Star Odyssey

Chapter 3169: Solution

Lu Yin had never considered resisting the Purple Emperor’s control. It did not matter if something took control of Lu Yin, as the Dark Palace would continue to automatically attack regardless of what he did.

The Purple Emperor stared at Lu Yin. He had initially believed that controlling the human would stop the dark flames, but the flames continued to burn. He continued to suffer continued as his strength waned.

At this moment, Lu Yin discovered something remarkable. The Purple Emperor's ability to control others seemed to be based on the power of consciousness.

He had already known that the Purple Emperor could control others with his slitted white eye, but Lu Yin had assumed that it was an innate gift. As Lu Yin found himself falling under the Purple Emperor’s control, his fractured star of consciousness slowly started to rotate, and it drew the Purple Emperor's consciousness towards it.

Lu Yin was thrilled by this unexpected development.

The Purple Emperor sensed that his consciousness was being pulled somewhere, and he quickly tried to retract it.

Lu Yin was cautious, but he could not allow this to happen. Because of the fractured state of his star of consciousness, he was unable to forcibly extract the Purple Emperor's consciousness. If the Purple Emperor abandoned his attempt to control Lu Yin, he would not be able to conshis consciousness. Worse, Lu Yin had no idea how long the star of consciousness would take to recover on its own.

Thinking quickly, he directly took over the Dark Palace and stopped it from burning its prisoner.

Lu Yin was unable to control the destructive power of the Dark Palace, but he could at least stop it for a time.

As the dark flames stopped burning, the Purple Emperor looked around in confusion. What was happening? Did controlling Lu Yin actually work?

He immediately tried to tear through the void to escape from Evernight, but the moment that happened, Lu Yin let the Dark Palace’s burning resume, and the Purple Emperor’s suffering returned. The creature immediately tried to seize control of Lu Yin again in order to stop the burning. This process repeated again and again, like a never-ending cycle.

The Purple Emperor could not abandon his attempts to control Lu Yin. Only by doing so could he find momentary relief, even if he knew that Lu Yin was harvesting his consciousness. He simply had no choice in the matter.

Lu Yin continued to control the Dark Palace, granting the Purple Emperor brief moments of respite, but not giving him any opportunities to escape.

Lu Yin was quite familiar with this process, as he had dealt with both the Chiliagonist and Xu Jin in a similar manner.

He found that he was quite adept at this strategy.

The Purple Emperor possessed an incredibly robust consciousness. Although his power was not as vast as Xu Jin's, he had still succeeded in controlling Sovereign Dou Sheng, which suggested that he was much more powerful than the Chiliagonist.

Lu Yin's star of consciousness slowly recovered as it absorbed the Purple Emperor's consciousness. As this happened, the Purple Emperor felt like he was getting closer and closer to breaking free from Evernight.

Throughout the process, the Purple Emperor repeatedly tried to persuade Lu Yin to release him by offering to switch sides, and even providing valuable information regarding various outsider powerhouses. This included not only Aeternus’s allies, but also their enemies.

In an attempt to earn Lu Yin's trust, the Purple Emperor even revealed the mission that he had been given in regards to the Nine-Star Civilization.

Lu Yin was alarmed to learn that Aeternus had ordered the Purple Emperor to massacre the Nine-Star Civilization on the day of the Heavens Sect’s upcoming military declaration.

This announcement was intended to be a demonstration of the Heavens Sect’s power to the entire megaverse, which included countless parallel universes. The Heavens Sect had gone to great lengths to extend its influence as far as possible, but if the Nine-Star Civilization was exterminated on the day of their grand declaration, it would be a permanent stain on the Heavens Sect's reputation, and would subject them to the ridicule of countless beings.

The consequences would be dire.

For the Heavens Sect, the destruction of the Nine-Star Civilization would greatly harm their future alliances, and for the Nine-Star Civilization, it would be total annihilation. While Aeternus had ordered the massacre, Lu Yin knew that he would also be indirectly responsible.

Aeternus was only targeting the Nine-Star Civilization because of its alliance with the Heavens Sect.

If they carried out this massacre, there was no question that the Heavens Sect would struggle to form alliances in the future.

Lu Yin was relieved that he had glimpsed the Purple Emperor’s perspective while folding time. If not for that coincidence, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

"Lord Lu, I promise that I never intended to carry out the slaughter. I know that doing so would only result inbeing relentlessly pursued by humanity until my death. Unless humanity is exterminated, I would never have a moment’s peace. I always intended to leave this place. If you release me, I won't say anything to Aeternus and will instead help you humans and the Heavens Sect from now on," the Purple Emperor pleaded.

Lu Yin scrutinized the creature. "You really never intended to massacre the Nine-Star Civilization?"

The Purple Emperor swore an oath, "Absolutely not, Lord Lu! You must believe me. I can't risk being hunted by humanity. You have fought Aeternus to a standstill. I may fear Aeternus, but I am also afraid of humanity. I don't want to be hunted down and killed."

Lu Yin nodded. "Alright, surrender your consciousness to me, and I'll let you go."

The Purple Emperor's expression changed. "Lord Lu, without my consciousness, I will lose my power. Please, spare me. From now on, I'll do whatever you command."

At this moment, Lu Yin was still under the creature’s control, and his star of consciousness was still devouring the Purple Emperor’s consciousness. However, there was still a great deal more to go before he could fully usurp all of his power.

"If you don’t surrender your consciousness, how can I ever trust you?" Lu Yin countered.

The Purple Emperor's voice dropped low. "Lord Lu, do you really want to forceto die?"

Lu Yin remained calm. "I've already given you a chance. You just need to seize it."

The Purple Emperor roared, "My consciousness is everything to me! Without it, my ability will be completely useless! Do you know how many times my ability to control others has saved me? Lu Yin, I'll say it again—release me, and I'll help you fight against Aeternus. If you refuse, I'll fight to the end. This dark space might not be able to hold me, and if I manage to escape, you will never know peace!"

Lu Yin shook his head. "In that case, you can just die."

With that, the dark flames resumed their burning. The cycle continued to repeat; the Purple Emperor tried to escape by taking control of Lu Yin, despite knowing full well that he might not actually be controlling the human. Regardless, this was the only way he could stop the black flames and try to find an opening to escape. At the stime, Lu Yin continued to devour the creature’s consciousness.

It was a race to see who could act faster.

Inside Evernight, silence reigned. The Purple Emperor focused entirely on escaping, while Lu Yin concentrated on devouring consciousness.

Finally, a light pierced the darkness, and the Purple Emperor rejoiced; he had broken through. He leaped forward, escaping from Evernight and returning to the room in the clock tower.

Lu Yin watched as the Purple Emperor left, but contempt covered his features. "Your opponent isn't just me, but rather the entire Heavens Sect."

The Purple Emperor appeared back in the room, and he rushed to leave. But at that moment, a hand clamped onto his shoulder. "Little one, where do you think you're going?"

The Purple Emperor immediately tried to fold time, but the very next moment, his sequence particles were scattered apart, dispersed by the person behind it.

Stunned and in disbelief, the creature slowly turned around. Who could it be?

A woman was smiling at the Purple Emperor. Despite her gentle appearance, the hand holding onto his shoulder possessed a terrifying strength.

The Purple Emperor was confident that he could even challenge Sovereign Dou Shen when it cto physical strength, but this woman was firmly holding him in place.

"Who are you?" the Purple Emperor demanded. Fear crept into his voice.

Lu Yin emerged from Evernight. "Allowto introduce her. This is one of the Three Realms and Six Daos of our Origin Universe, Hongyan Mavis."

Simply hearing the title "Three Realms and Six Daos" left the Purple Emperor stunned.

He stared at Hongyan Mavis, confused. Those individuals were legendary figures that should only exist in ancient myths. Even if they did reappear, why would they go after him, the Purple Emperor? The creature suddenly felt as though he was being bullied.

This was rather ironic. The mighty Purple Emperor, a famous outsider powerhouse, a sequence powerhouse who had once dared to ambush Sovereign Dou Sheng, someone who was qualified to negotiate with Aeternus, was feeling bullied.

It was an accurate assessment, as he was indeed being bullied.

Hongyan Mavis smiled at the Purple Emperor. "You’re a curious creature. An alien life form? During our era, there were countless outsider powerhouses who wanted to join the Origin Universe, but never qualified to do so. Now, such creatures dare to attack my Origin Universe."

"I didn't," the Purple Emperor reflexively responded, which caused Lu Yin to crack a smile.

Hongyan Mavis squeezed harder, and the Purple Emperor's shoulder dropped a bit further.

"Senior, I never attacked the Origin Universe! Never!" The Purple Emperor's voice grew hoarse. While the single, white slitted eye on his face made his facial expressions indiscernible, his tone exposed his fear.

To remain fearless, conviction was needed.

There were humans who possessed such conviction, and that allowed many of them to face the prospect of death calmly. Mere beasts lacked that conviction, as they were completely driven by instinct, and no level of cultivation could overcthat.

There were certainly exceptions to this, but the Purple Emperor was not one of them.

"You should have calledearlier. Why did you drag it into that card to fight it?" Hongyan Mavis inquired curiously.

Lu Yin replied, "I needed to test the power of Evernight. I managed to gain something quite valuable, as my injuries have been mostly healed."

He was referring to his star of consciousness.

His star of consciousness had cracked from True God's attack, but it had noticeably recovered, though there were still a few fractures. Lu Yin finally had hope of fully recovering, whereas in the past, he had had no idea how long it would take.

The Purple Emperor pleaded, "I'm willing to join you humans. Lord Lu, I'll do whatever you say."

"Giveyour consciousness first," Lu Yin demanded.

The Purple Emperor looked distressed. "There's hardly any left."

Lu Yin stared at the creature. "In that case, letask you a question. How much human blood have you shed?"

The Purple Emperor hesitated, unsure how to respond. In the end, silence was his answer.

Without waiting for Lu Yin to respond, Hongyan Mavis applied greater force and shattered half of the Purple Emperor's body. Lu Yin seized the opportunity to slam a powerful palm strike against the Purple Emperor's forehead, killing him.

Hongyan Mavis relaxed her grip. "Little Seven, a creature like this can’t be used."

"That won’t affect my control." Lu Yin smiled as he brought out his Champions’ Stage and anointed the Purple Emperor.

The process proceeded smoothly. There were no issues.

Given Lu Yin's current strength, he could easily defeat the Purple Emperor in a one-on-one battle. The Purple Emperor had not been strong enough to compare to the Seven Skygods, and just Lu Yin’s fatesand continent alone would have utterly crushed the creature. Even within Evernight, if Lu Yin had not been focused on usurping the creature’s consciousness, the Purple Emperor would have long since been burned to death by the darkness.

Lu Yin let out a long breath as he stared at the image of the Purple Emperor on the Champions’ Stage.

How many outsider powerhouses had allied with Aeternus? One by one, Lu Yin would kill them all. His next target was Astral Anura. That old toad presented a formidable obstacle.

With the Purple Emperor dealt with, Lu Yin and Hongyan Mavis returned to the Heavens Sect.

Were the Aeternals only targeting the Nine-Star Civilization during the Heavens Sect’s forthcoming declaration? Lu Yin felt worried, so he sent experts to scout the entire Sixverse Association and all of their allied outsider universes. To his surprise, several hidden plots were discovered.

Aeternus had not just been targeting the Nine-Star Civilization.

The Nine-Star Civilization had been intended to be the heaviest blow, but several other outsider civilizations were being watched by either Aeternus or their allies. If not for the peak powerhouses investigating these universes, the danger would have remained hidden.

Fortunately, the threats had been neutralized.

The Aeternals might have more tricks up their sleeve, but Lu Yin was not without his own countermeasures.

He had prepared a special gift for them during the military declaration.

...