Star Odyssey

Chapter 1835: Struggle

In the Cosmic Sect, Yuan Qiong leaped to his feet when the call was cut short. Something had clearly happened, so he raced away to find Elder Gong.

…

Lu Yin had no idea how much time passed, but he was awakened by a stinging pain. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was on a barren planet with an enormous maelstrom covering the sky. It was a yellow cyclone that stretched out of sight.

What had happened? Why was he in this place? Lu Yin's mind raced as he tried to figure out what had happened.

The earth was stained red, and when Lu Yin looked down, he saw that it was due to the blood streaming from his own right leg. It had been badly injured and was also the source of the stinging pain that had woken him.

"Unbelievable." A hoarse and flat voice spoke up from behind Lu Yin. He was still laying on the ground, staring at his bleeding right leg, and remaining absolutely still as he recalled what had happened. He had been speaking with the Cosmic Sect’s master, Yuan Qiong, when he had instantly lost consciousness. A true powerhouse had attacked him.

Given Lu Yin’s current strength, not even Envoys with power levels of 800,000 or 900,000 could instantly deal with him. While he was not able to defeat Envoys with power levels of 700,000, he could still put up a fight without losing. At the moment, even if Lu Yin faced off against someone as strong as Cang Zhou, he would still be able to put up a fight. However, he had not been able to mount any sort of resistance at all against the person who had attacked him, and Lu Yin did not even know how he had lost consciousness.

Who was speaking to him? The voice was not familiar.

"You’re only an Enlighter, and yet your body possesses a physical strength that surpasses what most Envoys are capable of even after reaching a power level of 600,000. This is simply incredible. It’s no wonder you were able to create so much trouble in this Forsaken Land and establish that Great Eastern Alliance." The flat, hoarse voice continued.

Lu Yin's eyes narrowed. The Perennial World called the Fifth Mainland the Forsaken Land.

"Still pretending to be unconscious?" A terrible pain shot through Lu Yin’s left leg, and more blood dripped onto the ground. Off in the distance, the maelstrom picked up sand and rocks into the air, and it looked as though the sky above him was about to drop down and crush him.

Lu Yin wiggled his fingers and slowly sat up. He turned his head and saw a blurry figure. It was impossible to see who the person was, if they were male or female, or even if they were fat or skinny. This blurred image seemed to block Lu Yin’s sight somehow.

His pupils transformed into runes, and he stared at the person, but what he saw was a number of runes that could not even match up to an Envoy with a power level of 600,000.

This was impossible. There was no way that an Envoy with that sort of power level could possibly be strong enough to defeat Lu Yin so easily.

"Who are you?" Lu Yin warily asked.

The figure looked at Lu Yin. "It's time to end this, Lu Xiaoxuan."

Lu Yin's expression changed. He gritted his teeth and solemnly asked, "Who did the Perennial World send after me? Even if you want me dead, at least tell me who’s killing me."

"Dead men don’t need to know such things." As they spoke, the blurry figure waved their right arm like it was a blade. It sliced through the air, the ground, and apparently, even a planet. The pressure of the attack suppressed Lu Yin even as his skin tore open from the blade-like attack.

An incomparably sharp edge descended. This was a more powerful attack than Lu Yin had ever faced before.

As though by reflex, an astral chessboard appeared beneath Lu Yin’s feet, and he moved.

The only abilities that Lu Yin could use against Envoys were his physical strength, his spiritual force, his domain, and his battle force. Absolutely any technique or ability that used star energy in any form could not be used, and yet his secret technique somehow succeeded. Even though the sharp attack that had been launched at Lu Yin was overwhelming, it had not suppressed any of the star energy in the area.

After Lu Yin moved away, his eyes flickered, and he moved again. This time, he attempted to enter the true universe to escape.

The blurry figure instantly appeared in front of Lu Yin, moving far faster than Lu Yin and blocking his path. The sharp attack appeared again, and this time, the runes that Lu Yin saw exceeded a power level of 700,000. Clearly, this hidden person did not merely have a power level of 600,000, but was instead doing something to hide their strength.

Lu Yin instantly left the true universe by dodging the attack with the Ce Secret Art. He focused on the space in front of him, and the moment the blurry figure appeared, Lu Yin released a Hollow Palm.

Hollow Palm was not a purely physical attack like Vacuum Palm, as it incorporated everything that a person was capable of unleashing, such as domain, battle force, and more. A single Hollow Palm was the same as being struck by Lu Yin’s most powerful attack that used star energy.

It was difficult to know if Lu Yin would have struggled this much against Jiu Han if he had possessed the Hollow Palm back then. She had been quite weak to spiritual force attacks and domain attacks, and just a single Hollow Palm might have been enough to force out the woman’s trump cards.

However, Lu Yin's Hollow Palm failed him. While the attack did land on the blurry figure, it did not cause any damage at all. Instead, the person just voiced a bit of surprise. “Impressive palm attack! It carries a variety of different energies, and anyone weaker than you would definitely be injured. Very good."

The figure then raised an arm and swung it down, releasing another sharp attack that swept forward like a blade.

It looked like this was the only attack method that this person intended to use.

However, Lu Yin did not want to avoid this attack. Instead, his pupils transformed into runes, and he started to weaken the attack while simultaneously setting up a Channeling Diagram.

Against this sharp attack, Truesight managed to erase a tremendous number of runes, but the attack still struck the sourcebox array and sliced through the Channeling Diagram before continuing on towards Lu Yin.

He quickly retreated to dodge the attack, and the sharp slice swept past his side, tearing through the void and space as it passed by.

Just what was this mysterious person thinking? This was clearly a powerful attack, but it was very easy to dodge. It was also obvious that Lu Yin’s attacker was powerful enough to instantly deal with Lu Yin and also suppress his star energy, and yet they had not done so. Just what was this person’s goal?

Since star energy was not being suppressed, Lu Yin decided to do his best. He formed a sword with his star energy and released the Fourteenth Sword.

"Oh? A sword technique that surpasses the Thirteenth Sword? Unfortunately, the gap between us is too vast for this to be able to hurt me." The blurry figure said as they once more slashed down with their arm. Lu Yin was feeling more and more stifled.

Determination filled Lu Yin's eyes, and he released Daynight Praises next in an attempt to overwhelm his attacker with spiritual force. But once again, all efforts proved useless.

This person was clearly allowing Lu Yin to use everything at his disposal, which felt very similar to what Mister Mu had done when he had accepted Lu Yin as his disciple. However, at the moment, Lu Yin’s opponent was actually trying to kill him. Lu Yin could sense the power of the blade-like attacks, and the strength behind them never changed at all. If he was ever cornered or slipped up, Lu Yin would die. This person was simply toying with him.

Lu Yin raised a hand and brought out the Champions’ Stage. “With my name, I summon a champion."

Finally, the blurry figure’s arm hesitated while swinging down. "The Lu family’s Champions’ Stage? Who did you summon?"

It was pointless for Lu Yin to summon a champion with his star energy. His only option was to summon champions with his death energy: Cang Zhou, Long Yi, and finally, Jiu Han.

The three Envoys charged the blurry figure as Lu Yin stared at his opponent. He wanted to see just how powerful this person actually was.

"Useless." After uttering a single word, the blurred figure attacked the champions in the exact same manner that they had attacked Lu Yin. The blade-like attack swept out, and Cang Zhou, Long Yi, and Jiu Han were all sliced in half at the same time. Death energy recoiled within Lu Yin’s chest, and he retreated a few steps, slightly weakened. He stared at his opponent in shock.

"While merely an Enlighter, you’re able to summon Envoys from your Champions’ Stage, and there are even champions with power levels of more than 700,000. Quite impressive, but unfortunately, Lu Xiaoxuan, you will still die. When you see your Lu family again, say hello for me." The blurry figure raised a hand once more and sent out another slashing attack.

Lu Yin's blazed, and the astral chessboard reappeared beneath his feet. However, this time, he did not try to dodge, but instead moved himself directly behind his attack. He threw out another Hollow Palm, and this time, numerous Hollow Palms rained down upon the blurry figure. An arm swept up and down, releasing slashing attacks to counter Lu Yin’s Hollow Palms, but Lu Yin did not retreat. He instead appeared on the other side of his attacker with the Teleportation Formation. At the same time, he pulled out the Void Rip sourcebox array and released the attack.

Two points were connected by a line, and the Void Rip swept forward. However, the Void Rip did not cause any damage to the blurry figure, as the sourcebox array had only contained the first part of the technique.

"Is this all you have?" The blurry figure raised an arm high. "Then you can go to hell."

Lu Yin suddenly sneered. "Too bad, but I can't die yet. You should take care of yourself first."

The blurry figure felt puzzled, but they hesitated just as they were about to drop their arm. They stared at their arm just in time to see a drop of some sort of transparent liquid melting into their skin. "Poison?"

"That’s not even an ordinary poison, so go save your life," Lu Yin said as an astral chessboard appeared beneath his feet. He moved, trying again to escape.

When Lu Yin had appeared behind his attacker for the second time, which was when he had used the Teleportation Formation, he had left a drop of Samaritan’s Tears in the air. The moment the blurry figure had spun around to attack, their raised arm had come into contact with the poison, which was precisely what Lu Yin had predicted.

His attacker was simply too confident. Every time they attacked, their arm followed the exact same movements, which just went to show how little they regarded Lu Yin. After all, Samaritan’s Tears were not invisible or undetectable. Just when Lu Yin had thought that all of his options were useless, a poison had finally managed to prove effective.

Yi’s Emporium had claimed that Samaritan’s Tears was Venom Flowzone’s most potent poison, and they had even claimed that an Envoy with a power level of 700,000 had once been killed by the poison. Lu Yin had then Enhanced the poison with his die, which meant that it should be deadly even to experts with power levels of 900,000. Even more importantly, Lu Yin had learned that Samaritan’s Tears was developed by the Neohuman Alliance, just like Vitality Poison. Thus, its toxicity could not be evaluated merely by its power level.

In fact, Lu Yin had nearly died to Samaritan’s Tears despite using Extremes Must Be Reversed.

Lu Yin had spent nearly 2 billion star essence Enhancing this poison, so even if the blurry figure was a master with a power level of a million, they still might meet their death from this poison.

At the moment, all that Lu Yin could do was try to escape, and the further, the better.

Back where Lu Yin had awoken, the blurry figure stared at their arm. "This poison is so vicious even after all this time! How could that child have such a thing?"

The figure then disappeared.

Lu Yin turned his head back, but he saw that the overwhelming number of runes had disappeared. He glanced around in all directions, afraid that his attacker might strike from the true universe.

Luckily, the blurry figure had truly left.

The Samaritan’s Tears had proven powerful enough that Lu Yin felt truly lucky.

He glanced down at his wrist and saw that his gadget had not been damaged during the scuffle. He tried to call Yuan Qiong, only to learn that there was no signal. This barren planet was apparently in some sort of pocket dimension or isolated space.

Lu Yin jumped into the air, intending to leave the planet.

He charged into the maelstrom that looked like a collapsing sky. The storm looked like it could destroy anything, but it posed no danger to Lu Yin. He easily pierced through the storm. However, he was not met by outer space on the other side of the storm, but rather by a white mist. As he looked around, there was a massive pillar, and the landmass that he had been atop of was nothing more than the top of that pillar.