Star Odyssey

Wang Dashuai truly had nowhere to go, so he ended up just staying in the Heavens Sect.

As for Long Xi, she wanted to stay with Sapling, which made things a bit difficult for Lu Yin. "Sapling’s going to be staying here for a while and absorbing stellular energy, but you’re welcome to stay if you want."

He understood what Long Xi was thinking, but he was not Lu Xiaoxuan; he was Lu Yin.

"Where's my father?" Long Xi asked.

"Don’t worry, he’s safe."

Long Xi nodded and said nothing more.

She felt quite close to Sapling, as Long Xi had been taking care of it during its entire time on Zenith Mountain.

A short while later, a bit of stellular energy was pulled towards the Heavens Sect.

Many people felt it, and they knew that the Dao Chosen had resumed stealing stellular energy back from the mysterious droplets.

There were very, very few who were aware that Sapling was actually the one seizing back the stellular energy.

For a short while, Lu Yin spent his time enjoying tea while relaxing in the Heavens Sect as he waited for the broken scythe from Big Sis to be delivered. Long Xi accompanied Lu Yin whenever he drank tea.

After half a month, the broken scythe and the shards of the weapon were finally delivered to Lu Yin.

The moment Lu Yin held the weapon in his hands, the black and white halves of the yin-yang symbol that were part of the power in his chest started to twitch crazily. Then, death energy was pulled from his body into the broken scythe, seemingly absorbed. Lu Yin instantly pulled his hand back, as there was very little death energy remaining in his body. Still, the fact that the broken weapon was able to control the death energy within Lu Yin’s body suggested that it might really have been the God of Death’s weapon.

With this thought, Lu Yin immediately left the Heavens Sect and went to visit the ruins of the Bizarre Sect in the pocket dimension that was hidden on Aegis Planet.

As soon as he arrived at the planet, Lu Yin went to the hidden stone, touched it with a hand, and entered the pocket dimension.

He looked up at the black sun that hung high in the sky. It was much smaller than when he had first seen it. It was clear that it did not hold an infinite amount of death energy.

Lu Yin did not take the scythe out right away, as he first ascended into the sky by himself to absorb death energy.

A stream of death energy soon formed a line that split the sky, connecting Lu Yin’s chest to the black star.

It had been about a year since he had last visited this place and absorbed death energy, and while he had induced a torrent of death energy to enter his body, it was nothing compared to what Lu Yin triggered this time.

During his last visit, he had seen the God of Death and learned the Death Seal, and this time, Lu Yin saw the ancient powerhouse once again. The man was sitting alone, his scythe beside him.

This time, Lu Yin focused on the scythe instead of the man. He stared more and more intently, and the longer he stared, the more convinced he became that the broken weapon he had received looked almost perfectly identical to the God of Death’s weapon. Could it really be the same weapon?

Who could possibly shatter the God of Death’s scythe?

The black flood of death energy continued to pour into Lu Yin's chest without any end in sight. The black and white shapes in his chest had already nearly doubled in size, which exceeded Lu Yin’s expectations. His cultivation clearly had not improved much since his previous visit, so why were the two parts of the yin-yang symbol growing so much?

The growth of the black and white shapes caused the power in Lu Yin’s chest to also expand to accommodate the increased amount of death energy.

The black star visibly shrank. It had already shrunk by nearly a fifth.

While shrinking by a fifth did not sound like much, it was a massive amount of death energy. After all, this was something that the God of Death had left behind, and, if Lu Yin’s guess was correct, then absorbing the full black sun should have been enough to allow a person to reach the Progenitor level.

Absorbing one-fifth of the black star meant that Lu Yin had basically absorbed the energy reserves of a Semi-Progenitor.

The torrent of black energy slowly shrank, and the black and white symbols inside Lu Yin’s chest resumed revolving around the power contained within his chest, far more distinct and impressive than they had been before.

Since his body was unable to absorb any more death energy, Lu Yin pulled out the broken scythe. The black star quivered for a moment, and then a flood of death energy that completely outstripped what had poured into Lu Yin appeared as death energy surged into the broken scythe. Lu Yin was holding the scythe, and the weapon not only absorbed death energy from the black star, but also pulled it out of Lu Yin’s body.

Lu Yin could not understand how the broken weapon could absorb so much death energy.

As the insane amount of death energy flooded into the broken weapon, Lu Yin could see that its corroded surface was starting to recover. He pulled out the weapon shards that he had received from Big Sis, as well as the ones he had found in Burial Garden. Lu Yin had a total of eight shards.

The moment the broken fragments appeared, they all floated over, pulled towards where the broken scythe’s blade would be by the death energy. The shards formed a black line that merged with the broken blade, and the scythe’s blade extended slightly.

Lu Yin's eyes grew wide, as it had become clear that the weapon could be fixed. This was incredibly exciting, and it suggested that Lu Yin really did hold the God of Death’s weapon, and the weapon could also be repaired with more of the weapon shards.

The God of Death's weapon was the tool of one of the most powerful Progenitors to ever live.

An aura swept through space, the force of which almost knocked Lu Yin to the ground. The broken scythe floated out of his grip and drifted into the sky in front of him. A vague figure appeared next to the scythe and slowly grew increasingly distinct. It was the God of Death.

Lu Yin stared at the God of Death, and the ancient Progenitor stared back at him. The man opened his mouth and began to speak: "Im-mem-or-i-al Cit-a-del."

Immemorial Citadel? Lu Yin was startled, as this was yet another mention of the Immemorial Citadel that Mister Mu had mentioned.

Lu Yin stared at the God of Death. The man was still talking, but Lu Yin was unable to hear a single word.

The God of Death was clearly speaking, using the help of his weapon to share some final message, but Lu Yin could not hear a single word. He started to grow anxious, but then finally remembered that he also had the God of Death’s left arm. Hurriedly, he took the bones out of his cosmic ring.

The moment Lu Yin took out the arm, another surge of death energy erupted from the black star, but this time, the surge flooded into the left arm. Finally, Lu Yin was able to hear the God of Death’s last two words: floating coffin.

The God of Death’s image disappeared from next to the broken scythe. Lu Yin stepped forward and grabbed hold of the weapon, but the image did not return. The God of Death had said something between appearing and disappearing, but Lu Yin had only heard the first and last words: Immemorial Citadel and floating coffin, respectively. He had not heard a single bit of the middle part.

That was a true pity. Also, was the God of Death actually dead or not? If he was still alive, then where was he? Had the images that Lu Yin had seen been nothing more than phantoms left from the ancient past, or had the God of Death been purposely trying to communicate with Lu Yin across time and space with the help of his broken weapon? Lu Yin could not unravel the truth. His left hand still held the God of Death’s left arm, while his right hand held the broken scythe. As Lu Yin stood in the sky, the black star grew smaller and smaller. Finally, it disappeared entirely.

The moment the black star disappeared, the remnants of the Bizarre Sect shattered into specks that floated away.

Lu Yin stared around, but the Bizarre Sect’s ruins were completely gone.

The black star had disappeared, which meant that there was no more death energy for Lu Yin to use to replenish his own reserves.

Well, at least not in the Outerverse, though there was still death energy in other locations. Would the God of Death’s left arm and broken scythe allow Lu Yin to hear the God of Death’s words again?

Considering it, Lu Yin felt that such a thing might just be possible.

Immemorial Citadel. Hanging coffin. What had the God of Death been trying to say? Was there a connection between “Immemorial Citadel” and “floating coffin?” What did “floating coffin” even mean?

Lu Yin left the pocket dimension. He would never return to the place again.

After glancing around, he started moving towards Gaia's Swamp. He wanted to see if the arm and the scythe would allow him to hear more of the God of Death’s message.

However, the moment Lu Yin started to leave, a pair of dark and heavy eyes appeared before him. There were three overlapping lines that formed a star-like pattern, and as soon as the lines appeared, Lu Yin was trapped in the triangle formed by the lines, and the void around him was completely sealed off. Lu Yin could only sense the empty triangle in the middle of the three lines.

The sudden turn of events badly startled Lu Yin. "Blackless God?"

Indeed, one of the Seven Skygods, Blackless God, had appeared to pay Lu Yin a visit. This was the first of the Skygods that Lu Yin had ever come into contact with.

Blackless God stepped out of the void and directed an intense stare towards Lu Yin for a moment. "We meet again, Mr. Lu Yin."

Lu Yin stared back at the familiar figure. "You really like showing yourself in front of me, don’t you, Blackless God?"

The Skygod remained calm as he gazed at Lu Yin. "I don’t have any intention of attacking you, so can you at least give me a chance to finish speaking?"

"Fine. Talk," Lu Yin replied. As long as he was in the Fifth Mainland, the only way that anyone could be Lu Yin’s opponent was if they surpassed Progenitor Chen’s power. While Lu Yin did not know if the Seven Skygods's true bodies were more powerful than Progenitor Chen, it was impossible for their Semi-Progenitor avatars to possess that level of strength.

Lu Yin was invincible within the Fifth Mainland.

"I remember the first time that we met. Back then, you were preparing to unite the Outerverse, Mr. Lu Yin, and we offered to cooperate with you under the condition that you act as the Neohuman Alliance’s representative in this place. Can you still remember that time?" Blackless God spoke slowly.

Lu Yin laughed. "Why bring that up now? You don't still want to cooperate with me, do you?"

"Of course. Given your status and strength, why would we not want to work with you?" Blackless God answered as though it were perfectly natural.

The corners of Lu Yin’s mouth were pulled up into a smile. "Interesting. In that case, what are you offering that I would be interested in?"

"We offer you the same condition as before: become our representative. However, if you accept, you will be the sole representative for the Neohuman Alliance in this universe," Blackless God stated.

Anyone who heard Blackless God's offer would think him insane. Lu Yin was the unquestionable ruler of the Fifth Mainland, and he had numerous Semi-Progenitors under his command. There was no one who dared to disobey one of Lu Yin’s orders, so why did Blackless God want Lu Yin to become the Neohuman Alliance’s representative? Lu Yin did not believe that Blackless God was insane, so there had to be some logic behind this offer.

The Seven Skygods were not fools, and even a fool would have their own understanding of the universe. While Blackless God might believe humans to be foolish, the true idiots were those who treated others as stupid.

The fact that Blackless God had presented this offer to Lu Yin indicated that he was fully confident that Aeternus would be able to win back the Fifth Mainland.

"Your offer is extremely conditional, and it’s based on the premise that you will be able to win back control of the Fifth Mainland. Are you really confident in being able to do that?" Lu Yin countered.

Blackless God indifferently answered, "The Origin Progenitor himself was alive during the Heavens Sect era, and humanity stood at the pinnacle of the universe. The masters of the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas ruled every direction. One powerful Progenitor after another rose to power, but we still defeated the entire Heavens Sect and forced humanity to the verge of extinction as we destroyed one Mainland after another."

"If you really are so capable, then the Perennial World would have never lasted for as long as it has," Lu Yin retorted.

Blackless God stared at Lu Yin with a heaviness in his eyes. "I don't agree with Shaman God's plan. I told you the first time we met that I hate meaningless slaughter. It does nothing but create panic. Without any outside interference, Mr. Lu Xiaoxuan's identity will invariably cause a war with the four ruling powers. However, if your history is examined, then it’s clear that you are not an impulsive person.”

"I believe that you have already been searching for a way to deal with Shaman God's plot, and if that is true, then it would be better to simply recruit you to join us."

"But you aren’t able to offer me anything that actually attracts me," Lu Yin shot back.

"Humanity will eventually die, and a new civilization will arise. This is simply part of a cycle, an endless, eternal cycle, and no one can change it. However, you have a chance to escape from this cycle, and I can give you that chance. Come find me after you learn the truth of the universe. I will save this chance for you for 100,000 years."

The overlapping lines started to burn, and Lu Yin grew terrified that he was about to be incinerated. He reflexively accessed Progenitor Chen’s power and used Star Stomp, causing the stars behind Blackless God to explode, destroying the body of the Semi-Progenitor avatar.

The burning black lines vanished.