, the two forces had overlapped, like two waves in a lake meeting each other. This small surge of power was Professor Wei’s entire goal.

It did not matter that the ripple would eventually be subsumed into the river—what mattered was that the ripple had even appeared.

The force from the ripple going against the flow of the River of Aeons had been directed at Lu Yin. It was a manifestation of a time paradox going against the River of Aeons itself. Such power was invisible, intangible, and irresistible.

This was what the paper cutout could produce.

“Do you understand the truth now?” Professor Wei stared at Lu Yin. “You’ve never truly defeated anyone at our level. Tai Chu, Old Mu, Yong Heng, me, and even Tai Hong. When have you ever beaten any of us?

“The Boundary Guardians were nothing more than four cowards who were too afraid to challenge Dukkha, and Astral Anura is simply trash. Killing such weaklings proves nothing at all. I’m here to help you recognize this reality.

“Once you’ve seen the truth clearly, we can talk.”

Lu Yin stared at Professor Wei in awe. “So, this is the power that those at your level possess?”

“Yes. In the future, you will reach the same level,” Professor Wei replied.

Lu Yin wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. “Well, thank you for helping me see things clearly.”