Star Odyssey

Luo Lao'er continued his musings. "Recently, there's only been one topic that’s truly newsworthy. I didn't manage to find out any specifics, but…" He grinned slyly. "I heard that Zi Jing returned with a man. Hehe, I wonder what she's like."

Zuo Yu looked disgusted. "What does that have to do with you?"

Luo Lao'er explained, "If Zi Jing can help the Transcendent Universe achieve a breakthrough in a critical technology, then she'll definitely become a member of the Ruling Council eventually, even with her history of deserting. And whoever marries her… Just think about it."

Eyes lit up, and several of the young men started to unconsciously straighten up. While they might not know which cultivation technology Zi Jing was researching, if it was important enough to catch the attention of the Ruling Council, then there was no way it was simple. Even if Zi Jing did not end up as a member of the Ruling Council, she would still become one of the most important individuals in the entire Transcendent Universe. If anyone could win over Zi Jing, they would most likely also receive the chance to ascend into the heavens with a single step.

"Brothers, it's time to start working your charm. Do your best to gather information, ‘cause if you can win that woman over, then your ancestors will laugh themselves back to life," Luo Lao'er urged.

One woman sneered. "How disgusting."

Contempt practically dripped from Zuo Yu’s voice, "If you're a man, then you should climb to the top on your own rather than spend time thinking about things like this. This is sickening."

"First, we must find the man that Zi Jing brought back. Once we find him, we need to beat him and suppress him!" Luo Lao'er shouted.

Muo Duo became excited. "Yes, we’ll find him and suppress him!"

"Suppress him."

"Suppress him."

"Zi Jing is mine!"

"Mine!"

"Mine!"

Before long, the shouts transformed into arguments. Luo Lao'er was the most excited, and he declared that he would join the Ruling Council and show his father who the true talent of the family was.

Zuo Yu and the other girls moved away, each of them staring at the boys with expressions of disdain covering their faces.

Lu Yin pursed his lips. What were these guys yelling about? They would not actually uncover his identity, right? He started to put some distance between himself and the noisy crowd. "Xuan Qi, what are you waiting for? Slap him symmetrically."

"How would he ever dare? Mu Duo, I'll slap you first."

"Luo Lao'er, you’re from a foreign universe. Butt on out of this!"

"You’re the one from a foreign universe! Your whole family is from a foreign universe! Both my body and spirit belong to the Transcendent Universe, and I will be staying right here for the rest of my life."

"You were abandoned."

"Your whole family was abandoned!"

…

Things escalated to the point where over a thousand people were now surrounding the small group, watching the young men argue. Even Lu Yin started to feel embarrassed from their antics.

Finally, a burst of booming laughter interrupted the squabbling, and everyone turned to see a middle-aged man. Scars covered his face and his exposed arms while his body was as stocky as Ke Jian’s; he did not look like someone who would be easy to mess with.

"You guys are quite spirited. That’s good, as it's time to go. Use your energy on the battlefield instead of on women. If anyone mentions women again, I'll make them spend the rest of their life on the battlefield. Haha!"

Luo Lao'er's jaw dropped open as he stared at the man. Then, he used a hand to push his chin back up as he quietly muttered, "Why is he here?"

Next to him, Mu Duo asked, "What's so surprising about it? Our destination has changed, so it only makes sense that the one in charge of us would also change, now that we’re going to the Cloudflow Universe."

"Qiu Zhan is known as the warmonger commander, and he often charges to the front of a battlefield all on his own. He’s fought in several major wars, and the Ruling Council was eventually forced to give him a black energy converter for self-protection. He’s one of the few individuals in the Transcendent Universe powerful enough to use a black energy converter. However, I’ve also heard that he’s offended the Ruling Council, and that as a result, he’ll never be allowed to use a black energy converter again. Why would someone like him be sent to the Cloudflow Universe?" someone asked, puzzled.

"Maybe he’s been allowed to use a black energy converter again," someone else commented, their eyes blazing.

Black energy converters were some of the most powerful weapons in the Transcendent Universe possessed. Using one could allow a person to fight against a Progenitor. According to Ke Jian, even a cockroach would have the strength of a Progenitor if the Transcendent Universe willed it.

However, Lu Yin did not believe that. There were specific requirements for a person to use an energy converter, and while it was not connected to a person’s cultivation level, it did have to do with their body. In some ways, these requirements were even more demanding.

Lu Yin looked at the middle-aged man named Qiu Zhan. He was not using an energy converter, but he was still able to suppress the entire area. His strength should not be any weaker than an Envoy, but due to the differences in how their civilizations had developed, Lu Yin could not be sure just how powerful of an Envoy the man could compare to.

"You’re all not talking anymore? Then get over here. The closer the better," Qiu Zhan shouted fiercely.

Everyone looked as though they had just woken up from a daydream. They nervously stared at Qiu Zhan, not sure what to do. The pressure from the man was simply too strong.

Even an Enlighter was able to easily suppress ordinary humans, let alone someone with Qiu Zhan's strength.

Zuo Yu was the first to step forward. She had never been very far from Qiu Zhan to begin with.

Following her, the rest of the people from Mu Duo's group moved forward, one by one.

Even though some people were born with statuses that elevated them above others, the training and education that they received guaranteed that they would always remain elite in all aspects. Very few true heirs to great powers were complete wastrels.

Lu Yin followed Mu Duo and moved closer to the commanding officer.

Qiu Zhan's eyes swept past each face. Everyone looked at him with pale faces as they pushed forward against the pressure pouring off of him.

Eventually, thousands of people circled around Qiu Zhan. He sneered at them. "Get closer to me."

Zuo Yu gritted her teeth and forced her way closer. She managed to reach a point only two meters away from Qiu Zhan while Luo Lao'er stopped five meters away. Lu Yin stopped about five meters behind Mu Duo.

"To think that I have to transport the lot of you greenhorns myself. You should be thanking your ancestors that you can be useful. However, your ancestors can't protect you on the battlefield," Qiu Zhan stated.

With that, a transparent energy converter in his chest started to emit a bright white light. While this energy converter was the same color as Ke Jian's, there were noticeable differences. Despite both of them being white, the whiteness of Qiu Zhan's energy converter was far more blinding and pure.

With a burst of power, white light enveloped everyone. Qiu Zhan stepped forward and dragged everyone with him through the void.

Lu Yin was surprised. Was this really the way that the Transcendent Universe’s people used power at the Semi-Progenitor level? This was too crude and forceful. It was similar to a Semi-Progenitor moving people with nothing but their stellular energy. However, no one in the Transcendent Universe possessed an inner world.

In a one-on-one fight, it would be difficult for someone from the Transcendent Universe with a white energy converter to defeat one of the Fifth Mainland’s Semi-Progenitors.

The scenery flashed before Lu Yin’s eyes, and they next appeared in a place that was completely different from the Transcendent Universe. He looked up and saw some sort of substantial energy that looked like swirling dark clouds covering outer space. He also managed to barely catch a glimpse of some massive structures off in the distance.

He stared intently into the distance. Just what was that?

At that moment, Qiu Zhan was looking at Lu Yin. The other young people had not yet regained their senses. Lu Yin was the only one who had started looking around upon arriving in the parallel universe, which was extremely abnormal.

Traveling between universes put a massive strain on the human body. The stronger the target universe, the greater the pressure.

While the Cloudflow Universe was not a very strong universe, these young nobles were not people who should have been able to immediately react. Lu Yin’s performance exceeded the older man’s expectations.

As Qiu Zhan stared at Lu Yin, numbers constantly flickered across the green lens over his right eye before eventually stopping at 270,000. This was surprising. Did this youth really have a power level of 270,000? Was he from a cultivation civilization?

"Is this the Cloudflow Universe?" Yu Jing asked.

Others also started to react and looked around.

Qiu Zhan quit focusing on Lu Yin. It was not that unusual for the man to come across someone from a cultivation civilization. There had originally been such civilizations even within the Transcendent Universe. At present, most of the Sixverse Association's members were cultivation civilizations, so people from those places frequently visited the Transcendent Universe.

The only thing that the older man could not understand was why Lu Yin, someone from a cultivation civilization, had been sent to the Cloudflow Universe.

White light radiated from the older man’s chest again, and he then led the young people in the direction that Lu Yin was looking in. As they moved, Qiu Zhan started investigating Lu Yin's identity.

He quickly found out that Lu Yin was Zi Jing's man. Qiu Zhan shot another glance towards Lu Yin’s way. With his status, Qiu Zhan had no difficulty accessing Lu Yin’s information, and the young man’s story explained everything.

Also, Lu Yin’s background meant that nothing could be allowed to happen to him on the battlefield. Qiu Zhan had been assigned to keep Lu Yin alive on the battlefield by the Ruling Council. However, the old man did not feel like performing his task. How could no accidents occur on a battlefield? He was unable to even guarantee his own survival.

If the Ruling Council wanted to keep the young man safe, then they should not have sent him to the Cloudflow Universe in the first place. Since he was there, he would have to determine his own fate.

Qiu Zhan ignored the Ruling Council’s orders and also resumed ignoring Lu Yin. In front of them, the massive structure loomed ever closer.

Lu Yin paid no attention to Qiu Zhan, as his eyes remained fixed on the distant structure. This thing was not much smaller than the entire Heavens Sect. What was it? Even though it was still very far away, it had given him a sense of danger as soon as he laid eyes upon it.

After Qiu Zhan led everyone to the structure, many were awestruck by the sight.

Out of everyone, Lu Yin was the most impressed. The others already had some level of knowledge regarding this object, as they were inhabitants of the Transcendent Universe. However, this was Lu Yin’s first time seeing such a thing. This was the Bestowal Art.

As Zi Jing had explained, the Bestowal Art was a power that the universe had bestowed upon humanity.

Every item that was sealed away in a sourcebox by the universe was able to be broken down and used as fuel by the Transcendent Universe. It was like a power that the universe had bestowed upon them, which was the origin of its name.

Lu Yin had never imagined that sourceboxes could be used in such a way. To him, sourcebox arrays were already quite remarkable.

After countless years of development, human ingenuity remained their greatest weapon.

"Take a good look. This is one of the largest Bestowal Art carriers that we have developed so far. With enough sourceboxes, we can annihilate creatures whose power levels are in the hundreds of thousands. Your mission is to defend the carrier’s components and ensure that they all remain open. Use your strength to act as a tiny cog in this vast machinery. Do you understand?" Qiu Zhan instructed.

The crowd replied, "We understand."

The Bestowal Art carrier was a massive, mechanical object that was nearly as large as the entire Heavens Sect. No matter how complex its internal structure might be, the entire thing was fortified with a massive array of weapons and patrolled by numerous guards, which made it as secure as a fortress.

Off in the distance, there were even more mechanical extensions that branched off from the main structure, and swarms of people were moving about them.

At first glance, the whole structure looked like a monster designed to invade humanity.

Mounted on the carrier were several enormous spheres, which appeared to be energy converters, though they were many times larger than the ones used by individuals.

Everyone present already understood what these spheres were, so as they talked, Lu Yin gleaned their usage as well.

They were indeed energy converters, but they were also energy converters with refining properties. If attacked, these energy converters could break down the force of the incoming attack and then refine it into the most basic form of energy, which would then be redirected into the energy converters that people used.

This was how energy converters were used and recharged.