Chapter 2018

Lu Yin looked at Arch-Elder Zen. "Senior, you think too highly of them. The stupidity of the four ruling powers is beyond anything that you can imagine. If they weren't so stupid, they wouldn't have dug their own graves by starting a civil war between humans. It’s all thanks to them that Aeternus is having such an easy time right now. Honestly, I expect a good number of them to be Redbacks."

"You Lu bastard, you’re going too far!" Wang Si said threateningly.

Ni Huang spoke up. "Why did you pretend to be from the White Dragon Clan?"

This was the first time that Great Elder Ni Huang had seen Lu Yin after learning of his true identity. When Lu Yin's identity had been revealed in the Perennial World, fighting had instantly broken out, and he had never had any chance to speak to Lu Yin.

Lu Yin met Elder Ni Huang’s gaze without any hesitation. "It was simply a coincidence."

Grand Elder Ni Huang’s voice held a trace of sadness as he continued, "I had honestly hoped that you were one of my clansmen. Unfortunately, you have let me down. You used and deceived the White Dragon Clan."

Lu Yin remained unfazed. "If the White Dragon Clan hadn't borrowed the White Dragon Rolls Over, my Lu family would have never been exiled. No matter what, you and I are already enemies."

"Well spoken." Ni Huang’s expression grew cold. "You and I have always been enemies. Even if the Forsaken Land manages to survive this disaster, that will not change."

"That’s just common sense," Lu Yin scoffed.

Ni Huang clenched a fist. There were very few who dared to speak to him in such a tone. Even other Semi-Progenitors would not be so audacious.

Bai Laogui’s eyes were icy. "Little bastard, you killed my Celestial Frost Sect’s Junior Progenitor and antagonized my entire Celestial Frost Sect. This isn’t a debt that will be easily settled!”

Lu Yin shot the man a quick glare. "There’s no need to worry about that, as I’ll eventually completely annihilate your Celestial Frost Sect. I’ll wait for the remnants of your Celestial Frost Sect to come and try to settle debts with me.”

Bai Laogui was left furious.

Xia De sighed to himself as he watched the two sides argue. These Semi-Progenitors were skilled at battle, but they were no match for this youth in a verbal spar. This was not even mentioning that Kui Luo, arguably the person with the most vicious tongue in the entire universe, was standing right next to the kid.

"Lu Xiaoxuan, you should already know that the New Corridor has been destroyed." Xia De finally spoke up to interrupt the bickering.

Lu Yin honestly answered, "That’s right."

"This puts us in the same boat now. Only by working together will we stand any sort of fighting chance against Aeternus. How about letting our forces go? They will be of great help to us all," Xia De suggested.

Ni Huang and the others carefully observed Lu Yin’s reaction.

Lu Yin nodded. “That’s reasonable. Alright, I promise to release them."

Xia De was unsure what expression to make. Was it really that easy?

Even Arch-Elder Zen was stunned. The more he came to understand Lu Yin’s personality, the more clearly Arch-Elder Zen understood that, while Lu Yin truly did have humanity’s best interests at heart, the kid would never forget to make sure to maximize his personal gains.

The most likely reason why he had established the Tower of the Fifth and had Aurora Fortress start manufacturing those new universal armors with microarray technology was in preparation for the Perennial World’s invasion. While Arch-Elder Zen had no idea just how Lu Yin had been able to learn about the army’s movements in advance, he was a hundred percent certain that whenever Lu Yin made a move, he would never take any losses.

Agreeing to release the Perennial World’s army so easily was completely unlike Lu Yin.

"I don’t have an issue with that, but they will only be released on the battlefield," Lu Yin clarified.

Ni Huang’s brow furrowed. "What do you mean by that?"

Lu Yin proceeded to explain, "If I let them out right now, who knows if you’ll run off and hide or find some way to escape back to the Perennial World? Didn’t you say that you wanted to work together to fight against Aeternus? That’s no problem. I’ll release your people on the battlefield with Aeternus, and then everyone can fight together."

"Screw you!" Xia De swore, unable to help himself. "Throwing them onto a battlefield is no different from just killing them! You’re despicable!"

Lu Yin remained indifferent as he responded, "I hadn’t intended to do that, but since you just reminded me that there’s still that option, I guess I can just do that."

"You insolent brat!" Wang Si screamed.

Ni Huang looked at Arch-Elder Zen, suddenly appearing rather aggressive. "Is this what you meant when you said that we needed to let go of our hatred and face this catastrophe together? Lu Xiaoxuan is clearly prioritizing personal revenge."

Arch-Elder Zen was feeling rather helpless. If Lu Yin actually intended to do as he was threatening, he would have just done so from the beginning, or at least kept such thoughts to himself. The fact that he had verbalized matters placed Arch-Elder Zen in a tricky position.

Before Arch-Elder Zen could even try to placate the people from the Perennial World, Lu Yin interrupted them. "You don't need to worry about that. I'm not evil enough to toss people into the middle of a fight. After all, that would mean that I’d need to be there too. I don’t plan to throw my own life away."

Ni Huang's expression improved slightly after hearing Lu Yin’s words.

"However…" Lu Yin smirked. "I might end up facing a bit of danger myself before I’m able to release them all, so I can’t just let them out whenever. I need to find the right opportunity, and to do that, I need a bit of capital to protect myself. Do you understand?"

Ni Huang was left completely confused. What was this kid talking about?

Arch-Elder Zen finally understood Lu Yin’s earlier actions. Sure enough, the kid never forgot to find a way to profit from every situation.

Xia De was also puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Lu Yin looked upset. "Did you all become idiots after cultivating for so long? I guess that your brains must have rotted from age."

Bai Laogui spoke up in a cold tone. "Just tell us what you want. However, don't get your hopes up. We only intended to invade the Forsaken Land, not cultivate here. None of us brought anything valuable."

"If you want a battle technique, you can just forget about it," Wang Si added.

It was only then that Ni Huang and Xia De finally understood what was happening. This method of bargaining felt very familiar, as it was the same manner in which the Lu family handled all matters. They all looked at Lu Yin with odd expressions.

Lu Yin’s chin rose up. "I don't give a damn about your battle techniques. Just give me your star essence."

Any Semi-Progenitor from the Sixth Mainland or anyone who had a passing understanding of Lu Yin would have been surprised to hear such a condition. Star essence was practically useless to an Envoy.

However, everyone from the Perennial World acted as though such a thing was only to be expected. They all understood the Lu family very well.

Any direct descendant of the Lu family needed dozens or even hundreds of times more star energy than ordinary cultivators. On top of that, they also used star energy to summon champions from their Champions' Stage. Lu Yin had already become an Envoy, which meant that he cultivated with stellular energy, but he still used star energy to summon his champions that were beneath the Envoy realm.

The Lu family's cultivation and innate gift consumed a ridiculous amount of resources.

"I can give you star essence, but you need to release all of those people right now. Otherwise, they will be at a disadvantage if they get released in the middle of a fight," Ni Huang countered.

Lu Yin hesitated.

Bai Laogui stepped in. "The Forsaken Land's true universe is already almost empty. This won’t only affect stellular energy, but also star energy. Right now, this is the only region that is relatively stable. Those people can only adequately prepare themselves if you let them out now."

Arch-Elder Zen also agreed. "Exactly, and that is precisely why we are here right now. Soon, more Semi-Progenitors and Envoys will gather here as well, and when that happens, we will prepare to launch a counterattack to drive Aeternus out and reseal the barrier in the Starfall Sea as quickly as possible. All of our forces need to be given sufficient time to prepare."

Lu Yin sighed. "Fine, I agree."

Xia De immediately offered, "I have 600 million star essence on me. You can have all of it."

Lu Yin suddenly looked rather skeptical. "That’s it?"

Xia De was taken aback. "Isn’t that enough? I'm a Semi-Progenitor, so star essence is useless to me. I only have this much on me in case I needed to buy something or give some to my descendants."

He suddenly seemed to realize something, and he looked at Lu Yin in a more serious manner. "If even 600 million star essence isn’t enough for you, then apparently you’ve reaped quite the profit from this Forsaken Land."

Arch-Elder Zen glanced at Lu Yin. No one had ever been able to figure out just how much money Lu Yin had managed to gather. All that anyone knew was that it was an exorbitant sum.

Not even Lu Yin himself had ever added up everything that he had ever earned. Even if he just added up his most recent gains, he had still acquired more than 200 billion star essence. Unfortunately, most of that had already been used up, so he only had around 70 billion star essence left in his cosmic ring.

Although it was not very much, it was still better than nothing, so Lu Yin accepted Xia De’s star essence before pointedly looking at the other three Semi-Progenitors, indicating that it was their turn.

Ni Huang turned over 900 million while Bai Laogui gave him 800 million star essence. Finally, Lu Yin turned to Wang Si.

The woman gave him a look of pure disgust and rage as she begrudgingly handed over 300 million star essence. She was barely able to restrain herself from attacking during the exchange.

Lu Yin managed to pocket a neat 2.6 billion star essence from four Semi-Progenitors. Not too shabby.

"Despite your poverty, I’ll still follow through on my end of the deal," Lu Yin said reluctantly. Zenith Mountain appeared, and countless people started falling out one after another, and all of them landed on a nearby planet.

Everyone who appeared stared blankly at their new surroundings.

Seeing the dazed expressions, Wang Si vented her frustrations on the army. "What are you looking around for? Start recovering your strength now!"

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Still inside Zenith Mountain, Wang Dashuai watched as everyone around him disappeared one by one, even the Envoys. He eagerly awaited his own turn.

However, the fatty’s turn never arrived. He, Yu Chen, Liu Shaoge, Wang Su, Xia Taili, and the other more important people all remained even after Zenith Mountain was put back away.

"Where are Wang Su and Wang Yi ?" Wang Si demanded fiercely.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Xia De then quickly scanned the area as well. "Xia Taili also isn’t here."

Lu Yin replied matter-of-factly, "I’m keeping them in order to prevent you from playing any tricks."

"Lu Xiaoxuan, how dare you lie to me!" Wang Si was incensed.

Lu Yin somberly responded, "As long as I survive this disaster, I’ll let them go. Sorry, but there’s no way I’ll release any of them before that. I can’t trust any of you to follow through on what you’ve said, especially you, you despicable old hag."

Wang Si gritted her teeth while barely keeping herself from killing Lu Yin right then and there.

"It’s ready," Highsage Grandmaster called out from the distance.

Lu Yin and everyone else looked over to be greeted by the sight of an enormous sourcebox array that had been set up in the middle of outer space.

"This sourcebox array is unique to Eversky Island. It was created by Highsage Grandmaster, and it is able to pull in stellular energy for a certain bit of time. This sourcebox array even hides this transfer from the true universe,” Arch-Elder Zen explained. He then turned to look at Lu Yin. “Call all of your Envoys over right now to have them recover their stellular energy with this sourcebox array. We’ll begin our counterattack as soon as possible."

Lu Yin nodded and then had Liu Ye, Fei Hua, and all the others enter the sourcebox array.

One by one, the Envoys from the Perennial World’s army also proceeded to enter the sourcebox array.

Lu Yin then called Liu Qianjue and all the other major powers of the Innerverse, informing them to dispatch their elite Envoys here to use the sourcebox array to restore their stellular energy while everyone else prepared for war.

Arch-Elder Zen released an announcement to all of the Fifth Mainland’s major forces, including the Sixth Mainland that remained in the Outerverse. Everyone was told to send their elites to the Innerverse’s western flowzones where they were to wait for the counterattack to start.

At this moment, the most pressing issue was to determine the limits of the attacks that the mental network would allow, which was closely followed by ensuring that all the human Envoys regained their full strength.

At the border of the Starfall Sea, Aeternus’s corpse kings continued grinding away against the mechanical ants.

One day passed. Then two, then three…

After a full ten days passed, the mechanical ants were utterly wiped out. However, the corpse kings did not move out to attack a larger region. Instead, they remained concentrated at the border of the Starfall Sea.

At the same time, all of the Fifth Mainland’s Semi-Progenitors gathered in Blazing Mist Flowzone, along with any Envoys that they brought with them. Dozens of Envoy gathered within the sourcebox array, which made for an impressive sight.