Star Odyssey

Lu Yin opened his eyes, exhausted. He lifted a hand and stared at it as he clenched his fist. Right now, he felt completely helpless; he could not cultivate the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

The first step of the secret technique required a person to sense their own subconscious and then condense it to the point where it almost took on a physical state. After that, the person would need to split their subconscious into nine parts and then use their own blood and bone to create various bodies that the eight subconscious fragments could enter. Once the fragments of the subconscious merged with the sub bodies formed from the original’s blood and bone, a person would have successfully cultivated the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

This was why each of the nine clones would have a different and unique personality; each was formed from a unique fragment of a person’s subconscious. This was also why there was never any possibility of them betraying the main body, as the eight clones were never true bodies, but rather portioned off bits of a person’s body and subconscious. This was also why the eight clones could merge back with the main body.

This was the foundational concept behind the Nine Clones Secret Technique. As long as a person understood this foundation, they would be able to follow the secret technique and split their mind apart and create the sub bodies. However, the seal on Lu Yin’s back prevented him from separating his blood and mind.

Not only had the seal tried to stop Lu Yin from progressing with his cultivation, but it also prevented him from being able to use the Nine Clones Secret Technique. There was nothing that Lu Yin could do about it.

He had already asked Master Shan, Wan Zhiyi, and others of the Lu family’s vassals about who might have placed the seal on him, as there was no way that Bai Xian’er had done it. Given her individual strength at the time that the Lu family had been banished, the seal that restricted Lu Yin would have been completely beyond Bai Xian’er’s capabilities. However, no one could provide any answers.

In some ways, Lu Yin could not decide if the seal was a good thing or a bad thing. While it had repeatedly tried to prevent Lu Yin from achieving a breakthrough in his cultivation, without the seal, Lu Yin would have been killed by the desiccated corpse during his breakthrough to become an Explorer, or even before that, during that attack on the pirate port. Without the seal, Lu Yin would have never survived.

The seal confused Lu Yin, as he could not tell if the seal was intended to protect or harm him.

The seal simultaneously hindered and blocked Lu Yin’s progress with his cultivation, but it also protected his body.

It was the protective aspect of the seal that prevented Lu Yin from being able to split away some of his blood and bone to create sub bodies for his clones. The seal possessed no consciousness, and it treated Lu Yin’s attempt to split away his blood and bones as an injury, not cultivating a technique. This was what was stopping Lu Yin from being able to successfully cultivate the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

After analyzing things, Lu Yin let out a sigh of helplessness. As long as the seal remained in place, he would never be able to use this secret technique.

Wait.?His eyes suddenly lit up. The Nine Clones Secret Technique was all about separating a person’s subconscious and creating sub bodies for each fragment. Since it was possible to use separated bits of blood and bone to create a vessel to house the fragments of the subconscious, then what about using a stellular energy vortex as a vessel instead?

Lu Yin was still under the influence of the Root of Intelligence, so his mind was functioning at a much higher level than other people’s. The moment the thought occurred to Lu Yin, he was already trying to proceed and test the idea out. After all, he had already split his subconscious, so there was no reason to waste his efforts.

As the scenery changed before Lu Yin’s eyes, he emerged from his Timestop Space and returned to the Heavens Sect.

Only a single second had passed for the rest of the universe, but in that brief window of time, Lu Yin’s cultivation had taken a strange turn.

While it was impossible for him to use the Nine Clones Secret Technique, Lu Yin had separated fragments of his subconscious and merged them into each of his four stellular energy vortices. With those fragments of his mind, he could separately use and train different cultivation arts and battle techniques. This also meant that when he became a Semi-Progenitor, he might have four inner worlds.

No, it was not just a possibility—he would definitely have four inner worlds, and each one would manifest with different abilities, as they would be born from different skills and battle techniques.

Lu Yin thought for a long time, but he could not think of a single person who had ever managed to develop more than one inner world in the current universe. It was possible that Lu Yin would be the first person in all of human history to develop four inner worlds.

What would it be like to possess four inner worlds? He could not even imagine it. Even more importantly, due to the fact that one could merge back with the fragmented subconsciouses that he had split off, it was highly likely that he would be able to merge and fuse his inner worlds in the exact same manner that someone using the Nine Clones Secret Technique could merge with their clones. Of course, this was just Lu Yin’s guess, but it was a possibility that he had come up with while under the effect of the tea made with the Root of Intelligence. The mere possibility left Lu Yin incredibly excited.

Despite failing to cultivate the Nine Clones Secret Technique, Lu Yin was not terribly disappointed, as he had found an alternative way to use it. Besides, after the seal was removed, he would still be able to cultivate the technique.

He intended to continue training. He needed to further refine his Wielder - Indestructible, the Cosmic Art, the Origin Sutra, and other techniques. Everything required extended amounts of time for training, and this was the best chance for Lu Yin to do so. The four ruling powers were fighting against Aeternus, and Lu Yin could relax while no one was targeting him for the moment.

He raised his hand and brought out his die again. He tapped it and rolled four pips. His luck was pretty good this time.

Back in the Perennial World, long queues remained in the valley beneath the Wang family’s floating mainland. More and more people from the Fifth Mainland were trickling into the Perennial World.

At the moment, a man in the middle of the line was happily looking around with evident curiosity. Most of his attention was focused on the distant Mother Tree. "I- I- I’ve he- he- heard of the Mo- Mother Tree, a- a- and now I’m finally see- seeing it.

"It's re- really i- i- impressive!

"I- I- I-"

"Kid, shut up!" Someone behind the man cut him off. The person appeared to be a woman, though their face was hidden beneath a black veil. The person was glaring at the stuttering man.

The man turned his head around and blinked at the shrouded figure. "D- d- do we know each other?"

"Listening to you talk is making me, your granny,?run out of air! Just shut up!" the woman hissed.

The man pointed towards the distance. "Mo- Mo- Mother Tree!"

"That’s got nothing to do with you or your family! You want to see it? Fine! I’ll plant you in the Mother Tree itself." The woman was clearly getting quite irritated.

The man’s head shrank back, and he no longer dared to say anything. He had a bit of a stammer, and he had once been a member of the Longevity Brigade. His master had been Ji Qiang, the captain of the Longevity brigade, as well as one of Xia Ji's clones.

When Lu Yin had defeated the Daynight clan and taken Nightking Zhenwu’s slot to go to the Neoverse and compete in the Astral Tower, Ji Qiang had ordered the stuttering man to follow Lu Yin. The intention had been for the young man to keep an eye on Lu Yin, but Ji Qiang’s orders had been misinterpreted, and the stutterer had believed that his master had been showing him kindness, by telling him that there would be meat to eat if he followed Lu Yin.

Afterwards, the Longevity Brigade had been eradicated during the war in the Cosmic Sea. The stutterer had been lucky to not die, and he had also never tried to get revenge on Lu Yin or Leon’s Armada. The man had never developed any loyalty for Ji Qiang, as they had not even seen each other in decades.

After arriving in the Perennial World, the stutterer was incredibly excited.

As the line inched forward, the man’s stammer grew worse due to the excitement. However, he no longer dared to speak up, though he continued to look all around.

The woman glared at the stutterer. "What are you looking for, little lamb?"

Xiao stuttered, turned around slowly, and stared blankly at the woman, "Yo- yo- yo- you- Me!"

"I already told you to stop talking! Didn’t you hear me? Or do I need to mess up your face a bit?" The woman threatened as she placed a hand on the stutterer’s shoulder and exerted a bit of force.

The man stuttered from the pain, "Bi- bi- Big Sis?"

The woman’s eyebrows rose. She was indeed Big Sis. Since there was no stellular energy in the Fifth Mainland, her cultivation rate had grown incredibly slow, and she had decided to visit the Perennial World. Of course, she could not allow herself to be discovered by any of the four ruling powers. It was possible that they might not do anything to her, but it was also undeniable that she was one of the people closest to Lu Yin, and she did not trust those old men’s shamelessness.

She was confident that she could help Lu Yin take revenge on the four ruling powers after fully recovering to her original strength, but not yet. It was best to keep a low profile for the time being.

"You know me?" Big Sis had not expected this stutterer to recognize her.

The man grew very frightened. "Li- li- little lamb is a phra- phra- phrase used by pirates in the Cosmic Sea."

"That’s all it took?"

"Your granny, me."

Big Sis was speechless, but this man had truly recognized her. "Are you from the Cosmic Sea?"

The stutterer pursed his lips. "I fo- fo- followed Lu- Lu Yin. There was go- going to be meat to eat."

Big Sis looked at the man with a strange expression. "What a mess, but since you know Little Seven, I won’t mess with you. Just keep your mouth shut and don't talk."

The stutterer turned back around to face forwards. He felt rather offended, but also quite relieved. He knew that he luckily had not revealed his background, as there was no telling whether Big Sis would kill him if she knew of his connection to Ji Qiang.

They soon heard people shouting from the back of the line, and many people turned around to check on the commotion.

Even Wang Yan looked towards the New Corridor’s exit. "Go find out what's going on. Why are they getting so worked up?"

A short while later, startling news arrived. "What? The Fifth Mainland's stellular energy has recovered?"

In the Fifth Mainland, Lu Yin rolled four pips on his die, and after a second, he reappeared. He had just spent nearly a year training, and during that time, his battle force had fully recovered. His intention was to rest for ten days and then try to roll Possession.

As time passed and his strength improved, Possession was becoming more and more valuable an ability. At the same time, it was becoming more and more difficult for Lu Yin to find suitable targets, and the cost of each Possession was rising higher and higher.

Suddenly, the peaceful state of the Fifth Mainland changed. The mysterious droplets of liquid that had devoured all of the stellular energy from the true universe dissipated, and all of their stellular energy was released at once. The Fifth Mainland’s true universe returned to the state that it had been in before. But now, the stellular energy was being replenished even faster rate than it had been devoured in the past.

Lu Yin noticed the change immediately, and he quickly let Sapling out to absorb the stellular energy. At the same time, Lu Yin did the same himself, and he also started to absorb the stellular energy that was being released.

He stared out at where one of the strange droplets had dissipated. Was this the limit? Was this the longest that the Aeternals’ liquid could absorb the stellular energy from the true universe?

All across the entire Fifth Mainland, countless cultivators stepped into outer space and began excitedly absorbing star energy and stellular energy. They had been waiting decades for this exact moment.

Even Lu Buzheng and the other Semi-Progenitors did the same.

In fact, the Semi-Progenitors benefited the most from the sudden surge of stellular energy.

.

It took a tremendous amount of time for Semi-Progenitors to become Progenitors, and this sudden surge of stellular energy allowed all of the Semi-Progenitors in the Fifth Mainland to greatly reduce that time. Given this tremendous benefit, it was debatable whether the period of time without stellular energy and star energy had been good or bad for the Fifth Mainland.

In but a moment, Lu Yin’s four stellular energy vortices were nearly full. However, he did not trigger his fifth stellular tribulation yet, as he had only just passed his fourth tribulation. It would be better for him to take his time.

Lu Buzheng stood in outer space, his face solemn.

"Third Uncle, what's wrong?" Lu Yin asked when he saw Lu Buzheng's expression.

"I’m getting closer and closer to the cusp of becoming a Progenitor. It might be time for me to try to break through."

Lu Yin smiled. "In that case, I should offer you my congratulations, Third Uncle. I hope to see Third Uncle successfully become a Progenitor and become the Fifth Mainland’s first Progenitor since the Daosource Sect era."

Lu Buzheng shook his head. "Becoming a Progenitor is far from easy, and failure means death."

The man turned to look at Lu Yin. "I first need to calm myself."

Lu Yin nodded.

Lu Buzheng was not the only Semi-Progenitor who stood a chance of challenging the Progenitor realm; the same was true of Cai Er, Destina, and the rest of the gatemasters of the ancient Heavens Sect’s Twelve Heavenly Gates. Obtaining that title indicated that a Semi-Progenitor stood at the peak of their realm and that they were among the closest to breaking through to become Progenitors.

The restoration of the true universe allowed all of the Semi-Progenitors to take massive steps towards the Progenitor realm, and one by one, they started going into seclusion.

Lu Yin was eager to see the results. He had no idea who would attempt their breakthrough first, but he had never seen a Progenitor’s tribulation.

It did not take long for the stellular energy to be completely restored, and soon, the Fifth Mainland returned to its previous state for the first time in more than twenty years. There were many young cultivators who had never even had the opportunity to cultivate with star energy, so it was a novel experience for them.

With the true universe restored to its normal state, many people who had been planning on visiting the Perennial World turned back.

After all, the Perennial World was an unknown place to them, and many people would not want to take such a risk unless it was absolutely necessary. It had been necessary before, as they had not been able to cultivate in the Fifth Mainland, but that was no longer true.

Lu Yin wanted to continue his own training, but just as he was about to return to the Heavens Sect and his seclusion, he noticed Sky Garan racing along, chasing after someone.𝚋𝚎ｄｎｏ𝚟𝚎ｌ.ｎ𝚎𝚝