Star Odyssey

Chapter 1901: That Which Should Not Be Seen

Many people were gathering the shattered remains of the Absolute Beast Cage in order to make weapons from them. Since this was a metal that even Empyrean Imprinters had struggled to break, it would definitely make for powerful weapons.

However, they were all disappointed by the results. The shattered remains of the Absolute Beast Cage were similar to a corpse after a creature’s vitality had been lost. Forget Empyrean Imprinters—even Explorers could easily crush the shards of the cage. While it was still good enough for Limiteers to use as weapons, it was useless to anyone with the strength of an Explorer or above.

Lu Yin found a massive fragment of metal from the shattered cage that still stunk of blood. He let out a breath, and the fragment shattered even though he didn’t use any strength at all.

Did First Edition City really need such a thing?

He quickly called the deputy city master and told Little Bear what he had learned. Despite the news, Little Bear insisted that they still wanted the metal as badly as ever.

Since the Technocracy wanted it so badly, Lu Yin would gather it for them. Still, there were too many fragments for Lu Yin to gather everything into his cosmic ring. He was left with no choice but to reach out to the Cloud Valley Master and ask the man to send some Sixth Mainland cultivators to help him gather up the broken pieces of metal.

The Cloud Valley Master initially thought that he had misheard Lu Yin's request. The Sixth Mainland was still in the middle of a battle with the Astral Beast Domain and were pushing forward to counterattack the astral beasts. What was Lu Yin thinking? Why would he ever ask him to send people back to help Lu Yin pick up some broken scraps? If even a Cosmic Imprinter had submitted such a request, the Cloud Valley Master would have cursed them to death for such a thing. However, he had to show Lu Yin some face.

Unable to refuse, the Cloud Valley Master sent some spacecraft with cultivators of little to no combat strength to return and help Lu Yin collect the metal scraps that were drifting through space. Everything was then dumped into Frostwave Weave.action

The fact that the Cloud Valley Master had agreed to Lu Yin’s request made the young man feel that something was off. He wondered what had happened. Had the Progenitor of Bloodlines said something to the Sixth Mainland as a whole? That seemed highly unlikely. In that case, what about Lan Xian? That woman wanted to see Lu Yin suffer as much as possible, so just what had happened?

Aside from the shards of the broken Absolute Beast Cage, Lu Yin wanted one more thing to take back: the piece of Progenitor Wushang’s hide that he had left on the face of the desiccated corpse that had chased Lu Yin down and attacked him when he had broken through to the Explorer realm.

The piece of Progenitor Wushang's hide that Lu Yin had picked up from the Ghost Monkey was very small, and he had lost it in the Primal Zone when he left it on the face of a desiccated corpse. Lu Yin was planning to make a trip into the Primal Zone to retrieve it.

He had lost the large piece of Progenitor Wushang's hide for good, so he at least needed to get the small piece back.

…

Elsewhere in the Outerverse, on the same average-looking planet, Kui Luo licked his lips as he stared greedily at a table full of food. "Come, grandchildren! Let's dig in!"

Bu Kong’s felt his scalp go numb. Grandchildren? It felt like a swear word, but he was already becoming used to it.

Xiao Qing rolled her eyes. "Grandpa Kui Luo, when can we leave?"

Meng Erye also looked up, his eyes filled with expectation.

Kui Luo continued to enjoy a bite of a refreshing side dish as he let out a long breath. "Leave? Is grandpa treating you badly? Are you unhappy spending time with your grandpa? Why do you want to leave?"

Xiao Qing was frustrated. "But I want to get back to cultivating."

Kui Luo rolled his eyes. "What’s the use of cultivating? Youths should spend their time enjoying life, not bothering with boring things like cultivating."

Xiao Qing gritted her teeth. This old man had become a Semi-Progenitor through cultivating, but he no longer cared about such things. He was acting in a typical manner by refusing to help those weaker than himself after gaining what he wanted for himself. Such a person deserved to be beaten!

The door opened, and an old man wearing dark red robes walked in.

Several nearby people glanced over. It was very unusual for an old person to wear clothes of such a color, so it stood out.

The red-robed old man walked right up behind Kui Luo and looked down at him.

Kui Luo seemed to not notice as he continued to enjoy his food.

Across the table, the faces of Madam Hong and the others all changed drastically when they saw the old man standing behind Kui Luo. While ordinary people could not sense a thing, these people were all cultivators, and just a glance from this old man caused an unfathomable pressure to envelop them. He felt larger than they could comprehend, as though he had replaced the sky itself and was taking over the entire world.

Just a look from the red-robed old man caused Madam Hong to spit out a mouthful of blood that painted the entire table red.

Right after that, Meng Erye, Bu Kong, and Xiao Qing all did the same.

The restaurant owner was stunned into silence. Vomiting blood from eating? This was the end! His business was doomed!

Kui Luo had extended his hand to grab some vegetables, but all of the food was suddenly painted over with blood. He slapped the table in anger, and the owner of the restaurant hurried over in order to placate his customers. Kui Luo turned around and stared at the old man in the red robes. "Are you looking for trouble?"

The old man stared back at Kui Luo. "Who are you?"

Kui Luo sneered and stepped onto his seat. "And who are you?"

"Xue Laogui," the old man answered indifferently.

Madam Hong was startled. "A Semi-Progenitor?"

Meng Erye and the others had not originally even known of Xue Laogui’s existence, but too many things had befallen the Sixth Mainland in recent years. At one point, the Seven Skygods had even attacked the Daosource Sect. The names of the Semi-Progenitors still hidden within the Daosource Sect had almost become public knowledge, and one of those three was named Xue Laogui.

Had a Semi-Progenitor come after them? Bu Kong's face went white. This was the end of the line.

Kui Luo stared at Xue Laogui for a long time. Finally, he said, "You guys made a mistake.”

Xue Laogui arched a brow. "Tell me.”

"You can’t catch me!" With those words, Kui Luo suddenly disappeared.

A cold glint flashed through Xue Laogui's eyes. He did not even glance at Meng Erye and the others, but simply tore through space and vanished.

The owner of the restaurant turned white, as though he had just seen a ghost. Where did the man go? Had he just disappeared?

Meng Erye and the others glanced at each other, and Bu Kong reflexively moved to flee, but Meng Erye set a hand on the youth’s shoulder. "Come with me, traitor."

He then left with Bu Kong and Xiao Qing, leaving only Madam Hong at the table.

With Kui Luo gone, Meng Erye and the others had regained their freedom, but Madam Hong still had not. Her stellular energy had been sealed away by Kui Luo, and the only way for her to release it was with his assistance. She had no choice but to stay behind on the planet and wait for his return.

***

Red filled the entire area. With a wave of Xue Laogui’s hand, the red lava that had appeared in outer space turned white. The terrifyingly high temperature reduced countless planets to ash, and it even started to incinerate space and expose the true universe. This level of destruction was horrifying to witness.

Kui Luo let out a strangled cry as he shot out and patted his clothes. "You old bastard! Don’t destroy the entire region! Don’t you have any morals?”

He continued to shout as he fled, and Xue Laogui's eyes grew hard. "Come with me, and I may not be forced to kill you."

Kui Luo rolled his eyes. "You sure talk a big game for someone so young. Just catch me if you think you’re all that!"

Kui Luo then shot across space, making his way east.

Xue Laogui gave a disdainful snort. The white lava formed itself into threads as fine as silk that shot into the distance. Everything that the threads touched as they passed was reduced to ash. It looked as though someone was slicing through the Outerverse.

Semi-Progenitors had their own inner worlds, which meant that they did not rely on stellular energy very much. Their inner worlds were something born only after their cultivation reached a sufficient level.

A person's inner world basically embodied everything that they were or possessed, including things like their battle techniques and spiritual force.

Xue Laogui’s inner world consisted of lava. It was an infinite amount of lava that would burn everything without exception, and even Kui Luo was afraid of the endless heat. The lava was hot enough to render everything ash, and it was not something that living creatures could endure.

The white-hot threads of lava sped up behind Kui Luo, and space shattered wherever the threads passed by.

He turned around and poked a finger at the threads, but he almost immediately pulled back with lightning-quick reflexes before blowing at his finger while whining, "It's so hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!"

Xue Laogui hesitated when he saw the endless fear growing in Kui Luo's eyes. Wait, something was not right. There was something wrong with this old man. He had just touched Xue Laogui’s white lava, which meant that their two inner worlds had just collided, but somehow, he had not suffered any damage.

When Semi-Progenitors fought each other, there were times when the battle would be conducted via their inner worlds. One example of this was when Forgotten Ruins God had fought against the Chief Justice, or when Lan Xian had fought Jiu Chi. Both of those incidents had been that of Semi-Progenitors demonstrating the power of their inner worlds.

Jiu Chi had destroyed Lan Xian's cherry blossoms with a drop of wine, and that wine had been Jiu Chi's inner world.

However, Kui Luo had not revealed his inner world or even a battle technique. He had just moved a finger, but that alone had left Xue Laogui’s inner world helpless. He had only ever experienced something similar when facing Jiu Yao.

Xue Laogui briefly stopped, and he gazed at Kui Luo in a much more serious manner. "You- you’ve opened your third meridian point?"

Kui Luo was still blowing on his finger. When he heard Xue Laogui’s words, the sides of his mouth twitched upwards. "Nope."

Xue Laogui might not have believed Kui Luo if the old man had said yes, but the answer “No” convinced Xue Laogui that his suspicion was correct. This person had indeed opened his third meridian point, which put him on the same level as the Fifth Mainland’s Semi-Progenitor and Jiu Yao.

Things had just become problematic. The reason why the Sixth Mainland was so wary of the Fifth Mainland was because each of their Semi-Progenitors had the potential to become a Progenitor.

No one from the Sixth Mainland understood how the Fifth Mainland had acquired so much Origin Matter, but it was clear that each of the Fifth Mainland’s Semi-Progenitors still had the possibility to become a Progenitor.

On the other hand, Xue Laogui was different. He had not opened his third meridian point, which meant that he would never be able to step into the Progenitor realm.

Despite facing a Semi-Progenitor who had opened his third meridian point, Xue Laogui still felt like he could not lose. "Who are you? Why have you targeted my Sixth Mainland?"

Kui Luo stared intently at Xue Laogui for a moment. "You should thank me, old man. If not for me, how would you have ever learned who your enemies are?"

Xue Laogui frowned. It was true that he had taken revenge due to information that Kui Luo had released by visiting and then destroying the Toolcasting family. However, as punishment for his actions, Jiu Yao had sent Xue Laogui to hunt down the person behind all the chaos. "Why did you make such a mess of my Sixth Mainland?"

“A mess? I don’t think so. It was nothing more than tending to some matters of injustice and righting those wrongs. How many people were saved by those messages? In particular, I should be praised just for exposing what was happening with the Meng clan. If not for me, those two old men would have filled that entire clan with their own bastards. Don’t you think that they should be thanking me?" Kui Luo replied in a matter-of-factly tone.

"As for the Cloud Valley, without me letting them know that their previous leader was captured by the Fan family, they would have never learned that they could still get him back. They should also be praising me. Actually, the ones who should be thanking me the most right now are Jiu Xiang and Xue Manzi."

Xue Laogui's expression instantly changed, and he screamed, "Shut up! Do not disrespect the Progenitors!"

Kui Luo rolled his eyes. "If not for the fact that I exposed those two perverts, how many of the women in your Daosource Sect would have suffered? Actually, why don’t you go check on your granddaughter-in-law and your great-granddaughter-in-law to see if anything unusual happened to either of them."

Xue Laogui became furious, and his white lava instantly filled everything in sight. Space itself was burning.

Kui Luo became upset. "We were just chatting! Why are you attacking me? You don’t understand the concept of gratitude, and you even act so rude as well. Just remember to go back and check on them. For all you know, your family’s carrying those creeps’ bastards."

Xue Laogui was livid. Enormous hands stretched out from the white lava to grab hold of Kui Luo. Each of the hands was hot enough to burn an Empyrean Imprinter.

Kui Luo groaned. "This is too hot! Time to go!"

With that, he disappeared.

Xue Laogui continued to chase after his quarry. He did not believe that he could overpower this mysterious Semi-Progenitor by himself, so it was important for Xue Laogui to keep an eye on the culprit while waiting for Jiu Yao.

Kui Luo had not only stirred up trouble for the Sixth Mainland, but he had also sneaked into the Daosource Sect. He had seen things he should not have, and that was what the Sixth Mainland feared the most. If Kui Luo leaked what he had learned there, it would expose the Daosource Sect’s greatest secret. He simply could not be allowed to escape.