Star Odyssey

Chapter 3459: Shu Qian

Lu Yin smiled at Ru Mu. "I am willing to pay the price, no matter how steep it may be."

Ru Mu agreed, "You are correct, Third Boss. Your Grandverse Manor has repeatedly violated many rules, all for the sake of your ‘entertainment.’ If my Heavenspire can entertain you even more, would you be willing to stop supporting Ba Liu and Yi Yao?"

Lu Yin grew curious. "More entertained? Let’s hear it."

Ru Mu's expression turned solemn. "I must ask you to dismiss everyone else, Third Boss."

Old Tao and the others automatically moved to leave.

Lu Yin tapped a finger on the table. "That’s not necessary. Your status and strength doesn’t qualify you to demand secrecy from me."

Ru Mu hesitated. "Third Boss, this is a matter of great importance."

Lu Yin stared at Ru Mu, deep into her eyes. "Young lady, your elders might not have taught you something, so I’ll teach you today.

"If a person is unable to bear the value of what they offer, all that awaits them is destruction.

Ru Mu stared at Lu Yin intensely for a moment before bowing to him again and then leaving.

Lu Yin watched as the young woman left. It was clear that she had something to say to him, but regardless of whether what she wanted to say was true or false, Lu Yin did not want to hear it. The last thing he wanted to do was provoke the High Seraph’s most sensitive spot. Anything else was fine.

Ru Mu was from Heavenspire, and her purpose in approaching Lu Yin was anything but simple.

Ru Mu left the tavern, glancing back to see Lu Yin sipping his wine. Complicated emotions filled her eyes. What was that man thinking? No normal person would refuse to even hear her out. She could not make sense of this Third Boss, and she could not understand him at all.

Ninerings City welcomed countless new arrivals every day, and conflicts broke out between them just as frequently, often developing into open fights.

Lu Yin watched it all, as though enjoying a show. He spent his days relaxing. Some of the fights that he saw were quite amusing.

For instance, the one known as Crane Apprentice from the Cloudcrane Domain used a particularly unique fighting style.

There were also the Bluefire and Redfire people from the Ghostfire Domain, and the Third Lin and First Lin from Linyu Sect. Some people’s titles were quite unusual.

"Third Boss, that's the young Si Tu from the Augury Domain’s Misery Gate. That sect’s cultivators focus on refining their hearts as their primary cultivation method. They are some of the Consciousness Domain’s first picks for cultivating consciousness," Old Tao explained. He was well informed of many details about the Spirit Nidus.

Lu Yin tapped his finger on the table and then paused. His fingertips then started to move rhythmically in a seemingly meaningless gesture. Only Lu Yin could see the karmic spirals that had started coiling around his fingers.

He casually flicked a finger.

A spiral of karma shot out, passing through one person after another.

Lu Yin was attempting to grasp the essence of his spirals of karma. Both his Wheel of Karma and his Karmic Dao greatly resembled cultivation arts rather than battle techniques. His goal was to find a way to attack with karma.

The method proved elusive, and while he felt like he was missing just one spark of inspiration, no matter how he tried, that spark remained out of his reach.

The spiral of karma continued to move through Ninerings City.

Everyone who was pierced by the spiral felt something, but no one could sense anything, which they all found truly bizarre.

From his spiral of karma, Lu Yin was able to catch glimpses of past scenes of the people who had entered Ninerings City. However, due to the sheer number of people, Lu Yin had no intention of examining any of the scenes too closely.

To him, the people he was observing were nothing more than extras. They were completely insignificant.

He saw a great deal of karma that had ties to himself. All of those people had been tasked with observing him.

Many powerful experts had gathered in Ninerings City.

Hmm? Lu Yin's attention turned in a particular direction. His spiral of karma had just passed through Little Threeheaded Fiend, and from that, Lu Yin could sense karma and hatred. It was clear that this person harbored a deep grudge against Lu Yin. The hatred was intense.

Lu Yin asked Old Tao to identify the person.

Old Tao looked over, and replied, "That’s Little Threeheaded Fiend. Third Boss, do you remember Threeheaded Fiend, who attacked Boundless? This is his descendant."

Lu Yin understood, but he ignored the matter and moved on.

Soon, he asked Old Tao to identify another individual, who Old Tao recognized as from the Alin Domain. Clearly, this person had a connection to the ambush that had taken place in the Alin Domain.

The karmic spiral continued to move about, revealing karmic connections between what seemed to be thousands of people and Lu Yin.

When the spiral of karma returned, Lu Yin stood up and looked out across Ninerings City. There were indeed a great number of experts.

"Who is that?"

Old Tao looked over and frowned. "He seems to be vaguely familiar, but… Huh, he’s looking at me."

In a corner of the Waterspire Grove, a man looked over to lock eyes with Old Tao, who was still in the tavern. The moment their eyes met, the man’s expression changed, and he immediately turned to leave.

Old Tao exclaimed in shock, "That’s him! That’s Shu Qian, a six-spirit criminal on the Black Spirit List!"

Lu Yin raised an eyebrow. A six-spirit criminal?

The Black Spirit List was the opposite of the White Spirit List. The White Spirit List was a ranking of the Spirit Nidus’s most powerful sequence powerhouses, who were regarded as having almost a ninety-percent chance of becoming Ortusers. Even the Seven Seraphs had once been ranked on that list.

In contrast, the individuals on the Black Spirit List were regarded as dangerous threats to the Spirit Nidus that needed to be eliminated. Such individuals were considered public enemies in the Spirit Nidus.

For some time, Lu Yin had been expecting someone from the Black Spirit List to seek refuge with the Grandverse Manor.

It was important to note that ordinary criminals were not qualified to be ranked on the Black Spirit List. Only those who had been acknowledged as a threat to the entire Spirit Nidus by the Ascendant Hall could be included.

In other words, practically no one on the list was not at least a sequence powerhouse, as such individuals simply did not qualify.

Since he had finally encountered someone ranked on the Black Spirit List, Lu Yin was quite intrigued. With a single step, he vanished.

Out in Ninerings City, Shu Qian was already racing away from his previous location when he suddenly felt a spike of danger.

How had he been discovered? He recognized Old Tao, as the old man had once been a highly respected individual. He was also known to be exceptionally knowledgeable about the people and events that took place across the entire Spirit Nidus. Shu Qian had heard of the old man from the moment he had first started cultivating.

When Shu Qian had met the old man’s eyes, Old Tao must have recognized him.

Shu Qian knew that he had to leave immediately. Whenever someone from the Black Spirit List was discovered, they would be attacked en masse. The rewards for killing anyone on the Black Spirit List were so extreme that people would forget the risk of death. They would swarm the criminal like moths to a flame.

Suddenly, Shu Qian’s shoulder sank. An immovable force had grabbed hold of him, instantly halting him in his tracks.

"Why are you running?" a voice behind him asked. Shu Qian saw the hand resting on his shoulder. This was exactly what had rendered him immobile.

One of Lu Yin’s hands was resting on Shu Qian’s shoulder, applying a slight bit of pressure, but Shu Qian was immediately overcome with intense pain.

"Who are you?"

"Third Boss."

Shu Qian’s heart sank. "I have done nothing to offend the Grandverse Manor, so why is the Third Boss coming after me?"

"Are you Shu Qian, the one who’s on the Black Spirit List?"

Shu Qian did not deny it. "Yes."

"You’ve been watching me."

Shu Qian replied, "Many people are watching you, Third Boss. I’m just curious."

A smile spread across Lu Yin’s face. "No, you aren’t just curious, but also hostile. No, that’s also not quite right. You’re just inclined to attack me. I’m very curious: why?"

Shu Qian was stunned. How is this possible? How could he see through me?

He had not released any sort of killing intent and was not at all hostile towards the Third Boss. In fact, people on the Black Spirit List and the Grandverse Manor should be on the same side.

The reason why Shu Qian wanted to attack Lu Yin was because of the man’s spirit weapon. He wanted to collect the Third Boss’s experiences.

All that Shu Qian had done was consider the act. He had not demonstrated the slightest inclination to follow through on that thought, so how could the Third Boss know of it?

"Third Boss, you’ve misunderstood things. I have no intention of acting against you. There is too much of a gap between us. It would be impossible for a mayfly like me to shake a tree and oppose the Grandverse Manor," Shu Qian retorted.

Lu Yin grabbed the man and dragged him right back to the tavern.

Before Lu Yin’s overwhelming strength, Shu Qian was completely helpless.

He was a sequence powerhouse, but so what? Such strength was completely worthless at this moment.

Lu Yin effortlessly suppressed the man by doing nothing more than moving at the speed of time and using a single hand. For Shu Qian, the difference in strength might as well be an unbridgeable chasm.

He felt as though he was facing a Seraph.

Back in the tavern, Lu Yin sat down across from Shu Qian. "Old Tao, tell me about this man."

"What do you wish to know about him, Third Boss?"

"Why was he put on the Black Spirit List?"

Old Tao explained, "Shu Qian was added to the Black Spirit List because he continued to attack people. It did not matter if they were independent cultivators or members of various organizations. His actions seemed to be completely random and unrelated to any sort of grudge. For a while, no one could understand why he attacked people, but after several attacks, things became clear.

"From his Spirit Rebirth, he obtained a spirit weapon called Chronicles Scroll. This weapon requires him to record the experiences of 10,000 individuals. Each experience will grant him a new insight. Shu Qian is one of the rare individuals in the Spirit Nidus who, despite having become a sequence powerhouse, does not cultivate a sequence technique. Instead, he focuses on comprehension techniques. He has already mastered two comprehension techniques, demonstrating exceptional talent."

The people outside the tavern who were observing Lu Yin were astonished by this sudden development. "Is that Shu Qian?"

"What? The six-spirit criminal Shu Qian? Is he with the Grandverse Manor’s Third Boss?"

"It doesn’t look like it. It seems to me that he was captured by the Third Boss."

"That’s impossible. While it’s true that Shu Qian is no match for the Third Boss’s strength, Shu Qian is famous for being able to hide. Even if he was right next to us, we wouldn’t notice a thing. How could anyone so cautious be discovered by the Third Boss?"

"Shu Qian? Well, the Black Spirit List and the Grandverse Manor are birds of a feather."

"All of them are the Ascendant Hall’s enemies. We should find a way to deal with them for the High Seraph."

Inside the tavern, Lu Yin learned about Shu Qian. While he recorded people’s experiences, he did not do so by killing them.

Lu Yin stared at Shu Qian. "Let me see your Chronicles Scroll."

Shu Qian obediently took out his spirit weapon and placed it on the table.

The Chronicles Scroll was a bamboo scroll. Lu Yin picked it up and opened it, but he saw nothing.

"While it’s a scroll, it’s really a collection of insights. There’s nothing written in it," Shu Qian explained.

Lu Yin was reminded of the Books of Destiny, which could only be read by people who had cultivated Destiny’s cultivation arts.

"You want to record my experiences?"

Shu Qian shrugged. "Yes."

"You’re quite bold."

"I was merely considering it. Third Boss, you have already defeated both Yu Shan and Palace Master Yao. My strength is not sufficient to record your experiences. Even getting close to you would be impossible for me," Shu Qian explained.

Lu Yin stared intently at the Chronicles Scroll. "How many people’s experiences have you recorded?"

"3,791."

Lu Yin raised his hand. A spiral of karma danced at his fingertips, and he pressed it to the Chronicles Scroll. The spiral penetrated the scroll, and as it did so, Shu Qian felt as though he was again being pierced.

He had experienced that sensation once before.

He immediately connected the sensation with Lu Yin’s actions, and Shu Qian understood that the Third Boss had used some method that was invisible to him. Shu Qian had not been the only one targeted; rather, it was the entire city. It was only through sheer coincidence that Shu Qian had been found.

Such a conclusion horrified Shu Qian. After all, he was a sequence powerhouse. Even if he did not cultivate a sequence technique, he was still able to perceive sequence particles.

Given the fact that he could perceive sequence particles, what kind of power did the Third Boss possess for Shu Qian to not even see it?

This thought triggered a powerful sense of awe towards Lu Yin.

Shu Qian immediately decided to stay as far away from this Third Boss as possible, in fact. Even a bit of proximity would feel dangerous to Shu Qian. He felt as though he had been completely seen through.

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA