Big Pao was stunned by Lu Yin’s remark and asked, “How…?”
He then turned to look at the First Protector and quietly asked, “Is Senior actually an Imprinter?”
The First Protector just turned around and vanished. Imprinter? What an insult!
Lu Yin spoke up, “Almost. Tell me, Seniors, what happened to you?”
Big Pao and Little Pao glanced at each other. It was clear that they were both quite bitter about what they had gone through.
After separating from Lu Yin in the Starfall Sea, they had stayed at the Sea King’s Dome. They had been pursued for quite a long time, so they had used that peaceful period of time to quietly cultivate.
Then, disaster had struck.
The Sixth Mainland had invaded, and the Starfall Sea had been conquered. The two brothers were among the unlucky first batch of people who were captured by the Sixth Mainland.
However, they had not been captured by the Autumnfrost family, but rather by Justice Manor.
Justice Manor was a power from the Grand Martial Realm, and they were comparable to Flying Horse Manor. A few years after the brothers’ capture, they had been taken to Justice Manor in the Sixth Mainland and then transferred over to the Autumnfrost family. They were completely ignorant as to anything that had happened in the outside world during their captivity.
Later, the Sixth Mainland had been invaded by Aeternus, and the two had been transported to the Outerverse. Still, no matter where they had been taken, they had been told nothing at all as they were treated like mere cargo.
Lu Yin became curious; why would people from the Sixth Mainland have brought Big Pao and Little Pao with them when they had fled to the Outerverse from the Sixth Mainland?
“What were you doing for the Autumnfrost family?” Lu Yin asked.
Big Pao replied, “We don’t actually know, but it was absolutely enormous yet also very precise. I guess you could call it a tool. I’m not sure how else to refer to it.”
“It’s huge—it spans entire galaxies, but it’s also very precise,” Little Pao added.
“We needed to study with the Autumnfrost family for three whole years before we were qualified to participate in the production of this thing, but we’ve become very experienced. Our seniority was actually why the Autumnfrost family lowered their guard towards us, which gave us an opportunity to escape,” Big Pao said.
With this, Lu Yin finally understood. It was no wonder why the Autumnfrost family had made sure to save the two brothers from Aeternus; they had had to study for three years despite being Explorers. This made the difficulty of their task quite clear. The Autumnfrost family could not have very many Explorers, which meant that Big Pao and Little Pao had been more important than many of the ordinary Sixth Mainland cultivators during the retreat.
Still, Big Pao and Little Pao had not gone through too much during their captivity; for almost their entire time spent captive, they had been preparing to or working on the production of the tool. However, they never learned of the actual purpose of the tool they had been working on.
The fact that it could span an entire galaxy left Lu Yin incredibly curious. While a galaxy would be considered small to cultivators of a certain level; a galaxy covered a region of space that was easily traversed, even to Auroras, making size a relative concept. To date, Lu Yin had never seen any sort of construction that was comparable to a galaxy in size.
While the Technocracy had massive claws that were part of their ubiquitous surveillance system, those claws only existed within the manifested thoughts of the Master Brain, and they could never exist without that unique structure.
The Sixth Mainland did not prioritize developing or researching technology, so what sort of tool could the Autumnfrost family possibly be making?
The more Lu Yin thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong. After all, Ancestor Autumnfrost had died long ago. According to the timeline of the brothers’ story, it seemed that Big Pao and Little Pao had been acquired by the Autumnfrost family after their ancestor’s death.
“Was the Autumnfrost family already working on that tool before you joined the project?” Lu Yin asked.
The two looked at each other, but then they shook their heads. “Absolutely not. We were among the first to be trained.”
Lu Yin’s eyes glinted. It seemed that this project was something that the fake Ancestor Autumnfrost had initiated, and the true ancestor had been completely uninvolved. Things were becoming even more interesting. A tool that spanned a galaxy…
“Junior Lu, what level have you reached now?” Big Pao asked. He was quite curious, as they had just seen Lu Yin release an attack that was stronger than they could even imagine.
Lu Yin felt like he should act a bit modestly in front of his seniors. “I’m an Enlighter.”
Big Pao and Little Pao started to freak out a bit. “Enlighter?”
Lu Yin nodded.
The brothers were absolutely stunned. “Bro, how- you’re an Enlighter already? How did you pull that off? How long have you even been cultivating for? An Enlighter? That’s a power level of over 200,000!”
Lu Yin pursed his lips; a power level of more than 200,000? No, his actual combat strength was higher than an Envoy with a power level of 600,000, but he could not say that to these two. It would shatter their mentality, as the two had lived pathetic lives recently. They had been slaves, forced to focus all their efforts on making a tool for another.
“Junior Lu, you should be very close to matching up to the Ten Arbiters!” Little Pao said. This was something that the two brothers had never even dared to dream of. They both stared intently at Lu Yin. For their generation, the Ten Arbiters were untouchable existences, and with the passage of so many years, neither of the two could imagine how strong those ten must have become.
Right after Little Pao asked his question, the Astral River Ark docked at the edge of the Astral River in the distance.
Lu Yin thought of how he should answer for a bit. “Actually, I can already fight against the Ten Arbiters. They don’t pose much of a challenge.”
Big Pao and Little Pao were left completely speechless. Their junior was too much for them to accept.
Lu Yin gave each of the brothers a gadget so that they could catch up on what had happened in the Human Domain while they had been gone. After that, Lu Yin went to the First Protector to ask the old man to visit the Autumnfrost family to investigate what sort of tool they had been making.
The First Protector just glared at Lu Yin. “I need to go back now. I don’t have time for this.”
Lu Yin could clearly sense the old man’s displeasure. After all, Lu Yin had already tricked the First Protector numerous times during their trip to the Technocracy, and the old man had grown very wary of Lu Yin’s ploys.
“Senior, the Sixth Mainland sent people to First Edition City to request a massive number of androids to be sent to the Outerverse. They clearly are not up to any good. Don’t you want to find out what they’re planning?” Lu Yin asked.
The First Protector snorted, but he otherwise ignored Lu Yin. So, Lu Yin continued persuading. “Right now, there aren’t any powerhouses in the Sixth Mainland’s territory who can threaten Senior, and we only need to go to the Autumnfrost family’s territory, which is nowhere close to Southside Weave or the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect, which means that there’s almost no chance of running into any of their Empyrean Imprinters. Senior, you’re so strong that you’re almost comparable to the strongest people in the entire Sixth Mainland. And what if this tool is some grave threat to the Fifth Mainland? This is basically a free meal.”
The First Protector sneered and finally turned to look at Lu Yin. “Boy, say whatever you want, but it’s all useless. A free meal? I don’t need anything like that. Your status is high enough that I completed this mission, but I will most likely will not be leaving Mt. Microcosms anytime soon. Don’t forget, I am the First Protector of Mt. Microcosms, not of the Interstellar Supreme Court, and certainly not of the overseers.”
Lu Yin felt helpless, but it was clear that it would be useless to try to say anything more, as the old man was absolutely determined to leave Lu Yin.
Lu Yin did not dare risk going on his own, as Ancestor Autumnfrost was protecting the place that needed to be investigated. Even if the man was an imposter, there was no way that he was not a powerhouse, as there was no other way for him to have maintained control over the Autumnfrost family all this time.
This imposter was putting so much time and effort into building this enormous tool, and Lu Yin had only learned of it because Little Pao and Big Pao had managed to escape. They had to be carefully protected, and they would easily be discovered if they went with Lu Yin to investigate this matter.
At that moment, Lu Yin suddenly remembered that he had fought against the Autumnfrost family’s Uncle Hua when the man and others from the Autumnfrost family had been asked to go after Aegis by the Di family. Uncle Hua had an imprint of Ancestor Autumnfrost, but since the ancestor had died, how could Uncle Hua possibly have a dead man’s imprint?
“Alright, I’m going back to Mt. Microcosms now,” the First Protector said while looking at Lu Yin. “You can take care of things by yourself.”
Lu Yin bowed low. “Thank you for your efforts and protection on this trip to the Technocracy.”
The First Protector shook his head and left with the two Envoy-level androids.
Lu Yin was left with only Big Pao, Little Pao, and Emperor Luo.
Lu Yin looked at Envoy, who quickly bowed and said, “I await the alliance leader’s command.”
The cyborg had watched in First Edition City as Lu Yin had summoned clouds and rain. Emperor Luo had truly believed that they would all die if their identities were exposed, and yet Lu Yin had somehow established a cooperative relationship with First Edition City out of nowhere. Not to mention, there was a Semi-Progenitor supporting Lu Yin.
A Semi-Progenitor… That was an unfathomable powerhouse.
Even though Emperor Luo knew nothing about the Perennial World or the Lu family, it did not matter. He still understood that Lu Yin’s background was a universe-level power. With the Ross Empire gone, his options were to either rot away in prison or aid Lu Yin. It was impossible for Emperor Luo to even try to escape.
Lu Yin said, “Let’s spend some time in the Great Eastern Alliance for now.”
“Yes, Alliance Leader Lu,” Emperor Luo responded in a very respectful manner.
“By the way, was Dark Beast the one who reached out to you?” Lu Yin asked. When he had conquered the Ross Empire, in addition to Emperor Luo, there had also been a creature from the Astral Beast Domain known as Dark Beast. The creature had been sent to eliminate the traitorous sylvan dragon clan, but it had been captured by Lu Yin. The beast was still being held captive, as Lu Yin had not released it. The entire matter was a secret that one else was aware of.
Emperor Luo replied, “It did indeed seek out your subordinate. According to my understanding of the Astral Beast Domain, the Human Domain has no knowledge of such a creature’s existence.”
“Is there any way to control it?”
Emperor Luo shook his head. “Dark Beast was sent here to eliminate the sylvan dragon clan. Since the Celestial Beast Empire felt comfortable sending the creature here, it means that they are fully confident that it will not betray them. After all, it is a great risk to send any of their powerhouses into our Human Domain.”
Lu Yin was disappointed to hear this. He always hoped to gain more Envoys for the Great Eastern Alliance, as the more they had, the better. After all, Envoys were too uncommon. Unfortunately, if he could not control Dark Beast, the only option was to destroy the creature.
They boarded Lu Yin’s vessel and started making their way towards Blazing Mist Flowzone.
Before they left, Lu Yin glanced back towards the Outerverse’s western weaves. He could not be certain whether or not the Sixth Mainland would attack Sky Creation Academy, but still, with First Edition City keeping an eye on things, Lu Yin had accomplished his goal. This trip had been a success.
Origin Matter had appeared in the Sophic Rift, and that information had been shared with Qing Tan. Bluedome Elder and the Sixth Mainland’s other top powerhouses would absolutely pay attention to this matter, but if they could not verify the existence of Origin Matter, it was possible that they would not be willing to attack Sky Creation Academy.
Lu Yin could only leave things up to fate, and he could not force this matter. Naturally, he had hoped to keep the Origin Matter that he had revealed as Sky Creation Academy’s while also tempting the Sixth Mainland into attacking. His hope had been to emulate Shaman God’s plan, but that had been shattered by Kui Luo’s appearance.
However, if Kui Luo managed to become a Progenitor, it would be a very good thing for Lu Yin, as that meant that he would gain the support of a Progenitor! Only the future would reveal if Lu Yin had eaten a loss or profited from this trip.
A day later, Big Pao and Little Pao had finally reviewed all of the major events that had occurred during their years of absence. However, almost all of the biggest events were connected to Lu Yin! They really could not believe what they read when they next saw Lu Yin.
Lu Yin laughed at the two. “What? Do you not know me anymore?”
Big Pao was at a loss for words. “You- you’re Lu Yin.”
“I’m not a fake.”
Little Pao blinked. “The champion of ZENITH?”
“I got lucky.”
“The leader of the Great Eastern Alliance?”
“It just happened.”
“The enemy of the entire Innerverse?”
“Cough, that’s just a misunderstanding.”
“You invaded Blazing Mist Flowzone?”
“I just went to stop their war.”
“Price gouging?”
“Never happened.”
“Warmonger?”
“I’m a lover of peace.”
…
“The Interstellar Supreme Court’s Chief Justice’s bastard son?”
“Who would spread such rumors?”
“The most handsome guy in the universe?”
“…I must be.”
“Chronic liar?”
“I am the most honest person.”
.
