Chapter 4407: Starfist Manual
Chapter 4407: Starfist Manual
That was not the way that Old Man Hehe touched upon the main stream of the River of Aeons. If it were, Lu Yin would have accomplished the same thing long ago.
One was an attempt at initiating contact with some level of comprehension, while the other meant being possibly completely swept away. The two were entirely different concepts, much like the difference between a tamed beast and a feral one.
The River of Aeons swayed as its ferryman was annihilated. Chen Jian looked up at the Shattered Dipper with complicated emotions. Whether the ferryman died or not did not particularly matter; this was merely a matter of venting his anger. The only thing that the Immortal was truly unable to let go of was the Shattered Dipper.
Chen Jian’s punch had supposedly been to simply kill the ferryman of the River of Aeons, but it was actually his final farewell to the shattering star. From this moment onward, the Aevum Inch would contain neither the Shattered Dipper, nor the punch that the Immortal had just unleashed.
"Let me do this," Chen Jian said.
Lu Yin was just about to start spreading out the sequence strings when he heard Chen Jian’s request, and he immediately refused. “There are too many creatures in this megaverse. If you are the one to destroy it, your karmic chain will increase too much, which will be a problem.”
Chen Jian thought about it and ultimately agreed. He did not insist, as he had simply wished to send the Starfall Megaverse off at the end.
To capture a branch of the River of Aeons, it was necessary to completely destroy an entire megaverse. Only when that megaverse ceased to exist would its time also disappear. Otherwise, if the branch of the River of Aeons was simply taken away, the time within that megaverse would collapse entirely. Where did time come from? Naturally, from the River of Aeons’ main stream.
Not even the Mirari Realm could escape the flow of time in the main stream of the River of Aeons.
Once the time of a megaverse completely collapsed, it would become something like an irregular vortex within the main stream of the River of Aeons, which would easily pull down disastrous consequences.
That was why, even though a branch could theoretically be captured without destroying a megaverse, few would ever dare to attempt such a thing.
Lu Yin proceeded with locating the Starfall Megaverse’s sequence strings, and then he started spreading them out from the megaverse, one by one. They stretched out endlessly into the Aevum Inch. With his power, every sequence string stretched to its absolute limit, until it fully merged with the Aevum Inch.
Some megaverses required a long time to complete this process, while others took much less time. It all depended on the resilience of the megaverse’s sequence strings and the strength of the one acting.
The Starfall Megaverse and the Nine Odysseys Megaverse were not on the same level at all. To begin with, this megaverse had far fewer sequence strings.
Lu Yin and Chen Jian stood in outer space, quietly waiting. After some time, Chen Jian spoke in a low voice. “It is time.”
Lu Yin looked ahead. The Starfall Megaverse lay before him like a painting spread flat, stretching into infinity, before slowly regaining its depth. Within it, stars shattered one after another as countless creatures wailed.
Lu Yin closed his eyes. He was reluctant to proceed, yet he had no choice. No matter which megaverse he used to capture a branch of the River of Aeons, this scene was inevitable.
This was the Aevum Inch, and it was also why his human civilization needed to continue growing stronger. If not, they would one day face the same fate.
From afar, the Starfall Megaverse resembled an abyss, darkening from the inside out. Everything within shattered and merged into the boundless Aevum Inch. Just as the Greater Sancte Blood Tower had said, it was both tragic and magnificent.
Chen Jian suddenly took a step forward, staring straight again with a conflicted expression. Before his eyes lay the Shattered Dipper, the destruction spreading toward it from the other nearby stars.
Lu Yin turned to look as well.
The Shattered Dipper had long long stood on the brink of collapse. Now, it shattered completely. Yet at the instant of its destruction, a blinding radiance erupted, lighting up the starry sky and becoming the most dazzling sight in the surrounding region. Within that radiance was not only light, but a fist.
Lu Yin’s eyes went wide. He saw someone throw a punch that overturned the cosmos, reversing reality itself. The brilliance of that punch endured throughout eternity, ultimately forming the Shattered Dipper itself.
The Shattered Dipper had never been a star, but was rather the power of a single punch left behind ages ago. It was a force that spanned both the ancient and modern eras.
Chen Jian stared in shock. So that is the truth. This is the real Shattered Dipper.
He turned to Lu Yin and opened his mouth to speak, only to see Lu Yin staring into the distance, visibly dazed. Did he just receive sudden enlightenment?
Instinctively, Lu Yin stepped forward. He appeared right in front of the shattered Shattered Dipper. Staring at the incoming punch, he slowly closed his eyes and let the fist pass through his body. Despite originating from the ancient past, even after so much time, its intent could still be clearly felt.
He had also started cultivating the Star Fist, but he had never been able to sense anything special about it. At this moment, enlightenment struck. A star chart appeared in his mind. It recorded countless revolving stars. One star lit up; it was the Shattered Dipper, or more precisely the Dipper Fist.
The punch illuminated the Dipper Fist and revealed the true profundity of the Star Fist. This was the Starfist Manual.
Lu Yin understood. This was the true Star Fist. The Star Fist that had been passed down within the Starfall Megaverse was both real and false. No one in the megaverse could ever comprehend the true meaning of the star. Only by comprehending the Starfist Manual could one step onto the true path of the Star Fist.
A fierce wind swept past as Lu Yin regained his clarity. The Starfall Megaverse was still merging with the Aevum Inch, yet that had little effect on him. The destruction of a single megaverse could not harm him.
He peered into the distance and met Chen Jian’s gaze. The Immortal grew excited, having already guessed something.
But this was not the time for conversation. The Starfall Megaverse was about to completely dissipate, and it was time to capture the branch stream of the River of Aeons.
Lu Yin vanished, teleporting away.
Remaining in place, Chen Jian took a deep breath. So this is the true key to unlocking the Star Fist.
His masters had always said that they lacked that key. The Star Fist was still the Star Fist, yet the one that they cultivated was fundamentally different from the true version.
They had tried every possible method to help him cultivate it, but none had ever succeeded. The Starfall Megaverse had only ever been able to rely on the Shattered Dipper to cultivate the Star Fist. It was an incomplete cultivation path for their civilization.
What Chen Jian remembered most clearly was the name that his masters once mentioned: Starfist Manual.
And yet that technique was gone. His masters were unable to teach it to him, and after countless years, those four words had been buried and forgotten.
Even the Shattered Dipper was doomed to eventually become history, and Chen Jian’s masters had all long since passed away.
However, at this moment, he understood. The key had always been there. It was the Shattered Dipper itself. But who could have imagined that? And even if they had known, it might have still been useless to them. After all, Chen Jian had not obtained any sort of enlightenment, only Mr. Lu.
If that scene truly was the Starfist Manual, then it belonged to Mr. Lu alone. Chen Jian could not obtain it.
The old man felt bitter. He was well aware that he was not actually suited for cultivating fist techniques. His personality limited him, yet the Starfall Megaverse only possessed fist arts. “Master, perhaps this Mr. Lu can restore the glory of the Star Fist.”
Endless destruction would eventually result in silence.
Lu Yin appeared back at Chen Jian’s side. The Starfall Megaverse had completely vanished, leaving nothing behind. The position where the Shattered Dipper had once existed now resembled the empty void of the Aevum Inch.
Chen Jian looked over at Lu Yin. “Success?”
Lu Yin nodded. He had captured the branch stream of the River of Aeons in his inner universe. Truthfully, he was reluctant to hand it over to Ba Se, but he had no choice. He had to repay the life debt that he owed to Old Man Hehe. There would be further opportunities to capture another one in the future.
“Senior, just now, I saw the true Star Fist,” Lu Yin said.
Chen Jian grew excited. “Did you see the Starfist Manual?”
Lu Yin nodded. “The Starfist Manual? A fitting name. Sure enough, the Dipper Fist is a star illuminated by the Star Fist.”
“I knew it! Wonderful, wonderful! Hahaha!” Chen Jian burst into laughter as he looked at Lu Yin with excitement filling his eyes. “My masters did not deceive me! The Star Fist is the strongest fist technique in the cosmos! Mr. Lu, you have obtained the true Star Fist. You must cultivate it! I promise you that this technique will make you supremely powerful and invincible.”
Lu Yin had already felt the power of the Star Fist. The technique was unquestionably formidable and could serve as a decisive trump card in battle, but claiming absolute supremacy was still rather excessive. There was no power in existence that was absolutely invincible. Whether fist technique or sword art, there would always be a chance of being countered.
Still, he did want to see the power of the Star Fist once he fully mastered it.
Cultivating the Star Fist required endless comprehension of fist intent. The punch from the Shattered Dipper had allowed him to grasp that particular intent, but what about other ones? That would require time, a very long time.
There was one more thing he did not say, he did not want to discourage Chen Jian further. The Star Fist did not seem suited for combat, but to instead place a greater emphasis on the cultivation of a civilization.
For instance, the Dipper Fist. Its fist intent spanned the ancient and modern eras and had been left behind for others to cultivate. That clearly indicated that it was not a combat technique, but rather a cultivation art. Perhaps, the stronger the civilization is, the stronger the fist intent becomes...
Such fist intent was more in line with the nature of the Nine Ramparts. The Star Fist had likely come from one of them.
“Senior, did your masters truly never mention anything about the Nine Ramparts?”
"No, never."
Lu Yin felt helpless. Green Lotus had concealed that part of humanity’s history to scheme against Hong Xia, but Chen Jian clearly had no reason to hide anything.
Since Chen Jian had no answers, the only place left to seek any was from Hong Xia.
Lu Yin turned in his mission by sending Master Qing Cao to deliver the River of Aeons to Vestigium. Ba Se confirmed that Lu Yin had completed his mission and granted him another three-star reward.
This was different from the rewards gained during Obscura’s wars, during which times rewards had arrived too suddenly and in much greater numbers.
"Lu Yin, please choose a reward for your three-star mission."
"I won't redeem the reward, but will rather keep it."
"Please choose a mission."
"I want another three-star mission. I want to take the mission of creating a star chart. I should be allowed to choose that on my own, right?"
Ba Se said, "Yes. Three-star mission: create a star chart, starting from a pre-determined location."
After speaking, Ba Se sent a gate to Lu Yin. Using that gate of Obscura’s, Lu Yin would arrive directly at the location of his next mission.
Lu Yin did not know where the location actually was or how far it might be from the Trio. It might be very close, or it might be unimaginably distant.
Completing this mission carried a certain degree of danger. It was nowhere near as safe as preparing the star chart centered on the Trio.
No one could help him in this location.
If Lu Yin were to create the star chart himself, there would be no problem, but he simply did not have time for that. He could only leave this mission for others to complete, and there could not be too few of them. The fewer the people, the longer it would take to complete the mission. Among those involved, someone who could teleport had to be included.
At present, there were five people in the Trio who could teleport: Lu Yin himself, Ancestor Lu Yuan, and three younger members of the Lu family: two men and one woman. One of the men was Lu Huai, the first genius to awaken the innate gift that Ancestor Lu Yuan and Lu Yin had succeeded in cultivating. He had been considered a prodigy that the entire Trio had watched over.
Unfortunately, the man had been born into too exalted a position and had grown arrogant and unrestrained. Things had reached such an extreme that Lu Yin had eventually punished Lu Huai by sending him into the Champions' Stage Purgatory. Later, Lu Huai had personally requested to have his memories sealed so that he could go out to temper himself.
Suddenly reminded of the man, Lu Yin realized that he had not seen Lu Huai in a very long time.