“Aside from this, Jenny could have no other use for Yan Feng. King Zishan placed in the top four in the Astral Combat Tournament, and I heard that there is a Council of Astral Academy that holds an equivalent status to the Outerverse Youth Council. If King Zishan has joined the Council of Astral Academy, then it’s very possible that Yan Feng would be moved to act.”
Rocky Auna immediately left.
Xueshan Auna had an agonized expression on his face as he watched Rocky Auna’s retreating figure. He hoped that his guesses were not the truth, or else the Auna clan would end up being drawn into an unimaginable crisis. Even a Hunter like himself could be trapped and ripped to pieces since this matter involved the Ten Arbiters Council.
No matter how hard the Auna clan tried to suppress it, news of Jenny Auna leaving her clan inevitably spread. More importantly, someone from the Fireforge planet was taking care of her, and there was also a Daynight clan member with her. This news shocked many, as why would the Daynight clan be involved with Jenny Auna and the Fireforge Planet?
In the Great Yu Empire’s palace, Undying Yushan was busy pondering the recent events. He had just formulated his invasion plans for Fireforge Planet, but then, the Daynight clan had suddenly gotten involved. What was going on? The Daynight clan and Jenny Auna were completely unrelated to this, so why had they suddenly appeared in the picture? Could this have something to do with little Yin?
The case of an ordinary girl running away from home had suddenly escalated to become an event that affected the entire Frostwave Weave.
Back at Astral-10, in the Rain Observatory, Silver was calmly watching the continuous drizzle of rain when a smile suddenly bloomed on his face. It was too enjoyable, and although he wanted to wait for a while longer, an opportunity had already appeared, and the answers could soon be found. Brother Lu, it looks like we won’t be able to spend much more time together.
Lu Yin was also in Astral-10, and he had not contacted the world outside, and no one from outside had taken the initiative to contact him either. He was entirely unaware of what was happening back in the Frostwave Weave, though he was currently puzzled by the messages he was receiving on his gadget.
He had logged into the Ten Arbiters Council network, where there was a lot of information stored. However, he could not access much of it due to his limited authorization.
With his current clearance, he could only access information regarding the Northline Flowzone and the Outerverse. The only information that he could access was related to his authority. For these matters, he could either propose his own plans for them, solve them himself, or report the matters upwards to the council for them to resolve.
But Lu Yin was still at a loss for what to do. There were ten pages for each of the Ten Arbiters, but he didn’t know which one to send his opinions to.
Lu Yin had been able to guess some things the moment he saw those ten pages. Among the Ten Arbiters, all ten of them were also striving for power against each other. The universe was like a cake that the ten were squabbling over. Whichever one of the Ten Arbiters that Lu Yin submitted his proposals to would be the one who he would be subordinate to in future.
No wonder Liu Xiaoyun had advised him to wait. It wasn’t for the possible proposals that he could submit, but rather because he should wait for the Ten Arbiters to make their positions on him clear.
He had to choose one of the Ten Arbiters, but they also had to choose him.
Lu Yin was caught in a dilemma, as he did not know who most of the Ten Arbiters were. He only knew of Nightking Zhenwu, Wen Sansi, Hart Phoenix’s older brother, and also that person from the Sword Sect. He did not know the other six—oh, right, there was also the one known as the War King and another called the Divine Fist. However, just knowing their titles was pointless.
Should he just choose one at random? Lu Yin was thinking of the future, because once he made his choice, regardless of whether or not they accepted him, his choice would be known. And if he was in fact rejected, it would be very embarrassing.
There was also a one in ten possibility that he would land on Nightking Zhenwu, which would be a joke.
Mira had once said that she would recommend him as a candidate to join the Outerverse Youth Council, and that Wen Sansi was behind her. If Lu Yin had already been recommended, then did that mean that he would end up being Wen Sansi’s subordinate?
Lu Yin could not stop thinking what he should do, as this decision was crucial. He definitely needed the Ten Arbiters’ support, or else him joining the Council of Astral Academy would not have much point.
He looked at the Northline Flowzone page again, where most of his authority was displayed.
“Shangwu Academy’s end-of-the-year tournament is about to start. May the Ten Arbiters Council member supervise it with fairness, impartiality, and publicity according to their principles.
“Shangwu Academy has changed the trial planet at the last moment. May the Ten Arbiters Council member supervise it with fairness, impartiality, and publicity according to their principles.”
…
There were many messages coming from the Northline Flowzone, and most were regarding Shangwu Academy. It was the Northline Flowzone’s best institution, and they needed a representative member from the Ten Arbiters Council to oversee their events according to the rules. This concept was similar to what had been initially planned for Earth’s trial, though at the last moment, the Great Yu Empire Youth Council had been disbanded, and Mira had appeared to supervise the trial.
However, the Northline Flowzone had no Youth Council, so the Ten Arbiters had to assign someone to supervise. Otherwise, Lu Yin would have to personally go over.
Generally, this sort of supervision was nothing more than a mere formality. Lu Yin could request the council to send a member there, but he did not know who he should send the request to. He had no time to do this himself, either, so he could only act as if he had not seen the messages. His only option was to stall until either the Ten Arbiters contacted him or until he had time.
There were too many minor Flowzones like the Northline Flowzone. If each Flowzone’s trial or tournament required a council member to supervise them, then there would not be enough members even if there were ten times as many subsidiary members of the Ten Arbiters Council. Hence, many supervisory requirements would be cancelled, depending on the member’s wishes.
“If I had the time, I could go just to satisfy my craving to feel like a member, but I can’t be considered a true member yet. In reality, I am not that much different from a regular student,” Lu Yin muttered to himself as he browsed through the network.
Over the next two days, Lu Yin remained inside and managed to learn some more things about the Ten Arbiters Council.
Something big had happened in the Great Yu Empire, and the Thirteen Imperial Squadrons’ 13th captain, Liuying Zishan, had been severely injured.
In the space above Zenyu Star, Undying Yushan stepped onto a spacecraft and soon saw the heavily injured Liuying Zishan. Her face was deathly pale, and she had many injuries covering her body.
“How is she?” Undying Yushan asked softly.
“Captain Liuying Zishan is not in any mortal danger, but she will need to rest for a while. Her organs have been heavily injured, and she won’t be able to use her full strength for at least a year,” someone answered.
A cold glint flashed through Undying Yushan’s eyes as he asked, “Is there a recording of the battle?”
“Your Highness, the space on one whole side of the battlefield was warped, and all of the records were destroyed. Only Captain Liuying Zishan knows the situation from that time,” a man beside the emperor spoke in a trembling voice.
Undying Yushan looked at Liuying Zishan, who was lying within the nutrient bath and thought of the struggle taking place within the Astral Combat Academy. He had found out about the situation within Astral Combat Academy and how Lu Yin had opposed Nightqueen Yanqing. Although Lu Yin had ultimately succeeded in joining the Council of Astral Academy, it had caused a new enemy to rise up against the Great Yu Empire in the form of the Daynight clan.
But Undying Yushan had also heard that the hatred between Lu Yin and Nightqueen Yanqing had been resolved by Astral-1’s Starsibyl, so would the Daynight clan itself truly have taken action? Even a fool could see that the Daynight member had appeared beside Jenny Auna due to the clan’s interest in Lu Yin.
Undying Yushan was still thinking about the situation when a light beam suddenly appeared before him. His eyes widened drastically as a terrifying star energy exploded from his body and caused the heavens to freeze as a suppressive aura spread out. A single hand thrust through the treatment container, grabbing at Liuying Zishan’s hair before snatching a flickering light chip away. Undying Yushan then tossed it away and tore the void open. Shortly after, the void off in the distance began to distort as a terrifying shockwave swept out, shattering many passing meteoroids.
Everyone in the spacecraft was stunned. If that device had exploded inside of the spacecraft, then they would have all died. That explosion was powerful enough to easily kill Explorers.
Undying Yushan’s eyes were ice-cold, as this was the second attempt on his life in recent memory. It seemed that the person who had attacked Liuying Zishan was not satisfied with the current result and that they wanted to kill even more people of the Great Yu Empire.
At that moment, the void distorted, and Huo Qingshan emerged. “Your Highness, that object should have come from the Ross Empire in the Blazing Mist Flowzone.”
“Are you certain?” Undying Yushan was taken aback.
Huo Qingshan nodded solemnly. “I once visited the Blaze Realm to train when I was young, and it’s not far from the Ross Empire. Their weapons are easily identified.”
“Could someone have tried to copy the Ross Empire’s weapons to try to shift the blame onto them?”
Huo Qingshan shook his head. “That should not be possible. The Ross Empire’s weapons are very difficult to copy, and based on the Innerverse’s powers’ attitude, they would not bother with such subterfuge.”
“Well done, Ross Empire.” Undying Yushan was furious. It did not take much to realize that the Daynight clan was the one behind the Ross Empire—why else would they act against the Great Yu Empire right now? The empire’s students who had broken past the three powers during Astral-10’s entrance exam were not enough for the Ross Empire to act, especially since this much time had already passed; they would have intervened much earlier if they had wanted to.
“Your Highness, to be safe, we should put a hold on any external wars for now. The intervention of the Ross Empire will undoubtedly lead to more incidents like the one Captain Liuying Zishan suffered through,” Huo Qingshan advised.
Undying Yushan sighed and nodded. “Let the Duke know about this matter and caution him to be careful as well.”
“Very well. Shall we also inform Princess Wendy?”
The emperor’s eyes flashed. “There’s no need. Since they’ve acted against us, the opponent must have already factored her into their plans.”
Huo Qingshan was right; there was no need for the Innerverse’s powers to disguise their methods when acting against the Outerverse powers. The Ross Empire’s powerhouses blatantly stepped into the Frostwave Weave and joined the Great Yu Empire’s enemies and began a combined assault against the Great Yu Empire.
Even if the Great Yu Empire ceased their war efforts, it was useless as the experts from the Ross Empire would continue with their attacks.
Only then did Lu Yin finally learn of the matter. There was no need to guess who the primary culprit was. It was the Daynight clan. Lu Yin’s actions had drawn the Nightking Zhenwu’s ire, as no one other than the Ten Arbiters could mobilize the Ross Empire.
Although Starsibyl had resolved the dispute between Lu Yin and Nightqueen Yanqing, she could not intervene between him and Nightking Zhenwu.
Lu Yin had previously guessed that Nightking Zhenwu might act, but he had never thought that his actions would be so harsh and exaggerated; it was as if Lu Yin had been completely disregarded.
To Nightking Zhenwu, there was no difficulty in suppressing the Great Yu Empire, as Lu Yin himself did not have the qualifications to meet any one of the Ten Arbiters as an equal.
Lu Yin knew this himself, and he could not change Nightking Zhenwu’s decision. Nightking Yuanjing could protect Lu Yin himself, but he could not protect the Great Yu Empire.
However, did the Great Yu Empire really require protection?
After learning more about the universe, Lu Yin had finally been able to grasp the general power level of the Outerverse. The Great Yu Empire’s strength was definitely enough to conquer the Frostwave Weave and become its leading power. The only reason why it had not done so before was because it had been held back by the various Innerverse powers that had been struggling for the Undying Manual. If the Ross Empire underestimated the Great Yu Empire, then they would end up paying a steep price.
Even so, this matter had initially arisen because of Lu Yin, so he had to think of a way to make up for it, or at least to shift the Daynight clan’s focus away from the Great Yu Empire. But he was only a student. How could he match up against the great Daynight clan? They could easily dispatch a space-exploring powerhouse to eliminate him.
He could not push for more with Nightking Yuanjing either, as the more information that Lu Yin revealed, the more danger he would end up in later on.
