Star Odyssey

Lu Yin did not know if he should be happy or not. The battle between Progenitors had not caused any changes in the Astral River’s energy, as otherwise, the Innerverse and Outerverse would have been reconnected. 

He took a deep breath. Forget it. That war was unrelated to Lu Yin, and for the time being, he needed to take advantage of this time when the Daosource Sect’s ruins were practically empty to comprehend the Nine Cauldrons’ battle technique. 

After processing all this new information, he sat down cross-legged and emptied his mind. After half an hour, he began reciting the Stonewall Scriptures. 

The moment he started reciting the Stonewall Scriptures, the cauldron trembled, and Lu Yin was instantly delighted. His attempt was going well, and the Stonewall Scriptures could indeed help him comprehend the Nine Cauldrons’ battle technique, which was quite strange. 

The legends claimed that the Nine Cauldrons’ battle techniques would be invincible when combined into a single technique. Lu Yin was eager to discover just how impressive this technique truly was. 

Three-footed cauldron that towers above the skies!

…

Lu Yin recited the Stonewall Scriptures, and he didn’t even realize that his consciousness had drifted away. Or more accurately, his awareness was no longer entirely his own. He felt as though he had become a temporal meteor streaking across the ages that had crossed the river of time. He eventually arrived in a world from an unknown era of the past. 

He no longer knew who he was. He had no memories, emotions, or consciousness. He had nothing. He was the sky and earth, and the sky and earth were him. 

He saw an incomparably enormous tree that towered into the sky, reaching an unknown height. Its branches drooped towards the ground as all sorts of objects hung from the leaves. In fact, there were all sorts of items of every description possible. 

A fuzzy figure appeared, dressed in ragged clothing and looking like a savage person. He held a filthy clump of soil in his hand that he was squeezing into some strange shape. After some time passed, he managed to form a strange-looking item from the dirt with an elongated shape and a sunken section on its top. The savage then broke off a twig and placed it in the sunken area. It looked as though he wanted to light the twig on fire, but the dirt object that he had formed easily tipped over. 

The savage scratched his head and then split the elongated object into two sections. He once again tried to stabilize it, but it still fell over easily. Finally, the savage person became a bit smarter, and he reformed the elongated item with three legs supporting the section with the slight depression. With three legs, the object no longer tipped over, and the savage was clearly happy. He lit the twig and burned something. 

An unknown amount of time passed, but time was meaningless to a temporal meteor.

The mud structure that had been molded out of a clump of dirt by the savage had become an ugly, three-footed vessel containing a burning fire. After passing through unknown experiences, the vessel became harder. It had gained a form that would not tip over, and it also ended up eventually being used as a weapon by the savage. It was able to flatten an area of the universe when it was smashed down. 

That three-footed vessel passed through an unknown amount of time, and it eventually gained a name: cauldron. 

As time passed by, an indescribably gloomy pair of eyes shrouded the sky. This terrifying pair of eyes could not even be directly looked at. Even if Lu Yin had turned into a streak of time, he still felt instinctively petrified. A giant hand suppressed everything as it crossed over, and the cauldron shattered into nine fragments that then scattered in all directions. 

Time changed once again, and the nine fragments of the cauldron were each merged into nine different giant cauldrons. They were placed in one area of a grand sect, and they were given a new name: The Nine Cauldrons. 

When the Nine Cauldrons first appeared, nine radiant suns appeared in the sky that illuminated the entire firmament. This light shone upon countless perplexed eyes, as well as Lu Yin. 

Lu Yin suddenly opened his eyes. His arms were braced against the ground, and he was panting heavily. His eyes had a confused look as he gradually came back to himself. 

What had just happened to him? It felt as though he had shuttled back along the long river of history, and he felt as if he had just seen something. However… He shook his head vigorously, as he could not recall what he had just experienced, not a single bit. The only thing that he could remember were the words “Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation.” 

Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation, Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation, Lu Yin thought to himself relentlessly. He kept trying to recall what he had seen. Then, his eyes suddenly went wide. He slapped a palm against the ground, and the entire cauldron quivered. A formless object condensed and merged into Lu Yin’s palm before merging with his entire body. 

Nobody was there to see what that object was, and not even Lu Yin himself had clearly seen what had merged with his hand. However, he knew that he had absorbed something called cauldron energy. He instinctively knew how to absorb it, and he even knew how to use it. 

Lu Yin raised his left hand as the star energy within his body converged into his palm and gradually formed a ball. Pure star energy converged within his palm, and this ball was composed of nearly a quarter of Lu Yin’s total star energy reserves. It was a quarter of his reserves, but it had already reached the amount of star energy that an ordinary Hunter would have when their power level reached 150,000. The strength of this ball of energy greatly surpassed the limits of an ordinary Explorer, but it still could not match up to the power that Lu Yin’s battle techniques normally displayed. 

Having a technique that used as much star energy as a Hunter’s reserves did not mean that the technique could match a Hunter’s strength. 

All this time, Lu Yin had felt like the star energy in his body had been utilized too wastefully. Besides being able to resist the suppression from cultivators with higher realms, there were not many ways for him to use such a tremendous amount of star energy, and Lu Yin had never been in a situation where his star energy had been depleted. 

However, there was a use for it now.

The Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation required opening nine suns, and each sun was equivalent to one ninth of the complete battle technique. Only by converging all nine suns could the full might of the Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation be displayed. However, even if Lu Yin could not display the complete power of the Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation right now, the singular sun formed by the cauldron energy and his star energy was already capable of unleashing astounding power. The more star energy that the cauldron energy was merged with, the greater the power the technique would be able to unleash. 

He absorbed the cauldron energy into his body with his right palm, and it naturally merged into the gathering ball of star energy in his left hand. Suddenly, the rune lines of the orb of star energy rapidly increased, and it rose to rival the power level of a Hunter. Before, Lu Yin would have only been able to manifest this many rune lines through the Skybeast Claw battle technique, but now, he had gained another method of reaching that same power level. 

This was only a quarter of Lu Yin’s star energy reserves, and once all of the star energy in his body gathered together, the power of the technique might reach a level that could even shock an Enlighter. 

Lu Yin was delighted, as he had finally obtained another powerful offensive technique. The key to this technique was that there was no upper limit to its power. Regardless of whether it was the Dream Finger or the Skybeast Claw, neither would increase in power as Lu Yin’s own strength rose, but this Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation was different. The more cauldron energy he absorbed and the more star energy that he managed to merge into the technique, the more powerful the technique would become. Also, the star energy did not necessarily have to come from his body. 

Absorbing star energy meant that Lu Yin could use more star energy with the technique, which meant that this Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation had no upper limit in terms of power. The more star energy that was gathered, the greater the power that would be unleashed. 

Hold on. Lu Yin’s face suddenly turned sour. Star energy meant money, and he was already constantly short on money. He needed money for practically everything, and now, there was one more thing to add to his long list of expenses, as this battle technique also required money to cultivate. He had traveled a long way down the path of poverty after all this time. 

The Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation required the user to absorb cauldron energy, and the cauldron energy naturally came from these great cauldrons. Lu Yin had forgotten the reason why, but he could vaguely feel that the origin of this battle technique was contained within this cauldron. 

This was just one cauldron, and Lu Yin instinctively looked in the other directions. There were nine cauldrons in this place, and this technique was called the Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation. Wasn’t that hinting that the cauldron energy from each cauldron could only open one sun? Once he completely absorbed the cauldron energy from all nine cauldrons, all nine suns should be opened with the Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation complete. 

It was no wonder why it was rumored that the Nine Cauldrons’ battle technique could be merged into one unrivaled technique. They were not nine different battle techniques, but rather one technique that had been split into nine parts. In other words, the technique required all nine cauldrons for it to be completely cultivated. 

Lu Yin calmed himself and focused his mind as he sat back down in a cross-legged fashion. He did not know how long it would take for him to completely absorb the cauldron energy in this first cauldron, but regardless of the future, if he wanted to cultivate the complete Ninesuns Cauldron Transformation, he had to absorb the cauldron energy step by step. 

As he thought about it, he eliminated all his wandering thoughts and recited the Stonewall Scriptures as he focused on absorbing the cauldron energy from the cauldron. 

Time quickly passed by, and Lu Yi was engrossed in cultivating within the cauldron for almost a whole month, during which he was not interrupted at all. Then, the scenery changed before his eyes as he left the Daosource Sect's ruins. 

There was something that he felt was strange, which was that he had not stayed in the Daosource Sect for much longer compared to his first visit. Since his first visit, he had absorbed the spiritual force in Liuying Zishan’s body, which had greatly increased his spiritual force, but the amount of time he could stay in the Daosource Sect had not increased by much at all. Since his last visit had been extremely exciting and eventful, he had been eager to leave as soon as possible. However, this time, he had paid careful attention to the amount of time he stayed in the ruins. 

Could his time have not changed by much because he did not know how to use spiritual force? Lu Yin was puzzled. 

He had spent nearly a month in the Daosource Sect's ruins, and Lu Yin looked at both of his hands. He did not know how much cauldron energy he had absorbed compared to the total amount, as it did not have any rune lines, and in some sense, it felt like it did not even exist. However, when it merged with his star energy, it really did raise his strength by an incredible amount, and there was even a bit of undetectable power to the merged energy. It was very strange. 

The universe was too vast, and what people mostly observed were the essential details of cultivation methods. Many planets had their own cultivation methods, but they were all basically different means to the same end. Still, some cultivation methods were unique in their paths, let alone a battle technique stemming from ancient times. 

Cauldron energy had no rune lines, and Lu Yin even suspected that this battle technique had been created before the Rune Progenitor’s emergence. 

“How suffocating! Seventh Bro, I don’t have the first clue on what you did in that broken-down cauldron, but you made this monkey foolishly watch on for a month,” the Ghost Monkey complained. 

“You’ll know in the future.” Lu Yin was in a pretty good mood. 

When he learned that Lu Yin had emerged from isolated training, Bei Qing was the first person to rush over to visit Lu Yin. He immediately told the Royal Regent that the Lu's Grand Auction was scheduled to take place tomorrow. They had advertised the auction for a month and raised a great commotion, which helped them achieve even better results than last time. Many people who held the ability to make decisions on their powers’ behalf had rushed over to Zenyu Star. 

Lu Yin had missed the first auction, so he decided that he would head over to the auction house and take a look on the day of the auction. His thirst for money had grown even more intense, as no one else needed money the way he did; to him, money was directly correlated to strength. 

He rested for a while before activating his gadget and calling Elder Lohar. 

Elder Lohar’s image appeared, and he smiled at the youth. “Alliance Leader Lu, after having gone into seclusion for a month, your power must have improved by a great deal.” 

Lu Yin smiled. “Seeing Elder’s expression, I take it to mean that the Technocracy’s invasion has been handled without incident?” 

Elder Lohar’s tone was quite laid back. “There should be no problems. The Technocracy’s invasion lasted for less than ten days before they called it quits.” 

Lu Yin’s face was serene. “If I were in Elder’s shoes, I would not be so relaxed. During this month, Junior went to the Daosource Sect's ruins, and I bumped into an Arbiter.” 

Elder Lohar’s expression changed, and his heart sank as he stared at Lu Yin’s grave expression. “How’s the Innerverse?” 

Lu Yin answered in a low voice, “Elder, rest assured, the Innerverse is fine.”

He then repeated the details that he had learned about the Innerverse and the Sixth Mainland’s war, including the Champion's Stage. 

Elder Lohar was delighted when he heard the news. “That’s good news! Why does Alliance Leader Lu still seem to have such a burden on your mind?” 

Lu Yin frowned. “According to the information that I received, the Sixth Mainland has nine realms, but currently, only the Grand Martial, War Martial, and Bloodburn Realms have invaded the Innerverse while the Blood Homage, Stone, and East Realms have invaded the Astral Beast Domain. Junior is not sure how the war in the Astral Beast Domain is going, but since the Innerverse’s battle has become much more difficult to wage, if Junior were managing the Sixth Mainland, I would definitely change tactics. For example, shifting focus to the Outerverse.” 

Elder Lohar’s expression changed. “Is Alliance Leader Lu sharing a conjecture?”

Lu Yin replied, “That’s right.” 

Elder Lohar fell deep into thought.

“The pros and cons of invading any place have to be weighed, and even the Martial Progenitor of the Sixth Mainland has taken action against the Innerverse. If their invasion fails, or perhaps if the benefits that they receive do not match their expectations, then the Martial Progenitor will lose face. Does Elder think that the Martial Progenitor will agree to such an outcome? Even if the Martial Progenitor doesn’t care, the three realms under the Martial Progenitor may not be fine with such an outcome, so they may still go to war. The Sixth Mainland has to obtain compensation that corresponds to the efforts they have expended on this war. If the Innerverse cannot be taken down, then the Outerverse has no place to run to. So please be cautious, Elder,” Lu Yin said.