Chapter 509: The First

In Wendy Yushan’s residence, there was a girl who fell down. Once she stood back up, she looked around in a daze. “Where is this place? Why am I here?”

After a while, the girl exclaimed, “Oh, so it’s like that. Oh, I need to serve tea to the Councilor!” She then quickly rushed away. It was Zhao Ran, who frequently lost her memories.

…

In space, there was a luxurious spacecraft cruising along. The stunning Madam Nalan was within the vessel, looking at a screen with bright eyes. “If you can usher in a new era, then so what if you’re enemies with the Ten Arbiters.”

…

In Umbral Butterfly Weave, in a certain gloomy region, Amu watched the video of Lu Yin with a detached expression. Some level of expectation could be seen within the depths of his eyes, but he had gone through too many changes since he had last seen Lu Yin. 

…

In Northcastle Weave, on a bustling planet that was close to the Astral Wilderness, there was a building that the entire universe recognized: the Mavis Bank. 

The universal currency floated through the air like leaves, displaying the generosity of the Mavis Bank. 

One man walked into the Mavis Bank. He took a deep breath before moving to look for the bank manager. 

Half an hour later, the man walked out under the bank manager’s shocked expression. All of the star essence that had been stored at this branch had just been exchanged and taken away. 

This scene didn’t occur at just this one branch of the Mavis Bank, but repeatedly at any bank that carried star essence. Even clans that possessed star essence had mysterious people visit them, making offers to take as many star essence as possible. 

These were not eye-catching events, and they were not even noticed for an entire month.

One month after Lu Yin took control of the mountain range on Planet Pyrolyte, one of the Ross Empire’s battleships exploded. Scholar Newmoon took action, but he was obstructed by a mysterious Enlighter, which led to a battle erupting in the area of outer space directly above the planet. The battle didn’t last for long, but it still attracted a great deal of attention from all of the organizations present at Planet Pyrolyte.

Closely following that battle, a piece of news that was leaked. Rather than news, it would be more accurate to call it a method that allowed Explorers to descend onto Planet Pyrolyte. 

The Ross Empire had always stood at the forefront of technological advancements, and it was the one out of all the gathered powers that was the most likely to succeed in developing a way to send Explorers down to the planet. This meant that many of the great powers were watching the Ross Empire like hawks, and though no one knew which Enlighter had ambushed the Ross Empire, none of them would have intervened even if they did know. That was because now that the method had leaked, they would be able to equally divide the benefits. 

The method that the Ross Empire had come out with was simple but also crude. It was to put on another layer of skin over the outermost layer, much like clothes.

Compared to a Limiteer, an Explorer’s body had undergone a transformation and naturally resonated with the universe. For their bodily functions to operate, Explorers had to constantly absorb star energy; otherwise, they would fall into a period of exhaustion. This was the price that Explorers paid to be able to freely move about the universe. For them to not absorb the outside world’s atmosphere, their only option was to put another layer over their skin, and it also had to be made from star essence. Without the star energy provided by star essence, the Explorer’s body would involuntarily start absorbing energy from Planet Pyrolyte, which would  lead to pyrolyte entering their body and causing them to spontaneously combust. 

When this method was revealed, the various great powers studied the feasibility of the method while they sent people to search the nearby weaves and gather all of the available star essence. 

However, when they started moving, they discovered that, regardless if they searched Northcastle Weave, Grandtop Weave, or Lars Weave, all of the nearby weaves had been stripped clean of star essence.

The various powers weren’t made of fools, and they instantly knew that the Ross Empire must have cleaned out the nearby weaves of star essence.

Helpless, the other powers were forced to look in more distant weaves, or even mobilize the star essence of the Innerverse.

They also considered Frostwave Weave, but because of Lu Yin’s orders, the entire weave had sealed its borders. Also, since Elder Ren was close by, not one of the Innerverse powers dared to take any actions against Frostwave Weave. Thus, they could only skip that weave.

In the span of a month, a third of the pyrolyte ore from Pyrolyte Mountain had already been mined out. The other mining areas had reached a similar state, and many of them had already been depleted. Battles constantly broke out on Planet Pyrolyte. 

The mountain range that Lu Yin occupied had already been probed rather deeply, and its pyrolyte ore was still being mined. However, though no one knew exactly how much pyrolyte ore was available in this location, one thing was certain: this area held more pyrolyte ore than Pyrolyte Mountain, Pyrolyte Lake, and Pyrolyte Plain combined. That was because those three areas were actually merely the edge of this gigantic pyrolyte reservoir. 

As such, the various great powers urgently wanted to take control of the mountain range. The longer Lu Yin occupied the area, the more pyrolyte ore the Northline Flowzone people would take away. Although the pyrolyte ore was being mined by Northline Flowzone, even a fool knew that it would end up in the Sea King’s Dome’s hands. Northline Flowzone would not dare to be bold enough to fight the Sea King for this pyrolyte. Actually, they would be quite satisfied if they could receive just a small amount of the ore. 

Lu Yin sat on a dark-red cliff and stared at the nearby mining tunnel. They had dug immeasurably deep into the ground, and Lu Yin watched on as pyrolyte ore was occasionally brought out.

If the Sea King’s Dome did not participate in conflicts in the Innerverse or the Outerverse, then what did it require this pyrolyte for? Lu Yin had asked Hai Qiqi this question, but he had been mercilessly mocked by her. “Let’s not say that Miss Qi doesn’t know, but so what if I did? Why would I tell you? Can’t you use some of your brain?” 

To the great powers, Planet Pyrolyte had been peaceful for a month.

Lu Yin did not know when the pyrolyte ore beneath the mountain range would be depleted, but he did not believe for a single moment that those major powers would allow this pyrolyte reservoir to be mined away like this. He had a feeling that there was an intense battle brewing on the horizon.

There was basically no more star essence to be found in the Outerverse. Things had reached the point where only the warehouses of enormous organizations or the Mavis Bank still possessed any. None of the Innerverse powers had had a smooth time gathering star essence with the sole exception of the Ross Empire. They had started making their moves a month ago, and they had managed to gather a rather considerable amount of star essence as their harvests totaled nearly 10,000 star essence. 

This was a rather staggering figure. For the Outerverse, one star essence was already something that was rarely seen, not to mention 10,000, which had been gathered from Northcastle Weave as well as the surrounding weaves. 

This enormous amount of star essence had been successfully used to create a second layer of skin for one person, who was an Explorer named Ke Yi from the Dire Barbarian Clan. Although he was not on the Top 100 Rankings, that was simply because the Dire Barbarian Clan did not want their successful disciples to attract extra attention . According to Avery, Ke Yi’s true strength could place him within the top eightieth on the rankings. 

If they were considering pure strength, then the Ross Empire might not have been willing to hand over the star essence to the Dire Barbarian Clan after using so much effort to gather them. After all, Lu Yin had not been disadvantaged even against Faceless during the Sea King’s son-in-law selection. This showed that Ke Yi might not actually be Lu Yin’s match.

However, Ke Yi’s task was to probe, not fight. He had an innate gift that heightened his sense of hearing, and it also allowed him to perceive a person’s physical strength as well as the fluctuations of their star energy. 

It was precisely because of this that the Dire Barbarian Clan’s Lei Long had convinced Scholar Newmoon to allow Ke Yi to act first so that they could determine Lu Yin’s true strength. Then, they would be able to decide who to send next. They had come up with this plan so as to not waste their stock of star essence, as they needed to ensure that the second person they sent down was someone who could completely defeat Lu Yin. 

Of course, Ke Yi himself was not weak, and he could even lead the Dire Barbarian Clan, Ross Empire, and Blaze Realm to seize either Pyrolyte Mountain, Pyrolyte Lake, or Pyrolyte Plain if he wanted. 

The Dire Barbarian Clan did not bother concealing Ke Yi’s circumstances, as they would not be able to hide it even if they wanted to. He would definitely appear on Planet Pyrolyte, and that appearance would instantly attract the attention of the various powers. 

Hence, the Dire Barbarian Clan had generously revealed Ke Yi’s information. So it was under many watchful eyes that Ke Yi took a personal spacecraft down to Planet Pyrolyte. 

On the mountain range, Hai Qiqi cried out, “Someone’s coming!” 

Northgate Gang, Ah Fan, and the others all looked up in unison, as it had been some time since someone landed at this mountain range. Now that someone had appeared, the defenders looked worried. Had some organization already found a way to let an Explorer safely visit Planet Pyrolyte? It was probably the Ross Empire. 

Lu Yin calmly watched the spacecraft crash into the ground, and shockwaves burst out in all directions as a massive crater appeared in the dark-red ground. 

As the smoke cleared, a rather ugly-looking man slowly rose into the sky and began moving towards the mountain range. He stared directly at Lu Yin, not hiding his Explorer realm aura at all. The undulations caused Northgate Gang and the others’ eyes to twitch. It turned out that an Explorer had really come down to the planet’s surface. 

The price that had to be paid to send an Explorer down to Planet Pyrolyte was not small, so every Explorer who was sent down would not be weak.

Hai Qiqi glared at him without shame, and she pointed at Ke Yi while shouting in an exaggerated fashion, “That’s too ugly! Lu Yin, he’s even uglier than you!”

Lu Yin sighed, as Hai Qiqi’s venomous tongue was something that could not be changed, and she would lash out the moment she encountered anyone new. Lu Yin had already grown accustomed to it, so he didn’t even bother with the girl. Instead, he slowly rose up to directly face Ke Yi.  

In outer space, above the planet, everyone stared at the confrontation as Ke Yi’s information was transmitted to the various powers as fast as possible. No one had thought that the Dire Barbarian Clan had hidden such a person so well. Ke Yi was even able to match up to people in the top eighty of the Top 100 Rankings, which meant that he was one of the top Explorer powerhouses. It was no wonder why the Ross Empire had been willing to use all their gathered star essence on him. 

Ke Yi rose higher into the skies and stared at Lu Yin while his ears moved. He was attentively listening to the sounds of Lu Yin’s body: the vibration of his muscles, the rumbling of his heart, and the flow of his blood. All these sounds were transmitted to Ke Yi in an incomprehensible fashion, but they all worked together to allow him to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the person in front of him. 

Lu Yin was not careless either, and his eyes filled with star energy as he looked at Ke Yi. At that instant, many rune lines filled his vision, astounding Lu Yin. The number of runes that this person possessed were considerable, and he clearly surpassed someone at the tail-end of the Top 100 Rankings like Northgate Lie, and he would likely even be a match for the Faceless Man. This person was an expert, and Lu Yin subconsciously shifted the Fatesand from around his heart and left arm, unsealing a great portion of his physical strength. 

And Ke Yi’s face became even more solemn, as he had just heard something incredible.

He had not thought much of this mission at first, as he could rival the top eighty of the Top 100 Rankings, which meant that he could easily crush Limiteers, even if they were considered unrivaled Limiteers. But at this moment, Ke Yi truly understood how freakishly strong this unequaled Limiteer was. This youth’s physical strength was a little too exaggerated. In the entire Dire Barbarian Clan’s younger generation, only Avery was stronger than Lu Yin, as even Ke Yi himself was far physically weaker than this person. Not just that, but he had also heard a noise that he could not comprehend. 

He had listened to many people before, and among them were Explorers, Cruisers, and even Hunters. However, not a single one of them had been as complicated as the person currently before him. Ke Yi did not know how to describe this sound, but it was very complex, and he could not even hope to understand it. 

The mountain range fell silent as everyone watched this strange scene, with neither Ke Yi nor Lu Yin acting. Hai Qiqi was the first person to break the silence. “Hey! You two haven’t taken a fancy to each other, right?” 

Ke Yi’s gaze quivered, and his ears moved again as he stared closely at Lu Yin. His mouth did not move. Instead, he used star energy to make the air vibrate and create sound. This was done to prevent the ambient pyrolyte from entering his body through his mouth and nose. Not only could Ke Yi not speak, he could not breathe either. “You know my objective: clear out!” 

Lu Yin raised his right arm and clenched a fist. “Come and make me.”

“Seventh Bro, this guy’s not weak,” the monkey reminded him.

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