Star Odyssey
Chapter 3601: Attempt

Chapter 3601: Attempt

Lu Yin stared intently at Jiu Xian. "Codex 16, the lonely figure on the mountain peak."

Jiu Xian was confused.

"Codex 15, Eternal Sorrow."

Jiu Xian became even more confused.

"Heavenspire."

Jiu Xian was speechless. "What are you talking about?"

"The Wisdom Domain."

Jiu Xian held a hand to her forehead. "You know what, forget it. I don’t have time to waste with you. I’m better off taking a nap."

"The Gate of Laws," Lu Yin said finally. He then watched as Jiu Xian stepped into her portal and vanished.

Lu Yin remained standing where he was, staring down at the empty ground.

He had just listed off a number of things that he was suspicious about. No matter how much Jiu Xian tried to hide, Lu Yin felt that his guesses would most likely force her to take action.

Feng Bo was from another megaverse, and the Spirit Nidus existed within another, invisible megaverse. Lu Yin wanted to learn the truth of those megaverses.

He was certain that Jiu Xian knew something. The more that she tried to keep things hidden, the more confident that Lu Yin was in his suspicions.

You won’t be able to hide things for long.

Some distance away, Shi Lin was quite anxious. Everyone else had all left, so what was he supposed to do now?

He had just attacked, but he had not done so intentionally. He had been forced to by Jiu Xian. Shi Lin had been given no choice but to attack and draw Lu Yin’s attention.

If Lu Yin held a grudge after this, Shi Lin would be in grave trouble.

In the midst of Shi Lin’s anxiety, Lu Yin simply walked away. He did not have time to waste on Shi Lin and others at his level. Since people were hiding things, he would force everything out. He wanted to see who could truly keep their secrets.

Lu Yin returned to the Daquan Domain.

As soon as Lu Yin left, Shi Lin let out a sigh of relief.

There were three keys to the Gate of Laws, and Yue Susu suspected that the Daquan Domain’s Chamber of Commerce had obtained one of them.

The Chamber of Commerce had cooperated with the Gate of Laws, and the key might have been the reason why their cooperation was at all possible.

Lu Yin was going to the Daquan Domain to force Yi Shang to turn the key over.

Lu Yin could do what Zhan Ming and the other Seraphs could not. Since the High Seraph had confirmed that he would not attack Lu Yin and since there were no other real threats, Lu Yin could act without restraint.

"The president of the Chamber of Commerce? He’s not here," Rong Xiang respectfully replied to Lu Yin.

"Where is he?"

Rong Xiang replied, "I don’t know. After the conflict during the trade association selection, the president left, saying that he was going into seclusion to recover. He didn’t make an appearance even after everything here was restored to normal."

Lu Yin understood: Yi Shang had run away. He was likely afraid that Lu Yin would go after him for the key.

Yue Susu had plotted against Yi Shang’s Chamber of Commerce. Both she and Yi Shang were aware of the third key’s existence, though it had never been mentioned during their conversations. Yi Shang and Zhan Ming undoubtedly wanted to kill Yue Susu, and it seemed to be because of her knowledge of the third key.

Lu Yin had taken Yue Susu away, and because of that, Yi Shang was afraid that Lu Yin would target him for the key. So, he had escaped.

With Yi Shang gone, staying in the Daquan Domain was useless to Lu Yin.

"Since Yi Shang is gone, does that mean that you’re in charge of the Chamber of Commerce now?" Lu Yin asked, looking back at Rong Xiang.

The man quickly replied, "The president just left for a short while."

Lu Yin nodded, and then slowly raised a hand and patted Rong Xiang’s shoulder. "I’ll leave the Sima Chamber of Commerce and the Hundred Leaf Trade Association in your care."

Rong Xiang bowed. "Rest assured, Seraph Lu."

A short time later, Lu Yin left the Daquan Domain.

Rong Xiang let out a sigh of relief. It was good to see Lu Yin leave. There was no one in the Spirit Nidus who welcomed him.

"Grandfather, is Lu Yin gone?" Rong Hua came over.

Rong Xiang barked, "Shut up! You must address him as Seraph Lu, not by just his name!"

Rong Hua still resented Lu Yin for almost killing him before. "Lu... Seraph Lu, what did he come here for?"

"That has nothing to do with you. You don’t need to concern yourself with anything. Go train!" Rong Xiang dismissed Rong Hua with a wave of his hand, leaving the younger man with no choice but but to leave.

Rong Xiang let out a breath. As the president expected, Seraph Lu had indeed come back to the Daquan Domain. Rong Xiang just hoped that the Chamber of Commerce would be able to survive this calamity.

Far away, Lu Yin had already returned to the Hundred Grasses Domain, where he openly announced a session of secluded training in preparation for his upcoming battle with Emperor Wu at the source of the Fu River. Lu Yin said that he would remain in seclusion until the battle.

Many people breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this announcement. Seraph Lu was constantly roaming the megaverse, and who knew when he might stumble into their domain? Everywhere he went, misfortune seemed to follow.

On Boundless, Lu Yin actually did go into seclusion, but not to prepare for his fight against Emperor Wu. Instead, Lu Yin went into seclusion to roll his die.

The die was his mirebound artifact, and it had catalyzed Lu Yin’s own rise to power by granting him the innate gifts of the Seven Heroes. During his time in his own megaverse, Lu Yin had accomplished many seemingly impossible things with his die. However, after coming into contact with the Spirit Nidus and the Consciousness Megaverse, his die’s usefulness had greatly diminished. In particular, Possession, which had once allowed him to feel omniscient and omnipotent, had become almost entirely useless.

In the Tianyuan Megaverse, he no longer needed to Possess anyone, but it was impossible for him to Possess anyone in the Spirit Nidus. The same was true of the Consciousness Megaverse’s conscients. Beings of pure consciousness could not be Possessed by a living creature like Lu Yin. The power that conscients cultivated was simply their own being.

If they lacked vitality, they also lacked power.

The die’s Possession was completely neutered in both the Spirit Nidus and the Consciousness Megaverse.

However, when Lu Yin had formed his Nine Heavens, he had done so by splitting his consciousness and using the Nine Clones Secret Technique. In doing so, he had realized how he could use his die’s Possession on conscients. He could do so with the consciousness that belonged to the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

There were three steps to using the Nine Clones Secret Technique: first was to sense one’s own consciousness. Second was to separate that consciousness into nine pieces, using the secret technique to use the cultivator’s blood to create a body for it. After that, the final step was to merge each consciousness with its body, making a true clone with its own mind and body, which would then allow it to cultivate on its own. This was the Nine Clones Secret Technique.

Lu Yin had not fully cultivated the secret technique before. While he had been capable of splitting his consciousness into nine parts long ago, the idea of having nine versions of himself was too disturbing for him.

Only when he was trying to cultivate the Nine Heavens with his consciousness at the Universe level had Lu Yin made the attempt. However, his consciousness had been weakened significantly after he split open his Nine Heavens, which had left him unable to block Emperor Wu’s serrated blade during their earlier fight.

Because he had used the Nine Clones Secret Technique, the consciousness that he had used to form the Nine Heavens had practically come alive; each layer was like a copy of himself. He could use that consciousness to roll his die, but whether that would allow him to Possess a conscient remained to be seen. Lu Yin still needed to test it.

He tapped the die with his finger, causing it to slowly spin before coming to a stop. Four pips: Timestop.

The scenery around Lu Yin changed as he entered his Timestop Space. Since he had rolled Timestop, he would not waste it. He trained for a year before leaving, and he immediately resumed rolling his die. His next roll was Pilfer, and something useless fell out.

Even in the Spirit Nidus, the die’s Pilfer could be used. However, given Lu Yin’s current strength, it was practically impossible for him to gain anything useful.

He continued rolling the die.

He got Blackhole Decomposition, but with nothing to break down, he immediately rolled the die again.

For his fourth roll, Lu Yin saw six pips: Possession. His consciousness roared around him as he used his Nine Heavens consciousness to power the die. Possession sent him to the strange dark space, but as far as he could see, the space was pitch black. He started to get anxious. Without any orbs of light, Possession would be useless.

His consciousness moved through the space, and Lu Yin eventually found a boundary that marked the limit of the universe. There was no need to stop there; Wu Wei was in the Spirit Nidus, so Lu Yin was determined to keep searching.

After some time, Lu Yin finally saw balls of light that shone like twinkling stars. While there were not many, their existence meant that he could Possess those individuals.

These orbs of light undoubtedly represented conscients. This meant that there were conscients in the Spirit Nidus that had not been in the Consciousness Domain. Lu Yin wasted no time and rushed over to Possess one of the orbs.

He was met with coldness and cruelty. There was a desire to survive, to strengthen its consciousness, and to kill. To kill the humans. All of them were enemies, and all enemies should die.

Various emotions flooded Lu Yin’s mind as he looked around. He had Possessed a conscient. The one that he had Possessed was a conscient without a fixed form, so they took on the appearance of whatever their observers perceived. This was the same as Wu Wei.

This was Lu Yin’s first time sensing the thoughts of a conscient. There was coldness and killing intent but nothing else.

Humans had seven emotions and six desires, but conscients did not. They only possessed hostility and a desire for slaughter, growth, and survival. Despite all of that, the conscient that Lu Yin had Possessed put on a show of being very respectful towards the people of the Spirit Nidus, behaving like an obedient servant.

Lu Yin understood why Yuan Qi and so many others had warned him to be wary of conscients. These beings lacked most emotions. Their only motivation upon identifying an enemy was to kill them.

The only meaning for a conscient’s existence was to survive and kill.

To survive, they needed to strengthen their consciousness. As for killing, that was necessary because there were enemies. Things really were that simple for them.

Lu Yin was in the Northmount Domain, which was one of the domains that formed the lower part of the "灵" character that formed the Spirit Nidus. It was a rather average domain, and at the moment, the conscient that Lu Yin had Possessed was looking at a vast plaza where several people were fighting. There were both chaotic battle royales and one-on-one duels taking place. It was the competition to become one of the Northmount Domain’s Peak Masters.

The ruler of the Northmount Domain was known as the Mountain Lord, just like the Primal Beastland’s Mountain Lords. Those Mountain Lords each ruled over a mountain, but in the Northmount Domain, there was only one Mountain Lord, and their authority encompassed the entire Northmount Domain. In the Primal Beastland, there were as many Mountain Lords as there were mountains.

The Northmount Domain’s ruler possessed a rather average strength, as they were only a sequence powerhouse, which was true of most of the rulers of the thirty-six domains. If such a person lived in the Primal Beastland, they would still be a Mountain Lord.

Beneath the Mountain Lord were the Peak Masters.

The Northmount Domain had seventeen peaks, each ruled by a Peak Master. Most of the Peak Masters were Spirit Ancestors, with a few rare sequence powerhouses sprinkled in.

The conscient that Lu Yin had Possessed was a slave to a Peak Master. The conscient had been recognized by the Spirit Nidus and could therefore be controlled. Naturally, this meant that it had been branded.

For a conscient to be allowed to live in the Spirit Nidus, the Spirit Nidus cultivators needed a way to control the conscient, and their surrender needed to be recognized. The only way a surrender could be recognized was if the conscient was branded by a Seraph.

Only a Seraph could allow a conscient to live in the Spirit Nidus. After all, conscients were quite peculiar creatures, and the Seven Seraphs knew that they were devoid of most emotions. The only thing that conscients understood was survival and killing. As soon as they grew strong enough, they would quickly turn on their previous masters.

However, it was very rare to encounter a Seraph. For the average person, let alone requesting a Seraph to brand a conscient, simply locating a Seraph was practically impossible. This was the main reason why rarely any conscients could live openly in the Spirit Nidus.

As Lu Yin roamed about the Spirit Nidus, he rarely ever encountered any conscients.

Originally, there had been a location in the Spirit Nidus specifically dedicated for the Seven Seraphs to brand conscients, but as time passed, the Seraphs had either gone into seclusion or gone on expeditions to the Consciousness Megaverse. The branding location had eventually fallen into neglect, and only a few lucky individuals were able to find a Seraph and ask them to brand their conscients.

If a conscient was not branded, then keeping it was considered a terrible crime. An example was Little Yao, who had been adopted by Ba Liu and Yi Yao.

The conscient that Lu Yin had Possessed had been branded, and it had been branded by the deceased Seraph Bai Cao from the Hundred Grasses Domain.

Being able to find a Seraph and ask them to brand a conscient indicated that the master of the conscient was no simple figure.

Sure enough, Lu Yin found that the conscient’s master was a Peak Master who was a Spirit Ancestor, and his father was the Mountain Lord of the Northmount Domain.

If not for the Mountain Lord, it would have been very difficult for the Spirit Ancestor to find a Seraph.