Star Odyssey

Chapter 3356: Spirit Rebirth

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye before Lu Yin once again tapped the die with a finger, rolling it.

During the last few die rolling sessions, he had rolled Timestop multiple times and had managed to fully decompose the Rivers and Mountains Painting. That sequence base no longer existed.

He watched as the die slowly stopped spinning, landing three pips. Again, two pips. Finally, six pips again. Lu Yin’s consciousness entered the strange dark space once more, only to find nothing.

Lu Yin looked over at the Tower of the Fifth. He was certain that something was off. The chances of him finding absolutely nothing five times in a row were simply too low.

He entered the Tower of the Fifth and found the young prodigies from the Spirit Nidus, who were very busy at the moment.

Ever since the war between the Tianyuan and the Spirit Nidus had been publicly announced, the Tianyuan Megaverse had seen a fresh wave of enthusiasm among its cultivators. Countless people swarmed the Tower of the Fifth, wanting to learn more about the Spirit Nidus. The captives who had been left in the tower barely had any time to rest, given the number of people who had lined up to spar with them. The young prodigies were all in constant agony.

If not for the fact that the captives’ cultivation had been restricted to the level of Melders, Limiteers, and Explorers, almost no one from the Tianyuan Megaverse who entered the Tower of the Fifth would have been the captives’ match.

They were young elites who had been officially recognized by the Spirit Nidus and then accompanied the invasion’s vanguard to the Tianyuan. There was no denying that the captives were the best of their megaverse.

“Take my blade!” a young woman shouted. She was wielding a sword that was even larger than her own body, and it sliced at Lu Yin.

He was left speechless. He gently flicked a finger, which sent the enormous sword flying from the girl’s grasp before it stabbed into the ground.

She took a few steps back, excitement dancing in her eyes. "As expected, you're strong! Let’s go again."

"Why are you attacking me?" Lu Yin asked.

The girl snorted and raised a fist. "You’re an enemy outsider! Everyone has a duty to kill you invaders!"

"I'm not an invader."

The girl blinked. "You’re not from the Spirit Nidus?"

Lu Yin shook his head.

A young man raced over from the distance and placed himself between the girl and Lu Yin. "Brother, I’m so sorry! My sister was mistaken—she believed that you were an enemy from the Spirit Nidus. You have our apologies, truly."

Lu Yin dismissed the matter with a wave of a hand.

The young man immediately started pulling the girl away, but she kept trying to break free. "Brother, my sword! My sword!"

"Be quiet! You’re getting reckless! You dare to provoke anyone now!"

"I thought that he was an enemy from the Spirit Nidus."

"Even if he was, he’s not someone we can handle! Did you even get a good look at his face?"

"Hmm, actually, no. Let me go back and check."

"Go back? We weren’t even able to get a clear look at his face! If he is from the Spirit Nidus, he’s definitely a powerful enemy that we should leave to those monsters. If he’s not, then he’s one of our Tianyuan Megaverse’s best prodigies. Either way, he’s way out of our league."

"Oh... But my sword is still over there."

"From now on, no more swords."

"Then what am I supposed to use?"

"Needles."

"Huh?"

"Go home and learn embroidery."

"I don’t want to! Brother!"

Lu Yin watched the two from a distance, amused by the siblings’ antics.

Since his entrance into the Tower of the Fifth had attracted a bit of attention, he caused himself to vanish. At the same time, a man in the distance threw a punch, but his fist hit nothing except air. His target had dodged by moving at incredible speed, and the attacker was confused. He tried to continue his barrage with a kick, but missed again. He leaped up and unleashed a flurry of attacks towards the ground, but he was still unable to find his opponent. The man was left horribly confused. Just where had his opponent from the Spirit Nidus gone?

Lu Yin appeared outside of the Tower of the Fifth. He was holding an unconscious man from the Spirit Nidus. A hand landed on the man’s shoulder, and Lu Yin channeled a bit of power. As he did, his expression showed a bit of surprise. So, that’s how it is...

He had realized why it was impossible for him to find anyone from the Spirit Nidus who had cultivated Cloudflow’s power. It was because the power that the Spirit Nidus youths had cultivated had transformed.

The Spirit Nidus cultivators experienced a Spirit Rebirth once in their lives. It marked the time when their spirit seed fully matured and replaced the cultivator’s body. This meant that a person was no longer their original selves; rather, by merging with their spirit seed, they had become entirely new life forms. Any power they cultivated after that would be altered as soon as it entered their bodies; it would be optimized for their new body.

If peak powerhouses were able to alter the universe, then the Spirit Nidus’s Spirit Rebirths altered the cultivator themselves. Essentially, they embodied their own universe, which would automatically adapt to be best suited for cultivating specific energies. A Spirit Rebirth altered both a person’s body and their energy.

This allowed their cultivation speed to be exceptionally fast, and it also gave them access to laws of the universe before they were sequence powerhouses or even peak powerhouses. This was essentially an early determiner of if they would be able to master sequence particles or not.

This was exactly what Yuan Qi had described; the Spirit Nidus wasted no resources. Their path was clear, and a single glance would reveal who could walk a path and who was incapable of moving any further.

Lu Yin tossed the man back into the Tower of the Fifth, his expression darkening. His die’s Possession ability was completely ineffective against this enemy.

Originally, Possession had let Lu Yin Possess any lifeform in the entire Origin Universe. There was no restriction regarding the energy that the target cultivated, as stellular energy permeated the entire Origin Universe.

But in order to Possess lifeforms from other universes, it was necessary to empower the die with the energy that the target cultivated.

Even though the Spirit Nidus youths had cultivated Cloudflow’s power, Lu Yin was unable to use that power to Possess them. The moment the energy entered their bodies, it would transform, which meant that Lu Yin’s Possession could not be used.

This had disrupted Lu Yin’s plans.

He had intended to use his die’s Possession to learn more about the Spirit Nidus and use that against them, just as he had done with all his enemies in the past, such as the four ruling powers. This latest discovery rendered all of those plans moot.

Every cultivator from the Spirit Nidus was completely unique. Their Spirit Rebirth was shaped by their own cultivation and will. Unless Lu Yin was able to walk the exact same path as a specific the Spirit Nidus cultivator, he would not be able to Possess anyone from that megaverse.

He stood outside the Tower of the Fifth, lost in thought as he stared intently at his die.

It was impossible to Possess anyone from the Spirit Nidus, which meant that many of Lu Yin’s plans would have to be adjusted.

Back in the Heavens Sect, there was a region that was completely filled with death energy that had been harvested from the Sixth Mainland.

Lu Yin had specifically brought this death energy to the Heavens Sect to serve as a prison for captured experts.

Previously, Aeternus Nation had been his prison, but after using up all the death energy there in a battle, it was no longer a suitable prison for powerful captives.

It was far more convenient to have the prison within the Heavens Sect itself.

There were several individuals confined within the death energy. Lu Yin moved through the death energy, and a casual wave dispersed it to reveal three people: Yuan Qi, Palace Master Yao, and Tian Ci.

Each of the three had been isolated within the death energy, making it impossible for them to sense the others’ presence.

Yuan Qi had been confined within the death energy for the longest, and he was extremely wary of it. It was a power that could suppress even him, and it was overflowing with bloodlust. It was an energy that had been created solely for killing.

Lu Yin was extremely confident in the death energy’s ability to restrain prisoners, as it was the power of the God of Death. Regardless of how strong the death energy that had been left behind might be, its ability to suppress powerful cultivators was exceptional.

In addition to the death energy, the prison also had chains that were capable of binding even sequence powerhouses.

Absolute security was ensured.

"All three of you, take a look around. You all know each other, right?" Lu Yin said as he glanced at the three prisoners.

Yuan Qi was not at all surprised to see Tian Ci. If even Yuan Qi could be captured by the Heavens Sect, there was no reason why Tian Ci could not be captured. It was the sight of Palace Master Yao that surprised the old man. "Have others from our megaverse arrived?"

Palace Master Yao was astonished. "Seraph Yuan Qi? Were you actually captured?"

Tian Ci was completely stunned to see that Yuan Qi was also a prisoner. This meant that, when Yong Heng had used Yuan Qi as bait to lure Tian Ci into lowering his guard, Yuan Qi had already been the Heavens Sect’s prisoner.

"Has our megaverse gone to war with the Tianyuan Megaverse?" Yuan Qi asked Palace Master Yao.

Palace Master Yao nodded. "Yes, but unfortunately, we lost."

She then looked at Tian Ci. "Were you also captured?"

Tian Ci gritted his teeth. There was nothing that he could say at this moment.

A smile played on Lu Yin’s lips. "Alright, you three, the time for catching up is over. It’s my turn now."

All three people turned to look at Lu Yin. None of them were certain what his intentions were at this moment.

"Lord Lu, I know what you’re trying to do. Don’t bother wasting your efforts. I won’t say or do anything," Palace Master Yao stated bluntly in a cold tone. As soon as she was captured, she had been used as bait by Lu Yin, and many of her allies had been lured to their deaths. For that, she hated Lu Yin terribly. He had humiliated her.

Yuan Qi’s expression changed slightly. He was willing to talk, and he would answer anything that Lu Yin asked, though the old man felt uncomfortable doing so in front of Palace Master Yao.

Tian Ci felt similar to Yuan Qi, though he felt uncomfortable speaking out in front of both Yuan Qi and Palace Master Yao. Tian Ci had no idea what the other two’s position was, but he himself would do whatever it took to survive. He had a score that he needed to settle with Yong Heng.

Lu Yin gave a small smile. "There’s no need to rush things. I understand that, for you people from the Spirit Nidus, invading my Tianyuan Megaverse is probably not a big deal. You likely don’t even consider us to be a real challenge, but rather, more of a game.

"Our megaverse has already seen our fair share of outsiders, such as the Lost Clan. Have you ever heard of them? They come from a place that they called the Third Rampart. There, there was an invincible being who was most likely an Immortal, and that being referred to the war that determined the fate of their megaverse as a game.

"Even a war at that level was just a game to them. Today, I’ll play a game with you."

His eyes swept over the three prisoners, growing colder by the moment. "It’s a game that will decide your life or death."

With a snap of his fingers, three sticks of incense appeared in front of the prisoners.

"Each of you has one stick of incense. While it burns, do whatever you can to save your own life. You can say, do, or offer anything at all. Once the incense stick burns out, I’ll move on to the next person. As soon as all three sticks of incense have burned out, I’ll make my decision." His eyes rose from the sticks. "And one of you will then die."

The three people stared at Lu Yin with a variety of expressions, and he chuckled. "No matter what you say, the others won’t hear you. Only I will. As soon as the three sticks of incense are done burning, one of you will have to die. Let the game begin."

With that, death energy surged, hiding two people and leaving only Palace Master Yao visible.

Lu Yin walked over to the woman and lit her stick of incense. He stared at it as a thin line of smoke rose up and disappeared into the death energy.

He proceeded to simply look at Palace Master Yao without saying a word. The silence was heavy.

Palace Master Yao stared back at Lu Yin. "This trick of yours won’t work. All three of us are far too valuable to you. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t still be alive. Just move along—you won’t get anything from me."

Lu Yin closed his eyes, as silent as ever as he calmly faced Palace Master Yao.

The woman also closed her eyes.

They were surrounded by an eerie silence. The only movement was the smoke that gently drifted up.

It did not take long for a stick of incense to burn, and the stick was soon half gone.

Palace Master Yao opened her eyes, taking in both Lu Yin and the incense stick that had shrunk to a third of its original size. She was unbothered by the sight, and simply closed her eyes again.

Time passed quickly, and now, there was only one tenth of the incense stick remaining. It was nearly gone.