Chapter 950: Reimbursement

The battle in the space with the Nine Cauldrons quickly came to an end with White Silkworm beating Di Luo up quitte badly. Then, when they realized that Tong Zhan had disappeared, White Silkworm left to look for Tong Zhan.

When he found Tong Zhan and saw his miserable condition, White Silkworm coldly asked, “Who did this?”

In the distance, the cultivators from the Tong family were seething with anger.

“I don't know his name, but he should have been one of the Fifth Mainland’s Ten Arbiters. He wanted to know the location where the two Venerables would tear through the Astral River, but I didn’t tell him,” Tong Zhan said.

White Silkworm coldly replied, “It wouldn’t have mattered even if you had told him—the Outerverse cannot withstand our invasion forces. They only have one Yuan Shi, and resistance is meaningless.”

Tong Zhan coldly declared, “I must find him and get revenge.”

White Silkworm stretched out a hand, pressed it against Tong Zhan’s body, and then muttered, “There’s signs of the Overlaying Stacks Path being used. Although the person who attacked you didn’t actually use that technique, he wasn’t able to completely hide that he uses it, which means that he must be quite skilled at the Overlaying Stacks Path.”

Tong Zhan’s eyes went wide. “The Overlaying Stacks Path… Ten Arbiters… I know who that person was! Lan Si.”

“You were in the Starfall Sea, but you didn’t recognize Lan Si here?”

“He altered his appearance, probably because he was afraid of the Daosource Three Skies. It has to be him—aside from Arbiter Lan Si, no one else would have been able to defeat me so easily,” Tong Zhan said with hatred.

White Silkworm did not say anything else. Regardless of whether or not Tong Zhan’s attacker was actually Lan Si, they were still enemies. Thus, there was no meaning in making any sort of distinction.

In another place, Lu Yin found someone to lead him along, and he soon arrived outside of the Platform of Inception once again. This was the place that he found most attractive in the Daosource Sect's ruins, aside from the space that held the Nine Cauldrons.

He felt rather expectant; maybe he would bump into Xin Nü again!

Lu Yin rather enjoyed spending time with her. Although the girl did not speak much, Lu Yin felt very comfortable around her, though it was a different kind of comfort than what he felt around Ming Yan. Xin Nü’s sense of comfort came from the fact that she was genuinely concerned about him and was investing her time into him. It was quite strange, but that was essentially what he felt from her.

However, Xin Nü did not appear during this visit, and Lu Yin simply relied on his greatly improved strength to force his way through the white fog. Without any trouble, he arrived at the Platform of Inception.

Whenever he emerged from the white fog and reached the platform, he would feel worried that there would be other people on the Platform of Inception.

Those who could break through the white fog and use the Platform of Inception were all experts with the strength of a Realmling, and he would be in trouble if he bumped into anyone on that level.

Fortunately, his luck was pretty good this time.

Lu Yin took several deep breaths and cleared his mind of all distractions. He then began reciting the Stonewall Scriptures. He still had more than twenty days left in the Daosource Sect’s ruins, and there was no reason to waste time thinking about other things.

…

Lu Yin opened his eyes when he reappeared in the secure room within King Zishan's palace.

During this trip to the Platform of Inception, he had managed to absorb two more strands of grey fog, and he believed that his lockbreaking abilities had increased by quite a bit. However, he was still quite far from reaching the Boundless Advanced level.

Afterwards, he stepped out of the room, called Elder Daggs, and requested an audience with Yuan Shi.

Elder Daggs made a point of speaking with Lu Yin for a bit, sharing his hopes that Lu Yin would not start a war if possible, but the elder did not mention anything about suggesting that Lu Yin restrain himself. This gave Lu Yin even more confidence, and he knew that the Hall of Honor did not have any problem with him unifying the Outerverse, and that they might even support him in doing so.

“Elder, my request to speak with Yuan Shi has nothing to do with the unification of the Outerverse,” Lu Yin said.

Yuan Shi had a gadget, but he did not use it at all. What’s more, he was sometimes in locations where there were no signals at all. This was why Lu Yin could not directly contact the old man and had to go through Elder Daggs.

Elder Daggs nodded, and he immediately headed for Yuan Shi’s location. The elder was one of the few individuals who was aware that Lu Yin could enter the Daosource Sect's ruins, and he had realized that Lu Yin might have some vitally important information to share.

Soon, Yuan Shi’s image appeared on Lu Yin’s screen.

Lu Yin adjusted his expression and then informed Yuan Shi of what had happened in the space with the Nine Cauldrons.

Yuan Shi’s eyes grew sharp. “If two Cosmic Imprinters act with their full strength, then they may indeed be able to tear through the Astral River. As for the cosmic phenomenon’s suppression, the Astral River is not within its scope.”

“Are you saying that they can go straight into the Astral River?” Lu Yin was astonished.

Yuan Shi did not respond, as this was the only possibility.

After thinking about it, Lu Yin also realized that what the old powerhouse had said was accurate. The Astral River’s energy might have surged, but that did not mean that it could not be withstood. The tributaries that wove throughout the Innerverse had also experienced surges in their star energy, isolating the various flowzones. However, those tributaries had been torn apart, so there was no reason why the Astral River would be any different. With how powerful Cosmic Imprinters were, they would definitely be able to forge deep into the Astral River and then tear it apart.

“Do you know the exact location?” Yuan Shi asked.

Lu Yin shook his head. “I could not find that out, but I did not kill Tong Zhan. I intend for him to tell the Tong family’s ancestor that our Outerverse knows about their invasion. The Sixth Mainland would rather wipe out all of the Outerverse’s resistance in one fell swoop than deal with a situation like the Innerverse’s, where they have to deal with small pockets of resistance from all sides. Such a situation is of no benefit to them.

“Their objective is to gather resources and destroy our civilization whereas our existence is simply a hindrance to those two goals. Since both sides now know about this invasion, Junior believes that they will choose a location that is known by both sides as the site of their invasion, such as the astral cemetery.”

Yuan Shi looked up as he muttered to himself, “There is no border at the Technocracy’s border, but war is about to break out along the Astral River. Just how long will this war continue for?”

Lu Yin did not reply; there was only one answer to that question, but it was just too cruel. To the Sixth Mainland, this war would only end once all the Fifth Mainland’s resisting forces were completely eradicated. They did not make any moves against commoners, and it initially seemed as if the standpoints of the two sides were merely different. However, this was not the case. Once the Fifth Mainland’s rebellious forces were dealt with, they would be forced to forever endure the suppression of the Sixth Mainland. What’s more, the Fifth Mainland’s skies might even be changed again, which would revert the universe to how it had been before the Sea King had broken through the Upper Three Gates.

It was impossible to drive the Sixth Mainland out given the current situation, and the only hope lay with the Neoverse, which was a place that Lu Yin did not understand. The Yu Elder had once mentioned that the Fifth Mainland was not as simple as it appeared, and his statement should have been referring to the Neoverse.

“Send out orders to gather all the remaining forces of the Outerverse and station them in the astral cemetery. Prepare for an imminent war,” Yuan Shi spoke gravely.

Regardless of whether or not Lu Yin’s news was real or fake, Yuan Shi still had to take the appropriate measures. Furthermore, he trusted that Lu Yin would not be audacious enough to lie about such monumental news. At this moment, Yuan Shi merely hoped that the two Cosmic Imprinters from the invading families would not join forces against the Outerverse and that they would somehow be delayed elsewhere. Yuan Shi was not confident that he could fend off two Cosmic Imprinters.

Yuan Shi’s orders were the same as the Hall of Honor’s orders. Thus, the entire Outerverse was issued another compulsory conscription calling for both powerful cultivators and battleships. Any military constructs with enough power were also gathered in the astral cemetery.

Four of the captains from the Great Yu Empire’s Thirteen Imperial Squadrons were drafted, and the leaders of the Great Eastern Alliance’s guiding powers, such as Meng Tianlong and Mu Nichang, were also called out. No Enlighter could escape, and everyone who had revealed themselves was drafted, such as Endless Borders’ Windflower Crew, Captain Shi, and even Aegis’ assassins, Black Mask and the child-like killer.

The Sea King’s Dome’s Elder He was similarly drafted as well as the Mt. Stacks Dojo’s Elder Tie and Lan Si. There were no exceptions, and everyone was ordered to gather in the astral cemetery.

The Great Eastern Alliance’s Rapid Response Team was also conscripted.

Ever since the Great Eastern Alliance had grown to cover half of the Outerverse, the Rapid Response Team’s numbers had also increased. The number of Hunters had grown to twelve, and there were also forty Cruisers and 800 Explorers among them. The strength of this force, when combined with Lu Yin and the Enlighter named Ye Gui, was able to rival the group from the Mt. Stacks Dojo.

This was just the strength of the Rapid Response Team. The Great Eastern Alliance’s Allied Forces also had another six Hunters as well as more than 500,000 Sentinels, nine million Seekers, and 1,500 battleships. It was a truly terrifying force.

Fortunately, the Great Eastern Alliance’s Allied Forces had not been conscripted, but there was one other group that had absolutely no luck at all: the Central Coalition's military.

In order to defend against the Great Eastern Alliance, the Central Coalition had formed a joint military. These forces included more than 10,000 battleships, and even though the Suna Weave, Umbral Butterfly Tribe, Sourcepeak Weave, and others had all joined the Great Eastern Alliance, causing the Central Coalition’s numbers to fall precipitously, the support of the western weaves had allowed the military to maintain its strength. In fact, it had even grown stronger than its past state. At this time, the Central Coalition had 12,000 battleships and more than twenty five Hunters, which shocked the Outerverse.

This strength had originally been intended to be used to intimidate Lu Yin and make him wary enough to not act aggressively. But instead, it had drawn the Hall of Honor’s attention and been drafted as a single unit.

The Central Coalition's military included people from the western region, and quite a few people went to Elder Daggs to ask for the joint military force to be exempted from the draft, but they were summarily rejected. According to Elder Daggs’s words, if the Outerverse was destroyed, then there was no point in preserving such a force.

However, in order to placate the western region, Elder Daggs also sent out a conscription notice to the Great Eastern Alliance’s Allied Forces, and they were also sent to the astral cemetery.

The people from the Great Eastern Alliance were dejected.

However, Lu Yin did not mind, as he had initially wanted to unite the Outerverse specifically to fight off a common external enemy, no matter if that enemy was the Sixth Mainland, the Astral Beast Domain, or the Technocracy. They were all foreign threats. At this moment, everyone was on the same side, resisting the outsiders, which was perfectly in line with his original intentions.

When it was necessary to defend against a common enemy, internal strife became less important, and this was an important point to Lu Yin.

He did not know when the Sixth Mainland’s two Cosmic Imprinters would act, but the Hall of Honor had drafted everyone immediately and sent them all to the astral cemetery as fast as possible.

Their battleships were not radiant-grade Auroras, and they did not move nearly as quickly as high-level cultivators. The Outerverse’s united military could not afford to all use Auroras, and even at top speed, it still took about a month for the various forces’ battleships to arrive at the astral cemetery, and this was even when they used military expressways.

This was also thanks to Lu Yin. The weaves in the western and central regions had begun to secretly construct their own military expressways, or else it would have taken them twice as long to gather in the astral cemetery.

The Great Eastern Alliance’s Allied Forces had the furthest to travel to arrive in the astral cemetery, but they arrived at about the same time as the others since the Great Eastern Alliance’s expressways were more complete. After exiting the Great Eastern Alliance, they had then borrowed the express routes of the Central Coalition and the western region at the Hall of Honor’s orders, which sickened both organizations.

This had basically exposed their military routes to the enemy.

However, they could not refuse the Hall of Honor’s orders. Instead, they could only make mental notes to tear down the exposed routes after the external threat passed and rebuild them later on. This meant that exorbitant sums of money had been wasted.

Someone suggested that they seek Lu Yin out for reimbursement, but this suggestion was laughable and was immediately vetoed by others.

The full strength of the Outerverse had been brought to bear, and it was truly powerful. Lu Yin was also able to see this for himself.

He stared at the endless armada of battleships, countless space-exploring powerhouses, and all sorts of war weapons. This force covered such a large region of space that they existed as far as the eye could see, and they had enough power to shatter the space in the entire region.

Although the offensive might of this group was not exceptionally powerful, it was still enough to make some bit of deterrence.