Star Odyssey

Chapter 1782: A Multi-Tiered Strategy

The Infernal Zone, as the name suggested, looks like a dark red portion of space from a distance. Rumors claimed that if someone entered the region and made it out again alive, their strength would quickly spike. However, most people who entered were never seen again.

Shui Pai’s experience had become famous in the Divine Venom Dynasty, and naturally, his tale had also increased the popularity of the Infernal Zone. Entire groups of people would eagerly enter the place, only to die, but people still chased after the potential to grow stronger. Also, there were many people in similar situations to Shui Pai where they were chased by enemies and were forced to enter the Infernal Zone.

Lu Yin saw one such scene as he approached the dark red region of space. Someone screamed as they drove their spaceship straight into the Infernal Zone. They looked like they were facing death, and their eyes were filled with resentment and frustration. Still, they were quickly concealed within the dark red.

Lu Yin’s own vessel came to a stop, and he stared out at the Infernal Zone in a solemn manner.

Yuan Miaomiao looked worried. "Lu- Big Brother Lu, do you really want to go in there?"

Lu Yin nodded. "I have to go in, as there’s something in there that’s important to the Neohuman Alliance. As long as I can find it, the Neohuman Alliance will suffer a terrible blow. You can’t comprehend how much damage the Neohuman Alliance has caused us humans."

"But-"

Yuan Miaomiao hoped to be able to persuade Lu Yin, but he left the ship without any hesitation. Right before he entered the Infernal Zone, he looked back at Yuan Miaomiao and smiled at her. "Wait for me."

Yuan Miaomiao nodded in a determined manner. "If you don’t come back out, I'll go look for you."

Lu Yin smiled. "I’ll definitely be back."

With that, he charged straight into the Infernal Zone.

He moved closer and closer to the dark red region of space, and just as he was about to enter, he heard a familiar voice, "You don’t have any chance."

Lu Yin's expression instantly changed; it was Forgotten Ruins God’s voice.

"How much do you know about what happened in the Horned Galaxy and what’s in the Infernal Zone? Let me see." Forgotten Ruins God’s voice moved closer to Lu Yin, until it sounded as though the person was speaking right in Lu Yin’s ear, which caused Lu Yin to suddenly feel a bone-deep chill.

He clenched his fists tightly as he was confronted with a terrible crisis. The Infernal Zone seemed to disappear from in front of him, and everything in sight suddenly changed color. He could not even see the dark red region of space that should have been right in front of him.

Right after everything disappeared from Lu Yin’s sight, an indistinct figure appeared and raised a hand to grab Lu Yin's head.

Everything at Lu Yin’s disposal was absolutely useless against one of the Seven Skygods, as the gap between them was simply too great.

Suddenly, a set of scales appeared beneath Forgotten Ruins God’s feet once again.

“You were right." The Chief Justice's voice sobered up Lu Yin.

The moment he recovered his mind, Lu Yin raced back to his spacecraft by using the Ce Secret Art. He stared out towards the Infernal Zone towards the scales that had appeared. They were the Chief Justice’s innate gift. Forgotten Ruins God raged, "Qing Ping, why are you here? Why did you return?"

"I never thought that you would give up on Lu Yin, so I just followed him," the Chief Justice casually replied. The arrival of the scales indicated that judgment had already begun. "Of the two of us, only one is able to leave alive."

Forgotten Ruins God sneered. "By yourself? Do you really believe that you can defeat me?"

"This is nothing more than a broken body." As the Chief Justice spoke, the scales started to tip, and the Chief Justice continued to fall as Forgotten Ruins God rose up. The indistinct figure started to dissipate.

Space in Venom Flowzone began to change yet again. Back in Venom King City on Divine Venom Continent, Qing Li looked up and stared towards the region of space that had become chaotic. "Another battle between top experts? What is happening to my Venom Flowzone?"

In another place in Venom Flowzone where Qing Cao was studying the poisonous gas, the man looked up with a blank look on his face; what was going on? Why had a bright sky appeared once again?

Suddenly, a violent shockwave struck everyone. No matter if people were ordinary humans or cultivators, they all started bleeding from all seven orifices. An endless amount of the poisonous gasses that filled Venom Flowzone were ejected into other flowzones. In Fennel Flowzone, the Greenlight Forest began to crack, and the tributary Astral Rivers nearby all started to surge.

Fights between Semi-Progenitor level powerhouses were intense enough to completely change the universe in the eyes of countless people.

Lu Yin’s spacecraft simply exploded, and Lu Yin instinctively grabbed the young woman and raced away.

"Qing Ping, I already told you that you cannot stop me, nor can you defeat me!" Forgotten Ruins God shouted.

When they looked over at Lu Yin and Yuan Miaomiao, the Skygod waved a hand, and layers of space overlapped without end right in front of Lu Yin. His mind went blank for a moment, and he thought he heard the Chief Justice say, "Stop at once!"

Sit and forget? Lu Yin's mind suddenly started racing, as this sounded like the technique that belonged to the Perennial World’s Wang family. They were one of the four ruling powers, and when someone used their technique, their opponent would forget everything. Wang Si had once attacked Lu Yin with the technique, and the Junior Progenitors’ party had become trapped in the Forgotten Ruins in the Dominion Realm.

Forgotten Ruins God, sit and forget, Forgotten Ruins… The member of the Seven Skygods who was in front of Lu Yin was a member of the Wang family!

Lu Yin could not hear anything, and at the moment that Forgotten Ruins God targeted Lu Yin, he was unable to do anything at all.

The Chief Justice became upset, as he was a step too late. Forgotten Ruins God had actually used the Chief Justice in order to go after Lu Yin. The Chief Justice hoped that Lu Yin would not forget too much. Even as these thoughts flashed through the man’s mind, his scales reappeared beneath Forgotten Ruins God’s feet to continue the judgment.

Forgotten Ruins God could only stop targeting Lu Yin in order to return focus onto the Chief Justice, and yet that did not happen. The Skygod would rather receive the Chief Justice’s judgment and continue attacking Lu Yin with the Forgotten Ruins technique.

Lu Yin's face grew slack. Right at the moment that his consciousness was able to completely disappear, the Origin Progenitor’s Sutra was heard, and clarity returned to Lu Yin’s eyes.

"Hey, out of the way!" Venom Flowzone itself was changed as a powerful phantasm swept through the flowzone like an irresistible tide. Even Forgotten Ruins God was shocked. "A Semi-Progenitor?"

The new arrival was Kui Luo, and he had not actually attacked Forgotten Ruins God, but Yuan Miaomiao.

The young woman was blasted away by the Semi-Progenitor’s terrifying spiritual force.

Lu Yin showed no surprise. After all, he had been the one who had set all of this in motion. This was because Yuan Miaomiao was actually Forgotten Ruins God.

The indistinct figure of Forgotten Ruins God who was being judged by the Chief Justice disappeared the moment that Kui Luo’s spiritual force struck Yuan Miaomiao. The Chief Justice's scales stretched out and chased after Yuan Miaomiao as she fled.

Yuan Miaomiao's eyes suddenly changed to become cold and ruthless, and she started giving off a truly terrifying aura. She stared at the Chief Justice and Kui Luo as the scales appeared beneath her feet.

"One of the Seven Skygods, Forgotten Ruins God. The Wang family’s traitor." Kui Luo stepped forward while staring instantly at Yuan Miaomiao with eyes that blazed with killing intent.

The Chief Justice and Yuan Miaomiao each stood on opposite sides of the scales. "So, you are Forgotten Ruins God."

The veil fell away, revealing Yuan Miaomiao's face. It was a beautiful and tempting sight, especially with the image of the love flower that covered half of her face. She truly was beautiful. However, she completely ignored both the Chief Justice and Kui Luo while focusing on Lu Yin with a strange expression. "When did you figure it out?"

Lu Yin wiped the blood away from the corner of his mouth. "Back when the imperial palace was attacked."

Yuan Miaomiao was quite surprised by this. "So Qing Ping and this Semi-Progenitor are both here because of you? I’m certain that I never never revealed even a single flaw, so you shouldn’t have been able to determine anything about me."

"I don’t need to explain anything to you," Lu Yin said solemnly. "Why are you coming after me? Why would you choose to give away Yuan Taishi and the Vitality Poison research that was being done?"

"I don't need to explain anything to you." Yuan Miaomiao showed a gentle smile. "You deliberately brought me here after telling me about that information as a test. The truth is that you don’t even know what the information that old man had was."

"Are you willing to make that bet?"

"Hehe, Lu Yin, I find myself admiring you more and more. If you can tell me why you first questioned my identity, I can spare you from death in the future." Yuan Miaomiao smiled brightly as she said this to Lu Yin.

"You won't have that chance," Lu Yin sneered.

Yuan Miaomiao brushed her hair with a hand. "Xia Shang actually said the same thing, but unfortunately for him, he couldn't do it."

Lu Yin's expression changed; Xia Shang was the forbidden name of Progenitor Chen. This woman had actually interacted with Progenitor Chen, which meant that Progenitor Chen’s emblem on her face was authentic.

"Cut the bullshit! We need to deal with this bitch first." Kui Luo suddenly attacked, and the Chief Justice did not hesitate to continue his judgment. Both of the men attacked Yuan Miaomiao at the same time.

And yet, Yuan Miaomiao still did not look at either powerhouse. She continued to stare at Lu Yin, and her lips moved.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed.

…

There was a bright sky up above as terrifying spiritual force caused Yuan Miaomiao's body to slowly break down. She did not put up much resistance at all, though Lu Yin was not able to see this. This was a battle at the level of Semi-Progenitors, and even if Lu Yin could observe and enter the true universe, he could not see the current battle.

The last time that Lu Yin even saw Yuan Miaomiao was when she mouthed some words to him: ‘I’ll come back.'

From the time that Lu Yin had first discovered Yuan Miaomiao's true identity, to when she was defeated and killed, everything proceeded so smoothly that Lu Yin felt it was all rather surreal.

He looked over at Kui Luo, who did not appear to be at all happy.

"She said she’d come back for me; what did that mean? Isn’t she dead?" Lu Yin asked anxiously. He felt like there was a corpse watching him.

Kui Luo sighed. "Given our strength, it’s very difficult to kill even one of the Seven Skygods."

The Chief Justice butted in, "That was just a body of one of the Seven Skygods."

"Same thing." Kui Luo was clearly upset. He glanced over at the Chief Justice and saw that the man was also unhappy. This person was clearly not even a Semi-Progenitor, and yet Kui Luo could not see through the man’s strength. He also kept himself shrouded in darkness at all times.

"There’s a difference," the Chief Justice solemnly retorted.

Lu Yin could not help himself from asking, "What do you mean ‘a body’?"

Kui Luo rolled his eyes. "The Seven Skygods in the Forsaken Land and the Seven Skygods in the Perennial World are all just bodies of the true Seven Skygods. Their real forms are all Progenitors, and they are all extremely ancient beyond any sort of timeframe that you can even understand."

Lu Yin's expression changed; were they really all Progenitors? He had always wondered why the Twelve Marquises would listen to Shaman God’s orders, as well as why the Seven Skygods would recklessly roam about the Fifth Mainland and the Perennial World without being killed by any Progenitors. This information explained all of that.

"Those seven fossils have all lived for way too long, and their bodies are actually just powered by this Forsaken Land of yours. You can think of them as odd treasures," Kui Luo continued.

Lu Yin felt a chill run down his back. "How can one of the Seven Skygods be someone from the Wang family?"

Kui Luo sneered. "Actually, that person’s the one of the oldest members of the Wang family. Despite their ridiculous age, they always choose a young and beautiful body. It's revolting.

"If even those old monsters in the Wang family need to kneel in respect when they see this old freak, just how old do you think they are?"

Lu Yin was curious about something. "Why does she have Progenitor Chen's emblem on her face?"

"How should I know?" Kui Luo retorted. He then shot Lu Yin a strange look. "Speaking of, you’ve got guts to willingly spend so much time with Forgotten Ruins God. From the looks of it, weren’t you here already?"

"Nope." Lu Yin instantly replied. He already understood what Kui Luo was trying to say.

Kui Luo rolled his eyes once more and showed an odd smile.

Lu Yin was quite aware of the risk he had taken. If Yuan Miaomiao had attacked him before they had arrived at the Infernal Zone, there would have been no one to save Lu Yin. Even thinking about the danger after the fact left him shuddering.