Star Odyssey

Lu Yin stood at the peak of the Fifth Mainland and not even the Seven Courts would dare to claim that they could avoid contact with him in the future. If they had conflicts, or even wars, what would happen once Lu Yin reached a power level of a million, or even became a Semi-Progenitor? Would the Seven Courts still be untouchable to Lu Yin? At that point, not even Xia Ji would be able to threaten Lu Yin.

They had to be prepared for when that time came.

Ce Yue eventually agreed to allow Lu Yin to study the Immovable Chessboard. It did not really matter as Lu Yin had already comprehended the Ce Secret Art, which meant that he could gain nothing by observing their greatest treasure.

The Ce family’s greatest treasure was the Immovable Chessboard that had been left behind by their ancestor, Progenitor Ce Wangtian. They kept their treasured inheritance within their ancestral home.

Ce Yue personally led Lu Yin to the Ce family's ancestral home.

"Alliance Leader Lu, please enter," Ce Yue said in a deep voice that seemed devoid of all emotion.

Lu Yin observed the family’s ancestral home. "Thank you."

He then took a step and entered the building.

The Ce family’s ancestral home was not large, and it was actually no different from the house of an ordinary person. Ce Wangtian was someone who had risen to power from nothing, and this ancestral home represented the Ce family’s rise from their common origins.

Long ago, Mister Mu had used Zhu Tiezhu’s blood to allow Lu Yin to peer through the long river of time to observe the Immovable Chessboard. Had Ce Wangtian lived in this place? Or was it simply the ancestral home of the Ce family that was part of the Seven Courts?

The Ce family’s ancestral home included a hut that was completely dark. Lu Yin pushed the door open and entered the hut before closing the door behind him. There was a dusty chessboard in the middle of the room, and moonlight from nowhere illuminated it.

This was a very familiar scene to Lu Yin, as it was the same scene that he had seen when he had observed the vision of Ce Wangtian.

Step by step, Lu Yin moved closer to the dusty chessboard. When he had first seen this place in the vision, he had stood to the side and observed the chess game. But this time, he walked right up and sat down in the seat for one of the players. Regardless of who the opponent might be, he was willing to participate, even if it was a game of strategy.

Lu Yin had already defeated Progenitor Chen at the same cultivation realm as him, so he felt no fear when facing anyone at all.

An unseen breeze blew through, removing the dust from the chessboard. Lu Yin stared down at the chessboard and then subconsciously raised a hand to pick up one of the chess pieces. Suddenly, his body trembled, and his eyes went blank. He next found himself in space, surrounded by chess pieces. In fact, Lu Yin himself was a pawn.

He looked up and saw two massive figures sitting on either side of the game board, and one of them laughed loudly. "You’re destined to lose this time, hahahaha!"

"It’s impossible for you to beat me. You’re just too terrible at playing chess," another voice replied. The voices were so deafening that Lu Yin’s head almost cracked.

Lu Yin stared up at the two huge figures in shock, but he was not able to see either of their faces clearly. Down on the game board with him, chess pieces began moving. Someone was playing chess.

Are they playing chess? Why am I a pawn? Clearly I should be a player!

Lu Yin opened his mouth to call out only to find that it was impossible.

"Hahahaha, how about this move? I’ll win!"

"Ce Wangtian, when it comes to chess, you’ll always this lousy. You can’t even beat an ordinary person."

"Hmph! I never plan ahead and simply play chess in the moment. I make every move at the moment instead of planning ahead. I don’t play like you, where you observe the entire game with each glance. Where’s the fun in that?"

"There is no pleasure in playing chess for people like us. I don’t want to play with you."

"You have to, unless you manage to beat me."

"What's the point? It’s impossible for you to win as long as you play in this manner."

"Bullshit! I’m invincible! Who says that I can’t win? I’m going to beat you!"

Lu Yin tried to escape from the chess game, but all of his efforts were fruitless. He did not know what this game of chess was supposed to represent, or why people who were supposed to have died during the ancient era were able to trap him, but he knew that he should not be a chess piece, but rather one of the players.

"Ce Wangtian, you are going to lose."

"Impossible! I’ve never lost to anyone in my entire life! Wait, I made a mistake… I need to take that back."

"No, you can't take back a move."

"I made a mistake. I need to redo it."

"You can't take back a move in a game. You’ve already lost."

"Bullshit! I'm positive that I'll win! I just made a mistake with that one move, so I need to take it back."

"No."𝘧𝓇𝗲e𝑤𝑒𝙗noѵ𝒆𝚕. 𝒄o𝓶

"Re-do."

"No."

"Yu De, you know me, right? Well, who says that I can’t take a move back? I’m going to manipulate this board, and there’s nothing that you can do about it!"

After that, Lu Yin watched as space collapsed and the entire game was destroyed. Space twisted in odd ways in the surrounding area, and Lu Yin felt something odd.

Lu Yin had no idea how much time passed, but eventually, space returned to a normal state, and he heard a crazed laugh enter his ears. "Hahahaha, I, Ce Wangtian, have finally created a secret technique: Astral Chessboard. After playing chess for decades. I’m the only person in the universe who can take back a move! Nobody can rewind their life, but if I want to do so, then only I can take back my move! Ce Secret Art: Astral Chessboard.”

There was a snap, and Lu Yin's eyes widened. He found himself staring down at a dusty chess board. He had not moved at all. When he looked around, he was no longer in outer space, but rather back in the Ce family’s ancestral home. There was no one playing chess, and he was no longer someone’s chess piece.

What had he just witnessed? Could that vision have been from the ancient times? Had he just been witness to the reason why Ce Wangtian had created the Ce Secret Art?

Lu Yin stared down at the chessboard, a bit speechless. Had Ce Wangtian really only created his secret technique in order to play chess and take a move back? What did it mean to manipulate the game so brazenly and blatantly?

Staring at the chess pieces on the board, Lu Yin closed his eyes and reviewed what he had just seen. He especially focused what he had felt when Ce Wangtian had seemed to go crazy because he wanted to take back his move and space had started to get agitated.

One day. Two days. Three days…

Lu Yin stayed in the ancestral home for nearly half a month, and outside, Ce Yue grew increasingly solemn.

"Elder, how is Lu Yin?" Ce Laoyan asked as he arrived just outside the ancestral home.

Ce Yue answered softly, "He should be gaining enlightenment."

Ce Laoyan was caught off guard. "He’s already comprehended the Ce Secret Art, so what could he be gaining enlightenment about?"

Ce Yue seemed to drift off. "Do you believe that the Ce Secret Art is as simple as how we use it?"

Ce Laoyan felt rather confused.

"We descendants have all been disappointments, as none of us have been able to truly master our ancestor’s secret technique. There are rumors that when our ancestor created the Astral Chessboard, the highest level of mastery was Board Manipulation," Ce Yue solemnly stated.

Ce Laoyan's eyes flickered. "Board Manipulation? True, when I comprehended the secret technique, I do seem to recall hearing something about taking back a move."

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"Board Manipulation is supposed to be the ability to undo a move or action and return things to a previous state. Time might be involved in this ability, but that’s unknown as no one has ever managed to reach such a level of mastery of Astral Chessboard after our ancestor created it.” As he spoke, Ce Yue’s expression grew increasingly dark as he stared at their ancestral home. “It’s possible that Lu Yin is currently comprehending Board Manipulation."

An ugly expression appeared on Ce Laoyan's face. Board Manipulation was a level of mastery that no one in the entire history of their Ce family had managed to achieve, so why was Lu Yin able to accomplish such a thing? If Lu Yin could really comprehend Board Manipulation, the Ce family would be utterly humiliated.

Lu Yin sat next to the chessboard for half a month before he finally opened his eyes in confusion.

He could not clearly grasp what he had sensed earlier in that vision. He needed more time.

However, this was definitely not the place for it.

He raised a hand and brought out his die. After tapping it, the die slowly stopped spinning to show five pips. Useless.

He rolled the die again, and it slowly stopped on six pips. Lu Yin’s eye twitched, and his vision shifted as his consciousness suddenly appeared in that strange, dark space that was filled with orbs of light in every direction.

He was rolling his die within the Ce family's ancestral home, so it was impossible to know if Elder Ce Yue would simply charge in at some point. Lu Yin needed to hurry, so he immediately merged with the closest and brightest ball of light.

His vision changed yet again, and when it grew clear once more, he saw a mountain valley that was filled with a crowd of people. There were no less than a million people crammed into the valley, and every single last one of them was a cultivator.

Lu Yin was stunned. He had not Possessed some ordinary cultivator. The moment he had Possessed this body, he had felt several terrifying auras pass by. How could there be so many experts with a power level of over a million? Could this be somewhere along the defensive line in the Starfall Sea?

Memories began to pour in.

Lu Yin's expression suddenly changed, and he finally managed to calm down. He immediately understood why so many terrifying powerhouses had gathered in one place: he was in the Perennial World! This was the gathering point of an expedition that was going to invade the Fifth Mainland. This force was led by ten Envoys and included tens of thousands of powerhouses who were Explorers or above, as well as nearly a million weaker cultivators.

This was the first time that the Perennial World would have any real interactions with the Fifth Mainland after the decisive battle during the war between the Fifth and Sixth Mainlands back during the Daosource Sect’s Era. This first contact was also going to be an invasion.

On top of all of that, Lu Yin had actually Possessed Long Quan.

Long Quan was someone who had once qualified to compete with Long Ke for the position of patriarch of the entire White Dragon Clan.

When the direct family line had been eliminated, Long Ke’s branch family had taken the position of authority over the clan, which was something that Long Quan had always regretted. He never believed that his own branch family was any weaker than Long Ke’s; in his view, the timing had merely not been right for them. This was why Long Quan had always tried to overpower and supplant Long Ke’s family.

When news had come out regarding what had happened to Long Tian and Long Xi in the Dominion Realm, Long Quan had made his move. He had wanted to suppress the main family by suppressing them with Lu Yin when he had been pretending to be the main family’s son-in-law and acting as Long Qi. When Lu Yin had arrived at Dragon Mountain, Long Quan had made a point to send some youths to deliberately antagonize Lu Yin.

On top of all of that, Long Quan was also the member of the White Dragon Clan who led the clan’s efforts to harvest stellular liquid.

Lu Yin had not expected to Possess someone like Long Quan.

When Lu Yin had still been in the Perennial World, people like Long Quan had been untouchable to Lu Yin. It would have been easy for an expert with a power level of 800,000 to kill Lu Yin at a whim, but he had already reached a level of strength where he could Possess such a powerhouse. In other words, he could also determine this person’s life or death at his whim.

Lu Yin continued to review Long Quan’s memories as he stared down at the dense crowd of cultivators who had gathered in the valley, and Lu Yin’s heart sank lower and lower by the moment.

There were four Semi-Progenitors and dozens of Envoys, which was enough to launch a terrible war on the Fifth Mainland. This gathering was also nothing more than the excess strength of the four ruling powers, and most of their strength remained focused on the rear battlefield with a bit more held back for the Higher Realm. Despite the forces that were already occupied, the four ruling powers were still able to summon such a terrifying army.

If the four ruling powers expanded their efforts and recruited from the Middle Realm as well, Lu Yin believed that they would be able to quickly double their numbers. While it was difficult to determine how many Semi-Progenitors could be added, at the very least, the number of Envoys participating could easily double.

From what Long Quan had been told, the Wang family had already contacted Sky Creation Academy, and the invasion force was just about to make their way into the Fifth Mainland via Sky Creation Academy. As soon as that happened, the invasion would start. Of course, this did not mean that an all-out war would happen immediately.

Lu Yin's eyes flickered. He had expected the four ruling powers to move against him soon, but he still had not expected them to be quite this fast. He was not ready yet, but the war was already at his doorstep.

No, he had to buy some time. He had to at least have the chance to gather his forces to defend against this invasion, but how?

Lu Yin continued to peer through Long Quan's eyes, scanning the mountain valley while trying to find a way to handle this matter. He did not even care about the rapidly disappearing star essence in his cosmic ring at this moment, as all of his thoughts were focused on stalling this invasion for a bit longer.

The only known path to the Fifth Mainland from the Perennial World exited at Sky Creation Academy. The path was known as the New Corridor, and it was very close to this mountain valley in the Perennial World.