Charm Mountain Flowzone lay between First Flowzone and Daynight Flowzone. It was a smaller flowzone, around the same size as Northline Flowzone. The flowzone only contained one power, and it was known as the Charm Mountain Sect, which was also the source of the flowzone’s name.
The backstory of why the Sword Sect was moving to exterminate Charm Mountain Flowzone was long and complicated. Charm Mountain Flowzone contained a natural resource known as the Charm Mountain Herb, and since this smaller flowzone was sandwiched between two of the great flowzones, it meant that this herb was a common reason for conflict between those two great flowzones.
In the past, First Flowzone had lost the contest, and Charm Mountain Flowzone had been annexed by Daynight Flowzone. However, after Lu Yin had overturned Daynight Flowzone, First Flowzone had seized the opportunity to forcibly occupy Charm Mountain Flowzone. To the Charm Mountain Sect, their job was similar to Ironblood Weave’s clean-up operations.
Lu Yin had never expected his actions to be the trigger for this war.
Daynight and First Flowzone were both part of the Innerverse’s eight major flowzones. As a result, their activities generally affected things on a greater scale, and they also held widespread influence. With the help of Leon’s Armada and the power of half of the unified Outerverse, Lu Yin had wreaked havoc in Daynight Flowzone. Its resulting near collapse had strongly influenced the Innerverse’s political situation to the point where it was nearly unrecognizable compared to before.
Daynight Flowzone had always been so domineering that the other powers did not even dare to speak out even though the Daynight clan usually took a large proportion of the Innerverse’s resources for themselves. Now that the tables had turned, the resulting implications were just as severe. The situation with Charm Mountain Flowzone was just one of the consequences, and there were many more that Lu Yin had not noticed yet.
This was not a war fought for principles, but rather one for leverage and influence.
The Innerverse was different from the Outerverse in that it was much crueler and more unreasonable.
Lu Yin stared out at a distant point in space where the war was unfolding, but his expression remained calm.
The Charm Mountain Sect’s forces were much stronger than most Outerverse powers. Even though they were not on the same level as the Neo-Vestige Sect, the Charm Mountain Sect still had multiple powerful Enlighters.
Sword qi filled this entire region, tearing at the fabric of space. Tens of thousands of Sword Sect disciples were participating in the battle, and just the sight of their sharp and polished swords was enough to induce fear in any foe. The countless swords all struck at once, slicing one of Charm Mountain Sect’s Enlighters apart in one blow.
Ku Wei was stunned speechless by the scene. “Seventh Bro, the Sword Sect’s pretty ruthless. They didn’t even let him finish his sentence.”
Lu Yin indifferently replied, “Since they’re here to exterminate their opponent, it’s already too late for words.”
The commanders and officers in the Central Coalition that Lu Yin had ordered hits on had not had a chance to speak up either.
There was a loud roar, and waves of energy swept across the entire battlefield. Off in the distance, a few stars collapsed and formed a black hole. At the same time, one of the Charm Mountain Sect’s battleships caught fire and was shredded into countless pieces by sword qi. Not a single intact corpse could be found amongst the wreckage.
“The Charm Mountain Sect is willing to surrender to the Sword Sect. Why not put an end to this slaughter, Sword Sect? The Charm Mountain Sect is willing to surrender!” shouted an old, male Enlighter with a maniacal desperation, but his skull was soon pierced through by a streak of sword qi. The light left his eyes as despair filled them right before he died. His expression stood in stark contrast to the Sword Sect disciple who was still standing.
The person who had killed the elderly Charm Mountain Sect Enlighter was a powerful disciple of the Sword Sect, and he was wearing a crimson red robe. In Lu Yin’s eyes, this man had the second highest number of rune lines on the entire battlefield, and according to Lu Yin’s estimation, this man’s power level should be greater than 400,000. The person with the most rune lines on the battlefield was actually a scrawny, unremarkable man on the side of the Charm Mountain Sect. It was possible that the people from the Sword Sect had not realized it yet, but that scrawny man was actually the strongest person on the entire battlefield.
Currently, the scrawny man’s opponent was a mere Hunter from the Sword Sect. No matter how amazing the sword techniques unleashed by the Hunter were, everything was easily swept away by the scrawny man’s power.
Upon seeing that the death of Charm Mountain Sect’s elder did not bring a stop to the Sword Sect’s slaughter, the scrawny man’s eyes grew cold. “Sword Sect, you’ve gone too far!”
As he spoke, he grabbed the Hunter’s sword and instantly crushed it. The skinny man then slapped the hilt out of the Hunter’s hand, and to the Sword Sect disciple’s shock, disintegrated the hilt within the void.
A terrifying pressure emanated out from the scrawny man and washed across the battlefield, attracting the attention of numerous Sword Sect powerhouses. A wave of sword qi quickly attacked the man.
The scrawny man simply scoffed and nonchalantly waved a hand to dissolve all of the incoming sword qi.
At that moment, the Sword Sect powerhouse in the crimson red robe appeared. “So you’re still alive. Were the rumors from a hundred years ago fake?”
The scrawny man’s eyes remained as cold as ice. “Does it matter if they were real or fake? Since I’m not dead, I beseech you, Elder Li: end this war. My Charm Mountain Sect is willing to submit to the Sword Sect.”
Elder Li sneered, “You should have known that this would happen sooner or later. The Charm Mountain Sect made its choice back then, and you must now face the consequences.”
The scrawny man fiercely growled, “The reason why you want to exterminate my Charm Mountain Sect is just because we tried to help Daynight Flowzone during the recent chaos. Elder Li should understand our difficult position, as we are stuck between the Daynight clan and the Sword Sect. It’s difficult for us to even survive.”
“There’s no excuse for swaying wherever the wind blows. The Sect Leader personally ordered the Charm Mountain Sect’s doom this day. In fact, he no longer wishes to see the words ‘Charm Mountain Flowzone’ on a star chart. It’s time for this flowzone to have a new master.” As Elder Li spoke, he drew his sword. This time, his sword qi had reached a power level of more than 400,000, and it sent a shockwave rippling through the battlefield. It was impossible to tell how far the force of this sword could go, and it was possible for it to even split Charm Mountain Flowzone in half.
The scrawny man shouted in rage, “Today the Sword Sect exterminates Charm Mountain Flowzone, and tomorrow, another flowzone might fall as well! Do you have no fear of the surrounding flowzones allying together to withstand the Sword Sect’s tyranny?”
“Try us!” Elder Li cried out.
Within his spacecraft, Lu Yin simply watched the fight. This showdown between the two powerhouses had left the rest of the battlefield in silence. The aftershock from the collision of the two powerhouses’ techniques swept through the entire region.
Lu Yin realized that he had forgotten about a certain detail. Out of the Innerverse’s eight major flowzones, the most powerful ones had always been the Sword Sect and the Daynight clan. Naturally, the two had always been fighting for the top position and had thus kept each other in check. However, after Lu Yin had destabilized the Daynight clan with a massive blow and forced the Daynight clan to essentially isolate itself, the Sword Sect had immediately seized this opportunity to take action. They had become uncontrollable in their advances due to the lack of a strong rival, and that was not good.
Lu Yin glanced over at the Sword Sect cultivator escort nearby. Could they have brought Lu Yin to this place so that he would witness the battle as a warning? Could they be setting their sights on the Outerverse?
A united Outerverse was not something that benefited the Innerverse, and at this moment, the strongest and most influential power in the Innerverse was the Sword Sect. In other words, the Sword Sect would suffer the most from a united Outerverse.
Upon realizing this, Lu Yin’s eyes grew cold.
Everyone else on the battlefield was forced to endure the shockwaves coming from a battle between two powerhouses whose power levels exceeded 400,000.
All of the Sword Sect’s disciples retreated, as did the Charm Mountain Sect’s disciples. This entire area was left empty for this final confrontation.
The reverberations from the multiple clashes shook space, and they caused Lu Yin’s spacecraft to shake like a small boat caught in rough waves.
Many people felt suffocated by the experts’ star energy’s oppressive force. Elder Li’s sword qi was particularly violent, and it blinded many who simply caught sight of it.
Even though the man from the Charm Mountain Sect surpassed the Sword Sect’s Elder Li in terms of sheer power level, Elder Li was from the Sword Sect. Thus, it was not possible to properly evaluate his strength by just looking at his rune lines. Before long, the scrawny man from Charm Mountain Sect had been suppressed, and he was clearly at the end of his rope.
The people from the Sword Sect were fully confident in Elder Li, and they calmly watched the fight approach its conclusion.
Conversely, the Charm Mountain Sect disciples fell into despair.
“Sword Sect, you’ve gone too far! Even if the Charm Mountain Sect vanishes today, we’ll take you down with us!” the skinny man screamed with everything he had.
Elder Li had a ferocious expression, and he was about to swing his sword to end the fight, but at that moment, a figure appeared in front of him. That person was wearing universal armor, and they raised their left hand to block Elder Li’s attack. The skinny man from the Charm Mountain Sect struck the armor with full force, but the person remained unaffected. The figure then raised their right hand, held it against the Charm Sect cultivator’s abdomen, and sent the man from the Charm Mountain Sect flying with a loud bang as raging waves of energy shot out in all directions.
This immense impact tore the void apart and even forced Elder Li to instinctively retreat a few steps. Once he had re-stabilized himself, he looked at the figure in utter shock; just who was this person with such monstrous strength? This armored person had even managed to catch him by surprise, so if they had launched an attack instead… Elder Li did not dare to think of the outcome.
The person who had moved was naturally Lu Yin. He had not really saved Elder Li, as Lu Yin could tell from the rune lines of the Charm Mountain Sect’s elder’s attack that Elder Li would not have been badly injured even without Lu Yin’s intervention, but Lu Yin had still made a move. He wanted to do the Sword Sect a favor while also simultaneously demonstrating his own strength.
The Sword Sect planned to instill fear in other organizations with this war, but Lu Yin intended to do the same exact thing to them.
Elder Li was aware that the attack from the man from the Charm Mountain Sect would not have done much damage to him, but the surrounding Sword Sect disciples did not know this. To them, Lu Yin had just done them an unrequested favor.
“I apologize, Elder Li. This junior could not resist the urge to join the fight,” Lu Yin said apologetically.
Elder Li met Lu Yin’s eyes.
Some distance away, the man from the Charm Mountain Sect was coughing up blood, and he turned to stare at Lu Yin in terror. That child had actually completely disregarded his full strength attack and then caused him to spit out blood with just a slap! What monstrous strength.
Lu Yin’s universal armor had been upgraded seven times, and its rune lines were closely approaching a power level of 500,000. Naturally, someone with a power level of 400,000 could not break through it.
It had been a long time since Lu Yin had used his items to make up for a difference in strength, and it was invigorating to do so once again.
Elder Li shifted his eyes over to look at the Charm Mountain Sect’s elder. The coldness in Elder Li’s eyes turned into sword qi as he raised a hand and thrust his sword forward, piercing a hole in the void. This move was far more complex than any attack that he had previously unleashed. From what Lu Yin could tell, this move even contained some of the Thirteen Swords’ concepts. This strike reminded Lu Yin of Liu Xiaoyun, who had also made many attempts to imitate the Thirteen Swords despite never inheriting the technique.
The man from the Charm Mountain Sect had coughed out a mouthful of blood after taking a full strength blow from Lu Yin. This was actually to be expected as Lu Yin could fight against the corpse king, Beast, after it had undergone three transformations. Even though Enlighters with power levels over 400,000 could not match up to the skinny man’s strength, Lu Yin’s slap had injured the man quite badly, and it had left him too weak to avoid Elder Li’s blade. At last, the skinny man was cut to death.
As he watched the corpse of the man from the Charm Mountain Sect drift through outer space, Lu Yin was reminded of Northgate Taisui. Lu Yin had been terrified when he had first encountered someone with a power level of more than 400,000, but he had already become someone who could pose a threat to such powerhouses. How time flew by!
Surprisingly, more than half of the Ten Arbiters did not exceed the age limit of forty years old, and were thus still considered a part of the younger generation. Many of them were likely very close to the limit, but were lucky enough to qualify for ZENITH.
The death of the Charm Mountain Sect’s strongest member meant that the entire sect would collapse soon.
Such a scene was more than familiar to Lu Yin, and so, he felt no sympathy for the Charm Mountain Sect. If it were not for the Sword Sect, then the Charm Mountain Sect definitely would have helped the Daynight clan when Lu Yin had made his move, which would have ruined his plans. Ultimately, everything boiled down to fate.
Lu Yin had also experienced similar moments of despair on multiple occasions. This was simply the cruel reality of the universe.
“Are you Lu Yin?” Elder Li stared at Lu Yin with eyes that were filled with animosity and killing intent. It was clear that killing had become second nature to the man.
Lu Yin nodded and removed his universal armor. “Junior Lu Yin pays his respects, senior.”
Elder Li scanned Lu Yin, and his eyes gradually moved down to Lu Yin’s right hand. “Your strength is quite formidable. Not even I can match up to you.”
Lu Yin laughed. “Elder Li vastly surpasses me in terms of sword technique. I just happen to have a little more physical strength, so how could I compare with Elder Li?”
“Reaching a pinnacle is strength.” With that, Elder Li turned around and left.
