Star Odyssey

Lu Yin instantly understood the situation. The Daynight, Mavis, and Phoenix clans all had powerful bloodlines that they had inherited from their ancestors. This inheritance was passed down from generation to generation through their bloodline. Everything was written in the previous generations’ genes, and the descendants who inherited those genes would also inherit a strength that surpassed the average person’s. This type of inherited strength was similar to an innate gift, and it could also be developed through further cultivation. The Umbral Butterfly Tribe’s bloodline held similar traits to the Phoenix clan’s undying bird bloodline, but it was nowhere near the level of an Innerverse clan.

Many powerhouses would wait until they reached peak strength before they started thinking about having descendants. They did this both to preserve their strength and to allow the next generation to have a better starting point. In this manner, it was possible to birth a strong clan after countless years of repeating this cycle.

“So your Umbral Butterfly Tribe found the bloodline of some ancient powerhouse and then repurposed it into the core inheritance of your tribe. You people aren’t even true blood relatives,” Lu Yin said.

Ah Mu shook his head. “No, we are blood relatives. In order to inherit the ancient bloodline, all of the blood in our bodies is completely replaced. Everyone in our Umbral Butterfly Tribe is blood related to each other by an equal extent.” Then Ah Mu suddenly lowered his head and sadly whispered, “Except for me.”

“Why?” Lu Yin was puzzled.

Ah Mu’s tone turned dull as he explained, “My mother was chosen to become a member of the tribe. But because of a mistake, she became pregnant with me when she inherited the bloodline. The Umbral Butterfly Tribe only chooses young, pure girls to become their members, but due to a mistake, my mother ended up giving birth to me. That’s why I’m the only male in the Umbral Butterfly Tribe, and it’s also why I don’t have a pure bloodline.”

Lu Yin sympathetically patted Ah Mu’s shoulder. He could imagine how miserable this fellow’s life in the Umbral Butterfly Tribe had been, and how he had been used as a negative example by the tribe. “What happened to your mother?”

“She died not long after she gave birth to me.” Ah Mu became even gloomier, clearly not wanting to talk about this matter any further.

Lu Yin did not probe any deeper and instead looked off into the horizon.

After a while, Ah Mu said, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have bothered you with these irrelevant matters.”

Lu Yin quickly changed the topic. “The Umbral Butterfly Tribe must be very strong if this entire weave is named after it.”

Ah Mu’s gaze shifted and he nodded. “Very strong. We can absorb the power of a plant to strengthen ourselves, which essentially increases our power level. It would be difficult for anyone to win against a member of the Umbral Butterfly Tribe of the same realm. The more plants there are, the stronger we become, and thus, the stronger the Umbral Butterfly Tribe becomes.”

“That’s cheating,” Lu Yin exclaimed in shock.

Ah Mu forced a smile onto his face. “This is the Umbral Butterfly Tribe that rules its eponymous weave. No one dares to refuse our orders here, and not even the several surrounding weaves dare to challenge us.” Ah Mu looked at Lu Yin as he continued, saying, “I remember that your spacecraft had Astral-10’s emblem. What a coincidence. The strongest member of the Umbral Butterfly Tribe’s younger generation, Angie, is in Astral-7. You two are actually fellow students.”

Lu Yin’s brows arched up. Did I miss something? He had clearly seen a hint of joy in Ah Mu’s eyes when he mentioned Lu Yin’s supposed misfortune.

Speaking of which, the Astral Combat Academy really had attracted a bunch of freaks. Not only were the young geniuses from the various strong powers and clans in the Innerverse attending, but even the strongest descendents from powers like the Outerverse’s Umbral Butterfly Tribe were going. The Outerverse had seventy two weaves, and even though it was difficult to produce freakish geniuses, it was normal for them to have some. These Outerverse geniuses were already a pain to deal with, and after taking the Innerverse geniuses into consideration, it seemed that the Astral Combat Tournament was going to be very lively.

“To be honest, I don’t believe that the Umbral Butterfly Tribe’s ability to strengthen themselves through absorbing the power of nearby plants is unlimited. If there were no limit, then the tribe would have carved out a place for themselves in the Innerverse,” Lu Yin said.

Ah Mu put on a helpless expression. “The facts are what they are. Of course we cannot absorb energy without limit. It’s also not possible if the plant is too strong. However, that latter restriction is often not applicable as there are very few plants that are that powerful. And, as the power of the tribe member increases, they will eventually be able to absorb a powerful plant’s strength. And so, the potential of every Umbral Butterfly Tribe member will continue to increase as they continue cultivating.”

What a troublesome tribe. Lu Yin was left with a deep impression of the Umbral Butterfly Tribe.

About a day later, the duo saw smoke rising above the tall forest. Smoke was a sign of life, so they quickly rushed over.

Before long, they passed through another large forested area and saw that the smoke was from a giant tribe, the sight of which nearly caused Ah Mu to wet himself. Over a dozen giants were dismembering some trial takers, and Lu Yin and Ah Mu had arrived just in time to see a male trial taker being ripped apart limb by limb as his blood splattered across the ground.

He was one of the men that they had bumped into earlier, from the group of four males and the one female. At the moment, only the girl was still alive, and a small giant was toying with her in its hands. The rest of the group had long since been torn to pieces, their blood staining the ground as a metallic scent filled the air.

Ah Mu was terrified by the grisly scene. His face paled and he trembled in fright.

Lu Yin’s eyes turned cold. That small giant was tightly pinching the girl, to the point where she could not make any noise if she wanted to—all she could do was contort her face into tighter and tighter expressions of pain. Just as the small giant was about to exert enough force to cause the girl’s body to explode, his head was lopped off. The giant’s body slowly toppled over as blood gushed out of its gaping neck like a fountain. Lu Yin momentarily appeared in the sky before he used Flash again, vanishing and reappearing in front of another giant.

The second giant didn’t even have a chance to react before its skull was smashed apart by Lu Yin’s palm. Its pupils dilated briefly before turning grey, and then it perished.

Roar!

The remaining giants angrily attacked Lu Yin. One was even a Limiteer, and it heavily slapped towards a seemingly empty space in the air. A great shockwave that covered a thousand meters flew forth, even sending Ah Mu stumbling back.

Lu Yin raised his hand, and nine stars appeared around it, although the ninth star’s appearance was indistinct. The nine stars of his Cosmic Palm then combined into one and formed a galaxy. The palm then tore through the Limiteer giant’s shockwave and crashed into its chest. The void distorted and then collapsed as the Limiteer giant was torn asunder by Lu Yin’s lone palm attack. Its blood gushed out towards the distant end of the forest like a tsunami crashing into land as it extinguished the smoking fires.

The last few giants fled in terror, but Lu Yin did not let them off. He used a consecutive series of Flash and palm attacks to kill every last one of them.

Lu Yin could tolerate the weak being killed, but he would not stand for them being toyed with; he felt aggrieved. Humans were the wisest of all creatures. and their dignity should not be trampled upon.

Ah Mu vomited as the stench of blood filled the air, and he did not want to stay a second longer in this area.

Lu Yin stepped over the bloodstained earth, walked towards the girl, and then squatted down beside her. Her injuries were too severe; her body had been nearly crushed apart, and there was no hope of surviving. When she saw Lu Yin, she stuttered in agony, “Ba- Based on the orientation of the houses, you ca- can find the Giant Emperor. He is at the center of all of the tribes. Please, kill me.”

Lu Yin waved his hand and ended her suffering.

He then stood up and looked around. The giants’ stone houses were enormous and seemed crude. There were numerous white bones laying around haphazardly, and the front doors did not face in a single direction. Instead, they fanned out in an arc. All of the doors were facing towards the southeast. Lu Yin made a quick mental calculation; if the Giant Emperor was at the center and all the other giants were scattered around it in a large circle, then the arc of these stone houses could tell him where the Giant Emperor was. The giants were not intelligent and largely followed their instincts, so the methods that they used were quite simple.

Ah Mu peeked out from behind a large tree and saw Lu Yin standing on the bloody ground. He resisted his nausea and cried out, “Let’s go.”

Lu Yin waved to him and then dashed towards the southeast as Ah Mu hurried to keep up.

If Ah Mu had previously wanted to get away from Lu Yin, then right now, any such thoughts had been cast aside. What he had just witnessed was too terrifying; those corpses had once been his fellow students, and their misfortune shocked him to the core. They would never return after dying in such a miserable manner.

A giant pit appeared in another giant tribe in the distance. A spacecraft had landed in the middle of the tribe’s settlement, crushing several giants in the process. The trial taker inside stared at the displayed power levels on his gadget in dismay after he realized that there were several giants with the strength of a Limiteer outside. He didn’t even dare to open his door.

The giants were also afraid of the spacecraft and didn’t approach it either.

Time slowly passed by, and just when the giants were about to dig the spacecraft out, several trial takers appeared from nowhere and killed them all. Anyone who dared to participate in this weave trial was at least at the Melder level, and there was even a Limiteer student in this group. He killed two Limiteer giants himself, and his group destroyed the entire tribe.

However, the trial taker within the spacecraft still did not dare to step out. The others spared a glance of disdain in the spacecraft’s direction, glanced at the curve of the stone house’s setup, and then flew into the distance.

The giant planet was huge and the giants were just one of the many indigenous races on it. However, all of the trial takers’ spacecraft had landed within the giants’ territory. The entire area fell into chaos as the giants and trial takers clashed in a frenzied war.

At that moment, the entire giant territory was a mess, and the most central region where the area where the Giant Emperor lived was no exception.

Several unlucky spacecraft had landed right beside the Giant Emperor. Its terrifying peak Limiteer strength and intelligent eyes had nearly scared those trial takers to death. While normal giants were not sapient, the Giant Emperor was. Intelligent and non-intelligent life were two entirely different levels of existence.

The trial takers’ spacecraft were very sturdy and even a Limiteer could not destroy one. When they saw the Giant Emperor, those unlucky few immediately decided to not step out until the trial ended.

But they had underestimated the emperor’s intelligence. He had picked up one of the spacecraft and shaken it vigorously, pulverizing the trial takers within. This scene had shocked the others senseless, and they immediately ran out of their spacecrafts to escape. However, the emperor had easily chased them all down and killed them with a single slap each.

The Giant Emperor’s eyes sparkled as he saw the spacecrafts littered on the ground.

The trial takers’ battles were not only against the giants, as they were multiple battles between the trial takers themselves. For example, Ah Mu, who had somehow survived to this point, faced ridicule from every trial taker that he and Lu Yin encountered. Sometimes, they would even face murderous intent. It was a hundred times worse than Lu Yin’s trial zone experience back on Earth. 

Three trial takers were currently surrounding Ah Mu and Lu Yin. They did not speak, but there was no concealing the cold, murderous gaze in their eyes.

The trio were all Melders, but they could not even match up to Gerbach. Lu Yin was indifferent to the situation, but he was curious as to how Ah Mu had instigated so much raw hatred.

Ah Mu felt agonized when he noticed Lu Yin’s curious glance. “I told you—I’m the abnormality of the Umbral Butterfly Tribe. There are many in the tribe who want me gone because they consider me a disgrace.”

With a shout, the trio avoided Lu Yin and moved as one to kill Ah Mu.

Ah Mu was very weak, and his power could not compare to Lu Yin’s even when his Cosmic Art only had five stars. Ah Mu was just a little stronger than an elite Sentinel of the Great Yu Empire’s Yu Academy. There was no way for him to block the trio’s attack, so he decided to not resist at all.

The trio’s attack was fast, but it was repelled even faster as Lu Yin had easily thrown them aside. “Let’s go.”

Ah Mu nodded silently.

Over the past ten days, the duo had run into several giant tribes as well as a dozen trial takers who had joined together, just like the teams that had formed from the schools’ elites during Earth’s trial. Currently, most teams were made up of individuals who were daring enough to challenge the Giant Emperor, and every one of them consisted of powerhouses. Lu Yin had met at least a dozen trial takers who were elite Melders that were at least as strong as the Yu Academy’s Hall Masters.