Star Odyssey

During the battles in the Scourge and at the Immemorial Citadel, the Ancient Lightning Locust had felt the presence of the most powerful beings in the megaverse. It had been particularly terrified when it had approached the boundary and sensed Master Qing Cao.

That was why the bug had decided to go make trouble for Whitecloud City, as it had wanted to calm its fear and restore a bit of its dignity.

It had not expected to be overpowered by Lu Yin so easily.

Lu Yin used his inner universe to disperse the lightning sequence particles, which meant that the Ancient Lightning Locust’s most fundamental power had vanished. After that, the strength that had surpassed both the Pridebeast and the Megalith overwhelmed the Ancient Lightning Locust, leaving the beast feeling utterly defeated.

Countless people cheered, stunned by Lu Yin’s power.

Who else could defeat the Ancient Lightning Locust with just one stomp?

Even the Lord of Lightning, Jiang Feng, would have to spend a good deal of time fighting against the bug, and even then, his victory would not have been this decisive.

The biggest difference between Lu Yin and Jiang Feng was the fact that Lu Yin’s inner universe granted him an ability that was essentially the same as an Ortuser, which Jiang Feng lacked. However, this did not mean that Lu Yin could defeat Jiang Feng as easily as he had the Ancient Lightning Locust.

Jiang Feng and the Ancient Lightning Locust were fundamentally different, starting with the fact that Jiang Feng did not rely solely on his lightning.

Defeating the Ancient Lightning Locust and defeating Jiang Feng were therefore also two completely different concepts.

At the moment, many parallel universes witnessed Lu Yin’s power, and countless people gasped in shock. They finally understood just how strong he truly was.

During the battles in the Scourges and the battle at the Immemorial Citadel, only the people who had been present on those battlefields had seen Lu Yin’s power. Even when he surpassed his stellular tribulation and fought against the Three Realms and Six Daos, people could not truly comprehend his strength because they did not grasp how powerful the Three Realms and Six Daos were.

On the other hand, the Ancient Lightning Locust was different. It was a terrifying creature renowned throughout the megaverse.

The legends of the Three Realms and Six Daos were primarily passed down within the Origin Universe, while the Ancient Lightning Locust’s legend had reached many parallel universes.

In one corner of the Heavens Sect, the members of Second Life exchanged glances, dumbfounded. "Is that how strong Lord Lu has become? That’s just… insane."

"Shh! Don’t let Lord Lu hear you."

"That’s the Ancient Lightning Locust! Did you not see it? The Ancient Lightning Locust was just crushed underfoot! I can’t even imagine doing something like that."

"We accidentally fought against that bug once, and we were too afraid of just its lightning to even get close to it. Lord Lu is definitely one of the strongest beings in the megaverse now. People keep claiming that the Heavens Sect’s strength lies with the Three Realms and Six Daos and the Three Suns and Six Rulers, but they should finally understand that Lord Lu himself is the true foundation of the Heavens Sect’s power."

"We didn’t lose without reason."

The sight of the Ancient Lightning Locust’s defeat would forever be etched into the minds of countless people. Lu Yin had become an unforgettable legend.

He stood atop the Ancient Lightning Locust, looking around.

The Pridebeast and the Megalith gave him simultaneous thumbs-ups, terrified that they might have been too slow.

Elsewhere, Lu Yin caught sight of another thumbs-up; this one was from the jiao.

The beast manipulated Its claws, which were supposed to be menacing and intimidating, and then raised them up like a thumb with a strangely human gesture. The beast kept nodding at Lu Yin, leaving him momentarily stunned.

The Pridebeast and the Megalith slowly turned their heads to see the jiao giving a thumbs-up. The two exchanged glances. They had gained a new competitor.

The jiao abruptly turned towards the two beasts and offered more thumbs-ups, which left the two behemoths terribly confused. Just what was going on?

The jiao frantically kept giving thumbs-ups. It understood that the Ancient Lightning Locust would not be able to escape, which meant that it would likely stay in the Heavens Sect. The jiao was afraid that past incidents would lead to it being bullied, and it knew that it needed some backup. The Pridebeast and the Megalith seemed like the perfect choices. Together, they had beaten up the Ancient Lightning Locust so badly that it could not figure out which direction was up. They were strong.

The jiao’s constant thumbs-ups confused the Pridebeast and the Megalith, but they also started to view the jiao more favorably.

Lu Yin had assumed that overwhelming strength would be enough to subdue the Ancient Lightning Locust, but he had underestimated the beast. Unlike the Pridebeast and the Megalith, no matter how much Lu Yin overwhelmed it, the Ancient Lightning Locust refused to submit.

Frustrated, Lu Yin left the Ancient Lightning Locust to the Pridebeast and the Megalith, leaving it up to the two beasts to find a way to make the bug submit.

News that Lu Yin had easily overpowered the Ancient Lightning Locust at the Heavens Sect quickly reached Whitecloud City.

Jiang Chen sighed. "If Brother Lu can defeat the Ancient Lightning Locust with one stomp, there’s probably no one left in the entire megaverse who can stand up to him."

Liu Pianran sat beside Jiang Feng. The man remained unresponsive and unaware, and he simply held his three mirebound artifacts out of reflex.

"The Ancient Lightning Locust won’t be easy to tame. Lightning represents dominance, and any creature that wields it is extremely arrogant. Your father also struggled to tame the Nine-Level Lightning Eagle all those years ago."

Jiang Qingyue peeled an orange and offered a slice to Jiang Feng, pushing it towards his mouth, but he did not move at all.

It was only when Liu Pianran pushed the orange slice into the man’s mouth that Jiang Feng reflexively swallowed, though he did not even chew.

Jiang Qingyue’s eyes flushed red, though she remained silent as she sat by Jiang Feng.

The Lord of Lightning was not dead, which was the best news that they could hope for. After all, even Ancient God, who had been an Ortuser, had died silently, killed by Master Qing Cao. Not even the nearby Nong Yi had noticed a thing. Liu Pianran and her family were already grateful that Jiang Feng was still alive, but they had no idea how long he would remain in this state for. It might last forever.

Currently, Jiang Feng was like a man who had fallen into an abyss, though he was able to feel more and more breaths around him. Even at the boundary of the megaverse, where nothing existed, he had been able to feel the breath of the stars. After returning to Whitecloud City, it almost seemed as though these breaths could be a second set of eyes.

Jiang Feng had slowly started to be able to distinguish who each breath belonged to, but he still had no sense of his own body. Thus, he was unable to interact with the outside world in any way.

His condition allowed his sense of the breath of the universe to grow stronger and more profound. Where there was breath, there was life. If there was no life in the universe, then he would add life to it.

The fact that the Lord of Lightning had acquired three mirebound artifacts had given his version of Earth a shortcut for cultivation that aligned with the laws of the universe. However, their shortcut had led to a dead end. Even after numerous life-and-death battles, Kong Tianzhao was unable to have any sort of breakthrough. If the risk of death was unable to bring about a breakthrough, then what would come of Jiang Feng’s current condition?

The Lord of Lightning did not know if he would remain in this state of living death forever. He was surrounded by darkness and more darkness. The only thing that disrupted that darkness were the countless breaths that he could feel. Their number kept growing, and there were constantly more and more…

Six months passed, and the departments of the Heavens Sect’s Backyard that were focused on researching energy converters and microarrays had been relocated to the Five Spirits Alliance’s universes, to take advantage of the time flow there.

Lu Yin gave the departments clear objectives.

The Transcendent Universe possessed twelve black energy converters, which was less than its original fifteen. Each war the universe had waged had resulted in more being produced, but only twelve remained now.

Lu Yin gave Zi Jing a daunting task: produce 100 black energy converters.

When Zi Jing heard her task, she was completely dumbfounded, as was He Ran, who was overseeing the Transcendent Universe.

"That’s impossible! The Transcendent Universe has never been able to produce that many black energy converters throughout its entire history combined! Lord Lu, if you want 100 white energy converters, that would be fine, but black-" Zi Jing was unable to even finish her sentence before Lu Yin cut her off. She had once harbored her own ambitions and been given a black energy converter for personal use.

Even so, she stood far, far below Lu Yin.

As she stood in front of Lu Yin, Zi Jing felt like nothing more than his subordinate.

"White energy converters are useless. There’s no need for them. Focus all of your resources on making more black energy converters," Lu Yin ordered.

Zi Jing felt troubled.

He Ran interjected, "Even if we combine the entire Sixverse Association’s resources, we could only produce a maximum of twenty-seven black energy converters. That’s even taking the time dilation of the Five Spirits Alliance into account."

"Put together a list of the resources that you need and send it to the Heavens Sect. Someone will be sent to gather those resources. Some of the materials can be gathered from the Infinity Empire. All parallel universes are required to share all necessary resources to facilitate the production of black energy converters. Anyone who obstructs this project will be reported to the Heavens Sect." Lu Yin issued his orders without brooking any arguments.

100 black energy converters essentially meant another 100 peak powerhouses. While energy converters could not produce combatants nearly as powerful as true peak powerhouses, they would still be stronger than Semi-Progenitors.

The Spirit Nidus possessed a unified cultivation model, which offered significant advantages over the Tianyuan Megaverse, but that did not mean that the Tianyuan Megaverse was without its own methods of fighting back. Each parallel universe had developed their own unique civilization, focused on both cultivation and technology. This was much like the diverse energies that existed in Lu Yin's inner universe. While it appeared chaotic, that did not mean that it was impossible for this variety to surpass a homogenous method.

All paths eventually converged. Anything that existed in the megaverse could be used effectively.

Zi Jing and He Ran reluctantly accepted their assignment, knowing that all of their future time and efforts would be focused solely on producing black energy converters.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

As for the Bestowal Carriers, there was no need to manufacture anymore. They were too cumbersome. Unless it was possible to create one with the destructive power of an Ortuser, such machines would be useless against the forces of the Spirit Nidus, as the Bestowal Carriers would be easily destroyed. Black energy converters were far more practical.

Lu Yin quickly moved onto Backyard’s division that focused on microarray technology, which was divided into two sections. One focused on microarrays themselves, and that team was led by Grandmaster Gu Yan, Xiu Ming, and Grandmaster Li, along with Wan Gong and Master Xuan, who were originally from Aurora Enterprises. The second section was focused on universal armor and incorporating microarray weapons. The second section was led by Director Zhi, who was also from Aurora Enterprises, Chief Engineer Biao Zi, Senn, the headmaster of the Technocracy’s Sky Creation Academy, as well as Midday, the lord of First Edition City.

When the microarray technology department had first been established, they had developed combinations of three and five microarrays, but that was far from sufficient. The strength of such microarrays was far from being enough against the Spirit Nidus. Even the proposed twenty-eight array combination would only release attacks with power levels of 1 million, which was still inadequate.

Fortunately, years of uninterrupted research had allowed the division to advance far beyond twenty-eight microarrays. They had developed a seventy-six array combination, which was capable of unleashing the power of a Semi-Progenitor. While this technology was not yet being mass-produced, the researchers were confident that they would be able to achieve this within 100 years. However, Lu Yin gave them a new goal.

"I need microarrays capable of unleashing the power of a Progenitor. I don’t care how you do it, but that is the level that you have to reach. This is why I brought you to the Five Spirits Alliance. Time passes 100 times faster here than in most of the megaverse. You should have the seventy-six microarray ready within a year, but what I need is Progenitor-level destructive power, no less."

Director Zhi was stunned. "A microarray combination capable of the power of a Progenitor? Is that even possible?"

"It is," Grandmaster Li stated excitedly. He was focused almost entirely on offensive sourcebox arrays, and he had spent his life studying them on the battlefield. Lu Yin had only encountered the man a few times because of this.

Grandmaster Li had become particularly interested in microarray combinations.

"Just a few days ago, we were discussing the possibility of a 108-array combination. While that will certainly be difficult and might take hundreds of years just to perfect the theories, if we can accomplish that, it will be possible to produce them."

Grandmaster Gu Yan added, "They’re definitely possible, though it will take a great deal of time."

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA