Star Odyssey

Chapter 2158: Infinity Realm

Lu Yin threw out a massive amount of star essence, and he watched as the needle-like weapon dropped down a minuscule amount each time. While the weapon was not as ridiculously difficult to upgrade as the slipper, it would still take around 100 billion star essence to Enhance it once. It was already able to shatter a Semi-Progenitor’s inner world, so after being improved, would it be able to threaten even Progenitors?

He was not certain, but he certainly wanted to try and find out.

Suddenly, Lu Yin remembered the slipper.

Regardless of whether the needle-like weapon could be Enhanced to match the power of the slipper, even the slipper had failed to fully break through the fog trapping Progenitor Smoke. Even if the needle-like weapon was improved, it would not be strengthened to the point where it could overcome the fog. This meant that it was essentially useless to Enhance it.

Lu Yin shook his head and put the weapon away. He checked his belongings again to see what else he had. The Withered Bark that held the power of time could be Enhanced, as could his Netherworld River, but upgrading either one of them would require about as much star essence as the needle-like weapon. There was also the metal that Lu Yin had collected from the Absolute Beast Cage that had originally belonged to the Fourth Mainland, and it had nearly destroyed the Mainland by devouring all life there.

Some time ago, Lu Yin had Enhanced the metal slightly, and that attempt had cost him almost six billion star essence. That upgrade had strengthened the metal’s instinct to devour flesh and blood, and its destructive power had grown to be close to that of an Envoy. Lu Yin believed that if he released the metal and allowed it to go free, it would rather quickly become a complete disaster if it was not swiftly dealt with.

Furthermore, Enhancing the metal meant that there was no need to feed it flesh and blood for it to reach a terrifying level of power.

Lu Yin still felt confident that this strange metal would be useful as a weapon against someone one day, but there was no need to improve it any further right now.

Right, I almost forgot about that corpse! Lu Yin stared at the corpse that he had picked up in Burial Garden. This dead body had been able to endure the judgment that his first stellular tribulation had thrown at him at the end in an attempt to completely destroy him. That judgment had far exceeded anything that Lu Yin could fathom, so just who was this corpse? Would Progenitor Smoke recognize this person? Could Lu Yin’s Third Uncle or the others from the Heavens Sect era know who he had been?

Lu Yin put the corpse away as well, though he intended to determine the man’s identity after leaving his Timestop Space.

Finally, he took out one last item: a candle.

As Lu Yin stared at the candle he held, he remembered Jin Mie’s story. The man had snuck into the place where God of Flames had been training in seclusion. However, Jin Mie had not seen God of Flames or anyone else, and he had only found the candle. God of Mirrors had said that God of Flames’ innate gift was a candle, and he believed the candle to actually be God of Flames. Lu Yin understood that God of Mirrors believed that God of Flames had trained Truesight to a high level, and that he had then tried to use the cultivation method on himself.

"It isn’t really God of Flames, is it?" Lu Yin stared at the candle for a long time. Finally, he gritted his teeth and tossed it out onto the upper screen of his die’s Enhance. No matter if the candle really was God of Flames or not, Lu Yin wanted to see if the candle could be upgraded. After all, the candle could not be used anywhere else, as runes could only be used within the Fifth Mainland.

100 million star essence were tossed out, and the candle fell down slightly, thrilling Lu Yin. This would work! He started dumping larger and larger amounts of star essence out: one billion, ten billion, twenty billion. After using thirty billion star essence, the candle dropped out of the bottom screen.

However, it also started melting as soon as it fell out.

Lu Yin's heart dropped. Impossible! Why was it melting after being upgraded? How was a melted candle supposed to be of any use whatsoever? Had he just burned through thirty billion star essence just to entertain himself?

The more Lu Yin’s thoughts raced, the more nervous he became. He stared at the melting candle beneath his Enhance’s double light screens as his lips grew dry.

He watched as the candle slowly melted. It looked like a puddle of red oil was spreading across the ground beneath the die’s Enhance screens. However, the oddest thing was that the red wax did not continue to spread out, but rather gathered itself back up after melting. Eventually, a little wax figurine appeared. It was as large as a candle that could be held in one hand.

Lu Yin stared blankly at the figurine that had formed from the candle’s melted wax. He could clearly make out eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and limbs. The only oddity was that the figurine was the same color as the old candle, but everything else about it looked like a perfectly normal person.

Also, there was no light in the eyes. They were dull, like those of a corpse.

Lu Yin stared at the figurine. "You can't be God of Flames, can you?"

There was no response from the wax figurine. Lu Yin moved closer, and he unconsciously reached out to touch it. Suddenly, the wax figurine exploded, and red light filled the area, completely surrounding Lu Yin. He reflexively pulled back, but the scattered red light filled the entire Timestop Space. Also, it was not harming him at all.

Lu Yin glanced around. Was this… light due to the appearance of countless runes?

As far as his eyes could make out, the entire Timestop Space had been completely filled with endless runes. His pupils transformed into runes, and he carefully started to observe the runes one at a time. Some were right in front of his eyes, while others were further away, but in all of them, as Lu Yin continued to stare, he saw people training.

That person had reached the Awakening realm of Truesight. Another was in the Clarity realm. That one was in the Knowing realm, right? Lu Yin continued to look around, and he saw one figure who was training, continuously attempting something, and the runes around that person were in constant flux.

A flash of insight shot through Lu Yin’s mind, and he immediately stared at that last scene. While many different figures were training in the runes around him, every last one of them seemed to be the same person, and in addition to Truesight, there were many other scenes as well. If the wax figure really was God of Flames, then Lu Yin might be observing the man’s entire cultivation experience across his long life.

However, the only image that Lu Yin was concerned about was the one with the person training in the Infinity realm of Truesight.

For the current Lu Yin, that was the most valuable scene of all.

He unhesitatingly pulled a Root of Intelligence out of his cosmic ring and prepared a cup of tea. He took a sip, and his mind cleared as he stared at the image and immersed himself in God of Flames’ training. Lu Yin unconsciously started to follow the movements of the person in the image as he started training in Truesight.

Time passed slowly, though Lu Yin had no idea how long he spent in a trance. All of the images that filled his Timestop Space gradually disappeared, or rather, they coalesced. His body trembled, and the last image vanished. All of the red light had gathered together to reform the small wax figurine.

Lu Yin's eyes were completely unfocused, though his pupils were still runes. He was still reviewing his own memories, and different runes kept appearing around his body. He waved a hand and unleashed a Hollow Palm. With another wave of his hand, the attack vanished.

How could a full-powered Hollow Palm disappear so mysteriously? It was because he had used the Infinity realm of Truesight to erase all of the Hollow Palm’s runes.

Amazingly enough, after reaching the Infinity realm of Truesight, Lu Yin had discovered that he could use the runes of Truesight even within his Timestop Space. That was correct—even in this isolated space that was completely separate from the Fifth Mainland, Truesight could still be used.

Runes and stellular energy were both alternate forms of energy that could be cultivated. They were forms of power, which meant that neither was truly restricted to just the Fifth Mainland.

Lu Yin had broken free of certain restraints when he reached the Infinity realm of Truesight.

It was true that the Rune Progenitor’s Truesight was only able to be used within the bounds of the Fifth Mainland, but didn’t that mean that Truesight practitioners were completely helpless and useless once they left the Fifth Mainland? This was a severe restriction on this particular cultivation method.

However, the Infinity realm of Truesight unlocked the true power of Truesight. There were some possibilities that were only available after reaching a sufficient level of mastery.

Only a few people throughout the history of the universe had ever managed to reach the Infinity realm of Truesight, and Lu Yin had just become one of them.

Truesight was not a cultivation method that was easy to train and improve in. While there were not very many levels to the cultivation method, each level brought about a complete transformation of a practitioner’s abilities. Lu Yin wondered just how deep the levels of Truesight ran…

The moment this thought occurred to him, Lu Yin looked down at the wax figurine again.

Among the various scenes that he had witnessed within the red light’s countless runes, there had been one final scene that he could not even begin to understand. In that scene, Lu Yin had seen the person suddenly transform into a candle, and the candle had been very close to where the practitioner had been practicing Truesight.

Lu Yin had focused on the image of the man training in the Infinity realm of Truesight, but that did not mean that Lu Yin had not seen the other images. He understood that the final scene of the cultivator had been the scene where he had not moved from his place of training, but rather where he had simply transformed into a candle.

Lu Yin stared intently at the wax figurine. Jin Mie had actually been correct; the candle was indeed God of Flames. The man had somehow managed to transform himself into a candle while training in the deeper levels of Truesight. The realm that God of Flames had been trying to attain was known as… Manifestation.

The next level of Truesight for Lu Yin to reach was the Manifestation realm.

The Manifestation realm of Truesight had to be even more miraculous and mysterious, but Lu Yin was rather traumatized by what he had just seen. God of Flames’ fate induced a bit of panic in Lu Yin, and for the moment, he gave up the possibility of continuing to train in Truesight. The Infinity realm of Truesight was not bad at all. No, it was actually quite impressive.

Truesight was a cultivation method where both those who used it and those who learned of its existence found it truly miraculous. However, at this moment, Lu Yin learned that Truesight was far more amazing than what almost anyone else understood. Practicing the cultivation method had actually caused God of Flames to transform into a candle. What could possibly be any more amazing and terrifying than such a thing?

God of Flames’ innate gift had been a candle, but how could a person become their own innate gift?

That thought abruptly triggered another. People, innate gift, Champions’ Stage?

Right! The Champions’ Stage! I was wondering how an innate gift could become a physical object, and not even Arch-Elder Zen or Lu Buzheng were able to understand just how Progenitor Lu Tianyi left behind a Champions’ Stage to protect the Fifth Mainland. No wonder no one knows how to use it!

Not once had anyone even considered the possibility of a connection between the Lu family’s innate gift and the Rune Progenitor’s cultivation method, but at this moment, everything came together in Lu Yin’s mind.

If God of Flames had managed to transform himself into his own innate gift of a candle after practicing the Manifestation realm of Truesight, then was it possible that a descendant of the Lu family had also managed to cultivate Truesight and transform themselves into a Champions’ Stage? It was not completely impossible.

After all, members of the Lu family were not restricted to only cultivating the power of the Lu family. For example, Lu Yin himself trained in Truesight, the God of Death’s power, and fatesand, though Lu Yin still had no idea exactly what fatesand even was.

As his thoughts proceeded down this path, Lu Yin’s breathing started to quicken. If his guesses were accurate, then the Hall of Honor’s Champions’ Stage was not truly unusable. Rather, one simply needed to use Truesight to activate it.

Wait, something did not quite add up. The protections left behind by Progenitor Chen, the Rune Progenitor, and Progenitor Hui had all been powerful enough to deal with Progenitors, and the same should also be true of the Champions’ Stage that Progenitor Lu Tianyi had left behind in the Fifth Mainland. If that was true, then the person who had transformed themselves into the Champions’ Stage with Truesight had to have been a Progenitor themselves, but how could such a powerhouse have transformed into their innate gift with Truesight? Lu Yin did not believe that a Progenitor from the Lu family’s direct line would be much weaker than the Rune Progenitor, so how could such a powerhouse have lost themselves while cultivating Truesight?

This was strange. Very strange, and Lu Yin could not quite understand it. The only answer would be to speak to Progenitor Smoke after leaving Timestop.

Lu Yin stared at the wax figurine. This was clearly God of Flames, but there was no light in the figurine’s eyes. Was there none of the man’s consciousness left?

"Can you understand me?" Lu Yin asked.

The wax figurine did not respond.

"Senior God of Flames, stop pretending. I can help you," Lu Yin continued.

The small wax man still did not respond.

Lu Yin continued to talk. He even tried threatening and tempting God of Flames, but nothing triggered any sort of response at all. It was as if there really was no consciousness left in the figurine.

Lu Yin’s time in his Timestop Space was almost up. Surprisingly, it had taken him nearly a year to master the Infinity realm of Truesight, and that was even after using a Root of Intelligence. Time had gone by too quickly.

Lu Yin continued to stare at the figurine, and he finally transformed his eyes into runes. As soon as he did, there was a reaction from the figurine: it jumped up onto Lu Yin’s shoulder, and its runes were very compatible with his own.

Lu Yin stared blankly at the little wax figure that stood on his shoulder. What did this mean?

There was still no response or reaction from the figurine.