Hai Qiqi’s body swayed as the blue halo vanished. She seemed to be a bit pale and much weaker than before.
Lu Yin quickly moved to support her, but she pushed him away and left by herself.
Ban Jiu stepped forward. “The person from just now is headed towards Northcastle Weave, and he did not stop.”
Lu Yin nodded. Huo Houye must have been scared out of his wits, as facing such a power was too terrifying.
Wendy Yushan spoke up. “Go and console her. After all, we were just rescued by her.”
Lu Yin grunted in response, “I’ll leave the rest to you.”
He then went to chase after Hai Qiqi.
Hai Qiqi ended up running to a sea where the shore had broken apart. A large portion of the sea had been evaporated by the heat from Huo Houye’s flames, and the water was still steaming.
Hai Qiqi reached out to the water with a miserable expression.
When Lu Yin arrived behind her, it was his first time seeing her in such a down mood. She had matured in the span of one night after something happened to the Sea King. For example, just now, she had taken responsibility for the Sea King’s promise, showing that she was no longer the same girl from before who only cared about provoking others with her venomous tongue.
“Before, I always believed that Father was the most amazing person in the universe, that there was nothing that he couldn’t resolve, and that no one who would dare to oppose him,” Hai Qiqi dejectedly said with a gloomy tone.
Lu Yin sat down next to her and looked at her. “The Sea King is truly powerful, but the boundaries of the universe can never be found, and no one is truly invincible. However, I don’t believe that the Sea King has suffered a mishap.”
Hai Qiqi raised her hand as the blue halo flickered for a moment before vanishing. “Father’s strength has disappeared.”
Lu Yin was puzzled. “The power that the Sea King integrated into your body was only that much?”
Hai Qiqi hugged her knees. “That person’s an Enlighter.”
Lu Yin understood. The Sea King must have integrated quite a large amount of power into Hai Qiqi’s body, but the amount that her body could tolerate had to be taken into consideration as well. At best, the power that he had put in her body could threaten an Enlighter, but in that case, it could only be used once.
“Before I left, I asked Father, ‘what do I do if the strength is gone?’” Hai Qiqi looked up with red eyes. “He told me that he will know and that he’ll come and get me.”
She paused as two rows of crystal tears flowed down her face. “I also asked Second Brother, ‘what if Father never comes?’ He told me that no matter if it was Father, Eldest Brother, or him, as long as I call for them, they will immediately appear. Hence, no matter how dark the universe seemed to be, I’ve never been afraid, but-”
Hai Qiqi raised her gadget and tried to contact Hai Dashao, but it could not connect to him. The Innerverse and Outerverse had been separated, and that included the network. All communications between the Innerverse and the Outerverse had been cut off.
Hai Qiqi buried her head in her arms and appeared helpless. She did not have a home anymore. Now that the Sea King’s Dome was facing a crisis, she could not do anything, and she could not even find out anything either.
Lu Yin had experienced such a feeling before, so he understood her helplessness. However, he could not help her. He had no strength to back up a promise, as even an old freak with a power level in the several hundreds of thousands could not force their way across the Astral River, let alone someone like him. It was possible that this division would go on for countless years, and Hai Qiqi might not even be able to return to the Sea King’s Dome for the rest of her lifetime.
She herself knew this, and so she had matured.
Lu Yin placed a hand upon her head. “I promise that, if there’s even a sliver of a chance, I will send you back to the Sea King’s Dome.”
Hai Qiqi remained silent.
Lu Yin deliberately released the news of Huo Houye retreating from Zenyu Star in order to dissuade other Enlighters from attacking them. Hou Houye was not the only Enlighter who coveted the secret technique, and there were many more powers that held a grudge against Lu Yin besides the Blaze Realm. All Lu Yin wanted was to use this matter to gain a period of peace.
Just two days later, Ban Jiu looked for Lu Yin, and Lu Yin gave him the blueprints. His expression changed the moment he saw them. “Royal Regent, where did you get these?”
These blueprints had been obtained from his die’s Pilfer, so Lu Yin simply replied, “Coincidence. Are they useful?”
Ban Jiu emotionally responded, “Do you know what these blueprints are? These are blueprints for the most technologically advanced android in the universe! There’s a total of nine different androids, and each blueprint comprehensively describes the android’s power and manufacturing method.”
Lu Yin felt strange. “You’ve always been in the Great Yu Empire, so how do you know that this is the most technologically advanced android in the universe?”
“Because of this.” Ban Jiu pointed at the lower right hand corner of the blueprints, specifically at a symbol that Lu Yin did not recognize.
Ban Jiu explained, “This is the symbol of a research team in the Technocracy. When this subordinate roamed the universe in the past, I once entered the Technocracy’s borders, and coincidentally learned some things there. There are many research teams within the Technocracy, and each one of them has their own armed forces, just like the various great powers of the Human Domain. This symbol represents one of the best research teams.”
Lu Yin nodded. “Are these androids powerful?”
“Extremely. According to these blueprints, this sort of android can be upgraded endlessly after being manufactured, not like the current androids that are greatly restricted in their upgrades. This new type of android cannot be restricted, and they can be upgraded so long as we have the right materials.” Ban Jiu was very excited, and his voice even carried a trace of disbelief. This style of manufacturing was too novel, and it was even somewhat fantastical, but the researchers had succeeded in the end.
Lu Yin did not quite understand the finer details, but he had seen the Technocracy’s androids, which were indeed powerful. However, those were undoubtedly the Technocracy’s most advanced technology, which these blueprints shouldn’t be. If so, there was no way that anyone would casually leave such a thing in their cosmic ring. He told Ban Jiu, “Then go ahead and start the research. If an android can be manufactured, it will be able to somewhat upgrade our Great Yu Empire’s strength.”
Ban Jiu could tell that Lu Yin did not have high expectations for this project, but he was not anxious either. As long as these androids could be manufactured, the Royal Regent’s attitude would definitely change. Only someone like Ban Jiu himself who could understand these blueprints would truly understand their implications. This was something that others could not comprehend.
When Ban Jiu was about to leave, he suddenly thought of something, and his expression became solemn. “Royal Regent, the Outerverse is about to erupt into chaos, so I urge you to make preparations quickly.”
Lu Yin felt that something was strange. “How do you know?”
Ban Jiu replied, “Space-exploring powerhouses have something called the period of exhaustion. Before the Innerverse and Outerverse were separated, those Innerverse powers had their own resources, and they did not need to worry about running out of resources during their period of exhaustion. But now…”
Ban Jiu did not finish speaking, but Lu Yin knew what Ban Jiu was trying to say. That was right; those Explorers, Cruisers, Hunters, and even Enlighters would no longer have the support of their own organizations, and some of them were definitely close to their period of exhaustion. To avoid entering that state, they would start to frantically seize and plunder resources. How could he not have thought of this before?
The period of exhaustion was something that no space-exploring powerhouse wanted to face. Only by obtaining a certain amount of resources would they be able to steadily wait for the Innerverse and Outerverse to reconnect. Normal powerhouses were nothing terrible, but the amount of resources required by just one Enlighter was terrifying. This meant that the Outerverse was truly going to be thrown into chaos, because even the Great Yu Empire’s resources might not be enough to satisfy a single Enlighter.
And how many Enlighters were currently trapped out in the Outerverse at this moment? Even if a weave could support one Enlighter, all of its surrounding weaves would all be crippled, not to mention the fact that no one would willingly support these Enlighters either.
If the powerhouses could not obtain resources peacefully, then they would resort to another method, which was to plunder, and that meant warfare.
Previously, Lu Yin had only considered the allure of the secret technique for Enlighters, but now, he realized that their resources had to be factored in as well. Hai Qiqi’s deterrence would not be able to protect them for long, and so the Great Yu Empire would have to face the plundering of the Enlighters sooner or later. It was even possible that Grandtop Weave and Lars Weave had already started suffering from raids on their resources.
This wouldn’t do. He had to find some way quickly to keep them safe.
Some days later, while Lu Yin was still waiting for his die to recover, he received news that Grandtop Weave’s Nine Stacks Sect had been eliminated. Their strongest Hunter had been killed, the rest of their disciples had been scattered to the winds, and their resources had been wiped clean by an Enlighter.
Not long after, many other organizations suffered from similar fates of being plundered. Aside from Frostwave Weave, the surrounding weaves were all plunged into the quagmire of war, and they were all completely one-sided ones at that. Against Enlighters, the various powers folded like paper and were easily crushed.
Lu Yin grew more and more anxious, and after ten days passed, he finally returned to King Zishan’s palace and took out his die. His face was full of expectation as he tapped it. Aside from that decisive battle against Qingyu on Earth, he had never been so nervous about rolling his die, as this would determine his life and death.
He was lucky this time, as he immediately rolled three pips: Enhance.
He relaxed when he saw the two light screens appear. It was time to reap the rewards of his harvest, so he first took out his four remaining Money Bombs. He had upgraded three in the past, of which one had been given to Wendy Yushan, another used to attack Huo Houye, and the last one unused. However, he was now going to upgrade four of them to the peak this time.
Lu Yin recalled how it had taken him dozens of star essence to upgrade a Money Bomb to the point of making him feel uneasy last time. To start, he tossed one onto the screen along with a hundred star essence. He could do as he wished now, as he was rich.
The Money Bomb dropped through twice, which meant that it had been upgraded twice. Lu Yin’s eyes filled with star energy, and there was a large number of rune lines, which proved that the Money Bomb could greatly influence the universe. However, it had not yet reached Huo Houye’s level, so he threw on another hundred star essence. Unfortunately, the Money Bomb did not undergo a complete upgrade this time. He gritted his teeth and then directly tossed a thousand star essence in.
He watched it upgrade two more times, which meant that it had been upgraded four times in total now. Currently, its rune lines had reached a similar amount to Huo Huoye’s. This meant that this Money Bomb possessed the destructive ability of an Enlighter.
Lu Yin felt emotional. From start to finish, this Money Bomb had consumed 1,250 star essence, but that was still not enough. He needed something that could instantly kill an Enlighter, so he threw another 2,000 star essence on and upgraded the Money Bomb two more times.
When he looked at it now, he saw a terrifying number of lines of runes. This was not something that he saw frequently, and from a rough estimation, it could rival a powerhouse with a power level between 270,000 and 280,000. If he was able to take someone by surprise, then this thing would be able to severely injure or even kill an Enlighter.
Lu Yin carefully put this Money Bomb away and then calculated his expenses. It had taken him 3,300 star essence to upgrade one Money Bomb to this level, and he had three Money Bombs remaining. Thus, it would cost him more than 10,000 star essence to upgrade them all, and he did not have that much money.
He was left speechless, as he never seemed to have enough money no matter how much he earned. But at this time, he had no choice since he had to prepare for an Enlighter’s attack. There was no such expert in all of Frostwave Weave, but this was the price that had to be paid if he wanted to be able to withstand an Enlighter.
Lu Yin suppressed his desire to upgrade all of his Money Bombs and instead pulled out his universal armor. Defense was just as important as offense, and his universal armor currently was not robust enough to withstand the strength of an Enlighter, which naturally meant that he would madly upgrade it right now.
