Star Odyssey

Chapter 2576: Clash Of Universes

At that moment, the vessel swayed slightly, and Mira looked up to see someone standing on the roof of the spacecraft.

There was a deafening crash as the hull collapsed into a gaping hole appeared that the person stepped through. Almost immediately, the unknown silhouette unleashed a downward palm strike aimed at Mira.

Mira did not panic. She had cultivated for decades and had become quite accustomed to being ambushed. Death had already become a constant companion during the war against Aeternus.

The attacker’s palm technique was unpredictable, though it radiated an overwhelming pressure that felt like the descent of an immovable mountain. Many people would clearly recognize it as the Eight Hands of the Stone Gate.

A red lotus bloomed beneath Mira's feet. It looked quite strange, though also beautiful. Red threads drifted up from the lotus and clashed with the Eight Hands of the Stone Gate, a Progenitor-level battle technique. While the attacker possessed a cultivation level that was comparable to Mira's, just the Second Hand was enough to shatter her red lotus.

However, the clash between the two techniques had already given Mira an opportunity to dodge. A red longbow appeared in her hand, and she loosed an arrow that had the power of the red lotus twined about it. This was her Red Lotus Witchbow.

The attacker was a bit stunned.

"Impressive power," he complimented before throwing out a piece of broken wood from his cosmic ring. The wood not only shattered Mira's arrow, but it also continued flying towards her. She felt an unprecedented sense of danger from the piece of broken wood.

It was a voidforce puppet, and it possessed three times more voidforce energy than Mira’s attacker. While the Sixverse Academy student was only equal to a Hunter and had only spent a bit more than a year in the Voidforce School, he had successfully cultivated his voidforce energy to nearly the Hunter level. Mira was incapable of standing up to what was essentially three times the strength of a Hunter.

She was shocked by the sudden change. Where had such a strong opponent come from?

After uniting the entire Fifth Mainland, the Heavens Sect had dispatched countless cultivators to patrol the Mainland and maintain order. Mira had been on patrol for six months, but not once had she encountered any true danger. She had not expected to be suddenly attacked, and she also had no idea of where her assailent might have come from.

At the most dangerous moment, an ancient character appeared above Mira's head. This was the recently developed visualization method.

The ancient golden characters were a visualization method that had been spread by the Heavens Sect, and it allowed people to significantly increase their strength during a battle.

After activating her visualization method, Mira lifted a palm to block the approaching piece of broken wood. The power of her red lotus surged yet again as she drew on the Cosmic Art that she had learned in the Tower of the Fifth. The broken piece of wood was shattered, stunning Mira’s attacker. Impossible!

Mira retreated a few steps, her face pale. "Who are you? You dare to attack the Heavens Sect?"

The attacker snorted contemptuously before vanishing. However, he almost immediately appeared next to the shattered remains of the broken piece of wood.

Mira's eyes flickered. An innate gift?

She quickly tried to respond, but the piece of broken wood shot off, and her attacker reappeared next to the item, making a quick exit.

Right when Mira was about to give chase, a beam of green light appeared out of nowhere and swept through the area. It grazed her body as it blazed through outer space, obliterating everything in its path.

Just the glancing impact of the green beam of light was enough to send Mira hurtling through outer space. Had she been struck directly, the attack would have killed her outright.

She lay sprawled on the ground of a planet, and looked up.

A man stepped out from the wreckage of her vessel, a smug smile on his face. "This is why cultivation civilizations are weak. Even after entering the Sixverse Academy, I didn't enter the Cyclic School. The Arboreal School was clearly the better choice, as I obtained a free innate gift there, haha."

"Who are you?" Mira growled through gritted teeth. There was blood trickling from her hair, and there was no strength left in her body.

The man walked closer and squatted down. "Allow me to introduce myself-" He suddenly stopped, changing his mind. "On second thought, I’d better not. You're quite a beauty."

Mira glared at the man through cold eyes. "Do you know who I am? You actually dare to attack the Heavens Sect?"

The man released a cold laugh. "The Heavens Sect? That name doesn’t sit well with us."

He reached out and cupped a hand to Mira's cheek. "I've caught one, but there's still time to capture another."

Suddenly, Mira was dragged into a card, which caused the man's expression to instantly change. He quickly drew back while shouting, "The Lost Clan? Who is it? Show yourself!"

A shadowy figure appeared behind the man, brandishing a dagger at a deadly speed. The slashes left numerous wounds across the man's body. The man was originally from the Transcendent Universe, and he was not particularly powerful. Thus, he could only rely on his green energy converter as he attempted to defend himself. The person from the Lost Clan had no way to respond to a green energy converter, so he instead shot past the man from the Transcendent Universe, grabbed the card, and fled.

The student with the energy converter became livid. A wave of his hand caused a wave of green energy to sweep out. "You bastard! Go to hell!"

The man from the Lost Clan was already long gone.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Lu Yin had seen everything.

Three people had tried to capture Mira. The first had attacked openly and directly, the second had tried to collect the spoils, and the third had acted covertly. The different approaches showed the differing mindsets of the three individuals’ universes that were part of the Sixverse Association.

Mira had been trapped inside a card that belonged to a member of the Lost Clan. However, she could break free whenever she wished. The card was not the same as Zenith Mountain, and it was incapable of holding a person for an extended period of time.

The man from the Lost Clan believed that he had captured Mira, but could it really be that easy? Anyone who qualified to join the Heavens Sect would not be captured so simply.

In a distant location in outer space, the man from the Lost Clan stared at the card in his hands. His eyes blazed with anticipation. Capturing even just one person would give him a chance to listen to the Great Sovereign’s teachings. While his Lost Clan did not care about those teachings, it was undeniable that many had experienced breakthroughs after listening to the Great Sovereign. This student hoped to surpass his fellow clansmen and reach or even possibly exceed Zhi Xiao's level.

Suddenly, the card in his hand cracked. The man was startled. How was this possible?

He reflexively released the card, and it shattered. Mira stumbled out, looking rather disheveled. She had not yet completely lost the ability to move and had instead been putting on an act to lure out her attacker. She had not expected another person to suddenly show up, so she had been forced to use a Money Bomb to blow up the card to escape.

The man from the Lost Clan stared at Mira as she emerged from his card. He immediately decided to retreat. Anyone who could break free from his card was not someone whom he could handle.

But he was already too late.

Mira took a gun out from her Cosmic Ring and shot the man, knocking him down.

The gun was a microarray weapon.

In the distance, the man with the green energy converter pursued Mira. She looked back at him. All of these people could forget about escaping. She put on a dark green lens, and numbers flickered across it before ultimately settling on 460,000.

"He actually has a power level of 460,000? Time to switch weapons," she muttered to herself.

Mira kept a close eye on the man from the Lost Clan while simultaneously watching the approaching man with the green energy converter.

The man with the energy converter stared at Mira, surprise evident on his face.

"You escaped?" he asked. As he spoke, the numbers on his own lens leaped to 480,000. He burst out, "You actually have a power level of 480,000?"

Mira raised a hand and fired a shot. At the same time, the man with the energy converter fired a beam as well. Both people had reacted with the same speed.

The microarray gun was composed of five sourcebox arrays, and the shot shattered the beam of green energy and continued on to pierce through the man’s shoulder. He looked down at his paralyzed arm in disbelief. This woman’s power level had instantly leaped from around 100,000 to almost 500,000, and her attack had possessed a power level of more than 500,000! This was simply impossible!

Mira held another gun in her left hand, aimed it at the man from the Lost Clan, and demanded, "Start talking. Who are you people?"

The man’s eyes briefly flickered. "We’ve failed. Time to go back."

The man with the green energy converter was unwilling to admit defeat, but there was nothing that he could do. No matter if it was Mira's personal strength or the power of her power vessel, he was no match for her. On top of that, they were in the Origin Universe, and it was possible for them to be suddenly surrounded at any moment.

"Go back?" Mira unhesitatingly fired both guns, aiming at the men’s hearts with the intent to immobilize them.

Neither bullet landed, as they were instead stopped before they reached their targets. They were obstructed by an unseen power. Both of the men were stunned, as they were unaware of where the power protecting them had come from.

Suddenly, they both felt their minds reel, and they fell unconscious.

Mira was startled by this sudden development, as it meant that another expert was present.

A shadowy figure appeared and said, "Well done."

Mira looked at the newcomer in surprise and gasped, "Lu Yin?"

She immediately corrected herself and bowed low. "Greetings, Dao Monarch."

Lu Yin gave a nod. "You've been injured. Treat your wounds."

"These are nothing," Mira replied. She was quite startled by Lu Yin's sudden appearance, as this meant that he had been watching everything from the start. At least he was satisfied by her performance.

Lu Yin proceeded to relieve both of the Sixverse Academy students of their Lotus Artifacts. He held the power vessels in his hand as he studied them in admiration. These power vessels that Sovereign Nine Lotus had crafted were truly impressive. They were capable of enduring even a Progenitor’s attack. However, the two students had not been able to activate their power vessels in time. They had assumed that they would be able to use the Lotus Artifacts when they encountered danger, but they had not even been able to react when someone who truly possessed the strength of a Progenitor had attacked.

Storing the two men away, Lu Yin turned back to look at Mira. "You coordinated your tactics well."

"Thank you, Dao Monarch," Mira answered respectfully.

Lu Yin studied the woman. "How long has it been since we last saw each other?"

A slight tremor ran through Mira’s body. "Many years."

"Yes, it has been many years." Lu Yin sighed. "How’s Michelle?"

"She's well."

Lu Yin dropped the topic and instead gave a warning. "You might be attacked by others as well. Stay on guard at all times."

Mira felt confused by the warning, and she asked, "Dao Monarch, just who are these people?"

Lu Yin waved the question away with a hand. "You don’t need to know about that, but you also don’t need to show any mercy. If you can kill them, consider it your own strength."

With that, he left with his two captives. As for the first man who had attacked Mira, he had also been collected by Lu Yin, which gave him a total of three additional Lotus Artifacts.

The fact that Sovereign Nine Lotus was capable of producing so many Lotus Artifacts was quite impressive. While each one was only able to block a single attack, they were still quite useful. Lu Yin wondered just how many she was able to create. If she could make enough for everyone, then Aeternus would truly be in trouble.

Mira had been the closest target from the Astral River, which was why it had only taken the Sixverse Academy students six days to find her. However, the other targets would not be so easy to find. The Fifth Mainland was enormous, and even with the students’ numerous methods, locating the other targets was far from easy.

Half a month later, in the Erudite Flowzone, Wen Sansi was attacked. However, his attackers successfully used their Lotus Artifacts to escape.

Wen Sansi was attacked by two people; one was from the Cyclic Universe, and the other was from the Transcendent Universe. One possessed a cultivation level that was close to an Envoy’s, which made them second only to the top geniuses of the Sixverse Academy, such as Jiang Xiaodao. The man had assumed that he would be able to capture Wen Sansi.

As for the second attacker, that person had used a green energy converter.

The final result was no different from when Mira had been attacked; both students were defeated by Wen Sansi, and they were ultimately forced to use their Lotus Artifacts to survive.

It was impossible for Lu Yin to steal all of the students’ Lotus Artifacts.

Several days later, Ling Gong was attacked, though she likewise defeated the students from the Sixverse Academy.

The students had been rather unlucky so far. The targets closest to where they had arrived in the Origin Universe were people like Wen Sansi and Ling Gong, who not only possessed formidable personal strength, but also the advantage of the recently developed weapons of the Heavens Sect. Even the students’ energy converters offered little advantage. All the top geniuses were making their way to the Cosmic Sea, which led to the Sixverse Academy failing repeatedly.

Six students had already returned in failure, each a picture of utter dejection. The most unfortunate of them had been stabbed through the heart by Ling Gong's spear and had only narrowly escaped death. It was only through pure luck that the young man had survived.