Star Odyssey

Chapter 4111: In A Single Thought

Lu Yin had not expected Mu Zhu to look for him. “Senior Sister, is something wrong?”

Mu Zhu gave him a faint smile. “Your heart must be quite conflicted.”

Lu Yin nodded. “It’s a bit heavy.”

“To abandon your home to head to a distant battlefield for your civilization just for a chance at surviving—Junior Brother, that is being great to all of humanity.”

Lu Yin gave a wry smile. “I don’t want greatness. I just want those I care for to live well. That’s enough.”

“Sadly, the simpler the wish, the harder it is for it to come true.”

He turned to face Mu Zhu. “Senior Sister, when you and Master left your own megaverse, did you feel the same way?”

Mu Zhu let out a helpless sigh. “We didn’t have time for any feelings. We were just trying to escape.”

Lu Yin thought about that and nodded. They had not had any time for farewells.

“Even so, I did learn something about letting go.”

“Letting go?”

“Not in the manner that you are thinking of. We let go of our roots and lost our souls’ resting place. You’re only leaving this megaverse for a time. The people that you take with you are still your true home.”

Lu Yin understood. “So you came here to comfort me.”

Mu Zhu smiled. “After all, I am your senior disciple sister. I can’t offer you much help otherwise, so I might as well comfort you when I can.”

Lu Yin chuckled softly. “There’s no need. Since I’ve made my choice, I’ll bear this on my own.”

“Still, do my words make things any easier?”

“Much.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Then, should I go?”

“Wait,” Lu Yin said. He was curious. “What was your megaverse like?”

That caused Mu Zhu’s expression to shift. After a few moments, she replied, “If Master hasn’t told you, I won’t either. Ask him when he comes out.”

Lu Yin did not press the matter. “If humanity manages to survive this crisis, given enough time, we might be able to evolve and maybe even get revenge.”

Mu Zhu’s thumb rose up. “I’ll be waiting for that.”

Lu Yin said nothing more. At that moment, he could see a faint trace of a few foolish faces.

After Mu Zhu left, Lu Yin remained beneath the Mother Tree, sitting there quietly.

The vibrant tree carried all the joys and sorrows of humanity in the megaverse. It was connected to the cosmos itself, and it calmed Lu Yin’s heart.

Everything else was left for Ancestor Lu Yuan and the others to handle.

Time slipped by, and seven years passed in the blink of an eye.

One day, the Spirit Nidus’s battleships left, pulled towards the Nine Odysseys Megaverse by a single green lotus leaf.

With normal springboards, the journey would take more than twenty years, but the green lotus leaves could move far faster than any spacecraft and even tow the battleships.

One by one, the vessels vanished from the Tianyuan, Boundless among them.

Ancestor Lu Yuan, Ancient God, and Jiang Feng were all aboard Boundless, headed for the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

Lu Yin never saw the farewells that were made, nor did he need to. Those leaving were all the same as him.

Wilderness God stayed behind to hold the sequence strings. He would live or die with the Tianyuan.

That was his duty.

Those who left were not escaping, but rather moving onto an even greater battlefield. Those who stayed behind were not necessarily waiting to die. They might also end up waiting for everyone else to return.

On that day, the Tianyuan’s Origin Universe fell completely silent. Only a few stayed in the Heavens Sect to tidy things up.

Lu Yin returned to the mountain behind the Heavens Sect. He sat there quietly, staring out at the grass and trees. For a long time, he was completely silent.

Long Xi had already left, going with Boundless.

Wherever Lu Yin went, she would also go.

Footsteps approached. “Dao Monarch, have some tea.”

Lu Yin turned and smiled at his elderly visitor. “Senior, you’re not going to a parallel universe?”

“I’m too old and have no desire to go anywhere.” He was the Progenitor of Bloodlines. He had remained in the Heavens Sect since the moment of its founding. He had borne witness to death after death, and even the temporal reversion. It was the place where he was destined to meet his end.

He knew that those who were leaving the Tianyuan were doing so because it was humanity’s darkest hour and that the Tianyuan had been, at least temporarily, abandoned. Even so, the Progenitor of Bloodlines refused to leave.

Lu Yin sipped his tea, saying nothing.

Accompanying the Progenitor of Bloodlines in the Heavens Sect was Arch-Elder Zen, who said, “As long as there are still petty men in the Tianyuan, the Heavens Sect needs a guardian.”

He had once protected Mt. Microcosms, and he intended to serve as the Heavens Sect’s guardian.

Lu Yin’s gaze passed through outer space until he was looking at Earth. There were only a few people still there, all of whom had refused to leave. Most people had escaped to parallel universes, which was the same throughout the entire Origin Universe.

“Dao Monarch, it’s time that you left,” the Progenitor of Bloodlines announced.

Lu Yin set his cup down, his eyes growing dim. “Senior, did I do the right thing?”

The Progenitor of Bloodlines smiled. “Yes.”

Lu Yin’s heart trembled. Most times, when he asked that question, people would try to reason with him. Only rarely had anyone given him a simple yes or no.

There were times when there was no straightforward answer.

“Are you certain?”

“Absolutely. You did the right thing.”

“Why?”

“There is no reason. You are Lu Yin. What you do is right. Without you, the Tianyuan wouldn’t be the Tianyuan. Without you, humanity wouldn’t be humanity.”

“I’m not nearly that great.”

“In our hearts, you are. Dao Monarch, whatever you do is right, and no one can argue against that. The moment the Tianyuan acknowledged you, you became the Tianyuan itself.”

Lu Yin stared at the old man, speechless.

The Progenitor of Bloodlines’ expression was open, yet also unwavering.

Lu Yin laughed, completely letting go. The knot in his chest had finally loosened. Not even the birth of Wei Rong’s child had brought him such relief.

The Progenitor of Bloodlines laughed as well.

The old man and the young man both laughed heartily on a deserted mountain behind the Heavens Sect.

In the Heavens Sect’s main hall, Arch-Elder Zen also smiled.

Soon thereafter, Lu Yin left the Heavens Sect, taking a seat on a green lotus leaf that was headed for the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

He looked back the moment he exited the Tianyuan, wondering if he would ever return to his home megaverse again.

Every time one reached a fork in life, a path had to be chosen.

A year later, the battleships arrived in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, which had long since been prepared to receive them.

The people of the Tianyuan were not nervous at all. They knew that Lu Yin enjoyed an elevated status in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. He had told them quite bluntly to treat the megaverse as their home. No one would dare to cause trouble for them.

Things were different for the people from the Spirit Nidus. Their cultivation system intrinsically made them into fodder to be exploited and plundered by the Nine Odysseys Megaverse. Learning that had utterly humiliated them all.

They had gone to support the Tianyuan in a bid to demand justice from the Nine Odysseys Megaverse.

However, upon arriving there, they stayed quieter than anyone else.

Outside the megaverse, Lu Yin was sitting on the lotus leaf, calmly watching as each battleship entered the Nine Odysseys Megaverse and people settled into the arrangements prepared for them. He was waiting, as he had his own mission.

Before long, two people arrive.

One was Greater Sancte Awe Gate, and she was accompanied by Ku Deng.

“Thank you for waiting, Mr. Lu,” Ku Deng greeted.

Lu Yin smiled. “I just arrived myself.”

Greater Sancte Awe Gate observed him. “I was surprised to learn that you decided to abandon the Tianyuan. The rest will be left to you.”

“I didn’t abandon the Tianyuan—I merely chose a different way to protect it,” Lu Yin replied. With that, the green lotus leaf started drifting into the distance.

Once the Nine Odysseys Megaverse had completely vanished from sight, Lu Yin changed. His entire demeanor grew cold, and he radiated bloodlust and a cruel calmness. Every enemy who dared to raise a hand against human civilization would be slaughtered. For the sake of the Tianyuan, and for humanity itself, he would bear whatever burden was necessary.

And he would deliver even worse to their enemies in return.

Let them see just how terrifying the power of an Immortal is when wielded by one who is not an Immortal.

The Aevum Inch stretched out, vast and immeasurable. After traveling for a year, the lotus leaf passed beyond the Heavenly Karmic Macrocosm. As that occurred, countless colossal snails appeared before Lu Yin. They were all still and silent, spread out across outer space, their endless shells looked like a forest.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. He had arrived.

“Lu Yin, what do you plan to do at this moment?” the voice of Greater Sancte Green Lotus called out.

Lu Yin calmly answered, “Exterminate them all.”

“Can you?”

“Why not?”

“Humans are living beings, and so are the creatures before you. In the first half of your life, the number you killed is nothing compared to what stands here now. Can you bear that?”

Lu Yin’s gaze turned even colder.

“A war between civilizations is a war of extinction. How many species does a single civilization contain? There are those who can reset a universe, yet cannot stomach witnessing the deaths within it. Which kind are you?”

Lu Yin gave no answer.

“Even the faintest hint of mercy may become a flaw for you.”

“Have you, Senior, personally destroyed a civilization?” Lu Yin countered.

“Yes,” replied Green Lotus.

“How many did you kill?”

“Endless.”

“With your own hands?”

“With my own hands.”

“If you could do it, so can I.”

“The death of living beings is nothing more than stepping into another world. If you cannot pass this trial, you will never be able to take part in a war between civilizations. The cruelty of such wars is not about whether you want to kill, but whether you can bear the killing.

“Lu Yin, this will be the metamorphosis of your life. Within civilization or outside of it: the difference lies in a single thought.”

As Green Lotus stopped speaking, Lu Yin’s eyes became utterly calm, to the point where their calmness became terrifying. They were as still as death itself.

Both Greater Sancte Awe Gate and Ku Deng saw that transformation, and it caused a chill to grasp their hearts. Lu Yin was not an Immortal, yet he was strong enough to fight against Immortals. His combat power was enough to threaten even the two of them.

The rest depended on him.

Far away, the Immortal Kang Tian suddenly looked up, its antennas twitching. Something’s wrong. Where did this sudden surge of panic come from? Why this sense of dread?

It looked to the distance, where it spotted the two human Immortals. “Lan Meng! The humans are coming!”

Greater Sancte Awe Gate and Ku Deng both stopped. They made no attempt to proceed any further or attack. They simply stared across the distance at the Immortal snail.

Kang Tian stared back, uncertain of the humans’ intent.

As for Lu Yin, it subconsciously ignored him, as he was clearly not an Immortal.

Lu Yin stepped off of the lotus leaf and calmly moved closer to the vast crowd of colossal snails.

Each step caused his aura to fade further. By the time he arrived next to the closest snail, his presence felt no different from a mortal’s.

The enormous snail continued to slumber, oblivious to Lu Yin.

Kang Tian’s eyes swept over to Lu Yin, and it suddenly realized the truth. Its nervousness and dread did not originate from the two human Immortals, but rather from the insignificant human.

That tiny one’s not even an Immortal. What about him produces this fear?