Lin Dong had no idea what the purpose of the black crystal might be, but Ancestor Autumnfrost had valued it immensely, so there had to be something about it that ordinary people could not even imagine.
Unfortunately, a few days later, Lin Dong learned that he had been wrong. The invincible powerhouses had stopped fighting, and they had simply left countless fragments of the enormous black crystal behind. They were just floating around in space, and although many people passed through the area, no one cared about the crystals. They were treated like garbage.
It was possible that the crystal was destined to be nothing more than a decorative piece of art. Still, the shard that Lin Dong had picked up was quite symmetrical, and it was shaped like a hexagon.
Beep beep beep!
His gadget beeped as Lin Dong sat inside his spaceship. He had been staring out into space, lost and confused, with no idea when he might be able to become an Explorer. He was confident in himself, but still.
He glanced down, and his pupils instantly constricted, and he became short of breath as he stared at the message that he had just received in utter disbelief: ‘May I ask if your fragments of the black crystal are for sale? I’ll pay a thousand star essence.’
The man was stupefied; what did a thousand star essence represent? He rubbed his eyes and looked at the message again. It stayed the same, and it still said a thousand star essence.
For a bottom-tier cultivator like Lin Dong, star essence was an unattainable cultivation resource. People like him only used star crystals. When had he ever even seen star essence?
A single star essence was worth 100,000 star crystals, so didn’t that mean that 1,000 star essence was hundreds of millions of star crystals?
Lin Dong became increasingly excited. Hundreds of millions of star crystals? What sort of an astronomical number was that? At the moment, all of Lin Dong’s wealth put together only amounted to around 200,000 star crystals.
This person should not be a liar. Lin Dong grew wary, but after thinking about it, he felt like it should not be the case. After all, what would anyone gain by lying to him? The black crystal? There were too many fragments that had been left behind for that to make sense.
Wait a minute… Lin Dong’s expression changed. With there being so many shards of the black crystal strewn throughout space, why would anyone offer so much money to buy a single piece? This did not seem right.
As he was thinking about this, his gadget beeped again. ‘Not enough? How about 2,000 star essence?’
Lin Dong’s eyes went wide. 2,000? Would that be 200 million star crystals? This- this-
Lin Dong did not even know what to think anymore as he stared at the numbers. He really wanted to ask if the person had made a typo; did they mean star crystals instead of star essence?
‘Still not enough? 3,000?’
Lin Dong’s eyes were bloodshot, and his expression was absolutely hideous. He gritted his teeth; this was proof that the sender was clearly a liar who was trying to trick him. There were so many pieces of black crystal still floating around through space, so why would anyone spend money buying them, let alone so much money? Something was not right.
This was just too much. Lin Dong was merely a measly Limiteer, and yet someone was pranking him like this. This was no different from an ordinary person being told that they had won the lottery, only to realize that it was a scam. Such a roller coaster of emotions left Lin Dong feeling like he was about to vomit blood.
He was so furious that he wanted to express his emotions by extending a long greeting to the prankster’s parents.
It was at this time that yet another message appeared: ‘Such a symmetrical crystal is truly rare, so, 4,000. 4,000 star essence for the crystal.’
Lin Dong stared blankly at the message. Symmetrical? He took out his piece of black crystal. Yes, it was almost perfectly symmetrical. Could this be why this person was so interested in it?
At this moment, still another message arrived: ‘It seems that you are an expert. In that case, I’ll cut to the chase and give you a final price: 50,000 star essence. Take it or leave it. Someone else should also be able to find a symmetrical black crystal like what you have.’
Lin Dong did not hesitate to reply: “Deal. 50,000 star essence.”
The next dozens of seconds felt like an entire year to Lin Dong as he stared at his bank account. Finally, there was a notification. He stared blankly at the amount in his account. He also saw that his account had been upgraded to the highest tier, and he had even received an invitation from the Mavis Bank to become a VIP member.
Everything felt like a dream to Lin Dong, as it had happened too suddenly and without any warning. Had he just become super wealthy in an instant?
Forget Limiteers—even a Hunter would struggle to gather this much star essence. Lin Dong remembered hearing about a senior who had become an Enlighter. The powerhouse had mentioned that he needed to absorb more than 60,000 star essence each cycle.
This meant that the 50,000 star essence that he had just received was the equivalent to the internal reserves of the average Enlighter!
The Enlighter realm was nothing more than an unattainable dream to Lin Dong. He was confident in himself and believed that he could become an Explorer, but he had never even considered the possibility of becoming a Hunter, let alone an Enlighter.
‘Send the black crystal to these coordinates. No tricks, or else I will find you.’
This was someone who had casually offered up 50,000 star essence, and Lin Dong did not dare to play any tricks with such a person, as he would die before even knowing what had happened.
If the Autumnfrost family were still around, Lin Dong would not be this afraid, as no one would be arrogant enough to go against the Autumnfrost family. However, the family had fallen to pieces, and Lin Dong could once again be considered an independent cultivator with no one to rely on.
‘If there are other symmetrical fragments of the black crystal like this one, please contact me. You will definitely be satisfied with the price. Happy to work together.’
Lin Dong closed the message. He needed time to digest what had just happened. This had not been just a dream.
The next day, Lin Dong packed up everything that he owned and returned to the galaxy where the black crystals had shattered. The Horned Galaxy was a place he had once hated, but it had now transformed into a treasure chest in his eyes. No one else wanted the shards of black crystal, so he could just move along and sweep them all up. With so many pieces to be found, he refused to believe that there were no more symmetric ones.
Lin Dong believed that he had silently acquired a fortune, but he had forgotten something important: pies did not fall from the sky.
While he was on his way to the Horned Galaxy to search for more of the black crystal fragments, his transaction was posted publicly on the network.
Instantly, countless people were caught up in a frenzy.
50,000 star essence was enough to make Lin Dong lose his mind, and others were no different.
How many people had never even seen star essence in their entire lives? And yet at this moment, such a treasure was right in front of them! As long as they were able to find a symmetrical black crystal within the Horned Galaxy, they would be able to make at least 50,000 star essence.
Everyone dreamed of achieving the same thing.
At that moment, no matter if they were from Sixth or Fifth Mainlands, countless people flocked to the Horned Galaxy.
In particular, since someone had already made a profit and proven that the deal was real, it drove people even crazier.
Others started to find value in the symmetrical black crystal fragments as well. Since someone had bought one for such a sky-high price, there had to be some use for the crystals. Thus, various powers with sufficient funds started looking for ways to acquire the crystals to study them as well.
The Horned Galaxy instantly became famous. First, incredible powerhouses had fought there and destroyed the galaxy, and then it had spurred a transaction involving an unimaginable sum. Soon, there was word of four different crystals being bought, and countless more people started searching for the crystals. The galaxy had immediately become a treasure trove for countless adventurers.
At the Great Eastern Alliance’s border, Lu Yin lowered his gadget. He had been the person who had bought the first black crystal fragment for a sky-high price. His goal had been to lure people into the Horned Galaxy in order to muddy the waters for the Neohuman Alliance, and thus avoid having his visit to the galaxy be discovered.
That bubble had definitely been very important, and if it was discovered to be in his possession, he could forget about his safety in the future.
Lu Yin had only bought the black crystal piece in order to trigger the public frenzy. As soon as he had completed the transaction, he erased all traces of it in order to prevent the Neohuman Alliance from learning about it.
If Lu Yin were the one leading the Neohuman Alliance’s investigation, he would not only look into people who had recently visited the Horned Galaxy, but also anyone who knew about the tool and the black crystal. Any of the slaves working on the project who had escaped would also need to be hunted down.
Fortunately, Big Pao and Little Pao were both hiding in Astral-10, and it was even possible that the Autumnfrost family had never acquired any of the brothers’ personal information. After all, given the two’s low cultivation realm, they might not have even been considered worth keeping a record of. As long as no one suddenly appeared in front of the brothers and recognized them as people who had worked on Ancestor Autumnfrost’s construction project, they would be fine.
At the same time, Lu Yin pressed the Great Eastern Alliance to accelerate their retreat to the Innerverse.
He had once wanted to let the Great Eastern Alliance remain in the eastern region of the Outerverse, which was why he had tried to negotiate matters with the Sixth Mainland, but he had overestimated himself. Lu Yin still did not qualify to negotiate with the Sixth Mainland, and not a single one of the Four Empyreans would step forward to speak to him.
The only thing he could do was move the entire Great Eastern Alliance while doing his best to retain Frostwave Weave, if at all possible.
Close to the Autumnfrost family’s territory was a small family that lived in the same weave. They had always lived in the shadow of the Autumnfrost family and sent tribute to the Autumnfrost family every year. In essence, they were servants of the Autumnfrost family.
After Ancestor Autumnfrost was exposed as a corpse king and then killed, the Autumnfrost family was completely finished. They were even being investigated by Daosource Sect.
The small family grabbed this opportunity to pull in some people who had fled from the Autumnfrost family in order to expand their own clan. Seeing the price that the black crystals were being sold for on the network had invigorated the entire family, and they made their way to Horned Galaxy to take advantage of their family’s power to collect the black crystals.
One day later, the family’s blood spilled. There was not a single survivor. Many of the people had also experienced true terror before their deaths. It looked as though they had been interrogated, though there were also bodies that had been completely torn apart. The entire scene radiated extreme cruelty.
Similar incidents occurred throughout the western weaves. Many people died, and they all had one thing in common: they had some sort of connection to the Autumnfrost family.
However, all of the people who died were only part of small powers, so the deaths did not attract much attention.
However, a few days later, something was announced that shocked the entire universe, including the Fifth Mainland’s Hall of Honor, the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect, and even the Technocracy and the Astral Beast Domain.
Bluedome Elder had died.
The Four Empyreans from the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect held lofty statuses and were all extremely powerful. No one had imagined that one such top expert would suddenly die. His death was not only untimely, but could even be considered bizarre. It looked as though he had died without a fight. His body was found standing still in outer space. It looked as though he had not noticed anything before dying in an instant.
People with the strength of an Empyrean Imprinter would definitely make a commotion, even if they died. Aside from a Progenitor, who else could silently eliminate an Empyrean Imprinter? However, there were only three Progenitors in the universe, and they were all from the Sixth Mainland. It was impossible for them to have killed Bluedome Elder, though even if they had, they would not have done such a thing without announcing anything.
News of Bluedome Elder’s death shocked everyone when it spread.
Lu Yin struggled to believe the news when he first heard it.
Yuan Shi grew incredibly solemn, and his eyes revealed his disbelief. “It’s true, Bluedome Elder is dead, and his death was quick.”
Lu Yin was horrified. How could an Empyrean Imprinter have died without releasing even the slightest ripple? How was that possible?
“Can they find his killer?”
Yuan Shi looked at Lu Yin. “They can find nothing, and there’s not even the slightest trace to be seen. However, they believe that he was killed by the Neohuman Alliance. It was likely one of the Seven Skygods.”
