Puyu nodded, “I hated him in the past, but now that the Innerverse and the Outerverse have been separated, our council no longer has the support of the Innerverse. Naturally, this has resulted in our influence over the Outerverse dropping. In particular, those Enlighters who’ve gotten stuck in the Outerverse will just ignore us. I’m hoping that Lu Yin can join the council so that he can act as a deterrent with his ability to kill Enlighters.”

Wendy Yushan’s expression turned frosty. “If he does come, then the first thing he’ll do is kill you.”

Puyu’s face went blank, and then it fell.

Liu Shaoge tried to smooth things over. “There’s no hatred that can’t be resolved. Moreover, Councilor Puyu and Brother Lu don’t have a terribly deep hatred, and besides, the most important thing right now is the council’s authority and safety, right? Councilor Puyu?”

Puyu’s lips quirked up. “That’s right. Wendy, the council has given you a great deal of support. If not for the council, then you might not have been able to escape from the Ross Empire in one piece after breaking past their border. Also, the White Knight has also shown a great deal of kindness to you. I hope that you can assume some responsibility and help protect the council during this crucial time.”

Wendy Yushan indifferently replied, “There’s no need for you to say anything more. I wouldn’t have come otherwise.”

Puyu nodded, and his eyes twinkled, as he did not intend to act against Wendy Yushan right away. She was valuable because of the Yu Secret Art, and right now, no one knew how the secret technique was passed on. As long as Lu Yin wasn’t with her, Wendy could be taken care of at any time. At this moment, Puyu was honestly considering the Outerverse Youth Council’s state of affairs; he hadn’t been lying. At present, the Outerverse Youth Council’s influence was plummeting, and the clearest indication of that was the number of people leaving the council.

Once the Outerverse Youth Council’s influence disappeared entirely, Puyu would be nothing more than some youth from Darkstar Gorge who had an innate gift. If he came across any Enlighters, then he would be at their mercy, but the truth was that no one would even bother looking at him.

He hoped to obtain the secret technique and control Wendy Yushan. The best method would be to use Wendy Yushan’s secret technique to entice an Enlighter over to help the Outerverse Youth Council, which would be perfect.

The current situation in the Outerverse had practically rendered any status or position one might hold hollow and useless. Right now, Enlighters were the greatest backers one could hope for.

…

On Shuta Planet, as fierce winds raged and high temperatures distorted the horizon, a strong gale pushed along a heat wave that caused the ground to become even more parched.

Lu Yin slowly bent over and looked ahead. There was a massive mine in front of him.

Originally, there had been miners working there, but now, they had been locked down in a local town just like everyone else. At the moment, there was not a single soul in the mine, though there was a single squadron standing guard at the entrance.

Lu Yin was able to easily enter the mine without anyone noticing him. He buried a hundred tonnes of polarium essence in the deepest portion of the mine and then placed the sourcebox that he had found in Lei Long’s cosmic ring in the center before leaving the mine again. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to take at least one down. Otherwise, everything will have been wasted.”

The area where this mine was located was in a region of the planet that was controlled by Darkstar Gorge, and the investigation of a nearby mining town had already been completed. About a day after the lockdown was lifted, the polarium essence at the bottom of the mine was discovered.

The discovery of the polarium essence shocked Darkstar Gorge, and with such a large quantity of polarium essence waiting to be mined, Darkstar Gorge’s soldiers immediately moved to seal off the mine. Unfortunately, it was too late as the Nine Allied Nations had already learned of it. The Enlighter from Darkmist Weave rushed to the mine as soon as possible.

Lu Yin was hidden underground, anxious. He did not want to deal with this person, but rather with Elder Wu from Darkstar Gorge. The longer this Enlighter could live for, the better, as he would be able to restrict Elder Wu. Lu Yin felt like he could only blame himself for burying the polarium essence too shallowly. No, those miners should be blamed for being too eager with their work. Also, Elder Wu had appeared too late.

Hang on. Lu Yin suddenly felt something was not right. With an Enlighter’s power and speed, Elder Wu should have already arrived at Shuta Planet from Darkstar Gorge.

Lu Yin filled his eyes with star energy and looked around and then beneath the mine. Once he looked down, he saw a majestic amount of rune lines. Lu Yin’s eyes flashed. Sure enough, Elder Wu had already arrived, but had hidden himself.

The old fogey was really sneaky.

The Enlighter from Darkmist Weave casually waved a hand and swept the troops from Darkstar Gorge aside, exposing the massive amount of polarium essence that was in the mine. The powerhouse was shrouded in a black mist as he descended. Soon, his cold voice rumbled out. “Keep mining.”

The miners within trembled, but they didn’t dare to disobey him.

There was a total of a hundred tonnes of polarium essence, and Lu Yin hadn’t buried it very deeply, nor in any sort of specialized way. Many of the miners had noticed these details, but nobody dared to speak up to the Enlighter.

That Enlighter from Darkmist Weave stored the polarium essence that had already been mined into his cosmic ring. The entire time, he occasionally glanced at the sky, as if he was wary of something.

Lu Yin marvelled at Elder Wu’s methods. If not for Lu Yin’s altered eyes, he would never have discovered that the old fogey had hidden himself either, and the Enlighter from Darkmist Weave was obviously unable to notice anything at the moment.

With a bang, a miner’s pickaxe struck against a metal chest, and since he used too much force, his tool was flung out of his hands, crashing into the ground. The miner looked at the ground curiously and the other miners also looked over.

Darkmist Weave’s Enlighter’s eyes flashed. “Dig it out.”

The miner picked up his tool and continued mining. Soon enough, the complete chest was dug out, and Elder Wu looked at it from the darkness. This thing had obviously been buried by somebody, but what could be so valuable that someone would bury it inside a pile of polarium essence?

There were no Lockbreakers present, as any Lockbreaker would be able to immediately recognize that the chest was made up of spiritual thread, which meant that a sourcebox was inside it. However, neither Elder Wu nor that Darkmist Weave almighty expert could see this.

Since an unknown time ago, the ground had been permeated with traces of a black mist, including the area where Elder Wu had hidden underground.

Elder Wu’s attention was held by the chest, and Darkmist Weave’s Enlighter’s gaze suddenly turned sharp as he shifted his gaze to stare at the direction where Elder Wu was hiding. “Black Stab.” The black mist in the ground abruptly condensed into incomparably sharp spikes that pierced towards the void in the area, instantly killing many of the miners. Elder Wu was also stabbed by these black thorns, and they pierced his thigh and his abdomen.

“Despicable, Topmist!” Elder Wu shouted as he charged up from beneath the ground towards Darkmist Weave’s Enlighter, Topmist.

Topmist sneered. “Old fogey, did you really think that I wouldn’t notice you hiding there? To compete in assassination techniques with my Darkmist Weave, you’re still too lacking.”

The black mist then gleamed as it formed together and swept towards Elder Wu while causing all of Shuta Planet to start shaking.

Elder Wu was not weak, either, and he raised a hand to block the black light. The two Enlighters had started their battle in the mine.

Lu Yin was shocked, as this was too treacherous! The two’s moves were each more sinister than the last. Elder Wu had arrived earlier and arranged an ambush, but that Topmist guy had been even more sneaky. He had obviously discovered Elder Wu earlier, but the old man had pretended not to notice anything, only to later ambush Elder Wu first. These old men were truly talented individuals since they had been able to become Enlighters.

Lu Yin was suddenly delighted that he had an unexplainable method like Progenitor Wushang's hide. Whether it had been Karthika or Lei Long, he would not have been able to deal with either of them by himself as both of them had been too astute.

Unfortunately, the method of using Progenitor Wushang’s hide would not hold up against schemes in the dark. Lu Yin raised a hand and lightly tapped out, and a wind shot through the void before striking against the chest. In that instant, Elder Wu and Topmist discovered Lu Yin’s existence while the chest was opened.

The sourcebox within the chest released an invisible killing intent, which was something that even Lu Yin’s universal armor could barely withstand. His armor had been upgraded so many times that it had reached the point where it could withstand Enlighters’ attacks. Thus, the danger from the sourcebox could actually rival an Enlighter’s attack.

Elder Wu and Topmist had not expected that a third person had been plotting against them in the dark. After all, they were two Enlighters! Besides that, the culprit was obviously not even an Explorer.

Not even an Explorer? Elder Wu’s face changed, as that meant that it could be no one other than Lu Yin. The Enlighter quickly put some things together: Wendy Yushan had gone to East San Dios, but Lu Yin had clearly not remained behind in the Great Yu Empire. Instead, he had laid some polarium essence down on Shuta Planet to lure them over so that the threat facing Wendy Yushan would be reduced.

However, Elder Wu’s realizations were too late. The terrifying danger from the sourcebox had already enveloped the entire mine, and it only continued to spread out from there.

Lu Yin stared at the sourcebox and saw the rapidly expanding rune lines. Sure enough, the amount that he saw from this sourcebox surpassed even how many Enlighters like Karthika and Lei Long had. Elder Wu’s and Topmist’s rune lines were also lacking in comparison, and they were trapped within the sourcebox’s killing aura.

The two powerhouses instantaneously stopped, and neither of them dared to move about haphazardly. They remained in place. With their experience, they were able to sense danger even if they could not see it.

Topmist’s face had turned very ugly. “This is a sourcebox! Not only that, this kind of formless danger is something that only a Boundless Advanced sourcebox would have. This is something that only a Boundless Advanced Lockbreaker can deal with.”

Elder Wu looked around. “Junior, come out! I know it’s you.”

Topmist barked, “Who?”

Elder Wu deeply replied, “Frostwave Weave’s Lu Yin.”

“Lu Yin?” Topmist was shocked, but then he recalled the person. “That brat who killed Karthika and Lei Long?”

Elder Wu had an ugly expression. He suddenly took a step back as the void where he had just been standing was pierced through.

“Why is Lu Yin on Shuta Planet?” Topmist asked as he stared intently at Elder Wu.

Elder Wu did not answer. Instead, he released his star energy to search for Lu Yin.

Topmist did not ask anything else. If Elder Wu had been able to guess the details so quickly, then it meant that this matter was definitely related to him and also that it would be useless to ask the man anything else. They had already been cast into the middle of the sourcebox’s formless danger, but this level was insufficient to kill the two of them. They were more worried about the method that Lu Yin had used to kill Karthika and Lei Long.

“Lu Yin, your Frostwave Weave and my Darkmist Weave have no enmity, and I won’t participate in the grudge that you have with this old man. Let me leave, and I’ll guarantee that I won’t spread news of what happened here today,” Topmist declared loudly.

Elder Wu bellowed, “Topmist, you’re an Enlighter yourself, so why treat a junior in such a manner? This sourcebox is no danger to us. In no more than ten minutes, we can get away from this place. There’s no way this brat can deal with two Enlighters simultaneously.”

Topmist’s eyes narrowed. “I have never interfered in grudges between others, and I won’t in the future either. Moreover, you and I are enemies, and I actually hope that you die here.”

Elder Wu was furious. This mouse only knew how to ambush from the dark, but even as an Enlighter, he was still so timid.

Lu Yin coldly watched the two bicker, and he focused on the two Enlighters’ feet. Their positions had drifted quite a bit from the beginning. He sneered. These two old folks were deliberately trying to make a scene to divert his attention while they escaped from the sourcebox’s danger zone. However, it wouldn’t be that easy.

As he thought about their actions, Lu Yin took out another chest and threw it right between Elder Wu and Topmist. “Two seniors, here’s another gift for you.”

When they saw another chest appear, the expressions on both men’s faces changed greatly.

“Younger Brother Lu, I have no grudges with you, so don’t make a mistake and kill a good person!” Topmist shouted, appearing completely terrified. The longer one lived for, the larger their fear of death might be, and Topmist perfectly fit this pattern. Otherwise, he would not have specialized in battle techniques that focused on ambushing from the dark. He was frightened of death.