Star Odyssey

Chapter 1724: True And False

Lu Yin was unwilling, "Is there no possibility of a temporary peace? A hundred years, or even ten years would be enough."

"Not possible, and you don’t qualify to even discuss such things." The mechanical giant threw a punch into empty space. "Go back. If we meet on the battlefield, we will not let you go, regardless of where you come from."

"Where is Sky Creation Academy?" Lu Yin shouted.

The mechanical giant replied, "Not far behind the battlefield. If you are able to cross the battlefield and break through the Lost Course Army, you can find Sky Creation Academy, like that bald man from the Human Domain known as Hui Kong did. There’s no need to speak any further. Leave."

With that, the giant leaped up and disappeared. Lu Yin had no idea where the construct had gone.

He and the others were then dismissed and sent away.

As they returned to the other side of the Sophic Rift, Lu Yin turned around. All of the set up was complete, so he could finally begin implementing his plan.

"Do you still want to try to get to Sky Creation Academy? I'm not confident about sneaking over there," the First Protector said.

Lu Yin replied, "Did Senior sense any corpse kings within the Lost Course Army?"

"Do you?" The First Protector showed some surprise, but Lu Yin shook his head.

The First Protector heaved a sigh of relief. "That was why I hadn’t said anything yet."

Lu Yin lowered his voice, "This junior is not willing to just leave."

"What else do you want to do? It would be best if you could travel to Sky Creation Academy as a special envoy, but unfortunately, that’s not possible," the First Protector complained.

Lu Yin's eyes narrowed. "Then we should go back to our original plan: just charge over from this battlefield."

The First Protector hesitated for a long while, and Lu Yin eventually looked up at the old man. "Senior, our original plan was to sneak deep into the Technocracy by using Emperor Luo’s secret path, and then make our way over to Sky Creation Academy. We’re already close, so I have to try to get there no matter how dangerous it may be.”

The First Protector could only helplessly nod in agreement.

Back in Endless Weave, Lu Yin had persuaded the old man to use an alternate way to enter the Technocracy by approaching First Edition City. This was already the fourth time that plans had changed, and the First Protector had no real reason to refuse.

Lu Yin's failure to broker a truce was not anything that Little R1O found unexpected, but Little R1O could only try to comfort Lu Yin after his return, "Just come back, Ah Qi. The war here in the Sophic Rift has been going on for far too long, and no one can put a stop to it. You’ve already done your best, and your Sixth Mainland will have to see the efforts you’ve put in."

Lu Yin’s voice was bitter, "Thank you, Little R1O. Still, even though I failed this time, I’m not giving up."

"What else can you do?" Little R1O felt puzzled.

Lu Yin clenched his fists. "I'm going to Sky Creation Academy!"

Little R1O was caught completely off guard. "You want to go to Sky Creation Academy? Ah Qi, this isn’t anything to mess around about! Sky Creation Academy is not First Edition City, and they will not welcome you. You’ll find it hard to leave again after you get there, and it’s nearly impossible for you to even get close to Sky Creation Academy."

Lu Yin remained stubborn. "I still have to try, for the sake of my clan and the Sixth Mainland."

Little R1O stared blankly at Lu Yin for a long while.

"Little R1O, why are you staring at me?" Lu Yin wondered.

The android lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Ah Qi."

"Why are you apologizing?"action

Little R1O remained silent for a bit before whispering, "I apologize for my previous behavior. You think about your clan, but I… I’ve used the bodies of your clan members for experiments. I'm truly sorry, Ah Qi."

Lu Yin felt quite curious. "What do you mean, my clan members’ bodies?"

Little R1O started explaining, "Your clan-"

He then paused for a moment and accessed his gadget and shared a picture. It was of a man lying on a high-tech bed. Half of the man’s body had been replaced with machinery, and there were all sorts of lights visible.

Little R1O apologized yet again, "I'm sorry, Ah Qi, but this was one of your clan members. I used him as a test subject, but your words just now made me realize that was a mistake. Your clan is very dear to your heart, so I will return him to you."

Lu Yin stared blankly at the person in the picture; was that Ancestor Autumnfrost?

How? Wasn’t Ancestor Autumnfrost in the Outerverse?

"Little R1O, what happened to him?" Lu Yin asked hurriedly.

Little R1O thought that Lu Yin was angry, which caused Little R1O to feel even more guilty. "I'm sorry, Ah Qi, but I used him as a test subject. When I found him, I could tell that it was the corpse of a powerful human, so I wanted to use it for some tests. I never expected to meet you, who’s one of his clan members, so I’ll return him to you."

"You mean he’s dead?" Lu Yin frowned.

Little R1O nodded. "He was already dead when we found him."

Impossible! Lu Yin stared at the image of Ancestor Autumnfrost on the screen. It was clearly Ancestor Autumnfrost, and if Lu Yin remembered correctly, when the Sixth Mainland had cooperated with the Technocracy to attack the Outerverse through Endless Weave, Ancestor Autumnfrost had teamed up with Ancestor Mojiang to fight against Yuan Shi. Yuan Shi had badly injured the two ancestors. Ancestor Mojiang had then died, but Ancestor Autumnfrost had escaped.

Ancestor Autumnfrost was still alive and thriving in the Outerverse, leading one of the most powerful families in the Bloodburn Realm. Of the other top families, one of the Ten Venerables, Ancestor Di, had been killed by Aeternus, and Ancestor Mojiang had been killed by Yuan Shi. This had left Ancestor Autumnfrost as the Bloodburn Realm’s only World Imprinter, which was also why many of the members of the Mojiang clan had taken refuge with the Autumnfrost clan.

So why in the world was Lu Yin staring at Ancestor Autumnfrost’s corpse?

"Little R1O, when did you find him?" Lu Yin asked.

Little R1O took a moment to remember. “Nine years… Yes, nine years and one month ago."

"How do you know that so precisely?"

"Ah Qi, we need to keep track of dates and all other data when conducting research, so everything that happened from the moment he was picked up to the start of all of our experiments and beyond was carefully dated and documented," Little R1O explained.

Lu Yin started thinking; nine years ago was the time that the Technocracy and the Sixth Mainland had invaded the Outerverse, and it almost precisely coincided with when Ancestor Autumnfrost and Ancestor Mojiang had been wounded and driven back by Yuan Shi. Did this mean that Ancestor Autumnfrost had already died back then? In that case, what was the current Ancestor Autumnfrost’s real identity?

Lu Yin stared out into space in the direction of the Human Domain; one of the two Ancestor Autumnfrosts had to be a fake.

Lu Yin did not believe that Little R1O had any motivation to try to deceive Lu Yin with a fake, and Little R1O most likely did not even know of the existence of Ancestor Autumnfrost. In that case, there was only one possibility: the Ancestor Autumnfrost currently leading the Autumnfrost family in the Outerverse was an imposter.

"Ah Qi, take them back with you. I'm really, truly sorry," Little R1O yet again apologized.

Lu Yin smiled. "It's fine. Little R1O, there are also wars between different groups of humans, and not all of us from even the same clan are friends. I have no relationship with that person, so let’s just go back to First Edition City. We can talk about this there."

"Okay."

Lu Yin had visited with Sky Creation Academy’s army in order to negotiate a temporary truce, but had predictably failed. Because no one had expected his success, this failure did not create even a single ripple in the Third Fleet.

Throughout his entire time with the Third Fleet, Lu Yin never once spoke with Admiral Chong, and the only time the admiral had even heard of Lu Yin had been when the human had requested to speak with the Lost Course Army as a special envoy. Admiral Chong had no impression at all of this human.

The only person who paid attention to Lu Yin’s movements was the cyborg woman, the one who was seen as their saintess. Her name was Xin Yu, which was a nice name.

"I certainly underestimated your courage; you actually dared to go speak with the Lost Course Army." Xin Yu sought out Lu Yin and his group, though her voice was as cold as ever.

Lu Yin looked over at the woman. "What are you doing here?"

Xin Yu stared at Emperor Luo. "Your strength increased because of those designs from back then. As long as you return them, I can ask First Edition City’s master to send more androids to the Outerverse to fight against the Human Domain."

"Are design schemes for Envoy-level androids really so rare for First Edition City?" Lu Yin asked in an odd tone.

Xin Yu looked at Lu Yin. "You clearly don't realize that any technological breakthrough is only accomplished after countless experiments. Data from previous experiments is extremely valuable, and it even can offer new inspiration, which can be worth more than anything."

She turned back to Emperor Luo. "The data he possesses might be useless, but it could also be able to inspire a reformation.

"This is no different from your humans’ lockbreaking: you might uncover something that can change the universe, or it might be complete trash."

"’You humans’? Like you aren’t human?" Lu Yin mocked.

Xin Yu coldly retorted, "Whether or not I’m human doesn’t matter. Return those designs, and I can help you reach your goals. If you give me those, I can help you get almost anything, so long as it isn’t too excessive."

Lu Yin and the First Protector glanced at each other. If Emperor Luo's stolen technology could truly offer inspiration or aid to First Edition City, it was impossible for them to share it.

"Let's go." Lu Yin started leaving.

Xin Yu frowned as she watched Lu Yin. "This battle will last a long time, and I know you’ll be back to the city within just a few days. It would be best for you to reconsider, as how are you going to be able to explain yourselves when you go back empty handed? I can help you; I am able to get you what you came for.”

With that, she finally left.

If Lu Yin and others truly represented the Sixth Mainland, naturally they would be willing to purchase Xin Yu's help with the design schemes, as it would allow them to get more androids from First Edition City. However, they were imposters, and were actually the Sixth Mainland’s enemies, so they felt things would be much better if Xin Yu developed a hatred towards the Sixth Mainland, so they were happy to secretly provoke more conflicts.

The fighting soon resumed on the Sophic Rift, and countless explosions, attacks, and black holes appeared in space. On this terrible battlefield, life was incredibly cheap.

Lu Yin started being targeted by a cyborg astral beast with the strength of an Enlighter. Lu Yin was not able to reveal his full strength, so he slowly fought against the cyborg for half a day.

The astral beast started to become impatient, and also quickly grew more and more anxious. In the end, it was killed by the cubic android Lu Yin had seen before.

"Human, no need for any thanks." The cube greeted Lu Yin before attacking one of the Lost Course Army’s battleships.

The Third Fleet had too many androids to even count, and while the same was true of the Lost Course Army’s numbers, they had a far larger proportion of massive-sized cyborgs.

A shockwave swept towards Lu Yin from the distance, and it was hurling many ships through space. Lu Yin raised a hand and tore through one vessel with a palm attack. The shockwave came from a distant attack from a powerful combatant with the strength of an Envoy.

Admiral Chong and the largest mechanical giant were still tirelessly fighting each other, and occasionally a shockwave from their slash would sweep out in all directions. Lu Yin had become far more vigilant, so he was able to avoid the shockwave’s every time even without the First Protector’s assistance.

During one particular clash between the two primary combatants on the battlefield, the mechanical giant accidentally smashed one of the androids from the Hall of Honor that had accompanied Lu Yin and the First Protector. The mechanical giant suddenly roared, "Despicable! Your First Edition City is becoming more and more despicable! You actually hid an Envoy-level android within the regular military!"

"What are you even talking about?" Admiral Chong shouted back.

The giant solemnly replied, "You know what I said."

An android with the strength of an Envoy had just been instantly destroyed, and Lu Yin felt the pain of the loss.

The First Protector was feeling the same agony. While the Hall of Honor had long since developed the technology to produce Envoy-level androids, very few could be made due to the limited availability of the required materials. One of those had just been lost, and they could not even retaliate or react, which greatly pained the First Protector. His expression grew worse and worse as he stared at the oversized mechanical giant.

If not for the fact that the First Protector was so wary about the Technocracy, he would have already destroyed the giant.