Star Odyssey

As the two old men spoke, Lu Yin arrived in the Lost Clan's universe to meet with their Great Elder.

Within the Sixverse Association, the Lost Clan had the smallest presence, and even the Three Monarchs Universe was talked about more. This was not because the Lost Clan was weak, but rather because they had isolated themselves and tended to stay separate from the other parallel universes.

At one point in the past, Shao Yin had deliberately provoked the situation and caused the Lost Clan to greatly resent the Cyclic Universe. After that, the Lost Clan had become reluctant to interact with other universes. Even so, they had always been friendly towards Lu Yin, as the Lost Clan’s Great Elder saw the young man as someone who would eventually be able to bring out the Primeval card.

After hearing Lu Yin's proposal, the Great Elder shook his head. "I'm sorry, Lord Lu, but we will not agree to connect our universes."

Lu Yin was surprised. "Why not? Shao Yin is a traitor, and your relationships with the other universes have improved recently, haven't they?

"It’s especially so after the Sixverse Academy was established—many youths have chosen to learn the Lost Clan's cultivation method."

The Great Elder raised a hand to stop Lu Yin from continuing. "There's no problem, and we are getting along well with the other civilizations. However, connecting our universes remains out of the question."

"Can you tell me why?" Lu Yin asked.

Great Elder Shan Gu stood up as he thought for a moment. "If anyone else asked that question, I would have simply refused to answer them, but since it's you, Lord Lu, I feel trapped."

Lu Yin observed the Great Elder. "Aeternus is an enemy of all of humanity. At this moment, we can finally see a chance of victory, so why not take it?"

Shan Gu turned his back to Lu Yin. "Can they really be defeated?"

Lu Yin replied firmly, "Yes, they can."

The old man laughed and turned back around to face Lu Yin. "True God cannot be defeated."

"If we do nothing, we will never have any hope of defeating him, so why not at least try? Do you really want things to return to how they were? The endless battles at the border of each universe, the constant threat of new battlefields appearing, the omnipresent spies… Such things bring no benefits to your Lost Clan. If the Sixverse Association is destroyed, the Lost Clan won't be spared," Lu Yin argued.

The Great Elder nodded. "Your arguments are persuasive, but I must still refuse."

Lu Yin frowned. "I need to know why, or else I won't give up."

Of the Sixverse Association’s member universes, Lu Yin had thought that there would be no major issues with convincing either the Voidforce Universe or the Arboreal Realm to connect to the Origin Universe. Lord Xu and Mu Shen seemed indifferent to worldly affairs, and both men genuinely wanted to defeat Aeternus. The Cyclic Universe was powerful, and with the Great Sovereign overseeing things there, it did not particularly matter to Lu Yin if the universe was connected to the Origin Universe or not.

Thus, he had left the Lost Clan for last, as he had thought that they would be the hardest to convince, and he was being proven right.

Not only were they difficult to persuade, but they also refused to give the reason for their refusal.

If the Lost Clan were not entirely human, Lu Yin might have suspected them of colluding with Aeternus.

Shan Gu sighed. "Even if you defeat Aeternus, what next? War will not simply disappear. The Heavens Sect has had its moments of glory and its times of decline, yet war is what remains constant. Wouldn't it be better to fight against an outside enemy rather than tear each other apart?"

Lu Yin frowned. "So you want Aeternus to continue existing?"

The Great Elder remained silent.

Lu Yin barked a bitter laugh. "That excuse is too weak. Regardless of what the future holds, we need to force them to repay the blood debt that they have accumulated. What of all those who fought and died in the war against Aeternus? According to your logic, we shouldn't fight Aeternus at all, in which case, we might as well join them if we can retain our identity as humans. Wouldn’t that be a better option?

"Great Elder, your words are the worst insult imaginable to those who have died fighting."

Lu Yin’s reaction showed his anger. He could understand fear, avoiding responsibility, or even betrayal, but he could not understand the Great Elder's passive position. Such a thing was even more detestable than betrayal.

Traitors participated in the war, as everyone knew, but Shan Gu’s current words could cause all of the war efforts to fade away.

Lu Yin had previously held a great deal of respect for the Great Elder, and he had thought that the Lost Clan’s Primeval card could potentially grant humanity an edge over the Aeternals. The Great Elder had also been kind to Lu Yin, helped him to conceal the Primeval card, and even given Lu Yin Evernight. The Lost Clan had supported him on multiple occasions, and Shan Pu had even died to protect Lu Yin.

The Lost Clan was one of Lu Yin’s earliest supporters in the Sixverse Association, having supported him even before the Voidforce Universe or the Arboreal Realm.

However, supporting Lu Yin was one thing, while agreeing to connect their universes was another matter entirely. Lu Yin already knew that the Lost Clan was xenophobic, which was also why he had done his best to persuade Shan Gu. However, he had never expected the Great Elder’s perspective to be like this.

The man was fundamentally refusing to fight Aeternus. Everything that the Lost Clan did was simply forced upon them.

Lu Yin stood up and glared at the Great Elder. "Senior, I don't know what your Lost Clan has experienced, but I know that, no matter how desperate things appear to be, there is always a way out. There are no absolutes in existence, and as long as humanity persists, we won’t be easy to exterminate. Conflicts are inevitable, but that's no reason to allow Aeternus to continue existing."

Lu Yin remembered something that Hongyan Mavis had said to him. Lu Yin had once asked her why the Heavens Sect had not eliminated Aeternus in the past, or at least prevented the Aeternals from gaining strength. Hongyan Mavis had agreed with the Origin Progenitor’s reasoning that, even if humanity did not have Aeternus as an enemy, there would simply be another.

It might have been something that Hongyan Mavis had said, or possibly something the Origin Progenitor had said, but no species could last forever. Without being restrained by an enemy, humanity would have risen to an unparalleled height, which was not in line with the way of the megaverse. This was why Aeternus existed as humanity’s enemy; without Aeternus, there would be some other enemy of humanity.

This was the reason why the Origin Progenitor had allowed Aeternus to exist, and the Great Elder seemed to hold to a similar point of view. He used it to justify Aeternus's continued existence.

No matter how logical such reasons may appear, Lu Yin considered them pure nonsense. It did not matter if humanity’s enemy was Aeternus or someone else; he would deal with all enemies as they came. Should humanity simply wait for their enemies to grow stronger until they were suppressed and forced to struggle for survival?

Lu Yin completely disagreed with the Origin Progenitor's philosophy. If he had been in the Origin Progenitor’s position, Aeternus would have been destroyed during the Heavens Sect era. Any species that threatened humanity would have been wiped out. No matter how bad the results may have turned out, there was no way for things to be worse than the current state.

The Origin Progenitor could not predict the future. The bridges that Destiny had built across the River of Time acted as endpoints, but there was no end to the River of Time itself. No one could see humanity’s future. They might defeat their enemies, or they might be defeated. It did not matter, as what mattered was the present.

Lu Yin wanted to eliminate Aeternus, not to elevate humanity to greatness. He simply wanted to live a peaceful life, even if only for a short while.

If humanity broke apart due to internal conflicts after Aeternus was destroyed, then so be it. That would be humanity's choice. However, there was a prerequisite: Aeternus had to be defeated.

"If we allow all of the cultivators in the Sixverse Association to vote, I believe that all of them would choose to destroy Aeternus, even if doing so leads to internal wars. Dying at the hands of another human is better than being killed by an Aeternal," Lu Yin stated solemnly.

Shan Gu turned around to look at Lu Yin. "We can't find our way home anymore."

Lu Yin was stunned. What did that mean?

Complex emotions flitted across Shan Gu's eyes as the man radiated an indescribable sorrow. "We can't find our way home anymore.

"We had a home, and it was a magnificent place. There were not just one or two individuals with my level of cultivation, but many who far surpassed me. However, all of those people are now dead."

As he spoke, Shan Gu seemed to remember something, and fear filled his eyes. Someone with his level of strength should have forgotten about fear, except when facing death.

"We struggled, fought many battles, all as part of a desperate war for our species. In the end, we successfully defeated our enemy. As far as I’m concerned, our enemy was far more terrifying than even Aeternus, and they had countless peak powerhouses. We won, and we even saved our wonderful home, but just as we managed to glimpse the glory of victory, everything changed.

"They died before our eyes." Great Elder Shan Gu clenched his fists so tightly that blood leaked out from between his fingers. "An unimaginable being was enraged. Our enemy had been nothing more than slaves. That being became angry because we were not supposed to win. We were supposed to be exterminated, and the life in our universe was supposed to start again from nothing. However, we won. That being wanted events to follow a given script, and so things were reset and forced back onto their predetermined course.

"At that moment, I saw the truth of reality. It's a joke, really. We believed that we had won. We paid such a high price, and so many powerful cultivators returned from the flow of time, only to die during that battle. In the end, that was our reward."

Great Elder Shan Gu's voice cut off. He had lost control of himself, which was something that Lu Yin had never seen before. The old man was overcome by confusion, grief, and hatred.

He stared at Lu Yin. "Those ancient powerhouses, our ancestors who protected us, all of them died. Every last one of them. No one could even move before that being. No one."

The old man roared. "Why? Those who were strong beyond my understanding were effortlessly erased by that individual! There was absolutely no chance of survival, all because that being was angry that things did not go according to plan. That's all there was to it. Nothing more. Hahaha, it's absurd. Absurd! Tell me, why did we fight so hard? Just to end up as pawns in someone else's game?

"Hahaha, everyone who put forth their total efforts for countless ages was reduced to nothing in an instant. We, the few survivors, managed to escape, but only because that being had felt a sliver of mercy. Perhaps, in that creature’s eyes, we aren’t enough to even count as ants."

Lu Yin's eyes flickered. "When did this happen?"

Shan Gu took a deep breath as he closed his eyes. Only after a long time did he finally manage to calm down and weakly wave a hand. "Lord Lu, do as you wish. I must rest."

With that, the old man disappeared.

Lu Yin stood where he was, unable to believe the story that he had just heard. Had he misunderstood? Had powerhouses who had been far stronger than Great Elder Shan Gu been casually erased from existence by some unfathomable being? Could such an existence really be out there somewhere?

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA

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