A war would not end just because of a single human or corpse king’s life or death. Someone else would need to find a way to handle the giant corpse king.
There was a tremendous boom that shook the ground so badly that the metal surface everyone was fighting on started to split apart, and Lu Yin lost his footing. Off in the distance, an Envoy was crushed into a bloody pulp by the massive corpse king, and the remnants of the powerhouse fell out of the true universe.
This person was the second Envoy to be killed, their death caused the blood to drain from Lu Yin’s face. Not only had the enormous corpse king stopped the sourcebox array from functioning, but it was also eliminating Envoys at the same time. Up above, at the second array base’s headquarters, Colonel Chun had kept one of the giant corpse king’s occupied, and Long Laogui had helped finish it off. But at the second forward base camp, Colonel Zuo was the only person present who was capable of handling the giant creatures, but he was already preoccupied with Marquis Green Bamboo. Thus, Long Laogui was not present to offer his help.
Nobody else else on the battlefield could do anything, as none of them could be the enormous corpse king’s opponent.
Hua Beibei ran over nearby Lu Yin. “Expert! Please save me!”
Lu Yin turned around and waved a hand, instantly killing the corpse king that had been chasing after Hua Beibei.
Hua Beibei looked extremely pathetic at this moment. One of his arms was broken, and his upper body was also stained with blood. He wailed, “Expert, I’m so glad that I found you! If not for you, I’d already be dead! These monsters are terrifying!”
Lu Yin had only saved the youth because it had been convenient to do so.
Deep in thought, Lu Yin’s brow furrowed tightly as he continued to stare at the massive corpse king that had already single-handedly dealt with two Envoys.
Hua Beibei’s vision followed Lu Yin’s line of sight, and the youth’s face immediately went pale. He fearfully shouted, “Expert, you can’t possibly be thinking of fighting that thing! Don’t even think about it! Let me tell you, an experienced senior who survived four tribulations from the Celestial Frost Sect died at the hands of one of those giant corpse kings here on this great battlefield. That creature is not something that you can handle! Only someone like Colonel Zuo can fight against that thing head on.”
Just as Hua Beibei finished speaking, he suddenly remembered that this young man before him was another colonel.
“I meant someone with Colonel Zuo’s strength.” Hua Beibei quickly modified his earlier comment.
“Two Envoys from the Star Alliance have already been killed by that thing,” Lu Yin solemnly commented.
Hua Beibei sighed. “There’s nothing that we can do to help. Without a top powerhouse stepping in, we have to leave that monster to the Star Alliance to handle. They’re the only ones on this battlefield who don’t fear death.”
Lu Yin’s focus sharpened. He remembered the first time that he had heard of the Star Alliance; back then, he had been traveling to the Liu family’s Sword Monument with Long Kui. The two of them had watched an unwilling man be dragged away to join the Star Alliance. Lu Yin had been completely ignorant of the details about the Star Alliance.
As Lu Yin’s status and reputation had risen, and he had also interacted with more powerhouses, and he had slowly started to learn a bit more about the Star Alliance.
The Star Alliance was actually the Envoy Alliance, which meant that only Envoys were eligible to join them. These Envoys were not from any of the influential powers such as the four ruling powers, the Liu family, or the Nong family. Instead, all of the Envoys in this alliance were people who had committed major crimes and needed to atone for their actions.
It was no easy feat to cultivate to the Envoy realm, and even the four ruling powers could not bear executing such powerhouses for their crimes. Thus, the Star Alliance had been established as a punishment for criminals at the Envoy realm to become a sharp blade wielded on the battlefield behind the Mother Tree. It was a team from Star Alliance that Hua Beibei had referred to as being unafraid of death.
It was precisely because of the Star Alliance’s assistance that the second forward basecamp had been able to endure for so long. Envoys from the alliance could be found everywhere on the battlefield.
As far as outsiders knew, Star Alliance was formed from Envoys who had committed crimes, and only a few people were aware that, while there were indeed criminals in Star Alliance, the vast majority of the Envoys in the alliance were conscripted into the alliance merely because they were not loyal to the four ruling powers.
The four ruling powers ruled the Perennial World, not just the Higher Realm. The Middle and Lower Realms were also under their control, and independent Envoys were seen as individuals who could potentially rebel against the four ruling powers. Thus, such people were either killed or conscripted. The slow disappearance of such dissenting voices contributed to the ever increasing authority that the four ruling powers enjoyed within the Perennial World.
The Envoy that had been kidnapped while Lu Yin was making his way to the Sword Monument had been one of the cultivators who had refused to surrender to the four ruling powers. His family’s influence might have been destroyed, or his family might have been granted peace by him joining the Star Alliance. Lu Yin was unaware of which possibility was true, but he knew that the Star Alliance was not a symbol of the Perennial World’s glory, but rather of their sorrow.
However, the Star Alliance was also a nightmare for these monsters.
After seeing another Envoy sent flying through the sky by the enormous corpse king, a determined expression appeared on Lu Yin’s face, and with a few quick steps, he disappeared. Hua Beibei was knocked backwards by the shockwave kicked up by Lu Yin’s impressive speed, and the cowardly young man helplessly stared off into the distance; that young expert had still decided to go help; how righteous!
Lu Yin was not someone who enjoyed chasing after death, and he had only made his move with the full awareness of the fact that he possessed the Cloudguard Robes, the Ce Secret Art, and the Teleportation Formation. On top of that, he had only decided to take action after observing the giant corpse king for quite a while and confirming that he would not be killed by the creature. Given his abilities, Lu Yin would fight whenever he was able to. This was humanity’s main battlefield, and they could not afford to retreat even a single step.
Both of the massive corpse king’s legs were entangled with the red light of the sourcebox array, and the energy had left deep cuts on the creature’s legs. A man stood before the mountainous corpse king, and he roared in fury as he wielded a sword, unleashing countless slashes with his blade. Some of the attacks were illusory, but others were real.
The enormous corpse king raised its arms to block the approaching attacks, and then it retaliated by sending a powerful slap towards the swordsman. It was at this moment that Lu Yin appeared right in front of the giant corpse king, and he released multiple Vacuum Palms with an upraised hand.
Dozens of palms struck the massive corpse king on the forehead. Despite the fact that Lu Yin’s Vacuum Palms could not harm the creature, the impact of so many attacks to its head still surprised the corpse king.
There was another, elderly Envoy underfoot, and the old man suddenly attacked. The man’s body flushed red as flames enveloped him that consumed even the void. These flames then began to spread from the man and creep up the corpse king’s leg.
The corpse king looked down and took a single step away, but this movement aggravated the wounds on its legs since the motion only increased the amount of contact with the sourcebox array’s red energy. The flames immediately leaped at the blood leaking from the creature’s wounds, though the corpse king did not seem to care.
The Envoy quickly fled after seeing his efforts accomplish nothing.
As for Lu Yin, he caught a glimpse of the corpse king’s palm slamming towards him. He first thought that he would be able to evade the creature’s attacks with the Ce Secret Art, but he belatedly realized that he had sorely underestimated the abilities of the giant corpse king. As its palm swung towards Lu Yin, the void destabilized, which made it impossible for Lu Yin to even trigger the Ce Secret Art.
It was universally understood that any entity that possessed the strength of an Envoy would never be an easy opponent, and despite seeing the massive corpse king kill two Envoys, Lu Yin had still believed that he would be able to utilize the Ce Secret Art to stall the creature for a period of time. He had truly been too naive.
Unable to do anything, Lu Yin took a full hit from the corpse king’s slap, and he spat out a mouthful of blood as he flew through the air. He tried to twist his body around, but he found that he could not even move a single muscle. The power of the corpse king’s attack was so overwhelming that Lu Yin had been completely immobilized. With no other option, Lu Yin repeatedly tried to use the Ce Secret Art, and just as he was about to hit the ground, he managed to use the Ce Secret Art to create a bit of a buffering distance between himself and the metal ground. Even though not all of the force was dispersed, it was still much better than smashing into the ground at full speed.
Lu Yin rose to his feet and coughed out yet more blood as he looked up. His injuries were quite bad, and not even the Cloudguard Robes had been able to fully protect him from these injuries. If not for the fact that the flame-controlling Envoy had attacked at the same time, the corpse king’s attack against Lu Yin would have carried much more power.
Somewhere near Lu Yin, a middle-aged man stepped out from the void. Behind him, there was a dead corpse king.
That man had witnessed everything earlier, and he remained focused on Lu Yin.
Lu Yin quickly swallowed some pills with medicinal effects as he tried to catch his breath, and at that moment, a colony of terror ants started running rampant across the battlefield. In response, Lu Yin raised a hand to clear out some of the ants as he fiercely glared at the giant corpse king in the distance, racking his brain to come up with some means of dealing with the creature.
While still in deep thought, Lu Yin felt a piercing gaze from someone who had been focused on him for quite some time. He turned to look at this person, and he found a middle-aged man with messy hair and ungroomed stubble. There was a listless expression on the man’s face, and he looked quite dispirited and like a vagrant. This man had been staring at Lu Yin nonstop the moment the youth crashed to the ground, and the man’s eyes had never shifted away.
Lu Yin met the man’s eyes, and the eyes that had originally seemed empty and soulless abruptly changed after the two made eye contact. The man looked shocked at first and then agitated before the dull and glassy expression ultimately returned. A gamut of emotions had run across the man’s face in a single moment.
“Why are you staring at me?” Lu Yin asked cautiously, as it was certainly not impossible for Redbacks to reveal themselves in the middle of combat on this battlefield.
The man continued to stare at Lu Yin. He had initially been looking at Lu Yin’s back, but he had finally gotten a clear look at Lu Yin’s face after the young man had turned around. All that the older man could think of was how Lu Yin greatly resembled his young master. The middle-aged man had not expected to run across someone with that face ever again.
Sadly, the young man was not his young master, but rather someone who just looked somewhat similar to him, nothing more.
“Hey, brat, why did you charge towards that thing? Don’t you fear death?” The man spoke with a jaded voice and used a casual tone that revealed his loneliness and disheartened state.
Lu Yin frowned. “Should I run away out of fear?”
The man’s eyes glimmered as he continued to stare at Lu Yin. Suddenly, the man smiled. His smile was happy, carefree, and unrestrained. When this smile appeared, the nearby corpse kings and terror ants all dropped dead. The man had not used stellular energy, nor a battle technique. Instead, he had used something that Lu Yin was quite familiar with: battle force. However, the battle force that the man had used was colorless.
Lu Yin was taken aback. His domain let him sense just how formidable this man’s battle force was. He did not have the means to describe it, but it felt like a hibernating beast had just bared its fangs. The moment Lu Yin’s domain made contact with the man’s battle force, Lu Yin had felt as if his entire being had been exposed to a beast’s open maw.
“Just now, you used ten-lined battle force, right?” the man asked as he shifted his head to look at the giant corpse king.
Lu Yin denied nothing, as he had indeed supported his Vacuum Palms with battle force when attacking the massive corpse king.
“Little brat, watch closely. This is what battle force looks like after you surpass ten lines. This is aurelian force.” The moment the middle-aged man spoke, the air at the man’s feet began to move despite there being no wind. The current even brushed against the void, as though endless waves were lapping at it. As the distorted portion of the void spread out, every human, corpse king, and terror ant enveloped within the invisible energy’s range instantly froze in place, and fear appeared on their faces.
Off in the distance, the Envoy-realm swordsman who was facing off against the enormous corpse king looked over in surprise the moment he came in contact with the ripples in the void. The swordsman looked over at the middle-aged man who was the source of everything and said, “Brother Zhou, is that really necessary? Just wait a bit more. We’ll manage somehow.”
The swordsman had sharp eyes, and his aura shot through the sky. Even the broken sword seemed to resonate with the man as it trembled for a moment, which caught Colonel Zuo’s attention.
“Even if the main family were here, they would still support my decision, regardless of whether it’s right and wrong. We are on humanity’s battlefield, and even an Enlighter realm kid is willing to put his life on the line. As for me, Zhou Tang, I cannot do any worse as that would bring shame to the main family as I was once given the surname of ‘Lu.’” As the man spoke, a terrifying aura swept out to the horizon. It spread out in all directions and passed through both the sky and the ground. The man who was the source of it all looked like a peerless ruler. While his battle force was invisible to the eye, it burned and melted the void.
Countless people were stunned when they sensed the horrifying aura.
“That- that’s aurelian force! The highest level of battle force!” a pale-faced individual exclaimed. Although his face had drained of blood, his eyes blazed with excitement. He was also someone who used battle force, which meant that his desire to achieve aurelian force was the same as a domain cultivator hoping to reach the void realm. Encountering one’s goal would give them the impulse of wanting to bow down to it.
Lu Yin blankly stared at the middle-aged man while sensing the terrifying power that filled the surroundings. Was this what battle force felt like once it surpassed the golden battle force level? The unparalleled level of control and incomprehensible authority that emanated from it was the very essence of battle force, but what occupied Lu Yin’s thoughts at the moment was not the man’s battle force, but his words. The man had stated that while his name was Zhou Tang, he had once been given the surname “Lu,” which meant that this man was from the Lu family! He had even referred to the Lu family as the main family.
Far above Lu Yin, Colonel Zuo brow finally unfurrowed. With that man’s presence, humanity should be secure for the time being.
Across from Colonel Zuo, Marquis Green Bamboo remarked in surprise, “Well, if it isn’t an ex-retainer of the Lu family. To think that a group of traitors still needs to rely on the power of the Lu family’s ex-retainer. You humans truly are pathetic. If you hadn’t exiled the Lu family back then, then you wouldn’t be struggling so badly now.”
Colonel Zuo did not respond to the jab, but no one from the Perennial World would carelessly speak on that particular topic, especially anyone from the four ruling powers, as it was a dark mark on their collective history.
