“That’s impossible. He wouldn’t be captured that easily by any astral beast weaker than an Explorer. He even directly exchanged blows with Zi Tie and is qualified to be a war drummer. What about his gadget? Can his position be tracked?”
“Huge battles have repeatedly taken place on Planet Conan, and there are still undispersed clumps of various unstable energies in the atmosphere. Gadgets are temporarily unusable.”
Shui Chuanxiao felt helpless, and he could only look at the screen.
After a while, Yao Gu left without battling Wen Sansi. The female deputy finally relaxed. Yao Gu and Wen Sansi were both technically still members of the younger generation, but their combat power was too terrifying. If they battled, then the entire border defense would be in trouble. If their fight ended up implicating more combatants from the Skymender List or the Ten Arbiters, then it would become even more difficult to protect the border. It was even possible for their defenses to be permanently ruined.
“Go all out to find Lu Yin. Also, remain vigilant against anybody who could be controlled. I must find out the positions of those strange astral beasts.”
“Yes, commander.”
Lu Yin had guessed correctly; he was indeed still on Planet Conan but at a rather considerable distance from his previous position.
The Void Wanderer had originally intended on entering the Astral Beast Domain through a single spatial jump, but it had been interrupted by Lu Yin. Although they had only spent an instant in the void, that already moved them a great distance from their previous position.
Planet Conan was a thousand times larger than Earth, so even a slight deviation in location could mean a difference that greatly exceeded Earth’s diameter.
Lu Yin walked across the desolate ground, unable to find a single trace of green between the yellow sand and the dusty sky.
Occasionally, he ran across some strange astral beasts. He did not know if they were native creatures from Planet Conan or cannon fodder that a Void Wanderer had brought along.
He looked at his gadget, but there was still no signal. He still couldn’t calculate his position.
After an unknown amount of time, Lu Yin noticed a spacecraft slowly moving across the sky. Lu Yin was delighted and about to ascend to meet it, but then, an angry bellow sounded out as a giant astral beast flew out of the ground and bit the spacecraft, splitting it in half. There was an intense explosion and most of the people inside died instantly.
Lu Yin was furious, and raised a palm to strike the astral beast. Although it was huge, it was only at the level of a Limiteer and was easily struck dead by Lu Yin. Unfortunately, the spacecraft had been completely destroyed, and there were no survivors.
It had only been a small patrolling spacecraft with a few people in it, and it was unable to survive any sneak attacks.
Lu Yin did not discover any effective means of communication even after searching for half a day. His luck was especially bad as the spacecraft had been destroyed too thoroughly.
Despite the fact that he could not find any human bases, the appearance of such a spacecraft meant that there was a base not too far away from him, as even the distant regions would be patrolled by the bases. There should also be some more troops arriving soon to investigate this area.
Lu Yin did not plan to leave, and he patiently waited beside the spacecraft’s wreckage.
However, a full day passed by without any change. Lu Yin found it strange. Logically, if this area was truly within the scope of a base’s patrols, then he should have run into some soldiers by now, but there had been nothing. He looked at the direction that the ruined spacecraft was facing and remembered that it had seemed to be flying towards the west. He would try his luck.
He did not have to walk very far before the metallic stench of blood hit him. Lu Yin’s face changed, and he immediately used Flash to streak through the void. He reappeared hundreds of kilometers away, where he saw an endless blanket of astral beast corpses lying on the ground, as well as dead human soldiers. Most of the bodies had been mutilated beyond recognition.
Lu Yin’s expression became even uglier. A battle had just occurred here, and the human soldiers had nearly been wiped out, with the surviving humans having been carried off by the remaining astral beasts for food. The footprints led further west.
Intelligent astral beasts would not eat humans while non-intelligent beasts would only feast on living humans, avoiding the dead. If some humans had really been taken away as food, then they must still be alive.
Lu Yin did not hesitate to continue pursuing the footprints to the west. He was not always a good samaritan, but he could not bear to let his fellow humans be eaten alive by astral beasts if he could help it.
The jumbled set of footprints stretched off far into the west. After this fierce battle between the astral beasts and humans, the beasts were most likely unable to leave because the humans would have destroyed all the Void Wanderers first, leaving the beasts without any way to escape after they arrived. Only some of the stronger astral beasts would carry personal Void Wanderers along with them and be able to escape, while the remaining astral beasts would be forced to roam Planet Conan and continue fighting against the humans.
There were many wandering astral beasts on Planet Conan, and some had even banded together to launch attacks on humans. The entirety of Planet Conan was a battlefield, and the indigenous creatures had all perished already.
The footprints reached all the way to the bottom of a yellow mountain before they vanished. Lu Yin investigated the site some more and confirmed that the astral beasts had moved underground. Right when he was about to head into the tunnel, the yellow mountain before him suddenly swayed. It actually turned around, revealing itself to be a towering astral beast right before Lu Yin’s eyes, and there were countless droves of astral beasts that could be seen on it. They all stared at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin’s hair stood on end as countless astral beasts stared at him; his entire body trembled.
The enormous, towering astral beast swatted at Lu Yin.
It was extremely large, but it was just a Limiteer. Still, it was not much easier to deal with than Zi Tie. Any of Lu Yin’s attacks against the beast would likely have a very limited effect due to its sheer size. No matter how large the scope of Lu Yin’s attacks were, it would likely be a bruise to the massive body at worst.
Boom!
The ground shook as the giant beast roared, causing shockwaves to radiate outwards and the yellow earth to buckle. The fine soil flew into the air and merged together to form a giant claw that then grabbed at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin grit his teeth and covered himself with five-lined battle force. The dark-gold color then swept into the skies as he used Flash to appear behind the giant astral beast. He immediately struck out with a palm strike: Nine Stacks, Seventeenfold Shockwave Palm. This was one of his strongest attacks, as the already terrifying Seventeenfold Shockwave Palm was amplified even further by the Nine Stacks. Although this beast was enormous, its defenses were not fantastic. Lu Yin’s palm easily pierced through its giant body, but to Lu Yin’s surprise, he quickly found out that, bizarrely enough, the beast actually had no blood. It seemed to be completely formed by soil. Hold on. Soil? Lu Yin thought to himself as he glanced at the herd of astral beasts on top of the mountainous beast.
If his guess was correct, then this was no astral beast but rather a mound of dirt that had been shaped and controlled by these astral beasts. He had been frightened by its sight, but it was illogical to think that such a large beast could exist on Planet Conan without being discovered by the human forces.
The giant beast roared again as its enormous body slammed towards Lu Yin.
Lu Yin frowned and used the Cosmic Palm to tear open a path by directly piercing through the giant beast’s body. He then used Flash to tear through the void and reappear right before the captured soldiers who were floating in the air.
These soldiers had given up all hope when they were captured, but they sprang back to life when they saw Lu Yin appear.
Lu Yin charged downwards without using any battle techniques. He relied purely on the strength that his five-lined battle force provided to whip up a strong gale behind him, pulverizing countless astral beasts.
The ground rumbled and splintered as Lu Yin’s power was just too strong. Unless it was a space-exploring astral beast, the average beast was simply not his opponent.
Just as Lu Yin was about to successfully rescue the group of captured soldiers, a wave of dizziness swept over him and he lost his hearing for an instant. An indescribably loud sound was being emitted from a palm-sized astral beast. At the same time, similarly sized astral beasts appeared in all directions and emitted the same, strange sound.
This series of sound waves was much stronger than Liu Yin’s attack, and it also had an extremely penetrative nature. A stream of blood trickled down Lu Yin’s lips as his eyes became bloodshot. He was suddenly struck in the back and spat out a mouthful of blood. He retaliated by striking out with both palms, destroying many astral beasts.
Lu Yin crashed to the ground and looked back up in shock. This herd of astral beasts was not simple and was much stronger than the two droves that had previously attacked the bases. Additionally, a strange astral beast that could injure him had also appeared.
He was among the top four in the Astral Combat Tournament and had a good chance to claim the top position. With his five-lined battle force, even the Ten Arbiters might not have necessarily have been able to stand up to him when they were at the Melder realm, but he had just been injured by this crowd of astral beasts.
Many strange astral beasts that he had not seen before appeared from all directions. There were only a few of them, but they all had strange innate gifts. Additionally, the strange beasts that he had seen before started quivering again, ready to unleash another sound wave at him.
Lu Yin squinted, clenched his fists, and shrouded his body with the Cosmic Art. At that moment, he saw an invisible attack headed towards him, or rather, an invisible astral beast. Its body was small, but it was what had launched the strike that had heavily injured him.
Thump!
Lu Yin squarely struck the invisible astral beast with a fist. The ground shattered, and the surrounding astral beasts simultaneously pulled back. Lu Yin took a single step back while the invisible astral beast took seven steps back and stared at Lu Yin in shock. It had not expected Lu Yin to actually see it, and probably did not expect Lu Yin to block its attack either.
What kind of trick was this? Lu Yin was astounded that this invisible creature had actually taken a full force, five-lined battle force blow while another strange creature could release a dizzying sound wave. The coordination between these two astral beasts had actually led to him being injured; why did Planet Conan have such powerful beasts roaming around on it? A sneak attack from these two could even take an Explorer by surprise!
Since his body was injured, Lu Yin immediately retrieved a Melder ring armor and put it on while also swallowing some medicine. The invisible creature suddenly acted, clearly not wanting to give Lu Yin an opportunity to treat himself.
Lu Yin remained in his spot, and when the invisible creature’s claw entered the range of his Cosmic Art, Lu Yin was able to clearly see all of its actions and easily dodge the attack. He then grabbed the creature’s right claw with his right hand while his left hand grappled its body. He activated the Cosmic Palm, causing stars to revolve above his right palm while he pushed down, sending the invisible astral beast deep underground as it took the full brunt of Cosmic Palm.
A nine-star Cosmic Palm was not something that just anyone could withstand, and Lu Yin had even coated that attack with five-lined battle force. Regardless of how strong the invisible astral beast’s defenses were, its abdomen had still been directly penetrated by the palm. The palm-sized creature growled, causing the dizzying sound waves to reappear in all directions. Lu Yin endured a splitting headache as he slapped the creature’s head again, shattering its skull and driving it into the body of the massive beast formed out of soil.
There were countless astral beasts surrounding him outside the dirt beast, and he was once again injured. He no longer had any hope of saving the soldiers outside, as they had been killed during his battle with this horde of beasts. The astral beast’s methods had been even more ruthless than he had imagined.
He hid within the giant beast’s dirt body and restrained his aura, preparing to charge out into the horde.
But then, the beast’s body suddenly melted away as the soil collapsed to the ground.
Lu Yin squinted, and he was just about to dash out when the sky was torn apart by a formless attack. He instantly paused as more sound waves filled the skies one after another. As soon as he charged out, he would be struck by those waves, and he was unsure if he could actually escape. This was not an attack that targeted his spiritual force; these sound waves targeted his physical body and his brain.
What should he do? Charge out or not?
At this time, his hand happened upon a hard object that had been revealed when the soil beast collapsed. It was a large shell that seemed to have been left behind after some creature molted. Lu Yin’s eyes gleamed, and he decided to hide within the shell. He then restrained his aura once again. At that moment, the soil completely fell apart as smoke billowed in all directions. Lu Yin popped out, hurled the shell towards the distance, and charged in the opposite direction.
The visible sound waves blasted the void apart and instantly shattered the shell while Lu Yin used Flash to hide within a living astral beast. More accurately, he hid between the scales of an astral beast, though the creature gave off an unbearable stench.
