Ryan Merke was an old fellow who wore splendid clothes. One look was enough to determine that the man was a figure of authority.
When he saw Lu Yin, he did not have a pleasant expression, but he did not dare be rude either. He only nodded tersely to the regent.
Lu Yin did not care, as this person was only being brought along to make up for the shortage of Hunters.
There were three Hunters: Aden, Ryan Merke, and Huo Qingshan.
As for why Lu Yin had decided to take Huo Qingshan, it was because Lu Yin felt uneasy about letting the man off. He still could not forget about the matter of the Hidden Earth organization, and every day that passed where Lu Yin could not ascertain the group’s true nature was another day that he could not rest easy.
Compared to Xueshan Auna, Huo Qingshan was also more reliable, as he would at least not seek to benefit from both sides. When he was on the battlefield, Lu Yin felt that Huo Qingshan was the more trustworthy one of the two Hunters.
The Great Yu Empire still had two Hunters protecting it: the Blind Monk and Xueshan Auna. Nothing should happen since these two would provide balance simply through their presence.
The draftees had to travel through Grandtop Weave and Eastly Weave to get to Ironblood Weave. Once they arrived in Eastly Weave, they found that practically all news concerning Ironblood Weave had disappeared, and they were also unable to find out anything more through the network. This wasn’t because the top figures wanted to limit information, but more so because they did not want to incite panic throughout the Outerverse. Even though Lu Yin was the Great Yu Empire’s Royal Regent, there were some things that he would not notice unless someone voluntarily informed him.
However, a request from Ironblood Weave for such a large number of emergency reinforcements would become public knowledge sooner or later.
The Eastly Weave was filled with asteroid fields, which made it difficult for the computers to calculate a route compared to the other weaves since spacecraft could easily be struck by meteoroids.
Lu Yin’s party placed Aden as the vanguard, and he sat on the top of their spacecraft. Every time they encountered an asteroid field, instead of recalculating their route, they would plough directly through the field.
Huo Qingshan and Ryan Merke were very curious about Aden since they could feel a slight sense of pressure from him. This was especially true for Huo Qingshan. He had long known about Aden’s existence, but he had never directly encountered him before. After meeting with the man, he could instantly tell that he was not the man’s match, and he could not understand how Undying Yushan had breached Aden’s defence in the past.
Just as this group of people was about to leave the Eastly Weave and enter Ironblood Weave, a boundless pressure swept up from behind them that was strong enough to destabilize planets.
Lu Yin looked behind with his eyes filled with star energy. As soon as he did so, he saw a terrifying amount of rune lines. There was an Enlighter, and it was someone he was familiar with: Huo Houye.
As an Enlighter who had been left behind in the Outerverse, as well as someone who had been behaving in such a high-profile manner, it was natural that Huo Houye would not be able to escape from being drafted by the Hall of Honor.
Huo Houye also saw Lu Yin’s vessel and his gaze swept across everyone in it before finally landing on Aden. Shock manifested in his eyes, as he had evidently recognized Aden’s abnormality.
Even when facing an Enlighter, Aden remained self-composed. He merely glanced over at the approaching Enlighter, before paying no mind to Huo Houye.
Huo Houye’s eyes flickered with a bit of fury, and he waved a hand as his body turned into a fiery maelstrom that swept towards Lu Yin’s group. He was not attacking anyone and was just passing by. However, even if that was the case, the strength that he revealed was enough to overwhelm anyone who was not an Enlighter.
Lu Yin donned his universal armor and stepped out of the ship while Wendy Yushan moved to his side.
When he saw the two people emerge from the spacecraft, Huo Houye immediately stopped and looked nervously at Lu Yin. “Junior, Ironblood Weave is a battlefield. Your methods cannot last long in that place, so take care of yourself.”
“Thank you for the reminder, Senior.” Lu Yin had met with Huo Houye many times already. If he teamed up with Wendy Yushan, then Huo Houye would not stand a chance against them. It would be nothing more than firing the gun once, and if that wasn’t enough, then Lu Yin could just fire it twice.
Of course, he would not easily shoot his gun as there were only twelve bullets left, and each time he fired it, he would be left with fewer shots.
Huo Houye snorted before reducing his flames and continuing on his way toward Ironblood Weave.
Aden calmly watched Huo Houye’s departing figure, and a slight trace of contempt appeared in his eyes.
Just like Limiteers, Enlighters were similarly divided into the weak and the strong. Huo Houye was nothing more than an ordinary Enlighter who had possibly touched upon the level of an elite. However, Aden’s vision was concentrated solely on the top freaks. Even if he was still just a Hunter, this showed his arrogance.
As the border of the Eastly and Ironblood Weaves grew closer and closer, there was a significant decrease in the number of planets that the spacecraft passed by. Large regions of asteroid fields appeared, and there were no traces of human life in these regions, and even the occasional astral beast could be seen flying by.
Not all astral beasts lived in the Astral Beast Domain, as there were some in the Human Domain as well, but they were frequently eliminated.
The astral beasts in the Human Domain formed organizations on a different scale from the Astral Beast Domain. To humans, any creature that was able to explore freely space and was not human was considered as an astral beast.
After four days of traveling, the asteroid fields gradually vanished. Their ship had finally left the Eastly Weave and passed into Ironblood Weave’s border.
When he saw Ironblood Weave, Lu Yin did not feel anything different. The size of the weave was too small, and reportedly, the entire weave was one massive battlefield.
But before they had to travel much further, Lu Yin saw a huge colossus that occupied an entire region of space, and he finally understood what the strongholds of Ironblood Weave actually were. Ahead of them there was a humongous fortress that had been assembled from multiple planets into a shape that resembled a broken knife.
This stronghold was reminiscent of an astral beast lying in space, while its form also resembled a broken knife that had been stabbed into the center of the universe. It could be seen from a ridiculous distance, and the entire structure emitted the desolate aura of a battlefield. As they approached, battle drums could be vaguely heard.
Lu Yin’s eyes filled with star energy as he looked at the stronghold. From it, he saw an enormous and endless amount of rune lines. He could see that there were Enlighters, Hunter, Cruisers, Explorers, and countless cultivators at the fortress. All of them were guarding the stronghold, which caused it to be filled with rune lines that pervaded the entire region of space.
“That’s Brokenblade Fort, one of the five lower strongholds in Ironblood Weave. It’s the one that’s the closest to the Eastly Weave, and it’s also the final stronghold of Ironblood Weave. If this fort is ever breached, then the Outerverse will be thrown into despair.” Aden’s voice sounded out from next to Lu Yin. It seemed that he was not a stranger to Ironblood Weave.
Lu Yin felt deep respect as he looked at the approaching Brokenblade Fort. Those stationed inside were providing a meritorious service for all of humanity.
As they drew closer, Brokenblade Fort gave Lu Yin an even greater shock. This stronghold had been built from entire planets, and he wondered how the designers had even conceived such a thing. It made Lu Yin recall the mainland that had been used during Astral-10’s entrance exam.
Anyone who entered Ironblood Weave was required to pass an inspection first, and Lu Yin’s party was no exception. Conveniently, the inspection was quickly finished, as the guards were mainly checking to see if they were astral beasts that were disguised as humans.
There were special routes leading from Brokenblade Fort to the depths of Ironblood Weave. Lu Yin’s party quickly passed through the inspection, and before long, he was looking behind at Brokenblade Fort as they headed towards Seasons Fort.
Ironblood Weave was truly small, mainly because the point where the Astral Beast Domain and the Human Domain were connected was too small. Ironblood Weave had originally been a battlefield, but with the establishment of the nine strongholds, it had been forcibly raised to become one of the Outerverse’s seventy two weaves, but it was still the smallest weave of them all.
After they entered Ironblood Weave, Lu Yin began to check the battle system, as only those who had entered Ironblood Weave could access information about it.
The battle system was the system that the Hall of Honor had developed to allow the weave’s defenders exchange their military contributions for various benefits. Because the battlefield was too extensive and the astral beasts appeared randomly, there was no way to effectively tally the soldiers’ deeds. Thus, the Hall of Honor had developed this system. Once people entered Ironblood Weave, the battle system would automatically connect to their gadgets and constantly monitor them. Besides guaranteeing that fellow humans would not kill each other, its primary function was to record an individual’s military achievements.
These contributions were mainly reflected through one’s accumulation of Ironblood Points. Killing one Limiteer realm beast awarded one point, a Limiteer realm elite beast was worth two points, and three points for the beasts who could rival a human Limiteer freak. If a beast with the strength to match up with the strongest Limiteer was killed, it was worth five points.
The Ironblood Points started with kills in the Limiteer realm, and it was not easy for cultivators who were not space-exploring powerhouses yet to acquire points. Many astral beast Limiteers had formidable innate gifts and powerful bodies which made them harder to deal with than human Limiteers.
Above Limiteers were Explorers, and killing an ordinary Explorer realm beast awarded a soldier three points, an elite Explorer realm beast eight points, a genius-level Explorer realm beast twenty points, and one of the strongest Explorer realm beasts fifty points.
There were also Cruiser, Hunter, and Enlighter realm beasts each with their own divisions, and the system would decide how powerful the slain beasts had been.
The battle system had existed for many years and accumulated countless battle videos, so the system was able to quickly differentiate which level the astral beasts belonged to, and there were no mistakes. Of course, if signals to the gadgets were blocked, then the system would become ineffective, but that was a common failing of all technological devices.
One could use their awarded Ironblood Points to purchase goods, battle techniques, or even power vessels. Lu Yin was the most interested in getting his hands on more star essences, and he had already seen that one Ironblood Point could be exchanged for one star essence, which provided him with a good path for getting rich.
This was equivalent to killing one Limiteer astral beast and receiving one star essence. To Lu Yin, this was nothing difficult, and he quickly ran some calculations. With his strength, he could deal with elite Cruisers, which were worth ninety points. If he took his universal armor and Fatesand into account, then he could even deal with those genius-level Cruiser beasts, each of which was worth 200 points.
Lu Yin’s eyes brightened, as the battlefield would not lack in astral beasts at all.
The system had a contributions ranking list, and Lu Yin casually glanced at it. The person at the top of the list was Lohar, who was the Elder from the Hall of Honor. Lu Yin did not know the details of the man’s strength, but he definitely greatly surpassed Nightqueen Qiuyu and the others. However, his Ironblood Points could not be seen.
Right below Lohar was General Fei, who En Ya had mentioned to Lu Yin. General Fei was the commander at the forefront stronghold of Ironblood Weave, which was the Ironblood Fort. He had defended the fortress for many years, as he had pledged to never retreat. He was an Enlighter with a power level of 290,000, and he was another powerhouse who greatly surpassed Huo Houye and the others. Similarly, his accumulation of Ironblood Points could not be seen.
Each person could only see the points of those ranked within five positions of their own, either above or below them.
Eh? Suddenly, Lu Yin’s eyes trembled as he saw something that blew him away. The top rankers on the list were all Enlighters, and each fortress in Ironblood Weave had Enlighters defending it. Whenever an Enlighter attacked, they were able to casually massacre entire regions, which made it very easy for them to rack up Ironblood Points. Although this was the general rule here, Lu Yin noticed that there was a Cruiser who was ranked tenth on the list.
Cool Sis was stationed at the Ironblood Fort, and she was also ranked tenth on the Top 100 Rankings.
Lu Yin did not think that he would see someone in the tenth spot of the Top 100 Rankings in this place, as he was not on the same level as those cultivators. They were experts who were nearly all from the same generation as the Ten Arbiters, but some were a bit younger. Once the Ten Arbiters aged to a point where they could no longer be considered a part of the younger generation, their positions would be taken by the people who were at the top of the Top 100 Rankings. In other words, any expert who was among the top ten and in the Ten Arbiters Council, could very well become one of the next Ten Arbiters.
Lu Yin did not know if this Cool Sis had joined the Ten Arbiters Council.
He thought back to the battles on Planet Pyrolyte, where one Nightking Gu had caused so much trouble for him and Wendy Yushan, and Nightking Gu was someone who was only ranked fifteenth. There was a qualitative difference between tenth and fifteenth, as a Cruiser in the top ten was able to suppress even Enlighters. And this woman was even ranked tenth on Ironblood Weave’s battle system points ranking. Who knew what this woman has gone through.
Below Cool Sis, there was someone named Kong Shi, who was also a woman. Lu Yin felt astonished; were Ironblood Weave’s women all kick-ass warriors?
