Upon hearing Xun Baitao’s words, Lu Yin’s eyes flashed. “The Xun family doesn’t want to be restricted to Ascension Flowzone?”
Xun Baitao was caught off guard, and he let out a dry laugh. “Haha, everyone wants to step further, as that’s simply human nature.”
“Yes, it is indeed human nature,” Lu Yin agreed with a smile.
At the side, one of the women arranged by Xun Baitao leaned closer and pressed her body up against Lu Yin, practically setting herself in his arms.
Lu Yin could no longer accept the situation, and he had the two women move back. They were both disappointed, and as they left, they both looked at Lu Yin with smoldering eyes.
The banquet enjoyed quite a harmonious atmosphere. Lu Yin was quite curious about the Xun family’s Gear Construction Technique, the Xun family itself, and even Ascension Flowzone. So, Xun Baitao answered his every question.
After a while, Xun Jiong approached Lu Yin and respectfully greeted him. “This little brother was reckless, and I offended Alliance Leader Lu. I beg for Alliance Leader Lu’s forgiveness, and this little brother will punish himself with three cups of wine.”1
Lu Yin suddenly stopped the youth and said with a smile, “Brother Xun doesn’t need to do this. I, Lu Yin, am not one to hold a grudge, and our disagreement was written off long ago.”
Xun Jiong felt grateful. He had lost his left arm to Liu Tianmu’s Fifth Sword, and he would not be able to exert his full strength for some time in this weakened state.
Lu Yin then said, “Brother Xun must have done this to make me, Lu Yin, look stingy. Since Brother Xun wants to drink, then I’ll accompany you.” After speaking, Lu Yin poured a glass of wine.
Xun Jiong quickly said, “Thank you, Alliance Leader Lu.”
After that, he drank the wine in his own glass.
Lu Yin also downed his entire glass.
When he saw Lu Yin finish his drink, the smile on Xun Baitao’s face grew even brighter. “Alliance Leader Lu is magnanimous, and I, Xun Baitao, will also offer a toast to Alliance Leader Lu.”
Lu Yin could not refuse the toast.
After several more cups, Lu Yin shook his head and suddenly had to grab the table with his hands to support himself, and he vigorously shook his head.
Seeing Lu Yin’s condition, Xun Baitao and Xun Jiong exchanged an odd look.
Resentment flashed through Xun Jiong’s eyes, and he nodded before slowly leaving the room.
“Alliance Leader Lu, is something the matter?” Xun Baitao asked, concern filling his voice.
Lu Yin felt curious. “Patriarch Xun, what kind of wine is this? It actually got me drunk?”
Xun Baitao smiled and replied, “It’s a wonderful wine that my Xun family specially prepared for Alliance Leader Lu. Do you like it?”
Lu Yin looked at Xun Baitao with confusion in his eyes. “What do you mean?”
Xun Baitao laughed, and everyone else at the banquet, including Elder Xun Ye and all of the other Xun family members, laughed as well.
“Alliance Leader Lu, there’s a question that I’ve always wanted to ask you—do you happen to remember Xun Qianye?” Xun Baitao asked.
Lu Yin vigorously shook his head again. “The Xun family member that I killed?”
Xun Baitao’s eyes narrowed. “Yes. Do you happen to know why he attacked you? What did you learn from him?”
Lu Yin and Xun Baitao stared at each other. “How should I know?”
“For example, a piece of paper that you found in the gun? Perhaps a list…” Xun Baitao spoke slowly, his voice completely cold. After he finished speaking, he released his full aura of a power level that exceeded 400,000. It spread out from the flying spacecraft and enveloped a great deal of the surrounding space.
In the distance, Dwayne Daynight and the others’ expressions changed. “There are Enlighters locking down space in this region.”
Wendy Yushan clenched her fists as she stared at the Xun family’s vessel.
The others looked somewhat panicked, as this terrifying strength had locked down space and the void, leaving them powerless. This was not someone whom they could go against.
Members of the Xun family appeared all around Lu Yin’s ship, surrounding everyone still on board.
Inside the Xun family’s vessel, Lu Yin lowered his head. “List? What list?”
Xun Baitao moved closer to Lu Yin and raised a hand that reached for Lu Yin. “So you still want to pretend.”
Just as he arrived in front of Lu Yin, Xun Baitao’s vision changed, and he was standing in a place that he had longed and ached for ever since seeing: Honor Mountain.
It was the heart of the Hall of Honor, and it was also where all of the Hall of Honor’s top powerhouses could be found within the Honor Zone.
When Xun Baitao had first visited the Honor Zone, he had been an ant that anyone could crush with a step, even if he had already been the Xun family’s patriarch. However, at this moment, he had become a member of Honor Mountain. No—he was the master, and there were nine people lined up before him, all of them kneeling. They were the nine overseers, and they all looked up at him. In the distance, Xu Baitao could see the top powers of the universe all crawling beneath his feet. He was the master of Honor Mountain, the master of the entire universe.
Xun Baitao grew short of breath before bursting out into laughter. He, Xun Baitao, had succeeded! Finally succeeded! After receiving the support of the Technocracy, he had then climbed up the branch offered by the Sixth Mainland to become the highest power in the entire Fifth Mainland. His Xun family had dominated the entire Neoverse. As for the Hall of Honor, the Cosmic Sect, and the Innerverse’s Sword Sect and Daynight clan, they all were at his mercy.
His crazed laughter echoed throughout the entire Honor Zone.
Suddenly, the top of his head cracked open. A hand had come down and slapped him into the ground. His body smashed through an entire world and then crashed into the surface of the Honor Zone.
Xun Baitao spat out a mouthful of blood. His eyes practically bulged out of his head as he stared at the incomparably massive hand crushing down upon him from above.
He mounted his strongest resistance, and the nearby star energy gathered into a strange weapon that tried to counter the massive hand. This was Xun Baitao’s strongest attack, and as far as he was concerned, even an Envoy would have to take note of this attack. However, his resistance was useless, and the hand smashed him deep underground once again. One slap after another fell down.
Puff.
Within the Xun family’s ship, Xun Baitao’s hand was only a few centimeters away from Lu Yin, but he could no longer move.
The Xun family members watching were all horrified; what was happening?
Lu Yin’s eyes were cold. He rose to his feet, and his hand moved slightly. Nearby, Xun Ye was about to shoot to his feet, but he was blasted into the hull of the ship and out into outer space. His body had been crushed, as it was impossible for him to survive Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palm.
A large hole had opened in the side of the spacecraft, and the vacuum of outer space sucked out all of the tables, chairs, and benches that had been used for the banquet.
All of the Xun family members stared at Lu Yin in horror. Their faces became pale, and their expressions grew hopeless.
In front of Lu Yin, Xun Baitao coughed up another mouthful of blood, and his vision became more and more blurred. He was currently enduring the full force of Daynight Praises, and after being struck by Skybreaker dozens of times, the damage was appearing on his physical body.
Although Xun Baitao had a power level that surpassed 400,000, his spiritual force was actually weaker than that of Qiu Shi and the others who had been in ZENITH’s final rounds. A single Daynight Praise was enough to destroy him.
This was the strength of a genius. This was the difference between someone raised with resources and an ordinary person.
Even if Xu Baitao’s power level exceeded 400,000, his flaws were still too obvious.
Qiu Shi, Xia Jiuyou, and the other finalists in ZENITH were actually much weaker than Xun Baitao, but those elites had no obvious flaws. For example, there was Qiu Shi. While her physical strength was drastically inferior to Star Devourer and Yuhua Mavis’s, Qiu Shi was not completely unable to resist the other two.
Also, while Liquor Hero’s spiritual force could not compare to Yao Xuan, Lu Yin, and the others, she would not be this easily stunned or even seriously injured by their spiritual force attacks.
But Xun Baitao was different. While he did have the power of his superior cultivation realm, his weaknesses were all too apparent. If he had participated in ZENITH, he would have struggled to enter the top ten. Yao Xuan’s spiritual force, Yuhua Mavis’s physical prowess, or Xia Jiuyou’s Triple Blade Will would all have been enough to land a fatal blow on this patriarch.
The universe’s top ten youths each possessed a combat power that would even surprise Envoys.
Lu Yin looked down at Xun Baitao as the patriarch gritted his teeth and lifted his head to stare back at Lu Yin. “You aren’t poisoned?”
Lu Yin’s mouth stretched into a smile. “What gave you the confidence to be so certain that I was poisoned?”
Xun Baitao’s face went pale, and he slowly stood up. “How is that possible? Wait, were you ready for us? Who betrayed us?”
Lu Yin felt amused. “It seems that your confidence lay in your own ability to poison me. Tell me, do you remember my fight against Nightking Zhenwu? He also poisoned me, and he did so in a manner that was impossible to avoid. Since I suffered a loss at that time, how could I allow myself to suffer such a thing ever again?”
Xun Baitao became desperate; he had poisoned the two women that he had sent to Lu Yin, and as long as they touched Lu Yin, he was sure to be poisoned. Also, as an extra precaution, Lu Yin’s seat had also been poisoned. It should have been impossible for Lu Yin to avoid the poison, and yet he had pulled it off. “How did you know that we would use poison?”
“Without poison, how else would you be able to handle me?” Lu Yin retorted.
Xun Baitao suddenly attacked. Star energy gathered at his hand in a strange arrangement, and he attacked Lu Yin with a palm. Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed, and his pupils transformed into runes, weakening the approaching attack. At the same time, Lu Yin raised a hand: Vacuum Palm.
Boom!
There was a tremendous explosion, and the entire ship was torn apart. All of the nearby members of the Xun family were caught up in the shockwave, turning to dust. Xun Baitao demonstrated the strength of an expert with a power level of more than 400,000, but he could only resist the Vacuum Palm. Truesight weakened Xun Baitao’s attacks to a power level of less than 400,000 while each of Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palms contained a power level of more than 300,000.
The two palms collided, and Xun Baitao tried to use the power of Lu Yin’s attack to escape. As for the rest of the members of the Xun family, he did not even about them—not even his own son, Xun Jiong. Lu Yin sneered; Xun Baitao was truly a ruthless person. After a moment’s thought, an astral chessboard appeared beneath Lu Yin’s feet. Space became the board while Lu Yin, the ship itself, and Xun Baitao all became chess pieces. Lu Yin then moved the chess piece that was Xun Baitao.
The patriarch’s vision changed yet again as he appeared right in front of Lu Yin. The worst thing was that Xun Baitao’s back was facing Lu Yin.
The patriarch could not react to the speed of Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palm, and his back erupted with pain. His bones instantly shattered, and his body bent into an unnatural U shape.
From the rest of the surrounding area, beams of light blasted at Lu Yin as the Xun family’s battleships attacked him.
Lu Yin let out a cold snort as he unleashed his domain. It spread throughout the entire region, dispersing all of the incoming attacks. Lu Yin’s massive domain was powerful enough to defeat normal Enlighters, so there was no need to mention these battleships.
Wendy Yushan, Ku Wei, and the others all appeared in space and began attacking the surrounding vessels one by one. They were in Ascension Flowzone, which was the Xun family’s territory, but the family did not have that many powerhouses, and none of them could stand up to Ku Wei and the others.
Lu Yin did not even bother dealing with such trash. Instead, he flashed over in front of Xun Baitao.
Another Vacuum Palm smashed Xun Baitao deep into a nearby barren planet. His body pierced through the gray rocks of the lifeless planet before descending the magma beneath the surface.
Xun Baitao collapsed, unable to move.
Lu Yin approached. “When the banquet started and you didn’t mention Xun Qianye or that list, I already knew that there was a problem. You risked it all to kill me just because of a list that I might only know about. This is an impossible task with the powers that are behind me. You should be very clear about your Xun family’s strength. Even if this plan had succeeded, your family would no longer have any place within the Fifth Mainland, and you would be hunted down throughout the entire universe for all eternity until you were completely exterminated. So, why even bother?”
Xun Baitao kept coughing up blood as he stared at Lu Yin with unwillingness filling his eyes.
[1] Cultural thing. People drink as a form of penalty/punishment for saying the wrong things or being late to the party etc. He’s saying he’ll drink to apologize. ☜
