Star Odyssey

Chapter 2303: Whose Territory Is It

High above the Middle Ocean, Lu Yin examined his body. His wounds were infected with Divine Martial Armor that was trying to invade the body. However, those efforts were fruitless, and Lu Yin simply used his unique power to purge the Divine Martial Armor.

Kui Luo was closest to Lu Yin, and he managed to feel Lu Yin’s unique power, which startled the Semi-Progenitor quite badly. "Kid, how did you escape from Shenwu's Sky? When you said that you were headed there to save people, I thought that you were already dead. Didn’t the Semi-Progenitors there attack you?”

"They couldn’t beat me," Lu Yin answered casually. He then ignored Kui Luo's pointed and questioning stare, pulled out the slipper, and tossed it over to Qing Ping. "Senior Brother, use this against that broken saber."

Qing Ping held the slipper and looked at the distinct black toe prints. "Progenitor weapon?"

"It should be. Anyways, it knocked out that-" Lu Yin cut off suddenly. His head rose. They had just been covered by a massive shadow, and they heard a deafening roar as the power of a Progenitor pressed down upon them. The jiao had returned.

Kui Luo’s mouth fell open in shock. "That- isn’t that the thing from Shenwu's Sky?"

The jiao saw Kui Luo's shocked face, and it raised its claws while baring its teeth in a threatening manner.

Lu Yin's expression fell. "You useless thing! Get lost!"

Kui Luo's heart skipped a beat, and he reached out and grabbed Lu Yin. "Don't yell at it! Do you want it to bite us?"

Qing Ping's face had grown serious. The pressure that this dragon radiated far surpassed what Xia Shenji's clone had been capable of. Qing Ping had been able to use Judgment on the clone, but his scales might not work on this dragon. There were varying degrees of strength even within the Progenitor realm. While even the weakest Progenitor had the power of a Progenitor, that was truly all that they had.

Seeing Kui Luo's terrified face was quite satisfying for the jiao.

"Senior Brother, that slipper stunned it before, and the beast’s really completely useless. It ran away quicker than a rabbit when it was threatened by Xia Shenji," Lu Yin said bitterly.

The jiao lifted its head high and raised its claws higher than ever as it released a roar that shook the sky. Kui Luo grew even more panicked, and he felt that Lu Yin must have lost his mind. This beast clearly would not be easy to deal with.

From far above the jiao, Xia Shenji’s clone chased after the fleeing individuals while carrying the broken saber.

From another direction, Xia Ziheng, Mr. Yu, and Wu Yao all appeared. The three Semi-Progenitors stared at Lu Yin and the other two in shock. The three Semi-Progenitors wanted to attack, but the jiao’s presence terrified the three men, and they did not dare to move any closer.

"RUN," Kui Luo shouted as he pulled Lu Yin away.

The jiao’s claws were poised to grab Lu Yin, but at this moment, Xia Shenji arrived and stepped onto the jiao’s head. "Vile creature, catch them!"

The jiao hesitated for a moment and looked upwards at the top of its head. It sensed a familiar threat from up above. It was that broken saber that felt as though it could remove its head at any moment. The beast was instantly cowed, and it quickly chased after Lu Yin and the others.

Qing Ping, Kui Luo, and Lu Yin were not nearly as fast as the jiao, but luckily, they had arrived quite close to the sourcebox array in the Middle Realm that would send them back to the Fifth Mainland. It was a distance that they could easily traverse with a Semi-Progenitor’s speed.

"It's just up ahead!" Kui Luo said, his eyes blazing.

Behind the three men, the jiao roared, and its claws dropped down, blocking both the sky and the sun. Standing atop the jiao's head, Xia Shenji slashed down with his saber. "Die!"

Lu Yin turned to look, and he stared at the falling claws and the broken saber that was approaching. The corpse was pulled out once more to block the attacks. At the same time, Qing Ping pointed a finger. The void flickered as a mysterious sensation spread throughout the surrounding area and enveloped both the jiao’s claws and the broken saber.

No one understood Qing Ping’s attack, not even Lu Yin or Xia Shenji.

The finger eliminated the attacks of both the jiao and Xia Shenji. This was Origin Tracer.

There were certain battle techniques that could display ten different forms when executed by ten different people. Origin Tracer was an example of such a flexible technique.

Mister Mu did not teach his disciples rigid battle techniques, but rather ones that provided a specific type of power and encouraged a specific method of thought which opened a path to unknown possibilities.

When Qing Ping had been facing his stellular tribulation to become a Semi-Progenitor, a strange phenomena had occurred during his clash with the final figure. Not even the God of Food or Kui Luo had been able to understand what sort of power had appeared at that moment, but it had come from Origin Tracer.

Qing Ping’s finger bought a single moment of freedom for the three men, which allowed them to reach the sourcebox array and escape from the Perennial World. The jiao’s momentum prevented it from stopping in time, and it charged right into the sourcebox array, carrying Xia Shenji's clone and the members of Star Alliance with it. Everyone instantly vanished from the Perennial World.

Once everything calmed down once again, three Semi-Progenitors appeared, and they all glanced at each other. "Where did everyone go?"

"Right, it must be that sourcebox array! The one that connects back to the Forsaken Land."

"It doesn't matter. Progenitor Shenji was holding the ancestor's broken saber and was standing atop the jiao as he chased after them to kill them. No one can save Lu Xiaoxuan now. Order the Wang family to hurry up and finish the repairs to the New Corridor. As soon as we can connect to the Forsaken Land, we can welcome the Progenitor and our army back. Lu Xiaoxuan is already dead."

Peace returned to the remote mountains and rivers. Only a brief bit of time had passed between when Lu Yin had arrived in Shenwu's Sky and when he had left the Perennial World, but it felt like it had been ages. No one could believe that a three-tribulation Envoy could have managed to escape from Shenwu's Sky. Lu Yin had created history that day.

…

In the Honor Zone, the sourcebox array lit up. Elder Gong, Highsage Grandmaster, Grandmaster Xiu Ming, and Jiu Chi all looked up. "They’re back!"

"Qing Ping should have passed his breakthrough to become a Semi-Progenitor without any issues, but I wonder if that kid Lu Yin has made any progress." Elder Gong was excited to find out. He was most eager to find out if Lu Yin had progressed at all with the Cosmic Art.

Jiu Chi laughed. "It's only been around ten months, just how much progress could he have made? Things will be good enough so long as they all return safely."

"True, they just need to return alive," Grandmaster Xiu Ming agreed with a sigh.

The few people present eagerly watched to see who would return. As they stared, four figures fell through the void and onto the ground. Naturally, these four were Qing Ping, Kui Luo, Lu Yin, and the corpse that Lu Yin had pulled out right before escaping from the Perennial World. He had intended to use the corpse to block the attacks from Xia Shenji and the jiao, but it had not been necessary, as Qing Ping had erased both attacks with a single finger.

Just as the Highsage Grandmaster and the others were about to move forward, they were covered by a massive shadow. The jiao had arrived.

The jiao’s appearance was accompanied by the terrifying pressure of a Progenitor that swept out and shook the entire Honor Zone, and then the Neoverse. The power of a Progenitor swept across the Cosmic Sea, and it soon shrouded both the Innerverse and the Outerverse.

Within the Sixth Mainland’s territory, the Progenitor of Bloodlines’ eyes snapped open, and his expression changed drastically. "A Progenitor?"

The jiao might lack all but the most basic intelligence, but even Xia Shenji had to use the broken saber to suppress the beast in the past. The jiao’s strength was such that few Progenitors could compare to it.

Kui Luo let out a strangled scream as he grabbed Lu Yin and fled. "What are you doing? Snap out of it and run! It's an enemy!"

Jiu Chi’s scalp went numb. An enemy? An enemy Progenitor?

The jiao landed on the ground and automatically let out a roar as it waved its claws about to threaten the humans while brazenly releasing the pressure of the Progenitor realm. Atop the beast’s head, Xia Shenji clenched the hilt of the broken saber as he glanced around. He was also fully unleashing the power of a Progenitor.

Elder Gong and the other men who had been waiting near the sourcebox array were all stunned. One enemy Progenitor would already be more than enough, so why were there two?

"RUN, RUN, RUN!" Kui Luo shouted.

Lu Yin used Inverse Step to shake off Kui Luo’s grip on him. "Why are you trying to escape? Have you forgotten where we are now?"

Kui Luo was momentarily caught off guard, but then realization suddenly struck him. "Are we back in the Fifth Mainland?"

He looked over at Elder Gong and the others, and then started cackling wildly. "Hahahaha, we made it to the Fifth Mainland! Hahahaha, we don’t need to escape now! Kid, you’re invincible here, hahahaha."

Qing Ping released a relieved breath as well while calmly observing Xia Shenji and the jiao.

Highsage Grandmaster and those with him also finally reacted, and they heaved their own sighs of relief, though most of their worry had been triggered by Kui Luo’s screams. They had not even had a chance to react to the pressure that two beings in the Progenitor realm were radiating, and by the time they could react, they had already been reminded that there was no need to fear anyone at all, not as long as they remained in the Fifth Mainland.

The jiao bared its teeth and waved its claws about while releasing a Progenitor’s pressure. The power coming from the beast caused stars to sway and the entire Fifth Mainland felt stifled. The jiao could feel that it was in a place that was much less stable than the Perennial World, and there was also not even a single intimidating aura to the beast. It felt invincible in this place.

Lu Buzheng, Leng Qing, and even Jue Yi and Hen Xin, who were far away in the Astral Beast Domain, felt that the power of a Progenitor that had no place suddenly appear in the Fifth Mainland. Why was there suddenly a Progenitor in the Fifth Mainland?

Xia Shenji stood atop the jiao’s head and eventually looked at Lu Yin and the others with cold eyes. "You haven’t tried to escape?"

Lu Yin wiped at some of the blood covering his body, but before he could even speak, Kui Luo answered first. "Old fart, just where do you think you are right now? This is the Fifth Mainland, not the Perennial World! Haven’t you even realized that you’re all alone right now? There’s no main body to protect you now, Xia Shenji!"

The clone frowned. "How can you spout so much nonsense?"

The man stared off into the distance, and then shook his head. "This really is a Forsaken Land. Not a single Progenitor?”

The man’s expression suddenly changed. "Eh? Why is there no stellular energy? What is that?"

The Fifth Mainland’s true universe had been completely drained of all stellular energy by the mysterious droplets, which made it impossible for anyone who cultivated with star energy or stellular energy to progress at all. Xia Shenji's clone had just discovered one of the droplets, and he was shocked by the discovery.

"Alright, you don’t need to worry about that right now. I’ll take some time to explain things when I visit you in prison later," Lu Yin replied.

Xia Shenji turned back to stare at Lu Yin. "You’re mad! Since that’s the case, I'll send you on your way now."

The saber rose high, and the broken blade descended. At the same time, the jiao’s claws fell towards Lu Yin. Lu Yin glanced over at Qing Ping. Before leaving the Perennial World, Lu Yin’s senior brother had erased these two attacks with a single finger. That attack had incorporated some aspect of the power of time, but Lu Yin had not been able to understand it yet. Was it possible to erase attacks with the power of time? If that was possible, it would be incredible, and the possibility inspired Lu Yin to continue pursuing mastering the power of time.

However, Qing Ping made no move at all. Kui Luo did not try to escape, and none of the Semi-Progenitors who were present made any attempt to even move. All of them were just staring at Xia Shenji, but he did not see despair in their eyes. Instead- wait, was that mockery?

Xia Shenji could not understand what was going through these people’s minds, but it did not matter. All of them would be eliminated by this one attack.

Although Xia Shenji had released several attacks before with his broken saber, he was absolutely certain that no one could stop him this time. He had already released his Divine Martial Armor to the limit, and his strength as a Progenitor was enough to utterly crush everything. Who could stop him?

The blade fell, and it dropped closer and closer to Lu Yin, but he just stared at Xia Shenji. "I'm curious, did you ever fight against Progenitor Chen after he became a Progenitor?"

Xia Shenji felt he must have misheard. What had the youth just asked?

The next instance, the universe fell silent, and then it flipped over. Everything that Xia Shenji saw was transformed. He looked into infinite space and saw stars revolving. He was struck by such an indescribable horror that he felt himself grow. He felt like an ordinary person confronted by an avalanche or a tsunami. He had not once felt such deep, boundless despair ever since he had become a Progenitor. He had long since forgotten about this sensation, but it had inexplicably returned.

He watched as a star revolved in front of him, and then Lu Yin’s figure magnified grew to a measureless height. The young man bent his head to look down. Then, he stomped on the stars.