After leaving the Great Yu Empire for less than a month, the first thing Lu Yin did upon returning to King Zishan's palace was to summon En Ya.
"Your Highness, this is the alliance agreement and a simple alliance plan. We've already sent people to carry out the first step, and we've already contacted a few people through our private channels. Everything is going smoothly," En Ya replied.
Lu Yin looked at the battle plan and alliance agreement that En Ya had handed over. "I'm not very good at this, so I'll leave it to you. The Shenwu Continent has already joined the Great Eastern Alliance, so send someone to bring the alliance agreement over. Remember, it must be done as quickly as possible." He wanted Ming Yan to come to the Great Yu Empire as soon as possible.
"Yes, Your Highness," En Ya replied.
Ever since Undying Yushan's death, Lu Yin had changed the Great Yu Empire's imperial court to be hosted by the Imperial Cabinet, which rotated every once in a while. This was no longer called an imperial court meeting, but rather a discussion that would only be held when Lu Yin returned.
However, many things in the Great Yu Empire were already on track, such as the cooperation with the Nalan family, the establishment of the alliance, the recruitment of soldiers, and so on. Many things were proceeding in an orderly manner, and Lu Yin did not need to worry too much about them. He flipped through his cosmic ring out of boredom and saw something.
During the final battle at Seasons Fort, which was also the battle when Lu Yin had just broken through to the Explorer realm, he had rolled his die to cultivate the Yu Secret Art in order to resist the invasion of the astral beasts. Before that, he had rolled a point and obtained a yellow prayer mat.
At that time, he had faintly heard chanting, and his body had almost been drawn over. At that time, he had been certain that the yellow prayer mat was not simple, but he had not had the time to study it and had gradually forgotten about it. Now was the perfect time to study it.
He took out the prayer mat, and immediately, Lu Yin heard chanting again. This time, it was not a single person, but rather a scene where countless people were chanting. "This should be a prayer mat," the monkey said uncertainly.
Lu Yin was also uncertain. "It looks like it."
"Try sitting on it. Prayer mats are meant to be sat on," the monkey said. He had also heard the chanting and was somewhat curious.
Lu Yin put down the prayer mat and sat down. Suddenly, a dim golden light appeared and revolved around his body. The chanting grew louder and louder, and then the void suddenly distorted. Lu Yin disappeared along with the prayer mat, while the rest of King Zishan's palace remained unchanged.
Lu Yin had experienced the die's Timestop Space, as well as the die's six pips into a mysterious space, so he had a certain level of tolerance for such sudden changes. Even so, he was still stunned when he saw his surroundings. Where was this place?
It was a huge square with blue skies and white clouds. It looked very beautiful, and the air was very fresh. However, it was a pity that this place was in ruins. The ground was shattered into countless pieces, and the ground was soaked with blood. Not far away, there were white skeletons. It was not just one, but many. As far as the eye could see, it was a scene of ruin.
Lu Yin released his domain, and the area it covered grew larger and larger. However, everything that he saw was the same as what he was currently seeing. The ground was shattered, and there were bloodstains that had stained the ground black for who knew how many years. There were also countless skeletons, as well as some weapons that would melt away with a single touch.
This was an ancient land similar to the one in the centipede's body.
He stood up and looked at the prayer mat. It was still glowing with a golden light, and it seemed to have a faint connection with him. After some thought, he put it away and walked across the shattered ground.
With a stomp of his foot, the ground cracked, and small cracks spread out, crushing a skeleton not far away.
"Seventh Bro, where are you now?" the monkey cried out.
"I don't know," Lu Yin replied.
"Seventh Bro, why do you always appear in strange places?" the monkey wailed.
Lu Yin squatted down and looked at a sword next to the shattered skeleton. There were words engraved on it. "Monkey, take a look at what those words are."
The monkey took a look and was puzzled. "I don't recognize them, but they look familiar. Why are they written so similar to the words in the centipede's body?"
"Are you saying that they're from the same time period?" Lu Yin asked.
"I don't know. The evolution of words is sometimes fast, but sometimes it's slow. It depends on how the culture develops."
There were no living people in his domain, and aside from some plants, there weren't even any animals. Lu Yin's eyes were filled with star energy, but he couldn't see anything. This was the first time since his eyes had mutated.
Lu Yin could only walk towards the towering mountain peak in the distance. It was the only landmark in this area, and if there were any living people, they would probably go there as well.
"Seventh Bro, let's go back," the monkey said.
"Let's take a look first," Lu Yin said. He had come here on a prayer mat, so he should use it to return as well. It was too strange that a prayer mat had allowed him to appear in this space.
After some time, Lu Yin carefully arrived at the foot of the mountain and saw two giant stone pillars. There was a sign in the middle of the pillars with three words engraved on it: "Gate, Mountain Gate."
He stepped through the gate and was greeted by a winding forest path. It was the same as the plaza from before, but many places had been shattered, and there were even bones scattered around.
This was a sect that had been destroyed countless years ago. That was Lu Yin's conclusion.
"Seventh Bro, let's go. Is this place haunted?" the monkey cried out.
"I'll block you out if you talk any more nonsense. You won't even know how you died," Lu Yin said impatiently.
The monkey shut up.
After walking along the forest path for about ten minutes, Lu Yin suddenly stopped. He heard a strange sound that sounded like metal scraping against each other.
Lu Yin abruptly turned to his right and saw a giant shadow appear in the forest. It pushed aside the trees and appeared in front of him.
What's this?
A metal puppet?
Lu Yin was shocked.
What appeared in front of him was a humanoid puppet made entirely of metal. It was about three meters tall and had human eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, but no eyeballs. Its metal body reflected light under the sunlight.
There was a whoosh, and the metal puppet swatted at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin dodged, but a strong gust of wind hit him, causing his breathing to stagnate.
The metal puppet was bloated, but it was very fast. It swatted at Lu Yin again, but Lu Yin dodged it once more. He kicked out at the puppet's abdomen, but it was blocked by the puppet's arm. There was a thump, and Lu Yin was forced back several steps. He looked up in shock; the puppet's strength was extraordinary.
"Seventh Bro, you were forced back?"
The monkey was shocked. He understood Lu Yin's physical strength very well, and it was on a completely abnormal level. This metal puppet was not a Hunter and was about the same as an Explorer, but it had actually been able to force Lu Yin back with brute strength.
Lu Yin clenched his fists and moved his shoulders, his expression turning serious.
The metal puppet did not give Lu Yin any time to react. It swatted at him with a palm that blocked out the sunlight. It was like Mount Tai was pressing down on him, but Lu Yin easily dodged it. Just as he was about to counterattack, he realized that the puppet's speed had changed. It was several times faster than before, and it swatted at him again. Lu Yin dodged it once more. In this space, filling his eyes with star energy was useless, and he would need to use a lockbreaking tool if he wanted to use the Secret Sidestep technique. However, he did not need to use it yet, as his speed was enough to deal with it.
Lu Yin was not in a hurry to counterattack, as he wanted to test out the puppet's strength and speed.
Gradually, he began to feel more confident. This metal puppet was extraordinarily strong, sturdy, and fast. It could also detect Lu Yin's weaknesses based on his dodging movements. It seemed to have no intelligence, but it had a very strange instinct. It was clearly just a puppet.
There was a thump, and Lu Yin took advantage of the gap in the puppet's attack to land a punch on the puppet's head. This was his strongest punch without removing his Fatesand, and it caused the puppet's head to tilt to the side.
Lu Yin stared at the puppet in shock. He had originally wanted to send the puppet's head flying, as this was his strongest punch in his normal state. After becoming an Explorer, there were not many people in the same realm in the entire universe who could withstand this punch. The power of this punch was enough to destroy a powerhouse ranked around fifty on the Top 100 Rankings, but it had not been able to deal with this puppet.
The puppet's head moved and quickly turned back to its original position. It then swatted at Lu Yin again.
Lu Yin frowned and leaped up. He raised his hand and appeared in front of the puppet's head. "Fiftyfold Shockwave Palm." There was a thump, and this time, the metal puppet's head was sent flying.
There was another thump as the metal puppet fell to the ground.
Lu Yin stepped forward and touched the metal shell. It was very sturdy, and even with his current strength, he could not crush it. He looked up and wondered what kind of sect could create such a puppet. This should be a sect's entrance. Could it be that this puppet was used to test those who wanted to become a disciple?
If that was the case, then that would be abnormal. No one below the Explorer realm could deal with such a puppet. Even Mu Rong, who was a Limiteer, would have trouble dealing with such a puppet. What kind of sect would use such a puppet to test their disciples?
There was a strange sound as more metal puppets appeared in the forest. This time, there was not one, but three.
Lu Yin's expression changed, and he leaped up. He did not have the energy to fight these metal puppets, and who knew how many more there were?
Although the metal puppets were fast, they could not catch up to Lu Yin. After Lu Yin left, they gradually disappeared into the forest.
Huang San felt that he was very unlucky. Xiaojing had come here, and he had chased her all the way here. They had clearly arrived at about the same time, but he had been just a step too late, and the distance between them had widened to the point where he could not even see Xiaojing's shadow. Most importantly, he had been surrounded by five First Divine Gate Guardians. Heavens! Five First Divine Gate Guardians!
If they had surrounded him, then so be it. At worst, he could just retreat. However, when he looked down, he saw that there were two more First Divine Gate Guardians roaming around a hundred meters away. He had the urge to vomit blood. How had so many First Divine Gate Guardians suddenly appeared? Hadn't it been said that most of these things had been wiped out during that battle? Could it be that he had run into all of the remaining ones?
His family had gone to great lengths to exchange for a futon, so he could not die here. He still had to marry Xiaojing.
There was a thump, and Huang San dodged with a startled cry. The metal puppet had smashed a deep hole into the small path in the forest. Behind him, he felt a chill, and his hair stood on end. He instinctively crouched down, and a giant metal arm swept past his head. The wind from the attack almost tore his pants off.
Huang San sorrowfully pulled up his pants and scrambled down the mountain. He quickly ran into the two metal puppets that were roaming around, and there were five more behind them.
Huang San wanted to cry. He was just a puny Explorer, and he was very pure. He had never killed anyone before, so why were they all targeting him?