Highsage Leon and Lu Yin stared at each other for a while. After a bit, the Pirate King grinned. “Good, you’re not speaking to me all stuffy-like! If you ever try to be formal, I’ll kick your ass. Remember, you’ve always been a part of Leon’s Armada, and this place is your family. You never need to be polite to us.”
Lu Yin nodded. “I know. That’s why I’ve never made any plans for the Cosmic Sea.”
“It’s time that you did. I’m not the only one here,” Highsage Leon retorted.
Lu Yin’s heart skipped a beat when he was reminded of this. “I almost forgot about that. What’s the deal with the Soldier Crew? I met one of their ships on the way here, but they completely ignored me.”
“It’s just bullshit. That’s how they treat everyone. They don’t pay any attention to anything, and all they do is patrol their chosen territory. It seems like they’re guarding something.” Highsage Leon pulled up his gadget and shared a map that indicated the Soldier Crew’s territory of the Cosmic Sea. “Anyone who enters that region gets their ass beat.”
“I heard that the Ignition Crew got beat before.”
“Not just them. The same thing happened to the Longevity Brigade, and even some people from the Hall of Honor were kicked out. I don’t actually know what happened with the people from the Hall of Honor, so maybe they learned about something and decided not to do anything about the situation and just leave the Soldier Crew in their little area.”
Lu Yin grew curious. “Just how strong is the Soldier Crew?”
Highsage Leon’s eyes narrowed. “They’re a bit strong. While they don’t have any real powerhouses, they coordinate with each other and launch joint attacks like a military formation. Honestly, all of them act like veterans from a war.”
“Can they stop you?”
“Bullshit! How could they force me back?” Highsage Leon became upset.
Lu Yin stared at the map demarcating the Soldier Crew’s territory. Were they really guarding something?
“Anyway, as long as you don’t enter that region, you’ll be fine. The Soldier Crew has never left that place. Don’t provoke them, and they won’t mess with you. That’s how it works,” Highsage Leon said.
Beep beep beep!
There was a soft sound from Lu Yin’s gadget. He looked down and saw that it was actually a call from First Edition City, so he quickly answered.
“Alliance Leader Lu, the person you asked us to look for has appeared.” Lu Yin heard the voice of the vice city master, Little Bear.
Lu Yin’s gaze turned sharp. “The old woman?”
“Yes. She went to Sky Creation Academy.”
“And then?”
“She disappeared and has yet to be seen since.”
Lu Yin let out a sigh of relief. Wang Si was gone. She should have headed back to the Perennial World. Bai Laogui had already left, so Lu Yin was safe for the moment.
He truly had no ability to protect himself from a Semi-Progenitor. Originally, he had intended to reach out to Kui Luo to ask the old man to be his protector, but with Wang Si gone, Lu Yin no longer needed to look for Kui Luo.
Lu Yin had actually tried to call Kui Luo before he ran into the Arcadian Arrow Crew, but he had not been able to connect to the old man. Lu Yin had no idea what the old man was doing at the moment.
Lu Yin stayed with Leon’s Armada for the next few days, growing more familiar with the Cosmic Sea. He also spent time with Big Sis and discussed his recommendation for her to become an overseer with her, but she refused without any hesitation. In her own words, being an overseer meant losing her freedom, and she preferred to roam about the Cosmic Sea.
Lu Yin verbally agreed with her, but the truth was that the overseers’ council needed to have a full roster of members, but Lu Yin could not think of a single suitable candidate to be the final member aside from Big Sis. Whether or not Big Sis was willing was not something that Lu Yin could afford to consider, as he needed to focus on the bigger picture.
After several days, Leon’s Armada set out and made their way towards the west. They were on their way to drop Lu Yin off at Gaia’s Swamp.
Lu Yin was out of death energy, and he desperately needed to replenish his reserves.
After more than half a month of travel, the warship arrived at a place close to Gaia’s Swamp. Lu Yin then said goodbye to Highsage Leon and Big Sis and continued on to Gaia’s Swamp by himself.
He had spent nearly a month with Leon’s Armada. During that time, he had dealt with daily tongue lashings from Big Sis while Highsage Leon had forced Lu Yin to drink and had beaten up the youth twice. Still, Lu Yin was in a great mood, as that time was spent with the people whom he considered his family.
Outsiders saw how fierce and vicious Leon’s Armada was, as well as the fact that Highsage Leon was the Pirate King. However, Lu Yin found them to be kind and considerate.
During this one month period, countless slashes marred Lu Yin’s body. Every single one of them was from Highsage Leon’s massive saber. Lu Yin had not been allowed to use any sort of medication on his wounds, so he could only wait for them to slowly and naturally recover.
…
Lu Yin stared at Gaia’s Swamp from a few million miles away. This was already his third time visiting the prison.
His first visit had been during the prison riot. The second time was right after Gaia’s Swamp had been attacked. Lu Yin had no idea what this third visit might hold.
This thought actually caused Lu Yin to feel a bit apologetic, as the Warden had most likely already learned that Liu Huang and the Second Nightking were with Lu Yin.
Lu Yin’s assumption was quite accurate, as the Warden was indeed aware of this.
The entire Daynight clan had joined the Great Eastern Alliance while the Second Nightking and Liu Huang were both active powerhouses within the Great Eastern Alliance. When the Warden learned of this, he actually wanted to personally go to the Innerverse, recapture the two prisoners, and drag them back to Gaia’s Swamp.
Unfortunately, that would have to stay as a dream for him, as he was aware of the fact that he could defeat neither of the two powerhouses.
When Lu Yin stepped into the Warden’s castle, the ground was shaking from the sound of the giant’s snoring, and massive jugs crashed to the ground one after another.
Lu Yin pushed a jug away and looked up, but all he could see was the Warden’s toes.
“It’s been some time, Warden.”
The snoring continued.
Lu Yin continued, “There were some unavoidable matters, so I beg Senior’s forgiveness. This junior had no intention of bringing harm to Gaia’s Swamp.”
The snoring continued.
“This is some wine that this junior brought you from the Cosmic Sea. I hope Senior enjoys it.”
The snoring continued.
Lu Yin had said what needed to be said, so he turned around and left. He had only stopped by Gaia’s Swamp in order to absorb some death energy.
After leaving the castle, Lu Yin released his domain. He noticed that Lord Piggy had buried himself in the swamp in order to avoid being seen by Lu Yin. Lu Yin did not go after the pig, and instead went to a random location in Gaia’s Swamp.
Some time later, the death energy in the prison surged as it was absorbed by Lu Yin.
The Warden stood up inside his castle. He rubbed his head and looked out into the swamp with an odd expression on his face. “Is the kid not afraid of killing himself from absorbing so much death energy? Not even the Specter clan can survive that much. I hope he doesn’t end up losing his mind.”
The Warden then picked up the jar of wine that had been left next to him and took a big drink. “It’s not bad, but you can’t smooth over what happened back then with just something like this. Huh? Why am I getting so sleepy? Is the wine really that strong?”
The colossal giant then turned his head to the side and fell back asleep.
Out in Gaia’s Swamp, Lu Yin quickly absorbed a large amount of death energy. As his cultivation improved, the amount of black and white mist that he could store in his chest also increased, which naturally meant that he was able to absorb more death energy.
Lord Piggy watched in horror as the death energy in the swamp churned. This was just too frightening! This person was nothing less than a monster! Lord Piggy immediately decided that he would never see Lu Yin again.
The newly increased amount of death energy led to a thicker black and white mist within Lu Yin’s chest. Fortunately, he still had the fatesand to conceal it.
It was not long before Lu Yin started to approach his limits. The river of death energy that he had been absorbing reduced to a trickle.
Suddenly, Lu Yin saw a face smiling at him. It belonged to an absolutely beautiful and stunning woman with a very sensual appearance. He stared at the face across Gaia’s Swamp and saw that the woman had golden eyes. What was with that?
Lu Yin soon descended to the ground and went to meet the woman. He had never seen this woman before, and she was not bound with any chains, which indicated that she was not a prisoner. “Who are you?”
The woman smiled at Lu Yin and gave him a small bow. “The Specter clan’s Tong Yu greets the lord.”
Lu Yin instantly became serious. Tong Yu? Where had he heard this name before?
Seeing the woman’s golden irises, a thought flashed through Lu Yin’s mind, and he blurted out, “The Dark Interstellar Supreme Court’s Judicial Commissioner Tong Yu?”
Tong Yu lifted her head back up and smiled at Lu Yin. “I’m honored that you’ve remembered the name Tong Yu, My Lord.”
Lu Yin instinctively took a step back and kept a wary eye on the woman. He had remembered her name because she was the one who had previously attacked Gaia’s Swamp. “Why are you here?”
Tong Yu replied, “I’ve been waiting for you, My Lord. Gaia’s Swamp is full of death energy, and My Lord would eventually come here to replenish your death energy, so this was the best choice.”
“Waiting for me? Also, don’t call me ‘My Lord.’ I don’t have anything to do with the Specter clan,” Lu Yin refuted.
Tong Yu blinked. “You are the lord of death energy, so how could I call you anything else?”
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed, but he did not disagree with the woman. In fact, it was impossible for him to do so. This woman had almost killed the Warden. That giant was practically invincible within Gaia’s Swamp, which meant that Lu Yin stood absolutely no chance against this woman.
“For you, My Lord, it’s possible that death energy is merely another kind of power, but for us members of my Specter Clan, death energy is our religion and purpose.” Tong Yu calmly stared at Lu Yin. “For us, being without death energy is no different from another cultivator being without star energy. Without it, there is no means of cultivation or survival. The creator of death energy was the legendary God of Death, and you, My Lord, are the God of Death’s heir.”
“So I can order you to do things,” Lu Yin said bluntly.
Tong Yu smiled. “Of course. No matter what My Lord’s orders may be.”
“I want money. A lot of it.” Lu Yin spoke rudely, but this woman had been waiting for him in Gaia’s Swamp for a reason, so he figured that he would push things as far as possible to test things out.
Tong Yu twined a bit of hair around a finger. She looked completely confused. “Money? You want a lot? I’ll find a way to get that for you.”
“Are you broke despite being a great Deputy Chief Justice?” Lu Yin did not believe her.
Tong Yu shrugged. “When you mention money, My Lord, I believe that you should be talking about star essence. That’s valuable to most cultivators because they can absorb the star energy from it, but that’s useless for us.”
Lu Yin was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly realized the truth of her words. Sure enough, star essence would be useless to members of the Specter clan.
“My Lord, I’m curious. Why do you desire so much money?” Tong Yu was genuinely quite curious, and her golden eyes sparkled. With her fingers toying with her hair and her head cocked to the side, she did not look like an old monster, but rather like a naive little girl.
Lu Yin grew more and more on guard. The more this woman acted innocently and tried to get him to relax, the more nervous Lu Yin became. Still, no matter how on edge he was, it would be useless, as this woman could crush him like a bug with no more than a single finger.
“Everyone has some kind of hobby” was all that Lu Yin could find to say.
Tong Yu laughed. “Very well, I will try my best to find some money for you, My Lord. The more, the better. In that case, I will steal from the Mavis family when I have an opportunity.”
“What are you doing here?” Lu Yin asked.
Tong Yu finally released her hair. “Nothing really. I just wanted to meet you, My Lord, and also determine how powerful your absorption of death energy has become.”
“Oh? How did I do?”
“Amazing.” Tong Yu gave him a thumbs up as she exclaimed, “You are truly amazing, My Lord! You can absorb death energy faster than anyone else. It did not even seem like you were absorbing death energy, but rather star energy.”
“Isn’t absorbing death energy the same thing as absorbing star energy for members of the Specter clan?”
“It’s not the same as drinking water,” Tong Yu muttered as she rolled her eyes at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin frowned. “Well, if there’s nothing else, I’m going to head out, and you can leave now too.”
Being so close to an expert who could easily kill him was extremely nerve racking for Lu Yin, especially since he could not determine if this woman was a friend or foe. It was extremely uncomfortable.
