Complicated emotions flickered through Elder Lohar’s eyes. In the past? No, considering Elder Lohar’s years, the dozen years that had passed were less than a blink of an eye. In that time, the young man who had only been able to rely on an existing sourcebox array to defend a fortress in Ironblood Weave had already become a top powerhouse who was able to ignore millions of powerful experts. A single sentence from Lu Yin was enough to determine who controlled Ironblood Weave. A single phrase could decide a war.
Who from back then would have thought that such a thing would be possible?
“Alliance Leader Lu, is this war over for us?” Elder Lohar asked.
Lu Yin thought for a bit. “You can treat it like that.”
Elder Lohar nodded but said nothing.
Before long, Lu Yin received a call from Wang Wen.
“I thought that you were dead,” Lu Yin joked. He was in a good mood.
Wang Wen’s tone was bitter. “I’m half dead. That can’t be considered alive.”
“What happened?” Lu Yin wondered.
Wang Wen shrugged. “I wanted to entice a powerhouse to lead the Lu Elite Troops for you, but I almost screwed myself over. I ended up being mocked by that girl, and then the Sea King nearly skinned me alive.”
“Do you actually like Qiqi?” Lu Yin was curious.
Wang Wen sighed. “A bit, but she doesn’t care for me.”
He then immediately changed the subject and grew more serious. “I’ve read the battle reports. Your Royal Chesspiece, you’re playing with fire.”
Lu Yin’s eyes flashed.
“I can guess what your ultimate goal most likely is, and all I can say is that while there’s a chance of success, this is very, very dangerous. If you fail to pull this off, the Great Eastern Alliance will disappear,” Wang Wen solemnly warned.
“I know.”
“In that case, I want to know your true motivation for stepping into this war. Did you do it for this scheme, or did you really step out to protect the ordinary humans?” Wang Wen asked seriously.
Lu Yin remained silent for a while. “It’s both. I couldn’t abandon those people, but I also did not want to go all out against the Astral Beast Domain and let the Sixth Mainland benefit from this.”
“So that’s the reason for this plan? There are three sides in a fragile balance right now, and if we aren’t careful, we could be devoured by either one. Even if we succeed, we’re going to be dragged down by what’s happening in the Outerverse. What of the Cosmic Sea? What of the Neoverse? Even more importantly, what of that place?” Wang Wen asked three quick questions.
Lu Yin replied with his own question, “Tell me this: what’s the difference between the Great Eastern Alliance right now and the alliance before the war?”
Wang Wen took a bit to respond. “So you are able to see it clearly.”
A smile appeared on Lu Yin’s face. “This war was a baptism. The Great Eastern Alliance has been a complete mess from beginning to end. Without this war, my title as alliance leader would be nothing more than a decoration. Even an ancient enemy like the Astral Beast Domain wasn’t enough to unite them, which meant that I could never command any of them. Liu Qianjue and the other Envoys—how would they ever be willing to face even more powerful enemies in the future?
“At this moment, I can say that the Great Eastern Alliance has become a sharp blade I can wield as I wish. I can pick it up, put it aside, or use it to kill an enemy.”
Wang Wen smiled. “There are many people who claim that Wei Rong, Qiong Xi’er, and I are the three most intelligent people from the Outerverse, but they’re all wrong. Your Highness, you’re smarter than us all, and your vision extends further as well. You will gain far more than anyone can even imagine from this war. Congratulations, you truly have acquired the means to protect yourself.”
A hardness entered Lu Yin’s eyes. “That’s right, I’ve gained the means to counterattack!”
This war had caused the Great Eastern Alliance to suffer terrible casualties, but they had also gained a great deal from it. An unblooded military was completely different from a veteran force. Humans were quite miraculous beings, and as long as they followed commands once, they would do so a second time.
This was particularly true of the various Envoys. If Lu Yin had not been able to command them against even the Astral Beast Domain’s invasion, how would he ever truly utilize the power of the Great Eastern Alliance in the future? It was no exaggeration to say that the Great Eastern Alliance had only just fallen under Lu Yin’s command.
Lu Yin did not want an alliance that only existed in name, but rather a truly powerful Great Eastern Alliance. His goal was a Great Eastern Alliance that would make everyone tremble from fear and surrender.
He believed that, at this moment, the entire universe had recognized the power of the Great Eastern Alliance.
Lu Yin was absolutely right. The Great Eastern Alliance had faced off against the full might of the Astral Beast Domain. They had fielded more than a dozen Envoys as well as multiple experts with power levels of over a million. This was a level of power that was shocking even to the monstrous powers in the Neoverse. In fact, only the Hall of Honor could confidently claim to be more powerful than the Great Eastern Alliance. The alliance had become a power that was truly feared by the entire Fifth Mainland at this moment.
Even people as sharp as Wang Wen and Wei Rong were unable to see the full benefits that Lu Yin had reaped from this war. Herb Immortal had reached out to Arch-Elder Zen, and yet Arch-Elder Zen never tried to contact Lu Yin regardless of the pressure that the Sixth Mainland put upon the Hall of Honor. The Hall of Honor had accepted Lu Yin’s position.
This was a subtle change, as Lu Yin’s identity had not been made clear to the public, but this change in attitude indicated that Lu Yin’s identity as Lu Xiaoxuan was no longer an obstacle.
And these benefits did not even consider the fact that Lu Yin had managed to use the war to become an Envoy.
However, Lu Yin wanted to gain even more. With the Second Nightking accompanying him, Lu Yin secretly went to the battlefield where the Astral Beast Domain was fighting against the Sixth Mainland.
…
Corpses filled the vastness of space as far as the eye could see, and the universe had even been dyed a dark red.
Lu Yin commented, “Xu Qing’s gone nuts! The fighting here has already gone on for almost twenty days without any breaks. Both sides have suffered greater losses than the entire war that we fought with the astral beasts. If Xu Qing had led his troops like this against us, the Great Eastern Alliance might not have been able to survive.”
The Second Nightking asked softly, “What are we to do now? Who should we attack?”
Lu Yin glanced over. “Neither of us will be attacking. Just keep an eye out for me while I check who’s dead. I’m going to get a few more Champions.”
The Second Nightking arched a brow. “Neither of us are going to target anyone?”
Lu Yin said, “Of course not! Even if the Sixth Mainland is our enemy, they’re still all humans. How could we target fellow humans when they’re fighting against the astral beasts?”
This was something the Second Nightking understood, but he had also grown even more nervous after learning of Lu Yin’s goal. The Champions’ Stage might be something that was practically unknown in contemporary times, but when the Fifth Mainland’s Daosource Sect had still stood, the Champions’ Stage had been synonymous with nightmares.
The Lu family’s direct descendants had been able to summon Champions, which gave people nightmares for both their lives and their deaths. The easiest way to explain this was absolute control. Once someone died, their enemy could summon them and force them to keep on fighting. Any Champion would be a powerhouse, but how many of those Champions had left behind family and friends?
The Champions’ Stage alone had been a major reason why the Lu family had had so many loyal followers, but also why they had had so many enemies.
The Lu family had never had any prejudices regarding using friends or enemies as Champions. This was a nightmare that the Second Nightking had thought had vanished into history, and he had never expected to see it return. He could already envision countless Champions being summoned along with the resurgence of the phrase, “One person as strong as a nation, one person lording over all.”
The Second Nightking felt chills at this thought, and his desire to resist Lu Yin in his heart became even more muted than ever.
“Here we go.” Lu Yin’s eyes lit up, and he disappeared. The Second Nightking chased after the youth, as his task was to keep Lu Yin hidden and undetected from both the Astral Beast Domain and the Sixth Mainland.
An astral beast collapsed onto a planet at the edge of the battlefield. Half of its body had been melted by an Enlighter from the Sixth Mainland. While the beast was in agony, it was nowhere close to death.
“Go to hell, beast!” The Enlighter raised a hand and smashed the astral beast to the center of the planet. There were many other astral beasts fighting against humans nearby. This particular planet was about to collapse.
Bits of flaming meteors fell from above, and even corpses occasionally rained down.
The Enlighter from the Sixth Mainland sat down, gasping for breath. He looked up, panic in his eyes. Just how long would this war continue for?
Boom!
There was a deafening noise as the Enlighter’s head shattered. He had been attacked by a creeper. Three swords fell from outer space and onto the creeper on the planet, but sound waves rang out from a place near the creeper and blocked the attack. It was a soundseeker, a creature that frequently teamed up with the creepers.
Lu Yin traveled to the planet’s core and approached the astral beast that had been killed. He raised a hand and brought out his Champions’ Stage. “By my name, I anoint a champion.”
As his voice fell, an unseen wind blew by, and an image of the astral beast appeared on the Champions’ Stage. The beast only had the strength of an Enlighter, which was worthless to Lu Yin, but such beings could be very effective in large numbers. This was the entire purpose of Champions.
After anointing the astral beast, Lu Yin immediately moved to the planet’s surface. Space twisted as he also anointed the Enlighter from the Sixth Mainland. He had just gained two Enlighter Champions at once.
Lu Yin continued to flit about the battlefield, constantly anointing more Champions. Every one of them was at least as strong as an Enlighter.
Over the course of a few days, Lu Yin managed to gain over twenty Enlighter Champions. Most of them were astral beasts, but there were also a few humans from the Sixth Mainland mixed in.
Lu Yin was a bit pale as he stood In a distant corner of the battlefield. It cost him energy to anoint each Champion, and he had done so repeatedly over the last few days. Thus, he needed some time to recover.
The Second Nightking looked at Lu Yin with a sense of growing fear. If he died, he would also be anointed. The more he thought about this, the more frightened the old man became.
Lu Yin suddenly turned to look at the Second Nightking. “What are you thinking about?”
The Second Nightking immediately looked elsewhere. “I’m looking for another Enlighter about to die.”
Lu Yin asked, “From what you remember, what was the Lu family’s most powerful Champion?”
The Second Nightking considered the question for a bit. “I never saw it. Back then, my Daynight clan was nothing more than the slaves of the Celestial Frost Sect’s Bai family. The Fifth Mainland was fighting against the Sixth Mainland, and only after the Celestial Frost Sect left the Fifth Mainland did we gradually rise up. Back then, I was not qualified to meet with anyone from the Lu family.”
“You didn’t hear of them?” Lu Yin asked.
The Second Nightking shook his head. “The Bai family was very strict with us, and they liberally used the Sealed Cage Technique to control us at every turn. This forced us to not even dare to listen to many things, especially regarding the Lu family. The Bai family never mentioned anything openly, but I had the sense that they were hostile towards the Lu family.”
Lu Yin frowned. It seemed that the Celestial Frost Sect had wanted to rebel against the Lu family as far back as the Daosource Sect era. The Lu family’s patriarch back then had either been careless or overconfident. They must have never even considered that the four ruling powers would unite against the Lu family; if the Lu family had made any preparations at all, there was no way the four ruling powers would have been able to suppress the Lu family.
The four ruling powers had managed to exile the entire Lu family because of the White Dragon Rolls Over, not their own strength.
Lu Yin looked up and stared off into space. Is the Lu family still alive? Probably.
“There’s an Envoy who just perished,” the Second Nightking spoke up.
Lu Yin followed the older man’s gaze, and he saw an Amethyst Beast’s head explode after being struck by an arrow that had flown through space.
Man Li was a powerful Envoy from the East Realm’s Arrow Sect. He had once stood guard over the Nine Cauldrons Region, but he had been knocked out by Lu Yin. Lu Yin had not expected to see the Envoy on this battlefield.
The sect master of the Arrow Sect was the Arrow God of Wilderness, who had tried to take control of the Neo-Vestige Sect, which should have made the man Lu Yin’s enemy. As the Sixth Mainland had suffered and weakened, the Arrow Sect had done the same.
With the Progenitor of Secret Arts’ betrayal, the entire Arrow Sect had been forced onto the battlefield, and not even Man Li had been exempt. The only path to survival was to fight, but no one would care about those who died.
