Star Odyssey

Chapter 3370: Encirclement

Bao Qi could not understand how two mere sequence powerhouses were capable of fighting against him as equals.

Lu Yin watched as the other Seraph disappeared deep into the forbidden zone. He let out a breath and turned back around, only to see that Bao Qi had already collapsed and was lying on the ground, his Cauldron Bell beside him.

The battle had ended with Bao Qi’s capture.

Astral Anura had already fled into the distance, and he was nowhere to be seen.

If not for the toad, the two Seraphs would have both escaped. Given how far away their pursuers had been, the two men would have easily had enough time to tear through the void and leave the Mirari Realm. The old man would not have needed to enter the forbidden zone.

Astral Anura’s sudden appearance and kicking Bao Qi out of the way had disrupted the round-faced old man’s actions, which had delayed him enough that Lu Yin and the others had gotten close. Lu Yin had to admit that he owed some thanks to Astral Anura, even if the toad had already run off.

Lu Yin approached Bao Qi and looked down at the man.

The Seraph coughed up blood. Most of his bones were broken, and his lips were torn. He looked pathetic.

"This is our first official meeting, isn’t it, Seraph Bao Qi?" Lu Yin asked slowly.

"Just kill me."

"A live Seraph is far more valuable than a dead one," Lu Yin replied.

Bao Qi sneered. “I’m… not like the others. You won’t get any information… from me.”

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed.

Yuan Qi, Palace Master Yao, Tian Ci—all of them had sought to live because they still had a future. But Bao Qi did not care about life or death. He was destined to forever be an Ortuser after falling from the Dukkhan realm. Further advancement was impossible. The man was also different from Meng Sang, who was still unwilling to give up and wanted to fight for a chance to continue. Bao Qi did not even have the desire to try.

It was possible that Meng Sang had hope because he knew about the Lesser Spirit Megaverse, and that was why he wanted to fight for an opportunity.

"Even if you can’t advance your cultivation any further, don’t you want to at least keep living? After all, you’re already a Seraph," Lu Yin said slowly.

Bao Qi stared up at the sky of the Mirari Realm. “If I continue living, I will still be a Seraph, even if I’m only in the Origin Realm.”

Lu Yin said nothing and just looked at the man.

Bao Qi turned his head and looked at the Cauldron Bell in the distance that was slightly smaller than before. “That is, as long as the position still belongs to me.”

The ancestor of the super giants was standing by the Cauldron Bell. His massive hand rose and then slammed back down, blocking Bao Qi’s view.

Bao Qi let out a bitter laugh. “Do you know how many people in the Ascendant Hall aim to become a Seraph? Too many. The Ascendant Hall has too many powerful experts, and while they might not be Dukkhans and can be regarded as trash, some pursue shortcuts, just like what I did. I used the Cauldron Bell to become a Seraph while still an Ortuser, and there are others who similarly hope to succeed in using a sequence base to become a Seraph.

“Without the Cauldron Bell, I’ll be nothing more than a stepping stone for others to tread on to advance, and that’s assuming that I am even able to return to the Spirit Nidus alive.”

He looked at Lu Yin. “Would you let me return?”

Lu Yin met Bao Qi’s eyes. “That’s not entirely impossible.”

Bao Qi laughed, which caused him to cough up more blood as his face grew flushed. “You want me to become your Tianyuan Megaverse’s dog? Hahaha, I am a Seraph! I am Bao Qi!” ȓÁN𝐨BΕꞨ

“Yuan Qi told me that there’s no question about the Tianyuan Megaverse being reset, that this megaverse is already doomed to fall. It’s not worth dying with it. Do you really want to die at our hands?” Lu Yin questioned.

Bao Qi sneered. “The older a person gets, the more they fear death. The times have changed. When Yuan Qi was last in the Spirit Nidus, the Ascendant Hall wasn’t what it has since become. Now, the Ascendant Hall is full of mad dogs eyeing the positions of the Seven Seraphs.”

The man remained focused on Lu Yin. “If I die, a position among the Seven Seraphs will open up, and those mad dogs will do anything to claim that title. Palace Master Yao is supposed to be the strongest beneath the Seraphs, but do you really think that she has the strength to overpower those mad dogs?

“Anyone who stands in their way of becoming a Seraph will be torn to pieces. I’ve already lost, so I shouldn’t stay alive. It’s the same for Yuan Qi. He is a Seraph, and yet he still wants to return to the Spirit Nidus. His title is already being targeted.

“There are people who have taken even more extreme shortcuts than me.”

Cough, cough!

Bao Qi coughed up blood and then gasped. “Don’t think that you can take food away from a mad dog after it’s already gotten a taste. If a Seraph dies, there will be an entire pack of mad dogs fighting for the position.”

Lu Yin straightened up. The Ascendant Hall seemed to have an exceptionally large number of experts, many of whom were likely from the Lesser Spirit Megaverse.

In other words, they had more than an entire megaverse’s worth of powerhouses.

As long as the Seven Seraphs remained in power, things would be fine. But if a seat became vacant, everyone eyeing that seat would instantly become each other’s enemies.

In truth, Lu Yin would rather face one Seraph than a group of enemies vying for their position.

No matter how strong a single Seraph might be, Lu Yin was confident that he could handle them. On the other hand, a pack of cultivators who were all greedy for an available position would put overwhelming pressure on the Tianyuan Megaverse through their sheer numbers.

Suddenly, Bao Qi struck out, and he grabbed Lu Yin’s leg. Multicolored light blazed from within the man’s body as an overwhelming and destructive aura erupted from him with such force that it seemed to distort the sky and ground of the Mirari Realm.

Lightstream appeared near Lu Yin, and it reversed time by one second. Bao Qi watched in desperation as Lu Yin dodged and slammed a hand down, squashing Bao Qi’s entire body to the ground. All traces of life were gone.

“He compressed all of his sequence particles inside himself and then tried to instantly release them all. It’s a good thing that you reacted so quickly,” Lu Yuan said with a sigh of relief.

Lu Yin quietly replied, “It wasn’t that I reacted quickly, but that he wanted to die.”

Chu Yi sighed. “He was a man with a high status. He was proud, acted arrogantly, and refused to beg for mercy. He preferred to die instead of becoming someone else’s stepping stone, being torn apart by mad dogs. He may have been an enemy, but he deserves some respect.”

“Everyone makes their own choices. Some live with a mission, while others live for their mission,” Progenitor Chen added.

Lu Yin slowly walked over to the Cauldron Bell. It was the Spirit Nidus’s eighth-ranked sequence base, and it was now his.

He had now had four of the Spirit Nidus’s sequence bases in his possession. This was not to say that the Spirit Nidus was weak, but rather that this was a result of a war between megaverses.

Both sides had invested as much of their strength as possible into this war, and even the smallest losses were enough to be talked about for an entire era.

If not for his current power, Lu Yin would not be able to go up against anyone with a sequence base. Even an ordinary peak powerhouse wielding the Heaven-Devouring Umbrella would have been too much, let alone someone like Bao Qi.

The first sequence powerhouse that Lu Yin had ever faced was Mo Shang. Given that man’s strength, if he had faced the Heaven-Devouring Umbrella, he would have only been able to barely resist for a few moments. All of his Law of Darkness sequence particles would have been devoured, leaving him at the mercy of others.

The Spirit Nidus could not be regarded as weak. Rather, Lu Yin had spent far too long preparing himself and his people for this war.

Even so, they had still lost many, many people.

The Spirit Nidus’s defeat lay in the fact that they had underestimated the Tianyuan Megaverse. The place was not as simple as the invading megaverse had believed it to be.

Lu Yin was serving as the commander of the entire war. The Origin Progenitor had completely overpowered two of the Spirit Nidus's Seraphs at the same time. Progenitor Chen could turn the tide in a desperate situation. There was also Progenitor Ku and so many other powerhouses. Wei Nu had opened the Mirari Realm. And the Spirit Nidus’s sole ally, True God, had betrayed them. All of these things were part of the Tianyuan Megaverse’s true power. A single war could not define a megaverse.

If the Spirit Nidus continued to underestimate the Tianyuan Megaverse, then without Master Qing Cao or some other Immortal intervening, the Tianyuan Megaverse would be able to handle any crisis.

“What about the other one? He fled into the forbidden zone. He won’t die in there, will he?” the giant asked as he stared in the direction of the forbidden zone.

That region was clearly distinct from the other areas of the Mirari Realm. Other areas had bamboo forests and mist pervading them, but the forbidden region that everyone was looking at was clear and open. A glance was enough to see that it was different.

Lu Yin put the Cauldron Bell away. He pressed down upon it with the landmass in his inner universe, dissolving the sequence particles and integrating them into his inner universe. Then, he walked over to the entrance of the forbidden region. Some time later, he turned back around. “Seniors, do you know what’s inside this forbidden zone?”

After Destiny left the forbidden region, she restarted cultivating from scratch, focusing on the power of destiny. The Origin Progenitor had warned the Three Realms and Six Daos not to enter that area, and because of that, very few of them had ever done so.

There was more than one forbidden region in the Mirari Realm. Chu Yi had entered one, but Lu Yuan had never explored any of them.

Chu Yi said, “I haven’t been in this forbidden zone, though I did enter another. In it, all I saw were endless chains and strange objects. They were neither fully physical nor fully ethereal, and they not only bound people, but also emotions.”

Lu Yin did not understand it at all, and he looked at Ancestor Lu Yuan, but the man just shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Lu Yin said, “Let’s find Astral Anura. That toad came out of this forbidden zone, so it has to know something.”

Everyone quickly spread out to search for Astral Anura.

In the Quietude Universe, a pair of clear eyes opened, and they stared at where the Mirari Realm had vanished. “How did he know? He shouldn’t have known. Why did he flee?

“Did he take action? No, that’s impossible. Not even he could hide himself from me in the Mirari Realm. What method did he use? How did he find out?”

The universe was dark, only illuminated by a few distant stars.

The clear eyes slowly closed. “It doesn’t matter how he found out. He may have escaped once, but he won’t escape a second time. Sooner or later, I’ll find you.”

…

In the Mirari Realm, Astral Anura was incredibly elusive. After leaving the forbidden region and finding the two Seraphs blocking his path, the toad had attacked out of reflex, which had left him with no room for negotiations. While the toad appeared cunning, he was truly ruthless at heart. If not, he would have never been able to become a Dukkhan.

After realizing that Lu Yin and his people were not allied with Bao Qi and the old man, Astral Anura had immediately fled. He had no intention of getting involved in the conflict.

However, the Mirari Realm was not very large, and the toad could not escape, no matter how he tried.

Before long, Astral Anura was found in the bamboo forest. Progenitor Chen and Chu Yi pincered him.

The toad put on an ingratiating smile. He was wearing a straw hat and held a lotus leaf in one hand while he gave a polite, human-like bow. “Gentlemen, may I ask what reason you have for blocking my path?”

Chu Yi fought a smile as he replied, “Astral Anura, this sudden bit of courtesy is rather unusual.”

Astral Anura maintained his elegant demeanor. “We’re all old friends. There’s no need for niceties. Please make way for me, as I have business to attend to now. I’ll come find you tomorrow.”

“Is tomorrow even a thing here in the Mirari Realm?” Lu Yin said as he arrived. He smiled at Astral Anura.

The sight of Lu Yin’s smile made Astral Anura uneasy. He licked his lips and put on a show of being excited. “Well, if it isn’t Dao Monarch Lu! What wind blew you here? Dao Monarch, have you been well?”

Lu Yin slowly walked closer to Astral Anura, saying nothing, but never letting his smile slip.

Astral Anura’s own smile grew more forced the closer Lu Yin approached. “Uh, Dao Monarch Lu, what can I do for you? Please tell me. We’re all friends here, and I’m happy to help however I can.”

Lu Yin continued to walk closer, step by step.

Astral Anura was growing nervous, and he tried to back up, but Progenitor Chen stepped behind the toad just in time. A vicious light flickered through Astral Anura’s eyes. He was wary of Chu Yi, who had recently become an Ortuser, but Progenitor Chen had not yet reached that realm. Astral Anura was considering breaking free.

At this moment, the super giants’ ancestor arrived, landing nearby with a loud boom while also smiling at the toad.

Astral Anura was speechless, as he could see that he was surrounded.

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA