Star Odyssey

The person at the other end of the call quietly listened to all of Hai Qiqi’s complaints. Then, they responded, “Don’t be so willful, Qiqi. The fact that the Sea King let you go out with him proves that he’s not a bad person. Be nice, and he’ll treat you well.”

Hai Qiqi glared at Lu Yin and snorted. She mumbled something into the gadget and then ran off while still muttering under her breath. 

Lu Yin found the whole thing absolutely hilarious. Although Qiqi had a sharp tongue, she was indeed kind at heart. She had never attempted to use her status as the Sea King’s daughter to pressure anyone, unlike the successors of some large organizations whose noses were perpetually stuck in the air. Compared to those people, she was actually pretty adorable. However, just who had she been talking to? The other person sounded quite sensible and gentle—the exact opposite of this girl.  

Lu Yin thought that he’d finally be able to have some peace to himself, but Hai Qiqi soon returned with a sneaky expression on her face. She stared at Lu Yin, seemingly quite pleased with herself. 

Lu Yin raised his eyebrows. “I won’t sell my body no matter how much you pay me.”

Hai Qiqi didn’t get mad. She knew full well that Lu Yin enjoyed riling her, as he wanted to upset her so that she would leave him alone. But this time, she took control of the situation. “I remember that your hometown is in Frostwave Weave and is called the Great Yu Empire, correct?”  

Lu Yin nodded. “Yes. That’s also where you’re headed to.”

Hai Qiqi looked up. “Promise me something, and I’ll tell you something about your hometown.”

“No thanks. Be good and go out to play,” Lu Yin quipped back.

Hai Qiqi grinned. “I just heard someone discussing your hometown. They’ve been hired to start a war with the Great Yu Empire.”

Lu Yin’s expression changed, and his head snapped around to stare straight at Hai Qiqi. “That’s a joke you can’t afford to make.”

Hai Qiqi crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. “It’s up to you to decide whether or not you treat it as a joke.” 

Lu Yin stared at her for a while as he spread his domain to cover the entire VIP track and even a bit further. He heard a lot of people talking, and one particular conversation on a spacecraft a kilometer away attracted his interest. 

“Are you sure that we’ll be paid? There’s so many of us. Can they afford to hire all of us?”

“Of course. It’s a large organization from the Innerverse. Money isn’t an issue.”

“Who exactly is it that’s hiring us?”

“Shh! I can’t tell you, but since they’re hiring mercenaries in this area, they should be from the east of the Innerverse and not too far away from here.”

“That could be the Tempest Flowzone, Beast Tamers Flowzone, Number One Flowzone…”

“Alright, stop guessing. Who said that they’re from one of the eight Great Flowzones? Whatever it is, make sure that you protect yourselves. You’ll only get paid if you survive.”

“Got it.”

…

“Hey, what do you think? Promise me something, and I’ll tell you what I know.” Hai Qiqi said in a pleased tone.

Lu Yin looked at Hai Qiqi with a strange expression. These people had been talking in a spacecraft with sound-proofing equipment, so how had she managed to overhear their conversation? Those people must have been either so careless that they had talked outside their spacecraft, or Hai Qiqi must have comprehended a domain as well. Lu Yin thought that the latter was more likely. After all, she was the Sea King’s daughter. 

Come to think of it, Lu Yin didn’t know what Hai Qiqi’s cultivation was, but from the looks of things, he might have underestimated her. She might not be as powerful as Lu Yin, but she was definitely not weak as she had apparently comprehended her own domain. From the Astral Combat Academy’s standards, she might have reached the level of an Area Master or even a Realm Master. 

“Why are you staring at me?” Hai Qiqi eyed him suspiciously and shyly tugged her clothes down. “I’m warning you, I’m strong. Don’t you dare try anything!”

Lu Yin looked away. “If I manage to protect my hometown, I’ll take you out to have some fun.”

“Really?” Her eyes lit up.

Lu Yin nodded. “Yes, but you’ll need to be good and not cause trouble.”

Hai Qiqi snorted. “You sound just like my brother. I’ll have you know that I only agreed to the son-in-law selection thing because I wanted to leave the Starfall Sea. I was going to get a hot guy to keep me company as eye candy while I traveled the universe, but it’s just my luck that I ended up with you. You look like you were made in a rush, and you also seem like the anxious type.”

She continued on, saying, “I’ll have you know that, on a silver spacecraft a kilometer away, there’s a bunch of people talking about how they’re going to attack your hometown.” 

“Do you want to do something exciting?” Lu Yin smiled.

Just the sound of doing something was exciting to Hai Qiqi. “What is it?”

Lu Yin laughed in a crafty way.

…

In the Astral Wilderness, on a huge planet, there was a bit of dark red earth. The dry soil here had a pungent smell, and there were a dozen Limiteer cultivators cautiously advancing over the ground with detectors in their hands. These machines were able to detect pyrolyte.

These cultivators were from the Dire Barbarian Clan of Soulseal Flowzone, which was also the clan that Avery was from. He had once defeated Lu Yin during a teleportation battle. 

At that moment, a spacecraft smashed into the ground not too far away from the group.

About a dozen Dire Barbarian Clan members suspiciously looked at the massive crater. The steam generated by the friction between the spacecraft and the atmosphere slowly dissipated as the hatch opened to reveal a beautiful pair of hands; it was a girl.

The Dire Barbarian Clan members looked excited. As long as this person wasn’t a disciple from a powerful sect, they could kidnap her and have their way with her. They’d been on this stupid planet for over ten days, and it had been incredibly boring.

The members of the Dire Barbarian Clan had terrible personalities and never considered the consequences of their actions, which perfectly fit the name of their clan.

As the hatch opened, a beautiful woman walked out and stepped onto the dark red ground.

This woman was stunning, and she had long, dark blue hair that hung down to her waist. She seemed like a celestial who was superior to mortals, the kind of woman that men would go crazy over. However, the moment these Dire Barbarian Clan members saw her, they went pale before immediately fleeing. 

The girl looked up and leaped out, charging after the fleeing clan members. While still in midair, she began to sing a beautiful song. This was the Enticing Soul Song—this girl was Xi Yue of the Souldream Tribe. 

Since ancient times, the Souldream Tribe and the Dire Barbarian Clan had been mortal enemies. The Souldream Tribe took pride in slaughtering members of the Dire Barbarian Clan, and the latter prided itself in taking girls from the Souldream Tribe. Neither side had ever conceded to the other. 

Coincidentally, Xi Yue had been in the Outerverse and quite close to the Northcastle Weave when the battle for pyrolyte on this planet started. Hence, she had managed to arrive here quickly before the elite disciples of the other sects could arrive. At this moment, she was invincible on this planet. 

The reason why she’d chosen to land in this particular location was specifically to kill off all of the Dire Barbarian Clan’s members.

The dozen or so Limiteers here had no way to fight back. They were the most ordinary sort of troops, and they had only barely received enough training to pass a test and become Limiteers. This was their limit, and they were no match for Xi Yue. 

She stood atop the dark red ground and crushed a stray detector to dust. She then raised her head and carefully felt the energy in the air. “There isn’t any star energy. Looks like I’ll only be able to recover through using star crystals.”

She then soared into the air and headed towards the region that the Souldream Tribe had staked out. 

The various large organizations had encircled the planet and marked out different territories. Only the strong had the courage to step into the zones that didn’t belong to their faction. It was already amazing enough for the weak to explore the area that they had been assigned. At this point, Xi Yue was practically invincible compared to all of the Limiteers who were currently on the planet. 

However, her advantage would only last until the successors of the other organizations arrived.

At that moment, a spacecraft was flying in the direction of Frostwave Weave. It was the same silver vessel that carried all of the mercenaries that had recently been hired. There were hundreds of cultivators inside, among which were even five Explorers and two Cruisers. 

It had been a few days since the Astral River Ark had arrived in the Outerverse. While still on the ark, Lu Yin and Hai Qiqi had eliminated two of the mercenaries and impersonated them, using their identities to sneak aboard the silver spacecraft in order to learn more about who was targeting the Great Yu Empire. 

These mercenaries weren’t properly organized, so nobody had noticed the two of them. 

In a hallway, there was a man and a woman meeting in secret. “Hey, this is pretty exciting! Did you know that I was nearly discovered by that Cruiser cultivator just now?” 

The man was startled. “Don’t do anything out of line! I need to find out who hired them as well as how they’re planning to attack Frostwave Weave.”

“This is so stupid. Just capture everyone and then interrogate them. Those two Cruisers definitely know who hired them.” 

The man was left at a loss. “How would you know whether or not they’re lying? Anyways, all we need to do is to eavesdrop on them with our domains. We’ll talk about what we’ll do after we learn all of the important information.” 

The girl was caught off guard. “How’d you know that I have a domain?”

“I’m not stupid.”

“Pfft, but you’re not smart either. Instead of waiting, why don’t you just pretend that you’re the one paying them? You already know that their goal is to attack the Great Yu Empire.” 

The man’s face lit up. That makes sense! If I use my domain, then I can grab their gadget’s number, and even if they realize that something is up, no one will know that we’re on this spacecraft. Besides, I can just kill them all if things go south. He gazed at the girl in admiration. “You’re actually pretty smart.” 

“You’re just stupid. You’re in a hurry to get home, but you want to keep waiting. With this spacecraft’s speed, it’ll take at least another two months to arrive,” she complained.

The guy pursed his lips. “You’re just doing this so that you can head out and play sooner.”

“Whatever. I’m going to go play. You deal with this yourself.” The girl then ran off.

The man was naturally Lu Yin. He returned to his quarters and used his gadget to contact one of the Cruisers and sent a message. “We don’t have enough manpower. Get more.”

It didn’t take long for the Cruiser to reply. “Who are you?”

“You don’t need to know. Get more people.” 

The Cruiser sighed. “The mission you gave us was to destroy three inhabited planets in the Great Yu Empire. The Second Grade Hall is also recruiting some mercenaries to attack the Great Yu Empire. This will cause the Great Yu Empire to start a war with the Second Grade Hall. We’ve already recruited enough people right now, but if we add more, we risk being exposed.” 

Lu Yin’s eyes grew cold. They’re planning on destroying the planets? A planet has at least a billion people living on it! How ruthless! By the look of things, these people were planning on pushing the blame onto the Second Grade Hall. Many of the people attacking the Great Yu Empire should have been hired by Second Grade Hall, but it turned out that a number of them had been hired by another organization as well. Another organization must have also set their sights on Frostwave Weave. 

As expected, the geographical location of Frostwave Weave had attracted the attention of more than just the Second Grade Hall. Though, the other organizations had not revealed themselves yet. 

It appeared that there were at least two organizations in play at the moment; one in the shadows, and one out in the open. The biggest question now was, who in the world was the hidden organization?

Lu Yin looked at his gadget, unable to bring himself to put it down. These cultivators were very smart and would never reveal who their mysterious employer was. With his own limited experience, Lu Yin knew that he wouldn’t be able to see through these mercenaries’ lies and that there was even a chance that they might not know who their employer was. 

If they were put under too much pressure, then they might start lying, and that would be a total disaster.

Besides, he wasn’t sure how accurate the information he’d been sent was. Who even knew if this was real—it might be completely false.