Star Odyssey

Chapter 2505: A Small Demonstration

"Are you able to see it?" Shi Hong moved next to Lu Yin. Everyone on the platform was staring at the battle, but none of them were able to make out the figures of Qiu Zhan or the Progenitor-level corpse king. The youths were simply turning their heads to look at wherever the stars shattered.

However, Lu Yin was different. He was not simply reacting. Shi Hong had observed Lu Yin for a while, and she had noticed that there were several occasions when he would turn and look in a specific direction, but he would do so before any damage occurred. Everyone else was only looking afterwards.

Clearly, this young man was seeing things more clearly than anyone else present.

Lu Yin replied, "I can't see their battle. After all, they’re at the peak of human power."

Shi Hong felt that his answer did not make much sense. "But you’re seeing things before the rest of us."

Lu Yin explained, "It’s instinct."

"Instinct?" Shi Hong was left puzzled.

Zuo Yu and the rest looked over.

Lu Yin explained, "People refer to cultivation as a type of civilization, but it’s actually all about competing for resources and doing everything possible to improve yourself. The entire process is rife with death, danger, and dealing with various schemes. If you’re not careful, you'll die. I've already seen battles on this same scale more than once before, so I’m able to instinctively detect changes quicker than you."

"Brother-in-law, you've seen battles like this before?" Luo Lao'er's voice was filled with awe as he pointed into outer space. "A war with monsters like those two?"

Lu Yin looked up, his expression growing melancholic. "Yes, I have. Actually, we’re incredibly lucky. If it weren't for this Bestowal Carrier protecting us, just the shockwaves from a battle between powerhouses like those two would have already wiped us all out."

The Transcendent Universe was aware that Lu Yin came from the Origin Universe, so there was no need for him to hide some of his experiences.

Lu Yin was portraying himself as a rather low-level cultivator, so everything that he shared was common knowledge to any cultivator with that level of strength. As for the name "Origin Universe" that was not something that an Enlighter would ever know about.

Even so, his words did not convince everyone who heard them.

Someone scoffed. "Do you even understand how strong those two are? That’s the peak of what humans are capable of reaching. Do you think it’s so easy to see that?"

Mu Duo added, "That's true. Our Transcendent Universe has studied many parallel universes, and most of them don't even have any creatures with power levels of over a million, let alone pinnacle experts. What is the name of your universe?"

"Brother-in-law, which universe do you come from? It has to be famous," Luo Lao'er asked curiously.

Lu Yin shrugged. "I don't know. My universe is just the universe. It’s all that we know. As for what it’s called, I have no idea."

"Didn't the Ruling Council tell you?" Shi Hong asked, feeling quite puzzled.

Lu Yin shook his head.

"Sister Hong, he's Zi Jing's man," Zuo Yu whispered.

Shi Hong was taken aback. "Zi Jing's man? Him?"

The way she looked at Lu Yin changed completely.

Fierce explosions continued to erupt in outer space. While numerous spatial cracks spread across the region, the surviving platforms on the Bestowal Carrier were sufficient to support the carrier’s energy converters, and that allowed the defenders to endure the shockwaves from the battle.

Initially, the crowd focused entirely on the battle between the two powerhouses, but as time passed, they realized that they were not able to make out anything other than the impressive explosions. So, they eventually lost interest.

Only Lu Yin continued watching.

The Progenitor-level corpse king was similar to Qiu Zhan in that neither of them used any sort of battle techniques. The former relied solely on physical attacks, while the latter only used energy attacks. If the battle continued in such a manner, a victor might not emerge for months.

However, Lu Yin had underestimated Qiu Zhan.

From the very beginning, Qiu Zhan had possessed a black energy converter, but he had not used it until half of the carrier’s platforms were either destroyed or deactivated. This meant that he had his own plans, and he was finally carrying them out.

A massive beam of black light pierced through the starry sky. It looked like a passage that was connected to the dark depths of the universe.

This beam was several times larger than any of the attacks that had been used so far in the battle.

Everyone stared at it in a daze.

The black beam of light shook the stars. The carrier was not durable enough to withstand its power, and chunks of metal began to break off. The beam flashed past Qiu Zhan and collided with the corpse king with immense force.

This time, the corpse king was unable to block the beam, and its body was forced backwards towards distant stars.

Qiu Zhan instantly gave chase.

The region grew quiet as the massive black beam of light slowly diminished. Only after it was gone did the people watching realize that they had all gone deaf, and they only regained their hearing after the black beam of light had vanished entirely.

"Was that... Destruction?"

Everyone grew solemn.

Shi Hong looked up with fervor and admiration in her eyes. "Destruction, the final level of the Bestowal Carrier’s attack power. It can eliminate powerhouses at power levels above one million. As expected, there was one hidden here."

Lu Yin pensively stared off into the distance. When that final beam had struck the corpse king, it had shredded the corpse king’s body apart one layer at a time. The black beam of light had been incredibly powerful. Was the Bestowal Art really so advanced that cultivation technology was able to create Realmbreakers? While microarray technology also relied on sourceboxes, the power that could be exerted was far from matching what Lu Yin had just seen.

The future was uncertain, but at this moment, the power demonstrated by the Bestowal Art had continuously challenged Lu Yin's understanding.

"That monster’s done for," Mu Duo said with relief clear in his voice.

Zuo Yu confidently stated, "It was directly hit by Destruction, so it's dead as a doornail."

Is it really dead? Lu Yin's gaze drifted off into the distance as he became lost in his own thoughts. There was more to Progenitors than just pure strength. They possessed various mystical abilities as well as their own tools and items. However, given everyone’s confidence, this Destruction must have finished off a Progenitor in the past.

This was one of the reasons why the Transcendent Universe was able to retain a stable position within the Sixverse Association.

After Destruction struck the corpse king, a wave of relief swept through the defenders.

Luo Lao'er was soon back to his usual self, and he began to pester Shi Hong for information about the Voidforce Universe as Zuo Yu and the others listened.

However, Shi Hong would not say much. Rather, she herself expressed curiosity about Lu Yin's civilization and even proposed a spar.

Lu Yin stifled a sigh of exasperation. "This battle isn't over yet, so it wouldn’t be appropriate to spar now."

There were still corpse kings crawling around on the Bestowal Carrier, but Shi Hong did not seem to care. "General Qiu Zhan deliberately hid the fact that he had a black energy converter, forcing us to face all of these monsters, and it was all because he was waiting for Destruction. Now that the attack has successfully landed, all of the corpse kings will be dealt with soon enough. Just watch."

Just as Shi Hong said, Lu Yin watched as the tattered outer layer of the Bestowal Carrier peeled off. After that, beams of black light started to sweep through the area, targeting both outer space and the carrier’s interior.

The cultivators from the Cloudflow Universe also appeared, and they started activating energy converters on different platforms.

More and more platforms were reactivated, and soon, more than half were working once again.

The energy converters began to recover, which meant that the powers of the corpse kings climbing across the carrier were once again restricted. It only took moments for them to all be slaughtered.

"This battle’s almost over." Shi Hong sighed in relief. Such a close brush with death had seemed to change her perspective on many things. The battlefield was always where humans underwent the greatest changes.

She looked at Lu Yin. "Let's compare our sword skills. It will only take a few moves."

The proposal excited Luo Lao'er. "Brother-in-law, spar with Sister Hong! Her swordsmanship is amazing."

"Compare your sword skills."

"Show us which sword techniques are better—those from a cultivation civilization, or our own Transcendent Universe's."

Shi Hong raised her hand and gestured for people to be quiet. When she spoke, she sounded very serious. "My sword technique doesn’t come from our Transcendent Universe. You’ll eventually learn about where it comes from."

She then looked at Lu Yin and lifted her long sword. "Please."

Lu Yin did not want to compete with mere children. "Your injuries still haven’t healed. Competing now wouldn’t be fair to you."

However, Shi Hong insisted. "We'll only compare sword skills without using our energy converters."

Lu Yin would not have used a sword if he had known that it would lead to such an outcome. He casually waved his blade around. "Alright, then let’s go."

Shi Hong arched a brow. How was this attitude anything but condescending towards her?

The two boys who had arrived with Shi Hong leaned against a metal wall. Their injuries were too severe for them to even stand unaided, but even so, Lu Yin's attitude aggravated them.

The crowd backed up.

Lu Yin faced Shi Hong, and she clenched the hilt of her sword. "I won’t stand on ceremony then."

She stepped forward, thrusting her sword straight. She caused the hilt to tremble, which made the blade emit a strange sound, which caught Lu Yin off guard. She was using a different attack from before, though he still easily evaded it. The sword missed its target, and the blade grazed past Lu Yin's ear, but Shi Hong showed no surprise.

Suddenly, she released her sword and thrust her palm forward instead. The sword twirled around her body, as if it had a life of its own. At the same time, it moved around Lu Yin.

Everyone cheered as they watched the battle technique. The long sword spun around. Light glittered along its edge. Its movements seemed reminiscent of a coiling dragon.

One of the boys following Shi Hong started to breathe heavily out of excitement after seeing the technique. "Dragon Flash! No matter how hard I try, I’ve never managed to learn it. It never ceases to amaze me."

"Almost no one in the academy is able to learn that move! Fortunately, Sister Hong managed to pick it up a few days before leaving. The technique is so beautiful. Maybe with this, Sister Hong can challenge that person." As the young man spoke, both youths suddenly froze. The cheers that had started to erupt from the crowd also fell silent.

In the middle of the audience, Lu Yin grasped Shi Hong's sword between the index and middle fingers of his left hand. The sword in his right hand had not even moved. He stood firmly in place, calmly staring at Shi Hong.

She blankly stared back at him, still not reacting to what had just happened.

"Do you like flying sword arts?" Lu Yin asked.

Confusion covered her face. Dragon Flash was one of the best techniques available in the academy. It was a powerful battle technique from the Main Universe, so how had he managed to neutralize it so effortlessly?

"It's never a good idea to let go of your sword during a fight. Your opponent can easily grab hold of it," Lu Yin said as he released the sword, letting it drop to the floor of the platform with a metallic clang. The noise snapped Shi Hong and the rest back to reality.

Shi Hong stared at the sword on the floor in complete disbelief. While it was true that letting go of one’s sword could let an opponent steal the weapon, she had just used Dragon Flash. How could such an elite technique be caught? Her eyes rose up to stare at Lu Yin once again. "You…?"

Lu Yin smiled. "Like I said, I’ve already survived many battles like this one. I’ve managed to survive thanks to these-" He pointed to his eyes. "They're pretty good at picking out weak points."

He picked the sword off of the floor and returned it to Shi Hong. "Don't let go of your sword so readily in the future."

Shi Hong accepted the sword. She felt that something was not quite right about the situation, but she could not put her finger on it. There was nothing wrong with what the young man said. If she let go of her weapon, it was indeed a given that her opponents would be able to steal it.

Still, she had just used Dragon Flash!

The exchange was rather odd, and the people watching were unable to understand what they had witnessed. Even though Shi Hong understood what had happened, she was just as confused as anyone else. Even the two young men felt like the Dragon Flash that they had just seen could not be the true version of the battle technique.

Was someone really able to catch a sword when their opponent used Dragon Flash? They had never even heard of such a thing.

"Sister Hong, what's going on?" one of the men asked, glancing at Lu Yin with a quizzical expression.