The middle-aged captain puffed and blew out some smoke rings. One, two, and then three rings appeared before gradually disappearing. He disappointedly replied. “If not for you guys, I wouldn’t have left. However, since you’re with me, I’ll make sure that you all stay safe. Nothing is more important to me than you guys’ safety.”
The dozens of people in the group were all very touched.
Puff~
The captain blew out another smoke ring, but this time, it morphed into another image. “People should live for themselves, but I can’t force myself to do that. So if we’re going to survive, then we’ll have to do it together.”
“If we’re going to die, we’re going down together!” everyone yelled, their eyes filled with deep devotion as they looked at their captain. This was the person who they believed was worth following for their entire lifetime.
The emotional atmosphere didn’t last for long before it was abruptly cut off. About ten people or so appeared in the air above the group and looked down at them. One of the newcomers was an old man who glared at the middle-aged captain. “Were you further inside? How are things going in there now?”
Before the mercenary captain could speak, a young soldier next to him immediately yelled, “Who do you think you’re talking to? Our captain is amazing! You’d better greet him properly!”
The captain nearly choked on the smoke in his mouth as he hurriedly pushed the young soldier aside. He then smiled sweetly at the old man and politely answered, “Well, hello there, sirs from the Blaze Realm. There are waves of worms in there, and there are quite a number of them. Some people have even died from the shock. There’s basically nothing in this area, but please stay safe on your way further in.”
Up in the sky, the people from the Blaze Realm rushed away, heading deeper into the centipede.
Below them, the dozens of troops stared at their captain in shock.
The captain slowly lit a cigarette and regretfully blew out another smoke ring. “Endure this and you’ll be able to succeed in the future. Remember these words: only people who can endure will become strong. Understand?”
The rest were confused.
The middle-aged captain sighed lamentably. “When I die, I’ll make sure that it happens in front of all of you.”
With just this one sentence, the atmosphere was lifted. Everyone looked at the man in devotion, and the young soldier who had interrupted earlier nearly burst into tears. The captain smiled.
However, the mood was destroyed right away as a young man with a deadpan expression suddenly appeared, staring coldly at the captain. “What happened in there?”
The captain gulped as he looked at the young man, feeling like there was a knife to his throat. “There’s a wave of worms in there, and there are also people dying mysteriously.”
The young person stepped forward, and in the blink of an eye, he had already shot past everyone and was continuing on his way.
Everyone stared, dazed. The previously jovial mood was gone once again.
The captain looked forlorn, feeling ready to curse someone, Where’d all these monsters come from? He blew out another smoke ring, wanting to say something touching to his soldiers, but then he blinked. Forget it! We need to go!
The flood-like wave of worms had been greatly reduced thanks to everyone working together to drive them into spatial cracks. While there were still many new parasitic worms entering the area, they no longer posed a threat to the group of cultivators.
Lu Yin watched on from the very back of the crowd, ready to carefully observe the phantom pike that appeared. He wanted to see just how powerful it was.
Before long, the people from the Blaze Realm arrived at the front of the expedition.
There were eight large Flowzones in the Innerverse, collectively known as the Eight Great Flowzones. The Blaze Realm was similar to the Blazing Mist Flowzone in terms of its influence, so their appearance caused quite a few people to shudder in fear.
The Eight Great Flowzones had achieved many things that the other tiny Flowzones could not even imagine. The Northline Flowzone had a monster with a power level of over 400,000, but there were certainly other, comparable old freaks like him in the Eight Great Flowzones. Otherwise, there would be no reason for the Northgate family to hide Northgate Taisui’s existence, and they would have just dominated the other families.
Upon seeing so many parasitic worms constantly rushing at the crowd of cultivators, the people from the Blaze Realm were astonished. This was their first time seeing creatures like these. The worms had defenses comparable to an Explorer’s, but they lacked any offensive capabilities and were also unable to move quickly. They almost seemed like regular lifeforms that wore the shell of an Explorer.
“You, come here.” All of a sudden, a familiar voice rang out, and Lu Yin glanced over. Jared?
Jared pointed at Lu Yin. “Didn’t you hear me? Get over here right now.”
Lu Yin froze for a moment, but then, he remembered that he had changed his appearance. Ordinary cultivators would be discovered rather quickly when they changed their appearance, or else they would be able to easily wreak havoc in the universe. However, Lu Yin had cultivated the Invisible Aura Technique, which eliminated most of the issues that occurred when one changed their appearance. It was also why he hadn’t been found out yet.
“What is it?” Lu Yin asked after walking over to the group.
Jared’s eyes were cold and he ordered, “Go and fetch me a corpse of someone who died of mysterious causes.”
Lu Yin was confused. “Me?”
Jared frowned. “I’ll repeat myself once: find me a corpse that died of mysterious causes or die.”
Lu Yin was furious, but after scanning everyone from the Blaze Realm, his eyes lingered on the two elders in front, and fear flickered through his eyes. He then nodded and ran ahead to where there was a body. The man hadn’t been killed by a phantom pike; instead, he had died when a parasitic worm rammed into him. Still, it didn’t matter since Lu Yin just needed to do something for the people from the Blaze Realm.
Soon enough, Lu Yin carried a body back and flung it to the ground.
Everyone from the Blaze Realm glanced over.
“He died from blunt force impact. This isn’t a mysterious death,” an elder said. After that, he eyed Lu Yin coldly.
Lu Yin explained, “He must have died from mysterious causes, because he fell into the flood of worms and was run into. It must have happened very quickly.”
The elder glanced at the wave of worms and decided to accept the explanation despite how incredulous it sounded.
“Tell me then, what kind of death is considered mysterious?” Jared asked coldly.
Lu Yin answered, “When someone dies from fright. There must be a ghost here.”
“How dare you answer with bullshit! Ghosts don’t exist!” Jared angrily retorted.
Next to him, one of the two elders scoffed, “Enough of that. There’s no need to argue about this.” After that, he looked at Lu Yin. “You can leave.”
“Wait a second. Have you seen this person before?” Jared raised his gadget and tapped it, only for Lu Yin’s own face to appear on the display.
Lu Yin shook his head and resolutely answered, “No.”
Jared frowned and waved him away in annoyance. “Leave.”
Lu Yin didn’t go too far and stopped at a place where his domain was still able to cover the group from the Blaze Realm so that he could eavesdrop on their conversation.
“Do you really believe in ghosts?” Jared asked.
An elder sighed. “It’s not about believing it. There’s evidence that spiritual attacks do exist, so we need to be careful.”
“I still think that our main task should be to find Lu Yin,” Jared said.
“Lu Yin is indeed one of our targets. He offended the Blaze Realm in the Astral Combat Academy, and he also destroyed Firesmelt Planet right when they were about to join our Blaze Realm. This proves that he thinks nothing of us. The two of us have been ordered to take care of him,” the elder in charge said.
Jared looked incredibly excited. “With both of you here, we’ll definitely be able to kill Lu Yin.”
“We don’t need to go so far as to kill him. As long as he’s willing to submit to the Blaze Realm, we can consider taking him in.”
“I know this person very well. He’s incredibly arrogant and rude, and there’s no way he’ll join the Blaze Realm. We have to kill him immediately if we want to avoid trouble. This must be what the master wants as well.”
The elder in charge gave Jared a pointed look. “He has a complicated background. He’s a part of the Ten Arbiters Council and the Lockbreaker Society. There are also rumors that he has even more powerful people behind him than that. Killing him will just create even more trouble.”
Jared whispered. “If we were outside, then killing him would indeed be difficult. But right now, since we’re inside the centipede, the network will stop working once we go a bit further in. If you act fast enough, then he definitely won’t be able to send a video out as evidence, so there’s nothing to worry about. If you’re willing to help me out, then I promise that I’ll share the Karmic Flame Sword with you two.”
After hearing the Karmic Flame Sword being offered, the elders’ eyes lit up, and they exchanged a glance before nodding. “Very well, but this matter needs to remain a secret. Otherwise, there’ll be great trouble for our Blaze Region.”
“Don’t worry.” Jared smiled mysteriously.
Far away from the group, Lu Yin’s expression had turned grim. It turned out that he was actually being targeted by the Blaze Realm. What he’d done to Firesmelt Planet had caused the Blaze Realm to hate him. According to what Lu Yin had just heard Jared say, the Blaze Realm would only be more willing to kill him as time passed.
If that was the case, then there was no need for him to hold back any longer. If those two old fogeys had been sent here to deal with him, then they must be quite powerful. Lu Yin obviously didn’t want to face them directly if at all possible. He checked the wave of the parasitic worms which was a ways off and used Flash to vanish.
There were about a dozen powerhouses attacking the parasitic worms in one area when they heard something whistle past before losing consciousness.
Lu Yin quickly dealt with the dozen or so powerhouses. He then flung them away and let the parasitic worms push past the battle zone. With his domain, he hid his aura and concealed himself behind a parasitic worm.
Numerous worms charged past, and the first people who they targeted were those from the Blaze Realm as Lu Yin had deliberately weakened the place that was closest to them.
They had previously been very relaxed behind the defenders, but suddenly, to their surprise, numerous worms had suddenly appeared in front of them. Still, they paid no mind to the change. Their members were much stronger than ordinary Explorers, and even a Limiteer like Jared was strong enough to break through the worms’ defenses and kill them. With the powerful battle techniques that the large organizations possessed, their members were much more powerful than what their power levels indicated.
It didn’t take long for a tremendous heat to be felt even kilometers away. The group from the Blaze Realm had attacked, killing the worms a lot more quickly than the other groups, though their attacks didn’t distinguish between friend and foe. Soaring temperatures spread out, affecting quite a few of the cultivators as well, resulting in a lot of cursing.
However, none of the cultivators thought anything of the matter. Organizations from the larger Flowzones never worried about being too overbearing when they were in a smaller Flowzone.
Lu Yin hid among the parasitic worms and quickly got close to Jared and attacked. He hadn’t gotten into a very large fight with Jared while in the Astral Combat Academy, but Jared had put Lu Yin on a kill list in the trial zones. When Lu Yin had dealt with the Daynight clan, he had also taken the opportunity to teach the people from the Blaze Realm a lesson as well. He had thought that everything was done with that, but it turned out that these people wanted to kill him in the real world now, which was why Lu Yin was now bent on killing Jared. The universe had always been a place where only the strong survived, so there was no way that Lu Yin would hold back.
The attack struck Jared without any issue, and it should have killed him outright. However, Jared was very tough and was only sent flying. While coughing out blood, flames rose up around him, causing the metal to melt away.
Lu Yin felt like this was quite a shame. Jared was wearing a ring armor that, by the looks of it, must be an expensive set unique to the Blaze Realm since it was even able to block an attack from an Explorer. In order to remain incognito, Lu Yin hadn’t used the stacking method, but the weakening of the attack had saved Jared’s life.
Jared being gravely injured instantly drew the attention of everyone from the Blaze Realm, and numerous disciples started attacking Lu Yin.
Lu Yin easily dodged all the attacks headed his way and then once again charged towards Jared, intent on killing him. Before he could make it near him, however, one of the two elders from the Blaze Realm blocked Lu Yin. Surging flames morphed into a furious, growling lion that leaped towards Lu Yin.
