Within the ark, multiple Enlighters stood on a deck as they stared out at the Astral River. “Although the Innerverse and Outerverse were only separated for a few short years, it feels as though a much longer time has passed.”
“That’s true. After the Innerverse and Outerverse were isolated from each other, the Sixth Mainland invaded us while the Outerverse was unified. It all feels like a dream.”
“Who would have thought that some puny Cruiser would be able to unite the Outerverse? What a joke! The Outerverse has been too weak for too many years. Even it’s full strength brought to bear won’t be on par with one of the Innerverse’s small flowzones.”
“Do not underestimate Lu Yin! He was even able to defeat the Ten Arbiters’ Divine Fist, and he has the strength of an Enlighter. Many of you, or even me, might not be his match.”
The surrounding people all fell silent; a mere youth had surpassed their strength, which left many of them feeling truly dejected.
One of the gathered powerhouses sneered. “Who cares if he’s surpassed you or me? Among the experts headed towards the Outerverse, a few of them have power levels that’ve surpassed 300,000, and there’s even a long-lived senior joining us. According to the rumors, they’ve even received Yuan Shi’s guidance before.”
“Yuan Shi? That senior from the Hall of Honor?” someone cried out.
“That’s right.”
“But I heard that Senior Yuan Shi especially favors Lu Yin, and his support is the whole reason why Lu Yin was able to become the Outerverse’s Allied Forces’ Commander.”
Everyone fell silent upon hearing these words.
At that moment, a stern warning came out from the depths of the ark. “No loose tongues. How can you people speak of Senior Yuan Shi?”
The few Enlighters were startled, and they quickly bowed and withdrew.
After the various Enlighters left, an elder appeared on the deck. His face was weathered, proof that he had lived through many great changes. His skin was a deep-red color, which gave him a rather odd look. He was a powerhouse from the Blaze Realm, and he possessed a power level of more than 400,000. He was one of the Blaze Realm’s hidden powers.
“Originally, I had thought that after the Sixth Mainland withdrew, we would be able to cultivate in peace for a while. However, who would have thought that we would be sent on a trip to the Outerverse?” The elder sighed and looked towards the Outerverse. “It’s just some child, but they’ve sent me. I suppose that it’ll be your honor that I’m moving against you. Since we can’t kill you, I’ll just cripple you.”
They drew closer to the Outerverse as the ark neared the edge of the Astral River.
The elder’s gaze trembled, as there was a person standing in a distant point in space.
The Astral River Ark was enormous, and it slowly entered the Outerverse.
Millions of cultivators aboard the ark grew excited, as they were carrying the pride of the Innerverse with them.
The people of the Innerverse held an intrinsic arrogance towards the denizens of the Outerverse. In their mind, it was common knowledge that anyone from the Innerverse could utterly demolish the Outerverse.
The ark rumbled as millions of cultivators boarded numerous spacecraft to head into space. There was also a considerable number of cultivators who flew out with only their physical bodies. These people were Explorers, Cruisers, and Hunters. Additionally, there were around ten people in the lead who were Enlighters.
This amazing amount of strength was enough to sweep through the entire Outerverse, or at least it was according to Blazing Mist Flowzone’s understanding.
Lu Yin stood alone in space and watched as the Astral River Ark emerged from the Astral River and released countless vessels that streamed out into outer space along with the space-exploring powerhouses. And of particular note, there were those Enlighters. He took a deep breath, and shouted, “Welcome to the Outerverse! I’m the Great Eastern Alliance’s leader, Lu Yin. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you for a long time.”
The entire region fell deathly silent as Lu Yin’s voice entered the ears of all the millions of cultivators in front of him.
All of them stared at Lu Yin, dumbfounded. They knew that their primary objective coming to the Outerverse was to deal with this person, and they had even traveled here in secret. However, he had been waiting for them and had even warmly greeted them when they arrived.
The ten or so Enlighters all exchanged glances with each other, feeling a bit lost.
One of them, who had a power level of more than 300,000, tore through the void, appeared near Lu Yin, and stared at Lu Yin. “Junior, are you Lu Yin?”
Lu Yin sized the man up and down before his eyes narrowed. “Are you from the Sylvan Dragon Tribe?”
The elder barked, “I asked you a question! Answer!”
The man’s voice reverberated through space as he attempted to suppress Lu Yin.
Lu Yin did not move, and Elder Tie stepped out next to the youth with clenched fists. “Old man, who are you trying to intimidate? You’re just some lowly sprite dragon.”
The elder bellowed, “Ridiculous! How dare you mock my Sylvan Dragon Tribe?”
He then prepared to attack.
Elder Tie was not even the slightest bit afraid, as his power level also exceeded 300,000 and his background the Starfall Sea. There was no way that he was weaker than a sylvan dragon.
Also, in the depths of their hearts, the Innerverse cultivators did not highly regard the Sylvan Dragon Tribe, as they had betrayed the Astral Beast Domain and escaped to the Human Domain; they were traitors. In the minds of many, sylvan dragons were to be used as steeds.
Elder Tie was an elder from Mt. Stacks Dojo, so how could he allow a sylvan dragon to act so arrogantly before him?
“Wait,” a voice commanded. Both the sylvan dragon elder and Elder Tie hesitated as another elder appeared in space next to them. This man had a serene expression, and he wore an armored shirt that displayed the Ross Empire’s emblem. He focused a serious stare upon Lu Yin as he asked, “Alliance Leader Lu, do you really want to become enemies with us?”
Lu Yin gestured for Elder Tie to stop and then replied, “Guests visit when they are welcomed, and when people arrive unannounced, they come as enemies. Senior, you people clearly belong to the latter group.”
The elder frowned. “We have gathered millions of powerful cultivators from Blazing Mist Flowzone, and on top of that, we have more than ten Enlighters in our group. Alliance Leader Lu, can you even stop us?”
Lu Yin clapped his hands, and suddenly, one figure after another appeared from the void behind him: Gong Ling, Ke Yun, and more than ten of the Outerverse’s Enlighters were present along with an Enlighter from Mt. Stacks Dojo. The more than a dozen powerhouses formed a line behind Lu Yin, and in addition to them, both Topmist and Black Mask were still hiding in the void, though they released their own threatening aura.
The elder in front of Lu Yin was shocked. Blazing Mist Flowzone had known beforehand that Lu Yin had united the Outerverse, but due to their haste, they had never considered that he would be capable of commanding such a force. There were more than ten Enlighters gathered here in a show of force.
An Enlighter might occasionally be referred to as an almighty, and all such powerhouses were treated with the same status as lords in the Innerverse. Becoming an Enlighter was a qualitative transformation along the path of cultivation.
There were many Enlighters in the Innerverse, but only the experts from Blazing Mist Flowzone were participating in this campaign, and it was somewhat inadequate to expect the Enlighters of a single flowzone to sweep through the entire Outerverse. Furthermore, they had not been able to track down all of the Enlighter realm experts from Blazing Mist Flowzone.
Lu Yin clapped again. This time, countless vessels appeared off in the distance.
These battleships all belonged to the Great Eastern Alliance. When Lu Yin had united half of the Outerverse, he had also formed the Allied Forces. Back then, he had already started stationing troops along the Astral River to eventually prevent the Innerverse from acting against the Outerverse, and that action had come to fruition on this day.
The number of spacecraft were significantly greater than those sent by the Innerverse, and if one calculated the number of troops, then they would find that the Outerverse outnumbered the Innerverse’s forces by tens of millions.
This massive scale of the fleet showed Lu Yin’s power, and it also represented the Outerverse’s stance.
Lu Yin had specifically released news that the Innerverse had been invaded by the Sixth Mainland, and he had fanned the various Outerverse weaves’ fears of the Innerverse’s great powers plundering the Outerverse’s resources to the point of terror. Due to how the Outerverse had essentially been the Innerverse’s subordinate for so many eons, such an event did not seem unrealistic.
Lu Yin had used his position as the Outerverse’s Allied Forces’ Commander to mobilize the troops, forcing the Outerverse’s weaves to follow his orders and obey them to the letter. If Lu Yin was ultimately defeated, then they could simply push the blame over to the Hall of Honor, and it would be completely unrelated to them.
It could be said that the countless years of the Innerverse’s tyranny was partly to blame for why Lu Yin had been able to successfully gather the Outerverse’s strength to contest the threat that was Blazing Mist Flowzone.
The region fell silent once again.
Even the ill-tempered sylvan dragon did not make a single sound. It was clear that Lu Yin could not be intimidated and that he had started making preparations long ago. The people from Blazing Mist Flowzone also recognized that they were not guaranteed victory in a head-on battle. After all, they were currently in the Outerverse, and if they started a war here, then they would have to answer to the Hall of Honor for their actions.
They had originally planned to sneak into the Outerverse.
“Alliance Leader Lu, what do you want?” the Ross Empire elder asked.
Lu Yin looked back towards the Astral River Ark. “You may withdraw. Go and get the person who has the authority to speak with me.”
The elder frowned. “I can decide everything.”
Lu Yin laughed. “Is that so? But I want to speak with the senior whose power level is over 400,000.”
The elder’s expression suddenly changed. “How did you know?”
Naturally, there was no way that Lu Yin would tell the man; it was all because of the rune lines.
There was a rather enormous cluster of rune lines that was still aboard the Astral River Ark. With Lu Yin’s ample experience of observing his opponents’ rune lines for so many years, he was able to tell that the person who had remained behind had a power level that surpassed 400,000 at a glance. However, if he compared this person to Northgate Taisui, then this person seemed to be someone who had only just become an expert with a power level of 400,000.
That Ross Empire elder looked back towards the Astral River Ark, seemingly waiting for something.
In the next moment, space distorted as a scorching heat swept out and extended past Lu Yin, turning the originally dark sky a visible red.
Lu Yin’s eyes went wide, and he grew furious; this powerhouse whose power level was over 400,000 actually dared to attack the troops arranged behind Lu Yin. Not only could that intense heat destroy the various spacecraft, but it was also capable of melting space-exploring powerhouses.
Lu Yin immediately donned his universal armor, equipped the giant mechanical right arm, and unleashed a punch.
The massive arm released a tremendous amount of power, and space itself caved in as though it had collapsed. The terrifying power astonished the elder from the Ross Empire as well as the sylvan dragon. The next moment, they felt an overpowering sense of danger; this strike could not be blocked, and it definitely exceeded a power level of 400,000.
This was the first time that Lu Yin had ever used his full strength in tandem with the giant arm. Even during his battle with Yu Mu, Lu Yin had not revealed his full strength.
When the punch was unleashed, the power level of the attack approached 500,000, which was the strongest attack that Lu Yin had ever produced.
Space was rent apart, and the red-skinned elder emerged out with an ugly expression on his face as he raised a hand. “Fire Spirit.”
As he spoke, an infinite inferno spread out through space, and even the heat from the nearby stars was pulled out. These endless flames gathered together to form a giant flaming figure that towered in outer space, and it unleashed a punch that clashed with Lu Yin’s mechanical arm attack.
The void completely collapsed as countless spatial cracks radiated out in all directions. Intense star energy fluctuations also rippled out, accompanied by an extreme heat.
Both sides’ troops continuously fell back, and even the various Enlighters were forced to retreat, not a single one of them daring to approach.
After some time, the area returned to its original state.
Lu Yin’s expression had not changed, and he calmly observed the person across from him.
On the other side, the red-skinned elder had a gloomy face and eyes filled with bloodlust. “Junior, are you Lu Yin?”
Lu Yin sneered. “Obviously.”
“You’re quite brave, seeing as how you dare to make Blazing Mist Flowzone your enemy,” the elder coldly remarked.
Lu Yin stared at that man. “Old man, you’re even braver. You dared to attack the Outerverse’s Allied Forces’ Commander. Do you realize that by doing this, you’re betraying the Fifth Mainland?”
The elder’s pupils shrank. “Junior, what crap is this?”
Betraying the Fifth Mainland was something that nobody wanted to be accused of, as it was considered to be one of the worst possible crimes. Even if the accused was a cultivator with a power level of more than 400,000, an Envoy, or even a powerhouse with a power level exceeding 800,000, no one could survive after being convicted of such a crime.
