Star Odyssey

The moment that Mister Mu appeared, everyone from the Spirit Nidus retreated as one. The round-faced old man stood just beyond the stone gate, still staring at Lu Yin. The man’s eyes betrayed his rage and reluctance.

Finally, the universe started to calm down.

The battle had not lasted very long. From the moment Lu Yuan had been attacked to when the Heavens Sect had arrived to reinforce him, there had only been enough time for the ambush to be launched. However, despite its brevity, the battle that had just been fought had not been any less intense than the final battle between Aeternus and humanity at the Immemorial Citadel.

In just a single encounter, both sides had already suffered heavy casualties.

The people of the Spirit Nidus no longer wished to fight, and the people of the Tianyuan Megaverse were equally exhausted. People slowly retreated, creating clearly delineated lines as the people of the two megaverses stared at each other across outer space.

No one had expected such an outcome.

The Spirit Nidus had always believed that it would be easy to put an end to the Tianyuan Megaverse and reset it, so before the fighting broke out, they had not attempted to discuss anything and had instead simply fought.

The Tianyuan Megaverse had not anticipated the Spirit Nidus’s sudden retreat. Lu Yin had expected the battle to continue until one side or the other was completely wiped out. While he had no awy to even guess at how many people from the Tianyuan Megaverse would die in the conflict, Lu Yin’s goal had been to eliminate as many from the Spirit Nidus as possible.

Unfortunately, Lu Yin’s people lacked the strength to accomplish his goals, and they had fully realized the Spirit Nidus’s power now.

Had it not been for Bao Qi suddenly entering Dukkha, Lu Yin might not have had any opportunity to steal the Heaven-Devouring Umbrella, and the members of Second Life might not have survived their attack on the battleship.

This was a war between megaverses. It was the most intense and highest-level battlefield in a war for survival.

“Master, how is the Immemorial Citadel?” Lu Yin asked.

Mister Mu replied, “As we anticipated, the Spirit Nidus sent a powerful cultivator to attack Tai Chu. The attack was made through dreams, but that person is not in front of us.”

Lu Yin was caught off guard. “They’re not over there?”

He looked over towards the stone gate, at where all of the Spirit Nidus’s experts had gathered on their battleship. Nearly half of their forces had been lost. Sure enough, there was not a single face that Lu Yin did not recognize from the battlefield who could have been the expert that Mister Mu was concerned about. In that case, where had that person gone?

Past the stone gate, the round-faced old man stepped away from the battleship.

Lu Yin and many others watched as the old man moved to the empty space between the battleship and the Tianyuan Megaverse’s forces. “You must be the current master of the Tianyuan Megaverse and Dao Monarch of the Heavens Sect, Lu Yin.”

Lu Yin stepped forward, instantly appearing before the old man. Only a hundred meters separated the two men, which was practically no distance at all.

This was a moment when the highest ranking representatives of the two sides were speaking to each other.

“You must be the president of the Spirit Nidus’s Chamber of Commerce,” Lu Yin returned.

The old man was standing with his hands clasped behind his back as he admiringly assessed Lu Yin. “I had no chance to speak with you before the fighting started, but this battle has earned the Tianyuan Megaverse my recognition. I will admit that I underestimated you.

“However, this is as much as you can accomplish. My Spirit Nidus is home to peerless individuals. There is the High Seraph, the Seven Seraphs, and countless other experts beyond them-”

“Old man, you can skip the nonsense,” Lu Yin directly interrupted.

The old man’s expression fell. For countless years, no one had dared to interrupt him. Even the High Seraph was courteous in his dealings with the old man, yet Lu Yin, a junior younger than even the old man’s disciples, had the audacity to speak to him so brazenly.

Lu Yin was completely unconcerned with how offended the old man was. "We already know what you want, and the Tianyuan Megaverse will never give itself to you. You shouldn’t bother even thinking about trying to persuade us to join you. It’s simply ridiculous.

"I'll give you two choices: you can either fight us to the death so that either all of us or all of you are annihilated, or you can scram back and never set foot in the Tianyuan Megaverse again."

The round-faced old man barked a laugh of anger. "Young man, do you understand what you're saying? I'll offer you two choices as well: either join my Spirit Nidus, which will ensure that you will one day rise to the level of the High Seraph, an accomplishment that few have ever managed to achieve, or be imprisoned and tortured by my Spirit Nidus until you finally die. There are no other options.

"As for those who follow you, they can choose to join us and share in the benefits of resetting the Tianyuan Megaverse. All who refuse will die. My Spirit Nidus is stronger than your megaverse, and you can’t even recognize the gap in strength. You actually believe that stopping the first wave of our invasion qualifies you to negotiate with us! What a joke."

Lu Yin scoffed. "You're the one negotiating with me. I don’t have any interest in your nonsense. If you’re telling the truth, then let’s fight. We will definitely wipe out all who invade us. No matter how many from your Spirit Nidus arrive, we will slaughter all of them. I, Lu Yin, have risen to this level after starting as an ordinary human. Why don’t you go ask Tian Ci how long it took me to reach this level."

Many curious eyes turned to Tian Ci, who was standing on the deck of the battlehip.

Lu Yin looked incredibly young, and yet he was able to fight against a Seraph and had even become the master of the Tianyuan Megaverse. Every one of the invaders was curious to learn how long the man had been cultivating. A few thousand years? A few hundred thousand? Longer?

Tian Ci lifted his head and spoke in a deep voice, "100 years."

Everyone was stunned, and they felt that they must have misheard.

"Uh, Lord Tian Ci, did you just say a million years?"

"Was it a million years? Because it sounded like you said 100 years."

"Use your brain! How could he have cultivated for just 100 years? You can't become the ruler of a megaverse in just 100 years! Is this a joke to you?"

Palace Master Yao coldly asked, "100 years?"

Tian Ci nodded. He looked at where Lu Yin was confronting the president of the Chamber of Commerce. There was a great deal of nervousness in Tian Ci’s eyes. "100 years. That man is a descendant of the Lu family, but his cultivation was crippled. From the time he started recultivating, it has only been 100 years. Even if his previous cultivation is taken into account, it would only add a few dozen years to the time, nothing more."

Everyone was stunned, and they turned to look at Lu Yin’s distant form, unable to believe Tian Ci’s statement.

100 years. What could any cultivator achieve in 100 years? That was only enough time for an ordinary human to live their life. No, there were certain planets where civilizations had the ability to extend an ordinary human’s life to 1,000 thousand years or even more. And yet, Lu Yin had only cultivated for a mere 100 years.

Which of the young elites aboard the battleship had not cultivated for at least dozens or even hundreds of years? In contrast, what level of power did Lu Yin possess? Just how had he cultivated?

"I, Lu Yin, have reached this level by facing threats far beyond what you can imagine. Old man, your tricks won’t work. Aside from threats and temptations, what else do you have? If not even Immortality can tempt me, what else can you offer?" Lu Yin's voice echoed across the universe.

At this moment, his words had a completely different ring to them to the Spirit Nidus cultivators than before.

Whatever a young man who had risen to the same level as one of the Seraphs within a hundred years said would be able to alter history. Even his sneezes would receive historic mention.

Countless people from the Tianyuan Megaverse had already been left stunned by Lu Yin’s abilities and talent, and the Spirit Nidus was experiencing the same reaction at this moment.

However, there were a few from the Spirit Nidus who were aware of this even when the Scourge had been invaded and when Tian Feng had been killed. There had been many who had witnessed Lu Yin’s abilities at those times, but even so, the Spirit Nidus had not expected Lu Yin to have undergone such an extreme transformation so quickly. From what they knew of Lu Yin, he should only be strong enough to fight against Ortusers, not one of the Seraphs.

The invaders had been eager to reach the Tianyuan Megaverse, but unfortunately, they had arrived a step too late.

Already, not even one of the Seven Seraphs was capable of eliminating Lu Yin.

The round-faced old man appeared to be disappointed. "While we come from different megaverses, our understanding of cultivation realms is comparable. Overcoming Dukkha and achieving Immortality are the ultimate goals of every cultivator. If not even that is enough to tempt you, then there’s truly nothing that can.

"However, I am quite curious about something," the man continued as he stared at Lu Yin. "Despite your youth, you've succeeded in becoming the master of this megaverse and are even strong enough to fight against a Dukkhan like me. You are among the most talented individuals in all of existence, and there are few who stand above you. With your achievements, you should look down upon everything and everyone—you shouldn’t allow any creature to hold you back. You should be pursuing Immortality, so why is even that not enough to tempt you?

"We old ones have lived too long, so Immortality means little to us. We strive for the feeling of being invincible in the megaverse. However, for you, nothing should be more appealing than Immortality."

Lu Yin observed the old man for a moment before looking past him at the people of the Spirit Nidus. "Have you ever believed that what we call Progenitors stand at the pinnacle of cultivation?"

The old man chuckled. "Such people are only just qualified to be considered cultivators. Only by reaching that level do you prove your qualifications to pursue Immortality. Any who have not reached at least that level are nothing more than the most common of cultivators. What you call the Progenitor realm is certainly not the pinnacle."

Lu Yin nodded. "Yes. In your understanding of things, Progenitors do not stand at the pinnacle. And yet, for quite some time, I understood that realm to be the endpoint of cultivation. I worked hard on my cultivation, and step by step, I climbed up. Finally, I became a Progenitor, only to discover that beyond them are Sequence Progenitors, Ortusers, Dukkhans, and Immortals.

"I can’t help but wonder if one day, when I achieve Immortality, I might learn of even higher realms. If there is no end to a path, can you still look forward to the end of it?"

The round-faced old man answered without any hesitation, "Of course. After having come so far, why not seek the end?"

Lu Yin replied, "And yet I prefer to enjoy the scenery along the way."

The old man laughed. "This is the difference between our cultivation cultures."

Lu Yin looked at him. "This difference can never be overcome, which means that my Tianyuan Megaverse will never be able to join your Spirit Nidus. None of us are fools. Joining your Spirit Nidus with such stark cultural differences means that we will never truly integrate with you. Would you ever even give us the opportunity to achieve Immortality? Old man, it’s foolish to pretend to be a fox when you’re in the midst of a pack of foxes."

"Hahaha, young man, you are quite interesting. You speak of objective factors, while subjectively, we of the Spirit Nidus genuinely want to accept you. As for why, I won’t share that with you. There’s no meaning in such things. Instead, let's speak about something more practical." The old man’s expression turned cold. "What you just stole is the Heaven-Devouring Umbrella, ranked tenth of our sequence bases. I would ask you to return it."

Lu Yin looked at the old man as though he was an idiot. "Do you think that I’m going to return it?"

The man calmly replied, "You will. Since you care about the scenery along the way, if that scenery disappears, what will there be for you to appreciate?"

"What are you saying?" Lu Yin frowned, suddenly having a bad premonition.

The old man continued in a casual tone, "This expedition to the Tianyuan Megaverse has three of my Spirit Nidus’s Seraphs present. Aside from Bao Qi and myself, there is also one named Meng Sang, who went to your Immemorial Citadel. Your master knows of that, but where is that Seraph now?"

Lu Yin stared at the round-faced old man, his sense of unease only growing.

"Return the Heaven-Devouring Umbrella, or with every time a stick of incense burns away, another universe will be destroyed, along with all those within it," the round-faced old man slowly declared. His words made Lu Yin's scalp go numb.

Destroying inhabited parallel universes? Lu Yin had never considered such a threat.

Even when humanity had fought against Aeternus, the Aeternals had never sought to destroy inhabited parallel universes. The human inhabitants had instead been captured and taken to Aeternus Kingdoms, while their universe was destroyed in attempts to disrupt the sequence strings of the megaverse. That was an entirely different method from what Lu Yin was currently being threatened with.

"What's wrong? Do you not believe me?"

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA