Star Odyssey

Chapter 4563: My Turn

Thousand Machinations stared at Wang Wen, their head tilted slightly. After a moment, the bear picked up a foot and walked closer.

Wang Wen raised no defenses at all. He simply watched the Abyssal, allowing them to walk about as they pleased, a smile on his face.

Thousand Machinations suddenly clapped their paws, pointed at Wang Wen, and then into outer space. They were pointing in the direction of the Qi Megaverse.

The bear grinned, as if they had figured something out.

Wang Wen laughed despite himself. "Since you’ve figured it out, this discussion will be easier. Balance and imbalance will always stand in opposition to each other. I’m here now to make a wager with you. We will use that human skeleton of yours and see whether his future is that of balance or imbalance."

Thousand Machinations’ grin grew even wider, and they pointed at Wang Wen while heavy mockery filled their eyes.

Wang Wen continued to smile. "I’ll admit that I do intend to use him to test that old fellow in the Death Megaverse. If you want to interfere, there’s nothing I can do about it, but remember this."

At this point, his expression grew calm and his eyes became as cold as ice. "This is your only possible chance to surpass me."

Having said that, he slowly stepped back and passed back through the gate, disappearing.

Thousand Machinations stared at the empty space for some time. They scratched their head, eyes still flickering. No one knew what the Abyssal was thinking about.

***

Lu Yin arrived in the Qi Megaverse. Furball was gone, but they had left behind a gate that was very far away from the original one.

Lu Yin went over to the gate and passed through it without the slightest hesitation.

What did he have to be afraid of? The Death Megaverse and Obscura were both trying to recruit him. No one knew that he was Lu Yin. The identity of his skeleton clone seemed to be growing more and more significant.

He stepped out into the dark starry sky and immediately looked in one direction, where traces of cyan divine energy remained.

Furball had left behind gates in a trail so that Lu Yin's bone clone would be able to follow.

They had considered the skeleton’s capabilities to be similar to those of an ordinary Immortal, or at best, a slightly stronger one-law Immortal, which was why Furball had left a very clear trail. But in truth, even if Furball had left no trail at all, Lu Yin would have still been able to find them.

Already, he could see Furball furtively following the Lepidarch from far away. It was clear that they did not dare to get too close or stray too far away. Furball must think that Lu Yin could not see them.

Lu Yin headed over until Furball sensed him and looked back. "What do you plan to do?"

"Beat it up."

"Beat who up? The Lepidarch?"

Lu Yin smiled confidently. "It beat me up badly enough, so now it is my turn."

He did not wait for Furball to respond. Stillness erupted from his bones, feeding into the sourcebox array and activating it. Blackness shot upwards.

Instantly, the Lepidarch looked back to stare at Lu Yin in disbelief. Is it him?

The four Immortal butterflies behind the Lepidarch also saw Lu Yin. None of them could believe what they were seeing. That fellow actually dares to come back? And his power is so vast. Has he already recovered?

Lu Yin laughed loudly. "Lepidarch, let’s go for another round!"

He released the Cosmic Art. Stars appeared across the Lepidarch's back and all around it.

Then, they exploded.

Lu Yin held nothing back at this moment. He had too much Stillness. It was a truly absurd amount.

Lu Yin was known to have cultivated the Cosmic Art, but these stars of Stillness did not look like the Cosmic Art because all of them were completely shrouded in darkness. There was no fear of Furball recognizing the technique.

More and more stars exploded, and Stillness surged towards the Lepidarch like a tsunami. A curtain of utter darkness collapsed upon the Immortal.

The Lepidarch was shaken. There was even more Stillness this time. It clearly understood just how much Stillness was in the stars of this battle technique, but this time, there were clearly more stars, and the increase was not a small one. There were at least one-third more stars. How could there be so many?

A wave of Stillness flooded everything, obscuring the Aevum Inch.

Lu Yin seized this chance to unleash the Yan Gate's First Needle and Endless Recall. He did not care who he hit. He would just attack first and consider things later.

The Lepidarch flapped its wings. Its true body immediately appeared, and it swept through the area, forcing the Stillness back. Together with the four other butterflies, it released numerous streams of Myriad Metal Qi. By coincidence, they happened to knock down every one of the First Needles, yet they failed to do the same with Endless Recall.

Endless Recall struck the Lepidarch, causing its mind to go blank for an instant.

Lu Yin took one step forward. Three Deaths Art, Stillness, Duality Seal.

With a bang, black and white crossed space, splitting the Aevum Inch apart.

Not too far away, Furball was absolutely shocked. Doesn’t this little thing have far too much Stillness? It’s no wonder how he managed to escape from the Lepidarch before.

Even if everything else was completely ignored, just the sheer vastness of the human skeleton’s Stillness was enough to suppress ordinary Immortals.

Boom.

The cosmos swayed as the Duality Seal struck the Lepidarch, but the expected suppression did not appear. Although Lu Yin had released an extremely powerful Duality Seal that was the most powerful attack that his skeleton clone could unleash, it was easily blocked by one of the Lepidarch's wings.

Right after that, a tremendous force blasted back, sending Lu Yin's skeleton clone flying.

He was stunned.

Furball watched calmly from the distance, not at all surprised. This skeleton had underestimated the Lepidarch far too much. No matter what, this was a two-law Immortal. The butterfly merely looked delicate. It was already absurd for a non-Immortal to fight such a powerhouse; to suppress one was something that Lu Yin would have found very difficult to do even when his true body had been an Aberrant. He had only managed to succeed by relying on all kinds of different abilities.

His Chen clone was still a step short.

Five flower marks from Butterfly Blooms simultaneously appeared on his bones, but that was fine. With the Grand Clarity sourcebox array isolating his bones, neither the Butterfly Blooms could absorb any of his power, nor could the Bloomdance Transfers attack him.

This was what gave Lu Yin the confidence to confront the Lepidarch. Without this, he would not even have qualified to even stand before the creature.

Furball was very powerful, but even they would not be able to endure five Butterfly Blooms marks at once.

However, resisting these marks required an enormous amount of Stillness. Of all the creatures in the entire Death Megaverse, aside from the Abyssals, no one else possessed the vast amount of Stillness necessary for this.

Putting everything else aside, Butterfly Blooms and Bloomdance Transfer guaranteed the Lepidarch's overwhelming combat power. What stunned Lu Yin was that the creature actually possessed powerful defenses as well, and its physical strength was also quite impressive. Was it really so well-balanced?

The stars of the Cosmic Art kept exploding, releasing a darkness that filled the cosmos around them.

Myriad Metal Qi pierced that darkness, stabbing at Lu Yin.

He casually retaliated with a palm strike, clashing directly with the Myriad Metal Qi with a Duality Seal. His arm suddenly recoiled. The attacks against him had grown stronger. The Lepidarch had also been hiding its strength.

The Myriad Metal Qi that the Lepidarch unleashed at this moment fully revealed its true strength. This was more powerful than what it had used when chasing Lu Yin before.

Any powerful creature that could survive in the Aevum Inch understood that survival was not easy, and Immortal beings were no exception. The stronger the Immortal, the better they understood how to hide themself. Even when the Lepidarch had pursued Lu Yin before, it had not revealed its true body or power. This must have been because it had sensed Thousand Machinations watching. It had always been on guard against the Abyssal.

At this moment, the butterfly had no choice but to reveal what it had previously kept hidden. Fortunately, Lu Yin’s own strength was also very impressive.

He was shocked by the Lepidarch's power, but the Lepidarch had similarly not expected Lu Yin to be so troublesome after recovering to his peak. It had actually failed to suppress an Aberrant with its Myriad Metal Qi.

In that case...

"Junior, there has never been a legend in the Aevum Inch of a non-Immortal defeating a two-law powerhouse. I will now let you know why!" the Lepidarch shouted. "Infinite Expansion."

Lu Yin's heart sank. The Lepidarch was using its cosmic law.

As a wave swept out, all Stillness was rapidly shoved away. With the Lepidarch at the center, the wave spread out in every direction. Even the stars of the Cosmic Art were uncontrollably shoved away from the Lepidarch.

Lu Yin tried to control the stars and bombard the Lepidarch with explosions, but it was useless. The stars moved towards the Lepidarch, and yet space was stretching out endlessly. As long as the expansion rate surpassed the speed at which the stars flew towards the Lepidarch, they could only end up farther and farther away from their target.

Seeing this, Lu Yin inwardly lamented that things had taken a bad turn, and he quickly retreated.

The Lepidarch flapped its wings and chased after him. "Junior, nothing but killing you can settle the hatred in my heart!"

While fleeing, Lu Yin looked back. "Lepidarch, if you have this method, why didn’t you use it when chasing me before?"

The Lepidarch did not answer. Before, it had to be wary of the powerful enemy watching from the shadows, and it had also believed that it was absolutely impossible for a mere Aberrant to escape. Chasing Lu Yin had been like fishing; a fisherman did not need to jump into the river and fight the fish. He only needed to fish, and the fish would eventually be brought ashore.

The only variable was that Lu Yin had happened to find the Qi Megaverse and lured Furball out. That could be likened to another fisherman appearing. That was something that could have been anticipated. The Lepidarch had believed that it would never again encounter Lu Yin. Who would have thought that he would actually come back on his own? The skeleton was targeting the butterfly. Could things really be as it had imagined?

The Lepidarch considered something, and its aura changed. The void was thrown into chaos, becoming incomparably dangerous. It seemed as if the butterfly had gained the resolve to kill at all costs in a mere instant.

Lu Yin sensed the change. Fortunately, this was precisely what he had wanted.

He opened Obscura's gate and leaped into it, disappearing.

The Lepidarch instantly stopped and stared at Obscura's gate. A gate?

It hesitated. Should it go through? It did not know about Obscura. The Aevum Inch was boundless, and not every creature was aware of Obscura. In truth, Obscura was unknown to most civilizations.

The Lepidarch Continent had always wandered around near the Death Megaverse’s territory, and the Death Megaverse had protected it from many civilizations. Although the butterfly knew nothing of Obscura, a glance was enough to see that this gate was connected to somewhere else. The Lepidarch wondered if it might lead to the civilization that represented death.

Could this skeleton have attacked it repeatedly just to lure it to that civilization?

This skeleton was clearly no match for the Lepidarch. There was no other explanation for why he had attacked again and again.

Thinking of this, the butterfly turned around and left. It would not chase the skeleton anymore.

Whatever creature was watching it from the shadows was definitely not weak, and yet they had never made a move. They must be waiting for the Lepidarch to be lured over so that they could settle things while paying the smallest cost.

On the other side of the gate, Lu Yin had never expected the Lepidarch to chase him through the gate. It was not stupid.

However, he had had no other choice. Either he lured the Lepidarch over, or he lured the creatures of the civilization that he had been tasked with destroying over to the Lepidarch. There were only those two options.

He would first see what kind of civilization he had been assigned to.

Typically, Obscura would task candidate members with destroying a civilization with only one Immortal, and this time was no exception. Perhaps to accommodate Lu Yin's skeleton clone, the civilization looked very weak.

Lu Yin examined the distant civilization. Cubic creatures could be seen everywhere within the megaverse. Even the plants were cubic, and the oceans and the landmasses formed cubes that were connected to one another.

No matter how he looked at it, the megaverse looked to have been assembled from building blocks.

Withered Requiem's Building Blocks mirebound artifact would probably be more suitable here.

Lu Yin also saw the civilization’s Immortal. It was a cube, and he sensed that it was a very ordinary Immortal.

He simply attacked, releasing power comparable to a creature who had reached the pinnacle beneath the Immortal realm.

His actions immediately caused a tremendous commotion in the megaverse. Countless cubes scattered apart, easily avoiding his attack.

The Immortal's body then transformed into countless cubes that scattered about. The cubes moved towards Lu Yin, one after another, leaving behind white trails of Lifeforce. The first to arrive were the attacks infused with Immortal matter.

Lu Yin dispersed the attacks while pretending to retreat. In reality, he had already confirmed the Immortal's strength. It was incredibly weak.

He passed back through the gate and left.