Star Odyssey

Chapter 2947: Progenitor Xi

Lu Yin soon started moving in a particular direction, led by Yu Huo’s guidance.

As they traveled, they saw corpse kings roaming across the black earth. At times they saw many, and other times only a few. They might see only two or three, or they might see an endless horde.

The corpse kings did not only roam about the land. When Lu Yin looked up at the stars in the sky, there were times when he saw countless corpse kings moving about in outer space, sometimes heading towards a nearby cosmic door. There were also corpse kings returning from cosmic doors and making their way towards nearby planets.

Lu Yin even saw at least a few tens of millions of human cultivators numbly walking across the land. They were people who would be transformed into corpse kings.

If each cosmic door led to a different parallel universe, Lu Yin could understand where the Aeternals gathered so many corpse kings from.

He also understood why people claimed that the Aeternals controlled more parallel universes than the Sixverse Association.

This was not just a few more. There was simply no comparison in how many universes the two sides controlled.

The land that Lu Yin traveled across was incredibly monotonous, and it seemed to be truly without end. Despite Lu Yin's current cultivation, he was still unable to see the end of the landmass, though it was clear that it was able to support the huge Mother Tree. It was clear that this landmass was at least the size of the Perennial World.

"Are there only corpse kings here?" Lu Yin was curious.

Yu Huo replied, "Of course not. There are many Aeternus Nations here in the Scourge, but we’re already in the depths of the land because I am one of the True God Guard Captains. That means that my cosmic door leads to the interior of this place. The various Aeternus Kingdoms are out at the edge. Many different odd species live there, though naturally, humans are the most numerous.

"So the humans are here to be transformed into corpse kings."

"Not all of them. Many of the humans don't even know that they are living in the Scourge. They live just like in your universe."

Lu Yin wanted to ask more questions, but Yu Huo raised a fin to point at a high tower up ahead of them. "Look, only Progenitor-level experts are qualified to own that kind of tall tower. Those towers represent status. Now, that tower before us doesn’t belong to someone at the level of True God Guard, or a corpse king whose physical strength is at the Progenitor level. I mean real Progenitor-level powerhouses."

Lu Yin looked at the tall tower that rose in the distance. It was not particularly high, but it was a very abrupt change from the monotonous land. Like Yu Huo had said, the tower represented status.

"Each tower represents another peak powerhouse. When they die, their tower is destroyed. When another Progenitor-level expert appears, Aeternus will construct another tower for them. As you look across this land, the number of towers you can see represents how many Progenitor-level experts there are in Aeternus," Yu Huo briefly explained.

Lu Yin's eyes flashed as he looked into the distance. One, two, three… eight, nine. Some towers were close together, while others were very far apart. They continued far off into the distance.

Impossible! From just a glance, Lu Yin counted no less than ten towers. That was only in a single direction, and there should be a similar number of towers in every other direction.

Where had Aeternus gathered so many Progenitor-level experts from? If this was real, then how had the Sixverse Association endured for so long?

"The closer we move that way, towards the Mother Tree, the taller the towers get. The tallest all belong to the Seven Skygods, and their towers surround the Mother Tree. They stand closest to the Mother Tree and to the True God. The towers that belong to us True God Guard Captains are quite a distance away from the Seven Skygods’.

"We aren’t too far now. Let’s go, and we’ll be there soon."

Lu Yin said nothing. This was not the right time to ask more questions. He would stay in this place for a long time, which meant that he would have plenty of time to learn more.

The Sixverse Association knew too little about the Aeternals. It was no wonder why Jiang Qingyue had mentioned long ago that no one understood just how powerful the Aeternals truly were. Regardless of how powerful humans might appear to be, the Aeternals could handle it. This was a giant whose strength was impossible for anyone to see fully. No one wanted to confront such an opponent.

A wide red lake of divine energy only gave off a faint light, and yet it illuminated the starry sky.

Lu Yin finally arrived at Yu Huo’s tower.

"Across this lake is my tower. What do you think? The scenery here’s pretty good for this place. Somewhere like this is better than most." Yu Huo wanted to slap his tail, only to remember that his tail was still gone, which greatly annoyed the fish. "I’m going to kill that bastard Lu Qi one day!"

Lu Yin suddenly stopped walking, as he had noticed a person standing beside the lake. She was a woman. She was tall and she wore a white dress, which was particularly conspicuous when she stood on the black land.

This was the third color that Lu Yin had seen since stepping foot on the Scourge.

The woman in white was quietly standing next to the lake. It was impossible to tell what she was doing.

"Who is she?"

Yu Huo looked over, and was surprised to see the woman. "Progenitor Xi?"

Progenitor Xi? Lu Yin almost felt like he had just heard the name Xi Wei.[1]

"Hurry! Get over there! That is Progenitor Xi, and she is the steward of the Scourge."

Lu Yin moved closer to the lake of divine energy with Yu Huo.

The woman turned around, revealing a face that was not stunningly beautiful. She had a rather plain appearance, but something about her face left people feeling very comfortable. "Yu Huo, you’ve come back."

Yu Huo was still in his fish form. Confronted with this woman, he was clearly rather frightened. "Yu Huo did not perform well with his last task. Please punish me, Senior Progenitor Xi."

The woman responded with a small smile. "I am not the True God, so how do I have the authority to punish you? I simply wished for you to return."

She then turned her attention to Lu Yin. "And who is this?"

Yu Huo gave an introduction. "This is Ye Bo. I wonder, might you have heard of him before, Senior Progenitor Xi?"

The woman was clearly surprised. "Ye Bo? The one who is nearly as famous as Cheng Kong?"

Lu Yin looked at the woman. "I am Ye Bo."

"Senior Progenitor Xi, I was only able to return alive because Ye Bo rescued me. Not only that, but he also succeeded in absorbing divine energy the first time he came into contact with it, and he gained enough strength to temporarily hold back Lu Tianyi…" Yu Huo gushed. He had promised to help Ye Bo become one of the True God Guard Captains, so the fish praised his rescuer quite highly.

The woman was impressed. "I see. In that case, thank you very much, Ye Bo."

Lu Yin nodded indifferently, saying nothing.

"It's a pity that Cheng Kong died. He was quite talented." The woman sighed with regret.

Yu Huo felt the same way. "Yes, if I could have worked with Cheng Kong this time, things might not have turned out as they did. I intended to ask the White Dragon Clan to help me find the 100,000 currents so that we could destroy the Lower Realm and incite chaos in the Perennial World while destroying the roots of their Mother Tree. Unexpectedly, The White Dragon Clan was so dumb that they chose death over obeying me. They don’t deserve their bloodline, so it was better to just destroy them."

The woman clearly had no interest in the matter, and instead, her eyes returned to Lu Yin. "With Cheng Kong dead, Mr. Ye Bo can replace him."

Yu Huo quickly replied, "Senior Progenitor Xi, Ye Bo wishes to become a True God Guard Captain."

Progenitor Xi smiled. "A True God Guard Captain? Not a bad idea either. It's time for the captains to assemble. We face great pressure on the Endless Frontier, and we need to adjust our strategy."

Yu Huo responded with evident excitement, "Great! After seeing the reactions of the humans in the Sixverse Association, I really can’t stand them. They really believe that they can overwhelm our Aeternus, which is absurd. They have never faced our real strength."

Lu Yin soon left the lake, still with Yu Huo. As for Progenitor Xi, she remained where they had found her by the lake. It was impossible to know what she was thinking.

They quickly arrived at the high tower that belonged to Yu Huo. It was clearly taller than any of the other towers that Lu Yin had seen so far, which represented Yu Huo's status. He was a True God Guard Captain.

Eight Progenitor-level corpse kings stood outside of the tower, and Lu Yin arched a brow at the sight of them.

"Ye Bo, thank you for all that you’ve done. I need to go into seclusion in order to recover my strength. If I don’t, things will get ugly for me when the captains gather. You can wander around a bit, as long as you don’t go any closer to the Mother Tree. Don’t try to get close to the Seven Skygods’ towers," Yu Huo said. With that, his tower was sealed as he went into seclusion to recuperate.

Lu Yin looked at the eight Progenitor-level corpse kings that stood around the tower. He wanted to know just how the Aeternals had created the True God Guard. Even if these corpse kings only had physical might at the level of a Progenitor, their numbers were more than what most people could even imagine. Any one of the Progenitor-level corpse kings could have utterly overwhelmed the Fifth Mainland before the Sixth Mainland’s invasion.

At that time, the Fifth Mainland had not had even a single Progenitor.

Lu Yin proceeded to wander around the area near the tower. He did not move closer or farther away from where the Seven Skygods’ towers stood, and he demonstrated no curiosity.

He did not know if he might be under observation.

Perhaps it would be good to raise the Aeternals’ confidence in Ye Bo.

The Aeternals trusted divine energy more than anything, so Lu Yin felt that trying to cultivate divine energy would be a good option.

With that thought, he approached a nearby stream. It was merely a tributary to a real river, and the stream was only a meter wide. It was more of a creek than a stream.

Lu Yin sat down cross-legged and stared at the stream of divine energy before him as he slowly stretched out a hand.

The moment his fingers made contact with the stream of divine energy, he could feel the energy’s vastness. Even if it was only a tiny bit, the divine energy gave off the illusion of facing off against the True God. That man was irresistible, invincible, and surrender was the only option. These were the feelings that Lu Yin experienced when he made contact with the divine energy.

He tried to absorb the divine energy, and things proceeded smoothly, very smoothly. The energy transformed into a dark-red light that entered his body and moved straight into the universe at his heart, where it merged with the red star.

Lu Yin spent several hours absorbing divine energy, and he watched the red star grow several times larger. While it was still much, much smaller than the other stars in Lu Yin’s universe, its amount of divine energy had increased significantly.

Lu Yin did not want to appear too impressive, so he retracted his hand and let out a breath.

He looked up at the distant form of the black Mother Tree. He was capable of absorbing more divine energy, much, much more. He could continue until the dark-red star was the same size as the star that had formed from the Withered Bark, or possibly even larger.

However, Lu Yin did not know what might happen to him if he absorbed that much divine energy.

Regardless of how much Lu Yin had tried to convince himself that he was in control of his own fate, he would never forget what he had seen in the merged Books of Destiny. He had seen a future where he slaughtered all the people close to him. Could that be due to the influence of divine energy?

Was Lu Yin currently experiencing a part of that future that he had witnessed?

Since ancient times, humans had feared divine energy. Unlike other powers, divine energy was regarded as pure evil that corrupted all that it touched. Would Lu Yin be an exception to that? He could not be sure.

He stared at the stream of divine energy in a daze.

"You were cultivating very well. Why did you stop?" A soft voice asked from behind. Progenitor Xi had approached him.

Lu Yin did not turn to look back and continued to stare at the divine energy. "I can't handle it any longer."

Progenitor Xi was standing a short distance behind Lu Yin. When the wind picked up and blew her skirt, she held it down with a hand. "Do me a favor."

Lu Yin stood and turned to give Progenitor Xi a confused look. "Me?"

Progenitor Xi smiled. "Yes.

"The recent crusade that the Sixverse Association waged across the Endless Frontier took the lives of many of Aeternus’s experts. There are certain situations that cannot be avoided."

"What do you need?" Lu Yin asked, not refusing the request. If he refused this woman, his time in the Scourge would become far more difficult. This woman terrified Yu Huo, and she had mentioned punishing the fish. Everything indicated that Progenitor Xi enjoyed an exceptional status in the Scourge.

The steward?

Progenitor Xi’s fingers moved, and the stream of divine energy rose into the sky, arcing upwards into outer space, where it eventually merged with a cosmic door. "Go to that universe and help us destroy it."

1. 昔 is the same "xi" that is in Progenitor Smoke's name (Xi Wei). ☜

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA