Star Odyssey

Actually, after thinking about how things had played out, Lu Yin became uncertain of whether or not he should actually thank Elder Qing Xing instead.

The elder was a two-tribulation Envoy, but due to Bai Shaohong’s previous status, the elder had obeyed Yu Chen, who was a mere maid.

When the assassins from Realmless had attacked Lu Yin in the Perennial World, Qing Xing had apparently been the one to make the arrangements for Yu Chen.

Logically, Lu Yin should hold a grudge against the elder, but he had just received a startling memory: Elder Qing Xing was actually from the Hidden Earth Society.

Indeed, it was the same Hidden Earth Society that Lu Yin was familiar with.

Lu Yin had once Possessed the body of an assassin who had been sent after a man named Lei Wu, but the target had actually threatened the assassin with the Hidden Earth Society. In fact, Lei Wu had claimed that even if the assassin hid on Dragon Mountain, he would not be able to escape from the Hidden Earth Society’s reach.

In the Fifth Mainland, the Hidden Earth Society was a minor organization with almost no real influence or power. However, they were apparently very powerful in the Perennial World.

This was because the members of the Hidden Earth Society were able to enter the Perennial World through Jupiter and also because anyone in the Perennial World who came from the Fifth Mainland was viewed as a trespasser. Any trespassers who were discovered would meet a bad end. Since people from Earth had a much higher likelihood of awakening an innate gift for some mysterious reason, after arriving in a place like the Perennial World that had an advanced cultivation culture, it was relatively easy for talented people to stand out.

As time passed, the Hidden Earth Society had eventually inserted a large number of powerhouses into the Perennial World. These people had a unique connection to the Hidden Earth Society, and their existence had also given rise to a powerful secret society.

Lu Yin had actually thought that Lei Wu had merely been boasting. Would a person not be able to escape from the Hidden Earth Society even on Dragon Mountain? How could that be possible?

However, after looking through Elder Qing Xing's memories, Lu Yin had come to understand just how much influence the Hidden Earth Society wielded in the Perennial World.

The society truly did have people on Dragon Mountain, as well as within the other ruling powers, Humility’s Gate, various powers in the Middle Realm, and even Root.

When people from Earth passed through Jupiter and entered the Perennial World, each of them would arrive in a different place, which naturally led each of them to end up joining different organizations. The Hidden Earth Society was the only unifying factor behind all of these people, but they made the society a power that could not be ignored.

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The Hidden Earth Society did not have any sort of influence in the Fifth Mainland, but they had thrived in the Perennial World. In particular, they were aware of the Perennial World's attitude towards trespassers from the Fifth Mainland, so each member of the society kept themselves hidden better than anyone could imagine.

Even Elder Qing Xing, an Envoy from the Celestial Frost Sect, did not know the identities of any other members of the Hidden Earth Society.

Lu Yin found this incredibly funny. What a bizarre coincidence. He had never thought that there would come a day when he would be able to use the power of the Hidden Earth Society.

Also, after going through Qing Xing’s memories, the question of why the people of Earth had such a high likelihood of gaining innate gifts deepened even further. Why were there so many families with primeval surnames living there? What was the connection between the Primeval Surnames Alliance and the Perennial World? Lu Yin had actually forgotten all about the Primeval Surnames Alliance.

"All of the guards who protected Jade Valley have been taken away and sent to the rear battlefield. What should we do about Jade Valley?" Liu Shaoge asked.

Lu Yin glanced around.

Yu Chen’s expression soured. "Our young master is dead, so there’s no longer any need for Jade Valley to exist."

The woman then turned around and left without another word.

Liu Shaoge stared at Yu Chen’s back as she left and then glanced over at Elder Qing Xing with a sharp glint in the young man’s eyes. "We need to keep an eye on her. She’s too smart, and it’s possible that she’s noticed some of our activities."

"Elder Qing Xing" was taken aback. "Does she already know?"

Liu Shaoge’s voice dropped low as he answered, "I'm not sure, but she has her guard up around me now. She must either know that our Hidden Earth Society's been making moves, or it must be because of Elder Xi Zi."

Lu Yin kept filtering through Elder Qing Xing’s memories, and the more Lu Yin saw, the more shocked he became. He gave Liu Shaoge a long look.

This guy truly was gifted. He had managed to join the Celestial Frost Sect by relying on nothing more than his own talent. Then, he had deliberately exposed his scheming nature to Yu Chen in a gamble to get closer to the maid. After that, Liu Shaoge had taken advantage of information that he had received from the Hidden Earth Society to connect with Elder Qing Xing, and eventually, not only had Yu Chen come to believe that Liu Shaoge was connected to many members of the Hidden Earth Society, but she had also become convinced that Liu Shaoge was able to act as the society’s representative to a certain degree.

After Bai Shaohong died, Yu Chen had fallen out of favor with the senior elders of the Celestial Frost Sect. In the end, she was nothing more than a maid. Liu Shaoge had taken advantage of that developing situation to grab Elder Xi Zi’s attention, and the elder had ordered Liu Shaoge to keep an eye on Yu Chen. Liu Shaoge had even managed to meet with Semi-Progenitor Bai Laogui once.

Lu Yin was absolutely certain that if Yu Chen died, Liu Shaoge would take her place and soon gain the status of a high-ranking disciple within the Celestial Frost Sect. With the support of both Elder Xi Zi and the Hidden Earth Society, Liu Shaoge would have an easy path to success in the Perennial World.

This was proof of Liu Shaoge’s abilities. Out of everyone who had left Earth, he was the most cunning and resilient of them all. Lu Yin had tried to kill Liu Shaoge on several occasions, but all of his attempts had failed.

Out of everyone that Lu Yin had met on Earth, aside from Silver, Lu Yin was the wariest of Liu Shaoge. Even Bai Qian, who was considered the most talented Earthling, was greatly inferior to Liu Shaoge as far as Lu Yin was concerned.

The man was smart and cunning, and while it seemed like his luck was not very good, he was always able to keep himself alive.

However, right now, Liu Shaoge was in the open, while Lu Yin remained hidden. This meant that Lu Yin would be able to deal with Liu Shaoge regardless of whatever schemes he might employ.

"How has Elder Xi Zi been treating you?" "Elder Qing Xing" asked.

Liu Shaoge replied, "Very well. I’ll keep working hard to make sure that I become his disciple. As for the jade butterflies-” As Liu Shaoge continued, he glanced over at the thousands of cultivators. “I actually want to treat them as members of the Hidden Earth Society."

"Elder Qing Xing" was rather puzzled by this decision. "What do you mean by that?"

Liu Shaoge grew serious. "While our Hidden Earth Society has a lot of influence in the Perennial World, everything is kept hidden and secret. It’s time that we built up some forces that can be seen and acknowledged in the open."

"But all of them are part of the Celestial Frost Sect," "Elder Qing Xing" countered.

Liu Shaoge laughed. "All of them have been raised and trained in the Jade Valley since they were born. They have almost no connection or loyalty to the Celestial Frost Sect. This war will be the best opportunity for us to hide them away for our own use."

Liu Shaoge suddenly glanced over to look at Elder Qing Xing before continuing in a somber manner. "I know that all of you want to keep yourselves hidden and avoid attention, but this can’t continue on forever. More and more people from the Hidden Earth Society come here from Jupiter every year, and how many of those people have risen to power? After all, you were lucky enough to climb to your current strength and status, but if we can have a place to train and house people who arrive from Earth, it will only help them more.”

"Elder Qing Xing" was torn by indecision. "If we do that, it will be much easier for us to be noticed and found. The Hidden Earth Society has only been able to grow and develop to its current status by remaining hidden. If we’re exposed, we could be easily wiped out. Let me think this over for a bit."

Liu Shaoge nodded. "I understand."

"Do you think that this will lead to war?" "Elder Qing Xing" suddenly asked.

Liu Shaoge stared off into the distance where there were densely packed cultivators milling about. “That all depends on what sort of status Lu Xiaoxuan holds in the Fifth Mainland. If the Fifth Mainland is still willing to protect him, then war is inevitable. However, I feel that the strength that the Perennial World is sending will prove overwhelming. The Fifth Mainland might not be willing to protect him.”

"Still, it would be great if I could use this opportunity to visit Earth and take a look at things there."

Lu Yin twitched. Liu Shaoge was too devious. He had managed to win over the trust of many members of the Hidden Earth Society due to his impressive acting of how much he missed his home of Earth, which resonated with many of the people.

"Elder Qing Xing" patted Liu Shaoge on the shoulder. "You’ll get a chance once the fighting starts, so take care of yourself."

Liu Shaoge answered in a gentle voice, "I know."

With their conversation concluded, Liu Shaoge left. Lu Yin continued to browse through Elder Qing Xing’s memories before ending the Possession and returning to his own body.

This Possession had been a complete surprise. Lu Yin had learned the method to make contact with members of the Hidden Earth Society in the Perennial World, and this would allow him to make use of the members there.

When Lu Yin had Possessed White Sage in the Technocracy, the trouble that Lu Yin had caused had caused the delicate agreement that had been brokered between the two parties to be canceled. What’s more, Headmaster Senn was the one who had taken the initiative to revoke the agreement.

While Lu Yin had no idea why the headmaster had made such a decision, it had worked out well for Lu Yin.

Lu Yin’s eyes were gleaming as he thought, Liu Shaoge, Liu Shaoge, I really hope that you can keep doing well in the Perennial World.

Lu Yin was absolutely certain that Liu Shaoge would stay hidden in the Perennial World during the invasion of the Fifth Mainland, as he had to keep himself hidden. There were too many obvious weaknesses that Lu Yin could employ to take control of Liu Shaoge.

A smile spread across Lu Yin's face. Liu Shaoge would give him a lot of help.

Also…

Lu Yin quickly checked his cosmic ring. He had spent more time controlling Long Quan and making the man kill himself, and that Possession had cost about 20 billion star essence. Therefore, Lu Yin felt that this Possession should be a bit cheaper.

17 billion star essence had been used, which was acceptable.

This meant that Lu Yin only had 24.5 billion star essence remaining. During his seclusion, Lu Yin had consumed over 100 billion star essence. This was a terrifying sum, as it was equivalent to all the profits that the mammoth company Shamrock Enterprise had managed to accumulate after operating in the entire Fifth Mainland for so long.

Lu Yin’s remaining funds could not be considered too much or too little, but he decided not to continue staying in seclusion. He felt it would be best to keep his remaining funds in reserve for emergencies.

He stood up and left the isolated space that he had created.

In the Second Nightking's perspective, Lu Yin had only been in seclusion for about three months, which was nothing to an old freak who had remained in seclusion practically since the Daosource Sect era.

Still, Lu Yin had undergone tremendous changes over this time, regardless of whether one considered his battle techniques, equipment, or lockbreaking experience. He had improved in many different aspects. Unfortunately, none of this was visible to the Second Nightking.

It had been two months since Lu Yin had checked on the Tower of the Fifth’s construction progress. He looked up from the bottom of the Cosmic Sea and observed the Abyss of the Sea.

There was a massive tower standing tall at the center of the Abyss of the Sea. Even though the tower only occupied the center of the Abyss of the Sea and blocked the massive vortex that had once existed in that place, it was still thousands of times larger than any of the nearby islands.

Eight floors of the Tower of the Fifth had already been constructed, and it looked like an enormous monster that looked down upon the Abyss of the Sea.

The entire tower was colored a lustrous black. All of the materials used to build it had been provided by the Hall of Honor, and everything was strong enough to withstand Hunter-level attacks without suffering any damage. As for the interior, not only had tough and rare materials been used, but various screens with different types of technology had also been incorporated to weaken people’s attacks and further reinforce the structure of the tower.

Furthermore, the entire tower was being constantly monitored.

The entire place was a seamless combination of technology and cultivation.

At first, after the Tower of the Fifth had been announced, the overseers’ council had discussed the design, and a proposal had been put forth to purchase hidden worlds from the World Alliance and have each floor act as a separate hidden world. This would allow the trial takers to fight without having to hold back while also keeping the tower safe.

However, one problem with this idea was that the Tower of the Fifth would be built in the middle of the Cosmic Sea, which meant that using hidden worlds would violate the Hall of Honor’s regulations that restricted hidden worlds to only the Honor Zone. Another was that Lu Yin was unwilling to use this option.

After all, if each floor was a separate hidden world, then how would he keep track of everything?

More importantly, he would have no means with which to enact his final option.

The proposal was ultimately rejected by the council, and not a single overseer voted in favor of it. Even Yang Ji, who had proposed using hidden worlds, voted against it after seeing Bu Laoweng and all the others oppose it. Even the new overseer, Xia Sheng, voted against using hidden worlds.

Yang Ji was aware that Bu Laoweng and other overseers all belonged to Lu Yin.

Lu Yin did not worry at all about Xia Sheng, as one person could not create any real issues on the overseers’ council. Even a senior overseer like Nan Yuan had been removed from his position by Lu Yin, and there were rumors that the former overseer was suffering greatly, as the Xia family was dissatisfied by his performance as an overseer.