Chapter 1751: Bait
Near one of the Ark’s fishing decks, someone let out a sigh. It was the fisherman whom Lu Yin had met on Nightking Planet, and then again later on at ChaosG.o.d Mountain.
"Don"t push! Do as you’re told!"
"Don"t step back any further, or else you’ll fall!"
"Where are you from?"
"We’re from Mordo Weave."
"Isn’t Mordo Weave on the other side?"
"It’s the home of the Neo-Vestige Sect, which is where we’re from. Don’t push! I’m going to fall."
"What about you?"
"We’re from the Vastdearth Sect."
…
The fisherman felt completely helpless. "I never thought I would see the day that people crowded onto one of the Astral River Arks… Ah."
"Have we disturbed your fishing?" a voice spoke up.
The man reflexively nodded, but then he suddenly returned to his senses, and his head snapped over. The fisherman was a powerful Enlighter, and yet someone had approached him from behind without him being able to sense anything at all! When the fisherman looked over, he saw an unknown man. "Who are you?"
A smile spread across the man’s face. "Aren"t you supposed to be at ChaosG.o.d Mountain?"
The fisherman’s pupils instantly constricted as he stared into the stranger’s eyes. After a moment, the fisherman asked in disbelief, “Lu-?”
The man raised a finger to silence the fisherman.
Of course, the man was indeed Lu Yin. He had changed his appearance to avoid being recognized, as if he were discovered, it would create quite a sensation.
"You don"t want to answer me? Aren"t you supposed to be at ChaosG.o.d Mountain?" Lu Yin repeated. He stared out into the Astral River, looking at the incredible number of rune lines that flowed by. He had no idea what might be in the depths of the river.
The fisherman’s face twisted. "I got lost and accidentally left."
Lu Yin laughed. "Well, since you already left, why not at least put on an act? Are you not afraid of being discovered by me while fishing from the Ark?"
The fisherman dryly retorted, "What? I"m not your prisoner."
Lu Yin nodded. "Any catches?"
"What catch?" The fisherman felt lost.
Lu Yin pointed to the Astral River. "I want to eat some fruit fish."
The fisherman was left speechless. "I haven’t caught any…"
"Then start fishing."
"There’s no room."
"No matter how crowded it might be, there are still places a single person can fish from," Lu Yin said in a lazy manner. Fruit fish was a very familiar taste to him, and he wanted to eat it to see if he could recall any more memories from his past life as Lu Xiaoxuan. No matter if it was through divination or through tasting something familiar, Lu Yin would readily do anything if it helped him recover those memories.
He had thought that he was Lu Yin and that Lu Xiaoxuan had already died, but Kui Luo"s words had awakened Lu Yin’s interest in his past life. Lu Xiaoxuan had created the Heaven-Shattering Palm, which had become one of the Lu family"s inherited techniques. It had been so profound that even Progenitor Lu had appeared. It would be amazing if Lu Yin could remember the Heaven-Shattering Palm.
Even the name sounded powerful: Heaven-Shattering Palm!
After speaking a bit longer with the fisherman, Lu Yin moved on. After a day and a half, the Astral River Ark entered the Innerverse.
There were some people present to greet the newcomers into the Innerverse and provide arrangements for people from the Great Eastern Alliance to settle into Blazing Mist Flowzone. w.a.n.g Wen and the others had already allocated different regions to the various major powers of the Outerverse.
Of course, there were some who were still unwilling to leave the Outerverse and would rather accept the Sixth Mainland’s rule, and Lu Yin had no intention of forcing anyone to move. There was no fear of the Great Eastern Alliance not being able to recruit fresh blood, as there was still the entire Innerverse to draw from.
It was time to take care of something.
After Lu Yin returned to the Ross Empire’s mobile fortress, the first thing that he did was send Liu Huang back to the Sword Sect to settle things there.
While Lu Yin had no way to control Liu Huang, the man was smart, and he knew that his ident.i.ty was the greatest threat. Even though exposing himself would deal a harsh blow to the Hall of Honor’s reputation, Liu Huang would also end up suffering, and he would drag the entire Sword Sect down with him.
Liu Huang naturally did not want this to happen, as otherwise, he would not have stayed at Lu Yin’s side for so long.
After sending Liu Huang back to the Sword Sect, Lu Yin entered his botanical garden to check on Sapling.
Sapling quickly noticed Lu Yin"s arrival, and it happily leaped over. The tree’s branches wrapped around Lu Yin"s fingers and rubbed his hand in a very intimate manner.
Lu Yin was essentially a parent to the tree.
As for the big tree, it had become even more desperate to flee.
There were many odd plants in the garden, and the caretaker was actually someone whom Lu Yin was familiar with. He was a young man who was two meters tall with a green body.
When the young man saw Lu Yin approach, he quickly bowed. "Balaror greets the alliance leader."
Lu Yin took a moment to place the young man, but he soon remembered. "It"s you! You used to follow Gerlaine."
Balaror answered in a respectful manner, "Yes. Your subordinate Balaror was brought in to care for your garden here."
Lu Yin nodded with a smile. "Pleased to have you."
"I am honored to be working for the alliance leader!" Balaror quickly replied.
Balaror had been one of the students who had been sent to Earth to partic.i.p.ate in a trial during the apocalypse that had struck the planet. He had followed Gerlaine along with some others, and he had been a student at the Great Yu Empire’s Outers.p.a.ce Academy.
"How are things going here? Are you still getting used to it?" Lu Yin asked as he played with Sapling.
Balaror glanced at Sapling. "Everything is fine. Your subordinate will be sure to care for your garden."
Lu Yin nodded. "That"s good."
After the brief conversation, Lu Yin led Sapling out, as he wanted to spend some time with the little plant.
There was a soft thud, and Lu Yin turned his head to see the big tree strike the ground. Balaror felt a mounting headache. This big tree was the most troublesome plant in the entire garden. All it did all day every day was try to escape. Balaror had no idea where the tree’s obsession came from, let alone why it was trying to escape. Just who had brought such a thing to the garden? Without the big tree, Balaror’s job would have been half as hard.
Lu Yin just smiled and took Sapling away.
While Lu Yin and Sapling were spending some time together, Aeternus had broken its silence, and corpse kings emerged one after another.
On a street in Aeternus, the Ghost Monkey was stunned. "Why are there so many monsters moving out? All of them seem to be going somewhere. I have no idea what might have happened, but I hope this doesn’t affect Little Lu. I’m still waiting for him to prostrate before me! Little Lu, don’t worry, Big Brother Monkey is coming! Hahahaha."
A voice came from Shaman G.o.d’s dark tower. "Forgotten Ruins G.o.d is too impulsive. Killing Bluedome Elder is no different than announcing to the entire universe that there was something that’s important to us, and this is only going to make it more difficult for us to find it."
"There are more and more people gathering in that particular galaxy, and killing Bluedome Elder also served as a warning to some people. Otherwise, even more people would be going to that galaxy. And then when would we find it?"
"We have to get it back."
"Someone is making trouble for us. People were deliberately lured over to the Horned Galaxy, but unfortunately, there’s no trace of who that person is. There are no clues at all to follow."
"Has everyone who has had any sort of contact with the Autumnfrost family been looked into?"
"The investigation’s already started, but the Sixth Mainland is growing more and more cautious. Even their Semi-Progenitors have started to appear, which is a big problem. Those people haven’t been seen for thousands of years."
"What else can we do?"
After a moment of silence, a voice suddenly spoke up, "The Starsibyl Sect."
"Divination?"
"Yes. Anyone who’s come into contact with those crystals is suspicious."
"Go to the Starsibyl Sect right now. Don’t let anyone escape."
A slaughter continued within the Sixth Mainland’s forces. Any person or organization with any connection to the Autumnfrost family with even the slightest chance of having visited or seen the tool was visited by devastation. This included even the suppliers and transportation crew that had provided the Autumnfrost family with equipment and materials, tools, and more.
The Neohuman Alliance was desperately looking for something, and the Sixth Mainland did not remain silent. Four of the Ten Venerables were sent out, and they used people related to the Autumnfrost family as bait to lure out the Neohuman Alliance.
Lin Dong stared blankly at a pair of slitted scarlet eyes that were standing just outside his s.p.a.cecraft. His entire body had gone numb, and he could not move a muscle due to the terror that gripped his heart. It was a corpse king! A corpse king from the Fifth Mainland’s Neohuman Alliance! Why would such a creature come after Lin Dong?
The corpse king shattered the vessel with a single punch, and the sudden change in pressure sent Lin Dong tumbling into outer s.p.a.ce. He was not even able to react. After all, he was only a Limiteer, and his body had not adjusted to survive in outer s.p.a.ce. The moment he left his vessel, his death was already guaranteed.
The corpse king raised a hand and grabbed hold of Lin Dong’s neck with a hard, cold hand. A dry voice asked, "Who- gave- you- money- location?"
Lin Dong"s pupils instantly shrank to pinp.r.i.c.ks; so he was being targeted because of that black crystal! He regretted accepting the deal. He should not have been so greedy. Clearly, there was some precious use for the symmetrical black crystals, or else they would have never been bought for such exorbitant prices. Even a corpse king had appeared to chase after them!
"I don"t know! Everything was done anonymously on the network." Lin Dong struggled to answer.
The corpse king stared into Lin Dong"s eyes. Its scarlet eyes were terrifyingly cold, and Lin Dong had already become truly desperate. He felt his neck being squeezed tighter and tighter, and his body was growing cold.
Suddenly, another hand appeared right in front of him, and it smashed into the corpse king"s head, shattering it to pieces.
The corpse king’s hand fell away from Ling Dong’s neck, and he slowly turned his head to see who had appeared. There was a middle-aged man standing in s.p.a.ce who looked very wary as he pulled his hand back. He then turned to look at Lin Dong.
Lin Dong recognized the man. He was Huang Li, patriarch of the Bloodburn Realm’s Huang family. The man was a powerful Enlighter.
The Huang family had once had an Imprinter, but the family had weakened after their Imprinter’s death. The reason why Lin Dong had recognized Huang Li was because Huang San was also from the family, and he had kidnapped a girl from the Yan family who had once pursued the Autumnfrost family’s young master. The girl’s disappearance had caused the Autumnfrost family to target the Huang family, and eventually, no one in the entire Bloodburn Realm dared to have any dealings with the Huang family. They had ended up in a miserable situation.
As someone who had once followed the Autumnfrost family, Lin Dong naturally knew the appearance of people from the Huang family.
"Thank you, Senior Huang, for saving your life." Lin Dong respectfully bowed and offered his thanks.
Huang Li replied in an indifferent manner, "No thanks needed. The crisis isn’t over yet."
Lin Dong immediately became fearful again. "Is there another corpse king?"
Huang Li stared off into the distance. "If they don"t find what they’re looking for, they won’t stop for even a single day. The Neohuman Alliance has been quiet in the Fifth Mainland for so many years without making any real moves. Right now, they are brazenly moving about. Whatever they’re searching for is far too important to them."
Lin Dong felt his heart grow cold. "Then what should we do, Senior?"
He was regretting his previous decision, as that 50,000 star essence was likely going to be the cause of his death.
Huang Li glanced at Lin Dong. "Get to the Daosource Sect. Maybe you won’t die there."
This was not for Lin Dong, but also for Huang Li. Everyone was aware of the matter that had happened between the Huang and Autumnfrost families, and at this moment, everyone with any sort of connection to the Autumnfrost family was being hunted down. It made no difference if those people had been friendly or hostile towards the Autumnfrost family, which meant that the Huang family was not safe either.
The Daosource Sect had sent orders throughout the Sixth Mainland that Enlighters or above were to try to find someone weaker with a connection to the Autumnfrost family and protect them. This was not done to protect the Autumnfrost family, but rather to protect the Sixth Mainland’s reputation.
Huang Li shot a vague glance behind him, as there was also someone protecting him. His entire Huang family was being used as bait for the Neohuman Alliance.
***
In order to completely avoid any a.s.sociation with the Horned Galaxy, Lu Yin had not looked into anything that was happening within the Sixth Mainland, as he wanted to take absolutely no chances of the Neohuman Alliance drawing a connection between the Autumnfrost family and Lu Yin.
This was also why the Neohuman Alliance never thought to look for Lu Yin, as he had not even come up as someone connected to the Autumnfrost family. As soon as any sort of reminder came up, it was possible that a connection would be made. This was why Lu Yin had been doing his best to remain under the radar.
Half a month pa.s.sed, and the slaughter in the western region of the Outerverse never once halted. According to the reports, more than one hundred corpse kings had died, all of which possessed the strength of an Explorer or above. There had even been some Envoy-level corpse kings that had died. Naturally, the Sixth Mainland’s losses had not been small either.
Even the war in Ironblood Weave had been affected, because many of the cultivators fighting against the Astral Beast Domain were members of the Autumnfrost family.