Chapter 581: Fusion

Star Odyssey

Lu Yin was currently focused on gaining six and then eleven Honor Points. Six points would exempt him from certain crimes, and he would even be allowed to use a portion of the Hall of Honor’s strength, which was the equivalent of becoming an aristocrat of the universe. In such a situation, he would have privileges wherever he went. Eleven Honor Points was even more ruthless. If he died, then the Hall of Honor would investigate the cause of death. If it turned out that his death was from nefarious plans, the culprit’s family would be tried by the Interstellar Supreme Court. This was practically buying a form of insurance.

If possible, Lu Yin hoped to obtain six or even eleven Honor Points, but he did not have enough points for that. Receiving four more Honor Points would require him to exchange over 80,000 Ironblood Points, which was too expensive for him. Even if he succeeded in exchanging his points, the gains that he would receive wouldn’t even be of much use to him at the current moment. At the very least, he first had to survive the current calamity, and if the Outerverse still existed after all was said and done, then he would trade his points for Honor Points. Otherwise, the privileges associated with the Honor Points were completely worthless if the Outerverse disappeared. 

More Honor Points would simply invite more targeted attacks from astral beasts, so he might as well not trade for them at this time.

Not long after, many people in Ironblood Weave found that Lu Yin’s name had dropped from the top ten and fallen out of the top 1,000.

Many were lost; what was going on? How did he drop down so far? Had he exchanged every last one of his points?

Only a select few were able to guess that it was possible for Lu Yin to exchange all of his points for money! 

Wendy Yushan felt helpless, as she was certain that Lu Yin had exchanged it all for money. That money lover! 

At this moment, Lu Yin was smiling foolishly at the small hill of star essence that had been gathered in his cosmic ring. He returned to reality after being called by Wang Wen, and he focused back on the sky. He was planning to use this money to help him break through to the Explorer realm, and he had to save up a certain amount for that moment. 

In another part of the Outerverse, in Vastdearth Weave, there were five planets that were all connected together. This was the headquarters of a certain family, and although the family wasn’t considered to be too powerful, nobody dared to provoke them since there was a Hunter among their members. 

However, four of the five planets had collapsed at this time, and countless wails rang across the sole remaining planet. There was a desiccated corpse with a piece of Progenitor Wushang’s hide draped across its head as it walked across the bloodstained water with its black eyes staring at a boy in front of it. “Ancient bloodline detected. Target acquired: kill.”

The corpse then raised a hand that streaked forward. The boy’s head fell to the ground.

After destroying the five planets, the mummy raised its head and looked towards Ironblood Weave. “Ancient bloodline detected. Target acquired: kill.”

It then leaped into space and headed towards Ironblood Weave.

In Darkmist Weave, on Mafioso Planet, one of the Mistchildren hid themselves in darkness. There were countless other killers similarly hiding in the nearby area.

“Ironblood Weave has sent us a draft notice, so I must go to the border warfront now. You people will have to manage Mafioso Planet,” Topmist’s voice echoed out.

Soon after this announcement, Topmist left the planet, but he took the inheritance of Mafioso Planet, the mysterious Bloodied Handprint, with him. According to the rules of the organization, the Bloodied Handprint could not leave the planet, but Topmist was terrified of death, so he took it with him anyways. To him, the inheritance of his own organization was not important; his life was far more significant. 

Topmist wasn’t the only one who had received a draft notice. By this time, all of the almighty Enlighters in the Outerverse, regardless if they were hiding or in seclusion, had received similar draft notices. They were forced to move out just like Nightqueen Qiuyu and the others, as ignoring the draft notice was equivalent to disobeying the Hall of Honor, and even an Enlighter would not dare to do such a thing.

“It’s already been five days since the last attack. It looks like they’re running out of Void Wanderers. They’ve probably sent someone back to the Celestial Beast Empire to request for more reinforcements,” Wang Wen concluded. 

He was sitting with Lu Yin atop a cliff that overlooked an ocean while enjoying some wine.

Lu Yin shifted his gaze and rubbed his eyes. “Does that mean that I can rest for a bit?”

Wang Wen nodded. “Sure.” 

“Aren’t you afraid that the beasts will take advantage of this opportunity to attack?” Lu Yin asked.

Wang Wen’s lips quirked up. “If I say that they won’t, then they won’t. Even if I try to explain it in a less intellectual manner, you still won’t be able to comprehend it. Just rest assured and take a break. Our next battle is at least half a month away.” 

Lu Yin did not know how Wang Wen could be so confident in this, but he did not enquire any further since he would just be ridiculed if he pursued the issue. Lu Yin decided to rest for no more than two days and that he would continue his vigil after that. There was nothing wrong in being overly cautious. 

“Actually, why doesn’t that Monster Loach charge forward as the vanguard during all their attacks? With that thing’s strength, it could block everyone’s attacks,” Lu Yin asked.

Wang Wen scornfully responded, “I’ve already explained it to you: that thing’s a fish, and fishes are timid. Even if it borrowed more courage, it still wouldn’t dare to face the brunt of our attacks on its own.” 

“What about that Enlighter realm Amethyst Beast?”

“Do you think Elder Lohar is just a figurehead?”

“You speak just like my friend.”

“Don’t belittle me! There’s nobody in this universe who’s as smart as me! How can others possibly speak the same words as me? You must be joking!”

Lu Yin did not want to talk to this bastard anymore.

Wang Wen was certain that there would be a quiet period of half a month, but Lu Yin only gave himself two days time. After resting for one day, he sought out a secluded spot and screened his right arm off. “It’s time to roll the die.” 

He had thought about rolling it before, as rolling six pips: Possession could allow him to take over someone else’s body. Perhaps it would be able to transport his consciousness to the Innerverse and allow him to Possess someone in the Innerverse.

With Lu Yin’s current strength, the status of the people that he could fuse with would not be low. If he actually did manage to Possess someone in the Innerverse, then he would be able to inform the various great powers of the Innerverse about the Astral Beast Domain invading Ironblood Weave. Although the Innerverse was separated from the Astral Beast Domain by the Astral River, there were also cracks in that barrier. As soon as the Innerverse’s various organizations started to wage their own war against the Astral Beast Domain, the pressure on Ironblood Weave’s warfront would plummet.

This was Lu Yin’s reasoning, and although he felt that it was possible, he was not entirely certain. Could Possession really take him all the way into the Innerverse? Even if his die was capable of such a thing and allowed him to travel in any direction from his current location, he still wasn’t guaranteed to Possess someone in the Innerverse. Also, it was possible that he wouldn’t have enough star essence to cover the energy needed for such a Possession. 

Rolling the die was entirely dependent on luck, and there were many possible outcomes. However, Lu Yin decided to give the die a try anyways, as he would never know if he never tried. 

He raised a hand, and the die appeared. This time, Lu Yin did not remove his cosmic ring. He would normally remove the cosmic ring that contained all of his resources since using Possession had a terrifying cost. But if he could use his star essence to enter the Innerverse, then no matter how much, it would be worth it. 

He tapped out and the die spun. Finally, it stopped on five pips: Gift Copy, which allowed Lu Yin to borrow another person’s innate gift. There was no use for the roll at this time, as there was nobody around him that he could reach within ten seconds. He restored the die and tapped out again. For his second roll, he got two pips: Blackhole Disassembly. Another useless roll. He rolled it yet again. One pip: Pilfer. A sword fell out from the spatial tunnel that appeared. It was also a useless roll since the weapon looked very ordinary.

Lu Yin took a deep breath, as this next roll was his last chance. He thought about it for a moment before tapping the die, causing it to slowly spin around until it finally came to a rest. Under Lu Yin’s expectant eyes, six pips appeared. The next instant, darkness surrounded him, and he once again appeared in that mysterious space that was filled with balls of light of varying sizes. Some of them were dazzling while others were more subdued. 

Lu Yin dashed forward at great speed, though he did not know in which direction the Innerverse lay. He could only head in what he perceived to be south since the Outerverse lay to the south of Ironblood Weave, and further south was the Innerverse. Still, he had no way of knowing which direction was south for sure.

After about half a minute of traveling, Lu Yin suddenly felt a strong sensation of attraction. He hesitated for a moment, but he dashed over and merged into the sphere of light that he was being drawn towards. 

When he next opened his eyes, Lu Yin discovered that everything was different. Space itself felt very mysterious. He had appeared somewhere that was not a part of the original universe, but rather some place where multiple layers of space were superimposed over one another. He felt an indescribable sense of warmth and dependence. Instinctively, he looked down as he raised a hand.  What met his eyes was a black vortex. Could he have Possessed Tian Hou? 

Lu Yin had not expected that, instead of Possessing the body of someone from the Innerverse, he would instead Possess his old opponent from the Tournament of the Strongest. He was actually inside Tian Hou’s body. 

Nothing was set in stone, and it was no wonder why the light sphere had been so attractive for him. Cosmic Hous were legends of the Astral Beast Domain, and each one had been invincible within their realm since their first appearance in ancient times. No one could hold up against such a creature. Now, Lu Yin was similarly peerless within his realm, so their statuses were more or less equal.

Back during the Tournament of the Strongest, if not for his Cosmic Art and the Stonewall Scriptures, Lu Yin definitely would not have been Tian Hou’s opponent. The Cosmic Hou’s attack and defense were both incredible since he was the physical manifestation of an engulfing vortex.

Such a creature was one of the universe’s most mysterious occurrences.

Through Tian Hou’s eyes, Lu Yin saw the universe in a different light. Perhaps this was the true nature of the universe.

Lu Yin quickly learned about the current circumstances of the Astral Beast Domain. Tian Hou was among the beasts that were moving to reinforce the Primal Zone, which was where the Astral Beast Domain was conducting their invasion of Ironblood Weave. So far, all of the beasts attacking the strongholds were from the Primal Zone. In the Astral Beast Domain, the Primal Zone’s status was equivalent to Ironblood Weave in the Human Domain. 

As Seasons Fort had wiped out too many Void Wanderers, the Celestial Beast Empire had sent a vast number of them to reinforce the Primal Zone, as their primary goal right now was to successfully occupy the humans’ Outerverse. Aside from the Void Wanderers, they also sent another group of experts along with five Enlighter beasts, one of which was an amazingly powerful beast whose power level exceeded 350,000. 

Within this army, there was also Cursewind of Skymender’s List’s and the Spiritual Academy’s Tian Hou. 

Skymender’s List was a list compiled by the Astral Beast Domain to counter the humans’ Top Hundred Rankings, and there were similarly ten creatures on the list that were supposed to correspond to the humans’ Ten Arbiters. 

Lu Yin had seen Yao Gu at Erudite Flowzone’s border when the creature had fought against Wen Sansi, and the beast moving to reinforce the Primal Zone this time was called Cursewind. 

When he learned of this news, Lu Yin’s heart sank. The Astral Beast Domain was launching a large-scale invasion, and Ironblood Weave definitely would not be able to stop them based on each side’s number of experts and reinforcements. 

Lu Yin borrowed Tian Hou’s vision and looked behind him. Indistinctly, he could see a horrifying fluctuation in the distance that was definitely from a super powerful beast. The astral beast was only sleeping, but its power level had surpassed 350,000. 

To the Celestial Beast Empire, the beasts that were sent as reinforcements were not too strong. If this group also failed to invade the humans’ Outerverse, then it was even possible that the astral beasts would send powerhouses whose power levels exceeded 500,000, which meant that even an Envoy-class beast might appear. That would be a truly desperate situation for the humans. 

Was there no hope? Lu Yin pondered over the situation as he browsed through Tian Hou’s memories. 

Through Tian Hou’s memory, Lu Yin was able to see the most mysterious being in the Astral Beast Domain: Skymender, and he was also able to gain a basic understanding of the Celestial Beast Empire. However, none of this was relevant to what he was looking for.

Suddenly, Tian Hou’s eyes went wide as his expression turned excited. He had discovered an important bit of news, as it seemed that the Primal Zone had also been disconnected. There was a stream of liquid energy that was similar to the Astral River, and when the universe had undergone massive changes, that energy had expanded, just like what had happened in the Outerverse.

This energy liquid had only appeared in the past few decades, so Ironblood Weave was still unawares of this development. 

Unfortunately, the Primal Zone was not completely isolated as there was still a gap that allowed some reinforcements to pass through. But if this hole was destroyed, then the Primal Zone would be completely isolated, just like the humans’ Outerverse.

Lu Yin had obtained the information that he wanted, so he did not plan on dragging out this Possession. He raised a hand and slammed it against his own chest. Darkness dominated his vision again, and when he opened his eyes next, he was once again in his own body. 

Lu Yin let out a long breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He hurriedly checked his cosmic ring, fearing that his star essence store had been depleted. 

He apprehensively looked in and then finally relaxed. Fortunately, he had only spent about 20,000 star essence, which meant that he still had about 40,000 left. Not bad, not bad at all—his worst fear was that Possession would use it all up.