Star Odyssey

Why was the difference so exaggerated? Lu Yin thought about it for a few minutes, and regardless of whether it was when he had broken through to become a Melder, a Limiteer, or an Explorer, the amount of star energy that he had needed had always been multiple times the amount that others needed. So, according to this trend, it would be normal for him to require multiple times the amount of star energy to complete a cycle compared to a normal cultivator.

But according to his calculations based on his progress over the last ten days, even if he enjoyed a ninefold rate of absorption, the time that he needed to complete a cycle would still be ten times the normal length, which meant that it would take him a century. 

How could it take a full century to complete one cycle? Lu Yin’s face turned ugly. The more star energy that one absorbed during a cycle, the greater increase in strength they would enjoy when that cycle completed. This meant that Lu Yin’s superiority would only grow more exaggerated since a single cycle of his would be the equivalent of others’ ten cycles. However, the time to complete a single cycle was too long, and it would only take longer once he became a Cruiser. At that time, would it take him 1,000 years to complete a single cycle? 

Lu Yin was not afraid of not having enough time, but this was just beyond ridiculous. If it took him one hundred years to complete just one cycle even with his ninefold absorption rate from the Cosmic Art, did it mean that there was something wrong with his body? 

At this moment, he really wished to obtain just one thing: the true Cosmic Art. The nine stars that Lu Yin had cultivated were definitely not the peak of the Cosmic Art, and he had only reached the most rudimentary level. There should still be a higher leveled version of the cultivation technique, and it might even be possible for him to attain a hundredfold absorption rate with it. That would make his cycle time more reasonable, but the problem was that he could not obtain the true Cosmic Art at this time. 

Lu Yin looked up at the sky and sighed, as he was now left speechless. He wondered if the Ten Arbiters took just as long to complete a single cycle and if the amount of star energy that they needed was similar to his. Regardless, they must have some way of doing this better, while he had nothing going for him. One thing that was stuck in his mind was that the further he progressed, the more star energy he would need to continue cultivating. This would especially manifest once he became a Cruiser or a Hunter, as he would require far more star energy. At that time, completing one cycle would take forever. 

He remembered Mister Mu, but the Innerverse and Outerverse were separated, so his quasi-master definitely could not come.

No, he could not leave things like this. He had to find a way to increase his star energy absorption rate, or else he would be doomed.

Lu Yin took a deep breath and suppressed the feeling of desperation welling up. Then, he rolled his die again. He needed something that could deal with an Enlighter in case one unexpectedly attacked him.

The die stopped spinning: one pip. Useless. He then continued to absorb star energy.

After another ten days passed, he rolled the die again. Two pips: Blackhole Disassembly. Useless. He continued absorbing star energy.

After ten more days, he again rolled his die, and this time, the die stopped at three pips: Enhance. Lu Yin excitedly took out his last Money Bomb and threw it onto the upper screen before directly tossing out 20,000 star essence. The Money Bomb upgraded repeatedly until it reached the point where it could kill an Enlighter. 

He put the Money Bomb away and then thought of what he wanted to upgrade next: that pike.

The pike that he had obtained inside the ancient centipede's body could intrinsically attack the spiritual force. It’s power was strong enough to instantly kill an Explorer, but that was all. Lu Yin wanted to upgrade it until it could instantly eliminate an Enlighter. 

Not every weapon was upgradable, and the quality of the materials that the weapon was made of also had to be taken into consideration, just like his gun in the past. The materials that the gun was made of had the potential to be upgraded to that level, but it was very difficult for a normal gun to be upgraded to the point where it could threaten Explorers. This pike was from an ancient era, and Liu Zhan had used one to slay a Yin Guai. Thus, Lu Yin was confident that the quality of these materials should be of sufficient quality that the pike could eventually reach the level where it would be a threat to Enlighters. 

However, the pike’s spiritual force attack did not differentiate between friend and foe, which was troubling. Lu Yin still wanted to test out upgrading the pike. And because he had been reciting the Stonewall Scriptures for so long, he had long since built up a very strong resistance against spiritual force attacks. Back when he had just been a Melder, he had resisted the spiritual force of a Hunter, and currently, he should be able to withstand an Enlighter’s pressure. 

He put the pike on the upper light screen and threw out dozens of star essence. For a Monkey Bomb, it only took a few hundred star essence to upgrade it to the point where it could threaten a Hunter. 

The dozens of star essence only caused the pike to drop down a small bit, and not much at that. Lu Yin was stunned, as it seemed that this thing required much more star essence to upgrade than the Money Bomb. Still, that seemed reasonable—the Money Bomb only had pure attack force whereas the pike also released a spiritual force attack. 

He did some quick calculations before tossing out another 400 or so star essence. That caused the pike to completely drop through to the lower screen, being upgraded once.

He picked up the pike and sensed the power of the spiritual force attack that it carried. It wasn’t too bad, and he could still handle it. 

When Lu Yin had discovered the corpse that had been divided by five pikes, only the pike that had been stabbed into the ground could emit phantom images and kill people, and the one that he had obtained had fallen to the side. Hence, the spiritual force attacks that it emitted were not as intense, but it would definitely become stronger the more he upgraded it. 

The next upgrade cost him almost 800 star essence and the third 1,500 star essence. The fourth upgrade took 3,000 star essence, the fifth 6,000, and the sixth more than 14,000. After that, when Lu Yin held the pike, he felt a sense of unease. 

He had previously upgraded the gun seven times, and that had taken around 27,000 star essence in total. This pike had now been upgraded six times, and it had already used up 26,000 star essence. A seventh upgrade would bring the total to about double of what he had spent on the gun. 

It ended up taking much more star energy to upgrade the pike than the gun.

The scenery in front of Lu Yin distorted a little, which was due to spiritual force encountering pressure and creating an illusion. He could not upgrade the pike any further, as he might not be able to withstand it himself. 

When his star energy filled eyes looked at it, the amount of rune lines that it contained surpassed what he had seen from Han Fei, and Lu Yin was wondering how effective its spiritual force attack would be against an Enlighter. He stored the pike away and then let out a pent up breath. 

Lu Yin now had 110,000 star essence remaining. Of his items, he currently had the universal armor for defense and the Money Bomb and pike for offense. This meant that there was only one aspect left for him to upgrade: retreat. 

Right, could the collapsible spacecraft be upgraded? Lu Yin’s mind buzzed with ideas, and he wanted to test it, but in the end, he decided against it. The collapsible spacecraft was, at best, a radiant-grade spacecraft, and only Auroras could upgrade themselves. However, that did not require the die’s three pips: Enhance. Materials alone were enough to upgrade the spacecraft. 

Speaking of materials, he still had a lot of polarium essence.

Lu Yin wanted to upgrade the Stellar Ruler, but that was useless since it could only be used thrice. As for the Enneadic Wings, he thought about it for a bit before deciding to go ahead and upgrade it. Within the scope of the greater universe, Lu Yin was not very fast, and if his collapsible spacecraft was destroyed, then even a Hunter would be able to catch up to him given his current speed.

He pulled out the Enneadic Wings and spent more than 20,000 star essence upgrading the item, only stopping once its rune lines were enough to rival what he had previously seen on Karthika. 

This meant that the Enneadic Wings were now able to reach a speed that surpassed a Hunter, and Lu Yin himself boasted a defense that could resist a Hunter’s attack. Right now, it could probably generate a barrier that could withstand an Enlighter, which should be enough for now. There were no Enlighters at present in the Outerverse’s eastern weaves, so they could not threaten him for the time being.

He decided to save the rest of his star essence for cultivating. 

Just a short while ago, Lu Yin had been satisfied after stealing 1,000 star essence from the Blackbeard Pirates, as it had been the most money that he had ever seen. Now, randomly upgrading one item could consume tens of thousands of star essence, which was an amount that not even an Enlighter would casually possess. 

Of the Enlighters that Lu Yin had killed, only Karthika had carried tens of thousands of star essence on him, and not even Elder Wu had possessed so much. Lu Yin had already surpassed many others with his wealth. 

The richer he became, the more powerful he became, and the richer he would therefore become in the future. He had stepped onto a virtuous cycle, and he wondered how many more star essence there were in the Outerverse for him to plunder. 

Ah, he had almost forgotten that he still owed Madam Nalan 30,000 star essence. Although she had said that he did not need to return it, Lu Yin did not want to take advantage of her; a loan was a loan.

Right when he thought of her, she arrived outside of King Zishan's palace. 

By now, Lu Yin’s domain was able to envelope a humongous area, and he could wield it as he pleased. Besides covering all of King Zishan’s palace, he could also easily cover the imperial palace. 

Kayze, the sole survivor from the Dire Barbarian clan in the Outerverse, was currently stationed standing guard outside of King Zishan’s palace. Lu Yin had kept him alive since he valued the man’s innate gift, but Lu Yin did not feel comfortable leaving the man free. Thus, he had ordered Kayze to guard King Zishan’s palace. 

“I request that Mr. Kayze report that the head of the Nalan family is requesting an audience with his Highness, the Royal Regent,” the enchanting Madam Nalan said to Kayze.

Kayze extended a hand to her. “His Highness welcomes you.”

Madam Nalan nodded and then slowly stepped into King Zishan's palace. 

Some information concerning the battles in Ironblood Weave had already been leaked to the rest of the Outerverse, and this information could no longer be concealed. Lu Yin’s performance during his time in Ironblood Weave had also spread, and there were even rumors that Lu Yin had killed multiple Enlighters, barged into the Barbaric Border, and rescued the Hall of Honor’s elders. Countless rumors spread throughout the Outerverse about him, and it was unknown if they were true or false, though one thing was clear: Lu Yin’s performance had been amazing. 

In the current situation where all of the Enlighters were restricted to Ironblood Weave, Madam Nalan already knew what sort of status and dominance Lu Yin commanded. At this moment, he could be said to be the indisputable number one in the eastern weaves. 

She had always appreciated Lu Yin, and even after she had learned that Lu Yin had once been sentenced by the Ten Arbiters Council and that he had a deep grudge against one of the Arbiters, she had still leaned towards supporting Lu Yin. Those intentions had only grown firmer with the passage of time. 

The universe would always place the strong at the top. Even if the Nalan family was wealthier, they would still be powerless in the face of the truly strong. She would therefore do her utmost to get along with Lu Yin and maintain a friendly relationship. 

In King Zishan's palace’s sitting room, Lu Yin walked out and waited for Madam Nalan. He had spent 220 days in the Timestop Space, and after upgrading the Enneadic Wings, he had continued to absorb star essence. Despite cultivating for more than 200 days, he was nowhere close to completing his first cycle. 

It didn’t take Madam Nalan long to enter the room with a charming smile. “Congratulations, Your Highness, for returning in triumph.” 

Lu Yin gestured for her to sit, and he looked at her as a trace of amazement flashed through his eyes. This seductress always gave him a new feeling every time they met, and she always managed to attract his gaze. Faced with this stunning Madam Nalan, Lu Yin could not act as comfortably as he had with Lilyrose. “You are flattering me, Madam. In fact, if you hadn’t come looking for me today, I would have sought you out myself.” 

She smiled adorably and looked up at him. “Was Your Highness thinking of me?” 

Lu Yin rubbed his nose and then passed a cosmic ring to the tempting Madam Nalan. “There’s 30,000 star essence in there. I borrowed it from madam before leaving for the Ironblood Weave, so I will return the exact amount to you.” 

Madam Nalan’s brilliance faded as she took the cosmic ring. She suddenly stood up and spoke coldly to Lu Yin. “Since Your Highness does not welcome the Nalan family, we will not force our stay. Thank you, Your Highness, for the assistance that you have provided us. If it is fate, then we will meet again in this universe.” She then turned to leave. 

Lu Yin was stumped and he hurriedly stood up to stop her. “Has Madam misunderstood something?”

She stared into Lu Yin’s eyes. “I’ve treated Your Highness as a friend, but has Your Highness ever taken this lady to heart? Or is it that Your Highness looks down on businessmen?”

“Of course not,” Lu Yin replied immediately.

She shook her head. “When Your Highness headed out to Ironblood Weave before, it was known that that place was a blackhole of death. Our Nalan family was unable to do anything to help, so we could only offer some meager resources to show our support. Our Nalan family is very grateful to Your Highness, so we also feel ashamed about what we could offer. Now, Your Highness is unwilling to even accept this small amount of resources. What could be the reason besides you feeling contempt for my Nalan family?” 

Lu Yin stared at her blankly, and then he smiled in embarrassment as he stretched out a hand. “Thank you for coming to my help, Madam.”