The Astral River was vast and connected the heavens to the earth. It split the universe in two, and no one knew how deep it went.
At that moment, Lu Yin saw indescribably terrifying rune lines flash past the bottom of the Astral River. Those rune lines caused his entire body to turn cold, and his scalp went numb. Although he couldn't see them clearly, he was certain that those rune lines were no less shocking than the Tong family's Patriarch or Eyeless's. In other words, a monster comparable to a Cosmic Imprinter had swum past the bottom of the Astral River.
No one knew how the Astral River had been formed. It had split the universe apart, or rather, it had split the Fifth Mainland to form the Innerverse and Outerverse. The Astral River's tributaries had divided the Innerverse into countless Flowzones that were all connected.
Every year, countless people explored the Astral River, and every year, countless people died there.
The simplest example was fishing on a Astral River vessel. Only a Cruiser had the qualifications to do so, and that was just the qualifications.
Even fishing was so dangerous, which showed just how terrifying the Astral River was.
No one knew what exactly existed within the Astral River, and perhaps only Progenitors could see it clearly.
At that moment, Lu Yin saw the Astral River's terrifying side.
Fortunately, that creature with a power level of a million didn't stop, and it immediately disappeared. Perhaps in its eyes, these people were just small fries in the water, and it didn't even bother to look at them.
It continued to chase after the Sixth Mainland's cultivators.
The Sixth Mainland's cultivators were about to return to the Innerverse.
The distance separating the Innerverse and Outerverse from the Astral River wasn't very far.
Elsewhere in the Innerverse, at the border of the Astral River, it should have been very peaceful, but at this moment, spacecraft after spacecraft approached from afar and gradually lined up at the border of the Astral River. Even further away, there was a boundless continent that quickly floated over. It was filled with all sorts of resources, minerals, star essence, strange creatures, and all sorts of weapons. There were even buildings and people.
These were the resources that the Sixth Mainland had plundered from the Innerverse. Every once in a while, the Sixth Mainland would transport a batch of resources back to the Innerverse and divide them among the three filaments. These resources were enormous, and they were all-encompassing. Minerals, star essence, and so on were the most common of them all. These buildings were the repositories of many of the Innerverse's powers, and they contained secret information about battle techniques that those powers had collected over countless years.
There were also countless Innerverse cultivators who had been imprisoned and sent to the Sixth Mainland. These people were all valuable to the Sixth Mainland. Some had innate gifts, some were powerful, and could be used as sparring partners. Some had strange appearances, and there were even some beautiful women who could be used as servants.
The Sixth Mainland had gone to great lengths to attack the Innerverse because the Sea King had restored the Fifth Mainland's sky, which had led to the possibility of a Progenitor being born in the Fifth Mainland. The Sixth Mainland had to destroy this possibility, so they had to destroy the Fifth Mainland's cultivation civilization and plunder it.
Wars are all about benefits, and only benefits can drive wars.
These were the benefits that the Sixth Mainland could see for themselves.
This mainland's resources were only a drop in the ocean, but even that was an exaggeration. The war in the Innerverse had lasted for more than five years, and the Sixth Mainland had transported resources many times. However, they had always been sabotaged by the Innerverse powerhouses, so they rarely returned to the Sixth Mainland peacefully.
This time, the War Martial Realm's weaponsmithing family was responsible for escorting the resources. Compared to the Tong family and the Eyeless family, this family was different because they possessed a Celestial Imprint.
They were the strongest family in the War Martial Realm, and there was no other family. There was only one weaponsmithing family in the entire War Martial Realm, and everyone in the War Martial Realm viewed weaponsmithing as an honor. For this reason, the War Martial Realm even had a division of power that differed from the other realms: the weaponsmiths.
The Celestial Imprinters of the War Martial Realm were known as Weaponsmiths, and the Realmlings were known as Weaponsmiths. Apart from them, all the other cultivators who had been recognized by the weaponsmithing family were known as World Imprinters. They were divided into levels from level one to nine, with level one being the lowest and level nine being the highest.
This time, the strongest person escorting the resources back to the Sixth Mainland was a level nine weaponsmithing family, and below him were level seven, level four, and so on. The Weaponsmithing Realmlings were also present.
Although the entire continent was not very wide, it was very long, and it followed the Astral River towards the Sixth Mainland's Mara River.
There were not many powerhouses guarding the side of the continent that was close to the Astral River. The reason why they had chosen to travel closer to the Astral River was because they wanted to borrow the Astral River's obstruction to free up more powerhouses to guard the other side.
On the other side of the continent, countless hammers floated in the air, which represented the weaponsmithing family.
With a level nine weaponsmithing escorting the resources, as well as many experts from the weaponsmithing family, this trip should have been absolutely safe, especially since the other side was facing the Astral River.
However, the Tong family and the Eyeless family had torn apart the Astral River and waged war against the Outerverse. In the end, they had been defeated and had fled to the Innerverse. Not only had they appeared, but Astral-9's headmaster and elders had also appeared at the same time.
When the two sides had chased each other out of the Astral River and started fighting in the Innerverse, the distant transport team had also appeared.
Lu Yin looked to the east and blinked when he saw the continent. What was going on?
Those from the Tong family were excited, and they hurriedly called for reinforcements from the transport team.
On the transport team, the War Martial Realm's Realmling stared into the distance. "It's the Tong family and the Eyeless family. Has the Astral River been torn apart?"
The Innerverse had been suppressed by the astronomical phenomena, so the Tong family and the Eyeless family were no longer worried. They did not have as many experts as the Outerverse, but everyone had suppressed their power levels, so they could hold on.
Even Ancestor Eyeless and Master Yuan had suppressed their power levels the moment they entered the Innerverse.
At this moment, it was a competition of numbers.
The scales tilted once again, and this time, it was pressing down on the Sixth Mainland.
This was especially so when a group of experts from a weaponsmithing family leapt out from the transport team. Elder He looked at Astral-9's headmaster helplessly. "Let's retreat. They're a weaponsmithing family, and they're even stronger than the Tong family and the Eyeless family. As long as we guard the other side of the Astral River, Master Yuan can restore it."
Astral-9's headmaster was unwilling, but he had no choice. "Retreat."
When the Sixth Mainland's cultivators saw that the Outerverse cultivators wanted to retreat, how could they possibly agree? They all chased after the Outerverse cultivators in an attempt to stop them.
The Eyeless Imprinter even risked serious injuries to block the Astral River, as he could not allow the Outerverse cultivators to escape.
As long as they could eliminate this group, then even if the Outerverse powerhouse who could rival the Cosmic Imprinter won, he would still have no subordinates to use, and the Outerverse's resources could still be plundered.
In the distance, a group of experts from a weaponsmithing family rushed out from the transport team. The orders they had received had not been to actually fight the Outerverse cultivators, but rather to scare them away. They could not afford to lose the resources they were transporting, as this was related to how the three filaments would divide the benefits when they attacked the Innerverse. Even the weaponsmithing families did not want any accidents to happen at this juncture.
They only wanted to transport the resources back to the Sixth Mainland before returning to figure out the situation.
However, the Realmling Toolwielder wanted to capture one person, and that person was Wendy Yushan.
When he had first seen Wendy Yushan in the ruins of the Daosource Sect, he had been attracted to her. He had never expected that she would be someone from the Fifth Mainland, which was even better since he could capture her and bring her back.
In the void, Ancestor Eyeless appeared, still holding onto the Tong family's Ancestor. At this moment, the Tong family's Ancestor's injuries had recovered slightly, but he would not be able to fight for a while. What had injured him had been the Arrow Progenitor's item, and it had not been an ordinary method.
On the other side, Master Yuan appeared with a solemn expression.
In the Innerverse, the astronomical phenomenon had been suppressed, and no matter how strong he was, he would not be able to display his full strength. His advantage had been completely wiped out, and the enemy had actually sent a group of experts to reinforce him.
He did not know that the weaponsmithing families were just trying to scare them away, and he wanted to retreat.
On the other side, Ancestor Eyeless could tell what Master Yuan was thinking. He tossed the Tong family's Ancestor onto the transport team and then joined his hands together. A formless halo gradually expanded, and in an instant, it enveloped all of the participants at the Astral River's border. Ancestor Eyeless had not used his innate gift all this time, but it was not the right time. Now, it was time.
Master Yuan's expression changed, and he immediately attacked Ancestor Eyeless.
However, it was still too late. As the halo moved, everyone was transferred to the transport team, and they were now far away from the Astral River's border.
Ancestor Eyeless' innate gift allowed him to instantly transfer everyone and everything within the halo to a place that he could see. Actually, it was not very useful for someone of his level of strength, as a single step would allow him to traverse the universe. The range of his vision was too narrow, but at this moment, his innate gift was extremely useful.
If the people from the Outerverse wanted to escape, they would have to rush out of the transport team. However, there were cultivators from the Sixth Mainland guarding the resources here, as well as experts from the weaponsmithing families, as well as powerhouses from the Tong family and the Eyeless clan. This was an almost impossible task, and they would all be transported to the Sixth Mainland along with this batch of resources, where they would become prisoners.
The land was very small compared to the Astral River, but it could transport the resources snatched from the Innerverse, so it was still quite large. At the very least, when Lu Yin opened his eyes, he saw a boundless expanse of minerals, as well as a very wretched person who was hiding in a mine not too far away.
That person had not expected Lu Yin to suddenly appear, and he turned around to look at Lu Yin. At that moment, Lu Yin felt a sense of absurdity. Wasn't that Ling Que?
Ling Que blinked, as if he could not believe his eyes. He rubbed his eyes hard and focused his gaze. He gulped and raised a hand to greet Lu Yin. "How are you?"
Lu Yin subconsciously nodded. "I'm alright."
"Oh," Ling Que responded, but he did not say anything else. The atmosphere was a little silent.
A second later, the two of them charged towards each other and stared at each other. "Did you betray the Innerverse?" they asked at the same time.
"Nonsense, of course not," they both said at the same time.
"Don't copy me," they both said at the same time. They then stood a few meters away from each other and stared at each other.
Lu Yin's fingers twitched. This guy was actually in the Sixth Mainland's camp. If this was not a betrayal of the Innerverse, then what was it?
Lu Yin did not believe that Ling Que could hide from the weaponsmithing families with his strength.
On the other side, Ling Que was thinking the same thing. He also did not believe that Lu Yin could hide from the weaponsmithing families.
At that moment, the sounds of battle rang out in the distance. The two of them looked over at the same time and saw the Outerverse cultivators fighting against the Sixth Mainland's transport team.
Lu Yin immediately attacked Ling Que, and Ling Que did the same. His Que's Mighty Slash had already been prepared, and he was about to launch a sneak attack. However, it had been five years since they had last met, and he clearly did not realize the difference between him and Lu Yin.