Chapter 1599: Changes
"Alliance Leader Lu, there are rumors claiming that the Arrow Sect has its eye on the Neo-Vestige Sect, and that they even sent several groups of people to the Neo-Vestige Sect to observe their archery skills," Qiong Shanhai mentioned a reminder to Lu Yin.
Lu Yin had no concerns about the Neo-Vestige Sect joining the Arrow Sect. That was completely impossible since the Neo-Vestige Sect’s Arrow Mountain elder had been killed by the Sixth Mainland.
The Sixth Mainland had already sent people to the Hall of Honor in order to seize indirect control of the overseers, so they must have been doing even more things in the dark. Lu Yin knew that there was no way the Sixth Mainland would be satisfied with just the Outerverse, which meant that they would sooner or later become enemies once more.
"Thank you for that reminder, City Master," Lu Yin expressed his grat.i.tude, but then he pointed to the gla.s.s of floral tea that sat on the table. "City Master, please have some tea."
The truth was that Qiong Shanhai had noticed the tea the moment he had entered the room. It was impossible to ignore something that was so obviously poisonous.
It was the floral tea that Zhaoran had prepared. Lu Yin had his own gla.s.s, and the gla.s.s on the table had been specifically poured for Qiong Shanhai.
"Alliance Leader Lu, what is this?" Qiong Shanhai asked warily after noticing what looked to be tiny creatures swimming in the gla.s.s.
Lu Yin smiled. "It’s a floral tea that Zhao Ran recently developed. It should taste quite good. City Master, please taste it and give me your impressions."
Qiong Shanhai was stunned. His first reaction was thinking that Lu Yin was wanting to take over Millions City, and that was the reason to poison him in this place. However, a moment’s thought was enough for Qiong Shanhai to realize that Millions City held little value for the current Lu Yin. There was money, but that was not enough for Lu Yin to poison someone.
Both anxious and suspicious, Qiong Shanhai took a sip.
Lu Yin stared intently.
Qiong Shanhai set the gla.s.s down in shock. "It"s delicious."
Lu Yin smiled. "Zhao Ran will be very happy to hear it."
Qiong Shanhai left shortly after, and Elder Tie arrived.
The Lan family, Millions City, the Sea King’s Dome, Aegis, Amethyst Exchange, and all of the major powers of the Outerverse had started flooding into Frostwave Weave to seek shelter. Naturally, with Lu Yin’s return, each of them wanted to meet with him personally.
Lu Yin and Elder Tie had little to say to each other. The Lan family had moved to Frostwave Weave and acted as a guardian of the weave. Elder Tie was also one of the Great Yu Empire’s protectors, along with some of the powerhouses from the Dayking clan.
Lu Yin spent the next three days visiting with the various people who wanted to see him. Seeing Lu Yin in person was rea.s.suring to them, and people would panic if Lu Yin did not meet with people.
Wendy Yushan had gone to visit the Lingling Clan in the Innerverse, and Lu Yin had no idea where Zhuo Daynight had gone. As for Lan Si, he had gone to train, though Lu Yin did not know where.
Lu Yin was debating with himself whether or not to release Long Xi and the others so that they could stretch a bit, but after considering the matter, he decided not to. It would be hard to keep them all under control.
"Your Highness, w.a.n.g Wen is asking to see you," Kayze announced.
"Let him in."
w.a.n.g Wen soon entered the room, looking sleepy and even yawning as he walked in. "Your Highness chess piece bro, are you done?"
Lu Yin was a bit tired himself. "Yeah, finally."
"You can"t blame them. You disappear for years on end, and the situation here in the Outerverse has become quite complicated. They all want to see you and learn your position on matters," w.a.n.g Wen stated.
"Where do you see the Great Eastern Alliance going in the future?" Lu Yin asked. This was also a reason why Elder Tie and the other people had made a point of visiting Lu Yin. Soon er or later, the Sixth Mainland would gain complete control of the Outerverse, and that time was not very far away. Even the Great Eastern Alliance would need to leave.
The various powers within the Innerverse’s eight great flowzones had long since stabilized themselves, which meant that there would inevitably be backlash and retaliation with the arrival of many different forces from all parts of the Outerverse. Arranging everyone into the Innerverse was the biggest problem at this moment.
There was no way that the Hall of Honor would simply ignore such a matter, and plans were already being laid. Still, despite the best of plans, it would be impossible to avoid all conflict with the eight great flowzones. After all, their holdings were being shaken.
Many things depended on how the Great Eastern Alliance chose to go about things. They could choose to move into a minor flowzone, or they could go up against one of the eight great flowzones.
The Great Eastern Alliance had moved into Fennel Flowzone in order to give the eight great flowzones the impression that the Great Eastern Alliance was harmless, and results were finally showing.
However, how could Lu Yin truly be striving to remain in Fennel Flowzone? Despite the size of Blazing Mist Flowzone, it still was unable to hold the entire Outerverse. Lu Yin wanted far more.
w.a.n.g Wen casually opened a star chart and pointed at First Flowzone. "This is what I want most."
Lu Yin laughed. "Don’t mess with the Sword Sect."
w.a.n.g Wen stretched his waist. "Two years ago, the Daynight clan was not an easy opponent for us to mess with."
"We succeeded there because of Leon’s Armada. If we had relied on just ourselves, we would not have qualified to even have carried the shoes of the powers involved in that incident," Lu Yin said.
"There’s always a way. More than two years have pa.s.sed since then, and we’ve made incredible progress. Does Your Highness have any idea how many androids we now have with the strength of Explorers?" w.a.n.g Wen asked.
Lu Yin grew curious. "How many?"
Ban Jiu was in charge of this particular project, and Lu Yin had not looked into it yet.
w.a.n.g Wen raised four fingers. "Four thousand."
Lu Yin was caught off guard. "The Rapid Response Team only has nine hundred Explorers."
"They have two thousand now," w.a.n.g Wen corrected.
Lu Yin was again surprised. "They grew that much?"
w.a.n.g Wen continued, "The Sixth Mainland is taking over the Outerverse, but ordinary people are able to adapt. For them, it really doesn’t make much of a difference whether they’re under the Fifth or Sixth Mainlands. However, it’s a different story for cultivators, particularly powerful ones. In just two years, we’ve doubled our number of Explorers, and we’ve almost doubled our number of Hunters and Cruisers, not to mention the battleships that have been produced by alliance.
"Given our current strength, we’re capable of winning a fight with the Daynight clan even without being able to compare when it comes to top powerhouses. We are much stronger than the leaders of any one of the eight great flowzones. Just ask the Sword Sect, the Daynight clan, or ChaosG.o.d Mountain just how many experts they can mobilize with the strength of Explorers of above. Even if we can’t quite compare when it comes to the number of Enlighters we have, we still come quite close.
"All we’re missing are top-tier experts."
Lu Yin smiled. "We don’t fall behind in that category, either. I brought two Envoys with me who each have a power level of more than 700,000, and they can defeat experts with power levels of more than 800,000 when the two of them work together. I can also call upon the Interstellar Supreme Court at any time. On top of that, with my power, I can be considered the Cosmic Sect’s most important disciple.”
w.a.n.g Wen rolled his eyes. "You really know how to go big."
Lu Yin laughed loudly. Even without considering the Great Eastern Alliance’s regular troops, just the androids and cultivators that w.a.n.g Wen had mentioned were enough to launch a campaign against the Innerverse. It was plenty.
"I want to form an invincible army," Lu Yin suddenly stated.
"What level of soldiers are you thinking?"
"We’ll go with the ones you just said. I want to prepare them as best as possible; make each one of them a Realmbreaker on their own."
w.a.n.g Wen’s interest was piqued. "Playing around with something like that’s too expensive."
Lu Yin grew serious. "This would just be the first step. If everything goes well, we’ll repeat this method of creating invincible soldiers to all of our troops. You can’t even imagine just how terrible our enemies in the future will be."
Lu Yin was referring to the Aeternals. Corpse kings were fearless of death, and they were also scheming. They were constantly researching all kinds of poisons and were also cultivating traitors to humanity. Even though the Perennial World had powerful experts and even Progenitors that blocked the Aeternals from advancing on the Fifth Mainland, there seemed to be holes in that wall. Still, the Fifth Mainland was relatively safe.
Lu Yin intended to fully prepare before the Aeternals launched an all-out attack on the Fifth Mainland.
w.a.n.g Wen had to ask, "What are you talking about? Is there a powerful enemy?"
Lu Yin nodded. "We’ll give the order. I’ve already prepared equipment for them."
w.a.n.g Wen nodded. "Alright. By the way, overall, the Great Eastern Alliance is missing a capable general."
Lu Yin"s eyes flashed. "I have someone in mind."
The Great Eastern Alliance’s Rapid Response Team had been formed from experts who came from all of the alliance’s major members. They were tasked with protecting the alliance’s resources and deploying at the fastest possible speed. They had also been part of the forces that had moved against the Daynight clan in the Innververse. They were the alliance’s more elite troops.
Lu Yin had always been the one to hold the authority to deploy the Rapid Response Team, but he had been missing for two years. Even though the RRT had remained, no one had possessed the authority to command them or utilize them to their greatest potential. With Lu Yin"s return, the unit was finally activated once again.
As w.a.n.g Wen had reported, the RRT had constantly added new members, and the older members had improved their strength. At the moment, the team was composed of more than 6,000 cultivators with at least the strength of an Explorer. They would become his sharpest knife, and when the time was right , he would also rename the team.
Elsewhere in the Outerverse, in Vastdearth Sect, Elder Hua Qiao went to find Sect Master Meng Tianlong. "Sect Master, we’ve lost contact with our informant in that special unit."
Meng Tianlong was lost for a moment. "Which unit?"
Hua Qiao solemnly replied, "The Rapid Response Team."
Meng Tianlong was startled. "How could that happen? Did they suffer some accident?"
"Lu Yin has returned," Hua Qiao answered.
Meng Tianlong started to think. "There’s no response at all?"
"I can"t get in touch with anyone. All of the people we sent there are elite disciples. I don"t know what Lu Yin wants to do with them," Hua Qiao said.
Meng Tianlong’s voice grew bitter, "No matter what he does, we can"t stop him."
In the past, nothing that the alliance’s troops had done was able to be kept hidden from the major members of the alliance, especially more powerful groups like the Vastdearth Sect. As the Great Eastern Alliance had stabilized, troop movements had become more hidden, and after Lu Yin’s return, none of the allies had any hint of control over the alliance’s military.
Even disregarding the Vastdearth Sect, not even the Neo-Vestige Sect was able to learn anything at all. They had once been one of the three untouchable powers of the Outerverse, and naturally, the Neo-Vestige Sect had sent elite disciples to join the RRT, but they had since lost all contact.
The RRT seemed to have completely disappeared.
Lu Yin had cut off the Rapid Response Team’s contact with all outsiders in order to prevent the troops from being infiltrated by the Aeternals. The Perennial World’s Redbacks had left a deep impression on Lu Yin.
On the Outerverse’s Zenyu Star, members of the Wen family finally arrived.
The family was represented by an elder powerhouse known as Wen Yao, and also by Wen Sansi.
Lu Yin met the two in King Zishan’s palace.
Before meeting Lu Yin, Wen Yao had a.s.sumed that he would be able to take on the role of a senior, and Lu Yin as the junior, but he dismissed such presumptions the moment he saw Lu Yin. The elder felt danger from Lu Yin, as well as an unsuppressable fear.
Wen Yao has cultivated for hundreds of years and had survived many life or death situations. He absolutely trusted his senses; Lu Yin was able to decide the elder’s life or death.
This was also Lu Yin by himself, not anything due to his position as the leader of the Great Eastern Alliance.
Wen Yao was unable to understand what he was sensing; Lu Yin was clearly a youth from Wen Sansi’s generation—no, Lu Yin was actually younger than Wen Sansi. In that case, how had Lu Yin managed to achieve such a level of strength? No matter how powerful Wen Sansi was, he could not beat Wen Yao, an expert with a power level of 400,000. The thought itself frightened Wen Yao.
"The Wen family’s Wen Yao greets Alliance Leader Lu." Wen Yao behaved in a very polite manner.
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