Chapter 513: Strength On Strength
Northgate Gang was so emotional that he almost broke down in tears. He had not had a good time on Planet Pyrolyte this entire time. Before Lu Yin arrived, he had come face to face with death many, many times. After Lu Yin’s arrival, he had been ridiculed by Hai Qiqi so often that he had started questioning life, and he had also been left with no choice but to escape and face dangerous enemies. Finally, ever since Lu Yin had started standing guard over the mountain range, Northgate Gang had turned into a miner. A month had passed since he had last stepped out of the mining tunnel, and it was all because he was afraid of running into Hai Qiqi.
His big brother had finally arrived.
Northgate Lie looked at Northgate Gang and his bloodshot eyes. As the Explorer looked at his pitiful brother and the mining tools in his hands, he nodded silently. His little brother was finally growing up and starting to work for the sake of the family. He had even started mining on his own accord, despite the difficulties. The saying that adversity forced one to grow up faster was really true.
Lu Yin had guessed that Northgate Lie would come, as Kayze’s star essence skin had actually been used for him.
“Brother Lu, many thanks.” Northgate Lie spoke respectfully to Lu Yin. Not too long ago, they had been enemies. At that time, Northgate Lie had been fully confident in being able to dominate this Limiteer, but after the battles during the Sea King’s son-in-law selection, he had realized how foolish and overconfident he had been. Lu Yin had long since surpassed him.
Lu Yin absent mindedly uttered a few pleasantries in reply.
Northgate Lie pulled out 2,000 star essence from his cosmic ring. “Brother Lu, I know that this is not enough to pay for this star essence skin, but this is all I have at this time. I owe you a debt, and I’ll pay it off next time, you have my word.”
Lu Yin was shocked. “1,000 star essence is fine. Didn’t I say that I would accept just 1000 star essence?”
Northgate Lie replied solemnly. “This star essence skin is worth much more than 1000 star essence. 3,000 star essence is a more accurate price. Northline Flowzone doesn’t wish to shortchange you, Brother Lu. You saved my brother’s life, and Northline Flowzone owes you a great deal.”
Since there was someone willing to pay extra, Lu Yin would not stand on ceremony. He accepted the 2,000 star essence and stored them away in his cosmic ring. He had now accumulated 4,000 star essence. Perfect.
He was excited to discover if the Money Bomb and the universal armor in his possession could fetch such high prices as well.
Northgate Lie’s arrival stirred up excitement among many organizations.
In the Outerverse, far out in space, many spacecraft arrived from the Innerverse, carrying huge amounts of star essence.
Above Planet Pyrolyte, the many powers were busy working. They weren’t only manufacturing star essence skins, as they also needed to refine pyrolyte ore.
Refining pyrolyte ore was harder to accomplish than many had initially anticipated. Since pyrolyte was found in extremely high concentrations as well as explosive and destructive, exceptional care had to be taken while handling it so as not to ignite it.
The level of effort required to refine the ore had been grossly underestimated by the various powers.
At the present moment, the biggest extractor of pyrolyte ore was the Sword Sect. They had control of Pyrolyte Mountain and had also started mining much earlier than the other great powers. In addition, their robust facilities had already refined around 300 grams of pyrolyte. 300 grams of refined pyrolyte, in terms of destructive power, was the equivalent of an attack with a power level of three million. If it was all ignited at once, it would be strong enough to reduce a planet to a black hole.
The greatest use of pyrolyte was not in battle, as powerhouses could easily divert and lessen the force from a pyrolyte explosion. Pyrolyte was refined for war, as its destructive prowess was something that could strike fear into anyone’s heart.
Elder Chou Shu’s initial idea had been to take the refined pyrolyte back to the Sword Sect, but he had changed his mind since he was not confident in being able to protect it. He had quickly changed plans to extract all of the pyrolyte here and then request someone more powerful from the sect to come and escort the pyrolyte back.
At the present moment, Pyrolyte Mountain still had about two thirds of its original pyrolyte ore remaining. After extracting and refining all of the ore, the Sword Sect expected to end up with around 1,000 grams of refined pyrolyte. That, combined with the pyrolyte that the Sword Sect had already gathered from elsewhere in the Astral Wilderness, meant that the Sword Sect would end up with about 1.1 kilograms.
This would become a weapon that the Sword Sect would be able to hold over others. If a large scale war were to break out, this pyrolyte would be enough for the Sword Sect to gain an upper hand in battle.
It was a good thing that there was a barrier between the Innerverse and the Neoverse in the form of the Cosmic Sea, as this prevented the Neoverse powers from receiving any timely reports about what was going on. If they had up to date information, then it wouldn’t just be the Innerverse organizations fighting against each other, as those terrifying large behemoths from the Neoverse would be involved as well.
A few days after Northgate Lie descended onto Planet Pyrolyte, a huge beast roared and charged down onto the planet from space, shattering a spacecraft that was taking off along the way. It snatched the pyrolyte from the destroyed ship and then leaped over the mountain range and sped off to the northwest.
This scene shocked many of the gathered powers.
“Is that Ze Lin? The individual ranked sixty seventh on the Top 100 Rankings? He’s a powerful expert from the Divine Grade Hall!”
“Yes, that was Ze Lin, and that was his Oolong Horse. It’s very famous.”
“The Second Grade Hall managed to gather enough star essence to send Ze Lin down to Planet Pyrolyte quite quickly!”
“The Divine Grade Hall must have played a part in this. They’ve always been wealthy.”
“To think that Ze Lin would join the fight on Planet Pyrolyte… Lu Yin’s in big trouble now. Will he be able to fight against the person ranked sixty seventh? It is rumored that Ze Lin’s innate gift allows him to merge with his beasts. He’s a gifted Beast Tamer, and the Divine Grade Hall had to fight against the other powers to recruit him. This man’s abilities cannot be understated.”
“Ze Lin leaped over the top of the mountain range over there. Is he trying to insult Lu Yin?”
…
Atop the mountain range, Northgate Lie looked up, and a look of shock spread across his face. It really was Ze Lin, the expert ranked sixty seventh on the Top 100 Rankings. This spelled trouble.
Lu Yin watched as the Oolong Horse disappeared to the northwest, and a grave look appeared on his face. This man had stepped over his head on purpose. Was he trying to make a point?
“Hey, a horse walked over you.” Hai Qiqi happily pointed her finger at Lu Yin in a mocking fashion.
Lu Yin’s face soured as he stood up. “Then we’ll trample them back.”
Hai Qiqi’s eyes lit up. “Really? Let’s go and train some horses!”
Northgate Lie’s eyelids twitched. “Brother Lu, I urge you to reconsider. Ze Lin is extremely powerful. His Oolong Horse possesses immense power and is capable of devouring planets. Besides, Ze Lin’s innate gift lets him fuse with his Oolong Horse, which makes the horse even stronger. This means that Ze Lin’s weakness as a Beast Tamer, which is their physical defenses, is also minimized. Don’t do anything rash.”
Lu Yin replied without much thought, “He’ll look for me even if I don’t look for him.”
Northgate Lie fell silent, as it was true that, given Ze Lin’s character, he would be sure to start trouble with Lu Yin. The Divine Grade Hall definitely would not let go of this mountain range, so Ze Lin was someone that they would inevitably need to confront.
“I’ll go with you,” Northgate Lie solemnly said to Lu Yin.
Lu Yin shook his head. “There’s no need. Take care of the mountain range.” And with that, he took to the sky and headed northwest.
Ranked sixty seventh in the Top 100 Rankings? Lu Yin was curious to find out if this man could force him to reveal his full strength, or perhaps even force him to use his Fatesand. He had many other trump cards with him as well, such as his universal armor, the Money Bomb, and more. While other powers had immense wealth, none of them had his die that could endlessly Enhance his abilities. As such, they had nothing that could assist them with defeating very powerful enemies, while on the other hand, Lu Yin had many such things.
Hai Qiqi excitedly followed behind Lu Yin, a wide smile plastered across her face.
High above the sky, inside the Second Grade Hall’s battleship, Karthika had an agonized look on his face. Before Ze Lin went down to Planet Pyrolyte, Karthika had ordered him not to provoke Lu Yin. It was not that Karthika was worried about Ze Lin being defeated, but rather that there was simply no need to do so. Karthika was planning on letting powerful figures from the other forces deal with Lu Yin, since by now, there were many other powerful individuals on their way.
Forcing the other powers to consume their resources to deal with Lu Yin would mean that they would be disadvantaged during the final fight. And yet, this rascal had refused to obey and had still chosen the route of provocation.
In reality, Ze Lin also felt helpless about the matter. He would never have imagined that Lu Yin would be provoked just from him merely crossing over the mountain range. He had thought that Lu Yin would try to avoid fighting with him at all costs. He would never have expected Lu Yin to have the guts to challenge him, as he was ranked sixty-seventh on the Top 100 Rankings.
Alas, there was no longer any meaning to thinking about this.
Lu Yin had already caught up to him with a young girl in tow. Lu Yin’s face showed that he was dead set on fighting, which made Ze Lin uncomfortable, but he could not reveal his feelings either. He had only recently arrived on Planet Pyrolyte, and so, he did not know about the recent events that had transpired.
The Second Grade Hall controlled a pyrolyte mine that was not too far away from the Daynight clan’s mine. They had plundered quite a lot of pyrolyte mines from other organizations, and they had set up their own mining operations not too long ago.
Outside the mining tunnel, Kuang Wang looked up at the sky.
It turned out that Lu Yin had really come to do battle with his big brother, Ze Lin.
“Hey, hand over your horse.” Before Lu Yin could say anything to Ze Lin, and while he was still just staring at the Explorer, Hai Qiqi had already opened her mouth to speak. This stunned both of them.
Ze Lin raised his brows as he looked angrily at Hai Qiqi. “You little wretch, what did you just say?”
Hai Qiqi pointed at the Oolong Horse that Ze Lin was riding. “Give me the horse. I want to train it.”
With a thunderous roar, the Oolong Horse revealed its anger. It was an astral beast that was capable of devouring planets and highly intelligent. And yet, a miserable girl was standing in front of it and daring to say that she wanted to tame it. The beast was livid and wanted to swallow the young girl whole.
Ze Lin hurriedly tried to calm his Oolong Horse before looking at Lu Yin. “Who the hell are you to challenge me?”
Lu Yin retracted the star energy from his eyes. His scan had shown him that Ze Lin was nothing much on his own, but on the other hand, the Oolong Horse possessed a complex set of rune lines, and that beast was undoubtedly the individual ranked sixty-seventh. The Oolong Horse was way above Kayze’s league, and this would be a rather difficult battle. However, that was only if Lu Yin partially unsealed his physical strength.
“Let me ask you a question,” Lu Yin responded as he looked at Ze Lin a curious manner. “How many star essence did you spend on that star essence skin?”
Ze Lin was taken aback. “Why would you ask that?”
“I’m just curious to know how much I should ask for when I sell it,” Lu Yin answered unenthusiastically.
Ze Lin’s face sank. “Insolent!”
As he spoke, he released the Oolong Horse. With a mighty neigh, the Oolong Horse angrily charged at Lu Yin and Hai Qiqi. Lu Yin pushed Hai Qiqi to the side, raised his right hand, and then smacked the Oolong Horse.
There was a thud, and the void contorted as countless spatial cracks spread out. The thunderous sounds from the impact formed ripples that could be seen by the naked eye that pulsed out and covered the entire region as well as the void.
Everyone in the immediate area and all the powers above the planet in outer space focused on this clash.
Lu Yin had blocked the Oolong Horse’s charge.
Ze Lin’s pupils shrank. How was this possible? How could a Limiteer block the Oolong Horse’s charge?
Karthika was stunned. He was aware of how powerful the Oolong Horse’s charge was. Even though he knew that Lu Yin had a sturdy physique, who could be that strong as a Limiteer? That guy was a freak of nature!
Only Kayze was not surprised by the results since he had been crushed by that freak’s strength when they had fought.
Lu Yin was mere centimeters away from the Oolong Horse; his palm had landed between the horse’s eyes. His muscles swelled, and all of a sudden, he took a step back. The horse’s eyes filled with rage and had nearly turned scarlet. It could sense that Lu Yin was challenging it, and the Oolong Horse could not stand such an open provocation. With a tremendous roar, the horse miraculously grew larger as its strength multiplied.
Lu Yin started being pushed back even more. Beneath his feet, two large cracks opened up. He raised his other hand, and with the strength of both arms, he used the most power he had ever used to hold the horse back.
Ze Lin could sense his Oolong Horse’s resentment as he sat on top of the Oolong Horse. He then raised his hand to strike at Lu Yin.
The Oolong Horse suddenly flew into a rage. It was stopping Ze Lin since it wanted to test Lu Yin’s physical strength by itself.