Chapter 916: Lu Yin’s Hidden Influence

Black Mask revealed a cold sneer. “The so-called ‘Hall of Honor’ is nothing more than a more powerful organization. Do not take them as the saviors of mankind. These guardians of the Human Domain are no different than how the Wei family protects Armament Weave. They are not honorable at all. Lu Yin is a member of the Hall of Honor, so they will naturally help him while neglecting the insignificant people.”

Starfox nodded his head. “I understand. So, what should we do now? Are we going to move?”

Black Mask looked at the hit list and saw that there were some powerful Hunters on the list who could prove to be slightly troublesome. “Attack.”

***

The sky had grown dark, and Lu Yin was standing in a courtyard within King Zishan’s palace with his hands behind his back as he looked down at the brightly lit city. Zenyu Star had become the busiest planet in the entire Outerverse. Countless people arrived here each day, and it had become more or less the Great Eastern Alliance’s center of power. This fact, coupled with the Lu's Grand Auction and the presence of the Mavis Bank and other merchants, meant that this planet was the economic hub of the Great Eastern Alliance.

This was the most crucial aspect for the eastern region. Only the Zenyu Star’s Mavis Bank branch had deep reserves of star essence that could be withdrawn, and this was all to facilitate more convenient bidding for items in Lu's Grand Auction.

Lu Yin spread out his domain, observing everything that was happening in the dark of night. At the same time, he was also able to overhear many secrets. Despite all of that, these secrets were worthless to Lu Yin as they were nothing more than the gossip of the common people.

Just below King Zishan's palace, a certain pub had been renovated.

Ever since King Zishan's palace had reopened, the property value of that tavern’s location had spiked. Many people wanted to buy it out, but the owner was smart enough to refuse to sell it. Owning and running a pub that was right below King Zishan's palace was enough to show that the man had a certain level of influence. His refusal to sell even after all this time had led to the tavern’s value increasing by more than a thousandfold. When the day came that the owner finally decided to sell, he would be able to live off those profits for multiple lifetimes.

Despite that, the owner still had not sold the pub. Rather, he was instead renovating it.

Groups of people entered the bar in high hopes, but they always left disappointed.

For some reason, the windows and the door of the pub were always left wide open, and at this time, lively music could be heard outside. The lively music drew in crowds of people who had gathered outside the pub and were partying hard out on the street.

Imperial guards were about to chase those people away, but they were stopped by Lu Yin. He felt that the music currently being played was well suited to his current mood. That lively music paired well with a night of death and a good glass of red wine.

***

In Suna Weave, Ah Mu sat in a spacecraft, staring up at the sky.

On another spacecraft, a high-ranking officer at the Cruiser realm had just finished inspecting his troops and was about to return to rest. But in the shadows of a corner, a cold killing intent burst out that made the officer’s eyes grow round. A bloody line was drawn on his neck as blood spurted across half the room. He then slowly crumpled to the ground, twitching.

***

Inside a stylish hotel, there were a few hundred people celebrating the promotion of a man who had just become a general in the central weaves’ Central Coalition. This promotion marked the beginning of the man’s meteoric rise.

The man had an aloof, arrogant smile on his face as he walked up to the stage. He raised his arms to calm the raucous cheers and show off his new status. “I am honored to represent the central weaves’ Central Coalition’s Fifth-”

But before he could finish speaking, the man’s skull exploded, and blood sprayed across the stage. It even splashed onto many audience members who were sitting in the front row, causing them to scream in alarm. Everyone present was stunned by this turn of events, and they did not know what to think.

***

In a hidden room, a woman opened her eyes, revealing a cold glare. She raised her head, as it was time for her to give a report. The Great Eastern Alliance? Lu Yin? She was confident that she could take care of everything in one sweep. As soon as the central weaves’ Central Coalition finished gathering, it would be time to utterly destroy the Great Eastern Alliance.

The woman stood up and took a single step forward. But then, she discovered that the bottom of her feet was covered with blood, and blood had also covered the room’s entire floor. She blankly stared down and turned around, but half her body was sliced off. In the darkness, her pair of ruthless eyes closed forever.

***

An elderly man was seated on a strange wooden plank that was flying through space. There were a dozen young people on the wooden plank, and they were all disciples of the elderly man. At this time, the old man was leading the youths to the central weaves’ Central Coalition to participate as a form of training. The elderly man himself was a peak Hunter who had been invited by the central weaves. He was well known in the central region of the Outerverse, and he was only a few steps from becoming an Enlighter, marking him as a truly powerful expert.

The disciples behind the elderly man were all very excited. The fact that they had been chosen to join their master showed that they were all favored by him and that they would soon be joining the allied troops. Although they were all a bit nervous, they were mostly eager, as they expected their master to break through to the Enlighter realm during the war with the Great Eastern Alliance. The moment that happened, they would also experience instant glory.

Naturally, there were some disciples among them who were worried. The forces that they were about to face were no ordinary foes, as they were led by the powerful Lu Yin. He was a legend who possessed peerless abilities, and there were countless rumors floating around about his strength. If even half of them were true, it was enough to send cold shivers down people’s spines.

“What are you worried about? It’s just Lu Yin. They say that he only managed to unite the weaves in the eastern region due to the Hall of Honor’s support. Besides, he only managed to kill an Enlighter by using powerful external items. He’s nothing to be scared of.”

“Now that half of the Outerverse has allied together, even the Hall of Honor would have to bow to our combined might! A mere Lu Yin can only cower in fear at our strength! Hahaha.”

“When you become an Enlighter, master, we can definitely force Lu Yin to kneel down when we see him.”

…

In front of his disciples, the old man had a calm expression on his face. He was quite content with what he had overheard from his disciples behind him. Lu Yin had an impressive reputation and was known as Enlighters’ Bane whereas the old man was not even an Enlighter yet. Did that not imply that he did not even qualify to be targeted by Lu Yin? The old man had long since felt that Lu Yin was a thorn in his side. One of the reasons why the man had agreed to join the central weaves’ Central Coalition was because he wanted to tell the younger generation to not have any delusions or act rashly. He was going to teach Lu Yin a lesson in respect.

All of a sudden, an indescribable sense of danger swept over the old man and caused his expression to change. His blood went cold, as this sensation of danger was more terrifying than anything he had ever experienced before. It was as though the sky had collapsed and the earth had broken apart. The old man tried to escape, but it was already too late. Black Mask emerged from the void and then disappeared in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, the old man had already been eliminated.

The disciples on the back of the wooden plank were stunned by what had just happened. They could not even understand what had just transpired.

***

This same scene repeated itself at various places throughout the central region. That night, there was a death every minute amongst the Central Coalition’s higher ups. Desperation became widespread, and fear intensified every minute as chills crawled down the spines of every member of the central weaves’ Central Coalition.

Beneath King Zishan's palace, the lively music continued on well past midnight. Lu Yin rhythmically snapped his fingers to the beat, feeling as though he was conducting an overture of death.

The following day, the number of assassinations that had occurred among the Central Coalition’s ranks sent shockwaves throughout the Outerverse. In just one night, more than three hundred high-ranking officers had been killed. They had all died without the assassin drawing any attention to themselves, and this led to a wave of panic in the central regions.

Many people pinned accusations onto the Great Eastern Alliance, and they looked at Zenyu Star. At this time, Lu Yin was the leading suspect among those capable of orchestrating such a thing.

The members of the central region’s Central Coalition all grew frightened. While there were certainly far more than just three hundred high-ranking officers in the Central Coalitions, the other officers immediately went into hiding and did not dare show their faces. Even the lower ranking officers were panicking.

They had wrongly assumed that gathering so many experts and forming a large military force would strike fear into the hearts of the Great Eastern Alliance. They had thought that their sheer numbers would be enough to withstand or even overcome the Great Eastern Alliance, but after these numerous assassinations, their thinking changed as they realized the sheer influence their opponent wielded.

Ah Mu released a sigh as he checked the news. Countless news outlets from the central regions expressed their resentment towards the assassinations and condemned some people as mass murderers. While they did not dare to go into any sort of specifics, everyone knew that they were referring to Lu Yin.

If Lu Yin was called a murderer, then that would make Ah Mu the executioner. He had been the one who had shared the locations of those high-ranking officers with Lu Yin; if not for Ah Mu’s actions, these deaths would not have occurred.

Just like everyone else, Ah Mu was quite fearful of Lu Yin.

If a war broke out, then the number of casualties would far surpass a mere three hundred deaths. Even a death toll of 300,000 or 3,000,000 would not be surprising during a war of that scale. The main reason for the uproar this time was that only high-ranking officers had died, and these people had not been just anyone.

The fact that Lu Yin had killed so many high-ranking officers at once was also a demonstration of just how powerful he was.

Even though most of the assassins had come from Aegis, that was terrifying in and of itself. Why was Lu Yin able to mobilize such a large number of Aegis’ assassins?

War always brought desperation and pain with it whereas assassinations delivered fear and panic. Since the central weaves’ Central Coalition was still in their infancy, the last thing that the people in charge wanted was for the troops to panic. However, that was exactly what Lu Yin had inflicted upon the heart of the military.

Starfox was put into a difficult position, as many powers who were members of Aegis’ second level management were trying to contact him and ask if he had been the one who had ordered the hits. Starfox did not know how to respond, so he simply pretended not to notice the calls at all.

On Zenyu Star, at King Zishan's palace, Wei Rong requested an audience.

After Wei Rong joined the Great Yu Empire and came to Zenyu Star, the first thing that he had done was free Wei Baichuan and some other family members and lead the remaining members of the Wei family back to their ancestral planet. Even though he had been very busy during this time, he had naturally not neglected to keep up with the Outerverse’s news.

After hearing about Lu Yin’s recent action of assassinating more than three hundred high-ranking officers, Wei Rong felt that he needed to look for Lu Yin and have a chat with him. Wei Rong wanted to find out just how much power Lu Yin actually held.

After waiting for a while in front of King Zishan's palace, Zhao Ran brought out some floral tea to serve Wei Rong. The tea was thick and had a green color that gave it a strange appearance. It was the same tea that Lu Yin had sampled before.

Wei Rong was not bothered about the color, but the thickness of the tea combined with the vibrant green color was just too jarring. He could not help but look at his glass before looking back at Zhao Ran. He started overanalyzing the situation; could Lu Yin possibly be trying to poison him with this tea, or was it a show of strength? However, there was no need for any such tests, as Wei Rong had already pledged his complete loyalty. However, the question still lingered—just what was with this thick green color in his glass?

Also, what was this servant’s longing expression all about?

Wei Rong was confused, and despite his intelligence, he really could not understand what Lu Yin was trying to do with this.

Then, Lu Yin arrived, and Zhao Ran immediately served him a cup of the aromatic tea.

Wei Rong stared blankly, and he assumed that Lu Yin was either playing a joke or showing his strength. However, the servant had just served Lu Yin the exact same tea, so could it really be just a simple drink? Could this thing actually be ingested? Or could it be that Lu Yin was immune to this poison?

When Lu Yin noticed Wei Rong’s confused expression, he knew what Wei Rong was thinking about. Lu Yin immediately picked up his glass of tea and took a sip. “Just try it. This was specially brewed by Zhao Ran, and it tastes great.”

Wei Rong swallowed a bit of saliva before taking another look over at Zhao Ran. When he saw her eyes which were full of anticipation, he was left with no choice but to brace himself and drink the tea. Once he sipped a bit, his eyes lit up. The tea was amazing!

Zhao Ran was smiling as she left, full of happiness.

Lu Yin set his own glass of tea down. “Have the arrangements for your family already been made?”

Wei Rong hurriedly set his glass down as well. Since he had pledged his loyalty to Lu Yin, he felt that he should show some degree of deference. He was very smart and would not do anything that would make him look foolish. “I have already made those arrangements. Thank you for your generosity, Your Highness.”

“I hope that your father does not blame me for my actions,” Lu Yin replied with a smile.

Wei Rong hurriedly replied, “Your Highness, you were not the one who destroyed the Wei family, and you have also never mistreated my relatives. You also did not forbid Xin’er from visiting my father either. With such kindness, why would the Wei family have anything to complain about? We are truly grateful to you!”

Lu Yin smiled, as he was quite pleased with Wei Rong’s attitude. It was always a pleasure to talk to smart people, as there was no need for any prompting; they always knew how to behave.