Star Odyssey

Chapter 2246: Targeting The Nong Family

As Lu Yin observed the orbs of light that surrounded him, there was only one whose brightness met what he was looking for, so he merged with it without any hesitation.

Was he in the Middle Ocean?

The person that Lu Yin had Possessed appeared to be on the floor of the Middle Ocean, but Lu Yin quickly realized that the person was not in the Middle Realm or the Middle Ocean at all. Rather, he was in the Lower Realm.

It was common knowledge that the Middle Ocean connected the Middle Realm to the Lower Realm. As more memories started to pour into Lu Yin’s mind, he quickly understood that he was in the Lower Realm’s portion of the Middle Ocean. The man that Lu Yin had Possessed was the master of an island in this particular region of the Middle Ocean, and he was known as Island Master Rong.

Lu Yin had wanted to Possess someone so that he could learn of the four ruling powers’ recent activities and what they were doing about Star Alliance. However, Island Master Rong had not left his region in the Middle Ocean for a long, long time, and he had no access to the news in the outside world. There was no information about the four ruling powers for Lu Yin to access in this man’s body.

Lu Yin was just about to end the Possession when he stumbled across a bit of startling information in Island Master Rong’s memories. The man did not stay here in this particular region of the Middle Ocean by choice; rather, he had been forced there by the Lu family. It was not just Island Master Rong, as many, many other Envoys had been sent here as well. All of them had been sent into the depths of the Middle Ocean to protect the currents that flowed to the Mother Tree’s roots in the Lower Realm.

When Lu Yin had accompanied Bai Weiwei to the Middle Ocean for her mission, he had chatted with her and Prof. Bai as they traveled. From those conversations, Lu Yin had learned that many of the creatures living in the Middle Ocean were able to access the Mother Tree’s roots, which served as proof that the Middle Ocean was connected to the Lower Realm and the Mother Tree’s roots.

Since those sea creatures were able to reach the roots, then humans could as well, provided that they found the correct currents.

Over the course of the Perennial World's countless years of existence, Aeternus had always done their best to destroy the Mother Tree’s roots, which meant that they had also tried to find ways to get to those roots. Because of this, humans did their best to block every path to the roots. Over the years, 100,000 currents had formed in the Middle Ocean, and these currents served as underwater paths that led straight to the Mother Tree’s roots. Later on, the Lu family had built islands outside each current, both large and small, that corresponded to the size of the current. The guardians placed on the islands were also selected based on the size of the current, and the largest current was protected by a six-tribulation Envoy.

There were 100,000 currents that connected the Middle Ocean to the Lower Mortal Realm. Lu Yin had not known all these details before, but he learned much from Island Master Rong’s memories. Shockingly, no one outside the Lu family knew of these 100,000 currents.

More precisely, no one could find these 100,000 currents. This was because the Aeternals had once launched a massive attack on the currents through a Redback who had had a very high status, all in an attempt to destroy the Mother Tree’s roots with Vitality Poison. After that, the Lu family had worked hard to seal off all the currents to preemptively stop any similar attempts in the future. The Lu family knew that Aeternus was constantly researching poisons, possibly in order to destroy the Mother Tree, and in response, they had spent endless resources to create an enormous sourcebox array.

Island Master Rong had no idea where the sourcebox array had come from, and he merely knew that, after it was set up, all 100,000 currents had completely disappeared. Well, they had not truly disappeared; rather, instead they had been concealed so that no one could find or approach them.

The 100,000 currents were still there, but they could not be accessed by anyone other than the members of the Lu family.

Even powerful forces like the Celestial Frost Sect or Shenwu's Sky believed that the 100,000 currents had been destroyed when the Redbacks’ attack on the Mother Tree’s roots by the Lu family’s sourcebox array had been stopped. No one knew that the currents had simply been hidden.

The Lu family had deliberately hidden all information about the 100,000 currents because there were simply too many Redbacks hidden throughout the Perennial World. The Lu family had wanted the matter to remain completely secret from Aeternus, so they had not said anything about it to anyone at all. This meant that, even after the four ruling powers seized control of the Perennial World, they still knew nothing about the 100,000 currents.

Of course, given the fact that the currents existed beneath the surface of the Middle Ocean, it was possible for new currents to form and connect to the roots of the Mother Tree at any time. This was not something that Island Master Rong knew about; rather, Lu Yin had learned it from Prof. Bai, who had noticed that some sea creatures had recently been close to the Mother Tree’s roots. This indicated that there were no longer just 100,000 currents, but possibly 110,000 or even 120,000 of them. However, as far as the four ruling powers and Aeternus were concerned, there were only around 10,000 or 20,000 currents, as they all believed that the original 100,000 currents had been destroyed.

Lu Yin looked upwards. It was dark at the bottom of the Middle Ocean, but light shone down from time to time, though Lu Yin had no idea where it came from.

He was currently standing on an island that sat in front of one of the currents that led to the roots of the Mother Tree. There was a bubble of air that surrounded the island. While it prevented Island Master Rong from leaving, it also prevented the sea water or nearby sea creatures from getting in.

Not only had the sourcebox array caused the 100,000 currents to disappear, but the guardians the Lu family had assigned to protect each of the currents had also disappeared. This meant that there were at least 100,000 cultivators, though not all of them were Envoys. Still, they were all Enlighters at the very least, as only a powerhouse at the Enlighter realm or higher was qualified to guard a current.

From Island Master Rong’s memories, Lu Yin knew that, while the Lu family had forcefully drafted these cultivators, they had also been promised to be released after standing guard for a set number of years. On top of that, the Lu family had promised to provide the guardians with all the necessary cultivation resources for the duration of their time as guardians. Essentially, the cultivators had been forcibly hired, but they were still being paid.

Had any of the guardians of the 100,000 currents experienced a breakthrough and become an Envoy since the Lu family had been exiled? Had any of them died? Lu Yin had no idea, as none of the guardians were able to meet with any of the others.

Island Master Rong’s memory indicated that his agreement with the Lu family had taken place many, many years ago. In the past, Island Master Rong had been a cultivator in the Perennial World, but Lu Yin had no interest in those memories. His only interest was in the person from the Lu family who had interacted with Island Master Rong. That man was Lu Qi, Lu Yin’s father.

After ending the Possession, Lu Yin's consciousness returned to his body. 100,000 currents, which corresponded to 100,000 cultivators who had reached agreements with the Lu family. There were 100,000 powerhouses that the four ruling powers did not even know existed. How many Envoys were among them? How many Enlighters?

This was a massive army, but Lu Yin could not use it. These people neither followed the Lu family nor belonged to the Lu family, as the two had merely come to an agreement for an exchange of services.

None of these guardians knew that the Lu family had been exiled. If Lu Yin had not coincidentally Possessed Island Master Rong, word of the guardians of the Middle Ocean’s currents would never get out, and all of those people would die of old age in the depths of the Middle Ocean.

In that case, should Lu Yin release those guardians? The problem was that releasing the guardians would expose the matter of the 100,000 currents that connected to the Mother Tree’s roots. The guardians had been given their task by the Lu family in order to prevent the Aeternals from destroying the roots, so removing the guardians was impossible, not unless there was a way to release them without destroying or exposing the sourcebox array.

Lu Yin suddenly thought of something else; if the Lu family had hidden the 100,000 currents with a sourcebox array, then why had they bothered with the guardians at all? The only reason to do such a thing was if the sourcebox array could be destroyed.

If Lu Yin released the guardians, then he would need to find another method to protect the currents, as removing the guardians was essentially removing a radish and creating a hole. After considering the matter for some time, Lu Yin decided to leave things the way they were for the time being. It was simply not realistic to move any of the guardians.

Lu Yin tapped his die again, only to see one pip. He shook his head, as this meant that he needed to rest for another ten days.

There was still an entire month left before he chaperoned the students on their training session, which meant that he should be able to roll his die twelve more times. How many times could he roll six pips in twelve rolls? Even once was not that likely.

Ten days passed, and Lu Yin stretched out his hand once again while staring at his die. He really hoped that he could roll Possession again and gain access to someone with useful memories.

It was all that he could think about as he tapped the die.

His first, second, and third rolls had not given him six pips, and Lu Yin had no hope for his fourth roll either. This was mostly because none of the three rolls had been Timestop, which was one of the most common results. Thus, he believed that his fourth roll was likely to be Timestop.

Surprisingly, Lu Yin’s luck proved to be quite good, as his fourth roll was indeed six pips.

Seeing six pips caused a surge of excitement as Lu Yin’s consciousness entered the strange dark space again. This time, he saw many bright orbs of light, some of which shone like suns and were far too bright for him, so he intended to avoid them entirely. Besides, there were several that were just right for him to merge with.

Lu Yin glanced around for a moment before finally deciding on which orb he would merge with.

It certainly was not the brightest orb he could see, but it was a bit brighter than the orbs that were the best matches for Lu Yin’s current strength. He was not entirely sure if he would be able to Possess this person, but he intended to give it a try. Based on the brightness, he estimated his target to be a seven or eight-tribulation Envoy.

When his eyes opened, all he could see were corpse kings.

His expression instantly changed. Corpse kings?

The sky was dark, and looking around, only the shattered remains of a city could be seen. There were countless corpse kings wandering around in what looked to be a stupor. At times, black shadows would pass by, but they also belonged to more corpse kings.

Memories started to pour in, and Lu Yin quietly examined them. He quickly learned that he was in a sealed civilization within a pond, similar to when he had appeared in the Bei family’s pond upon arriving in the Perennial World. He had Possessed a corpse king. The family which controlled the pond that held the corpse kings was led by a traitor to humanity, and the pocket dimension was specifically intended to create and hide corpse kings.

This was not a very uncommon situation, as the farmed pond civilizations were not regulated or overseen by the rulers of the Perennial World. Each civilization belonged to a given family, or even individual. If the owner of the pocket dimension was compromised, their pond civilization would be transformed.

It was highly unlikely for a pond civilization to give rise to a powerful corpse king, and Lu Yin had never considered the fact that he would Possess one.

Lu Yin had Possessed an extremely powerful corpse king. He was able to sense the overwhelming physical might of the creature’s body, and its strength was comparable to at least a seven-tribulation Envoy’s.

The corpse king had been hiding within the pond civilization for almost a thousand years, and it was waiting for something.

There was no further information available in the corpse king’s memories, so Lu Yin looked upwards and caused the creature to shoot out of the pond. The only thing that he could do now was expose the existence of the corpse king and draw the wrath of the four ruling powers down upon the traitor’s family. This pond civilization had already been completely transformed into corpse kings.action

The corpse king shot out of the pond, startling many people nearby. "Watch out! A monster!"

"That’s one of Aeternus’s corpse kings! Attack."

Chaos descended upon the family, and even the patriarch was startled. This was terrible! Why had the creature left the pond?

Word of the corpse king’s appearance quickly spread, and many people started to attack. Unfortunately, Lu Yin had Possessed an incredibly powerful corpse king, and even the most powerful person attacking the creature was merely an Enlighter. How could anyone in this place pose even the slightest threat to a corpse king with the power of a seven-tribulation powerhouse?

Luckily for the nearby humans, the corpse king was being Possessed by Lu Yin. As long as he did not attack, no one would be harmed.

Still, it was impossible for Lu Yin to permanently Possess the creature. The nearest place that was guaranteed to have powerhouses who could handle such a powerful corpse king was the Nong family, so Lu Yin fled straight towards Seed Garden. He intended to commit suicide.

The Middle Realm was huge, and even Semi-Progenitors needed a good bit of time to cross an entire district. Lu Yin was lucky that the corpse king that he had Possessed had been in a place close to Seed Garden, which made things rather convenient. At the very least, Lu Yin would not have to spend too long on this Possession and waste his precious star essence.

The corpse king’s body shot through the Middle Realm, and Lu Yin soon saw Seed Garden. As soon as it entered his sight, his eyes focused, and he charged forward.

Attacking Seed Garden with the strength of a seven-tribulation powerhouse was no different than committing suicide. The Nong family was one of the most powerful forces in the entire Middle Realm, and during the Lu family’s reign, Seed Garden had been on the same level as the Celestial Frost Sect and Shenwu's Sky. After the Lu family had been exiled, countless people who had been close to the Lu family had been eliminated. Only the Nong and Liu families had remained untouched, and that was solely due to their impressive power.

Forget a seven-tribulation powerhouse—not even a Semi-Progenitor would dare to attack the Nong family.