Star Odyssey

Chapter 2752: A Familiar Battle Technique

Lu Yin stared at the Umbrian’s wound caused by the shards of rock. While such a wound should have still been bleeding, it was instead healing, and doing so very quickly at that.

"Given half a day, you'll fully recover." Lu Yin was surprised.

The Umbrian lay on the ground. His pain was so intense that he did not speak. It was true that his wounds were healing, but that did not alleviate any of the pain.

Lu Yin’s domain swept out again, and he eliminated all of the nearby corpse kings in an instant.

Just as Lu Yin had been told in the dossier from Sage Bodhi, all of the corpse kings in the Umbral Universe possessed strange abilities. After Lu Yin eliminated them, the Sixverse Association cultivators and the Umbrians in the area were now safe.

"I've dealt with the corpse kings, so it’s safe now," Lu Yin said before stepping away and leaving the area.

Everyone in the area heard his statement, but no one responded or even believed his words.

Battles in the Umbral Universe were all about deception and sneak attacks. People would use whatever means were available. In order to survive, people would stay hidden and never deliberately expose themselves.

Only the injured Umbrian believed Lu Yin’s words. While the man had no idea what Lu Yin had done, the Umbrian could feel something terrible from Lu Yin. It was clear that the foreigner possessed a frightening level of power that should have never come to such a minor battlefield.

Fighting in the Umbral Universe could be compared to a blind man crossing a river. To begin with, it was necessary to avoid being swept away by the water itself, but at the same time, the man also needed to be on guard against enemies hidden in the river.

Lu Yin had no desire to get caught up in the Umbral Universe’s fights. All he wanted to do was continue on to the next parallel universe.

He had already spent more than a month in the Umbral Universe, but he had not received any response from Wendy Yushan. The woman was either unable to act on her own, dead, or in a different universe. Regardless, there was no reason for Lu Yin to remain in the Umbral Universe.

Lu Yin suddenly felt quite powerless. He had the strength to fight against Progenitors and possessed various power vessels as well as many different abilities. As far as the vast majority of people were concerned, Lu Yin stood at the peak of the megaverse, but there were still so many situations where he remained completely helpless.

He had the Heavens Sect, but all he could do for the moment was act in self-defense.

Lu Yin's gaze steeled. He should find a way to let his third uncle, Cai Er, and the other peak Semi-Progenitors break through and become Progenitors. In addition to that, Lu Yin needed to restore the Heavens Sect to its previous glory. The only way to do that was with sequence particles.

Sequence particles indicated the ultimate level of power, and controlling sequence particles was a realm that all peak powerhouses dreamed of. Researching sequence particles was inseparable from researching the peak of human cultivation, and that research might be able to serve as a shortcut for Lu Yin’s third uncle and the others, allowing them to quickly break through to become Progenitors.

To do that, Lu Yin first needed to find Zi Jing. She simply had to be found.

Lu Yin took a deep breath. Only by reaching the previous heights of the Heavens Sect would he no longer need to fear anyone.

Was it necessary to focus all of their energy on fighting against Aeternus? At the very least, it was not required for the time being. The Sixverse Association could hold back the Aeternals, and Aeternus would not be able to do too much damage back. During the ancient Heavens Sect era, the Aeternals had only been able to bow their heads before the Heavens Sect.

The Sixverse Association hated the Heavens Sect, but that was merely because the ancient Heavens Sect had not destroyed the Aeternals when they first appeared. If the former power of the Heavens Sect could be restored, then the fall of Aeternus would become inevitable.

The former glory of the Heavens Sect?

During that era, there had been the Three Realms Six Dao. How was Lu Yin supposed to restore that level of power in the current era?

While the Three Realms Six Dao might no longer exist, the Nine Mountains and Eight Seas did. Progenitor Chen was certainly not dead, and Progenitor Smoke still lived in the Fifth Mainland. Where was Progenitor Ku? Was he dead? Were both the Rune Progenitor and Progenitor Hui dead? Even if they were, Lu Buzheng and the other Gatemasters might reach similar levels of power after becoming Progenitors, not to mention if the Lu family returned.

Even without considering Lu Tianyi, one of the Lu family’s ancestors was one of the ancient Six Dao.

As Lu Yin contemplated such things, time continued to pass, and he moved closer and closer to the portal.

It was always dangerous near the portals that connected the Endless Frontier’s parallel universes, and the situation could instantly change in those places. Even Lu Yin would need to be very careful.

What was that? There was someone up ahead.

Lu Yin released his domain. While the darkness of the Umbral Universe constantly devoured domains, releasing it allowed Lu Yin to briefly get a clear view of his surroundings. Shockingly, when he saw the person up ahead, they were using Inverse Step.

Really, Inverse Step?

Lu Yin's eyes grew large, and he focused his domain in that direction, fully exposing the moving Umbrian.

Sure enough, the man was using Inverse Step.

Far away from Lu Yin, an Umbrian was clearly walking backwards, yet moving forward.

Lu Yin was stunned. Someone in this Umbral Universe was actually using Inverse Step, and an Umbrian at that?

The man had clearly detected Lu Yin’s domain, and the man’s body seemed to be a magnet, constantly pulling in the surrounding darkness into a deeper and thicker cloak around the man, which caused Lu Yin’s domain to be devoured at an accelerated rate. Clearly, the man wanted to hide himself.

However, there was no escape for the Umbrian after he was discovered by Lu Yin.

The Umbrian started to become increasingly panicked, and his feet moved faster and faster. His steps started to get sloppy, and his right foot tripped over his left leg, breaking his bones as the man fell forward.

At that time, a card appeared behind the Umbrian. It struck his head and sucked the Umbrian in.

Lu Yin also appeared next to the card, and he entered it along with the Umbrian.

Inside the card, Lu Yin discovered a vast white world, as well as the Umbrian, trembling and clearly in pain. "Kill me! Just kill me-"

Lu Yin quickly took action, and he blocked the blinding light from overhead. The Umbrian let out a breath of relief. His entire body had already been soaked with sweat.

"You aren’t an Umbrian," a voice stated.

Lu Yin replied, "I’m a cultivator from the Sixverse Association."

"You shouldn't have helped him. He killed my brother," the voice continued, "Did you just arrive in the Umbral Universe?"

Lu Yin commented, "I’ve heard elsewhere that the Umbrians aren’t very friendly to the Sixverse Association, but things seems to be much worse than that."

"There’s no grudge—they just kill us!" Anger filled the voice of the Lost Clansman. "We never attacked him, but he used the power of this universe’s darkness to devour my brother and steal his card. This man deserves to die."

The Umbrian was still trembling. Their people were unable to endure light and needed to remain in the darkness.

Lu Yin looked down at the man. "Why did you kill someone from the Lost Clan?"

The Umbrian refused to answer.

"Every year, at least a third of the Sixverse Association’s casualties in the Umbral Universe come from the Umbrians. They freely attack both the Aeternus and our Sixverse Association," the Lost Clan man explained.

Lu Yin was caught off guard. "Does the Sixverse Association know about this?"

"Of course they know!"

"Why don’t they do anything about it?"

"What are they supposed to do? Wipe out the Umbrians? These people are human like us, which means that the Sixverse Association will do its best to cooperate with the Umbrians. However, they’re despicable and shameless. They offer their help to the Sixverse Association, but still seek out opportunities to attack us. The reason why nothing can be done about it is because it really is too difficult to discern friend from foe in this Umbral Universe. However, the Umbrians can definitely tell the difference between cultivators and corpse kings, yet they deliberately attack us."

"I didn’t intentionally target you! I didn't!" the Umbrian finally spoke, panic filling his voice. "Our ancestral teachings tell us to never hesitate. If I hadn’t attacked, I would have been attacked instead."

"You’re despicable!"

"We have no choice if we want to live."

Lu Yin gave the Umbrian a cold stare. "Since you want to live, you kill everyone else?"

The Umbrian stared at Lu Yin with his pupilless eye. "This place is our home, but they treat it as their battlefield."

Lu Yin frowned. Was the Umbral Universe the same as the Cloudflow Universe?

"That's not true!" the Lost Clan man shouted. "The Sixverse Association followed the Aeternals to this Umbral Universe! This place was already a battlefield for you Umbrians and Aeternus. We came to help you!”

"If you want to make up bullshit, then just die!"

As the man spoke, dazzling light formed a sharp blade that slashed at the Umbrian.

Lu Yin caught the blade and stopped it. "I still have questions for him."

The Lost Clansman turned his anger towards Lu Yin. "Which universe are you from? Our Lost Clan avenges our own, and if you want to interfere, you are also an enemy!"

Lu Yin knocked the Umbrian out and pulled out his own card.

The Lost Clansman stepped out from where he had been hidden in the void, staring blankly at the card in Lu Yin’s hands. Outsiders could not tell a card's grade without seeing the marks on the card, but that was not true for members of the Lost Clan. This man was able to feel his own card’s power being suppressed. Lu Yin was holding a very, very powerful card that surpassed what the man could even comprehend.

"Who are you?"

Lu Yin replied, "Leave this Umbrian to me for now. Don't worry. I‘ll return him to you when I’m done with him."

The Lost Clansman bowed. "Yes."

Lu Yin took the Umbrian out of the card and woke him up. The first thing Lu Yin asked was about Inverse Step.

The Umbrian was instantly on edge. "Where is that Lost Clansman?"

"I sent him away," Lu Yin replied.

The Umbrian's eye twitched, and the surrounding darkness grew deeper and thicker. He searched his surroundings but could not find any trace of the Lost Clansman, which was very surprising. "How did you manage to send him away?"

"That’s none of your business. Answer my questions, or else you’ll wish he was the one who captured you." Lu Yin's voice turned cold.

The Umbrian sneered. "Every Umbrian learns that movement technique. Some can learn it, and some can't. It's impossible for you to learn it, so stop dreaming."

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. "What do you call that technique?"

"Infinite Steps," the Umbrian answered immediately. This was no secret, as many people from the Sixverse Association already knew the movement technique. The name was widely known. The Umbrian assumed that Lu Yin wanted to learn the technique.

Infinite Steps? Not Inverse Step? Qian Zou had learned Inverse Step from a jade slip that had originated from Progenitor Chen. In a pocket dimension, Lu Yin had found footprints at the bottom of a river that showed the proper way to use Inverse Step, but there had been no name for the technique.

The Umbral Universe had been around for countless years before Progenitor Chen, which suggested that the movement technique’s true name was Infinite Steps, not Inverse Step.

In that case, how had the movement technique gotten to the Umbral Universe?

"Can I go?" the Umbrian asked, hoping to leave.

Lu Yin waved a hand. "Leave."

The Umbrian had not expected Lu Yin to be so reasonable. He had saved the Umbrian just to ask a question that anyone could have answered.

The Umbrian drew the darkness in around him again, checked to make sure that no one else was nearby, and then left.

However, just a short while later, he was sucked into a card, leaving nothing behind but the Umbrian’s scream of terror.

Lu Yin could not leave the Umbral Universe quite yet. He needed to at least meet with the Umbrians’ leader and find out where they had acquired Inverse Step.

This universe had a connection to the Origin Universe.

Finding the Umbrians’ leader would not be difficult, as Lu Yin just needed to find an Umbrian to guide him.

Umbrians were not corpse kings, and they feared death. If Lu Yin threatened one a bit, then they would act as Lu Yin’s guide through the Umbral Universe. Having such a guide would undoubtedly be the most convenient way to navigate the universe.

In fact, if the Umbrians did not refuse to differentiate between allies and enemies and instead cooperated with the Sixverse Association’s cultivators to fight against Aeternus, the Umbral Universe’s situation would be much better.

The leader of the Umbrians was named An Jiu, and he lived on a landmass that was in a darker region of the Umbral Universe. Both the coldness and darkness grew stronger the closer one moved to this landmass.

This continent was known as the Umbral Expanse, and it was the Umbrians’ homeland.