Star Odyssey

A month later, another person was delivered.

More reports concerning jade-colored insects kept arriving from various parallel universes.

“Dao Monarch, this isn’t looking good. It looks like this is some sort of wide-spread inheritance or power,” Wei Rong reported. He was the one in charge of searching for the jade-colored insects, and his expression was grim.

Lu Yin had realized the same thing. Yu Leng had used a jade butterfly to kill a Semi-Progenitor, but that butterfly was only the second type of insect from the jade-colored orbs. One of the people who had been brought to the Heavens Sect had already trained enough to summon a jade butterfly, which he referred to as a Sentinel Waltz.

The jade orbs and the insects inside them were clearly part of some inheritance, but whatever it was, it was on an absolutely massive scale.

Additionally, the fact that a jade butterfly had successfully killed a Semi-Progenitor served as proof that this inheritance was not a minor one.

Lu Yin stared out at the stars. There were other species and lifeforms in the megaverse aside from humans like astral beasts and countless other strange creatures. There was no denying that insects were a large and powerful race.

He had a premonition that they may have discovered a terrifying inheritance of some kind of insect, possibly even the inheritance of an entire civilization.

…

On a lush planet that was covered with vegetation, the sounds of birds and insects filled the air. The atmosphere was humid, but it was also refreshingly clean.

There were mountains just barely visible in the distance, and overhead, there was a planet that was on the verge of shattering entirely. Nearly half of it was already broken, and the debris was shooting toward the verdant planet. Despite that, the debris caused little damage, thanks to a massive plant blocking the way. Without this plant, the debris would have wiped out all life on the planet.

A group of five people were moving through a jungle. Leaves brushed past them as they flew instead of walked.

"Are you sure that it’s here?" the young man leading the group asked. He had a heroic appearance and an exceptional demeanor. Wherever he passed by, the air nearby dried up, as though the moisture had all disappeared.

A person behind him replied, "It's this planet. There’s no doubt about it."

"While we were in the Sixverse Academy, there were several times when we were able to see that guy, and he was always staring at a star chart, focused on this planet."

"That was three years ago. We’ve been searching for three years, and we’ve finally found the planet. Let’s hope that this trip wasn’t in vain," the young man at the front said, his expression cold.

The people behind exchanged glances and whispered, "If we actually manage to catch that guy, what reward do you want from Lord Lu?"

"I want to ask Lord Lu to accept me as his disciple."

"Dream on! If you become Lord Lu’s disciple, even the Great Elder will have to treat you like royalty."

"Heheh, if you’re going to dream, then you might as well dream big. Still, I’ve heard that Lord Lu’s two disciples never even leave the Heavens Sect, which is too strange."

"Lord Lu’s disciples are not ordinary people. They must have their own plans. I wouldn’t ask for anything that grand. I would just want to receive a position in the Heavens Sect."

"Not grand? Getting a place in the Heavens Sect is something that countless people dream of. Anyone who manages to join that sect has basically reached the peak. Even some of the weaker parallel universes would start sucking up to you."

"But that wouldn’t be too exaggerated of a request to ask of Lord Lu."

"True, he wouldn’t mind."

"There’s no reward that I would ask for. I just want to avenge our classmates from the Sixverse Academy. That bastard massacred everyone in the academy, including some of our seniors from the Lost Clan. We need to get revenge for them!"

The expression of the young man leading the group grew colder. He remained completely silent as he flew into the distance.

The group intended to search the entire planet, but they could not risk letting Yu Leng escape, so they had to conduct their search rather quietly, which would take a bit of time.

After half a month, they finally found their target at a forested beach.

Yu Leng was sitting by the sea, holding his jade-colored orb in his arms as he absentmindedly stared up at the broken planet. He was enjoying a moment of peace. This was the only place he could feel any warmth. Reality had given him nothing but coldness, and all who stood in his way would be erased. No one would be able to escape.

As he lost himself in his thoughts, a jade butterfly suddenly flew out of the orb. It turned into a streak of light that shot behind Yu Leng.

The sudden movement startled the young man, and he spun around. "Sentinel Waltz!"

There was a clang as weapons clashed. Shards of a blade stabbed into the ground, still quivering.

At the edge of the forest, one person stared at his broken blade in disbelief as the jade butterfly danced in the air in front of him. "What a sharp butterfly!"

The jade butterfly transformed into a streak of light again, this time attacking the man himself.

The man quickly fled, and several other people appeared behind him.

Yu Leng's eyes grew focused as a terrible bloodlust filled them. "You shouldn’t have come here!"

"Yu Leng, prepare to die!" The young man, who was known as Sixth Brother, tore through the void while attacking Yu Leng with a palm strike that warped the nearby space as it started to boil.

Yu Leng felt his scalp go numb. This person was a true expert. Several more jade butterflies appeared before him, and they gathered into a jade-colored shield.

Sixth Brother’s palm strike shattered the shield, which forced Yu Leng to steadily retreat. He looked at his shattered butterflies, seemingly tortured by their destruction. He then shot a vicious glare at Sixth Brother. "You're courting death!"

Sixth Brother glanced down at his hand. Had his attack really not been strong enough to instantly shatter the jade shield? That shield should have only been as strong as an Enlighter’s technique, but Sixth Brother, who was as strong as one of the Origin Universe’s Envoys, had failed to instantly break it.

His name was Hu Liu, though many people called him Sixth Brother, and some older people liked to call him Little Six.

During the same Shangsan Festival that Lu Yin had attended, the first person to attract a card had been a small child no more than five or six years old. Little Six was that same child.

More than forty years had passed since that Shangsan Festival, and the child had grown up long ago. Due to his exceptional talent, he had cultivated more than just the Lost Clan’s card abilities, as he had trained at the Sixverse Academy, where he had mastered several other energies. He had even succeeded in reaching the Envoy level.

He had only recently broken through, but experiencing such progress in no more than forty years was extremely impressive.

Hu Liu threw another palm strike at Yu Leng.

Hundreds of jade dragonflies appeared in front of Yu Leng, quickly forming a cloud.

Hu Liu easily shattered the nearby jade dragonflies. While the insects were tough enough to force even Enlighter-level cultivators to struggle to crush them, Hu Liu was as strong as an Envoy, and he had also learned various battle techniques. The dragonflies were not enough to threaten him.

However, the number of jade dragonflies kept rising, even as Yu Leng was forced to retreat further and further. Jade butterflies started to gather around him, their numbers also growing.

"Sixth Brother, leave them to us." The others moved forward and took over the fight. All of them were as strong as Enlighters, and while none of them were anywhere close to Hu Liu’s strength, they were still strong enough to handle the jade dragonflies.

Hu Liu waved a hand and dispersed the cloud of dragonflies, only to then see a streak of light shooting at him. This streak was actually hundreds of jade butterflies that were working together. They had become a streak of light that acted like a blade, and it felt exceptionally dangerous to Hu Liu.

Startled, he lashed out with another palm strike. He succeeded in forcing the streak of light back, but more immediately appeared around him.

"Watch out!" Hu Liu shouted, but he was already too late. Each streak of light was formed from hundreds of jade butterflies, and each one was as strong as an Envoy. These attacks were strong enough to threaten Hu Liu, let alone his companions.

As the streaks of light shot forward, four heads flew into the air, the cultivators easily decapitated.

Yu Leng licked his lips. "This is what happens when you cross me!"

With that, he pressed a hand down, and five more streaks of light shot at Hu Liu.

The man’s eyes flushed blood-red. He had been accompanied by his friends from the Lost Clan, and all of them had just died. His rage boiled over, and he summoned a card into his hand while using a movement technique. He charged through streaks of light, rushing straight at Yu Leng.

Yu Leng had inherited the powers of an insect civilization, but in terms of battle techniques or cultivation methods, he had received almost nothing. That was why he was still personally only as strong as an Explorer.

In the face of Hu Liu’s battle technique, Yu Leng could only turtle up under a shield of jade butterflies, hoping that they would be able to protect him and save him from being killed by Hu Liu’s palm strike.

The card quickly pulled both men inside. This was how the Lost Clan fought.

The card’s pocket dimension was a cage formed from Hu Liu’s innate gift, Boiling. As soon as he entered his card, the entire space started to boil.

The jade butterflies formed a sphere around Yu Leng that shielded him from the heat. Despite that, he could still feel the intensity of the heat. He grew terrified. This was the strength of an Envoy. Not even his Sentinel Waltz’s jade-colored shield would be able to protect him from it. He had only managed to eliminate Xu Xiangyin and the other instructors in the Sixverse Academy through sheer luck and sneak attacks.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

He carefully tapped on another one of the small spheres within the jade-colored orb that he held.

Hu Liu glared at Yu Leng, who was being protected by his jade butterflies. The boiling heat continued to rise. The jade dragonflies fell like raindrops, more and more of them dying. The jade butterflies had lost their original jade color and taken on a faint red hue. The intense heat was even starting to burn Yu Leng’s skin. If things continued for much longer, there was no doubt that he would die. However, Yu Leng did not so much as glance at Hu Liu. Instead, his eyes were locked onto his orb. "Come on! Come out, my treasure! Come out!"

Yu Leng’s skin began to crack and peel, entire patches of it falling off. The slightest movement caused more of his skin to flake off.

He could feel the touch of death, but his eyes remained focused on the jade-colored orb.

Cracks started to appear on the jade butterflies. The moment they shattered, he would die.

Hu Liu also kept his eyes on the jade-colored orb that was in Yu Leng’s hand. While both the jade dragonflies and the jade butterflies were individually insignificant, they appeared in large numbers, which allowed them to pose a tremendous threat. Hu Liu could feel the dragonflies devouring his energy, which caused him to consume far more energy than usual. His expenditures were multiplied several-fold, possibly even tenfold. The dragonflies could devour energy, and they were consuming both the stellular energy and the surging heat. They were able to devour everything.

The jade dragonflies were constantly cracking and dying, but they were the reason why the temperature did not continue to rise. Without them, Yu Leng would have already died.

Under Yu Leng’s hopeful gaze, another jade-colored bug crawled out of the sphere. This one looked like an ordinary worm, but it also had small wings and was covered in soft, nearly invisible bristles. It moved lazily.

The sight of the worm triggered Yu Leng’s excitement, and his breathing quickened. This caused the skin around his mouth to crack and start flaking away, giving him a grotesque appearance.

He stared intensely at the worm. "You’re called Thousand Shards, aren’t you? Come on, little one. Kill him! Kill that man."

Hu Liu also saw the worm, and he frowned as he stared at it. It also looked quite weak, yet he felt something disturbing from it that unsettled him. Just what could this bug do?

The insect slowly unfurled its wings and started to fly. Yu Leng had his shield of jade butterflies open a miniscule hole, which let in a wave of heat that nearly melted his arm. However, the little worm was unaffected by the temperature, and it flew out through the hole and on towards Hu Liu.

Hu Liu waved his hand, sending a blast of heat at the insect.

The attack knocked the worm back, and it slammed into the sphere of jade butterflies.

Yu Leng was startled, as was Hu Liu. Did the worm do nothing at all?

Suddenly, Hu Liu let out a blood-curdling scream. It sounded as though he was experiencing the most excruciating pain imaginable. He clawed at his skin, tearing his flesh open as blood streamed from his body. It felt as if countless ants were crawling around inside of him.

The boiling heat disappeared.

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA