Star Odyssey

Chapter 2220: Chaotic Time And Space

Marquis Wu Yi had already died in the Fifth Mainland, and Jiu Zizai's memory revealed that no one else from the upper echelons of Aeternus had made contact with him recently. He had simply been waiting. Waiting for the day when he would leave the rear battlefield and return to the Perennial World.

Lu Yin was just about to end the Possession when another memory popped up. Surprisingly, this was about the Dealcut Association.

Lu Yin quickly examined the memory.

According to the man’s memories, Jiu Zizai had also joined the Dealcut Association, and he had become a high-level executive. His mere existence was considered top secret, which was why he had not been mentioned in any of the information that had been recovered by Realmless, and it was also why there were no other references to the colonel either.

Lu Yin's eyes flickered. In truth, the Dealcut Association had never been eliminated. Their top members were not even known, as they were all just as secretive as Jiu Zizai.

While Realmless had records of many of the Dealcut Association’s high-level members, all of those people were relatively public. At the very least, the four ruling powers did not know about a single six-tribulation powerhouse in the Dealcut Association, let alone someone like a colonel on the rear battlefield.

Zuo Lingzhu was quite famous within the Dealcut Association, but that was entirely because of his nephew, Zuo Shan.

Lu Yin ended the Possession, and his consciousness returned to his body.

He had gained quite a bit of information from this Possession, and Colonel Jiu Zizai was more valuable than Lu Yin had initially expected. First, he had betrayed humanity and joined Aeternus, using them to rise through the ranks of the rear battlefield and avoiding risking his own life. At the same time, he had also joined the Dealcut Association, and that was entirely for his personal material gain.

In fact, Marquis Wu Yi did not even know that Jiu Zizai had joined the Dealcut Association.

The colonel was both ambitious and competent, and the only bad stroke of luck was that he had been discovered by Lu Yin. If not for Lu Yin’s Possession ability, how would anyone have ever discovered the truth about Jiu Zizai?

Furthermore, there was definitely more than one Redback like Jiu Zizai, and it was impossible to know just how many Redbacks existed in the Perennial World. It was a truly chilling thought.

Lu Yin looked at the star essence still beneath him. It was quite a pity that he could not reveal his innate gift or control the entire human race. If either of those things were possible, he could gather all of humanity’s resources and roll the die continuously. In that way, he would be able to expose all of the Redbacks in existence, no matter how many of them there might be.

Lu Yin stopped that line of thought and stretched out his hand, bringing the die back out. It slowly spun around, only to land on five pips. Gift Copy was useless. Again. The third roll showed two pips. Useless. Again. Three pips.

Lu Yin heaved a sigh of relief as he stared at the two screens of light. At least he would not have to wait for another ten days.

Ten days had passed since Tong Yu had replaced Lu Yin, and the plan could only let her replace him for no longer than half a month. Lu Yin could not take too long, as it was only a matter of time before his actions on the Junior Progenitor Planets were discovered. Then, the four ruling powers would scramble to hunt the culprit down. The longer Lu Yin took to heal, the more suspicious he would appear.

He took out the Withered Bark and placed it on the upper screen, immediately throwing out exaggerated amounts of star essence. He had no idea how much star essence it would take to Enhance this power vessel, but he was ready to find out.

100 billion. It turned out that, only after a full 100 billion star essence was consumed, did the Withered Bark with the power of time finally fall out from the lower screen.

At this moment, not only was space around the Withered Bark being distorted, but there were also faint gray swirls that could be briefly seen from time to time.

Lu Yin’s breath halted when he saw the gray, as this color had left a very deep impression on him. This was the color that covered everything whenever he met with Mister Mu. Every time Lu Yin’s master had caused time and space to freeze, it had caused this same gray color to appear. Thus, in Lu Yin’s mind, this was the color of frozen time and space.

In addition to the flickering gray color, the occasional bursts of lightning that passed over the Withered Bark caused Lu Yin’s heart to skip a beat each time they appeared. It was clear that this lighting was not as simple as it appeared to be.

A Withered Bark with the power of time… Lu Yin grew excited, and he put the power vessel back on top of the upper screen. Luckily, it was indeed possible to Enhance it again.

This upgrade proved different. The Withered Bark had already been improved three times before, and its runes were comparable to a peak Envoy’s. The most recent Enhance had caused its number of runes to rise to the Semi-Progenitor level, and the lightning that appeared was even reminiscent of an inner world. Lu Yin believed that this Withered Bark had already reached a level comparable to the needle-like weapon, and another Enhance might cause it to reach the Progenitor level.

Lu Yin panicked a tiny bit. There had been no detectable changes in the needle-like weapon after being Enhanced, but what would happen to the Withered Bark? Would it also show no reaction?

After a moment’s thought, Lu Yin decided to proceed regardless of what would happen. If he could Enhance the Withered Bark, then he would do so. Besides, it was impossible to take away all of the star essence on the Junior Progenitor Planet, and leaving such resources behind would just be leaving more for the four ruling powers to use against himself.

Lu Yin kept throwing more and more star essence out to upgrade the Withered Bark. 50 billion, 100 billion, 150 billion, 200 billion, 250 billion… 400 billion. He stared at the Withered Bark, but it was only about two thirds of the way through the Enhancement process. Already, he could see more and more swirls of gray appearing around the power vessel, and the lightning flickering across it had become absolutely terrifying.

Lu Yin swallowed. There was no more star essence on the White Dragon Clan’s Junior Progenitor Planet, aside from a surface layer to disguise what Lu Yin was doing. He removed all of the star essence from his cosmic rings and quickly continued improving the Withered Bark.

500 billion. 560 billion. In the end, it cost a total of 560 billion star essence to Enhance the Withered Bark again, which made this upgrade the most expensive one that Lu Yin had ever performed. Lu Yin was truly scared of the cost, as without the Junior Progenitor Planets, he would have never been able to conduct such an absurd upgrade. It would have been far, far too costly.

Not even the four ruling powers could casually mobilize or use so much star essence. He had actually used up everything that had been on the White Dragon Clan’s Junior Progenitor Planet, as well as his own reserves.

At this moment, the Withered Bark was completely shrouded in the gray color, and there were also faint flickers of lightning.

Lu Yin stared at the Withered Bark that was floating in the air, clueless as to what to do next. Touch it? He did not dare, as that terrifying lightning could easily destroy him. There was no chance that Lu Yin would try to touch the power vessel.

The little wax figurine of God of Flames appeared on Lu Yin’s shoulder, and he waved a hand. Countless runes surrounded the Withered Bark, as Lu Yin tried to sense the power vessel.

The moment the countless runes touched the Withered Bark, the power vessel transformed into a bolt of lightning that shot towards Lu Yin. He stared, completely helpless to dodge. The only thing that he could do was release the power in his chest in an attempt to suppress the Withered Bark.

The power that was developing in Lu Yin’s chest was incredibly powerful, and it seemed to be capable of suppressing any other power. However, that was based on the premise that the gap in pure strength was not too excessive. At this moment, the Withered Bark defied Lu Yin’s imagination, and it was at least as powerful as an elite Semi-Progenitor. It was even possible that the strength of the Withered Bark had touched upon the Progenitor level of power.

Stars shone brightly, and the two pieces of the yin-yang symbol that revolved around the stars transformed into what looked like a small replica of the universe itself. The bolt of lightning that was the Withered Bark shot through the miniature universe, only to come to an abrupt stop, which violated all of Lu Yin’s expectations. It looked as though the Withered Bark had become a part of the small universe, and when the manifested power returned to Lu Yin’s chest, the Withered Bark joined it. It rooted itself into the space within Lu Yin’s chest.

Instantly, the gray color that the power vessel gave off spread out from Lu Yin’s chest, dyeing the surrounding area. Lu Yin appeared to be dazed, or possibly experiencing an epiphany, as he was frozen stiff.

One day. Two days. Three days. A total of ten days passed before Lu Yin’s eyes regained focus, and he seemed to awaken from his stupor. The gray coloring that had covered the nearby area slowly faded as it was pulled back into Lu Yin’s chest.

Lu Yin examined his chest, near his heart. He realized that the Withered Bark did not actually possess the power of time, but was rather a higher level of Extremes Must Be Reversed.

Lu Yin had already learned Extremes Must Be Reversed, and he was able to use the battle technique on himself, which made him virtually indestructible even against a far more powerful opponent. Extremes Must Be Reversed enabled a state of near invincibility, but Progenitor Ku had achieved an even higher level with the battle technique: the Progenitor had learned how to use Extremes Must Be Reversed on other targets, provided that the target had reached a state of some sort of extreme.

A so-called “state of extreme” referred to many different things. For example, when Lu Yin used the battle technique on himself, the more he was injured, the more he would recover afterwards. This was how Lu Yin normally used Extremes Must Be Reversed. However, Progenitor Ku had already left hints that his battle technique could be used on time itself.

Time was always in a state of extremes, because time was constantly flowing forward. It never stopped, nor did it flow in reverse. It always moved forward, always continuing in the same manner. This was a state of extremes, and Progenitor Ku had suggested that Extremes Must Be Reversed could be used with time, which was why he had left behind the Withered Bark.

The Withered Bark that Progenitor Ku had personally created had been imbued with Extremes Must Be Reversed in a manner where, when used, the power vessel would reverse extremes, which meant that it would reverse the time around the Withered Bark.

Progenitor Ku had not comprehended the power of time, but had instead used the Withered Bark as a tool to forcibly revert time.

There was no way to describe Lu Yin's feelings at this moment: admiration, amazement, disbelief were not enough.

Progenitor Ku had never managed to comprehend the power of time, but he had still found a way to forcibly reverse time. Such genius was incomprehensible to most people.

Lu Yin realized that his mastery of the battle technique was incredibly shallow. Extremes Must Be Reversed was not a cultivation method at all, but rather a way of understanding the state of the universe itself, which provided a means of transforming something rotten into something magical.

Lu Yin had always believed that the Rune Progenitor’s Truesight was the most miraculous cultivation method that he had ever encountered, but this recent revelation suggested that Progenitor Ku was in no way inferior to the Rune Progenitor. Rather, he had simply kept his accomplishments quiet. Truly, Progenitor Ku had taken being low-key to a ridiculous degree.

Lu Yin started to question whether it was possible that Progenitor Ku had been the most powerful cultivator of his era. The man had brazenly charged forward on his own to face the full might of Aeternus, not out of recklessness, but out of pure self-confidence.

He started sweating for the Sixth Mainland. If not for the Aeternals, just Progenitor Chen or Progenitor Ku alone could have likely completely destroyed the Sixth Mainland without anyone else ever needing to step in.

Lu Yin had already seen Progenitor Ku's amazing techniques, but there was something very odd: the power in Lu Yin’s chest was able to incorporate the power of time and even the Withered Bark. In that case, what else could be incorporated? How did it even work? Just what was this strange power that Lu Yin was cultivating?

He closed his eyes and rested for a bit. When Lu Yin’s eyes opened again, he lifted a foot and stepped forward. The void warped and then shattered at Lu Yin’s approach. He was not tearing through the void, but rather reversing it.

While the Withered Bark did not possess the power of time, after it entered Lu Yin’s body, it was capable of reversing time. With it, Lu Yin had become capable of sensing the power of time, though he could not use it himself. However, things changed when he started using Inverse Step.

Progenitor Chen had been able to use Inverse Step to create a chaotic region of the void, and Lu Yin had just achieved the same level.

Lu Yin was suddenly reminded of Progenitor Chen. Lu Yin had already managed to sense the miraculous power of time with Wendy Yushan, but he had not been able to duplicate it. But now, Lu Yin could finally do so, though it was only with the help of the Withered Bark. Still, this meant that Lu Yin had finally reached the same level of mastery of Inverse Step as Progenitor Chen, allowing him to create a chaotic region of space and time. Progenitor Chen had reached this level of mastery as just a peak Enlighter, but did that mean that Progenitor Chen had also mastered the power of time at that point?

It was not impossible, as how else could Progenitor Chen have created an area of chaotic time and space with Inverse Step while only an Enlighter? Lu Yin had needed to use his comprehension of the Ce Secret Art’s Board Manipulation to create an area of chaotic space, but he had never been able to influence time as well. No matter how talented Lu Yin might be, such a thing had been completely beyond him. The only explanation for Progenitor Chen’s ability to do so was that the man had already touched upon the power of time while still an Enlighter.

When Lu Yin had faced his first stellular tribulation during his breakthrough to become an Envoy, he had fought against eight of Progenitor Chen’s clones, but the ninth clone had never appeared. What sort of power did that last clone possess?

Progenitor Ku had been incredibly powerful, and his Withered Bark had given him the ability to reverse time itself. The Rune Progenitor had created the miraculous Truesight, which allowed him to create objects from nothing at all. Finally, there had been Lu Tianyi, who had been a powerful Dao Chosen in the past, and a powerhouse who had risen to impressive levels of strength during the Heavens Sect era. There had also been the Progenitors from the Bai and Wang families. And yet, despite all of that, the most dazzling Progenitor of all had still been Progenitor Chen.

Why?

Why was Progenitor Chen regarded as the most impressive Progenitor? Could it really be because Progenitor Ku had kept a low profile? Could it be because Progenitor Hui did not fight? Or was it because the Rune Progenitor was indifferent to fame or glory?

Not necessarily.