Star Odyssey

"Wasn't there supposed to be a super-sized underground auction? Why hasn't it started yet?"

"Let's wait a little longer. Maybe it takes more time to prepare something bigger."

"But shouldn't someone have let us know by now? We've been waiting for so long."

...

Another hour passed. "I need to get back to cultivating. When is this thing going to start? If it doesn't start soon, I’m just going to leave."

"That won't do. We came all this way, using up the time meant for cultivation. If we leave empty-handed, it's as good as wasting all that time."

"Where's Luo Lao'er? He’s the one who told me about this. He should get out here and give us an explanation."

"I was also informed by that guy."

"I heard about this from Old Jiu."

"Old Jiu told me too."

"I found out from Kang Laodi."

"Where did all of them go to?"

Luo Lao'er’s stomach was churning. "Why hasn't it started yet? Please hurry! My heart can't handle this."

If the auction did not take place, he could only imagine how many people would be after his hide.

Another hour soon passed. Lu Yin and the others had been waiting for three hours, but some people had arrived even earlier and had been waiting for five or six hours. The atmosphere was growing increasingly tense.

A sudden scream caught everyone's attention.

"Old Jiu, how dare you run!" someone shouted.

A person with a mask that had a flower pattern started to panic and escape, but was quickly captured. "I don't know! I didn't deceive you all. Someone really did ask me to spread word about this! I wouldn't dare to deceive all of you seniors, not even if I had ten times more courage!"

"You told everyone about this just because someone told you to?" Someone raised a hand and slapped the man.

Luo Lao'er instinctively covered his face and shrank behind Lu Yin.

Old Jiu shrieked, "The person who asked me to spread the word said that they’d reward me with 0.001% of the auction's sales!"

"Then where's the auction? Where’s the person who got you to tell us? Find them!" With a loud smack, another slap landed.

Luo Lao'er's heart pounded as he clung to Lu Yin. "Seventh Bro, Brother-in-law, please protect me!"

Suddenly, Lu Yin softly growled, "Let's go."

He immediately grabbed Luo Lao'er and Seruzen and rushed toward the west.

Mu Mu had been keeping an eye on Lu Yin the entire time, so the moment she saw him grab Seruzen, she shouted furiously, "Bold!"

She leaped forward, but a powerful aura abruptly blanketed the area. It felt like a dark cloud pressing down on the students that made it hard for them to breathe.

Shao Qingfeng's expression changed to shock. "It's the Blind One, run!"

The moment the words "Blind One" were mentioned, everyone panicked and fled in every possible direction.

Lu Yin turned back to see an old man descending upon the chaotic crowd. The man’s eyes were covered by a black veil, but his sinister smile could be seen. With a nonchalant flick of his hand, people were sent crashing to the ground, instantly incapacitated. The old man was as strong as a six-tribulation Envoy.

Luo Lao'er was astonished. "Why is the Blind One here?"

"Who’s ‘the Blind One’?" Lu Yin asked as he and Luo Lao'er fled as far as possible with Seruzen.

Luo Lao'er said, "The Blind One is the expert who patrols the borders of the schools. The Sixverse Academy strictly prohibits students from visiting other schools, and anyone caught breaking that rule is punished. However, the Blind One is just one person, and he’s also blindfolded, so many people are able to make the trip between different schools, and also visit Cliff Town. Besides, the Blind One rarely does anything, which makes this strange. Why did he show up today?"

He suddenly thought of a possibility, and it made his expression turn ugly. Had the promised reward been fake? Had someone been playing a trick on them? That would be a huge problem, as Luo Lao’er had helped out with the promotion. Damn it!

Behind them, the Blind One continued aggressively capturing students. Because he had noticed things early and slipped away, Lu Yin and the other two were already out of the Blind One's range.

Mu Mu chased after him. "Let go of Seruzen!"

Lu Yin let go as he turned around, only to come face to face with a punch from Mu Mu. However, before the punch could land, Mu Mu was dragged into a card’s pocket dimension.

Lu Yin had placed his Hidden Mountain card between them. Mu Mu had been caught off guard, so she had fallen right in. Lu Yin quickly followed her and also entered the Hidden Mountain card.

Seruzen stared at the card as it disappeared back into the void. How was that possible? Even if it had been a surprise, it should not have been that easy to drag Mu Mu into a card. There had been a fair distance between them, and Mu Mu should have also noticed the card.

Luo Lao'er was amazed by the battle style of the Lost Clan. He also wanted to learn it.

Inside the Hidden Mountain card, Mu Mu held back a mountain with both hands, just like what Jiang Xiaodao had once done.

Lu Yin stared at her and commented, "With your strength, just one punch would have either killed me or left me severely injured. That was going too far."

Mu Mu stared at Lu Yin and said, "You're Xuan Qi."

Lu Yin took off his mask. "That’s right."

Mu Mu had not expected to also be deceived by Xuan Qi. She had heard about how Jiang Xiaodao had been tricked by Xuan Qi during their match, and even though Jiang Xiaodao had ultimately won, it had not been easy for him. She also knew that Jiang Xiaodao must have actually lost. Given his personality, how would he willingly stepped back if he had won?

Xuan Qi had achieved victory by utilizing a combination of voidforce energy to control the village voidforce puppet, and then combining it with the Hidden Mountain card. She had not expected to be similarly tricked into falling into the card.

However, why had she not noticed the card in the void?

The Lost Clan's fighting style was quite unique, but it was not so strange that she could not notice a card with so much distance between them. "How did you hide the card?"

Lu Yin chuckled. "Why should I tell you?"

Mu Mu took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I acted impulsively. I thought that you were going to do something to Seruzen."

Even knowing that she had targeted Xuan Qi did not cause the woman to think too much about her actions.

Lu Yin shook his head. "The Blind One had already appeared, and despite seeing him, you still attacked me. I can understand that you're eager to protect Seruzen, but I can't accept that you still attacked me."

"What do you want?" Mu Mu asked.

At that moment, several mountains appeared and pressed down upon Mu Mu, burying her underground, just like what had happened to Jiang Xiaodao. She spat out a mouthful of blood as she glared at Lu Yin. "Xuan Qi, there are no grudges between us."

"You almost killed me with that punch!" Lu Yin coldly retorted.

Mu Mu lowered her head. "I apologize."

Lu Yin's expression softened a bit. "That's more like it."

He then left the Hidden Mountain card, and as he did so, Mu Mu followed closely behind.

She had initially wanted to burn Lu Yin's Hidden Mountain card as she had done when captured by Jiang Xiaodao's card, but the Hidden Mountain Card was different from the other cards that she had encountered before. The moment she was dragged into the isolated space, she had been suppressed by the mountains. Even with her Golden Crow, burning the card was impossible.

It could be said that, when someone was pulled into a seven-star card, half of the battle had already been lost.

Mu Mu watched as Lu Yin put away the Hidden Mountain card. "If Jiang Xiaodao had that card, he would go wild."

"Which is why he doesn't have it. All things follow their predetermined course," Lu Yin replied.

Mu Mu gave him a strange look before glancing over at Seruzen. "Did you teach him that?"

Seruzen calmly replied, "Fate brought us together. We share similar thoughts."

Mu Mu rolled her eyes. "I don't understand what you're saying. Anyway, hurry back before the Blind One comes. If he catches you, the punishment will be no joke."

After saying that, she gave Lu Yin a pointed look and left.

Luo Lao'er also left to head back to the Voidforce School, while Lu Yin and Seruzen returned to the Lost Clan School.

The incident in Cliff Town had a very extensive impact on the academy. Dozens of people had been captured by the Blind One, and they were all incarcerated.

Little Lian let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Lu Yin was unharmed. "Seventh Bro, I’m so thankful you didn't go to Cliff Town. It would've been terrible if you were caught. Nobody can endure his confinement."

Lu Yin smiled. "I did go. I was just lucky enough to not get caught."

Little Lian gave him a look of admiration. "That’s impressive, Seventh Bro. I heard that the secret auction never even started, right?"

Lu Yin shook his head. "The organizers should have known that the Blind One would be coming, so it never started. Little Lian, why didn't you go?"

Little Lian shook her head. "I couldn't get there in time."

After chatting for a while, Little Lian left, and Lu Yin settled down to cultivate.

More than ten days passed before things calmed down after the events that took place in Cliff Town. Luo Lao'er struggled during this time, as people caused trouble for him everywhere he went, and the same was true for the other people who had been involved in spreading word of the auction.

Also during this time, Lu Yin occasionally met with Seruzen and grew closer to the man. Eventually, Lu Yin managed to ask about Seruzen's past.

Seruzen had no awareness of the existence of either the Fifth Mainland or the Origin Universe. He only knew that he had accidentally ended up in the Arboreal Realm and had cultivated there ever since. Through a fortunate coincidence, he had obtained a specific innate gift, and that had then led to his current status.

Seruzen explained that, while his cultivation had not gone smoothly over the past few decades, it also had not been filled with obstacles. His progress had been neither fast nor slow, but quite normal for a cultivator.

If not for his innate gift, he would have died in the Arboreal Realm, and Lu Yin would have never gotten the chance to meet the man again.

As Seruzen himself said, everything was an arrangement of fate.

"The Arboreal Realm is rather bizarre. When it comes to researching trees, they've achieved the pinnacle of knowledge. In their eyes, trees are not merely trees, but rather organisms that breathe, think, feel, and most importantly, possess souls," Seruzen murmured.

"Each tree has its own unique soul, just like people. It’s important to them that trees be respected the same as you would a person. The more respect that’s given, the more you may receive in return."

Lu Yin listened, somewhat understanding, but also a bit confused.

More than two months had passed since he had arrived in the Lost Clan School. When combined with the two and a half months that he had spent in the Voidforce School, Lu Yin realized that he had spent exactly five months in the Sixverse Academy. It was time for him to move on to the third school.

He had decided to go to the Arboreal School.

The Fifth Mainland was home to both the Mother Tree and Big Face Tree. If the Arboreal Realm could give him the ability to obtain an innate gift from a tree, he wanted to save that opportunity for after he returned to the Fifth Mainland. Receiving an innate gift from the Mother Tree would certainly be worth looking forward to.

…

In a hidden space within the Transcendent Universe, a group of people were staring at a display while holding their breaths as they watched the spinning images.

An old man stood at the front. He had a rotund figure and disheveled hair, which gave him the appearance of a madman. His eyes were practically glued to the screen.

The images on the display spun faster and faster until, eventually, a green light emerged.

Mouths fell open, and then everyone erupted into cheers.

The old man clenched his hands into fists as he leaped into the air. "We've succeeded! We’ve finally succeeded!"

He looked over at Zi Jing, who was next to him, also staring at the display. "Girl, you're the only one who could have helped us make this breakthrough. Now, we've finally succeeded."

Zi Jing looked back at the old man. "We've only just begun."

The old man laughed. "Even though this is just the beginning, we can at least confirm that this method is correct. Our analysis was right, haha."

"Congratulations, Teacher. You've achieved your goal. You've analyzed the sequence particles," someone said.

Right after that, the round of congratulations continued.

News of their success almost instantly reached the ears of the perfect woman. She descended the stairs, her bare feet stepping on the flowers that covered them. Her passage stirred up a gentle breeze that caused the petals to spin upwards behind her. The drifting petals only added to the sacredness of the scene. Each step that was taken caused the red bells worn on the woman’s bare feet to tinkle softly. "Lock down that news. Anyone who dares to leak anything will be killed without mercy."

"Yes."

"The day my Transcendent Universe reigns over the Sixverse Association is fast approaching," the woman said as she raised her head. Her flawless face seemed unattainably lofty in the light as the red ribbon that bound her long hair fluttered gently in the breeze.