Star Odyssey

Chapter 3684: Outdated

Some of the Broken Realms could be identified from the outside. If conscients had encountered it before and managed to leave alive, they would mark that Broken Realm, revealing its level of danger. Information about the Broken Realms was stored in the Willbound Expanse, compiled into a book called the Forbidden Tome.

The book’s cover only featured a single character, “forbidden,” which was its eponymous title. The tome documented over a hundred Broken Realms that had been confirmed to be dangerous throughout countless years of the conscients’ explorations. Most of the recorded Broken Realms could not be given a clear level of danger, due to the fact that no one was willing to test them. Those that were documented were often investigated by chasing cultivators from the Spirit Nidus into them. Those individuals were then used as references to measure a Broken Realm’s level of danger.

Additionally, the fact that Broken Realms drifted about made it extremely difficult to locate them. Still, there were some Broken Realms that had been thoroughly studied.

The Broken Realm that Hu Wu and Tian Ya had described happened to be one that had been studied. Within it, there was a creature which wielded a bamboo sword and was strong enough to threaten even the Thirteen Luminaries. It was regarded as one of the most dangerous Broken Realms and was called the Bamboo Blade Realm. According to Wu Wei’s memories, there were at least five other Broken Realms in the Forbidden Tome at that danger level, and there were even a few that were considered more dangerous than the Bamboo Blade Realm. No one other than the Thirteen Luminaries dared to test such places, which meant that the threats within remained unknown.

Hu Wu and Tian Ya could be considered extraordinarily lucky to have been able to escape from the Bamboo Blade Realm.

That creature in that Broken Realm was something that even Wu Wei was wary of. Admittedly, in the distant past, when Wu Wei had just become one of the Thirteen Luminaries, their strength had been much lower, and they had also lacked Heaven’s Blade. Despite their improved power, Wu Wei still did not want to risk entering the Bamboo Blade Realm. There was simply no need to.

The Spirit Nidus should also possess some level of knowledge of the Broken Realms’ dangers. But because their cultivators had such a low survival rate in the most dangerous Broken Realms, as well as the fact that any cultivators who did survive a Broken Realm generally left the Consciousness Megaverse after a time and never returned, the Spirit Nidus had never compiled anything like the Forbidden Tome. At best, cultivators warned each other to avoid the Broken Realms entirely.

However, such warnings were more than a little inadequate, given the threat posed by conscients.

All conscients shared an instinctive, unspoken rule: as long as they could guarantee that their enemies from the Spirit Nidus would be eliminated, cultivators would be used to test how dangerous the Broken Realms were. Compared to the Spirit Nidus cultivators’ ignorance and indifference regarding the Broken Realms, the conscients had no wish to personally test an unknown Broken Realm, and they would only enter one if it had been confirmed to pose no threat at all.

The Consciousness Megaverse was the conscients’ home, so they were much more eager to understand and use the Broken Realms.

Lu Yin could understand why the Spirit Nidus, despite being much more powerful than the Consciousness Megaverse, still found it so challenging to eliminate the conscients. The Broken Realms alone were a massive obstacle, and in addition to that, the machinations of the Nine Odysseys Megaverse that took place in the background had also come into play. Whether or not the Consciousness Megaverse would be reset had never been the Spirit Nidus’s decision. Not even an Immortal like Qing Cao could make such a decision.

This realization also explained why the Tianyuan Megaverse’s crisis was worse than anticipated: they had no Broken Realms.

In the distance, everyone was growing increasingly curious about the Broken Realms, and they started questioning the cultivators from the Spirit Nidus. Hu Wu and Tian Ya were not the only ones approached, as Old Tao, Yuan Qi, Zhan Yan were also questioned. In particular, Progenitor Xi had become the center of attention. Hu Wu and Tian Ya were exceptionally eager to question the conscient.

Lu Yin clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s attention. “Progenitor Xi, share everything you know about the Broken Realms. Old Tao, the same goes for you and the others. Everything you know, speak up. We need to avoid Boundless running into any disaster.”

Old Tao immediately stepped up. “Don’t worry, Third Boss. I’ll share everything I experienced from my very first journey to the Consciousness Megaverse, to the moment I left for the last time. I’ll make it seem as though you experienced it for yourselves. Right, Progenitor Xi?”

The woman said nothing.

Old Tao went first, and he shared everything he knew about the Consciousness Megaverse. He had experienced a great deal in that megaverse, and he shared many vivid details. At first, everyone was interested, but as time passed, they realized that the old man was simply trying to show off and get Lu Yin’s attention. Eventually, he was kicked off the stage.

What everyone was really looking forward to was Progenitor Xi. Her words would hold true value.

Even Hu Wu and Tian Ya were curious. A Celestial-realm conscient was by no means weak, standing at least in the second-tier of power in the Consciousness Megaverse. What knowledge did she have?

While many conscients had surrendered to the Spirit Nidus over the years, the powerful ones were far out of most people’s reach.

The eyes of many powerful experts stared at Progenitor Xi, and Lu Yin’s was especially heavy. She took a moment to consider things and then proceeded to slowly share what she knew regarding the Consciousness Megaverse.

Lu Yin listened calmly, his face betraying nothing.

“We conscients revere the Broken Realms. They have been around longer than any of us. All conscients believe that the Broken Realms’ existence is what defines the Consciousness Megaverse. Without it, our megaverse would fall to the same level as the Spirit Nidus, just another ordinary megaverse.𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

“That’s right, you didn’t mishear me. As far as we conscients are concerned, any megaverse that lacks Broken Realms is ordinary, even if the Spirit Nidus is stronger than the Consciousness Megaverse.

“The Consciousness Megaverse’s Thirteen Luminaries reside in the Willbound Expanse. There, there is a book called the Forbidden Tome. It is a record of the conscients’ knowledge of the Broken Realms. It lists some, including...”

Hearing about the Forbidden Tome shocked even Hu Wu and Tian Ya. Neither had ever heard of the book. Yuan Qi was equally stunned, as not even he had known of it.

Lu Yin frowned. Given how long Spirit Nidus had been at war with the Consciousness Megaverse for, how could the Forbidden Tome not be known? Countless conscients had surrendered to the Spirit Nidus; surely, some must have offered valuable information in exchange for their lives, no? The situation simply made no sense.

Either only Celestial-realm conscients were qualified to know about the Forbidden Tome , and such creatures had value in and of themselves and would have no need to barter for their lives, or the book had not been around long enough for Yuan Qi to know about it.

That was not impossible.

Yuan Qi was a truly ancient being who had been old even during the Heavens Sect era. The Spirit Nidus was indeed older than the Tianyuan Megaverse, but not by a staggering amount. It was possible that they had only seen a few more eras of development. The Consciousness Megaverse might not be much older than the Spirit Nidus, so it was possible that the Forbidden Tome had not been created when Yuan Qi had been active in the Spirit Nidus.

But that theory raised a new question: how did Progenitor Xi know about the book? She had left for the Tianyuan Megaverse at around the same time as Yuan Qi.

“How many Broken Realms are recorded in the Forbidden Tome, as far as you know?” Lu Yin interrupted.

Progenitor Xi replied, “A bit more than ten.”

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered. A bit more than ten? That meant that the version of the Forbidden Tome that she was aware of was an early version from when entries had only started to be added. If that was the case, then it made sense for Yuan Qi to not know about the book.

Progenitor Xi may have left for the Tianyuan Megaverse at around the same time as Yuan Qi, but since the Forbidden Tome was something developed by the conscients, it made sense that she knew about it while Yuan Qi had not.

Lu Yin had asked the conscient to share what she knew about her megaverse just to see if she would mention the Forbidden Tome at all.

Not mentioning the book might only mean that she did not know about it, but it could also be because she chose to keep some information secret. She would not feel any guilt, regardless of which was true, as there was no way for her to know the extent of Lu Yin’s knowledge. Was revealing the existence of the book Progenitor Xi’s way of demonstrating her sincerity?

Progenitor Xi had fled from the Consciousness Megaverse, hidden in the Spirit Nidus, and later followed people to the Tianyuan Megaverse. It was clear that she was not an ordinary conscient.

A conscient’s most basic instinct was to survive. Despite that, Whiteless God had developed emotions because of Yan’er. That was proof that conscients could change.

They were not necessarily entirely devoid of emotions.

Lu Yin turned around and walked away.

Progenitor Xi glanced over before continuing her explanation.

“Yi Shang, do you know about the Forbidden Tome?” Lu Yin asked the former Seraph who stood behind him.

During the battleships’ stop at Beacon City, Yi Shang had avoided speaking with Yi Xia. Such an interaction would have been too sensitive, and the old man feared provoking the High Seraph into striking Yi Xia down.

Fear of the unknown was just that: fear. The original springboard had already been used once before to launch the expedition to the Tianyuan Megaverse.

Yi Shang replied, “Yes. It’s a compilation of the conscients’ records of dangerous Broken Realms. It’s kept in the Willbound Expanse, so I’ve never seen it myself.”

“You never managed to learn anything about its contents from any of the surrendered conscients?”

“That’s not possible. If it were, we wouldn’t have needed to wait for Ye Meng’s betrayal to learn of the Willbound Expanse’s location.”

Lu Yin thought for a moment and then realized that this made sense. In fact, Lu Yin even knew why it was impossible for the Spirit Nidus to obtain any of that information. It was all because of Old Chief.

Old Chief was the leader of the Consciousness Megaverse’s Thirteen Luminaries, as well as the oldest of all conscients. He had placed a seal known as Autumn Seal within every powerful conscient. This seal restricted certain memories, preventing the conscients from speaking or even allowing outsiders to read thoughts concerning certain matters.

When Lu Yin had Possessed Hua Manyi’s body, he had detected the seal, but it had not stopped him from reading the conscient’s memories. As long as his host retained their memories, Lu Yin could access them. That was how he had seen details regarding the Willbound Spire.

It was impossible for the High Seraph to have learned anything about the Willbound Spire from Hua Manyi, as the conscient had been unable to mention the matter, even if he had wanted to.

As for Wu Wei, they had surrendered too early and had therefore never been sealed with Autumn Seal.

Hua Manyi had once considered the possibility that the High Seraph’s goal of attacking the Willbound Expanse was primarily because the man wanted to seize the Willbound Spire. It was likely that Wu Wei had revealed that name to the High Seraph.

The truth was that Wu Wei had never mentioned anything to the High Seraph, though that was because the High Seraph had never asked.

No one had ever asked, so no one knew if the High Seraph was aware of the Willbound Spire or not.

While publicly, people believed that the High Seraph was targeting the Willbound Expanse in order to eliminate the Thirteen Luminaries as a part of the efforts to reset the Consciousness Megaverse and attain Immortality, no one knew if that was actually true.

Lu Yin had specifically searched through Hua Manyi’s memories for whatever the conscient had known about Old Chief.

There were only a few memories. The leader of the Thirteen Luminaries rarely revealed themselves. Even Hua Manyi did not know the full extent of Old Chief’s power.

The current plan to lure the High Seraph into a trap in the Willbound Expanse had been Old Chief’s idea, and the ancient powerhouse was apparently extremely confident in the plan.

Wu Wei also had some memory fragments concerning Old Chief, though in the same manner, there was not much.

“Does the Spirit Nidus have something similar to the Forbidden Tome?” Lu Yin asked.

Yi Shang replied, “While some information has spread through word of mouth, those are only warnings about a few of the most obviously dangerous Broken Realms. However, those haven’t been seen in a long time. It’s even possible that they’ve vanished. Broken Realms never remain permanently fixed. Some can show a specific scene one moment and then change to another the next. It’s impossible to truly understand them. I suspect that many of the entries in the conscients’ Forbidden Tome are probably outdated by now.”

Lu Yin thought it was odd to use the term “outdated,” but even if it was odd, it fit.

Even the Broken Realms could become outdated.

Yi Shang continued to say, “The Spirit Nidus once tried compiling something like the Forbidden Tome , particularly after we learned of its existence. However, the cost was too high. It’s not enough to simply share information. In order to identify which Broken Realms are truly dangerous, it’s necessary to continuously test them, and any Broken Realm that we can safely scout isn’t too dangerous in the first place.

“It costs lives to truly test the Broken Realms, and the lives of elites at that. We would have to pay a far steeper price than the conscients to explore the Broken Realms. Still, if that was all, then the price might still be acceptable.

“Even with the cost of exploring the Broken Realms, the Seven Seraphs discussed the possibility with the High Seraph, of sacrificing a generation of top experts to do just that.

“However, once we discovered that the Broken Realms can shift and change, rendering the previous information gathered about it obsolete, those discussions completely ended. It simply is not worth sending people to explore those places.”

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