Star Odyssey

Chapter 2931: Targeting

In a certain parallel universe of the Endless Frontier, the ground stretched out endlessly, and the entire thing was filled with corpse kings.

The corpse kings all silently stood in place, awaiting orders to fight.

They had been waiting like this for several years.

The sky suddenly grew dark, like a curtain had fallen, shrouding all the corpse kings in a shadow.

Behind the corpse kings, one individual looked up. "You are seeking death."

An attack surged into the sky in an attempt to break the darkness.

Above that darkness, Qing Ping was peering down. "Marquis Xiang?"

The one on the ground who had attacked the darkness was indeed Marquis Xiang, one of Aeternals’ Twelve Marquises who had fought on the Perennial World’s rear battlefield. When the rear battlefield was conquered, some of the Twelve Marquises had managed to escape, and Marquis Xiang was one of them.

The Marquis had not expected to meet anyone who recognized him on the Endless Frontier.

"Are you the Chief Justice?" Marquis Xiang asked in surprise.

Qing Ping raised a hand, and his darkness dropped down. "Skyless."

Marquis Xiang was very wary of Chief Judge Qing Ping. Despite only being a Semi-Progenitor, the man’s strength was enough for the Aeternals to take note of him. Even more important was the fact that Qing Ping was Lu Yin’s senior brother.

Recently, Lu Yin's fellow disciples had all become public knowledge. Aside from Lu Yin, there was also Mu Xie, who was a Progenitor, and Mu Ke, who was a sequence powerhouse. With time, their master’s requirements had also spread, and people now knew that all the disciples were Realmbreakers; Envoys needed to be able to fight against Semi-Progenitors, and Semi-Progenitors had to be able to challenge Progenitors. This was not only true of Lu Yin, but also of his fellow disciples.

While Marquis Xiang had no idea who their master was, it was clear that Qing Ping was a Realmbreaker like the rest of his fellow disciples. The man might only be a Semi-Progenitor, but his combat strength was in no way inferior to a normal Progenitor’s.

One figure after another shot up from the horde of corpse kings, each one attempting to break through Qing Ping’s Skyless.

Skyless was not a technique that could be easily overcome, and the Semi-Progenitor-level corpse kings vanished after entering the darkness.

Marquis Xiang turned around and left. He had no desire to fight against Qing Ping. Without confidence, the Marquis would say nothing. Even if he could defeat Qing Ping, the price to do so would be steep.

It would also be a problem if Lu Yin was lured back to the Endless Frontier. The crusade had nearly passed through this parallel universe, and if not for sheer luck, Marquis Xiang would have died to the crusade.

Even the True God Guard Captains had fallen to Lu Yin’s crusade, let alone someone with the Marquis’s strength.

Marquis Xiang wanted to escape, but Qing Ping would not allow it.

Skyless continued to expand, and it enveloped the horde of corpse kings before spreading out towards the escaping Marquis.

Upon seeing this, Marquis Xiang shouted, "Are you that monster of darkness?"

A few years ago, someone had appeared on the Endless Frontier, and been given the moniker of “monster of darkness.” This person had ruthlessly eliminated countless corpse kings, but they should have been hunted down by the True God Guard.

Skyless expanded faster than Marquis Xiang could move, and he was about to be swallowed by the darkness.

At the very last moment, Marquis Xiang used his inner world to fight back against Skyless, while also activating his innate gift. However, that action triggered a blood-red bell, which rang gently. The sound stunned the Marquis and nearly caused him to faint.

The Twelve Marquises had once terrified humanity on the rear battlefield. They were incredibly powerful and virtually invincible, as long as a Progenitor did not get involved. Each one had been capable of influencing the entire battlefield, but one of them was being completely suppressed by Qing Ping alone.

Soon, Marquis Xiang fell, and Qing Ping stared down at him.

The Marquis was unwilling to give up. "I’m just one step away, just one step away from becoming a Progenitor. What terrible luck to have run into you."

Qing Ping's eyes flashed, and a hand pressed down, ending Marquis Xiang's life.

Qing Ping stood where he was, meditating for a bit before he sent a message to the Heavens Sect.

...

In the fifth universe, a few yellowed leaves fell from Lu Yin's body. He had sat in place for half a month without opening his eyes.

There had to be a connection between space and time, but the only connection that he could think of was that space carried time. Since it was the carrier, if the time passed at an accelerated rate, then space needed to be capable of withstanding the increased flow, or else the universe would collapse.

This was the only explanation that Lu Yin could come up with.

He released his inner world, Lightstream.

When Lightstream appeared, it clearly moved very slowly. It was a manifestation of the power of space, but in the fifth universe, Lightstream moved as though it were mired in thick mud. In fact, it moved about twenty percent slower.

However, Lu Yin’s thoughts went in the other direction. If his Lightstream was five times tougher, much like space in the universe that he was occupying, would that mean that Lightstream could carry five times as much time? Would he become capable of reversing time by five seconds?

Lu Yin’s breathing started to speed up. The idea drove him crazy. If reversing time by one second could change the situation of a battle, then what about five seconds? He raised his hands and looked at his palm. This was an incredibly alluring possibility.

He needed to find parallel universes with accelerated flows of time so that he could develop Lightstream.

The fact that there was someone possibly capable of denying Lu Yin’s very existence caused him to feel a deep sense of crisis. If that person did deny Lu Yin’s existence, it would mean his death.

Lu Yin was not used to entrusting his life to another.

At this moment, the slow-moving Lightstream shook. Right after that, space in every direction also trembled, and Lu Yin felt an instant and terrible sense of danger from every direction. This threat came from the universe itself.

He reflexively fled.

After returning to Aeternus Nation, Lu Yin heaved a sigh of relief and then returned to the Heavens Sect from Aeternus Nation. What had just happened?

The sense of danger had felt like the universe itself had been looking at and threatening him.

Lu Yin went straight to the Decaying Diablo Universe on the Endless Frontier in order to visit the Merchant Exchange's headquarters.

Bi Teng had not expected Lu Yin’s unannounced visit, but he quickly hurried out to greet the Dao Monarch.

Bi Lan and Madam Nalan were right behind Bi Teng.

A group of people who could represent the Merchant Exchange greeted Lu Yin.

He did not waste any time. "It feels like I'm being targeted by the universe that you shared with me. I feel an incredible threat there. What's going on?"

Bi Teng felt confused. "What was targeting you?"

Lu Yin stared at the man. "It felt like the whole universe wanted to destroy me."

Bi Teng glanced over at Bi Lan, who was similarly confused. "Lord Lu, we have no idea."

Lu Yin turned around and left. The two people were not putting on an act. They were not targeting him. If they had been, Lu Yin would not have left so easily. It seemed that the problem was with the universe itself.

Lu Yin found Big Sis and explained his issue to her as well.

However, even Big Sis was confused. "I’ve cultivated in parallel universes with different rates of time flow as well. In the past, such universes were basically a form of currency used among powerful Progenitors. Let alone time that passed five times faster, there were universes that were fifty, or even 500 times faster. Everyone had something, but I never heard about anything like your situation."

She gave Lu Yin an odd stare. Why did this kid run into unique situations no matter what he did?

"You faced that situation because of Lightstream. For matters involving parallel universes, it would be best to ask a Progenitor who actually understands the situation."

Lu Yin realized that this was the right way to handle the situation, so he went to speak with Xia Shenji. While Xia Shenji was only a clone of the Progenitor’s original body, after taking over the main body, the clone had acquired the original Xia Shenji’s cultivation and memories.

Upon hearing Lu Yin's question, Xia Shenji grew serious. "You cannot attempt to practice with time in parallel universes with different rates of time flow. Doing so will invite a disaster upon you from the universe itself."

Lu Yin arched a brow. "You know this for sure?"

Xia Shenji respectfully answered, "My original body encountered it before. According to those memories, people of our universe, including both the Lu family and the four ruling powers, have had access to parallel universes with accelerated time. However, excessive use has always caused those universes to be destroyed.

"Those parallel universes are inherently unstable and are extremely easy to destroy, especially when they come into contact with a power that is forbidden by the universe."

"Explain," Lu Yin ordered.

Xia Shenji organized his thoughts before sharing what he knew of the matter.

According to Xia Shenji’s understanding of the power of time, parallel universes that had accelerated time flows were essentially streams that bifurcated from the river of time.

The river of time’s flow rate was steady and constant, but the streams were different. Those streams could flow either faster or slower than the river itself, though Xia Shenji had no idea of the mechanics behind this phenomenon. He only knew that, whenever he was in one of those parallel universes and had tried to use the power of time, he had felt a terrible sense of danger. In the most serious situation, pushing ahead could destroy the entire universe.

"The river of time is a powerful force that was formed by the universe. The streams’ flow rates can be different from the main river, though I don’t understand how that works. All I know is that, if the power of time is touched in those parallel universes, it will result in a disaster," Xia Shenji concluded.

Lu Yin asked, "What do you mean when you said that everyone used these parallel universes?"

Xia Shenji replied, "Back when the Fifth Mainland was still a solitary whole, before the Perennial World was split off, that era could be regarded as the peak of the Fifth Mainland. At that time, Shenwu's Sky knew about at least a dozen parallel universes with various temporal flow rates. Different organizations would send people to those parallel universes, but doing so would cause all of those parallel universes to be gradually destroyed.

"All of us knew that, whenever we found such a parallel universe, we could not casually enter or take advantage of them and should only do so when it became necessary."

Lu Yin understood. It was no wonder why the Transcendent Universe had only allowed Zi Jing and the Energy Research Group to enter that parallel universe after they found a direction to proceed in with their sequence particle research, and not before.

Lu Yin had barely heard anything concerning parallel universes that had accelerated time.

Xia Shenji had no understanding of the actual principle behind the formation of these special tributaries of the river of time, but Lu Yin felt that he was starting to grasp at something. It was actually what he had already hypothesized in the fifth universe, which was the relationship between time and space.

Only space, as a carrier, could hold time. The stronger a universe’s spatial fabric was, the faster time could flow through that space. This was like a pipe diverting a portion of the river of time.

Lu Yin had no idea if his suspicions were correct, but it was the only way that he could understand this phenomenon.

Xia Shenji did not know anything more, so Lu Yin then went to speak with Ancestor Lu Tianyi.

It turned out that Lu Tianyi knew about the same thing as Xia Shenji, though he revealed to Lu Yin that the Lu family had once known about at least twenty different parallel universes with accelerated time.

"Such parallel universes are not very common, and they need to be sought out. Searching through parallel universes is very dangerous, but if one with accelerated time can be found, it is absolutely worth the risk," Lu Tianyi explained.

"Of course, there are some things that are forbidden when using such universes. A normal human only has a lifespan of about 100 years. If such a person goes to a parallel universe where time passes 100 times faster, then spending just a year in that universe means that they will come back at the end of their life.

"The years that a human body experiences have nothing to do with their native universe, but are instead entirely dependent on the subjective amount of time that passes. This is why the use of such parallel universes is not as beneficial as one might imagine. Most Progenitors used the accelerated passage of time to give their descendants a bit more time to increase their experience, but it is impossible to continuously use such methods. Also, just as Xia Shenji told you, overusing such parallel universes causes them to be destroyed.

"The laws of the universe are unstable in parallel universes with altered temporal flow rates, especially the more fundamental rules. If those rules are used in such universes, there will be unimaginable consequences..."

This gave Lu Yin a headache. He wanted to develop his power of time, but doing so would make him be rejected by the very parallel universes that he needed to practice in. How was he supposed to succeed?

Lu Tianyi then shared a method to do exactly that with Lu Yin—be recognized by the universe.

Lu Yin had managed to become the Fifth Mainland’s Dao Monarch, and he had even received the Wordless Heavenly Book, where he could write down the names of people shunned by the Fifth Mainland. This was because Lu Yin had been acknowledged by the universe.

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