Chapter 952: The Changing Astral River

Elder Tie was confused. “What do you mean, ‘fake?’”

Lu Yin was just about to explain when Wei Rong stepped forward. “This was all my fault, and I hope that Elder Tie can convey my apologies to the Arbiter.”

Lu Yin turned to look at Wei Rong, but the young man just shook his head at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin turned his head away. He did not actually care if he offended Lan Si, as from his few interactions with him, Lu Yin was aware that Lan Si was not a petty person. Moreover, a petty person would not have been able to become an Arbiter.

A person’s attitude determined the heights that they could reach, and although Lan Si’s personal strength had helped him to achieve his current status, the man also had an impressive spirit.

However, Wei Rong had his own opinion, and so, Lu Yin remained silent out of respect for Wei Rong.

Elder Tie’s expression softened when he saw that Wei Rong was behaving apologetically even with Lu Yin and many other powerhouses present. He then nodded. “Very well, I will convey your apologies. Let’s go.”

Wei Rong smiled. “Thank you.”

Black Mask and the others also left when they saw that the conflict was settled.

Elder Daggs glanced over at Lu Yin. This youth truly possessed an impressive level of influence in the Outerverse, and so many experts had moved out just to help one of his subordinates. Elder Daggs suddenly realized that he had still been underestimating Lu Yin.

“Your Highness, we should not make any more enemies if we can help it. Even if you don’t care about what Lan Si thinks, you still should consider the other Arbiters’ reactions to this,” Wei Rong said.

Lu Yin nodded. “You did the right thing. We don’t know when the connection between the Innerverse and Outerverse will be restored, and once it does, there will be tremendous chaos within the Ten Arbiters. Lan Si is a nice person, and he’s also not petty and knows how to be grateful. Thus, we shouldn’t make him an enemy.”

…

Soon, another month passed by. By now, it had been about five years since the Outerverse had been isolated from the Innerverse. There had been huge changes in both places during these five years.

A person who had been famous just within the younger generation was now a major figure who was able to decide the fate of the entire Outerverse.

500 years was not enough for someone to gain complete control of all of the weaves in the Outerverse, let alone just five years. However, Lu Yin had done the right thing by establishing an alliance, as he only needed the status and the resources provided by the Outerverse. He had no need to gain total control of it.

Meanwhile, in Ironblood Weave, Wang Wen initiated his next scheme. If this plan succeeded, then it would just be a matter of time before Lu Yin achieved his goal of uniting the Outerverse.

The conflicts among the forces stationed in the astral cemetery kept worsening, and many people were on the verge of leaving.

The amount of resources that were spent every day just to maintain this number of troops in one place was astronomical.

Everyone who had gathered in this place was a cultivator, and thus, apart from regular military expenses, cultivation resources were also needed. The end sum of all these expenses was enough to bankrupt even major powers.

The Astral River suddenly experienced a change during this situation.

The Astral River, which ran along the edge of the astral cemetery, suddenly started surging, and the energy barrier that separated the Outerverse from the Innerverse was shredded apart as an enormous fish barreled into the Outerverse.

Mr. Yi calmly stepped forward to push the fish aside, but the moment he touched the fish, the clothes on his arms were torn apart. Two separate streams of force entered his body and tore him to pieces.

Yuan Shi stepped forward and casually waved a hand, causing the fish to fly off into the distance.

Everyone was stunned; a powerhouse with a power level exceeding 600,000 had died just like that!

Lu Yin hesitated. The fish had been covered with a terrifying number of rune lines that were equivalent to a Cosmic Imprinter’s power. Mr. Yi, who only had a power level that was a bit higher than 600,000, would obviously be torn apart when pitted against the power of a Cosmic Imprinter.

Mr. Yi’s death had simply been a waste.

However, Mr. Yi’s death was just the start. Everyone’s attention was drawn to the Astral River as two streams of energy shot out, creating a visible shockwave that swept through the crowd.

Yuan Shi bellowed and tore the shockwave apart. Two figures emerged from the Astral River, and their aura intimidated everyone. They somehow both resembled Ancestor Di; they were Ancestor Tong and Ancestor Sightless, and both of them were Cosmic Imprinters.

There were also countless experts from the Tong family and the Sightless Clan behind the two men, and there were even three Imprinters among their forces. All of these people rushed towards the Outerverse’s forces.

This was an unbeatable strength, and their power was enough to cause the entire sky to tremble.

Yuan Shi immediately charged towards Ancestor Tong and Ancestor Sightless while the rest of the experts from the Outerverse recovered from their shock. They soon released shouts of their own as they confidently rushed towards the Astral River.

This fight would likely be even more intense than the war that had occurred at the border.

Right when the cultivators from the Sixth Mainland believed that the battle had begun, Lu Yin and Wendy Yushan used the Yu Secret Art from a hidden position within the crowd. They diverted a large amount of pyrolyte right next to the Astral River.

Yuan Shi was the only powerhouse in the Outerverse who could compare to a Cosmic Imprinter, and his actions were being closely monitored by Ancestor Tong and Ancestor Sightless, which made it impossible for him to launch any sort of ambush attempt. However, Lu Yin and Wendy Yushan were only Cruisers, and nobody was paying attention to anyone at their level. Moreover, they had used their secret technique, which did not have many signs.

They had transferred about a hundred grams of recently mined pyrolyte, and this was their entire stockpile. Lu Yin had even added in his own personal stash of eight grams, and the two youths detonated the entire pile right next to the Astral River.

Ancestor Tong and Ancestor Sightless had never expected to encounter such a rare mineral like pyrolyte here, and they were about to stop the explosion when Yuan Shi attacked both of them at the same time. He managed to occupy them for a single second, which was enough to allow the pyrolyte to erupt. The resulting explosion had a power level of one million that affected both sides of the Astral River.

Although the center of the explosion was quite far from the Outerverse’s troops, they were still within the radius of effect as this explosion had a power level of one million. Fortunately, the Hall of Honor had made adequate preparations and created many defenses. Yuan Shi also threw a power vessel towards the weaker cultivators to help them block the shockwave of the explosion.

The Sixth Mainland’s cultivators responded the same way, and the three Imprinters worked together to block half of the explosion’s force. The rest of the explosion was blocked by the various Enlighters among the troops.

Although the explosion had a power level of one million, it would not be able to cause much damage if the opponent was sufficiently prepared. If they had still possessed the blood red bell, then the explosion would have been enough to kill the three Imprinters.

However, the goal of this explosion had never been to cause damage; it was just a distraction for the Neo-Vestige Sect to take action.

Right as the shockwaves of the explosion faded, the members of the Neo-Vestige Sect loosed countless arrows towards the Astral River, aiming at the invaders from the Sixth Mainland.

At the same time, Elder He, the headmaster of Astral-9, and Millions City, all of which possessed the strength of an Envoy, attacked the three Imprinters, not giving the three of them any time to block the arrows.

Regardless, these arrows were not even powerful enough to threaten Imprinters.

A dozen Enlighters within the Sixth Mainland’s crowd moved forward to block the arrows from striking the rest of their Mainland’s forces. However, they had underestimated the power of these arrows. The pyrolyte explosion had served as a distraction for these arrows, as they were coated with poison.

Not only had Elder Daggs purchased poisons from Lu Yin, but the Hall of Honor had also bought the strongest poisons available in the Outerverse. At this moment, all of those poisons had been shot at the Sixth Mainland through the Neo-Vestige Sect’s arrows.

The people from the Sixth Mainland were shocked. “Despicable!”

“The Fifth Mainland is despicable!”

“Despicable natives!”

…

White Silkworm instantly swallowed a pill and fell down as the poisons had included a poisonous gas that could even harm Enlighters.

Elder Yuan, who was from the Tong family, bellowed as he tried to force the poisonous gas away. However, he suddenly felt a strong killing intent behind him as Black Mask suddenly attacked the elder. At the same time, the Sixth Mainland’s powerhouses that had not been affected by the poison were all simultaneously attacked by the various powerhouses of the Outerverse.

Yu Mu, the Starmaster of Astral-9, the old lady from the Nalan family, Yuehua Mavis, and other experts all launched their attacks in unison.

An intense battle broke out along the border between the Astral River and the astral cemetery. Yuan Shi fought against the two Cosmic Imprinters, the Envoys battled against the Imprinters, and the united forces of the Fifth Mainland battled with the two major clans from the Sixth Mainland. The entire galaxy was shattered by the unending violence.

The attack prepared by the Outerverse had damaged the forces of the two large clans from the Sixth Mainland, as many of their cultivators, including some Enlighters, had died to the poisonous gas. However, the sudden attack had not affected Ancestor Tong or Ancestor Sightless in the slightest.

When they learned that Tong Zhan had inadvertently revealed that they would be attacking through the Astral River to someone from the Fifth Mainland, they had already expected to run into an ambush. However, they had still chosen this particular location and continued on with their plan as they wanted to eliminate all of the experts in the Outerverse in one go. They would not be able to take complete control of the Outerverse without defeating these powerhouses anyways.

The war in the Innerverse had reached a standstill since the Sixth Mainland’s three realms had not been able to completely suppress the opposing powerhouses. Thus, the two Venerables did not want to repeat that mistake with the Outerverse.

The two Cosmic Imprinters had been willing to run into the ambush and sacrifice some of their people as long as it allowed them to defeat all of the Outerverse’s experts at once.

This was especially true for the sole expert in the Outerverse who could rival a Cosmic Imprinter; they were determined to kill that person.

With the power that Ancestor Tong and Ancestor Sightless possessed, either one of them would have been enough to deal with Yuan Shi, which would allow the other to annihilate everyone else from the Outerverse. Nevertheless, they did not do that, as they were worried that Yuan Shi would escape if just one of them was fighting him, and that would be a disaster for their clans.

An expert with the power of a Cosmic Imprinter was enough to ruin both of their families, and such a person could easily kill countless people in an instant. Hence, they had decided to cooperate against Yuan Shi and eliminate all future problems this way. As for the remaining Fifth Mainland natives, they were just ants that could be dealt with after Yuan Shi died.

The battle between Yuan Shi and the two Cosmic Imprinters occurred in a place that nobody else could even see. It might have even been in the true universe that Yuan Shi had mentioned to Lu Yin before.

Lu Yin had no time to think about such things at the moment. He put on his universal armor and focused on fighting against an Enlighter from the Sightless Clan whose power level was more than 300,000. The Enlighter paid absolutely no attention to Lu Yin since the youth was just a Cruiser.

However, when Lu Yin managed to deflect the Enlighter’s attack, the expert instantly realized that Lu Yin was not a normal cultivator. If a Cruiser possessed an item that could deflect an Enlighter’s attack, then this person must hold a high status in the Outerverse.

The Enlighter quickly decided to capture Lu Yin.

Lu Yin had attacked the Enlighter because he had noticed that the Enlighter was heading towards the Great Eastern Alliance’s Rapid Response Team. Lu Yin was worried that the Rapid Response Team would be annihilated by the Enlighter, and thus, he had decided to pester the expert and tie him down. Although he was not able to defeat an Enlighter with this level of strength, this Enlighter would similarly be unable to injure Lu Yin. And so, their battle was dragged out.