Star Odyssey

Lu Yin stared at Ye Wu, feeling as though he was looking at his former self. While both Lu Yin and Ye Wu had a certain line they refused to cross, Lu Yin knew that there was a distinction between good and evil, even in the world of cultivators.

From the moment Lu Yin had first heard the voices of the countless people of the Fifth Mainland, he had understood this.

Cultivation was not just for a person themselves, but also for protection. In a way, protecting others was protecting oneself.

Many people believed that cultivation meant traversing a lonely path, but that was simply because they chose to walk it alone.

Lu Yin considered his past and how he had schemed against countless people in order to unite the Outerverse and later the Innerverse. Despite how ruthless he had been, he had still had many friends and people he considered family.

It felt good to be cared for by others.

Lu Yin did not want to be alone, and that desire had made his life an arduous one, but there were paths that needed to be paved by others.

Neither Progenitor Chen nor Progenitor Ku had ever chosen to take the easy path.

Despite how much easier things would have been if either had joined Aeternus, both men had always refused to do so.

Both good and evil existed. Right and wrong were real things.

Lu Yin had no desire to try to change Ye Wu’s mind. At the very least, the man had his own principles.

"The Totem Civilization was destroyed by the ruler of the Second Scourge, Xu Jin. He focuses on cultivating the power of consciousness. When the people of the Totem Civilization abandoned their physical forms and sent their consciousness into an illusory world, they became a valuable treasure to him. He would have never allowed such a thing to go free.

"Ask your disciple. The Totem Civilization’s meteorite entered a dark cloud, and that cloud is Xu Jin’s body." Lu Yin informed Ye Wu.

Ye Wu's expression fell. Xu Jin. He would remember the name.

"Xu Jin is one of Aeternus’s Three Pillars and Six Skies, and he is extremely powerful. You won’t be able to kill him on your own. If you want to avenge the Totem Civilization, you’ll need to join forces with us," Lu Yin said.

Ye Wu remained calm. "I won't join you, but thank you for telling me. Now, please leave."

Lu Yin asked another question. "If we go after Xu Jin, will you join us?"

Ye Wu thought for a moment. "Yes."

"Good. Then I’ll come find you again some time." Lu Yin nodded to Mu Ke, and the two left the dark mountains.

Before leaving, Lu Yin made sure to ask Ye Wu if he knew Mister Mu.

The man did not know Lu Yin’s master.

Lu Yin wasn’t surprised. Perhaps this dimension had once had powerful civilizations that were destroyed, including the Totem Civilization. Ye Wu and the others must have appeared after Mister Mu left.

Lu Yin didn’t know how long Mister Mu had lived for. Such circumstances weren’t impossible.

…

On an endless prairie, a breeze stirred up dust.

Further ahead lay the ruins of an Aeternus Kingdom.

A man sat on a pile of stones, breathing heavily. He had finally dealt with the situation.

The nearby Aeternus Kingdom had been under the protection of someone who had betrayed the Nine-Star Civilization. The man had fought the traitor, and he had paid a steep price to unleash the seven-star technique, Ancient Key. With that, the traitor and most of the corpse kings in the Aeternus Kingdom had been sent into the Hollow.

It was a miracle that the man himself had survived, though in the future, he would not be able to use even a three-star technique, as he had crippled himself.

"Zezima, are you alright?" A young girl approached, looking at the man with concern.

He forced out a smile. "I’m fine."

"You released a seven-star attack that’s beyond what you can handle, so just how are you fine? Let me take you to the mentor. Maybe he can help you." The girl’s eyes flushed red.

The man patted her head. "Silly girl. You know the consequences of forcibly using a seven-star attack. It’s already a miracle that I managed to survive. Don’t worry. From now on, I’ll stay at the academy. I’ll help the mentor teach students. Who knows, maybe I’ll train a few geniuses, haha."

The girl started crying. Losing a six-star expert was a tragedy.

However, they had had no other option. The man would have lost the battle if he hadn’t forcefully used the seven-star attack. In that case, he would not have ended up merely crippled, but rather dead.

"Alright, go help clean up the Aeternus Kingdom. I’m going to rest here," the man comforted the girl.

She reluctantly nodded. "Alright."

She moved towards the ruins, though she frequently looked backwards.

Suddenly, the void warped, and multiple figures stepped out. Their arrival was heralded by a terrifying pressure.

A hand reached out and crushed the girl. "Get lost."

The man sitting on the pile of stones stared blankly at the girl’s tragic death.

By the time he finally reacted, a shadow loomed overhead. A massive corpse king stomped a foot down, and blood flowed from the stone pile. "Kill."

"Kill."

"Kill."

…

Far Away, in Star Capital, Kakawen's expression changed drastically as he turned to look into the distance. "This is bad! Have the Aeternals gone mad?"

A piercing alarm echoed across the entire Nine-Star Civilization.

Out on the grassland, at the ruins of the Aeternus Kingdom, powerful figures appeared one after another: Di Qiong, Arrow God, Xu Jin, and Ji Luo. They were followed by Shao Yin, Dual Bladeform, Marquis Wu, Marquis Wang, and a number of Progenitor-level corpse kings. It looked as though Aeternus had sent their full power.

In the distance, Mimina felt the overwhelming pressure of their arrival, and she turned pale.

"Mimina, go for help!" She heard Kakawen's voice as he stepped out of Star Capital and moved towards the invaders.

Mimina hesitated. "Mentor, what about you?"

"Go!" Kakawen barked.

Clenching her teeth, Mimina raced away.

At the ruins, Xu Jin laughed, its lone eyeball turning about. "It’s finally time to end this! Just a reminder, but you need to be careful to not let that old fox Kakawen take you away. He's not someone to be trifled with."

Di Qiong sneered. "An old man? Can he fight against all of us?"

"That old man can take any of us down with him." Xu Jin's eye kept moving around. "Here he comes."

Kakawen flew through the sky. His expression fell when he saw Xu Jin, Di Qiong, and Arrow God. "Aeternals, are you courting death?"

"Hehe, old man, I brought some people here for you. Use that nine-star technique, Restart, now, or else you’ll never get the chance," Xu Jin taunted.

Kakawen's eye twitched. Xu Jin alone was already difficult to deal with, and if not for the threat of mutual destruction, the Nine-Star Civilization would have been destroyed long ago. At this moment, Kakawen was not only confronting Xu Jin, but also many of Aeternus’s other top powerhouses. These people all posed a severe threat, and it was clear that some of them were just as strong as Xu Jin.

Aeternus had come to annihilate the Nine-Star Civilization.

"Xu Jin, you should already understand that my Restart can destroy all creatures in this universe. No matter how many experts you bring, it's still useless," Kakawen threatened. Restart was a technique that could only be used once, but using it would also doom the Nine-Star Civilization.

As the old man finished speaking, an entire series of five-star constellations appeared beside him. Together, they formed a Supreme Shield. A blade pierced the barrier, missing Kakawen by mere millimeters.

Ji Luo had attacked. His sword was unbelievably fast.

However, Kakawen was far from weak. He was the mentor of the Nine-Star Civilization, which meant that he was equal to a sequence powerhouse from the Sixverse Association. At the very least, he was as powerful as the Cyclic Universe’s Three Sovereigns. Such a powerhouse could not be killed by one attack from Ji Luo.

Still, the attack made Kakawen tremble. Just a single moment's delay and he would have died.

"So this is how it’s going to be. I’m just an old bag of bones. If I must die, then so be it. Let's see what Restart looks like." An Supreme Shield surrounded the old man as Kakawen raised his arm. He held a piece of wood in a hand, and it touched the void, sketching out the pattern of a constellation. Quickly, seven stars appeared, followed by an eighth, and then finally, the ninth star appeared.

The moment the ninth star appeared, the universe froze. It was as if both time and space had frozen.

"This is it," Xu Jin muttered, his eye starring at Kakawen.

Beside the dark cloud, Di Qiong, Arrow God, and the others grew solemn. The strongest power of a civilization was finally going to be used against them.

Legend had it that the power of the Nine-Star Civilization's nine-star technique Restart could destroy an entire universe in an instant.

The Nine-Star Civilization had made preparations long ago for Restart to be used. The moment the technique started activating, Star Capital would disappear, so that the inhabitants would be able to avoid the destruction of their universe.

Kakawen had always used Restart to threaten Xu Jin, which had prevented Aeternus from taking action.

However, Xu Jin had held back not only because of the power of the nine-star technique, but also because he did not want to die with his opponent.

Kakawen was old and close to death. Aeternus had infiltrated the Nine-Star Civilization long ago, and they had assurances in place that no new expert would ever arise who would be able to use Restart. Mimina was their most powerful expert after Kakawen, and she was much younger than the old man. All the older experts who had gotten close to the eight-star level had been eliminated by Aeternus. If Mimina ever approached that level, she would also meet her end.

This had been Xu Jin's strategy to deal with the Nine-Star Civilization. All they needed to do was wait for Kakawen to die on his own. His death would mark the end of the Nine-Star Civilization.

However, the declaration of the Divine Commandment changed things, and Xu Jin could not wait any longer.

Restart was an incredibly powerful technique, but it also had a significant weakness: time.

For peak powerhouses, even a moment could be a long time, especially for someone who could wield the power of time.

While Restart froze the universe where it was used, there was a moment during the activation of the technique when people could escape. This single moment was impossible to grasp when a person faced Restart on their own,

However, this opportunity could be exploited by multiple experts if they worked together.

Xu Jin, Arrow God, Di Qiong, Ji Luo, and Shao Yin all attacked in unison, and the universe started to crack apart. The grassland shattered, and fissures ran through the dark sky above.

As Kakawen connected to the ninth star in the constellation he was drawing, the universe itself condensed into a single beam of light that shot at Xu Jin. This was Restart. The technique transformed an entire universe into a beam, destroying all that it struck. Naturally, the universe itself would be destroyed in the process.

The beam shot at Xu Jin, who fled through a spatial tear to escape.

At the same time, Arrow God, Di Qiong, and the others all escaped through spatial tears as well.

All that remained of the Nine-Star Civilization’s universe was the Hollow, the beam of light, and the feeble form of Kakawen himself.

When the beam arrived, Xu Jin was already gone.

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA