Star Odyssey

Chapter 4210: Identity

After hearing what Lu Yin said to the others, Little Eighteen’s eyes grew dim.

Astral Anura spoke up in a bitter, pleading tone. “Seventh Bro, you said that human civilization also has my back.”

“Little Astral Anura, have you not understood why Lu Yin brought you to the Seven-Treasure Anuras?” Greater Sancte Blood Tower asked in a teasing voice, “If not for the fact that we wanted to avoid war, why would he have risked his life to make that visit? And now you want our human civilization to face the even stronger Blacklight Civilization. Are you not making things difficult for us?”

Astral Anura did not know how to respond.

There was no denying that Ancestor Shan had been the one to refuse any further interactions with humanity, but once disaster struck the toads, they had run to the humans, seeking their aid. It felt a little unfair.

Little Eighteen hugged the broken half of their steel fork while staring blankly at the ground.

The toad had fled to seek help only because their father had said that they could turn to the human civilization, as Astral Anura was familiar to them. Aside from humanity, there was no other civilization for them to approach.

But why should the humans save the Seven-Treasure Anuras?

“I recall that you Seven-Treasure Anuras roam about,” Mister Mu commented curiously, “So how did the Blacklight Civilization find you?”

He had heard about the toads after his breakthrough.

Little Eighteen clenched their jaw. “The Blacklight Civilization somehow learned of the slugs’ connection to us, and they also learned of the slugs’ location. That’s how they found us.”

Lu Yin momentarily froze before instinctively glancing at Greater Sancte Blood Tower and the others.

They were similarly looking at Lu Yin. This was truly... Well, they did not even know what to say.

Unless they were completely mistaken, the toads’ dilemma was absolutely, definitely related to humanity.

While visiting a Thread of Heaven, Lu Yin had purposefully exposed the location of the Tricolor Skybornes’ megaverse. In fact, that was the first thing that Lu Yin and Mu Zhu had done upon arriving at the Thread of Heaven. Only after exposing the snails’ location had they mentioned the Seven-Treasure Anuras. If a creature from the Blacklight Civilization had also been in that Thread of Heaven, they could have pieced those clues together and deduced the connection between the Tricolor Skybornes and the Seven-Treasure Anuras.

If Lu Yin’s guess was right, it was very likely to be the same creature who had referred to Lu Yin as “father.”

Lu Yin had originally not paid that creature much mind, but later on, he had realized that the creature’s shamelessness was a ploy to coax out the location of the Seven-Treasure Anuras. That exchange had led Lu Yin to become very wary of the creature, and he had stopped communicating with them.

What he had considered a minor incident had unexpectedly brought calamity upon the Seven-Treasure Anuras.

While visiting the toads, Lu Yin had been threatened by them, and he had felt slightly mischievous about exposing the Tricolor Skybornes’ location, hoping that it would bring some trouble the toads’ way. He had never imagined that such a catastrophe would befall them.

Upon reflection, the situation made sense. Without considerable strength, who would dare to risk antagonizing the Seven-Treasure Anuras, especially if they knew about Ancestor Shan?

Ultimately, the toads’ crisis had been directly caused by Lu Yin.

Little Eighteen kept their head lowered. The pride of the Seven-Treasure Anuras would not allow them to raise their head and beg. If the toad had looked up, they might have seen the glances exchanged between Lu Yin and the others and even suspected something.

While the toads had come to ask the humans for their assistance, the truth was that they could not say much to convince humanity’s powerhouses, or even offer any benefits. Everything ultimately depended on the human civilization’s own decision.

“Astral Anura, take Little Eighteen out for a walk,” Lu Yin said.

Astral Anura knew that Lu Yin and the others needed to discuss the situation, so he pulled Little Eighteen away. Still, before leaving, Astral Anura made one last attempt. “Seventh Bro, you have my back, right?”

Lu Yin pursed his lips and waved for them to leave. He then turned to Greater Sancte Blood Tower. “So, it’s as I suspect, isn’t it?”

Blood Tower glanced at Greater Sancte Awe Gate. “It should be.”

Awe Gate then looked over to Greater Sancte Green Lotus. “What do you think, Senior?”

Green Lotus let out a long breath. “There is no doubt.”

Mister Mu and Jiang Feng both felt quite puzzled. “What is it?”

Lu Yin showed a wry smile and proceeded to share the messages that he had written onto stones in the Thread of Heaven.

He had already shared some of the events from the Thread of Heaven with Mister Mu, but he had merely mentioned his exchanges with the creature from the Hui-Silver Sky Army. The Tricolor Skybornes and the Seven-Treasure Anuras had merely been mentioned, and Mister Mu had not been interested in learning more.

It was completely unexpected that such a small incident would circle back to the current situation.

After hearing the full story, Mister Mu stared at his disciple, absolutely speechless. This boy truly is skilled at causing trouble for others.

Jiang Feng was impressed. “Amazing. Being able to shift disaster onto others to such an extent is really something else.”

Lu Yin gave another bitter smile. “You could also say that I was played. That creature kept referring to me as its father, and it managed to lower my guard from the very beginning.”

“That has nothing to do with it,” Jiang Feng replied. “As soon as you were there and mentioned both the Tricolor Skybornes and the Seven-Treasure Anuras, even an idiot would have seen the connections. Even if that creature had never spoken to you, they could have still found the snails.”

Lu Yin knew the man was right. “Now that the Seven-Treasure Anuras are facing this disaster, what do we do?”

Everyone fell silent.

If they helped, they would be attracting war to their own civilization, shattering the peace that they had been enjoying. That was absolutely unacceptable.

If they refused to help and simply watched Astral Anura’s species be wiped out, it would cost humanity nothing. In a sense, such a decision was only natural.

They had no sense of kinship with the Seven-Treasure Anuras, and Ancestor Shan had explicitly stated that the toads would have no further interactions with humanity. In light of those facts, refusing to help seemed much more reasonable.

Even if the toads ultimately won, they would have no grounds on which to blame humanity for not sending assistance.

Besides, even if the Seven-Treasure Anuras did win, they would surely pay a devastating price. At that time, the toads would be far weaker than the human civilization. As for Ancestor Shan, Little Eighteen had revealed practically all the toad’s details; the ancient monster was barely able to take any actions at all. No matter how strong the toad might be, what use was strength that could not be used?

Had humanity known of the ancient toad’s limitations from the start, they would have never feared the Seven-Treasure Anuras.

To help or not to help: that was the question.

The reason why they were facing a dilemma lay in the fact that if humanity did offer help, they might be able to form an alliance with the toads, which would grant their human civilization a great deal more security.

Compared to the Seven-Treasure Anuras, humanity had far more enemies.

“This is no longer simply a question of whether or not we should send help, but whether or not we even can help,” Jiang Feng remarked thoughtfully, “Even Ancestor Shan is unable to break free from the seal that binds him, which means that it might be impossible for us too. Even if we exterminate every other creature that belongs to the Blacklight Civilization, so long as the one imprisoning Ancestor Shan survives, we will still be facing a massive problem.

“It’s possible that, some years in the future, in another Thread of Heaven, some creature will be shouting that a human is its ‘dear father.’”

It was a chilling comment. The Blacklight Civilization had abandoned any and all restraints in order to find the Seven-Treasure Anuras. What would remain impossible for such a civilization to find?

If humanity could not guarantee the Blacklight Civilization’s complete and utter annihilation, what awaited them would be total disaster.

Perhaps the next time the One-Hundredth Seal was used, it would be to imprison one of the human Immortals.

Greater Sancti Blood Tower and Awe Gate instinctively looked to Greater Sancte Green Lotus, who said, “Compared to the benefits of helping, doing nothing is more advantageous to us.”

“I agree,” Greater Sancte Blood Tower agreed.

Greater Sancte Awe Gate also agreed. Humanity had only just secured a favorable position. Why plunge themselves back into the maelstrom of war for the sake of the Seven-Treasure Anuras, especially when the toads’ enemy was a powerful fishing civilization? It was simply not reasonable.

Lu Yin suddenly looked up. “What if we helped under a different identity?”

Jiang Feng blurted, “Obscura!”

Lu Yin nodded, a smile slowly spreading across his face. “If Ancestor Shan knows that we humans helped, then once that ancient monster is freed, he will be grateful, and our civilization will benefit. Even if we fail in our attempt to help, I’ll only have acted as a member of Obscura. Ancestor Shan will still know that it was me, but the Blacklight Civilization will only see a member of Obscura. They don’t know about our human civilization, so any potential trouble should be directed at Obscura, not us.”

“Exactly. How did we forget about that possibility?” Greater Sancte Blood Tower commented in delight.

Greater Sancte Awe Gate said, “It would be even better if we redirected the Blacklight Civilization’s hostility towards Obscura. We and Obscura are still enemies.”

Mister Mu also agreed, “Obscura is powerful. If Little Seven does nothing as part of that organization, it will be hard for him to ever see the entire picture. Instead, by leveraging other civilizations to target Obscura, we can gradually make out the shape of that giant.”

Greater Sancte Green Lotus smiled. “Obscura excels at using civilizations to destroy other civilizations. Since that is the case, we will learn from them and use civilizations against them.”

“Will there be any issues from Obscura?” Jiang Feng asked with concern.

Lu Yin shook his head. “Not at all. There are other members of Obscura who openly talk about destroying Obscura, and there have been no adverse reactions. They can’t possibly monitor the entire cosmos, so they might never even know that it was me. In the future, we might even be able to shift the blame onto someone else from Obscura.”

Greater Sancte Blood Tower grunted. “Lu Yin, you are unquestionably capable of doing that.”

Lu Yin laughed, only to suddenly feel that something was off about the comment. Was that praise or an insult?

His identity as a member of Obscura was far too convenient. If humanity failed to save the Seven-Treasure Anuras, Obscura would shoulder all of the blame, but if they succeeded, humanity would be the one to reap the benefits. Where else could they find such a bargain?

The only complication was concealing their human forms and preventing the Blacklight Civilization from discovering their true appearance.

Still, even if the creatures did realize the truth, it would not matter. Obscura’s traits were too distinct: the colorful floating coffins and divine energy stood out like a beacon in the dark. It was impossible to mistake them.

“If you act as a member of Obscura, none of us will be able to make a move,” Mister Mu noted.

Lu Yin understood that much. “We’ll just do what we can and leave the rest to fate. Our civilization can’t be sacrificed for the sake of the Seven-Treasure Anuras, nor can we invite disaster down upon ourselves, even if that disaster has something to do with us. Perhaps Ancestor Shan never considered that, had they allied with us, the toads would have been the ones to benefit first.”

The toads did not have the same demeanors as when they had been on their home ground. Lu Yin would never forget the threats that they had made to force him into a spar with Little Eighteen. That had exposed the toads’ true nature.

Greater Sancte Awe Gate commented, “If none of us are able to help you, it will be very difficult for you to save the Seven-Treasure Anuras on your own, Lu Yin.”

Lu Yin raised a finger. “I can take one person with me. As long as I expose myself as a member of Obscura, that much will be fine, but more won’t work.”

“I will go with you,” Greater Sancte Awe Gate announced.

Greater Sancte Blood Tower shook his head. “Girl, it should be my turn this time.”

“Let me go,” Jiang Feng interjected, “No one has ever seen me fight, and the outside world doesn’t even know that I exist.”

Lu Yin pondered. Uncle Jiang was indeed a suitable choice.

Mister Mu said, “We may only be able to send a few, but we still must demonstrate our human civilization’s sincerity to the Seven-Treasure Anuras. My mirebound artifact should be enough to have Ancestor Shan view us differently.”

“But that mirebound artifact can’t be used,” Lu Yin denied, “Doing so will make it obvious that we aren’t part of Obscura.”

Mister Mu chuckled. “We may not need to use it, but we cannot go without it.”

Everyone felt that made sense. They did not have to use Mister Mu’s cauldron, but should terrible danger appear, it could save their lives. After all, their opponents would be a powerful fishing civilization, not ordinary foes.

While no one knew the full extent of Jiang Feng’s strength, it was impossible for the man to surpass Mister Mu, especially given that Mister Mu also possessed a mirebound artifact.

Additionally, no one knew of Jiang Feng’s existence, not even Obscura.

Mister Mu and Jiang Feng were both suitable candidates. Aside from them, everyone else was either too weak or too well known, both of which made them unsuitable.