Star Odyssey

The area was completely silent. Everyone was focused on the three gigantic blades that had merged together, which caused its power to increase exponentially. 

Even Cheng Wu had a feeling that he wouldn’t be able to withstand this attack now that Ling Que’s three swords had merged into one. Thankfully, he had successfully sneak attacked Ling Que during the Sea King’s son-in-law selection, so Ling Que had not been at his peak state in that battle. Otherwise, Cheng Wu would have gone through a difficult battle. 

Ling Que had lost to Cheng Wu while trying to make his way up the Skyfall Cascades. The fact that he had given up without a fight had severely damaged his reputation. However, this battle against Mu Rong was reversing that impression. He was a true monster. Those who had managed to climb up Skyfall Cascades had all been monsters in their own right. If Cheng Wu hadn’t managed to ambush Ling Que, then nobody knew how their battle might have gone. Even if Cheng Wu had been able to win, he would not have been able to keep fighting at peak condition in the subsequent battles. 

Ling Que became incredibly excited. If he managed to defeat Mu Rong at this moment, then he would be widely acknowledged as the most powerful Limiteer. By then, would he even need to hire a squad of cheerleaders? Of course not! There would surely be crowds of hot chicks waiting to become his cheerleaders. The Souldream Tribe, the Umbral Butterfly Tribe, the famous Kind Tribe, and… And even those talented genius girls from the Charming Space would worship him! Ye Xingchen? Lu Yin? They were just trash.

Ling Que became more and more excited as he thought about his potential future, and the three merged Que’s Mighty Slashes shone even brighter. 

“It’s over, Mu Rong!” Ling Que shouted when his merged blade was about to land. Mu Rong definitely would not be able to dodge this attack. Even if he tried to tear through the void to escape, his Que's Mighty Slash would simply crush the void. 

A sweet tune suddenly came out of nowhere, and it gradually filled the ears of the audience. It felt like the music had just begun, but also felt if it had always been there. 

Mu Rong gently blew on his wooden flute, and a renewed aura appeared in the void. A boy was herding some cattle while chuckling to himself. Verdant green grass grew from the earth, and lush fields could be seen extending far into the distance, past the battle field and into the void. 

When the song came out, Mu Rong himself transformed. He himself became the farmer boy, seemingly forgetting about all his worries. 

The song of a farmer boy while relaxing within the pasture!

Nobody could destroy this vision.

Ling Que’s merged attack never managed to land, as Ling Que immediately became immersed in the song. He had lost. The moment Mu Rong started playing his song, Ling Que had lost.

Mu Rong was someone whom the Ten Arbiters had acknowledged as truly invincible among all Limiteers. So what if someone could merge ten innate gifts together? So what if someone could split their soul? They’d still lose to Mu Rong. 

This battle had brought too many surprises to the audience. Nobody had expected that a fight between two Limiteers could be so amazing. Experts at the bottom of the Top 100 Rankings would definitely lose to either one of them. They were definitely strong enough to be on par with Cheng Wu. 

Hai Dashao eyed Mu Rong with disappointment. Although he didn’t like how this guy always had a miserable look about him, his personality was still much better than Lu Yin’s, and he was even stronger than Lu Yin. Hai Dashao felt an urge to try to convince his father to let this Mu Rong try pulling out the Sea King’s Trident again. Unless… Was it possible that Mu Rong had been the one to actually pull out the trident, but then decided that he didn’t want to marry Qiqi, and so let Lu Yin take it out? That kid, Lu Yin, had been repeating the fact that he hadn’t used any strength at all; could his words actually be true? The more Hai Dashao thought about it, the more likely his suspicions seemed to be real. 

Starsibyl gazed at Mu Rong’s figure as he left, recalling his answer to her question. “Why should I become strong? It’s enough if I can live every day happily.” That had been Mu Rong’s answer. Unfortunately, such a dream would never happen. The more that kind of person wished to be happy, the more unhappy they would end up becoming. 

The Sea King looked away with a wistful expression. These two Limiteers were both geniuses. That kid was supposed to be on par with them, so why hadn’t he come to watch this huge event? 

Everyone left soon after, leaving Ling Que standing in the open arena by himself with his head hanging down, looking incredibly unwilling to accept his defeat. 

He’d been completely and thoroughly beaten. He was from the Lingling clan and therefore stood above all others, but he had just been defeated. Just the thought of it left him incredibly annoyed. Mu Rong really was the number one Limiteer—there was no doubt about it. 

Michelle and the rest left as well, and Coco anxiously looked at the peak of the Sea King’s Dome. “Mu Rong is so strong! I hope that Lu Yin won’t have to fight him.” 

Big Pao held the same sentiment and sighed. “If I had known that this would happen, I wouldn’t have participated in the first place. Knowing always hurts more than not knowing. After news of this battle spreads, Mu Rong will definitely be regarded as the strongest Limiteer. Hopefully, Lu Yin won’t take this matter to heart and won’t try to challenge him.” 

Xia Luo had his ever-present smile on his face. I wonder how far you’ll be able to go, Lu Yin. You’ve defeated so many people that nobody ever thought you had a chance of beating. Will Mu Rong become one of them? He grew very excited at such a thought and had a feeling that Mu Rong and Lu Yin would most likely have a duel at some point. Additionally, Xia Luo even felt like their duel was not far off. 

Mu Rong had defeated Ling Que, and their battle had brought even more attention to the Sea King’s Dome. However, people were paying the most attention to the rankings of the four unequalled Limiteers. The most secretive one was actually Ye Xingchen. He had been staying in the Cosmic Sea all this time, and nobody knew how strong he actually was. However, everyone still ranked Mu Rong as number one, and almost nobody objected to such a ranking. 

In second place was either Ling Que or Ye Xingchen. Even though Lu Yin had attracted a lot of attention during the recent competition by having a close fight against the Faceless Man, many people still believed that Lu Yin would lose to Mu Rong. Their judgement was mostly based on the fact that Lu Yin primarily used stacked attacks. 

If Lu Yin were to fight against Ling Que with his stacked attacks, Ling Que would merely need to split his soul in two. One could defend while the other attacked, and thus, Lu Yin’s loss seemed assured. Ling Que wouldn’t even need to split into three copies to accomplish such a thing. 

That was why Lu Yin indisputably held the fourth place in the public’s eye. Even though he was the Sea King’s soon-to-be son-in-law, he could only be placed fourth when among such monsters. This was readily acknowledged. 

Before much more time passed, Big Pao contacted Lu Yin and described the fight between Mu Rong and Ling Que in great detail during their call. 

Lu Yin was still training under the waterfall and had no idea that such a battle had taken place. The dome was huge, and only battles between Hunters would be able to shake the entirety of the mountain. Battles between anyone beneath the Hunter realm wouldn’t be enough to cause enough of a commotion. The reason why Mu Rong and Ling Que’s battle had been able to attract so many people’s attention was mainly due to their reputations. 

Lu Yin set his gadget down. He never expected that the rankings of the four strongest Limiteers would become such a hot topic at this time. Even back when he first learned that the four of them were considered the strongest Limiteers, he already knew that the day would come where they would be ranked. He just hadn’t expected it to happen so suddenly. 

Brains and brawn were equally important in such rankings. Cultivators were generally hot-headed and would refuse to admit that they were any inferior to anyone else. The stronger they were, the truer this tendency, especially for the younger generation. 

Lu Yin stood up and stared into the distance. To be honest, he was actually looking forward to fighting against Mu Rong and Ling Que. Out of everyone in his generation, only they were qualified to fight against him. 

His enemies included the Ten Arbiters, and the entity that posed the biggest threat to him at this moment was the Daynight clan. However, there were plenty of other people who were his enemies as well. In the plans that Lu Yin had laid out for his revenge, reputation was extremely important. 

He had no idea if Leon's Armada would help his Big Sis avenge the seventy two lives that had been lost, but Lu Yin would not place his hopes on someone else; this was his fight! 

By truly becoming an unequaled Limiteer, he would gain an amazing reputation. However, Mu Rong wasn’t somebody who he could easily deal with. His battle techniques, talent, domain, and power were all things that only Ling Que actually understood. Lu Yin felt confident that he’d be able to block powerful physical attacks with his Fatesand, but the move that had defeated Ling Que definitely possessed certain aspects that Lu Yin could not defend against with just his strong body. 

He didn’t know if he’d be able to win against Mu Rong for sure, so if he was going to fight, it would only happen after Lu Yin was confident in achieving victory. He wouldn’t behave like Ling Que and rashly charge into battle. Ever since Lu Yin had been swallowed by that storm in the Tempest Flowzone, he’d returned to being extremely cautious. 

While Lu Yin was busy calculating Mu Rong’s strength, the Sea King had somehow caught wind of a rumor that Lu Yin and Mu Rong were going to have a duel. The moment such news broke out, the Sea King had been immediately alerted. 

“Lu Yin really has the guts to challenge Mu Rong? He’s not scared of losing badly even when he’s right under the Sea King’s nose.” 

“He’s too ignorant if he thinks that he’s really invincible after pulling out the Sea King’s Trident! Apparently, that trident was actually pulled out by Mu Rong, but because he wasn’t willing to become the Sea King’s son-in-law, he didn’t pull it out completely. Thus, Lu Yin was able to get lucky.” 

“If I were him, I would definitely keep my mouth shut and wait until Mu Rong leaves. Why embarrass yourself?” 

“Whatever the situation may be, Lu Yin will be the Sea King’s son-in-law soon, which means that he’s pretty much already a part of the family. We still want him to win, even though it probably won’t happen.” 

“Somebody analyzed that Lu Yin’s chances of winning are less than 1%. He relies on stacked attacks, speed, and his physical prowess. All of that’s useless against Mu Rong! One could say that Mu Rong overpowers him in every aspect. Even Ling Que must be stronger than him.” 

“What a pity. He’s really too arrogant.” Somebody sighed as they clasped their hands behind their back, looking like some kind of sophisticated person.

All of a sudden, someone said, “He’s much better than you.”

Everyone immediately looked over. The guy with his hands behind his back was stunned at being called out. After seeing that a young person with red lips and white teeth had said those words, he asked in confusion, “Have I offended you in some way?” 

The youth hummed. “You didn’t offend me. If you had, you’d already be dead.” And with that, the young woman left. She was Hai Qiqi, and she had changed her appearance to go out on a stroll. But after hearing all these people discussing Lu Yin’s challenge towards Mu Rong, she’d become annoyed with them. While she didn’t like Lu Yin and enjoyed mocking him, hearing others ridicule him was irritating. And if she was annoyed, she had to speak up. Such was Hai Qiqi’s way of life. 

…

Michelle and the rest immediately contacted Lu Yin upon hearing the rumors. Upon hearing it from them, Lu Yin was utterly confused. “When did I ever say that I was going to challenge Mu Rong?”  

“It wasn’t you? Then who spread the news? They’re clearly trying to cause trouble for you,” Michelle stated gravely. 

Everyone’s first guess was Feng Mo and the others, but that didn’t seem very likely since such a battle would not further their interests at all. 

The first person that came to Lu Yin’s mind was none other than Hai Qiqi, who treated him with derision. He had a feeling that the girl was willing to do anything and was more than just the sharp tongue she was known for. 

“News of your upcoming battle with Mu Rong has spread, and the location has even been set. It’ll be in the middle of the mountain, here at Halfwillow Lakeside in two days. Do you think that you can win?” Xia Luo asked, sounding slightly excited, as if he found the entire matter rather hilarious. 

Lu Yin couldn’t really reply. It wasn’t about whether he could win, but rather whether or not he could go there at all. 

Without wasting any more time with them, he shouted towards the sky, “I would like to request an audience with you, Sir Sea King.” 

The entire area was under the Sea King’s control, and while he might not have his eye on every single person at every single moment, Lu Yin was certain that the man was watching him every second. 

Sure enough, the scenery before Lu Yin distorted, and the Sea King’s unremarkable face appeared in front of him. “What is it?”

Lu Yin respectfully asked, “May I know who spread the news that I am going to fight with Mu Rong?” 

The Sea King grunted in understanding. “Me.”

Lu Yin had thought that Hai Qiqi would be the one to spread the rumors. He had never dreamed that the Sea King himself could be responsible.

He froze. “Why?”