These two were merely the first of many who would soon start following in Lu Yin’s footsteps. This change was due to power alone. The more powerful he became, the more people would want to follow him. Money? That was nothing to many Innerverse organizations.
Such organizations were impatient for Lu Yin to fall into some kind of trouble so that they could help him. A perfect and powerful person was also the most terrifying kind of person.
Within the Innerverse, in Astral-7, Yue Xianzi looked incredibly troubled after she heard Barley’s news. She had expected Lu Yin to come up with all sorts of requests or to even ask for help from the Frostmoon Sect. But to her surprise, all he wanted was money. That didn’t make any sense!
Then, Yue Xianzi’s eyes lit up. It was impossible for Lu Yin to only want money, so with this thought in mind, she quickly contacted those in her sect and repeated what she had been told.
The many elders that appeared on her screen were all esteemed members of her sect, and they all appeared incredibly solemn and deep in thought.
“With how things are right now, there are four Limiteer cultivators who truly have what it takes to be considered Ten Arbiters candidates. Of the Explorer realm cultivators, the Top Hundred Rankings must also be considered. However, amongst those hundred, only the top five truly stand a chance of succeeding. In other words, there are nine people in total who can feasibly become one of the next Ten Arbiters. Our Frostmoon Sect has already shown our goodwill to three of these people, and of those three, if any one of them becomes a Ten Arbiter, it will be a great boon for our sect. Lu Yin shall be the fourth,” an old woman declared.
“Yes, but of those nine, Lu Yin has the lowest chances of succeeding. He doesn’t have the necessary connections, and just the Great Yu Empire can’t support him. Who cares if he unifies the Frostwave Weave? Just the Ross Empire from the Blazing Flowzone can easily wipe them out.”
“But he’s growing stronger at an alarming rate. Based on our current information, he has spent less than three years to reach his current strength. Three years! That’s much quicker than any of his peers. In terms of strength, he’s definitely surpassed any Limiteer. Thirty Stacks was a record that Arbiter Lan set when he was in the Astral Combat Academy, and to date, nobody other than Lu Yin has managed to achieve the same feat. Don’t forget—he’s not even a peak Limiteer yet. It’s very likely that he’ll be able to break Arbiter Lan’s record. His future is very bright.”
“But he also has a huge grudge with the Daynight clan.”
“That’s his one problem. He has no connections at all, but he still riled up the Daynight clan just to save that Daynight girl who testified for him. It’s terrifying that he managed to do that at all. Aside from the elder council of their clan, no one else knows how he managed to accomplish such a thing. He has a unique ability, and his methods are very clever.”
…
Yue Xianzi stood in front of her screen as she watched as the elders discussed the matter.
Quite some time later, the discussion finally ended.
“We’ll do as we initially planned. You’ll be subordinate to Lu Yin and then become a subordinate member of the Outerverse Youth Council under him,” an old woman informed Yue Xianzi.
Yue Xianzi was at a loss. “Lu Yin brought up a very strange requirement. What do you make of it?”
Quite a few of the old ladies seemed like they were suffering from a headache. They had no idea what Lu Yin actually wanted. It did seem like he really was asking for money, but that couldn’t be possible! Even an ordinary person wouldn’t mention wanting more money, much less a young genius such as Lu Yin.
“Get the map of the Frostwave Weave,” one of them ordered.
Not too long after, a number of old women studied the star chart when one of them lit up. “I think I get it now! Lu Yin needs the money not for himself, but rather because he’s taking the organizations that sit next to the Frostwave Weave into consideration, such as the Grandtop Weave’s Nine Stacks Sect, for example. He’s worried that they’ll take advantage of the chaos to sneak into the Frostwave Weave, which would force the Great Yu Empire’s troops to be split up, stretching the empire’s finances even thinner. He’s hinting for us to help him deal with organizations like the Nine Stacks Sect, which are putting pressure on the Frostwave Weave.”
“Yes, yes! That makes much more sense. He’s incredibly thorough. Most people wouldn’t be able to guess his intent, but thanks to Elder Lin, who’s taken part in many border battles and is incredibly experienced, we managed to understand.” One of the old ladies sighed in admiration.
Elder Lin looked very proud of herself. “Hehe, it’s nothing. He’s very calculating. How about this? We’ll send a few experts over to warn the Nine Stacks Sect.”
“Of course. We should also warn some of the other organizations near the Frostwave Weave as well.”
“Yes, yes.”
…
Yue Xianzi pursed her lips, wanting to mention that she believed Lu Yin might actually need the money. When she recalled his disgusting face, she grew even more firm in her belief that he really only wanted money. However, that didn’t make sense. Whatever. Elder Lin must have figured out his true intentions.
Elsewhere, An Shaohua of the Watermoon Villa was deep in thought as well. The higher ups of his organization were even more puzzled than the Frostmoon Sect’s elders.
“Is the Great Yu Empire in need of money because their economy crashed during the war? Or has the Mavis Bank abandoned the empire?”
“Did the Ross Empire do something?”
“It’s possible…”
…
After discussing all of their possible options, Watermoon Villa ultimately decided to send a team to the Great Yu Empire to help improve the empire’s economy. They completely disregarded Lu Yin’s request for money, thinking it was nothing more than a joke. Nobody would request money in such a blatant manner; there had to be some kind of underlying meaning to his words.
In San Dios, Barley found Lu Yin again. “Yue Xianzi and An Shaohua have both responded, saying they understand your request and that will make preparations right away, sir.”
Lu Yin’s eyes lit up. They’re making preparations? Are they going to give me a lot? These large organizations are amazing. He became very excited, because having a lot of money meant that he’d be able to cultivate at an even faster rate. This also meant that he would also be able to roll his die after gathering more natural treasures from Bushtree Planet. The thought of such a future made him even more excited. “I’m going to get a lot stronger now, monkey!”
The Ghost Monkey was confused. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing special. I’m just going to break Arbiter Lan’s record!” Lu Yin declared haughtily.
Lu Yin remained in San Dios, waiting for Yue Xianzi and An Shaohua to send money over. Meanwhile, on Zenyu Star, a large spacecraft docked on the planet’s space station. A bunch of youths looked outside the spacecraft in excitement. These youths were all from Earth and were the first batch of elites who had been selected to be formally educated at Yu Academy.
They might be considered elites, but that was only with Earth’s standards. In the Great Yu Empire, any random student would be more powerful than these Earthlings. Earth was still too weak, and even the strongest cultivator from Earth’s trials, Zhou Shan, had only reached the Melder realm. And even that was after receiving help from the Great Yu Empire.
Inside the space station, Tianming waited quietly and watched as the spacecraft docked. Behind him, a member of Yu Academy had an annoyed expression. “It’s just a planet from the border regions, Hall Master. Is it really necessary for us to come out and personally welcome some Sentinels or even Seekers?”
Tianming smiled. “They’re from Earth.”
“I know,” the Yu Academy student responded.
Tianming gave him an odd look. “You’ve never heard of Earth?”
That member frowned. “It sounds pretty familiar. Let me think.” Soon enough, his eyes went wide. “Earth? The Astral Combat Tournament? Is that the Royal Regent’s home planet!?”
Tianming nodded. “Yes, Earth is the Royal Regent’s home.”
The student sucked in a cold breath and his gaze towards the spacecraft dramatically changed. A person’s hometown would always be very important to them, and the two people with the most authority within the Great Yu Empire were the Royal Regent and Wendy Yushan. It was a symbolic matter that people from the Royal Regent’s home planet were arriving. It was no wonder why these cultivators had been considered important enough for Hall Leader Tianming to welcome them himself.
After the spacecraft finished docking, the hatch opened and a battalion lined up in two rows. After that, an Explorer walked out. It was obvious that he was a member of the military from his stern expression as he exited the spacecraft.
Behind the Explorer was Zhao Yu.
Two years had passed, but Zhao Yu had barely changed. She had become a bit more sullen, but that was in part due to her battle technique. As one of the Three Snowgirls under Bai Xue, she had crossed a doomed land on her own to arrive at Jinlin. This woman was very strong-willed in a way that few were able to match. She’d only been a Sentinel at that time, which was also called the Realm of Earth back on Earth. Now, she had managed to become a Seeker.
Behind Zhao Yu stood Feng Hong, the instructor for new troops back at Jinlin. He had a pretty good relationship with Lu Yin and had also become a Seeker.
Behind Feng Hong was Luo Yi, who had once tried to seduce Lu Yin and who had also suffered horrendously on doomsday. She was even more beautiful than before and had become a Seeker as well.
Behind Luo Yi was Qin Xuan. She was from Jinlin as well and had only met Lu Yin a few times. Like the rest, she was now a Seeker.
After her was Huan Sha, who was from Beijing. She had helped Zhang Dingtian stabilize the chaotic aftermath of the trial and hadn’t originally wanted to leave Earth. However, after hearing that Zhang Dingtian had gone missing, she’d made the difficult decision to leave Earth and search the universe for him.
These five were all people whom Lu Yin knew. Feng Hong and Luo Yi, in particular, had a pretty good relationship with him.
Behind Lu Yin’s five acquaintances were quite a few other young people from Earth, and most of them were Sentinels, though there were some Seekers as well.
The mutations that had occurred during the trials on Earth meant that becoming a Seeker was not as difficult as it had been before, but it still wasn’t easy to become one, either.
In the distance, Tianming glanced at his gadget. Information on all of the cultivators from Earth was displayed there, and there were only a few who were worth mentioning. Huan Sha had awakened the innate gift of imitation and analyzing, Qin Xuan had an innate gift of dissolving, Fu Xiaoshu had an innate gift of illusion, Zhen Tong had an innate gift of flowers, and Song Shi had an innate gift of wind.
All five of them had awakened innate gifts, which was rather surprising to Tianming. Awakening an innate gift by chance was a one in a million event, and any cultivator who managed to do so was always welcome to join the Universe Youth Council. That showed just how highly the universe thought of cultivators with innate gifts.
There were very few cultivators in the Great Yu Empire who had awakened innate gifts, but five had emerged from a backwater planet like Earth. It was simply inconceivable, and even the captain of the twelfth squadron, Ban Jiu, was investigating Earth to look into this anomaly.
As Feng Hong gazed at the huge Zenyu Star and the three massive rings that were clearly visible above them, he sighed ruefully. “This is the view that Lu Yin saw two years ago. We’re finally able to see the same sight now.”
Luo Yi had a grim look in her eyes. “He was just a Troop Leader back then, but now, he’s a genius powerhouse who’s known across the universe. We’re way too far behind, Feng Hong.”
Feng Hong burst into laughter. “Don’t compare us with him. Everyone is weak compared to him, haha!”
Huan Sha glanced around. What she saw was very different from what her peers saw. She was analyzing the space station, but no matter how hard she looked, the defense of the space station seemed to be completely invulnerable to attacks from someone with her power level. This was the Great Yu Empire’s Zenyu Star.
Zhao Yu looked up. She was actually only here so that she could search for Bai Xue. All the hopes of the many people from Blue Camp had been placed on her shoulders; they could not simply accept the fact that Bai Xue had suddenly gone missing.
