Star Odyssey

Chapter 2700: Hope

"There’s an Aeternus Kingdom over there. I trained here for half a year, until the humans fighting here gave up and moved to another battlefield. The Aeternals didn’t try to stop them," Jiang Qingyue mentioned while pointing towards one place.

She soon pointed to another area. "There used to be an Aeternus Kingdom over there, and there were too many people from the Sixth Mainland. The humans in that Aeternus Kingdom were all transferred elsewhere, though I don't know where they went. That happened in the first few years when they were establishing the Aeternus Kingdoms.

"The kingdom that you’re looking for was attacked and even broken into before. If it hadn’t, I would have never seen the Stargazing Deck that you’re looking for."

Lu Yin then asked, "Given that you understand the real situation here, would you keep fighting if you weren’t here to gain experience?"

Jiang Qingyue considered the question, but she finally replied, "Yes."

"Why?" Lu Yin felt quite curious.

Jiang Qingyue looked forward. "Father told me that the only thing humans can never afford to lose is not our lives, but our hope. My universe has also suffered a disaster in the past, and my father was even on the verge of death, but he never gave up hope. Through him, we understand very well just how much hope and faith can appear if just a single person rises back up. Even if hope is nothing more than a small spark, it can still ignite a raging fire.

"Regardless of whether the fighting here is just a game, the people who are fighting are serious, and they are sacrificing their lives. That’s not a game."

Lu Yin looked at Jiang Qingyue. Her words were not complex, but they gave him an urge to invade the Sixth Mainland. He had the ability but had never considered it before. He had merely wanted to defend and protect his own home.

Countless people throughout the Fifth Mainland worshiped him and placed their faith in him. This was because he had defeated Aeternus and also eliminated the Time Poison plaguing them. Over the years, Lu Yin had created one legend after another. For the people still living in the Sixth Mainland, they had placed their faith in Jiang Qingyue. The two were essentially the same in the eyes of the people from the two Mainlands.

"Your father must be a great man." Lu Yin sighed.

Dragonturtle suddenly appeared. "Young man, do your best and fight for the right to call him father-in-law!"

The comfortable atmosphere disappeared in an instant.

Jiang Qingyue glared at Dragonturtle, and the little creature was so frightened by her obvious anger that he quickly pulled himself inside his shell, leaving nothing outside.

"We're almost there." After a while, Jiang Qingyue identified their goal.

Lu Yin looked forward. "Where is it?"

"Not yet."

Lu Yin frowned as he stared in the direction. He could sense death energy in that direction, and it was a massive amount. Could the God of Death have also left reservoirs of death energy in the Sixth Mainland like Gaia's Swamp in the Fifth Mainland?

It was not impossible.

The God of Death had not belonged to the Fifth Mainland, but rather to the First Mainland. In fact, all of the Three Realms had once belonged to the First Mainland, which meant that it would not be surprising to learn that the God of Death had left behind death energy in each of the Mainlands.

Naturally, that included the Sixth Mainland.

With this well of death energy, Lu Yin felt much more at ease. Now, even without Lu Jian's Champions’ Stage and the jiao, he had another viable weapon to use against a Progenitor-level opponent. In addition to his Investiture of the Gods and the slipper, if he used both the God of Death's left arm and scythe to channel the massive amount of death energy here, then he could release an attack as powerful as the one that he had once used to severely injure Xia Shenji.

"Why are you looking that way? There is another Aeternus Kingdom over that, but that one is extremely dangerous, and it’s filled with a terrible black energy. There’s no battlefield there, as no one dares to approach that energy," Jiang Qingyue said.

Dragonturtle’s head popped out. "There’s also a Progenitor-level expert there. Don’t even get close to it."

Lu Yin looked at Jiang Qingyue. "How many Progenitor-level corpse kings are in the Sixth Mainland?"

Dragonturtle replied, "I’ve noticed two, but there are many Aeternus Kingdoms sprinkled around, and Aeternus’s strength is not that limited. The old master repeatedly warned Little Yue to not go too far, and to just focus on training."

"Do you know how powerful Aeternus is?" Lu Yin asked. This was something that he had always been curious about. When it came to the number of peak powerhouses, it seemed that the Sixverse Association should far exceed the Aeternals, so why could Aeternus suppress the Sixverse Association?

Even if Aeternus’s Seven Skygods were each extremely powerful, the rulers of the six member universes of the Sixverse Association were not weaklings. Even the ruler of the Transcendent Universe that everyone believed to be terrible at cultivating was as strong as a Progenitor, and he also had Thought Manifestation and multiple bodies. Even the Three Sovereigns were intimidated by Lord Wei’s strength.

As for Luo Shan, the ruler of the Three Monarchs Universe, Lu Yin was not so certain, as he had heard conflicting reports about the man’s strength.

The rulers of the six member universes of the Sixverse Assocations, the Cyclic Universe’s Three Sovereigns and Nine Sages, the Voidforce Universe’s Xu Wuwei, the Arboreal Realm’s Mu Ke and Mr. Daheng—if all of these people worked together, their strength was enough to crush Aeternus, given what Lu Yin had seen so far.

This was not even considering other powerhouses like Dragonturtle and Jiang Qingyue's father.

However, Jiang Qingyue just shook her head. "Father’s never told me."

The two looked at Dragonturtle, who pulled his neck back. "Someone else once asked the old master this question."

Lu Yin eagerly leaned forward. "How did he answer?"

"Do you have the guts to charge into the Hollow?"

Lu Yin was caught off guard. "What does Aeternus have to do with the Hollow?"

"It’s just a metaphor. If you were an ordinary person, would you dare to jump into a pit whose depth you didn’t know?" Dragonturtle responded with a rejoinder.

Jiang Qingyue frowned. "Stop dancing around the answer and just give us a straight response."

Dragonturtle smiled. "Little Yue, don't worry. The old master’s response makes sense. An ordinary person would never dare to jump into a pit that had an unknown depth. For us humans, the Aeternals are that pit, because no matter how many times you cut them down, Aeternus always has the power to match whatever is thrown at them. It’s impossible to comprehend just how powerful they are, and that’s the most terrifying thing about them.

"Human beings are highly intelligent, and as the number of peak powerhouses at the Progenitor level continues to rise, the temptation to launch an attack on Aeternus also grows stronger. However, no matter how many parallel universes humans spread to, and no matter how deeply they press, the Aeternals will always have the power to counterattack against humanity. The temptation to try to wipe out Aeternus has caused humanity to suffer terrible setbacks, and the old master even lost a close friend as a result. As time passed, he’s stopped pushing.

"Right now, it appears that Aeternus only has two peak powerhouses here in the Sixth Mainland, which means that three human Progenitors should be able to retake this place. However, as soon as anyone tries that, I can promise you that they will encounter one Progenitor-level corpse king after another."

Lu Yin spoke up, "But our Fifth Mainland won and drove the Aeternals out."

Dragonturtle replied, "Winning or losing all depends on the overall situation of the war. Looking across all the battlefields where the Aeternals are fighting, your Fifth Mainland is a tiny corner. When humans fight wars, the generals understand that not every city can be held, and the Aeternals understand this truth even more. They are not stupid even if they have no emotions. I’ve lived for too long, and I’ve seen too many old monsters appear within Aeternus. Never underestimate them. If things were as simple as they appeared to be, the old master would have retaken the Sixth Mainland long ago.”

Lu Yin nodded. He was fully aware that he did not have nearly the same knowledge about the situation in the Sixth Mainland as an ancient powerhouse.

The Sixverse Association was also not run by fools. The You family and Lord Wei had both schemed against each other in plots that had left countless people confused. The only thing that could be said about Aeternus was that they possessed a level of strength that prevented humans from even being able to come up with any schemes.

Progenitor Hui's plan that had spanned countless years had been nothing more than diverting the threat of Aeternus over to the Sixth Mainland, should the day come when the Fifth Mainland was threatened by the Aeternal’s occupation. At no point had the scheme actually tried to harm the strength of Aeternus at all.

The truth could be incredibly cruel at times. Lu Yin thought back to what he had seen on the battlefield a few days before; could he and the rest of humanity be no different from the human resistance fighting in the Sixth Mainland? Could they merely be living on the hope that the Aeternals purposely offered them?

"Young man, don't be discouraged. Your father-in-law, who is my old master, also said that humans are bizarre creatures. While they may appear to be weak, they are actually extremely powerful inside. No matter how dark things may become, there is always someone who will take the lead. There will always be someone in front of you, as well as behind you. Just continue to push hard. If you are afraid of anything, then just lower your head and don't look at it," Dragonturtle said.

Jiang Qingyue scolded the Progenitor, "Don't be ridiculous!"

"What the old master said is right," Dragonturtle casually replied.

Jiang Qingyue's eyes grew large. She had not meant to say that there was something wrong with her father’s words. Rather, Dragonturtle’s comments about her father becoming Lu Yin’s father-in-law were getting more and more obnoxious.

Lu Yin pursed his lips. Dragonturtle's words were not malicious, yet he still made people choke.

Some time later, they arrived at an Aeternus Kingdom and saw a fierce battlefield up ahead.

"This is it. Let’s just head straight in," Jiang Qingyue said.

Dragonturtle had already confirmed that there were no Progenitor-level corpse kings around.

As long as there were no peak powerhouses, they could freely roam wherever they wished without fear.

The Aeternus Kingdom matched Lu Yin’s expectations. This was not his first time visiting such a place. As the name suggested, Aeternus Kingdoms appeared to give people eternal life, prosperity, and contentment, but all of that was nothing more than an illusion.

The Aeternals deliberately created an illusion of harmony, while in truth, any human living in an Aeternus Kingdom was always in danger of losing their lives.

"Hey, these people's smiles are too fake. They aren’t even good at pretending to be happy," Dragonturtle said with a sigh.

Lu Yin looked at the people on the street. If he compared this place to the first Aeternus Nation that he had visited, his present location appeared to be even more harmonious. The people moving around on the street were smiling and greeting each other in a manner that looked even happier than if they were greeting family members. Some of the humans moving about even greeted the roaming corpse kings, and the slitted scarlet eyes did not seem to evoke any fear in the humans.

However, everything was nothing more than an act.

This was an Aeternus Kingdom that had been created by Aeternals for humans to coexist with corpse kings.

The first such place that Lu Yin had seen was Aeternus Nation, but that place had been in its early stages of development, as it had been difficult for the Aeternals to establish a true Aeternus Kingdom in the Fifth Mainland. It would have been more accurate to call that Aeternus Nation the home of the Seven Skygods’ avatars in the Fifth Mainland, and the humans who had lived there had lived in fear, as they knew that they were always at risk of being killed.

The next such place that Lu Yin had seen was the Aeternus Kingdom that had been established atop the ruins of the Sea King’s Dome. In that place, in order to create harmony, the Aeternals had split the Aeternus Kingdom into two adjoining cities, east and west, separating humans from the corpse kings.

In the Aeternus Kingdom that Lu Yin was presently moving through, the humans were already living among the corpse kings.

Lu Yin had now seen all three stages of an Aeternus Kingdom.

The people before him had already lived through the first and second stages. They had gone through the overwhelming fear and despair, as well as the temporary peace, and were now in a state of numbness. At this moment, all of the humans were wearing masks for their own sakes. They were masks of hypocrisy.

This was the most agonizing thing to see.

Losing freedom was sad, but these people had even lost the ability to express themselves.

This place was utterly revolting to the extreme.

Lu Yin soon saw the Stargazing Deck. It stood tall in the Aeternus Kingdom, looking like a common observation tower.

"I need to collect something from beneath the Stargazing Deck. Do you want to leave first, or is there something that you want to do?" Lu Yin asked.

Jiang Qingyue replied, "I’m going to destroy this city."

Dragonturtle instantly became afraid. "It would be best not to go too far. Master specifically asked you to stay calm and not go too far."

Jiang Qingyue retorted, "It's just one kingdom. I’m not trying to take out several."

Dragonturtle looked over at Lu Yin for help, and he said, "If I have the opportunity in the future, I will lead the Fifth Mainland to invade this place. That will be the time to destroy every Aeternus Kingdom here."

"Yes, Young Master Chen said that this young man holds a very high position in the Fifth Mainland and has many experts under his command. Just go with him when the time comes. There’s no need to push things right now," Dragonturtle quickly cautioned.

Jiang Qingyue stared at Lu Yin. "Will you conquer the Sixth Mainland?"