The battle had been going on for so long, but no old monster with a power level of 300,000 had appeared, which meant that Elder Lohar was holding them back. There was nothing for Lu Yin to fear.
He did not know that the Three-Tailed Greedbeast had been destroyed by Topmist, or else he would have been even more fearless.
Seasons Fort was on the verge of collapse, and more than half of the human cultivators and soldiers guarding it had died. Even if Lu Yin won this battle, he would have to give up on Seasons Fort.
But giving up was one thing, and Lu Yin did not want to flee pathetically. He wanted to slaughter these Enlighter beasts, or else, even if he escaped to the lower five forts, he would still be in dire straits.
Topmist followed behind Lu Yin, deep in thought.
The two were getting closer and closer to the Enlighter beasts.
There was a loud explosion, and the two turned around to look. Seasons Fort had completely collapsed, turning into countless fragments that floated in space.
A trace of sorrow flashed through Lu Yin's eyes. Not only had there been cultivators and soldiers in the fort, but there had also been quite a few soldiers' families. So many planets and continents with billions of people had been wiped out just like that.
He released his domain, and he heard countless cries. His gaze turned cold; the Astral Beast Domain would definitely pay for this debt.
"Careful!" Topmist suddenly shouted.
Above Lu Yin's head, the void split open, and the Enlighter beast that had just fled into the void appeared. It swiped out with a claw, but Lu Yin waved his hand and used the Yu Secret Art. In that instant, he saw the essence of the universe and saw another Enlighter beast hidden in the void.
At that moment, Lu Yin stopped using the Yu Secret Art and fired. Bang!
There was a loud bang, and it was both the sound of a gunshot and Lu Yin being sent flying by a tremendous force, crashing into the shattered fort.
Behind Topmist, the void split open, and another Enlighter beast appeared. However, the moment it appeared, a bullet pierced through its neck, leaving behind a gaping wound.
Lu Yin met Topmist's attack with his own, and he fired at the beast that had ambushed him.
Only then did Topmist react. He had been distracted by the beast that had ambushed Lu Yin, and he had not expected another Enlighter beast to ambush him.
When he saw that Lu Yin had been sent flying, Topmist placed a hand on the Enlighter beast that had ambushed him. Threads of mist entered the wound on its neck, and the beast howled in pain.
The astral beast that had ambushed Lu Yin was about to give chase, but when it heard the howls from behind, it decisively gave up on Lu Yin and turned to attack Topmist instead. In its eyes, Lu Yin was doomed.
Unfortunately, he was not aware of the defensive capabilities of Lu Yin's universal armor. Lu Yin was confident that he could even defend himself against Monster Loach, let alone an Enlighter with a power level of over 200,000.
However, Lu Yin was still dizzy from that attack, and he shook his head vigorously. He flapped his wings and soared into outer space, where he saw Topmist being surrounded by two Enlighter beasts. However, one of the beasts had been injured by Lu Yin's bullet while the other had been heavily injured by Topmist. It was obvious that Topmist was about to retreat from the battlefield.
Lu Yin raised his gun and unleashed the Yu Secret Art at the same time.
Topmist's heart skipped a beat, and the sound of the gunshot caused his heart to tremble. Who knew who Lu Yin was aiming at? Topmist's thoughts were dark, and he always believed that someone would kill him.
With this attack, Lu Yin shattered the injured Enlighter beast's head, and a large amount of blood splattered onto the other Enlighter's body. At the same time, the blood covered Topmist.
The other Enlighter beast stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. This human had actually survived its full-powered attack, which was impossible. He was just an Explorer.
Topmist's black fog wrapped around the Enlighter beast and violently flung it towards Lu Yin. Lu Yin fired another shot, and the Enlighter beast roared. It shrunk its body in the nick of time, and only then did it avoid having its head blown off by the bullet.
The bullet brushed past the beast's head and shot into outer space. The Enlighter beast felt a lingering fear, and it looked at Lu Yin with reluctance before tearing through the void and leaving.
Topmist panted heavily as he looked at Lu Yin. He had also thought that Lu Yin was dead for sure.
Lu Yin shook his head, as he was still a little dizzy.
Not long after, the battle ended, and only two Enlighter beasts remained.
There had been a total of five beasts. One had perished together with Liu Qiuyu, one had been killed by Lu Yin, and one had been killed by Lu Yin and Topmist. The remaining two Enlighter beasts panicked, especially when they saw Lu Yin's methods. They could not withstand his attacks and could only flee.
They could tell that Lu Yin had used a secret technique, and even an Explorer could not be underestimated.
They had thought that this battle would be the end of Seasons Fort, but they had actually won.
Those who had survived did not cheer, and they instead silently looked at the destroyed fort and the countless corpses of their friends and family. They sank into sorrow.
Lu Yin looked at his gun and saw that there were still four shots left.
After landing on the shattered land, Wang Wen walked out of his coffin and sized Lu Yin up again. "I saw it. You killed two Enlighter beasts."
Lu Yin replied, "Let's retreat. The fort is finished, so we'll head to the next five forts."
Wang Wen nodded, as it was not the right time to say anything. He was most worried that Elder Lohar would not be able to stop Monster Loach and the Enlighter realm Amethyst Beast. If that happened, then it would truly be over. Although Lu Yin was mysterious, Wang Wen did not believe that Lu Yin could kill a monster with a power level of 300,000.
Lu Yin found Aden and Huo Qingshan. Fortunately, the two were still alive, even though they were heavily injured.
Liu Zhan was dead, and just as he had said, he would not survive. It wasn't just Liu Zhan, as most of the people from the Liu family had died as well. Only a girl named Liu Miaomiao had survived, and even Liu Sanjian had died.
There were less than 10,000 survivors in the fort, and Wang Wen gathered everyone together. Lu Yin was surprised to find that Long Yun was there as well, and his injuries were not light.
Charon had not died, and he looked at Lu Yin as if he were a monster.
"Everyone, Seasons Fort has collapsed, and we will be retreating to one of the lower five forts, Brokenblade Fort …" Wang Wen gave a simple explanation of the situation and then arranged for the retreat.
Before leaving, Wang Wen found Lu Yin. "With the previous missions and the contributions from this mission, you will receive 130,000 Ironblood Points."
Lu Yin was stunned. "That many?"
Wang Wen shrugged. "We previously agreed that you would receive 50,000 Ironblood Points for guiding the way to the Primal Zone. However, because you died, the commander and I decided to double your contributions, which is 100,000. We never expected that you would survive, but this reward cannot be changed. This time, you killed two Enlighter realm astral beasts. One of them was killed by you alone, and the other was killed by Topmist. Thus, you only received 30,000 Ironblood Points, which adds up to 130,000."
Lu Yin asked, "If I die, then my contributions will be doubled. If I really die, then who will this doubled reward go to?"
Wang Wen replied, "To your family."
Lu Yin was speechless. This guy definitely knew that Lu Yin had no family, which was why he was being so generous.
"Do you plan on exchanging these points for something?" Wang Wen asked.
Lu Yin nodded. "Star essence."
"Come with me." Wang Wen led the way and brought Lu Yin to Seasons Fort's resource warehouse. When he opened it up, Lu Yin was dumbfounded, as he saw no less than a few hundred thousand star essence piled up like mountains.
"These are the resources that the Innerverse and Outerverse gave to Seasons Fort to exchange for battle contributions. Take as much as you want."
Lu Yin was puzzled. "Why are there so many?"
"Many people will die in a war, but at the same time, many people will gain battle contributions. Battle contributions must be exchanged, and this is an ironclad rule in the army. This isn't a lot, as Ironblood Fort had the most. Unfortunately, the moment that fort collapsed, all of those resources were snatched away by the Astral Beast Domain."
Lu Yin looked at Wang Wen. "If you want me to exchange for them now, does that mean that I can't take them away?"
Wang Wen fell silent, but then he nodded. "Yes, I can't take them away."
"Then give them all to me!" Lu Yin was excited.
Wang Wen thought about it. "Store all of these resources in your cosmic ring, and I'll give you 10,000 points. You can take 140,000 star essence, and you can bring the rest to Brokenblade Fort untouched."
"Give them all to me, and I'll be able to gain even greater battle contributions in the future."
Wang Wen rolled his eyes. "Chesspiece Bro, the army has its ironclad rules. How can you give out battle contributions in advance? What will the others think? If you didn't have that cosmic ring with the most space, I wouldn't have let you take them away. It's a little dangerous."
Lu Yin felt that it was a pity, as he could tell that even though Wang Wen was afraid of death, he still had his principles.
Aside from star essence, there were many other things in the warehouse that could be exchanged for with battle contributions.
Seasons Fort already had so many, and Lu Yin could not imagine how many Ironblood Fort had. It was a pity that all of them had been snatched away.
Speaking of which, he had forgotten that astral beasts didn't have cosmic rings.
They definitely did, but it was a pity that he hadn't taken any.
Half an hour later, in outer space, Lu Yin sat atop a spacecraft and looked at the shattered planet of Seasons Fort. He sighed. Would Ironblood Weave be able to defend itself?
He was at a loss. With that Void Thunderbeast, it was impossible for the energy crack to be destroyed. Did he have to rely on luck from rolling his die?
The chances were too slim.
Aden walked behind Lu Yin. "In the battle just now, I encountered a super strong astral beast. It was only an early Hunter, but it was very strong. It managed to withstand my nine-lined battle force attack."
Lu Yin replied, "That's normal. The Astral Beast Domain has no lack of geniuses with extreme innate gifts."
"I was locked up by that old fogey, Undying Yushan, for almost a hundred years. The universe has changed too much, and that astral beast is said to be on Skymender's List. It's called Cursewind, and it can rival the Ten Arbiters. What are the Ten Arbiters?" Aden asked.
Lu Yin's eyes flashed. "An astral beast on Skymender's List?"
Aden nodded. "It said so itself, and it actually praised me for suppressing it. Haha, I'm someone who can withstand an Enlighter's attack, but I was actually praised by an early Hunter." At this point, Aden's face sank. "I feel like it hasn't used its full strength yet."
Lu Yin's eyes narrowed. "If it's really on Skymender's List, then your feelings might be right. The Ten Arbiters are ten monsters, and the Astral Beast Domain's Skymender's List also has ten astral beasts …"
Aden quietly listened to Lu Yin's words, and he grew more and more astonished. "The universe has changed, and the Ten Arbiters and the Ten Arbiters Council were born. It's unbelievable that those powerful organizations have actually agreed to give power to the younger generation."
Lu Yin was not sure about this either, and the higher he climbed, the more confused he became. No matter how strong the Ten Arbiters were, could they surpass an Enlighter with a power level of 250,000 or even 300,000?
That was impossible, as those powerful organizations definitely had such powerhouses. Even the tiny Northline Flowzone had an old monster like Northgate Taisui, who could single-handedly defeat the Ten Arbiters. So what did the Ten Arbiters rely on to give power to the younger generation?
In the past, Lu Yin had assumed that the Ten Arbiters had the support of the various organizations, but ever since he had taken control of the Great Yu Empire, he felt that he might have guessed wrongly. As rulers, it was impossible for them to willingly give up power, which was illogical. So, what gave the Ten Arbiters the right to stand at such a high position?