This universal armor had already been upgraded five times, but that was still insufficient if Lu Yin wanted to use it to withstand an Enlighter’s attacks. Lu Yin placed the universal armor on the screen of the upper level and directly threw another 1,000 star essence on. He had realized only now that he was spending money much more extravagantly than before. At one point, he had risked his life to rob 1,000 star essence from the Blackbeard Pirates, but now, he had just spent that same amount in the blink of an eye.

This amount was only enough to upgrade the universal armor once, which greatly surpassed Lu Yin’s initial prediction of 100 to 200 star essence per upgrade. The price to upgrade its defense from withstanding attacks with power levels in the mere tens of thousands to attacks in the hundreds of thousands was not simple .

He threw out another 2,000 star essence, and it upgraded halfway this time, getting stuck in the middle of the light screens. He tossed another 700 star essence on, which fully upgraded the universal armor for a second time.

The universal armor’s appearance had undergone some changes at this point, and it also felt cold to the touch now. As for its rune lines, since the universal armor was not offensive in nature, they could not really be seen, but from what Lu Yin could tell, the armor should be able to withstand an attack with a power level of around 250,000. After all, this thing had just consumed nearly 4,000 star essence. Still, this level of defense was not nearly enough for Lu Yin, because he wanted to survive an Enlighter’s attack.

He threw out another 2,000 star essence, and this time, the armor didn’t even upgrade once. He tossed another 300, which allowed it to finish its third upgrade. This should have pushed it to the point of being able to withstand attacks with a power level of around 270,000 to 280,000, which should be enough for moving about the Outerverse.

Lu Yin painfully checked his cosmic ring and saw that he only had about 7,520 star essence remaining.

He had spent his money rather quickly, and he could already feel the sting in his wallet. His funds had dropped from 10,000 to 7,000 star essence oddly quickly, but he had only upgraded two items so far. At this moment, he was especially envious of Lulu. If he had the Mavis family’s money, he could upgrade the universal armor to an extent that he would not be injured even if the universe collapsed.

However, he could only dream of such things, though he could not help but wonder if the Mavis family would eventually select a son-in-law.

He had already determined the final item he would upgrade, which was the gun.

The gun had never been upgraded, but every bullet could explode with a power level of around 80,000. There were twenty bullets left, which meant that comprehensively upgrading the gun would require upgrading all twenty of these bullets as well.

Lu Yin placed the gun on the upper light screen. He gritted his teeth and tossed out 3,000 star essence before he could hesitate. The gun was upgraded four times, but it still consumed way more money than the Money Bomb or the universal armor. From Lu Yin’s perspective, its rune lines could currently only rival a Hunter’s, and his heart sank. It seemed like he did not have enough money to upgrade the gun to the point where it could threaten Enlighters.

He tossed another 4,000 star essence out, and the gun was upgraded four more times. Now, its rune lines numbered around as many as the Money Bombs’ before. In other words, every attack was roughly equivalent to a power level of 150,000, which could instantly kill a normal Hunter.

Spending more than 10,000 star essence had allowed him to upgrade just three items, and as Lu Yin watched the two screens vanish, he felt light-headed. His money had disappeared. He only had about 500 star essence left.

Actually, he had something else that he truly wanted to upgrade, which was his formcast model. His current formcast model was a five-stage model, and he wanted to upgrade it to a six-stage one. Otherwise, when he broke through to the Explorer realm, his formcast model would vanish. Unfortunately, he was currently broke.

Money, money, money. Currently, it was not just Lu Yin who needed it, but rather all of the powerhouses currently stranded in the Outerverse. Money had become the target that everyone strove for.

Those powerhouses needed money to maintain their lives while Lu Yin needed money to protect himself. And to protect himself, he had to be able to threaten the lives of those powerhouses, which made for a vicious cycle. He could not break free of it, so it was time to participate in it and get more money.

He walked out of King Zishan’s residence and bumped into Wendy Yushan, but he saw that her expression was not that good. Her eyes brightened when she saw Lu Yin. “I’ll pass those matters over to you. I can’t be bothered with them!” After that, she actually ran away.

Lu Yin knew what she was talking about, but he had no time to bother with them either.

Two days later, during a court meeting, Lu Yin announced that he would comprehensively pull back the entirety of the Great Yu Empire’s defense, which received no objections. The various organizations in the nearby weaves had all been ambushed or even annihilated. Due to the matter with Huo Houye when he came to Zenyu Star, no one dared to provoke Frostwave Weave for now, but that did not mean that they would remain unperturbed forever. Some powerhouse would appear sooner or later, so they could only pull their defenses back for now.

The court meeting lasted for three hours, and it was clear that many people in the Great Yu Empire were feeling anxious, as the situations in the nearby weaves were making people feel apprehensive.

After the meeting, Lu Yin kept Huo Qingshan, Ban Jiu, and a few others back. He wanted to send them to the surrounding weaves to gather information. The network connections were still only intermittently available, so it was not a source of reliable information at the moment. They only knew that the surrounding weaves had suffered from devastating attacks, but nobody knew the details of those attacks or who was now occupying those weaves.

Huo Qingshan and the others had assumed that Lu Yin was worried about being attacked, but Lu Yin was actually planning to join in on the chaos. He could not remain passive if he wanted to preserve his life, which meant that he had to participate in the current events. If a lamb transformed into a wolf, then the pack would fear it and not attack it. However, the pack of wolves first needed to know that the lamb had transformed.

Lu Yin was waiting for the right moment to reveal his fangs, but he believed that an opportunity would come along shortly. An Enlighter was bound to soon take action against Frostwave Weave. That would be the moment that he transformed into a wolf, as well as the moment he started plundering resources.

Frostwave Weave remained peaceful for several months, and Lu Yin realized that it had already been five years since he had first started cultivating. Five years sounded like a short time, but he had gone from living on Earth as an ordinary teenager to his current stage in just five years.

Exactly one year ago, he had been trapped in the separate space with the golden ocean and the mountain that he had climbed. After that, he had met Mister Mu who had raised Lu Yin’s physical strength to the limit. At present, the Innerverse and Outerverse had been completely isolated from each other, and Lu Yin could only bide his time within the Great Yu Empire. He didn’t even know if he would be able to return to the Innerverse and meet Mister Mu again someday.

One month ago, Lu Yin finally had a feeling that he could break through to the Explorer realm, but he forcefully suppressed that sensation. His previous breakthrough to the Melder realm had made him uneasy about this next breakthrough, and he didn’t dare to attempt it without some absolute powerhouses nearby to guide him.

However, there were no absolute powerhouses in the Outerverse at this time.

He retrieved the jade talisman and sighed. It was possible that not even Mister Mu could pass through the Astral River at this moment!

During these past few months, Hai Qiqi had slowly recovered. She no longer seemed to be as distressed by the recent events, but she had also changed. The biggest change was that she no longer possessed a venomous tongue, though Lu Yin missed it at times. However, he was also ridiculed by the Ghost Monkey every so often.

“Seventh Bro, I’m going to break through,” the monkey suddenly told him.

Lu Yin was shocked. “You’re about to break through to the Explorer realm?”

“Yeah. I’ve been stuck as a Limiteer for too long, so it’s time to break through. When I break through, even if you don’t have a set of universal armor, we’ll still be able to roam about the universe since I’m your tamed beast!” The monkey was pleased.

Lu Yin replied, “Then go ahead, since it doesn’t matter. Even if you break through and become a Cruiser or Hunter, I can still easily suppress you.”

The monkey was speechless. “Seventh Bro, can’t you say something more encouraging?”

“I’m warning you. Don’t try to plot against me,” Lu Yin coldly threatened.

The monkey sighed. “Seventh Bro, I’ve already followed you for so many years, so why don’t you trust me? I’m your tamed beast, and my life and death is in your hands! There’s no need to threaten me, and every so often, you still screen me off, which is immoral. You should go to Beast Tamers Flowzone and make some enquiries as to if and how a tamed beast can resist their owner.”

Lu Yin did not listen to the monkey’s nonsense, as other Beast Tamers had a relationship where the human took the initiative and the beast a backseat, while the Ghost Monkey did the opposite with him, so who knew if he would have any issues. Lu Yin was unwilling to take such a risk.

“Seventh Bro, I need you to find a place for me to break through.”

Lu Yin acknowledged the need for such a thing, so he planned to find a remote location. However, at that moment, his gadget suddenly rang. He glanced at it, and his expression changed as his eyes turned cold. What would come, in the end, had come. Hai Qiqi’s deterrence had lasted for several months, which was pretty decent, but this day had always been unavoidable.

After the Great Yu Empire had pulled its general defensive line back a few months ago, the empire had gained a very clear understanding of all of the events that happened within its borders. Just then, Lu Yin had received a report that they had detected a super powerful being with a power level that surpassed 200,000, which meant that an Enlighter had appeared within the Great Yu Empire. Furthermore, this person was headed straight for Zenyu Star.

There was even a picture included in the report, and although it was fuzzy, Lu Yin could make out enough details to recognize an important detail. It was an astral beast. And there was only one Enlighter in the Outerverse who had an astral beast: Karthika.

Lu Yin immediately ordered the troops between the Enlighter and Zenyu Star not to approach Karthika. Then, he contacted Huo Qingshan and donned his universal armor.

Before long, Huo Qingshan’s serene face appeared.

“A strong foe, an Enlighter, has appeared. I will take care of this matter, so please take me above the planet.”

Huo Qingshan did not speak, and he silently carried Lu Yin into space. At the same time, Zenyu Star’s defenses were activated once again, though Ban Jiu and the others were ordered not to leave Zenyu Star.

Wendy Yushan looked worried, and she could not help herself from looking for Hai Qiqi. However, Hai Qiqi’s answer remained the same as a few months before: the Sea King’s strength had been depleted, and she would be powerless before any Enlighter.

Wendy Yushan charged upwards into outer space right behind Huo Qingshan. Without the Sea King’s power, there was no way that they could resist an Enlighter’s attacks. She planned to sacrifice herself in exchange for the safety of Frostwave Weave.

In the dark depths of space, various spacecraft were ordered to land on nearby planets, and the region around Zenyu Star was cleared.

Lu Yin and Huo Qingshan silently looked to the north, and Wendy Yushan soon appeared behind them.

Lu Yin knew that he could not stop her. “Let me try first. If I can’t stop him, then we’ll listen to you.”

Wendy Yushan looked at him and nodded. “Okay.”

In the distance, they could see a ripple in space before an intense pressure swept across the region. As it did so, quite a few meteorites broke down and were reduced to ash. An enormous creature appeared in the distance, rushing towards them with great speed as it released an ear-splitting howl.

Lu Yin’s face turned solemn. Karthika had a tamed beast, which was the manifestation of his strength. The tamed beast had an Enlighter’s power, and Karthika himself was also an Enlighter, which meant that Lu Yin was currently facing two Enlighters. This was much more troublesome than when they had faced Huo Houye.

As the enormous astral beast approached Zenyu Star, it caused ripples to appear in the void. The ripples spread out and caused the three rings that circled Zenyu Star to become unstable. To those on Zenyu Star, it seemed like their doomsday had finally come.

Lu Yin could soon get a clear view of the astral beast, and it looked like an entire continent. It didn’t have any limbs, and the noises it made sounded like a continent being crushed.

Karthika stood atop the astral beast’s back and looked at Lu Yin’s group. He smiled. “Little thing, I told you that I’d look for you.”

Lu Yin narrowed his eyes. “Huo Houye was nearly killed by us. Didn’t he tell you?”