Star Odyssey

Chapter 1858: Blitzkrieg

Shadowbeast was startled. "Impossible!"

Lu Yin frowned. "Only a power level of 500,000? You only just reached the Envoy level. You're just asking to die."

Shadowbeast could not see what Lu Yin was doing as he spoke, but the creature was suddenly struck by a powerful and invisible palm strike that scattered the beast's shadows.

Suddenly, Lu Yin felt a hint of danger, and he reflexively tried to move, only to discover that Shadowbeast had locked Lu Yin's body down at some point, preventing him from moving. On top of that, the star energy in Lu Yin's body was also suppressed and rendered useless.

"Alliance Leader Lu, our commander tasked me with delivering a message: 'You can't afford this game.'"

After the voice spoke, a black shadow struck at Lu Yin's forehead to pierce through his head.

This black shadow was Shadowbeast's main body. The creature was a shadow, which meant that it could break off portions of itself and recombine with them. The astral beast's full strength had a power level of more than 800,000 while even its fragments had a power level of over 500,000. Additionally, it was impossible for others to distinguish the difference between the two.

This was why Xu Qing had allowed Shadowbeast to attack Lu Yin and assassinate him. It could not be revealed that a being with a power level of more than 800,000 had attacked Lu Yin, and on top of that, Shadowbeast's techniques were truly bizarre.

Just when the spike was about to stab into Lu Yin's forehead, a sword slid out of the void and stopped the spike when it was three inches from Lu Yin's head. The sword trembled, and the vibration caused the shadow to shift, as Shadowbeast found himself unable to control his form.

The creature was shocked. "A powerhouse?"

It unhesitatingly fled. However, since Liu Huang had shown himself, there was no way he would allow the astral beast to escape. The swordsman's strength had already recovered to a power level of over a million, and Shadowbeast was instantly sliced into countless pieces. Every single shadow was destroyed despite the creature attempting to split itself apart and flee in every direction.

Lu Yin's expression was not good at this moment. The Astral Beast Domain's assassination methods were very odd. There were no records of a creature like Shadowbeast, and they even had records of freakish beasts that were living black holes. There was no telling what sort of astral beasts they might encounter over the course of this war. Lu Yin knew that he needed to be more cautious.

Liu Huang soon returned, but he did not look happy.

"You weren't able to finish it off?" Lu Yin asked.

Liu Huang replied, "I don't actually know. All the shadows that I could sense were eliminated, but I have a feeling that the creature is not that easy to eliminate."

"Don't worry about it too much," Lu Yin said.

"I've exposed myself, so do you want me to attack?" Liu Huang asked.

Lu Yin stared off into the distance. "Move out and destroy all the powerful beasts that have appeared as quickly as possible."

Liu Huang disappeared. Since he had revealed himself, there was no reason to bother hiding any longer.

Liu Huang emerged from the void and slowly raised his sword. In that instance, space froze, and countless people felt an indescribable sharpness descend upon them. A cold chill covered their entire bodies.

Xu Qing's expression drastically changed from his distant vantage point. "Not good!"

The Void Thunderbeast vanished.

Liu Huang swept his sword out, and five slashes appeared simultaneously. Each one shot towards a different astral beast that were at the Envoy level.

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The essence eater was the first to lose its head. It attempted to divert the sword slash, but Liu Huang's strength far surpassed Liu Qianjue's, and how could the beast divert an attack with a power level of over a million? The second to lose its head was the soaring flamebeast who was fighting against the Frost Emperor. Both it and the Void Thunderbeast had broken free from the Frost Emperor's ice and started fighting him, but Liu Huang's sword severed the beast's head without slowing down.

The third, fourth, and fifth sword slashes were all blocked by a Void Thunderbeast. Xu Qing had returned to his original form, and he personally shot through space towards Liu Huang. "You are courting death!"

Liu Huang's eyes turned cold. There was actually a powerhouse among the astral beasts that had a power level of over a million. He stepped through space to confront the Void Thunderbeast.

The two experts each had a power level of over a million, and Lu Yin immediately ordered the fleet to retreat as the two monsters faced off against each other.

Liu Huang's presence terrified countless astral beasts, and they fled at the same time that the humans' fleet pulled back.

The war underwent a qualitative change the moment that monsters with power levels of over a million entered the fray. The Sixth Mainland's Daosource Sect was fully focused on the war at this point, as they had never imagined the Great Eastern Alliance could have such a powerhouse among their forces.

Xu Qing and Liu Huang fought without regard for the consequences of their battle. Liu Huang lashed out at Xu Qing with the Fourteenth Sword, which caused Xu Qing to vomit blood. As for Xu Qing, he left a permanent injury on Liu Huang with his lightning.

The battle came to a temporary halt for the moment. The Great Eastern Alliance's fleet retreated to the southwest, and at the same time, countless astral beasts fled to the northeast. The two sides completely ceased all combat.

Xu Qing had never imagined that Lu Yin's Great Eastern Alliance would actually be this powerful, and this battle had led the Astral Beast Domain to suffer terrible losses. In particular, the presence of a super powerhouse had truly flipped Xu Qing's predictions on their head. He quickly requested an investigation into the Great Eastern Alliance.

He had not cared about the alliance at all in the past, but he had realized that he needed to clearly understand his enemy.

Lu Yin's fleet had also suffered harsh casualties, but fortunately, not a single Envoy had died.

Still, even though no Envoy had died, all of them were terrified, particularly Mountain God. He went to speak with Ling Qiu right after the battle ended.

"You want to leave?" Ling Qiu was taken aback.

Mountain God answered quietly, "You also saw Liu Huang attack and instantly kill those two Envoys! What if that Void Thunderbeast had been the first to attack instead of Liu Huang? Could any of us survive such a thing?"

Ling Qiu considered this.

Mountain God continued, saying, "We shouldn't even be fighting in this war. If the Astral Beast Domain invades the Innerverse, of course we should face them, and if the worst happens, then we die. However, it's not worth risking our lives for this war. The Astral Beast Domain has been fighting against the entire Human Domain for so many years, so there's no way that all of their powerhouses are here. If that were actually the case, then the Neoverse freaks would have wiped the beasts out long ago.

"There's no way you would want to die a miserable death here."

Ling Qiu stared back at Mountain God. "What did Lu Yin offer you when you agreed to fight in this war?"

Mountain God hesitated for a moment, but then he said, "A power vessel. A defensive one that can withstand attacks with power levels of 700,000."

Ling Qiu's eyes flickered. "It looks like he offered the same conditions to everyone."

"Definitely not," Mountain God countered. "The Sword Sect's conditions for fighting here are completely different from what you and I are getting."

At this moment, Mountain God suddenly remembered that the Lingling clan also had Ling Taizu, who was another, even more powerful Envoy. "Actually, you must have also been given something different from me."

Ling Qiu did not answer, instead saying, "If you try to leave now, regardless of whether you can actually escape from this battlefield, how will you face Lu Yin in the future? Do you believe that he's destined to die in this war? Remember that the Second Nightking still has not shown himself, and Yuan Shi is also in the Outerverse. On top of that, no one knows just what kind of support Lu Yin has from the Neoverse, but there's at least one backer that is certain—the Interstellar Supreme Court's Chief Justice."

Mountain God's heart sank a bit further with every name that Ling Qiu mentioned. When he heard the words "Chief Justice," he simply turned around and left. Escape from the war? That was impossible at the moment, and that would only change if they faced a true life-or-death crisis.

At the moment, the humans had gained the upper hand.

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Word that Mountain God had met with Ling Qiu quickly reached Lu Yin, but he did not care. He knew that none of the Envoys with him actually wanted to fight in this war, so it was normal for them to want to escape. However, whether they actually did so depended on if they had the courage to do so.

Shui Chuanxiao appeared on Lu Yin's display. The former Grand Marshal had a solemn expression on his face. "Our casualties from this battle were not light: 1.2 million soldiers beneath the Explorer realm, 263 Explorers, 99 Cruisers, 35 Hunters, and 18 Enlighters. These numbers include the losses from the three special armies, with most of those coming from the deaths of cultivators above the Explorer realm. Of the three armies, the Lu Elite Troops suffered the worst, as they lost a great number of Explorer-level androids.

"Additionally, we lost about 12,000 transport ships and 725 battleships…"

Lu Yin listened to Shui Chuanxiao's report in silence, and an idea started to blossom in his mind. When he compared the battle that had just been fought with the battles that he had fought in Ironblood Weave, there was no comparison at all.

In the past, Ironblood Weave had never suffered many casualties among the Enlighters stationed there. This was mostly because none of the fortresses had that many Enlighters defending them.

The most recent battle had included more than a hundred Enlighters.

What did more than a hundred Enlighters mean? It was a force that could easily sweep through both the Outerverse and Innerverse.

Of note was that, as painful as the humans' casualties were, the Astral Beast Domain's losses were absolutely worse. After all, they had lost two Envoy level beasts. If Shadowbeast was actually dead, then they had lost three powerhouses.

These deaths alone far surpassed everything that the Great Eastern Alliance had suffered.

They were at war, and this was not a children's game. This was a level that ordinary people could not even fathom.

Lu Yin's understanding of the aftermath of the battle was fairly accurate. At this moment, Xu Qing's face was ashen. The deaths of the weaker astral beasts was of no consequence, as there were some astral beasts that reproduced much faster than humans, such as the Void Wanderers. In just this battle alone, more than 10 million Void Wanderers had died, but that did not matter at all. What did matter were the deaths of the two Envoy-level astral beasts.

"It's good you made it back. If I had lost you as well, I would not be able to explain myself to the Celestial Beast Emperor," Xu Qing said quietly as he looked at a shadow on the ground.

Shadowbeast's voice was incredibly weak. "I almost couldn't. Xu Qing, you were the greatest mistake in this battle. You didn't understand the strength of the Great Eastern Alliance and launched the war without proper authorization. I will definitely report this matter to the Celestial Beast Emperor."

Xu Qing remained silent. Multiple emotions swirled through his eyes as he stared towards the southwest. "I have fought so many wars in my life, and yet I did not suffer such a humiliating defeat even against the Sixth Mainland. They were able to crush us with pure strength, but they never managed to defeat us through mere strategy. I truly underestimated this Great Eastern Alliance to a tragic degree. I am willing to accept any punishment after I finish this war and return to the Empire."

Shadowbeast disappeared when Xu Qing stopped talking.

The commander remained standing calmly on an asteroid. He was in no hurry to resume fighting the war. He had already suffered a harsh lesson, and he wanted to understand his opponent before resuming the war. He needed to understand their true strength.

While Xu Qing was in no hurry to resume the conflict, Lu Yin absolutely was. He was aware that, after such a loss, Xu Qing would be trying to gather as much information on the Great Eastern Alliance as fast as possible. Thus, he needed to take advantage of the current opportunity to thin out the astral beasts' numbers as much as possible.

The battleships fired, and the war continued.

Countless astral beasts let out roars of fury.

Liu Qianjue, Ling Qiu, Mountain God, Chen Huang, the Frost Emperor, and all the Envoys appeared one after another as Liu Huang led them to the northeast through the asteroid field. The power of all these Envoys caused the asteroid field to boil.

Xu Qing looked up, anger visible on his face. He leaped out, and three Void Thunderbeasts suddenly appeared alongside him. Xu Qing confronted Liu Huang, but the other two Void Thunderbeasts possessed power levels that barely surpassed 500,000, and they were left to face Mountain God, Chen Huang. The Celestial Ice Phoenix moved to stop Ling Qiu while the hidden essence eater attacked Liu Qianjue.

Xu Qing did his best to position the Envoys' battlefield in the middle of the fleet's path, as he wanted to make it impossible for the Great Eastern Alliance to engage the astral beasts in a direct confrontation.

Lu Yin frowned, and Ling Taizu, Elder He, and Abel Phoenix suddenly appeared. They traveled through the true universe and only emerged once they were in the middle of the horde of astral beasts, where they started wantonly slaughtering all the beasts.

Xu Qing was furious. He had not expected the Great Eastern Alliance to keep three more Envoys in reserve during their last battle. Just how did Lu Yin have command of so many Envoys?

Xu Qing had believed that the seven Envoy-level astral beasts he had brought with him were plenty for this invasion into the Outerverse, especially if he also personally stepped onto the battlefield. According to his initial estimations, unless the Sixth Mainland sent out at least two Cosmic Imprinters, the humans would be rendered completely helpless. He had never expected the Great Eastern Alliance to not only be able to withstand the Astral Beast Domain's invasion force, but also slightly overpower them.