Chapter 1720: The Sophic Rift

The moment Lu Yin opened his own eyes again, he immediately rose to go outside. He was trying to find where he had just been in the city. However, the commotion from Envoy-level androids fighting had not spread to where Lu Yin and the others stayed, as First Edition City was just too big.

Given such a big commotion, it was guaranteed that First Edition City would investigate the matter, and given the abilities of the Technocracy, it was possible that Lu Yin could be discovered at any moment. The First Protector had still not returned, which made this a very bad situation.

Lu Yin left his quarters and saw the First Protector outside with his back to Lu Yin.

"Senior!" Lu Yin was ecstatic.

The First Protector held up a hand. His face was solemn. Lu Yin followed the old man’s eyes to see countless androids and several of the enormous mechanical claws had surrounded by them from all directions.

The Cloud Valley Master's swordsman's face was pale; was it over? Had they been discovered?

The vice city master emerged from the true universe, still using the bear-shaped android. They looked at the swordsman in a searching manner. "Bring out everyone from your group."

The human subconsciously glanced over at Lu Yin, and Lu Yin's eyes flickered. He quickly stepped forward, and at the same time, the First Protector, Emperor Luo, and everyone else in their group followed the swordsman out.

Lu Yin was nervous, as he had created a bigger mess than he had expected. He was also scared of the power within First Edition City that left even Arch-Elder Zen on edge. Lu Yin was worried that someone would be able to see through his disguise that the First Protector had arranged for him, as that would mean that they would have to try to escape.

His die’s Possession ability had always brought Lu Yin great benefits, but this time it had caused terrible problems, as there was no way out of this.

The bear form of the vice city master glanced at the human Envoy, Lu Yin, and even the First Protector. He saw all of the humans, as there were not many in their group. This was strange, could it not have been them?

"Vice City Master, what happened?" the Cloud Valley Master’s swordsman asked nervously.

The bear and the human stared at each other. "Have any of your people left recently?"

The Envoy instantly replied, "No."

The huge bear’s face swept back over all of the humans. None of them showed any signs of injuries, and it was impossible for any of them to have arrived before the vice city master, given their speed. Also, there had been no trace of them near the location of the rogue android. This matter had nothing to do with these humans.

"Apart from you Sixth Mainlanders, are there any other humans?" the bear asked.

The swordsman shook his head. "No, this is all of us."

"Are you sure? If we find anyone else, we will kill them without any mercy," the vice city master replied.

The swordsman was quick to try to reassure the bear, "Anyone else is not part of our group, as we’re all here."

The bear nodded. "It was best to do this, as there could easily have been misunderstandings otherwise.”

With that, the vice city master and all of the other androids left.

The swordsman heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the surrounding androids all leave. While he had no idea what had happened, he felt that anything going on had to have something to do with Lu Yin.

Lu Yin was still just happy to see the First Protector had returned, as his absence would have been very difficult to explain.

"What happened?" the First Protector asked in a deep voice. As soon as he had returned, he had been met with this situation. If he had not hidden his strength, he would have wanted to flee.

The Cloud Valley Master’s swordsman shook his head, and then looked at Lu Yin with a bewildered expression.

The First Protector also looked over at Lu Yin. "What did you do this time?"

Lu Yin quickly tried to clear himself. "I don't know. I was in seclusion until just now, and I didn’t do anything. Senior, you saw me come out."

The First Protector thought about Lu Yin’s answer. He had returned a few days ago, and the Technocracy’s androids had only just surrounded them. The First Protector had immediately looked for Lu Yin, and had seen that the youth had been present.

Could there be other humans in First Edition City aside from their group?

Who could possibly enter the Technocracy’s capitol without being detected at all?

What Lu Yin was most concerned about was the possibility that this incident would change their plans to follow Little R1O to the battlefield. There were only a few ways to get to First Edition City, as it had always been difficult for anyone to hide from the Technocracy’s surveillance and sneak in. This incident would be a terrible shock to First Edition City.

Lu Yin remained uneasy as he and the others waited for another ten days. After ten days, his gadget he had received from First Edition City beeped quietly. It was a call request from Little R1O.

"Ah Qi, my friend! I’ve made all of the androids, see?" Little R1O excitedly showed off his recent creations to Lu Yin. Next to the researcher were rows of androids. There were a hundred of them, and they had all been made from the materials that had been provided by First Edition City. Little R1O had built his small army; these were the androids that were to be sent to the war against Sky Creation Academy.

This sort of thing was considered an honor by any of the dominant consciousnesses that lived in First Edition City. Similar to how Lu Yin had competed to enter Astral-10 from the Great Yu Empire, the dominant consciousnesses could receive glory by fighting against each other.

The Master Brain essentially controlled the entire Technocracy with its thoughts. Dominant consciousnesses were beings that could be controlled, but were also capable of independent thought. They also strove and fought for their accomplishments and desires.

Lu Yin was pleasantly surprised at this news. "Congratulations, Little R1O."

"Ah Qi, I’ve already submitted the application to the vice city master. You can choose a few of you clansmen or some other people to go with me to our battlefield with Sky Creation Academy, that is, the Sophic Rift. However, the one who brought you here, that swordsman, is not allowed to join." Little R1O looked a bit embarrassed to deliver this news. He had been clearly told by the vice city master that everyone in Lu Yin’s group could go, but had very recently been told that the Envoy from the Sixth Mainland was no longer welcome to join the group.

Lu Yin hesitated. "Little R1O, could you ask the vice city master again? All of us are hoping to go see the battlefield."

Little R1O sighed. "I'm sorry, my friend. I would definitely do that if it would help, but the deputy mayor was very firm about this."

Lu Yin shrugged. "If that's how it is, then just forget it. We’ll go."

Lu Yin then suddenly grew serious as he continued, "Little R1O, I don’t want to lie to you; this trip to the battlefield isn’t just because I want to see it. I also want to try to do as much as possible to stop the fighting, or at least stall things for a bit so that First Edition City can send more androids with us to the Outerverse to fight against the Human Domain.

"This is my goal for this trip. I don't want to lie to you about this."

Little R1O smiled. "I know, the vice city master already told me. Ah Qi, do whatever you want, as it won't affect our city. However-" He continued in a helpless tone, "I can't help you. You can only try to do this on your own. Don't worry though, I’ll do my best to bring you back. After all, we’re friends."

"Thank you, Little R1O." Lu Yin genuinely felt grateful. He chatted with Little R1O for a bit longer before hanging up. He then let out a sigh of relief, as it seemed that First Edition City did not doubt their group.

Despite countless years passing, no one had managed to sneak into the Technocracy undetected. Hui Kong had blatantly forced his way in at first, and it was unknown why First Edition City and Sky Creation Academy had never done anything about his presence. He had been allowed to live in the Technocracy for many, many years.

First Edition City had easily been able to determine the location of Lu Yin and the others in his group, which had made it easy to exclude them as suspects. However, it was their group that had been excluded as suspects, not the Sixth Mainland.

First Edition City had agreed to allow Lu Yin and the others to follow Little R1O to the battlefield, but the Cloud Valley Master’s swordsman was kept behind as a hostage.

Lu Yin believed that First Edition City would never be able to determine the truth of what had happened. They felt that no one was able to enter their city without being detected, and no one could guess at the existence of Lu Yin’s innate gift that was his die.

No matter what First Edition City believed to be true about the matter, Lu Yin was finally able to start towards the Sophic Rift.

the Sophic Rift was the name of the battlefield where First Edition City and Sky Creation Academy fought each other. No matter how the location of the battlefield changed, the name never changed.

No one knows what the Sophic Rift meant, especially humans. Many people had looked into the matter after learning the name of the battlefield was the Sophic Rift, as they hoped to be able to use the name as a starting point to look into the reason behind the endless war between First Edition City and Sky Creation Academy. However, no attempts had ever succeeded.

However, Lu Yin had come up with his own guess: the Sophic Rift was a gap in thought. The entire Technocracy was controlled by the Master Brain's materialized thoughts, but the battlefield could be a hole in the Master Brain’s thoughts. This was what Lu Yin suspected to be true.

How could anyone who did not know the truth that formed the structure of the Technocracy guess at such a possibility?

Lu Yin had no idea if his thoughts were on track or completely wrong, and even if he was correct, he still did not understand why. Why would the Master Brain be divided? Could this be the same as a human with a multiple personality disorder?

The following day, Lu Yin received a message: Please go to the provided coordinates within two hours and report to the party there - First Edition City’s Third Fleet.

Lu Yin knew almost nothing about First Edition City’s fleets, but it seemed that the Third Fleet was about to be dispatched to the Sophic Rift to join the war against Sky Creation Academy.

For the first time since they had tried to enter the Technocracy from Endless Weave, Lu Yin and the First Protector were parting ways with the Cloud Valley Master’s swordsman.

The Envoy stared at Lu Yin with eyes full of fear and questions about his future.

Lu Yin whispered, "As long as you don't anything stupid, you can return to the Sixth Mainland and be at peace."

"You won't hurt me, right? If you get caught, I’ll end up being taken down with you," the Envoy asked. This was his greatest fear from the moment that Lu Yin had mentioned that they could travel to the battlefield with Little R1O. The swordsman had felt torn, but he could not betray Lu Yin and the First Protector.

If the Sixth Mainlander betrayed them, he would instantly die. Even if he did not expose them, he would be dragged down the moment that Lu Yin and the others had their true identities revealed, or if they did anything to harm First Edition City.

No matter what, the Envoy did not see a bright future for himself.

This was what was most terrifying for the Cloud Valley Master's swordsman; no matter how he looked at things, it seemed highly unlikely that he would be able to safely return to the Outerverse.

The First Protector coldly warned the Envoy, "Don't worry, we don't want to be discovered, and that’s all you need to know."

The Envoy let out a sigh of relief. It was guaranteed that these people would be in grave danger if they were caught, so none of them would want to be discovered. "I can trust that."

Lu Yin spoke in a light tone, "Didn't I already tell you to write down everything that’s happened and give it to someone you trust? That way, if you die, you’ll still be able to expose us, and we don’t want to die with you."

The Envoy’s only option at this moment was to trust Lu Yin and the others.

Two hours later, to the east of First Edition City, Lu Yin, the First Protector, Emperor Luo, and three Envoys who had accompanied them all along saw Little R1O. He was accompanied by an android.

"Ah Qi, this way!" Little R1O was very happy to see Lu Yin.

Lu Yin smiled and went to meet the researcher.

As soon as he was face to face with Lu Yin, Little R1O apologized again, "I’m sorry, my friend, but I wasn’t able to convince the vice city master to allow all of you to go to the Sophic Rift."

Lu Yin just smiled. "You didn’t need to do that, just us here will be going."

Little R1O looked past Lu Yin and saw the few others, along with the First Protector. "Just the few of you? You can bring more. The vice city master just said that that swordsman isn’t allowed to go. Everyone else has permission."

"There’s no need for that. If we can’t succeed, then having more people with us will just mean more deaths," Lu Yin replied. First Edition City could never have dreamed that Lu Yin had been hoping for some accident to separate him and his companions from the Sixth Mainland cultivators. Before the vice city master had intervened, Lu Yin had been trying to come up with a plan to get rid of the Sixth Mainlanders after they reached the Sophic Rift.