Lu Yin rose into the sky as cultivators appeared all around him. All of them had expressions of loss and grieving.
He looked at his gadget and quickly discovered what had happened. The remaining people who had been at Ironblood Fort were pulling back. Humanity had given up on their foremost line of defense.
This meant that Seasons Fort, Giantghost Fort, and Yellowsoil Fort were now the frontlines of the war. The miserable situation that had previously erupted at Ironblood Fort would now come to these next three forts.
Despite the passage of countless years, Ironblood Fort had never once failed to force back the astral beast invaders. Even at its most critical moments, it had only been temporarily let go, only to be quickly seized back by the reinforcements from the middle three strongholds. However, at the moment, the middle three forts hadn’t even had a chance to reinforce the first stronghold.
The Astral Beast Domain had redirected a great deal of its strength to Ironblood Weave, and they had violated their truce with the Human Domain due to their desire to invade the humans’ Outerverse.
Many people disappeared from the Ironblood Points rankings, including four Enlighters, dozens of Hunters, and many Cruisers. All of these people had perished at Ironblood Fort.
Four Enlighters had actually died, and with the announcement of Crow Phoenix’s death, Lu Yin could only imagine the intensity of the battle that had taken place.
“The remnant forces from Ironblood Fort will move to the middle three strongholds to aid their defense. Although this means that our middle three strongholds will be strengthened, it also means that we’ll be facing the Astral Beast Domain’s main force that has almost ten Enlighters among them. Even an old freak with a power level of over 300,000 wasn’t enough to defend against that force, and now, our three mere middle strongholds will find it even more difficult to hold on.” An older Explorer’s face sank, and desperation could be clearly seen in his eyes.
Lu Yin looked around and saw that everyone around him was in a similar state, and even he himself felt the same. The Outerverse was in a truly desperate situation now.
He expected that Elder Lohar would have sent out another wave of draft notices for Outerverses for more reinforcements by now. It was likely that even the hidden Enlighters like Topmist would be forced out. Lu Yin had not seen that old fogey’s name on the ranking list, but as the defense of Ironblood Weave grew more intense, those Enlighters would definitely be forced to participate.
One day later, Seasons Fort welcomed in the remnant survivors from Ironblood Fort. Through observing their rune lines, Lu Yin could tell that, among the arriving troops, there were three Enlighters, at least ten Hunters, and many Cruisers and Explorers.
Ironblood Fort had not been able to send all of their surviving forces to Seasons Fort, which meant that what Lu Yin saw was just a third of its remaining forces. But now he knew that even three times of what he saw arriving had not been enough to defend Ironblood Fort, which made Lu Yin feel even more hopeless.
In outer space, above the stronghold, the meteor-like sourceboxes peacefully floated along as they emitted a formless danger zone that Lu Yin could see through their rune lines. The field of invisible danger covered most of Seasons Fort, but there were quite a few places without any rune lines, which were the holes in the sourceboxes’ defensive formation.
Seeing the holes was one thing, but having the ability to patch them up was something else altogether. The formless danger zones had been set up in a careful array that was predicated on a thorough understanding of the sourceboxes’ killing potential. This array arranged them in layers such that they did not repel each other while also guaranteeing that the danger zones would not be diminished in power.
Lu Yin did not have the ability to do such a thing. Even if he was given a bunch of similar sourceboxes, just placing them within the gaps in the danger zones would be useless, as that could easily cause the entire danger field to undergo an upheaval.
This level of understanding and ability was something only within the scope of comprehension for a Boundless Advanced Lockbreaker.
Lu Yin looked for Charon, planning on asking him about knowledge related to the arrangement of sourceboxes. He was curious to see if Charon knew anything about it.
During the most recent battle, Lu Yin had saved Charon, and thus, his attitude towards Lu Yin had improved slightly. “The composition of sourceboxes? I don’t know, and my Lockbreaker mentor in Astral-6 never explained it to me either. He only offered me a little bit of advice: one has to comprehend it for themselves, as everyone has a different understanding of such arrangements. This is because there are countless permutations to a formless danger field.”
Lu Yin fell deep into thought. Some sourceboxes were able to cause people to fall into their own fantasies while others directly killed anything that approached them. And there were still others yet that could allow the power of predecessors to appear. There were indeed many permutations, which naturally gave rise to countless arrangement methods and variations. Unfortunately, Lu Yin could not even arrange even a single one.
He looked up and saw the sourceboxes that orbited around like satellites, and he wondered what exactly their formless dangers were.
“Brother Lu, you can’t really be thinking about researching such things. Stop thinking too much into it. That’s a level that even Perceptive Intermediate Lockbreakers can’t touch. There might not be anyone at all in the Outerverse who’s reached that level. Do you know what ‘Boundless Advanced’ signifies? It represents a status that’s even surpassed that of an almighty Enlighter with a power level of over 200,000. When such a powerhouse appears, even if they don’t make a move or use their lockbreaking methods, they can still end a battle,” Charon explained.
Lu Yin suddenly turned to Charon. “What’s the power of your Unveiled Sword like?”
Charon suddenly looked cautious. “What do you want?”
Lu Yin casually replied, “I’m just curious. After all, it’s an ancient object.”
Charon continued to be vigilant against Lu Yin. “Take your curiosity elsewhere. The Unveiled Sword is mine.”
Lu Yin had no choice, as this person was just too wary of him.
In the previous battle, he had intentionally looked over to observe the Unveiled Sword’s rune lines. The strange thing was the sword’s rune lines had been constantly changing; at times, the amount was terrifying, but at others, it was pathetic. Charon had not managed to demonstrate any strength, so Lu Yin was positive that he had not unlocked the full potential of the Unveiled Sword yet, which was a waste in Lu Yin’s perspective. If he was able to get ahold of the Unveiled Sword, then he could upgrade it several times with his die’s Enhance, which would make it nearly as powerful as his gun. What a pity.
“Right, aren’t you from Timor Weave? Why did you come here to Ironblood Weave?” Lu Yin asked.
Charon grudgingly answered, “After I graduated from Astral-6, I went to Darkmist Weave to make a name for myself, and I even managed to gain some reputation. But then I was recruited by name.”
Lu Yin felt that it was strange. “You were drafted by name even with your strength?”
Charon’s face turned ugly, as he did not like to hear such words.
Lu Yin looked up again. What other way did he have to patch up these holes? Seasons Fort did not have any Lockbreakers who were capable of doing so on their own, and although Lu Yin could clearly see the holes, he was helpless to do anything to them, which was rather disturbing.
Charon left. Lu Yin had already been staring up at the sky for several hours, and Charon could not possibly accompany him the whole time.
Off in the distance, Huo Qingshan looked at the shattered ground and the couple of collapsed planets. His expression was complex, and he was wondering if he would be able to leave this place alive.
The danger from the sourceboxes manifested in countless forms, and the sourceboxes themselves had no fixed positions either, so how had those beasts found the holes? Lu Yin was baffled. Did the Astral Beast Domain also have creatures that could see rune lines?
That would be bad. If the position of the holes remained fixed, then Seasons Fort could gather all of its strength and focus on defending those few locations, which would definitely cause the astral beasts to suffer great harm.
Hold on. Lu Yin’s mind flashed with inspiration; wasn’t he someone who could see the holes? During the next invasion, the astral beasts’ route would definitely pass through those gaps, which meant that he knew their invasion route ahead of time.
Lu Yin grew excited as he thought of this. He wanted to tell Aden and have him contact Liu Qiuyu on Lu Yin’s behalf.
Eh? What’s that? Lu Yin felt lost as he stared at the sky. He suddenly saw an astral beast after staring for so long. Was it an illusion? No, the attackers had arrived.
The next moment, blaring alarms rang throughout Seasons Fort, and Huo Qingshan’s expression changed. He suddenly appeared beside Lu Yin and raised a hand as an inferno engulfed the void.
Countless firearms fired at the Void Wanderer that had just appeared, but the attacks were all crushed by an enormous strength that was at the Enlighter level. At the same time, from Seasons Fort’s command center, multiple extremely strong powerhouses dashed out, which were the Enlighters such as Liu Qiuyu, Featherking, Wen Qichen, and Elder Viletree. Several Enlighters also appeared from the invading beasts’ side, and the clash between the two forces immediately escalated to a tremendous and overwhelming conflict in outer space.
The Amethyst Beast from before reappeared, and Aden arrived in a timely manner to obstruct it again. This time, Aden unleashed his nine lined battle force at the very beginning of the fight, and he combined it with his thunder shield to suppress the Amethyst Beast. It roared and tried to use its innate gift to absorb the thunder shield, but Aden was prepared for this move this time. The Amethyst Beast couldn’t move, and it started losing this battle right from the get go.
There were a great number of remnant forces that had come from Ironblood Fort, to the extent where their power even surpassed Seasons Fort’s original forces. Lu Yin saw the Sword Sect’s Elder Viletree, Liu Sanjian, and Long Yun appear as well.
He had not realized that Long Yun had not returned to the Innerverse. Evidently, he had been stranded in the Outerverse as well.
A Hunter realm astral beast quickly fixated onto Huo Qingshan, as his actions had been too eye-catching earlier, when he had killed a large number of beasts in a vast region with one strike.
Lu Yin was once again surrounded by countless Limiteer beasts, which caused him to feel very sullen. He found that whenever his performance became too outstanding, he would be targeted in the next battle. The intelligence of these astral beasts was not to be underestimated.
Suddenly, a group of cultivators appeared, and they helped Lu Yin by holding the surrounding beasts back. “Leave them to us!”
Lu Yin was bewildered, as he did not know these people. Still, he did not think about it for too long, and he quickly leaped up and headed towards other battlefields. At the next place, he slammed a palm against an Explorer realm astral beast, instantly shattering it into smithereens. After that, Lu Yin gained the attention of a Cruiser beast.
Those cultivators who had moved to help Lu Yin had done so under Wang Wen’s orders, which were to allow Lu Yin to effectively maneuver through the battlefield.
Lu Yin was clearly a Realmbreaker, and he could even threaten Enlighters. However, the astral beasts sought to surround him with a bunch of Limiteers, which was a waste in Wang Wen’s eyes. With his monstrous intellect, he would not allow for such a valuable resource to be wasted. Even though there were many soldiers and cultivators on the battlefield, they were all his chess pieces, and he would fully utilize each pawn’s strength.
Dead Pass was located at the uppermost regions of Seasons Fort, and it was not far from the area that Lu Yin was defending. He looked up, as the pass was very eye-catching, and powerful astral beasts were constantly attacking that place. However, its defenses were also very powerful.
Suddenly, he felt a chill go down his spine, and he dodged to the side with Secret Sidestep. An enormous strength distorted the void where Lu Yin had just been standing, and he saw an enormous amount of rune lines coalesce through his eyes. It was a Cruiser realm Yin Guai.
He didn’t hesitate and directly attacked the beast, but the Yin Guai responded in kind and raised a paw to clash against Lu Yin.
There was a loud thump as the void shook. Lu Yin took several steps back and looked at the beast in astonishment. He had unsealed all three grains of Fatesand, but he had still been knocked back. It was no wonder why the Yin Guai was known as the Astral Beast Domain’s equivalent to the humans’ Mavis family.
The Yin Guai did not come out of the clash in much better shape, and its shock was even greater than Lu Yin’s. Not only had this human accurately pinpoint its position, but his physical strength had even suppressed its own, which was something that it had never encountered before.
“Human, are you a monster?” The Yin Guai used star energy to vibrate the air in order to speak.
Lu Yin was furious. “You’re the monster!”
He quickly used the Secret Sidestep Technique to instantly move behind Yin Guai, and his six lined battle force emerged as he pressed both of his palms against the Yin Guai’s back. “Thirty Stacks… Fiftyfold… Shockwave Palm.”
There was another boom, and the Yin Guai spat out a mouthful of blood, its figure growing considerably visible. Its back had shattered from the impact before it died less than a moment later.
Lu Yin panted heavily. He constantly had to remind himself that this battlefield was not the same as Planet Pyrolyte and that there were no restrictions on his potential opponents’ cultivations. Even Cruiser realm freaks could appear in front of him at any time, and Hunter geniuses could ambush him as well. Even if he was wearing the upgraded universal armor, he still had to maintain extreme vigilance.
He did not want to entrust all his hopes to the universal armor either. The day would eventually come where he would be caught off guard after removing it. Then, his battle habits would be ruined, which would prove fatal.
