In the Outerverse’s eastern region, Morrow Weave and Eastly Weave also announced that they would join the Great Eastern Alliance, and right behind them were two other weaves. At this time, out of all of the eastern weaves, only Mordo Weave and Ironblood Weaves had not joined the Great Eastern Alliance.

Ironblood Weave was no problem, and Lu Yin quickly called Wang Wen.

Shortly after that call, Ironblood Weave also announced that it had also joined the Great Eastern Alliance.

The Great Eastern Alliance had now formally incorporated twenty weaves into its organization, and its strength had quickly risen by a considerable amount. At this time, it had spread across both the eastern and central regions of the Outerverse, forming a mammoth organization that seemed to be eying the west.

Twenty weaves meant that the Great Eastern Alliance had actually unified a full third of the Outerverse, which demonstrated the sheer level of Lu Yin’s influence; he had surpassed everyone else in the Outerverse. A single sentence from him could determine the fates of countless people, and his hand was now reaching to the west.

Since there was an alliance, there was naturally an allied military as well.

En Ya followed the already created system of the Great Eastern Alliance’s Allied Forces for recruiting the troops, which actually doubled the Allied Forces’ strength. In particular, the Rapid Response Team had improved greatly, and they now had six Hunters and more than 200 Cruisers and Explorers. The elite troops merely lacked an absolute expert in comparison to the group from Mt. Stacks Dojo.

The weaves in the central region were growing fearful, and they set aside all sorts of previous conflicts between them as they began to unite in order to withstand the Great Eastern Alliance’s pressure.

Under these circumstances, Lu Yin suddenly announced that he would go into seclusion.

There was nothing suitable for him to do given the present situation, so it would not be bad for him to pause for a bit.

Five of the Outerverse’s central weaves had already joined the alliance, and En Ya’s contributions in this sudden expansion had been quite significant. Of course, Aegis and Thousand Eyes’ intelligence had also played a pivotal role. To have such progress take place within half a year, their accomplishments nearly rivaled the speed at which the Great Eastern Alliance had originally expanded in the beginning.

En Ya was growing more seasoned in her methods, but there were still many problems to handle since the alliance’s power had increased dramatically within a very small amount of time. It would take time to sort everything out.

The secret room in King Zishan's palace had been changed once again. In the past, before Lu Yin had visited the Innerverse with Hai Qiqi, he had instructed Elder Yuan to recruit some architects and remodel the secret room with the best materials available. That way, any aftershocks from his cultivation would not be felt outside of the room.

At this time, the secret room was constructed from some of the best materials available in the Great Eastern Alliance. Although it could not compare to the secret cultivation rooms of the Innerverse’s strong powers, it was still much better than what Lu Yin had had been before.

Lu Yin sat down cross-legged and retrieved the high-temperature stone that he had gotten during their escape from Grayweed Continent. It had been left behind when that fiery dragon dissipated, and Lu Yin had managed to grab it with his Yu Secret Art.

On his way back to the Outerverse from the Starfall Sea, Lu Yin had discovered just how extraordinary this stone’s temperature was. Since it had come from the Skyblaze Dojo, he would simply call it the Skyblaze Stone!

According to Lu Yin’s best guesses, this stone had been the main source of strength for that fiery dragon. As he held it in his hands, the stone’s extreme temperature formed a line that extended towards his arm. Even with Lu Yin’s absurd physique, he still could not quite endure the intense heat. In addition, this temperature was just the natural heat released by the stone before it was stimulated with star energy.

Lu Yin tested the temperature, and his hand trembled. The line of heat extending towards his arm burned whatever it touched.

He endured the intense pain and he applied some strong ointment to his skin while he stared at the Skyblaze stone with untold excitement in his eyes. This thing was pretty good.

Lu Yin waved a hand, causing a pile of star essence to appear within the secret room. He then tried to hold the Skyblaze Stone in his hand while also grabbing the star essence. The next moment, the extreme temperature caused the star essence to melt even quicker than the furnace in the Daosource Sect's ruins. Simultaneously, a torrid line formed by the high temperature wrapped around Lu Yin’s body, forcing him to endure the heat and pain as the star essence evaporated. Then, a red halo appeared above the surface of his body as the evaporated star essence visibly merged into this halo before being pulled into his body.

This environment was almost identical to what Lu Yin had experienced within the Daosource Sect's ruins’ furnace and the inside of Millions City’s cannon. After finally achieving the same circumstances, Lu Yin became ecstatic, as the rate at which he absorbed star energy had risen exponentially. This stone allowed him to create a unique cultivation environment that was identical to what the furnace and cannon had formed. In this environment, Lu Yin was no longer absorbing star energy, but rather devouring it.

However, this was still not enough, and Lu Yin quickly activated the Cosmic Art, causing ninety nine stars to revolve around him. He then took out another batch of star essence, and as more star essence evaporated, the red halo continued to grow larger. At the same time, as Lu Yin used the Cosmic Art, the pile of star essence on the ground quickly diminished.

Lu Yin took out another batch without aby hesitation, followed by another batch, and another…

There were countless cultivation methods throughout the universe, and someone else had definitely come up with a similar method to the one that Lu Yin was currently employing to absorb star energy. Lu Yin knew that his own rate of cultivation was very fast, but he still did not ignore the successes of others.

A dozen days passed in this manner, during which he had consumed quite a considerable amount of star essence. Additionally, the temperature of the Skyblaze Stone had also dropped by a bit, which subsequently lowered the rate at which the star essence evaporated.

Lu Yin continued to cultivate.

Soon, another month passed. During this time, Lu Yin had absorbed the star energy of 160,000 star essence, which was the amount of star energy that he needed to complete his fourth cultivation cycle. In other words, he had taken advantage of the Skyblaze Stone to accelerate his cultivation, allowing him to complete his fourth cycle as an Explorer in just one month. Once he successfully completed another cycle, he would officially become a Cruiser.

The most mediocre and average cultivators took around 800 star essence to complete their fourth cycle, but Lu Yin had needed to consume 160,000, which was an incomparably exaggerated number. Even if he used the ninety nine stars of the Cosmic Art to increase his rate of cultivation normally, it still would have taken him 200 years to complete this cycle. However, with this extreme method, he had shortened this process to just one month.

This was the effect of the Skyblaze Stone. It had baked his body at a high temperature while also vaporizing star essence.

Lu Yin did not know what other cultivators’ maximum star energy absorption rate was, but he felt that they most likely could not match his exaggerated speed!

Additionally, Lu Yin felt that his physical body was a little different from others, as it was constantly strengthening itself while his spiritual force was also continuously improving. It was very puzzling.

It was possible that this was somehow related to his lost memories.

Lu Yin shook his head and stopped thinking about this puzzle as he put the Skyblaze Stone away. The stone’s temperature was no longer very hot, and now, the average Hunter would likely be able to endure it, which was not enough for Lu Yin to cultivate with. He had constantly drained the heat from this stone over the period of a month, and now, he was wondering if the heat could be restored.

Lu Yin suddenly thought of a question. If this stone was the source of strength for that fiery dragon, then wasn’t this equivalent to consuming a fiery dragon after cultivating for one month? That was too extravagant!

After tidying up, Lu Yin stepped out of the secret room, feeling invigorated. He moved to a nearby courtyard, where he heard Zhao Ran humming a random tune. She sounded very relaxed.

“Your Highness, you’re out! You should try a freshly brewed aromatic tea.” Zhao Ran looked at Lu Yin with eyes filled with expectations as she blinked at him.

Lu Yin nodded. “Alright, hand me a glass.”

Zhao Ran was very happy, and she served him a thick, green, aromatic tea.

Lu Yin blankly stared at his glass. “This is tea?”

“That’s right. Try it, Your Highness!” Zhao Ran looked at him happily.

Lu Yin did not want to disappoint her, and although this tea looked somewhat horrifying, he still took a sip. His eyes instantly lit up. It was actually very delicious, and he could not resist draining the glass in one go. He then stared at Zhao Ran, flabbergasted. “That was actually pretty good. I’ll have another.”

Zhao Ran cheered, “Great! As long as Your Highness likes it.”

She delightedly ran off to pour another glass.

Lu Yin had not drunk such a good cup of tea before. In fact, this could not even be considered tea, and Zhao Ran might have misunderstood what the word “tea” meant. This was probably best classified as another type of beverage, but it was even better than what Lu Yin had sampled at Brightstar Corp. or Amethyst Exchange.

“Zhao Ran, make more of this kind of aromatic tea in the future,” Lu Yin said.

Zhao Ran immediately murmured her assent, feeling very proud of herself.

After Lu Yin rested for half a day, En Ya learned that he had emerged from seclusion, and she immediately requested an audience with him.

“Your Highness, now that our Great Eastern Alliance spans twenty weaves, the Allied Expressway is also being built. Our Allied Forces were already insufficient before, and I feel that we need to expand our military forces. Aside from the original Allied Forces and the Rapid Response Team, we should also found several divisions in preparation for battle…” En Ya said a great deal.

Lu Yin silently listened to her. In truth, he did not understand these matters very well, as most of these administrative tasks were designated to En Ya, Huan Sha, the Lu Ministry of Staff, the Lu Ministry of Defense, the Imperial Cabinet, and other bureaucratic entities. Throughout the recent years, across all levels, all of the Great Yu Empire’s officials had shown their abilities, and all the incompetent ones had been replaced. Ruling the empire was becoming ever more effortless for Lu Yin.

Unfortunately, despite En Ya having the military capabilities, her vision and courage was too small to attempt many of the things that she wished to accomplish. Thus, she could only ask Lu Yin for his instructions despite him not fully understanding these matters.

In this situation, Lu Yin thought of Wang Wen, as he was a genius who was a true military strategist. Based on a single battle, he had been able to predict the Astral Beast Domain’s reinforcement’s strength and speed; the young man’s intelligence was absolutely terrifying.

“Your Highness, at this time, out of all the eastern weaves, only Mordo and Canopy Weaves have not joined our alliance yet. The rest have all joined us,” En Ya reported.

Lu Yin grunted in acknowledgement and then called Gong Ling right in front of En Ya.

The call quickly connected, but it was the sect leader’s son, Gong Chou, who answered the call. “Hello, Alliance Leader Lu.”

“Where’s Sect Leader Gong?” Lu Yin asked.

Gong Chou replied, “He is currently in seclusion, but Alliance Leader Lu can pass anything that he needs to me, and I will naturally pass the message on as soon as he emerges.”

Lu Yin's lips curled upwards. “So he’s in seclusion again. When will he emerge?”

Gong Chou apologized, “I’m really not sure. Alliance Leader Lu can leave a message, and I will definitely pass it on the moment he emerges.”

“There’s no need. I’ll personally head over to the Neo-Vestige Sect to meet with Sect Leader Gong.” Lu Yin’s tone changed, becoming slightly cold.

Gong Chou was shocked at this sudden change. “What urgent matter has come up for Alliance Leader Lu to visit?”

“It’s nothing much, but I must talk to Sect Leader Gong,” Lu Yin replied. His tone left no room for argument, and his attitude was completely different from when he had first met Gong Chou. Back then, the Neo-Vestige Sect had still had the Arrow Mountain Elder, three Enlighters, and other powerful hidden trump cards. It had been one of the Outerverse’s three great powers that could not be provoked.

But now, even if Arrow Mountain Elder was still alive, Lu Yin would not care, and there was even less to mention now that the old man was dead.

Lu Yin had no intentions of doing anything to the Neo-Vestige Sect, but Gong Ling himself had promised Lu Yin that as long as the Great Eastern Alliance was able to expand to include twenty weaves, the Neo-Vestige Sect would join as well. The sect was now trying to delay that matter, which was not very upright.

Gong Chou heard the trace of fury in Lu Yin’s voice, and he helplessly said, “Since Alliance Leader Lu has urgent business, then I can only request for Sect Leader to emerge early. Please wait a moment.”

Not long after, Gong Ling’s voice was heard from the gadget. “I heard that Alliance Leader Lu is looking for me. Is there an urgent matter?”

Lu Yin was amused, as the old man was still putting on an act. “Sect Leader Gong, do you remember what you promised me in the past?”

Gong Ling was confused. “I’ll have to ask Alliance Leader Lu to please clarify.”

“Once my Great Eastern Alliance gathered twenty weaves, your Neo-Vestige Sect will join us. Sect Leader Gong couldn’t have forgotten about that, could you?” Lu Yin bluntly asked.

Gong Ling fell silent and then answered, “Alliance Leader Lu is making things difficult for me. The Neo-Vestige Sect has been passed on from one generation to the next since ancient times, and our ancestors taught us not to participate in disputes between other powers. Alliance Leader Lu, this-”

“Sect Leader Gong, when you agreed at that time, you were quite straightforward about things.” Lu Yin was unhappy with this response.

Gong Ling did not reply.

Lu Yin frowned. “It seems that Sect Leader Gong does not wish to keep his promise.”

Gong Ling reluctantly responded, “It’s not that. In the past, I did indeed make such an agreement with Alliance Leader Lu. Alright, my Neo-Vestige Sect will bring Mordo and Canopy Weaves along with it. From today on, we’ll be a part of the Great Eastern Alliance, and I’ll announce this news immediately.”