“How do you know where the queen ant is?” Shen Hai asked.
The man gasped for air before responding, “I- My name is Hua Beibei. I used to be from the Hua family.”
Everyone felt confused. It quickly became clear that no one had heard of the Hua family before.
Only Shen Hai and Cheng Ji, the older generation of powerhouses, seemed to have heard of it. “The Beast Masters? That Hua family?”
Hua Beibei nodded and responded, “Yes.”
Lu Yin asked, “Have you heard of it?”
Shen Haidao replied, “The Hua family is a family that specializes in hunting mutated beasts, and they are also quite skilled at controlling such creatures. They rose to power in the Lower Realm, and they are the foremost experts of the beasts in the Lower Realm. However, for some reasons that I’m unaware of, the Hua family rapidly declined decades ago. After that, it was said that the entire family joined the Celestial Frost Sect.”
“Are you from the Celestial Frost Sect?” Cheng Ji asked as he stared at Hua Beibei.
The young man nodded. “Yes. I’m a part of the Celestial Frost Sect, as well as a member of the Hua family. Since you already know about my Hua family, then you should trust what I say.”
Shen Hai nodded towards Lu Yin.
Lu Yin was staring at Hua Beibei. “So then, where is the ant queen?”
Hua Beibei pointed back in the direction that he had just fled from. Or, to be more precise, the direction of where he had hidden himself. “There.”
Cheng Ji arched a brow. “Were you hiding with the ant queen?”
Hua Beibei pursed his lips. “I was a little ways away from the queen.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier? We would have turned back!” Cheng Ji angrily demanded.
Hua Beibei felt quite offended. “You were already saying that a lot of people would die, so I assumed that you didn’t want to try to deal with the queen. That’s why I didn’t say anything, and no one asked either.”
Many people had to stifle their retorts and restrain themselves from beating up the youth.
Lu Yin felt that this matter was rather odd.
“Let’s go and look for the ant queen. Hua Beibei, stay close to me, and I’ll keep you safe,” Cheng Ji said.
Hua Beibei shook his head. There was a bit of fear in his eyes as he looked at Cheng Ji. Then, he quickly ran over to Lu Yin’s side and begged Lu Yin, “Big brother, please protect me!”
Cheng Ji felt the need to ask, “Do you two know each other?”
Lu Yin shook his head and turned to Hua Beibei. “Why are you asking me?”
Hua Beibei licked his lips. “My Hua family members are able to sense Beastmasters with just a glance because we’re a family of hunters. Big brother, you’re definitely this squad’s Beastmaster.”
Shen Hai felt truly amazed as he stared at Hua Beibei, as the young man’s response had done a great deal to convince the old man.
Cheng Ji was taken aback, and he looked back at Lu Yin before glancing over at Shen Hai. When Cheng Ji saw Shen Hai’s reaction, Cheng Ji was finally convinced. It seemed that the youth was a hidden powerhouse, and that aligned with Cheng Ji’s earlier suspicions that stemmed from how much respect Lu Yin’s original squad had shown him.
“Let’s go. The terror ants are closing in, and their numbers are only going to keep increasing. We need to deal with the queen as soon as possible,” Lu Yin said. He did not want to keep dallying any longer.
At Lu Yin’s comment, Shen Hai and the others from Lu Yin’s original squad naturally followed him. Cheng Ji and others had no objections, so the entire group raced back in the direction that Hua Beibei had fled from, and they quickly drew closer to the terror ants’ encirclement.
The humans quickly started attacking the countless terror ants that appeared in all directions as they needed to be eliminated.
Cheng Ji asked Shen Hai, “When will the general’s reinforcements arrive?”
Shen Hai shook his head. “They won’t get here anytime soon. Even if they do show up, we’ll still have to first clear a path through these terror ants. We can only rely on ourselves.”
“Where’s this Ah Qi from?” Cheng Ji asked.
Shen Hai replied, “I have no idea.”
Cheng Ji stopped asking questions. Instead, he raised his hand and focused on swinging his scimitar and decapitating the terror ants.
“Mommy!” Hua Beibei shrieked as a large number of terror ants burst up from beneath his feet.
Lu Yin raised a hand and unleashed a Vacuum Palm that smashed the cluster of terror ants to pieces. “Don’t be so jumpy.”
Hua Beibei felt rebuffed. “I’m scared…”
Lu Yin was caught off guard. How could someone like this be a part of the Celestial Frost Sect?
“Did your squad run into the queen ant?” Lu Yin asked.
Hua Beibei replied, “We didn’t see it. My squad didn’t have the strength to get that far.”
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed as he looked ahead. He had already spread his domain out, and there were more and more terror ants popping up around him. The ants, in turn, had sensed Lu Yin’s domain and begun devouring it. The sensation was incredibly unpleasant for Lu Yin.
He raised a hand and let loose a continuous rain of attacks, emptying the region in front of him. Cheng Ji and the others who had not witnessed his full strength before were all momentarily stunned. This sort of palm attack was simply too powerful for a mere Enlighter to be wielding this casually.
“Mommy, that’s scary!” Hua Beibei exclaimed again, startling Lu Yin. Lu Yin looked further ahead and saw that countless terror ants had started to gather together into singular mass, much like what he had witnessed in the Lower Realm. A sphere of terror ants like that was enough to even threaten an Envoy, and the sight caused everyone to go pale.
“Let’s go, we can break through together!” Shen Hai shouted fiercely as he attacked together with Cheng Ji. However, the swarm of terror ants shifted about, dodging their attacks. They moved as though they shared a single consciousness.
Lu Yin’s eyes darted about. “The ant queen is close.”
He leaped forward, and then his body flickered. The next time someone saw him, he was already in front of the mass of terror ants, and everyone stared in horror as he continued rushing towards the ants.
Hua Beibei’s pupils shrank; what was this? Did this person want to die?
Lu Yin charged straight into the horde. String hissing and snapping sounds came from all directions, making for a terrifying environment. Lu Yin could clearly see the ants’ sharp pincers snap at him, and even though he was aware that they could not harm him, it was still very disturbing. His immediate reaction was to wrap his golden battle force around his hand and attack in all directions.
The sphere of terror ants was blasted apart, and Vacuum Palms destroyed most of the ants.
Even if the queen ant was able to help the other ants coordinate and direct them to dodge attacks, such efforts were useless against Lu Yin. He continued charging straight forward, and none of the ants could evade due to the speed of his attacks, and so, the sphere collapsed.
“Keep going!” Lu Yin looked back at Hua Beibei.
Hua Beibei grew excited. “Ex , Expert! You are really a Beastmaster!”
Lu Yin was irritated at this impromptu title. You’re a beast master! Your whole family’s a beast master!
There were more terror ants the closer the group drew to the queen ant, but the ants were completely unable to stop Lu Yin regardless of how many terror ants appeared. He was like an arrow for his other group members, and the entire squad fiercely charged towards the queen ant. Despite the presence of the terror ants all around, no one could take a single step back.
Eventually, people began to be picked off by the countless ants snapping at them. Not even Lu Yin could take care of everyone, and even Shen Hai lost an arm to the swarm, not to mention the others.
“Master, the queen ant is hiding under the pile of bark just in front of you. Be careful!” Hua Beibei instructed. The young man looked very nervous. There were only two paths before them: either disperse the ants by killing their queen, or dying by being devoured.
Lu Yin’s domain extended to probe beneath the pile of bark, and he saw the queen ant there. This terror ant was dozens of times larger than the ordinary terror ants, and she was even larger than a person. A pair of antennae nervously twitching about as the creature seemed to be trying to detect something. When Lu Yin’s domain touched the queen, her antennae rose, and she emitted an odd chirping sound. Suddenly, countless terror ants swarmed over from all directions, clearly intending to protect the queen ant.
Lu Yin used his golden battle force without any restraint. He opened a hand and released a full powered, 350 Stacks Vacuum Palm that was strengthened by his golden battle force.
There was a boom as the void warped and cracked. Shen Hai and the others were all frightened by this attack, as Lu Yin had released an attack that was more powerful than what even some Envoys could achieve.
Naturally, Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palm was not something that the terror ants or the queen ant could withstand, but the attack failed. It had been slightly diverted by a scimitar, the weapon that belonged to Cheng Ji.
Seeing his attack foiled, Lu Yin felt that it was both expected and unexpected, as Cheng Ji had revealed himself as the Envoy realm traitor who had been killing squads and hiding terror ants.
There was a scream, and Cheng Ji’s entire squad suddenly attacked all of the other people. Shen Hai was enraged, and he shouted, “All of you are traitors!
Cheng Ji stood some distance away, up in front of the queen ant. Strangely, the surrounding terror ants completely ignored the human’s existence. The Envoy stared at Lu Yin. “You’re incredibly powerful for your age. I never expected a genius like you to show up, but unfortunately, you’ll never get the chance to mature.”
Lu Yin and Cheng Ji stared at each other. “How did you hide your cultivation realm from the general?”
Cheng Ji sneered. “Aren’t you more surprised by our numbers?”
“What is there to be surprised about? You killed everyone in your squad who wouldn’t follow you, and those who chose to become traitors survived. It’s normal for such people to work together and deceive others,” Lu Yin stated as though such a thing was merely a matter of course.
Cheng Ji nodded and clenched the scimitar in his hand. “That’s right, they made the right choice. I can give you the same opportunity as well—kill Shen Hai and his squad and become a traitor under me. I can even let you live a better life than the one you’ve lived so far. How does that sound?”
Lu Yin arched a brow. “I’m still curious about how you managed to keep yourself hidden from the general.”
Cheng Ji laughed. “That’s simple enough; I just drained every last bit of stellular energy from my body, absorbed a bit of star energy, and then used some special equipment. Normally, no Envoy would ever deplete their stellular energy due to how hard it is to gather and cultivate it, but that doesn’t matter to me. I’ll even abandon my cultivation if need be, as my mission is too important! Who would ever suspect someone who uses star energy of being an Envoy? It will take me a long time to recover, but I’m still strong enough to deal with you.”
Lu Yin understood that there were thousands of cultivators here who were not at the Envoy realm. What’s more, this person had used treasures to hide his strength while also reverting to using star energy instead of stellular energy. Who would check for such odd items? There were just too many people on the battlefield, and it would not be difficult for an Envoy to sneak through if they were willing to employ these methods.
It was precisely to deal with these kinds of experts that Humility’s Gate had dispatched so many powerhouses to the battlefield behind the Mother Tree.
“I’ll only say it a second time: kill Shen Hai and the others, and I’ll accept you as a traitor,” Cheng Ji said while looking past Lu Yin and focusing on Shen Hai and the rest of the squad.
Shen Hai and the others were busy fighting against both the terror ants and the traitors who were following Cheng Ji. Everyone heard Cheng Ji’s words, and they were all anxiously waiting to hear Lu Yin’s response.
Lu Yin sighed. “I suffer from a certain weakness: stubbornness. If I had wanted to become a traitor, I would have done so long ago, and I certainly wouldn’t have waited until now. Besides, I can promise that, if I ever become a traitor, I’d receive a position far above yours.”
Lu Yin sounded like he was joking, but after speaking, he raised his hand and threw out another Vacuum Palm.
There was a bang before Cheng Ji could even react. Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palm struck his blade again, but the weapon was not able to endure the force of a second attack, and it shattered. The Vacuum Palm continued on, slamming into Cheng Ji and knocking him backwards into the queen ant along with the shards of the scimitar.
The queen nervously wriggled her massive body.
Blood trickled from Cheng Ji’s mouth as he stared at Lu Yin in shock. “You’re courting death!”
With that, the Envoy stepped forward and entered the true universe.
Envoys enjoyed more than just the advantage of suppressing the star energy of everyone with a lower cultivation realm. Another important advantage was that cultivators at the Envoy realm and above could freely enter the true universe. In other words, they could launch their attacks while remaining untouchable to Enlighters and other cultivators who could not even see the true universe.
However, Lu Yin was different. When Cheng Ji entered the true universe, Lu Yin raised his foot and stepped forward as well. His surroundings shimmered as he entered the true universe at the same time as Cheng Ji.
