Star Odyssey

Chapter 4556: The Lepidarch

No one would have dared to believe that this could happen. Not even Lu Yin himself had expected such incredible success. After all, he was the one unleashing the battle techniques. If Withered Requiem or Ruinfall used the techniques that had been created for them, the power would have been on a completely different level.

However, sealing three Immortal Lepids did not mean that Lu Yin had won. This part of his plan had been necessary for him to advance further, and the sourcebox arrays were also a method. If he had simply fought the three Lepids to the death, even if he had managed to emerge victorious, it would have been a pyrrhic victory.

It could only be said that these Lepids truly lacked powerful attacks. As long as one could withstand the drain of Butterfly Bloom, they would have a chance of victory.

These Lepids’ strengths were obvious, but their weaknesses were just as obvious.

High in the sky, Lu Yin looked over at the last two Immortal Lepids and charged at them without the slightest hesitation.

They still had not succeeded in breaking the sourcebox array that they were attacking.

Each array was empowered by a vast amount of Stillness, and it would take time to deplete it all. Lu Yin was not going to give them that time.

The Lepids saw Lu Yin charging at them. Hunter and prey had just switched roles. The two colorful Lepids immediately fled.

One of them had already marked Lu Yin with Butterfly Bloom, but at this moment, the Lepid still did not dare to face him directly.

Lu Yin could finally hold his head high on the Lepidarch Continent. After being hunted for so many years, it was finally his turn.

The four Immortal Lepids trapped within the sourcebox arrays watched Lu Yin hunt down the two free ones. They frantically attacked the sourcebox arrays from within, trying to break free.

Lu Yin looked into the distance. Stars revolved around him as the Cosmic Art spread across the entire Lepidarch Continent.

The Lepids witnessed something unprecedented. They could not believe that Lu Yin still possessed so much Stillness.

Where was it all coming from?

One star after another spun around and blasted at the two Immortal Lepids. No matter where they tried to hide, stars would strike them, and Stillness covered the entire Lepidarch Continent.

"Are you not afraid that the Lepidarch will awaken?" Suddenly, a voice reached his ears.

Lu Yin's movements hesitated, and he looked back at the first Lepid that he had trapped within a sourcebox array, but the Lepid did not speak again.

Even so, it had reminded Lu Yin that, if the commotion from the battle grew too great, he risked truly awakening the Lepidarch.

Though, he believed that the Lepidarch was already awake and simply had not taken action.

However, a guess was just a guess. As long as he was not certain that the Lepidarch had awakened, he needed to guard against that possibility.

As he considered this, the Cosmic Art disappeared, and Lu Yin once again unleashed Blackpath.

Black lines of Stillness spread out, stretching to their limit until they reached the barrier of light that covered the Lepidarch Continent, at which point they abruptly merged.

The two Immortal Lepids dropped down farther and farther in an attempt to avoid the black lines. All of the black lines completely merged, forming a beam of utter darkness. As Lu Yin struck, the beam slashed towards the two Immortals.

"If the Lepidarch awakens, you will undoubtedly die." The trapped Lepid spoke up again.

Lu Yin glanced over at it. "Then let me leave."

The colorful Lepid fluttered its wings, but it did not answer.

Lu Yin’s voice grew cold. "I want to leave, and yet you insist on stopping me. Do you really think that I don’t know that the Lepidarch has already awakened and is only waiting for the right chance to act? But does it have that chance? Do you know how much power I have left? Do you know why I came here? Do you know whether there is an even stronger being behind me?

"You know none of that, and yet you still dared to stop me from leaving. On what grounds?"

As his words fell, the universe trembled. An overwhelming power shook outer space, and it even caused the Aevum Inch to sway.

Lu Yin was shocked and looked downward. The Lepidarch Continent was shaking.

The two Lepids stopped moving, their panic clear to anyone watching.

The four trapped Lepids also started to panic.

Not good! The Lepidarch has awakened!

"On the grounds that this ancestor has no bones!" A fierce, deafening shout rang out.

Lu Yin turned and fled, racing for the Aevum Inch.

Suddenly, his body’s strength started to drain away, and Butterfly Bloom marks appeared on him one after another. They were the ones that the three dead Lepids had placed on him: two absorbed his physical strength while one absorbed his consciousness.

Above him, the barrier or light vanished, only to transform into strands of Myriad Metal Qi that stabbed at Lu Yin.

Every strand caused his back to grow cold.

This Lepidarch was definitely a two-law powerhouse. He did not know if it was comparable to one the Death Megaverse’s Abyssals, nor did he need to know. No matter what, this was an existence far beyond the current him.

Myriad Metal Qi swept through the sky, one strand to his left and one to his right.

The instant the two attacks swept past him, Lu Yin felt a chill.

Fortunately, the attacks were easy to dodge.

Wait. He suddenly glanced back, only to see that the two strands of Myriad Metal Qi had stabbed into the two fleeing Lepids, forcing them down to the ground.

Lu Yin knew that this was bad. The Lepidarch had not been targeting him, but rather those two Immortal Lepids. This was trouble.

Boom!

Boom!

Two thunderous explosions rang out. The Lepids sank into the ground, the earth shook, and countless creatures fled in terror.

On Lu Yin's body, two Butterfly Bloom marks disappeared. They were the ones placed on him by those two Lepids.

He once again raced for the Aevum Inch. However, the very next instant, those two flower marks reappeared on his body.

Exhaustion dragged him downward like an endless weight. Even more of his physical strength was being sapped away.

There were currently five flower marks on his body. Three were absorbing his physical strength, one his consciousness, and the last one his vitality. They covered all aspects of his spiritual force.

Lu Yin was like a mortal carrying a thousand-pound burden. His speed and strength both plummeted.

Myriad Metal Qi appeared overhead again. This time, he was the target.

The Myriad Metal Qi descended. At the same time, five different points on his body were attacked. He was no longer being targeted by the various Immortal Lepids; rather, it was the Lepidarch using Bloomdance Transfer.

Lu Yin's body was smashed to the right. His bones trembled, and cracks appeared on them.

Before, the hidden tenth Immortal Lepid had already been capable of injuring Lu Yin with Bloomdance Transfer. He had since refined his bones with Myriad Metal Qi, strengthening them greatly, but even so, he still could not withstand five Bloomdance Transfer attacks from the Lepidarch.

If he had not refined his bones with Myriad Metal Qi, his body would have completely shattered already. He could not endure many more attacks.

Myriad Metal Qi descended once again.

Lu Yin raised his head. The Lepidarch wanted to finish him off without even revealing its true body.

He let out a heavy breath. Stars revolved around him, and Stillness surged into his bones from countless stars. On Lu Yin's skeletal form, a sourcebox array activated. Shockingly, it was the Grand Clarity sourcebox array that he had studied. He had arranged it on his own bones precisely to ward off the Lepidarch's Butterfly Bloom and Bloomdance Transfer.

It was the only method that he had to deal with those methods.

Since he had already suspected that the Lepidarch was awake and that at least three Butterfly Blooms would be transferred to that powerhouse, how could Lu Yin possibly not have made any preparations? He had merely been testing the power of the Immortal’s attacks.

As the sourcebox array was activated, his entire body became a moving sourcebox array, and Stillness spread out from him.

He evaded the Myriad Metal Qi. It pierced the earth and vanished.

"You actually have a method like this? Your own mastery of sourcebox arrays is quite impressive. If not, you could not have made such progress with this array in such a short time." The Lepidarch's voice echoed throughout everything.

Lu Yin looked up. "Lepidarch, I am already leaving. Do you really want to see both of us suffer?"

"What makes you think that you can force this ancestor to suffer with you? The civilization behind you possesses a method that ignores karmic chains, but it requires an opponent that has bones. Without bones, if your civilization attacks this ancestor, they will still have to endure the increase in their karmic chain.

"You came to my Lepidarch Continent and acted recklessly, and you think that you can simply leave? You underestimate this ancestor too much!" After speaking, strands of Myriad Metal Qi gathered in every direction throughout the sky and across the ground. Lu Yin was exactly at the center of it all. "Junior, your purpose in coming here is Grand Clarity, is it not?"

"Since you already know that, you should understand that I have no intention of becoming an enemy of your Lepidarch Continent."

The Lepidarch shouted loud enough to shake the cosmos, "You are not allowed to come and go as you please from this place!"

After speaking, countless strands of Myriad Metal Qi stabbed at Lu Yin. "Let us see just how long your power can last for."

There was enough Myriad Metal Qi to break the sourcebox array that protected Lu Yin's body and smash him to bits afterwards.

Lu Yin raised a bone hand. A triangle condensed over his palm: Three Deaths Art.

This was something that he had prepared for the Lepidarch. The Three Deaths Art still contained enough Stillness to fully empower his Cosmic Art about four times.

Darkness appeared above his hand as Stillness condensed. Lu Yin took one step forward and then charged in one direction with his hand upraised. He slammed it down.

Clang, clang, clang.

The Myriad Metal Qi shattered as Lu Yin forced his way out, rushing back towards the landmass without a backwards glance.

The Lepidarch had not expected Lu Yin to actually be able to break through its Myriad Metal Qi. This was completely different from the Myriad Metal Qi that the other Immortal Lepids wielded.

Not only that, for an instant, the darkness wielded by the skeleton actually caused the Lepidarch to feel a bit wary.

It had observed Lu Yin for a long time and had intended to wait for Lu Yin's Stillness to be nearly exhausted before attacking him. It had not anticipated him retaining so much in reserve.

Not good! He’s going in that direction.

The Lepidarch moved, and the enormous Lepidarch Continent churned.

Lu Yin was nearly overturned. Where is the mountain? It actually ran away.

He had been heading straight for the great mountain where the tenth Lepid had been hidden. That mountain was also the exact center of the Lepidarch's body. The other Lepids had protected that location, either intentionally or unintentionally, and the Grand Clarity Civilization had also targeted that location, making it the largest battlefield in their war against the Lepidarch Continent. Perhaps Lepidarch's weakness lay there.

It seemed that was indeed the case. If there were not some weakness there, the Lepidarch would not have reacted so strongly.

At this moment, Myriad Metal Qi stabbed downward, targeting the sourcebox arrays that had trapped the four Lepids.

Lu Yin instantly reacted with the Cosmic Art. Star after star suddenly appeared, and they covered the entire Lepidarch Continent.

There was an explosion.

The Cosmic Art could not stop the Myriad Metal Qi. When released by the Lepidarch, Myriad Metal Qi was extremely powerful and sharp. However, the explosion could at least alter the direction that the Myriad Metal Qi attacked.

Four strands of Myriad Metal Qi brushed past the sourcebox arrays, all missing their mark.

More Myriad Metal Qi appeared and attacked the four sourcebox arrays again. The Lepidarch still had no intention of acting with its true body. Instead, it wanted to break the sourcebox arrays and release the four Lepids so that they could deal with Lu Yin.

Lu Yin had known from the beginning that it was impossible for him to fight a fishing civilization on his own. He was not even able to force out the Lepidarch's true body. He could only flee. Everything else could wait for after that.

Thousand Machinations had to be watching.

Stars exploded again as Lu Yin raced towards the Aevum Inch while simultaneously preventing the Lepidarch from breaking the arrays. Lu Yin was fighting just for a chance of survival.

He was truly consuming far too much Stillness. While detonating the stars could deflect the Myriad Metal Qi and the sourcebox array that covered his bones prevented him from being targeted by Butterfly Bloom and Bloomdance Transfer, Lu Yin felt as if no amount of Stillness would be enough for him at this moment.

Lu Yin gritted his teeth and charged straight into the Aevum Inch.

With the Lepidarch awake, the barrier surrounding the Lepidarch Continent had vanished.

It took Lu Yin just a few steps to leave, but his Cosmic Art did not move far from the Lepidarch Continent so that it could continue to deflect the Myriad Metal Qi.

Lu Yin was simply not fast enough to escape if the Lepidarch pursued him. If the Immortal Lepids were freed, the four Immortals would also be enough to make Lu Yin miserable.

He released yet more Stillness. This time, he released it from the Three Deaths Art, and it far exceeded what he had previously indicated to be his limit with the Cosmic Art.

Lu Yin himself moved away from the Lepidarch, but the stars of Stillness remained within the Lepidarch Continent.