“Official announcement.” Lu Yin faced everyone with a solemn expression, pointed at the Second Nightking, “This is the Second Nightking.”
He then pointed at Liu Huang. “He’s Liu Huang.”
Ling Qiu and others were shocked, including Madam Yōu. Not one of them had ever imagined that the Second Nightking and Liu Huang would suddenly appear, let alone actually be helping Lu Yin. More importantly, the Second Nightking had escaped from Gaia’s Swamp, so how could Lu Yin publicly reveal the man?
Lu Yin continued in a casual tone, “I already know what you’re thinking, and I’ll tell you right now that the Second Nightking’s presence can be made public. No one will make trouble for him, not even the Chief Justice.”
The moment Lu Yin said this last bit, everyone’s complexion changed. What did it mean that a prisoner who had escaped from Gaia’s Swamp who had exposed themselves would not be arrested by even the Chief Justice himself? It meant that the Chief Justice was supporting Lu Yin! Lu Yin actually was able to pull over even someone like the Chief Justice.
In the past, everyone had already known that Lu Yin was supported by the Hall of Honor, Eversky Island, and was also able to influence the overseers’ council to a certain degree. However, no one had expected that even the Interstellar Supreme Court was supporting the young man so much. This was truly mind-blowing.
A smile appeared on Lu Yin’s face. This was the reaction he had wanted.
The Second Nightking and the other escaped prisoners had been given back their freedom all because of Lu Yin’s accomplishments. However, since nothing that Lu Yin had done could be made public, people could only see the final results, which was that the Chief Justice was mysteriously offering Lu Yin help. This would have an incredible impact on the entire universe, and it struck Ling Qiu and the others especially hard, as they had become prisoners.
At this moment, they no longer felt like they were facing an enemy that was only composed of Lu Yin and his Great Eastern Alliance, but instead an enemy that also included the Interstellar Supreme Court and possibly the entire Hall of Honor.
“The Daynight clan and the Sword Sect have already joined the Great Eastern Alliance, while Chaos Flowzone and Blazing Mist Flowzone are both places that we control completely. The Divine Venom Dynasty also officially announced that it joined the Great Eastern Alliance half a month ago, which leaves only Soulseal Flowzone, Beast Tamers Flowzone, and Erudite Flowzone.”
Lu Yin looked first at Ling Qiu, and then at Mountain God. “So, you got anything to say?”
Ling Qiu and Mountain God had not been separated during their detainment that had lasted for more than half a month. The two of them had already discussed matters, and with their previous discussions combined with the power that Lu Yin had just revealed, their final decision was no surprise. Naturally, they joined with the Great Eastern Alliance.
If the Great Eastern Alliance was not an alliance, but a truly united force, the Lingling clan would rather fight to the death than give up their independence and sovereignty. However, they were merely joining an alliance.
“Alliance Leader Lu, are we also qualified to run for election to become the alliance leader?” Ling Qiu asked as she stared at Lu Yin.
The eyes of Liu Qianjue and the others all snapped back to Lu Yin, who smiled at them. “Of course. Anyone in the entire alliance is eligible to run for election. All of you are welcome to compete with me, and we’ll have a fair competition.”
Even if things had the appearance of fairness, Lu Yin would remain the leader of the alliance for as long as he was alive. When the Great Eastern Alliance had first been established, A proposal had been set forth to rotate the position of alliance leader after a set period of time, but who would dare mention such a thing? No one.
In the past, the Great Eastern Alliance had been composed of the Outerverse’s seventy-two weaves, but with this, most of the Innerverse’s major flowzones had also become members.
Erudite Flowzone was the lone holdout among the eight great flowzones. However, Lu Yin was in no hurry to go after Erudite Flowzone. He had instead asked Wang Wen and others to integrate the Innerverse’s forces as quickly as possible. All members of the Great Eastern Alliance were expected and required to send troops and experts to join the Allied Forces, and there were also matters of determining borders and more. Lu Yin had no energy to handle such affairs.
He was actually eager to look at the various ancient artifacts that First Edition City had sent to him, so Lu Yin announced he would enter seclusion for a period of time.
In order to ease some of the pressure the Great Eastern Alliance was facing to quickly withdraw from the Outerverse, Lu Yin had made an agreement with First Edition City that if they coerced the Sixth Mainland to attack Sky Creation Academy, Lu Yin would decompose various items into their raw materials for them for half a year. However, First Edition City had failed to follow through on their side of the agreement.??ℯ?wℯ?ｎ?ѵ??.?o?
Still, Lu Yin was continuing to cooperate with the city and intended to decompose everything they had sent him in order to have First Edition City maintain their vigilance towards Sky Creation Academy. This would allow Lu Yin to be informed as soon as possible if the Perennial World sent more experts after him.
Lu Yin at about a dozen items that had been sent to him. Each of them radiated an ancient aura. He took a deep breath, his eyes growing heated as he looked at the items.
He had no idea where First Edition City might have gathered so many ancient items from. Even though he needed to return the raw materials that were extracted from these items back to First Edition City, he would naturally keep a small bit of each thing for himself. These were materials that were practically extinct in the current universe, which meant that every single one of them was a priceless treasure.
He lifted a hand and brought out his die. He tapped it, and it slowly spun before stopping on five pips. Useless. Again. After spinning a second time, the die stopped on two pips, causing Lu Yin’s eyes to light up. He felt lucky to have gotten his desired roll so quickly after starting.
He immediately picked up one of the items and threw it into the Blackhole Disassembly and watched as the various component materials were extracted and separated. His eyes grew brighter and brighter as time passed.
***
Just as Lu Yin went into seclusion to decompose the ancient items, Xu San was feeling very, very uneasy. There was even a bit of panic. This was because Ancestor Lingtong had finally decided to attempt his breakthrough.
The man had his hands clasped behind his back and was standing in the middle of space. No one knew what was passing through the man’s mind at this moment.
Xu San and others from the Swifteyes clan were congregated far away, all of them holding their breath.
Behind Xu San stood Sixteen, and He Xiang was not far away. There were also members of the Sightless clan nearby, as well as representatives of many other forces from the Sixth Mainland.
The Ancestor Lingtong was the most powerful Cosmic Imprinter, and not even Empyrean Imprinters could be confident of killing the man. After Ancestor Lingtong broke through and became an Empyrean Imprinter, he would immediately rise to the top of the ranks and become practically invincible within his realm.
The corpse king who had impersonated Ancestor Autumnfrost had actually been killed by the cooperative efforts of Ancestor Lingtong and Ancestor Sightless.
“Brother San, don’t worry. The ancestor will definitely succeed at his breakthrough. It’s guaranteed,” Sixteen said encouragingly as he stared off into the distance.
Many of the gathered people held the same confidence as Sixteen. After Ancestor Lingtong passed through this breakthrough, the Swifteyes clan’s status would be transformed, and they would rise to the same level as the Sightless clan.
Xu San was very nervous, Master, you have to make it through this breakthrough! If you don’t, your disciple will be done for!
At this thought, Xu San glanced over at Sixteen. The man was staring at Ancestor Lingtong, but he still noticed Xu San’s stare, and so he turned his head to look back at Xu San. “Bother- Brother San, what’s wrong?”
Xu San’s expression changed. “Stay away from me.”
Sixteen was taken aback. “Why?”
“Just make sure you stay far away!” Xu San shouted.
Sixteen was startled by Xu San’s reaction, but he still quickly moved away while looking at Xu San in confusion.
Xu San glanced at the people surrounding him, and he lashed out again, “All of you, get back!”
No one dared to speak back, and they all hurried away in the same manner as Sixteen.
They were all quite puzzled, but Xu San was quite clear on the fact that while if Ancestor Lingtong succeeded, these people would all continue to fawn over him as they always had. Sixteen had even once swallowed an apple that Xu San had eaten half of. There was no limit to these peoples’ flattery.
However, if Ancestor Lingtong failed, everything would be over for Xu San, and Sixteen would definitely be the first to try to kill Xu San.
Xu San was no idiot, and he did not feel at all safe when surrounded by these sycophants who might turn on him at any moment. He looked around, but he actually felt even more nervous when he was all alone. He fled over to He Xiang, and looked at her shyly.
He Xiang was disgusted by his presence. “Stay away from me.”
Xu San shamelessly just smiled at her. “You’re my fiancée, so we should live and die together. We should absolutely be together at an auspicious time like the ancestor’s breakthrough. We should unite in order to cheer on our ancestor.”
He Xiang snorted in derision, but she also knew that she could not drive Xu San away. “Why don’t you stay with your little group of bastards?”
Xu San grinned. “They’re too noisy.”
He Xiang sneered, “Are you afraid?”
Xu San looked confused. “Afraid? Afraid of what?”
He Xiang stared at the man. “You should be wishing for the ancestor’s success more than anyone, as you’ll be done for if he fails.”
Xu San acted ignorant. “Done for? Why?”
He Xiang said nothing more, but instead redirected her attention forward. Her emotions were rather complicated at this moment.
If Ancestor Lingtong’s breakthrough was a success, Xu San’s status would correspondingly rise, and it would be impossible for He Xiang to resist her fate. She would be forced to marry Xu San, which was something that she did not want at all. However, she was even more unwilling to see the ancestor fail, as that would mean the fall of the Swifteyes clan, and then she would likely suffer a fate as bad or even worse than marrying Xu San.
With these mixed feelings, He Xiang glanced back at Xu San, and her eyes flickered. Even though the man was terrible, cheap, and without any sort of taste, at the very least, he was not stupid. While marrying him was bad, it was still an alright outcome. After all, it was still better than having any decision regarding her future taken from her.
Besides, she was confident of being able to stand up to him even after they married.
A loud noise filled the entire area, and everyone looked up to see space tear open to reveal a pair of eyes.
Peoples’ scalps grew numb; space had eyes?
Ancestor Lingtong opened his eyes and looked up, his gaze becoming focused. Was this an Empyrean Imprinter’s stellular tribulation?
Stellular tribulations would only start to appear when one tried to break through and become an Envoy. After that, another tribulation would appear every time that an Envoy made a qualitative increase in their strength. If it was tabulated with measurements, tribulations occurred with every 100,000 increase in one’s power level..
However, the recurring tribulations were not particularly powerful, and it was also possible for Envoys to employ various means to hide their power levels for those tribulations. Only the first stellular tribulation and the one that blocked the way to becoming an Empyrean Imprinter were ones where cultivators were completely unable to conceal any bit of their power level.
Reaching a power level of a million was the second massive hurdle, and it was the same as when one surpassed a power level of half a million.
The stellular tribulation that had appeared over Ancestor Lingtong’s head was actually the same as his innate gift of double sight.
As the eyes slowly became more clear, Ancestor Lingtong’s pupils shrank. He pointed a finger, and a ray of light shot out that was reinforced by nine lined battle force. This was his Aurora Beam.
The finger attack that had instantly pierced through the body of the fake Ancestor Autumnfrost and left Ancestor Sightless feeling chills suddenly disappeared halfway to its target. An overbearing pressure appeared, and with it, countless blood-red cones. Each cone was only about the size of a person’s hand, but their numbers meant that they covered the entire sky and blocked all of the nearby stars.
Ancestor Lingtong’s expression changed drastically. “Brightstone’s double pupils?”
The man’s eyes opened, and his double pupils converged. The void trembled in a wave that swept off into the distance.
Xu San and the others watching felt themselves being pushed back. Space erupted, and figures appeared in front of the crowd. Every single one of them was an Imprinter from the Progenitor of Bloodlines Territory, and they blocked the shockwave from harming anyone.
“Everyone, back up!” someone shouted fiercely.
Xu San and the others retreated, their faces pale.
He Xiang stared at the blood-red cones that were off in the distance. Her expression grew incredibly solemn. “That’s Akashi’s innate gift of heavy eyes.”
“Who’s Brightstone?” Xu San was puzzled.
An ugly expression appeared on He Xiang’s face. “Throughout the history of the Fifth Mainland, there’s been more than one person who’s had the double pupils innate gift. One of them was known as Brightstone, and their innate gift allowed them to create countless blood red cones, and each one would strike Brightstone’s enemy until they were dead. I never thought that the stellular tribulations could replicate the innate gifts of ancient powerhouses.”
