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Lu Yin smiled when he heard Hai Qiqi’s words. “Don’t worry. The recording of the battle at the Sea King’s Dome will be released soon, and everyone will have to believe the truth when they see it. It won’t matter if I argue with them now since I won’t be able to change their minds anyways.”
Hai Qiqi became anxious. “I’m not talking about that! Don’t you want to go to Planet Pyrolyte to prove yourself? As soon as someone records you fighting and uploads it to the net, countless people in the universe will worship you, and many gorgeous girls will fight to be with you! You just have to go to Planet Pyrolyte for all that to happen. Isn’t this an easy decision for you?”
Lu Yin smiled. “No wonder you were so anxious to show me these videos.”
Hai Qiqi looked at Lu Yin. “Are you tempted? There’s no one there who can beat you!”
Lu Yin sighed and looked at her seriously. “I’ve already told you this many times. I can’t place the Great Yu Empire at risk for some competition that’s not even beneficial to me. I can see why you wouldn’t understand, but I’m adamant in my decision to not go to Planet Pyrolyte.”
Hai Qiqi gritted her teeth and walked away.
Lu Yin’s gaze fell back onto the videos; was he really not going to go? Zhanlong Daynight was on Planet Pyrolyte, and Lu Yin wanted to learn the truth from him.
Suddenly, Lu Yin noticed a video title that piqued his interest: Ants Within the Cracks.
For some reason, Lu Yin clicked on this video that stood out from the sea of battle videos. The first person that he saw in the video was Xi Yue. She had been injured by Jared, and the video showed a scene of her running for her life. It was only a compilation of clips, and it wasn’t a full video. Thus, the next thing that Lu Yin saw was Northgate Gang and Ah Fan vomiting blood after they were hit by a stray aftershock.
Subsequently, the video showed more and more people who had been injured or even killed during the battle. Some of them were from minor flowzones while others were disciples of the Second Grade Hall. Towards the end of the video, even the disciples of the Sword Sect and Daynight clan made it on. This video showed just how cruel the conflicts on Planet Pyrolyte were.
Lu Yin sighed. This cruel video was the harsh truth. Most people only saw glory in the battles featuring Mu Rong and the other powerhouses, and while they indeed drew the admiration of countless people, an even larger number of people had been defeated. While they might not have been taken out by direct combat, just the shockwaves alone from the other battle had been enough. They truly were ants within a crack.
This was just a conflict on Planet Pyrolyte. In terms of the greater universe’s battles where the major forces clashed, the Great Yu Empire and Shenwu Continent were just ants in a crack as well.
Lu Yin was about to close the video when he suddenly saw a familiar person: Liu Xiaoyun. She had been injured by Nightqueen Yanqing. Following that short clip, he saw the silhouette of Zhuo Daynight and blood pouring down her deathly pale face. Lu Yin was stunned. Zhuo Daynight is on Planet Pyrolyte as well?
Yan Hua, Hui Chuan, and many others were also shown, collapsed on the ground, and Lu Yin couldn’t even tell whether they were dead or alive from the video. When he saw Kuang Wang falling to the ground, Lu Yin clenched his fists. Although he wasn’t friends with Kuang Wang and might even become enemies in the future, Kuang Wang was still one of his peers from the Astral Combat Academy, and he was even a Realm Master. Lu Yin couldn’t believe that Kuang Wang had also been included in this video, but sure enough, Kuang Wang was also an ant.
The final scene of the video showed the shockwave that had rippled out from Mu Rong’s battle. A crack in the ground swallowed up dozens of people, and Lu Yin could also see that Zhuo Daynight had received further injuries.
Lu Yin fell silent when the video finished playing, his mind filled with the scene of Zhuo Daynight falling helplessly to the ground. Was she dead? Badly injured? Lu Yin couldn’t get that image out of his mind, and he truly considered Zhuo Daynight as a friend. After she testified in support of him despite knowing that she would be locked up in the Daynight clan’s prison as a result, he had made the decision to never leave her in the lurch.
It was such a strange feeling; were they friends? Lu Yin wasn’t sure whether or not Zhuo Daynight treated him as a friend, but they were definitely linked by one bond that couldn’t be denied: Zhuo Daynight held a debt that he still owed her: a promised lockbreaking.
The battles on Planet Pyrolyte have nothing to do with me. I won’t go there. Lu Yin kept repeating this mantra to himself, but the scenes of Zhuo Daynight, Kuang Wang, Liu Xiaoyun, and Xi Yue falling kept replaying themselves in his mind. This was especially true for the scene with Zhuo Daynight, and Lu Yin felt as if he had been transported back to the first time he had met her, when he had accidentally injured her on that pirate’s spacecraft. He kept remembering her sad gaze.
Lu Yin didn’t know what was wrong with him. Why couldn’t he forget the scene of Zhuo Daynight being injured or her unconscious mutterings? He became so agitated that he walked out of the King Zishan palace to look up at the sky.
He had to clear things up with Zhanlong Daynight, and he was curious about whether or not Zhuo Daynight was still alive.
He couldn’t keep himself calm; should he go to Planet Pyrolyte? Or not?
He unconsciously took out his gadget and watched the video once again. He then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, and he decided that, yes, he would go to Planet Pyrolyte. The contest for pyrolyte still hadn’t ended, but he wasn’t planning on going there to fight for anything. He would go there just to save his friends. As long as he didn’t take part in the fight for pyrolyte, he wouldn’t interfere with any of the major organizations. Besides, if he had Hai Qiqi ask Hai Dashao to protect the Great Yu Empire, then everything should be fine.
The most important thing to do right now was to get Hai Qiqi to ask Hai Dashao to protect the Great Yu Empire rather than the Sea King, as there was a fundamental difference.
Lu Yin considered his options for a moment and then contacted Hai Qiqi.
Hai Qiqi was busy shopping, so she ignored Lu Yin’s call when she saw it. What an annoying person.
“Seventh Bro, you’re going to Planet Pyrolyte?” the Ghost Monkey asked.
“How did you figure it out?” Lu Yin was curious.
The monkey replied, “I’ve stayed with you for such a long time, so of course I’d end up understanding how you think. You won’t leave Zhuo Daynight behind, and you’re the type of person to definitely help your friends if they’re in trouble. Zhuo Daynight practically betrayed the Daynight clan to help you, nearly dying to help you, so you can’t repay her so easily. You’ve saved her in the past, but you’ve also hurt her. Your bond with her is very complicated, so you definitely won’t be able to leave her alone on that planet.”
Lu Yin sighed. The monkey’s words were true; he had saved her, but he had also hurt Zhuo Daynight in the past. She had also helped him, and he even owed her a debt. Besides, he held some inexplicable feelings for her as well. Was it pity? He wasn’t entirely sure.
Since he had decided to go to Planet Pyrolyte, he would stop thinking about it. He once again tried to contact Hai Qiqi, but she still didn’t pick up since she was still angry with him.
Lu Yin directly messaged her, “Planet Pyrolyte.”
The two words did the job, and Hai Qiqi immediately rushed back to the King Zishan palace and looked at Lu Yin excitedly. “We’re going to Planet Pyrolyte?’
Lu Yin looked at her sternly. “Yes, but you’ll have to promise me two things.”
“You’re so troublesome! What do you want?” Hai Qiqi asked.
“First off, you have to ask Hai Dashao to promise to protect the Great Yu Empire. You have to make it clear that this is him personally supporting the Great Yu Empire to unify Frostwave Weave,” Lu Yin replied.
Hai Qiqi was confused. “My brother? I can just ask my father for that.”
Lu Yin shook his head. “No, it can’t be the Sea King. It has to be Hai Dashao.”
“Hey, are you stupid? Although my brother is seventh in the Top 100 Rankings, he still can’t represent the Sea King's Dome. Even if he promises to support the Great Yu Empire, the Daynight clan and the other major forces won’t feel threatened by his words. You won’t be able to stop them with just that,” Hai Qiqi explained.
“That’s enough,” Lu Yin replied confidently.
Hai Qiqi paused for a moment. “Fine, I’ll ask my brother to publicly announce his support for the Great Yu Empire to unify Frostwave Weave under his own name so that it won’t be put under the Sea King's Dome. My father doesn’t allow us to interfere with battles in the Outerverse anyways.”
Lu Yin nodded. He just wanted the other forces to be slightly intimidated by the Sea King's Dome when they tried to move against him. Even though Hai Dashao couldn’t completely represent the Sea King's Dome, he was still the Sea King’s son, and nobody would dare to ignore him. As long as Lu Yin didn’t interfere in the major forces’ interests, the backing of Hai Dashao alone would be sufficient to protect the Great Yu Empire.
Lu Yin was heading to the planet to save someone, not to fight for pyrolyte ore.
“Alright. The second thing is that you must follow me the entire time and that you can’t wander off on your own,” Lu Yin said firmly.
Hai Qiqi frowned and only reluctantly agreed, “Is that all? Then I’m going to contact my brother now.”
Lu Yin nodded.
Hai Qiqi soon put down her gadget and signaled him that everything had gone well.
Lu Yin breathed a sigh of relief. Initially, he had been worried that the Sea King would refuse since Hai Dashao had mentioned that they wanted pyrolyte ore as a betrothal gift. This meant that the Sea King's Dome also needed pyrolyte ore. However, it seemed that the Sea King's Dome wasn’t in desperate need for pyrolyte, so Lu Yin wouldn't be forced to fight for it.
For now, he just needed to wait for Hai Dashao to publicly announce his support for the Great Yu Empire. While waiting, Lu Yin planned to use Northline Flowzone to get to Planet Pyrolyte without attracting the attention of the Daynight clan or the Sword Sect.
Most of the people from Northline Flowzone were in the Astral Wilderness, so Lu Yin wasn’t able to contact Lily Anne. However, he was able to use the Ten Arbiters’ subnetwork to contact the person in charge of Shangwu Academy, which was located in Northline Flowzone, and then ask that person to contact the Lily family.
Everything would take some time to come together, but Lu Yin was confident that as soon as the Lily family knew that he wanted to go to Planet Pyrolyte with them, they would definitely agree.
There was no point for him to wait around on Zenyu Star at this point, so he left some orders for Huo Qingshan and took off towards Northcastle Weave with Hai Qiqi.
Hai Dashao acted very quickly, and his announcement of support garnered a lot of attention, ensuring that the news would be quickly passed on to the various major powers.
Once the major organizations saw Hai Dashao announce his support for the Great Yu Empire, some of them guessed that Lu Yin was heading to Planet Pyrolyte. Of course, not everyone would come to that conclusion. If the Sea King had been the one who had made the promise, then everyone would know for sure that Lu Yin was heading towards Planet Pyrolyte.
Hai Dashao alone wouldn’t be enough to withstand the rage of the major forces if Lu Yin harmed their interests. Although the major forces were wary of the Sea King, they weren’t actually afraid of him, and Hai Dashao was just the Sea King’s son. Thus, they wouldn't be very apprehensive of him.
Hai Dashao could only demonstrate Sea King's Dome’s position and try his best to protect the Great Yu Empire.
With the speed of the Aurora, Lu Yin only needed a few hours to reach the border between Frostwave Weave and Northcastle Weave. Right when Lu Yin arrived at the border of Frostwave Weave, Lily Anne contacted him.
“Brother Lu, I heard that you were looking for me.” Lily Anne looked at Lu Yin through the screen with clear excitement in her eyes. Northline Flowzone had been horribly suppressed over the past few months, and most of the pyrolyte ore that they had obtained had been stolen by the other forces. Their partnership with other minor flowzones hadn’t gone smoothly either, so if Lu Yin was willing to join them, then it would make everything a lot easier.