“The eastern weaves have already been united, and Lu Yin has established his Great Eastern Alliance. Darkmist Weave is also a part of it. Your Mafioso Planet won’t be able to escape,” Granny Chan said.
Topmist sullenly answered, “So what?”
“Aren’t you worried that he’ll deal with your Mafioso Planet?” Granny Chan asked.
Topmist solemnly said, “Mafioso Planet is merely the place where we reside. As assassins, we have no fixed home. If he wants the planet, he can have it.”
“In the end, it’s still your ancestral grounds. Are you really that willing to give it up?” Granny Chan questioned.
Topmist’s tone remained calm. “What do you want?”
Granny Chan replied, “Go to the Outerverse with me to eliminate this calamity.”
Topmist felt that her request was rather strange. “If I recall correctly, your Northline Flowzone has a pretty good relationship with him. Why do you want to get rid of him?”
“He drove my Northline Flowzone’s people away from the Tri-Banner Federation and infringed upon our benefits.”
Topmist did not answer.
Granny Chan raised her voice, “This kid, Lu Yin, was acknowledged as the Enlighters’ Bane when he was nothing more than a Limiteer! And he is arrogant beyond measure. Now that he has broken through and become an Explorer, he’s even more insufferable. Are you really willing to let such a person be universally acknowledged as standing over us? The moment he started working to establish his Great Eastern Alliance, you should have noticed that this kid is not willing to be independent. He seeks not only power, but also authority.”
“Let me think about this,” Topmist replied.
Granny Chan said, “Alright, but hurry. I’ve already discussed this with Granny Zhuo. With you, three of us Enlighters should be able to deal with him.”
“You had best be clear on the Hall of Honor’s attitude towards him, and don’t forget that Nightqueen Qiuyu was already warned by Elder Lohar,” Topmist replied.
“I know,” Granny Chan said before vanishing.
After she left, Topmist’s image appeared, and he activated his gadget without any hesitation. He then contacted someone he never thought he would reach out to: Lu Yin.
Lu Yin was on the distant Zenyu Star, and he had not expected Topmist to contact him. They had exchanged contact information when they fought together in the Ironblood Weave, though neither of them had ever expected to contact the other in the future.
“We haven’t spoken for a while, Lu Yin.” Topmist appeared on Lu Yin’s screen, and he was garbed entirely in black.
Lu Yin looked at the Enlighter realm assassin, very confused. “Why did you contact me?”
“Granny Chan just reached out to me and asked me to cooperate in dealing with you,” Topmist explained, betraying the old woman without any hesitation.
Lu Yin’s eyes turned sharp. “Granny Chan?” He had not forgotten about this woman. During the events on Planet Pyrolyte, the two had got along well, and Granny Chan had even promised to help the Great Yu Empire rise in power. After that, however, her attitude had seemingly gone in a complete 180. She was actually the person who had secretly told Darkstar Gorge about the methods that Lu Yin had used to kill Lei Long, which had resulted in him being pursued by Darkstar Gorge. Even now, she was still making moves to eliminate Lu Yin, which seemed rather strange.
Lu Yin’s best guess was that Granny Chan did not feel comfortable with the title that he had been given: Enlighters’ Bane, and that her discomfort was the main reason she wanted to strike him when he had been down. However, things were no longer as simple—she was now deliberately and directly trying to kill him.
“Why are you telling me this?” Lu Yin could not understand Topmist’s motivations.
Topmist replied, “With your abilities, I have the feeling that you won’t be dealt with as easily as she expects. I would rather do you a favor, so remember this moment well.”
“Assassins also do favors for people?” Lu Yin felt awkward.
“Assassins are also people,” Topmist calmly replied. He then simply ended the call.
Lu Yin stared at his gadget as he contemplated things. Killers often had sharper senses than regular people, let alone one that was an old fox like Topmist.
Why exactly was Granny Chan so eager to deal with him? Was it just because he had killed Enlighters? Or was it because the Tri-Banner Federation had banished the people from Northline Flowzone? However, the truth of the matter was that Lu Yin had not banished them. Rather, they had left the Tri-Banner Federation of their own accord. Why had they left? Lu Yin thought about it, and he quickly realized that it was very possible that Granny Chan had realized that her snitching had been exposed. This might actually be her gaining an advantage by making the first move.
She may have only exposed his secrets in the past because she did not find him to her liking, and it might have even merely been something that she had done in passing. However, after it was exposed, her only choice was to deal with him.
Lu Yin tapped a finger on the table. It seemed that he would need to take care of this old grandma, especially since she had taken the initiative to contact outsiders to organize a group to deal with him. Such initiative!
The following day, the Alliance Conference formally convened.
The Great Eastern Alliance provided a live broadcast of the conference to the various great weaves of the Outerverse. There were a total of 172 people participating in the conference, all of them representing various powers from the eight weaves that had united to establish the Great Eastern Alliance.
The Outerverse’s weaves had different guiding powers, but that did not mean each weave’s guiding power completely dominated their weave. For example, the Great Yu Empire was an unrivalled dominant force in the Frostwave Weave, but there were still other powers in the weave. An individual weave was simply too big, which meant that it was unrealistic for such a large region to be under complete supervision.
If this was the case for even Frostwave Weave, then the other weaves were no exception. Grandtop Weave’s Nine Stacks Sect was the weave’s greatest power, but it also only controlled half of the weave while the other half was controlled by dozens or even hundreds of other powers. There also existed hundreds of large and small powers in Darkmist Weave, which existed both openly and secretly.
These various powers were scattered throughout each weave, and combined, they were the masters of entire weaves.
The Great Eastern Alliance reportedly consisted of eight weaves, but completely controlling all of that territory would require time. Still, it was just a matter of time.
Although only a hundred odd people were participating in this Alliance Conference, they were enough to represent a majority of the eastern weaves.
The eastern weaves consisted of more than just the alliance’s eight weaves. There were still others such as Eastly Weave, Northcastle Weave, Woori Weave, and Ironblood Weave. But each of those weaves had some reason or another to remain independent, and Mafioso Planet also did not contain any dirty secrets regarding the upper echelons of the guiding powers in those weaves. These two factors combined made it far more difficult to rope them into the alliance.
The Great Eastern Alliance Conference was the central focus of countless people, and anyone watching this scene, regardless of where they were in the Outerverse, would be anticipating the upcoming events. This conference was a momentous occasion, and the impact that it brought with it was in no way smaller than that of the Outerverse Lockbreaker Society crumbling. It was to the extent where even Ironblood Weave was watching the conference.
The Alliance Conference was being held in the Great Yu Empire’s imperial palace, and there were at least ten Hunters participating and safeguarding the meeting. All of Zenyu Star, and even the nearby planets and regions were being strictly monitored.
Each power’s representatives entered the palace, and the last to appear were those like Lan Wu and Jake Shamus.
172 people sat around an enormous roundtable, though the top seat had been left vacant. That was Lu Yin’s position.
One of the primary goals of this particular Alliance Conference was to select the Alliance Leader, though that was nothing more than a show that the representatives were putting on. The leader could naturally only be Lu Yin.
Outside of the imperial palace, Ku Wei tried to enter with a deadpan expression, but he was recognized by Huo Qingshan and was immediately driven out.
Ku Wei sternly told the Hunter, “Don’t stop me! I’m the master of the great Wei Mountain, and I am representing it in this Alliance Conference.”
Huo Qingshan growled, “Don’t make trouble.”
“I know Lu Yin, and I’m his brother. Since he’s holding a meeting, why can’t a brother like me go in and support him? Right! There’s also this-” Ku Wei suddenly took out a huge flag that had the words “Do your best” written on it, causing the nearby people to do a double take.
Huo Qingshan was rendered speechless. “We’ll lock you up if you try to cause any more trouble.”
Ku Wei still wanted to say something, but the flag in his hand was suddenly grabbed by another person. “Bro, give this flag to this master here.”
Ku Wei turned around and saw a wretched-looking old man who was dressed in grey silk robes. He had a star chart printed on the back of one of his hands, and he was staring longingly at Ku Wei’s large flag. The young man instantly became upset. “Where did this beggar come from? Scram!”
The wretched man held the flag tightly and would not let go. “Little brother, Master will read you your fortune once, and I can treat this big flag as my compensation. Master’s flag was destroyed by others, and this is exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
“That’s none of my business—you actually dare to snatch Brother Wei’s items? I think that you must be tired of living. Does your home have a mining planet?” Ku Wei was getting increasingly irritated.
The wretched man looked at Ku Wei seriously. “How old-fashioned. What use does a mining planet have? Master will tell you your fortune! I’m Starsibyl’s Grandpa Jiu.”
Ku Wei glared at the old man with wide eyes. “You actually dare to claim such a thing!”
The old man laughed. “That’s a fact, and Starsibyl cannot deny it for her entire life. So what’s it going to be? Let Starsibyl’s Grandpa Jiu read your fortune. They’re very accurate.”
Ku Wei frowned. “What’s your name?”
“Xuan Jiu.” The man grew pleased.
Ku Wei sized the old man up and down. “Are you from the Starsibyl Sect?”
Xuan Jiu coughed. “Why are you probing so much? So what? Are you doubting Master’s identity?”
Ku Wei straightforwardly nodded.
Xuan Jiu looked over at Huo Qingshan. “Hey kid, go and call that Lu Yin out. Get him to testify for Master’s identity.”
Huo Qingshan coldly glanced at the two men—no, the two nutcases.
“You know Lu Yin?” Ku Wei’s eyes brightened.
Xuan Jiu barked, “Of course! Master once helped him by calculating his fortune. It’s a pity that the kid’s life isn’t that great. He has even exchanged looks with the dead. That’s something that he won’t be able to shake off in the future.” Then, Xuan Jiu looked at Ku Wei seriously. “Kid, why have you also exchanged looks with the dead just like him?”1
Ku Wei blinked. “Royalty? Which royalty? I can’t see any.”
“It’s the dead.”
“Royalty?”
“The dead.”
“Which royalty is it?”
Xuan Jiu was left speechless by Ku Wei’s denseness. “You’ve come into contact with the deceased.”
Ku Wei became pissed. “You’ve come into contact with the deceased.”
“Don’t try to say that you’ve never interacted with the deceased, outside a great tomb in space.” Xuan Jiu spoke with certainty.
Ku Wei was about to open his mouth to scold the old man, but then he suddenly thought of something, and he looked at Xuan Jiu in a strange manner. “What else do you know?”
Xuan Jiu snickered. “Master knows that you’ve always wanted to enter that great tomb, which is why you’re here.”
Ku Wei’s eyes narrowed. “Who the hell are you?”
Xuan Jiu responded solemnly, “Starsibyl’s Grandpa Jiu.”
Ku Wei’s brow rose. “You can’t be messing with me, right?”
Xuan Jiu snatched the flag and then immediately changed the words written upon it so that the flag now read “Starsibyl’s Grandpa Jiu” on the front. On the back, he wrote the words “Fortune telling, up to you to believe.”
“Master tells fortunes and looks at opportunities. Your fortune can be told, but only the heavens can decide whether or not you believe it.”
Ku Wei grabbed Xuan Jiu’s sleeve. “You still haven’t told me mine. So tell me, can I enter that tomb?”
Xuan Jiu stared at Ku Wei’s face, sighed, and then shook his head. “You can’t enter, not in this life.”
Ku Wei was caught off guard.
“Bro, don’t listen to him! He’s immoral, and he’s never been accurate in his fortune telling. You can just take the opposite as the truth,” someone interjected.
Xuan Jiu became furious and glared fiercely at the bystander. “You’re the immoral one. Your entire family is immoral! No, they’re rotten trash! You guys are all rotten trash!!”
“Here! The rotten trash is here.” Zhao Ran excitedly shouted from nearby as she looked at Xuan Jiu. “Gramps, I remember you! I’m the rotten trash! I’m here!”
Xuan Jiu’s mouth fell open as he gaped. “How is she everywhere?” He hurriedly ran away.
Ku Wei stood in place without reacting, as he felt that these recent events were a little strange.
Next to the palace, Xi Qi looked at a screen and admiringly said, “Brother Lu’s very outstanding.”
The fish atop her head disdainfully responded, “Outstanding my ass! He just rules over a bunch of two-legged beasts. Just wait. Lord Fish will definitely have more two-legged beast slaves than him! No, Lord Fish recalls that there used to be many more two-legged beast slaves… Right, there were many of them. Where did they go?”
Xi Qi mumbled to herself, but she did not respond to the fish.
1 Just a reminder from last time, “dead” and “royalty” are homonyms.
