Chapter 1857: Shadow Assassination

Normally, it would be impossible for anyone to detect the poison covering the skeleton until the explosion, but the astral beasts were ignorant of the fact that there were people from Venom Flowzone sprinkled throughout the fleet. No matter what formation the ships took or what direction they faced, there were always some vessels on the outside edge that were equipped with a substance that the Divine Venom Dynasty had specially designed to detect toxins.

As soon as the skeleton drew close to the back of the fleet, King Qing Li appeared from the void. He raised a hand, and space rippled.

The moment the skeleton moved a bit closer, it exploded with a loud boom, which was followed by multiple softer explosions that were not particularly powerful.

There were some astral beasts hidden nearby, and they stared at the explosion, waiting for the toxins to erupt.

However, even after they waited for a good bit of time, nothing happened aside from the explosions. What had happened?

On the fleet’s right flank, several Void Thunderbeasts shot out bolts of lightning at the ships, and simultaneously, the soaring flamebeasts shot out flames.

As soon as the lightning and flames began to fall upon the fleet, space froze, and the affected area quickly spread. The Frost Emperor appeared after freezing the lightning and the flames, as well as the space around the attacking creatures.

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

On the left flank, dozens of creepers charged forward. They were confident in successfully attacking the fleet, but they had underestimated Shui Chuanxiao's understanding of the Astral Beast Domain. The creepers were discovered the moment they made a move, and Mountain God’s massive form blocked them from getting close to the fleet as the creepers just slammed into the mountain.

Xu Qing had attempted to attack the fleet from all sides. He had not only wanted to disrupt the humans’ formation, but also force their powerhouses out from hiding.

Xu Qing stared at the human fleet and at Mountain God’s massive form. He waved a hand. "It's your turn."

Countless astral beasts roared, and the sound caused space itself to tremble.

Lu Yin looked forward and saw a large group of truly enormous beasts rushing towards the front of the fleet. "Attack!"

The battleships fired a barrage of attacks, but they were all useless. The massive astral beasts pulled their legs and feet in, becoming balls that continued to shoot forward. The creatures’ defensive were absolutely amazing.

Liu Qianjue stepped forward, and his sword sliced through space, warping the void as it passed. However, all of his attacks were successfully blocked, as the astral beasts were actually able to withstand his powerful attack.

Liu Qianjue was surprised, and he lashed out again, only for all of his sword strikes to be absorbed yet again.

Off in the distance, Xu Qing sneered. How could those beasts be killed so easily?

"There are essence eaters behind them," Shui Chuanxiao spoke up, "They’re ranked fourth on the Celestial Beast List, and they can redirect any attack that has a power level of less than 200,000, which is why Liu Qianjue's attacks aren’t doing anything to them. He needs to be careful."

Lu Yin quickly passed the message onto Liu Qianjue.

The swordsman clenched the hilt of his sword. No wonder it had looked so familiar. His attack had not been absorbed, but rather diverted.

The astral beasts that had rolled into balls were about to strike the Great Eastern Alliance’s fleet. As soon as their attack landed, the entire fleet would be scattered.

The essence eaters continuously diverted attacks that approached the rolled-up astral beasts, but due to the small size of the essence eaters, they could not be found.

"Chen Huang!" Lu Yin called out.

The colossal giants in the middle of the fleet straightened up one after another and moved forward. They stood at the front of the fleet and faced the balled-up astral beasts. Battle force covered the giants’ bodies as they roared.

Xu Qing was genuinely surprised. "Those are actual giants!"

When the rolled-up beasts were about to hit the fleet, Chen Huang took the initiative to grab a creature with a hand. Pain blossomed in his shoulder, which was caused by an attack from a hidden essence eater. At the same time, Liu Qianjue attacked with his sword; with both Chen Huang and Liu Qianjue attacking at the same time, even an essence eater could do nothing more than divert Liu Qianjue's sword.

Chen Huang endured the spherical astral beast’s impact, but the giant was still knocked back. Even though the living balls did not have the strength of Envoys, their defenses were incredible. The Celestial Beast Empire had specially bred these creatures to shatter the humans’ formations.

This was Xu Qing’s first move, and he had thought that he would be able to break through, but he had not expected the Great Eastern Alliance to actually include colossal giants in their armed forces. If one giant was unable to withstand an attack, then two would work together. If that was still not enough, yet another would join them

Chen Huang had blocked one of the living balls on his own, and he let out a roar as he hefted it and threw it back in the direction that it had come from.

The other giants, such as Chen Ling, Chen Jian, and Chen Ji, were not able to throw the creatures back, so they could only push them away.

Xu Qing's expression grew ugly. "Four Envoys have revealed themselves! The Great Eastern Alliance is certainly committed."

He then waved a hand. "That should be pretty much all of them. They might still be hiding one or two Envoys at best, but there’s nothing to be afraid of. Also, keep an eye on Lu Yin. Supposedly, he’s actually able to fight against Envoys."

"Heh, leave him to me." A shadow twisted and disappeared.

At Xu Qing's order, countless astral beasts charged at the human fleet. Lu Yin stared out at them and simply stated, "Fire."

All the battleships unleashed their attacks at once, and the beams of light filled the area as they bombarded the encroaching horde of astral beasts. However, most of the creatures were stronger than Explorers, which meant that the battleships were unable to do much damage. Before long, the astral beasts collided with the fleet head on.

Boom!

There was a deafening noise as all the vessels trembled. This was the first true clash of the war, and countless astral beasts perished in space. Most were species that were capable of traveling through outer space before reaching the Explorer level due to their special bodies. Just the three special armies ended up slaughtering many of the astral beasts.

The Great Eastern Alliance’s fleet also ended up suffering. The horde of astral beasts charged straight into the fleet and damaged over a thousand transport ships. Fortunately, Lu Yin had made sure to provide all soldiers under the Explorer realm with universal armor. Thus, even if they were thrown out of their spaceships, the soldiers could still survive.

An overhead view of the fleet appeared on a display. There was red all around the humans’ fleet, and one ship after another was being destroyed. Outer space was filled with an endless sea of astral beast corpses.

Lu Yin clenched his fists. He had already fought in two wars against the astral beasts. The first time had been at the border of Erudite Flowzone, but that had been a relatively small battlefront, and it had been nothing more than a small corner of the border.

The second time had been in Ironblood Weave. There, Lu Yin had seen the tides of the war change and witnessed the true cruelty of the battlefield.

This was his third time, though this was his first time facing the Astral Beast Domain by himself instead of fighting with the rest of the Human Domain. This war would not last for long, but the casualties would exceed anything that the participants had ever seen before.

"Do we not need to step out?" Liu Huang could not stop from checking.

Lu Yin quietly answered, "There’s no rush."

The Great Eastern Alliance’s fleet was facing off against countless astral beasts. Beasts with the strength of Envoys appeared; there was a soaring flamebeast, a Void Thunderbeast, and a Celestial Ice Phoenix. Ling Qiu, Abel Phoenix, and Elder He all appeared at the same time.

Every time another Envoy-level astral beast appeared, another Envoy from the Great Eastern Alliance’s fleet appeared, which left Xu Qing completely dumbfounded. "How is this possible? How can the Great Eastern Alliance have so many Envoys?"

He had actually expected to shatter the fleet with a single charge, and he had never considered the possibility that so many Envoys would be present on the Great Eastern Alliance’s side.

When the next status report was delivered, Xu Qing’s expression was ugly as he read it.

Most of the Envoys who had appeared were the leaders of the Innerverse powers that ruled the eight great flowzones. Xu Qing had heard rumors that Lu Yin's Great Eastern Alliance had united both the Innerverse and Outerverse, and surprisingly, those rumors proved to be true. It was incredible that Lu Yin had managed to mobilize so many Envoys.

Xu Qing’s eyes blazed as he stared off into the distance. It was no wonder why Lu Yin had been willing to start this war, but did he really think that this number of Envoys would be enough to stop the Astral Beast Domain?

"Kill Lu Yin," Xu Qing ordered.

The sudden outbreak of war in the asteroid field drew the attention of the Hall of Honor and the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect. The Sixth Mainland was actually the more interested of the two parties, as they did not believe that the Great Eastern Alliance possessed the strength to go up against the Astral Beast Domain.

At best, the Daosource Sect had expected the Astral Beast Domain to send out three or four Envoys and the Great Eastern Alliance to do the same. The entire war was expected to be decided with the participation of no more than eight Envoys.

However, what actually ended up happening was that the very first battle in the asteroid belt saw more than ten Envoys show themselves, which made the Sixth Mainland do a double take. Not only had the Astral Beast Domain revealed greater strength than expected, but the Great Eastern Alliance had also surpassed all expectations.

Enlighters were already considered to be powerhouses in the universe, and yet an organization with less than ten years of establishment had just sent out multiple Envoys to participate in a war. This had defied the Sixth Mainland expectations.

Even many people in the Hall of Honor were surprised by the news, and they realized that the war might be a bigger matter than they had initially believed.

From the very first battle, this was a war on a major scale.

All the humans had underestimated the Astral Beast Domain’s desire to conquer the Human Domain, but they had also underestimated Lu Yin's determination to stop the invaders.

The purpose behind the war had changed the moment Lu Yin heard about the countless people who had been slaughtered in Northcastle, Forested, and Eastly Weaves. No longer was Lu Yin content with driving the astral beasts out of the Outerverse—he was out for revenge.

…

A massive paw appeared in the asteroid field near the edge of the fleet, and it tore right through a battleship. Two Limiteers who had been inside the vessel glanced at each other before retaliating against the beast. Soon, the creature was dead and floating through outer space, though the ship had also been reduced to scrap. The survivors were floating through outer space, but a strong gust of wind swept through and blew everyone away.

Many of the people were slammed into an asteroid. Some spat out blood while others simply died.

Battles broke out everywhere on the asteroids around the fleet. There were tens of millions of humans and even more astral beasts participating in this war, and all of them were concentrated within this single asteroid field.

There were spatial cracks opening everywhere, and corpses littered the entire battlefield.

Lu Yin stared at a display. Red was spreading across the display, which indicated that the fleet’s losses were increasing.

"We have a guest." The Second Nightking looked up.

Lu Yin waved a hand, and both the Second Nightking and Liu Huang stepped back.

Lu Yin was still unfamiliar with the Astral Beast Domain, and no human seemed certain as to just what the astral beasts were capable of. Xu Qing would learn about the two powerhouses’ presence the moment they made a move. Even if they did wipe out all the astral beasts in the asteroid field, it was not worth it at this point in time.

This war was about resources, but it was also about trump cards. Liu Huang and the Second Nightking were Lu Yin’s hidden reserves, and Lu Yin knew that whoever revealed their reserves first would be in a passive position.

Everyone left the command center.

Lu Yin’s hands were clasped behind his back as he stared out at space. He saw runes appear everywhere.

A shadow on the wall twisted and slowly approached Lu Yin without a single sound.

Lu Yin still had not noticed it, as he was focused staring outside the ship.

The shadow suddenly condensed and formed a sharp spike that shot at Lu Yin. The spike struck Lu Yin without any issue, but it only managed to pierce through his clothes. There was not a single drop of blood.

The shadow changed form once again, this time turning into a curtain that covered Lu Yin.

"I've read a lot of reports concerning the Astral Beast Domain, and if I remember correctly, you’re called Shadowbeast," Lu Yin casually remarked as the curtain enveloped him.

This attack was somewhat similar to the Black Coffin secret technique that Unseen Light had used, but Black Coffin was a secret technique whereas this was Shadowbeast’s natural abilities. Additionally, the creature was barely at the Envoy level, which meant that this attack could not even touch Lu Yin.

Only Shadowbeast knew what happened inside the curtain, but when the shadows faded, Lu Yin was completely uninjured.

This was the Knowing realm of Truesight. Lu Yin had used the floor beneath his feet as the point of reference, and he had declared that no damage could be done in that area. As long as Lu Yin was in that space, he could not be harmed. This cultivation method was completely incomprehensible to anyone who did not practice it themselves.