Chapter 1871: A Helping Hand

The carrion beetle had arrived in the Outerverse at the same time as Sword King, but it had always remained hidden in order to carry out an assassination at a critical moment.

Although Xu Qing regretted that he would not be able to obtain Lu Yin's inheritance of the God of Death, the astral beasts’ general had no choice but to use this trap to remove Lu Yin and clear a path for their grand plan.

The carrion beetle was ready to attack at any moment. With its speed and Envoy-level strength, there was no possibility of Lu Yin dodging, let alone when the octopus was suppressing all the star energy in the area. It was impossible for Lu Yin to escape.

Just as the carrion beetle was about to charge forward, the giant octopus completely disappeared.

The carrion beetle was startled. Where’s the octopus? It disappeared?

The carrion beetle had watched the octopus fall towards the gas planet, but it had never come back out. How could that have happened? It should have been impossible for Lu Yin to kill the octopus.

Just above Jupiter, Lu Yin let out a long breath. He had thrown the octopus into Jupiter, and once someone entered Jupiter, they could forget about ever leaving. Even with Lu Yin’s current strength, he did not dare to go into Jupitor, and that was even knowing that it could be a passage to the Perennial World.

Xu Qing had never imagined that such a place could exist so close to Earth. Lu Yin had never actually needed to defeat the giant octopus; he simply needed to use a trick to get rid of it.

The carrion beetle was stunned for a while, but no matter how long it waited, the giant octopus never reappeared.

Lu Yin glanced around. This was just too strange. It was impossible that the only astral beast waiting for him in this trap was the giant octopus, so where were the other astral beasts?

One individual was searching while the other was stunned.

A bit later, Lu Yin shook his head and decided to leave. He reappeared just above Earth. Just as he was about to enter the atmosphere, he felt danger. The carrion beetle slammed into Lu Yin’s back and smashed him down to the ground.

There was a boom as he smashed into a high-rise with the speed of a meteor. He shot through the building and pierced deep into the ground. The earth shattered from the impact, and ripples spread out across the city from the building that Lu Yin had struck.

He felt a terrible pain in his back. Lu Yin gritted his teeth as he picked himself up, only for a stone to slam into his head, which caused another bang.

He reached up and touched the back of his head, only to find that he was bleeding as blood dripped down onto his clothes.

Lu Yin looked up and jumped upwards. He shot out of the ground and scanned the sky. Only at this moment did he finally see rune lines that corresponded to an expert with a power level of almost 600,000. Was that a carrion beetle?

A jolt of fear ran through Lu Yin when he saw what he was up against. He was lucky that he had thrown the giant octopus into Jupiter earlier, as he would be in deep trouble if he had to face the two astral beasts at the same time.

Lu Yin’s bodysuit armor was broken, so he no longer had anything to protect his body with. Fortunately, the carrion beetle was not capable of unleashing overly powerful attacks; otherwise, the beetle would have pierced straight through Lu Yin’s body. Still, despite everything else, the unique abilities of the carrion beetle posed quite a threat to Lu Yin.

Carrion beetles were fast and could ignore their opponent’s physical defenses. This was essentially Lu Yin’s perfect counter.

Still, it was not a completely hopeless situation.

Lu Yin's pupils transformed into runes. As long as this bug was not overwhelmingly stronger than him, he could handle it.

Suddenly, Lu Yin turned his head to look elsewhere. In that direction, he saw a familiar cluster of runes, though it was also a terrifying number; it was the giant praying mantis.

Lu Yin's pupils shrank as he saw the two blades slash out. This was Xu Qing’s real trap for Lu Yin. Earth had clearly been a trap, and the mantis was Xu Qing’s guarantee.

The trap laid for Lu Yin at Earth had been too obvious, so Xu Qing had to overprepare.

The giant octopus had lured Lu Yin to Earth, the carrion beetle had sneak attacked him to draw out any hidden trump cards, and the mantis was the final, true killing blow.

The mantis was simply too fast, and Lu Yin could not dodge.

It was the exact same scenario as before, as Lu Yin was completely unable to evade the mantis’s attack. He saw the blades swing down, but then the attack mysteriously disappeared. Lu Yin was blown back by the shockwave, but he was completely unharmed.

The mantis’s ferocious gaze was once again painted with shock. It looked around and saw that another person was in the sky with them. An old man had appeared, and although there was nothing special to be seen, he had diverted the mantis’s attack a moment ago.

He had used the Yu Secret Art: Void Transfer. This old man was Elder Su. He was the old man who had led the Yu family from the Neoverse to the Outerverse while being pursued by one of the Seven Skygods, and he had managed to survive all that as well.

Lu Yin would never charge straight into a trap on his own, so he had first gone to find Elder Su and woken up the old man before traveling to Earth together.

Fortunately, the place where the Yu family lived in isolation was not far from Earth.

Lu Yin gasped for breath, still feeling a flicker of fear. Fortunately, Elder Su had not disappointed Lu Yin. Anyone who could escape from one of the Seven Skygods was truly powerful.

Actually, Lu Yin needed to thank First Edition City for reminding him of Elder Su.

When the Technocracy had worked together with the Sixth Mainland to attack the Outerverse, First Edition City had sent an Envoy-level android through the Astral Wilderness to Frostwave Weave, but Elder Su had driven the android off. First Edition City had always remembered this incident, and they had brought it up to Lu Yin while he had been in the Technocracy. Without that reminder, Lu Yin might not have thought of the old man.

Cough cough!

Elder Su looked terrible. "I can't give you much help. My injury from the Skygod back then is too difficult for me to recover from, so don’t expect too much."

Lu Yin pointed at the giant praying mantis. "Can you deal with that one, Senior?"

Elder Su looked at the giant praying mantis and answered, "I can try."

The giant praying mantis let out a piercing whistling sound as it charged towards Lu Yin. The astral beast was so fast that Lu Yin could not even react.

Elder Su was much better qualified to deal with the mantis than the Sea King. He did not even need to match the mantis’s speed, just stop its attacks.

The carrion beetle disappeared from sight. When it reappeared, it was already right in front of Lu Yin.

Lu Yin's expression grew serious. Already, he had been attacked by three different astral beasts with the strength of Envoys here. As long as no surprises appeared, they would have been more than enough to deal with Lu Yin. However, Lu Yin was going to take this opportunity to eliminate all three of these astral beasts.

If these three were dealt with, the pressure that Xu Qing's forces could exert on the Great Eastern Alliance would be much less.

Boom!

The carrion beetle violently slammed into Lu Yin's body, and Lu Yin was knocked back without being able to do anything. He had already known that he would not be able to stand up to the carrion beetle’s charge.

He was about to retaliate, only to realize that he could not find the carrion beetle.

He was then struck from the side. The carrion beetle was so fast that Lu Yin could not even track its movements. He was unable to use his Hollow Palm, as he simply could not find the bug.

Stars appeared and began to revolve around Lu Yin. There were tens of thousands of stars, and they spread across the entire city. The numerous inhabitants were all fleeing at this moment as they were terrified by the sudden appearance of the stars, and no one dared to touch any of them.

A shadow flickered in the corner of Lu Yin’s vision, and he reflexively lashed out with a Hollow Palm. The palm strike brushed past the carrion beetle, shattering space as it passed. Lu Yin was hit once again, but he still could not even catch a glimpse of the carrion beetle.

Lu Yin used everything he could, including both his domain and his spiritual force, but he was still unable to catch a trace of the carrion beetle.

Fortunately, the carrion beetle’s attacks were unable to do much to Lu Yin, so it looked as if they had entered a stalemate. Lu Yin was not certain that he could catch the carrion beetle if he used the God of Death Transformation, but he wanted to give it a try.

Suddenly, he heard Elder Su’s voice in his ear. “Child, I won’t be able to hold out any longer."

Lu Yin was startled, and he looked up into space, only to see that while the mantis was continuously charging towards Earth, it was stopped every single time by Elder Su employing various methods. “Senior, what did you just say?"

"Child, I already told you that I was badly wounded by Shaman God and that I had entered cryostasis in order to recover. This astral beast is incredibly fast and powerful, and it’s difficult for an old man like me to stop it," Elder Su explained in a helpless manner.

Lu Yin was suddenly under a great deal of pressure to hurry up. If Elder Su could not stop the mantis, then Lu Yin would die. "Senior, can you find some way to kill it?"

"That’s very difficult. At my peak, I could do so easily, but my wounds are too severe," Elder Su helplessly explained.

Lu Yin's eyes flashed. "What if you had a Progenitor’s item? Something that could force the mantis to instantly freeze."

Elder Su was taken aback. "You have a Progenitor’s item? We can certainly try then."

The next time the carrion beetle attacked, Lu Yin took advantage of the opportunity to pull out Progenitor Wushang’s hide from this cosmic ring, and he gave it to Elder Su with the Yu Secret Art. "Senior, don't look at it! It’s Progenitor Wushang’s hide."

Up in outer space, Elder Su made a casual gesture, and Progenitor Wushang’s hide appeared in his hand.

The moment the hide appeared, the carrion beetle became unable to move. It was as if it had sensed something dangerous.

The mantis’s eyes that had blazed with rage earlier were now showing fear and confusion at this moment. Both astral beasts were innately suppressed by the aura that they felt from Progenitor Wushang's hide.

Elder Su looked at the giant mantis and stepped through outer space. He kept Progenitor Wushang’s hide in his hand and aimed directly down at the giant mantis’s head. The beast stopped moving for a moment, and then it plummeted down to Earth and landed in mountains and rivers.

Elder Su was exhausted. "Child, that astral beast has been seriously injured, and Progenitor Wushang’s hide is covering it so that it cannot pose any threat to you. I’m leaving now. Don’t break the promise that you made me."

Elder Su then turned and left.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Lu Yin turned to look at the giant praying mantis lying on the ground. He could see that the creature’s runes were rapidly dwindling. It had been badly injured and was unable to move. Thus, Lu Yin just needed to finish up with the carrion beetle.

Wait, where was that bug?

The carrion beetle had stopped attacking ever since Lu Yin took out Progenitor Wushang's hide. Something was wrong.

Suddenly, something occurred to Lu Yin, and he rushed over to where the mantis had fallen.

The carrion beetle looked like a mere bug, but it was a creature that had cultivated for many, many years. It was far from being a mindless animal. Progenitor Wushang’s hide had defeated the mantis, but how could the carrion beetle not have seen what had happened? The two were working together, and the carrion beetle could not accomplish the mission on its own.

Lu Yin tore through the void and arrived in the mountains by the river. He looked down just in time to see a pair of blood-thirsty eyes staring up at him and Progenitor Wushang’s hide falling to the ground. The carrion beetle was already there.

Elder Su had left too quickly.

Not good! As soon as the thought appeared in his mind, Lu Yin was already being knocked back by a powerful impact. The carrion beetle had struck again. Right then, the mantis’s blades appeared above Lu Yin and fell down towards him.

The beast had been seriously injured by Elder Su, and its body had been pierced through, greatly diminishing its strength. However, the mantis was not much slower from before. The blades fell towards Lu Yin, and he instinctively pulled out the corpse from his cosmic ring. There was a bang, but the corpse was unharmed.

Forget when it was badly wounded—the mantis had not been able to leave a mark on the corpse even at its peak strength.

While the corpse was unharmed, Lu Yin was sent flying from the impact, and he landed on an island in the sea.

He spun around and rose to his feet. A black and white mist emanated from his body, and he was soon wrapped within a large cocoon.

The carrion beetle slammed into the cocoon and knocked it into the sea.

Back in Jinling, Zhou Shan had no idea what was happening with Lu Yin. Astral beasts had attacked Earth, and the planet was facing another apocalypse. In outer space, all the observational equipment and satellites had been destroyed, so Zhou Shan had no idea where Lu Yin was even fighting.

Billions of people all around the planet were panicking.

Down at the bottom of the sea, Lu Yin had completed the God of Death Transformation. Black and white mist twined around his body as he leaped out of the sea and rose to the surface. The endless fear that rose from the astral beasts’ souls in the presence of the death energy only lasted for a moment, which was not enough to change the situation of the battle. The mantis’s blades fell in front of Lu Yin yet again, but this time, Lu Yin raised his left arm. A shield formed from the white mist, and it blocked the blades. There was a bang as Lu Yin was pushed back.

However, he had just blocked the mantis’s attack.