One day later, Brokenblade Fort rumbled as countless attacks launched out with Lu Yin’s instructions. As they soared into the sky, they destroyed a large batch of Void Wanderers.
Brokenblade Fort cheered, as they had never fought such a satisfying battle before.
Han Fei relaxed, as this was how it should be. As long as they destroyed more Void Wanderers, the astral beasts’ invasion would be delayed, and their progress would slow.
Wang Wen’s face looked unpleasant. According to his analysis, since the battle had progressed to this step, the astral beasts should be giving it their all. They should not be acting as cautiously as they had been against Seasons Fort. Rather, they should be feeling rushed due to Seasons Fort collapsing.
Wang Wen had not guessed wrongly. Soon, a howl shocked the stronghold as Monster Loach appeared.
No old freak with a power level that exceeded 300,000 had ever appeared to attack Brokenblade Fort before. However, Monster Loach had made an exception this time and appeared by itself to take on the attacks of the entire Brokenblade Fort. This meant that the defenders were unable to quickly eliminate the Void Wanderers, and the battle soon became a drawn out affair.
Lu Yin lowered his gadget since battle was about to break out again.
“Try to hide yourself. I can’t take care of you,” Lu Yin said softly before leaping into the sky.
Xi Qi looked at Lu Yin’s shrinking figure. “What should we do?”
The fish wagged its tail. “Hide.”
“That can’t be very good.” Xi Qi was caught in a dilemma.
The fish looked up, pleased. “Look at the heavens! Do you see that large fish? That’s Lord Fish’s relative. Rest assured. Anyone can die here except for you.”
Xi Qi looked blankly at Monster Loach. “Relative? More like a distant ancestor.”
The fish was pleased. “That’s right, an ancestor!”
“That’s your ancestor?”
“Rubbish! Lord Fish is that one’s ancestor.”
Boom!
There was a loud explosion as Monster Loach’s tail shattered Brokenblade Fort’s command center. Han Fei and Topmist acted in unison to stop it, but they were blocked by the other Enlighter realm astral beasts.
Wang Wen hid in his coffin again, only to be sent crashing into another part of the fort.
Lu Yin dashed into space, and his eyes scanned the surroundings. There were four Enlighter beasts here as well as Monster Loach. This was troubling, as his gun only had four shots left, and only two days had passed since he had last rolled his die. Thus, it was nearly guaranteed that he would not be able to get three pips: Enhance. This was a battle that he had to win as is, or die trying.
What about Elder Lohar? Why hadn’t he been able to hold back Monster Loach?
Monster Loach continued rampantly destroying Brokenblade Fort in a berserk fashion. Against this terrifying beast whose power level had reached 300,000, even the thousands of planets and the hundreds of floating continents that had assembled together were quickly destroyed.
Lu Yin had nothing left that he could use to threaten Monster Loach, but he could still intimidate the fish. He thought about it for a moment before pointing his gun at Monster Loach.
Monster Loach suddenly stopped all movement and quickly shrank down until it had vanished into the void. It was gone.
Lu Yin was stunned. That old bastard couldn’t have been constantly guarding against me, could it? That thing’s too wily.
Suddenly, Lu Yin’s back went cold. The void split open, and an Enlighter beast rushed out to crash into his back, sending him tumbling quite far.
At the same time, another Enlighter beast appeared and swatted out at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin’s performance at Seasons Fort had attracted too much attention, and his ranking on the Celestial Vanquisher’s List had climbed higher and higher. Now, he was the target of countless astral beasts.
There was another thump, and a wave of Lu Yin’s hand caused a bullet to vanish only to reappear right in the skull of an Enlighter realm beast. It only took a moment for its head to explode.
But there was something strange—that Enlighter beast did not die. Instead, another head grew out. This was the creature’s innate gift.
There was another thump, and Lu Yin was sent flying by its paw.
Lu Yin struggled to stabilize himself as he panted heavily. He had been targeted by such a strange beast with an exotic gift. It would be difficult to kill it since he did not know what its weakness even was. This would be difficult.
Against the Enlighter realm beasts, Lu Yin’s only defensive method was his universal armor, but no matter how sturdy it was, it could not resist the constant back-and-forth attacks from two Enlighter realm beasts.
“Seventh Bro, hurry up and think of a way, or run!” the monkey shrieked.
Lu Yin gritted his teeth, as he did not know if he would be able to successfully flee if he made the attempt. The Void Thunderbeast’s flesh could let him escape into the distance, but was there any point? If Brokenblade Fort collapsed, then the entire Outerverse would be thrust into the apocalypse.
Crack!
The Enneadic Wings split apart, and Lu Yin quickly stored them away before pulling out the Stellar Ruler. He evaded an attack and then teleported a great distance in an instant. He continued to pant as he stared into the distance.
The two Enlighter beasts were staring at him. “Human, surrender. The Celestial Beast Empire will welcome you.”
“Human, you should feel very honored that you have forced the two of us to deal with an Explorer like yourself, and you have even caused Senior Monster Loach to fear you. However, it all ends here,” the other Enlighter beast said.
Lu Yin panted heavily. His palms were covered with sweat as he kept a wary eye on the two Enlighter beasts. At this moment, he saw a sudden bolt of lightning light up an area in the distance, and he charged towards one of the Enlighter beasts. “Even if I die, you’ll join me! Try me if you don’t believe it.”
The two Enlighter beasts exchanged fearful glances, as even Monster Loach was wary of this Explorer before them. They did not think too much of Lu Yin’s charge and were about to conceal themselves within the void, but then, one of the two Enlighter beasts was suddenly sent flying by a humongous thunder shield. Lu Yin took advantage of this opportunity to fire his gun and use the Yu Secret Art to send the bullet into the other Enlighter’s head.
Its head exploded again, but it grew back just like before. However, this time, the head was clearly much smaller.
The Enlighter beast swung out with a paw to repel Aden. Then, it fled into the void to join the first beast. Lu Yin didn’t even get a chance to fire his gun a second time.
Lu Yin felt that it was a pity. He was about to speak when a darkness enveloped the area above him. He looked up, and his eyes shrank. Aden similarly stared up in amazement.
Monster Loach had appeared out of the blue, lashing down at the two of them with its tail.
The two of them were instantly batted away.
Aden’s thunder shield was shattered by the massive force, and his nine-lined battle force collapsed. He spat out a mouthful of blood as he landed on a planet, with no one knowing if he was dead or alive as he fell into a pool of magma.
Lu Yin was still alright, since Monster Loach’s attack was not able to break through his universal armor’s defenses. Nonetheless, his brain had been jostled, and he felt dizzy. He crashed into a sturdy object. What could be this tough?
“Chesspiece Bro? You almost crushed me to death!” Wang Wen exclaimed.
Lu Yin opened his eyes and saw that, coincidentally, he had landed on top of Wang Wen’s transparent coffin after being struck by Monster Loach.
In the heavens, Monster Loach released a tremendous roar, and many covered their ears in pain.
Right at this moment, an elder in a white gown appeared in front of Monster Loach and pressed both hands against the beast’s head. The elder then pushed Monster Loach towards the danger zone formed by the numerous sourceboxes.
“Old man Lohar!” Monster Loach roared as its two whiskers swept towards the old man.
The elder allowed the whiskers to thrash against him, and fresh blood flowed down from the corners of his mouth, but he still pushed Monster Loach into the invisible danger zone formed by the sourceboxes.
Every stronghold had a similar setup of sourceboxes that had been arranged to create a defensive perimeter, but unfortunately, after countless years, holes had appeared in the defenses.
If it had been pushed into the danger zones that had protected Ironblood Fort, Monster Loach would have been in trouble, but the danger of Brokenblade Fort’s sourceboxes was not nearly as threatening.
“Old man, why are you here?” Monster Loach shouted.
The elder stared at Monster Loach. “I killed that Amethyst Beast.”
“Impossible! That freak’s defense is even greater than mine’s!” Monster Loach shouted.
The elder sneered as a strange weapon appeared in his hand that he aimed at Monster Loach. “You’re next.”
Monster Loach’s massive eyes went wide in bewilderment.
Lu Yin looked up and saw the two’s interactions. When he saw the elder’s rune lines, they seemed to be overflowing into the surrounding area. The man’s strength was currently even greater than Monster Loach’s, but the rune lines were also quickly dissipating. Could this be Elder Lohar? He had been injured, and not lightly at that.
In comparison, Monster Loach wasn’t very injured, and if the two really fought, Elder Lohar would not be able to defeat Monster Loach in his current state.
However, Monster Loach was too timid, and after being intimidated by the old man, it retreated.
The battle ended soon after Elder Lohar appeared.
Lu Yin let out a breath, as he had been targeted during this battle and prevented from displaying any of his formidable strength. Topmist had only focused on fleeing during the conflict, and Han Fei had done his best to hold back an Enlighter realm beast. If not for Elder Lohar intimidating Monster Loach into backing off, the outcome of the battle would have been bleak.
“You can scare it once but not twice,” Wang Wen grudgingly commented as he stepped out of his coffin.
Lu Yin was astonished. “You could tell?”
Wang Wen rolled his eyes. “You guys will never be able to understand the superiority of intellect. It’s something on a whole other level.”
At this time, Elder Lohar was not the only new arrival, and numerous other spacecraft started to appear at Brokenblade Fort. They brought with them news that Giantghost Fort had fallen.
Yellowsoil Fort’s fall had closely followed the collapse of Seasons Fort, and all the survivors had retreated back to the five lower strongholds. Lu Yin had made a special point to check on whether Wendy Yushan was still listed on the rankings, and that she was fine. Now, he had learned that Giantghost Fort had also collapsed.
The three middle strongholds had all fallen, and now, the Outerverse’s last line of defense was these five lower strongholds.
Almost half of Brokenblade Fort had crumbled during the battle. The survivors from Giantghost Fort were considered reinforcements, but in a similar manner, the astral beasts that had attacked Giantghost Fort would also move to join the assault against Brokenblade Fort.
Giantghost Fort originally had four Enlighters stationed there, and they were Commander Long Ke, Elder Qing Han, Huo Houye, and Meng Ningge. Of them, only Huo Houye had survived, and the others had all been killed in action.
Elder Lohar had bluffed Monster Loach into backing off, as the Enlighter realm Amethyst Beast had not died.
Because of this lie, although they had driven back Monster Loach, the next battle would definitely arrive quicker than normal, and they would likely only have one or two days before battle broke out once more.
Although it had already proven to be ineffective, Lu Yin still continued to update the positions of the gaps in the sourceboxes’ formless danger zones. Due to the previous battle, his Ironblood Points had shot up into the top fifty once again.
During this most recent battle at Brokenblade Fort, Lu Yin had held back Enlighter beasts, and he had even made Monster Loach nervous. These contributions were not insignificant, but since he had not killed any Enlighter beasts during this battle, he only managed to earn a few thousands of points. Still, they were enough to propel him up into the top fifty of the Ironblood Points rankings.
Having his name in the list meant that Lu Yin was still alive. He did not exchange his points this time, and he hoped that Wendy Yushan as well as anyone else who cared about him would see the information that he was fine.
Aden had sustained heavy injuries during this battle, but fortunately, Huo Qingshan had pulled him out at a critical moment. Otherwise, Aden might have met his end. At this moment, he was being treated.
At Brokenblade Fort’s command center, Commander Han Fei, Wang Wen, Topmist, and Huo Houye were all in a meeting.
“Invite Brother Lu here,” Han Fei ordered.
Huo Houye frowned, as he was aware that this “Brother Lu” to whom Han Fei was referring to was Lu Yin. The genius had become an Explorer by now, and he had even caused two Enlighter realm beasts to gang up on him. Even if Huo Houye was an Enlighter himself, he had to admire this kid, as he was indeed a freak. Even when the Ten Arbiters were Explorers, they had not been able to accomplish such things!
“There’s no need to summon him right now. He needs to constantly observe the holes. The Astral Beast Domain must be feeling very anxious about this invasion, or else they would not have forced that cowardly Monster Loach into the vanguard position. Something must have happened in the Astral Beast Domain, so let Lu Yin continue his observations.”
Han Fei nodded. A few of them had also sensed the urgency of the Astral Beast Domain’s invasion, and the gathered experts started to discuss their subsequent battle plans. They wanted to know which astral beasts had destroyed Giantghost Fort, as well as what abilities and innate gifts they had so that they could make some preparations for the coming battle.
