Chapter 590: Contribution And Collapse
Even after the fighting went on for a long time, no creature with a power level of 300,000 had appeared. This meant that Elder Lohar had managed to stop the astral beast and Lu Yin had nothing to fear.
He was completely ignorant of the fact that the Three-Tailed Greedbeast had been destroyed by Topmist. Otherwise, he would have been even more confident.
Seasons Fort was on the verge of destruction, and most of the human cultivators as well as the normal soldiers had died. Even if the humans won this battle, they would have to abandon Seasons Fort afterwards.
Giving up was one thing, but Lu Yin didn’t want to just run away with his tail between his legs; he was going to kill all these Enlighter beasts. Otherwise, even if he fled to the other forts, he would still be doomed.
Topmist followed behind Lu Yin while deep in thought.
The two of them moved closer and closer to the fighting Enlighter realm astral beasts.
After a deafening roar, the two of them turned around and discovered that Seasons Fort had been completely destroyed. It had been reduced to nothing more than numerous fragments floating through s.p.a.ce.
A hint of sorrow flashed through Lu Yin’s eyes. Within that fortress, not only had there been cultivators and soldiers, but their families had also lived there. So many planets and mainlands, carrying millions of people, had disappeared, just like that.
After unleashing his domain, Lu Yin was able to hear numerous moans from all around him, and his face turned cold. The Astral Beast Domain. He was definitely going to get revenge on them.
“Watch out!” Topmist suddenly shouted.
Above Lu Yin, the void suddenly tore open, and the Enlighter beast that had fled into the void earlier suddenly reappeared, swiping out with a claw. Lu Yin waved a hand and activated the Yu Secret Art. In that instance, he saw the essence of the universe and managed to find another Enlighter Beast hiding in the void.
Lu Yin then stopped using the Yu Secret Art and shot his gun.
Bang!
This gun was Lu Yin’s most powerful attack, and it had been aimed right at the destroyed fort.
Behind Topmist, the void split open, and another Enlighter beast appeared. However, at the exact same moment that it appeared, a bullet went through its neck, releasing a whole ma.s.sive spout of blood.
Lu Yin had gone on the offensive and shot at the beast that was attacking Topmist.
It was only then that Topmist realized what had happened. He’d been distracted by the beast directly ambushing Lu Yin and been completely unaware that there was another Enlighter Beast going after him.
When he saw that Lu Yin was about to be sent flying from an attack, Topmist pressed a hand against the Enlighter Beast that had tried to attack him. A black fog shot into the beast’s injury, and soon, the creature started howling in misery.
The beast that had moved to attack Lu Yin was about to give chase, but after hearing the agony from behind it, it gave up on attacking Lu Yin and instead changed targets to Topmist. In its eyes, Lu Yin was already close to death.
Unfortunately, the beast had no idea just how powerful the defense of Lu Yin’s universal armor was. Even if he went up against Monster Loach, Lu Yin was confident that he could survive, to say nothing of dealing with a mere Enlighter whose battle power was only at around 200,000 or so.
However, Lu Yin was still knocked dizzy from the blow as it had rattled his head. He flapped the Enneadic Wings and soared back into outer s.p.a.ce to see Topmist being surrounded by two Enlighter beasts. However, one of the beasts had already been shot by Lu Yin while the other had been gravely injured by Topmist. It was evident that they would soon leave the battlefield.
Lu Yin raised his gun. When the bang was heard, he had already activated the Yu Secret Art.
Topmist was startled. The sound of that gunshot was always terrifying to him; who knew where Lu Yin was aiming? Topmist was always paranoid that someone was out to kill him.
With this shot, Lu Yin managed to pierce through the injured Enlighter beast’s brain. Vast amounts of brain matter splattered onto the other Enlighter beast while also drenching Topmist.
The second Enlighter beast looked at Lu Yin in disbelief. This human had managed to take one of its full power attacks and survive! This was impossible, especially considering how this person was merely an Explorer.
Topmist’s black mist wound around the other Enlighter beast and ruthlessly flung it away from him and over towards Lu Yin. There was another bang from Lu Yin’s gun, which caused the second Enlighter beast to become absolutely furious. It barely managed to shrink itself in the nick of time and avoided having its brains blown out.
The bullet brushed past the beast’s head and disappeared into s.p.a.ce. The beast was incredibly frightened and did not even dare to look at Lu Yin again. It tore into the void and fled from the scene as quick as it could.
Topmist panted and glanced over at Lu Yin. He had thought that Lu Yin was dead meat for sure.
Lu Yin shook his head a bit, still feeling a bit dizzy.
Not much more time pa.s.sed before the battle finished. The last two Enlighter realm beasts that had a.s.saulted Seasons Fort also retreated.
There had been five Enlighter realm astral beasts in total. One of them had been dragged down by Liu Qiuyu, one had been killed by Lu Yin, another had been killed by Lu Yin and Topmist combined, and the last two had panicked after discovering what Lu Yin was capable of. They had both realized that they would not be able to block his attacks, and so, they had instead chosen to flee.
They could tell that Lu Yin had used a secret technique, and while Lu Yin was merely an Explorer, a secret technique was still enough to force them to take him seriously.
Everyone had believed that this battle would mark the end of Seasons Fort, but to the surprise of all, they’d managed to win.
The people who survived did not cheer for their victory. Instead, they turned their gaze to the ruins of the fort and mourned in silence. As they looked at the bodies of their friends and families, they began grieving.
Lu Yin looked at his gun. There were still four shots left.
After landing on a part of the shattered land, w.a.n.g Wen emerged from his coffin and began to size Lu Yin up and down once again. “I saw it. You killed two Enlighter beasts.”
Lu Yin spoke in a quiet voice, “Let’s go. The fort is done for. Let’s head to one of the lower five forts.”
w.a.n.g Wen nodded. This wasn’t the time to discuss Lu Yin’s accomplishments. w.a.n.g Wen was most worried that Elder Lohar would not be able to stop Monster Loach and that the Enlighter Amethyst Beast would return. If that happened, then this region of Ironblood Weave would truly be cracked open. While Lu Yin had indeed been amazing, w.a.n.g Wen did not believe the newly promoted Explorer would be able to kill a freak whose power level was at 300,000.
Lu Yin found Aden and Huo Qingshan. Thankfully, although both of them had been badly injured, they were still alive
Liu Zhan had died. Just like he had said to Lu Yin, he hadn’t been able to survive. However, it hadn’t been just him. Many members of the Liu family had been stationed at the stronghold, and almost all of them had been killed in the last battle. Only a girl called Liu Shasha had survived. Even Liu Sanjian had died.
Less than ten thousand people had managed to survive, and w.a.n.g Wen gathered all of them up. Lu Yin was rather surprised to discover that Long Yun had survived, though he had been quite badly wounded.
Charon also hadn’t died, and he looked at Lu Yin as though he was looking at a monster.
“Seasons Fort is about to fall. We’ll head to one of the lower five forts, Brokenblade Fort…” w.a.n.g Wen succinctly explained the situation and made arrangements for everyone to withdraw.
Before leaving, w.a.n.g Wen went to Lu Yin. “With your achievements this time and your previous mission, you’ll be awarded 130,000 Ironblood points.”
Lu Yin was surprised. “That’s a lot.”
w.a.n.g Wen shrugged. “This is something that we had agreed upon beforehand. If you went to the Primal Zone and acted as a guide, then you’d be given 50,000 Ironblood points. But because it was believed that you died, the commander and I decided to double it to 100,000. It’s a surprise that you didn’t die, but we can’t just revert the reward. Besides, this time, you killed two Enlighter beasts, one of which you killed on your own and the other through your and Topmist’s combined efforts. That’s why you only received 30,000 from this battle, and that works out to a total of 130,000.”
Lu Yin asked, “If I die, then my contribution doubles. If I had really died, then who would the reward have been given to?”
w.a.n.g Wen answered, “Your family.”
Lu Yin was speechless. This guy definitely knew that Lu Yin didn’t have any family, which must have been why he’d been so generous in doubling Lu Yin’s points at the time.
“Would you like to exchange your points for items?” w.a.n.g Wen asked.
Lu Yin nodded. “I want star essence.”
“Come with me.” w.a.n.g Wen led the way and brought Lu Yin to Seasons Fort’s resource warehouse and opened it up. Lu Yin was shocked to discover that he could see no less than 100,000 star essence piled up in small mountains.
“These are the resources that the Innerverse and Outerverse have supplied to Seasons Fort in exchange for achievement points in battle. You can take as much as you want,” w.a.n.g Wen said.
Lu Yin was confused. “Why is there so much?”
“A lot of defenders die during wars, but just as many people gain achievement points that must be exchanged. This is the iron rule of the military, and honestly, what you see here isn’t actually a lot. Most of the resources were stationed at Ironblood Fort, but unfortunately, when it fell, all of those resources must have been lost and plundered by the Astral Beast Domain,” w.a.n.g Wen said.
Lu Yin glanced at w.a.n.g Wen. “So you’re telling me to exchange my points right now because I won’t be able to do so in the future, right?”
w.a.n.g Wen went silent, but then he nodded. “Yes.”
“Give it all to me.” Lu Yin was very excited.
w.a.n.g Wen thought it over. “If you store everything here in your cosmic ring, then you’ll be rewarded for your help. I’ll give you 10,000 points. However, you can only take 140,000 star essence, and you better make sure that everything else gets to Brokenblade Fort.”
“Leave it all to me. I promise that I can do even more in the future,” Lu Yin spoke with antic.i.p.ation.
w.a.n.g Wen rolled his eyes. “There are rules to follow here, p.a.w.n. There’s no such thing as giving you achievement points in advance. What would other people think? If it weren’t for the fact that you have a ma.s.sive cosmic ring, I wouldn’t even want you to carry all this with you. It’s dangerous.”
Lu Yin found this to be quite a pity. It was evident that even though w.a.n.g Wen was afraid of dying, he was still a man of principle.
Aside from star essence, there were many other items inside the warehouse that could be purchased with Ironblood Points.
If Seasons Fort had this many resources, then he couldn’t even imagine how much Ironblood Fort must have had. It was a pity that all of it had been taken.
Come to think of it—did astral beasts have cosmic rings? They must. He found it a pity that he hadn’t robbed them.
Half an hour later, Lu Yin sat down at the uppermost level of a s.p.a.cecraft that was floating in outer s.p.a.ce. He gazed upon the broken structure that Seasons Fort had been reduced to and sighed. Would they be able to defend Ironblood Weave? He was very confused at this time. With the Void Thunderbeast protecting the gap in the energy stream, it was impossible to destroy that gap. Would he have to continue to rely on his luck with the die forever? That wasn’t realistic.
Aden headed over and stood behind Lu Yin. “I ran into an ultra-powerful beast in the battle just now. It was only in the beginning stages of the Hunter realm, but it was incredibly powerful. I only managed to receive its attacks by using my nine lined battle force.”
Lu Yin commented, “That’s normal. There are no shortage of monstrous talents in the Astral Beast Domain.”
“After being locked up by Undying Yushan for nearly a century, I’ve found that the universe really has changed. That beast is apparently on Skymender’s List and is called Cursewind. It’s supposed to be comparable to our Ten Arbiters. What are the Ten Arbiters?” he asked.
Lu Yin’s eyes lit up. “A beast on Skymender’s List?”
Aden nodded. “That’s what it said, and it even praised me for stopping it. Haha, I’m a person able to receive an Enlighter’s attacks, but I was praised by a beast in the beginning stages of the Hunter realm.” Aden frowned. “I have a feeling that it didn’t even go all out.”
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. “If it really was a creature on Skymender’s List, then your instincts should be right. The human’s Ten Arbiters are ten powerful humans while Skymender’s List is similarly made up of ten powerful beings from the Astral Beast Domain…”
Aden quietly listened as Lu Yin explained the two and became increasingly shocked. “The universe changed and gave birth to the Ten Arbiters and the Ten Arbiters Council. That’s unbelievable! I’m surprised that the powerful organizations agreed to allow such power pa.s.s on to the younger generation.”
Lu Yin didn’t know much about this matter either. The higher he climbed, the more confused he became. Although the Ten Arbiters were monsters, were they actually able to match up against Enlighters whose power levels had reached 250,000 or even 300,000? That was impossible, and the great organizations definitely had such powerhouses. Even tiny Northline Flowzone had Northgate Taisui, who was capable of destroying the Ten Arbiters by himself. In that case, why were the Ten Arbiters able to wield so much power?
In the past, Lu Yin had a.s.sumed that all he needed was to gain support from the other organizations. However, ever since he had become the effective ruler of the Great Yu Empire, he had realized that that mindset might be wrong. As the master of an empire, he definitely would not calmly allow someone else to take his power. It made no sense. What right did the Ten Arbiters have to be given such a powerful status?
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