Star Odyssey

Chapter 2085: Outstanding Individuals

"Did you miss me, Senior?" Lu Yin joked. He naturally knew that Elder Gong was not concerned about Lu Yin himself, but rather what was on the bottom of his foot.

Elder Gong answered, "You might have been revealed."

Lu Yin was surprised. "I wasn’t exposed already?"

Elder Gong was stunned. "You weren’t trying to hide yourself?"

"No. I thought that I’d be recognized right away." Lu Yin was similarly stunned. How could he have been lucky enough to not be discovered? Had that second man from Team Resolution died? That would be a big deal.

Elder Gong explained, "While they haven’t realized that it was you quite yet, it's just a matter of time. Hen Xin spoke to Gods' Origin and told them that a powerhouse used Truesight to severely injure two members of Team Resolution. He asked them about any experts who’ve learned Truesight. When I heard about this from God of Mirrors, my first thought was of you."

"Elder, how could this junior have mastered Truesight well enough to badly injure two people from Team Resolution?" Lu Yin refuted.

Elder Gong replied, "You might not be strong enough yourself, but you have a great number of power vessels, and among your countless treasures, there’s that one particular candle from Gods’ Origin. It’s not impossible for you to have pulled this off."

Lu Yin was quite amused. "You’re right—this junior was indeed the one to attack. Senior, your deduction abilities are quite impressive."

Elder Gong grew solemn. "I’m going to caution you to not harm any members of Team Resolution. All of them are powerhouses who actively fight against the Aeternals."

"Don't worry, this junior isn’t that ruthless. I’ll let him go soon," Lu Yin replied.

Elder Gong answered, "That's good. While the rest of the universe is convinced of your death, we’re lucky that you managed to survive. I can finally relax a bit."

"Senior, are you worried about this junior or the Cosmic Art?" Lu Yin asked with a smile.

Elder Gong instantly replied, "The Cosmic Art."

Lu Yin pursed his lips. Even if this was true, there was no reason to be so blunt about it. "Unfortunately, with stellular energy gone, it’s impossible to train or use the Cosmic Art, which is a pity."

"Do you really believe that?" Elder Gong retorted.

Lu Yin was momentarily stunned. He had just been insulted by Elder Gong, and this reaction was outside of Lu Yin’s expectations. "Elder, are you saying that, even without star energy or stellular energy, it’s still possible to use the Cosmic Art?"

"The Rune Progenitor created runes that still exist in the Fifth Mainland, even when we don’t know if the Progenitor is alive or dead. The legendary God of Death created death energy that was left behind. Since this is true, then why would Progenitor Chen's power be limited to stellular energy?" Elder Gong asked.

Lu Yin's expression quickly changed.

"Progenitor Chen was no worse than any other powerful Progenitor, and the Cosmic Art that he created is no weaker than any other cultivation art. It's simply that you haven't cultivated enough," Elder Gong stated.

Lu Yin quickly sent another message, "But this junior has already tried it, and there’s no way to use the Cosmic Art without stellular energy."

Elder Gong thought for a bit. "When I found that pattern on the sole of your foot, you asked me about the secret hidden within it. Do you remember what I told you back then?"

Of course Lu Yin still remembered. Elder Gong's answer was still too shocking, even after all this time. It was also what had motivated Lu Yin to continue training the Cosmic Art for so many years. "You asked me how I could be certain that the planet I was standing on hadn’t been simulated with the Cosmic Art."

Lu Buzheng was absolutely shocked by the conversation that he was seeing, especially Lu Yin's last message. The Semi-Progenitor could not stop himself from looking out at the universe. How could such a thing be possible? How could a star in the universe have come from a cultivation art? He had never heard of such a thing, even in the Heavens Sect era.

"Exactly. In that case, while the true universe is currently empty, have you seen any region where all of the stars are destroyed?" Elder Gong asked again.

Lu Yin immediately understood what Elder Gong was getting at. If the Cosmic Art could indeed only be trained with stellular energy, then all the stars and planets that had been created by Progenitor Chen’s Cosmic Art should have been destroyed. Since this had not happened, then wasn’t this proof that the Cosmic Art did not actually require stellular energy?

"Progenitor Chen was amazingly talented, a rare genius throughout the ages. He was someone outstanding regardless of when or who he is compared to. How could he have relied upon another’s power for the technique that he personally created, even if that person was the Origin Progenitor?" Elder Gong challenged.

Lu Yin had a better understanding of Progenitor Chen than that. The man had controlled two Mountains and a Sea, which was an achievement that had shocked even Lu Buzheng, a gatemaster from the ancient Heavens Sect. Progenitor Chen had truly been absolutely amazing.

"This junior understands. I will never abandon the Cosmic Art," Lu Yin replied seriously.

After finishing his conversation with Elder Gong, Lu Yin stared out at the distant stars, his eyes blazing with a fervent light. He had repeatedly underestimated the Cosmic Art and Progenitor Chen. Elder Gong was absolutely right; if the Rune Progenitor had managed to achieve something like this, Progenitor Chen had been capable of doing the same.

"What was that about stars? I didn’t misunderstand, right? Were some of the stars in this universe created by a cultivation technique?" Lu Buzheng asked.

Lu Yin looked over and smiled. "Third Uncle, are you still underestimating this era?"

If Lu Buzheng had been asked this question when he first woke up in the current era, he would have instantly answered yes. His low opinion of the current era was why Lu Buzheng had immediately joined hands with Hen Xin to fight against the Aeternals without waiting for Lu Yin or anyone else. The ancient era had been the peak of human civilization, and this belief formed the basis of the arrogance of the masters of the Twelve Heavenly Gates from the Heavens Sect era.

However, Lu Buzheng truly hesitated to answer now. Did he look down on the current era? Absolutely not. In fact, the more the current era was understood, the less any of the ancient powerhouses could underestimate it, especially the Fifth Mainland. A single Mainland controlling all of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas? Such a thing was impossible even during the Heavens Sect era.

There was the miraculous abilities of the Rune Progenitor, Progenitor Chen’s overbearing strength, the understated power of Progenitor Ku, and even Progenitor Wushang. How could anyone underestimate the current era?

"This era possesses countless possibilities," Lu Yin stated.

Lu Buzheng considered Lu Yin’s words. "Maybe."

"I will also be one of those countless possibilities," Lu Yin continued.

Lu Buzheng's eyes lit up, and he energetically patted Lu Yin's shoulder. "Third Uncle believes that you were a legend in this era before we even appeared. Even with us here, you will definitely create more legends."

Lu Yin took a deep breath. His eyes became more determined than ever before. "I'm going into seclusion, but I’ll make sure that I’ll be there for the Dao Chosen selection."

Lu Buzheng found this amusing. "You want to go into seclusion now? Don’t bother. The Dao Chosen selection is just two months away, so it's too late to accomplish anything. Chu Yuan, Heluo Mavis, and the others have spent more than ten years preparing for this, so if you can fight against them, you can. You might as well just rest for the next two months while I talk to you about the Heavens Sect era and our Lu family. Actually, I’m not the only one from the Lu family who was frozen. There are several others, though of course none of them are from the main family."

Lu Yin replied, "Two months is plenty. Third Uncle, I'm going into seclusion. I’ll have to ask you to keep an eye on things, so just wait for me to come back in two months."

Lu Yin suddenly shot Lu Buzheng a smile. “Maybe I’ll be different by then."

Lu Buzheng had no idea what Lu Yin was talking about. What sort of changes could occur in just two months? Was it possible to become a Progenitor? Still, if Lu Yin wanted to go into seclusion, Lu Buzheng would not stop him. "Do as you want, but don’t try to force anything. Given your talent, it’s just a matter of time before you dominate this era, so don't worry."

…

Lu Yin left, but this time, he was not simply going into seclusion to train.

He was stimulated by Elder Gong's words, and he also remembered everything that he had witnessed while traveling through time and space.

The Sea King had only been an Envoy, yet he had been brave enough to try to break open the Upper Three Gates and restore the Fifth Mainland’s sky.

The Lu family had been willing to accept the burden of eternal hatred, just for a chance to protect humanity.

Progenitor Chen had destroyed a Progenitor right in front of the gates of the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect while suppressing everyone with an overwhelming pressure.

The Rune Progenitor had led his entire civilization to punish the Fifth Mainland’s enemies, regardless of what it cost, just to give the Fifth Mainland a chance of respite.

Progenitor Ku had silently moved alone to challenge all of Aeternus. The man had not shone brightly, but he had been a peerless hero.

These outstanding individuals and their shocking achievements demonstrated the glory of humanity’s current era. From humanity’s peak during the ancient Heavens Sect era to the present, no outstanding individual had ever risen without surviving life and death challenges. No one was born great, and no one easily became invincible.

Lu Yin raised a hand, and his die slowly spun before eventually stopping on four pips: Timestop.

Lu Yin entered a gray and white space that looked incredibly bland without anything enjoyable to see.

He brought out Zenith Mountain and released Hen San. The man looked at Lu Yin in confusion as Lu Yin somberly stated, "Come, show me the determination of a member of Team Resolution who’s survived countless battlefields."

Hen San's expression changed, and he stared at Lu Yin as though seeing a corpse. A grim smile appeared on the man’s face. "You're asking to die!"

…

The scenery around Lu Yin shifted and changed as he exited the Timestop Space. At this moment, there was almost no skin left intact anywhere on Lu Yin’s entire body. All of his clothes were stained with blood, and his left hand was deformed. However, in comparison, Hen San was in an even worse state, as he had already entered a coma.

After leaving his Timestop Space, Lu Yin remained frozen on the ground for a bit. He struggled to pull out a bit of medication that he used to treat Hen San before tossing him onto Zenith Mountain. Lu Yin’s body was drying up, but he still raised a hand and brought out his die. After he tapped it, it slowly spun around before eventually stopping on one pip. A useless weapon fell out. Again.

If not for the fact that Lu Yin was afraid that Hen San would realize that something was wrong and figure out that Lu Yin had the ability to freeze time, Lu Yin would not have emerged from Timestop to roll his die again. After all, only a month had gone by.

His next roll was Possession, but Lu Yin had set his cosmic ring aside as usual.action

The fourth roll resulted in three pips, and after seeing the two screens of light appear, Lu Yin laid down on the ground. He would need to rest for the next ten days before he could roll his die again.

As Lu Yin’s strength improved, his die had become increasingly useful to him, particularly Timestop and Possession. Earlier on, Enhance had been the most useful function, but now that the true universe was devoid of stellular energy, it had become far more difficult to acquire star essence. The overall amount of star essence would only continue to decrease as time passed, which meant that the die’s Enhance ability would become more and more useless as time passed.

Ten days soon passed. As far as people like Lu Buzheng were concerned, only ten days had passed since Lu Yin had entered seclusion.

Lu Yin lifted a hand as his die appeared. He tapped it, and his luck was quite good, as his first roll was Timestop. He entered the Timestop Space. At this moment, the most important thing for him to do was to recover from his injuries, so he closed his eyes and allowed both his mind and his body to relax. He actually fell asleep.

Time flowed by, and when Lu Yin had less than half a month remaining in the Timestop Space, his injuries were almost fully healed. However, his body was still desiccated, so he brought out Zenith Mountain and removed the five suns one by one. This was the proper way to make use of them.

Lu Yin brought a sun to collide with his body, and the destructive power caused his withered body to quickly recover. At the same time, an overwhelming amount of stellular energy poured into his four stellular energy vortices.

When Lu Yin had been in the Daosource Sect ruins, he had absorbed enough stellular energy and formed five suns whose energy were comparable to the Second Nightking’s total energy reserves, and that man was someone at the cusp of becoming a Semi-Progenitor. Lu Yin had previously been able to easily fill up all of his vortices, with plenty of energy left over. However, he had passed his third stellular tribulation while traveling through time and space within the main hall, and each of his vortices was much, much larger than before. Now, the capacity of Lu Yin’s four stellular energy vortices combined was similar to the Second Nightking’s capacity, though Lu Yin’s energy was divided between the four vortices. Still, by the time that Lu Yin completely restored his stores of stellular energy, the five suns had disappeared.