Chapter 1748: A Grave Matter

Nong Laohan's face grew pale, and he threw out a Skylock Pattern to trap Ancestor Autumnfrost as he raced away.

At this moment, a beam of light shot through the universe. It originated from far away, but it accurately struck Ancestor Autumnfrost.

When the corpse king was struck, the beam of light instantly pierced a hole in its body.

Ancestor Sightless and Nong Laohan both spun to see where the attack had come from; what was this battle technique?

"Seniors, let’s work together. It’s very difficult to kill a corpse king after it’s gone through three transformations," said a middle-aged man with a smooth complexion. He was extremely handsome, and his voice was calm, which was a sharp contrast to the fear displayed by Nong Laohan.

The man was Ancestor Lingtong, Xu San's master.

The strongest person in the Blackblood Realm had originally been the dead Ancestor Di, followed by Ancestor Sightless. Beneath him was Ancestor Lingtong.

Despite the fact that Ancestor Lingtong was just a World Imprinter, his strength had already reached the level where he was considered a half-step Cosmic Imprinter.

Given the fact that Ancestor Autumnfrost was actually a corpse king that had undergone three corpse king transformations, the creature was able to go toe-to-toe with a Cosmic Imprinter, but Ancestor Lingtong was capable of doing the same.

When it came to Ancestor Lingtong, not even Ancestor Sightless could see the man’s full potential, but it was clear that once Ancestor Lingtong became a Cosmic Imprinter, there would be few capable of facing him aside from Empyrean Imprinters.

Not even Ancestor Sightless would be a match. This was just how powerful Ancestor Lingtong was.

From his youth to his current level, Ancestor Lingtong had always stood above his peers. He was much younger than Ancestor Sightless, and yet he was almost equal to the older man.

Ancestor Lingtong’s participation in the fight was much more helpful than Nong Laohan’s presence, at least as far as Ancestor Sightless was concerned. In particular, the battle technique that Ancestor Lingtong had used as soon as he arrived had actually pierced through the corpse king’s body, which indicated that it was more powerful than Ancestor Sightless’s own attacks.

At this moment, Ancestor Autumnfrost broke free from the Skylock Pattern. His scarlet eyes locked onto Ancestor Lingtong with a tinge of fear in them.

Ancestor Sightless targeted Ancestor Autumnfrost once again while shouting, “Attack!"

Nong Laohan pushed another Skylock Pattern forward as Ancestor Autumnfrost threw himself at Ancestor Sightless. The Skylock Pattern approached from a tricky angle, trapping the corpse king once more. Ancestor Lingtong’s pupils dilated for a moment and then pointed at Ancestor Autumnfrost's forehead. "Aurora Beam.”

Light condensed and then spread out to form a finger that shot forward to strike Ancestor Autumnfrost square in the forehead.

…

At the border between the Great Eastern Alliance and the Sixth Mainland, Lu Yin quietly slipped across, only to be immediately discovered by Yuan Shi. "The latest news is that Ancestor Autumnfrost was killed. He was a corpse king that was actually able to perform a third corpse king transformation."

Lu Yin was taken aback. "Ancestor Autumnfrost’s dead? What happened?"

Yuan Shi received his information directly from the Hall of Honor. Since the Sixth Mainland had settled in the Outerverse, how could the Hall of Honor not know what they did?

The Sixth Mainland was searching for a way to infiltrate the Fifth Mainland’s Hall of Honor, but the Hall of Honor was also trying to find a way to sneak into the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect.

Lu Yin was able to get some information from Xu San, but the truth was that Xu San’s status was too low, and he had needed some time to gather the information.

The Hall of Honor was able to gather their intel much faster.

Lu Yin frowned at what he heard from Yuan Shi, and this was a grave matter. Things had taken a sharp turn.

That instrument had been far more important than anything Lu Yin could have imagined.

Just what could that tool’s purpose have been that its destruction warranted the corpse king that had impersonated Ancestor Autumnfrost, a World Imprinter with a power level of more than 800,000, to expose itself and be killed? The creature had even been one of the rare few corpse kings capable of performing a third stage corpse king transformation, and yet it had sacrificed itself without hesitation. Clearly, the tool was incredibly important, as it had to be vastly more valuable than even Ancestor Autumnfrost.

The fake Ancestor Autumnfrost had only spent around ten years working on the tool’s construction, which meant that the tool itself was not particularly valuable. After all, it could be rebuilt in just a decade. The important thing had to be the black crystal and what it had held inside.

However, just what was in that bubble?

Lu Yin had a hunch that even the Neohuman Alliance’s headquarters for the Innerverse and Outerverse that he had destroyed would be considered much less important than what he had found inside that crystal.

Lu Yin took out a piece of the black crystal fragment and stared at it intently.

He soon went to find the Second Nightking.

"Go back to the Autumnfrost family’s territory?" The Second Nightking felt rather confused. "What do you want me to do?"

Lu Yin answered solemnly, "Nothing at all. I want you to keep an eye on the shattered bits of the black crystal and see what happens."

The Second Nightking replied, "A corpse king fought against multiple experts with power levels of over a million in that place. Many people will want to see it."

"Just keep an eye on the place. You might find something interesting," Lu Yin said. Ancestor Autumnfrost had wanted to search through that place even if it meant his death. The Neohuman Alliance would not be the only group to show interest, so if the Second Nightking was there, he might see some interesting people show up.

The Second Nightking reluctantly left.

Yuan Shi was at the border, and both the Second Nightking and Liu Huang needed to avoid the ancient powerhouse, so it was pointless to try to keep them nearby.

After sending the Second Nightking away, Lu Yin started looking into information regarding Ironblood Weave.

The Celestial Beast Empire had not disappointed Lu Yin; they had sent millions of powerful beasts to reinforce the creatures from the Primal Zone, and they had taken complete control of Ironblood Weave.

As Lu Yin stared at the star chart, he let out a long sigh. He felt incredibly guilty; Ironblood Weave had stood as the border of the Human Domain and had been a staunch bulwark against invaders for countless years, and yet it had been conquered. Lu Yin felt as though he owed a terrible debt to his seniors who had sacrificed themselves to protect Ironblood Weave.

"Don't worry. What’s ours is ours! I, Lu Yin, swear that I will take back our territory, all the way to the Primal Zone and into the Astral Beast Domain!" Lu Yin vowed to himself.

Although the Cloud Valley Master had personally gone to Ironblood Weave, the Cloud Valley Master was not the one targeting the Great Eastern Alliance, but rather the four powerhouses behind him.

In the blink of an eye, the two week deadline had passed, and Ancestor Sightless and Nong Laohan returned to the border.

Lu Yin’s time was up, so the Sixth Mainland’s cultivators had appeared to force the Great Eastern Alliance out.

Lu Yin stared into outer space with stern eyes.

"Alliance Leader Lu, your time is up. Please leave the Outerverse," Ancestor Sightless loudly declared.

Lu Yin raised his head. "Senior Bluedome Elder promised me five weaves for the Great Eastern Alliance. Has that been revoked?"

Ancestor Sightless simply replied, "As the Cloud Valley Master already told you, that deal will be honored, but we will be the ones to choose which weaves you will retain."

Lu Yin raised a finger. "We don’t need five weaves, as just one is enough, but we get to choose the weave."

Ancestor Sightless did not reply, as this was not a decision that he could make without consulting Bluedome Elder.

At this time, Nong Laohan was standing close to Ancestor Sightless, and the old man glanced down at his gadget. Instantly his expression changed drastically. "Another corpse king showed up in the Autumnfrost family’s territory."

Ancestor Sightless’s expression also changed in an instant. "When?"

"Right now. However, it wasn’t just a corpse king, as the Second Nightking from the Fifth Mainland’s Daynight clan also appeared."

Ancestor Sightless and the other Imprinters were not the only ones to be informed about the corpse king’s appearance, as the Second Nightking had already sent a report to Lu Yin.

The Second Nightking had actually run into a corpse king in the Autumnfrost family’s territory.

Lu Yin stared at his gadget, reading the message from the Second Nightking. While there had only been a brief battle, both the Second Nightking and the corpse king had been exposed.

Lu Yin's expression grew solemn. Sure enough, another corpse king had gone to the Autumnfrost family’s territory already. The liquid within the bubble had to be extremely important.

This news was much more important than the Great Eastern Alliance, and Ancestor Sightless instantly called Bluedome Elder.

One day later, the Second Nightking silently returned to the border to meet with Lu Yin.

"What happened?" Lu Yin asked.

The Second Nightking stretched out his right arm to show a bleeding wound on his wrist that had reached the bone. "It was a powerful expert."

"The corpse king?" Lu Yin was surprised. Even though the Second Nightking had not yet fully recovered his strength, his power level was still almost at a million. Without this, he would have never been able to hide from Yuan Shi. However, despite the Second Nightking’s strength, he had been injured in a brief fight, which proved the strength of his opponent.

The Second Nightking replied, "It was an accident. The Autumnfrost family has created too many grudges over the years, and one family went to go make trouble for them. I was nearby and saw the corpse king appear and destroy the cultivators from the family. However, it started questioning them, so I moved closer to find out what it was asking. I ended up being discovered by the corpse king, and it attacked me. It absolutely had a power level of over a million."

"Why did you reveal yourself?" Lu Yin was frustrated.

The Second Nightking started grinding his teeth. "If I hadn’t done my best against a corpse king that powerful, I would have died. Even if it’s not as strong as one of the Seven Skygods, it's not far off."

The Second Nightking clearly did not know much about the Seven Skygods, but Lu Yin knew for a fact that the Seven Skygods were not nearly as simple as they first appeared to be. On the battlefield behind the Perennial World’s Mother Tree, Aeternus had their twelve Marquises, and yet Shaman God had been able to order them all around. Just this was enough to show that the Seven Skygods held a higher status than most people imagined.

Lu Yin looked towards the west. A corpse king had appeared in the Autumnfrost family’s territory again, and even an idiot could tell that there was something there that the Neohuman Alliance desperately wanted to regain. This would be a big headache for the Sixth Mainland.

Both a corpse king and the Second Nightking had appeared in the Autumnfrost family’s territory, and the incident sent waves throughout the entire Sixth Mainland.

After the Four Empyreans held a discussion, Bluedome Elder headed out to investigate the Autumnfrost family’s territory. Everyone believed that there had to be something in that place that was important enough to warrant such attention, and anyone investigating the Autumnfrost family would easily learn of the massive tool they had been building.

Bluedome Elder’s goal was to unravel the purpose of the tool.

The aura of an Empyrean Imprinter enveloped the Autumnfrost family’s territory, leaving everyone there trembling.

Bluedome Elder blazed like a sun that illuminated the entire region that belonged to the Autumnfrost family. He was truly one of the Four Empyreans.

It was easy to ignore what lay on the ground below after one rose too high up. For example, Bluedome Elder could easily crush the black shards of the shattered crystal, so he completely disregarded it. It was also clear that the Neohuman Alliance had no interest in the crystal, as it would have already been taken away if that was the case. They had certainly had the time to recover the shattered crystal.

Many other people had already thought of this as well, and Lu Yin was the person who knew the Neohuman Alliance’s goal the best. He expected that after the Neohuman Alliance finished frantically searching, they would start to investigate everyone who had visited the Autumnfrost family’s territory. Lu Yin needed something to prevent the Neohuman Alliance from going after him…

After staring at the black crystal for a while, he pulled out his gadget.

…

Lin Dong was a self-respecting man. He had been born into an ordinary human family and raised by them. It was only later that he had discovered a cultivation art and become a cultivator.

If he was honest, it had taken him a hundred years just to become an Limiteer, which made him quite the average talent. He was someone with no status within the Autumnfrost family and was just a random person who was given odd jobs. This became even more true after the Autumnfrost family had become the dominant power in the Bloodburn Realm and more experts had flocked over. It was at that time that Lin Dong had lost nearly all value to the Autumnfrost family, and he had been sent to oversee a massive construction project. He had been left there, unable to leave with no one to even speak with.

Lin Dong believed in his own worth, and he was confident that he would one day become an Explorer who could wander about the universe. Once he crossed that line, his future would be limitless.

This was why, after the massive tool had been destroyed, after all sorts of incredible powerhouses had left after fighting, and while everyone else had fled, Lin Dong had returned to the construction site in his spacecraft to take away shards of the broken black crystal.