Chapter 853: Military Contributions

Yuan Shi could only hope that the Outerverse was not overly desirable to the Sixth Mainland and that their stronger powerhouses would not be motivated to make any moves.

The end of the battle also signified the start of tallying up the defenders’ military contributions.

Endless Weave’s border had its own system, but it was also connected to Ironblood Weave’s system.

When the Outerverse had first been separated from the Innerverse, certain regions of the Outerverse had also been isolated from the rest of the Outerverse, which hindered data transmission lines. One of the outcomes was that Ironblood Weave’s military contribution system had been severed from Endless Weave’s system, and the two still had not been reconnected.

The current system of Endless Weave was entirely independent.

The one with the most military contributions was naturally Yuan Shi, followed by the Envoy realm powerhouses like the Arrow Mountain Elder. Unfortunately, the Arrow Mountain Elder and the Dark Phoenix family’s Yen Phoenix had both died. Thus, their contributions had been shifted to their descendants, which were the Neo-Vestige Sect and the Dark Phoenix family. These descendants had received the contribution points in place of their fallen elders, and they could use the points to receive rewards from the Hall of Honor.

Too many experts had died during the defense of this invasion attempt, and aside from the dead, Yuehua Mavis was actually ranked second, only behind Yuan Shi in terms of military contributions. She had withstood the enemy’s Imprinters from the start of the invasion, defended the Ironblood Lavazone, and then even taken the initiative to defend against Ancestor Autumnfrost’s attack, which should have led to her certain death. Aside from the Arrow Mountain Elder and Yen Phoenix, nobody else could compete with Yuehua Mavi’s achievements.

After Yuehua Mavis came Astral-9's headmaster. Although he had only joined the fight at the end, he had used Astral-9 to defend against Ancestor Autumnfrost’s finger and saved the entire Endless Lavazone. His contributions from that lone action already surpassed the great majority of others at the border.

After Astral-9's Headmaster was Elder Daggs, who was the overall commander of the border warfront. Although he had not done much during the battles, he had commanded the defenders well. That, combined with his many years of accumulated accomplishments at the border, was enough to propel him to fourth in the border’s contribution point rankings.

After Elder Daggs came Commander Zhang, who was the Commander of the Ironblood Lavazone. His personal strength could not compare to that of Yu Mu and the like, but his many years of defending the border allowed him to be ranked fifth.

In fact, many cultivators who had been protecting the border warfront for a while had accumulated numerous military contributions due to their efforts. Of course, that was assuming that they had survived through the harrowing battles. Of course, many of those cultivators did not have a high cultivation to begin with, so even if they spent a long time fighting at the border warfront, they would not accumulate as many contribution points as an Enlighter would in one battle.

Ranked sixth was Qiong Shanhai, who was the face of Millions City. The mobile fortress had been extremely useful during these past few battles; if Millions City hadn’t held back the Sixth Mainland’s experts, then the Greatwood Lavazone would have collapsed long before the end of the invasion.

Seventh was Yu Mu, who was one of the super powerhouses in the first batch of reinforcements that had survived to the end. Thus, it was reasonable that he was ranked this highly.

Eighth was Zax Phoenix, who was the Dark Phoenix Lavazone commander. He also had many years of accumulated achievements from defending the Lavazone, and they were enough for him to be ranked highly as well.

Of the six Lavazones’ commanders, three had survived. Elder Daggs was the overall commander, and he had lasted till the end, and the only other surviving commanders were Zax Phoenix and Commander Zhang.

The person ranked ninth, shockingly, was actually Lu Yin.

From the beginning to the end of Endless Weave’s defense, Lu Yin’s personal power had not had much effect on the battlefield. At best, he had been able to fight against Enlighters or rescue various troops in the middle of the battlefield while dealing with arrogant youths from the Sixth Mainland like Butcher. He had also killed Enlighters, but how could just those accomplishments compare to the contributions of those powerhouses with power levels in the several hundred thousands? His main contributions were his suggestion of a counterattack, crossing the lavazones to transport the dark lava, and also lending his blood-red bell. As for the poisons that he had provided, they had been bought from Lu Yin by Elder Daggs, and so, they were not considered as military contributions.

Without mentioning anything else, the contribution points that Lu Yin had earned just by lending Yuan Shi the blood-red bell were enough to raise Lu Yin’s ranking even higher. However, Yuan Shi had called for Lu Yin, meaning that his reward for that would be directly granted to him by Yuan Shi. Thus, Lu Yin’s contribution points had been reduced a great deal. Even so, he was still ranked ninth.

Actually, part of this was Elder Daggs showing special care for Lu Yin. Otherwise, with Lu Yin receiving his rewards directly from Yuan Shi, his military contributions from lending the blood-red bell should be fully cancelled out, and Lu Yin’s remaining achievements were not enough to account for so many points.

No matter what, when Lu Yin saw that his contribution points were ranked ninth, he was thrilled.

His ninth place came with 120,000 points, and Lu Yin decided to exchange all of his points for materials, especially the more uncommon ones, so that he could manufacture a better universal armor and stronger weapons that could then be upgraded further with his die. His goal was to obtain a set of equipment that could threaten old monsters with power levels in the several hundred thousands. He did not want to remain as a mere spectator in battles of this level in the future.

The bloodiness of this border defense had been even worse than that of the war in Ironblood Weave, as it had reached a completely different scale. This had also caused the contribution point distribution curve to be steeper, as normal cultivators found it difficult to earn nearly any contribution points in Endless Weave. Even Lu Yin had earned more contribution points back in Ironblood Weave. The reason was because he had not been of much use, and if not for him lending the blood-red bell, there was no way he would have gained 120,000 points.

Those like Yu Mu had an even more exaggerated number of contribution points, which greatly surpassed that of the defenders of Ironblood Weave. The battlefield had been very polarizing; the strong had exaggerated contributions while the weak found it hard to contribute anything at all.

Ranked tenth was Mr. Tradeo, who was the Enlighter that Amethyst Exchange supported and relied upon. He had arrived to reinforce the border much earlier than most, and he had also survived till the end.

These people were the top ten in the military contribution point rankings. Those like Astral-9’s Starmaster, the old woman who had been called out by the Nalan family, the old assassins from Aegis, as well as the various sect leaders had all arrived late, had not contributed much to the overall battle.

Wei Rong’s rank was also worth mentioning, as he was ranked thirtieth. This was despite the fact that, the moment he had arrived on the battlefield, he had essentially spent all of this time hiding. His so-called contributions were all from his suggestion to counterattack, and Qiong Xi’er had also shared in those contributions. Thus, she was ranked thirty first, which was also due to the proposal that they had raised.

Nobody bothered mentioning Zhu San, and he could not even find what his own ranking was despite searching for a long time. There were simply too many cultivators at the border, and under normal circumstances, a Limiteer would never make it onto the rankings. Even space-exploring powerhouses might only barely squeeze onto the list.

Even Zi Rong and Wendy Yushan’s contributions were ranked outside of the top fifty. This showed just how much the Hall of Honor valued Wei Rong and Qiong Xi'er’s proposal.

Their proposal was precisely what had accelerated the actions taken on the battlefield, and that had also been taken into account when tallying up their contributions. And that wasn’t even mentioning how there was an element of encouragement, of course.

As he observed the rankings, Lu Yin focused on one person, Goldric Phoenix, who was ranked twenty third. This person was a Cruiser.

The top thirty were almost all Hunters, and almost half of them were almighty experts with power levels above 200,000. For a Cruiser to be ranked this highly was actually very amazing.

“Goldric Phoenix? You care about him that much?” Wei Rong’s voice rang out from behind Lu Yin as he looked at what Lu Yin was reading with interest.

Lu Yin had already noticed his rival, and he merely replied, “I’m just curious.”

Wei Rong smiled. “He’s an absolute genius who emerged from the Dark Phoenix family in recent years, and he turned thirty two this year. Nobody knew about him when he was thirty, and he was just like any other average disciple from the Dark Phoenix family. However, after reaching thirty years of age, he awakened his innate gift and became the number one expert in the Dark Phoenix family’s younger generation. Previously, I interacted with Zax Phoenix in the Dark Phoenix Lavazone, and he told me that this person is a genius of the Dark Phoenix family, the likes of which doesn’t appear every few thousand years. He’s even able to challenge the Undying Bird of the Ten Arbiters.”

Lu Yin was surprised. “He can challenge the Ten Arbiters? Him?”

Wei Rong nodded. “I saw this person off in the distance while I was in the Dark Phoenix Lavazone, and I have to say that he’s quite intimidating. His contributions weren’t just accumulated through his time at the border, as he also killed two Enlighters.”

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed, as it was absolutely terrifying for a Cruiser to be able to cross realms and kill Enlighters.

It was no wonder why this Goldric Phoenix had been appraised as an existence who could challenge the Ten Arbiters.

“It’s a pity, as if he had relied on his own abilities as a Realmbreaker to kill Enlighters, then Brother Lu would actually have to be worried.” Wei Rong sighed.

Lu Yin was curious about this comment. “He also relies on external aids?”

Wei Rong nodded. “He’s actually rather similar to you—he uses defensive items.”

“That’s still very powerful, as Enlighters are anything but weak. Just being able to survive against an Enlighter doesn’t mean that you can kill an Enlighter,” Lu Yin said.

“Is Brother Lu praising yourself?” Wei Rong smiled.

Lu Yin did not deny anything. “You could say that.”

He then looked at Wei Rong. “I’m very curious, what are Brother Wei’s thoughts at this time?”

Wei Rong’s eyes flashed. What does Brother Lu mean?”

Lu Yin looked around. “In the entire Outerverse, everyone who should have appeared has emerged, so did anyone exceed Brother Wei’s expectations? Or is there someone who Brother Wei doesn’t dare to scheme against?”

Wei Rong exchanged glances with Lu Yin, and then burst out in laughter. “Brother Lu must be joking! I’m just a tiny Explorer, and one whose clan was nearly exterminated. How could I dare to plot against those great characters? Brother Lu, on the other hand, is like an expanse of deep water that has finally become clear. Brother Lu should have some thoughts as well.”

Lu Yin smiled, but he did not respond. Instead, he sighed and said, “The Sixth Mainland is truly a powerful opponent.”

Wei Rong adjusted his expression. “What exactly is the Sixth Mainland’s origins? Does Brother Lu know?”

From the moment the Hall of Honor had issued the mandatory draft notice summoning the Outerverse’s various cultivators to fight at the border warfront up till now, aside from sharing the term “the Sixth Mainland” and describing the battle styles of the Sixth Mainland cultivators, such as their imprints, they had given no other explanation regarding the Sixth Mainland. Regardless of what questions people asked, there was only ever one standard response given, which was to fight as if the Sixth Mainland was their natural enemy.

In fact, everyone had numerous questions: where exactly was the Sixth Mainland? Why did they have so many powerhouses, and why did their average strength surpass the Outerverse’s? What kind of cultivation style were those imprints? And those bloodlines? Also, why did the invaders call the defenders “Fifth Mainland natives?” There were also some mentions about some ancient war, but why did the Sixth Mainland view the defenders with such hostility? All of these questions had been etched into the defenders’ hearts.

However, the Hall of Honor refused to provide them with any sort of explanations.

Wei Rong wanted to know all these answers, as he was the one who had ordered someone to instigate a border war between the Outerverse and the Technocracy in an attempt to stop the war in Armament Weave and save his Wei family.

His objectives had been met, but the results had far surpassed his expectations. He had actually drawn out some Sixth Mainland, and at the end, a terrifying powerhouse had taken action and moved their entire line of defense back. These were all completely unforeseen events.

Wei Rong desperately wanted to learn the truth, and he felt that Lu Yin was privy to this information. He was confident about this because, the moment the border war had been announced, Lu Yin’s response had been too strange, and he had shown no hesitation in letting go of the Wei family. It should be known that the Wei family had been just one step away from extermination; so long as Lu Yin had exerted even a tiny bit more force, or if he had simply personally taken action, then he could have destroyed the Wei family. But despite only being one step away from victory, Lu Yin had immediately given up on his goals.

When faced with Wei Rong’s questioning, Lu Yin merely shrugged. “Sorry, but I don't know either.”

Wei Rong left after hearing those words. He was still certain that Lu Yin knew something, but Wei Rong was left with no other choice since Lu Yin obviously did not want to talk about such things.

At this moment, all Wei Rong wanted to do was meet with the leaders of the Outerverse’s central weaves’ guiding powers and unite their weaves together in an effort to resist the Great Eastern Alliance’s advancement.