Star Odyssey

“Seventh Bro, what did you do! Why is it chasing you?” the Ghost Monkey screamed in fear.

“It just randomly appeared! It’s got nothing to do with me,” Lu Yin replied anxiously.

“You must have stepped on its grave, or could you have stolen something from it? No wonder it’s not willing to let you go even after it’s dead! Just give back whatever you took!” the monkey yelped.

Lu Yin coldly responded, “Shut up! The hide’s still on its head, so it’s more like it’s robbed me.” 

“Could it be tracking you by following the scent of the hide?”

“Shut up!” Lu Yin bellowed. He was sweating heavily, and he kept glancing back from time to time. The dried corpse was slowly gaining ground, and Lu Yin had a feeling that the thing would be able to enter the spacecraft soon.

Fortunately, the vessel was already approaching the edge of the Primal Zone, and they could see countless beasts roaming about before them. Lu Yin immediately rushed into them as if he was reuniting with his long lost family. 

The beasts roared angrily and attacked Lu Yin without any hesitation. 

The Explorer realm astral beasts were intelligent, and they felt insulted that a human dared to rush into their territory so brazenly.

Lu Yin looked at the beasts surrounding him and felt very secure for a moment. He wasn’t being attacked by them, but rather protected by them. 

With a loud whoosh, a ripple appeared in space as the dried corpse suddenly appeared above the spacecraft. It had torn through space and shredded the nearby beasts, splattering the spacecraft with blood.

Lu Yin continued his mad rush towards where the hole in the energy stream was. He just hoped that there were still enough astral beasts left in the Primal Zone. 

The dried corpse was temporarily occupied by the countless astral beasts, but it would definitely catch up to Lu Yin soon. Lu Yin was certain that it would continue to follow him since it had tracked him down all the way in the Primal Zone from the Outerverse. 

Why was this thing chasing him so ardently? Lu Yin was very confused about this matter. 

Lu Yin could see an enormous number of rune lines off in the distance that indicated that Enlighters were battling up ahead of him. Lu Yin anxiously rushed towards the fight. 

He soon saw the rune lines of an Enlighter moving towards him.

Lu Yin’s eyes twitched, as he could recognize those rune lines; they belonged to Topmist. The Enlighter was trying to run away.

Topmist rushed towards the boundary of the Primal Zone and heaved a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he had managed to slip away from the battle. If he hadn’t, then he definitely would have already died. The three human Enlighters had been surrounded by five Enlighter realm astral beasts, and it was impossible for their trio to defeat the beasts. No one would be able to blame Topmist’s actions; he just wanted to save his own life. 

At that moment, Topmist saw a blackhole-grade spacecraft appear in front of him and was stunned. Is that Lu Yin? Didn’t he already leave? Why did he come back?

“Senior Topmist, are you trying to run away?” Lu Yin bellowed.

Topmist frowned. “Young man, don’t jump to conclusions! I was on my way to go destroy the gap.”

“Really? What a shame. Monster Loach is at the boundary of the Primal Zone,” Lu Yin shouted.

Topmist was stunned. “What’s Monster Loach?”

“He’s an astral beast with a power level above 350,000,” Lu Yin answered.

Topmist was astonished. “That’s impossible! It should have been defeated by Elder Lohar by now.” 

“You can go and check for yourself if you don’t believe me,” Lu Yin commented.

Topmist raised his hand, and his black fog stretched out into the distance.

Lu Yin steered his ship away from the fog as he didn’t trust Topmist. He was actually worried that the old man might suddenly attack him. 

The dried corpse was still off in the distance, but Lu Yin had falsely told Topmist that it was Monster Loach since Topmist had never seen the dried corpse before. Thus, there was a chance that the Enlighter wouldn’t be afraid of the thing. 

A while later, Topmist retrieved his black fog. He had felt a bone chilling strength ahead of him, which was something that he had only ever felt from a powerhouse whose power level exceeded 300,000. Clearly, the creature in front of him was amazingly powerful.

“Senior, the only option of survival for us at this time is to destroy the hole in the energy stream and use that to distract Monster Loach. If we manage to destroy that gap, then Monster Loach will definitely try to repair it. At that time, we’ll have a chance to escape,” Lu Yin suggested.

Topmist gritted his teeth and replied, “Alright.”

He glared at Lu Yin. Nothing good had ever happened when he encountered this brat.

Lu Yin was relieved. He glanced back and saw that the rune lines from the desiccated corpse were moving forward again. The thing was chasing after him again.

“Senior, run! Monster Loach is coming!” Lu Yin yelped.

Topmist didn’t want to be attacked by Monster Loach, and so he immediately charged towards the hole in the energy stream.

Off in the distance, Elder Viletree and Wen Qichen were struggling from the combined attack of five Enlighter beasts, though one of the beasts had been trapped in a Literary Prison.

“If we manage to escape this place alive, I’ll kill Topmist!” Viletree said furiously.

Wen Qichen sneered. “We already knew his personality, and we probably won’t be able to complete the mission. Let’s blow up the pyrolyte now. At least we’ll be able to get away from here safely that way.” 

Viletree was reluctant to agree. If the mission really did turn out to be a failure, then it would be nearly impossible for humanity to hold onto Ironblood Weave. And if that happened, then the Outerverse and all of them would be doomed. 

“Humans, just surrender. There are also humans in the Celestial Beast Empire. You won’t be wiped out. You’ll just become a part of the Astral Beast Domain instead,” an Enlighter beast rumbled.

Viletree smiled bitterly. “They’re actually treating us like beasts.”

Wen Qichen shook his head. “I may die, but the Wen family will not have any traitors.”

“Stubborn. Kill them!” another Enlighter beast roared.

Suddenly, a gunshot surprised the two of them as the head of the Enlighter beast trapped in the Literary Prison burst apart and the beast died. The other four Enlighter beasts were stunned, and Wen Qichen and Viletree also looked over in a daze to see a blackhole-grade spacecraft approaching them. It was Lu Yin.

Moments later, another Enlighter beast howled in pain as its enormous body was corroded by black fog. Topmist appeared and said, “Hurry! Go and destroy the gap.”

Viletree and Wen Qichen hadn’t expected that Topmist would return, let alone bring Lu Yin with him. Viletree rushed off into the distance without any hesitation, moving towards a huge wall of energy. 

This was Lu Yin’s first time seeing one of the steams of liquid energy after the surge, and the amount of energy it contained almost divided the universe. It looked like there was no end to it. 

He couldn’t imagine what might have caused the energy to suddenly change, but he was sure that the Astral River would be even more majestic.  

Hunters wouldn’t dare to even approach a battle of Enlighters, and Lu Yin also kept his distance.

However, this didn’t mean that the Enlighter beasts would leave Lu Yin alone, and one of the Enlighter beasts tried to attack him. 

Lu Yin promptly directed his spacecraft towards a nearby planet.

The astral beast chased after him.

Wen Qichen and Topmist were busy fighting the other Enlighter beasts and had no time to help Lu Yin.

“Seventh Bro, ditch the spacecraft and use your power vessels!” the monkey shouted.

Lu Yin leaped out from the spacecraft and donned his universal armor. The enormous Enneadic Wings also spread out behind him as he used his star energy to activate the Stellar Ruler.

The Enlighter beast’s attack crashed down, but Lu Yin disappeared just before the attack landed on him. When he reappeared, he was already quite far from his original position.

The shockwaves from the Enlighter beast’s attack shattered the planet. The creature looked around, but it couldn’t find Lu Yin anywhere.

Lu Yin stood in outer space, panting heavily. He looked at the Stellar Ruler. This is truly a great item.

At that moment, a huge force sent Lu Yin flying. It was a stray shockwave from the battle between the Enlighters, and he wasn’t able to resist it at all. The universal armor was enough to protect him from being injured, but it wasn’t enough to stand up to an Enlighter’s attack .

Lu Yin finally managed to regain his footing in time to see an Enlighter realm beast rushing towards him. 

At the same time, the desiccated corpse arrived.

When Lu Yin was being chased by the dried corpse, the beasts were like his family. But at this present moment, he felt that the dried corpse was his saviour. Lu Yin’s aim was to pit the beasts and the dried corpse against each other.

The Enlighter beast didn’t know whether the dried corpse was friend or foe; however, since it looked like a human, it just treated the corpse as an enemy. Thus, the beast sent its paw crashing towards the dried corpse. 

The dried corpse was only interested in Lu Yin, so it didn't even try to dodge the attack, which led to it being sent flying by the beast’s attack. 

Lu Yin’s eyes twitched; it couldn’t be that fragile, right?

Before he had another thought, Lu Yin was sent flying by the beast. The Enlighter realm beast’s strength sent Lu Yin flying into the depths of the Primal Zone at the speed of a blackhole-grade spacecraft. Lu Yin even shot through a few planets before finally landing on the surface of a dim planet. 

The immense force of the blow had nearly given him a concussion, and he moved his fingers slightly in the dark. 

Lu Yin was about to get up when his expression suddenly changed. He felt the sensation of breaking through once again, and this time, he couldn’t suppress it at all. 

Lu Yin had considered many scenarios that his breakthrough would take place in, but his present circumstances had never occurred to him. He was currently in the Primal Zone and could be killed by an enemy at any time. Despite that, he had already suppressed his breakthrough on multiple occasions, and he couldn’t suppress it this time. 

Cultivating was basically fighting against fate and trying to adapt one’s body to the universe. Before becoming an Explorer, a cultivator was just a slightly stronger being. However, when one reached the Explorer realm, one’s body would undergo a fundamental transformation designed to adapt to the universe. At that point, a cultivator would become stronger, but they would also start to deteriorate. 

All cultivation moved with the universe, and the only way for a cultivator to survive was to adapt.

One of the greatest obstacles that a cultivator would face on their journey was becoming an Explorer. At this moment, Lu Yin had to break through. However, he had little hope of successfully breaking through. 

“Monkey, I’m about to become an Explorer. What do I need to take note of?” Lu Yin asked.

The monkey didn’t answer. 

Lu Yin peeked at his right arm and frowned; the attack just now had caused the monkey to faint. 

He wanted to wake the monkey up, but the feeling of breaking through was too strong. The formcast model in his body melted. At this moment, Lu Yin needed to find a way to break through or suffer the consequences of failing.

As the formcast model melted, Lu Yin felt an immense power surge through him, almost as if the universe itself was collapsing. His body was subjected to excruciating pain, and his vision went black. Then, he once again saw a finger that pierced through the universe. 

Boiling hatred seethed through his heart as soon as he saw the finger. Lu Yin couldn’t control his own emotions. Not knowing if it was a conscious or a subconscious impulse, he felt the urge to destroy everything around him. 

In the distance, Elder Viletree had managed to find the energy gap according to the directions that he had been given. The hole in the energy stream wasn’t large, but it was enough to allow troops to pass through. This was how the Celestial Beast Empire had been supporting the Primal Zone. 

Viletree took out the pyrolyte and rushed towards the gap. As long as he could detonate the pyrolyte inside of the gap, the force of the explosion would be more than enough to divert the energy and seal the gap. This would stop any reinforcements from entering the Primal Zone. 

Viletree was excited at the thought, and he moved with greater urgency than he ever had before in his life. 

The gap drew closer and closer, and just when Viletree was about to enter the hole, a sharp claw appeared from the void. This claw pierced through Viletree’s heart, only leaving his corpse floating in the vacuum.