Star Odyssey

Chapter 1706: Return To Sky Creation Academy

Corpse kings might be emotionless, but they were not unintelligent. The Allied Forces had sealed off Basong Flowzone, so naturally, the corpse kings intended to remove the enemy commander.

Ian was one of the orchestrators of this attack.

While Ian was a deputy commander and an admiral of the Allied Forces who answered only to Liuying Zishan, he was not very strong. He had gained his position solely through his expertise when it came to commanding military forces.

Faced with a corpse king that was as strong as a Cruiser, Ian had absolutely no way to fight back.

The corpse king raised a hand to grab Ian, and the man could not even see the creature’s movements, let alone try to dodge it. Fortunately, powerful Hunters constantly protected the command center.

The Allied Forces had six Hunters among their numbers. Two protected Liuying Zishan, one protected Ian, and the other three moved about freely.

A Hunter with the appearance of a middle-aged man used a strange knife to slash at the corpse king. The creature raised a hand, and its entire arm turned black, causing the knife to shatter upon contact with a loud clang, and the corpse king’s other hand struck at the Hunter.

The middle-aged man kicked the corpse king away with one foot.

Ian let out a sigh of relief and returned his focus to the screen. "Sixty-two, retreat. Ninety-five, ninety-one, and ninety-nine, stay sharp. Don’t allow a single corpse king to escape."

Vibrations continued to shake the battleship as the Hunter continued his fierce battle with the corpse king. Once the corpse king underwent a green-eyed transformation, the Hunter was no longer able to endure, and he retreated with serious injuries. Although one of the corpse king’s arms had been cut off, it immediately returned to attack Ian once again.

Ian raised a hand when the corpse king returned. In his hand, there was a Money Bomb.

There was a tremendous explosion, and Ian moved to another battleship. Next to him was the badly wounded Hunter. The previous battleship and the corpse king had both been transformed into a sea of fire.

"Thankfully, His Highness gave me that Money Bomb. Otherwise, everything would have been over just now," Ian muttered to himself. He looked elsewhere. "The commander should have also run into trouble."

Ian had only faced a Cruiser-realm corpse king, but Liuying Zishan was being attacked by a Hunter-realm corpse king. However, as the General of Allied Forces, Liuying Zishan had a very important position, and she was openly protected by two Hunters and secretly guarded by an Enlighter.

Liuying Zishan watched as the Enlighter fought against the Hunter-realm corpse king, and she heaved a sigh of relief. A corpse king with the strength of a Cruiser could cross realms to be a difficult challenge for Hunters, but corpse kings with the strength of Hunters struggled to fight against Enlighters, as the difference in strength between the two realms was too large.

Liuying Zishan’s Enlighter guardian was notoriously cautious, so she would be perfectly safe under his care.

More and more of the snowflake-like objects appeared throughout Basong Flowzone. Aside from the flowzone’s native forces, the Allied Forces had suffered the harshest casualties so far. They had already lost almost 100 battleships.

At this moment, Lu Yin had no way to interfere in Yuan Shi’s battle. Instead, Lu Yin moved to eliminate the Envoy-level corpse king that was hiding deep within the planet. He then released the corpse king he had brought with him that he was able to Possess, set up a camera some distance away from the corpse king, and made sure that his body was hidden within five meters of the creature.

Lu Yin took control of the corpse king’s body, stood up, and looked around. He looked up just in time to see someone from the Lu Elite Troops kill a corpse king with some white smoke. The Possessed corpse king then looked down and pulled out one of the scarlet eyes that the corpse kings used to communicate with each other. The creature looked into the slitted pupil and spoke five words. “Return to Sky Creation Academy.”

After saying these five words, the corpse king leaped upwards.

Once it was five meters away from Lu Yin, the corpse king regained its senses, and it turned its head to look around with both eyes, just in time to meet a Vacuum Palm. The creature was sent flying, already completely dead.

Lu Yin stepped out, picked up the camera, and disappeared.

It eventually turned out that Yuan Shi was unable to prevent the corpse king that he was fighting from escaping, as the creature fled into the tributary Astral River and disappeared.

"I've shamed the Hall of Honor, and I've shamed the Fifth Mainland by not being able to stop that corpse king," Yuan Shi openly expressed his guilt as he returned Progenitor Wushang’s hide to Lu Yin.

Lu Yin replied, "There’s no need for Senior to blame himself, as that only happened because this junior didn't take enough precautions. While Senior has about the same power level as that corpse king, given the myriad characteristics of corpse kings, it would naturally be difficult for Senior to lock down that corpse king even with Progenitor Wushang’s hide. This junior should have reached out to the Interstellar Supreme Court. It would have been safest to ask the Chief Justice to move out for this matter."

Yuan Shi angrily spat, "Who would have imagined that such a powerful corpse king would be here!"

The truth was that Lu Yin really had miscalculated this time. He had thought that Progenitor Wushang’s hide and the Chief Justice’s bell would be enough to let Yuan Shi deal with a corpse king at the same level of strength as him, but the creature had ultimately escaped. Lu Yin had not wanted to ask the Interstellar Supreme Court to get involved in this matter, as it would have likely been more difficult to carry out his plan with the Chief Justice present, or even with any of the other powerhouses from the Hall of Honor.

Lu Yin needed a top powerhouse’s help to deal with the most powerful corpse king at the headquarters in order for his plans to proceed smoothly, and Yuan Shi was the only person who met Lu Yin’s requirements.

Still, it did not really matter, as the Neohuman Alliance would not be able to hide for much longer. Lu Yin had ways of searching for them that they could not protect against, as he would absolutely be able to eventually find some clues with his die’s Possession.

Also, it was possible that there was something in Basong Flowzone. Lu Yin looked down. He had been entirely focused on executing his plan, so he had not investigated the underground area yet. This was the Neohuman Alliance’s headquarters for both the Innerverse and the Outerverse, so he refused to believe that there was nothing important in this place. The battle had been too brief, so the Neohuman Alliance should not have had time to destroy or remove everything.

Lu Yin quickly said, "Senior, don't blame yourself. There could also be information regarding the Neohuman Alliance here."

Lu Yin then dropped down into the underground region of the planet.

Yuan Shi's eyes lit up, and he followed Lu Yin.

The area beneath the Red Moon Dynasty had housed the Neohuman Alliance’s headquarters for both the Innerverse and Outerverse while the Red Moon Dynasty had established the core of their empire on the surface of the planet. The dynasty had controlled the entire Basong Flowzone, so the planet had been very prosperous for some time. In contrast, the interior of the planet was a dead land reminiscent of Aeternus Nation. Walking corpses could be seen everywhere, as well as some very weak corpse kings. There was even a city that had been built inside the planet.

Having already seen Aeternus Nation, Lu Yin was not surprised at the sights that greeted him, though he was still disgusted.

Yuan Shi frowned. "This entire planet should be destroyed."

"We should search for any information about the Neohuman Alliance before destroying it," Lu Yin replied.

There was a very large space at the center of the planet, and Lu Yin released his domain to pour through every inch of the place. Yuan Shi also scanned the place with his stellular energy, but they found nothing at all. Everything regarding the Neohuman Alliance had clearly been either taken away or destroyed. All that they found were some abandoned resources.

Lu Yin had no need for the Neohuman Alliance’s resources, and such things were also not very valuable. However, he was surprised to discover that a scarlet eye with a vertical slit pupil had been left behind within the subterranean city.

Just like the scarlet eyes that Lu Yin had picked up from Silver and Wu Shang, this eye was also something linked to the Neohuman Alliance. Lu Yin had not initially known this, and he had only learned of it much later, but this was the only reason why the Redbacks in the Perennial World held onto these things. Without such a use, the scarlet eyes would be useless and meaningless to hold onto.

Lu Yin stared at the eye, but he had no idea how to use it.

Yuan Shi left, as he had another very important responsibility, which was standing guard at the border between the Sixth Mainland and the Great Eastern Alliance in the Outerverse in order to prevent the Sixth Mainland from launching a surprise attack on the Great Eastern Alliance.

Yuan Shi’s strength was nowhere close to being enough for him to actually stop the Sixth Mainland’s forces, but he could at least give Lu Yin advanced warning.

Up on the surface, the ground started to crack. Lu Yin had the Lu Elite Troops evacuate the planet along with all of the regular humans. The planet was no longer suitable for human habitation.

Also, Lu Yin recovered the Red Moon Dynasty’s assets, which amounted to a full 300 million star essence.

Given Basong Flowzone’s status as a minor flowzone, this was an impressive amount for them to have saved up.

Next, any last remnants of the Neohuman Alliance’s forces needed to be cleared out from Basong Flowzone, and all of the cultivators from the Red Moon Dynasty had to be either eliminated or captured. There had to be some experts within the dynasty who were aware of the existence of the nearby corpse kings, but they had chosen to keep it a thing secret and not reported it, which was no different than cooperating with the Neohuman Alliance.

…

The Great Eastern Alliance had utterly destroyed Basong Flowzone’s Red Moon Dynasty, and the blitz attack on a major Neohuman Alliance base shook the entire Fifth Mainland. The Hall of Honor had dispatched the Expeditionary Forces the moment they received word of the presence of so many corpse kings, but the war was over long before the Expeditionary Forces arrived in the flowzone.

The battle was over, and even the cleanup had finished. However, the Great Eastern Alliance had only claimed responsibility for Basong Flowzone, and any corpse kings that had escaped were the responsibility of the Expeditionary Forces.

Shui Chuanxiao had originally suggested leaving a few holes open in the blockade surrounding Basong Flowzone. However, these would not be true openings, but rather just what appeared to be gaps so that they could announce the fact that the corpse kings were escaping and borrow the power of the Hall of Honor to perform certain tasks that they normally found difficult to do. In fact, very few corpse kings had managed to escape, and the remaining corpse kings hidden within Basong Flowzone would be eventually eradicated by the Allied Forces.

Liuying Zishan was speaking with Xi Gu, commander of the Expeditionary Forces.

"What? You allowed many of the corpse kings to escape? Didn't your Great Eastern Alliance surround Basong Flowzone? How could any of the corpse kings escape? The universe is massive, so how do you expect my Expeditionary Forces to find them?" Xi Gu made no attempt to speak politely to Liuying Zishan. The woman was not even a Cruiser, and she was not qualified to even speak to someone like Xi Gu.

However, the woman’s expression remained indifferent. "The Allied Forces’ strength is limited, and it was impossible for us to barricade the entire flowzone. We’ll provide you with the information that we gathered, and you can search for the corpse kings yourselves."

"What's with your attitude? Let me speak to Lu Yin!" Xi Gu was furious at such treatment.action

Liuying Zishan was completely unfazed. "You aren’t qualified to meet with our alliance leader."

Xi Gu was enraged.

Liuying Zishan continued in a casual manner, "A list of directions and places the corpse kings fled to has already been sent to you, and it’s up to you how you want to proceed from here on out. Our alliance leader will be negotiating directly with the overseers and the Interstellar Supreme Court. While the Red Moon Dynasty colluded with the Neohuman Alliance, it’s unknown who else has done so as well. Regardless, the most likely culprits are those who know where corpse kings can be found but make no effort to find them.”

At the end, Liuying Zishan stared at Xi Gu in a very pointed manner. The man’s pupils shrank. "You’re threatening me."

Liuying Zishan simply hung up on the man.

Sending out the Expeditionary Forces to chase after the escaped corpse kings? Did this make any sense? The giants could deal with this matter! The only reason why Xi Gu had been called was so that Lu Yin and the Great Eastern Alliance could use the name of the Expeditionary Forces against the Innerverse powers that were working against the Great Eastern Alliance.

The locations that Lu Yin had asked Liuying Zishan to share with Xi Gu were indeed the flowzones that could be reached through the “holes” in the blockade around Basong Flowzone, but in truth, no corpse king had escaped from Basong Flowzone. Still, whether or not they believed that one had escaped was up to Lu Yin to decide.

Northseal Flowzone, Lager Flowzone, Pan Flowzone, and more. All of these minor flowzones had stepped up and taken action at the prompting of the Sword Sect, the Lingling Clan, and the other major Innerverse powers. They had worked to isolate Blazing Mist Flowzone by removing or destroying the tributary arks. These were also the flowzones that the corpse kings had reportedly fled to.

Xi Gu quickly reviewed the list that Liuying Zishan had sent him, and a single glance was enough for him to see the connection between these places and the Great Eastern Alliance.

Ever since he failed to eliminate the colossal giants for Cong Ying, Xi Gu had started paying close attention to the Great Eastern Alliance, and he was already very familiar with the alliance’s manner of dealing with things. These minor flowzones were clearly all locations that had actively worked with the major Innerverse powers against the Great Eastern Alliance by sealing off Blazing Mist Flowzone’s borders.

When Xi Gu saw what Lu Yin was attempting to do with the Expeditionary Forces, he immediately contacted the overseers’ council. Xi Gu was hoping to use the evidence that he had been given to accuse Lu Yin of trying to exact personal revenge by using the Hall of Honor, deliberately allowing corpse king’s to escape, and attempting to use the Expeditionary Forces as his own sword against his enemies. However, Xi Gu’s proposal was rejected before it even reached the overseers’ council. As far as the Hall of Honor was concerned, the most important matter at this time was to destroy all of the corpse kings. This was not only for the sake of the Hall of Honor, but also for the entire human race.

The Hall of Honor had always treated the extermination of the corpse kings as its number one priority that superseded all else. Even if Lu Yin had purposely allowed some corpse kings to escape, his accomplishments in destroying the Neohuman Alliance’s headquarters for the Innerverse and Outerverse was real, and he was untouchable at this moment. Even if Overseer Nan Yuan despised Lu Yin, Mr. Right and the other overseers were not willing to stir up such trouble at the moment.

Not only would that be trying to make trouble, but it would also be calling down misfortune upon themselves.