Chapter 172: Present
The Corpse King’s attacking pattern was simple yet brutal. Lu Yin avoided it by Flashing away, while the Giant Emperor was pushed even further underground. It had been knocked out previously, but this new round of beating awakened him again. Its body was also pierced through, causing blood to gush out of its wounds.
The black-garbed man’s attack was fruitless. But he merely turned around to stare at Lu Yin with his chilling scarlet eyes and slitted pupils before rushing at him again.
Lu Yin’s eyes also burned with rage; the Neohuman Alliance was the greatest enemy of the human race. He wanted to test the strength of a trained elite Corpse King. With that intent in mind, Lu Yin swung his fist in reply. He still didn’t know his own physical limits, and this Corpse King was a great opponent to test his limits against.
Bang!
The entire swamp trembled as a terrifying shockwave that rocked the entire swamp erupted from the bottom of the swamp and nearly covered the entire sky. Everyone, including the Giant Emperor, was swept away by the force and thrown into the distance.
Ah Mu’s legs were so numbed by the shockwave that he was rendered immobile. He could not even begin to fathom the level of the battle taking place below the ground right now. He had once witnessed a battle between Limiteers of the Umbral Butterfly Tribe, but even that had not been as terrifying as this.
The black-garbed man had exposed his identity as a Corpse King. He had an extremely strong physical body, but even so, Lu Yin’s punch stunned the Corpse King. It was so powerful that the Corpse King felt like he was being sent to hell as he was forced back.
Lu Yin had a strange expression on his face as he remained standing in his original spot, having not moved an inch. It seemed that this bastard was actually not capable of pushing Lu Yin’s physical abilities to their limits.
In the ported battles, he had always wanted to test his physical limits with his opponents, but he had always been unsuccessful. Since the ported battles only valued the ultimate result, once Lu Yin’s opponent sensed the terror of his physical body, they would generally change their method of attack as few were willing to go head to head against him in terms of physical strength. Even now, Lu Yin’s physical body had yet to be severely injured and only his internal organs had been slightly rattled.
“You’re from the Neohuman Alliance,” Lu Yin called out, trying to probe into this person’s background.
The black-garbed man had been staring intently at Lu Yin with his scarlet cat eyes. But when he heard Lu Yin’s words, his murderous intent dramatically rose in his eyes and he threw a vicious leg sweep at Lu Yin. His impressive strength caused the space to distort, causing a small spatial crack to appear again. Lu Yin narrowed his eyes. He had already lost interest in this fight. Outside of the swamp, that Daynight clan woman had crept up beside the Giant Emperor, and she seemed to be trying to sneakily accomplish something.
Lu Yin opened his right hand, causing eight stars to sparkle while the vague image of a ninth appeared as well. They revolved around his palm to form the image of a perfect galaxy, which he then slammed towards the black-clothed man. This attack was on a completely different level from the previous attacks. If an eight star Cosmic Palm was still an attack that belonged in the Melder realm, then this pseudo nine star Cosmic Palm was freakish enough to belong in the Limiteer realm.
Lu Yin’s palm landed squarely on the man’s body, and his mouth dropped open as he spat out a mouthful of blood. His tough and sturdy muscles tore apart like paper, and his entire body seemed to be on the verge of disintegrating into dust. He fell onto the ground miserably and coughed out another mouthful of blood. His scarlet cat eyes lost their fire, and he seemed to be completely defeated.
Lu Yin walked beside the man and carelessly wondered if he should finish the Corpse King off. A Corpse King was not a human as every one of them had a terrifying physique, and they could also swallow elemental energy crystals to obtain Innate Gifts. They walked a completely different path of cultivation and could become abnormally strong in their own right. The Ten Arbiters Council had also declared that anyone who killed a member of the Neohuman Alliance would receive a great amount of glory as a reward.
Honor and glory were very important to Lu Yin, and they would greatly help him regardless of what region of the universe he was in. But for Lu Yin, this reward wasn’t the most compelling incentive. With his status as a Lockbreaker, he did not lack for any amount of glory. But when he considered it from the perspective of the human race, he really should dispose of this Corpse King.
Lu Yin crouched down, took the fallen Corpse King’s cosmic ring from his hand, and then accessed it by swiping some of the defeated man’s blood onto it. There were a few hundred star energy crystals and a bunch of black crystals that emitted a biting coldness. There was also a heap of unrecognizable items, but there was really only one item that attracted Lu Yin’s attention: a ring. The ring was pitch black with an inlaid center of silvery grey metal. Engraved onto the silvery metal inlay was a delicately carved pair of flying wings and a sword with ten shadows around it. This was an Outerverse Youth Council member’s ring.
The Ten Arbiters Council’s ring was a black border with a silver-white center inlay while the Outerverse Youth Council’s was a black border and a grey-silver center inlay. This Corpse King actually joined the Outerverse Youth Council? What a joke. How could no one notice it?
Aside from the ring, Lu Yin found another familiar item; it was an artificial scarlet eye identical to the ones from the skull he had taken from Silver.
This Corpse King was indeed from the Neohuman Alliance. Lu Yin breathed out heavily and he looked at the gadget on the man’s hand. There was a familiar name attached to the bottom-most notification—Puyu.
‘Go to the Umbral Butterfly Weave and obtain the third eye of the Giant Emperor—Puyu.’ These were the black-garbed man’s orders. Lu Yin’s eyes brightened when he saw this message as it meant that this Corpse King was actually Puyu’s subordinate.
Does this mean that Puyu also belongs to the Neohuman Alliance? No, that can’t be right. If Puyu really was a member of the Neohuman Alliance, then he wouldn’t have brazenly given this Corpse King a mission, and he definitely wouldn’t have admitted him to the Outerverse Youth Council. It would be meaningless to have two members from the same organization in the same location. That meant that, if this person really was Puyu’s subordinate, then the only possibility was that Puyu did not know his true identity as a Corpse King.
Lu Yin’s eyes flashed as he pondered over the ramifications of this new discovery. Puyu was Bazeer’s backer, and the humiliation that he had suffered from Bazeer could only have been ordered by Puyu. That made Puyu a great enemy of Lu Yin’s, and if that was so, then he could not simply finish off this Corpse King.
Lu Yin didn’t know how his future interactions with Puyu would go if he allowed this Neohuman Alliance Corpse King to continue working with Puyu. So the majestic Outerverse Youth Council member had actually roped in a Neohuman Alliance Corpse King. Lu Yin hoped that Puyu would like this present, and a smile appeared on Lu Yin’s face as he anticipated that day’s arrival.
Lu Yin was in no hurry to rise up from the bottom of the swamp. After all, he didn’t know where the Giant Emperor’s third eye was. However, there was a high probability that both the Corpse King and Zhuo Daynight knew, which was why Lu Yin had left the girl alone when she tried to surreptitiously approach the Giant Emperor’s corpse.
Back above the swamp, Zhuo Daynight carefully observed the Giant Emperor before finally thrusting her sword into the back of its head. After digging around for a few seconds, she retrieved a white, half-moon shaped crystal. She glanced beneath her and then dashed off into the distance without any hesitation.
Lu Yin’s eyes brightened and he charged out, instantly Flashing next to Zhuo Daynight.
Zhuo Daynight saw Lu Yin’s seemingly teleport next to her and frowned. She had wanted to use her extreme speed to escape, but her speed was far inferior to Lu Yin’s. Theoretically, Lu Yin’s Flash had no upper limit to its speed. He had once observed the Sandmaster use his own Flash to tear open the void, and Lu Yin effortlessly caught up to Zhuo Daynight.
Zhuo Daynight swept out with her longsword and slashed at Lu Yin, immediately using her White Phantomsword technique. Lu Yin wasn’t polite either, and he covered his hand with battle force before slapping the blade aside. The blow forced Zhuo Daynight to retreat and the remnant force jostled her organs. She had already been injured by the black-clothed man, and now, she had been struck again with a battle force infused blow. She spat out some blood and stumbled back several steps, turning paler by the second.
Lu Yin stood before her and stretched out his hand. “Hand it over.”
Zhuo Daynight’s gaze was chilly but also filled with helplessness. “This is useless to you. I can buy it from you, since you seem to be rather lacking in star crystals.”
“I am indeed extremely lacking, but this is useful to me. Hand it over.” Lu Yin’s tone turned cold.
She gritted her teeth as her eyes blazed indignantly. Then, for lack of a better choice, she threw the white crystal at Lu Yin and turned to leave.
“Wait,” Lu Yin said as he moved to block Zhuo Daynight again.
“What do you want?”
“What use does this have?”
“I don’t know.”
Lu Yin sneered disdainfully. “You don’t know? You rushed here from the Innerverse’s Daynight clan, across an endless distance to this small Umbral Butterfly Weave, all for this thing. And yet, you don’t know what it’s used for? I don’t appreciate people who lie to me. Speak.”
Zhuo Daynight gripped her sword tightly and resentfully muttered, “This is the Giant Emperor’s third eye, and it is what awakens the Giant Emperor’s intelligence. No other giant race member has this. My clan’s elder asked me to bring it back for research as he may be able to uncover the source of human intelligence with it.”
Lu Yin frowned. He did not believe it, but Zhuo Daynight’s words seemed logical on the surface. Humans had been trying to discover the source of their own intelligence for countless years. How do humans think? Or how are thoughts created? These questions have plagued the human race for eons and there was nothing wrong with researching the subject. Lu Yin thought about her answer for a brief moment and then allowed Zhuo Daynight to leave. This was something that Old Cai wanted, so he didn’t spend any more energy on thinking about its uses. Also, he could not try to force her to reveal anything as she was still someone from the Daynight clan. Lu Yin might not have liked the Daynight clan, but he still had to concede that the clan’s absolute might was not something he could contend against.
In the monitoring room in the heavens above the planet, most of the displays showed normal scenes of the trial takers, but the feed of the top-class trial takers in the swamp had been interrupted some time ago. When the feed was repaired, the Giant Emperor had already been killed, and no one knew who had killed the Giant Emperor.
Many trial takers claimed that they were responsible for the Giant Emperor’s death, but no one could verify their claims. After much debate, this weave trial ended in everyone’s failure. The best results ended up going to Ah Mu, as he had publicly released the location of the Giant Emperor’s tracks. Ah Mu had never, even in his wildest dreams, thought that he would attain the best results; he had only wanted to survive the trial. Honestly, he felt like he was still dreaming.
Ah Mu had nothing but praise for the calm Lu Yin beside him. “Seventh Brother, let’s be friends.”
Lu Yin was speechless, and he gently patted Ah Mu on the shoulder. “Take care. We’ll meet again if fate wills it.”
Ah Mu nodded.
Before long, the duo returned to their own respective spacecraft. Lu Yin did not say much to Ah Mu and immediately left on his Aurora spacecraft since he was afraid of being discovered by the trial observers. Although they would not do anything to him, it would be a troublesome situation since he had interfered in their weave’s trial, and that was not even mentioning the fact that he had extorted quite a few of the trial takers.
His cosmic ring now held over 5,000 star crystals, all of which had been extorted. It was a pity that it was still too little for Lu Yin’s appetite. For him, he would not feel secure about his finances unless he had at least 10,000 star crystals. Otherwise, every die roll would be useless except for Possession. This was also why he had not rolled his die in a long while.
It had been nearly two months since he had left the Frostwave Weave, and about three months since he had left Astral-10. It was time to return.
His harvest this time was quite good. Not only had he become a one star Junior Lockbreaker, but he had also indistinctly manifested the ninth star of his cultivation technique, and he had even found a backer for the trial zone in the form of Charon. He could not wait to see the Area Master’s expression when they finally met.
Ah Mu finally relaxed after Lu Yin’s Aurora spacecraft left. He took out an object that did not seem to follow any laws and emitted a faint green radiance. This was what the Giant Emperor had taken from the central giant tribe, and it was also why the ant colony had been searching for the Giant Emperor. Ah Mu had covertly obtained it, and even Lu Yin was unaware of this fact.
“This is useful to me, so please pardon me, Seventh Brother. I can’t give it to you.” Ah Mu then swallowed the object in his hand, and a trace of burning ambition flashed in his eyes. His heart snarled, “But-ter-fly-We-ave.”
No one knew how large the universe was, and the so-called “Innerverse” and “Outerverse” were just the divisions of the humans’ territory. The four great star Domains were similar in that humans had not explored beyond those areas yet.
[1] In chapter 12 it originally stated that there was figure of a human skull. The skull had scarlet eyes. This has been made more clear in the old chapter now.