Star Odyssey

Chapter 3687: Who Exactly Is He

The sight of Xing Jue’s attack reminded Lu Yin of Wu Wei’s Skyshearer Millstone. Both attacks condensed consciousness to the point where it was practically solid.

Xing Jue was even stronger than Hua Manyi.

Lu Yin’s eyes grew sharply focused, and he took a step forward, vanishing from sight.

Consciousness filled the void, creating what was essentially a quagmire. Xing Jue spread their consciousness throughout the universe. They had fought cultivators for many years and knew how to deal with powerful opponents.

For a cultivator to defeat a powerful conscient, they needed to either possess overwhelming consciousness themselves or attack the universe itself with attacks that revealed the Hollow, eroding their opponent’s consciousness. On the other hand, conscients countered those efforts by filling the universe with their consciousness, making it difficult for cultivators to even move. Even if they were able to escape, every move that they made would be perfectly perceived by the conscient.

Eons of war meant that the two megaverses were extremely knowledgeable about the other. Often, victory or defeat could be decided at first glance.

Xing Jue believed that they were capable of suppressing Lu Yin with consciousness alone, by limiting the human’s movements.

However, when Lu Yin proved that he could move through the sea of consciousness without any visible effort, Xing Jue knew that they were in serious trouble. This human was able to ignore a Luminary’s attack, which meant that he was strong enough to directly contend against Xing Jue’s consciousness. If the human was able to get close, Xing Jue would be in danger.

Who was this human? Why had he never been seen before?

Xing Jue had fought more than one Seraph before, including Meng Sang and the former Seraph of the Hundred Grasses Domain. However, none of them had been able to directly challenge Xing Jue. All of the Seraphs had been forced to keep their distance and find alternate means of fighting. That was the reason for Xing Jue’s confidence in staying and confronting Lu Yin. The Luminary would only retreat from someone like Emperor Wu.

This person had never appeared in the Consciousness Megaverse before, and yet he was terrifyingly powerful. Where had he come from? His existence made no sense at all.

With that thought, Xing Jue immediately retreated.

His consciousness receded like a tide, and all around him, the numerous conscients fled away even faster. Lu Yin was too grave a threat. His power was so overwhelming that they no longer had any desire to fight him.

However, was escape even possible?

Lu Yin was already close to Xing Jue. He threw a palm strike, obliterating the void with enough power to pierce through the universe. A path of darkness was carved through the stars, and the Hollowed devoured Xing Jue’s consciousness along it. The conscient was horrified. Such power?

“Just who are you?”

Lu Yin frowned. He could not fight in this manner; he still needed to absorb Xing Jue’s consciousness. With that thought, Lightstream flickered, and time rolled back by one second.

The consciousness that had just been devoured by the Hollow returned. It was as if Lu Yin’s palm strike had never occurred.

Xing Jue was stunned. The power of time as well as terrifying physical strength? There was no doubt that this human was even more dangerous than Emperor Wu. When had such a monster appeared in the Spirit Nidus?

The Luminary fled without any hesitation. As they raced away, the consciousness that surrounded Lu Yin formed streaks of shadow that stretched out until they reached his feet.

Lu Yin frowned. Shadows? Is this their battle technique?

Before his thoughts could progress any further, he saw a familiar scene.

A blade fell from high above, slicing into the body of a young woman: Ming Yan.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. Yan’er?

His consciousness erupted with enough force to shake the surrounding planets. Xing Jue turned to look back, shocked. Impossible! Does this guy also have a Universe-realm consciousness?

The Luminary stared blankly at Lu Yin. Just who is this man?

Lu Yin clenched a fist. Xing Jue’s consciousness had just targeted the deepest fear in Lu Yin’s heart, forcing him to relive the scene of Yan’er being cut down by Xia Ji’s blade. That image had shaken his focus. Xing Jue had used an attack that directly targeted his consciousness. Had Lu Yin’s mind not been strong enough to disperse the attack, the resulting fear would have been seared into him.

He had encountered similar techniques in the past. The one that had left the deepest impression on him had been Bai Shaohong’s innate gift, which forced the target to see the person they missed the most, feared the most, hated the most, or loved the most. Both abilities forced a person to face their deepest fear, but one worked through vision while the other directly targeted one’s consciousness.

Bai Shaohong had possessed an innate gift, but the Luminary had cultivated a power that accomplished something very similar. However, Xing Jue’s technique far surpassed the scale of an innate gift. Still, it was a consciousness technique, which meant that as long as the target’s consciousness was stronger than Xing Jue’s, the technique would be ineffective.

“Who are you?” Xing Jue’s scream rang across the stars. This was the third time that the conscient was asking this question, as they were truly unable to understand how someone so terrifying had suddenly appeared in the Spirit Nidus. This was someone who was able to disregard the battle techniques of one of the Thirteen Luminaries.

Xing Jue was known as Xing Jue the Nightmare. They could use consciousness to force others to see the greatest fear of their lives. As long as the target’s consciousness was weaker than Xing Jue’s, it was impossible to escape from the technique, and there was also no limit to how many could be affected at the same time.

With this technique, Xing Jue was not afraid even against two Seraphs at once. By splitting their consciousness, it was possible to send every cultivator from the Spirit Nidus into terror. It was all possible as long as no supreme expert stepped in.

On this day, their technique failed. Xing Jue had encountered a human whose consciousness was stronger than their own. It was absurd—this was a mere human! Xing Jue had never dreamed that such a day would come.

The Luminary was certain that not even the High Seraph possessed a stronger consciousness than them. At best, the High Seraph also possessed a Universe-level consciousness.

Lu Yin’s eyes grew cold. “Congratulations... You’ve angered me. Do you enjoy using consciousness? Then I’ll play with you with my consciousness.”

As he spoke, a terrifying surge of consciousness erupted from him. In an instant, the entire universe changed. It was shrouded with consciousness that spread out to envelop the entire trap, Boundless, and even the distant fleeing conscients.

The entire universe was covered by Lu Yin’s consciousness, and it felt like the cosmos was collapsing.

Xing Jue was aghast. No! This is impossible!

This man’s consciousness was powerful enough for him to rank near the top of the Thirteen Luminaries. How was that possible?

Lu Yin’s consciousness had reached the Celestial level some time ago. After he devoured the countless conscients that had been imprisoned beneath the Consciousness Domain, his consciousness had advanced to the Universe realm. After that, he had continued to devour numerous conscients that had been hiding in the Spirit Nidus’s parallel universes, as well as the ones that had been hoarded within the Heavencraft Domain, the Ark Domain, and more. While a great deal of consciousness had been consumed with his die’s Possession ability, Lu Yin had also devoured Hua Manyi. All together, Lu Yin’s consciousness amounted to almost two Universe-realm conscients, which allowed him to easily eclipse Xing Jue.

When the sea of consciousness appeared, Xing Jue knew that everything was over. It was impossible for them to withstand this person.

A monster! This man is a complete monster!

Conscients fought in a manner that could be considered complex, yet it was also rather simple.

Stronger consciousnesses were almost impossible for a conscient to overcome. Battle techniques were rare in the Consciousness Megaverse. Instead, they relied almost exclusively on manipulating their consciousness.

Wu Wei’s Heaven’s Blade was an exception, but there were very few other consciousness-based battle techniques in either the Consciousness Megaverse or the Spirit Nidus.

If a cultivator’s consciousness was weaker than a conscient, then they needed to find an alternate method of winning. This was especially if they faced a conscient proficient at manipulating consciousness. That was frequently extremely difficult to overcome.

Lu Yin’s deepest impression of manipulating consciousness was the one that Blackless God had once employed: his Endless Road.

Long ago, Blackless God had used his Endless Road to prevent Lu Yin and many others from reaching the Immemorial Citadel. If not for Progenitor Hui’s preparations, Boundless would have never arrived, and the final battle would have been a disaster.

At the time, everyone had thought that Blackless God had used his innate gift in combination with True God’s Natural Art. Only later had Lu Yin learned that the Endless Path was nothing more than Blackless God’s means of wielding consciousness together with the Natural Art. It was an artificial means of infinitely extending one’s consciousness. With that, even with their goal in plain sight, one would never be able to reach it.

There were many other methods of manipulating consciousness, and it was a challenge to unravel each one. After all, each conscient possessed their own unique method.

For instance, Hua Manyi had formed his consciousness into what looked like blossoms that had been capable of reversing space itself.

Wu Wei’s Skyshearer Millstone materialized consciousness. That was also a method of wielding consciousness.

The Luminary before Lu Yin used a method of drawing fear out from a living creature. Xing Jue’s method was to embrace memory and consciousness.

However, every method of wielding consciousness was built upon consciousness itself. When that consciousness was weaker, the very foundation of the method crumbled.

When Xing Jue saw that Lu Yin’s consciousness utterly eclipsed their own, the conscient knew that they could never hope to fight the human on equal footing. Xing Jue’s method of using consciousness was invalidated at the onset of the battle. The only option was to escape, to flee as far as possible, and return home.

Far away, everyone aboard Boundless looked up. They knew that Lu Yin had encountered a powerful conscient. There was no other reason for him to have unleashed his vast consciousness.

Progenitor Xi was the one who was the most taken aback. While she had long since known that Lu Yin possessed a powerful consciousness that was still growing, she had never imagined that it had become so strong.

How was it even possible? Lu Yin was clearly human, and he was also from the Tianyuan Megaverse. How could he possess such terrifying consciousness? Only conscients themselves knew how powerful Lu Yin was.

Long ago, her own Celestial-realm consciousness had made her confident that she stood at the very peak of the Tianyuan Megaverse in terms of consciousness. Neither Yong Heng nor the Origin Progenitor had been able to surpass her.

After so long at the top, a mere child had overtaken her and so quickly too. Not only that, but he had surpassed her by more than a little.

At this moment, Progenitor Xi’s mindset changed.

Working with Boundless to fight against the Spirit Nidus? It was possible that such an alliance had never been realistic, not because it was impossible for them to work together to defeat the Spirit Nidus, but rather because, even if they won, an even more terrifying monster would be unleashed.

Far away in outer space, streaks of shadow continued to converge onto Lu Yin, but they all failed to reach him.

He raised a hand. His consciousness condensed high above, and a Skyshearer Millstone suddenly fell.

Consciousness surged around Xing Jue. “Skyshearer Millstone? What’s your connection with Wu Wei?”

Lu Yin could not be bothered to answer. The Skyshearer Millstone smashed down, dropping straight through Xing Jue’s consciousness and causing his form to shrink.

In Lu Yin’s eyes, the cloud of darkness that was Xing Jue instantly shrank by a third.

For a conscient, it was a grievous wound.

Lu Yin flicked a finger upward, only to bring it back down. Another Skyshearer Millstone fell.

“Human, my name is Xing Jue! I am one of the Thirteen Luminaries. You mustn’t kill me! I’m more valuable alive!” Xing Jue screamed.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. “Restrain your consciousness and follow me.”

Xing Jue’s consciousness churned, as they clearly hesitated to comply.

Lu Yin barked a cold laugh, and the Skyshearer Millstone slammed down the rest of the way.

Conscients did not hone their methods of using consciousness solely to fight against cultivators from the Spirit Nidus. Long before those cultivators had appeared, the Consciousness Megaverse had been rife with its own conflict. On top of that, conscients also needed to cultivate.

Only by erasing the consciousness of other life forms could the consciousness within the megaverse increase, thereby strengthening the remaining creatures. The law of the jungle never changed.

The Skyshearer Millstone worked well against cultivators, but it was no less effective against conscients.

Countless shadows of consciousness surged in upon Lu Yin from all directions. Xing Jue had not actually given up, and they were using every means possible to fight back against Lu Yin. Still, in the face of Lu Yin’s superior consciousness, such efforts were like mayflies trying to shake a tree. Nothing the conscient did could move Lu Yin even the slightest.

The Skyshearer Millstone slammed down, and Xing Jue’s form shrank yet again.

They begged for mercy while howling in agony, but it was all useless.

Lu Yin watched coldly as another Skyshearer Millstone descended.

At that moment, the shadows of consciousness that surrounded him suddenly gathered together, forming a mirror in front of Lu Yin. The mirror showed the Heavens Sect, the Everstone sequence base, Dominion's Mantle, and the High Seraph. It was the day that the High Seraph had annihilated the Heavens Sect, destroyed the Immemorial Citadel, and slaughtered the Tianyuan Megaverse’s experts. No one had been able to stand against him.