Star Odyssey

Chapter 1910: Uncle Tree

The big tree seemed to have taken root, and it remained unmoving for several days.

Up within the tree's canopy, Sapling had made a new friend, the man who had hidden in the big tree's branches.

At the moment, that man had succumbed to despair. The big tree was simply too terrifying! The man had just watched as the tree had overpowered an Envoy, and he was feeling quite depressed about his situation. As for Sapling, the man assumed it to be part of the big tree. Because of this, regardless of anything Sapling did, the man was determined to accompany Sapling without any resistance, as he was scared of accidentally offending the tree.

The old Enlighter remained near the big tree on the same planet. The old man did not dare do anything that might disturb the man in the tree in any form. At the same time, the Enlighter hoped to gain the favor of this Envoy and receive something for his efforts that might allow his cultivation to take a step forward.

The entire street had been sealed off. There were cracks in the ground that radiated from where the big tree had settled, and it stood alone in the street with its branches swaying in the breeze.

It then began to rain.

The old Enlighter hastily waved a hand to disperse the clouds in order to ensure the sun continued to shine down on the tree.

Suddenly, space twisted next to the old man, and Lu Yin stepped out.

He had rushed over as soon as he had received news about Sapling, and he had just arrived.

"This tree's stayed here the whole time and hasn't moved?" Lu Yin asked.

The old Enlighter answered, "Yes, that's the tree..."

He suddenly twitched and his head snapped around to stare at Lu Yin in astonishment. "You- you..."

He wanted to ask who Lu Yin was, but still was too stunned by how Lu Yin had managed to arrive so close without the old Enlighter sensing anything at all. On top of that, the longer he looked at Lu Yin, the more he felt this young man looked familiar. The Enlighter's thoughts were a complete mess as he struggled to find any words to say.

Lu Yin simply ignored the man and casually commented, "There are signs of a fight."

He reached out and pinched his fingers. "Are there any videos of the Envoy's fight? Show any you have."

The old Enlighter continued to stare blankly at Lu Yin. Finally, realization hit him and he nearly jumped in fright. "Lu- Lu Yin? No, Alliance Leader Lu!"

Lu Yin looked at the man and gave him a slight smile. "Do you have any videos of what happened?"

The old Enlighter's mouth was hanging open. This was Lu Yin, the Alliance Leader of the Great Eastern Alliance! The person who had unified the entire Innerverse! The old man had never dreamed of getting close enough to speak to such a person in his entire lifetime. He had only ever seen Lu Yin as someone who stood upon a shining stage. The Tournament of the Strongest, ZENITH, and most recently, the war in the Outerverse. It was said that there had been dozens of Envoys on that battlefield. Though the fact that the old man was an Enlighter made him a powerhouse in the universe, he could only dream of interacting with such a prestigious person.

He had heard that hundreds of Enlighters had participated in the Outerverse war.

The old man completely forgot his words when he realized that such a powerful person was standing right next to him. He quickly bowed low. "Fraser Planet's Zang Nan greets Alliance Leader Lu."

Lu Yin repeated his question, "Are there any videos of the battle that took place?"

Some time passed, as Zang Nan could still not gather his wits for a bit after being spoken to by Lu Yin himself. Finally, the man hurriedly replied, "No there aren't. The battle happened too suddenly. Not to mention any monitoring equipment, even I wasn't able to see anything clearly, and I was right there when it happened."

"Oh? What did you see?" Lu Yin grew curious.

The Innerverse was truly impressive. Even small flowzones were able to give rise to Enlighters. When the Outerverse had been cut off from the rest of the Human Domain, Lu Yin had only rarely come across any Enlighters. At that time, he had considered Enlighters to be powerhouses.

An Enlighter could be considered a top expert in the Outerverse, but in the Innerverse, even every minor flowzone had at least one.

Zang Nan answered respectfully, "I really was not able to see any details. It all happened far too quickly. The only thing I managed to see was a shadow rushing toward the big tree, and then it was sent flying away. I never managed to see what form the shadow actually took."

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Lu Yin's eyes grew cold. "Did the figure rush towards the big tree, or its canopy?"

Zang Nan considered the question carefully while biting his cheek. "The canopy."

"Are you sure?" Lu Yin pressed. His voice sounded casual, but given Lu Yin's status, Zang Nan knew his answer would determine whether or not he would survive this encounter, as well as his future.

He firmly stated, "I'm sure, because the shadow was thrown away from the tree's canopy."

Lu Yin turned back to look at the big tree. That person who had attacked had to have been Leaf King again. Who else would pay any attention to the big tree other than that man? On top of that, Leaf King was an Envoy.

It seemed that there was something more to the big tree than met the eye. It was able to send even Leaf King flying, and he was someone with a power level of at least 800,000. With such strength, how was it possible that the Ordnance Mercenaries had managed to capture the big tree in the first place? Lu Yin would never forget the scene when Qi Jin had entered the botanical garden with the big tree. At that time, Lu Yin had assumed it was just a big, ordinary tree.

He casually tossed Zang Nan a natural treasure that had reached the level of avoiding danger. As Zang Nan expressed his gratitude, Lu Yin approached the big tree one step at a time. He was soon only 100 meters away from the big tree.

Up in the tree's canopy, Sapling seemed to sense something and it suddenly raised its branches. It slowly turned towards Lu Yin, and then happily leaped down.

Lu Yin hugged Sapling, stroking its branches and leaves with a grin on his face. "You rascal."

The cheerful little tree radiated a warm light and tightly wrapped its branches around Lu Yin's fingers. It looked incredibly content.

A short distance away, up in the big tree's canopy, a man's eyes went wide as he stared down at Lu Yin. It's him?

Lu Yin looked up. He initially focused on the big tree, but then caught a glimpse of a person up in the canopy. "Qian Zou?"

The man who had been chased for stealing and who had hidden in the big tree's canopy was none other than Qian Zou, who Lu Yin had previously met in the Neoverse. During Lu Yin's stellular tribulation, he had faced Progenitor Chen, and one of the eight clones had used Inverse Step. Lu Yin had first seen Qian Zou using Inverse Step, and while he had been impressed by the technique, he had not cared too much about it. However, Progenitor Chen's clone which had had the same level of cultivation as Lu Yin had used the movement technique to circumvent Lu Yin's Knowing realm of Truesight. That incident had left Lu Yin stunned, and it had also reignited his interest in Qian Zou.

After he had passed his stellular tribulation, Lu Yin had ordered a search for Qian Zou. He never expected to meet the young man on this planet.

Qian Zou strained his neck towards Lu Yin, his face the picture of misery. "Um, brother? I mean Seventh Bro. Save me please, I'm scared…"

Lu Yin laughed. He had expected he would need to expend a great deal of time and energy tracking down Qian Zao. Who could have expected that Lu Yin would find the man without any effort at all? "What are you doing in the Innerverse?"

Qian Zou answered, "I've just been traveling around. I'd heard about the Innerverse and the Outerverse long ago, and I also had a bit of interest in exploring the Cosmic Sea, so I came over."

"You mean you got caught stealing something in the Neoverse, so you came here because you had nowhere else to hide," Lu Yin bluntly countered.

Qian Zou coughed in embarrassment. "So, erm, Seventh Bro, can you save me?"

"How did you get up there?"

"I climbed."

"Then climb back down."

Qian Zou was about to have a mental breakdown. "Uncle Tree's an Envoy! I don't dare try to leave!"

Lu Yin used a reassuring tone, "Don't worry. Uncle Tree won't attack anyone who doesn't threaten it."

"Really?" Qian Zou remained skeptical.

Lu Yin explained, "How else do you think you managed to climb up there? You wouldn't be alive right now if it was dangerous."

Qian Zou thought about this and felt it made sense. Still, he was unable to muster the necessary courage. "Seventh Bro, you have to protect me! Your little brother's counting on you!"

Lu Yin made a placating gesture.

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Qian Zou gulped and then slowly and deliberately climbed down the big tree. Each movement was made with the utmost caution, as he was terrified of accidentally offending the big tree and getting smacked dead. Even an Envoy had been seriously injured after getting struck by one of these branches, so Qian Zou had no confidence at all.

When Qian Zou's feet finally touched the ground, he did not dare believe it to be true. He slowly backed away from the big tree, and once he was just over ten meters away, he suddenly sprinted toward Lu Yin and instantly hid behind him. When he saw the big tree remained stationary, Qian Zou nearly collapsed in relief. He had survived!

It was also at that moment that Zang Nan realized that Qian Zou was not an Envoy. The youth was not even a Hunter! Zang Nan felt wronged. He had acted so respectful and deferential to this young man, but had actually been scammed. The old man looked at Qian Zou with a hint of malice in his eyes.

Qian Zou patted his chest, thankful to have survived his narrow escape.

Lu Yin squatted and stroked Sapling's tender green leaves. "Good kid, you've had your fun. Shall we go home now?"

Sapling jumped up and down in excitement, catching Qian Zou off guard.

He was no stranger to Sapling, and he had even played with the little tree while being trapped in the big tree's canopy. Qian Zou had assumed the small sapling to be part of the Envoy-strength tree's body, yet apparently the big tree was an entirely separate entity. Qina Zou had been tricked into living in terror for several days. His eyes grew cold as he gazed at Sapling.

"Can you bring the big tree back, too?" Lu Yin asked Sapling.

Sapling curved its branches and spread its leaves. It looked like it was struggling to understand what Lu Yin meant.

However, while Sapling may not have understood, the big tree certainly did. It uprooted itself in a manner reminiscent of a lady hiking up her skirts, and it then frantically started running away.

Several Limiteers in the area rushed over to capture the big tree.

It was then that a strange situation occurred. When Leaf King had tried to capture Sapling, the big tree had sent the Envoy flying away with the flick of a single branch. However when faced with several Limiteers, the big tree was unable to break free. Just a few people were able to tie the tree up and carry it back on their shoulders. Its branches swayed about wildly in a panic, but it was unable to escape.

Qian Zou's eye twitched. This big tree was clearly just messing around! Those were Limiteers, right? But unless all of them were secretly Envoys, how could they possibly catch that big tree so easily? How did these people have the guts to assault the tree?

Lu Yin was relieved to see his assumption had been right. People who were not a threat to the big tree would be fine regardless of how they touched it. As for people like Leaf King, the big tree would brutally attack them.

After waving goodbye, the cultivators carried the big tree onto a spaceship and made their way back to the Ross Empire's mobile fortress. They planned to lock the big tree back in the botanical garden.

One of Sapling's branches rubbed against Lu Yin's face. It seemed to be worried.

Lu Yin gave Sapling a reassuring smile as he said, "Don't worry, the big tree is fine. They won't hurt it."

Sapling regained its previous cheerfulness and started dancing and hopping around Lu Yin.

Qian Zou showed an embarrassed smile. "Erm, Seventh Bro, I'm going to head out now. Thank you for saving me. If there's anything you need me to do for you in the future, just give me a call."

Lu Yin smiled and patted Zian Zou's shoulder. "There's no need to wait for that. You can help me right now."

Qian Zou's face twitched and his smile turned to one of begging. "Seventh Bro, your little brother's already exhausted. Can I just rest for a few days first?"

Lu Yin opened his hand to reveal a pill. "Eat this, and you will recover in no time."

Qian Zou was left speechless. Eventually, he cautiously asked, "What is it that I can help you with, Seventh Bro?"

Lu Yin put a bit more strength into the hand that he had set on Qian Zou's shoulder as he solemnly said, "I don't have anything I need you to do, but I would like to make a deal with you. I'm actually quite interested in your Inverse Step."

This caught Qian Zou by surprise. "Inverse Step? Seventh Bro, are you actually interested in that?"

Lu Yin nodded.

Qian Zou found this quite odd. Lu Yin had known Qian Zou for much longer than just a day or two. They had first met during the Astral Tower, and then again later during ZENITH. If Lu Yin was interested in Inverse Step, why had he not said so before? Quite a bit of time had passed since both of those previous encounters.

"Seventh Bro, it's not that I don't want to teach you, but I actually don't have a clue how to do so," Qian Zou said.

This piqued Lu Yin's curiosity. "Why's that?"

Qian Zou explained, "There are some battle techniques that are force application skills, others that utilize star energy, and still others that are movement techniques. Most techniques are easy to teach to someone else, but there are certain battle techniques that are imprinted directly onto a person's body, and those can't be taught to others. My Inverse Step is one of those techniques. Your little brother managed to learn it because of a jade I picked up, and I was able to immediately learn it."