“Liu Qianjue” tossed the violent frog-like creature back into the pond and calmly said, “Immediately put together a list of our most outstanding disciples and deliver it to the Great Eastern Alliance. This war in the Outerverse not only ended with the Great Eastern Alliance stopping the Astral Beast Domain’s invasion, but they also wrested control of the Outerverse’s eastern weaves back from the Sixth Mainland. Dozens of Envoys were mobilized for this war, and nothing can stop Lu Yin’s progress anymore. Given the situation, my Sword Sect cannot fall behind any others.
“Release an announcement to the entire sect that we will henceforth be known as the Great Eastern Alliance’s Sword Sect. The name of the Great Eastern Alliance needs to be added to our own.”
Elder Li was truly stunned. “Sect Master, this-“
“Liu Qianjue” turned his head back to stare at Elder Li, and the Envoy’s powerful aura instantly overwhelmed Elder Li. “What? Do you not want to do as you’re told?”
Elder Li dropped to his knees, sweat beading on his forehead. “I don’t dare! This disciple will take care of this immediately.”
“Liu Qianjue” nodded with satisfaction. “Also, tell Lianxin that if she insists on not joining the Great Eastern Alliance, then she must remove herself from the Sword Sect. We will not indulge her any longer.”
With that, Lu Yin’s consciousness separated from the Possession and returned to his own body. He felt quite refreshed by what he had just done.
Elder Li would probably be completely befuddled, and if the elder carried out the orders that Lu Yin had just given, that confusion would be passed on to the entire Sword Sect. No, it would extend to the entire Innerverse. In particular, what Lu Yin had said regarding Elder Lianxin would have serious consequences. The woman was clearly devoted to the Sword Sect, but she would be pushed away from it and forced to become an independent cultivator.
These two Possessions had burned through about 100 million star essence. It was not much for Lu Yin, but both Possessions had been of people within the Innerverse. If Lu Yin had instead Possessed someone from the Perennial World, it would have consumed an astronomical amount of star essence.
Lu Yin was in no rush to roll his die again, and he quietly sat on the riverbed for ten days, resting before he was able to roll his die again.
Timestop was an easy roll to get on Lu Yin’s die, as Pilfer was the only result that came up more often.
When Lu Yin returned to the Timestop Space, he did not rush to resume training Inverse Step, but instead continued rolling his die. He had remembered that there was something that he wanted to Enhance: the pill skin that he had received from Herb Immortal. The Semi-Progenitor had mentioned that the pill skin was already able to defend against attacks with power levels of a million, and Lu Yin had recently lost his bodysuit armor. If he ran into a powerful opponent, he would be in danger, especially since only old freaks with power levels of over a million could pose any real threat given his current strength.
Given the fact that Lu Yin was already in the Timestop Space, there was no chance that he would not be able to roll three pips.
His first roll was Gift Copy, which was useless at the moment.
Next, he rolled Pilfer, which was also useless.
The third roll was Blackhole Disassembly, and while Lu Yin did not initially intend to use it, it reminded him of all the items that First Edition City had sent him to be Disassembled.
Then, Lu Yin remembered something else as well: the metal from the Absolute Beast Cage.
The cage had been made from a strange metal that had once nearly destroyed the entire Fourth Mainland, and Lu Yin wondered if the shards that he had gathered could be Disassembled. So, he quickly pulled out a fragment from his cosmic ring.
He had asked the Sixth Mainland to gather a bunch of fragments of the shattered Absolute Beast Cage for him. Of those fragments, he had stored some away in his cosmic ring, sent some to be stored in Frostwave Weave, and then sent another batch to First Edition City, as the Technocracy was very anxious to acquire this particular metal.
Since the cage had been made of metal, it should be possible to Disassemble it. Lu Yin took the piece that he had pulled out and placed it on the vortex in front of him, but the metal simply fell to the ground. It could not be Disassembled after all.
This was the first time that Lu Yin’s Blackhole Disassembly had failed, and it indicated that the fragment was either not actually metal or was already in its purest state and could not be Disassembled to a more refined state.
Was it actually metal? Lu Yin stared at the shard in his hand. If it could not be Disassembled, then could it be Enhanced?
He spent ten days in the Timestop Space resting before rolling his die again. His luck was good, and the roll was three pips.
Lu Yin pulled the pill skin back out and set it atop the upper light screen while wondering if the odd substance could be Enhanced. He threw out a massive amount of star essence; he had a feeling that, if the pill skin could be improved, it would cost an absurd amount.
10 million. 50 million. 100 million. Star essence was consumed voraciously before the pill skin finally dropped down slightly. Though it had barely moved, the fact that it had moved at all proved that it could be Enhanced.
Lu Yin did some rough estimates, and based on how far the pill skin had fallen, it would cost him at least 4 billion star essence to finish this first upgrade.
How insane!
The further Lu Yin’s strength progressed, the more valuable the items he picked up, and subsequently, the more expensive it became to Enhance those items.
It was not unreasonable for Lu Yin to possess an item that could affect a battle that involved cultivators with power levels of over a million, and paying 4 billion star essence to acquire such an item was not unacceptable. This thought removed Lu Yin’s hesitation. Besides, he still had almost 30 billion star essence, and he could get even more from the Mavis Bank, which meant that he was far from being short on funds for the time being.
4 billion star essence was consumed, and the pill skin finally fell down from the two screens of light. Lu Yin picked it up and squeezed it with a great deal of strength, but he was unable to do anything to it at all.
Before being Enhanced, the pill skin had been able to endure attacks with power levels of a million, but afterwards, it was no longer able to even be damaged by such attacks.
A power level of 1 million was a milestone, and breaking past that point was far more difficult than breaking through to the Envoy realm.
It should be possible to Enhance the pill skin yet again, so Lu Yin threw it back out and started dumping more star essence on the screens. This second upgrade cost him more than 7 billion star essence, for a total of almost 12 billion star essence. The pill skin had become thicker, and while it was still quite ugly: it looked like a poncho.
Lu Yin did not know if the pill skin could be upgraded any further, but he put it away for the time being and instead pulled out a shard from the Absolute Beast Cage and started tossing out star essence to improve it. He watched with both curiosity and high expectations.
The metal of the beast cage could indeed be improved, which made Lu Yin’s eyes light up. He started to crazily throw out massive amounts of star essence.
200 million. It took a full 200 million star essence to Enhance a single shard of the metal from the Absolute Beast Cage once. The metal showed no real changes aside from becoming a bit bigger.
Lu Yin actually had no idea what he could gain from this metal, and he was merely curious. He wanted to see for himself what sort of thing had once brought a catastrophe upon the Fourth Mainland, as there was no way that the modern Absolute Beast Cage resembled that ancient terror.
He continued to upgrade the metal.
The second upgrade cost him 400 million star essence.
The third, 800 million.
The fourth, 1.5 billion.
The fifth, 3.2 billion.
The metal grew a bit bigger every time it was improved, and after the fifth upgrade, it twisted upon itself to form a ring before beginning to radiate a dim light.
Lu Yin quietly observed the ring, and at this moment, it seemed more like something alive than a piece of metal.
Suddenly, the metal from the Absolute Beast Cage jolted and shot towards Lu Yin. He raised a hand and grabbed it out of the air, only to feel a bit of pain from his palm. After looking, he saw sharp spines protruding from the ring, clearly trying to pierce through his skin. However, Lu Yin’s physique was too powerful, and the spines could not break through his skin. All that they could do was induce a bit of pain, though the spines were sharp enough to stab through most Envoys.
Lu Yin remembered that this metal was supposedly able to grow and become stronger by consuming flesh and blood.
The massive Absolute Beast Cage had been tough enough that even Empyrean Imprinters had struggled to destroy it, and the legends claimed that the piece of metal that had threatened the Fourth Mainland had been as large as half of the entire Outerverse.
At least, this was what Lu Yin had heard from Ya Mavis, who had obtained the information from the Mavis family’s ancient records. Lu Yin did not actually know how true the information was.
As he stared at the piece of metal, Lu Yin could sense that it only desired to consume his flesh and blood.
This thing was a scourge. His eyes turned hard, and he wanted to destroy the bit of metal, but then he remembered something that caused a smile to slowly spread across his face. This metal had been a disaster for the Fourth Mainland, and it could do the same elsewhere. The key aspect was how this scourge was used.