Star Odyssey

Chapter 4171: So Certain?

In the distance, Old Fifth laughed. “He wants to cut the Astral Anura Eye? Countless creatures have failed to do so.”

The Tri-Azure Sword Intent swept through the void, but it had absolutely no effect on the Astral Anura Eye.

After locking onto their target, Little Eighteen kept attacking. Lu Yin made several attempts to cut the Astral Anura Eye, but he simply could not. He then decided to fight the toad directly.

A hand rose up and then pressed down with incredible force as the attack was laced with Lifeforce. Little Eighteen rammed into Lu Yin, relying on the toughness of their skin to charge straight through, only to be forced down by Lu Yin’s hand. The toad flipped around and tried to kick Lu Yin, only for a foot to stomp down and drive Little Eighteen into the ground. The fork shot up from below. However, Lu Yin grabbed it, flipped it around, and thrust it back down at the toad.

There was a clang. The fork failed to pierce Little Eighteen’s skin. The toad wrapped all four limbs tightly around the fork, looking completely pathetic. Lu Yin swung the fork hard and flung it, along with Little Eighteen, into the lake.

A splash echoed as water shot high into the air.

Standing at the shore of the lake, Lu Yin glanced down at his hand. Little Eighteen was roughly equal to Lu Yin in both physical strength and defense. It was no wonder why the toad was considered an Aberrant; at the very least, they were qualified to directly fight against an Immortal.

But that alone was not enough. The toad still had not gone all out yet.

Little Eighteen had also been testing Lu Yin the whole time.

That was despite the fact that the toad was on the receiving end throughout the entire battle. They were testing Lu Yin by tossing any sort of dignity aside, but the surrounding Seven-Treasure Anuras were not bothered in the slightest.

Dignity was something that the Seven-Treasure Anuras simply did not need.

There was another splash as Little Eighteen shot up from the bottom of the lake. They gripped their fork tightly before hurling it at Lu Yin. The toad did not even want their weapon anymore.

Lu Yin dodged the steel fork, allowing it to stab deep into the ground.

Little Eighteen stared at Lu Yin, their eyes flickering. The toad was in no rush to press the attack.

Far away, Old Fifth said in a low voice, “Little Eighteen still hasn’t determined this human’s limits, yet they’ve already fallen to a disadvantage.”

Old Fourth nodded. “I thought that Little Eighteen’s defenses would allow them to safely test this human and force him to reveal his full strength. But even now, the human still hasn’t gone all out. Defense, strength, speed, time, space: he surpasses Little Eighteen in all of them. This will be tricky.”

“There are differences even between Aberrants,” Old Fifth said, “There are some who barely scrape together enough tricks to be able to face an Immortal, and with just one more trump card, they might even be able to kill an Immortal. However, there are other Aberrants who are able to actually overpower and outright kill Immortals. It’s quite likely that this human is one of the latter.”

“The latter?”

“Very likely, yes.”

“Ask the little anura.”

In the distance, Astral Anura was staring at Lu Yin’s back as he stood by the lake. The toad then shot a sympathetic glance at Little Eighteen. Of all the people to provoke, you just had to pick this monster.

Astral Anura knew that Lu Yin was able to face above-average Immortals entirely on his own. If not, the Immortal Lord would not have stayed out of the matter.

There were differences in strength between Immortals, and there were similarly differences in strength between Aberrants.

“Little anura.” Old Fourth and Old Fifth approached, and Astral Anura hurried to bow to them. It was important to cling to the Immortals of his own species.

“Do you think Little Eighteen has any chance of winning?” Old Fourth quickly asked.

Astral Anura blinked, unsure of how to answer.

“Do you not know?” Old Fifth stared at Astral Anura.

The toad whispered, “Do you want the truth?”

“Of course,” Old Fourth replied.

Astral Anura hesitated, feeling quite embarrassed.

“What is it?”

“I’m trying to think of how to answer that won’t boost the human’s ego and also won’t hurt Little Eighteen’s self-esteem.”

“That’s unnecessary. Just say it.” Old Fifth waved a hand.

Astral Anura rubbed his lotus leaf. “Absolutely none.”

Old Fourth and Old Fifth stared blankly at Astral Anura. “Are you certain?”

“As certain as I am that Uncle Fourth is the most elegant anura.”

Old Fourth’s expression turned solemn. “Little Eighteen is doomed to lose.”

Old Fifth was just about to speak, but Astral Anura quickly added, “And as certain as I am that Uncle Fifth is the smartest anura.”

Old Fifth sighed. “Little Eighteen is doomed to lose.”

Elsewhere, Little Eighteen started to move again. They were unwilling to accept this outcome. They had a killing move, but they could not use it too early. The toad needed to force out at least a bit more of Lu Yin’s abilities before going that far.

So, the toad slammed right into Lu Yin, wanting to use their robust defenses to drag things out. The toad was confident that Lu Yin would not be able to break through their defenses.

Lu Yin pummeled Little Eighteen like a sandbag. Little Eighteen just endured the pain while stubbornly trading blows. They refused to accept that they could not force something more out of the human.

Feeling helpless, Lu Yin brought out his Investiture of the Gods so that he could release the Tri-Azure Sword Intent’s Hidden Blades.

A single sword slash struck Little Eighteen, opening a bleeding gash.

The toad hurried to back away, warily staring at Lu Yin. But the toad’s eyes were also full of excitement. He’s used it! This human can’t hold back any longer. What a powerful slash!

If the attack could pierce Little Eighteen’s defenses, it could also pierce an average Immortal’s defenses. So that’s why this human is considered an Aberrant.

Since Little Eighteen believed that they had finally seen things clearly, things became much easier to deal with. “Human, you’re doomed to lose, hahahaha!”

Little Eighteen threw their head back and roared. Iridescent light seeped out from all parts of their body, and their veins started bulging. “Split! Split! Split...”

Lu Yin arched a brow. This scene was all too familiar. Is this toad using Astral Anura’s Star Plucking Hands?

Long ago, when Astral Anura had fought against Emperor Wu, after being humiliated, the toad had unleashed this technique and smashed Emperor Wu into the ground. Lu Yin remembered it quite vividly.

At the time, the toad had claimed that it was a life-saving technique that could only be used once in his entire lifetime, but how could that be possible?

Astral Anura’s Star Plucking Hands was an extremely powerful technique. Naturally, Lu Yin could take it, and he even had plenty of ways to deal with it, but there was no need to expose more of his capabilities to the Seven-Treasure Anuras. Since that was the case, he would just interrupt the toad’s attack.

One slash after another of Tri-Azure Sword Intent erupted from the Investiture of the Gods, all of them raining down.

On the way to the Seven-Treasure Anuras, Lu Yin had been constantly preparing empowered sword intent and hiding them within the Investiture of the Gods. This time, he released enough to crush Little Eighteen.

Sword intent rained down like falling blades. “If you don’t want to die, concede.”

Little Eighteen stared up at the sword intent falling like rain and peeled back their lips in a vicious grin. The toad allowed all of the Tri-Azure Sword Intent to fall down, slicing their skin open and even cutting into their body. Blood sprayed out, and many of the watching Seven-Treasure Anuras grew anxious.

Old Fourth and Old Fifth’s expressions had turned grave. This human’s sword slashes were razor sharp, to the point where not even the average Immortal could stand against this attack. Little Eighteen had been badly injured, but that actually made it easier for them to unleash Astral Anura’s Star Plucking Hands, which required shedding the skin in the first place.

Lu Yin pulled back his hand. He had no intention of actually killing Little Eighteen.

That last wave of sword intent left Little Eighteen gravely wounded, but Lu Yin could also tell that the cuts in the toad’s skin were actually helping them to shed that outer layer.

Little Eighteen let out a roar as their skin peeled away and flew into the air. The fragments shone with a golden radiance, looking like countless stars as they instantly covered the sky with a luxurious, exquisite glow.

Little Eighteen stretched a hand to the sky and grabbed at it. “Grab, grab, grab...”

Every time their hand grasped out, one of the golden specks would vanish. Even so, the sky remained filled with golden light. The light was accompanied by a terrifying, oppressive aura that pressed down endlessly.

Lu Yin exhaled. He was finally feeling a bit of pressure, though only a bit.

He slowly raised a hand towards Little Eighteen. Heartrift power. Extremes Must Be Reversed. Willforce Wave.

When Lu Yin merged with the will of a megaverse, he could use the pressure exerted on that megaverse to produce a counterforce that he released as his Willforce Wave. The stronger his opponent’s attack, the stronger his Willforce Wave would become. He had once used it to block one of the Immortal Lord’s attacks.

Lu Yin had not merged with the will of the megaverse, but by relying on Extremes Must Be Reversed, he could still use the pressure that his opponent put on the surroundings to create a counterforce.

If the enemy did not attack, Lu Yin would not attack, but the stronger his foe became, the stronger his attack would also become.

As more of the golden specks kept disappearing, the surrounding Seven-Treasure Anuras all watched with slack jaws. They all knew about Astral Anura’s Star Plucking Hands, though only a few could wield it with this level of mastery.

The more lights that one plucked, the greater the power of the attack. Also, each Seven-Treasure Anura could pluck something different.

Some would pluck stars, while others would pluck entire megaverses.

At this moment, Little Eighteen was not plucking stars or megaverses, but rather the void itself. They were treating the void like stars. This surpassed the power of plucking common astral objects, but it certainly fell short of plucking a megaverse.

Lu Yin very much wanted to see what kind of power it would take for someone to pluck megaverses as though they were stars.

With a furious roar, Little Eighteen finally attacked Lu Yin. “Astral Anura’s Star Plucking Hands!”

Lu Yin frowned as the void surrounding him suddenly shattered and fissures spread out. At that moment, he merged with the space around him, personally feeling the power of the shattering void. Every tear, every inch of space that was shattering had reached an extreme. Extremes Must Be Reversed: Willforce Wave.

His fingers bent, and then a single finger straightened and pointed forward. The void around Lu Yin trembled.

In the distance, Old Fourth and Old Fifth suddenly felt something wrong. It was as if the familiar universe around them had suddenly become unknown.

In the depths of the lake, Old First was startled, and they felt a bit of doubt for the first time. Is this... Willforce?

Seven-colored light exploded from the tip of Lu Yin’s finger. The shattered space merged together like ripples on water, converging with the multicolored light before hurtling towards Little Eighteen.

The Astral Anura’s Star Plucking Hands collided with the Willforce Wave, and the impact released a blinding light. Shockwaves swept out in all directions, sending ripples across the lake’s surface and flattening the grass of the seven-colored prairies. The watching Seven-Treasure Anuras were forced to retreat, stunned by the force of the impact.

It had to be said that the Seven-Treasure Anuras’ homeland was incredibly sturdy. The clash had been powerful enough to destroy a parallel universe, but it caused only a small bit of damage to the seven-colored land.

In the distance, Old Fourth blew out a heavy breath. When the dust dispersed, both Lu Yin and Little Eighteen were revealed.

Lu Yin was still standing where he had been, appearing rather relaxed. On the other hand, Little Eighteen was panting, staring at the human with unwillingness and disbelief.

This human actually managed to easily block my Astral Anura’s Star Plucking Hands! How could it have been so easy?

The toad had actually expected Lu Yin to block Astral Anura’s Star Plucking Hands, but not that easily. Little Eighteen had thought that Lu Yin’s most powerful technique was his Hidden Blades.

After all, the fact that those slashes of sword intent had broken through Little Eighteen’s defenses meant they could do the same to most Immortals’, making it an effective attack against even those powerhouses.

For a non-Immortal to possess even one such technique was enough for them to be considered an Aberrant.

But it was clear that the human had more than one such trump card.

Given how long they had been fighting for, Little Eighteen simply could not fathom the human’s casually relaxed demeanor.

Is he really an Aberrant and not an Immortal?

In the distance, Old Fourth and Old Fifth shook their heads. Little Eighteen was extremely formidable, boasting defenses comparable to those of an ordinary Immortal, while their Astral Anura’s Star Plucking Hands could threaten Immortals. But when Little Eighteen was compared to Lu Yin, they still fell far short.

Lu Yin calmly observed Little Eighteen. The toad had been beaten up, and Lu Yin had vented his frustrations. The damn toad’s pride had been wounded quite badly. This was enough. “That’s enough, right? Do you want to keep going?”

Little Eighteen gritted its teeth. “Let’s fight! We’re not done yet!”

“Little Eighteen, that’s enough.” Old Fifth tried to dissuade it.

“You are done,” the deep voice stated from beneath the lake. It was Old First. “Human, your name is Lu Yin, right?”

Lu Yin looked toward the lake. “Yes.”

“You just used Willforce.”

“Willforce?” Old Fourth and Old Fifth exclaimed.

Little Eighteen’s eyes bulged. Willforce?

Many of the other Seven-Treasure Anuras were confused. What’s Willforce?

Lu Yin did not try to hide it. “That’s right.”

“Willforce is one of the few great powers, and it holds infinite possibilities. Since you’ve comprehended Willforce, once you break through and become an Immortal, you will undoubtedly become a true powerhouse. I very much look forward to your next visit to my Seven-Treasure Anuras.”