Star Odyssey

For large families, it was often a standard practice to not store family items in cosmic rings, as it was simply impractical to do so. Opening a cosmic ring required the blood of a designated person, and if a family were in an emergency and said individual was not present, it would become very problematic. If the person’s blood were stored in some other location, then that would lead to a whole different set of problems.  

There were many individuals in the universe who possessed unique battle techniques or peculiar innate gifts, so no one could say for sure whether or not someone could use a person’s blood to manipulate and influence them  

Thus, for any family, items were generally not stored within cosmic rings. Instead, they would be stored in a physical space typically under the protection of skilled individuals. 

King Zishan’s palace was enormous but there were only three individuals inside it. They were Lu Yin, Zhao Ran, and Kayze, who was the gatekeeper. Gavin and the others had advised Lu Yin many times to employ more guards and servants for King Zishan’s palace. However, such proposals had always been rejected by Lu Yin. He simply had too many secrets that could not be leaked, and the presence of more people would only complicate matters further. Besides, Zhao Ran’s presence was enough, despite her being unreliable.  

The warehouse that was a part of King Zishan’s palace was to the northeast of the residence, and it took up a huge amount of space. There were no guards, but neither was there any need for them. Just like the imperial palace, King Zishan’s palace was surrounded by roving patrols from the Thirteen Imperial Squadrons. If anyone was capable enough to steal from King Zishan’s palace, Lu Yin would take his hat off to them. 

When Lu Yin saw the consolidated list that Zhao Ran brought up of all the items that were stored inside the warehouse, his eyes lit up. All of these gifts were very valuable. There were antique paintings, personal writings from ancient powerhouses, exquisite wares, carvings, and more. Needless to say, there were also star crystals and star essences, though there were too many of them. It was rare for people to directly give such items as gifts. What surprised Lu Yin the most was the gift that he had received from Endless Borders: it was a star chart that showed an undiscovered route that ran from Frostwave Weave to Vastdearth Weave. Following this route would save them roughly a quarter of the time the most common route for this trip took.  

This chart was a priceless treasure. The time that it could save was not to be disregarded, as it also meant that one would be able to save money by following this route. If this map were placed on the open market, it would definitely be purchased for astronomical prices by transport companies.  

Endless Borders had spared no expense when selecting their gift. Lu Yin had the chart delivered straight to Gavin and allowed the Minister of Finance to utilize it. 

After the pleasant surprise of Endless Borders’ gift, Lu Yin quickly found that Shamrock Enterprises did not fall far behind in their generosity. They had sent over ten natural treasures that sparkled like gems. Even though they were nowhere near as precious as the natural treasures that Lu Yin had discovered in the Daosource Sect’s ruins, they were still very rare, most likely over ten thousand years old. 

The Nalan family had been very upfront, giving Lu Yin a crystal Mavis bank card. Madam Nalan knew Lu Yin well, and she knew that giving Lu Yin money would make him the happiest. This was very true as Lu Yin was over the moon when he saw that he had received money. 

Many powerhouses had sent over congratulatory gifts. There were some who were friends of the Great Eastern Alliance and others who were hostile towards the Great Eastern Alliance. In particular, the Wei family of the Armament Weave had also sent gifts. Even though it was not anything valuable, it still was a token from the Wei family. Wei Rong was a man of great ambition, and he never would act in a shortsighted manner. 

Lu Yin saw that the Amethyst Exchange was listed among those who had sent gifts. They had given him five percent of the profits from Zenyu Star’s Amethyst Exchange. 

Things were getting interesting.  

Lu Yin stared at the emblem of Amethyst Exchange, as this gift was essentially the same as giving him performance shares.  

At the very bottom of the document detailing Amethyst Exchange’s congratulatory gift, there was a name: Zi Xianxian.  

Amethyst Exchange was one of the Outerverse’s four major corporations. On the surface, while it might seem that they ran a retail chain covering all seventy-two weaves of the Outerverse, the truth was they were actually the largest intelligence organization in the Outerverse. They were not nearly as simple as they seemed to be. 

Lu Yin did not understand why they had given him performance shares. He felt that it would be good to set aside some time and meet up with this Zi Xianxian.  

Of the Outerverse’s four major corporations, three of them had sent gifts, and the only one that had remained completely silent was Aegis. Lu Yin did not mind as he had had no dealings with Aegis. However, when considering that Aegis had a close relationship with Wei Rong, it was hard to say whether they would become friends or foes in the future.  

Lu Yin wanted to convert the majority of the items in the warehouse into cash, and at that moment, Gavin arrived. “Greetings, Your Highness.” 

Lu Yin grunted in acknowledgement and turned around to look at Gavin. “How are the various joint ventures we have with the Nalan family going?”

Gavin laughed. “Everything has been going smoothly. Ever since the Imperial Second Squadron started investigating many corrupt government officials, many of the joint ventures that the empire has with the Nalan family were released to private companies. This has resulted in higher employment rates throughout the empire, improved services, and lowered negative public opinions. The empire’s economy is improving by the day, and everything is returning back to normal.” 

Lu Yin nodded his head with a smile. “If that is the case, then shouldn’t the empire start paying me back?” 

An embarrassed look appeared on Gavin’s face. “Your Highness, the imperial treasury does not have much cash at the moment, so can you give us a bit more time?” 

Lu Yin had merely been teasing the minister, though the debt was not something that he would simply forget. The empire still owed him 50,000 star essence, which was not a small amount. In fact, he was currently the Great Yu Empire’s greatest creditor at the moment. 

“Alright then, I have something else to discuss with you at the moment.” He passed over the list of items in the warehouse to Gavin. “Sell everything on this list for star essence. After that, buy natural treasures with the profit, the more the better.” 

Gavin glanced over the list. “Your Highness, exchanging these items for star essence will be a challenge.”

“Go talk to the Mavis bank. They still have deep reserves of essence,” Lu Yin suggested. There was virtually no star essence left in the Outerverse, and most people were conducting transactions with star energy crystals at the moment. For example, when Lu Yin had visited the Nine Stacks Sect’s treasury, he had seen that the sect had an abundance of star crystal, but they had a tiny amount of star essence. The only exception to this standard was the Mavis bank. While they did not conduct star essence transactions with others, Lu Yin knew that the bank had its own private reserve of star essence. There were a very small number of people who could exchange star essence with Mavis bank, but Lu Yin was one of them.  

“Your Highness, the Mavis bank branches in the central weaves have recently run into some trouble. Someone has started a rumor claiming that the Mavis bank has exhausted their entire reserve of star essence and are unable to exchange them anymore. Following that rumor, many people have started withdrawing their entire savings accounts from the bank, and this has resulted in the Mavis bank of one particular weave being forced to continuously transfer funds from other weaves. To make matters worse, each transfer was either robbed or encountered an accident midway through the trip. Due to all this, the Mavis bank is suffering rather badly at this moment.” Gavin said. 

Lu Yin was shocked at this news. “I remember that something similar once happened in Frostwave Weave in the past. Back then, someone started a rumor, and the Mavis bank was forced to request funds from other branches. Are you saying that they are unable to cope this time around?” 

Gavin solemnly responded, “That is something that I am not sure about. The Mavis bank has deep pockets, and it’s very possible that they can just ride this out, but it’s also possible that they will not be able to do so. The most important thing to note is that, at this time, the problem did not happen in just one weave—it is occurring simultaneously in more than ten weaves. Furthermore, the transports carrying the funds keep encountering various mishaps. There are also rumors abound that the Mavis bank is going bankrupt, and many people are buying into those rumors as well.” 

The central weaves? Lu Yin muttered to himself. Could Wei Rong be the person behind all of these incidents? That would mean that he had acted very quickly. He had first dealt with the Lockbreaker Society, and now he was moving straight onto the Mavis bank. Could he handle it? The Mavis bank was not some piece of cake that the isolated Outerverse Lockbreaker Society had been. 

The backbone of the Outerverse Lockbreaker Society was President Geoffrey, who was currently trapped in the Innerverse, and that was the main reason the society had crumbled. If Wei Rong tried to treat the Mavis bank like the Lockbreaker Society with an absent Geoffrey, he would be in trouble.  

However, Lu Yin had a nagging feeling that it was also possible that Wei Rong was not behind these incidents. Lu Yin was in no hurry to find out. 

“In that case, contact Shamrock Enterprises. Exchange these items for some of their natural treasures,” Lu Yin said. 

Gavin was stressed by this order. The items on this list were paintings by famous masters and manuscripts by famous people, but would anyone even want them? However, since Lu Yin had spoken, he had no choice but to carry out the Royal Regent’s orders. If these items were not accepted, then he would be forced to seek out collectors who would buy the items and then use the proceeds to trade with Shamrock Enterprises. 

Also, Shamrock Enterprises did not seem prone to selling their natural treasures, as they mainly sold pharmaceuticals. 

As he thought about natural treasures, Lu Yin’s mind suddenly drifted to that Bushtree Planet. It had been that particular planet that had led to his falling out with Puyu.  

Bushtree Planet was located in the Woori Weave, and it was a strange planet. All of the planet’s water reserves were buried deep underground, and there were no animals on the planet. Instead, it was filled with vegetation and boasted an abundance of natural treasures. Unfortunately, the lifespan of those natural treasures was only a decade long, and they would invariably wilt after that. To a large percentage of cultivators in the universe, natural treasures that could only live for a decade were completely useless. Even if they could take them away from the planet, they would be rendered unusable after just a decade.  

Such natural treasures were only useful for young cultivators, which was the reason why Darkstar Gorge had used the Bushtree Planet as their exclusive training ground in the past.  

Ever since Lu Yin had chased Darkstar Gorge away from the planet, he had kept Bushtree Planet under close watch. He did not allow anyone to train there, and he had always wanted to take some time to visit it. It would seem that this was the right time, and if it turned out that he could use the natural treasures found on that planet, it would be perfect for his cultivation. 

A few days later, Lu Yin left Zenyu Star aboard a spacecraft headed straight for Woori Weave. While the Woori Weave shared a common border with Darkmist Weave, Woori Weave did not have a guiding power that held sway over the entire weave. If Lu Yin wanted to pull Woori Weave into the Great Eastern Alliance, then he would be forced to gather the several hundred smaller, internal organizations together. Also, these powers did not have many secrets that Mafioso Planet could exploit, which made everything rather cumbersome. This was why Lu Yin had excluded Woori Weave from his initial plans for the Great Eastern Alliance.  

However, this weave was still in the eastern regions of the Outerverse, it was inevitable that it would eventually be absorbed into the Great Eastern Alliance.  

There were far more than eight weaves in the eastern region of the Outerverse, and it was just a matter of time before Lu Yin would have to rope in the other weaves. This was something that had been keeping En busy recently, as it was not an easy task, especially when there was the possibility of Wei Rong creating complications. 

Lu Yin would occasionally get stuck in a rut, wasting some time, but there were also times when no appropriate solution could be found. It was just like when he had been working to establish the Great Eastern Alliance. If he had not gotten a hold of Mafioso Planet’s secrets, it would have been incredibly difficult to establish the alliance. As for the remaining eastern weaves, there were methods to handle them, but he had simply not found them yet. Although, Lu Yin believed that he would eventually find those methods.  

After reciting the Stonewall Scriptures for a while and checking the different available routes, Lu Yin was only an hour away from Bushtree Planet. Lu Yin pondered for a moment before turning his personal gadget on, reading up on information regarding Peach and the other original captains of the Thirteen Imperial Squadrons.  

The situation that he had witnessed with Liuying Zishan had become a constant thorn in Lu Yin’s heart. He wanted to know where that ball of light had come from and also why it had seemed to have its own consciousness. He suspected that it was something left behind by a powerhouse who had forced their way into Liuying Zishan’s body, and she had likely not even been aware of anything. He suspected that it had something to do with the Yu bloodline.  

After witnessing the situation with Liuying Zishan, Lu Yin had grown suspicious; what about Peach, the Blind Monk, and the rest?

After monitoring the few original captains for several days, he still had not observed any signs of anything resembling the situation with Liuying Zishan. However, he still felt unsettled, so he had decided to check through the backgrounds of the original captains. 

After browsing through the information, he discovered something strange: all of the captains were from different weaves.

He had initially been under the impression that all of the original captains of the Thirteen Imperial Squadron had come from Frostwave Weave. This was also what someone had once told him in the past. However, with his status as Royal Regent, he had access to the original information and could see where the captains were truly from, and now, he had found out the truth of the matter.  

Peach was from Mordo Weave, Shalosh was from Canopy Weave, the blind monk was from Chong Sen Weave, and Ban Jiu was from Morrow Weave. Even when the captains who had already passed away were included, not one of the captains had come from Frostwave Weave aside from Huo Qingshan and Rocky Auna.  

This was quite odd, and where had Undying Yushan found these people? These captains had all been born in various places covering nearly half of the entire eastern region of the Outerverse, and many of them came from weaves that Lu Yin had not even heard of before.