Arch-Elder Zen’s frown deepened. “She’s probably trying to use Ironblood Weave to carry out her schemes and alleviate some of the pressure on the Neohuman Alliance. If the place that you’re protecting is truly out of your control, I can’t say what will happen. It’s possible that something even worse than the Astral Beast Domain’s invasion is ahead of us.”
“I will do my best to not lose control, but you’d better find Whiteless God as soon as possible,” Xiu Ming said.
Arch-Elder Zen nodded and left, his heart heavy. He had thought that the incident with Burial Garden would be a turning point for the Fifth Mainland in dealing with the Aeternals. However, who would have thought that, even if six of the Seven Skygods were gone, Whiteless God alone would present such a terrible threat? She had been hiding her abilities for so many years, waiting for this moment to erupt.
No one knew who Whiteless God was, and the Fifth Mainland could not endure her schemes.
Fortunately, Lu Yin’s Great Eastern Alliance had already simplified many things for the Hall of Honor. Without the alliance, the Innerverse and Outerverse would still be fractured and disjointed. How could a fractured force possibly stand up to the Astral Beast Domain’s invasion?
Arch-Elder Zen glanced at the battle report from the asteroid field once again. Just how long could the Great Eastern Alliance endure for?
…
In the Outerverse’s Tyrannical Weave, Cemetery Keeper finally exited his seclusion.
The poison that had afflicted him in Ironblood Weave had not only forced him to use up all of the corpse puppets in Ironblood Weave, but also all of the corpse puppets in Justice Manor as well. Cemetery Keeper had used those corpse puppets as soon as he returned to Justice Manor, and they had allowed him to just barely remove the poison from his system.
Never before had he witnessed such a toxic poison before. This lone poison could be said to have reduced the overall strength of Justice Manor by 70%, as all of the disciples needed to refine their corpse puppets anew.
As Cemetery Keeper exited his seclusion, Corpse Looter gave the elder man a respectful bow. “Master.”
Cemetery Keeper said, “What happened in Ironblood Weave?”
Corpse Looter replied in an indifferent tone, “All who fought to defend Ironblood Weave died. There were no survivors.”
This was of no concern to Cemetery Keeper, not even if those people had died because of him. “Has the Astral Beast Domain entered the Outerverse?”
Corpse Looter replied, “Yes. At the moment, the Astral Beast Domain is entrenched in the asteroid field, and some have also entered Eastly Weave, Forested Weave…”
Corpse Looter provided a brief explanation of the eastern weaves’ current situation.
Cemetery Keeper listened quietly, and a bit later, he remarked, “It would seem that the Great Eastern Alliance has been terribly underestimated. They’ve actually stopped the Astral Beast Domain’s invasion in their tracks. The Daosource Sect was ruthless enough to completely abandon the eastern weaves. Without the Great Eastern Alliance, I don’t know just how many people there would have died.”
At this comment, Cemetery Keeper’s eyes lit up. The eastern weaves were a good place to refine corpse puppets right now.
“Master, what should we do?” Corpse Looter asked.
Cemetery Keeper indifferently replied, “Don’t worry about it. Let the Great Eastern Alliance fight the Astral Beast Domain, and once the Progenitor of Secret Arts’ Territory has been cleansed thoroughly, someone will handle this situation.”
“Yes, Master,” Corpse Looter respectfully acknowledged.
Cemetery Keeper stared eastward. He had thought that Lu Yin was a person of great accomplishments, but unfortunately, he was still too soft-hearted. What did it matter if the Great Eastern Alliance actually managed to defeat the Astral Beast Domain? Those weaves would still belong to the Sixth Mainland, but the Great Eastern Alliance was paying the price to save them. The gains could not outweigh the losses.
…
Some people admired Lu Yin, others mocked him, but at this moment, Lu Yin did not care about what the outside world thought about him at all. He was just staring at the Karmic Flame Sable. “Its recovery speed is quite quick.”
The Second Nightking said, “Astral beasts typically have a faster recovery speed than humans. There are some astral beasts that focus on recovery and don’t use any medications at all. For those, the first time they use a pill, they heal remarkably fast.”
Lu Yin had spent three days keeping an eye on the Karmic Flame Sable. When he saw that those three days were enough for most of the beast’s injuries to recover, he could not hold his admiration back.
The Karmic Flame Sable woke up and looked around in a daze. All it heard was “Alright” before it was lost in an illusion that it could not escape.
The Second Nightking soon left the spacecraft, dragging the Karmic Flame Sable behind him as he left. At the same time, Lu Yin announced that he was going into seclusion.
This was something that no one would do in the middle of a battlefield, but Lu Yin could do it because of his die’s Timestop. Nearly a whole year’s worth of secluded training could be done in a single second.
After making sure that no one was watching, Lu Yin raised his hand and brought out his die. He tapped it and eagerly watched as it spun around.
His first roll was six pips. His vision went dark for a moment before returning to normal. He felt quite relieved that he had set his cosmic ring aside; otherwise, he would have entered that strange space with the glowing orbs.
Again.
The second roll resulted in three pips, which was pretty lucky, but unfortunately, Lu Yin had nothing to Enhance at this time. Given his current cultivation realm, he wanted to Enhance a formcast model so that he could use it for his upcoming breakthrough to the Envoy realm, but he had already run the calculations. While it had only cost him 8,000 star essence to Enhance a formcast model to six stages, the price to create a seven-stage formcast model was 100 million star essence. Thus, enhancing one to eight stages would likely cost him trillions of star essence. That was completely beyond his means, so he could only forget about it.
There was nothing else that Lu Yin needed to Enhance. He realized that he lacked a powerful weapon, but all of the weapons that he owned had already been upgraded to the limit, and yet they were useless for his current level.
He shrugged and rolled the die again
This time, he rolled four pips, and he quickly picked up his cosmic ring before entering the Timestop Space. Almost immediately, the scenery changed before his eyes.
He let out a long breath and brought out the Skyblaze Stone. It was time for Lu Yin to reach the peak of the Enlighter realm.
The temperature soared within the space, and star essence vaporized. Stars appeared around Lu Yin and started to revolve around his body as he recited the Origin Sutra. With everything set up, he absorbed star energy at a speed that would shatter the understanding of almost anyone who saw him.
When the scenery around Lu Yin changed, he had spent almost a year in the Timestop Space, but the scorching flames had disappeared long before his time had run out.
The heat of the Karmic Flame Sable’s flames exceeded a power level of 700,000, which meant that it was just hot enough for Lu Yin’s use.
He had completed his forty sixth cycle.
After resting for a few days and stabilizing himself, Lu Yin called the Second Nightking back.
The Second Nightking gave Lu Yin an odd look. Wasn’t this person supposed to be in seclusion? How had he finished after just a few days?
Lu Yin took out his Skyblaze Stone and held it near the Karmic Flame Sable’s mouth. “Let’s go. Have it breath out more fire.”
The Second Nightking was completely confused, but he could only follow Lu Yin’s lead.
After the Second Nightking left, Lu Yin resumed rolling his die. He was lucky enough to roll Timestop on his first roll. After his time ran out again, he called the Second Nightking back once more to have the ancient expert make the Karmic Flame Sable spit out yet more fire. They continued this cycle repeatedly.
Every ten days, Lu Yin would roll his die.
A bit more than a month later, Lu Yin completed his forty ninth cycle, though he had absorbed more than 2 billion star essence to do so. It was an astronomical sum.
However, at this point, the sable’s flames were almost useless to Lu Yin.
He has reached the peak of the Enlighter realm, and his combat strength was high enough for him to go against Envoys with power levels of more than 700,000. The Karmic Flame Sable’s flames were naturally no longer enough to assist Lu Yin, but they were also now unnecessary. After all, at the Envoy realm, Lu Yin would need to absorb stellular energy instead of star energy.
He had finally reached the end of his cultivating shortcut.
Lu Yin felt a bit of regret as he stared at the Skyblaze Stone in his hand. It would be useless as a cultivation aid after he became an Envoy, but he could always Enhance the Skyblaze Stone and find out if a fire dragon or something else would appear.
There had been no fighting on the battlefield for more than a month. Both armies had shown great restraint.
However, Shui Chuanxiao could no longer wait. He was absolutely certain that the Astral Beast Domain was waiting for reinforcements from the Celestial Beast Empire, so he repeatedly begged to meet with Lu Yin, as the commander wanted to reignite the flames of war. He was quite frustrated with Lu Yin at this time.
Shui Chuanxiao was supposed to be the Great Eastern Alliance’s General, which meant that he was supposed to have the authority to make such decisions. Having two commanding officers in a single army was a situation that would result in defeat, and thus it was forbidden for any to do so.
Naturally, Lu Yin was aware of this, and he would never have done so in normal circumstances. In most wars, Lu Yin would give Shui Chuanxiao free reign to do as he saw fit, but there were too many Envoys fighting in this war. Such powerhouses were also participating unwillingly, so it would have been nearly impossible to leave the command of the Envoys to Shui Chuanxiao. Even when two people were of similar strength, powerhouses would resist taking orders, let alone when the commander was much weaker than them, like Shui Chuanxiao.
This was why Shui Chuanxiao could not retain full command over the fleet and was unable to dictate the overall flow of the battlefield.
Xu Qing, like Shui Chuanxiao, was a famous tactician, but he had already lost several battles in a row. He had managed to retain his command of the astral beasts due to his overwhelming strength, not his tactics.
Xu Qing was still waiting for reinforcements to arrive from the Celestial Beast Empire while Lu Yin was waiting for Fifth Mainland to regain a bit of internal stability.
As long as the Neohuman Alliance’s various bases were cleaned out and the Sixth Mainland finished investigating the people from the Progenitor of Secret Arts’ Territory, Lu Yin would receive support in the eastern weaves. Even if that meant that the Great Eastern Alliance needed to vacate the weaves, that was still fine.
This mutual waiting led to a stable calm in the war.
Shui Chuanxiao immediately went to speak to Lu Yin when he exited his seclusion. “We can’t wait any longer! As soon as the reinforcements from the Celestial Beast Empire arrive, they’ll immediately attack. Then, our chances of victory will be almost nothing.”
Lu Yin could sense Shui Chuanxiao’s frustrations, and he quietly said, “Changing commanders in the middle of a battle is something to avoid at almost all costs, and the same is true of having two commanders of a single army. While I’m aware of this, our situation is a bit special. Also, even if we start fighting again, we’ll just be weakening each other.”
“So should we wait for the enemy reinforcements to arrive and wipe us out?” Shui Chuanxiao asked bluntly.
Lu Yin did not become angry. “I know where you’re coming from, but you don’t need to worry. I know that the Celestial Beast Empire is sending reinforcements over. I’m not an idiot. However, Commander Shui, you can’t forget that you are the General of my Great Eastern Alliance, which means that the interests of the alliance should come first. Our entire purpose in fighting this war is to defend the eastern weaves and stop the astral beasts from slaughtering all the humans there. However, if the Great Eastern Alliance fights against the Astral Beast Domain with our full strength, we’ll both be weakened, and that will only benefit the Sixth Mainland and our other enemies.”
Shui Chuanxiao sighed. At this time, his perspective was completely different from Lu Yin’s. Shui Chuanxiao was seeing the war and the battlefield, and he simply wanted to achieve victory here. If he looked at the bigger perspective, he was someone who would sacrifice a weave or even himself for humanity. Lu Yin was another person who could see the big picture, but Lu Yin also looked at things from the perspective of his position as the leader of the Great Eastern Alliance, and he always considered what was best for them.
If the fleet launched an attack, they might be able to win the war, but the Great Eastern Alliance would suffer terrible losses. This was not something that Lu Yin wanted to see happen. He wanted to protect the humans in the eastern weaves and drive the astral beasts back into their own domain. This was not the right time to wage an all-out war against the astral beasts.
“I once promised Ironblood Weave’s defenders that I would lead them in a counterattack against the Astral Beast Domain and that we would force our way into the Primal Zone one day. They claimed that this enmity will never be forgotten, but this is not the time,” Lu Yin said slowly, “I can ignore how the Sixth Mainland mocks me. Do you really think I don’t know what people are saying? I know that they’re calling me the Sixth Mainland’s lapdog, but I don’t care. All I want is to protect the people of the Outerverse. However, that does not mean that I can sacrifice the Great Eastern Alliance. Do you understand?”
Shui Chuanxiao and Lu Yin stared at each other, and the commander’s tone softened. “I was hasty. It was already unexpected for you to lead the Great Eastern Alliance to stop the Astral Beast Domain.”
Lu Yin knew what Shui Chuanxiao was thinking, and he grew serious. “I’ll say it again today: one day, I will force my way into the Primal Zone, and we will collect the blood debt that we are owed and force the Astral Beast Domain back. But for now, we need to wait. Nothing more.”
Shui Chuanxiao nodded. “Understood.”
After a moment, he asked, “However, as the Great Eastern Alliance’s commander, I need to have an understanding of our total fighting strength, as without that, I can’t make any reasonable plans.”
Shui Chuanxiao left a short time later. His expression was as solemn as ever, and no one could see what he was thinking.
The Second Nightking went to see Lu Yin once again with the Karmic Flame Sable.
