Ryan Merke’s name had also disappeared from the Ironblood Rankings list, which meant that he had died as well. Almost all of the other cultivators from the Great Yu Empire who had gone to reinforce Yellowsoil Fort had also perished.
After just a few days of battle, almost all of the Great Yu Empire’s troops had been eradicated. If the empire had been tasked to defend one of the forts by themselves, they would not have been able to last for even an hour against the onslaught of the astral beasts.
This also showed the terrifying might of the Astral Beast Domain. As soon as Ironblood Weave was breached, the humans’ Outerverse would be filled with rivers of blood.
Lu Yin had obtained quite a few Ironblood Points in this battle. They were not from killing enemies, but rather from stalling them. Most of his points were from his struggle with the spider-like beast, and he had been given more than 1,000 Ironblood Points for keeping the Enlighter realm beast occupied for so long.
His previous Ironblood Points had all been exchanged for star essence, which had caused him to drop from tenth all the way to the hundreds. Now that he had another 1,000 points, he had climbed back up to just shy of the hundredth position.
He contacted Charon, and the two met up atop a cliff on one of the planets that formed the stronghold, enjoying some wine that Charon brought.
Charon had been injured rather severely, and he was no better off than Huo Qingshan.
“I nearly died, really, just almost. If that beast’s claw had moved just a little bit further, then my head would have been gone.” Charon shuddered and took a big gulp of the wine.
Lu Yin similarly took a big mouthful. “The best thing about these large battlefields is that they don’t prohibit alcohol.”
“We’re not commoners anyway. Us cultivators can get rid of the stupor at any time, so it won’t affect our battle abilities.”
“You said that you nearly died. What were you thinking of at that moment?”
Charon fell silent.
Lu Yin grew suspicious. “Your sister-in-law?”
Charon’s face warped, and he hurriedly covered Lu Yin’s mouth. A shout was heard from behind the two youths. “Sister-in-law? Bro, you thought of your sister-in-law?”
Charon turned around and stared dumbfoundedly at Wang Wen, who had suddenly appeared, and his expression grew even more savage.
Wang Wen became so frightened that he pulled out his protective coffin in less than an instant and jumped inside of it.
Lu Yin was speechless. “That’s Wang Wen, the number two on the Ironblood rankings.”
Charon blinked as his face turned ashen. Now there was another person who knew his secret.
Wang Wen studied Charon for a moment, and once he was certain that this person wouldn’t attack him, he climbed out of his coffin. “Actually it’s pretty refreshing here. You guys mind if I join you?”
Lu Yin rolled his eyes. “What are you doing here?”
Wang Wen sat down beside Lu Yin while keeping a cautious eye on Charon. He then grabbed Lu Yin’s drink and took a big swallow. “I’m exhausted, so I came here to relax.”
Lu Yin snatched his drink back. “You can’t drink. You need to stay sober.”
“Don’t look at me like some commoner, Chesspiece Bro. Even if I’m drunk, my intelligence is still enough to crush you guys!” Wang Wen laughed.
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed, as this fellow was simply asking to be beaten.
“Wives?” Charon looked at Lu Yin and Wang Wen in confusion, feeling like he had just learned a juicy secret.1
Wang Wen nodded. “Yes, chesspiece.”
“Wives?” Charon repeated.
Lu Yin could not take it anymore and patted Charon on the back. “Don’t torment your brain so much. He’s talking about chess pieces, like in chess. In his eyes, all of us are merely his chess pieces, and so that’s what he calls us.”
Charon was disappointed; there was no secret.
Wang Wen proudly said, “Cheers, Chesspiece Bros!” before trying to snatch Lu Yin’s drink again.
Lu Yin did not bother with him, and Wang Wen could not manage to seize Lu Yin’s drink, so he instead moved to steal Charon’s, who did not dare to retaliate. Wang Wen’s position in Ironblood Weave was too lofty, and Charon felt rather afraid, especially now that Wang Wen knew his secret as well.
“Speaking of, bro, you really can do it. First, you wounded Monster Loach, and then, you forced that spider-like beast back. It’s no wonder why you’re hailed the strongest Limiteer! My most lovely chesspiece! Hahaha,” Wang Wen began to speak nonsense as he became more and more drunk.
Charon wasn’t much better, and after he fell to the ground, he seemed to murmur some name, which Lu Yin maliciously assumed to be the man’s sister-in-law.
The trio went through more than ten bottles, and not one of them forced the alcohol out of their systems, so it wasn’t unexpected for them to get drunk.
Lu Yin also felt a bit light-headed, but his tolerance was much better than the other two. As he listened to Wang Wen, he suddenly asked, “Why are you surnamed ‘Wang?’”
“Why are you ‘Lu?’” Wang Wen retorted.
Lu Yin shook his head. “You’re drunk.”
Wang Wen clucked dismissively. “Drunk? Impossible! Dregs, know your place.”
Dregs? Why does that sound so familiar? Lu Yin felt like he had heard this insult before.
“Let me ask you something. Have you ever heard of a primeval surname alliance?” Lu Yin watched Wang Wen closely as he quietly asked.
Wang Wen suddenly fell down, as he was completely drunk.
Lu Yin smiled bitterly, as the man was not faking it. He really was dead drunk after having too much to drink.
Lu Yin looked up at the sourceboxes, and his eyes filled with star energy. If he could patch up those holes, then they could cause a massive amount of destruction to the astral beasts. Unfortunately, no one could repair it.
Hold on. Lu Yin suddenly recalled the thought that he had before. Right, routes. The holes did not need to be patched up; the defenders simply needed to be aware of the invasion routes that the astral beasts would take so that they would know where to focus their fire. Lu Yin had already thought of this before, but a battle had suddenly broken out and disrupted his train of thought. Thus, he had only remembered his previous thoughts at this moment.
Pow! He smacked Wang Wen’s head and scared him awake.
“Help me! Save me!” Wang Wen screamed and he reflexively pulled out his coffin and took cover inside.
Lu Yin was speechless; just how afraid of death was this person?
After a while, Wang Wen took note of his surroundings before finally focusing on Lu Yin, though he was clearly befuddled for a few seconds. Then, he cursed loudly.
Lu Yin rubbed his ears. “I can see the holes in the sourceboxes’ danger zones. So long as the position of those gaps is made clear, we should be able to efficiently prepare an ambush for the astral beasts when they attack.”
Wang Wen jumped out of the coffin and grabbed Lu Yin’s hand. He then spoke with full sincerity. “Bro, we’re gonna become good friends.”
If he said something, then it was done. Using his authority, Wang Wen sent an astral map to the gadget of everyone within Seasons Fort, focusing particularly on the space-exploring powerhouses. He then gave Lu Yin the authority to constantly update where the holes in the sourceboxes’ danger zones were on that astral map and had everyone pay attention to the marked positions, ready to fire at any moment.
Lu Yin’s eyes could effortlessly see the positions of the holes. They would change every once in a while, which meant that although the stronghold could not precisely predict the astral beasts’ route of invasion, he could.
Periodically, everyone in Seasons Fort would notice that the locations where they were supposed to aim their attacks would change, and there could be seven or eight changes each day.
At the start, everyone was impatient, and no one knew why they were focusing on these positions. However, two days later, countless Void Wanderers suddenly appeared in the exact locations that they were targeting. Under Wang Wen’s orders, all sorts of firearms were fired, and the space-exploring powerhouses unleashed their attacks all at once, with everyone concentrating on the holes.
The invading Void Wanderers unluckily emerged straight into the ambush, and many of them were exterminated in a short amount of time. The battle that had been about to begin was finished in an instant.
Without the Void Wanderers to open a path for them, the astral beasts could not attack Seasons Fort and could not continue their war.
The soldiers of Seasons Fort cheered, and Wang Wen cheered as well. Finally, they did not need to be constantly on edge, as they could now predict the attackers’ routes in advance.
This attack turned out to be the shortest battle in the history of Ironblood Weave. It did not take even two minutes for it to conclude, and the defenders had also achieved a surprisingly good outcome. The number of Void Wanderers was not unlimited, and since they had destroyed quite a few of them, the Astral Beast Domain would have to take some time to build up another group before they could launch another invasion force.
At first, after Ironblood Fort had fallen, the human race had been thrown into desperate straits, and people had not been able to even imagine what a glimmer of hope might be. But they had just easily routed the invading beasts, which was like a booster shot straight in the arm for the countless defenders in Seasons Fort, and it boosted the soldiers’ morale to an amazing degree.
Lu Yin’s contributions were recognized, and he instantly obtained 10,000 Ironblood Points, which was even more than what Wen Qichen had obtained by donating and igniting the pyrolyte before.
The pyrolyte explosion that Wen Qichen had caused could only be counted as a singular battle contribution while Lu Yin’s help was a strategic contribution. Not only were they able to repel the invading astral beasts, but Lu Yin’s efforts had also bought much time for the Seasons Fort. And this method would buy even more time for them in the future, unless the astral beasts were able to break through the sourceboxes’ formless danger zones.
With his sudden and outstanding service, Lu Yin quickly entered the top twenty of the rankings.
It was not easy for even a Hunter to obtain more than 10,000 Ironblood Points, so it was not at all surprising that Lu Yin had entered the top twenty after receiving 13,000 Ironblood Points.
At Yellowsoil Fort, the ground that was on the verge of breaking apart was completely destroyed with a wave of Granny Chan’s hand, but then it rejoined together anew.
The void tore apart, and Nightqueen Qiuyu stepped out with a solemn face. “Elder Shuang’s injuries are too heavy, so he may not be able to step out for the next battle.”
Granny Chan frowned. “That means that we’ll be down another Enlighter. Currently, Yellowsoil Fort’s battle-ready Enlighters are just you and me, but there will be at least four Enlighter beasts. We won’t be able to stop them.”
“Graceful Feiyu and Duke Blackhawk are barely able to block one Enlighter together, so let me take care of the other one as well,” Nightqueen Qiuyu spoke fiercely.
Granny Chan was astonished. “You’re going to deal with two?”
“I’ll try.” Nightqueen Qiuyu helplessly stared at the sky.
If possible, nobody was willing to take risks, but this was not something that they could ignore. If Nightqueen Qiuyu didn’t step up, then Yellowsoil Fort would be taken over by the beasts, and the defenders would have let down the entire human race. The members of the Nightking clan were not willing to become such terrible sinners.
Below the two Enligher women, on a certain planet, there was a grim-looking female who was looking at her gadget, staring at a certain name on the Ironblood Points rankings: Lu Yin.
The others did not pay his name any heed, but she had noticed it. That was because this girl was Cool Sis, the person who was ranked tenth on the Ironblood Points rankings. This name had surpassed her for a brief moment in the past, but then it had vanished. She had assumed that the person had died, but now, she saw that he had joined the top twenty once again. He had changed positions very drastically in an extremely short period of time.
Once one’s Ironblood Points were used, they could not be altered. This meant that this person had surpassed her amount, entered the top ten, and then exchanged his points away. But in just a few days, he had stepped back into the top twenty again. He was just a Limiteer, so how was he doing this?
Ironblood Weave had one Limiteer who had entered the top three, who was Wang Wen. That person’s intelligence was monstrous, so she could accept his position. However, what had this person done to earn so many points? Although he was deemed as the peerless Limiteer, any Limiteer, no matter how strong they were, could not obtain that many Ironblood Points that quickly unless they killed an Enlighter realm beast.
Cool Sis set her gadget down and fell deep into thought. Rumor had it that after the Innerverse and Outerverse had become separated, this Lu Yin had killed three Enlighters. It seemed that the rumors were indeed true and that he possessed an extremely powerful treasure.
However, Wendy Yushan was at Yellowsoil Fort, so Lu Yin could not use her secret technique in tandem with his treasure. So just how had he killed an Enlighter?
Ironblood Weave knew a little of what had transpired in the Outerverse, so many of the defenders were aware of the fact that Lu Yin and Wendy Yushan were able to team up to kill Enlighters, and Cool Sis had also learned of this information. But now, by himself, Lu Yin had managed to obtain an enormous amount of Ironblood Points in a short time, which was something that even an Enlighter would find difficult to do. The whole matter puzzled Cool Sis.
Similarly, in another corner of Yellowsoil Fort, Puyu’s face contorted into an extremely ugly expression as he stared at Lu Yin’s name. This bastard was becoming more and more dazzling.
Unfortunately, if only Puyu had taken the risk to kill Lu Yin back then. The bastard had eventually killed Elder Wu later on, which had caused Darkstar Gorge to lose its leader and drift into an endless spiral of others exacting revenge on them. Puyu would definitely get revenge on Lu Yin one day.
“Chess pieces” sounds almost exactly like “Wives.”
