Star Odyssey

The atmosphere was filled with a scorching heat, and there were two suns overhead that were roasting the desiccated ground.

Lu Yin released his domain, but he couldn’t perceive anyone. Instead, what he found was a bizarre metal lifeform that looked like a clawed hook without any eyes, ears, a nose, or a mouth. If it did not move, then it could have been mistaken as a machine’s spare component, but this was one of the metal lifeforms native to Shuta Planet.

Lu Yin felt rather strange, and he picked up the claw-looking metal lifeform. The creature stabbed straight at his skull, but he used just a bit of his strength to crack the creature open. It immediately collapsed to the ground and quivered a few times before it finally ceased all movement. Lu Yin believed that it was dead at this point. 

“The universe is too bizarre. It can even produce lifeforms like this,” Lu Yin exclaimed.

The Ghost Monkey disdainfully commented, “What’s that thing? It can’t even be considered as a living creature! It’s just able to move around a bit because of some strange parasite living inside of it. Seventh Bro, you haven’t seen a truly strange organism yet.”

“Like Tian Hou?” Lu Yin asked. 

The monkey didn’t respond, as an existence like a Cosmic Hou was something that could supersede everything else. Those creatures were just too mysterious. A Cosmic Hou was essentially a materialized black hole, and if even something like Tian Hou could exist, then Lu Yin would not be easily astounded by the mysteries of the universe.

“Speaking of, I don’t even know this, but what species do you belong to?” Lu Yin suddenly asked.

The monkey proudly answered, “I’m from the Ghost Monkey Clan! A noble race in the Astral Beast Domain.”

“Right... from what I know, there isn’t a Ghost Monkey Clan.” Lu Yin clearly didn’t believe the monkey. This was also one of the reasons why he would never trust the monkey; there was no Ghost Monkey Clan. 

The monkey sighed. “Seventh Bro, the Astral Beast Domain is completely unknown to you humans, so how could your race possibly know what species there are? For example, if you hadn’t come to this planet, would you have ever seen this metallic lifeform? Can you confidently say that you’re aware of all of the various civilizations that make up the entire Human Domain?” 

Lu Yin could not retort. Instead he activated his gadget, only to discover that the signal was intermittent and distorted. There was too much metal on this planet, so it wasn’t surprising that the signal to his gadget was affected. Despite it being somewhat expected, it wasn’t good for him since he had planned on using polarium essence to lure in those Enlighters.

He expected that the mining towns should be able to contact the outside universe in a normal fashion. With that in mind, Lu Yin rose into the air and flew towards the east, as he had vaguely sensed a town in that direction when he had descended onto the planet. 

Ever since the universe had gone through its great changes, only those who were Hunters or above could still tear through the void. It had become almost impossible for anyone else to move through the void anymore. Lu Yin was no different; he could still fly, but he could not tear through space as it had become drastically more stable than before. 

Fortunately, his flying speed was not that slow, so it didn’t take long for him to come across the mining town. Pretty much the only things that he could see were the massive machinery that covered the surface of the planet, looking like a strange creature brandishing its claws. 

A violent wind swept up the dry yellow soil as a massive tornado formed to the south of the town. Many miners were returning to the town from all directions. 

Lu Yin grabbed a miner’s uniform and casually entered the town. There, he heard news that there was a powerful gale forming nearby and that it was strong enough to blow even cultivators away. When such winds approached, all of the miners and trial takers would seek refuge in the nearest mining town. 

Each mining town had its own defensive measures. When the wind blew, the entire town trembled, but no one was concerned about being in any danger. Such winds were quite common on Shuta Planet, and even if this storm was several grades higher, it still would not be able to harm the mining town. 

It was very chaotic within the town itself. The miners kept themselves separated from the trial takers, and the two groups were very well differentiated. The trial takers looked down upon the miners, and the miners did not dare to enter the trial takers’ region. The two sections were almost like two separate cities; one was jumbled and ruined while the other was clean and tidy and even had its own service facilities.

This particular town belonged to the Nine Allied Nations, and the trial takers were members of Darkmist Weave’s younger generation.

If he had known that there would be so many trial takers, Lu Yin would not have pretended to be a miner. He looked at a distant neon light flickering in the trial takers’ region, but he did not head over after thinking things over. 

His connection to the universal network became much more stable once he set foot within the town.

This town was not lacking in bars at all. The miners didn’t have many recreational activities, and most of them spent their free time getting intoxicated. Once they were sober, they would start mining again. Since the death rate on this planet was quite high, many miners either sent whatever they earned back to their families or squandered it all as soon as possible. Hence, the bars did not lack serving girls, though they all had rather average appearances. 

Lu Yin dismissed three servers before he left the bar. However, before he walked out, he deliberately dropped a small piece of polarium essence. 

After he left the bar, he went around, looking for a more decent-looking place to eat, so he headed towards the trial takers’ region. 

The environment in the second area of the town was much better than in the miners’ region. The qualities of both the bars and the serving girls were a completely different league. Lu Yin dropped another piece of polarium essence on the ground and then headed for another bar. 

It didn’t take long for the maelstrom to envelop the entire area, and it almost felt as if it was going to drown out the entire town. Within the settlement, quite a few conflicts broke out due to the polarium essence that Lu Yin had intentionally left behind. In just a short while, more than ten pieces of polarium essence had appeared, and they had been found in both the miners’ as well as the trial takers’ districts, which caused quite a shock to the town’s upper management. 

They started some secret investigations, as they wished to know where this polarium essence had come from. 

There was only one explanation for why polarium essence would appear on Shuta Planet: someone had dug it up. The most likely explanation was that a certain miner had dug their way into a polarium essence mine. 

A single polarium essence mine could possibly produce tonnes of polarium essence, and just the thought of such an amount was enough to blow their minds. 

The entire mining town was quickly sealed off. People were allowed to enter but not leave.

However, Lu Yin easily left the town and headed for another since he had already determined his future actions. 

If polarium essence appeared in just one mining town, then news of the discovery might be suppressed by the town’s upper management. However, if polarium essence simultaneously appeared in multiple towns, then such news could not be stopped. This would also show that the amount of polarium essence was quite high and that more than one person had found it, which would be enough to shock the Nine Allied Nations and Darkstar Gorge. 

Two days later, when Wendy Yushan arrived in Adonis Weave, the Nine Allied Nations received news that a polarium essence mine had been discovered on Shuta Planet. Suddenly, the top levels of the Nine Allied Nations were incomparably excited, as the value of a polarium essence mine was just too high. This one single mine might even be enough to upgrade the strength of the entire Nine Allied Nations. This discovery was very significant, as the material could be used to manufacture their own equipment or sold for exorbitant amounts of money. 

In addition to the Nine Allied Nations, Darkstar Gorge also received the news. At the same time, they also learned that Wendy Yushan had arrived in Adonis Weave, but without Lu Yin as he had stayed in the Great Yu Empire. 

This news gave Puyu a strange feeling, as Lu Yin normally would not have allowed Wendy Yushan to head out alone. However, according to some informants that he had planted along Wendy Yushan’s route, it appeared that the girl was indeed alone. 

Puyu was very cautious by nature. He felt confident about dealing with her since she had appeared alone. However, he still informed Darkstar Gorge’s Enlighter, Elder Wu, and asked the man to come out to help. 

However, Elder Wu had also received news of polarium essence appearing on Shuta Planet, so he ordered Puyu to deal with Wendy Yushan while he headed to Darkmist Weave to fight for control of the polarium essence mine. 

Puyu set his gadget down. Something was off, but he could not place his finger on what. Polarium essence mines were important, and a great quantity of polarium essence was definitely valuable enough to cause even Elder Wu to make a move. In the past, Elder Wu had almost made a personal appearance to deal with the Nine Allied Nations, but his misgivings concerning the almighty Enlighter from Darkmist Weave had led to him not making a move in order to avoid starting an all-out war. 

But now, Elder Wu could not sit still anymore as polarium essence had appeared.

Whatever. If Lu Yin doesn’t show up, then dealing with Wendy by myself shouldn't pose a problem. Also, there’s still the Scholar Newmoon, Puyu secretly thought to himself. 

On Shuta Planet, many mining towns had been sealed while large spacecraft appeared above the planet one after another. 

When he saw these events, Lu Yin knew that he had achieved his objective and that he had already done what he needed to do. His next moves were predetermined; even if he had not lured out Darkstar Gorge’s Enlighter, he still needed to head towards San Dios to fight for his life now. 

Over these two past days, he had tossed out more than a hundred tonnes of polarium essence, leaving bits and pieces in many mining towns all across Shuta Planet. Most of the pieces had been snatched up by the Nine Allied Nations and Darkstar Gorge. 

The two forces were very shocked that so much polarium essence had appeared in such a short time frame of two days. They had searched the entire planet without finding any traces of polarium essence being mined, which indicated that what had been found so far was only what the surface of the planet contained and that there was more hiding underground. 

The discovery of the polarium essence caused Shuta Planet to descend into chaos. Both the miners and the trial takers were subjected to a strict lockdown inside the mining towns, and every person was searched. At the same time, the conflict between the two organizations grew more intense. 

Darkstar Gorge did not have a very powerful presence on Shuta Planet, but they had an Enlighter backing them.

The Nine Allied Nations was located close to Shuta Planet, so they were able to mobilize a large army in a short amount of time, but they had no Enlighter.

With so much polarium essence appearing, the Nine Allied Nations became certain that Darkstar Gorge’s Enlighter, Elder Wu, would arrive soon. Thus, they requested assistance from Darkmist Weave’s almighty Enlighter.

Not long after Wendy Yushan appeared at East San Dios, Darkmist Weave’s almighty Enlighter arrived on Shuta Planet, and he happened to land in the mining town where Lu Yin happened to be. 

The others could not sense it, but Lu Yin could feel a mind-numbing strength envelop the town. This was something that he had not encountered just once.

Lu Yin’s eyes filled with star energy as he looked through the city. A dozen kilometers away, he could see a majestic amount of rune lines, and there were about as many as Lei Long’s. Sure enough, an Enlighter had arrived. This town was under the control of the Nine Allied Nations, so this should be the Enlighter from Darkmist Weave. If that was the case, then the Enlighter powerhouse from Darkstar Gorge should be arriving soon. 

Above the planet, Elder Wu received an updated report on the situation on Shuta Planet. Unexpectedly, Darkstar Gorge had managed to seize dozens of tonnes of polarium essence from the regions that it controlled. This was simply mind-boggling. The Nine Allied Nations had collected a similar amount, which meant that over a hundred tonnes of polarium essence had been mined. Besides that, this polarium was just on the surface, and nobody knew how much polarium essence the depths of the planet might yield. They had to capture the person who had discovered the location of this mine. No price was too high. 

Tossing out a hundred tonnes of polarium essence was only enough to lure the Enlighters to Shuta Planet. Killing these Enlighters would require Lu Yin to take other measures. He stared at the boundless rune lines, and his eyes gradually turned cold. His advantage was that he was still hidden. 

These people had gone through a lot of trouble to lure Lu Yin out, but now, it was no longer certain who was the hunter and who was the prey. 

At East San Dios, Wendy Yushan appeared inside the tower, where Puyu and Liu Shaoge were waiting for her.

“We welcome your safe arrival, Wendy.” Puyu stood up and happily looked at her.

Liu Shaoge’s expression was strange.

Wendy Yushan directed an indifferent face to Puyu. “Start the meeting.”

Puyu smiled. “There’s no rush. Right, Wendy, did Lu Yin stay in the Great Yu Empire?”

Wendy Yushan duly replied, “Yes.”

“Why didn’t he come with you?” Puyu felt this was strange.

Wendy Yushan frowned. “He isn’t a councilor. He was only a temporary stand-in. Since I’ve returned, there’s no need for him to attend these meetings any more.”

At this time, she looked at Puyu. “Why? Don’t you hate him? Were you actually hoping that he would come?”