Lu Yin immediately stepped back. “Elder Tong, Qiqi is my friend. I just did what I was supposed to do.”
Elder Tong stood up and answered in a strict tone, “I’m grateful that you helped Qiqi, but you have also gotten her into trouble.”
Lu Yin remained quiet.
“Due to the great changes in the Innerverse, it’s now filled with danger, especially the Starfall Sea. The Tong family is too powerful, and not even the entire Starfall Sea can oppose them. Little Brother Lu, you shouldn’t have brought Qiqi here,” Elder Tong said.
Lu Yin helplessly answered, “Even if I didn’t bring her here, she still would have found a way to get here on her own.”
“Then you should have tied her up! No matter what excuse you may give, this dangerous place is simply somewhere where Qiqi should not be,” Elder Tong retorted with agitation.
Lu Yin could understand Elder Tong’s feelings, but that didn’t mean that he would accept such a scolding. “I accept your gratitude, but not your scolding.”
Elder Tong glanced at Lu Yin and sighed. “I’m sorry, I was too worked up.”
Lu Yin remained quiet.
Elder Tong then spoke up again. “Is Elder Ren’s body with you?”
Lu Yin nodded and waved a hand, causing Elder Ren’s body to appear.
Elder Tong felt grief well up the moment he saw Elder Ren’s body. “I can’t believe that this old fellow couldn’t even die in peace.”
Lu Yin didn’t know how to respond to the old man.
Elder Tong bowed once again. “Little Brother Lu, thank you. Again, thank you!”
Lu Yin did not refuse the old man’s gratitude, as if he did not accept the elder’s feelings, Elder Tong would feel uneasy.
They quickly buried Elder Ren within the Thundercharge Dojo in hopes that they would be able to move his body to the Sea King’s Dome after defeating the Sixth Mainland in the future.
During the burial, Hai Qiqi’s eyes were red and swollen, and she silently cried.
Many cultivators from the Sea King’s Dome had lowered heads with faces that displayed both sadness and anger; their hatred towards the Sixth Mainland was immeasurable.
“We have to give up on the dojo and leave.” Elder Tong sighed as he stood in front of Elder Ren’s grave.
Lu Yin was shocked. “Leave? Where should we go?”
“Mt. Stacks Dojo,” Elder Tong answered. “We have only managed to preserve thirteen dojos, and this Thundercharge Dojo is at the outermost perimeter. Since we managed to defeat the Sixth Mainland this time around, they will definitely launch an even stronger attack next time, and they might even bring Imprinters. We definitely won’t be able to defeat them then, so we can only retreat to Mt. Stacks Dojo now. Actually, apart from this dojo, we will also have to give up on six or more dojos of the remaining thirteen dojos.”
Lu Yin quietly asked, “Mt. Stacks Dojo is at the center of Grayweed Continent, so won’t we be trapping ourselves if we retreat to that place?”
Elder Tong bitterly answered, “There’s nowhere else for us to go aside from Mt. Stacks Dojo.”
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed, as he finally realized that the entire Grayweed Continent had been trapped. He wasn’t sure about the situation in the other places, but within the Starfall Sea, there was nobody who could compete against the Tong family. These people had only been able to survive for this long because the Tong family had not used their full power yet, though they may have been held back for some reason or another.
The latter was more likely to be true since the Tong family had asked the Flying Horse Manor to reinforce them. Despite that, even without the Flying Horse Manor, the cultivators of Grayweed Continent still wouldn’t be able to escape.
Although these people were clearly aware that this retreat would ultimately lead to their downfall, they had no choice but to go along with the Tong family’s designs. The Starfall Sea had never faced such a frustrating situation before.
What were the Sea King and Dojo Master Lan of Mt. Stacks Dojo doing at this time?
“Oh right, Elder Tong, do you know how my two seniors are doing? They’re called Big Pao and Little Pao,” Lu Yin asked. He had asked them to stay in the Starfall Sea in the past since he had been worried that Feng Mo would continue pursuing them.
Elder Tong did not know of either Big Pao or Little Pao, as such people were negligible to him.
Lu Yin asked a few other people the same question, but nobody had paid any attention to the two brothers since the continent’s situation had simply been too desperate.
“Don’t worry, as they should be fine. When the Sixth Mainland first invaded the Sea King’s Dome, some people escaped to Grayweed Continent while others were transferred to the planets near Sea King’s Dome by the Sixth Mainland. There were too many people at the Sea King’s Dome, and not even the Sixth Mainland would dare to kill so many,” Elder Tong consoled Lu Yin.
Lu Yin was rendered speechless. This might be true for ordinary people, but Big Pao and Little Pao were both quite powerful cultivators.
Lu Yin hoped that they were still as resourceful as they had been in Astral-10 and that they had avoided this disaster.
As the glowing objects descended in the sky, Grayweed Continent’s day came to an end. Under the cover of darkness, Elder Tong and the Thundercharge Dojo Master led the others towards Mt. Stacks Dojo, abandoning the Thundercharge Dojo.
This many cultivators traveling at once was a significant event, and it would definitely attract the attention of the Sixth Mainland. Fortunately, the area behind Mt. Stacks Dojo had not been taken over by the Sixth Mainland yet, which meant that all of the Sixth Mainland cultivators in that area were not very powerful and were easily taken care of.
***
On the second day, Elder Yuan and Elder Song led an army to the Thundercharge Dojo, where they laid camp outside the perimeter. A gentle, middle-aged man stood in front of the army, and although he didn’t look very impressive, both Elder Yuan and Elder Song stood behind him in a respectful manner.
This middle-aged man was an elder from the Tong family, and his name was Mr. Yi. He was an Imprinter whose power level was greater than 600,000, and he was one of the top three cultivators in the Tong family.
“Mr. Yi, there’s no one here. They’ve abandoned the Thundercharge Dojo,” Elder Song reported after conducting a thorough search of the grounds.
Mr. Yi frowned. “How decisive. It must have been that Elder Tong from the Sea King’s Dome.”
He examined the area and eventually turned in the direction of Mt. Stacks Dojo. “Elder Yuan, Elder Song, take twenty people with you and head after them. Even if you can’t keep everyone alive, you must at least bring their leader back.”
“Understood.”
***
The Thundercharge Dojo Master led their group towards their destination, and they traveled for two straight days without stopping for any breaks. All of the cultivators quietly followed behind him.
Lu Yin and Hai Qiqi were in the center of the crowd, and Elder Tong brought up the rear.
Hai Qiqi and Lu Yin were both indignant that they were being chased by other people. Lu Yin had originally intended to simply escort Hai Qiqi to the Sea King’s Dome and then leave. However, they were now trapped on Grayweed Continent, and he didn’t even know when he would be able to return to the Outerverse.
He wasn’t even sure how long the hole in the Astral River would remain there for, and he became increasingly concerned whenever he thought about it.
Hai Qiqi grabbed Lu Yin’s hand. “Thank you.”
Lu Yin patted her hand. “Don’t worry, it’s fine.”
Hai Qiqi nodded, and her gaze grew firm. She had become much stronger compared to when she had first left the Starfall Sea, and she could now control her emotions very well.
Lu Yin didn’t ask her about the Sea King, and Hai Qiqi didn’t mention her father either, which meant that any and all information regarding the Sea King was highly restricted. It was possible that they would have to depend on the Sea King if they wanted to escape from Grayweed Continent alive.
Lu Yin was more excited about meeting the Divine Fist, as this Arbiter was currently on the same continent as Lu Yin, and they weren’t even that far apart. Lu Yin would soon get to meet the Arbiter.
Just when Lu Yin thought that they would be able to successfully arrive at the Mt. Stacks Dojo, the sky cracked open in the distance as a foot emerged. A gentle-looking, middle-aged man, Mr. Yi, followed the foot out along with Elder Yuan, Elder Song, and twenty other experts from the Sixth Mainland.
The Thundercharge Dojo Master sighed. The Sixth Mainland had still managed to catch up to them.
The battle started immediately.
The Thundercharge Dojo Master moved to block Mr. Yi, and he used lightning to attack the Imprinter. Lightning filled the sky and condensed into a bolt of lightning that shot towards Mr. Yi.
Mr. Yi smiled and waved a hand, which caused the lightning to dissipate.
Everyone was stunned.
Elder Tong’s face darkened. This man was an Imprinter whose power level had exceeded 500,000. This was why the middle-aged man was able to ignore star energy attacks: his realm was much higher than theirs.
Although there were tens of thousands of cultivators from Grayweed Continent in the retreating group, they were still completely overwhelmed by the twenty two cultivators led by Mr. Yi. These twenty two cultivators clearly weren’t normal.
Elder Song saw Lu Yin and sneered. “Young one, you can’t escape!”
His imprint immediately appeared as he flicked his fingers and shot out five flattened orbs. The orbs pierced through dozens of cultivators as they rushed towards Lu Yin.
Lu Yin pushed Hai Qiqi away and immediately dodged the attack.
The five flattened orbs erupted into branches that extended out and tied up thousands of cultivators, including Lu Yin.
Elder Song then rushed over. “Young one, you’re going to die!”
Lu Yin watched as Elder Song approached him, and at the last possible moment, his Fatesand suddenly appeared in front of him. Elder Song’s attack struck the Fatesand continuously until the Fatesand was automatically forced to return to Lu Yin’s body. The old man then lifted a hand and moved to press down on Lu Yin’s head. He wasn’t planning on killing Lu Yin and merely wanted to render the youth unconscious so that he could take the young man away and interrogate him about the secret technique.
Elder Song had clearly already planned everything out. He was going to carry Lu Yin away from the main troops and only return to the Tong family after interrogating the youth about his secret technique.
Elder Song had also managed to skirt by the cosmic phenomenon to unleash his maximum allowable strength. With his precise control of star energy, he had isolated the two of them from the cultivators around them. His control of his star energy was vastly different from how Lockbreakers understood star energy.
Elder Song was an Enlighter who could control his star energy, but that did not mean that he understood star energy. On the other hand, Lockbreakers understood star energy and treated star energy as its own world.
Although this was a huge difference in terms of comprehension, they were still practically similar enough that Lu Yin couldn’t overcome Elder Song’s control of star energy.
However, Lu Yin didn’t need to defeat the old man, as he had not been trapped at all.
Elder Song’s attack was just about to land when Lu Yin’s figure flashed and disappeared. He had used his forcefield to simulate the branches that had been wrapping around him.
Elder Song had not expected Lu Yin to just be feigning capture. He quickly reacted to Lu Yin’s movements, but it was already too late.
Lu Yin appeared behind the old man, and his eyes flashed. Elder Song’s runes were instantly reduced, and although the old man could feel that something had happened, there was nothing the Enlighter could do about it. Lu Yin gathered his star energy over his right hand and infused it with cauldron energy. “First Sun.”
A flaming sphere then crashed towards Elder Song’s head.
Elder Song felt an impending sense of doom overwhelm him as his strength waned. He roared defiantly as he watched the sun descend towards him as he released his maximum power, which was a reflexive response to his life being threatened.
A terrifying shockwave from a power level of 300,000 swept across the area. It created a visible gale that overturned everything and shattered the void.
