Star Odyssey

Chapter 2966: Lightning Strikes

The Scourge suddenly shook. Lu Yin stood up in his tower and looked into the distance. The origin of the vibrations was the area of the Seven Skygods’ towers. One of those towers had just collapsed.

He stepped out of his tower, where he found his maid respectfully standing and waiting for him.

"What just happened? Go ask," Lu Yin ordered.

People like Ye Bo would draw attention if they roamed about the Scourge, while the maids from the various towers were generally ignored. This made it more convenient for them to go and ask questions.

The maid bowed in assent and went away.

Some time later, she returned. "My lord, Shaman God’s tower collapsed."

Lu Yin was not surprised. Since Shaman God was dead, it only made sense for his tower to be destroyed. However, why did it happen at this time?

"Another tower is about to be built on the same location. It’s said that someone is about to become the next Skygod," the maid explained.

Now, this information surprised Lu Yin. "Can you find out who it will be?"

"Supposedly, it will be Shao Yin."

Lu Yin frowned. Did Shao Yin really want to take Shaman God’s place among the Seven Skygods? Regardless of how well the man had accomplished his last mission, did he really possess the necessary strength?

Ever since the Great Sovereign had revoked Shao Yin's power, his strength had become very unstable. However, it turned out that he had hidden a great deal of his strength, and his true cultivation method was to use yin to feed yang and yang to feed yin, creating a cycle of yin and yang. At the moment, Shao Yin was striving for a breakthrough to merge yin and yang. Once he succeeded, his strength would rise precipitously. There was no saying what level he would reach then.

If he was really qualified to become one of the Seven Skygods, then had he finally succeeded in merging yin and yang and transforming his power?

It should not have been that easy.

However, even if Shao Yin had not reached the required level of strength, it was possible that he had accumulated enough merit within Aeternus and that they were willing to wait until his strength met the necessary requirements.

What mission had he completed?

Lu Yin started to feel a bit uneasy. Shao Yin’s mission had to have somehow targeted the Lord of Lightning. After the attack on Earth, Aeternus had confirmed that the Lord of Lightning was in possession of the three treasures that they were seeking. Soon after, they had attacked the Ice Spirit Tribe in order to provoke a war between the Five Spirits Alliance and the Luna Alliance. Why? It appeared as if everything was intended to target the Lord of Lightning.

Were the Aeternals planning to take action against the Lord of Lightning?

Thinking of this, he returned to his tower and then went to visit the Ice Spirit Tribe.

As long as the True God Guard Captains did not have an active mission, they were not restricted at all, unlike Aeternus’s other Progenitor-level experts. After all, the captains had all cultivated the True God’s divine energy and were incapable of betraying the Aeternals.

This was something recognized by both the Aeternals and the humans.

A few days later, Lu Yin received word that the True God Guard Captains were being summoned to a specific cosmic door in the sky above the Scourge.

As Lu Yin observed the distance cosmic door where the captains were gathering, he wondered if they were being summoned because of the universe that the cosmic door connected to.

"Why the sudden summons? We haven’t even completed our current mission yet." Dual Bladeform arrived, and the pink-haired woman expressed her irritation.

The blue-haired man consoled the woman, "We’re mostly finished, so we can just complete it as soon as we get back. There's no need to rush."

"It’s still annoying," the pink-haired woman complained. When she noticed Ye Bo calmly standing there, she rolled her eyes at him. "All of these people are so weird. Why can’t we get someone talkative?"

Across the way, a sharp voice called out, "Ye Bo!"

Lu Yin looked over and saw Yu Huo calling out for him.

"Is the Chiliagonist dead?" Yu Huo demanded.

Four captains had already gathered: Ye Bo, Dual Bladeform, Yu Huo, and Zhong Pan.

When they heard Yu Huo's question, everyone looked over.

Lu Yin calmly replied, "I don't know. He never returned."

Yu Huo gloated, "I warned you all not to go to the Origin Universe! That place is too difficult to mess with, but no one listened, haha!"

The pink-haired woman grew curious, "Is the Origin Universe really that powerful?"

Hidden beneath his black robes, Yu Huo's body trembled. It was clear from his body language that he was smiling. "You know what, Dual Bladeform, why don’t you go find out?"

The pink-haired woman turned to give the blue-haired man an expectant look, but the man frowned while giving Yu Huo a cold glare. "Do you want to be stabbed?"

Yu Huo sneered. "I already warned you before, so if you don’t want to listen and need me to remind you repeatedly, you deserve whatever you get."

Skydog arrived at this time, as little and cute as ever, and the pink-haired woman’s eyes lit up at the sight of the dog.

When Da Hei and Stone Ghost also arrived, Progenitor Xi appeared. "After you pass through this cosmic door, you will find that everything has already been arranged by Shao Yin. This mission is of the utmost importance, so I hope that you will not disappoint Aeternus."

"Senior Progenitor Xi, are we not allowed to take any Progenitor-level corpse kings with us?" Yu Huo asked. He still had not fully recovered his strength and felt particularly vulnerable.

Progenitor Xi calmly replied, "There’s no need for that. Just go."

Woof!

Skydog leaped at the cosmic door.

Dual Bladeform followed closely behind, the pink-haired woman’s eyes glued to Skydog. "Boss! Let me pet you!"

Zhong Pan and Da Hei followed as well.

Lu Yin approached the cosmic door without a word.

After passing through, his expression changed drastically as he peered into the distance. What was he looking at?

Yu Huo appeared behind Lu Yin, and was instantly horrified by what he saw. "The Five Spirits Alliance?"

"Also the Luna Alliance. This is a massive battle." The blue-haired man of Dual Bladeform solemnly observed the battle.

They were gathered in a corner of a universe where they could observe a massive battle unfolding far away. The Five Spirits Alliance and the Luna Alliance were locked in a vicious brawl.

Lu Yin looked at the sequence particles scattered throughout the universe. Why was this happening? He had already told the Ice Spirit Tribe that everything was part of the Aeternals’ plot, so why had the Five Spirits Alliance insisted on starting a war against the Luna Alliance?

The captains soon found Shao Yin, as well as a black-robed man standing next to him.

Shao Yin appeared to be very focused. "Listen carefully. At my order, as soon as I give it, use your divine energy to massacre everyone from the Five Spirits Alliance."

The True God Guard Captains suppressed their auras as they watched events unfold.

"Anyone who disobeys my orders will be immediately punished for betraying Aeternus," Shao Yin added as his eyes passed over Lu Yin. It was clear who he was speaking to.

Lu Yin just stared at the far off battle without batting an eye, completely ignoring Shao Yin.

There were times when attacks escaped the battle and shot towards the hidden Aeternals, tearing through the universe and shattering space.

Lu Yin's eye twitched at the sight of the sequence particles. There were simply too many. There were not just one or two laws of the universe being used, but at least five. As for powerhouses, there were at least eight sequence powerhouses between the Five Spirits Alliance and the Luna Alliance.

Even during the crusade to conquer the Endless Frontier, there had never been this many sequence powerhouses in a single battle. The only instance where so many experts had gathered in one place was when the Great Sovereign’s Tea Ceremony had been attacked.

More and more stray attacks shot out of the battle, and space continued to warp until an entire line of the Hollow stretched across the universe.

Sequence particles related to freezing, lightning, earth, and other incomprehensible laws of the universe were constantly clashing.

"Get back," Sovereign Shao Yin warned everyone. Right after that, the place where they had been standing was destroyed by a wave of sequence particles.

It would not be long before the entire universe was gone.

"If not for the Lord of Lightning’s intercession, your Luna Alliance would have been wiped out long ago! Even so, you still dare to attack my Five Spirits Alliance," the Ice Lord of the Ice Spirit Tribe roared.

"Your Five Spirits Alliance can’t escape responsibility for Yue Shen’s death! Even if the Lord of Lightning himself appears, it will be useless! The Luna Alliance demands an explanation!"

"Your Luna Alliance also killed the leader of the Fire Spirit Tribe! Where is our explanation?"

Terrifying attacks then destroyed half of the universe, and the battle spilled into another parallel universe.

Lu Yin just stared. Were both Yue Shen and the Fire Spirit Tribe’s leader dead? He looked over at Shao Yin. It was said that Shaman God’s tower had been demolished in anticipation of Shao Yin’s promotion, which meant that whatever missions Shao Yin had completed were important enough for the Aeternals to make him one of the Seven Skygods. The former Sovereign had to have something to do with these recent developments.

However, Lu Yin had visited the Ice Spirit tribe just days before, but war had still erupted. Either Lu Yin’s suspicions were wrong, or the Luna Alliance had really attacked the Five Spirits Alliance. How else could the two have started such a tragic war?

There was also one other possibility, which was that everything that Lu Yin and the Aeternals were seeing was fake.

The war raged from one parallel universe to another, and then yet another.

The sequence powerhouses never stopped fighting, and Shao Yin and the True God Guard Captains followed the battle to each subsequent universe, carefully watching everything.

Lu Yin saw more and more problems with the war. At first, the battle had looked massive and vicious, but as time passed, the intensity had never once abated, but Lu Yin did not see a single casualty. Not only had none of the sequence powerhouses died, but none of the weaker cultivators had perished either. This did not make any sense.

Was the war really fake?

Lu Yin was not the only one who noticed something wrong with the battle. Shao Yin had also noticed the issue, and his expression grew worse and worse.

"What's going on? This battle has lasted for so long, and there’s no reason for it to still be like this. There should be rivers of blood flowing." The unknown, black-robed man was also surprised.

Shao Yin frowned. He had started feeling rather uneasy.

There could not be anything wrong with this war. Shao Yin had been working on this mission from the very beginning, and he was absolutely certain that nothing had gone wrong.

More than half a month passed, and the violent fighting still raged on. At the same time, Shao Yin’s expression grew worse and worse. No matter how vicious the fighting looked, there were very few deaths. Even stranger was the fact that Whitecloud never sent anyone to act as an intermediary.

There was definitely something very wrong.

Shao Yin was not an idiot. He could not have reached his current strength as a fool. He had been unwilling to accept that something had gone wrong in his mission, but he was forced to finally admit it.

Suddenly, his communication crystal trembled. "Return to help the Scourge. Hurry!"

Shao Yin instantly pulled out a cosmic door and ordered, "Return to help the Scourge!"

Everyone hurried through the cosmic door to return to the Scourge. The moment Lu Yin passed through, he felt an inexplicable sense of terrible danger. He was overcome with a terrifying chill and dodged aside out of pure instinct. Lightning struck just outside the cosmic door, lighting everything up. The cosmic door shattered, as did a lake of divine energy and Yu Huo, right as he emerged from the cosmic door.

Yu Huo never saw anything before half of his body was destroyed. He died instantly.

Lu Yin looked up in shock.

"Dodge!" Shao Yin’s shout was the only thing that Lu Yin could hear.

He used Inverse step, creating a field of chaotic time and space as an ocean of lightning swept through the void, shattering it as more lightning shot into the distance. Right after that, lightning replaced the sky itself and filled Lu Yin’s vision. At the same time, he heard a roar, "Yong Heng, show yourself!"[1]

Crack.

BOOM!

Lightning erupted in the void, tearing the ground of the Scourge apart. Lakes of divine energy burst out and spilled over as dazzling lightning fell down in torrents. The entire universe was quaking.

Lu Yin gasped as he stared into the distance. That lightning, was it the Lord of Lightning?

Lightning sequence particles filled the sky like infinite fireflies. Aside from the Lord of Lightning, Lu Yin could not imagine anyone else wielding such terrifying sequence particles.

It was a domineering and destructive power that felt as though it wanted to shatter the entire universe.

Another cosmic door appeared, and Skydog and the rest of the True God Guard Captains poured through. They stared into the distance in shock.

"Is someone attacking the Scourge?" Dual Bladeform was startled.

One of the divine lakes on the Scourge suddenly formed an inverted vortex that shot into the sky, creating a maelstrom that blocked the lightning.

Divine energy possessed a unique form of oppression, and the appearance of this storm caused everyone’s hearts to quicken as they sensed a power that could destroy the Scourge.

On the ground below and in the sky above, storms of divine energy clashed with rivers of lightning. It was an apocalyptic sight that would drive most Progenitors to despair. Neither of the two colliding forces were anything that ordinary powerhouses could stand against. These powers belonged to individuals that were far superior to all other living creatures.

1. Yong Heng literally means "eternal" and is the exact same term that has been translated as Aeternal and Aeternus. Aeternus is literally Yong Heng's tribe, if translated exactly. ☜