Star Odyssey

Chapter 2042

In the end, even after dozens of consecutive explosions, Mt. Microcosms remained firmly in place, blocking the passage to the Starfall Sea. The sole exception was where Corpse God had wedged his hand in, but everything else was tightly sealed off. No matter how hard Corpse God battered at the mountain, all his attacks proved useless.

Lu Buzheng and the others all let out sighs of relief. If Corpse God was able to push Mt. Microcosms out of the passage, he would already have done so. It appeared that the mountain had truly blocked off the passage to the Starfall Sea.

No one knew Corpse God’s true identity, but everyone felt a deep admiration for Progenitor Hui at this time. No matter what, he had been a powerful expert who had risen to become a Progenitor. Even in the ancient past, only the most outstandingly talented cultivators could accomplish such a feat.

In particular, the sourcebox array embedded within Mt. Microcosms contained countless creative ideas. The ancient cultivators could not comprehend how Progenitor Hui had managed to combine modern technology with his sourcebox array.

The echoing explosions stopped after some time. Corpse God was no longer attacking Mt. Microcosms.

Forgotten Ruins God fixed her brilliant eyes onto Lu Yin. "As expected of the man whom I admire. You certainly are quite capable."

Forgotten Ruins God’s stare left chills running down Lu Yin’s back. “You’re complimenting me? Senior, shouldn’t you be thinking about how to leave?"

"Hehe, child, do you think I need to think about leaving? If my Aeternus were so easily defeated, then how could we have destroyed five of the Six Mainlands?" Forgotten Ruins God flashed a charming smile at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin felt confused.

Suddenly, droplets of some liquid flew out from the gap that Corpse God’s hand was holding open between Mt. Microcosms and the barrier. The droplets shot out into the depths of the Fifth Mainland.

Lu Yin's pupils instantly shrank. This was bad!

He was not alone in this feeling, as everyone who recognized those droplets felt their scalps go numb. Those droplets were the same liquid that devoured stellular energy from the true universe.

Right now, there were already eight droplets of the mysterious liquid devouring stellular energy from the true universe, and except for a few specific places, it was nearly impossible to recover stellular energy in the entire Fifth Mainland. At this moment, no less than ten more droplets had been shot into the Fifth Mainland. Now, rather than stellular energy being simply devoured from the true universe, the stellular energy and star energy within people’s bodies was actually being pulled out.

No one could stop this from happening. The droplets entered the Fifth Mainland exceptionally quickly, and as they did so, Lu Yin felt a pulse of power unlike anything he had ever felt before wash over him. With that feeling affecting him, he did not dare to even move as he watched the droplets fly away.

A short time later, the entire Fifth Mainland quivered from the accelerated rate at which stellular energy was being drained from the true universe.

The Innerverse’s eastern flowzones and the Outerverse’s central weaves had both been places where people could recover their stellular energy, but now, they were no different from any other place in the Human Domain. Even the Neoverse’s 3,000 hidden worlds’ stellular energy was being pulled out of their pocket dimensions.

At this time, the Fifth Mainland had fully entered an era without even a single scrap of stellular energy.

"Are you launching a sneak attack?" Lu Buzheng yelled. The Immovable Heavenly King Elephant appeared behind him as he released a punch and smashed into the Semi-Progenitor corpse king. The corpse king’s body was covered with ten lined battle force, though it was not golden.

With the corpse king’s already incredibly physical strength further boosted by ten lined battle force, the creature was able to physically suppress any opponent at a similar cultivation realm.

However, the corpse king's punch was blasted back by Lu Buzheng. Not only was the corpse king forced back, but its arm also shattered.

"Do you think that I, Lu Buzheng, can only rely on the Tri-Yang Ancestral Qi Technique?" As the man spoke, he lifted a hand. The void twisted and formed a needle that stabbed into Lu Buzheng’s hand before flying towards the Semi-Progenitor corpse king. This was Hidden Needle, one of the Lu family’s most famous battle techniques.

However, the Hidden Needle did not travel very far before it gradually vanished.

Lu Buzheng was shocked to see this, and he looked up to see a droplet of the mysterious liquid still crazily consuming more and more stellular energy. In the past, only the true universe’s stellular energy had been affected, which had made it impossible for people to recover their energy reserves. However, at this moment, stellular energy was even being sapped away from battle techniques. How could anyone overcome this? Cultivators who relied on stellular energy had become helpless.

Lu Yin frowned at the sight. What sort of problem would this mean for the future? In the current era, practically all cultivators depended on star energy and stellular energy. If these energies completely disappeared, how would cultivators be able to fight? It was one thing to be unable to restore one’s energy reserves, but being unable to fight at all was an entirely different matter.

Lu Buzheng was cultivated with stellular energy, but fortunately for him, he was powerful even without stellular energy due to his visualization technique. However, the Envoys who followed Lu Yin were different. Upon losing the ability to use stellular energy, the strength of those Envoys plummeted. They no longer possessed the power of Envoys.

"Hehe, so, what other methods do you have left now?" Forgotten Ruins God revealed an enchanting smile as her beautiful eyes swept across the gathered Semi-Progenitors fighting for humanity.

Kui Luo gave the woman an odd look. "Don’t you also use stellular energy?"

Forgotten Ruins God’s smile became a smirk. "If I only used stellular energy, what would the difference between you and me be?"

All the Semi-Progenitors stared at the woman. Even at this time, Forgotten Ruins God had not revealed herself as anything other than completely human. She had used the Wang family’s battle techniques, a human innate gift, and even stellular energy. If not for the fact that she was one of the Seven Skygods, who would even suspect her of being an Aeternal? She was completely different from Ancient God.

But at this moment, with all stellular energy being rendered useless, Forgotten Ruins God revealed another form of power that she had received after joining Aeternus.

"Watch carefully. This is the power bestowed upon us by Aeternus’s True God Wei Yi.1 We call this divine energy." As she spoke, Forgotten Ruins God's normal-looking eyes grew dark as a new depth emerged in them. It was as though her eyes had replaced the darkness of interstellar space, and the light that filled them was a vortex drawing in everyone's attention.

Her hair rose into the air, fluttering about as a stream of dark-red energy surged out from her body and began to spread out more and more. The energy encompassed everyone before continuing to expand past them, filling the entire region of space around them with a dark-red color. It looked like the color of a dying star, and it gave off a feeling of worry, fear, and despair.

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Chills completely covered Lu Yin’s body. This was the same power that he had just sensed when the droplets had been shot into the Fifth Mainland. The level was different, but the essence that Lu Yin felt was exactly the same. It had been this power.

Was this the power of the Aeternals’ True God?

Every Progenitor was capable of influencing the universe. They were able to develop new cultivation methods or even open up pocket dimensions where humans and other creatures could live. This was the power of a Progenitor.

The Rune Progenitor had created rune technology, which led to countless runes spreading across the universe.

Progenitor Chen had created stars and planets with his Cosmic Art.

The legendary God of Death had created death energy.

Every Progenitor was able to alter the universe in their own way, and True God was no exception. It was only at this moment that Lu Yin finally understood the power of the Aeternals’ True God, and this realization heavily impacted Lu Yin.

If death energy gave off a feeling of oddness and eminence, then this energy gave a feeling of oppression and despair as it tried to completely replace stellular energy.

"Stellular energy? Such a thing no longer makes any sense. The Origin Progenitor is dead, so stellular energy is useless. You are idiots for still cultivating with it." Forgotten Ruins God continued to release more and more of the Aeternals’ divine energy, and as she did so, both her voice and demeanor grew increasingly cold as her entire temperament noticeably changed. It was as if she were some princess who had emerged from hell as she raised a hand and her nine wolves let out roars.

Lu Buzheng, Hen Xin, and Jue Yi moved together as they stared at Forgotten Ruins God. Fear filled their eyes. During their era, the Aeternals had been much, much weaker than humans, and no one had even bothered trying to comprehend their unique power. This was why they also had no understanding of this so-called divine energy, just like Lu Yin and the others from the modern era.

"Do it!" Hen Xin shouted as he slashed space apart and attacked the Skygod with the portion of space that he removed. It did not matter what power Hen Xin faced, as he could simply fight with the power of space.

Forgotten Ruins God sneered, and the energy that she had released pulled back like a tide as she suddenly and completely vanished.

Then, she reappeared at the place where Corpse God’s hand was wedged into the passage to the Starfall Sea. She shot through it and disappeared from the Fifth Mainland.

"They want to escape. Attack!" Lu Buzheng shouted as he released another attack at the Semi-Progenitor corpse king.

The portion of space that Hen Xin had cut out had been intended to strike Forgotten Ruins God, but with her disappearance, he changed targets and forced the severed space to the side to attack the Semi-Progenitor astral beast. Hen Xin's attack was far too fast, and his attack had already been launched beforehand, so the astral beast had no time to react before it was torn in half by the spatial attack.

However, the Semi-Progenitor corpse king was not that easy of an opponent. When the creature facing Lu Buzheng saw the approaching punch, the corpse king’s full power exploded, causing it to be captured and dragged away by the mental network. This was the same tactic that Marquis Green Bamboo had employed against Destina.

Once the corpse king was seized by the mental network, there was nothing that Lu Buzheng and the others could do, as none of them had the ability to break through the manifested thoughts.

Lu Yin stood on Ancestor Tortoise’s back, stunned by the sudden change. Forgotten Ruins God clearly possessed the ability to fight back, and she had even held the advantage against them with the true universe being drained of all stellular energy. Why had she not taken any further action against humanity’s forces?

Over the course of his years cultivating, Lu Yin had dealt with Aeternus far too many times, and he knew that each of the Seven Skygods was craftier than the next. He would never risk underestimating Aeternus.

There had to be a reason for Forgotten Ruins God's sudden retreat. This was no different from how the Aeternals had not wantonly slaughtered all the humans in the Fifth Mainland after their initial victory. Instead, they had been content to wait for the humans to gather together.

"A Semi-Progenitor astral beast died so simply, despite being a Semi-Progenitor." Mavis Yunying sighed as her voice rang in Lu Yin's ear.

Her words startled him, and Lu Yin stepped out into outer space and approached the astral beast’s corpse that had been torn to pieces by Hen Xin’s spatial attack. Lu Yin’s Champions’ Stage appeared. “By my name, I anoint a Champion."

"Wait!" Lu Buzheng saw Lu Yin trying to anoint the Semi-Progenitor as a champion, and he hurriedly called out to stop Lu Yin, but it was already too late.

Lu Yin anxiously stared at his Champions’ Stage. He had no idea if he could actually anoint a Semi-Progenitor champion, so this was a very risky move. If he succeeded, his combat strength would undergo a qualitative leap forwards, as he would be able to summon a Semi-Progenitor to fight for him. If not… He did not even want to consider the potential consequences. All he knew was that he had finally seen a Semi-Progenitor die, and the corpse was right in front of him. He had to try no matter what the potential consequences might be.

However, as soon as he heard Lu Buzheng's voice, Lu Yin's heart dropped. This was not good.

The next moment, he felt as though an invisible power had hammered his brain. He spat out a large mouthful of blood, and his face grew pale. At the same time, his Champions’ Stage disappeared.

Both Kui Luo and Lu Buzheng instantly appeared next to Lu Yin at the same time.

"You are too ignorant! Has no one told you that you can never attempt to anoint a Semi-Progenitor champion until you’ve passed at least six tribulations? Even during the Heavens Sect’s era, the Lu family’s Dao Chosen only tried to anoint a Semi-Progenitor champion after passing through six stellular tribulations!" Lu Buzheng scolded Lu Yin.

Kui Luo stared at Lu Yin's weakened state. "This won’t kill him, right?"

Lu Buzheng helped support Lu Yin. "No, but it will take him a long time before he’ll be able to cultivate again because he just received a powerful backlash from his innate gift. This isn’t something that can be cured by medicine or elixirs. There’s no external power that can help him with this. He needs to recover on his own."

Lu Yin was assaulted by a splitting headache. He had truly acted too impulsively this time. When he saw that Semi-Progenitor’s corpse, he had wanted to use it to strengthen himself.

The truth was that Lu Yin had contributed almost nothing to any battle after the droplets of mysterious liquid had appeared and started devouring stellular energy from the true universe. Seeing his own helplessness had left Lu Yin eager to push his combat strength to the Semi-Progenitor level so that he could help change humanity’s crisis. His desire for power had grown so strong that he had ignored the difference in realms between him and his desired champion.

"How long will I need to recover?" Lu Yin asked wearily.

Lu Buzheng considered the question. "Why does it seem like you don’t know anything about your own innate gift? Ignoring the fact that you just tried to anoint a Semi-Progenitor as a champion despite being a one-tribulation Envoy, how do you not even know anything about your own innate gift’s backlash?"

Lu Yin had no answer to give.

Kui Luo was the one to unhappily reply, "The Lu family is gone. Who can teach him these things?"

Lu Buzheng was stunned. "What was that? The Lu family is gone?"

Hen Xin and Jue Yi both stared at Kui Luo at this moment, as did Sky Garan. All of them were openly incredulous.

[1] Wei Yi means "the only one," but also is used as his name. All together, he is "the one and only true god." ☜